A Birth day

Ruby listened to Robert and sighe knowing he wa right with his thoughts , she looked to Angus and back to Robert " he's probably in the bast position after all" she said and moved to make a night cap for herself , Marcus and Angus. Seeing Robert and Kate head back to the main house she spoke " Night Robert, Kate" she said as she watched them leave the duplex.

Now with the night cap made she walked over to the two men and handed them a cup each " I made us a night cap" she said and placed Angus's down next to Angus. " but one thing I do agree with is that we ll need a good nights sleep." she said siting next to Angu as she sipped her drink.

"Thank you," Angus said, taking the drink from Ruby. Marcus came in with Angus's potion and set it on his side table before taking his own drink and sitting gown. He hadn't even taken a sip before he heard the baby start to wail upstairs. He sighed heavily, got up, put his drink aside, and went upstairs. He was gone for a few minutes and ended up coming back downstairs with her, and she was still fussy. He tried making a bottle for her, but that did absolutely nothing. He tried walking the floor with her, but she was still squalling her little head off. He usually had the patience of Job with her, but given how Suzanne's creole had rattled him, he was shy of patience. He handed her to Ruby.

"Your turn," he said softly. "She's on my last nerve, I admit it."

"No, the creole is on your last nerve," Marcus said. "She's just trying to push herself one notch past it. My daughter used to have nightmares very early in life, while she was still technically a baby. I resorted to putting just one or two drops of a sleep potion in her bottle, just to calm her. It make Evelyn nuts when she found out. So I asked our healer, and he actually told me I could add two or three drops, not just one, when we believed she had had a bad dream. He rather believed she inherited some of Evelyn's disturbances. I don't know if I believe that now because the farther I got them away from their mother, the better all my kids got."

Ruby smiled at Angus but heard Caprice she was about to fecth her , her self but Angus beat her to it and went up returning several minets later with a still fussy Caprice . Ruby took her from Angus and walked back and forth on the floor with her humming a soft lullaby as she did it was now she placed her finger in Caprices mouth and felt a hard bump looking to Angus she chuckled " shes getting her first tooth and yes nightmares at this age don't help." she said walking over to him " feel for your self, upper front and you don't think shes trying it with Caprice do you?" she bent down slightly so he could feel

Standing back up with Caprice she looked to Marcus " I have just the thing for the teething in Caprices room, in a draw you'll find a muggle tube of teething gel could you fetch it for me please. " she said as she moved and grabbed an Ice cube from the ice dipencer and gave it to Caprice to suck on to sooth her gum a little.

Marcus made quick work of accio'ing the teething gel and handed it to her.

"I doubt it," Angus said. "I don't think she'd have any sort of ability to get to her. She's not had any way to take anything that belongs to her in order to make a link with her. Reginald had access to the house but, being a spirit, he certainly didn't have a way to remove anything, and even if he had, he was banned from this house before Caprice was bone. And your mother hasn't been here in that time. Even if you stretch it to say that maybe James had taken something and given it to her, he's been on the grounds, but he hasn't been in the house. So, I don't see any way that could have happened. We've put layers of protections on this house to try to keep them out. For now, I think we should simply keep our eyes open. It's probably nothing. Abbey was having nightmares earlier but we were able to pretty quickly figure out she was already exhibiting some abilities even at that age."

"Well," Marcus said, "Abbey has been pretty exceptional in a lot of ways. I think Angus is right. It does not help you to look for trouble with little kids unless you have a real foundation to seek it. Otherwise, you're only fueling your own imagination. And first time parents like you guys are can find all sorts of things to be anxious about. We've all done it, I'm sure."

Angus yawned, and, not wanting to get sleepy, he got up and went outside with his drink, hoping the cool night air would wake him up a little.

"Can't blame him. He still wants to protect everyone in this house. He doesn't want to sleep, and I can't blame him a bit--potion or not," Marcus told Ruby.

Ruby listened to Angus and nodded to him " your right it probably was just a nightmare she had what with the teething and all" she said smiling as she took the gel from Marcus. Placing a small amount on her finger she rubbed it on Caprices gum and after a moment she settled down in her arms.

"hearing Marcus talk about Angus she nodded " thats what makes him a good father" she said smiling to him "But I wish he would let us once in a while protect him for a change" she addded and looked at Marcus " but I guess thats what he's like, and what I love about him" she added and smiled looking down she saw Caprice had fallen asleep and smiled again " I'll put this one down if you want to check on Angus." she said as she stood up and walked to the Nursary. She saw Finn sleeping under the cot and chuckled placing Caprice down in it and covering her once more with her blankie.

"If you want to know my opinion, I think his fear of losing someone he loves is such a powerful thing for him that it makes him feel like he has to be on guard all the time," Marcus said. "Gryffindors are the sort to deliberately try to put themselves in front of any threat to the people they love so that no one can get to their loved ones unless they get through the Gryffindor first, and Angus certainly has that in spades. I'm sure we'll manage to keep an eye on him, though. I'll get him back in if he's out more than a couple minutes. That little bit of night air isn't going to give him as much of a second wind as he thinks. There isn't that much of a temperature difference. I'm just letting him try. He'll come back in feeling just as sleepy outside as he is inside, and then I'll get him to take his sleeping potion so we can all go to bed." He flashed her a smile of pure amusement.

Angus walked for a little, drank his drink and wished for his cigarettes. They were inside, though, so he finally gave up and went back in, locking the door behind him.

"You going to take your potion down here or up there?" Marcus asked him.

"If I take it down here, I'll be asleep before I can actually go upstairs," Angus said.

"Well, yes. There is that," Marcus laughed. He picked up the potions cup and handed it to Angus again. "How about doing this so we can all get a little sleep tonight?"

"You don't need to stay awake to bodyguard me," Angus said.

"Look. Robert has only been gone a few minutes. Don't make us break his orders already," Marcus said. Angus sighed. This sleeping potion thing made him feel like he was being treated like a child. He got up, took the cup with him, and went upstairs without a word. Marcus followed him, not wanting to see him toss the potion perhaps out over the balcony in defiance. Angus didn't, though. He simply got into bed and took it without saying a word.

"Thank you," Marcus said, taking the cup, checking the bedroom windows and doors, and then going back downstairs.

Ruby listened to Marcus and chuckled " I forgot he was a griffindor , me I was a huffie." she admited " I'll leave him to you " she said and heade upstairs.

Now with Caprice sound asleep she heard foot steps comming up from the living room glancing over her shoulder she saw Angus headed to the bedroom followed by Marcus. After petting Finn she headed to their room " thank you Marcus" she said and patted his shoulder before heading to the bathroom to change her clothes and then slip into bed . " I do hope she lets you get some sleep." she said as she moved to lay against him with a smile " I hope you sleep well tonight " she said as she yawned herself and then lay listening to the sound of silence around the to of them and the sight of the stars shining down threw the sky light abouve them.

"And I was a Raven," Marcus laughed. "Goodnight." He checked the house and then went to bed himself.

"'Night, Ru," he said, knowing the potion was going to put him to sleep whether he wanted it to or not.

Angus got up rather early in the morning. He washed shaved, and dressed. He remembered of dreaming, despite the dreamless sleep potion. The bloody potion hadn't stopped that. All it had done was to trap him in those damned dreams and blocked any chance of escape. He had also been somewhat aware that it somehow had also kept him rather motionless all night. He hadn't been able to move or call out all night. He wasn't going to be excited about taking any more potion. That was for certain. And this morning there were indeed new marks--marks that he didn't like and knew Robert was going to be infuriated about. There was some sort of a new scarring on his chest, and it looked to him like it was forming letters. He dressed so that he would have his shirt on already before anyone saw him. He was going to go make coffee and then, after coffee, he hoped he would have some damned idea what to do with all of this.

It made him question why the sleep potion had failed. Well, it hadn't actually failed. He'd technically slept, and he hadn't moved around or called out, so he figured that Ruby and Marcus had likely slept. Perhaps that was good. He was just starting to button his shirt when Marcus accidently opened the bathroom door.

"Oh, sorry..." Marcus began. "Wait. What is this?" He came in and pushed Angus's shirt open. "This was not there last night."

"Maybe. I don't know..." Angus began. Marcus scowled hard at him.

"You really should quit trying to lie. You don't do it well," Marcus said. "Did you have dreams anyway after taking your potion?"

"Yeah. I did. I just couldn't escape them, that's all. Yeah, I'm not taking it again while this creole woman is on the loose," Angus said.

"You need to go see Robert straight off," Marcus told him.

"No. I need coffee. That has to happen first, even if the bloody house is on fire," Angus said, buttoning his shirt and going downstairs. He then set about making tea and coffee and got out some eggs and bread to make a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. He had not had him mind on what he was doing but before he realized it, he'd cracked a whole dozen eggs into a bowl and had started beating the crap out of them with a fork. The three of them weren't possibly going to eat that many damned eggs. He sighed.

Ruby smiled at Marcus and nodded " Night Marcus" she said as she fell asleep.

She woke the next day by Marcus talking to Angus sitting up she walked over and saw the marks on Angus again as he quickly closed his shirt. She watched as Angus walked down to the kitchen "We should tell Robert" she said to Angus "He did ask to be notified if there were any new marks" she said but heard Caprice stuff in her nursery " I'll get her " she said and headed to the room " could you send the note over to Robert, please" she asked him somewhat worried.

Changing Caprice she dressed her in a pair of trousers and a matching light green top as she then carried her down the stairs. Pausing she saw the number of eggs he'd cracked and chuckled "You know there are only three for breakfast" she said " I'll bake a cake later to use up the eggs" she said to him with a light chuckle even Caprice chukled as she looked at Angus.

"Both of you really need to stop until I've had some bloody coffee," Angus said in a quiet tone. Marcus poured him a mug of coffee.

"You might have to make a couple cakes, Ruby. Angus, give me the damned eggs. What did you do? Did you crack every egg in the house?" Marcus laughed. Just out of curiosity, he opened the fridge, and then he laughed out loud. "Yup. You got 'em all. Nice egg wrangling, Tex. Give 'em here. Go drink your coffee. I can at least fry eggs." He took the bowl from Angus and set out a skillet to heat it and put some bread in the toaster. When the skillet was hot, Marcus poured the eggs in the skillet. Angus took the coffee mug and let Finn out to do his business. While Finn was out, he filled the dog bowl with kibbles and refilled the water bowl.

"Mate, you know, being all closed like you are isn't going to make any difference with us. We know you too well," Marcus told him. "You did say you didn't want any secrets between you and Ruby, right? And, well, trying to keep something from me just won't work. There's just no point. You really don't need to keep trying to do this by yourself. You need us this time."

"Yeah. I know," Angus said.

"Did she frighten you?" Marcus asked.

"No. She pissed me off," Angus said, and Marcus could hear the defiance in Angus's voice. "For just a knut, I'd go to bloody New Orleans myself, find that ..."

"Yeah. I understand. Left to your own devices, I'm sure you'd like to handle her yourself. I can't blame you a bit. When we find her, you get the first blow, alright?"

"Fair enough. And your toast is going to burn. The button sometimes sticks. Jiggle the button on the toaster," Angus said.

"Now you tell me," Marcus laughed, doing as Angus said, and the toast popped up, a perfect golden brown. Marcus took those pieces out and put more in the toaster.