Note: At last---the final chapter!

Chapter 7: Crying Her Eyes Out

The moment the Halliwells and Aurora arrived at Claire's house, Claire ran outside, making a beeline for Aurora. She was followed closely by Adam and the other members of Mutant X.

"Aurora, are you all right?" Claire demanded worriedly.

Aurora nodded, and managed to smile at her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she replied. "I've just never vanquished anyone before."

"It's especially hard when the one you have to vanquish is someone that you loved," said Piper, giving Aurora a sympathetic look.

Aurora nodded in agreement.

"If you guys don't mind, I'm just gonna go to my room," she said softly, and went inside, heading upstairs towards her bedroom. A moment later, they heard the door shut behind her.

"Is she going to be all right?" asked Adam worriedly.

"She'll be fine," replied Phoebe. "She's just a bit shell-shocked, that's all. Wouldn't you be, if you had just vanquished the person that you've been dating and making out with for the last two months?"

Adam nodded in agreement.

* * *

Aurora lay on her bed, not doing anything. She had taken off her shoes and tossed them in the closet, and then plopped face-first onto her bed.

A moment later, the air behind her shimmered, and then Arestan stood there. He stared down at the young woman, a worried look on his face.

"Aurora, we need to talk," he said.

"No, we don't," came her muffled reply.

"Yes, we do," said Arestan firmly.

"I don't wanna talk to you," replied Aurora, lifting her head and glaring at the demon hatefully. She interrupted him before he could continue. "If you think that I'm going to have a conversation with you, then you'd better think again. Because of you, Jason is dead."

"But he was a warlock," Arestan pointed out, confused.

"I don't care! I was *happier* not knowing what he was! Then you came along and ruined everything! You and your damned marriage proposal! Get out of my sight, Arestan! I never want to see you again!" Aurora buried her face in her pillow, her body wracked with sobs.

If she had bothered to look up at Arestan, she would have seen him backing up, a hurt look on his face. Pressing his lips firmly together, he went over to the door, and quietly opened it. Arestan walked out into the hallway, and nearly slammed into Phoebe, who was standing outside Aurora's door with Paige and Piper.

"Arestan, we heard everything," said Phoebe quietly. "She might've forced the memory of Jason trying to choke her out of her mind. Trauma victims do that sometimes. It's their way of coping with it."

"But don't worry," said Paige. "We'll talk to her."

"No, we won't," Piper said quietly, and her sisters turned to stare at her in disbelief. "Arestan is the one who's got to talk to her. Not us."

Arestan nodded, knowing that the Charmed One was right. He walked back into Aurora's bedroom, heading for her bed.

"Aurora, we need to talk about what happened today with Jason," he said firmly.

"No, we don't," Aurora replied.

"Yes, we do. I'm not taking no for an answer."

Aurora sat up, and glared at the demon.

"All right. You wanna talk about what happened today with Jason? What happened is that you made me kill him," she spat angrily.

"I didn't make you do anything," said Arestan. "I saved your life when Jason was trying to choke you. You did the rest."

Aurora tried to say something else, but her throat closed up. She jumped to her feet and flung herself at Arestan, pummeling him with her fists.

"You bastard!" she screamed. "Jason's dead because of you! It's all your fault!" Arestan grabbed her wrists, preventing her from hitting him anymore. Aurora tried to yank her wrists out of his grasp, but Arestan held tight, refusing to let her go. Still struggling to get free, Aurora burst into tears, crying hysterically. "It's all my fault!" she sobbed. "I should have seen him for what he was from the beginning!"

Arestan pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly.

"Shh," he whispered soothingly. "It's all right. It's all right."

As he held her, Aurora sobbed into his shoulder. Arestan glanced over at the Charmed Ones, who were watching the scene grimly. Paige stepped into the room, heading for Aurora. She placed a hand on the younger woman's head, and a golden light came out of her hand. Aurora let out a sigh, and slumped in Arestan's arms, sound asleep.

Arestan lifted Aurora into his arms, and placed her on her bed, pulling the covers over her. Then he glanced over at Paige.

"Thank you, Charmed One," he whispered, so that Aurora wouldn't wake up.

"No problem," Paige replied. "I know that she's gonna be all right, but should one of us stay with her tonight, just in case there's a problem?"

"I can stay with her," Arestan offered. The three sisters turned to stare at him incredulously, and he added, "Don't worry, I won't take advantage of her. You can trust me."

"All right," said Piper darkly. "We'll give you this one chance. Blow it, and we vanquish your sorry ass."

Now it was Arestan's turn to stare at her incredulously.

"Charmed One, you're mixing me up with my brother," he said disgustedly. "I may be Alaster's twin, but the only things I have in common with him are my looks, my choice of attire, my shapeshifting abilities, and the fact that we came from the same womb. If I were Alaster, and was being left alone in a room with a beautiful young woman like Aurora, I would kidnap her, take her below, force her to marry me, and then lock her in a cage for my eyes only." Piper, Phoebe, and Paige's eyes grew huge. "But I'm not Alaster; I'm Arestan. I love Aurora, and I'm willing to protect her from anything that seeks to hurt her."

Piper sighed.

"All right," she replied. "I'm gonna go downstairs and ask Claire if there's a guest room that we can sleep in tonight. I am *way* too tired to drive home right now."

The three Halliwells went downstairs, shutting the door behind them, and Arestan sighed. He walked over to Aurora's bed, gazing down at her sleeping figure. She was absolutely beautiful when she slept, like an angel. Arestan reached down with one hand, and brushed a lock of red-gold hair away from her face.

"So beautiful," he murmured. "Aurora, I love you. I can only hope that someday you'll love me back."

Arestan leaned over and brushed his lips across Aurora's forehead. Then he crouched beside her bed, and lay his head down on his arms, closing his eyes.

* * *

The next morning, Aurora opened her eyes, blinking at the sunlight that was shining directly into her eyes. Grumbling, she used her telekinesis to grab hold of the window shade and yank it down. Then she looked down, and saw that Arestan was sound asleep next to her bed, his head laying down on his arms.

Aurora smiled down at the demon's sleeping figure, and reached out with one hand. She gently shook him, trying to wake him up. At first, it seemed to work; Arestan opened his eyes and lifted his head groggily, looking around, but then he promptly fell asleep again. Aurora shook him again, but Arestan stayed asleep, snoring.

By that time, Aurora was completely annoyed, and had lost her patience. She placed her hands on his shoulders, and shoved him as hard as she could. Arestan fell backwards, but as Aurora watched him fall, she lost her balance and tumbled out of bed, landing on top of him.

Arestan's eyes flew open, and his dark brown eyes stared into Aurora's pale green ones. They stayed where they were, not moving, until in the doorway, someone cleared their throat.

Aurora looked up, and saw that the Halliwells were standing there, along with Claire and the members of Mutant X. She turned beet-red, and scrambled to get to her feet. Piper, Phoebe, and Paige all looked as though they were going to start laughing at any minute, and so were Emma, Shalimar, and Claire. Jesse and Brennan had huge grins on their faces. But Adam, on the other hand...

Adam looked like a father who'd caught his daughter doing something illegal.

"I know that this looks really suspicious---"Aurora began, but Piper interrupted her.

"No need to explain," she said. "Everyone heard the thuds. Besides, if you'd been doing something illegal, the two of you would have been kissing when we came up here."

Aurora reached down and helped Arestan to his feet.

"Okay, everyone," said Phoebe, turning to the others. "Show's over. Nothing more to see here."

As soon as everyone had left her room, Aurora turned to Arestan.

"I hope I didn't hurt you when I shoved you off my bed," she said apologetically. Arestan shook his head, smiling.

"There was no permanent damage done," he replied. "But why didn't you try waking me up a different way?"

"I tried shaking you awake twice," Aurora answered. "The first time, you seemed to wake up, but then you promptly went comatose again, and the second time you didn't react at all."

Arestan grinned.

"Well, I've always been an extremely deep sleeper," he said, laughing. "Alaster used to tease me about how nothing short of dropping a bulldozer on me could wake me up."

Aurora giggled at the image of a much-younger Arestan getting a bulldozer dropped on his head, and Arestan made a face at her.

"Well, I'm sure that Alaster was just as deep a sleeper as you," replied Aurora.

"Well, he was easier to wake than I was," said Arestan. He gazed at Aurora's face, and his smile faded. "Are you all right?" he asked gently, a worried look on his face.

"After the way I acted last night?"

"After everything that happened yesterday."

Aurora stared at Arestan for a moment, not saying anything.

"Yes and no," she said finally. "It's going to take a while for my heart to heal. I loved Jason, and I thought he loved me just as much as I loved him. But I was wrong."

"Don't worry," said Arestan softly. "If you need any help coping, I'll be there."

Aurora smiled at Arestan.

"Thank you," she whispered. "If it hadn't been for you, I'd probably be dead right now, with my powers being used to kill other witches by that scumbag who dared to call himself my boyfriend for the past two months." Standing on her tiptoes, Aurora placed a gentle kiss on Arestan's cheek, and he stared at her in shock. "Thank you," she repeated.

A silly grin spread across Arestan's face as he reached up with one hand to touch his cheek.

"Aurora?"

"Hmm?"

"Since you just kissed me on the cheek, does that mean that you've changed your mind about my offer of marriage?"

"No."

"Damn."

The End

* * *

A/N: Yay! This story is finally finished! Now I'm going to start on the next sequel, which will be a romance between Arestan and Aurora. As always, please R&R, but no flames. Flamers will be pelted with dungbombs, and then they'll get their sorry arses kicked from here to the Bog of Eternal Stench.