A Birth day

Ruby looked at Simone and nodded " I can't help it, I guess its because I love him so much that I don't want to lose him." she said turning to look at Edward and nodding as he spoke of how because it was being done the muggle way it would be a few hours before they would know. " all right" she said giving Simone another hug as she then left the pair of them to go to a room next to theirs to shower and change.

Aria raised an eyebrow when he said the rescue wasn't down to him " really , then I will have to thank him once he's on his feet" she said knowing it would be some time before that would happen. She sat back on the chair with one of her legs tucked up under her as she sat and quietly waited for any news.

"You're not going to lose him," Edward told Ruby. "Get a hold of yourself a little. It's a serious wound, but this is Angus we're speaking about. He doesn't give up that easily."

The time ticked by slowly for Edward. He was counting the minutes. He felt the ship dock back in port, and the engines powered down and off, and still there had been no news. A steward had brought around a tray with mugs of some soothing herbal tea for everyone, and quite honestly, even though Edward hadn't thought of it, he was glad for it.

As they were waiting, Lee came downstairs, looking for Robert, and he had a briefcase with him--a metal one that was handcuffed to his wrist.

"No news yet, I take it?" Lee asked.

"Not yet. He's been in there just over four hours now."

"Not unheard of for a muggle surgery," Lee said. "Evan said I could come aboard. Oh, and I brought Nigel with me just in case he could be helpful. Evan took Nigel back to your place. He felt sure it would be okay. Nigel's setting up a space for Angus for a day or two until he won't be so sensitive to being jostled around. Nigel feels pretty sure Robert won't try to take him home to England for 24 to 48 hours."

"No, that's fine," Edward said, waving away any concerns Lee might have had. "Whatever he needs, I'll get it."

"Evan already told us to get whatever Angus might need," Lee replied. At that moment, the medic came out into the hallway.

"Robert will be out in a moment. He's finishing up. Mr. Donohue is going to be fine. He isn't awake yet. I'm sure he'll tell you a lot more when he comes out," she said. "He impressed me, though. For a wizard, Robert managed the muggle methods exceptionally well. He wanted some coffeef, so I'm headed to fetch one for him."

"Thank you, Sonya," Edward said.

"My pleasure," she smiled, and headed down the hallway.

"Well, I'm glad its good news," Lee said.

"I had no doubt," Edward said.

Ruby nodded to Edward and smiled " your right I'm worrying about nothing right now" she smiled as she headed to shower and change and then grab something to eat since she'd only had the fish and mushrooms Angus prepared on the island. Now eaten she headed down behind Lee as he walked in to talk to Edward she did and moved to sit not far from him. When the Medic came out she stood up and waited for her to talk. Listening her she breathed out but still wanted to hear it from Robert.

Aria found a cabin that wasn't being used and went to lay down becoming tired as thy hours wore on, Hearing foot steps pass by the door she sat up and yawned before heading to the bathroom she washed her face and dried it before heading down to where she knew Edward and Ruby was waiting for news.

Marcus had come down to check on things and was just lingering about in the hallway. He saw Sonya came back with a couple mugs of coffee and she took them into the sickbay. It was just a few minutes later when Robert finally came out.

"He's alright," Robert said, looking just a wee bit tired now, and in his hand he had that big piece of glass. "There was significant tissue damage done by this piece of glass. There was as much glass under the skin as there was above it, and it looked to me like he had still been trying to use that arm after the glass was lodged in there."

"I'm sure he must have," Marcus said. "If the glass hit him in the explosion, then he surely was the one who rescued all the rest of us, salvaged some supplies, and got us all to shore and into that cave. Not to mention the work he did gathering firewood and saplings and foraging for food."

"Idjit," Robert muttered, unhappy that Angus had used that shoulder that hard. "That boy is going to put me through my paces. Well, he's not moving it until I say otherwise, whether he likes it or not. The muggle drugs are going to keep him down for a couple days because he's just not used to them. I don't want him going anywhere or doing anything or even thinking about getting up until I tell him he can. He's lost a lot of blood, so he's not going to feel like doing much of anything. He's sleeping now, so I'd prefer not to wrestle him around much. He seems to be comfortable at the moment."

"I brought Nigel, and he and Evan went to make a recovery space for him at Edward's," Lee said.

"Good. Thank you. That will definitely help," Robert said. He eyed the briefcase. "Ah, my birthday present?"

"Hannukah gift," Lee said fishing the handcuff key out of his pocket. Robert rolled his eyes.

"Hannukah? Seriously?" Robert took the key and unlocked the handcuffs and stuffed them in Lee's jacket pocket. Lee put the briefcase on the bed in the cabin, and looked at the others who were gathered there, hesitating. "You might as well open it," Robert said. "In for a penny, in for a pound."
Lee opened the briefcase where the different components were resting. "Need help assembling?" Robert asked.

"No, I've got it," Lee said, picking up each component and assembling it, much like assembling a muggle rifle. When it was assembled, it was actually somewhat bigger than a muggle rifle too.

"So that's the prototype," Marcus said.

"Not the original," Lee said. "That's still missing."

"Never mind how Lee got a set of the plans, but this is a duplicate, made by the Americans a few days ago," Robert said. "This doesn't exist, just like the plans for it don't exist either. As best we can guess, this is what took out your boat this morning, and its what took everyone's magic."

"The reason Robert asked me to bring it is that if I reverse the polarity on it, it should restore your magic," Lee said. "Not sure how quick you'll be back to full strength though. The tests that were done were very short range and not at full power. So it could come back immediately or over a few hours. We just don't know."

"So how does it work?"

"One of take this big thing up on deck and fires it upwards to make a bubble around the ship, in the same way it was fired on you in the first place," Lee said.

"Of us here," Robert said, "you have the best marksmanship scores, Marcus. Do you mind?"

"Of course not," Marcus said. "Give it here." Robert and Lee showed Marcus the controls on it, and Lee went with him to watch Marcus shoot off this weapon and to see its effects.

Ruby relaxed knowing Angus was out of hams way she looked at the glass in Roberts hands and was relived it was one piece and not many. Aria smiled then frowned at the sight of the contraption now in front of them she looked to Marcus " if this can take our magic and then so easily give it back." she said and looked at it from where she sat. Ruby walked over and looked at it then stepped back as Marcus walked over to look at it himself.

Aria and Ruby both followed Marcus out to the deck waiting to see if it would work once Marcus fired it off. Both sat and watched.

Marcus was about as much at home with a gun as Angus was on a ship. It was just about the same, and this protype weapon worked very much like a muggle gun in most every respect. He went up on deck, checked the weapon, checked the settings, reversed the polarity on it, and took the safety off. He found there was a sight on the gun that allowed him to see where the field was going to go and how much it would cover. He adjusted it until he was satisfied that it covered the entire ship, and then he aimed his shot carefully, took a breath and fired. A bright greenish blue bubble surrounded the ship for a long moment and then faded.

"It worked," Lee said. "It's done. Now, you all need to give it some time. For those of us who didn't have compromised magic, it shouldn't affect us. For you lot, it should eventually restore your magic, nd it might be at different times for each of you. It's hard to say."

They stood and watched Aria standing next Marcus as he did what he needed before retching up his arm and firing "wow nice shot" she said seeing the greenish blue bubble surrounded the ship and them before fading away. Both looked to Lee and nodded to him " well guess we just wait now" Aria said and moved to take abetter look at the gun Marcus still held .

"I'm goanna head back down to wait for Angus to wake" she said knowing it could be a while before that would happen if not before they were home. " how long till we dock?" she asked " just so I know if I should get some sleep" she said folding her arms across her chest as she waited.

"Well, for now, we move forward with the tasks ahead of us, and if the magic comes back, it comes back. We docked about 45 minutes ago," Marcus said. "Remember, Lee was in the charter office, and he's now on the ship. It's unlikely that he would try to apparate on to a moving ship. Go get a nap. I'll be up. I think for now we'll be deciding on how and when we're moving Angus, so you've got a couple hours at least, I think. I'm going back down to Angus. My assignment is still to be on him, and I still have work to do. It would be very easy to slack off now, but that would leave him vulnerable, and I'm not going to do that. I'll wake you up if we make plans to leave the ship." He handed the gun back to Lee.

"Nice shooting, Tex," Lee laughed.

"Thanks, Sheriff," Marcus teased him right back. He turned and went back down to sickbay, and he peeked in the door to see Robert sitting with Angus and drinking coffee. "Mind if I come in?" Marcus asked softly.

"By all means," Robert waved him in. "How'd it go?"

"I think I got the bubble around the ship."

"Oh, well done, Lad. I knew you could do it."

"Any change?"

"Well, not really. Evidently the anaesthesia can cause some dry mouth or thirst because he's woken up just a few times, very briefly, and I've given him a few small sips of his coffee and he's dozed right back off. I doubt he'll even remember it later."

"So what's the plan? Do you know yet?"

"Evan just brought a message from Nigel. Nigel has temporarily put Angus in a separate bed in Edward's master suite. Evan said Nigel believes it will be a much shorter distance for him to the bathroom for that couple of days, and Evan believes that Edward and Simone won't have any issue using a guest room for that short of time."

"I think Edward would actually prefer it to some other plan."

"Well, he considered the pool house but he really didn't want Angus that far away from the rest of us. So this was the best we could do for now. Hopefully by tonight, we'll start to see if we need to make any changes back at the duplex. Oh, and one more thing. Daniella has had Fabian deliver the casket. It's at the estate, but I am absolutely not telling him that right now. Nor am I letting him take that damned thing over to the duplex. I have it hidden and secured. I will share it's location with you and Michael but that's probably all. Otherwise, it will be absolutely locked away from everyone. Iya is at the estate, and we'll work with her on what to do next with it. That thing is revolting in every sense of the word, and I'll be glad when its gone, however it ends up gone. It is not staying in Angus' life forever. I will not let that happen."

"I think we all feel the same way," Marcus said. "How long before anyone can visit with him?"

"Well, there's a difference between visiting and expecting to speak with him," Robert laughed. "I suppose I could let some of them in at any time now, but they're not going to be speaking with him yet."

Ruby heard Marcus and chuckled " yeah sorry I'm just all middled "she said and looked over at the dock. Hearing Marcus say they should get some sleep she headed down to the cabin but felt it was too empty for her so turned to head to the sickbay. Knocking lightly she opened the door a little. "Am I okay to come in for a minuet" she asked hoping it would let her relax seeing Angus she saw Marcus and Robert and walked over to them " um do you have any potions that would help me sleep?" she asked.

Aria saw Ruby go into the sick bay and with Marcus already there she went to the room she had taken to freshen up knowing being there would just make her be in the way even if she wondered how he was she knew staying out would give them space. She lay on the bed and closed her eyes to take a nap.

"Well, do I?" Robert asked. "Yes. But, two things. We dont' know yet if your magic has returned enough yet for them to be effective. And, second, a sleep potion would probably put you out for several hours. Nigel is finishing plans to be able to move Angus back to Edward's house here, so unless you want to be here on the ship with Angus at Edwards, I'd wait on a sleeping potion. Ruby, if you don't mind me asking. You've seen Angus have all sorts of issues and injuries with this shoulder, and you've handed far worse than this with ease, but for some reason, you're not dealing very well with this. You've sort of picked up your anxiety again. You do know that once we get back to Edward's you could perhaps ask Jeffrey to come and have a conversation with you, just as a bit of a tune up, to help you get back on track if you want. After all, Switzerland is almost within spitting distance from here."

"Angus is fine," Marcus told her. "Look. He's sleeping, and he's comfortable. And, as much as Aria and I can figure out, it had to have been Angus that hauled all three of us out of the sea, gathered up all the sails and ropes and things that were salvaged from the wreck. I'm sure he's exhausted. I think it's fine for him to take a bit of a snooze. We all know someone would like to see him dead, but he has no intention of giving them that satisfaction. I know you're stronger than this. You're entitled to being fatigued, but you really don't need to let your old anxiety issues get the best of you. If you had something to worry about, I'd tell you."