"S-s-so what's the first s-stage of our plan, sir?" Sigmund stuttered, rubbing his hands together nervously as he followed Gideon about the study. The headmaster was muttering to himself under his breath, his forehead creased into a frown.
"Oh, stage one has already begun, Sigmund. We got her under our care..." He said absently, staring at the rug on the floor.
"W-we did? But I thought-" The assistant blinked in confusion behind his glasses, a small frown that mimicked the headmaster's on his face.
"You thought that Chris brought her here?" Gideon turned to face his assistant and the latter nearly ran into him. "How could a child like that come up with such an idea so spontaneously?" He didn't wait for Sigmund to answer. "Oh, don't get me wrong, he has brains but that... That was me in his head, giving him a little push in the right direction, as it were."
Frustrated and distracted, the boy had been easy to influence. Stupid brat from the future, who did he think he was? But if Gideon could exert power over his mind then he was at least the tiniest bit useful.
"You implanted something in his mind?" Sigmund asked. How far was his master willing to go? Was this going against all the good magic and the Elders stood for?
"Yes, and here she is," Gideon spread his arms, waving one hand over the crystal ball on his desk. It was a familiar gesture that Sigmund has seen the headmaster perform many times to view the Charmed Ones in the crystal ball. Bridget was standing in the middle of her room, her hands balled into fists by her sides and her face screwed up with concentration.
Suddenly she orbed out, only to orb back in on top of the rocking char, decimating it. She swore and picked herself up from the wreckage, her top riding up and showing some of her pregnant stomach. The headmaster glowered darkly at it.
"The child can already orb," Gideon said gravely. "If this child lives to grow up, even the land of the Elders will not be a safe haven." Had that been the idea of the demon? Make sure the Elders would never be safe? Bridget orbed out again, only to reappear in the same spot. She looked exhausted from the effort and sat down on her bed.
"Chris?" Her voice echoed oddly from the depths of the crystal ball. "Chris?" Even with the echo, the two watchers could tell it was a whine. "C'mon, it's boring here and I can't come to you..."
She pouted. She was bored and he could at least come and see her. I mean a quick cuddle and a hello wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?
In a blur of red another form appeared in the room, grinning. Gideon recognized him as the irritating witch from the library. His eyes narrowed. Ah, the other future boy. This was getting entirely ridiculous. At least one of the meddlers had already been taken care of, but this one was much closer to Chris...
As the young witch spoke Gideon mulled a few thoughts over in his mind, the corners of his mouth eventually turning up into a smile.
"Hey, Bridget." Wow. They really hadn't given her much space, had they? The room accommodated a single but comfortable-looking bed, a dresser, a bookcase, the obliterated chair as well as a single decorative painting on one of the walls.
"Well at least they sent someone." the Hunter said, turning to him.
"Oh, you know you love me," Ben said, hopping up onto the dresser. "Nice chair."
Bridget glowered darkly at the broken rocker. It wasn't fair. Chris was really good at orbing and she was now carrying someone more powerful than him. Why was it so hard? "It got in the way of my orb. Where's Chris?"
"Uh, yeah- About that..." Ben gave her a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his head. He held back a wince and drew a deep breath, waiting for her to explode when she heard the news.
"What did you do?" Bridget asked, with a kind of tired patience.
"Um, well we might have got a little bit – arrested?"
"WHAT?!" Her shriek reverberated off of the stones walls. "You got arrested?!"
Ben held out his hands, giving her a warning look. "Calm down, you'll blow something up."
"Thanks for volunteering."
"The sad thing is, I knew you were gonna say that." Ben rolled his eyes.
Sighing she plopped back onto the bed, leaning back in the thick, fluffy pillows. "Meh, don't worry. We don't have that power – yet - It's a pretty cool power, though, so the baby might get it. I can only orb." Bridget looked slightly miserable. "But I'm learning to control that."
"Tell that to the chair." Bridget motioned with her hand and Ben reluctantly came closer. The brunette slapped him on the shoulder. "Hey!" She poked her tongue out at him as he retreated back to the dresser-top.
"So how's Mr. I-can't-orb-to-see-his-knocked-up-best-friend?" Bridget yawned. All this doing nothing was making her sleepy.
"Chris says hi and promises not to take the number of the chick in the cell next to us."
"Don't taunt the pregnant lady," Bridget warned, crossing the room and clipping him around the head. He grinned and ducked.
Suddenly he flew through the air and crashed upside down into the bookcase. There was a loud crack and two of the shelves split, sending a deluge of books on top of the witch.
"Ben!" Bridget ran over to him. One of his sneakers was lodged in one of the shelves and she pulled it free, causing him to land sprawled half on top of the pile with one of his feet by his ear.
"Why is it that every time I come to see you-" he projected out and projected back in on top of the dresser. "- I get another bruise?"
"I'm sorry! The baby-"
"I mean they can stop people getting killed here but they can't stop a bruise or two? Ow."
Bridget was talking to her stomach. "No! Bad. I was only playing. Hurting Ben – while amusing – is bad. Very bad. Don't do it again."
"Oh, way to teach the kid morals."
"Single parent here. Don't mess with me or I might get pissed again."
The leather-bound books had been quite soft and had broken most of the fall to the flagged floor, so Ben wasn't too hurt. As soon as the blood rushed back from his head he'd be ok, probably. Wow, the baby was really packing a punch.
Ben rolled his eyes. "Chris said he loves you and the baby, hopes everything is going well that you'll get through it together. He'll be here in a few hours, once Sheridan realizes we're innocent- or we get bailed." Ben shrugged. "Either's fine with me." He chose to say nothing to her single parent comment, wondering briefly what his friends were going to do after they got out of jail.
Gideon motioned for Sigmund to draw across the heavy velvet drapes as the sunlight began shining on the sphere, fracturing the light inside and disrupting the picture.
"S-sir that was a witch power," Sigmund said, the rings rattling on the poles as the curtain was drawn across.
"Its powers are manifesting themselves quicker than I could ever have imagined. The child can aim from the womb." The Headmaster frowned and rubbed his chin. "Sigmund," he began thoughtfully. "When is the child due?"
"Six months, I think, sir. She's entering her second trimester now."
There was a blur of red in the ball and Bridget was left alone again.
"See what you can find about the date using star charts and the like. There might be some people I can call."
The Elder orbed out and Sigmund scurried out of the door into the corridor to go and do his master's bidding.
Learning to Tango
"Did you find her? How is she? Is she where I sensed she was?" Ben rubbed the back of his neck with his hand as he pulled his head up. He was sitting on the thin mattress on the bottom bunk of the beds in their cell, knees drawn up to his chest and his chin resting on them
Chris was pacing the cell, running his hands through his hair and trying his best to ignore the shouts of the other inmates. The stressful events of the past week were really starting to show and Ben wondered how soon he would snap and possibly send one of the inmates through a wall or something. The shadows under Chris's eyes looked deeper and purpler in the dim light of the cell. If Chris wasn't careful he was going to make himself sick.
"Hey, c'mon, you gotta have, like, cigarettes or something." Chris gave another withering look to the guy sticking his arm through the bars of the cell.
"I don't smoke." He turned his back on him and looked to his friend. "Well?"
"Bridget's fine," Ben said, shifting slightly as a spring dug into him and pulling a face. "And the baby got a new power," he added brightly.
"Really? What?" Chris paused, and then rolled his eyes. "You didn't piss her off, did you?"
"No! I just - slightly made fun because she landed on a chair and broke it..."
"Right, so you did piss her off?" Chris asked with grin.
Ben grinned. "No more demonic powers for the moment. Baby Lucifer is tk'ing like no one's business." He knew that bit of news would cheer him up a bit, since that was one of his powers. Instead, Chris rolled his eyes, but tiredly this time, more fed up.
"Don't call it that."
"What are you guys on about?" The guy whined. "C'mon, I'm dying over here..."
"You'll be dying in a minute, all right," Ben muttered through gritted teeth. God would that guy EVER shut up?
"Where's Sheridan?" Chris asked, pointedly ignoring the guy with his arm through the bars up to his shoulders and looking around the small jail. There was no one in sight, just prisoners locked up in their cells. Chris was itching to be out of there and with Bridget and he knew Sheridan was making them sweat. It was a technique that Wyatt used all the time, and he was normally impervious to it. The longer Wyatt made him wait the more of his own time the tyrant was wasting. But now Chris actually had something better to do.
"Dammit," Ben said, sighing in frustration.
"What?" Chris asked, turning to Ben again without realizing that he had been pacing.
"Why did they have to make these stupid cells out of metal?"
Chris blinked. "Huh?"
"I mean it's just so tempting to-" The witch wriggled three fingers and Chris saw the bar behind Ben portioning them from an empty cell move out of place and then back again. "You freeze them; I bust us out of here. But we have to be mortals. This sucks, you know that?"
Chris rolled his eyes. "I know what you mean but we can't be innocent until Sheridan clears us. It's not gonna help it we bust out of here."
"Since when did you become the rational one? The world is ending. Bridget's turned into a hormonal basket case and you've gone all responsibility man."
"Not a job I'm going to leave for you, is it?"
"Yeah, great move, Chris. Insult your cellmate," Ben said, stretching his legs out and yawning.
"You guys certainly make a cute couple."
Chris stopped pacing and turned on his heel to face Sheridan, who was standing outside their cell smiling in at them, arms folded across her chest. Ben swivelled off of the bed and got up as well, glaring at her, his fingers twitching.
"What do you want?" Chris asked.
"Nothing. I was just thinking that if you ever broke up with him there'd be so many people in this place willing to take his place. Guys as pretty as you don't stay single for very long."
Chris rolled his eyes and turned away from her, going and sitting on the bed. Was she here just to taunt them or to question them? How long could she keep them here? Nixa's Dad had been a corporate lawyer, and her Mom just a regular lawyer, so she would have known. His shoulders dropped slightly as the thought flitted through his memory.
"Trust me, if me and Chris had something going on, I would be in so much trouble," Ben said, thinking of Bridget. He wanted to be out of this stupid cage already. Sheridan looked at him smugly and Ben wanted to turn her into one big ice statue. And then turn on the heat. Or maybe get a hairdryer and melt a few parts out of shape and then...
He stuffed his hands in his pockets to quell the desire and stared her out. She was the first one to talk.
"Morris and I are ready for you now."
"You'd make a great secretary. Ever thought of working for a principal?" Ben asked.
Sheridan ignored him as she unlocked the cell using the keys on her belt. Ben wondered why she had the keys and where a regular guard was but the door swung open with a whine and she stepped into the cell, her hand on her gun.
Chris looked behind her and saw the two burly officers that she had waiting outside and sighed. He could tell already that this was going to take longer than he wanted it to. He reluctantly got to his feet and went to follow Sheridan out of the cell, Ben behind him.
Sheridan smug smile grew wider as the cold cuffs clicked around his wrists and he resigned himself to numb apathy, willing this day to all be a dream. He needed to feel detached or he would end up screaming and shouting at Sheridan, perhaps not the best way to protest his innocence.
He took out some of his anger by flinging an inmate, who was making kissing motions at him, across his cell in disgust, hearing the satisfying thud of his body hitting the wall. The prisoner's eyes filled with fear and he gingerly crawled onto his bed.
Chris's green eyes were cold and bored by the time Sheridan began interrogating him. He just had to get this over with. It was a routine Wyatt had run him through many times, and he was sure he could beat Sheridan. The Inspector and his brother's eyes were even nearly the same colour. It would just take a bit of thought.
Learning to Tango
Piper walked through the door tiredly, taking her heels off as she did so and throwing them in the hall closet. Her feet were killing her and she'd been sitting down most of the day. Maybe it was her brain hurting and it was just manifesting itself in her feet. She padded across the foyer and through the parlour.
She was now short-staffed tonight, and the meeting with her drinks supplier had not gone well. They wanted more money, which P3 just wasn't making anymore. Maybe if she was there more often, then she could... But what could she do? Plus she had Wyatt to look after and the world to save and furniture to get repaired. Where could P3 slot into that? She huffed loudly and pulled hair out of her face and into a ponytail before letting it tumble down her shoulders again.
Speaking of Wyatt, she should ask Chris for an update on the latest demon. Not that she really wanted to hear it but if it got her mind off of the club. The possibility of her "grandchild" being the demon flittered across her mind but she shook her head, erasing the thought.
"Chris!" She allowed herself a languid moment and sunk into the couch in the parlour, resting the back of her head on the top of the sofa and closing her eyes. She waited to hear orbing or Chris thundering down the stairs behind her. "Chris?" Her eyes opened, brown and confused.
"If you mean those boys that were here earlier they've gone," a voice said. Piper got up to see the elf making her way down the stairs, a blanket tucked under her arm.
"Gone? Gone where?" Piper stood up, the aching in her feet forgotten. "They just took off? What about Wyatt? What if he'd been attacked?"
"It's a good thing too, the way they really needed to take better care of the poor child... The way they were looking after him it doesn't surprise me that they were arrested." She walked through the Dining Room into the kitchen, tutting.
"WHAT!" Piper shrieked. "Oh, my God." She was back in her heels pushing the shoe hard on the accelerator of her SUV before her brain had registered to even put her keys into the ignition.
Learning to Tango
"Paige, I'm on my lunch break, and I was going to go shopping." Phoebe said as they emerged from a cloud of orbs in Magic School. The middle sister narrowed her eyes at the witch-whitelighter and pulled her purse higher onto her shoulder.
"Yes, I know that Phoebe. It's not the first time you've told me," Paige said, rolling her eyes and blowing hair out of her face.
Phoebe began her way down the corridor and left Paige behind.
"Well come on," the middle witch urged, eliciting another eye roll from Paige. The witch-whitelighter refused to run after her sister so Phoebe was at the door to Gideon's office before she was.
"Take your time, Paige. I have a column due by the end of today AND a photo shoot for my latest billboard. I don't have time to be here..."
"Oh, please. Did it look like I came to Magic School for exercise?" She raised a hand to knock on the door but it swung open in front of her and she lowered her arm, stepping across the threshold.
"Hi?" Phoebe asked to the empty room. As Paige walked in the door closed behind them with a resounding and ominous thud.
"Hey, Gideon?" Paige took some cautious steps into the headmaster's office and then turned to face Phoebe, her head cocked to one side. "Can you hear an echo in here?"
"It's a huge stone room; of course I can hear an echo in here," Phoebe snapped, pulling the strap of her purse still further onto her shoulder as she spoke, wondering where Gideon was.
The sound of orbs made them both turn and Bridget appeared in the office, her face splitting into a huge grin.
"I did it!" She grinned, starting a little victory dance.
"No, that was me," Gideon's voice said and Bridget's face fell and her posture slumped.
"Oh. Well I tried," She kicked a chair out from in front of the desk and sat on it heavily. Moments later Gideon made himself visible and sat down on the other side of the desk, opposite Bridget.
"Was there something you need to see me about?" He steepled his fingers and rested one ankle on the opposite knee, leaning back into his chair.
Phoebe looked pensive for a moment. "We were wondering how this new situation is going to affect Wyatt and what turns him evil. The usual stuff, you know?"
Gideon seemed to consider his answer. "I think," he began slowly, "that because this did not happen in the original timeline, according to what Chris has alluded to, then Wyatt should remain unaffected by it. I don't think we need to worry."
No, don't worry. Her demonic spawn will only try to rule the Underworld and kill all good. Not a problem.
"Ok, that's good. Would it be ok if Bridget stayed here until she has the baby?"
"I see no reason to object. We'll make sure she's very comfortable."
"I can protect myself," Bridget said as hurt creeping into her voice. She wasn't some invalid to be protected. She'd certainly fought demons longer than them, and she didn't have magic powers.
Phoebe patted her arm. "I know, but to protect yourself you have to use your demonic powers and we're trying to cut back on those a little, ok?" Bridget sighed. I didn't always have to...
"I'm going to kill Chris when he gets out of jail," she said, pouting slightly miserably.
Paige snickered. "Ok, make sure you take a couple of Polaroid's for me, ok?"
"Wait," Phoebe said as her sister rose and walked towards the door. "Did you say jail?"
"Yeah, Ben and Chris were arrested this morning, didn't you know?" She looked from one face to the other and shrugged with an eye roll. "Figures."
"Oh my God, this is huge. Oh!" Phoebe stood up and grabbed Paige's arm. "Orb please."
"Do you have your credit card?" Paige asked.
Phoebe narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Maybe. Why?"
"Well someone's going to have to bail them out..." Paige said with a small shrug, not looking in her sister's eyes.
"Oh, hey-," Phoebe's protests were lost in a cloud of orbs.
Bridget turned back to Gideon. "I was kinda on my way to the bathroom when I disappeared so would you mind..." She twinkled her fingers and Gideon waved his hand tiredly. "Thank you!" Bridget's disembodied voice called.
Gideon snapped his fingers angrily at the crystal ball and it swirled into life, showing Ben and Chris in their separate interview rooms. Gideon ground his teeth together irritably. Not only were they ruining the cosmic balance by being here they were on the verge of exposing magic.
He waved a vague hand and the ball went dim. And then there was the girl. Something needed to be done and fast – maybe before he set his plan to kill Wyatt in motion. He scratched his chin thoughtfully and slid open a drawer with telekinesis. He reached inside and pulled out the tray of various confiscated magical artefacts and revealed that the tray was just a false bottom. Underneath it, in a comfortable-looking niche of deep purple velvet was an athame with an inlaid rosewood handle.
He tucked it into his robes, carefully concealing it and swept out of the room.
Learning to Tango
"Seriously, would it kill you to stock a couple or romance novels?" Bridget was demanding of one of the student librarians. The poor kid was looking bewildered.
"Uh... w-w-well this is a research library..."
"So! That doesn't mean that I don't want-"
"Bridget, there you are. I've thought of something that might help, would you care to go back to my office?"
Bridget's head whipped around to face the voice, and then she realized that it was Gideon. "Only if you talk some sense into this library. I mean how you can have such a huge collection of books without anything by... I don't know, Josey McLellan?"
"Who?" Bridget rolled her eyes.
"I make sure that my students don't have such large gaps in their lives that they need romance novels," Gideon said, taking her by the elbow. He could feel the cold of the blade pressing against his body.
"My life is not empty!" Bridget said, indignant. "Is it?" Gideon shook his head and began to speak quietly to the student before leading her back to his office. Privacy was the key here...
She stared over Gideon's shoulder at the painting hanging behind his desk. She was vaguely aware of him talking to her but there was a woman staring into a crystal ball, a long red, flowing dress hung just above the tiled floor and on the table in front of her a large tome had what looked like a magic wand resting on the page, and beside the book a skull rested. Bridget shuddered as she stared into the cold eye sockets.
What was the woman seeing in the crystal ball? Something to do with the skull? There was definitely something contained in the orb, was it a landscape. She huffed and sat back on the chair. Maybe Gideon was a seer in a previous life. Crystal balls were a definite theme here.
There weren't enough colours in here. A rainbow would be nice. And it was stuffy; maybe some fresh air would be good too. Or maybe it was Gideon who was stuffy. She smiled slightly and she could tell by Gideon's face that it was the wrong place to insert a smile and stopped, imagining somewhere nice and green...
A fluttering began inside her stomach and she ignored it. They could really do with some food around this place, too. The fluttering grew and grew and a small tingle ran down her spine as her body broke into a cloud of orbs.
She gave startled shriek before the baby forced her to leave the office behind.
Learning to Tango
Chris's wrist was swollen and a little purple by the time he made his way out of the interview room. He guessed he's pulled a little too hard against the cuffs when Sheridan decided he was too dangerous just to sit in a chair and not attack her and insisted he be restrained. She hated him, just because she didn't understand his family.
Bitch.
But she hadn't proven him guilty, especially as there was no evidence that he had even been anywhere near the crime scenes and that he had been with them when the athame had been thrown at them. No evidence, but she would find something, or at least try to.
"Wait, where are we going?" Chris suddenly realized that they were on their way back to the cell. He thought Sheridan was done.
Ben was sitting on the bed, leaning against the barred wall behind him when the door swung open. The witch looked defeated, glum, and Chris's heart sank.
"What's wrong?"
"Darryl says the only record they have of me is three parking tickets my Dad got in the nineties," Ben muttered bitterly, the sigh evident in his voice.
Chris looked to the floor. "We don't exist."
"Not on paper at least. This is going to take a dumper truck full of memory dust."
"Does Sheridan know?"
"Probably."
They were so screwed. Sheridan knew that they didn't exist and when she tried to bust them for it she would manage to just dig a deeper and deeper hole. How could they have been so careless?
"You know what?" Ben said, standing up. "This has gone from bad to worse. But," he said, brightening, "we can't get the Death Penalty for fraud!"
Chris rolled his eyes, rubbing his wrist absently. Ben was saying something again, probably very sarcastic but Chris barely heard. There were echoes in his head, and it sounded like someone was trying to call him. It was faint though, tinny, like a poorly turned radio.
"-and suddenly, bang, we've been arrested. If my parents were alive I would so be grounded. And I bet your Mom is leaving us here just because we wouldn't tell her about the future and gave us a few grey hairs. I mean just a couple-"
There was another noise again in his head. Was it Ben babbling? Was someone calling him? He closed his eyes and heard a slight whisper in his head. But it was a whisper that sounded like it should be a shout.
"Bridget," he murmured.
"Yeah, I know. You would have thought she might have been a tiny bit more concerned, I mean-"
"No! I think, I think she needs me."
Ben snorted. "Well it's cute that you have this whole thing going on but-"
"Project. Now. Go! She's-" He stopped, shaking his head slightly and frowning. "I don't... Maui?"
"Whoa, back up. How did Bridget get to Hawaii? And why is she calling you? She knows we're in jail-"
"Shut the hell up and get out!" Chris snapped, glaring. "She might be hurt or something and I can't go!"
Ben rolled his eyes. "Since when was I her Spaniel?" His head drooped onto his chest and his breathing became slow and deep.
Learning to Tango
Bridget was pacing on the top of a cliff, yelling out to the sky. Her throat had been nearly torn out calling for Chris. Hell even Leo would have done but she couldn't seem to be able to get him either.
Ok, granted, there had been lots to look at here. Hawaii was beautiful. The sea was that lovely kind of blue and there were sweet-smelling flowers and a rainbow that was slowly fading arced across a bay. But she was meant to be in Magic School, not in freaking Maui.
She growled and several birds took flight, squawking in alarm as a fireball incinerated the tree they were sitting in.
"Bridget?"
"Are you guys still in jail?" Bridget demanded, whirling around and framing herself against the smouldering tree.
"There were a couple of minor complications," Ben shrugged, holding up his finger and thumb about an inch apart and sitting down on the grass, stretching out his legs, taking a lungful of the sea air. "The view here is nicer than the grey wall they give you in jail."
"Well while you're sightseeing I'll just stand here and fight the urge to strangle you."
"What, and turn this face blue? Why would you do such a thing?" Bridget crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Oh, come on, Bridget."
"Ben, I'm tired and I'm hungry and as much as I love Maui, I really just want to sleep!"
Something had shifted inside her and she felt herself collapse in total defeat. This was all wrong, wrong, WRONG! She felt her breathing come laboured gasps and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Hey, come on. What's wrong?" He moved to touch her but she pulled away, her lips trembling.
"I don't know, maybe it's..." She began to feel a familiar fluttering in her stomach. "Oh, oh no..." She disappeared in a swirl of orbs.
"Hormones?" Ben said with a smile, taking one last lungful of the fresh, clean air before disappearing also.
Learning to Tango
"You two so owe me, you know that?" Piper said, flipping hair out of her face and glancing in the rear-view mirror as she turned sharply down 82nd street.
Chris felt a twinge of regret, feeling like the time Piper had found out that Wyatt and himself had thrown a party while she was gone for a weekend. "Sorry, Mom, I kind of haven't had my allowance from you in a while."
Piper narrowed her eyes at him in the mirror as she made a turn. "That's not funny." She paused, sorely tempted to blow up the fuel tank of the guy in the sports car behind as he tried to get past. City driving was manic. She fought the urge to blow him up and/or flip him off, as he finally got past, flashing his headlights and looked back in the mirror again. "You know, my meeting at P3 kind of didn't go so well. I'm kind of understaffed tonight."
"Mom." Chris whined, already not liking where this was going.
"Oh, come on. I need to up spending at the bar and you know - Maybe a couple of attractive bartenders?" Piper chewed her bottom lip hopefully.
Ben snorted. "Heh. Well if you put it like that-"
"Way to drop us in it." Chris muttered darkly, staring out of the window.
Where was Bridget now? He was pretty sure she was back in Magic School but still. Tending the bar tonight? When all he wanted to do was be with her? He could see San Francisco darkening as it whizzed past and he sighed.
Piper pulled into the driveway of the manor and turned the car off, twisting in her seat to look at the two boys. She was still trying to get used to the fact that this was her son sitting before her. Her other one; the one that wasn't conceived yet. Maybe she and Leo needed to work on that.
"I know." she stopped. What did she really know? Truly? Did she know what the future was like under Wyatt? Did she really know anything? "I know that this has been a really hard week for you guys. I know you're feeling like you screwed up," Getting arrested by Sheridan. "And I know that a lot of stuff happened that none of us were expecting." Nixa dead... Bridget pregnant... "But we deal. WE have to keep moving on and you guys have done a great job of that. So I want you both to head upstairs and get some sleep, because I know that you didn't the other night."
There was sudden warmth in Chris's green eyes as the boys looked up at her tiredly and nodded. Energy had been replaced with fatigue and Piper could see two pairs of glassy irises staring back at her. The purple shadows that Chris sported under his eyes moved her the most. He was only twenty-two years old, dammit. "Now that Bridget is staying at Magic School, you guys can stay here, okay? So head upstairs and I'll wake you guys up this evening."
They nodded again and slowly exited the car and Piper watched them before grabbing her purse, wondering if she had somehow failed as a mother. She chewed on her bottom lip as she took the keys out of the ignition and locked the door with them.
This was not her best week ever.
Learning to Tango
Stubborn little... Gideon stormed around his office, robes billowing behind him. He ground his teeth angrily and snarled. The brat inside of her had orbed her away. Dammit! He threw the inlaid athame out of pure frustration and it stuck, quivering, in the bookshelf.
The door clicked as he telekinetically locked it and the shutters banged closed over the high windows. Almost in complete darkness and privacy he dragged the heavy velvet drapes across with his mind and plunged the room into complete darkness. A wave of his hand sent a three-armed candelabrum sputtering to life and it was by the flickers of the small flames that he wrenched aside a curtain, revealing himself in a very large and ornate mirror that had a table with chess pieces on it set out, black and whites scattered all over the board.
"It's all in place," Gideon told his reflection. A diamond stud that wasn't present in the ear of the Gideon looking in the mirror winked in the light of the candles on the desk behind the reflection. Gideon smirked and sat down on the chair in front of the chessboard, but his reflection remained standing and when the reflection started talking again the headmaster's lips don't move.
"We've got the girl where we want her and the path to the boy is getting clearer by the minute. Soon we'll be able to kill the great good..."
"...evil..."
"...and an immense good..."
"...evil..."
"...power." The both ended simultaneously, pressing their palms against the cold reflective surface and grinning.
Learning to Tango
Ok, linky chapter there. The next one shall have more action in, dammit, even if it kills me. Ok, I am very tired and I have a whole two weeks of exams looming, which I am so totally thrilled about so I shall get the next chapter out whenever I can.
Latah,
Twisted Flame.
Darkness Amber: - Yes, they were. Lol. No one likes Sheridan, it's ok. Thanks for reviewing.
Dominique1: - HEH! Lol, a cookie would have been fine with me. Really. Heh. It took me less than a month! I have no inspiration lately. And thus chapter was too linky for me to get really into, so it took longer. Thanks for reviewing.
Stony Angel: - Yay! Happy Birthday to You Thanks for you review. I have a twisted view of happily ever after. I never like fairy tales. Damn them. Thanks for reviewing. Happy smiley me, now.
Claddagh Ring: - Did I read it and review? I'm sure I did. My brain is so scattered recently. Thank you so much, though! Heh, six days, nearly a month. Yeah, I know. Ouch.
Charmed Amber: - Well he probably is cute if you cut out the whole Ruler of all Evil thing he has going. Lots of people want to slap Sheridan. Heh. I think she might just be going down...
As Always: - Bridget got to go to a pretty place. There. Lol. Thanks for reviewing. It's not really late here, but I'm feeling kind of bleugh that way anyways, so don't worry. I guest this reply will probably make less sense than your review so I wouldn't worry at all. Thank you!