A Birth day

"Well, that's good, Ruby," Robert said. "That shows she's developing some ability to understand what she wants and to try to get it. She's not just giving up like she had when we first got her. I'm glad." At that moment, Caprice decided she wanted what Diamond had, and they started to squabble about it, both babies screeching at each other. "Ah. Is that sibling rivalry I hear?"

"It certainly is," Marcus laughed.

"Good for her! She's willing to try to stand her ground. That's a huge improvement. Well done, you lot. That's wonderful. Not only is it important for the court to know what shape she was in when we got her, but we also need to be able to document and show them that, with normal care and parenting, she can gain ground. That demonstrates that there is nothing wrong with that baby. And that, then, leaves only one logical conclusion--that there was something dramatically wrong with the care she was getting. Good job. Keep up the good work. You're proving the case for her just by taking care of her. Well done. Okay, I'll see you all later. If Angus stresses himself into a meltdown before then, give me a shout." Robert turned off the floo.

"I would hope they're getting on with it since they just brought it this morning," Marcus laughed, helping Angus back to his chair. "Been a long morning for you already, Aria?" He picked up Angus's tea mug to go put more tea in it for him. "Why don't you go with her, Ruby? When's the last time you got to go for a run? Might do Aria good to have a buddy with her."

"I'll take care of any meltdowns he has while you're gone. Go have a good time," Marcus laughed. After they left, the house got as quiet as it was going to get with two babies in the same playpen.

"I should cook something for lunch for when they get back," Angus sighed. "It's been a long morning, and they'll be hungry when they get back."

"Give it a rest. I'll order out so its here when they get back," Marcus said. He contacted Sparks, and they sent four bowls of a beautiful vegetable curry with naan bread, and some slices of a clementine cake. It would be delicious and light. Marcus set a warming spell on the curry to keep it hot until Aria and Ruby got back. The babies began smacking each other with stuffed toys, squealing at each other. "You want me to break it up?"

"Not unless one of them starts to get irked," Angus said. "They need to find out where their own limits are."

"Well, that's probably true," Marcus said. When the babies got bored with smacking each other and started getting testy, Angus tried his hand at duplicating some of the magical, sparkling animals that floated around the ceiling at Sparks when kids were there, the same spells that Robert had used in Sparks from the very beginning and had give Sparks its name. The babies immediately were captivated by the animals and they were staring at the ceiling, coo'ing at the glittering shapes they were seeing. "Oh, well done, Angus," Marcus smiled. "That might keep them happy all afternoon if you can keep that up."

"They'll go indefinitely unless I stop them," Angus said. "I watched how Robert did the spell, and I learned to do it for Abbey when she was at about the same age and had the attention span of a gnat. Those animals kept her happy for hours so I could cook supper."

"Well, they seem to work here too. Try to rest a little while the girls are gone."

"Maybe you're right," Angus said. He closed his eyes and slipped into a light sleep. Marcus set out plates and silverware for lunch and then sat down with the papers to read while the girls were out running. Now, with the babies fascinated with the animals on the ceiling the house was almost entirely silent.

"That was Angus's doing," Marcus said. "They got bored with smacking each other, so he did that to keep them happy. He even got a short snooze in while you were gone. So you were on the obstacle course, then, and not the running track. That can be a little challenging, but you'll get it."

"The obstacle course in Colorado is twice as long as this one, and the running track is about three times as long as the one here. However, that being said, our running track here is about four times as long as the one in the gym at St. Mungos. You have to make about for laps around that to amount just a wee bit over one trip around our running track," Angus said.

"It is a really nice track to run, though, if we have heavy rains and can't get out here. I've gone in and run it quite often when its lousy weather outside," Marcus said. "They also have one hell of a challenging climbing wall in their fitness center. It can be set for beginners, but if you want a real climbing challenge without risking your life in the process, that's the wall to climb."

"That would be because if you fall while freehanding a cliff face, you won't have those beautiful deep cushy mats to fall on like St. Mungos has," Angus said.

"That reminds me. Evan was asking me about a climbing training," Marcus said.

"That would be because Evan doesn't climb. Not yet anyway," Angus said. "He wants to learn because he knows I climb. I don't want him to learn to climb just because I can. I want him to do it if he honestly wants to do it."

"Well, he isn't going to know if you don't let him try," Marcus said. "Maybe I'll invite him to go with me, and I'll start him at square one with it."

"I can do that..." Angus said.

"With your shoulder? You could teach him how to fall, but I doubt you could teach him to climb. Not yet anyway. Speaking of outdoor events, how'd you two do with Kate and the box of seeds you were going to talk to her about?" Marcus asked Aria and Ruby.

"Michael is always up for a good climb," Marcus said. That made Angus laugh. "What?" Marcus asked, laughing.

"You remember when Michael came to Colorado to teach that year's new recruits how to climb?? Angus asked, laughing.

"Oh my God, I'd forgotten about that," Marcus laughed. The two of them laughed for at least three minutes like little idiots and then Marcus regained himself. "It was hysterical. These new recruits were young, and there were two little brats in the bunch, and when Michael showed up to teach them to climb, they didn't think Michael was serious and then really began trying to bully him. These two had had one or two climbing lessons but that's all. And they started challenging the others in the group of trainees as to who could climb to the top of the wall the fastest. And then, they included Michael who upped the ante just to teach them a lesson. They believed Michael was too old to be able to get off the ground. So, Michael let everyone else go first, and he went last. And when he climbed up, of course, he beat everyone's time, and he won all the money. It shut them up."

"And, although they tried to pressure him into giving the money back, he felt no compulsion to do that. So, as I recall, he kept it and bought some sort of rare first edition book for his library with his winnings," Angus said. "So far as I was concerned, I felt like he had earned every damned penny just by being bullied..."

At that moment, Diamond began to cry in some sort of distress. Marcus picked her up, but even with his experience, she wasn't quieting.

"Hand her here a moment," Angus said. He laid the baby on the sofa and began exercising her leg, which she was not happy with, but in a couple minutes, she began to quiet. Marcus began to smell what smelled like a stinky diaper.

"Does she need a diaper change?"

"Not yet. She was just really gassy. Something she ate for lunch just did not agree with her today for some reason. We'll need to be a little watchful in case there is something that her under-developed system just isn't so ready for. Maybe we should write down what she eats so we can try to track whatever it is that causes her stomach to be a tad upset. Did you give her anything new for lunch, Ru?"

"She's still developmentally behind Caprice," Angus said. "It could be that it's going to cause her trouble yet or maybe she ate too fast. Or maybe she's catching a little bit of a bug or something. It's hard to say."

"You're not the only one who is going to need a change," Marcus said, taking her from Aria and taking her upstairs to bathe and change her. "She exploded at both end."

"And on the sofa and the floor too, but she's quit fussing," Angus said.

"I noticed. I'll get the sofa and the floor when I come back. They're going to need steam cleaned," Marcus called back. Marcus bathed her and brought her back down in a soft light pink onesie with feet. He had a soft lightweight blanket that he'd tossed over her. He brought her to Angus. "Do you mind? I actually think she might be a little warm."

"Give her to me," Angus said, taking off his sling first. He took Diamond and laid her on his bad shoulder so he had his good one to hold her with. She laid her head on Angus's shoulder and just laid silently on him. Angus felt her head and her cheeks, and he was thinking that perhaps Marcus was right. "You could be right," Angus told him. "I'll just keep an eye on her for a little and see if maybe she was just a little upset."

He glanced down into the playpen and saw Caprice was just chucking toy after toy after toy out of the playpen.

"What are you doing?" Angus frowned. The next toy she hurled, she chucked it at him. "No, Ma'am. We don't do that." Angus elevated all the toys up and out of her reach. Then she really got mad and started to scream and tantrum at the top of her lungs. "God, she is so spoiled," Angus sighed.