A Birth day

Angus wrote a quick note to Robert explaining that the pack was not coming to Tuscany but that, instead, they were inviting the humans on the estate to an unprecedented potluck at some point in the near future. He gave Robert some of the most basic details and then sent the note to Robert in a paper bird. He tacked on a postscript to the bottom of the note that he had taken Evan to Paris because Evan wanted to join. Angus wanted Robert's opinion on hiring him, rather than Angus just automatically hiring him on. And he told Robert that while he was there he had seen Suzanne and Tom in Paris from a distance and he said Suzanne clearly was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.

Robert sent Pip with a note. The note read, "Clearly, your continued efforts to help the pack are appreciated, and it's opened doors where there normally are not only just closed doors but often times a true danger between werewolves and humans. I'm proud of you. Of course, we'll come. Let's talk about the details soon. As for Suzanne, let us hope that Tom expects her to develop some maternal feelings or expects her to take on some maternal tasks. That would keep her activities against us dialed down a bit. Let us not make a determination on whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage to us just yet because it could well go either way. But let us make sure we do not forget it either. As for Evan, he surely has a great deal of promise, and he obviously has more skills than Sam, Victor, Anise, or Ginger had, and since I am still willing to take them on as trainees, I hardly could do worse than Evan. If Evan wants to join and to take the training, I have no objections. Give him a medallion, and get him started with the boys on the fitness until we can get him to Colorado. Well done on all counts! R."

Angus set the note aside, yawning. He would deal with all of that later. The potion was hammering at his brain. He massaged his shoulder, feeling a bit achy, waiting on the potion to fully kick in. Marcus came over and activated the cooling spell on the magic wrap.

"That'll help. You don't use it enough. It's there for a reason," Marcus told him."

"I feel like I ought to be moving it, exercising it. It's getting stiff and sore from not being moved," Angus said.

"I understand that. I've broken my own more than once, but yours still isn't going to move for awhile, not until it heals. If it's giving you that sort of muscle discomfort, Robert may want to add a muscle relaxing potion to keep it from spasming for you. I can ask him if you like."

"Nah. If its still bothering me when I see him next, I'll ask him," Angus replied.

"Well, that's lovely, if you do actually ask him," Marcus teased.

"I'm fine," Angus smiled at her.

"He's just starting with some muscle spasms, I think," Marcus said. "Coming from not being able to move his shoulder in so long. If there weren't already so much damage there, I'm sure he'd be onto some massage and some physical therapy perhaps, but Robert surely isn't going to order that yet. I expect Angus might have to continue to follow orders awhile longer." He cast Angus a bit of an amused smile.

"I actually have been trying to do that," Angus said.

"You're trying alright," Marcus said, with mock sarcasm.

"Oh, ha ha," Angus said. Ruby went downstairs, and it wasn't more than about ten minutes later before he dozed off.

The girls had been looking at some copies of some fashion magazines they had borrowed from Simone, and they were looking at pictures of what girls their age were wearing.

"We're fine," Ginger told Ruby. "We were just debating on how tacky it would be to wear the same black dresses to our mother's funeral that we wore to Basil and Cora's."

"Feels disrespectful to Mom in some way, though I know it shouldn't," Anise told her. "We were debating on buying a different outfit of some sort. Does that sound really stupid? Does a girl ever have more than one black outfit?"

Marcus picked up the note since Angus was asleep, and he read it.

"I'm not going to wake him, so I'm just going to presume I can nose into Angus's mail," Marcus said. "Not much news on Robert's part. He's hoping that Gelding expects Suzanne to actually take care of the baby and that it keeps her busy for awhile. He thinks its good that we know, but he thinks we should just watch and see what happens there and hope for the best," Marcus put the note back where he found it.

"Why don't we go this afternoon while things are quiet, in case you have to go back sooner," Ginger suggested. "We could always go out for supper. I heard something from Mom that in Paris they go out and eat in the streets."

"That can't be right," Anise frowned. "What about the muggle cars? They hit people, I should think."

"No, no, there's a picture someplace, I think, in some old postcards Mom had from some of her travels before she met Dad."

"Of people eating in the streets? I don't think so," Anise said. They got out a stack of photos and postcards and started to look through but they couldn't find a picture anywhere of people eating out in the streets. "See? You're wrong. You have to be," Anise told her.

"Jesse, nobody is celebrating it. Nobody is any happier with it than you are. Robert's point is that it is not illegal for her to get pregnant or to have a baby with her husband or otherwise," Marcus said. "What is it exactly that you want Robert or Angus to do? The baby isn't here yet, and if we were to do something like go and kidnap Suzanne and take the baby when its born, we're no better than she is or than Gelding is. What exactly is it that they should be doing that they're not?" He had purposely asked the question, wanting Jessie to think carefully.

The girls got some money out of a dresser drawer and quickly followed Ruby upstairs and they heard Jesse's remark and Marcus's response. Ginger was instantly angry with Jessie, but she didn't say a word. Anise reached over and took Ginger's hand to reassure her. Anise understood.

"Of course. Go and enjoy," Simone said. "The most famous sidewalk cafe there is Cafe de Flore. That's the one to go to if you're going to do a cafe. It's iconic, and the food is fabulous. Oh, wait...." She went to her place and came back with an envelope. "Believe it or not, I got a gift certificate for Cafe de Flore three years ago for my birthday, and I've never used it. Go and have supper on me." She handed it to Ruby. "It won't get used any sooner laying in my desk drawer."

"Can we go, Ruby?" Ginger asked, wanting to hurry her along if she could. "We really should go."

"Let's go wherever the normal people shop," Anise told Ruby. "We're aren't rich like some of these bigwigs. Cheap clothes are good, I think."

Ginger walked over to a jewelry store window, just browsing, not looking at anything in particular.

"She's really angry with Jesse," Anise told Ruby softly, "because he sounded like you guys were the only ones she hurt. She lost two years of her life to that useless woman, and its really, really fresh for her. And I've never heard Angus ever tell anyone about what she did to him in that couple of hours that it took us to find him and get to him. She knows though, because she witnessed it, and I saw it because my seer's stuff wouldn't let me un-see it. He's got a damn good right to tear her limb from limb himself. I don't think he knows that Ginger and I both know."