LONDON CALLING

Jessie folowed Kaden to the bathroim where he was made to sit down. " sirt off, and don't look at me like that, your shoulder." he pointed out as Jessie did as he was told. " okay it'll feel stiff but its healing." he said making Jessie sigh in relif.

"Will Robert be okay?" he asked softly and Kaden nodded as he repaired Jessies shirt.

"yes he will, Khaat is an amazing healer" he said holding up the shirt for Jessie to put back on. " now we should get back out there." they left the bathroom and heded back to the living room to hear the chatter about yet another man they ere sending for. This made Kaden feel a little out of place seeing he was only there becuse Jessie had caught him at the right time.

"I see you," Kate said, seeing Jessie and Kaden in the living room. "Don't make me come get you two. Come eat." Brian and Angus heard the somewhat maternal tone in Kate's voice, something they'd all heard at one time or another, and it made Brian and Angus laugh.

"If they don't come, you have my full permission to ground them to their rooms," Brian said.

"No, they'd like that," she teased. "I could make them do the dishes or I could let them muck out the stalls in the barn."

"I don't know which is a worse task," Angus laughed, " washing up dirty dishes or shoveling hippogriff manure."

"Dishes," Khaat and Brian both said simultaneously.

In the bedroom, while Michael was at the desk, with his back turned to Robert, he wrote a message to Edward. Robert woke and found himself in his own room. It took him a moment to remember what happened, and he could not remember how he'd gotten home. He heard laughter from what he presumed was the kitchen or the dining room, so he surmised things had to be at least non emergent for the moment. The pain in his shoulder was almost intolerable even by his standards. He sat up, finding himself in his work trousers still, but instead of his shirt and jacket, he now had a significant dressing on his shoulder and bandages wrapping around his chest and his shoulder. He got up, somewhat unsteady at first.

"Where are you going?" Michael asked quietly, sending his message up the floo and then going standing and going over to him.

"The dresser," Robert pointed.

"I'll get it. Sit," Michael said, making him at least sit on the edge of the bed. "What do you need?"

"Bottom drawer, on the right, under the sweaters. There's a potion bottle. Get it for me, please," Robert said.

"Certainly," Michael said. He got the bottle and read the label and brought it over to Robert and handed it to him. "How long have I known you now?"

"51 years and counting," Robert said. "Why?"

"51 years, and how many skirmishes have we fought together?"

"Too many to count. Why?"

"With all we've seen and done together, this is the first time I've ever seen you voluntarily take a pain potion--ever."

"I'm an old man now, Michael," Robert brushed off his concern, drinking a dose of it. "I'm not young and stupid anymore. When it hurts, it hurts."

"And this hurts more than most," Michael surmised.

"Whoever's been at it didn't use a pain relief spell," Robert replied.

"That's because you were unconscious. You didn't need it," Michael said.

"Tell me it wasn't some hack," Robert scowled at Michael.

"Unless Khaat and Brian and Kaden are hacks, then, no," Michael replied.

"Lovely. A family reunion, and I missed it," Robert said, with a hint of amusement.

"Well, the festivities aren't over yet. We've sent for Edward Donohue to give you a hand with the potions lab."

"Oh. Good thought," Robert said. "That's going to be a bloody nightmare."

"We'll recruit whatever help we can find, and we'll buy as much as we can to restock, whether its ingredients, equipment or readymade potions."

"What happened to Gelding?" Robert asked.

"Wasn't Gelding. Someone with some stinking polyjuice. They're dead now, though."

"Buggar," Robert sighed.

"Are you hungry? Dinner's still hot."

"No. Thirsty. Got a firewhiskey and a cigarette?" Robert asked.

"This really got to you, Mate," Michael said, lighting a cigarette and handing it to him.

"No, not really. I just need time to think," he inhaled on the cigarette and exhaled the smoke slowly, taking time to enjoy the flavor. Michael piled some pillows on the bed so Robert could lean back against the pillows. He could see the pain potions was going to make him at least slightly drowsy.

"If I slip you some firewhiskey, you aren't going to doze off and set the bed on fire, are you?"

"No," Robert replied. "Besides, the second you tell them I'm awake, the whole herd will descend upon this room and I won't have a chance to set anything on fire."

"You still keep a flask in your bathroom?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess I do," Robert said, having forgotten about it. Michael was able to go across the hall and rescue a silver flask of firewhiskey and bring it back without having anyone else critique him on it.

"Drink quick, Mate, before they catch us," Michael said. Robert took a hearty swig from the flask and handed it back to Michael who tucked it in Robert's nightstand.

"Now you can tell them I'm still alive," Robert said, feeling more ready to face them than he had a few minutes earlier. Michael went into the dining room and looked at them.

"He's awake, and he's fully alert," Michael said to them. "He's fine. And before you say it, I gave him a cigarette. Don't nag him about it. He's just fine."

Jessie and Kaden heard Kate and moved to the kitchen together. "His shoulder took a hit but he'll live." Kaden told Kate as together they sat down to eat. They listened to the laughter and chatter. " you know I have a spare room at my apartment, Jessie could stay there to make room for others." Kaden said as Jessie placed a plate of soup in front of him with a plate of rolls.

"I don't know Kaden, being here means Im close when they need me, pluse I kinda owe Robert for taking me in when I arrived or rather dropped in to an alley unceramoniusly." he said making Kaden smile. Jack chuckled as he ate his food.

"oh nothing like the smell of aue de trash when you meet your new boss." he said chuckaling. Jessie chuckled too and nodded. Hearing foot steps he turned to see Michael who announced Robert was awake and he breathed out.

" I take it hes exspecting a rush of people to vist him" Jess said and smiled " we'll let Kate go and see him first after all she is his wife." Jack nodded his head next to Jess as did Jessie and Kaden. " its only right."

"You're welcome to stay as long as you like," Kate reassured Jessie.

"You're half right, Jess. He knows us and he knows we're all concerned, and rightfully so," Michael agreed with Jess. "But I think he wanted the cigarette because he just witnessed decades and decades of work blown to bits. That bothers him immensely because he realizes that the hospital potions lab is now fully his responsibility and he knows the mammoth task that just landed on his shoulders."

"Well, ultimately," Khaat said, "the responsibility is mine. I know he owns that responsibility as the hospital's resident potionsmaster, but if I have to hire an entire crew of potions makers to help us replenish our supplies and potions stocks, I'll do that. Changing subjects slightly, maybe Brian and I should take Abbey home tonight because you really don't need a three year old underfoot after all the excitement tonight."

"She's just fine," Kate insisted. "We have all sorts of people here, so she's not in the way, not in the least. I can't tell you not to take her since you're her mother, but I'm telling you she's not in the way. Jess, would you make sure we get the cookies out so everyone can have one while they're nice and fresh, please?"

"Cookies!" Abbey got immediately excited.

"Well, there's someone who has never passed up a opportunity to have a cookie," Angus laughed.

"Nor have any of the rest of us," Michael laughed, as Kate got up to go see Robert.

"Give me a minute with him, and then I'm sure if you want to see him, he isn't going to object," Kate told the others, and then she headed for the bedroom.

Jessie nodded and looked at Kaden as he spoke again "I will eventualy, give it time" he said smiling and Kaden understood. Jess nodded and moved to the kitchen retreving the cookies and placing them on a plate to place in the center of the table for every one to take.

Jack took a cookie then handed Abby one smiling as he took a bite." these are realy good." Jack said " after that climb I'm ready to sleep the night away." Jessie took one and ate it slowly, it reminded him of ones his mother made for him.

"yeah there realy good" he said as Kaden said he could not as he had to get back to the hospital.

"Khaat ma'am if you need my help in anyway with the lab, please feel free to call on me, I might not be a potions master but I am willing to learn." he said moving to stand next to Jessie. With a quick kiss on his cheek Kaden returned to the hospital to finish his shift.

"You really could be a big help," she told him. "The first tasks will be clean up. I understand there's a little broken glass to be swept up."

"A little?" Michael looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Barrels of it. You'd better send owls to every glassmaker in the wizarding world because you're going to be replacing thousands of bottles and beakers and jars. Most of them were completely obliterated." He looked at Kaiden. "Know how to handle a broom? Besides flying? There's going to be hours of sweeping and scrubbing to be done just for starters. Firewood to be bought and put into the bin, the fireplace hearth to be cleaned and readied, shelves to be rebuilt, worktables and stools to be replaced, crates of cauldrons and equipment to be uncrated and sorted and shelved. Ingredients to be put into jars and bottles and labeled as they come in, and that's before the first potion can be brewed in there again."

"Yes, and I'll have to hire a crew to help do all that," Khaat sighed. "That's hard work, needing able bodied people to put in some extra hours to get all that done as quickly as possible.

"I'm there, Babe," Brian squeezed her hand. "Whatever you need me for, I'm there."

"Me too, if you can spare me from the estate at all," Angus said. Michael and Gabe and Kate and Mira all volunteered to help. Khaat knew that Kate was good at organizing and supervising.

"I'll know more if I can go in and see if his inventory books survived," Khaat said. "I'll try to do that either overnight or first thing in the morning. Maybe if I can at least tell him what survived, it might put his mind at ease a little bit."

"I'll go with you," Brian said. "But that means, Abbey will need to stay with her grandma again tonight."

"And that will make one grandma very happy," Gabe laughed.

Kate went into the bedroom and found Robert holding his cigarette, his eyes closed. She went over and kissed the top of his head, and he opened his eyes and smiled.

"We're not done yet," he told her "I'm afraid you're still stuck with me."

"I'll make do," she teased, more glad than she was going to let on to him about how glad she was that he was escaping with only a shoulder wound and some glass cuts. "This is accumulating, Robert," she said. "The concussion a day or two ago, and now this? I know you're going to bit chomping at the bit to get into the lab, but you really can't, you know. Not for a couple of days."

"And I can't stay here either. I have to at least go see what I'm up against."

"Let's let Khaat do her job first. Then we'll know more. Give her a chance. It's on her shoulders for the moment."

"I can't leave it entirely up to her. She doesn't have the knowledge base I have. I know every inch of that lab..."

"Robert," Kate said, silencing him, "enough. No more. I'm not having it. You need to listen for once. Give her at least tomorrow morning. You aren't able, and she is." He sighed heavily, feeling pressured, and he took another big drag off his cigarette. She took it from him and took a big drag from it herself. He looked at her wide eyed. He'd never seen her smoke before.

"It's not the first cigarette I've ever had," she rolled her eyes at him.

Brfore Kaden left he listened to Khaat " I'll get a crew on it as soon as I get back. I'll have the shelves replaced and ready for new bottles to be placed on them." he told her then listened as she rattled off all that needed to be done " do not worry I'll get on it." he said then with a slight bow he ported out and back to the hospital. Quickly he found several willing wizards and showed them the room each took a courner and began cleaning and repairing what they could, even adding a book to write down all the new potions and some that they could save in

Jessie chuckled and looked at Khaat " that will keep him busy." he said eating his own cookie. Jack stood up and pulled Jessie with him "Patrol time newbie." he said and he and Jessie headed out but not before. Jess shook her head but stated cleaning up the table. She looked at Angus then at the bedroom door.

"I think its best they be left alone" she said softly " we have things we need to do also theres that tracking pendant that Jessie and I found that needs to be dealt with." she motioned to a safe that sat in the courner of the room. "its in there"

"The tracking pendant is my problem," Gabe said. "If you would be so kind as to open the safe?"

"Oh, do let me," Michael said, with a mischievous grin. He got up and went to the safe and knelt down in front of it. He laid one hand on the safe door, and with his other hand he slowly worked the combination lock, feeling for the rolling of the tumblers as he went. It didn't take him more than a moment, and he turned the handle and opened the door.

"Doesn't he ever get disturbed by watching you do that?" Gabe frowned.

"No," Michael said. "He knows whose side I'm on."

"It's a little disconcerting having a mate that can do that," Gabe said.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," Michael teased him. He really was only about half teasing though, because Gabe did not need to know all the things Michael was good at getting into and out of. Nor did Gabe need to know that not only was Michael a catburglar but he was also the Ministry's extraction agent, an Unspeakable. Not one of their favorite ones, he realized, but every now and then something needed stolen or someone needed rescued. And he was the one who had the skills to do it. What bothered Michael was that he wasn't seeing any of the new men or women that had any natural inclination to learn the things Michael knew how to do. When Michael got too old to work, the Ministry was just going to be without. At this rate, Michael wasn't entirely certain that he was going to be rope climbing well into his nineties, and that wasn't a pretty picture.

He picked up the pendant, closed the safe,and handed the pendant to Gabe.

"Meh," Gabe said, unconcerned. "Its another, just like the last one." He cast a spell on it and deactivated it. "As I see it, that's two for us and zero for them."

Meanwhile, Kate helped Robert to clean up, and she found him a plain blue color. He didnt bother with the shirt because he wasn't going to get it on over the bandages anyway. Kate believed Khaat was going to want Robert's arm in a sling to take pressure of the shoulder, but Robert wasn't in the mood. Kate took the sling from the med kit anyway, and at his insistance, she walked with him to the dining room.

"Sorry I'm late, All," he said, going into the dining room, "but I wanted to tell you thanks for a job well done."

"Sit," Brian told him quietly, more of an order than a request. "It's entirely too soon for you to even be thinking of being up, and you, of all people, know it." Kate handed him the sling, and Brian scowled at Robert and proceeded to use it to immobilize Robert's left arm to take the weight of his arm off his injured shoulder. "You really are a sucky patient, you know that?" he asked him.

"Is there any tea?" Robert asked him, looking to deliberately distract him.

Jess chuckled and stood watching as Michael opened the safe skillfully. " I never get board seeing that" Jess said smiling as she watched Gabe nutralize the pendent. she took it and broke it into peices then threw it in the fire watching as the cheap metal melted into nothing but a silver mess. " thats , that" she said and went back to cleaning the kitchen and placing the dishes in the washer.

Jack and Jessie walked back in, Jack moved to Jess while Jessie looked at Michael " all calm, even the wolves are settled tonight, its like they know Roberts hurt and there behaving." Jack chuckled and nodded.

"I think they are, it might have been the dark magic causing them to act up, now its not longer around they can relax just like us." Jack said " oh the fence to the wet paddok looks like it needs repairing, I'll get on that first thing." he told Michael.

Brian brought Robert a mug of tea, tea he was sure Robert didn't really want.

"Can I be of any help in there tonight?" Gabe asked Khaat and Kaden. "I'm not too old to push a broom."

"I might have you help inventory the equipment that we can salvage," Khaat said.

"I'll go in with Kaden tonight," Brian said. "Maybe we can have some sort of preliminary report ready by breakfast. How about we plan on meeting back here at breakfast and then we can make some better decisions. Khaat and I are going to make sure the walking wounded over here is in bed for the night before we leave." He glared at Robert.

"I have work that can't wait, Son," Robert told him, trying not to lose his temper.

"Here," Michael said, lighting another cigarette for Robert and handing it to him. "Have another. It helps. Oh, look. Brian didn't add enough milk to your tea. Give it here." He took it to the kitchen on the pretense of adding more milk to it but he added a shot of firewhiskey to it before he poured in just another week bit of milk, stirred it, and brought it back. "Drink your tea. Tea fixes everything." He wasn't trying to cause a problem. In fact, he was trying to help avoid one. He was only looking to take an edge off Robert's discomfort and his anxiety about knowing St. Mungo's needed him and knowing he realized fully he didn't feel like going.

"Jack, let's not forget to feed them," Michael told him about the wolves. "Let's not start out by not keeping our word. Angus, can we take some meat from the big walk in fridge at the estate?"

"Certainly," Angus said. "Help yourselves. Do you need someone to go with you to do that?"

"Does anyone object to me putting Abbey to bed?" Mira asked.

"By all means," Brian said, seeing that Abbey was looking completely spent. For a three year old she really was beautifully behaved tonight, but then again, it might have had something to do with the fact that Angus was breaking a cookie into small pieces and giving the pieces to her when she got restless.