LONDON CALLING

"Just lower the damn bed, please Andrew," Angus said quietly, not wanting to fight about it. "Give me just one moment."

He got out a piece of paper and wrote a letter to Victor's head of house, saying that Robert was agreeable to take on Victor's care and that Angus would send someone in the morning to come pick Victor up. Angus knew he couldn't be the one to go because that would just create a situation where two people were probably going to be in wheelchairs. This situation needed a couple of men that were able to handle getting Victor home. He figured he would probably send Andrew and Edward. He finished the letter, signed it, tucked it in an envelope and handed it to Andrew.

"Could you send this please, and then I think you can have a long evening for yourself," Angus said.

"Of course. I'll be up for awhile. I want to finish the washing up and a few other things. I may go next door and talk to Robert, but certainly, as always, feel free to shout if you need something. Goodnight," Andrew said. taking the supper tray and the tin of brownies and leaving.

Ruby was a person that needed to be in control and needed to have her way. He was just a little frustrated. Angus himself lived with obstacles about just about every bloody thing in his life right now. He certainly knew that lowering the bed was the obvious resolution, but it wasn't the only solution. Andrew's entire job was about helping witches and wizards overcome mobility obstacles. He was certainly aware that a broken leg would have consequences. Nobody was discounting Ruby. They were only saying that if Victor wanted his bed to still be lofted, there were ideas that would allow that to still be possible. It was unlikely that a young adult Victor's age would fall out of bed unless he was drunk, and Victor wasn't going to be getting alcohol here.

He settled back with his book. Having a long evening to enjoy the fire and read was what he had looked forward to. When he had been able to be up and moving, he didn't have time for books. Now he had a lot of time for reading. And so would Victor.

Ruby looked and listened to Angus talk to Andrew." No, no, it's okay they are all good ideas," she said looking at Angus hoping she'd not made him upset again " I forgot you'd know what he'd need more than I. I mean that in a good way." she said softly " and I did agree to leave the boys to care to you and Robert, so..I'm sorry." she said sipping her hot chocolate quietly now. She knew she needed to let some of the control go so Angus could do what was best for her brothers as they were her brothers and not her kids, she'd realised that much.

She saw him pick up a book as she placed down her cup on the night stand and lay back in the bed " I trust your judgment Angus" she said "So whats the book about?" she asked feeling like the quiet night just the two of them had fallen by the way side some what, becuse of her need to control around her brothers.

"I know," Angus said, sighing. "I get it. I don't want you to entirely leave the boys to me. I do want us to discuss and share these choices. After all, technically, you're family and I'm just the boyfriend. Legally, I know I'm as responsible as you are, but I don't know them as well as I need to.

"I'm sorry. Sometimes my own frustration with my own limitations bothers me immensely. I do try not to let it spill over into my mood. The biggest thing I miss is having choice and having options. Being able to choose for myself. My circumstances have taken a lot of those things away from me right now. I do understand its temporary, and I know things are coming back. I get all that, but I guess I just don't want to automatically presume to know what Victor's choices might be because I don't know him. He has the right to have some sort of input even in what choices seem to be no-brainers for us. Frankly, as impractical as it might seem, at his age, I would have been tickled pink to have a bed I could magically somehow float up into or out of. A regular bed on the floor would have been boring as crap if I'd had any sort of alternative. and I would have risked Edward's wrath to try to push my own point with him. But that would have been my thinking back then, and maybe Victor isn't quite as much a traditional stubborn teen as I somewhat assume he might be.

"I miss my magic. That's the second thing I miss--the ability to use magic, and I miss it darned near as much as I miss having options. I don't think you've had to go without your magic. I understand that you're looking at the easiest thing for him. I understand that, and it'll work out fine. Anyway, Andrew has lowered the bed by now, I'm sure. So let's just move on."

"This is a weird book," he said. "If I didn't know first hand that the muggle world and our world can collide, I would have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. Cauldron maker turns up dead in a muggle nightclub. I have no idea yet what the dickens he was doing there. Just started reading it. Aurors have written the dead guy off yet as having disobeyed wizarding law by going into the muggle world. So his girlfriend is trying to pressure this retired auror into going and finding out who killed the cauldron maker and why." He handed her the book so she could look at it and read the synopsis on the back cover of it.

Ruby listened to him and turned to face him " Angus you are not just a boyfriend, you are more than that, you are the love of my life, the one man who makes me feel safe and the father of our child, I'm proud of who you are, more than proud." she leant closer to him and kissed him then lent against him as he continued to talk " hum, I see your idea and it could be fun for him." she said then heard him talk about missing his magic that was something she had never had to feel. She wrapped her arm around his waist " it will come back, if you think about it, it already has, it just needs to remember what to do and when and all right." she said.


She looked at the book and then read the synopsis of the book and shook her head " seems confusing all right" she handed him it back as she showed him hers was on the Historical magical things, places and events. " I'm keeping up with my training, to a point, nothing strenuious or pysicaly demanding." she laid the book down and looked at Angus. "Please, always remember that I love you for you not your magic not becuse of matirial things , but you as a man, the man I fell in love with." she smiled at him.

"It really is your vote that counts the most, and I'm glad you feel that way. Not everyone is as taken with me as you are. And that's probably a good thing," he laughed. "God, I'll be glad when things get back to normal." She showed him his book on magical history. "Now that looks like really dry reading. That would be the sort of thing that would be right up Robert's alley. In fact, I remember at one of our survival weekends, one of our really new trainees really stuck his foot in it. Robert was drilling him on some magical history, and this little twerp hadn't done some memory work that Robert had assigned to them. Well, Robert brought him to task for it, and rightfully so, and told him about assignments that were considerably longer that he had had to memorize. And this little idjit responded by looking at Robert and saying, 'Well, that's alright for you but way back when you were my age, there wasn't near the amount magical history that there is now.' Brian had to talk fast to keep that little moron from ending up as a teacup."

As he was finishing his story, the bedroom fireplace spit out a message with a "Ptooey!" the message ended up on the bed. It made Angus laugh. He hadn't heard the fireplace make an audible ptooey sound before. He opened the message.

"Oh. Just Robert. He says if I send along a consent letter, he will go with Andrew in the morning and pick up Victor and bring him back. I think that's best. If I go, all I will do is give them more people to have to wrestle in and out of chairs. Do you mind going and checking the provision order that has to go in tomorrow before it's sent in? If there is something that Victor especially likes, make sure we have at least a little of it in the house. I presume, too, that he'll have to bring his owl. so we'll want to make sure we have a perch for the bird in his room and maybe Kate can have a talk with the owl so the owl knows his way to the barn. I think most of the rest of it has already been taken care of in one way or another. I'm sure Andrew already has an order in process for any equipment he would need.

"Ironically, I've already ordered lots of cold weather clothes for both boys, and they should have been here already. The coats, though, were backordered, so the order is late. Maybe the order will be here soon. I expect I'll have to make some sort of a care package to send off to Sam, so if there are things you'd like to include in that to send him, you could be thinking of getting those things so we can pack them up too."

Ruby listened and chuckled " well I'm glad or I'd have to fight them off you" she sid smiling at him at he continued ,she was going to say sometyhing but the fireplace interrupted her. Then she listened to him talk about Victor and how he would go with them and nodded her head. " I think that's a great idea." she said " that way I'll stay here and get the room ready and chase that order and make them send it out immediately for him, oh and I think we have a spare in the barn I'll get Jack to bring it and put it in his room," she said.


She heard him mention a care package for Sam and she nodded knowing a few things from home always brightened any day up. " we can do that, I'll include one of your cinnamon buns and some buscuits , oh even a warm jumper from the clothes we got for them, its got to be cold this time of year there right?" she added

"Ruby, the room is ready," Angus said, seeing her get immediately fired up with ideas now that she had something to do. "Calm. Breathe. The room was ready beforehand for the two of them, remember? And Andrew has moved the bed already. He will have crutches when he gets here, I'm sure. He really isn't going to need anything that isn't already in place in there. If you want something to do, there's a large southwestern ottoman that Brian doesn't use anymore. It's leather with an upholstered cushion on top. Has a storage space under that cushion. Ask Brian early tomorrow morning if we can borrow that. If we put that and the end of the sofa near where my recliner is, he'll have a space to sit downstairs where he can elevate his leg and not be so bloody far away from anybody. And the space inside the ottoman can hold maybe some books or a blanket or something else he'd like so he isn't always trying to either take stuff upstairs or bring it downstairs. And he and I can share the end table that I'm already using to put my coffee mug on when I'm sitting in the recliner. Might give me a chance to get to know him a bit while you're at work. I can't imagine Brian won't let us use that ottoman. He'll probably bring it over for you.

"I'm sure its chillier at Hogwarts since it's so much further north," Angus said. "That's why I ordered the clothes early last month. I'm not going to just send him one jumper, Ruby. When we got guardianship, the shops had summer clothes. so I outfitted them for that. I knew it would be getting colder, so I ordered cold weather clothes right at the very start of when the cold weather clothes were available in the shops.

"I purposely bought clothes for them both to have 2 sets of warm sweaters and sweatshirts and other warm clothes--one set for here and another for school. Just like I bought them each two sets of summer clothes. Each one also has two summer suits and they'll have two winter suits. It won't hurt them to have some dress clothes. And yes, I have dress robes for each boy coming for the Yule Ball. I heard about the ridiculous old crap they had to wear before. They're going to be the sharpest 7th years there this year.

"Sam's going to have several sweaters and sweatshirts there when he gets the stuff I bought for him. That's the whole point of my sending the box to him. But yes, if you want to send a cinnamon roll and some biscuits, I'm sure that would be fine. I'll ask Jack perhaps if he'll pop into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and pick up a few little harmless fun things. Jack is a big kid at heart, so he's perfect for that job. You could perhaps check in at Flourish and Blotts for a fiction book he'd like to read or a book of brain teaser puzzles that he could work on either at his leisure or on the train home sometime. Never hurts to have another option of something to do.

Ruby heard Angus and did just as he said calming herself knowing he was right " yes, your right, the room is ready , sorry "she said " and it sounds perfect for him." she listened more and nodded " that's so true and would be great for Sam " she said smiling at the idea of him receiving the box of goodies. "we can speak to jack tomorrow and I'll do just that" she said snuggling down close to Angus as she listeend to his heart beating in his chest against her ear. Ruby yawned and closed her eyes feeling the pull of sleep wash over her knowing the next day one of her brothers would be joining them. Even if it was becuse of a broken leg. Now he would see how a family should be.

Next morning Ruby woke early, she didn't move but just staid close to Angus her arms around his waist. Leaning close she kissed his cheek " morning my love" she said softly her fingers brushing up and down his chest as she felt his mucles move under them. " did you sleep well?" she asked.

"I did," Angus said. "You?" He was awake, sitting up a little, and he was making a list of things he wanted to do so he didn't forget. He knew Andrew was up already because he had smelled the coffee brewing at least thirty minutes ago. "Now, as for what you should expect this morning, I think you might expect that when they get here, Robert will first make sure that he's thoroughly examined the leg, and he's going to hone in on making sure that it is set absolutely meticulously. If he isn't satisfied, he will want to do that first, even if it means that he wants to do some sort of surgery to do it. But--when Robert gets it set, it will be set as close to the way nature intended it as anyone is going to get it. He's also going to be absolutely sure there are no other medical issues and that whatever medication Victor's getting is what Robert believes he should have. He may very well take him to sickbay for all of that. Once that's done, I would expect he'll make sure Victor is settled here if at all possible. I don't know that he's going to insist that Victor be in bed. That isn't usually necessary with a broken leg. When we've had incidents that here, Robert has wanted them up as much as possible so that they don't lose muscle tone elsewhere or develop other sorts of complications. If Robert has his way, you might find that Victor is downstairs or outside most of the time, and maybe not in his room except for at night to sleep. We'll just have to see..." He was cut off by Pip's loud angry screeching, and Andrew was just as irked for some reason. He heard the distinctive sound of Andrew cussing at the bird.

"What in the world?" Angus frowned. He got up and got into his chair. "Ruby? Flick the door open, please?" he asked, hoping she'd make it easier by flicking her fingers at the bedroom door to open it.

He rolled his chair out to the landing, and he saw owl feathers flying and Pip spazzing about something, and Andrew was in a bit of a spazz himself.

"Andrew?" Angus called.

"Don't try to get your chair down here right now," Andrew called. "Bloody freaking bird. I'm gonna fricasse his little ass if I ever catch him..."

"What is it?"

"Bloody effing bird..." Andrew said. He leaned his head out of the kitchen window. "Yes, now, please!" Andrew shouted to someone outside. "Your bloody bird brought in an entire nest of freaking baby snakes and they're on the loose down here. Your bird is going into my skillet!"

"Well, crap," Angus frowned.

"I've sent someone on the outdoor crew to go find me a snake wrangler. The bird is next!"
Angus couldn't blame Andrew for being angry. That was certainly no way to start a morning.

Ruby listened and nodded, not wanting to move, but when they heard screeching from below, she sat bolt upright. She wrapped a robe around herself and flicked the door for Angus to head out to. Hearing Andrew she looked around her feet " are they poisonous?" she asked still looking around the floor. Finding nothing she looked at Angus and then headed back into the bedroom to dress. returning now in jeans and ankle boots she chuckled at Andrews's words then bent down to Angus " I did sleep very well to answer your question but I'll find Jack and get those errands that need to be done, done okay" she said and kissed him gently " I shouldn't be long " she smiled before looking down over the bannister at Andrew " best wrangle those snakes soon as Victor will be arriving today." she said seeing one of the guards arrive with a snake catcher pole. Chuckling she looked to Angus " okay I'll leave you to it." she said and ported to the barn to find Jack.

Jack had just fed the hippogriff when he saw Ruby and smiled " hey Ruby how goes it?" he asked as she walked over to him.

"good Angus would like to know if you could go to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and pick up a few little harmless fun things for my brother Sam to play with." she asked Jack chuckled and nodded his head.

"sure when do you want to go?" he asked and she smiled.

"okay let me wash up and we'll go now." he said and closed the barn door as they walked out " I see gary is at your place? why" he asked and Ruby chuckled.

"seems Pip brought a whole nest of snakes in this morning." she said and saw Jack burst out laughing.