Disclaimer: These characters and their world are as not mine
as they could possibly get.
Summary: Even though Chris is sick, the hunt for the
supposedly evil force after Wyatt still must continue.
Gift for Symphonyflute
Phoebe wore
an apron over a low-cut shirt and similarly low-rise jeans. She carried several
stacks of flapjacks over on two large plates from the kitchen to the dining
room. "Who wants pancakes?" Phoebe called. Sitting in his high chair at the
table, Wyatt clapped his hands. There wasn't any response from upstairs,
however. She had not expected much of one, what with Leo not living there any
longer and with her sisters gone to vanquish another demon that had been
identified as a threat by Chris. "Chris!" she called. "Get your behind down
here for some breakfast!"
One flash
of white and blue light later, Chris was seated at the table a few seats down
and across the table from Wyatt. "Shouldn't you be with Paige and Mom?" he
asked, helping himself to the pancakes and syrup almost simultaneously.
She
shrugged. "It's a lesser demon. They'll be fine. I can't help that much without
my active powers anyway."
"Yeah but
if they run into trouble and need the power of three..." Chris sniffed a few
times and rubbed a finger against his nose as he took his first bite.
"If they
run into trouble Paige will just orb them out." She sat down at the head of the
table and scooted her chair closer to Wyatt so she could feed him. "You know,
believe it or not, we did manage all right around here before you came, Chris."
He smiled,
turning his attention to the pancake. He remembered when he had arrived in
their time all those months ago. Paige had been turned into stone, white
lighters and elders were being hunted and murdered, and the sisters had seemed
quite unable to handle the situation. Before he could come up with some remark
about that, however, a demon had blinked into the dining room.
Its face
looked flushed, and strangely wrinkled on the cheeks and brow especially. It
stood so tall it surely would have banged its head against the chandelier if it
had come any closer. Instead, it raised a hand and readied a fireball to throw.
But Phoebe had already rushed forward. As though back in the day before her
powers had progressed to include levitation, she fought hand-to-hand. Or,
rather, foot-to-head. She had barely begun to tell to Chris to get Wyatt when
Chris had orbed over, picked his brother up, and orbed out of the room with him.
Not a
minute later, Paige and Piper orbed back and jumped into action as well.
"Syrup!" Paige called, directing the syrup bottle into the demon's warped face.
As it yelled, the second fireball that had been forming in its hand vanished
with a puff of smoke. Piper took the opportunity to raise both hands and flick
her fingers towards it. The demon exploded in a blaze of fire.
"Well,"
said Phoebe said, looking at the smashed pitcher of syrup on the floor. "Anyone
else want some pancakes, then?"
A room
away, Chris orbed back in. He held Wyatt close to his body and had the book of
shadows tucked beneath his other arm. He sat down on the couch and carefully
set Wyatt down beside. He had a pacifier in his mouth and looked around as
though wondering where the demon had gone. Chris set the book of shadows down
on the coffee table then hunched over so that he could read it as he flipped
through it. "How did the other vanquish go?" Chris asked, calling out to the
other room.
The sisters
headed over to the threshold between the dining room and living room, where he
was. Piper picked up Wyatt and gave him a bit of a hug as she rested him on her
hip. "No problems at all," she said. "Looks like we should have stayed around
here if we wanted some excitement."
"Any clue
what that thing was?" Paige asked, grabbing a napkin and carefully gathering together
the pieces of the broken pitcher.
Chris
sniffed again and shook his head as he flipped through the pages. "Not yet. I
can't find anything that looks like it in the book of shadows, but I'll keep
looking. It's possible it's working with someone. And if it..." He stopped,
looking thoughtful for a moment, then he carried on. "If it had the courage to
attack in the manner, it had to have been power-ful... hah-CHIEE!" Blinking in alarm, he sat back, pressing the back of
his hand to his nose. "Sorry about that. Snuck up on me." He reached down and
flipped through a few pages.
"You've
been sniffling a lot this morning," Phoebe said, bringing over a wet cloth from
the kitchen to wipe up the syrup. "Not coming down sick are you?" Once upon a
time she would have been able to sense that and would not have needed to ask.
He shook
his head, staring down at the book. "If it was part of a larger group, they
could definitely be the ones after Wyatt. That demon had a reddish tint to his
skin, wouldn't you say?"
"I would
say," Paige said, nodding as she and Phoebe finished the clean-up. Then she
helped herself to a pancake.
Chris
nodded and stared at a page for a little longer. He squinted and they all
leaned in a little closer, hoping that he might have found it. But then he
cupped his hand to his face and pitched forward again. "hah-haCHIHHH! hahCHIE!"
"Not sick
you say?" Piper said concernedly. She walked over and pressed her hand to her
forehead. "You feel a little warm. Open your mouth."
Chris
rolled his eyes. "Mom--"
"Do it,"
she demanded. He did. She bent a bit at her knees and peered in his mouth. Then
she looked long and hard at his nose and eyes. "Congratulations, Kiddo. You're
sick."
Chris
groaned, sniffled, then looked back to the book. "I'm not sick. I just... I don't
feel perfectly fine." He sniffed and rubbed at his nose. Then he jumped. "Wait,
here it is!" He pointed down at the page in the book where there was a drawing
of a tall, wrinkled-face demon. "An Aithwing. Upper level order of demons. Sniff! Sniff! Apparently they send a
scout on ahead to check out an area, then attack a little while later when
they've worked out a plan. Seems you killed the scout, but it's only a matter
of time before they send another or attack in... full... force. Hahh... hah-CHIHHH! kSHIHH! Sniff! Sniff!"
He rubbed his nose. "Maybe I am just a little sick."
"I'm sure
it's nothing," Paige said. "Just a cold."
"A what?"
Chris looked up, running his hand through his dark brown hair.
"A cold,"
Phoebe told him. "As in the common cold. Surely you have that in the future?"
Chris
nodded. "We have colds, yes, but they're pretty uncommon, actually. I don't
think I've had one since..." He flushed a little and looked away again. Memories
he could not share rose to the surface and he pushed them away. "Since I was
very young." He cupped his hand to his face again. "hahh-CHI! EhhSHEE! HEESHhhhhh!" He sniffed again.
"Well
you've got one now," Paige said. She walked around to behind the couch and
looked over his shoulder at the book. "And now we have a lead on the demon. The
book has some suggestions of where they nest. I'll make a list and we can try
them out. We'll definitely need the power of three to stop them as there isn't
much in the way of vanquishes here."
"I'll make
a potion and start a spell," Phoebe volunteered, able to do that at least.
"And I'll
watch Wyatt," Chris said helpfully.
Piper
turned, putting herself in-between her two sons. "Oh no you don't! The last
thing I need is for Wyatt to get sick, too. I'll take him over to Magic
School and you..." She pointed a
finger straight at Chris. "You should get into your pajamas and go lie down
immediately. We'll get you some tea and some tissues and I don't want you even
thinking about doing anything until you start feeling better."
Chris
smiled a bit shyly. "You said that the last time I was sick, too."
True to
their words, Phoebe worked on the spell and potion along with Paige, and Piper
took Wyatt to Magic School
and returned to Chris with a cup of tea. He had done as he had been told as well
and was in pajamas beneath his blankets. "Drink this, then get some sleep." She
tucked the blankets around him and ran her hand through his hair with a comforting
rub.
Chris
nodded and sipped obediently as she left him. The tea had little taste to it,
but it was warm and soothing against his throat. He sniffed as steam tickled
his nose. The tea made him feel sleepy and he found himself setting it aside
when it was only half finished in order to fall asleep.
He woke not
long after and found Leo sitting in a chair not far away. Coughing, Chris
propped himself up on an elbow. Leo noticed he was awake and smiled kindly. "Heard
you weren't feeling well. Thought I would watch over you while the girls were
out vanquishing." Chris looked a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of being
watched by Leo. "Hey," Leo said, trying to sound casual. He shrugged. "I am
your father, after all. And I was pretty good at this kind of thing in a past
life." Of course taking care of a young man with a head cold was nothing compared
to healing injured soldiers in the middle of a battlefield. "Would you rather I
left?"
Chris shook
his head. "It's just... I'm not used to you being the one to do this kind of
thing." his voice died away. He had told Leo about how Leo had not been around
during his childhood. And while they weren't completely over the tension, it
was getting better on both sides. He was sure he liked it better this way. "So
they're not back yet?" Chris asked, looking around for the time, but there was
no clock nearby. From the way he still felt, he was sure he had not been asleep
for too long.
"Not yet."
Then at Chris' slightly worried look, Leo added, "But I sense that they're all
right. I'm sure they will call if they run into trouble."
Chris sat
up more. "Unless they called while I was asleep and didn't hear..."
Leo shook
his head. "They know you're sick. They'd have called me." Chris nodded and
coughed. But he stopped nodding as soon as he realized he couldn't stop
coughing. He held a fist to his face and shook with coughs as he slipped down
beneath the blankets again for warmth. Leo offered over a glass of water and
that helped calm the coughs. "You don't accidentally orb when you sneeze, do
you?"
While
drinking, Chris narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Paige. The
last time she was sick, she orbed when she sneezed. Of course that was years
ago. But I was curious, considering she's half witch and half white lighter
like you and your brother."
Chris
understood now. Paige had not known of her origins or powers growing up, so
they had few ideas of what they were in store for where Wyatt and Chris'
childhoods were concerned. "No, I don't think I do..." His breath was short, and
he cupped a hand to his face again. "But give it a moment... and maybe you can
tell... me... hahh-IHChhhh! huhhhCHII!
hahhCHIISHH!"
Along with
a glass of water, Leo had brought with him a box of tissues. He pulled a few
out and handed them over with a sympathetic "Bless you. And no, no orbing."
Chris blew
his nose and wiped off his hand. Then he sighed and rolled over onto his side
with a shiver.
"You don't
look feverish," Leo said, leaning forward. He pressed his palm to Chris' forehead.
"Don't feel it, either. But you do look tired. Why don't you try to get some
more sleep?"
Chris nodded.
"You'll wake me when they get back?"
"Of
course." He patted Chris' arm through the blankets comfortingly and Chris
slowly closed his eyes.
"Hmmm,"
Chris murmured, smiling. "That's nice. Thanks... Dad." When Leo kept patting,
Chris added, "You don't have to stay, you know. If you have to go check on
Wyatt or something..."
Leo smiled
back. "I know. But Wyatt's safe and you need me more right now." He pulled a
few more tissues out as he heard Chris' breath catch.
He pulled
back as he took a deep breath, then snapped forward with strong sneezes. "hehh... hahh-KShhhh! hahhCHIII!"
"Bless
you," said Leo, handing over the tissues. He stroked Chris' head as the younger
man blew his nose. "There you go. Now get some sleep." Chris relaxed and tried
to fall back to sleep. His nose was a bit itchy, but his whole body felt heavy
and tired. He heard Leo say something about wishing that he could use his
powers to heal illnesses, but he fell asleep again before he could manage a
smile in reaction.