A Birth day

Ruby smiled at Ginger " well you do now " she said and then listened to her talk abut lamonade " hum I don't know ether I hard of lemon cheese cake and lemon sorbet," she said both of those are easy to make if you want I could make some for you to try" she offered and smiled " Anise is awake and inside do you wan tot see her? " she asked looking out over the yard as they sat feeling teh warm sun against their skin.

Jack entered the barn and started feeding the piggmy puffs then the hypogriff slowly moving down each animal and feeding and cleaning out the stalls they ocupied. Moving to the botruckles he fed them one by one then headed to the main house not seeing any one around he sat down and took a break from work.

"Don't go to any trouble," Ginger said. "Honestly, I'd really rather your house just do what it normally does so that I can get the feel of who does what and when. Anise and I only have our life experiences in the camp and the pack to compare things to, so i am more interested in knowing what daily life indoors is like. If I ever want to go back inside again." She cast Ruby a bit of an amused smile." Right now, this is as close to heaven as I can imagine. Oh, and I'm supposed to give this to someone." she reached in her pocket and got out a business sized envelope and handed it to Ruby. "It's a copy of the diet sheet that Nigel and Robert designed. i was told there's a chef here that can handle that. I would rather just pitch it and eat whatever the rest of the family eats, but I don't think Robert works that way."

Angus needed something to do, so he had organized the pantry and the kitchen simply because things had gotten out of place just over time. It hadn't taken long, but he had a drive to put things in order. Then he went up and organized the baby's clothes. He separated them by, then he broke things things down by onesies, pajamas, sleep sacks, socks, then, shirts, tank tops, trousers, shorts, and in the wardrobe, he organized her snowsuit, winter coat, spring coat, rainjacket, hats, boots, gloves, shoes, and all the rest. There was a set of shelves that held miscellaneous things like blankets and other stuff. Within each of those categories he separated them by size with the smallest ones on top. He had carefully labled boxes that were clearly labled for each new size. He left only the size she was currently wearing in the drawers. He took out anything she wasn't wearing, and he had a labeled box in the bottom of the closet for things when she would outgrow them, feeling Ruby was more sentimental about such things than he was. She was probably going to want to keep some bloody thing. But the "Outgrown" box, would get those things out of the way. And the "Outgrown" box was sitting on a box of baby equipment that she wasn't nearly ready for yet.

Marcus had let Angus ramble about on his own for a couple of hours and found him knee deep in baby paraphernalia in the nursery.

"What are you doing?" Marcus asked, amused.

"It's not organized. It needs to be right," he told Marcus.

"You doing okay?"

"I'm better busy," he replied.

"Fair enough. Tell me if you're starting to feel stressed again before it gets there."

"Of course, I'm bloody freaking stressed," Angus replied quietly, folding a pair of little jeans but not catching that they were actually inside out. "We've got freaking wolfsbane on the grounds. I know every plant and tree on this property, and we've never had wolfsbane here. I never allowed it because we have werewolves living here in peace...."

"No one's blaming you..."

"I know, but it could have killed someone--one of my two kids. The bloody bitch has gone too far now. She's gone after one of mine, and i'm gonna have her for it."

"Understood, but, Mate, think a second. It could have harmed anybody, not just the girls. Wolfsbane, in it's natural form, could have killed any one of us. So you don't know who that was geared to. Don't let yourself make mistakes in your logic. You're too experienced for that. We stick to the plan we made last night, and in the meantime, we do the best we can to keep each other safe." Marcus took the inside out jeans and turned them rightside out and folded them, and Angus didn't even notice.

"This has always been a sanctuary, a safe place. And it isn't anymore."

"That's temporary. We'll get through it. I think you should keep folding. You have a mountain of baby clothes to do. Just how many babies did you think Ruby was gonna have, anyway?"

"Eh, it was a way to disarm Suzanne several months ago, and it did make her all hot and bothered for a little."

"By making her think you were hauling in enough baby gear to take care of a platoon? Surely not even Suzanne would think Ruby would hatch thirteen at a time. " he laughed. "We don't usually do a baker's dozen in one fell swoop."

"I don't think she know that," Angus said. "She's only got one brain cell, and it takes at least two for a coherent thought. As I said, it worked for awhile."

Ruby listened to Ginger and smiled "it's okay, I'm here for you and Anise and right now you two are my priority, along with Caprice " she said smiling at her "it's the role of the mother" she added then chuckled " oh I know what you mean, I love being out doors but when winter comes and its snowing, cold and raining" she said " as much as I love the outdoors, being inside all warm and cosy in the cold freezing winter is so much better" she patted Ginger's leg lightly then saw the card she held out to her.

Taking it from her she enlarged it and read the requirements that were written on it she nodded as she read it. "yes we do, I'll give this to Andrew so he knows what you should and shouldn't eat" she said with a smile as she moved to pull the bkanket up more around Gingers waist. " if you need anything , just yell , okay." she said then moved inside the Duplex she could hear Angus upstairs in Caprices room and chuckled also hearing Marcus talking to him. she looked to Anise " just rest for today , I'll finish the rolls so if you want one elp your self." she said taking the now lightly browned rolls from the oven and setting them down on the counter to cool.

"It's better than it was," Anise told Ruby. "It really, really hurt before. And my arm looks funny. Edward said that would pass, though." It had made the skin on her arm off color, but she wasn't in nearly as much pain. "I guess I'm going to have to be a lot more careful when I'm outside. I let my guard down, but I'll try not to do it again. You said Ginger was here? How's she doing? I do want to see her, but honestly, I'm tired. I'm sure we'll see each other when it gets dark. That was when us younger pack members were expected to be in camp, so we just are used to doing it.

"And someone from the main house dropped off a backpack of school books, one for me and one for Ginger. Apparently Ginger has a couple days worth of school stuff done ahead of me, but I've been busier than she has. I'm hoping I can catch up to her.

Angus happened to glance at the clock and saw it was nearing supper time. He put down the baby clothes with the job half finished.

"Where are we going?" Marcus asked.

"WE are going to cook supper," Angus said. "Do you cook?"

"A little," Marcus said. "I make great eggs."

"Fabulous. So as long as we have eggs, we're in business. When we run out of eggs, between you and David, we're gonna starve." Angus went downstairs and got out some boneless skinless chicken breasts and started to cut them quickly into bite sized pieces.

"Careful with that cleaver," Marcus frowned. "That looks exceptionally dangerous to cut things with one hand."

"It isn't the easiest, but it needs done," he replied. "I'll manage. I always do."

Ruby saw the two bags by the door and smiled " well how about I pass you the bag and you can use this time to catch up if you want and your not too tired" she said accioing the bag and moving a cofee table closer to the couch " but don't push yourself for today " she looked at ehr arm and smiled " Im sure the color will come back soon" she added placing the bag on the table " and yes you will see Ginger when its supper time." she sid now seeing Angus and Marcus walk down the stairs " hey, where have you two been?" she asked as they moved to the kitchen.

"I made cinimmon rolls if you want one help your self" she said to them both. Looking and chaecking Caprice she found her npping on the floor her head resting on a stuffed teddy bear she assumbed Edward had given her when she was first born.

"Angus has rooted out the baby things because he says they're not organized anymore," Marcus laughed. "Something about the actual job of parenting that causes things to not always get back to the places they should be. But did he seriously think you were gonna have a whole platoon of babies? Good grief. I told him you could have given birth to thirteen at once and still had surplus."

"He actually did say that," Angus said. "Ru, do you know if we have any more little bottles of sesame oil in the pantry. I couldn't find any, and I did try to accio it but I got regular sesame oil, not toasted sesame oil. If we're out, can you please pull some from the main pantry in the house? I'll replace it. I'm going to make Orange Chicken for supper, but I need some toasted sesame oil." He was well aware that the normal recipe didn't call for it, but he preferred to make his own sauces. I hope the girls like Chinese. If they don't, well, Marcus can make eggs." Marcus gave him an amused look. "You wanna fry the rice, Marcus?"

"Me? Hell, no," Marcus laughed. "I've watched you do it. You get all cheffy with it and you take that big one handled wok you have and you toss that stuff in the air and somehow get it all back in the pan. I might be able to do that, but only if you allow me a five second rule to accio it all back up from the floor."

"So, you're saying you'd rather have a little rice with your dog hair, then?" Angus asked.

"Um, no."

Ruby watched and listened to Marcus and Angus chukaling as she stood up beside Anise " I'll be right back" she said and moved to the pantry , looking all the way at the back she brought out a bottle " its the last one so I'll put it on the rerorder list" she said placing it down on the counter then she gasped looking at Marcus " well , he had mentioned when we got to gether about having his own army. " she said smirking as she moved to sit back with Anise.

She heard him mantion about rice and smirked at marcus words. " be more like the dog will get it quicker " she said and looked to finn who sat by the back door with his tounge out looking at the two men.

"Thank you," Angus said when she brought back the last of the sesame oil. "Yeah, we use that a lot when we make such large quantities of food. Better order several bottles for the main house when you add it to the list. I try to get at least six bottles at a time simply because the bottles are teeny weeny, and we use it a lot. You're right about the dog. He's a quick little devil. I don't think the food even hits the floor before he has it." He was finding the sling to be really in his way, and he took it off and chucked it away behind him where it hit the floor and slid across the kitchen. Finn saw it go, and he raced over, snatched it up in his mouth and raced off with it over through Edward's side of the duplex and out Edward's open patio door, into the yard. Marcus frowned.

"And he's off," Angus said, just watching the dog racing across the property as fast and as far as he could go.

"Damn dog," Marcus sighed. His job was bodyguarding, not chasing naughty dogs.

"I really didn't want it anyway. Its a pain in the ass," Angus said.

"Robert will be a much bigger pain in your ass if he sees you without it," Marcus said.

"I'll feed him. That'll settle him," Angus shrugged. "Kate's right. He's quite vulnerable to good food, especially fish and chips. Alright, time out. I'll go get him." He set his cleaver aside and went out, following the dog.

"Guess I'm going for a walk," Marcus said, following Angus.

Ruby smiled at Angus then heard him talk of th sking to watch it skidd across the kitchen floor and Finn run over to grab it. She was about to chase him but saw him head to Edwrads side then out the door " hearing Angus she looked back at him " who would you feed Finn or Robert ?" she asked as she heard Marcus say he was going to get Finn " thank you Marcus , I don't know why hes acting this way ushualy hes pretty good " she said hoping it was just something that Finn would get over.

Ruby sent a message to the suppliers about the oil about getting larger sizes for their home to make sure they ahd plenty of the oil when Angus needed it she also placed an order for eggs and fresh fruit since she ahd seen several of them had become moldy in the pantry and such neede to be thrown away into the compost heap.

Angus followed the dog, not really having the energy to do it, and he wasn't sure why. He saw something catch Finn's eye, and he started to dig a hole.

"What are you doing?" Angus shouted. "Have you lost your mind?" He followed the dog and looked where Finn was digging. There was something glowing in the hole. It looked like a round glowing stone. At that very instant, Reginald's spirit rose up in the little space between him and the hole and started to scream, loud enough that not only did Angus hear it audibly, with his own ears, but it was so loud that it caused incredible pain to his ears and his head and brought him straight down to his knees

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Reginald bellowed, his voice echoing all over the property. Even Marcus had to stop and cover his ears. Marcus raced to Angus and dragged him back from the hole. He looked into the hole and saw some sort of a pendant that glowed. The stone was shaped and etched to look exactly like the full moon, and in the stone, Marcus could see a dark cloud that seemed to be rolling around inside.

"Yeah, I agree with him, Mate," Marcus said quietly. Angus was still in excruciating pain, so Marcus decided not to move him for the moment.

Inside, Kate, Michael, and Robert had heard the screaming. So had Anise, Ginger, Edward and Simone. Edward looked out the door and saw Angus o the ground and he apparated over to him without any other thought than getting to him. He sat down with Angus and wrapped him close, as Kate and Michael and Robert raced out of the house, wands drawn.

Anise had heard it, and knew it was Reginald. She recognized the voice from hearing him before. She ran as fast as her little werewolf legs would carry her and she got to them in a moment. She saw the hole and was going to look to see what was in it, but Reginald attacked her and threw her onto the ground.

"You can't look!" Reginald was shouting, but this time at her, and not nearly as loudly.

"Robert, It kills werewolves," Kate said urgently, feeling the dark energy off of it and feeling Reginald's urgency, "but there's something wrong with it. We can't touch it either."

"I'll be right back," Robert said, apparating into the house and up to his potions workshop.