Post by StoryGirl83 on Jan 2, 2010 19:39:32 GMT -5
Chapter Fifteen – Good-Bye and Good Luck
Wyatt was rolled into the hospital room after over thirty minutes of tests. He was barefoot and grinning. “Hey, Mom, look. My toes move!”
Piper’s eyes widened and she quickly moved to her sons side and to her delight, they did indeed move. “Did they find out what’s happening?”
Wyatt shook his head. “Still looking for results.” He cast a smile at the aide pushing his wheel chair. “Thanks a bunch. Remind me never to be hospitalized, again.”
The young man grinned at him as he helped Wyatt get back onto the hospital bed. He just grinned more as Wyatt tried to avoid the help. “Can’t say that I blame you, of course, with all that poking and prodding, and all the nurses flirting with you. If Celeste ever gave me that look she gave you. . .”
Wyatt groaned. “Would you tone it down, Hailer? My mom’s here.”
Rick Hailer gave Piper a little nod. “Always a pleasure, Mrs. Halliwell.” Then, he winked at her.
“And my dad,” Wyatt added with rolled eyes.
Rick saluted Leo. “Hello, Mr. Wyatt.”
“Hello, Rick,” Leo greeted, remembering having met the young man the past summer.
“I’ll see you later, Wyatt,” Rick said before leaving the room.
“And so will we,” Sheldon announced.
“What?” his partner, Tim McGuire, looked at him startled. “But we aren’t . . .”
“We’ve collected what we needed and talked to most of the witnesses.”
“Most?”
“One of them had to leave,” Sheldon informed him. “I have her name and we’ll try and catch up with her, but I doubt there is much she can add.” He sighed. “Unless she has a name or something to give us. Now, let’s go.” He looked at his brothers and shook his head. “Try to stay out of trouble, Big Brothers.”
Ashlyn toddled over to Wyatt’s bed. “Toes?”
Wyatt looked at her. “What?”
“Wiggle,” she added.
He stared at her. “You want me to wiggle my toes?”
She nodded.
Tim glanced at Sheldon. “Okay, I’m leaving now.”
“Good,” Sheldon agreed. “We have papers to file.”
“Bye, Uncle Shelly,” Ashlyn called cheerfully as Sheldon and his partner headed out the door.
“Bye, Ashy girl,” Sheldon returned as Tim made a break for it.
“Ashlyn,” she protested.
He winked at her. “Uncle Sheldon.”
“Uncle Shelly,” she returned stubbornly.
“Give it up,” Brandon suggested. “You will always be Uncle Shelly, just like I will always be Uncle Brandy and Mason will always be Uncle Macy. Almost makes a guy want to marry to make Lawrence into Uncle Laurie or something. Almost.”
Sheldon shook his head amused. “Yeah, well one of these days.” He smiled and headed out the door.
Out of sight out of mind seemed to apply as the moment the door closed Ashlyn turned her attention back to Wyatt. “Toes.”
Wyatt moved obligingly so that his feet dangled from the bed. It was clear that his arms were doing all the work, but when Ashlyn giggled in delight it also became clear that the nerves in his legs were working, because his toes did indeed wiggle as they had when he entered the room.
“Well, this ought to make for an interesting explanation,” Chris commented from where he stood in the doorway. He had changed into clean clothes and was looking at the small crowd gathered around his brother.
“I think that’s my clue to get going,” Brandon commented. He gave his younger brother a bear hug and swung his niece up into his arms. “Behave yourself, Sweetheart.”
Ashlyn planted a kiss on his cheek. “Love Uncle Brandy.”
“You’d better,” he replied, not bothering to correct her. He never did. He kissed her back and set her down. Turning to his sister-in-law he suggested, “Be careful will you. I like seeing my brother this happy.”
From the doorway, Chris stared at Bianca, once more unsettled by the sight of her. He walked over to where his parents were standing. As Brandon asked, having received some sort of reply from Bianca, Chris turned to his mom. “So what can you tell me?”
Piper glanced sideways at Bianca. “Well, for starters I’m not sure who is more uncomfortable in this room, me with Bianca or her with me.”
“I’m going with me,” Chris replied in a low voice, “but I’m dealing with it. I never really considered what might have happened to her these last few months, but this is awkward in the extreme and she has no idea.”
Piper’s response was interrupted by, “Toes!”
Chris gave his mom a look. “What on earth is going on?”
“Wyatt can move his toes,” she replied. “Apparently little Ashlyn finds this funny.”
“It’s not just that,” Leo added. “She finds it interesting. Most adults would not listen to that command from a toddler. She’s enjoying the power.”
“Enough of that,” Lawrence said scooping up Ashlyn. “Mr. Halliwell needs to rest.”
“Awe, Daddy,” Ashlyn protested as she wiggled around to look at Wyatt. “Bye, Mr. Wyatt.”
Leo looked up surprised.
Wyatt laughed. “I think she means me, Dad.”
Ashlyn looked over at Leo. “You’re Mr. Wyatt?”
Leo nodded. “I am.”
“Okay,” Ashlyn decided taking that in. “Bye, Mr. Wyatt.”
“Good bye, Ashlyn,” Leo returned.
Lawrence stopped next to Bianca. “Will you be home tonight, Sweetheart? He seems well guarded. They both do.”
Bianca looked at Wyatt and his family. “I don’t know. I’ll call you later if I’m staying.” She leaned over and placed a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “I love you both.”
“I love you, too,” Lawrence returned as he gave her a quick kiss. “Be careful.”
Chris gulped, staring at them.
Wyatt raised an eyebrow at his brother. He kept noticing little things that made him wonder what exactly his brother knew of this family. He watched Lawrence carrying Ashlyn follow the path of his two brothers and head home. He turned to look at his brother and missed Dr. Darrin reentering the room.
He didn’t miss Dr. Darrin’s next words. “I just talked to officer Holbrooke and he doesn’t think police protection is warranted, but he did suggest that someone stay the night here, just in case.”
Bianca eyed him. “I see.”
“And who are you?” Dr. Darrin asked, having not really taken much notice of her earlier.
“Mr. Halliwell’s bodyguard if he agrees,” she announced, “but so far no luck there.”
Dr. Darrin looked around the room, stopping on Wyatt. “She can stay here to watch you if that is what you wish, but I don’t want more than one person staying the night. I realize you are improving, but you are still in bad shape and you don’t need people keeping you awake all night.”
Wyatt looked around, trying to decide how to respond. Finally, he looked up at Dr. Darrin. “Why don’t you give us a few minutes to talk? If only one person can stay, I know I am going to have a time of it talking it down to only that.”
Dr. Darrin nodded. “You still have about half an hour until visiting hours are up. I’ll be back then.”
“Thank you.” Wyatt didn’t wait for him to leave, but instead turned to the four people left in the room. “I’ll make this easy.”
Piper raised her eyebrows as the door closed behind Dr. Darrin. “And how is it easy? You are still injured and she may well come back.”
Wyatt slowly unbent his leg. “At this rate I may be back to my usual self by morning. As I told Chris this morning, I still have my powers. I can protect myself if I am expecting an attack. I want Chris to stay.”
“Are you crazy?” Bianca asked, startled. “That’s just asking for an attack.”
Wyatt nodded. “Probably. Chris, you were attacked, right?”
Chris nodded. “She got a knife pretty deep in me.”
“And you are fine now.”
“I called Mikelle.”
Wyatt nodded. “So she thinks you are injured.”
“I doubt it,” Bianca informed them. “Vera knows about witches and whitelighters. She will expect that Chris got a whitelighter to heal him. I assume Mikelle is your family whitelighter.”
Wyatt and Chris looked at each other and then at their parents. Chris was trying hard not to laugh.
Piper sighed. “My husband was our family’s whitelighter. The only other whitelighter this family has ever had was . . . well, he wasn’t our whitelighter for his ability to heal us.”
Bianca looked at her curious. “Interesting. I’ve never heard of a whitelighter who couldn’t heal, but I suppose that is true that they aren’t just there to heal their charges. Being a Phoenix I do not have one. They rather prefer to ignore my kind, even if there is the rare occasion when we aren’t evil.” She nods suddenly. “Yes, I suppose this can work, but I want you to have my number so you can call me if something goes wrong. I don’t like leaving one of her targets unguarded, but I suppose you do seem to be a rather unusual case.”
“Would someone give her my cell phone so she can put her phone number in there?”
Chris backed off and picked the phone off the table where it had been lain after its last use. He handed it to Wyatt.
Wyatt raised his eyebrows and shrugged. He held it out to Bianca.
Bianca took it and punched something into it. As her pocket began to ring, she hung it up and handed it back to Wyatt. “That should suffice for now. Call me if she returns. And be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” Wyatt protested.
Bianca looked at the family in front of her and shook her head smiling. “Somehow I doubt that.” Looking at Piper she said, “I don’t know what caused you to attack my mother, but I’m sure your son is important to you, just as my daughter is important to me and I am important to my mother. Don’t let him do anything stupid. I hate for this to work and for his life to be spared and then him to get himself killed a few weeks, a month down the line.”
“Leave my son to me, both of them.”
“Mom!” Chris protested.
“I don’t understand,” Bianca commented looking at them oddly.
“Don’t try,” Chris suggested. “We’ll call if we see her.”
She nodded and headed out the door.
Chris turned to his parents. “She’s not the same person, Mom. Intellectually I know that.”
“Bianca tried to kill you,” Piper reminded him.
He shook his head. “No. No, she didn’t. She was misguided, but she was trying to save me. She thought she knew what she was doing. She was wrong, but she didn’t try to kill me and when she realized it, she tried to help me get back. That woman who just walked out that door wasn’t her. She just looks like her. I’m having a hard enough time keeping that in mind on my own without you making it that much harder. And I’m not that person either, but his memories are mixed up with mine, so those emotions are there. Please, Mom.”