LONDON CALLING

Ruby looked up at Angus and smiled " after all you've been threw I understand, and well, I agree, two adults can have fun and not... for now, be tied down." she admited "Just look at Kaden and Jessie, their not married and yet, whoo, this is hard to say, as hes my brother, but I do hope he's being careful, I'd say freinds with benafits and maybe a little romance for a while wouldn't harm." she said her cheeks now flushed pink.

Jack chuckled and looked at Brian as he spoke. His smile tured to a frown " hum..Prats a nice term, one father to another...let scare some crap out of him." he said shoving the last of the rolls in to his mouth. He listened to Brian talk again and shook his head "Agreed and if I have my way they won't even know we're there." he looked at Robert " I'll bring him home, thats a promise." he placed his hands in his pockets waiting for Brian to port them to the so called dentist.

"Thank you," he said, glad she understood. "But--if we were to explore the possibilities...we'd have to first do two things. First, this." He flicked his fingers at the door to lock it. "We wouldn't want to be interrupted. And, second, we'd have to take our clothes off. A little like this." He took off his t shirt and cast it off into a corner. "And then, maybe...this?" He stood up and took the chance to kiss her gently and slowly. "Say the word, and I'll stop," he told her softly.

Brian nodded, glad Jack understood. "Enough to find out what the hell that was all about. I'm not coming back without answers," he told Jack. Brian ported them to the dental clinic on the first floor of St. Mungos. He was a bit surprise to realize it was still afternoon. Late afternoon, but they were still seeing patients. Brian wasn't waiting to be announced.

"Harrington," he told Jack quietly, wanting Jack to hear him but not wanting hospital staff to stop him.

Ruby sat and watched as he flicked the lock on the door closed then removed his shirt. She smiled and moved closer to him " and maybe I could do this..." she said returning his kiss as her hands rested on his now bear chest. "and if I don't want you too" she told him gently with a smile " I want to know you...all of you," she said softly as she kissed him once more, her hand sliding around his waist, while the other moved to the nape of his neck...
(use imagination for the rest lol)

Jak nodded and felt Brian port them to St Mungos dental floor. He followed behind Brian making himself as imposing as possible to anyone who got too close to Brian. He heard Brain and nodded " Harrington." he repeated softly.

(if you're not okay with what happens to jack, let me know, and i'll certainly edit!)

Angus had slipped for a bit into a deep sleep, finally willing to just let go of a hundred concerns that had been racing through his sleep deprived brain. He had fallen into a bad habit of going to bed much too late and getting up again before daylight, and it was slowly taking a toll. There had been something refreshing just in having an afternoon off, and while this hadn't been at all planned with Ruby, he didn't regret it.

He lazily flicked a finger over the tea in their mugs and in the pot to reheat it. The room was silent, and she was still there, lying next to him, skin to skin. She had said she wanted to know him. Well, he wasn't sure if they'd accomplished that, but it certainly had been an icebreaker.

He wasn't the sort to take up with a lot of women. He was far more selective. He had always been open to settling down--until recently. Until "her",..well, him...well, was her/him really just an it? Even now he wasn't sure. That had changed things for him. He had blamed himself for being gullible and vulnerable. That had caused him to reassess, to decide that he wanted to be far more casual, less eager to make a mistake with permanency written all over it. Had he ever really considered cutting himself off from sex? No. He had only cut himself off from commitment.

His thoughts were interrupted by two things. First, he began to smell chicken, and not just any chicken. He could smell the richness of the smoked paprika the freshness of rosemary and basil, and he could smell the clean, refreshing tang of citrus--specifically, lemon. Michael's roasted lemon chicken. And then he could smell roasting aromatics like onions and carrots. Someone had put dinner in the oven. Although cooking was one of the joys in his life, he also appreciated when someone dove in and either joined him or even took over, giving him a break.

The second thing that gained his attention was Fudge. Where had he come from? He had scrambled up on the nightstand and was now walking across the pillow. Had the bowtruckle been here the whole time? And then he remembered. Fudge had been in her pocket. Great. It hadn't been so private after all. Now the bowtruckle looked at him with a cheeky little grin.

"So much for privacy," Angus said quietly. "You'd better be glad no one here speaks Bowtruckle, Dude, or you and I might have difficulties." Fudge cast him a slightly arrogant tilt of his head to convey that the bowtruckle wasn't the one who was lying on the bed in the altogether. "You don't even own any trousers, so don't give me that," Angus said. Fudge appeared to be trying to mock him now. "Smart arsed twig," Angus muttered.

At the dentist clinic, Brian had ignored the receptionist and had walked past her, despite her objections. It occurred to him that he was probably going to end up with a bit of a disciplinary action and from whom? His father in law or, ultimately, his wife. Well, that was going to be awkward, wasn't it? He made his way down the hallway, opening doors, looking for some bloke with a nametag that said Harrington. And when he found him he grabbed Harrington by the throat and got into his face and spoke to him in a menacing tone.

"Come here," he said to him quietly but threateningly. "Come with me. We're gonna talk. We have some business. He took Harrington out into a hallway and around a corner to a stairwell, and he pushed Harrington against the wall. "You know why I'm here? I bet you do. You messed with my baby, and now I'm gonna mess with you."

The words weren't even out of his mouth good before Harrington seemed to get bigger and rise up, and Brian realized the figure was shapeshifting into something much bigger--bigger than him and bigger than Jack and just kept rising. The figure grabbed tight hold of him and tight hold of Jack. The figure was now a hideous hag who had purposely oversized herself to be so giant sized that she had to stoop over to fit at all into the hallway despite its high ceilings. And she was horrifyingly hideous.

"Little boys shouldn't play or they might get hurt," the now mammoth sized repulsively ugly giant woman cackled. "You stole something that isn't yours. Return it, or we will take from you nothing short of everything..."

Brian was only hearing part of what the creature said. He was distracted, studying the woman and her clothing and her jewelry. Something was ringing familiar. He couldn't place it but there was a link here somewhere.

"I don't care how big you are, Wench!" he retorted angrily. She lifted him and Jack easily off the floor, and Brian made a choice. He wasn't backing down. He preferred to be able to get information from the hag, but if the hag pressed her luck, a killing curse would make short work of her, no matter how big she made herself.

Brian heard shouting, and he looked to see someone had summoned the aurors, who had started to run up the hallway towards him and Jack, saw the giant hag and had all stopped in their tracks, staring wide eyed at what was before them. Feeling annoyed at the uselessness of the aurors, Brian glanced at Jack, feeling this was still up to the two of them. He knew he could count on Jack to know what needed to happen, and right now, they still needed to contain this thing alive if they could at all manage it.

He tried firing an Imperious curse, hoping to gain control, but he watched the curse bounce off. Obviously the thing had put up a nonverbal shield. Then he heard one of the aurors attempt to toss a killing curse at it, and it just narrowly missed Brian, and bounced off the thing altogether. That pissed Brian off. He had no desire for one of his trainees to off him with a lousy shot. But it had apparently been more than the thing wanted to deal with because it simply let go of Jack and Brian. Brian tried to grab at her, but only caught a leather wrist gauntlet the hag wore, and he fell to the floor with a graceless whumping sound, unable to have any time to try to land in a healthier way. The instant he hit the ground the thing seemed to resize to a normal human size and one mere instant later, it disappeared completely.

"Well, that went swimmingly, didn't it?" Brian said sarcastically, looking at Jack. "You alright, Mate?"

And at the estate, Robert took one more liberty by casting a calming spell on Abbey before waking her. When he work her, she blinked and looked at him.

"Feeling better?" he asked her. She thought a moment and slowly nodded, still a bit sleepy. "What upset you?"

"Bad lady," Abbey said. "I no liked her. She bad. Bad."

"What lady?" Kate asked. "Dr. Harrington was a man..."

"Noooo. Lady. Bad lady..." Abbey insisted.

"Robert," Kate said, frowning suddenly, "I think my energies are back. Something's lifted, just a moment ago. Jess, try your energies. I think they're back. I think I just saw a flash of the boys somewhere."

"Are they hurt?" Robert asked.

"No," Kate said slowly, uncertain at first. "Don't think so. Not seriously, I don't think. Jess?"

Ruby had fallen into a comfotable light sleep next to Angus her left arm resting over his chest as her face lay next to his. Slowly opening her eyes she ehard him talking to Fudge and chuckled when he called him a smart ass twig "Awe hes no bother" she said shifting her hand to strock the bowtruckle. "Feeling better?" she asked softly not moving from his side. In fact she moved closer to him and lightly kissed his ckeek. "You know we should do this again..I mean not right now, god no." she chuckled letting the bowtruckle move to her hand " I completly forgot about this little guy, he was in my shirt...well your shirt pocket."

Jack was taken a back but not too much when Brain grabbed the dentist and dragged him out of his room. What was most suprising was when he changed to a she then a very very large creature and grabbed him His hands clawed at the hand holding him its nails dung into his skin as it held tight around him. " bleth, thats womans ugly with a capital ug.." he said feeling the nails dig deeper into him he could not help but groan. With Brians words and the sudden apperance of the Aurors he felt the Imperious curse hit and they were dropped he rolled and hit a wall. Laying there for amoment he forced himself to stand wobbly on his legs. Hearing Brian he chuckled then groaned " that thing needs a manacure." he said moving his now bloodied shirt to show the puncture woumds from its nails.

Jess had sat listening to Abby and Brian glad she was awake but stood up at feeling sudden rush or emotions hit her she looked to Kate as she spoke worried " Jack's hurt" she said accioing a first aid kit.

"Do not let him brainwash you into thinking he's cute," Angus told Ruby. Fudge stomped a little leafy foot in some sort of protest. "What?" Angus asked Fudge. "What? You think you really are just naturally cute, do you?" Fudge nodded, looking smug. "Lordy," Angus shook his head. "I think I am a bit better. I really do have to cut back on some of the late nights and predawn mornings. They add up after a point." He laughed when she said she was interested in doing it again--later. "Had enough for now, have you?" he teased. "I was thinking about my brother's time share," he laughed. "If we ever decided to spend a week in the nude, I think it should be on our own private island where we had our own reasons for leaving our clothes behind. I wouldn't be opposed to that."

"Well, if Brian went to see Harrington, then they're in St Mungos. You'd think they could find a healer there," Robert told her. "If they just come home, we'll take care of it. Besides, werewolf, remember? He bounces back a bit quicker."

Brian was working to right himself when the healer who was acting as the healer in charge for that shift came over and started to verbally blast Brian for being out of line as a healer for going after a staff dentist, and Brian got to his feet, his temper flaring again.

"Now, you hold just one moment," Brian said, now lashing out. "That...thing...was not a healer, was not a man. That was a dark arts shapeshifter who came here to hurt innocent children! It went after my daughter this afternoon and hurt her..." The healer wasn't listening, just continuing to shout at Brian and then in frustration shouted overtop of Brian.

"You're being insubordinate, and I don't have to put up with you! You're FIRED!" the healer shouted. "Now, both of you get out of my hospital!"

"Oh, your hospital, is it?" Brian was sarcastic now. He was about to shout some obscenities when he heard apparating and saw that where the shapeshifter had been a few moments ago were now several dark, shadowy, foreboding creatures apparating in, lining up, ready for a fight. Brian reached down, reaching a hand out to Jack to help him up.

"Let's go, Mate," Brian said to Jack.

"Go?" the healer asked, unbelieving. "You can't go. What about these...things?"

"As you said," Brian said coldly, "I'm fired, remember? You told us to leave YOUR hospital. I think the 'things' are your problem. Good luck with that." He turned on his heel and looked at Jack. Brian was done. He was leaving the situation to the hospital and the aurors that hadn't had enough guts to deal with the shapeshifter..

Ruby chuckled at Angus's words "oh, hes got nothing on you " she said looking at Angus "and I like that idea, two weeks alone with nothing but the wind blowing sand in places there shouldn't be " she said tasing to Angus. she listened to him talk of the island and cutting back the late hours, sighing she lay her head on his chest and nodded " maybe taking time out for your self is a good idea, recharge...or rather use that time productily." she said her fingers brushing his bare chest as she spoke.

Jack felt Brian help him to stand he growled at the Aorur but saw wahat manifested behind them. " I agree, little snots like you don't deserve to be an Auror." he snapped at him with a groan as he disrespected Brian" this mans done more than you could in a life time" he then chuckled seeing what was behind them. " oh please" he said as they left St Mungos.

"I know an island or two in the Mediterranean that are dripping in luxury and a perfect spot to have just such a very private holiday away, and I happen to be stacked up to the gills in paid holiday time that I have never used. I wonder who I could take to spend a holiday there with me," he said softly, kissing her slowly and drifting feathery little kisses behind her ear and down her neck.

At the estate, Robert's distress alarm for St. Mungos was going off, and he knew full well that meant Khaat's was likely going off too. That concerned him more than whatever might be going on in London. He handed Abbey to Kate and dashed up the steps.

At that moment, Brian arrived back home, apparating in just in time to hear his St Mungo's distress alarm start to sound. That also meant Khaat's, Robert's, Jess's, and Kaden's alarms were also likely going off too.

Robert reached the kitchen and saw Brian and Jack were back.

"Oh, you're back. Good. Hold tight, Jack, we'll get to you. Be right back," Robert shouted, continuing up the steps. He burst into Khaat's room to see Khaat was dozing in the chair in her room. And he didn't hear her alarm.

"Khaat's alarm..." Robert started.

"Doesn't work," Marcus said, lifting up his foot and pickup up the crushed alarm from under his shoe. "And I have no earthly idea why," Marcus said obviously lying that he had just purposely stepped on it to crush it to stop the noise."

"Good man," Robert said. "Thank you. Is she alright?"

"Yep. She's fine," Marcus said. "Do we need to be concerned about that alarm?"

"I don't know yet," Robert said. "If we do, I'll let you know." He went back down to the kitchen.

"I don't work for St. Mungos, and neither do you," Angus laughed softly. "And besides, I'm very busy." He was about to ask her if she was serious about perhaps taking a couple weeks with him when he started to smell overdone chicken and vegetables. "Damn. Sorry to interrupt all this, but our lemon chicken and vegetables are about to be lemon charcoal if we don't get up. And then we'll have the whole household upset with us." He reluctantly kissed her, sighed and got up and put his lounge trousers and his tee shirt back on. "Don't for get where we left off, will you?" He headed down to the kitchen to rescue dinner.

"I don't think so, but thanks for asking," Brian told Kaden. Robert saw Jess was taking care of Jack, so he trusted that Jess did not need him interfering. And besides, he needed to find out what the devil was going on in London.

"What happened at the hospital?" Robert demanded of Brian.

"Before or after I was fired?" Brian asked.

"Fired? They can't fire you. That's not their right. That's my choice. Why is the bloody alarm going off?"

"Probably the six shadow creatures I left with them and a squad of aurors after they fired me," Brian shrugged.

"Oh, damn," Robert sighed. "Who's burning the dinner!" Robert shouted.

"On it," Angus said, hurrying to the oven to rescue the chickens and the vegetables. He opened the ovens and set the roasters with the chickens on the counter and the sheetpans of vegetables beside the chickens. Then he put tents of foil over the chickens and vegetables to let them rest before he would carve the chickens. "They're fine," he announced, pleased he had gotten to them before they had actually burned.

"Is London on fire?" Kate asked, coming upstairs with Abbey and Edward.

"Not yet," Robert said. "Angus, get some clothes on. I need you with me. Jack is indisposed. I need a couple others who aren't afraid of shadow creatures." Angus transfigured his clothes to jeans, a shirt and sneakers.

"I'll go," Edward said. Michael came in, dressed.

"I'll go too. I'm fine for now," he told Robert.

"Where's Jessie?" Robert asked. "I need more warm bodies with wands."

"Can I help?" Gabe asked.

"Ask Mira to take care of Abbey? I might need Kate to come along," Robert said. "Can you take charge here if I need you to, Gabe?"

"Of course," Gabe said.

"Let's get moving, All. They've got shadow creatures, and I doubt they know how to deal with them. We can't just abandon them to their ineptitude," Robert said "They've got patients there."