In Love, Actually
A/N: Sorry! Review replies and more apologies at the end. Also I apologise for lack of spell check. The start has some overlap with the last chapter.
Chapter 10: Due Date
"Rachel!"
Rachel turned around to see her friend Lily heading towards her. "Hey Lily, enjoying the party?"
"Yeah, it's kind of awesome," said Lily, sitting down beside her. "So what is the life of most parties doing sitting by herself on the outskirts?"
"Enjoying meaningful and occassionally silly conversation," said Rachel.
Lily raised an eyebrow, suddenly worried about her friend's mental state. "With yourself?"
"Well it is the only way to get an intelligent conversation these days," joked Rachel. "There was a guy here."
"Oooh do tell," said Lily.
"His name's Chris."
Lily frowned, searching back through her mind, "Chris? As in your cousin's boyfriend's hot younger brother?"
"The very same," said Rachel. "Mary is his best friend's girlfriend."
"Wow this is quite the incestusous little circle you are worming your way into," laughed Lily as Rachel rolled her eyes. "So why has he abandoned you?"
"Well Wyatt, my cousin's boyfriend stumbled over here drunk about five minutes ago, mumbling incoherently about a break up," Rachel explained. "Chris was worried so went off to find his sister to see if she knows anything about it."
"So he would rather spend time with his sister talking about his brother than getting to know you more?" asked Lily. "So he's clincally insane."
"He is just very into his family," said Rachel.
"That doesn't sound like your type."
"Well he has his whole 'too cool for school' thing going on as well."
"Sounds like a contradiction of terms."
"That's part of why he is so interesting," said Rachel. "He's this really great mixture of bad boy and angel."
Lily stared at her friend with an amused smile, "Oh you got it bad."
"Shut up!" said Rachel, a little flushed, swatting at Lily's arm.
"Oh come on you, the man eater, are sitting there waiting for some guy, while talking about him with an annoyingly dreamy look on your face," said Lily. "You just used the term 'angel' which says enough in itself. Besides 'the bad boy with a heart of gold' is actually a myth."
"Ye of little faith," said Rachel. "Wait to you see, you'll understand what I mean. In fact here's your chance, he's heading back this way." She and Lily both looked around to see Chris approaching. "Hey stranger, did you find her?"
"Yeah, from what I can tell Wyatt and Katie definitely broke up but for a trial basis or something," said Chris before turning around to face Lily. "Hi, I'm Chris by the way."
"Hey, I'm Lily," she said with a smile.
"Well Lily you are going to have to excuse me from anything I say or do because I'm already quite tipsy and after this latest development I plan on getting much drunker," said Chris, taking another drink as if to prove his point.
Rachel turned around to Lily with a smug look, "Told you."
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Rachel stopped dead in her place as the three demons had shimmered in in front of her and Chris. They were the same breed as the demons she had stolen a ceremonial sword from a few days earlier; they were clearly here for payback. "Missed us?" the one in the middle asked, glaring directly at her. Before she had time to try and come up with a logical explanation for this she heard Chris say "No, not really."
The next thing she knew the demon had went flying through the air, landing in a nearby dumpster . . . had Chris just used telekinesis? Rachel shook off her shock and flew into action; they could talk about this later. She brought her hand foward, creating a high voltage energy ball and sent it zooming through the air towards the demon who had just produced an athame. He exploded in flames just as Chris said, "There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for . . . " Rachel turned around just in time to see Chris being hit in the stomach by an energy ball. "Chris!" she screamed in panic as she watched him hit the ground.
Fueled by anger she spun around to face the demon who had hit him, throwing an energy ball at him. The demon avoided it and then threw an athame at her. Rachel shimmered out and appeared behind the demon. She quickly drew the athame she kept in her boot and stabbed him from behind. She rushed to Chris as the demon exploded. "Chris!" she said firmly, trying to stir him. She knelt down beside him; at least he was still breathing. She pulled up his top to examine the damage. Seeing the searing red wound, she placed a hand on him and shimmered them out.
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As Chris drifted back into the realm of counciousness, he felt a dull pain in his stomach, searching threw his mind he tried to remember what happened. Alleyway. Demons. Rachel. Rachel throwing energy ball. Energy ball hitting him. His eyes slowly fluttered open and he sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was in an unfamiliar bedroom; the walls were cream with a purple border, the bed he was on was large and covered with a plain lavender coloured duvet and in the corner he saw Rachel asleep in a wicker chair. Looking down at his abdomen, he lifted up his top and he peeled back the dressing on his wound to find that it had been treated with a sweet smelling salve and had already healed considerably, the redness already fading. Not that Leo would not heal it as soon as he got home but at least he was not in too much pain for now.
Getting up slowly, Chris headed to where Rachel was situated, wincing when the sunlight that had started to filter through the curtains reached his eyes; that would be his hangover kicking in right on schedule. 'Well she appears to have some sort of miracle healing balm so she should have aspirin,' thought Chris, as he gently shook Rachel awake. He needed some answers and as pretty and as peaceful as she looked as she slept, he needed them now. Stirring, Rachel slowly opened her eyes with a confused look, a small smile appearing on her face when she saw Chris standing over her. "Hey, you are OK?" she asked groggily, stretching out her arms and legs.
"Yeah, thanks," said Chris. "I take it we are back at your place?"
"Yeah," nodded Rachel, standing up and a few moments silence fell between them. "So this is awkward."
"Yes," agreed Chris. "I believe this particular situation would fall into that category."
"So . . . " began Rachel. "You are a witch."
"Look who's talking," said Chris, bouncing the comment back.
"I wasn't accusing you of anything," said Rachel. "I just don't come across many male witches. The gene tends to run through the females in witch families."
"Yeah well Wyatt was kind of a surprise to the family as well," said Chris. "My parents had to give away all the pink baby stuff they had bought."
"And then you added to the mix."
"Well I wasn't so much of a surprise seeing as my future self orbed in and hung out with the family before I was even conceived," said Chris.
"What?" asked Rachel, confused. "Your future self? Wait, did you say orbed?"
"Yeah, I'm half whitelighter," said Chris.
"Holy shit!" said Rachel. "That makes you a Halliwell."
"Ding! Ding!" said Chris, imitating a game show buzzer.
"And the son of a Charmed One," said Rachel, with a dazed look on her face. "Two brothers called Chris and Wyatt, how didn't I put that together? Wow, my cousin is dating twice blessed Wyatt Halliwell."
"Not anymore, remember?" said Chris, remembering the night's events.
"I can't believe this!" said Rachel.
"So what about you?" asked Chris. "What's your background like? What about Katie, does she know about this? Hell does she have powers?"
"No, she doesn't know anything about magic," said Rachel. "I'm related to her on my dad's side and even he didn't know about magic until after he married my mom."
"She didn't tell him?"
"Nope. When she eventually did he couldn't take it that she had been keeping it from him for so long, so they ended up getting divorced," Rachel told him.
"I'm sorry," said Chris.
"Yeah, me too," said Rachel. "He lives in New York now but it is not too bad. I mean I can shimmer over and see him whenever I like."
"Did you say shimmer?" asked Chris, suddenly on his guard.
"Um yeah," said Rachel. "I'm a Phoenix."
"A what?" asked Chris.
Rachel sighed before sitting down on the bed. "A Phoenix, it's a family of elite witches," said Rachel, waving her hand across her left wrist, removing a glamour to reveal her red, flame type birthmark. "We are all born with this birthmark, it symbolises our rise from the Salem ashes."
"Wow, nice lineage," said Chris, closely examining the mark; why did it look so familiar?
"Not really," said Rachel. "It means that vengence is in our blood, we have no alleginces, not even with other witches. We work for whoever is willing to pay us the most."
"Even demons?" asked Chris.
Rachel nodded, "It's our way. I know you probably don't agree with it . . ."
"You're right, I don't," said Chris. "I believe that there is good and evil and that people have to pick a side."
"Well my few hundred years or so of heritage would have to disagree with you there," said Rachel.
"So are you telling me that if a demon paid you enough to kill an innocent, you would?" asked Chris, trying to understand.
"If the price was right, maybe," said Rachel.
"Then that puts you on their side," argued Chris.
"That's not fair!" protested Rachel. "Doing a few jobs for demons does not make me evil."
"Actually, I'd say it kind of does," said Chris. "You just admitted that you would kill an innocent, that definitely doesn't qualify you as good!"
"Would is not always the same as could Chris and people aren't always that innocent," debated Rachel. "It's not only demons that are evil, humanity isn't exactly great either. They have a serious history of persecution as we are only all too aware of."
"So that makes it alright for you to go around assassinating them for demons?" asked Chris. "I mean is doing demon's dirty work sort of like a part time job for you?"
"No, it is a lifestyle," said Rachel. "It is the way I was brought up, what I was born to do. I never have killed any of your precious innocents but if the time calls for it I have been fully trained to do so. Things are not as black and white as you seem to think Chris, I never would have thought you could be so narrow minded. At the moment I am kind of concentrating on having a normal life. I love being a Phoenix, I'm proud of my culture, my heritage, the status that comes with it in all the right circles but I'm not quite ready to embrace all the aspects of that life just yet."
"I can't believe this," said Chris. "I need to sit down." Sitting down beside her on the bed, he ran his fingers threw his hair. "This is just too crazy. I mean I spend the entire night with you, admiring your energy, thinking what a breath of fresh air you are and then I find out that you are from a family of assassin witches!"
"And I find out that you are from a family of prophesised good witches," said Rachel. The two teenagers sat in silence for a few moments, processing the information they had shared with each other. "We kind of have a magical ying, yang thing going on here," Rachel half joked.
"Yeah," said Chris quietly. "I don't agree with your entire perspective on the fundamental aspects of magic. You are trained to kill."
"And you are trained to protect the innocents. When you think about it," said Rachel, "We are practically enemies."
"It would seem that way," Chris agreed. "I fight for good and you. . ."
"Have no qualms about fighting against good," said Rachel. "It's so strange. Good magic is in your blood, you are even part angel!"
"And you seem to be in possession of a few demonic powers."
"True," said Rachel, who couldn't help but laugh.
"Care to share the joke?"
"My mother would kill me if she knew I was sitting here with the son of a Charmed One!" she giggled.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure my mom would be flipping out about now if I was consorting with the likes of you," said Chris, cracking a smile as well. "She would definitely hate it."
"So I guess that our respective families would not be amused if we did anything more than 'consorting,'" said Rachel, raising a suggestive eyebrow.
"For sure," mumbled Chris, in a low voice.
"You could even say that it would practically be forbidden," Rachel quietly suggested as she inched towards him.
"Oh yeah, I should probably be considering the best way to vanquish you," said Chris, his eyes set on her lips. "You know, either I'm having a really convenient memory lapse or we never did have a proper midnight kiss."
"Happy New Year," said Rachel, her lips coming into contact with his.
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Wyatt groaned as he felt a sharp pain in his leg. 'Wait, shouldn't it be my head that is suffering?' The pain that this thought caused made him realise that as expected his head was suffering as well. 'Did I drink so much that my hangover is being felt by my leg as well?' he wondered as he felt another jab in his leg. His eyes flew open as he was hit in the face with a rush of icy cold water. Jumping out of bed, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open in shook as he shook his head, trying to shake off some of the excess water as he took in the sight of his sister standing in front of him with a bucket.
"What the hell did you do that for?" he demanded, wincing at the volume of his own voice, suddenly feeling bad for everytime he had laughed at Chris when he was suffering a hangover.
"Well poking you with a pen did not seem to be working," Patricia reasoned.
"So clearly an attempt to drown me was on the cards," Wyatt snapped sarcastically, accepting the towel Patricia offered him and beginning to pat himself dry from what was entering his chart as the worst wake up call ever.
"You were dead to the world! I saw no other way."
"Gently shaking me or calling my name never occured to you?" asked Wyatt bitterly.
"Chris never came home last night," said Patricia.
Wyatt stopped dabbing himself with the towel, she had his attention now. "What?"
"There's no sign of him and I can't sense him," said Patricia, concern written across her features.
"Me neither," said Wyatt, after a moment of trying. "Does mom know yet?"
"No, everyone just assumed that he is sleeping late," said Patricia. "I didn't want to say anything to the contrary in case nothing is wrong and I was just getting him into trouble."
"Good idea," said Wyatt. "Chances are that he is either still partying or passed out on someone's floor."
"Exactly," said Patricia, although neither her or Wyatt's worried expressions reflected their words.
"Though I don't know why neither of us can sense them, that isn't good."
"Nope," agreed Patricia. "If he isn't back in an hour, then we tell them."
"OK," said Wyatt. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some throwing up to do."
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Chris orbed into the Manor with the goals of avoiding his mother until he had managed to have a shower and so wash away all evidence that he had been out the entire night. He was just about to undress when Patricia came bursting through the door. "Christ!" he exclaimed, "Ever try knocking?"
"Every try coming home or at least checking in?" Patricia retorted.
"Touché," said Chris, after a moment's contemplation.
"So are you OK?"
"Apart from the few years you just took off my life, a minor energy ball wound and a mild hangover I'm fine," said Chris.
"Energy ball wound?" Patricia quizzed.
"Yeah had a little run in with some demons last night," Chris told her, quickly deciding to leave out the specifics of what had happened since he saw his sister last. It was better if no one in his family knew that Rachel was a Phoenix. He wasn't fully sure why, but he felt that it was for the best, he didn't want them worrying about nothing. "Nothing major though, just held me up for a while. So you been speaking to Wyatt about what happened with Katie?" Chris asked, hoping to turn the attention away from his activities.
"Not yet," said Patricia. "But I will. On the upside we can hold last night's behaviour over him the next time he tries to do anything that resembles golating the next time we get into trouble."
"At least there's an updise," Chris agreed, although he was not too cheerful about confronting Wyatt about what had happened. "How about later you take Wyatt and I'll check up on Katie. We get both sides of the story and then start the meddling."
"Excellent idea. You should shower first though cause you look awful," commented Patricia.
"Ah I see it is Compliment Chris Day again," said Chris sarcastically. "For your information I was on my way to the shower when you decided to invade my privacy."
"Well I wouldn't have had to if you had came home or told us where you were," complained Patricia.
"We've been here before," Chris reminded her.
"I recognise that tree," Patricia quipped.
"Out!" requested Chris, pointing in the direction of his door.
"You can't make me," Patricia challenged, folding her arms in a defiant manner. Chris simply shrugged before pulling off his top and discarding it on the floor. "All right!" said Patricia, clamping a hand firmly over her eyes once Chris started to unbutton his jeans. "I'm going."
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"Hello, Mrs Halliwell?"
Piper looked up from her desk to see a blonde woman in a suit standing in front of her. "Yes?" asked Piper.
"Hi, I'm Joanna Philips," said the woman, offering her hand, which Piper took and shook.
"Oh hi, thanks for coming," said Piper, gesturing to the seat facing her. "I rang your angency yesterday I didn't expect you to come so soon."
"Well we are prompt like that," said Joanna sitting down.
"Can I get you anything?" offered Piper. "Water? Tea?"
"No thank you," smiled Joanna. "So why don't you tell me what I can do for you Mrs. Halliwell."
"Please call me Piper," she said, sitting back down. "Well I saw your agency's advertisement in the paper saying that you offered advice to people looking to start their own business and my new year's resolution is to finally open a restaurant but there is so much I'm not sure how to go about."
"Well then you have certainly rang the right place," said Joanna. "This looks like a fine establishment, from what I understand it is pretty popular."
"Yes," said Piper proudly. "It's been doing so well recently that I think I can finally afford to set up a restaurant. I mean by now I am pretty confident in running my own business but I remember how difficult it was to get it started and I feel that getting some professional help this time around wouldn't be such a bad idea."
"You sound like a smart woman, and I'm not just saying that because you are going to pay me," laughed Joanna
"That's good to know," said Piper, feeling better about her decision all ready.
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"Come in," said Katie hoarsely.
Chris opened Katie's bedroom door and entered to find his best friend huddled up on her bed, looking less than on top form.
"Hey," he said quietly, closing the door behind him.
"Hey," Katie whispered, the traces of a smile playing on her lips. "I take it you heard."
"Well heard is a relative term," said Chris. "Wyatt was drunk and said some stuff about you and him and how you were on a break. It sounded very 'Friends.'"
Katie gave a small smile at that, "You and your Friends addiction." She sat up straight on the bed, her back against the headboard as she took a pillow in her arms, hugging it in a form of self comfort. "Wyatt was drunk?"
"Completely wasted," Chris confirmed, sitting down beside her. "So you two are at another 'off again' part of your constant on again off again relationship that leaves the rest of us dizzy?"
Katie nodded, "It's for the best. The long distance thing was not working out and we both need some time away from each other to sort ourselves out."
"That sounds sensible," said Chris, trying to be understanding.
"It's also really hard," she whispered, her eyes welling up with tears.
Chris sighed and draped an arm around her as her head rested on his shoulder. For once he could not think of any ingenious plans to sort this one out.
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"Hey Pheebs, how is it going?" asked Paige as she approached Phoebe at her position slumped over some books at Magic School.
"Not particularly well," she admitted. "I can't seem to find any new ways of keeping the Book of Shadows safe."
"Well our current way is working out nicely for now," said Paige. "But I'd like you to meet Janine." Phoebe turned to the blonde woman beside Paige and smiled. "Nice to meet you."
"Same here," said Janine eagerly. "My first day and I've already met two Charmed Ones!"
Phoebe laughed at her enthusiasm. "Janine is one of our new TAs," Paige explained. "But there is not much to be done at the moment so I suggested that maybe you would need some help, I explained our little home situation."
"Yeah that would be great," said Phoebe.
"Although if working on protection spells gets too boring and you want to do some reseach on the High Council for the blue team, that would be great also," said Paige to Janine. "Well I'd better be going. Call me if you need anything."
Paige headed back to her class and Phoebe turned back to Janine. "Pull up a chair and a book. We're in for the long haul."
Janine smiled, "Oh I don't mind, I just like feeling helpful. So you must be nearing your due date, how far along are you?" she asked.
"Just about nine months," smiled Phoebe. "My due date is three days away, I can't wait to get this thing out of me!"
"All women get to that stage I think," said Janine.
"Well I just can't wait to see my toes again," said Phoebe. "I mean I'm not particularly fond of toes, or feet in general but I still miss them for some reason."
The two women read through a variety of books looking for useful information for about an hour, while enjoying light conversation until Phoebe stopped talking mid sentance.
"Is everything alright?" asked Janine.
"Yeah," said Phoebe. "I'm just going to be seeing my toes sooner than I thought."
"Did your water just break?" asked Janine standing up.
"Yup," said Phoebe. "Be a doll and go get Paige for me would you?"
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At the Manor, Chris was in the attic going through the Book of Shadows. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for-the page on Phoenixes. Chris read the entry which did not tell him much that he did not already know but as he looked at the distinctive birthmark that was painted on to the page in front of him, identical to the one on Rachel's wrist, he could not stop the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that this was all too familiar to him. He knew that he had seen the symbol before but he had just assumed it had been in the book when he was flicking through it but as he looked at it now he knew that he knew it from somewhere else, but the question was, from where?
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"Well?" asked Kuran as the hired Phoenix shimmered in.
"I've made contact," she said.
"Good, then everything is right on schedule."
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A/N2: I am so so so so so so so so so so sorry! I left you guys hanging for way too long and I'm a horrible person. This chapter was a bit all over the place but I was randomly in the mood to write it and once I started I was afraid if I stopped I wouldn't start again so I just kept going and this chapter was the result. I'll reiterate that I refuse to answer any Phoenix related questions, it's a storyline that you will just have to wait and see play out. A lot of you seem to think you have got it sussed out but no one has yet. I'm going to enjoy messing with your minds about it.
OK to my reviewers-I still love you all, I swear and I appreciate all the people that have reviewed within the past months, reminding me about this story! Hope you still are reading.
Thanks to: Paige Halliwell-Matthews, rcaqua, mjp3, Sparkling Cherries, hazza123, Fallen-Angel, Embry, Maggie0, Samantha, Altaira, Faith-Charmer, bec7012, Kel, ilovedrew88, Icantthinkofafnick, flephanie, Zeria, JadeAlmasy, Little Miss Spell-of-the-Week, Shakai, aasdfakljsd , Embry (again-tee hee), BlackKat913, moony391, Nessie and GC -you guys are all awesome!
From now on I am going to do replies in the reply email thing so here are the last posted ones:
Slayer2b: Tee hee thanks for both of your reviews-you seem pretty excitable. All those capital letters were pretty intimidating! And yay! Another shippper-I love you guys. Though it is kind of say because I know that in the end one set of shippers are going to be disappointed. I like that you have plans for my story and not to give anything away but in a way one of the things you mentioned sort of happens, but not for a while yet! Thanks again!
Boo26: Thanks for reviewing, glad you like the story! Yes, Chris' memories of his old life were erased but in the BttP epilouge it ismentioned that he still vaguely remembers some of them in a fuzzy way. As you can now probably tell that is going to become part of the story soon. Thanks again!