First a thank you to my reviewers:
Soraya - I agree. Family scenes were nothing much happens are fun. As to family whitelighters: The way I figured it, the elders didn't much get along with the Charmed Ones. They needed their help, but the trust, both ways, wasn't there for the most part, not by the end of the series. I will write a a summary at the end of this chapter if you'd like to learn more about that.
Stacey - Good job at figuring that out then. I was trying to give enough hints that anyone trying to figure it out could, but without stating it outright. I will go into Cassia as a whitelighter at the bottom of this chapter, but yes, she is also Chris' whitelighter. It is a lot of fun playing with sibling banter, be it Wyatt and Chris, Seth and Peter, Emily and her brothers as seen in this next chapter, Hank and his sisters, Phoebe's girls, and certainly any of the Charmed Ones interacting with each other.
The last think Emily needs after work is the be ambushed by her brothers. However, he brothers have just spent dinner with their parents (who want to know why neither of their sons is dating anyone at their ages) and they feel up to ambushing.
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Big Brothers Bite
Emily shut the front door behind her and hung her purse on the coat rack that hung by the door. Dad had said her brothers had decided to stay after dinner and if he didn't know better he'd think they planned to ambush her. Even though she was pretty sure they actually did plan to ambush her, she hadn't said so on the drive home. It was bad enough that her brothers knew about strange things going on around Chris and his brother. She didn't need her parents questioning it, too.
She tipped toed past the family room where she saw the tops of her brothers' heads as they watched TV. Dad had said Mom had gone to bed early . . . which meant her brothers had probably won whatever argument had gotten them invited over for dinner in the first place. Mom didn't like to lose.
"Freeze," Nate's voice called out just when Emily thought she was home free. "Get in here, Emily Anne. We need to talk."
Never a good sign, she decided. "Can it wait? I just got home from work. I smell like food."
"Smelling like food's not actually that bad of a thing," Matt commented. "Remember when I used to come home smelling like cigars?"
Emily grinned. "Mom and Dad were convinced that you were smoking and you wouldn't tell them what was really going on, because you were trying to surprise them."
"Who'd have thought trying to earn enough money to send them to Fiji for their anniversary would get me grounded," he retorted.
"Well, you could have told them what you were doing," she pointed out. "They wouldn't have known why."
"Yeah, but that was before they realized Matt wasn't just playing around with magic," Nate reminded her. "They still thought the magic tricks he did were cute, but a total waste of time."
"To be fair, he hadn't actually made any money before that point," she shot back. "Putting on shows for the neighborhood kids isn't going to cover the costs of supplies no matter how good you are."
"I remember how furious they were when Matt quit his job as a bag boy at the supermarket," Nate chuckled. His face fell as he realized what she was doing. "This isn't about Matt though. Get in here, Em."
She sighed. Behind her, she heard the door close, indicating their dad had entered the house. She entered the room and stopped about a foot inside.
"Close the doors behind you," Nate directed her.
Emily sighed. She pushed shut the doors and headed over to the middle of the room. She plopped down onto an empty arm chair and looked over at her two older brothers. "Okay, want to tell me what's going on?"
"I think that's our line," Nate commented. "Matt may not have an elegant way of putting it and he's way off base about Wyatt Halliwell's sanity, but despite his assurances, I'm not sure that you are safe around him. Today was one of the most frightening, if not the most frightening, experiences of my life. I know it could have been worse and I know that Wyatt Halliwell knew what was going on out there."
"Haven't you beaten this topic to death?" Emily protested as she looked at her brothers.
"You're our little sister," Nate reminded her. "There's no such thing."
"Nate's more or less convinced me of Wyatt Halliwell's sanity," Matt admitted, "but he's still got me worried."
"What makes you think what happened today has anything to do with Wyatt?"
"I got the idea that this was nothing new to him," Nate informed her.
"So he has a cool head under pressure," Emily retorted. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"It also implies that he's attracted to this sort of thing," he returned.
"Well, it's not like I'm dating the guy," she shrugged. "I just work with his brother." She glared at Matt.
"I have retracted my objection to your job," he announced. "Right now I want to know what your relationship is with the Halliwell brothers."
Emily's glare deepened at she said in short clipped words, "I. Work. With. Chris. How is that a hard concept to grasp?"
"Because your first instinct was to trust them," Nate reminded her. "You've only known them for two months and Wyatt claims he barely knows you."
"He does," she agreed. "Chris I do know. He's a nice guy and, yes, I trust him."
"With your life?" Matt asked, pointedly.
"If necessary," she agreed without hesitation.
"Well, I don't want it to be necessary," Matt protested.
"I don't either," she informed him, "but today I had to trust Wyatt with Nate's life and Wyatt came through."
"Do you know what actually happened today?" Nate wanted to know.
She shook her head. "No, I can't say that I do. I know enough to know that I know that I know you had the best possible people handling it. I won't deny that I was worried, but I knew if anyone could come through, they could. If you don't trust them, trust me."
There was silence from both of her brothers.
She sighed. Turning to Nate she asked, "Nate, would you say that you are an expert at what you do?"
He shook his head. "No, not really."
That hadn't exactly been the answer she had been looking for. "Well, then would you say that you are very good at what you do?"
"I'd admit that," he agreed.
"So I should trust you with my finances?" she pressed.
He chuckled. "Last I checked, you did trust me with your finances." Those finances didn't amount to much since she was two months into her first paying job.
"Exactly," she grinned. Turning to her other brother she asked, "And, Matt, would you say that you're an expert in your field."
"There's always room to grow," he admitted, "but I'd say I'm high up there."
"And you'd say that I should trust you . . . with my life . . . when I assist you at shows?"
"You're my sister," he reminded her, sounding a little offended. "I wouldn't let you come to harm.
"But I should trust your ability?" she pressed.
"Of course," he told her. He sounded even more affronted as he added, "I know what I'm doing."
"And so does Wyatt," she informed them both. They didn't need to know what it was Wyatt knew how to do to understand that he was good at it. "You'd agree with that. Right, Nate?"
"Yes," Nate nodded. "I don't know if I want to know what was going on out there, though."
"You probably don't," Emily admitted.
"But yes, he did know what he was doing," Nate continued, "or he sure gave a good show of it."
"He knew," she assured both of them. Giving them both a pleading look she asked, "Trust me?"
Matt sighed and didn't say a word. He didn't like the direction this conversation had taken.
"Yes," Nate agreed reluctantly. He didn't like it much, but he was convinced that it was better to have her around an expert than a rooky and Wyatt clearly seemed like the former.
Having Nate's word, Emily directed all her attention and her older brother. "Matt?"
Matt nodded silently.
"Good," she smiled at them. She knew they still weren't quite ready to admit their little sister had grown up, but they were on their way and she definitely liked the idea of being allowed to forge her own path in a direction very different than that either of her brothers had taken.
Emily's day is done. In the last chapter of this story Wyatt and Chris head back to their apartment and get ready for bed. Both are glad the days over, but if they only knew they wouldn't be so quick to feel relief.
I will also be including a bonus chapter involving a series of scenes I wrote about events that happened in an earlier episode, but connects more directly to this one. Since it also doesn't have much to do with this story, it's just added for fun.
Finally, I will be posting the prologue of the next episode. So once I get reviews for this chapter you have a lot to look forward to. Enjoy.
I said I would include info about Cassia's history as a whitelighter for the Halliwells. First, she was never whitelighter to the Charmed Ones.
In my mind, and thus for my series Sam was the original whitelighter for the Charmed Ones (just as he was the whitelighter for Patty). This lasted until Sam left. This would have been prior to Patty's death, possibly prior to Paige's birth. We know that Sam was there when Paige was born and we know he was a whitelighter until he clipped his wings when Patty died. However, we were also given the impression that there was an extended period of time where Patty and Sam did not see each other prior to her death during which they wrote letters to each other. We do not know how long this lasted, but some people have speculated that somethings in those letters might be referencing in a vague way, Patty's pregnancy. If they are, most likely it was lucking out, because others have pointed out it is highly unlikely anyone was thinking of the possibility of a Paige at the point of that episode.
At some point Leo became whitelighter to the Charmed Ones and we are given to believe this was early on. I don't recall where, but at one point he said he had been watching over then their whole lives. We do know that he was already on the job when Grams died, because I can see no other reason he would have been around then. He may have become the girls whitelighter right after Sam stopped being around or it's possible that until he clipped his wings, Sam was officially still their whitelighter, so he might have become their whitelighter when Sam clipped his wings. I wrote a story about the latter option, but at present that story is not "cannon" for my series especially since I have only posted that story on a member only site called "Alternate Charmed". There was a series of interuptions in Leo's time as their whitelighter until "Morality Bites" (I think) and even then Leo continued to be the whitelighter for the Charmed Ones only until his wings were clipped after "Awakened". As there is no evidence that the Charmed Ones had a whitelighter between "Awakened" and "Murphey's Luck" chances are they either didn't have a whitelighter during this time period, because the elders knew he would learn his lesson in time, or any whitelighter they might have had did not show their face. Leo continued to be their whitelighter until he became an elder in "Oh My Goddess".
At this point Chris became the whitelighter for the Charmed Ones. This lasted until his death in "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World", thought there were obvious disruptions during the times when Leo reasigned him. There was no evidence that any other whitelighter was assigned during these time periods, but then then they did have a resident elder, so I doubt they needed one.
After Chris' death there was no evidence that a new whitelighter was assigned. Of course, they again had a resident elder, even more than before because Leo was actually living with them. And even after he was no longer a whitelighter the elders tended to show up, but the elders didn't tend to always like dealing with the Charmed Ones.
For the purposes of my series, at some point after Chris death, most likely close to the end of the series . . . I'm thinking some point after November 6, 2005. Feel free to research the date and see if you can figure out what I am up to there . . . Anyway, at some point the elders assigned a whitelighter to the Charmed Ones, but didn't tell them. This whitelighter is someone who they see which clearly kicks JD out of the running (Mr. Hides-At-The Sight-of-a-Halliwell). This whitelighter is also only assigned to Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. Because of the lack of magical problems (for the most part) this whitelighter has not revealed that they are whitelighter to the Charmed Ones.
Okay, so that covers that part.
Now, Cassia. She graduated high school with Prue, Andy, and the rest of their class. She was in a car accident shortly before both starting college and her eighteenth birthday. She died. After becoming a whitelighter Leo had a talk with her, since she knew something of his charges. From that time until some as yet to be figured out point in 2002, she had absolutely no contact with the Charmed Ones, or Leo. She was under the mentoring of an elder named Ramus when she was first a whitelighter and still answered to him at this point. She knew that the time was coming soon when Ramus would be retiring.
In 2002 the elders decided that the unborn child of a Charmed One was going to need absolutely all the help he could get if there was going to be any chance he was going to be good. They had learned with Natalie that the Charmed Ones did not respond the way they wanted to most whitelighters, so they decided to break one of their rules and assign someone who knew them. She was to find a way to integrate herself into their lives and to try and not interfere unless they absolutely needed it. Her focus was to be on the boy. And when two months later, the Seer stole that boy and everything went down leading to her vanquish from within, the elders breathed a collective breath of relief that they weren't going to have to deal with a baby who was the source possessed child of a Charmed One. And then Piper was pregnant, whether she was when Phoebe was or not is in question, but the elders decided to go ahead with this plan. They figured Leo probably couldn't be objective with his own son, so Cassia was assigned to be his whitelighter.
In late 2002 the time came for Ramus to retire and in the process, he was killed by a demon. His replacement was just a kid. Cassia, like most of whitelighters who Ramus had mentored, was not too happy with this new developement. Cassia tried to do her job and to more or less stay in the background. When Leo became an elder and Chris became the Charmed Ones' new whitelighter, the elders were not prepared to let the Charmed Ones know about Cassia (and they kept this from Leo, too), so Wyatt ended up having two whitelighters, though Cassia was still in the background. When Chris was born, Cassia was assigned to be his whitelighter to. At some point between November 6, 2005 and March 2006 Cassia, JD, and three others were switched about.
Despite the elders wishes otherwise, when Cassia found herself in Jen Kingsley's body with no powers, she chose not let the elders temporarily make Jen a whitelighter. JD's situation was different since he ended up with Cassia's powers. Because the powers had been switched about and landed in him by the demon, it wasn't require to make Ron a whitelighter for him to use whitelighter powers. He didn't have to make the choice she did. Even though she chose to do things this way, she still wanted to be a whitelighter, so she found a way to do that her own way. Her charges were mostly local so between her and JD they tried to find ways to take care of those who weren't local and to get her in contact with those who where. And as Jen, she was able approach people without being in glamour that she might not have otherwise.
As Jen Cassia applied to work at The Manor when Piper opened it. She was one of the first people Piper hired and as of December 2026 one of only two original employees still working for Piper (Drinka was the other). December 2026 was when she quit in order to deal with Ron's sucidal tendencies.
Because of magic stopping so soon after this happened she felt safer with her decision, but when it came back she would have gone ahead and agreed to it had she not been dealing with Ron and then (thanks to the events of "The Demon of Confusion") gotten both her body and her powers back. Besides the various Halliwell's in her charge, she also had various future whitelighters who she got jobs at different points in time at The Manor.
When she ended up with both CT and Brianna as charges, she decided to take on their friends, too. It was not well thought of by many Up There that she wanted two half darklighters and a demon as charges, but she convinced them. I'd have to check, but I think she might have implied that it was actually Kevin's idea.
And then, of course comes the five from another reality. Andy, having given up his wings, no longer is magical, but Prue, Pat, Vicki, and Melinda are most certainly magical and most certainly going to be in the line of magical fire. There was talk between the two Halliwell family whitelighters, but in the end Cassia ended up with Melinda as a charge and the other three went to a new whitelighter. You see Mikelle claimed she had a claim to the priviledge what with being the Wells/Trudeau family whitelighter. So Andy and his brother, Ben, both married witches and thus between them they have four children who can claim the name "Trudeau Witches". This is important, but I'll leave you to see if you can figure out why. It's in there, more than once. And while Mikelle assures people she'd know if Sarah had married a witch, there is nothing normal about Sarah's nonmagical husband. But that's another story.
