Wyatt enters the loft, carefully handling the coffees and bag of sandwiches. He calls to his brother as he sets the bag on the breakfast bar. "Chris, I'm back with coffee." He takes a drink of coffee and makes a disgusted face. He quickly shakes off the sugar rush. Chris walks into the room and Wyatt hands him the cup from which he just drank.
Chris takes an appreciative drink of the coffee and nearly chokes. "Wyatt, I drink black coffee. You could stand a spoon up in this!" His green eyes shoot sparks at his brother.
Wyatt shrugs innocently, "Sorry, the girl must have gotten the order confused." He looks around the room, taking in the almost untouched wall of boxes. "I see we still have a lot of unpacking to do."
"Well, if Mel hadn't 'helped' pack the boxes I'd have gotten more done." Chris insisted. Mel or Prudence Melinda Halliwell was the only sister of the brothers, younger, spoiled and very unhappy with her big brothers for moving out and leaving her at the manor. They had insisted to Mel that they were only moving a ten-minute drive away but that had not assuaged her hurt feelings at their 'abandonment.'
"Why'd you let her help pack? You know she's normally a jokester and when she's mad…." Wyatt let the sentence trail; Chris did not need reminding of what their baby sister was capable of when she was mad.
"Wy, nobody 'lets' Mel do anything," He defended, then with an indulgent smile and mostly to himself he groused, "One box full of nothing but packing peanuts…"
"Her rubber ducky in the kitchen/living room box," Wyatt added with a grin.
"Bet she comes for a visit, just to get it back."
Wyatt shakes his head ruefully, "She loves that rubber ducky."
Chris takes his offensive coffee into the kitchen and starts to pour it down the drain. Suddenly he lets out a cry and doubles over in pain.
Wyatt calls from the living room, "Come on, Chris, the coffee isn't that bad." He turns the corner and enters the kitchen. He looks concerned when he notices that his brother is not pretending.
"Wy, I think we have a problem," Chris raises the hand he had been holding tightly to his side to show his brother that it is covered in blood.
Seeing the ashen pallor on the face of his brother, Wyatt hurries over and catches him just as Chris succumbs to his pain. Wyatt looks down in amazement; out of nowhere Chris has a bleeding wound in his stomach. Chris' eyes flicker open, pain and confusion evident in the green depths.
"Wy?" he asks groggily, "Did I save you?" The question is too taxing and Chris passes out.
"What the hell?" Wyatt asks rhetorically his mind spinning, "Aunt Paige!" He calls out in near panic.
Blue orbs slowly swirl around. When they disperse, a woman is revealed.
"Wyatt, what hap….oh no! Chris!" The pretty, white lighter-witch rushes to her nephew. "How did this happen?" As she lays her hands on Chris, they glow.
"I really don't know Aunt Paige. We were unpacking and suddenly Chris has blood everywhere and passes out." Wyatt's face betrays his deep concern; he notices that his aunt is having a difficult time healing Chris. In fact, she doesn't seem to be helping at all. "Is he going to be all right?"
"Wyatt, honey, I need you to tell me everything. Did he say anything, do anything…?" Paige bit her lip in frustration, "Wy, my healing isn't working and that only happened in rare cases when strong magic was involved…" She let her explanation trail off. They both knew that magic, strong or otherwise, had been at a minimum for the last 20 years.
Wyatt concentrated, trying to remain calm. "Yeah, right after he got hurt he asked me if he saved me and passed out." Seeing the look of dawning comprehension on his aunt's face, he demanded, "Tell me what's going on."
"Could it be?" Paige muses to herself, "Gideon's knife."
"Gideon's knife?" Wyatt repeats, "What the hell is Gideon's knife?"
"Wyatt, language!" Admonishes his aunt, "We were worried this might happen."
"Worried WHAT might happen?" Asked Wyatt, exasperated and feeling helpless.
"Later, Wyatt, I have to orb the both of you back to the manor. We can fix this but we don't have much time…." Paige puts a hand on both of her nephews and orbs them out.