"So they're both suspended?" Andy asked, as the family gathered in the conservatory. Margaret was holding Cole, while Piper was holding Patricia and Charlotte dozed in her daddy's lap.
"Yes," Xander confirmed. "and I feel bad for Zac. I never did have a chance to talk to Mitchell, so I didn't get any sense of who he is or why he might be so angry. But it could also be that he's afraid himself. He's a natural born witch, trying to control that power, he could be having trouble dealing with it all. Hopefully the whitelighter assigned to him can help him."
"Like Greg, the boy I've been mentoring who threatened his teacher." Andy suggested. "He was a scared, angry kid with a hard life who thought no one cared. He just needed someone to care and when Maria, his teacher, showed she cared, he started working to turn his life around. Only Mitchell knows why he's angry, even if he can't articulate it. Given time, he may change."
"Maybe you could mentor Zachary, Xander." Prue suggested. "Maybe even Mitchell. We're all considering the fact that our kids will eventually be attending Magic School, that means being involved with it, maybe we can volunteer too like a lot of parents do at regular schools."
"My vision quest represented both my fears and my hopes." Phoebe stated. "My hopes seemed to involve a child for myself, which I already knew, the possibility of Prue having a child, Piper having another. Maybe me falling in love again, which I know I'm not ready for, but am willing to acknowledge I might be...some day and an answer to the mystery that was happening at the school."
"At supper you mentioned options." Piper reminded. "What options were you thinking of?"
"Either adoption or IVF." Phoebe answered. "Adoption, even private adoption, can take years and there's no guarantee IVF will work, but I do want a baby of my own."
"Than I say go for it." Prue encouraged her. "I'll support which ever choice you go for. Let the possibility of love take care of itself, focus on the part you feel you are ready for, a child of your own."
"And my desire to be the kind of hands on mother I wanted to be for Cordelia, but couldn't because of my health and now being a techno vamp who can be a stay at home mom, means I'm also available to look after your baby too, like I do Charlotte and Patricia." Margaret offered. "Cole's been doing just fine with two little girls around, I don't see him having a problem with another one."
"He didn't seem to have a problem in my vision." Phoebe agreed. "And in the vision Patricia had a little sister and Cole greeted my baby bump the way he use to greet Piper's. Hi, baby. The thing that bugs me though is the man in the shadows, Xander was teasing me about him in my vision."
"My teasing wasn't making you uncomfortable, was it?" Xander asked, concerned. "Because if I ever make you uncomfortable I want to know about it so I can not do that."
"No, you just pointed out that having been the goddess of love, I probably know more about love than he does. Also, the man in the shadows mentioned he'd just been assigned a special case, which makes me wonder if he was a lawyer like Cole was."
"Law doesn't have much to do with love." Xander said. "But back on the subject of the boys and the cause of Mitchell's anger, I had a thought. I was talking to Steven, Mitchell's father. Both he and his mother, are witches. But his grandmother is a practitioner, Steven is a natural born witch, like his son and he told me he would have loved to have a place like Magic School to learn how to control his power. I'm wondering if Mitchell's problem stems from feeling like he had no say in having powers."
"Feeling like you have little to no say in your life is a common teen issue." Andy said, turning the idea over in his head. "Feeling overwhelmed by life. It could be contributing to Mitchell's problems."
"I'm concerned over the fallout of Zachary using his telepathy the way he did." Cordelia mentioned. "We're talking about Magic School expanding to allow techno vamps to enroll there. A techno vamp's abilities remind people of telepathy. Even though technically it's not the same thing. It's probably a good thing that Cole and any potential future techno vamp children are still a ways away from even needing to go to school. It gives things a chance to wind down at the school and us time to make sure Cole understands the rules of being a techno vamp and we're absolutely sure he can block other people's thoughts."
"And if we're volunteering and mentoring, the parents, staff and students can see we're sincere in our efforts as well." Charles offered. "I could use more to do anyway, I used to run a huge company and now I work a nine to five job. I need more to do and the fact that we're not aging means we won't stand out there, what with Elders and whitelighters also not aging. Long term, we could end up very involved in the school."
"We do need to think about the future, we can't hunt demons forever, we'll burn out." Xander agreed. "We need ways of actually living, not just surviving."
"And it gives us a way to do something I once promised Phoebe we'd do." Cordial grinned at her sister. "Watch over the Warren line of witches far into the future."
"Our very own guardian angels." Phoebe grinned back.
"Who aren't afraid to start a war with demons if any of our kids are hurt or worse, killed by demons." Leo said dryly, making everyone else smile ruefully as they privately acknowledged, it wasn't just the techno vamp portion of their family that was willing to do that.