Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends)-Update 8/13/09

[StoryGirl83]

Once more I decided to update, even though no one has reviewed. I hope someone checks this out and enjoys. This is a lot more than just a prose version of "Imaginary Fiends". Since I am currently at chapter 57, I think if I have time I will do a bunch of posts on this so that I can get closer to up to date. I am past the end of the episode at this point and still have a lot to go to finish this story. For now, enjoy.

Starting with this chapter I am adding pictures at the beginning of characters in the scene. I intend to add screen shots as well for the parts that have screen shots, but those will have to wait until I take them.

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Chapter Eleven - Vicus' House Call

Present Day – 2005

Upstairs Leo carried Wyatt into the bedroom that Wyatt and Chris share. Chris was standing against the rails in his bed across the room from Wyatt. Leo brought Wyatt over to his bed and put him in. “Ohh, big guy.” Leo crouched down and leaned over the bed rail. “You okay, buddy?

As every time before in recent weeks, Wyatt didn't respond, just watching Leo with a dull look on his face. Leo stood up and headed across the room to check Chris. As Leo left Wyatt silently watches him walk away. He didn’t yet see who was leaning on the rails at the end of his bed.

With his ever cheerful grin, Vicus tried to catch Wyatt’s attention. “Hey, Wyatt.”

Wyatt turned and looked at him. He is still quiet.

Still grinning Vicus said, “I promised I'd be back, didn't I?”

This caused Wyatt to smile. “Yeah.”

Leo looked up from Chris’ crib and across the room at the sound of his son’s voice. He saw Wyatt looking at the end of his bed, but Leo saw nothing there. In a questioning voice he said, “Wyatt?”

Hearing Leo, Wyatt looked across the room at his dad. Leo walked toward him as Vicus watches smugly. As Leo looked at Wyatt trying to figure out what is going on, Vicus puts a finger to his lips. “Shh! Remember . . .”

Wyatt turned to look at Vicus, showing whom is more important to him.

Vicus continued, secure in the knowledge that he is almost there, “ . . . I’m a secret, right?”

Wyatt smiled and laughed at Vicus. Confused and worried Leo continues to watch Wyatt's behavior, completely unaware of Vicus' presence.

Vicus decided to push it a little farther. “Hey, I really like your teddy bear.”

This move was not to Wyatt’s liking. He picked up Wuvey and held him close, turning away from Vicus, unwilling to share it with him. Leo watched Wyatt, unsure what was going on.

Still Vicus continued, “Maybe you'll let me hold him some day, huh?

Wyatt turned and looked at Vicus, not sure about this.

Vicus leaned forward and continued on, “I've got a great surprise for both of you.”

Wyatt continued to watch Vicus, completely ignoring Leo. A smile came to his lips and he laughed. Vicus smiled back at him and looked over at Leo. Leo looked at his son, not sure what was going on and worried about him.

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Coming up:
Chapter 12 - Vanishing Act
Chapter 13 - Future Consequenses? What's That?

[dylan345]

I like it! Please update! I love time travel stories, and it makes me want to go back and watch this episode and picture it with your ideas.

[StoryGirl83]

That is exactly what I am trying for with this story, to make something that you can watch the original and see the "extra" scenes and "extra" people in your mind as if that's the way it really happened. For that reason I stick to the story exactly and add to it, a lot. I'm glad you like it.

Chapter Twelve - Vanishing Act

Future – Saturday, May 29, 2027

In the future Wyatt still sat on the couch. He had sorted the papers into two piles. The look on his face was one of disappointment. Chris sat next to him with his laptop. He had half a dozen files that he was looking at.

“Well, I think we can conclude that this demon only attacks at dawn and dusk. According to this, they are secondary ‘tween places.”

Wyatt looked at Chris with a confused frown. “’Tween places?”

Chris nodded. “Yeah, remember just after we got our magic back we went to the manor and listened to those messages on the answering machine. One of them was about ‘tween places. I asked Mom later and she said that a couple of years before you were born Mom, Aunt Phoebe, and Aunt Prue helped this little girl who was trying to protect a fairy from trolls in the ‘tween places. That was who the woman in the message was. Mom said that ‘tween places are places in between, doorways, windowsills, stuff like that. The biggest ‘tween is midnight, which is because it is everywhere. Dawn and dusk are similar. They lay between day and night. However, due to the fact that the distinction is so questionable, while it can be used as a portal, it weakens the power of the one using it.”

“What kind of demon chooses a time when its powers are weak?” Wyatt wanted to know looking at the page on the computer.

Chris shrugged. “Well, maybe it’s because fewer people are out at midnight then are out during these two. Also, since magical creatures are the only ones that use ‘tweens and only children can see them. . .”

“Now, hold it right there,” Wyatt interrupted. “I seem to remember being told that when I was little I had an elf nanny.”

Chris nodded, a funny look coming to his face.

“Isn’t that a magical creature?”

Chris nodded once again.

“Then, why could everyone see her?”

“There was a period of time when the world was unbalanced. It started about the time Mom found out she was pregnant with you. I’m not really sure when it ended, but it was still in full blast when I was there.”

Wyatt stood and walked over to the book case. He turned to look at Chris. “You know, I was thinking and do you remember the little girl, Shelby, that lived next door?”

Chris nodded. “Yeah. There was a big media circus when she disappeared because her parents were in the middle of a divorce and they were accusing each other. Why?”

Wyatt looked at Chris, completely serious. “Shelby disappeared somewhere on the evening of February second. She was last seen . . .” Before Wyatt could finish blue and white orbs surrounded him and he looks at Chris with a surprised look on his face.

Chris watched stunned as his brother orbed away, seemingly against his will.

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Coming up:
Chapter 13 - Future Consequenses? What's That?
Chapter 14 - Priorities

[dylan345]

"There was a period of time when the world was unbalanced"... that was wonderful! I had to laugh. Thank you so much for trying to fix all the silliness in the show that came along with Wyatt.

[StoryGirl83]

Yeah, well there was a lot of things that didn't make a whole lot of sense, so I decided that if I could fix them to be within the mythology of the show as it started out, I would. I decided time wise it worked perfectly to say Wyatt unbalanced everything and Chris' birth fixed it . . . at least in this particular case. Chris, of course, doesn't know what fixed it. I will be going into that eventually in my series. Do you have any interest in reading my spin off series? If you do I'll post it here. If you don't answer that, I'll assume you aren't interested.

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Chapter Thirteen - Future Consequences? What's That?

Present Day - 2005

In present day, Piper and Paige were still downstairs in the conservatory. Piper sat at a table with the pen and paper she had gotten out of the desk. Paige stood a couple of feet away watching her. Piper’s pen stilled. “Shoot.” Slowly she looked up. “What rhymes with communicate?”

Paige looked up as if thinking, but when she looked back at Piper she asked, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Piper had no doubts. Tilting her head she looked at Paige, “Of course I'm sure.”

Paige sighed and gave Piper a worried look. “But what about the whole personal gain thing?”

Piper almost rolled her eyes as she said, “Wyatt created a demon who kidnapped him and a dragon that nearly destroyed the city. I'm not real worried about personal gain.”

Paige sighed. “I know. I guess just 'cause I'm whitelighter now, have to think of these things, right?

Paige watched Piper as her sister continued her explanation. “Besides, we're casting it on ourselves so we can try to understand what he's not telling us. So if I switch this and I leave that ... okay.”

Without missing a beat Piper read the spell she had written.

“Help this mother understand

The thoughts inside her little man.

Though his mouth be quiet,

Let us hear his inner Wyatt.”

Paige was the first to notice the sound of orbing. She looked up. As white orb lights swirled around Piper followed her sister’s eyes. As they watched the lights grew brighter and then disappeared leaving behind a young man standing in the conservatory in front of them.

Paige’s shoulders jumped in surprise as Piper just starred confused. The young man looked around trying to figure out what just happened before his eyes settled on Piper. Confusion lit in his eyes, a word that was more a question escaped his lips. “Mom?”

Piper’s eyes grew large as she realized he was talking to her.

Undeterred Wyatt looked at his mother. “It’s me . . . Wyatt?”

Piper’s jaw dropped. Paige, too, starred at him in stunned silence. Wyatt, so very unlike his secretive younger brother, just smiled back at them. Piper looked over at her sister, mouth still very wide and then back at her adult son. This was not at all what she had meant by the spell.

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Coming up:
Chapter 14 - Priorities
Chapter 15 - What, Did a Spell Backfire?

[StoryGirl83]

I will take that as a "no" about posting my series. That's okay, I have good audiences elsewhere.

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Chapter Fourteen - Priorities

Future – Saturday, May 29, 2027

Over twenty-two years in the future, Christopher Halliwell stood in the middle of the living room of the apartment he shared with Wyatt. The papers and laptop on the coffee table are forgotten. He was frowning at the bookcase, where he last saw Wyatt.

“Wy, where did you go?” Chris asked the air. “This isn’t like you.” He walked over to bookcase and touch it. “Where did you go and why? You didn’t say you were planning to leave and you seemed as surprised as I am.” Chris looks around the room as if the room will give him some sort of clue, but nothing catches his attention. He sits down on the couch frowning. He stood up and walked back over to the bookshelf to his left. He reached up on top of the bookshelf and pulled down a pad of paper and a pen. He sat back down on the couch and started writing.

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Short, I'm very aware, but it just didn't work to put it with anything else.

Chapter 15 - What, Did a Spell Backfire?
Chapter 16 - Following Wyatt

[StoryGirl83]

Chapter Fifteen - What, Did a Spell Backfire?

Present day - 2005

Unlike his younger brother, Wyatt seemed unconcerned by the strange turn of events. “Wow!” He walked over to Piper and pulled her into a hug. “Mom, look at you! You look great!”

Piper took a step back and away from the very cheerful young man claiming to be her son. “Right. Okay.”

Paige stood next to her with a big, toothy, and fake grin pasted onto her face as she tried to make heads or tails of this young man.

Wyatt, knowing that he was himself, took the whole thing in stride. It was after all common for strange things to happen in his family and he had heard many more stories then they had. “Looks like you're as surprised to see me as I am to be back.”

Not knowing what else to say, Piper agreed. “Yeah.”

Paige isn’t as ready to accept him and asked, “Back from where?”

“The future.” Wyatt’s answer was said in a matter of fact voice, though it was anything but.

A worried look covered Piper’s face as she groaned realizing exactly what the implications of that might be. “Oh, no! No, no, no! We wanted to communicate with you . . . I mean the younger you, the two and a half year-old you.”

Paige nodded emphatically as her sister spoke.

Wyatt on the other hand didn’t mind that his presence make no logical sense or that it wasn’t what his mom and aunt had planned. “Well, if there's one thing you guys taught me, magic may work in mysterious ways, but it always works.”

Paige liked what he said and asks, “Where'd you hear that? That's nice.”

Wyatt looked at her in surprise. “I'm surprised to hear you ask. In the future you're always telling me that.” Of course, he realized that it is twenty-three years in the future, but she couldn’t have changed that much. She was still his aunt Paige.

Paige, however, was surprised at his response. “Oh! Well, that's the future me. I, me now, clearly doesn't have those kind of brilliant thoughts. Heh!”

Seeing it as not so important that Aunt Paige wasn’t to the point she would be in twenty-three years, Wyatt just went with it. “Right. Look, all I'm saying is if your spell brought me here, there's gotta be a good reason.”

His mom wasn’t as sure about the good reason. “Well, I don't know. Do you remember anything about what you were going through when you're were two-and-a-half?”

Wyatt couldn’t, but he was more fascinated with being here. “No, not really.”

Piper looked down a bit of awe on her face at what was going on, even as she tried to be logical and in control. “So then we're still looking for that reason.”

A growing smile on his face Wyatt quickly responded, “But still this is a fantastic opportunity that magic's brought us. I mean, for me to see the past, for you guys to learn about the future.” Wyatt turned around and started walking toward the door, wanted to see what was different from his own time.

Piper’s mouth formed an O as worry covered Paige’s brow. Piper quickly found her tongue. “Oh, no, no.”

Wyatt stopped and turned around.

Piper’s protest continued. “No, no, no. We don't want to know anything about the future. We don't want to risk changing it again.”

“Again?” Wyatt asked. Then he inwardly groaned as he realizes what she was talking about. Chris. Thinking of Chris he wondered what his little brother did when he just vanished before his eyes.

Paige didn’t know the thoughts going through Wyatt’s head, but she also didn’t want to explain about all that happened while Chris was there. She threw her hands up. “Ugh! Don't ask.”

Since he had figured out what they are talking about Wyatt didn’t mind changing the subject. “Okay. But until we find out why magic brought me back, we could at least try and enjoy the moment, right?”

Piper looked at him suspiciously. “How did you become such an optimist?”

Surprised Wyatt responded, “From you, mom.”

As he turned and stepped into the sitting room, the next stop of his exploration of the house in the past, Paige turned to Piper and in a scoffing tone said, “Hey!” She continued to tease Piper by saying, “You must've turned over a new leaf in the future.”

Piper denied the possibility. “Don't count on it.” Then, getting back to the subject of this older Wyatt’s presence she said, “So that doesn't help us with our Wyatt.”

Paige’s head bobbed down in a sigh. “No.”

From another part of the house they heard the front door opening and closing and then Phoebe’s voice, “Piper, you home?” Phoebe rushed into the house eager to share her findings with her sisters, unaware of what was going on. “Okay, the professor gave me some information that I think will be useful,” mid sentence she noticed Wyatt and asked, “Who is he?”

It was obvious to all that Wyatt has no notion of the concept of future consequences that his brother was always talking about as he rushed forward arms open wide to hug his aunt. “Aunt Phoebe, it's me! Wyatt!”

As Wyatt stepped forward to hug her Phoebe tries to comprehend what was going on. “Wy . . . what?”

While Wyatt did notice her hesitation he didn’t show it and grabbed her into a hug.

Phoebe, still trying to figure out what was going on, can only say, “Oh!” A smile did form on her lips.

“This is so amazing!” Wyatt told his stunned aunt.

Phoebe looked over to her left where her sisters where standing. “What, did a spell backfire?”

Both Piper and Paige shrugged as Paige easily agreed. “How'd you guess?”

That’s what Phoebe figured. “Yeah.”

Piper decided talking could come later since what Phoebe had to say might actually help them. “Yeah, well, you know.” Then, as if it had just occurred to her,
What did your professor say?”

“Well, she said that he probably was talking to an imaginary friend. I mean not,” she turned to look at the older Wyatt “. . . not you. You know, the other you when you were,” giving up she turned away from Wyatt and looked in the direction of her sisters, “. . . this is gonna be so confusing.

“You'll get used to it.” Not that Wyatt was used to it, but he loved being here, so he didn’t mind a little confusion. Now, if it had been Chris, but Wyatt ended that thought, because trying to figure out his little brother’s multi-timeline brain gave Wyatt a headache. He was glad it no longer did the same to Chris.

Phoebe looked at him with a little bit a gratitude that he got what on earth she was talking about.

Waving her hands, Paige tried to bring Phoebe’s theory to Wyatt. “Okay. Imaginary friends. Ring any bells for you?”

With a slight shake of his head, Wyatt denied the possibility. “Afraid not.”

Piper watched silently as Phoebe added to what her professor had said. “She also said that he's a little young for an imaginary friend. Again, not you, just . . .”

Not really wanting to go through that, again, and because he really did understand what she was saying, Wyatt stopped her with a nod of his head. “I got it.”

A big fake grin plastered to her face Phoebe turned away to look once more at her sisters. “Right.”

Paige heard the Elders' jingling and groaned. “Ugh! A te wa! Sorry.”

Phoebe looked at her confused. “What language is that?”

Wyatt recognized it instantly and remembered some stories about a certain charge. “Maori. Your New Zealand charge, right? I remember hearing about him.”

Paige agreed, but showed no signs of going to her charge. “Yes, well, he can wait, because I think this is a little bit more important.”

Wyatt disagreed, remembering things his aunt Paige had told him in the future. “I thought you said there was nothing more important than your charges?”

Phoebe gave Paige an amused look as Paige looked at Wyatt annoyed. “Look, mister, I'm pulling double duty here, okay? So no guilt from the future for me.”

Piper wasn’t interested in present or future at the moment. All she wanted was to figure out what was wrong with her young son and how, if any, his adult version could help them with that. “Okay, you know what? Can we focus on helping him, please?

Wyatt wasn’t done yet. “Look, all I'm saying is that someone always told me that whitelighters are the glue that keeps the magic world working.”

Phoebe looked at him in a bit of disbelief. “Oh, Paige told you that?”

Piper smiled and Paige glared at Phoebe.

“Don't be so surprised.” Paige told Phoebe. Then, of Wyatt she asked, “Do I ever have a life in the future?”

Wyatt smiled, but doesn’t answer her questions. For once he realized some things are best left for the future. “You should go, really. We'll figure this out.”

With no more protests left, Paige said, “A te wa,” and orbs out.

Wyatt looked at his mom, who smiled at him. “Okay. So you guys cast a spell to communicate with me, right? So let's go talk to me.” Wyatt turned around and headed up the stairs, leaving Piper and Phoebe exchanging wide-eyed looks.

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Chapter 16 - Following Wyatt
Chapter 17 - Vicus Revealed

With both brothers in about to be in the past, things are going to diverge from the original, but in such a way that you could still read it while watching it and see lots of extra stuff . . . like an invisible Chris.