LONDON CALLING

"Thanks, Rowan. I appreciate that. No, I think Victor's hurting," Robert said to Rowan. He walked over to Victor and laid his hand on Victor's forehead. "Ah. That's the trouble. Let me help." He laid his hand on Victor's leg just about down at his knee and forced the spasms to stop. "Your leg is swollen tonight," he told Victor. "Time for you to go to your room and get ready for bed and then get your leg elevated. I'll take you up and get you settled, since I think Angus has probably already released Andrew for the night. Can the three of you make sure Sam stays out of trouble?"

"Hey, I'm not that bad," Sam said to Robert. Robert just laughed.

"Ready to go in?" Robert asked Victor who just nodded. Robert apparated Victor inside and up to his room. He helped him wash up and change into his pajamas and get settled on the open bed with a pillow under his leg to elevate it. Robert gave him some pain potion and handed Victor the sketchpad and pencils that Ruby had bought for him.

He stopped at Angus room and looked in on him and found Angus up on his feet, trying to walk from the bed to the dresser. He made it to the dresser but had no clue, once he was there, on how to get back.

"Idjit," Robert told him. He helped him back to bed. "I'm not opposed to you working on this, you know, but you really are pushing it. Now--for the umpteenth time. Don't do this without help, and stop overdoing it. When you try this stuff when you're tired, you really are risking a setback. I'll have Andrew get you up more frequently for shorter distances if you agree to stop doing it by yourself."

"Deal," Angus said.

"So I have your word you're done being up for tonight?"

"Yeah, unless Mother Nature calls, then yes. I'm done."

"Yeah, well, if that happens, use your wastebasket," Robert said, only about half kidding. "Goodnight, Angus." He left, with Angus still wondering if Robert actually intended for him to use his wastebasket. That was a disgusting thought.

Rowan watched Victor then listened to Robert " no problem, I've seen men push threw pain only to fail, hes got potential, both of them do, be a shame for him to not get back on his feet because of being in pain." he said walking over with Robert " Victor, you know you can tell us if your in pain, were here to help you, not scold you for something thats not your doing." he told him placing his hand on Vincents shoulder before moving to Sam as he saw Robert take Victor inside. Jack watched Sam then nodded to Robert as he was asked to take care of him Jessie chukled.

"we'll keep him out of trouble" Jack said then looked to Sam " target practice" he said simply " hey you too Jessie , you missed your last shot, so.." he motioned to the target. Jessie sighed and took his stance firing at the target hitting still to the left.

"damn it not sure why I am so off " he said shifting his foot position to try and fix the problem.

Ruby moved down to teh gym to do a small work out before bed. she used the tread mill and walked for a while then used the bike in a gentel pace before moving to head up to her room to shower and change. Walking in she found Angus alread settled on the bed " hey , thought you'd be asleep ?"she said changing into her PJ's infront of him.

"You know why he didn't say anything," Sam spoke up after Victor was gone. "Robert told him that some spasms are normal during healing, so Vic thinks he's supposed to just put up with them. I keep telling him that really isn't what Robert meant but he keeps saying he's just gonna deal. He's a doofus."

"Jessie," Michael said, coming out on the back porch. "Your stance is off. That's why you're misfiring." He walked over to the target area. You have a tendency to stand face forward with your arm skewed to the side. You keep doing that, and you're gonna miss the mark every time. You're trying to use a muggle pistol stance with a wand. Stop thinking that because it's short, like a pistol, that you can handle it like a pistol. Turn to your right, stand perpendicular to the target, and exend your wand hand straight out from your body. Make it an extension of your arm. Stare straight down your arm, like you're staring straight down the sight of your rifle and fire."

"Going through a list of things that I'm responsible for, for Edward and Simon's wedding. You do realize we are just a few days away now, right? We have to go to the farm in the morning, and then I have an appointment at Gringotts. And then, after that, I have a meeting with one of my chef friends from the states who is coming in to do the wedding meal for us all. He's doing a full western barbeque. I always hoped that if Edward got married I'd do some sort of fancy meal that I would cook for him myself. But--that isn't what Edward wanted. He wants barbeque, and he wants me to just be family, just enjoy the wedding and the meal. But I still want it to be right. Oh, gosh. I forgot. I also have an appointment tomorrow afternoon for a haircut, and I have to pick up the rings at the jeweler's. Other than that, I have nothing to do. He laughed. "And Robert's going to insist I take a guard."

"So aside from the meeting at the farm, what's on your book for tomorrow?" he asked her.

Jessie listened to Sam and shook his head " that's not healthy to do." he said then heard Micahel as he walked out of the house and down to the " okay" he said and changed his stance to what Michael had said and he hit dead centre. " nice thanks Michael" he said smiling as he fired a few more shots off.

Ruby listened and smiled " I could go with you and fetch the rings for you, that would leave you free for the haircut." she said slipping into bed beside him. Laying down next to him she smiled then yawned softly " I know it will be perfect for them." she sighed resting her head on the pillow . " oh Robert gave me some potions again, the other one was in the duplex and, well I think it's gone, he has asked that if we find it he wants to check it first." she said half asleep as she tried to keep her eyes open.

"It was a simple fix. Just think rifle and not pistol," Michael said. "Suppose I can hit it?" he asked. He took his own stance, which was already well practiced to stand perpendicular to the target, raised his hand and fired wandless magic and fired, hitting the edge of the bullseye. He was rather impressed with himself, since wandless magic was so much more difficult to control than magic with a wand. "Hm. Lucky shot. I don't think I'll press my luck by trying it twice," he said. "Alright. I'm heading to bed so I can be up early. Goodnight." He went inside.

"That's fine with me, if you want to come," Angus told her, "I wouldn't worry about that bottle. If we happen to find it, fine. If not, then it's just one less thing to worry about." He yawned. "You know, its tradition for the best man to host a stag party for the groom. Michael mentioned he thought we ought to just have some of Lee's men stake us out a spot out behind our duplex so we're not far if we're needed but so that we have some privacy and just have a little male bonding under the stars. And you know, that by male bonding that will likely involve cooking some sort of steak over an open fire, followed by copius amounts of either beer or firewhiskey. Can't even remember when I was actually drunk last. But I have learned to not do bachelor parties the night before the wedding. I will plan on sleeping elsewhere that night so that I don't come home to you in a completely polluted state."

Jessie and Jack nodded and looked at Sam " okay time you young man goes to bed, we can do more tomorrow and by the way, you did good today, you're improving" Jack said as they all moved back to the house. Ruby listened and then sat up to face Angus.

"Does that mean I have to organise the bachelorette party?" she asked now in a slight panic " oh gods where would we have it, what would we do?" she said and lay back on the bed wondering just what to do. " I wonder what Simone would want?" she said softly as she tried to make mental notes of what they could do " oh , no male strippers , thats out." she said and chukled

"She's spent a lot of time with Kate, so why don't you talk to Kate in the morning. Remember, we don't have as many women here as guys. Think of what you have as your guests. Simone, you, Kate, Khaat, Jess. That's about it, isn't it? Why don't you keep it really simple and go to dinner at a really nice restaurant in London--like a five star thing so you can all enjoy being catered to. Or do a spa day someplace. Or if you want something less arranged, you could just do a pub crawl someplace. The five of you go, and you pick up the tab for the crawl, come home when you like. Or--if you like camping, go do a five star version of it by going glamping in a yurt someplace for an overnight. Some of those places offer catered meals with lovely oak tables and chairs and food served on china, crystal goblets, etc. You might have a wonderful time. Of course, I would expect that, regardless, Robert will have armed guards within earshot and eyesight, but I would also expect he might put people there that you don't recognize so that you don't feel like you need to censor yourselves."

Ruby listened to Angus and thought about his sugestions the meal Idea seemed good " oh we could go to sparks for a meal, but before go to a spar for the works treatment." she said chukaling " I think it would be good for a girls day out and with Jess and Khaat with us we'll all be fine" she said smiling " thanks for the sugestions, but I'll talk it over with Kate in the morning" she told him then snuggled against him. " humm your warm and comfy" she said looking up at him with a smile. moving up she kissed him gently then lay back down in the pillow " night Angus" she said softly ebfore she fell asleep next to him.

"Glad I could help," he said, as she curled into him and dozed off. He finished his list and started on yet another draft of his toast for the bride and the groom. He'd done several drafts already, and he was starting to think he was going to have to ask the event planner to help him with a speech writer to get it done properly. He stayed awake another hour after Ruby had gone to sleep, and then he gave up, closed his notebook and laid it aside, turned out the light, and went to sleep.

He had a nightmare of standing up to do the toast at the wedding, finding that the piece of paper that he thought had the toast on it was completely blank, and to make matters worse, in his dream, people were laughing at him. Looking down, he saw that he was totally naked.

Now he woke, not really frightened, but rather confused by the ridiculous dream. Ruby still had another hour before she would need to wake. He heard a couple of doors opening in the hallway outside. He recognized the footsteps. Some of them were going on their morning runs. He picked out Robert's footsteps and Brian's. Then he recognized Kate's and Michael's. They were probably going to make breakfast.

And then he saw an odd sight. One of Abbey's socks seemed to be crawling its way across the floor of the bedroom. That was curious. And then he heard some sort of little noise coming from the sock. He was confused. He got up and got into his chair, not sure what exactly he was going to do. When the sock got close enough, he picked it up and looked inside. It was Fudge, and he looked tired and rumpled and hungry.

"Fudge! How'd you get in there? Did Abbey toss you in the hamper again?" Angus asked. The little bowtruckle looked rather wilted, Angus had to admit. He looked like he badly needed water and food and his little tree for awhile. Angus was thinking that the bowtruckle had maybe been gone from his tree longer than they knew. Angus didn't know what bowtruckle first aid looked like but Fudge looked like he needed it.

"Ruby," Angus called her, "we have a guest. I hate to wake you but can you give me a hand?

Ruby half woke to hear Angus calling her name opening her eyes she looked at her clock then at Angus "okay, whose the visiter?" she said rubbing her eyes to look where he was looking " oh, okay" she said and slipped from the bed to pick up Fudge " okay fudge lets get you back in your tree" she said walking over she kissed Angus " morning dear" she said smiling " I'll put him on his tree then send up some coffee for you" she said as she ehard Jack and Jessie talking as they passed by their door.

Moving down the stairs still in her PJ's she walked to the kitchen and placed fudge on his tree. Reatching into the cpboard she took out a treat for fudge and gave him it." here you go" she told him and flicked on the kettle to make some coffee for he self and Angus.