A/N: So, here's chapter three. I hope that people have been enjoying the story thus far. Please R&R and let me know what you guys think. I'd really appreciate it!
Chapter 3
"Honey, I'm home!" Wyatt called as he threw the door to his dorm room open. He walked in quickly, allowing his parents and brother to come in behind him and set down the items they were carrying on the empty side of the room.
"Rise and shine you lazy ass bum…God! Why don't you sleep with decent clothes on!" Wyatt cried to his roommate as he ripped the covers off to discover she only had a sports bra and a pair of shorts on.
"I have clothes on," she yelled back at him, trying unsuccessfully to pull the cover back from Wyatt. After a few moments of struggle she reached under her be and pulled out the quilt she had there, wrapping it around herself from behind, over her shoulders, and then gripping the ends in front of her. She slid off of her bed and glared at Wyatt.
"What?" He asked, feigning innocence.
"I don't like you." She told him pointedly. She then turned to his family, who were watching their actions with amusement, and smiled brightly.
"Hi, I'm Rain." She approached the Halliwells and extended a hand from under the quilt.
Piper and Leo greeted her warmly, both instantly feeling good vibes radiating of the tall, slender blonde.
Chris greeted Rain slightly less enthusiastically, managing only a small smile as he gently took her hand. There was something about her that was paralyzing him, and when he caught her eyes, he found himself completely unable to focus.
His brother's arm around him, and hand shaking Chris's shoulder brought him back to reality in time to hear the end of his brother's sentence.
"…rude brother Chris, who seems to really like your hand." Wyatt continually tightened his grip on his brother's shoulder as he spoke, until Chris finally realized what was going on and quickly released Rain's hand.
"Sorry," he apologized, looking down at he floor. "I completely spaced."
"No worries. Being around Wyatt makes everyone act retarded. He kills brain cells." Rain spoke as if they were discussing the weather. "Stupidity is contagious."
Piper coughed at the comments. Trying to suppress the laughter she had building in her as she listened to Wyatt's roommate easily insult him. She broke into full out laughter when she looked and saw the shock on Wyatt's face from his roommate's sassy comments. She knew that as his mother she should be anything but entertained at the comments, but after years of hearing the boys tear apart everyone they knew with their overly sarcastic comments, she couldn't help but feel Wyatt deserved it. Besides, it was all in good fun. There wasn't a doubt in Piper's mind that Wyatt would find a way to get her back.
His wife's blatant laughter broke Leo's restraint, and he too couldn't help but to laugh.
"Okay guys, it wasn't that funny," Wyatt said, annoyed, as he walked to his roommate. "We'll talk about this later," he told her playfully.
Rain just gave him a smile and nod that, while it suggested submissiveness, was anything but.
"I'm sorry," Piper said when she finally caught her breath. "It's just the situation. By the way, Wyatt, she is perfect for you to live with. I was afraid that after living with your younger brother, who might as well have been your twin, all your life you'd drive any other person crazy. I love you guys to death, but there are some special habits that you two have that…well…anyways. I figured you'd drive any person that wasn't Chris crazy in under five minutes."
"I'm not that bad," Wyatt replied, indignantly.
"You're both that bad and don't even try to deny it."
"Don't worry Mrs. Halliwell…"
"Call me Piper, and this is Leo, not Mr. Halliwell."
"Don't worry, Piper. I'll keep Wyatt in line for you. Hopefully make him a little more normal, ya know. Bring him down a bit."
"Bring me down from what?"
"I believe you Rain. I have a feeling that you can turn my oh-so-awful son normal again."
"Not going to be a problem."
"Maybe when you start making progress with the big one, you can work on the little one as well." Piper tousled Chris's hair to his great annoyance. "This one started out good, but after 20 years of living with the demented one…well, you understand."
"I do. We'll have to see how it goes with Wyatt before we try to destupidify any of his victims."
"I think you'll find that Chris is just as bad as Wyatt in his own way. He's just sneakier and always manages to make Wyatt seem like the bad one. Worry about saving Patricia, the boy's little sister, before you worry about Chris." Leo added in with the girl's banter, feeling like Chris was getting off awfully light. If they were going to insult them both, there needed to be balance.
While the girls took turns insulting Chris and Wyatt, Wyatt used his telepathic link with his brother to see what was going on in that crazy head of his.
"Dude," Wyatt said in Chris's mind. "Did it happen to you, too?"
"Did what happen?"
"When I first met Rain, I remember it felt like I was drifting away or something. I felt this…like intense peace… like I was a kid again and everything was just happiness. I still get those feelings sometimes, but they're not nearly as bad."
"Yeah, it was something like that. Like there was nothing bad in the world. Why do you think it happens? I mean, that's not normal."
"I know. I've wondered about it before, but I can't think of anything."
Wyatt heard his father join in with his mom and Rain, and rolled his eyes. "Are you listening to this?"
"Yeah, I think it's time to break up their fun." Chris and Wyatt had long ago mastered the art of talking to each other telepathically while listening to the conversations around them. They started honing their skills when their mom would lecture them for getting in trouble, and the power had definitely come in handy in school. Demons had never been a good enough excuse for the boys to miss school, so they would mindlessly take notes, while strategizing with each other in their minds.
"Ok. It's official. Mom, you are not allowed to be friends with my roommate. I'm pretty sure that I resent the entire conversation you guys just had."
"Yeah, ditto."
"My point exactly." Piper smiled at her sons. It had been awhile since she'd outsmartassed her sons, let alone seen someone outside the family do it.
"Umm…I think we should go and get the next load from the car," Leo gave his wife a look, that after 25 years she easily understood as 'demons'. No look was needed for Wyatt and Chris, who had heard the same call as their father.
"Would you like me to help?"
"No, um…I was wondering if you'd go on-line for me and see if Professor Lutz e-mailed me. You know the password."
"Of course," Rain watched them walk from the room. She was a pretty laid back person and had learned early on to not ask Wyatt questions when he started acting weird like that.
Wyatt took his family around the corner to an empty hallway, and then orbed them to Phoebe's house to where Melinda and Samantha were calling. Leo sent out a message that they had it to the rest of the whitelighters in the family that should have also heard the girls call for help.
The four orbed in to the living room to see the two girls ducked behind a couch, their idea of protection from the 5 demons in the room with them. The demons, who had previously looked rather victories, were filled with dread upon realization of who had come to join the girls.
"I though you said the demon, or the girl whitelighter would orb in to save them." One of the demons whispered to another.
"Shut up and attack," he growled in response. The demons all threw the various energy- and fireballs they had summoned at the newcomers.
Wyatt put his shield up around himself and his parents, shielding them from the oncoming attack. Chris flung his hand out, meaning to send back the remaining energy balls to their owners. Instead, his hand started to grow bright blue, attracting the energy balls and causing them to dissipate.
"Holy shit!" Chris looked at his hand as the blue quickly faded. His lack of focus allowed one of the demons to fire another energy ball and hit Chris in the shoulder. Chris grabbed his shoulder and sank to his knees, more to control his anger than in pain. He and his family had learned the hard way in his development of Pyrokinesis that an angry Chris was a bad Chris.
Wyatt, who felt his brother's anger and pain, lowered his shield and glared at the offending demon.
"You are so dead," Wyatt told the demon as he lit up an energy ball in his hand. It turned out that he didn't need it though, as watched the demon disappear into white light. Piper blew up two of the other demons, but the last two didn't want to cooperate.
"Did you see that?" Wyatt turned to his father, who had just healed Chris.
"Yea, that was…DOWN!" Leo yelled, shoving Chris, who had just stood up, back down to the ground. Wyatt hit the floor just moments before a slew of fireballs flew over their heads. Relief flooded the Halliwell men momentarily, until they heard both Piper's and Melinda's screams of pain. Wyatt quickly orbed to his cousin, who had gotten hit while trying to cover her Aunt Piper with energy balls, as the eldest Charmed One had attempted to make her way to the couch where the girls were hiding. He grabbed both of his cousins' hands and orbed them to his house. Leo orbed to his wife, grabbed her hand, and then orbed them to Wyatt and the girls.
Chris remained where he was, pulling himself up slowly off the ground. "Are you suicidal, or just plain stupid?" Chris asked the remaining two snidely.
The demons laughed. "You call us stupid as you stand here alone and unprotected? The Source sent us here for the younger ones, but I'm sure he'll gladly accept the younger of the two twice blessed children." The demon finished his sentence by launching two fireballs at Chris.
Chris smiled as the fireballs came hurling at him, and smiled even wider when they abruptly stopped right in front of his face. Chris was about to speak when two more fireballs hit him from behind, launched by another demon that had just shimmered in. Chris was thrown forward slightly, but was otherwise unharmed.
"How did you block those?" The demon asked him, shimmering from behind Chris to join the demons in front of him.
Chris, his fists clutched tightly at his sides, just looked past the two balls of fire hovering in his face and smiled.
"Never throw fire at the boy with Pyrokinesis," Chris said calmly, his eyes cold and hard. He opened his hands slowly, and flipped his palms up, causing the three demons to burst into flames. Once the demons were gone, Chris closed his hands back into fists, causing the fireballs in front of him to extinguish.
At the same time Chris was telling the demons not to throw fire, Piper, Wyatt and Leo orbed back in. After Piper and Melinda were healed, it had taken them only a few seconds to realize that they had left Chris alone with the demons. The three watched as Chris vanquished them and then got rid of the fireballs. He was standing there now, sweating and trembling, trying to regain control.
Piper walked over to her son, placed her hands on his shoulders, and looked into his eyes. "Breathe," she instructed.
Chris closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. His Pyrokinesis had been very scary when he's starting to develop it when he was only ten. With his families help (and investment in fire extinguishers) he had finally learned to control the power for the most part. Anger was the one thing that caused him to lose control.
Unfortunately for Chris, a curse by a powerful sorceress gave his gift a bit of a twist (That's what happens when you vanquish a powerful sorceress's daughter). Anytime he used his Pyrokinesis, anger would consume him, and the more energy he put into, the higher his anger would rise.
Chris, however, had refused to let it stop it from using his power, so he began meditating, trying to find control and peace, and only used his Pyrokinesis lightly when he could help it.
Chris opened his eyes after a few minutes to see his parent's staring at him while his brother and cousins were cleaning up the broken furniture from the attack.
"I guess we should get back to moving Wy in, huh," he said as calmly as possible.
Piper nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. It wasn't fair, in her opinion. Her baby boy had sacrificed so much for the family. He had come back from the future to save his family in a different timeline, and had died. Piper and Leo had told Chris and Wyatt about this when Chris was 12 and Wyatt 14, deciding that the knowledge would only help them grow stronger, and it had. Wyatt had taken the news rather well, and was always the first to be there when anyone needed his help. Sometimes Piper was worried he was trying to make up for the crimes that, thanks to Chris, he hadn't even committed, but he wasn't obsessed or hurting himself, so she let it go.
Still, the events should have never been allowed to happen, and she always felt guilt when she thought about it, no matter how many times she was told it wasn't her fault.
"Yeah, I guess we better," she walked over to Chris and tousled his dark brown hair before grabbing his hand.
"We definitely need to talk about this later tonight though. The demons said some pretty interesting things after you guys orbed out. Plus, what the hell is up with our powers. We've never had overlapping power development in each immediate family. I mean, Wy got one of his powers the same time as Marissa, but Mom, me, and Wy all at once…"
"Chris. You're being neurotic again. Calm yourself. We'll worry about it later." Wyatt closed his eyes and sensed his dorm. "OK. We can orb in right inside the downstairs side door and then go to the car."
The four Halliwells did just that, went to the car, grabbed more of Wyatt's things and returned to the room.
Rain, who was sitting on her bed with her computer, smiled as they walked in. "How far away did ya'll park? It took you like ten minutes."
"We had some family bonding time," Wyatt replied simply, and upon receiving an extremely disbelieving look from his roommate added, "don't ask."