A Birth day

Ruby listened to Pheobe and nodded " if thats what he told you to do then do it, and of course you can send things your their mother after all, we'll both make sure they get them and can respond to you just as much." she said " hes wise in these sort of things " she admited " and thats okay, I'll make sure they get given them at the right time, when they know the do's and don'ts of how to use them." she said smiling " I can't say I understand what its like to live with a werwolf as a prtner but Jack is maried to a witch whose human and they made it and are still strong together, I on the other hand am dating a wizard slayer with a heart, who can see the good in pepole be they human or wearwolf." she told her.

Jack smiled and looked at Pheobe as Ruby spoke to her " they will be safe and learn, we won't harm them, " he said and smiled at her as he too lay some clothing in her basket then carried it back to the tent they were staying in. " oh and if your husband does anything you don't like, come see me" he told her " I'll set him straight and thats a promise."

"Thank you," she told them. She went into the tent, finished the packing and came out with the duffel bag. "I have a little tin of blood pops for each of them that I bought at that candy shop in Hogsmeade. The girls like them. It must be their fascination with raw meat, I guess. I put the little tins in the duffel.

Anise saw her mom bring the duffel out, and it bean to dawn on her that she was really leaving home for good. It made her a bit misty-eyed. She hesitated, and Phoebe reached for her, and the two of them hugged, each of them shedding a few tears.

"Look after your sister, now, won't you?" Phoebe said to Anise. "You've always been the strong one of the two of you. She's got a good heart, but you've got all the spirit and the fight. You know, Fenrir said you can always come home if you want to but Ginger has to be well to return. He's not saying no. He just says she needs to be well. Life is just too hard out here for her in her condition."

"I'll get that woman, Mom. She'll pay for it," Anise said.

"No, now, you listen to the humans now. that is not a job they are going to want you to have. We've talked about this," Phoebe told her. "Give it a fair shot. Do what you're told, and know that this big of a change is hard. Give it time."

"Will you say goodbye before you go?"

"If they let me, yes. I will write, though. And you remember what I told you about Sam, won't you?"

"I'll remember," Anise said. Phoebe gave Anise a kiss.

"Be good, my girl," Phoebe said. "Well, that's it. She's with you now. Shall I presume that you and that the younger Donohue fellow will be able to sign the papers sometime this evening?"

Ruby watched Anise and her mom and smiled standing with Jack as they said their good byes to each other. "Anise, your moms right, Angus is working on that, all you have to do is focus on you and your schooling, okay" she said softly to her then looked at Pheobe as she spoke and she nodded " yes we will once he returns from seeing our sons and the distruction of that house." she said as Jack picked up the bag from where it lay.

"we should be getting back now" he said placing his hand gently in Anise's shoulder Ruby smiled at Pheobe.

"I'll make sure she writes once a week to you without fail." she said smiling as she moved to Anise's side " I made Easy Creamy Chicken Skillet for dinner." she said smiling to her " and you need to check out your bedroom, we desinged it for you and Ginger, just hope its okay for you Angus did have a lot of imput in it." she said chukaling.

"I'm sure its fine," Anise said. She went with them as they went to the house that Anise understood was Sam's house too. Anise did not want to mess this up.

After lunch and after some glasses of firewhiskey, Angus bought a few more packs of cigarettes. He wasn't sure but he thought Ruby knew that he did smoke once in awhile. It wasn't a big thing, but he had actually almost run completely out of cigarettes. He had tried one of Edward's pipes once but he had not liked it. He preferred cigarettes.

After they'd stopped at the tobacconist's, they stopped to see the progress on the house. It looked like they most of the house itself demolished. It looked like it had been hit by a muggle wrecking ball, but of course, he knew that isn't how they would have done it. They had not gotten to the tunnels yet but they assured him they would. They planned on tearing down the house, opening the hole where the cellar and then the tunnels had all been and then tearing the tunnels out and filling it up with fresh rock and dirt, clear to the surface. They knew they would have to come back periodically for awhile to keep filling it as the dirt settled. That was fine with Angus. They said they had already had white light workers there to clean all the dark magic out of the levels and off the property, and those workers were still there to continue to clean out dark energies as they had found more and more twists and turns and hidey holes. Edward was satisfied that they seemed to be doing it right, and he was not detecting any strong or new dark energies. He felt that, for now, they were safe to go home. As it was, he and Simone would soon need to leave for Paris since Paris was an hour ahead.

They apparated back at home into the yard, and Angus thanked Edward and Marcus for going with him. He took the baby and went inside and saw Anise taking her time at finding her way around. She turned and saw Angus with the baby, and her face lit up.

"Its...a baby! A real baby! Can I see?" she asked.

"Of course," Angus said. She came over, and Angus coached her on how to hold her and handed Caprice to her with some guidance.

"What's her name?"

"Caprice. It was my grandmother's name."

"The woman..over there?" she pointed to Edward's.

"That's his second wife--Simone. She's quite a lovely woman. No, Caprice was his first wife."

"What was she like?"

"She was beautiful, and warm and kind. I think you'd have liked her," he told her.

"So is this...my sister?" Anise asked.

"In a way, yes," Angus said.

"Then, I will protect her with my life, just as I would protect Ginger," she told him seriously.

"I believe you," he nodded.

"And...will I have your name? Like Sam does?"

"If your parents agree, then I don't mind. If they do mind, you can always change your name when you are legal age to do it, if it is still important to you then. Now, do you know how to cook?"

"I know some things. I know how to take the kettle to the creek to get water and how to make the blood tea that Fenrir and my dad like to drink..." she began.

"Well, okay, so we will give you some human cooking lessons."

"Mom said you wouldn't eat meat the way we do and you wouldn't like blood tea. Actually, I don't like the tea nearly as much as Dad says I should," she confessed. "And Ginger hates it."

"That's fine. So it wouldn't be hard to give up, then," he smiled.

"Not at all. It's disgusting," she said. She looked at him. "You went down there again, didn't you?"

"How did you know?"

"I saw the darkness in your eyes," she said. "That spell. It leaves a trace in your face. It fades when you've been away from there for awhile. You shouldn't go there any more. It isn't good for you."

"I won't be going there much. Its being torn down--completely--forever."

"Really? That's good. That's really good. No one should ever go there again. By the way, the room is great. Ginger is going to love it. And, no, we won't care that its downstairs. We've spent our whole lives thinking we would never have a roof over our heads, so we don't care what floor its on. She's going to be thrilled to know that the two of us have a room of our own. And its pink. It's great. There's no pink out there in those dumb woods. The pink looks amazing."

"We're glad you like it. If you and Ruby get a chance, you can make a list of things you'll need and we'll get them. The room really was pretty short notice."

"Yeah. It was," Anise laughed. "Can I...can I sit down with the baby?"

"Of course. You dont' have to ask. This is your home now," Angus said. He put the cigarettes in the desk drawer. He looked at Ruby.

"So I take it things went well for you, then?" he asked her.

Jack walked Anise and Ruby back to the duplex and took his leave , leaving her with Ruby. Ruby was glad to see Angus, Edward and Caprice return and smiled when Anice asked to hold Caprice. She smiled as he asked her about how it went " I thought for amoment we'd messed it up but shes a nice person, I think knowing Ginger and Anise are safe is what she wanted , that and to know they will get to see human side of things too." she said to him as she took out the creamy chicken and placed it in the oven to start cooking.

Hearing him mention making alist she nodded " absolutly, we could even have a girls day out and get those things, oh and Pheobe said she ahd given i think ether you or Edward some things for the girls, but I told her they would get them when they knew how to handle them correctly, pair of wands and knifes for the girls." she said watching as Anise held Caprice. She had noticed the slight hint of ciggertte smell on Angus but said nothing knowing he rarely smoked and only when really stressed which she took to mean being back at the house had stressed him more than he was letting on. " did things go well ?" she asked meaning the distruction of the house and its tunels.

"I don't have anything like that, so I presume that would be Edward," Angus said. "He and Simone are going to Paris for the night. They'll be back tomorrow. Simone's 7 year old granddaughter has a dancing part in the Paris national opera company's production of Sleeping Beauty. That really is a high honor. Children dance in operas very, very rarely, and to dance in a national opera company production, that almost never happens. Lena, Simone's daughter and the girl's mother, owns a private dance studio in Paris, so the dancing influence comes naturally, I guess. Lena got Simone and Edward some good seats, and they're going to the performance tonight and then staying at Lena's for the night. I'm glad they invited them. Edward and Simone should be doing things like that."

When Ruby asked if things went well, he smiled. "They've got the house mostly down already, which is good. They plan on getting the house down, taking out the cellar and then going further down to just open up that whole space and tear the tunnels out and then fill it all back in with dirt and rock. They'll have to go back every so often for quite awhile to add more fill dirt in as the earth settles in that space. They also brought in a crew of white light energy workers to clear out any dark energies as they go so that they don't miss something. I don't think we could ask for better. And, the school is going to try to find out where their leak is but they assured me the boys will be safe. And, so far as I can tell, they're making good time in working on the tea garden. Edward bought us all lunch at the Leaky, and, well, I guess that's about it. I'm glad things went well with you and the pack. I didn't expect trouble, but I really wanted them to get to know you. They just needed to know that you're going in with good intentions and that, even if you don't know everything there is to know about werewolves, we have other werewolves to get information from and we're always open to communicating with Phoebe and her husband. Sounds like the best of all worlds to me..." As he spoke, the baby started to cry. Angus looked over at Anise, and she looked at Angus, quite anxious.

"Can you...fix her?" Anise asked, not sure what to do.

Ruby listened to Angus as he spoke about how things went at the house " thats good, they will remove bad energys right?" she asked as she made potatoes and carrots to go with the creamy chicken.

She heard Caprice cry but glanced at Angus who she knew had it and continued to prepare the vegtables, " she might just need a change " Ruby said chukaling "and Im glad I won't have to worry about that house any more" she said smiling " one less thing to think about." sending teh plates to the table she loked to Anise " would you mind helping me by taking the fresh lemaonade from the fridge and putting it on the table please" she asked motioning to the fridge behind her.

Angus took Caprice and found her diaper to be clean and dry. As he did that, Anise got the lemonade out and put it on the table. Angus went to make a bottle for Caprice, and Anise followed him, wanting to know how he did that. He explained to her everything he was doing and why, and she was taking every bit of it in. He fed Caprice, showing Anise how to do it, and at the same time, she was also watching how Ruby set the table. They didn't eat like that in her pack. Not with tables nicely set and all the rest of it. She had read about it in her books but she'd never seen it done.

"The chicken smells good," Anise said. "I know I'm supposed to prefer raw meat, but I really do like mine cooked, at least partly. So does Ginger. She does like that weird steak thing that they've been making her over there, but she doesn't like big pieces of raw meat. Fenrir thinks we're weird for not liking it, but we both just think it tastes better when its cooked.

"We agree with you," Angus smiled. "And I think even Jack and Jessie would agree that some meat is better cooked. I have to say I have never seen them tie into eating a raw chicken."

"Ew," Anise laughed. That made Angus laugh too. Over supper, she had a million questions--mostly things about when the house got up or ate meals or went to bed. Things about how things were done.

"The chicken is so much better than what they eat at camp," Anise said. "Do you eat like this all the time?"

"We do," Angus said.

"I'm going to gain so much weight," Anise teased.

"No, you won't. You'll work it off with your training," Angus said.

"I hope so. So you said, something about baths before bed. Do we go wash in that pond over there?" She pointed to the pond outside.

"No. We don't need to go outside,' he told her. "I'll show you after supper."

"It seems like there is so much to learn," she said, feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Don't let it bother you," he told her. "Ruby and I will help you. Why don't you two unpack your things in your room after supper, and then we'll show you how the bathroom works. We'll just take things one step at a time. It's fine."

"I don't..." she began and then she stopped.

"Finish your sentence. Just say what's on your mind," he told her.

"I don't want to look stupid in front of Sam," she said.

"You won't. He won't be home from school for three weeks. You have plenty of time," he said.

Ruby smiled seeing Anise watch Angus check Caprice then make a bottle for her and feed her before heading to the table " we share the cooking Angus and I, both of us could take turns in teaching you as we have diferent cooking styles" she said as she dished up the now cooked chicken she heard Angus,ention Jack and Jessis and chuckled " yeah I thin the only thing they eat that's got blood is steak but even that's partly cooked." she said with a chuckle.

Hearing the mention of a bath and Anise pointed to the pond she shook her head " we have a room upstairs that's got a bath in it but Angus is right we'll show you after you've eaten and unpacked." she said " also you can use my bubble bath and soap to wash up before bed " she added.

After supper, Angus set washing up spells in place to take care of the dishes. Then he took Caprice and Anise upstairs and gave Caprice a bath to show her how the bathroom all worked. Anise was completely blown away by the fact that the water was warm and that someone could make it as warm or as cold as they liked. Angus showed her how the shower and bath and sink controls all worked and where to find things. He showed her where Ruby's bubble bath and soaps were. Anise was actually looking forward to a hot shower--something she had never experienced before. Nor had she experienced soaps and shampoos that smelled like flowers. The pack had always wanted soaps with no smell so that it did not make them detectable either by animals they were hunting or by animals who were hunting them. Angus accio'd Anise's pajamas for her and told her he would put them in the bathroom for her and she could shower when she wanted to. She headed straight for the shower, too anxious to try the hot water to wait. Angus came back downstairs, handed the baby to her, and then went to the kitchen and made a couple of cappucinos. He took one to Ruby, and he sat down in his chair.

"We won't see her for at least a half hour, I expect," he laughed. "She's completely fascinated by our bathroom because she's never had a shower or a bath with warm water. It's always been either cold creek water or a bucket of cold water in the family tent. And, just so you know, they don't have any expectations about privacy. They've lived as animals, remember? They think nothing of seeing all of each other. I do not want to offend her but I've let her know that we do not live that way. It'll be a change for her, that's for sure."

David came in, and he had Finn with him.

"Where have you been? I lost track of you, David," Angus said.

"Robert let me have an hour or so, since you were home, and I was able to have supper with Marcus for a change. Michael grilled us some shrimp skewers with pineapple and vegetables and fixed us some Asian style rice and some very generous slabs of coconut cream pie. It was very nice. Gave us a chance to catch up. We're both looking forward to having our kids. I guess they'll be with us part of the time and they'll be with Marcus's parents some of the time. If they can put up with Marcus's five and my three, then I think Jonathan and Claire Belby deserve sainthood."