LONDON CALLING

"He's fine," Robert said. "I'm still digging in glass and splinters out of his hands, and I will be for awhile. Then I'll add some antibiotic potion and I'll wrap them for him for at least today. He's completely worn through, though. He's going to sleep for hours, that's for sure. I don't want to fuss him around too much, so I may just levitate him up to his room here and let him sleep. And then I probably should let Ruby off the hook so she can come home. No fair letting her be trapped in Paris forever. I'm glad you looked out for her, but she needs to be allowed to come back. Oh, and I don't know why this is coming to my mind now, but someone needs to remind Andrew to let Pip out for some flying. Not fair to keep him locked in Angus's bedroom either. I don't know who's going to bitch about it more--Ruby or Pip. They'd both be entitled too." He laughed a little.

Finishing his cigarette, Michael didn't feel much like sleeping. The clock inside chimed four. God, they must have been crawling around in that Godforsaken pit longer than he thought. Well, he would go inside and start the coffee and the tea and put the casseroles and the cinnamon rolls in the oven. But first, he decide to send a message through the floo to Owens. He suggested that they tell Ruby that the lockdown wasn't necessary after all, that it was a false alarm, and she could come home. He scribbled the note and sent it to Owens, knowing Owens would relay the message at once. And he figured within a few minutes Ruby and Nigel would port home.

With the note sent to Paris, Michael put breakfast in the oven, got out the icing for the cinnamon rolls from the fridge so it could come to room temperature, and started the tea and coffee. Then he set out the fruit salad and the orange juice in the dining room. With that job done, he went down to the sickbay.

Robert had finally found all the splinters and glass and had added some antibiotic potion to some gauze pads. Now he wrapped roll gauze around the gauze pads and taped the bandages in place. Angus hadn't moved a muscle.

"Michael you're just in time. If the four of us levitate him and move him smoothly, he isn't going to wake, and I'd really like to let him rest," Robert said, hoping to take advantage of Jack, Rowan, and Michael to take Angus upstairs to his bedroom in the main house.

Rowan smiled and nodded " of course," he said Jack moved to the right where Rowan stayed on the left together they levitated him into the air " all right where are we taking him?" Rowan asked as he and Jack held Angus up ready for the others to help.

Ruby saw the note go to Nigel and walked down the corridor to him " was that from Robert, and hows the boy doing?" she asked hoping he would be better now with how long it had been since lockdown. But she could not wait to get home to her own bed.

"Upstairs, first room on the left," Robert said. When they reached the bedroom, Robert flicked his fingers at the bed to turn down the covers, and when they had laid him in the bed, Robert simply covered Angus to let him sleep. "I doubt the clothes he had are worth keeping, but I'll let Kate have a go at them. They're in the hamper down in the sickbay. They were a right shredded up mess. Thanks, all of you. He'll be up again as soon as he's had a proper sleep. Rowan, I think, by first light, we should be out of danger from James. He tends to sleep at daybreak, so you and your men should be able to head home for some sleep yourselves. I'll freshen up and then see if Jess needs me to go into St Mungo's or if she thinks she has it under control there for the ..." He cut himself off, smelling something. "Oh, I know that smell anywhere. Those are Angus's cinnamon rolls. I'll see if Michael can give you a couple to split with your men." He didn't tell Rowan that Angus's cinnamon rolls were the size of supper plates. But a couple of them could be cut like pie pieces and split between a number of people.

Nigel had settled Toby for some sleep. Nigel had been aggressive with Toby's fever and with his stomach problems. Toby's fever was down almost to normal, and he had held down some weak tea and was now sleeping. Nigel felt the women there could tend to him now.

"I think the worst is over. His temp is almost normal, and he's kept down about half a cup of weak tea. I just got him to sleep," Nigel said. He stood and stretched. It had been a long night, and although he was tired, he was thinking about breakfast. "I think, when I get back, I'm going to tuck into breakfast, then into the shower and then a few hours of sleep. How about you?"

Before she could speak, Owens came upstairs. "Just got the lab reports from St. Mungos. The illness is not contagious after all. Lab error. You're both free to go home when you're done here."

"Well, I think we should go, then. You lot can handle it from here," Nigel said.

Rowan smelt it too and chuckled " I already gave the order to stay till day break, my men are happy to do so." he said as they walked down to the kitchen. " have to admit its a nice place you have here" he sid looking around he picked up a figurine and then put it back down " expencive peices too, my mom again, she liked to know the value of a peice" he moevd to the kitchen and smelled the buns cooking. Jack walked over to Rowan and sat down.

"so you do cooking?" he asked and Rowan laughed " nope, one thing mom never taught me" he said " now poker, that I can do and aprichiate a nice cuba cigar." he smiled as he reatched in his back pocket for his wallet ad took out an old photo " that was me as a toddler with my mom" he said showing Jack it who just smiled ." you got anything to drink, ushaly i'd have a fire whisky but since Im still on the job a tea wouldn't go a miss." he asked.

Ruby heard Nigel and was glad the boy was feeling better when Owens came in and say the mix up was at the lab she breathed out " well thats a relife" she looked at Nigel and chuckled " agreed its been a long night." she couldn't wait to slip under the covers with Angus and sleep.

"It's Brian's and Khaat's," Robert said, closing the door to the bedroom to let Angus sleep. He walked downstairs. "I have to admit, even though American southwest decor is not so common here, it really is a place I always feel I can kick off my shoes and be comfortable in. I split my time between here and my farm. Seems like there's always something going on here."

Robert went over and got a mug of coffee and when Rowan got out the photo, Robert happened to catch a glimpse of it. He recognized the woman immediately. It was unquestionably Alette, and Robert believed that, judging by the style of her clothing, it looked well into the years where Michael and Alette had been together. Robert figured it looked like it might have been during the five or six years where Michael and Alette were behaving much like newlyweds, even though they never married.

"Coffee and tea are both on. Mugs are on the counter. Help yourself. You know, you should show photo that to Michael," Robert said. "Your mom looks familiar. He might know her."

"Come on, Ruby. Let's go home. Got that portkey handy? Let's go," Nigel said, more than anxious to get home.

Rowan heard Robert and glanced at the photo "Really? huh you think they might have been old friends or something?" he said placing it down on the counter as he waited for the kettle to boil " He doesn't seem the kinda guy to reminisce over old times" Rowan said " I keep it for good luck" he said "yeah, I know superstitious, but that's just what I'm like" he left it on the counter while he picked up a mug and pored in some milk and added suger and waitied once the tea was done he pored a cup and moved to sit down at teh counter. " she always said he got itchy feet, never stopped in one place, it was his job, going to exotic places " he said as he lent on the counter with both arms and held his cup in both hands.


Ruby smiled at Nigel and held up the port key to take them home . Taking his arm in her own she ported them to the porch and opened the back door " we're home." she said smiling then she smelt the cinnomon rolls " those smell divine, tea and coffee too" she said poring out some juice for herself.

Michael was setting the finished egg casserole and the hashbrown casserole in the dining room, and the cinnamon rolls were already there, floating in the air on large platters, waiting for Michael to put them on the sideboard.

"Breakfast is on," Michael called to whoever was within hearing distance. "Rowan, make sure you try one of our 'little' cinnamon rolls." He was deliberately teasing about the size of the gigantic breakfast pastries.

"Michael," Robert said, as Michael brought the oven mitts back to the kitchen, "take a look at that picture of Rowan and his mother. You're going to want to see it." Michael went over to the counter and picked up the picture. It was like all the wind had gone out of his sails. For a moment, he could have sworn all the oxygen left the room.

"Alette," the name came out before he even realized it. As toxic as their relationship had become in Alette's later years before she had passed, Michael had not been able to abandon her. She had set him up to take the blame for a burglary that she had bungled, figuring that Michael would just free himself somehow, and he had done time in a Parisian jail for a crime he had not committed--until Robert had managed to prove that Michael was innocent. And even then, Michael could not abandon her. He had been with her as her illness had slowly taken her, and he had been there still as the breath left her for the very last time.

"I remember that dress," Michael said. "It was white with cornflower blue flowers. I bought it for her on a trip we took to Milan." It added up so fast in his head, it made him physically dizzy. Where had she hidden this boy all these years? Where was he when he had visited her? Why? Why had he never told her that he had a son? Why had she robbed him yet again of knowing that he was not so bloody alone in this world, that he actually had a son? It was just like Alette, romancing him with one hand and stabbing him somehow with the other. It was how she had lived her whole bloody life.

It was overwhelming. The shock and surprise, the wanting to put it all back in Pandora's box and shut it up tight again so he could unsee it. And then there was the rage--blind rage that she had kept it from him that he had a son. Could it be that he belonged to someone else? Michael didn't see how. He and Alette had rarely left each other during those years. He knew with very little doubt--he always had just a little doubt where Alette was concerned--that he was the only one who was making love to her in those years. Rowan was his. Robert could find out for certain, but Michael already knew. The words caught in his throat. He took a deep breath to steady himself.

Robert laid a steadying hand on Michael's shoulder for a moment and then spoke quietly.

"Ask your questions," Robert told Michael. Michael nodded. He turned and looked at Rowan.

"Your mother's name was Alette? If so, I knew her well, ,and we spent a great deal of time together. We were very close, but I don't know how it is that I never knew you," Michael told Rowan.

Rowan watched as Micahel picked up the picture of his mother. He stood with a slight look of confushion when he said her name " yeah that was her name." he said softly he listened more as he spoke of the dress she wore. " it was her favorate" he added "How..how do you know all this." he asked " yeah, she sent me to an out of state school." he said " of course, I would see her on holidays and she saw I had all I needed but..the day she passed I'd just left school and well, I joined a security company, worked my way up to where I am now they said I had an aptitude for business and well and eye for the best Items." He told him " she told me to keep this with me, told me that maybe one day my father and I would cross paths." he chuckled " unlikly, I've been all over the world and still not met him." he said sipping his tea. Turning on his seat he looked at Micahel's face now he saw the slightly pale look he ahd " you okay, you look like you've seen a ghost?" he asked.

"She even showed me a postcard from Middle Persian on my tenth birthday" said it was from him." he said puling up his sleeve to show a tattoo of a Huma bird  " its the bird of fortune, stays aloft its whole life, mother drew it for me when I was younger, so I had it made into a tattoo." He sipped the tea then pointed to the oven " the rolls are done " he said " you said 20 minets and its been that long." he moved and took out the tray to place it on the counter " wow are these for giants?" he asked " these are huge."

For a moment, it crossed Michael's mind that Rowan couldn't be his son because his son wouldn't be such a dolt. He wanted to spit it out to Rowan, but the words that were in his head were far more crass than Alette deserved. Michael took a moment, watching Rowan take the cinnamon rolls out of the oven.

"That's part of the reason they're so popular here," Michael told him. "That's the last of them. The others are already out on the sideboard in the dining room. You should go tuck in." He looked at him and then decided to give him all the pieces of the puzzle he was going to get.
"I know what I know because I was the only man she ever lived with or slept with," he said, picking up a sponge to clean the countertop with. "Incidentally, the little whitewashed house you lived in? The one with the blue shutters, on the French coast is mine, by the way. I've got the deed at home. And for the record, I do not have itchy feet. So typical of her to give you that old line as a means of explanation. She traveled for one job after another just the same way I did. I was just better at it. My job was classified. Hers was to satisfy her own compulsion for high priced baubles."

It was starting to make some sense in Michael's head now. Alette would have absolutely known that if he had known she was pregnant, he would have absolutely demanded her to give up the burglary because, frankly, she wasn't that good at it. She thought she was, but he was always cleaning up her messes. He would have demanded that she either give up the work or give the child to him. He would have not settled for her having both, and very likely, he'd have ended up taking the child from her instead of allowing her to keep the boy and shuffle him off to boarding schools. The anger he often felt for Alette and her unrealistic thinking rose up in him again. Even from the grave, she was still throwing curve balls at him. It was probably a good thing she was dead because right now, he really did want to throttle her.

"God, the most unrealistic person I ever knew," Michael muttered. Robert was a little surprised to hear Michael admit that his work was classified. Well, it had been, and it still often was. If Rowan was not an idjit, he'd figure out that it meant that Michael was one of the good guys, an agent for the Ministry of Magic somehow.

Jack sat and watched the banter between Rowan and Michael but it was Jessie who smirked and leaned close to Jack " does he know Michaels his father?" Jack chuckled and shook his head. Rowan stopped and listened to Michael as he described the small house he'd grown up in " that would mean..." he paused and sat down on a stool in front o Michael. " you're my father?" he said " why did she not just tell me?" he said somewhat perplexed by his mother's deceitfulness. " she said you were travelling and didn't want anything to do with me and that's why she stopped her work," Jack walked over and placed a glass of fire whiskey in front of Rowan. Patting his shoulder he nodded as he pushed the glass towards him. Faced with what was in front of him, literally his father he picked up the glass " I don't so this is usually on the job, but," He downed it feeling it slide down his throat. " I'm guessing she never told you?" he said placing the glass back on the counter now seeing it from his side.

"Okay, looking at this logically, you'll want a DNA test to prove I'm not some con man and that we are related, right, because that's what I would do." he said looking up at Michael as he spoke " oh and I'm not calling you dad or daddy" he smirked " wait till the guys hear this." he said taking a bite of the cinnamon rolls " this is delicious," he said as Jessie and Jack walked over.

"Welcome to the family," Jack said slapping him on the back " Michael has a son, who knew" Jack looked at him. Rowan looked at Michael " and I still live there by the way in the little whitewashed house with the blue shutters, on the French coast."