Chapter 7

Helena gazed at the roaring fire, her eyes glazed over with tears. The gleam from the flames softened the darkness in the room to a surreal glowing that was almost magical. Since her mother had left, Helena had been left to mull over the information that Milo Sullivan was back in San Francisco and even worse, he was living on the same street.

It had been almost a decade since Helena had been in contact with Milo. They had met when she was only fourteen and he was seventeen, but Helena had always had a thing for older guys. It had been the middle of her freshman year of high school and she was extremely involved in extracurricular activities and along came this cute junior that was all rebel and no cause. When he started passing notes to her in chem. class Helena was shocked. She didn't even think that he had any idea who she was.

They began hanging out after classes and eventually Helena had begun ditching. Between checking out occult stores in other cities and checking out new bands at house parties, Helena spent the next year dating Milo and getting into more and more trouble. Her parents and cousins had tried intervening but all that did was to make sure that Helena spent the day in school. Afterwards, Helena began to sneak out of the house to meet Milo, sometimes not coming home before going to school.

Milo had become Helena's entire world. He was smart and funny and mysterious and he made her feel free when she couldn't be. At least, not entirely, because of her obligation to keep magic a secret. But Milo was incredibly well informed on the supernatural. He claimed that his father and grandfather had fed him stories about ghosts and ghouls. Helena wanted to tell him that some of the mythology he knew was true, and correct what he had wrong. But Milo was a story teller, and all she could do was to listen as he spun tales about exploits about fictional characters.

By the time Helena was sixteen and Milo had graduated from high school, she found out that she was pregnant. The only problem was that Milo had left California for New York. They had kept in contact by texting but Helena couldn't make herself tell Milo or anybody else about the pregnancy. She had already been three months along by the time she had found out, and unfortunately Helena had been drinking and smoking during that time.

Helena couldn't turn to her family. Not after alienating them all for the past year. She only had the summer to figure out what she was going to do. It turned out that the decision was taken out of her hand. Two weeks after determining that she was pregnant, Helena was home alone. Brianna was staying at Uncle Wyatt's house with Payton, and Chris and Gabby were out with Victor for the day. No one was there while she miscarried.

After the spotting had stopped, Helena orbed to Teresa's medical trailer where she provided free treatment to her gypsy clan. Teresa was the granddaughter of a gypsy that the charmed ones had helped decades before, and their families had been close ever since. She helped Helena through this time and was sworn to secrecy, never to tell any of the Halliwells.

After losing the baby Helena started to act out again. This time, however, she began by causing arguments with Milo whenever they were in touch. She started to ignore his texts and phone calls and spent more time partying and hooking up with guys at her high school. School became less for her studies, even though her parents wouldn't budged and maintained that she would keep her grades up unless she wanted to be homeschooled.

Helena began playing pranks at school, like starting a stink bomb during a pep rally and creating embarrassing videos about different jocks and cheerleaders that she posted throughout the school network, after she hacked into it, of course. She became public enemy number one around school and was suspended more than a few times for fighting.

Things changed at the end of her junior year, when her mother found her sneaking into her room one night after a party. The two had spent the rest of the night talking, and Helena finally told someone about her experience the summer before. Gabby helped Helena to get back on track, and a year later Helena was off to Berkley.

But now Milo was here and Helena felt as if her world was being ripped apart by the seams.

Brianna and Payton were at P3 as were Pier, Porter and their Aunt Patricia. Aunt Trish was covering for Melinda, who was enjoying a date with Gray in celebration of the end of their separation. Since her husband had passed away three years ago, Trish had put her popular children books on hold, opting to focus on her three boys now that they were teenagers. She was independently wealthy and flitted back and forth between the Manor House and P3 whenever someone needed the night off. As for the others, Pier and Porter were there with their significant others in a private booth, while Brianna and Payton hung out by the bar as they listened to hottest band the club had ever booked.

"Where's Helena? She's almost an hour late," Payton said. "The band will be done playing before she manages to get here. Can you call her, Brie?"

"Yeah, I've tried texting but she's not responding." Brie punched in a number and held the phone to her ear. "All I'm getting is voicemail. Her phone must be off." Brie pushed herself off the stool and left her clutch there to hold her spot. "Watch my stuff. I'm gonna pop by the manor and see what's going on."

Brianna pushed through the crowd towards the manager's office and closed the door behind her before orbing into the manor's entrance. She heard the soft, soothing music coming from the living room and turned to see her sister staring at the fireplace. "Helena, what's wrong?"She stepped forward and sat across from her sister.

Helena turned to look at Brie. "I have to tell you something."

"What," Milo said, his voice small and strained. "No. I've known her since we were kids, I would've known, she would have—"

"—told you," Dean asked sarcastically. "You told me yourself that you haven't talked to this chick in nine years. You obviously don't know this girl as well as you think."

"How do you know this, anyway," Milo demanded as he paced the floor.

"Sam came to visit a few months ago and she caught wind of a price on the heads of a powerful coven. Someone hired a group of assassin witches known as phoenixes to finish them off."

"They're witches," Milo argued. "Why would you want to hunt this clan? Why not let them get rid of the coven, it'd be better for everyone if evil started killing each other off. Then we wouldn't need to hunt in our spare time."

"Because," Dean said, "they're supposed to be the most powerful force of good ever."

Milo turned to look at his cousin. It clicked then. Milo snapped his fingers and pointed at Dean. "You're in love with Payton, aren't you?"

"How could you not tell me about this, Lena?"

Helena tucked her chin to her chest and let out a sob. "What was I supposed to say? 'I'm leaving and I'm not coming back because, guess what, I killed my baby'?"

"You just left and never said anything, Helena. For Christ's sake, don't you think that I deserved to know what was going on with you? You spent the last years with us causing trouble and taking up everyone's time and attention because mom and dad were so worried about you. Maybe if you had just talked to me or trusted me, maybe you wouldn't have stayed away so long and I wouldn't have been so angry with you."

"Brie," Helena began.

"No, I was so angry with you for shutting me out. For not letting me be important enough for you to even consider. We were supposed to be best friends; you, me and Payton. I was so furious with you that I took it out on everyone around me, and I had to be the complete opposite of you." Brie was sobbing now, and held a hand to her chest. "I was so awful to you when you came back because it was like I was being ignored again just like high school. How can you just forget that and forgive me?"

"I couldn't tell anyone. I barely even told mom. I was so self-involved that I couldn't think about anyone else. I tried my best to go on with school but by the time I was ready to come home I had ruined things with you. It's why I started traveling rather than coming home. I thought it'd be easier for everyone."

"And Milo?"?

"What about him," Helena said.

"You're going to see him eventually, and then what are you going to do?"

Trish walked over to Payton and handed her a cranberry and Bacardi. "Why don't you go over to the manor and see what's going on with your cousins? I'll call the manor and tell them to expect you. You might as well bring Brie's car back so she doesn't need to come back for it later."

"Thanks, Aunt Trish. I'll see you, later."

Payton took Brie's clutch and walked towards the exit, pulling out the keys to Brie's sporty, black convertible. "Good thing I know how to drive stick," she said sliding into the driver's seat and took off for Prescott Street.

Payton pulled into the driveway and turned the engine off. She climbed out of the car and walked up to the manor, letting herself in. "Hey, what happened," she called out and walked to the living room.

Brie and Helena turned to look at Payton. "Uh, maybe you should sit down," Helena said.

The next day the family gathered at the Manor House for their weekly Sunday brunch. The restaurant was closed each Sunday for breakfast and lunch, since it was the only place large enough to seat the forty-seven family members. Melinda and Penny arrived an hour early to prepare brunch, making muffins, frittatas, croissants, sausage, pancakes, waffles, omelets, yogurt with fruits and much more.

Many of the kids formed their own tables, preferring to sit away from their parents. Warren, Michael and Parker sat with Priti, Pamela and Pilar, while Paul, Perry, Polly and Presley sat together. The aunts and uncles mingled and discussed new goings on about work and what else. While that happened, Payton sat with Brie and Helena, waiting to make her announcement. When she pushed her seat out to stand, her father cleared his throat and clanged a spoon against his drinking glass.

"I've waited to make this announcement today, rather than when the news was first made known to me. I wanted all of the family to be together rather than having to make phone calls late last night. I've been approached by a very prestigious family of hunters."

"What do you mean by hunters," Priscilla asked.

"There are families out there, whom know of the supernatural world, and have been directly affected. They gather intelligence, train in weapons and martial arts and they go after different supernatural beings. Last night, I was approached by a family very well known in these circles. They've been tracking the Phoenix clan. Apparently there is a price on our heads. Someone in the underworld wants us extinct."

"What's new," Parker shouted from his table and his cousins snickered.

"This would be the second organized attack on our family this week. This much activity is worrisome. I've invited the family to join us for brunch, to share the intelligence they've gathered on the matter. I've sent Johnny to pick them up—"

Just then Johnny orbed in behind his father, toting Dean, Sr., DJ, Dean, Samantha, Milo and Sam.

"Oh, shit," Helena whispered right before Payton passed out.