Post by StoryGirl83 on May 17, 2009 22:21:37 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Four – Winding Down
Piper and Chris were helping Paige’s three children clean up the mess they had made vanquishing the third demon, the tentacle one that Janice had frozen. Chris had been right to be weary, for the Alanna’s fire power had done nothing to vanquish the demon, merely thawed it out. It had started scurrying around, freaking Janice out. This time she had been unable to catch it with the icy blasts from her hands and walls and couches and pieces of carpet had been frozen as she grew more and more freaked out. When Leo and Wyatt had collapsed and Piper and Chris had been put back in their proper bodies, she had become even more freaked out to the point when Piper and Chris had opened their eyes and taken note of what was going on, she was standing on the couch yelling “Get it away from me! Get it away from me! SPIDER!”
Piper had frozen the room allowing Alanna who was staring stunned at her twin to take stock of the situation and run into the kitchen for one of the potions Paige and Piper had made earlier. Hank had glared at the demon and tried to think of some whitelighter power he could use to do damage to the demon. There was a reason no powers came to mind; whitelighters were essentially pacifists. Finally he had given up and hurried over to the couch to give his older sister a reassuring hug.
Knowing the demon would be frozen for a while Piper had allowed Alanna the chance to do this. She didn’t know if her exploding power would work, but she had figure if the potion didn’t work she could try that next.
Now, the five of them were cleaning up, each waiting anxiously for the return of Leo, Wyatt, and Paige. The sound of the front door closing could be heard in the background, but it was overshadowed by the site of blue-white orbs in the middle of the room as Wyatt, hugging Leo orbed into the room.
Piper leaned the mop she was using against the wall and ran to the middle of the room. She hugged her husband and son to her and beckoned her younger son over with her finger.
Chris laughed and joined the group hug. “Welcome back, Wy, Dad.”
“Are you two okay?” Piper asked concerned.
More blue-white orbs formed in the room as Paige returned.
Leo nodded and placed a kiss on her lips. When he moved away he said, “We were a little hurt, but Paige took care of that.”
“A little hurt,” Paige scoffed as Hank gave his mom a hug. “Leo had a minor concussion from hitting the wall after the blast. Wyatt, well, his actually were minor.”
“And why was Leo in the way of any blasts, Sweetheart?” Henry Mitchell, Sr.’s voice asked from the doorway.
“Dad!” Hank exclaimed running over to the doorway. “You’ve got to hear about the day we’ve had.”
“You should have seen it, Dad,” Alanna added. “Janice was running around the room freaking out.”
“Hey!” Janice protested. “That’s not fair.”
Paige laughed. “Let’s not bombard your dad the second he’s walked in the door.” She walked over to her husband and gave him a kiss. “How was work?”
Henry looked around the room. “If this is anything to go by, better than your day. It was pretty uneventful.”
“Those kids actually co-operated?”
Henry shrugged. “Well, no more acting up than usual.”
Paige smiled. “If you want to talk about it, I’ll be all ears tonight. For now though, I didn’t have time to cook anything, so how about we head over to The Manor and have dinner on Piper.”
Piper raised twin eyebrows at that.
Paige laughed. “Don’t worry, we’ll pay for our food.”
Piper shook her head. “No, you know what, you’re right. We’ll take you out. It’s my restaurant. Speaking of which,” she turned to look at Wyatt, “how did that interview go.”
“Well,” Wyatt looked at her uncomfortably, “I wasn’t sure you really wanted me to make the decision, so I gave her a trial.”
“A trial?” Piper quarried. “Do you think she can do the job?”
Wyatt nodded. “I think she can.”
“Then, why didn’t you hire her?”
Wyatt tried not to squirm under his mom’s stare. “I thought the choice should be yours.”
Nearby, Chris felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his attention away from his mom and brother and looked back at his dad.
“Let them talk,” Leo directed him. “I need to talk to you.”
Chris nodded and followed Leo out of the room. He briefly greeted his uncle at the door. “Hi, Uncle Henry.”
Henry smiled. “Good to see you, Chris.”
“You have no idea,” Chris returned cheerily before he entered the hall and looked at his dad. “What’s going on, Dad?”
“I had a very interesting day,” Leo commented.
“I’m sure you did,” Chris replied, not sure where this was going.
“Your coworkers noticed something was up,” Leo informed him before adding, “but the odd thing was that they didn’t seem too surprised. It appears that this is a common occurance. Do you want to tell me what’s going on, Chris?”
Chris sighed. He closed his eyes and listened to the silence. Images and conversations sped through his mind until he opened his eyes and looked at his dad. “I don’t think I can.” He sighed, again. “If you’ll excuse me, there’s something I need to do.”
Leo looked at him for several seconds. “I’ll be available when you’re ready to talk.”
Chris smiled. “Thanks, dad.” Then, he orbed out of the house.” Just before he was out of earshot he heard, “Grilled cheese sandwich!”