A Charmed Story - Part Eleven:
Enemy In My Mind
Chapter 2

The dinner had gone on in silence. Chris's sudden disappearance had caused them all to stop talking and keep pensive, only interrupted by the giggles of the two babies, Wyatt's games with the food, and some empty comments by all of them.
Piper's eyes were fixed on Christopher, wondering if he would be like his older version; or older brother, she should say... Ok, she had already met him and she knew that they would not be exactly the same, Christopher was so different from Chris... But still she couldn't help wondering: 'In the deepest part of him, would he be like Chris? Would he always have those strange feelings, would he have to bear the weight of the world on his shoulder all the time, would he feel responsible for everything?'
Piper was still wondering when Phoebe coughed a little bit. "Oh, sorry..." she said, noticing the empty plates. Quickly she grabbed the bowl with the salad next to her and gave it to her sister.
Cole smiled naughtily, and said: "I guess Pheebs is just trying to get me more food before my stomach starts to growl... Ouch!!!" The exclamation was caused by the strong punch of his wife.
"How often do I have to tell you that I hate that nickname? And no, I give a damn for your stupid hunger!" she answered, angrily, but not enough... as they all could observe in a couple of seconds, when Cole stopped her speech with a kiss on her lips.
Bianca and Piper smiled, but kept on eating, when Wyatt suddenly said, chuckling: "Uncle Cole likes kissin' Aunt Beebe, Uncle Cole likes kissin' Aunt Beebe!"
The alluded couple went apart from each other immediately and looked at the smiley child and the others, but Piper raised her hands grinning. "It's only your fault that my son has to learn such bad things..." she said.
Cole opened his mouth to defend himself when Chris's blue orbing lights filled the room again.
"Hey... Sweetie, is everything ok??" Bianca asked, turning to him with a worried expression.
Chris smiled softly, feeling all the eyes fixed on him: "Oh, yeah..."
"But what was that?" Piper asked, before he could go on.
Chris shrugged, and looked at his uncle, not knowing well what to say: "I am not sure. But don't worry... There's nothing to worry about, ok?? Maybe I just had a bad feeling for nothing."
Phoebe stared at him gravely: "Chris, believe me... With your powers, having bad feelings can't be 'nothing'."
But this gained her a hit from Cole's elbow, who then looked at the two other worried women and Chris: "Don't listen to her, man. If I had believed that all my bad feelings were so bad, I would be dead from a heart attack by now. Sometimes we are just humans, you know that. Bad feelings are part of us, and that doesn't mean that they have to be true all the time..."
"Yeah..." Chris muttered. He sighed and sat down, smiling. His uncle was right, of course. But he had not had THAT bad feeling. Analysing it, it had just been the feeling of something calling, but now, after knowing Belthazor's implications, there must have been something wrong.
Cole patted his shoulder, as the others smiled at him, although worried. Worried too, because after becoming the new owner of the sword, Chris had clearly been feeling under a big pressure, even if he didn't act any different just because Excalibur was now placed in a corner of his room. So... maybe he was exhausted... And he had to deal with his job as an Elder, and in magic school, and taking care of Hope and... He had also been wondering if he should find a true job, a human one... Because they would eventually have to live on something. But as soon as he had mentioned it, all his family had turned on him to make him forget about that idea. However, he was still considering it, Piper knew that, and Bianca too.
"Come on, buddy, maybe it's just that you're too worried. Let's talk about something else, and then you and me are gonna have fun and forget about responsibilities."
"WHAT??!!" Phoebe and Bianca exclaimed at the same time. Chris and Piper looked at Cole also, wonderingly. "Had you planned something without telling us??" Phoebe asked, shaking her head.
Chris shrugged and showed them his hands, as if meaning that he had nothing to do with it, he didn't know either. Bianca smiled at him, as Piper found herself too busy, cleaning Wyatt's whole body, after he had decided to spread the peanut butter on himself instead of the bread.
"What??" Cole asked, in a defensive response: "He's my nephew and I have the feeling that I have neglected him lately and..."
"Oh, no, that's not true, I..." Chris interrupted, before he was again interrupted by Cole.
"And I do really wanna spend some time with him, talking, that's all. Don't be so jealous, girls, I am not gonna kidnap him!"
Bianca laughed, but Phoebe grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him towards her: "You'd better not, or you will have to forget about the present I have for you tonight..." And then she kissed him again on the lips.
Chris chuckled and shook his head: "We don't need to..."
But Cole raised his hand over his head, and releasing his lips from Phoebe's kiss, but not his face from her grip, he said: "Oh, yeah, we need to. And yes..." Kiss. "Phoebe..." Kiss. "I won't..." Kiss. "Kidnap him..." Kiss. "Promise..."
They separated again, to face all the other laughing people in the room. Cole shrugged, blushing. Then he asked: "Ok... Is there any dessert?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Kyle was just about to call Paige when the phone in Darryl's office rang. He sighed. Darryl had just left to go to pick up some hotdogs out on the street, because they had to do overtime.
So he went over and picked up the phone.
"Darryl Morris's office, Kyle Turner here."
"Oh... emmm.. my name is Tom Marsden, I wanted to talk to Mr. Morris, please." The person on the other end of the line seemed a little confused that someone else had answered the call.
"He's not here at the moment, can I pass him a message?" Kyle asked friendly.
On the other end of the line was only silence, then the male voice asked: "Kyle Turner? Like Kyle the boyfriend of Paige Matthews?"
Kyle got an undefined feeling in his stomach and sat down. "Yes," he answered surprisingly calm.
The person on the other end sighed relived: "Well... I'm Tom, I'm working at the school with her, you know... I'm also... let's say special..."
"Yeah," Kyle answered not really sure what this was all about, except that this person seemed to be a witch, too.
"Well... someone broke in the house of my girlfriend... I think it was just a casual human... but I'm not 100 sure... therefore I wanted to ask Darryl if he... or maybe you could... before..."
Now Kyle began to understand. "I see," he said. "Well... give me your address and I'll come around later, ok?"
Tom replied relieved: "Yeah that's fine... thanks."

°°°°°°°°°°

After the dinner Phoebe went back to her work, while Bianca and Piper cleaned the table. Cole took Wyatt to his arms and brought him over to the sun room where the other kids had already fallen asleep in the playpen.
"Christopher sleepin'," Wyatt stated.
"Yeah little worrior, your brother seems to be tired... what about you?" Cole said chuckling.
"I'm not," Wyatt answered shaking his head energetically.
Chris laughed: "That's my brother..."
Then he turned serious again and Wyatt noticed that. "You're worried?" he asked.
Cole looked from the boy to Chris, who nodded smiling weakly. "Yeah I am," he said and went over to them. He took the boy to his arms and looked him deep into his eyes. "Big people are worried sometimes, you know," he said softly and Wyatt nodded. "Can you promise me something?"
"What?" Wyatt asked back while Cole got a strange feeling that there was something more going on.
"Could you not tell mommy or Aunt Anca that I'm worried?" Chris asked. Wyatt nodded. The Elder-witch smiled and gave the boy a kiss on his cheek: "Thanks brother..."
Then he put him down and Wyatt went over to play with his cars which were spread around the floor.
"Ok... what is this about?" Cole asked then, turning closer to his nephew.
Chris sighed: "I want to visit someone, and therefore I need your help."
"My help?" he asked back frowning.
The Elder-witch nodded: "Julian said you know how to find your other half... And I need you to bring me there."
Cole frowned. He wanted to know what this was all about, but Chris just looked at him beggingly: "Please... I really need your help."
So finally the witch nodded. But then he sighed. He didn't know that he was supposed to know where to find his former other half. "I... I don't...!" Or did he know...? "The pony," he suddenly said as he began to understand. In his message Belthazor had said he had found it where they had left it... in the cave where they grew up... 'Could it be that he went back there??' he thought.
"Do you know it, or not?" Chris asked.
Cole shrugged: "I think I do... When do you plan to go there?"
"Now!" Chris said dryly, took his arm and orbed with him to the underworld.

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige sighed as she put another file into the archive. This was the most boring temp-job she ever had, she thought. She was working at "Marchery and Partners", a huge company selling paper in all different kinds of forms and colors. And her work was to take care of the archive this week, as long as the person who usually did it, recovered from an illness. All she had to do was take out files if someone wanted some, and later put them back... boring!
But in just an hour her shift would be over and she would meet Kyle again. The fourth time this week, and it was only Thursday... They had really spend a lot time together lately. She smiled about that thought.
It was amazing, Paige had never before loved someone this much... He was just so cute and lovingly, that she wanted to spend every second of her life on his side.
But then... she was a witch and he... She sighed, and then pushed that thought away. She didn't want to let something like that sadden her good mood. Even if her job was still boring. She would be in his arms in just fifty minutes.
But then her mobile phone rang.
"Yeah," she said, when picking it up.
"Hey cutie... how are you?" Kyle asked.
"Fine... can't wait till you pick me up and we can go home to you and have a Pizza together..."
Kyle sighed: "Well, that's why I call... I... There is a case I have to deal with, and actually we could need your help in that... But that's something I'll tell you later... And then one of your friends, a... Tom Marsden called, asking me to come over because someone broke into his girl's house..."
"Tom...? Veronica??? Are they... are they fine?"
"Yeah, they are."
Now Paige sighed and leaned back against the shelf. "So... when do we meet?"
"Actually I wanted to come over to you, to talk to you, and also to your sisters..."
Paige sighed again, a little disappointed but understanding: "Alright..."

°°°°°°°°°°

After a walk of fifteen minutes through the tunnels of the underworld, Chris and Cole stood in front of a small and casual door. They could have been faster but they tried to stay unnoticed by the mass of demons down there.
"Actually I had something else in mind, when I said I wanted to spend time with you..." Cole said smiling weekly
His nephew nodded: "Yeah, but I have to talk to him..."
"Do I have to stay or..." Cole asked with a sigh.
Chris was surprised by that question. "You don't want to?" he asked.
His uncle shrugged: "I just feel a little uncomfortable... I guess it's the environment, you know..."
The Elder-witch nodded understanding: "But I think he would be pleased to see you... you don't?"
Cole sighed again, still unsure and feeling kind of weird. But he couldn't help it, he cared about his former other half. "Yeah, I would like to see him... sounds crazy, huh?"
The Elder-witch shook his head: "No... it doesn't... not after so many years you shared..." Then he knocked on the door, while Cole looked at Chris, thinking about what he just said. His nephew's view on those things amazed him.
First nothing happened. After half a minute, the door was opened by a familiar face.
"Hello Julian," Chris said, as the demonic witch let them in. Cole just nodded looking around interested. Even if the furniture and stuff had changed completely, it was still the place where he had lived as a child.
"I knew you would find it," Julian said smiling and closed the door behind them.
"Of course he would," a deep voice said, "it's his home."
Chris and Cole turned around to see the not-so-evil source of all evil standing in a kind of passage way to another room, smiling somehow widely.
But then silence fell upon the room. For a moment Belthazor and Cole just looked at each other, both a little unsure what to do. Then the latter one walked slowly over to the demon and stopped only inches away. "It's good to see you're fine," he said.
Belthazor nodded, relieved that his other half broke the silence. "Yeah... It's good to see that you're fine, too, and... it's good to know that you still care... By the way, congratulations to your marriage again. I'm happy that you now have the life you always wanted," he answered, and Cole could read in his eyes that he truly meant it that way. He smiled slightly.
Then they hugged each other closely with all their heart, and the eyes of the demon seemed to turn a little watery.
Chris looked at Julian who smiled. "I guess that's something they both needed," he explained to the Elder-witch.
Chris chuckled a little: "Yeah, so it seems."

°°°°°°°°°°

After talking with Kyle, Tom waited a few seconds with the receiver in his hand, and then he sighed and hung up. He turned to the door at his back. It was half open, and inside, Veronica slept profoundly.
He stood up slowly and went to her, careful not to wake her up, and once there, he contemplated her for a while, in silence; he stared at the slowly movement of her chest, caused by her calm breathing. Finally, he sat down by her side, and could not help caressing her hair. She shifted and stretched her arms a little bit, which made him stop dead, but she did not wake up.
Thus, Tom stayed there looking at her for a while, waiting for Kyle to come, as he analysed the situation. He did not know what to think. If it was normal people, thieves... what did they want from them? Was it only because of the technical stuff in the house? It seemed they had destroyed everything, but... Suddenly something struck him with strength: 'Had they actually robbed something??'
His heart started to beat very fast. What could they want there?? He saw now this question differently; it scared him to the bone. For a moment, he was not sure if it was better that they were normal thieves, or demons. Either one was more serious than he had thought. He stood up again and started to pace around the dark room, as Veronica slept, ignorant of his distress.
Or so he thought... But suddenly her voice startled him: "Tom... Are you ok??"
He looked at her, silent for a while since he did not know what to say. "Were you not sleeping?" he asked, finally.
Veronica sat up on the bed wearily, and sighed: "How can you think that I would be able to sleep with what has happened? I just dozed a little bit..."
Tom stared at her, feeling so sorry. Then he went to her again and sat by her side, taking her hand lovingly. "I know, these things always scare people, honey, but they're just thieves, and if the police don't find them, we'll do. Think we're over them all," he joked.
Veronica smiled, but she could not hide her fear. Then he kissed her on her lips: "Hey... I love you."
She nodded: "I know..."
They hugged each other for a while, until Veronica felt that she needed to sleep again. Tom help her to the bed, and then stayed sitting by her side, because if he had lied on it, he would have fallen asleep too.
He did not know how much time had passed, when the doorbell rang, startling them both. Tom went down to it and looked through the little hole, to make sure that it was who he was waiting for.
"Officer Kyle Turner," he heard. Then, he opened the door.

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve and Nicki sat at the kitchen table, facing each other, eating silently. After Elenia was gone, they had cleaned the room and then the woman had prepared a few sandwiches. Nothing special, but she wasn't in the mood for cooking anymore.
"Are you ok?" Steve asked after a while. Nicki nodded, but said nothing.
He sighed and went around the table to sit by her side. "Hey... I know this was a hard day for you but..."
"It isn't about the demon," Nicki interrupted him. Then she kept silent.
Steve pulled a streak of hair out of her face, asking: "Then what is it?"
"Look I'm thinking about that since a few days and..." she said then with a very low voice. And after a short break, in which she thought about if she should tell him at all, she admitted: "It's about us."
Steve frowned confused: "I... I don't understand... What are you talking about? I thought... I thought everything is fine between you and me..."
"I know," she replied but it was not more than a whisper.
Steve closed his eyes and took a deep breath, just when his new-found powers kicked in and he noticed that, even if she loved him, she was worried and confused. It wasn't that he felt it like an empath, he just knew it in a way. He looked at her caressing her cheek. "So then... what is it, that you believe is not alright about us anymore?"
Nicki turned to him and he could see her eyes welling up in tears. "I'm afraid..." she said. "You've spend so much time up there lately... And your new powers which are impressing, but... Sometimes I get the feeling that I don't know you anymore..."
Steve shook his head, not believing his ears. It was true he had been up there quite a lot and he had developed his new powers a lot, but... he was still the same person. Or wasn't he?
"But why haven't you said this earlier?"
The woman just looked at him: "And when should I have told you that...??? I'm sorry that I wanted to enjoy your short visits and not waste the time with discussings."
Steve sighed again, realising that she had every right to feel hurt. "Nicki, I'm sorry that you feel like that," he said. "I'm sorry that I wasn't around as much as I should have been... But that was just because all this was so new..." He sighed again and took a streak out of her face. "I was just up there because I wanted to be sure that I can handle my powers, because I don't want to hurt anybody... especially not you... and I guess accidentally frying the toaster was close enough." She nodded and started sobbing.
"Hey..." Steve said and pulled her into a close hug, "I love you... I love you so much... don't worry, everything will be fine again... I promise."
"But you can't promise that... because things already changed," Nicki sobbed.
Steve felt his own eyes turn watery. He couldn't lose her... not like that. "But I do love you... Please, don't give up what we have... I promise you that I will stay now. And not just because you asked me to, but because I want to, anyway... because I missed you, too. And you will see that there is nothing that has changed... But please don't leave me, not after all we have gone through..."
"I'm not giving up, Steve... That's why I'm feeling that way... If I would be giving up I would already be gone," she said and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you so much," she muttered then.
Steve pulled her even closer: "I love you too."

°°°°°°°°°°

After some minutes hugging each other, a cough behind Cole and Belthazor made them turn their heads. Chris and Julian looked aside and started to whistle, as if they had not made any noise, but actually it was too faked.
Cole smiled amused and shook his head, as Belthazor grumbled a little bit and cleaned his eyes surreptitiously, since he hated to be seen by them crying.
"I get it. We came here for other affairs," Cole said, finally.
Julian smiled and nodded, but Belthazor grabbed Cole's arm strongly and said: "And do you allow these two little witches to tell you what we have to do??"
Chris frowned, but Julian raised his eyebrow, and then grinned. "Don't make me talk..." He said, amused.
Cole smiled, understanding, and chuckled when he heard Belthazor grumble again.
For a moment Chris grinned, too, before the worries returned to his mind. "Ok... Seriously, guys... What's going on?" he asked, finally.
"You tell me," Belthazor answered gravely. "You came to see me."
"Because you sent Julian to the bridge, 'cause you were hearing the same voice."
"It's just a feeling, not a voice."
"A feeling, alright..."
The other two kept turning their looks from one to the other, as if it was a tennis match.
"Whatever..." Chris sighed. "We need to find out what that is, because it could be something important, don't you think so?"
The red demon stared at him in silence, and then he nodded slowly: "That's what worries me. When I started to have those feelings, I thought it had something to do with the Underworld, but then we found out it was the same for you, and you are now the most powerful being on earth... So I guess this is not good."
Chris blushed. "That's not true..."
Julian burst into laughing, and shook his head. "The boy is right... He's one of the TWO most powerful beings on earth. But you're the other," he said, addressing the demon.
Cole swallowed, remaining silent, but worried. Thinking of Belthazor as such was scary. But there was something else. When the demon was going to answer, he intervened: "If the two most powerful beings on earth are having those feelings... Something must be really wrong." He had no clue of what was going on, but as he listened to their conversation, he came to dislike it more and more.
Julian stared at him, and nodded: "Ok, we need to find out what it is. So, please... Explain in detail what those feelings or voices are. Both of you."

(Chapter 2 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)