A Birth day

Aria looked at Mikey and smiled " well not any more" she said showing him the kitty cookies Angus had made. " thank , I'll take them to her" she said and walked over knocking on the door she smiled " hey I brought a gift from Angus" she said " Hi Im Aruia Marcus better half" she said and chuckled to Mikey's wife. Moving to Abby she placed the tin down " he made these for you and booboo kitty" she said lifting the lid to show her.

" there her favourite , when ever Angus gets the chance he makes her some" she explained " so how's she doing?" she asked noting the cast on Abby's leg now sporting some signatures and drawings too.

"Hi, I'm Trish," the woman said. "She's doing very well, according to her papa. She's now hit the i-t-c-h-y stage." Trish spelled it to keep from saying the word. "So staying busy has become very important."

"My cookies!" Abbey let out a delighted squeal seeing the cookies. She took one and bit into the head of it. "Sanks! Gam says the Stinky Lady had to go away and didn't get Aggie. I'm glad. I no like her. She stinky."

"Stinky? Why is she stinky?" Trish asked.

"She smell bad," Abbey said. "Stinky poo."

"Maybe she needs some perfume," Trish teased.

"She wear nasty 'fume," Abbey scowled. "Lots."

Aria heard Trish and nodded , she could not help chuckle as she spelt Itchy to her so Abby would not understand " oh, I always hated that stage, I once lost a knitting needle down my cast" she said then laughed at Abby " he baked these to say thank you Abby and yes she really is stinky and I wish she would leave him alone too" she said and looked at Trish " some times she knows things beyond her age" she said chuckling again as she watched her bite the head off one of the kitten cookies " wow , you bite the heads first?" she asked chuckling.

After a moment she saw Jack head to the back door in his running gear " okay I got to go, running shesh with Jack " she explained " nice to meet you Trish, enjoy the cookies Abby" she said and chuckled as she transpired her clothing to running gear and took off after Jack for her run around the track.

Ruby sat with the babies and read her book but she saw Aria head off with Jack running and chuckled " She is a glutton for punishment running with Jack" she said motioning to the window where she had seen Aria.

"Its good for her," Marcus said. "She needs to run. It helps her burn off all that excess energy and anxiety. Besides that, she likes to win, and Jack challenges her just the by the fact that he has a much bigger and faster stride. She has to hustle to keep up. As for me, I run with Angus, and not just becasue he's my current assignment. He was always running at the same time I was, right from my first day here. We've been running together for years. And besides, neither of the two of us feel that we have to prove anything. We don't feel like we have to compete. We run to keep in shape for the work."

"That's the truth of it," Angus said, getting out some flounders and some crabmeat out of the freezer to thaw for supper. He flicked his fingers at the flounders and the containers of crab so he could thaw them quickly to give himself time to prepare them. He also set out some eggplant, some garlic and onion, some bell peppers, some zucchini, and some jasmine rice.

"What are you making?" Marcus asked.

"Fish," Angus replied.

"Fish. That's not very descriptive," Marcus laughed. "Isn't that rather like telling me you're making cow when you're making Beef Bourguignon?"

"Oh, I suppose," Angus said. "Hadn't thought of it like that. I'm making flounder stuffed with deviled crab."

Ruby chuckled and nodded " yes it is good for her" she said then noticed Angus with some fish as Marcus asked what he was making she chuckled but listened to him explain" oh, that sounds nice" she said and crossed another word off the word search that Aria was doing that she had picked up.

Ruby watched him from a distance as he worked on the fish and veg to go with it . " I'm sure Aria will calm down eventually" she said and chuckled " she relented on the plaid for furniture." she added as Caprice threw out a toy from the pen . getting up she picked it up and placed it back in the pen with her.

Angus was working on prepping his fish, when Caprice chucked the first toy out of the playpen. But after Ruby returned the toy to her, Caprice started just chucking all the toys out of the playpen. Angus spun around, and he returned them all to the playpen by flicking his fingers at them. He had hoped that would stop her but instead, she began to have a temper tantrum, screaming at them before she chucked them out. This time, Angus elevated each toy she threw above her head, just out of her reach. She thought it was a game at first, but then she realized that the toys weren't coming back and she started to really tantrum them. Angus had been expecting that. He cleaned his hands and walked over to her.

"No, Ma'am," he told her very firmly. "No. We do not have meltdowns in this house, so the toys are taking a time out." He flicked the toys back into the toybox." When she began to scream even louder, he picked her up and took her up to her crib and put her there, and walked out, closing the nursery door and came back downstairs. He looked at Ruby. "She is not too young to know that we do not do temper tantrums here. She can come back when she stops being a demon spawn." He went back to the kitchen and began making up the deviled crab filling for his fish.

Ruby watched as Angus took control of the situation with Caprice and chuckled " oh too right" she said sitting with the quiet Dimond , she could still here Caprice shouting even with the door closed " wow she's loud" she said as Dimond played with the now non elevated toys.

Aria ran until she could not run any faster , now Jack slowed to her speed " don't wea yourself out, pace yourself in everything" he said and chuckled as she nodded and kept going till they reached the end of the trac. " not bad , still need a few more sessions" he said and patted her on the back " now head back I'll see you tomorrow for the assault course" he saw her shake her had and he chuckled as he headed to meet up with Jessie for their patrol.

Inside the duplex Ruby watched Angus with the fish and noted what he did with it so she could try and replicate it some day. " you cooking that in a bag with some wine or just as is?" she asked

"It doesn't need a bag," Angus smiled. "I add plenty of moisture to the pan before I put it in the oven. Now. It needs to sit for a few minutes because I have to make the vegetables. I don't want to give the fish that much lead time over my vegetables." He made a creamy homemade hollandaise to drizzle over his flounder, and then he took the time to make a genuine, authentic French ratatouille. He started the fish in the oven exactly ten minutes before he put in the ratatouille, and then he made a beautiful jasmine rice pilaf to complete the entree.

"You're making me hungry, Angus," Marcus said.

"Good. I have a lot of fish here," Angus replied. "We'll be doing ice cream again for dessert because I didn't think ahead about that, but its fine. The kids will love it. And if that little demon doesn't stop screaming, I'm going to tape her mouth shut with duct tape." That made Marcus laugh.

Ruby listened to Angus and chuckled as he said there was enough liquor in with the fish to cook it " oh okay" she said " I'm in agreement with Marcus smells wonderful now" she said watching him make the jasmine rice to go with the fish. " she'll cam down soon enough you and I both know it doesn't take long for her to stop" Ruby listened and smiled " she's quiet now" she said " must have tired herself out." Ruby marked another word and placed it down as she saw Aria enter the duplex looking worse for wear.

" remind me never to run with Jack, I know, I say it every time but I always do" she said exhausted, " I'm going for a shower then ..is that fish I smell?" she asked following the smell to the kitchen " wow smells heavenly" she took a deep breath in and smiled to Marcus before she headed up to their room to shower and change into more comfortable clothing.

"Stuffed flounder," Angus told Aria. "Should be ready in about 20 minutes--if I get it all done on time--which remains to be seen."

Marcus honestly couldn't blame Angus for being a tad impatient with Caprice. He also knew that Angus had not shared with anyone but him what he had experienced overnight, and Angus hadn't shared with anyone what Priscilla had tried to do to him this afternoon when Abbey had awakened him.

"I'll be back in a minute," Angus said, heading down to Edward's wine cellar for some good white wine.

"Cut him just a little break, Ruby," Marcus said softly, not wanting Angus to overhear. "You remember that torture chamber Suzanne had installed in the Gelding house? Just so you know, that one was a duplicate of one that she had installed in the basement of the house where you grew up. And she had him imprisoned in that one once. That was how he found the girls, remember? And I know we got the equipment out of the Gelding house, but evidently, when things are on a psychic level, Priscilla can create any setting she wants. And she had him in that chamber last night in the Gelding basement. That's how he got those marks. He was in that chamber with her all night last night, and he's going on about 90 minutes sleep. Your baby is just getting a wee bit on his nerves. He doesn't want you to worry, I know, And I know he'll be fine, but he'll be better when Robert finds him a safe way to sleep."