Things were hectic in Halliwell Manor at the moment. Phoebe and Paige were being helped by Chris in the kitchen making all kinds of food for Wyatt's birthday and Piper was busy making the cake. Bibz and Madz were set on decorating duty.
As they were blowing up the balloons Leo arrived offering to help. "You can help by blowing up those balloons." Bibz pointed over to a helium tank and a bunch of balloons.
Leo nodded blowing up all the balloons and Bibz and Madz levitated around the place placing the non floating balloons around the place. "Hey Bibz." Madz grinned. "Remember our last birthday was exactly like this?"
"Oh yeah." Bibz nodded. "Except instead of streamers we had metal chains and instead of balloons we had bombs. Oh and it was in a cellar not a big Manor."
"And don't forget…" Madz laughed. "We were suspended from the metal chains instead of touching the floor."
"Oh yeah." Bibz nodded. "Jeez, what a fun time."
"What were you doing on your last birthday?" Leo frowned in between balloons.
"Hanging in the dungeons of Wyatt Place." The girls said together Bibz popping her bubblegum at the end of the sentence.
"Oh." Leo fell silent.
"Don't worry Leo." Bibz said. "My fourth birthday was worse. I set fire to my cake and was captured by demons. Then the day after my fourth birthday I was found in the underworld by my brother who had no idea we were related."
"Isn't that good?" Leo asked.
"No, I spent my entire fourth birthday with some ugly demon trying to steal my powers. The next day was great but the actual day was crap." Bibz nodded taping something up to the wall.
"My worse birthday was when I was eleven." Madz said.
Bibz laughed. "That was the greatest day ever!"
"No it wasn't!" Madz frowned. "We were under attack all day! How is that good?"
"I vanquished seven demons and I got a new power." Bibz nodded.
"Yeah well I hated it." Madz shrugged. She then looked at the corner were Mel was sitting patiently. "You okay Mel?"
"I can't talk to anyone I can't do anything and I have to wait for my parents to have sex before I can do anything." Mel frowned.
Bibz and Leo looked at Madz who shrugged. "She's fine."
Chris walked in. "I'm going to go." he said. "Anyone need anything before I do so?"
"Yes!" Mel proclaimed standing up. "I need to talk to you."
"Um…" Madz looked to Chris. "Mel needs to speak to you."
"Can you tell her, later?" Chris frowned. "I-I got to go."
"Oh no you don't Christopher Perry Halliwell." Mel said crossing her arms. "You shall orb your ass up to the attic and we shall talk."
"She's using your full name." Madz said.
"She's a lot like my mother isn't she?" Chris frowned.
"You don't know that half of it." Bibz muttered.
"Look, Melinda, I'll talk to you later." Chris said orbing out.
"He didn't just orb out on me did he?" Mel said shocked.
"She's pissed." Madz nodded leaving the room.
"I just pray she doesn't have her powers." Bibz said following her sister out of the room as quickly as she could.
Leo just sat in the room with his eyes wide opened. "Wait for me!" he said after a few seconds bolting out of the living room in fear of being alone with a pissed off live ghost witch.
"Just great." Mel threw up her hands then landed them on her waist.
……………….
"Party is in full swing!" Phoebe said about half an hour later. Bibz and Madz were helping with the serving and walked into the kitchen with Phoebe holding empty glasses of champagne and the empty oyster shells. "Leo and Piper are eating our plan." she giggled.
"Not that I'm worried." Madz said setting down the plate on the kitchen bench. "But what's your plan?"
"Natural ways to get people horny." Bibz said. Madz and Phoebe looked at her curiously. "Paige told me."
"How are we going on getting them to do the dirty?" Paige smiled.
"Paige, can you and Bibz stop saying it like it's a porno flick?" Phoebe frowned.
"What do you want us to say?" Bibz asked picking up the tray of cookies.
"Making love or conceiving Chris?" Madz offered.
Paige shrugged. "Whatever. I just want to save my nephew." She handed a plate of champagne to Bibz. "Don't burn them."
"I'll try not to, but those women are just so clucky." Bibz shook her head walking out of the kitchen.
"We are going to need to buy an extra fire extinguisher when she comes and lives with us won't we?" Phoebe said watching Bibz leaving.
"Possibly four." Madz said. When the sisters stared at her she grabbed the plate of oysters. "What? She could have possibly set a few fires and burnt down half the house but it was an accident and we cleaned it up." she also left the kitchen.
Phoebe shook her head. "Alright so when everyone leaves we leave Piper and Leo alone and send them to the park with Wyatt or something like that."
"Cool." Paige nodded dipping another strawberry into the chocolate sauce Chris had taught them how to make.
……………………
Chris stared at the wall in his little bedroom. Well he wasn't staring at the wall as such. He was staring through it, past it, before it. He was staring at something that wasn't there but seemed to be right in front of him. Chris shook his head and looked back down at his paper. Daniel was right. The idiot seer was right. He was going to be born on the second of February. Today was his last day.
Chris thought about everything he had ever done and wondering if it was worth it. He shook his head knowing he was wasting it on pointless musings. He was going to be born. His Aunts had it control and they had never let him down…well at least they hadn't yet.
A sixteen year old boy was sitting by a bed which a very tired lady was lying in. She wasn't holding on anymore. There was nothing wrong with her. Absolutely nothing at all, but she couldn't hold on anymore.
"Aunt Phoebe?" Pipa cried nudging her Aunts side. "Please don't give up. Please don't leave us."
Phoebe looked at her niece and shook her head. "I'm sorry baby, I just don't want to anymore."
Chris held onto his two little twin cousins and Wyatt sat on the other side of the bed. "Aunt Phoebe, just don't worry about us okay?" Wyatt said rubbing Phoebe's hand.
Yeah, you would want that wouldn't you…Chris thought and Wyatt just looked at him frowning.
"Hey Aunt Pheebs?" Chris said letting go of Pipa and Pat. "Please don't leave us. We love you to much."
"Baby I love you too." she cried. "I just can't."
"No but Aunt Pheebs you can." Chris said. "You can. We are still here for you."
"So much death…" she cried. "So many losses."
He nodded brushing the tears from his eyes. "We know Aunt Pheebs but we need someone too."
"You have Henry…" she coughed. "And Billie."
"They aren't Charmed." Chris smiled.
"And that's what's kept them alive." Phoebe said. "Christopher can you please just…let me go?"
"I have let go of a lot of people Aunt Pheebs." Chris said. "You are not going to be one of them."
"You could've had that mentality when your mother died." she growled slightly.
Chris hissed as if he had been slapped. In fact his body stung like he had been slapped by a really big hand. "Aunt Pheebs…you don't mean that." he whimpered.
She closed her eyes tears flowing down her face. "No Chris I don't. I am really sorry but…this is it for Phoebe Coop Halliwell. That's all she wrote okay?"
"You told me never to give up." he whispered. "You told me never to give up."
"Well I was never one to take my own advice." she said closing her eyes.
Wyatt pressed his hand in Phoebe's. "Goodbye Phoebe."
"I can't believe you're leaving me like this!" Chris shouted standing up letting go of Pipa and Pat. "I can't believe you're just…leaving!"
"Please don't make this hard." Phoebe tried to grab Chris' hand.
Chris threw himself on top of Phoebe and hugged her. He couldn't believe she was leaving him too. "Say hello to Mom please."
"I will." Phoebe said closing eye for the last time.
Madz walked in and looked at Chris lying down hugging Phoebe. "I'll go call Henry…" she walked back out tears streaming down her face. Chris had no idea what happened in between Maddie telling Henry, Phoebe was dead and leaving the room but somewhere in between Bibz had been alerted.
Bibz bolted into the room and saw Phoebe lying in the bed and was utterly confused. The twelve year old was shocked. "Oh no." she whispered and flung herself onto the bed. "I can heal her." she said. "I can bring her back."
Wyatt held Bibz back. "No Bianca you can't."
"No I can." Bibz said. "I don't want Phoebe to die."
"Bibz, she wanted to die." Pipa said as Chris placed his arms around his charge.
"She didn't want to stay with us." Pat rubbed her eyes.
"She wanted to be with her husband, sisters and daughters." Pipa cried holding onto her arms.
"And leave us." Tears were streaming down the twins faces and Chris realised something. Bibz and Madz could heal Phoebe a thousand times over, but she had turned away from him. Left him and let him down.
"But that won't happen this time 'round will it Chris?" Mel had walked and caught the bus to P3 knowing it was where her brother had gone. She was invisible and had heard her brother muttering about Phoebe's death and what he was thinking.
"We aren't going to betray you this time Chris." Mel said. "None of us will die and I know it's hard but it all depends on you. You are the one who is going to bring our family together and out of this mess. You never had the power to heal but little do you know, you are the only one who has ever been able to do it. Just make sure you're there because you need to be there big brother. You really do."
Chris had no idea his sister was even in the room but he heard someone talking to him. Telling him to believe. He was orbing off when he felt someone touch his shoulder as he orbed. Little did he know his sister had jumped orb because she didn't want to catch the bus back home.
………………
A few minutes before…
"Alright." Madz smiled at Phoebe and Paige. "Parties over and me and Bibz are going to go find out what the knowledge in year 2004 is really like."
"Yeah is Gilmore Girls on here because it's really hard to find the episodes in the future." Bibz nodded. "I just watch the old re-runs."
Phoebe nodded her head. "We just saw the one where Lane gets kicked out by Mrs. Kim. It's on tomorrow night."
"We aren't here to watch Gilmore Girls. We aren't here to watch T.V! We are going to the library to study about who could be coming after Wyatt." Madz nodded.
Paige smirked. "You need to relax a little."
"I agree. We should go to the set of Gilmore Girls and then we can meet the guy that plays Dean." Bibz said nodding.
"No!" Madz shook her head. "Come on. Last one at Magic School has to talk to Gideon." Turning herself in water.
"I hate Gideon!" Bibz shouted flaming off as quickly as possible.
"Those girls are trouble." Phoebe nodded.
"Eh, raging hormones are no big. Raging fires and waking up to a flooded house, that might be tricky." Paige grinned as she headed outside to where Leo and Piper were saying goodbye to the parents. Hey, you guys want anymore champagne? Come on, we don't want it to go to waste. How about it, dad?
"Elders aren't allowed to drink." Leo smiled.
"Oh, come on." Paige pushed the bottle further out to Leo. "When on earth you should do as earthlings do."
"Sorry." Leo said refusing.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything because you guys did such great work. But champagne? Chocolate covered strawberries? Oysters? Aren't the kids a little young for the aphrodisiacs?" Piper said suspiciously.
"They're aphrodisiacs? Heh, who knew? Bubbly?" Paige stuck the glasses out to her sister and brother-in-law hoping they took the drink.
"Paige?"
Paige frowned. "What? Oh, come on, there were milk and cookies here too. You know, maybe if-if there were more kids living in this house, I would know what to get. Did you ever stop to think about that? Excuse me." she quickly bolted back into the kitchen and Phoebe was dunking more strawberries.
"Okay, forget about the strawberries, she's onto us." Paige frowned.
"What do you mean? She knows about Chris?"
"No. She knows we're up to something. I can't believe how hard it is to get two people laid."
"Paige, that is disgusting." Hitting her sister slightly.
"Well, it's what we're trying to do, right?"
"No, we are trying to romance Piper and Leo together so they can conceive Chris, our nephew." Phoebe said matter-of-factly.
"And that's different how?" Paige frowned.
"Well, because what you said is very Springer, what I said is very Oprah."
"Oh. Well, whatever show we're watching, we're running out of time. At least Chris is. We should probably tell him." Paige said getting depressed.
"Yes." Phoebe looked to the ceiling. "Chris!"
After the little conversation in the kitchen, Chris revealing he needed to be born that day or else there was no him Paige, Phoebe and Chris a loud crash was heard from the living room.
"This so better not be another purple demon." Phoebe muttered.
"Wyatt!" Leo shouted diving to grab his son as a darklighter orbed beside the one year old. He pointed his arrow at Leo and shot but Leo orbed out leaving the arrow flying towards Chris who just had walked into the living room. Phoebe pushed her nephew out of the way and Paige redirected the arrow to the darklighters chest. Leo orbed behind Wyatt and picked him up just as the darklighter orbed out.
"Thanks for saving my life. Hope it wasn't for nothing." Chris said to Phoebe and Leo and Piper looked over their blonde son.
…………………
Bibz and Madz sat in the crowded library of Magic School reading through book after book after book. "Why are we doing this again?" Bibz asked pulling out a new book from her pile.
"Because Chris asked us to last night." Madz nodded.
"And why did I agree to get stuck in the one place I hate the most and read? I mean I like reading but these are just boring old Gideon books." Bibz said.
"You really hate him." Madz said flipping her current page.
"I have reason to." Bibz said.
"What reason?" Madz asked. Bibz fell silent. "Aw come on. We're sisters, we can tell each other anything. Why you so hush hush on your hating of Gideon?"
"It happened before I met you." Bibz shrugged. "Nothing for you to worry about."
"Come on Bianca." Madz said. "You can tell me anything."
Bibz put down the book and beckoned her sister closer. "On the day I met my brother, Gideon arrived and said he needed to 'check my mind' to see if any demons had corrupted me. So Tyler reluctantly let him. The way I felt the day I killed Bianca was extremely similar to how I felt when he went into my mind. Like I was being squashed. The only thing that makes me certain he had nothing to do with me killing Bianca is that to activate the power you need to be touching that person in some way, shape or form. Or you need to have a connection to that person, something Gideon obviously never had with me."
Madz sat next to her sister and wrapped an arm around her. "Well if you told me that before we could've narrowed down the possibilities to who could've taken over."
"Yeah but it's something I'm not comfortable talking about. That man just makes me uncomfortable."
Madz nodded and saw the Elder in question walk into the Library. No one noticed but everyone tensed only slightly as they noticed whose presence they were in. "I think he makes everyone uncomfortable."
……………….
"You are all a bunch of pansies!" Mel shouted. "Pansies I say!" She was trying to attract the attention of someone in room. Her whole family were sitting in living room trying to decide what was happening.
"You know what I don't understand is why would the darklighter attack at all? I mean, with all of us here at the same time. It's suicide." Chris proclaimed.
"All the more reason to find him and stop him before he tries again." Piper said.
Mel sucked in a lot of air and squealed at the top of her lungs. "Help me!" she shouted. No one was fazed. To get her even more stressed out, Piper and Leo orbed out with Wyatt to take Wyatt 'Up There.'
Phoebe and Paige left to make potions and spells to get Chris conceived and the darklighter vanquished.
"Chris!" she shouted. "Chris can you hear me?" All he did was look at the time. "Oh my freaking God! Can you just look at me? You know I'm hanging around here somewhere just try and connect."
Chris looked around straight through Mel. "There we go big brother." Mel grinned. "Come on hear me."
"Melinda?" he looked around frowning.
"Yes Chrissie, it's me. Your beloved sister. You remember me? I know I died when we were little in your mind but I didn't Chris. I didn't!" Mel said grabbing his shoulders.
He shook his head and orbed off not knowing his sister was holding on so she was taken on the trip to P3.
……………………
"Hello." Bibz said. "Think I found a maybe demon."
Madz leaned over and checked. "Vanquished."
"How do you know?" Bibz frowned.
Maddie pointed to a little label on the corner of the page. "That means vanquished."
Bibz nodded. "Oh."
"Oh this cult looks promising." Madz said.
Bibz read the page and looked at her sister sceptically. "Yeah, they are going to come all they way from the Netherlands to turn Wyatt evil. Do you forget that Wyatt demolished the Netherlands because it caused him too much confusion?"
"All the more reason for it to be a cult from there." Madz said.
"Uhuh." Bibz rolled her eyes.
The library had gotten pretty quiet and most people had left going to subjects. Bibz was leafing through when she suddenly felt something very strange. The fire lanterns flickered with fear and sadness and Bibz looked up instantly. "Someone is coming." she whispered.
"Who?" Maddie frowned.
"I…" she looked around. "I haven't…no…it isn't…is it?" she looked to Madz.
"Is it what?" Madz asked. "Bibz you're scaring me."
"Marcus." Bibz looked at Madz.
……………………
"What are you still doing here? I thought you'd be out and about by now." Clarence, the cleaner at P3 asked Chris curiously.
"Clarence, hey. Didn't hear you come up." Chris said.
Mel looked curiously at Clarence. "What are you doing here?"
"You mind?" Clarence looked to come in but was looking at Melinda slightly.
"I mind a lot." Mel said crossing her arms.
"Please, come in." Chris said.
"Beautiful day outside, isn't it?" Clarence picked up the rubbish bucket looking at Mel with curiosity etched all over his face.
"Stay away from him." Mel warned Clarence.
"Is it? I never really noticed. I've been too busy, uh, rechecking something." Chris said absently looking over his paper.
"Whole world seems to be too busy now days. Nobody's got time to just enjoy their day anymore." Clarence was heading to the door.
"You so aren't going to enjoy this day." Mel said. "I meant it Clarence, stay away from my brother."
"Well, it doesn't get any better in the future, either. I mean, I imagine." Chris tried to cover up for his mistake.
Clarence shrugged. "Future don't mean squat to me. I'm too old to worry about it. Shouldn't to you either. You're too young."
"Yeah." Mel said. "You aren't going to let him have a future are you? Just don't touch him okay?"
"Unfortunately, I'm kind of obsessed with it." Chris muttered.
"You alright?" Clarence asked totally ignoring Melinda.
"Don't you turn away from me!" Mel shouted. "You need to explain to me something."
"Yeah, yeah, I just probably need to eat." Chris nodded.
"What you need is to get out of this hole." Clarence made eye contact with Mel as he said this. His eyes were telling Mel to follow him. He then looked back at Chris. "Get some sun, live a little."
"Do you want me to follow you?" Mel frowned.
"Believe me, I'm trying." Chris puffed.
"Do that." Clarence took one last look at Melinda before leaving. Mel rushed out after him. Clarence led them up the stairs and out the front door and they were then walking on the street. "How'd you get out of there?"
"Upside down room." Mel told truthfully. "You shouldn't have made it so obvious."
"You can't reach it. I blocked those powers of orbing." Clarence frowned.
"I resisted the urge to open the door and found my counterparts." Mel explained. "We helped each other up."
Clarence stopped walking and looked at Mel furiously. "Do you know what you have done Melinda?" Clarence demanded. "As long as you were in that room spells you have cast like Wyatt's time ban would still be in place. I hoped beyond hope Chris will be conceived but until the worst happened we put you in there so you could protect this time! Now if Wyatt wants to, he can come back!" Clarence almost shouted getting out of his usually calm character.
"I didn't know." Mel stuttered.
Clarence calmed down. "Off course you didn't know." he sighed. "We will just have to see." He disappeared in a bluish light and Mel ran back to P3 but she found her brother not there.
……………………
"Bibz you sure?" Madz asked concerned.
"Your brother is here." she whispered.
"How come I can't feel him?" she asked confused.
"He can't block me." Bibz told her. "He can block you but he can't block me." Bibz's eyes quickly flashed and she pulled her sister underneath the desk just as the doors swung open.
"Yeah I got in." A smooth voice said. "See. Not killing my goody two shoes witch side was good." The man with blonde curls tilted his head to the side speaking into a phone. "No your 'rents aren't here Wy. Alright, I'll meet you at the Manor in an hour cause your Aunts and Mom might not be here but someone else is."
Marcus adjusted his suit and stepped over to where Bibz and Madz were sitting just moments before reading. He knelt down and looked under the table. He touched the ground and his fingers ran across the tiles at one point feeling very hot and at the next point, extremely cold. "Well what do we have here?" he stood up brushing off his hands. "It looks like a family reunion."
A hurricane appeared and swept Marcus up and out of Magic School.
And that's it for this chapter…
At this moment in time I am nursing an ankle which is twice the size of what my ankle actually should look like. It is bruised and kills because while I was writing this chapter I picked the scab. Oh and if you want to know how my left walking limb got so bad…I blame the tree! Because if the tree wasn't there I would never have gotten by foot caught in the roots.
Sorry but I had to disclose that bit of information no matter how pointless it was
Bibz