Wish - Chapter 14 and Epilogue

XIV

Sarita, Talya, and Liam were quiet as the Limo arrived in front of the hospital. School had seemed to take an agonizingly long time, but now that it was finally over, they were anxious to visit their friend. Sarita quietly led the way to Ianto's assigned room.

Just inside the room, they stopped short. “Perhaps we should come back later,” Sarita suggested in a whisper.

“No, come in,” Ianto ordered, lifting his head and turning it to look at them. “I've been awake for a few minutes now.”

“Thanks to the nurse,” Thomas grumbled.

“Hey, I have a job to do, you know!” She protested in a soft voice. “I couldn't put it off any longer!” She was technically supposed to check his vitals at least once an hour. She busied herself looking through the record on the machines. “Looks like his heart was very calm during his nap. That's good.”

Thomas let out a nearly silent sigh of relief. Then he gave the nurse a curious look when she walked around behind him and pushed on his back. A moment later, she released the railing holding him very snugly in the bed with Ianto. Making sure he wouldn't fall, she removed her hand from his back.

Thomas took the hint and carefully untangled from Ianto so he could slide out of bed. The nurse smiled at the new visitors. She beckoned them to grab folding chairs from the wall and be seated.

“Just remember, it's better for Ianto to remain calm. Try not to get him excited, okay?”

“Okay,” they murmured in unison.

Liam cleared his throat. “I made this tincture. Would it be alright if Ianto had it?”

The nurse took the tincture and studied the ingredients hand written on the label. “Is this all of the ingredients?” She asked.

Liam nodded in confirmation.

“Well, I'll go look to see if anything listed is contraindicated, and if not, I'll ask permission from the doctor.”

“Thank you,” Liam murmured.

Sarita sat next to the bed and held Ianto's hand while she talked to him. Talya stood behind Sarita and added to the conversation here and there. Meanwhile, Liam paced the room as far away from Ianto as possible. Thomas watched him with a frown.

“You're glowing...” Thomas murmured softly at one point, about a half an hour later.

“I feel hot and itchy,” Liam muttered as if this explained his mild glow.

Sarita looked over at Liam curiously. “That's new...”

“What?” Talya wondered.

“He really is glowing,” Sarita stated. “It's a soft blue glow that reminds me of Indigo.”

The cat stood up from where he was laying on Ianto's chest, purring, to look over at Liam. “You're right. That's never happened before that I've seen.”

A nurse returned just then. “I've checked and this tincture seems safe enough. It's shouldn't have any bad reactions with Ianto's meds, and the doctor has given his permission.”

She handed it to Liam, and then patted his arm. “Good luck.”

Liam slowly approached Ianto's bed. He heard the nurse leave and shut the door before he managed to cross the entire distance. With a red face, he handed the tincture to Ianto.

“Here... This should help keep your heart calm...” Liam murmured. He then gestured for Sarita to hand him a glass with some leftover orange juice in it. “It's best to take it by squeezing a few drops into some juice and chugging it.”

“Thank you,” Ianto murmured with a smile. “Did you really make this yourself?”

Liam nodded stiffly, in a way that looked a bit like a robot. His feelings were stronger than ever, and that made it very hard to act even slightly normal. Ianto read the label, and then laughed.

“You even listed magic as one of the ingredients!”

Liam shrugged, blushed, and then backed up a few steps. “Yeah, well it is. I put my magic into everything I make.”

Sarita stood up from the chair and walked over to where Liam had retreated. She took his hand with a concerned frown. “Are you okay? You look like you might throw up.”

Liam felt a bit nauseous too, but he smiled at Sarita. “I'm fine...”

“Liar,” Thomas muttered from where he was sitting. He saw the telltales signs of a lie in Liam's aura, but didn't need it to know the truth. Liam was having a very hard time. “Maybe you should leave.”

Liam glared at Thomas. “I said I'm fine!”

Sarita squeezed his hand. “We can go if you want.”

“No... I just wish I knew how to help him get better,” Liam blurted out honestly, and then gasped. “I didn't mean it like that!”

Sarita felt her power flow. “It's okay. That's a wish I'm happy to grant... if I can...”

Liam felt like his heart stopped, like his breathing stopped, like time itself stopped for a moment. He looked down at his hand in Sarita's and noticed that it was glowing a bit brighter than before. This was actually the most magic he'd had access to in his life, but even as he marveled at it, he realized that it had always been there inside him, just buried deep.

“I know what to do...” he whispered. Abruptly, he turned and faced the wall to hide the fact that he was now redder than he had ever been before.

Ianto held out a hand to Talya – who was literally the closest to him at the moment – and used her help to sit up a bit better. She also stuffed a couple of spare pillows behind his back for support. His smiled and murmured his thanks before focusing on Liam again.

“Do you mean that?” Ianto asked. “Is there something your magic can do?”

“Yes but...” Liam mumbled, still facing the wall.

“But what?” Thomas asked, wanting to thrash the kid until he stopped being so damn embarrassed.

“But it's not a complete miracle cure. It's... It's more like a treatment...” Liam tried to explain, not sure how he knew this so suddenly when he had never even guessed it before. Sarita squeezed his hand, reminding him that she had granted his wish.

“Still worth a try?” Thomas half asked, half stated, looking over to Ianto.

Ianto nodded. “I agree. Liam, what is it?”

“Oh Gods!” Liam muttered under his breath, looking up at the ceiling. “Why???”

Ianto was tempted to sigh in disappointment, but he held it in. “It's okay if you don't want to do it.”

“Not it's not okay!” Thomas roared, leaping to his feet. Before he could give into the temptation to beat Liam senseless, Ianto leaned over and grabbed his hand.

“Yes it is,” he insisted. “No one should have to do something they don't want to.”

Liam growled in frustration as he gathered up his courage. Marching over to the hospital bed – on the opposite side from Thomas – he pointed at Ianto. “Fine! But...”

Before he lost his nerve completely, he grabbed Ianto's face and kissed him. At first, everyone in the room was too astonished to react. By the time Thomas thought to protest, he noticed Liam's power flowing into Ianto.

Sarita gasped in astonishment, and then wondered why she wasn't feeling jealous. To tell the truth, she really wasn't. Her eyes softly followed the flow of magic from Liam into Ianto.

Talya naturally snuck out her cellphone to take pictures. She watched the scene with a smirk. In her mind, Liam kissing Ianto had been inevitable, although she had thought that it would be an ordinary kiss and that Ianto would gently reject Liam afterwards.

As for Ianto, he couldn't see the magic, but he could feel that it was slowly making a difference. Not a huge difference – he knew that he still had heart problems – but enough that Ianto felt more or less normal. Maybe just a bit better than normal. He let the strangeness of the moment take hold of him and opened his mouth when Liam hesitantly licked his lips.

Thomas was softly growling. More than half of him was seething with jealousy, but just enough of his mind was aware of the magic happening to stop him from doing anything. Even so, this kiss was lasting an extremely long time!

When Liam's magic glow faded, he pulled back with a gasp. “Whoa!”

Ianto tilted his head to give Liam a funny look. “That was... weird...”

Clutching his hands into fists, Thomas forced himself to stop growling. “Did it work?”

Ianto looked at his hands and then patted his chest. “I feel wonderful.” He then blushed and added: “I mean, you know, pain free.”

“Hmm,” Thomas grumbled, glaring at Liam.

Liam swayed woozily. “I'm so tired now...”

“Indigo?” Sarita asked in concern.

“He's fine,” Indigo assured her. “He's just never used so much of his magic at once before.”

“So... did it heal him?” Sarita wondered.

Indigo let his unfocused eyes peer through Ianto. Then he shrugged – which looked strange coming from a cat. “It's like he said, it's a bit like a treatment. It helped, but it'll take a lot more treatments to be considered a cure.”

“I was afraid you'd say that,” Thomas grumbled, pulling on his hair and pacing the room.

“But I'm fairly sure that Liam just figured out his destiny,” Indigo added with a feline smile. “His mother will be happy to hear it.”

“You did?” Sarita asked, a bit hesitant because this might mean he'd have to return home soon.

“I can heal,” Liam murmured in amazement, staring at his hands. “No one else in my family can heal like this!”

“I thought Siobhan could,” Talya said, referring to his oldest sister.

“No,” Liam murmured, shaking his head. To his relief, he felt normal again, and could talk around Ianto without blushing or wanting to run away. “She is just better at herbal mixtures and spells than I am, and her power does seem to work well with the healing arts, but she can't just use it directly like this.”

Liam looked at Ianto. With a blush he realized that he still had very warm feelings for him, but now he recognized that as his power trying to work through him. He frowned slightly as he wondered what would have happened if he had given into the urge to kiss him a long time ago.

Thomas saw his slightly dreamy expression and growled again. “You couldn't have just held his hand?!”

Liam held his hands up and shook his head. “Apparently not! Don't ask me why, but I had to kiss him!”

Indigo giggled mercilessly. “For some witches, their eyes are the conduit of their power. For others, it's their mind and thoughts. The majority of witches use their hands. Sarita's power flows a bit mentally and predominantly through her voice. For you...” he smirked at Liam from where he still lay on Ianto's chest. “It's your lips!”

“But why?” Liam wondered with an embarrassed groan.

Indigo lay his head down, snuggling into himself as he prepared to take a cat nap. “It is what it is,” he sighed, not caring in the slightest how Liam now agonized over this information.

“I guess this means that you'll be kissing a lot of people in your life!” Sarita stated with a giggle.

“No wonder ma always said that I'd be the type who finds it hard to settle down,” Liam grumbled.

Sarita smiled softly at him in concern. “We should go; you look like you need to rest.”

“Yeah,” Liam agreed in a near whisper.

Talya slipped her phone back in her pocket and grabbed a hand from each of them. She tossed a smile over at Ianto. “Glad you're feeling a little better now!”

“Thanks!” Ianto stated with a grin. “Hey Liam...” He held out his hand in a silent question for Liam to come closer.

After a moment's hesitation, Liam complied. He slipped his hand into Ianto's with a wary look over at Thomas. As for Thomas, he was counting to 10 and taking deep and even breaths.

“Thank you,” Ianto praised Liam warmly. “I really mean that. Don't feel like you have to kiss me again if you don't want to. I'm already so grateful for what you've done.” He looked over at Thomas with a loving smile. “It's given me a little more time.”

“You're welcome,” Liam replied, feeling inexplicably happy to be standing there holding Ianto's hand.

Sarita scooped up Indigo, grabbed Liam's free hand, and sent a smile to Ianto. “I'm so happy you're feeling better too, but I want to make sure this one gets some rest before he's tempted to kiss you again,” she said with a soft laugh.

Ianto returned her laugh, relieved to see that their relationship was looking a little bit stronger than he had originally thought it was. “Go on,” he ordered, releasing Liam's hand. As Talya, Sarita, and Liam walked out of the room, they heard Thomas grumbling.

“Now I see... you're a flirt!”

Ianto laughed. “I can't help it if everyone thinks I look good!”

Thomas harrumphed, but took hold of Ianto's hand and kissed it. “I'll let you kiss everyone in the world if it'll help you get better.”

“Aww... that's sweet...” Ianto murmured, beckoning Thomas to come closer.

Sarita was in the process of closing the door behind her, but paused to peek at them. Talya snuck a camera over her shoulder and took pictures even though she couldn't see what she was aiming at. Sheer skill and tons of practice ensured that her aim was true.

After closing the door, Sarita purred. “Aww! They look so cute together!”

Talya looked at the picture she took. “I'll say! I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, if I liked boys, Thomas would probably be it.”

“That's just because he looks so much like Sarita,” Liam remarked.

Talya laughed. “You're probably right!”

Hand in hand, the three of them left the hospital.

Epilogue

“I just wish this stupid camera would work!” A woman roared, tempted to kick the highly expensive piece of equipment across the ground.

Sarita smirked and let her power flow. “I hope it behaves for you.”

“Yeah yeah,” the woman grumbled. “I'll probably have to... Hey! What do you know? It started working again!”

Sarita – sitting in a comfy chair off to the side – accepted a drink from one of the assistants and sipped on it before responding. “Sometimes, all it takes is trying again.”

The woman rolled her eyes but couldn't argue.

“Are we ready?” Talya called out, and then didn't wait for a response. “In this scene, Liam has a lot of silent acting to do. I want the comedy to be subtle! That means that the background actors can't turn into utter goofballs!”

Everyone called out their understanding. Then a man chuckled. “I'm the director, you know!”

“Yeah yeah,” Talya grumbled, not backing down a bit. She had hired a fairly talented man that often worked with her mother's company, but one of the things she had insisted on was him letting her be in charge. Thus, she was busy exploring her new-found talent for directing.

“Good luck Liam!” Sarita called out, waving to him.

He returned her wave as he stepped on his mark and prepared to act out the scene. Sarita watched him with a smile, knowing that it wasn't always easy to do these scenes. She cast a glance at Talya, who looked like she was fiercely willing Liam to nail it in one take.

Not too long after Sarita's 14^th birthday, she finally agreed to star in the movie that Talya wanted to make, but instead of her original script, Talya had commissioned her team of writers to create a screenplay based on Sarita's life over the past year. Sarita just loved how – even though the movie basically outed her as being a sort of teenage witch or a genie – no one really believed that it was true.

After this movie was finished shooting, Talya had plans to film her original one. Then they would be in post production while Talya negotiated to get them released in theaters when they were done. So far, the bigwigs all seemed reluctant to take a chance on a spoiled rich kid, but if worse came to worst, Talya's mom had promised to air it on the TV network she was part owner of.

Knowing this, Talya vowed to make the best movies possible since she never wanted to feel like she hadn't given them her all. She wanted people to watch them and fall in love. Despite her goals and ambition, she had made extra sure to never wish for success. She wanted people to love those movies based on their merit, not based on Sarita's magic.

She looked over at Sarita and smirked. “I guess that I can't really help that part! People are going to fall in love with her magic the moment they see her up on the screen,” she muttered under her breath.

Liam finished his scene in less than a half-dozen takes, and the crew prepared to move onto the next scene.

“Sarita! You're up!” The director called out to her with a smile. He was used to working with kids, and personally felt that Sarita was one of the easiest child actors he had ever worked with. “Who knew that a teenaged girl could create such a good movie?” He muttered to himself, referring to Talya. She had genuinely impressed him with her intelligence and ambition.

“Remember!” Talya roared out to the crew, even though they more than likely knew what she was talking about already. “The cat is supposed to be talking in these scenes, but that has to be added in post! So don't forget to give it time for his lines!”

The woman operating the camera was not as impressed with Talya as the Director was. “Mouthy little brat!” She muttered almost silently. “Just who does she think she is?”

The Assistant Director counted down backwards from 10, and then slammed the top down on the little board that had the name of the scene written on it. Silence reigned until Sarita delivered her lines. Indigo sat invisibly on her shoulder, saying his lines so that only she could hear them.

Talya had her hands clasped together with an expression of rapture on her face as she listened to Sarita. Her mind wandered to the two extremely good looking and famous teen actors she had cast to play Thomas and Ianto. In just a few hours, they were scheduled to film a few scenes, and Talya couldn't wait!

The main scene that was scheduled was the first real kiss between Sarita and Ianto, only Talya planned to have it be a lot more intense than it actually had been. She had an audience to keep interested after all! Thus, she planned to make sure they repeated the kissing scene as many times as it took to get it just right – a sort of balance between hot and heavy, and sweet and innocent. If it took the rest of the day, so be it!

She held back a totally inappropriate squeal of excitement and focused on the scene that was currently filming.

***

Exactly on Sarita's 15^th birthday, the movie debuted in theaters. She had declined seeing it in a private screening – as had Liam – just so that she could see it for the first time in her local theater with all her family and friends. She sat next to him holding his hand in excitement and Talya held her other hand.

Liam blushed when he looked back to see that his mother, sisters, and some of his cousins had flown here to attend the movie premier. Even though his mom had likely seen quite a bit of it in her dreams already, he wanted to crawl in a hole and die at the thought of any of them seeing it now.

“I kiss a lot in this movie...” he grumbled, still blushing.

Sarita heard him and laughed. “So do I!” She reminded him as she squeezed his hand.

“And our families are going to see it!” Liam added.

“I know,” Sarita murmured softly.

She was also nervous about her dad watching the movie, but he had shown up on set whenever possible, and had seen her filming some of the scenes. Therefore, he assured her that he would try not to embarrass her when those scenes came up on the screen. She leaned forward slightly to send a smile in his direction.

He sat off to the side with Talya's mom, who had turned out to be the woman he was seeing in secret. The two of them had gotten pretty serious about each other, and were now open about the fact that they were thinking about getting married. Talya was torn between being excited for them, and being dismayed that the girl she loved might soon become her sister!

Ianto and Thomas sat directly behind Sarita. Ianto leaned forward and chuckled in her ear. “I still can't believe that someone so famous is playing me!”

“I can,” Thomas muttered with a smile. The two of them were not openly affection in public, but this was mostly because Thomas was private by nature. Ianto was more than willing to kiss anywhere at any time, but he respected Thomas' reluctance for PDA.

Unfortunately for Thomas, he soon found out that his character and the actor playing him had no problem kissing in front of others and often smooched Ianto's character hello or goodbye. Even in front of the other characters!

“That's so not true to life,” he grumbled in Talya's ear.

“Hush you!” She commanded imperiously. “Or I'll make a sequel and have your character making out in every other scene!”

Thomas harrumphed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. The actor who played him was sitting on the other side of Liam. He cast a flirty wink at Thomas.

“Sounds like that could be fun!”

Near the end of the movie, when it came time for Liam to kiss Ianto's character, he buried his face in Sarita's shoulder. “I can't bear to look!”

“You did a really good job,” Sarita assured him.

“I'll say!” The actor playing Ianto agreed with a grin.

Ianto leaned forward to whisper in Liam's ear. “I don't know, it looks to me like the real kiss was much better.”

Liam blushed at least 10 shades of red and kept his face firmly buried in Sarita's shoulder. He could hear his cousins roaring and heckling him in the background. “I might just die of embarrassment!”

The very end of the movie portrayed Sarita and Liam deciding to go out officially. They sealed this agreement with a kiss, which was once again quite a bit hotter than they were comfortable letting people see, but Talya had insisted, and she had been right. It was the perfect end to the movie.

To reassure Liam and end his subtle attempt to hide in his chair, Sarita grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. “Embarrassing or not, I love it!” She announced, and then rewarded him with a kiss.

Liam purred unconsciously, leaning into her. Talya watched them with a happy grin. In her opinion, so long as Sarita declared her love for the movie, the rest of the world didn't matter.

“Just wait until two months from now when the other movie comes out!” Talya stated with a syrupy tone of voice.

Liam blushed again. In it, he played a knight who fell in love with a fairy played by Sarita. They kissed a lot in that one too!

Breaking off their kiss, he rested his head against hers. “You know what? I'm kind of looking forward to it.”

“It can't be any more embarrassing than this one, right?” Sarita asked with a laugh.

“Right,” Liam agreed.

After the credits finished rolling, Talya's mom came over with a huge grin on her face. “Congratulations! Preliminary reviews are all positive, and early box office counts look good!” She pulled Talya to her feet and into a hug. “But that doesn't matter to me. I'm so proud of you anyway.”

“Same here,” Ken stated, hugging Sarita.

Liam was utterly distracted when first his mom and then the rest of his family – that was here – smothered him in a hug. His sisters teased him while his cousins heckled him, but all still let him know that they loved his movie.

“But I'm totally going to upload a clip of you kissing that dude to YouTube!” His 15 year old cousin cackled.

“Ma!” Liam protested with a blush.

Talya prevented any argument by pulling Liam and Sarita along behind her. “Come on! It's time to party!” Everyone cheered in agreement and flooded out of the theater.

Liam's mother stood off to the side with Sarita's father and Talya's mother. She grinned at them, her eyes glowing just a tiny bit. They were both just a little spooked by her.

“Ah, to be young again! And just think; the best is yet to come!”

Ken chuckled, feeling a sense of parental pride. “That it is.”