Disclaimer: I wish.
Ch. 11:
Piper walked into the attic, carrying Wyatt and set him down in his playpen.
"Okay, listen to me." She told him. "You will not orb down to your little friend. Do you understand me? No orbing."
A second later, Phoebe walked in, clearly annoyed.
"Where's Meredith?" she asked.
"She trying to distract the baby down-" Piper started when Meredith shimmered in with the baby.
She spun in place, trying to figure out what had just happened, before looking down at the baby.
"That's cheating." She told him strictly.
"Oh, I give up." Piper said, sighing.
Meredith set the baby down in the playpen and sat down with her own sigh.
"Can I complain now?" Phoebe asked.
"Go right ahead." Piper replied.
"I have had it with men." Phoebe told them, launching into rant mode. "They are incorrigible."
"Well, let me tell you, little boys are not much better." Piper told her.
"I could understand running if he didn't love me back, you know?" Phoebe continued. "Fight or flight. It's the nature of the beast."
"Speaking of that-" Piper tried to tell her sister, but Phoebe just kept going.
"But he does love me." Phoebe complained. "I know. I felt it, you know? So what's the big deal? Why is he running?"
"Well, if it makes you feel better, you probably won't be alive long enough to worry about it much." Meredith interjected.
"Thank you, yes." Phoebe replied. "That makes me feel so much better."
"We're just saying, if this doesn't work, we may not be able to vanquish the Manticores when they come to pick up their little one." Piper told her.
"Oh, you figured out what they are?" Phoebe asked.
"Yeah." Meredith replied. "And it's so not good."
"So maybe Chris was right." Phoebe said.
"Oh, please don't say that where he can hear it." Meredith begged.
"Besides, I just can't." Piper said.
"And I won't." Meredith added.
"Piper, you said yourself." Phoebe said. "He was born evil."
"I know and I still believe that." Piper told her. "I do. But something just doesn't add up about him. Why isn't Wyatt using his protective shield? Why doesn't Wyatt think he's evil?"
"Well, we gotta keep Wyatt away from him." Phoebe said.
She headed to the playpen and picked Wyatt up.
"Phoebe, wait-" Piper said.
"No, don't-" Meredith said at the same moment, but it was too late.
The baby started to cry.
"You stay away from my nephew, okay?" Phoebe told him. "And don't shimmer after him either, or I'll bind your powers."
Suddenly, the baby's cry turned into an unnatural high-pitched wail.
"Phoebe, hurry!" Piper said. "Put him back down."
"What?" Phoebe asked. "Okay…"
She put Wyatt down and turned around to look at Piper and Meredith.
"Why?" she demanded.
A beast-like creature shimmered in behind Phoebe.
"That's why." Meredith replied.
He backhanded Phoebe and she went flying, straight into Piper and Meredith. The Beast then tried to reach into the playpen, but Wyatt's shield went around him and the baby, and the Beast couldn't get through.
Piper finally got to her feet and blasted the Beast.
"Hey!" she yelled. "You get away from my kid!"
She continued to blast the Beast over and over again, and Meredith got to her knees and sent a bolt of electricity at him. Finally, the Beast shimmered away.
Before they could react, the Beast appeared behind Piper. He wrapped his arms around her and shimmered away, with her.
Phoebe and Meredith were both left, staring at the place where Piper had been.
Paige walked into the attic, carrying an ice pack, and handed it to Phoebe, who sat scrying for Piper. She took it from Paige and put it on her neck.
Meredith sat a little ways away, the baby in her arms, with her eyes closed. She was singing under her breath and Wyatt was watching her.
"I feel really bad that I wasn't there to help you earlier." Paige told them.
"Oh, I don't think you could've helped even if you were there." Phoebe told her. "Thanks. That think was just as powerful as the Manticore."
"Are you sure it wasn't a Manticore?" Paige asked.
"No, it wasn't a Manticore." Meredith said. "It was more…beast-like."
"What do you think it wanted with the baby?" Paige asked.
"I don't know." Phoebe said as Meredith shrugged. "But I think it's really weird that it showed up right after the baby started crying. You know, as if it could hear him."
"Maybe we can get the baby to cry again and lure The Beast here, and torture him into coughing up Piper." Paige suggested.
"It's a great idea, but we don't have a potion yet." Phoebe said, frustrated. "I can't find Piper anywhere."
"Okay, let me get started on the potion." Paige said, turning to the potions table. "The good news is if he wanted to kill Piper by now, he probably would have. And undoubtedly he's holding her hostage somewhere, probably magically cloaked. And I think he's gonna use her as leverage to get that baby, just you watch."
"Since when did you become an expert on hostage situations?" Phoebe asked.
"About an hour ago." Paige replied.
There was a flash of orbs and Chris and Leo arrived.
"Hey." Chris said.
"Shh, shh." Paige said. "Keep it down. Don't wake the baby. Trust me."
"Where's Piper?" Chris whispered.
"That's a really good question." Phoebe replied.
"Wait, she's missing?" Leo demanded.
"Did the Manticores take her?" Chris asked.
"No, some other creature that wanted the baby." Phoebe replied.
"Damn it, you should have listened to me." Chris burst out. "You should have vanquished him when you had the chance. Instead, Piper's gone and Meredith is cuddling with him. Again."
"Bite me, Christopher." Meredith called.
"Well, it's good that we didn't, because we're gonna need the baby to get Piper back." Paige said. "And, also, Meredith's the only one who can hold him without him screaming bloody murder. We're trying to keep him away from Wyatt!"
"You know what makes it easier to keep him quite?" Meredith asked. "Everyone else being quiet. So can we please use our inside voices?"
"I am not convinced that this baby is inherently evil, which means he's probably not even responsible for any of this." Paige said.
"Oh, come on!" Chris exclaimed.
"Inside voices!" Meredith hissed.
"Will you please talk to them?" Chris begged Leo, albeit at a lower volume.
"Not everyone is born morally neutral, especially not demons." Leo said. "They're predisposed to evil."
"Predisposed, yeah, but it doesn't mean they can't be raised to overcome it." Paige shot back. "You can't predict whether a kid is gonna be good or evil based on his genetics."
"Paige, we're not talking about kids." Chris told her. "We're talking about demons."
"No, we are talking about a demon kid who so far has played nothing but nice with Wyatt." Paige replied.
"Okay, that's it." Meredith said, getting up. "You people are incapable of being quiet. If anyone wants me, the baby and I will be in my room."
She walked out and Chris sighed.
"Okay, you guys, this is all irrelevant." Phoebe said. "We need the baby to find Piper, so let's just focus on that, shall we?"
"She's right." Leo said. "Although I think I should take Wyatt just to be on the safe side."
"That should be fine as long as Meredith stays with the baby." Phoebe replied. "He seems to like her best."
"I wonder why." Leo said suspiciously.
"Because Manticores are connected to the Earth." Chris said crossly. "And Mer is a direct conduit to the Earth's power, so it trusts her."
Leo shrugged and went over to Wyatt and orbed him out.
Chris sighed and walked out, leaving Paige and Phoebe alone.
"Let's get started on that potion." Phoebe told her sister.
Chris walked to Meredith's room and opened the door quietly. Meredith was sitting with her back to the door, rocking the baby and singing quietly to it.
"Show me a smile then
Don't be unhappy, can't remember
When I last saw you laughing
If this world makes you crazy
And you've taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I'll be there
And I'll see your true colors
Shinning through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow."
"You used to sing that when we were kids." Chris said softly.
"Yeah." Meredith said. "I used to sing it to Jenny, too."
She turned and looked at him and he saw the tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Chris." She said. "I want to back you up so bad it hurts, but I can't. There's something about him. He's not what you think."
"You can't know that." Chris told her.
"I can feel it, Chris." She told him, turning back to the sleeping baby. "There's something we're missing. Piper knew it too. I don't know what it is, but until I do, I'm not going to let anything happen to him. I won't fail him."
"He's not who you're afraid of failing." Chris told her, sitting next to her. "And you didn't fail Jenny. You did the best you could."
"I'm not going to let him die." Meredith said stubbornly. "Not if I can help it."
"Alright." Chris back down.
He looked at her for a second before orbing away. After he was gone, Meredith looked down at the baby.
"It's alright." She said, rocking him. "Everything's going to be alright."
Piper sat on the floor of a rundown house, her hands tied behind her. As she worked on getting her hands free, something moved outside the door.
"Hello?" she called. "Who's there?"
"I want the child." A voice called.
"Who are you?" Piper called.
"I want the child!" the voice repeated.
"Yeah." Piper replied. "I heard you the first time."
The thing moved into the room and hid behind a bookshelf.
"Look, if you're trying to scare me, it's not gonna work 'cause I've seen worse." Piper told him. "Really."
"I doubt it." The voice replied. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you don't do as I ask."
"Who are you kidding?" Piper asked. "You need me, otherwise I'd be dead already."
The Beast stepped out into the open and Piper flinched.
"Don't mock me!" he yelled.
"Okay, easy, easy." Piper said. "Sorry."
The Beast stepped behind a lampshade.
"You're not a Manticore, are you?" Piper asked. "So why do you want the kid anyway?"
"That's not your concern." The Beast replied.
"Well, it is if you want my help." Piper told him. "I'm not just gonna serve him up to you as a snack."
"That's not why I want him." The Beast replied. "How'd you get him away from his mother anyway?"
"We vanquished her." Piper replied.
"You have no idea what you've done." The Beast told her.
"We got a baby away from a demon, and I'm not gonna give him up to another one." Piper said.
"Then you'll die!" The Beast threatened.
"The hell I will." Piper shot back.
She blasted through the ropes, freeing herself, before blasting the Beast. She missed, but she hit the wall behind him, giving her enough cover to get away. She ran from the room and headed for the front door. When she reached for it, a protective shield zapped her back into the house. She got back on her feet and ran to a nearby bedroom where she hid.
At the post office, the standoff was still going on while the officers waited for a sign from Darryl.
"Any sign of the lieutenant?" the SWAT Commander called.
"Negative." Came the reply over the radio.
"All right, we'll give him five more minutes to talk him out, then we'll-" The Commander was interrupt by the sound of the gunfire.
"Hold your fire." The Commander ordered. "Hold your fire."
The front door opened and the hostages came running out.
"Don't shoot!" someone shouted. "They're hostages!"
"Where's the lieutenant?" someone else called.
"I don't see the lieutenant!"
All eyes and guns were trained on the front door.
Finally, Darryl appeared, leading the kid in handcuffs.
"No sweat!" he called. "I got it! This lieutenant's on the job, kicking butt, taking names, yeah, that's right! That's me! I got it! No sweat!"
He led the kid across the parking lot to congratulations from the other officers.
"How'd you do it, man?" the kid asked. "How did those bullets bounce right off of your chest like that?"
Darryl went to open the door of a squad car and the door flew off it's hinges.
"'Cause I'm a bad-ass, that's why, punk." Darryl replied.
The kid stared as Darryl tossed the door to the side.
"What the hell was that?" the kid demanded, starting to freak out.
"Shut up." Darryl told him nervously.
He tossed the kid into the car, and he went flying across and through the other door.
"What the hell are you, man?" he demanded.
A/N: What did you guys think? Let me know.
Abbey