Chapter 65: Morality

All rights to the Halliwells and Charmed go to The Wb and Aaron Spelling.

This is a spin-off of his creation, of which we're all thankful for. Please

Do not plagiarize or anything. LOVE YA

"You know, I've learned something new. I would have never thought of adding that much brandy to it." Melinda smiled as she walked with Carter, a student from the cooking class she was taking. Secretly she thought he was cute, but she was already in a secret relationship and she could only use one at a time. As they got to her car, she turned to him and smiled, "Well, this is where I say bye, until next class."

"I was wondering if maybe, you know, I could have your number." Carter smiled.

"Oh," Melinda smiled, "Well...Of course." She said, scribbling it on a piece of notebook paper and handing it to him.

"Any specific time I should call you?" Carter asked.

"Well, I'm free..." but before she could finish, a demon shimmered in behind Carter! She tackled Carter to the ground and yelled for Chris. Chris orbed in and sent an energy ball back at the two demons, who shimmered out, "You're an innocent?"

"No, those are my brothers." Carter sighed.

-

"Are you sure?" Chris asked.

"My period is late, Chris!" Bianca panicked, "I don't want to be a mom yet."

"Just calm down." Chris said, "I think maybe we should test first."

"Test? Freakin test!" Bianca raged, "Oh my gosh, I'm hormonal."

"Just calm down, I'll orb to the store and get you a pregnancy test." Chris said.

"Thank you." Bianca said, "I'll go and help your mom finish the dinner for tonight." She said, walking past him and into the kitchen.

Melinda came downstairs and stood on the landing.

Chris sighed and looked up at her, "What?" he asked.

"When are you going to come up here and help me with this innocent? You are the Charmed...One." Melinda said.

"I'm not so sure he is an innocent." Chris muttered, "He's a demon."

"Half." Melinda Corrected, "And so is Warren."

"Can't Drake or Wyatt help you?" Chris asked.

"I called Drake and got no answer, I called Wyatt and he said to get you to help!" Melinda frowned, "Now are you going to help me or am I going to have to turn you into a frog?"

"You wouldn't."

"I have, remember." Melinda smirked.

"Melinda!" Piper's voice came from the kitchen.

"Go help him, now!" Melinda mouthed as she walked past him.

Once again, Chris sighed to himself as Wyatt orbed into the room.

"Did Mel call you, too?" Wyatt asked, "I don't have long until the next class starts."

"Aren't you overworking yourself there, bro?"

"When your husband is dating other people, work is your new best friend." Wyatt said, "You wouldn't have happened to see my son around, have you?"

"I think Caleb has him." Chris mentioned.

"Caleb?!" Wyatt asked, reaching his hand out, "Drake!" he said loudly.

I materialized in the middle of the room with Matthew, "What the Hell, dude!" I frowned.

"I thought Matt was with Caleb." Wyatt asked.

"I don't have time for this." I said, walking past them.

"What's wrong with him?" Chris asked.

"He's been like that lately." Wyatt said, "Even at home, he never puts the baby down and he just shuts himself down."

Wyatt and Chris walked around the corner and listened.

"Why don't you put the baby down and help us." Piper said cheerily.

"I don't think that would be a good idea." I snapped.

"Oh," Piper said, "Is there something wrong?"

I huffed, "Can I go anywhere without someone asking me that?! Can't anybody mind their own business around here?!" I asked, blowing past Wyatt and Chris again and heading to the attic.

Piper, Melinda, and Bianca walked out of the kitchen and stood, looking at Chris and Wyatt.

"What in the Hell was that?" Piper asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he's...you know..." Melinda said, causing everyone to look at Wyatt.

"We haven't been having sex, not lately." Wyatt said quickly.

Everyone nodded.

"Maybe he misses his mom." Melinda suggested.

Chris shook his head, "That would be something he'd tell us." He said.

"Something big is going on? We need to figure it out because at the rate he's going..."

"Hey, while I have you all here, how about you guys help my innocent." Melinda proposed.

"You brought an innocent into the Manor?" Piper asked, "Today, of all days?"

"He needs our help! His brothers are warlocks and they attacked us." Melinda said.

"Of course." Piper said, walking back into the kitchen.

"So we take care of the innocent, break, then take care of Drake?" Wyatt asked.

He got nods.

"Okay, let's go." Wyatt said.

Upstairs...

"So, you hang out in people's attics?" I asked.

Carter laughed, "No, my brothers are, how do I put this, evil. And they want me to join them in being...evil." He said.

"By evil do you mean demon-like?" I asked.

"You know about demons? What kind of place is this?" Carter asked looking around, "Where's Melinda?"

"Downstairs, I think." I said flipping the pages of the book.

Warren shimmered in, "Hey." He said.

"Hi." I said oddly.

"You okay? I'm getting this...feeling." Warren said.

"Do I have to blow everyone in this stupid house up?" I asked, "I happen to be looking for a pair of demons."

"Yeah, that's basically what this attic is for." Warren chuckled, "Who's the guy?"

"That would be the innocent."

"Also known as Carter Marsh." Carter said, standing and extending a hand.

Just then, Wyatt, Chris, Bianca and Melinda walked in. They looked at me warily, as if they wanted to say something but couldn't pluck up the courage.

"There's an innocent." I said, looking at my baby, who was trying to get to his toys in the playpen, so I put him down. I didn't look away from him, not once.

"Yeah, Drake, he's got a name." Melinda said.

"Yeah." I said softly, still looking at the baby.

"Hey!" Melinda said.

I looked at her, "I'm with you, Mel! Demons want him for some ritual to convert him from walking with the sunbeams to stalking with the creepies." I said.

"Can I talk to you in the hall?" Wyatt asked, taking my elbow and dragging me into the hall, but not before I got a glimpse of Chris holding hi...my...the baby, "I'm worried about you."

"What?" I asked.

"You're acting crazy, did you do a spell or something?" Wyatt asked, checking my pupils.

I batted his hands away, "Of course not, I just don't want to be away from Matt too long." I said quickly, "Who knows what...er...demons want him."

"With all of us here?" Wyatt asked, "That's suicide."

"You don't even know!" I shouted. I had to catch my breath and avert my eyes from the look on his face, "You have no idea what I'm going through."

Wyatt looked at me, worried, "What is it? You can tell me anything." He said.

"No, I can't. I want to, but I can't. It'll hurt." I said.

"Nothing could hurt worse than you dating some..." Wyatt stopped.

I looked at him, unnerved by what he just said, "I'm sorry about that. I didn't do that to hurt you. I did that to help me."

"So, you dated someone else to raise your self-esteem or what?" Wyatt asked angrily.

"I was a single father..." My voice faltered at the word father, "...I needed somebody and it couldn't be you."

"I made a mistake. Can't we move past this?" Wyatt asked.

I looked away, "I love you but I'm trying to get past us." I frowned.

"So, you don't want me anymore? You're ready to throw us away?" Wyatt asked, his heart broken.

"I don't know Wyatt! I can't deal with this right now! I can't do this." I said, walking back into the attic.

"We found the demons." Melinda smiled.

"We're not done." Wyatt said, walking into the room.

"Yeah, we are." I said, turning to Melinda, "Point me to the nearest demon."

-           

"What do you know." Warren asked placing the crystal down and shocking the demon.

"Are you sure we should be doing this." Kyle asked.

"I know you're a pacifist, but I'm not." Warren smirked, "Besides, I have to be at Aunt Piper's house in a while."

"Alright," Kyle said, bending down to the demon, "Are you going to tell us what we need to know?"

The demon just looked at them.

"He's playing hardball." Warren smirked, pulling out an athame, "The Collective, whaddya know."

"They planted me here. They want you to know they're coming." The demon smirked, "The Collective is a group of demons that's going to kick your puny little Charmed asses."

"Just demons?" Kyle asked.

"No, whitelighters, demons, powerful witches, and Avatars." The demon explained, "They wear these corny little outfits."

"And we should be afraid of them?" Warren chortled.

"The Elders think this threat is the big one." Kyle said.

"The Elders knew about them?" Warren asked.

"They didn't know their name or how far their influence went but we did know that they were rallying against us." Kyle explained, "Anything you might have forgot to mention?"

"How would I remember what I forgot?" The demon smirked yet again.

"Demon of the world collide

Be thy death to the naked eye

Vanquish you know is what we'll do

No negative storm will you brew." Warren said quickly, watching the demon burn.

-           

Chris, Wyatt and I orbed into a posh apartment building high in the sky.

"Sweet digs, even for an evil demon duo." Chris said.

"Can we just get on with this?" I asked

"What's your hurry?" Wyatt asked.

"Deadline." I said, "Plus, I have an infant."

"So do I." Wyatt said.

"Bite me." I growled.

"Dude, what the Fuck is your problem!" Wyatt asked angrily.

"Your face." I frowned.

"You two, calm down, we're not supposed to be noticed, remember." Chris said, looking around.

I looked down, "Uh, guys, I think we're in trouble." I said quickly.

There was a ring around the floor in the shape of a pentagram. It was a trap!

"Hello, boys." One of the demons said.

I tried to break of the circle, but was shocked.

"Are you serious? We fell for this?" Chris frowned.

"You're not getting out of that." The other demon said.

Wyatt tried to orb out but was blasted onto his back. I bent down and helped him up.

"What, am I talking to myself?" the first demon said, "We should introduce ourselves, huh."

"Doesn't matter, in a few minutes, you'll be scorch marks." I frowned, "You had to trap us in here to do anything to us."

"No, we're going to kill one of you and let the others watch." The second demon said, "That's what they want."

"The collective?" Chris asked.

The first demon smirked, "Ax, get the weakest one." He said.

"Sure, Nat." Ax said waving his arm at me, causing me to fly out of the circle!

"Drake!" Wyatt yelled.

"Don't worry, these guys can't kick anyone's ass." I said, looking around.

-           

Melinda stood outside the kitchen to Quake, waiting on Carter. She was running out of time. She knew that Carter would know how to stop his brothers, but he said he had to get something from Quake first. When he finally came out, she was overjoyed.

"What's so important?" Melinda asked.

"We don't have time, get me to your brothers." Carter said.

Melinda nodded.

-           

I dodged a double assault as fire balls flew through the air. I jumped into the air and stayed there for a couple of seconds before droping to the ground again. I thanked the sisters for their blood and rolled out of the way of another attempt on my life. I raised my hand to blow one of them up, but was swiped by a fire ball! I yelped in pain before trying to freeze the scene. It worked for a split second, long enough for me to grab a vase and lob it at one of the demons! It shattered over his head and he fell to the ground. The other demon, Axel, grabbed me by the throat and threw me to the floor.

"Axel!" Carter said behind us.

Axel looked back at him. I quickly crawled to the circle and smudged it, causing the brothers to flee from the circle and check on me. I told them I was fine and our attention turned from me to Carter and his brothers, who were both now standing in front of Carter. They were talking but very low. It sounded like he was trying to talk him down.

"You don't have to." Carter said.

"It's just my nature baby brother." Axel said.

"Hey!" Wyatt said, causing Axel to look back at him. Wyatt raised his hand and both demons flew past us and into the wall!

"How do we kill them?" Melinda asked.

"With this." Carter said holding up a rather large cross, "Dominus Simphamie!"

There was a burst of light and the demons cried out in agony as they were pulled towards the cross! Carter unscrewed the top and the two were sucked in and the cross fell out of his hands and rolled across the floor.

"Everyone just saw that, right?" Chris asked.

-           

"Thank you for everything." Carter said, "I'm forever in your debt."

"It's what we do." Melinda said, "Besides, it was kind of fun."

"I'm serious, if there's anything I can ever do for you, or your family..."

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" Melinda asked, "It's going to be family there and...well, it might be fun."

"I would love to." Carter smiled.

-           

We sat at the table, having a good meal with family. It was refreshing to have the whole family there with a kids table and all. It was so fun to have everyone around me. My worries that my world would cave in were still there but it seemed like so much family that I didn't have much to worry about. Even my dad and brother were there and it just seemed to be a lovely event.

"I'd like to give a toast," Leo said, standing with a glass, "To my lovely wife, who prepared all this food, and this family that has thrived and..." he stopped.

"What are they doing here?" Melinda asked.

We all turned around at the table to see a group of Elders standing by the stairs.

"We've come to inform you of a mistake on our part." Sandra said.

I stood and quickly waved my hand but Odin threw his hand up and it shot back at me, blasting me back into the China cabinet!

"Drake!" Wyatt said, rushing to me.

"What did you just do?" Chris shouted.

"We were wrong to do what we did." Sandra said.

"What exactly did you do." Piper said testily.

"The child Pahras gave birth to was not his baby." Odin said angrily.

I stood, "Why are you doing this?" I asked. Wyatt's hands were the only thing holding me up.

"Who's baby is it?" Leo asked.

"Chris and Bianca's."