Once again, the usual disclaimer, I don't own Charmed or any of its regular characters neither do I own any of the spells, practices, etc, depicted therein, I do own Gabriel and his mom.

Thank you to the people who're taking the time to read and review my work, YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!

Now, let's get on with the story…

Last time…

Not that he enjoyed vanquishing evil, or at least more than necessary. But Chris was beginning to think that he would particularly enjoy this little battle with that evil.

Chapter 9

"O.K., first of all, we need to disable the ward that your mom set up around the house." Said Chris, suddenly all business.

"Um, what exactly is a 'ward'?" Gabriel asked him, clearly confused.

"It's just a magical way of stopping someone from exiting or entering a certain place. Another witch can't reverse it from outside, but it's fairly easy to reverse it if you're within the area the ward covers." Chris ranted off at top speed.

"I understand," Gabriel said, not understanding at all.

"A simple spell is all that's needed," Chris said matter of factly, and then a little apologetically, he added, "Which will come to me eventually."

"I don't get it. Why don't you take me with you in the same way that you came here." Gabriel voiced his idea.

"That would be because I astral projected here. Technically, I'm not here, my soul is." Chris said, as if this were the most mundane thing in the world.

"Can all witches do it?" Gabriel asked, interested. He was learning more about magick from Chris in a few hours, than he'd learned from his mom in 16 years.

"Sure, it just needs a little training and practice, that's all there is to it."

Five minutes later, Chris had successfully remembered and cast the spell to undo the ward. An evanescent glow had filled the apartment as the spell had been worked, leaving the flat to feel less like a fortress.

"Great, now we can just get someone to orb you to…" Chris was cut off by the arrival of a very angry witch at the door.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH MY SON! GABRIEL, EXPLAIN YOURSELF, NOW!" the woman shrieked.

Chris bit his lip. On his side, Gabriel had visibly paled. He was pretty much helpless in a situation like this, without any active powers, and no working knowledge of magick as such. So was he himself, he couldn't use astral projection and his active powers together. And he was very reluctant to leave Gabriel at a time like this. So he chose to do what he always did to get himself bailed out of trouble.

"WYATT MATHHEW HALLIWELL! ORB YOUR TWICE BLESSED ASS DOWN HERE, NOW!" he shrieked up to the ceiling, the decibel level of his voice matching Gabriel's mother's.

A moment later, bright blue orbs appeared right beside Chris, materializing to reveal the form of his older brother. "You called, bro?" Wyatt remarked conversationally, his piercing blue eyes gauging the situation.

"I did, orb our friend here to the Manor, will you, Wy?" Chris spoke to his sibling.

Wyatt nodded briefly, and then orbed out with Gabriel, presumably in the direction of the Halliwell Manor.

"As for you," Chris said, turning to the woman who was by now looking as if she could cheerfully butcher Chris alive, "as much as I'm tempted to say a spontaneous combustion spell, I'm afraid that this will have to do-

Let this witch, as quick as a breeze,

Be affected by this spell, and freeze"

She now looked as if she'd just been hit by his mom's temporal statis. Quickly, he wrote down a note, and made sure that the now frozen witch would see it the moment she thawed. The note read- your son is now under the protection of the Halliwells, come after him and you will suffer the consequences. Satisfied, the Halliwell witch astralled out.

Meanwhile at the Manor, Wyatt had orbed in to the attic with Gabriel, to the sight of Chris' unconscious body slumped on the floor, now cushioned by pillows. Gabriel was shocked for a moment, and then remembered the thing about the astral projection Chris had told him about.

"Um, I want you to meet my mom, Piper Halliwell, and her two sisters, Phoebe and Paige." Wyatt told him, gesturing to the other inhabitants of the attic who had gone hitherto unnoticed by him.

"Hi!" said all three of the sisters together, their voices cheerful. Gabriel turned around, and looked at them, and was instantly struck by the thought that these women seemed stronger when they were together.

In fact, without even meaning to, Gabriel was just sensing The Power of Three.

"Um, hi, my name is Gabriel." He said shyly, already aware that they were seriously powerful witches.

"Well, I'm Piper," spoke the eldest Charmed One, "and they're my sisters Phoebe and Paige.", gesturing to each of her sisters as she spoke their names.

"Call us by our first names, please." Quipped an overly age conscious Phoebe, who was rewarded with a now-is-not-the-time-for-your-vanity look from Piper.

"Will do, Phoebe." Gabriel told her, suppressing a chuckle. He was beginning to relax around the Halliwells. They haven't tried slamming me into the nearest wall yet, so I think I can trust them, he thought.

Right at that moment, Chris woke up from his stupor- his astral self had traveled back to his body. "Gabriel!" was the first thing he uttered as he came to. Sitting up, he caught sight of the person in question, and smiled at him.

"You, O.K.?" Gabriel asked Chris, concerned about the encounter between him and his mother, which he knew must've occurred.

"I'm fine," Chris told him airily, "I just froze her, that's all"

And then he remembered Gabriel's wounds, and holding out his hand over his body, he said, "Here, let me fix those." A warm, yellow glow emanated from the witch whitelighter's hands, and Gabriel felt the wonderful sensation of relief flooding his entire being.

Within a good 10 seconds, Gabriel found that his body no longer had any wounds on them.

"Thanks" he told Chris, marveling at the feats of magick he had been witnessing all day. Suddenly tired, he yawned, and tried to stifle it, but failed miserably.

It didn't go unnoticed by Piper. "You look exhausted, Gabriel. Tell you what, I'll fix you some dinner, and then you can have the guest room all to yourself." She told him, her maternal instincts already at work.

Gabriel tucked in really well to the delicacies Piper had rustled up for him. Too well, in fact.

"When was the last time you ate, Gabriel?" the Halliwell matriarch asked him gently.

She was the met with the same look of shame that her son had gotten earlier that day. "Last morning" he told her quietly. It was nearly 8 pm at night then.

She gently squeezed his shoulder and smiled reassurance at him. Piper seemed very familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place why. After a moment, he got it. Piper's face bore an uncanny resemblance to Prue's. Thinking it was just a coincidence, he dismissed the thought from his mind.

In another ten minutes, he was sleeping soundly in the guest room. Piper stood in the doorway for a minute. She silently studied his peaceful form. He's so innocent; she thought sadly, a sadness which was tinged by anger. Why would anyone want to hurt him like that? She shook her head, and then headed for the attic, where she knew her family had congregated.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked her sisters who were seated in old armchairs. "Well, I could sense a lot of power coming from him, and so could Chris." Phoebe told her sister, "Don't you think we should tell the Elders?" she continued.

Piper nodded her agreement, and looked at her youngest sister, "Why don't you fill in the Elders on this, Paige?"

Paige nodded briefly and was gone in a swirl of blur orbs.

She returned a full twenty minutes later, an Elder in tow.

"You won't believe what I just heard about her innocent, back there!" she told her sisters excitedly.