Legacy: Who's Really Who

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Loves and Worrying

Brooke Murphy quietly slipped through her boyfriend Wyatt Halliwell's apartment, a stealthy smile on her face as she made sure that there was no one around before she closed the door behind her, walking through the apartment towards his bedroom. She cast a quick glance at his brother Chris's room as she passed it; if there was one thing that she wanted was for him to wake up and see her sneaking around in the brothers' apartment at six in the morning. He'd been surly ever since her best friend Susan Dawson had broken up with him to be with her ex-boyfriend Ethan Hale.

Which Brooke had to admit that he had ever reason to be upset, but he was taking things a little bit overboard, even going so far as to cutting off all contact with Susan unless it involved demon hunting and even that, he tried to avoid whenever he could.

Shaking away all thoughts of Susan's whacked-up love triangle, Brooke eased the door to Wyatt's bedroom opened and grinned when she saw him still asleep on his bed, lying on his side and snoring.

Setting the basket that she was carrying on his desk, she closed the door behind her and removed her shoes as she carefully climbed onto his bed, snuggling up close to him, so close that their lips were almost touching, and kissed his neck before moving up to his chin and then finally his lips.

"Wake up, you," she whispered into his ear.

Wyatt groaned slightly, shifting his position and burying his head into his pillow. Brooke giggled and climbed on top of him, finally forcing him to wake up and look up at her in annoyance. "What, isn't this a nice wake-up call?" she teased as she fell back next to him.

"Very nice," Wyatt agreed as he leaned closer to her, kissing her passionately and his arms wrapping around her, his hands running through her hair possessively. "Still . . . what are you doing here, waking me up at . . . six o'clock in the morning on a Saturday?" he asked in disbelief, staring at his clock in incredulity. "You woke me up at six o'clock on a Saturday?"

"Yes, I did," Brooke agreed, snuggling up right next to him, but his expression didn't change. "Because I've been thinking, ever since this whole thing with Susan and Chris and Ethan started, we haven't had a real chance to concentrate on us. So I was thinking that we should spend the day together."

Wyatt rolled his eyes, but smiled as he pulled her against him. "So long as that doesn't involve me carrying your bags while you walk around the mall, I'm in," he said before he noticed the basket sitting on his desk. "What's that?"

"That would be breakfast in bed," Brooke said happily. "Granted, it's your bed, not mine, but that's beside the point. What?" she asked. "What's with the look?"

"Brooke, I love you, but I have tasted your cooking before and no offence, but I don't think that I'm gonna survive another round."

"Ha, ha, but for your information, Susan was the one who made the food," she retorted, dark eyes flashing dangerously. "And she actually can cook, so you have no excuses, unless you want to have her extremely mad at you and even more upset that she has been lately."

"Uh-huh, good point." Wyatt waved his hand at the basket, sending it flying over to them. "Brooke, the fact that she's been edgy and crazy lately wouldn't have any reason why you want to spend the day together, would it?" he wanted to know.

"Just a bonus," Brooke assured him. "Yes, I do want to spend the day with you, but getting out of the house and away from Susan's craziness would be a plus."

Wyatt shook his head, but smiled as he opened the basket and removed a plastic Tupperware from the basket, revealing several hot, steaming cinnamon rolls with the icing oozing off of the edges. "Wow, Susan did this?" he asked as he bit into one. It was delicious. "Remind me to tell Mom that she should hire Susan at the restaurant."

"You want to blow up your mom's business?" Brooke asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Because that's what's gonna happen if you put Susan and Chris in the same workplace right now."

"Well, speaking of Susan, how's Ethan?" Wyatt wanted to know as he handed her one of the cinnamon rolls. She bit into it, savouring the taste as she leaned her head back.

"I don't know, he seems better than he was doing," Brooke admitted once she swallowed. "He's still not completely out of the woods yet. Susan refuses to leave him alone, even for a couple of hours." She sighed. "So what do you think really happened wherever he was?"

Shaking his head, Wyatt looked at his girlfriend, seeing the anxiety running through her face. "I think that we're only going to know that when Ethan's up for telling us what happened."

"And who knows when that's going to be," Brooke sighed. "I mean, he's getting better, but Susan won't let anybody question him about what happened out there. She already had a couple of the Elders in the apartment and she practically electrocuted them just to get them to quit asking questions. The only one she didn't was that Curtis guy. Even though she won't admit it, I think she trusts that guy. He's the one Elder who's been on her side all these years."

"She's got good reason for not trusting Them," Wyatt point out. "I mean, They sent Bianca after her and her brother to kill them, They didn't lift a finger to help her when Tristan kidnapped her the first time, and now that she's dating a demon, They've got more reason to suspect her. Not that I've got a problem with Ethan, personally," he added quickly. "As far as demons go, he's not half bad."

Brooke pulled her legs up to meet her chin and she gave Wyatt a wry smile. "I know, it's just . . . Susan needs to let them talk to Ethan. He's the only one who knows what's going on out there and I've got the feeling that this is only the beginning of what's coming. This is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better."

For a minute, Wyatt just looked at her, an edgy expression on his face. "I didn't want to have to tell you this, but I was talking to Mom and Dad yesterday, and they were telling me that demonic activity has been rising everywhere. It's not just here in San Francisco. There's something coming, Brooke, and I've got the feeling that it has something to do with that prophecy Susan found."

"And we're smack in the middle of all of it," Brooke said quietly, her brown eyes meeting his blue ones. "We need to talk to Susan."

--

Susan Dawson sat with her sketchbook in her lap, her pencil carefully tracing the image on the paper, glancing every so often towards Ethan to draw another detail on the paper, her heart aching as she did so. He looked so vulnerable and helpless right now that it almost broke her heart. She wasn't used to seeing him like this, defenceless.

Maybe that was why she had been so edgy lately, but the love of her life had been attacking by gods knew what and he had barely made it back here in time for them to help him and she hadn't even known. Or maybe she had . . .

She'd been having dreams for days before Ethan had come back, had visions of him being swarmed by demons bent on killing him, saw him in pain, trying desperately to get away . . .

What if those dreams hadn't been just dreams? What if they had been a warning, telling her that something was wrong? And she had blissfully ignored it and went on her everyday life while her lover had been out in the middle of nowhere, fighting for his life while searching for the Amazons just because she had asked him to, out of respect for Neasa and Noreen, and trying to find out everything they could about that stupid prophecy.

Shaking her head, Susan stood up, setting her pad aside as she walked over to the window and staring out into the bustling city, running her hand through her hair as she stared out into the daylight.

"Susie?" Ethan's painful voice broke into her thoughts and she turned to see him awake.

"Hey, about time you woke up, I've been worried," she said as she walked towards him, sitting down on his bed, taking his hand and rubbing it carefully, avoiding the bandages. "How do you feel?"

"I've got a beautiful girl sitting right next to me and being my personal nurse," Ethan said, giving her a smile. "How do you think I feel? I'm great." Susan sighed, giving him a pointed look and he relented. "It hurts less. My arm's kind of stinging, though."

"Let me see." Susan took his arm and inspected his wounds carefully. "I think I need to change the bandages again. I'll be right back; I'm gonna go get the stuff."

She gave him a tender kiss, which he gladly returned before she reluctantly pulled away and headed to the bathroom, which had been recently re-stocked with all of the first aid stuff. They had exhausted most of their stuff during the first few days and Wyatt had brought some stuff from the clinic for her to use.

By the time that she had returned, Ethan was trying to sit up in bed and she gave him a frown. "What did I say to you about pushing yourself too hard?" Susan scolded as she walked over to him, helping him to sit up.

"You worry too much," Ethan told her.

"I have to, you don't worry about yourself enough," she countered as she took his arm, carefully snipping the dressings and pulling them off, looking at the injuries carefully. It looked a lot better than it did before, but then she was no doctor; she couldn't tell if it was getting better or worse. She should have Wyatt come take a look at him.

"Susan, please stop worrying so much," Ethan told her, not unkindly and she looked up at him. He was looking at her with a loving, quiet look on his face as he reached out with the hand she didn't have a hold on and touched her cheek tenderly. "I'm all right."

"But you might not have been!" Susan burst out, angry with herself as much as she was with the demons that had done this to him. "You could have died, Ethan! Something might have happened to you and I was just sitting here, playing the normal girl while you were out fighting for your life! I should have gone with you!"

"Yeah, and you could've been sitting right here next to me," Ethan said seriously as she wiped away the tears in her eyes before applying the ointment to his arm. He gave a small sigh of relief at her gentle hands running the salve on his injuries. "Believe me, any kind of pain is worth you being safe."

Susan shook her head, the tears still in her eyes as she glared at him. "Idiot," she whispered and he chuckled. A reluctant smile crossed her lips and she shook her head, finishing redressing his wound and crawled into her bed next to him.

Ethan wrapped his arms around her as she laid her head gently on his chest as they lay on the bed together. "I love you, sweetheart," he whispered.

"I love you, too, moron," Susan grumbled. Ethan laughed again as he kissed her forehead. "The Elders keep coming by, by the way, wanting to know what happened out there."

Almost instantly, Ethan's expression became serious and he tightened his grip around her. He knew better than anyone how deeply the Elders had injured her trust in Them when They had sent Bianca after her and Ryan all those years ago. "Have they?" he said quietly.

Susan shook her head. "I've already thrown Them out of here a couple of times," she assured him. "You don't have to talk about what happened out there until you're ready. I won't let Them."

"As much as I love you for that, we should probably talk to Them about it," Ethan pointed out.

"But not yet," Susan corrected as she looked up at him, snuggling closer to him. "I don't want you to push yourself too far, Ethan. It's taken a lot to get you to the point where you're actually able to sit up in bed on your own and talk coherently."

"I'm more worried about what's coming than I am about myself," Ethan said darkly. He sighed upon seeing her expression. "What about that one Elder, Curtis? You seem to trust him."

"Yeah, he's okay," Susan acknowledged. "But that doesn't mean that I want him here, causing problems for my boyfriend's health."

Ethan sighed. "Susie, I swear, I'm all right. I've spent over two centuries being a demon and I know my limits. Trust me, I can handle talking to an Elder."

Susan sighed; she already knew what had happened out at the Amazon village and she, too, was frightened by what might be coming. "Fine, one Elder," she said, giving in. "But first, you need to eat something."

"What did I do to deserve someone like you?" he inquired as he wrapped his arms around her, gazing lovingly into her blue eyes.

"Hmm . . . well, you came to Chippewa Falls, trying to kill me and my brother and then when you and I were in a similar situation, with me nursing you back to health, you fell in love with me and gave up evil for me," Susan told him. He chuckled. "Kiss me," she whispered.

"With pleasure," he answered, his arms wrapping around her neck as he pulled her closer, his lips capturing hers in a gentle, passionate kiss.

Susan never got tired of Ethan's kisses, because they were always filled with the passion, fire, and fervour that had ignited their love and spread like a wildfire. She loved him more than she had ever loved anyone, needed him like she had never needed anyone before. In the two years that they'd been apart, Susan had felt like a piece of her was missing and it was only when he came back into her life that she realised what she had been missing.

Love.

The only man that she had ever trusted with her heart, who had given her his own back in its entirety.

Susan smiled as she pulled away. "I guess we can wait a little bit for breakfast," she admitted. Ethan chuckled as he captured her into another kiss and they fell onto the bed again, only coming back up for air.

But even as she kissed her lover, Susan felt something in the back of her mind, born from her premonition power, that told her that something was going to happen, and that it had something to do with a certain witchlighter.

A witchlighter named Chris Halliwell.

--Opening Credits--

Title Song: "Chariot" by Gavin Degraw

Drew Fuller as Chris Halliwell

Wes Ramsey as Wyatt Halliwell

Michelle Trachtenberg as Susan Dawson

Anne Hathaway as Brooke Murphy

Hayden Christensen as Brandon James

and Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Connelly