Author: Hey, long time no see huh? XD I wanted to wait till I had the full version of this chapter ready, but decided against it and post the first half of it as a Christmas gift.

Happy reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own BTR or Charmed.

Ch53: The Good, the Bad, the Cursed, Part 1.

Camille's POV:

"Do you see them yet?" I ask peering through the window of the red van. Me and Jo went with Carlos to pick up the guys' family- the ones alive and willing to come that is. We weren't able to contact James' dad and didn't bother inviting Logan's ex-stepfather for the wedding.

From her seat besides me Jo shot me an incredulous look. "I'm the one joining the family. How are you more nervous than me?" She hissed.

Because from the stories I've heard Logan's mom sounds like a super witch who values power and pure blood witches and I'm a gypsy who doesn't do anything... Gypsy things anymore!

I don't tell Jo this, instead I just keep looking through the window.

"Remember, Brooke is the one you need to like you." Carlos says glancing at us. "She's paying a major part of the stuff for the wedding. You won't meet her till later at the manor."

Right, Brooke Diamond wanted James to pick her up at a different airport and she wanted to show James some place. Kendall and Logan couldn't get a day off from their classes, but James somehow did... well his mom did, because apparently you don't tell Brooke Diamond 'no'.

"Got it." I say with a firm nod earning myself another exasperated look from Jo, she's about to complain again when she suddenly perked up. "There they are."

Seeing the relatively big group of people walk out of the airport we got out of the van.

"Papi! Mami!" Carlos cheers running to hug his parents. Both Eric and Sylvia Garcia hug him back just as tight- even tighter in Eric's case.

I'm so glad I know someone so I can hug Katie while Jo hugs mama Knight, if I didn't already know those two I'd be standing there all awkward. Speaking of awkward... Putting a smile on my face I walk up to Joanna.

"You must Logan's mom," I say holding out my head to her. "I'm Camille Roberts."

She gives me a once over before smiling. "The gypsy right?" She says smiling. "Logan told me so much about you."

Great, though her tone makes me wonder if she's really positive.

What did Logan tell her about me?

Jo takes a step forward. "And I'm Jo Taylor-"

"The actress." Jenifer and Katie interrupt her at the same time.

Why would they say that? Jo being an actress was just a cover for her being a whitelighter. Before me, Carlos or Jo can ask Katie spoke up using, what I as an actress can call her 'distractor voice'.

"How about we head to the manor? I can't wait to see it!" And she sounds genuinely excited now. "Did it really belong to our great-grandmother?"

Carlos grins "You bet, don't worry you'll get to meet her in a few days Katie-kat."

Immediately Joanna launches into a rant about the Warren family history as she got into the van. Sylvia starts talking about wedding snacks to Carlos who tries to focus on driving out of the parking lot which gets harder when his dad starts playing a backseat driver.

Jenifer scolds Katie when she tries to get out of the backseat to change the radio channel.

Oh this is gonna be a long drive.

And a long week. Too bad they are all staying at the Palm Woods.

Why did I want to come pick them up again?

End Camille's POV.

Big-Time-Charmed.

James and his mom are walking through an old abandoned western town where Brooke had them be dropped of by a private jet. After about ten minutes of just quietly walking through the desserted town James spoke up. "Alright, mom, spill." He said sounding annoyed for show. "What are we doing here?"

Brooke shut him a somewhat amused look. "What, can't a mother spend a little quality time with her son?" She asked smiling. "Especially after all the time we've been apart." Brooke finishes interwiding her and James' arms as they continue to walk through the long abandoned town.

In many ways James is like his dad, half cupid, good with women and his looks. Of course James also is a lot like his mom. "Alright, I take after you, okay." He said rolling his eyes but with a cheery smile on his face to show that he really wasn't that annoyed. "I've inherited all of your tricks, especially your fine art of fibbing."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Brooke replies, just like her son a master liar, not as good at bluff as Kendall though. "Tell me a little bit more about this Jo. How did she and Kendall meet?"

Distraction technique? Oh well, it was nice to have his mom here anyway. "Oh, it was a couple of years ago when we still lived at the Palm Woods. She was the new actress on the block back then."

Hearing this Brooke smiled in delight. "Kendall's marrying an actress?"

"Well, no," James answers frowning. "she isn't really an actress..." He trailed of at the curious look his mom was sending him, like she really wanted to know what he was about to say about Jo, like she didn't know... "You do know about Jo right?"

"All I know is from what Jen told me. Jo sounds nice and apparently she knows the big bad secret." Brooke answers with a small half interested shrug. "Good thing she knows- can you imagine what would have happened if Kevin didn't tell Jenifer till after they ere married?" She says with a small laugh. "It's better if we let mortals know what they are getting themselves into."

James smiled- well he gritted his teeth- but it looks like a smile. "Mortal. Right."

Hearing the sound of a door slamming shut James looks around, the only that moves is a tumbleweed rolling past them.

"What?" Brooke asked when she saw James looking around.

"It's nothing." James shrugs. "I guess that's why they call it a ghost town, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Being mortal sucked. You miss the thrill and it feels like a sense has been taken away from you. "Did you actually see something? Did you get a premonition honey?"

Apparently there wasn't anything going on, at the blank look she was receiving from her son.

Brooke sighed. "Alright, I confess. I brought you here hoping maybe you could give me a little bit of your help. I just didn't know how to ask."

"Magical help?" James sighed fully aware how his mother's own misuse of magic had given her more than enough grief. "Mom, you knowI'm not supposed to do that."

"This place seemed like such a good investment." Brooke continues as if she hadn't heard James at all. "Too good, actually. Made me think that all the stories were true."

Well... He might as well... "Fine, I'll bite. What stories?"

"Ghost stories. Something's been keeping people from investing and razing this place for over a hundred years." Brooke continues not at all surprised James would help her. James didn't say no to her. No one says no to her.

Yay, ghosts those guys never go easy. "Mom, I can't always get a premonition when I want to. It-" James stoped when hearing music and talking, someone was there with them- or a lot of someones. "Okay, now I definitely heard that."

"Heard what?"

James ignored her and looked at the saloon where he could hear glass shattering. Suddenly a cowboy- no an indian gets thrown out of the saloon landing on the cold ground.

Another ghost walked out of the saloon, a somewhat large cowboy. "You're a dead man, Bo." The man said looking down at the indian on the ground with a cold uncaring look in his brown eyes.

"Mom?" James whispered. "Can you see them?"

"See who?"

Shaking his head James ran towards the saloon. "Hey!" He cried. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nobody crosses Mr. Sutter." The cowboy mutters and when the indian finally got to his feet the cowboy backhanded him, sending the indian flying backwards.

Falling right through James who gasped which was all the reaction he was allowed before the ghost cowboy suddenly reached into his holster and pulled out his gun. He, unaware of the witch standing between him and his target fired his gun at the indian. That's the last thing he did before both he and the indian disappeared.

Gasping for breath James stumbled backwards before falling on his behind.

"James!" Brooke cried rushing to her son's side. "James, what's going on?" She demeaned gripping his shoulders. "Sweetheart, you're bleeding!" The business woman gasped carefully touching her son's split lip.

James swatted her hand away before brushing the blood from his mouth away with the back of his hand. "Yeah, I wouldn't buy this place mom." He said pushing himself of the ground. "It's too much like a bad western movie."

Big-Time-Charmed.

"Oh I love this table, it's old but in the history kind of way." Sylvia said once Kendall and Eric finished moving the diner table.

"Thanks," Logan said grabbing the plates and handing them to Camille who was about to put them on the table when Joanna took the plates from the gypsy and started putting them on the table herself.

"So, Jo, you nervous?" Jenifer asked. "I mean, only one more week before dum, dum, dum-dum." She questioned singing the bridal march.

"Thanks mom." Kendall rolled his eyes.

Jo smiled. "Well, as long as no demons come bursting through that door, until them, I am fine-"

They all heard the front door being pushed open. "Kendall! Logan! Carlos!"

"Coming mrs. D!" Kendall and Logan chorused, Carlos yelling the same thing could be heard from upstairs.

Camille shook her head crossing her arms. "You had to jinx it. Didn't ya?" She said looking at Jo. The two best friends shared a look before following the rest to the foyer.

Carlos and Katie arrived at the same time as Kendall and Logan followed by the others.

Katie let out a small gasp when she saw James limping, "James?" The twelve year old asked, voice rising just a little bit. "what happened?"

"Oh, it's nothing," James said with a dismissive wave of hand. "I'm fine. I just need an aspirin."

"Brooke?" Joanna said prompting the younger woman to speak seeing James was trying to brush this off.

"I don't know what happened." Brooke answered sounding as calm as any mother who just saw her son get attacked by some invisible force. "One minute we're just walking around, the next thing I know he's bleeding."

Rolling his eyes James slowly walked past all of them. "I got into a bar brawl." He said getting into the living room and sinking down on the small couch. "Well, actually, I didn't. Two cowboys did." James paused to wipe at his still bleeding lip. "Bo and some other guy. I didn't catch his name, but I think he was the bad guy, 'cause he was wearing a black hat. Oh, and they were transparent."

Was there even a normal reply to that?

Long seconds passed, turning into two solid minutes before Kendall finally found his voice. "Logan." The leader said, index finger up.

Nodding Logan walked over to James and started examining the younger man's head. "Alright, bro, how hard did you hit your head?"

"I didn't." James said. "I'm alright. Mom, why don't you go to the car and get those town files. You know, maybe there's something in them that can help us." He looked at mr. and mrs. Garcia, purposely making his eyes look just a little larger. "Can you go with her, just in case?"

"Alright." Eric nodded, when he and Sylvia were out of the room James shot Katie a pointed look.

Nodding Katie looked at her most stern aunt. "Aunt Joanna, can you explain this handfasting thing to me. Carlos was just showing it to me in the Book of Shadows."

A small smile on her face as she nodded Joanna replied "Of course" and took Katie towards the stairs.

James waited till they were both gone before sitting up and looking at his brothers, Jo and Camille. "Our parents don't know Jo's a whitelighter."

"Don't look at me," Kendall protested when all eyes minus Jenifer's turned to him. "I told mom to-"

Like it was scripted, six pair of eyes turned to the only parent still in the living room.

Jenifer Knight grimaced. "I've been meaning to tell them," she said her paniced tone indicating otherwise. "but you know how your aunt is. Joanna's all about keeping the family line pure, and Brooke and her cupid... How do think they'd react if I told them you're marrying an angel? No offense honey." She quickly added sending Jo a sympatric look.

"Oh," Camille made a face. "and who wants to tell Joanna about James' ex?"

"Yeah..." James drawled. "About Muffy, she-" He cut himself of when his mom and Carlos' parents walked back into the living room, Eric carrying a large file.

"Just a lot of investment stuff and background info." Brooke explained when Eric handed Logan the file. "I don't see how it's gonna help you find out what happened."

"Well, you're the one that called it a ghost town," James muttered sending his mom an annoyed look. "and since Bo fell through me and I ended up with the same split lip that he had."

Carlos made a sound in agreement. "Sure sounds like a ghost to me."

"It can't be." Jo said with a firm shake of her head. "Ghosts don't bleed." She said the moment Joanna and Katie returned from the attic.

The whitelighter mentally facepalmed when she had all the parents minus Jenifer shoot her questioning looks. "I mean.. so I've read in books. Obviously it's not my area of expertise."

"Mine, neither." Mama Knight said with obvious fake cheeriness. She turned to her friends. "What do you say we let the supernatural stuff to the boys and we go have lunch somewhere?"

Sylvia grinned. "That sounds like a great idea." She said happily latching on to Eric's hand.

"Um.. I don't know..." Jo started slowly shaking her head. As a whitelighter it would be irresponsible to leave her charges during the time it took to pinpoint the problem, not the mention the fact that one of them was hurt.

"Actually, it's a great idea." Logan argued, index finger raised. "You and Camille can show our parents around the city."

"I'll help!" Katie volunteered jumping up.

After her rest of the Charmed Ones minus James began trying to convince their parents to leave them to the magical business. It didn't take too long. Apparently three years was enough for their parents to out-learn the schemes the Charmed Ones could come up with.

Once they were gone Kendall turned to his brothers, fully in leader mode. "Carlos get the book. Logan, see what you can do." He ordered nodding in James' direction.

"I'm fine." James protested only to be ignored by his brothers as Carlos quickly left for the attic and Logan kneeled down in front of him. James saw Kendall disappear into the kitchen, returning less than a minute later, a glass of water in his hand.

"Here." Kendall, said his voice soft as he held out the glass for James.

James wanted to stress the fact that he was fine and he didn't need to be taken care off, but one look at Kendall's eyes stopped the complaint from leaving his mouth. "Thanks." He said instead, begrudgingly, but genuinely.

Big-Time-Charmed.

The lunch at the diner was going surprisingly well. The parents, Jo and Camille cheerily conversing with one and another.

"So Jo," Brooke said pausing to take sip from her wine. "James says you're an actress."

"Uh, actually, no." Jo said with a small shake of her head. "I used to take up acting jobs... But I'm more of an... healer... I mean more of, like, a counselor." She corrected herself technically still not lying. "I guide people." She nodded towards the gypsy sitting besides her. "Camille's the real actress."

Joanna Mitchell glanced at brunette. "You make good money?"

"Not yet, mrs Mitchell." Camille answered politely.

Joanna nodded to herself as if Camille just confirmed something she had suspected all along. Never the less it way high time these two girls got warned. "Girls, I think it's time to come clean." She looked at Jo. "It's not easy being married to a witch Jo."

"I know." Jo nodded.

"That's why my marriage to Logan's father didn't work out." Joanna continued as if unaware of Jo speaking up- unaware of the looks of disapproval her friends were giving her. "It wasn't because we didn't love each other, it was because he wasn't prepared for what was to come."

That was a lie. Camille didn't need have studied body language to know that. Logan already told her that the man his mother married hadn't been his father. In fact Logan never met his father. After the 'Bernice incident' Logan had made it a point of being completely honest with her. Even before they'd gone back to being the loving on-off again couple that they were.

However before the gypsy girl could call Joanna out on her bullshit mama Knight spoke up.

"I think they are prepared, Joana." Jenifer said her tone doing nothing to disguise her annoyance.

Brown eyes widened when Joanna realized how she might have sounded. "Don't get me wrong," she said holding up her hand as if to silence more protests. "I want this marriage to succeed. That's why I'm warning you. But there are dangers out there worse than demons and warlocks. You do know about them, don't you? "

"Yeah..."

"Well, the dangers I'm talking about, you're not even gonna see coming." Joanna replied.

Brooke's eyes narrowed. "Joanna-"

"No, you should know this is important Brooke." Joanna didn't spare her friend a second glance, her eyes focused on Camille and Jo. "The thing I'm talking about will sneak up on you and destroy your marriage if you're not careful. Girls, I'm sure the boys told you about cupids. It's those damn angelic beings you have to watch out for." A cold look came to her eyes. "Do you know what a whitelighter is?" She asked her voice sounding wary.

Camille stared at Katie, two pairs of dark eyes meeting. Besides her Jo opened her mouth only to audibly snap it shut.

Big-Time-Charmed.

"I don't get it." James muttered eying the large bruise on his side with distaste. "Bo gets beat up and I get his symptoms? How the hell does that work?"

Carlos shot him a sympatric look. "Just sit back and relax, buddy, we'll figure this out."

"Whatever it is, it's got something to do with the history of that town." Kendall muttered his eyes never leaving the page in Book of Shadows he was reading, he'd been sitting on the floor for the past thirty minutes going through the book and he was getting out of pages on different kinds of spirits and ghosts."You said that they were dressed like cowboys, right?" The blond leader questioned already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, real cowboys right out of the Old West." James actually smiled at that, clearly managing to find amusment in the fact that they were dealing with Old Wild West characters. "Uh, the outlaw said something to Bo about a guy named Sutter. Look him up. Maybe he's a demon."

Kendall was about to do just that when Logan spoke up. "Wait a minute..."

"Did you find something?" Carlos asked barely managing to not jump up.

Logan looked up from his laptop screen, a deep frown on his face. "t's more of what I'm not finding. Alright, nothing is dated past April 25th, 1873. The maps, the land grants, death certificates. It's almost like time just stopped."

"What do you mean stopped?" Kendall asked. "Like, everybody just died?"

"No," Logan shook his head. "like stopped moving forward, literally."

"It wouldn't be the first time we've come across a time loop." Carlos muttered darkly as he remembered what happened last time they dealt with time loops.

Kendall was already reading through the page on time loops in the Book of Shadows. "It's not a demon," the blonde concluded after a short moment. "it's a curse." he said before starting to read from the page. "Certain spiritual traditions believe that a great evil or great injustice can be cursed into a time loop until righted."

Slumping a little against the chair James did his best not to look too disappointed. "So this is about righting a wrong..." In other words this could take a while, and this just had to happen while their parents were here, who without a doubt would start backseat witching.

Logan nodded about to say something about them needing to solve this fast before James started showing any other symptoms when the doorbell rang. "I'll get that." He said getting up and handing Carlos his laptop before leaving the room.

He went to the foyer and opened to door only to freeze when he saw who stood on their porch.

On their porch stood someone he never expected to see again and though Muffy Winters had clearly seen better times, her hair and mess and Logan was sure that the blouse she was wearing had been white once upon a time she was very much alive and not hiding from them as he thought she would.

As he though she should.

"Hey, Logan," The half demon cheerfully greeted him. "long time no see. Is James home?"

Only finding one answer to her question, Logan slowly raised his right arm and swung.

Back in the living room Kendall, James and Carlos all jumped in surprise when Muffy entered to living room- well... she flew into the room thanks a bit of well used telekinesis.

She landed on the floor in front of James chair.

James gazed down at his demonic ex blinking owlishily. "What the fuck... Muffy, what...?" Instead of finishing his sentence he got up and helped her up.

Upon seeing him Muffy smiled. "Hi, Sweets." She said using the nickname she had given him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kendall demanded glaring at her, his bright green eyes cold. "Do you have some kind of death wish?" As the words left his mouth the shapeshifter grinned. "Because that can be arranged."

Smiling sheepishily Muffy adjusted her blouse. "I told James last week that I wasn't giving up on him and I meant it."

"You talked to James?!" Logan demanded at the same time Kendall looked at James and demanded, "He talked to you?!"

"Oh ooh..." Carlos shot James a 'you're in trouble' kind of look with a sympatric look on his face.

"You said that she was alive. You never said that she was back." Logan said looking at James with a betrayed look.

Well, there went all their chances for a normal family get-together.

"I-it didn't matter," James stuttered for once not happy to have all the attention focussed on him. "because as I told her," The look he sent Muffy couldn't be described as anything other than exasperation. "I don't want anything to do with her anymore."

For some reason his reply seemed to please Logan and Carlos. Logan raised his arm ready to use telekinesis and Carlos snapped his fingers to form a fireball. Before James could protest Carlos pulled his arm back and-

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Everyone turned to Kendall, all of them expecting him to start with an inspirational speech about teamwork and how they needed to work together, one of those speeches that had helped them so much in the past.

Instead they got "I just set that table. We don't have time to buy a new one before dinner."

"Wedding stress, much?" Muffy spoke as if she wasn't an unwanted guest in the Warren household which earned her another deadly glare from Kendall. Chuckling awkwardly she held up her hands to show that she was harmless. They had believed that once. "Don't worry," she assured. "I'm not gonna use my powers against you anyway. In fact, I'm never gonna use them again, ever. It keeps me from being evil."

"No," Logan firmly denied. "you will always be evil, you're a demon."

"Half-demon." Muffy and James protested surprising each other.

Muffy shot James a bright smile. "My human half can suppress" The black-haired beauty stopped talking when she saw her ex(and hopefully soon again) boyfriend's split lip. "James, you're hurt." She quietly stated shortening the distance between them in two quick steps, rolling her eyes when Kendall and Logan bristled. "What happened?" She demanded gently touching James' face.

James let out a long sigh, "You know what, Muffy? That's none of you're-" He moved to brush her hands from her face, but froze- hand in the air- lips parting as hazel eyes fluttered shut.

/Bo threw a knife at the cowboy in black, there's a gunshot and then.../

"James?" Carlos asked knowing that his brother just had a premonition, but... There was something different about this one from all the other visions James had gotten over the years. James' reaction was far too violent for it to be a normal vision. "James, are you alrigh-"

Even if Carlos had gotten the chance to finish that sentence it would have been a stupid question.

Especially seeing that James fell forward before Carlos could even finish asking.

"James?!" Muffy gasped only just catching him before he hit the ground.

He was immediately taken from her by Kendall who gripped James' shoulders tightly as if afraid that his younger brother might disappear if he let go. "James?! James, what happened?!"

Weakly James lifted his head. To everyone's horror there was blood dripping from his mouth.

"I-I think-" He took a shuddering painful sounding breath. "I think, I've been shot."

Author: Merry Christmas!