Post by StoryGirl83 on Jun 16, 2009 13:16:40 GMT -5
Chapter Seven – A Special Phone
Flashback
Chris frowned at the phone in his hand. Why would someone jam the cell phone lines? He stepped into the main room of the store and shook his cell phone. So intent was he on his phone that he didn’t see someone coming until it was too late and he had ran into Genevieve.
They both went down hard and Chris’ phone went flying. Chris winced and pushed himself up. “Sorry, Gen,” he whispered as he held out his hand.
“Gen?” she questioned as she accepted his hand. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone call me that.”
“Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” She brushed herself off. “You seem pretty focused on something. Bad phone call?”
“No phone call,” Chris retorted. “Line appears to be jammed and I can’t imagine why.” Unless the demons . . . but why bother?
She frowned. “Huh. That’s weird.” She pulled out an odd looking phone from her pocket and started pressing buttons. “Yeah, that is weird.” She pressed some more buttons and grinned. “Here. Try this.” She handed him the phone.
“What is this?”
“A phone . . . oh.” She grinned. “My brother made it. He’s an inventor.”
Chris gulped as he remembered a conversation from the other time line.
Genevieve’s movements were slow and mechanical as she shut the door behind her. Seeing her Chris started to put down the tools he was using when he noticed Amber Alden approaching her.
“Genevieve? Are you okay?”
Genevieve shook her head. “Miles.”
“Your brother?” Amber stepped closer and put her hand on Genevieve’s shoulder. “Is he okay?”
Genevieve shook her head harder and tears started rolling down her cheeks. “No. He’s . . .” She burst out sobbing.
Amber folded her into her arms and just held Genevieve in her arms. It was a long time before either girl moved. And when they did a tale unfolded, not of death, for at the time Miles Lawson was still alive, but of a horrible attack Genevieve had been helpless to stop. They never did determine if the attack have been random or if there was a real sinister reason behind it. And Miles had never woken, dying three weeks later.
Chris gave Genevieve a half smile glad to know her brother was one more person who had survived. He took the odd looking phone and punched in his brother’s number he waited as the phone rang and wondered how it was Miles had made a phone that got past a cell phone jammer.
“Hello,” a vaguely familiar voice said on the other end.
Chris frowned. “Who is this?”
“Nathan,” the voice replied. “I work . . .”
“I know you work with Wyatt,” Chris interrupted. “Why didn’t he answer?”
“I think I’d best ask who this is.”
“Chris, his brother. Is he busy?”
“Er . . .” There was several seconds of silence in which Chris grew increasingly uneasy before, “Not precisely.”
“Well, then put him on.” Before I panic.
“I can’t.”
Something in the other man’s voice put Chris on full alert. “Where’s my brother?”
“On a stretcher, being carried to an ambulance.” Nathan informed him, apology in his voice. “I was actually in here looking for phone numbers, so I could call your family. Can you tell them?”
“Is he alive?” Chris asked trying not to panic. After all an ambulance meant there was hope, right?”
Genevieve looked at him worried.
“Yes,” Nathan assured him quickly. “He was attacked, stabbed, but he is alive.”
Stabbed. So I was the target, not David. “Is he expected to live?”
“I don’t know,” Nathan admitted.
Chris shuddered at his words.
“You know the hospital where he volunteers?”
“San Francisco Memorial? Yeah, I’ve been there a few times.” But only when I couldn’t avoid it. I don’t understand how he can stand being there so often. Hospitals creep me out.
“That’s where they are taking him. Will you tell your parents?”
Chris nodded. “Yeah. I’ll call them at once. Anything else you can tell me?”
There was silence on the other end before Nathan spoke. “The people with the ambulance said much longer without care and he wouldn’t have made it. With all the chaos over here no one should have gone upstairs. You owe Olivia his life.”
I’ll make sure to find her whomever she is and thank her after this is over. “Thank you, but what did you mean by chaos?”
“Electrical outs, phone lines down, a lot of stuff.”
Sounds very familiar. “I’m going to call my parents now. Thank you for letting me know.”
“Good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” Chris repeated as he turned off the phone and looked at Genevieve. “Do you mind if I call my parents?”
“What happened?” she asked worried.
“My older brother was badly injured in an attack of some sort,” he told her even if he knew perfectly well what kind of attack it had been. Gen didn’t need to be immersed in the magical world, not this time. “I need to let my parents know what’s going on.”
She nodded. “Go ahead.”
Chris dialed, again, this time his dad’s cell. It went straight to voice mail. He sighed. “Dad, it’s Chris. I just talked to Wyatt’s co-worker, Nathan. Wyatt was attacked and is on his way to the hospital. My cell is bring jammed so I’m using someone else’s. I guess it can change frequency. I’d say call me, but since it would do little good, just go to San Francisco Memorial, where Wyatt volunteers. Be careful. Bye.”
He shut off the phone and dialed his mom’s number. Considering how rarely he had to use the actual numbers, he was thrilled that he knew them. When it also went straight to voice mail he wanted to scream in frustration. “Mom, it’s Chris. I need to talk to a person. Wyatt’s been attacked and is on his way to San Francisco Memorial. You can’t call me because my cell has been jammed. I’m going to try The Manor and hope that Drinka’s working. Bye.”
He turned it off, again. “Apparently my parents have their cell phones off. I’m going to try my mom’s restaurant.”
She nodded. “Right. You mentioned that earlier.”
Chris nodded. “The Manor. After today I’ll be working for her.” Despite the fact that he didn’t intend to cultivate a friendship with her in this time line, for her own safety if nothing else, he wanted her to know where to reach him if she needed to . . . even if she didn’t realize he could help. “One more call . . . I hope.”
She laughed and waited.
He dialed the number of The Manor and waited. This time an unfamiliar voice answered.
“The Manor, Emily speaking. Would you like to make a reservation.”
Emily. Right. The new waitress. “This is Chris Halliwell. Is my mom or Drinka there?”
“Drinka is,” Emily Colson told him. “I’ll go find her.”
“Thanks, Emily.” As he waited he looked at Genevieve. “My mom’s not there, but Drinka might know where to find her.”
“Hello, Mr. Chris,” Drinka Deguilio greeted as she picked up the phone. “What do you need?”
“Wyatt’s been injured and I can’t reach my parents. Do you know where they are?”
“Picnic in Golden Gate Park,” she replied after a moments though. “How’s Wyatt?”
“I don’t know,” Chris sighed. “Nathan said he was alive. That’s about all I can say.”
“Someone’s listening?”
“Yeah, but there isn’t much more to say.”
“Demons?”
“I’m sure of it.”
“Call me if you can’t find them.”
“Thanks, Drinka.” He turned off the phone without waiting for a reply. He looked up to find Genevieve looking at him. “Thank you for the use of your phone.”
“Yeah. I hope everything turns out all right.”
“Me, too.” He sighed. “It was nice to meet you.” As he walked away memories filtered though his mind, memories of a young man who was him and wasn’t, memories of the friends he’d had, people he had failed, people he now barely knew, but who were alive. And that mattered more to him than that they knew him.
Trivia – This is the first time Chris’ cell phone has made an appearance in Charmed: Heritage . . . and it doesn’t work. He usually just borrows Wyatt’s. Likewise, though Chris’ car has been mentioned, it has never been seen and probably won’t be for a while.
Additional Trivia - This is the first time you get to see Wyatt's missing girlfriend, Amber, in anything. Of course in the other time line she's not his girlfriend, but it's the same person.