A Birth day

Aria listened to him talking and smiled placing her hand on his arm she spoke softly to him"I do too and I think that's a sensible idea, if we make it a holiday they can say what they want to her first, then we can let them make happy memories after, something positive out of something negative, it's what my dad always use to say" she said and chuckled before laying her head against his arm and relaxing.

"Do you think they were stunned into silence?" she asked him softly having not heard a word out of the kids for a while. Seeing the sun setting she started to pack up the food and rubbish "I'll dispose of the rubbish back in camp" she told him. " But I think it has been a really good day." She brushed the sand from her feet and redressed in her clothes knowing she'd have to wash them the next day.

"I'm sure they'd like that," he told her. "Of course, I can't do that until Jeffrey says she's stable enough to withstand that because they will be brutal, especially Zane and Kai. They remember her crap when she was supposed to be taking care of them. The other ones don't remember her during those years because they were too little. they do know her because of what visits she has made to them over the years. And Poppy doesn't have a need to know her at all."

"They'll be back soon, I'm sure,' he told her. "Unless for some reason they take some sort of new liking to volley...."

"Dad!" Zane was calling. Marcus looked up to see Zane coming to the campsite, and he had Poppy with him. She was crying and holding her left hand. Marcus got up and went over to them.

"What happened?" Marcus asked.

"One of the kids gave the ball a strong hit, and it hit her in the hand. She's hurt her middle finger somehow," Zane said. concerned.

"Okay," Marcus said. "Let me see." He took her hand in his, and he took a very careful look at her hand. "I don't think its broken, Poppy. I think it's jammed, but that can still be painful. I think we can manage this. Zane, do me a favor. Go to the camp store and get a couple ice lollies--the kinds with the sticks. If you and Poppy want to eat the lollies, i dont care. It's the sticks I'm after." The other kids are still playing?"

"Yeah. I didn't know if Poppy and I would be back or not."

"Bring me the ice lollies, and then you can go back if you want, but Poppy's going to be here with me." He handed Zane some money, and Zane hurried down to the camp store.

"Aria, can you take a plastic bag and some ice from the cooler and make a small ice pack for me? We need to ice this. I'll get you something to put around the ice pack, and I'm also going to go get my patch kit," Marcus told her. "Come sit, Poppy," Marcus told her, sitting her in one of the chairs at the campsite.

Aria stood up seeing Kia and Poppy now crying return " Ho my gosh," she said softly and listened to Marcus when he asked her to fetch the ice pack, and his patch kit she nodded, " I think we have some strip bandage the muggles use," she said heading into the tent returning with a bag half filled with ice and his patch kit she also held the tape bangdage in her hand, " thought you could use this to wrap the two together after," she said silently changing the colour to pink. " hope you like pink?" she said to Poppy as she sat next to her gently holding her against her shoulder " you'll be okay, you got doctor dad looking after you," Aria said trying to make her laugh and forget about her pain for the moment. Aria looked at Marcus as they waited for Kia to return with the sticks for him.

"Pink is fine," she nodded.

Marcus went into the tent and got his patch kit and he brought some tissues. He handed the tissues to her. "Here," he said gently. "Dry your eyes. We'll have it taken care of in a moment."

"What's jammed finger?" she asked.

"Its what happens when something hits the end of your finger and jams it in towards your hand so that the joints get all pushed together. Hurts like the devil. We're going to ice it, and we'll splint it to keep it still at least until we go home tomorrow. I'm sure that Robert can fix it when we get home. We'll do that before I take you home. So, let's ice it for now to take some of the swelling and soreness out of it. And besides, that give you a lovely ice lolly to eat." he smiled at her and kissed her forehead.

"Has it ever happened to you?" she asked.

"God, yes," he laughed. "I was given a muggle gun to take with me on a mission, and the thing was defective. I took it to a shooting range to practice with it, and the first time I fired it, the gun malfunctioned and jammed one finger and broke another. Needless to say, I did not take that gun along with me."

"Did it hurt?"

"Yes," he nodded. "It most certainly did. I'll check my patch kit and see if there's any pain potion in it." Zane came back and went over to Poppy with two ice lollies.

"These are weird lollies," he told her. "Each lolly has two sticks. So--orange or cherry?"

"Orange," she said. He opened it and handed it to her.

Aria smiled as Marcus spoke to Poppy " thats a very common way to do it actually." she said chukaling as Marcus checked out her finger " was thinking the same thing" she said when he spoke abut Robert checking it then placing the ice on it to numb it so he could tape it using the lolly to hold it in place. She saw Zane return with to lollys in his hand and smiled " wow thse are the nice ones" she said chukaling " my prefrance is the one the muggles call magnums, oh the chocolate and rasberry filing is " she sighed " its vegan so I can eat it, lactose intolorant" she admited " means I can't have milk, cows milk" she chuckled as she watched Marcus inspect the finger.

Aria watched as one of the sticks started to slid our from the icelolly. Reatching out she gently pulled it free and dried it " her you go" she said handing it to him.

"Thank you," Marcus said. He flicked his finger at the stick to cast a cleaning charm on it. He didn't want to wrap her finger in a lolly stick that was still sticky from orange sugar water. He shrank the stick to the size of her finger and then taped the stick to her finger. "Now, Keep the ice on it for awhile yet, and I'll get you a wee bit of pain potion."

"It's okay then?" Zane asked, finishing his cherry ice lolly.

"It's good. Good job, Zane. Thanks. Go have fun," Marcus smiled. Marcus found a small bottle of pain potion in his patch kit, and he mixed just a wee bit of it in a cup of tea. "Pain potion is in here, so make sure you don't leave half the cup, will you?" he looked at her with an amused smile. She nodded, and tended to her tea. Then he took the patch kit back to the tent and brought out Angus's travel game kit.

"Why don't you and Aria play some checkers? It's in this kit someplace. I think, if we're careful, we can make it a bit bigger without the muggles seeing," Marcus suggested.

"

Aria held Poppy and smiled watching how elecate Marcus was with her as he placed it between her fingers and taped it. She gave Poppy a light hug and smile when he brought out the board games " That sounds perfect" she said " I've not won against you Dad yet" she added " unless you count those two hands of poker" she said smirking to him she set out the board using sleight of hand to enlarge it as she placed it down so to anyone watching it had already been that size.

"Hum I might be rusty at this," she said moving her first piece" like this?" she asked looking up at Poppy hoping she'd not just done a bad move or something as she chuckled. She saw him hand Poppy some tea and leaned over to her " I always leave a bit in the bottom, coffee or tea " She turned back to look at the board. " I might lose this one," she said even after just moving one piece.

"She likes to leave some in her cup too," Marcus said. "That's why I told her she needs to not do that this time."

Marcus did some catching up on some of his reading while Poppy and Adria played checkers. Ravenclaw that he was, he did enjoy reading but he rarely got the chance for it. Michael had bought him a first edition of a classic fiction book for Christmas, and Marcus had tucked it into his bag to read. He had learned some speed reading techniques from his father, and that did help him to get a bit farther in it than he would have otherwise.

The kids came back to the campsite towards suppertime, and Zane got some cold sodas for them since they were hot from playing volleyball.

"When are we eating, Dad?" Ezra piped up. "Is it suppertime yet? I'm hungry."

"We can cook whenever you want," Marcus said. "I thought we'd just roast some smoked sausages and some hot dogs over the fire, maybe put some crisps with them, and then later, we can make your choice of s'mores for some pie iron pies."

"What are those?" Zane asked.

"Wait and see. You'll like them," Marcus said. "You ready for some hot dogs or some sausage sandwiches?"

"Sure," Zane said.

"Well, you guys go get the sausages and hot dogs out and the roasting sticks. Daria, can you get the condiments for the sandwiches and the crisps and some paper plates, please?"

"Sure," she said. Marcus closed his book and set it aside and started the campfire again.

"These sausages look weird, Dad," Ezra scowled.

"Don't turn your nose up at them before you try them. The sausages have pineapple and bacon in them, and the hot dogs have cheddar in them," Marcus said. "You'll like them. So who won the volleyball game?"

"They won twice and we won once. It's okay that we exchanged address to write letters, isn't it?" Kai asked.

"Certainly," Marcus said.

"Oh, and Poppy, we got the address of that new girl you made friends with and we gave her your address too," Zane said.

"Thanks," she said.

"Come get a hot dog or a sausage to roast, Everybody," Zane said, putting both a hot dog and a sausage on his roasting fork.

In Tuscany, Angus was cooking a late supper for himself and Ruby. The sun had gone down here hours ago, and it was near ten pm. They'd had a nice, quiet day, but now they were getting hungry. He had found some lobster tail in the freezer and some frozen sheets of pasta dough. he unthawed them and he had made some bite sized lobster ravioli, and he had boiled it and had made a nice garlic dill and brown butter sauce for over the ravioli. He opened a bottle of white wine to go with the lobster ravioli and when the pasta was done, he plated it and drizzled the brown butter sauce over it and set the plates on the table.

"Supper's ready finally, if you're hungry," he told her.

Aria sighed "Okay poppy you win..again" and chuckled as she saw the others returning. she heard Marcus and smiled "That's a new one for me too," she said then she heard Ezra talk about the sausages " your dads right I've had food that looked magnificent but tasted like..well really rotten food, and food that looked bad but tasted like heaven." she said picking up a sausage and sticking it on the end of a skewer and waited for the kids to get theirs ready to cook. She saw him reading and smiled thinking once back she would take trip to dyagon ally and have alok in the book store here for a book h'd not read or one she could give him as something special.

Ruby looked at Angus as he movd to the gally and began cooking her stomach growled as she smelt the food cooking " that smella wonderful" she told him " I'll lay the table, should be quick since its just the two of us." she said with a chuckle taking out two plates and two glasses.

Kai was the only other one who chose to roast both a hot dog and a sausage, but it didn't take the kids long to pick something and start to roast it over the fire. Marcus had picked a sausage, and Poppy had been intrigued by the idea of pineapple and bacon in a sausage, so it had been what she had picked too. Daria and Ezra had each chosen hot dogs because of the lure of cheese. When the meat was done, the kids each fixed their own sandwiches and grabbed a handful of crisps and found a place to sit around the fire.

"I think this really is the best meal of all on a camping trip," Zane said. "There's something jsut a lot of fun about cooking hot dogs and s'mores." The kids all readily agreed with him.

"So, for our Christmas trip this year, can we go someplace warn so we can camp?" Ezra asked.

"We can if that's what you all want to do," Marcus said. "You'd rather do that than skiing?"

"Oh. Well, I don't know about that," Ezra said, having some second thoughts. He did like the skiing trip too. It was a tough choice. Marcus laughed.

"That's what I thought. I mean, it isn't impossible to roast a hot dog outside in the snow, but it won't be nearly the same fun as it is on a summer night," Marcus said.

"Besides, then you'd miss all that hot cocoa and hot spiced cider and the ice skating..." Zane said.

"Well, okay. Maybe not. maybe we should keep the Christmas trip," Ezra said.

"You have time to think about it. Not a long time, but maybe a month or so, and if you don't want to go skiiing, you'll have to let me know so I can change our lodge arrangements," Marcus told them. He looked at Aria. "The kids and my parents and I have always gone for a skiing weekend while they're off on Christmas break--not over Christmas Day, but sometime over their break. We usually go to either France or Switzerland, but not the same area in Switzerland where Evelyn is. And i've always given them a choice where they want to go for that weekend, but they like the skiiing and the ice skating. They prefer cross country skiing rather than downhill, and either is fine with me."

"It's ready whenever we are," Angus said. "And I already opened the wine. You could pour it, if you like." He brought over the plates and put one at her place and one at his own. "Lobster ravioli with a garlic and dill brown butter sauce."