A Birth day

[marcus doesn't get back til 4 am, and i just presumed everyone else would be in bed because they've been up so much working with the pack., just fyi. if you need me to edit, i can.]


"Robert's teapot," Marcus told Aria softly so as to not interrupt Robert and Angus. "Michael bought him that enchanted teapot some years ago for Christmas so he could brew a proper cup on the fireplace hearth in his office. Robert named her Beulah as a not-so-nice name because she bites. She does brew some damned fine tea, though, let me tell you. I think, Beulah would actually make a fine secretary because she's got his appointment schedule figured out down to the exact minute, and she whistles to keep him on task."

Angus was glad that Robert didn't really see any issue. This was, for Angus, nothing. He'd had worse in the pubs on a Saturday night.

"I'm fine, Ru," Angus told her as she gave him a hug and then took the firewhiskey from Aria. "Thanks, Aria. I think I'm entitled to one before bed. Basically, it was only a bar brawl I didn't win. Not to worry, nothing but a couple bruises. And we both already knew I wasn't going to try to stay up a second night in a row if I didn't have to. I thought Marcus was coming with us, but he didn't come back with us. He's apparently still with Robert."  He was glad, though, to see that the house was quiet. The kids had evidently gone to bed, and apparently so had Evan, Tara, Sergio, and Ana. He didn't see Edward or Simone either but he could see the lights were still on in Edward's living room, so someone was still up over there.

"Looks like everyone headed to bed already," Angus said. "The intruders into the ministry were Tom, Suzanne, and his band of dimwits. I honestly believe they were looking for Robert to try to get him to cure Suzanne. They couldn't get his attention at St. Mungo's, so they knew they could get his attention if they caused chaos at the ministry. Dumbasses. Now they're probably all going to have to serve some time."

"You two should both be tired," Angus told Aria and Ruby. "You've had a long day. And since Marcus hasn't apparently been able to get permission from Robert to come back yet, I'll take my firewhiskey and go make his nightly rounds and head to bed."


Hours passed, and as Marcus left the ministry, he crossed through the atrium, which was empty now and clean, with only the night time security there. They watched him as he passed through the building with the bundle in his hands. The large clock in the atrium struck four. Four am. Surely no one back in the duplex were awake now. Marcus did not believe Angus was going to be pleased with the cargo he was bringing back to the duplex, but it couldn't be helped. Robert had spent hours looking for another solution, but, under the circumstances, there did not appear to be one.

Marcus slipped silently upstairs, and he went into the master bedroom and silently touched Angus's shoulder, not wanting to wake Ruby. Angus woke, and Marcus motioned to him. Angus slipped very carefully and silently out of bed to let Ruby sleep. She surely had to be as tired as he was. Angus followed Marcus downstairs, and he saw Marcus pick something up from Caprice's playpen.

"I really hate to do this to you and Ruby, Mate," Marcus said, "but it's not my idea. Robert looked for another choice, but wizarding law being what it is..."

"What is it?" Angus asked. Marcus placed a bundle in Angus's arms, and Angus knew in that instant he held a baby.  He uncovered the face and saw a blonde baby, dressed in pink, and she was sleeping soundly.

"Emergency placement," Marcus said. "Wizengamot determined she had to be placed with biological family. And that means you and Ruby."

"What?" Angus frowned, He looked at the baby, his mind blank for a moment, and then his sleepy brain cleared. "Diamond," Angus said. Marcus nodded. "Tom is in jail. Suzanne is in St. Mungos, under arrest, cuffed to her bed and guarded by the aurors. And, to the best of my knowledge, Robert hasn't given her any antidote yet. Or he hadn't when I left the ministry a little bit ago. And, one of the others that the aurors arrested tonight was Elliot Gelding--Tom's son. There is not a living Gelding tonight who has the freedom to take care of her."

"And that makes her temporarily an orphan," Angus sighed, knowing the laws all too well. "And so the law forces a living relative to be considered first--and that means Robert had no choice. He had to place her here for the time being. Ruby probably will understand, but I doubt she'll do handsprings about it. When was the baby fed last?"

"Before I left the ministry with her. One of the third shift aurors managed to find a diaper and some formula, so while Robert was trying to negotiate with the Chief Warlock, we tended her before I brought her here, and like any other redblooded wizard baby, once her stomach was full and her bum was dry, she nodded straight off and she's been sleeping like a log since. Didn't even flinch when I apparated her here. Robert says she's healthy, but she is a bit behind developmentally from where she should be now, and he believes that's probably due to Suzanne not probably being the most attentive mum."

"Well, obviously not. We know that's a given with that nitwit. Poor thing doesn't stand a chance in that house. Alright, Marcus. I've got it. Thank you. Why don't you head to bed? You've had a very long day. I'll just put her back in the playpen for now to keep her safe and stay down here with her so she doesn't wake up Ruby or Caprice either one. It'll be time to get up in a couple hours anyway, so I'll just nap in my chair until then."

"you sure?"

"Positive. I've already made a check for the night. so, for once, I think you can skip it."

"Thank you," Marcus smiled. "Goodnight." He turned and went upstairs. Angus thought the room was a bit chilly, so he lit a fire in the fireplace and sat down in his chair, yawning, knowing that the few hours of sleep he'd had so far, were not nearly enough. With nothing but the soothing sound of the crackling fire now, he laid the sleeping baby on his shoulder, he leaned back in his chair and slipped straight back to sleep.

Aria listened to Angus and nodded "Yeah I'm guessing it was important since Robert asked him to stay" She said "But I am tired and need a shower" Aria said chuckling as he said he would take his drink to go. Ruby smiled and nodded knowing it was later and they all needed their sleep.

Ruby felt the bed move and heard soft talking but chose to stay quiet on the bed once they had left she sat up to see the side Angus had been on was now empty. Touching it she found it to be warm so he'd not been gone long. Sitting up she heard talking from below slipping on her gown she walked to the door and headed down to the kitchen flicking on the kettle as she passed by it. Walking into the living room she saw Angus with Marcus and a baby she knew was not Caprice. Pausing for a moment she sighed " Diamond?" she asked and walked over to him as she looked at the sleeping baby.

She looked to Marcus and Angus before she spoke " well, no diferent than me taking care of my brothers" she said softly then looked to Marcus " so how long do we have her for?" she asked " so we know wether to add a second cot in Caprices room"

"Yep," Angus yawned He frowned when she said it wasn't any different than her taking care of her brothers. "Well, I would hope it would be different since you're not doing it by yourself. And, it should actually be very different since her parents are some of the most notorious criminals in the world and just having her here poses massive safety risks to everyone in this house. When Suzanne finds out Diamond is here, she's going to lose her freaking mind."

"I'll make sure you're covered, Mate," Marcus said. "I'll give it some thought, and we'll discuss it later this morning."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks."

"Look," Marcus said, "I know this is bloody inconvenient, especially since you've had all of, what, two hours sleep in the last 56 hours at best, so I think we should just take this one step at a time for a few hours. She's fed, she's dry, and she's sleeping. And she looks very content on your shoulder for the moment. I think you should just go back to sleep and we can talk about it in the morning."

"The kids will be up in the next hour looking for coffee, breakfast, and lunch. I should be cooking."

"I'll put coffee and tea on now," Marcus said. "It'll be ready when they get up. They're plenty old enough to fix themselves a jam sandwich for one morning if all else fails, and they can pack their own lunches. They're not children anymore."

"Technically, they are," Angus said.

"You know what I mean," Angus said. He looked back at Ruby. "I don't have any idea how long she's staying. It's entirely too soon to know. I just found out about it myself, and I don't have much of any sort of information except that the Wizengamot has given us an emergency protection order. I suppose it will last until one of the Geldings is free again and able to take her home--whenever that is. Right now I don't know much more than you do. I might not know more until later this morning. I presume Robert's going to go home and get some sleep like the rest of us, and I'll try to talk to him when he gets up. So I wouldn't rush into getting furniture for her yet. She can use the travel crib. I'm not sure about putting the crib in the nursery, though, simply because our baby hasn't been around other babies. It's one thing to have more than one baby, but I'm not willing to yank ours out of shape because there's another one in the same room."

Marcus went to the kitchen and made fresh coffee and tea and put dog food in Finn's bowl. He let Finn out for the first trip of the day outside. That was when he saw the pack being moved from the back yard towards the northwestern sector where they had usually camped. The tents in the back yard were being taken down, and the overnight crew was moving medical equipment and the cook fires as well and were helping the pack move their belongings too. Marcus frowned, not sure why they were moving all these sick people.

"I'll be back," he looked back at Ruby and Angus. Marcus crossed the yard and found Michael there, packing up pots and pans. "Where are they going?" Marcus asked.

"Ah. Good morning. Short night for you, I know," Michael said. "Me too. Apparently there's a severe winter storm headed this way, by late tonight or early tomorrow, and Robert didn't believe the pack could or should try to weather it out in tents. The forecast is calling for blizzard conditions. He's hired one of the biggest wizarding construction firms I've ever seen, and they've built two large longhouses in the northwestern sector over the last 14 hours or so. The longhouses are connected by a breezeway, sort of an H-shaped configuration. The longhouses are done, and we're moving the pack to get them settled. We'll be equipping it with food and firewood and all the things they need, and the medical workers will be able to tend them up there. Everyone will be safe and warm and dry through the storm."

"Oh. Good thinking. Are they doing better?"

"Oh definitely. They have a long way to go to be fully well, but they're definitely better than they were," Michael said. "You got the baby back okay?"

"She never moved a muscle," Marcus said. "She'll be fine. Oh, and Nicky is already at work preparing an order for our suppliers to deliver before the bad weather hits. I'm supposed to ask Angus to tack on anything you lot need onto Nicky's order by no later than 7 am."

"I'll relay the message. Thanks, Michael," Marcus said. He turned and headed back into the duplex.

Ruby listened to Angus and nodded with a sigh " your right, sorry sleep diprived, my mouth speacks before actualy engaging the brain" she said and smiled tiredly to him. She listened to them talking again and again nodded " i can fetch it and set it up down here " she added hearing Marcus she also nodded " yeah I'll do that once the travel cot is up" she said  and moved to find it once done she set it up next to Angus and added a blanket to the bottom.

" I don't have a problem with Dimond, just my mother and ...step fathers lack of perenting skills" she said then lent down and kissed his cheek " Im going to go back to bed, also we'll cross the bridge of them when the time comes up, for now she's welcome for as long as needed she is my half sister after all and we're her family."

"We'll deal with it," he said. "I'd like this baby to have a better life than I know she is going to have, but there's not a damned thing I can do about it. I can only do something about it while she's here. Her parents aren't neglecting her enough for me to have grounds to try to file for custody, much as I hate to admit it. I'm betting, though, that either Tom is doing more of the caretaking that Suzanne is or the staff are just doing whatever needs to be done when the baby starts fussing."
Marcus came back in and shut the door.

"So you know," Marcus said, "Robert's had a large longhouse put up in the northwest sector for the pack. There's a blizzard coming, so he did not want them in tents."

"Oh, definitely not," Angus said. "He must have spent ridiculous amounts to get that built literally overnight."

"He did. The pack is being moved now so they'll be safe and warm and dry, and the camp in the yard is being disassembled. Nicky is up and at work making an order for provisions from the supplier so that the estate is well supplied, including the longhouse. I'm to tell you to get a list to Nicky of everything we need in the meantime."

"I'll get on it," Angus sighed. "So much for sleep." He accio'd paper and a pen and began making a list. He also began making a second list--a list of things he would need to get done in a very short time. "marcus, don't let me forget. The girls absolutely have to go to Tuscany today. They need to plan on staying overnight so they can start school on time tomorrow morning. If we get a blizzard tonight, they won't be able to port through the bad weather to get to Italy tomorrow."

"Good thought. I'll talk to Evan when he gets up," Marcus said. "Let's delegate that piece to him and Tara to take care of. You're going to be busy enough as it is. I bet Sergio would take the girls to go get the Christmas tree while I work on security issues. If I were you, I'd save whatever indoor tasks you can for tomorrow if we're going to be snowed in anyway. And delegate what you can to other people."

"Yeah, I will," Angus said, writing his list for the suppliers. He began to smell a stinky diaper. "Oh, jeesh, the first thing I'm going to have to order is a box of smaller diapers. Caprice outgrew this size quite awhile ago. her diapers aren't going to fit Diamond."

"You're out?"

"Yes. And she's really doing her best to fill this diaper up with an outrageous stench."

"Ok. That's code for 'Marcus, go find a muggle store that's open all night and buy some diapers--stat."

"Could you?"

"On my way," Marcus laughed.

"Root out some of Caprice's six month old clothes."

"You do realize that she's almost eight months."

"Yes, but look Caprice is ten months, and she's already wearing clothes for a one year old. Diamond is seven months, almost eight, and these clothes are for for an eight month old, and they're entirely too big. At her age, she should be seventeen pounds. I'm telling you she's not 15 pounds yet. She's way smaller than where she should be, and she's thin. She needs some six month old clothes."

"Okay. I'll dig them out from storage down in the basement storage room when I get back with the diapers," Marcus said, apparating out.

"

Ruby listened to him talking and nodded to Angus "That I agree with I don't think Suzzane has a maternal bone in her body" she said smiling as she saw Dimond sleeping on Angus. when he spoke of small dipers she looked at Marcus and nodded. Then listened as he spoke of the small clothing Caprice had grown out of in the basement and heard Marcus " I'll fetch those" she said " there in the grey tote, right?" she said " then I'll get breakfast started." she smiled at him.

Aria woke and showered heading down to see Marcus heading out the door and Angus with a baby not Caprice she chuckled and heard Ruby say about a tote in the basment " um..?" she asked walking over once she had grabbed a mug of coffee.

"Yes," Angus told Ruby. "I labeled all the totes with what's in them. There's a 3x5 card taped to the end of each tote that says exactly what's in it. I don't think you'll have any trouble."

"Ruby's half sister," Angus said. "Her name is Diamond. Suzanne named her Diamond because she believed it would be a slam against Ruby, but Ruby doesn't see it that way, so she gave her a ridiculous name all for naught. It's a long story, but with the Geldings all in custody, there is no one to care for her except Geldings thugs or us. So here she is. Oh, and by the way, there is a blizzard on the way. It should be here this evening. So, you and Ruby need to go get your tree picked out in good time this morning. I'm sure that Jack or Jessie or Sergio would be happy to cut it for you. I'm afraid I'm going to be ordering provisions for us to get us through. If there are any sort of snacks or particular meals you'd like us to have on hand, make sure you let me know right away this morning. We need to get our lists to the supplier by seven am so that we can be sure to get delivery before the storm gets...." At that moment, Angus was cut off by Diamond giving out a shrill, angry cry because of her dirty diaper.

"Sorry," Angus apologized. "Marcus popped out to get some diapers that'll fit her. Caprice is in a lot larger size now. As soon as I get her changed, she'll very likely shut it. Would you be good enough to let Finn out? Marcus put food in his bowl but the dog wasn't actually up yet."

Edward came over in his pajamas and robe, hearing the baby cry going unattended.

"Who's pinching the baby?" Edward asked. He looked at the smaller baby on Angus's shoulder. "Wait, what'd you do to her. Either that's not yours or you ran her through the dryer."

"Nah. Not ours," Angus laughed. "Ours is still sleeping--maybe. This is Suzanne and Tom's."

"Diamond? Really? How'd you get her? Where's Tom?"

"Jail. And so is his son Elliot. Suzanne is under arrest and is cuffed to her hospital bed at St. Mungos, or so I understand."

"And you and Ruby are the first available relatives," Edward said, nodding.

"Presumably so," Angus said.

"She's entirely too small for her age. And you don't even have coffee yet."

"Yes, I know. Diamond is small because Suzanne is a lousy mother," Angus said. "And I don't have coffee because Marcus just made it."

"I'll fetch you some," Edward said, going to the pot to pour Angus a cup.

"Bless you," Angus said, relieved at the sound of coffee.

"Have you slept yet?"

"Let's see--um 2 hours and fifteen minutes, I believe," Angus said.

"Well, a catnap every two or three nights. Your health habits sometimes leave a lot to be desired," Edward replied.

"Wasnt my plan, I assure you," Angus said.

Ruby nodded to Angus that she ahd heard him and headed down to the basement , she was quiet so not to wake the girls while she found the tote. Aria listened as Angus explained and nodded when he asked for her to let out Finn so he could do what was neccesery.

Walking to the door she opened it and he ran outside. She turned and looked at Angus when he mentioned the snow that was due to hit " I'll get Jack to bring some extra wood in for us too" she said as Ruby returned with the tote. Placing it down close to Angus she opened it and chuckled at how much they had put away.

"these should fit if still a bit big, I agree with Edward shes way too small for her age" Ruby said " I still have one of her bottles I can make a warm bottle of milk for her once shes changed. " Ruby held up a small onsie with a pink bow on it to show Angus.

"Oh good. Thank you. I actually had written down on my list to go cut some more firewood and bring it in, but Jack is a way faster and stronger than I am, and he can have a lot more cut and brought in while I'm still making a grocery list," Angus replied. "We have enough clothes for about fifteen babies. Thanks, Ruby. I think those will work fine. You realize Diamond is almost 8 months old now. She should be between seventeen and eighteen pounds. I can tell you, for sure, she isn't anywhere near that. She's 13 to 14 pounds, at the most, and I'm guessing she's behind on her motor skills too. I'll know more when she's awake, but she's nowhere where she should be. I don't know if that would help keep her from Tom or not, but don't think I won't be tempted to try. Don't make milk for her. She needs fomula. She definitely needs the nutrition. I don't know if she eats cereal yet, but we're just going to have to try to get her on some high nutrition to try to build her up. She needs some high nutrition, high fat foods for a bit. I'll try to come up with maybe something that we can put some formula in that will help build her up faster."

Marcus apparated back in with a large box of disposable diapers.

"Well, she knows how to be noisy," Marcus said. "Hand her here. I'll change her while you get some caffeine in your system. By the way, Everybody, be sure to get your winter sweaters out. The temperature is really dropping outside. It's getting colder outside by the minute. Dress warm if you go out."

"Will do," Angus said, handing Diamond to him.

"God, she's a stinky little package, isn't she?" Marcus laughed. The kids came dragging from their rooms. Sam and Victor were dressed in jeans and tee shirts, but the girls had been a good deal more practical. They each had long sleeved thermal tees, covered in flannel shirts, and had chosen warm winter socks and shearling lined boots to keep themselves warm.

"Go straight back up and get your winter gear on," Angus told Sam and Victor. "I am not having you two catching cold and then complaining for the next couple weeks."

"But..." Sam began. Angus didn't say a word. He just pointed up the stairs. Sam and Victor groaned but they turned around and went upstairs.

"I want to know how you got that to work. That never works for my lot," Marcus said, laying Diamond on the floor temporarily to change her.

"I think they know better than to try me too much in the mornings while I'm still working on my coffee," Angus laughed.

"Oh, lord. This one needs a garden hose," Marcus sighed. "Her blowouts are worse than Caprice's. She apparently launched a poop bomb." Teasing, he said. "I think this is a job for her sister." He got up and picked Diamond up, knowing he was going to have to take her for a bath.