Hello everyone, here comes chapter 25 :-)

Thanks very much to all readers and reviewers and to my beta Chris' Adorer.

Don't be confused, there will be two updates today. I had to split the original one as it was too long but as it is ready, there's no need to wait.

Chapter 25

Wyatt yawned when he orbed into his office in the restaurant. It had been almost 7 o'clock, when he finally fell in his bed.

He, Ray and Chris were sitting together in the club long after it had closed, talking, drinking and joking around about the old days. It had been a bit melancholic, but they had enjoyed themselves.

A look on the clock on the desk showed him, that he still had a few minutes until the family would arrive. Then he realized, his father's presence in the guest room already. Thus, he left the office, joining Leo, who was sitting in one of the leather armchairs flipping through a magazine that was provided there.

On his way, he made out the table that had to be determined for them. It was the largest round table they had, which was comfortable for ten guests. However, using different chairs than the ordinary ones, it was okay for twelve people – especially when half the family members were petite women.

"You are early, dad."

"Amber gave me a lift before they left for the birthday party. Actually Trevor was driving. Luckily, it was not my car. One of you can drive or orb me home later." He looked at his son intensely with a grin. "Long night?"

Wyatt nodded smirking. He took a seat in another armchair stretching out his legs. "Yes, until 7 in the morning," he replied. "I went to the club with Ray. It was great to have a night out with him again. And P3 was quite full, too. Chris is doing a good job there."

"Hm. I'm sure. He's giving 200 %. Just like you. I don't know why you boys became such perfectionists."

Wyatt frowned. "You really don't?"

Leo smiled and shrugged. He had to admit the perfectionism probably came from Piper's genes.

Phoebe entered the restaurant with her daughters and Coop. Wyatt stood up and suggested they went to their table, when he also felt the presence of Paige and her family. They had orbed into the office, like Wyatt had before. A sure sign, they had left home late. Otherwise Henry avoided the orbing; unless there was an emergency – or for holiday, as he didn't like to fly or drive long distance and to save money. Just like Phoebe's family – none of them seemed to worry about personal gain, Wyatt thought.

"You look like you had a tough night, buddy," Henry said to his nephew grinning. "Make that a fun night."

"Dad noticed too. Do I look so wasted?" Wyatt answered. He had judged his appearance as adequate – or at least okay – when he had glimpsed in the mirror.

"Well, we all come into an age, when you can't hide certain signs anymore," Henry stated still grinning.

"Especially, when you stay at P3 until breakfast time," Leo added.

"Who is having breakfast at 7 o'clock in the morning?" Chris asked standing behind his father suddenly.

"People with normal working hours? Nine to five, have you heard of that? Not everyone is working until dawn," Leo purposed.

"Too ordinary," Chris scoffed. "Moreover, I'm only allowed to have opened until 4 am, unfortunately."

"Does this diner still exist in Bay Area, that starts breakfast hours at 4:30? I remember I've been there," Wyatt asked.

"You mean Carly's. It was closed once, because of hygienic issues, but only for a short time. People started to complain that they had nowhere to go for breakfast."

Wyatt scrunched up his nose.

Paige sighed and dropped on a chair next to Phoebe. "I loved those nights, when I partied until the early morning, and then having a cup of coffee in some run-down place."

"Or at a guy's place," Chris muttered.

Paige narrowed her eyes on him but didn't respond. She couldn't honestly deny anyway. She had often felt, that nephews should not know too much about their aunts' youth.

Phoebe snickered. "That must be a long time ago. Didn't you fall asleep before midnight last New Year's Eve?"

"Is this the 'Bully Paige Lunch'?" the youngest Charmed sister asked.

"Aunt Paige, you are always welcomed at P3. I'll even serve you coffee in the morning. You'll get special treatment, too, for being one of the three P's," Chris offered. "It's great image campaign. Average age border will rise rapidly."

"Rapidly, huh? Careful, mister. Always remember that I changed your diapers – and it were a lot of diapers. Uncountable diapers."

"And I promised to return the favor and change yours in the future, didn't I?"

"Guess, I'll be too senile to enjoy that."

Phoebe laughed but tried to become serious again to talk to the family. "I just want to say, that I'm very happy, we are all here to spend precious family time together and a delicious lunch." She patted her oldest nephew's shoulder (Wyatt was sitting next to her). "It was a great idea of you."

"Good for us, you don't trust Noelle to be able to hire a good chef. Or do you only worry he might have gotten the job same way she did?"

Wyatt glared at his brother making obvious he didn't like his rudeness at all. He didn't even answer, but to his annoyance Penny asked innocently, why Noelle had been hired.

Neither of the young men answered, although, Wyatt heard his brother mumble something that sounded like "she fit on the desk".

Leo, who sat between his sons, shook his head at his youngest disapprovingly and whispered something to him, which made him shrug and also be quiet.

To overcome the tense moment, Phoebe asked, why Amber and Trevor weren't eating with them. Leo explained, they attended a birthday party. "But they had loved to come."

"Especially Trevor," Chris assured his cousin Patty, who rolled her eyes.

"I was waiting for you to start picking on me," the girl replied. Her little sister was making kissing-sounds in her direction and giggled. "Shut up, Penny." She sighed and looked at her mother for help. But all she got from Phoebe was her ignorance to the nasty remark to her little sister.

Wyatt came to the opinion that to have a comfortable lunch, there were topics that should be avoided. Sure, there was always some teasing between the cousins; and some family members were just wonderful sparring partners for debates. However, it should remain on a jokingly dimension. And Patty deserved at least a few hours without anyone playing on the obviously tender feelings between her and Trevor.

"Chris, why don't you do something useful? Go and get us drinks, you should be an expert with that," Wyatt demanded.

"Why me? You invited us, you can serve us, too," Chris replied. It bothered him to be censured like this, just because Wyatt couldn't admit his own flaws. Although, he'd not be too unhappy to get away from the table for a while. He couldn't explain it, but the many people and the average volume around them upset him. He felt like that sometimes after spending the night working in P3, dealing with many guests and loud music for hours. This morning he honestly had preferred to stay by himself and read or work on a picture instead of being part of a group in a busy restaurant. However, he wouldn't miss an opportunity to be with his family.

"I think, you'll do a better job on that," Wyatt replied.

"Fine. What do you have? An aperitif anyone?"

Phoebe shook her head, but her sister answered on her behalf, too, accepting the suggestion.

"If you are lucky, you'll get what you asked for," Wyatt said, when his brother had left without making any notes. "In the club, there were people getting anything instead of their order."

Leo frowned. "Didn't you say, anything was going well?"

"Sure. I mean, no one gets something completely different. Moreover, at some point, people don't realize that their Mojito really is a Caipirinha, because there is no rum left. Unfortunately, we can't do that here, too. I'm afraid everyone realizes the difference between tomatoes and cucumbers."

"Well, as long as it tastes good, I wouldn't care either," Haley shrugged.

"I wouldn't want to deal with drunken people all night long," Holly said. "We had one guy delivered to the hospital one Saturday night, almost died from drinking. It's so stupid anyway," she told them and with that pulled the focus on a new topic.

"Can't you do without a bar in front of you, anymore?" Noelle asked. She sat at the counter with some papers in front of her.

"I could. Wyatt sent me off."

"Why? Did you misbehave?" she said jokingly.

"I wouldn't say so. Apparently, it pissed him off that I said, you only got the job for sleeping with him."

"Excuse me?" She narrowed her eyes angrily.

"Yes, I know, I shouldn't have said that. It's not very flattering for your skills in the kitchen. But hey, Wyatt sort of defended you."

"How knightly of him. However, I suppose he rather thought of his reputation than mine," she replied untouched. Unfortunately, if she was true to herself, she also thought sometimes that her cooking was not the main reason for her hire two years ago.

A waitress with a thick, light brunette, tightly bound ponytail came behind the counter and put a tray with dirty glasses on the breakthrough to the scullery and grabbed an empty one while listing: "I get two sodas, a coke, a diet coke, an apple juice, a glass of Riesling and a bottle of our table wine."

"I'm not working here," Chris simply replied and chopped some strawberries for his aunts' Prosecco.

"Come on," she complaint. "You are here, you are preparing drinks – although I think you chop extraordinary slowly – and I have to cover my tables and Karen's, because she called in sick suffering her mysterious Sunday morning disease."

"Not so mysterious, though. It's called hangover," Chris mused.

The young woman looked at Noelle for help while preparing the bill for some guests at the cash point.

"I'll help you in 10 minutes," the chef promised. "Until then, I'm sure, Chris will be so generous and fix your order. Right, Chris? After all, it's a family business and you happen to be family – more than me, actually."

The waitress nodded and left with the bill and the empty tray.

Chris looked at Noelle sternly but wouldn't deny. It was no big deal, anyway. However, he felt his brother observing him and was positive, Wyatt only waited for him to make a mistake. It was odd, though. His big brother went to New York, leaving the restaurant behind, but he still wanted to have everything under control and people maintain the way he would (despite their way being just as effective or even more so). Chris had helped out at the restaurant before. More than once, actually. But Wyatt only knew of those mere times, he had asked him to. Mainly on short notice, because one of the waiters or kitchen staff called in sick or a huge private party was expected.

Unlike Wyatt, Chris even had taken waiter training. It had all been Bianca's idea. "You want to run a business, you have to be an expert in all areas of your business," she used to say. Thus, he had enrolled for bartender training, waiter training – rather to make her proud than needing it; and she had bought him books where he could look up all the legal restrictions, learnt about leadership, management and negotiating.

"It's about time you work for your free meals," Noelle teased.

"You can always have drinks for free in the club."

"I'm never there."

"That's your choice. The offer stands."

"I missed discussing with you," Noelle sighed. "And the fact, that you always want to have the last word."

"So do you."

The waitress returned with the tray now again loaded with dirty dishes. She quickly left again with the drinks Chris had prepared.

"She is quick. You should honor that," Chris said to Noelle. "I read three books about staff leading and all advised to be generous with praise." He took a decanter, which he had filled with the rosé wine his brother had placed in the fridge with a name tag, and a tray.

"Why don't you praise her?" she winked.

"Watch me. Maybe I will, too."

Chris took the drinks for his family to their table. "Despite other accusations, I did remember everything. But not who wanted what, so serve yourself. Unless, the bubbly for my dear aunts." He placed the glasses of sparking white wine with strawberry slices and a mint leaf for decoration in front of Phoebe and Paige.

"Alright. How much money do you need?" Paige asked dryly and tasted her drink.

"It's good," Phoebe said. "But I'm afraid I will end up drunk. I can't bear alcohol well anymore. Especially not on a hungry stomach."

"Yes, where is the food you promised us?" Junior asked Wyatt.

"Didn't you eat two bananas right before we left?" his father said. "You can't be starving. You had a huge breakfast, too."

"I'm not starving; but I could eat something," the teenager said. He had already nursed his first appetite with the bread and dip provided on the table.

"You are right. We should start," Wyatt agreed. He served his father and uncles from the wine.

Chris had only wanted to return the empty tray to the bar, but noticed the dark-haired waitress a few tables away clearing the dirty dishes after the eight guests had left. Hence, he decided to help her out.

"That's nice of you, thanks," she said genuine when he loaded his tray as well. She looked stressed, her cheeks flushed, but smiled nevertheless.

"Who is that girl that calls in sick every Sunday?"

"Not every Sunday, I was exaggerating. I really don't want to push someone in a bad light. However, it happened before. It's Karen. You know her? She has a watch, which shows the time of her birth, tattooed around her left wrist. She is also wearing a lot of bling-bling. Moreover, sometimes she calls in sick on Saturday, too." She put a hand to her mouth. "No, forget that. Don't listen to me. I'm loaded today."

"I do know her."

Chris remembered asking her about the tattoo. He also remembered that he didn't find her very friendly. He thought, she was arrogant. However, he barely found anyone likable, who he didn't know. Sometimes he was proven right and sometimes, he was surprised positively. But those times were rare.

"It seems like she suffers severe party side effects. She should at least come to my club."

"Well, there are more clubs than yours."

"You don't want to argue with me about the quality differences, do you?"

"Actually, I've never been there either."

Chris looked up in mocked shock. "I'm disappointed. No, seriously, you should come. And then you call in sick for a change."

"Maybe I will," she said. "Come to the club not call in sick, of course. You are behind the bar, right? Can you toss the shaker like they show in TV?"

"Sure I can toss it. The trick is to catch it."

She laughed. "Right."

Noelle coughed to get their attention. She had appeared behind them with a fresh table cloth and napkins to place on the table. "Shall you work or flirt?" she said, grinning to herself.

The young waitress took the tray and hurried away as busy as a bee.,

"As I said, I'm not working here. I'm not flirting either. I'm here to eat."

Noelle nodded with a face that showed she did not believe him. "But you aren't eating. You are standing here talking to Laura." She emphasized the name loudly.

Chris didn't respond and took his tray to the counter as well.