I know I'm being horrible but I'll catch upon my reviews next chapter! Sorry!
Little Dolittle
Emma ran out of the pizza place carrying two large pizza boxes over her head to shelter her from the rain, she ran across the sloping road and yanked her keys from her pocket, pressing the button and watching her car's lights flash, telling her that it was unlocked. She pulled the door open and dumped the pizza boxes in the passenger seat as she shook her head from side to side, trying to get rid of the water,
"Only in San Francisco can you get pizza at two a.m.…" Emma muttered, turning the key in the ignition and bringing her car to life. She quickly punched in the number for home into her cell phone, which was sitting in the hands free device. The psionic rolled her eyes as the answering machine message played,
"Hi," Piper's voice came through, "We're either not here, too lazy to get the phone, or we're screening. Leave a message," The beep then sounded and Emma rolled her eyes again,
"C'mon Piper, I know you screen after midnight, but who else would be calling you at this time except from you nighttime pizza delivery girl?" She smirked when she heard the click on the other line,
"You can never be too careful," Piper said.
"Uh huh, listen, I'll be home in about ten minutes go these things might need reheating when I get back,"
"Ten minutes? Why so long? Dropping in for a booty call with your boyfriend?" Although she couldn't see her, Emma knew her friend was smiling.
"Very funny, if you haven't noticed there's a storm. The entire city's flooded, the wind is pushing me all over the road and the thunder and lightning keeps making me jump!" She flinched as the sky lit up for a brief second and a booming crash rumbled in the sky.
"Okay, just get back here! Unless there's traffic?"
"No, not many people are having their dinner this late, the streets are-," She suddenly saw a boy run out in front of her car. Emma slammed down on the brakes as fast as her reflexes would allow and managed to stop right in front of the child, who was stunned by the fear of being run over, "Oh my God!"
"Emma? Are you okay? I heard tires screeching," The Charmed One asked over the phone.
She was about to answer, than an energy ball flew out of the alleyway to the left and struck the boy on the shoulder. Emma looked over and even through her rain covered windows she could see two demons advancing on the innocent "Uh… Piper, I'll call you back," she pressed the hang up button and hastily opened her door, stepping out onto the hilled road and into the wind.
"Hey!" She yelled, swatting her hair out of her face, which was a constant struggle was the howling wind was against her. The demons bared their dirty teeth at her and threw two energy balls. Emma quickly activated her telempathy and made the energy balls fly around her and zip back to their masters, hitting them in the chest and vanquishing them. With no time to check, she quickly helped the boy up and helped him into the back seat of her car, before getting back in the drivers seat and shaking the water off her wet again hair,
"This is going to take longer than ten minutes…"
Phoebe looked over her slumbering son in fascination as his tiny chest moved up and down with his breathing. Lightning crashed outside, making the middle Halliwell jump with fright, she was thankful that Connor hadn't stirred. Brennan crept into the baby's room, setting the baby monitor down on the chest of drawers at the door and walking up behind his wife, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her on the cheek. She leaned her head back on his chest and sighed,
"I though your shift ended at midnight," She whispered.
"It was supposed to, but then we got a ton of bus crash victims and I had to help. But I have the day off tomorrow, what do you want to do?"
"Mm… Nothing, I just want to sit in the house and do… nothing," She retreated into his arms even more, "I'm so tired… Connor's been up for most of the night,"
Her husband frowned, "He looks pretty calm to me,"
"Yeah, he stopped crying when the storm began. Oddly, it seemed to calm him down,"
Brennan let out a chuckle, "Well, he is the Child Of Storms, he probably feels better in his magical environment,"
"And would that be your family?" She said with a slightly raised voice.
"What?" Phoebe turned around, still in Brennan's arms.
"It's just that… Everyone can tell that Connor is your son, hair colour, eye colour, even powers! It's as if he's completely made out of you and none of me… Okay, that was a little gross, what I mean is that he's hasn't got anything from me…"
Brennan kissed her forehead, "Look, he is your son, he is our son. No matter what he looks like and what his powers are, he's ours, no matter what anyone says. Besides, your powers are a still less… visible than mine, he could have them and we don't know it,"
Phoebe smiled half heartedly, "I guess… How are you so good at these little talks?"
He grinned, "From having three sisters who were constantly going through something at one time or another!" He pulled her into a hug, both of them felt as if they could fall asleep right there on their feet,
"Oh…" Phoebe groaned, "Before I forget, your Mom called, she wants us to go up next week so she can meet her grandson, can you get the time off?"
"Hmm… Yeah, I think after all the times I've stayed behind after my shift is over, I deserve it," He took her hand and pulled her towards the door, "C'mon, I think we both need sleep…"
Phoebe nodded wearily as he pulled her out of the room, picked up the baby monitor on the way out, with a doubtful look at her son before leaving…
Paige hadn't been able to sleep ever since the storm had began, the dim glow of a small lamp on the coffee table lit up the main area of the apartment. She looked out of the large window towards the Bay, jumping a little when lightning flew across the skyline. Rain battered the pane and Paige watched the street lamps sway in the wind below. The apartment was on the corner of one of the many hills in San Francisco, so the youngest Charmed One got a good view of the city and could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.
She touched the window and clenched her eyes together, it was times like this when she missed him the most, she would even pretend that she could feel his arms around her waist, that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck, and that she could smell his aftershave. She would even pretend that she could lean back into his chest, but her daydream always ended abruptly she fell roughly into the seat behind her, making her feel even more heartbroken than before.
Paige frowned as she felt something digging into her back, reaching around behind the cushion; she wrapped her hand around a cube shaped object and pulled it out to her eyes, gasping when she saw the velvet box in her hand. She bit her lip and went to open it, but pulled her hand back when thunder startled her. She let out a snort of laughter at her fright and opened it, but she wished she hadn't.
It was a diamond engagement ring.
The witchlighter's eyes widened as she took out a piece of paper that had been folded up into a small package. When she opened it out, it was covered in scribbles, as if someone had been crossing out what they had written, but there was a paragraph at the bottom that hadn't been crossed out, it was Aidan's handwriting.
Paige,
If you're reading this, you've probably found the engagement ring, even though I've told you to stay away from my chair! But it was that defiance and stubbornness that made me fall in love with you in the first place, in fact, I love everything about you. When you laugh, when you get mad, and even you shut the curtains with your powers in the morning when you don't want to get up. You are the best thing that has happened in my life and I never want to be without you. Paige…
Will you marry me?
Those four simple words sent Paige's heart shattering into a thousand pieces for the second time in four months, and looking at the date at the top of the page, he had wrote this just before she had slept with Hades. But even through her sadness and thoughts of what would have been, Paige found extreme happiness in the fact that she could feel her children's joy at any fragment of Aidan left.
Aidan, the love of her life, was the father of her children. She knew it, as only a mother could…
"Piper!" Emma shouted as she opened the front door carrying pizza boxes and the young boy walking behind her with a napkin on his wounded shoulder,
"In here!" Piper's voice came from the kitchen.
"You go sit in there and I'll be right back," She put her hand delicately on his shoulder and he went into the living room while she walked towards the kitchen. Piper stood at the island with Leo with a hungry grin on her face,
"What did you get me?" She licked her lips.
"Oh, one pepperoni…" She opened a box, "One ham and cheese…" She opened the second box, "And one innocent," She pointed out of the kitchen door.
Piper's shoulders dropped, "You found an innocent at two a.m. while picking up pizza? That's it, next time we're getting it delivered," She hit her hands off the surface.
"Is he hurt? Piper said that she heard your car screeching before you hung up,"
"Yeah, I had to kill two demons, in the street I might add! The kid just ran out in front of my car, which, might I say, was almost destroyed by an energy ball!" She looked at Piper and Leo, who were giving her a strange look, "Oh, yeah, he's hurt, but it's just a graze, nothing to worry about,"
"Did anyone see you vanquish the demons?" Piper asked fretfully
Emma snorted, "The weather's hell, someone standing right next to me wouldn't have been able to see because to the rain. Besides, I used my telempathy so no one would have caught me doing anything magical, they would just think that I was extremely lucky for those energy balls to veer round me…"
"Okay, I'll go get him…" Leo went to leave the room, but she stopped him,
"I'll get him, it's probably best if we don't expose him to too many new faces," She went into the dining room.
Piper placed her head in her hands, "Chinese… We should have gotten Chinese food…"
At a more respectable hour, Emma got to work on their innocent. They had set crystals around him in the night to protect him from any demons that might attack while they were sleeping. Piper had gone to P3 to confirm an amateur band that was playing that night. The eldest Halliwell had given them they're big break, and their music was good, so it all worked out.
She came into the living room, the boy hadn't moved all night and had only changed positions to sleep and take the glass of water that Emma had gave him, he didn't even look surprised when Leo healed his shoulder.
"So…" Emma sat down in front of him and gave him a warm smile, "You want to tell me why those people were after you?" He cleared his throat and said nothing, "Wow… I don't know how many kids can stay silent for so long,"
He took another sip of water, "I'm putting you in danger by just being here, I need to go. And those weren't people, they were-,"
"Demons." Emma finished flatly before igniting a psionic blast above her head, "Yeah, you're not the only one with a gift," She retracted the globe so she didn't scare him.
"What are you?" he breathed.
"A witch… sorta, what are you?"
He gulped, "I'm… normal," nodding his head furiously.
Emma sighed, "Well, if you won't tell me what your power is, can you at least tell me your name?"
He hesitated for a moment, "It's Lewis… My name's Lewis,"
She smiled at him. It was a start.
The doorbell rang and the door opened, "Anyone home?" Paige's voice came through.
"In here!" Emma shouted back, "Why did you bother to knock when you just decided to come in?"
Paige blinked at her, "Piper said you needed help?"
Emma smirked at her dodge of question, but before she could answer, four demons smoked into the sunroom behind her. Each of them held a silver athame in their hands and a tattoo of a flaming devil's wing on their biceps.
"Emma, get down!" Paige yelled, her friend ducked down as the witchlighter made a sweeping gesture with her arms, sending two demons one way and the other two the opposite direction. Emma got back up and turned to the teen,
"Stay in the crystals and you'll be fine," She assured him before going after the two demons that had landed in the living room while Paige went after the others. As soon as she entered the room, Emma had to duck out of the path of a flying athame that impaled itself on the wall, she decided to leave it in case the demons got away and she would have something to scry with, "You're gonna need to do better than that boys!" She taunted them.
"Give us the feraltongue!" One of them roared, sending an energy ball at the psionic.
"Feraltongue?" She ducked again, firing a psionic blast at her attacker and sending him into the wall and smashing a plant pot, Emma cringed when she realized Piper would flip. She heard a scream in the next room and looked on as an energy ball bounced off Paige's baby's shield and killed the demon who had thrown it.
"Now that's an easy vanquish!" Paige marveled at her stomach.
The rest of the demons smoked out wisely, as they didn't want to incur the wrath of the witch's unborn children.
Emma cursed and went to pull the athame out of the wall, "Well…" She grunted as the dagger came loose, "Let's go hunting…"
The three remaining demons shimmered into their hideout, one of them spat out a curse as he paced around the room, "We're never going to get our hands on him with the witches in our way!" She continued to pace and curse loudly.
"We can't give up, we need those scrolls before the Nameless One takes complete control of the Underworld or we'll need to bow down to some no name demon!"
The cursing demon growled and turned to his comrade, "If we try to get past the guard, it will kill us; we need the boy for this to work!"
"Stop it, both of you! Why do you think I left my athame there? I have a plan," He said proudly, the other two rolled their eyes, "Think about it, all we need to do is stay near the door to the scroll chamber, and when the witches come after us…" His partners began to catch on.
One of them grinned, "It's a win win situation! If they kill it, we can get in easily without the brat, and if it kills them, there's no one to stop us from taking the kid!"
The cursing one grinned and put an arm around the one who had though of the idea, "That's why you're the brains of the group!"
Phoebe smiled at her son who was wriggling and crawling around on her and Brennan's bed. The family had been spending the stormy day in doors as both adults had managed to get a day off in order to spend some time with each other. The middle Charmed One sat next to her husband as they leaned against the headboard, keeping vigilant eyes on their son to make sure he didn't fall off the bed as he explored.
"This beats helping old drunks with glass in their hands any day!" Brennan laughed and pulled Phoebe closer with the arm he had around her shoulders.
She grinned, "It feels great to take a break from wading through people's problems and worries… No, sweetie," Phoebe smiled as she lifted Connor back to them before he went off the side of the bed; he giggled and began to explore again.
"I can't believe how much he loves to move around and explore… He has more energy than any kid I've ever seen," She marveled at her child's stamina.
"Yeah, he's gonna love it up at my Mom's next week!" Brennan replied.
"Are you kidding? Tons of kids, doting new aunts to meet, he'll never want to leave! Connor?" Phoebe's eyes widened as her son went over the edge of the bed, but instead of falling to floor, he continued to crawl in mid air!
"Well, he certainly doesn't get that power from me. Now do you believe me about him being your son?" Brennan kissed her head before Phoebe jumped off the bed and picked up her hovering son and nuzzled his face with her nose,
"Was my little boy levitating? Yes he was! Oh yes he was!" Her son laughed and smiled she held him with the same type of grin on her face.
Her cell began to ring on the nightstand and Phoebe set Connor back down on the bed, he immediately crawled over to his father who picked him up and bounced him up and down in his arms.
"Hello," Phoebe flipped open her phone, "Hey Emma…" The psionic's face fell after hearing what her friend had to say, "No! You're kidding! Ugh… I'll be there in about fifteen minutes," She snapped the cell shut and turned to Brennan, "I'll be back in a little while, okay?" Phoebe leaned over and kissed her husband before walking into the bathroom to get changed out of her pajamas…
Piper stared at Lewis as he sat with Paige's dog Sandy next to him; he was having a full blown conversation with the animal! And what was even stranger was that the dog seemed to be responding to everything Lewis was saying. Emma walked up behind her and smirked,
"The book says that feraltongues can't talk to all animals, they only have one specific species they can converse with. It seems to be dogs in Lewis's case,"
"Did you find the demons in the Book?" She asked.
Emma nodded, "Oddly, they're lower level, it seems pretty stupid to attack while Paige is here considering she's invincible at the moment. Phoebe's on her way, I'll start scrying," She walked back into the kitchen just as Phoebe walked in the front door,
"Alright, I'm missing quality time with my husband and my baby's new power let's get this over with,"
"Phoebe!" Piper scolded as she brought her into the kitchen to where Emma and Paige were, "Show a little tact! Our innocent is a kid for Gods sake!"
"You're right, I'm sorry, I just…. Want to spend some uninterrupted time with my family, is that too much to ask?"
"Right now, yes, but the sooner you stop moaning, the sooner we get this over with…"
As Piper finished her sentence, the crystal that Emma had been spinning dropped down,
"Got them," She announced.
"Okay, you stay here and look after Lewis and we'll go kick some demon ass," Piper gestured for her sisters to come closer and Paige orbed them out to the location…
The momentary light of orbs lit up the dark cavern. The Charmed Ones couldn't see a thing as they looked around in the darkness. None of them dared to move in case they landed in a trap or worse.
"Okay, this is weird…" Phoebe looked around the black that she could see.
"Quiet. Do you guys hear that?" Paige shushed them.
They all fell silent as they listened for anything, "It's like growling…" Piper frowned.
Suddenly the cavern was filled with light and the sisters saw where the noise was coming from. A giant three headed dog, probably around five times the height of a human, was looking down at them and snarling with bared teeth, all three woman had one head watching them intently as they backed away,
"Nice… Doggy," Paige squeaked.
"Anyone got a really big box of biscuits?" Phoebe cringed as the dog began to advance.
All three heads barked at the same time, making the large cave shake and bringing down some of the stones from the tall ceiling,
"I'll take care of this…" Piper said confidently, "Paige, get ready to orb us out of here…" She scrunched her face up and fired an orange light from her palms at one of the beast's massive paws. The ground underneath it crumbled, causing the monster to loose its balance and letting Piper ran back to her sisters.
"Orb! Now!" She said urgently, Paige didn't need to be told twice as they disappeared in a swathe of lights…
When the three of them reappeared, they saw that Lewis was gone and that there were scorch marks on the living room wall. Paige gasped when she saw Emma lying on the ground with an athame in her gut; she knelt down and pulled the weapon out before quickly healing her with a light from her hands.
She came to with a gasp, "They took Lewis!" She said immediately.
"Yeah, and they tricked us…" Paige helped her friend up, "Are you good at breeds of dog?"
"Oh my God…" Emma breathed as she sat at the table with the Book of Shadows while the other's made a batch of vanquishing potion, "You guys were lucky to get out of there alive!"
"What? Please, I could have taken that genetic freak in a second!" Piper scoffed.
Phoebe watched for Emma's reaction to the "genetic freak" comment, it was small, but it had been there, "Are you sure? Because I don't think even the Charmed Ones are a match for the ten thousand year old guardian to the gates of Hell…"
"S'cuse me?" Paige's eyes widened.
"Cerberus," Emma said simply, "For as long as time can tell, this three headed canine guardian has watched over and protected the entrance of the tomb where ancient scrolls are kept. These scrolls are supposed to hold the secrets and knowledge to all the world's evil," She stopped reading from the book.
"So it really is just a Greek myth? About him being the guardian of the Hell?" Phoebe frowned.
Emma shook her head, "Think about it, if a demon was to get its hands on these scrolls, it would be hell on earth, they belong behind Cerberus, that's what I think,"
"So Cerberus is actually good?" Paige raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, he's been the protector of these things since the beginning of time, bred to kill anyone who enters his domain. He can't tell the difference between good and evil, all he knows is that he needs to protect the scrolls,"
"Okay, we need to get back there before Lewis opens the lines of conversation with that pup…"
The Charmed Ones and Emma orbed back into the crypt of see Lewis standing confidently in front of Cerberus while the demons stood at the back. The witches are shocked when the giant dog grunted and moved to the side, revealing two large irons doors which would give these pathetic demons ultimate power.
"No!" Emma screamed, throwing out a potion and blasting one of the demons across the room. The others conjured energy balls and threw them at the intruderswhile Cerberus began to stir, "Lewis! Order him to attack the demons!" Emma shouted a the scared teen as the Charmed Ones did battle with the demons, "You have to! You know what will happen if you don't!" She had to duck from the path of an energy ball as Paige's orb shield lit up the dark cave, "PLEASE!" She pleaded, before joining the fight.
Lewis hesitated for a moment, before frowning and pointing at the demons, "ATTACK!" He yelled, Cerberus immediately leaped into action, which was an amazing sight to see. He jumped into the air, landing on one of the demons and crushing him with his paws, he then lifted his massive claw, making the Charmed Ones ran from the firing line as he swatted the demon into the wall with ease.
"NO!" The final demon screamed, as the middle head lowered and lifted him up in his mouth before swallowing him.
"Now that's what I call a high protein diet…" Phoebe whispered.
Cerberus snorted and trotted back to his ever vigilant post in front of the doors, he sat down with all three heads held high, until one lowered. He witches began to shout as they thought he was going to eat Lewis, but breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the feraltongue stroking the docile beast.
"Aw…" Paige began, "If it wasn't for the fangs and the three heads, he's be just as cute as Sandy…"
NEXT TIME: Phoebe and Brennan arrive at Julie's to find that Nelle went out on a demon patrol one morning and never came back, the middle Charmed One makes it her mission to find her sister in law. Emma encounters a misbehaving student in her class and Paige enters the final stage of letting go of Aidan, acceptance.
Chapter 11 "Hole In One" will be up soon!