LONDON CALLING

"Well, first of all, no. I'm not that stupid. I'm not going to restore her staff for her and just hand it back. That would be really asinine. I want the plan to look like it, but I don't want it to be the actual plan," Gabe said with a mischievous grin. "It wasn't the staff that held the power. In this case, the staff was just a stick. What held the power was the stone. And I have the stone. Remember, I took the stone. I still have it...." Robert listened to Gabe, and as he was describing the staff, Robert caught on.

"Ah...A duplicate stone that doesn't act like the original," Robert said.

"Basically, yes," Gabe said.

"Nice. Very nice," Robert nodded. "And what do you need to do it?"

"I'm going to go get a gemstone made of the exact same mineral and then hex the daylights out of it," Gabe laughed, giving a very barebones explanation of his plan.

Jack chuckled and nodded at Roberts plan " nice thinking, sike her out " he said and stood up his arms crossed over his chest. Jessie looked around the room and felt nervous at having soemthing there they could not see even small. Jess sat sipping her tea as she watched them and listened to them talk about the staff.

"so how long will it take " she asked " to get the fake crystal and mend the staff." she asked " also is there anything I can do to help." she placed down the cup and looked at the peices noting that each fit almost perfectly together except for a few small peices that were missing.

"Depends entirely on how long it takes me to get the stone," Gabe replied. "I won't fool her by some stone that doesn't even look like the same gem. It has to be at least the same gemstone. Most sorcerers can certainly identify basic semi precious stones on sight. It has to be a top quality stone that is considerably larger than the original stone so that I can cut it to the same size and shape as the original. I want it to reflect the light in as close to the same way as I can get it. And I can only do that if the original raw stone is mined from just about the same place because that determines the chemical makeup of the minerals in the stone. And that will have a huge impact on how it responds to light. And then, I have to try to cut it in exactly the same pattern, with the same facets, as the original. That is a time consuming, painstaking process."

"Can't help you with any of that, though I wish I could," Robert said.

"Well, its about time I earned my keep," Gabe said. "I'll need a place to work, though. Any chance Mira and I could move to one of the cabins and I could put in a cellar sufficiently big for a proper alchemy lab?"

"By all means," Brian said. "Pick a cabin and let me know."

"I'll get to it in the morning," Gabe said.

"And where do we get the stone?" Robert asked.

"In the gem mines in the mountains of Romania," Gabe replied. Edward sighed heavily. He could have kicked himself for not seeing that coming. It was an area that he and Angus knew better than anyone else in the room, and Robert and Edward and Brian all knew it. Edward knew that Angus would not be excited about an expedition to the Romanian mountains.

"Sounds like a climbing expedition to me," Michael said.

"Hiking with some climbing, yes," Edward said. "I can hike, but I'm a bit past my prime in terms of climbing. Angus is going to hate me for sending him, but he's your best bet."

"If his shoulder will hold," Robert said. "That's a high risk for re-damaging. Ruby, I know you're going to want to go if Angus goes, but unless you've had some rock climbing experience, I'd rather you say behind and help with other tasks. Jessie, do you climb at all?"

Ruby heard Robert and shook her head that she didn't " hiking yes rock climbing nope none" she admited then looked to Angus and then to Jessie as he looked to the all.

"well, yeah, we had to do climbing as part of basic trainning" he told them then looked to Ruby " I'll make sure he stays in one peice" he said and smiled this makde ruby feel some what better as she looekd back to the others.

"well looks like Im going to be doing kitchen duty while hes away." she said touching the neclace Angus had given her as comfort for her thoughts.

"I can certainly help," Kate said. "I've cooked my fair share of large meals for this lot, so I'm not beyond making a few more. And I know Khaat likes to cook, though her job doesn't give her much time for that except weekends. Still, she'll help when she can."

"And Simone would jump at the chance to be useful somehow. She's a wonderful cook. Did quite a bit of entertaining when Maurice as a diplomat. She liked making a lot of her own appetizers and such. She feels useless not having a role here that allows her to contribute."

"Well, and since you are now an official couple--congratulations on that, by the way," Robert said, "I see no trouble with her helping. And Jess is always on top of things in the kitchen, so I know she'll help, no questions asked. We certainly won't starve. Is Angus going to be unhappy about going to Romania?"

"Yes," Michael and Edward said simultaneously, and then they laughed.

"But he'll get over it," Edward said.

"I do climb, you know," Brian said. "I can go along too if you like."

"Well, that would give them a healer in case Angus's shoulder gives way," Robert said. "Sounds like we have a Fellowship of the Stone assembled." They laughed.

"I'll start with an equipment list," Michael said.

"With all due respect," Edward said, "when have you been to the Romanian mountains last?"

"Never," Michael said.

"Then, I'll start the list, and you can chime in when we get to climbing gear."

"And cooking gear," Michael said.

"Fair enough. Now, who's telling Angus he's going to Romania?"

"I am," Robert said. "He works for me, and I'm the one sending him. I'll tell him. He'll snark at me, and then he'll agree to go. It's fine."

"I'd better put the information together about where you'll need to go and exactly what I need you to bring back," Gabe said. "Weather dependent, you should be able to manage it in 5-7 days, depending on how fast you hike and climb. I wouldn't try porting b/c the mountains cause all sorts of hinky things to happen with magical fields. It's much better done old school as much as you can once you have to go to the mountains."

Jessie smiled at the thought of climbing again " I haven't been climbing since coming here" he said but was happy he could do something productive other than looking after the animals , not that he didn't enjoy it , he certaily did." It will be great to do it again" Kaden ported in and sat down in a chair.

"what will be good to do again?" he asked and Jessie filled him in " oh nice, I hear the mountains are beautiful this time of year." he said smiling not worried for Jessie one bit. " just make sure your carabins are tight to the rock face , okay" he told Jessie who nodded. " I rock climb as a hobby befoe coming here, had to keep trim too." he chuckled. Ruby had heard Kate talk of helping and she smiled at her.

"oh thank you, it would be aprechiated, there are several recipies I can't seem to get right no matter how hard I try." she said smiling and relaxed now. " also we've still got several bags of letters and cards to get threw, were almost there though, I'll do those at night so not to fall back on my trainning or dutys." she told Kate.

"I'll help you as I can with that mail bag, but we'll have to make sure we keep our eyes out for Little Miss Small and Speedy. She gets into her papa's lab again, and he's liable to put her in a bug jar," Kate teased. "The recipes aren't a problem. We'll tackle those together."

Robert got up and went into the office and closed the door. He wasn't gone more than about five minutes.

"So," he told them, "Angus is willing to go. He didn't object like I thought he might, but I will have to get him a good brace for that shoulder. And I forgot--he did get kicked by a hippogriff. He's got some badly bruised ribs. Not broken, but bruised. Not a lot I can do with that, really, but pain potion, ice, support, some rest. He will slow you down, but he knows the area better than anyone here except Edward.

"He can find them little villages or sheep herder's camps along the way. Might run into a couple wizarding Romani camps in the back areas, but muggle Romani's don't like to be called gypsies anymore. Can't blame them. But--as they go, they might not have to do quite so much camping out and they might find some shelter with more comfortable sleeping conditions if they're prepared to barter or pay," Edward said. "I'll get with Gabe and Angus, and we'll figure a route and an itinerary."

"The rest of you," Brian said, "I think you should stay armed, like you were doing missions work, until further notice. We don't know if we still have some sort of breech or not. You should all be prepared to defend yourselves without any advance notice at all. I'm sure we'll keep working on trying to find a way to shore up those defenses and see if we're secure or not, but she might be elusive until she's ready to strike. So I think we should stay prepared as if we do have an intruder until we know we don't."

"Very wise," Robert agreed.

Ruby smiled and chuckled " I agree, and thank you Kate" she said then listened to Robert and Edward who confirmed Angus was going with them to romania. Ruby stood up and headed to the kitchen to start making food for supper that day. Jess looked at Kate and smiled " I'll help too when my shifts alow" she told her " oh taking of shifts" she said and changed her clothes to her work clothes and ported to St Mungos.

Jessie paused and looked at Robert " I'm heading to sleep for now let me know when we leave" he said and headed up the stairs to his and Kadens room. Kaden following behind him. Jack took out his wand and slipped into his wand holder on his thigh.

"I for one am not taking any chances" he said and turned to the barn to feed the animals and muck out the stalls. Jess looked to Robert and sighed.

"I could put an age barrior spell on the door so only those over a certain age can enter." she looekd at Abby " no ofence but there are bad things in there that could hurt you and we don't want that, we'd be very sad if you got hurt." she explained to her.

"Well, remember, she got to the jar at my place," Robert said, "downstairs in the sub basement and brought it back here. That was when the sorceress finally convinced her to open the jar. My guess is that she fascinated Abbey with some sort of story or some little illusion that captured her attention and convinced Abbey she was a friend. That was probably why she brought the jar back here. Abbey doesn't usually disobey me, but if she did, someone convinced her to do it. She knows she's not allowed to touch anything in my labs. I think the sorceress manipulated her. I think, rather than open shelves, I need to have closed floor to ceiling cabinets made for my lab at home and the workroom upstairs. Maybe with glass doors and lights so I can see inside them, but they'd need to be enchanted so the glass was not so easily breakable and so that little hands could not open them. That seems to be a lot wiser than open shelves. I'm not sure I don't want Abbey to ever be able to come to my lab and find me. I just don't want her hurt, so perhaps I can get some of the builders to make me some cabinets instead of all the open shelves."

"Come help Ruby and I make supper. You can help us in the kitchen," Kate picked up Abbey and kissed her cheek and carried her into the kitchen. "Ruby, how about Abbey and I made some individual chicken pot pies for supper tonight? Abbey can help me make the crust for the tops. And, maybe, if you make some sort of salad and some dessert, she could help you too. She's good at stirring things."

Ruby looked up as Kate spoke and smiled " of course, shes always welcome to be my little helper" she said smiling at her " Im just making bread rolls , here." she gave Abby some dough and smiled " do this" she said showing her how to roll the dough in her hand. She wanted to let her have fun with the dough making her own bread roll.

Jack nodded as Robert had spoken " well I could look into that for you, I know some people who can get lockable diplay shelving." he offered as he watched Abby, Kate and Ruby cooking in the kitchen.

"so Abby you want to make anything today?" Ruby asked having a feeling she'd want something with berries in.