Summary: "They- they took Max, and he was shouting and screaming, and trying to fight, but he's only a little kid, Justin. They took him to this room, Mom and Dad were crying for him, and Max for them, and for us-" "Shhh…we'll find them Alex, we'll find them. I promise."

DISCLAIMER: WOWP does not belong to me, but the Property of Disney

Pairings: Jalex (of course; however probably won't seem very strong because context of the story. But it will be there with probable lemon. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Notes: Guys I'm excited, you like this story so it will be continued. Thanks for the reviews and fav adds; hopefully it will be the first of many more to come. This chapter is a repost because I officially have a beta in the wonderful and talented, brokenflower, who actually was my first reviewer; it's kind of a special moment when you think about it. Now this story can officially start.

Beta: brokenflower

Prologue

Alex's Nightmare

Alex gasped for breath as she shot up in bed, her eyes scanning across the room for unseen enemies, widened by fear brought upon by her nightmares. When her search through the darkness came up empty she sighed with relief and rested against the pillows behind her.

A soft snore and movement brought her attention to the bed five feet away from hers separated by a small dresser. She peeked around the lamp at her older brother and smiled.

"Justin," she spoke softly, pulling the covers away from her body and slipping out of the bed. She fixed her pajama pants that were rustled in her sleep before edging over to the other bed. She watched the body of her brother, buried completely under the covers for any signs of awakening but saw none. She kneeled on the bed, nudging Justin's shoulder and whispering harshly his name once more. Her only reply was a throaty moan that sounded suspiciously like "Go away."

Alex narrowed her eyes, "Too suspiciously," she muttered before smiling and pulling a pillow off her bed.

"Oh Justin…" she sung, "Are you awake?"

When she received no reply she smiled to herself, and raised her pillow. It was his fault really, he knew her, and should have woken up in the first place. Alex brought the pillow down on her sleeping brother relentlessly, until he yelped and sat up in bed.

"ALEX" Justin shouted dropping his hands from protecting his face, and looked up at his little evil sister, who pushed her long hair away from her face with a wide grin. He couldn't see her grin in the darkness of their motel room, but he knew she was wearing it like she always did whenever she messed with him. "Alex…what?" he growled at her, his arms in a tight fist.

"Oh good, you're awake." She grinned widely down at her brother, wrapping her arms around her weapon of choice. She slumped down to his bed, next to him.

"Yeah…now," Justin hissed, rubbing his hands over his face, his body tensed. "What is so important that you had to wake me up at…two in the morning? Really Alex?"

Justin groaned as he looked from the alarm clock that was beside the lamp, back to his sister. His eyes adjusted to the darkness and with the small amount of light from the open window he was able to make her out.

She looked upset, her eyes downward and her fingers fidgeting nervously on the pillow she clutched.

Justin sighed and he pulled himself fully up and against the wall behind him, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting one hand in his lap, and the other messaging his temple, urging the headache that was forming to dissipate. He just had gotten to sleep about an hour ago. Stressing over the turn of events that bombarded his life, sleep is was becoming a luxury of the past; it was not even sleep he just awoken from, but pure exhaustion causing him to pass out.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked dropping his hand from his head; he rested his head against the wall, watching Alex as she turned slowly to look back at him.

"I- I" Alex suddenly felt foolish, having just woken her brother because she had a nightmare. She knew how tired he was from having trouble sleeping and it wasn't fair to him for her to keep him up because she was to scared to fall back asleep. "No-nothing, never mind" she said shaking her head and moved to return back to her bed, but was stopped short by a hand grabbing her arm.

"You wouldn't have woken me up because of nothing, so tell me. What gives?"

Alex scoffed and turned around, a smirk on her face, "And how long have you known me, Justin?" she chuckled. It really was an Alex thing to do, truthfully.

Justin smiled and nodded, "Point taken, but I know you Alex, so tell me, what's up?" his hand never relinquishing its hold of her until she sighed and sat back down.

This time Alex turned fully to her brother, crossing her legs in Indian fashion. Her hands played with the tips of her hair, something she only did when something bothered her.

"I…had a bad dream," she finished lowly, feeling ashamed of it. She was grateful when Justin didn't mock her, although she knew he would never. She took a deep breath and unconsciously wiped away the tears from her eyes.

"What about," Justin whispered when Alex didn't move to say anything else, but look down at her hands still playing with strands of her hair.

Alex struggled with her next breath, trying to keep the sob out of her voice, her eyes were already leaking. "A-about Mom, Dad, and Max," she spoke softly, "They-they were in a room, screaming out for help, and I couldn't help them. I tried to help them Justin, but I couldn't get to them," She looked up at her brother trying to get him to understand how earnest she was.

Justin could only take a strangled breath of his own, his eyes reddening at his sisters words, and all he could do was nod in understanding.

"And-and Max," she looked away unable to keep the eye contact. "They- they took Max, and he was shouting and screaming, and trying to fight, but he's only a little kid, Justin. They took him to this room, and Mom and Dad were crying out for him, and Max for them, and for us." Her hands curling into a fist, ignoring the pinching feeling against her palms, she continued. "They shut the door, and-and I couldn't hear him anymore. I couldn't…hear Max anymore."

By the end of it, her sobs were uncontrollable and Justin was holding her to him, trying to shush her cries. He wiped away his own burning tears as he tucked Alex's head under his chin.

"Shhh…we'll find them Alex, we'll find them. I promise." He whispered over her head.

"But- Justin…what if we don't." she asked pressing against Justin, her arms wrapped around his torso. She rested against his heart, taking comfort in its beat proving that he was both alive and with her.

"Of course we will," Justin replied not allowing the doubt in his heart to surface, especially around his sister. "It's you and I," he said tightening his grip, "how can we not?"

Alex smiled at the bittersweet memory; she would never forget what transpired between them that night under the sky; before it slowly slid from her lips, "Why is this happening again? Why is our family in danger again?"

"I don't know…" it was so low, that neither could be sure it was said.

Alex suddenly pulled away from Justin wide eyed "This is not my fault Justin, not this time…right?""

Justin shook his head in confusion; how could Alex even think -, "Of course this isn't your fault; you had nothing to do with this. How could you think that?"

Alex wiped away her tears and looked at her hands in her lap, "Everything usually is, I always mess things up when it comes to magic. I mean l-look what happened with the Genie and then the whole Caribbean fiasco…" she paused to sigh, "I can't help but feel sometimes that I'm to blame for this too."

Justin placed a gentle hand on his sister's shoulder and lifted her chin up with the other "There is no way you are responsible for this, Alex. Like Dad said, this has been going on for decades. A lot of people hold onto nonsense hate and ignorance, and they are to blame." He then smiled, "Yeah, you lie, you're devious, selfish, and a little bit conceited, and out to get me on most occasions, but that's just what makes you Alex. You would never intentionally hurt our family like this, or anyone for that matter. Do you understand me?"

Justin wanted to be sure that such thoughts stayed out of his little sister's mind. He understood where they came from, but he knows her better than anyone else. Alex would never do anything like what occurred to them.

Although she had pinched him halfway through his list of her faults (though she would call them skills) she smiled at her brother's soothing words. She nodded and was pulled into her brothers arms for a hug and where she whispered her gratitude under her breath and received a small squeeze for it.

Justin placed a kiss on her temple and pulled slightly away, "We should get some sleep; we have a long day tomorrow."

Alex nodded and slipped from his bed, standing in the middle of the small area that separated the two beds. She looked at the unmade made to her right, and a shallow memory of her nightmare flashed across her mind. She gulped and looked at her brother who was settling back down in his bed; turning on his stomach and pooling the pillow under his head, the covers covering him from the waist down.

"Justin…" she whispered to him once more.

Justin let out a long sigh and turned to Alex, who remained motionless over the bed. "Yeah?" he asked trying to hold back his tired annoyance.

"Can I…" she trailed off, her hands rung with nervousness and she questioned herself, wondering when she became such a sap. "Ugh…move over." Alex growled before pulling back the covers and slipping beneath them. She faced away from her brother and tightly shut her eyes hoping her brother would not push her out the bed.

Justin smiled at his little sister's form, as he was reminded that beneath all the lies, deception, and just plain evilness, Alex was his little sister, who sometimes got so afraid of her nightmares that she couldn't sleep alone.

Wordlessly, Justin turned his back to his sister's and pulled the covers up to his chin. "Goodnight Alex," he whispered into the night.

A brief silence filled the air, but he smiled when sudden movement resulted with her back against his.

Night Justin

Justin wasn't sure if she actually said it or not, but it didn't matter, before he had the chance to ponder it, he was already asleep.

When Justin woke again, he was greeted with harsh sunlight, a massive headache, and a weight on his left side. He threw right arm over his eyes opening to both block the sunrays that shined threw the unguarded windows and to hopefully press away his headache. He turned his head and peeked under his arm, for now ignoring the weight against his left side, his eyes read the clock and groaned.

A quarter after seven, you gotta be shitting me, he thought to himself, as he shut his eyes hoping to block out the world. He was starting to regret training himself to awaken around seven, when he was younger and without a care in the world…aside from Alex and her disasters.

Speaking of which, he opened one eye to the girl who slept heavily on his bare side, his arm wrapped around her waist, her face buried in his side, and one of her arms thrown over his midriff. He vaguely remembered taking off his shirt sometime after he and Alex went back to sleep because he had gotten hot when she refused to move from off him. He noticed that she must have done the same thing, as her shirt was missing, and she w as sporting only a black bra and her pajama bottoms.

It was both a comforting and yet a disturbing sight. Firstly, it proved that he still had his little sister with him, that at least he had someone from his family by his side, someone he could protect. He failed with the rest of the Russo family, he would not fail Alex. Second, it was disturbing that he was sleeping half naked with his sister in a lover's embrace, it was so wrong on so many levels.

He didn't allow himself to divulge in those thoughts, if he didn't think them, then they did not exist, and he could continue having his sister by his side, until they had the rest of their family by their side.

Justin turned to bury himself in Alex's hair but a particular ray from the sun caught his eyes, causing his headache to pulsate. Justin groaned and threw his right arm in the air, and breathed.

Nothing happened.

Justin lifted his head slightly from his pillow and threw his arm out again.

Again, nothing

His brows narrowed until he remembered a familiar weight against his neck and he sighed, dropping both his hand to his side, and his head back on the pillow, and he groaned in annoyance.

His fingers played with the small blue stone that hung by black band around his neck, reminding himself that one also hung around his sister's neck. At the same time he felt Alex dig herself deeper into his side, her hand lowering to his hip, and her face moving into his body, probably to hide away from the sun. He felt her wet lips against his skin, as she unconsciously moistened them. Although it was by accident, his body began to react in a way that sent his mind reeling and decided sleep was no longer top priority; a shower was.

With slight difficulty, Justin managed to pull himself away from the sleeping Alex and remove himself from the bed completely. He stretched and scratched his shoulder where her hair tickled him. Upon the great feeling of his back popping, he moved toward the windows and shut the blinds, and curtains, effectively shutting out the light.

The room wasn't in complete darkness, not even the shades could keep all of the sun rays out the room, but it was enough to allow both relief for the sleeping girl, who resulted in pulling the covers over her head to block out the sun, and his headache.

Justin moved over to his small duffle bag and pulled out a new pair of boxers and a white sleeveless undershirt. He also took out a bottle of Tylenol extra-strength hoping to deal with his headache. Without a second look, he moved silently to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.

He took his pills before the shower, where he let the powerful jet stream of hot water smooth down his aching muscle; muscles that cramped up from a night of sleeping with a restless Alex, and from the situations that took control just two weeks prior.

Since Alex wasn't due to awaken for another three to five hours, Justin let himself relax in the shower for a half hour refusing to let his mind dwell on depressing matters, at least not when he was trying to ease his body. He contemplated a bath instead, but honestly, he didn't want to wait for the bath to fill, then washing it out afterward, knowing that Alex would demand it of him before she even thought about taking a shower herself.

Besides the water beating against his sore body was a great feeling.

"After Justin finished, he redressed in his pajama bottoms throwing them over his clean underwear. After brushing his teeth, he cleaned up the small mess he made and threw his clothes in a bag to be washed when they came upon a Laundromat

His headache receded fully by the time he was done with everything. Justin looked at his bed to where his sister had changed positions yet again, the covers were thrown on the floor, and her body was spread out over the whole bed.

Probably the best, he suspected before grabbing the pillow Alex probably dropped on the ground sometime during the night, since his was now being used by said female. He threw the pillow on the empty bed and laid down on his back, hands behind his head.

It was then that Justin let himself do what he hadn't done since everything started. He let himself be lost in the memories and allowed them to pull him to the past to when his family received the Wizard mail about the Wizard Hunters.