Chapter One

There were many things that Wyatt Halliwell was proud of. Going to University and getting a degree in teaching was one. Being the most powerful witch in existence was another. He was not proud, however, to say that he was almost twenty eight and was living with his parents.

After becoming serious with his long-term girlfriend Alex, he had lived with her for close to five years, when he had decided to ask her to marry her. Apparently, she wasn't interested in getting married. So, after a messy break-up, he had moved back into the old family home.

Walking into the manor, he dropped his keys into the bowl on the kitchen table. "Anyone home?" He called.

"In the kitchen!" His mother called, and he smirked. Of course his mother would be in the

kitchen. Walking in, he saw his aunts sitting at the table, his mother in the kitchen, obviously cooking something delicious. The surprise was Darryl Morris sitting at the end of the table, engaged in a talk.

Wyatt hadn't seen the man in many years, the older of the two becoming more busy with work and making time for his family, and whenever the man seemed to have time to see them, Wyatt happened to be busy or needed for something.

"Darryl!" Wyatt greeted warmly. The Lieutenant stood, smiling at the blonde. Giving him a 'man-hug,' Darryl laughed softly.

"How've you been kid?" He asked, his tone was warm.

"Busy would be a good word to use." Wyatt said, sighing. "Because it's so close to the holidays, I've been flat-out. The joys of being a high-school teacher."

"You're not the only one who has been busy." Darryl commented. "Works been tiring for me. I know a forensic scientist. He had a sixteen hour day yesterday. And he has the same today."

"Is this the witch that you were telling us about?" Phoebe asked, smiling at Wyatt as her nephew looked at her. "Wyatt." She greeted.

Wyatt nodded, a soft smile on his face. "Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige."

"Yeah, he is. I called him this morning. He said he should get some time tomorrow to meet up with you. If he can't, he'll send his brother around to talk to you instead."

Paige nodded thoughtfully. "Two questions about this witch." She said, "What's his name, and what powers does he have?"

"I probably should have already told you guys that in the first place. His name is Christopher Jacobson. He'll probably yell at you if you call him Christopher though. To be honest, I'm not sure about his powers. I know his brother can turn invisible. It's something you'll have to ask him. I've never bothered. It's hard to get information out of Chris when he doesn't want to, I doubt that he would want to give me a list of his powers, and frankly, I don't really want to know."

"Fair enough." Piper said, coming out of the kitchen with a plate of freshly baked cookies, "Hi, Sweetie," She smiled kindly. "How was your day?"

"It was good. Tiring."

"That's life for you. It wouldn't be bringing in any good money if it wasn't hard." Piper said dryly.

"Unfortunately, talking about work," Darryl said, "I should head back. It's been busy at work."

"I should go too. I'll end up getting fired." Paige remarked, standing at the same time as Darryl.

"Talk to you later, guys. I'll let you know when Chris is certain he knows when he can meet up."

"Bye guys." The three remaining chorused together as Paige and Darryl walked out together.

Wyatt sat down at the table, looking to the two eldest females in the family. "So, what do you know of this witch so far?"

"Well," Phoebe started, "I think Leo will know more, because, you know, he knows everything. I think he's digging stuff up on him as we speak. But Darryl told us that he's a smart kid. Apparently he's a bit of a mystery though, refuses to speak about his past. He's a forensic scientist, twenty six years old. Younger brother, I think Darryl said he was about eighteen. I don't think there's anything else."

"Okay." Wyatt said. "Two questions. One, what exactly is Dad trying to dig up? I mean, he's not an elder anymore, which means he can't just, well, know. And two, why exactly are we meeting up with him? I mean, we're the Charmed One's, we don't need his help, and he hasn't requested for ours."

"Your father is seeing if he can dig up a file. All witches have a file made on them now, safety concerns. Just has their basic powers, what they can do, all the basic stuff that we need to know." Piper said, "Even Grams has one, it's just a safety precaution so if a witch tries to take over the world, other witches know what they're up against."

"And the answer to you second question is that, the kid is only twenty six years old, working a fairly hectic job, all while keeping his younger brother safe and out of trouble, and he has to deal with demon attacks. We want to keep an eye on him, because Darryl said he also has a habit of working himself into the ground. We just want to make sure he doesn't get killed." Phoebe added soothingly. "We've not had very many deaths these past years, and demon activity is very suspicious these days."

It was then that Wyatt had realised that he had sounded like an indignant teenaged girl asking why the boy they liked didn't like them back He was almost twenty eight. There was no need for him to be whiny or bitching over small matters. He was a man, not a teenager, and especially not a girl.

Sighing, he simply said "Okay." He grabbed a cookie off the plate, because he was still a man and men definitely eat cookies, because cookies were manly, goddamit. "I'm going to the gym." He told the two women before heading up to his room to change.

After a quick change, he had left the manor and started making his way towards the gym he frequented at. Wyatt wasn't a vain person, but he would say that his regular trips to the gym had definitely improved his muscles since high school. He could easily say that his weight was made up of pure muscle and not be lying.

As he started working out, he let his mind wander to the witch. He was intrigued. The other witch had sounded interesting. It would be interesting for Wyatt to meet him. He hadn't met very many other males witches, and especially not his age, both always being either much older than Wyatt himself, or much younger. His younger cousin, Henry Junior, while being another male in the family, he was still ten years older than Wyatt and they were almost complete opposites.

He just hoped that this 'Chris' would be someone worth meeting.

Chris sighed as he glanced at the clock. It was close to seven at night. Yawning softly, he glanced towards Abigail, who was almost asleep at her desk. Work had been extremely tiring today, and he still was no closer to solving the case. Most of his team had gone home, only three of the seven, not including Chris, staying back. They had given up with being formal with work about an hour and a half ago. Jaime, who was only a few months older than Chris, was multitasking. The man was using his phone while watching security videos from when the murders had been committed. After several watches of the video and not finding anything, Jaime had given up and pulled out his phone. Abigail was meant to be going over a report package, but had soon started to fall asleep at her desk, and no one had the heart to wake her up. The other person, Tyler, a thirty three year old man, who was friendly and energetic, had taken to drawing on the piece of paper he was supposed to be taking notes on, and had taken three before giving up.

Chris himself, had pictures he was supposed to be scanning for any clues on what had happened, but after the fourth time, he too, had found himself playing with his phone. Glancing up to where Jaime was, he saw a flash in the corner of the recording.

"Jaime, pause that, and slow it down to one frame a second." He said, walking over to the screen and leaning over the over man's shoulder. Jaime doing the things that Chris had told him to do, saw the flash and paused it. "You see that?" Chris pointed to the screen, "It looks like a large dog. Perhaps a pitbull?"

"Possibly, it could be just a random dog passing through though. But it does explain the murders in some way. There's no fingerprints, throats torn out and gashes that look like claws. But, as far as I know, dogs don't have that large of claws that fit the gashes. And there should be some form of saliva. But it definitely is a dog." Jaime said.

Tyler had walked over by now, peering at the screen with them. "Large dog. I would say wolf would fit the description, but what the hell would a wolf be doing in San Francisco?"

"Possibly escaped from the zoo." Jaime commented. "I'll check with the zoos near by to see if a wolf has escaped. Although, I think it would have been on the news by now."

"I think we have to stay a little longer tonight." Chris murmured tiredly, the want for his bed increasing. "Possibly an all-nighter. Someone wake Abby."

As Tyler went over to wake up Abigail, Chris zoomed in on the dog-like creature. "It appears to be short hair. We'll need to go to the crime scene tomorrow to look for any traces of fur or paw prints that we may have missed. Start on the other video footage and look for anything the looks remotely like this."

"Sometimes, I wonder why we hired you, but then you have your moments where you catch something that we all miss, and then I remember." Abigail commented tiredly. "As the person in charge at the moment, I do say we might to pull an all-nighter, but I say we should take advantage of the showers they have here. Chris and Jaime you guys go for showers and Tyler and I will go after you two."

"Okay." Jaime said, as the two youngest in the room walked over to the cupboard, where all the towels had been kept. All the towels had been kept clean and sanitary, getting dry-cleaned after each use. The two took a few towels each and walked into the lobby, where the bathrooms were kept.

There were four showers and five toilets and the bathroom had been designed like the locker room at Chris's old school.

As Chris stood under the hot spray of the water, he felt the stress start to leave his shoulders. While the showers were rarely used, they were all kept in perfect condition. The shower was almost as good as the one at home. Leaning his shoulder against the wall and slumping, he sighed. He heard Jaime echo his sigh, and smirked. The water was nice. Feeling exhausted, he turned the water to cold. He flinched and shivered and closed his eyes. He had only a few minutes before the water turned off, and he wanted to try to wake himself up.

Getting only a few hours sleep the night before, and pulling an all-nighter was not something he had done since his insomnia had stopped effecting him so much. In the back of his mind, he wondered if this unusual sleep pattern would make the insomnia flare back up again.

As the water turned off, he quickly dried off and got dressed, feeling more refreshed, and a quick glance to Jaime had said the same about the other man. Throwing the wet towels into a basket, Chris ran a hand through his wet hair, waiting for Jaime before the two walked back to the workstation.

Tyler and Abigail were in a conversation, which seemed more like an argument. "If it were a dog," Abigail said, "There would be more evidence, dogs aren't creatures that leave no traces of anything."

"Yes," Tyler stressed the word, "But, we need to go from every angle, and you trust Chris, and Chris is a valued member of our team. You know he might have something here. You know that Chris could be right, and you know that we need to check it out."

"He's right, Abby." Jaime said, "Chris is right more than he's wrong, and we might have something here. We have to check it out, at least to cross it off of our list. It is plausible."

Abigail sighed. "Okay, we can check it out, but I do doubt that it was a dog. Dogs don't just go rabid and start murdering people, even with pitbulls. They may have a terrible reputation, but they're not going to tear someone's throat out."

"Abby, just because it's not likely, doesn't means it's not true." Chris said, "Just because it seems like it won't happen doesn't mean it can't. I know you're tired, we all are, but we have to explore every possibility. You know that." His eyes were warm as they met with Abigail's.

"I know, you're right. Ugh, I just want to go back to a normal ten hour day, instead of, you know, sixteen hours, and all-nighters. One of us is going to collapse soon, and I don't want to waste time on a theory that may not be correct." She said softly. "Chris, you've collapsed from overworking yourself before, and Logan was terrified. He thought he was going to lose you, and you're really the only person he has left. It was heartbreaking to watch him so distressed."

"Then we take shifts." Tyler input, "One of us take a day off to relax, come back for another person to take the day off. There's eight of us, we'll work closer together and try to take the strain off of each other. I mean, we're the half that obviously works harder than the others, for instance, tonight, so us four will take the first four days off. Abby, you should take tomorrow off, and Tyler, you next. You guys are the ones with kids and partners to go home to."

"And you should take the day after that off. You've got your siblings waiting at home for you, and I'm sure your uncle wants some time off too, instead of watching his nieces and nephews. I've only got Logan to go home to, and he's busy until Tuesday anyway."

"Chris." Abigail said, her tone was warning and she started to speak before Chris cut her off. "Abby. For starters, I'm the youngest in the group, even if it is by a few months, and I can stay up for much longer than an average human, you know that. And, of course I'm still going home to sleep. Just don't argue with me on this, okay?"

Abigail sighed, defeated. "Okay. But, at least six hours sleep. And tonight, we'll all take turns in sleeping, forty five minutes worth of sleep each, in a cycle, and because Chris is last to take the day off, he can be the first to sleep." She had a satisfied smirk on her face that meant that she had won, and there was no way to get out of it. "Then Jaime, and then Tyler, and then myself." She nodded to herself, and the two other men nodded back.

Chris sighed, but he couldn't say that he didn't want the sleep, even after the shower. The comfortable looking couch in the corner was calling for him, and he wasn't going to say no. As Abigail and Tyler left for showers and in the search of bringing back caffeine, he wandered over to the couch.

His eyes took in the room, and even though he had the room memorized, he quickly regarded where everything was. His eyes were directed to the presence of Jaime, who had gone back to the surveillance tapes and was now watching them in slow motion. He felt in his mind for any other presences in the building, and was satisfied when he could only sense the cleaner and his three co-workers. He let himself relax, and laying against the couch, it was all he could do not to moan in comfort as his muscles loosened up.

It didn't take him long to fall asleep, he had fallen asleep before Abigail and Tyler got back from their showers, but had briefly awoken when the two had arrived. He felt Abigail sit on the arm of the couch and softly run her fingers through his hair. He almost immediately fell back asleep, the motherly gesture reminding him of his own mother who had done the same thing many times through his childhood and teenage years when he couldn't sleep.

For a moment, he felt safer than he had in a long while.

The night had passed in a slow crawl. After Chris had been awoken at eight fifteen, he had quickly searched for his phone and sent Logan a message telling his younger brother that he wouldn't be home tonight. The answer was almost immediate.

Y? Chris smirked at his phone, and even though he was supposed to be working, and phones were not supposed to be out while working, he quickly tapped out another message.

We think we might have something. I'll call you tomorrow morning when I'm leaving work, we can meet up for breakfast.

He left his phone unlocked on the desk he was working at. It was now Jaime who was sleeping, and apparently, he was a heavy sleeper. Chris smirked once more, this time directed at the man on the couch. Apparently Jaime chewed his thumbnail in his sleep, and it made the man look a lot younger than twenty six, but like a child.

His phone vibrated with a message, and quickly glancing at it, he rolled his eyes at Logans 'k'. Quickly changing from messaging to his camera, he took a picture of Jaime. It was definitely Facebook worthy. He met Abigail's mock disapproving glare with a look of pure innocence. Locking his phone and sliding it into his pocket, he took a sip of his coffee, and almost moaned in bliss.

Turning away from his laptop screen, he turned to the set of rules that Abigail had put up several years ago and smirked at it. The rules were ridiculous, such as 'No hitting each other with soda bottles.'

The rule had been made when Tyler, Jaime, himself and two other co-workers, Amy and Grace had all pulled all-nighters together. They had several bottles of soda each, and the sleep deprivation had gotten to them soon enough. So when Jaime had aimed his soda bottle for the bin and ended up with hitting Chris in the back of the head, the only logical thing in Chris's mind was to beat Jaime up with one of his own soda bottles. It had soon turned into a soda bottle war between the five of them, and it was a fond memory, the room had been loud with mock-anger, laughing and excitement. Once Abigail and the other two co-workers, Ashley and Riley, who had both recently joined, Ashley a few months before, and Riley a week before, had returned to the lab to see the five beating each other senseless with soda bottles.

Their reactions to them had been hilarious. Riley was confused, and Ashley had been smirking at their antics, the girl having already gotten used to them. Abigail had been the one who had stolen Tyler's empty soda and hit them all around the back of the head with it. The memory was a fond one, and it had been worth all the bruising the next day.

Another was no feathered pillows in the lab. Only a few months back, Riley had decided that when they pulled all nighters, they needed pillows, because, the man, who Chris would say was eight feet tall, who was really only 6"3, had said that the arm of the couch dug into his neck, but he didn't have enough room to curl up comfortably.

Being a bunch of kids in adults bodies, the pillows weren't used for sleeping but smothering each other with. While the joke had lived on for several months or more, the best part was when they had all started pillow fighting, and pillows had all smacked together at once in some bizarre way, and had caused an explosion of feathers, all over the lab. It was not a fun clean up.

There was one in bold, and that one was directed at Jaime and Chris. The two men were close and shared the same interests. One of which were Nerf Guns. Chris, who was slim and who was a fantastic hider, had found a way into the air vents, and had found the air vent that was directly across from the door. Together, Jaime and Chris had removed the grate over the air vent and found Jaime a spot to snipe from. The two had come to work early and set up their arsenal of Nerf Guns. However, they didn't realise that a very, very important man was coming to see the work that they had been doing, and would possibly help sponsor the lab to get better equipment.

As soon as the door had opened, the two had opened fire. They had eventually ran out of bullets and both had dropped from their hiding place, to see that the man who was supposed to sponsor them, had been among their team. Fortunately, the man was good natured about it and had laughed it off, and sponsored them enough for each of them to receive a work laptop with the newest software of all the programs they needed.

The rule was that no Nerf Guns or anything of the like were to ever enter the building.

Chris rolled his eyes and turned back to his work. He was going over the report that Abigail had fallen asleep on before and in the top right hand corner, had the security feeds up in slow motion. He hadn't found anything of interest in the reports yet, but there had been the same flash of shadow in the corner in all the videos.

It was tedious, and when it hit three am and he had already had too many naps for him to sleep again, he had scanned the video with hawkeyes, watching every part of the scene. Soon enough, he had seen something in all the videos that matched up with a bottle. A man, seemingly drunk, dropping a bottle of beer before wandering off, was in each of the videos, at the exact same time, and only a few seconds later, the dog-like creature had appeared in the corner.

He had started taking notes around eleven, and he now had four pages worth of notes and theories to share with his entire team when they were next together.

Cracking his neck, he scanned the report again, and yet, still found nothing. There were the basics, but Chris needed to look at the body to see if any of his theories matched up. He had the pictures of the victims up on his laptop screen, but it wasn't clear enough around the wounds for any of them to work out. The gashes that they knew the victims had were blurry, and seemed blue in the pictures, but when Chris had looked at the body in real life several days before, he knew that the wounds were black.

Shaking his head, Chris peered around the room. No one was sleeping, and while they were all quiet, they all seemed energetic, which Chris knew would crash soon, and they'd all be zombies.

It was five am before anyone actually spoke, and it was Jaime, who had started a game of The Hypothetical Game. Some of the questions had kept them thinking, questions such as "If a man was to play golf during a thunderstorm, what would the damage done to you be?" The answer that they had all concluded together was that because men are four times more likely to get hit by lightning, and waving a metal object around would just attract the electricity, the man would mostly get struck, but with the fact that only twenty percent of people get struck dead by lightning immediately, the man wouldn't die straight away, but be fatally wounded, and would need medical assistance right away, but there was a very likely chance of him dying from the after effects, such a heart attack.

They had played the game until it had hit seven in the morning, and that's when they all called quits for the day. They would leave Ashley, Riley, Grace and Amy to take care of things today, and would leave Amy in charge.

As Chris walked towards his car, he had gotten a call from Darryl, and sighed.

"Hey. If you want me to do anything, I refuse." He said in a way of greeting, and he heard Darryl chuckle over the line.

"Working today?" Darryl asked.

"I've got today off, had to pull an all-nighter. I'm about to call Logan and meet up with him for breakfast and go curl up in bed. But by the sounds of it, you want me to meet up with those girls today, don't you?"

"You know me so well, Kid." Darryl said dryly.

"Okay, let me go for breakfast with Logan, get a quick nap, go for a shower and I'll call you back to let you know when I can come." He said tiredly.

"Okay Kid, don't strain yourself." The older man said fondly before hanging up.

Chris quickly dialled his brothers number as he slid into the car, playing with the car keys. When the kid had answered, he greeted his brother before telling him that he'd be picking him up in a few minutes. After hanging up, he started the car up and started for home.

He had a feeling that today would be busy.

Author's Note: I would like to point out that this is four thousand, four hundred and twenty-two words written while I was sleep deprived and no beta-ing. All mistakes are my own and I do apologise for them and will fix them up as soon as I find them. Also, thank you to anyone who reviewed, favourited or followed.