A/N: Wow, this chapter came out fast. I was actually planning on doing this chapter for a while, so I guess I was eager to write it. And, I guess the fact that I actually had time to type it out helped.

Thanks to my ever-loyal reviewers, Fiona12690 (you would think I would have memorized your penname by now!) and B Oots!

Oh, one more thing. I know last chapter I the summary said that there would be a "surprise visitor" and a couple of Charmed references. Well, I decided to be evil and put the visit and some references in Chapter 12, so this chapter will be focused solely on the characters' feelings about each other and recent events. Call it the ultimate teaser. grins evilly

Chapter 11

Irene sat at the island, a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. Vodka would have been better for this pounding headache, maybe even scotch. But for this early in the morning, black coffee would have to do.

The events of the previous night kept replaying in her mind. It had taken she, Ned, Clu, Carey, Jack and Fi over an hour to find their way back to the Phillips' house (she would have magically transported them all home, but she was too tired to pull it off).

Fi had run up the stairs to her room as soon as she had unlocked the door, steady tears still streaming down her face. Carey had gone to comfort her, and Jack had stomped off to his room, not wanting anyone to see him cry. Sensing that his best friend wanted to be left alone, Clu had gone to help Carey with Fi. Irene and Ned had decided to stay at the Phillips' until they either rescue Molly or…the other possibilities had been too depressing to consider.

Ever since then, the house had been eerily quiet. Not a single sound could be heard from Fi or Jack's rooms all through the night. Irene had triple checked on everyone, distinctly remembering how it was also noiseless the night Carey was kidnapped. When she went into the rooms a fourth time, Fi had jokingly commanded her to go to sleep, and Jack had almost thrown something at her.

Irene sighed. She knew she shouldn't have gotten up at six. The sullen silence was unbearable. But she honestly didn't know which was worse – this or one more hour of sleeplessly tossing and turning. Not wanting to go back to bed, Irene mentally prayed that someone would wake up and join her soon.

Her prayers were answered fifteen minutes later, when she heard somebody come through the kitchen doorway behind her. A gruff, groggy voice commented, "I see I'm not the only one who didn't sleep well."

"Good morning, Ned." Irene smiled for what seemed like the first time in days. She kissed him on the cheek as he passed her on his way to the other side of the island.

"So that's all the thanks I get for putting up with you last night?" Ned joked.

"Excuse me?" Irene raised an eyebrow and turned to face him.

"You were kicking. Hard. And often."

"Oh, sorry about that." Irene smiled sheepishly. "No matter what I did, I couldn't get comfortable."

"You couldn't get comfortable…"

"Shut up." Irene playfully slapped his arm. When he stopped laughing, she explained, "It's just…this whole thing is so surreal…"

"I think you're forgetting who you're talking to here. I'm the one who married Samantha Stephens."

"What?" Irene asked, not quite realizing what he meant. Then she got it. He was referring to the 60s sitcom Bewitched, about the wife of a mortal man who waited until after their marriage to tell him that she was a witch. The wife's name was Samantha Stephens. Irene made the comparison. "Oh, right. We never did talk about that."

Ned smiled. "Well, I tried to, but you always managed to avoid the subject."

"I wasn't avoiding the subject! Every time you brought it up there would be another demon attack or something…" She was making excuses, and he knew it. Irene sighed heavily and said, "Alright, you caught me. We'll talk."

"Finally." Ned looked straight into his wife's eyes. "First, let's establish that I'm not upset about the witch thing. Actually, I think it's awesome. But what bothers me is that you kept it from me all these years." At this, Ned lowered his eyes and pretended to be very interested in his folded hands. "I always thought that we trusted each other. In fact, when I first found out, I was shocked that there was a whole different part of you that I never knew. More so than the fact that my wife was a witch."

When Ned had started to talk, guilt had been gathering itself at the pit of Irene's stomach. Now, she felt like the worst wife in the world. No, make that the entire universe. "Ned, I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you. I really, really did - "

"But?"

"But when we first married, witches weren't allowed to tell any mortal their secret, even their husbands."

"And when you were allowed?"

"I guess part of it was because of Molly. I was afraid that if I told you, she would somehow find out, and the spell she was under would be broken. And I know that wasn't what she wanted." Irene quickly added, "Not that I thought you couldn't keep a secret. I was more than a little paranoid at the time. Especially in the later years, when Fi started her investigations."

"What was the other part?"

She hesitated, trying to get her words together. "To tell you the truth, I-I…was scared. I worried constantly about how you would take it…if you would be angry…extremely confused…scared of me…I just didn't want to lose you."
"I think now it's safe to say that you're stuck with me. I mean, if I was going to run , I would have done it weeks ago when all this started." Ned gave a small chuckle, then said seriously, "However, from now on, know that you have to trust me. I am hurt, but I can kind of understand your reasoning. Just promise that you'll tell me everything from now on, ok? I'll love you no matter what."

"I love you too." Irene was barely able to get the words out, too shocked and touched to speak. He held her hands in his for a few moments. Then Irene said, "You know, I have been wanting to get something off my chest…"

"Shoot."

Irene paused, then blurted, "I'm afraid, Ned. Terrified, even I keep worrying. What if we don't get to Molly in time? What if there's another demon attack? What if we all get killed? What if…" She stopped, trying to think of what else could happen. Those were the only scenarios she had imagined, and they had definitely been enough to keep her mind occupied all night long.

Ned went around the island, sat next to his wife, and hugged her. "Honey, calm down. We're going to get through this." His face suddenly brightened up. "Hey, I got an idea. It might help if we think of everything that could happen. Then maybe we can plan what to do next."

"Okay." Irene said meekly, while resting her head on her husband. Getting herself together, she went over and got a notepad and a pencil from a nearby drawer. Sitting down again, she said, "Let's talk strategy."

Carey paused on his way back to Jack's room (where the boys had set up camp) from the bathroom. He thought he had heard something. Deciding that he was too tired to care, since it was around 6:15 am., he continued walking. But just as he reached the door, he heard the noise again, this time a little louder than before. Realizing it was coming from Fi's room, he ran toward it, fear coursing through his heart. If anything happened to her…

His heart slowed down to its normal rate when he reached the open doorway of Fi's room. There were no demons, thank goodness. The only danger here was the danger of becoming sleep-deprived. Fi was tossing and turning, while shouting, "No…don't…no" over and over again. Her blankets were in a heap on the floor – she must have flung them off during the night. Poor Fi, she must be having a nightmare. Not that he could blame her.

Feeling sorry for her, he picked up her blankets and covered her so that the only part of her body that could be seen was her head. Lightly kissing her on her forehead, he turned to go back to Jack's room. However, just as he was leaving, he heard a small, barely loud enough voice.

"Carey, is that you?" Fi whispered, her eyes opening slowly.

"Yeah, it's me. You were talking in your sleep and looked like you were having a nightmare, so I just came to check up on you."

"Thanks Carey." Seeing that he was about to go, she quickly said, "Carey…can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything." He meant that too. Help her with her website, teach her guitar, rescue her from a hundred demons…there wasn't anything he wouldn't do.

Fortunately the favor wasn't so drastic. "Can you…stay with me for a little while?"

You bet I can, Carey thought, trying not to let his ear-to-ear smile show. Containing himself, he replied, "Of course." He went over to the bed, and Fi moved over so that there was just enough space for him.

Noticing that her request might have seemed a little unusual, she justified it with, "I'm sorry, I just keep having nightmares. Really bad nightmares."

"No, it's ok. I don't mind staying with you." Forever. After a few moments of comfortable quiet, he asked, "So, are you going to tell me what these 'really bad nightmares' are about?"

"Well, they're not really nightmares, so to speak. More like…psychic dreams. I guess."

"Visions? Isn't that Molly's forte?"

"No, not visions. Like… psychic connections. I keep seeing Mom in the Protector's den…she's hurting…he took her powers…"

Seeing the tears about to fall, he said, "You know, they might be just nightmares."

Fi shook her head, "No, it's real. I don't know how I know, I just do. If we don't get there soon…" She remembered Clu's words, At this point there's probably nothing left to find. She involuntarily shivered.

Carey hugged her close, sensing that she was scared. "Don't worry. You heard what Jack said. We'll get her back."

"How? If we go back, we'll get clobbered like we did before. And it's even more hopeless without Daddy or Mom." Saying that instantly made her want to cry. She felt like she lost both of her parents in one day. Well, techincally, one was lost to begin with, and the other is still alive. Barely so, but still alive.

Carey hadn't thought about that. They couldn't go back to the Protector's hideout unless they had a new game plan. "I'm sure my mom and dad will come up with something." He wish he was as sure as he sounded.

"And another thing. Why Mom? She's a way stronger witch than I am. If anyone, it should have been me, not her." It makes more sense, Fi admitted, I mean, I'm less experienced than Mom or Irene, much easier to take over. And the Protector probably doesn't give a crap about Ned, Carey, Clu or even Jack.

"You gotta remember, Fi, your mom was…is empathic. She was feeling her own pain and emotions, as well as all of ours."

"Yeah, I guess. But it still should have been me. I'm the one who started this whole thing."

Confused, Carey looked at her through the darkness of the room. "How so?"

"Carey, everything is my fault. It's always been my fault. All those times I've gotten everyone in danger, or I was almost killed…it could have been avoided had I just stayed out of it. Mom's been right all these years. I should have quit while I was ahead." Fi buried her head deeper into the nook of Carey's arm and said, her voice muffled, "If it wasn't for me, you would all be living normal lives."

"Fi, how normal could our lives have been when we spend half of our time on a tour bus?" Carey smiled when he heard Fi give a tiny laugh. "Besides, this is really about Molly and Rick. With or without you, their past would have caught up with them eventually."

Fi sat in silence for a while, thinking. After a few minutes she said, "Thanks Carey. I feel much better now."

"No problem." Trying to get Fi's spirits up, he joked, "You know, my mom would kill me if she found us like this."

She laughed, then said, "I know, but can you still rest here with me? Only until I fall asleep again." Truthfully, she wanted him to stay until she got up for the day in case she had another "nightmare," but that would be borderline inappropriate.

"Fi, I'll stay as long as you want me to."

Clu was woken up when he heard his brother leave to go to the bathroom. Glancing at the digital clock on Jack's desk, he saw that Carey should have been back by now. He must have gone to Fi's room. I wonder what he's doing in there…Clu thought, feeling guilty at his twinge of jealousy.

Not able to go back to sleep, Clu sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around Jack's room. He and Carey had been in their sleeping bags on the floor near Jack's bed, which was now empty. Jack was at his desk, typing rapidly on his new laptop. He had gotten one a few weeks ago, when he got sick and tired of not being able to use Fi's when he needed it to do school work. Now he used his for a lot more than homework, Clu noticed. Like talking with his long-distance girlfriend, Gabe.

Which was exactly what he was doing now, Clu noted as he got up and looked at the computer screen. Jack almost jumped out of his seat when he saw Clu. "You could at least warn a guy before you read his personal emails over his shoulder."

"Sorry, dude, just wondering what you could be typing at…" Clu looked back at the clock, "6:30 am."

"I needed to talk to Gabe," Jack said dismissively.

Not catching the hint, Clu said "Oh. What about?"

"Stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

Rolling his eyes, Jack reached over and motioned for Clu to have a seat on the bed, which was only inches away from the desk. When Clu sat down, he said, "I just need to talk to her. Obviously I can't tell her about what's been going on in detail, but sometimes talking to her about anything makes me feel ten times better."

Reading what was on the screen, Clu asked innocently, "Would 'anything' include what pajamas she's wearing right now?"

Embarrassed, Jack quickly typed "I have to go. Talk to you later," and closed the Instant Message window.

"It's ok, I completely understand that you need to have private convos with your girlfriend. But I am your best bro – you could talk to me."

"Yeah, I suppose so…" Jack said slowly. "Ok, if I pour my heart out to you, will you promise not to tell anyone? Not even Carey?"

"What about Fi?"

"Especially not Fi."

"Oh…" Clu said, disappointed. Finally he shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, I promise."

Jack took a deep breath. After letting it out, he said, "Clu, I'm a chicken. A chicken and a failure."

"Dude, what are you talking about?"

"I'm scared, ok?" Jack said, his voice rising, "I'm probably more scared than anyone. I'm scared of the Protector, scared for my life, scared for everyone else, for the future…"

"Jack, calm down, dude! It's ok to be a scared! Who wouldn't be? I'm scared, Carey's scared, everyone's scared man! I'd be concerned if you weren't."

"But, Clu, I'm not allowed to be scared. I have to protect Mom and Fiona – they need me to be brave! And that's where the whole failure thing works in. I failed to protect Mom, and now I may never see her alive again! It's my fault for not being able to save her!"

"Ok, do you realize what you're saying? There must have been, like, over a hundred demons there! That means we each had to fight at least…"

"Fifteen, more or less."

"Fifteen demons each! There's no way you could have taken on your fifteen, and Molly's fifteen, and Fi's fifteen at the same time! Give yourself some credit!"

Suddenly, the alarm clock by Jack's bed went off. It was now 6:45 am. Jack went over and shut it off. More to himself, he said, "I must have set it on instinct last night. I'm definitely not going to school today."

To both Irene and Ned's great surprise, all of the teens were voluntarily up by 7 am. Some were too upset to eat breakfast, others were too upset not to eat. Irene had almost jokingly asked them if they wanted to go to school that day. She certainly wasn't going to make them under the circumstances. Everyone, of course, said no – they would rather spend the day figuring out how to defeat the Protector and get Molly back.

"Oh, wait, I think I found one…never mind," Ned said with a sigh. They were all gathered in the living room, where they had been for most of the afternoon. After useless talking and idea sharing, Fi had gotten the bright idea to get her magic book. Everyone was sitting on the floor, getting into a position so they could read the spells before Fi turned the page. Not that anyone had any clue of what they were looking for. Irene had suggested, "Anything that mentioned death or death or destruction would be good."

However, the small portion of the book that they had gone through so far was made up of defense spells. While they would be helpful later on, the spells weren't what they needed right now.

"I never noticed how huge this book was," Fi commented. She could have sworn that it didn't have this many pages when she first started using it. But who knows, Fi thought, maybe it didn't.

"Yeah, this book is proof that bigger is definitely not better." Jack glanced at the back page. "I wonder if it has an index. Or a table of contents?" He asked hopefully.

"Nope. Believe me, I checked," Irene answered. She too was getting frustrated. "There has to be a simpler way to do this."

After a few more minutes of searching, the doorbell rang. Everyone looked at each other a moment, unsure of what to do. Clu pointed at everyone, mentally taking attendance, then said, "Who can that be? We're all here."

It was then that Fi realized that for the past month or so, none of them had come into contact with anyone outside their group. Molly had canceled all of her gigs, for obvious reasons, so the majority of everyone's time had been dedicated to fighting demons. Rolling her eyes, Fi got up and answered the door. At first she didn't recognize the person in front of her. "Candy?" she said, with some surprise.

"Hey Fi. I just wanted to come by and drop off your homework," Candy said, confused. Since when is it unusual to stop by your best friend's house? "And I wanted to check up on you. You've missed a lot of school these past few weeks."

Fi thought frantically. It was nice of Candy to come over, and Fi couldn't blame her for being concerned. But she showed up at one of the worst possible times. No, Fi corrected herself, The worst possible time would have been during a demon attack. She thanked her lucky stars that that wasn't the case. But what was she going to tell Candy? Oh, yeah, 'I haven't been in school because I just found out that my mom, her manager, and I are witches and that a really big demon is after us and is sending littler demons to attack us almost every day' would go over real well, Fi thought sarcastically. Finding no other excuse, she said lamely, "I've had an extremely bad cold. Some days I feel better, so I go, but other days I can barely get out of bed." Which was true, to some extent. She can barely get out of bed after being beat up by a demon, that's for sure.

"Oh," Candy said, not quite believing it. "A month is a really long time to have a cold…" she said suspiciously.

"Well, the doctors think it might be turning into the flu."

"…and you don't look that sick."

Fi couldn't think of anything to say to that. So, she pathetically faked a cough and said, as sickly as she could sound, "Uh, I handle colds really well. And I just put on a good concealer this morning."

"Right…" Candy nodded slowly and handed Fi a paper bag filled with books. "Um, this is what you'll need for your homework. Your assignments are in there, as well as Jack's homework – the office gave it to me when I mentioned I was getting yours. I assume he has an almost-flu as well?"

That works. "Oh, yeah, poor Jack's so sick he couldn't get out of bed this morning."

Fi winced when Jack called, "Fi, who's at the door?" It was in a clear, healthy sounding-voice, obviously coming from the living room. Candy raised an eyebrow and waited for an explanation.

"Oh, I didn't know you were feeling better, Jack," Fi called loudly, trying to give her brother the hint. Turning back to Candy, Fi shrugged, "Colds are so unpredictable, you know?"

"Fi, I'm not stupid." Candy fumed. "Is there something you're not telling me? If you can't tell your secrets to your best friend, then – "

"Candy, I'm sorry," Fi said, cutting her off before she could walk away in a huff, "I just can't tell you right now. I promise, sometime in the future I will, but for now, you're just going to have to trust me."

Candy bit her lip. "Fi, just tell me one thing – is everything under control?"

Fi hesitated. "It will be. Eventually."

"That's all I needed to know." Candy went to hug Fi, then stopped. "I shouldn't – I might catch a 'cold.'"

Laughing, Fi gave her a hug, and closed the door as Candy walked back to her dad's waiting car. Now in a slightly better mood, Fi walked back into the living room, her homework the farthest thing from her mind.

Jack had been sitting at his desk for a few hours now, talking to Gabe via AOL Instant Messenger. Sometime during his typing, the phone rang, cutting through his concentration like a sharp knife. Noting that the cordless phone was in his room and that it would be stupid to ask someone else to get it, he rolled his eyes and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hi…Jack, right?"

"Yeah, who's…" Jack froze. "Aunt Rachel?" He hadn't recognized her voice at first. She sounded tired, even weak, and a little bit frantic. "Are you ok?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Is Fi there?"

Slightly confused, Jack replied, "Yeah, I'll get her for you." He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard her sigh with relief. He went to Fi's room and knocked on the door. "Fi! Phone for you. It's Aunt Rachel."

The door opened, revealing a bewildered Fi. "Why does she want to talk to me?" Rachel didn't call often, and when she did, she wanted to talk to Molly.

"I don't know. She sounds really upset." Jack handed her the phone. "Tell me about it when you get off, ok?"

Fi nodded and held the phone up to her ear, walking back into her room and closing the door behind her. "Hello?"

"Hi, Fi. It's Aunt Rachel."

"I know, Jack told me. What's up?"

"Oh, well, I…" Rachel stammered, as if forgetting why she called. Then she said abruptly, "I can't wait to see you guys this weekend."

Fi sank into the chair at her desk, frozen, not comprehending. She slowly started to remember. A while ago, before all this started, Molly had told them that Aunt Rachel was coming to stay for a week. She was selling her apartment in New York and moving in with her three cousins, who live in San Francisco. On her way over, she was stopping by to see her favorite niece and nephew. Fi hurriedly tried to talk her aunt out of making the trip. "Aunt Rachel, about that, maybe you shouldn't come. We'd love to have you, don't get me wrong, but things are kind of…hectic here. And Mom went away…for a…out-of-state gig." Fi made up that last part on the spot, and knew it wasn't the best excuse. But, unfortunately, she was a witch – not an accomplished liar.

"Really?" Rachel asked, and it was obvious that she was somewhat skeptical. "When I talked to her a couple of weeks ago, she said everything was fine."

"Her schedule was changed unexpectedly," You have no idea how unexpectedly, Fi thought. "I guess she forgot to call you."

"I guess," Rachel said, then asked suddenly, "You and Jack aren't alone, are you? Is that why you don't want me to come?"

"Oh, no, the Bells are staying with us. They figured it would be easier to fit everyone in our house than in theirs." That part was the truth.

"Oh, good."

After a long pause, Fi asked, "Is that why you called?"

"Not really…" Rachel took a deep breath, then exclaimed, "Fi, I think I'm going crazy!"

Fi laughed. "Why, what happened?"

"It's not funny! It's one of those things that only you would know about. And listen to without sending me to a therapist."

"Oh." She thought that Aunt Rachel had been speaking figuratively – maybe she was stressed out at work, or from selling her apartment, or from moving across the country. Fi certainly hadn't expected that, of all things – there was just too much of it at home. More seriously this time, she asked, "What is it? Did Daddy send you another message?"

"Something like that."

Fi sat there, excitement growing within her. Maybe Daddy was trying to talk to us through Aunt Rachel. It makes sense, sort of. I mean, she is his twin. "Did you contact him?"

"In a way, yes. It all started a few weeks ago. I felt like he was here. Well, not here with me, exactly, but somewhere on earth. I felt his presence. And it affected my mood, too. Everyone, friends and coworkers, commented on how happy and energetic I was. Even Melinda could tell I was different when I talked to her on the phone last week."

Fi completely understood. From both past experiences with Rachel and researching it online, Fi found out that twins have a psychic connection. What one feels, the other feels, or at least knows how he or she is feeling. Sometimes, twins can literally read each others' minds. Fi briefly wondered if that had been the case with Rachel and Rick. "And…?"

"Yesterday night, I felt this really sharp pain, flowing through my body. I thought I was having a heart attack or something, it hurt that much. I was about to call the hospital, then it stopped. Stopped short, just like that. I didn't really feel any other pains from then on, but I was in a very dark and gloomy mood the rest of the night. In fact, I still feel a little depressed. And, worst yet, I didn't feel Rick anymore. I still don't." Rachel caught her breath, then said, in a desperate tone, "Fi, I wish I knew what's wrong with me!"

I think I might have some idea, Fi thought. Her aunt's emotions fitted the pattern of Rick's life, er, afterlife for the past month. He had been with them, fighting demons, but still thrilled that he could spend time with his family and friends, which would account for Rachel's upbeat disposition. And the connection between Rachel and the events of last night were obvious. She must have felt that pain when Rick was being destroyed by the Protector.

Recalling that her aunt was still on the line, Fi thought of what she could say. She felt guilty, but at the same time, she couldn't tell her about what was going on. Then again, maybe she could help us. If Rachel did have some sort of link to Rick, it might be possible that she could bring him back. Making up her mind, Fi said, "Aunt Rachel, I think I probably know why you've been having those feelings. I'll tell you about it when you come down this weekend."

A/N: Sheesh, this chapter turned out to be way longer than I planned. I thought it would be some 3-5 page chapter just on the character's feelings. That it is, but even more – Candy stopped by, and I even managed to fit in Rachel's phone call. Before I knew it, I was on the bottom of page 9! Well, anyway, hope you enjoyed this surprisingly long chapter.

P.S.: There are two Charmed references in here. Did you spot them?

Additional Disclaimer: I think it is quite obvious that I am not affiliated with nor owner of AOL Instant Messenger.