LONDON CALLING

Jessie and Ruby smiled to the funeral director as he consoled them and shook Jessies hand. Both waited for Angus to go firt but then hearing Marcus then started to walk forward , Ruby faultered but then with Jessis hand on her shoulder walked forward into the second room , there she saw him and felt nothing no anger no fear nothing. "They've done a good job" she said to Angus and I like the flowers. It was now she saw a figure in the courner of the room but said nothing only touching Angus's shoulder to let him know.

"Heavenly Father bless our father and have mercy on his eternal soul; forgive his trespasses; grant him peace for he was a faithful man who loved his fellow man; bless his departed soul and welcome him into the joy of everlasting brightness in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen" Jessie said softly as he looked down on Reginald's body. Ruby said nothing, she had nothing to say to him that she'd not already said.

"touching" came a womans voice from the sourner " but unnesscsery, he was a bastard and we all knew it" she said stepping into the light a little.

"What's the point in hiding, Suzanne?" Angus asked. "What are you afraid of? Afraid to face him alone? Or are you more afraid of me?" He glanced at Marcus and Andrew, and they had their wands already drawn. "Actually, I don't believe you are alone, are you? Where is your new little spineless wonder?"

"I'm right here," A mans voice spoke from the shadows behind Suzanne. And at that very moment, Sam and Victor walked in, with their heads of house behind them. He saw Marcus cast a sharp look at both Ruby and Jessie to not move, to stay very still.

"Stay behind me, Lads," Angus told them quietly. Their heads of house walked in front of the boys and drew their wands, keeping the boys firmly behind them. "Long time no see, Tom."

"Well, would you look at you?" Tom gloated. "You used to be pretty decent at what you did. And now look at you. You're a pitiful, shriveled up little vegetable of a man, hiding behind a woman and your nursemaids."

"Yep," Angus said, deliberately bluffing. "That's exactly what I am. If you want to have a discussion, then let's let them visit with the deceased, and you and I can take it outside."

"You and me and the nurses? One against three? I think not."

"If I'm just a vegetable, then it would be you and one of my nursemaids, right? And you're still afraid. Did you come here for Suzanne, or did you come here to face off with me?"

"Why did you come at all?"

"Because he killed him," Suzanne said coldly.

"You've got a lot of nerve, you do. Kill him and then show up at his funeral?"

"I've got all kinds of nerve," Angus laughed.

"Come with me, Babies," Suzanne made a move towards Sam and Victor. "Let's get out of here. I'll take you home." Before she could move half a step, Angus had his pistol trained on her, with the safety off.

"They're not yours, Suzanne," Angus said fiercely. "They're mine. One more step towards them, and we'll bury you too. Care to try me?" He knew they were Ruby's too, but he didn't want Ruby entering this fight. She hadn't faced Gelding. She didn't realize the danger they were in, in that moment. He wanted her to just stand down and let him handle it.

Jessie saw his mother and then Gelding he moved Ruby behind him . Hie head turned when he saw his brothers enter the room but he kept his cool. When she spoke to Angus and spoke of him having the nerve to show up to the funeral Buth Ruby and Jessie spoke "We asked him to" they said together.

"He paid and organised all this, without us knowing."Ruby told her and moved to stand tall next to Angus she looked at the house heads as Angus told her they were not hers. " Hes been doing the things you and  he should have done in the begining but failed at, and as for sam and Victor I asked him, we're their gardians so you have no say." Ruby moved to stand with Marcus knowing Angus would want her to not fight. Jess on the other hand was stood ready to fight but he knew this wasn't the time nor the place.

"Stop it !" he called out loudly " this is not the time for fighting, we're here to lay this man to rest, he was a bastard and an aragont biggot but he was still our father and your husband, Gelding for one hour just shut the hell up and stay out of this." Jessie looked to Marcus " one twitch from them, you know what to do" he said

"Ruby," Angus said quietly, his eyes trained on Gelding, "stand down. Unfortunately, this isn't about your father right now." He knew they were trying to show their strength but Jessie's shouting wasn't going to do anything but amp Tom Gelding up. The funeral director went to leave to call the aurors but Gelding fired wandless magic, and the funeral director fell to the floor, badly wounded.

At the same moment that Gelding fired at the funeral director, Angus fired his pistol at Gelding, and Andrew pointed his wand straight at Suzanne's heart. She froze in her tracks. Sam's head of house knelt by the funeral director.

"He needs a healer right now, or he's going to die," the head of house said quietly.

"You sonofab****! You shot me! Who brings a muggle gun, you bastard!" Gelding shieked at Angus, outraged.

"Maybe I should put you out of your misery," Angus said coldly, unmoved. Suzanne helped Gelding up to his feet.

"I will kill you, Donohue," Gelding hissed, raging angry.

"Not today, you won't," Angus said. "Suzanne, if you want your boy toy to live, you'd better get him out of here because if you don't, he will bleed out." Angus knew better. It was a flesh wound, but Suzanne and Tom clearly didn't understand muggle weapons, and they were terrified. Angus was going to use that. Suzanne gave a whistle and more thugs started to arrive. Marcus reached up and touched his medallion, summoning the alarm Brian's, letting them know at Brian's that they needed to come immediately.

Ruby heard Marcus and nodded calming herself she reatched out to Jessie " Jessie she's not listening, leave her" she said and Jessie nodded moving to Angus's side as he saw seevral goons appear beside her." oh great" Ruby said as she saw several of their men arrive but stayed with Angus her eyes fixed on her mother and Gelding. Jess arrived and went straight to the house head who was with the funeral director, kneeling down she started healing him.

"he'll live " she said to Angus and turned to face Suzzane as she saw Gelding. " you do know any longer and he dies, hes losing blood" she told her. Several men circled them but didn't fire only kept there wands trained on them. 

"Angus shouldn't Sam and Victor get back to the school or to our place so they will be safe." she said softly to him glancing at the boys frightened faces. " their scared" she added.

Angus heard more apparating sounds. It was Edward, Brian, Kate, Gabe, Michael and Robert all apparating in, and every one of them had their wands at the ready. Robert moved in front of Jess and the funeral director to shield them.

"Jess," Marcus said quietly, "take your patient to St. Mungo's. Robert's got you covered."

"Those are my boys! Mine! Not yours," Suzanne blasted Ruby fiercely, her rage spilling over. "You're not their mother! My boys aren't going anywhere with you. Boys--get over here right now." Their heads of house motioned to the boys not to move. Edward and Michael took a stand on either side of the boys, and Brian and Gabe stood behind them. It was going to be mighty hard for anyone to touch the boys right now.

Angus understood the boy were probably rattled but their mother wasn't going to let them go easily. Ruby wasn't being helpful by suggesting they simply make off with the boys. If they tried it, Suzanne and Gelding or Gelding's goons were definitely going to start firing. Angus held one hand up to Ruby to ask her to simply hold that thought. It just wasn't possible to get them out. And besides that, the boys weren't small boys anyway. These were boys that were almost men. They had been hearing for the last six or seven years at Hogwarts that the magical world was a dangerous place. Well, it was. And this was just a tiny taste of it. She needed to stop mothering them for just a moment before her eagerness to hover over them got somebody killed.

"Suzanne, Reginald made your life pretty miserable, didn't he?" Angus said.

"Miserable! You have no idea!" She began to vent out how miserable her life actually had been, how violent Reginald had been, and how she had gone to work for Gelding because it let her escape Reginald more nights than not. She wanted her sons back, and Angus couldn't blame her, but she had taken up with the wrong man. Angus couldn't let the boys go with her. Then she looked at Angus.

"Why? Why did you do all this? Why did you spend money on..." she truly wanted to know.

"For your children," Angus told her quietly. "They deserve to have some closure and some peace."

"And me?"

"If it brings you any peace, then yes," he told her. There was dead silence in the room as she stood, trying to figure him out.

"What kind of a man are you?" she asked quietly.

"I'll let you decide that for yourself," he told her, "but your boys--can't let them go with you. And you know that. Leave quietly and take Tom with you before he bleeds out. You really should go soon."

Ruby staid quiet as she herd Robert talk to Jess who looked at the funeral director " stay still let me to the work" she heard her say before Jess aperated them away to st Mungos. She stood and listened to her mother, anger seethed inside her but she held it back feeling a hand take hers she looked to see Jessie stood with her.

" we don't want to go with you, you sent us away with nothing." Victor spoke up " just take your new fling and go" Sam nodded next to him. Ruby saw her take hold of Gelding and aperate off to who knows where. as each good left she felt more and more at ease. Victor wolke over to Angus and looekd down at him " thank you for all this, but I think Sam and I will head back to Hogwarts." he said looking over at Sam he then walked over to Ruby and Jessie where he hugged them both " we'll come for the holidays and Ruby don't muck it up with this one, we like him too much." he said and I want to learn to shoot a muggle gun just like he did" Sam said as both Jessie and Ruby chuckled.

"I wont" she said and looked over at Angus " he realy is a good one." she smiled at him " as for the gun training you'd have to talk to Angus about that". Both house heads ported them away leaving Jessie and Ruby stood in the darkend room.

Angus didn't say anything for a moment. He had hoped the boys would take a moment to see their father and to say their goodbyes, but they didn't even bother to do that. His efforts to provide that for them had been entirely wasted. What was the phrase? A good deed never goes unpunished? Yeah, that sized up about how he felt.

It was Edward that came up to Angus and rested his hand on Angus's shoulder. Angus reached up and laid his hand on Edward's. He understood the message. He and Edward would talk later. This wasn't the time or the place.

"Could you move me out of the way now, please?" Angus asked Edward quietly. He wanted to add on to his sentence that he wasn't a Tyler and he didn't understand their family at all. But he didn't. He kept his mouth shut.

"Marcus," Edward said, "I think he needs a breath of air. I'm going to take him outside so Ruby and Jessie can visit with Reginald. There are plenty of others here to make sure they're safe."

"I'll come with you," Marcus said. Edward and Andrew and Marcus took Angus outside to give Ruby and Jessie a moment. Inside, Robert and the rest stationed themselves around the room to make sure they weren't invaded again.

"I wish I smoked," Angus sighed.

"I'll pour you a firewhiskey back home," Edward said. "You've earned it. You cant take it personally. I think you got to her, and she left peacefully. I don't think she hates you. Much as Gelding might, she doesn't. That's something, anyway."

"Did you understand my grandmother's family?"

"Sometimes," Edward laughed.

"Does it get easier?"

"For muggles, probably, if there's distance involved. For us, not so much. The rest of the family is only a spell away."

"That wasn't what I wanted to hear," Angus managed an amused smile. Marcus got out a cigarette and lit it and handed it to Angus.

"Take a puff quick before Ruby comes out," Marcus said. Angus tried it, looked at the cigarette, shrugged and handed it back to Marcus.

"Doesn't taste like anything," he said. Edward and Marcus both laughed.

"Well, I guess you won't take up that vice, then," Edward laughed, amused.

Ruby and Jessie looked over Reginald again and Ruby just said on word " Good bye" she said and turned to walk out the main doors Jessie hung back a moment longer She saw Angus and sighed " the boys did apriciate it , they just don't understand it all yet, but I do and thank you for today, it ment a lot" she said lightly placing her hand on his shoulder. Jessie walked out a moment later with several of the aurors following as he tried to secretly wipe some tears from his eyes.

"sorry, he was my father, for good or bad." he said as Ruby walked over to hug him. " Im not sure what were to do now or do we leave it up to the funeral home for the arrangemnts?" he asked calming himself as he stood. Ruby let go of Jessie and moved to Angus leaning over she gave him a hug.

"Jessie is right , for good or bad he was or father and well she was our mother" Ruby sighed wiping tears that she'd held onto that now trickled down her face as she looked at him.

"Yeah, I know," Angus said to Ruby.

"There's nothing more for you to do here," Edward said to Jessie. "It's all taken care of. You're free to head home. Ruby, please take Jessie back to Brian's. You two need some one on one time. We'll make sure the building is secure before we leave. There's no need for you to stay to do that. We won't be more than a few minutes behind you."

Angus already knew the team that was left inside was checking through the building to be sure there weren't any other employees or any of Tom's thugs left behind. Someone would cast a spell to clean up the blood left on the floor in the chapel. Someone else would lock the doors and cast a protective charm so that anyone who didn't belong here couldn't get in.

Angus was tired, and he was, for some reason, getting a headache. He didn't know why, but he really wanted to go home.

"Angus," Marcus said, "lets let them handle the clean up and the lock up. You're getting tired. Let me take you home. You've done all you can do here."

"That's fine," Angus said. Andrew and Marcus and Edward took Angus home. Angus went outside on the large back deck that they shared with Edward and Simone, and Edward brought out a bottle of firewhiskey and a stack of glasses. He poured a glass for anyone who wanted one, and he sat down with Angus. Angus took a sip of his drink and leaned back, just stargazing in the silence, exhaling slowly, trying to unwind. Edward smiled. Stargazing was still one of Angus's ways to let go of the troubles of the day. Angus had done it as a boy, and he did it still.