A Charmed Story - Part Five:
20 Weddings AndA Funeral?
Chapter 3

Bianca and Chris were still sitting next to the water-ride in the shadow of a big tree, hugging each other and both sobbing a little. It was a weird scene. But even if it didn't seem so, they were very glad at this moment. Deep down inside, they were glad... glad about what had just been said. Everything that had stood between them was away. The only thing that was left was love, deep and endless love. And that was good.
Chris shivered again.
"Oh my God, honey," Bianca exclaimed with a worried voice, "you're really freezing! We have to go under the sun... I don't want you to get a cold." Chris smiled weakly.
She stood up, took his hand and pulled him up on his feet. Then they walked together to a little cafe in the sun.
Chris sat down outside while Bianca went in to buy something. He followed her a moment with his eyes; then he looked over that little square. He was still a bit shocked that his wife, his love, had been afraid of him. He hoped that she would be over this now, but he wasn't sure... Anyway, he hoped she would be soon. He sighed. Then he shivered again a little, even if he felt the warm sun on his skin. Then he thought about that girl again. He couldn't believe that he had brought her back from wherever. 'But... who else could...?' he thought.
At that moment Bianca returned with a big cup of hot chocolate. He smiled.
"Now, drink this. It'll make you feel better," she said with a wink.
Chris took a big gulp and then coughed a little. "What is that?" he asked then.
Bianca smiled: "Hot chocolate laced with a little bit of rum... it will warm you."
Chris grinned and took another gulp.

°°°°°°°°°°

Darryl sat on the edge of the table. He looked into the eyes of Jessica without believing. Then he shook his head.
When Paige visited him the second time, asking for the other files, Darryl had said he would help them, if he was part of the action, this time. This was a criminal case, not a magical one... well it seemed so... So it was his case. Paige had nodded and had taken him to the manor. And now he was sitting there observing that girl.
"I think we should go and visit every relative and friend mentioned in these folders," Piper went on, "we have to ask them what had happened exactly in those celebrations when bride and groom disappeared... if there was something unnatural."
Paige nodded: "Yeah... maybe someone had noticed something."
"Maybe we should split up in teams, there are a lot of people to visit," Phoebe suggested. Piper nodded.
"Hey, two are from L.A.," Leo mentioned, "So maybe we should ask your father and Cole if they would like to help us..."
"NO!" Piper and Phoebe exclaimed at the same time.
"It's their first 'friends-day', I think we can handle this on our own. They need that little break," Phoebe went on.
Leo nodded: "Ok, so we have me and Phoebe... and Piper, you go with Darryl, alright?" The other nodded.
"And me?" Paige asked.
"You stay here with Jessica, if something happens you can orb with her to us, or to the school, if necessary," Piper explained.
Paige sighed: "Yeah... but there is also a door to the school! And you can't orb, nor Darryl... You will lose a lot of time driving from one place to another. And there is still Wyatt who needs his lunch!"
Piper frowned: "Ok, you're right, then I'll stay and you orb with Darryl." Paige nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

Ten minutes later, Leo and Phoebe were standing in front of a small yellow-painted house a little outside San Francisco. The witch knocked on the door. It took a little moment...
Then it opened slowly, and a shaggy woman in her thirties appeared staring at the strangers suspiciously behind the semi-opened door.
"What do you want?" she asked abruptly.
Phoebe said nothing and looked at Leo, who tried his best smile and kinder tone: "Good morning Miss... we're..." He coughed: "We were wondering if..."
The woman rolled her eyes and made an attempt of closing the door, so Phoebe stood between it and Leo immediately and stopped the action, pushing the door with her hand. "Actually we wanted to know if we you'd mind to talk to us about... Joanna Domíngues."
Suddenly the woman raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Are you the police?" she asked. "Did you get something? Did you find them?"
Leo lowered his eyes as Phoebe tried to find the appropriate word, but finally it was the man that spoke. "No... actually, we thought you or someone in this house, might help us."
The girl frowned, angrily: "More tabloid journalist! I'm fed up... We're fed up with those stupid mags that talk about paranormal phenomena and things like that, which claim that my sister was abducted together with her husband-to-be and I-don't-know-how-many other couples! Go!" She tried to close the door again, but Leo held it opened this time.
"We want to help you. We're not journalist, just... let us in, and you'll understand." The woman sighed. Then she looked in their eyes, wondering if she should trust them... And finally she let them in.
Leo and Phoebe took seat, looking around in search for some clues or pictures of the couple, Joanna and Riley.
"Do you want anything? Coffee, tea?" asked the girl. She seemed to be on her own in the house at that moment. The lounge was beautiful, but it was in a terrible mess, with books, magazines and papers everywhere... Even dust below the shelves and on them.
Leo and Phoebe shook their heads.
"We don't have much time, actually... We only want to ask some questions Miss... Domíngues?"
The woman nodded: "María. María Domíngues. So, what questions?"
"So, Joanna is your sister...?" the witch asked.
The woman nodded again, looking at them a little impatient.
Phoebe sighed. "Well... We've heard that your sister... and all those couples that disappeared that year, well... that they just disappeared, like that...?" she tried.
"Aha... They were in front of the altar and then they weren't, that's all. Period."
Leo frowned: "Yeah, but... could you give us some details? Like... They just faded away? They flamed? Were there any kind of lights?"
María laughed abruptly: "No lights, I assure you. The church wasn't very illuminated actually. They just were there, and in a second, they had vanished. But who would believe that?" María seemed to be a bit too much frustrated by the visit. "You can read all the magazines and newspapers and all... They'll tell you what you need."
"And no one was surprised? I mean, if that was all in the news..." tried Phoebe.
María shook her head again: "We didn't give those details to the police, you know? They would have thought we were just joking... Actually some in the family thought it would be better to go to those magazines about these type of phenomena... But it was a loss of time. They used the story to give fun to their readers but they never knew how to help."
Phoebe felt moved and smiled at her understandably. She felt how María was feeling, all her sadness and frustration.
Then she saw a photograph of a girl who was really similar to María. She got to he feet and went to the picture: "Is this Joanna?" She took it and at the very same moment she did, she saw it. She was having a premonition.
María ran to her, worried, when the woman suddenly winced, but Leo held her back.
"What was that?" she asked as she saw that Phoebe was back to normal again.
"Nothing..." the witch murmured, "dizziness... "
But Leo knew what had happened. "Ok... María, I think we need to go back. She'll need a rest."
María frowned. "Hey, you didn't say who you were..." she asked suspiciously.
Leo smiled: "You're right. My name's Leo, and she's Phoebe, my sister-in-law."
"And why did you come then? WHO are you, I mean, WHAT are you?" the girl insisted.
Phoebe looked at Leo, then at the girl. "I'm a witch..." she explained, before the scared look of Leo. "I mean... I'm a clairvoyant."
María opened her mouth: "Did you just try to trick me out?"
"No! I..." Phoebe said. "Actually we're reliable... Look, we sad we weren't the police, but we work for them... Just ask about us to this inspector." She stretched her hand to give the card of Darryl to her. "He got some new clues about the case, called me and I saw... something. Now I'm trying to help."
"Are you kiddin'?" María asked. "I never believed the police had their own clairvoyants."
Phoebe grinned: "Oh, girl... They do. You can believe me... Almost every station has its own clairvoyant..." Then she went to the door, followed by a shocked Leo, and by María's unbelieving eyes. "We'll let you know as soon as we get something, María.. We'll find her and her husband and everyone that was lost. I promise."
After they had left the house Phoebe and Leo walked down the street till they were out of sight. Then Leo stopped her. "What have you seen?" he asked.
Phoebe shrugged: "I'm not sure... It... it was weird."
"That's it always, I thought..."
Phoebe grinned but then she turned serious again: "No... I've seen a carousel... with monsters and so on... And the couple... they were there, too... and a clown..."
"A clown?" Leo asked frowning.
"Yeah... with red hair, a big red nose, blue painted eyes and a big red smile. But in a weird way he looked everything else but funny... he looked... evil."
"That's really weird..." Leo remarked.
Phoebe nodded and sighed: "Who is the next one on the list?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole and Victor sat in his kitchen eating steaks. "Hmmm... That's really good," Cole remarked.
Victor laughed: "I know... my steaks are the best ones in the whole L.A.-area!"
Cole smiled: "Yeah man, definitely!"
They took their time for the lunch. They sat there over an hour just eating with passion.
After that they went over to the living room, and Victor offered his new friend a cold beer. Cole took it and they sat down on the sofa.
"Well... I thought about you and Phoebe," Victor said after a while, "maybe I should ask her?"
Cole smiled: "No, I think, I should ask her on my own if she'll marry me..."
"No, you get me wrong... I mean, I could ask her, what she thinks about you. About your relation... You know what I mean?"
Cole laughed. That was a really funny situation. 'But hey... the idea isn't that bad,' he thought. So he nodded: "Yes, why not?"
"Alright," Victor replied.
"But take care that she don't find that out... I mean with her empath powers... otherwise she would kill us both..." Cole remarked chuckling.
Victor frowned and then he laughed: "I'll just talk to her on the phone!"
Both man began to laugh to tears. And it seems they would never stop this...
After they calmed down a little, Victor sighed: "I never dreamed that I would sit here with you and have so much fun!"
Cole nodded: "Yeah, me too."
"Did you ever wished to turn back the time... to change what you've done?" Victor asked then.
Cole sighed and looked at the bottle in his hand. He turned it around, obersving the liquid inside. "At first," he said then. "I mean, when I met Chris the first time. He and Leo were down in the ghostly plane were I was condemned to live till the end of all time. I saw the love between them, even... as I now know, Leo knew that he was his son for about a couple of minutes. But there was this connection between father and child, you know..."
Victor nodded. He knew very well what his friend was talking about.
"And when I saw them, I thought about Phoebe, and about the chances I had thrown away, with all the mess I had done. That moment I wished I had been able to change that, and to have a child like him on my own."
"Yeah... I think I understand..."
Cole smiled: "No, I don't think so... Cause... You know... it was only a second, that I wished that... ok... maybe two." They chuckled.
"But then... I mean... Chris was wounded very bad when he was down there. He was there, because he knew that I was there too. He knew that I would be able to bring him back. He saved me that day... he saved my soul... But..."
Victor frowned: "But what?"
Cole sighed: "He did it only because I saved him. He came to that plane, to me, because he was sure that I would save him, that I would bring him back... I don't believe in fate or destiny... It's just... it had to be like that, you know... And therefore there is no need to change those things... even if I wish I didn't had to remember them all."
Victor smiled: "Wise words... Chris had told me something similar."
"Really?" Cole asked surprised.
Victor nodded: "Yeah... and do you know what? Tell that to Phoebe like you told it to me... And then ask her!... She will say 'yes', believe me!" Both smiled again.

°°°°°°°°°°

About an hour later Darryl and Paige visited the sixth family on their list. They were sitting in the living room of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. Her daughter was one of those missed persons.
"And there was nothing else? They just disappeared?" Paige asked for a countless time that day.
Mr. Taylor nodded. "Do you know something new?" he asked then.
Darryl sighed: "Yes... no... I mean... maybe... We had found something witch could be related to that case, but we're not sure."
The man nodded: "Anyway... It's good to know that the police had not forgotten about her."
Paige took his hand: "We'll do our best to find your daughter, I promise." The man just nodded.
Then they had to say goodbye. They shook hands and left the house.
"Everytime the same," Darryl remarked while they went down the little way through the garden.
Paige nodded with a sigh. "Frustrating," she whispered.
When they hit the street suddenly a man about maybe forty years stepped into their way. "Your asking about Angela Tylor?" he asked. Darryl nodded.
"Do you know something about what happened at her marriage?" Paige asked.
"Maybe," he answered. "Follow me."
The man went a few yards down the street. Darryl and Paige looked at each other, then followed him. The man went trough the garden of another house, behind that house and into a little garage-like building.
"Who are you?" Darryl asked after he had closed the door behind them.
"Andy," he said, "I'm a friend of Michael Wellington, the bride groom of Angela."
Paige nodded: "And what do you know?"
"Look, nobody believes me, even not my own family... so..."
"Don't worry, we'll record that as anonymous," Darryl said.
He nodded. Then he began to pace through the little room, which seemed to be his 'home'. He seemed to be very nervous.
"Ok," he said then. "Three days before their marriage we were on a festival. We wanted to celebrate his last days as bachelor... There was a carousel... a very weird one... with ghost and monsters instead of little ponies... And there was a clown who owned it, or worked their, I don't know... There was nothing special about it... not really..."
"And?" asked Darryl a little bored.
But Paige smiled at Andy: "Please go on..."
He nodded: "The next day Mike told me he had a dream... he dreamed about that clown and that carousel... And he told me that the clown said to him, that he will never marry, never..." He made a short break, then he went on: "Mike was really afraid... God, I wished I would have believed him."
Paige smiled at him: "Don't worry about that... It wasn't your fault, and... I'm sure we'll find him."
The man looked at her frowning: "After all those years?... That would be more than a miracle."

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper was sitting down on an armchair with little Wyatt on her knees, and Jessica was again resting on the sofa. She had finally closed her eyes for some minutes, tired of all what had happened in the last hours, after having been contemplating the mother playing with her son. Piper had already given him his lunch, but the child didn't seem to be tired at all, he wanted to have fun.
"You've got a very sweet son, Piper," Jessica said with her eyes still closed.
Piper smiled: "Yes, he really is... You are sweet, aren't you, Wyatt?" The boy and the girl chuckled at the same time.
"And I'm sure you'll be a great mother for that other little baby you're waiting for."
Piper startled: "I thought you hadn't realized that I am..." she muttered.
Jessica grinned, without opening her eyes. But it was a sad grin. "I'm a frustrated mother," she stated, bitterly. "That was our dream... We really wanted to have lots of sons and daughters. But it just couldn't be." She sighed, and half-opened her eyes, smiling at Wyatt. "Your children will be lucky to have you as their mom, and also the little one, with this big brother."
Piper smiled again, pensive: "Yes... I guess we're all lucky. And Chris will have a wonderful brother."
The girl pushed herself to a sitting position and frowned. "Are you going to call him like the guy who helped me come here? Who's he, by the way? And his wife? They can't be your son or daughter, the ages don't fit at all... But he had called you 'mom'!" she wondered in a loud voice, now remembering that moment clearly.
Piper, who was shocked at first with the unexpected question, sighed. "Yeah... He's my brother, my little brother..." she lied. "My mom died early and I helped raising him... He loves to call me 'mom'."
The girl lay again on the sofa: "Oh, sorry... I didn't want to be rude..."
"Oh, it's ok! There are too many people in this house! It's a normal question," Piper said laughing, but in her mind she was praying that those lies won't backfire someday.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Bianca were walking along the beautiful streets of the theme park, holding each other's hands.
"The chocolate was fantastic, Bianca. That was a great idea!"
She smiled: "Yes, I know, sweetie. You needed it."
"How are you feeling now?" he asked her, looking straight in her eyes, gravely.
"Oh, Chris... I'm fine. I'm just sorry, I don't know how I could have been so stupid to be afr..."
"It's ok, Bianca... You know. I understand you," he winked, "but now, are you fine?" He grinned.
"Yeah, I am..." she smiled widely and kissed his cheek. "And she is, Chris..." she pointed to her womb, tenderly, "she's completely alright by your side... She knows her daddy will be the best."
They both laughed, happily. They had been walking and walking without following any of the marked routes, when they realized they had reached one of the ends of the park, those places where hardly anyone goes, and where you realize that it's only a park, a fictional world.
They found themselves at the back of the Robinson's tree, and all was so quiet...
"Hey, Bianca... we're getting out of this area of the park.. Let's go another way, I think I read the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is somewhere over here..."
"Hush..." begged the girl.
Chris obeyed and looked in the same direction as she. There was nothing. He frowned and turned to Bianca: "What's the problem?"
"Don't you hear that?" she asked. "The music?"
Chris shook his head. He tried to hear, but the sounds of the rides and the kids and people behind them, it was impossible to get something else.
"There's something over there... A tune... like those of the old carousels," she explained as she tried to get the tune. Chris paid more attention, but he got nothing.
"Bianca, you must be getting that wrong, honey. There's that kind of music everywhere... And if we go that way, we'll only find the end walls of the park, with the machinery and all!"
Bianca shook her head again: "I know that music Chris, I've heard it before. Or later, in the future, I mean..."
Chris sighed: "Alright... So... We'll have a look... right?" He offered her his arm and she took it with a smile. They went into that direction where Bianca heard the music.
After a few meters Chris began to hear it, too. "That's weird," he whispered. She nodded.
There was still nothing to see. There were only some old trees and a lot of green grass.
Bianca sighed: "Maybe it's better we turn back... I got a bad feeling honey."
Chris nodded. There was something wrong, he could feel it. "Just let us go over to that tree," he said pointing at a big tree in front of them.
His wife nodded weakly. Slowly they went on. Bianca felt her heart beating faster with every step they took.
Then they saw it. A little old carousel was standing just between those trees. A merry-go-round with some vampires, devils and other demonic creatures instead of ponies.
"What the hell is that?" Chris asked.
Bianca shrugged. "But whatever it is, I think we should go back," she said after a short moment.
Chris nodded. They were about to leave that place when they heard someone laughing.
Chris turned around again. There, next to the carousel, stood a clown. He laughed hardly holding his belly.
Bianca frowned: "Chris, we should go..."
But her husband didn't react, he just focused on the clown. It was weird. Something inside him was forcing him to go a bit nearer.
Bianca felt that he let off her hand. He stepped a little closer... one step... two... three...
"Honey, no!" Bianca exclaimed. Suddenly she felt a kind of hit inside her, inside her womb. And then another one. She writhed under that short but strong pain. "NO CHRIS!" she yelled again, just realizing that Hope was trying to warn them.
But it was too late. Chris was just about 8 steps away from her when the clown suddenly jumped over and grasped his neck.
"NO!" Bianca yelled desperate, while Hope rose the forcefield around her.
She wasn't able to hear anything. But she saw... she saw the face of her love, she saw the pain in his face. She saw him yelling when the clown pushed his hand into his body! Then Chris disappeared in a green shining light.
Bianca was crying in pain. She couldn't believe what had just happened. Then she saw the clown approaching her now, slowly, observing the silver-shining forcefield.
Bianca breathed heavily. She felt the panic insider her, she was kind of paralyzed. Then suddenly bluish orbing-lights surrounded her. And then the clown, the carousel, the trees disappeared.

°°°°°°°°°°

Victor had brought the empty bottles to the kitchen. When he returned Cole sat still on the sofa like he had left him. But his eyes seemed a little worried now.
"What's wrong," he asked, while he sat down again.
"Hemm?" Cole muttered as if he had been waking up from a dream.
"I asked what's wrong... You seem to worry about something."
Cole sighed then nodded: "I don't know. Suddenly I've got that kind of feeling... You know, when you feel that something is going on."
Victor rose his eyebrows: "You mean like intuition?"
Cole nodded: "Yeah... You know... that's the most interesting kind of 'human feeling', and I still don't understand it. Maybe because that feeling did only rarely bother me in my long life..."
Victor smiled: "There is nothing to understand about intuition. Nobody can explain that... it's like an radar-system that tells you when there is something going on... in a way it's like magic I think."
Both man smiled about that thought. And as soon as it had come, Cole had forgotten that strange feeling he had.

(Chapter 3 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)