A Birth day

Ruby and Jessie both looked at Sam as he choked a little at Anise's words each chuckling at his reaction. Jack patted his back gently to help him while trying not to laugh. " Im sure that will be a long time down the line yet," Jessie said as Ruby sat stunned at her question. Jessie laughed at her face and patted her hand "Don't worry sis." he said then went back to finish his steak.

"Please make this sauce next time we have steak Angus," Ruby said chosing to ignore the last conversation about babies from Anise as she didn't want to become a gran mother too soon. She had also seen the look on Sams's face and had a feeling he didn't want them too soon eather.

Anise was a little confused about why they were so upset at her question.

"It's okay," Angus told her. "It's just the difference between humans and werewolves. "No harm done. I'll explain it to you after supper. For now, forget it and enjoy your supper." She nodded. "I'll make the sauce if I can get her recipe. I'll ask her later." She nodded and focused on her meal.

When the main course was over, Carlo served coffee to anyone who wanted it while Rosaria served a very traditional Italian olive oil cake with a scoop of fresh homemade lemon gelato alongside.

"And now you get to taste olive oil used in a different way," Angus told Jessie. "Traditional olive oil cake. Actually, you don't taste the olive oil at all. It just adds a lot of moisture to the cake. We use this cake for birthdays here."

"This is absolutely lovely," Kate said. "This could quickly be one of my favorites."

"It's a favorite for a lot of Italians, that's for sure," Angus said. He looked at Marcus and spoke to him very softly for a moment.

"Sit. I'll take care of it," Marcus said. He got up and then went to Anise and Ginger, and Ginger followed Marcus and they went into the house. They came back out later with gifts. Marcus had a handful of little boxes but when he got to the table he resized them to their proper size and laid some down behind Sam and some behind Victor. Ginger put a couple boxes on the piles for both boys.

"What's this?" Sam asked.

"We did not forget your graduation," Angus said. "Those are for you, from us."

"Can we open them now?"

"Of course," Angus said. The first they opened were the knives from the girls

"Those are awesome!" Sam said, looking at them.

"Anise and I didn't want you to ever just have your wands," Ginger told them. "We wanted you to always be well armed."

"Well, we certainly will be," Victor said. "These are really great blades."

"They stay in the sheaths until you're trained how to use them," Angus said. "Fair enough?"

"Absolutely," Victor said.

"May they pass them around so we can see them?" Kate asked.

"Of course," Angus said, and the boys passed the knives around for anyone to look at if they chose to.

Ruby saw the gifts and smiled as Marcus placed them in front of the boys. Hearing Angus tell them about training with the knives she nodded " I agree and the girls chose them themselves. " she said simply and smiled to them. Jessie nodded as he finished his ice water.

"its not every day some one graduates" Jessie said and smiled at them both " well done boys" he said and patted both of them on the shoulders as they waited for them to open the gifts from Angus and Ruby,

"Thanks," Victor smiled. Then the boys opened the gifts from Angus and Ruby, finding the tall, noiseless black leather boots with the sheaths built into them, along with the lightweight but extra warm black leather winter coats, and the warm winter gloves.

"We're counting on you both having your initial training done certainly by snow so you can go with us on some of our Paris missions this winter," Angus told them both.

"Winter mission wear?" Sam asked, excited.

"That's exactly what that is," Angus said. "And, there's one more thing for each of you--when you're ready. When I graduated, one of the gifts Edward gave me was a piece of land here on the estate for me to build a house on, and I've never used it. Now, though, the piece I have is bigger because the piece that was my father's also fell to me. So, if you both want it, I will give you each a piece of my land on the estate so you can build a house for yourselves, whether you move here permanently or whether you just want it as a vacation home."

"Really?" Victor seemed to be stunned by not only having all the expensive black leather mission wear but now they were also going to be landowners here. Homeowners.

"Yeah. Really. I discussed it with Edward, and he's in agreement with me," Angus said.

"I can't imagine wanting to be living away from the family I have now, but a vacation house would be great," Sam said. "Thanks. And how soon does snow fall in Paris?" he teased.

"January-ish," Angus laughed. "You might need those coats in England a bit before that, though. And in Colorado, it could be as soon as October."

"Nice. We might need to go to Colorado for Halloween," Sam laughed.

Ruby was prod of the boys as they opened their gifts from them . " you will definatly need them in England, its super cold in winter." she said " but don't rush your trainning" she said and glanced at Edward wnting to see the last gift she knew was coming from Edward himself, the offical donohue rings he was going to gift to them. "Edward you giving the boys yours now or are ou going to wait?" she asked softly to him so they would not hear her as she could see they were enamoured by the mission wear and knives they ahd recived. " I know they will feel yours will be the best, I would" she said smiling to him.

Jessie looked over and nodded to him hoping that he would give them it now and not wait. " we can start the building of the vaation homes once they aprove some plans of the lay out of the homes." Jessie said knowing he'd talk to some of the crew to have them make a start.

Edward had actually not had any intention of giving the rings to the boys in front of everybody, but now he rather felt put on the spot to do it. He was not ashamed of giving the rings to them, but he did understand that the significance of the rings was to insure that neither boy was ever accused of not being a worthy Donohue because they were Angus's sons. And he did not want to further embarrass or humiliate Angus by putting emphasis on the problem in front of the people who loved Angus so much.

"It's alright, Edward," Angus said, not wanting his boys to have to face the same shame that Angus had his entire life. There wasn't anyone here who didn't already know how hated Angus was by most of his family. Edward looked at Carlo, who disappeared, fetched the ring boxes and gave one to each boy.

"This is my gift to you," Edward told them. "Mine and Simone's. I have given very precious few of these out over the years. In fact, the only other ones that are in existence as Angus's, Evan's, and Tyler's. And every one of these rings are slightly different, but they hold basically the same symbolism." The boys opened the boxes and found signet rings with the Donohue family crest on them.

"I have given these to the men in the family who have some legal right to claim some inheritance of the estate. It signifies that I have recognized you as a full blooded Donohue just the same as if you'd been born that way. Your inheritance of the estate will be whatever Angus determines it should be when that time comes. However, the ring will serve as a symbol to any of those family members who don't like Angus so very much that your right to be my great grandson is unquestionable. You might have been Donohue boys some months ago. Now, today, you are Donohue men. Congratulations."

"Thank you," the boys said, putting them on.

Ruby smiled as the boys acepted the rings she looked to Edward and smiled with a nod to him, proud for the boys at their aceptance. Ruby smiled at Edward she could not help wipe a tear from her cheek at the sentament behind the rings." I knew it was coming but i still teared up" she said taking some tissue from her pocket and wiping her eyes.

Jessie chuckled and looked at the boys as each one placed the ring on their fingers. " wear them with pride" he told them " they look good on you both" he smiled and patted each on their back again " okay toast, to the boys the new mebers of the organisation and the new mebers of the Donohue family" he said picking up a glass of white wine and rising it.

Angus and the others raised their glasses for Jessie's toast. Carlo and Rosaria finished clearing the table and refilled anyone's glasses or their coffee cups for them while people still lingered around the table. Angus just sat and listened to the conversation going on about the boys and their gifts, the training they had coming up, etc. and as it got dark he got up and looked at Anise, who nudged Ginger. Both girls got up and went quietly with him. Marcus went, but at a distance.

Angus walked with them back down to the family cemetery and took them inside. They saw the wolfsbane had been planted, and they saw the light glowing brightly in the darkness, shedding light on the beautiful flowers that were covering the fresh grave.

"What do you think?" Angus asked them quietly, as both girls stood huddled against Angus, partly because they wanted to be close to him and partly because the night air was getting cold and breezy.

"She'd have approved," Ginger said softly. He looked down and brushed tears off both girls' faces.

"We'll really be able to come here whenever we want?" Anise asked.

"Absolutely," Angus said.

"I didn't mean to make an inappropriate comment in front of everyone. I'm not used to you lot not liking babies," she said. "It's expected that every female who can bear a cub is going to find someone to help them do that. It's a joyous event, from conception through to delivery, and its something that females are just supposed to do as often as possible."

"We don't dislike babies," Angus said. "Humans get all caught up in things like family planning, finances, babysitters, career considerations, all sorts of things, that your pack doesn't have to really consider. It wasn't an inappropriate comment. It's just one of those ways human life is different from pack life. I'm sure that whoever you decide to have children with that you'll make the right choices."

"You trust us to do that? By human standards?"

"Yes. As you understand human standards, yes. I do," Angus said.

"Well, Sam's not ready for a baby," Anise said.

"Yeah, neither is Vic," Ginger said. "We told them we'd wait a little."

"That's a good thought--for now, anyway," he said, as the girls shivered. "Let's go back. The sea breeze can get cold at night. Let's go back and go inside." The girls nodded, and he walked them back to the house.

Ruby and Jessie saw the girls and Angus stand up and walk slowly awy towards the spot where Pheobe was buried Jessie moved to stand to follow but Ruby shook her ehad " let them have some time" she said " the site will look magical at night" she added Jessie stayed stood up and felt the cool breeze against his damp skin.

"Im going in to shower and change into warmer clothing , its got a bit chilly" he said Ruby nodded and helped Carlo clear the outside table. Taking plates inside to the kitchen. She saw them return and smiled.

"how'd it look?" she asked softly to Angus letting him know she knew where he went and that she gave him time with Anise and Ginger to admire the eternal flame. "Jessies just gone to change as its gotten a bit cold now" she said

As they got closer to the house, he saw the girls were starting to tire. It had been a powerfully emotional day for them, and they'd been up early.

"Why don't you two go shower, get comfortable, and make an early night of it?" he told them. "You both look tired."

"Maybe that's it," Anise said. "I am starting to just not feel very well."

"You've had a massive amount of stress. I think you both need to get cleaned up and turn in for the night. If you're not better by morning, we'll ask Robert to look in on you before he heads back home." They nodded and headed upstairs. Angus went into the house and found Ruby helping in the kitchen.

"I think they're knackered, actually. Anise isn't feeling well, but I couldn't blame them. This has been a damned awful few days for them," Angus said. "They're going to turn in for the night. I think a good night's sleep will do them good."

"I'll take them some tea with a little dreamless sleep potion in it so they can get some rest," Marcus told Angus.

"Good idea. Thank you," Angus told him. Marcus set about making a couple mugs of chamomile tea.

"I think they liked the gravesite," Angus said. "They thought it was enough light, and they liked all the flowers. Hopefully, they'll learn to apparate and port soon so they can come whenever they like."

"Be careful about letting them do that for a bit by themselves," Edward said, getting out a mug and selecting a teabag of Robert's almond tea for himself.

"Well, I'll wait til they have their certificates of course," Angus said.

"No, no. That's not what I'm talking about. You do not want you-know-who's doing you know what's because they're, well, you know," Edward said.

"I'll bring it in when the water's hot," Simone said, kissing Edward on the cheek.

"Thank you," Edward said.

"Not my daughters they won't, or I'll have them for it," Angus said.

"I'm telling you they'll try," Edward said. "Specifically because they're your daughters. Be careful." He turned and left the kitchen.

"Angus? Something I need to be concerned with?" Marcus asked.

"Not now," Angus said. "This needs to be a much more private conversation." He glanced at Ruby to indicate to her that he wasn't shutting her out. He wanted to be absolutely sure the girls were not going to overhear.