A Birth day

Ruby looked at Angus and shook her head " no, no you didn't " she told him then glanced at the coffee pot " oh coffee sounds good " she flicked her hand and made two cups float over to her, one with tea for Angus and the other with Coffee for herself as she listened to him talk of her brothers once more and how he notified them of Caprice's birth.

"That sounds perfect and no it won't be too much, thank you though," she said smiling as she took the cup out of the air in front of her. " but I do agree a quiet night together before they come does sound good, I'm glad she's sleeping," Ruby said " and I have to admit it feels weird having her there and not here," she said and touched her now semi flat stomach.

"Yeah, I think that would definitely be a bit of an adjustment that you don't feel her moving and kicking anymore. Wait til she gets noisy. That'll help you adjust in a hurry," he laughed. "She's had two bottles, one little spit up, and one wet diaper, so I think she's probably right on target with what she should be doing. I made a two ounce bottle for her, and she was irked with me that there wasn’t just a wee bit more, so I’ll add just a tiny bit more for her next feeding and see how she does with it. I don’t want to overfeed her, but I don’t want her hungry either."

He saw the little present on the coffee table, and he picked it up. It was addressed to Ruby and Angus from Khaat and Brian and Abbey. He unwrapped it and opened the little box to find the baby bracelet in white gold, with little pink pearls and a pink crystal dangling butterfly on it. He handed the little bracelet to Ruby to show it to her.

"That's really nice. I'll make a special point to go thank them tomorrow, especially Abbey," Angus told Ruby.

Ruby nodded as Angus said it will take some adjusting to have her out in the world and not inside her " yeah" she said smiling. She sat and listened to him tell her what Caprice had done so far but she could not argue with his logic about the bottle and increasing the amount she drank.

"If I'm right they say it's the baby that tells you what they need," she said " and if she needs more then we can give her that" she watched as he opened a small parcel and marvelled at what he held.

"Wow, that's beautiful, remind me to thank them, should we put it on her now or wait till she's a bit bigger?" she asked as she brushed her finger against Caprice's face gently as she watched Caprice sleeping.

"Well, I agree with you," Angus said. "If she needs a couple more sips beyond two ounces, then who am I to deny her? I didn't get the feeling she wanted a huge amount, just that she wasn't entirely satisfied yet. For what little it might be worth at this early stage, I'd rather have her learn that she can depend on us to make sure she has what she needs, even if the books might disagree. I'm sure she'll vary a bit on what she wants from one bottle to another."

"I might need to get a camera," Angus said. "If I had one, I'd take a picture and then make sure that we put the bracelet on her, took a picture, and then gave the picture to Abbey to share with her parents. I think we should put the bracelet on her when she has guests or when she is a guest someplace else. What do you think?"

"Ru, so you know, I didn't think I could tell you earlier, but its very possible that Tom Gelding and Suzanne are not happy with me. This morning, as we were finishing up our mission, I saw Tom trying to get away, so I tailed him and I saw him getting into a muggle car. I fired a fireball at the car, hoping I'd finally get him this time. The car burst into flame, but then I saw a woman in the back with him and two men in the front. And then I heard all sorts of muggles arriving, so I had to get the heck out of there. I really thought I'd blown Suzanne up by mistake until she sent me that stupid howler about setting her hair on fire. Frankly, I'm surprised her hair was all she was concerned about. Clearly she survived. I don't know if Tom survived, but she did. I'd have never tried to hurt her like that. Just so you know, but its entirely possible they're both really angry with me right now."

Ruby listened to Angus and nodded "Agreed on the bracelet and.." she stood up and took out of a draw a small camera, turning it on she showed it to Angus.

"Here we go," she said then listened to him tell her about what had happened to her mother and Gelding, she paused then chuckled as she spoke " you did what you had to and well she probably deserved it, I wouldn't worry about it too much, she always blew up over the smallest thing." she said smiling at him "I don't blame you you tried," she added as she took some photos of Caprice with the bracelet on her tiny wrist.

"Something tells me she's not one for flashy things," she said smiling as she watched Caprice slip her wrist out of the bracelet " but I did get some good photos though." she smiled at him.

"You got some good pictures. I think, since I'm not all that experienced at taking pictures, you should be the official family baby photographer. It definitely shouldn't be me. I think they'd like these two pictures," he said, selecting two. "Can you get me a print of each of those for them?"

"You'd have thought Suzanne would have been more concerned about blowing up the car with them in it, but, no. She's all wound up because her hair caught fire. Your mom is so weird." When the baby slipped out of the bracelet, he picked it up out of the basket and put the bracelet back in the box and put the box back on the coffee table. "I'll put it upstairs in the nursery the next time I go up."

"I don't think I've had a chance to talk to you much about the boys. Things did get sort of crazy before the baby got here, but I did talk briefly to Robert about maybe hiring the boys for some part time work here this summer. He's not opposed to it, but he would like them to eventually go to Colorado to do some hard initial training there. Robert is going to add some agents to the organization, and he's going to put the new hires through a boot camp. I think he's going to handle it in phases, and it sounded like they could be differing in length and maybe locations. I don't have all the information, but the first phase is supposed to be a two week hitch at the Colorado ranch. It sounded to me like he wants the boys to be able to fight at least enough to defend themselves if it ever came to it, and I certainly wouldn't be opposed to that. By then, they'll be 18 and will be able to make their own choices on it, but I think the boys want to move back with us for awhile after graduation in a couple months. I'm if you wanted to go and take that training too you could do that." Angus believed she wouldn't want to go right now, but he certainly wanted her to take advantage of every opportunity that she truly wanted.

(I'm taking it for granted that we're probably in early april now b/c that was her due date.)

Ruby chuckled and shook her head "I'm not that good, but thank you" she said smiling as she watched him move the bracelet out of the crib and back into its box then chuckled again " yeah she always was! she said then listened to him talk about the boys " that sounds perfect, as long as they both want." she paused and looked at him " I have a feeling they will both agree and training to work properly will benefit them in the long run" she said placing down the camera on the table beside the box with the bracelet inside it.

"They will not make a silly mistake when they're out on a mission." she sighed and moved to stand with him slipping her arms around his waist as she rested her head against his chest and then looked up at him "I'm good," she said smiling up t him " besides we're going to have our hands full with Caprice for a while." she smiled seeing their daughter move in the bassinet.

"Ru," he replied to her, "everybody makes mistakes on missions. It happens. We make judgment calls in a fraction of a second, and sometimes we make the right gamble and sometimes we don't. The advantage we have over other fighters, like the aurors, for example, is that we work with a whole team of fighters who have all sorts of advanced skills and who train all the time. I've seen some aurors who have gotten their initial training, and then they stop training after that. They do routine things or desk duty, and their skills get rusty. They're not the sort of folks I would want backing me up. Fortunately, when we ask someone to go along, no matter who it is, whether its Jack, or Yulong or Michael or anybody you're getting a solid team member that you know you can count on, no matter what. If the boys decide to join the organization, they've got some darned good team members to help back them up and to help grown them up in terms of their fighting skills..."

There was a knock on the door, and Angus answered it. It was Andrew with a large basket.

"Zoe sent me with your supper basket," Andrew smiled. "I hope you're hungry. Zoe's fixed an amazing looking filet mignon for the two of you, along with potatoes, a beautiful spinach salad with a hot bacon dressing, and a dessert she is calling individual Midnight Lava Cakes. It's chocolate, but it is such a deep dark rich chocolate that it looks like it's coal black. I managed to sneak a taste of the cake, and oh my goodness. I think it's going to be a new favorite with this bunch. Oh, and she's sent a split of a real champagne and a split of a nonalcoholic one. We told her that you like champagne, Angus, and it really isn't Ruby's tastes. So there's the real deal for Dad and sparkling apple juice for Ruby. Is there anything else we can get you two tonight?"

"I can't think of a thing," Angus said. "It sounds like the perfect celebration supper for two. Thank you, and please thank Zoe for us."

"I'll do that," Andrew said, setting out the covered dishes on the table. Angus could smell the steak, and he could smell that it had been expertly char grilled.

"I think I might be hungrier than I thought I was," Angus laughed.

"Me too," Andrew laughed. "That's why I'm going to hurry back to the house if you don't need anything--before Jack smells the steak grilling."

"Andrew, humans' noses will not catch the smell of steak quicker than a werewolf. Just isn't gonna happen," Angus laughed. "The only way you'll beat him is if our apparating spell is faster than his. I'd still hurry if I were you."

"See ya later, then," Andrew said, leaving and heading back to the main house.

Ruby smiled and nodded "That's true," she said " I'll join them if they decide to join and brush up on my skills too," she said " might mean you'll have some bonding time with Caprice," she said then smiled " but I think both of you will love that idea," she said and saw Andrew at the door with a basket.

"Oh, it smells divine." she said and took the basket and placed it in the kitchen area " well, if you're going to do that, you'd better hurry as I see he's on his way," she said and chuckled as she unpacked everything Andrew had said was inside. She let Angus thank him and mention to thank Zoe too. Taking two champagne flutes she pored a glass for Angus then the apple juice for herself and walked over to him as she held out his glass to him." here's to our daughter, the first but I hope not the last, but not too soon." she said smiling as she touched her glass to his.

Taking a sip of her aple juice she smiled at Angus before moving to lightly kiss him " both of you are perfect, if I don't tell you enough just know that I love both of you so much" she told him.

Angus locked the door after Andrew left, and he finished setting out supper on the table while Ruby poured the drinks. He took his champagne flute and toasted with her to the toast that she made to Caprice.

"Agreed," he smiled. "To big changes that come in small packages. We love you too." He kissed her back, and as he did, he heard Caprice start to cry and then a smell hit his nose that was definitely not steak. "Already? So much for romance," he sighed. "That is not the smell of romance. I'll get this one, and you can get the next one." He set his glass on the table and picked the baby up. "We're going upstairs for a moment," Angus said, picking up Moses basket and all. "She needs either a bath or a garden hose," he said. "Her first diaper blow out. Be right back. Go ahead and eat while your supper is hot and while I take care of this. I won't be long--or at least I don't think I will be." He had seen first diapers before, so he wasn't particularly bothered by it. He didn't know whether Ruby had ever had to deal with first diapers, so he just decided to deal with it.