A Birth day

Ruby listened and nodded to Angus " agreed, maybe he'll stick around longer than that other one" she said " he is good with the puppies and has taken a liking to the one called Thimble" She listened to him more and nodded " I won't be long , its been a long day for us all" she said and chuckled as he said when she got up to just make a pot of coffee and tea then leave the kitchen to Simone and Kate. " I'll do just that" she said smiling as she watched him head to the duplex " rest well" she said then looked down at the babies as they played happily around her.

Joseph cleaned up after the party and put the tables back in the storage room where they had come from , He moved the unused cutlery to the same storage while the rest was cleaned and put in away in a fresh box. Now done he walked back to the grounds mans tower but he saw a figure by some trees, turning he walked over to them, two men he paused at the barrier not passing it hearing they were just talking he turned and headed to his room, once out of his clothes and having hung them up neatly in his closet he lay down and listened to the world around him become quiet as he fella sleep.

Morning came and Ruby got up early , heading down she made a pot of coffee and tea then with a cup in hand she sat down and began to read quietly enjoying the quiet around her.

Marcus had come over once his house had setttled, and he had found Angus asleep in a chair on the front porch, with Finn sleeping at his feet. It didn't take Marcus more than a moment to figure out what had happened. Angus had let Finn out for his last trip of the night, and Angus had fallen asleep waiting on Finn.

"Come on, Mate," Marcus woke him. "You really don't want to sleep out here all night. "Did you get your strawberry puree done?"

"I did. I made a triple batch because I needed some strawberry syrup for the pancakes and some to put into the pancake batter, and then Ruby wanted some for something or another," Angus yawned, standing up. 

"Well, I'm sure Abbey will be over the moon if she gets to help you in the kitchen in the morning," Marcus said.

"I didn't realize how much I missed having that little squirt around," Angus said.

"She was your buddy all day every day for the first years of her life," Marcus said. "I'm sure you did miss her. You don't have the same relationship with your babies."

"No, but the circumstances are entirely different. I didn't have anyone to help me with Abbey, so I had no choice but to have her with me constantly. Ruby has always believed it is the mother's job to take care of the kids, and she takes it seriously. So I've stepped back."

"Do you miss not having that same closeness with them?" Marcus asked.

"Well, no, not really because the babies aren't going without anything. They're fine. I figured something would change if I ever had kids of my own, but I didn't have any preconceived notions about what that would look like. I suppose it just gives me time to focus on my work."

"Well, and it also gives you time to do the physical therapy you need on your shoulder to try to regain some functioning in it."

"That too. And there has always been the small matter of Ruby's goofball mother. And now her great grandmother. Talk about toxic in laws. God," Angus sighed. "I guess I'll go shower before I fall asleep standing here."

"Good thought. I'll do the security check."

Marcus made the check while Angus was in the shower, and then once Angus headed to bed for the night, Marcus turned the night watch over to Minos and some of the Fae and then headed home to his own place.

It was very odd for Marcus to wake up in his own house. Not some apartment somewhere. It was a real house. He hadn't had a house since he'd rescued the kids from Evelyn, and even then, he hadn't had an opportunity to spend much time in it. He had an opportunity to have a place that he could come home to more nights than not, and that felt entirely different. He figured that the kitchen was being overrun by women, so he got up, showered and shaved and dressed and headed downstairs for coffee.

Angus got up, refreshed, shaved, dressed and headed downstairs. He poured himself coffee and heard someone pounding rather loudly on the door. He opened the door, and there was Abbey. She was in her pajamas, and she had dragged a backpack across the grass from the main house to the duplex. In her other hand, she had BooBoo Kitty. Kate was running across the yard, trying to catch her before she had reached the duplex. 

"Well, good morning," Angus laughed, seeing Abbey there. 

"Pancake time?"

"Yep," he said, "come on in." Abbey dashed past him, going inside, dragging her backpack and BooBoo Kitty.

"Angus, I am so sorry," Kate apologized, out of breath. "The little shit got past me and got out before she even dressed or combed her hair...."

"Kate, it's fine," Angus said. "Would you like a little coffee?"

"Oh, no thanks. I have to get to the studio. Poppy's coming over today. She talked to me last night, and she can't wait one more day to get started. Robert said she's fine to start so long as she does a lot of sitting jobs, so we'll be fine."

"How about I send lunch over to the two of you?" Angus asked.

"That would be lovely. Thank you."

"I'll see you at lunch, then," Angus smiled. She waved and headed to the studio.

Ruby looked up and chuckled seeing a streak with booboo kitty run past her " hello Abby" she said chuckling as she watched her run in. Aria slipped form her bed and dressed before walking down to the kitchen and poring a cup of coffee for herself " Hi Abby " she said smiling " bet you were looking forward to those pancakes today" she said and chuckled.

" tell you the truth so am I." she said with a chuckle." I came over early to see if you needed any help, I see Marcus got you to have some sleep?" she said to Angus . It was now Jack knocked and walked in looking around he nodded then backed back out heading down towards the groundsmen's tower.

Joseph dressed in his slacks and white shirt with a waist coat over the top and made sure his shoes were cleaned and polished . slipping from the bed he headed down to meet Jack as he walked out he saw several other men running to one side of the grounds .

" Hey Joseph, breach in the barrier to the west" he said walking over to him and together they walked over to where Joseph had seen the two men that night.

"hum, I saw two men lingering around last night, they left quickly but didn't think they were up to mischief, found this though " he said handing Jack a dark talisman and stepped back " oh and this too" he said and smirked handing over a wallet to him . Jack gave him a raised eye brow. " they didn't see me." he said standing with his arms behind his back as if at attention.

Angus conjured a proper stepstool for Abbey from an old counter height stool and he put it up at the kitchen counter.

"I help!" she raced over to him. 

"Well, I hope so. I can't do it without you," he said. He helped her wash her hands, and then she took the soap to help him wash his hands. That was new for her, but it made him smile that she was taking his kitchen lessons so seriously. They dried their hands, and then he let her help measure out the flour, and the strawberry puree to make the pancakes pink. Then he let her crack the eggs all by herself. She got a piece of eggshell in the batter and immediately got upset with herself. He soothed her and then showed her the old trick of using an egg shell to get out the egg shell. She believed it was magic, and he wasn't going to tell her otherwise. She stirred the batter until she got all the lumps out of it, takikng that job very seriously indeed. While she was stirring, Angus was heating a four skillets so he could make more than one pancake at a time.

He put the batter in a squeeze bottle, and he squeezed the pancakes out, one at a time, to shape them into a cat shape. She watched carefully, fascinated at how he shaped them without magic.  As he was cooking, Edward came over. 

"Simone sent me over with a quiche to go with your pancakes," he said. "Its bacon, onion, mushroom and cheese," he said. "I'm not staying because I think they made a 12 course breakfast over there. No offense."

"No offense taken," Angus laughed. Edward peered into the skillets. 

"They look good, though, and I could smell the strawberries clear out to the front porch."

"Good. I hope they taste as good as they look," Angus said. "Thank them for the quiche for us?"

"Certainly," Edward said, turning and leaving to go back to Marcus's to have breakfast with Simone and the others.

Angus finally put a platter of pink kitty pancakes on the worktable, along with some warm strawberry syrup, and he sliced the quiche into wedges. He poured a glass of milk for Abbey and put her at the table. Then he fixed a plate for her with a pancake, some butter and syrup, and a slice of quiche. 

"Come get some breakfast," Angus called. "Abbey says they're ready."

Joseph looked at Jack as he went threw the wallet and then slipped it into his pocket " go get breakfast" he said simply " leave this to me" he added and Joseph made his way to the main house passing the cottage he could hear voices from inside each taking as the door opened and he smiled giving a slight bow he heard some one ask where every one was and he smiled again " there probably at the duplex or main house , I can show you if you wish " he said leading Poppy, Zane and Kai across to the duplex and knocked "I found some people looking for you guys" he said as Aria stood up and walked over .

"come in we have kitty pancakes if your still hungry" she said and smiled and looked to Joseph " thank you Joseph" she said and he bowed slightly and headed to the main house but he paused as he looked to Abby in the kitchen.

"those smell wonderful Abby" he said smiling as he winked to her and walked towards the main house. Ruby heard Angus and put her book away and stood up hearing Joseph she nodded and chuckled .

" they do at that" she said walking over and grabbing two pancakes before poring over the syrup over them.

Abbey was delighted. She very rarely got pink pancakes anymore, but they were still her favorite. And it made it even more special that everyone liked them. 

As they were all eating, Angus's medallion sounded first. He saw that it wasn't being triggered for anyone else. Just him. 

And then a voice came through the floo.

"Angus, you'd better be at home," Michael's voice sounded, and Angus already could tell by Michael's tone. This was serious.

"I am," Angus said. "What's up?"

"We were just attacked here. Or more specifically, Iya's grandson Beau was attacked. Robert has him in sickbay now, and he's paged Nigel. It's extremely critical. At this point, Robert can't guarantee us whether Beau is going to make it or not. You need to stay inside. I'm putting the estate on full lockdown, but especially you. I want Marcus sewn tight to you until further notice."

"He's here," Angus said. "Do I need to ask who it was or how it happened?"

"No. You don't," Michael said, and the floo went dark. Michael paged Jack by sounding Jack's alarm and no one else's. He didn't need the whole estate in a panic.

"You all heard that, right? I don't need to repeat it?" Angus asked them.

"Pew Pew," Abbey grumbled unhappily.

Jack felt and heard his medallion go off Joseph was helping in the barn and heard it too . Pausing in his work he looked at Jack who shook his head " remain here and finish the work" he said before porting away. Jack appeared in front of Michael and stood stock still seeing Lya and beau with him " you paged me?" he asked looking at him.

Ruby looked at Angus then to abbey and smiled she was worried but didn't want Aby to worry so just stayed calm for her " don;t worry Abby just means you spend more time with Angus" she said and chuckled and glanced to him. Aria heard Michael and ported to the cottage telling Marcus parents something had happened on the grounds and they had to stay inside , she also told them the kids were at the duplex and as soon as it was sorted they could return.

Nigel pushed past Jack, knowing there was not a moment to spare. Nigel went to the head of the bed and immediately began life support. He looked up at Robert, not certain if Robert believed it was honestly worth trying to hang onto Beau because there was so little of Beau left.

"Yes," Robert said, not looking up at Jack. He didn't have time. If he'd been at St. Mungo's, Beau would be in a full code, but this was not St. Mungo's and there was a code to be had here or a staff to respond to one anyway. "Call St. Mungo's. Get Jess. I need her here yesterday. This room is now officially an ICU unit until I say otherwise. Beau was attacked in his sleep. That means we can be breeched by something we can't fully protect ourselves against. I want us in a full lockdown, but, be aware that it might not do us any damned good. I want extra guards on the duplex immediately."

"I have him for now, Robert," Nigel said quietly. Robert nodded. Robert stepped out of the ICU, motioning to Jack, wanting a private word with him, away from Iya's eyes and ears. 

"So you know, Jack, this is a level of attack we have not dealt with here before. We don't know that this is Pearl's' doing. Nor do we know yet if we're dealing with a live person or a ghost. However, someone has robbed Beau of all of his magical energy and done some serious damage to his magical system. If I had not been here, Beau would be already dead. This is, for all practical purposes, the same sort of injury that damned near killed Angus a couple years ago, and I do not want him to go through that again. Nor do I want anyone else coming that close to crossing the veil. I don't want so much as a mosquito getting on the grounds that you don't know about. Michael will be in charge as long as Beau is this critical because I don't know that I dare leave him."

Jack moved letting Nigel walk past him as he watched he saw Jess port in right to the head of the table dropping her bag she slipped off her shoes and sat down her hands pressed to the boys head as she focused on stabilising him and adding some of her energy to his as she had done with Angus previously. " she's on it" he said softly as he turned he felt something brush him but nothing was there he moved with Michael and stood listening to him talk about what had happened to Beau.

" not good, I remember what Angus was like after his" he said then he felt something brush him gently and he looked around but he could not see who it was and he sighed " Joseph " he said softly " show yourself" he waited with his arms crossed " Now" he spoke and Joseph appeared close by " you heard?" he asked him and saw him nod " sorry he must have tagged along.

Joseph had caught Jacks shirt tail as he ported away landing with him in the med bay he quickly concerned himself and moved against a wall out of the way as he watched what was happening. It was now he saw Jack and Michael talking and listene3d in frowning but he made a mistake and bumped Jack who with his senses called out to him and he was busted " sorry , I thought this might be connected to what I found last night and the two men hanging around the grounds barrier" he said and looked at Michael " yes I got there ID, Jack has it." he said leaning on a trolly close by.

Robert bristled somewhat when he saw Joseph had used some sort of gadget to sneak in. Robert figured the kid had swiped an invisibility cloak somewhere. He didn't like whatever was going on with Joseph and Jack, and he trusted Jack to know better.

"Just so you both know," Robert said, "I do not like secrets in my staff, and I will not ever tolerate it in my first string. Whatever you two are thick as thieves about, just know this. I didn't get my post at the ministry by being blind or stupid either one. Now, I have work to do before this man dies. So, you two figure yourselves out and get back to work."  He turned abruptly and went back into sickbay, closing the door.

Michael looked at Joseph and Jack for a moment and then he turned and went back upstairs. He needed to contact Owens and Irene. There was much work to do now.

Everyone at Angus's had demolished the pancakes and the quiche. 

"I'll clear the table," Marcus said.

"I help you," Abbey said.

"Okay. I can use all the help I can get," Marcus smiled. "Can you carry the pitcher of syrup to the counter?"

"More," she said.

"That's Abbey-speak for 'I have two hands. Give me something else'," Angus laughed.

"Oh. Okay. Can you bring the butter?" Marcus asked. Abbey nodded and followed him with the little pitcher of syrup and the butter dish as Marcus carried the dirty plates to the sink.