LONDON CALLING

"It isn't just about you," she said, watching Abbey go out the kitchen door into the yard. "Some of the outdoor security force were scheduled to go to Paris this morning too. I don't know if they made it, but he often has some of his breakfast baked goods ready to supplement the food for the ground crew. I have talked to him before about pulling back a little. We could, and should, handle the feeding of the outdoor crews differently so that all he has to worry about is the family inside the house. I'll talk to Robert and Brian about that today. We've discussed it before, but we never reached a consensus. The fact is that he has just too much on his plate, and we need to even out his responsibilities a bit.

"You do know that his primary title is Operations Manager, don't you? Brian is the Chief Operating Officer of the Paris operation. Robert is the President of that, and I am, technically, the Vice President. Brian's main job is to try to get the rescues accomplished successfully and to hire and train the crew and lead the missions. Robert and I are in charge of trying to keep it afloat. Owens is in charge of making sure the Paris headquarters building runs smoothly. That was Angus's position before he stepped up to manage everything Robert and I and Brian own.

"But that means he is in charge of making sure that bloody everything runs like clockwork. I think we need to delegate more of his duties to some of the site managers--the people like Owens that run the individual locations. Brian's brother and sister run the Colorado location--Kieran is Brian's older brother--the oldest of the three of them, and his sister's name is Fiona. It's a long story, but it just worked out over time for them to be in Colorado and to run that operation, and, for the most part, they do alright with it.

"But Angus now has the desire to have more of a personal life, and that means he wants to have a little more leisure time than he has had. That isn't a bad thing. As far as I'm concerned, it's well overdue. If you two are going to have a successful relationship, he can't be working 22 hours out of every 24. that just isn't going to work. I'll talk to Robert and Brian today and see if we can't come up with a way to help lighten his load." As she finished speaking, Abbey came back into the kitchen holding something in her hands. She dashed over to Kate,  excited.

"Gam! Gam! Gam! Look what I finded! It's a Ribbit!" She opened her hands and a little green frog made a huge leap out of Abbey's hands and onto the sideboard, hopping down in between the dishes of food.

"Yes, that is exactly what you found," Kate laughed. "Now, if we can just catch the little blighter before he ends up in the egg casserole"
"

Ruby listened to Kate explain Angus's duties and she sighed " I should have known he had all those duties, no wonder hes always exausted." she said softly " well Jack and Jess seem to be helping with chores and Jessie is helping with the barn when hes done with his patrols." as she spoke she chuckled seeing Abby walk in and the little green frog jump from out of her little hands. Now Ruby stood up and watched the frog as she reached out to grab it it slipped threw her fingers .

"There he goes" she said seeing it hope across the floor and up onto the table. " Abby go that way we'll catch it." she said moving left and let Abby go right. With one leap she tried to grab hold but found herself falling to the floor empty handed at the feet of Jack who now held the frog in his hands.

"yours Abby?" he asked and knelt down to her " lets fins a container for him or it is her?" he asked and looked at Kate then Ruby " you good?"

Ruby chuckled and nodded " yeah, frong hunting is not my strong point." she said chuckaling as he helpped her back up onto her feet.

"Tanks!" Abbey said to Jack when he ended up catching the frog. "It's a Ribbit! I gonna give it to Papa!"

"What have you got, Abbey?" Robert asked, coming in. Abbey took the frog from Jack, closed again in both her hands and went over to Robert as he sat down in a chair.

"Look what I finded, Papa! I finded it all by myself!" she was all excitement to show him. She opened her hands and the little green frog took off again.

"Oh buggar. And he's off again," Kate sighed.

"He's a little green tree frog, Abbey," Robert said. "A very nice one too. Where'd you find him?"

"Outside," she nodded. "in the grass."

"Well done, then. They can be a nuisance to catch, but you managed it, didn't you? Clever girl," Robert smiled. "What do you plan to do with him?"

"In my toybox!" she said.

"I don't think he'll like your toybox, though."

"Uh huh!" she protested. "So he gots toys!'

"Oh. I see," Robert said. He looked at Jack and Ruby and Kate. "One of the large size terrarium jars in my lab would keep a little bloke like him quite happy, I should think. You know where the empty bug jars are, Jack, don't you? The large size terrarium jars are on the bottom shelf and the shelf is marked. If you lot can catch him."

"You mean 'catch him again'" Kate said. "We just finished catching him once."

"Jack, try accio'ing him," Robert suggested. "Just grab quick when he gets to you."

"And then, Robert, you and I need to talk. It's time we did some redistribution of job duties for some of our crew," Kate said. "Angus really does need us to even out his responsibilities. He really does want a bit of a personal life now, so he really does need to have the time for it. And that means we have to either give our current crew a raise for taking on a few extra tasks, or we need to ire on a few fellows."

"Well, as I see it, if your current crew wants it, they should get first dibs at making more money. And if they pass, we'll hire on a fellow or two," Robert said.

Ruby and Jack watched the frog take off again Ruby lay on the floor " okay take two" she said as Jack chuckled to Roberts wordd and nodded

"I know the one you mean." he said and turned to head down to the lab. Ruby got up and began hunting the frog again. Soon she caught it just as Jack returned with the terrarium jar holding it and smirking as he saw Ruby half under the table when she saw his feet she hit her head on the underside of the table.

"found it" Jack said and held it open ad Ruby slid out and dropped the frog into the jar. " Abby this is a better place for him or her to live." Jack said placing down the jar on the table. ruby stood up and moved to wash her hands. Making up a tray for Robert with food and tea she carried it over to him .

"your breakfast and tea" she said placing it down next to him. Moving back to the kitchen she made up a second tray for Edward with tea and juice. Picking it up she looekd at Robert and Kate before heading up the stairs to the room Edward was in. Knocking she entered quietly.

"your breakfast" she said placing it down on the night stand next to him.

"Well done--again," Kate laughed, seeing them catch the frog a second time. This time, the frog made it into the jar, and she was relieved. Abbey crawled up in a chair to sit and watch the frog for awhile.

"Thank you, Ruby," Robert said, ready to be getting a little breakfast. "Have you seen Khaat today, Kate?"

"I haven't, but I saw Brian earlier. He said she slept soundly last night, thanks to Nigel's sleep potion, and she and Marcus would be down shortly. He thought Nigel was going to stop in and talk to her to see how her night went before they came down. Brian popped out to Gringotts to transfer money from one account to the other so Angus has money for payroll today. Then he was going to come back for breakfast too," Kate replied.

"Sounds like things are all well in hand, then," Robert said.

"For today, but we need a better long term plan."

"Alright, we'll discuss it today, then," he told her.

"Thank you, Ruby," Edward said. He had been looking out the window. "Sorry. I meant to come down, but there's some sort of disturbance out on the far west edge of Robert's fields, right near the western border. Sounded like wolves to me, but I didn't think there were any wolves on Robert's property. I know there's a whole pack up on the north edge of Brian's estate, but I hadn't heard of any of them being here. Haven't seen any of wolves, though, not while I've been looking out the window, so maybe they're just some stray wolves that are hunting this morning. How'd your training go this morning?"

Downstairs, Angus had abandoned his run when things had gone sideways. He had lost his wand somewhere along the way and had used wandless magic to apparate back to the house. Blood was running down his left shoulder and his arm. His sweatshirt was covered in blood, and it hurt like the devil.

"Jack!" Angus shouted from the yard, the minute he arrived at the foot of the porch steps. "Jack! Need your help!"

Ruby moved to stand with Edward " intense" she said with a chukle " he said my muggle weapons needs work and my wand works a bit slow but he can work with me." she said " but I think I upset Angus by leaving before breakfast this morning." she said softly.

Jack heard the wolves and then Angus moving quicly he dove out side to him " okay who'd you fight?" he asked taking his arm in his own and leading him inside. Ruby saw Jack run to him from the window and headed down.

"thats not right" she said looking worried at Edward then heading down the stairs meeting Jess as she too headed down to the kitchen with her kit in hand.

"I doubt that," Edward said with a smile. "He doesn't get rattled by that. He gets far more rattled if he thinks he's buggared something up. 'Fraid that's his dad's doing, you know. My own son is a complete tosser, but I'm sure you figure that out when you met him the other day. Harsh words for a father to say about a son, but it's true. And he married a tosser. The only thing good they ever did their entire lives was having Angus and, yes, Tyler too. Evan? he has potential if he could ever get done being stuck on money and on muggle technology. But they never had time for Angus and any words they ever said to him were pure poison. He was never good enough in their eyes, no matter what it was about. And so he constantly judges his own performance by their bar. He's getting better, though--if I keep on his behind about it. I'll speak to him, shall I, and I'll get him to lighten up."

"Jack, there's a problem..."

"Besides the fact that you're bleeding out?" Robert frowned. "Nigel! Get down here now!" Then he looked at Kate. "Take one of my gloves off. Hurry." Kate did as she was told, and Robert touched Angus's shoulder, but nothing happened at all.

"What happened?" Kate asked Angus.

"Jack, there's some big assed wolf out there. Looks to me like one of those enormous timber wolves like we've seen in Colorado. You've seen the ones. This one is gigantic. Easily 11 stone if he's an ounce, maybe more, though I don't know what the hell he's doing in England. And he's out of his blinking tree. Completely mental. Came out of absolutely nowhere and attacked me. Knocked me down and just started clawing and chewing on my shoulder. Where the hell did he come from? We've got to bring the ground crew indoors before anyone else gets hurt, and then we have to do some sort of a hunt."

"You're not hunting anything," Nigel said, frowning deeply and now hurrying to Angus. He saw Robert with his hand on Angus's shoulder and getting no results. "Your magic doesn't work, you big git," he said to Robert. Then he looked at Ruby. "Ruby, go down to the sickbay and get into the top left cabinet. You'll see a new bottle in purple glass. It's labeled burn potion. Get it and a couple of the big clean gauze pads. Bring it straight away and get Robert's hand cleaned up. Then get that glove back on before it gets infected. I'll take care of this mess for now. Kate, go get Jess or Brian. I could use a healer to assist me."

"Jack, protect the outdoor crew..." Angus told him, sensing he wasn't going to be allowed to go hunt the wolf or protect his men. He was going to have to delegate to Jack. No one knew wolves like Jack, and Jack knew the outdoor crew.

Ruby heard Nigel and nodded then dove down to the sickbay. looking for the potion and gause she saw both and grabbed it and the gauze. Jess moved to Angus placing her hand on him she started the healing process as Jack sat him down then moved to the back door and out calling to the grounds men barking out orders.

"relax" Jess said to Angus " it will take me a little time to heal so don't move" she told him as Ruby ran back up and over to Robert.

"okay , hands" she said taking one in her own and began to clean it before slipping the gove back on before moving to the other hand and repeating the proccess. She could not help but glance at Angus but focused on what she'd been asked.

"I'm taking him downstairs, Jess," Nigel said. "Come along. This is going to take some work. Come with me while you still can, Son." He walked Angus downstairs, careful to walk right beside him in case Angus's legs failed him along the way. But they didn't. He made it without Nigel's help, and Nigel had him lie down on the table. Nigel got a pair of scissors and cut Angus's sweatshirt off so he could see the shoulder better. Once he saw it, he touched Angus's forehead, casting a sleep spell.

"This is deep," he told Jess. "Look here. There's the bone, and this bit here? Look. That's not his." He got out a bundle of sterile instruments and used a pair of forceps to remove a big mat of black fur and deposited it in a basin. Going in a second time, he removed a large broken tooth and put it in the same basin. "It's a fang tooth. Angus must be right. Look at the size of that tooth. That bears out his story. And now, we're looking for a huge wolf that only has one front fang tooth."

"Jess, can you get this cleaned out? Lets' leave no more foreign substances behind. Then we'll work together to heal it from the inside out. You try to make sure the bone is intact and that we're leaving no fragments behind. When you think you have it, I'll double check it. Then I'll have you start to knit the muscle and cartilage back as it should be. I'll go after the bleeding from that brachial artery and axillary vein. It'll kill him if I don't get those mended straight off..."

"Can I help at all?" Brian came in.

"Yes," Nigel said. "Please monitor his vitals and keep him stable. Notify me at once if there's any change."

"I'm on it," Brian said, taking a place beside Angus and putting a hand on his chest.

"We certainly got to him in time," Nigel said. "When we finish with this little tricky bit of business, he'll stabilize quickly, but I doubt he's going to be back in the kitchen today or mucking out stalls. He's going to be joining your growing disabled list. I hope he doesn't have any other important duties. You're going to soon run short of staff."

"You'd be surprised what we're all capable of," Brian said, completely confident in the team. Brian had no doubt they could handle anything.

Jess moved with Nigel down to the sick bay watching him work then grabbing sterile water to clean out the wound " of course, I couldn't sense any significant damage to the bone" she told him as she washed out the fur and dirt. Ruby now finished with Robert headed down to the sick bay. Seeing Angus out cold she moved to his side holding his hand in her own.  

Hearing Brian she nodded " I can take care of the kitchen." she said looking down " Im going to need something to keep me busy. " she said Jess focused on healing Angus's shoulder.

"Nigel, I can feel its started to heal." she told him " I removed all the dabri from in and around it." she added as she patted the would dry.