Author's Notes: I'M BACK! And the story is back! I dunno exactly what brought my muse to attention with this story, but while working on my Sailor Moon story, I got the incredible urge to write for this one, and I've picked right up where I left off. So sorry that I made that last chapter the 'last', so to speak! It was just a way of putting the story on pause until I could get working on it again. Now that summer's here, hopefully I can finish this one. ;)
Don't forget to review! :D
Whether it was because they didn't want it to be true, or because they didn't want to bring it up with Wyatt, neither Chris nor Mel mentioned what they had experienced to their older brother, who went back to living his life separate from the two of them. Chris was absolutely certain of the fact that if Wyatt had heard an astral echo or something of the like, then he would have told them. As he hadn't, then he figured it wasn't anything to be super concerned about. After all, there were more demons out there that were doing harm, demons that needed to be sought out and vanquished.
But things remained oddly quiet for the next week and a half. His Aunt Paige's birthday went by without a hitch, and was enjoyed by everyone. It wasn't anything more than a dinner at her house—an intimate family get-together. She absolutely loved the gift that Chris had given her, which made him happy. And to his credit, he hadn't become upset when she expressed her love for the books that Mel had chosen for her.
The next time they had all designated to meet up was for his mom's birthday that following weekend. It arrived easily, quickly, in almost a sneaky manner. Everyone had been so busy, and so it surprised them.
It was unusually hot for an August day in San Francisco, and Chris, who was sitting in the living room on the couch, fanned himself with a paper fan that he had made from some paper from his printer upstairs. It was only noon, but it had already reached the high-80s. What was going on, he wondered? The weather hardly moved past the 70s, which was the main reason they didn't have an air conditioner. For days like this, however, he wished they did. Wearing just jean shorts and a t-shirt only did so much to alleviate the ridiculously unbearable heat.
"Mom!" he called. When he got no response right away, he called again. "Mom!"
Piper appeared from in the kitchen, moving through the dining room toward the sitting room, where Chris saw her. "What?" she asked.
"Do we have any juice?"
She rolled her eyes and snorted. "You brought me out of the kitchen for that? You could have just come and checked yourself."
"It's hot," Chris said with a light whine to his voice. He stretched out over the couch, tugging his t-shirt down to cover his stomach.
"Why don't you come and see for yourself?" she said, not giving in. "And why don't you come help me? You know your dad's out getting extra stuff for dinner tonight, and that Mel won't be back from work until about four. And Wyatt won't be here until around the same time. It won't kill you."
His mom made a good point. Chris just didn't really feel like doing anything. It was for her birthday, however, and so he finally turned, lifted himself up off the couch with a grunt, then stretched again. "Yeah, okay."
Chris followed Piper into the kitchen, half-expecting to be overwhelmed by even more heat. To his surprise, the kitchen was, in fact, a little cooler than the rest of the house had been. The drapes to the windows were closed, but not a whole lot of direct sunlight was actually penetrating them. It was then that he remembered how the afternoon sun was hitting the conservatory at that time. No wonder the living room had been so hot; it was on the same side. He felt like an idiot for forgetting.
"So, what do you want me to help with?"
He looked over the vast array of food that his mom was in the midst of preparing. There was everything from delicious looking rabbit dishes to plates of mini sandwiches and Jell-o with whipped cream on top of it: everything to keep the family cool on a day when the weather refused to be everything but.
"Well, I need to put it all in the fridge, first and foremost. This is just the appetizer stuff. Dinner I'll be making later, when your dad comes back with the hamburger and hot dog buns."
"Sure."
Not surprisingly, helping his mom with what she needed to get done didn't take very long. When they finished, he gave her a hand in cleaning up, after which she went into the living room to make a phone call and check in on the restaurant. This left him to his own devices again, and now that he had cooled down a little bit, Chris felt like it was time to make a phone call of his own. He hadn't actually spoken to Landon in a while; text messaging had been their main way of keeping in contact while the older one was on a business trip. But a message last night on Chris' phone let him know that he was back in San Francisco, safe and sound. The only thing that had kept him from calling right then was the jet lag that the other had likely felt.
When Chris holed up in his room, he grabbed his cell phone off of his nightstand, flipping it open. The screen lit up, flashing a message that he had a missed call. Clicking the OK button, he found that it was from Landon, and that he had just barely missed it by a few minutes.
Landon was surely still able to talk, Chris told himself as he dialed the other's number. It rang a few times, but when the call went through and he heard his boyfriend's voice, a smile formed on the dark haired witch's mouth.
"Hey, baby," Landon said. "I just tried calling you a minute ago. Where were you?"
"Hey," Chris replied. "I was downstairs helping my mom with some food. We're having her birthday dinner tonight."
"Yeah, I remember." There was cheerfulness in Landon's tone. "Just wanted to call and say hey, see what was up with you. How's it going?"
Chris laughed. "Funny you should ask, cause I was just about to call you, too, actually, and see how everything was. How was your flight back?" He moved toward his bed and took a seat on it.
There was a groan on the other line that usually indicated Landon was stretching. "Not bad," came his answer. "A little long. But you know how cross-country flights can be."
Actually, not really, Chris thought to himself. Orbing came in handy for that very reason. He chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, they're awful. I'm sure you slept most of the way though."
"Damn right I did. I've never not slept on a plane ride longer than two hours. Without anything to entertain me…"
The younger one snorted. "Aww…poor baby."
Since he didn't often talk on the phone, at least outside of talking with Landon, he started picking at his toes while doing so—it was just something to keep him occupied while he listened. "We still on for our regular Monday thing?" he asked after a moment.
"Yup," was all Landon said. Then he yawned.
"Jetlag?"
"Something like that. I haven't gone to sleep yet. I'm trying to hold off, so I can get back on a regular schedule. And that way, come Monday, I won't look like some kind of zombie traveler."
"You wouldn't, anyways," Chris laughed. "Freak."
"You say that now…" He could tell Landon was grinning by his tone of voice. "I'm gonna go now, though. Gotta find something for lunch…maybe go out to the grocery store. My cupboards are looking kinda bare."
"All righty. Thanks for calling."
Chris was smiling again, and he tried to refrain from doing it too much. It wasn't like anyone could see, but it felt like he was being far too obvious about it. He had never figured himself the type to get so excited about talking to someone…but whenever he spoke with Landon, it never failed to make him happy. Part of him knew it was completely irrational, but another part of him told him to stop worrying about it. Everyone was entitled to a little happiness every now and then. Plus, he really needed to stop the over-analyzing of things. It was beginning to bother even him.
"Bye, babe. Talk to you later."
"Talk to you later! Bye."
He hung up the phone. Even though the call had been short, Chris was thankful for it. It gave him some peace of mind, and it distracted him from the ridiculous heat outside. Plus, any time he got to talk to Landon was good.
Now it was just time to wait for the rest of the family to arrive.
. . .
"Mom! Dad needs the spatula!"
Chris stepped into the kitchen through the laundry room, wiping his forehead with his forearm. It was still hot as hell outside, and without any cloud cover, it was easy to get hot. At this rate, he figured they were going to get sunburned if they were out there for more than just a minute's time.
"It's above the stove!" Piper called, pointing.
She was in the dining room, setting up the table with Billie's help. Chris recognized her familiar shoulder length blonde hair. Billie didn't come over so much nowadays, but whenever she did, it usually was for family gatherings. When he thought of it, there wasn't one event up until this point that he could recall wherein Billie hadn't been there. It made him snort quietly.
"Chris!"
His father's voice caught his attention again, bringing him back around to what he needed to do. Wandering over to the stove, he grabbed the spatula, then headed back outside on the porch to where Leo and Wyatt were, the former to whom he handed the kitchen utensil.
"Here, Dad."
"Thanks."
But they weren't the only ones outside. Chris and Wyatt's Aunt Paige's youngest two, the twins, were also out there, watching Leo as he flipped the burgers and turned over the hot dogs. The barbeque was covered in cooking meat, and would likely continue to be for the next hour or so. There were sixteen people to feed, after all. The smoke rose into the bright, cloudless blue sky, and the heat that emanated from the barbeque distorted the air around it, making it wavy in appearance.
Leo turned to his sons. "All right, why don't you two go inside and help your mom while I finish up here? Janice, Sam, you two can stay out here if you want."
Wyatt and Chris nodded, turned around, and then headed back into the house. It was cooler when they arrived inside, and the younger witch went to the fridge to retrieve his frozen mug of water from the freezer. Once he did, he shut the door, then looked over at his brother. A smirk appeared on his face.
"How the hell do you turn red without even being in the sun?" he asked.
Wyatt frowned, causing white creases to appear in his forehead and around his eyes. "Cause unlike you and Mel, I got mom's pale ass skin that makes me burn no matter what." He moved toward the refrigerator and pushed Chris aside. He snorted. "Outta my way, midget."
"Go put on some sunscreen, giant," Chris countered, smacking his brother on the shoulder and watching him wince. In order to prevent Wyatt from attacking him back, the younger one bound out of the kitchen and into the dining room. The previously faint chatting sound of the other members of his family became louder then, as they were all spread out in the sunroom, which had by that point cooled and was shadier than before.
When Chris stepped into the large archway between the dining room and the sunroom, he leaned against the wall, offering a wave to the large group that was his family. His mom was there, as were his sister, his two aunts and uncles, all of his cousins from his Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Coop, as well as his only male cousin, Henry Junior.
What they would even be talking about, he really had no idea. Something that could span the age gap among them all had to be hard to find. It was normally why he didn't spend much time in these large family gatherings. He loved all of his cousins, but he was definitely closer to Henry Junior. It was no surprise that Mel and Patty were sitting next to each other on the small loveseat beside the large tropical plant near the corner of the sunroom.
"What's up, Ladybug?" Chris asked as he stepped over to where the two girls were sitting.
Mel and Patty were chatting animatedly about something, however, the second that the older Halliwell appeared, they clammed up. There was something suspicious about it. Chris raised an eyebrow.
"What?" Mel asked.
"I asked, what's up?"
"Nothing," Patty said. She brushed some of her short, light brown hair behind her ear. "We were just talking."
"Yeah, I know," Chris said. He refrained from rolling his eyes. "I was wondering about what, since you two are over here by yourselves."
"None of your business," Mel said to her older brother, who now couldn'thelp but roll his eyes.
"Fine, fine. Whatever. See if I try to find interest in your conversations anymore."
As Chris walked away, he couldn't help but think about the fact that things between him and Mel had seemed to gravitate back to how they had been about two weeks previous. They weren't quite at each other's throats and arguing about nothing, but they were bickering again. To their credit, however, they hadn't downright fought about anything, and were helping each other more often. But still, the dark haired witch couldn't help but think that what their mother had done had been done in slight vain.
Sipping at his water, he moved over to the white bench and took a seat on the arm of the chair, right by his Aunt Phoebe. She smiled and patted his thigh.
"Heya, Chris. How're the burgers coming along?"
"Good, good," Chris said. The truth was, he had no idea. But their dad liked to barbeque, so he was sure that they couldn't be too bad. "So what's going on in here?"
"Not much," Piper said. "We're just talking about the weird weather. Your Aunt Paige thinks it's demonic."
"Of course she does," Chris joked. His aunt, who was sitting in a chair not too far away from him, leaned in and smacked his knee. He jerked to the side, nearly spilling some water on the tile floor. "Ow, hey!"
"I've never been wrong about these things, you know," Paige said somewhat flatly, but with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Demon free is the way to be," Phoebe said. She shook her head. "It's been what, like two weeks? Three?"
"More or less," Coop added. Having been leaning against the archway wall by the sitting room, he pushed off it and moved close to Phoebe. "Want some more water?"
"God, yes," she said. "It's ridiculously hot."
"Back soon."
Right about the time that Coop disappeared into the dining room, Chris heard some giggling over where his sister and Patty were. When he sent a glance in their direction they shut up, almost giving him a glare. He didn't know what their problem was. As he turned his attention back to his family, there was a sudden shouting of his name inside his head. It caused him to wince.
The last thing that he had been expecting was the call of a charge. Especially from one that he didn't hear from very often.
"What's that all about?" Piper asked, having noticed the way her son twitched.
"Charge," Chris muttered. "God, it's too hot to deal with this stuff today. And especially this one in particular."
"I remember those," Paige chuckled.
"I've gotta go put my shoes on…"
He waved to the group of his family as a means of saying goodbye, and wandered up the stairs to his room to grab some socks. Last time he had worn sandals when going and helping a charge, he regretted it. This time, he wasn't going to make the same mistake.
As he grabbed the socks, he heard the shout again, but this time, it came much more urgently than before. That increased some of the irritation Chris felt. This charge of his—Max—was notorious for false alarms. He would have much preferred not going.
Not that he had a choice, he thought as he slipped on his shoes, orbing out of the house.
