LONDON CALLING

Jessie saw Micahel walk to the entrance but not too close to have his smoke. Leaving the others to tlk he walked over to him " I am clustraphobic" he told him " its another thing thanks to my family" he told him " I am working threw it " he said moving a rock back and forth with his foot " but it takes time and that passage would I know have set it off." He felt he was not going to put others at risk if he should lose it in the passage way.

He stood and looked out into the forest " out there im fine , in a cavern like this im fine but...small spaces nope, I some days want to kick my father for putting me in that closet all those years ago and giving me this but..i am getting over it." he told him trying to explain better his thoughts and fears " its the only one I have im good on anything else, shark baiting, squid wrestling or even dancing with a bear I'll do that ."

"Hm?" Michael had been in his own thoughts when Jessie walked up to him. "Sorry. Was a bit preoccupied. Look, Lad. We all have our hang ups. I'm a smoker. I smoke because I like it. It's what I do. Actually, I'm several cigarettes behind what I normally smoke. I am aware, though, that a cigarette isn't as aromatic as a pipe and it can offend people. I like pipes too, by the way, so you can't let yourself get insecure if I step out to smoke. You don't need to defend yourself.

"If I were you, I wouldn't say that was your only hang up, though. If there's one thing I've learned is that there are always more where that came from. I don't know if Robert knew you were claustrophobic though because I don't know if he would have sent you on a mission in a mine if he had. It isn't a good assignment for someone with claustrophobia. If he tries to send you on something that is going to be tough for you to complete, you owe it to yourself and him to gently remind him. There might be another position within the mission that allows you to be part of it without exposing you to that. I'm glad you're working through that, for whatever that means for you, but it might spare you some difficulty if you mentioned it when assignments are being doled out."

In the cabin, Angus had served the bread pudding, and they had loved it, gone back for seconds and demolished all of it. There wasn't a crumb left. That pleased him. Ana sent the older two kids up for baths, and she went up to help the six year old in the tub.

Angus set in to clean up the leftovers and put them away and to clean the kitchen. He was tiring, and he was finding it hard to keep up with the kitchen chores the longer he tried to push through them. The more he tried to finish what he'd started, the more he knew he was starting to have some of the symptoms he had experienced last night. It angered him and frustrated him. He was bloody useless on this team. They were out in the field and he couldn't wash up the dishes.

In his head, he was mentally writing his resignation, imagining himself packing his things and moving into the duplex and retiring and...well, he hadn't gotten to that part. What would he do with the rest of his life? If all he was good for was sitting in a recliner, that was no sort of a life. Ruby and Edward neither one would stay if that was all his life could possibly be....

The room spun, and he clutched onto the countertop for balance.

"Angus!" Ana was suddenly there. "What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? I told you I would get that. Come. Come with me. You're not ready for all this."

"I have to be ready. I can't stand not being ready," he wanted to explode, but this was Ana. He couldn't explode at her.

"Come with me, you dolt, before you end up on my floor." She gave him no choice. She took him back to the recliner and made him sit.

"What sort of a..." he wanted to vent.

"Will you stop? Its temporary. You're letting your mind run around unsupervised, and its getting you in trouble. You have all the patience of Job for everyone on the planet but yourself. That hasn't changed one iota." She softened and looked at him. "You miss your team."

"Yeah. I do. It's making me crazy not being able to be with them. I'm nothing but a ball and chain to them this time. I can't do this, Ana."

Jessie listened to Michael and chuckled " whose to say I don't like the smell of cigarette smoke, it reminds me of my army days" he said with a smile " and think Kaden would agree I have more than one vice, but no this is how I want to get over that fear, I didn't mention it becuse I wanted to come and help." he told him his arms now resting behind his back as he stood taking in the air. beside him.

"so whats the next move, get the crystal then get Angus and then home?" he asked wondering how the others were faring. He knew Ruby would be baking and in the garden planting along with Edward and she'd have the whole duplex furnished and ready for when Angus returned home.

"Well, the miners need help, and Sergio and Ana have been hunting for the 'child hunters' to help them recover the children from the village. They didn't know Angus could have made sure we were on this a year ago. And, they want to join our organization. I fully expect that we will return to Sergio's, and I expect we'll have a floo conversation with Robert about their membership before we return. Technically, as a founder, I could offer them membership right now, but I owe Robert an opportunity to weigh in if I can.

"I expect we'll probably all take the time to shower and clean up and perhaps get some breakfast before we start to reverse the apparating back the same way we came to get back to Budapest. I don't know if we'll get back to Budapest in time to catch the train back to London. There's one train back and it leaves at ten. If we're going to miss it, we're far safer to stay another 24 hours with Sergio than to risk being tracked again by the shapeshifters in Budapest. And--we'll need to take into consideration whether Angus has recovered enough to travel. Brian seems to think that by tomorrow this time he will be considerably better, not 100% but definitely better. So, since I'm not any sort of medical man, I have no idea how that will affect us.

"And, if the shapeshifters find us, then I have no doubt whatsoever that we will be into a skirmish. I think that's a given."

Jessie listened to him and realized theere was alot to do before returning hom he understood now why they were in control and he just followed. He liked it that way. He was the grunt who did the leg work. " yeah, best to let him know whats going on, he'll know who to send out to fix this mess" he said " but for us we'll do our part, I know I won't back down from a fight if it comes to it." he then took out his flask and took a dose." motioning to the sky he spoke again " full moon here" he told him.

" okay question how do we know there not already here deisgused as one of the miners?" he asked just to kill time till morning or untill they had to rest for the next day.

"Us. We're the fix," Michael told him. "It's what we do. We'll look for the children the same way we look for all the others. We do good intel, find out either where they are or when the next meeting that Gelding's staff will have with the muggles, and we'll take them back. That's how we work."

Jessie asked about whether the shapeshifters had infiltrated the miners.

"No. That hasn't happened, so far as we know--if the shapeshifter amulets work. Sergio has one of them, and he's wearing it. He left the other one with Ana. For now, the best we can do is to turn in early because it starts getting light by about five. Brian and Sergio will want us up before then so we're awake, dressed, and ready to start repelling back down as soon as its light enough to go. I think it could be a very short night." He dropped his cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it under his feet. Then, when it was cool, he tossed it in the trash. "We'd best go in. It's not polite to be up later than your hosts."

Ana had tried to encourage Angus to open the floo back to home, to talk with Edward or Ruby or Robert, and Angus didn't want to do that. He didn't want to burden any of them with the negative thoughts he had racing through his head. He chose instead to go upstairs and soak in a hot tub. Ana went to brew a soothing her tea for when he got out, and she gave him a bath oil that was very masculine, scented with leather, woods, and herbs. When he added it to his bath water, it was strangely soothing. He sat down in the tub and leaned back trying to focus in on the scented oil instead of the things that were making him crazy.

Jessie listened and nodded " got ya" he said then looked back at Sergio with the medalion that just hung around his neck " guess thats one blessing." he said and heard him mention about turning in early. With a nod he moved to an area that he'd placed his sleeping bag in and lay down not finding the ground uncomfortable at all. With his arm behind his head he closed his eyes but listened to the sounds around him and the crackling of the fire. He liked this and he would not stop becuse of one fear he had. He smiled as if making up his mind for when he got back.

Jessie opened his eyes to the sight of the sun just rising and he slipped off his sleeping bag rolling it he sowed it back in his back pack. He moved to Brian and the others " suns peeking" he said softly as he moved to put some logs on the fire to keep it going.

Ana had not heard from Angus in the bathroom, and when it had been close to an hour, she knocked on the door and called to him but there was no answer. She opened the door and went in and saw that he had somehow fallen and hit his head. There was a small trickle of blood up in the corner of his forehead, up in his hairline.

She could have kicked herself in that moment. She had felt he wasn't steady enough to be alone, that he had gotten too tired. She had gotten the first aid kit, cleaned up the wound and had resorted to two butterfly stitches to close the gap. Then she had left him on the floor and had covered him with a blanket rather than to leave him naked on the floor. She had gotten an ice pack and had simply stayed with him, icing his forehead unti he had come around. It hadn't taken long, though. Perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes she guessed.

He was full of apologies, but that was just Angus. She knew that. He didn't respond well to his own human frailties. When they had been a couple, her mother had told Ana that Angus was just too nice a guy to be part of the Dalca rough-and-tumble world. Perhaps he was in his niche now as Lupin's cook. She got him up and into his room and tucked him into bed, just as he was, taking the wet blanket to dry it. She had turned down the light but had left it on dimly, and she had closed the door, leaving him to sleep.

"Yeah, I'm packed and so is Michael. We couldn't sleep, so we're packed except for your bed rolls," Brian said in a whisper when Jessie had called them. He got out of his bedroll, and as he did, he caught the first aromas of morning coffee brewing. "God, that smells like heaven. Romania has some insanely good coffee. Angus was right about that. I'm going to miss it."

Michael got up and packed his bedroll too. Sergio was up and packed already and he was ready to go. He went back out to the campfire where Emil was sitting. He didn't see any of the miners.

"Did we wake you?" Michael asked Emil, sitting down near Emil. Emil poured him a cup of coffee.

"Us? No," Emil said with a smile. "The men are already up and gathering your rocks for you. They are very particular about what they are choosing. Have some coffee while we wait for them to return." He motioned to Jessie and Sergio and Brian. "Come. The coffee is fresh and hot."

"Music to my ears," Brian smiled. "Thank you." Emil passed around tin mugs of coffee. "Emil, I am authorized to speak for Robert in matters like yours. We will not forget your children. You have my word and Robert's. We will do everything we can to find them. This will not be the last you hear from us."

"Our entire village will put its hope in you, for we do not know what else we can do," Emil said.

"Understood," Brian said. "We will not abuse that trust. Sergio, how are we doing on time?"

"We have a bit of time," Sergio responded. "Your shapeshifters will not know the path I took you on. No doubt they will come the newer ways because they are safer, and they will not know of the old paths. They will expect to find you on the new paths, then, and even as much as they are safer, they are considerably longer. We will have a bit of time now. We have cut at least a day and a half of travel off your time that they will still have to contend with."

"Are you sure you don't need us to help you deal with the shapeshifters?"

"Shapeshifters are much more common here than where you come from," Emil said. "We will be fine. Do not concern yourselves."

Jessie smiled and smelt the coffee he moved to sit as he was offered a cup. " thank you" he said taking it and savoring its flavor noting to bring some back for the pantry in Kadens apartment. He looked around at the rocks lying round then spoke to Emil again. " um.. would it be possible if I could purches a clear stone, dosn't have to be big as I would like to set it in a ring." he asked not sure what they would take as payment but he would happily give them what they wanted for it.

Sipping his coffee untill it was finished he smiled and placed the cup down by his side. all this had got him thinking about his life and he knew who he wanted in it. But he also knew he'd have to ask first both Robert and Kaden.

"Are you looking for a clear stone, like a clear quartz, or a clear peacock colored stone?" Emil asked.

Angus woke, finding himself naked between the sheets in his old room in Ana's house. He immediately panicked before he had his wits about him, wondering if he had betrayed Ruby and Sergio both and had done something unspeakable. He leaped out of bed to try to throw on his clothes, his head spinning, and at that moment, Ana cracked open the door.

"Ana!" he gasped. "I'm so sorry. Did I...did we..."

"You never used to be an imbecile first thing in the morning," she scowled. "When did this happen? Or did you hit your head harder than I thought?"

"Huh?" he looked at her, and then he snatched the blanket off the bed to cover himself. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Dummkopf," she said. "I have seen you naked more times, I think, than I have seen Sergio naked. I must say, though, you have been working out. It is not unattractive..."

"Ana!" he was still rattled.

"No, we didn't. Neither one of us even considered it. You slipped and fell and hit your head in the bathtub. I found you naked on the floor and put you to bed. I didn't think you'd remember. You were stunned, I think. How's your head now?"

"Fine," he said. "I'm fine." he was rooting in his pack for his clothes, but in his own panic, all he was accomplishing was making a mess out of its former meticulous organization.

"You're such a schoolboy," she sighed, reaching in the pack and finding his clothes easily. "Here. Better?"

"I'll be better when they're on me and not on the bed," he said.

"I hope she's a steady woman."

"Who?"

"Ruby. Is there someone else besides her in your life?"

"Oh. No. There isn't."

"She'd better be a calm woman because when you get embarrassed, you really are a mess."