A/N: So, in this case, my misfortune becomes your good fortune. We were supposed to be getting a new puppy today, but someone else took him, sadly. So, instead of spending time with a puppy, I'm updating this story. Yay! Ha. Anyway, I'll probably update at least twice more this weekend, so you have that to look forward to. We're getting to a pretty big point – it'll probably next chapter, or the one after. Ok, I think that's it… please review when you finish reading, and I'll talk to you next chapter!

~addictedtotwilight

That night, the Charmed Ones and their families gathered at the Halliwell Manor to greet their newest family member. The Acquirer was going to be welcomed as a Halliwell, which meant a lot of food, a lot of hugging, and a lot of talking. Mostly talking, probably, Wyatt figured – Addy didn't really seem like the touchy-feely type.

Apparently, she wasn't the 'being on time' type, either, because after everyone had arrived, the guest of honor still had not put in an appearance.

"Where's Addy?" Phoebe asked the general assembly, glancing around, as if she suspected the girl was hiding somewhere behind the hordes of family.

Wyatt was just about to orb up to her bedroom to see what was taking her so long when his mother popped in from the kitchen, saying, "She'll be down when she's ready, Pheebs." Piper assured her. "Why don't we all sit down in the mean time? Dinner should be done in another half hour." She disappeared back into the kitchen, where an alarm had just buzzed.

"Wyatt? Where's Addy?" Phoebe leaned towards him conspiratorially. "She's not hiding out, is she?" She giggled, making Wyatt laugh. His aunt could be such a child sometimes – she never failed to make him laugh, even if she didn't trust him to watch her kids.

"Nah. She's a girl, remember? They take forever to get ready." He rolled his eyes playfully. "And then, she'll come down and expect us all to 'ooh' and 'ah' over her, just like you do to poor Uncle Coop and the girls." Wyatt laughed – a noise that was cut off as soon as Coop's arm shot out and wrapped around Phoebe's shoulders protectively. His eyes were narrowed suspiciously, and if he were a dog, his hackles would be raised.

Wyatt backed off, hating the fact that a scornful voice in the back of his head was whispering that Coop was barely magical at all – Wyatt could kill him in seconds. Maybe he was suicidal? Seriously – if he was so damn scared, one would think he'd know better than to piss Wyatt off.

"Coop, knock it off, damn it!" Phoebe hissed, glaring daggers at her husband. "You're being an ass. Wyatt –"she grabbed his hand and made to continue, until a premonition nearly knocked her out of her chair and onto her ass.

Addy knelt beside Wyatt's still form, tears falling from her eyes in a steady torrent. Blood oozed from a wound in Wyatt's stomach, and a dark-lighter arrow lay nearby. Blood on Addy's hands – clearly not hers, since she was bleeding from no visible source – suggested she had pulled it out, but was at a loss as to what to do after that.

"Wyatt, you have to be ok. Please, please." She pleaded, tears coursing down her face. "Come on. Come on!" she began to get angry – her voice grew louder and began to shake from the emotional strain. "Damn it Wyatt, we're supposed to be the strongest magical beings in the world, remember? Twice blessed? Ringing any bells? Why the Hell can we save everyone but ourselves?"

Phoebe's oldest nephew struggled to open his eyes and look up at her. One hand rose shakily to touch the Acquirer's cheek; to stroke it lovingly. "I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "So sorry." He coughed, sending the shakes tearing through his body. "I love you." Wyatt's voice croaked. His head fell back, eyes staring unseeingly at the ceiling of the cave they were in.

Addy's bone-chilling wail swept through the Underworld like wildfire, sounding death to the demons.

"Phoebe? Oh, God. Phoebe, get up." Coop's frantic voice tugged Phoebe back into consciousness right in time. "What did you do to her?" He growled at Wyatt, letting go of his prone wife's hand to glare at his nephew in law.

"He didn't do anything, Coop. And I suggest you stop glaring at my son before I curse you." Piper was standing right behind her sister, hands on her hips, dark eyes narrowed angrily. "Pheebs? You all right?"

The middle sister nodded and stood, ignoring her husband and the stares of the rest of the family. Paige was on her feet, ready to help with anything, Henry had his hand on Coop's shoulder, talking quietly to the incensed man. All the younger children were staring openly from Wyatt to Phoebe and over to the men, but Leo was the one that bothered Wyatt the most. He wasn't looking at any of them – simply staring out the window, a worried expression adorning his wrinkled features.

"Um… is everything all right?" Addy's voice cut in awkwardly during the stare down.

Wyatt spun around, nodding. "Yeah. Fine. I'm going to the bathroom… I'll be right back." He pushed away from his mother and aunt, his jaw clenched and stride clipped as he left the room.

Addy stared after him, her jaw setting as she took in the scene. She had spent so much time getting ready to impress this family – working hard to make her hair cascade down her back in perfect curls, putting on the glitzy belted shirt and straight-legged pants she had bought at the boutique earlier, and picking out the perfect accessories and make up to wear – why had she bothered? They treated Wyatt like shit; they didn't deserve her time.

"You disgust me." She said intensely to the room at large, careful to avoid Wyatt's aunts in the angry statement. "Seriously. This isn't high school – shouldn't you be past these inferiority complexes? God." She stormed out of the room after her friend, finding him slouched over in the hallway near the bathroom, head in his hands, his blonde hair falling down around them in tangles.

"Hey, you," she cooed softly, sitting down beside him. He didn't even bat an eyelash when she spoke, but Addy wasn't deterred. "You know, I think this outfit is a little too revealing for a family party. I knew I should have gone with the purple one." She eyed him. "Maybe we should have been shopping for you, instead though. You look like a hobo."

Wyatt couldn't help the snort that sputtered out of his mouth – and of course, Addy heard it. She refused to understand that he wanted to be alone for a few minutes before he had to be back in the center ring, facing a family full of fear. He just needed to collect himself, so that no one got hurt.

"Ha. See? You know you need new clothes." Wyatt looked up at her, tired of the games. He just wanted her to get to the point so that he could go back to wallowing.

Addy's words died in her throat at the wildness of Wyatt's eyes. They were still their typical icy blue color, but now there was a tempest of hurt and anger raging behind them. She could honestly almost empathize with those who saw this man as scary, just because of that look in his eyes. Of course, she squashed that thought immediately.

"What is it that you want, Addy?" Wyatt asked quietly, his voice intense with suppressed emotion.

The woman sighed, shaking her head. "Well – I want a lot of things. But right now, I really want you to come back out to dinner with me. They're just being stupid, Wyatt. I was in Coop's mind just now, to find out what happened – his magic has confused him so much where you're concerned – you wouldn't even believe it. But you know this, right? You read his mind?"

Wyatt shook his head, finding himself curious at whatever Addy had figured out while in his angry uncle's head. "I try to block off all of my family members. It makes life kind of difficult if I'm constantly in their heads. They hate it." He shrugged, knowing that they weren't comfortable around him already. "I didn't want to make anything worse. What was Uncle Coop thinking?"

"He wasn't thinking it, exactly – I read between the lines. His magic is weak – he's just a Cupid, right? He's got that stupid 'heart' power, and insight into other's love lives, and that's about it. Well, those powers sense yours when you walk in, and they put him on the defensive immediately so he doesn't get scared. It's pretty damn stupid, if you ask me – just another way for your powers to be out of control." Addy shook her head in disgust.

Wyatt looked thoughtful at this revelation, but ultimately decided to ponder it later, when he had time and the energy to think. Right now, he was too emotionally drained for that kind of thinking. So he stood up and stretched, and , like the gentleman he was raised to be, offered Addy his hand to help her up.

"Ready to face the music?" She murmured laughingly. She knew something he didn't, Wyatt gleaned from her encrypted thoughts.

"What is it?" he demanded quietly, not wanting the entire household to hear their conversation.

Addy bit her lip nervously. "Well… I might have said something – right after I came downstairs, you were storming out of the room, trying not to lash out at anyone, and I may have – uh, lost my temper and said a few things. To everyone aside from your aunts, because your aunts are fine. But the rest of them… well, let's just say they probably don't like me much."

Earlier, in the dining room after Addy's explosion….

Piper stared after the girl and her son, her motherly instincts warring with her witch ones. Eventually, the witch ones won, and she called her younger sister over, demanding to know what she had seen.

"Paige, kitchen." Phoebe ordered, dragging her older sister with her. Her face was still pale in the aftermath of the vision, and her hands were shaking.

"What did you see?" Paige asked worriedly, grabbing a towel off the counter to wipe the sweat off of Phoebe's forehead.

Phoebe took a deep breath. "Wyatt, dying. Addy was there, and a dark-lighter arrow. And she was crying, and cursing, and then he said he loved her. And then…" She broke off, unable to continue.

Piper fell back against the counter, her hands gripping the top of it so hard that her knuckles were turning white. "No. No." she shook her head vehemently, her hair flying every which way. "That won't happen. I won't let it. Leo! Get in here, now!" she yelled in the direction of the dining room, her hands already moving towards the cabinets containing the potion ingredients.

"What is it, Piper?" Leo came into the room, calming her with his very presence. Her hands quieted and she stared at him for a second, right before breaking into tears.

"My baby!" she sobbed into his chest. He had pulled her into his arms in a split second, and she just leaned there, sobbing. "My baby!"

Paige looked out at all of the assembled people, knowing the Piper was about to get very loud, and began reciting a sound blocking spell.

"Powers far, powers near, block the noise, don't let them hear."

Leo stroked his wife's raven hair, looking bewilderedly over her head at her sister's for some sort of explanation. "Piper, nothing is going to happen to Pru –"

The eldest Charmed One shoved away from her husband's chest, her eyes sparking in fury. "Not Pru, Leo! Wyatt! Phoebe just saw him dying!" Her voice rose several decibels, making Paige and Phoebe glad of the spell.

Leo's face paled considerably. "What?"

"Do you even care, Leo? Do you? Do you even care that our first born child is going to get shot by a dark lighter? Or do you think we should just let him die – just like Gideon?" Piper's tirade went a little too far, and she could tell immediately after she spoke. Leo let go of her and stepped away, his face turning to stone.

"Is that really what you think of me, Piper? After all of these years… you could think that about me?" His voice was low and full of grief – and Piper and both her sisters could hear it.

"No, I don't. And that's why I was so hurt when you ignored him out there when Coop was basically accusing him of hurting Phoebe! What the Hell? I know things have gotten harder – he's so powerful now – but that doesn't change a damn thing! He's still our son, he still loves us… why are you treating him that way?" Piper seemed to have forgotten Phoebe's vision, temporarily, in her haste to get this information that had been eluding her for months.

"I don't want Chris to feel betrayed, so soon after he got those memories back. He needs more support than Wyatt does right now." Leo explained frustratedly. "Wyatt's strong. He'll be fine – but if Chris thinks no one understands where he's coming from, or that we all back Wyatt instead of him, we'll lose him!"

Piper sagged. "Ok. I get that. But do you have to hurt Wyatt to do that for Chris? Maybe we should tell Wyatt the truth… after we save his life. Ok Pheebs… did you see the demon? Do ya think a potion will do it, or maybe a Power of Three spell?" She was suddenly all business, set on saving her son, no matter what the cost.

Phoebe shook her head sadly. "I didn't see anything, unfortunately. We know it was a dark-lighter, though, but that doesn't really make sense… Dark-lighters should know better than to attack Wyatt by now. Unless he was working with someone else?"

"But who would hire a dark-lighter to try and kill him? Most demons want to steal his power." Paige interjected. "Book of Shadows?"

"Not the best idea, right now." Leo disagreed. "We'll keep a close eye on him tonight – but we don't want to scare all of the children. Let's just go through with dinner, like planned, and when they all leave, start demon hunting?" He sent his entreaty to his wife, knowing she was the one he had to convince.

Piper considered it for a second, then nodded. "Fine. But if anything happens to him…" she left the sentence hang threateningly and went back to the dining room, wiping her eyes as she went.