LONDON CALLING

Ruby continued to tidy the kitchen once done she tucked the tea towel into her trouser loop and walked over to stand listening to Gabe and Edward and nodded her head " I see, like an aprentice, hum I see your point, plus if hes trainned her then she will keep to his ways, whitch he'd know about and know how to rectify any problems that accur, right ." she said sitting down close to Angus.

Jess returned from the lab having no luck finding Kate " okay that stinnger is in a safe place for now." she said and looked at Angus " you still feel allright?" she asked standing at the door way. Jack walked in from his patrol and looked around the kitchen.

"There are scones in the dinning room, if you want some with fresh cream and strawberry jam too with a fresh pot of tea." Ruby told him this made Jack look up and head to the dinning room.

"Well, I don't think, if he ever retired, he would be looking to come back for any reason," Gabe laughed. "Once he's done with a thing, he's done with it. No, he just would want to try to make sure he's not being replaced by a nincompoop."

"Thanks, Jess, but I'm fine for now," Angus said. "I think I'm going to go take a quick look at Kate's critters out in the barn. I won't be long. There are a couple that need a wee bit more looking after, so if you'll excuse me..." He got up and walked out to the barn and went into the lean-to that Brian had constructed onto the main barn building so that there was someplace to house all of Kate's smaller animals and the birds. The big animals had stalls in the main section of the barn simply because Brian had made a very large barn. The lean-to section was specially constructed to be able to be quieter, and a lot less stressful for small animals that might be frightened or intimated by a large animal.

He checked on the pygmy puffs and the smallest creatures first. And then he came to the little bowtruckle that had fallen into deep sobs. Angus had always had a warm spot for him because, even by bowtruckle standards he was a small one.

"Aw," Angus said soothingly to him, "I'm sure she hasn't forgotten about you, Mate. She'd never do that. You want to come with me today until we find her?" He opened the habitat and reached in and offered the little bowtruckle the open palm of his hand. When he had him, Angus offered him his shirt pocket and the bowtruckle climbed in, sniffling. "Better now?" he asked. The bowtruckle made a little chirp that Angus took to mean it was better in his pocket than in the habitat. "You need a proper home, Mate, and I'm not sure I'm it, but someday we'll find you someone who is worthy of you. Ruby says she likes magical creatures. I bet she'd like to meet you. Maybe we can find her a shirt with a pocket if you two get on, but for now, you can come with me."

He went on to check the other creatures and got to Luigi, when the snarky owl tried to eat the bowtruckle, who made a shrill scream of fear. Angus put his good hand in the way, just in time for Luigi to bite him hard instead of the bowtruckle that he had fully intended to eat.

"What did I tell you about that!" Angus exploded at the foul tempered owl, who screeched right back at him in rage that Angus had interfered at all. "No. No, what have I told you. The rule is 'Thou Shalt Not Eat The Other Animals! You cannot have the bowtruckle, and besides your a ruddy carnivore anyway! You just had a meal as it is because you just got a piece of my hand. Why, I ought to make Owl Stew out of you!..." The owl kept screeching at Angus and flapping its wings in utter rage.

"You alright?" he asked the little bowtruckle, who popped up its head out of Angus's pocket and blew raspberries at the owl.

Ruby watched Angus stand and head to a lean-to. Standing she followed quietly but close behind him but said nothing. Leaning on the door frame she watched how he acted with the animals and the little bowtruckle this made her smile. She had found Angus to be gentel, strong and intelegent but yet strong in his own way. She chuckled softly as the bowtrickle slipped into his pocket and chirped. Walking again she followed him to a large owl. she gasped when it tried to go for him but then the bowtrickle.

"Awe, he won't do that" she said to the owl as she moved to stand next to him. " I followed you, I hope you don't mind." she said and spotted the bowtruckle offering her hand to it she felt it nudge against her finger. " he's cute, and this is Luigi, he realy is catankerious, but ever thought of getting him a partner, they do say owls mate for life..or was that eagels, ether way they are devoted to one single mate for the entirety of their lives."  Spotting a mouse she moved to catch it. Holding it out she offered it to him laid in the palm of her hand. " Im not going to hurt you." she said softly as she followed his head movement with her own hoping he would acept her.

"Yes, that is Luigi," he sighed, completely exasperated with the bird, massaging his own temples, realizing the headache was just setting in. He planned on ignoring it as much as he could. "This is Fudge--I think he likes you. He just cannot handle loneliness. He is truly only happy if he's in someone's pocket. Otherwise he just falls into complete and utter despair and sits in the habitat and sobs his little leafy heart out. And I can't stand that. He just is entirely pitiful. He's a relatively new one for us. I know Kate rescued him somehow, but I don't know how. They're smart and friendly and usually top notch at picking locks.

"Now, Luigi, on the other hand, he tries my patience. Sometimes I just leave him to Kate. I don't know if she's ever thought of a mate for him or not. It's a worthwhile thought, though. I'll have to ask her...." He watched the owl take the mouse and make quick work of killing it and eating it whole. "I've heard Kate say that a lot of the birds of prey mate for life, some owls included. I don't know if she's discussed that with Luigi or not. He's a hard one to get to know, but the fact that he hasn't rejected you is a step in the right direction. Would you like to see some of the others here? The little ones are here. Those big kennels in the corner are for all her weird multicolored pygmy puffs--not that they're harmful but they bounce all over the place and end up irking all the other animals

"The large ones are in the stalls. Brian has a pair of unicorns, and Robert houses his hippogriff here. We had a thestral for awhile because it had a broken wing, but we had an issue that most of the grounds men kept accidently letting him out because they couldn't see him. We finally had to limit anyone from opening the stall unless they could see him. It got down to Khaat and Robert and me and a couple others. But, we were finally able to release him just before Halloween.

"You know, this--all of this on this estate--this is home. Khaat offered me a job being the executive chef at Sparks when she first opened it, but I can't imagine leaving what I'm doing now. I have the best of everything just as it is. I've lived a lot of places, but I don't know that I've felt like I belonged quite so much as here, except maybe at my grandfather's place. We still need to show you around so you know your way. Maybe you can get Jack to take you out on one of his patrols. He covers most of the estate. That would be a good way to see it."

Ruby listened to Angus talking about the animals with such passion and caring for them. She could not help but smile she chuckled as he spoke of the thestral she nodded knowing they could only be seen by those who had seen death at least once. "Thats good, they should be in their own habitat." she said softly having noticed him rub his templess.

As he spoke of the estate and how he felt it was his home she kept quiet letting him talk, when he spoke of having Jack show her around she shook her head. "Na, its fine I'll ask Jessie when hes not busy but..I am comfortable staying close to the house." She said smiling as she looked at the unicorns " there beautiful" she said as one rested its head in the palm of her hand. "Must be wonderful to have all these animal and people around, and to look after them all." she said turning to face him just as Fudge popped out of his pocket reatching out she stroked the top of its head gently. " no one should be alone." she said softly.

"The unicorns are gorgeous, you're right, and they're very timid, and they really do like women better than men. I think Kate said she thinks they might be expecting a foal, but their pregnancies are just about a year, so they have a long way to go. Ever seen a unicorn foal? They're stunning. Shimmering gold all over before they gradually go white.

"You're right," Angus agreed with her that no one should be alone. "And Fudge here needs either someone that is not doing the sort of work that I do, or maybe I need to take him into the house so he can just roam from pocket to pocket--as long as Kate can convince Archangel not to eat him. The barn thing doesn't seem to be working for him."

He listened to her talking about having Jessie take her on a tour.

"That works too. Did you ever get a chance to take a walk through of the house? I know you've been sort of just thrown into things. Oh, and I haven't forgotten you still need to get some clothes and things. We can borrow another change from Khaat's closet for now but we also have an outfitter than takes care of clothes for all of us. He has our sizes on file, along with a file about what each person likes--styles, colors, all of that. We really should just set you up with him for an initial allotment of things. Once you do that, you can get whatever you want from him whenever you want. He can usually have things to us quickly, and we have a running account with him, so we can charge it to that account for now if you like. I don't know if that's where Jessie got some of his things at or if he got them someplace else. I wasn't a part of that."

Ruby smiled at the thought of seeing a unicorn foal right after its born. " must be quite the sight" she said and listened to him speak again about Fudge. " well I could take him, I don't have any pets." she said listening to him continue she sighed but smiled at him.

Taking his hands in her own she spoke softly to him " Angus, I'm fine, yes, I kinda did an impromtu walk around the house and its beautiful, Brian and Khaat have exsquisit taste, as for clothes and stuff, I make do, so please relax." she told him " we'll get around to everything in time. " she picked up the Bowtruckle and tickled it gently. " but im guessing you are feling that headache, an I right?" she asked letting Fudge slip into her breast pocket. "Jess did offer to relive it for you, I know your a strong,indipendent man but sometimes take help when help is offered, please." She took his hand in her own as she spoke again "The house isn't going to fall down just becuse you take one evening to recover nor the animals go unfed."

"It is trying to set in," he admitted to her that his headache was mounting. "I really am not refusing any help. I was honestly just hoping that I could ignore it and it might at least partly go away, but I'm not against Jess's help or anyone else's for that matter. It isn't my usual--to be sidelined for any reason, so I guess I really don't do it well. Alright--I'll give it a try to take the afternoon. How's this for an idea? You did a great job with lunch, so, perhaps, I can practice delegating by asking you to be in charge of putting supper together for everyone. I'm sure Jess and Kate would help, and Michael would absolutely leap at the chance to help with prep tasks that he could do sitting at the kitchen table. But you could determine the menu and do it your own way entirely. What do you say?"

Ruby smiled as he spoke " yeah, I have notice that about you, among other things, but thats what makes me want to be around you." she said then listened to the rest of what he had to say " Agreed and Im sure they'll steer me in the right direction if I go wrong, besides I realy should get to know the people Im gonna be working with ,especialy if Im staying long term, right?"

She took his hands and moved him back to the door of the lean-to " now come on mister, relaxation and a nice cup of tea." she said to him as sahe waited for him to start walking back to the house with her. The bowtruckle tucked down in her pocket now curled into sleep happy to be with some one.

"Absolutely, you should get to know them," he agreed with her. "I think you'll find they're all very welcoming. You'll have to tell me your impressions of them." He was almost amused at what she might think of some of them. He followed her to the lean-to doorway. and he closed the door, bolted it, and then double checked it to make sure it was firmly secure. The sunlight seemed to strike him now as being too bright, so he automatically got his sunglasses out and put them on.

"Alright, since you have the kitchen, I guess I'm free for the afternoon, which is a rarity in itself," he told her. He walked back with her to the house and saw Edward making fresh tea. Edward looked up at him.

"My boy, you're starting to look rough. You rather look like the south end of a northbound horse," Edward told him, putting the kettle on to boil. Angus rolled his eyes at his grandfather.

"Well, thanks for that," Angus said sarcastically. Edward went over to him and laid his hand on Angus's forehead.

"And you're rather holding up like the south end of a northbound horse too," Edward added.

"I'll try an aspirin powder, shall I?" Angus purposely got in a dig about a muggle remedy that he knew would irk Edward.

"Cheeky buggar, aren't you?" Edward asked.

"Learned it from you," Angus replied.

"Touché. Yes, you did," Edward said, laughing. "Go upstairs for a lie down, and either I or Jess will come up and draw off some of those symptoms for you." Angus was thinking of changing to comfortable clothes anyway.

"Send me up a mug of tea when it's done?" Angus asked.

"Someone will, yes," Edward said, waving him away. "Now, go on with you. Don't want to see you til morning."