LONDON CALLING

Robert got the paper bird while he was dressing. He hurried, dressed, and went next door to the duplex. Angus went out on the deck, not wanting to have this discussion with the boys within earshot. He showed the note to Robert.

"We're not going to permit this, of course. Over my dead body will those boys will ever go to Gelding," Robert said. "I still have some friends on the Wizengamot. I think under the circumstances, the right move is to go directly there and file motions against Tom and Suzanne based on the charges we have on Suzanne, the ones we have on Gelding and based on the charges he has in France and the fact that he is an escaped felon there. However, in order to keep this from recurring, you may very well need to file for permanent custody of the boys yourself since you're already their guardians. Now, granted, since the boys are 17, it doesn't mean a whole lot, but it would keep this from coming up again and again. I can't believe he has the cheek to try this, given the fact that he's wanted for countless crimes in just about every country across Europe."

"Then that's what we'll do," Angus said. "Let's countersue and take permanent custody."

Robert saw Edward and Simone come out onto the deck with their coffee, and Angus motioned them over. They were outraged, and they joined Angus's determination to fight for the boys. Edward brought up one more possibility. In order to keep this from coming up again and again, Edward suggested that not only did they fight for permanent custody, but that, if it provided the boys any further insulation from Gelding, Angus needed to seek out the possibility of adopting the boys--making them Donohues and not legally Tylers anymore. Angus was more than willing to do whatever it took to protect them. Angus was not certain it was wise to tell Ruby until the danger to the boys was past, and Edward agreed. Edward glanced up and saw Jessie outside, probably finishing his night shift. He got up and went over to Jessie.

"Could I have a word?" Edward asked. "There's been some news this morning, and since I can move easier than Angus, I told him I'd come talk to you. Angus got a legal notice this morning that 'Mr. and Mrs. Tom Gelding' are suing for permanent custody of Sam and Victor. Ruby does not know yet because we see no point in upsetting her quite yet. Angus believes, that if Tom and Suzanne ever got their hands on the boys, we would never see them again, and Robert and I agree. We absolutely have to stop this from happening. Robert and Angus and I are in agreement that this needs immediate action, and Robert has suggested that we go straight to the Wizengamot and have Angus countersue and file for permanent custody based on the legal charges that the organization has on Suzanne, the ones we have on Gelding and the fact that he is an escaped felon in France. Now, to make sure that it would be set in stone, I think we might consider having Angus and Ruby adopted the boys, making them Donohues. If we were to do that, it absolutely would make them still your brothers, of course. Nothing would change that. It only would forever stop any chance that Tom and Suzanne might ever be able to legally claim them again. What do you think? Any objections? Other ideas?"

Jessie watched as Edward walked over he passed his duty board to the man next to him nd old him to continue his rounds. Smiling as Edward walked over his smile left when he heard what he had to say. " hum.. I agree. to not telling Ruby just yet, and I agree they should legaly be adopted by Angus and Ruby, in fact I welcome it." he said smiling again " with both of your reputations, it should be good for the boys and with how you raised Angus to what he is now to be a good man, who has taken on my sister and calmed her down, there's absolutly no objections here." he said then thought for a moment " but I do agree with you, you should move quickly, we all know how underhanded and devious those two can be."

Jessie walked over to Angus and looked at him "you realy want to take on those two?" he teased smirking at Angus. " well , theres no objections from me." he said and offered his hand to shake " I don't know if I should welcome you to the family or what?" he said chukaling softly.

"I agree completely," Edward said. "The sooner the better. Those boys will have to be going back to Scotland to school, and they'll be too far away for us to protect them. We'll have to rely on the school to do it, but will certainly be easier if Robert has a reason to throw some of his political clout behind it to press it along sooner through the channels."

"They're good lads," Angus said, shaking hands with Jessie, "no thanks to either of their parents. I'm sure that's due to you and Ruby and probably some decent teachers through the school years that helped to shape who they've become. I feel like I should talk to them before I go any further, though--if I could trust that they wouldn't breathe a syllable yet to Ruby. You wanna help me talk to them? I think they're certainly old enough to know how dangerous Gelding is and why this could be so important. And, they need to know in uncertain terms that they will never lose you and Ruby, no matter what."

Jessie smiled when he took his hand and shook it" I agree" he said then nodded at talking to the boys " I'm sure they won't say a word to her, and I won't ether." he said knowing sooner or later Angus will have to tell her about why he was adopting the boys. " I'd say talk to Robert too, get the ball rolling so to say, and yeah let the school know I'm sure they have things they can put inplace to help keep the boys safe too." He saw the guy who he'd passed his board to walking back and smiled " yes, I'd like to be there, just so they know that we're not abandoning them but bringing them into your family." he said.

"so when do you want to talk to them?" he asked leaning on the railing as he waited for Angus's awnser.

"Robert already knows," Angus said. "I think he went to try to see if we can get in to see any of his connections at the Wizengamot this morning. Let's just go see the boys now. They're supposed to be doing their schoolwork, but if I were their age, I'd be finding a way to blow that off awhile longer this morning. I knew how to excel at procrastination at that age."

He rolled his chair back in the house and saw the boys doing the washing up of the breakfast dishes. Sam was washing, and Victor had pulled a chair up close to the counter to do the drying.

"Hey," Angus said, "I hate to pull you hard working gents away from the sink for a moment, but could we have just a quick word please?" Angus rolled his chair up to the kitchen table, and Sam sat down at the table in the chair that was closest to Victor.

"So, you know your mom moved in with that criminal we told you about, Mr. Gelding, right?" Angus asked. They nodded. "Understand clearly what he does. We know for a fact he has hired one of the biggest mass murderers today. He has hired every kind of dark arts wizard and dark creature, and what he does is to take young witches and wizards from their homes and he 'places' them with muggle families for a price. It's how he makes his money. Once he gets their hands on them, those young witches and wizards don't see their homes and families again unless men and women like me rescue them."

"Yeah. That's basically what Ruby said," Sam said.

"And our mother decided he apparently was such a fine fellow and moved in with him," Victor said, disgusted.

"Well, we have reason to believe she may have actually married him," Angus said. Both boys looked completely revolted with the idea.

"Ew. That's gross," Sam curled up his lip, as if the idea nauseated him.

"It certainly is. However, I got a legal notice early this morning that says your mom and Gelding are suing me to try to take permanent custody of both of you. Now, I think I know how you both are going to feel, but my intention, unless you both tell me otherwise, is that I intend to fight her with everything I have. I have absolutely no intention of ever letting you fall into their hands. That might mean that Ruby and I have to file for permanent custody of you. It basically changes our current legal status on paper. We have temporary custody right now, but it is supposed to go until you turn 18 anyway. This would permanently stop any claims your mother would ever have on you ever again. And, if I need to do it, I am not opposed to setting that in stone by adopting you. That would mean that Ruby and I would legally be your parents-for good. It might be a little awkward for her to be your biological sister and your legal mother, but if we do that, you would be Sam and Victor Donohue instead. Unless Gelding decided to just outright take you, he and our mother would never have any hold on you ever again."

Jessie breathed out " well thats a relive," he said then heard Angus suggest they go talk to the boys " yep, knowing them there doing anything but school work," Jessie said smiling. He pushed Angus inside and stood behind him as he called the boys to come to sit facing them. He too sat down and waited for Angus to start, and start he did. He was suprised when Sam mentioned Ruby had told him about what they did but said nothing more as Angus continued. Once he finished Jessie sat and looked at the boys " so? what are your thoughts?" he asked leaning forward in his chair. " you'd be sam and Victor Donohue not Tyler," he told them.

"Well," Victor said "it would take some getting used to, but, our parents have done a fine job of making our family name into something reprehensible. I used to be proud of our name, but the more I saw of what sort of people mom and dad really were, the less I wanted to be anything like either of them." He looked at Angus. "I have a question, and I don't want a greeting card sort of answer. I want truth."

"Always," Angus said.

"Why would you want either of us, much less both of us? You barely know us, and just because you're having sex with my sister doesn't mean you need to adopt two almost completely grown sons."

"Vic, really?" Sam cast him a bit of a disapproving scowl because of Victor's candidness. Victor looked back at him and shrugged.

"It's a fair question," Angus said. "It isn't just sex. She lives with me, and we've built this house together. I plan on marrying Ruby, and I've fathered a child with her. That's just about as serious a relationship as it gets. I don't commit to a relationship if I don't mean to keep it. So far as I'm concerned, you're family already to me. Neither of you deserve the sort of life that you've had and the one that your mother seems to be pushing for you to have. I honestly believe she has no idea of the horrendous things she would be bringing you two into if you went to live with her. I don't think you'd be with her at all. I think he'd use you like he uses everyone else, and no one should ever have to live with that. I risk my life on a daily basis to save other people's kids, and no, I don't know them. I don't need to know them. But, I absolutely will fight with all I am and all I have to protect family. And yes, you are worth that to me. Does that answer the question?"

"Jessie? What's your thought?" Sam asked. A part of him really wanted to know why Jessie wasn't stepping up to try to protect them, except that he and Victor had always known Jessie had always had "issues" where he just got weird for no reason. So far, they hadn't seen that in Angus. They had seen Ruby get flighty and spazz for no reason, but it wasn't the same as Jessie's weirdness.

Jessie sat and listened to Sam ask and to Angus's responce to his question, when he was asked he looked at them both " I'm good with it , you guys know about my condition, well it would not be good for you to be around me if it happened that I lost control again." he said " this would mean your safe and you'd be with your sister." He said not realy knowing what they wanted to hear. "plus I wouldn't get permishion being a single guy, well kinda single." he said but looked at them " but this isn't about me, its about you guys, keeping you out of our mothers hands and away from Gelding who we all know would use you, if you realy ant to know I think that you caould have no beter person to have as a role model than Edward and Angus."

"You have a point, Jessie," Victor said. "But you'll still be our brother? Is Ruby going to be okay with it?"

"Yeah," Angus said. "She is. I don't have one doubt in the world about that. Now, she doesn't know about this yet because you know about her anxiety and how bad she gets with it. I really, really don't like keeping things from her, but, this is her first pregnancy, and I think she really does rather overthink just about everything and how it will or won't affect the baby."

"She overthinks everything, period," Sam sighed. "Always has. She can make herself a right mess over nothin'."

"Well, I see no point in giving her an opportunity to be a right mess over this if I don't have to," Angus said. The boys looked at each other and laughed.

"Told you," Sam said to Victor. "He really does get her."

"Definitely. Alright. So, we don't tell her for now, right?" Victor asked.

"Right," Sam replied. "So, what's the downside for us?"

"The downside for you, as I see it, is that we might have to be especially careful of where you go and what you do at least til you're both eighteen. We cannot give Gelding or your mother or any of his thugs any sort of a chance to take you, and, yes, it could definitely be a possibility. So, there could be some significant security concerns. And I would want you both to train with Robert's staff to learn to fight. You absolutely have to know how to defend yourself beyond DADA class."

"Do we get to call you Dad?" Sam asked. "And is Ruby going to want us to call her Mom?

"You two can decide what to call me, just don't make it an obscenity, alright?" Angus asked. The boys burst out laughing. "As for Ruby, I don't know, but I'll suggest she let you two feel your way on that."

Jessie smiled and looked at Angus. " Im still your brother" he said and heard them talk about Ruby " yeah, you'd have to ask her about that " he said and stood up " sorry guys I have to get back to patrols" he said and moved to the door " you guys have school work to do, right?" he said and smiled as he walked out the door to the waiting men and walked off with them to continue his patrol. 

Rowan had helped Ruby finish breakfast and layed out the table while she set the tray and sent it over for Angus , Andrew and the boys. " seems like there a meeting going on ove there?" she said seeing Edward, Angus Jessie and the boys all sat to what to her looked like they were talking. " well I hope the foods enough for them" she said starting on dinner prep with Rowan.

"you know I could be out patroling too " Rowan said andf she chuckled " but I like being here, its fun" he said placing some fresh coffee in the pot then moving to the tea pot.