Legacy: Ghost of the Past

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Five: Breaking and Entering

Bobby was quiet as he sat in the passenger seat of his sister's car, staring out at the streets of San Francisco as they whizzed by. Unable to think of anything to say, he reached down and flipped on the radio, turning it onto the oldies station. Susan glanced at him, then towards the radio and shook her head in annoyance.

"Hey, kid, my car, my radio," she said with a smirk. Bobby chuckled as he leaned back.

"Yeah, well, try and stop me," he told her simply. "Try and do that, keep your eyes on the road, and panic about what horrors my dad is going to unleash if he gets what he wants. Oh, and while you're doing that, worry about Chris and Wyatt being in trouble."

Susan was quiet for a minute, her blue eyes filled with concern. "He's hurt," she said quietly. Bobby looked at her quickly. "Chris is hurt. It's not serious, but I can still feel him in pain. They got there too late. Peter's on his way to start whatever it is that he's after."

Taking a deep breath, Bobby looked away. "Can you always sense when he's hurt?" he asked her.

"It's becoming easier to do it, the more I know him and—" Susan stopped in mid-sentence.

"The more you fall in love with him?" Bobby asked her. She looked at him and slowly nodded, turning her attention back to the road. "I think that's great, that you're able to find somebody who can love you and who you love back. It's really great, Susan," he told her. "That's more than most people can do nowadays." He sighed, thinking of his own parents.

"My parents were never in love either, Bobby," Susan told him. He looked around at her. "I don't think that my mom was ever really in love with my father, just . . . was captivated by him." Bobby looked away, uncomfortable with the conversation. "And for a long time, I really believed that her life was how mine was destined to end up."

"Yeah, well, it's like people always say," Bobby muttered. "You look at your parents and that's who you are in about twenty or so years."

"I don't think that's true," Susan responded, glancing at him. "I think that sometimes it's true, but not always. You always have the choice to make your own choices about who you want to be, Bobby. To walk away, to stand up for yourself, to make a life for yourself different than what's expected of you." She looked at him. "Do you really think that this is what your mom would want for you? To have to sneak around in order to do what's right?"

"I don't know what she would want, because thanks to my father, I don't know what she's really like," Bobby said coldly. Susan said nothing. "Do you really think that we can make our own choices?"

Susan nodded. "I know we can. Take a look at my father, for instance. The heir of a very powerful witch family of good who turned his back on his family, his heritage, and the lives of people he was destined to save."

"Mine, too," Bobby said with a small smile. "And I guess the two us chose to ally ourselves with good, despite having such a—such fathers."

With a small laugh, Susan nodded. "Yeah, I guess we did," she agreed. "And quit messing with my radio!" she added, reaching for the dial to switch it back to soft rock. Bobby groaned as romantic songs came onto the air, pressing his fingers into his ears to drown it out. Susan laughed just as he saw the office where his father worked out.

"Oh, there it is," he said, pointing. "Pull through there." Susan obeyed and slowed to a stop as a guard stopped her at the gate, rolling down the window.

"Just where do you think you're going, miss?" he asked sternly. Bobby leaned forward into view.

"She's with me, Frank," he said easily. The guard blinked. "We have to go and see my dad. Don't worry, I'll keep her out of trouble."

"Right, then, Mr. Connelly," Frank said, waving them through. "Sorry to keep you waiting. But it's required, you know. Very sorry, go on through," he said, lifting the gate to let them pass through. Susan glanced towards the guard as she drove through.

"Was that a demon?" she asked. Bobby nodded. "How many work here?" she wanted to know.

"How many people are in the building?" Bobby responded. Susan bit her lip, looking worried. Bobby himself was worried; he knew that he could be leading her straight into a trap, but the mansion was no longer safe, since they knew about it. And his father knew that Susan and the others knew about it, so he would go here to cast any spells from the Grimoire. "Park there."

"Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to regret this?" Susan muttered as she parked in the spot he indicated.

Bobby shrugged as he climbed out. "Come on, let's go!" he said, hurrying into the building with Susan right behind him, trying to keep up with him. "She's with me," he told the secretary as they ran by her, ignoring the scandalised looks that were on their faces at seeing Peter Connelly's son with his intended target.

Not if I can help it, Dad, Bobby though as they climbed into the elevator. Not if I can help it.

The only problem was that barring from some unknown magical force being bestowed upon him, he did not foresee a way that they were going to get out of this alive.

--

"We could've been killed, you know that?" Wyatt grumbled as he bandaged up his brother's arm. Chris was wincing slightly and he sighed, trying to relax so he wouldn't cause his brother any more pain. "Sorry, just a little on edge right now. Jeez, what were the Elders thinking, sending us after them? It was two against two dozen demons!"

"They probably weren't thinking, which is what those Elders do best, you know?" Chris said with a sigh. "But I'm still trying to work out why They won't let you heal me, considering I broke the arm while fighting demons."

"Remind me to go Up There and yell at Them later," Wyatt responded. "Where's Susan at, anyway?"

"She and Bobby probably went after Peter, if he knew anything about what they wanted," Chris answered, shrugging. "Where's Brooke? Shouldn't she be back by now?"

Wyatt shrugged. "She had an interview at a department store to get a job," he said, checking his watch. "Actually, she should be back by now, unless they wanted her to start today." He finished wrapping his brother's arm. "That's about as well as I can do for now. I still think that we should go to the hospital and get it checked out, Chris," he added.

"We'll do it after we stop Peter Connelly from doing whatever it is that he wants to do," Chris replied. Wyatt shook his head; his brother could be so stubborn at times! Unfortunately, he was a bit too much like their mother. "Why don't you call Brooke and I'll call Susan, see what's going on?"

"Fine," Wyatt muttered as Chris picked up his phone, speed dialling to Susan's cell. Chris listened for the ringing, tapping his foot impatiently as his girlfriend picked up at the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Susan, it's me," Chris said, relieved to hear her voice. "We just got back from the West Andes and—"

"Peter Connelly got the Grimoire," Susan finished up for him. "Yeah, I figured. Bobby wasn't sure what he wanted with it—or that he was even after it—but he thought he knew where he was going to go with it, so we're down here at his dad's office building, checking things out."

"How's that going?" Chris asked, sitting down and glancing at Wyatt. His brother was talking to somebody, but it wasn't Brooke and he had a slightly panicked look on his face.

"Not too good," Susan admitted. "We can't find anything and Bobby doesn't want to take me up to his office in case somebody sees us there."

"Will you shut up?" Chris heard Bobby say in the background. "What if somebody's listening right now?"

Susan let out a sigh of exasperation and Chris could practically see her rolling her eyes at Bobby. "Anyway, are you okay?" she asked, sounding worried. Chris frowned slightly, wondering how she could have possibly known. "I thought I sensed that you got hurt earlier."

"Uh . . . yeah, I kind of broke my arm while we were there," Chris admitted. "Wyatt bandaged it up, though."

"Why didn't he just—"

"Stupid Elders wouldn't let him," Chris said by way of explanation. "So, what's the address, we'll meet you there." He telekinetically called a pen and paper over to him and he poised it, ready to scribble down the address.

She told it to him. "It's a big building, Chris, and they've got a lot of guards," she said when he finished writing it down. "So, be careful. I think it might be easier just to orb in here rather than try and break in."

"Sue, I had to break this to you, but either way we'll be breaking in," Chris teased her. Susan scoffed and Chris grinned. "But won't they pick on the orbing? There's some places that are like that."

"I doubt it, otherwise they would have to pick up on shimmering, too, and then they'd have alarms going off all the time," Susan responded. "The whole place is run by demons, every single worker here. I swear, it's like a demonic hive."

"All right, we're going to go pick up Brooke and then we'll meet you there, all right?" Chris asked her. "Hang tight. And Susan?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep an eye out," he said softly. "Connelly gave his demons orders to bring me to him alive. He needs for some reason."

"Why would he need that?" Susan asked. Chris said nothing, mostly because he had no idea. The most evil and vile spells were in the Grimoire and none of them meant anything good. If Connelly needed him for something, then they were in big trouble.

"Just try and keep an eye out," Chris told her at last. "And hang tight, Susan. We're on our way."

"See you in a bit," Susan said softly. "And be careful."

"When am I anything but?" Chris said in mock outrage. Susan chuckled as she hung up and he flipped his cell phone closed just as Wyatt sat down at the table, holding his closed phone in his hands and looking haunted and more scared than Chris had ever seen his older brother.

And that scared him.

"Wy?" Chris asked, looking at him. Wyatt looked up at him. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

Wyatt swallowed. "I just finished talking to the lady that Brooke was supposed to have her interview with," he said quietly. "They found her lying in the break room, unconscious. From what she managed to get from the doctors, she's in a coma. And they don't know how she got like that."

Letting out a sigh, Chris looked towards his brother. "I think I do," he said and Wyatt looked up at him. "Peter Connelly. He probably wanted to keep Brooke out of the way for the time being, until he's finished with whatever he needs to be done."

"But what is that?" Wyatt demanded, slamming his hand onto the table. "What does he want us for?"

Chris had no answer to his questions.