~BOOK 4/PART ONE~ Paranormal: The Battle's Only Just Begun (Multi-Bandom FanFic)

Chapter 24

Hatred laced Brendon's voice as he guessed, "Seeing him for Round Two?"

"No, I-"

"Don't lie to me, Rach. Just look at the mess you made. You had more guilt than those humans did for burning all those innocent witches and wizards. What else would you be guilty about?"

"A lot," Rachael answered, her voice low and gravelly.

"Oh really?" He tested.

"Brendon, you want to know what happened? You want to know why I'm here?" She questioned while standing up, supporting herself on the blood-splattered desk. He bit his lip and glanced up at her. "I came here because I was scared for my daughter, the child I had with him." She pointed to Patrick. "I am tired of arguing and listening to you two fight about our pasts." The two men averted their gazes away from her. "Why can't we all just get along? Is that so hard? For the two of you to stop being such fucking assholes and put your fucking differences aside?"

"Need I remind you that he kept our daughter from us when she ran away," Patrick spoke up, "And then proceeded to lie to both you and me about it even when we came to his house and asked him personally about it. He kept our daughter from us. Why? I don't know. Why don't you ask him! He'll give you the same bullshit response he gives every time someone asks him questions he doesn't want to answer."

"It's called being loyal, Patrick, not that you even know what it means," Brendon snapped back, rolling his eyes, "I was keeping her safe for Rachael, and what do you care? You haven't given a shit about Halsey in years! This is probably why she's so messed up, because her parents don't care."

"So you're suddenly the perfect father figure. You couldn't be a father figure even if you tried!"

"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" The witch yelled, "You two can't stop fighting with each other and it's driving me insane!"

"He started it!" Brendon and Patrick whined, shooting their hands in each other's direction. Rachael smacked my forehead.

"You guys are unbelievable!" She shouted.

"You know what's unbelievable?" Brendon stood up and poked the witch hard in the chest. "What's unbelievable is that you still want to be around this fucking moron. After all he's done to you, all the shit he's put you through, all the fucking lies he told you...you still come back to him!"

"Like you haven't done the same thing," Patrick retorted, peeling himself away from the threshold and entering the room, "And watch who you're calling a moron. You've put her through hell these past two years. She was doing just fine until you showed up, for fuck's sake, we all were! But you had to waltz right in and ruin everything all over again, because that's all you do - ruin things, just like you did Rachael's life before she met me. That's probably why she was so willing to run off with me, and have a child with me. Maybe it hasn't dawned on you, but she loves me, not you."

"She ran off because of her mother, for the record, and you guys didn't even want Halsey!" Brendon reminded him angrily, "You might not remember this, Patrick, because you probably didn't know, but Rachael called me when she found she was pregnant with your fucking child, and you know what she told me? She told me she didn't want to have the kid because she afraid of how it was going to turn out, because of you."

"JUST STOP!" Rachael screamed, her voice layered with all different octaves, the dark side of her making its brief reappearance. She clutched her throat as the two of them stared at her with wide eyes. The witch slowly lowered her hands to her sides and muttered, "Enough already. You both have put me through hell, as I have both of you. But you know what? I'm done dealing with your guys' shit and I'm done letting you guys deal with mine. I think it's time that we all just...take a break from each other." Her eyes traveled between the two of them, their expressions the same.

"Rach, you can't be serious," Patrick murmured.

"I'm dead serious, Patrick," She assured him, a weight being lifted off of her chest as she ran a bloody hand through her hair and continued, "We have a town to save and this petty fighting is distracting us from the real fight."

"Come on, Rach, you can't give up on us like this," Brendon tried to persuade her.

"I'm not giving up on anyone. I just think we all could use a little time apart from one another. We've got more important things to worry about than this stupid argument. Yes, we're all horrible people and we've all done shit things, that's not news to us. What is news to us is that this city is finally going to fall in on itself, especially if we don't do something about it." Rachael stood there for a little before heaving a sigh and announcing, "I'm moving out." She looked toward Brendon sporting a crushed look on his face. "And I'm not moving back in here." The witch glanced at Patrick, he was as devastated as the wizard standing next to him. "Okay? And I don't want to see either of you unless it's for Halsey or to save this town, understood?"

The two men both hung their heads, their lips sealed shut. Rachael looked down at herself and snapped her fingers, cleaning herself up within the blink of an eye. She straightened the front of her clean shirt and muttered, "Well I'm going to go now, so...yeah." The witch pushed past the two and walked out of the office, catching Pete and Joe's eyes as she brushed past them as well. The two of them had just walked in.

Tears spilled from her eyes and she made my way down the length of the driveway and back out into the street. This was is what they needed, what Rachael needed so she could figure out her priorities, and who she was now. And for the first time in awhile, she felt free and possibly content with myself.