Chapter Three
-:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------:-The moment Faith had entered the Summers’ residence the potentials swarmed her and Wyatt, asking her how she did it, if her vision was blue like the shield, where he came from… She had to push her way through, resulting in hurting a few potentials who had come too close to the force field and got thrown back. When she finally got to the Master bedroom, Wyatt’s shield dropped like a brick. Before she had even placed him on the bed his eyes had drooped shut.
Faith picked up a few sleeping bags that were strewn across the floor and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. With the sleeping bags in her arms she descended the stairs and threw them on the floor in the living room where most of the potentials, the ones that apparently didn’t feel like going to bed, and the Scoobies plus Giles, Anya and Robin were gathered.
“Whoever was sleepin’ in B’s room needs to find a new place.” Faith announced with no room for protests. “Wyatt’s sleeping in there and I don’t want any of you Slayer would-be’s anywhere near him ‘til we figure out what the deal is with the force field.” Suddenly the lights gave out, engulfing them in total darkness and causing the potentials to moan in fright.
“Calm down.” Robin’s voice boomed through the house. The living room went silent but up the stairs loud wails were heard. “Sorry.” He didn’t need light to know there were some glares pointed at him for waking Wyatt. Faith sighed but went up the stairs, knowing the adults in the living room would deal with the potential’s fear of the sudden dark.
“Do you really think the kid’s safe with Faith?” A voice piped up with just not enough worry to make it sound like she did actually worry about Wyatt. “I mean, she did kill people and somehow I don’t think of her as the children-loving type.” She clarified.
“Kennedy, shut up and go with Amanda to find some candles.” Xander replied annoyed. Sure, he didn’t have a lot of trust in Faith either but she did go up the stairs without first having to be told or suggesting someone else should give it a go. He was wary, much like most of them, of the ‘Dark’ Slayer but if Faith could keep the kid quiet it was fine with him.
Up the stairs Faith took a deep breath and entered the bedroom, quietly but quickly going over to the bed. “How do I do this?” She carefully slipped her hands under Wyatt and lifted him in her arms, fighting the urge to cover her ears from his crying.
“It’s okay, Wyatt.” She had no clue as to what she was doing. Seeing it on television or with other people it seemed so simple but how the hell did she get him back to sleep? “Okay, let’s try somethin’.” She mumbled and shifted Wyatt’s position a little so that she had one hand holding his head and the other partly on his lower back and partly on his bum then gently moved him back and forth but the cries didn’t lessen.
“No?” Faith frowned and repositioned him so that she was cradling him. “Jesus, what’s it called? Jiggling, wiggling-” She suddenly wished she had listened to her first cellmate talk nonstop about her one-year old baby. She really could use some help now. “What the hell am I doing wrong?” She was getting more and more agitated with every second.
Completely lost in the memories of her first cellmate, trying to remember something the woman had said, she had yet to notice she was rocking Wyatt instinctively. It wasn’t until she didn’t hear the cries anymore that she realized Wyatt had fallen asleep again. Frowning at her own actions she carefully placed him back between the pillows. Without another sound she left the bedroom and closed the door behind her.
Leaning against the wall next to the door she let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes. For the first time in her life she didn’t want to be a Slayer anymore. She didn’t want to screw this up, she couldn’t risk screwing this up. This was her shot at redemption. It didn’t take a genius to see that Wyatt was a powerful and magical boy. Whatever he was, besides part witch, he was going to be something great when he grew up.
She pushed herself off of the wall and descended the stairs. She was greeted at the bottom of the stairs by Willow with a candle in one hand and a few sheets of paper in the other. Taking the offered papers Faith scanned the articles, a smile slowly forming on her face. Willow, it seemed, had taken the liberty to do some research on babies before the power gave out.
“We, Giles and I, figured Wyatt was a few weeks old. Maybe a month or two so I tried to make a list of things they need and common mistakes.” The redheaded witch explained. “Babies need a lot of attention so we should try to get him to let someone else in when we deal with Caleb and the First and the Bringers and those Turok-”
“Thanks, Red.” Faith’s smile had turned into a wide grin as she cut the witch off. Still reading through the documents she passed Willow and entered the living room. “Okay.” She said loud enough for the others to hear but not too loud as to not wake Wyatt again. “Who wants to go to bed and who wants to go shopping for baby things?” Of course, with shopping she meant ‘taking what they needed’ since it was night and other than them there wasn’t a soul left in Sunnydale.
-:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------:-Leo sighed happily when he orbed, along with the sisters, into the sitting of the beloved Halliwell Manor. He was soaking wet but right now all he cared about was that the Crone was vanquished, as was the Kazi King and his pack of subordinate after he’d shown where the Crone’s lair was.
Neither Paige nor Phoebe had had the heart to tell Leo his son was missing without a single trace to follow and Piper just hadn’t said anything since they found Leo. She couldn’t say it because that would’ve meant the chance they weren’t going to find him was growing. She was afraid that when she said it out loud, they would never find him.
The youngest pair watched a happy father storm up the stairs, no doubt to hug his son, tell him daddy’s back and never leaving again. Piper, however, stayed silent and went into the kitchen, needing to take her mind off of her husband and the frantic search he was performing, the same search she had done only hours before.
“Where,” Leo’s voice still sounded joyful but with a hint of weariness and fright in it as well as he came back down the stairs. “Where’s Wyatt?” The smile never left his face as he reached the bottom and stood in front of Paige and Phoebe. “Is he with Victor?” The grim faces of his sisters-in-law and the silent treatment his wife had been giving him finally filtered through the fog in his mind of being back home.
“We,” Paige gave Phoebe a nervous glance, not finding the words to tell the whitelighter what happened.
“We don’t know.” The middle sister said softly. Leo blinked with his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger. He took a few deep breaths and sat down on the bottom step of the stairs, wondering if he heard it right. Looking up from his position to the sisters their faces showed nothing but sorrow.
“You, you don’t know?” He asked feeling his chest tightening dangerously. He stood back up, ignoring the dizziness that came from rising too quickly and stared hard into Phoebe’s eyes. “What do you mean ‘you don’t know’? What happened?” He looked back and forth between Phoebe and Paige, desperate for an answer that didn’t feel like his world was about to end.
“When, when we vanquished the Crone we saw that Wyatt wasn’t in his crib.” Phoebe explained as gentle as possible. “We think that either she teleported him to the underworld o-or someone beat the Crone to him.” The hunt had kept their mind off of tears for a while but now, all they could think about was Wyatt and how they were going to find him.
“How can you not know?” Leo’s eyes shone with unshed tears as his voice rose angrily. “Wasn’t someone with him?” He questioned. He knew deep down the girls would never leave Wyatt alone but his anger was getting the best of him. His son was the most important thing in the world and they didn’t even know where he was.
“Piper was but she got played by the Crone.” Paige spoke up, her voice thick with emotions. “The Crone told her you were back, using my voice, and that she, meaning me, would watch him.” The mention of his wife softened Leo’s face considerably. He turned away from Phoebe and Paige going through the dining room, into the kitchen where knew Piper would be doing something, anything to keep her mind occupied.
“We’ll find him, Piper.” Leo said soft but firm from the kitchen entrance, watching his wife standing over the stove, making potions judging by the smell of it. He quietly walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind “We will.” He tried to make his voice sound sure, like he always could but this time it seemed to falter a little.
“Yeah and what if we don’t?” Piper pulled away from her husband and let out a bitter chuckle. “What the hell am I going to do then?” She faced Leo with blazing eyes. “That’s my- our” she corrected, her tone rising “our baby, Leo.” She was on the verge of tears but didn’t let a single one slide. Not now, not when they could still find him. “I had him inside of me for nine months, even after they told us it’d be near impossible to have a child.” She turned away and grabbed a few vials from the cupboard.
“I know, but we’ll find him, I promise.” Leo gently laid a hand on his wife’s shoulder but she shrugged it off angrily. She didn’t want his promises, she wanted her son. No promises or words could give her Wyatt back.
“You can’t promise me that.” She hissed in response. She filled a couple of vials and looked up just as her sisters gingerly entered the kitchen. “Take me down.” She ordered the youngest as she walked up to the redhead and took a hold of her shoulder.
“Piper-” Paige wasn’t sure it was a good idea. In fact, she knew it wasn’t a good idea. She understood Piper’s pain and anger but they needed a plan, they needed to know who they had to go after. Going blind to the underworld with the only intension of blowing up every demon that didn’t have Wyatt could be decent idea in theory but not so much in practice.
“Now.” Piper snapped and let out a small sigh when she felt the familiar feeling of being orbed away.
