Post by StoryGirl83 on Jun 23, 2009 10:36:45 GMT -5
Chapter Nine – Hospital, the Four Letter Word
Piper took off running the moment they completely materialized. She only stopped when she reached the reception desk. There was no one in line, which considering how she was feeling right now, was a good thing.
“Excuse me,” she said to the receptionist, Julia Knepp. “I’m trying to find out about my son, Wyatt Halliwell.”
The younger woman’s eyes widened. “Wyatt’s been admitted?” She turned to her computer and started typing. When she looked up she shook her head. “He’s still in intensive care. He can’t have visitors yet.”
“So he’s alive,” Chris surmised, relieved as Leo and he came up behind Piper.
“You didn’t know that?” Julia asked worried.
Chris shook his head. “All I have to go by is a brief conversation with one of his co-workers. Can you tell us anything else?”
Julia shook her head. “Not really. Only that’s he’s been admitted. There have been no updates, so I would have to guess they are still working on him. What happened?” She shook her head. “Right. You don’t know. If you want to wait over there, I will let you know as soon as I have something.”
Piper looked about to say something, but Leo’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. Leo smiled at Julia. “Thank you. We are going to let you work.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Leo nodded and gently pulled his wife away from the information center. Once he had her several feet away he addressed both her and Chris. “We need to decide what to do. It’s unlikely that Wyatt was attacked by something normal.”
“He wasn’t,” Chris informed him. “Demons attacked Centennial, too.”
Piper’s eyes widened as she turned to look at her younger son. “And you didn’t tell us why?”
“Because I’m fine and Wyatt’s not . . . and technically I wasn’t the one attacked.”
“Technically?”
“I was probably the target,” Chris admitted. “It was my office or it is until the end of the day. David got stabbed in the leg with a dagger so small it looked like a letter opener.”
“Will he keep this quiet?”
“Mom,” Chris protested. “He’s an innocent. You don’t not help because you aren’t sure if they will keep your secret.”
“Fine,” Piper replied impatient. “I wasn’t implying that you shouldn’t have helped him, only trying to find out if we needed to worry about exposure on top of this.”
“He won’t say anything,” Chris assured her. He didn’t know if David would ever speak to him again, or look at him without cringing, but he knew his one time friend wouldn’t say a thing.”
“You saw the demon then?” When Chris nodded she added, “Could you describe him?”
“They,” Chris emphasized the word,” are about this tall,” he held his hands maybe half a foot apart, “and invisible. And there was somewhere around a dozen of them.”
His parents both stared at him. “A dozen?” Piper quarried startled. “And invisible?”
“And tiny,” Chris added, “and deadly. If they were indeed after me, they now know it, since I’m the one who used magic on them. David didn’t see much.”
“What exactly did he see?” Leo asked softly, mindful of the people around.
“And how do you know how tall they were if they were invisible?” Piper wanted to know.
“Because I was, too,” Chris retorted. “And that’s what he saw, too. He startled me and I became visible, again.” He shrugged. “I haven’t really tried to master that power, but now I think I should. Later.”
“All right,” Leo considered the situation. “We need to find some way to help your brother, but I can’t see any way we’ll even get near him, so I suspect we’ll have to trust the doctors.”
“I could turn invisible,” Chris suggested. “That would get me near him.”
“And you’d do what?” Leo asked, trying to be gentle.
Chris’ face slumped. “I can’t heal.”
“But,” Piper protested. “Surely Paige could . . .”
Leo shook his head. “Chris can’t control his powers enough to keep another person invisible and if the doctors are working on him, she wouldn’t be able to get close to him. There is nothing we can do here, so perhaps we should find these demons Chris saw.”
Piper scowled. “Well, I know someone who can get to him,” she announced, “so I’m going to make a phone call.”
“I like that idea,” Chris informed his dad as he watched him Mom leave. “I want to do something and if those demons are the ones who did this to Wyatt . . .”