The Ties That Bind

Chapter Three: The Brewing Storm

The Halliwell Manor, Present Day

Piper immediately took charge of the situation and started to give out tasks to everyone. "Ok, Phoebe, Paige and I will work on the summoning spell and see if there is a way to vanquish the messenger demons. Sam, could you go find Leo for us? Dad, please go feed the kids the remains of their lunch, it's in the kitchen."

They all go forth their separate ways, the Charmed Ones go to the attic, Sam orbs out of the room and Victor heads towards the kitchen.

"Up There"

Sam orbs Up There and starts to look for Leo when he saw Leo approach him from behind. "Are the girls alright?" inquired Leo. "I was going to orb to them, but I sensed that you were there and needed to take care of some pressing business."

Sam turns around and glares at Leo. "I know exactly what this 'pressing business' of yours is and let me tell you something, it was never your job to go around vanquishing demons! Not only have you put your charges in danger because of your neglect of them for your own vendettas, but now you have cracked and killed not one, but two elders! The other elders may have just suspected you, but you have been really loosing your marbles! I knew from the moment that Zola died that you were responsible for his death! You need to put yourself back together man-before it's too late!"

He then takes a moment to calm down and realizes that Leo looked really angry yet sad at the same time, and then he put a reassuring hand on Leo's shoulder. "Look, I can't imagine what kind of stress you have been through these last few months, but what I do understand is how hard it must be to be a whitelighter and a father at the same time, we have been in the same boar for quite some time, more or less. For now, however, we have to go help the girls defeat these demons-then we'll deal with your inner demons just like we have dealt with mine. Agreed?"

Leo looked angry and upset, but nodded slowly and both orbed back into the attic. Their respective fatherhood issues would just have to wait.

Attic, Halliwell Manor

The girls were just finishing the summoning spell for the messenger demons when Sam and Leo orb in.

"Hey!" Piper said when she saw them. She was about to ask them where they had been when she saw the look on Leo's face, she figured that the girls needed to talk with him in private. "Sam, could you go to the kitchen and get us some potion vials? They are on the top left shelf." Sam, not being fooled at all and knew what they were trying to do, nodded and walked out of the room.

Piper then turns to Leo. "Where have you been? Why didn't you come by when we were in danger?"

Leo just stares into the distance with a confused look on his face. "Sam just gave me a nice long lecture about that, and apparently knew all along that I killed Zola. Maybe it was just his instincts as a father, but I wonder how many others knew all along just like he did. He practically screamed at me, both as a whitelighter and as a father as well."

Paige looked up from making the vanquishing potion. "I doubt that the other elders knew about it, Sam seems to have understood what you were going through, I doubt that he would have said anything about it."

"He was just probably being protective of Paige." Piper cut in. "Wouldn't you have reacted the same way?"

Leo nods quietly. "Yeah, I figured that, reminded me of myself recently. That was probably why I was not angry about it-I probably subconsciously knew that he was right. Maybe I just needed to hear it from him since of the similar histories and all that-we even both had Gideon as our mentors." Leo then flashed back and remembered when he first met Sam.

"Up There", 1943

Leo, Natalie and eight other whitelighters to be were standing in Gideon's office "Up There", which also served as a training room. They had all just finished learning how to master their powers and now Gideon was going to tell them what the final stage of their training was.

"The last thing you all need to do in order to complete your training as whitelighters is to work directly with an already established whitelighter, which means that the whitelighter that you will be paired up with will have at least fifty years of experience on his own. Each of you will spend about six months with this whitelighter, and then you will start to receive your own charges. Does everyone understand?"

All ten trainees nodded their heads. Gideon continued on. "I have done my best to pair you up with people that you will be able to work well together, but the most important thing is that you learn from them, and who knows, perhaps they will learn something from you. Even after the six months is over, you can feel free to go to them for advice, because although I am still your mentor, I am quite busy as an elder."

Gideon then walked over to the doors and opened them to find ten people dressed normally sitting outside, while Leo and the other trainees tried not to look nervous. Gideon then had the whitelighters stand in line against the wall.

"Ok, everyone, I will call one pair at a time, and when you are called, walk off and get to know one another; I have given enough money for you all to get some lunch, so enjoy a few hours off."

Gideon started calling out the pairs by alphabetical order by the trainee's last name, so Leo immediately figured that he would be last. He watched as everyone, including Natalie, has left the room, until only he and one whitelighter remained. He started across the room at the other whitelighter, who looked to be about the same height as him, maybe a bit taller. His black hair really contrasted with his pale skin and light blue eyes, but if the coloring differences were ignored, his facial features looked a bit like Leo's own, yet completely different. Gideon gestured them both forward until they were standing in front of one another.

"Leo Wyatt, this is Samuel Wilder," Gideon stated. They both shook hands and nodded at each other. "Now go enjoy your lunch, and then Sam will fill you in on the details later." He orbs out of the room.

Present Day, Halliwell Manor

Phoebe suddenly looks up with a horrified look on her face. "We sent Sam to the kitchen! Didn't we tell Victor to go there with the kids?"

Leo gets pulled out of his memories as all four of them suddenly walked out of the attic swiftly and towards the kitchen and hoped that the two older men did not kill each other yet.

Meanwhile, Sam headed towards the kitchen to get the ingredients they needed and saw that Victor was already there getting something for Wyatt to eat. They glare at each other for a few seconds

"Hello Victor", Sam stated unemotionally.

"Hello, Sam" Victor says with the same quality voice but then snaps. "Inhaled any liquor today?"

Sam glares at him with an angry look on his face and his voice all of a sudden becomes very acidic. "No, I have seen that you have been trying the once dead-beet dad making amends crap again"

Victor snaps, "Oh, you're one to talk!"

"Oh really?" Sam retorts. "Unlike some people I had no choice in the matter!"

Before Victor got a chance to respond to that, the girls quickly entered the room

"Ok, dads, not the time!" Piper exclaimed "We can deal with your issues later, and not in front of the kids!"

Both Sam and Victor stared at the floor and looked a bit guilty at that last statement then merely glared at each other as the girls gave each other glances. It was going to be a long day for them all.

They all went back up to the attic and stood their while the Charmed Ones recited the summoning spell.

"Messengers of the underworld,

Who hear evil and obey

Come to us, we summon thee

Tell us what you were sent to say"

The two remaining messenger demons appeared as Piper immediately froze them except for their heads. "I guess that I was panicking too much to think of this option last time," she explained as they both easily froze except for their heads."

Piper simply turned around and glared at the messenger demons. "Who told you to go spy on us? What did they want you to tell them about us? Also, we thought that you were extinct, so that means that someone resurrected you, who did that?"

The demons shook their heads and refused to answer. "We never have revealed our secret to witches."

Paige then walked forward with two vials of vanquishing potion in her hands. "I hoped that I have never had to use these on you but if so..."

The demon quickly spoke up "She is an upper level demon who resurrected her father and now she and the current seer have been working to make him the..."

Elisabeth had shimmered in, took away the immunities that she gave them and killed them with her own powerful energy balls. Sam and Phoebe stood there in shock and horror, because they both had recognized her, although for different reasons. She ignored Phoebe and turned to Sam, who was shaking his head in disbelief.

"So brother, surprised to see me?" Elisabeth laughed cruelly and shimmered out and everyone else in the room started at Sam with shocked and horrified looks on their faces

"Oh my god!" Phoebe exclaimed "You were Cole's uncle! Why didn't you tell us that your sister and nephew, also known as my ex-husband were demons?"

Sam merely started into the distance with a traumatized look on his face and simply stated the following.

"I didn't know."