A Birth day

Ruby smiled and looked back at the duo. Moving to the pantry she went in and looked around , seeing what she wanted she found several blank white boxes , taking several she walked out to Chris and Abby. " do you want to draw some boxes for the cookies to hand out to everyone?" she asked placing the boxes flattened down infront of them. " I think the others would love a personalized box with hand made cookies inside.

Jessie heard Angus and smiled " thank you , I'll send word to Yu and have him come here to eat" he said writing a note and sending it out threw the open kitchen window. It was not that long before Yu walked in smiling.

" thank you for the invertation Edward" he said softly noticing Robert now sleeping in a chair.

"Our pleasure," Edward told Jessie. "Simone and I both spent a lot of years with little or no sense of the sort of family contact that we wanted, and now we have the opportunity to have as much as we like. So we're going to welcome all we can get and enjoy it."

Cris got out Angus sketching pencils, and he took a couple and then offered the tin of pencils to Abbey, who picked one. On the lid of one box, Cris sketched a dragon eating a cookie. abbey sketched cookies--well, a three year old's version of a round cookie with icing on it and sprinkles. On a different box, Cris sketched a mama dinosaur baking people shaped cookies with a couple child dinosaurs. Abbey drew berries on her second box.

Edward was carrying over some of the packages of school supplies so that Angus could take them to Evan when Robert was rousted rudely out of sleep by violent nausea. Edward recognized the telltale look of someone looking very green at the gills and clutching his stomach, and he went to Robert as Robert was trying to get up.

"Sit," Edward said. "I've got you." He lowered Robert back to the sofa and cast a strong version of spell to stop nausea. It was strong enough that it made Robert's head spin viciously. He had to lean back and close his eyes. Edward cast the spell for a moment longer and then ended it. Robert visibly relaxed. "Better?" Edward asked. Robert nodded.

"Thank you," Robert said quietly.

"My pleasure. I'll get you an ice pack for your head. That'll help," Edward said, seeing Robert already slipping back to sleep. Angus got up and got the ice pack and took it to Edward who put it against the wounded side of Robert's head. Then they walked away from him to not disturb him.

"He should be home in bed," Edward said. "He's a mess."

"Well, that was where Nigel was trying to get him to go, but by then, I think Robert was just entirely spent," Angus said. "Nigel said he'd be back shortly. Seems he left a cauldron on the boil next door, and he went to finish it up. Then he said he'd be back."

"I'll stay with him, then, if you get the rest of the packages from Simone," Edward said.

"I think that's best. Thanks," Angus said. Cris saw Angus go and bring back a couple brooms, and when Angus went to get some of the books and the cauldrons, Cris went along to help him carry things.

Jessie smiled at Edward as Yu walked in the door " I got the note" he said smiling and bowing to Edward "Thank you" he said and moved to sit with Jessie and watch Chris. You noticed the slight green of Robert and stood up, while he watched Marcus he fetched an Ice pack and handed it to him "Here this will sooth his head." he said softly so as not to aggravate Robert's head any more. " I've seen enough green sick men before to know the signs," he said and looked at Jessie before he spoke again " I use to be a bouncer in my younger years he said.

Ruby watched Chris and Abby drawing and chuckled seeing the pictures they were drawing "Those are perfect for the boxes" she said smiling as she ate a cookie herself and chuckled.

Angus packed up the cookies in the boxes and set them on the counter, not sure what Ruby had in mind to do with them.

"Go wash up," Angus told both of the kids. "You're covered in icing." He asked Cris if he could help Abbey wash up, and Cris nodded, motioning to Abbey to follow him to the kitchen sink. He helped her wash her face and hands and anyplace else she had icing. It made him laugh because she had it on her face, up her arms to her elbows, and on her clothes, and it amused him to no end. It made both kids laugh. He seemed genuinely to like her, despite their language barrier.

"Did I see you had some sort of picnic made for lunch, Ru?" Angus asked, casting a quick washing up spell to clean the kitchen. "If not, I'll ask Rosaria to throw together something quick for us when we get there. But I think we should go soon, don't you?"

"Did you each pack a swimsuit and some tanning lotion?" Marcus asked. Angus thought a second. He hadn't packed a suit.

"You're right. I'll be back," Angus sighed, knowing he had to grab his suit.

Ruby chuckled and nodded at Angus's words " yes I already made it up, I made some Pressed Italian Picnic Sandwiches, with Mustard and tarragon chicken rolls with iceberg and radish, pizzelle salate ,Pumpkin and parmesan arancini with salsa verde along with some home made Lemonade." she said taking out the pinic basket from the walk in to show him it was all ready to just go.

Jessie and Yu both looked at Edward and smiled the sound of the food sounded wonderful. " we brought ours" they said and chuckled " and we brought these for Chris" Jessie said taking out dino swim trunks to show them. Yu chuckled as Chris washed down Abby clean of the icing proud that he was such a responcible young boy.

"Thanks." he bounded up the stairs, grabbed a beach bag, chucked in his swimsuit and Ruby's quickly, along with a couple of beach robes, some flipflops, some sunglasses, some sunscreen, and a stack of large beach towels that he shrank a bit so they'd fit in the bag. He brought the bag downstairs and added Abbey's swimsuit and flipflops to the bag.

"Are you leaving Caprice with us?" Edward asked.

"If you don't mind, I think we should," Angus said, "unless Ruby had her heart set on taking her along."

"Well, personally, I think you should leave her here. Tuscany does get quite hot in July, you know. I'd leave her here with is where it is considerably cooler," Edward said.

"I think that's probably best," Angus said.

"She'll be perfectly fine with us," Edward reassured him.

"I know. It just feels like we leave her with you quite often," Angus said.

"And we wouldn't have it any other way. Now, go, and have a good time. And we'll have supper ready when you get back," Edward said.

"Shall we?" Angus said. He was going to scoop up Abbey, but Cris had already taken her hand, ready to take her with him when they ported. Angus told Cris he would have to hang on very tightly to Abbey, and Cris nodded, knowing already that he would not be able to let her go while they were porting.

"You don't mind taking Abbey with you, Jessie?" Angus asked, as Marcus joined them to port with them.

Ruby smiled at Angus as he headed up to grab their things returning she heard Edward ask if they were going to take Caprice with them and that he would be happy to keep her " Oh that would be wonderful and yeah it does but I know she loves the time with her grand pops and nanna" she said chuckling as she lifted Caprice from her mat and carried her over to Edward. Placing her in his arms she kissed her chubby cheek and smiled "Be good for grand pops and nana." she said seeing Angus had returned from their room.

Jessie stood up with Yu and held Chris's hand while Yu took Abby's " don't worry we got it" he said smiling as he took hold of Ruby's hand ready to port to the beach.

Angus ported them to the beach, and almost the instant they landed on the beach, Cris let out a squeal of alarm. Angus looked and saw he was now hanging onto a labrador puppy. Angus was quick to go to him and to take the puppy and reassure him that it really was still Abbey. He explained to him that Abbey was a metamorph and that, because she was still so little, she would change shape uncontrollably and that all really was still well.

"Well, so much for needing a swimsuit," Angus laughed, watching the puppy race down to the beach. He looked at Cris, who still looked incredibly confused. Angus told him to just go and have fun. Angus asked him if he had ever been to a beach before, and Cris shook his head. Angus put the beach bag on the sand and motioned Cris to come with him. He walked with Cris down to the water's edge and stood so that the wet sand squished up between his toes and the water rushed over his feet. Cris stood right beside him and as the water rushed up over his feet, he squealed a bit because the water felt cold.

Angus asked Cris if he could swim, and Cris said he could only swim in a pool and not in 'real water.' Angus laughed at his way of describing the sea. He walked with Cris into the sea only until the water came up to about Cris's waist. Cris was standing, feeling the push of the tide against him as it rolled in and out, and he was looking around when something in the water brushed up against his leg. He started to panic, shouting about a shark, and Angus calmly pointed out the labrador pup that was swimming happily and had brushed up against Cris.

As the apeared on the beach Jessie heard Chris and quickly moved to look at him but smiled seeing Abby now in lab form and he chuckled smiling as Angus told him about her and how this happened when she saw or was around water. Ruby chuckled too as she took the beach things and lay out the towels and placed the picnic basket down between them. Taking out a shrunk umbrella she resized it and stuck it into the ground shading the towels she wrapped in a towel changed into her suit and lay down to watch Angus show Chris there was nothing to fear in the ocean.

Jessie and Yu changed and headed down to the water he slowly walked in with Yu beside him and swum up beside Angus and Abby Yu stayed beside Chris. " at least she'll be tired tonight." he said and chuckled as she swum around him happily.

"Both of them will be lucky to stay awake through supper if they're half as active as I was here as a kid," Angus said. "And if she goes to sleep at our place, I'm not going to worry about taking her back to the main house. She can stay with us. It won't hurt her a bit. I'm going to swim a little."

He swam for a few minutes, and he looked back to see that Cris had now gotten the courage to swim a little too. He was glad to see it. He decided to leave him with his new parents, and Angus went up the beach onto the sand. His shoulder was aching anyway from swimming. Maybe Robert was right. Maybe he wasn't ready to overuse it. He sat down on the sand, leaned pack to stretch out to sunbathe a little when he heard Abbey growl. He glanced over to see her snatch a corner of Cris's dino beach towel in her teeth and go racing off, dragging the towel down the beach.

"And there goes his towel. He'll have to catch her if he wants it back," Angus laughed. "I think that's her invitation to play." He looked to see Cris pointing at the dog and shouting a bunch of creative Romanian expletives that weren't cuss words but weren't all that polite either. It made Angus laugh. Cris took off at a run to try to catch the puppy. "Looks like its game on."