Dancing The Night Away
Henry Jr. was sitting with his cousin Christopher in the corner table of the venue, a type of retcon they could say. They were both extremely pensive. Words couldn't be formed; if the rest of the family didn't know any better, they would think they were telepaths. Christopher took a sip of his drink, while Jr. eyed him.
"So, what are we going to tell them?" Jr. said trying to talk as low as possible.
Christopher took another swig of his drink. "I don't know, this is big; we'll wait until tomorrow. Lets give them at least tonight."
Jr. nodded his head and as he got up all he said "At the brunch? You know we will have to call in a family meeting just in case some people are missing."
Christopher nodded and looked as Jr. make his way to his mother, Paige. She had changed so much, yet was still the same in so many ways. "Care to dance mom?" Jr. said to his mother.
Paige smiled and took her sons hand. She loved these moments, there weren't many moments when her only son danced with her now and she figured it was all normal as he was a grown man.
"I'm surprised you haven't tried ANYTHING with any of Merediths friends" Paige asked with a sly smile.
Her son had a reputation of being a flirt, something he had inherited from her unfortunately. "Why would I dance with any of them, when I can dance with you" Jr. said with a wink.
Oh how much did her oldest look like his father, a younger version of Henry Sr. The only difference was the slightly lighter hair. Both Paige and Henry had dark brown hair, but Jr. had hair three shades lighter.
Paige smiled and nodded. "What do you want kid?"
Jr. knew his mother was too wise to fall for his tricks and besides the woman was his mother, knew him like the back of her hand.
"We need a mandatory family meeting tomorrow during the brunch" He said smiling at her. Paige knew mandatory family meetings were only ever done when something big was up. She stared at him, held him tight and nodded.
" I'll make sure we are there. Do you need your father there too?" She asked.
"We need everyone mom." Jr. said as his mother looked to where Piper was. Her older sister was dancing with Leo and smiling. Piper had been enjoying these last couple of years to the fullest. No big demonic threat had sprung its ugly head for about ten years now. She was enjoying the "normal" aspect of her life. Paige knew what this family meeting entailed and it was going to burst Pipers bubble. Sometimes she felt tired when dealing with the "Family Business" but was the only one that was 'all hands on deck' since her sisters wanted to live as normal lives as possible. That left her to help the next generation with "pesky demons" as Piper would say.
Jr. twirled his mother once more and walked her back to her seat after the song ended. Henry Sr. gave her a smile and reassuring look. He knew what they had talked about. Jr. had talked to him that morning about checking some names on the database at work as he still didn't have access himself. Paige smiled and told her husband "I guess were back in action". Henry Sr. nodded and kissed his wife on the temple. "Let's enjoy this while we can" he said.
Jr. and Christopher nodded at each other as Jr. went to talk to his cousin Victor. He wasn't going to say anything about what was going to transpire tomorrow, he just needed to look casual and normal. They may have fooled everyone, but Wyatt was not everyone. They were a trio of hunters; he knew all of their signals. Had seen them since this morning, but wasn't going to ask questions until later that night, once the party was over and they could discuss things. He knew they had information on a demon or two. True, the last couple of months he had been absent on many of the trios meetings and knew that they kept him at bay so that he could focus on this new part of his life. All of that was going to change as soon as he got back from his honeymoon, he couldn't just stay in the sidelines and watch. Not Wyatt Matthew Halliwell.
Melinda came up to Chris and asked for a dance. "Let's do one around the dance floor" It wasn't a request, it was a demand. Chris smiled and took on last sip of his drink and got up and joined his sister on the dance floor. Melinda smiled at her oldest brother and gave him a hug. "This could have been your party you know" She said smiling sadly. Chris nodded and looked to where the bride and the groom were. Wyatt and Meredith nodded and smiled at him and he smiled back.
"Geez Mels, you would think that you'd be a little more sensitive" He said trying to hide his embitterment. Melinda frowned and nodded. "I'm sorry; I just don't understand what goes on in your big head." Chris smiled "That's the beauty of it, no one does. Not even the empaths in this family." Melinda looked to her cousin Patience with her "friend" Donovan dancing the night away and rolled her eyes.
"You'd think a cupid would have been the first to marry in this family. I mean who does she thinks she's fooling. We all know they are dying for eachother." Melinda said jokingly.
Chris laughed. "Don't butt in Melinda; you are only going to make it worse. Let them come together when they want too." Chris smiled and twirled his sister and then whispered "Family meeting tomorrow, make sure mom and dad are notified" Chris stated in barely a whisper. Melinda nodded. She knew what this meant, and she knew her involvement was mandatory. After all, the newest Charmed one had to be a part of it.
"Tell them of tomorrow's meeting, you guys will have to be a part of it" Chris said looking at Patty and Penny.
"Ok, Ill let them know tonight." The song ended and Chase, Melindas boyfriend cut it requested the next song. Christopher gladly handed over his baby sister to her boyfriend and walked up to the bar to find his cousin Penny and Primrose talking and having a drink.
"What brings you to the bar Chris?" Primrose asked.
"You know me, I'm the king of mingling" Chris said with a sarcastic smile.
"Sure. More like the king of loser with no friends" Primrose bit back.
"You hear that Penny? Me. A loser with no friends, I dunno, at least I'm not pining away for my boss and sad all the time" Chris said it back with a little laugh. Penny almost choked on her drink and Prim looked about ready to kill Christopher.
"Ok, guys. Lets relax. People are going to start staring." Penny offered before things could get out of hand.
Primrose let out a sigh and looked pointedly at Chris. "At least I'm not running away from him." Chris hung his head and looked at both of them. "I'm sorry Prim, really. I can be a total asshole sometimes."
Primrose nodded. "You can make it up to me by stopping that" She pointed to her twin, trying to walk out of the party with some random guy. Chris rolled his eyes and walked straight over to Pandora. On his way over Jr., Paige and Henry Sr. were already on their way.
"So, Penny where's Alec?" Primrose asked taking a sip of her drink.
"I don't want to talk about it." Penny said avoiding her cousins glare.
"You didn't invite him!?" Why? You guys are almost inseparable, I thought he was going to be your escort for the night?" Prim shot out question after question.
"I just…. I just…. I don't know, you know how I am when we aren't in a group. I get too nervous" Penny said trying to make sense of what she couldn't herself understand where her reasons. Alec was her best friend; they knew eachother since they were in middle school. They were inseparable, but since she realized that he was everything she ever wanted, she was acting so weird around him that she needed space.
"Yeah, tell me about it. How is it that we get stuck with the same predicaments constantly?" Prim asked looking into the dance floor.
At that moment Chris was walking back with Jr., Henry Sr. and Paige chastising her youngest and rebellious child of all; Pandora Grace Mitchell-Halliwell. "Not now Grace." Paige said
"You can go out with him some other day, but tonight is all about Wyatt" Henry relented to say to his baby. "
Oh yeah, it's the twice blessed night" Pandora said with a roll of her eyes.
Paige nodded and looked up to see Piper walking up to her. Chris, Jr. and Henry Jr. all looked at eachother and started walking away. Paige looked baffled "Oh, you guys are all cowards. See what you did Pandora, you got your aunt Piper on my trail now" Paige said with a huff and then plastered a fake smile as Piper approached.
"Paige…. Sweetie is everything alright?" Piper asked with an equally fake smile.
"Just peachy, righ Pan?" Paige said through a fake smile. Pan nodded looking down at her feet. Everyone knew not to get Aunt Piper mad, especially today of all days.
"Peachy keen aunt Piper." answered Pandora with a fake smile of her own.
Piper threw one of her infamous looks at both mother and daughter and snorted. "I swear Paige. Identical" both mother and daughter looked at each other and rolled their eyes. True, they were one in the same, which scared Paige at times. Her daughter was a rebellious young woman like she had been long ago and it scared her a bit.
"Yeah, yeah… I know I deserve it" Paige said a little more forceful than she meant to.
Piper gave out a little laugh and turned to her niece. "Just for tonight Pandora, please don't run after a boy" Pandora looked sheepishly down to her shoes. "Sorry Aunt Piper" and with that she walked away to her where Penny and Prim were.
"I don't get it, Phoebe and I have a rebellious teen that are making us pay for all we once did; and you and Prue win the lottery?" Paige said walking back to the party with her sister.
Piper shocked her head "trust me, we are paying for it with extremely self-assured and obnoxiously stubborn children, who think that they don't need us anymore"
"Yeah, I'd still trade one of mine for one of yours" Paige said raising a brow "At least for a day"
Piper smiled and nodded. "Only if you take future boy over there" Piper said looking at where Chris was sitting with Jr., Victor and Warren.
"No thank you. That kid is all yours, neurosis and all" Paige said smiling. They had agreed that although this Chris wasn't the one from the future, the one that died in their attic, in Leo's arms; He was very much still like that boy. The realization that he was just like Piper with Prues determination was noticed as soon he had vanquished his first demon at 14. Piper smiled and nodded.
Paige wasn't sure how to present the obvious to her sister and just casually asked "Is everything set for the brunch tomorrow, you know before Wyatt and Meredith leave for Europe?"
Piper nodded and looked at her baby sister. "Why wouldn't it be?" Piper eyed her sister once more and was about to ask her why was she asking her about tomorrow if she had helped her set up brunch at P3 yesterday. Paige knew Piper was about to fire off with questions and knew that was her cue.
"Good! Oh look Henry is calling me!" The youngest sister said really fast and walked off. Piper stood there with crossed arms and Leo joined her. "Is everything alright?" He asked.
Piper looked up to her husband. "She's hiding something. Most of them are"
"Maybe, but we'll ask tomorrow. Let's enjoy the little bit of time we have left of the dance floor." Leo said leading his wife to the dance floor. He knew, he felt it; whatever was going on would reach them soon and he knew demons were tied in. He knew how this generation operated; he had had a hand in training them after all. But for now he wanted to let Piper enjoy this night. Piper smiled as she danced with her husband, but also had a knot in her stomach. She knew what was coming, could almost taste it and she dreaded it.
Pearl was talking to Warren and had asked if he was leaving back to his travels, when Melinda stopped by their table.
"Is Patty still here?' Melinda asked a bit nervous.
Both Pearl and Warren sized her up. "Yeah, she's in the hallway talking to my mom" Warren stated. Pearl just looked at her cousin. "Why are you looking for her? Charmed duties?" Pearl asked casually.
Melinda nodded and just walked away leaving Pearl and Warren to follow in suit. Once Melinda reached Patty and her Aunt Prue she blurted out "We have a charmed meeting tomorrow." Patty looked at her and rolled her eyes. If there was anything that Patty hated the most, it was her Charmed duties.
Prue on the other hand looked at her niece while asking "What happened?" Melinda shrugged. "All I know is that Chris and Jr. have something and we ALL need to be there"
Patty was about to say something and just closed her mouth. She looked between her mother, brother and cousins and just nodded. "Ok, I'll be at brunch." She walked off and her mother asked after her. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to say goodbye to the newlyweds and then I'm going home. Brian is expecting me" Patty said walking away.
"She's still dating Brian?" Melinda asked confused.
"I guess she is" Warren offered. Prue looked at her son and took deep breath.
Melinda looked at her aunt and simply stated "I don't know what Chris and Henry found out, but its big. I can sense it."
Warren looked at Pearl and said "Well I guess that answers your question"
Pearl looked at her cousin and shrugged while saying "Bummer, and I wanted to pop in for a visit." Both went back to the table to continue their conversation. Out of all of her cousins Warren was the easiest she could get along with. He treated her more like a friend than any of her cousins or sisters and she enjoyed that. She felt seen and confided in him a lot. Warren, on the other hand enjoyed having somewhat of a sidekick, his baby cousin was fun, a lot of trouble but fun.
Prue walked back to her table where her husband Andy, Phoebe and Coop were sitting. Andy looked at his wife and knew something wasn't alright with her. Phoebe on her end felt the worry linger through her sister.
"Is everything alright with Patty?" Andy asked.
"It's not Patty. We have a meeting during brunch tomorrow. The Charmed ones are needed in attendance." Prue said with some annoyance in her lowered voice.
"What's going on? Is there a new threat?" Phoebe cut in.
"I don't know, but I don't like it" Prue said looking at both her sister and husband. Andy looked to the dance floor and nodded. He knew what rumors were circling "up there" and new he would have to speak up about that tomorrow. He hoped they were just rumors and that was it.
Patty was hugging the newlyweds and giving her final congratulations to the couple.
"Well, once more; congratulations and good night. I wish you guys so much happiness"
"Thank you! Hopefully we can meet up soon after we're back from Paris" Meredith stated. She enjoyed Pattys friendship as they had become fast friends upon their meeting.
"Oh well, I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow at the meeting during brunch" Patty said surprised.
"What meeting? We weren't told about a meeting? I thought we were just going to have a quick family brunch before we left." Wyatt asked. His suspicions were correct, Chris and Jr. knew something and they didn't bother to tell him.
"Wy, I didn't know. I assumed you were on it. Mel told me it was Charmed duties, so I thought you had already known" Patty said a little annoyed. She hated pulling the lid off of stuff in this family. They were always with their cryptic ideals. She was not one to play those games. Wyatt was the Charmed ones whitelighter and knew everything that had to do with their destiny, so she didn't understand how he didn't know about tomorrow's meeting.
Wyatt nodded and turned to look at his brother on the opposite side of the hall. Wyatt took his glass and raised it to Chris, who in return raised his glass to him. He had seen the entire scene and knew Patty had busted him. He didn't intend to lie to his brother or keep this information from him; he just didn't want to repeat himself multiple times.
Wyatt took a sip of his drink and knew what was going to go on tomorrow. He wouldn't leave the manor until he had all the information he need. His week in Paris would continue, after all they deserved a vacation from their super busy "normal" life and their "witch" life. Once they were back it was all hands on deck for him. He just wasn't aware of how bad things would get this coming year, but he was about to find out.