Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, or any of its characters… I just wish I did.
Author's Note: After being stranded in Denver thanks to the Blizzard, getting a horrible cold in the process of it, driving ten hours from Colorado through the ENTIRE state of Kansas in the car to get to an Airport that was open, followed by barely making it home for Christmas… let's just say the time since my last update has been insanely eventful! You should all be glad to know though that I have a whole bunch of hand-written pages that will begin being transcribed to type-written starting with this next chapter here.
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"Hello!" Phoebe called out as she opened the front door into the Manor and made her way inside. Saturdays were always spent with the family together at the Manor. It was just a shame that this particular Saturday was going to carry with it the heavy burden of knowing Chris was laying in a hospital bed. She paused in the entryway into the home that so many generations of Halliwells had grown up in and listened.
There were voices coming from the dining room, raised voices. Those voices sounded like they were coming from her two sisters, Piper and Paige. It didn't surprise her that she was yet again going to have to step in and be the moderator between the eldest and the youngest Charmed Sisters. Over the years it had happened more times than she would ever be able to count. She knew quite well now how Piper had always felt when mediating between she and Prue.
Without a glance behind her at her trailing family, Phoebe stepped further into the house.
"Will you QUIT telling me to RELAX?" Piper's voice shouted loud enough to shake the house's foundations.
"I didn't SAY it that time!"
"You MEANT it!"
"YES, I DID! You need to! Your family needs you to. Chris needs you to!"
"Don't you DARE tell me what Chris needs Paige. STOP telling me that I need to relax!"
The middle sister knew that her family would follow behind. Coop was no doubt getting five-year-old Pandora out of the van with the help of their other two daughters, Melinda and Penny. Penny and Pandora had the blessing of not really understanding what was going on, Melinda on the other hand hadn't slept from what Phoebe could determine from the dark circles under her eldest daughter's eyes. Mel denied it. Of course, Phoebe had slept very little either. By the looks of the weary faces of everyone except Paige's children, neither had the rest of her family.
Phoebe entered the dining room with caution. The absolute silence of everyone save for her quarreling sisters suggested that was to be the best tactic. Even the usually chatty Patti and Parvati were deathly silent and staring at their Mother and Aunt. Sandy-haired Henry Jr. was finding his orange juice to be the most interesting thing ever and his father clearly had similar interest in examining his. Clearly this tension had built up over the course of the morning and had finally come to a head.
Phoebe knew she should have come right over as soon as all of her family got moving this morning, instead of dawdling. She should have just let Coop heart-teleport them all over instead of taking the van.
"NO! I won't because you need to! You need to hear it even if you're too damn stubborn to listen!" Paige's voice shouted back, "And you wonder where Chris gets it from! The doctors will take care of him, he's going to be--"
"So help me, Paige," Piper's voice warned dangerously, "if you say that he's going to be fine again, I will find a way to blow you to Tahiti!"
Paige looked defiantly at her eldest sibling, hands on her hips with her dark eyes flashing. Leo sunk down lower in his chair. From the doorway, Phoebe observed Wyatt wringing a napkin in his hands as the muscles in his jaw tightened. The young man's exhaustion hit her like an unstoppable wave, as did the other tense emotions, the utter sense of loss and softly simmering fury.
"Chris is a fighter, Piper. He's going to be--"
"Don't say it."
"--fine," Paige finished defiantly.
Piper's hands tightened into fists at her side and every glass on the table shattered in the same instant, including the pitcher of orange juice. Everyone at the table jumped and Wyatt leapt to his feet. The six-foot-one Witchlighter opened his mouth to join his mother in the argument but was cut off by Phoebe sticking two of her fingers into her mouth and giving a shrill whistle.
All heads in the room turned towards the woman standing in the doorway with her husband and daughters stepping up behind her. Piper slowly lowered her hands that she had raised to blast Paige next. Phoebe pointed at first her elder sister then her younger, "You and you, separate corners. Now." She pointed at Wyatt, "You. Sit."
Piper stared incredulously at Phoebe, then with a growl stormed out of the dining room at into the kitchen. Paige crossed her arms over her chest, narrowed her eyes at Phoebe and brushed past her to another part of the house. Phoebe wasn't sure which of them to go to first, but she patiently rubbed her hands against her temples and closed her eyes in order to get her empathetic powers under control again before she would face either of them.
Henry looked at the shattered remains of the glasses on the table, including his own that had burst in his hand. Thankfully it hadn't cut him. Then wordlessly got up to follow after his wife, motioning for their children to stay put. Leo got up and begin to attempt cleaning the mess in mechanical motions that spoke volumes of a man looking for something to do to keep himself busy.
Piper. Phoebe decided. She was the one that needed her more. Not only did Paige have Henry to cool her down, but Piper was the one whose child was hurt. "Girls, will you help Coop and your Uncle Leo clean up this mess? Junior, why don't you and Wyatt go outside and get some fresh air?"
"I don't want to get fresh air, Aunt Phoebe," Wyatt said hollowly, "I want to go see my brother. Besides, I thought you told me to sit."
Phoebe raised an eyebrow at him, hands still rubbing her temples. With a harassed sounding sigh, the seventeen year old stood up. Wyatt threw the wadded up napkin on his barely touched plate and stormed out the back with Henry Jr. scrambling to follow him. Phoebe watched Wyatt with a moment of sympathy as the muscular blonde departed.
Bracing herself for battle, Phoebe turned away from the scene of the clean up to head towards the kitchen in order to face the boy's mother. The moment she stepped into the kitchen she was greeted with defensiveness.
"Are you going to tell me I need to relax too?"
"No," Phoebe answered. Piper turned and looked at her skeptically. Phoebe didn't need to be an empath to read her sister's face and know what was going on inside her head. "I think you have every right in the world to be as upset and worried as you are."
"I'm not upset," Piper snapped.
"Is that why everything on the breakfast table tastes like orange juice now?" Phoebe asked softly. She moved closer to Piper, but didn't touch her even if she did want to wrap her big sister into a soothing embrace. She would let Piper make that move when she was ready to.
Piper scowled and crossed the kitchen to open the refrigerator and root around inside of it, leaving her back turned to Phoebe. "I suppose you're going to tell me that Chris is going to be fine too then."
"No, I'm not going to do that either Piper," Phoebe said softly.
Phoebe could see Piper's shoulders were shaking slightly as she moved items around, silhouetted by the light from the refrigerator. So when Piper spoke again with her voice breaking, Phoebe expected it. "He… he looked so helpless Phoebe… all those tubes, the cast, the bandages… and he was all alone last night… all I could think of all night was that he might wake up and we wouldn't be there… and this morning…" Piper's voice continued to waver even as she stood and braced herself against the kitchen appliance. Her head dipped forward, and Phoebe had to strain to hear her, "…I kept waiting for him to come down and help me fix the food like he always does… and then Paige… I'm so scared for him… and Wyatt…"
Phoebe took a step closer and was surprised to find Piper turning and latching her arms around her neck. Phoebe didn't say anything, she just wrapped her arms around Piper in return, running her fingers soothingly through her big sister's hair and let her get it out. Her other hand ran calming circles on Piper's back.
A few heartbeats later, Paige cautiously entered into the room. Phoebe nodded to her. The youngest looked much calmer, apologetic, and there were tears shining in her eyes as well as she moved to join the pair of them. She wrapped her arms around both Phoebe and Piper, turning it into a three-way embrace.
"…I'm sorry…" she whispered regretfully, "…it's just the way I cope…"
"I know," Piper's tearful voice responded, "I'm sorry too."
The comforting exchange of embraces continued until all three of them seemed ready to release them. Phoebe stepped back and wiped Piper's cheeks with her thumb, then hugged her again before wiping her own watery eyes. "Now that we're all sorry… I think one of you needs to go have a word with Wyatt while the other one starts rounding everyone up. I sent him outside with Henry Jr."
Piper looked at Phoebe, "I'll get Wyatt, but what are you going to do?"
"Call Dad," she answered, "With everything that happened last night… not one of us thought to do it. He's going to be upset that we didn't call him right away, but hopefully he'll understand."
"I'm sure he'll want to meet us at the hospital," Paige said. Piper nodded and left the room after pulling herself together to talk to her eldest child. Paige looked at Phoebe, and then shrugged her shoulders; "I guess this leaves me to be Mother Hen with the rest of the troops."
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"So, tell me again why no one thought to pick up a phone and call me last night when my second oldest grandchild was taken to the Emergency room?" Victor Bennet asked from his seat in the I.C.U. Waiting Room. The small room was predominantly filled with members of the Halliwell family, only two of whom were unaccounted for because they were back with Chris. Piper and Wyatt had gone back together to see Chris first.
Victor's other grandchildren were all in the room. Pandora was busying herself with coloring in a coloring book. Patti and Parvati were playing a game of "Go Fish" with Henry Jr. and Penny. Melinda sat reading a book, or at least she was pretending to read a book. Victor hadn't seen her turn a page in at least thirty minutes.
The other three occupants of the Waiting Room were members of another patient's visiting family. Apparently none of them spoke any English. They had smiled the strained smiles when the Halliwells had all entered and taken various positions in the common, wordless language of worried family. Leo had said something to them in Korean, but after that the two families hadn't spoken a word to each other. The Korean folks could probably sense the tension among the Halliwell brood and decided to leave well enough alone.
"It's not that we didn't want to call you," Phoebe started to say.
Pandora held her picture up to her Grandfather proudly, a blue and green cat with a yellow nose. Victor nodded at her and smiles, "That's very nice, Dora." Satisfied, the girl sat back down and resumed her coloring, finding a new page. Victor returned his focus to the girl's mother. Phoebe was his youngest daughter, but he had since adopted Paige into his family too as if she were his own child rather than the result of an affair his wife had with her Whitelighter. That was a can of worms the man had finally buried after all these years.
Keeping news of his grandchildren's health, however, was a whole new matter. Especially Chris. He loved that kid. Grandfathers aren't supposed to have favorites, and Victor tried very hard to give equal love and attention to each of them. It was just that Chris had some special place in his heart. So, having found out as though in an afterthought of 'Oh, yeah, we should call Dad' that his favorite grandson was in Intensive Care had been extremely frustrating.
Phoebe was rubbing her temples again, "For Heaven's sake Dad. Quit taking it personally. Give us a break, we were just a little preoccupied worrying about Chris..."
"You thought to call that brainless babysitter you always have watch my grandchildren… when I am perfectly capable I might add… but you didn't think to call me," Victor pointed out.
"She is not brainless. If you had been at the game in the first pl--" Phoebe began to counter.
"My meeting at the office ran later than I expected. When it was over, I just went home to get some sleep completely oblivious that anything was wrong with my family because someone didn't pick up the pho--"
"You and your meetings. That's why I always call Billie to watch the kids before I call y--"
"Don't give me that crap. I've been home plenty of times when you've called her over me. It's because you don't think that I can protec--"
"I don't. Not since what happened the last time when you--"
A shrill whistle cut through the arguing between father and daughter. Piper stood in the doorway to the Waiting Room. One hand was resting on her hip, the other poised at her mouth.
Henry leaned over to whisper to Coop. Even though Henry's voice was quiet, Victor still caught the comment in the silence that Piper's whistle had created. "Is it just me or does everyone in this family need a permanent mediator?"
Victor saw Coop's head bob almost imperceptibly out of the corner of his eyes. It was a movement in agreement to what Henry had said. Victor couldn't quite make out what the Cupid told the mortal in response, but it was something to the effect of that mediator being the reason they were all in the hospital right now.
"Dad," Piper said, "I thought you might want to go back and see him now. Wyatt's still in there."
Victor and Phoebe both looked properly ashamed for having been caught arguing and he realized he was a lot more worried about Chris than he had initially thought. He hadn't even seen the kid yet and he was a wreck. Smiling sheepishly to his now snickering grandchildren and to his eldest living daughter, Victor stood up to go visit with Chris.
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"…Jake and the guys called and left a message last night," Wyatt said, "They won, so you don't have to be mad at me when you wake up for ditching the game and riding in the ambulance with you."
The consistent beeps of the heart rate monitor and the slow, mechanically rhythmic sounds of assisted breathing were the only response Wyatt received from his otherwise motionless little brother. Wyatt had a chair scooted up to the side of the bed so that he could hold Chris's hand in his and watch his little brother's face. There was a bit of subtle bruising showing along the right side of it now. The bandage that wound around the dark-haired teen's head mostly covered it. Their mother had just left to go let someone else in their family come back to visit Chris, understanding that Wyatt didn't want to leave him. She just knew. Mothers always knew those sorts of things.
"It was way too quiet last night without your snoring to wake me up," the elder witch continued. He was disappointed when Chris didn't open his eyes to glare at him and say that he wasn't the brother with nighttime sinus issues. "Of course, for that to have happened, I would've had to have gone to sleep in the first place. I refuse to sleep until you wake up, bro. I have to know you're going to be okay."
For just a fraction of a second Wyatt could have sworn he felt a very faint tickle of an annoyed consciousness stirring in the back of his mind. He sat up straighter looking hopefully at Chris. Whatever it was, it was gone just as quickly and Wyatt sagged back into his chair, deflated. Only the same blank nothingness, the beeps at regular intervals, the sound of the ventilator and Chris lying there so vulnerable.
"You missed breakfast this morning," Wyatt said, attempting to continue the one-sided conversation, "Mom and Aunt Paige got into another fight and Mom blew up the glasses. Yeah, that set that we gave her for Mother's Day last year… the pitcher too. Should've seen it, orange juice went everywhere. It was classic."
Wyatt was drawn from his monologue by the presence of a hand resting on his shoulder and he lifted his stormy blue eyes to look up at his grandfather. "Well, at least I know the two of you got it honest," Victor said, "How is he?"
"The same," Wyatt replied to his grandfather.
Victor sat down in the chair that Piper had vacated just a short time ago, observing Chris just as Wyatt was doing. "I'm sorry I didn't make it to the game last night. I know it was a big one being Homecoming and all…"
"Don't worry about it. It's the first game you've missed since I was what? Ten?" Wyatt said, "I think I can forgive you and you know Chris will. Hey, bro, Grandpa's here. Said he's sorry for missing the game. Should I just tell him there was only half of it worth watching anyway?"
Victor patted Wyatt's shoulder, "Yeah, I only like watching sports if its my grandkids are involved." That was a good way of stretching the truth, Wyatt knew, since he, Chris and their grandfather had watched plenty of sports on television over the years. There was also that one time they had orbed to watch the Superbowl in person, until Paige had seen the three of them on TV. Henry had been watching the game at home and she'd spotted them, then had showed up and spoiled their fun. Piper still didn't know about that one.
"Involved," Wyatt said with a knowing smirk, "not necessarily playing."
"That's what I said isn't it?" Victor said, "You two seemed to be having a good conversation before I came in. Don't let me interrupt it."
Wyatt nodded, giving Victor a weak, but grateful smile. He rubbed his thumb over Chris's limp fingers and picked up the one-sided dialogue with his oblivious brother right where he'd left off. "Jessica's going to slug you for standing her up after she actually went out and bought a dress for the dance tonight," Wyatt said, "I think Caitlin actually had her looking forward to a double date." Wyatt actually waited a heartbeat to hear Chris's triumphant voice saying: Hah! So, you admit it! It is a date! When it didn't come he responded to it anyway, "Not that it's a date date, since Cait and I are just friends…" and so he carried on with his grandfather occasionally contributing to the conversation as if Chris were actually participating in it.
Wyatt wasn't sure how much time had passed before his mother finally returned, but each member of the family - with the exception of those under the age of thirteen as per ICU rules - had taken turns coming to sit in the other chair beside Chris's bed. Wyatt hadn't left his brother's side and he didn't intend to unless someone made him.
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Piper frowned up at the clock on the wall over Chris's bed and did the same when her watch confirmed the time that it said. She had said very little since returning to Chris's room and rejoining Wyatt's vigilant watch over his younger sibling. Wyatt had been carrying on a conversation with Chris when she'd walked in and if she hadn't been warned ahead of time by the rest of her family it would have gotten her hopes up that Chris was awake to have heard Wyatt talking to him like he was.
She hadn't stopped him though. Piper had always heard that if someone was unconscious or in a coma they might be able to hear your talking to them. She had decided when she came back again she was going to bring a book with her to read to her son aloud. Not that Wyatt wasn't doing a fine job of keeping up a steady string of words about the boys friends at school and teachers that Chris should avoid, Piper just knew her oldest would get tired eventually.
A light rapping of knuckles came on the door far too soon and Piper sighed when she turned to see the nurse standing there.
"I'm sorry, five minute warning," The young woman said, "We have to ask you to leave from noon until two, to give the patients a chance to rest, for shift changes, and the doctor's afternoon rounds. There'll be a new shift here when you get back, I'll make sure to fill them in on everything." She nodded to Wyatt and Piper, and then repeated, "Five minutes," before ducking out into the next room.
Wyatt looked crestfallen that he had to leave and Piper couldn't blame him. She didn't want to leave her baby either. "We'll be back," she promised both of her sons. Seeing the crushed look on Wyatt's face and seeing her youngest son in the hospital bed was breaking her heart into millions of irreparable pieces.
"I don't want to leave," Wyatt said, his blue eyes shining with desperation, "I know I sensed something from him... Don't make me leave. I want to be here in case he wakes up."
"Sweetie," Piper said gently when she saw Wyatt lock his jaw defiantly, "I want to be beside him in case he wakes up just as much as you do. It's killing me to leave him in here like this, but the doctors are keeping him sedated. Chances are he's not going to wake up while we're gone." That broke her heart too. "I know how much you want to sense something from him that he will… and he will, but not yet." She hoped her words sounded more believable to him than they did to her.
Piper's sweet, strong, tender-hearted, brave son's conquered expression reminded her just how much Wyatt was still her little cherub-faced boy. He might tower over her in height now and he was months away from his eighteenth birthday, but he was still her little baby and he always would be. It was times like these that she really noticed it. Just like seeing Chris, who fought so hard for independence, like this reminded her of how much she wanted to protect them both.
The nurse walked past the room again and looked in, but she said nothing to hurry them out and for that Piper was grateful.
The dark-haired woman, who had more gray hairs thanks to her two sons, moved to adjust the blanket over Chris. Wyatt stood up, reluctantly letting his brother's hand go. Piper bent to give Chris a kiss, "We'll be back, Peanut."
"You know, he hates it when you call him that," Wyatt said, as his mother started towards the door. The older boy caught his lower lip between his teeth and looked down at Chris one last time before he followed Piper.
"That's news to me," Piper said.
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Author's Note: Now… you've read my next installment. Click that little button down there and give me a review to brighten my day and make me feel better. I need the motivation and the support. Really. Honestly. Click the button. I know some of you are dying to growl at me for not including a Chris P.O.V. in this chapter! There will be in the next one… I promise… plus Flashbacks!