A Birth day

Aria heard Marcus and smiled moving to him with her cup " I've had the biscuit but not the liquor" she said watching as he pored some into her cup mixing it she then took a sip and smiled " yummy this is perfect" she said and listened to Angus as Ruby held out her cup to Marcus for some. Aria smiled as she listened to him talk about why he didn't send Jack or a groundsman to pick up the girls " its called being a good parent and father" she said and looked to Marcus with a smile to him. " just as you look after your family, you two are alike in that respect" she said sipping her hot chocolate " its a good mind set, shows that your reliable and consistent, but Marcus is right."

Ruby stood with Angus and listened she felt pride well up for this man next to her , who had accepted hr with all her flaws." well all I know is he is a hundred times better than my father was already, and the girls love you to bits as does Caprice , you saw that today in Daniella's" she said sipping her hot chocolate. " and I for one love you more for it and am proud to be with you."

"I'm glad you like it" Marcus said. "I think the first time I had it, I was stuck in a ski lodge in the Alps in the dead of winter. I'd been sent on a mission there, and finished it ahead of schedule, but not ahead of a snowstorm."

"Seems like a good enough reason to warm up with some booze," Angus said.

"It did pass the time," Marcus grinned. When Ruby talked about how proud she was of Angus, Angus smiled.

"I'm glad I've been able to do it," Angus told her. "I wouldn't want you to feel like you ended up with a tosser."

"You are nothing like a tosser. You've earned every single sickle Robert pays you, Mate," Marcus said. "I, for one, am glad he divided your duties up. I mean, he's got how many people doing some of your duties now? Owens, Jack, Nicky, Shannon? and you still have a full-time job left from it. No wonder you never had time to sleep. He should have fixed that for you a very long time ago. You were trying to do the jobs of at least 5 full time people. You get this all resolved with Priscilla, you and Ruby need to go somewhere for a couple days."

"It's worth thinking about," Angus said, not jumping on the idea. And he wasn't avoiding it because of any thought of being alone with Ruby. Far from it. That, he liked the idea of. What he didn't like was the fact that the last time they'd taken time off, he'd nearly killed them with that damned day cruise on a ship that blew sky high. Yeah. Maybe leaving home wasn't such a good idea. He'd brush that idea aside for now.

Ruby chuckled and shook her head as Angus spoke " far from it my love you are my swashbuckling wizard sexy man " she said but chuckled as Marcus spoke of a vacation after Pricilla was delt with " wow wow wait after the last one , I think more of a stay cation is in order" she said and chuckled " or visit Even , some place safely guarded" she added knowing after the last time they went away staying home was a vacation for her and Angus.

Aria chuckled and looked at Ang and Ruby nodding that staying home might be the best vacation they could get " well if you do we'll stay away and have our own stay cation in the cottage. " she said and looked at Marcus as she spoke knowing he'd want to stay close to Angus too and she was good with that.

"You read my mind," Angus told her. "I have no desire to have a good time by being shipwrecked again."

"Oh. That. It stuck with you, did it?" Marcus asked. "So, go to Tuscany. If you want time alone, you two could take up residence in the pool house for a few days. You would enjoy that. We could have Carlo bring you over meals if you didn't feel like cooking, or we could stock it in case you really, really didn't want to be disturbed."

"Yes, well, there is the matter of six kids to consider..." Angus began.

"Aria can do that," Marcus said, teasingly. "After all, she's doing pretty well with Diamond. Five more shouldn't be a problem, right? In all seriousness, in another month, the girls will be out of school for the summer. They'll be working, and, of course both boys are already working. we could let Jessie keep an eye on them, and I'm sure that between us and Rosaria and Carlo, we could stay at the main house and manage the wee ones."

Ruby nodded and smiled at him then looked at Marcus " yeah that" she said and chuckled looking back to Angus she smiled. " makes sense, its safe and secure but yeah lets not have any more kids yet" she said smirking at him " but we can still have the fun" she added.

Aria looked at Marcus as he spoke about them taking care of the babies " yeah I don't mind at all" she said smiling " and the girls can help when there not working." she added as she sipped her hot chocolate. " and Dimond is easy to look after , I think she likes me as much as I like her too, besides its as close to mother hood I'm going to get so Im enjoying it." she said to Marcus and smirked.

"Have you forgotten I have five?" Marcus frowned at her, "And Poppy and Ezra are only eleven, so they've both got another seven years to go. And Daria is just 12, so she has another six. Zane and Kai will surely be staying on with my parents because they'll be working at Honeydukes over the summer. I figure this summer I'll have three to look after. I presume those two, at least, will want to be with me this summer since I'll have a proper place here, And they rather liked Cris, so that might be good for Cris too.

"Didn't you tell me that the smaller ones were dong some new things on spring break this year?" Angus asked.

"Oh, well, sort of. Daria and Poppy and Ezra took an interest in cooking, apparently after seeing some muggle cooking shows on television. So, Mum's let them fix some simple meals for them all. Mum got them each a different cookbook with recipes that use 5 ingredients or less, and she's let them try to manage with those recipes, and, according to both Mum and Dad, they're all doing really well at it. Poppy wrote me yesterday, and she's convinced there's been a massive breech of magic."

"How so?"

"She said she heard about a muggle craze about something called Fairy Bread..." he glanced at Minos who now appeared interested. "She thinks the Fae have outed us all, but there has to be a much simpler explanation than that. She's asked me to look into it. So, I'm hoping I can get to a muggle library and find out what the muggles think Fairy Bread is."

"I might be able to find out if you don't do any good at the library," Angus said.

Aria looked at Marcus and chuckled " of course I haven't forgot about them, summer will be wonderful having them stay with us for a while, it will be busy and filled with fun and laughter" she said smiling as she listened to him talk about the kids then he mentioned Fairy bread she looked puzzled at him not having heard of it and looked at Minos just as Marcus did " what the heck is Fairy bread?" she asked as she heard Marcus say he was going to check out libraries for what it was " well when you do please let me know as I have never heard of it before" she added with a chuckle.

" maybe its something you can cook ?" Ruby asked " if its a bread" she added and looked to Angus as she gave a shrug not knowing herself what it was and chuckled " I agree that Angus might be able to find the answer if you can't." she added a she picked up her empty Mug and headed to the kitchen to put it in the sink.

"Well, let's go get the girls," Marcus said. Angus took his mug and Marcus's to the sink and then they got their jackets.

"We'll be straight back so far as I know," Angus said. The two of them ported to Evan's, still talking about fairy bread, and when they got to the door, Evan motioned them in, saying the girls were almost done with their homework, if they would wait just a moment."

"So, Ev," Angus said. "Marcus's daughter wrote to him saying she thinks the Faie have outted the magical realm to the muggles, and the muggles are now eating some magical Fairy bread...." And as Angus was telling this tale to Evan, Evan began to laugh uncontrollably.

"Fairy bread, you say?" Evan asked. "I've got some. Wait a second. I'll get you a slice."

"You've got muggle Fairy bread?" Angus asked.

"Wait here. I'll be straight back." Evan went into the kitchen and reappeared no more than about one minute later. And on a little dessert plate, he had a plain slice of bread, spread with butter and topped from edge to edge with sprinkles. "I present to you a slice of muggle Fairy bread."

"That's it?" Angus asked.

"Uh huh," Evan nodded. "Some muggle created a fancy story that little girls loved and their muggle mums indulged them. This is muggle fairy bread. I'm afraid the magical realm is still safe."

"How do you know about such things?"

"I'm the lone male in a house with three women. Of course I know about such things," Evan laughed, taking the bread and wrapping it in foil. "Take it with you. I bed Ruby and Aria will get a laugh from it."

"Thanks, Ev," Angus said. When the girls were ready, Angus and Marcus ported back home with the girls, and the girls went to take their coats and their bags downstairs.

"Well, here it is," Angus said, handing the foil package to Ruby. "Evan had some. Genuine muggle recipe fairy bread."

Ruby smiled to Angus and nodded when he said it was time he went to get the girls " all right" she said as she cleaned up everything she had used watching Aria with Dimond and Caprice. It wasn't too long after that they returned and Angus held something in tin foil " that's it?" she asked and then laughed " oh boy, so there was nothing to worry about." she said to Minos " the fae world is safe"

Aria walked over and looked at what Angus held " but why would some one make that?" she asked " I don't get it, it just looks like a slice of bread with sprinkles on." she added and looked at Angus as she shook her head in disbelief at what he held. Aria walked back to the couch and sat down chuckling at the thought some one felt the need to make that and call it fairy bread. " silly muggles" she said softly while chuckling to her self.

"Some parents will do anything for their kids," Marcus said. "Muggles make bread with sprinkles. Angus burns down a string of buildings in three different countries all before lunch." Angus laughed, and as they were talking a message fluttered through Angus's floo. Angus opened it. It was from Tom Gelding. He read it quietly.

"Donohue, we need to talk. Clearly, you're upset about something, but stop setting my house on fire, damnit, and tell me what you think I did now. Name a time and a public place, and I'll meet you." It wasn't signed, but Angus knew obviously who it was from. He handed it to Marcus and opened the floo.

"Robert," Angus called.

"Here," Robert replied through the floo. "What's up?"

"I just got a note from Tom. He seems, again, to not have a clue of what I'm making a point about."

"Interesting. Not entirely surprising, though. What are you going to do?"

"I'm thinking about going. Every time I've had a conversation like this with him, he's been apparently clueless about what Suzanne is doing, and then its quiet for awhile. Maybe he doesn't know about this. I keep hoping that eventually, he'll keep an eye on her if I make it expensive enough for him."

"Well, you hurt him significantly this time. Irene told me earlier this afternoon that the intel from Paris is that the big auction that was scheduled for next week has been canceled. She said they'd been hearing that there were going to be a large number auctioned this time, but they surely can't do it, if they don't have the 'merchandise' to do it. And apparently, that's supposedly been canceled too temporarily because they don't have any place to house them."

"Well, there's been some good come out of it, then."

"For now, it would appear so. If you're going to go talk to him, I'm going to go with you this time. Tell him you'll meet him in thirty minutes at Cafe de La Paix."

"You think we can get a table at this time of day?"

"I can," Robert said. "We'll take Marcus and Jack. I'll station them in the plaza. Wait another twenty minutes and then send your message. I'll make the reservations at the side cafe now. I don't think it'll take long. If Ruby and Aria want to go, there might be a benefit--if they bring Diamond along. It's getting chilly already right now, so they'll want a jacket, and they'll want to make sure Diamond has one. I don't think this little meeting will take very long, but we want to do it right, all the same."

"You're considering letting Tom see her, aren't you?"

"Considering, yes. But how close I let him get to her is my call," Robert said. "It depends on how well he behaves. If the girls go, make sure Ruby carries Diamond so that Aria can be free to make sure that no harm comes to Diamond."

"Understood," Angus said. Angus closed the floo. He looked at Marcus and Ruby and Aria. "You all have any objection to seeing if I can get Tom to reel in Suzanne and Priscilla at all?"