LONDON CALLING

Ruby and Jess finished breakfast and Ruby placed some on a tray for Angus, along with coffee and orange juice. sending it across she could se him sat on the porch reading a newpaper. Jess looked over and nodded " hes fine, tense but fine" she said as they together sat down to eat, if felt weird with out Robert of Michael around but she had little time to think as the supplys they had ordered started to arrive. 

Jack moved quickly and movd the heavier items where Ruby only was alowed to lift the lighter objects like food supplies. Ruby and Jess sett about putting them away in the respective areas then put the empty boxes in the recycling bin. It ws now Ruby wished he knew what was going on but also knew to do as she was told and stay put out of trouble as she had ther things to protect, namely Angus and their child.

Michael participated in the exercise lass and felt that it was a bit lightweight for potential fighters. He watched the other participants, and finally he saw it--a telltale stance that he knew was one of Robert's movements. It was only slight, but Michael knew Robert well enough to know for certain which one was Robert.

So he now focused on trying to figure out which one was the mole. By the end of the class, he was convinced it wasn't anyone of the class members. But he was starting to get the feeling that Robert had some strong suspicions of someone. Robert, still disguised as a new student, stayed after class and asked Owens for some individual instruction on dueling. Owens granted his request. Michael was suspicious. What was he up to? Michael asked if he could watch, and Owens granted that request too.

Angus saw the shadows in the woods again, and while he had expected to be tense about it, for some reason, he actually felt some relief. He had needed to feel like he understood a bit about what Tyler was like and how he might behave, and now, getting it right, it made him feel like perhaps he wasn't 100 percent inept and like maybe there was something he might do after all to protect himself and his family, wheelchair or not.

Jess and ruby finally managed to get the whole order away and in its correct placment. Ruby looked out th window again and smiled being able to see him from where she was she felt was a good thing. Now she started preop for dinner weven though she ahd no idea now she felt she had to tak to Angus. Walking out teh door she looked around seeing nothing to her she walked over to him " hi, i was wondering if you had any ideas on dinners menu?" she asked sitting beside him so not to disturb his reading of the paper.

Jess had restocked the sick bay and the headed to St Mungos to do her normal work, several nurses had noted a discrepancey in the piotions and she was looking into it.

"Well," Angus said, "it's hard for me to know when I'm not sure what's in the pantry and the fridge. If you have any seafood, you should cook that first. It's always best if its cooked as soon as possible. I would maybe pan roast some vegetables. I'd take some fresh vegetables, toss them with olive oil, add some fresh rosemary and some salt and pepper and roast them right on a sheet pan. It's one of the best way to get flavor out of them. If you have any baby potatoes, you could boil them until they're almost fork tender. Take them out of the water, toss them with oil and herbs and transfer them to a sheet pan too. with a potato masher, smash each one until its about half an inch thick and and then add some salt and pepper and roast them too. You'd need to start them way before you cook your fish, but it would be the easiest way to fix a meal and it would have the least amount of clean up. You could order some dessert from Lizzie at Sparks. Just have her send whatever she thinks is good and have her put it on the account. I think that would be the easiest lunch, with almost no clean up but sheet pans."

He watched, through the slit in his paper and, while he couldn't see a face, he could see the figure from the chest down and the figure was drawing a pistol

"Ru," he said very calmly, "this is extremely important. I need you to trust me. On the count of three, I want you to hit the deck and make yourself as flat as you can. Got that? I'll be right with you. One...two...three." On three, he shoved himself out of the wheelchair to the terrace, drawing his gun, as gunshots fired in their direction. Lee's men were on them immediately, and Angus was firing his gun towards the figure in the woods. One of Lee's men grabbed him, and one grabbed Ruby. Angus felt himself being apparated somewhere. But he'd gotten some decent shots off, and that pleased him immensely.

Ruby listened and made noted of the meal but when his tone changed she slowly nodded to him as if to any one else she was still making notes. When he counted and got to one she did just as he said closing her eyes and making her self as flat as possible but then she felt herself being aperated away. Quickly she opened he eyes and saw Lees men " where are we?" she asked them loking around for Angus. But it ws then her head started to spin she tried to hold herself up but one man took hold of her and made her sit down.

"thank you" she said to him.

"not to worry, my old lady gets dizzy too." he said and she just looked up at him. " here drink this " he gave her some water. then moved away. " did you get him?" she asked.

"Living room," Angus said, trying to right himself. He was having difficult pulling himself up.

"We've got you," one of the men told him. They hauled him up, but his head spun viciously, like it had done every other time he'd tried to get to his feet. They put him in the recliner.

"I wish I knew if I got him," Angus sighed, "but I got some good shots off."

"Where was he exactly?" one of the men asked Angus.

"From where I was, he was off my 10," Angus replied.

"Good. That helps. We'll go check it," they said. One of them looked at Ruby. "If you go back to the main house, apparate. No going outside until we clear it."

"Okay, so back to the menu," Angus said. "If you don't feel like cooking, order it all from Sparks. It's completely fine. Where is everybody today?"

Ruby looked around and realized they were indeed inside the duplex " okay," she said softly as she listened to Angus " well robert and Mihael took off someplace in a hurry I might add, Jack is on the other side of the grounds and Jess is at St Mungos, Kate was still in the house with Abby as I recall, and yes I think that would be best." she held up her hands to show them shaking slighty " if I cut anything it might be my own fingers." she joked trying to make light of the situation " are you okay?" she asked standing and moving over to him to check him for wounds.

It ws now Jack ran in " okay where is the twerp" he said looking back at the grounds as he snifed the air " damn all Im getting is gunpowder." he told them both " came as soon as I heard the gun shots." he told them " Im guessing Lees men are on it, the grounds staff have ben warned and I'll add protection strengthaning spell again around the grounds and house." He watched the men move around a paticuler spot not far from the house.

"I'm fine," Angus said. "Calm yourself, Ruby. Everyone's alright. You're fine." Jack burst in all ready for sparring with someone. "Breathe, Jack," Angus laughed. "Everybody's fine. Yeah, Lee's men are on it. He was out there in the woods, just watching. But he didn't know I was watching him while he was watching me. He might be messing with the wrong invalid. Check my gun, would you?" Angus pointed to the pistol on the floor where he'd accidently let go of it. "I think I might have just about emptied a clip in his direction, and I'm not generally a bad shot."

It wasn't more than about two minutes later that one of Lee's men came back in.

"We think you might have winged him," the one man told Angus. "Lots of blood on the ground right at the spot you described. it would have been off your ten, not more than about 30 yards--back in some of that brush back there."

"Yep. that was the spot. Well, maybe that will slow him down for a day or two," Angus said.

"If he doesn't bleed out," The man said. "By the looks of it, he was losing a lot of blood pretty quickly.

"Good. So I'm not so useless after all," Angus said.

"Did you know he was there?"

"Yup," Angus said.

"How?"

"Made a slit in my newspaper so I could watch him watching me," Angus said with a grin. They all laughed.

"Sneaky," one of them said.

Ruby took a slowlbreath in and calmbed her self , Jack just chuckled at Angus then stepped aside to check Angus;s gun " yep empty" he said and cleared the chamber before reloading it. " here you go" he said handing him it back just as Lees men appeared and spoke " good means he can be tracked" he said but knew he could do nothing with out Robert or Michaels say so and they were both AWOL right now. "but securing the perimiter is more important,I hope he does bleed out." Jack said as he stood with his arms folded.

Ruby looked at the clock and stood up again " I should put the order in for dinner" she said lightly kissing Angus she smiled as one of the men called him sneacky " yep thats my husband for you" she said with a grin and aperated to the main house. " Kate its all clear, Angus winged the man but hes gone." she said loudly hoping they would hear as she wrote a note to Sparks to send out some dinner items they felt would be best since she could not or rather woould not trust her self with a knife at that time. She did brew some fresh coffee and sent a cup over to Angus.

Ruby left for the main house, and Andrew looked at Angus.

"Wait. Are you two married or not?" he asked.

"Might as well be," Angus shrugged. "Engaged. Living together, and apparently procreating." Andrew laughed out loud.

"Yeah, that's pretty much the whole deal but the trip down the aisle," Andrew laughed. "So have you set a date?"

"No, but I think Ruby has some definite ideas on how that's all going to go."

"You don't see yourself having an equal voice in that process do you?"

"Does any groom? Really?"

"So, if you could plan it, what would you do?"

"She does not understand how much I hate being the center of attention and how much that creates issues for me. She wants, I think, a much more formal affair than I would want. And its that entire notion of that big ceremony with all the fru fru stuff that goes on for hours that makes me so against the whole convention of marriage. It isn't her I object to. Not at all. It isn't marriage exactly that I object to. If I have to go through all that to get married, Robert is going to have to give me enough nerve medicine that I'm stoned out of my brains for the entire day because I don't know if I can make it through all that."

"Wait. If that is what wigs you, what are you going to do when she goes into labor?"

"Meh. That's no problem. Not the first time I've seen that, and won't be the last," Angus said. "It's a natural biological process. I can do that."

"You are so weird," Andrew laughed. "Labor and delivery you can do, but a wedding scares the socks right off you."

"Pretty much," Andrew said. One of the men came in bringing in a coffee tray from the main building. "Ruby's doing?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah. She's trying to anchor into something to steady her nerves," he replied, as Andrew brought him a mug of coffee.