Post by StoryGirl83 on Sept 22, 2008 23:10:18 GMT -5
Chapter Seventeen - The Binding Spell
Five more hours and dozens of ideas later, everyone was gathered in the attic. There wasn’t a smile in the room.
Wyatt was slumped on the floor, leaning against the right side of the couch.
Sitting on the couch to his left, Chris looked miserable. The notepad in his hands was nearly devoid of paper. A pile of crumpled papers at his feet gave testimony to one moment of frustration only a little while before.
At Chris’ feet, Alanna and Janice sat with a board game in front of them. They had wanted to be up there, but having no real ideas to add, they had decided to continue the game in hopes of maybe distracting Pat and Vicki who sat on the other side of the game, both of them completely transparent.
Prue and Andy stood nearby with Andy watching their girls. Like the girls, Andy was completely transparent, to the point where he looked even more ghostly than some ghosts the girls had seen over the years.
Paige was staring out the window, sadness in her eyes for Prue and worry for her still missing son. Just as it had been almost a day since Prue and the others had shown up, it had been almost a day since she had seen her son.
Henry had his arm around his wife, lending her silent comfort.
Piper was at the potion table, mixing something, stubbornly refusing to give up despite a looming deadline maybe thirty-five or forty minutes away.
Leo was standing near Piper, silent. There was nothing really to say. It looked as if they had failed. They were out of ideas and nothing had worked.
Victor paced the attic, the inactivity getting to him, wanting to do something to help his daughter, to save his granddaughters so he could get to know them, and yes, to save his son-in-law as well despite Andy’s whitelighter status. Victor supposed that Andy having grown up with Prue was in the man’s favor. At least there weren’t some fifty odd years between Prue and her husband the way there was between Piper and hers.
Melinda was standing by the door, miserable. She had even given up on leaning against the door frame, because she had gone through that once. It was the single most creepy experience in her life. She absently wondered why she didn’t go through the floor, but supposed that if she wanted to, she probably would.
“We have to be missing something,” Piper mumbled to herself. “There has to be a way.”
“What if Kevin was right?” Chris asked, looking down at the blank notepad in his hands. “What if there isn’t.”
“He was wrong,” Piper declared without looking up. With more desperation than confidence in her voice she added, “He has to be.” She looked up, tears brimming in her eyes. “We can’t lose them.”
“And what if this is all we get?” Chris asked, seeing no other end in sight at this point. “What then?”
Piper ignored his question. “We still have over half an hour. We can think of something. We have to.”
Having listened silently to the conversation up until then, Wyatt pushed himself back against the couch and pulled himself up. “We still haven’t tried my idea.”
“No,” Piper shot down the idea. “Absolutely not.” It was the one idea that actually was left on the list, somewhere in the crumpled papers at Chris feet. “I won’t lose you, too.”
“It’s my idea and my risk,” Wyatt insisted. “Aunt Prue, you said we try every idea, no matter what everyone else thought of them.”
“That’s true,” Prue agreed. She glanced at Piper before continuing. “Perhaps I should be the one to try it.” If we can’t find a way to fix this, I’d rather not remember anyway.
“No,” Wyatt shook his head. “I don’t want to chance it not working because you aren’t enough of a part of this reality yet. I will do it.” With those words, he resolved that he really would do this, regardless.
Piper shook her head. “No, Wyatt.”
Wyatt gave her a half smile. “Sorry, Mom, but I am doing this. I love you.” He looked across the room to where Melinda stood by the door. “Melinda?”
Melinda looked up, her eyes red.
“You said you are willing to play guinea pig,” Wyatt stated.
Melinda nodded. “What do you need?”
“Come over here,” Wyatt beckoned her without answering her question. As Melinda came over, Wyatt went over to the potion table and grabbed a piece of paper, one of the many he had worked on the night before. He stopped and hugged his mom, knowing that if he failed as everyone seemed to think he would, it could be the last time. “I love you, Mom.”
Piper tried to hold onto her son, tried to stop him despite wanting desperately for him to succeed.
Wyatt shook his head and moved away. “I have to do this. If I don’t, I’ll always wonder and I don’t want that feeling.”
Piper sighed and let her hands drop to her side.
Wyatt hugged Leo and walked over to where Melinda was. “Hold out your hands.”
Melinda looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Why? You can’t touch them.”
“That’s okay,” Wyatt assured her, though he didn’t really know if it was. “Just hold them out.”
Obediently, Melinda held out her hands and waited.
Wyatt took one last look at the paper in his hands, at the spell he had written the night before. He squatted down and put it on the floor. When he straightened up he held out his hands just over Melinda’s transparent and intangible ones.
Not willing to watch should this fail, Chris look away. After all that he had gone through, he didn’t want to lose Wyatt to this. Please just let this work, for Wyatt if nothing else.
Piper squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face against Leo’s chest as her husband hugged her close.
Wyatt forced himself to pay attention to what he was doing and not on what those around him where doing. His voice more sure and steady than he was at the moment, he began to chant. “What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. Our souls forever now entwine. Life and death may come to pass, our souls forever will attach. From now and to eternity, breathe life to this soul now dear to me.”
As soon as Wyatt finished the spell, Chris felt a change.