LONDON CALLING

Ruby smiled at Angus and Andrew then chuckled " please don't" she said " we take our scones very serious" she chuckled then saw the paper bird and listened when Angus explained " I will leave that to you gentelmen to deal with and thats fine thank you Angus." she said and kissed him. " see you later" she said and aperated back to the main house seeing Simone with a lot of fruit she smiled " would you like a hand?" she asked as she took hold of a board and knife to cut the apples and oranges for the fruit salad.

"oh by the way those scones look perfect, Andrew thought they were american buscuits" she said with a chuckle " until Angus told him they were scones and to not get teh two mixed up." she smiled at her as she cut up the apples and placed them into the bowl with teh rest of the fruit. " are you adding grapes?" she asked " I ushaly put those in last" she humemd softly to herself as she continued to cut up the fruit with Simone.

"Oh, gosh, yes, would you?" Simone said. "Thank you. It's my first time here taking charge of a meal, and I just wanted to get it right."

Edward came in at that moment and heard her remark to Ruby.

"She's been up all night stressing about making breakfast. She can cook a full, black tie dinner party for Ministers of Magic from all over the world and not bat an eye. Breakfast for this crew this morning had her all a twitter about it," Edward shook his head. "I don't get it at all."

"I think we should put some grapes in too," Simone told Ruby. "I went a bit heavier on the berries for Little Miss You-Know-Who." She smiled, knowing Abbey's love of any sort of berry.

Edward poured himself a mug of coffee and laughed out loud when Ruby said Andrew thought the scones were biscuits. "That poor lad is too American for his own good. Wait til he goes shopping and wants to buy a bag of chips. He's going to figure out that his chips and our chips are entirely different things. And he isn't going to find a box of crackers anywhere."

"The first time Maurice and I went to the states, I thought their crackers were boxes of our Christmas crackers," Simone laughed.

"Yeah, clearly not," Edward laughed. "Did you get fooled by thinking the root beer was a kind of beer?"

"Yes," she laughed. "Not an ounce of alcohol in it. It's an odd tasting sort of soda though. Sort of an acquired taste, I think."

"Well, it depends on the brand. Some brands are definitely better than others. Have you ever been to the states, Ruby?" Edward asked

Ruby chukled and shook her heed " its no problem Simone, its kinda what I do, well myself an Michael since Angus has had to take a break for a while" she said smiling as she said adding the grapes was a good idea " oh yes " she said and begn removing grapes from the vine as Simone talked to Robert " no I haven't, but I did try root beer once and yes it is kinda an aquired taste, though brand I had I did like it" she said smiling as she continued with teh fruit salad .

"okay I think that should be enough to feed a whole army" she said " or one hungry Jack" she chuckled just as he walked into teh room. " speak of the devil" she said softly as he walked over and picked up the heavy bowl.

"can't have you lifting heavy things now can we." he said and Ruby just rolled her eyes at him " oh don't give me that look, I know your not an invalid but you still have to be careful." he said Ruby looked at Simone.

" please tell him a bowl of fruit salad dose not constitute something heavy" Ruby said smiling to show she ws not upset but more amused by Jack's intenshions. Jess walked down and laughed at his words.

"oh don't mind him, he was like this with me as I recall" she said " guess its his first sort of neice or nephew" she said " but I know your not even thinking of that, just let him be he'll chill eventually" she stood at teh counter " of I'll knock it out of him" she looked at Jack who smiled grabbed a bowl and some salad and sat to eat.

"Im sure he will" Ruby said chukaling " but it sosn't bother me, its kinda amusing than anything" she placed down her knife and walked over with the jug placing it on the table before calling brakfast was ready.

Everyone came down for breakfast, and they seemed to enjoy the breakfast sandwiches. Abbey had half of one, and Robert had one breakfast sandwich and the other half of Abbey's. He was hungry for some reason. He decided to go over to see Angus before he went into St Mungos' and Edward decided to go along.

They discussed the plan again and fine tuned it. Angus mentioned concerns about Ruby's younger brothers. Robert had asked for some intel on Reginald and Suzanne. They were continuing to live at their house, the same house where Angus had found them and turned them into pigs. Robert was having the place staked out. The reports had said that a couple of healers had come to the house, had stayed a few hours and left again. Reginald hadn't been seen, but they suspected he was the reason the healers had come.

Suzanne had come and gone several times, always dressed to the nines, and they said she had used different glamour spells to make herself look a bit different but always stunningly gorgeous. They mentioned to Robert that it looked like some of them had had to be powerful glamour spells to get the look she wanted. And then, a couple of hours ago, while Suzanne was out, someone had come to the door--a known black market magical weapons dealer. He had stayed for only a few minutes and had left counting a large pouch of galleons.

"So, he was restocking on his weapons and ammunition," Angus said.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I think too," Robert said.

"How soon do you think he'll be back out gunning for me again?"

"I think he could come back as early as today, hoping that you'll have your guard down."

"I'm not that stupid--ever."

"Good. I talked to Marcus. He's in. If you want to go outside today, he'll apparate up into the treehouse and just stake out the woods and wait."

"I want him, Robert. If you think he'll show, lets show him I can't be duped that easily."

I'm not opposed to that, but, you're not going to have the strength to sit outside all day. You're going to need to do it in spurts."

"I'm not going to risk taking anyone outside with me."

"You'll have to. You're not going to be able to get back and forth in and out alone."

"Let's frustrate him," Angus said, thinking out loud.

"How?"

"What if I don't appear out for a bit? What if I agitate him?"

"How?"

"I'm going to start ordering baby things to be delivered and brought into the house so he can see them. Ruby isn't going outside these days, so he's not going to know where she's at with her pregnancy, but he will guess she's pregnant."

"Lord, that will really piss him off."

"Exactly."

"And you're hoping he strikes out at you on your turf and not outside."

"Right."

"It's worth a try. And it gives you a couple of days to rest up before we do any sort of outside movement."

"And that gives you time to check out my concerns about Ruby's brothers and her mother."

"Alright. I'll buy it."

"And I'll start buying baby stuff," he said with a bit of a mischievous smile.

Ruby sat and ate her breakfast laughing at Jacks ribbing from Jess about leaving her alone with carying things. Jess chuckled and finished her food then stood up put her plate in the washer. Ruby stood as well ready to start the dinner prep for supper. Taking her book she opened it and sat down to read for a while. Once done she moved to the kitchen and looked threw his folders as to what to make for dinner. " Michael what can we do for dinner?" she asked " Im kinda stuck." she closed the folder and looked up hoping he might have some ideas. 

Ruby gathered the ingridiants to make something for dinner at Michaels recomendations. Slowly she cooked and focused on making something for every one to eat but he did look up at teh duples every so often wondering what was going on. Making some buscuits she place them in the oven to cook and brewed fresh coffee, one with almond flavoring for every one.

"What about a nice chicken piccata?" he asked. "It's light and easy, and very tasty. We can put it with some rice and perhaps some grilled asparagus. That's the best way to do asparagus anyway."

Angus had Andrew send Ruby a quick paper bird. It read, "Running a bit of a sting operation to see how close your dad is paying attention. You're going to see enough baby equipment coming to open a daycare. We can keep anything you like, or we can send it all back, or maybe, if Khaat is set on wanting ten kids, they'll want some of whatever we don't want."

He ordered a stunning bassinet with a canopy, all done in lace, one in pink and one in blue. He ordered a victorian pram in mint condition that cost several thousands of galleons. He ordered two luxuriously expensive cribs, 2 high chairs, and all the rest--half if it in pink and half of it in blue. boxes and boxes of diapers and baby clothes. He made a point to buy things that even Reginald couldn't afford to touch, things he would definitely notice. There was a steady stream of boxes coming into the house, and Marcus sent a paper bird that someone had arrived on the grounds and was definitely keeping a tight watch on the duplex. Angus was pleased. So far, Reginald was determined to not miss a single thing. And that amused Angus to no end because he knew that with every single box of baby things that arrived, it would surely be only making Reginald crazier and crazier.

Ruby listened to Micahel and nodded thankful he ahd ideas for sdinner then she saw the paper bird and chuckled "okay Angus is baiting my father again" she said " with baby equipment" she told Michael with a chuckle " he's said we cn keep some of the things or if Khaat still wants another she can have some" it was now Ruby saw boxes arriveing and sent the bird back with the message " tell Andrew to put them in the empty room next to ours for now, and stay safe, love you" she wrote then sent it on its way back to them.

Returning to teh cooking she lifted out the asparagus and placed it down infront of Micahel " so what should I do now?" she asked having never made this dish before and not even bothered about what was happening over the way at the duplex. But when she saw a rather nice pram apear she smiled " oh we're keeping that" she said " not that it will be used as I think Angus will want to hold the baby more thn put it in a carrier or pram." she chuckled

"That pram, my dear," Michael told her, "is worth about 2,000 galleons--or ten thousand pounds--or 14,000 dollars. He couldn't have touched it for under 5000, and I doubt he got it that cheap. Your boy has expensive tastes when he's running a sting, doesn't he? If your dad knows his stuff, that will get his attention if nothing else does. He's clearly aiming to be noticed. And see those paintings being taken in. Those were hanging yesterday in the top gallery in London. You don't want to know what they cost, but I hope he's planning on a security system for all of that. And...oh, nice touch, Lad. See that man going inside? The one carrying that briefcase? He's one of our lads from Italy. Angus is using him to pose as an interior designer. He's really hoping to piss the hell out of your dad, isn't he? My guess is that your dad can't make that much money, and so Angus is deliberately rubbing his face in that to piss him off royally. What do you think? Think it'll work?"

Ruby watched from teh kitchen window , when Michael told her the cost she stood mouth a gape " wow, realy?" she asked when he continued she chuckled and nodded " oh , he'll get under his skin all right, he hated being shown up by any one" she told him "If your right that pram will not stay long in the duplex, simple is what we'll have, our child will know everything they have was given with love, they won't be spoiled, well not by us anyway." she said and chukled knowing Jack and the others might.

She watched the man enter and glanced at Michael " Im glad hes got some one else there with him and I do hope it works, he needs to be gone, prison or other wise, I realy don't mind which" she saids turning around to prep the vegtables for dinner.

Michael went back to preparing the chicken piccata. He had found several jars of capers in the pantry, and he chose a larger jar. He butterflied a large stack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, made a seasoned dredging mix and dredged the chicken breasts and then sauteed them in batches in a mix of olive oil and butter in a couple of Angus' largest cast iron skillets. When the chicken pieces were about halfway cooked, he took the chicken out of the pans, made his lemon caper sauce and put the chicken back in the pans to finish cooking. While that was going, he had put on a very large pot of brown rice, some little short lengths of vermicelli, and lentils to cook together in some of Angus's frozen chicken stock that was stored in the freezer, and had sauteed up some shallots, some garlic, and some finely minced celery and carrots and he sauteed up the aromatics and then stirred them into the pilaf mixture along with some slivered almonds for a little crunch.

"Chicken and rice pilaf will both be ready in about five minutes," he told Ruby. "How are you coming with grilling that asparagus? I know that's a lot of asparagus, but it's so much tastier when its grilled. I've got some grated Parmesan if you want to add some of that on the top. I'd plate it all on a large platter, if I were you, and then go bananas with the parmesan. People can have a little asparagus with their cheese," he teased.

Simone and Kate apparated in from having been out shopping, and they each had two large shopping bags loaded down with things.

"Can we help you somehow?" Simone asked.

"We're almost ready to serve lunch," Michael said. "Can you set up the dining room?"

"Certainly," Kate said. She and Simone moved their bags temporarily into Angus's office so they would be out of the way, and then they set up the dining room, and added pitchers of cold tea and cold lemonade and ice water for beverages and made sure that the plates and napkins and cutlery were all arranged, along with serving ware. "I don't know if you did anything for dessert but if you didn't, Lizzie sent a couple things for us to try. She made some very traditional lemon bars, but she's also done a couple of variations for us. She's done a strawberry curd bar--a lemon bar with strawberry curd instead of lemon, and these chocolate orange curd bars. I've never heard of a chocolate curd before, but there's a first time for everything. Anyway, she'd like us to taste test them for her and let her know."