A Birth day

Ruby smiled as he asked her to sit with him she moved and sat down pulling her legs up against her to the side and lent against him as he spoke and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Her arm went around his waist as she relaxed against him. " it was nothing realy Tara helped a lot, poor Abby was sick then Sam, but once that had been cleaned up they pretty much slept most of the time, Caprice seem to know something wasn't right she stayed in her pen and played quietly until she fell asleep, we made soup and they ate it as did we , we cleaned when they slept and took turns cooking when they needed tending to." she said " but sounds like Gelding got what he deserved, good for you guys" she said snuggling against him.

" so were the kids sleeping?" she asked him gently " and how didJessie do?" she shifted to face him with a smile " I have to admit today was an intresting but fufilling day, I felt like a mother for the first time" she smiled " I know I am but you know what I mean , rght?" she said

"The kids are all sound asleep. The girls moved Abbey's bed to lay in between Anise and Ginger's bed, but it's pushed up tight against Ginger's bed. I think that's so that both girls can keep an eye on Abbey overnight. They're taking their job as big sisters--or sort of big sisters--very seriously. I think she's in good hands for the night. I doubt we'll hear a peep from any of them. Sam still is a bit warm, but he's not as warm as he was. I think they're probably past the worst of it. So, as long as nobody else gets it from Simone or the kids, this house should be past it, I should think." Angus smiled when she said she felt like a mother for the first time.. "I understand it entirely. Brian felt like he was Abbey's rightful dad when we went to St. Mungo's and picked her up. We all knew Rob was never coming back, and when he picked up Abbey that day, he made a choice that he was goign to be Abbey's dad. And he's never looked back. Sometimes the emotional bond that we create as a parent becomes even stronger when some circumstance comes about that makes us either fiercer protectors or caretakers. And, you were in a bit of a different role today with the kids. It makes perfect sense to me.

"Jessie did fine," Angus said. "We paired him with Evan because we needed new faces for the errand to the bank, and they did just great. We couldn't have done it without them. Robert's going to be proud of them. They're both so new to this sort of work, and their work tonight was flawless. Couldn't have been better. "

Marcus came through, made a check of the living room and the kitchen, and gave Finn a last bedtime treat.

"Finn and I are off to bed. Get some sleep while it's quiet, you two. Goodnight," Marcus told Angus and Ruby and then went upstairs.

"You look exhausted, Ru. You should get a little sleep too while its quiet," Angus said. "I'll work on breakfast for everyone, and maybe you can spell me for awhile in the morning so I can get a little sleep. What do you think?"

Ruby listened to Angus and nodde dresting her head on his shoulder as he spoke " yeah, it was diferent but in a good way" she said then smiled seeing Marcus enter and check the doors " you too Marcus, don't keep Aria awake too long" Ruby said and chuckled watching Finn and Marcus head upstairs. Ruby heard Angus and nodded " yeah Im wore out" she said as she listened to him talk about breakfast "I can do that" she said smiling to him before she stood up bending down she kissed him gently " but right now lets get some sleep" she said " breakfast is for tomorrow." she added.

Aria did her night rutine and placed her robe on the chair by the bathroom door before heading to slip into bed as she ehard the bedroom dor open and Finn walk in followed by Marcus. " all went well? " she asked knowing it had " and the kids back at the compound" she pulled her legs up to her chest a she waited for him to reply to her knowing he would do his nightly rutine and check the windows in their room.

"Maybe we can cook breakfast together, then," Angus smiled. He got up and followed her upstairs. "I have some ideas about an easy menu that I think they'll be able to eat, and it won't take long to fix." He changed into his pajama trousers and got into bed. "Maybe a big batch of apple cinnamon Irish oatmeal, some hot poached fruit, maybe a batch of scrambled eggs, and, a batch of pumpkin scones. What do you think?"

"It went really well, and our two newbies--Jessie and Evan--did some stellar work for a couple new blokes. Robert is going to be proud of them," Marcus said, finishing checking the windows in their room before he came to bed. "So, after going stride for stride with Khaat all day, I'm betting that you aren't in any hurry to wear a pair of shoes like hers and then work all day on your feet down in A&E for a 12 hour shift. I don't know how she does it, but I do not envy her one bit. I've not seen her ever break stride though because of her shoes. She can match pace with any of the nurses wearing trainers. If you want to go with her tomorrow, I'm good with it. If you want me to go, I'm good with that too. The choice is yours. Whatever you want. Just let me know so I know what I'm doing in the morning, would you?" He turned out the light. "Next time Angus and Ruby go out of town for an overnight, we're going to spend the night in their room. Their skylight is something else at night." he yawned.

Ruby smiled and nodded as she held his hand all the way to their room changing into her PJs she slipped under the covers as he did and spoke of breakfast "Sounds perfect" she said as she moved to rest against him . " I'll do the scrambled eggs and you can do the poached fruit" she added tiredly.

Aria listened to him talk about the day then chuckled as he mentioned Khaats shoses " oh I was so tempted as well to snap those heels" she said " nope, Im good with what I have, no heels that big for me" she said with a chuckle " I want to keep my ankles in one peice nd I was thinking we could alternate, since you went to paris eI'll go with her again tomorrow to give you a day to recover then you can take over the next day, if you want." she said then heard his last words and chuckled " we could just add our own skylight?" she said softly as she saw him yawn, leaning over she kised him and smiled " Good night, I love you" she said the last part softly to him not even sure he could even hear her.

"Okay. That works. I think you'll like the fruit. It isn't actually poached. In the states, back in the days of their civl war, they used to take slices of apples, and fry them in a cast iron skillet with cinnamon, butter and brown sugar--or what we call muscovado sugar. They're marvelous. So, a few years ago, i wanted to make them for breakfast but I had some other fruit I needed to use up too, so I made a mix of peaches, apricots, apples, plums, and pears, and I fried them up with cinnamon and butter and muscovado sugar, and everyone went nuts for them. Michael went one notch further with them and used them as a topping for his Irish oatmeal, and, then two years ago, in a blizzard, kate went one notch further and used them as a topping for her pancakes. So, that fried fruit gets used in all kinds of ways. Kate asked me to try to come up with a fried berry version so that we would have something that would look red and Christmasy on the Christmas breakfast table this year, so I'll have to do some experimenting."

"I like your way of thinking," Marcus smiled when Aria said she would go with Khaat in the morning. "I'll take a look at the floor plans of the house and see if, structurally, the master bedroom would support a skylight, but it's a good thought. Kate made that one for Angus and Ruby, so if we could put one in our cottage, I'd have to ask Kate to design one. I was thinking of asking her to design some leaded glass windows for the place anyway. The windows have been replaced to modern, energy efficient windows, which is lovely if you're a muggle, but they look entirely too modern for the house. I'd rather have Kate make us some leaded glass ones and then enchant them to be energy efficient. They'd be elegant, and a lot more fitting with....." He never got to finish his sentence. He dozed off before he got his thought out completely.

Ruby smiled at Angus and nodded as she listened to him talk of the dish " ether way sounds heavenly" she said as she listened longer to him " oh I could so get behind that" she added.

Aria turned on the bed to look at Marcus as he spoke , she could see he was half asleep as he did and she smiled glancing up she could just imagine the cottage with stain glass windows the amazing colores and light that wuld enter it. Hearing him slowly fade she looked up and smiled seeing he had fallen asleep and hearing his beathing soften. Sitting up slightly she lent over him and kissed him gently " good night my love" she spoke softly and lay down next to him to fall a sleep herself.

Nex morning she woke and dressed in a light grey suit and flat slip on shoes brushing her hair she put it up in a braid that hung down her back and headed down to the kitchen where she saw Ruby already starting brakfast. " giving the boys a rest?" she asked as Ruby looked up at ehr and smiled.

"morning to you too Aria and yes they did so much yesterday thought I would start breakfast" she said glancing as she saw Caprice stood up in the play pen watching the pair of them.

Edward was up early, and he had popped out very briefly and had gone to Sparks and had gone and picked up a big batch of pumpkin chocolate chip scones. He wanted something that might tempt Simone to eat. He had fixed her some tea and taken her a scone and cream. She had actually eaten, and he helped her downstairs to the sofa and made her an impromptu bed there with a pillow and a blanket and some fresh tea.

He set aside a few scones for them, and then he took the rest of them over next door where Ruby was making breakfast and Aria was dressed to go with Khaat again.

"I made an early morning trip in to Sparks and brought back some of todays' special scone flavor--pumpkin chocolate chip. Simone isn't running a fever today, but it's going to take her a day or two to get her energy back, so she's had a scone and some tea, and she's taken up space on our couch for the day. In the meantime, I thought maybe you lot would like some of these scones, so I brought you a box of them," he told Ruby and Aria. "So, Aria, you're going with Khaat again? How'd it go yesterday for you?"

As he was finishing, Anise carried a sleepy Abbey upstairs from the basement and put her on the sofa.

"We didn't want her to be downstairs all by herself, so we thought we'd bring her up here so we can go to work," Anise told Ruby. "I think her fever is down quite a bit. She woke up several times during the night, and her fever broke several times. So she is cooler. And she said she's hungry, so I think that's good, right?"

"That could be very good," Edward nodded.

Ruby saw Edward and smiled "that's a good sign," she said then smiled as he produced the scones "Oh so it that thank you," she told him Aria looked and nodded to Edward.

"it was good, it went smoothly, Marcus is sleeping so I have the shift today," she said picking up a scone and cutting it in half to spread jam and cream on before eating it.

"same here it's why I'm up cooking breakfast to give Angus a bit of recovery time after yesterday" she said plating up several bits of bacon and then moving to stir some scrambled eggs. Hearing Anise she smiled "that's good, really good " she added " I hope Sam is feeling the same if you want to check on him, please go ahead," she told Anise as she plated up the eggs and started on some muscle with natural yoghurt.

"Well, I'm glad the boys are back, and apparently things went well," Edward replied. "If it hadn't, they wouldn't have been home last night. But if they were awake for the duration, I'm sure they were tired when they got back. Letting them have a bit of a lie in today is probably good for both of them."

"You're a git, you know that?" Victor was saying to Sam, out in the hallway. H shut the bedroom door and came downstairs. "He's a git."

"We heard that. What'd he do?" Anise asked.

"All night long--get me this, get me that, fluff my pillow, open the window, close the window, I'm too hot, I'm too cold. God. I dont' think I got one solid hour of sleep all night. Demanding little bastard," Victor complained.

"isn't he older than you?" Edward stifled a laugh.

"By thirty minutes, but he's still a little demanding twit," Victor complained. "I'm so glad I'm going to work, and he can be needy with somebody else."

Edward continued to stifle his need to laugh.

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