A Birth day

"Oh, who knows?" Angus said. "She probably thinks Diamond is getting something she isn't."

"Diamond is giving you a big pouty lip," Marcus laughed. "She is not happy."

"Well, that might make three of us. Caprice is not happy, and I'd be happier if she weren't screaming like a banshee."

"Can I try to give her one toy?" Marcus asked.

"You can try," Angus said. Marcus picked up a ring of plastic baby keys and handed it to her but she promptly flung it in his face. Angus levitated the toy quickly out of her reach, and then she really tantrumed. Angus stood up and handed Diamond to Marcus for a moment, and then, without saying a word, he picked up Caprice and apparated upstairs, put her in her crib, left the nursery and closed the door, and apparated back downstairs.

"Hm. Her first time out," Marcus said. "How long shall we leave her there?"

"I'd prefer not to leave her there for more than one minute, but I think she could tantrum longer than that," Angus said. "I should have probably just gone into the bedroom to wait it out, but I didn't." He took Diamond back from Marcus and sat back down with her.

"Well, if she's settling by the time a minute is over, maybe we can give her a few more seconds and then go get her," Marcus replied. They waited, and after about a minute and a half the tantruming turned quieter, to just plain crying.

"You want to get her, Ru, or shall I? Maybe she's learned her lesson for the moment. I hope so," Angus said.

Ruby watched Caprice with the toy and how she threw it back at Marcus but she didn't move or say anything when Angus handed her Dimond then picked up Caprice and took her upstairs returning once she was safely in her crib. When Marcus asked if he or she should fetch her once she had quite down she looked at him " I think you should , if I go she might feel I'm the soft one" she said " and we don't need her playing us off against each other when she's older." she said as she picked up the steamer that Marcus had use to clean the couch returning it once she emptied the water out of it  back to the closet.

Aria came down stairs holding her ears " wow that girl can shout" she said " let me guess temper tantrum?" she asked and saw Ruby nod. With a sigh she shook her head then saw Dimond " she's looking a bit pink on her cheeks, maybe we should get Khaat to look at her" she said walking over and placing her hand gently against Dimond's cheek.

"I know," Angus said. "I'm just giving her a little in case maybe she was either upset or warm from her bath. If she's running a fever at all, it's only a touch yet. I'm watching. At her age, it could be teething or all sorts of reasons."

"I'll go," Marcus said. He went upstairs and got Caprice who was quieter, but she had a couple little tears on her cheeks. Marcus brushed them away and put her quietly back in her playpen and lowered her toys back into the playpen. She grabbed a stuffed kitty made of pink toweling, and simply chewed on it for a little and shook it for a bit to listen to the rattle inside it. "Well, she's better for the moment," Marcus said. "Good job. You've only got 17 more years of that."

"God," Angus sighed. "Just what I wanted to think about. Let's change the subject. What should I cook for supper? I figure I'm going to have to cook since we haven't told the kids they'll be cooking. I think it's only fair that we give them time to look through the cookbooks or to look at what we have in the house. What are you all hungry for?"

Ruby smiled as Marcus brought down Caprice who was now quieter she hated leaving her there but she had to learn temper tantrums get you no where and nothing. She watched as Caprice sat quietly playing with her toy and smiled. " thank you Marcus" she said to him then heard Angus talk of cooking " well we haven't had a sir fry in a long time but even a stew would do and it would keep for the kids when they get home." she suggested.

Aria walked to the window and saw several of the sides of the cottage were up and they were putting the roof trusses in place.. "Your right could be from the bath or as you say she could be teething, but isn't she too young for that?" she asked " I'm game for anything , your cooking is always the best" she said and chuckled as she smiled to Marcus and Angus.

"No, she's not too young," Angus said. "Some babies start as early as six months. It can also cause all sorts of stomach troubles. Abbey had issues with her first tooth, but then it went a bit easier for her after that. In fact, Robert says most babies have almost all their teeth in by the time they're a year old. And they're both within a month or two of that. There's no need to panic just yet." When Ruby mentioned a stir fry or a stew, he nodded. "Okay. Give me a bit, and I'll take care of it. I might do a stir fry because its quicker."

Marcus brought a burp cloth for Angus--just in case there would be more spitting up, and then he went to the kitchen and made a bottle for Diamond with cold water, and he also got out an ice lolly and broke it into pieces, put it in a bowl, and brought them to Angus.

"Thank you. Maybe I can get her to try some," Angus said. Diamond wasn't the least bit interested in the water. She did eat a few pieces of the ice lolly, though, and that seemed to help her not be so restless. Angus felt her gums, and it seemed she did have a couple teeth coming in, but they didn't seem to be bothering her at the moment. And then she spit up the ice lolly and got fussy. "Marcus, do we have any more energy potion?"

"No, but I suppose we could ask Robert for some. He's not going to be excited about you taking a third one today, you know."

"Yeah, well, I didn't expect this either," Angus said.

"Here. Give her here. Let me walk with her a little. I can do that easier than you can," Marcus took her from him to walk the floor with her for a bit to try to settle her. Angus knew that Aria was anxious about Diamond, and he could only perhaps guess that Ruby was too. Marcus and Angus were not. Not yet. Still, he felt that he should at least put Robert on notice to keep the anxiety from getting worse. Angus wrote a note, made it into a paper bird and sent it over to the main house.

Ruby saw Angus send a note to Robert and smiled relaxing again she knew he was doing the right thing. Aria smiled watching Marcus with Dimond in his arms as he walked with her. Aria took the bowl and placed it in the sink to be washed. Then she went and sat down marking words off in her word search as she watched Marcus and admired him as the dad she knew he was.

Ruby heard Angus say he would do a sir fry and nodded " do you want my help?" she asked " I could help cut up the veg to save some time?" she asked as she looked up from her book to him. She was trying to show she was not anxious any more now she knew he had told Robert about Dimond.

"That would be great," Angus said. "It's just damned hard to prep vegetables or meat either one with one hand."

It was about 20 minutes before Robert could free himself to come over, but he did come. He could see the frustration on Angus's face and could see that Aria and Ruby were both still anxious.

"I'm going to take her up to the nursery where I have more room to work," Robert said, taking Diamond from Angus. . "Come with me, Angus." Angus didn't reply, He just went upstairs. Robert made a check of her carefully while he talked to Angus. "She's only got just a trace of fever. It's not like you to call me unless you have more symptoms than what you've got."

"Yes, well, Aria and Ruby neither one trust me with this," Angus said quietly. "Its just that simple. Just take care of her, would you?"

"What do you mean they don't trust you?"

"Just what I said," Angus was almost a little short with him. "The instant she started showing any symptoms at all, they wanted me to call you."

"Well, that isn't what I trained you to do, though," Robert said.

"Doesn't matter," Angus said.

"Look, this happens with babies. It just does, and Diamond is going to be more prone to it than Abbey or Caprice either one are. We all knew Diamond has health issues. Things are going to come up, and panicking won't help."

"You're preaching to the choir," Angus said quietly.

"Well, honestly, its so early, I can't honestly tell you if its teething or if she's just starting with a bug. It could be neither, either or both. So, lots of fluids if you can get her to do it because we don't want her to get dehydrated, Make sure she isn't overly warm, and try to keep her as comfortable as you can."

"Yeah, I was doing that," Angus said.

"Then you had it under control. I'll settle her stomach with a spell for now, and then, if you need it, you can keep up with the nausea potion. If her temp goes up much further, then certainly you can use some fever potion, but I don't want to interfere too much with that right now because its the body's immune response telling us that there's something going on that it believes it needs to fight off. Keep a close eye on it."

"Send Andrew over, would you?"

"Do you need him?"

"Yes. I'll have him take care of her."

"For what reason when you're right here."

"Don't push me on this, Robert," Angus said.

"They did irk you, didn't they? And what am I supposed to give as a reason?"

"I'm too bloody tired to do it," Angus replied. "or tell them the truth--that we're doing it to put them at ease."

"Well, there is one thing you could help with maybe tomorrow if you have time. There's a snag with one of our suppliers. They aren't going to deliver anything more to us unless they talk to you. Zoe and Nicky have tried. I've tried. They don't want me. They want you."

"Good," Angus said. He accio'd his wand and, without a word, he apparate to his office in the main house. Robert finished with Diamond, and he took her downstairs and handed her to Marcus.

"It's too early for me to know if she's teething or if she has a big of some sort," Robert told them. "I settled her stomach temporarily, and I gave Angus some more potion for nausea in case she needs it later. Oh, by the way, we have a problem with our of our suppliers. They're quite irked with us, and they will only talk to him now. So, he's gone over to the main house to try to sort it. So for now, keep trying to give her fluids--but don't waterlog her, and keep her comfortable. If she gets much worse, call me back. Maybe by then, I'll have a better sense of what's causing this. I see no reason to panic, though. She's going to be testy, keeping her comfortable will be a test of patience. Any other questions for me?"

Ruby began cutting the veg for the stir fry making a bowl of them she began while he was up with Robert cutting the meat. once done she paused as Robert came down with Dimond . Hearing him talk of a problem and that Angus was the only one they wanted to talk to she nodded " and he's already gone to talk to them?" she asked as Aria walked over to Robert and gently took Dimond from him .

"that's good , thank you for checking on her" she said as she listened to him say about giving her some water but not to over due it. " Aria nodded as she moved to sit beside the play pen where Caprice was sat playing with her toy in it.

" do you know how long he will be, we were about to make a stir-fry for dinner?" Ruby asked " should I put everything in the fridge until he's home?" she asked not sure if she should cook it or wait for Angus to return.

"I think you could go ahead and fix it," Robert said. "I'm not sure who buggared up our relationship with them or even what they did, but Angus was the one that forged that relationship with them, and since they're one of our main suppliers, we need them. I've tried to talk to them, but I'm not Angus. And he's who they trust. I don't know what it's going to take to smooth things over, but I trust his judgment. Can I ask you something? What has you lot so anxious about Diamond? Angus was doing all the right things, but clearly you lot are more anxious than that? What's that all about?"

Marcus didn't answer since he hadn't been anxious. He put his coat on.

"I need to go get the girls from Evan's," Marcus said quietly. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I'll go over and stay with him when I get back."

"No need," Robert said. "There are plenty of people there, especially since its close to supper time. He'll be safe enough. If he's tired, I'll bring him back myself."

"If you change your mind, let me know," Marcus said, porting out to go to Evan's to get Anise and Ginger and bring them home.

Ruby nodded to Robert then frowned at his question " I didn't know I was anxious?" she said " we both know kids come down with things , especially at her age and with what she's been threw too" Ruby said and looked to Aria who nodded as she walked with Dimond.

"it started when Caprice decided to throw a temper tantrum but we didn't think we were being overly anxious or anything like that" she said " in fact I thought we were being calm about it" she added laying Dimond in the playpen still wrapped in the blanket now sleeping.