A Birth day

Marcus came downstairs and finished his cheesecake finally and his coffee.

"Well, the kids already know. She sent them letters about some hairbrained idea she has that some bloke she met who's in Jeffrey's Edelweiss house too. She says he's a Danish prince who has a summer castle in the Swiss alps, and she's going to marry him and make my kids all princes and princesses. Two problems with that. First, Edelweiss House is the name of Jeffrey's lockdown facility. Second, if she met some guy in there, he isn't a prince, and no Danish prince would have a castle in Switzerland. She's full of something, alright, but wisdom isn't it," Marcus said.

"How are the kids?"

"Pissed. They're livid. They've told both my parent and me that Evelyn is not going to get the chance to get anywhere near me. Ezra and Zane have both promised they'd 'take care of her' before she ever got the chance to lay a hand on me," Marcus said.

"You're very blessed to be so loved by your kids," Angus said. "They aren't buying one moment of her nonsense, are they?"

"Not for a fraction of a second," Marcus said. "And they have told my parents, that the devil has a better chance of getting central air conditioning in Hell before they'd ever go live with her." Angus laughed, amused. "My dad's calling the attorney in the morning to get him to put a stop to this latest craziness. He'll keep me updated." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Finn pawing at the door to go out, and he flicked his fingers to open the door. He checked his watch. "Kids have 30 minutes to be home on time."

Aria saw Marcus return and relaxed hearing the kids had their heads screwed on right over this " that's good to know, and yeah she's defiantly nuts" she said then chuckled when he some what colourfully said that the kids said when hell froze over they would go and live with her. She glanced at her watch and nodded to Ruby that it was thirty minuets till the kids returned " I'm betting they will be all tired out" she said smiling as she saw Fin dive out the door to do what ever it was he needed.

Ruby stood up and moved to the kitchen putting on a pan of milk to make them some hot chocolate if they needed it to help them sleep after the day they'd had and the nice evening too at the movies. " you think they will want hot chocolate?" Ruby asked Angus " we have spare marshmallows to go on top." she held up a bag to show him they were regular sized.

"You can ask them," Angus said. "It's a nice gesture anyway."

"And if they're not home on time?" Marcus asked Angus, curious. "You aren't going after them, are you?"

"Certainly not. I don't know where they went. I didn't ask them. If I wanted to find them, I think maybe I could figure out how I could reverse the signals on their medallions to track them, but I really don't want to do that," Angus said. "I think it'll be far more effective anyway if they have to dread dealing with me when they get home. But they still have some time. They're not late yet."

"Well, I get your idea about wanting to reverse the signal, but that's probably trickier than it sounds," Marcus said. "I know when Michael built them, he built them for us to be able to find a fighter if they were in trouble, but that spell is tightly linked to the distress button being activated. I don't know if that's going to be as easy as all that. I know Robert's own medallion works something like that, but I do know from a conversation I overheard between Robert and Michael that Robert's medallion was constructed entirely differently. But then again, I'm not in the business of making espionage toys either. That's Michael's or Gabe's forte, not mine. At any rate, I bet if we needed to find them, we'd find a way."

"My plan is better. I'll wait for them to come in, and then ground them until sometime just after the apocalypse."

"Yeah, that works for me," Marcus laughed.

An hour passed, and the kids were now well over 30 minutes late. Angus wasn't overly concerned yet, but he definitely wasn't going to bed until the kids were home. Even more time passed, and when the kids were almost two hours late, Angus heard them trying to slip in very quietly. He heard the girls start to go downstairs while Sam and Victor closed the door to come into the living room.

Angus whistled loudly.

"All four of you," Angus called. "Front and center. You all have some explaining to do."

"Dad," Sam started to protest.

"I don't want to hear a syllable until I see all four of you, so your dates need to make an appearance," Angus said.

"Dad,..." Victor began.

"That goes for you too," Angus said. Sam went back towards the front door and looked down the steps.

"You'd better come," Sam told the girls. It took them a moment, but when the girls came in, it was obvious to Angus that Anise and the boys had gotten into a brawl. The boys' clothes were rumpled and a bit dirty. Anise had a badly bruised jaw and a black eye,. and a bruise across one cheekbone.

"Well, that's attractive," Angus said. "Where have you four been?"

"It isn't like that," Sam began.

"Isn't like what? I only asked where you've all been. You do realize it is now well after midnight, right?" Angus motioned to Anise to come over to him.

"Alright," Anise sighed, going over to Angus. If there was one thing Angus did know, even though he wasn't a healer, was what it was like to be hit in the face.

"Where were you brawling?"

"Knockturn Alley," she sighed.

"What an impressive place for an underage young woman to be," he said, looking at her bruises. She winced as he checked her face.

"But I saw that black woman. That American floozy...."

"Priscilla?"

"Yeah, and she had some black man with. He's a creep, you know that?"

"Yeah. I know he's a creep. Where'd they go?"

"Borgin and Burkes," she said.

"Of course they did."

"They were in there quite awhile. I followed them and tried to look in the window but...damn that shop window is filthy, you know that?"

"Its dirty on purpose. To keep kids like you lot from looking in. Not somewhere you should ever try to go."

"Well, some big gorillas caught me, so I fought my way out."

"What'd they look like?" Angus asked. She described them for Angus, and he nodded.

"I'll go get a patch kit," Marcus said.

"Ruby made you some hot chocolate," Angus said. "Go get it. Marcus will patch Anise up in a moment, and I'll discuss this in the morning. So get your hot chocolate and get to bed." They silently headed to the kitchen.

Ruby looked to Angus as the minuets ticked by into half an hour past their curfew. It was now she heard the door go and she stood up looking at Angus again before looking at the boys as they entered " wow" she said seeing the bruising on Anises face. Aria walked over and winced as she looked at it closer.

"Hope you got a few good shots in" she said softly as he took a clean damp cloth and wiped away the dirt from it ready for Marcus to do what he needed to make it heal. She then looked at the boys and did the same until they were dirt free and ready for the kit.

Ruby moved to the kitchen making four mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows on top she handed each a mug and checked each person her self finding superficial scratched and Anises bruise. It was now that Jack with Jess knocked on the door.

"thought you could use a basket of fresh veg from the garden. Wow what happened guys?" he asked as Jess walked over to Anise but paused as she saw Marcus with the kit.

"What's got you picking vegetables at midnight, Jack?" Marcus asked, taking the patch kit and going over to Anise. He sat down on the edge of Angus's bed and opened the patch kit. Inside, he found some of Robert's bruise potion.

"Doesn't do much for the discoloration but it does help them to heal a bit faster and it does numb the pain for awhile," he told her. "Close your eyes. I can use it on your black eye too." She closed her eyes, and he used some of the lotion on a cotton ball and dabbed it lightly on her bruises all over her face. You were lucky. You could have ended up with missing teeth, a broken nose, a broken cheek bone or worse."

"Been in fights before," she shrugged quietly.

"Yeah, but you usually won, didn't you? One, you were with your pack, so they were going a bit easier on you. And, two, your canine skills won't help you a bit when you're in human form. And, three, criminals don't hold back. You're in the big leagues now, Kiddo. If you're going to brawl with the big boys, you need some better brawling skills. We'll have to teach you how to up your skills. Okay to take her off her morning run for one morning, Dad?" Marcus looked at Angus.

"Just one, yes," Angus said. "but not for you other three. You need to be hitting the track on time. Got it?" They nodded and took their hot chocolate from Ruby.

"That should do it for now," Marcus said when he was finished with Anise. "Go get your hot chocolate and get some sleep."

Jack chuckled and nodded " okay caught me , I saw theses reprobates coming home looking like they saw the wrong end of a hippogriff and thought you could use Jess" he said " and e had these from this afternoon , I should have brought them then but got busy" he added looking sheepish at Angus with a chuckle as he moved to place the veg basket in the kitchen where Ruby chuckled and took them from him placing them in the pantry.

Aria stood back and let Marcus tend to Anise and nodded at Angus's words " also they had the home advantage, right" she said looking to Angus again as she spoke watching them take their hot chocolates before heading to bed. " first fight , wow" she said and chuckled moving back to sit on the couch. Ruby moved to the couch and sat down.

"first of many I'm guessing" she said softly then looked up at Angus " you think we should up their basic training?" she asked having a feeling they would be in plenty more fights .

"Thanks for the vegetables. Rosaria and Carlo are with us for a week or two, and I'm sure she'll be making some delicious things from those vegetables. I appreciate it. These four went out on a double date, saying they were going to dinner and a movie, and this one here comes back with her face all busted up. I think it's a pretty predictable consequence of kids being in Knockturn after curfew," Angus said. "She's lucky she didn't break anything.

"You're welcome to double check her if you like, Jess," Marcus said. "The patch kit had bruise potion, but I didn't think I saw anything more than bruises and a black eye. Heaven knows I'm not a healer, though."

"I told her she could skip the run in the morning, but these other three little gray hairs need to hit the track on time," Angus told Jack.

"Gray hairs?" Marcus laughed.

"Every time I got a toe out of line, Edward said I was a gray hair--one more reason his hair was going gray--because my behavior was apparently turning his hair gray," Angus said. Marcus laughed.

"Oh, so that's where he got all that gray from. He got it from you."

"Ask him. He'll be quick to tell you, every one of those hairs is one I put there," Angus said.

"I bet you didn't ever do much of anything stupid," Sam scowled at Angus.

"No? Ask Edward. He'll tell you. Ask him about the rabid werewolf I tried to attack when I was nine."

"Nine?" Marcus looked at Angus wide eyed. "Did you lose your little mind or something?"

"No, I thought I had him for sure. I was well armed--with a corkscrew, and a plastic fork."

"What?" Marcus looked at him incredulous. "What the hell were you gonna do with those?"

"No clue," Angus laughed.

"How'd you get out of that one alive?"

"Sergio's dad. He got there just in the nick of time to save my little hide," Angus said. "We were sent to Sergio's area to take out a rabid werewolf, and I did a splendid job of finding him--when there weren't any adults with me."

"And there you were, at all of 4 foot nothing, with your trusty plastic fork."

"Pretty much," Angus laughed.

"Dear God. Makes Anise look like a saint," Marcus shook his head.

Jack raised an eye brow when Angus mentioned Knockturn alley "Knockturn! their bloody lucky a beating was all they got going there after dark" he said and watched as Jess walked over to Marcus as he finished with Anise she smiled and placed her hand on Anises shoulder then looked at Marcus .

"well, your diagnosis is spot on" she said smiling " I set it healing so should start seeing it yellowing by morning" she said then looked to Jack then to Angus chuckling at Marcus words listening to them banter she laughed " oh I would love to have seen that" she said even Jack chuckled Aria laughed too at the sight of Angus running with a plastic fork and a corkscrew after a werewolf. Ruby smiled hearing the banter as she handed Jack the now empty basket back to him.

Jack looked to Jess and smiled " we'll leave you lot be and see you in the morning , I'll make sure the grey hairs get there run" he said smiling and shaking his head " I am so glad I don't have hair, not on my head anyway." he said to Marcus and Angus as Jess moved to him taking his hand.

"Thanks, Jack. Thanks, Jess. We appreciate all the help we can get with this bunch, believe me," Angus said.

"Thanks, Jess," Anise said. The boys took their mugs and headed upstairs, and both girls headed downstairs with their mugs.

"I think it's under control til morning, Ru," Angus said. "You need to get some sleep. You and Aria are going to have a busy day. Don't forget that Rosaria and Carlo are early risers. It's liable to be a short night."

"I'll be down here, Aria," Marcus said. "I might doze off and on if it stays quiet, but I appreciate it if you get any time to relieve me when you get back from shopping tomorrow. Besides, when you two go upstairs, i'll help him clean up. That'll give us some privacy."

"Finn's already ahead of you," Angus pointed to Finn as the dog headed into the master bedroom upstairs. "Looks like you'll have a different male in your bed tonight, Ru."

"

Jack and Jess nodded " no problems mate, sleep well." Jack said and headed out the door with Jess . Jess looked to Anise and smiled before heading out with Jack back to the main house.

Ruby looked at Angus and nodded as did Anise who moved to give Marcus a kiss on his cheek " I'll do that" She said smiling to him " well see you both in the morning , early" she said chuckling as she headed up to the room. Ruby heard Angus and looked to their door seeing Finn headed into it " well, he's the only other male aloud in that room" she said smiling as she walked over and kissed Angus " rest , I'll see you when we get back from showing Rosaria and Carlos around." she said smiling down at him as she brushed some crumbs off the sheets.

Standing she headed up the stairs to their room and changed her clothing slipping under the covers she soon fell asleep as did Aria in her room.

Aria was up early and she made a fresh pot of coffee and tea before making herself a cup and sending one up to Ruby who walked down yawning but mug in hand ready to head to Diagon alley with Rosaria and Carlos.