A Birth day

Once each had chosen their tree Jack cut it down tieing it up he picked both up and they began to walk back to the house Chris now happyily bouncing ahead of them and giggling. Jessie smiled as he walked with him. Ruby couldn't help worry about Suzzane's state of mind if she was to lose yet another child. but once she saw the duplex she pushed that thought to the back of her mind and opend the door " we're back and I found the couch" she said as they entered. Jack set down the tree while she went to get the tree stand to hold it up. Once done Jack left with Chris and Jessie to place their tree leaving Ruby and Aria to decorate theres.

Aria had heard the menton of hot chocolate and smiled " would be perfect on this cold night " she said smiling " oh I think there are some marshmallows in the back of the pantry for the topping" she said stepping in and after a moment returning smilign as she held up two packets of marshmallows. " thought there were" she said triumphently.

Ruby took ut the tiny couch and cleaned it off before placing it down and resizing it to its right size to let it dry off.

"Well done," Edward said when they brought the tree in.

"We have lunch already on to braise," Simone said. "We thought maybe some hot sandwiches and a kettle of homemade soup would be good comfort food. We have Angus's steak and ale soup simmering, and some honey mustard shredded chicken sandwiches cooking, and a batch of snickerdoodles. Oh, and we found Caprice's old recipe for hot cocoa. It's also in the works. Angus is sleeping, thank goodness. That man must run on pure adrenalin."

"Pretty much," Edward said. "Oh, and so you know, Diamond is napping. We did some tummy time while the women were cooking, and Diamond was good and properly irked with me because she can't roll over. Poor thing was worn out, so she's napping. Caprice is...wait. She was right here just a moment ago. Where the heck did she go already?"

"Did you lose her?" Marcus frowned.

"Apparently so," Edward frowned.

"Don't panic. We'll find her," Marcus said. Evan joined him, and they started hunting and noticed the dog was missing too.

"Bingo!" Evan shouted from over in Edward's side. "She and Finn are bin diving."

"They're what??" Edward frowned. Edward and Marcus went over to see that one of them, either Caprice or Finn, had tipped over the kitchen bin and had rubbish strewn all over the kitchen and all over themselves. And it was messy and smelled to high heaven. Edward rolled his eyes.

Ruby looked over to the kitchen as Edwrad said they found a recipy for hot chocolate. " sounds delishious" she said pausing as Edward asked where Caprice was she looked around with them but found nothing until Even called out and she followed him to Edwards side and to his kitchen " oh my, guess its bath time" she said picking Caprice up " but whose going to wash Finn?" she sked as she walked threw to their side and up to the bathroom to wash Caprice clean.

Aria seeing Ruby with a smelly Caprice chuckled as she lay out the table ready to eat once the food was done. " well done on finding her guys" she said chukaling to herself as she watched the others prepare the food.

Evan sighed. It wasn't his damn dog, but he didn't expect Edward to do it, and Ruby clearly didn't intend to. And Angus was finally getting some sleep. Evan didn't say a syllable but he wasn't happy. He took Finn out to the barn and washed the stupid dog without saying a word to anyone, not even to the dog. He took the dog back to the house, let him in, transfigured his clothes, deciding to go for a run, hoping to perhaps see a glimpse of the pack's longhouse while he was at it. He was irked at the stupid dog, and he was irked at Suzanne and Tom for their cruelty towards children--including their own children. And He was angry that he had gotten the impression that Angus was feeling some sort of pressure or push to try to be all things to his family. He didn't know exactly what made him feel that way or what was perhaps pushing Angus, but he was feeling a need to try to perhaps protect Angus from whatever it was that was bothering him. Maybe it was just Suzanne, but Evan really doubted it. For now, Evan wanted to clear his head and talk himself into stepping back to let Angus run his own life for himself.

"Not sure if you're going to be using the decorations from last year or not," Marcus told Aria, "but they're downstairs in the cellar in the green totes with the red lids. Angus has labeled each tote clearly. I'm sure you're welcome to go look through them and choose what you like or go shopping if that doesn't work. As I recall, they did sort of a rustic look to fit in with the fact that the cabin is supposed to have a rustic look. If you want something else, I have some accounts in London, and you can charge some different things on it if you like."

Simone took the snickerdoodles out of the oven and slid them off the baking sheet to a cooling rack,

Aria had seen the look on Evens's face and sighed but let him go as Marcus spoke of decorations in a tote in the basement " I'll use those, they sound perfect" she said smiling at him as she headed down to the basement before she did she paused and looked at Marcus " you think Even is okay?" she asked " he looked upset at something" she said to him " should one of us talk to him?"

Ruby washed down Caprice and chuckled as she let her play with the bubbles and she gathered clean diapers and clothing to dress her in. Now clean Ruby dried her in a fluffy towel and dressed her in a fluffy warm onesie before she headed down to the living room to place her back in her pay pen to play with her toys again while the food was being finished.

"He's gone for a run, I noticed," Marcus said. "I don't know Evan well, I can try to talk to him. Maybe he just needs some air, but he does have a very serious streak. I think its perhaps what's made him so good at running the day to day functioning of some of Edward's operations. I think we should perhaps keep in mind that he's the newest member of the adult fighters, and he doesn't have nearly the experience that the rest of us do. He also takes his role as a dad very seriously. And the last couple of days has been really out of the box for all of us. We have an entire pack of poisoned werewolves we're trying to save, and now we're caring for what is, I suppose, technically, a baby who is both Angus's sister-in-law and step daughter, if you want to be specific about it. That's a lot for a new bloke like Evan. If you lot can spare me, I'll go join him on his run and see if I can't sound him out a bit. I haven't run in a couple of days anyway, so I could use the run myself. Don't concern yourself about Evan unless I tell you there's something to be concerned about. Go trim the tree and maybe you can get Jack and Jessie to hang the outside lights since they're taller." Marcus transfigured his clothes and went to try to catch up with Evan.

Edward had gone to check on Diamond, who was in the playpen that Edward had set up in the living room over on Edward's side. The baby was awake, and desperately in need of a diaper change, but even, so, she hadn't made a peep. That just wasnt' right. Normal babies cried and fussed. Diamond had stopped doing all of that. She just had looked blankly at Edward. He had changed her and brought her over to Angus's side.

"Can one of you make a bottle for her, please?" Edward asked. "She really needs to be fed again. She's not going to let us know if she needs a diaper change or a bottle. We're going to have to try to get her to start doing that again, and I think, if we get her on a schedule, she may start to get the schedule in her head and may start to let us know when she's wet or hungry."

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded at his words " Of course, and good idea" she said then headed down to find the tote. finding it she carried it back upstairs and placed it by the tree opening it she began to hang orniments while Ruby lay out the lights and garlands around.Once they had done as high as they could go Aria headed to find Jessie or Jack finding Jack she explained and he chukled .

"of course I can do the hig bits" he said and followed her back to the duplex where they found Ruby tying to pt things higher by standing on the arm of the couch " hey let me" Jack said and took the buble from her placing it on he finished the tree then handed Aria the topper " newbie puts it on" he said and lifted her high enough so she could place it then lowered her down.

Ruby saw Edward with Diamond and sighed " she didn't make a peep" she said waking over to him and smiling at her sister. hearing him ask some one to make a bottle she walked over to the kitchen " I'll do it" she said and made one up. Once cool enough she passed it to Edward " here you go." she said.

Marcus found Evan, and he believed it was better to let Evan run and to try to talk to him while they ran. It gave Evan a way to burn off some frustrations. Marcus absolutely understood it, and he was not only a good listener, but with all his years of experience, he was a good mentor as well. By the time the run was finished, Evan was back to his old self.

Edward fed Diamond and then put her in the playpen with Caprice so that, hopefully, the babies would be out of trouble for a few minutes.

And by that time, Angus was waking. He hadn't slept all that long, but the three or four hours he'd had was enough for now. He showered and shaved and dressed, seeing far more bruises than he had thought he would, especially his face, along the side of his face, across one side of his forehead, and across one of his cheekbones. He was tempted, for a moment to use a charm to quickly grow a beard over the bruises, but he figured the way the spell would probably work for him, he'd end up with a beard wherever he had bruises, and he didn't think Ruby would like him having a beard on his forehead or any of the other places he had a bruise where a beard really shouldn't go. So he gave up the idea and decided he would just live with it like he'd always just lived with all the others.

Downstairs, Tara was setting the table for lunch with some pottery soup bowls and some cold drinks, while Simone had made a platter of the hot honey mustard shredded chicken sandwiches and set it on the table. Then Simone added a large tureen of the steak and ale soup with a ladle so that everyone could ladle up their own bowl of soup, however much they wanted. Tara ladled up soup for Evan and herself, and then Edward ladled up soup for Simone and himself.

Just as Angus was coming downstairs, the kids came in for lunch, having forgotten to pack any lunches.

"You're just in time," Simone told them. "Wash your hands and then help yourselves to some steak and ale soup and a sandwich."

"Sounds great. I'm starving," Victor said. Ginger was the first to finish washing her hands, and she dished up soup for Victor, Sam, Anise and herself. Joining them at the table, Angus dished up soup for everyone else.

Ruby moved to the table and ladled out two bowls , one for herself and one for Angus. She smiled seeing him but winced as she saw his bruises on his face . "Here this should warm you from the inside" she said placing the bowl down in front of him before sitting down herself as she loked over at Caprice and Diamond in the pay pen. She saw Caprice playing but Di was just laying there watching her " you think she'll eer start acting like a proper baby should?" she asked.

Aria waited for Marcus and Even to return from their run and talk to dish up food , she saw Finn run in and settle next to the play pen having satisfied his needs and run till he could drop. She rubbed his head and chuckled as he lay down and promptly fell asleep.

"Thanks," Angus said to Ruby. "It's a good day for some hot soup."

Marcus showered quickly and came to the table to eat. He glanced over and saw Finn plop down next to the playpen and doze off.

"His breed are herders, you know," Marcus said tucking into his lunch. "No sheep to herd, so he's apparently going to herd babies. Probably the next best thing because the ducks probably get quite irked with him. Ducks and geese can be aggressive little gits."

"I don't ever get tired of this kind of soup," Sam said. "It's one of my favorites."

"Now, listen, you lot," Angus said, "we're supposed to get a blizzard here tonight. Ginger and Anise, when you two are finished with your lunch, you hurry downstairs and pack your bags. You will have to spend the night in Tuscany. I don't really care if you stay in your room at Edward's or spend the night with Evie and Faith. I don't need to decide that for you, but I want you both packed and safe and sound in Tuscany before the storm starts, understand me?" Both girls nodded.

"You should stop work today by three so you can port out of here by half past or by four at the latest," Edward told them. "By the look of the sky, we'll be fully in it by five. Your dad's right. You need to be out of here before then."

"We'll be ready," Ginger said. "We started to pack last night. Anise said she had a dream that told her we'd be going today and not tomorrow."

"Well, your seers abilities are on point today, then," Angus told Anise. "Well done. Dress warm."

"What happens in a blizzard?" Sam asked.

"Heavy, heavy snowfall," Edward said. "Heavy and fast. And high winds--often well over 50 miles and hour. And bitterly cold temperatures--frequently a lot colder than 12C. White out conditions can become constant and for hours at a time. Muggle houses will loose power, so they will not have heat or lights either one. We won't have that issue."

"What's that?" Victor asked.

"Show and wind bad enough that you can't see what's in front of you. Sometimes can't even see your hand in front of your face," Angus said. "We'll all have to be indoors and so will all the animals until it passes. It is definitely life threatening to be outside in it." Angus looked at Edward. "I'm going to go secure up some ropes between our place and the barn, our place and the main house, and the main house to the barn--just in case we need them."

"What for?" Sam asked.

"If we absolutely had to go out in that sort of weather, we'd want to be able to find our way there and back," Marcus said. "In the early days, people would hang onto the rope and let it guide them. It is far better, if your rope is well secured, to fasten a climbing harness to it so the wind can't blow you away from the rope. Still, if the wind is high enough in velocity, you could end having trouble breathing in it. Your dad is right. Once it starts, no one should go out for any reason til it passes."

"What if we run out of food or something?" Sam asked.

"We won't. I've ordered a huge load of provisions that are coming probably right after lunch," Angus said. "We should be in good shape.

"It sounds like it could be frightening," Simone said. "I've heard of them but not been in one."

"I was in two of them in the same winter in Colorado," Angus said. "Up in the mountains where the ranch is there, it can get downright treacherous there. Here, we shouldn't have some of those issues. I'm really glad the pack will be indoor, though. I should go check on them, if Jack hasn't already done that. We need to know they're going to be alright through it."