LONDON CALLING

Ruby listened and nodded " your right" she said taking slow long breaths in , when she heard Ingrid talking she smiled knowing that was just haow Angus was. Now with their business concluded she followed Brian to the elevator back to the ground floor " I agree" she said " I need some calming tea" she said softly as she breathed out.

Taking his arm again she knew and was glad they knew she had nothing to do with her father and would not betray any of them. But most of all she could not beleve what her own perents were into, her father a thug and her mother almost a prostatute, if she ahd stayed what would they have turned her into. At that thought she shivered even the thought of using Jessie as they did to get to Angus's perents made her feel unwell.

Brian brought them straight back to the house, and Brian got her a cup of tea and poured a calming potion into it.

"Sit and drink," he told her, handing her the mug. "I'm going to go talk to the others." Brian went to find Robert and the others. When he arrived at Angus's room, he saw Edward was there feeding Angus something from a mug. Someone had put another pillow underneath him, so he wasn't lying quite as flat anymore."

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Lad," Edward was laughing gently. "No one is going to mind one little jot."

"About what?" Brian asked, going in. "God, it's good to see you awake, Mate. Thought I'd lost you for a minute."

"Thank you," Angus said, his voice very weak and soft. "I remember you were there."

"Yeah. I was. You're very welcome."

"He's giving me static already that we're not going to want to be burdened taking care of him after all this. I told him he has no idea what he's talking about," Edward said. "Whatever it takes, Angus. I'm here for whatever it takes. Besides, you're an engaged man now."

"She got the box, then?"

"She did. And she says yes, but you're still going to have to ask her right, you know."

"If we have the time," Angus said.

"You're going to have plenty of time," Robert said. "I know it still feels to you like your time is running out, but that isn't going to happen. Not on my watch. She might not get a down-on-one-knee proposal, but you're going to be around to ask her, to marry her, and all the rest of it."

"That's so far away," Angus said, tiring.

"Had enough tea?" Edward asked. "I know you want to talk to her. Rest a little, and you can try again in a bit. Fair enough?" Angus nodded. They all heard the sounds of a crackling apparating.

"Nigel," Robert said. "I'd best go down to the kitchen and greet him."

"Ruby's in the kitchen. She'll at least recognize him,' Brian laughed.

Ruby found her self back in the kitchen and breathed out it was a comfortable feling being there. When Brian gave her the tea and she had her first mouth ful she felt relaxed and smiled at Brian " thank you" she said knowing he'd slipped some calming potion into it. She watched as he left and she sipped more of the tea before she heard aperating and noticed Nigel appear. " hello Nigel, I have to say Im reay glad you came." she said softly still holding the cup as she saw Brian walk down the stairs " how is he any better?" she asked.

Ruby let them talk while she headed up to see Angus. Still with cup in hand she slowly pushed open the door to their room " hey Edward hows he doing?" she asked sitting down next to the bed. " Brian gave me calming tea" she told himtaking Angus's hand in her own and holding it as if he was her anchor in life.

"Hello, Ruby. I heard that Angus has had a bloody close shave today, and I told Robert I'd come and see if I could be of any help. Nasty stuff, that Supershock potion," Nigel said.

"He's sort of awake. Edward gave him a little tea," Brian said. "He really is trying to orient himself and get it through his head that he's home."

"Poor boy's been through it, hasn't he?" Nigel said.

"Yes, he has," Brian said, not wanting to give Nigel the medical details in front of Ruby. Nigel would surely read it in the documentation about how long they had kept him alive on Jess's life support spell while Brian worked to cast enough antidote spells to reduce the toxin to stop it from killing him. He watched Ruby go upstairs to see Angus, and Brian motioned Nigel to sit down so he could fill him in on the details.

"He's had some tea," Edward said. "Angus," Edward called gently. "Ruby's here. Did you want to talk to her for a moment before you went back to sleep?" Angus nodded.

"No more than one moment," Robert told her. "His vital signs are holding for now. We want them to continue to improve, but he is certainly better than he was earlier. He needs to rest." When Ruby took his hand, Angus entwined his fingers in hers.

"Sorry, Ru," he said. "Not the best way to finally get your ring, is it? It was important for me to know you had it."

Ruby smiled hearing him talk " I don't care, I love the ring by the way, and you knew already I would marry you, no matter how long it took, but you save your strength we have a wedding to plan for when your better." she looekd at Edward then down at Angus as she lent over hugged him and gently kissed him " I love you and I'll do everything I can to fight for you and our family rember that and get well." she told him. She looked up at Edward knowing they would know about what Brian and her hand found out.

"could we talk" she asked Edward " I need a father figure rght now" she said and with a kiss she palced down her cup and walked to the door " we found out some info about my perents, my father is a thug and my mother practiacaly a prostatute working for Gelding, Brian is working on getting evidance to if they were involved with Angus, sine filding was linked to my father as he worked for him before working for St mungos." she told Edward " Im scared everyone will think Jessie or I are the mole, Brain reasured me that he dosn't think we are so its kinda took it off me but I thought you should know." she looked at him almost in tears at the thought of anyone harming Angus or Edward " I know I should be stronger but this is the first time I felt this strongly about some one, not just Angus, you too" she moved and held him in a hug as she let teh flood gates open against him. She didn't know if it was the calming tea or just the axiety of it all that had made her break down as she had.

Now composed she wiped her face with her sleeve " sorry I guess everything hit at once" she said trying to smile as she looked up at him. " Brian's got people looking deeper into all this, im hopping it isn't anything but part of me suspects it is."

Angus could feel her fear. Her fear was so deep and so hard that he could feel it when she hugged him and kissed him. He knew he loved her, and he had just given her that enormous ring-his promise to her, a promise he had intended when life was better, when things had been going well for them. Solid enough that he had wanted the best quality stones he could find a lots of them. But was it fair to her? Was it fair to drag her through so much hell? Everyone talked of how strong she was, but he knew there were still parts of her that were relatively fragile. Put under certain pressures, she tended to buckle. When she left, he knew too well she was falling apart--and he couldn't do one thing about it.

She had asked Edward to talk, and he had stepped out of the room with her. Robert now sat down on the bed with Angus and touched his forehead, feeling a very slight slip in his vitals, probably just due to the continuing struggle against the Supershock potion they were working on neutralizing. Robert cast a spell immediately to pull the vitals back up again, wanting Angus to stay stable.

"Now, listen," Robert said to Angus with a very gentle tone, "she has a right to be upset. It's been a tough day so far. Just so you know, there is a chance that this was another attempt to get to one of us."

"Gelding?"

"I think it's very likely. Brian has some new intel from Ingrid. I'll spare you the details for now, but this looks like a very deliberate set up."

"They still could win, you know."

"The hell they will," Robert frowned. "I am not going to let you die."

"It's worse than you've said. I'm not stupid. I can feel it, and I can see it in everyone's face, and I can feel it in Ru's touch."

"It has been life threatening today," Robert told him, "You know that, but I didn't lie to you. We've got this under control, and you're definitely improving. It's a good deal better than it was." Robert was aware now that Nigel was in the doorway, listening to the conversation, and Robert understood it. Nigel wanted to know what frame of mind Angus was in.

"And what would they be doing at St. Mungo's if I had stayed there?"

"You want to know?"

"Yeah."

"You'd be in intensive care because you need some close monitoring right now to make sure things stay stable. Not because you're not stable, but because we need to keep things stable, but we're providing that same monitoring here. You wanted to be home, and that was very wise on your part. Brian and I agree with you. It would be foolhardy to leave you there under the circumstances, so that's why we're right here. It is getting steadily better, and we won't need this sort of close monitoring maybe even by tomorrow."

"Maybe it's not worth fighting for this time, Robert. Your energies could be better spent..."

"Stop. Now, you stop and listen one moment. It is very much worth fighting for. I do know you can't fight right now. I know very well...."

"You can't stay with me forever...." Angus began. Nigel walked in and and walked over to the other side of the bed and sat down in the chair beside the bed.

"Hello, Angus," Nigel said. "I heard about your trouble today, and I told Robert I'd come and lend a hand. I realize I can be a huge pain in the ass, but I happen to agree with Robert. This is worth every moment of fighting for it. You're worth it. We don't expect you to fight. We'll do the fighting for you."

"Did I die?" Angus asked.

"No, but Brian and Jess fought like hell for you this morning," Robert said. "Seems to me that dying would be a crappy way to pay them back for their trouble. I think you need to stay around."

"I don't know if I can do it this time. So much is just...gone."

"Angus," Nigel said, touching his forehead to assess him for himself, "let me see if I can break it down for you simply for now. We can talk details later. You were poisoned by a medication you should not have ever had, and it was more than a lethal dose. It was enough to have killed a lot people. Brian must have done some absolutely stellar work just kept at it to try to reduce the danger with just a antidote spell. And Jess must have her share of experience in life support to have kept you safe while Brian worked. You're very blessed to have such good and talented friends."

"Family. They're family," Angus said. "What did it do?"

"The medication you were given? Let me simplify it for now. Because you should have never been given that medication at all, much less the amount what you were, caused some major destruction in your body's magical system," Nigel said. "We can regenerate it and then repair it, but that does take some time. You know how much time it has taken to regenerate the muscles in your shoulder. You're still dealing with that. You're going to have to do the same sort of regeneration with your magical system too. For magic to work, the magical system has to integrate with the other systems in the body, just like the other systems all integrate with each other. When one system is affected, they're all affected. That's just how living beings are designed. That damage is why you feel so bloody tired right now. I think you're going to find that you will feel good for short periods and then you will tire very easily for awhile until we get this system repaired. And you may find you have to give it some time before you can use magic again, so if there really is someone who means you harm, I think you need to keep someone with you in case they try again."

"I've never needed a bodyguard in my life."

"Just for awhile," Nigel said. "You're not going to be able to fight, as much as you might want to. It is going to be temporary, but you're going to need to give it time. In the meantime, you might have to live a bit of a quieter life until your system is repaired. Did you ever give any more thought to that cabin you wanted to build?"

"It's up," Angus said, trying not to betray how frustrated he was by all this. "We're in it."

"Oh, well done," Nigel smiled. "Good for you. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Well, you're going to get to spend some time in it."

"Ru's going to be upset..."

"She's a strong, determined woman. Give her a moment to deal with all of it. She'll be alright. Then she might find she likes having you home for a bit rather than working all the crazy hours that you have been working. You're going to be on leave a while."

"Don't kid yourself. She'll be delighted that the two of you won't be passing like ships," Robert laughed. "Right now, everything seems completely overwhelming for you, so how about we just take things one step at at a time? I'll talk to Ruby and Edward and Simone so that they know what to expect. For now, all we want you doing is resting, and you're going to need some absolutely meticulous nutrition to build your strength. When you can be up again, we'll start you with some limited activity at our pacing until you can figure out what you can do and what you can't. We're still giving you antidote for the medication. And, you will feel better when this stupid virus is past you. It certainly doesn't help that you're battling both the overdose and the virus at once."

"Robert and I will divide our time," Nigel said. "One of us will be with you at all times at least until tomorrow. And I know your crew. I'm sure that between Kaden and Brian and Jess, you won't have any shortage of people to help make sure you have everything that you need. I will be sending information to a couple of people on my team who specialize in these sorts of situations so that they can design a nutrition program for you, and they may be able to help design a program to start getting you up and active again on a very limited basis. I'd like you to work on getting more fluid and certainly some food. Your system definitely needs it.

"We've been working on that," Robert said.

Edward followed Ruby out into the hall and listened to the news that Ruby had about her family, and he let her wrap herself around him, and he simply held her while she talked.

"Take one moment, and think," Edward told her. "Nobody here is the sort of person that is going to judge you like that. We don't treat Jack differently because he is the brother of James Blood. Angus isn't treated differently because of his father. Robert isn't treated differently because his brother was a werewolf. You're not going to be treated differently either because of what your parents might have done. None of us work that way. You already know that. You don't need to prove yourself to them over and over. Angus didn't fall in love with you because of who your parents were. Let's be honest, he didn't turn them into swine because of what fine and upstanding people they were. I still think that was pretty funny, if you ask me. So, forget that. What people here think about you is because of who you are.

If you were living elsewhere, with just about anybody else, you really might be in the pickle that you feel like you're in. However, you're not. You're living with one of the very few people in the wizarding world is powerful enough and motivated enough to take care of this business with your parents. I don't think you need to get involved with it even if it is your parents. For now, I suggest you step aside leave Robert to do it. He see this as his job to take care of, and he will, but right now, his energies are focused entirely on Angus. Give him time.

"Personally, I think all the tears don't have a whole lot to do with your parents. I think most of this is about how close you came to losing Angus today. It's how his job goes sometimes, unfortunately. He takes risks because that's the job. It makes far more sense to me that it was a deliberate attempt against him than somebody who was just that stupid.

"So, where does that put us now?" he said rhetorically. "It means that, very likely, Angus is in for perhaps a bit of a recovery to rebuild his magical system in his body. I think that's going to mean that you and Simone and some of the others will be handling the kitchen and the rest of his duties will be delegated to others while he spend his time resting and recovering. So you'll be working, and he'll be getting underfoot." Edward cast her an amused smile. "And since we've go that duplex, Simone and I will be happy to look after him when you work. You wanted some time together? Well, looks like you're going to get it. I think it may create a bit of a temporary role reversal for you two. You could be doing some of the cooking, and Abbey might be spending her time at the duplex with Angus and Simone and me. But it'll be alright."

Ruby looked at Edward and listened o him smile " your not wrong there" she said and returned his smile as she cleaned up her face a little. " I need to keep thinking hes still here and still my Angus and I'll be damned if im going to lsoe him, I know Im not" she said " but don't worry about the kitchen as you said Kate , simon and I will look after that." she now felt much better about things and huged him again " thank you." she said " now I have to get dinner or is it supper ready, ether way we need to eat all of us."

Walking in to the room again she smiled at Angus " Food won't be too long" she said then moved to Angus again kissing his cheek " you my love have one thing to do, get better." she told him smiling. Looking at Nigel and Robert she nodded and left the room again to head down to the kitchen where she saw Michael " Michael have you got that recipy for teh beer soup or what ever it was?" she asked " if you make that I'll start on supper. " she now brought out Angus's recipy books and started to look threw them. 

Jess walked in and saw Nigel " evining Nigel, I had the liberty of getting the room next door ready for you." she told him thought you'd want to stay close for a while." she opened an ajoining door for him so he could see his bags already placed at the foot of the bed.

"Michael said he was fixing his chicken cacciatore over polenta. I think you're off the hook tonight," Edward said. "If he hasn't started dessert, you could perhaps do that. I know his cacciatore is rather labor intensive. It's phenomenal but it is work. And polenta doesn't do well if it's left unsupervised for long, so he might be needing something for dessert. He might have some ideas about what you might make that Angus could eat. I'm sure right now they want every bite he takes in to count for something, so maybe Michael has a suggestion. I'd ask." She seemed to be in better spirits when she left him to go back to see Angus.

"Somebody's on it, Ru," Angus said. "I smell chicken and tomato sauce."

Michael had finished the cacciatore sauce and was returning the chicken to the pot of sauce so it could simmer. Then he was going to move on to the polenta when Ruby came down asking about the cheese soup.

"There's leftover cheese soup from lunch in the fridge, I believe, if that's what you're looking for," Michael told her. "I'm making cacciatore for supper. It just needs to simmer for awhile, so now I can crack on to the polenta I dont think they really need soup with the cacciatore.

"Hello, Jess," Nigel said. "Thank you. I told the old man here I'd take the night shift, if he can take the day shift."

"Old man," Robert rolled his eyes. "I'm thirteen years younger than you."

"It's all in the mindset--Old man," Nigel teased.

"Jess, thank you," Angus said. "I don't remember everything from the morning, but I don't think I'd be here without you. So, thanks."

Jess smiled at Robert and Nigel then to Angus " its what family do for each other, don't sweat it" she told him and smelt the smell of food cooking " ho that smells devine." she said as her tummy grumbled " oops" she said and chuckled " I'll leave you two old men alone, good luck with them Angus." she said with a chuckle as she then headed out and down to the kitchen where Ruby was stood .

Ruby chuckled and breathed out " okay sorry, I'll leave it to you guys tonight, not sure where my heads at." she said then Jess walked up to her .

"I do with Angus." she said softly " hes doing much better don't worry, and now that Nigels with him he can only get better" she smiled at Ruby when Ruby smiled back," there we go, now go for a swim or work out that will take your mind off things." Ruby nodded and headed to the pool room, wher she swum four full laps.

Michael put together the polenta and then took some orange juice that needed used up, and he made it into a very healthy sorbet using electrolyte water and some added vitamin supplements, particularly adding B complex vitamins and some additional B12 to help boost Angus's fragile energies. It hadn't been anything that Robert had asked him to do, but Michael had gotten the gist that anything that could be done to infuse some nutrients would be helpful. He figured it might help boost Abbey a little too after her skirmish with the virus. The sorbet would be tasty, and it would be exceptionally healthy. And then, as an after thought, he make a batch of Italian chocolate orange cookies with a flavorful orange icing. They would be great with the sorbet.

It only took him another hour to have it all together. Simone showed up and set up the dining room and put out pitchers of lemonade, iced tea, and water. She put the polenta in a huge serving bowl, while Michael did the same for the cacciatore. He plated a dinner tray for two to go upstairs and sent a note that he would send up a healthy dessert when they were ready. He figured that everyone could come down except whoever decided to stay with Angus.

When it was all ready, Michael called everyone for supper. Upstairs, Robert gave Kaden the rest of the evening off and said that he and Nigel would handle things for the evening. He suggested to Kaden that he go tuck into whatever smelled so wonderful. And then the dinner tray arrived.

"Chicken cacciatore over polenta," Robert said, lifting the cloche on the supper plates. "You don't want to miss it. Go get some, Kaden. I'm sure we can use you tomorrow here if you're able. And, if you want to just stay over, Jess can find you a room, I'm sure. Whatever you want to do. Angus, I hope you're hungry because I can't begin to eat all this myself."

"I don't know. Maybe," Angus said.

"We'll give it a try, shall we?" Robert asked. Robert's system was simple, and it was the same system he used for Abbey. A bite for Angus and then a bite for himself.