In Love, Actually

Chapter Four: Anniversary

Wyatt carefully picked up Katie after checking to make sure she had no injuries and carried her over to the sofa in the attic. "Dad! Paige! Chris! Anybody!" he called urgently. A soft blue glow appeared in the room as Leo orbed in to the attic. "Hey Wyatt, what can I do for you?"

"Katie saw me vanquishing a demon," he said, winicing in preparation for the yelling that he knew was about to commence.

"What? How?" asked Leo, rushing over to Katie to make sure she was all right.

"We were downstairs making ou . . .uh . . . making food," Wyatt quickly corrected himself. "When we heard chanting coming from upstairs so I told her not to move and I came up here and started fighting. Then I turn round and find her standing there, looking shocked and asking why there were balls of fire frozen in the air. She warned me as another demon came running at me just in time for me to vanquish him, then she fainted. Really, not something I'd ever expect the ballsy Katie Henessey to do."

"How could you have been so careless?" asked Leo, angrily.

"Sorry," said Wyatt. "But I mean it's not like I invited her up here, 'Hey Katie, wanna come to the attic and watch me kick some demon butt with my magical powers?' Does that really sound like something I would say?"

"I know, sorry for snapping," said Leo. "It's just that we're trying to crack down on the awareness of the exsistence of magic at the moment after some close calls concerning exposure recently. The Elders aren't too keen on telling anyone except for in life threatening situations."

"Don't worry, Katie is very trustworthy," Wyatt assured him. "Once she gets over the shock she will be fine with it."

"I'm not sure if we can allow it to get that far," said Leo.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that the other Elders probably are going to want to keep her in the dark, have her mind wiped with memory dust."

"Oh come on! Are you serious?" asked Wyatt. "That's not fair! If she knew I'd be able to orb back and forth from college to see her."

"I don't think that constitutes as life threatening," said Leo, almost apologetically. "But I can make an appeal for you to the Elders if you want," he offered.

"Please," said Wyatt, gratefully.

"I'm going to have to put her into a deeper sleep though until they've made their decision," Leo told him, walking over to Katie.

"Fine."

Leo put his hands out over Katie's head and a golden glow came from them that caused Katie to stir a little before becoming comatose.

"So where is everyone?" asked Wyatt, as he looked down lovingly at his girlfriend, who was fast asleep.

"Your mom, Chris and Polly went to vanquish some Brunghad demons about an hour ago," said Leo. "Actually they should be back by now."

"If they were in trouble we would have sensed it or heard their calls," said Wyatt, going over to the book. "Brunghad demons, is this them here?" he asked, pointing to the page in front of him.

"Yeah, why?"

"Cause three of the demons that were here match this picture," said Wyatt. "It was these guys and two others, they were trying to do something to the book," he said, pointing to the black pentagram that had been marked on the floor, the Book of Shadows at its centre.

"They were after the book?" asked Leo.

"I'm almost positive."

"Well if they were here and they are the demons the Elders sent Piper, Chris and Polly after, then they were probably trying to lure them out of the house to get to the book," said Leo. "Which means . . ."

"It was a trap," concluded Wyatt. "Stay here with Katie, I'm going to go find them."

"What's wrong?" asked Leo, when his eldest son didn't orb out.

"I can't sense them," said Wyatt.

"Me neither," said Leo. "Ok, now I'm worried, hold on." Quickly Leo orbed out, moments later orbing back in. "They're not in the Underworld either, I couldn't sense them there."

"So where the hell are they?" asked Wyatt. Then, out of the corner of his eye he noticed the map on the table, the crystal still in its position.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Eight bottles of beer on the wall, eight bottles of beer. Take one down pass it around, seven bottles of beer on the wall! Seven bottles of beer on the wall . . ."

Piper closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wishing that when she opened her eyes this nightmare would all be over. Slowly, and almost cautiously, she opened one eye.

"Six bottles of beer on the wall, six bottles of beer . . ."

Sighing, she opened her eyes and accepted her fate. They had found some Brunghad demons in the warehouse as they'd expected, along with a few of another type that they didn't recognise. They'd fought them all of, with difficulty however, seeing as exploding didn't work on the anonymous demons but Chris had called for a sword that one of the demons was carrying, Piper froze every fireball and energy ball that was sent their way, Polly created hallucinations to confuse them and so between the three of them they just about managed to survive. But that was when things got really grim.

When they had tried to orb out they couldn't, the doors were locked and the entire room appeared to be magically sealed. They'd tried to blast their way out but all of the doors and windows were not to be opened by either Piper's firepower or the potions Polly had brought. Chris had even come up with a few different spells that should have freed them but even they didn't work. "Probably needs to be unsealed from the outside," he had mumbled, slightly embarrassed and annoyed at himself for not being able to get them out with one of his spells. After the first twenty minutes of trying to call people to come and let them out from the outside, they gave up, accepting that their family couldn't hear them and were just going to have to realise they were missing by themselves.

Chris and Polly were not helping Piper's mood. They'd started their inane song about bottles of beer from one hundred and had been singing away for the past half hour with Chris using the demon's sword to conduct them. Piper had been subjected to listening to it as they had ignored all of her warnings, "We're just trying to make the best of a bad situation," Polly had said.

So here they were, trapped inside the warehouse, singing stupid childish songs and no one even cared enough to come and find them. 'Typical,' thought Piper. 'Too wrapped up in their babies and their romantic anniversary lunches and their girlfiends and their . . .'

Piper lost her bitter train of thought when she heard someone banging on the front door of the warehouse. "Hello? Is anyone there? Mom? Chris? Polly? Hello?"

"Wyatt!" yelled Piper, leaping to her feet, "We're in here! We couldn't orb out and we tried everything else to try and get out but nothing worked! We think it just needs to be opened from the outside!" she shouted out to him.

"Uh, OK," he called into them. A moment later, the door swung open and Piper ran over to Wyatt, flinging her arms around him. "Oh you are such a good son!" she prasied him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Then she hit him on the shoulder.

"What was that for?"Wyatt asked.

"For not coming sooner!" she said.

"Sorry, I've been kind of busy, plus no-one could sense you or hear you calling."

"So how'd did you get in?" asked Chris, getting up off the ground and dusting himself off.

"Oh I just conjured a key that would fit the lock."

"Wait just a second here," said Chris, disbelieving. "Are you saying, it was a simple matter of unlocking the door from the outside?"

"Yep."

"I have to get out of here," said Chris, shaking his head and leaving the warehouse so he could orb out. "Are you guys coming or what?"

7777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Oh my God, Katie!" said Chris, having orbed into the manor. He rushed over to his friend quickly, deeply concerned. "What happened?"

Wyatt retold them all the story as Leo went Up There to find out what the Elders were going to do about Katie.

"What were you guys even doing here?" asked Piper. "I thought you two were at her place?"

"We were," said Wyatt. "But her parents came home and we . . . uh . . . didn't want to get in their way."

"Nicely said," said Piper with a knowing smile. "Polly could you go downstairs please and get the cleaning supplies? I want to get this pentagram cleaned of the floor."

"Sure thing Auntie Piper," Polly chirped before heading for the kitchen.

Chris however was at the book, going through the pages in his own special way. "Wyatt, these other demons, did they look like this?" Wyatt joined his brother at the book. "Yeah, they did actually, how did you know?"

"Because these were the demons that fought alongside the Brunghads at the warehouse," said Chris.

"What are they?" asked Piper.

"Filarka demons," read Chris. "Big, bad, ugly, throw fireballs, you know the usual. Very into honour and all of that. Take part in combat armed with swords," said Chris, going over to the sword he had brought back with him.

"Oh, snap," said Wyatt, producing the sword the demon had left behind when he had been vanquished. He had thought nothing of it at the time, having been preoccupied with Katie and had put it in the attic cupboard for safe keeping.

"What are those markings on them?" asked Piper.

"A sign of their tribe apparently," said Wyatt, going back to the book. "The Filarka live in separate clans, only joining forces when they all face a common enemy."

"Well they've all joined forces with the Brunghads," said Piper. "Those two swords have different markings," she noticed, having looked back and forth between the weapons her sons were holding.

"But why?" asked Chris. "For the book? Why would two completely independent demon species join together to get their hands on our book now?"

"Me and Phoebe put crystals around the book a couple of days ago for protection come to think of it," said Piper. "But then I moved them yesterday when I was setting that trap for the cookie thief."

"Sorry," said Wyatt, sheepishly.

"It's OK," said Piper. "Just don't eat more than your fair share of cookies again. Especially not before dinner. Anyway, me and Pheebs recognised that all the demons that have attacked in the past month or so seem to be after the book."

"Another mystery," said Chris.

Just then, Leo orbed back into the attic."Well?" asked Wyatt hopefully. His face fell when he noticed the grim look on his father's face and the bag of memory dust in his hands. "This is so unfair!"

"I know," said Leo. "But the other Elders over-ruled me, they said there was no real reason why Katie should be alerted to the magical world."

"Screw the Elders!" said Wyatt.

"Been there, done that," said Piper, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Mom!" yelled Wyatt, a look of horror on his face. "Eww you did not say that," said Chris, shaking his head in fear. "That was so uncalled for," said Wyatt, who was looking slightly ill. "Oh please, how do you think you came into exsistence?" asked Piper, enjoying watching her sons' faces. "The stork dropped us off on your doorstep!" insisted Chris, quickly covering his ears with his hands in case they told him otherwise. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go throw up for the rest of my life," he said, leaving the room as Polly entered, bucket and sponge in hand.

"What's the matter with him?" she asked.

"You don't want to know," said Wyatt. "Let's just say that after we get this over with, I'm going to need to book several lifetimes worth of therapy."

"Don't be such a drama queen," said Piper. "Well we'd better get this off the floor, those swords put away, the book and all other wicca items hid before we wake Katie up and spin her some longwinded story about why she was asleep in our attic."

"I'm going to go get Chris," said Wyatt, grumpily. "If he thinks he's getting out of cleaning he's got another thing comming."

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Katie! Katie!"

As Katie slowly woke up she saw a blurred image of Wyatt and Leo leaning over her. "Where am I?" she asked groggily, gently sitting up on the attic sofa.

"In the attic sweetie, you fainted," said Leo, comfortingly. "Wyatt called me when he couldn't wake you up and I came straight over."

This made sense to Katie, even in her half asleep condition as she knew that Leo was some type of doctor, though she'd never known the specifics of his work. "What happened?" she finally asked, after searching her mind to find it blank. "The last thing I remember we were, um, on the sofa and you were about to go upstairs to investigate some noise."

"Yeah, as I thought Chris had left music on in the attic and you must have came up after me a little too quickly, got head rush and blacked out," said Wyatt.

"You bumped your head a little and have a mild concussion," Leo told her gently. "Probably why you were out so long, but don't worry you will be fine."

"How long was I unconcsious for?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head and feeling for her bump.

"About half an hour or so," said Wyatt. "You had me worried for a while there Hennessy."

"Sorry," she said. "Next time, I'll be sure to think about you before I involuantarily faint."

"That's my girl."

"Hey we're home!" came Piper's voice from downstairs, as her Chris and Polly entered the manor as planned, staged for Katie's benefit.

"Come on," said Wyatt. "Let's get you home."

"OK," said Katie, allowing herself to be helped up of the sofa, still feeling a little woozy. "Thanks Mr. Wyatt." The peculiarity of Wyatt being named after his father's surname just hit Katie at this moment, causing her to grin. She had often wondered why all of the Halliwell women refused to take their husbands' names when they got married and why all of their children had been given this name as well. Her head began throbbing again at this point so she promptly ceased wondering and snuggled into Wyatt's secure grip on her.

"Please, call me Leo," he said cheerfully. "We're practically family after all," he added with a wink much to Wyatt's horror. He stopped dead, "Dad! What planet do you live on?" 'Please don't answer that truthfully by saying you occassionally like to live on a heaven like planet with your angelesque co-workers,' he added in his mind. "I'm sorry about him," he said to Katie, shaking his head in disbelief as they left.

"Don't worry about it," said Kaite smiling. She had found the comment rather amusing, not to mention Wyatt's horrified reaction.

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Here's to us," said Paige, raising her glass of champagne and Adam did the same, clinking their glasses together. "And to when we first met, this day thirteen years ago."

"Here, here," said Adam, taking a sip of his champagne. "Do you know, that it was on that day, that I knew I was going to fall in love with you?"

"Stop," said Paige, modestly, "You'll make me blush!"

"Good," said Adam, smiling at her. "I mean I already had a healthy dose of lust after merely looking at you but there was just something about how you promised you were going to vanquish the demon that had just tried to kill my sister that was just so . . .sexy."

Paige laughed, "Oh yeah, talking about potions and demon flesh has always got the boys' hearts racing!"

"No seriously," said Adam. "There was something in your eyes, a twinkle of fun and mischief that made me think, 'Wow, I'm really going to love this girl.'"

"And all without powers of premonition," said Paige, impressed as she leaned across the table to give him a quick kiss on the lips.

"After a month I just knew, that you were the girl I was going to marry."

"Well you went a little wrong there, didn't you?" asked Paige, playfully. "You didn't marry me."

"Not for lack of trying," reminded Adam. "I proposed to you the day after you told me you were pregnant. You turned me down."

"We'd only known each other a couple of months!" protested Paige. "I didn't want to get married because the groom felt a sense of obligation!"

"But you knew I was in love with you even then," said Adam. "When I proposed to you a few months later you still weren't having it! You told me to back off and stop asking!"

"Pregnancy hormones?" suggested Paige with a laugh. "I still felt it wouldn't be right for us to tie ourselves down like that when we were doing so many other things."

"And you were right," said Adam, fumbling around in his pocket.

"Aren't I always? Now let's see what I'm going to have for lunch." She looked up from her menu a few seconds later to find Adam by her side on one knee, holding a small, black jewellery box.

"What are you doing?" she asked nervously, her heart pumping manically.

"Something I should have done a long time ago."

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Hey guys!" said Paige, as she and Adam entered the manor several hours later and found most of the family in the attic. "What'd we miss?"

"Well Chris, Polly and I were trapped in a warehouse for over an hour after fighting off two types of demons who had lured us out of the house to get to the book but Wyatt was here and fought them off, but then Katie saw them and fainted but the Elders insisted we wiped her memory so we told her she had just blacked out and sent her home," said Piper all in one breath, "How was your day?"

"Oh you know, the usual," said Paige. "Some paperwork at Magic School, got my nails done, went for lunch, got engaged, did a little shopping, went to the . . . "

"Wait a second!" squealed Phoebe. "You got engaged?"

"Yep!" squeaked Paige, holding out her left hand for everyone to admire her diamond engagement ring. "Congratulations!" said Phoebe going over to hug her younger sister and Adam. "It's about time," Piper told Adam when it was her turn to congratulate the happy couple. Everyone that was there, hugged and told the couple how happy they were for them until Paige and Adam looked flushed at the end.

"Well we're going to have to celebrate this!" said Piper. "We can work on this demon book hunt later, as long as we keep a close watch on the book, there's no reason why we can't postpone investigating it just for a little while. Now on to more important things, do you guys want to stay in or go out?"

"I'd quite like to stay in," said Paige.

"As long as you don't mind cooking, of course," said Adam.

"Mind!" exclaimed Piper. "Don't be ridiculous, you know that cooking soothes me. OK so Chris can you go find out where Trish is and tell her to be home for dinner at half seven?"

"Oh I think Petulia is with her," said Adam.

"Sure thing," said Chris, orbing out to find his little sister and cousin.

"I'll ring Jason at work," said Phoebe, "Insist that he cancells his late night meeting."

"Wonderfu!" said Piper. "That's about everyone. So what will I make, what do you two want?"

"Something edible."

"I know just the thing," said Piper smiling.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Chris orbed in behind a tree along a residential area. Peeking out from behind it, he saw Petulia sitting on a wall with one of her friends who he recognised as Tom's sister Kirsten who was Petulia's best friend. He walked on up the street a bit towards them, realising it was in fact Tom's house they were outside. "Hey Tuli, hey Kirsten."

"Hey Chris, what are you doing here?" asked Petulia.

"Looking for you and Trish actually," he said, looking about for his sister.

"Why what's the matter?" she asked quickly.

"No nothing like that," he said, knowing she probably thought there had been a demon attack. "Just had to let you know that we're having a special dinner tonight at half seven and to tell you to make sure you are not late."

"Why, what's going on?" Petulia asked, confused.

"It's not really my place to tell you so I'm just going to have to say you'll find out tonight."

"OK," said Petulia, slightly suspicious.

"So where is that darling sister of mine?" Chris asked. "Your dad said he thought you two were hanging out together today."

"We are," said Petulia. "She just went into the house to get herself a drink."

"OK," he said. "Kirsten is your brother around?"

"Yeah he's upstairs sulking," said Kirsten. "Dad grounded him for missing curfew last night."

"Is he allowed visitors?"

"Afraid not," said Kirsten.

"Sorry, let me rephrase, are your parents in?" Chris asked with a grin.

"Yes," she said smiling.

"Damn," said Chris, "Well tell him I'll talk to him later and Tuli be sure to pass on the message to Trish when she comes out OK?"

"Sure thing Chris, see you later."

"Bye!"

The dinner that night went very smoothly, Petulia was delighted for her parents as was everyone else and the happy atmosphere in the house the news had created, carried on for weeks after. The rest of the summer past all to quickly for the Halliwells, especially Wyatt, who with Chris' words echoing in his head had finally accepted a place at USC, knowing deep down it was for the best.

Chris had correctly known at the time that his words of wisdom to his brother would come back to bite him in the ass because Wyatt's decision meant that him and Katie instantly became joint at the lips for the rest of the summer, eager to make up for all the time they would be spending apart in the upcoming months. When Wyatt finally left, a week or so before his classes started so he could settle in, Chris didn't see Katie for a couple of days. But after that 'mourning period,' as Chris had come to think of it, everything went back to normal between the four best friends and as bad as Chris felt about it, he couldn't help but feel a certain sense of relief.

Phoebe and Jason spent the rest of the summer arguing over baby names, picking up every book they could find with names listed in them, relentlessly trawling through them for a girl's name beginning with a 'P' that they could agree on. Many a fight erupted during these searches, when a tired Jason would mumble under his breath that the 'P' tradition was a stupid one. Being hormonal, Phoebe would rant and rave and cry and wail, threatening him with divorce, only calming down when Paige or Piper talked her through it and brought her a tub of her favourite ice cream, or whatever else her particular craving currently was. There was one particular week when she would only eat food that Wyatt had made, "No wonder she's throwing up all the time," Chris remarked.

Surprisingly, Paige and Adam seemed in no particular rush to get a start on their wedding plans, instead having decided to wait a while longer to allow them to savour their engagement before they started stressing out over dresses, cakes, flower arrangements and the many other things that would have to be organised before the big day. Piper, on the other hand had different ideas and was seceretly doing her research on quotes and services available from all the businesses in the area that they might want to call. She was even taking snippings from bridal mgazines on different dress styles and patterns and putting all her research together in a srapbook which she could present to Paige and Adam as a early wedding present to make it easier for them when they finally decided to start organising it.

While they still were experiencing frequent attacks from various demons, all of whom appeared to be after the book, they had no more encounters with either the Brunghads or the Filarka demons. They had done some light re-con in the underworld but after suspiciously finding nothing new out about them, Piper went over the Filarka vanquishing potion with the younger members of the family in their weekly potions lesson. Having bottled and stored some of the better ones for safe keeping, she left it at that, being unable to see anything else they could do about it.

Piper had noticed a change in pace in the family dynamic, everyone seemed less worried about the demon attacks than they should be, all more wrapped up in their personal lives. Even Chris who usually spent hours pouring through books in Magic School seemed more distracted by other things and for once, Piper wasn't altogether sure it was such a bad thing. Besides they all needed to take a little break every now and again and she knew that the teenage Halliwells were becoming restless at the idea that their precious holidays were coming to a close. For them a fate far worse than demon attacks was looming, one that involved non-magical books and timetables .

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

A/N: Hope you are glad to see that I'm getting back into the swing of updating. This story is going to jump about quite a bit as you may have noticed by now, it is sort of based around key events, it's a bit like a montage. (Tee hee, any excuse to say montage!) It's just cause a lot of things are happening but a different times so yeah, hope nobody minds too much.

Thank you to everyone who added in what pairing they prefered, it was very interesting to say the least. I personally, am keeping my mouth shut about what way it ends up in the very, very end of this tale but what I am saying is that there is a possible sequal to this story currently being brewed up in my mind in which pairings and feelings will still be switching around, not to mention the amount of switching that happens later on in this story. It's going to be a fun ride anyway.

Also I hope I am not moving too slowly on the actual plot of the story, with the demons that are after the book part. I did say that this story would be more concerned with the family and their relationships than BttP was but I just hope that doesn't put too many people off. If you think that the story is dragging a little just let me know and I'll crank up the demons a right away!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed once again, please keep them coming, as they kind of guilt trip me into writing more.

hazza123: Well as you see, even Katie doesn't know but lets just say, that this particular plotline will be resurrected at some point. Thanks for the review.

bec7012: yes, (embarrasesd smilie goes here) I did write that Paige was having a romantic lunch with Jason, but it was just a typo and I corrected it so thank you for alerting me to it and for reviewing. (Do it again!) Who said that:D

Thanks also to; mell11, maggie0, CharmedClover, Sparkling Cherries, Panther28, Witching Hour and ilovedrew88 for reviewing! You guys rock!

Remember any questions you want answered (within reason) just ask, but that is proably going to involve a review (sigh) what a cruel, cruel twist of fate!