Charmed Ones: Part 4

written by Iz

Caleb stared at his cup of cappuccino. He felt very nervous. Somehow, he himself was puzzled why he was being so nervous about. Whether it was about meeting Luke Greene or about asking him who he really was. He kept thinking how to put what he wanted to ask into words. He grabbed the cup and took a few sips of the drink. He remembered the text he sent Luke last night after Connor and Charlie brought up the topic that Luke might be a fraud.

Could I see you tomorrow? I need to ask you something very important. It's about the will.

Sure. Is breakfast okay?

Definitely. See you at Al's Diner?

Okay. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Caleb stared at his BlackBerry screen for quite some time. That was the conversation he had with Luke the night before. So there he was, waiting for Luke to show up at Al's Diner. He was wearing his hospital uniform. Working as a medical assistant, the uniform he wore was light green in color but since he hadn't checked in to the hospital, he put on a grey sweat shirt and put on the hoodie onto his head halfway because it was pretty cold.

"How many of those have you had?" A familiar voice asked Caleb from behind.

Caleb jumped a bit as he was caught off guard. He took off the hoodie, stood up and turned to his back. It was Luke in his dark brown suit. He was wearing dark green shirt and a polka-dotted bright yellow on apple green colored necktie. His dark hair was brushed to the side in an attractive way instead of geeky one. His eyes were light green, his skin was fairly pale. There was a trail of greenness on his face; the area where he let some of his facial hair grew. Well trimmed and groomed. He got closer to Caleb. Compared to him, Caleb stood few inches taller than he was. They shook hands and Caleb asked him to sit down.

"This is actually my first cup." Caleb started the conversation answering Luke unanswered question.

"Sorry I was a tad late. Traffic jam. Same old same old in LA." Luke widened his eyes, insinuating that it was very ridiculous. He took the menu, "Any suggestions on what's best here? I'm hungry I could even eat a horse!"

"I'm not so sure, but I usually have pancakes if I have breakfast here." Caleb shrugged.

"Is that what you're having? Make it two." Luke smiled at Caleb. Caleb smiled back faintly. Something was obviously bothering him and Luke could see that. Caleb placed their order to the waitress, and asked her to refill his cup with coffee this time. "Is everything okay?" Luke asked once the waitress went away.

"Yeah, pretty much." Caleb only answered Luke very shortly. He actually didn't know what to do. It was like he was battling inside of his head.

"Something is bothering you. What is it?" Luke looked at Caleb. From where he was sitting, he could see that Caleb's forehead was a bit frowned. Though Luke thought that Caleb appeared a bit agitated, he still looked handsome. His brunette hair was short and spiky to the left side. His skin was fairly tanned. His eyes were dark brown and when he smiled, Luke noticed that a dimple appeared only at his left cheek.

Caleb let out a big sigh, "If I ask you a question, could you please be honest with me?" He looked into Luke's eyes for assurance.

"Certainly. Does this have something to do with what you wanted to talk about last night?" Luke guessed.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Who are you, actually? I don't think you're a lawyer because an Assistant District Attorney who handled our father's will and attended some divorce cases at the court sounds bull to me." Caleb was hoping for some straight answers.

Luke was going to say something before the waitress came to their table and brought their orders. Luke grabbed the cutlery and started enjoying his breakfast. On the other hand, Caleb seemed uninterested about the meal before his eyes though he was a bit famished. He hadn't had anything but a cup of cappuccino.

"Why aren't you eating? These pancakes are 'da bomb'!" Luke cut another piece of pancake and shoved it into his mouth.

"I'm not that hungry." As soon as Caleb said that, his stomach growled, pretty loudly.

Both Caleb & Luke stared at each other. For one second, it was silent. Then they both laughed till some people around them glanced at their way.

"Okay, fine. I'll eat." Caleb gave in to his hunger, grabbed the cutlery and started eating. "This doesn't mean you can get away from answering my question." Caleb looked at Luke in a skeptical way.

"I must say, if looks could kill I'd be dead by now." Luke finished his pancakes. He put his food aside, "Okay, what do you want to know?"

"I want to know who you really are. My brothers don't trust you and I'm starting to feel the same way." Caleb said frankly.

"Okay. Truth is I'm not really a lawyer. I don't even have any idea how does the law work." Luke replied.

"Then what were you doing barging into our lives? Who knows if the will was a fake one?" Caleb said in exasperation.

"No, it is real. I went to your house as a lawyer because I couldn't think of a better explanation on how to give it to you. All of you. I assure you, I'm a friend. I'm not the bad guy here." Luke explained.

"I don't even know if I can trust you." Caleb buried his face into his palms. "So, who are you really?"

"I can't tell you that, Caleb. At least, not until you're ready." Luke said it slowly.

"Not till I'm ready?" Caleb repeated. "This is ridiculous. What kind of game are you playing, Luke?"

"I'm not playing any games, Caleb. It's just…I'm not allowed to tell you anything unless you discover it yourself." Luke said guiltily.

Caleb looked at Luke and said, "Look, I like you, Luke. But I don't think I can trust you unless you're being honest with me."

Luke said, "Yeah, about that. I think there's been a misunderstanding." He took a very deep breath. "I'm straight."

Caleb froze. He didn't know what to do. Confusion took over himself. It was like his heart skipped a beat, only in a very bad way. His mouth felt dry. He wanted to say something but he choked.

"Caleb, I'm sorry if I've been sending you mixed signals but I'm not gay." Luke explained it to Caleb.

Caleb suddenly burst into a big laughter which made Luke astonished. "Of course you are! You misunderstood. I mean, I like you as a friend. Sorry I didn't make it clear enough to you."

"Oh really? That's great to know." Luke said skeptically.

"Oh! Look at the time. It's almost time for my shift. I need to get to the hospital." Caleb said as he was looking at this watch on his left wrist.

"Okay. Let me take care of the bill." Luke called for the waitress and signaled her to get the bill.

Caleb said, "No, you shouldn't. I was the one who asked you to come here today. I'll take care of it. I insist."

As soon as he had done take care of the bill, Caleb excused himself. He told Luke they'd be in touch. Caleb walked away from the diner awkwardly quick, making it very obvious that he wanted to avoid anymore conversation with Luke. Luke looked at the way where Caleb was headed until he disappeared from his sight. Luke let out a big sigh. That was a big fat lie, he told himself. Not being completely honest with Caleb about his destiny was one thing, lying about his feelings was another thing. Luke liked Caleb, but the only reason he told Caleb that he was straight because it was forbidden.

Caleb reached the hospital miserably. He really thought that Luke showed some interest in him, he was very positive about it. All he could do was lying about his feelings towards Caleb. He couldn't think as he felt humiliated. Luke was just being nice, he thought. He felt stupid and vulnerable. He checked in for his shift and headed to his workstation. He tried to make himself busy with work. He tried to focus but to no avail. He began to be preoccupied with his work till someone patted his left shoulder pretty hard. He jumped a bit and accidentally let everything he was holding fell on the floor.

He turned around and he saw Charlie. "Charlie! You scared me. What are you doing here?" He bent down to pick up the things which were scattered on the floor.

Charlie bent down to help Caleb pick up the things, "Sorry, dude. Didn't mean to scare you like that. I came because I figured I could help you with Luke Greene predicament."

"Too little, too late. I talked to him this morning." Caleb started walking and Charlie just followed him everywhere he went.

"You did? So, how did it go?" Charlie seemed curious.

Caleb told Charlie everything that happened in the morning, that he wasn't a lawyer and claimed that he was a friend instead of a foe. He also told Charlie about how he misunderstood Luke's mixed signals and he was indeed straight, or so he thought.

"Luke? Straight? You've got to be kidding me!" Charlie said in incredulity.

"Tell me about it." Caleb seemed uninterested to continue talking about the topic but Charlie couldn't see that.

"Dude, I had my ‘gaydar’ all over him. The way he looked at you, there's no way he could be straight." Charlie shook his head.

"Charlie, you're not supposed to have ‘gaydar’. Only gays do." Caleb chuckled at what Charlie said as they arrived at the staff lounge.

"I'm not? I thought everyone should have that." Charlie became a bit confused.

"Sometimes I think you know more about gays more than I do, Charlie. Are you sure you're straight?" Caleb said it teasingly.

"Straight as an arrow! You want proofs?" Charlie defended himself.

"There's no need for that, Charlie. I know you're straight. I don't doubt that at all. You can't even take your eyes off of Maria since we came here." Caleb pointed at a redhead girl Charlie kept staring at. "I know what you're thinking. I don't allow it. Not from my workplace!" He gave Charlie a smirk.

"Who's so lame to make such rules? That's not cool, man." Charlie complained.

"I don't care if forbidding you 'do' my co-workers is lame. I've got reputation to keep here too. Back off, okay." Caleb warned Charlie.

"Chill, man. Okay, I won't mess around with people from your work place. But I'm still not going anywhere. You still owe me lunch and u promised to land me some bartending gig here in LA." Charlie said mischievously.

"Okay, but not now. I'm still on my shift. I'll only have my break in an hour from now." Caleb looked at his watch.

"I can wait. It's not like I have better things to do." Charlie crossed his legs and leaned his back on the comfy sofa.

Caleb indulged himself in his work, updating patients' charts, attending warded patients. One hour passed just like that. He thought of going back to Charlie at the staff lounge before one of the warded patients, Mr. Vasquez's heart stopped. He quickly went to the room tried to revive the patient. Considering that he was just a medical assistant, he didn't have the authority to revive the patient using electricity. 20 seconds had passed and no one arrived to help him. He performed CPR, and pushed his palms onto Mr. Vasquez's chest. He put all his willpower to save Mr. Vasquez but he began to think that if the heart wasn't revived, the patient would be gone for good. Desperation engulfed him. It was very intense. He wished that the doctor would be there to authorize the electrocution revival. Suddenly, a spark of electrostatic came to life on his hands. He was dumbfounded with that. He tried concentrating and this time it wasn't just electrostatic that came to life. It was red colored electrical sparks coming out from his fingers. It wasn't fatal, but it was strong enough to electrocute the dying patient in front of him. Suddenly, Mr. Vasquez's heart began to beat. It progressively gained normal heartbeat rate. Caleb took a step back. He couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't make sense what just happened and the episode astounded him. The doctors and other medical assistants arrived to the room only to realize that Mr. Vasquez had been revived. They were all looking at Caleb for explanation, but he could only shook his head in disbelief. He dismissed himself from the patient's room and went to the staff lounge to find Charlie.

"You won't believe what just happened to me." Caleb startled Charlie who was listening to music tracks in his BlackBerry. They were alone.

"Hey, buddy. Calm down for a second." Charlie stopped the song that was playing in the playlist. He took off his earplugs. "Now, tell me what happened. You look like you'd seen a ghost."

Caleb took a deep breath before began to talk, "I've just electrocuted a dying patient."

"Huh? Don't you medic people usually do that to revive people?" Charlie stated, began to think that it wasn't a big deal.

"No! You don't understand! I did it with my bare hands!" Caleb pulled out his palms. For a second, the red colored electrical spark appeared again between his fingers. They both were taken aback. "Now, you believe me?"

"Whoa! What just happened, man? That was bizarre!" Charlie widened his eyes.

"That was his power. Cool isn't it?" suddenly a big bearded guy interrupted Caleb and Charlie's conversation. He wore a black t-shirt and a black leather pants. His shoes were black, and his arms were full of tattoos which appeared to be satanic. His eyes were ebony black, not even a single color of white was present in his eyes.

They both were surprised by the interruption and stood up. "And who are you?" Caleb asked the fully black attired guy.

"I'm your death sentence." The guy said. He held out his right hand and suddenly a fireball magically integrated in his palm. He threw the fireball at Caleb.

Caleb froze and he had no idea how to react. From the look of it, he could anticipate that the fireball was targeted towards his chest. He wanted to move away but he knew it was too late.

"Look out!" Charlie pushed Caleb to the side. He didn't know what he was doing but it was his reflex to do that. As they fell onto the floor, Charlie was surrounded by blue shining light. He was confused by the occurrence. His surroundings began to shimmer and slowly changed into the villa's living room. During the transition, the blue light followed the direction towards their movement. This happened so fast, the next thing that Charlie saw before his eyes was the wooden coffee table in the middle of the living room. Too bad they fell on it and Charlie slammed his face onto it. Caleb was lucky that he landed on his butt. Their crashing made a loud booming sound.

They took time to regain their balance before they realized that they were back home. Charlie felt the ache on his face.

Caleb brushed off some of the debris from the breaking of the coffee table. He helped Charlie back on his feet. "How in the world did we get here?"

Charlie looked at Caleb before saying, "Caleb, I think I've just teleported us back home."