A Birth day

"Ruby," Marcus said, "you do realize that you can only reasonably get is 4 glasses out of a bottle of wine, 5 glasses max. If we don't open a second bottle, we're actually only going to get one glass each. Besides, none of us are alcoholics that we'd need to worry about that. And, most of the time, when I've been to state dinners when multiple wines are served, the glasses are smaller, so that they can finish what few sips of wine they have with each course. They might have 3 or 4 different wine though from appetizer to dessert, but altogether they might have a max of about 2 glasses worth. And, if someone really does serve full sized glasses, nobody is really expected to finish all that, especially at an important affair. It would be considered really bad from if someone got sozzled."

"My parents got completely polluted at damned near every event I could remember them going to," Angus said. "Edward has always had alcohol out and at easy access at his place, but he and Caprice just never got into it much. They weren't all that excited about parties, so the same bottles tended to be at the bar for a few years at a time before they were used up. I always wondered how I could have such exceptional grandparents and how such a creepy kid like Benjamin could have come from them. Never made sense to me."

"I doubt it ever made sense to them either," Marcus said. "Don't you remember Barty Crouch's kid?"

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot all about that. Barty Crouch Jr was about as far from the sort of man his dad was as he could get. And Barty senior didn't appear to have a clue."

"He didn't. Took him totally by surprise."

"That was wonderful, but I'm honestly full," Angus said. Marcus saw Angus had eaten a bit more than half. His appetite was improving. It was where it needed to be, but it was better, so Marcus wasn't going to harp on him.

"I'll get your plate and put on some coffee to go with the cheesecake, unless you all would rather have tea?"

"Coffee, please," Angus said.

"I knew that," Marcus laughed, knowing that Angus preferred the taste of a good black coffee with dessert instead of tea. "What about you, Aria and Ruby, coffee or tea with your cheesecake?"

Ruby listened and nodded " yeah, sorry, your right. " she said and sipped her wine as she watched the babies eat their food quietly beside her. Aria chuckled and looked to Marcus and chuckled.

"I'll have a coffee please " she said smiling " thank you Marcus" she added Ruby looked at Marcus and nodded.

"same here" she said picking up the now empty lates from Aria and herself and taking them to the sink before returning to sit at the table taking another sip of the red wine. Seeing the babies now done eating Aria stood up and picked up Dimond taking her upstairs to wash off her face and change her ready for her nap, Ruby did the same with Caprice who was not as badly covered as Dimond.

Marcus made coffee and served up slices of cheesecake for when Ruby and Aria had washed up the babies and put them to bed for the night.

"This is weird," Angus said as Marcus brought the coffee.

"What is?" Marcus asked.

"Six kids, and none of them are around," Angus said. Marcus laughed.

"Enjoy it," Marcus laughed. "The oldest four are enjoying liking time away from us old farts, and the babies are too young to care. And tomorrow, I expect it will just you and me, Mate. Aria and Ruby are supposed to take Carlo and Rosaria out shopping in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade."

"Well, maybe we can break out your new backgammon board then."

"Are you any good? I know you said you played but..."

"Good enough to defeat you," Angus said.

"Oh, you wish," Marcus laughed.

"Alright. Loser buys the Royal Albert Hall tickets."

"Done," Marcus agreed.

Aria and Ruby finished cleaning up the babies and put then in there PJ's both were asleep by the time they left the room, Ruby left the door ajar so they could hear them if they woke as they went down stairs to see Marcus and Angus playing backgammon " okay what's the steaks?" Aria asked sitting down on the couch to watch them while Ruby went and washed the dishes making sure the taurine was clean too so she could return it in the morning to Rosaria.

" I'm guessing something to do with the night out?" Ruby said picking up her coffee cup and sitting next to Aria to watch the pair of them. Aria picked up her book and chuckled at Ruby's words.

"would not surprise me" she said and opened it to the page she had left it at while watching Angus.

"Loser buys the tickets," Angus said. "Its not a big deal. I know I can take him."

"How do you figure that? We've never played."

"I know your chess game, and I beat you almost every time we play," Angus teased.

"Because I let you win," Marcus said.

"You liar," Angus said.

"What are you boys argueing about?" Edward asked "Simone sent me over to see what we might bring you back from Sparks in the morning for breakfast. I konw the girls are going out with Rosaria and Carlo. Simone and I are going out early because she needs to pick up her new pair of reading glasses tomorrow, and then we're going for breakfast. We'll bring you boys back breakfast from Sparks if you tell me what you want."

"From Sparks? Surprise me. It's all good," Angus said.

"Make it two," Marcus said.

"So what were you arguing about?"

"Who is going to beat whom at backgammon tomorrow," Angus said.

"My money's on you," Edward said.

"Why him?" Marcus asked.

"Because I've seen you play chess too. You need more matches against Robert," Edward told Marcus. As he spoke, a letter fluttered through the floo. Marcus caught it, looked at the writing on the outside of it, and stuffed it, unopened into his back pocket.

"Alright. What is it?" Angus asked.

"Evelyn's handwriting. I dont' want to know. I haven't heard from her for awhile. It's about time she sent me an 'I-Need-Money-Marcus' letters."

"She's not your problem anymore," Angus said.

"Oh, I know that very well. I'll open it eventually. Right now, I want to focus on my amaretto cheesecake and my coffee," Marcus said.

Aria and Ruby chuckled at the banter between the two men over the checkers game they looked over as Edward walked in and at his words this sent Aria chuckling again. She paused seeing the letter and hearing Edward mention Evelyn and she frowned wondering just what she wanted " I thought she'd give up" Aria said sitting back on the couch as she closed her book and placed it beside her.

" from what I understand she's crazy so she won't " Ruby said " glad you put her where she can get the help she needs." Ruby said smiling to Marcus . " back to your game whose move was it?" she asked looking at the board.

"Well, we really hadn't started a game, but we could," Marcus said.

"How about just for practice, no stakes involved?" Edward suggested. "You can do serious battle tomorrow."

"Okay," Angus said. "Let's play." At those words the frogs aligned themselves on the points. They rolled the dice, and Marcus went first. "The idea is that I move my men from right to left, while he's moving his men from right to left, and the one who gets all his men completely around and exited off the board first wins. And while we're moving our men, we're also trying to stop each other from winning. Rolling the dice determines how many spaces we move on each turn. Does that sort of explain it? It isn't hard to play, but the more you play, the more strategy you can apply to it. Open hte damned letter, Marcus."

"Oh, fine," Marcus said. He drew the letter out of his pocket and opened it. He read it, and then he crumpled the letter into a ball angrily. He was tempted to chuck it in the fireplace but he didn't.

"What is it?"

"She's started a custody motion. She wants custody of all five my kids, and she's sueing me for 75% of all my assets to 'support the children.'"

"She's out of her mind," Angus said.

"Especially since Poppy isn't hers at all," Marcus said. "Of course she's barking. It's why she's in the asylum and I'm not. She's not getting my kids. I'm not worried because she doesn't have any hope of having a case. Its just annoying. Can we put this off a little? I need to go talk to my dad and make sure none of the kids get any letters from her. I want him to just confiscate them and give them to me."

"Sure," Angus said.

"I'll be back," Marcus said, going upstairs to the master bedroom to go discuss things with Jonathan.

"His kids are going to be livid," Angus said. "They hate her, especially Ezra and Kai. They remember more than the other kids do, but none of them would ever, ever go with her. Not ever."

Aria chuckled then looked to Angus as he said to open the letter he had got. When he told them what Evelyn was doing Aria shook her head then looked to Edward as he said Marcus's kids hated Evelyn " yeah they said as much on the camping trip" she said to Edward. " if he has to fight her in court I'll be at his side, she is not getting any where near those kids, there not mine but by gods I will not let her touch them" she said closing her book.

Ruby heard Aria and placed her hand on Arias shoulder " it will be fine, we'll all stand with him on this, she isn't going to get near them , Marcus right, she's in the loony bin , he has a steady well paid job , which one do you think will be in good standing for custody of those kids" she said to Aria who then nodded.

" I know, but I feel responsible for those kids too, giving them love and attention they should have got from their bio mother but didn't, showing them what a real mother is and should act." Aria looked to Angus

"I care as much about Marcus and his kids as you both do," Angus said, "but he will be the first one to remind you both that he hasn't been a saint either. After all. his two youngest kids are the same age because he got two women pregnant at just about the exact same time--the one he loved and the one he felt stuck with. And he would also remind you that his parents have given his kids what Marcus feels was perfect role models about what perfect parent/grandparents are. He hasn't felt like a perfect dad because his work kept him from raising them himself. He says his kids have never complained, but the trade off has been his ability to provide exceptionally well for them. As far as defenders go, Jonathan strikes me as the sort of fellow that would be one fierce protector. Besides, Evelyn isn't dangerous. She's just crazy. There's a difference. Suzanne is dangerous and crazy. My parents were damned dangerous. Evelyn? She's just nuts."

Ruby and Aria both laughed and nodded " yeah your right, they do have great, grand parents" Aria said and smiled " guess I'm just protective of them from Evelyn" she said and went back to reading her book waiting for Marcus to return once he had finished his conversation.

Ruby looked at Angus and nodded "your right she is just totally cuckoo in that regards" she said " and yes your parents were the worst, worse than mine" she said taking his hand in her own and gently giving it a light squeeze before she sat back on the couch herself.