A Birth day

Jack smiled as Minos said Jess had helped the Fae and made the potion " that's my woman" he said and kissed her again making her blush. He listened to Angus and Marcus and nodded " sure , was going that way to check on the progress with my men." he looked at Minos " your welcome to come with me, he can sit in my pocket until we're outside." he said and showed his top pocket " there's a sweet inside I think at the bottom, I keep it for emergencies" he said to Jess who raised an eye brow at him.

Jess chuckled and shook her head as Jack mentioned he had a sweet in his pocket. She placed the recipe in a ledger with ten other pieces of paper. " there its safe" she said closing the book and letting the latch close by its self " its one of Robert special ledgers that will only open to me or Robert, so your recipe is safe in there." she explained. as she watched Jack with Minos head out to the garden leaving the injured Fae along with Marcus and Angus.

At the mention of the sweet, Minos dove headfirst into Jack's pocket. Angus and Marcus both laughed as they heard Minos chattering in what they now clearly recognized as Fae obscenities as Minos wrestled with the cellophane wrapping on the sweet, but then, they both heard some sounds of licking and crunching and happy, satisfied chattering. And finally a huge belch from a very happy, satisfied fairy.

"You had a sweet. It's gone now," Angus said. "And he's still headfirst in your pocket. He'll right himself by the time you get back to the garden, I think. Maybe."

"Thanks, Jess. I'm sure he heard you tell him his formula was safe, but he was far more interested in the candy that is no longer in Jack's pocket." Angus picked up the little injured fairy and then he heard loud fae obscenties from Jack's pocket and the pocket bulged and rumbled like a great wrestling match was going on in Jack's pocket.

"You okay in there, Minos?" Angus asked, and Minos shouted back to him a long string of more fae obscenities. "Jack, do make sure he's alright in there. Those sounds are Fae cuss words. Something's gone off the rails in your pocket."

Jack watched as Minos flew to his pocket and climbed in quickly. He laughed as he heard the loud belch that came from his pocket . " yeah , he's good though" how feeling squirming he pulled open the pocket top and laughed as he picked up the wrapper with a stuck upsides down Minos on it to show Marcus and Angus.

" okay, stay still" he said and with some water dribbled behind Minos to lessen the stickiness he slowly became free. Now with the wrapper wet the stickiness lessened, Jack removed it and dropped it into the basket next to him. " sorry, should have warned you it was a sticky one, my bad." he said to Minos as he placed him right side up in his pocket " but I'm glad you liked the sweet" he said and chuckled " okay off to the garden, best hunker down until we get outside " he said to Minos.

Jess cleared away the ingredients putting them back where they had been taken from before she looked at Angus and Marcus as Angus picked up the injured Fae gently to return back to the duplex. " call me if there's any change." she said .

Minos fluttered his wings, and it gave a bit of a spray like a wet dog shaking himself, and then he dropped back into Jack's pocket. When Jack told him to duck down in the pocket to hide from the bowtruckles, Minos didn't need to be told twice. He ducked down to hide.

"He's good now," Angus said. "Thanks, Jack."

"And we'll be getting our injured man home," Marcus said. "Thanks again, Jess. We'll definitely tell you if he changes at all." Angus and Marcus walked back to the duplex, and they carefully put the injured fairy in bed. "Ru, can you and Aria take a minute and stitch up some teeny pillows to elevate his broken bones on, please? I'm going to try to look for a way to make some teensy ice packs to try to take down the swelling on the fractures. Oh, and I have some pain potion for him. Bit of a story there. Minos guided Jess through the recipe. I'll put some in some tiny bottles so they can handle it themselves.

"I think we should take some ice cubes," Marcus said, "transfigure them to snow, and then put it in a few baggies, seal the baggies and shrink them. I can try it and see how it comes out, if you like."

"Awesome," Angus said. "When we get him settled, I'll maybe make us each a taco salad for lunch."

"Good. I'm starving," Marcus said.

Jack chuckled and nodded as he and Minos headed to the garden together to check on progress and so he could cut out the parts Minos needed gone. Ruby looked up from her book and smiled " of course we can" she said taking some scraps of fabric she cut two squares and hand stitched them together, using the stuffing she stuffed it then shrank it before making a second " how are these? " she asked and showed Angus " we hade the material left over, not sure where from though" she said and chuckled just glad it was being used.

" Ruby made there lemon meringues, the on the counter for desert if you want " Aria said and motioned to the kitchen counter. " they smell great" she glanced at the girls still just sat playing but she noticed a dark patch on Caprice and sighed " okay time for a bath and change." she said picking her up to show she was now wet, though Dimond was dry.. Aria took Caprice up to the bath room to wash her.

"I swear she loves the water that one" Ruby said with a chuckle.

"Those are perfect," Angus said. He took them and gave them to one of the female fairies who had assigned herself to stay and care for the injured one. She took them and elevated his injured limbs and gave him a thumbs up that she felt the pillows were fine. Marcus brought over several ice packs that he had made and shrunken. He gave them to her, and she wasn't sure exactly what to do with them, and then it struck him that they didn't probably get the use of ice that often. He took one of the tiny ice packs and put them on the injured leg and she got the idea, so she put them on the fairy's injuries.

"I think he's in good hands for now," Angus said. He headed to the kitchen, seeing it was half past eleven, and he set about chopping onions and peppers and then sautéing ground beef to start a filling for a taco salad. He set out a head of lettuce to chop, along with carrots, sweet onions, scallions, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocados to make his salad for the base. He also intended to make fresh pico de gallo for the salad.

The process was simple. For each serving, he would put his tossed salad down on the bottom of the plate as the base. Then he would add corn crisps on top of the salad, put the hot sauteed taco meat down on top of the crisps, add shredded cheese, a generous dollop of sour cream, some pico de gallo, and then, lastly, a drizzle of taco sauce.

It took him about thirty minutes to prepare a large taco salad for everyone, and he plated one platter for each Fae table, but without the meat, allowing them to help themselves. He made some fresh limeade and served it in pitchers that had ice in them to get it icy cold, and then added a plate of some freshly baked cookies as a sweet for afterwards.

"Lunch is ready," Angus called them. He went to the deck and motioned to Minos and told Minos that lunch was ready. The Faie didn't need to be told twice. They headed immediately to the cheeseboard.
Then he took out a number of taco salads so that all the garden crew had a large taco salad of their own for lunch.

Ruby smiled knowing that was high praise from Angus " I followed what you said and the extra step too" she said smiling " so they should taste like Caprices." she watched as he moved to make the salad and extras as she sat with Aria with the babies both now clean and dry again. When he called Lunch was ready Ruby took Caprice while Aria took Dimond sitting her on her hip as she walked over to the table where the two high chairs sat and gave both a small bowl of the salad, Caprice tucked in right away but she saw Dimond was a bit hesitant until she saw Caprice eating and not wanting to be out done she ate hers.

Jack had been out side with the grounds men when he saw Angus walk out " okay guys break time" he said and every one stopped and sat down some quicker than others. " looks good , thanks Angus" he said as the salad plates were passed around " enjoy guys " he said and looked back to Angus " don't know what you want them for but those pieces Minos said to get rid of are over there in a pile." he said pointing to a small pile of wood to his left.

"Great," Angus told Jack. "Thank you. I have plans for those." He cast Jack a bit of a mischievous grin. He went over, shrank the pieces of wood and tucked them into his pocket for now. Minos watched Angus take the wood, and he went over to Angus, curious as to why he would want them. "You said those pieces of wood will explode if they're burned right?" Angus asked him. Minos nodded. "Well, that's the point. The next time we find some of our enemy's campfires, I fully intend to put some of this wood in with their campfire wood. They won't figure out why their campfire suddenly blows up. So, if I can use it either as a distraction or to drive their sentries away, I'll definitely use it, especially if it keeps my family and my friends safe. Or if it helps me rescue a child." Minos looked at him curiously when he mentioned rescuing a child. "Oh. You don't know, do you?"

He explained the Geldings to Minos and Tom's operations, and Robert's operation dedicated to saving children. And then he explained Suzanne and the kids to Minos. Minos had some strong ethics himself about the protection of children, and he had no use for dark arts whatsoever. He pledged his loyalty and the friendship of his kingdom to the people on the estate and to Robert's organization--and certainly to Angus and Ruby and the Donohue family. Angus believed it could be very useful because fairies could fit into all sorts of itty bitty places.

After lunch, Angus set a washing up spell in place to take care of the lunch dishes, and the Fae went back to work. Angsu took his limeaid and went into the living room.

"I told Minos about the organization and the Geldings--and about Suzanne and Priscilla," Angus told Ruby. "He has a deep hatred for dark arts magic himself, so he pledged himself and his kingdom to helping us to protect kids and fight the Geldings, including any attempts Suzanne orchestrates to try to move against our family. I didn't intend it, but it just sort of came up in conversation, and as long as they stay here, they deserve to know the truth. It didn't deter them for one second. They're just going to stand with us, whatever it takes."

Jack chuckled and nodded " fire crackers with a bit more crack , right?" he said and chuckled again as he heard Angus explain to Minos. He nodded as he ate and smiled " we all do our part to help kids who need help, Jess herself was a rescue of sorts , she was young when they found her but she was taken again for a long while until Robert found her again and saved her for good" Jack explained as he sent his plate into the kitchen through the open back door.

Ruby heard Angus talk about telling Minos about the organisation and nodded " well your right m, if he's going to be here long term and be around us , he should know" she said placing away the dishes. She smiled as he said that Minos had pledged himself to help " that's good." she said " he's a likable guy even for a king of the Fae." she said smiling as she saw Dimond chewing on a piece of carrot to help her gums.

"Pretty much, yes," Angus told Jack. Minos listened to Jack talk about Jess's past and how she ended up connecting with Robert. He nodded. It sounded to Minos like Jess had been fortunate to have fallen into a much better situation. He was glad for that, and he did not like the idea that some crazy woman was trying repeatedly to try to hurt Angus and his family. That was not sitting well with Minos at all.

There was no doubt in Minos's mind that, with his hundreds of years of life experience, knew far more about the magical world and about all sorts of spells and potions and things than the Geldings or Priscilla did. So if someone believed they could take advantage of Angus or his family and get past Minos to do it. Minos considered Angus his friend and wanted to get to know the others in the house better than he currently knew them. Minos wasn't about to let anyone strike out against his new friends, and frankly, in Minos's view, the Geldings and Priscilla weren't all that bright.

"Well," Angus told Ruby. "I don't know any other royals, but the fact is that I think it would be hard to find anybody that was a nice guy with a better heart than Minos."

"Well, that was what I thought too," Angus told Ruby.