A Birth day

Jessie watched and listened as Angus spoke then he nodded to him " I agree, I always take mine so no worries there." he said as Yu walked up to the door and quietly opened it with a smile.

"you mean I remind you to take it" he said and Jessie chuckled he watched the interaction between Angus and Chris then laughed. "yeah I saw, vinegar on ice cream is not good," he said shaking his head " But on fish, wow" he added. Jessie smiled at Yu and Chris as they sat togther.

"you think Jack will take a double does tomorrow ?" he asked knowing Jack being bigger might ned double the does to stop his transphormation.

"I doubt he'll need a double dose," Angus said. "Jack learned the hard way early on that he needed to be very consistent with it, especially when the lives of his wife and his kids depended on it. He just doesn't miss. So far as I know, a double dose doesn't help. I'm presuming that Robert adjusts the size of the dose according to the size of the patient when he prescribes it to them. Robert has said that not only is it difficult to brew wolfsbane but it's bloody expensive to do too, so I think he'd be very careful to not be willynilly with it. He would want to be sure it was exact because untold lives are at stake if he buggars it up."

Cris ate every piece of fish and every chip on his plate. He had been hungry, and Angus was glad to see his appetite wasn't suffering because of the worrying the boy was doing about the full moon. Angus asked Cris if he wanted more, and Cris shook his head, telling Angus he was stuffed. He asked Angus where he could get some books in his language to read, and he told Angus he was hoping to find some adventure stories. Angus told him they could send for some for him. If Cris wanted books, he was sure Jessie and Yu would make sure he had plenty of books.

"He'd like some adventure books," Angus told Jessie and Yu. "I could ask Sergio to send some, if you don't mind. Or if you'd rather get them yourself, I can give you the name of some good book dealers in Bucharest. Some of them speak English, so you might be able to go and pick out some in Romanian for him yourself. Maybe they'd have a talking book or two that would actually read the stories to him in his own language. That might be really helpful on nights when he can't sleep. And, if you listen to them with him, you might get some experienced in understanding more of his language when you hear it. It's just a thought."

Angus watched Cris help himself to Angus' sketchpad, look through Angus's sketches, and then pick up a sketching pencil, sit down on the floor, lean against the sofa, and start to draw. Angus was glad he felt comfortable to do that here.

"It's good to see that he feels safe and comfortable here. It's a big adjustment for a little kid, but you've clearly done a good job with him because, so far, he's doing really well for how new he is here, I think," Angus said. "I've noticed something. I don't think he was probably exposed to a lot of kids. He doesn't ask for much of anything, and he never complains about being lonely or not having anybody to play with. He takes it just naturally that he has to keep himself occupied. I hope he enjoys it this summer when some of the other kids are around, even if they are older."

Jessie listened to Angus and nodded " I think Sergio will have a good idea of what kind of books to send over, Yu and I don't have a problem with it" he said then heard him talk about Jack and chuckled "True, guess it just looks more becuse he's a big guy" he said and looked down at Chris as Angus mentioned the fact that Chris didn't seemed phased by not having other kids around " yeah , I do think being with other kids , maybe Abby would help him know that others his age don't see what he is but who" he said " maybe set up a playdate between the two of them" he said smiling.

"She'll be here tomorrow, and she likes being in the kitchen. So maybe she'll be part of making marshmallows and cookies tomorrow morning, and they can get to know each other. Marcus has two eleven year olds. We're not awash with seven year olds, but maybe we can talk Poppy and Ezra to come over in the morning too, and when he gets bored with a three year old, maybe he can go swimming or something with the elven year olds. Marcus? Any chance they'd be interested?"

"Oh, I'm sure they would be," Marcus said. "They don't have a big yard to play in. Michael has been nice enough to let the kids go use his yard to play in, but they would be thrilled to have a big space like this to enjoy. The older ones have been itching to go find a pool or a beach someplace. They want to swim and enjoy the summer."

"Well, tomorrow morning doesn't necessarily work for me to go to a beach, but maybe you could take them to Edward's and go enjoy the beach."

"Maybe we'll be done with the chores enough so that we could hit the beach for a bit in the afternoon," Marcus suggested.

"That wouldn't interest Ruby at all, would it?" Angus laughed, being purely sarcastic, and looking at Ruby.

Jessie nodded and smiled as Angus and Marcus spoke to each other then to ruby who chuckled "Oh no, not at all," she said and laughed " I love the beach" she said smiling at Angus "It will help your healing, it will be good to relax too" it was now she remembered she and Chris were making cookies " oh Chis Abby and I could put together a picnic to take with us" she said and smiled at them all.

Jessie sat back and watched Chris drawing in Angus's sketch book "We still have no clue for a name for him, I wouldn't mind some help with that" he asked Angus and Marcus.

"Abbey would be all over that," Angus laughed. "Invite your kids for the day tomorrow, Marcus. Invite your parents too for all I care. They might enjoy a holiday at the beach. When did they have a day off last?"

"That's probably been a long time," Marcus said. "They do have some good help this summer, so they probably could afford a day away, if you're sure they wouldn't be too much with all seven of them.

"The more the merrier," Angus said. "Ask them. If we get busy, we can ask Rosaria and Carlo to maybe put some burgers and hot dogs on the grill down at the beach for us."

Angus listened to Jessie asking for help with Cris's name. "I honestly gave a little thought to that, not that its' really any of my business, but, he seems to like the Cris name, so maybe we could let him keep it, maybe either as a middle name or, like some people do, he could keep it as a first name, change the spelling, and then he could go by his middle name to anyone who isn't immediate family. Like C. John Tyler. He could use CJ as a nickname maybe. I don't know. It would allow him to keep a little of himself somehow. Or John Christopher Tyler. I'm not saying John should be what you use. I'm just suggesting some ideas about maybe the form of it. I presume he's going to go by Tyler?"

Ruby chuckled " the more the merrier" she said then looked as Jessie listened to Angus and smiled " CJ I like that and yes he will" he said looking down at Chris " do you think he'd like being called CJ?" he asked as he then loked to Angus again.

Ruby in the kitchen gathered everything together to make up the picnic so the kids could just put it together the next morning. " okay alls ready for tomorrow, I even made some cookies for Cj to take home with him" she said smiling at Jessie also liking the new name " might want to talk to Robert now about getting the paper work for CJ made official." Jessie nodded and looked to Angus

"I'll do that once hes healthier." he said " right now healing it more important."

"We can ask him,' Angus said. "He already knows he has to change his name, and he understands why." Angus asked Cris about the ideas they had about a name change, and Cris was fine with changing Cris to Christopher or Chris, but letting that be for immediate family only. He wanted ideas about what sort of J names were common here, and Angus told him about John, James, Jonathan, Jacob, Jason, Joseph, Jason, Jeremy, and a few others. At the end of it, he just shrugged and decided that, if the J name wasn't for immediate family, he didn't really care so much.

"You definitely need to give Robert a few days," Angus said. "Its' been this long. A few more days isn't going to hurt Cris to wait." He looked at Cris who was getting very sleepy, starting to yawn heavily. Cris handed the sketchbook to Angus to show him he had drawn a very impressive looking sleeping dragon that was curled up on a pile of gold. Angus praised him on a wonderful drawing. "I think your boy is ready for bed. He's more asleep than awake."

Marcus sent a note through the floo to his dad and then started to check the house for the night. He found that the teens had already showered and were starting to get out their clothes for work the next day.

Jessie looked at Chris and smiled " yeah, I think we all are" he said and stood up to hold out his hand to Cris "timp de culcare" he said softly and let Chris take his hand " well night all see you in the morning." he said as Chris stood up and handed Angus his sketchbook back with a smile before taking Jessie hand again and they bth headed out and back to the cabin where Yu was waiting with Chris's does of potion.

Ruby finished in the kitchen and saw Marcus checking the duplex, making shore it as safe and locked tight, she was thankful for it." so you rady for bed too" she asked Angus with a smile. " I made a soothing cup of tea for you to drink." she offered him the cup.

"I'm not quite ready to sleep yet, but I'll go up with you and read for a little," Angus told her, taking the cup of tea from her. "Thanks." He went upstairs, changed and got into bed with his book. "You know, I can't imagine what it's like for Evelyn, being trapped in that brain of hers. "It has to be an angry, chaotic place, I would think. I almost feel sorry for her--almost. I got the impression that she'll take up with any guy that promises to provide for her or take care of her for the moment. I don't think she has much of any sort of consistency.

"And I feel for Marcus too. He's had one great love in his life, and that wasn't Evelyn. It was Poppy's mother--Ana Levski. They had a passionate affair, and she left him. Then, a couple years ago, they came back together for awhile, and Marcus got very serious about it. Wanted to divorce Evelyn so he could marry Ana once and for all, but Ana decided she wasn't wanting a relationship with him, so she up and left, and left Poppy with him. That has to really stink, you know? The woman you don't love is the one you can't get rid of, and the one you do love is the one that won't stay around. Maybe he needs to either just swear off romance all together or be satisfied with some one night stands for a bit and give himself a break from anything serious."

He sipped on his tea and opened his book.