Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or the characters of Charmed. I only came up with the plot and any of the 'non-Charmed' characters. This is written purely for entertainment and not for profit.

Chapter Eleven - Healing

Leo orbed into the living room to see Courtney, kneeling next to the settee, trying to wake Larek. As if sensing his presence she quickly turned around,

"Dad hurry he needs healing!"

"I don't know if I can."

"What!"

"Shhhh," said Piper as she held her daughter, "Leo can you at least try?"

"Sure I can try but I just wanted her to know that it might not work," and with that he went over to Larek's unconscious body, placed his hands over Larek's heart and waited. After a couple of minutes he sighed and stood up.

"I'm sorry sweetie it's not working," Courtney, who had been quietly crying on her Mother's shoulder, came and knelt back down next to Larek.

"I don't understand. Why isn't it working? I mean he's not evil!"

"No but he is part Darklighter and I think that is what is stopping me from healing him. Why would we wish to heal those who are born to kill us? Even though I want to help him my powers just…won't let me. I'm sorry," and with that he stood up and left her with Larek. Courtney, barely able to keep back the tears, picked up Larek's hand and began to gently stroke his face. In an attempt to give her some privacy Prue, Phoebe and Paige left the room and headed for the kitchen whilst Isabelle, Piper and Leo stood outside in the hall.

"I'm so sorry baby…maybe if I had gotten there sooner you wouldn't be...be..." Unable to hold back any longer she places her head on his chest and began to cry. As her sobs died down she notices that orbs appeared over his chest, before she could register what was happening the orbs turn into...

"Faith? Sweetie what are you doing here?" As she goes to pick her up Faith begins to glow. "What the...?" All Courtney can do is watch in amazement as her daughter somehow manages to heal Larek's wounds; and after a couple of minutes Larek gasps for air and opens his eyes in surprise.

"How did you...?"

"I didn't. Faith did." Larek looked down onto his chest to see a once again sleeping Faith and couldn't help but let out a small laugh of relief and wonder, from leaving his lips.

"She did?"

"Yeah"

"How?"

"I don't know. But if I had to guess I think she sensed her Daddy was in trouble, and somehow the fact that she is part Darklighter enabled her to heal you." Larek slowly begins to sit up, with a lot of help from Courtney, and stares in wonder at his daughter.

"I can't believe how much she has grown!"

"I know. Seems too quick doesn't it?"

"Yeah... I just can't believe I haven't been here, for her or for you. I missed so much. I'm sorry I haven't been here."

"Don't be. You didn't choose to leave willingly you had no choice! If you stayed it would have put all of us in jeopardy."

"I know but..."

"No 'buts'! There was no way you could have stayed with us and be safe. It would have put all of us in danger so you left to save your family, to save us and we both understand that. I don't know how Faith can understand that but I know she does. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I know. It's just that I've missed you both so much."

"And we've missed you." Replied Courtney as she stroked his cheek. Looking into each other's eyes they both saw their love for each other and as if rehearsed they both leaned in and kissed. As they deepened the kiss they felt the fears and worries of the last few years drift away, and for once they knew that they and their relationship was safe.

Having heard voices coming from the living room, Piper, Leo and Isabelle went to see who was talking and were amazed to see Larek up and awake, and kissing my daughter! Thought Piper as she gave a not to discreet cough to let the couple know they had company.

"Sorry to interrupt but we still have the issue of Marcus to deal with."

"I'm more interested in finding out how you got healed," said Leo as he sat down on the armchair opposite Larek.

"It was Faith," replied Courtney. "Somehow she managed to heal him"

"Really how did she..."

"How about deal with the threat first then sit down and have a chat about Faith's powers and where we or rather you guys are going from here?" asked Piper as she squeezed in next to Leo to allow Isabelle to sit on the other armchair.

"Of course!" Replied Larek, as he passed Faith over to Courtney. As she took Faith out of his arms she noticed the look of sorrow on his face.

"Baby what's wrong?"

"Nothing it's just, firstly I didn't plan on meeting your parents like this and secondly..."

"Secondly...?" encouraged Piper when Larek refused to go on.

"You may think me cold hearted for this and you might be right but secondly I think we have to vanquish...vanquish my parents. It's the only way to guarantee that they won't come after you or Faith again." Piper and Leo looked at each other uncomfortably before Leo replied,

"We already have. After Courtney and Isabelle got you out of the Underworld Prue and Paige, her aunts, vanquished your parents."

"Oh! Well that's… that's good. At least it's one less evil to worry about." Taking his hand Courtney leaned closer to him.

"Larek they were your parents it's okay to mourn their loss."

"Even if they did torture you for hours on end."

"Mum!"

"What it's true!"

"It's okay Courtney it is true. Anyway I mourned for them a long time ago."

"What do you mean?" asked Isabelle as she sat down next to Courtney.

"Well about four years ago they seemed to change. I mean before they were, well obviously evil, but they never really killed unless they were being hunted by Witches or Demons, not that the killing Witch's thing is okay or anything..."

"It's okay baby, we know what you mean."

"Well like I said about four years ago they changed. They stopped caring about me, or each other. They only became concerned with power and getting lots of it. They started to kill more and more innocents, they became..."

"Evil evil?" suggested Piper as she leaned forward.

"For lack of a better term, yeah." Curious about this Leo asked,

"Do you know what caused this change?"

"Not really, no. All I do know is that they met up with Marcus around about the same time."

"Marcus?" asked Courtney in surprise.

"Yup. He gets around huh?"

"So is it possible that he did something to change them?" asked Piper as she leaned back into the armchair.

"I don't know. All I do know is that they changed, and it was then that I mourned for who they were." Looking at Courtney he added, "The people your aunts vanquished weren't my parents. They were just hollow shells of what my parents used to be." As Leo leaned back next to his wife he added,

"So it looks like Marcus can manipulate evil as well as good. Which for us isn't a good thing. No pun intended."

"No doubt it was because of him that my parents changed. It's was like he managed to kill who they were and I will do everything I can to help you repay the favor."

"No you won't!"

"Mum come on...!" Waving off her daughters comment Piper carried on,

"That's not what I meant. He, sorry, you have only just recovered from near fatal injuries. I don't question your loyalty to us, I can see that you would never hurt Courtney or Faith; I'm questioning whether or not you would physically be up for the challenge. Which I don't think you are. However I have no objection to you staying here with Isabelle, Courtney and Faith."

"What!" yelled Courtney as she jumped up, carefully making sure she didn't drop Faith. "You can't do that. I wanted to be the one to vanquish him, to pay back the hell he has put us through!" Isabelle stood up and held Courtney's arm to make her look at her.

"Court he got the better of you last time."

"Because I wasn't prepared!"

"Still, it's obvious that he's dangerous. If he can kidnap you and erase your memories and give the forces of evil personality transplants we need to use our best; and we both know that that isn't you. It's your Mum and your aunts." With her anger in check Courtney sat back down.

"You're right, I know you're right it's just..."

"You wanted to get revenge for the hell he has put you through," added Larek as he smiled at her and held her hand.

"Precisely!"

"Well in the words of our great master Yoda 'anger young one leads to the dark side it does'." Unable to suppress a laugh Courtney finally relented.

"Okay fine." Said Courtney as she stood up, dragging Larek with her and beckoning Isabelle to follow.

"I cave, but you have to promise me one thing?"

"What's that?" asked Piper as she and Leo followed them into the hall.

"Make it hurt."

"I always do," replied Piper as she watched them go upstairs.

"Leo?"

"Hmm?"

"If they get married how on earth are we going to cope having a Darklighter-Warlock hybrid for a son-in law?"

"If we can cope having Cole as a brother-in law, we can cope with Larek. At least he isn't evil."

"True. And what about the Elders? Those two have been through hell already to be with each other"

"Literally"

"I know. It's just that I don't want the elders to mess with them like they did with us."

"I don't think we have to worry about that," said Leo as he took her in his arms. "Not with us around to make sure that they stay safe. Now let's not worry about them for the moment as I think we should be more concerned with what your sisters are up to."

Reluctantly Piper disengaged herself from Leo's arms and followed him out into the kitchen where they found Phoebe writing away at the table whilst Paige was working on a potion as Prue read to her the instruction from the Book of Shadows. Even though Piper had a pretty good idea what they were doing she thought it would still be a good idea to ask.

"So what have you three been getting up to?" Looking up from her note pad, Phoebe was the first to reply,

"I've been working on a couple of spells, one to vanquish an upper level demon, which is what we think Marcus is and the other is a mass vanquish spell, I mean who knows how many demons he has under his control."

"Okay and what about you two?"

"We're taking a leaf out of Courtney's book," replied Prue, as Paige added the last ingredient to the cauldron, causing the potion to explode in a cloud of smoke.

"Which is?" asked Leo as he cautiously made his way to the cauldron.

"We're making that lovely volatile potion your daughter used on you at her party," said Paige as she watched, with amusement, as Leo quickly retreated to the safety of his wife.

"Good" said Piper ticking off her 'Vanquishing to do list' with her fingers, "so we have an Upper Level Spell, along with the Mass Vanquish Spell and the Upper Level Vanquishing Potion"

"Which can also be used as a Mass Vanquishing Potion on Lower Level Demons," added Prue as she helped Paige bottle the potion.

"Right! Well I'm going to quickly go and grab the crystals and then we are all set"

"Crystals? What do you want them for?" asked Phoebe as she finished writing the last copy of the spell for her sisters, after all these years you'd think we would have invested in an all-in-one scanner printer!

"I want to make sure that this Marcus guy is the last on the Demonic chain and in order to do that we need to ask questions but to do that may require a bit of, shall we say, persuasion." Replied Piper as she retreated to the attic, leaving her sisters and Leo in the kitchen. Paige and Prue looked at each other then at Phoebe who voiced all their thoughts,

"I wouldn't want to be in Marcus' shoes right now. Having said that, that evil son of a bitch deserves everything he gets."

"Amen to that" said the other three in unison.

Back in the Underworld…