A Birth day

"Well, I don't know how long the pack is staying," Angus said. "Evidently, Robert got the minister to agree to let the pack return to the Forbidden Forest when the public stops hunting them. That may take a bit to die down. And I know there was some talk between Robert and the minister of some alternate site but they weren't going to even consider moving the pack until they got Fenrir back. I know that girl, Ginger, could well be at the main house under close medical care for weeks because of how bad she is. She's very dangerously underweight, and I'm no healer but I do know that she has to regain her body weight very slowly because if she doesn't, it is a massive strain on the heart and she could die. Robert will have to monitor every single ounce of food or fluid in, and every single ounce out, and her body weight down to the slightest fraction of an ounce. I was in charge of Khaat's nutrition and her diet when she went through that a few years ago. It was quite a tricky business. I've not met the mother for more than a moment, so I don't know if Robert can train her to cook properly for the girl or whether she will have to remain here. And I have no idea what Fenrir will want to do with that situation. I do know he has asked Robert if he can see her, so I presume whatever they will do about that won't be decided until after that. So it could be a day or two before we know what the pack is going to do."

"So how is that one," David gestured towards Abbey, "going to be when you-know-who comes into her house?"

"Oh, jeez. I never gave that a thought. Ru, I might talk to her papa about that. I'm sure we could put up an air mattress in Caprice's room for her for a few days if we needed to. I don't know that having her and him in the same house is a good plan at all. What do you think?"

"That's a good idea. I hadn't thought about transfiguring the crib, but it is designed to shift into a toddler bed. Shouldn't take much at all to convert it," Angus said. Abbey was slowly getting full, Angus could tell. She was eating slower and was eating smaller bites.

"Full?" he asked her. She nodded.

"So, Abs, how do you like Nicky and Zoe in the kitchen? Do you get to help them like you did me?"

"Sometimes," she said, "but, Aggie, they no make the good cookies anymore. Nobody make them but you."

"Oh," Angus said, realizing how special the pink, strawberry flavored sugar cookies were that he made and cut out with a kitty cookie cutter. She had just been old enough the last couple of times he had made them that she could help him spread pink strawberry icing on the cookies and add two candy eyes to each cookie, a nose and white frosting whiskers. The older Abbey got, the more detail the cookies were getting. It had been since before the attack that had left him wheelchair bound that he had made those cookies. That had been almost a year ago. And to a toddler, that had to feel like forever.

"We haven't made those cookies in a long time, have we?" Angus asked her. She shook her head. "Well, how about I go next door and get the cookie cutters, and maybe we can make cookies this afternoon." He pretended to whisper in her ear, pretending to play a trick on Ruby. "I don't think Ruby likes cookies, though," he told Abbey. Abbey looked at Ruby for a moment and then looked back at Angus.

"Silly Aggie," she laughed. "She eated cookies. I see'd her do it before."

"Are you sure?" Angus asked. She nodded.

'Besides, we make good cookies!" she said. He laughed.

"Yes we do. Can you help Ruby with cleaning up the lunch dishes while I go get the cookie cutters?" Angus asked. Abbey nodded.

Angus apparated over to the main house, and he told Nicky he was borrowing a couple cookie cutters, some candy eyes and some other things. Nicky, of course, was fine with it, and when Angus came out of the pantry with a little plastic bag of supplies he ran into Robert coming upstairs after checking on Ginger. Angus discussed how frightened Abbey had become of Fenrir, and he asked about keeping Abbey for a couple days or so so that Abbey wouldn't need to be frightened of Fenrir being in her house. Robert hadn't considered that either, but he liked Angus's idea. He told Angus he would have Kate pack Abbey's little pink suitcase, and then Robert would bring it later. For the time being, Robert accio'd BooBoo Kitty, her favorite fuzzy pink blanket, and a couple of Abbey's favorite storybooks for Angus to take back to his house for her.

Abbey was good at carrying the dirty dishes, just one plate at a time, to the kitchen sink, and she seemed to enjoy doing it.

"He make good pink cookies, Roo Bee," Abbey said to Ruby. "They taste pink."

"How can they taste pink?" David asked Abbey. Abbey looked at David and shrugged.

"I no know," she said. "But they taste pink."

"I can wipe off the table," David said.

"Noooo. My job," Abbey said. David frowned at her, not knowing how someone that tiny was going to reach the table to wipe it off. At that point, Angus apparated back.

"Papa sent BooBoo Kitty for you, Abs," Angus said.

"I no gots time for him now," Abbey told him, resting her hands on her hips as if Angus was being silly again. Angus put his hands on his hips to copy her, and it made her giggle.

"And just why don't you have time?" Angus asked.

"I gots to wipe the table. Don't you know?" she scowled at him. Then she pointed at David. "He no know how."

"How to wipe the table?" David asked, confused.

"No, she's right. That's her job," Angus said, with an amused look on his face. "Come on, Abs." He took her to the kitchen, got a damp dishcloth and handed it to her. Then he levitated her over the table, and she giggled and giggled as she wiped off the table, actually doing a pretty good job of it for a child not quite four yet. That made David laugh.

"Are you going to levitate me when I wipe the table off?" David teased Angus.

"No. He not. You too big," Abbey told him as Angus lowered her to the floor.

"I guess she told you," Angus laughed.

"Pie now," Abbey bounced. "We no gots no cookies yet, Roo Bee."

"I'm with her," Angus agreed. "Why would I want to miss out on dessert? Abbey's an ice cream girl. She'll want ice cream on her 'pie.' And I like it any old way. Maybe I'll just eat her."

"Uh uh," Abbey scowled at him. "Not my pie."

"We'll eat pie and then make cookies," Angus told Abbey. She nodded. She saw a scratchpad and a pen on the corner of the desk and she ran and got it and brought it to the table and started to draw while Ruby was cutting the tart to serve it. Angus looked and saw she was drawing a figure of some sort. A round figure with long hair.

"Who's that?" Angus asked.

"The noisy lady," Abbey said.

"You hear her too?" Angus asked. Abbey nodded, continuing to draw.

"Her and the stinky man," she said.

"The stinky man?"

"He rounder than Papa. And he smells."

"Who is he?"

"I no know, but he say he here because of the noisy lady. He no like her."

"But the noisy lady isn't here."

"Not yet," Abbey said. Angus frowned, hoping that didn't mean what he thought it did.

"Of course she would," Angus said, "if she doesn't know Fenrir is here."

"Yummy, Roo Bee," Abbey said, with her mouth full of pie and ice cream.

"I agree, Abs. Yummy," Angus laughed.

"So who is this noisy woman and stinky man?" David asked. "Do we have to be on guard for that?"

"Yes," Angus said. "We do. She is referring to Ruby's mother, who apparently has some method of telepathy. That's a long story. And Ruby's father--a heavy cigar smoker. He's passed. She's right. He does not like Ruby's mother. And if Abbey's right, Ruby's mother is still planning on coming here. That was the prime reason I wanted you here, the prime person I want you to protect her and Caprice from."

"Then I consider myself forewarned," David said. "That has to be the finest pear tart I've ever had, Ruby. Very nice."

"If she comes, we will hide you and Caprice," Angus told Ruby. "I will take no chances that she can get her hands on either of you. I trust you to protect yourself, of course, but Caprice can't, and someone has to look after her."

"Isn't there any chance that the word of a four year old is wrong?" David asked.

"Well, there's always that chance, certainly," Angus said, "but I'd rather take her seriously and be overly prepared than to ignore it and find ourselves in a pickle."

"Well, yes, there is that, I suppose," David said.

"Besides, Abbey doesn't see or hear things often, but she she does, she tends to be more right than not."

"Well, hopefully the pack won't be aroused if she does come. We do not need a full scale battle in the back yard," David said.

"Meh," Angus shrugged. "We've done that before. It's as good a place for one to defend themselves as any other." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Abbey deciding to play a little trick on Angus by stealing a slice of pear out of his slice of tart. He tried very hard to hide his temptation to laugh at her. "My pie is getting smaller for some reason. Someone has cast a spell on my pie," Angus said. Abbey burst into uncontrollable laughter, eating the slice of pear she'd taken, and she swiped a little corner of his crust next. "See? Its getting smaller by the moment."

"Somebody's hexed your pie for sure," David laughed.