A Birth day

Jack stood with Angus and listened to him talk to the group. He placed down the basket with his back turned for a moment he then stood up and rolled his eyes as he walked over and pulled two men off Angus and threw them back towards the group " he is not the enemy, He is helping, he gave you this place to live in safety, he is helping bring Fenrir out of Askaban to here, proving his innocence will mean you can go home, now leave him alone" Jack growled loudly at them as he moved to help Angus and stand in between him and the pack.

Ruby found Jeffery and smiled "strangely yes , she didn't interfere and I've not heard her since." Ruby said " I drempt of the hippogriff ride Agus and I took when we first met." she could not help but smile at the memory and the warm feeling it brought up " and I know it probably means that my subconscious is telling me Im safe with Angus, to my conscious " she looked at him hoping she was right in her thinking." oh I went out and did some gardening this morning with Caprice too."

Angus was more than a little glad when Jack picked two of the younger werewolves off Angus. Angus punched the third one right in the mouth and knocked out most the teeth on the left side of that youngster's jaw. The younger werewolf yelped in pain and proceeded to spit out blood and about ten of his teeth on the ground, all of the teeth broken into fragments. The youngster was thinking of going after Angus again, regardless of what Jack had said, and Angus glared straight at him.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Angus said menacingly. "I am Angus Donohue. Edward Donohue, the slayer, is my grandfather. Don't think I don't have slaying skills. If I'd wanted any of you dead, I'd have done it by now. My friend here is right. I'm here because Fenrir is innocent, and you lot don't deserve to be hunted." One of the older males drew off the youngster with the broken teeth.

"Go sit down," the older male said to the younger one. He looked at Jack and Angus. "Apologies. They think they can get cocky without Fenrir here. We will teach them otherwise. Thank you for the food. It definitely helps. You will keep us posted about Fenrir, right?"

"Absolutely," Angus said.

"Why did the witch want you sons?"

"Because the blonde woman hates me," Angus said.

"The blonde woman is a moron," he scowled. "If there were a brain in her head, she'd take it out and play with it."

"I must admit, I agree with you," Angus said, amused.

"You're alright, Donohue. You won't get the same reception when you come next time. You have my word."

"Good," Jeffrey nodded when Ruby told him her dreams. "I think that is exactly what that means. I think it also means you were relaxed when you went to sleep and you believed in your own ability to keep your mother at bay. If she had had any ability to have any connection with you, I doubt you'd have been that relaxed. So, let's talk about the anxiety that you carry all the time. I think, honestly, that started for you probably when you were still living with your parents. When did that all start for you? Do you remember?"

Jack moved to face the young toothless boy and growled when he spoke but stepped away when the elder stepped forward and ordered the young one to sit down he folded his arms across his chest and let Angus and the elder talk he on the other hand watched the younger ones behind the elder. When he said Suzzane was a moron Jack chuckled " and how" he said softly with a smirk He heard that Angus would not get the greeting he'd got the next time he came to the camp and nodded . "good, becuse if they touch one hair on his head , they will deal with me" he said softly his eyes fixed on the younger men. " and I will tell you this I was turned by my brother, James Blood." he growled at them.

Ruby nodded at Jefferys words then heard him ask when she thought her axiety first hit and she thought back " hum..if Im honest I was thirteen, when my body was changing she always rediculed me never stopped my whole teen years until I left that house, I tried to get the boys out of there but the law kept them with her, when we left the court she told me I would never be good enough." she admited

"That is one werewolf that has done far more to hurt us all than he ever did to help us," one of the women said. "Fenrir can stand up to him, though. Blood is afraid of Fenrir."

"I think that is about the only thing he's afraid of," Angus said.

"He's tried to get our pack for years, but Fenrir has always protected us. It's part of why we need him back."

"We told you we would do all we could to get him back to you, and we will," Angus said.

"Oh, one more thing," the older man said. "Someone was trying to get in through your protection grids last night up here. They couldn't get through, though. Someone tried to walk through them and they bounced off like a rubber ball. And then they tried to fire spells at it, but the grid tossed back some sort of bright light beam in that direction. Too bright for us to see who was trying to get through, but it was up on the very northern most boundary."

"Thank you," Angus said. "We will check it out. We want everyone here to be safe."

"Makes sense that it would cause some insecurity in a young girl," Jeffrey said. "So what is it that keeps triggering that for you now? Is it Angus or someone here? Or is it something else? Something must be reminding you of it for you to keep having these anxiety issues. And what is it that makes you need to immediately try to take control of whatever situation you're in or whoever you're with?"

Jack listened and chuckled " yeah and he's also afraid of me," he said "we have kicked his butt numerous times" he told them then listened to them mention some one trying to get threw the barrier he looked at Angus wondering if Suzzane would be that stupid to try and physically get threw. "she wouldn't..would she?" he asked shaking his head at the thought of her flying off the barrier.

Ruby took a deep breath in and thought about it then spoke " I think its the fear of distrust, My perents lied all my life about things, they would say about going on a holiday and it would never happen , or like my so called arranged marage , they lied about that too, They ut me down everytime I did something I felt worth some sort of praise they shot it down, I was never good enough as a daughter to them, its why I left I got sick and tired of being put down and used as a servent." she said letting it all out to him.

"Well, would she be stupid enough? Yes," Angus replied, "but I doubt she could find in on her own. Maybe one of her husband's goons has it figured out. I don't know. I'll ask when we get back."

Jeffrey listened to her talking about her parents and the lack of encouragement and their lack of consistency. That much made sense.

"That makes sense as far as it goes," Jeffrey said. "And I can understand how that has interfered in your work and why it has caused you issues at your job. But it also seems like sometimes it comes between you and Angus. What's the deal there? I don't hear you saying he's like them, but there are times when you seem to need to take control of that relationship too. What is that about, and does it really help you and your relationship with Angus when you try to go around him? I admit I don't know him well but he seems like he wouldn't deal well with someone changing the rules on him like that."

Jack chuckled and nodded " yeah she would be but yes again I agree, I'll get some of the men to check that area." he said and looked back ay the elder " thank youfor the information, and Robert is working on getting Fenrir released." he told him as he moved to walk back down to the main house.

Ruby looked at Jeffery " That wasn't me, everything was fine between us untill I heard her belittling me again, and it brought back all the memories and bad feelings. " she told him sitting back in the chair she was sat in. " I trust Angus and the others, they took me in and my brother, they made me feel safe and home, really home I've left Caprice with Jess becuse I know she's not going to harm her or disapear with her, I go to Robert becuse I trust his word as I do with Edward, Jack is a bit of a yes no kinda guy and Yu is Jessie fiance and I don't have an issue with it, why would I ever have issue with Angus, that was my mother in my mind controling me, bringing up all the feelings I had represed for years and controling me, but not any more, what she did made me realize nobody controls me but me, my first priority is, like Angus, is my family including Angus, and yes I know hes a fully trainned fighter where Im not, my trainning was put on hold when I had Caprice and chose to stay behind to be there for the boys and her."

Angus walked with Jack back towards the main house, and Angus saw Michael sitting outside on the patio, taking a cigarette break.

"I'll bet if anybody understands those protection grids, its Michael," Angus said to Jack. He went up to Michael and said, "Michael, do you know about any issue with our protection grids last night?"

"In terms of what?" Michael asked.

"Did anyone try to get in?"

"Yes, but after a few tries they gave up. I was altered when there was some attempts up near the werewolf pack. Why?"

"They said that one charm was some sort of a bouncing charm and the other was something to do with white light?"

"Well, that's because someone was an idiot," Michael said. "They would have bounced because the protection grid made them bounce off and backwards. Clearly they tried at least three times because that's how many times I was alerted to that. And then, they tried to blast through it, and that could not have been comfortable because that would have made the grid toss back fire blasts of white hot flame at them. There was only one big blast of that, according to the alerts I got."

"So they were your spells?"

"No, no," Michael said. "Those were Robert's. I told him I would respond if the grids were triggered last night. I have no idea who triggered them, but they did not get through. That I can promise you."

"I have to admit, those grids sounded more like your style than his," Angus said.

"That's because when Robert designed them, he believed a half assed attempt deserved a half assed response," Michael shrugged. "if it happens again and gets any more serious, I'll let you know."

Jeffrey watched Ruby's reaction. "Look at yourself," Jeffrey said. "I posed a relatively plain question, and your anxiety skyrocketted, and you got instantly defensive. That, I'm guessing, is part of the reaction that you need to be able to work through. Take a minute, calm yourself and try to figure out why you felt the need to get so defensive. I wasn't attacking you or your integrity. I just asked a question."

Jack looked where Angus had motioned and walked with him over to Michael. Listening to what he said Jack could not help but chuckle " sounds like suzzane " he said then chuckled again " I wonder how far she bounced?" he said " must be a good sized crate where she landed too" he paused to stifle a laugh as michael explained it was Roberts doing " ooow ouch, add insult to injury, multiple injurys" he addded.

Ruby paused and thought about what had happened and took a slow breath in and let it out slowly "I..I didn't even know it was happening" she said slowly to him. "it must be instincual" she said as she thought about it , it was now she stopped herself knowing this was part of it , constant mulling of the situation. Pushing the thoughts to one side she thought of Caprice's smile or how Angus had held her and smiled . making her mind calm. "How do I stop it?" she asked

"Well, there is no crate back there," Michael said. "Think about it. What's on the other side of that boundary?"

"Nothing," Angus said.

"You're not thinking," Michael said. "It isn't a black hole from outer space. What' on the other side?"

"Nothing but a big, deep drop off."

"Exactly. There is a ledge about three foot wide, and then a big, deep drop. So, if she didn't catch herself, if it was her, she fell down and went boom," Michael shrugged.

"Oh darn," Angus said sarcastically. "Maybe she'll stop for a bit."

"Maybe. Or maybe one of Gelding's men rescued her. Surely he's figured out she's an idjit by now. Maybe he knows better than to send her alone now."

"It's not instinctual," Jeffrey shook his head. "It's a learned behavior. Something you taught yourself to do. I don't know why yet, but its something you felt you should do for some reason. To stop it, I'd suggest you start to become self aware of how you're feeling so that you recognize the anxiety when its a much smaller problem than to wait until its a full blown anxiety spell before you try to do something about it. Handling it when its smaller is easier to manage. And, then, learn to slow down your thinking so that you can stop and learn that you aren't always amongst enemies so you don't always have to defend yourself. Make sense?"