A Birth day

Ruby heard the knock and then saw Edward walk in she glanced at Angus knowing that was unusual for him . Hearing his words she gasped " is everyone okay in the main house?" she asked lightly resting her hand on Angus's arm as she spoke.

Watching Edward head upstairs and then return she let Angus tell him of what had happened she could not help but smile as Edward calmed Carice befre they were both doing well. " and you're being the best grandad she could have" she said smiling as she touched Caprice's small hand. Hearing him mention hovering she chuckled " ow we both know about hovering parents...well I do," she said and looked down at Caprice " she doesn't have to worry about that, not yet anyway, oh did you see Yu and Jessie out there , I saw them a while ago and wasn't sure if they got inside." she asked

Edward walked over the window and looked out.

"I don't see them right now, so I presume they made tracks and got inside. Or at least I hope they did," Edward said. "I presume things are okay at the main house. My seer's energies aren't particularly cueing anything, and I would think they would be if things if something was all messed up. Angus certainly did not have hovering parents."

"They hovered over other things than me," Angus cast an amused smile, knowing his parents were so easily distracted by booze and other substances that they were almost immediately baited and drawn away by the promise of a drink or some other pointless substance. "The only ones that hovered over me were you and my grandmother, Edward."

"That's probably more true than not," Edward laughed. "You do know, though, the last time we had a storm like this one..."

"Yeah, I remember," Angus said. "But if James is stupid enough to show up in this sort of weather, he can just sit out there and get wet. Nothing worse than the smell of wet, stinky werewolf."

"Don't let Jack hear you say that," Edward laughed.

"Well, there's a difference. Even when he's wet, he's not usually stinky, not like James. James reeks all the time," Angus said, "but yeah, I wouldn't want him to get offended." He looked down and saw Caprice had gone back to sleep. Angus put her back in the basket.

"You wouln't be a bit biased against James, would you?" Edward laughed.

"Not at all," Angus denied it, knowing Edward was probably right, actually. Angus did not have one good reason to like James.

Ruby breathed out at Edward's reasurances. She could not help but chuckle at Angus's description of James smelling like a wet dog " can't be bias if it's true, even I could smell him a mile off after a rain storm" she said chuckling as she saw Angus place Caprice in her bassinet again . Moving to the kitchen she put on a fresh pot of tea " will you be staying for a cup of tea I believe its one of Robert's own." she said filling the kettle and setting it to boil as she listened to Angus and Edward talk of his parents to her they were almost as bad as her own but he had had it much worse.

Not wanting to change the subject she smiled " we were talking about Tuscany, Angus suggested taking Caprice and myself to show us the sights and tastes of true Tuscan food and views, I think it would be perfectly relaxing." she said taking out several cakes and placing them on a plate, she sent it over to the coffee table and then walked over to them both with a tray of tea.

"Alright," Edward said, when she invited him for tea. "Simone is in the tub, up to her lovely neck in hot water and bubbles, so I'm on my own until her bath water gets cold or she finishes her book. She's got a bamboo tray across the rim of the tub to hold her book and a glass of wine, and she's reading some sort of romance book. Definitely not my speed, but she likes it."

He listened to Ruby talk about Tuscany.

"I think that's an excellent idea," Edward said. "Italy has thousands of years of history, and there is a lot to see and do. There is a rich fine arts community with a lot of wonderful museums, symphonies, theaters and art galleries. Not to mention, some great beaches, sailing, top rate restaurants and some of the finest shopping in the world. Simone has all the shops in our village already scoped out from top to bottom, and she's hoping I'll take her to Milan because all the fashion houses are there. You know you're welcome any time you want to go spend time there whether I'm there or not. Angus still has a room in the main house, and there is all kinds of other guest rooms there and tons of things to do. I don't know exactly what you like to do, but there's a little bit of everything at the estate." He smelled the tea. "Definitely one of Robert's. This smells like his sugar cookie tea. It's a very nice blend for evening. Good choice."

"Maybe, if we come during the summer, I can get Evan to waterski or parasail with me," Angus said.

"Maybe. Or you could invite Sergio sometime to go with you on some of those deathwish sports," Edward teased.

"Deathwish sports," Angus echoed, laughing. "Really? It's not that risky. There are worse things."

"Like the time you told your grandmother you wanted to go swimming in the Amazon with the piranhas?"

"Yeah, well, I was 5. I didn't completely understand what a piranha was," Angus laughed. "She was not amused, though."

"No," Edward laughed. "She was not, because she knew that if there had been a piranha in sight, you'd have tried it. You had absolutely no fear. You still have no fear. I can only hope that Caprice does not take after her father 100%."

Ruby smiled as Edward said they could the Tuscan house any time even when he wasn't there with them "thank you, it sounds perfect" she said smiling as she walked over to the sofa and sat down to pore three cups of the tea she had brewed for them and nodded as she held the kettle letting the hot liquid pour into the cups " good eye for tea, it exactly that one" she said smiling still as she handed him his cup then did the same to Angus before adding some milk to her own and sitting close to the bassinet listening to their banter and chuckling at Edwards response to Angus.

"Well I for one will not be doing anything strenuous..yet" she said smiling mischievously at Angus. " I fully intend to keep my feet firmly on the ground." she moved to brush Caprice's cheek with her finger looking lovingly down at her sleeping child then up to Angus. " But I have to say parasailing sounds exciting." she said with a grin.

"I'm glad Robert likes tinkering around with tea flavors. We all get to reap the benefits of it," Edward said. "He mentioned to me that he's working on some sort of a new citrus tea for summer and a new berry flavor."

"That's because they sell well at Sparks," Angus said. "Lizzie sells them by the glass. She doesn't sell the new ones in the tins, not until she's tested them on the beverage menu, but she's always looking for new flavors to start each new season with."

"Well, do tell, then, what is this new bizarre flavor he's working on that he's calling Dragon Tea?" Edward asked

"I haven't the foggiest," Angus frowned. "What do you know about it?"

"He will only work on it either in his potions lab at the farm or outside, as a safety precaution."

"Oh, now that's just weird," Angus frowned. "I don't have any idea. This is the first I've heard of it. If I hear anything, I'll let you know." He looked at Ruby when she mentioned that parasailing sounded exciting. "It is exciting, and it's a lot of fun," Angus said. "It's as close to flying as a muggle will ever get without a plane. If you can hang onto a broom, you can hang onto a parasail. Since it isn't a magical item, it does take some technique to control and steer it. Evan and I thought that we needed to know how to do a lot of water sports if we were going to run a cruise boat business. We figured our clients would want to do a lot of those things, so we'd better learn to do them."

"And so, they took it upon themselves to spend a great lot of my money learning swimming, parasailing, windsailing, surfing of all kinds, deep sea fishing, diving, and a hundred others or so, I think. I used to think, at times, it was more about having a good time than it was really learning."

"Why would you think that?" Angus frowned.

"I also got your beer tabs and your hotel tabs and your restaurant tabs, if you recall," Edward laughed.

"I wouldn't have done that," Angus said, trying to look innocent.

"I raised you, Boy," Edward looked at him. "I know better. Truth be told, I didn't really care if you learned how to keep yourselves and others safe. Do the boys know about the Tuscan estate and about the ships?"

"Um," Angus frowned, trying to remember if he'd told them. "No. I don't think so. If they had, they'd have been pestering Ruby and me about going to Tuscany or taking a cruise this summer. You know, Ru, we really can take her with us if we want to go on a cruise. the larger commercial muggle lines won't take a baby under six months because they don't want the liability of it, but we obviously wouldn't have to worry about that as wizards, and certainly not when we own the ships."

Ruby smiled and nodded as Angus explained about parasailing and other activities " oh diving sounds good" she said thinking of all she could see under the water. hearing the explanation about parasailing she chuckled " oh I gave my flying teachers at Hogwarts a few heart attacks while on my broom" she admitted then turned to look at Angus as he spoke of taking Caprice with them on their break " that will be perfect, and the boys I know will love the activities, maybe we can do some muggle sights seeing too, I mean some of the ruins in Tusany are realy old "

It was now she was looking forward to the warm weather and being back outdoors under the stars again. She heard Angus ask if the boys knew about the Tuscan estate and Ruby thought for a moment " you know I don't think they do." she admitted " be a nice surprise for them during their holidays." she said smiling.

"I thought Madam Hooch as a pretty even keeled person," Angus laughed. "What could you have done to rattle her?"

He listened to her talk about a summer cruise with the boys.

"That's a good idea. We could certainly do that," Angus said.

"If we can hire a capable captain," Edward teased. Angus shot him a look of pretend annoyance.

"Let me know if you find someone," Angus said, with mock sarcasm. Edward laughed out loud. He looked at Ruby. "Did you like the ship we were on before? We have more like that, but we do have some that are considerably larger--large enough to take everyone here with us if we want. All of us here in the duplex and the others, like Kate, Robert, Brian, Khaat, Jess, Jack and all the rest. Maybe they'd all like to get away for a few days."

"Now, that might be a good idea. It's hard to get some of them to take any time off, especially Robert and a couple of the others. A break away might be just what everyone needs," Edward said. "And with about thirty babysitters, you two might be able to take a grownup day ashore for yourselves and do that sightseeing that Ruby's talking about or any other grownup thing you might have a mind for."

"I don't know," Angus teased. "Some of that grownup time is why we have this one." he gestured towards Caprice.

Ruby looked sheepishly at th pair of them " well when you fly full speed upsides down at her and only turn at the very last mimet , that tends to not be a good thing." she said blushing " I was banned from brooms for two weeks and had to clean all the school ones."

She sipped her tea as she listened to Angus and Edward she chuckled at Edwards mention of a good captain " I did love that yacht, it was cosy and cumfortable." she said smiling at the memories " shame we didn't go diving that day" she said rembering how it was interupted.

"Ruby laughed as Angus said that their adult time had given them Caprice "oh, maybe so but you'd not change her in any way shape or form, right" she said chukaling as she glanced to Caprice then Angus.

"Well, now that might irk her, for sure," Angus laughed. "Have you ever been scuba diving? I think you'd like it, especially the Mediterranean. There are a lot of Roman, Greek and Egyptian ruins underwater, lots of really amazing sea life too."

"You should take a camera and get some pictures if you go diving," Edward said.

"I'll have to get a new one," Angus said. "I lost mine years ago."

"They're not expensive," Edward said. "That's easy enough to replace, and you could get some stunning pictures."

Angus listened to Ruby ask him about whether he'd change Caprice.

"Ask me that when she's old enough to disobey me about 400 times in a row," he teased. "Right now, while she's sleeping, looking completely innocent, I wouldn't change her. Ask me that again in a few years when she's learned how to be a bit of a smart-alecky adolescent." He looked at Edward. "Was I ever a smart aleck?"

"You're a Donohue," Edward frowned. "Of course you were. We Donohues excel at sarcasm."

"And you left me intact?"

"I threatened not to, and on more than one occasion," Edward admitted, laughing. "And besides, this one has two older brothers that will teach her all about sarcasm and talking back."

"I'm gonna have to glue their lips shut," Angus said.