A Birth day

Jessie felt Cris let go of his hand and he smiled seeing where he was going. He didn't worry about him going ahead and walked in behind him. He looked to Marcus when Cris spoke to Angus and nodded. Sitting down he poured a cup of coffee and smiled as Cris said he wanted to Draw " I was thinking of taking him to see Kate in the studio today" he asked he saw Caprice and smiled at her " hows she has been without Ruby" he asked.

Yu now having the cabin clean left for his run passing the duplex he waved to Cris threw the window smiling as he saw the boy wave back while sitting with Angus who to Yu seemed half asleep still.

"Caprice? She's fine," Simone said. "She's been very, very busy. She's been going with Edward and me. We took her to see Jonathan and Claire yesterday, and she has a lunch invitation to have lunch in Paris with Edward and me and my daughter and her husband."

"Her social calendar is busier than mine," Angus teased.

"Lunch in Paris? She'll need to look her best," Marcus said.

"I'll handle that, don't you worry," Simone said. "She and I have talked all about having a fancy dress."

"That would be a good idea to introduce Cris to Kate. You know if you do that, though, you won't see him again til supper time or later," Angus laughed. "She is going to absolutely love him." Angus accio'd a couple sketchpads and his sketching pencils, and he handed the new sketchbook, a professional sketching pencil, and a professional eraser to Cris.

"Pentru dumneavoastră. Păstrează-l," Angus said. Cris got excited and told Angus thank you. They both opened their sketchbooks and started to draw. Things got quiet for several minutes, and then, Angus showed him a sketch he had done of Cris, and, by coincidence alone, Cris showed him a sketch he had done of Angus. They looked at each other's sketches and started to laugh.

"Gândim la fel," Cris laughed. Angus nodded. Cris got down off Angus' lap and took both sketchbooks and took them to Jessie. "Gândim la fel," he told Jessie.

"Cris says he and Angus think alike," Marcus translated for Jessie.

Jessie listened to Simone and chuckled at Angus's mention of Caprices being busier than he. " that's what I thought, I thought he would enjoy having someone like-minded" he said then laughed seeing their drawings "Yeah seems so" he said chuckling " do you think she'd mind having Cris?" he asked " and is she in her studio?" he sipped his coffee and sighed loving the flavour. He knew it was one of Robert's special blends,

He watched as Cris returned to drawing happily with Angus and Caprice eating happily with Simone. He could not help but smile at the calm family sight in front of him.

"Mind?" Marcus laughed. "Kate? You're joking, right? She'll latch right onto him. Angus is right. She's going to be thrilled. I don't know if she's over there now, but the other day when I was over there helping Khaat for a bit, she said Kate had a portrait she had to finish, so she was going to be taking Abbey with her to the studio quite a lot over the next few days. On the days she goes to the studio, she's normally there shortly after breakfast, so I'd wager she's there now.

"Do you want me to walk him over and introduce him to her?" Angus asked.

"In your pajamas?" Marcus asked as Simone wrapped up three scones in some foil.

"I'm not naked. It'll be fine. She's seen pajamas before," Angus said. Marcus flicked his fingers at Angus's pajama bottoms and transfigured them to a pair of jeans. Angus stood up and motioned Cris to come with him. "Come if you like, Jessie," Angus said. "or, by all means, tuck into one of Simone's chocolate chip scones. They're still warm from the oven." She handed the bundle to Cris to take with him, and Angus picked up Cris's sketchbook to take along.

Angus walked over to the studio, telling Cris about "Papa's" wife, telling Cris she was an artist and had aa art studio right on the estate. Cris was wide eyed, and when he saw the glass building and saw all the art supplies inside, he raced for the door. Angus had to run to catch up with him. Cris flung open the door and went in, and Angus went in right behind him. Kate had seen the boy and Angus come in and she wiped her hands on a rag to get the paint off her hands and went over to meet them.

"Kate, this is..."

"Cris," Kate smiled. "I've heard all about him from Robert." She reached to shake hands with Cris. "Bună, Cris. Eu sunt Kate. Îmi pare bine să vă cunosc."

"Este un Oma? Pot să te sun Oma?"

"Da," Kate nodded.

"Kate, we thought maybe you'd be interested in helping Cris with his sketching," Angus said. "He drew this just a few minutes ago." He showed Kate the sketch and Kate was wide eyed. She looked at Cris.

"Ai desenat asta? Desezi foarte bine," she said. Cris nodded. She asked Cris if he wanted to see the studio and then spend some time there with her today. Cris enthusiastically nodded.

"Simone sent you three of her chocolate chip scones," Angus said, handing the foil bundle to her.

"Perfect. Abbey's here today too, so there are just enough. Be off with you, then, Angus. We artists have work to do. Oh, and Angus, you might want to ask Michael or Marcus to see if Cris knows German. Oma is the German word for grandmother. He didn't use the Romanian word. He used the German word. If he knows more, he may be bilingual," Kate said.

Jessie listened to Marcus and smiled " I know she would " it was now he heard Angus ask if he wouldn't mind him taking Cris over to the studio " I thought you might ask, Its fine with me." he said and smiled to Cris knowing he'd have more fun with Kate than with him as he cleaned and worked. He looked at Cris and nodded " could you tell him to have fin with Kate and I'll see him after" he said smiling.

Seeing them leave he looked to Marcus " I know he'll have fun with Kate , hes quite the artist." he said sitting back and sipping his now warm coffee and picking up one of Simones cookies and ate quietly.

Angus came back alone.

"She chased me off," Angus laughed. "It was quite interesting, though. He asked Kate if she was a grandmother, and Kate said yes, but he didn't use the Romanian word for grandmother. He used the German word--Oma. Kate thinks its worth having someone who knows both Romanian and German to ask him what German words he does know, in case he's actually bilingual."

"That is interesting indeed," Marcus said. "I speak both, and I think Michael does too. I would guess Robert does too, but I don't know that to be a fact. Truthfully, most Unspeakables have had to learn to be multilingual for their missions."

"How do you learn so many languages? And what happens if you're sent on a mission without knowing the language?" Angus asked.

"Well, there are demands to learn the language. Sometimes, if there is sufficient lead time, say three or four weeks, an agent can be put through an intensive language class to learn to speak a language."

"In three or four weeks?" Angus frowned.

"Yeah. I have some of those language programs in storage at my parents'. It can be an intense program but it is possible to learn a language in that short a time if someone is dedicated to it and keeps at it."

"You dont' happen to have Romanian in that, do you?"

"I don't remember, but I could always check and see," Marcus said. "If it's there, I could bring it back for you and Yulong to use, if you want, Jessie. No pressure, though. There are easier ways to learn a language, but probably not quicker ways."

Simone came downstairs with Caprice dressed in a new floral dress with a stretchy lace headband, all dressed up to go out with her grandparents to Paris.

"She's all dressed up to take us to Paris, Daddy," Simone said to Angus.

"She's lovely," Angus smiled. "No letting her date any boy her age that doesn't have a job."

"I'll tell Edward to screen them carefully," she laughed. "See you later." She took the baby bag and took Caprice and left."

"And we're both childless," Angus told Jessie, as Marcus picked up the morning papers. Angus got the Daily Prophet but he also got the Paris wizarding newspaper. Marcus laid the Paris paper on the table while he scanned the headlines of the Daily Prophet.

"Oh, Jessie," Marcus said. "Sam saw a cute idea for a dresser for Cris. Someone took a dresser, took the knobs off and used plastic toy dinosaurs, bolted them onto the front of the dresser for drawer pulls. It was really a good idea. It would be a great way to dress up an old dresser. Paint it and change the knobs to toy dinosaurs.

"You and Yulong should take him out, Jessie, "Angus suggested. "There are a lot of dinosaur museums and exhibits in the muggle parts of England. Or maybe an amusement park. You don't need a lot of words for that, but I bet you'd get by if you got a English to Romanian dictionary so you could manage some basic words. And you're getting better all the time at charades," Angus said. "Take the chance to go out to a couple places and get to know him. You don't have to be gone all day. And I think you'd all enjoy it."

Jessie smiled seeing Angus return without Cris and heard him explain why. " ah so he'll have fun" Jessie said finishing his thrid cookie and second cup of coffee. Seeing Caprice he chuckled " awe she looks so cute" he said smiling then laughed at Angus responce before watching Simone take Caprice to Paris. Once she was gone he chuckled and lookd to Angus " yeah, weird" he said then heard Marcus and nodded " ow thats a good idea," he said " I have an old dresser I could do up for him" he also heard the sugetion of Yu learning Romanian and Marcus talk about his lack of skils in that area " na its okay if one of use is able to comunicate with him its all good" he said chukaling knowing Yu would be the best to learn since he knew a little already.

Hearing Angus sujest Musiums he placed his thumb on his chin and thought about it " hum I hear theres one in London" he said " natral history musium and it has a huge dino exibit too"

"Sounds perfect," Angus smiled, hearing Jessie talk about doing up a dresser for him. "And you're good at those sorts of things, so I'm sure you'll be able to make something really cool for him."

"And the London museum is a great idea too," Marcus said, starting to flip through the Paris paper, just to skim it. "You're absolutely right. Their dinosaur exhibit is well known. I bet he'd be in seventh heaven if you went there. Maybe then take him on the London Eye. It can be pretty stunning, especially after dark. After dark, its stunning. He needs to know that there are times when he won't need to be afraid of the dark or of the moon."

As Marcus was flipping through the papers, he saw a notice in the paper--in the classifieds. A congratulations to Mr. Thomas Gelding on the birth of his daughter--Alli Gelding--from one of the larger wizarding organizations in Paris. Marcus sighed. He slid the paper across to Angus and pointed out the listing.

"So, Suzanne has had her baby," Angus said.

"So it would appear," Marcus said. "Did you notice the name?"

"Alli? What of it?" Angus said, sliding the paper over so Jessie could see the notice in the classifieds.

"It's a Finnish name. It means Diamond. I don't think that's coincidence. I think its a deliberate dig from Suzanne at you and Ruby. Get it? Ruby? Diamond?"

"Yeah. I get it. I think it's fine if Ruby knows, but I don't know that I intend to tell her the name is Finnish. She doesn't need to play second fiddle to anybody, and certainly not to any child of Tom Gelding's," Angus said.

Jessie chuckled and looked to Marcus " I'll get Yu to pop over and get tickets for the museum" he then realized he had some paint he could use to fix up the old dresser that sat in Cris's room. " okay I got some things to do so I'll be heading out " he said then looked to Angus " um could you order me some dino draw handles please" he asked "I'm making a surprise for Cris" he added grinning " now that I'm free and have time" he slowly made his way to the door " see you guys later" he said as he then dove back to the cabin.

Inside the cabin he brought out the five draw set of draws and began sanding back the old stain that was on it beside him sat a tin of white paint and a tin half full of dark green which he intended to lighten with the white to make a light green. Now with a mask on and sandpaper in hand, he started to sand off the old wood stain before he wiped it down with a cloth. Once done he paused to take a break to let the wood dry.

Angus had intended to stop Jessie to ask him about just using toy dinosaurs but Marcus raised a hand to stop Angus.

"Let him go. He's got something he can do now for his boy. Just get the toy dinosaurs and we'll transfigure them to drawer pulls," Marcus said.

"He didn't notice the ad about Suzanne's baby, even though I set it in front of him to see it," Angus said.

"It's alright. Maybe he doesn't need to have Suzanne in his life about anything," Marcus said. As he spoke there was a voice calling to him from the floo, a woman's voice, and it sounded urgent. Angus went to the fireplace.

"Angus!" the voice called. "Angus, I need you!"

"I'm here," Angus said. Then he saw a face appear in the floo. It was Tara--Evan's wife. "Tara? What's wrong?"

"Evan...Angus, there's been an accident...They can't find Evan...I don't know what to do. What'll I do if he's gone..."

"Tara, what happened?"

"There was a charter last evening. Just a dinner charter. A rich bloke and his wife and some friends. They chartered a ship to take it out on the sea for a dinner on deck under the stars...but the ship--it exploded...And they can't find Evan..."

"Evan was on board?" Angus frowned.

"He had to go at the last minute because one of the staffers got sick. So Evan went to fill in...."

"Tara, hold tight. I'll be there. Are you at home?"

"I'm...I'm at the charter office...I want to be here, in case..." she stopped, unable to find the words.

"Hold tight. I'm on my way. I'll be there in half a tick," he told her, closing the floo." He looked at Marcus.

"I'll go tell Jessie so someone here knows. Someone needs to look in on the kids if it goes later than five," Marcus got up and made a run over to Jessie's. He knocked on the door and let himself in.

"Jessie, hey," Marcus said. "Tara just contacted us. One of Edward's ships exploded, and Evan was supposedly on it. And now Evan's missing. Angus has got to go to Tuscany to see if he can help find Evan. If we need an extra hand, we'll reach out to you first. Will you look out for the kids in the meantime? We'll let you know the moment we know anything at all. We may need help from some of the folks here. We just don't know yet."