LONDON CALLING

Ruby followed Robert as they went down to the potions lab she followed but said nothing about why head have to go to the potions lab. When he checked her over she watched him but paid no attenshion to what he was doing until he gave her the potin she took the cup with the dose in and drank it, she breathed out and sighed " oh thanks that feels much better, I'll leave the peptol with you." it was now she looked at Robert " what was that potion?" she asked just out of curiosity, not that she was complaining as she was now feeling much better. she tried to see the bottle but didn't and assumbed it was just a stomach reliving potion he'd made for just an accashion. £ I have a feeling it was the pork or maybe the ratattue, no everything tasted fine at dinner." she stopped and looked at Robert " so what was it?" she asked him,

"That muggle trash isn't going to help you. Here," he handed her the bottle, with the bottle very clearly labeled as Pregnancy Tonic. "Take one dose a day, no more than that--at bedtime. It should relieve all those pesky hormonal symptoms for you and will provide you a complete package of prenatal vitamins, all in one time-released dose. Each dose is concentrated and lasts 24 hours, so don't take it more than that. This'll resolve itself for you--in about nine months--I'm guessing by about mid-April." He picked up the bottle of Pepto Bismol and chucked it out.

Ruby looked at the lable and frowned " how can I be... no way, we both...no, I took mine off but Angus still has his, you didn't remove his right?" she asked sitting down on a stool then it dawned on her two nights before " oh boy, um could his magic being gone make the charm you put on him go too, becuse we.. a couple of nights ago, when he came home?" she said her cheeks flamed bright pink. She looekd down at the bottle and wasn't sure if she should be hapy or upset. She stood up and looekd at Robert " thank you but I have to talk to Angus, I'll follow the instructions, any instructions you send." she told him and moved out the lab headed right back to the duplex.

"Hey Andrew is Angus awake or is he sleeping?" she asked not wanting to disterb his sleep.

"I don't see how. I hadn't removed his birth control spell, and, we do still reproduce the same way muggles do. It takes two to three weeks after intercourse for a woman to become pregnant. It takes almost a week just for the egg to be fertilized and another week or two for the egg to attach to the uterus. So, I honestly don't have any answers for you, except whatever happened, had to have happened 2 or three weeks ago," he told her. "And if his spell is still in place, then I don't have any idea how it could have happened at all. I do understand most medical things, but unless you can trace back something two to three weeks, ago, I'm clueless."

He wasn't comfortable not having answers for her, but there it was. That was the truth of it. He couldn't change science, no matter how much he wanted to. But, he didn't think she was truly listening anyway, because she was all a twitter about wanting to tell Angus.

"He's upstairs," Andrew said. "I thought it might relax him a bit before bed if he could soak in a hot tub, so he showed me bottle of bath oil he brought home from Romania, and I added it to his bath water. He's actually done with the bath and is just soaking in the hot water to try to unwind."

She listened to Andrew and nodded not sure how it could have happened herself two or three weeks that would have put it before he left for romania. She walked up to the bathroom and saw him in the bath " hey, smells nice" she told him then sat on the toilet " um...we need to talk, um did anything weird happen to you before you left for romania, like has any of Roberts charms failed before or just become inactive for no reason?" she asked holding the bottle in her hands as she waied for him to respond as she had no clue as to how if his charm was up they could have, so quickly. Squietlyhe placed the bottle down on the edge of the bath and waited for him once again to respond " I've not been with any other man but you." she said and looked at him " you know that, between my trainning and being in the kitchen." she sighed " it explains my extra anxiaty." Now she sat rolling the bottom of he shirt between her fingrs as she waited.

"No, not that I know of," he frowned. "Nothing happened that you don't know about. Nothing happened in Romania that you don't know about, and I've never known of any of Robert's spells to just randomly fail. Why?"

He saw her put the potion bottle on the edge of the tub, and he picked it up and read it. It took him a moment to absorb it. He read the instructions and the dosing information a couple of times, his mind racing in every possible direction. He didn't understand how it could have happened. Was his spell still intact at all? If not, when and how did it stop working? Well, now what? It wasn't that he didn't want kids. He did. He just didn't think they were going to do that right now, not with his health in the state it was. He didn't believe she had been with anyone else. That hadn't really even entered his mind. He had to pull himself together, at least outwardly. He knew what she wanted to hear, but he had a lot that he needed to settle now in his head. And she wouldn't understand if he didn't somehow say and do the right thing, right in this moment.

"I don't know how it happened either," he said after a moment. "I didn't think you were with someone else, but if I'd had any idea this might be a possibility, I'd have discussed it, or I'd have hoped I would so that it wouldn't have come as such a surprise to both of us. Ru, we've been talking about kids for a bit now, so, as I see it, the only thing that's changed is the timing. It'll be alright."

He wasn't sure he believed in his own mind yet that it would be alright, but in his head, he could hear Edward's reassurance in his ears. He already knew what Edward was going to say, so he was relying on that to find words right now.

"I know I'm not behaving like those guys in the muggle chick flicks, but...that's about the last thing I had in my head tonight," he said. "Can you give me half a tick to wrap my brain around it, and then I promise I'll do better? I'm not disappointed. I'm just...stunned."

Ruby heard him and said nothing she was just as stunned as he was. when he spoke she looked at him biting her lower lip as he spoke. " I know" she said and "I can't wrap my head around it ether, we were so careful, and yeah we spoke about it." she told him. When he asked for amoment she nodded " okay, I think i'd better speack to Edward or do you want to do it with me?" she asked hoping Edward would not be disapointed in her. She stood up and left the room heading down to the living room where she sat quietly not sure where Edward and simone Looking over at Andrew as she spoke softly to him " Im..im not going to be able to do any heavy lifting for about nine months and Roberts sending over vitamins for me to take." she told him with a sigh. Standing she moevd to the bed room and sat on the bed her head was hung a little as she tried to work out when and how it could have happened. each senario seemed less and less likely to be the one.

"Leave it. I'll talk to Edward. That's my job," he said. "He'll be fine with it. It isn't his first great grandchild, you know. It'll be his 58th. He'll be just fine. It isn't as if he hasn't expected this for awhile now. His reaction will be a lot more like 'its about time.' He's not home tonight yet anyway. He and Simone are at her house, moving out her stuff and either closing it or looking to sublet it. He sent me a floo note. He said they'll be home really late and leaving again really early. I'll tell him when I get a minute with him."

He watched her leave, and he wasn't sure where her head was at. But then again, he didn't know where his own was either.

Andrew was closing up the house for the night when Ruby came down and told him about her results from Robert.

"Um. Okay," he said. "We can talk a little later when you've had a chance to process it a little. It isn't like I'm going anywhere." He went upstairs to help Angus out of the tub. Angus wasn't ready to sleep yet, but he didn't want to uproot Andrew whenever he decided he would be ready to sleep, so he had Andrew help him into bed and then bring him a book and a small book light so he wouldn't keep Ruby awake. Andrew brought the book, a little book light, and a travel mug of ice water to keep by his bed in case he got thirsty. Then Angus dismissed Andrew for the night.

"Go to bed, Ru," Angus told her quietly. "You need to be up early. Staying up and stewing about it won't change a thing."

Ruby looked at Angus and nodded " yeah I forgot they were going to Simones, things might be cleareer in the morning" she said changing into her PJ's and slipping into bed next to him she lay laid against him but her arms weren't wrapped around him a she didn't know his thoughts. But she knew she was keeping the baby, The other thing she knew Edward would certainly know how to get her feeling good about herself again. With a sigh she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep but only after a few minets she opened them again.

Laying and looking up at the stars she smiled as she saw a shooting star streak across the sky above them, She closed her eyes and made a wish listening to Angus breath next to her as he lay next to her.

Angus had clearly felt Ruby had pulled entirely away from him emotionally. He could feel her distancing in just about every way she could. He tried to focus on his book, deciding not to read into it, but in his own mind, he had expected this to happen. He had expected her to pull away from him, and he had figured it would only be a matter of time. It had happened a little sooner than he had anticipated, but he had expected it. Ruby sometimes functioned in an independent world of one. Where things could have and should have been 'us' and 'we', Ruby often was all wrapped up in 'I,' and 'me', and 'my.' She sometimes wasn't thinking in terms of being a couple. She was thinking in terms of what she wanted and when she wanted it. And he felt clearly that she was in that mindset tonight.

He was having a hard time focusing in on the book, and a part of him wanted to hurl it through the French balcony doors, but he didn't. He wasn't angry about the pregnancy. That wasn't it. It was the timing of it, and everything else in his life that was completely off the rails.

It was going to be a long night.