LONDON CALLING

Ruby closed her eyes again and took a deep breath in calming her mind before she rolled over to get comfortable against him. slowly she drifted asleep. But some time in the night she woke calling out his name and sitting bolt upright. " God damn it" she swore as she turned to look at him. Laying down she brushed her hand over Angus's cheek pushing hair off his face. " we can do this..together" she said softly as she lay her head down beside his again.

Next morning she paused as she drerssed and looekd at Angus with a smile. "you sleep okay?" she asked slipping on her trousers and then her top before moving to take the potion at the right dose it had on the bottle. She was plesantly suprised when it didn't taste too bad. " okay Im off to do the trainning." she said to him leaning down she kissed him gently " I'll see you at lunch, okay." she said with a smile.

"Yeah," he smiled at her when she had asked if he had slept okay. He hadn't slept a wink all night. His mind had been racing. He saw her take the dose of her potion, and then he looked at her questioningly. "Ru, did you read the directions? It said one dose a day--at bedtime. Didn't Robert go over that with you? I don't know if this is a potion you can take liberties with. Maybe you can. I just don't know. Be careful with those kinds of things, would you?" That wasn't like her to buggar up a medication dose. He hoped it was just that she didn't quite have her mind on it. "Are you sure you should train? I mean, if you're mind isn't on it, ..." he let his voice trail off.

He didn't want her getting into some sort of trouble by going out running around the grounds by herself if her mind wasn't on it. There were too many things she could get into trouble with. "Make sure you take a weapon and make sure you run with someone this morning--especially after that agent was killed yesterday. Don't go out on the grounds alone right now. Not til its safer." It bothered him immensely that all he could do was to caution her. He couldn't protect her, and if she didn't have her mind on what she was doing, that could be a huge problem.

Ruby loked at the bottle and subconshiouly face palmed herself " sorry," she said " he did go over things but I guess I didn't quite take in what he said, maybe your right I should just forego trainning for one day, I'll send a note to Michael and let him know but it feels wrong to stop trainning at this point in time, but I will take the pistol Robert gave me as you sugested." she told him moving to the night stand and taking it out, she slipped it into a holster and slipped the holster on aroun her waist so it hung at her thigh. " there, huh not too restrictive." she said and smiled at him. Takign it out she made sure the chamber was empty then slipped it back into her holster.

" i'll make it a short run, not too far from the house , I promise" she said to Angus. " and any problems with me having that dose, I'll go straight to Robert, I promise" She now had the mind set that it was not just her in the world but Her, Angus and there child. " oh are you talking to Edward later?" she asked as she stood looking at him once more bitting her lower lip.

"I told you I would, and I will. He wasn't going to be home today until later, remember? He and Simone are going back again to her house to get more of her stuff out. Remember, I said he'd sent a note yesterday saying they were coming in late and going out early again. I will talk to him as soon as I see him," he said calmly. He didn't know what her deal was today, but she wasn't focused at all on anything. "What are you concerned about with Edward?"

"Ru, you really do need to get a handle on your anxiety or whatever is going on with you. You're not yourself at all. I realize its a lot to take in. If your run would make you go out by yourself, then I would much rather you go to the main house, go down to the gym and run on the treadmill today rather than going out alone. You can do what you like, of course, but the treadmill is safer than being on the grounds alone. If you talk to Jack or Jess or some of the others and find out what time they go, you could go with them. I know Jack goes at 4:30 almost like clockwork. Some of the others can vary a little on their run times, but if they know you want to go, they'd coordinate that with you so you'd have a running companion."

Ruby looekd at Angus and nodded " yeah, I truly don't know what up with me today, its like my brain dosn't want to work" she said and sat down " im not normaly like this, I shouldn't be like this, I should be focused on where we are and protecting you. " she looked at him " I'll talk to Kate while I'm at the house, refocus myself while Im there." she smiled at him and then chuckled " right dits today arn't I, and its not even started " she said with a chuckled.

Now with her head resting against his shoulder as she sat with him reaching out she took his hand in hers with a smile " I love you Angus" she said softly and looked up at him. " you keep me grounded you know that." she chuckled again as she heard Andrew moving around " I should head to the main house, but I don't want to leave you today." she shifted where she sat and kissed him again

"You don't need to focus on protecting me," he told her. "If you think about it, I'm probably the best protected person on the grounds. With Andrew also being an agent and armed, I have three armed guards in the house around the clock, two over at Edward's, and that doesn't count the two that are outside. And I'm armed too." He listened to her tell him she loved him. "I love you too, Ru, but I think I'm glad one of us is grounded," he teased. "Go. Get yourself busy with your work. Get going on fixing breakfast, if Jess doesn't have that going already. Maybe decide that you're going to fix lunch today. Whatever it takes to get yourself anchored into something that requires you to get everything else out of your head to complete the job. Cooking always did that for me. It gave me something to anchor into. Maybe it won't be cooking for you, but do try to find something that you can focus on. If you see Michael, see if he can make heads or tails out of my ordering system because today is when our suppliers will be expecting our usual order, and if its not in today or tomorrow, you'll start finding some of our basic provisions running out."

Ruby listened to him and laughed at his teasing "yeah, Im glad" she said then listened to him more as he spoke of finding her gounding mechanisum. she nodded " I can do that, and with Michaels help lunch shouldn't be too hard" she said " okay I'll start a list of things that need to be ordered and set them on the list." it wsas now she smiled again " and your right, your the hansomest, most protected daddy to be." she said smiling at him as she stood up again. Leaning down she kissed him and stepped back. " off to work I go, see you at lunch okay." she said turning to head down the stairs to the front door. " look after him today Andrew." she called out as she left the house and headed over to teh main house.

"Morning" she said entering the kitchen. Once there she started breakfast she started to make Smokey Bacon, Potato and Cheddar Hash, then moved on to Avocado, Chèvre and Bacon Omelette. and lastly she preped for Banana Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas and Toasted Pecans. humming along as she did now feeling happier in herself. Jess walked down and smiled.

"morning" she said smiling at Ruby " and congratultions," she chuckled as Ruby smiled but said nothing right away,

"okay its still early, but Robert gave me a potion designed for pregnant women and yeah it worked." she told her Jess just smiled.

Robert came downstairs, dressed in jeans and a sage green colored linen short sleeved henley, and a pair of deck shoes. And Michael came in the back door, from being out in the herb garden.

"Good morning, All," Robert said. "I don't think I'll be back for lunch, but I don't know for sure. I'm going to be out probably all day. Have a good day, but I must run." He drew his wand, flicked it, and disappeared.

"Robert..." Kate came dashing down the stairs, hoping to catch him.

"Sorry, Kate, you've missed him," Michael said. "He just apparated out."

"Well, that's odd," she said.

"Why? He's always got someplace to be."

"No, no. That's not it. He forgot his wand," she said, with Robert's wand in her hand. Michael frowned. He had distinctly seen a wand in his hand. He quickly went back upstairs and saw Khaat's room door ajar. He knocked on the door but got no answer. Opening the door, he went in and went over to the fireplace mantel in her room where she always kept Remus's wand. The wand was gone. He went across the hall and picked the lock on the workroom and went in. The cauldron was empty. Clearly, the polyjuice potion was ready now, and he was on his way to use it--alone. Michael filched through the shelves until he had found the larger bottled--well hidden. Michael suspected Robert had brewed a large batch but had only taken a small flask. Now he bottled a small flask of it for himself, and hid the rest of the polyjuice and put several age lines around it so that no one younger than 60 could even get to the polyjuice. Michael locked the workroom again and went downstairs.

"Ladies, you're in charge of the kitchen today. I've had a sudden change of plans, I'm afraid," Michael told them. "Not sure when I'll be back exactly. If you've go questions, I guess you'll have to wing it or ask Angus. See you later." He apparated out.

"Wait.." Kate called, hoping to stop him, but it was too late. He was gone too. "I guess I'd better go see Angus, then. Michael told me last night that he had to get the order out to our suppliers today, but he hadn't even started on it. I presume there's a system for it. Angus has a system for everything, but I don't know this one."

Ruby and Jess both stood dumb founded as both men had sudely with out an explination aperated out quickly. Jess just shrugged as did Ruby, when Kate walked down with the order she smiled " If they need us they will call for us, now let me place that, I know his system" she said taking it from he and heading into the office she sat down and wrote up the order sending it out to the suplier. But she knew there would be other things to go on the order too.

"Okay now breakfast for those still here" she said Jess nodded and slipped on an apron to help. Ruby took out the recipy Chocolate Sheet Pan Pancake and fruit salad for those who just wanted something light along with Granola Dust waffles. " okay I'll do the waffels you if you want can start on the sheet pan pancake." she said Jess smiled and nodded getting everything out and she began to mix everything as did Ruby.

Michael slipped into a barber shop and saw a barber finishing a haircut on a younger blond man. When the barber went with the customer to check him out, Michael snatched some of the young man's hair from the floor and slipped out again without being seen. In the alley behind the barbershop, he added the hairs and drank the potion, hoping he hadn't buggared it up. However, he was pleased with the results, and he apparated to Paris. He made up a name and a hasty backstory and decided to use his espionage skills to disguise his voice and his own telltale body movements.

He knocked on the door, and Owens answered the door. Michael said his name was Ryan Steele, and that Kieran had sent him. Owens never seemed to question it, and he allowed Michael in. They went through to the back garden where there were half a dozen others already assembled for beginners' training. Michael knew that Robert was most certainly one of these blokes. He just wasn't certain which one.

Over at the duplex, Andrew took Angus outside, at Angus's request. Angus wanted to see if their intruder was on the hunt. If that was the case, he presumed that Tyler--if that was who it was--would be back again, if not today, then soon. Andrew needed to do some chores inside, but he left Angus with fresh coffee and a newspaper. Angus knew how to make a small slit in the paper and use it to help him look like he was reading the paper when, in fact, he was scouting around what might be going on in the woods.