In Love, Actually

Chapter 7: Halloween

A/N: there are so many mistakes in this chapter but it's like 2am and I'm very tired. Please don't judge me.

Chris waved his hand and sent one of the energy balls that was flying towards him at one of the demons before quickly ducking to avoid another. Standing up again, he telekinetically flung a few more demons into walls and each other before quickly looking around to check how Wyatt was doing. He seemed to have things under control so Chris called for an athame of one demon before orbing in behind him and stabbing him in the back, vanquishing him in a roar of flames.

Wyatt meanwhile was exploding demons left and right and throwing the odd energy ball. A few minutes and several demons later Wyatt and Chris were suddenly alone in the cave.

"Wyatt!" protested Chris. "You can't keep vanquishing the last few! We need to keep at least one alive to ask about the COuncil!"

"Sorry," said Wyat, sheepishly. "I keep getting carried away. I forgot what an adrenaline rush this was."

"Well I think we've got as much information as we're going to get for one outing anyway," said Chris. "We better get you home before you become a total adrenaline junkie."

They orbed out and back to the manor and found Paige orbing in books from Magic School. "Hey guys, find out anything?"

"Yeah actually," said Wyatt. "We got it out of this one demon with horns that the High Council consists of five demons that are each elected through a trial of some sort, in this case, a rat race to get our book."

"We also heard whisperings down there that they meet once a month in a seceret location on the surface so if we could narrow it down to when, we could be in with a chance of finding them," added Chris. "So what about you, did you get any info?"

"Well my extra credit students found all these books and said that there were somethings in them about the High Council but not enough to give us something to go on but I decided to check them out myself, just to be thourough."

"Good thinking, I can help you with that," said Chris, picking up a near by book and sitting down on the sofa.

"They said they are going to keep looking for more," said Paige. "So we might still hit lucky."

"Im going to go tell mom and Pheebs what we found out," said Wyatt, going downstairs.

"Alright!" said Paige, "Just me and you kiddo, no friends waiting in the living room to bail you out this time and I'm fully prepared so the Koala slash today's music scene debate rages on!"

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"Do you remember that time we were down at the lake and we were playing hide and seek and you hid for a whole hour, unaware that I'd given up twenty minutes in and went to get some lunch?" asked Rachel.

"Yes, it was awful," laughed Katie. "You can put all of you stuff here," she said, making space on her bedroom floor, amongst all of the clothes, books, magazines and cds that cluttered her room.

"Thanks," said Rachel, putting her bags down before going over to the dressing table. She picked up a few of the framed photos there, examining them one by one. "Is this your boyfriend?" she asked, holding a picture of Katie and Wyatt, where Wyatt has his arms wrapped protectively around her.

"On and off for about eight months now," said Katie who was tidying up in a last minute attempt to make the room habitable.

"He is seriously cute!"

"I know," said Katie, grinning.

"Great so while you are spending the night with this guy, I'm stuck babysitting his little bro," Rachel said, slighlty huffily, sitting emphatically down on the bed, still enviously studying the photograph in her hand.

"OK, first of all, Chris is my age and secondly, he's not exactly ugly," said Katie, rolling her eyes at her cousin's doubtful expression.

"Oh don't tell me you dated him too!" said Rachel, her eyes twinking with amusement as she teased her.

"No!" laughed Katie. "Not that I didn't want to when we were like twelve! Oh you should have seen me, I was so pathetic! I followed him around like a love sick puppy but thankfully he never noticed or else I'd still be living it down!"

"Guys!" exclaimed Rachel. "Completely clueless!"

"Well in this case I'm not complaining," said Katie. "Nevertheless I'm sure you'll enjoy his company and find him rather . . ."

"Annoying?"

"I was going to say charming," said Katie, shaking her head. "So are you alright sleeping in here? Cause my parents are out of town so you could stay in there room."

"No, in here is fine," insisted Rachel. "After all, it wouldn't be the same if I was in a different room."

"I suppose."

"So if Auntie Karen and Uncle Bob are out of town shouldn't you be throwing a rager?"

"Yes but last time a lot of things ended up broken and I ended up grounded for a very long time," said Katie. "The wounds need to heal before I have a party they don't kno about again."

"Wimp," joked Rachel. She got up off the bed and walked back over to the dressing table to replace the photograph. She picked up another, "Ooh, who's this guy? Me like!"

Katie walked over to see what she was holding and smiled. "That, would be Chris," she said, admiring the picture which had been taken during the summer. It showed Katie dripping wet, getting a piggyback ride courtesy of Chris. Both were smiling, their faces side by side as she clung to him, her arms around his neck and his arms around her legs, holding them in pace around his waist. She smiled at the memory of the water fight and her ensuing ride on the 'Halliwell Express.'

"The little brother?" asked Rachel, disbelieving.

"Yes, so to speak," laughed Katie. "And for the record he's not exactly little, he's six foot one."

"Nice height," remarked Rachel. "It's a shame he's only sixteen."

"Why cause otherwise you'd have your wicked way with him?" teased Katie.

"Maybe," said Rachel, smiling.

"Oh please you are like one year older than him! That's nothing!"

"I'm eighteen!" protested Rachel.

"Yeah, eighteen and a few weeks!" Katie reminded her. "And Chris is seventeen in three months or so! He's even your type, the brooding bad boy, so to speak. He gets himself into more trouble than you could even dream of! Come on this would be perfect!"

"Sorry," said Rachel. "But I just don't think so, he'd do for a bit of eye candy, you know something pretty to look at, but nothing more."

"Spoil sport," muttered Katie as she flung some of the clothes on the floor into the bottom of her wardrobe to make space.

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It was Thurday night and the compulsory family dinner was in full swing. Everyone was in a good mood, mainly due to having Wyatt home and the upcoming Halloween celebrations, also Paige and Adam had just announed that they had set the date for their wedding. It was to take place in early June. Piper was shocked at this revelation and had gave them a lecture about how much planning they were going to have to do in a relatively short amount of time. She had managed to rise the panic levels in the couple but had just as quickly lowered them by presenting them with the wedding planner scrapbook she had been making for the past month or so. Adam had hugged her for a very long time.

"Thank you so much Piper," he said, letting go of her when her oxygen supply started to become an issue.

"You are entirely welcome," said Piper. "Both of you, I'm just so happy for you two! I love a good wedding and I had a feeling that being the spacers you sometimes are you would probably leave things to the last minute and figured that one of us might as well be prepared."

"I resent that!" protested Paige. "But thank you all the same," she added when Piper raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what you are chuckling at," she playfully snapped at Chris. "After all if we are spacers that would make you our King."

"I have no problems with that," said Chris. "Now as your King I order you to bring me some pudding and shine my crown for me."

"I feel a revolution coming on," said Paige.

"Don't be ridiculous sweetheart," said Adam, putting an arm around her. "We'll probably space out and forget to do it."

"Then be upset when I don't do it for you," said Piper.

"That's so mean!" whined Paige. "Why won't you overthrow the Spacer King for us?"

"Because I have better things to do with my time than organise a pretend revolution to overthow a pretend King of a pretend people. Especially when that King is my own son!"

"Oh so this is what this is about, favouritism!" said Adam with mock anger and disgust. "What aboutyour political beliefs? To think that I've always thought of you as a person of substance!"

"You two really are perfect for each other, you know that," chimed in Phoebe.

"Yeah, that's why I'm marrying her," said Adam, kissing his fiancee on the forehead and pulling her closer to him.

"I thought it was for the regular nookie," joked Paige.

"Mom!" yelled a traumatised Petulia.

"Oh please, I was only joking," she said. "He already gets the regular nookie."

Groans around the table were let out from the teenagers, especially Petulia who had stormed into the kitchen with a look of horror on her face, while the adults laughed.

"You guys realy underestimate how gross it is when you people say stuff like that in front of us," said Polly, shaking her head.

"Actually I think we know exactly how much it grosses you out, that's why we do it," said Piper.

"In that case," said Patricia who burst into song. "Patty and Victor, up a tree, F-U-C-..."

"PATRICIA!" yelled Piper and Leo at the same time, causing their daughter to stop her song and it was now the teenage Halliwell's turn to laugh.

"See, it's not very nice, is it?" she asked, folding her arms with a smirk on her face.

"We were yelling because of your foul language and you know it," said Leo.

"You interrupted me before it got 'foul'," Patricia reminded him.

"A technicality missy," scolded Piper. "And you three can look those looks of your faces right now!" Piper warned her sons and niece who were more than amused at Patricia's outburst. "Cursing is not big, it's not clever . . ."

"But it is damn funny," said Chris.

"To your room!" ordered Piper, at her wit's end. "I will not have you condoning your sister's crudeness. Now Christopher."

Chris got up from the table still grinng, "So totally worth it," he muttered to Wyatt as he passed him on his way to the stairs.

"Trish you are going to do all the clearing up after dinner before going to your room as well," said Piper.

"Oh it's alright when you make jokes but when I do it . . ." argued Patricia.

"Patricia, don't push your mom any firther for one night, OK?" said Leo gently.

Patricia rolled her eyes before getting up and beginning to clear the plates away as the other adults hid their amsued smiles from the fuming eldest Charmed One.

Later on, Piper called a family meeting to discuss their current demon situation. "I've been thinking about this for a while and I think we should split the family into two teams; Book Protectors and Council Investigators."

"I wanna be on the blue team!" said Chris excitedly causing everyone to laugh except Piper who glared at her son.

"The Book Protectors will be in charge of finding new ways to keep the book secure, you know protection spells, shield charms that sort of thing. They will also be the people who will primarily responf when a demon makes an attempt on the book," explained Piper. "The Council Investigators will be in charge of doing research on the Council, going through the books in Magic School, doing re-con in the Underworld, trying to find out who are on the council, what they do, what powers they have, etc. Everyone on board?"

"Yeah sounds great Piper," said Leo. "I'll be an Investigator, I can keep conferring with the Elders and ask my charges if they've ever heard of them."

"Good," said Piper. "I'll be a Protector."

"I'll take Book Protection also," said Phoebe.

"Are you sure it wouldn't be better if you did investigation?" asked Paige. "I mean sweetie you're over six monts pregnant, I think it would be best if you spent most of the time at Magic School."

"I agree," said Jason.

"Well I can do book protection from Magic School," argued Phoebe. "You know researching spells and charms that could be useful."

"Fine," said Piper, "As long as that's all you do. Now what would the rest of you prefer?"

"Investigation," said Wyatt. "I can't really orb home everytime a demon attacks but I can orb to the Underworld in my spare time."

"I'll take investigation because I spend a lot of time in Magic School anyway and have some reliable demon contacts," said Chris. "Plus I generally prefer to take the offensive approach than defensive."

"Ditto to everything Chris just said," Paige said.

"That's good," said Piper. "You can be head investigator."

Paige smiled and stuck her tounge out at Chris. "Who's King now?"

"Still me."

The rest of the family were sorted into the two teams so that Piper, Phoebe, Patricia, Adam and Petulia were Protectors and Paige, Leo, Wyatt, Chris, Polly and Jason were Investigators. Jason had insisted he wanted to help and they figured there was nothing stopping him from going though books, plus it meant he could spend time at Magic School with Phoebe constructively.

"I think everyone should also step up training," suggested Leo. "I was thinking of maybe starting to give a weekly lesson for all the whitelighters in the family, you know fine tuning things like glamouring, hovering, invisibility for Chris and Trish and even helping them to learn to heal. Things that could come in handy."

"Sounds fun," said Paige. "I mean I can only heal scrapes and small cuts which aren't much use to anybody. Lord knows it's about time I move up a bit."

"I'll draw up the new training timetable and we can impliment it from Monday onwards," said Phoebe.

"Super!" said Polly with fake entusiasm. At least she'd have one less class than the rest of her cousins though she knew she'd gladly go to the extra class if it meant she coud orb. 'Stupid half whitelighters!' she thought, glaring at her cousins.

"Well I gotta go," said Wyatt. "I'm late to meet Katie."

"Have fun!" Piper called after him.

"I'm heading out as well," said Chris, getting up.

"Me too," Patricia said.

"Oh I don't think so," said Piper. "Not after your performance at dinner tonight. I think your time would be much better spent getting a head start on your assignments."

"Mom that's not fair!" said Patricia.

"That's why it's called a punishment," said Piper. "It comes from the Latin term, 'Don't anger me again.'"

"Do we have to start?" Petulia asked.

"Oh no, you can go watch TV or whatever you want," said Piper.

"Hey!" preotested Paige. "Don't parent my child! Yes Tuli, you can go watch TV or whatever you want."

"Feel better?" Piper asked.

"Much."

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Friday was the day the Halliwells had been waiting for: Halloween. The entire family was buzzing and they had spent the day helping Piper out at P3 with her daytime celebrations. Then everyone had came back to the manor to do a few rituals out of respect for the day and to allow everyone to get ready for whatever their night plans entailed. For the adults it meant going to the party at P3 and the younger Halliwells all had their own plans. Patricia was going around to Tom to 'keep him company,' (Chris and Wyatt had begged her not to tell them anymore), Polly and Petulia were going to sleepovers and the boys were going to the Halloween party at Extreme, or as they had told Piper and Leo, 'to a friend's house to watch some old horror movies.'

Chris of course had managed to get himself in trouble for teaching Petulia and Polly how to make the broom fly. If it wasn't for the fact it was Halloween, he knew he wouldn't have gotten out of the house but as it was Piper was om a forgiving mood.

Extreme was jumping that night; there were so many people crammed into it Wyatt was sure they were violating fire safety regualtions. "You are not allowed to help mom at the club any more," said Chris. There were fake cobwebs hanging down from the bar and cardboard bats, pumpkins and witches hung on the walls. There were flickering laterns on shelves creating an eerie atmosphere that was perfect for the celebration. The music was good and they kept running into people they knew and were all in all having a great time.

"Having fun?" Katie asked Rachel, to confirm her suspicions.

"Oh, ever so much," she said sarcastically before letting out a laugh. "I actually am, Wyatt and Chris really are very funny, like your own personal double act."

"You see," said Katie.

"I'm still not hooking up with Chris though," said Rachel, shattering the smile on Katie's face.

"But why not?" Katie whined. "You think he's hot and funny! What more do you want?"

"He's a little weird for my liking."

"You're only saying that because when you two met, you said hello and he greeted you by poking you in the arm a couple of times to check you were real and not an illusion!" said Katie rationally.

"And that doesn't seem odd to you, how?" Rachel asked.

"He thought I was making you up to spare his feelings!" said Katie. "Come on, give me a perfectly good reason and I'll drop it."

"He's too young for me," insisted Rachel, "And I don't know, cousins dating brothers? It would just be too strange."

"What would be strange?" asked Wyatt when him and Chris returned with a fresh round of drinks.

"If lizards ruled with world," said Katie, taking a few sips of her drink before leaping to her feet. "I love this song!" she announced before heading to the dance floor and Wyatt obediently followed.

Chris sat on the bar stool, watching Wyatt and Katie as they slow-danced. He gazed at Katie and realised how happy she looked in his brother's arms. As Wyatt leant down for a kiss, Chris snapped out of his trance and gave a small shudder.

Rachel raised her eyebrows in surprise upon noticing this, "Don't tell me bad boy Chris is a prude!"

Chris laughed at this idea, "No it's nothing like that. It's just that Wyatt's my brother and I've known Katie for so long she can feel like my little sister at time," he improvised. "So them together is still a little weird for me, you know?"

"No offence but you're not exactly looking at my cousin in a sisterly way," observed Rachel, who was flashing him a knowing smile, which caused Chris to blush slightly and shift uncomfortably on the bar stool. "So spill."

Chris slumped onto the bar, burying his head in his hands in a vain attempt to hide his embarrassment. "I don't know what's came over me recently! Katie is my best friend, I've never thought about her like that but ever since her and Wyatt got together . . . I've been a little jealous," he admitted, deciding to phrase his feelings mildly.

"Ah," said Rachel understandingly. "T.G.S."

"Excuse me?" said Chris, confused.

"Typical Guy Syndrome," Rachel explained, an amused smile in place. "Always wanting what you can't have. I mean Katie was a friend, fair game, suddenly she's out of bounds when she starts dating your brother and so naturally you want her now because she's out of bounds." She leaned back in a self-satisfied manner as Chris comtemplated her theory.

"This explains so much," he said.

"I know," said Rachel. "Don't worry, it's very common and also treatable. Just play the field a bit, stop moping around and in another few months you'll be cured! Besides if it helps, I'm sure if you really wanted her that badly, you could be in with a chance." Chris raised a doubtful but questioning eyebrow. "She admitted to me today that she used to have a crush on you."

"She did?" Chris asked, surprised. Rachel nodded. "Well at least now I can blackmail her to ensure she never calls my Christabella again," he muttered.

"OK, I'm bored making enlightening comments now," said Rachel, finishing her drink and standing up. "Let's dance," she said, taking his hand as an upbeat song started to play.

"You should know I don't dance," said Chris.

"Well in that case you should know that I don't care," said Rachel, dragging him onto the dancefloor against his will.

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A/N: OK I am going on holidays for two weeks on Sunday so unfortunately will be unable to update, but my trusty notebook is coming with me so I'll have lots of chapter plans and dialouge done for when I get back. If you feel you need a bit more you could try checking out my latest little Charmed dabble Heart to Heart (hint hint.) When I get back I'll have probably decided whether or not to leave it as a one shot or develop it into a the sisters finding out about Chris story.

As ever thanks for those reviews, even though not much seems to happen in this story, ever, but please keep them coming. In about two chapters things will suddenly kick off I promise.

A big thanks to Sparkling Cherries, Little Miss Spell of the Week, ilovedrew88, Paige Halliwell-Matthews, hazza123, AngelBlack, rcaqua and Charmed Clover for their reviews. I love you all!

Kia-Kawaii Princess: Lol, your system sounds the same as ours. I agree, MUCH simpler. Thanks for reviewing!

Bec7012: Oh no, now I'm going to irritate myself until I write some Wyatt-Chris banter without Wyatt . . . I can't resist a challenge. I'm glad my story makes you dance-happy, I enjoyed your review.

Icantthinkofafnick: I'm glad someone liked the Claire jokes. One of my best friends is called Clare and she has said all of those things that were in the last chapter but she does it in this really dry, sarcastic way that makes me giggle no end. If she finds out I made them perky she'll kill me! Thanks for reviewing, it was great.

crimsonshadoe: Thanks for the review, I hope I give your poor shipping heart something! lol Maybe you are reading too much into it, maybe you're not. I'm taking who ends up together to my grave! Well actually prob not, you'll find out eventually but you know what I mean.

flephanie: I can't believe you did A-Level Physics. (shakes head) and I always had such a high opinion of you! lol Ooh you much be clairvoyant, Katie was attempting some matchmaking in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!