Charmed - Parallel Intersections (7/10)
Title: Parallel Intersections
Fandom: Charmed
Disclaimer: They belong to Constance Burge, Brad Kern and the WB
Rating: PG-13
Original Publication: FF.net, April 2004 - June 2004
Summary: In which the time-space continuum is heavily abused and second chances are found.
Previous Parts:
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
PART SIX
Tomorrow I will sink into darkness
Like a wing-broken china bird
eternally
Falling toward midnight
-Ling Chang, Fall of the Moon Lady
After an eternity, the world came to a rest. Cole didn’t move immediately, not trusting the floor to remain where it was should he rise to his feet again. When it became clear nothing more would come, he stood.
The hall was a mess. What little had been displayed on the walls had fallen torn and shattered on the floor and the house itself bore large cracks in the plaster. A display table that had belonged to his grandfather lay broken on its side and the chandelier, wired only two years before, dangled precariously from the ceiling, sparks falling from split wires. Oddly, the first thought to immediately pop into his head was an annoyed Well, this will be unpleasant to clean up.
He realized his mother still stood at the door, gazing serenely out toward the city. As he approached, far off yells began to drift in.
“Incredible,” Elizabeth murmured, a smile gracing her classically beautiful face.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.” She repeated the word, then laughed. “The Source plans and plots and schemes and still nature causes more damage in minutes than He could hope to accomplish in a year.”
His eyes widened. “This is what the Seers predicted.”
“Most of it.” Her smile grew at the first few wisps of grey, too dark to be clouds, began to appear. “Although, it behooved us to move while we could.”
“A fire,” Cole said, the realization sinking in. “You started a fire in Chinatown.”
“Not me, no.”
“But you gave the order. Tell me, did you actually set it in Lonnie’s apartment or did you decide to be subtle this time?”
“And again your thoughts turn to that girl!”
“Because she has nothing to do with this!” A deepening voice and ripple under his skin warned of close change but he tightened his hold on his anger. “How I conduct myself in my personal affairs and how I serve the Source are not one and the same!”
Her hand flew out lightening quick and connected with his cheek, rocking his head. He dimly recalled that this was the second time in as many days that a woman had slapped him.
“You are a fool,” Elizabeth spat. “You belong to the Source, mind and body. Just as I do, just as Raynor does, just as the entire Underworld is His to command. He would reward you so greatly for that and you want to do what? Throw it away for some mortal who won’t live past seventy?”
“I wouldn’t throw it away! Why is it so wrong to save something from my duty?”
“What you seek to save doesn’t exist.”
“You had it with my father!”
“And look what happened to him!”
There it was then. Standing between them and forever twisting their relationship. He saw those paths again before him. One led back to his mother and the Source, to everything he knew and understood. The other followed a dark and unknown road, the words of a strange girl whispering in his ear.
I’ll be watching.
“It will never be enough, will it?” he said. God, he wanted to cry. But demons didn’t cry. Men didn’t cry. “No matter what I do, it will never be enough.”
“She’s flawed, Cole,” Elizabeth said wearily. “She is flawed and weak, just like all the rest, and she would turn on you eventually. She’s not worth the price of destroying your future.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
He walked out the door. His mother tried to grab him but he eluded her grasp. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer and though he felt an itch between his shoulder blades in anticipation of another energy ball, he didn’t look back.
“Cole!” It was a command but with just the slightest hint of desperation. “You’ll regret it! I swear on your life, you’ll regret it!”
No attack came with the threat.
“You’ll come back! You will beg for a second chance!”
He dug his nails into his palms.
“You’ll always come back! You can’t escape what you are!”
She continued to yell until he was out of earshot but he focused only on what was ahead and plunged directly into the chaos of the panicking city.
***
Paige didn’t bother with a corset or petticoat that morning. Gertrude would no doubt give her grief over it but she didn’t care. She’d lived through a natural disaster; they were lucky she even had the presence of mind to get into a skirt and blouse.
Gertrude fluttered about downstairs, sweeping up the shattered chinaware and assessing the damage to the rest of the house. The extra prep work they’d performed seemed to have done its job but the walls bore cracks that hadn’t been there the day before and a familiar-looking grandfather clock lay in a pool of splinters, glass and gears in the sitting room.
“What’s the word on the damage?” Paige asked.
“Nothing that can’t be fixed or replaced,” Gertrude said. “Those wards you placed over the Nexus were most potent, incidentally. I can’t imagine the damage its opening might have caused otherwise.”
“Actually, I kind of think that’s what happened the first time around.”
“Well, I wouldn’t fret too much. I had started to make plans to sell the house before you arrived. No doubt the earthquake would have simply accelerated the process.
“Now we just have four days of mayhem and five-alarm fires to get through,” Paige said as she righted one of the tables in the sitting room.
“Yes, I’m curious about that. Just how extensive will it be? I hate to think we reinforced the house only to watch it burn to the ground.”
“From what I can remember, the fire didn’t get close to this area. Nob Hill didn’t do so well, though. And Chinatown was pretty much destroyed.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the location struck her. “Oh my God.”
“What is it, dear?”
“Abelone.” Paige’s fair skin paled further. “Cole’s girlfriend. She lives right down there.”
Gertrude appeared to pick up her train of thought. “Paige, you can’t.”
“But she’s a nice kid! She deserves the help!”
“There are many ‘nice kids,’ as you put it, in this city. Many will be harmed by today’s events and by those over the coming week. You can’t possibly hope to save them all.”
Paige gritted her teeth. “I just want to save this one.”
“And cause irreparable damage to this timeline. I don’t mean to sound harsh but innocents die everyday. It is simply the way of life.”
It wasn’t untrue and Paige recognized it as such. Good people died everyday from disease or accidents or plain old bad luck and there wasn’t a blessed thing she could do to prevent it.
But, damn it, she could prevent this.
“Screw it,” she said. “I’m a Charmed One. If I don’t at least try to help people when they need it, what the hell good am I anyway?”
And before Gertrude could stop her, she orbed out. The elder witch blinked at the spot where the other woman had stood just a second before, then sighed and looked heavenward.
“That girl,” she said with a hint of a smile, “is impossible.”
***
Paige reappeared a few blocks from Abelone’s apartment, careful to choose a secluded spot from which to emerge.
Slow brewed pandemonium spread through the streets. The damage to the buildings and pavement was self-evident but the people outside looked dazed, shock no doubt delaying more dramatic reactions. That would soon be changing; only a few wisps of smoke could be seen above the skyline but in a few hours the entire area would be covered in flame.
She had to be careful now, not only of the pedestrians but of the hazardous path created by the quake and the aftershocks that still threatened. As she walked she couldn’t help stopping and helping where she could. Here, a woman bleeding from her scalp sent on her way with a discreet spell. There, a boy trapped in a fissure thanking her for the rescue in breathless, rapid Chinese, intent understood if not the words. Yes, she planned this trip to rescue the girl she knew but there were those who needed her help that she didn’t know and her obligation to them was no less.
She was halfway there when a man turned a corner practically right on top of her. An all too familiar man.
“Oh come on! This is getting so old!”
Cole scowled. “What are you doing here?”
“Me? What about you? Hanging around just to enjoy the show?”
“I am not - no. I won’t fight you again. Kill me, vanquish me, do what you will, but I don’t have the time for a discussion.”
“Where the hell are you going?”
“None of your concern.”
“You better believe it is.” She yanked on his arm but he pulled it away, expression now desperate on the edges of the anger.
“You’re wasting time! I have a friend in trouble and if you are truly what you say you are, you would help me, not hinder me!”
Paige nearly blurted out You have friends? before she realized who he must be talking about. “Abelone.”
“Yes.”
Well, wasn’t this just peachy. “Fine, we’ll go together. But you even breathe wrong and you’ll wish you’d never been spawned.”
Cole, either too tired or too agitated to argue further, nodded and they hurried up the street together.
The sight that greeted them wasn’t encouraging. Half the building had collapsed under the weight of its neighbor, a taller complex which tilted crazily on its side and remained upright through little more than wishful thinking. The other half looked ready to fall at any moment.
Cole’s face drained of all color. “LONNIE!”
For a heart-stopping moment, they heard nothing. Then, faintly, “Help!”
“Lonnie! Lonnie!” Cole scrambled around the debris. “Can you get to the window?”
A pause before tearfully, “My leg’s stuck!”
He needed to hear nothing more, immediately running for the doorway. But the moment he reached the threshold something threw him back with such force he skidded to a stop a dozen yards away. He remained there, stunned. “W-what?”
Paige remembered and groaned. “The talisman.” That answered the question of whether Cole had ever been inside Abelone’s apartment then. Whoever had written on that paper knew their stuff but unfortunately the demon-be-gone was working a little too well. No choice then. “I’ll get her.”
Cole sputtered some protest but she’d already orbed. The interior of Abelone’s kitchen looked as bad as the street below. Anything not tied down lay in pieces on the floor with Abelone herself trapped underneath the dish cabinet. More worrisome however was the smell from the broken stove.
Gas.
Abelone stared at her with wide eyes. “How-how did you-?”
“Does it matter? We’ve gotta get out of here.” Paige tried to move the cabinet manually but it remained stubbornly where it was. She climbed around it and got a grip on Abelone’s shoulders. The other girl stiffened. “Look, do you trust me?”
“I barely know you.”
“Fair enough. Do you at least trust me to get you out of here?” The smell of gas was starting to make her light-headed.
Abelone hesitantly nodded her consent.
“Then hang on. This’ll feel a little weird.” Paige slipped her hands under Abelone’s arms, holding on tight and insuring that Abelone wouldn’t topple over once they rematerialized. The building began to shudder and Paige could feel the anticipated heat of the stove igniting just as the world dissolved.
They arrived behind Cole just in time to see the gout of flame explode out the window. Abelone’s dismayed cry was drowned out by another rumble as the two buildings, unable to take any more stress, finally collapsed in on themselves. Dust and mortar flew and Paige yanked both Cole and Abelone to the ground, flattening out as the shockwave swept over them.
Paige remained still for a full ninety seconds, coughing on the polluted air and blinking back tears from the grit in her eyes. When no new disaster presented itself, she sat up, coughing but more or less intact.
Cole and Abelone knelt staring at one another, clothes and skin darkened by the dirt covering them.
“Abelone.” He spoke as if he couldn’t believe she was actually there. She said his name in turn and then she was practically falling into his arms, the intimacy of the contact encompassing all the depth of emotion that could exist between two lovers. Paige looked away and felt awkward.
The couple finally pulled apart and Cole frowned at Abelone’s torn skirt. “You’re hurt.”
“Not as badly as I would have been if Paige...” She looked at the redhead. “What did you do?”
Paige shrugged. “Just a gift, I guess.”
Cole’s grip tightened noticeably around Abelone’s waist but she didn’t seem to notice. “Whatever it was, thank you.”
“Not a problem.”
“No, I - I - oh.” Abelone paled. “Oh no. Ba!”
Paige didn’t know what she meant but Cole did. “He wasn’t at home, was he?”
“No, no, he left but if he was on the street during the earthquake - oh God.”
“Your father?” Paige guessed. At Abelone’s nod she placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ll find him.”
“We will?” Cole said.
“Yes, we will,” Paige said with a glare. “Or were you going to abandon your girlfriend because you had someplace better to be?”
Something unreadable flashed on his face for a second and his tone flattened. “I don’t and I could ask the same of you.”
“Think you could get rid of me that easily? Think again, Spanky. Come on,” she said to Abelone more gently, helping the other girl to her feet. “We’ll follow the path your father took to work and see if we can’t find him, okay?”
Abelone allowed Paige to lead her without protest, murmuring directions to her in a dazed voice. And though Paige told herself she didn’t care what Cole did one way or another, she couldn’t help a small thrill of satisfaction when he, muttering dark curses against her, nevertheless followed.
***
The atmosphere worsened. Earlier it had been too soon for reality to set in but now horror had claimed the city well and good. Bleeding mothers screamed for their children on the streets outside buildings reduced to rumble on top of who knew how many unsuspecting inhabitants. Paige felt her gorge rise at the sight of two dead horses killed by falling debris, still attached to a sad overturned carriage.
Paige had been in San Francisco during quakes before but she’d never seen this level of destruction. The closest analogy in her experience had been the film footage from the Twin Towers seen half a world away in the soothing comfort of her living room. Here, she had been plunged for the first time into true destruction, raw and terrible.
She felt unaccountably cold.
And still no sign of Abelone’s father.
By noon, Paige had to admit the chances of finding Ru Ling were pretty slim. Twice, they had to detour due to the spreading fire, and the general pandemonium made their journey not only slow but dangerous. Cole complained every time she stopped to assist those she could and Abelone, injured and tiring, grew more distressed. Paige, forced into the position of leader of their motley crew, at last gave up and called it quits.
“But my father-”
“Is probably fine.” Paige had no good faith to make this assertion but Abelone needed the reassurance. “He was out pretty early and it doesn’t look like he’s on the street so he’s probably at a friend’s place or a hospital or something.”
“But-”
“She’s right,” Cole said, startling Paige. “And even if she isn’t, you can’t continue like this. Your leg’s worsened and you’re exhausted. You need rest.”
Abelone sniffed, holding back tears. “He’s all I have.”
Cole pulled her close. “I know. But he wouldn’t want you to collapse trying to find him.”
“What else can I do? My home is gone.”
Cole looked helplessly at Paige, a sure sign of his own exhaustion that he allowed himself to look at all vulnerable. “I can’t go back to my mother’s.” He didn’t elaborate but Paige didn’t really care. She sighed.
“Back to the Manor, it is.” She placed her hands on both of them. “Try not to fidget.”
She orbed them directly to the Manor’s front hall, the house considerably cleaner than when she’d last left it. Gertrude was just walking down the stairs, a basket of bandages and ointment slung over one arm. She barely blinked at Cole and Abalone.
“You’re late. Again. And for pity’s sake, sit that poor girl down. She looks terrible.”
Witch, girl and half-demon, all long past the point of questioning, merely followed the older woman into the solarium. Gertrude had been busy; a basin of steaming water and towels sat on one end table, a teapot and cups on another.
“I cannot promise anything served to you will be as fine a Betsy might make, but I sent her away until the city can straighten itself out,” Gertrude said as she guided Abelone to the sofa. “And, Coleridge, cease hovering about the doorway and have a seat over there. You don’t look well, either.”
Cole followed the order but kept a suspicious eye on the elder witch as she eased off Ablone’s boot and kept up a continuous, soothing prattle. “I’m sorry, dear, but I’ll have to cut off this stocking. I’ll try to find another pair for you upstairs. Paige, really, come over here and help. Goodness! Just look at this ankle! Coleridge, what in the world were you thinking, letting a young lady walk unassisted all over the city like this?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Mayweather.”
“Hmph. As well you should be. You were raised better than that. Abelone, dear, I’m afraid this truly needs a doctor but I’ll see if I don’t have a splint for you in the meantime.”
At Gertrude’s exit, Paige took a good look at Abelone’s leg. An ugly abrasion stretched from calf to knee from the fall she’s no doubt taken during the quake. The greater problem lay in her ankle, already injured from the cabinet and exacerbated by their hike across town; it had swollen considerably and was colored an angry red that bordered on purple.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Cole demanded.
“I didn’t really notice,” Abelone said faintly. Paige didn’t think that was untrue. She’d been through one hell of a shock then a considerable amount of distraction since.
“Dammit, Lonnie, we would have stopped! Instead you’ve just injured yourself further and-”
“Hey! Chill out, okay?” Paige snapped. “You’re not helping.”
“This is your fault as well! If you hadn’t insisted on that fool’s errand this morning-”
“Searching for my father is foolish?” Abelone said, sounding hurt and just a touch angry.
Cole stuttered. “That - that isn’t what I meant.”
“Oh please,” Paige said. “If there ever isn’t a time when you aren’t thinking of yourself-”
“Shut your mouth.”
Abelone rose to her defense. “Don’t say that to her!”
“Lonnie, you have no idea what she is.”
“Stop calling me Lonnie!”
“Why? Because Matthews says so?”
“No, because she doesn’t like it!”
“This has nothing to do with you!”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!”
All mouths closed as Gertrude strode back into the room, wooden splint in hand. She glared at each of them in turn. “I understand this has been a most dreadful day for all concerned but the three of you are behaving like ill-mannered school children. As such, you will either cease this nonsense at once or you will find other accommodations for the evening. Is that clear?”
She received three variations of “Yes, ma’am.” Satisfied with their acquiescence, she knelt by Abelone. “I’m afraid this is the best I can do on such short notice, dear. Paige, make yourself useful. I’m sure you’ve received healing instruction at some point.”
“Yeah, I-” Paige wanted to kick herself. “Um, actually, I may have a better idea.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Well, I can, y’know.” She waggled her fingers. “Because of my father’s side of the family.”
“You possess that ability as well?”
“A little. I can’t guarantee much.”
“What ability?” Cole said. “What are you talking about?”
“Hush.” Gertrude patted him on the arm. “This will help.”
Paige knelt be Abelone. “Look, I don’t want you to freak - um, be scared or anything ‘cause this’ll look a little strange, but I promise it’ll make you feel better, all right?”
Abelone frowned. “Is this like before? In the kitchen?”
“Sort of.”
The Chinese girl bit her lip and nodded. Paige placed her hands over Abelone’s ankle and called out to that other gift of her father’s, the Whitelighter power to heal. A soft glow suffused her hands and enveloped her targeted area. She was dimly aware of Abelone’s small gasp but remained concentrated on her work, this talent rusty with disuse. When she knew she was incapable of giving anymore, she withdrew, flexing numb fingers. Healing, on the very few occasions she used it, always made it feel like her hands had fallen asleep.
She inspected the result. The cuts had scabbed over considerably and the swelling had dwindled, the ankle now a pattern of mottled yellow and brown bruises.
Abelone flexed her leg experimentally and though it was obvious she didn’t have full mobility back, she looked pleased. “It’s better.”
“Yeah. I know it’s not healed all the way but I’m not very good at it.”
“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Cole asked. “Why did you let her go through the whole day in pain?”
“Listen, if you think you can do better-”
“Let’s not start again, shall we?” Gertrude said. “Although, Paige, it is something you really should have thought of earlier.”
“Whose side are you on, anyway?”
“That of practicality’s.”
“It’s all so amazing,” Abelone murmured, eyes remained fixed on her ankle. “My father used to tell me stories of healers back home, but I never believed it. I didn’t even think non-Chinese could practice shamanism.”
“Witchcraft, dear. That’s what we call it.”
“Witchcraft, yes.” Her eyes widened and she turned to Cole. “Are - are you-?”
“Me? No!” He looked offended at the implication. It was so absurd that Paige couldn’t help a snort of laughter. Abelone stared at her in confusion, which got her giggling all over again. Abelone slowly smiled before joining in. Cole’s disgruntled expression just made them laugh harder. There was a tinge of hysteria to their reaction but it stemmed most primarily from relief. It had been a long day.
Gertrude shook her head. “Well, I doubt those two shall be of much use now. Coleridge, why don’t you go ahead and start serving the tea.”
END PART SIX
Fandom: Charmed
Disclaimer: They belong to Constance Burge, Brad Kern and the WB
Rating: PG-13
Original Publication: FF.net, April 2004 - June 2004
Summary: In which the time-space continuum is heavily abused and second chances are found.
Previous Parts:
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
PART SIX
Tomorrow I will sink into darkness
Like a wing-broken china bird
eternally
Falling toward midnight
-Ling Chang, Fall of the Moon Lady
After an eternity, the world came to a rest. Cole didn’t move immediately, not trusting the floor to remain where it was should he rise to his feet again. When it became clear nothing more would come, he stood.
The hall was a mess. What little had been displayed on the walls had fallen torn and shattered on the floor and the house itself bore large cracks in the plaster. A display table that had belonged to his grandfather lay broken on its side and the chandelier, wired only two years before, dangled precariously from the ceiling, sparks falling from split wires. Oddly, the first thought to immediately pop into his head was an annoyed Well, this will be unpleasant to clean up.
He realized his mother still stood at the door, gazing serenely out toward the city. As he approached, far off yells began to drift in.
“Incredible,” Elizabeth murmured, a smile gracing her classically beautiful face.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.” She repeated the word, then laughed. “The Source plans and plots and schemes and still nature causes more damage in minutes than He could hope to accomplish in a year.”
His eyes widened. “This is what the Seers predicted.”
“Most of it.” Her smile grew at the first few wisps of grey, too dark to be clouds, began to appear. “Although, it behooved us to move while we could.”
“A fire,” Cole said, the realization sinking in. “You started a fire in Chinatown.”
“Not me, no.”
“But you gave the order. Tell me, did you actually set it in Lonnie’s apartment or did you decide to be subtle this time?”
“And again your thoughts turn to that girl!”
“Because she has nothing to do with this!” A deepening voice and ripple under his skin warned of close change but he tightened his hold on his anger. “How I conduct myself in my personal affairs and how I serve the Source are not one and the same!”
Her hand flew out lightening quick and connected with his cheek, rocking his head. He dimly recalled that this was the second time in as many days that a woman had slapped him.
“You are a fool,” Elizabeth spat. “You belong to the Source, mind and body. Just as I do, just as Raynor does, just as the entire Underworld is His to command. He would reward you so greatly for that and you want to do what? Throw it away for some mortal who won’t live past seventy?”
“I wouldn’t throw it away! Why is it so wrong to save something from my duty?”
“What you seek to save doesn’t exist.”
“You had it with my father!”
“And look what happened to him!”
There it was then. Standing between them and forever twisting their relationship. He saw those paths again before him. One led back to his mother and the Source, to everything he knew and understood. The other followed a dark and unknown road, the words of a strange girl whispering in his ear.
I’ll be watching.
“It will never be enough, will it?” he said. God, he wanted to cry. But demons didn’t cry. Men didn’t cry. “No matter what I do, it will never be enough.”
“She’s flawed, Cole,” Elizabeth said wearily. “She is flawed and weak, just like all the rest, and she would turn on you eventually. She’s not worth the price of destroying your future.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
He walked out the door. His mother tried to grab him but he eluded her grasp. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer and though he felt an itch between his shoulder blades in anticipation of another energy ball, he didn’t look back.
“Cole!” It was a command but with just the slightest hint of desperation. “You’ll regret it! I swear on your life, you’ll regret it!”
No attack came with the threat.
“You’ll come back! You will beg for a second chance!”
He dug his nails into his palms.
“You’ll always come back! You can’t escape what you are!”
She continued to yell until he was out of earshot but he focused only on what was ahead and plunged directly into the chaos of the panicking city.
***
Paige didn’t bother with a corset or petticoat that morning. Gertrude would no doubt give her grief over it but she didn’t care. She’d lived through a natural disaster; they were lucky she even had the presence of mind to get into a skirt and blouse.
Gertrude fluttered about downstairs, sweeping up the shattered chinaware and assessing the damage to the rest of the house. The extra prep work they’d performed seemed to have done its job but the walls bore cracks that hadn’t been there the day before and a familiar-looking grandfather clock lay in a pool of splinters, glass and gears in the sitting room.
“What’s the word on the damage?” Paige asked.
“Nothing that can’t be fixed or replaced,” Gertrude said. “Those wards you placed over the Nexus were most potent, incidentally. I can’t imagine the damage its opening might have caused otherwise.”
“Actually, I kind of think that’s what happened the first time around.”
“Well, I wouldn’t fret too much. I had started to make plans to sell the house before you arrived. No doubt the earthquake would have simply accelerated the process.
“Now we just have four days of mayhem and five-alarm fires to get through,” Paige said as she righted one of the tables in the sitting room.
“Yes, I’m curious about that. Just how extensive will it be? I hate to think we reinforced the house only to watch it burn to the ground.”
“From what I can remember, the fire didn’t get close to this area. Nob Hill didn’t do so well, though. And Chinatown was pretty much destroyed.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the location struck her. “Oh my God.”
“What is it, dear?”
“Abelone.” Paige’s fair skin paled further. “Cole’s girlfriend. She lives right down there.”
Gertrude appeared to pick up her train of thought. “Paige, you can’t.”
“But she’s a nice kid! She deserves the help!”
“There are many ‘nice kids,’ as you put it, in this city. Many will be harmed by today’s events and by those over the coming week. You can’t possibly hope to save them all.”
Paige gritted her teeth. “I just want to save this one.”
“And cause irreparable damage to this timeline. I don’t mean to sound harsh but innocents die everyday. It is simply the way of life.”
It wasn’t untrue and Paige recognized it as such. Good people died everyday from disease or accidents or plain old bad luck and there wasn’t a blessed thing she could do to prevent it.
But, damn it, she could prevent this.
“Screw it,” she said. “I’m a Charmed One. If I don’t at least try to help people when they need it, what the hell good am I anyway?”
And before Gertrude could stop her, she orbed out. The elder witch blinked at the spot where the other woman had stood just a second before, then sighed and looked heavenward.
“That girl,” she said with a hint of a smile, “is impossible.”
***
Paige reappeared a few blocks from Abelone’s apartment, careful to choose a secluded spot from which to emerge.
Slow brewed pandemonium spread through the streets. The damage to the buildings and pavement was self-evident but the people outside looked dazed, shock no doubt delaying more dramatic reactions. That would soon be changing; only a few wisps of smoke could be seen above the skyline but in a few hours the entire area would be covered in flame.
She had to be careful now, not only of the pedestrians but of the hazardous path created by the quake and the aftershocks that still threatened. As she walked she couldn’t help stopping and helping where she could. Here, a woman bleeding from her scalp sent on her way with a discreet spell. There, a boy trapped in a fissure thanking her for the rescue in breathless, rapid Chinese, intent understood if not the words. Yes, she planned this trip to rescue the girl she knew but there were those who needed her help that she didn’t know and her obligation to them was no less.
She was halfway there when a man turned a corner practically right on top of her. An all too familiar man.
“Oh come on! This is getting so old!”
Cole scowled. “What are you doing here?”
“Me? What about you? Hanging around just to enjoy the show?”
“I am not - no. I won’t fight you again. Kill me, vanquish me, do what you will, but I don’t have the time for a discussion.”
“Where the hell are you going?”
“None of your concern.”
“You better believe it is.” She yanked on his arm but he pulled it away, expression now desperate on the edges of the anger.
“You’re wasting time! I have a friend in trouble and if you are truly what you say you are, you would help me, not hinder me!”
Paige nearly blurted out You have friends? before she realized who he must be talking about. “Abelone.”
“Yes.”
Well, wasn’t this just peachy. “Fine, we’ll go together. But you even breathe wrong and you’ll wish you’d never been spawned.”
Cole, either too tired or too agitated to argue further, nodded and they hurried up the street together.
The sight that greeted them wasn’t encouraging. Half the building had collapsed under the weight of its neighbor, a taller complex which tilted crazily on its side and remained upright through little more than wishful thinking. The other half looked ready to fall at any moment.
Cole’s face drained of all color. “LONNIE!”
For a heart-stopping moment, they heard nothing. Then, faintly, “Help!”
“Lonnie! Lonnie!” Cole scrambled around the debris. “Can you get to the window?”
A pause before tearfully, “My leg’s stuck!”
He needed to hear nothing more, immediately running for the doorway. But the moment he reached the threshold something threw him back with such force he skidded to a stop a dozen yards away. He remained there, stunned. “W-what?”
Paige remembered and groaned. “The talisman.” That answered the question of whether Cole had ever been inside Abelone’s apartment then. Whoever had written on that paper knew their stuff but unfortunately the demon-be-gone was working a little too well. No choice then. “I’ll get her.”
Cole sputtered some protest but she’d already orbed. The interior of Abelone’s kitchen looked as bad as the street below. Anything not tied down lay in pieces on the floor with Abelone herself trapped underneath the dish cabinet. More worrisome however was the smell from the broken stove.
Gas.
Abelone stared at her with wide eyes. “How-how did you-?”
“Does it matter? We’ve gotta get out of here.” Paige tried to move the cabinet manually but it remained stubbornly where it was. She climbed around it and got a grip on Abelone’s shoulders. The other girl stiffened. “Look, do you trust me?”
“I barely know you.”
“Fair enough. Do you at least trust me to get you out of here?” The smell of gas was starting to make her light-headed.
Abelone hesitantly nodded her consent.
“Then hang on. This’ll feel a little weird.” Paige slipped her hands under Abelone’s arms, holding on tight and insuring that Abelone wouldn’t topple over once they rematerialized. The building began to shudder and Paige could feel the anticipated heat of the stove igniting just as the world dissolved.
They arrived behind Cole just in time to see the gout of flame explode out the window. Abelone’s dismayed cry was drowned out by another rumble as the two buildings, unable to take any more stress, finally collapsed in on themselves. Dust and mortar flew and Paige yanked both Cole and Abelone to the ground, flattening out as the shockwave swept over them.
Paige remained still for a full ninety seconds, coughing on the polluted air and blinking back tears from the grit in her eyes. When no new disaster presented itself, she sat up, coughing but more or less intact.
Cole and Abelone knelt staring at one another, clothes and skin darkened by the dirt covering them.
“Abelone.” He spoke as if he couldn’t believe she was actually there. She said his name in turn and then she was practically falling into his arms, the intimacy of the contact encompassing all the depth of emotion that could exist between two lovers. Paige looked away and felt awkward.
The couple finally pulled apart and Cole frowned at Abelone’s torn skirt. “You’re hurt.”
“Not as badly as I would have been if Paige...” She looked at the redhead. “What did you do?”
Paige shrugged. “Just a gift, I guess.”
Cole’s grip tightened noticeably around Abelone’s waist but she didn’t seem to notice. “Whatever it was, thank you.”
“Not a problem.”
“No, I - I - oh.” Abelone paled. “Oh no. Ba!”
Paige didn’t know what she meant but Cole did. “He wasn’t at home, was he?”
“No, no, he left but if he was on the street during the earthquake - oh God.”
“Your father?” Paige guessed. At Abelone’s nod she placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ll find him.”
“We will?” Cole said.
“Yes, we will,” Paige said with a glare. “Or were you going to abandon your girlfriend because you had someplace better to be?”
Something unreadable flashed on his face for a second and his tone flattened. “I don’t and I could ask the same of you.”
“Think you could get rid of me that easily? Think again, Spanky. Come on,” she said to Abelone more gently, helping the other girl to her feet. “We’ll follow the path your father took to work and see if we can’t find him, okay?”
Abelone allowed Paige to lead her without protest, murmuring directions to her in a dazed voice. And though Paige told herself she didn’t care what Cole did one way or another, she couldn’t help a small thrill of satisfaction when he, muttering dark curses against her, nevertheless followed.
***
The atmosphere worsened. Earlier it had been too soon for reality to set in but now horror had claimed the city well and good. Bleeding mothers screamed for their children on the streets outside buildings reduced to rumble on top of who knew how many unsuspecting inhabitants. Paige felt her gorge rise at the sight of two dead horses killed by falling debris, still attached to a sad overturned carriage.
Paige had been in San Francisco during quakes before but she’d never seen this level of destruction. The closest analogy in her experience had been the film footage from the Twin Towers seen half a world away in the soothing comfort of her living room. Here, she had been plunged for the first time into true destruction, raw and terrible.
She felt unaccountably cold.
And still no sign of Abelone’s father.
By noon, Paige had to admit the chances of finding Ru Ling were pretty slim. Twice, they had to detour due to the spreading fire, and the general pandemonium made their journey not only slow but dangerous. Cole complained every time she stopped to assist those she could and Abelone, injured and tiring, grew more distressed. Paige, forced into the position of leader of their motley crew, at last gave up and called it quits.
“But my father-”
“Is probably fine.” Paige had no good faith to make this assertion but Abelone needed the reassurance. “He was out pretty early and it doesn’t look like he’s on the street so he’s probably at a friend’s place or a hospital or something.”
“But-”
“She’s right,” Cole said, startling Paige. “And even if she isn’t, you can’t continue like this. Your leg’s worsened and you’re exhausted. You need rest.”
Abelone sniffed, holding back tears. “He’s all I have.”
Cole pulled her close. “I know. But he wouldn’t want you to collapse trying to find him.”
“What else can I do? My home is gone.”
Cole looked helplessly at Paige, a sure sign of his own exhaustion that he allowed himself to look at all vulnerable. “I can’t go back to my mother’s.” He didn’t elaborate but Paige didn’t really care. She sighed.
“Back to the Manor, it is.” She placed her hands on both of them. “Try not to fidget.”
She orbed them directly to the Manor’s front hall, the house considerably cleaner than when she’d last left it. Gertrude was just walking down the stairs, a basket of bandages and ointment slung over one arm. She barely blinked at Cole and Abalone.
“You’re late. Again. And for pity’s sake, sit that poor girl down. She looks terrible.”
Witch, girl and half-demon, all long past the point of questioning, merely followed the older woman into the solarium. Gertrude had been busy; a basin of steaming water and towels sat on one end table, a teapot and cups on another.
“I cannot promise anything served to you will be as fine a Betsy might make, but I sent her away until the city can straighten itself out,” Gertrude said as she guided Abelone to the sofa. “And, Coleridge, cease hovering about the doorway and have a seat over there. You don’t look well, either.”
Cole followed the order but kept a suspicious eye on the elder witch as she eased off Ablone’s boot and kept up a continuous, soothing prattle. “I’m sorry, dear, but I’ll have to cut off this stocking. I’ll try to find another pair for you upstairs. Paige, really, come over here and help. Goodness! Just look at this ankle! Coleridge, what in the world were you thinking, letting a young lady walk unassisted all over the city like this?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Mayweather.”
“Hmph. As well you should be. You were raised better than that. Abelone, dear, I’m afraid this truly needs a doctor but I’ll see if I don’t have a splint for you in the meantime.”
At Gertrude’s exit, Paige took a good look at Abelone’s leg. An ugly abrasion stretched from calf to knee from the fall she’s no doubt taken during the quake. The greater problem lay in her ankle, already injured from the cabinet and exacerbated by their hike across town; it had swollen considerably and was colored an angry red that bordered on purple.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Cole demanded.
“I didn’t really notice,” Abelone said faintly. Paige didn’t think that was untrue. She’d been through one hell of a shock then a considerable amount of distraction since.
“Dammit, Lonnie, we would have stopped! Instead you’ve just injured yourself further and-”
“Hey! Chill out, okay?” Paige snapped. “You’re not helping.”
“This is your fault as well! If you hadn’t insisted on that fool’s errand this morning-”
“Searching for my father is foolish?” Abelone said, sounding hurt and just a touch angry.
Cole stuttered. “That - that isn’t what I meant.”
“Oh please,” Paige said. “If there ever isn’t a time when you aren’t thinking of yourself-”
“Shut your mouth.”
Abelone rose to her defense. “Don’t say that to her!”
“Lonnie, you have no idea what she is.”
“Stop calling me Lonnie!”
“Why? Because Matthews says so?”
“No, because she doesn’t like it!”
“This has nothing to do with you!”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!”
All mouths closed as Gertrude strode back into the room, wooden splint in hand. She glared at each of them in turn. “I understand this has been a most dreadful day for all concerned but the three of you are behaving like ill-mannered school children. As such, you will either cease this nonsense at once or you will find other accommodations for the evening. Is that clear?”
She received three variations of “Yes, ma’am.” Satisfied with their acquiescence, she knelt by Abelone. “I’m afraid this is the best I can do on such short notice, dear. Paige, make yourself useful. I’m sure you’ve received healing instruction at some point.”
“Yeah, I-” Paige wanted to kick herself. “Um, actually, I may have a better idea.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Well, I can, y’know.” She waggled her fingers. “Because of my father’s side of the family.”
“You possess that ability as well?”
“A little. I can’t guarantee much.”
“What ability?” Cole said. “What are you talking about?”
“Hush.” Gertrude patted him on the arm. “This will help.”
Paige knelt be Abelone. “Look, I don’t want you to freak - um, be scared or anything ‘cause this’ll look a little strange, but I promise it’ll make you feel better, all right?”
Abelone frowned. “Is this like before? In the kitchen?”
“Sort of.”
The Chinese girl bit her lip and nodded. Paige placed her hands over Abelone’s ankle and called out to that other gift of her father’s, the Whitelighter power to heal. A soft glow suffused her hands and enveloped her targeted area. She was dimly aware of Abelone’s small gasp but remained concentrated on her work, this talent rusty with disuse. When she knew she was incapable of giving anymore, she withdrew, flexing numb fingers. Healing, on the very few occasions she used it, always made it feel like her hands had fallen asleep.
She inspected the result. The cuts had scabbed over considerably and the swelling had dwindled, the ankle now a pattern of mottled yellow and brown bruises.
Abelone flexed her leg experimentally and though it was obvious she didn’t have full mobility back, she looked pleased. “It’s better.”
“Yeah. I know it’s not healed all the way but I’m not very good at it.”
“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Cole asked. “Why did you let her go through the whole day in pain?”
“Listen, if you think you can do better-”
“Let’s not start again, shall we?” Gertrude said. “Although, Paige, it is something you really should have thought of earlier.”
“Whose side are you on, anyway?”
“That of practicality’s.”
“It’s all so amazing,” Abelone murmured, eyes remained fixed on her ankle. “My father used to tell me stories of healers back home, but I never believed it. I didn’t even think non-Chinese could practice shamanism.”
“Witchcraft, dear. That’s what we call it.”
“Witchcraft, yes.” Her eyes widened and she turned to Cole. “Are - are you-?”
“Me? No!” He looked offended at the implication. It was so absurd that Paige couldn’t help a snort of laughter. Abelone stared at her in confusion, which got her giggling all over again. Abelone slowly smiled before joining in. Cole’s disgruntled expression just made them laugh harder. There was a tinge of hysteria to their reaction but it stemmed most primarily from relief. It had been a long day.
Gertrude shook her head. “Well, I doubt those two shall be of much use now. Coleridge, why don’t you go ahead and start serving the tea.”
END PART SIX