Disclaimer: You know, nothing has changed since the first chapter was written. I still don't own Charmed or the Halliwell brothers. It's so very sad.
Author's Note: This is it guys! Thank you so much to everyone who has read and reviewed! This is the last official chapter. I'll finish up with a short epilogue after this, so technically there is one more chapter to go after reading this one, but this is the end to the story. I hope that you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed working on it. Jennifer, I know you've been eagerly waiting for this one and to find out how the title ties in with the story... as have many others, well, here you go...
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Piper Halliwell was bent over the hospital bed of her youngest son, tears streaming down her face. Her hand was trembling as she touched his cheek. Leo stood behind her frozen in place just as all of the other mortals in the room were, Piper hadn't thought to exclude him from the freeze that had stopped everything on the third floor of the hospital. All she had thought was stopping her youngest son from dying.
The doctor was leaned over the other side of the bed, his hand poised and his mouth opened where he had just finished telling Piper and Leo that chances were, Chris's heart was going to give out soon. He was going to die. He is NOT going to die, Piper thought hotly.
"PAIGE! WYATT!" the woman yelled loudly. It wasn't the first time she had screamed for them. The rules be damned. She wasn't going to let her baby lay here and die when something could be done about it. The Cleaners, the Elders, they could all go to rot for all Piper cared. They could strip her of her powers, do whatever the hell they wanted to, but she would not let them take her baby from her. "DAMNIT PAIGE I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!"
Piper brushed some of Chris's hair away from his forehead and the bandage that wrapped around his head. "Hang on baby, please hang on, your brother and Aunt are coming, they're going to make it all better," Piper said in a breaking voice, "Please just hold on a little longer for Mommy. I can't lose you peanut, I can't."
Piper touched a hand to his bare chest, ignoring all the wires and sensors that were there sending the readings to the monitor. His heart was racing against his bruised chest. His breathing was so painfully rapid. "PAIGE!! WYATT!!!" Piper cursed again. The seconds continued to tick by. Someone was going to notice that there was no activity from the third floor or the ICU. That no one was answering the phones. Time and fate were working against her, but Piper refused to let her son die. She looked towards the ceiling and screamed for her sister again, and then turned to shouting at the Elders, "I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU TAKE HIM FROM ME!"
She turned behind her and waved a hand at Leo. He staggered forward a step as he unfroze, then looked around at the halted animation of everyone else in the room. "Piper!"
"He's going to die Leo! I won't let our son die!" Piper said, touching Chris's face again. "WYATT! Come help your brother! PAIGE, DAMNIT PAIGE!"
"Someone is going to notice, Piper," Leo said, coming up behind her. He was just as desperate to keep his son alive. He had already lost Chris once. A different Chris, but it was still his son, and he did not want to have to do it again. He had to think of the other concerns though. The exposure of magic had been what had nearly cost him Piper so many years ago and it had cost them Piper's older sister Prue. Magic exposure had nearly cost them their lives a number of times, and when Wyatt had been a baby, the Cleaners had tried to erase him.
"Why aren't they coming? I've been screaming for them and they aren't coming Leo!" Piper screeched, "PAIGE!"
"How long has the floor been frozen?" Leo asked.
Piper ground her teeth together, tears rolling down her cheeks in a war of sadness, desperation and anger. "Just a few minutes."
"Piper..." Leo said, looking worriedly towards the door. Someone was bound to notice.
"What?" the woman snapped at him, "I don't give a damn Leo! Chris is dying! The doctors can't do anything for him! You heard him Leo! He said that the only thing we could do was sit here and wait because nothing they had tried was bringing his heart rate down! PAIGE! WYATT! Damnit Leo, I can't believe Wyatt is abandoning his brother to die! PAIGE!"
The jingling chime of someone orbing in was music to Piper's ears. She turned and grabbed her sister before Paige had finished solidifying and thrust her still pajama clad self at Chris's bed. "Heal him!" Piper commanded.
Paige staggered forwards and sucked in a breath. She had turned the 'mute' off once Wyatt had fallen asleep and had been assaulted by her sister's angry cries of desperation. Paige bit her lower lip when she saw the panicked breaths coming from her nephew and when she held her hands over him she could tell how fast his heart was racing. Wyatt's words about Chris being killed by his nightmares stung Paige when she saw it happening before her eyes. She had been there when the other Chris had died and this scared her because of how similar this felt. Paige held her hands over Chris and waited, but no golden glow came.
"It's psychological, Piper," Paige said quietly, waiting for something to explode in the nearby vicinity, "Even if the Elders decided to let my powers work so that I could heal his injuries from the football game, they wouldn't help what's kill him now."
"NO!" Piper said, refusing to believe it, "Where's Wyatt? WYATT! He can try... get out of the way Paige... WYATT!"
Paige backed up, letting her sister back to her son's side. Leo rested a hand on Piper's arm, looking broken and defeated. Paige shook her head, "Wyatt's at the Manor. That's where I was before I came here, he put you on 'mute' and... he's asleep Piper, he's not coming."
Piper turned to stare at her sister, but she was back to brushing her hands against Chris's face, trying to speak soothingly to him. Trying to calm him down, wishing she could get his heart rate to slow to normal. Paige wrapped her arms around herself. Wyatt had to help Chris stop the Daughter of Nightmares. Paige didn't dare say something to Piper about the demon or that she believed Wyatt might be right. Not with Chris lying there dying and Piper hysterical over it. Paige in her pajamas looked out of place in the hospital room. But the fact that she, her sister, and her brother-in-law were the only ones still moving and talking on the entire floor was just as out of place.
Paige turned her head sharply towards the wall when she heard something of an explosion from next door. Piper stood up and looked, as did Leo, towards the next room. A hissing sound and then the sounds of many small objects raining down on the floor followed the explosion. All three of them were as motionless as the frozen doctors and nurses.
"Piper, you need to unfreeze the floor," Leo said softly, when the heard the phones out at the nurses station ringing again, "It's been too long."
"Not before we know what that was. Paige," Piper started to ask her to go see what had happened next door, but the younger Charmed One was already walking out the door in her slippered feet.
Paige stuck her head back into Chris's room, "I don't know Piper, there's just a girl lying in the bed in there. I didn't see anything that we should be worried about."
Chris groaned softly in the bed and Piper looked down at him, then up at her sister. "Leo's right, I can't keep the floor frozen any longer..."
"I'm sorry I couldn't heal him Piper, I tried..."
"I know. Go, Paige," Piper said, watching her sister disappeared in a cloud of orbs.
Once Paige was out of sight, Leo moved back into position and Piper closed her still tear-filled eyes and waved her hands. The floor unfroze as if nothing at all had happened in the intervening space of time. One of the nurses out at the nurses' station answered the phone.
"--terribly sorry Ms. Halliwell, Mr. Wyatt, there's nothing else that we can do," the doctor finished the sentence that Piper had halted him in the middle of. Dr. Hathaway's brow creased, however and he lifted his eyes to look up at Chris's heart rate monitor. "Huh."
"Huh? What do you mean 'huh'?" Piper asked, following the doctor's line of sight. She didn't know what he was 'huh'-ing about. She saw when she looked; Chris's heart rate was dropping. It wasn't the sudden stop that the doctor had told them to be expecting that would signal that it had given out. It was just slowly and steadily descending back to a normal rate.
The doctor stood up and scratched his head in confusion. He picked up Chris's chart and shook his head, consulting with one of the nurses, trying to explain what had just happened. Piper grabbed Leo's hand, confused as well, but her relief outweighed that by leaps and bounds.
A soft cough sent misting breath against the mask over Chris's face and Piper dropped down next to him, resting a hand on his forehead. The fifteen-year-old's eyelids fluttered, squeezed tight in pain, and then drifted open. Piper was so relieved that her legs almost gave out. Leo wrapped an arm around her and looked down at his son, tears pricking his eyes yet again.
"...wyatt..." Chris croaked weakly.
Chris's mother brushed her hand over his face, "Hey baby..."
"...mom? ...w...where's wyatt...?"
"Wyatt is at the house baby, he didn't come with us," Piper said, "We were so scared... how do you feel?"
"...mom, wy... where's wy...?" Chris repeated in weak tones. He was tired, as exhausted as if he had actually been fighting a battle - which he had, like he'd been running a marathon - which had a lot to do with how long his heart had been racing, and he was emotionally drained beyond words from what he'd experienced. And he hurt. His arm and right side were throbbing, his leg ached, and his head had a slow dull pounding. Chris just wanted his brother. He wanted to actually see Wyatt, awake, safe, moving around. He needed his big brother.
The doctor was leaning over him now, and Chris looked up at the man in tired confusion.
"Hey there son," Dr. Hathaway said, checking him out, "You're a very lucky young man. I don't know how, but you must have a guardian angel looking out for you somewhere."
The doctor shined a pen light into his eyes and Chris squinted, wondering if that had really been necessary. The doctor stood up and looked to Piper and Leo, "For a wonder, he seems to be okay. Heart rate is returning to normal, he's responsive, awake. I would like to run some tests though. A few things to make sure that the extended time his heart was under stress didn't cause any permanent damage and I'd like to run a CAT scan."
Piper was brushing her fingers over Chris's face, fussing over him, but she was nodding to the doctor, agreeing to whatever was going to ensure her that her son was going to be okay. Chris didn't care what kinds of tests the doctor wanted to run; he just wanted to see Wyatt. Sure it was frustrating as always to be talked about by the doctor like he wasn't sitting there listening.
"Dr. Hathaway?" a nurse said from the door.
The man looked up from writing down the tests that he was ordering on the clipboard, "Uh huh?"
"The O'Bruadair girl just woke up in the room next door..."
The doctor passed the clipboard off to a nurse and started out of the room, "Sounds like somebody's guardian angel is getting a work out tonight..."
"...wyatt," Chris confirmed softly, with a weak smile behind the oxygen mask.
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Wyatt jerked awake, sitting upright on the couch in the Manor's attic and looking around. The potion vial was no longer in his hand. How Chris had gotten it, as beyond explanation to Wyatt, but he didn't care. It was magic. So many things in magic weren't easily explainable. His Aunt Paige was gone, but he would have to thank her for her help. He'd helped Chris. True, Wyatt hadn't exactly done much of anything. He had wanted to blast that woman into bits for making Chris believe that he was dead and for hurting his brother and couldn't. But he had been there when Chris needed him, no thanks to his parents. The thought of his parents sent a pulse of anger through the young man, but he shook it off. He had to get to Chris.
Wyatt swung his legs over the side of the couch and got up. He ran down the stairs to grab a pair of sneakers from his room and put them on without bothering to put on socks with them, tucking the laces inside so that he didn't have to tie them either. ...wyatt... it was weak, but it was definitely Chris. Chris was okay! Wyatt could have flown.
He did the next best thing; he orbed himself into an empty stall in the hospital bathroom, after making sure that no one else was in the bathroom. Wyatt raced down the halls towards the ICU and his little brother's room. The doctor and several nurses were stepping out, the doctor shaking his head and talking back and forth with the nurses as they walked into the room next to Chris's. Wyatt barely spared them a glance.
Wyatt slid into Chris's room, to see his parents sitting around Chris's bed. And Chris... Chris was awake. "Chris!" Wyatt exclaimed.
"...wy..." Chris said in barely audible relief.
"Hey little brother, you had me worried there for a while," the blonde said, feeling the near overwhelming sense of relief at seeing Chris lying there awake. It was a reciprocated feeling. Wyatt didn't even acknowledge his parent's presence in the room.
"Wy?"
Wyatt came over towards the bed, "Yeah?"
"Thanks."
Wyatt actually laughed quietly through tears that he found returning to his eyes. He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over his brother to give him a gentle hug. "...you're welcome, bro. Not that I feel like I did much."
"...you did enough," Chris's voice was still weak and tired sounding, "Thanks for backing me up."
"Thanks? You're welcome?" Piper asked, looking between the two, "Wyatt, I was calling for you, you didn't answer. What is going on? Chris was dying, Wyatt and you ignored us. Paige said you put me on mute!"
Wyatt looked at his mother, his jaw tightening a bit, "Yeah. Chris was dying. And I was doing something about it." Wyatt looked down at Chris when he felt his little brother squeeze his hand. "You didn't listen to me and Chris almost died. There was a demon and you didn't believe me. Aunt Paige helped me make the vanquishing potion."
Piper blinked, looking from the accusing expression in her eldest son's face, then to her youngest son for confirmation. She was glad that she was standing in front of a chair, because she sat down in it hard as the weight of guilt slammed upon her shoulders. Leo felt like he had just been slapped in the face and the man's mouth opened and closed.
"Chris?" Piper asked.
"It's a long story," Chris said quietly. And one that he really didn't want to go into with his parents. Wyatt could see the pained look flashing in his little brother's eyes and the older witch wished there was something he could do to erase everything Chris had experienced in his nightmares from his memory. Chris continued, softly, "...but... Wy helped me vanquish a demon... in the World of Dreams... Domha... I can't pronounce it... Alwynne..."
Chris looked up at Wyatt, remembering, "Alwynne... is... is she okay?"
Piper and Leo exchanged guilty looks, and then Leo asked, "Who's Alwynne?"
"The innocent," Chris said, trying to move to sit up in the bed, but he grimaced in pain and lay still again.
"Chris was protecting her from Lillith," Wyatt said, getting up, "She's probably here in the hospital too. I'll go check on her Chris. Don't worry I..."
Chris held tight to Wyatt's hand, "...don't... I... don't leave me..."
Wyatt sat back down on the edge of the bed, "I'm not going to Chris."
"Wait, wait... this was a demon?" Piper asked, the reality was finally sinking in. Placing a hand to her chest, she was clearly distraught by the news. How bad she had felt for yelling at Wyatt earlier was nothing compared to how much like dirt she felt right now. Piper's tears started immediately rolling down her cheeks. Wyatt had been telling the truth and she had just ignored him. She'd passed it off as... God she felt horrible.
Wyatt's jaw tightened again and if not for Chris speaking, he might have said something to his parents that he would have regretted. He would have snapped at his mother and made her feel even worse than she already was. Chris intervened though.
"Dad always says that everything happens for a reason," Chris said softly.
"I am so sorry that we didn't believe you, Wyatt..." Leo started.
Wyatt didn't give Chris a chance to cut him off this time, not with Leo. "You'd think my own parents would believe me." Wyatt shook his head and sneered at his father, "'I'm sorry' doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me right now. I needed you... no, Chris needed you and would you listen to me? No. You would have rather sat by and watched Chris die than believe me."
"Wyatt," Leo started.
Wyatt cut him off, blue eyes narrowing, "Save it for someone who cares. My brother is alive, no thanks to you."
"Wy..." Chris said quietly, trying to play family peacekeeper.
"No, Chris," Wyatt said, "You asked me for help and I tried. Then they treated me like I was losing my mind. There is nothing more important to me than Chris and you nearly killed him!"
"That's not fair Wyatt, we didn't know," Leo countered. The former whitelighter rested a hand on his wife's shoulder as she started crying even harder.
"If you would have stopped screaming at me for one minute and talked to me, I could have shown you. It was in The Book. Did you stop? No. My baby brother's life is on the line and do I get a moment of your time? No, I get 'Go to your room and go to sleep you have school tomorrow'," Wyatt said bitterly.
Chris flinched and looked at his parents to see if that was true. That had been cruel. They had ignored Wyatt's plea for help? He found it hard to believe their mom would send Wyatt to school. She couldn't have meant that if it had been said.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Piper cried, covering her face with her hands. Leo rubbed Piper's back.
"If you think for a second that I'm gonna forgive you for nearly killing my baby brother, you don't know me at all," Wyatt said a bit coldly. He knew he needed to leave the room for a moment and get away from his parents before he said something that would be even more hurtful. He squeezed Chris's hand, "I'm gonna go check on your innocent. I'll be right back, I promise."
Chris squeezed his hand back; Chris didn't want him to go. He'd feel that insecurity and anxiety creep back the second Wyatt was out the door, but knowing his brother as he did, Chris knew Wyatt needed to step out right then. Chris watched Wyatt slip out the door and turned to look at his crying mother and guilty-faced father.
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The doctor and nurses had cleared out of the room next door, talking about how unusual it was that two patients had woken from their comas, the miracles, etc. Wyatt knew just how miraculous it was, but he was sure that the mortals would come up with some logical way to explain it. He was fairly certain that his little brother's neighbor was the girl that had been in the Dreamworld with him. The woman that Wyatt had seen, Lillith, had been in that room yesterday. He knew it was her. When he had seen her again in the Dreamworld he had recognized her and the chill that her icy stare brought. Which meant the likelihood was, that Alwynne was the patient in that room. It was confirmed when Wyatt saw the name A. O'Bruadair written beside the door.
The blonde witch lifted his hand to rap his knuckles gently on the door and stepped inside. Alwynne was sitting up in her bed. She looked a little younger, was thinner and paler than Wyatt had seen her in the Dream, but he recognized her when she looked towards the door. One of her legs was propped up with a bandage wound around the knee and the left side of her face had yellowing bruises that spoke of her own healing head injury. Wyatt left his emotional baggage for his parents at the door.
"Wyatt... right?" she asked in a quietly lilting voice.
"Yeah," he said, stepping the rest of the way into the room, "Alwynne?"
"That's me," the red-head replied, "How's Chris?"
"Being fussed over by my mother and father. He's going to be okay," Wyatt said, stopping by Alwynne's bed, "I don't know why, but I feel like I have you to thank for that."
Alwynne shook her head, "No. I was just the damsel in distress. I have him to thank for me being okay. And you."
"I just brought the vanquishing potion and the spell. I didn't even make the potion, my Aunt did," Wyatt said quietly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
"Modest heroes are the best kind," Alwynne said, with a smile. She gestured towards the chair by her bedside, inviting Wyatt to sit down.
"Chris wanted me to make sure you were okay..."
"I'm not being held prisoner in my own mind any more, I think that constitutes as being okay. I'm still in the hospital, but I'll take one small step at a time. I had a riding accident, my horse spooked... although, I found out when Lillith trapped me that it wasn't so much of an accident. The doctor just told me I've been in a coma for two weeks. It feels like years," Alwynne raised a hand to her head, "They said they were going to call my family to let them know I'm awake... there... there won't be anyone for them to call. Brianna's gone."
"Brianna?" Wyatt asked, reaching back to pull the chair closer to the bed so that he could sit down. It grated over something on the floor and the blonde witch glanced down.
"She was my big sister. My legal guardian," Alwynne responded somberly.
Wyatt frowned down at the floor, as he settled into the chair, "I wonder if the nurses noticed all these pebbles all over the floor here. I should mention it to them when I step out... it's not like they're small or anything. Someone could hurt themselves." He bent over, reaching to pick one up.
"Pebbles?" Alwynne shot upright, nearly falling out of her bed, "No! Don't touch them!"
Wyatt jerked his hand back from the round green stone he'd been about to pick up and looked at her. Alwynne was bent over the side of the bed, blue eyes wide and looking at the scattering of tiny stones underneath the chair.
"Why shouldn't I touch th--"
"Count them! How many? How many are there?" Alwynne asked. Wincing the girl tried to pull herself out of the bed.
Wyatt looked at her in confusion. He really didn't understand the significance a bunch of green and blue rocks scattered on the floor had. "I don't know, a dozen or so... that doesn't explain why I shouldn't pick one up."
"Thirteen. There should be thirteen stones. Please count them, but don't touch them. Do you have a container? A jar? A bag?" Alwynne asked, still trying to get out of the bed. Her injured leg wasn't cooperating with her, nor was her now swimming head.
Wyatt motioned for her to stay put. Her urgency was getting to him, even if he didn't understand it. He slid out of the chair and began counting the number of stones that lay scattered across the floor, "Twelve."
"There has to be another one," Alwynne breathed softly, her tired voice worried.
"Why shouldn't I touch the stones? And what do you want a container for?" Wyatt asked, now on his hands and knees on the hospital floor trying to find the thirteenth stone that she said should be there.
"Because your brother sealed her up again and I don't want you to free her! Trust me Wyatt. Don't touch the stones. My sister made that mistake. I didn't realize it until it was too late. I saw what happened when your brother thought he lost you. I don't want it to happen for real. We need to contain the stones again so that no one can touch them," Alwynne explained.
Wyatt could understand that. He moistened his lips and bent to look under the bed. There, the last one was under the bed and against the wall. "...thirteen. I don't know what to put them in though..."
Alwynne breathed a sigh of relief that there were indeed thirteen stones and one hadn't somehow managed to leave the room. She sank back against her pillow. The girl sat up again and smiled at Wyatt, "I do. Pillowcase. It will work for now. Just so no one touches them with their bare hands. Brianna must have. I don't know why she would have, she was raised knowing the dangers and knowing the story of the Daughter of Nightmares just as I was."
Wyatt stood up and Alwynne helped him get the pillowcase off. The Twice Blessed Witch returned to his hands and knees on the floor. Alwynne leaned over the bed watching him as he collected the stones using the pillowcase and making sure that he didn't actually touch one. "I read some of that in our Book of Shadows. The O'Bruadair family..."
"One of my ancestors trapped Lillith a little over three hundred years ago," Alwynne continued, "I come from a long history of Dreamwalkers. My older sister was one, my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmother... I think I'm the first girl in the family to be born without the power to walk the dream on my own. It's a rare power, but every generation of our family has been able to do it, to be trained by the previous generation with the weight of our magical obligation. Brianna was supposed to be this generation's Dreamkeeper. It's been our family's duty to keep Domhan'al'taibhream safe. When Lillith was trapped in the stones, it also became our duty to guard them. My mother died a year ago, so I came to America to live with my big sister Brianna. My mother left the bag of stones with me, to pass the duty on to Brianna. I should have known something was wrong months ago when my sister started acting differently. If I had suspected something... maybe Bri..."
Alwynne stopped her recounting of her family's history, looking away. Wyatt glanced up at her, but didn't say anything for a long moment. Instead he bent under the bed again and made a small motion with his hand to bring the last stone closer with his telekinesis. He scooped that one into the bag as well and stood up, spinning the pillowcase in a circle, "So... what you're saying is... Lillith possessed your sister."
Alwynne lowered her eyes, "Yes."
Wyatt sat down in the chair, holding the pillowcase full of stones. It wasn't any more than a handful. "I'm sorry..." Wyatt said softly.
"And I'm sorry for what she did to you and your brother," Alwynne whispered, "She wanted to keep me there in revenge for my family imprisoning her for so long. I was fortunate that Chris came to Domhan'al'taibhream. Even more fortunate that he was a Dreamwalker himself or we never would have survived Lillith's last attack. It was so cruel."
"Wait. Chris is a Dreamwalker?" Wyatt asked.
Alwynne smiled through the grieving tears for her sister. She had shed most of them while she was trapped in the Dream, knowing that her sister was lost, but it was quite a different thing to be awake and faced with the knowledge that it was true. Pushing them down, she answered Wyatt, "He is. Aye, and quite a powerful one. He must be a powerful, good and noble witch. Dreamwalkers must have a pure, loyal heart."
"He has his moments," Wyatt smirked, but then he frowned. "You said this power is rare?"
"Aye, the rarest of gifts. In the last three hundred years there've been maybe ten of the level that your brother showed recorded outside of my family... Lillith killed a weaker one while I was trapped. She hadn't even a novice's grasp of the ability. It is a difficult gift to learn to control and your brother did it quickly. Such a powerful witch," Alwynne breathed the last in quiet awe of Chris. Alwynne wiped her cheeks and added with another soft smile for Wyatt, "You should know that it is an honor to have a Dreamwalker in the family."
"I'll keep that in mind," Wyatt said. Alwynne thought Chris was such a powerful witch, Wyatt wondered if she had a clue what power he himself packed.
"Thank you Wyatt," Alwynne said, "and thank Chris for me?"
"I will," he agreed, "I'll come back and check on you later. I promised Chris I wouldn't be long."
"I'm glad you are alive Wyatt," the girl said.
"Me too," he admitted, handing her the bag of pebbles. She looked at it with sorrow-tinged eyes and Wyatt stepped out of the door.
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Chris looked up towards the door when Wyatt walked back in and the feeling of security came back. "Wy..." The brunette witch looked towards his parents, "C...can we have a minute?"
"Sure peanut." Piper kissed his forehead and noticed him wrinkling his nose. "You really hate that?"
"Uh, it was cute when I was little. Now it's a little embarrassing," Chris said.
"Oh," Piper looked hurt, but messed with Chris's blankets, "Your father and I will call everyone and tell them the good news. We'll be back in a little bit."
"Can you close the door?" Chris asked as Wyatt sat beside him.
"Sure. We'll be back buddy," Leo said, shutting the door behind him.
Chris's eyes were filling with tears the moment his parents were out of the room. Wyatt sat on the edge of the bed and took Chris's left hand in his. "I thought I lost you, Wy..." Chris said, "She... she made me re-live my fourteenth birthday..."
Some of the tears rolled over and fell down Chris's pale cheeks. Wyatt could feel his brother's panic starting to rise again through their empathic link. The older witch's stomach twisted though at the thought of Chris having to re-live that experience a second time. He'd seen the house, he'd gotten there just in time and they had all been lucky that the demons had forgotten about the basement. Wyatt reached over with the pad of his thumb to wipe one of the tears rolling down Chris's cheek away. "Shh..." he soothed.
"The second time I knew not to go into the dining room or the kitchen," Chris said in a quavering whisper as he recounted the experience, "But, but... I... I went into the living room and... and you were lying there... and I... I... she made me think you were dead and that..."
Wyatt gently bent to hug Chris, trying to be careful of his brother's injuries, "Hey, I'm fine... I'm fine Chris..."
"...she made me think you were dead..." Chris whispered again, the words painful, but there was comfort in having Wyatt right there. "...I thought... I thought you had come back... to help... and she..."
Wyatt held onto him as the words were muffled into his shirt. When Chris had finally stopped, and Wyatt knew he'd reached the point where he had shared all that he could for that moment, Wyatt pulled back from the hug. He wiped his younger brother's cheeks for him again. Cupping Chris's hand in both of his, Wyatt said, "She will never hurt you again. Alwynne will make sure of it."
"She's okay?" Chris asked, yet again proving his unfailing ability to put others first.
"Lost her sister," Wyatt admitted softly. He shared the look with Chris and also shared the pain of what that experience would be like. It was something that he didn't want to actually have to live through and one that he didn't want his little brother to have to either. "There was nothing we could do for her Chris. She was gone before you were hurt. We can't blame ourselves for that..."
Chris nodded, reluctantly accepting it. They couldn't save everyone, but he'd at least made a difference and Alwynne was safe. So instead of dwelling on what couldn't be changed, Chris decided to address the other issue, "You're really angry at mom and dad."
"Furious. They turned their backs on me. On us," Wyatt said, darting a look towards the door, "They weren't there Chris..."
"...but you were," Chris said.
"Yeah. I was," Wyatt said. He looked at his brother and made a promise, "I'll always be there for you Chris."
"I'll be there for you too," the younger boy said, "...just, don't be mad at mom and dad forever, Wy. They mess up too some times..."
"Yeah," Wyatt partially relented. His parents hadn't trusted him, hadn't believed him, and hadn't helped him. It was going to take time to get over this and the fact was, Wyatt doubted that he could ever really rely on his parents again completely. It was just going to take time. He gave Chris a soft smile, "I won't be mad at them forever."
"Good," Chris said, smiling weakly, "...cause, you know Mom's going to start saying how much of a horrible mother she is... and she's not... she's not a horrible mom, Wy."
"Even when she calls you peanut in front of your friends?" Wyatt asked, smiling in spite of himself.
"Well, that I could do without," Chris said, making a face, "But you don't think she's a horrible mom do you?"
Wyatt shook his head, "No, but this isn't going to go away overnight Chris. But enough about that... you've got to get well, so you can get out of this bed and get your arm back in shape. Jason said he wouldn't even complain about you having the QB position anymore."
"He did?" Chris asked skeptically, taking his brother's change of subject without complaint.
"Yeah. And the cheerleaders had some card for you. I left it at home, but I can bring it tomorrow..." Wyatt said, getting comfortable. He wasn't planning on going anywhere and frankly, it was just good to have his little brother back.
"Now you're just pulling my leg," Chris said.
"Nope, I swear," Wyatt remarked, "There was even perfume sprayed all over it."
"Liar," Chris said with a smile, leaning back against his pillow and feeling even more comfortable.
"Chris, when have you ever known me to be able to lie convincingly?" Wyatt asked.
Chris thought about it for a moment and then actually chuckled, misting up the inside of the mask over his nose, "I don't see your wisdom teeth, so maybe you are telling the truth."
"I am," Wyatt said, "and you know, you're gonna owe Jess an apology. She was actually looking forward to dressing up for our double date to the Homecoming Dance and you missed it."
"HAH! It was supposed to be a date, I knew it!" Chris said.
Wyatt grinned, "Well, maybe for you and Jess, but Cait and I are just friends..."
"Whatever... I was only going with Jess to chaperone you and to make sure you were a gentleman with Cait."
"Please. I'm always a gentleman... and there would've been nothing to chaperone between me and Cait. We're just friends."
Chris paused, then quietly said, "Hey... Wy...?"
"Yeah, bro?"
"You're gonna stay here the rest of the night, right?"
"'Course I am."
"...good, cause I don't think I want to sleep again for a long time," Chris said softly.
Wyatt shifted, making himself more comfortable on the edge of Chris's bed and smiled, "I'm not going anywhere, bro."
"So, how are you going to apologize to Cait for missing your date?" Chris asked with an impish look at his brother.
"It wasn't a date!" Wyatt exclaimed, but he was glad... very glad to have his little brother back.
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Author's Note: Ya'll know the drill... hit the button. Write me a review. Inspire me to continue spilling my words onto pages for you to read. A big thanks to Jennifer for helping me get over my "end of the story" writer's block. I couldn't have gotten this done without her help.