Legacy: Lovers Lane

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: A Broken Love

Susan Dawson ran her fingers over her eyes as she stared down at her cup of hot chocolate, swirling the mixture around as she sat in her kitchen, hardly even paying attention to what she was doing, her thoughts on her best friend Brooke Murphy, who was still asleep in her bedroom. Or presumably she was sleeping, but Susan wasn't sure if she wanted to know if she wasn't doing any sleeping considering the last time that she'd walked into her bedroom without permission.

Two weeks had passed since Susan had walked in on Brooke and Brandon James, Susan's Whitelighter, kissing in her bedroom and neither one of them were aware that the witchlighter knew. She hadn't said a word to anybody about it, not even to her boyfriend Chris Halliwell or to Brooke's boyfriend Wyatt.

Susan ran her fingers through her brown hair as she drained the mug before putting it in the dishwasher. She had to get to class before she was late; it was going to be the second time this week and she wasn't going to risk cutting class when there were plenty of times when she was forced to get out of class because of demon attacks.

Oh, the joys of being a witch in college, Susan thought miserably as she slung her bag on her back, grabbing her keys before moving over to Brooke's door, knocking on it.

"Brooke?" she called, listening for any answer, but she couldn't hear anything. "Hey, Brooke, I'm heading off to class. You might want to get a move on before you miss the start of your lecture." She waited for any sign that her best friend had heard her, but there was no answer and Susan sighed, pushing open the door and peering inside, praying that Brandon was not there.

Thankfully, there was no sign of her Whitelighter and she moved over to her bed, where Brooke was lying on the bed, fast asleep, snoring slightly. Rolling her eyes, Susan walked over to it, shaking Brooke awake. "Hey, Brooke, wake up," she ordered as the telepath groaned, pushing her away. "Look, you need to get up if you're going to make it to class."

"I've still got a few hours," Brooke whined, batting her away. "Come on, Sue, it's still dark out."

Susan raised an eyebrow and lifted Brooke's eye mask off of her eyes, bringing her into the day that was shining through the window. Brooke blinked at the morning light, then smiled weakly up at the witchlighter. "Oops," she murmured apologetically. "My bad."

"Seriously, you need to get to class, Brooke," Susan ordered. "It's been one of the few mornings that we haven't had a demon attack and I for one would like to take advantage of that. Besides, you're failing this class!"

"What's with the attitude?" Brooke asked as Susan headed out the door. "It's one class that I'm failing and excuse me if I don't exactly have all the time in the world to learn the subject."

Susan sighed. "And I understand that, I really do, but unless you make an honest effort, which involves going to class when we're able, you're not going to be getting any sympathy out of me."

Heading out of the apartment, Susan locked the door behind her as she stepped out into the hallway, spotting her boyfriend exiting his own apartment with his bag slung over his shoulder. "Hey, stranger," she said as she hurried to catch up with him. Chris grinned as he wrapped an arm around her. "Wyatt decide to skip out today?"

"Nah, he headed out earlier, to catch a shift at the clinic before class. You want a ride?" he asked, pulling her over to his car. Susan smiled wryly up at him.

"Are you just being a gentleman or do you just want to talk to me about something?" she queried. Chris sighed, pulling open the passenger door for her. Susan slid into the seat, closing it behind her before he climbed into the driver's side, turning the car on before turning on the highway. "Okay, so what's up?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Chris replied, glancing at her. "Something's been bothering you for a couple weeks now. Even Wyatt's noticed it. You're quieter than usual, whenever somebody mentions Brooke, your mouth tightens and you change the subject as fast as you can. Not to mention, as soon as Brandon shows up, you make the first excuse that you can to leave the room." He pulled to a stop at the stoplight before looking at her seriously. "Come on, Susan, talk to me."

Susan's shoulders slumped. "You've gotten to know me too well," she said softly, looking away and staring out the window. "Chris . . . it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I'm not sure that I should. I wish that I didn't know, but unfortunately, I didn't exactly get much of a choice in that matter," she mumbled, but he heard her.

"Just tell me what's going on, maybe I can help."

Glancing at her boyfriend, Susan sighed as she shifted her position to look at him. "Okay," she said after a long moment. "Let's say hypothetically that I know this girl. Let's call her Jane," she added, causing Chris to chuckle before forcing seriousness on his face again. "And Jane has this boyfriend—"

"We're gonna call him Joe?" Chris asked and Susan laughed this time and nodded with a small smile.

"Yeah and Joe has this brother who is dating Jane's best friend," she added. "So a couple of weeks ago, Jane walked in on her best friend kind of . . . kissing her Whitelighter." She chanced a glance at Chris and found that his expression mingled with angry, shock, and fury.

"Brooke and Brandon were kissing?!" he yelled, sounding angrier than Susan had ever heard him and she flinched back at his tone. Chris took a deep breath to calm himself down when he saw this. "You walked in on them kissing?"

Susan nodded, still regarding him warily. "Yes," she said quietly. "Chris, I—I didn't mean to, I just . . . was gonna ask Brooke something and then when I saw them . . ." She trailed off.

"Did they see you?" Chris asked her, his voice gentler now. She shook her head. "Jeez. I cannot believe her. I mean . . . it's bad enough that she did it with your brother, but after everything that she did to get back with Wyatt, I can't believe she'd do that again."

"I know." Susan shook her head. "And now I'm stuck in the middle again, because I care about Wyatt and I don't want to see him hurt, but . . . Brooke's also my best friend and . . . oh, gods, what am I going to do? I can't just walk up and tell Wyatt what's going on."

Chris shook his head, still looking disgusted. "I think the only thing to do right now is to confront Brooke about it, tell her that we know. And she should be the one to tell Wyatt, not you or me. If she doesn't, then yeah, we'll tell him—or I will. But we'll talk to Brooke later today, while Wyatt's at the clinic during his regular shift."

"I hate this," Susan muttered as she curled up against Chris's side. "It's bad enough that she did this once, but I didn't think she'd do it again. Especially to Wyatt, he doesn't deserve this." She shook her head. "I just wish . . . I don't know what I wish. Why is it that it is so much easier to fight demons than it is to figure out my own best friend?"

"Got me."

--

In another part of the country, in New York City, a young man named Ethan Hale moved out of the way just as a fireball narrowly missed him and he ducked underneath two energy balls thrown by the attacking demons. "You know, you probably should see somebody about that anger management problem," he drawled with a smirk towards the demons.

"Insolent boy," one of them growled, "you should have run while you still had the chance. Your father will not be pleased when he learns how far you have fallen because of that little witch."

Ethan growled at the mention of his ex-girlfriend, who was halfway across the country, in Wisconsin, but recovered. "My father was never really pleased about anything I did, so why should she change anything?"

Without waiting for a reply, Ethan conjured his own energy ball, hurling it towards the two remaining demons, vanquishing one, and shimmered away before they had a chance to do anything. But instead of shimmering to his apartment, as his sense of self-preservation was screaming at him to do, he shimmered behind one of the buildings, close to where the remaining demon was doing.

He was rewarded for his thinking, because no sooner than he had shimmered into place, two more demons arrived. Ethan recognised them as his father's personal assassins. "The Master wants to know how you far in regards to the boy."

"Ethan has escaped again, but don't worry, I will capture him before too long. He is within our grasp. If the Master will just be patient just a little bit longer, I'll have—" There was a hint of pleading in the demon's voice as the assassins cut him off.

"Silence! The Master has grown tired of your failures time and time again. Now, it's time that we dealt with the boy, since you have failed to do so. And you know full well how the Master tolerates failure." There was a smugness in the assassin's voice as he spoke. "Give our regards to oblivion, won't you?" he added, chortling.

Though Ethan hated the demon that had been turning his life into chaos since he had started tracking him, he couldn't help but feel sorry as he was turned into flames and vanquished. But his sympathy was short-lived as his attention turned towards the assassins.

"What now?" the second asked, tapping his long fingers against the sword at his side impatiently. "The boy will be long gone by now. He's not stupid enough to stick around here once he finds out that we will be on his trail from now on."

The first assassin smirked as he turned to his companion. "Oh, I don't plan on doing anything, my friend. The boy is going to come to us willingly, once we take away the one thing that he cares about most in this world. And she is unprotected."

Unprotected? Ethan thought, mirth filling through him and he forced himself not to burst out laughing. Obviously they had forgotten to account for her brother, who would rather face twelve demon clans single-handedly than leave his sister defenceless. Ethan had learned that lesson a few times.

"You forget who the girl is with now. Do you really think that it will be possible to get her away from them?"

"I will make it possible," the assassin said coolly. "And once we have her, then the boy isn't going to play games and risk her life. He will do anything in order to keep her safe."

Ethan had heard enough. Shimmering away to his apartment, he tossed his leather jacket on the chair as he headed for the phone, picking it up and dialling a well-rehearsed number, listening as it rang. And on the third ring, someone in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin picked up.

"Hello, Anderson residence," a woman said pleasantly. Ethan's heart stopped. Anderson? "Hello, is someone there?"

"Uh . . ." Ethan shook his head, wondering if he could have possibly gotten the wrong number. "I'm sorry, uh . . . I'm trying to reach Susan Dawson. I must have gotten the wrong number, I'm sorry." He was about to hang up when the woman stopped him.

"Susan Dawson? The young girl who lived here before?" Ethan could've shouted with joy; he knew he could've have forgotten her number.

"Yeah, I suppose so. Did she—did she move away or something? What happened?" Ethan couldn't believe that she would move away without telling him, but then again, the last time they'd spoken, they had agreed to keep their distance so that they could move on with their lives. And their parting hadn't exactly been pleasant.

"Well, you can't exactly blame her for leaving here, what with the death of her mother and brother," the woman said sympathetically. Ethan's blood went cold as she heard that fact. "I believe she went with her friend Brooke Murphy to California. Los Angeles or San Francisco, one of those big cities over there."

"But you're sure it was California?" Ethan sought to clarify, gripping the phone so hard that he thought he would break it.

"Quite sure."

"Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry for disturbing you," Ethan said as he hung up the phone, closing his eyes for a minute. When he managed to stay calm, he picked up the phone again, dialling another number, this time in California.

"Evan?" he said when someone picked up. "It's Ethan. I need you to track down somebody for me . . ."

--Opening Credits--

Title song: "Chariot" by Gavin Degraw

Drew Fuller as Chris Halliwell

Wes Ramsey as Wyatt Halliwell

Michelle Trachtenberg as Susan Dawson

Anne Hathaway as Brooke Murphy

Hayden Christensen as Brandon James

and Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Connelly

--

AN: Okay, guys, I am so, so, so sorry that I haven't been working on the Legacy series as of late. I have no excuse for it. I just have been getting little bit bored with it and decided to get lazy with it and the next thing I know, I haven't written an episode in months. I think I just needed a little bit of a break from it. (Okay, a long break) But I promise, I am going to try and keep writing on this. I'm so sorry!

Oh, yeah, and please review! I love getting them!

Lady Dawson