THE BEST LAID PLANS
Chapter 8
Up in the attic, the sisters gathered together some of their all-purpose potions. Some were for vanquishing and some were diversionary, like smoke bombs. Then again, with an angry Piper accompanying them, they didn't really need much else in the way of fire power, Phoebe figured.
Grams fidgeted nearby. "I really wish you would let me come with you girls. You don't know what you'll be up against."
"Grams, I need you and Mom to stay here in case those demons come back." Piper explained.
"Leo is here. He can orb them out if there's a problem. You'll need us more." Grams insisted.
"That won't work, Grams." Leo dreaded explaining. Telling Grams the truth was like telling your mother you'd flunked out of college after she'd worked nights to put you there. "The Elders clipped my wings."
"What? Why on Earth would they do that?" Grams asked, shocked.
"Because after Gideon killed Chris, I tracked him down to rescue Wyatt. Then I killed Gideon." Leo admitted. "He murdered my son."
"Good. I'd hate to think that awful man was still around, just waiting to come after our boys again." Grams said firmly, fully supporting her grandson-in-law.
"The other elders didn't see it that way. They've clipped my wings. I can't orb. I can't heal. I'm mortal again." Leo admitted. "If the demons return, I'd do everything in my power to save the boys, but…"
"But you have no powers. Well, I guess there's no help for it. Patty and I will have to stay here to watch over the boys while you go off and show the demons what happens when they come after Halliwell children." Grams said.
"Damn straight." Paige said, and orbed Phoebe and Piper out and down to the underworld.
Down in the Piper's room, Patty set aside the now-empty bottle and took baby Chris into the nursery to change him. Victor and Wyatt sat on the floor, playing with toy cars.
After she put Chris down for a nap, Patty saw Paige's crystal alarm system and set it up around the crib. Then she quietly walked out of the nursery and gestured for Victor to take Wyatt out of the room so that Chris could get some sleep. Victor took Wyatt's hand and the two of them walked down the hall to Wyatt's bedroom, with Patty following, carrying a baby monitor.
Once in his room, Wyatt started showing his grandfather all of his toys. As Victor "oohed" and "aahed" over the assortment of toddler toys, Patty sat down in the rocking chair.
"It's so familiar, isn't it?" Patty asked her ex-husband.
"What?" Victor asked, distracted by Wyatt.
"Taking care of magical children." Patty explained.
"It isn't easy. They require a lot more care than normal children. There are so many dangers. Even ice cream trucks aren't safe." Victor recalled, remembering the day he'd nearly lost Prue. His daughters' powers had often frightened him. Patty and Penny had wanted them to be raised with full knowledge of their magical heritage, but he'd wanted them to lead normal lives, free of demon attacks. It was ironic that Penny had raised them that way after he'd left.
Wyatt demanded their attention again and his grandparents were happy to provide it. Wyatt and Patty began playing a game that involved Wyatt throwing things in the air and Patty freezing them.
The three of them were startled when a piercing alarm rang out.
"Victor, stay with Wyatt." Patty called out, running out of the room.
Phoebe lead her sisters back to the demonic bar she'd trashed before Chris had been born. She was hoping that the demons had rebuilt the bar. They needed a public forum, where their message would be heard and repeated throughout the underworld. They were in luck. It was as if she'd never been there. The room was packed with demons.
"Well, well, well. Look what we found." Paige said, looking over the room.
"Apparently, you people didn't listen very well last time. So we decided to repeat the warning." Phoebe said.
"And we'll keep coming back until you get the message to stay away from MY KIDS!" Piper said, blowing up the demons sitting at the nearest table.
The demons and other underworld dwellers jumped up. Many ran for the nearest exits away from the Charmed Ones. Others stood their grounds, unafraid of the sisters.
Phoebe hurled an acid-based vanquishing potion at a grimlock, destroying him. She quickly moved on to the other demons in the room.
A darklighter conjured a cross-bow and fired an arrow at Paige. She called for the arrow and sent it flying back at him, vanquishing him.
"What do you want, witches?" cried out a demon from the back. Piper couldn't see the demon well enough to figure out what kind it was. And she really didn't care.
"Someone tried to kill my son this afternoon – twice." Piper said, blowing up a pair of demons that tried to sneak up behind her. "No one goes after my kid and expects to live."
"No one is after your children, witch. They know that it is a suicide mission. If you didn't kill us, the powers would. Your children are protected by law, you know that." The demon called out.
"Yeah, well, some of you keep forgetting that." Paige called out, calling an athame away from a warlock and stabbing him with it.
"The demons that attacked your house today were not after your child." The Demon called out.
"Really?" Piper asked sarcastically. "Then who were they after?"
"Come with me and all will be revealed." The demon said, stepping out of the shadows. Piper didn't recognize him, but he was the same kind of demon who'd gone after her baby earlier.
Patty ran towards Piper's bedroom – and the nursery. She could hear Leo and her mother coming quickly down the stairs from the attic. Entering the bedroom she could see that the nursery door was open and that three more demons stood in bedroom, looking around.
"Get away from him!" she called out, freezing the closest one.
Another of the demons threw a fireball at her, which she froze. Behind her, Leo entered the room, followed by her mother.
"Chris!" Leo called out, trying to run to his son. One of the demons threw him into the wall before he could reach the nursery.
Grams telekinetically picked up one of the demons and began tossing him around the room.
"Stay away from my grandson." Patty cried out as the third demon entered the nursery and looked down at the baby. Chris, startled by the demon, started crying. An athame appeared in his hand as Patty raised her hands to freeze him. But before either Patty or the demon could react, Chris orbed out of the crib. The demon shimmered out after him.
Grams hurled the demon she'd been fighting out of Piper's bedroom window. She turned to the demon Patty had frozen, but before she could do anything, Leo took the athame out of the demon's hand and stabbed him with it, vanquishing him.
They turned to check on Chris, but saw an empty crib. "We've got to find him." Patty called out and the trio ran out of the room.
TBC…