A Birth day

"I'll get dessert out while you're doing that," Angus said.

"I can scoop ice cream," Ginger said. "You taught me how to do that, remember? Rest your shoulder, and Victor and I can get dessert out."

"Sam and I will clear the table," Anise said. Then she looked pointedly at Sam. "Won't we, Sam?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, I suppose," Sam said, getting up to help her. Marcus was tempted to laugh. Anise was already getting the message that if she wanted Sam to step up and be an equal partner in this relationship, Anise already knew that a certain amount of setting strong boundaries about what she would or would not put up with needed to be set, and she was just the girl for the job. Marcus looked at Angus, and they both understood it immediately. Anise was getting Sam trained right from square one. She was tough enough that she gonna do fine at the ministry tomorrow.

"Ginger, there are more oat cookies in the jar, if you want to put an oat cookie with everyone's ice cream," Angus said.

"Good idea. Thanks."

"Angus," Marcus asked. "You taught her how to scoop ice cream? You mean there's a wrong way?"

"Yes. There is a wrong way. The right way is to make sure you're making full, perfectly round balls of ice cream and that they're all uniform in size. You pull the scoop around the edges of the container to created the round ball, not digging down in the center of the container, getting whatever weird shaped scoop that you end up with at random," Angus said. "those scoops can be hollow in the center, making someone feel shorted of a decent scoop of ice cream."

"I think chefs are OCD," Marcus laughed.

"You'll say that until you end up with a hollow scoop of ice cream sometime," Angus teased.

Ruby chuckled hearing Anise step up to scoop the ice creams " thank you guys, means a lot" she said then chuckled and looked at Angus when Anise pulled Sam in on the cleaning up. " oh she's got him " Ruby said chuckling. Hearing about the oat cakes with ice cream she nodded " sounds perfect" she added as Aria returned with out Caprice." how'd she do?" she asked her.

Aria chuckled and looked at Ruby " out like a light, she was almost asleep in the bath, but I washer her and changed her and as soon as her head hit the pillow she was out, now time for the other hell raiser" she said and picked up Dimond " come on miss sound breaker" she said chuckling as she headed up the stairs " save me some ice cream" she called back as she disappeared up to the bathroom once again leaving Ruby chuckling as she watched her go.

Ginger and Victor served dessert while Anise and Sam cleaned up. Ginger even made some fresh coffee for anyone who wanted some after dessert. After supper, Marcus went upstairs to get a suit ready for Angus. Once he had that together, he got out a suit for himself.

Then Angus showered and changed for bed into a pair of pajama trousers. He wasn't in the mood to fiddle with a shirt because putting on a tee shirt was painful for his shoulder, but now the bruising that covered his shoulder and his back would be completely visible. He reluctantly did put on a tee shirt. He came back downstairs and when he did, all four kids were waiting.

"We know you're going to prefer to carry your gran's wand, and that is how it should be," Sam said to him, "but it doesn't fit your old holster fit for crap. You keep using that old holster, and you'll lose your gran's wand. So, we did a thing. We chipped in together, and, well, we had this made for you." They handed him a bundle wrapped in old newspaper. "Sorry about the wrapping paper. I forgot to buy some."

"No point buying paper if I'm just going to tear it off anyway," Angus smiled. "What did you guys do?" He unwrapped the bundle and saw they had a new holster for him, one that was designed to fit this new wand. Angus took his wand and put it in the holster, and it looked stunning. It would fasten nicely to his belt or it would fit seamlessly on the inside of his suit jackets. "Thank you, all of you. It's probably the nicest holster I've ever had." Then he saw a little silver tag fastened on the back of the holster. The tag said, "To Captain Donohue from your kids, with love." There was a little pirate symbol in the leather. It made Angus laugh.

"Thank you. I love it. You guys are the best," Angus said.

"Well, it's about time you noticed that," Sam teased.

Ruby watched as the kids seem to be up to something but she didn't interfere she sat smiling as she saw Angus return and they stood like they had done something bad in front of him. she could not help but chuckle at there nervousness before handing over something she raised her hands not knowing what it was " I had no part in this, this is all them" she said smiling as she felt pride for them. Seeing the holster she laughed " oh now you really are a swashbuckler " she said smiling at him " but it looks good with Caprices wand." Hearing Angus say the kids were the best and Sam tease him she laughed again " he notices , trust me he does" she said .

Aria retuned a moment later having taken a bit longer to get Caprice to sleep, now she was sleeping she headed down " oh nice holster" she said and glanced at the silver tag on the back " nice choice kids" she said and smiled as she sat down " about time he got a new one." she added and held up his old one that looked like it had been chewed on by a Kneazle and spat back out. " with that leather it won't wear out so quick."

"I've had that holster a long time," Angus said. "Since I was in Hogwarts."

"Answer me a question about that natty old thing," Marcus said. "Who's Ingrid?"

"Ingrid?" Angus frowned.

"Yeah. Someone wrote the name Ingrid on the inside of it," Marcus said. "I found that one day as I was trying to clean it."

"Ingrid," Angus frowned, trying to think. "Oh! Ingrid. I remember. I dated her for a couple of months as a second year in Hogwarts. She made that for me because we were given permission to go to Hogsmeade for the first time, and I didn't have a wand holster. So she made that one for me."

"No wonder it looks natty," Sam teased. "It's prehistoric."

"Pretty much," Angus replied.

"Whatever happened to Ingrid?" Ginger asked.

"Unfortunately, she was killed at Hogwarts by a death eater during the second wizarding war," Angus said. "She was a nice girl, and she didn't deserve what she got, that's for sure. At any rate, it is certainly time to retire this old holster for the new one. Thank you."

"Well, if the house is quiet, and if you're planning on staying in," Marcus told Angus, "I think I'll go on a run. And I can drop of your sketch to Robert on the way. Anyone want to come with me?"

"You and Aria should both go along, Ruby. You don't get much of a chance to run anymore," Angus said. "I'll be fine. The kids are here, and so is Edward and Simone, and so are the Fae. I don't think anybody's going to get through four kids, Edward, Simone, and over 60 protective Fae."

Ruby listened to Angus talk about the name in his holster and she smiled to him " Then we'll keep it safe " she said and smiled to him as she placed it on the fire place in pride of place so every one could see it. " trophy of a hard working Fighter" she said and smiled to him. Hearing about Ingrid she shook her head " a lot of people died in that war " she said softly and looked at him when he said she could go for a run " great, it has been a while" she said.

Aria looked at the old holster and the writing inside it. Then at the mention of a run she looked at Marcus and nodded " sure I'm game" she said transfiguring her clothes to running gear. as did Ruby who looked at the kids.

"Anything happens find us" she said then headed to the door with Aria " I know but it makes me happy to say it" she said and chuckled then looked to Marcus " you coming slow poke?" she asked making Aria chuckle.

"Certainly," Marcus told Ruby. "Just let me get Angus's sketch to take to Robert. I'll meet you two at the starting line in a moment." He took the page out of Angus's book and then transfigured his clothes to running clothes. He went over to the main building, and saw Brian in the kitchen, cutting himself a slice of honey cake, and Nicky was in the kitchen, doing some of Zoe's breakfast prep.

"Good to see you back, Nicky," Marcus said.

"Good to be back," Nicky smiled.

"I was supposed to bring this to you or Robert," Marcus told Brian.

"What is it?"

"Angus's proposal for a pergola with an outdoor kitchen and an outdoor living space," Marcus said, handing the sketch to him. Brian looked at it.

"Wow. Look at that. That's a big space, but clearly, he wants a space we can all use together. And this is really nicely done. Any idea where he is planning on putting it?"

"Nope. He didn't say."

"I'll show it to Khaat and to Robert and Kate, but off the top of my head, I think it looks good," Brian said. "How are he and Anise doing after that business in the mountains?"

"They're okay. Anise is healing. We're going to Daniella's in the morning to provide the French ministry of magic some witness statements to try to keep Priscilla behind bars."

"If I can be of any help, you let me know. Oh, and good work to all of you on your garden and building that Fae community. I was over to see it while you were in the mountains. and it looks amazing."

"I'll pass the word along. Right now, though, I'm late in going running with Ruby and Aria."

"I was going to put it off for tonight, but maybe I'll come along," Brian laughed.

"Well, let's go, then," Marcus said. Brian transfigured his clothes, and he went with Marcus to the running track. As they approached the track, Brian stopped and reset the track for a new setting

"Be careful, you lot. Robert's added a new setting to the running track. It allows the track to present some realistic sorts of hazards that you might run into running after dark. So keep your eyes open, and lets' try it together," Brian said.

"Sounds a bit like the obstacle course," Marcus said.

"No, not those kinds of obstacles. I expect this will be things like burned out lights on the track, cracks in the pavement, maybe a pot hole or some similar things," Brian said.

"That should be easy for us, I should think," Marcus said, "but this is Robert's doing so I won't say that too loudly."

Ruby and Aria nodded and headed over to the start line for the running track . several minets later after they had warmed up Aria nudged Ruby letting her know Brian was running with them " oh boy" Ruby said " that boss is here" she said softly Aria chuckled and shook her head .

"thought that was Robert?" she asked and Ruby nodded " so the second in command is here " she said and Ruby nodded " you'll be okay" she said and stood up to face them . " Hi Brian" she said " you ready?" she asked looking to Marcus but heard Brian talk about the changed Robert had put in place on the track " nice, more of a challenge" she said as she chuckled looking down the track that for the moment looked normal. " okay shall we get this moving?" she asked.

"Yep. Let's go," Marcus said. As they began to run, the night lights on the track turned on, and everything looked normal so far. As they headed down the trail, Marcus saw what he believed was the first obstacle--a crack in the pavement that was making the pavement really uneven.

"And there's the first one," Marcus said. He decided to see if he could just jump over it. He deliberately sped up so he could create some height and some distance, and then he made a leap over the uneven spot in the pavement.

"And that would be the advantage of long legs," Brian laughed. "I don't think that's what Robert had in mind." Brian decided to run clear over on the left hand edge of the track to avoid the uneven spot, but that was still deceptively uneven. It made him brace himself by putting his hand out against a tree as he ran past it or risk being thrown actually against the tree. "Yeah, don't go left. Watch out. He's also set up some tricky shadows too."

Ruby and Aria both ran with Brian and Marcus as they drew close to the first obstacle Ruby jumped as Marcus had and continued Aria shifted to her dove form then shifted back on the other side and kept going behind the pair of them. Ruby drew level with Aria keeping her pace steady so not to tire out quickly as they ran. she saw up ahead lights flickering " think I see the next, lights are flickering" she said and looked at Marcus as she continued to draw closer to it, a she retched it the lights went out sending that part into darkness except for the small glow from some mushrooms growing along the edge , Ruby chuckled and kept running but felt a root across the track. " that one of the obstacles?" she asked stepping over it.