Title: A Whitelighter's Priority
Author: rachelAbendstern
Summary: Not the sisters are being sucked into pocket-realms... And you get to know Lily :)
Spoilers: Season 6 Charmed; I forgot to mention BtVS last chapter, 'The Gift'
Disclaimer: Neither Buffy nor Charmed is mine, and I don't make any money with it. Lily though belongs to me XP
2. Oh Brave New World
I feared not in the Ivory tower.
Imprisonment you'll find,
It lies within your heart, your soul, your spirit and your mind.
"Hey guys!" Wearing a very cheerful smile on her face, Phoebe skipped to a halt in the living room of the manor. "Guess what! Jason invited me to Hong Kong this weekend!"
"Oh, honey that's great!" Piper looked up at her sister smiling fondly, arranging various snacks and sweets on the table while balancing Wyatt on her hip.
Chris, working through the Book of Shadows on the small table, watched them interact incredulously. He had told them about this demon chasing after witches only this morning and what did they do? Planning dates and – and what did Piper do anyway? They did not take him serious; they had a demon to vanquish! This was so not cool!
A few weeks had passed since Chris' first day on the Hellmouth and he had orbed back and forth ever since. It was not that bad actually, the guys – or rather girls – in Sunnydale did pretty good on their own. Vampires were their usual problem, they had years of practice with that whereas he did not. The few demons that had turned out to be a problem, they could deal with after a little help or advise on Chris' part so far. Actually, most of the times he orbed there, were because the sisters or the manor or his whole situation here became too suffocating for him to bear, rather than the girls calling for help. He had not had very many human friends in his life but he had taken quickly to the odd group there. Even though one was a vampire formerly known as 'William the Bloody' – God had he laughed as they explained exactly where that nickname had come from – and another one was a former vengeance demon, who was now dating an entirely normal, if a little cynical human male. They all had accepted him without question, even Spike after the little warning that first night. Which Chris would be sure to listen to because he really did not want a pissed off master vampire on his tail.
Tuning back to the conversation between the two witches, he heard Phoebe ask, "You have guests today?"
"You have guests today?" He repeated aghast. God, did they even listen to him?
Piper turned a defiant glare at him. "Yes I do! We still have a life, you know?"
"You have a demon to vanquish or didn't you listen to me?" Chris tried to stay calm, he really did, but he could not keep his annoyance from showing. "Putting your personal lives before your Wiccan duties will be your downfall one day!" He meant that literally…
"Maybe so, but not today. Today, I'm just going to have a nice quiet afternoon with my friends." With eyes hard as steel, Piper looked determined. She could really scare him sometimes.
"Yeah, and I'm going to go shopping for the weekend." The two of them were already on their way out of the room, so the boy stood up to follow them.
"No! Listen to me, just for one time, listen!" His powers were hard to keep in check; their disregard of the seriousness of their situation made him agitated. "I know this demon doesn't sound like much of a threat. But what will you do if he catches you off-guard? What will happen if he sucks the three of you into his pocket-realms all at once? You won't even notice because he'll form your respective worlds after your own desires! Until these worlds kill you, that is! You may be stronger than him, but you will have hell to pay if he catches you separated!"
Heaving a deep sigh, Phoebe leaned her elbow on his shoulder and looked up at his face with a small pout on her lips. "Well then, we'll just have to hope you'll find a way to get us out in time!"
Chris was not impressed. "As much as I would like to thank you for your faith in me... This is not the only demon out there and one day they will get you! So, yes, you can have your personal lives but only after you dealt with the demon!"
The two women looked at each other speculatively, and at first, Chris had hope that he had gotten through to them for once. But then the eldest sister shrugged and continued towards the kitchen, adjusting her baby boy on her other hip on the way, closely followed by her younger sibling. Who waved a hand at her incredulous Whitelighter while calling over her shoulder, "Relax Chris, we have everything under control."
Chris stood there a little lost, gaping after them in disbelief. "I don't believe it! I would accomplish more talking to a wall!" I would vanquish those demons myself if I could risk revealing my witch powers.
The last thing he heard before everything went black was the wind picking up and an odd sound of something heavy colliding with one thing or another.
666
A thud could be heard from the entrance hall as the wind picked up, causing the sisters to slow their pace and turn around.
"What was that?" Piper sounded more annoyed than worried.
"I don't…" Phoebe stopped dead when she saw a shaggy demon standing over an unconscious and bleeding Chris. A vortex had opened up in the middle of the hall, sucking everything in its reach into it.
"Oh my God!" The surprised empath tightly gripped onto the doorframe, "Chris!"
Chris was inevitably gliding towards the hole in the floor as the wind steadily picked up in volume, while the demon standing by gleefully watched. Piper desperately tried to blow him up but only managed to scrap his shoulder. There was too much debris flying around by now causing her aim to be completely off. She could not hold on to Wyatt, the doorframe and use her powers all at the same time. They couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as the limp figure of the dark-haired youth was pulled into the maelstrom, clinging to the wooden frame for dear life now, while the infant was crying his heart out.
Then as sudden as it had started, it was over. The vortex closed with a sickening hiss, the demon calmly stating, "Not exactly what I came here for but powerful nonetheless."
He vanished just in time to avoid Piper's angry attack, a vase behind his previous position exploding instead.
666
They were all three sitting around the living room table, quietly consulting the Book of Shadows and trying to scry for their missing Whitelighter, while baby Wyatt was sitting in his playpen, playing with a wooden locomotive. Except for the toddler, the atmosphere was undoubtedly subdued.
Hands over her face and trying to calm herself Phoebe broke the silence first, "God, we should have listened to him. He tried to warn us and we didn't even listen!"
"Phoebe, even if we had listened, this could have happened nevertheless." Piper, ever the practical one, tried to comfort her distressed sister.
"She's right, you know. It's in the manual, and Chris knew the risk probably better than we do." Paige only wanted to cheer her sister up as well, but she got a good shock when Phoebe suddenly yelled at her. "Don't talk about him as if he's already dead! We can still save him, that's what we do, saving innocents!"
Paige quickly disguised the snort that escaped her at the word 'innocent' describing Chris. She really did not want Phoebe to get even more upset.
"But how, sweetie?" Piper asked reasonably. "I can't find this demon anywhere in the Book and we don't know what he wants. We cannot even find Chris. Or has your scrying already worked?"
"No." Phoebe unhappily admitted. "Maybe he's on another plane; we couldn't scry for him then, could we?"
"No," they all agreed.
Silence once again reined the room, until Paige stood up to stretch and get something to drink from the kitchen. On her way to the other side of the hall, her eyes caught sight of some piece of cloth caught between the banisters. They had obviously not done quite as good a job at cleaning up as they thought they had done. Upon a closer look, her eyes lit up as she realized what she was holding in her hand. Barging back into the living room, she grinned at her sisters.
"Maybe we can't scry for Chris but we can scry for the demon! Luckily, he left us a little souvenir. And even better, there's enough blood on it for a vanquishing potion!"
"Vanquishing potion?" A voice behind them asked, "For what demon?"
Leo was standing in the doorframe all of a sudden, they hadn't even heard him orb in.
"Leo!" a startled Piper exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" She told him that he could not just orb in as he pleased. She just could not stand being so near him and not being able to have him.
"I was supposed to take Wyatt today. Did you forget?" Now it was Leo's turn to look confused. Piper usually did not forget that.
"Wyatt?" His ex-wife cast a blank look at the toddler playing peacefully in his playpen. Of course, how could she have forgotten? Well, she knew how she had forgotten, with all the commotion and all, but still. "Oh. Sure. Just let me get his things." She quickly stood and walked upstairs to do just that.
666
Cold water splashed against his skin, he felt soft cushions beneath him. A familiar voice sounded in his ears and he tried to make out what it was saying.
"Melinda Penelope Halliwell! Look at what you did to your father! That ought to be a lesson not to use your powers so ruthlessly!"
"I'm sorry, Ma!" he heard a teary voice reply and tried hard to focus on regaining control over his body. What the hell had happened? How did his wife and daughter get here?
"I'm up," Chris groaned, and another person sniggered. "I told you he has a thick head!"
The young man blinked against the blinding light that assaulted his eyes. "Oh, har har! What happened?" he asked, bringing his hand up to the side of his head, when a mean little gremlin started to pound on large drums inside his skull. The last thing he remembered were Phoebe and Piper retreating to the kitchen.
Someone caught his hand though and brought it back down. "Lily decided she wanted her flowers to fly. Unfortunately, she lost control over one of the pots and you happened to be in the way." Bianca told him, mirth shining clearly through her words despite the lecture she had given Lily only minutes ago.
"Oh, great, brought down by a flower pot!" Something did not seem right about that, but he was still too out of it, to put the pieces together.
"Don't worry. Leo, will be here in a moment to take care of that nasty cut you got there." What the hell did he care if that bastard would be here or not? Bianca ought to know better...
He had no time to venture further in these thoughts, as a small creature clumsily tried to crawl on his lap. When he blinked down, he saw a pair of watery bright green eyes, framed by long strands of dark hair, and the timid voice of his little girl said: "I'm sorry, Daddy, really I am!"
It was good, to see her again. During these last few months, he had always been afraid that someday he would not remember what she looked like, how she smelt like, the way she talked and moved. The same went for Bianca, too. He probably had missed so much already, and even though he did not want to become the kind of father Leo had been for him, never there when he needed him the most, he knew that they did not have any other choice. Not if they wanted to see Lily grow up without fear and unharmed in body and soul.
"Oh, hush, darling," he soothed the little girl. "We wouldn't want your flowers to have missed the opportunity to get the better of me, now would we?" Chris gathered the now smiling girl into his arms, casting a happy smile to his wife, who was kneeling at his side.
Why was it so hard to remember why they should not be here all of a sudden? Why did it cast a chill down his spine to see his mother standing in front of him, smiling down at the young family?
666
Now Leo was sitting in front of the Book of Shadows, looking up the demon that had gotten to Chris, without success. "There is no demon in here that fits your description. And you say Chris knew of him?"
Phoebe was only nodding her head, still trying to scry, though this time for the demon and not for the young Whitelighter himself.
A loud sigh from the other end of the table brought their attention to Paige. The youngest Halliwell sister looked at them with irritation written all over her face. "Maybe we should just leave him where ever he is right now!" At their accusative glares, she exclaimed annoyed: "What? You cannot tell me, you have not thought about it, too! I do not trust him! Every time he opens his mouth, he lies to us! Wyatt is in danger? Ha, he cannot even tell us which demon that is supposed to be a threat to him! And even if it was true, we would be there to take care of it!"
"But maybe we aren't there, Paige," Phoebe quietly replied, looking up at her sister through solemn eyes. "He didn't really tell us much about that future he comes from. Maybe we aren't there to take care of things anymore. I cannot say I trust him completely he is definitely hiding something. But for now I just want to trust that he does what he thinks is best and get him the hell back to us."
"She's right, you know?" At the witches' incredulous stares, Leo shrugged a little uncomfortably. "I mean, if what he told us is true, we will need any help we can get, to stop his future from happening."
"You certainly sounded a different tune not so long ago!" Paige remarked wryly.
"I know," the Elder admitted honestly. "But after seeing how well he does with his other charges, I decided to give him a chance. He's trying, that much I can see."
Paige could not help but nag some more. "So you don't believe anymore, that he is the one who banished you to Valhalla?"
At that, Leo pulled a face. "I prefer not to think about that for the moment."
"Ha, I knew it!"
"Paige!" Phoebe interrupted her little sister with a sharp voice. "Let it go."
Silence settled again over them until Leo slammed the Book shut, asking instead: "Do you remember what Chris told about the demon?"
Holding her hands up, Paige washed her hands in innocence. "I wasn't there, I don't know anything."
Her sister sighed, rubbing one hand over her eyes tiredly. "He told us something about being sucked into pocket-realms."
Collecting her thoughts, she tried to remember more. "Yeah, that and the demon shaping the worlds after our own desires."
Suddenly, she turned pale, all color draining from her face. "He said those worlds would kill their victim eventually…"
666
A warm glow spread through his head and the quiet voice of his father stated mirthfully „Well, that should bring you up to par again. And next time try and avoid any flying flower-pots."
The young man mumbled something the others did not quite catch. "What was that? " Piper asked, grinning.
"I said," Chris now spoke overly pronouncing each word, "that wasn't my fault."
"That coming from the guy who was defeated by his daughter's flowers." A new voice deadpanned.
They all turned around to see Wyatt standing, smirking, in the doorway, watching his family. Something was nagging at the back of Chris' mind that this was wrong in so many ways but he couldn't be bothered with it anymore. This was what he wanted, this was how it was supposed to be, his family all good and friendly and alive and if all this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up again.
He grunted, as his daughter jumped up out of his grasp, squealing: "Uncle Wy!" and attaching herself to the tall man's waist in a bear hug, while Chris shot his older brother an evil glare.
"A pot, Wy!" he clarified indignantly. "It was a flower-pot!"
Wyatt, who now lifted Lily up into his arms, exchanged a roguish grin with the little imp holding onto his neck. "Sure Chris, whatever you say."
666
Back in the manor, the real-world Piper was close to an emotional breakdown.
Oh God, everything was falling out of her hands. What was she supposed to be doing?
She was sitting on her bed, her head clutched in her hands, only barely restraining the sobs that caught in her chest. Everything was falling apart!
She had not been prepared to see Leo. She had completely forgotten he was supposed to take Wyatt today.
Part of her resented Chris for putting them in this situation in the first place. If it had not been for the neurotic secretive Whitelighter from the future, Leo would never have become an Elder. Maybe, if they were too late to save him, everything would go back to normal, Leo and she could be together again.
Even as she thought this, she hated herself for it. Things between her husband and her had not been peachy even before Chris had made his first appearance. Although a part of her wanted to mistrust the young man, another part could not help but be drawn to him, could not help wonder how bad his future must have been like if he decided to change the past deliberately. For all they knew, he could endanger his very own existence by coming here.
She felt guilty, too. Chris had tried to warn them about the demon, and they had not listened. The demon took Chris instead and if they did not manage to save him, it would be their entire fault. Her fault, she was the oldest and had to be in charge.
Get your act together or we will be too late! She admonished herself sharply.
Curtly brushing the tears out of her eyes, she slipped some diapers into the already packed bag and closed the zipper with a determined motion.
666
Gif stood in his lair, greedily watching the various scenes displayed in the water of his well. Originally, he had aimed for one of the Charmed Ones. Being powerful themselves, their desires were sure to be the most powerful he had eaten on so far. It turned out though, that this one was even better. Whatever he was – and the demon had a notion, that the young man was no ordinary witch – he was powerful, so were his desires.
The demon did not quite know what to make of the pictures he saw. One of the persons in there was obviously the Charmed One, who had tried to blow him up back in their stronghold, only a bit older. Frankly, he didn't care either as long as it had the desired result. Gif did not care what worlds his victims created for them. The farther from reality those worlds were built; the more devastating their downfall was. Gif could not contain his anticipation for this one to fall, and started to walk back and forth around the water, cheerfully rubbing his hands all the while.
666
The doorbell startled everyone out of his or her respective preoccupations.
"I'll get it!" Piper called, briskly moving down the stairs. Her mouth dropped, as she realized who was at the door. Apparently, Leo was not the only one she had forgotten about today. A young woman with skin the color of creamed coffee stood outside with her blonde, longhaired friend.
"Marie!" The smile on Piper's face was decidedly panicky. "You're early!"
The girls looked at her skeptically. "Piper, we're five minutes late, actually!"
"Oh! Um," desperately trying to get her mind working, her body moved on auto-pilot, letting the two in. "Why don't you go ahead into the living room. "Oh shit, did she really just say that?
Behind her, she could hear Phoebe hissing into her ear: "Piper, what are you doing?" Turning around, she saw her sister had put on a strained smile for the visitors, carrying a bunch of maps and the scrying crystal in one hand.
"I'm sorry, but has something happened?" The tanned young woman asked, obvious worry tingling her voice. "Should we cancel today?"
"Oh, no!" As she felt Phoebe's elbow connecting with her ribs painfully Piper released she still had no control over her body. "It's just…" She trailed off, when she saw the women coming in. Had she really invited that many guests over?
"I told you, we should have asked her first," the blonde said to Marie.
"No, no, it's not a problem." Damn, why did she keep saying those things? "Just, would you mind, starting without me? My sisters and I have to take care of a... family problem first. Leo can give you a hand, if you need something." Again, she had put her foot into her mouth...
"Leo?" The two friends looked at each other confused. "We thought you two split up?"
"We did," the oldest Hallliwell confirmed searching for a credible explanation. "He is here to take Wyatt for the day." Well, truth mostly worked the best...
Seeing no more girls coming in, she meant to close the door, but Marie stopped her with an impish grin.
"Ah!" she exclaimed. "Wait for my models!"
"Models?" Just then, three tall muscular handsome men stepped through the door sparing the other women the answer.
One of them threw Piper a winning smile asking casually, "So, where do we change?"
It was then, Piper spotted Leo standing just outside the overflowing living room, Wyatt on his hip, shaking his head vigorously in obvious horror.
666
"Don't you think, that was a bit mean, leaving your Ex down there?"
Despite her words, Paige wore an evil grin, while she was working on the vanquishing potion.
"Oh, I don't know…" she was cut off as her remaining sibling called excitedly, "Got him!"
With a huge smile plastered onto her face, Phoebe turned towards her sisters. "He's in the Underworld, we should have known!"
"Well now," Piper sighed. "We have his location, the vanquishing potion shouldn't -" a puff was heard from where Paige was standing and a cloud of smoke rose up from the cauldron, signaling the potion was ready, "- take too much longer," she finished her sentence wryly. "And I have the spell written to get Chris out of his fantasy-world. What are we waiting for?"
While Phoebe pocketed five binding crystals, Paige corked the small glass-bottle filled with the potion and walked over to the other two.
"Here goes nothing." Clasping hands, she orbed them into the Underworld.
666
They were sitting at dinner, the whole family.
Chris was sandwiched between his brother on his left side and Bianca on the other. Opposite them, Lily was trying to convince her grandmother, that it was a completely fair deal for her to steal her grandfather's dessert, if he got her vegetables instead. Trying to conceal her laughter, Aunt Phoebe had put her napkin over her mouth, while Aunt Paige was her usual outright self and laughed aloud over the little imp's antics.
Just as they were about to put the dishes away, a low rumble went through house, resounding awkwardly in their stomachs.
All of their heads shot up at once. "What was that?" Lily asked the question that was going through all of their minds.
"I don't know," Chris' father answered warily. He was trying to sense what was wrong with help of his Whitelighter powers, as were his two sons. They could not sense anything supernatural though, and were about to dismiss it. Then, another rumble, louder this time, shocked them into realization.
"Earthquake!" Bianca was the first one to move, gathering her daughter into her arms, looking nervously up to the ceiling. Chris unconsciously drew nearer to the two of them, laying a protective arm over his lover's shoulder.
"Come on," they heard Wyatt demand. "Let's get out of the house!"
Hardly a second had passed, when all hell broke loose.
Suddenly, the floor seemed to shift under their feet, the dishes were rattling in the cabinets, the sound of glass breaking and Lily screaming in fear. In panic, everyone rushed for the front door, Chris shoving Bianca in front of him none too gently, trying to steady her at the same time.
A crash, a scream from behind, and Chris, upon whirling around, saw Aunt Phoebe bleeding from deep cuts all over her left side, a mirror laying shattered into thousand pieces at her feet.
He wanted to scream, yell at her to get the hell out of the house, when another wave hit them, making the earth shudder, swiping him off his feet. The impact pressed the air out of him, the chaos around him dimming for a second in intensity, before coming back twice as violent. Screams, smashes, sobbing, creaking, and rattling pierced his ears, and when he looked up again, he saw the walls collapsing in on them...
666
Perfect, this was absolutely fantastic. Gif stood over his well, evil little eyes glinting with impatience and a hint of satisfaction. His fists clenched and unclenched excitedly, as he watched the building starting to collapse on the witch.
He was so obsessed with his latest victim, that he almost did not hear the orb-lights behind him. Whirling around on his heels, he caught sight of the Charmed Ones and almost immediately prepared to open a vortex. That one second of shock however was enough for the blonde one to yell two words: "Crystals! Circle!"
By the time he wanted to move, he couldn't, caught in a binding field.
Letting out a string of colorful curses, he spat: "What the hell do you want here?"
The shorthaired one-step ahead, confidently replying, "Vanquishing you and getting our Whitelighter back!"
Whitelighter? Well, what the heck did he care what that boy was!
"You're already too late for that!" he smirked at them, feeling the energy emitting from his pocket-realm even through the crystal field. This world was now literally collapsing in on itself.
Alarmed, the blonde-haired woman stepped forward, edging a look into the reflecting water. "Chris!" she cried shocked before briskly turning back to her sisters. "The spell, quick!"
Gif looked on quite sure of himself. No one was able to break his worlds except for him. What were they trying to accomplish anyway? The boy was already dying and he could feel it. He calmly listened to the witches reciting.
"In this time and in this hour,
We call upon the ancient power,
To break his world, help him flee,
Get Chris out of this misery."
Wind picked up, a flash lit up the cave, and the next thing he knew the witches had destroyed his world. How was that possible? The figure lying there on the ground seemed more dead than alive, but he should not be lying here at all! That was not supposed to be happening!
Gif looked stunned at the two younger witches, his mind not yet willing to process what happened only moments ago. He never saw the little glass bottle coming, that hit him with an almost cheerful split, before he went up into flames, screaming his anger not pain.
666
They quickly walked over to the crumpled form of their young Whitelighter, taking in the blood, bruises and wounds with genuine concern.
"Oh my god, oh my god," Phoebe prayed, getting down on her knees next to Chris, carefully touching a bloodied cheek. He was still breathing, but barely. "We need Leo!"
"Leo!" Her sister promptly called. "Get your ass down here, fast!"
666
A few hours later.
It was a late, not completely uncomfortable humid, night.
Halliwell manor was sound asleep after the exhausting events of the afternoon. Except for one lone figure, still trying to make sense of everything that had occurred that day.
Chris was leaning on the doorframe to Wyatt's room, watching the infant sleep peacefully. His rips still hurt and he was moving more careful than normal but overall, nothing remembered of the bruised, broken, barely alive body the sisters had saved out of the ruins. Nothing but his eyes this is.
His last look at his world would always be burned into his memory was, real or not. Wyatt, his big brother had lain in front of him, eyes open, staring unseeing, a huge wound on his forehead, blonde hair, dirty with gore, plastered onto his cheek. Bianca, his beautiful raven-haired lover, moaning in pain, back towards him, long hair spilled over the splintered bloody floor. Lily his little girl half-sprawled over her mother, so quiet, so still, not moving…
Shaking his head angrily, he stepped into the nursery, wanting to get rid of those awful pictures. He kept telling himself they were not real. But if he did not succeed in his mission maybe they would be.
Chris crossed the room, to take a closer look at Wyatt. He looked so innocent, so cute as a baby. If he did not know better, he never would have believed, that this little boy would grow up to be the Source of all Evil in the future. This was exactly why he had not told the sisters and Leo. They would never believe that their precious, adorable Wyatt was the cause, that Chris' future was a living hell.
He kneeled down beside his baby big brother, head leaning against the bars of the cot, his bright green eyes dulled with the memories that kept replaying in his mind.
"I know you can be good, Wy," he whispered to the infant. "I know it. I saw it! I refuse to believe that this was all just wishful thinking, You can be good!"
A little startled, he witnessed the baby's bright blue eyes open sleepily, looking him straight in the face after a moment of adjustment. Carefully, ready to withdraw, Chris extended his hand, indulging the sudden urge to stroke his brother's soft blonde locks. It surprised him, when no force field came up to fend him off, but it definitely brought a small, happy smile onto his features.
Perhaps, there was hope for them after all.
666
When Spike let himself in in the Summers' home to get something to eat, he caught the by now familiar scent of the girls' new Whitelighter.
That boy was a riddle to him. Always watching his back, never relaxing was not how a Whitelighter was supposed to act. True, Chris let his guard down around them more and more, but that only confirmed the vampire's suspicion, that there was more to the cynical young man than he had told them. Ordinary Whitelighters did not sleep over at one of their charges', did not take refuge on their living room couches at night. That was exactly what Chris was doing; Spike saw that after the first few times it had happened. The boy appeared tough enough but deep down, the vampire was sure, he was more afraid than anything else.
Having warmed his mug of blood, Spike stood there, watching Chris sleep for a minute or two, without turning the lights on. He could smell the sorrow coming of him. Sighing, he walked over, put the cup down on the table, and went to put a blanket over the still figure. In this house, he was going to turn mushy, he was.
"Do you believe in second chances, Spike?"
The soft voice startled him, although he would never have admitted that. How was it this human could do this, knowing Spike was there without seeing or hearing him? Not just Spike for that matter.
"You're asking me that?" he replied somewhat amused. "I walk around this house, hunting with kids, that I used to hunt down, and you are asking me, if I believe in second chances?"
Chris opened his eyes, a small smile playing around the corners of his lips. "Yeah, I guess."
He sat up slowly, minding his healing ribs, to make room for the vampire on the couch. The careful moves did not go unnoticed by Spike, though.
"You alright, mate?" he asked more curious than concerned. At least, he told himself, he was not concerned. He had a rep to uphold, damn it!
At being caught so easily, the young man in front of him grimaced in annoyance. "I will be."
Indeed curious now, Spike sat down beside him. "What happened?"
Chris gave him a wry smile through the darkness. "What's bound to happen in a job like mine, I got caught by a demon."
"Oh, how come you're still sitting here then?" An evil grin passed over the bleach-blondes features, getting a sardonic snort out of the younger one. "Gee, you make me feel so loved now!"
After Spike's laughter had died down, Chris continued. "The sisters apparently decided, they didn't want their neurotic Whitelighter dead, after all."
"Your other charges?"
Chris nodded mutely; sleep beginning to claim him back already.
They sat in compatible silence for a while, before Chris' restrained chuckles disrupted the quietness once more.
"What's so funny about a demon catching you?" Spike asked confused.
"Nothing, about the demon?" Chris was still holding back laughter, his green eyes shining merrily through a curtain of dark hair. "But since the sisters went to save me Leo had to watch a couple of male strippers with some friends of Piper's!"
"Eeew!" Despite his instantaneous reaction, a smirk spread on the vampire's face. He really would have liked to witness the self-righteous Elder in that peculiar situation!
"Yeah," Chris replied, still smiling. "I never saw Leo come to my rescue more eagerly!"
tbc
A/N: Hey there! Since I made it through my first exam this year unscathed (yay, I did it ;) ) I decided, to put this chapter on here a little bit earlier than planned. Hope you liked it as well.
I think, next chapter will play a bit more on the Hellmouth again, so stay tuned.
Any question or remarks,tell me.
And for those who didn't know: William the Bloody stands for 'bloody awful poet', or at least, I liked this explanation best ;)
The verse at the beginning this time is from 'Ivory Tower' by Blackmore's Night.
P.S.: chapter edited and revised thanks to shadowhisper. Thanks :)