A Birth day

Ruby heard Edward and nodded " Angus told me they found the kids and there safe" she said to him smiling. On hearing Victor she looked to Edward seeing him trying to not laugh at how Sam was acting "Come grab some food I'll send some up to Sam, but by the sounds of it he's feeling better too" she said placing a plate in front of him so he could eat. Making up a tray she sent it to Sams's room with some juice.

Aria finished eating and headed to the door " OK, 'm off to bodyguard Khat, see you later" she said and walked across the yard to the main house and walked inside "Good morning " she said smiling at those in teh kitchen making breakfast. she saw Jack walk down and head to the back door.

"Morning Aria I think Khaat will be down in a moment" he said as he left meeting up with Jessie as he entered the yard.

"I expected no less," Edward said. "Nobody on that team would leave any of those kids behind. Even if they weren't trained, that's just who they all are. I am very glad, though, that the kids are safe and everyone's alright. It sounds like Sam is definitely better." When Aria got ready to leave, E dward said, "Have a good day, Aria. We'll see you later."

Nigel came downstairs to refill his coffee cup and he saw Aria arrive.

"Oh, hello, Aria. Khaat's on her way," Nigel said. "She's running a little late, Brian said. Evidently, she got some sort of a floo call from the hospital in the middle of the night, and Brian had to take her back in at about 2 this morning. Apparently, there was a fire of some sort in the laundry room in the basement. The fire alarms went off, and the staff started evacuating the patients. No one actually pinpointed the source of the alarm and whether they could contain the fire until Khaat got there. She got back at about four, but when her alarm went off, she shut it off and accidently dozed back off." He refilled his coffee cup.

Khaat ran into the kitchen, feeling rushed. She had a lovely tea length dress in a fashionable shade of autumn orange-ish yellow, with a tall pair of stilettos.

"How do you do that?" Nigel asked her.

"Do what?"

"Run in five inch heels," he replied.

"Practice," she told him with an amused grin. "Morning, Aria. Sorry. I've got a busy day today. I'll have to be down in the basement for the first couple hours at least. We had a fire last night in the laundry room, but Brian doesn't think it was an accident. He thinks it was deliberately set. I should call the aurors, but...oh, no offense, really. I'd rather take my time checking it myself before I bother them about it. I'm ready to go whenever you are."

Aria smiled to Nigel and nodded " Morning to you Nigel and thank you " she said seeing Khaat run down in her heels she could feel herself wincing with every step waiting for her to topple over but she didn't Aria chuckled at Nigels question but stayed straight faced. " nigel was just telling me about it, glad nobody was harmed" she said " but please next time call on me to go with yo it is my job after all to safe guard you" she added and looked to Khaat " Im ready when you are , always" she added as she walked over to Khaat taking her arm she ported them both toi the back ally by st Mungos then walked with her to the back door . Opening it she caught the smell of smoke and nodded as they ehaded up to Khaats office.

Ruby heard Edward and nodded her head " yep, thats why Im fixing breakfast this morning." she said with a smile walk over to Caprice with a peice of toast for herand a sippy cup of juice for her to drink.

The kids finished breakfast, and they headed out to work, taking their brown bag lunches with them.

"I should have," Khaat told Aria. "You're absolutely right. I just didn't want to wake you, and Brian was awake anyway, so he went with me. I apologize. So when we get there this morning, I'll drop off my briefcase upstairs and then go back down to the laundry room. Brian said he found something there last night, but he didn't show it to me. He said it was some sort of a wad of dark hair. He said he was going to talk to my father this morning. I mean, there are hundreds of people who pass through here. Hair doesn't necessarily mean anything here. I refuse to read into it unless he's got more than that."

Angus got up, washed, shaved and dressed, and seeing Ruby was already up and gone from the bedroom, he figured she had already cooked. he had planned on it, but clearly he had overslept. He changed to jeans and a blue henley and made his way downstairs.

"Sorry," he told Ruby. "I must have slept through the alarm I set. Thanks for cooking." He poured himself a cup of coffee, and he turned to see Marcus coming downstairs now too, washed and shaved and dressed. "So I'm not the last one downstairs this morning, I see. Did you sleep in too, Marcus?"

"Not by choice," Marcus said. "And I even set my alarm last night. I didn't hear a thing."

"Me either. I set my alarm too. Must have slept through it," Angus said. He poured coffee for Marcus and handed him a cup. The two of them sat down at the table to wake up over their coffee.

Aria nodded "It's fine," she said as she watched Khaat place down her briefcase " Shall we go and check out the location of the fire?" she asked as they now stood in her office "You think it could be a wig?" she asked " maybe someone who snuck into the hospital?" she theorized.

Ruby smiled seeing Angus walk down from upstairs "It's okay, you needed the rest after rescuing those kids yesterday, both of you" she said looking to Marcus too as she spoke to him "Here, breakfast" She handed them both a plate and motioning to the table where Anise was sat eating too. She picked up a plate and sat to eat too.

"Yeah, I need to get back downstairs. I had to order my washing equipment and had them set up a temporary laundry room in a storage room for now until I'm sure we don't need the ministry to go investigate the room. I need to make sure they're set up alright down in the storage room, and make sure no one has mucked around with the laundry room. Brian and I were careful not to touch anything but that isn't to say that people haven't been contaminating it since. And if that's the case and the evidence is all contaminated, we might as well clean it and put the new equipment in it and get back to business." She listened to Aria suggest maybe the hair came from the wig. "I suppose it's possible. But surely there isn't anything in the laundry room for any intruder to want. We checked the potions room, just in case someone might have wanted to break into there, but the protection charms were still in place, and nothing appeared to have been disturbed. So that doesn't appear to be the object of it."

"Thanks," Angus said as Ruby set down breakfast plates. He was just ready to take his first bite when Abbey called to him.

"Aggie! Me hungee!" she called.

"You're hungry?" Angus looked at her. "Well, that's good news. I'll bring you a plate."

"Sit and eat," Edward said. "I can get her a plate if you like. I'm almost finished. I have maybe two more bites and then I'm finished."

As Angus tucked into his plate, there was a knock at the door, and Robert invited himself in. He saw Abbey on the sofa.

"Good morning, All," Robert greeted them. "I'll be over to see you in a moment, Abbey. Marcus, I actually came to see you first. Take a look at this and tell me what you think." He handed Marcus an envelope. Marcus opened the envelope and looked inside to see a wad of dark hair. He took a bit out of the envelope and found the texture of it was odd. Not like regular hair. More like--fur. He smelled it, and that told him all he really needed to know.

"Fur," Marcus said. "And it bloody stinks. This is werewolf fur. Where'd you get it?"

"St Mungos, laundry room fire at 2 this morning," Robert said.

"Damn," Marcus said. "You know what I'm thinking, don't you?"

"Same thought went through my head. And Aria is with her today?"

"Yes. She is. I'll change and go there and talk to them myself," Marcus sighed. "I do not want her accidently running into James on her own."

"Eat first. I'm sure they went down to the laundry room first, so you have a bit of time, I think," Robert said. "Let me know what you find, will you?"

"Certainly," Marcus said. Robert went over to see Abbey and check on her, planning on going to see Sam and Simone after that.

Aria listened to Khaat and nodded "What about records are they kept down in the basement?" she asked as they walked down towards the laundry room again entering she caught the smell of something familiar and scrunched her nose "Why does it smell like a wet dog" she asked as she entered the room.

Ruby heard the knock and saw Robert enter "Morning" she said standing she made a plate for Abby and smiled at Edward "Don't worry I got her covered" she said moving to sit with Abby and held the plate while she fed as she listened to them talking " your talking about Jacks brother, right?" she asked and lookd between them all at the sight of the dark fur Angus held. " you don't think Aria and Khaat are in danger , do you?"

"That's werewolf smell," Khaat shrugged. "We've had a lot of werewolves hit with this flu lately. It evidently isn't something they're immune to. In fact, it hits their systems particularly hard for some odd reason. And in fact, we have a whole ward overflowing with sick, puking werewolves. And that means a lot more stinky laundry. Oh, wait. Maybe that's the wad of hair Brian found last night. I bet its werewolf hair, and Brian will be showing it to my father right about now, and my father will blow a gasket when he sees it. Well, that's fabulous. He'll overreact, and he'll order me to come home. I can't always do that because there might be a werewolf in the building. We treat werewolves here like any other patient. I can't go home just because there might be one here."

"Yes. James is actually bigger than Jack, and he's bad news through and through. The only thing I've ever seen him afraid of is Fenrir. Khaat and Aria won't be in danger," Marcus told Ruby. "I'm going to go there and back them up, just to be safe. I don't want Aria having to face James alone, if it is James. He will be more than twice Aria's strength, and as good as she is, she's completely out of his league for her to try to deal with him alone. Hell, most of us are out of James' league. If James shows up, she can get Khaat away safely while I distract him."

"If he shows up, you hit your alarm and send for us," Angus said. "We'll give you a hand."

"I will," Marcus said, as he hurried and finished his breakfast. He stood and transfigured his clothes to a work suit.

"Be careful, Marcus," Robert said. "Don't take any stupid chances."

"I won't. See you lot later." He apparated out.

Aria looked at Khaat and nodded " makes sense I guess" he said " but what would wear fur be doing down here" she asked and looked around the room, she saw melted casings of the washers and burnt walls " what a mess" she admited as she knelt beside the burnt remnants of a washer.

Ruby listened and relaxed a little as she fed Abby a little more food " well thats good to know" she said and heard Marcus nodding as she watched him change into his suit and leave for St Mungos. " lets hope its not James" she said as she turned to look back at Abby a she gave her a little more food.

Aria heard porting and looked behind her to see Marcus standing she walked over to him " whats wrong?" she asked " I was just checking out the area, we know about the were fur, Im guessing you were shown it?" she asked

"When werewolves are sick sometimes they shed, much like how a cat sheds when they get anxious or upset. And, sometimes, if there's a struggle of some sort, fur gets pulled out. It happens for all sorts of reasons," she said. "And we've had a couple in the last two months with symptoms virtually identical to distemper in dogs. We do not want that getting out to the general public because that will start a movement backwards to disqualifying werewolves as beings and returning them to a purely animal status. I don't want them to go back to being hunted like they used to be."

"Of course I was. I've had more encounters with James in the last two or three years than the whole rest of the staff put together," Marcus told her frankly. "Who else do you think Robert would take that sample to? And no, he didn't send me. I came of my own volition. If it is James and he shows up here, you're going to need a distraction so you can get her to safety. I'm the distraction. Rather the same as being bait for fishing. Keeping her safe is always the first directive. Everything else comes somewhere after that. So, you stay with the first objective, and you keep her safe. I'll draw him off her. Agreed?"