LONDON CALLING

"That's fine," he told her. "That takes us to Saturday, and the day of the carnival. I'll try to see if I can get Michael or someone to cook breakfast for Saturday. I presume we'll be eating lunch or supper or both at the carnival, so I don't know that we'll need to plan for those meals for Saturday. And I'd like to save my energy for the carnival so that I'm not one gigantic disappointment for the boys."

"Angus," Andrew said, "as long as you show up, that's miles head of what Suzanne and Reginald would do for them. You aren't going to be any sort of disappointment for them. You've set the bar a lot higher than they have for what makes a decent dad. I can help in the kitchen when a second pair of hands are needed."

"Well, if you guys have that in hand, I'll spend the day in the office--or try to. Robert wants me to look through some resumes he's gotten in, and I have to finish the budgets for all four properties before the end of November. I have to do a design for the summer kitchen, and start on some sort of property hunt for a large property for the orphans, if we're going to do it. And then there's the whole matter of Christmas here at this property and in Paris and in Colorado and all the groceries and decorations and supplies we'll need for that. Other than that, there's nothing to do. Oh, and I'll take Finn with me. I'll have to keep an eye on Abbey too. She can hang with me unless she gets bored."

"And this is exactly why there is not enough of you to go around," Andrew laughed. "This sounds like the budget for this corporation gets into big money."

"It does," Angus replied. "If we add the property for the orphans, our budget for all the properties will go from tens of millions to approaching into hundreds of millions."

"No wonder he wants experienced hands managing it," Andrew said.

"Well, it wasn't always this big. It's grown over the years, but yes, now, to replace it, we would be looking into tens of millions."

Ruby sat and listened the more he spoke the more she could see him wearing out " Angus, Andrews right,Its too much for just one man, on the days Im not cooking I'll take care of Abby inbetween, as for the rest theirs Yu and Jessie who can help out , I know Jessie knows how to cook basic meals and Im sure he can learn others." she said watching him as she stood having heard a knock on the door.

Walking over she opened it " ah Yu , please come in" she said letting a rather wet Yu walk into the kitchen and remove his wet waterproof and shoes.

"thank you" he said and looked to Angus and Andrew. " I came to check every one was okay this storm is getting worse" he said

"Well, that was Robert's entire point," Angus sighed. "He's talked in general terms for years that the job needed broken up and some of the duties delegated to others, but we just never got around to doing it. I think Michael will want to help sometimes in the kitchen but he might not want a defined shift. He might be more interested in filling in when we get short. Rowan has said he cooks too, but I don't know if he's thought about any sort of shift. We might have enough folks that enjoy doing a meal once in awhile that, even if they did one meal a week, we could fill in one of the part timers shifts with folks that just enjoy cooking. It's worth some discussion. As for your helping with Abbey, I think she'd like that. She likes when you have time for her, I think."

"We're fine so far," Angus said to Yulong. "Thank you for thinking of us. We do need to be getting over to the other building. Do you know how Simone is doing with breakfast? Does she need any help? I know I should be over there already, but in all honesty, we got talking about Robert's intents to find additional help in cooking the meals in the main house, and I lost track of time. The tea is hot if you want a cup to take the chill off with. Help yourself."

Ruby noded as she listened to Angus as she moved back to the table " well I could put the shifts up in the main house that should help." she said Letting Yu walk to the kitchen and grab a cup of tea before walking back into the dinning room.

"The main house is my next stop" Yu said sipping his coffee as he glanced over " I will send your concerns across " he said " I can help as and when I can, my patrol ends about two hours , I can stop at the house and cook before heading back and refreshing." he said moving to stand facing him. Ruby moved to take out a large peice of paper and started to make a shift scedual to put in the main house.

"I'm guessing any one who can't do the cooking whom ever is next takes that shift and the otehr fills in theirs so nobody is doing a duble." she said turning the paper to show Angus what and who she had on the list for th moment " what do you think?" she asked " Im sure Yu could take it to the main house for Robert to aprove or add anything he needs "

"Robert doesn't need to approve it. That's what he has me for, remember?" Angus said. He took the sheet from her and read it. It looked good so far. "I think that should work. Please put a note on the bottom that if someone has to cancel a shift, they need to let me know--especially if they don't have anyone to fill for them. Yulong, you're welcome to sign up for a shift to cook whenever you'd like to do it, if you want to. That's certainly your choice."

"I can take the schedule over," Andrew said. "I'll go over and make sure that Simone doesn't need extra help cooking breakfast, and I'll post this work schedule too. You're both coming over? Do you need my help apparating over? You really should just apparate because of the storm."

"Not unless Ru has forgotten how to apparate," Angus said. "Ru, before we go, we need to probably make a little go-bag for Finn. We can take some of his food, some treats, some toys, and, in the pantry on the shelf someplace are a pair of collapsible bowls that I bought for him for travel. I've ordered a shoulder bag for a go-bag for him but it hasn't come yet."

"I can take Finn with me and make sure he gets out to do his business," Andrew said, folding the schedule and putting it into his pocket, "if you guys just bring a bag for him."

Ruby smiled and placed the note at th bottom ove the page in big red letters to every one knew it was important. She listened more as she rolled the schedual up and gave it to Andrew " thank you and unless I have my baby brain back Im sure I can aperate over" she said with a chuckle " but it hasn't happened for a while so Im good" she added.

Yu finished his tea and smiled " if you will ecuse me I have a patrol to walk" he said slipping back n his shoes and rain slick before heading out into the rain. Ruby waked behind him and closed the door. Turning she heard Angus mention a dogy go-bag and moved to the kitchen she found an old tote bag and put toys and tinned and dry food into it along with a shallow bowl for his water. " like this you mean , just for now right" she said walking over to Angus and showing him what she had placed inside.

Andrew scooped up Finn and took him to the main house, put up the schedule, and found Simone had everything in hand and that breakfast was ready and in the dining room. Some folks were already in the dining room, and some hadn't come down yet. Edward was sipping coffee after eating his breakfast, and he was reading the newspaper--until Finn arrived. Then he was quick to put down the paper to go get to know Finn.

"Yeah. That works," Angus told her. "So, if you're sure the coffee pot and the tea pot are switched off, then I think we should be good to go to work. I'm ready when you are."

Robert came down, bringing Abbey with him. She had a big gauze patch on one knee. Robert had turned it pink for her. She was still sniffling, and he was brushing away tears from her cheeks with his free hand.

"What happened, Abbey?" Andrew asked.

"Someone got in too big of a hurry this morning near the steps and she fell and scraped her knee," Robert said. "It scared her more than anything, so I'll do a better healing job after breakfast when she isn't quite so rattled." Robert was glad that she hadn't been hurt more than a scraped knee. The ceilings were rather tall in the main house, and it meant that there were a lot of stairs. Falling down the stairs could have caused serious injury. As it was, though, all she'd ended up with was a scraped knee. "She's been wanting A-g-g-i-e." He spelled rather than saying it because he didn't want Abbey to get upset all over again.

"Ah," Andrew nodded. "On the way." He was learning to speak in code so that toddlers wouldn't pick up on it."

"Good," Robert said. "That's probably good medicine this morning, then." He was hoping Angus would have a moment for her when he arrived.

Ruby smiled and moved back to the kitchen to double-check the kettle was off as was the coffee pot and was happy to find it was " yep all off" she said walking back over " so you ready?" she asked hearing Andrew return. " I'll see you over there ." she said then apperated over and saw Abby with the large gauze patch on one knee. " oh no what happened?" she asked placing down the doggy bag and moving over to her. " oh dear" she said chukaling as she saw the gauze was pink " cute" she said " I'll make some cookies for the jar and maybe later." she said smiling as she headed back and placed down Finns water bowl and food bowl and aded some water to one.

She heard aperating and smiled seeing Angus and Andrew apear in the room while Finn drank from his bowl. Ruby took a pen and placed her name on dinner that day and supper. Rowan walked in looking worse for wear he looked at every one and the scedual walking over he put his name down for sundays dinner and mondays breakfast.

"Robert do you have a moment I need some doctor advice I think I caught something while out yesterday.." he said as he grabbed some kitchen towel and sneesed loudly.

The moment that Angus was apparated into the main house kitchen and Abbey saw him, she wailed and cried, calling for "Aggie" and reaching for him.

"What's the matter, Abs?" Angus asked. He saw the gauze patch as Robert brought her over to him. Angus took Abbey from Robert, and she curled into him.

"She fell down the stairs this morning and scraped her knee. She's fine, except that one little boo boo, and it scared her," Robert told Angus.

"She was lucky," Angus said, knowing she could have been badly hurt.

"Yes, I know. I'm going to have to put those safeguard spells back on the stairs because she's getting a little too confident on them," Robert said.

"Well, she can stay with me this morning. I'll have someone go get her crayons and her coloring book, and she can sit with me while I'm working," Angus said.

"Are you sure?"

"Haven't you always been the one that's said people come first? Of course I'm sure," Angus said as Rowan came in and started sneezing. Robert went over and touched Rowan's forehead.

"Oh, boy. You've got that new wizarding virus that everybody's been getting," Robert said. "Acts like muggle influenza except that it its the magical system. Certain spell systems seem to be targeted. Charms, in particular, so probably I would avoid things like glamour spells, jinxes, shrinking spells, enlarging spells, and other sorts of charms. Those seem to go sideways. Use the same basic care that we would for standard influenza. Rest, drinking plenty of fluids, and I'll get you a bottle of the potion I've formulated for it. It works in the same way some of those muggle multi-symptom relief liquid medicines do. But for now, you're safer not using your magic unless you absolutely have to. You'll be past the worst of it 24 hours after the fever and the sneezing stop. Then you should be good to use your magic again. I'll be right back." He went upstairs and came back a couple moments later with a bottle of potion. "Now--go home. We'll send food over to you. Not that we don't care about you, but we don't need everyone else catching this. Andrew and I will check on you periodically. And if I know Jess, she'll be over too. Any questions?"

Ruby smiled seeing Angus with Abby then she looked over at Rowan who sneesed she stepped back but once Robert had explained what it was she had an idea " Angus how does spicy pumpkin soup sound, it would help Rowans virus issue." she said looking at some pumpkin that was left in the fridge " I could make it for dinner as a starter" she added .

Rowan listened to Robert in between sneezes and nodded " okay, and ghah first time being ill" he told him then waited while Robert wehtn to get the potion. " I just have one could Jessie stay some place else just until Im over the worst, poor guy won't get any sleep" he said as Jessie walked in and sighed seeing Rowan .

"please hes sneezed all night last night." he said taking a cup of coffee and stood sipping it. Yu walked in not long after carrying a small bundle in his arms.

"I found a small cub out in the rain looks like she's been attacked." he said and looked to Rowan and then Jessie " you can stay in my spare room?" he offered.