LONDON CALLING

Ruby finished making brekfast when the strawberrys arrived and she smiled waving to Andrew in thanks. Taking them she washed them clean and placed some in the pantry for later. Now clean she placed tehm in a bowl to be sent to teh table with teh yogurt and granola ready for when the others appeared for something to eat. She glanced up and saw teh place where Andrew had been stood was empty and put it down to him having something to do.


"Morning Michael" she said taking the last jug of fresh fruit juice to the table. " breakfasts all done and set out, help your self, um have you seen Robert yet?" she asked hoping to catch him before he left for St Mungos

"Thanks for getting breakfast, Ruby. Since you've done breakfast, how about I do supper tonight? We can fix lunch together. Yes, I did see Robert very briefly," Michael said. "He left here at 3 am because he got a call from HQ in Paris. One of the kids we took in the other night got pretty sick, so Robert went to see him. I expect Robert back any time now, actually. He was going to have to shower and change before he went in to London, so he'll come back here first." He poured himself a mug of coffee.

"Come grab a bite with me while it's quiet. I'm hoping to pop over to my house and get the dogs. I meant to do that a few days ago, and I got waylaid. So I really do need to get them today. They've got to be low on socks by now. You could come along if you like, unless you have something better to do. So how are things at your house this morning?"

Ruby thought for amoment she'd missed him but when Michael said he was popping abck she was glad " oh I'd love to coem with you, and there great, I think, Angus and I are talking so thats a plus , oh and he burned a hole in the floor yesterday, Roert repaired it. " she said chukaling " yeah his magic is coming back be it every so slowly, better slowly that not at all right." she said as she busied her self with tidying up the kitchen.

She heard him mention he'd do supper and she smiled " thank you" she said " I'm starting to know how Angus feels, being tired even after a good sleep, but I know its all normal." she told him with a chuckle. " I wish Robert was here, I got an aopintment threw for St Mungos but it dosn't feel or sound right, I was going to ask Robert or Jess if they could check it out." she said taking the letter from her pocket to show him.

Michael laughed at Angus blowing a hole in the floor, but he was also encouraged to hear Angus's magic was coming back.

"Well, since I'm not a healer, I really have no clue, but for someone to have an entire bodily system wiped out and then to have regenerate it from scratch, for him to be doing this well this soon sounds very encouraging. And it sounds to me like, with a few exceptions, he has tried to keep his spirits up." He fixed his breakfast plate while Ruby talked about her appointment for an ultrasound.

"Well, that makes no sense at all," Michael frowned. "Isn't that all muggle stuff? We have muggle stuff in St. Mungo's now? Why? And i wanna know who authorized that. I can tell you right now, Khaat would never purchase muggle equipment, and Robert? No only would he never ever order muggle equipment, but if he sees it in that hospital, he's going to chew somebody up. Whoever ordered that is not going to be employed anymore, I can promise you. He's going to see it as a massive waste of money--like spending big money to buy a train wreck. That equipment costs thousands of galleons, and someone ahs spent hospital funds on something that provides inferior quality healthcare to wizards. Yeah, you definitely need to talk to him about that and show him that letter. As I said, I expect him any time now, but I think you should enjoy some breakfast while you wait."

Ruby smiled and noddded " ah so its like his body is a learner again at the moment" she said hoping she understood more about what Angus was going threw. Looking at Michael she noded and picked up some youngert and palced it in a bowl adding fruits and some granola she moved to the table and sat down to wait for Robert to arrive. Jess and Jack walked down the stairs to breakfast.

"morning Michael" Jess said as she walked over nd took some toast , bacon eggs and sausage with beans. Jack took a bit of everything and sat down. Ruby ate her yogert and then moved to the counter. "

"Angus asked me to put an order in for him Three 20 pound buckets of fondant--white, ivory, and chocolate. 5 pound buckets of each of the colored fondants they have too. 15 different colors in stock,a bag of cake flour, 50 lb. bag, orange flower water, elderflower water. and he needs it here today." she said moving to his office to place the order.

"Yeah, that's it," Michael said. "It would be as if you lost your leg and they regenerated it. That is a completely new leg, and it doesn't have the training and the muscle tone or muscle memory that the old leg did. You have to let the new leg grow into its proper place and then you have to give it all the training that you gave your legs as a child when you learned to move and crawl and walk. He's got to do that, not just with one body part but an entire bodily system, and then he has to train that system to respond in the way that he wants it to when he casts a spell. Or that's as best I can explain it, as close to how Robert has explained those things to me. I'm sure he's more eloquent about it, but, that's the gist of it anyway."

"Ah,' Michael said, understanding. "Wedding cake experimentation. I get it. A chef can go through a lot of fondant trying to get that just right, and fondant can sometimes be touchy to work with, which is why he's ordering so much. My guess is that if he were on his feet, he'd be making his own fondant, but he has to take the help where he can get it right now. I'll go over in a bit and see if I can give him a hand with either the baking or the decorating."

Robert apparated back in, and in wet clothes. Michael looked at him and frowned.

"Don't ask," Robert sighed, disgusted. "At least the clothes are clean now, but I'm going to go shower before I feel like I have to go rinse myself off with the garden hose. Give me 2 minutes, and I'll be straight back down. I need coffee and food, but shower definitely first." He went upstairs.

"I know what that means. That means some kid threw up on him. He really hates when that happens," Michael said. Michael finished his breakfast and took his plate to the sink. He poured Robert a mug of coffee and fixed him a plate. By the time he had done that, Robert was on his way back down, in clothes that were clean and dry.

"Ruby wants to talk to you for just a moment," Michael told him, handing him the coffee and the plate.

"Okay. Where is she?"

"Angus's office making an order for baking supplies for Angus for Edward's wedding cake."

"Oh. Okay." Robert went into the office, sat down on the sofa, put his coffee on the end table and tucked into his breakfast. "So, what's up?" He asked Ruby.

Ruby heard Michael and now understood Angus's situation more. Now sat in the office she filled out the requisition and heard Micahel talking to some one when the door opened and Robert walked in. Standing she took out the letter still in its envalope " I got this several days ago , its asking me to come in for an ultrasound, but it talks in muggle terms, Edward and I seem to think its not right, maybe my mothers doing so, could you or Jess look into it, please " she asked showing him the letter now open. 

"Im not due one for at lest a few more weeks yet, you booked that date for me" she said motioning to the calander on the wall beside her, " so why send me this one, nothings wrong and if there was you or Jess would know."

"We'd better not have muggle equipment at the hospital. Disregard this," Robert told her. "I doubt that your mother is behind it. She wrote Angus yesterday, and from what I understand, it sounded like she was maybe trying to mend some fences so she could see Sam and Victor. Maybe in all the confusion, Angus forgot to mention it to you. It almost sounds like, in his own way, Angus impressed her at the funeral home.

"I'm thinking its either somebody that is purely inept or its some sort of a mistake in some equipment order. I don't know. I'll get to the root of it when I get to St. Mungo's. But we have absolutely no need for crappy equipment. Just disregard that appointment altogether. Most of your check ups are much less invasive than muggle means, and we can do them from here. With wizarding medicine, I am both the doctor and the equipment, basically. Wizards actually do more home births than muggles do, but there are still at least half of all parents that choose to come to St Mungos more or less as a protection that if something goes off the rails, they are already in a facility that has any equipment or medical staff they might need. And its generally better for a healer to not be spread so thin as to return to the age old practice of making housecalls. It's reassuring for the parents, and it helps me to see more patients in the same time span and keeps from draining my energies from being spread too thin. You are at a distinct advantage by living here because it pretty much puts us under the same roof."

Ruby smile and nodded " as we thought, but my mother is one to compliment you with one hand and hide the dagger in her other that would stab you in the back" she said with a sigh. But then she smiled to Robert "Thank you for looking into this, I'll lave it with you." she said " but I realy have to get this order out or we'll not have it today as Angus requested, its for suplies for sample cakes for Simone and Edwards wedding." she said with a smile, " I would help but...well im not that skilled, thank you Robert. " she chuckled picking up the order form to send to the suplier.

Moving to the floo she sent the order out then moved to the kitchen "need help Michael" she asked softly. It was now se remebered the tray for Angus and sent it over with coffee and extras on. Now she started making sweet pastry for the tart she was making.

"I thought I'd get lunch under way," Michael said. "I thought I would keep it light. I thought I would make the original Coronation chicken, and I thought I would serve it in pastry puff cups to be a bit different. Angus has some pastry puff cups in the freezer, and it would be a great use for them. And I thought I would serve it alongside a baby spinach salad with some hardboiled egg, crumbled bacon, some small swiss cheese cubes, some croutons and a hot bacon dressing. I could add maybe some little mandarin orange sections too, I suppose."

"Alright, All, I'm going into unscramble this," Robert said.

"We're doing a cold lunch," Michael said. "I'll try to some someone with a lunch for you when it's ready."

"That would be wonderful. I have a feeling I'm going to be trapped at my desk," Robert said. "If you see Jess, ask her to drop around to my office and see me, would you? See you lot later." He drew his wand and apparated out.

"Well, for a man who is very likely going to chew a new orifice in someone, he's pretty calm at the moment. Ruby, let's make a plan to go get the dogs this afternoon..."

As he was speaking, he saw a box of some sort float in the kitchen door.

"Hm," Michael said. "Wonder what that is." Michael took the box out of the air and opened it. "How nice! Angus and Andrew went to Honeydukes the other day, and they sent be a nice, hefty box of Honeyduke fudge. There's plenty to share. I bet there's five pounds of their dark chocolate fudge here. Help yourself--if you like fudge, that is. Andrew says he's sending a second box in a bit, with a selection of miscellaneous candies from Jonathan for us to try. We're all going to gain a pound or two, I can tell."