Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed nor do I have anything to do with the show, I just wrote this story for my own enjoyment.

Chapter 14 --

The calm before the storm, he had seen it once before. It was a truly beautiful thing. It was a profound piece of peacefulness and serenity. It was joyous and humble. The calm before the storm was something that created an allusion to those caught in it. The allusion the calm creates is one of a false belief. The belief is that the world will always be as it is in that moment, will always be as happy and as beautiful, will always display a sense of tranquility and will always have a deep warmness to it. It makes the people caught in it believe that the cold will never come. The coldness will always come though, that is why it is called the calm before the storm, the storm will always follow the calm.

That was a fact he knew to be true, one that he had always hoped to be false but one that had been proved true in such a colossal way that the allusion would never capture him again. He had seen the storm many times, the allusion the calm created, that was no more than a dwindling hope to him now, it was no longer a belief.

As his eyes stretched over the mass of land before him from his place alone under a shady tree, he could see numerous amounts of people caught in the allusion. It was one he believed they should have recognized by now but one they still did not. These people in the park before him were his family, they were a group of people who owned his heart. One in particular owned it more than that one believed or wanted to, and much more so than the rest of the group, but they all had a portion of it.

His eyes caught site of a woman, the woman, as far as he was concerned. He stared, amazed at the way the sunlight bounced off of her vibrant dark hair, amazed at the grace which she moved with and the sweet satisfied feeling her voice brought about in his heart. The woman was laughing heartily as she conversed with two boys, two very special boys. They were Wyatt and Chris, her nephews. The boys, at this time, captured his attention far more greatly than the woman, something that in his universe was quite a feat. These boys intrigued him. He could see himself in one and the man who was, by all means except biologically, his brother, Kyle, in the other.

They had the same bond he and Kyle had shared as young children. They also had the same differences. Both were of the light but one had a darkness that demanded to take control. Wyatt was with the darkness and for all he tried to apprehend it, the man who watched from under the tree, Bane, could still see it in him, he could do this, as he was the one with the darkness in the equation that concerned Kyle and himself. Kyle was always the one of the light, pure to the point where he would go to outrageous, sometimes reckless, sometimes evil, lengths to protect the light. Chris was the same.

But Wyatt, Wyatt was so much like himself. Bane was the one who had an underlying darkness, who had to apprehend it, who had to put all his energy into stopping himself becoming someone who the world seemed to want him to be, someone of hate, someone of the darkness. He was the one who put all his energy into stopping something only to see it crack through his persona time and time again, to see him do things he never wanted to do.

Bane thought back to the time when he had finally let go, to when he had become the person he most feared. It was just after Kyle's parents had passed away, had been murdered to put it more bluntly. Their death had rocked his young world. They were not his parents in the sense of blood relations, but they had taken him in when his own parents had abandoned him. They had been good to him, had treated him as equally as they had treated Kyle, their own son. But their death had caused him to let go. When they had died he had been taken to an orphanage while Kyle had gone to live with his grandparents. Kyle, when he was old enough to understand what had happened to his parents, had turned to a life of finding justice. He wanted his parents memory to be honored and believed the only way that was possible was for him to find and capture the culprits who performed the unforgivable act of murder. Bane though, had to turned to a life of reckless abandonment. He had denied ever letting someone else into his life, denied his heart and had given in to the person he never wanted to be.

He could see the very real possibility of that happening to Wyatt and Chris, however he hoped that even if something were to happen, whether it be losing Piper and Owen, or something else, they would always have each other to lean on, that they would chose each other over the martyr and devil roles they could so easily fall into. He could see the calm all over their young faces, it was the same calm that had once been over his and his brothers. He could see the calm over the rest of the family's faces, they two were blissfully unaware of the approaching storm.

From his place beneath the shade of the tree in the park filled with the calm of today, he could see everything. The family had no idea what was to come, they were wrapped up in the present. He hoped against every fact he knew to be true that he was wrong. He prayed to a god he had no belief in for he to be wrong. The world could not face those brothers fallen, and he knew if the approaching storm was to surface that they would fall, deep down he could not deny the fact.

He had to turn his attention from his fears, it was the only way he could sleep at night, as he knew the damage that would be done to the entire world if his fears were to come true. Lucky enough for him he had a vaccine, something which took him away from his fears, his brother's wife.

Paige Mathews was a woman who had had his heart from the day she ran after him after he found out that Prue was dead. She had talked to him, offered him a place to stay when she found he had nowhere to go, she had become the person he looked to when even the tiniest thing was bothering him. He had fallen in love and then he had made the biggest mistake of his life.

He had enlisted her help, she had agreed to help him find his brother. During the time they had spent searching for him his feelings had grown and he had finally come to the conclusion that he would tell her all that he had been keeping inside while mourning for Prue. It was only a day after his resolution had been made that they found Kyle. Temporarily his plan to tell Paige had been put on hold and he had bonded with his lost brother. For a month they had spent nights together catching up, Paige on many occasions joining them until the day came when Bane realized that Paige's intentions when joining them had changed. Once they had been simply for his purposes, to support a friend, but then they changed, she no longer went for him but for Kyle. The two had fallen in love and he had taken a step back and let them.

All he could do now was watch her from afar, be in love with her from a distance, and keep any and all feelings he had for her to himself. There were only two people in the world that knew of his feelings towards Paige and they were Chris and Patty. Chris, under the tutelage of Owen, had become an excellent secret keeper and had taught Patty all he knew, so in that respect he had nothing to worry about.

In light of this he could not help but feel guilty for the feelings he harbored for his brothers wife. It was wrong and that was all there was to it. It was wrong to feel such things about a person so profoundly off limits, it was wrong to dream such things about a woman who bore his brothers daughter. It was wrong to hate himself for finding his brother and bringing them both the only happiness they had had in years.

He could stop feeling guilty now though because he was about to do something he should have done a long time ago. He had come to a decision about a month ago and since then had been putting his plans in motion and today was the day that he was finally going to see those plans through.

He watched the family he had come to love. They were scattered amongst the park. Sitting down on a blanket across the way were Piper and Owen. They were wrapped up in each other's arms, talking about everything and anything, blissfully unaware that there were others in their surroundings. Though every couple of minutes they would look to where the children were playing, making sure none of them were hurt. They were the perfect picture of the perfect husband and wife and the perfect parents, sitting in the spot where they had met over eight years ago.

Then there was Phoebe and Paige who were now sitting on the grass together, whispering the secrets of the universe behind their hands like a couple of school girls, every now and again shooting humorous glances at their husbands, a dead give away they were plotting something decidedly evil.

Standing up amongst the children were Kyle and Les. They both had a childlike glint in their eyes as they tumbled amongst the grass with their kids. Laughing and playing, having a great time with their family. Off to the side of them were Wyatt, Chris and Patty. They were playing fetch with Frankie. They had all grown so much from when he first met them. Wyatt was now fourteen and Chris twelve, and little Patty was already seven years old. Every so often one of the boy's would chase the little girl, tackle and tickle her until she was begging for mercy, while the other would keep an eye as sharp as a hawks on where their little brother was playing with his uncles.

The children's laughter rang through his ears and that laughter was the perfect reminder of why he was doing what he was, as was the picture that was before him. They were a perfect family, they had the love of each other, he was an outsider. He was leaving. Today was actually his going away celebration. They had spent the majority of the day together as a big group, only in the last hour spreading out. There had been a cake. There had been Piper's delicious cookies. There had been stories of past events. Now it was time, not time to say goodbye, the goodbyes had been said, but it was time to leave. As far as the family were concerned he was already gone. They did not know he was where he was under the tree. They could not see him. They thought he was gone.

He watched them from his spot for one last time. Phoebe and Paige had lifted themselves from their spot on the ground, snuck up behind their husbands and within seconds a water war had broken out. A minute later and the whole family had joined in, Piper and Owen running in from their spot, Frankie running around them as if possessed.

He took one last look at the beauty that was Paige. He was doing this for her, he couldn't keep up the charade of the caring brother-in-law much longer. He was leaving so she could lead her life in peace. He watched her smile and laugh as the water got directed to her, he watched her swing her little girl around off the ground by the arms. He said a silent goodbye to one of the only people who ever broke through the darkness in his heart, and the only person who conquered it for good. Then he turned and he left, the only happy thought in his head, at least he was leaving before the storm had set in.

If he had turned back and had one last look, he would have seen a little girl whisper something in her ear, he would of seen the look of shock on her face as her head swung around and watched his retreating back, and he would have seen that lone tear fall silently down her face as her mind flashed back to all the times they had shared, and the look on her faced as she realized she must have been blind not to see the love that he had for her, the love that was just revealed by the little girl who had inherited her mothers intolerance for secrets.

----------------

A/N: Hey I'm back, terribly sorry it's been so long. I'm not going to bore you with excuses, I have a million of them, let's just say it's been a hectic year. Please leave a review, feedback always helps, and thank you for taking the time to read this story, it means a lot.