Chapter 2

Wyatt stood in the family room of the manor with a hand at his temple. He watched as his entire family - meaning his mother Piper, his aunts Phoebe and Paige, his siblings Chris and Melinda, his uncles Coop and Henry and his cousins HJ, Pamela, Prissy, Lilly "Ladybug," Phoenix and Padme - paced, sat, and chatted in worry.

"Why did you let him go?" Piper demanded to her oldest son. She was worried to death about her husband.

"I didn't," the blonde asserted. "He just orbed out! He didn't even say anything."

"You shouldn't have let her in!" Melinda almost yelled. "Dad's a whitelighter for God's sake! How would he know anybody?"

"It could've been his charge," Ladybug put in trying to help Wyatt as everybody ganged up on him. She'd always been a total suck up to Wyatt; he was her favourite cousin.

"Then why would he have been scared to see her?" Paige asked. Being a whitlighter herself, she knew that they wouldn't be afraid of their charges.

Phoebe took a deep breath. "Okay, guys. Stop. This isn't Wyatt's fault! How was he supposed to know? We've never turned down a witch at our door before. Why would we now?"

"We don't know if she's a witch," Chris stated coldly. "She could be a demon, or a warlock or -"

"She didn't look evil," Wyatt argued.

"They never do," Phoebe and Piper muttered in unison, recalling past memories.

"Okay, Wyatt, we're not blaming you." Everyone nodded in agreement except for Chris, who was glad that finally, the Twice Blessed Child had made a mistake in the magic field. "But why did you invite her in with no knowledge of her? Especially if she didn't say she needed help until after you let her in."

Wyatt's face flushed. He didn't want to admit infront of his whole family that he'd let her in because he'd been mesmerized by her beauty. He never made faults when it came to magic. And now his reputation of being fault-less at magic was ruined because for one second, he'd wanted to flirt with this girl? Why had he been so stupid? Why had he wanted to talk so much to this girl? Sure she was hot. But he could get any girl in his school; hot or not. He was the most popular guy, not to mention best football player! Why had he been so drawn to this girl over any other girl he'd ever seen?

Despite his best effort, his family read his facial expression. "Oh, great job, Wyatt!" Chris said bitingly. "You could've just killed our father because you wanted to fuck some stranger?"

Wyatt gaped. "What the Hell! Obviously not! Do you have to be such a bastard? I don't rub it in your damn face whenever you mess up. Mostly 'cause that's all I'd have time to do if I did...but still, I don't!" He glared at his brother wanting to punch his face in. "And why do you have to be so God damn pessimistic? Why do you have to assume she's evil? You just want her to be evil so I'll look like an idiot! You don't even care about Dad, you just want to prove me wrong!"

Chris returned his brother's monstrous glare. And the feeling of beating the crap out of each other, definitely mutual. "You're an idiot. Do you honestly think that I'd be such a fu -"

"Stop! Both of you!" The Charmed ones all exclaimed. "You won't be any help by trying to show each other up!" Piper continued, scolding. Then Paige said,"Besides,Pam and Prissy found him when they scryed for him. So he's fine." Finally, Phoebe said, "If he was in trouble, he'd just orb out anyway. No need to worry."

"I still say we should look in the book to see if we can find her," Melinda suggested. "Let's go to the attic!"

Like usual, everybody ignored her. Prissy and Pam, then exclaimed,"He's not showing up!"

A wave of gasps flooded through the many. After a few minutes, the twins bacame puzzled as the crystal dropped to the map again."It says he's here," Pam announced.

Just to prove her right, there Tia and Leo were, walking around the the corner into the family both wore concerned expressions, similar to what the whole Halliwell/Mitchel family were wearing.

"Leo," Piper whispered in relief.

Leo glanced around not sure what everybody was so worked up about. "I'll be right back, I have to check with the Elders on something." He turned to Tia. "Stay here."

"What?" she cried out desperately. There seemed to be an echo of whats going through the room as Leo orbed out. Tia turned to the family. Wow, they're all staring at me. She bit her lip, immediately anxious.What do I say? Oh, crap. they probably think I'm evil. Damnit! She frowned. Why'd Leo leave me? Okay, i'll just wait 'til he gets back to tell them my story.

There was an awkward silence. Nobody said anything, or moved. They just sat and stared at the ground. Of course, it was Chris who broke the silence. "Well," he scoffed. " Atleast we know he's not dead." With an annoyed 'hmph' he stood up and trudged out of the room.

Tia couldn't stop her jaw from dropping or her eyes from bulging out of her head, for that matter. She wanted to defend herself or atleast say something, but she couldn't. Nothing came out when she tried to speak.

"Please, excuse his behaviour," Piper appoligized. "He has...trust issues."

"It's okay," she said quietly. It's not like they had any reason to trust her. Who walks into someones house, asks to speak to their father, then disappears with him for a good hour?

Suddenly, Phoebe's natural instinct to help kicked in. She stood up and approached the girl. "You look a little hungry. Can I get you something?"

Tia forced a smile at her kindness. She didn't want to be a bother, though. She was pretty sure almost everyone in the family hated her as is. She definitely didn't want to push it. Especially considering, she needed their help just as much as Leo's for this thing. "No thank you," she replied politely. But - just like every other thing in her body today - her stomach betrayed her and growled semi-loudly. You've got to be kidding me!

"Come on, Sweetie," Phoebe said, taking her hand. "I'll find you something."

While Phoebe rummaged through the fridge looking for something for her, Tia heard someone thundering down the stairs. She figured it was Chris. After all, how many more people could fit in this house? "Is a PB&J okay? I'm really not the chef of the family."

Tia smiled, one that wasn't forced. And Phoebe had to admit to herself that she got why Wyatt let her in. "Yes. Thank you. But you really didn't have to."

"You're welcome and don't worry about it." When Phoebe handed her the sandwich and their hands touched, she gasped quietly and a shocked expression crossed her face. Then she smiled widely at her.

Tia recognized that expression. When her mother had actually used her powers - and noticed her being around - her power had been premonition. "You have premonitions?" she asked.

Phoebe smiled again. "Yeah, pretty lame, huh?" She decided to wait in the kitchen with Tia until after she was done her sandwich.

"No," Tia replied truthfully. "Not at all! That's what my mom-" She paused 't she agreed to herself that she wasn't going to say anything until Leo returned? Then again, Phoebe seemed extremely nice and had obviously just had a premonition about her. What did she have to lose? " That was my mom's power. It came in handy a lot. I always thought it was cool."

"Well, thanks. You look done, why don't we go back into the room and wait for Leo?"

She nodded, suddenly nervous. Which was an odd thing for her. With all her powers and knowledge in the magical field, it was never necessary for her to worry. However, with a family who - the majority of which - thought she was ready to kill them, it was extremely nerve-wracking.

As they advanced to the family room, Tia overheard Chris say, "You let her go in there with Phoebe? Alone? Are you crazy? Yeah, Dad's not dead. Maybe she's just playing around until she has out trust then...bam! We're dead."

Phoebe looked appoligeticly at Tia. Before she could comfort her, Tia marched towards the room. I'm not going to sit around being trashed waiting for Leo. I never let anybody push me around before, why start now? Worst comes to worse, I'm stronger than all of them. "Look," she said, appearing at the doorway. "You don't know me. Do you just assume everybody you meet is evil?"

"Pretty much," Wyatt and Ladybug muttered in the background.

Chris ignored them. "Well, when a stranger comes into my house, asks for my anti-social father and instantly, they orb out. I begin to wonder."

"No wonder why your single," she scoffed.

He flinched. "Who said I was single?"

She glanced over his whole body like he was nothing but a piece of trash. Even though he was almost as good on the eyes as his brother. "Kinda obvious, don't you think?"

He glared at her. "Aren't you just doing the exact same thing I did to you?"

She smiled. "Well, you're not as dumb as you look!" That got a few snickers. "That was my point. You make assumptions about me, you'll get them back."

"Being smart doesn't prove you aren't evil," he stated. "How am I supposed to believe you're not evil?"

"Well, you obviously aren't very open-minded so, let me show you," she said coldly. At that moment even Phoebe had been ready for her to attack; and about half of them were still willing to fight back. Instead, white and blue twinkly lights took her place. She then appeared behind Chris.

Everyone in the room turned to her with astonished expressions on their faces. " Y-you're a whitelighter?" Chris managed to choke out.

She looked up at him cockily. "No, I'm a half-breed,just like you." She smirked, trying not to laugh.

The next half hour was spent actually talking. Since they now knew that she wasn't evil - although Chris still wouldn't talk or look at her, which she was fine with - it wasn't as awkward and they introduced themselves. Leo still hadn't come back though. Eventually, everybody started to leave until the only people left in the house were Tia and the Halliwells who lived there: Piper, Chris, Melinda and Wyatt. Melinda had decided to go to bed. Now that she knew Tia wasn't going to kill her. Chris went up to his room and Piper went to clean the kitchen. Which left Wyatt and Tia sitting on the couch.

"So...." Wyatt said.

"So...." she repeated, giggling. "I hope I didn't get you in trouble for, uh, you letting me in."

He shrugged. "Well, atleast you proved them wrong. Which I should thank you for. Chris' face was priceless!"

They both laughed."So how do you know my dad?"

Tia stared at her hands, scared that she'd talk like a babbling idiot if she looked into Wyatt's eyes. "I used to be a charge of his."

"Used to be?" he queried.

"Um, yeah. We kinda got into a fight. And things didn't end so well." The night that she'd lost Leo as a whitelighter came back into her memory clearly.

After looking through the large book for half the night, Tia was getting apprehensive and frustrated. This demon had killed how many people so far? And her, the oh-so-powerful witch, couldn't even get a lead on it? How pathetic! she thought. And where the Hell is Leo? She'd only yelled his name a million times! "Leo!" she almost shreiked. Luckily, her mother wasn't home, or she'd be grounded in a second flat.

Then, Leo finally orbed in. "What the Hell,Leo! Where have you been?" she demanded.

He looked a bit taken aback. "Excuse me? Tia, what's wrong with you today?"

"I don't know. Let's see. It's four in the morning! I've been at this since seven last night. And that's just looking through the book. For the past week I've been going everywhere, asking everybody I can on any leads. And I've got none. Those God damn Elders haven't helped at all! And you promised you'd look at the Book of Shadows for me! And have you?" When Leo just looked down, she demanded, "Well,have you?"

"No."

"I asked you two days ago! What kind of whitelighter are you? Did you have something else going on?"

"No. not really it's been a bit quiet. But -"

"But what? You're scared they'll question you why if you go through the book?"

"No, Tia, just calm down! I'll go home. We can both sleep. Then I'll check in the morning."

"Yeah, why don't we just let more people die so Leo can have a good night sleep!" she exclaimed sarcasticly.

"Tia. Calm down! We can settle this -"

"No, we can't. You've been doing this forever!" That was a lie, it was the first time he'd ever let her down. "Maybe, I should get another whitelighter!"

Leo frowned, looking upset. "Is that what you want, maybe you should consider -"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want."

Leo sighed. "I'll get right on that." He orbed out.

"I didn't think my dad was that bad of a whitelighter." Wyatt seemed to actually be serious.

"Actually,"she admitted. "It wasn't really his fault. I was kind of, well, frankly, a total bitch. And I told him I wanted a new whitelighter and pretty much that he sucked." She cracked a smile. It felt good to get that off her chest. But her recent flash back had remided her just how nice Leo was. He'd taken it so well when she'd yelled at him. It had also made herthink of a reason for why the Elders may not have given her another whitelighter. Maybe she should keep her opinions of the Elders to herself.

"Harsh." Wyatt flashed a heart-breaking smile. "I like a girl who can stand up for herself, though." He winked at her.

"Keep dreaming, buddy," she laughed. She hoped he did.

"So, why'd you come here, then. Not to appoligize, I'm guessing."

"No, but, uh, can I wait 'til your dad gets back to tell you? I'm not very good at explaining."

"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever. It's up to you." Tia could tell he was just dying to know. Curiousity, she thought, mocking his tone in her head, I like that in a boy. Before she could flirt with him at all, Leo orbed in. Piper rushed into the room, glaring at him.

"You could have explained some," she complained.

"Yeah," Wyatt agreed. "Chris was about ready to kill her, and me!"

Leo blinked."Why?"

"We're not exactly a trusting family," Piper stated.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Piper," he said. "Do you honestly think I'd leave somebody with you if I thought they were a threat?"

"Well," Piper paused, trying to make their old theory fit. "No, I guess not."

Leo kissed her forehead.

"So, do I get to know why you're here now?" Wyatt asked.

"You're awfully persistent!" She glanced at Leo. He nodded. "Well, you probably didn't notice but, um, if you've ever seen them before... a lot of trolls and fairies have been getting murdered lately."

"Fairies and trolls?" Wyatt inquired, he hadn't known that they existed.

"Yeah. They don't get along though," Piper said. "Why are you concerned about trolls?Aren't they evil?"

"Well, despite how it seems, trolls are good magical beings, too. Just like fairies. They just don't get along."

"And you want our help to kill the demon, if it's a demon, that's after them?" Piper asked, sure that they could help.

"Kind of, not exactly. I don't think a demon, or anyone for that matter, would go out of their way to kill a bunch of fairies and trolls. Who would?"

"Someone completely wacked?" Wyatt offered.

"That sounds like a demon to me." Chris was there, he must've been there since Leo had come home with no one noticing him.

"Nice that you'd join us," Leo said scooting over on the couch so Chris could sit.

"So what's your point?" Chris asked Wyatt glared at his coldness, Piper gave him a warning glance to tell him to shut it and Leo just shook his head, not sure why his son was being so crucial.

Tia took a deep breath. Don't spaz at him, she told herself. "I'm not sure if it's right, but, I think that the demon, is after all good magic, not just fairies and trolls."

"And how does that make sense?" Chris' eyes were daggers at hers as he challenged her theory.

"No offence, to them and all, but fairies and trolls aren't really that, well... important on the magical food chain. But as long as they're around, there's still good magic on the Earth. And if they're trying to get rid of all good magic, why not start on an easy target?"

Wyatt nodded. "That no one would notice." He gestured to themselves who had been oblivious to it all.

"Why two types?" Piper pondered.

"Because they're enemies," Tia suggested.

"And would rather die than help each other out," Wyatt put in.

"So, they'll be stubborn and watch things go berserk before admitting they could be wrong at something," Leo concluded. "Sounds like two people I know." He smiled, looking at Chris, then Tia.

"It makes sense," Piper said. "But how can we help? We can't see them. Unless you use fairy dust and that, well makes you act like an idiot."

Tia smiled. "Well, I worte this," she took a peice of paper out of her pocket. "It only works for 24 hours but you're still yourself. so I think it works better than the dust."

"Does it actually work?" Chris asked doubtfully.

She nodded, ignoring his pessimism. "It's kind of creepy. Everytime I asked a troll or fairy, they all said the same thing, 'it's a shame that my kind are dying but who cares about their kind?.' If they'd just get along and stood up for each other, more might live."

"It's a shame." They all agreed.

It was getting late and time for Tia to orb home. They did, however, say that they'd help her - even Chris. They believed her theory and she had to admit that she'd felt pretty good when Wyatt had been thinking on the same line as her. It gave her some reassurance that her ideas could possibly help stop this that they weren't totally out there and crazy; maybe they were right. There was still a lot more work to be done, though. But with the help of the next most-powerful witches by her side, Tia was sure they'd succeed.

A/N: Tell me what ya think! Good, Bad? Little bit of both?Sorry that it's somewhat long. I kinda lost track of words :P