A Birth day

Aria heard Khaat and nodded leaning fdown she found the pack of cards and began playing solitair glancing up every so often to chek on Khaat as she knew she was not as sharp as Marcus at noticing things around her havng little expiriance with bodyguarding and what she had she had a full team around her to do some of the watching, this was her first time doing it alone.

Ruby saw Robert enter and looked to Abby on the couch hearing Angus say he would meke chicken soup she smiled " I belive Caprice loves that too" she said when they spoke of a recipy for a pomagranite tea she thought for a moment " um.. I think it might be in the big recipy file in your office" she said " I saw a recipy for tea in it not that long ago." she looked at Caprice who was playing with her teddy on the floor and chuckled.

"Well, I'll get on that soup in a bit," Angus replied. It didn't take him long to soothe Abbey to sleep. Once she was asleep, he laid her on the sofa and covered her with her favorite blanket. That would let him make the soup.

"Why don't I go over and see if that recipe is in your office?" Marcus asked.

"You don't mind?" Angus asked.

"Of course not," Marcus replied. "Anything you need from the main house?"

"A loaf of fresh bread if they have it."

"I'll give it my best shot," Marcus smiled. He went next door, and he rooted through Angus's recipe file. It wasn't there, but he kept looking and found that someone had used it as a bookmark in the accounts ledger book. Some had used a lot of Angus's recipes that he had not yet put into his notebook as bookmarks. Putting the recipe in his pocket, he went to the pantry and found some large fresh loaves of crusty asiago cheese bread. He chose one and took it back to the duplex.

"Recipe," he handed the recipe to Angus, who was chopping onions and celery and carrots, "and a loaf of asiago cheese bread."

"Perfect. Thank you," Angus said.

"Oh, and obviously, I think you should take care of your recipes as you see fit, but you might want to transfer all those little recipes that you have on little scraps of paper over there into your book. They're being used as bookmarks and all sorts of things in your office. I would hate to see you lose some recipe that everyone likes," Marcus told him.

"Oh, yes. You're right. That's what comes from not being actually in the office for several months. I really need to set a schedule to do that on a regular basis. Thank you," Angus told him. He took a break from the soup long enough to order the pomegranate juice and the other supplies for the pomegranate tea beverage and then went back to making the soup.

Ruby sat next to Abby and smiled to Angus " I'll stay with her while you make the soup" she said softly to him as she gently brushed some hair off her face that was wet with sweat. she heard Marcus and chuckled 2 thats where I saw it in the accounts ledger" she said anc softly chuckled.

Aria sat turning her cards and looking around the office she placed down the cards and walked to make Khaat some cofee then placed it down on the desk " Marus told me to make sure you had coffee" she said smiling a she moved back to her seat and resumb her game.

"I'll have to do a little organization, I guess," Angus smiled. As he was working, Pip brought a message to the window. Angus opened the window and let Pip in and took the message from him. "Thanks, Pip," Angus said, giving him an owl treat. He read the message. "Marcus," Angus called. "Yes, I'm reading Robert's mail, but its from Kieran. Three of the kids are missing from Colorado. They've been searching the grounds, but so far, they haven't found anything."

"Not good," Marcus sighed. "That means that we're probably going to Colorado sooner, maybe without a damned plan at all. I'll go pack us a couple bags because it sounds like we'll be sent probably sooner rather than later."

"I don't know how we can go because of all the illness here," Angus said.

"We'll have to leave those choices to Robert. If he sends us, we'll have to go, and we'll have to trust that he's going to be able to find someone to step in and do some cooking and nursing tasks. He could always delegate some of that to Jess, I suppose," Marcus sighed.

"If Robert is sure its some form of flu, I can help him brew up some potion to cure the flu virus," Edward said. "It does take a few days to completely rid a person of the flu but it can reduce symptoms pretty dramatically. That might help people be able to get back on their feet quicker. i'll talk to him after he's finished with Simone."

"Any idea what we should pack, clothing wise?" Marcus asked.

"It'll be warm during the day, and it will be cold at night. So we're going to need a mix of short sleeves, long sleeves, and I'll take my duster and my hat. The leather protect from cold and wet weather."

"Okay. That gives me an idea," Marcus said, going upstairs to pack a couple bags so they would be ready whenever they were deployed

"Oh, thank you, Aria," Khaat smiled as her secretary came in, handed Khaat a message from A&E. "Oh, just peachy. There's a message from Hogwarts. The school is filled with this illness now. They are requesting extra help there now too." She looked at the secretary. "Ask Jess to come up when she has a minute, please." The secretary nodded and left.

Ruby heard Angus mention the kids were not where they were supposed to be "Not again" she said and looked worried at Angus as Marcus spoke to him.

Aria looked to Khaat as the sectary walked in with a note then she spoke to her it was no more than a few minutes when Jess entered the room and walked over to Khaat " You needed me?" she asked "We've got the ER running smoothly, and all nurses who are meant to be out on leave have returned, on there own I might add" she said to Khaat. She then paused and shook her head " looks like Roberts worried, I'll pop back and see whats wrong, if i need to stay I'll send a note, your okay with that?" she said to Khaat as she stood and waited for her to say she could head back and check in with Robert.

"It isn't our kids, Ru," Angus said. "Our kids are here, remember? They're all working except Sam, and he's safe upstairs in his room. These are kids that we rescued from Tom Gelding and who are living in Colorado because they can't go home again.

"Wait," Khaat told Jess. "We have multiple problems, Jess. Just about everyone in the main house has this stuff. I believe my father sent for Nigel, if he can come, but I'm sure we're going to need probably one private duty nurse for each shift to work at the estate until this lifts. Plus, there are some over at the duplex that might ned help. Abbey has it too, and apparently so does Sam and Simone. Angus took Abbey to the duplex because we just don't have anyone at the main house who can take care of a toddler right now.

"And, to make matters worse, we don't have a cook at the main house. I'm hoping Angus is going to find us a trustworthy replacement for a few days. And--now on top of it, there are some of the kids that we rescued who are missing from the Colorado compound. We're going to have to find some first stringers who don't have this that we can deploy to Colorado, but if we do that, we're leaving the estate really vulnerable because we're losing more of what few well people there that we have.

"And, if that isnt bad enough, I just got a message from Hogwarts. They're all dropping like flies with this, including the matron. They need us to send them at least three healers, one for each shift, and plenty of influenza potion. And that means we need my father here to brew a massive cauldron of the stuff, but he's tending people at the estate. Now, would you like me to make it any worse?" She looked at Jess, knowing this was getting bad, but it certainly could notch up and be worse at any moment.

Jess listened to Khaat and rubbed her temples " I realy should use my barriers" she said and sighed " oh boy what should we do?" she asked " maybe some one from sparks could fillin...nope that would possible put them in a poistion that they might catch it. " she said pacing " what about Ruby , she can cook while ther away , would give her chance to do something diferent" she said " I could sub Robert while he comes here and brews the potion, I could send two of ur nurses with teh potion to Hogwarts to help the permenant staff." she sugested.

Aria sat and listened not envying them their job if she wasn't guarding Khaat she could go to Hogwatrs with the potion but she was and she was not medicaly trained. She placed down a red six on a black seven and staaid quiet.

"Angus and Ruby could cook--unless one or the other or both are sent to Colorado. If Ruby  ends up cooking on her own, I'd want her to stay over at the duplex, then, yes. We dont need her overly exposed. The ground crew could maybe help deliver the food to the main house and take pantry supplies from the main house. I rather expect maybe Jessie to be deployed to Colorado with the away team, so if he goes, maybe Yu and what's-his-name--Dang it.  The kid---can go stay at Edward's and Yu could help Ruby cook, however they work that out. That might work temporarily--maybe."

"You'll need three nurses at Hogwarts, not two, one for each shift," she told Jess. "If we need more help here, maybe I can ask Nigel if he can spare us a few. And we'll need probably three at the estate. Do we have enough to pull that many? That's six all together. Or shall I ask Nigel for a favor. How many can we spare?"

Angus didn't speak out loud, but his mind was racing about Colorado and the missing kids. He was hoping that it didn't mean that Tom had found a way to learn there was an operation in Colorado. He was hoping that Tom hadn't infiltrated it already and taken some of the kids, but in his mind, that was exactly what he was thinking that perhaps had happened.

"Ru, come taste this soup and see what you think," Angus told her. "It needs to simmer for awhile so that flavors deepen, but you can get an idea of what's going on with it."

Jess listened to Khaat and nodded " I agree and it's Chris" she said with a smile " Jessie and Yu's son is Chris" She listened more and took notes "Right three, I'll get on readying the nurses that will be going, I'll send a note to Ruby to let her know she will have to cook but Im sure she knows that already." she said as she took a deep breath in and took out a note pad writing the note she sent it to Ruby and another to the staff at the main house. " okay now I will organise the ER and OR to take into account the lose of three nurses " she added and turned to face the door " Is there anything else you can think of we should do?" she asked not wanting to leave anything at a lose.

Ruby stayed beside Abby, " even still, missing kids is not good " she said worried that they might have been taken again "You don't think he got them?" she asked not wanting to use Tom's name around the kids even if Abby was sleeping.

"Oh, yes. Chris. I've only met him maybe once, I think, and I know I have a lot on my plate today," she sighed. "Jess, wait. Stop and listen. You're still maybe not getting it. Three nurses isn't enough. We'll need six. Three at Hogwarts and three at the estate. If you can't do six, you need to let me know so I can try to find some somewhere else.

Angus stirred the soup and left it to simmer, heading to make the pomegranate tea and maybe some sort of dessert. Edward got up and came over and got a spoon and tasted the soup since Ruby apparently hadn't heard Angus ask her to taste it.

"A little more salt, Lad," Edward said. "Otherwise, I think you should let it simmer for now."

"Of course, I'm considering Tom or Suzanne," Angus said. "I don't want to have to, but I think we have to consider it."

"Edward," Robert said, returning to Angus's kitchen, "she definitely has flu. I gave her a fever reducing potion and some flu potion. I'll have to brew a massive batch. We need some and St. Mungos needs some. I'll honestly probably go to the farm to do that. I'll be slammed with a million interruptions if I try to do it at St. Mungos."

"If we have someone to check on her, I'll come with you and give you a hand," Edward said.

"We'll give it our best shot," Angus said. "She normally doesn't ask for much, so we can try. We have to check on Sam anyway."

"That might work," Robert said, starting to head upstairs to check Sam.

"Robert, there are three kids missing from Colorado. We just got a message," Angus handed the note to Robert." Robert turned back, read the message and cursed.

"Okay. Let me go see Sam. And then I'll deal with this," Robert sighed, heading upstairs.