A Birth day

"She's not very bright either," Ginger said. "Angus isn't going to let them go, and she doesn't even know her own son's birthdays. They won't be old enough to make that choice yet."

"Angus is going to be pissed," Anise said.

"Maybe he'll turn her into something," Ginger said hopefully.

"Oooooh. I wanna watch!" Anise said, excited at the thought that they'd be rid of Suzanne once and for all.

The girls nodded. They definitely wanted to go for a run, and they knew they didn't have the right clothes. Ginger was hesitant to try to do a transfiguration spell. They hadn't actually done one yet. They'd read about it, but they hadn't actually tried to transfigure their clothes yet. Anise did attempt it, but her clothes fell off and started to run out of the room.

Ignoring the fact that she was now in her knickers, Edward flicked his wand at the clothes.

"Come back here," he insisted. Then he fixed the transfiguration spell and handed her the now transfigured running shorts and tee shirt.

"Stupid clothes," Anise sighed, putting them on.

"No, you buggared the incantation," he said simply. "It was a nice try. You'll get it right."

"I think we're ready now," Ginger told Jesse.

Jessie looked at the girls and chuckled as Anise said Suzzane was not very bright " yeah , from her school report nothing has changed" he said then as soon as Ginger tried to transphigur her clothes and they took off with out her he turned his back to her even if she was in her underwear. He saw Edward hand the clothes to Ginger them turned around to see her dressed again. " that was funny" he said and chuckled " but Edwards right, it tkes practice." he said " now our run, come on" he said and headed to the door and opened it " last one to finish does the dishes." he said running towards the track by the woods.


Running he saw Anise level with him but Ginger some what behind , he dropped his speed to run along side Ginger " do what you can, don't push yourself" he said as he ran beside her.

"She's always had trouble keeping up," Anise said to Jessie. "but, honestly, she does better here than she ever did at home. She's getting a lot better."

Simone came downstairs, seeing the girls go for a run.

"How are they?" she asked. "Are they bothered that Angus and Ruby aren't here?"

"No, and I do think it helped that Jessie came to take them on a run," Edward said.

"What do you think if I ordered some extra large pizzas and then if Jessie and Yu or someone wants to join in, they certainly can," Simone asked. "Do make sure to tell Jessie to ask Yulong to come over for pizza, won't you?"

"Certainly," Edward replied.

"By all means," Edward said. He gave her ideas about two or three different ways to order the pizzas, and she placed the orders, feeling they would arrive at about the time the girls and Jessie got back from their run. Edward showed Simone the notes, and Simone decided she would be on her guard about Suzanne.

When the baby woke, Simone fed her and bathed her, and then played with her for a bit before putting her down for a bit with her toys. Edward had the feeling the baby was a little off her schedule and would perhaps nod off a bit early tonight.

Rosaria fixed an easy supper for Angus and Marcus. She had taken the cue that since Angus hadn't left the smoking room since Carlo had lit the fire. Rosaria had decided to make them some thick and hearty paninis with meats, mushrooms, onions, peppers, cheeses and marinara. She had also made them some homemade crisps to go along and some chocolate chip cookies. She served them with some tall pints of icy cold beer. It was a perfect supper for a couple of guys who were without any ladies for the evening.

Jessie smiled " well with what she's been through its understandable, besides her strength lies else where." he said and chuckled but kept pace beside Ginger "but Anise is right your doing realy well" he said as they dre close to the end of the track. " okay back to the duplex" he said stopping and turning back to run back.

Pausing at the deck to let the girls catch up he chuckled " don't know about you but I needed that" he said as Yu walked over to them "Ginger you've improved since last time" he said smiling Anise I think if you put your mind to it you could out run even me he said smiling proudly at the girls " well done both of you." He opened the door for them to enter the duplex " you both should go and shower now, don't let your muscles tense up" he added and looked to Simone and Edward.

Walking over to simone he saw the note on the table " so you know about Suzzane" he said and sat down " shes nuts , their still minors." he added" besides I don't think they would go with her now"he glanced to sees Yu walked in and over to them.

" they are good boys and know who treats them right and she did not do right by any of her children" Yu said softly glancing as Anise and Ginger arrived from showering and changing.

"Thanks," Ginger said, smiling. "That was actually fun. Running has never been fun for me, but I did enjoy that."

"Go hit the showers. Jessie made a new bathroom for you two downstairs, so one of you can use that, and the other can use one of the upstairs bathrooms," Edward said.

"Really? A bathroom downstairs? Awesome! Thanks, Jessie!" They were both excited, and they both ran downstairs to go see it.

"Yeah, I do know about Suzanne," Simone said. "I think you're right. Those boys have been crystal clear about how much they hate her now, I don't think they'd go with her, even if she had said she was going to give them the whole of France. She can try to take them, but there's no way they would ever, ever choose to leave here. This is their home and their family now. You'd think that she'd have gotten the message when she tried to kidnap them from the school and they fought to get home here to us. They certainly didn't fight to go with her, but she evidently isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer...." There was a knock on the door, and she went to answer it. It was the delivery of a stack of three extra large pizzas, with a pan of triple chocolate brownies, and a couple large 2 liter bottles of icy cold soda.

"Perfect," she smiled, paying the delivery person. She and Edward brought the food to the table. "I'm glad you're both here," she told Yulong and Jessie. "Come join us for pizza for supper." She set out some paper plates and some plastic disposable cups. There would be no dishes tonight. "Help yourselves. You'd better get several slices before those girls get up here. I've seen what they can do to a pizza."

"Yes, indeed," Edward laughed. As he and Simone were starting to fix their plates, Angus attempted to reach Ruby on the floo. He felt really bad that he wasn't going to be able to get home tonight. That had never been his intention. He had only meant to be gone for a few hours to get his thoughts straight, but on the coast, sea storms could kick up quickly and without warning. When he'd seen it coming, it was already too dangerous to come home, but the storm hadn't move off yet, so now he was stuck til it passed, He wanted to reassure her that, despite the squabble they'd had, he wasn't walking out. He opened the floo and called for her.

"We're here, Lad," Edward said, going to the floo. "How's the weather?"

"Nasty," Angus said. "But I think the worst is honestly yet to come. Is Ruby there?"

"Well," Edward said, realizing that Angus didn't know she was gone. "actually, no. She decided that she needed to go see Jeffrey in Switzerland."

"Oh. Well, maybe restarting her sessions is a good thing," Angus said, presuming she surely was only going for a regular hourly appointment and would be back.

"Well, about that," Edward said. "This is a little different. She's decided to go do some intensive work. She's decided to go and spend about a month there to try to get herself straight."

"What?" Angus asked, his voice sounding a lot smaller than he had intended. He'd been completely blindsided. He had never ever envisioned that she would leave him for a month without a word to him. There was a long pause while Angus tried to get his head wrapped around it. What sort of relationship did they have if she could do that? Was there any future at all? Neither Angus or Ruby were there at the duplex, and his kids were alone. "I'll come home straight away..." he began, feeling like his brain was crumbling into ashes. Just ashes. Everything burned and gone.

"No, now, stop," Edward said, using a very calm, steady, reassuring tone with him. "Calm. Breathe, Boy. Ruby asked Simone and I to mind the kids, and we're right here. It's fine. Jessie and Yulong are here for supper, and we're all about to tuck into some pizzas. The baby's been fed and bathed and she's sleeping. The new bathroom is finished, and the girls are already showering in it. Everything is good here. Calm yourself."

"What did Ruby say in her note to me?" Angus asked. Edward looked at Simone. He hadn't found any note. Simone shrugged. She hadn't found a note either. Nor had Ruby given either of them any message at all to pass on to Angus. Not a single syllable for him did she leave. It now hit Edward and Simone at the same time. Ruby had honestly gone without any message at all to the man she swore she loved so much and whom she said she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. At that moment, much as they knew Ruby was feeling things were in a mess, they ached right now for Angus because, again, of how Ruby had handled things. Again, she had gone off half cocked and dashed off without thinking things through as well as she needed to.

"We...we haven't found any note from her," Edward said as gently as he knew how. "And she didn't give either of us any message to pass on...."

"Oh," Angus said quietly. Edward could hear, even despite the miles between him and Angus, how far Angus's heart had dropped. The pain and the heartbreak was loud and palpable. It made Edward and Simone ache for him. In that moment, Edward's mind was swept back to when Angus was a boy and had hoped for a smile or a kind word from his parents and never got it. As a little boy he had been ignored and forgotten by the people who were supposed to love him the most The disappointment and the hurt he'd suffered over and over, he was suffering yet one more time, and this time from the woman who swore she loved him the most. In that one moment, Edward would have walked the fires of hell to be able to wrap Angus close to him in a loving hug like he had done so many times before when Angus had been walked away from just exactly like this. Their excuses were always the same as, they presumed, Ruby would eventually offer. Benjamin and Eileen always relied upon saying something suddenly came up and they promised to do better next time. The little boy had hung onto those flimsy excuses for years as little shards of hope, until he just was so full of grief that he couldn't hold onto it anymore, and that was when he had stopped trying to have any contact with his parents at all. but here it was again--the one thing Angus had thought Ruby wouldn't ever do, Angus felt like she had now just done, and he didn't know how to recover from it. It was one thing for her to not ask someone to supervise the baby, but to simply go for a month and never have it enter her mind about the fact that she needed to say something to him, that was a far, far deeper wound.

"Lad," Edward said quietly, hoping to soothe him somehow and trying to offer a different perspective, "to be fair, I think she was afraid she'd buggared things up pretty badly, and she had her mind focused on getting to Switzerland to try to fix herself so she could come back feeling more like the person she wants to be. Maybe once she gets there and starts to work with Jeffrey she'll remember she should have said something, damnit. I'm sorry. I know this really hurts and I understand exactly why. I do, but I don't think it was intentional this time, though. I really don't."

"It's okay. It's all good--I'm fine," Angus deliberately lied. "She did what she thought she needed to do. I'll come home..." He had lied because he had needed to try to lie to himself to keep it from feeling so real.

"Angus, listen," Edward said, now feeling like he had to try to help Angus anchor into the practical reality of the moment. "The weather situation hasn't changed in the last ten seconds. You'd still splinch yourselves coming home..."

"I'll have to take that chance. The kids need me. We can't both be gone..." Angus began.

"Stop," Edward said. "Stop and listen. The girls aren't tiny children. They're here, and they're fine. We're right with them and we're going to stay here tonight with them. And you know we've had the baby overnight before. By the time you get home, we'll have spoiled them all completely rotten. You let us have an overnight with our granddaughters, and that to us is absolutely priceless. We're going to savor every moment. Coming home just so you can get here, and deliberately splinching yourself is not going to help them one little bit. Where's Marcus?"

"I'm right here," Marcus said. "I'm not bringing him home at that sort of injury risk. It'll be safer here tonight. If we see some eye in the storm or something during the night, I'm sure we'll be home. If not, we'll be home when the danger is past."

"Good," Edward said. "Angus, you don't know how much I wish I was with you right now. She'll come to herself again when she stops panicking. She always does, and I'm sure when she does, she'll send you a note or something. I don't have any other defense for her leaving you for a month without a single syllable to you except that, again, she was in a panic, and she just wasn't thinking."

"Yeah, but even in your worst moment, you and Simone would have never done that to each other. And if I were going for a month, I'd have left her a note, damnit. It wouldn't have been something I'd have ever forgotten, no matter what, not even if the place was on fire. Forgetting isn't an excuse I'll buy. This whole thing is one of the biggest botches I've ever been in, and I don't see any way out."

"The way isn't out. The way is through. We'll get through it," Edward stayed steady with him. "It'll be alright. Look. I'll tell you what you should do for the moment. Have you had supper?"

"We have," he replied.

"Well, get comfortable and read for awhile or let Evan know you're there. Get Rosaria to make you a hot bourbon milk punch. You know how phenomenal those are. That will help you to unwind. Get your mind on something else for the evening. Then get yourself a good night's sleep, and I bet things will look better in the morning. Do you have your potions with you?

"I do," Marcus reassured Edward.

"Then you're fine. It'll be alright. A good night's sleep will give you a healthier perspective on all this. Just take my word for it tonight."

"Yeah," Angus said. "I'll let you go so your pizza doesn't get cold. Thank you for taking care of the kids."

"Its our honor, believe me," Edward said. "Come home when its safe but not before. We'll be right here." They ended the floo call, and Edward looked up. He saw Ginger and Anise standing there, right with Jessie and Yulong. They had heard most of the floo call. "He's alright," Edward reassured him. "Give him a bit, and he'll come around. I wouldn't say it this morning, Jessie, but I'll say it now. This was acting like a complete ass, that's all. Anyway, I'm hungry. Come on, you lot, come tuck in and get some pizza."

"Pizza?" the girls asked, interested. That made Edward and Simone laugh.

Jessie heard the invite as did Yu and they both smied at each other " of course , thank you" Yu said as they both moved to sit down. Hearing the floo talk Jessie was relived Angus was fine but annoyed Ruby had not left a note for Angus letting him know where she was and when she would be back. He looked at Edward and chuckled " non taken" he said

Ruby arrived in Paris and took a bus to on to Blatten to Restaurant Blatten where she sat down with her case waiting for some one to aproch her to take her onward. Seeing a young woman and man both with jackets and a white coat under it she sighed as they crossed to her " are you ruby?" they asked and she nodded "we're here to take you to Jeffery" they said with a smile as one took her case the other motioned for her to follow to a mini van.

Marcus mentioned Edward's suggestion of the hot bourbon milk punch, and Rosaria was happy to prepare it for both of them. When the evening got later and the storm really pushed in from the sea, Angus was tired by then, tired and hurting and not wanting to think anymore. Marcus had Rosaria make a second drink for Angus, and he put Angus' nighttime potion in it and got Angus to move to the sofa and just stretch out and relax. When the potion kicked in, Angus fell into a deep sleep. Marcus covered Angus with a blanket, knowing it was far safer to be on the ground floor rather than upstairs. Marcus put another log on the fire as the power went out on the estate and left them in the pitch dark, except for the fire in the fireplace. He settled into his chair with a blanket of his own, wanting to not sleep so deeply that he wouldn't hear Angus if Angus woke.

The girls ate a very hearty amount of pizza, and Simone was now glad that she had ordered all three pizzas. Then everyone tucked into the triple chocolate brownies she'd bought.

"So Sam and Victor are coming in a couple weeks? Right?" Ginger asked.

"Yes. They are," Edward said. "They've really improved their grades at school or so they've said, but now they're anxious to get home."

"So are there any traditions for such a thing?" Anise asked.

"Well, normally, there is some sort of celebration, but since Ruby isn't going to be here, I don't know how they'll feel about that," Edward said.

"Well, that doesn't seem fair to me," Ginger said. "If a celebration is in order, it seems like it would devalue their accomplishments if we don't carry on. I'm not trying to be rude, but she chose to not be here for that. We should still honor their hard work. If they want to celebrate again later with her, then that seems like it should be okay."

"Personally, I think she's right,' Simone said. "I have been thinking about that, and I know that their one goal has been to want to come home. Maybe, we could do a simple supper at home for them. Their favorite foods or some special supper. Maybe just with us--those of us that are here right now. And I mean you too, Jessie and Yulong. You're family to them. You should both be here. Or we could take them out for a nice supper somewhere in London maybe. Then if Ruby wants to do something later, she can always ask them to do something."

"I think they would like either one," Edward said. "Even if we just grilled a really nice steak supper out on our deck, I think they'd just enjoy being with family. Jessie? Do you have any ideas?"

Jessie and Yu ate some pizza aand chuckled at the girls but he thought about it and smiled " I agree with the gilrs , just becuse my sis isn't here dosn't mean we can't celeberate their finishing School, its a big thing after all" he said then heard Edward and nodded " sounds perfect, I'll get the steaks" he added and Yu shook his head " oh okay we'll get the steak"

" yeah you'll buy the biggest steak going and forget there are us normal people here" he said and Jessie laughed " I'll make some of my mothers dishes as well so they can try new foods" he said as Jesie took his hand in his own.

"what about decorations?" Jessie asked " Anise , Ginger could you make a banner for the boys please?" he asked " maybe we could ask Kate for some ideas too." he picked up his forth spice of pizza and bite into it.

"You all have a valid point," Edward said. "They've worked so hard to improve their grades since coming to live here. From what the school has said, they've worked almost every spare moment to improve their spellcasting, and they've come a long, long way. Sam made a remark in one of his letters to me not long ago. He said he and Victor never expected to graduate. It apparently has been bothering them both since they went to Hogwarts that perhaps they wouldn't fare any better there than their mother. They knew they were smarter but they couldn't figure out why they couldn't get the grades. Well, now they have a good home and they could focus on school, and they've been told that their grades are fully expected, this year, to be solid Outstandings, all right across the board for both of them. All their subjects. They ranked academically this year at the top of their houses."

"Then they deserve to have that celebrated," Simone said. "They've worked damned hard, and let's not let it pass by without a celebration. I'll either make a graduation cake or ask Lizzie from Sparks to do something really special."

"Yes, well, remember who did our wedding cake. Angus might well want to try to do it himself, if he has a little help," Edward said.

"A cake made by their dad? That's perfect," Anise said. "Are there gifts?"

"Yes, indeed. If you want to go shopping, one of us can take you," Simone said. "The girls and I will work on decorations. I know its not the best color combination, but we should do scarlet and yellow or gold and black to represent their houses."

"Perfect," Edward said.

"Do we have to invite everyone from the other building?" Anise asked. "Or can we just do this one meal as just family?"

"I'm sure that would be fine," Edward said. "I'm sure the other building will do something for them too but there's nothing wrong with more than one celebration."

"Maybe we can have one humungous celebration when all the kids get here too and let everybody join in," Ginger suggested.

"Ooooh! A big party--with fireworks!" Anise suggested. Edward laughed.

"Let's not get carried away," he said.

"I think fireworks is a wonderful idea," Simone replied. "We can combine it with a big family get together with all the parents and all the kids."

Jesie smiled as every one started talking abut the party for his brothers " they will love it , and yeah mom never had any intrest in their schooling I think becuse of her so called plan" he said " but Im glad that failed and they have graduated with outstandings" he grinned hearing Edward mention shopping for gifts Yu chuckled " okay I can take them to where ever they want , once the weather is better and we can port again" he said finishing his pizza then drinking a soda to wash it down.

"I can help with cooking and decorations too, and Im sure Jack could do something too" Yu added now thinking about what meals to make for them to have along with the steak.