Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or its characters, the situations I put them into are all mine.
A/N Thank you very much to my 2 reviewers. HyperCaz, you always manage to make me look slightly more popular than I am.
A/N I said I hoped to finish reworking this episode today
Chris was walking and thinking, two great things that usually worked together for him. Today, however, it didn't seem to be cooperating. He wasn't getting anywhere…he looked around in surprise. His musing wandering had led him to Phoenix's studio. With a shrug, he opened the door. Maybe he had been led somewhere after all.
At the tinkling bell sound, Chris' cousin raised her head from the mail she'd been reading, "What brings you here?" She questioned, setting her mail aside and focusing on Chris. Phoenix was an incredibly beautiful girl. Long shiny brown hair curled heavily down her back. Her large eyes were a breathtaking blue – almost purple - and slanted slightly upwards at the outer edges, giving her a kittenish appearance. Her lashes were thick and lush, she never needed mascara, or any other cosmetic for that matter. Her face was heart shaped and - aside from her beautiful eyes, perfect little nose, full mouth, high rounded cheekbones and unblemished, flawless skin - was completely unremarkable. Like the females in her family, she was petite but she possessed a curvaceous figure that would have overpowered any other frame, making it seem oddly proportioned or dowdy but the curves worked for Phoenix. Trim and strong thanks to her athleticism and chosen career, her hips and breasts were rounded and designed for male attention. Attention she avoided as often as possible. She wore high-necked skin concealing outfits. Today she wore black leggings under an empire wasted blue and black jacquard mini dress with a scooped – barely – neckline and long sleeves. Her shoes were ballet flats, sensible and comfortable.
"I didn't get a chance to talk to my favorite cousin the other night. I thought I'd stop by while I had free-time."
"Translation: you're bored and chose me to entertain you," Phoenix said shrewdly, a twinkle in her eyes. She took in her cousin's unnaturally bemused state. Correctly guessing that he had a lot on his mind.
"Okay, you know me too well." He flashed a disarming smile, well, it would have been disarming if the recipient wasn't Phoenix Cooper. She didn't fall for his 'laid back' posturing. "I'm trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses; our's and his." He said, confusingly as he sat beside Phoenix.
"His? Oh, The Source?" She guessed correctly but asked to make sure. A habit she'd picked up from their Aunt Paige.
"Yeah. HIS," Chris answered, a wealth of meaning in the one word.
"I told you weeks ago…"
"Yeah, but since then there may have been developments or someone may have realized that they had a power that they hadn't used before," Chris hurried to explain.
"Like my being 'ouch proof'?" She asked with a raised brow.
"'Ouch proof'?"
To demonstrate, she jammed her hand with the letter opener, "Ouch!" she squealed, "Well, not exactly 'ouch proof', but what would you call this?" Grimacing with pain, she withdrew the letter opener and held her hand out to Chris.
He watched in amazement as the wound quickly stopped bleeding and knitted itself back together leaving no trace that it had ever been there. "Wow! Yeah, like that," he said excitedly.
"Sorry, that's about all I have for you. H.J. still doesn't seem to have any power; Sam and Vic are getting stronger with their fire and ice routine. Psyche can sense soul mates better now, and not just her own, but that's not really helpful in the epic Good vs. Evil battle. Psyche and I finally found a spell to insulate us from Peyton's 'feelings' – the spell will allow us to feel them as any empath would but not be influenced by them." She continued to explain, defending herself, "We need to get rid of that damn dog, I'm allergic!" Nix looked at Chris, "You know more about Wyatt's powers and your own, you should know more about Mel's than I do." She spoke in a warning tone.
"Don't take that tone with me, Nix. I've been spending time with Mel. Besides, she's 19, it's not like she wants her big brother around all the time. How's the spell work?"
"It's a whole recipe, chant, making amulets sort of thing. Psyche's making the amulets but it's taking awhile- our family is very large!" She returned to their earlier topic, "Mel misses you," Phoenix said simply. She grabbed Chris' hand, "And I am worried about you. You're restless lately…"
"We do have a Source to vanquish," he stated somewhat needlessly.
Phoenix sighed in exasperation, "I know that, Christopher. Why do you think I'm training like crazy, doubled my classes, as well as enrollment, in addition to working almost full time at Magic School…? Hell, when I graduated, I was so happy to be free of Magic School that I promised myself I would never return," she gave a rueful look, "But, I'm back. I'm doing everything I can think of to help. You'd have a better idea of our strengths, weaknesses and group dynamics if you made more than a token effort to participate in my classes," she scolded. "Showing up just to give Wyatt and his girlfriend a hard time…" she shook her head.
"I know, but between bonding with Mel, working at P3, watching Wy's back…" he defended himself, he was not your average pesky kid brother! He explained, as though she didn't already know, "He's dating a demon; sweet girl, parentage aside. I like her, but he's my brother. Anyway besides all that, I'm digging up all I can on the Source, this one and all the ones before him. I'm also trying to come up with strategies and spells…"
"Group training gets left out," Phoenix finished for her cousin. "I understand, Chris, I do," she squeezed the hand she was still holding, "But I still worry about you. This burden…this fight isn't only yours. It belongs to all of us; Halliwells, Coopers, Mitchells, even your new friends, the Bennetts. More than that, it belongs to everyone; every witch we know and those few we don't, any magical creature who believes itself to be good is responsible for this vanquish. Lighten up, Chris, learn to share," she smiled at her cousin.
Chris gave a halfhearted chuckle and ran his hands through his already untidy hair. Wearily he said, "Now I know what it felt like to be a Charmed One. The burden of always being the good side of the good vs. evil fight always fell on them. The unwillingness to involve anyone else, to endanger anyone else…"
"But, Chris," Nix interrupted, "They always had each other. You have us." She smiled widely and gave her cousin a warm hug.
A/N I keep writing about how Phoenix is so irresistible that I felt I owed it to everyone to give a description. BTW I am considering changing the actress (that I envision) for the character from Rachel Bilson to Mila Kunis, just saw both recently and Mila in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was much more striking looking than Rachel was in Jumper. Imo.
