A Birth day

Aria watched as Marcus returned and spoke to Angus but she just nodded as she heard him say her asking Jack was a good idea for etra wood. Seeing the boys walk down in light clothing she chuckled as they were sent back up to change. " your dads right, its turning cold , just look at the grey sky" she told them as Finn ran back in and shook some flakes off his fur then moved to the fire and lay down to warm up.

Ruby watched Marcus and then looked to Angus " right, I think thres a tin of fomula in the cupbard." she said then turned to see Marcus say Dimond had had a full blow out. She smiled as she walked over and picked her up inher arms " we'll be right back" she said and moved to the upstairs bathroom to wash her down, she grabbed the dipers and onsie as she passed by. Aria pored a mug of cofee and handed it to Marcus and one to Angus " drink you both need it" she said before heading over to the barn to talk to Jack.

Jack had seen the sky and was already chopping wood for the main house and duplex as he saw Aria walk over " already on extra wood for the main house will bring over yours once Im done" he said " oh and eat grounds has sevral nice trees" he added and Aria nodded " give me an hour and we can go over there." Aria nodded and headed back to the duplex.

Inside Ruby bathed Di, and dressed her wrapping her in a warm blanket soshe could be carried back down to the main room with out getting cold.

"Oh much better," Angus said when Ruby came back down. "The whole house smells better. Give her here a moment." He took the baby and laid her on the floor to see what she could actually do. He knew that at her age, she should have been able to hold toys and crawl. He picked up one of Caprice's toys and held it out for her. She could reach out for the toy but wasn't able to take it and hold it. She couldn't sit up. She couldn't even roll in either direction. She would just lay and stare into space.

"That's sad," Edward said. "She's learned that crying does her no good. She doesn't try. She just lays. I think you need to talk to Robert. He needs to see her lack of developmental markers for himself. She isn't even at five month markers. She's showing all sorts of signs of neglect. She's not being taken care of worth a damn."

"So I see," Angus said. "We can work with her--but only if we have the time to do it. If we have to return her quickly, she is certainly going to suffer for it."

"What will you do, then?"

"I'll talk to Robert. If we delay a return, Tom will attack for sure. And as much as I want to see her succeed, I don't know if I want to risk my own family," Angus said quietly. "Tom will attack, but Suzanne will make every attempt to kill. It's a choice I don't want to have to make, but I don't see a good outcome either way. I owe Ruby and the kids more safety and security than that."

Ruby walked over to Angus with Di and placed her in his arms she watched as he tested her groth and frownd each time she didn't do what a baby of her age should and shook her head. It was now she heard Caprice and chuckled heading back up to get her changed and dressed for the day. Returning she now could see the difference in the two babies. " Im with you on that Angus" she said now with Caprice sitting on her hip playing with her toy and giggling.

Aria helpped Jack with the wood then with an arm full walked back along with Jack , pushing open the door they walked over to the fire and stacked the wood next to it, Jack just raised an eye brow but said nothing to the new baby in Angus arms. Ruby placed Caprice in her playpen and went to make a warm bottle of fomula for her. " I'll make a few bottles before we go for the tree incase she gets hungry." Ruby said with a smile as she placed the warm bottle next to Angus on the table.

Jessie waked over to the duplex warm winter jacket and boots on along with Chris who sported a frog wollen hat ,scarf and gloves as Jesise held an ax to cut down the christmas tree. " okay, we ready to go tree hunting?" he asked but stopped seeing his half sister being held by Angus and wearing an outfit given to Caprice " temp custidy?" he asked letting Chris take off his gloves and hat.

"Yes," Angus said. "As it happens, Tom and his son Elliot are in jail, and your mother is also in custody but because of her illness she is being held by the aurors in St. Mungos, cuffed to her bed, and I presume she will remain there until she is well." He didn't mention that surely it would take either Robert giving her the antidote to what he had done to the potions Suzanne had stolen from him, or it would take waiting til the potion wore off. Either way, Angus knew that, after a given point, Robert was not above letting some logical consequences play out in order to teach some sort of lesson. It was not for Angus to question what Robert's choice was in this. "You should know, though, Jessie, that Diamond is not in the best of health. For her age, she should easily weight seventeen pounds, and I don't believe she is even fourteen pounds. That's about 25% underweight from where she should be, if I'm doing the math right. It would be alright if she were four months old but she's almost eight months. And at her age, she should easily be able to roll over, hold a toy in her hands, sit up, maybe even crawl. She can't begin to do any of that. At almost eight months, she can't even do what a four month old can do. This sort of thing doesn't happen by accident. It happens by sheer neglect."

Sam and Victor came over, listening, and looking at Diamond as she simply laid still on the floor. Ginger went over and picked her up and laid her on her shoulder, cuddling with her.

"You all know I'm obviously not biologically related to her," Angus said to Ruby, Jessie and Sam and Victor. "However, I think we have every reason to be concerned for her. I am willing to fight for her to keep her here until she's improved. We can't keep her from Tom forever. However, she's your sister. You four have more right to have an opinion about this than anyone else. I think I could win a fight for keeping her in temporary custody, just based on her current health. You need to keep in mind that if I launch that fight, Tom and Suzanne will do everything they know how to do to kill one of us, or all of us. It will not be without some dramatic consequences. The law is clear, though, that the child has to go to biological family first, so Tom and Suzanne surely have to have figured out by now where she is. I dont' want you to answer me now. Give some serious thought to this. Do we fight, or do we keep her only until one of them is out of jail and then take her home?"

"If we return her, will she die?" Sam asked.

"I'm not a healer. I can't answer that. What I can tell you is that as long as she is underweight, under-nourished, under-stimulated, and all the rest, everything in her life will be harder, even the tiniest tasks."

"We have to fight for her," Victor said quietly. "I'm not an expert in anything but what I do know is how much better all our lives became when we were safe and had the things that we needed. We have voices and the ability to protect ourselves. She doesn't. Sam and I have decided not to call Suzanne Mom anymore because she hasn't ever really been a mom. I think all four of us already know what Diamond's life will be like as long as she's with Suzanne, and, in my opinion, she's our sister. We have an obligation to fight for her. Let Suzanne come. I say we fight."

"Agreed," Sam nodded. "100 percent. We fight. If she gets better and we have to return her, that's a different situation, but right now, as she is, no, we can't return her."

"Dad," Anise said quietly, "the organization--it fights for children, regardless of who their parents are, right? Regardless of who they are or what they've done? And you've always said we don't leave a child behind, right?" Angus nodded. "Then how could we do less for this child who is part of our family, even if it is just a little part. If we don't ever leave a child behind, then it seems to me we hold true to who we are and we fight. I'm with you--entirely."

"Me too," Ginger said, soothing the baby on her shoulder.

"You need to be certain because Suzanne will try to kill one of us or all of us. I have no doubt whatsoever. Be sure you know what you're agreeing to. You may want to think about it," Angus said.

"No. I don't need to think about it. Anybody who commits the crimes against children that they do don't deserve to have a child anyway. We're in. We fight," Victor said, and Sam and Ginger and Anise all nodded, agreeing. Angus looked at Jessie and Ruby for their votes. Angus glanced up at Edward who was standing behind them all, at the coffee pot. Edward nodded slowly. He was as committed as the rest.

"Angus, do leave the security to me, would you?" Marcus cast him a grin. "There is a reason, after all, that Robert has not moved me back to the main house."

"I thought it was that David has your room."

"Um, no," Marcus laughed, amused. "I'm here because Suzanne has a target on your back. She'd love to get rid of you, and Robert has made me promise she doesn't get to make that happen. I am quite sure we all know that she has never let go her thought that she wants you to be very dead. So, in the meantime, you really would be better off to leave the security to me. If there's something I need everyone to gear up for, I'll certainly ask you. In the meantime, I stand with your family. She's a baby, and she can't defend herself. Of course we fight. If she goes back because the Wizengamot says she goes back, then she goes back. I think it's pretty damned simple."

"Okay, then," Angus said. "Our decision is made, then. I'm good with it. Jessie, if you want to have something stronger, then be my guest, but, personally, I'd prefer you wait until after you finish help them find a tree. I don't like the visual of you having firewhiskey and then going out and swinging an axe at little woodland creatures. Tree first, whiskey second. And I'm on grocery duty and baby duty."

"No," Marcus said. "You finish the grocery list and then get some sleep. Two hours is just pitiful. There's enough other people to make sure the babies don't destroy the house while you sleep. Fair enough."

"How much damage can a baby do anyway?" Anise asked.

"Babies that crawl? You really don't want to know that," Evan laughed. "Little demons."

Evan watched Caprice crawl behind the sofa.

"Really?" Evan rolled his eyes.

"If you think I'm crawling back there to get her, you've got another thing coming," Angus said. He flicked his fingers at the sofa, intending to shrink it, but he accidently made it way too small even for a dollhouse. Finn snatched up the teeny tiny sofa and dashed off outside with it. "Ru, do try to find where he's going with our sofa and bring it back, would you?"

"Well, who made it bug sized anyway," Edward frowned at Angus.

"Yeah, well, I just gave my spell a bit too much zap," Angus shrugged. "I'll change it back--if we find it." Evan picked up Caprice, and Angus headed to the kitchen to fix a hasty breakfast since Ruby hadn't gotten to it. He decided on Scottish oats, intending to add some jam, some cinnamon, and some chopped candied pecans to the top. He made some quick slices of toast, and a hasty fruit salad. It was going to be a busy morning, so he wasn't intending to fix a large breakfast.

When it was ready, Evan fed Caprice while he was eating his own oatmeal. The kids ate quickly and dashed out to go to work. Angus took his own bowl of oatmeal and finished his provisions list and sent it, as a paper bird, over to Nicky. Edward ate his breakfast and then fed Diamond. Angus decided to get a couple more hours sleep, so he headed upstairs to be out of everyone's way.

While Angus slept, Simone and Tara put on big pot of Angus's steak and ale soup for lunch so it could cook slowly and the beef could become really tender and delicious. They also put on some chicken to braise to make some honey mustard shredded chicken sandwiches so everyone could have a comforting lunch of a hot soup with a hot sandwich.

As Tara was looking through the pantry to find a fresh jar of mustard, she saw a little slip of paper that seemed to be stuck to the tin of cocoa. She picked up the tin and took out the little slip of paper and saw it was a recipe labled "Caprice's Hot Cocoa." It looked like a hot chocolate recipe. She brought out the recipe and showed it to Edward.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" she asked.

"Well, that's Caprice's handwriting, for certain," Edward said. He read the recipe, and it made him smile. "That was Caprice's variation on Italian hot cocoa. It's got the super thick consistency that all Italian cocoa has, but she always added some of the spices that Mexican hot cocoa has--cinnamon, vanilla, a little chili powder for some extra warmth, and just the tiniest pinch of salt to bring out the flavors of the sugar and the chocolate. She used a special blend of bittersweet chocolate that she always knew how to find to make sure it was the deepest, darkest chocolate flavor that she could pack into it, and she made homemade vanilla whipped cream to top it and she piped it on with a piping bag."

"And was it thick?"

"We always had to eat it with a spoon, like a hot chocolate custard consistency."

"And we only got it on Christmas eve," Evan said.

"That was you. Angus got it pretty much all winter long because he lived with us. You just lived in the wrong house, Evan," Edward said.

"Oh, not fair," Evan laughed.

"Maybe I'll try to make it," Tara said.

"I would love you forever," Evan said.

"You're supposed to do that anyway," she frowned. "Not impressed." Edward laughed. "I'll give her recipe a go and see if I can come anywhere close to it."

"Well, now that we have the chicken and the soup on to slow cook, how about I make some snickerdoodles to go with the cocoa?" Simone said.