The sisters looked at the woman with the wounds with shock, although in Phoebe's case, it was delight. Whimpering with pain,the girlfell from Jonas' grip and fell to the cement floor. Her elbows and wrists took most of the fall. She rolled onto her back, and stared up at the lights for a moment, before sitting up, and finally standing.
She moved tenderly and slowly, and almost collapsed twice when trying to rise up. Chris and Jonas rushed over, followed by Bianca, but she waved off their help and managed to stand by herself. Once she had, although she stood weakly and painfully, her eyes portrayed strength and fearlessness, as well as stubbornness and dangerousness.
Both Jonas and Chris looked down at the floor, and Bianca rolled her eyes in disbelief.
All three were realizing that all their planning was falling apart, Jonas thought to himself. He was even seriously considering running around yelling 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling!' Everything depended on their secret being, well, secret. But Mel, with all the mental torment and losses she had suffered through the past days, had seen her mother and her inner child wanted comfort.
Jonas sighed with glum acceptance, as he watched his younger cousin sway a little, trying to remain on her feet. If his mom questioned him, he thought, he would spill. He had inherited his Aunt Phoebe's inability to keep quiet, whereas Mel had taken more after their Aunt Piper, and could keep something quiet…normally.
The three sisters, however, were stunned.
"You-you're my daughter?" Phoebe stuttered. She glanced at Chris. "She's my daughter?"
Chris, Jonas, and Bianca nodded grudgingly. Mel looked at the sisters with raw pride in her self. The way she held herself made it seem that she was used to a rough life.
But the pain and injuries seemed to be too much, and she collapsed in a dead faint on the floor.
"LEO!" Phoebe yelled, and blue orbs filtered into the room as the elder materialized, holding Wyatt.
"Heal," she demanded, and Leo looked down at the woman Phoebe know knelt down by.
He glanced at Piper, and she nodded. He leaned over to, after handing Wyatt of to his ex-wife, but stopped suddenly.
"I don't think doing that is a good idea," he said quietly. Phoebe looked at him with rage.
"She's my daughter, Leo." Phoebe said through her teeth with ire. "She called me Mom, and Chris and Jonas confirmed it."
"She's half-demon," he said, "The elders just jingled me a few minutes ago, telling methat a powerful force was coming, and that it was part demon. This is a ploy that Chris has obviously nefariously thought up to confuse you!" Leo looked sure of himself. He glared toward Chris and saw that both he and the other boy beside him were seething. Bianca looked like she was about to beat him until his limbs were separate from his body.
"Come on, Jonas," Chris said quietly, and shoved Leo to the floor. The two moved toward the fallen woman, and knelt down beside her. Together, they grasped each other's hand and placed them above Mel. Phoebe watched gratefully through tearstained eyes as she saw the yellow glow surround their hands and her daughter's body.
"You can heal?" Leo asked, flabbergasted. Chris had never shown signs of that particular talent.
"Only with me to help him out, jerk," Jonas shot at the elder, still concentrating on Mel. Leo looked puzzled.
"What, do all guys have issues with me in the future?" Leo asked sarcastically.
"Not just guys," a hoarse voice said from behind Jonas and Chris. The sisters ran over to Phoebe and the three from the future. Bianca followed.
Mel slowly sat up, and looked up at the sisters around her.
"Piper, we have a niece!" Paige squeaked with joy.
"What!" Mel said, panicky and them she remembered, "Oh, damn it." She rubbed her forehead with her palm. Jonas and Chris hoisted her up, and she looked around.
"Ooh! Let me hug you!" Phoebe embraced Mel, and swayed slightly. Chris and Jonas rolled their eyes, and were promptlyswatted by Bianca, who stood near them with a watchful eye. She loved sentimental moments, and this was clearly a major one.
"Uh, Mom," Mel gasped, "I kinda, you know, need air!" Phoebe sheepishly released her, and pulled back, studying her.
"So what is your full name?" Phoebe asked lightly. Please say last, please say last, she thought desperately. The half-demon thing threw her off, though. The only demon she would ever consider having a child with would be Cole, and he was, well, dead.
"Melody," she said, smirking. She knew exactly what her mother wanted, and would not give it to her. Mel smiled. "Unlike you, I can keep a secret."
Phoebe looked disappointed. But she would not be put off.
"So," Leo, trying to withdraw more information from the trio, turned to Jonas, "who are you?"
Jonas gulped. Oh drat.
"Umm," he stalled, "I'm just a guy, ya know, a…guy…"
"Who can heal…" Paige continued for him, gesturing with her hand for him to continue.
"Yeah, well…" He was trapped. Don't talk, don't talk, he thought to himself desperately.
"Chris, spell, stat!" he yelled toward his older cousin, and Chris rushed into an incantation he had long ago wrote and memorized, brought on byJonas' habit of spilling secrets.
Magics of sound, I usher here
Let not his words flow to any ear
Secret keeper, he is not
So let silence be no longer fought
Jonas breathed a sigh of release, and grinned impishly at the four suspicious people. Mel giggled slightly, and it sounded strange coming from a person dressed in billowing black.
"Muhahaha," Mel said quickly, trying to cover up her girlish giggle from before.
"We've had to use that one a lot," Bianca muttered, and could help but smile at the comically mute man making rude gestures at Leo, followed by an innocent raising of hands to his shoulders. Phoebe stifled a chuckle.
"Okay, bonus round," Piper ordered, "We're going back to the manner to figure this out."
Chris nodded slowly.
"Who needs magical transportation? We orbed her ourselves," Paige called out.
But all but the sisters had already orbed, shimmered, or in Jonas' case, left in purple glitter. Weird…
Back (or forward, it really depends) in the future, Wyatt was rapidly becoming enraged…
"You lost them?" he roared, and swung his arm around, sending a table crashing to the floor. The bubbling liquids spilled as the glass vials shattered, escaping onto the rocky floor with a thin red rug, and the lime-green one began to eat away the carpet, and the smell of burning fiber filled the cavernous lair.
"My Lord, it's not our fault…the assassin had a shield…the twerp was protecting her from the womb!"
The demon cowered, and although he was not a short person, he was dwarfed by Lord Wyatt's foreboding manner and powerful stance. He racked his brain for some information that could be used to save his skin.
"Melody and Jonas went to discuss plans with the leprechauns. They were not there!"
"Don't yell excuses at my face, you pathetic worm," and with an arrogant gesture, the demon was promptly blown up. Wyatt waved his arm and the table propped itself back up, and the vials and beakers were replaced instantaneously, as if there had been no spilling at all.
"The Leprechauns," he muttered, as he created a projection of a pleasant meadowland where the short men stood in a circle, their discussion muted, since the holograph contained not sound. "I had forgotten about you…"