LONDON CALLING

Ruby placed each stick of asparagus on the grill" well its cooking " she said and chuckled as she turned each one untill it had char marks running around it , once done she placed it on a plate " okay all done " she said then looked at the cheese "oh that sounds nice" she said " we coud jut put it out and they can put it on themselves" she sugested having a feeling Jack would not like that. She smiled seeing Kate and Simone return and breathed out when they offered to lay the table.

"I wonder how long and how much stuff he'll have to bring in befoe , Tyler makes his move " she said to Michael glancing out the window. " I want thins over so we can move on and enjoy our baby coming along" she placed her hands over her tummy unknowingly protective.

"Ruby, you're wishing your life away," Michael told her with a bit of a smile. "I shouldn't offer advice, but stop thinking you need to wait until this happens or that happens to enjoy things in your life. With this family and the work that it does, there is always going to be a criminal somewhere, always a mission that needs doing, always some complication someplace that needs dealt with. Life in this family is never 100% trouble free. Take the joy in life where you find it, and stop trying to want things to be pushed along so fast. It sounds like Angus is doing all he can to try to deal with this as quickly as he can manage it and he's also trying as hard as he can not involve you in what's going on, simply so that you can be removed from the negative. If he didn't tell you anything at all, you'd wonder why he shut you out. If you want to enjoy this time period, then do it. Don't wait for the missions to be all overwith because I can tell you, that isn't going to ever happen." Michael took the asparagus to the sideboard and decided to forget about adding the parmesan cheese after all.

He fixed a tray to send over to Angus and Andrew, floated it over to them, and then he called everyone to lunch.

Ruby smiled at Micahel and nodded " no point in worrying." she said and moved to the dinning room taking some sour cream with ehr in a small bowl. Getting her plate she sat down and with out thinking dipped the asparagus in the sour cream and ate it then ate her chicken with out a second thought. 

"well thats a new craving" Jess said and looekd to Kate and Simone " have any of you two had a craving for sour cream and asparagus?" she asked glancing at Ruby who popped a second one in with the sour cream. Jack looked puzzled and shook his head " I think Angus is going to have fun getting her cooked aparagus and sour cream in the middle of the night." Ruby looked up and ate another.

"what, I like it this way." she said smiling then loked at Michael " besides the rest of the meal is wonderful, thank you Michael." she said with a grin as she ate a third.

"You're very welcome," Michael said, fixing another tray, including a thermos of fresh coffee with this tray and also a travel mug of ice water, along with a little plate of Lizzie's dessert bars from Sparks. He apparated out to deliver this tray himself and wasn't gone more than a few minutes. He had remembered that Marcus was stuck up in the treehouse and had not had anything to eat or drink since early this morning. He spent a couple minutes with Marcus and offered to take a turn in case Marcus needed a break to stretch his legs or something, but Marcus turned him down. Marcus was grateful that someone had remembered he was there, though.

Andrew had taken the lunch tray and had set it up for Angus. Andrew was concerned that Angus was overdoing it. He had spent all morning designing and refining his plan to catch Ruby's parents. He had been keeping notes timelines and maps about every development, every tip about either of her parents. He had asked Robert to have someone tracking down every single asset her parents had--every cent they owned, legally or otherwise. He had a running list of every known friend or associate, where they lived, what they did, and anything that could be a possible dark involvement. He was doing the same sorts of checking with her brothers. And he'd also asked Robert to send a letter to Jeffrey Burnstein to warn him of the possible backlash from Reginald and Suzanne as the noose hopefully got tighter around them. He didn't think Jessie needed to know, but Angus didn't want any of Jeffrey's patients or staff hurt in the process of this.

And then Owens, recovered from his many days in a jar, arrived during lunch and brought Angus a piece of news that he hadn't been prepared for. Ingrid had heard through her sources that Reginald had upped the stakes. He'd offered any hit man who could find a way to eliminate Angus a reward of over 100,000 galleons. That worked out to two and a half million dollars or 2,100,000 pounds. Angus's first question was where the hell was Tyler getting all that money? One thing was becoming crystal clear to him. Ruby didn't dare stay with him in the duplex until her father was captured and the contracts were called off. But he wasn't sure how to break that to her.

Ruby finished her dinner and tidyed up the kitchen ready to start supper for them all. She was glad Michael had remebered Marcus as she was going to send a tray out to him once they had eaten but now she could see his shape in the duplex talking with Angus threw the large window. Finishing teh cleaning she ehaded to the dinning room to give the table a wipe down. " Something told her this was going to be a rather dificult night, as if she just had a feeling it would be bad and she sighed finishing up the cleaning.

She returnd to the kitchen and turned on the radio to have some musica while she worked on some short bread bucuits as a snack should any one want some.

At Angus's request, Andrew had gone over and knocked on the door between the two houses and had asked Edward to come over. Edward had gladly come, and then Angus updated him on the new intelligence and Tyler's new contracts out on Angus's life. Edward could certainly understand Angus's concern for Ruby, but Edward was also highly concerned now for Angus too. Owens and Angus and Edward all discussed what the next move should be. Edward had thought perhaps Angus should go back to the main house, but that was about the last thing Angus wanted to do. He didn't want to put anyone in the main house in danger. By all they could tell, Tyler wasn't concerned with the main house because he knew Angus was in the duplex.

Angus also didn't want to alarm Ruby. He decided, for the moment, he wasn't going to tell her. She was at the main building as it was, so he decided that he would simply wait and talk to Robert before any other choices were made.

Angus was now starting to consider ways to force Tyler to come after him. It was clear that his idea for agitating Tyler had worked, but he needed Tyler to quit screwing around and take some action. Andrew decided that perhaps Lee needed to know. Edward and Owens said they would take care of Angus for the moment, and Andrew apparated over to the main house and saw Ruby in the kitchen making cookies.

"Hey, Ruby," Andrew said with a smile, not wanting to show her that anything might be wrong. "Edward and Angus are enjoying some after lunch coffee. Do you happen to know where Lee might be? I need to talk to him for a moment."

Ruby saw Andrew and smiled " hey Andrew Im guessing your over her so that means Edwards with Angus and well..no I haven't seen him in a while , maybe the gym or library, not many places he could be , or with Khaat in her room." she said finishing the buscuits and palcing tehm in teh oven to cook. "Everything okay over there?" she saked knowing they wouldn't tell her even if there wasn't. " um could you run it by Angus that maybe I could stay here tonight, I realy don't want to get in his way with my father and everything?" she said " I'll miss him, even with him just being over there but just so he can focus without worrying about us, you think that he might be okay with that, but if he wants me to sleep in the duplex Im okay with that too." She wiped down the surface again then looked to the stairs.

With a sigh she shook her ehd " truthfully I have no clue whrer that man gets to, hes like a ninja, comes when you call then poof, gone" she chuckled as she took out the dishes and set them to sorting them selves.

"I think that's a good idea," Andrew said. "I'm sure he'll miss you too, but he certainly doesn't want you to get hurt either, and he really is doing everything he can to try to force your father's hand. If I were a betting man, I would say that if your father can resist the pressure that Angus is putting on him, then he is a man with all the patience of a saint. And from what I've heard, your dad isn't that well behaved, no offense." He laughed when Ruby said Lee was like a ninja. "You do know that Lee and Robert got to be good friends when they worked an espionage mission together. And we found out that when you put two guys together who are good at sneaking, you aren't going to find them until they want to be found. I think I'll go check upstairs and see if he might be in his room."

Andrew found Lee in his room and updated him on the new intel. Lee sent a message to Robert at St. Mungo's, advising Robert of the new information. Robert decided to add some additional men outside at night, and he was hoping he could get Kate to release all her owls to patrol the grounds. They could communicate with Kate easily and Tyler would not be any the wiser because he doubted that Tyler spoke to birds of prey like Kate did. the owls would be excellent night time sentries and would keep them informed.

Lee came downstairs and snatched one of Ruby's hot and fresh shortbread biscuits and then sat down in the kitchen.

"Ruby, it appears that your father has tried to engage another assassin to try to help him get rid of Angus. And that tells me that perhaps Angus did a good job at wounding your father and he's laid up. it also tells me that our security has made it nigh onto impossible for your dad to get to Angus. So, actually, as strange as it seems, I see it as a good development and a sign of some huge progress. Robert has some ideas to add some additional security without tipping off your dad that its being done. Robert can be incredibly secretive when he wants to be. Andrew told me you're thinking of staying here tonight, and I think that's wise. i don't think there will be much sleeping going on at the duplex tonight anyway. Is there anything that you need from the duplex? Andrew will be happy to get it for you."

Ruby saw Marcus come down the stairs and tke one of her hot out the oven short breads " hey, those are hot" she called to him then listened to him talk " i agree and no I have things here , Oh my potion I need that , I have to take it at night" she said realizing she'd left it in the upper bathroom of their bedroom " could you fetch it, thats the only thing" she told him. She listened and chuckled "Good, and no he dosn't have any patiance, as soon as he can he'll be back especialy if his hit man fails..no when his hit man fails" she said. 

Ruby left the others on the wire rack to cool " you can have another buscuit if you want, and thank you for reasuring me that staying here tonight would help Angus be less fearful" she said smiling as she brought over two more on a side plate for him.

"You're very welcome," Lee replied. "I'll have Andrew get it and bring it over to you. Robert and I are pretty proud of Angus, you know. I know Robert normally designs the missions, but Angus simply laid out for us what he thought, and Robert and i thought his plan was a good one. So, this is all his direction at this point. We're just providing him what he can't provide for himself this time. I'm going to go over there in a bit, and I'll try to provide him some relief. I'll see if I can get him to let me run his little operation for a bit. He ate lunch, and now he's looking like he's just completely done in. Wait. That's not an expression here, is it? What is it you guys say? Knackered? Is that it? And in some places in the states, when you really are looking either like you're feeling sick or extra tired, people say that you look like the south end of a northbound cow. And that's about as bad as it gets." He cast her an amused grin. "Anyway, yeah. He's kind of looking like that, and I think he's trying to force himself to stay awake. I think I'll go see if he'll let me take over for him for a bit so he can catch a bit of a catnap."