A Birth day

Ruby listened to Edward and nodded " alright" she said and watched as the guys put Angus's bed together while she was making the bone broth ready for when Angus arrived back from St Mungos. Now with the broth on a simmer she moved to the closet and brought out some large cushions to place on the bed ready for Angus. " here use these" she said handing Andrew the pilows and some cotton pillow cases to go on the ones already on the bed.

Ruby was about to go back to the kitchen when they arrived , she could see Angus groggy and being hed up on his feet so she stepped to one side and quickly moved to take the broth off the stove to cool alittle before placing it in a soup cup so he could drink it. Carrying it out she stood back leting them do what they needed. When Robert spoke of getting soemthing into his stomach she stepped frward with the tray and smiled " bone broth, its very good for regenerating health and adding lost nutriants and electrolites, its from Angus's own recipy book" she told him placing the trya down on a small table and moving it to the side of the bed.

"We know that recipe very well," Robert said. "Helped to save Khaat's life after she had Abbey, That might just be the ticket."

"Here, let me," Edward said. He sat down on the edge of the bed and partially woke Angus and fed him the broth. He managed to get him to drink nearly all of it without really waking him. Angus had made a couple of questioning comments, wondering where he was, but Edward didn't figure Angus would remember it later anyway, so he just rather ignored the questions, and when Angus seemed like he'd had enough, Edward set the cup aside and just covered him to let him sleep

"Is he going to remember one syllable of that," Edward asked Robert.

"Not a word of it," Robert said. "He didn't really get a chance to rest once he came around because I really just wanted to get him home."

"Well, what was the hurry about?" Edward asked.

"He was ridiculously anxious," Nigel said. "Downright panicky."

"Panicky? That boy has never panicked once in his entire life," Edward said. "You lot must have misread him."

"He had some sort of nightmare last night, and he is just not having any discussion about it," Marcus said.

"Could I have one of your empty potions bottles, Edward?" Robert asked.

"Certainly," Edward said. He accio'd a clean new bottle and handed it to Robert, and while he was doing that, Robert drew a long icy blue thought thread from Angus and deposited it into the bottle.

'Do you know how unethical that is?" Nigel scowled, "mucking around in a man's mind like that?"

"And how much more unethical is it to let him be ruled by his own fear?" Robert countered. "I know Angus every bit as well as I know Brian, and I am not going to let him deal with whatever this is alone. I have a couple suspicions that Suzanne's still mucking with him, but I will find out. Albus Dumbledore left Kate his pensieve after he died since Kate had such good divination scores of the ones in her year, and she still has the pensieve. I'm going to let Kate view this, and then we'll know. And in the meantime. Ruby's taking excellent care of him. Now, Ruby, I do not want him to be left alone at any time in the next 38-72 hours."

"Andrew has already been preparing for that," Edward said. "You just need to make a schedule."

"It's your house, Ruby. Nigel is going to be here for the next two or three days. We have Nigel, me, Andrew, Jess, Khaat, and Brian who are all qualified healers who could and probably would take shifts to help out, But if one of us is ready to come in a flash, we could leave you with him from time to time."

"I won't be leaving him," Marcus told Ruby, "so I'll help you in whatever you need."

"If you want a turn to look after him, I could probably do that, but I'd feel better if that we, perhaps, no sooner than tomorrow afternoon, if that's alright with you," Robert told Ruby, "but you need to tell me what you think you want."

Ruby stood back letting Robert feed Angus the soup she smiled hearing him and Edward talking about the fact he would not remeber any of what he had just asked them both. With the cup now almost emoty she took it and emptied it palcing it in the dishwasher. Turning abck she saw Robert taking a thread of memory from Angus and she heard what he said " I think its a good choice " she sid moving back to where the bed was. "And your right Robert , its not like him to worry so much, besides that was my job" she said and chuckled but listened to Robert let her know what was going to happen.

"Im okay with anything you need , your the healer after all" she said then looked to Marcus as he spoke saying he would help her since he was not leaving Angus's side " thank you Marcus" she said thn looked to Rbert again " yes , that would be great" she smiled down at the sleeping Angus " with your gidance of course." she looked to Marcus. " I will also send a message to Owens to let him know I will only be ther efor as long as my trainning alows each day since I will be returning right after, to relive you if you want me to"

"I'll be back," Robert said, taking the bottle and going to the main building to find Kate.

Nigel seemed to be busying himself with looking around their house.

"This does seem to be exactly the sort of thing I'd expect him and you to embrace, Ruby. Simple, rustic elegance. A rather candid sort of life, without putting on any airs. Very nice," Nigel said. "And if that's fresh coffee I'm smelling, I will happily put in a shift or two. You should be relieved though. I was telling Marcus earlier that I have not been a surgical assistant in many a year. I've always been the surgeon. However, after seeing Robert at work, I can see why people go to him for tricky fractures and whatnot. Meticulous to a fault. he did an exceptional job of repair. Clearly, Angus is one of those lads, like that bald werewolf you lot have, that is all rough and tumble, comes back for splints like little boys come back for plasters, only to go out and break something else. It's the nature of the job, you know. But--we found a right foul mess in that shoulder. Some of it new, and quite a lot of it old nonsense that looked like it happened long before he met you. Scuffles that he simply pushed through and didn't ever have tended. So, that's what took us longer. And, Robert didn't believe he'd get the boy back in for two or three layers to it. He figured he ought to try to get as much of it done in this go as he could. When he gets his mobility back, I'll wager he'll have much better mobility than he had before--if you can keep him from buggaring it before it heals."

Edward went over, poured Nigel a cup of coffee and brought it to him.

"God, bless you," Nigel said. "That's marvelous."

A moment later there was a huge booming sound and it was like an icy wind blasted through the house. Pictures on the wall rattled, knickknacks fell and broke. And things shook like a bit of an earthquake. and then settled.

"What the devil...." Simone rushed over, alarmed.

"That, my dear," Edward said, is a bit of a wizarding outrage. For it to have shaken things here, I can only surmise it was Robert, and probably related to that pensieve, and, I would presume that things are in a shatter over in the main house. Whatever was in that pensieve, Robert is beyond livid about it."

Ruby heard Nigel and smiled " thank you and yes , its home" she said simply then chuckled as he mentioned coffee " yes it is a fresh pot" she glanced back at the kitchen seeing Edward poring a cup of coffee for Nigel. She was just about to thank him for assisting with the surgary with she felt the blact and felt the whole room shake she quickly moved outside to check on the girls to make sure they were all oka " you girls all right?" she asked picking up Caprice then moving to check Anise and Ginger but found all were okay.

Moving back inside she heard Edward and breathed out " must have been something really really bad for that to happen, as far as I know since I've been here hes nevr done that" she said sititng down to calm her self and Caprice too.

"No, most likely not," Edward replied to her. "This is over the top, even by wizard standards. He was going to head over to the main house, and Kate and Robert came out and came over. Robert opened the door, without invitation, and just came in. Kate went straight to Angus, and she had a pouch of something that she put in a little smudge pot and she lit it and made sure that she wave the smoke all around him.

"This ends now,' Kate said to everyone quietly, working, casting a spell while she took the smudge pot through the house. The duplex began to shake, and they could hear angry growling noises. Edward didn't say a word, but he knew exactly what she was doing. He just didn't know why.

"What is all this?" Nigel asked as she worked, going upstairs and in and out of those rooms and then down to the basement and through Edward's side as well.

"In a word? Since the only ghost I know of that's been hanging about is Reginald, Kate's 'evicting' him. She's evicting him from Angus and forbidding him from bothering him ever again, and now she's driving him from the house. She'll ban him then from the rest of the property as well. It does take awhile, but based on the rage I feel from her and from Robert, I'd say she has plenty of energy for this."

"So you think whatever this was, was in his nightmare?" Nigel asked.

"Oh, yes," Edward nodded. "That much is obvious to me." When Kate finished She set the smudge pot outside on the stoop and came back in.

"If he ever says a syllable or anyone sees him or even a hint of him here ever again, I want to know about it immediately. He knows exactly where I will send him to next if he ever,, ever tries that again...."

"So, what exactly did Reginald do?" Edward asked.

"Reginald tried to convince Angus that he had some abilities with precognition and that he had seen that Robert and I, in particular, were out to get rid of him. He showed Angus very realistic, detailed visions of Robert taking im to St. Mungo's today and locking him up on the fourth floor. Angus was deliberately shown a vision of himself trapped alone in a cell there, in a straitjacket, and forgotten, and that not only did Robert and I plot it and arrange it but everyone he thought he ever loved went along with it. And he tried to use all those little bits of help he gave us as the ammunition that, certainly, since he had been helping Angus all along, he would surely be the one person that Angus could trust. I don't know how long Reginald has been screwing around with him. but all this fear today was entirely about believing that Robert had betrayed him and was setting him up to lose everything and everyone that ever mattered."

"And that, for him, would have been far worse than anyting any boggart could ever show him," Edward said very quietly. He looked at Marcus. "Now I understand why you, in particular, have been such an important lifeline for him. It was a friendship that Reginald didn't see, and for Angus, it kept him going today. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Marcus replied. "But I"m still not going anywhere."

"Sounds like that's a very good thing," Nigel said.

Ruby saw the front door open and Kate walk in with a small pot that she lit. As soon as she did the whole house shook and she covered Caprices head from anything that could fall and harm her. She listened to what was going on then to Kate as she explained what they ahd sen in the pensive. She closed her eyes and calmed her self as inside she was beyond livid with her so called father.

Hearing Kates last words she looked at her " and I'll help " she said keeping her voice low to show she was beyond angry at her father to the point she could not show her anger and stayed calm. Turning to Marcus she smiled " I agree thank you for being there for him today I think if you'd have not gone with him he wouldn't have gone threw it." she said " and if my father wasnt already dead I would kill him myself for what he did." she said slightly louder.

"You're absolutely right, Ruby. He wouldn't have," Marcus said, "especially when, to add to it, Robert was preoccupied and just didn't mention where we were going or why. Angus went because he had always trusted Robert and, it was for the relationship he hoped he still had with Robert. Just so you all know, though, I did promise him that if you did think you were going to lock him up, Robert, I was breaking him out."

"And I would have wanted no less," Robert said. "Looks like I need to rebuild some trust for something that Reginald made up. So you promised him that, regardless, you've always had him, and you still have him."

"Because I do," Marcus said firmly. "I'm not leaving him until he's good with me being out of his sight. When he's good with it, I'll know."

"Then you stay right with it," Robert said. "And let us know if you need something."

"i think it makes sense that we add perhaps a calming potion to his pain potion," Nigel said.

"I've already done that," Robert said. "Its why I haven't give it to Andrew yet. I don't want it within reach of the girls or anyone that has no right to have access to it."

"You going to put an authorization on it?" Nigel asked

"Precisely," Robert said.

"An authorization is a new spell that allows us to seal certain kinds of meds from anyone except specific individuals that we give that select permission to," Nigel said.

"So, I would certainly allow all our healers to have access,' Robert said, "along with Ruby, and Marcus and Edward and Simone. I see no need for anyone else to have access. Just his healers and the other adults that live in the same house with him. Any objections?"

"None at all," Marcus said, "because it will keep any of Suzanne to do any tinkering with it at all."

"Yes. it will," Robert agreed, handing the bottle to Nigel. "Now, if I leave potion here, and if I entrust our boy to you lot to take care of him for a couple of hours, can you manage? I think I'm going to grab Michael, and I"m going out."

"That sounds ominous," Edward frowned.

"Oh, not as ominous as all that," Robert said, "I'm going to Paris. I'm going to go set Suzanne's house on fire and hope that she's in it." They laughed and then Edward noticed Robert wasn't laughing.

"You're blood serious, aren't you? Edward asked.

"Damned right," Robert said. "Anybody want to come with me? Feels to me like a bit of an eff you letter, and if any of you want to tag along, I"m sure she'd see it a bit like you were adding your signature to my note."

"Hell, I'm going," Simone said. Edward looked at her, frowning."

"No, he's my grandson now too, is he not?" Simone asked. "I'll 'sign' it for both of us."

Ruby listened to Robert and nodded in regards to the age authorization charm on the bottle "That's a good idea " she said then heard him talk to Marcus and smiled at both of them. When he spoke of burning Suzanes house she smirked then when Simone said she was going Ruby looked at her " Do it for Caprice and me too, I would go with Robert myself but I have responsibilities here" she told her lightly bouncing Caprice who held her hands out to Edward wanting to be held by him.

Ruby looked at the sleeping Angus then to Robert " make sure its down to nothing but ashes please" she said softly to him. She wanted to convay just how angry she was at them both for the damage they ahd caused , but she was adiment she was not going to leave Angus just to apease them both. But she also wanted them to know just how angry she was about their interfearance.

Robert and Michael and Simone and Brian were the ones who, in the end, went to Paris. With Robert temporarily gone, Nigel took over Angus's care. Andrew sorted out the last of the equipment that was on the wheeled cart that they had brought from the pantry. Marcus only allowed himself to be either in the living room with Angus or just outside the living room door on the deck since Angus's bed was almost right next to the french doors leading to the deck. Marcus could see and hear Angus's slightest move from there, but he could get a breath of fresh air out there.

Nigel found Angus's mystery paperbacks and he picked one and sat down with it, letting Angus sleep. It was about ninety minutes later, after the 'Paris attack squad' had gone to Paris that Angus stirred and woke. He was sluggish and groggy. It was Marcus that had heard Angus's breathing change because he had been listening for it. It brought him back inside. Angus woke calling for him before he even had his eyes open.

"I'm still here,' Marcus said, "You had to sleep sometime or another, Mate. Take a minute and get your bearings. Could I get you something to drink?"

"Coffee? Or are we past breakfast?" he asked. Marcus smiled.

"Yeah, we passed breakfast hours ago, but yeah. I can get some coffee...."

"No, it's not that important," Angus said. Marcus got the message. Angus hadn't had time to realize where he was yet, and he wasn't ready to let Marcus walk out of his sight. Edward poured a cup and took it to Angus.

"Here," Edward said. sitting beside him. He was going to feed him a ew sips of coffee but now Angus looked confused.

"How'd you get here?" Angus asked.

"I live here," Edward said. "You're home. Lad. The kept their word and brought you straight home. You didn't have your wits about you to remember, and I'm not sure how much you'll remember this."

"I'm...where?" Angus frowned. It took him a minute, looking around and thinking for it to register. He immediately repressed all the emotion that went with finding he hadn't been wrapped up on a straitjacket and tossed in a cell forever. He looked up at Marcus after a long moment. "Thanks," he said to Marcus. Marcus nodded once. It was all they needed. Edward heard Angus's stomach growling and grumbling about coffee with no food.

"Is that broth still hot?" he asked Ruby, deliberately not using her name. "Why don't you bring him a little before he tries a lot more coffee on an empty stomach?" As Angus looked around, he started to realize that something felt missing. He was trying to define what felt like it was gone. After a moment, he placed it. He didn't feel, for the moment, Suzanne or Reginald hammering at him. He had no intention of even bringing it up for fear that mentioning their names would somehow bring them right back into their nonstop hammering at his sanity. The space between his ears hadn't been this quiet or months and months, and right now, he wasn't sure what to do with it and with the freedom to have just his own thoughts again for once.