A Birth day

Both Jessie and Ruby sat and listened to Robert and Marcus as they talked everything they said made sense but what didn't was why this was all happening " so your saying she lied about her age and killed her husband making it look like a suicide to gain what?" Ruby asked but listened to them continue until they got to pearl this name made her shiver threw her whole body .

"Why does that name makes me shiver" she said looking at Robert , "like some one walked over my grave" she added As Jessie took her hand and held it " well I know one thing who ever it is our great gran or not she needs to be stopped " Ruby said and Jessie nodded his head in agreement with Robert saying they needed to look into it further " well we'll help how ever we can, so far all the records at the ministry I could find are here , I copied them." he told Robert.

"Be careful about making assumptions," Marcus said. "First, though, your facts are a little scrambled. Charlotte died 3 years before Gideon. She couldn't have killed him. And, there is no evidence at all to say that Gideon murdered Charlotte either. Moreover, the fact is, we do know that Gideon could not have killed himself. So, who killed Gideon three years after his wife died? And what happened to your great grandfather Elwood? Dead at age 30? Certainly could not have been natural causes. And how did Pearl end up in a disco in platform shoes and hip hugger jeans in 1978, eleven years after she died in 1967? None of it adds up."

"Understood, Jessie," Robert said, "I have to return all these medical records to St. Mungos, so be sure you keep all this information under your hat. So, if Caprice is right, and if we need to check into Pearl deeper, then I will try to dig deeper and see if there is a paper trail that still exists that says where Charlotte, Gideon, Elwood, and Pearl are all buried. If any of you find that information, then for heaven sakes, do not, whatever you do, go there and start tromping around the gravesite areas or doing anything there at all, unless I go with you. There could be some sort of trap laid there. I don't want you snooping around there by yourselves. Understand me?"

"Understood," Marcus said. "I don't know how this all connects to Angus, except that these are all relatives of Suzanne, but I trust we will find out. Robert is right, though, this is one mission that will depend on us staying under the radar of whoever is controlling the elementals. That means we need to make sure that we make sure that we are seen doing nothing more than we would do on any other routine day."

"Indeed," Robert agreed. "This puts the entire team at risk of having to learn some new techniques--things that normally I only assign to Marcus and Michael."

"Espionage," Marcus nodded.  "The art of doing whatever you bloody need to do and not being seen doing any of it."

"Pretty much, yes," Robert said. "And, let's be honest. While everyone on this team have some important skills, espionage is not something that can be taught on the fly or in a crash course."

"No, but we can teach stealth and some slight of hand. we can also teach some disguise skills if we need to," Marcus said.

"Agreed," Robert sighed. "I suggest we wait and see what we need. I am a bit reluctant to have to teach anyone safecracking or anything else in the breaking and entering line unless we need it. I think we would be very wise to tread most carefully from this point onward. I will have Michael check the cemetery records through the department of mysteries. He can do that, and no one will be any the wiser. In the meantime, I suggest that, Ruby and Jessie, you go through any papers you have or any more photos and see if there's anything more than might be helpful, and please ask the boys to do the same thing when they might have that could help."

"Well," Marcus looked at Jessie and Ruby, "I know Angus purposely brought back every single sheet of paper that he found in that house, and I know there are, literally, boxes and boxes of paperwork he found that he stuffed in the storage room in the basement here. It might be a good thing for both of you to take the time to go through them. Nobody ever thought any of that would be important, and maybe it still isn't. But, Angus is going to have plenty of care here for the next several days, so this might be a good time to go through that stuff, just in case there's something worthwhile there that could help us. And in the meantime, Robert and Michael and I will see if we need to go do a little midnight grave digging."

"I wasn't going to exactly spell out to Ruby and Jessie that we might be doing that," Robert looked at Marcus.

"Still," Marcus shrugged "we need to see what happened with this family, and new autopsies might be the only way to do it."

"Exactly, and the Wizengamot has always looked dimly at exhuming a body," Robert said. "And they will look even more dimly at it if we ask them for a whole chain of exhumations."

"Robert," Marcus frowned, "question--You've had the chance now to examine and care medically for Suzanne on more than one occasion. When you examine someone, are you able to determine if someone is a squib or not?"

"Generally, yes," Robert said. "Most of the time, the reason someone is a squib is a result of some sort of physical damage to their body's magical system. However, its important to note that someone's inability to cast a spell can result from a psychological block, a trauma that makes them too frightened to be able to do magic."

"Like some of Suzanne's records said she had suffered as a child. In our dealings with her, though, I have never seen her hesitate to try to cast a spell. I've only seen her bollix them up."

"And that's what I've seen too," Robert said. "The only damage I ever saw to her magical system was that her system does not produce high levels of magic, but that isn't entirely abnormal. It's rather like someone with a low metabolism as opposed to a high metabolism. It could have come from some sort of injury that happened way back in her past but certainly I didn't see any sign of any new injury. If it happened from injury, then maybe it explains why she's never been able do much of any kind of spell successfully, like some sort of permanent deficit in magical power. But then again, I wasn't entirely looking to find malfunctions with that system. I didn't look deeply at it because I had no particular need to. If I have to, I suppose I can go to Switzerland and do that. After all, she still falls under the jurisdiction of the ministry. For now, though, let's be as subtle as we can. I think we will get far more accomplished if we look like we're doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary."

"Agreed," Marcus said.

Ruby and Jessie both sat and listened to Robert talking and what was to come. Jessie nodded when paperwork was spoken of and that Angus had every scrap of paper in his basement boxed from the old Tyler home. " well that's a good thing" he said " I'll take it back to mine and look threw it all" he said and Ruby nodded " if I find anything of interest I'll bring it back" he said.

Aria finished cleaning up and moved to sit with Angus watching him she knew Andrew was watching him but she wanted to do so too , in case she was needed Radagast sat close by too with his book out the pages flipping as he finished the page. Soon he accioed a cup of tea and sat sipping it. Aria looked over at him and shook her head making him close the book " okay cher whats wrong?"

Aria looked at him and sat back in her chair " why are you here?" she asked and Radagast looked at her.

"what can't i visit my daughter and her beau?" he asked " need to see da future son in law" Aria groaned and then chuckled .

"well, pity for you, you had a wasted journey." she told him

"You don't realize how many big boxes that is, Jessie," Marcus said. "There's over a dozen great big boxes, maybe more. I'm sure Angus doesn't care who has the boxes. I remember that even though none of you wanted the paperwork, he told me at the time that he didn't want to just toss all that stuff out in case there was ever a reason for any of you to want it. So he boxed up every scrap of paper he found in that house and brought it all back here. You have to remember how long they lived in that house. There's almost 40 years worth of paperwork involving Reginald, Suzanne, and all four of you. There's far more than you know. You're not going to be able to just pick them up as they are and cart them home. Ruby, why don't you and Jessie come with me?"

Marcus got up and went downstairs and made quick work on unlocking the padlock on the storage room door. He opened the door and turned on the light, revealing kneehigh boxes stacked, one on top of the other ceiling high, and two full rows of them. 

"Hm," Marcus said, "More here than I remembered. You do what you like, but you might get through all this quicker if you and Ruby and Sam and Victor did this together, but you do what you like. It's a huge job, and the boys have always wanted to help or be involved in whatever family business that remains. That's up to you two to choose if you involve them or not, but they aren't children anymore. They're legal adults, and this is about their parents too, as much as yours.. All I can do is show you where it is. Beyond that, this is a Tyler family matter, and the rest of us, including Angus, I'm sure are here to help you figure things out or help you think things through if you need it. The boys aren't working tonight, since its Sunday. You could ask them yourself to help. Or they could at least help carry boxes to your house, Jessie, if you still want to take them. Or you can take them a box or two at a time."

Ruby listened to Marcus and said nothing Jessie looked to Marcus both following quietly until he opened the doors and they both saw just how much was stored . " okay I think we need help." she said and Jessie nodded picking up a piece of paper and placing it back down as they heard Marcus continue to talk about asking the boys for help . Jessie looked at him and nodded defeated " your right, I'll set up a table for the paper work to sit on, might start calling mys elf the book worm after all this or the Tyler historian" he added with a chuckle as he brushed his hair off his face.

Ruby looked at the boxes and stayed in the door way while she saw Jessie enter the room and pick something out of one of the boxes. " wasn't kidding about keeping all the paper work" she said softly " I'll go talk to the boys once there awake" she said noting it was late or early in the morning she didn't know any more.

Aria watched as Marcus went below with Jessie and Ruby to show them the boxes they had kept from the Tyler house years earlier.

"They're still awake, Ruby," Marcus said. "The last I knew one of you--Aria or you--were thinking of making supper now that Evan has taken his family home. Your kids are going to want something for supper. If you want, we can order out from Sparks or order some pizza or subs. I think all four of the teens are in the girls' room with Poppy. They were back at that questing game, I believe. Its too early for any of the four of them to even think about bed yet."

Marcus went back upstairs, and as he did, Angus was awakened again, dreaming of the woman in the 1920's dress.

"You okay, Mate?" Marcus asked.

"That woman is creepy," Angus scowled. 

"Which one?" Marcus said. "Are we back to the flapper?"

"Yeah. She's bad news, I tell you."

"Did you notice anything else? Anything helpful..."

"I...don't know.  Wait. Maybe. She had a necklace on. It was gothic looking. Had a big red heart. I thought it was a gemstone, but it isn't. Not a normal stone anyway. This stone was alive."

"Wait. What do you mean it was alive?" Robert asked, coming over.

"It had some sort of glowing substance in it, and it, well, it sort of pulsed, like a heartbeat all its own."

"Oh, now that definitely gets a ping on my creep-o-meter," Marcus said.

"Yeah, mine too," Angus nodded.

"Did she say anything?" Robert asked, and while Robert was standing with Angus, Marcus went over and got Angus a carefully measured cup of seers' tea and brought it back to him.

"No, but she was trying to take something from me, and she couldn't do it."

"What did she want?" Robert asked Angus. "Oh, thank you, Marcus. Good thought. Here, Angus. try some of this. It might perk you up a bit."

"No idea. She was standing, oh, maybe 30 or 40 feet away, and she was trying to use magic to take something but her spells weren't working. And she was angry about it. That much I can tell you for sure."

"Well, we've put some new protections in place, so maybe they're working," Robert said. "Maybe that's a good sign." 

"Maybe," Angus said, unsure.

Ruby listened to Marcus and chuckled at him reminding her about supper and that they were with the girls in the room behind them " yeah , sorry , my brain's kinda befuddled after all that bouncing around in those , what they called portal things" she said and looked to Jessie.

"I'm good , go make food, just don't forget to send food down to me or you might end up with a real Skellington in your closet" he said with a chuckle and looked to Marcus " I'm good" he said smiling , just send Victor and Sam over once they've eaten" Jessie said " I'll make a start then they can join me, maybe now's the time the learn about our.. um, history?" he said with a chuckle as Ruby nodded .

"I'll join you once foods cooked and we've eaten" she said heading up to the kitchen while Jessie picked up the first box once he'd opened a fold away table and placed it in front of him so he could rest the box on it.

Angus sipped at the seer's tea. 

"You do know I'm not planning on having a bed in the living room again, right?" Angus asked Robert.

"Ah, well, now we're getting somewhere," Robert laughed heartily. "Your brain cells are slowly plugging back in again. Finally--good. So, let's do a refresher, then. I'm the doctor, and you're not. Remember?"

"My bed, not yours, remember?" Angus replied. Robert laughed, enjoying Angus's teasing.

"Mate, you need a time out for a bit," Marcus told him. "I'd support bringing your chair back if I could, but you're not there yet. You really do need to give it a few days this time."

"Angus, so, here's the damage. You have a concussion, two broken ribs, some bruised spinal vertebrae, and a bruised kidney. And just about everything else is black and blue. These injuries need rest, especially the kidney. It could be serious if you develop complications. If, however, you do what I tell you for a few days, you might skate through without serious damage."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Angus asked, brushing him off.

"At it's worst? You could die," Robert said. "I'd prefer you not get anywhere near that, so do try to appease me for a bit. Believe me, I will get you up as soon as I can because I know your family needs you. I get it." He called to Ruby. "Ruby, this one needs a bit of solid tucker tonight, but gently, please. Not any heavy spices. a piece of baked chicken with some mash or something soothing, something comforting but not with any heavy spices and not overly done with cheese, please. I want him to have some real nutrition."

'Angus, just a minute," Marcus said. He went back to the table, looked through the paperwork, and brought him a photo of Pearl Sanders, the one from the disco party in 1978. "Do you recognize anyone from this old picture, by chance?" He handed the picture to Angus. Angus looked at the people in the picture carefully. 

"This one. This one right here--in the strange striped shirt and the big shoes." He pointed directly to Pear. "This is the woman in my dreams--but she isn't dressed anything like that, I can tell you."

"Good man," Marcus smiled. "We now know your gran is right. This woman's name is Pearl---like the same sort of pearl ring that Caprice shied at us earlier today. We know who she is but we don't know why she's coming after you yet. And, so you know, you're now related to her."

"I don't have any Pearls in my family that I know of. Is she my great great aunt somebody or another twice removed or something?"

"Well, you have a Pearl now--this one. She's Ruby's great grandmother--Suzanne's grandmother...."

"Oh for the love of..." Angus rolled his eyes. "One more of Ruby's family that I apparently need to kill, I suppose."


"Well, so far as we know, she's dead," Robert said.

"Oh, goody. Then I only get to exorcise the bitch," Angus said coldly. That made Andrew, Marcus and Robert all laugh.

"Nice to know that concussion does not damage his sarcasm switch," Andrew laughed.


"Oh, no, his sarcasm switch still works just fine," Robert laughed.

Ruby heard Robert from the kitchen and nodded to him " got that exact meal on the go thanks to Andrews meal suggestion list" she said holding up his plate that had his meal on it " ours won't much longer , hunters chicken with home made chips and a salad for those who want to add to it , also a light whipped cheese cake for afters." she said and sent the plate with a knife and fork over but knowing the knife would not be needed as she had shredded the chicken already.

Walking over she listened as Robert and Marcus explained to Angus about whom he was dealing with " yeah sorry about that, seems my family has a thing for you, a bad thing2 she said and smiled to him. Jessie moved the third box and took out another receipt. and looked at it he saw it was for several bottles of expansive wine and cigars. " this must be for Benjamin" he said placing it to one side

"Why would you be finding a receipt for wine and cigars for Angus's father?" Sam asked as he and Victor came in. "From what I remember, he could have just as well purchased them for some of those high end all night weekend parties they used to hold. You don't want to know the things they had advanced to doing by then."

"Reginald always felt that he needed the top shelf alcohol to flow just like the cheap stuff," Victor said. "Remember what he used to tell us, Sam?"

"God, I don't ever want to hear that again. It was something Benjamin told him. 'If ever want to get somewhere in this world, you have to act like you're already there,'" both boys recited in unison, sick of hearing Reginald say it. 

"Perfectly bullshit reason for spending more than he made," Sam said sarcastically. He sat down next to Jessie and grabbed a handful of paperwork. "Okay, so what are we looking for?"

"Family tree stuff, Ruby said," Victor said.

"Family tree as in who's related to who...." Sam began

"Whom," Victor corrected. 

"Whom--or what bloody trees the family planted in the yard."

"Not the bloody trees. The who's related to whom business," Victor said. "Any sort of funny business--not funny 'ha-ha', but funny 'weird." 

"Okay. Gotcha," Sam nodded. 

"Thanks, Ruby," Marcus caught the supper plate for Angus.

"I'll give you all time to eat," Robert said, taking the photo back to put back in the medical records. "Call me if you need me, but if I don't hear from you, I'll be over sometime tomorrow." He went over and put the records back in his bag. "Goodnight, All. Enjoy your supper." He left and headed home.

"Go get yourself a plate, Andrew. I'll help Angus, and then I'll come fix mine," Marcus said. 

"You're sure?" Andrew asked.

"Positive," Marcus said. "Ruby, would you or Aria be so kind as to send a supper tray down to Poppy, please? I'd appreciate it."