A Birth day

Ruby smiled and nodded when they asked if they could find the girls but it was Evan who spoke. When Tara mentioned subs she chuckled " I could go for one right now and it sounds perfect thank you" she said and headed to the cabin. Opening the door she saw Jessie playing with Caprice while Chris laughed and drew next to her, she smiled at the scene and then stepped further into the room.

"your back" Jessie said and stood up almost running at her and hugging her tight "I heard what happened to Angus, is he okay," he asked making her sit. Aftr explaining Jessie breathed out and looked at her " he'll be fine, he's strong and has a lot of people who care about him" Jessie said as Caprice giggled. Ruby bent down and picked her up holding her in her arms.

"I know but it will take time for him to move on, and I'm happy to wait." she looked round and saw Finn sleeping on an old blanket.

Aria heard Marcus and smiled "Would love to." she said transfiguring her clothing to running gear and walking over to him " ready when you are" she said " I got steam to blow" she added with a chuckle.

"You'll like this trail," Marcus told her, transfiguring his own clothes. "It's probably one of the nicest outdoor tracks I've ever seen. Blacktop all the way, properly banked, and beautifullly lit from dark til dawn. And, beyond that is a great training area with an obstacle course. The trail is this way. Oh, and there's also the obviously big pool, and a great workout room in the cellar of the main house." He motioned her in the proper direction.

Edward had talked to Robert to ask about making a calming potion for Angus, and he found out that Robert had already made one. Edward took it and the dreamless sleep potion that Robert had adjust for Angus so that Robert didn't have to make a trip to the duplex. Angus hadn't wanted to take it, but when Edward saw that Angus's nerves were absolutely raw, he talked Angus into taking some of the calming potion to take the edge off. And as much as Angus hadn't wanted to rely on it, it really had helped immensely. Edward had tried to reason with him that one dose of a calming potion certainly did not make him reliant on it. Edward did discourage him from smoking a lot of cigarettes, though, because the cigarettes only made Angus cough more while he was so congested.

As they were walking, they both heard a door slam, and they turned to see Simone had come outside, and she clearly was really angry about something. When Edward turned to go see what was wrong, Angus just tagged along.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked.

"I'll never get these right," she said, having a mini temper tantrum.

"Get what right?"

"I have always wanted to make French macarons at home. I've tried for years, and I've buggared them every single time," she said.

"They're difficult," Angus said, "because they take extreme precision and patience and endless whipping to get all the air into them."

"Have you ever made them?"

"A couple times in culinary school, but they're not my favorites," he said, his voice still barely audible.

"Would you show me sometime?"

"Sure," he said.

"It would be good for you to get your mind off last night," Edward told him. Angus nodded slightly. He really wasn't in the mood, but he was also keenly aware of how much Edward and Simone did for them. It really wouldn't hurt him to put himself out for her.

"We don't have to do it now," Simone said.

"It's fine," Angus told her, motioning her to go with him back to her kitchen. From behind Angus, Edward nodded at Simone. Edward firmly believed Angus needed to be purposeful off and on today. Angus went into the kitchen and saw it really was a bit of a mess from her failed efforts. He started by cleaning it up and then rearranging the countertop so that it would be more efficient for her. Then he set about having her do most of the work and stepping in only when he needed to.

It took a couple of hours, but at the end of it, they had three tins of perfect macarons--chocolate, strawberry, and pistachio. And Simone was elated. Just as they were putting the lids on the tins, Evan and Tara arrived back from the sub shop in London with big bags of submarine sandwiches and individual bags of crisps in a wide variety of flavors, along with a couple of bags of sodas in various flavors too.

"We didn't know what everybody wanted, so we got several different subs."

"Why don't we whack them all into manageable slices--maybe three inch slices and that way people can mix and match what types they have?" Simone asked. "I like trying different things. That way, if someone can't make up their mind between a pizza sub, a chicken teriyaki, or a meatball sub, they can have it all."

"That's a great idea," Tara said. She and Simone cut the subs and arranged them on a couple platters, and Edward and Evan took the sodas and the crisps outside to the table on the deck.

"Have you seen the kids?" Edward asked.

"They're out behind the main house, playing frisbee," Evan said. "And apparently they're teaching Finn how to catch a frisbee. We told them we'd be having lunch in about five minutes, so I'm sure they'll be coming any time now.'

"Well, we've got dessert," Simone said, with her tins of fresh macarons.

Aria walked with Marcus and listened to him describe the trail "Sounds ideal, but is it challenging?" she said as they walked to it and she saw him change his clothing to running gear. " well now you're ready let's go" she said and took off down the path as she ran she admired the view not just around her.

Ruby saw Edward with some potions for Angus and stayed watching knowing they would be good for him but she stayed out of the way knowing Angus needed Robert, Edward and there if he was to get well and she was happy to let them do what was needed. Seeing Simone enter he smiled at her but gasped hearing how she had tried to make macarons and failed but she was happy that Angus was up and doing something, taking his mind off what had happened. Standing Ruby walked over to Edward " hows he doing?" she asked " and truth please, no sugar coating it." she knew and wanted to know how he was doing.

The kids came in from their frisbee game, and Edward pointed them out to the deck with Evan and Tara for the submarine sandwich slices and crisps.

"Go help yourself, Gang," Edward said.

"I don't think he knows what he wants today, but I think that's becauase I dont' think he feels very well. The headache, the chest congestion and the sore throat are bothering him," Edward said quietly. "He's not talking much, but some of that is because he doesn't have much of a voice anyway, I'm not overly worried about that. Robert said these physical symptoms are happening because, obviously, swamp water is not the cleanest water, and the ground he was in was saturated with it. He said the casket was old and full of mold and mildew, so that all contributed to that. His grandmother had a tea she made for that, and I should make some for him. It might make him feel a little better."

He accio'd an old journal off his bookcase. It was covered in rose colored leather, and it still smelled faintly of Caprice's perfume. Even after all these years, it still smelled like spring flowers. Edward flipped through the pages of elegantly written script, and finallly, he came across the recipe.

"Here it is. She wrote down all her own recipes in here,' Edward told Ruby. "Ginger Tumeric Tea--it's ginger, tumeric, cinnamon, honey, lemon juice, and hot water. Once in awhile, she would add a little dark musovardo sugar to it if it just didn't seem to be sweet enough. She liked the somewhat treacle-like flavor it gave it. Anyway, what do you think? Worth a try?" He handed the book to her. "Marcus and Aria should come back soon. The subs are going to get cold. You should get some lunch too, Ruby, before the kids inhale it all."

Ruby listened to Edwrad and nodded "it's understandable " she said then looked at the book he took from the shelf " I wondered whose that book was I kinda took the cinnamon tea recipe from it, its wonderful" she said then smiled hearing about getting food before the kids ate it all she smiled to him." I will don't worry" she said " Im just glad hes doing something he loves" she said watching him lead Simone threw the making of the macarons.

Aria ran fast for amoment then slowed down pacing herself as she ran next to Marcus " so whats the next step with the ex?" she asked " I know you said thres not a cat in hells chance you'd go back to her , but something need to be done." she paused slowing down to a walk " I for one would stand by you if she tried anything , but do you think she would ever leave Jefferys clinic?" she asked knowing that the food would be ready when they got back.

"Caprice loved tinkering in the kitchen," Edward said. "The women in her family and in mine believed that sometimes home remedies were the best. If someone started getting a cold or the flu, she immediately put on a big pot of chicken soup, a pot of herbal tea, made some fresh fruit juice, usually some scottish oatcakes, the whole business," Edward smiled. "Angus used to manage to get her to mix some lemon lime soda into the fruit juice to give it a little fizz. She would do just about anything for that boy. It probably is a good thing that she's not here now. She'd have fried Suzanne a long, long time ago. You know, this is only the first volume of her little books. She wrote severeal volumes, almost one volume every year. There was no rhyme or reason to them. You might find a recipe, then you might find some sort of homemade concoction for rapid plant growth, and then some sort of cleaning solution. It was all just jumbled in there the way life happened. I'll have to look and see where the rest of those books went."

"There isn't a next step, I don't think," Marcus said. "So far as I know, I just have to finish waiting the last week for the divorce to be final, and then she's on her own. I suppose I should write to Jeffrey in the next day or so and tell him that I do not want her being permitted to send mail to the kids after that. As for whether she ever leaves Jeffrey's, I don't know. Would she run away? She might try. I suppose whether Jeffrey would ever release her would depend on whether she would ever get better. I actually don't see it, but then again, I'm not a healer either, so I'm a poor person to ask."

"Finn!" Sam let out an annoyed shriek. Edward spun around, and at the same time, he heard Evan and Tara start to laugh. Edward looked out of the deck to see Finn inhaling a slice of the sub sandwich.

"Hm. Either someone dropped a slice of sandwich, or Finn stole one," Edward laughed.

Ruby listened to Edward talk of Caprice and smiled "Im sure she would have done that and much more" she said when he spoke about her kicking Suzannes butt for hurting her family. then she smiled as he mentioned she liked old fashioned remedies " some times the old ones just work" she said turning to see th kids walking over with Finn looking exausted in front of them.

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded " yeah, she seems like the kinda woman who dosn't let go of things easily, not that I can blame her for not wanting to let go of you I wouldn't want to ether, but still holding a grudge is a bad thing to hold onto nd knowing when to let go to move on a grow is something I guess she need to relearn.." she said as they walked towards the house.

Ruby ecused her self and moved to grab a sub while there were some left chosing for some teriaki subs and a drink sh chuckled seeing Finn sneak a sandwich for himself and dive out side to eat it.

"Relearn?" Marcus laughed."That's one skill she never learned. I go back and forth on whether I want her to be able to write to me. Do I want to hear from her? No. However, if she writes, she usually tells me what hairbrained thing she's either doing or thinking of doing, and she hasn't learned that's how I keep her from pulling a fast one on me or the kids. She outs herself before she can follow through. If I stop her from writing, then I won't know if she's up to something."

Edward went out to the deck and took a paper plate and grabbed a slice of the pizza sub and a slice of a steak and cheese sandwich, along with a can of cola and a little bag of bacon flavored crisps.

Simone came out and picked up a couple plates and put some sandwich slices on it for her and Angus.

"How are the cookies coming along?" Edward asked.

"Should be ready to come out of the oven in a few. I told Angus we should grab a bit while we waited," she replied. "I tried to tell him I'd clean up later, but he's not good with leaving it."

"No, he won't be," Edward said. "I sort of think that culinary schools must drill into their students heads that cleaning up is just as much a part of it as the cooking itself is. He's not at all good with leaving a mess in the kitchen. You might as well let him do it--unless you can get him to put a clean up spell in place and get him to eat."

"I'll try," she said, taking the plates in to the kitchen for her and Angus.

"What kind of cookies is she making?" Victor asked.

"Macarons," Edward said.

"Meh. I'm not into coconut," Sam said.

"That's a macaroon, not a macaron. Macaroons have coconut. Macaron are light, airy sandwich cookies with a fillling--sometimes jam, sometimes chocolate."

"Oh! Those little fussy foo-foo cookies," Sam said. Anise elbowed him. "What?" Sam looked at her. Evan nearly choked on his cola, laughing.

"One thing about it,' Evan said. "Sam would not be so good in any sort of diplomatic position. He's not so good about being diplomatic, is he?"

"Not in the least," Edward laughed.

Aria could not help but lagh as he said Evelyn had never learned to relearn then spoke of her writing " oh shes one of those who like to monologe and gloat in what she is going to do even if it never happens" she said hearing Marcus say about not knowing what she was up to if he stopped her letters Aria looked at him " well maybe Jeffery could intercept them and if anything he deems worrisome comes to light he could warn you" she said taking a deep breath in she chukled " seems foods here. Hearing a shout she chuckled " and the dogs up to no good " she chukled then looked at him befoe stopping in her tracks infront of him her hand resting on his chest " Just know this , I'll stand with you what ever she throws at you." she said then with a quick kiss she spoke again with a smile " besides Im hungry , race ya" she said and took off laughing towards the house.

Ruby sat and listed to them talkng and chuckled " be truthful I get those mixed up too" she said " and I don't think he would, hes more of a down to earth kinda guy than a diplomat" she said eating her sandwich seeing Aria amd Marcus return.

"I could do that," Marcus nodded at her suggestion of asking Jeffrey to intercept and prescreen the letters. He smiled when she said she would stand with him. But when she said she would race him to the house, he decided just for fun, to apparate over to the front porch, and he got there in twinkling and was standing there when she arrived. "Sorry," he laughed. "Couldn't resist. I'll play by the rules next time. I think we should go see what's on the menu and see if they left us any." He opened the door for her and then followed her in. He smelled something baking as soon as he walked through the door. He glanced over to see Angus taking out some sheets of something from Simone's oven.

"Macaroons are from Italy, and they came first," Edward said. "Or so Rosaria has told me time and time again. And macarons are the French interpretation of the macaroon. But that's just her story on it. So I sort of remember that the 'with coconut' actually came before the 'without coconut."

Angus took it upon himself to add a little light sugar glaze to the tops of the macarons and add some sprinkles or colored sugar crystals to the top just for a little garnish. When he finished, they looked beautiful. He set most of them into tins to keep them stored airtight, but he did put some on a plate, and he floated them out to the deck, without a word.

The chocolate ones had a chocolate orange ganache filling, The strawberry ones were filled with strawberry jam, and the pistachio cookies had a honey almond filling. When the plate floated out, Tara reached up and plucked it out of the air and set it on the table.

"Those look picture perfect," she said, impressed. "Those are beautiful. Those could be served at any high tea, I think."

"So..chocolate, strawberry, and...lime?" Victor asked. Edward took a green cookie and bit into it.

"Nope," Edward said. "Not lime. Pistachio. And the filling is...wait a second...oh. Yes. Honey and...almond, I think. Quite nice."

"Anyone want coffee with their cookies?" Tara asked."I'll go make some if you do."

"We can always drink coffee," Sam said.