Together Again for the First Time, Chapter 8 by patricia51

(Together For Good)

Teddy woke up with a pounding headache, the like she hadn't experienced since she and PJ had raided their Dad's beer stash when they were both in their early teens. Neither of their parents had ever said anything to them about it. They didn't need to. Apparently the older Duncan's had decided that punishment had already been meted out.

The blonde girl shook her head very carefully. Good. Nothing rattled. She felt awful but she had never forgotten how her mouth had tasted that morning after the time and that wasn't the way it tasted now. So what was going on? And where was she?

"Think Teddy Duncan think," she advised herself.

Okay, she was at... at... the MUSEUM! On the heels of that triumphant remembrance everything else came flooding back. The Egyptian Room, the mesmerized teenagers, the red-eyed mummy out of fable and his terrible stare and Justin. JUSTIN! Where was Justin?

Teddy had been so confused and disoriented that only now did she realize she was still on her feet with her eyes closed. With a tremendous effort she managed to pry one open and look around.

The teens were gone although she could hear footsteps out in the hallway behind her and confused chatter. Apparently they had no idea what had just happened to them. The sounds moved further away and then disappeared as they made their way towards the exit.

Now the other eye she told herself. For a moment the room wavered in front of her as she struggled to get both to stop crossing and focus properly. Once that was done she looked around.

In the middle of the floor was a pile of still smoldering bandages. Scattered pieces of the mummy had already turned to ash and the remainder was working its way to the same state. Little bits of flame danced up occasionally on the much smaller body of the creature. She could see one of the red eyes but it now looked to be no more than a piece of dull red glass. No light animated it.

Her body finally started to respond a she saw Justin on the far side of the monster's remnants. He was kneeling and his face was gray from exhaustion. He still held the wand but it and the hand holding it were both trembling. Realizing he was about to collapse She managed to take several steps towards him and then broke into a staggering run. She reached him and fell to her own knees just in time to catch him as he slumped to the floor.

Justin managed to lift his head. They looked at each other as Teddy supported him, searching each other's face anxiously.

"Are you alright?" They both asked simultaneously.

Thirty minutes latter the pair was sitting in the Wizard's Lair at the Sub Station. Theresa Russo had called Amy Duncan and got permission for Teddy to spend the night, citing an incident the teens had witnessed that had shook them up but had not involved them at all. One mother reassured the other everything was alright. She then joined the rest of the Russo's who were gathered around Teddy.

"So," the blonde girl looked at her boyfriend, "you really are a wizard, right?"

"As are Alex and Max," the Russo patriarch informed her. "At least until the wizard competition decides who will keep their powers as the family wizard."

Teddy shook her head, being really glad that nothing had come loose during what she had found out had been a brief mental capture by the mummy that had been terminated by Justin's destruction of the creature. All of this was a little too much for her to take in. Wizards really existed as did mythological monsters such as mummies. Her boyfriend was one of them. A wizard that is, not a monster. Magic was real.

"Could we take this all from the top?" she asked rather plaintively.

Jerry took a deep breath. "Wizards have existed among normal humans for thousands of years, perhaps as long as there have been humans." He continued on, with remarks being interjected by the others, mostly Alex of course, but also Max and even Theresa. The history of wizards was summarized, their powers and the need for concealment that had dominated their existence for centuries. The family competition was explained and the secrecy required about their very existence stressed.

Head spinning or not Teddy was a very intelligent young woman. Once she grasped the basics she had little trouble following everything. She stored several little snippets in her mind to be turned over and examined at her leisure. There were also a couple of burning questions that she needed to ask Justin once she had the opportunity.

That chance came sooner than she thought it would. With a comment that she had experienced quite enough surprises for one day Jerry motioned everyone except Justin out of the room. Alex tossed a comment over her shoulder about Teddy not waiting too long before coming to bed because she needed lots of rest as she was saving her energy for her thirties and the big plans she had for then.

At the last moment Jerry Russo stopped and waved Teddy over to him. When she did he lowered his voice.

"Justin is a very talented and extremely hard working wizard. He studies all the time and practices his spell casting. However by no means does he have the power to go one on one with a monster such as a mummy and destroy it. That is, unless he was able to tap deep inside himself to the reservoirs of power that takes most wizards a lifetime to find. To do that he would have had to have had a need that roused him to the point he could reach that power." With that he left and the two teens were alone.

Justin had spoken very little during the wide-open discussion in the lair. Teddy thought she knew why. She decided to lighten the conversation just a bit. It would all be deep soon enough.

"Quite an evening wasn't it?" she asked as she sat down beside him on the couch. He nodded jerkily.

"I have a lot of questions I was going to ask you," the blonde said softly as she moved close to him. "I want to know about so much that's important to me, to US." Teddy put aside the burning questions for now. There was something more important to find out.

"Justin, what's wrong?"

The young man sighed. "I feel a little guilty about not telling you about my being a wizard. But it's not just my secret to hold, it's all the wizards."

"I understand," soothed Teddy. "I can't say I'm enthralled with my boyfriend having to hide such a momentous thing from me but that's not your fault. I remember the conversation we had at that little cafe that first time I met your family. Looking back I see how hard you tried not to lie to me while still keeping your secret. But that's not what really has you upset is it?"

He shook his head. Teddy waited. Finally Justin lifted his head and looked at her.

"I almost lost you!" he burst out. "And it would have been my fault."

"How could it have been your fault Justin?" Teddy argued. "What could you have done, sent me a voice mail 'stay away from the museum because I'm fighting a mummy?' or something like that? You couldn't know."

"Yes but you WERE there and I knew I wasn't any match for him. I was nearly frozen with fear when he turned towards you and then my heart nearly stopped when I saw you had fallen victim to his stare."

"But you weren't frozen. Because if you were you couldn't have rescued me and all those others."

At sometime in their talk Justin's arm had encircled Teddy and she had responded in the same fashion. The two teens clung to each other as he continued.

"He laughed when he bespelled you. That's what set me off. Instead of being scared I found I was angry, more so than I ever have been in my life. He was NOT going to take you from me. Then the power was rising up in me. I was casting spells I had only dreamed of before with power like I never knew I could posses and suddenly he burst into flames and collapsed to the floor."

Justin laughed. "Then I collapsed too. I have never been so drained, so completely exhausted. But it was all worth it. You were safe."

"Wow." Teddy was quiet for a moment. "Justin?"

"Yes?"

"I love you too."

"Teddy!" sputtered Justin.

"Oh you may say 'Teddy!' but I know where the strength and power came from."

"You're right," Justin admitted. "It came because I dared not lose you. It came because I love you."

With that admission the gates opened wide. Both the young man and young woman cried at the idea of how they had nearly been parted and without seizing the opportunity to tell each other how they felt. They kissed and fell into each other's arms.

(Somewhere very far away)

As the pair embraced, holding each other close as though they would never let go, a hidden duo smiled. The second young man and woman watched through a crystal ball as Justin and Teddy kissed.

"Whew," the woman commented. "I thought for a while that they were never going to declare they loved each other. What did you do?"

"Nothing really," the man confessed. "After all, it was all in their own hands. Really the main thing we could do was shift things just a little so they would meet the first time. The attraction was already there even before they met. It's ALWAYS there no matter what world or reality they're in."

"Granted," he went on, "we did jog their latent thoughts of each other, you with Justin and me with Teddy. And yes, I was ready to feed power to Justin when he was facing the mummy. As it turned out he didn't need any help from me. All the rest was them. After all," he looked embarrassed, "we know how capable a wizard he can be. Anything more than just the tiniest magic would have been sensed."

The apparent teen shivered for a moment before wiggling more firmly into the young man's lap where she was sitting. His arm automatically tightened around her.

"What is it?"

"Just sort of scary to think of another reality where I never existed."

"But you DID exist. It appeared to be someone else but she's still YOU."

She twisted to kiss him. "I can count on you to see things right can't I Professor Snuggly-Boo-Boo-McCutie-kins?"

"Yes you can Mrs. Snuggly-Boo-Boo-McCutie-kins." He kissed her back.

A crash from a nearby room interrupted them.

"Dad! Alex is using magic!"

"Zeke is a tattle-tale!" a female voice replied.

"Stop it or I will unleash my wrath on you both!" contributed a second young male voice only to be drowned out by the previous pair plus another girl.

"Don't look at ME," the woman said as the young man shook his head. "It was your idea to have a houseful of kids."

"As I recall you didn't object." He grinned. "Listen to Jerry imitate your father."

"Get up Professor and rein in the creatures." The blonde slipped from the man's lap. He kissed her again and went out. In moments his commanding voice was drowning out the four young voices.

The woman stopped at the globe for a moment. She touched it, smiling at the picture of Justin and Teddy still in each other's arms.

"Be happy always you two," whispered Juliet van Heusen Russo. "We are." And with that she went to join her own Justin Russo and their children.

(The End)

(Interestingly I did NOT plan this ending. Rather it came to me quite a ways into the story when I started to wonder at the coincidences and just exactly WHY Justin and Teddy knew each other. I know this leaves a lot unanswered, like how did Justin and Juliet have kids? Are they part vampire or what? And how did they find Teddy and the other Justin? But the story isn't about them.)