A Birth day

Rosaria left the room, still muttering under her breath. It wasn't more than a moment later when Marcus came in. He saw them looking at the rug, and he looked at the footprints too and felt them. The mud was still damp. He went over and started checking some of Angus's things, just to be sure. When he picked up the potion bottles, he looked at them carefully and then left, taking them with him. Angus followed Marcus and stopped him a distance from everyone else.

"What did you find?" he asked Marcus very quietly.

"I make some very tiny magical marks on the labels on the bottles and I change them every time I pour your potions. Now, that potion was designed to help you sleep all night long, so why is there more potion in your night time potion and your daytime potion than there was last night?"

"We have a problem, then."

"We do indeed. My assignment to you is not nearly as completed as we thought it was last night. Do not use any liquid lotion or soap or perfume product today. None of them. Ruby either. I'll send home to Robert to replace them straight away."

"Thank you," Angus told him. Marcus nodded, and he headed downstairs to use the floo in Edward's office so that he would not be overheard. Angus motioned to Ruby. He wanted a word with her in private.

"We may have a problem. Don't use any sort of liquid toiletry item, no perfumes, lotions, anything like that. Marcus is contacting Robert for replacements," he told her very quietly, not wanting to panic anyone else.

Jack looked to Anise and chuckled "Okay you ready for your run?" he asked waiting for her " I just need to put my running gear on and I'll meet you downstairs, um will Ginger be coming?" he asked. Ruby moved back into the bedroom seeing Angus and Marcus talking in hushed tones when she saw Marcus leave she looked at Angus who moved to her and spoke softly to her.

"Hum okay, you don't think its my dad again do you?" she asked as she got dressed deciding to place her hair up in a ponytail so as not to look too messy.

"i'll go see to Caprice " she said moving to the room next door to theirs. Seeing Caprice up and awake she picked her up and moved to wash her and dress her ready for the day. Now Caprice was dressed she carried her down to the Kitchen to make her some breakfast but found Rosaria already making it and she smiled " thank you Rosaria" she said smiling as she sat down to feed Caprice.

"We're ready," Anise said. "Ginger wants to try. Nigel said she could try a little, but not the full run. We'll wait for you downstairs."

"I don't think so," Angus said. "I think Kate's spell forbids him from trying to affect me again. Besides, the last I knew, ghosts generally don't leave footprints. I think this intruder was very human and very alive."

He wasn't sure why she went to get the baby up already when, again, she left the breakfast that Rosaria had delivered to their bedroom sitting on the tray. Angus shook his head, not understanding why the baby couldn't have waited just a few minutes while Ruby ate her own breakfast but he was learning how to pick his battles. He floated his breakfast out to the balcony and ate alone in the quiet. By then, Marcus had returned and collected Angus' breakfast dishes and helped Angus to wash, and dress and shave.

"What's on your schedule, then," Marcus asked, helping Angus to put the sling on to support his shoulder.

"I need to go to town. I want to get the girls each a wand holder, and I want them to each have a good dagger of some sort. Neither of them have a dagger here. Anise needs one to take with her and a holster for it. In an ideal world, I'd have a holster for her that holds a wand and a blade both."

"Well, let's ask Edward where the closest wizarding shop is. Maybe they'll have something. If not, we could send a request to Clive and see if he can put a rush job for something specific," Marcus said.

"I know where the wizarding shop is," Angus said. "Let's just go and get back. We can apparate to the back door and skip the muggle car. We can be there and back in just a few minutes, before anyone knows we're gone."

"Sounds good to me," Marcus said. They apparated out.

Ruby sudenly realized she'd seen a tray in teh bedroom and caried Caprice back up to the room only to hear Angus and Marcus talking about going into town seing them aperate out she moved to teh balconey and sat with Caprice while she ate her breakfast while Caprice tried to try it with her. She chuckled and enjoyed the food and coffee letting Caprice suck on some soft toast with butter where she squished it between her fingers rather than eat any.

Jack stood waiting for the girls in the living room he heard aperating and knew it was Marcus and Angus leaving " HEY! COME ON GIRLS OR I'll leave with out you" he called up to them his arms cross his chest as he waited . He didn't have to wait to long as he saw Anise and Ginger arrive along with Nigel " So I'll run with Anise if Nigel you want to stay back with Ginger." he said and looked at them all.

"We're already here, Jack," Anise called from outside, not far from the paved pathway that went from building to building. "We told you we were already dressed and ready and we would wait for you downstairs. Jeesh. Nigel isn't going. Ginger is only going to go part way and then turn back. Nigel? Running? You've got to be kidding, right? Come on. Let's do this.

She and Ginger started off, knowing Jack would certainly keep up. Ginger went part way, only going about a quarter of the before she knew she needed to turn back. She had kept good time with them for the distance she did go, though. Then she told them she was heading back. She stopped, let them go on ahead, and then she walked back by herself.

Nigel was elated that Ginger had done as well as she had, and he praised her and sent her to the kitchen to get some breakfast. While she was in the kitchen, she heard Rosaria start to talk in Italian about something, and although she didn't speak Italian, Ginger got the idea that there was a stranger at the door. Ginger went towards the front door and saw it was Andrew, with a box.

"Andrew," Ginger opened the door. "What brings you here?"

"Robert asked me to deliver these to your dad straight away,' Andrew said. "Good heavens, this is some house. Is this really where Angus grew up?"

"Yeah. This is Edward's place," she said. "Sure beats a tent in the woods, doesn't it?"

"And how," Andrew said.

"Are you hungry? Did you get breakfast?"

"Not yet, I haven't," he said.

"Come on with me to the kitchen. Rosaria's got plenty, and I don't have anybody to eat with. You can have breakfast with me."

"I don't want to impose..."

"Are you kidding? She always cooks like she's cooking for about thirty. Come on. It's fine," Ginger said. Andrew followed her, his eyes looking everywhere at all the Italian luxury all around him. This was completely different from the little log cabin the Donohues lived in at Khaat's estate.

Jack chuckled and moved outside "Okay just checking" he said trying to hide a little of his embarrassment. " all right let go," he said and started to run at Anises and Ginger's sped. After a time he saw Ginger stop and tell them she was heading back " Okay we'll see you once we're done, some on Anise" he said and took off at half his speed knowing she could catch up to him easily.

Ruby finished her breakfast and floated the tray down to the kitchen hearing Andrew's voice she walked over to where he had Ginger was " oh , hey Andrew what brought you here?" she asked then saw the box placed on a side table " whats in tthebox?" she asked holding Caprice on her knee.

"Don't know," Andrew said as Rosaria put a plate in front of him and a mug of coffee. "Robert said I was to deliver these to Angus right away, and then I got an invitation to have breakfast with Ginger. it doesn't get much better than that. Grazie, Rosaria. I suppose we could open it." He unwrapped the brown paper that covered the box and opened it, finding a notecardon top.

"Angus, let's take no chances, shall we? Give these to Marcus and let him carry them in the breast pocket inside his suit coat. They won't suspect Marcus will have them, so let's let him carry them in his pocket at all times. Let's not leave them sitting out this time. I've made them highly concentrated, so pay very close attention to the doses. The vial engraved with the sun is the daytime medication. The one with the crescent moon is obviously the nighttime potion. You need to dilute these because of how much I've concentrated them. Three drops in a half a cup of tea will do it. You're welcome to add it to a full cup, but not less than a half cup. You could add it to coffee if you prefer, but it needs to be something hot. If you have more trouble, let me know at once. R."

"Sounds like Robert made a change to his pain potions," Andrew said, not wanting to discuss a lot in front of Ginger.

Ruby heard him read the note included in the box from Robert and nodded to Marcus she glanced in the box and saw two small metal vials she clsoed the box and smiled " we can leave these here until he returns from his shopping trip with Marcus " she said placing the letter on top of the open box and sat down close so she would keep it in her vishio to make sure nobody mesed with it.

Jack ran intil he reatched the house again and laughed " nice Anise you kept up with me" he said smiling to her "keep this up and youll be ready for some offical trainning" he said plcing his arm over her shoulder " now lets get some breakfast and drink to wash it down." he sad saying nothing about how he almost had to slow down as he drew close to the house.

"Good. I'm starving," Anise said. She made her way to the kitchen, and Rosaria put out plates for her and for Jack.

"Hey, Andrew!" Anise said. "What brings you here this morning?"

"Just a delivery from Robert, and then your sister invited me for breakfast. Rosaria is quite a good cook. This is wonderful. How was your run?" Andrew asked.

"We did okay," Anise said. "But Ginger went for part of the way today for the first time. She did great!"

"You ran?" Andrew asked Ginger, and ginger nodded, smiling. "Congratulations! Wait til I tell Robert. He's going to be so excited. That's huge news. He didn't think you'd be ready for that for another month at least. Good job! Just don't overdo it."

"I won't. Nigel was careful about how far I could go," Ginger replied.

Angus and Marcus had gone to three different wizarding shops in the area before they found someone who actually had a used wand holster that also had a sheath for a blade. In fact, the man had had two. They had belonged to a woman who had been a fighter years ago, but when her age would no longer let her fight, she had sold off the holsters. Angus bought them both. They had found daggers through a weapons maker. He had bought two stiletto blades and two top notch swiss army knives. He'd also bought her a woman's hiking backpack. It was significantly different from a mans, designed to play to the strengths of a woman's body, not a mans. This would be far more comfortable for her than any man's backpack, he was certain. He was pleased with his purchases.

He and Marcus apparated back home and walked in, feeling pleased with the results of their shopping trip. They went to the kitchen.

"So this is where the party is," Angus said. "Hi, Andrew. Anise, I've got a new backpack for you. I think this will be much easier than the one you had." He handed it to her, and she looked it over.

"Wow! This is great! I'll be able to carry all my own gear now! Thank you!" she beamed.

"I think that's the first I ever saw a girl excited about a backpack," Andrew laughed. He handed the vials and the note card to Marcus who read the note card and put one vial in his pocket. He poured Angus a cup of coffee and put his daytime dose in the coffee and the pocketed the vial, handing him the cup.

"This one is designed to accommodate how a woman is built differently through the shoulders and hips than a man," Angus said. "She'll have a much easier time with this one, I think."

"This one isn't going to shove all my junk up on my shoulders," she said. "It'll be great."

"And, what do you think of these?" He showed her the stiletto and the swiss army knife.

"Sweet!" she said, grinning from ear to ear. "These are awesome! I'm ready for 'em now."

"Just be careful. They are razor sharp."

"I know. That's what I like," she said. Then he handed her the holster. She looked up at him.

"Somebody treasured this," she said. "It has lots of good energies. She loved this piece a lot. I'll respect it in the same way."

"Good. She had two. I got the other one for you, Ginger," Angus said, handing her the sheath, the swiss army knife and the other stiletto.

"These are great! Thanks!" Ginger said. "Not some muggle guy's manky old army souvenirs. Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome," Angus said.

"I think I'll be ready to go tomorrow, if we leave tomorrow night."

"You might want to take some clothes along," Angus teased her.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'll just wing it," she teased him right back.

Ruby heard the two men return and smiled at Angus glad he noticed the box and the vials that were inside she also saw him slip one of the metal vials into his pocket. " I feel you realy should take a cange of clothes , if I remember right, it rains a lot and some times snows so you'll get cold quickly." Jack said looking at Anise then to Angus for confermation. Ruby finished feding Caprice and sat her facing Angus where she started to reatch out for him grabbing at the air.

Jack finished his breakfast and took his plate to the kitchen " thank you Rosaria that was perfect" he said and headed up stairs to shower and change his clothes " oh Ginher welldone for getting as far as you did, you realy did do well." he said . Ruby smiled as Angus had given the girls their equipment knowing they would take good care of them.

" you keep you weapons in a special room don't you Angus" she said thinking it might be good to keep them in the same room until needed the next day.