Chapter 11
Leo and Odin appeared in the conference room. The room was white with bright light and stands for the elders. Now room was full with those. They all looked exited and worried. As Leo knew the check was very serious and difficult on everybody who had to answer before the Neutrals. They checked everything and everybody, observed whitelighter's work and the Elders meeting. They never showed themselves at one but all of the Elders noticed their presence there. It meant that they looked and watch closely and now were ready to announce their verdict.
When all elders took their places on the stands, the main gated in the room opened and a couple came in. They were man and woman, both of them a little older then Piper was, but one look at them could tell that they carried the scent of royalty. They were gracious and light. The woman wore the costume of deep blue with snowy white blouse that made her eyes look even deeper. She had brown hair that was lifted up in a beautiful hairdo. Leo could see the wrinkles around her eyes but they made her even more sophisticated. On her finger he saw simple wedding band and on her wrist she had a gold bracelet with some pictures. The man on the other hand wore light beige trousers with navy blue shirt. He had a short haircut that made him look younger. Like his wife he had a simple wedding band on his finger. They both were well-built and it made them a beautiful couple.
They came to the table that was in the middle of the room, and was prepared for them. They put their folders with the results and started the meeting.
"Good morning. Well I guess afternoon for most of you. I'm Helena Weinburg and that is my husband, Simon Weinburg. We're here today to inform you about the results of our revision on you, on how you work, what you achieved and where you made mistakes." She paused. "Well, I'm happy to announce that there weren't any major problems that could make you being recycled." There was a collective gasp, no one knew they were ready to do that. Helena raised her eyebrow glanced at her husband. "Yes, we were ready to replace you with more efficient people if you didn't stand up our expectations. We begin with the beginning: who we are. We are people who were created by magic itself to protect the magic, good and evil, time, space, destiny and death. The two of us doesn't have all power over everything at once. The power is divided between us and some other people." After that they began to tell about what they noticed, found out, heard and saw.
This whole time Leo didn't see that they even spared him a glance. Helena and Simon took turns with the report. They pointed out some things that should be changed to continue the Elders job without any accidents. It took three hours to discuss very problem they knew about and suggest the better way of deciding it. For the first time in his life Leo heard such a detailed report, they said not only about their professional mistakes but also about their ethical mishaps, they gave notes to everybody about how they should change their attitude to the good witches, and reminded them that witches helped them, not because Elders wanted them to, but because they decided to help them. So the Elders not always had rights to interfere with their lives, but they had to provide them the protection. They also informed them that if the Gideon situation repeated itself, they wouldn't hesitate. Because one Elder had no right to decide what was the best for the world and especially interrupted the destiny that was settled long before the child was born. With that they closed the meeting and said that they would look after their work as a warning.
It took another thirty minutes to the room being cleared of the Elders. Leo noticed that the Neutrals weren't in any hurry to leave. They used the time they have to put every paper in the corresponding folder and they looked around from time to time checking who was still in the room. When they were ready Leo made his move and went to them. Now he could see Helena's bracelet. There were picture of people he considered were important to them and there was the photo with Chris smiling happily in the camera. Leo had never seen his son that happy, as if every bad thing in the world never happened to him, as if he was normal careless teenager. And that made Leo's heart sting, knowing that somewhere else his child was happy and not with them.
"Where is my son?" Leo asked, while they waited his question.
"Your son? Which one, Wyatt or Paul?" Simon asked calmly. Their face showed no emotions and Leo guessed that they weren't going easy on him, neither he would.
"I'm talking about Chris. My middle son." Leo responded filling anger.
"I didn't know he was your son. Last time I checked Chris called you by your names and us Mum and Dad." Helena said standing up with fire in her eyes.
"Where's my son?" he demanded again. "I want to see him and take him home."
"Home? I didn't know that it called that way now." Simon replied. "Place where he comes unnoticed, unloved and uncared. It's not a home it's some prison."
"We love Chris. We always did. But you stole him. You made him believe that we don't love him."
"And why would we do that?" Helena asked. "We did everything in our power to make him come to you, to confine in you. But it was you who never showed any interest in Chris' life. We were there for him when he lost control over his powers, we cured him when he was injured after one of the demon's attack and you forgot about him. It was me he came to tell about his first love interest, because your wife said that it was irrelevant. We always had time for him and the rest of our children. Bur you, you didn't. You remembered about him when he left. Right now he's trying to achieve his dream, he's loved and happy. He will come to you when he feels it's time."
"You have no idea how hard to bring up three magical kids." Leo said in his defense. But he felt every word piercing his heart and adding new pain.
"We don't know?" Helene laughed darkly. "We have triples who are the eldest kids in a family, two daughters around the same age as Chris and Chris himself. All of them are magical, and before you say another word, I inform you that maybe there's no demons attacks, but we have other enemies to take care off. So don't go there. We know all about six kids, we are there for all of them and they are good for each other. They almost feel each other pain, Chris including."
Leo was stunned, he had no idea about that. These people didn't fail any of his children and one of them wasn't even their child, they just adopted him in some way. He felt tears clouded his vision, the meeting with them made Leo's guilt grew.
"You know, for five years we tried to refuse Chris to call us Mum and Dad, but after his attempt we understood that we are the only people who cared about him the way you should. And it was six years ago." Helena said as she turned from Leo, trying to hide her tears. "You have no idea how scared I was when we found him, I thought that I would lose him and I would never hear him calling me his Mum. That moment I regretted all those years when I tried him to come to you." By now Leo could hear the tears in her voice. "You never saw how my kids hold him for dear life when he regained his consciousness. They followed him everywhere he went, even bathroom." At that memory they both smiled. They remembered how all of them were stick to Chris and the exact moment when he was arguing with Tom about going to the bathroom by himself and Tom wouldn't barge and still followed him.
"So, Leo if you want to have any relationships with Chris, you need to find out about him as much as you can, without using magic. Just observe his thing in your house. He will come to you only if you really show him you care. And right now is not it." Simon said. He considered Leo thinking whether he should say about the fact that Chris was Neutral like they were or not. "And Leo, I suggest you to start with finding out Chris real destiny."
"All you do right now looks like you want to make yourselves feel better and not to make up to Chris. Think about it." With that they both disappeared in the flash of light.
Leo stood in the room for another several minutes, thinking how he could know more about his missing son without magic involved. He was surprised that they gave him clue as to try and find his sons destiny, it was the beginning. Everything they talked about, printed in Leo's mind and he knew now that these people had no intentions to destroy his family, they just wanted to protect the child they loved. And that made Leo to look back and rethink about their decision, he understood that last six months was about them and not about Chris, and made him feel sick in his stomach. Signing Leo orbed home, to discuss the current situation with his family.