But if you try to go alone, don't think I'll understand...
Rory
People experienced Rory Peyton Halliwell as one of two things: a deep breath of cool fresh air, or their darkest secret come back to haunt them. Since he was so disarmingly honest and fearlessly unguarded, he naturally (though quite unintentionally) stripped away any social façade a person had constructed for as long as they were in his presence. As Piper once said to Leo, "I've spent my entire life trying to hide my vulnerabilities; I thought they made me weak. Then he comes along and single-handedly redefines vulnerability the greatest strengths. Why couldn't I have had him when I was 6?" When speaking of himself, however, Rory would claim to be about as 'intimidating as a caterpillar.'
If Lee had the appearance of a childlike cherub, Rory's appearance was more that of a classically angelic young man. Though he was just above six feet tall and had the physique of a 1500's marble statue, his physique was surprisingly non-threatening. He was neither masculine nor feminine, but a beautiful balance of the two. His voice was hauntingly soothing and hypnotically hollow, and he had his Aunt Phoebe's gingerbread skin and deep brown eyes.
Despite all of Rory's virtues, he had one quality that frustrated the hell out of all of his brothers: He was obnoxiously self-sacrificing.
"I can't heal him," Wyatt cried, holding Rory's limp, motionless body as he kneeled on the Dining Room floor. "He won't let me."
"no..." Chris whispered, as though he feared the sound of his own voice. "please no."
"Is… Is he…?" Steve couldn't bring himself to utter the final word, his stunned gaze locked solidly on his fallen brother.
In truth, Wyatt wasn't entirely certain whether or not Rory was still alive himself. He hadn't been able to distinguish between what he hoped was Rory's pulse and the pounding of his own heart. But by now, his entire body had gone completely numb with worry, and he could scarcely make out the faces of the people standing around him, for the salty dampness that burned his eyes.
Chris bolted towards his two brothers, dropping heavily down onto one knee and searching Rory's wrist with his fingers. Unable to detect a pulse from his wrist, Chris felt the side of his brother's dampened neck. "His heart's still beating," he said, sounding as though his own was about to stop. "but barely."
Wyatt and Chris looked at one another and grasped for their own senses of composure, trying to be the leaders their brothers needed.
"Let's get him onto the table!" Chris urged.
"Centerpieces!" Dylan chanted, just as Paige was opening her mouth to say "vase thingies". She watched in bewilderment as her neo-seventies nephew telekinetically orbed all three glass fixtures from the Dining Room table out to the marble table in the Main Hall.
As soon as the table was cleared, the two eldest brothers lifted Rory's body and laid him down carefully onto his back, atop the long, rectangular table. Jared noticed a curious look roll across Wyatt's face as he helped the others move Rory onto the large surface. It was the face of a man hell bent on seizing an opportunity.
The dream. Jared thought as he remembered the sound of Rory's icy words: "Promise me something… You won't blame yourself… if it doesn't work." Jared suddenly felt a heavy ache of responsibility. If what doesn't work? Jared wondered.
"What do we do?" Piper frantically inquired, refusing to stand aside and do nothing.
Leo pulled Piper into his arms and held her close to him, quietly telling her that, if anything could possibly be done, their sons would know how to handle it. After a brief moment of resistance Piper relented. She gripped her husband's hand as the two watched their sons attempt to perform a miracle.
"Maybe we can still heal him." Steve mumbled in nervous denial. "Rory's body's like an energy sponge, it has to w-…"
"Steve, I've tried everything." Wyatt said sympathetically. "His body's rejecting it."
Steve refused to accept this. "But maybe with all of us together we…"
"Why?" Jared anxiously interrupted, grabbing the cardboard crown off of his head and tossing it carelessly onto the counter behind him. "Why is he doing this?"
Chris' curt words escaped him before he realized he'd even opened his mouth. "Because if he dies, the curse dies with him."
"Curse?" Piper snapped, "What curse?" Knowing that his mother's eyes would be waiting for him with a scathing glare, he neither answered her nor looked in her direction.
"So that's it?" Dylan asked, tension grappling his throat. "He's just… He's just gonna… I mean…"
"Of course not." Lee answered sincerely, surprised by the doubtful looks his brothers returned. "He's not, is he? I mean, we can still fix it right?"
"Rory's not going anywhere! We'll figure something out." Jared insisted, trying to convince himself as much as anyone. "Any ideas?"
Piper thought she'd explode from the excess verbosity and complete lack of actual activity in the room. "How 'bout some movement to go along with all that talk there fellas?"
"Piper," Paige shushed, taking a hold of her sister's free hand. "You're not helping!"
Wyatt, Chris, Steve, Dylan, and Lee rolled the soaked sleeves of Rory's dark green tee-shirt, removed his socks and shoes, and placed their hands on their brother's bare skin.
"This isn't working." Lee lamented. "Why? Wh-.. Why isn't it working?"
"What do we do now?" Dylan asked. "Somebody? Anybody?"
"Rory? Rory, please don't do this." Jared quietly begged. "Please don't leave…"
"Hey!" Dylan shouted, shaking Chris and Wyatt out of their zombie like trance. "Frick and Frak, what the hell do we do now?"
"Whatever we do, we need to do it fast." Chris shuttered, feeling Rory's pulse slowing. "He's fading."
"No! Shut up!" Wyatt yelled hysterically. "That's not going to happen! Rory's not going anywhere!"
"Hey!" Jared shouted. He had never seen Wyatt lose it like this before. "Pull it together! All of you!""He wouldn't just leave us." Steve said desperately, losing his battle with the truth. "Rory would never…"
"To protect us he would." Chris sighed. "He's trying to spare us."
"But he won't if he does it to himself." Lee reminded. "He knows that! If he takes his own life, it falls on us. Rory would never do that!"
"Lee, this isn't self inflicted." Wyatt said apologetically. "It took too much of his power to break us out… His body couldn't take it."
Jared checked Rory's wrist one last time to assess his heart's condition. He face flashed a ghostly pale. "Take his shirt off!" Jared sharply commanded, unable to find any sign of life at all.
"Picked an odd time to come outta the closet, didn't ya'?" quipped Steve, though he jumped to assist Dylan in removing Rory's top.
Jared didn't respond, knowing that Steve was just coping with terror the only way he knew how. Instead, he fully extended both of his long arms out in front of himself, his hands about a foot apart from one another, palms facing inward. As he focused intently on summoning his powers, a silver electrical current danced angrily between his hands. "Okay, Rory." Jared said determinedly. "Here's the deal: I won't blame myself if YOU don't die. How does that sound?" Taking a deep breath, Jared smashed his electrically charged hands together in a ball, and hammered forcibly down onto Rory's heart. As the shock zapped Rory's full body into a violent jerk, Jared stilled his brother's body with his hands and clasped him down on the table.
After the longest two seconds of his life had passed, Jared reached to touch Rory's neck, hoping to find a steady pulse. He stopped himself. "Can somebody else please check?" he quivered. "I ca-…. I can't do it." He stepped slowly away, looking at his trembling hands as though they were lit fuses.
Chris ran to the other end of the table and put both his hands on Rory's neck. He closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.
"Anything?" Wyatt asked hesitantly.
Chris looked around the room, breathing out the world's largest sigh of relief. "His heart's beating." Chris felt like he was watching statues come to life as signs of motion returned to the room. "Lee?"
As Lee closed his eyes to concentrate, a single tear fell from each. "We've got him." he responded. "He's okay."
Though Rory never opened his eyes, Lee promised everyone that he was merely sleeping, and should come around within the next couple of hours. Every witch, half-witch, whitelighter, half-whitelighter, Elder, half-Elder, brother, son, mother, father, aunt, mouse, spider, flea, you name it… Even the Manor itself practically lifted off the ground from the collective weight that dropped. Nobody went unhugged, nobody went unappreciated, and nobody failed to practically strangle Jared with gratitude.
Chris grabbed the color of Jared's shirt and pulled him towards him. He wept deeply on Jared's shoulder as the younger man held him.
"What?" Jared teased through tears of his own. "No macho man pat on the back? You're gonna hold onto me?"
Chris did his best to balance laughter, tears, and speaking as he stepped back to look in his brothers eyes. "Would you do me a favor?" he asked.
"Le'me guess." said Jared, "You want me to send you to Oz on a tornado. Chris, if you wanted to go 'over the rainbow' all you had to do was ask."
"Actually," Chris said, gathering himself, "I was hoping maybe we could step out back and you and I could both kick my ass around the yard."
Jared, always among the more touchy-feely of the bunch (and in this family… that was saying something), pulled his brother back towards him. "Chris, you don't ever have to apologize for caring too much about me." he said kindly. Chris just rested in his brothers arms for a second, until he felt a finger tapping him lightly on the should. Seeing who it belonged to, he gracefully stepped back to give another a chance to express their gratitude.
Piper stood on her tiptoes and reached to place the golden cardboard crown on Jared's head. Being nearly fourteen inches shorter than Jared, she found it to be a bit of a challenge, so he bent his knees slightly to make it easier for her. After placing it on his head in the traditional fashion, she decided that it looked better when she playfully slanted it on one side of his head.
"May I stand now?" Jared asked with his boyish charm, and as she smiled vulnerably in response, he did so. He placed two strong, comforting arms around her and let her weep for a while with her head against his chest.
"So um…" Piper began, her head still resting against his chest. "Do you always work this many miracles in a single day?" she asked, and looked up into his eyes.
"If I can perform three in a day, I achieve Saint status." Jared answered, smiled shyly downward.
Piper took a step back, put both her hands on his cheeks and chidingly pulled his head down until the two were at eye level. "I just wanted to be sure that you could see the look in my eyes when I said…" She paused and smirked for dramatic affect. "Thank you."
"Aw shucks." Jared responded as she kissed him on the forehead. As he stood back up, the two looked down at Rory. He seemed to be resting so peacefully.
"He's beautiful." said Piper softly, as she rubbed Rory's curly wet hair out of his eyes.
Jared looked down at his brother in agreement. "You have no idea."
note: The introductory phrase is from a song by Shakespeare's Sister entitled Stay.