OK I just need to quickly warn everyone that I've changed my penname. It's now Jess.91. I don't know what this will mean for anyone who has me or my stories on their favorites or alerts, but I figured I'd just let you all know.
Chapter 3 - Connected
One week later.
Orbing back into the heavens, Leo felt exhilarated. He was a whitelighter, a guardian angel to witches and future whitelighters, his job was to protect and guide, and he loved everything about it ... except ...
Sometimes, he kept seeing a face, a woman's face, and he felt she needed him, he should go to her ... The elders told him it was probably someone from when he was alive, but he could only remember what he needed to, which is why he didn't know who she was. And yet ...
A faint jingling interrupted his thoughts, and he paused, unsure where to go. A new charge. He already had four - two witches, nothing powerful, just practitioners, and two future whitelighters. He was one of the youngest whitelighters in existence, which made him feel he had more to prove.
But he knew someone was calling for him, and he didn't know where. Finally, he started walking, looking for an elder to help him. He passed several of them, however, knowing that they regarded him too young for the job - he didn't want to prove this. Instead, he walked up to an elder he felt he could trust.
"Zola?"
"Yes, Leo? Need some help?"
Self-consciously, Leo explained him little problem, and breathed with relief when Zola smiled.
"Don't worry, Leo, you were right, this is a new charge. Sometimes, the connection is auto-matic, and it needs a little time to form properly. Just follow your instincts."
"Bu -"
"Zola!" Another elder interrupted loudly, walking briskly over. "Ah, I've been looking for you everywhere." He said, ignoring Leo. "I need a word with you ..."
As the fait jingle from his new charge started again, Leo orbed out.
He found himself in a bedroom, and he jumped, hoping no one could see him. It was dark, he knew it was late, and the last thing he wanted was to scare his new charge.
It was a few minutes before he saw her - a girl around his age, her long dark hair spread about the pillow, her sleeping face stained with tears. And he remembered.
"Piper." He breathed, feeling a sudden burst of love. How could he have forgotten her, how could he not have remembered Piper? He had died, saving her ... why hadn't he remembered, why hadn't anyone mentioned it?
And then ...
She's a witch. Could he be her whitelighter?
He was about to orb out, ask the elders, when he saw the envelope on the floor, his name scrawled on it. He picked it up, opened it with shaking fingers. She'd written to him, even though he was dead. And, reading the words, he knew she still loved him, more than he had known. And she still believed they could be together ... And maybe they could ...
----
The sunlight woke Piper, and she felt strangely calmer than before. She didn't have that glorious minute everyone else talks about, where you wake up and don't remember you're loss. No, she woke up with the heavy weight of pain, the loss fresh in her mind before she even remembered who she was.
She jumped up instantly, dressing quickly. She'd been thinking the night before, right after addressing an envelope to Leo. She needed to see his mother. Piper wasn't the only one who had lost him, and Mrs. Wyatt deserved to know the truth. A single parent - Leo's dad had died before he was born - Leo was her only child, her life.
And because of Piper, that had been snatched away.
"Piper." Leo's mother said, opening the door with a surprised look on her face. "It's early. Wh -?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you." Piper said softly. "I need to tell you something, Mrs. Wyatt, it's important."
"Mrs ... Piper, since when have you called me 'Mrs. Wyatt'? You've always called me Ally."
"I ... after what I tell you, I don't think you'll want me to speak to you ever again." Piper said, as the two of them walked into the small, tidy living room.
"What? Piper, you're scaring me."
"I ... I need you to promise me that what I tell you ... you wont tell anyone." Piper said slowly.
"Yes ... Of course."
Piper launched into a basic version of magic, demons, and what she and her sisters did.
"I'm telling you this because ... because the day - on that day ..." Piper couldn't tears pricking at her eyes. "A demon attacked us, my sisters and me, and Leo ... Leo came over. I tried to - to make him leave, and he was, he was getting out, he knew what to do, I made him practice so he wouldn't get hurt, but - but the demon threw a fireball at me, and I wasn't - wasn't looking, I didn't even see it, and Leo saved me, he pushed me out of the way, and it got him instead." She was sobbing so much she wasn't sure Leo's mother could even understand her.
"So you - you see, it's all my fault. Leo died because of - of me."
"Piper." Mrs. Wyatt breathed. "It's OK. I don't blame you, and I know Leo doesn't."
"Why, why couldn't it have been me who died?" Piper sobbed. "It was nothing to do with him, it wasn't his fight, why didn't he just leave me ..."
"Piper, don't you get it? Leo loved you, with all his heart. He gave his life for you, and I'm sure he'd do it again if he had to."
Piper didn't know what to say, what to do.
"He ... I'll bring him back." She promised. "I swear, somehow I'll bring him back ..." Mrs. Wyatt didn't believe her, it was obvious, but as the two of them held each other, crying all over each other, Pipr knew she sensed some kind of hope in the older woman.
