A Birth day

Ruby and Aria both heard Marcus and nodded " all right , we'll keep some food for him when he wakes" Aria said as she moved to dish up the food on separate plates as she saw Marcus head up to check Angus. After a moment she saw him return saying Angus was awake but heading for a shower " that's good, hows his head" she asked but scrunched her nose when the boys walked in at the smell of manure.

Ruby nodded to Marcus as he spoke of Angus heading for a shower before coming down for some food " that's a good sign" she said smiling " and yeah Aria made supper early, but at least its here" she said with a chuckle as she then glanced to the door as the boys entered smelling of manure . She listened to them and smiled " that's wonderful." she said " I'm sure he.s been notified of the birth if the ground crew know" she said seeing Jack walk past the duplex in the direction of the barn. " there he goes" she said and chuckled.

Aria looked at the boys and chuckled " maybe Edward will let you use his spare room shower to wash up?" she suggested.

"Well," Marcus said, "we do have two bathrooms upstairs and the girls' bathroom downstairs. One could go upstairs and one downstairs. If you trust me, Lads, I'll go get you some clean clothes so you don't track that stench through the house."

"That's fine," Victor said. "I'll just apparate downstairs, and Sam can apparate upstairs."

"Just not the master bathroom because that's where your dad is," Marcus said. The boys headed for the shower, and Marcus then had time to answer Aria. "Angus said his head is a bit better for the moment. And, I did tell him that Evan is coming. That did make him happy, so that's a good thing. I'll go get the clothes for the boys so we don't have to deal with them being naked." Marcus went upstairs, got clean clothes and delivered them to the bathrooms for the boys.

Angus finished his shower and came downstairs. Marcus saw some sort of dark shadow on the side of Angus's head, just creeping out from under the hair on his temple. Marcus went over.

"Hold still a second," Marcus said. He looked through Angus' clean, wet hair and then nodded slightly. "If Robert checks in on you tonight or tomorrow, you need to tell him that you have a big bruise starting to show from where you were hit. I dont' think he'll be surprised because he knows what a blow you took. Still, you should make sure he knows, just for the fact that you're required by your contract to update him."

"Yeah. Okay," Angus said. "What am I smelling?"

"Your boys brought home shoes full of cow poop," Marcus said. "We sent them straight to the shower."

"The shoes?" Angus asked.

"No. The boys. They said they delivered a cow calf by themselves," Marcus said.

"Good for them. One does not always have the option of moving the heifer to a clean stall before that happens. And if you can't move her, you can end up covered in all kinds of disgusting things. Are the shoes still messy?"

"Um...yup. I'll make sure they set them on fire or something when they're done in the shower," Marcus laughed. "Oh, and Minos is going to take the security detail from when Aria and I leave until I come back."

"I'll take it on myself. I'll be fine for tonight and tomorrow."

"No you won't. You have a concussion. I'd rather leave it to Minos or Edward and Evan than you. You need some rest."

"You and Aria need to head home. Your family is coming. And you need to make sure Kate hasn't overdone the decorations," Angus said.

"I'm sure she has, but we'll live with it," Marcus laughed.

"Go. Both of you, go home," Angus said.

Aria and Ruby heard Marcus and nodded " I forgot about their bathroom, yes use those to wash up , please" Ruby said and chuckled agreeing with Victor about aperating to the bathrooms " thank you boys" she said then looked to Marcus " thank you too, that's a sight we don't need for the girls to see or me" she said chuckling.

"yeah we have one full moon don't need to see three tonight"Aria said and chuckled from the kitchen as she took the boys shoes and placed them out on the porch " we'll wash them down later" Aria said as she washed her hands. Hearing Marcus once he returned from upstairs she saw Angus and glanced to Marcus " we will, once we're done here" she said placing a plate in front of Angus along with a cup of tea for him.

" the boys have just gone to shower" Ruby said noticing the slight darkening in the area where he was hit just peeking out from under his hair line.

"Tuck in to your supper. I'll eat later with my family," Marcus said. He took the boys' shoes, took them outside and cleaned them up for them, and as he was cleaning them up, he saw Finn barreling across the yard, heading for home. Marcus noticed Finn was clean and looked healthy and happy, but he clearly knew where home was, and he wanted to be welcomed back home. "Well, about time you showed up," Marcus petted him. "I'm sure they're going to be glad you knew enough to come home for Christmas." Marcus picked up the shoes, opened the door, and Finn dashed in, heading to greet everyone, seemingly elated at being back home.

At that point, the girls came for supper, and following them was Simone, Edward, Elwood, and Andrew.

"We've got the sheets changed on Edward's side," Ginger told Ruby. "Jada's going to sleep downstairs in the folding bed, and there's room now for Faith and Evie in Jada's room, and Evan and Tara in Edward's other spare room. I think we should be set. But we're glad supper's ready. We're starving."

Aria saw Finn enter and smiled " glad to have you back Finn" Aria said giving the dog a pat as she then saw the girls return and enter soon after Finn. Hearing Ginger Ruby nodded she agreed and had heard her.

"good idea" she said " and thank you for doing the sheets " she added smiling feeling they had taken to the role of big sister nicely and with helping around the house. " I think the bed is in the storage compartment in the basement " sit and eat first then we'll all get the beds ready" she said as Aria placed own the girls plates ready for them to eat.

"dig in" Aria said smiling " I had a feeling you'd be hungry" she added chuckling. Aria then went and added food to Finns bowl " you too Finn"

"It's in Edward's basement," Marcus said.

"What is?" Edward asked.

"The folding bed."

"Oh. Yes. It is, Right outside the door to the wine cellar," Edward said.

"Can we shrink it?" Sam asked with a boyish grin.

"On two conditions. First, don't make it microscopic, and second, you don't get it back to its proper size, and I'm going to shrink you," Edward told him.

"Sounds fair to me," Victor grinned. "He sometimes buggars resizing. I want to see him pocket sized."

"I'll do it," Angus said.

"Let them try," Marcus said. "Somebody will change Sam back eventually, I'm sure." The boys bounced up from their supper plates and dashed downstairs. A moment later, they came back, carrying a doll house sized bed and took it downstairs. It wasn't even a minute, and they heard loud scraping sounds, and Victor cussing at Sam, saying he knew Sam couldn't get it right. Marcus and Angus got up and headed quickly downstairs, to find they could only get partway down the stairs because the bed had been resized so large that it took up all the space downstairs that was outside the girls' room.

"What in the name of Merlin did you do!" Angus exploded. "Sam, Edward's going to kill you."

"Fix it? Please?"

"Where are you?"

"Pinned against the girls' bedroom door," Victor said, "And I have a doorknob poking into my back because he's an imbicile."

Ruby heard the boys and nodded then chuckled as she heard Edward and smiled " I'd take that advice to heart" she said as she ate her food but then paused a she heard shouting from below " oh no what now?" she asked as she heard Angus from below. Aria stood up and headed to the stairs where Angus stood.

" want me to help them?" she asked Angus smirking as she spoke as she heard Victor say he had the door handle poking in his back. " I know they are meant to learn from their mistakes but.." she paused and waved her hand shrinking the bed down to its normal size" some times they do need a helping hand" she said laughing as she saw Victor laying on the bed.

Victor swatted Sa several ties, and Sam just tried to duck out of the way. Marcus took the bed into the girls' room and set it up and opened it up for Jada. Angus knew where there was extra bedding downstairs, and he got out sheets, a blanket and a pillow for her. He was going to make up the bed, and Marcus stopped him.

"Just let the girls do it. It's their room. They can handle making it up," Marcus said. "Come back up and finish your supper. You too, Boys. Sam, after Christmas, you and I--we're going to polish up your resizing spellwork. You can get it with a little help. But for now, come back up and finish eating."

They went up and finished eating. When Angus was finished, he accio'd his notebook.

"Looking for recipes for tomorrow?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah. I have to give it some thought...."

"No. You're off the hook. Ruby and Aria and Simone have been on that. They're way ahead of you. You're off the hook for kitchen duty tomorrow."

"I am?" He looked at Ruby and Aria. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

"Now is there anything else you need us to do for you before we head home?"

"No. You just need to go enjoy your first Christmas in your cottage," Angus said. "And I don't intend to see you til boxing day."

"I wont' be gone that long. I will be over a time or two tomorrow just to check on things. You know how I work."

"I'll check the doors and windows tonight," Edward said. "And I'll guard the fort until Minos gets here. We'll be fine. You two just enjoy your holiday."

"Thank you," Marcus said. "Aria, you ready to head home? Minos will be here any time now, so I think we're good."

Aria chuckled and headed back up to the main living room where Ruby was waiting. As Angus and Marcus returned and told him they had Christmas dinner all sorted Ruby smiled to him " every one needs a day off and we're happy to do it" she said smiling as she crossed the room and kissed his cheek gently. Hearing Marcus she chuckled and smiled to him. " then we'll see you tomorrow" she said smiling then looked to Angus " I wouldn't expect anything less since they are both family too and that's what Christmas is about, spending time with family" she said softly.

Aria looked at Marcus and smiled nodding as he said thank you to Edward and asked her if she was ready to head to the cottage. " yep, just need to check everything in the kitchen is ready " she said and went to check it. Returning she smiled to Marcus and nodded " now I am ready" she said taking her jacket off the hanger and slipping it on to keep her warm while they walked over to the cottage. " I hope Jack's crew did as I requested." she said to Marcus.

"Well, you do realize that, even with Jack's best intentions, Robert and Kate and Michael were already on this. And when it comes to decorating and shopping, Kate will make sure its done to her satisfaction. She will overrule Jack, and Jack knows better than to try to go over her head on anything," Marcus said. "If he tried that once, he'd likely be turned into a teacup and tucked away down in Robert's lab over at the farm. There's a whole shelf of teacups down there, and I can't tell you which ones were originally teacups and which ones weren't. Jack knows better. Ask him out yellow ducklings sometime. He has a story about that. Let's go home. Merry Christmas, you lot."

"Same to you," Angus said. "See you later."

"I'll be around tomorrow morning sometime. Do not overdo it," Marcus said.

"I don't think there's anything left for me to do. I think they have it under control," Angus replied. "Goodnight."

Marcus waited til Aria was ready and then headed for home. Simone headed to clean the table, put away the leftovers, and do the washing up. Jada joined her to help her get the job done.

"Go get your dessert, Dear," Simone told Jada quietly. Jada looked insecure about it. "It's beautiful. Go get it. You did a gorgeous job." Jada went next door, and a moment later, she came back with a sheet pan galette. It was a picture perfect apple cinnamon galette but since she knew a regular sized one wasn't going to be enough, she had made hers rectangular and big enough that it filled a standard sized sheet pan. There would be plenty for all. Nervous, she showed it to Angus first.

"You made a galette," Angus was impressed.

"She did it by herself," Simone smiled. "I didn't help her. She did it all herself."

"It's absolutely perfect," Angus said. "I couldn't have done better myself. Well done. And making it big enough for everyone to have some, with some leftover, that was genius. What a great Christmas Eve treat." She signed a message to Angus. "I don't want you to ever feel like you just sort of have a real family. I want you to know you do have a real family of your own, if you want it." She nodded. "That's what I thought." He went over to the desk, opened the center drawer and opened it and handed her an envelope. "Read it."

She opened the envelope and read it, her eyes growing wide. She looked at him, stunned. He nodded. She showed it to Ruby. It was, finally, the official court order making Angus and Ruby her legal guardians. She was surprised that anyone had wanted her enough to not only want her to stay with them but to go the next step to make it official. She had given up that it would ever happen for her. But here it was. She had a real family.