Author's Note: Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading and reviewing. I love hearing what you guys think.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
As he moved back to Tyler's side, Henry turned to see Paige and Phoebe talking. Then, a second later, Phoebe disappeared from the middle of the street in a shower of white lights. Paige followed her a moment later, and Henry watched the orb trail disappear into the colorful tent that Paige had indicated.
The men that Paige had called the Cleaners looked around at the frozen tableau, and the taller man had a disdainful look on his face. But, whatever he clearly wanted to say remained unsaid, and after a moment, his partner waved a hand. The air in front of Henry's eyes shimmered, like he was trying to look through smoke, and when it cleared, the men were gone.
The people standing in the street had also unfrozen, and Henry looked over at Tyler, who was looking around with a confused look on his face.
"Where's Paige?" he asked. "She was just standing right here."
'Looks like those Cleaners really did change people's memories,' Henry thought, wryly, even though he wondered why his memories had been left unchanged.
"There was a … situation," Henry said, choosing his words carefully and deciding that they were going to have to come up with a better code phrase for discussing these kinds of things in public.
"Like a demon thing?" Tyler hissed, quietly, which he figured just proved his point.
"Sort of," Henry hedged. "Come on; she's over here."
It actually took him a couple of minutes to find the right tent. He couldn't very well go in the back of the tent, and when they went around to the front, it became somewhat difficult to distinguish one brightly-colored tent from another. But, he finally found what he figured was the one, with a sign outside proclaiming palm readings by Madame Theresa.
He and Tyler ducked into the tent to be greeted by a woman with curly blonde hair sitting at a low table.
"Are you here to have your fortunes read?" she asked, her voice quiet and lilting.
"Actually, we're here looking for someone," Henry said, and then he hesitated as he tried to think of how to phrase the rest of his request.
He was saved by the arrival of an older, gray-haired woman who emerged from the back of the tent. She gave him a long, appraising look, and then nodded at the other woman.
"They're with our visitors," the older woman said. Looking back at Henry, she added, "If you will come with me?"
Henry and Tyler followed her into the secluded area at the back of the tent, in time to see Phoebe shimmer out of the tent with the strange man at her side. Paige stared after her sister with a stunned look on her face.
"That was my phone," she said, disbelief clear in her voice.
"The way you keep having to replace them, you should buy stock in the company," Henry teased her, and Paige shot him a withering look.
"Phoebe's acting really strangely," she told him. "Leo and I are going to go after her-"
"We are?" Leo asked. "No offense, but I don't even know who you are."
"That's right," Paige said, musingly. "You were kind of unconscious when I first talked to Phoebe."
"So, who are you?" Leo asked, challengingly. "And how do you know Phoebe?"
Henry bristled at the other man's tone, until he realized that Leo was just doing what he would have, if their situations were reversed. Leo didn't have any idea who he and Paige were; he was doing everything he could to protect his family, and Henry couldn't help but respect the other man for it.
"My name is Paige Matthews," Paige told him, holding her hand out for him to shake. "I'm Patty and Sam's daughter."
From the absolutely stunned look on Leo's face, that was clearly the last thing he was expecting. He shook Paige's proffered hand with a dazed expression, looking her over.
"Patty Halliwell?" he asked, as if Paige could have been talking about anyone else. "But, that would make you-"
"Yeah," Paige confirmed, with a wry grin. "Piper and Prue kind of had the same reaction."
"But, we never knew about you," Leo protested.
"No one did," Paige said, with a casual shrug. "That was kind of the point."
"You're half Whitelighter," Leo said, insistently. "That's against the rules."
"So is getting married," Paige said, challengingly. "Didn't seem to stop you and Piper, though."
"Good point," Leo said, faintly. "Wait a minute; if no one knew about you, who taught you to heal? Where'd you learn your magic?"
"Look," Paige said, clearly taking pity on him. "All of this is a really long story. And like I said, earlier, I will explain everything. But, I really think that we should go after Phoebe, right now."
"You're right," Leo said, his priorities shifting immediately. "I know where she's gone, and I can orb us there."
"Thank you," Paige said, gratefully. Turning to Henry, she added, "Do you and Tyler want to take the car back to the Manor?"
"After we stop at Chinatown, sure," Henry told her. "Piper's list?" he prompted, when she looked at him, confused.
"Oh, right," Paige said, digging into her pocket for the scrap of paper with Piper's list of potion ingredients on it. "But, do you even know what you're looking for?"
"No," Henry said, honestly. "But, the store owner will, and that's all that counts, right now."
"All right," Paige said, passing him the piece of paper. "So, I'll see you guys later."
She hugged Tyler, who'd been standing back and watching everything, curiously. Then, she linked hands with Leo and the two of them orbed away.
"What do you say, kiddo?" Henry asked, turning to look at Tyler. "You want to hit Chinatown?"
"Sure," Tyler answered, but he sounded subdued, a shadowed expression on his face.
After thanking Madame Theresa and her friend, Lydia, for their hospitality, Henry and Tyler headed back to where the car was parked. The drive to Chinatown was silent, and Henry kept looking over at Tyler, worried by the boy's sudden quiet mood.
"We could have stayed longer at the street fair, if you wanted," he finally offered, trying to figure out what was wrong with his son.
"It's not that," Tyler muttered, but then he fell silent, clearly unwilling to discuss the matter, further.
Henry waited, knowing that any attempt to force the issue was only going to make Tyler clam up even further. He'd seen the same thing from a lot of his parolees who'd had hard lives, watched them shut down when they were forced to confront something they weren't ready to. Tyler certainly hadn't had things easy throughout his life, and a few peaceful days with Paige weren't enough to make the scars disappear.
They'd arrived at the apothecary shop indicated on Piper's piece of paper, and Henry had parked the car on the side of the street, when Tyler finally spoke. His voice was so low that Henry could barely hear him.
"I was three when my birth parents abandoned me," he said, softly, avoiding Henry's eyes. "Mr. Cowan told me that they found me wandering around Chinatown in the middle of a rainstorm. I got sick with pneumonia, and I almost died. And I went to my first foster home two weeks later."
"I guess this place has some pretty bad memories for you," Henry said, mentally kicking himself for not asking Paige about Tyler's history. Some father he was shaping up to be. "Ty, if you want to go home-"
"You told Paige that we'd get Piper's potion ingredients," Tyler said, sounding confused.
"The ingredients aren't important," Henry said. "If you don't want to be here, we won't be. It's as simple as that."
Tyler looked like he was thinking about the idea for a few moments, but then he shook his head.
"We should get Piper's stuff," he said, jerking his shoulder in a shrug. "Since we're here, and all."
They went into the apothecary, where a young woman was arguing with the man standing behind the desk. Henry couldn't hear what she was saying, but she was obviously upset about something, if the distressed look on her face was anything to go by. She kept gesturing anxiously at the shopkeeper, but the man just kept shaking his head, clearly unable to help her.
Finally, the young woman stalked off in a huff, brushing past Henry as she stormed out of the door. The shopkeeper waved Henry and Tyler over when he saw them standing by the doorway.
"What can I help you folks with?" he asked, and Henry passed him Piper's list.
"We need all of that," he said, gesturing at the list.
"Sure thing," the young man said, getting to work.
Fifteen minutes later, they left the store with a paper bag filled with the potion ingredients. They were about to get back in the car when Henry stopped, his attention caught by the young woman who'd been in the shop, earlier. She was standing outside the door, pacing nervously back and forth and glancing at the door. Her behavior was suspicious, like she was casing the shop.
When she ducked into the shop, Henry started to get a bad feeling.
"Stay with the car," he told Tyler, quietly, and then he started back across the street.
He'd only made it halfway across when the door to the shop burst open, and the young woman came sprinting out. She had a cloth-wrapped bundle in her hands, but Henry couldn't tell anything more than that.
"Hey!" the shopkeeper hollered, as he made an aborted attempt to give chase. "Get back here with that!"
Henry chased after the woman, running after her as she ducked down an alleyway. She was fast, but so was he, and he'd almost caught up with her when she suddenly jerked to a stop. The cloth bundle went flying out of her hands as she crashed heavily to the ground. She jerked in a strange motion as she fell, and Henry saw a hand wrapped around her ankle. Then, he watched in amazement as an arm slowly emerged from a puddle at the woman's feet, followed swiftly by a body.
The man stepped out of the puddle, letting go of the woman's ankle as he stood up, and she took advantage of her freedom to jump back to her feet.
"Yen Lo," she snarled, furiously, while Henry tried desperately to figure out who was the good guy in the scenario.
"An Ling," the man said, a taunting note in his voice. "Why don't you just give up and give me the dragon blade? Maybe then I won't kill you."
"You know," Henry spoke up, startling both of them, "it's a really bad idea to talk about killing someone in front of a police officer."
Yen Lo's eyes flickered over him, for an instant, and then he looked away, clearly dismissing him as unimportant. But, the young woman had a calculating look in her eyes as she looked at him, and Henry figured that she saw him as a potential ally. And since Yen Lo had been the one talking about killing her, Henry figured that helping her was probably the safest option.
When she dove to the side, going for the cloth bundle, Henry threw himself at Yen Lo. He wrestled the other man to the ground before he could get to the woman, getting an elbow in the face for his troubles.
Pain exploded in his head, and he heard a distinct crack as his nose broke. He tried to ignore it, but it was harder than he expecting, trying to push the pain away, and he lost his grip on Yen Lo. The other man scrambled to his feet while Henry was distracted, grabbing An Ling around the waist and forcibly hauling her backward.
"I'll just take you back with me," he growled, as he dragged the struggling woman toward the puddle that he'd first emerged from. "I'm getting that blade, one way or another."
"I don't think so," Henry grunted out.
He lunged at Yen Lo, taking the other man by surprise as he knocked him backward. Henry felt a moment of triumph as Yen Lo lost his grip on An Ling – and the mysterious bundle she was still holding in a death grip. Then, his triumph turned to horror as he twisted around and saw that they were falling toward the puddle of water.
Henry tried to let go of Yen Lo, but he wasn't fast enough. He half expected to slam painfully into the concrete as they fell, but instead he felt water rushing over his head, surrounding him. He instinctively held his breath, trying not to drown. Pain shot through his head as he struggled not to take in the breath his lungs so desperately screamed for, and black spots started dancing in front of his eyes.
Then, mercifully, everything went black.
