A Birth day

Aria heard Marcus and chuckled at his words " nope defiantly not a seer here." she said as Ruby looked up at him and paused in her batter of backed goods. Washing her ands she walked out and sat down .

" is he ever going to get er yesterday?" she asked " I'm beginning to think we should have left things alone, I wasn't saying not to do the sting, I just didn't like the part of making him seem dead. " she told them both as she moved a toy in the playpen for Amari. " plus hes smoking a lot more lately" she said seeing him light up another cigarette.

"What?" Marcus looked at her, having trouble wrapping his mind around the balls of this woman. Had she actually just asked if Angus was ever going to get over two of the three or four people that he trusted the most forcing him into going along with a wedding without the least little bit of input or consent on his part. Had Ruby truly lost her ever loving mind? That was probably the rudest, most inconsiderate things he had ever heard her say. She generally wasn't this cold and calloused, but this had somehow brought out a side of her that he really detested. He found himself staring at her for a long moment, grappling for a way to say something kindly, without malice, without venom.

"And I'm wondering what it's going to take for you to understand just a wee thimble full of what's going through his head," Marcus said very softly, feeling sad for a number of reasons. Right now, though, he was feeling sorry for Ruby that she was so unable to see that she had even the tiniest role at all in yesterday's events. And he felt sorry for Angus that all that Ruby and Edward could apparently see is that they were perfectly justified and believed Angus just needed to get over himself. 

"I should get to work," Marcus said very quietly to Aria, hoping she understood his place was to protect Angus and ne really needed to get to it.

Aria looked at Ruby and frowned as Marcus went quiet for a moment before saying to her he was going to work " yeah, okay" she said some what confused " I'll try and get some common sense into this one" she said as she folded her arms across her chest.

Once Marcus was outside she shook her head " hey, hes fighting to stay alive here,and wrap his head around the fact Edward and you tricked him into marriage" she said looking at Ruby "If you can't handle whats going on, maybe you shouldn't have married him and stayed as you were and you should have told Edward to mind his own." she added " give the poor guy a chance to understand all this himself, get over yourself" she said sitting down on the couch.

Ruby looked at her and sighed " every time I try and talk to him he snaps at me" she said and aria shrugged at her .

"so would I, just give him some time to accept what happened " she said looking out at Marcus and Angus as Ruby went back to the kitchen to bake the bread rolls in the oven. Aria sighed and shook her head as she stayed with the babies not wanting to interrupt Marcus and Angus.

Marcus had no trouble finding Angus, and he followed Angus as Angus walked deeper into the woods. Angus wanted some space between him and the house and wanted to be well out of viewing area for anyone from the main house or the duplex to be watching him. As much as he loved the people here on the estate, he craved solitude today. Truth be told, he didn't want Marcus here either, but Marcus wasn't about to be left behind. Angus did understand Marcus was doing his job. Finally, Angus sat down on a log, and Marcus sat down with him.

"You alright?" Marcus asked him.

"I don't even bloody know her," Angus said, feeling really hurt and wounded by Edward and Ruby. "I really, really thought I did, but I don't understand her at all. I swore I would take my time, make sure I positively knew the woman I decided to marry, and that I would marry in my own time, wouldn't be rushed. Never, in all the times I thought about what a wedding might look like did I think it would look like what I ended up with. All the discussions Ruby and I had, never once did she say 'I think I'll just team up with your granddad, and we'll con you into it.' And look at me. I'm effing pitiful. And knowing that Edward was part of it? What the hell? I mean, really, what the effing hell? So am I to believe that all the times she said no pressure, take your time, I'll wait for you forever--was that all just an enormous lie?"

"I don't know, Mate," Marcus sighed, "I thought I knew her too, but she just asked me if you were ever going to get over yesterday."

"Seriously?" Angus asked quietly. "The Ruby I knew wouldn't have had that sort of snide, selfish thinking even come up in her head. The woman I thought she was would have told Edward to stick this money driven plan up his arse. The woman I thought she was would have slapped the crap out of whoever the heck that is that's in the kitchen and would have kicked her out of the damned house. This woman wants me to get over myself. She looks like Ruby, and her voice sounds like Ruby, but the woman that I just left baking rolls in my kitchen seems to have a heart of ice. Maybe a decade or four in Azkaban would do me good."

"Nah, by then, if you're in jail, she could be running all of the Donahue estate and its enterprises. You want that?"

"Well, the Ruby I knew would have wanted to do a good job with it. This woman? I don't know. She's a stranger. You want to know why I didn't tell them both to go screw themselves yesterday?"

"Yeah, actually. You're a fighter. You didn't even try to fight yesterday. You just basically fell on your sword yesterday morning. So do tell. What the hell made you agree to that ridiculous plan?"

"For her--for the woman I thought she was.  I did not want to hurt her for all the world. I felt like anything else I would think of or do would have suggested to her that maybe I didn't love her and maybe I didn't mean my commitment to her. And I didn't want to hurt her. I did not want to do to her what she actually did do to me. Ironic, isn't it? I felt truly stuck into letting myself be hurt in order to be able to protect her. It wasn't that I wasn't ever going to do it at all, but I sure as hell didn't want any part of doing it like that."

"I suppose, in a way, her remark to me just a few minutes ago is proof that your protection worked. For her to ask, basically, when you were going to get over yourself, that is 100 percent minimization--her belief that what happened was just no big deal and that you need to just suck it up and get on with it. If I hadn't just seen her behave as I did, I'd have suggested you should try to talk to her. Now, I don't know if there's any point in that. I should have stopped you yesterday..."

"Look," Angus said. "You were married for damned near fifteen years to a woman that didn't love you either, and you survived. And you did it well. I won't promise to do it anywhere near well, but, maybe if I approach it like you did, to just make sure that she's got whatever she thinks she needs, within reason, maybe she'll be happy. And maybe I'll survive."

"Nah, Mate. That's just falling on your sword but doing it slowly. Besides, you take that stance with her, and she's not one ounce better than Suzanne. Suzanne marries for things and not for love. Don't you let her do that. And then there's the whole matter of Edward's part in this."

"I meant what I said. Screw Edward. I'm not ready to deal with him yet. I trusted him more than any other person I knew in my entire life, and he betrayed me. And then, today? Her one condition to going along with any sting operation was to involve Edward? Of all the conditions she could have wanted, and that was what came into her head? Up Edward's ass. What the hell does he need to be involved for? It doesn't pertain to him. I don't know what sort of a thing she has going with him, but she clearly doesn't know or doesn't care, one or the other, how making Edward the only thing she cares about in this sting operation feels like just one more huge thing that hurts."

"She doesn't have a clue about what you're thinking or feeling, I'm convinced of that," Marcus replied.

"And you know what really pisses me off more than anything, even more than being forced into it? The fact that she doesn't want to have to admit that she had any part in it. I call bullshit. I saw, with my own eyes, that she had an active part in it. If she'd just bloody admit and have even a drop or two of accountability and responsibility it so we could talk about what the eff she was thinking maybe we could get past it, but no. I am not so bloody stupid that i will ever believe that she wasn't part of it when she so clearly was. So, the bottom line for me is that I'm probably going to have an attitude about it until she's ready to at least admit I have a reason for my crappy attitude."

"Sounds like a stalemate, then."

"Pretty much," Angus said. "Yesterday, I was hurt and confused. Today, I'm empty, and I'm just at a loss. I'd like to believe the Ruby that I knew before yesterday is still there somewhere, but this new, cold and selfish Ruby is not someone I want to know."

"Understood," Marcus said. "I went through that myself, to some extent, with Evelyn."

Aria watched as Marcus walked to where Angus was walking and looked to Ruby then to where Marcus had gone " you know you could be less cold" she said walking over to where Ruby was beating the bread into submission. " after all you and Edward both trapped Angus into the marriage." she said as Ruby paused and looked up at her.

"Edward did suggest it for the duel citizenship and yes I could have said no , but with everything going on , this was the only way to shut up Rita skeeter and her cronies for good and get things finalized for all of us, yes I hate that we did it that way and now I hate how things have become, Right now I wish we could just go back to how it all as before." she said pausing and moving to the couch and sitting down " if I had known all this was going to happen I'd have said no and waited for Angus to be emotionally in a good place but with his fear." she paused

Aria looked at her " right with his fear that you played into hes now double thinking himself about this whole, thing, you better hope he doesn't ask for that ring back and a divorce" Aria saw Ruby look up at her shocked . " that's right if he can't cope he just might, and admit you had a hand in hiding the wedding from him too." she stood and saw her nod" not to me to him."

It took a couple hours for Angus to want to go back to the house, but eventually, Marcus managed to calm him, and they went back to the house. Besides, Angus's cigarette pack was empty. They had done a lot of walking through some of the farther sectors of the estate, areas Angus hadn't actually been in for awhile, and it did provide him some helpful information that would help him to be able to take care of the estate more efficiently.

Now they were both ready for something cold to drink, and Angus wanted a fresh pack of cigarettes in his pocket. They went inside, and Angus threw his empty cigarette pack away before putting a fresh pack in his shirt pocket. Marcus got out a couple of cans of cold beer, popped the tops on them, and handed one to Angus.  

"Thanks," Angus said quietly, taking his beer and going out to the tea garden and sitting by the koi pond. He wasn't sure how the fish had managed to survive all the wildlife out here but they were in good shape. Then he noticed some of the Fae were puttering around in the flowers in the tea garden. They were weeding and keeping up not just the garden where they lived but the tea garden flowerbeds too. Angus appreciated that.

Marcus went out on the deck by kept an eye on Angus from a bit of a distance, feeling that perhaps giving him just a wee bit of distance might be a good thing.

Aria saw Marcus and Angus walk back towards the duplex she also saw Angus to the garden and sit down . Ruby went to head to talk to him but Aria shoo her head " give him time " she said but she went to talk to Marcus " hows he doing?" she asked " spoke to Ruby she does feel bad about the wedding and how it happened and she wants to apologise to him, I told her to wait " she said and looked at Marcus " hope that was okay?" she asked watching the Fae dart back and forth like fire flies.

Ruby stayed sat on the couch but went to the kitchen to remove the baked rolls and place them onto the cooling wire. Aria had been right and she should have said no to Edward , placing the rolled down she moved to the adjoining door " Edward you free?" shea sked as she knocked and opened the door to walk over to him. " Angus is mad at us for how it was done, I knew we should have waited until he was ready." she said to him.

"Calmer," Marcus said quietly. "We just talked and walked--and walked and walked and walked. He's really more surprised right now because she isn't behaving or talking anything like herself, and he's not sure he even knows who the heck she really is anymore. If she wants her marriage to work, she'd better stop trying to defend herself, apologize, and stop treating Angus like he's the enemy. He doesn't want her excuses. He doesn't want her throwing the blame all on Edward. He wants the entire truth. And if she really is just an Ice Queen, if her current behavior is who she really is, then they have to work out how they're going to have a distance marriage because he isn't going to live in the same house with someone who acts and talks like she has today. And, because he's my friend, I'll support him with that, even if it means he has to move in temporarily with us. I won't let him try to make a go out a relationship that looks like my relationship with Evelyn was. I don't hate Ruby. Not at all, but if she can't get her head out of her ass, I'm liable to kick my foot so far up her ass that I dropkick her tonsils up behind her eyeballs. Just sayin'." He sighed. "Sorry. You're not the enemy either. I didn't mean to vent at you. I apologize."

As Marcus finished speaking, he heard tiny, uncontrollable laughter. He glance over to see Minos sitting on a branch of a forsythia bush, doubled over in laughter because of Marcus's comments. He gestured imitating Marcus dropkicking Ruby in the behind, and kept laughing.

"Someone is amused," Marcus said, finding Minos's laughter was infectious. "He might find it funnier if I actually had to do it."

Aria heard Marcus and listened to him she heard the tinkle of Minos and chuckled at his actions then looked back to Marcus " its fine" she said smiling to him then chuckled at him " well she has admitted she didn't want what happened to happen and that she wants things to go back to how they were even going so fat to say she'd give back the ring just to have her Angus back" she said to him " and nobody was as bad as Evelyn, if she gets that bad, I'll boot her too" she said smiling.

She looked over to Angus and sighed " they really should have waited a bit longer" she said then looked back at the duplex " okay i'll get back to the babies." she said and smiled as she moved back inside and over to the play pen seeing both girls sleeping taking an after breakfast nap. Aria sat and opened the paper ignoring the main page to read and do the puzzles inside it.

"I'll have a word with her when she finishes panicking about it to Edward," Marcus told Aria quietly.

Edward had just gotten back home from Tuscany mere seconds before Ruby came over. He looked at her, frowning.

"Did you not realize that he wouldn't be happy?" Edward asked. "When we talked that he had an issue about marriage, and we rather 'strongly encouraged' him to do it, did you not think he might be unhappy with that? I'm sure he's furious with both of us because he trusted us, and I'm sure he sees it as flat out betrayal. I do think he'll eventually get over it, but I can't tell you how soon that will be. I saw it as a calculated risk to insure that everything the Donohues own and has worked for isn't turned over to some scheme of Tom and Suzanne's or some of my less than savory relatives. There is far more at stake, money wise and resource wise than you know, and all of that falling into ill hands could have been catastrophic--something that Angus is very well aware of but continues to blow off because he thinks he's going to live forever. My suggestion is that as soon as you get your marriage license, you work on applying to Italy for dual citizenship and get that moving. I understand that you now think perhaps you should have waited but, my dear, that ship has sailed."