A Birth day

Ruby heard Abby call out and saw Angus head towards her she followed leaving Aria to finish the cheese cake. She moved to hold Abby as Angus spoke to her " hes right, Marcus goes where Angus goes and she'll have Jack and use to fight too, nothing can harm Angus, But we will be careful too" she said hoping to reassure her " we'll get your uncle Jack to make sure she can't get in, okay" she said smiling to her.

Aria stood listening and looked to Marcus as she placed the last strawberry on the cheese cake then placed it into the fridge. " I know she's young but we should listen to her and let Jack know of this" she said softly to him.

"We will," marcus said. "We take seers seriously here, so we'll pass the word around. I don't believe that Angus will lose a fight to moira, but we have never taken seers lightly, so we'll do what we always do, and we'll pass the word around." Angus put the cookies on a plate and he went with her to make sure she didn't spill the cookies. They gave one to Elwood first, then Andrew, and then everyone else.

A couple hours passed and it was getting close to time for the girls to come home from school when Abbey looked up.

"mama's at the door," Abbey said.

"She is?" Angus frowned. Just then there was a knock at the door. marcus went to the door and found it was Khaat. The two of them hugged. marcus and Khaat still were close friends.

"Is Abbey here?" she asked.

"She is. Come in," marcus said.

"Hello, All," Khaat said. "What a great looking tree. Oh, and thanks for finding ours for us too this year."

"You're welcome. Our pleasure," Angus said. Khaat went over and sat next to Abbey.

"Abbey," she said quietly. "I owe you an apology. I didn't know Gan and Papa already said you could go into their room if you had a bad dream. I just didn't want you to wake them up. You know you can come and get in bed with Daddy and me. That's always an option. But now that I know that its okay with Papa and Gan, that's a choice too. And, in case you're getting hungry, Uncle mikey is making lasagna tonight."

"He is?" Abbey was wide eyed.

"He is," Khaat laughed, knowing how Abbey liked michael's lasagna. She looked at Angus.

"Is it okay?" she asked him timidly.

"For you to go back to your house? Of course," he smiled. "And, you know where our house is. You can come back whenever you want." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered in his ear for moment. "We love you too, Abs," he said. marcus handed Abbey's bag to Khaat, and after Abbey said goodbye to everyone, Khaat walked her home.

"I think she's a bit better," marcus smiled. "Abbey's smiling and talking to her mother. Looks like things are again as they should be."

Ruby looked at the door when Abby said Khaat was there when Marcus opened it she smiled " evening Khaat" she said " good to see you and yeah shes here , helped make cat cookies." she said and moved to grab three from the plate placing them in a small box she slipped them into Abby's bag " for later" she said smiling to Abby as Angus spoke Ruby nodded " always Abby don't forget that" she said as she saw a smiling Abby walk back to the main house with Khaat.

Aria had heard Marcus and nodded " I'll send a note to Jack" she said as she then watched him open the back door for Khaat to enter and watched the two embrace but she knew they were good friends so just smiled at her. She wrote the note and saw Abby head back with Khaat to the main house as they left she sent the bird note to Jack who she saw catch it and read it he looked over to her and nodded before turning around and heading back to the guard house and Joseph.

It was just then that Evan arrived with Anise and Ginger and a huge burlap bag.

"Oh, don't tell me," Angus laughed. "That's full of oranges, isn't it?"

"And limes," Evan nodded.

"We'll be eating oranges and limes til march," Angus laughed.

"Well, the girls have news of their own," Evan said. "Tell them, Girls."

"We both passed our apparition test. We have our licenses. We're legally allowed to apparate now," Anise said, and they showed them their licenses.

"i told them Tara and I will still apparate with them, especially through the winter weather," Evan said. "They can do the apparating with us along as long as the weather isn't lousy."

"Thank you," Angus said. He smiled at both girls. "Great job, both of you. I am so proud of you. Congratulations."

"And look! We have a tree!" Ginger said. "You guys have been busy."

"We have. We didn't know we had a reason to celebrate, though, so as a reward, how about a night off from doing your homework instead?"

"That works for us," Both of them grinned.

Ruby walked over and took the sack from Even as she listened to the girls " oh well done girls , congrats" she said taking the oranges and limes to the kitchen returning with a plate of cookies " why don't you try these Abby and Aria and I made them" she said smiling as she held them out for the girls to take one each.

Aria chuckled and smiled to the girls " well done, those are not easy" she said smiling to them both " what are you going to be like when the kids start aperating?" she asked Marcus with a teasing smile.

" I'm guessing he will be the same as Angus" Ruby said chuckling a she moved to put the cookies on the table behind Aria before returning to Angus side with a smile.

"I've been hoping those kids will learn to not only be accurate in their spellcasting, but also to ake perhaps some less lethal career choices than I have," marcus said.

"If they are as stupid as we are, then we'll get them training to help the overcome the same death wishes that we have," Angus teased.

"Oh, definitely," marcus said. "Your girls graduate this spring, and my twins graduate next year. I'll still have three more to go after that."

"Um, could we ask something?" Ginger asked.

"Certainly," Angus said.

"Victor and Sam have their apartments furnished enough now that they could be quite comfortable in them, and there's little point in paying rent for a place they're not staying in. But Anise and I had an idea."

"Go on," Angus said. "You're not moving out to..."

"No, no. That's not it," Anise said. "We know we won't likely be moving out til after our birthdays. However, we're getting on quite well with Jada. We'd like to take the lofted beds out of the boys' room when they move out and put them downstairs in our room. We have enough room, and it would let Jada move from Edward's guest bedroom downstairs with us. You could change that bedroom upstairs back to a guest room. And, when we move out in the spring, maybe Jada could either keep the room downstairs or go upstairs."

"Or maybe by then she'll want her own place. Its hard to tell," Angus said. "I'll discuss it with Ruby, and we'll let you know. Now, can one of you set up the sideboard for supper? I'll get working on it so we can eat relatively on time."

Ruby had listened to Ginger and Anises thoughts and smiled knowing it would be good for Jada to be with girls her own age and have company. Ruby looked at Angus and smiled giving him a nod that she would approve if he did. " would be nice to have a spare room again" she said chuckling knowing that she would miss the boys being around the house but glad they will be close .

Aria heard Marcus and chuckled but nodded " yeah so not quite done with Hogwarts yet" she said " but I'm sure they will make good choices seeing as they have a good role model." she added as she finished cleaning up and sat down with her book to read.

"I am far more relieved they did not follow their mother's path. She wanted them to be rich, no matter what it took for them to accomplish it. Fortunately for them, they never spent enough time with her to have much of her wear off on them," marcus said.

"Do you hear at all from her anymore?" Angus asked.

"I do," marcus replied, as Angus worked on the workbench in the kitchen. I get a letter about every two weeks, as regular as clockwork, begging me to come and break her out. She genuinely does not appear to remember that we aren't married now and that I have no ability to help her. So I collect a wad of the letters and ship them back to Jeffrey every so often. It doesn't honestly bother me, so I just tuck them away til I get enough to send back to him. What am I smelling in the kitchen?"

"Well, probably the beef mushroom soup. Its done, and I've shredded the potroast leftovers and adding them to some of the soup, with some worchestershire sauce and some stout. As soon as that's simmered and thickened, I'll make the filling into cheesy beefy paninis. Right now, I'm slicing some root vegetables to makes some multicolored veggie crisps to go with the paninis. i don't have a dessert, though, or a salad."

Aria heard Marcus and nodded when he spoke of his ex she sighed and nodded as she had seen him putting the letters away " I wish she would just leave you alone and the kids too" she said looking at him then smelling the Mushroom soup wafting from the kitchen as Angus spoke to Marcus " smells wonderful" she said and smiled to him as she turned the page in her book.

Ruby smiled and looked to Marcus " well ether way be proud of them for who they have become regardless of her short influence" she said smiling still as she lay a clean table cloth on the table and wiped down the side board ready for the supper things. She listened to Angus talk of what he was going to make and smiled " sounds perfect" she said as she refilled the water jug and placed it now covered on the table.

"That isn't likely to happen, not entirely, I don't think," marcus said. "I've looked after her and protected her for nigh onto 20 years, and, regardless, she's the mother of four of my five kids. That binds us together for life whether we want it or not. It doesn't upset me, nor does it drag me back to her. The kids don't write to her. They don't want anything to do with her. And, honestly, she has no one else. I don't respond to her. I just send the letters back. You can't let yourself be threatened by her. As it is, y kids have had good values put into the, largely by my parents."

Angus spread out the paper thin veggie slices on baking sheets and put them in the oven to bake, rather than deep frying them. From there, he went on to make a hasty chopped salad, and then he decided on some quick apple dumplings. He took apples, prepared them, almost as baked apples, but he wrapped them in puff pastry to have a quick, easy pastry to enclose them in and he stuffed them in the oven. That gave him time to turn the veggie chips over and put them back in the oven, and to start to cook the paninis.

The boys came in from work and headed straight up to wash for supper, and, without help in the kitchen, Angus was running a bit behind schedule. While the paninis were toasting, he set out plates and silverware, sodas, and prepared places for the big bowl of fresh crisps and the salad and then put on coffee and tea.