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Ashes To Ashes -CHAP.03--CHARMED-

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  After they returned to the manor, Paige gave Blake the grand tour, as promised. She walked her through the living room, the dining room and the kitchen, where she also let her peek through the door down into the basement. Neither of them were particularly interested in going down into the dark and the damp. Blake then followed Paige upstairs as she showed her the different bedrooms, Wyatt's nursery, the bathroom, the laundry room and the way up to the attic.

  Blake paid close attention to everything she was told. It was a big house - she wanted to remember where everything was. The attic was really something else though. It was huge and seemed to have a strange presence about it. Blake could practically feel the sensations crawling across her skin.

  "It feels strange in here," she commented. "Not bad... Just strange."

  "Well, we've had a lot of summonings and vanquishes up here," Paige explained. "You must be sensitive to it. I wonder if that's from your witch side or your Darklighter side."

  Blake shrugged. It wasn't something she'd experienced before. "Beats me." She approached the far side of the room where a thick, leather-bound book was resting on its own pedestal. A strange, three-pointed symbol was embossed on the cover. "What's this? Is it like some kind of Bible?"

  "More like an encyclopaedia," Paige replied, watching interestedly. She was curious to see what would happen if Blake tried to touch it. The Book of Shadows repelled anyone untrustworthy. What would it do to Blake?

  Blake actually looked like she was going to reach for it, but at the last second, she seemed to change her mind. Paige didn't try encouraging her. If she pushed her into it and the Book wouldn't let her touch it, then it would only make her feel worse. Maybe that was a test they could try later on when she'd settled in more. It was obvious enough that she already had a complex about her Darklighter heritage.

  With the tour over, Paige directed her back down to the bathroom and showed her how to work the shower and where the clean towels were. Paige promised that nobody would come in, so Blake obligingly left the door closed but unlocked. Then she was finally left alone in this strange new house.

  Blake stripped off her clothes and tried to brush the worst of the dust off over the bath, using the handle of a loofah brush to give them a good beating. She felt it would be somewhat counter-productive to wash up only to get back into dusty clothes. She switched the shower head on first to leave the water running for a few minutes. She hadn't had any hot water back at her parents' old house, but it had still always seemed to warm up at least a little after it had been running for a while.

  Of course, she did this out of habit and didn't factor in that the Halliwells certainly had hot water running through their pipes. When she climbed into the shower, the burning water scalded her skin. She shrieked instinctively and jumped back out, almost slipping over as some of the water splashed onto the floor tiles. She managed to catch herself on the sink, hoping that nobody had heard her. How embarrassing that she couldn't even take a shower like a normal person. She made sure to readjust the water temperature before she got back in.

  Oh, man, that felt so good. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had an actually hot shower. She could already feel some of the tension releasing from her muscles as the burning water pounded against her back, loosening her joints that had become stiff from lack of use. Also when was the last time she'd used shampoo? Shampoo was a luxury that she'd forgotten whilst at the old house.

  So now she lathered and soaped her head and body until the water ran clean of dust. She was a little embarrassed at how much dust had actually come from her hair alone. She hoped that the Halliwells hadn't just taken pity on her because they'd been that disgusted by the state they'd found her in. She'd always tried to stay clean - or hygienic at least. Really, she had. The dust had just been inescapable in that dingy, broken house.

  Once she felt like she was the cleanest she'd ever been, Blake reluctantly shut off the lovely water and stepped out from the cubicle. She could have stayed in there forever, without a care in the world. For once in her life. She towelled herself dry with a great fluffy towel that Paige had given her. Even the towels here were perfectly white. The towels at her foster family's house had all been tinged pink after her foster mother had left one of Joey's red socks in the washing machine. At her parents' old house, the towels had just been grey and horrible.

  She gave her clothes another quick beating to get rid of anymore dust before getting back into them. She hadn't felt so alive in years. It was amazing the effect that one hot shower had had on her. Despite the furious towelling down, her hair was still damp, but that was okay. If she blow-dried her hair, it tended to dry like a brush. Plus she was certain that even with damp hair, she was now looking much more acceptable than when she'd first gotten here.

  She felt a little nervous walking through the manor on her own, almost like even she thought she shouldn't be trusted. She was relieved to hear Paige and Phoebe's voices coming from the kitchen. Though as she opened the door, they both abruptly stopped talking. It sent a pang of rejection through her. It had been a while since she'd had people around to talk about her behind her back or suddenly shut up the moment she walked into a room. She'd forgotten how awful it felt.

  It had mostly been from normal mortal girls who had judged her for being too skinny or for the beauty spot on her cheek or for liking different music to them. But at school, she'd also endured a different kind of bullying - one that had scarred her confidence much deeper. Blake had never had much to do with other magical beings, besides other Darklighters and demons, until her foster parents had enrolled her at high school.

  There had been a small group of witches and a half-Leprechaun who hung around together at school, clearly trying to live their lives as normal amongst mortals, in spite of their magical backgrounds. But when they'd first seen Blake, they'd known exactly what she was and had gone out of their way to make it known that she wasn't welcome at the same school as them or normal humans. She was dangerous, untrustworthy... She was evil.

  Blake had never forgotten that. It had made her despise who she was. And now, seeing the guilty looks on Paige and Phoebe's faces as she stood awkwardly in the doorway, those feelings suddenly came flooding back in full force.

  Paige was the first to break the silence, seeing the dejected look on Blake's face. "Oh. Sorry, we were just trying to decide which of us gets to tell our Whitelighter about you."

  "Oh!" Blake felt relief rush through her, grateful that they weren't having second thoughts about her after all. Then she realised what that must mean. "You don't think your Whitelighter's going to like me." She said it as a fact, rather than a question.

  "He's just neurotic; I wouldn't take it personally," Phoebe assured her. "He doesn't like anyone he doesn't know."

  "Which is why we were gonna flip a coin for it," added Paige. "Because whoever tells him is gonna get bitched at."

  "Ah... Sorry about that," Blake apologised.

  Paige just laughed. "Don't worry; Chris's whining is nothing new. Trust me."

  "Anyway, you feel better after your shower?" Phoebe asked the Darklighter girl.

  "So much better," replied Blake sincerely. "I don't think I've ever felt so clean!"

  Paige laughed. "If you like, we can throw the rest of your clothes in the laundry and get them all cleaned up for you."

  "Oh. You don't have to go to any trouble or anything..." said Blake awkwardly.

  "It's alright. Laundry is Piper's job." Paige winked at her.

  As if on cue, Piper suddenly appeared in the room amidst white orbs. A baby was held securely in her arms, hugging her chest. Piper's expression was momentarily unreadable until she caught sight of Blake. "Wow, I almost wouldn't have recognised you. Feel better?"

  Blake nodded. "Yes, thank you." She continued to stare at Piper, seemingly confused. "I didn't realise you could orb too."

  "Oh, no, that was a Whitelighter who sent me back here," explained Piper.

  "Apportation," Paige added. She'd been reading up more on Whitelighter powers to see which of them she was able to utilise as only half Whitelighter.

  "Appor...what?"

  "Apportation," Paige repeated. "The ability to transport objects or other beings between planes."

  "Someone's been doing their homework," Phoebe commented, moving in to steal Wyatt from his mother for a cuddle.

  "Well, I figured knowing more about Whitelighter abilities might help us pinpoint what Wyatt's likely to gain as he gets older," said Paige.

  "Good thinking."

  "So he's not a witch?" asked Blake, still eyeing the baby that Phoebe was now holding.

  "Half witch, half Whitelighter," Piper replied.

  "Like me," Paige added brightly.

  A look of dawning crossed Blake's face as she finally realised the meaning behind the red-haired witch's mystery power. "That's why you can orb!"

  "Oh, yeah, I forgot you'd know it to be a power specific to just Whitelighters and Darklighters."

  "So how did it go up there?" Phoebe asked Piper, unable to keep the question to herself any longer. Ever since Leo had become an Elder, Piper had just been so miserable. Besides demon hunting, she hadn't even left the manor much.

  "Oh, you know..." said Piper vaguely, starting to needlessly tidy around the kitchen, purposely not looking at any of them. "It was... nice. Then, of course, some other Whitelighters showed up with their own problem, so Leo asked me to bring Wyatt back home."

  "I'm sorry, sweetie," Phoebe sympathised sadly. Piper couldn't have been up there for even two hours.

  "Well, what else could you expect from an Elder?" said Piper lightly. "He said he'll try and make it up to me later on, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up too much."

  "Just don't give up on it," Paige joined in. "I'm sure even Elders get time off sometime."

  "I'll hold my breath." Piper absently stacked and re-stacked the open mail that was still sitting on the worktop, revealing a brilliantly shiny athamé with a bronze handle that had been hidden underneath. She picked it up gingerly. "Hey, isn't this the athamé we used to kill those reptile demons?"

  "Ah. Yeah, that was me," Phoebe confessed, abashed.

  "Then what is it doing lying here in the kitchen?"

  Phoebe looked sheepish. "Well, I was using it as a letter opener for all the mail I was getting for my column..."

  "But we have perfectly good normal knives right here!" Piper exclaimed exasperatedly, banging a hand against the cutlery drawer. "Or better yet, you can buy a real letter opener for a couple of bucks from Walmart."

  "I know, but it's just so pretty and shiny," Phoebe insisted, wistfully eyeing the blade in Piper's hand.

  "Nuh uh, I don't want any great loves for blades in this house," Piper ascertained, always ready to accept the possibility of there being something magical afoot. "You remember what happened with me and Excalibur. Plus I don't want anything sharp lying around the house. Not now that Wyatt's been starting to crawl and orb."

  "Sorry, Piper, I really didn't think," Phoebe apologised guiltily, making to pass Wyatt over to Paige. "Here, I'll go and put it back in the attic..."

  "Wait, I'll do it!" Blake cut in hastily. Maybe a little too hastily. All heads turned towards her, somewhat suspiciously. She'd been following the conversation awkwardly, knowing nothing of Piper's romantic background. What she did know, however, was that she wanted to make herself as useful as possible, no matter how menial the task. "I mean... I know you guys don't really trust me right now, but I wanna help out as much as I can, even for small jobs like this. Seeing as you're letting me stay here, I wanna try and be more useful where I can."

  She realised that she'd been starting to ramble a little. She probably shouldn't have started the eager and willing approach over a dagger. She finished lamely with, "And, um, maybe I should try orbing around the house a little more."

  "I think you're right," Phoebe was the first to agree - whether it was from her empathic abilities or just basic intuition, the others didn't know. "It's not like we can expect to keep an eye on you all the time."

  "And I doubt you're going to cause trouble with all of us in the house, right?" Paige said lightly.

  Blake shook her head quickly. "I don't want to cause any trouble!"

  "Alright," Piper conceded slowly, once again putting her faith in the judgement of her two sisters. She held out the athamé. "There's a chest underneath the window - you can just put it in there."

  Blake took the athamé and clutched it tightly. The handle was warm, like it had been sitting atop the stove. Though it was only a small gesture, it was still a tiny display of faith. Blake was willing to take whatever faith she could get. "Thank you," she said with more meaning than the others probably realised and orbed out, leaving a flurry of black orbs in her wake.

  She reappeared successfully in the attic. Well, that was a good start. She'd never had to orb many places before - she needed to start getting a handle on the directional side of it again. As she turned, her eyes seeking out the chest that Piper had described, she realised that there was somebody else in the room. A tall guy with dark hair was standing beside the pedestal carrying the sisters' special Book, a look of surprise on his face. Blake felt an alien, protective emotion sweep through her. A demon. Attacking her new home.

  The guy seemed to come to his senses just as she did. With a purposeful sweep of his hand, he sent the wooden chest that Blake had been looking for barrelling across the floor towards her. Blake orbed out of the way, where it hit the wall behind her with a loud crash, and materialised on the opposite side of the room. The guy was slower to react this time. Without giving him the chance to make another move, Blake threw out her hand, the force of her telekinetic power driving him back against the wall and holding him there.

  With another wave of her hand, the dagger that she'd been holding flew across the room, stopping only to press against the guy's throat. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. She was determined to protect this home. The sisters had been more than kind to her, when they'd had every right to distrust her as much as the next person.

  "I was about to ask you the same thing," the guy replied, his breathing quickening as the blade dug a little deeper into his skin.

  Blake hesitated, thrown off by his answer. Why would a demon care why she was here? She changed her tack. "Who are you?"

  "What do you mean who am I? Who are you?" the guy protested. He'd never been questioned by a demon before. And he normally would have orbed out of a situation like this, but the invisible force against his chest was keeping him from accessing his powers.

  Again, Blake paused. If he was really invading Halliwell Manor, then why would he have such an issue over who was doing the questioning? "I'll ask again," she said, trying to sound in control. "Who are you?"

  "Chris Perry," the guy was forced to respond as the athamé wavered dangerously against his skin. "I'm a Whitelighter."

  A Whitelighter? Hadn't Paige mentioned the name Chris earlier? Did that mean this was the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter? Blake couldn't be sure, not without confirmation. A niggling voice at the back of her head prayed that it wasn't - not now that she was currently holding him at knife point... She relaxed her hand a little, allowing the blade to lower slightly. She crossed the room and took the dagger out of the air, still holding it to the supposed Whitelighter's throat, but not as closely as before.

  "Are you lying?" she questioned, watching his eyes carefully. If there was one thing she'd learnt about from growing up amongst Darklighters and demons, it was lies. She always knew when somebody was lying. Eyes couldn't lie like the rest of the face could.

  "What? No!" Chris protested, getting more confused by the second. "Seriously, what do you want from me?"

  The baffled look on his face seemed to be genuine. Plus he sounded just as clueless as he looked. Blake was definitely starting to feel that she'd made a horrible mistake. "I don't want anything..."

  Before Chris could even process that, Piper and Paige suddenly burst into the room. They'd heard the crash from Chris sending the chest flying across the attic and had come running. Phoebe followed them shortly after, still holding Wyatt protectively to her. They hadn't really known what they'd find, but they certainly hadn't expected to see Blake assaulting their Whitelighter.

  "Hey hey hey, what's going on here?" Piper cried.

  "She's a demon!" Chris burst out at the same time as Blake protested, "I thought he was a demon!"

  Piper sighed. This was going to take some explaining. "Wait a minute, neither of you are demons! Blake, this is our Whitelighter Chris, so would you mind lowering the athamé?"

  Oh god, she had been right. Blake threw both her hands up in a peaceful gesture, fumbling and almost dropping the athamé. As soon as she did, Chris found that he could move again. "I am so sorry!"

  Chris ignored her apology, his attention on Piper. "Who is this?"

  "This is Blake Rodriguez," Piper explained calmly. "She's going to be staying here for a little while whilst we try and help her out with a cloaking spell."

  "A cloaking spell?" Chris repeated. "So she's not a demon?"

  "No." Piper was really tempted to just leave it at that, but she knew that the truth would come out sooner or later so she might as well just get it over with. "...She's a Darklighter."

  "What?" Chris looked incredulous. "Are you kidding me? You're letting a Darklighter stay here?"

  "Don't give me that look. We're not stupid; we thought this through a lot before deciding anything. We don't believe that Blake's evil at all."

  "Oh, so she's a good Darklighter? That makes it all better," said Chris sarcastically. "And her running around up here with an athamé without your knowledge whilst you're all downstairs is part of her good side, right?"

  "Actually, we did know where she was, if you don't mind," Piper pointed out haughtily. "In fact, we were the ones who sent her up here. She was putting the athamé away for us."

  "Great. So you let a Darklighter into the house and then you armed her as well."

  Blake was tempted to point out that she didn't need any help to arm herself - as a Darklighter, she could just summon the crossbow that she'd only used twice in her life before. But she reminded herself that she wanted to be non-threatening, so she wisely bit her tongue. This Whitelighter already didn't seem very impressed with her being here. She didn't need to make things worse. Plus Piper seemed to be handling him just fine.

  "Chris, you were the one who sent us after Darklighters in the first place," Piper reminded him.

  "Yeah, so you only really have yourself to blame," Paige agreed.

  "I sent you out after Darklighters to vanquish them, not to... adopt one!" Chris exclaimed.

  Piper repressed another sigh. She could see this wasn't going to be resolved so easily. "Chris, why don't you come downstairs with me? I'll fill you in on everything."

  Chris stared back stubbornly before reluctantly conceding. "Fine." He followed Piper out of the attic with a quick backwards glance at Blake. It wasn't a friendly one.

  Blake groaned once he'd left. She should have known the charity would have to end somewhere. She'd been lucky to find three people who were willing to hear her side. She shouldn't have expected anyone else to just join in so easily. "I really screwed that one up, didn't I?"

  "I wouldn't say that," said Phoebe, but she sounded uncertain.

  "I didn't know who he was. He was up here when I orbed in," Blake recounted. "I really thought he was a demon - I was just trying to help protect you guys."

  "Don't worry about it; we kinda figured that anyway," Phoebe reassured with a smile. In truth, she was quite touched by the younger girl's actions. "I'm sure Chris will come around once Piper's explained the situation."

  "And even if he doesn't, then there's still nothing to worry about," Paige added. "We rarely agree with Chris. And we definitely don't actually do what he tells us to very often."

  Blake couldn't help but smile at that. She even tried her hand at a joke. "In that case, maybe I'll fit right in then."
Summary: Everyone knows there's no such thing as a good Darklighter. Blake's led a miserable life as one, never fitting in anywhere. Yet she somehow ends up catching the eye of the Charmed Ones. Though earning their trust is one thing... Winning over their Whitelighter is something else altogether. Chris/OC

Chapter 3: Mixed Impressions

I've actually had this one ready to post for a few weeks now... Only I completely forgot about it OTL. This is where I know that my creative ADD is possibly getting too much :XD:

Oh Blake, trust you to screw things up straightaway... That's not going to get you into any good books! Also not being able to shower like a normal person doesn't really help you come across as not-insane either xDD

Just a heads up that this will most likely be my last update for a while now as I decided to enter NaNoWriMo this year (god, why do I keep giving myself MORE writing to do!) So on this occasion I really do need to be good and dedicate all of my writing time to it! I'll still be popping online and stuff - just won't be writing anything else for now m'afraid!

--

Previous chapter:
Ashes To Ashes -CHAP.02--CHARMED-  Their unique circle of witches and Darklighter reappeared in the conservatory of Halliwell Manor. Blake actually had to squint to adjust her eyes to the sheer sunlight that was pouring in through the large open windows. This house was the exact opposite of her own. Everything was bright and open. The walls and furniture were stark white, yet everything was still kept clean and tidy. Blake couldn't help but wonder how much money this family must have behind them.
  "So I've got a question," said Phoebe, breaking Blake out of her almost reverie. "How come you didn't freeze under Piper's power earlier?"
  Blake regarded her uncertainly. "What do you mean?"
  "The pot that you threw at us," Piper explained. "When I froze it you should have frozen too."
  "Oh. I'm sorry, I don't know," Blake confessed. "I've never met anyone with a power like that before..."
  "It was strange," Paige agreed. "It's worked on every other Darklighter we've come across."
  "



14.

Blake Rodriguez © punkette180
All respective characters © Constance M. Burge & Aaron Spelling
© 2014 - 2024 punkette180
Comments3
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CotN-Ravenvolf's avatar
I loved how the two first meet, Blake nearly full on kicked his ass XD poor Blake though, trying to do something good and looking bad :( I love this story sooooo muuuuchhh :love: seriously is becoming an equal fave with Changing Bed Sheets :P you got Chris' personality spot on as well haha, grumpy old soul that he is , trapped in a young body :P he is sexy though, and I'm sure Blake will realise that soon enough hehee XD