CHILD OF THE WHITELIGHTER

DISCLAIMER:  I do not own any of the Charmed characters, although it would be nice to own Leo.  (wink wink)  The characters Caiti, her friends, and her mother Jeanne are my own creation; please don't use them without asking me first.

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in months, but a lot of things have happened with my schoolwork and such, and I just didn't have the time.  Anyways, I also wanted to announce that due to recent events on Charmed, the current season never happened, except for what has already been mentioned in this story, and Piper and Leo's reconciliation, but Piper does NOT get pregnant; Caiti is the second sibling instead of Chris, and Chris is in no way, shape, or form related to any of the Charmed Ones or Cole, and he is just their new whitelighter.  In addition, the grandparents mentioned in the previous chapters by Chris are Caiti's stepfather's parents, not her mother's parents; this fact will become relevant in later chapters.  Also, because Caiti's mom told them everything after Caiti's stepfather died and was regretful about cheating on their son, they still treat Caiti like their own grandchild and are not upset about the situation.  Just giving some background so you all will get what's going on in the next few chapters.  Oh, and one more thing: Anytime you see a line of asterisks (*), it means a dream scene, and anything marked *FLASHBACK* is a flashback to something earlier in the story.  Enjoy the next chapter, and please forgive me for taking so long to update by reviewing with your questions, comments, and complaints!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

            "Caiti, I've told you already, I don't think that it's a good idea for you to be going out with him."

            "But Dad!" Caiti protested.  She had come home 15 minutes before, and had been in the living room for the past ten minutes, arguing rather loudly with Leo over her date with Chris that night.

            "Don't 'but dad' me Caitlin," Leo said sternly.  "I mean it.  You're not going out with Chris tonight and that's final!"

            "Give me one good reason why I can't go out with Chris," Caiti said.

            "You, uh, you have to baby-sit Wyatt," Leo said, trying to think up a logical-sounding response.

            "Piper said that Paige was watching Wyatt tonight," Caiti said, crossing her hands over her chest, knowing that her dad would be unable to give her a concrete, logical reason why she couldn't go out with Chris. 

            "I just don't think it's a good idea," Leo repeated exasperatedly. 

            Caiti looked at her father suspiciously.  She had only been living with her father and his new family for a week, but she could tell when he was hiding something from her.  "Is there something you're not telling me Dad?"

            "It's just that, well…" Leo hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words.  "About six or seven months ago, when I became an Elder, Chris did something to me that landed me in Valhalla, and I'm worried that he'll do the same thing to you."

            "You're worried that Chris will send me off to some ancient island of the gods?" Caiti said with a look of disbelief on her face, now convinced that her dad was completely insane.

            "Yeah, that's pretty much it," Leo said.

            Caiti grinned.  "Well then, maybe he can send me back to ancient Greece so I can meet Young Hercules.  That Ryan Gosling's pretty darn cute."

            Leo didn't smile.  It was obvious that Caiti was not taking him seriously.  "Caiti, I'm being serious.  I don't want you going out with him tonight.  Or ever, for that matter."

            Caiti's grin faded.  "You're forbidding me to see him?  Is that it?"

            "It's for your own good Caiti," Leo said.

            By this time, the yelling had gotten so loud that Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Cole-who had just shimmered in and had followed the noise to the living room-were all standing in the doorway listening.

            "Well, that's what the Elders said when you and Piper got together, but you didn't listen, now did you dad?" Caiti snapped.

            "That was different," Leo said, worried about how angry Caiti was getting.  "Piper and I were in love.  You've only known Chris for a week!"

"You're just bitter," Caiti complained.

            "Bitter?  I have a right to be bitter over my daughter-my ONLY daughter, for that matter-dating the guy that sent me away from my family for almost seven months!" Leo argued.

            "Well, I'm positive that he won't do that to me," Caiti argued back.  "Why won't you just trust me?  I'm not a little kid."

            "Why won't you try to understand where I'm coming from on this Caiti?  I'm trying to be a good father!"

            "WELL IF YOU WANTED TO BE A GOOD FATHER, YOU WOULD'VE STARTED A BIT EARLIER!!!!!!" Caiti screamed.

            Suddenly, Caiti felt the anger in her start to rise higher than it had previously during the course of the argument.  She felt herself begin to hyperventilate and her jaw begin to clench tightly.  She felt herself rise into the air.  Caiti knew what was happening, and she also knew that try as she might, she couldn't control it, not yet at least.  She felt the explosion, felt the force of it blowing through her, and saw the force of it knock her father off his feet and into the wall-well, through the wall and into the sunroom.  Suddenly, the blowing force ceased, and Caiti was standing on the ground again. 

            Caiti looked at her father with a horrified expression on her face and orbed up to her room as quickly as she could, before he could see her cry.

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            When Caiti arrived in her room, she immediately flung herself onto her bed and began to cry.  How could everything have gone so wrong? 

            "It hasn't even been a month, and already I've hurt someone close to me," Caiti thought, "If things keep going this way, who am I going to hurt next?"

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            Piper, Phoebe, Paige, and Cole rushed into the room to help Leo as soon as Caiti had orbed out.  Cole offered Leo his hand and said, "You ok?"

            Leo took Cole's hand and stood up slowly.  "Yeah, I think so."  He made his way over to the couch, assisted by Piper and Paige, and sat down with Piper and Paige on either side of him.  Phoebe sat down in a chair across from Leo, and Cole stood behind Phoebe's chair.

            "What happened?" Phoebe asked, curious as to what started the argument that ended in the power burst.

            Leo sighed sadly and said, "I told her she couldn't go out with Chris tonight.  She had asked me if it was OK, and I said no.  I was treating her like a little kid, and she completely called me on it because I couldn't give her a decent reason why she couldn't go.  So I told her about what Chris did, and she joked about asking him to send her to ancient Greece, something about Young Hercules."

            Paige grinned and said, "I know what she means.  That Ryan Gosling is pretty darn cute."  Piper gave Paige a dirty look, though, which prevented her from saying anything else on the subject.

            "Anyways, I got a bit upset about her being so light on the subject, and I forbid her to see Chris."

            "Big mistake," Phoebe muttered under her breath.  "They always rebel when you say that."  Phoebe was speaking from experience, remembering how she acted when Piper and Prue had told her that she couldn't see Cole anymore.

            "She got really defensive, and I told her it was for her own good.  That's when she called me on the fact that Piper and I had gone against orders, even after the Elders had said the exact same thing to us that I said to her.  I told her it was different, and she said I was bitter about what Chris had done.  I said I had a right to be bitter about it, considering the circumstances.  She said that she was positive he wouldn't do that to her, and asked why I wouldn't trust her.  I said I was trying to be a good father, and then she said that if I really wanted to be a good father to her, I would've started earlier." Leo sighed again when he finished.  "And then it happened.  So fast…I didn't see it coming until it was already happening, and I don't think Caiti saw it coming either.  One minute I was arguing with my daughter, the next I'm laying on the floor in the sunroom.  That's how it happened."

            "Where is she now?" Piper asked.

            "Last I saw her, she was orbing out of the room with this look of complete terror on her face.  She looked so scared," Leo said.  Then he remembered what Caiti had said about an event similar to this one, involving her mother, and a possible reason for the terrified expression on her face…

*FLASHBACK*

        "The first time I did it, I.I." Caiti hesitated before continuing.
"What happened?" Piper asked gently.
"I hurt my mom," Caiti whispered, "She came into the study, where I was playing dolls, just as the burst itself happened, and she was knocked backwards. She got bruised up pretty badly, and she also had hit her head on a corner of a desk and cut her forehead.  She never treated me the same way after that…"

*END FLASHBACK*

            "She's worried about what we'll do," Leo said.

            "What do you mean?" Paige asked, clueless as to what her brother-in-law was thinking.

            A look of dawning recognition and understanding passed over Phoebe's face as she read her brother-in-law and her older sister, the only way she figured that she and Paige would find out what was up.

            "This isn't the first time it's happened, is it?" Phoebe asked quietly.  "It happened once before, with her mother, didn't it?  Her mother treated her like an outcast for a while after that, didn't she?"

            Leo and Piper nodded.  Phoebe's being an empath was annoying at times, but this time it was dead on.  Everyone was quiet for a few minutes while the information set in.  It was Cole-silently listening the entire time-who broke the silence.

            "So," he said.  "Who's gonna be the one who goes to find her?"

            Piper looked at the stairwell, appeared to be considering something quite intently, and said:

"I think I know where she is."

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            Caiti opened her eyes.  It was obvious to her that she had been asleep for a while, because the sky outside her window was dark, and it had been daylight when the burst occurred.  She sat up on her bed and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, and was surprised to see that she was wearing all black.  "That's weird," Caiti said to herself.  She stood up and walked out of her room and down the stairs.  She could hear a noise coming from the sunroom, a noise that sounded like someone crying.  Caiti walked into the sunroom to find flowers everywhere and her aunts, stepmother, half-brother, Chris, and Cole all dressed in black, standing around what looked suspiciously like a coffin.  

"What happened?" Caiti asked the group.  "Who died?"

"See for yourself," Piper whispered, with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

Caiti nervously walked closer and closer to the cluster, and saw that they were, indeed, standing around a coffin, the lid of which was closed.  She stopped in front of the coffin and-bracing herself-opened the lid.  She looked inside and screamed.  It was her father.

            "No," Caiti whispered, backing away from the open coffin.  "He can't be dead, he's a whitelighter, and the only thing that can kill him is a darklighter's arrow."

            "But you did, Caiti, you did," whispered Phoebe in an unnaturally sinister voice.  "You killed him."

            "No, I didn't kill him, I swear!" Caiti said, now backing away slowly as the group closed ranks around her.

            "Of course you would deny it," Piper said, speaking in the same voice as her sister. 

            "It's only natural to deny a dark deed like this one Caiti," added Cole.  "I've done it many times before this, and now you have too…you've become evil, Caiti."

            "And you know what that means," said Chris sadly.

            "We have to vanquish you Caiti," said Paige.  "It's the only way."

            "NO!!!!" Caiti screamed, but it was too late.  Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were reciting a spell, the words of which were unintelligible to Caiti, and then they each pulled a potion out from behind their backs.  Piper threw hers first, then Phoebe, then Paige.

            At first it felt like a slight burning sensation to Caiti, then a little more painful, then a little more.  Suddenly Caiti saw the flames surround her body, felt herself about to burst, and knew that this was the end.  She stole a glance at the coffin, and noticed that it was empty.  She looked at the group watching her burn, and noticed her father standing among them, his eyes filling with tears.  Caiti screamed "No!"  loudly one last time, and then it was all over………

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            "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

            Piper heard the first scream and rushed into her stepdaughter's room, where she discovered Caiti fast asleep, kicking on her bed and screaming the word "No" and "I didn't kill him, Piper, I didn't kill Dad, I promise" over and over again.  Piper ran to the bed, grabbed Caiti by the shoulders, and began to shake her gently, saying "Wake up Caiti, wake up.  It's only a dream!  You're only dreaming!" over and over again.

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            As her body dissipated, Caiti heard a voice calling to her, saying "Wake up Caiti, wake up.  It's only a dream!  You're only dreaming!" over and over again.  Not knowing what else to do, she opened her eyes………

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            Caiti opened her eyes suddenly and looked up at Piper with the same look of terror her father had seen earlier.  She turned her head to see out her window, and realized it was still light out, then looked down at her clothing to see it was the same as it had been earlier.  Realizing that she was awake, Caiti began to shake uncontrollably, and began to cry.  Piper sat on Caiti's bed and rocked her back and forth as she would do to calm Wyatt down, and calmly kept telling Caiti, "It was only a dream.  It was only a dream."

            "You're wrong," thought Caiti as she cried.  "It was my worst nightmare."