Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 27, 2008 20:09:53 GMT -5
Chapter Eleven – Don’t Tell Mom
Flashback
Back at the manor, Chris and Leo were both seated in the front room of the manor. Chris was looking at his hands in his lap.
“Any idea how long it will take your brother to return?” Leo asked finally.
Chris looks up and shrugged. “He drove there this morning. He might have decided to drive here.”
“In that case why don’t we start with you,” Leo decided looking at his younger son. “Why don’t you tell me what part of this is your fault, Chris?”
“Are you serious?” Chris asked, hoping he wasn’t.
“Yes,” Leo informed him in no uncertain terms. “Start talking.”
“But, Dad . . .” Chris tried to stall or avoid or both. Explaining everything to his dad was not his idea of fun.
“No buts,” Leo stopped him. “Start talking or I’ll get your mom.”
Why he thought that was a threat, was unclear to Chris, but it startled him all the same. He didn’t want to bother his mom with this, not demons, not after all this time. Like so much else the reality he had helped create was unclear to the extreme, but he was fairly certain demons hadn’t been part of it. “No. Don’t tell Mom. You know Mom. She may be Charmed and she may be good at fighting evil, but she doesn’t like it and while she trained us, too, she wants a normal life for us.” He didn’t have to remember specific incidents to know that. It was a common enough theme. “Let her keep her illusions. As long as Way and I can handle them and they leave Mom alone, we’ll be fine. She doesn’t need to know. Don’t worry her.” The last words were a plea.
Leo frowned. “Chris, your mother will need to know and I don’t plan on lying to her.”
Chris groaned. He had forgotten his father’s reason for being there. “That’s right. Mom sent you here. Please, don’t worry her.”
Leo considered this and he didn’t like it. He wasn’t going to do what his son asked, but perhaps he could give him something else, time. “I’ll think about it if you and Wyatt tell me exactly what’s going on and I don’t want illegal activities happening.”
“But if innocent lives are at stake. . .” Chris protested. Not that he planned on breaking the law, but if an innocent life was at stake.
“Quit stalling and talk,” Leo said giving his son a quelling look.
Chris sighed. “Jody, from work, came and told me that Wy was waiting for me in the break room. I went there and he was in there with Hannah.”
“And where was Hannah when your mom came to the attic?” Leo asked watching Chris eyes, no longer sure he could trust his son. They had raised both boys to be truthful, but this was no longer just the son he had raised. This was some unknown balance of the son he had raised and the son who had died in front of him. While in the past Chris had lied to them. Leo didn’t know if the practice would begin again.
“Er . . .” The sheepish look on Chris face had a strangely reassuring effect on Leo.
“Your part in this?” Leo asked, suddenly sure that whatever Chris said from here on out, it would be the truth.
Chris winced, as if he knew his words would get him in trouble even before he said them. “I said a spell to hide her from Mom and then another to uncloak her.”
Leo’s eyebrows rose and he looked at his son in disbelief. “You wrote a spell specifically to hide her from your mom?!” Leo could hardly believe what Chris had told him, but who makes up something like that?
Chris nodded. “Mom will be upset if she realizes demons are on the attack, again.”
“Your mom’s smart,” Leo reminded his son wryly. “She realized that two days ago when you told her that your powers were back. . . How did you know your powers were back anyway?”
“Maybe because I never knew they were gone,” Chris informed him with a shrug. “One of the few advantages to memory loss.”
“And?” Leo queried knowing instinctively that there was more.
“And I closed the Book of Shadows with my telepathy,” Chris agreed easily to the unfinished question. A grin spread across his face as he added, “You should have seen Wyatt after he realized what I did. I didn’t understand his reaction at first.”
“And?” Leo persisted.
Chris shrugged. “Well, I threw a pillow at him.”
“Chris,” Leo warned.
Chris gave Leo a questioning look. “It was a soft pillow and it only hit the second time.”
“Chris.” Obviously there was more to this story, but it wasn’t what Leo was looking for.
“What?” Chris asked, not sure what his dad wanted.
“Have there been other demons?” Leo asked, even his patience wearing thin.
“Demons? No.”
Chris answer was a little to quick for Leo. Not a lie. Leo no longer believed Chris would give him that, but definitely hiding something. “Chris.”
Chris opened his mouth to answer.
At that moment Wyatt orbed into the room.
Once he was fully materialized Leo pointed at a chair. “Wyatt, sit. Chris, answer.”
“Nothing happened,” Chris said quickly, too quickly. “We’re fine.” Chris sat down and clamped his mouth shut.
Leo raised his eyebrows and looked at Chris. “Chris, I will get the truth eventually. Do you want this to be easy or hard?”
Chris shook his head, more than slightly resembling a stubborn toddler in that moment. “If you’re just going to tell Mom, I’d rather you have less to say.”
Leo sighed. “If you talk now, I’ll put off telling your mom, but not forever.” Leo looked at both of his sons in turn. “I’m only giving you an opportunity to tell her yourself.”
Chris looked at Wyatt. When Wyatt just shrugged, Chris turned back to Leo. “There was a darklighter. He attacked us in the park.”
“You were attacked in the park?” Leo asked, concerned. “When?”
“Friday,” Chris admitted.
“Were either of you hit?” Leo pushed.
Chris shook his head.
Leo looked at Wyatt.
Wyatt shook his head. “We weren’t hit. He tried to shoot us when he was invisi. . .” Wyatt stopped suddenly and sheepish look covered his face.
Leo’s eyes widened as he tried to take in the impossibility of his son’s statement. “The darklighter was invisible? How did that happen?”
“He used a power stealing athemé,” Chris told him thinking of the first time he had seen one. Though it was actually called a power sucking athemé, some distant memory changed the name in his mind.
Paige put the Book of Shadows back down on the podium. She turned around to find her young nephew looking up at her.
Chris watched her with eyes shaded by thick lashes. “Aunt Paige, what are you doing?”
Paige smiled. “Just remembering something.”
“What’s that, Aunt Paige?”
A strange sad smile crossed Paige’s face.
“Aunt Paige?”
“Hmm?” Paige responded looking down at her nephew.
“Is something wrong?” Chris asked concerned.
Paige shook her head. “Not any longer. Just something sad that happened, something I wished didn’t.”
“Something to do with what you were looking at?” Chris asked walking over to the podium.
Paige reached the book sooner, covering a page with her hand.
“Aunt Paige, I’m not so little I can’t know. Someday we’ll use magic again, and how am I going to be able to handle it if I don’t know about it?”
Paige looked at him quietly. “It’s not that. It’s . . .” She sighed and removed her hand.
Chris looked at the page, then back up at Paige, confusion on his face. “I don’t understand, Aunt Paige. It’s an athemé.”
Paige nodded. “It’s more the story behind it, I suppose.”
“What’s so special about an athemé?”
Paige sighed. “This one has the power to seal the powers of those killed by it inside.”
“It steals powers?” Chris said giving his aunt an ironic look. “It’s an athemé. That’s what they do.”
Paige shook her head. “This one can be used by anyone, not just warlocks.”
Chris thought about it for a moment. “So I could use it to steal the powers of a darklighter if one attacked me.”
Paige looked at Chris, concern growing steadily. “You will not try that. Evil powers can take over with little help, you would have to fight them all the time, do not even think to attempt such a thing.”
“Is that how Seth feels?” Chris asked, referring to his older brother, Wyatt’s best friend who was half manticore.
“It’s possible,” Paige admitted. “Perhaps the lack of magic has been a relief for him, a time when he doesn’t need to be at war with himself.”
Chris nodded. “All right, no power stealing athemés for me and for Seth, magic can stay away as long needed. I don’t mind not having powers if it means peace. That’s what we want anyway, isn’t it?”
Paige nodded with a small smile. “Yes, Chris. That’s what we want.”
Chris looked up. The look that he saw in his aunt’s eyes told him that peace was not the only thing she wanted. There was something else, something infinitely precious, something Chris didn’t understand, something she wouldn’t share with him.
Looking back Chris believed he now knew what that something was. A smile spread on his lips despite himself.
Leo didn’t seem to notice the look on Chris face, responding only to Chris words. “And what was a darklighter doing with an athemé. It is not their weapon of choice.”
“No, but collecting powers is smart,” Chris admitted. Just because it wasn’t smart for him as a witchlighter didn’t mean it wasn’t smart for anyone going against him. He had nothing on his brother power wise, but that didn’t mean he was delusional enough to think he was powerless or that the power that weaved itself through their line since Melinda Warren was something to be laughed at or taken lightly. Besides the darklighter had attacked both of them. That was just stupid, but it would have been more so if he hadn’t fortified himself with additional powers, powers he obviously didn’t know how to use. “I’m just glad he didn’t really know how to use them.”
“Them?” Leo asked startled, catching onto that all important word. “Just how many powers did he have?”
“Not sure,” Chris admitted. “He only used two, invisibility and fireballs.”
“Why are you telling Dad?” Wyatt asked, his curiosity finally getting the best of him.
“Watch it, son,” Leo said turning to his older son long enough to quell him. “You’ll get your turn.”
Wyatt sunk down into the chair and stayed quiet.
Leo turned back to Chris. “Any other demons, darklighter, warlock, or anyone else who wanted to attack you.”
Chris shook his head.
“Anything else I should know?” Leo asked looking at both of his sons this time.”
“He kept the athemé,” Wyatt admitted.
“Wy!” Chris exclaimed rising quickly to his feet. Thanks a lot, big bro. Why’d you volunteer that?
Leo rose to his feet almost as quickly. “You did what? Where is it now?”
Chris glared at Wyatt, ignoring Leo.
“Chris,” Leo said with warning in his voice, “I want an answer.”
With an annoyed look at Wyatt, Chris answer, annoyance coming through in his voice. “At the apartment. I planned on studying it to see if I could learn anything helpful.”
“It isn’t something to be toyed with,” Leo reminded him.
“Dad, I was there,” Chris reminded him. He knew now better then when he was a kid talking to his Aunt Paige how dangerous that athemé was. “I know how the powers in the athemé affected Aunt Phoebe. I also know how things would have eventually gone if she hadn’t gotten rid of them.” He took in a deep breath and added. “I won’t do anything stupid.”
Leo looked at Chris for several moments. Chris met his eyes straight on. There was no deception, nothing hiding in his eyes. Finally, Leo nodded. “I want that athemé kept under lock and spell. And once you figure out its source I want it destroyed.”
“I don’t get it,” Wyatt mumbled confused. “Why is he getting off so easy all of a sudden?”
“Your turn is coming, Wyatt,” Leo told his older son. “As to Chris, he is more than who he was a week ago. He has another lifetime worth of memories and experiences and that other lifetime qualifies him to study this athemé. It doesn’t get him off the hook for hiding things from your mom.” Leo turned his eyes to rest on his younger son. “I expect you to go to your mom’s restaurant once a week for a month after close and clean it, manually. No short cuts.”
Chris made a face, but nodded. “No magic, got it.”
“Now sit,” Leo commanded.
Chris sat back down and glanced over at Wyatt.
Wyatt gulped and looked up at Leo.
Leo walked over and stood up in front of Wyatt. “What were you thinking kidnapping a patient?”
“I already told you, I . . .” Wyatt began.
“And I already told you that doesn’t count,” Leo interrupted.
“I couldn’t leave her there,” Wyatt protested.
“There had to be some other way to help her that wasn’t illegal,” Leo reasoned.
Wyatt shook his head insistently. “No, Dad, there wasn’t. I couldn’t leave her there. There was no one who could watch her. I couldn’t even call Chris on my cell, because cell phones mess around with machinery.”
“And what about orbing to Chris’ work?” Leo asked, bringing up his next problem with Wyatt’s actions. “It isn’t normal for someone to show up in the break room, who didn’t come in through the front door.”
“Uh . . .” Wyatt began trailing off as he realized he really didn’t have a defense for that one.
“You have to think of these things,” Leo informed him. “I know you can think things through, so start using that ability. If you two are going to fight demons, and I get the idea you are, then you need to use your common sense and think things through. You don’t want magic exposed.”
“Are you saying I can’t orb?” Wyatt asked, sounding like he had just been sentenced to a life sentence in a maximum security prison with only bread and water to eat.
“No,” Leo assured him. He watched as Wyatt sighed in relief. It would have been amusing if the situation hadn’t been such a risk. “I’m just saying that you need to think about more than if a room is empty when you orb.”
Wyatt nodded quickly, as if he would agree to anything if he was allowed to orb. “Right. Fine. Anything else?”
“Yes,” Leo informed them, “I don’t want to hear of either of you lying to your mother ever, again. If I can I will stall on telling your mother what’s going on, but only so you can tell her yourself. You will tell your mother, understood?” He waited until both Wyatt and Chris nodded. “Good. Now, Wyatt, you will go with your Uncle Henry one day a week for a month and help with his parolees. Understood, Wyatt?”
Wyatt nodded. “Yes, Dad.”
“Good,” Leo said finally satisfied. “Dismissed.”
Wyatt and Chris both stood. Wyatt orbed out.
Chris stopped and looked at Leo. “Thanks, Dad.”
Leo’s expression softened, even though his words were just as firm. “Remember, I expect you to tell her.”
“I know,” Chris agreed. “I will. I will figure a way how. See you later.”
“Don’t be a stranger, son,” Leo replied, love for his son in his eyes.
Chris smiled as he orbed out.