A Birth day

"Glad you made it," Angus told her. "Take your time and get settled in. Oh, I had clothing allotments sent for all the kids. I forgot to tell them, but I doubt Rosaria's had time to unpack them. They should have just arrived this morning. Would you be kind enough to tell them please? And Caprice just has one big bag with everything we packed for her for this trip. Its in on the bed in our room. I think Simone bought her quite a few summer things."

He and Marcus headed downstairs, and Marcus took the formula and bottles to the kitchen. Carlo met Angus just right outside in the outdoor living room area with a lemon granita. It was a perfect, icy cold nonalcoholic drink for the warm weather. Angus thanked him quietly, and Carlo took one to offer it to Jessie.

"You'll like this, I think. It's like a slushy, frozen lemonade. Non alcoholic, but completely addictive all the same.," Angus told Jessie. Carlo asked about the baby, and Angus explained it really was just a slight ear infection. Carlo nodded and patted Angus on his good shoulder, telling him he had watched how Angus had been with the girls the last time he was here. He believed Angus was going to be a fine father. Then he asked Angus about the funeral they were here for. Angus sat down and explained who Phoebe was and their plans to bury her here and why. He seemed to approve whole heartedly.

Ruby smiled at Angus " So am I" she said then let him continue " of course I will" she said and moved to kiss his cheek before heading to the girls room. Knocking she pushed open the door and smiled to the girls " hey, Angus said he arranged clothing allotments for you guys so don'r be suprised if you have clothing here" she said moving to sit on the bed " so tell me how did it go with Robert?" she asked.

Jessie saw the drink and smiled thanking Carlo as he took it and tasted it " wow this is great, coolong and refreshing too" he admited." just whats needed" he chukled as he drank a bit more and sat back in his chair. " its good Ruby made it, I was a bit worried she wouldn't but I guess she proved me wrong" he said with a slightl chuckle as he spoke " oh have you got the boys gifts?" he asked " I realised nobody gave them their welcome home gifts." he stood sipping his lemon granita.

"Oh, hi," the girls said to Ruby. "Yeah, we wondered who those belonged to." Anise pointed to a very large box on one of the beds. So these are for us to leave here? Like two different wardrobes? It's gonna take a bit wrap my mind around having so many clothes."

"The meeting with Robert?" Ginger asked. "It went okay. Better than we expected. He was talking about hiring us out, like either at the ministry or at St Mungo's, but the more that we thought about it, the more we didn't want to work off the estate. We haven't been anywhere by ourselves yet. It just felt like a big leap. Angus told us to just tell Robert how we felt, and once we explained it, he was fine with it. He still would like is to each volunteer maybe half a day a week at St. Mungo's. He thinks Anise would work out really well as what he called a page--or an errand runner--taking messages and packages and things to different parts of the hospital, and he thought I would do well in the nursery or in pediatrics either holding the babies or cuddling with the little kids."

"Of course I brought their gifts," Angus said. "I think things just got too chaotic last night. I noticed that early this morning, so I just thought I'd bring them along with us rather than to try to cram it in this morning at breakfast when we were trying to get things ready to come here."

Ruby smiled seeing the two boxes " yep thats them and you'll get use to it" she said smiling as they continued talking about ho things went with Robert. " oh that sounds wonderful" she said " and Robert is very understanding with these sort of things" she said watching as they opened the boxes and put them away in the closet. " I think both of you will be perfect for the roles Robert has chosen, I imagie hes given it a lot of thought as to where to place you, and the boys did they get their jobs?" she asked seeing the smile on both girls faces she just smiled too and chukled . " okay don't need to tell me , they did." she chukled.

Jessie heard Angus say he had and smiled " thats good, If it were me I'd wait till after the funeral to give them to the boys." he said almost half drunk his lemon granita now as he moved the straw in the glass making the ice clink against its side. " unless you want the girls to give them to the boys tonight."

"Well, I haven't seen the girls long enough today without the boys to ask them. I'll ask them when we get a minute to settle in and breathe, but, honestly, we don't need to give all our gifts to them at the same time. Right now, I'm honestly feeling a wee bit protective over the girls since they're trying to prepare mentally and emotionally to bury their mother tomorrow. That, and they're tail over teakettle crushing on the boys. So I'll talk to them as soon as they have time to unpack and get oriented. They might want to give their gifts to the boys when they're alone with them. I don't know, but it needs to be their choice.

"I debated on waiting to give my gifts--well, mine and Ruby's--to the boys and not bringing them because they won't need them this time of year, but it wouldn't be fair to make them wait, I decided. I hope Ruby approves. I didn't get a chance to ask her. I got each of them a good, heavy black leather winter coat for winter missions, some good heavy, warm, black leather knee boots with wand holsters and knife sheaths built in along the side seams, some warm black leather gloves, and I bought them each a good belt with a lot of attachable and detachable pouches of different sizes so they can carry equipment with them. I have one that Edward gave me on one of our trips to Romania, and it was worth its weight in gold. So I had one made for each of them."

Jessie listened and nodded at Angus logic " agreed" he said then listened as he spoke of their gift to the boys and smiled " oh she'll aprove she sees the benafit of good mission wear" he said " its one thing we agree on" he added as he sipped his drink then set down the empty glass next to him and enjoying the warmth on his face again.

Ruby gave each girl ahug as she stood up " Im here as I promised and I don't return till day after tomorrow so if you need me , come find me okay" she said softly " get settled then join us down stairs, if you want." she smiled to both girls and then moved to the boys , she paused at the door " oh I agree with Angus about you and the boys, no hanky panky untill your of age" she said as she then moved to the boys room and knocked before opening the door smiling as she saw them " well haven't you too grown into hansom men" she said chukaling.

"Well, that isn't actually what Angus said," Anise told Ruby. "He said he couldn't keep us from it but he could make sure we wouldn't get pregnant and he could keep us from us sharing our bedrooms with the boys. The truth is I'm never going to want to be with anyone but Sam, and Ginger feels the same way about Victor. You can ask us not to, but I don't know if we're going to be able to promise that we're going to be able to postpone the inevitable forever."

The boys were unpacking their things and the new allocation of clothes when Ruby came to see them.

"And we're working blokes now too," Sam said.

"Well, not yet," Victor said. "We haven't started yet. I don't care if we are mucking out horse poop. We'll be working, and we don't have to study any more. I'm studied out completely."

"Don't forget, though, that Robert said there was some studying in the Colorado training," Sam said.

"I don't care. I can get through that," Victor waved Sam's concerns away. "You should have seen the cake Angus and the others made. It was something else. Simone did take pictures, though."

"And the front half of the cake is still at home," Sam told her.

Ruby heard the girls and nodded " alright , just don't make me a grand mother, Im too young for that" she said and chuckled . Hearing Sam she smiled " so I belive, weldone" she said " Im proud of all of you." she told them ering abouth the cake she smiled " I'll definatly ask Simone to show me the pictures of it." she said " all right I'll leave you guys to put your things away and unwind theres still one person I haven't checked on yet" she said thinking of Caprice. " oh and do one more thing please, treat those girls as if you were angus, or you'll see Edwards bad side, got it?" she lightly warned them both.

Lesving the boys to unpack she ehaded down to the kitchen as she knew that was where she would find Rosaria and Caprice. Walking in she heard her chattering to Caprice who was gigling back. " Hows she doing?" she asked Rosaria as she crossed the floor to look at Caprice herself. She saw Caprice hold out her hands to her nd she picked her up giving her a light hug " I missed you bean" she said smiling.

Angus finished his drink and he looked at Jessie. "How about I have Carlo show you where the bocce court is and the tennis court and where the outdoor equipment is kept. There's a big closet on one end of the pool house, and there's all sorts of stuff in there. Bikes, fishing poles, footballs, volleyballs, tennis stuff--you name it. The tennis court also doubles as a volleyball court. There's just a very simple enchantment to change the net height. And there's basketball half court right next to all that. There's no reason for anyone to be bored here. Feel free to help yourself to that, the pool, the hot tub or anything else you like. It would be good for some of that to be used. And, so you know, Carlo has just very recently completed a massage certification course so he can provide hot stone massage, swedish massage, trigger point massage, reiki, all sorts of massage. He'd be happy to pamper someone for a bit if you asked. Just make yourself at home. I'll be back in a little. I have some things to take care of."

He set off walking down the path away from the house, and Marcus fell into step with him, just because it was his job. The boys finished their unpacking and as they came downstairs, they met the girls at the bottom of the steps.

Rosaria just smiled when she saw Ruby come in, and she told Ruby that Caprice was fine.

Jessie heard Angus and nodded "I wondered what was in there when I went swiming last time, and thanks but this is all I need," he said and looked up at the sun warming him. He watched as Angus walked away and Marcus followed behind him. Jessie had a feeling he was going to the crypts where Angus's mother was buried and where Phobe would soon be intured too.

Ruby smiled when Rossaria said she was fine " thats good thank you." she said noticing threw the kitchen window Angus walking down a path with Marcue behind him. Excusing her self and walked to the path, pausing close by so not to intrude on anything important or private he was doing. She saw Marcus and smiled to him staying quiet.