A Birth day

"No. Not us," Victor frowned.

"Not us either," Anise frowned.

"Let's open it," Sam said, a look of 200% boyish mischief on his face.

"Yeah!" Victor laughed mischievously.

"What? It's not yours. Are you five?" Ginger frowned.

"Yup," Sam laughed. He and Victor tore the brown paper, and the four kids stood up, wands at the ready, and Sam kicked the lid off the box. When the lid came off, tiny little dark green and light green toads sprang out of the box going every direction.

"Get em!" Sam shouted. "There's a bezillion of 'em!"

"Ucciderò quei ragazzi. È meglio che prendano ognuna di queste cose," Carlo grumbled. [I'm going to kill those kids. They better catch every one of those things']

"What the heck?" Edward came in. "Who opened the game boards without putting a petrificus on the pieces first."

"Game pieces?" Sam looked blankly at Edward.

"Look in the box, Dope," Ginger scowled. "Backgammon board and mancala board. Somebody ordered a couple of games, and now the pieces are all going awol. You'd better get every one of 'em back, Sam."

Ruby and Jessie both looked confused but then stood up when Sam and Victor opened the box and about eighty pieces flew out and jumped away " oh hush its only about eighty , but Carlos is right, guys fined every one of those game pieces." she said holding Dimond as she caught one that jumped in front of her. " Robert is there a ay to stop these from moving?" she asked.

Aria heard shrieks from the dining room and looked confused at Marcus just as something jumped by the door " did I see a play piece jump by?" sha sked moving to the door and grabbing it to show Marcus . With a sigh she spoke again " don't worry I'll help fix this." she said catching a second as it tried to hop past her as she headed down to the kitchen catching two more " okay who let them out?" she asked

"Well, shit," Marcus sighed, still upstairs with Angus. "They didn't."

"Ow!' Angus said, as he was pelted in the head with something that felt like flying rocks. "What was that? Felt like a rock."

"Rocks, to be precise. Multiple rocks," Marcus said.

"Immobilus!" Angus shouted, casting a wandless immobilus spell. All throughout the house, the little toads froze in mid air.

"Oh well done, whoever did that," Robert said. "I was about to, but someone else beat me to it. Okay, Boys, go gather them up."

"You could just..." Kate began.

"Hush," Robert told Kate quickly. "The rest of you, come and eat. The boys will get here--eventually."
Robert knew quite well, he could have cast an accio charm, but he wanted the boys to clean up their mess and to learn a lesson about their actions. Sam and Victor sighed, but they started through the house to pick up all the little toads.



"Where'd they come from?" Angus asked Marcus.

"I ordered a wizarding backgammon game, and it came with a free mancala game. Obviously, someone opened it without taking any precaution, and the pieces went everywhere."

"That is such a Sam thing to do," Angus sighed. "It had to be Sam."

"The games were supposed to be delivered to the duplex, not here."

"Doesn't matter. We'll just take them home," Angus said. "Toads, huh? I rather like that. After all, backgammon and mancala are games of leaping one piece over another, so toads are rather clever, I think. You should have your dad do a set with chocolate frogs."

"That never entered my head. Maybe gummy frogs instead, though," Marcus said.

"That would work too."

Simone fixed a couple small plates with some little bites of scrambled eggs and some pureed fruits and some small pieces of cereal for the babies to play with.

"Come let the babies try to feed themselves, and you eat," Simone told Ruby and Aria.

Ruby sat back down with Diamond letting the baby try and eat for herself. Aria laughed and nodded to Marcus as one of the stone frogs hit Angus then another before Marcus had stopped the frogs from moving . " ok so the mystery of who ordered these is solves as for why they came here you can find out once you have slept and are refreshed." Aria added as she felt Caprice start wriggling on her hip " okay this ones hungry and I do not wat her screaming down my ear, I'll fetch her food then we ca get every one ready to get home, I would suggest Angus going ether first or last." she suggested.

Aria walked into the kitchen with Caprice and set hr in a high chair with a bowl of her food. " be good no throwing" she said Caprice looked at her and picked up some food and ate it " good girl" she said smiling to her and Caprice giggled.

"We'll manage," Angus told Aria.

"I'll go check on Angus to make sure his incision is still okay for him to be moved," Robert said. "I'll be back. Jessie, if you're finished eating, come with me, please. If you're going to help move him, you need to probably know what we're protecting."

Robert went upstairs, dodging little toads that were frozen in mid air still, and he went into the bedroom and removed the dressings.

"That's disgusting," Angus said.

"Actually, no. It looks a bit better. It's draining like it needs to, the color is very good, and the swelling is going down. For only being about 36 hours old, it looks remarkably good," Robert said. "I'm going to clean it and dress it."

"How many stitches are there?"

"Well, because of how deep it is and the angle of it, I used more than I might have done otherwise. There are ten sutures internally. Those will dissolve as you heal. There are 31 externally, so a total of 41, but only 31 that we need to be concerned with," Robert said. "And, as I said, it looks very good." He cleaned and dressed the wound again. "Now, you boys," Robert looked at Marcus and Jessie. "Im going to immobilize his arm, but I"m sure you expected that. I'm going to put it in a sling that has an additional binder to fasten the arm to his chest so he can't jar it on the way home. I want to try to reduce the likelihood that he will open the stitches. If that happens, you lot will find you're all three very messy by the time you get home, and I'm sure nobody wants that to happen.

"Now," Robert continued as he worked. "Angus, you are not going to be able to stand for more than maybe a moment or two, if you can even do that. Jessie and Marcus, you'll have to be very careful how you support him, and the moment you get him to his feet, you'll need to port out. Do not expect him to be able to be on his feet by the time he gets whipped around in the porting spell. It would be far better if Jack met you with Angus's wheelchair so that you lot don't end up having to grab him under that shoulder, but you'll have to do the very best you can. Just get him home, and I'll deal with anything else that happens when I get there. I will try to follow you straight away so that I can be there in case he needs me." Robert finished bandaging the shoulder and attaching the sling. "Well, he's ready. Angus, do you feel ready to go home?"

"Of course," Angus said. "I could try..."

"No, just let Jessie and Marcus get you home. We'll follow as soon as we can. See you boys at home," Robert said, leaving to go downstairs to get his bag and see if Kate was ready to go too.

Jessie finished his food and stood up with Robert following him up to Angus room . He stayed by the door to give Robert room to check Angus before walking in and standing with Marcus " how we doing this, one each side?" he asked Marcus knowing he'd want o take Angus bad side. " the beds by the fire once we get there" Jessie said .

Ruby and Aria finished eating and moved upstairs to change the girls ready for the trip home. Aria slung Caprice bag over her shoulder as Ruby did the same for Dimond double checking everything was in that she would need as was Caprices. " okay, we're ready" Ruby said as Aria walked in behind her both wearing jackets for the cold weather back at the estate.

At home, Nigel had gone over towards the duplex in case Jack needed a hand, and knowing Robert would most likely move Angus in the morning.

"Jack, they may do alright without us, but if they have an issue," Nigel told him, "the safest thing for you and me to do is to levitate him, rather than to try to physically carry him, but clearly, the burden of carrying that weight will still be on you because, as you well know, levitating him won't make him one ounce lighter. We should levitate him straight in and onto the bed. I'm hoping they'll not try to port him unless they have two people on him because that will give us four people to levitate if we need it. I went in the duplex earlier and opened the bed in case that happened. He's lost too much blood, so his blood pressure is going to give him trouble. That's just a given. From what Robert's told me, I don't think Angus has a realistic clue of how bad his situation is, and if I know him, he'll be pushing his limits.

"Yes, Jessie," Marcus said, picking up a special belt that was lying on top of his bag. "I'm going to fasten this belt around your waist, Angus. Give me one moment." He fastened a wide belt around his waist that had hand holds on the front and the back of it--in front and back on the left, and in front and back on the right. "This is a lift belt," Marcus said. "It's a muggle thing, but it's pretty damned clever, especially in your situation where we have to be so careful with that shoulder. It will let Jessie and me get a good grip on you so that we don't lose you in porting.

"Jessie, stand on his right side because that's his good side. Now, reach your arm around his waist and take hold of the belt on the grip on the back on his left side. Angus, reach your good arm around his waist and grab hold of his waistband. Jessie, I'm leaving your other hand free so you can be the one doing the porting. You both should be good so far

"Now," Marcus said, "I'm going to stand on Angus's bad side so I can try to protect that shoulder during porting. I'm going to reach around you, Angus, and take hold of the belt in the back on your good side, and then I'm going to reach around and take hold of the belt on the front too so that I'm using my body to shelter your shoulder. When you stand up, let us do the lifting, and we'll be holding you up. If your legs won't hold you, don't worry about it. We've got you. Jessie, he wasn't able to begin to stand up yesterday, so if this doesn't work, if he starts to black out, you need to lean him against you because if you don't, he'll throw that body weight on that incision, and we can't let that happen. Now, I think we've got it."

"You worry too much," Angus said. "I've been porting all my life. Let's just do this, shall we?"

"Let's just do this," Marcus said. "Go, Jessie. We've got him." Angus attempted to stand right when Marcus helped Angus to his feet so Jessie could cast the porting spell, but Angus's legs wouldn't even begin to hold him. His head spun, and everything went black. Marcus knew at once that Angus hadn't been nearly strong enough to stand because he was very weak from the serious loss of blood. When he had stood up, his blood pressure had bottomed out, making him black out. Marcus had been expecting it, and he had tried to take as much of Angus's body weight as he could without endangering his wounded shoulder, but he knew he was going to have to depend on Jessie to carry the rest. Hopefully, for no longer than it would take to port, they could manage.

Jack heard Nigel and nodded " I got my wand at the ready" he said as he finished his coffee " Aria sent over a note saying they were heading back early this morning so I'm headed over now" He said finishing his coffee he started to walk over hoping Nigel would follow when he was ready.

Jessie nodded and listened to What Marcus told him, he watched Robert put the harness on him and looked at Marcus " don't worry he'll be in good hands" Jessie said grasping hold of the handle on the belt. When Marcus said he'd have to take Angus weight if he blacked out Jessie changed his stance and was glad he did when he felt Angus go down " okay I got you" he said leaning him against him " Marcus you good?" he asked and herd him say to go once he was against him and Jessie ported right to the Duplex just as Jack walked in the door.

"Wingardium Leviosa" Jack said levitating Angus from Jessie " Nigel suggested levitation, I'll lay him down on the bed, Marcus if you could please guide him that would be great Jessie tell Nigel you're back" Jack said as Jessie ran out the door to the main house. Jack moved him to the new bed and slowly lowered him down letting Marcus do the fine manoeuvre's to place him just where he should be.

Marcus guided them to the bed, and once Angus was safely on the bed, Marcus took Angus's shoes and simply covered him.

"Thanks, Guys. He'll be better in a moment when his blood pressure evens out," Marcus said. He left Angus for just a moment to put on a pot of tea. He wanted to be able to give Angus some tea with some honey to help him feel better. As the tea was brewing, Marcus lit a fire in the fireplace, and then went back to get a couple mugs of tea--one for him and one for Angus.

"Tea's on, if you want some," Marcus told Jack and Jessie. "I made a whole pot of almond tea, so help yourself if you want some."

"So you made it back in one piece," Nigel said, coming in.

"Yes. so far, so good, as soon as he wakes up," Marcus replied.

"He blacked out, did he?" Nigel asked.

"The instant he tried to get to his feet," Marcus said. "I did expect it."

"Well, so did I, and I'm sure Robert did too but now that he's home, maybe he'll rest a little."

"No. He wont. He's going to be trying to outthink and outmaneuver Suzanne."

"Well, she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so that shouldn't take much effort," Nigel said, checking the dressing. "No ruptured sutures. You lot did a great job. Well done. And he's coming around." Marcus just kept things a little quiet and fed Angus some sips of tea.

"Better?" Marcus finally asked.

"Yeah. Thanks," Angus said. "Are the others back yet?"

"No, but they'll be coming any minute now, I'm sure," Marcus told him.

Jessie returned with Nigel as Marcus offered tea he walked over and pored a cup Jack shook his head " I had coffee not five minuets ago , but thanks for the offer, now I should get to my patrols , Jessie remember your on evening patrols tonight" he said and Jessie raised his cup and nodded he understood.

Aria and Ruby with the babies ported in and breathed a sigh of relief seeing Angus sleeping in the bed. Ruby and Aria took Caprice and Dimond to the nursery to get them out of their travel clothing and into something comfortable.  Aria returned with Dimond and looked to Angus them Marcus " no problems?" she asked setting a clean and changed Dimond into the play pen where Dimond sat then picked up a toy to inspect. Aria walked over to the bed and smiled seeing Angus looking propped up and more comfortable.

When Angus tried to get the pencils from a draw but couldn't they watched as Marcus walked over and opened it only to find something inside it, Aria stood up and walked over to look at it " not mine nor Ruby's , its not her style" she said and looked to Marcus not touching it after her own experience earlier that day.