Charmed

Phoebe Haliwell sat in the manor kitchen tapping into her laptop. She had taken the afternoon off to stay at home. Elise had been on the warpath since the Bay mirror had lost its readers when one of their best journalists quit. Elise Rothman, Phoebe's tyrannical boss was angered when he said he was to good for the Bay Mirror and had left to work in New York or somewhere. She had been breathing down everyone else's necks daring them to pull the same stunt. Phoebe though, had the advantage of being able to email her column to work so could stay at home on days like this.

Phoebe read a few emails of people who were the usual, scared of something. She normally preferred letters because they gave you a better feel of who the person was that had sent you the message but of course she hadn't been able to grab any on the mad rush out of the office. She had managed to dodge Elise while she was screaming at the receptionist for not typing fast enough. Phoebe was relieved to have an office when she was there, it gave you a chance to see who was coming and it was your own personal space. Of course the door didn't lock but it didn't matter to Phoebe as long as she wasn't in Elise's line of vision on bad days it was fine. Okay she thought lets help some needy people, and then Chris orbed in.

Phoebe watched as a array of white lights appeared and from them a young man with dark hair and dark eyes stood.

"Hey," Phoebe grinned, "What?"

"What do you mean what?" Chris asked taking a seat next to her.

"I mean you want something or you want to tell me its demon hunting time."

"Neither."

"Oh," Phoebe turned and looked at her screen. Blank.

"Actually…"

"Here we go,"

"I just wanted to talk," Chris said ignoring her comment.

"About?"

"Piper and Leo,"

It had taken some getting used to but Phoebe had found that her recent whitelighter was her nephew. He had appeared from the future to save her other nephew Wyatt from turning evil. But when he managed to help save the world from the titans and make Leo an Elder so he could be their whitelighter but his fatal mistake was Piper and Leo breaking up. With his conception date nearing he was getting desperate.

"What about them?" She asked folding her hands over her lap primly.

"I'm just worried that's all."

"Wait about you or them?"

"Both." He said defensively.

"How is Paige?" She asked, Chris had been helping her settle in with her new temp job, a Wicca supply shop. She jumped from job to job so people if they needed help could find her. This job had seemed perfect at the time when she had saw it in the newspaper but Paige got prone to orbing home for a snack through sheer boredom. Nobody it appeared apart from deluded hippies wanted what the shop had to offer and Paige wasn't impressed by the way the shop was run to begin with.

"She's uh… coping."

"Ah, still bored."

"She'll orb in any second now."

They both nodded taking in each others company. It was relaxing. Phoebe had never noticed how little she really knew about Chris, he was extremely cagey about the future so simple questions like where do you live or what is your job apart from helping us fight evil on a day to day basis. He just refused to answer anything he thought would change the future which meant they knew practically nothing about where he had grown up or what he liked to do. She had always taken him for granted until she had realised in a vision quest she had been sent on that he was Piper's second son and when she had queried him about it, he had admitted it had seemed to easy. It didn't feel right, suddenly out of nowhere with no warning whatsoever she had found she had a nephew and her sister had a son. Piper didn't know as Phoebe didn't want to push her and Leo together like Chris did. She thought it was his fault for coming along and ruining their lives anyway. Which in reality he hadn't but he had altered it immensely. Paige had found out when Chris got very desperate and made Piper and Leo sleep together when Phoebe was a genie. Paige was shocked and appalled when she heard this but then he told her and everything changed for her the same it had for Phoebe. The problem was Phoebe though try as she might desperately could not keep secrets, big or small. Being a witch was different because it was her life and she was content with not letting the whole world know about that, especially after what had happened to Prue. How could she not tell Piper? Looking at her with Chris made her realise more and more how Chris was telling the truth. He had inherited her eyes.

"So uh, I'm just going to go and look at the Book for a while?" Chris got up.

"Why, demons?"

"Sorta." He shrugged and walked away.

"Okay…"

Phoebe looked at her laptop screen and tapped her fingernails against the hard kitchen table surface.

Still blank.

"No!"

Paige stood in P3 arguing with her older sister futilely.

"But Piper!" Paige whined.

"I am not standing in for you at your job Paige!" Piper stacked some glasses on a shelf.

"But it's strictly charmed duties."

"I don't care you can do it when your shift is over like a normal person!"

"But they came to me for help."

"Paige!" Piper growled.

"Fine after work."

"Aren't you supposed to be there now?" She placed some bottles on some other shelves moving away while Paige followed.

"Yes… but…"

"PAIGE!"

"Fine!"

In a firework display of white orbs Paige disappeared.

Piper sighed and picked up a box of bottles and stacked them.

Chris stood in the Haliwell attic flipping absent-mindedly through the Book of Shadows. There had to be something about love potions or conception or something. Wyatt was at Magic School so that was one thing he didn't have to worry about, but Phoebe wouldn't tell Piper about him until she thought the time was right. Which would be never at the rate she was going. Paige orbed in, right on schedule.

"Hey Paige I was worried where you had go to."

"Ha ha, so not funny."

"Seriously don't the guys at the shop wonder where you are?"

"Uh, well if this crystal glows it means someone has come into the shop and that's when I go."

"So for now you are…"

"Looking in the Book for stuff on skeletal soldiers."
"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Skeletal soldiers, a witch came in looking for some supplies for a spell to vanquish them."
"Why?"

"Her husband was killed by some."

"Oh," Chris stepped away from the podium which held the book.

"Thank you. Seen anything?"

"No." Was the blunt reply.

"Ok thanks." Paige said in a sarcastic tone.

Chris went and sat on an old sofa.

"I know!"

"What?" Asked Chris shifting on the lumpy sofa Paige normally wanted him to orb somewhere when she looked at him like that.

"Go down to the underworld see what you can find."

Bingo!

"Okay," he had nothing else to do.

"Great, I was thinking it may be a new demonic faction or something."

"Skeletal soldiers?"

"it's a theory."

Chris looked sceptically at her.

"I know we haven't got much to go on but still let's give it a shot."

"Whatever." Chris orbed away.

Paige flicked through the Book furiously.

Skeletoids. skeletons. mutant zombie/skeletons? What a weird thing to put in the book of shadows Paige murmured to herself. She read through the inscription by the rather grotesque picture. It said they were rather annoying creatures. Loved to reform and have more swords than athames. Most likely to be a pirate of some sort apparently.

Paige shook her head irritably. This was getting her nowhere. Her only real hope was Chris.