LONDON CALLING

Ruby chuckled and watched him leave to shower she dressed in jeans and simple teeshirt and over shirt then headed down to place the dishes in the washer and turn it on.  " how'd you like the shower?"she asked seeing him walk down. She watched him gather ingrediants for supper and she smiled "Burgers and fries, with brownies" she said " nice choice, Abby will love those." She slipped on her boots and unlocked the front door.

She turned back to watch him cook more and walked over " are those barbeque chicken tostadas with Spanish rice? I have heard of them but never had any, I always wanted to try some" she wanted to try some right away but knew to wait as it sould taste all the better for the wait.

"The shower was really nice," he told her. "I really loved the rain style shower head. The only problem I had with it was not wanting to turn it off. The burgers and fries are for lunch. I'll serve those at noon. I'm doing the burgers as a heavier meal at noon. And then, since we normally have supper at around 7 or so, I'll do the tostadas tonight.

"I think you'll like the tostadas tonight. I'll crisp up some tortillas, spread some refried beans on top of the crispy tortillas, make some shredded barbequed chicken with a Mexican sauce and put that all on top of the beans, add some shredded cheese, some sour cream, and some scallions. I'll add some Spanish rice on the side. It'll be light, satisfying and jam packed full of flavor. And then for dessert, I'll keep the Mexican theme intact by doing some flans and serving them with some coffee. That ought to make it a nice way to end the day with a light, Mexican supper. What do you think?"

Ruby smiled as she sat on a stool listening to him talk about their food " yep sounds devine, as for the shower Iknow what you mean its so soothing right?" she said and listened as he spoke of supper " yep sounds heaven to me" she said " now I hav two things to look forward to tonight" she grined at him.

"come on we shouldn't keep Robert and the others waiting." she moved to the front door and opened it taking in a deep brath " is it me or does the world for the moment seem right?" she said looking back at him smiling as she felt everything was going in the right direction. She held out her hand and saw the ring still on her finger and she could not help smile again seeing the bright colors flash in the sunlight.

Angus followed her into the dining room, since it was large enough to handle the meetings of the people here. Someone had brought in a huge whiteboard and some markers.

"So," Robert began when they were all assembled. "We have a lot of folks here who haven't been through a mission debriefing before. I do those generally with the members of a missions team when they've been gone for any sort of prolonged period on assignment. But, since this has impacted all of us, I decided we would do it with the whole team. We normally won't do that. this was just an exception.

"Here's what I can tell you. Jessie went with Jeffrey this morning, so he's out of any and all missions work until I say otherwise. He needs to work out his issues, and then he'll need to prove himself again to me before I trust him with anything off the property, and absolutely not overnights until know I can trust him.

"I have had meetings earlier today with Brian and Michael for their facts, and I will meet alone with Angus to make sure I have all his information. Standard procedure. He's not unfamiliar with this. But let's go through the facts as we know them. If I miss something, call it out. Kate, will you mark the timeline for us?" Kate made a timeline on the whiteboard with one of the markers and got ready to add items to the timeline in chronological order so everyone could see it and visualize it

He went through everything that they knew, and in order. Kate added each item accordingly.

"I gave Gabe the capture stone and the rest of the stones late last night," Michael said.

"And they really are remarkably good quality," Gabe said. "Top quality. I've started to work on them already. I'm trying to make two duplicates of the original stone in the staff. We are still chasing the sorceress, aren't we?"

"We'd better be, or this was a horrendously expensive goose chase," Robert laughed.

"And the mole," Angus said. "What's the plan?"

"Well, I have several ideas, but nothing decided yet. Ruby already goes for training daily, so I'm not above letting her continue that, but not alone. Angus, I'd let you use some polyjuice and go with her but that ruddy shoulder of yours would give you away in no time. I'll have to send someone else with polyjuice. Marcus has volunteered to go, but if we do that, I'll need to pull someone to go with Khaat for the mornings during the week. By sheer process of elimination, I don't have many people I can pull. I can pull Angus, but then we'd have to cover his duties with someone else. Or I can pull Jack, and we can sue some of the outdoor crew to cover some of his outdoor duties. If she can alter her work schedule at St. Mungos for some mornings, we will. That will let Marcus go with her as normal. We still have to keep her safe from BatShyte crazy James, you know. Does anyone else have a suggestion?"

Ruby lokedat Angus " yes I have one , why don't I cotinue my trainning here with Marcus instead of me going there, since it would make it safer." she said looking at them. " we'd all stay together so little to no chance the mole would fine one of us alone and use that to their advatage." she stopped and looked at them all Jack hummed and scratched his chin.

"Robert how about we put it to a vote, all those infavor of Ruby remaining and continuing her trainning here?" he sigested " I for one think it could be a good idea, we'd not have to pull any one to go with her."

"it was Angus's idea actuly we talked about it this morning over breakfast." she told them " I said we'd have to run it by you first, but I'd be here to help and do my duties with Abby too." she now sat waiting for his responce as she looked at Angus.

"Well, the reason I had thoughts about letting you continue in Paris, Ruby, was because I need a reason to have someone there off and on, and you're already there. In a way, you'd be undercover because you'd be..."

"I think we should find an alternate plan," Marcus said, interrupting Robert. "She's not ready. There's too much objection. Let's move on."

"Alright," Robert relented. "Scrap that. Ruby will discontinue going to Paris as of now."

"Do you have an alternative idea?" Michael asked.

"Half baked," Robert said. "Not one ready for presentation. I'll get back to you all. I guess I don't have any other debriefing business then. We'll pick this up later, when I have an idea I'm ready to share with you. Meeting adjourned. Back to your duties, Everyone--with one exception. Angus, you're with me. You and I still need to meet one on one."

"Of course," Angus said.

Ruby listened and looked at Marcus she acepted she wasn't quiet ready yet and when the meeting was ajurned she ehaded to the playroom to be with Abby for a while. She was curios as to what her weaknesses were so she could work on making them strengths. As she walked she cought up to Marcus " Can I talk to you a moment Marcus?" she asked " its about what you said in the meeting, I'd like to know what my weaknesses are and why im not ready?" she asked " Im not complaining im just looking on how I can improve." she said as she waited to see what he had to say.

Once she'd finished talkign to Marcus she had a lot to think about and on what to improve to be come ready for missions.

"You don't have any experience in undercover assignments," he told her in an unemotional tone. "It isn't about your skills as a fighter but undercover work takes training in itself. Your training hasn't covered that. Your anxiety about it was pretty obvious. Having anxiety isn't a bad thing, so I don't think you should take it as that. But for some reason, Robert hadn't even finished laying out his idea before there were objections and people shooting it down. They weren't asking questions to get clarification about what he was thinking or why. They just weren't supporting it. I jumped in to end it as a plan because I could see that it didn't have enough support. It wasn't going to work. I know him. He's already got a plan B that he's gone to now. For now, I suggest you join the morning runs and make use of the gym in the basement, swim, get some people on a regular basis for dueling practice and some Defense Against the Dark Arts review, or anything else that you can think of that will replace what you were getting in Paris."

Ruby listened and nodded "well. thank you for your advice and you are right. " she said and smiled " I'll ask Michael or Brain to help with my dueling skills and yes I'll take up the gym too, again thank you Marcus" she said now happier she knew what to work on and she would. Moving into the living room she saw Brian " aha, just the man I would like to speack to if your not busy." she said " since Im staying here , sould it be possible you could teach me in DADA please, marcus feels and I agree that I need more trainning in that area."

She looked to Angusand smiled as she watched him, but she quickly pulled her self back to focus on what she was to do. She stood waiting for Brian to ether say he would or that he knew some one who could train her.

"Certainly," Brian said. "There are some excellent advanced books on the subject--certainly better than the outdated books that Hogwarts uses. I'll get you some to read. That will be a good supplement for what you already know. I'll order you your own bestiary of magical creatures. You do need to have some advanced knowledge there. Angus may have several of the books I'm thinking of as it is that you could borrow. I go into St Mungos at least three times a week to hit their gym. The gym I have here is alright as a home gym goes, but the one at St Mungos has more equipment. And, you should get Michael to teach you some rudimentary climbing skills. You need to know how to use climbing equipment and enough skills to help yourself if you get between a rock and a hard place. As for specifics, I'll need to see Owens' score sheets and then you and I will need to go maybe through the first leg of the obstacle course to see how you do. Fair enough?"