A Birth day

"I set sodas out already," Angus said to Ruby. "Right beside the bottles of beer on the sideboard."

"I know it's been a long day," Angus said, "but it really has just been since last night, Aria. Give him a bit. This can take a few days. In all fairness, not that you're unimportant. Quite the contrary, but you're one of the newest memories. I've heard Robert tell other people when this has happened that when we have relationships that we've had for a long time, the older memories we have with them are stored in long term memory and the newer memories are stored in short term memory. We have a greater chance of remembering them first because we have memories of them stored in two separate parts of the brain. When we have a newer relationship, those memories are, likely, stored in short term memory, and because it's pretty much all in one location, it can take them a little longer before that comes back."

"I'm sorry," Marcus sighed, feeling she was struggling w/ feeling left out, and he was very frustrated that Aria was talking about him right in front of him. To him, it felt incredibly rude of her.  He got up, picked up his plate and went out on the deck with it as the kids all came down and started fixing their plates.

"I'll go with him. Some guy time might do him good," Angus told Ruby. He levitated his plate and two beers and headed out to the deck. He sat with Marcus and handed him a beer.

"Don't sweat it," Angus told him. "You know what Robert said. "It takes some time and some rest. Even wizard medicine can't heal it instantly. Stressing won't help. It'll only make it worse."

"I'm not hungry. I think I'll pass," Marcus said.

"That won't help your headache. Do try to eat a little something. She'll work through it, and if she doesn't improve her manners a tad, Ruby will flatten her. And if she doesn't, I will," Angus said.

"I just need a little distance, I think," Marcus said.

"Yeah, we'll get a little closer to that barbequed chicken. It's pretty amazing," Angus smiled.

Aria listened to Angus and nodded " I know , sorry Marcus" she said as she saw him stand and head outside. Ruby looked at her and shook her head at her " wan't intentional" she said sitting and eating her food then taking her plate to the kitchen . Ruby watched Angus and Marcus threw the window and sighed.

"just give him time Aria , Angus is right its only been a few days, " she said and Aria paused in her cleaning up .

"I feel like hes in a glass box I can't get past and I have all these feelings for him but can't show them , not until he remembers who and what we are." she moved from the kitchen " plus Edwards spare room bed feels too big and empty with out him" she added Ruby stood up and walked over to her giving her a hug.

"It will come trust the process and have patients" Ruby told her before stepping back from her and went back to the babies. " besides your helping me look after our newest edition to the Donohue family" she said smiling to the kids.

After supper, Simone and Ginger cleared the table, and Simone set a washing up spell in place.

"Shall we serve the dessert?" Simone asked. "Who would like a lemon bar, who would like lemon ice cream, and who would like both?"

"Both," Sam and Victor said. 

"I'll have a lemon bar," Anise said.

"And I'll have the ice cream," Ginger said. "I'll help you serve."

"Suppose the boys want some?" Simone asked.

"Those two? They're into their beers at the moment," Anise said.

Angus did get Marcus to eat by telling him some funny stories about battles they'd been in together, and it did lighten the mood and make Marcus feel better about things. Angus accio'd a couple more beers, and they sat and each drank a second beer after they'd eaten. Then Angus talked Marcus into playing a couple hands of rummy with him just to get his mind on other things. He accio'd the cards, and then he shuffled them and dealt them and refreshed Marcus on the rules. As they began to play, Marcus looked up at Angus suddenly.

"I play poker, don't I? Whos' the blonde woman I play with that likes poker so much?"

"Oh, now that would be Khaat, Robert's daughter. She's a sharp poker player, like both her parents, but especially like her mother. Her mother is quite the cardshark, and whatever you do, don't challenge Khaat to any kind of a drinking contest because she holds her firewhiskey better than anyone either of us know."

"Is she a friend of mine?"

"Oh, definitely. You and she are very close friends. Robert hired you to bodyguard her from a particularly crazy werewolf. We're hoping that he actually died in the last encounter we had, but no one is sure exactly what happened to him. That's a tale for another time."

"I'm a bodyguard?"

"Amongst other things. Private investigator, fighter, former auror. Espionage agent. Bodyguard."

"So high pay, and high risk," Marcus said.

"Extremely," Angus nodded.

"And Aria?"

"Former auror. Led her own team. She was good at what she did. Now she's a fighter that works for Robert. It's taken her into a bit of a different area than she had before, but she's smart."

"It would be easier for her if I could remember her. She seems to associate it with some sort of a lack of caring on my part," Marcus sighed.

"Well, I don't know if that's the way she sees it or not, but the truth is that it's a temporary side effect of your concussion. Nothing more. And you're steadily remembering things all the time. Robert would be surprised you've remembered anything at all, much less all the things you have remembered. Your turn."

"Oh. Sorry," Marcus said. They played for awhile longer until they started to feel raindrops.

"Hm. Card game called on account of rain," Angus said. "Let's go inside."

Aria chuckled and looked at Simone " Ice cream for me" she said smiling as Ruby walked over from the playpen taking some ice cream for the babies " I'll have the lemon please" she asked taking the bowls to the playpen with two spoons as she sat and fed them taking small spoons of her own.

"Aria looked at the window and saw the rain start and chuckled seeing Angus and Marcus both end the game they were playing and start to head inside. She moved to the table and sat down eating her desert. Ruby finished feeding the babies who went back to playing with there bunny's that Anise and Ginger had given them each. Ruby finished her desert and placed the bowl down next to her as she picked up her book and opened it to read another page about magical creatures and how to care for them.

Aria finished her desert and moved to collect Ruby's placing it in the sink that Simone had set the cleaning spell on to wash them.

Angus got a couple lemon bars, one for him and one for Marcus, and some coffee for them. 

"Angus, can we ask a favor?" Ginger asked.

"You can ask, but I can't promise to deliver."

"Can you make us waffles for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Waffles? Any particular kind of waffles?"

"Nope. Just waffles," she said.

"I don't see why not."

"Are they hard to make?"

"Not any harder than a pancake," Angus said. "Why don't you come down, and I'll teach you how to make them. You can be my other hand."

"Okay. Sounds like fun," she smiled. "And I want to learn how to fry an over-easy egg without breaking the yolk. I always break them."

"That just takes being careful, but I'll show you," he said. "You know, an egg with a broken yolk is great for a fried egg sandwich because you won't make a mess with it."

"I hadn't considered that," she said.

"I really do want to learn to cook," she said.

"Ruby, you should take her in the kitchen more often. She could be your sioux chef," Angus suggested. "Speaking of helpers, we could use help from all of you. Tom actually signed the paperwork today to give us permanent custody of Diamond..."

"What?" The kids all looked at him. 

"The bottom line is that its in process, but Ruby and I would like to change her name to something that wasn't given to her by Suzanne's need to be hurtful. We'd like her name to be something we chose because we chose her to be with us. We'd like you to help us come up with a new name for her."

"Will she be a Donohue too?" Sam asked.

"Eventually, yes," Angus said.

"Congratulations," Edward and Simone smiled. "The more the merrier."

"We'll give it some thought," Victor said.

Ruby smiled as she heard Ginger ask for waffles from Angus for breakfast the next day. She smiled as Angus said to her she should take Ginger into the kitchen " next time I'm cooking she's welcome to join me" she looked at Ginger " kitchens always open" she said to her " but knowing how to cook is a good skill" she smiled. Aria finished her desert and moved to do her wordsearch.

Hearing Angus tell the kids about Dimond and ask for there input for a name for her she chuckled knowing now with belly's full they would talk about it. She chuckled and nodded to them all " I think its a wonderful Idea and told Angus I thought Dimond was more of a strippers name" Aria said chuckling as she saw them head to their room.

"Actually, that's something our mom would probably have taught her before she boarded the train the first time," Sam shrugged. "You know, Angus, that she is only going to think you stole her too."

"She already thinks that," Angus said, not really caring. He told the kids about the lunch with Tom and how it had gone. When he told them about Robert deciding to send Suzanne to an asylum, the boys breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Thank God. It's about time she was rightfully contained. I bet Jessie will be relieved too because he isn't going to have to always look over his shoulder to keep Cris safe," Victor said. "How many great grandkids will that give you, Edward?"

"With Simone's five and you six? That's 68," Edward said.

"Holy cow," Sam said. "And you still buy Christmas presents and birthday presents for all of them? How do you do it?"

"We're very organized, and we start early," Simone laughed.

"Well, she's better off away from Suzanne and Tom, that's for sure," Victor said. "I'm glad the indecision is going to be out of it. We'll come up with a better name. Not to worry. So, you going to keep them sharing the same room?"

"Probably," Angus said. "At least for now. I'm not going to be looking to redecorate a room right now."

"If you could just soundproof it, though," Victor teased.

"They do get noisy sometimes. I'm sorry about that," Angus laughed. "We'll try to get to them sooner if they're disturbing you."

"Only in the middle of the night," Victor said. "Most of the time, it doesn't matter."

"Duly noted," Angus replied.

Ruby heard the kids talking about what had happened at the meeting with Tom, she smiled as they agreed Dimond was better off now being with Angus " oh I agree with that Victor" she said about his comment of Suzzanne would have trained Dimond before she got on the train but said nothing when Victor said their mom would think they stole her too but she smiled when Angus explained she was legally theirs and Tom would not dispute it.

" I'm just glad she's in a loving home now and not one that would just use her then discard her like a toy or trash" she said smiling as Dimond who was now trying to pull herself to her feet. " looks like potty training next" she said chuckling as Victor asked them to sound proof the nursery. " I'm sure they will settle eventually" she said " but we'll make sure you don't be disturbed for too long" it was now she looked over at Aria who was looking at her wordsearch.

Aria had looked up when Edward spoke of how many grandkids he and and the amount " wow that's a lot, you certainly have a big family" she said " how do you track birthdays?" she asked " your planner must be over flowing with dates."

"I will be so glad when we can stop diapers," Angus said. "I know they're only a year, but I'm over the diaper thing now. You'd think there would be a spell for that so we could cast the spell on them and have them potty trained."

"Then they wouldn't be trained. they'd just be hexed," Edward said.

"There have been days I'd take hexed," Angus laughed.

"And it would work until the spell wore off," Edward said. "As for our calendar, we make sure we keep our calendar updated. When the new calendars come out in September, we get one, and we take a couple of hours together to put down all the holidays and birthdays and such. We also put things on the calendar that we need advance notice about, like putting on the calendar to start Christmas shopping in November, that sort of thing, so that we're not caught without a gift or something. We've found if we do it once a year, then we're prepared all year long."

"I have debated on using that system," Angus said. "I already do it with my work calendar for my work tasks but I've never adapted it for personal things."

Ruby and Aria sat and chuckled at the banter around them Ruby knowing she'd have to order potty chairs for both girls and soon. Aria stood up and wrote a note sending it to a contact she knew and five minuets later a box appeared Aria looked to Angus speaking about marking things on a calendar and nodded " Its why I carry a muggle phone, its good for marking important dates and things" she said showing him her calendar. Now with two boxes in hand she walked dover to Ruby and handed her one " the potty chairs one in lavender and one in pink" she said as Ruby opened the one on her knee.

Placing it down she attached the lid to it and smiled " let the potty training begin " Ruby said as Aria took both and laced them close by.so they could be used when needed. She returned to sit with Ruby so she could watch the babies and the men too.