Yes... Chuffy is back!! As promised here is my oneshot to folow 'The Gift of Innocence'. If you haven't read that... Go directly to Jail - do not pass go and do not collect $200. Go back and read that one first!
Disclaimer - No i don't own them... If i did, do you think i'd be writing fanfiction? I'd be busy creating the 9th season :P
Props go out to Knatie who replied to a review i sent to her on her story 'The Forbidden Fruit' and she asked me whether i was doing my sequal. As soon as i read it, i got straight to work on it. I had given up on it all, and out of the blue someone tells me they want more :)
So this if for you :)
"We're home!!" Voices sounded throughout the old Halliwell Manor.
Blue and white lights appeared in the kitchen of the manor and Wyatt, Chris and Caylin solidified. Chris and Caylin sat down at the table, while Wyatt walked over to the fridge and grabbed three bottles of water. Each awaited the arrival of their parents. Footsteps sounded from the staircase and soon after, Paige, Phoebe and Piper came into the kitchen. Paige walked up to her daughter and squatted down in front of her.
"Sweetheart, how did you know I was here?"
"I sensed you!" The eight year old beamed. "Where's daddy?"
"Daddy's with Uncle Leo." She tucked the mini half witch-half white lighter's shoulder length black hair behind her ear.
"Aaaand where's Uncle Leo?" She questioned.
Paige rolled her eyes with a smile. Laughing inwardly at how this had become an afternoon ritual between her daughter and herself. "He's with daddy," she replied with a wink.
"Mommy!" Caylin glared at her mother and crossed her arms over her chest.
Paige chuckled. "They're doing white lighter things…" She watched as her daughter apprehended this. Paige's smile turned into a pout and she looked on with the 'puppy dog eyes'. "Do you think I can have a kiss hello now?" Caylin pounced into her mother's arms and wrapped her into as much of a bear hug as her little eight year old body could handle.
"See, now why don't I get that kind of attention from you two?" Piper half snapped at her sons, placing her hands firmly on her hips.
"Cause…" Wyatt began.
"Cause, you should… automatically know that we love you?" It came out as more of a question than a statement, but Chris was well known for thinking on his toes.
"Nice save," she admitted. "Do I at least get something that resembles a half decent hello?" Chris and Wyatt looked at each other with smirks and both blew Piper a kiss. Piper rolled her eyes with a grin. "I'll take what I can get."
Phoebe shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Where's Prestyn?" She asked. "Did something happen at school? Is she held back or something?"
Wyatt shook his head. "Nah, she's not in trouble or anything…" he let the statement hang in the air, which caused Chris to roll his eyes and pick up where his older brother left off.
"She left with us –"
"She was cranky!" Caylin chirped, cutting Chris off.
"Why, what happened?" Phoebe asked quickly. When no one was quick to answer Phoebe pressed further. "What. Happened?"
When no one answered this time, Chris stepped up to the plate. "We don't know the full story, but she didn't come out of the potions block… she came across the quad… and the only thing there is the Principal's office." He stopped to take a sip of his water. "Her cheeks were red and her eyes were puffy… the only thing she said to any of us at all was 'let's go'."
"That's all? 'Let's go' and that was it? No ranting; no tantrums?"
"That's all. Caylin asked her what was wrong, and she scowled and left." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Well can someone sense for her please?" Phoebe snapped.
"I'll do it!" Caylin, Chris, Wyatt and Paige offered all at once, making Phoebe and Piper jump.
"I kind of didn't realize there were this many white lighters in the family…" Piper stated.
"She's in our room!!" Caylin exclaimed. "I won! I won!" She jumped up and down excitedly with a big toothy grin.
"It wasn't a race, Caylin," Wyatt told her.
"Thanks Caylin." Phoebe kissed her niece on the forehead and disappeared upstairs.
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Prestyn carefully pulled the small antique wooden box from under her bed. She moved over to the chest of drawers and pulled out a key to open the box. She moved over to her bed and sat, cross legged, in the middle of it. She opened the lid and gently took everything out of it, until she found the one photo that remained in the bottom of the box. She picked it up gingerly, ignoring the slight tremble in her hand, and stared at the photo.
Knocks sounding from the door ripped her out of her silent reverie and she cursed under her breath; longing for the need to be alone. She remained silent. Maybe whoever was on the other side might go away?
"Sweetheart, I know you're in there."
No such luck! Prestyn sighed in frustration. She rolled her eyes. "There's nothing stopping you from coming in, mom." She turned her attention back to the photo and stared at it longingly, barely taking notice of the sound of the door opening.
Phoebe cautiously stepped into Prestyn and Caylin's bedroom, closing the door behind her before perching herself on the edge of Caylin's bed watching her daughter closely and wondering what the photo was of. She knew better than to ask – everyone is allowed their secrets. Still, she was curious.
"I know one of the three of them told you," Prestyn began in a monotonous voice, keeping her eyes on the photograph and tearing Phoebe away from her thoughts. "So you may as well just ask."
"What makes you say that?" Phoebe asked feigning innocence.
"Your choice of words." She shrugged and continued, "'I know you're in there'. No offense, mom, but you wouldn't know I was in here, unless you asked someone to sense for me."
Phoebe nodded with a small grin. "Well there's no pressure."
Prestyn looked at her mother skeptically. "You being in my room is pressure enough." Prestyn turned her attention back to the photo to avoid seeing the hurt look on her mother's face. "You… sit there in silence… studying me. Almost willing me to talk, without asking me to. Instead of waiting for me to go to you, you come to me." Prestyn was surprised at how neutral she managed to keep her voice. She expected herself be yelling at her mother by now, or at the very least be snapping at her.
"I just wanted to see how you were, baby."
Prestyn felt the pang of guilt at the hurt tone in her mother's voice. She inwardly cringed and mentally kicked herself in the rear. The very least she could do now was talk to her mother without being such a pain in the ass about it.
She set the photo down on the bed and shrugged nonchalantly. "Rebecca called me a bastard in front of everyone during Sorcery." She paused to look up at her mother to read her face. Anger was unmistakable. Prestyn's eyebrows narrowed and she continued, "And you know, it isn't even the fact that she called me a bastard that got to me, it's the fact that she called me a demonic bastard in front of everyone and everyone looked at me like I had… green skin or something. At least five people took a step back from me…" She took a deep breath to keep the quiver out of her voice and she swallowed her tears. "They were scared of me," she squeaked. She shook her head and ran her hands through her dark brown hair. Her face hardened. "So I tackled her down to the ground and before I can even do any real damage, I'm getting pulled off of her and taken to the principal."
"You should know better than to solve things like that with violence, Prestyn," Phoebe gently warned. "Though I can't say I would have behaved any different if it were –"
"Was he violent?" Prestyn asked abruptly. Phoebe looked at her like a deer would, had it been caught in the headlights.
"Wh… What?" Phoebe stuttered.
"Cole. Dad. Was he… violent?" She asked again.
Phoebe thought about it. When she thought she had an answer she opened her mouth, but she closed it, and though about it some more, before providing a decent enough answer, "When he had to be. When he was killing other demons, yeah."
Prestyn shook her head. "I mean in general. When something or someone made him angry did he pitch a fit and destroy it? Or want to destroy it?"
Phoebe started to answer this question but paused in thought yet again. She really wasn't ready for a game of Twenty Questions on Cole. "He… was part demon –"
"So it's second nature to people like me and him, of course," she cut in, nodding her head and drawing her own conclusions.
"But he had humanity in him, and so do you; a side with a conscience that makes you choose between right and wrong."
"Yeah, but somewhere deep within you've still got that little voice in there that tells you to take the road that you wouldn't dare take… I'm more susceptible to take that road, given my genes."
"Well I mean –"
"Am I evil?" She asked.
Again Phoebe looked liked a deer caught in the headlights. "No!"
"Well I'm not good, and I can't be both."
"But you are," Phoebe assured her.
"How is that even possible? Good and evil can't coexist within the same person."
"Yes it can!" Phoebe shot back. "You're living proof of that!" She got up off of Caylin's bed and moved over to Prestyn's bed, sitting opposite her. "You have the genes of good and evil, but you are a good person. You are not evil."
"I wanted to hurt Rebecca today! I tackled her to the ground; I had my hands around her throat!" Prestyn spat.
"And there's not a single person in this house that would have done it any different," Phoebe told her firmly.
Prestyn smiled sadly. "If I'm such a good person then why is Aunt Paige driving herself insane with trying to finish off a potion she started making when I was born to rid the evil from my body?" She countered.
"Because when you were born… I was really worried about the very real possibility of demons taking you and playing off the Nature versus Nurture bit…"
"So Paige thought if she had the potion finished in time she could give it to me and if someone took me, then the chances of me becoming evil would be low because I'd be all good and they'd be playing off Nurture, but because I was good my conscience would kick in and I'd know what was right and wrong."
Phoebe nodded.
"But with the evil still in me, the choice between right and wrong and knowing the difference between good and evil would be difficult." Prestyn shuffled backward on the bed and leant against the headboard, drawing her knees up to her chest.
"But that didn't happen."
"So why is she still intent on finishing it?" Prestyn asked raising an eyebrow.
"Because all of it is still a real possibility."
There was a beat of silence.
"Mom?" Phoebe looked up at Prestyn. "I know that you were trying to make me feel better on that last sentence but all you really did was make me scared."
Phoebe took Prestyn's hands in her own and gave them a squeeze. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, and neither will the rest of the family."
"Good to know." Prestyn squeezed back. She took a deep breath and let go of her mother's hands. She picked up the photo and gave it to her mother.
Phoebe stared at it and fought against the tears that immediately sprang into her eyes. It was a picture of Cole and herself, taken randomly, at P3 years ago. They looked happy. She smiled sadly and grazed her thumb over the picture.
"Did you love him?" Prestyn's question tore Phoebe out of her musings.
Never taking her eyes off the photograph, she nodded. "Yes. I did."
"What changed?"
Phoebe looked up at Prestyn. "He did," she answered shortly, handing back the photo to Prestyn.
Prestyn sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "You never talk about him."
"They're painful memories to recall."
"There had to be something good in your relationship other wise I wouldn't be here," she countered.
Phoebe couldn't help but laugh. She was right and Prestyn knew that Phoebe knew that.
"Tell me about it."
Phoebe sighed. She mentally prepared herself to open up a part of her life that had remained closed for fourteen years. She took a deep breath, and began. "It was love at first sight; he was my Prince. We were happy. I was on a permanent high." She smiled a little, remembering how she once felt. Her smile quickly faded though, as she continued, "Until he broke my heart."
"How did he do that?" Prestyn asked, looking down at the man in the photo, wondering how a man who had such boyish features and such laughing hazel eyes could possibly break her mother's heart.
"He… became Belthazor." She stopped and watched her daughter's face for any sign anger or sadness, but found it blank. "I tried to fight it, but the feelings I had for him… They were so strong that it hurt," she pointed to her heart, "right here. I started seeing him again without anyone knowing. I told my sisters that he was dead, when he wasn't, and when they found out they were so disappointed with me and so angry at me… But I didn't care. I had him. I loved him; I was in love with him…" She stopped to wipe away the few tears that had managed to escape.
"But…?" Prestyn pressed on.
"It became too much. Too, too much. I found myself spiraling out of control. I was so in love with him, that when he turned evil for good… I went with him. Paige and Piper tracked us down and tried to get me back and I was faced with the biggest choice of my life; my sisters or my husband?" She stopped to take a breath and swallow down the lump in her throat. "I realized that if I didn't kill him he would kill my sisters. The short time I was with him when he was pure evil I was battling myself anyway. I felt so guilty for leaving my sisters, that I knew that if it came down to it, I would kill him for my sisters… and I did."
"Weren't you sad?"
"Of course I was sad. I was upset for a long while, but Piper and Paige helped me through it, and you were born; I was happy again."
"You were scared too," Prestyn pointed out.
"Ask any mother, and she'd tell you the same thing."
"It's kind of like Romeo and Juliet in a way…" she mumbled. "You and Dad. Something right out of Shakespeare. Two lovers forbidden from seeing each other because of their background, but still find a way to be together in the end… Only to sacrifice one's self for the other. Kind of like how when you said he went really evil, you went with him and you ended up killing him anyway…"
"Baby, Juliet didn't kill Romeo…"
"But he died for you. Just like Romeo did for Juliet when he thought she was dead. Dad could have killed you, and Aunt Piper, and Aunt Paige… But he didn't. He let you do it. He knew it would have ended with him; and I'm sure he realized your battle within yourself? He let you be where you wanted to be…" She rolled her eyes and shrugged when she realized she was rambling. "I… Idunno. Makes sense in my head," she mumbled.
Phoebe reached over and brushed some of Prestyn's hair away from her face and leant over to kiss her forehead. "Makes sense in mine too, baby," she said, leaning her forehead against her daughter's.
Prestyn smiled a little and pulled her face away from her mother's so she could place everything back into her box. Phoebe watched and waited until Prestyn was done before asking, "Are you gonna be okay with everything I told you?"
Prestyn nodded as she turned the key in the lock. "It sounds strange… But I feel like…" she paused and searched for the words. "I feel a sense of… closure? Does that… Does it sound odd?"
Phoebe shook her head. "Nope. Not at all."
Mother and daughter shared a smile and the room fell into a comfortable silence. Prestyn slowly got up from the bed, and picked up the box. She walked over to the chest of drawers and put the box away. She stayed with her back towards her mother, processing all the information she had just received. She caught Phoebe's eye in the mirror. "Mom?"
"Yeah, Prestyn?"
Prestyn bit down on her lower lip before turning around. "I'm glad we talked."
Phoebe smiled at her daughter. "Me too."
Like it? Hate it? Let me know.
x3x.Ky.x3x