Chapter 4 of 12
The future
Leo found her cooking.
“He fell asleep again,” he said as he approached. “Maybe the next time he wakes we’ll be able to talk.” She smiled at him. “You know,” he said cautiously. “He was what brought us back together in his timeline. I told him once how I had decided to go Up There for good, and the two of us had one last time, and you ended up pregnant. I felt him before I left. Even though he had just come into existence. But I left. But while I was there all I could think of were you and Wyatt and this child I’d never even meet. So I decided to come back. I talked to the Elders about resigning but they worked a deal with me instead and I continued from down here. I came back a couple of weeks later; you didn’t even know you were pregnant yet.”
Piper shrugged but she couldn’t help but feel elated at knowing he chose his family.
“Maybe I could work that same deal again. I mean, I made it work then, why not now?” he continued hesitating. “That is if you want to.”
She turned around and kissed him giving him his answer. Yes, she was angry at him for becoming an Elder without even consulting her, but she missed him so much and since finding out about Chris the previous day she had been thinking about their relationship and what she wanted. And she wanted him, together they could face anything. They could fix anything. They could save Wyatt and help Chris. Together they were strong.
When they pulled apart Leo was smiling, “I’m glad you feel the same way.”
She smiled back at him and hugged him, “How is he?” she asked.
“Spent, emotionally and physically,” he answered.
“How is Wyatt?” Leo had told the little boy to orb to mommy after she left and had heard the yelp that signaled he had been successful.
“He was subdued and just went to sleep. I don’t know what happened.”
“I know. As I said he can feel what Chris is feeling, and all of Chris’s blocks fell and I don’t think he was lucid enough to remember to put them back up.”
Piper’s head snapped up, “Should we take Wyatt to dad’s?”
“Wouldn’t help, their link is too strong. I’ll ask him to block Wyatt again when he wakes, and only Wyatt,” he finished firmly.
Piper nodded and asked, “You know everything about him now?”
“To the extent a father should never know,” he said and she grinned at his grimace.
“My point is you know what he knows, his plan, and if we want to help him we need to be brought up to speed before Mister Efficiency wakes up so we can keep up with him.”
“Good idea, “he nodded. “We should call Phoebe and Paige and start.”
“So mainly, he doesn’t have a clue,” Paige huffed.
“No,” Phoebe said. “He does. He knows the attack happened around the time he was born.”
“The attack happened and Wyatt was kidnapped and the stress drove Piper into premature labor. Something I’d like to avoid this time around,” Leo said with a serious face and the girls nodded. The description Leo gave them of the time they spent with Chris in the NICU for so long was not something they wanted happening either, even if they knew that he turned out all right afterwards.
“But as I was saying,” Phoebe continued. “Chris knows they were hired guns and also knows that whatever magic was put on Wyatt laid completely dormant until it was triggered. He was good and then turned completely overnight. This is someone extremely patient. They waited 14 years to act and to gain what? Wyatt was the source, the ruler.”
“We need to look at what happened and maybe we will get a clue,” Paige said “We all agree that the trigger was the attack on our family?” Everyone nodded. “What I don’t get, and please don’t get offended, but how did Phoebe survive? I mean Wyatt, Leo and Chris were Up There when the attack happened and thanks to the Elders muting them when they shouldn’t didn’t find out until later. But you don’t have many active powers and from what Leo told us very vaguely,” she glared at Leo who had refused to give name of husbands or children or even sex or age, “our kids had some mighty power, and Piper’s we don’t even need to say. But the only one to survive was you, and with no serious injury?”
“None taken,” Phoebe said. “I wondered about that too.”
“And so did future you,” Leo said. “But everything went spiraling down so fast after that that there was no time to look into that. She said she got knocked out right in the beginning and woke to me healing her, they thought that maybe the demons thought you were dead.” He looked at her sadly remembering the strong woman from Chris’s memories that valiantly tried to fight against Wyatt’s reign. “Unfortunately, as Paige said, you don’t have many active powers and you died fighting with the resistance not long after I did and Victor had just died too. Chris was sixteen.”
“No wonder he is so neurotic,” Paige said sadly. “He’s been alone and fighting when he was supposed to be skipping school and dating.”
They all nodded sadly.
“And they wouldn’t make sure a Charmed One was dead?” Piper asked skeptically.
“That is weird,” Phoebe agreed.
Leo nodded, “Yes, I agree.”
Piper frowned and looked at the list and other notes that Chris had stashed in a hidden place at P3 and that Leo brought. They were very specific. They had every demons that came in contact with a Halliwell in the next 19 years or so, names, powers, dates and the kind of interaction, attack, vanquish and the occasional truce for a common goal. Even Wyatt’s minions and the resistance allies were there.
Minions, she frowned, only minions, there were no counselors, and if there were Chris hadn’t been aware of.
“What if whoever did this got vanquished before they managed to become Wyatt’s mentor and get to power?” she asked.
“Someone powerful enough to kidnap Wyatt from us and not get caught couldn’t be vanquished by just anyone. I bet the power of 3 was needed and if we vanquished them they are on that list,” Paige said pondering. “But you are right, maybe they did get vanquished and someone else who knew the plan set the trigger off.”
“And maybe the one who set the trigger wasn’t powerful enough to control Wyatt,” Phoebe added.
“That is Chris’s line of thought and that is why he has vanquished the bigger threats, with your help.” Leo said but he bit his lips. “But the fact is, that for all his investigation and vanquishes he hasn’t made much progress. We might need a new approach.”
“What approach?” Piper asked.
“No idea,” Leo said simply.
“He is definitely spending way too much time with the Elders, “Paige huffed.
Chris stirred and woke blearily. He was once again on his parent’s bed. He moved his arm to rub his eyes and touched a small body. He turned his head and smiled at the sight of his brother sleeping with his thumb on his mouth next to him. He smiled remembering his mother’s exasperated tales of how if one of them had a nightmare she could count of the fact the other would have orbed to their bed. Apparently she wasn’t happy when a four year old Wyatt orbed to Chris’s crib and broke the crib.
He smoothed Wyatt’s locks. He missed his brother. His Lordship wasn’t his brother. He could feel his Wyatt in there crying for help, trapped, he just didn’t know how to help, but he knew he had to find a way. That is why when every potion and spell failed he decided that he had to stop whoever turned him before they could. And he would.
He sighed, what would he do now? Now that they knew who he was. He hadn’t wanted them to, he hadn’t wanted them to ever know such pain. They didn’t need to live with the pain he did. He wanted to protect them, but at the same time being able to rely on his father the way he did, like when he was alive, had felt so good.
Seeing his family alive was hard but the hardest part was Leo’s open hostility. He had always been close to his father. The three of them sharing the Whitelighter-Elder bond that let the other one know how they felt made them have a comprehension of each other that as much as he was a momma’s boy, as Wyatt called him, they didn’t have with Piper.
And when they lost everyone, including Wyatt, they became even closer.
And when Leo accused him, distrusted him, that hurt deeply, because as much as Chris tried to distance himself he could only see his father taking his last breath in his arms as he called for Wyatt:
“He won’t come,” Leo tried to stop his youngest son’s yells. There was no one to save him. Wyatt had killed all the Elders and Whitelighters. He was the only one left that could have saved him, but Leo knew he wouldn’t come. “Chris,” he rasped. “You stay safe okay? Obey your Aunt. I love you.”
“No, dad,” Chris was sobbing now. “Just hang on a little bit more, he’ll come. WYATT!”
“I should have taken those fencing lessons with your brother,” Leo joked out of breath. “I love you. Don’t ever forget that. Your mother and I will always watch over you.”
“No dad, don’t. It will be okay. I’ll fix this. I promise. Dad, no please,” Chris begged but there was no answer, Leo had closed his eyes and after his last breath his body vanished as happens when a Whitelighter is killed and Chris was left hugging the air and sobbing for a long time.
When he had orbed back to headquarters his Aunt Phoebe was ready to read him the riot act but one look at his face and at the fact that he hadn’t come back with Leo and she just hugged him and started crying with him. When she died he didn’t let anyone hug him, Billie who had always babysat him had tried to comfort him but she understood why he couldn’t let her. He was truly the last Halliwell, Wyatt not being counted as one anymore and she had understood there that even though he was far from being a child, even though he had been fighting since he was fourteen now there was truly no one left to care of him. He had to let go of any remains of his childhood to become the leader on his aunt stead.
And that was true for this time too, because even seeing them every day they hated him, he was even more alone than in the future where even not letting them replace his family he had Darryl’s and his family’s and Billie’s support. Here he had no one to run to, no one to bounce ideas off of. And now that they knew, he didn’t know if he could just forgive them and start treating them like the family he missed.
He rubbed his eyes and got out of bed. He gently lifted his brother and walked to the nursery laying Wyatt back on his crib. He didn’t want Piper to freak out when she didn’t find him there. He lightly kissed the blond head and went downstairs. He found the Charmed ones and Leo all seated around the dining room table studding notes and charts. He goggled as he recognized his notes and charts.
“HEY!” he cried crossing his arms and glaring at them “You stole my stuff!”
The four of them who had been so absorbed in what they were discussing jumped up and stared at him.
Piper stammered, “We er- we-“
Leo blushed and Phoebe cringed but Paige just stared at Phoebe.
“You know what I just figured out? You hit on our nephew,” in a simple random statement as only Paige could pull off. “And you frequently pointed out he was hot. Which is not only incestuous but I’m pretty sure criminal considering his age.”
That got them all out of their stupor as they all agreed as one, “PAIGE!”