A Birth day

Jess listened to Robert and nodded " that's Marcus Khaat Brian, Jack myself and Kate right?" she asked hoping she'd not forgotten anyone." oh and that will be perfect, what attare shall I request, mission or non-mission?" she moved back to the house and sent out notes to everyone knowing it was an official meeting.

Ruby looked to Robert and nodded to him "Agreed and Nicky and Shannon will be fine, I know them and trust them" she told him and could not disagree with his thinking. " well I have weeds to pull and a run to do with Jess, plus dinner to get ready, so I'd better get a move on, I'll see you later at the meeting." she said and picked up her gloves again and began to pull the weeds happy to be back on the team again.

Soon she stopped and picked up Caprice looking at Simone she spoke " I'm going to go over to Nicky and Shannon then go on my run with Jess" who she could see walk over to Jessies cabin and talk to Yu Long and Jessie. She walked over to the main house and smiled seeing Nicky and Shannon. " Would you guys mind looking after Caprice, Im going back into trainning and I know you have Molly and well I couldn't think of any one I trust with her more." she asked.

"Well, and some others. Kate and Michael are founding organization members. They'll be there. Edward won't be moved from Angus. No, mission wear won't be necessary. We're not planning on leaving the property." He listened to her talk about her chores for the day. "I'll have Nicky send over supper so you don't have to cook."

"You do realize I wont' be left out of anything that involves the rest of my famiiy, whether I am invited or not. As a former Ambassor's wife, I am a professional party crasher," Simone said. David laughed.

"Robert won't turn down another capable wand, and I think, in this case, Angus will appreciate a unified front from his family," David said. "Just so you know, though. I've seen guys like him who have already made a decision that they see no other way than to put themselves out on a kamikaze mission like he's decided. Here's what you can expect until that notion gets out of his head. He will be distracted. Quiet, in his own head. Remember where his head is. He believes he's had to decide how and when to give up his own life. He's not suicidal. That's not it. He believe he has no other choice, and he's trying to resolve that it's just business. Now he's going to want to make sure all his bases are covered in making sure that you and the boys and Caprice will not ever want for a single thing for the rest of your lives if he can make that happen."

"I can tell you right off," Simone said. "He's already done that. Edward has seen the paperwork. That was put into place sometime after the boys were adopted and before Caprice was born. Edward said that as a protector, Angus has always felt there was always the chance he might not come back, so he has tried to tie up every single consideration since he started to see fatherhood in his picture."

"Then, I know Marcus's history. Robert's right. Marcus knows exactly what its like to feel what Angus is feeling now, and he'll be drawn to Angus like a moth to a flame. He'll be out of Angus's eyesight but from here on, until that need decreases for Angus, Marcus will always have him in eyesight or earshot. One or the other. And once Angus's fighting mates, like Jack, find out, they'll be going to Marcus to take shifts with him. They'll have Angus. They'll walk it with him. He's got damned good mates here. And that honestly is part of why he feels pressed to do it alone. He knows how good they are, and he does not want to risk them so that they will always be available to be there for you and the boys and Caprice when he's gone."

"David, Angus can also be wrong. He can think its a done deal, but I know Robert's reputation. He won't let one of his men down. It'll be alright. It might be touchy, but we can do this," Simone said, as David picked up a fussy Caprice. "Now what are you getting all noisy about, Miss?" he asked Caprice.

Ruby listened to Simone and David and smiled glad they knew him so well "Thats Good and I agree, Im glad he has so many that look after him." she said " well now he has me too looking after him even more so now" she could not help but laugh at the mention of Jack and Marcus sticking to Angus " oh he'd love that " she said and chuckled watching as Jack came out walking stiffly to the door she laughed seeing Nicky run after him and made him go back in side " seems hes being told off right now" she said and looked to Simone.

Returning from talking to Nicky and Shannon, who'd agreed to look after Caprice, she transphigured her clothing into her running gear just as Jess knocked " okay time to run" she said and Ruby moved to her.

"all right, two laps around the course and don't forget your water bottle" she said Jess nodded and they took off, she ran a pace to start then built up some speed to finally draw with Jess at the end,

"not bad, but you wavered a little on the second courner, could use some staminer training, now stretchs and meditation for half an hour" she said as Jess led her to a spot infront of the pond where two yoga mats had been placed " pick one and copy me" she said " it helps focus the mind and release axiety." Ruby did as Jess instructed feeling some what relaxed once finished.

Angus continued to work hauling hay until his hay hook snapped one of the bale twine threads and the bale fell, yanking his left shoulder joint. He felt cartilage give and ligaments giving way. Before he could stop himself a string of fierce obscenities had sprung from his mouth, as he had grabbed that shoulder. The crew stopped and raced towards him but Anise reached him first.

"You're hurt," she said quietly, steadily.

"I'm alright," he said, trying to pull himself together. "It just surprised me."

"Liar. That hurt. I heard something crack from where I was across the corral," she said. He picked up the hay hooks to try to pick up the bale, and Marcus came over and laid his hands over Angus's. He looked up at Angus.

"Let go, Mate. I've got it," Marcus said quietly. There was something in Marcus's face that said volumes to Angus in that moment, and Angus let go. Marcus moved the bale over to the right spot in the corral and took the hooks and handed them to a crew member.

"I'll push through it. It'll be fine," Angus said.

"Yeah, let's not," Marcus said. "Come on. Let's go get some ice. Anise, you can see your sister for a few minutes while we do that if you like." Anise followed as Marcus took him into the main house and downstairs and found some ice packs and worked to try to ice his shoulder. Anise was not going to be taken from Angus. "Now, Squirt, if you hear Robert or Jess, go ask them to come check his shoulder."

"He's torn it. That's what he's done--torn something. I've seen that before when some of our doofuses try to bring fallen trees back for firewood and they don't break it down before the try to drag it back," she told him.

"When you get your healer's certificate, I will be happy to let you at him," Marcus laughed, actually believing she was probably right.

Jess was walking back from Jessies and Yu's cottage after informing them of the meeting when she heard the comotion from the barn and walked over to the doors and pushing them open. She saw Marcus, Angus and Anise all stood around angus and talking " okay, whose the duffus?" she asked looking betwen Marcus and Angus" it was now she sighed " okay Angus let me look at it." she said and walked over placing her hand on his shoulder lightly she sighed as she felt the waves of pain coming from his shoulder. " yep, you've done a number on this, ruptured cartilage and torn ligaments, I'll take some of the pain off and start the mending process but it will take some time, nice catch Anise" she told her before looking to Marcus " please make him go inside and rest his arm" she said " I'll let Robert know, he'll want to double check it " she felt some thing push her from behind and turned to see a horse loking at her " hey there girl some one forgot your suger?" she said and took out of her pocket two lumps and gave them to her " I'll take you out for a ride later " she told the horse before watching Marcus and Angus then heading to the main house her self.

Moving inside she found Jack grumbling about not being able to do anything " that dear is becuse you shouldn't have gone up on your brother , you wouldn't have had two broken ribs and lots of bruising" she informed him a she lent over the back of his chair , she kissed his cheek and smiled " besides its only for a few more days you know you heal quicker than humans" she said sititng to face him. " Roberts called a meeting o the first stringers and that includes you and me " she said seing him try and get up she pushed him back down " wow there its just a meeting nothing more" she told him and he nodded.

(Marcus had already taken Angus to the sickbay for ice packs, but lets' just move forward.)

"What's this?" Anise asked, reaching down to the waistband of Angus's jeans. She picked up a long piece of string and looked at it.

"Its nothing," Angus reassured her. "Just probably the bailing twine that broke. That's what made me drop it. It's my own fault." She looked at it.

"It looks weird," she said.

"What do you mean?" Angus asked.

"There's something funny about it. Not funny 'haha' but funny weird," she said.  

"Let me see," Marcus said. He looked at the string and saw that the ends of the string weren't frayed. They were freshly, cleanly cut. If Angus had damaged it with his hook it would have looked split or frayed. This was cut. "Maybe he got his hook caught in it," Marcus said, deliberately not telling her the truth in front of Angus. Marcus did not believe Angus was ready to hear there was another threat on his life. He pocketed the string instead.

Robert was coming down from upstairs and he saw Nicky working on supper.

"Nicky could you please send supper tonight over to the duplex for the Donohue bunch before our meeting out at the firepit tonight?"

"Of course," Nicky smiled. "Will Angus be over there then?"

"What do you mean?"

"They just took him down to the sickbay. He looked like he was hurt," Nicky replied.  

"I'll go check. Thanks," Robert said. He went downstairs and found Angus, Marcus and Anise. "Let me see," Robert said, moving the ice pack.

"That blonde woman--Jess? She said he broke something..." Anise said, trying not to be upset. Angus reached out with his good hand and touched her as Robert started to examine the bad shoulder. Angus winced a bit but he stayed focused on Anise, working hard to be a good father figure to her.

"Calm. Breathe," he said steadily. "Look at me." She was hesitant, but he lifted her chin a bit. "Look. I'm fine. Robert is a healer too, like Jess. It's fine. She didn't say it was broken."

"But when it happens to our guys in the camp..."

"Anise," Robert said. "Two things. He's not a werewolf.  He's human, so he uses his body differently. And second, your pack doesn't have me. Angus does. It'll be alright, my dear."  She tried to breathe, trying to not become the focus of attention, but afraid to leave Angus.

"I am very glad to hear it since it isn't broken," Robert laughed. "Ruptured cartilage and torn ligaments. You have done worse but you really could have tried to spare it a little. So here's what we'll do. We'll put it in a brace. I can't tape it until the swelling goes down. But I can blend a potion for you for the swelling and the pain. I gave Jack a new potion for his ribs, and I think it'll work for you too. It holds better, and it doesn't cause so much drowsiness. And I'll send Andrew over to help you shower at night or in the morning. You'll need help getting the brace off and on, and I really will have to support it for a bit because the weight of your arm is going to be painful otherwise. Let's see what it looks like when the swelling goes down, but we might need to do just a wee bit of wizarding surgery to repair and reattach things. We'll see. If we do, it won't be nearly as big a deal as it is for a muggle, so don't sweat it."

It didn't take long for Robert to get a brace and put it on and to add a sling. Then he mixed up a potion for Angus, and he carefully labeled it for Angus and wrote the instructions on it. He handed Angus a potions cup.

"Here. It'll help," Robert told him simply. Angus didn't question it. He just took it. "Good. Can you get him home, Marcus?"

"I think I remember where he lives," Marcus said, amused. "If not, Anise can help me get back where he belongs."

"Nicky will send supper over for all of you, and then I'll see you at half past seven, Angus, out at the firepit, unless you're not up to it. If you're not..."

"I'll be there," Angus said. Robert nodded, not pursuing it farther. Marcus helped him to his feet. Anise was quick to want to help. They took him home. Anise ran ahead and opened the door. Marcus helped him inside and over to his chair.

"You still have ice packs in your freezer?" Marcus asked.

"Always," Angus replied. Marcus made himself at home and got him an ice pack and put it against his shoulder.

"You look like hell. A nap would do you good," he said. "Anise, you let me know if he needs anything at all, won't you?" She nodded. "I'll check back a little later." He left, leaving Anise there with him. Marcus went back to the main house, and he went to see Jack.

"Wanna play a game?" he asked Jack, sitting down with him. He knew full well that Jack was the head of outdoor services, so the proper chain of command was to bring it to Jack first. "This game is called 'What Happened to the Bailing Twine?'" He got the piece of twine out of his pocket and handed it to Jack. "Angus has worked barn duties for years, but this was a first. Anise was helping outside because we're short handed with you out and Jessie apparently more off than on today. I don't know how she ended up trying to wrestle the big 3 strand bails, but when Angus saw it, he stepped up to help her. The twine on one of the bails broke, and Angus blew his shoulder good and proper when the string broke. See anything funny about that? Our new little Squirt thought she saw something funny about the twine. I purposely minimized her because she was quite upset about seeing Angus get hurt, and I don't want her to get involved with this business with Suzanne if I can help it. Anise's already crazy attached to her new family. But I think she's right. Do you see what I see?"

Jack as sresting his ribs when he spotted Marcus , Angus and Anise headed back to Angus's duplex he just sat back and closed his eyes for amoment but hearing Marcus's voice opened them again " oh goody I love games" he said ad took the bailing twine " as he listened to Marcus talk " so Angus didn't cut this?" he asked turning the twint to show the side he'd been looking at," if not then we have a sabotour on the grounds" he said and looked at Marcus " some one whose after Angus paticulary , becuse if it w just general it would have gone on Anise first." He took a slowl steady breath in and then let it go " humm, we need to investigate but quietly so whom ever it is dosn't disapear." he added but then sighed again " Im not in a fit state to go searching with these damned ribs."

Ruby finished clearing out the garden and smiled seeing Angus but her smile didn't  last seeing him with his shoulder in a sling she looked to Jess who glanced over to where she was looking " torn ligaments and ruptured tendon" she said simply as she continued her meditaion " focus. hes with Marcus and Anise, he was wended by Robert so hes fine, don't let your axiety get the better of you" she spoke softly to Ruby who turned back and continued her session with Jess.

Soon they were done and she walked over to him and acciod a towel to put ober her shoulder . "So how'd that happen?" she asked simply noticing David with Caprice and smiled seing her glance over to them.

"You win," Marcus nodded. "No, he didn't cut it. He hadn't gotten it into place yet. He had just picked up the bale to move it. I saw it happen. I don't think they were out after Anise because she had never seen hay hooks and didn't they even existed, much less know how to use them until Angus got a pair to use to move the bales for her. He picked up the bale, took a step or two, the string gave out on the right end, and that yanked the full weight of it on that shoulder. Certainly wasn't intending to kill him, but whoever did it was out to hurt him. Maybe to weaken him. Not sure what the motive is, though. Unless something else is coming. I don't know. Well, maybe we should discuss it with Robert. I haven't showed him this yet, but I maybe should do that before the team meeting.

"I really do believe Anise was on it because she's the one who caught it. I did not want her to worry because I think she would be out actively hunting who was going after her brand new foster dad, so I sort of told her the hay hooks had probably just severed the string. I think she bought it for the moment, but I didn't like lying to her.

"It occurs to me that if I go snooping around the barn, it'll be obvious b/c i am usually too busy to be on grounds detail. However, the most obvious people, actually, to put on it are you and Jessie. Let's look at the time frame for healing ribs. Today and tomorrow are going to be your worst days. Then, you're not going to hurt nearly as badly. Remember, wizard healing goes much faster for most things as opposed to muggle things. We can ask Robert for sure, but I bet you could maybe take a walk around the barn and the corral tomorrow as long as you don't overdo it. You should ask Robert for certain, but any healer I've ever had for them wants me to stay somewhat active so that I'm doing some deep breathing as I'm up and active to help keep my chest clear of pneumonia. They've always told me that just sitting on my bum til they're all healed is absolutely not a good thing.

"So if you could be up at all, even if its just to walk through and just say you're keeping an eye on things, no one would think anything about it. That's your job. Jessie and maybe Yulong could do some closer looking since they often help in that area. Maybe Kate too, but I don't know if I want to put her in harms way unless she's fully read in. I am positive that Anise would be all over it, but she's a kid. I don't know that I feel good about adding her into it unless Robert and either Ruby or Angus give permission. But neither of them know about this at all."

Angus saw Ruby come in and come over to her while Anise busied herself by getting Angus a glass of iced tea. She brought it to him.

"Bless you. That looks great," he smiled at her. He looked up at Ruby. "I saw Anise trying to wrestle one of the big 3 strand hay bales, so I took that job from her. They're just too heavy for her. She was giving it a good try, though. So I was moving bales and the string on the right broke and the bale fell and yanked my left shoulder pretty hard."

"Our boys shout and moan and groan like a stuck boar hog when it happens to them," Anise said, with an amused grin on her face. "This one here--he swears like a sailor for a minute and then he's just all done with it. Like it's all fine then. Our boys couldn't do that."

"Meh," Angus said, brushing it off. "Farm accidents happen. We try to prevent as many of them as we can, but crap happens. Oh, and Robert is having Nicky send over supper tonight for us so we can make the meeting."

"Meeting? Can I go?"

"Ruby and I will discuss it. We have a little time before then."

"I guess I need to go get out of your way then."

"You're not in our way. You live here," Angus told her.

Ruby smiled as she saw Anise walk over with some iced tea for Angus and she listened " hum, Jess told me Robert looked at you." she said and looked over to Anise " thats the diferance between a man and a boy, one curses for a while but then gets one with it and the other.. well calls for his mommy." she said ad chuckled "Angus is definatly a man to let this not bother him." she chuckled then heard Angus talk once more she nodded at the mention of supper being sent over " thats good to know" she said then looked at Anise again" theres some breakfast burittos in the fridge , you can have them as a snack if you want" she said with a smile.

Hearing her ask if she could come to the meeting and Angus repluy she looked at Anise "Angus is right , we'll talk about it and tell you later, I promise" she said with a smile.

Jack listened to Marcus talk about walking around to keep his lungs clear while his ribs mended. He had to admit he ahd been restless and wanted to walk around " I'll check on things tomorrow, might be best if I do the looking since Im natraly snoopy as some of the men tell me" he said and chuckled but winced a little. " have to admit though the potion Robert gave me has helped, I got all the way down here after all" he then frowned alittle " I might ask Jessie to help too, since he dowes the evening and night shifts in the barn, wouldn't hurt" he aded shifting in his seat as Jess walked in and placed down some hot tea for him.

"hi Marcus , you sorted things?" she asked .

"I think that will work," Marcus nodded.

"Look at this," Marcus said, handing the bailing twine to Jess. "Jack and I don't think this was accidental. Angus doesn't know yet, and neither does Robert. And we haven't even breathed a syllable of it to anyone else. Anise knows because she's the one that found it, but I lied and told her the hay hooks could have done it.

"Now, let me tell you what I think is going on with Angus. I'm positive that's what this is about tonight. I know how he thinks, and I saw it in his face today when he got back from being gone with Edward overnight. Something happened yesterday, and I don't know exactly what it was that got to him, but I can tell you this. I am certain of one thing. He's really shut himself down from honestly connecting with any of us, and he's moved into some very dangerous thinking. Jack, you've been a fighter for a long time. I'm sure you know the signs. He's about to try to go rogue and go off on his own to try to resolve this whole business with Suzanne.

"Now, as I figure it, he's been dealing with Gelding for almost two decades now. He has to know that if he thinks he can take down Suzanne, even if she's the dumbest thing on two feet, he has to get through Gelding first, and Tom Gelding won't let her go to a face off without backup--a lot of it. Angus has to know that. So, he has to plan around it. And as I see it, I only see one plan to take down Suzanne for certain. And that's exactly what I see when I look in his eyes. He's already decided. He plans on killing himself in a way that takes her with him for sure. If I were in his shoes, he knows that Edward and Simone and the rest of us would look after Ruby and Caprice. The boys will be adults, and the girls aren't far from it. But he's thinking they would finally be free of her once and for all. Her bloody constant anxiety is making him nuts. So, right now, I know Edward and David won't have him out of earshot while he's inside. If he's outside, I'm going to be on him like white on rice until he lets go of this. I think Robert is going to want us to find some way to bring him back from this idea that he thinks is the only way to solve Suzanne."