A Birth day

Jessie looked at Angus as he spoke to what was to him thin air, turning back he heard him outline the plan. He looked to Marcus and nodded he had heard the plan and agreed with it. When Angus began to count he lifted his wand aiming for the man closest to him. then at one he fired "Peteificus Totalus!" and the man fell to the ground like a rock.

Jessie walked out with Angus and Marcus into the light of the quarry " okay this is the really old quarry, we never thought they would use this one, I guess the sink hole gave them access or they miscalculated and it was there doing." he said as he looked at the wallets of the men. " Pricilla " he said softly " that damn witch" he added handing the wallets back to Angus. " I'll get Jack and the work crew to fill this in and ward the entrance so its will be permanently sealed up." but it was now Jack ported to where they stood.

" wow okay heard talking and came to check it out, who are these guys?" he asked .

"Wait," Angus frowned. "We're miles from the estate. How did you hear talking?"

"These two are from France. They probably work for Gelding. These other two are from Louisiana and have Priscilla's voodoo sigil tattoo'd on them. As for the tunnel, I think we'd be better off to collapse the sections of the tunnel that are on the estate, from the property line on this end, progressively, a short section at a time, back to the entrance at the sinkhole," Marcus said. "This tunnel goes for miles. Once that much is filled in, then we do need to work on closing the sinkhole once and for all. That won't make it completely impassable, but its sure going to make it a lot of work to reopen it. Now, Angus, you said, it answered half your questions. We know who and we know how they got access to the estate, and, presumably, then, how they got to the duplex without raising the alarm. What's the other questions?"

"Why tinker with the crystal converter? And why come in one way and go out the other?"

"It's only a guess, but I think the power outage was a distraction," Marcus said.

"What for?"

"To see if they could get past us, come up from the cellar and get upstairs and find a way out."

"To take Diamond," Angus said.

"Yes. And, if they get Caprice too, that's just a bonus to them," Marcus said.

"Bullshit. They're not getting my kids," Angus said hotly. "If I have to sit up in the nursery, armed to the teeth til they turn 18. They can't have my kids."

"Understood, Mate. That's part of why you have me, remember?"

Jack looked at Angus and frowned " werewolf hearing , and you were a whisper but I patrol close to here, especially with the sink hole.. " he added with his arms crossed as he listened to Marcus talk of the men on the ground " Pricilla?" he guessed and shook his head then heard Angus " they did what?" he asked and again " a distraction so they could escape, maybe, but it went wrong ?" he suggested. " did anything different happen that night?" he asked trying to piece why they would mess with the converter.

jack heard Angus and chuckled at his mention of not leaving the babies sides until they were eighteen, " oh every father goes through that, but while Pricilla is about, I'd stick with Marcus the baby bodyguard." he said and smirked " now I think we should get men down here to seal off this tunnel for good so they can't get back in to the estate." he said

"Marcus is saying it went exactly to plan for them," Angus explained. "They came inside through the basement window to disable the power so the lights would go out. That gave them cover to get up from the basement and upstairs to the second floor while Marcus and I were fumbling for our wands and getting downstairs and mopping up the puddle they deliberately made in front of the converter so we could change the crystals. It all took time. That was plenty of time for them to get from the basement to the ground floor and then upstairs. They were testing it to see if they could get from the basement to the upper floor without being caught, and it worked for them."

"If you're going to close this tunnel, you'll need a few men who understand explosives and mining. They'll need to start here, close it first at this end and work back towards the estate. This goes for miles, so if you want to close it for good, you need to close the whole length of it from here on back to the entrance on the estate," Marcus said. "It's going to take time. I suggest in the meantime, we might have Lucian take them. Either that or obliviate them so they don't remember squat about their lives. Let them explain that to Priscilla and Suzanne. That ought to be fun. Someone will come looking for them eventually."

Jack listened and nodded " sounds like that's exactly what they were testing for, a dry run if you will" he said then nodded at the mention of men good with mining " there's greyer and forester they were ex miners." Jack said " I'll have them on it, once we get back" he walked over to the entrance and looked at it and then looked back at Marcus and nodded " I'll message him once were back on the estate, or you guys can seeing you found the tunnel." he added and looked at Jessie .

Jessie had stood quiet and listened to Jack he knew the men he mentioned and nodded " they talk about the old days of mining a lot, and I mean a lot, this will be heaven for them." he said with a chuckle as he stood with Marcus. " guess there's a lot to do no, I hope Ruby knows to keep the babies close " he said Jack looked at Jessie and nodded .

"last I saw she was in the kitchen and Aria was with both of them in the living room " Jack said as he touched a rock on the outside of the entrance " this was done with magic, scorch marks " he tossed a rock to Angus that had one side blackened and the other normal.

"I guess I rather presumed it would be simply because doing it muggle style is loud and noisy and dangerous..." Angus began.

"And ungodly slow, compared to wizard mining," Marcus laughed.

"Ruby and Aria won't leave the babies alone even when I'd like them to," Angus said. "I'm not worried about whether the babies are being watched. And, the Fae like them, so there's Edward and Simone and all those Fae. They're good til we get back," Angus said, pocketing the rock Jack had thrown him. He wasn't sure why he was taking it but he felt a need to hang onto it for the moment.

"All the same," Marcus said, "you and I should get back, unless Caprice has something else for us to see. Jack and Jessie can take care of those four sentries and take care of closing the tunnel. Any objections, Jack and Jessie? We could go back and make sure they're good at the duplex. Maybe I'll prepare a couple surprises of my own for the next time they think they're going to just walk in and help themselves."

"I think Caprice is good," Angus said. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Jack listened to Angus and chuckled "oh I'm sure" he said then watched as Angus and Marcus ported back to the duplex, Jessie looked at Jack who pulled a piece of paper from his pocket " always keep one pocket with little notes " he said and wrote a note to Lucian then sent it he wrote another to the two men and let it fly. Ten minuets later two men walked up with miner helmets and a box between them.

"we're going to enjoy this, watch and learn kid" one said and smirked as they entered the tounel looking around. A taller man with less hair walked over to Jack and spoke.

"give us an hour and it will be sealed , we'll add a protection spell to the entrance that will sound if any one of the magical perswashion tried to unlock it" he added and heard the first man shour from inside " got to go" he said and disapeared inside. Now Lucian walked over .

"okay got your ..note these the rubbish you mentioned?" he asked and Jack nodded "

"yep, tried a dry run to get into the duplex to try and snatch Dimond and Caprice from under Angus and Marcus's nose" he told him as he motioned to two Aurors who walked over and levitated two men each before porting away with them.

" wow busy day" he said and Jack chuckled and nodded " Pricilla" he said simply and Lucian nodded Lucian looked at Jessie and nodded " good to see you again Jessie." Jessie nodded as now Lucian walked to where the other Aurors had been and looked to Jack " I'll send the report to Angus." Jack nodded then with everything underway he took Jessies arm and ported them back to the duplex.

Angus was glad to get back. He wasn't good with leaving the duplex very long, and this had taken more time than he thought. As he and Marcus walked in, a clock chimed eleven.

"Sorry," Angus said to Ruby and Aria. "Ended up going farther than we thought."

"I'll go check on things. Don't go anywhere without me," Marcus told Angus, and Angus just nodded. He wanted something cold to drink, so he got a glass of iced tea.

"No trouble while we were gone?" Angus asked Aria and Ruby. "Just as a precaution, do not leave any of the doors and windows unlocked and make sure we have protection charms on them, even during the day. And I don't think we should have the babies out of our sight. They need to be with at least one of us at all times until further notice. We have reason to believe the power failure we had last night might have been linked to Suzanne trying to get her hands on Diamond. We have just circumstantial evidence, but I think it's enough for us to pay attention to it."

Ruby looked up and then over at Aria who was sat with Dimond on her knee "no problems and sure we can do that." she said watching as Aria placed down Dimond and moved to head up to recheck the windows on the upper floor before returning to the living room.

"all's charmed and locked upstairs." she said " so what did you find?" she asked just as she finished a loud boom was heard off in the distance " thunder? Sky's too clear for all that." Aria said looking out the window. Ruby stopped putting the biscuits in the tin as the noise was heard.

" that's not thunder" she said returning to filling the tin. She looked up at Angus seeing he wasn't worried she wasn't ether. " don't worry we'll make sure the babies are never left alone and every door and window when your not around is shut and locked " she told him then smiled " I made cinnamon buns" she said smiling as she showed him them still warm from the oven " best get them while their still warm and the boys are at work.

"Caprice showed us she found another tunnel," Angus told them. "It was at the bottom of the sinkhole. We followed it to the end, and found two of Gelding's men and two of Priscilla's We caught them and turned them over to Lucian. Jack's got a couple guys closing the tunnel from the opposite end and working back this way. Not sure how they think they can do it in an hour, even by magical standards, without compromising the integrity of the ground above it. If I lose our crops because they've rushed it, I'll have their asses in a sling, that's for sure. I know its important to get it done, but I want it done right. At any rate, what we did last night kept the babies safe, so maybe we need to just do that for now. I'll take care of them at night if you lot can take care of them during the day--at least temporarily. I don't want to have to do it long term, but I'm not going to risk us all sleeping and nobody awake with them. That just can't happen."