a/n: i hope you like it! please, read and review!
THANK YOU TO: Lauren M. who gave me my idea for this story from one of her poems she wrote. I read it and I asked her if I could use the idea. So thank you Lauren coz without you I would not have this idea and the other idea I had sucked so you saved me from being humiliated!
CHAPTER 4: Where Were You?
At six, Ashley grabbed her purse and headed down the stairs. When she got down the stairs into the hall, she noticed a fireball coming out of nowhere. She ducked it and ran into the living room where there were three demons. She quickly took cover behind the couch with Piper and Paige. Ashley looked around to see her Aunt Phoebe knocked out. She turned her head to see Squid up against the wall. He was knocked out cold and glass was shattered around him.
"Alan!" Ashley went to run to him but Piper pulled her back.
"We need to get rid of them first," Piper said. Ashley nodded, stood up and chucked fireballs at the demons. Two of the blew up, the other one shimmered out. Piper looked over the edge of the couch before running over Phoebe. Paige was right behind her. Meanwhile, Ashley took off to her boyfriend. She knelt down next to him and shook his shoulders.
"Alan!" she said, slapping his face. Finally, he opened his eyes.
"What the hell happened?" Squid asked, sitting up.
"Demons attacked," Ashley replied. "Are you okay?"
"I think so," Squid said, rubbing his head. Ashley helped him stand up and walked him over to the couch.
"I think you two should continue with your plans," Piper said to them as they fixed up the living room.
"Piper. Even you know that you three can't handle them. Ashley can handle them. You need her help," Squid said. Ashley went to say something but Squid cut her off, "It's okay. We can go out for dinner on Sunday, or even tomorrow after you classes."
"Alan. I agree that we need her help but you two have plans and..." Piper started.
"Conference! Kitchen! Now!" Phoebe said, dragging her two sisters into the kitchen.
"Piper. He's right. We do need her," Phoebe stated once they were sure they were out of hearing range.
"But he's at the point of breaking up with her!" Paige said.
"I could get Cole to kinda give him a little push to stay with her," Phoebe said, a small smile on her face.
"Bad Phoebe! Bad!" Piper said, slapping her sister's arm. "We are not messing with their relationship at all!"
"But we do need her help and he knows it. And how many times has he canceled plans to hang with his friends? She hasn't canceled once, even with demons after us..." Phoebe started to explained.
"Now that you think of it, the last time any demons attacked..." Piper started.
"Were when they were at the camp. That was close to a year ago," Paige said.
"Forget about that! We need her help. Without her help, we can't beat these demons," Phoebe said. "And Marcella's out of town. She headed to Florida with Josè for the long weekend. And Jessica hasn't been seen around here. Ashley's the only here right now and we need her help."
"I know we need her help but..." Piper started but turned to see Ashley and Squid standing in the door way.
"I'm gonna help you guys," she said. "Alan's fine with it."
"Ya. And I'll help you guys if you need it," Squid stated, putting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "You guys did a lot for me. It's only fair."
"Alan...One thing you need to know is that we go through this a lot. We have to cancel our plans a lot. The one thing Ashley doesn't cancel is teaching at the studio or even going to it. But sometimes, she may need to cancel her plans to get rid of demons, stuff like that. We need you to understand that it's hard juggling regular life with magic. We need you to promise that you won't break up with Ashley if it gets to annoying. Coz, usually, we have demons or warlocks attacking every other day," Piper explained.
"Ya. It's not like we could wish all of the demons away. You need to make a commitment to this family, to Ashley. You can't just leave because you're getting annoyed of her canceling plans," Phoebe added.
"Not like you haven't done that already," Paige said. Ashley shot her a nasty look.
"To be truthful, we consider you part of the family," Piper admitted. "And a family needs to stick together."
"I understand. I want to help you guys," Squid stated.
"I'm gonna go see if there's anything I can use to scry for the other demon," Ashley said, heading to the living, a small smile on her face.
About an hour later
Phoebe's POV
I was going through the Book of Shadows, trying to find something about the demons that attacked us. I looked over to the table where Ashley was scrying. Squid was standing behind, looking over her shoulder as she tried to find the demon.
"Wouldn't it be easier if I just went underworld?" Ashley asked, looking up at me.
"NO!" Piper yelled. She had just walked into the attic after putting Wyatt down for a nap. Chris and Leo orbed in as Paige came walking into the attic.
"Last time you went underworld, you had no back up," Piper stated.
"My powers have grown! Plus I got a new power!" Ashley protested. "Cole can go with me." Just then, Cole shimmered in.
"I know who attacked you," he said. "Look up Bartitaka." I held my hands over the book, saying the name over and over in my head and the book flipped to one certain page. Every one headed over to me to see what this demon was.
"It says here, Bartitaka was locked away into space by a witch Annita Arlington. Bartitaka wanted her power so he use it for evil. Annita was able to take peoples wounds and heal them, but then she would get the wounds," I read. I looked up at Ashley. "That sounds like your power..."
"So what? Go on," Squid stated.
"As years went on, Bartitaka watched as Annita's power grew. She was then able to take wounds from anyone, even herself, and put them on any other living person. Finally, Bartitaka striked. But when he wounded her, she sent her wound to him, and then stuck him into space. He'd never be able to get out of space...That's all it said," I finished.
"Sounds like that's one of your ancestors," Piper stated, looking at Ashley. She then turned back to me. "Does it have any potions, or even a spell?"
"Ya. It has a spell to make him appear." I looked up at Ashley. "Only you have to say it. Then we have to chuck the potion at him." I pointed to the directions for the potion and the spell. "Let's get working."
Five minutes later...
Ashley's POV
"Ash. Squid. Can you guys go downstairs and get these ingredients?" Piper handed us a list and Squid headed for the stairs. Instead I grabbed his arm and shimmered us downstairs in the kitchen.
"Whoa," Squid said after we reappeared into the kitchen. "How'd you do that?"
"It's called shimmering," I stated, walking over to the cabinets. I started picking out things we needed for the potion and Squid finally helped after a moment of being in shock. I had barely used my powers since the camp. Well...Okay maybe one time on a ski trip. When Squid broke his leg. Instead, I took the broken leg until we got back to the lodge where we were staying with the rest of the family. We met Leo in Cole and Phoebe's place since that's where we were eating dinner that night and Leo healed it...ANY WAYS...
"Hey. I'm sorry about our plans," I apologized.
"Hey. It's okay. We still have all weekend. Maybe instead, we could rent in a movie and order in pizza?" Squid suggested.
"That sounds like a way better plan," I said as I gathered the ingredients and put them in a cardboard box. I went to turn to go to the fridge when Squid grabbed my arm. I turned back and waited like he was going to say something. Instead, he cupped my chin with one hand as the other arm went around my waist. As he pulled me closer to him, he slowly leant in and kissed me. My arms snaked up around his neck as the hand that cupped my chin now went down to my hip. Just then, we heard coughing and I pulled away to see Cole standing there.
"Done yet?" he asked. I grabbed the cardboard box, took Squid's hand, and shimmered back up to the attic. Cole shimmered in a second after us and I placed the cardboard box onto the table. I helped Paige mix it and while I was stirring, I felt someone's eyes on me. I looked up to see Squid across the attic, sitting on the couch, staring at me. I blushed and looked back down at the potion. It was ready.
"Okay Ashley. Say the spell and then as sson as he gets in, duck behind that couch. We'll hit him with the potion," Phoebe said. Easy for her to say. At least she wasn't the bait.
"Near and far, look around, bring us Bartitaka, make him found!" I said. I ducked behind the couch as a wind tunnel appeared in the attic. The wind stopped and I looked over the couch to stop Phoebe just in time from throwing the potion.
"STOP!" I cried. Phoebe did stop and I looked to the man staring at me.
"Dad?" I asked. "Is that you?"
"Ashley? My little Ashley?" my father asked.
"Dad. It is me. It's me Ashley," I said.
"Where's your mother?" he asked.
"She's dead...I thought you were too," I replied.
"I never was. You live here, with the Charmed ones?"
"Ya. Mom put me, Marcella, and Jessica with them. To protect us," I stated. "Are you Bartitaka?"
"No. I'm his boss almost," my father turned to face Cole. "Why did you never tell me my daughters were here? You said their mother took them to the Elders!"
"Dad! Don't blame him!" I shouted afraid of what my dad would do to Cole. I noticed Squid had come over and place a hand on my hip incase he had to get me out of the way of anything.
"Who are you?" my dad questioned, staring at Squid.
"Dad. This is my boyfriend, Alan," I said.
"Are you a demon?" my father asked.
"No. He's a human," Cole said as if testing to see what my dad would do. My father just smiled. "Good way to break the chain...Where's your sisters?"
"I don't know. Marcella's in Florida with her boyfriend, Josè and Jessica's been hanging at her friend, Kelsey's house," I said. My father looked to my aunts with an eye brow raised.
"Don't worry. My friend, Darrel, he's a cop. He ran backround checks on Josè and we knew who they were going to visit. We talk to Josè relatives every day and they keep an eye on them. And Jessica is fine. She just came home today from school and picked up her stuff to stay over at Kelsey's," Piper explained.
"I see you are taking good care of my daughters. Thank you. Now why did you want Bartitaka?" My father questioned.
"He attacked us," Phoebe said. "We need to banish him."
"Don't worry. I'll make sure he won't attack you again...Do you mind if I come again soon? Just so I can check and visit my daughters?" my dad asked.
"No, not at all. Come visit anytime," Piper stated. My dad turned to me and smiled, "I'll see you soon Ashley."
"Bye dad." My dad shimmered out and every just stared in shock.
"I can't believe...After all these years...He's back," I said, in pure shock.
"I guess that was kind of a waste. I'm gonna keep this potion incase that guy Bartitaka does show up," Paige said, pocketing the potion. "What do you two have for plans?"
"Rent a movie, order in pizza," Squid answered. "That's about it."
"Good idea. I could go for a pepperoni pizza. How about family night? What movie?" Phoebe asked.
"We got no idea," I admitted.
"We have the extended edition of Lord Of the Rings. All three. How about those?" Piper asked.
"Sure. Paige, you joining us?" Squid asked.
"Nah. I'm gonna go correct papers then head to Richard's," Paige said before orbing out. We all headed down stairs and Piper called up the pizza place. She ordered four large pizzas and we waited until they got here to start the movie. Phoebe threw it in the 5 disc dvd player. I grabbed the love seat with Squid. Piper and Leo got one couch, Cole and Phoebe got the other. Phoebe hit play, shut off the lights and everyone grabbed a slice of pizza and a coke as the movie started. Now this is what you call a date.
Daddy, why'd you show up tonight? you haven't been here for half my life, missed out on things that mattered, all my cries were never heard, now you wanna come back into my heart, after years of leaving me in the dark, do you want my opinion at all? did you just like to watch me fall? now I'm seventeen today, did you lose your way? you missed ten years of my life, you can never make right, daddy today I learn the truth, daddy can you say 'I love you'? I've grown up without love and care, I have one person still there, you think you can reappear, like I'm your still your little girl, but I moved on years ago, I miss you that's for sho', now I'm seventeen today, did you lose your way? you missed ten years of my life, you can never make right, daddy today I learn the truth, daddy can you say 'I love you'? but I never tried to find, why you left me behind, why you walked away from mom, don't try to act as if it wasn't that long, I cried so many tears, and all those empty years, you're not in the family potrait, you're not at all with it, you never called me once, I still love you tons, but I don't care anymore, you're the one with the weak core, so laugh in my face again, then you'll see who'll be laughing then, coz you left me too many times, and now I'm the one leaving you behind! now I'm seventeen today, did you lose your way? you missed ten years of my life, you can never make right, daddy today I learn the truth, daddy can you say 'I love you'? Can you say I love you too?
