LONDON CALLING

Rowan nodded and motioend to two men to make sure nothing ws sisterbed in the kitchen. " I'll take you home" Jess said " Rowan make sure nobody enters the kitchen but the cleaning crew or Roberts office, take these and get them restored" she said handing them to him " no one and I mean no one sees them untill Robert has, got that" he looked at her and nodded.

"yes Ma'am" he said placing them in his inside pocket and heading out with several men with him calling out orders to them.

"he knows the score he'll do his duty" she said and ported them both back to the main house. "okay I need to change too I smell like a cheap smoke house." she moved from him to her own room and changed out of her clothes to a second  fresh set of clothes before heading back to St Mungos to check the clean up.

Robert went upstairs and showered and changed, still having a bit of a cough, but he was definitely better because of Jess's spell. As he came downstairs, he ran into Michael who was finishing lunch preparations on is Coronation Chicken in pastry puffs, and he had the
hot bacon dressing ready for the baby spinach salad that Ruby was working on.

"Wait a second. You left here in a black suit. Now you have a tan suit," Michael frowned at Robert.

"Yeah. My third change of clothes today. The kitchen at St. Mungo's caught fire, so I ended up covered in smoke and soot," Robert replied.

"So that's the cause of that croupy cough you have," Michael said. "Smoke inhalation."

"Yeah, but it'll be gone shortly. Jess cast a spell on it, and its definitely better," Robert said.

"Well, can you stay for lunch, then? It's almost ready now. Just as soon as Ruby finishes with the salad, we'll be ready."

"I can do that. I think Jess was going back. We'll have to do a complete tear down and industrial clean of that kitchen, and we'll have to replace that one oven. Then we're going to have to pitch some of the food because it will taste like smoke if we don't. The kitchen staff that weren't injured were making an improvised kitchen up on the roof to start over again and fix lunch for all the patients and the employees. By the looks of the damage, they may be still up there for fixing supper. I think it's going to take some contractors to fix floors and walls and electrical, and probably a professional crew to clean the vent systems. And then as many hospital staff as we can muster will have to clean prep tables and shelves and fryers, stove hoods, and all the rest of it. It's going to be a massive undertaking in a kitchen that large. And, then, before we can start cooking in it again, the Ministry will have to come and do another safety inspection, because if we don't, they could shut the whole hospital down. I think Jess is supervising the clean up, but I'll have to go back straight after lunch because as efficient as she is, she's not going to know yet all the commercial culinary regulations that the hospital is under.

"Angus does. Hire him on as a consultant and take him with you. He could help Jess supervise to make sure its compliant before any of the health inspectors come in. That way, you'll get it right the first time."

"I may have to do that. Our head chef was affected pretty badly by smoke inhalation too. I sent him to the emergency unit for treatment with some of the other staff."

"Do you have a cause for it yet?"

"Well, someone tried to destroy a file of paperwork by putting it in the bottom of the oven," Robert said. "I have a man working on trying to restore that file now so that I can see what was in it. That bacon dressing smells phenomenal. I must be starving."

Ruby finished the salad just as Jess walked down now wearing a blak business dress with black heeled shoes her hair still slightly damp now puleld up into a bun. In her hand she held a compact that she was talking into. " no, just clean up for now, replace what you can and I'll speak to Robert about any special requests he might need" she said then smiled seeing tehm both " talk of the devil, thats Rowan he has what you requested and the clean up of the kitchen is going wonderfully, will need new paint and equipment at your request." she said " oh that other thing is ready Rowans holding onto it foe you but he says your going to find it very intresting." she said as she said bye to Rowan and closed the compact.

Ruby finished the salad and placed it on the table as Jack walked in and whistled " thats one hot mama" he said as Jess rolled her eyes at him. Ruby finished her tart at the same time and left it in the fridge for desert if they wanted it.

"okay. Thanks, Jess," Robert said. "I'll see to it as soon as I get back. We have some very specific health department regulations we have to adhere to, and it all has to be finished, with the replaced provisions in place and put away, with a full ventilation system clean up and a few hundred other things. Then we have to have the ministry health department inspect it before we can prepare the first thing in it again. I won't be surprised if we have to cook food on the roof at least until tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes. If we have to, we'll hire a professional service to help knock it all out sooner."

Michael fixed a tray for Andrew and Angus and put servings of the coronation chicken entree on it, along with two spinach salads, and a pitcher of Michael's own version of a raspberry iced tea to go along with the lunch. He put a large pitcher of the raspberry tea on the sideboard. It was a good quality tea that he had added a fresh seedless puree of raspberry to and just a tad of sugar. Then he sent the tray over to Andrew and Angus.

"Come and eat while the bacon dressing is hot," Michael told them. He called the others to the table. Abbey dashed in from the barn, and was delighted to see her papa home for lunch.

"Papa!" she ran to him and flung herself at him, and Robert scooped her up and held her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I finded mousies, Papa! Baby mousies!"

"You did? Did you leave them in the nest?"

"Nah. The mama was deaded. I bringed them home."

"The mama was dead? Where did you put them?"

"They in the barn. Jessie and I feeded them. They need bubba baff. Messy."

"I'm sure they'll be just delighted with that," Robert laughed sarcastically.

"They were baby dormice," Michael told him as they went into the dining room. "Sit. I'll get your plate." Robert put Abbey in her chair, and Kate got a plate for Abbey and one for herself while Michael got a plate for himself and Robert.

"Michael, I really do love your coronation chicken," Kate said. "And i love the idea of the pastry puff cups. It makes it light and fresh."

"I'm going to take a gallon of the tea with me when I go back this afternoon," Robert said. "And Khaat's going to love the salad."

"She's not going to get any. I'm going to eat it all," Edward teased.

Ruby smiled and moved to teh table as Jessie walked in hearing Abby talking " I put them in teh special small animal incubator we have " he said " they've been fed and cleaned , Abby was a great help" he said sitting with them and taking some food . Jessie sat with Jack sho kept his arm around her shoulders.

"Thats what I thought and thats why I told him to make sure the area was clean and safe so you can inspect and order whats needed " she said taking a bite of the salad " humm, nice, Michael and Ruby" she said smiling. Ruby looked at Michael.

"Thanks for sending over the tray to Angus and Andrew." she said as she took some food and raspberry teafor herself.

"She likes animals of just about every kind," Robert said. "I think it really is good for kids to grow up on a farm. It gives opportunities to teach compassion and empathy. Even at three, she is learning to be a good little helper in the barn, and Angus has often said she can be a good helper in the kitchen."

"Angus was giving her responsibility of all kinds of things very early on," Kate said. "He had a little plastic knife that he would give her to cut fruit and vegetables under supervision. She can use a biscuit cutter if he rolls the dough. She helps him to knead bread and pizza dough. She can spread butter or jelly on bread or biscuits. She can peel hard boiled eggs, and she is a good little helper when he makes pizzas. If he rolls the dough, she can spread the sauce and put on the toppings."

"And make juice!" Abbey added.

"Oh, yes, that's right. You can," Kate nodded. "I forgot. He also taught her how to use a manual juicer to make fruit juice."

"She's got more skills in the kitchen than her papa, then," Michael teased.

Ruby chuckled and looked at Abby " you can help me any time " she said smiling then looked at Robert as he spoke again Jessie smiled and nodded he agreed.

"well she certainly did a very good job today, those mice will soon be big and strong" he said " but there still wild animals and as such need to be handled as little as possible, okay" he said to Abby " untill then your like there step mom, looking after them" he said as he ate his food. Jack looked at Abby " she'll soon be able to help with the slightly bigger animals." he said as Jess nudged him.

"not untill shes older, Im sure Khaat and Brian would not like for there daughter to be out with larger animals" Jessie looked at her and shook his hed.

"oh no not with out supervishion thats for sure" he said and smield at Abby. Ruby ate her dinner and stood up walking to the kitchen to place her plate in the sink before returning with the tatrt and fresh made vanilla ice cream.

"desert any one?" she asked placing it down in the center of the table

"She does already," Kate said. "She's very good with helping with the owlets, with the pygmy puffs, and she knows how to give carrots and apples to the horses and the unicorns. We'll work up to the hippogriffs just because they can be testy. She makes sure to feed Fudge every morning, and she rarely misses. She and Archangel are good buddies. He knows she's a baby, so he's very gentle with her. And I just took in a niffler this morning. It's owner was quite elderly and passed away. I introduced her to the niffler, and he seemed completely taken with her. I think you'll all like him. He's got ginger colored fur, and his owner called him Copper. He's extremely intelligent, and I think he took a liking to her and to Simone. The last I saw, Simone was taking him to the duplex to meet Edward."

"Well, so much for any galleon, every doubloon pendant, and every little bit of jewelry we all own," Michael laughed.

"I promised to design him a 'shiny hunt' so he has some things to hunt rather than hunting our things. If anyone has any ideas of different places on the estate where we might set up a 'shiny hunt' for copper and ideas of little things he can look for, let me know. We don't dare let him get bored or, Michael's right, we'll all be in trouble," Kate said.

"You are going to rehome that niffler, Kate," Robert said firmly.

"Oh, now, Robert, don't be testy, he's grieving. His owner just passed. Have a heart."

"I do have a heart. I also have a bank account that I do not want him to drain," Robert said.

Jessie looekd at Kate and smield " I wondered where he came from, hes  a nice guy" he said " well trained already and helpful too" he said and looked at Abby " but you'll have to teach me how to do what you do" he said to her. Ruby dished up the tart and sat down listening to them Jess took out her compact again and opened it to Rowans face as he lokd back at some one.

"get that out of here its trash" he said then looked at her " okay the cookers are burnt out and in the trash there working on cleaning the walls sterile again, cooks are fixing to work on the roof so I brought in some heavy duty canpies to hold the weather off them, most patiants are resituated " she heard him say.

"good I'll finish eating and join you, looks like a long night" she said looking at Jack who smiled and kissed her .

"when isn't it, its all part of your job." he said simply then looked at Robert " everything here is secure." he told him.

"Thank you, Jack. Jess, I'll take the night shift since you've pulled the day shift," Robert told her. "Just relieve me in the morning. Do doublecheck to see if any of the kitchen staff that I sent to the ER for smoke inhalation were actually admitted. It wouldn't be all that unusual for that to need to happen. That can be tricky business, especially since I know one of the pantry chefs and one of the dieticians both have COPD, and because of their chronic breathing conditions, that can make them high risk for additional problems. If they've been admitted, do try to go see them when they get settled in their rooms and make sure that if they need anything, we take good care of them.

"I'm going to contact Lizzie at Sparks and Jonathan Belby and see if I can buy some individually packaged biscuits and pasties and candies. I'll see if I can get them sent to my secretary up on the fifth floor. Then, once I get them, maybe you can mobilize our hospital volunteers and have them make up some little goodie bags for all the patients and go visit them, one at a time, and just check in to be sure they're all okay, give them the goody bag and a cold soda since our kitchen is down. If any of the patients have a request, have the volunteers take them to my secretary and we'll do our best to try to make sure we've checked in just to make sure all our patients are feeling secure and taken care of."

"Ruby, how about you and I and Kate and Simone and Angus all put our heads together and come up with a dessert to contribute to supper for the patients? Angus would be our guide here, but he could tell us what we would need to make and how much but we have plenty of supplies in our pantry," Michael suggested. "What if we talk to him and see his thoughts? I bet we could bake something we could donate that would serve everyone."

"That sounds really ambitious..." Kate began.

"I wanna help, Unca Mikey!' Abbey bounced up and down. "Pie! Make pie!"

"Well, if Abbey's in, then, of course, I'm in," Kate laughed.