LONDON CALLING

Jessie listened and looekd where Abby had pointed watching the lizard skurry under the fridge " I'll get it, if you don't mind?" he asked finshing his cookie and standing up. Walking over he picked up the fridge and set it down slightly off to one side before bending soen and picking up the frightened lizard " its okay little fella" he said holding it in his lightly half closed hand " its just a baby, I'll put him out side" he walked slowly over to Abby.

"Do you want to see him before I let him go?" he asked kneeling down to her level. " things you think are scarey, sometimes up close and in the daylight aren't" he said sowly opening his hand just enough so she could see the little lizard as it looked at her flicking its tounge at them.

Abbey was afraid at first until Jessie gave her a chance to meet the lizard.

"Go see it, Abs. Its more afraid of you than you are of it," Angus smiled. "It wont' hurt you. Jessie's got it."

"It gots teef?"

"No, I don't think so, not one that small," he said, "Pet it from behind, like I showed you, and it won't be able to bite you." Angus had taught her not to approach an animal from the front but to reach behind in order to pet it on the head so she wouldn't scare it.

She had to work herself up to be brave, but she did finally give it a couple of little pats on the head.

"No slimy?" She frowned and looked up at Jessie? "No wet?"

"Those little lizards live in the woods and sometimes in the bushes," Kate said.

"He no go in the house," Abbey scowled.

"Well, he shouldn't be in the house. I think Pip brought him in," Angus said. "He's trying to learn how to hunt, so sometimes he catches something and then accidently lets it go in my house."

"Naughty birdie," Abbey said.

"He'll learn," Angus laughed. "Gam is teaching him how to hunt and leave his catches outside, but it takes practice."

Jessie smiled as Abby pet the small lizard gently on its head "Okay time he went home" he said and stood up " do you want to come and pick a place we can let him go?" he asked Abby holding out his hand that didn't have the lizard in for her to take so they could go out side. " theres a nice bush behind here he can make his home in, I'll let him go there where he can't be picked up by praying birds or owls."

Kneeling by the bush he dug his hands inside it making sure Abby could see as he slowly opened his hand, the lizard looked at them both then with a bob of its head in aprichiation moved to a branch then further into the bush " he'll live there now." he told her before taking her hand in his and walking her back into the house to Kate and Angus.

She took Jessie's hand and went outside with him.

"And no come in the house no more," Abbey told the lizard as Jessie let him go. She went back inside with Jessie.

"Thanks, Jessie," Angus smiled.

"Abbey, we should go so we can help Uncle Michael cook supper," Kate said.

"Aggie?" Abbey asked. "You make me pink kitty pancakes for breffast?"

"You miss the pink ones, huh?" he asked. She nodded.

"I'll see what I can do," Angus smiled.

"In the morning?"

"Maybe. Will you be up early?"

"If I seep wich you," she said. He laughed out loud. She was working him for a sleepover, and he knew it.

"Maybe. We'll have to ask your mommy or daddy."

"Gam? Can I?" Abbey decided to ask Kate instead.

"You should let Angus talk to Ruby when she gets home," Kate said. "Come on. Let's go help Uncle Michael." She took Abbey by the hand and led her out, whether Abbey really wanted to go or not.

"Thanks for the cookies, you two," Angus called. Abbey waved to Angus as they left.

"She really is doing very well adjusting to the fact that Ruby and I don't live in the big house anymore," Angus told Jessie. "She sort of sees it as an opportunity for sleepovers to escape mom and dad for awhile. That's fine. She won't be doing all of that once she starts nursery school."

Jesie smiled at Abby " no he won't come in the house anymore" he told her as she left him and went to Kate and spoke of pink pancakes. He looked at Angus but as he explained he nodded " yeah she'll have new freinds and new expiriances and should be tired out most of the time. " he said then waved as Abby and Kate headed abck to the main house.

He heard Angus talk of Ruby " yeah I am glad she's got some one like you in her life, she needs some one strong, ruby I mean abbys a fighter already." he said with a smile as he saw Jack walk around the house and over to them.

"okay sorry to break it up but Jessie we need you" he said and shrugged to Angus. Jessie moved to put teh fride back in its place then headed to the door "Angus, don't give up on Ruby, she can be a pain at times, but your the only man she's ever wanted to be with from the get go." he told him as together they started the rounds. Jack telling him all about the rutine and how things hand changed, now they added protection charms each time they passed so the layers staid strong.

Soon Ruby ported back in to the main house her hair up in a bun and her face dirty with soot and dirt from helping fix the old house. " hey guys" she said smiling as she took out several drawings and placed them on the table.

"I'm not giving up, Jessie," Angus said to Jessie. "She hasn't given up on me with my limitations. I'm not giving up on her either." He watched Jessie leave when Jack called him back to work.

"Welcome back," Michael told her, stirring the now thick and rich beef vegetable soup. "But go wash off all that grime before you get near the food--either to cook it or to eat it. No offense, but you're filthy. Crawling around in the hinter regions of headquarters, were you?"

Michael liked thick, rich, hearty soups, instead of watery soups, and this one was certainly not a watery soup. He was working now on the sandwiches. He had made a homemade honey mustard, and also a fresh homemade ketchup for them, along with some caramelized onions for some additional layers of flavor. He grilled the smoked chicken sausages and toasted some fresh cheddar cheese bread for the sandwiches and started assembling them.

"We're here to help," Kate said.

"I help too, Unca Mikey," Abbey said, wanting to do something.

"Do you know where the napkins are in the dining room?" he asked her.

"In the drawer," she nodded.

"Can you get them out and put them on the sideboard, please? And some spoons?"

"I can do that!" she was excited. She dashed into the dining room and got out a big wad of napkins and set them up on the sideboard and then got out two big fistfuls of spoons and put them up on the sideboard where they usually laid for supper.

"How nice! Good girl!" Kate was pleased that Abbey had pitched in and helped. "Now, I know you can count to six..."

"I count to ten, Gam!" she frowned. She was smarter than counting to six, and she wanted to be sure Gam knew it.

"Well, here," Kate handed her a small basket. "Do you know where the pink daisies are?"

"Yah, I like em," she nodded. " 'Specially the pinky pink ones."

"Okay, take the basket and go pick six nice pink daisies for me, and we'll put them on the table."

"Six."

"Yes. You know how many that is?" Kate asked. Abbey showed her all the fingers on her left hand and then one more on her right. "Right! Good girl. Bring me that many." Abbey nodded and went outside with her basket.

"Are you sure you don't have to watch to make sure she doesn't bring back every Gerbera daisy you have?" Michael laughed.

"You know, I don't think so," Kate said thoughtfully. "I want to show her I trust her, and if she picks them all, God makes more where those came from. It's alright."

"you are a very wise woman, my dear," Michael smiled. Kate finished setting up the sideboard and then went to get pitchers of beverages for the table.

Ruby loked at Michael then down at her self " gods Im filthy" she said " yeah bust water pipe nobody could find, except me, behind a wall in a crawl space of all places" she said then nodded her head . Heading to the duplex she smiled seeing Angus " Hi, So how was your day?" she asked standing looking at him. "Umm.. several of the children did drawings before they left, so I was thinking I could make a collage of them and put on the wall at the paris base, which by the way had a minor pipe burst, behind another wall in a crawl space, on the plus side I made several freinds with the mice that live there." she chuckled as she stood facing him.

" I should go wash up, michael said I wasn't alowed near the food be it eat or prep it until I was clean" she said motioning to the stairs just to her left.

"I know exactly the spot you're talking about," Angus said. "I replaced some of that, and I meant to finish the job and replace all of that old pipe in that section of the house, but Brian moved me here before I got to it. And, frankly, until you mentioned it just now, it had totally slipped my mind. I did put in an enchanted access to that years ago. When I'm more mobile again, I'll go see if its still there. If it is, I'll show it to you so you don't have to slither around in that crawl space. That's a pain in the butt. Go shower, or he might not let you back in the house." He cast her an amused smile. "By the way, your collage idea is a really good one. I think you should put it right in the front foyer so that when new children arrive, they'll see happy drawings that other children have done. It will help them relax in a strange place. Actually, I'd like to do some redecorating in some places to be a bit more child friendly but we can talk about that later. And I'd have to have Robert's permission anyway."

Abbey came back to Kate with her little basket of flowers. Kate sat with her, and they counted the flowers. Abbey counted successfully--and she had eight flowers, not six. She had 4 light pink flowers and 4 dark pink ones.

"Abbey, how many flowers did I tell you to get?" Kate asked her gently.

"Six, but Gam, if I only gotted six, Aggie no have none. I pick six for us and two for Aggie's supper."

"Well, aren't you sweet?" Kate smiled. "What a lovely thought. Well done, then. Let's send him a light pink one and a dark pink one. It'll be nice on his supper tray." Abbey nodded, pleased that Kate approved.

"I don't know of another three year old on the planet that would have thought of that," Michael told Kate. "She's a good kid."

"I think it's because she's probably one of the only three year olds we know that is so constantly surrounded by such a huge family," Kate smiled. "Did Gabe take Mira to the station today?"

"He did," Michael said. "Took her this morning. He does look a little lost tonight."

"Maybe we could have a movie night. Or we could make some s'mores out at the firepit. We should enjoy the warm nights while we still have them," Kate said.

Ruby nodded "yeah I don't think it was exactly where ryou fixed byt not far from it, that would be wonderful and thats were I was thinking too." she said smiling " but yeah it does need and over haul , its not exactly kid freindly, we could do it together if Robert allows it." She looked down at her self as Angus spoke and nodded "yeah " she said and moved up the stairs to their room.

Now clean and changed she walked down the stairs a towel in her hand as she dried her hair. " phew never seen the water turn black before but it did for me" she told him walking to sit in a chair close to him. " so yeah they went back to check the were houses and found some documents, there sending them over to Roberts office for him to take alook at, I think there shipping requisitions for containers, I do hope there arn't children in those containers." she said softly

"Well, that wouldn't surprise me a bit," Angus told her. "Think about it. We took his money--any of it we could find in Paris and here. He still has some from other accounts in other countries that we couldn't touch. But--he needs to move 'inventory,' and he has to move a lot of it quickly and he has to cut costs. I think that's probably exactly what those containers are going to be used for.

"But--that might work to our advantage, if we're smart. Let's say, for example, he has eight containers. We have an alchemist on our staff now. What if he were to come up with some sort of small devices that were actually magical tracking devices for us--so that we can keep track of where those containers are. If we detect movement in a container, we can send a team in to go open the container and take anything of value we find inside. It would actually be easier to keep track of a smaller number of containers than a large list of kids we need to rescue. I think he thinks it will help him get past us, but if we're smart, I think it could help us catch him quicker. That's just my thought off the top of my head, though."