LONDON CALLING

"I don't know, Jack," Edward said. "I think it's about a lightworker trying to pick up a dark magic object. I don't know if you should touch it. Edward picked up a pair of clippers and clipped off the fishing line, leaving the pendant and the hat caught on it. "Can you at least take it up to Robert's workshop and secure it up there until Gabe can examine it?"

Downstairs, Robert had done some surgery to repair the breaks in Victor's leg. It was a relatively minor surgery but it had taken some time because Robert had wanted to be sure that the breaks were perfectly aligned. He had covered the incisions with heavy gauze and dressings, and then placed a posterior splint along the back of the leg, and it went from the bottom of Victor's foot, and went up the back of his leg up past Victor's knee. And around that went layers of more gauze to keep the splint in place up the length of Victor's leg.

Victor had done exceptionally well through the surgery, and Robert had given Victor some heavy pain potions to keep him comfortable. Nigel and Robert now apparated together with Victor to Victor's room in the duplex and they very quietly put him to bed there to let him sleep off the pain potion from the surgery. They didn't speak. and they realized that nobody knew they were upstairs. They'd take care of Victor first. They elevated the bed a bit so that it was at a more comfortable height for them to care for Victor. They elevated the leg on pillows and left Victor dressed in just a hospital gown for now so that they could tend his needs without wrestling him around very much. Nigel covered him and checked his vital signs.

"Andrew can take it from here," Nigel told Robert. "He's done lots of post surgical care. If he needs us, he'll let us know. You did a bloody good job with that. I don't know that I've seen anyone take that much time to align every single little fragment like you did. If it heals well, he'll not have any problem at all with it when it heals. If I ever break a bone, you'd better be the one that sets it for me. Understand?"

"Of course," Robert smiled. "Just glad I could help. Did we miss lunch? I'm starving."

"God, I hope not. I'm gonna have to go gnaw on something if we did," Nigel said. He deliberately made a little noise upstairs now to avoid startling Ruby.

"Company upstairs," Sam told her.

"Ruby," Nigel said, walking out onto the landing. "Victor's here. We've tucked him into bed so he can rest. He's asleep. Robert did some surgery and set the leg. Bloody brilliant job. Some of the finest I've ever seen. If Victor behaves, I see no reason why he won't make a full recovery when it all heals. Andrew can take over his post surgical care, and Robert and I will come check him periodically."

Jack looked at it and sighed but nodded " yeah , I can do that." he said adn took hold of the fishing wire that held the hook stuck in the hat" he ported to Roberts lab and placed it into an enchanted box to hold it until Gabe could take alook at it.

Ruby heard the noise and turned to hear Sam say they had guests , she smiled seeing Nigel "Nigel good to see you again" she said and heard him mention Victor was in his room "Thank you both for taking good care of him" she said " I can make somefood if your hungry its about supper time anyway" she said looking at Sam she spoke " we'll talk more later okay" she said before moving to the kitchen and looking in the fridge to se what they had that she could cook up finally deciding on Turkey & coriander burgers with guacamole.

Nigel came downstairs. "Robert's still fiddling a little, but he'll be down. Victor's leg was broken in five places. The one of those breaks was a splintering. That's what took us. If Victor had been a muggle, they would have used rods and screws and plates and all sorts of hardware to keep the bone together. Sometimes that heals alright, and sometimes the person has lasting pain and problems afterwards. And if Victor had been in the hands of any other healer, they might have either tried that or they'd have settled for just getting the pieces 'close.' But--Robert tracked down every little fragment with a powerful magnifying glass and he reassembled every little miniscule fragment. I have seen hundreds of surgeries and I've done hundreds. I have never seen anyone who would stay at it that long in order to make sure it was absolutely perfect. The headmaster made the right choice by sending your brother to Robert. He'll be back on his broom, I'm sure, before the end of the season if the recovery goes well..." Nigel heard a tiny whistle and it took him a moment to track it. Then he saw a little figure waving at him from the dollhouse. Nigel walked over to the dollhouse and sat down in the recliner.

"Ah, so you're Sam. I'm Nigel," Nigel said. "What can I do for you?"

"When can I see him?"

"He's sleeping. It could be a couple hours. How are your accommodations?"

"They suck."

"Why?"

"Water doesn't work. Fireplace doesn't work. Furniture is hard as a rock, and the bathroom has no fourth wall. I can't use it if I'm not going to have any privacy."

"Oh. Well, let's see." Nigel drew his wand and fixed the lighting and the water and the plumbing and cast little enchanted fires in the fireplaces. Then he took a little 3 panel folding screen and put it in the bathroom to give Sam some privacy in the bathroom. Lastly, he cast a spell to make the furniture not just look alikes of quality furniture but actually miniature pieces that were as comfortable as their original counterparts. "Better?"

"Much. Thanks."

"Your mug is empty. Shall I refill it for you?"

"Please?"

"Certainly." He took the tiny mug, resized it, refilled the mug, shrank it again, and gave it back to him.

"He's actually gonna make me sleep in a toy house, isn't he?"

"Yeah, I think he is," Nigel said.

"But I'm so bored!" he wailed.

"Do you play chess?"

"Yeah, but this isn't a real board."

"Well, clearly not. Come with me." He held his hand out to Sam and when Sam climbed on, he went to the shelf, got down Angus's travel chess board and opened it up on the coffee table. He set out the pieces and put Sam down on the white side of the board and he sat down on the left. The pieces came not quite up to Sam's knee and since they were hollow, they weren't heavy. "Your move," Nigel said.

Andrew and Angus fished until Angus had caught a bass, and Andrew had caught three great looking little perch. Andrew brought Angus home and helped him into his regular chair, and then he and Angus cleaned the fish, packaged it up, and cleaned up the mess Andrew opened the door and let Angus in, and Angus took the fish to Ruby.

"Hey, Nigel. Who's winning? Ruby, check this out. There's enough fish here for maybe a nice fresh fish lunch tomorrow for everyone. Look at these beautiful fillets of bass and perch and trout." He opened the package to show them to her. "Andrew did alright when he stopped finding dark magic artifacts."

"I am," Nigel said.

"Not for long," Sam replied.

Ruby watched Nigel with Sam and smiled seeing them get along so well , she saw Angus walk back in and smiled hr eyes went wide when she saw teh fish " wow okay, you leave any in the pond?" she teased as she took the fish and palced them in the freezer then went back to her supper making. Once donw she placed the food on the counter " okay, suppers ready " she said and shrunk some for Sam placing it on the small dinning table for him to eat along with a small jug of juice nd several small cans of soda she placed a plate next to where he ws beside the chess board. " here you are sam eat up, ho I think he might have you" she said to Nigel smiling as she took her own and sat to eat with Angus and Andrew.

"Thanks, Ruby," Nigel said, tucking into his sandwich as Sam tucked into his. Angus and Andrew started in on their sandwiches as Robert came down. "Little twerp thins he has me," Nigel said.

"I do," Sam said.

"Not yet," Nigel said. He studied the board and moved a piece. Sam frowned, not sure why Nigel bothered with that piece.

"He woke very briefly, enough to know where he is, and then he dozed straight back off," Robert said.

"I'll go up in a moment," Andrew said

"Take your time," Robert said. "He's comfortable for now."

"Go get a burger, Robert. Ruby made some turkey burgers. They're really good," Angus said.

"Thank you. I haven't eaten yet today,' Robert said, helping himself to a burger. Sam moved a chess piece and took another bite of his burger. Nigel responded by moving a piece and taking one of Sam's pieces.

"Check," Nigel said.

"Oh, damn," Sam sighed. "How'd you do that?"

"You need to learn to focus," Nigel smiled. "Be careful with your next move." Angus looked at the board and saw that, if Sam really thought it through, he cold win over Nigel in two moves--if he didn't blow it. Nigel was giving Sam an opportunity, and Angus believed it was deliberate. Sam hadn't seen it so far.

Ruby watched Sam and Nigels game but was relived when Robert told them Vincent was resting comfortably " thats a relif" she said placing a burger infront of Robert " Kate would nevr let us live it down if we didn't feed you." she said smiling as she turned to look at the board once Nigel declared check. She looekd back at Angus and leaned over to him " he does know he could check mate him in two moves right" she said softly so only Angus heard. Sitting abck up She looked at Robert " um..Robert could I have a word once you'v eaten please"she asked .

Once they had eaten She walked over and waited for Robert to join her. Having no choice but to tell him the are more bodies in the basement than they first thought and Sam had confirmed it.

Angus nodded, seeing the same thing that Ruby had. He was content to let Sam duel it out with Nigel. When Robert finished eating, he took a soda and opened it and then went over to Ruby. Andrew got up and took an insulated pitcher of ice water and a glass with a straw and went upstairs to check on Victor. Seeing Victor was still sleeping, Andrew went to his own room and started moving in some equipment for Victor--a pair of crutches, a waterproof cover for the cast for when he showered, and a couple extra hospital gowns until Victor could wear something more, gauze pads, roll gauze, adhesive tape, scissors, extra foam padding for the splint, antiseptic, antibiotics, and a lot of other things. He had a small rolling cart with some drawers that he put all the medical equipment in and he set a charm on it to keep Sam and Victor either one from being able to tinker with it.

"Oh crap," Sam sighed, frustrated, seeing Nigel move his piece and take Sam's queen.

"That was a good game," Nigel said. "Well done." He saw Sam yawn. "Tired?"

"Didn't sleep last night," Sam confessed quietly.

"When did you take the shrinking potion?"

"Just about midnight," Sam said. "Couldn't sleep. Was afraid I'd get caught."

"Did you sleep in the suitcase all night?"

"Nah. Curled up on Victor's pillow, right by his head," Sam said. "Suitcase smelled like Victor's dirty socks." Nigel laughed out loud.

"Well, perhaps you should go wash up and make an early night of it."

"Bed doesn't have any bedding," Sam said.

"I'll see if Andrew or Ruby can hook you up with some sheets and a blanket and a pillow,' Nigel said. "Go wash up, and I'll see what I can do."

"Um...can you find me a towel or something?"

"Oh. Sure," Nigel said. He accio'd a couple towels and a cake of soap and shrank them and gave them to Sam. Sam found some pajamas in the clothes that Ruby had given him. No underwear, but he decided he could do without for one night as long as he had pajamas. Nigel was true to his word, getting up to go see if Andrew knew where the bedding was.

"Nigel," Angus said. "The linen closet is the narrow doorway in the upstairs hallway. If you bring me sheets, a pillow and a blanket and help me shrink it, I can make up his bed."

"Fair enough," Nigel said, going upstairs.

"What's up?" Robert asked Ruby.

Ruby looked at Robert " sam told me something disturbing earlier he said that there are more bodies in the basement of the house and he knew of it , it happened at christmas when Tyler got into some argument with some bloke over money it ended when Tyler killed the guy. " she said sitting down " Sam knows about it, we might need to send the clean up crew back to dig around a little more he doesn't think for one moment that's the only dude down." she looked up at him " He spent a lot of years telling them they were going to be just like him, he did say he wouldn't, he actualy said he'd rather die and so would Victor." she looked up at Robert and I also told him about you and the organisahion, it seems to have calmed him down knowing the truth I mean the whole truth." she told him

After amoment she spoke again " he also asked about the house , what we were going to do with it, I told him the truth Angus has decided yet but for me it could burn for all I care."

"What do you mean 'more bodies'?" Robert frowned. "I didn't know there were any bodies in that house. Well, since we don't honestly know if there were any of Gelding's people buried in there, I technically can't go in there without Angus's permission. I'm sure he'll give it to me, but I need to go through him. As much as they very well could be some of Gelding's associates, I don't own the house. Now that you've told Sam about us, I'm going to have to have a serious talk with him and with Victor to swear them to some secrecy because Sam will unquestionably tell Victor. They can't be spreading that all around or they'll put themselves and us in danger. Do, please, try to check with me before you tell lots of people about the organization. I realize they're your brothers but until I know they're mature enough to be responsible with that information, they can't know the specifics about where we are, or any of the rest of it."

Nigel brought down the bedding and shrank it and gave it to Angus, and Angus made up the big four poster bed for Sam and put it back up in the bedroom. Nigel lit the lights in the dollhouse. It actually looked quite pleasant.

"Would you like a book to read?" Angus asked Sam.

"Could I?"

"Sure. What would you like?"

"Oh, I don't care. Mystery, adventure, anything," Sam said. Angus picked up a book from his nightstand that he had finished. Nigel shrank it and handed it to Sam. Sam went upstairs and crawled into the bed and opened the book to read, settling for the night.

"Angus," Robert called. "Can I get into Reginald's house?"

"Sure. I don't care. Keys are hanging up in the kitchen. Right there on the hooks by the back door,' he pointed.

"Got 'em. Thanks," Robert said.

"Angus, when was the last time that either Robert or I checked you and your system for how much you've regenerated?" Nigel asked.

"I don't remember," Angus said. "It's been awhile."

"Then come with me. Let's go upstairs and I'll check it. My bag's up there anyway. We'll be back in a little," Nigel told Ruby and Robert, taking Angus upstairs.

Ruby looked at Robert and nodded " I know , but thats what he said , that my father knew about you and the orgaisation he knew he was into some shady things and that Tyler hated you very much" she said cleaning up some of what Sam had said " he wasn't sure why though." she said thens aw Nigel take angus up stairs to check on his system " okay,"she said simply " I'll be up in a bit" she added. She looekd at small Sam sat in the bed. " I must have been so nieve thinking they were safe from his influance, now I know he was grooming them to be like him, Im glad hes gone and Im glad they don't want to be like him."she said and then heard Robert ask for the keys to the house .

Standing she took out a paice of paper and drew a floor plan of the ground floor and basement. " here this should help, im not setting foot in that place but.." Sam do you rember roughly where in the basement dad hid the bodies?" she asked.