LONDON CALLING

"Well, Im sure that, as much as we do, we can't catch them all, but you should talk with Robert and me about what you're doing and who you're after. We do know there are some smaller people that manage a much smaller number of transactions, but we've had to let a lot of those go, unfortunately, because we've been busy chasing the granddaddy of them all. We do try to stay aware of who is doing what, but most of our work has had to focus in on one main organization that, as near as we can figure out, is responsible for about 70% of the market. And that's been a full time job for all of these years. I'm sure if we can collaborate or form an alliance, that between all of us, we can rescue more. We have been aware from time to time when small operators will try a bigger scale operation in order to try to impress the family we've been chasing."

He listened to Rowan talk about wanting a civil relationship and he laughed when Rowan mentioned they would probably not be lovey dovey.

"I'm not lovey dovey with much of anyone these days," Michael said, knowing that since Alette died, he had dated a bit, but the only woman that he was affectionate with or sleeping with was Daphne. "Well, it's complicated," said, as an awkward clarification. It was awkward for most people to picture a catburglar having a rather passionate relationship with a Minister of Magic. People generally didn't see Michael as having a passionate side, but he and Daphne had a lot in common. "I would like to think we could take our time getting to know each other--if that's okay with you. I'm fine with doing our best to be there for one another. We should do that. And hopefully we'll get to know each other better."

"Well," Angus smiled at Ruby, "I'm glad you're back. I presume Toby is okay or you wouldn't be back. He laughed slightly when she said she was proud of him. "I didn't think I did anything that gallant. I did my job, and when James took me, he pissed me off. All I wanted was to get the hell out of that stinking place. And it did stink. Brackish water, black mold, filth of every sort. I just wanted to be home with you. They didn't even tie me up. I figured they thought that since I was in a wheelchair I was helpless. I had no intention of being helpless. Nor was I going to be stuck." He kissed her slowly, and a part of him wanted more than a kiss from her and then he remembered the bandages on his hands. That might be a challenge.

"I wonder," he said softly. "How far do you think we could go with this, despite all this gauze? Maybe you should lock the door and we should find out."

Rowan smiled and nodded " yeah and I heard about Gelding, the nasty sort that one has the big wig of it all," he said folding his arms across his chest as he listened more to Michael talk about their operation then go one to talk about getting to know each other. Rowan nodded " I'd like that, I'd like that very much," he said smiling as he thought about how his life had changed in one day. " well it was a good day when I chose to help Jess at St Mungos, she's a good freind, cares about her patiants," he looked up at Michael " I'll stay with the guys in the bunk house, you got enough people staying here, don;t want to over crowd you guys" he said .

Ruby smiled at him and listened as he told her about what had happened " I for one think what you did was brave, Just to get away from them, I just with they would leave us alone just for even one day" she said feeling him deepen the kiss she sighed as he pulled back slightly " guess I'll have to do all the workthen" she smile at him as she flicked the lock on the door " not like we can get into any more trouble now can we" she smiled at him climbing up onto the bed.

"We managed to get Gelding's father, but obviously we're still after Tom. Tom has become more slippery. We've had him a couple times this year. Had him in jail, actually, but he escaped. So the chase goes on. We will have him, though. We had his father, who was far more intelligent than Tom but, Tom has made up for his lack of IQ with more connections. We snag him up, and they get him out." He listened to Rowan talk about Jess and then say he would stay in the bunkhouse with the men. "Jess is very good at what she does. Robert made a good choice in promoting her. Wherever you to stay is fine," Michael said. "If you change your mind, you let me know."

Angus had slipped back off into sleep, and in his dreams, he was crawling through the cellar room again. There was no water on the floor this time, but it was wall to wall broken glass on the floor. And the only way out for him was to crawl through it. He woke, not overly alarmed, but glad to find himself here in this room, skin to skin with Ru. The room was silent. He simply wrapped himself closer to her, very little desire to move or to get up. He understood dreams like this. In his line of work, they happened. Some little snippet of a situation could replay itself over and over for awhile until something else took its place. It was just part of coping with the job. He saw the coffee on the nightstand and automatically flicked his finger at it to warm it. The mug shattered with a snapping sound, and cold coffee splashed over the nightstand and onto the carpet. He sighed, frustrated. He had to start learning to think before he simply cast a spell. His magic had become second nature, and now, it was a menace.

A clock somewhere chimed two. He was thirsty and hungry. He had missed breakfast and lunch. He needed coffee badly, but clearly he wasn't getting it. His clothes were on the floor, and he couldn't get downstairs from here anyway, but as much as he wanted to just laze here with her, his stomach was awake, empty, and grouchy. He kissed her.

"Ru, as much as I want to lay here, I need to get up. I'm sorry. I need Andrew, and I'm going to need coffee and food."

Rowan smiled and nodded " thanks and yeah hes slipperier than an eel that one" he said and nodded " I'll remember that." he said and finished his cigerette. Ruby felt him move next to her and sighed contented ly but then hearing a crash she sat bolt upright seeing eh cup shattered into peices. Quickly she slipped on a gown and went to clean it up " I'll cean this up and , I could bring you some food" she said " save disterbing Andrew" she quickly slipped on a night gown and then headed to the kitchen , making up a tray with a fresh cup of coffee and some cinimon rolls she headed back up to him. " here this should do for now."

"Sorry, Ru. You could use a clean up spell, you know, and avoid all the broken glass," he suggested. He normally would have protested and not wanted her to go to the trouble of food, but he was honestly really hungry. He was grateful when she brought fresh coffee and a cinnamon roll. "Thanks," he said, grateful. "My stomach was starting to wonder if I was ever gonna eat again. There's enough for two here. Share it with me." He got annoyed with the bandages and he took them off and discarded them in the wastebasket. He looked at cuts and punctures on the palms of his hands and his fingers. They were ridiculously minor. "That was a lot of gauze for a lot of nothing," he told her. "Look. It doesn't even rate decent kids' stuff. That isn't Robert's style. He must have had some reason for overreacting, but I'm limited enough.

"Ru, I didn't have a chance to tell you, but your mom sent me a letter the day after the calling hours for your dad. Not that I trust her, but she said that she had never met a man that was a man of substance, that kept his word. She basically said that we didn't understand the position she was in, and I'm sure I don't. Anyway, she wants to meet me for a cup of coffee, to talk about a possible opportunity for her to visit with Sam and Victor. She also said she believes that whenever you and I have children, she thinks she should have the right to meet her first grandchild. I don't trust her any farther than I can spit her, but if we were to even consider either one of those things, you'd have to agree to it, and, more importantly, now that she's aligned with Gelding, she's not going to meet with you or Sam or Victor and certainly not our child, unless it's in a public place and I'm there and I've got backup like someone like Marcus or Jack. I am not saying we should grant her request. I'm just saying she wants to meet me for a cup of coffee to discuss it. And, again, I would take a guard with me to that too. What do you think?"

Ruby placed down the food and sat next to him. She was glad when he ate some but then he spoke of her mother and visitations for the boys and their child " I don't know like you said we can't trust her." she said " but if you want to I'm not going to stop you, we do however need to know what she's up to." she listened to him say about a public place and she nodded " agreed, one guard in the open, but please several well hidden." she held his hand gently as she spoke. " I want to come with you but , then again I don't want to see her, but I will for the boys I'll go." she sighed " does Robert know about her asking for the meet up?" she asked then chuckled " but please don't try and use your magic" she took some sinimon roll and offered it to him before taking a peice for herself.

"I haven't agreed to meet her yet," Angus said, "and, I haven't mentioned it to Robert yet either. I wouldn't have had to consult him--until she moved in with Gelding. But that changes everything. I do have to discuss it with him, and, obviously, what he says goes in this case. I think you should give some thought before you agree to go. You do not need that sort of stress in your life right now. You have other, far more important priorities than her.

"And, as for Sam and Victor, we do need to discuss them. In a few months, they are going to be legal age. They're almost grown men, and we should treat them as if they are already grown men--within reason. They need to be taught how the real world will treat them when they get out in it. Somebody needs to grow those boys up and not treat them like they're little boys--like they've been treated their whole bloody lives. I'm seriously hoping I can convince them to live with us for a year or so when they graduate so I can grow those boys up. They have one hell of a lot to learn in order for them to know how to stop being children and how to be men. They seem like good boys, but incredibly immature and unprepared. In today's wizarding world? Given who your dad was and what your mother is becoming? They need to grow up fast. They need one hell of a lot of training and preparation, and I think they need to be here to do it."

He laughed when she mentioned his magic. "I wonder what I could manage to turn her into without even trying. When Robert gets too irked with someone, he either puts them in one of his bug jars or turns them into teacups." He cast a mischievous grin at her.

Ruby listened and nodded " your right I'll think about it and yes, we do have more important things to think about " she took his hand and placed it on her tummy " this one for a start," she said smiling at him " as for the ...sam and Victor I agree, we have the room and well I don't see why they shouldn't want to stay, maybe they will see how we train and want to follow our footsteps." She leant over and rested her head on his shoulder " I always wondered why he kept teacups on the shelf in his lab, remind me never to use those." she chuckled " and bug jars really?" then she remembered the sorceress " oh like the Sorceress and poor Owens, and he has more of them?"

"That's the priority I meant," he told her. "You don't owe your mother anything right now. You do own more to that baby. If I can take care of some of these things that are coming up, and will be, for the next few months, then you should let me do that. I mean, think about it. By the time the baby is due, Sam and Victor will be just mere days from graduation at Hogwarts. They will have needed to make a decision by then about where they're going once they leave school. I think I should expose them to what we do here. And if they're interested in training, I could send them for Robert's 30 day bootcamp for new recruits in Colorado. It's a damned hard course, but, if they're determined, they'll make it. Then they can join us here and keep working on their training with the rest of us and start coming on some of the lesser missions. If they stay beyond that, I'm sure they can either move to one of the bunkhouses if they want or maybe Brian will let them have one of the smaller cabins. If it comes up, I'll help them ask him if they want. I will not plan their lives for them, though. I do want them to have the training so that they will have the skills to defend themselves if a skirmish comes to them. But--what they do after that? That's their right to decide. Hopefully, if we have a boy, I'll treat our son the same way. but, I'm telling you right now, if we have a daughter, she doesn't get to date until she's about 65." He cast her an amused grin.

Remind me to show you some of those shelves sometime," Angus said. "I don't know how many of the bugs down there are really bugs and how many aren't, and I don't think I really want to know. I get the impression that Michael knows how Robert codes them, but I don't need to know so I don't ask. Michael seems to be Robert's number one secret keeper. It's probably a good thing that he doesn't have kids that is someday going to have the task of going through his belongings. They might have been surprised at what they'd have found. As it is, I think that job will fall to Robert if Robert survives Michael, or it'll fall to Khaat and Brian.

Ruby nodded her head in agreement " I agree." she said then listened to him talk of Sam and Victor. "I agree they should know to make up their own minds about what they want to do but also know we'll be there for them should the need arise and I'll leave sam and Victor in your hands." she said " sixty five huh?" she said and caught his amusing grin " I would have thought eighty at the least" shesmirked back at him " but if its a boy and he gets a girl pregnant he needs to do the right thing , or find his balls on the plate for breakfast" she chuckled.

When he spoke of the shelves she nodded her head and listened as he continued " well good luck to them on that, here is one woman whose staying away from those jars." she said taking a second peice of roll and popping it into her mouth befoe taking oen and offering it to Angus.