DOWN IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM…
Chris had been taken to a bed in triage. Bianca stood by him as the on-call doctor came to check on his arm.
"How did you injure the arm?" the doctor said unwrapping the towel carefully.
"We… were mugged" he said after a few seconds thinking as fast as he could. There was so much going on in his head, he had forgotten to come up with a proper cover story on their way down.
"Did you notify the police?" the doctor started cleaning the gash.
"Yeah, my girlfriend called them. We'll go down and make a proper statement afterwards" Bianca shifted uncomfortably as she had been appointed Chris' girlfriend for the time being.
"How long ago was this?" he said checking the wound.
"Couple hours" said Chris flinching as the doctor checked the edges.
"Looks like a clean cut, not too deep but you are gonna need a couple stitches. Sit tight" said the doctor and stepped away to look for the equipment he needed to patch his arm. Chris dropped his head against the back of the bed, letting out a huge sigh.
"She's gonna be alright, you know" Bianca put her hand on his wrist.
"You think so?"
"I know so. She's one tough lady" Chris chuckled.
"The toughest" he gulped a little too hard. Bianca reached for his hand instead and gulped visibly herself. "What?"
"It amazes me how you guys are all so… connected. Like… you can't be happy or at ease unless you're all safe and sound… and I don't just mean your mom"
"Yeah, well, we are a family. That's what families do" he took Bianca's hand in his. "I think you can understand that"
"No. It's different what you guys have. Being loyal is part of our creed. You guys look after each other simply because you can't bear to see each other in pain. You're motivated out of pure love for one another. I… I wish it was that way for us. Maybe at one point it was, but not anymore…"
"You could change all that"
"How do you mean?"
"Whenever you save or protect one of your own, let your heart lead you and not your head" Chris told her. "Believe me, it'll make all the difference. You'll be surprised"
"I'm already surprised" she said putting the other hand on his hand holding hers.
"OK. Any allergies?" said the doctor as he sat back down by the bed opening the suturing kit and preparing a needle.
"Not that I'm aware. Is that really necessary?" he frowned.
"It'll be uncomfortable for just a second, I promise" Chris tried not to look at the needle closing in on his wound, which hurt enough as it was. "You might wanna talk to him. Distract him for a minute" the doctor told Bianca, who saw this as the opportunity she had been waiting for. She turned Chris' head to her. He had closed his eyes, so he didn't see it coming. She bent down and kissed him. "That oughta do it" said the doctor smiling and administering the anesthetics. Chris wasn't sure what to make of it. He didn't want to believe his best and most precious hope had just come true; afraid it all might vanish between his hands once again. As Bianca smiled still holding his hand, Chris' heart burst with joy, and somewhat ached at the same time. "Bet you can't feel a thing now" the doctor teased. Chris could feel himself going red in the face.
BACK AT THE MANOR…
Meghan threw a stuffed animal at Angie, who had been nodding off on her lounger.
"Meg, don't do that!" Paddy reprimanded her. Meghan chuckled as her sister started to cry having been interrupted on her way to dreamland, and threw another one. Paddy lifted her hand and controlled the gravity under it, making fall a lot softer. "Cut it out" she said as another alert came on her phone.
"How we doing, honey?" asked Coop, corking the umpteenth vial of potion. Parties had been orbing in to replenish and then back out to a different site.
"Umh… there's a fire in a warehouse downtown. I don't think it's related" she swiped on her screen.
"I think I'll put these two down for a nap" said Coop washing his hands, going to get a fuzzy Angie and little Melinda who was already down. He bent down to pick Melinda up first when he heard a noise coming from the hall. "Stay with them" he instructed his daughter.
Cooper stuck out his head without leaving the kitchen to see a couple of the Kracht demons throwing stuff out of their way, searching for them in the seemingly empty house.
"Send an SOS" Cooper told his daughter, knowing they wouldn't be able to fight them off on their own. He had no active powers to help him protect his daughter or the babies.
Meghan saw Cooper hiding back, Paddy sitting on the floor still, staring at her father; and decided to throw a bunch of the stuffed animals through the threshold onto the dining room before neither of them could do anything to stop her. As expected, the demons saw movement and threw the dinner table against the wall hard enough to make it crack in more than once place. "Ok. We gotta go." Said Coop picking up Melinda and trying to get a hold of Angie at the same time. "To the basement" Paddy carried mischievous little Meghan. Little Julian heard a roar growing louder their way, so he pointed his little finger at the stuffed animals her sister had thrown, still sprawled on the floor and turned them into six feet LIVE versions. Seeing what he had done, Cooper put the girls down and went back to the door in a hurry.
The demons, confused, tried torturing the fluffy creatures to no effect. The stuffed bear tackled the first demon grabbing him by the foot and swinging him against the wall and floor, no different from a rag doll.
The second demon tried to make the stuffed giraffe bleed, but instead it charged swinging its neck his way sending him almost against the front door.
Cooper could feel his jaw drop at the spectacle before his eyes. Paddy joined him peeking from behind his shoulder. All children back in the pen.
A stuffed pirate attacked the demon and surprisingly the pretend sword it was carrying went right through it, making him burst into oblivion. The demon near the entrance was furious seeing how his sidekick had been terminated by an overgrown toy. He fought his way through the stuffed animals and got to the kitchen threshold, Cooper stood in front of them, shielding them all. As the demon was about to dispose of him to get to the children, something went right through him making him burst away as well. As he disappeared from sight, they could all see what had come to their rescue. A stuffed unicorn was bowing down to them all. Julian and Meghan clapped, as the whole of LIVE stuffed animals leaned to take a look at them waving or swinging their heads from side to side.
Julian made another hand gesture and they went back to their original size, still moving around, making their way back into the pen. Cooper lifted his feet one after the other to let them pass. Once in front of Julian, the baby boy hugged them all in a tight embrace. The toys went limp in his arms as he kept smiling at Coop's and Paddy's shocked faces.
BACK IN THE HOSPITAL…
Over four hours after their arrival, Samuel and Wyatt walked out of the OR looking exhausted. Leo stood up fast, immediately starting to tremble from head to toe, terrified of what they might tell him.
"She's stable for now" said Wyatt with a sigh. His father smiled nervously, thanking the heavens for small favors. "She's in post op and then they'll move her to the ICU" Wyatt threw a glance at his wife, Sam, sleeping on the chairs just beyond from where they stood. The sight of her made him feel better just like that. Safer. He knew she must have felt exhausted after dealing with Meghan's attack. It burdened on him how his own daughter, their first born, had put his mother in intensive care and had gotten very close to effectively kill her. He knew Sam must have been feeling that very same thing.
"The liver was punctured, as well as the heart" Samuel continued filling him in. "Luckily no major arteries were hit, so we seemed to have successfully repaired the damage" he sighed. "One of her lungs partially collapsed, but we were able to re-inflate it. We also needed to transfuse her because of the major blood loss"
"Thank you" Leo said earnestly.
"My pleasure" Leo stared at his son for a moment. "He did a great job" Samuel patted Wyatt on the back. "He would have made a pretty decent surgeon. You should be proud"
"I am proud" Leo contemplated his son. He had been performing wonderful magic since the cradle, but he had outdone himself today by far. Proud didn't even begin to describe how Leo felt about his son.
"Piper'll be in recovery for a couple hours and then she'll be moved to a bed where you'll be able to see her"
"Thank you again" Leo took Samuel's hands in his, shaking them vigorously. Samuel put his other hand on Leo's.
"Like I said, it was a real pleasure to be able to help" Samuel meant every word. He knew what was going on around her daughter and his grandchildren on an everyday basis; constantly unable to sleep because he didn't know what sort of creature might be after them next, without really being able to do anything about it himself. Today had been his chance to truly play his part in this family. "Kiss her for me" he extended his hand to shake Wyatt's, nodding to his daughter before going back into the ORs, probably back to keep up with the surgeries he had left on hold.
Leo and Wyatt walked back to the chairs where Sam lied. Wyatt sat next to his wife, caressing her head gently; while Leo sat opposite him. Wyatt sighed and dropped his head on the back of the chair slightly bumping against the wall, clearly beyond exhausted.