In Love, Actually

by RLN123

FutureFic.Focuses mainly on Chris and Wyatt. The Halliwells are busy with weddings, babies and protecting the book from a new threat and dating has become complicated for the teenage Halliwells. Little do they know that they are being watched...

8. November

In Love Actually

Chapter 8: November

AN: Am apologising now for all the mistakes in this cuz it is a last minute post cuz I know I'm not going to get the chance to post it for the rest of the weekend. So this hasn't even been proofed read once. Will prob go though it and fix it all at some point but who knows? Try to enjoy!

"Clear your mind...imagine yourself surrounded by clouds...floating clouds..."

Patricia slowly opened one eye to have a peek around her. The part-whitelighters had all gathered in the basement where Leo was helping them get into the right mind-set for hovering. So far none of them had been successful and she noticed a few of the others were also peeking. Leo however, was oblivious to this and remained standing in front of them all, eyes closed, head slightly tilted upwards, a perfect model for what the rest of them were supposed to be doing.

"Feel light, feel floaty, surrounded by bubbles . . .blue bubbles...shiny, blue, floaty, bubbles..."

Opening her eyes fully, Patricia fought back a snort of laughter and looking around her, she could tell that everyone else were doing the same. Even Chris who usually took any magical based lesson with a deadly seriousness was silently shaking with laughter.

"Now be light! Be blue! Be free! BE THE BUBBLES!" exclaimed Leo with conviction. He opened his eyes in surprise as a loud chours of laughter echoed through the basement. He let out a sigh realising that none of them were hovering, on the contrary some had even taken to the floor with laughter. "Well if you don't take this seriously you're never going to learn to hover!" he snapped.

"Would that really be a bad thing?" asked Patricia.

"Of course it would be! Hovering is very useful," insisted Leo.

"To who?" asked Wyatt. "It's like levitating but shit cause it's too slow to do anything with."

"He does have a point Leo," said Paige, looking at Leo kindly, not wanting to offend her brother-in-law by flat out telling him how ridiculous the past ten minutes had been. "Learning our whitelighter skills is all well and good but hovering isn't exactly a huge priority. I mean sure if there comes a time when we can't find a ladder and Piper insists we clean the ceiling after another unfortunate incident with a blender that I still say was Phoebe's fault, sure, but until then . . ."

"How can you say that?" asked a frustrated Leo, who was by now determined to defend what he saw as the sanctity of hovering at all costs. "I mean suppose you're cornered by a demon and he throws an energy ball at you, you have to think fast, what do you do?"

"Telekinetically re-direct it," said Chris. "Easier done than said."

"Orb out," said Petulia.

"Freeze it," Patricia suggested.

"I could always shield myself," voiced Wyatt, keen to come up with one that hadn't already been said.

"Call for it," was Paige's solution.

"Ooh we could duck," said Patricia.

"OR . . ." said Leo. "You could hover to avoid it."

"Does this energy ball travel at a snail's pace?" asked Wyatt.

"Wyatt's right, it would hit us before we'd managed to get an inch of the ground. It's not levitating, it's too slow to be used in an attack," said Chris.

"Fine," said Leo. "But what about for stealth? You know sneaking up on people, hiding in high places."

Patricia sighed, "I suppose it could be useful in those circumstances." Leo straightened up as the others mumbled their resignment. "Great, let's give this another go then shall we?" he asked brightly. "And I promise it will be worth it. Now relax . . .imagine yourself floating...like a bubble...a shiny blue bubble..."

The others fought to hold back their laughter, knowing what was coming but Chris beat Leo to the punch, "BE THE BUBBLE!" he exuberantly exclaimed before his father got the chance to, causing another fierce roar of laughter to sound in the room.

"Isn't there anyway to do this without becoming a bubble?" laughed Wyatt, provoking a fresh fit of giggles.

"Yeah," said Patricia. "I keep imagine myself as this blue chewing gum bubble someone is blowing out of their mouth!"

"Oh thanks," said Paige, still half laughing. "Now that's all I'm going to think of too."

"Oh I give up!" said Leo, defeated. "How about we work on something else for now, like glamouring. You all know the uses of it."

"Well my glamouring is pretty perfect so I'm going to go make a few phone calls that are on my to-do list," said Paige, going up the stairs into the kitchen.

"Mine too!" said Wyatt. "And Chris' doesn't need much work either so we should probably just go as well, leave you to work with the ones who need the help."

"Hey!" protested Patricia and Petulia, slightly offened by the comment.

"Actually I haven't glamoured in ages and am probably pretty rusty," Chris reluctantly admitted. "I think I'm just going to stay."

"Maybe you should too Wyatt," Leo advised. "I mean when was the last time you glamoured?"

"Admittedly a while but that doesn't matter!" insisted Wyatt. "Look, I'll prove it," he said, snapping his fingers and turning into Leo. He snapped them again and transformed into Paige. He clicked his fingers many times, each time being engulfed in soft white lights only to reappear as someone new, eventually appearing as Chris.

"Oh no!" screamed Patricia hysterically, frantically looking back and forth between her two identical looking brothers. "There're two Chris'! It's a sign of the apocolypse! It's every man, woman, and part-whitelighter for themselves!" She made a dramatic dive to the ground before doing a few basic tumbles, getting up to applause from her cousin and Chris.

"Having experienced two attempts at an apocolypse I can assure you that it isn't," said Leo.

Wyatt snapped his fingers a last time, regaining his own appearance. "The point is my glamouring is fine. And now, for my spectacular finale, a display of the ultimate whitelighter power . . . orbing!" With that he orbed out.

"The boy has style," said Petulia.

"Yeah but he's usually not that irritable," observed Patricia.

"Maybe something's up?" suggested Leo.

"If so he'll tell me eventually," said Chris.

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"OK so let's re-cap," said Chris. Most of the Council Investigators, or the 'Blue Team,' as Chris insisted they were called, (he'd sent Polly to go change when she had arrived in a yellow t-shirt, saying if she didn't she had better go help the book protectors as that was the colour he had assigned them and as he saw it wearing a yellow t-shirt was disloyal to the team. . . he'd actually gotten pretty mad about it)had gathered in the attic to try and draw some things that they had found out together. They had assembled a large drawing board in the middle of the room where they wrote everything down and were trying to make some sense out of it. "The demonic High Council consists of five demons."

"Four at the moment because there is currently an opening," said Jason.

"Right," said Polly. "And we think they were established about fifteen years ago after the whole near wipeout mess with the Avatars."

"They seem to be a democratic form of the Source," said Paige. "The amount of respect demons have for them indicates that."

Chris nodded in agreement, "They seem to generally run everything down there, keeping demons in check and whatnot."

"Do we have any idea of who is actually on the Council?" Jason asked.

"We've started a list of candidates," said Chris. "You know respected, powerful demons but without more information I can't seem to find anyway of narrowing it down."

"Plus there are all the demons that aren't in the Book," said Polly.

"That's exactly the problem," said Chris.

"Well that about Dermairon?" asked Paige. "I mean are we sure we really vanquished him? It's kinda hard to tell whether or not you can ever fully vanquish someone who exsists out of time."

"I suppose we can't be certain but that spell was pretty specific."

The room momentarily glowed as Leo orbed in, looking slightly more flustered than usual. "I think I found something out." He looked around at the expectant faces.

"Do you want a written invitation to share your information?" asked Chris.

"I just thought I should wait 'til Wyatt get's here."

"He has class and couldn't make it so spill already," said Paige.

"Well I found out that they sort of have an evil Elder quality to them."

Chris shifted uncomfortably in his seat and frowned. He didn't have the best history with evil Elders. "What they go about telling demons that their powers come from their emotions?" he asked, causing the rest of them to smile in an attempt not to laugh.

"They watch over future demons," said Leo, ignoring the remark.

"Future demons? Is that even possible?" asked Polly.

"Yes, well sorta," said Leo, struggling to explain himself. "Have any of you ever heard of Aptimagi?" He sighed haven taken in the blank stares. "They are mortals who are not born with any sort of magical powers but still have the aptitude to learn magic."

"Ah, 'Apti-magi' . . .clever," said Jason.

"If exposed to magic," Leo continued. "They can study it and learn to develop full active powers. Then once they learn their first active power there is a forty eight hour window, a . . ."

"Window of opportunity," interrupted Paige. "I remember this, it was the cause of most of the drama when I first got my powers."

"What is it?" asked Polly.

"There are 48 hours where a nascent witch who hasn't chosen to use their powers for good or evil yet can be swayed either way," explained Paige, rattling off her textbok learnt definition that had been crammed into her brain in the early days when Piper was her slave driving wicca teacher. "Supposedly helps protect free will but it's a load of hooey if you ask me."

"Well thank God no one did ask you or we could have bigger problems on our hands.," said Leo. "Anyway like Elders watch over future charges or whitelighters, the High Council watches over Aptimagi, getting close to them, luring them to evil, then when the time is right, when they are most vulnerable, they expose them to magic, help them learn a power and guide them in a way they are most likely to choose evil."

"So why don't the Elders do this with Aptimiagi too?" asked Chris. "You know, even up the score a bit."

"It's not that simple," said Leo. "Aptimagi are very rare and extremey difficult to track down. We haven't determined a reliable method yet, there are probably thousands of Aptimagi out there who go through life unaware of their gift because they are never exposed to magic so they never learn their craft."

"Are we sure Barbas is in cahoots?" asked Chris. "After all he would be the perfect candidate for turning nascent witches to become warlocks instead, preying on their fears and whatnot."

"Yes, I'm sure," said Paige. "We haven't seen or heard of him in about seven years or so. Pretty sure he's back to his every thirteen hundred years dealio, which means he's no longer our problem."

"Can't you guys just do more re-con in the Underworld?" asked Jason.

"It's difficult at the moment," said Leo. "Demons are unnervingly loyal to these guys."

"Is it possible that even they don't know the identites of who is on the Council?" asked Polly.

"Yes, unfortunately that is a possibility," said Paige, running her fingers through her hair.

"Super," said Chris with mock enthusiasm. "But they must have even some theories on it. They'd have a better idea of who the big cheeses are down there."

"I suppose," said Paige thinking it over.

"Though say a demon manages to get the book," said Chris. "How would they know who to give it to?"

"Maybe they don't so much give it to a person as they do bring it to a place," suggested Paige. "And there is that rumour that they meet once a month on the surface."

"Yeah but they're not going to wait for a month to hand it over," said Chris. "I mean that gives other demons too much opportunity to steal it from them. There must be a pre-arranged place where they would go to hand it over."

"I'm on it," said Leo, orbing out.

"Nice brainstorming," commented Jason.

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Wyatt had orbed home to raid the fridge and pick up some fresh laundry. He was munching on some leftover meatloaf while Paige filled him in on the recent developments in their investigation of the High Council when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," he offered, getting up and heading for the Manor front door. He swung it open and was greeted with a cheery smile. "Hi!" said the voice that belonged to the smile. Looking up he noticed that the smile and voice belonged to a pretty blonde girl with sparkling blue eyes and a eye-catching pink outfit.

"Uh hello," he said uncertainly.

"Oh you must be Wyatt!" she said in her sing song voice. "Oh what am I saying, of course you're Wyatt Halliwell, I mean hello! Went to Lincon High two of the years you were there, hell I still go there! How's college life treating you? I've been thinking of applying to USC . . ."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude but, who the hell are you?" asked Wyatt.

For a second the girl looked taken back but it quickly deteriorated with a giggle and fresh smile. "Sorry! In all the excitement I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Claire!"

Wyatt's face flickered with recognition before breaking into a grin. "Oh Claire, hey, come in," he said, stepping back to allow her into the hall. "Chris has told me all about you, you have no idea how good it is to finally meet you!" he told the girl who in a twisted way he thought of as his idol. "Chris is upstairs," he said. "CHRIS! YOU'VE GOT COMPANY!" he bellowed upstairs to his younger brother. "So you here for a night time tutoring session?"

"No silly!" said Claire, "We're going out."

"Oh sorry, yeah," said Wyatt. "It's much too distracting for Chris in here, too many shiny objects. Physics at the park or wherever you guys are going is a much better plan."

Clare giggled again, "No Physics tonight," she said. "Though fingers crossed there'll be some chemistry if you know what I mean."

Confused, Wyatt clearly didn't. "Huh? I thought Chris was good at Chemistry."

"As far as I know he is," said Claire.

"I'm sorry, huh?"

"We're going out on a date, silly!" laughed Claire.

"Huh?"

"Claire sorry to keep you waiting!" Upon hearing his brother's voice, Wyatt turned around and with a confused expression on his face, watched him come down the stairs, his usual two at a time.

"There's my favourite student now!" said Claire, happily. As she walked towards Chris, Wyatt flicked his wrists and froze her.

"What'd you do that for?" asked Chris.

"YOU'RE DATING CLAIRE?" Wyatt demanded to know, still unable to grasp the concept at hand.

"So?

"I thought you hated her!"

"And . . .?" asked Chris, causing Wyatt to stomp his foot in frustration.

"So why are you dating her? I mean was she the only girl left in school that you haven't dated or something so you figured you might as well be a little more well rounded?" asked Wyatt.

"Oh don't be so ridiculous!" said Chris, rolling his eyes. "It's only November, I haven't got through all the freshmen yet. Now, would you mind unfreezing my date?"

"Yes actually, I would, until I find out how she managed to become your date, that is."

"If you must know she wouldn't stop talking about Physics," said Chris. "She kept rambling on about how red-shift is proof of the expansion of the universe no matter how many subject changes I tried so as a last resort I thought I'd see where flirting with her would get me and lo and behold she shut up."

"Did you just say 'lo and behold'?" asked Wyatt. Shaking his head he moved on, "So let me get this straight, you're dating her to stop her from making you learn?"

"Exactly," said Chris. "A little footsie under the tutoring table throws her right off course."

"Just for the record you are reaching new lows," said Wyatt. "So tell me, what happens when you can't take her anymore and break up with her?"

"She'll switch with another one of the tutors and I get a new Physics tutor to work my magic on and start the whole process over again," said Chris. "Besides I can always play the field to help me avoid getting too bored, which will also help insure a more vicious break up, all aiding me in getting a new, easier to distract Physics tutor."

"At this moment I either admire you or am disgusted by you but I can't quite decide," said Wyatt. "One more question, what if your new tutor is a guy?"

"No one is immune to my charm," Chris informed him with a grin. "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, so for now can you reanimate my date please?"

"Sure, ready?"

Chris nodded and Wyatt unfroze her and she bounded over to Chris and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Sorry I was running a little late," he apologised.

"Oh don't worry about it!" she assured him. "Just don't be so Claire-less about watching the time in future. After all, a good boyfriend is a punctual boyfriend!"

Wyatt choked back his laughter at the expression of horror on Chris' face as he looked over Claire's shoulder, mouthing the word 'boyfriend?' to Wyatt with sheer fear in his eyes. He coughed and gave a nervous laugh, "OK then, well we better get going."

"See you two crazy kids later!" said Wyatt, provoking his brother to give him a stony glare.

"It was great to meet you!" Claire told Wyatt.

"You too!" Wyatt agreed. "Be sure to drive Claire-fully!" Wyatt grinned with satisfaction as Chris glared at him again and Claire gave a small squeal of delight. "Ooh!" she gurgled, clapping her hands together excitedly. "I like you! Don't worry we will, be sure to have a Claire-iffic evening as I'm sure we will."

"Oh I don't doubt it," said Wyatt, as he waved them off.

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A few days later, the entire family had gathered to exchange information on what they had found out and what steps had been taken to make the Book of Shadows better protected.

"So now," finished Piper, "If you are going to the book you must say the word "Ouvrez" before approcahing it cause otherwise you will walk into the invisible forcefield surrounding it, setting off the alarm and enabling the anti-transportation charm on the attic, which means no-one can get out."

"Wow, impressive," said Paige. "'Ouvrez' . . .isn't that French?"

"Yeah," said Phoebe, "It means open. We figured just saying 'open' sounded a little wierd and none of us knew any Latin so French seemed like a good idea."

"Where on earth did you find a spell that does all that?" asked Chris.

"It's a mixture of a Shutdown charm and a Create a Seceret Door spell," said Phoebe. "Found them in books at Magic School."

A cellphone began to ring and everyone looked around as Wyatt began to fumble in his pocket. "Oh sorry, quiet everyone, it's Katie," he said, having looked at the caller ID. He walked into the next room before answering it. "Hello?. . .Hey, how's it going . . .I didn't answer cause I'm not in my dorm, I'm at a friends getting a bit of studying done . . . Yeah they had a book I wanted to borrow . . . They'd read the book, I could ask them questions about what I needed to know for my paper! . . . Yes I'm telling you the truth, why would I be lying to you about this!"

Being able to hear Wyatt's side of the conversation, his family looked around at each other nervously. It was unusual to hear this sort of fight between Wyatt and Katie. They fought frequently but not like this . . .this seemed to be a suspicious fight. Chris in particular was worried, he frowned upon hearing more yells from the next room. His family didn't know but he'd presonally overheard increasingly more fights like this one from either Wyatt or Katie's end lately. The long distance aspect of their relationship seemed to really be taking its toll and to Chris' great surprise he didn't like it.

Ever since Halloween, Chris had realised that he didn't want them to break up for more than their usual few days because no matter what the circumstances surrounding the split were, he'd have to see both his best friend and his brother in copious amounts of emotional pain and hurt. No matter how he looked at it, he definitely cared for Katie and so to see her like that would crush him, not to mention Wyatt's reaction.

His encounter with Rachel had definitely left him better off; he had a tendency to agree with her about the Typical Guy Syndrome, in part, it probably had a great deal to do with the major crush on Katie he had developed for so many months. Thankfully he was beginning to get over it day by day and apart from the occassional daydream he was more than happy to be just best friends with her.

Another thing Rachel had been right about was getting back into his normal dating patterns as Claire had definitely a great deal to do with his fading infatuation with Katie. At first he thought every moment spent with her was going to be flesh-burning agony, with her perky and preppy disposition being too much for him to handle and the whole trying to make him learn his most hated subject thing, but he had been pleasantly surprised when her more irritating qualities became more endearing to him than anything else. The rare times she chilled out a bit he positively loved being in her company. Besides, he figured it was good every now and again to have a girl that drove you beserk.

The tutoring sessions weren't that bad either - he always managed to charm his way into getting five to ten breaks and in between he actually managed to learn the odd thing that kept him in passing grades in class.

He'd never felt so luck to be in possession of his "uncanny ability to charm even the most studious and pragmatic girls into skipping class and breaking a few rules," as Benji had so articulately put it one day. It definitely came in handy when Tom bet him twenty dollars that Claire was out of reach even for him. Chris' challenge had been to talk Claire into skipping a class, preferably Physics to meet him under the bleachers. Twenty dollars richer, Chris had celebrated that night by taking Claire out to her favourite restaurant. Although it had cost him an arm, a leg, his twenty dollar earnings and much more, Chris had actually managed to have a really great time.

"Look I have to go, I'll call you later," said Wyatt miserably before snapping his cellphone shut and ending the call. Chris snapped out of his thought as a glum looking Wyatt took his seat again.

"Everything all right?" asked Piper, genuinely concerned.

Wyatt just nodded dumbly, giving a weak hand gesture, motioning them to continue. Looking at him, Chris made a resolution to try and get Wyatt to talk to him about what was going on so he could dish out some of his now legendary Katie insight, but it would have to wait. They were back to discussing demons and book protecting but Chris had a feeling they were beginning to get things under control.

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"We have came up with a new plan, a better plan as how to make our attempt on the Charmed Ones' Book of Shadows," said a demon in the Underworld. There was a group of various demoons and warlocks gathered there, who had teamed up to pull their individual strengths together in hope of snagging the book. Although they had not yet tried to snatch it, they had devised several different plans but in the end, had deemed each one as unsatisfactory. "Having done some research on the matter, we discovered that everyone who has came close to defeating them had studied them closely, got to know them beyond their identity as Charmed Ones, they learned to think of them as humans . . .people . . .sisiters."

"That's not a plan it's an observation," sneered one warlock.

The demon who had been speaking threw a fireball at him and before he had time to blink out he was vanquished by it, "I hate interruptions," the demon who appeared to have taken to a leadership role revealed. "Some of us have came to the conclusion that the way to get the book is to take our time and spy on them, get to know their mortal lives."

"That will be easier said than done," one demon spoke up. "As demons we're souless, it's very difficult to blend in and mascqurade as humans for an extended period of time. To do so around the Charmed Ones is suicide, they are to familiar with the signs."

"Everything to do with the Charmed Ones is suicide," another demon reminded him.

"Yes, it is a problem," the leader agreed. "And I'm very open to suggestions of how to get around it."

"What about hiring a Phoenix?" a warlock suggested.

"The witch assasins? Don't they work both sides?" one called out.

"Yes," said warlock, who had put the idea forward. ""But as long as they get what they want satisfaction is one hundred percent guaranteed."

"This could work," the leading demon mused. "Find me a Phoenix," he requested and the warlock obediently blinked out.

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A/N: So sorry it took me so long to get this posted but once I got back everything else piled up at once; there were exam results, celebrating exam results, getting my new uniform, stationary shopping, going back to school, adjusting to life as a sixth year (mmm...double English Lit more or less everyday!) and piles of homework which I didn't expect for another few weeks. To sum up, I've been busy and I'm sorry.

On the brightside I got quite a bit done when I was away and as of the next chapter I am officially excited about this story again. New rule though: I am not answering ANY questions on the Phoenix storyline (it's as seceret as the who ends up with who thing) cause as you will see over the next two or three chapters it's going to be a bit of a on going mystery to more or less the end of the story. All I'm saying is that there is more than one phoenix out there people, keep that in mind. Now all you have to do is figure out whether I'm just trying to throw you off the scent or if I'm messing with your head.

Sorry again for lack of anything really in this chapter but from chapter 9 onwards we get to the point in the story that I was so desperate to get to: i.e. the point where there are definite storylines and plot...ah bliss!

OK PEOPLE, THE THING IS I'M REALLY CRAP AT MAKING UP DEMON NAMES SO COULD YOU ALL PLEASE MAKE UP SOME ANDINCLUDE A FEW IN YOUR REVIEW SO I CAN USE THEM? I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT. As you can see from the end section, I gave up entirely and just referred to them as 'this demon' and 'that demon.'

Now to those lovely reviewers of mine: I still love you all loads so please, please, please keep them rolling in!

Big thanks to hazza123, IcantthinkofaFnick, Paige Halliwell-Matthews, ilovedrew88, Little-Miss-Spell-of-the-Week and CrimsonShadoefor their reviews. DO IT AGAIN!

Maggie0: Thanks for reviewing. Yeah that line popped into my head and made be giggle manically for apparently no reason. As for the Leo/Chris conflict that's not really an issue in this story cuz I stupidly resolved it in the last one. I loved that conflict too so it's a bit of a shame. He wasn't really in it before cuz I kept forgetting to include him...swoopsie!

ChiaraStorm: I'm sorry, i have to ask, you knew I'd have to ask...wtf is titwalloping? Lol! Sounds amusing (not to mention fun to say.) Sorry about the Claire stuff in this chapter again but it seemed to go down well with everyone else! Oh and btw I happen to be an only child but I've observed my friends' families enough to be able to draw on inspiration from the too happy together family (Trish's) and the kooky slightly dysfunctional one that has lots of sibling fights. (Claire's) Lol, notice two of my best friends share their names with two of my characters? Lol, by sheer coincidence my other two bestest buds are Kate or "Katie" if you will (tho we never call her that, we call her Percie as a nickname instead) and Chris. Jst felft like sharing. Sorry. Thanks for reviewing!

SparklingCherries: Thanks, my humour tends to wavour between that really dry, sarcastic wit to pure juvenille 12 year old boy humour where I laugh at dirty words or because I notice the word 'tit' in 'institution.' (Rolls eyes at own immaturity...before tee-heeing at the word 'tit.')