Raven I – Paolo and Brooks

A/N: Hello all! Welcome to the next installment of Resurrection. Sorry for the wait but… have you ever tried writing a story with another person? 'Tis difficult. And the story must go on!

It was Wednesday, February 5th, one week and three days since Andy had arrived. As I sat at my desk I heard, What did you put for number 16?

I'm not telling, I answered.

Come on, we used to cheat in Social Studies.

That was in eighth grade! This is college World Religions.

Well we work together on-

Okay! Shut up already! It's – Oh. My. God! Rosalyn and I had been telepathically communicating about the test we were taking in our World Religions class we attended together, when I saw Paolo's astral self peek around the door of the bathroom off the classroom.

RoseI'llBeRightBackIJustSawPaoloInTheBathroom. I slipped into the bathroom just in time to see Paige orb in. "Oh my Goddess! What is going on?" I asked in a forceful whisper.

"Why don't you ask Paolo?" Paige replied. We both looked at him expectantly.

"Ummm…I had a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"I only want to tell Mommy." He said softly, looking at the ground. Then he whispered in my ear. Paige looked questioningly at me and I mouthed "Puberty."

"Okay Paolo, why don't you go back to school, and I'll come back in a minute." Paige told Paolo who left to go back to his body in the school. Paige turned to me, "I am so sorry that it took me so long to get here. It's always harder to tell with astral projection."

"That's okay." I answered. I knew what she meant, it was hard to tell if he was just sitting quietly, or if he had astral projected somewhere. Luckily, he would usually only go to Mom and Cynthia's.

"Hey, if you want I can have Henry talk to him. Little Henry just hit puberty himself."

"Thanks." I knew Paige was only trying to help, but it still hurt because it reminded me that I couldn't provide Paolo with everything. I had tried so hard to be a good mother, but I could never replace a father. We had no blood relatives he could turn to, and our adopted family was all women. I never had a good enough relationship. I had tried and failed to find a good father figure for him but it hadn't worked.

"Alright. Think about it. I'd better get back." Paige broke the silence.

"Yeah. Okay, bye." I walked out of the bathroom, and didn't even talk to Rose. When class had finished, I just got into the car and drove. Rose must have just shimmered home. It was driving to nowhere that I realized that I couldn't live lifeless for ever. I decided that I needed to talked to my friends again, get out more, and get over David Kent.

I called up my old friend Bryan Brooklyn Ryland, with whom I had been friends with since we were both 13. We had stayed in touch, but never actually met face to face since 10th grade, because he had moved to San Antonio. He told me that he was actually in San Francisco until the 2nd, and I asked him if he'd like to meet for lunch at a little diner on my street called Order Out (I don't know why they call it that, because they don't even have take out service). He said he'd love to, but he already had made reservations-for-two at an upscale restaurant for dinner. He hadn't told me he was coming, because he wanted to surprise me and take me out to dinner. I was very surprised, but happy.

"Hey Pals," He told me, calling me by his pet name for me, "How could I leave my favorite-girl-in-the-world alone on Valentine's Day? I'm so sorry that I missed your others."

"That's okay, Brooks," I replied, smiling because I knew I was the only one allowed to call him that (Everyone else had to call him Bryan). "It wasn't your fault."

"I still feel bad because I should've come for last year and the year before at least."

"Look – Brooks, its okay. Get over it. Your Grandfather died, and last year you broke your leg. It's not your fault, and I don't blame you, so you shouldn't blame yourself. Plus, I'm sure we'll have enough fun to make up for it." Brooks and I finished our conversation, and said goodbye. Neither of us had been real daters in high school and we had almost gone out, but we had decided to stay friends because we were afraid we'd screw up.

The next day I went on a photo shoot for House Magazine, and didn't work at the restaurant. My photo shoot ended at 3, so I went to pick Paolo up from school. "Hey Raven, wait!" I heard. I turned and there was Paige.

"Piper wants to know if you all want to come over for dinner on Friday. We're going, too. And Phoebe's side."

"Well…I'll ask." I told her, thinking how we expanded our family and how I wanted to spend as much time with Brooks as possible.

"Good, just let us know."

"I will. Bye." I shimmered Paolo and I home, and took a shower. I dressed up, in one of my favorite dresses, and told Paolo he could watch a movie. I don't know why, but the kid gets so excited over 90210. He ran off to watch it. When Rose came home, I told her I was going out, and she asked with who, and where.

"Bryan."

"Bryan?" she thought. "Oh My God, you mean Bryan Ryland?!"

"Yes. He's in town for the week."

"You're pretty dressy for an old friend." Rose commented, looking over my outfit.

"Yeah, well, he's taking me to Davinci's. I'm really glad none of the girls are working tonight. I'd hate for him to know I waitress there."

"Well where did you tell him you work?" She asked, unbelieving.

"The magazine."

"I can't believe you kept that from an old friend."

"I don't want him to know how bad I'm really doing. He's successful, well off, put together." I told her. "I don't want him to know that I'm a failure. I feel so incompetent compared with him."

"I doubt it'd bother him. You have been friends for years, and stayed in touch even though he moved away."

"Maybe, maybe not."

I arrived at the restaurant and gave the hostess his name. "Excuse me, I'm supposed to meet Bryan Ryland."

"This way, please." I followed. I was glad that I didn't see any familiar faces among the staff. If I decided he could know, I wanted to tell him myself.

She led me to a table where a handsome black-haired man with blue-green eyes sat. He stood, and walked over to me. "It's so good to finally see you again." He told me as we embraced.

"You too." He pulled out my chair for me to sit, and I sat. Then he went to pull his chair closer to mine.

"So…how's my little boy?" He asked of Paolo. I answered, and we talked through other things that have happened, and how life has changed.

Then I said, "Brooks, you know how I work at the magazine, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well that's not the only place. In between the magazine, school, and caring for Paolo I work as a waitress…here." I waited a moment then continued. "Since we moved here from New York," I said referring to New York City, "The apartment rent is more, Paolo needs new things, and so do I, Roxy and Rose already help me out, so I picked up the extra job so that I can put in more of our share."

"I'm sorry. Do you not want to eat here? We could go someplace else."

"No. That's okay," I told him, "I just wanted to let you know." We sat quiet for a minute or two before he spoke again.

"You really amaze me." He said, looking into my eyes. "You have been dealt so many problems, and you just take care of them. You are left an orphan at 16, and have to take care of a five year old. You have no time to grow up, you just had to be grown up right away. And now you have an 8-yr.-old, two jobs, college, Roxy and Rose, and Charmed duties. There is no way any average person could do that. You're very special."

"That's really sweet of you, Brooks, but I'm just doing what I have to do." I really did feel special when he told me that. I leaned forward to kiss his cheek, but ended up kissing his lips. It was short, because we were both surprised, but sweet. At the end of dinner I said, "I really had a great time, thank you."

"Do you want to go out again?"

"I do."

"How about Saturday?"

"That sounds great. Oh yeah, would you like to come to dinner tomorrow? It's not at my place. We're going to the Halliwell's."

"Sure. Sounds like fun."

"Great." We got up and hugged again. He kissed me this time, and I kissed back. It was a much better kiss than before.

At the Halliwell's the next day, It was Piper, Leo, Wyatt, Chris, Phoebe, Coop, Paige, and Henry, along with Rose, Roxy, Paolo, Brooks, and I. Phoebe and Piper were pregnant. I introduced the Bryan to the Halliwells, and explained that he was an old friend of mine from way back, and that our secret was safe with him. Everyone had a great dinner, and then I shimmered Bryan back to his hotel room. We kissed a little before I shimmered home.

On Saturday, at 7pm, Bryan pulled up in front of the apartment in a blue convertible, wearing a suit. "Dinner's not 'til eight. I thought we'd go for a drive." He asked, "Would you like to?" I answered yes. I was very glad that I had decided to wear my sparkly red dress.

Before I could get to the car, Andy was heard saying, "Rae, you need to get back here!"

"I'm leaving, Andy." I got in the car and Bryan drove away.

"Who's he?" He asked as we drove.

"Oh-um…" I tried to find a way to explain. "He is our new roommate. He sleeps on the couch. He is a whitelighter. Do you remember what they are?" He nodded. "Well he was the eldest Charmed One's highschool sweetheart, and they went out again after college. He died two years before she did. Now he is assigned to watch us, but he can't see the Halliwells. Not yet, anyway." Bryan listened while we drove around the city, then we went to eat.

After the meal we went to his hotel room. We sat on the bed and watched a movie and talked, hung out, just had a great time. I fell asleep, and awoke to Bryan sitting next to me, calling my name.

"Brooks!" I said sleepily.

"Rae, get up. It's time to watch the sunrise."

"Idunwannagetup." I mumbled.

"Fine." He stood up and picked me up in his arms. He carried me down the stairs and slid me into the car. We drove to the park, and I got out and walked with him to a park bench.

"I'm cold." I told him, and he put his arm around me and let me get closer. I laid my head on his chest. After the sunrise he drove me back to the apartment. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me at the door. I was caught off guard, but I kissed back. We stood kissing for a while, and then we stopped and he got in his car and I snuck into the apartment.

On my way to my room, I tripped into the couch and fell onto Andy who was sleeping there. He opened his eyes to see me, my face inches from his. "Sorry." I whispered. He helped me stand up, and looked at my clothes. "Please don't wake up my sisters."

"Don't worry. I won't. Do you need a light?" I nodded, and Andy made an orb appear in his hand and walked with me quietly down the hallway. I thanked him when we got to my door. "Nite" was his reply.