LONDON CALLING

"I should go deal with that," Angus said.

"Give her a minute," Robert said. "Let her finish her discussion with Nigel. She's headstrong, and that isn't a bad quality if its channeled in the right direction. She's new at a lot of this, and the situation with Nigel is still living in her head. Let her follow this through, and then you can talk with her." Angus sighed, frustrated.

"You have your demons and she has hers," Robert said. "We'll weather them out together, one step at a time. She wants a discussion with Nigel as her next step. Give her a little space first."

Nigel was in his room, and he was doing documentation about the wellbeing of Robert, Edward, Michael, and Angus case files he was keeping on each one of them. He had finished his documentation of Michael and Edward and was just finishing documentation of Robert's case, depositing the file in a locked valise that was open on a writing table in his room. His tea had grown cold, but having had more than his share of mugs of tea gone cold, he barely noticed it was cold, and he took a sip of it before setting the mug down on the writing table.

Ruby found the room Nigel was staying in and knocked waiting for him to open it.

Jack looked at the selection of posts Jessie had found and shook his head at several " there all too flimsy, that Anthracite Grey Steel Fence Post seems stronger and will hold" he said to Jessie who hummed.

"yes but its abit more cost, but it is Roberts desishion." he said and placed it along side several other choices. Picking them up he walked to where he knew robert was. " I found some posts, Jack thinks the Anthracite Grey Steel Fence Post wil do the job, its abit more expencive that reguler wood ones but it will stand up to that hypogriffs bashing." he said

Robert went out to look at the fence posts Jessie and Jack had selected. He looked at them all and listened to their recommendations.

"Well, in my opinion, if you are going to all that sweat and muscle to put the fence posts in and then attaching the fencing to it, I say we need to do it right the first time around. Your work is valuable to me, and I don't want it wasted.I don't really care that the steel post is more expensive. It's clearly the right post for the job. Plus, if we cut costs and do something cheaper, I'm going to end up spending far more in the end with replacing slipshod materials over and over. My vote is for the steel posts. I say go ahead and get the good ones. Good choice. Thank you."

Nigel got up and answered the door and saw Ruby's battered face. He restrained his initial impulse to want to treat it straight off and invited her in, instead. He wanted to hear her out first.

Ruby looked up at Nigel as he opened the door then stepped to one side to allow her to enter the room. She moved into it and stood for a moment before she began " I'm sorry about how I spoke to you last night, I shouldn't have said what I did, I know now that you had Angus's best intrests at heart and I shouldn't have gone off on you like I did, your right Im nothing at the moment." she said softly her head low as she didn't know what else to say to him.

Jessie and Jack listened to Robert and agreed " yep do it right the first time and we won't have to do it again" Jack said with Jessie nodding " don't worry we'll order the posts and get on it as soon as they arrive." he said " oh and we won't forget our patrol dutys ether."

"Come sit," he told her quietly. "This isn't about you being something or being nothing. Nobody here said or even meant to imply you were nothing. I said you weren't a licensed healer, and you're not. That's far from being nothing. I'm not a Minister of Magic, I'm not a catburglar, I'm not a lot of things. And in those ways, I'm limited. But it doesn't make me a nothing.

"Let me ask you. Would you ever let anyone insult Angus for any reason? I already know you wouldn't. But, if you tell yourself you're nothing, you insult him and his ability to judge for himself what makes a woman of substance and you insult his ability to make any sort of reasonable or sound decision. And i know you wouldn't do that either.

"So, where does that take us? I think it takes us to some old memory in your head that replays itself over and over like a thread in a pensieve, and that memory is someone who wasn't worth your energies, isn't it? And that person is saying things that have stuck with you and made you want to find just one place where you felt you could belong. And you found that in Angus. All of that is fine. But that person was not then, or now, worth any of your energies--not even if he was your own family.

"Someone bruised you. That didn't come from training. Someone clocked you in the face. That is a souvenir you did not earn and did not deserve. Nor do you owe it to anyone to wear it. Are you going to let me help you with that so that you can again be the woman that you think Angus deserves to have with him?

Ruby listened to him this time, realy listened to him and nodded " yeah, my father" she said " I went to him to ask why he treat me badly all those years, they ...they both just laughed and told me he didn't want me at all, they only kept me becuse of his perents. and this.." she pointed to her face " his way to let me know I was worthless to them, I know hes not worth my time, figured that out years ago, but..my brothers are still there, I have two twin younger brothers as well as Jessie who they almost killed by messing with his potion but they couldn't do that with me so..." she paused wincing and touching her cheek. "They saw a newspaper artical about gelding being taken into custody it had a picture with Angus and I in the background, They called Angus trailer trash and me...well a lady of the night and a gold digger, for being with him." she could not help hang her head "He got in my head, made me feel like I was a litle girl again, told me some one like Angus deserves better than me a nothing, a nobody, a whore." she said the last part softly. " all these years to prove im not a nobody and one sentance from him takes me right back."

"Your father is a swine," Nigel said, opening his bag. He got out a lotion, and rather than applying it directly to her face, he poured some into his own hands, rubbed his hands together for a moment and then barely touched her skin and her lip. "This is a cooling potion. It should feel a bit like ice. It has very limited use, but for this, it should work just fine. The cooling will stay for quite awhile and it should reduce the swelling and perhaps the bruising. Better than having to sit with an ice pack to your face. It will stop the bleeding on your lip because that's what ice would do. I'll wager you'll have significantly less swelling and bruising by nightfall, and certainly by morning.

"Do yourself a favor. Tell Angus the truth. Let him deal with it. He will surely see that as his job to protect you. If he's seen your face already, you're not going to be able to hide it from him, except if you choose to lie to him, and I think that would be a bad idea.

"Sounds like your father is in need of a serious comeuppance. And I know few people who are better qualified to make that happen than the people here right now. How old are your brothers? Are they old enough to be in Hogwarts now? Is he hurting them too, do you know? If so, then you need to let Robert get them out. Remember, that's precisely what he does.

"You need to be anchoring yourself in the here and now, like Angus is working on doing. Focus in one whatever task you need to be doing here right at the moment. Don't let your mind wander back to the encounter with your parents. Keep your hands and your mind busy, and you'll feel better--like your picnic make Angus feel better. Make sense?"

Ruby let him heal her and sighed at the relife she then listened to his words nodding as he spoke " Im not going to hide anything from Angus, I told him about my perents, but i don't know if he knew just how bad they could get." she looked up and Nigel " and thank you." she smiled at the memory of the picnic "That day was perfect." she said " I have trainning with Owens every morning until he says Im good enough then I have to look after Robert but hes praticaly healed along with Michael so that leaves me minding Abby for the rest of the day." she said then heard him ask about Sam & Victor and she shook her head " no, I think he only sees me that way becuse Im female, my mom dosn't say a word against him and always does what he wants and Sam & Victor are in Hogwarts already."

"I don't think much surprises Angus. Remember, his own family played mind games with him too. Let him handle your parents. You just step back out of his way and let him deal. I don't know your mother, but in a lot of cases where someone is such a complete tosser, the woman is passive because if she weren't there would be very serious consequences. You may never know exactly what keeps her there, but at this point, that probably is Angus's to handle too."

He looked up and saw Angus standing in the doorway.

"That wasn't a training accident. Where did you go and who did it?" he asked her quietly.

Ruby looked at the door and at Angus stood in it she shook her head. " it wasn't Owens, it was my father, he sent a note while I was with Owens asking me to see him, me being foolish thought it was to talk about how he'd treated me all those years." she shook her head " nope, he'd seen a picture of is together some one from a newspaper had taken and as soon as I arrived he went off on me calling me useless a whore and a gold digger, a good for nothing and that i was no good for you and you could find some one much better than me, then he....well you see it yourself." she told him hanging her head " my mother did nothing she just stood by and let him, I wanted to stupify him real bad, but something stopped me."