Chapter Two: Pancakes and Puking
The Next Morning…
Paige walked into the kitchen still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She gladly accepted the coffee cup that Piper handed her before plopping herself down the chair next to Phoebe.
"Good morning, Sunshine!" Phoebe exclaimed loudly as her younger sister sat down.
Paige glared at her sister before speaking, "Where's Kiara at?"
"She's sitting outside," Piper informed her.
"Why is she outside?"
"Ask your wonderful sister Phoebe."
"Phoebe?"
"So I woke at like 4:30 this morning because I heard Kiara practicing, and in my crankiness I came down and told her to go outside if she was going to exercise, and I kind of forgot to tell her to come back in when she was finished."
"So why didn't you guys bring her in now?"
"She looks kinda content. She's just sitting out there, but she looks happy," Phoebe said, pointing out the window to where they could see Kiara sitting on the grass.
"Well, last night we just sent her to sleep. Maybe today we should give her a tour or something. Try to get and know her, ya know," Paige suggested.
"That's an excellent idea Paige. Why don't you give her a tour of the manor and try to help her be more comfortable," Piper smiled at her.
Before Paige could make it out the door the kitchen was again filled with the sound of orbs as the kids and their fathers orbed in en masse.
"OK, Magick School was fun and all, but they cannot produce good food…at all," Wyatt said as they materialized.
"Agreed. Mom, can you please make us brea….who's the chick in our yard?" Chris added to his brother's comment before noticing the girl who was wearing his Aunt's clothes sitting in the backyard.
"Okay, since you're all hear, everybody sit down while Phoebe explains what's going on. I'm going to go make breakfast for everyone and Paige is going to take care of our new…friend."
Paige left the family and walked outside to stand in front of Kiara. "Hey kid, how's it going?" Receiving no response Paige squatted down in front of the girl. Kiara diverted her eyes to the ground.
"Remember what we told you last night, all that crap they filled your head with about not speaking or feeling is over now. You don't have to follow orders anymore. C'mon, let's go take a walk around the house. You should probably learn your way around since you'll be staying here. If you have any questions I'm giving you permission AND orders to ask them. Do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am," came the girl's quiet response. It was the first time she had said anything since arriving at the manor.
"Good, we'll start in the attic," Paige said leading the girl up the stairs.
Paige showed her around the attic, showing her where they kept the potion ingredients and other magickal items. She then led her down to the second floor. "So here is Piper and Leo's bedroom. They're married and have three sons, Wyatt, Chris and Hayden. Those three share this room here. This actually used to be two separate rooms, mine and Phoebe's, but we did some remodeling when Hayden was born because Piper wanted them all in the same room so they'd be safer. Any questions so far? It's okay to ask."
Kiara took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Paige could tell the girl was trying to build courage, and it broke her heart to see a person so brainwashed. Finally Kiara spoke, "What kinds of powers do you have?" Kiara seemed to shrink away from Paige as she asked, expecting to be punished.
"Well, I have the power of orbikinesis, invisibility, and whitelighter powers, which are orbing, sensing, healing, and glamouring. Piper has temporal stasis, molecular acceleration, and deflection. Leo is and Elder, but trust me he had nothing to do with your situation. Wyatt is 20 and has a protective force field, energy balls, temporal stasis, telekinesis, wind generation, GeoKinesis, thought projection, empathy, he's a whitelighter, and he is the wielder of Excalibur. Chris is 18 and is also a whitelighter. He has temporal stasis and molecular acceleration, Pyro- and Hydrokinesis, Telekinesis, premonitions, and has the Elder powers of invisibility and lighting bolts. Hayden is 16 and has the same whitelighter / Elder powers as Chris, along with conjuring and levitation."
"Wh…" Kiara started to speak, but then seemed to realize what she was doing and stopped.
"Go ahead," Paige encouraged her.
"Why do Chris and Wyatt have so much more power than their brother or mother? In my studies I've never heard of a witch possessing that many powers, except for me."
"Good question. Well, Wyatt is 'Twice-Blessed'. It has something to do with being born on a special night with proper planetary alignments. You know how those things go."
"I was told of the 'Twice-Blessed. I studied his prophecy, but was never told he existed."
"Yea, that's our Wyatt. Chris is a different story though. It's kinda complicated. There was this alternate future that we were all in where Wyatt had been turned evil and became the Source of all Evil. The sisters and I were killed by Wyatt's demons, as was the rest of our family in that timeline. Chris was the only one Wyatt wouldn't let them harm. He tortured Chris and spent years trying to get him to turn to evil. Chris refused and actually led a Resistance against him, though he couldn't kill his brother either. He ended up coming back to the past and dying to stop the evil that turned Chris. As you can tell, it worked. In any case, the same day future Chris died, baby him was born." Paige smiled to herself as she told the story, and felt her mind go back as she remembered.
FlashbackPiper's hospital room.
Phoebe, Paige, Leo and Wyatt were all in the room with Piper and baby Chris, smiling over the newest addition to their family.
The ceiling suddenly began to glow above them, and a woman in white pants and a white shirt floated down to the foot of Piper's bed. A bright golden light surrounded her.
"Who are you?" Piper asked, clutching her newborn close to her.
The woman smiled reassuringly at her and spoke, "It will be hard for you to understand, but I am Everything. I am referenced in almost every religion and am called many things, but it isn't important. I am purely energy. I have crafted this form and placed it in front of you to make you more comfortable, for I have no shape."
"What do you want, because if it's Chris, you can't have him."
"I do want Chris, but not in the manor you are thinking. I am going to bless him, but wanted to explain to you before I did. You are now going to have two Twice Blessed children I guess you could say. One because he was prophesized to be so, the other because he has proven without question that he has earned and deserves to be so. I looked into the future that he come from, and was amazed at the goodness of his soul at what he was able to endure and still be able to smile at the end of the day. While this Chris will never go through such events, it is the same soul, and the same determined spirit inside this body. I will be watching over him always for what he has done, even more so than I already watch over you."
"You watch over us?" Phoebe asked the lady.
"Of course. Where do you think your powers come from? The Elders? No offense, Leo, but while the Elders do help, they don't hold ultimate power. They exist because witches were losing faith, and having people in power, though dead, made it easier to relate and help them. The old ways were long ago lost, but remember, if you ever need me, there are ways to reach me."
The woman waved her hand causing Chris to glow brightly for a moment. "Blessed Be," the words were disembodied and echoed throughout the room as the woman before them disappeared.
End Flashback
Paige and Kiara had moved to the first floor as they were talking, and Paige picked the tour back up. "When we remodeled, we added bedrooms onto this floor. Phoebe and Cole's room is here, as is Henry's and mine. My daughters share this room, and Pearl, Phoebe and Cole's daughter has recently moved into the basement. Would you like to know their powers, too?"
"Yes please." It took Kiara less encouragement to talk this time, and Paige felt her hopes lift.
"Well, Phoebe has Empathy, Premonitions, Levitation, and the ability to throw fire. Cole is half demon, but he's good, so don't worry. He shimmers, conjures, and throws energy balls. Pearl is 13 and can also shimmer and gets premonitions. My daughter Patience, who is 10, can orb, glamour, and has electricity generation. Jordan is 8 and has telekinesis. We're trying to work on her orbing. Did ya get all that, because I'm not even sure I did? Feel free to ask for refreshers."
Paige led Kiara through the rest of the first floor and back into the dining room where the rest of the family had just finished hearing Kiara's story, and Piper was bringing out pancakes for breakfast.
"Sit! Eat!" Piper commanded to both Kiara and Paige. Chris got up and brought a chair from the corner of the room as Wyatt and Hayden moved their chairs away from their brother's to make more room. As they did this Paige introduced everyone in the room Kiara. She led the girl to the seat that Chris brought over for her and Piper placed a huge plate of pancakes.
"Syrup?" Chris asked holding the bottle in front of her.
Kiara looked blankly from the food in front of her to the bottle Chris was holding. Seeing the confusion on her face Chris demonstrated by pouring some on his own pancakes. "See. It makes them taste better. Here, just try it," Chris poured syrup on half of her pancakes.
Kiara just looked back down at her plate. Paige, who could see the girl was extremely uncomfortable, asked her to go into the living room with her for a moment.
"What's wrong?" she asked her when they got there. Receiving no response she added, "Answer."
"I don't know what's on my plate. How do you eat it?"
"They're called pancakes and you use a fork silly."
"What's a fork?"
Paige looked at her in disbelief for a moment before asking, "What did they feed you?"
"Bread mostly, and water. Joel would sometimes put something he called meat on the bread. He said it was called a samtwich, I think"
"A sandwich." Paige corrected. She quickly explained the use of the fork and led Kiara back to her seat. Kiara looked down at the table at the various utensils lying there. Slowly she picked up what she believed was a fork and started to put in to the food on her plate, but stopped when she heard light laughter coming from across the table. Paige glared down at her daughters.
Chris smiled as he gently grabbed Kiara's hand and pulled the knife from it. He picked up her fork and placed it into her hand where the knife was while saying, "Here, this is your fork. The other thing was a knife."
Kiara looked down and to the side, trying to hide the weird emotions she was feeling. Phoebe looked at Kiara as she felt extreme embarrassment coming from her, and looking at the girl Phoebe realized she didn't even know what to call her own feelings, or how to deal with them. Her heart reached out and she wished there was a way to ease her confusion without embarrassing her further.
The family ate peacefully for a while, making conversation among themselves, allowing Kiara to attempt to eat in peace. Kiara took a few bites before setting her fork on the plate and looking into her lap.
"What's wrong, Sweetie? Do you not like them? I can make something else." Piper said with concern at the girl.
Kiara looked away, pain evident in her eyes and clutched her stomach. Leo's eyes widened and with a wave of his hand he orbed his wife and Kiara into the bathroom. The rest of the family looked at him and he explained.
"We kinda made a stupid mistake there. Giving an extremely malnourished person, who's only used to bread and water, pancakes with maple syrup is pretty much guaranteed to make her vomit. We're going to have to be careful with what we give her for a while until her body gets used to it again."
The family continued eating, and a few moments later Piper returned to her seat and continued as well. "Before anyone asked, Kiara is lying down in my room, which actually leads me to the question, where is she going to stay? She slept on the couch last night because we didn't want to set her up somewhere without consulting the family."
"She can stay with me…in my bed," Chris volunteered, raising his hand in the air and trying to look innocent as he looked from one end of the table to the other.
Phoebe laughed loudly before clasping her hand over her mouth.
"Very funny, Mister. For that you get to do the dishes." Piper scolded her son.
Wyatt pointed to his brother and laughed, but stopped quickly when Piper cleared her throat loudly. "For that, you can help him."
"But mom…"
"No. Now, does anyone have any good suggestions?"
"She can stay downstairs with me," Pearl offered. "The basements big enough for like ten people."
"Thank you, Pearl." Piper replied. "That's what we had though of as well, but we didn't want to make you feel like we were forcing her in on you."
"Whatever, it'll be nice to have some company down there."
"I volunteer to move to the basement as well. It's getting kinda crowded in our room. Much more spacious in the basement." Chris offered again.
Piper sighed deeply, trying to suppress her laughter at her middle sons attempts.
"It's not like you're not already 'player of the year'," Wyatt told his brother.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Chris replied, indignantly.
"You bring a different girl into our room every week," Hayden backed his oldest brother.
"Really?" Piper raised her eyebrows at the conversation. Chris smiled confidently at his mother and rolled his eyes.
"Oh come on, Mom. They just want me to get in more trouble."
"Somehow I believe you."
"What?" Wyatt asked incredulously.
"Come on, Bro. Time to clean dishes"
In the kitchen…
Chris was washing while Wyatt dried and put away.
"I can't believe how easily you twist out of every little thing. I tell her you bring girls to the room all the time, and all you have to do is give her a little look and she melts into your hand. You come home completely trashed and she rarely notices," Wyatt complained to his brother.
"I can't help that I'm good. It takes a lot of talent to do everything you can to get in trouble, and be able to smile your way out of it."
"Whatever, man. Just don't get anyone pregnant, and stay out of that crazy crack heroin shit."
"Oh come on, I'm not that bad. Just because I bring home girls all the time, doesn't mean I sleep with them. I do have some standards."
"I know. I do think you're barking up the wrong tree though, if you're going to try and get Kiara. I don't think she's your type."
"I know. I just think it's funny to watch all the adults try to be serious and not laugh when you know they think it's fucking hilarious."
Wyatt smiled at his brother as put the last plate away. "Off to train?"
"You grab the rest of them, I'll grab the music."
A/N: So there's chapter two. I hope you liked it. I tried to get all the family stuff explained in this one, but if you have any questions, or were confused, you should review and tell me so I can fix it (evil smile). Please review! I will update much more quickly if you do, whether it's a bad or good review)