LONDON CALLING

Ruby laughed a little at his words and smiled " yeah the'd realy be ticked off " she said and tehn saw Kate walk up the stairs to them " awe hes so cute " she said slowly reatching out to brush down his feathers at the back of his head. " what do you think Angus?" she asked " you think he'd be a good fit for here?" she asked " would save one of us going back and forth" she looked at the little guy and smiled " well hello Pip, " she said offering her hand for him to step onto " you think he'll come to me or would he prefer Angus?" she asked.

Listening to Kate about the treats she nodded and knew just where to put them. " we have space in the pantry for the treats." she said " if angus agrees we can place his purch by the main window beside Angus's recliner.

Pip tilted his head to enjoy the petting that Ruby was giving him, liking every moment of it, and then he easily went over to her hand when she reached it out to him.

"He likes you already," Kate smiled.

"I think he's going to fit in just fine," Angus smiled. "I think we should maybe get a perch for Edward's too."

"Oh, he has a perch over there already. Edward said he was going to put it in the living rom for now but he's thinking of getting a second one fur upstairs in that that tower room he has that he uses as a bit of a lab and an astronomy tower."

"Yeah, I think he's spends a lot of his nighttime hours there," Angus said. "This owl is going to end up one spoiled little buggar. Between Ruby, and Simone, and Edward...."

"And not you. You don't believe in spoiling little animals, do you?" Kate teased.

"Certainly not," Angus replied. Kate laughed out loud.

"Liar Liar, pants on fire," Kate laughed.

"I don't mean to burst your bubbles, but are one of ou supposed to be helping with supper?"

"Oh, buggar. I'm in charge of supper. Michael got an invitation to dinner in Paris with Daphne, and I told him he should go," Kate sighed. "You two aren't free to help, by any chance, are you?" She looked at Ruby and Simone. "I don't have any idea what to fix that we haven't had recently. Anybody have any idaes?"

"What about spaghetti and meatballs, with a good caesar salad, and some garlic toast? And...well, I don't know. Dessert ideas are on you," Angus suggested. "I know a three year old that is a sucker for meatballs."

Ruby laughed and smiled at Kate as she spoke of Pip being spoiled by them all " oh I think he will" she said then heard Kate mention supper and smiled " I'll help you" she said " and yes I think were done in here for now, theres only one more addative but that won't be avalible for eight and a half months" she said chukaling turning the lights back on.

" oh nice idea we could get one for our room " she said petting Pip again " awe hes so cute" she said " Kate shall we head to the main house " she said placing pip on Angus's chair. " pip you watch Angus" she said softly and chuckled leaving him beside Angus as she headed with Kate to the main house " how about a Sweet ricotta tart?" she asked opening one of Angus's folders to show her.

"There's a second perch downstairs for you to put in your bedroom," Kate told Ruby. "I know there are going to be times when Angus is upstairs and he might like to have Pip with him, so I already brought you 2 perches. one for downstairs and one for upstairs."

When Ruby left Pip with Angus, the little owl hopped over to Angus's shoulder, and Angus started to get to know the bird. Kate and Simone went over to the main house with Ruby.

"Good idea, Ruby," Kate smiled. "I haven't had a ricotta tart in ages." Kate was going to start on the meatballs when she heard Robert talking to Khaat.

"I can tell you why that is very easily," Robert was saying. "Look, you're a good mom. You really are. But--there is one huge difference, and for her, it is incredibly important. He shows up. When Abbey needs something, Angus shows up. He knows that girl forwards and backwards and inside out. Ruby's there. Jess is there. Kate and I are there. And as much as we all love her, it's you she wants--you and Brian, but you're both so bloody busy, and who's been there? Angus has. Of course she relies on him, and of course she's upset when she hears you talking about more children, because she thinks you believe she's not good enough. Try cutting back on all the overtime and spend some time with her, for heaven's sake. Spend some time with her and let her know that if and when you decide to have another child, it isn't because you're replacing her. Punishing her for running away isn't going to help. If you don't spend some time with her, she's going to keep running away to try to find where she feels like she belongs." Kate heard a door slam, and she took it that the discussion was now over.

A moment later, Robert went through the kitchen and down to the cellar. Kate knew where he was going. He was going to have one glass of firewhiskey and a few minutes in the quiet to unwind. Simone didn't say anything, not feeling like it was her place to make a comment.

"Shall I work on the salad, perhaps?" Simone asked.

"Good idea," Kate said. "I'll get started on the meatballs. They can be a little tedious, but Angus is right. Everybody does seem to like his meatballs--especially Abbey.'

Ruby smiled and nodded as Kate said ther ewas a second perch already down stairs ready to be brought up to teh ebd room " oh wonderful, thank you Kate2 she had said before they moved to the main house. On hearing Robert and Khaat Ruby sighed " I'll fix the tart" she sid and gathered what she needed the ricotta, caster sugar, double cream, finely grated zest of a lemon1 tbsp marsala, a vanilla pod split and seeds scraped,2 medium free-range eggs, plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten, dark chocolate, finely chopped, finely chopped Italian candied fruit and three table spoons of pine nuts. 

Ruby listened to Kate and nodded  as she started the sweet pastry for the base. Once baked blind she added the mix into it and continued cooking it once it was done she sprinkled pine nuts on top and set it asside to cool while she made some home made vinilla ice cream to go with it. " you think everything will be fine?" she asked Kate " I was wondering if I should go and check on Abby." she asked

"I was just wondering the same thing," Kate said. "I don't know where Khaat went, but Abbey wouldn't be sleeping this close to supper time. Do you mind checking on her? I'm sure she's fine, but it wouldn't hurt to check." Kate had made the meatballs and they were cooking in the oven, and she had assembled the meat sauce. It was time for her to put the meatballs into the sauce so they had a chance to simmer together. And then she would need to put the spaghetti into the water to boil.

"I'll go set up the dining room and set out some beverages," Simone said.

As it was, Abbey was having a very rare temper tantrum. She had trashed her dollhouse, broken it to bits. She had torn up one of her coloring books into little pieces of paper, and she had ripped all her clothes out of her dresser drawers and had thrown them in all directions. She had thrown her storybooks and her toys all over, and she had broken her magic crayons. She had made a royal mess out of her room.

Ruby nodded and hedd up to the play room. Opening the door she saw the mess in front of her as she looked around the room. " oh no Abby" she said softly picking up some of the toys that had been thrown around clearing a place for her to sit " you want to talk to me?" she asked keeping her voice soft and low as she sat down waiting for Abby to come to her, hoping she would at least sit with her even if she didn't talk to her. " you know your mommy and daddy love you very much, they might not show it all the time but they do, you know Abby, my mommy and daddy were bad mommy and daddy very bad, its how I met your uncle Angus, your mommy and daddy got you all these toys and books to play with some boys and girls don't thats what your mommy and daddy do, they help other boys and girls have happy mommy and daddys but they won't ever not love you, Angus and I love you, Jack and Jess love you too and aaaall the men who walk the grounds love you." she exstended her arms out wide as she spoke. " but your mommy and daddy love you so much they just want you to be safe, becuse your becoming a big girl an big girls mean less for them to do, becuse you can do it your self like you got dressed this morning."

She paused and looked at Abby " you couldn't do that before, so your grown, a little, but grown never the less." She waited for Abby to move to sit on her lap and she wrapped her arms around her " it's like sharing a book, you return the book...no wrong words, um oh its like sharing sweets , you give them out but don't expect any back.. Im sory Abby Im not realy good at this"she said and chuckled " all I know is they love you very much and would be heart broken if anything happened to you, but if you ever need pancakes and Im in the kitchen you can ask me to make some for you, okay" she looked at the room and cast a Reparo spell and saw the broken toys means them selves " or if you just want some one to play with, come find me , I like being with you and as I get bigger , yeah the baby will grow playing with you will be best ever." she told her hoping she'd not made herself lok foolish infront of a three year old.

"Mama tooked my dolly soocase. She telled me i no go see Aggie no more. Telled me I bad. I gots to stay in here. She mad I runned away," she told Ruby. "I no stay here no more. I no stay. Not, not, not! I no like her no more, never. I go away. She taked my soocase--fine! I no need soocase. I go nakey. I no care."

She listened when Ruby told her that Khaat and Brian loved her. "I no need Mama. No need Daddy. I big now. I go away." Abbey heard apparating sounds. "Daddy home. I no like him neither." She didn't care that Brian had just gotten home and likely didn't know anything about what was going on. She was just done with him too.

She curled up on Ruby's lap, not wanting to be here. She wanted to be with Angus and Ruby instead.

Ruby sighed and held Abby close "Angus isn't well right now and .." she paused " my mommy and daddy were causing truble that your mommy and daddy had to fix." she told her still with a low calm voice "They didn't mean to be angry with you, its how we grown ups some times deal with bad things." she said now rocking her gently and humming " they still love you, even when your angry at them, they love you" she smiled looking down at Abby and then to the now fixed room. 

" if this is what being a mommy feels like" she smile down at Abby "then Im ready to be a mommy too but will you be angry with me when Im a mommy and Angus a daddy?" she said softly " becuse our baby will need a grown up big girl to show him or her what they can or can't do, hum a teacher, could you do that?" she asked " you think your grown enough to teach the baby, but you'd have to be here to do that?" she said hoping the thought of being able to teach the baby what she knows would help " oh and not naked ether, muct have clothing" she chuckled.

Abbey didn't say much. She just listened.

"Aggie say i have a siser," she remembered Angus telling her about the baby, "but Aggie wuv me." It was in how Angus had told her that had made the difference. It was in the fact that she knew Angus and Ruby were there for her. That made it acceptable that there would be another baby. She wasn't going to look at the possibility it might be a boy. She could deal with a girl, though.

"I be naky. Papa say babies come naky. We be the same," she nodded.