A Birth day

Ruby smiled as she entered and saw Evan making sandwiches " Im sure every one will not care what's inside, we got the coffee and tea don't worry" she said and moved to make fresh pots of tea and coffee. She heard Ginbger enter and she smiled at her "Sure can you get enough cups for everyone, the tea and coffee won't be long, thanks" she said "Oh and Ginger, you all did well today Im proud of you all" she said smiling as she heated the pot up and added the tea leaves to it to stew for a moment then she aded the coffee to the second pot and let it sit.

Aria slipped out of her clothes and under the warm water of the shower washing away the sweat and blood she felt was on her skin. Once clean she wrapped herself in a towel and went to look at the bruise in the mirror it covered hr right side , wrapping it in a bandage she then slipped on a tee shirt and a pair of jeans chosing to wear some sandles rather than flip flops or court shoues to head over to the main house.

Evan looked at her with a confused frown. He had just told her he had already made the full pots of coffee and tea that were ready. Was she blind? Did she not see that there was a full pot of coffee and tea already made in their respective pots? Oh, whatever, he sighed. He watched her go over to the pots, throw out the full pots of coffee and tea that he had just finished brewing to make more herself. He was frustrated with her, and he left the kitchen.

He went over, found Angus's cigarettes and his lighter and went outside where Kate was still sitting on the porch. He sat down on the front steps and lit up one of Angus's cigarettes.

"I didn't know you smoked," Kate told him quietly.

"I dont," he replied, inhaling deeply on one of them. She got up and went over and sat beside him on the steps, putting her arm around his shoulder. "He might not ever be right again after this, you know," he said quietly.

"That's not true," Kate said gently. "Angus has learned some important things, the most important of which is how very much he is loved. It hasn't been that long ago that he didn't believe that, and now he does."

"Do you really think that will be enough?"

"Yes. Oh yes," she said. "It might take him a little to get past the trauma of this, but he'll be alright. I'm glad you were with us tonight. He looks forward to the time he spends iwth you. "

"I'm not going anywhere," Evan said. "I'll have to.., well, I don't know. Tara and the girls expect me home, and...I have a job, and...But I just can't go. I have to be here."

"Talk to Edward. If you need to bring Tara and the girls, then bring them," she said. "Evan, you don't have make any decisions tonight, and you probably shouldn't. Robert will know more in the morning. Let's wait and see. Tonight, he's purposely given Angus' heart and lungs and nerves a rest. I expect some of that will be at least a bit better in the morning. The best thing people can do right now is to get a bite to eat, get cleaned up, and get a little sleep to help keep the house quietand calm overnight. Robert and Nigel will be awake all night, and if there's any change, they'll let us all know. How did you do with the sandwiches and coffee?"

"Done," he said. "Well, it was. And then Ruby dumped out the coffee and the tea that had just finished brewing and re-did it. I don't get it," he said. "She makes no sense."

"You live in a houseful of women. You, above all people, should know how to pick your battles," she laughed. He nodded. "Look," she said, "Angus is going to be sleeping for awhile, so why dont you go clean up, make a floo call to Tara to let her and the girls know it went well and talk to Tara about the possibility that we might be going back to England tomorrow and you'd like to be closer to Angus for a few days. Come back whenever you like."

"I might," he said. "I know she's worried."

"And I'm sure they miss you."

"I miss them too," Evan admitted. "I miss them like crazy. They make my world make sense when everything else is just upside down."

"There you are," Edward said, coming out on the porch. He went over and sat down on the other side of Evan. "I've been looking for you. You were very impressive tonight for your first battle, Ev. Well done. You still want to do this fighting thing?"

"Absolutely," Evan said, more determined than ever. "I'm not going to see my brother go into these things and not be there to help him get home."

"I'm glad you were there for him tonight," Edward said. "The defodio spell was good thinking. Robert told me how you used it to dig him out. He's gonna be fine. He needs a bit, but he'll be fine."

"Edward, I can't just forget it and go home. I want to be around for at least a couple days," Evan said.

"So? What's the problem?"

"There are the businesses, Tara, the girls..."

"You have months and months of holiday time you've never taken. Take a little. The businesses will survive. If they need something, they can contact me. You know Simone and I have room. Bring Tara and the girls, and stay however long you like."

"You sure?" Evan looked at him.

"Evan, you have no idea how damned proud I was tonight. When we landed on that beach, Simone and I apparated up a little way to go hide behind a couple bushes to get an idea of where all her followers were. I looked out at the beach and I saw my boys--you and Angus and Sam and Victor, all four of you striding together up that beach like you owned it. And right beside them were my girls--Ginger, Anise, Ruby. That was a damned big group of Donohues, coming to make the darkness into light again. God, I was proud of you all. You've always wanted a close relationship with Angus, and I've always wanted more of a relationship with you kids. It would make me very happy if you'd come and stay a bit."

"Okay," Evan said. "I'll talk to Tara."

"Good," Edward smiled.

Ruby turned and saw Evan tipping out coffee and tea . It was now it hit hr he'd already made the tea and coffe and she stopped placing her hands on the counter she took sevral breaths in as Aria walked in the door " wow, hey you okay?" she asked Ruby nodded them shook her ehad " okay witch one" she sid Ruby looked up at her.

"I just made coffee and tea , when Evan alrady had made some,it was like I was in auto mode" she said Aria laughed and nodded to her as she moved to hug hr tight.

"it happens , not go opologise to Evan and relax," she said leading hr to th kitchen door " though I'd wait until he done with Robert." she added seeing the two men tlking to each other. Once done Ruby looked at Anise and walked over to Evan.

"sorry about the coffee and tea, I ...I didn't see you'd made some" she said then walked over and hugged him " thank you for what you did today with Angus." she said into his chest hugging him close " I don't know what I would have done if I lost him." she looked up at him as tears ran down her cheks.

"No apologies necessary," Evan said. "We weren't going to lose him today. Premonition or not, nobody's going to take him from us. It's only convinced me that this is what I need to be doing. Um, look. I've been talking to Kate and Edward. I'm not fool enough to believe he's going to wake up in the morning and be able to bounce right back. I'd have been terrified out of my mind if that had been me in that casket. And I know our parents are entirely responsible for him having the rather closed way of coping that he has. But I really want to be one of people he feels he can rely on. So--I told Edward I really need to be able to come and stay at the duplex awhile, and he said I can bring Tara and the girls and stay at Edwards for a bit. He thinks that would be good for not just us but for the kids too. So i guess I'm just kind of inviting myself and my family to come and do whatever we can to help Angus find a way to deal with what that tramp pulled tonight."

Ruby listened to Evan and smiled as he said no apoligy was nessecary she stood and listened to him as she pulled back wiping her face dry " you know you're always welcome, you're his brother after all and the only one who treated him right his whole life" she said " Im sure the kids will love to have their uncle Evan stay for a while, and yes I agree with you, he won't be fully better no matter how hard he tries to hide it from us, but stay for as long as you want." she told hun and hugged him again.

Aria pored two cups of coffee and walked over to Marcus " here, got you one" she said placing it down next to him as she stood with hr own cup " lot of emotions out in the open tonight" she said as she sat down not too far from him and staid watching Angus as he slept.

"Thank you," Marcus said, still sitting on the arm of the chair that Angus was sleeping in.

"I'm going to go get some coffee and maybe one of those sandwiches," Robert said to Marcus. "Call me if he so much as twitches."

"Absolutely," Marcus nodded. Robert got up and went to the kitchen. "There are a lot of emotions tonight," Marcus agreed with Aria. "I think, first of all, these people are tightly bonded, but I think they all can put themselves in Angus' shoes and identify with the pure terror he had to have experienced in that short twenty or thirty minutes. I think most people have had it cross their minds what it would be like to be buried alive, but he's actually experienced it. I think that's brought out a lot of raw emotion in people. You never met his paraents, did you? Boy, now, they were both a piece of work. Nasty, nasty people. How such a foul, self centered man could come from someone as compasionate and giving as Edward is, is beyond me. But--you actually have several chapters missing, I think, from what binds these people together as a family. Let me ask you. Have you ever heard of a British expat living in Paris? Goes by the name of Gelding. Tom Gelding."

Aria sat and listened to Marcus talking she could not say anything nor did she want to, she wanted to know just what she had gotten herself involved in. Sitting quietly she saw Robert leave to get food and a coffee then Marcus started to talk. " he's some big mafia boss right?" she said " makes his money the dirty way so our files say. " she looked at Marcus as she sat back ready for a long story she was about to hear.

Ruby smiled at Evan as she walked to the kitchen " Robert?" she asked "How is he?" she asked plating up a sandwich and holding it out to him with a cup of tea " here you look like you could use some food and a hot drink" she said " Have to admit I was scared today, more scared that I evr was, but I trusted you." she told him.

Aria sipped her coffee as she waited for him to continue having a feeling this would compltly change her perspective of Mr Tom Gelding from this moment onward how and in wich direction she didn't know.

"Yes," Marcus nodded, speaking quietly, not wanting anyone to overhear him. "And I can tell you just exactly how he makes all that money he has. Did you ever ask yourself why Robert has a hand selected group of ultra elite fighters? Why, when he has the entire force of Egnland's aurors at his disposal, would he need this little platoon of people that he's trained far beyond the skills of the aurors? I'm not authorized to tell you, but I also know that if you want to know something, you're going to just keep digging. So I'll tell you. For the last fifty years, Robert has owned what is listed in his records as a vacation home in Paris. Vacation, my arse.

"Tom Gelding's father was the start of the big money. He figured out that some muggles had ridiculous amounts of money and could easily make more, and were greedy to find all kinds of ways to do it. He also figured out that muggle money can be converted to galleons. So, he began capturing wizarding children, blocking all their powers but only a precious few spells--spells to make muggles wealthy. So, all a muggle had to do was to make an 'adoption arrangement' with Tom for one of these children--for the right price. The kids disappeared into the muggle world, and our world never heard of them again.

"Well, Robert and his friends found out about this when they were in their last couple years of Hogwarts and were spending their summer holidays in Paris. So, they decided to do something about it. They pooled their money and bought this house, and they took it upon themselves to try to get these kids back. And, fifty years later, Robert is still rescuing kids that are now being taken from all over the globe and 'adopted' through Eric Gelding's son, Tom. And us--the band of people you fought with tonight, Robert's trained us to be some of the sharpest fighters on the planet so that we will never, ever have to leave a child behind.

"You asked me tonight if I would follow Robert into hell, and I said yes? Well, that's why. He's a man of countless secrets, but he's a damn good man. And he's saved, literally hundreds of kids from being lost to our world forever. That seems to me to be something worth fighting for."

Aria sat and listened to Marcus talking about Tom Gelding slowly as he spoke more she lent forward her elbows on her knees as she listened " Before Robert nobody did anything?" she asked and shook her head "That's cruel to the max" she said still looking at him. " I have known cruel men but that seriously fucked up" She placed down her coffee cup and sat back not able to say anything more " And all of you are working with Robert to stop him?" she asked " Ruby and Angus too?" the more she thought about it the more everything made sense.

"That's right," Marcus said. "Eric was clever enough to make them look like random kidnappings or runaways. Not enough to get onto the authorities' radars." He listened to her questions and nodded. "And you haven't met them all. At my best count, there are about twenty of us that live on Brian's estate that are part of who he calls his first string--his primary fighters. But he has a team of fighters in Paris, a couple in Romania, and more fighters all across the globe. They are at his beck and call, 24 hours a day, and they respond the very instant he calls.

"The founders are names you would know from your history. Besides, Robert and Kate, Michael is a founding member. He was in it from the very start. So was Dumbledore. James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin. There were eight or nine of them that pooled their intelligence, their abilities, their money--and they were not only the original founders, they were the original fighters. And, man, has it grown.

"Brian also owns a massive, unplottable ranch in the mountains of Colorado, and its used as a training ranch for the fighters. Robert's also developing an orphanage of sorts there on the property for those kids who can never go back to their families. If their parents have openly sold their kids to Gelding, Robert takes custody of them. They never go back home to be sold, rescued, returned and sold again. That doesn't happen anymore. Robert hides them in Colorado now where they're raised and educated and well cared for---all the way to adulthood there. A number of them have joined the organization as fighters and are in various parts of the globe to try to help other kids."

"Here's where Angus has become such a target. Angus was a childhood friend of Khaat's and Brian's. They were Gryffindors in the same house. A few years after they graduated, Brian recruited Angus from the aurors, and Robert put him in Paris to run the organization from there. And he did that for a lot of years until Brian needed him in England to run the big estate he owns there. Angus and Tom have sparred on countless occasions. However, that rivalry got even darker when Angus took up with Ruby. Angus didn't know but his parents worked for Tom. And--guess who's parents worked for Angus's parents--you guessed it. Ruby's. Rubys' dad was a hit man, and Ruby's mother--Suzanne--was an 'entertainer'--'entertaining' whoever Tom wanted her to--including himself. Angus ended up a year or so ago killing Ruby's dad in self defense. And, because Sam and Victor were being put in jeopardy, Angus and Ruby rescued the boys, sued for permanent custody of the boys and got it. And, that was at the same time that Ruby's brother went to work for Robert. So, Ruby's mother blames Angus for killing her husband and stealing all her children from her--which isn't entirely accurate, but that's just how Suzanne thinks. So, who was she being consoled by? Yup--Tom, who got her pregnant almost at the same time that Angus killed Reginald. So her grieving widows act runs real thin with me. And then who did she marry at Christmas time? Uh huh. Tom. So she's using Tom's money to hire dark wizards like Marie to try to kill Angus. Now, are you completely confused?"