A Birth day

"Robert's bringing some," Marcus said. "I asked him this morning. He has them for some of his potions, so he's bringing some. Hey, while you're here and before the kids get up, just a small heads up from Robert. Michael is going to be on holiday for a few days, just so you know. And, since we did have a security breach here last night, Robert specifically wants Aria and I to be on our toes, so can you both please do your best to give us an even chance to keep up with you until we know whether we're secure or not?"

"I couldn't outrun you if I tried right now," Angus told Marcus.

"No but you can apparate faster than I can run," Marcus replied.

"Fair enough. I'll do my best to not overexert you, then."

"Thank you," Marcus grinned, amused. "And since we don't want the kids to be hypervigilent about guarding you, can we not particularly alarm them either?"

"I do not ever want my children feeling like they have to guard me. Understand that?" Angus was almost angry about that.

"I do understand that. They don't mean it in an offensive way. They're only doing it because they love their family like crazy," Marcus said.

"I know," Angus sighed. "But its my job to shield them, not the other way around."

"Mate, no offense, but in a family, we stand to protect each other, whatever it takes. Sometimes its us protecting them, and sometimes its them shielding us. They're not kids anymore. They're sworn to be fighters, and they're doing their best to learn to take their stand too. Don't shut them down. Grow them up."

"Oh, maybe you're right," Angus sighed. "I just worry."

"Yeah. I know. We do worry about our youngest fighters, but hovering won't train them up and teach them to survive. I realize it feels different when its your own, but mentor them like you do any other new recruit. That's how they'll learn to stay alive."

"Yeah. Okay," Angus said, as Andrew arrived.

"Morning, All. Why is it that every morning when I arrive, it smells like I could gain another ten pounds here?" Andrew teased.

"Because someone's always cooking," Marcus laughed.

Ruby heard Marcus and smiled " oh, thank you" she said smiling as she finished laying the table . She heard Marcus talk again and chuckled " I'll try, but no promises." she said making Aria chuckle as she sipped her coffee.

"Oh, don't worry I'll go for Ruby if you go for Angus" she said smiling at him. Even Ruby laughed as she walked over with two plates , placing them down she looked at Marcus " thank you" she said and moved to grab another plate for Aria when she heard Andrew walk in and smiled " morning and Marcus is right, we love to cook" she said smiling as she handed him a Peanut butter-stuffed French toast to munch on.

Aria took her food and ate while on the couch she saw the Fae fly out the door back to their homes and smiled. Once eaten she took her plate and mug to the kitchen. " so whats the plan for today, I know Angus is to recover." she said looking at him.

"oh I'd love to go for a run" Ruby said but then remembered what had happened " but I guess it would be best if I stay inside for a day or two." she said and looked at Marcus. " unless you'd watch the babies while Aria and I went on na run, I'd make it a quick one" she said poring him a fresh coffee seeing his cup empty again.

"Why would you need to stay in the house?" Angus asked. "We have, with Andrew here, eight adults and two teenagers, and just two babies. If you and Aria go run, that still leaves eight capable people. I would think there should be someone one here who is minimally able to keep the babies from setting the house on fire. Besides, I believe that if you look in the basement at some of the unopened baby junk down there, there is a jogging stroller for twins. I think we got it as a gift from Evan and Tara when we adopted Amari, and we've never used it. They might enjoy going out with you--maybe. If it's not going to be too chilly for them. Either way, I dont' want you having to stay indoors because of me. If you want to run, go run. We are not going to start kowtowing to fear. We haven't done it before, and I don't want to start now."

"I agree," Marcus said. "Besides, I'm sure Angus and I will find something to do."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm taking this bed to the basement and getting my chair," Angus said. Marcus glared at him unhappily.

"The hell you are," Marcus scowled. "You are not. You do not have any kind of clearance from Robert to do that. You get drained walking to the front door. Don't be ludicrous. There is no hurry to move furniture except that you don't like having this bed in the living room. Get over it, you idjit." He looked at Ruby and Aria. "Go enjoy your job, and if you find him tied to the bed when you get back, you'll know what happened."

Aria looked at Ruby as Marcus and Angus started to talk about letting them go for a run. Ruby headed down as Angus spoke and retrieved the items Angus spoke of " you mean this?" she said and held it up so he could see, Transfiguring her clothing to her running gear she smiled picking up Caprice and setting her in the stroller then did the same with Amari. " well I'm ready" she said smiling as Aria transfigured her clothing to running gear too.

"okay, we'll go, you made your point" she said with a smile and a chuckle " and that would be a sight" she said chuckling as did Ruby who now took the stroller out side as she waited for Aria.

"just don't hurt his shoulder or you'll have Robert to answer too" Ruby called back with a laugh as they both took off towards the track to do some laps. Running Aria began to relax feeling the cool air against her skin and the sound of the leaves even if they were turning a golden brown around them.

Andrew brought Elwood downstairs, and he was freshly bathed and shaved. And for the first time, he had dressed in day clothes for being at home. He had dressed if he was going out, but today, Andrew had helped him choose some comfortably cut chinos in a dark khaki color and a very nice cream colored fishermans pullover sweater, with some fleece lined moccasin style slippers.

"We have a favor to ask, Marcus," Andrew said. "Elwood would like to do away with his long Dumbledore hairstyle. He'd like something short."

"Certainly. Can I touchup the beard and mustache while I'm at it?"

"By all means," Elwood said. "Please do. House elves really are bad acting as stylists." Marcus gave it some thought and changed Elwood's hairstyle into a short, layered style that made use of the fact that Elwood had very thick hair. Then he trimmed up his mustache and his beard into a short, meticulously trimmed style. Andrew showed Elwood a mirror. "God, that can't possibly be my face." Elwood said.

"That takes years off your look," Andrew said. "Much, much better. Thank you, Marcus.

"You're welcome," Marcus said.

"Now that you're downstairs, shall we give it a try down here?" Andrew asked Elwood.

"We can, but what if I can't do it?"

"Then we'll just keep working at it," Andrew said. He helped Elwood stand up, which stunned Marcus and Angus. They had never seen Elwood on his own feet. Andrew walked right with him the few steps it took for Elwood to get to the kitchen counter. Elwood was able to pour himself a cup of morning coffee and then he was able, to walk to the sofa and finally, for the first time, sit on the sofa instead of in his wheelchair.

"Elwood! Congratulations! I'm so proud of you," Angus said, thrilled.

"I had given up decades ago on being able to ever walk again. Pearl discouraged it at every single turn, and it just wasn't worth fighting with her," Elwood said.

"Well, we're glad for it. Well done."

"And why didn't I know this sofa was so damned comfortable," Elwood said. Angus laughed.

"Can I get you some breakfast, Elwood?" Andrew asked.

"Well, I'm not overly hungry. You know what I really want to do? I want to sit on this amazing sofa, drink my first cup of coffee and read the paper first. And then think about breakfast."

"Absolutely," Andrew replied, handing him the paper and then folding up the wheelchair and moving it out of the way while the kids came to the kitchen to eat breakfast.

Aria and Ruby ran the track twice and that was about it for Ruby, both chuckled and walked back to the duplex now ready for breakfast as they entered they saw Marcus , Angus and Elwood but Aria smiled " wow whose the handsome guy on the sofa" she said smiling as Ruby chuckled and took out the babies from the stroller.

"looking much better Elwood" she said chuckling" have to admit you look way better with short hair and not the hippy look." Ruby complimented him. Aria nodded and smiled to him.

"yeah can't deny , you doo look much better, I'm guessing Marcus worked his magic again?" she said smiling to Marcus as she saw the teens enter the duplex.

"He did," Elwood said. "It's nicer than I believed I ever deserved. Thank you, Marcus."

"My pleasure. And I like the trousers and the sweater too."

"Angus chose those for me awhile back. I can't take any credit for it."

"Angus is learning to have good taste finally," Marcus teased.

"We didn't recognize you at first, Elwood," Ginger said. "It looks great. And it's good to see you out of your chair for a change."

"He's learning to walk again," Marcus said. "He filled his own coffee cup this morning."

"Awesome!" Anise said.

"Andrew told me if I could manage to stay on my feet for a few steps, he'd take me outside so I could actually walk on real grass again. I haven't done that in longer than most of you lot have even been alive. And when one has been bedfast for so many years, there are so many tiny things that one misses. I haven't felt grass beneath my feet in over half a century."

The kids sat down and tucked into breakfast.

"I'll take Ginger and Anise to Evan's before I go to work if that's okay," Victor said.

"That's fine," Angus replied.

"Be careful," Elwood said. "Prophet says sea storms are pushing hard against the coast in Tuscany this morning. You could have trouble porting across."

"Take a bit of a work around," Angus said. "It'll take you longer, but it should work. You'll have to borrow a couple of my portkeys. Port to Paris. Your medallion will do that. Then, use one of my portkeys to port from there to Switzerland. My portkey will take you to the foot of the Alps, south of Zurich. From there, you can port directly to Evan's. It'll be safe because it will take you north and then east of the Tuscan coast and well out of the way of the sea storms. To come back, just reverse all that. Evan's, to Switzerland, to Paris, to home."

"Got it. Where's the portkey, though?"

"I'll get it for you," Marcus said, getting Angus's keys out of the desk drawer. He took the portkey off and handed it to Victor. "Page us if you get into any trouble on the way."

"We will," Victor said.

"Now, you two," Angus told Anise and Ginger, "if the weather says really crappy, and it could, you two plant yourselves either at Evan's for the night or over at the main house with Rosaria and Carlo. Do not try to come home in all that. It's dangerous."

"Okay," Ginger said. "That would work. We have some heavy exams in the morning anyway. That would let us study with Faith and Evie for them. We might decide we want to do that anyway."

"Just let us know so that we know if you want us to come and get you or not," Angus said.

Ruby and Aria heard Anise and smiled as Marcus said he'd made his own coffee that morning " oh nice , well done Elwood , look at you go" Aria said and chuckled as Ruby walked over to him and gave him a hug.

"well done" she said smiling " it is good to have you on your feet" she said with a smile. She watched the girls as they grabbed their breakfast and heard what Elwood talk about the storm in Tuscany" well, why don't they stay tonight in Tuscany anyway, that way they can study for their exams and we don't have to worry about them getting back in a storm." she suggested to Angus as she placed a toy back in the play pen.

Aria grabbed her plate and sat at the table to eat as Ruby spoke. Taking two bowls over to the babies she placed them into the play pen for them to eat and smiled as they both took the fruit and ate happily.

"The main reason I'm not sure I want to make that choice right now is that Sam wants to come after work tonight and talk to Angus about moving back here," Anise said. "And I do not want him getting the idea that we're going to go right back to being an item just because he might be back here. If he wants to be with me, he's going to have to make a change. I do not want him getting any screwed up ideas. And if he's coming back, he needs to come back for the right reasons."

"I will make that crystal clear to him if he comes here and you're not here," Angus said. "I do not want him making any false assumptions about anything. Don't let that get in your way of studying for your exams. Your focus absolutely has to be on your schoolwork. You've worked far too hard to let anything get in the way of that. You can deal with Sam when you have less on your plate."

"I hadn't thought about it like that but you're right," she sighed. "Okay. You're right." She picked up their breakfast dishes and took them to the sink. Victor and Ginger got up.

"Be careful," Angus said. The kids headed out the door.

"Will he listen to you?" Elwood asked.

"About porting? Yes," Angus said. "I just hope he doesn't run into bad weather otherwise."

"We'll keep an eye to make sure he gets back safely," Marcus said as Andrew went to the kitchen and finally fixed a plate for Elwood. Elwood laid his paper down, content to balance his plate on his lap to eat.

"I do really need to have a word with all four of them," Angus said. "They did do a good job of fighting last night and I gave them no credit."

"You were pretty busy sparring with intruders yourself until you ran out of energy," Marcus said. "Perhaps you can do that tonight at supper."

"Don't let me forget, will you?"

"I'll try not. They're developing into good at fighting techniques, but they have to learn not to be so reactive," Marcus said.

"Meh. that's just what they see me do," Angus said.

"No. That's what they think they see you do, but that's not actually correct. You are contracted, like all the other first stringers, to respond instantly if there is an emergency. They're not. They're contracted to learn to follow orders, to train, and to be ready if they're sent on a mission with the first stringers. They are, in fact, not to be leaping into a situation unless Robert or Kate or Michael summons them. And they need to learn to obey in order for them to be safe."

"Well, you're right about that too," Angus sighed.

Ruby listened to Anise then to Angus as he spoke and she nodded " I agree" Ruby said to Angus words about Sam " wise words Anise" she said looking at her a she saw her take her plate to the kitchen as Marcus and Angus continued to talk about what had happened in the fight.

Aria spoke to Anise " if you want to come back once your done at school just send word and I'll send Victor to fetch you if the weathers not storming" she said as she placed her own plate in the sink " have a good day at school" she said with a smile. Aria moved to the back door and stepped out to look around the grounds, seeing men walking around she knew it was the double security Jack had implicated after the fight she also saw extra dogs with men searching the edge of the grounds too. Walking back in she chuckled " seems Jack took Robert words to heart , there are extra dogs on the grounds.