A Birth day

Ruby listened to Robert start talking but was intrupted by her mothers harsh tone that made her whole body flush with a cold feeling she watched as Angus and Robert both left the room she could also hear what she was shouting about and Ruby could not help laugh at the thought of the sight of her mother with singed hair.

Jess saw Ruby try and get out of bed and moved to her side " oh no you don't" she said " as a musing as that was Angus and Robert have it in hand you focus on having that baby right there" she said and placed her hand on Rubys tummy. Ruby groaned and sat back down on the side of the bed .

"I thought movment helped" she said " or was that not true" she smirked at Jess who shook her head and accioed an ecersise ball in front of her.

"Here, you want movment use this it will help." she said smirking as she saw the look on rubys face but on the arrival of yet another contraction she sat down and began moving on it. "thats it slow movments." Jess looked back at the door for Robert knowing the contractiosn were growing closer together.

"Sorry," Angus said, coming back in the bedroom. "Well, I have to say, even in Hogwarts I never received a howler. That was a first, even for me. Your mother is a weird woman. Who sends a howler to a grown man? Did she ever send you or Jessie a howler?"

Downstairs, Robert filled a mug with almond tea as his stomach growled loudly.

"Have time for a crumpet with that tea?" Simone asked. "I'll toast one for you."

"I have time, but I think Ruby and Jess are maybe a little anxious about my not being in the room with them."

"Oh, come now. You wouldn't be able to stay with her from start to finish even in St. Mungo's," Simone said, putting a crumpet in the toaster for him.

"True, and in fact, Angus and Ruby might not even have a nurse in the room with them every moment at St. Mungo's. They'd be within earshot of course, but might not be right in the room."

"What do you want on your crumpet?"

"Maybe just butter and jam?" he asked.

"Certainly," she said.

"She's an odd bird, Suzanne is," Robert said. "Of all the things to get irked about, and she's concerned about her hair."

"It was probably her best wig. Maybe her only wig."

"Wig?" Robert frowned.

"Couldn't you tell? At the funeral home for Reginald?" Edward asked. "It was a wig."

"I didn't notice," Robert said.

"I don't know how you missed it, especially when it was such a bad one in the first place," Edward said. "I wonder if she's bald underneath it."

"I bet she is now," Robert laughed, amused at the thought.

"You two are terrible," Simone said, trying to stifle her own laughter and trying to look stern at them. She put butter and jam on his crumpet and then handed the little plate to him.

"Thank you," Robert said.

Ruby looked up at Angus as he entered the room and laughed best she could " yeah all the time so much so we just got use to them and burned them." she said controling her breathing as she felt the contraction subside. Ruby looked at Jes " if you want to go grab some food go ahead , not like shes coming anytime soon...oh boy" she said feeling another so soon. " okay go and eat." she said to Jess who looked at Angus.

"Just call me if they get worse or she feels the need to push okay." she said and headed down " oh im going to borrow your kitchen to make food for every one." she said smiling as she headed to the kitchen. Entering she smelt cooking crumpets and chuckled " those smell great but I thought I'd make something a bit more hearty and send some over to the main house for Kate and Abby.

"God, I honestly can't imagine what they saw in each other."

"Sounds like a great idea," Simone said. "I'll give you a hand, if you like. I have two packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts in my fridge if you can make use of them. I think there are 8 breast halves altogether. I can go get them if you like." And as she spoke, Edward and Robert burst into uncontrollable laughter, still having visuals of Suzanne with a bald head. "The 'boys' here evidently are imagining what Suzanne looks like without her wig, and now bald because of Angus setting her hair on fire," she told Jess.

"Did we ever decide on a middle name for Ralph?" Angus asked Ruby. "What are your thoughts about that?"

Jess smiled at Simone and nodded " sounds perfect" she said " we could to a chicken casserole with new potatoes and vegetables " she said taking out several potatoes and peeling them to add to a pot of water she'd set boiling. Glancing up she heard the men laughing and smiled " guess they are still thinking of Suzzane in a wig." she said placing the first potatoe into the pan to boil." would you mind doing the chicken breast while I do the veg?" she asked simone " have to admit it is amusing to think about."

Upstairs Ruby rolled back and forth on the ball and listened to Angus " not that I know, we decided on her first being caprice but not the second, so Caprice, something, Donohue right" she said " Caprice simone Donohue?" she added trying out the name.

"I'll go get the chicken," Simone smiled. She went next door and brought over two packages of chicken breasts and proceeded to poach them with onions, celery, carrots, and fresh herbs and spices into moist and flavorful chicken breasts and then diced the chicken into small pieces. "We can keep this poaching liquid because its made quite a lovely stock. There isn't enough of it for a soup, but the casserole shouldn't need much liquid."

"Caprice Simone. I like that. I like that a lot, and Edward will love you for it," Angus said. "Oh, by the way, I bought a present for Ralph, for her birthday--whenever she got here. I think maybe you should be the one to open it for her." He went to the closet and got out a gift box wrapped in pink paper with a pink bow and handed it to her. Inside the box was a lovely blue baby blanket, made of a velvety soft warm fleece, and embroidered on it was silvery stars and a golden crescent moon, and an inscription. "Twinkle twinkle little star, do you know how loved you are?" And then her name was on it, embroidered in gold threads--Caprice.

Jess nodded and left Simone to do the chicken " agreed" she said .

Upstairs Ruby was breathing heavily but as Angus agreed on the name she relaxed a bit knowing they had a name . when he said he had a gift for Caprice she looked up at him then watched as he brought from the closet a pink box. Opening it she awed at the blue starry blanket with their daughters name on it " she'll love it, its perfect" she said and admired the stitching on it " it will be the first blanket shes wrapped in" Ruby looked at the bag " pass me the babby bag" she asked.

Reatching in once she ahd opened it she took out the onsie and showed him it " I got it for her to ..wear" she said strained thn made her way back to the bed. " do you like it?" she asked hoping he would read the message on the front.

He handed her the bag when she asked for it, and then he looked at the onesie she got out of it. He smiled.

"I love it," he said. "It's perfect.  You know, that's probably about the smallest thing she'll ever wear--until she gets her first bikini, anyway. Suppose we're allied to spoil her until she's old enough to understand she's being spoiled? We'll have to cut it out by then. And by the way, the letter I got from the boys yesterday says that if I don't come and get them and bring them home straight away when the baby comes, they plan on ambushing me with all the Zonkos they've bought at Weasleys and have been saving up. They both say they want to come home and learn how to help take care of her. I really didn't expect them to want any part of it because there are a lot of messes with a baby, but they both say that isn't going to weird them out. Not sure I believe that but they say they're up for anything. I honestly hadn't considered whether the school would even let them come home, but they do spend considerable time voicing their arguments in the letter. They should be coming up for spring break soon anyway, aren't they?"

Ruby smiled when he said he loved the onesie and the words she chuckled when he said they would spoil her and nodded " oh yeah" she said and chuckled again but paused as she felt something doferent " okay now I fel a need to push" she said grasping his hand. Jess paused in her preperation and looked up the stairs smiling she tuned to Simone.

"can you excuse me , seems our little bundle is on her way" she said and moved up the stairs to the bed room " im guessing you want to push?" Jess asked and Ruby nodded vigrusly to her " okay let me check.

Once she'd checked her Jess looked at Angus " not long now"she said " when you want to push take a deep breath in and bear down okay" she said slipping a sheet under Ruby that had a plastic back on it.

"Of course," Simone said. She took over finishing the assembly of the casserole and put it in the oven. Then she made a nice salad to go with it and a fresh raspberry vinaigrette for the salad, and some very quick dinner rolls and put them in the oven with the casserole.

Robert took the empty little plate that had held his crumpet to the sink and put the plate in the sink. It sounded to him like Jess had things well in hand and he really wasn't needed.

"I didn't expect her to be pushing already," Simone told him quietly.

"I wouldn't worry," Robert told her. "She could do a lot worse than to have a short, easy labor." He went upstairs, not intending to involve himself unless they needed him for something. Jess did seem to have things well in hand, and Angus was sitting with Ruby, ready to do whatever it was she wanted him to do. Angus had laid his hand on hers but didn't presume to take her hand, in case that wasn't what she wanted. Robert went over to Ruby and laid his hand on her. When Ruby's contraction ended, he looked at her.

"You're doing fine. Now, I want to change her position a little," he told Ruby. "It isn't an uncommon thing for me to want her to move a little so that the delivery is easier for both of you, so until I tell you, please try to resist pushing for a moment or so. I will do my best to be quick about it. You probably won't feel much of anything except her moving. Focus on Angus or something while I straighten her around a little." He laid both hands on Ruby, and he used touch to slowly and very gently change the baby's position, being exceptionally methodical and detailed about it, and then he checked it a couple of times from a couple of different directions. "Oh, much better. That's definitely better," he said. "I think you're alright to push whenever you want to now. I'll try to make sure she doesn't squirm her way back to the way she was."