Here is the next installment. Again, let me know if there are any questions or confusion! Please enjoy!

Melinda ran frantically through the halls of the hospital the last words of Chris's supervisor Mike echoing in her head.

Chris was attacked by a coworker in the fire. Looks like the guy tried to run and got trapped in the middle of a flare-up. Chris is in pretty bad shape, we had him airlifted to a hospital in California that's pretty close to where you live. You need to get there Melinda, he's really hurt.

Her breath kept wanting to get backed up in her lungs, but she refused to allow the panic to overtake her until she knew what was going on. She all but launched herself on the nurses' station of the ICU and made the poor woman sitting behind it jump.

"I need Christopher Halliwell's room number and doctor, please!"

"Only family is allowed to see ICU patients ma'am." The nurse gave her a weak smile and leaned a little away from the sweaty panicked woman in her pajamas that was pushing herself against the station.

"I'm family!" Melinda opened her wallet and took out her ID, shoving it under the woman's nose. "Look, same last name and everything. His boss called me and said that he would be here!"

"Ok then ma'am, let me page the attending and he can walk you down and explain everything. Ok?"

"Yes, that would be good, thank you." Melinda paced the floor of the hospital for what felt like hours waiting on the doctor to come upstairs and take her to her brother. Finally she spotted a man in his mid-30s wearing a white lab coat that was coming toward her.

"Ms. Halliwell?" He asked as he extended his hand toward her.

"Yes, how is he? Permanent damage? Surgery? What's going on?" Melinda nearly reached out and grabbed the doctor's white jacket before she remembered herself.

"Your husband is fine," the doctor began.

"Eww, he's my brother," Melinda interrupted with a grimace.

The doctor gave her a slight smile and continued, "Your brother is fine. There was a need for surgery to clean the wounds on his shoulder and thigh, smoke inhalation, stitches to close the wounds. We want to keep a close eye on him because of the threat of inflection. He was hit with a fireman's pickaxe that had been used in a fire and was also covered in dirt, being hit with that near major muscles and arteries is a concern."

"Ok, but he's going to live?"

"Yes," the smile slipped away to be replaced by a frown. "Did someone lead you to believe that your brother was in serious danger of dying?"

Melinda pushed a hand through her hair, "His supervisor said I needed to be here as soon as possible. I just grabbed my purse and ran to the car, didn't ask any more questions."

"I see," he looked her up and down. It was clear to Melinda that he didn't approve of her traveling gnome themed pajama pants or the garden shoes she'd shoved on her feet running out the door.

"Well, he will hopefully make a full and speedy recovery, though he is not going to be able to fight anymore fires this season. Once the wounds are healed he will need PT to make sure the muscles and nerves aren't too damaged." He started down the hall and swiped his keycard over a panel. "If you follow me I can take you to see him."

Melinda blew out a long breath and followed the doctor down the twisty winding halls of the hospital. The antiseptic smell of cleaner and bleach followed them and made her noise twitch. She was also having a hard time keeping her barriers up as the emotions of staff, patients and family assailed her mind. Working at the club had kept her in practice, but the fear and stress of the last few hours had exhausted her.

"Your brother is in here, he's being kept in the ICU as we watch for inflection, no more than two people at a time in the room. I was informed that the police will be coming by for a statement since he was attacked in California." The doctor paused outside one of the rooms, the curtains had been drawn over the glass wall windows to afford some more privacy. Taped to Chris's door was the fireman's insignia so all the staff knew that he worked for the fire departments; the nurses tried to go out of their way to help fireman and police officers if they were injured in the line of duty.

Melinda stood by the door and offered her hand, "Thank you so much for talking to me and easing my mind. We are a really small family and I know that I wigged big time that something had happened to my brother. Also, thank you for taking such good care of him, and continuing to." She shook hands with him and walked into her brother's hospital room.

Shock had her going absolutely still. She hadn't spent much time in hospitals growing up, her aunts had had their babies at birth centers and before Piper died Leo had healed most of the injuries they had gotten. Once Wyatt had gotten some medical experience and small healing powers he had taken over, or if it was really bad they had gone to the ER and gotten fixed up. But none of them had ever had to stay overnight, much less in the ICU, despite all the demon hunts they had continued to attend as older teens and young adults.

There were machines that were attached all over her brother, monitoring his heart, lungs, blood pressure, and brain activity. Chris seemed so still and pale tucked under the white sheet with bandages apparent over his left shoulder and crossing over his chest. His breath seemed to barely move the sheet, but at least he was breathing on his own and only had the little plastic thing that went into his nostrils, not the tube down his throat. He appeared so different from the sarcastic older brother that had teased her growing up and had never been able to sit still. Her mother used to joke that Chris didn't know the meaning of the word relax; and since he was also a sleepwalker as a child she had to tie bells to his ankle to make sure he stayed in the house. The image of him completely still and quiet was jarring to Melinda, she nearly backed away from the room.

Melinda stepped over to the side of the bed and choked back tears, she refused to lose it now. It was clear that he was going to be ok, he just had to get through the risk of infection and he would be fine. She dropped into the uncomfortable chair by his right side and pushed back his hair that always managed to fall into his face.

"Hey there Christopher Robin, it's me, it's Piglet. You focus on getting better now you hear? I'm sitting here and I'm not going anywhere until I know you're going to be up and kicking ass again. I'm waiting right here, ok? Piglet is not going anywhere today." Melinda curled up in the chair, she had only managed two hours of sleep before the phone call had woken her up. She had called Camille and told her that she couldn't open the club that night; Primrose was coming in to act as manager. She knew that Camille would handle anything that Primrose was uncertain of, and that any of the other girls had P3 under control.

Melinda pulled out her phone and sent the group text to all her cousins,

Chris is going to be fine. In ICU for infection risks, no more fires for the summer. Staying here until he wakes up at least.

After checking her email and reading the responses from her cousins, most that signaled relief, and one promise to call Wyatt on the satellite phone and let him know what was up, Melinda settled deeper into the chair and fell asleep.

Gavin Prakenskii walked down the halls of the hospital with his aunt Dr. Libby Drake Tyson as she ran through Chris Halliwell's injuries for him.

"Pickaxe to the left shoulder and right upper thigh, smoke inhalation and bruising. He lost a great deal of blood and had to be shocked back on the helicopter when they were almost here. He managed to get out that it was a Zane something when he radioed in to his supervisor, but was kinda out of it by the time they found him. He woke up briefly after surgery and then went under again. Dr. Sloane told me his sister arrived a few hours ago and hasn't left yet, and Halliwell hasn't woken up since the surgery."

Libby pushed black hair out of her face as she walked with her nephew and consulted the chart notes in front of her. "He must be a strong young man to survive such an attack and have the wherewithal to crawl to his pack and radio for help." She frowned as she read over the previous injuries that were listed in his medical data, lots of sprained joints and muscles and his arm had already been broken twice. Some of that could be explained by being a hotshot and smoke jumper, but some injuries were much older.

Gavin nodded as he listened to his aunt, her report jived with everything the Forestry Service had passed along to the Sheriff's office. He just needed Christopher Halliwell to confirm that one Zane Mikos had attacked him, run away or left him to die and then had been consumed by the fire himself. His older brothers Andrei and Gregory had just left to retrieve the body and take it into the morgue. The Forestry Service had argued it should go back to Montana with them, but the attack and death had happened in California so the body was staying here.

"Aunt Libby, you've met Melinda Halliwell right? She's the one that opened the new bar and hired Cami. What are your impressions?" Gavin wanted to have an idea about the family before he met and talked with him. It would help him piece together the small details in the statements.

Libby stopped walking and pushed more hair back into the twist it had started out in that morning. She frowned thoughtfully as she aligned what she was going to say to her nephew. Gavin waited patiently, he knew Libby would take some time to spit out what she was thinking, but it was always on target since she was an empath.

"She's very nice and quiet, wants to handle everything on her own. Cami told us that her mother died when she was very young, and since she doesn't mention the father it's assumed that he isn't in the picture or never was. But," here Libby frowned and seemed as though she was debating whether or not to continue. "I can't get a read off her. As in nothing. Yes," she said nodding at her nephew's frown.

"I'm a strong empath, so is Elle, Hannah, and of course most of Elle's daughters. None of us have ever been able to read her emotions or thoughts. It's odd, but she could have very strong natural barriers. There are some people that do, your Uncle Jonas is one."

"Yeah," Gavin agreed quietly and scratched his blond hair into disarray and looked into his aunt's large green eyes. "But Uncle Jonas has a small amount of psychic power himself. Could this girl?"

Libby frowned and tapped her finger against her lips, "Perhaps, but power is rare. It might just be a natural barrier. Anyways, that's not why you are here, she's in there with her brother, but I can pull her out and talk about his treatment while you question him."

"Sounds good to me," Gavin agreed and they proceed down the hall talking of family business until his aunt stopped outside one room.

"This is Christopher Halliwell's room."

Gavin nodded and opened the door and peeked in. He saw the young man in the bed watching the TV on mute and a younger woman dead asleep crammed into one of the chairs. While the young man looked pale and exhausted, he looked much better than Gavin would have thought after being attacked in the woods. Chris, Gavin assumed, glanced at his uniform for the Sheriff's Department and nodded. Switching the TV off, he tried to lean over and shake his sister awake.

"Here, let me. No need to pull stitched out or hurt yourself more," Gavin said and quickly stepped over the chair. Chris nodded and slumped back on the bed, his right hand going to his left should as he grimaced in pain.

Gavin reached down and gently shook her shoulder, speaking at the same time, "Ms. Halliwell? Would you wake up please?"

Melinda shot awake and sprang nearly out of the chair, the top of her head making sudden and furious contact with Gavin's chin.

"Ouch!"

"Shit!"

Gavin massaged his chin and wondered if it was going to bruise, also inwardly cursing that he had shouted a curse word in front of his aunt, who would tell his mother, who would in turn yell at him. He finally glanced down at the young woman that was massaging the top of her head and scowling at her brother who had been laughing since they had smacked into each other. The world seemed to stop spinning as his dark blue eyes met her green ones.

He had heard his father, uncles, and older brothers describe the feeling that swept through them when they had finally met their soul mates. That one woman that was out there for every Prakenskii man, the itch that settled deep in his palm, the feeling of his world being tipped and then centered on her, and the knowledge that he was never not going to want her. It was part of their family line, all the couples were destined and the man knew the minute that his eyes met those of his soul mate.

Gavin knew in the back of his head that he was staring, that he hadn't spoken in the last few moments, that his hand was killing him, and Chris and Melinda were both staring at him with some alarm.

"Are you ok?" Melinda asked, she reached out to touch his arm and he sprang away from her.

Gavin tamped down the panic that had swept through him and attempted to seem a little less crazy. "Yes, sorry. You knocked me pretty good, I'm sorry I didn't think that I was going to scare you like that." He took several steps back and stood more at the foot of the hospital bed, out of touching distance. The panic continued to want to climb up his throat and strangle him, it was not how he had envisioned this moment happening.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too. I guess you scared me, uh who are you?" Melinda sat back down and exchanged a glance with her brother. He shrugged that he had no idea, then grabbed his shoulder again.

"Gavin Prakenskii, I'm with the sheriff's department and need to talk to your brother about what happened out in that fire. In fact, my aunt Libby is waiting just outside to talk to you more about your brother's treatment after he's released and what not." Gavin took out his notepad as he talked and nervously rubbed his nose. He desperately needed get the girl outside before he freaked more, or worse touched his hand to hers and bound them together.

"Oh, the missing little brother. I've met most of your family through Camille and I was just teasing them that I didn't think you actually existed. It's so nice to finally meet you, please I'm so sorry that I hit you like that." Melinda sat up straighter and moved to stand up so she could shake his hand.

"Oh, uh, haha. Yes, my brothers enjoy teasing me about work and stuff. But, I really need to get your brother's statement so we can clear all this up." Gavin pretended to not see Melinda's hand stretched out and flipped through his notebook quickly. The blank pages blurred as he flipped, desperately trying to avoid her gaze.

Melinda frowned, but walked out of the room after exchanging a long look with her brother. They were going to have a long chat when she came back in.

Gavin breathed a silent sigh of relief when she walked out of the room, he was going to get this statement and leave to find his dad as soon as possible.