Chapter 11 of 19
Our Baby
Weeks went by and they were nowhere closer to finding who turned Wyatt then they had been the day older Paige left. Piper was starting to show and Chris found it extremely odd to know that he was inside her. He was starting to get more comfortable at being around her but he still couldn’t shake the feeling of her dead body in his arms. Wyatt hadn’t killed her. Her death had nothing to do with Wyatt turning evil.
Sure now that they knew Wyatt was evil from whatever trauma he faced Chris knew her death must have been one more brick into building his rage, his need for power. But she hadn’t died because he was evil, and saving Wyatt wouldn’t save her. He knew he was being irrational, that he should just enjoy the time he had with her. But the pain of losing her had been so hard to overcome. He wouldn’t know how to heal twice.
Then there was his father. He had stopped trying to force Chris to bond, but he had been there, working side by side with him. Trying his best to figure out which Elder turned Wyatt. Chris didn’t understand this Leo. In the future there had been too much history and hurt between them and Leo had never even tried to make up for his mistakes. They had been fighters that worked together, but there had been no attempt at heart felt talks. This Leo on the other hand would one minute discuss the next best course of action and the second try to give him advice on how to deal with Piper. Try to convince him to open up to her but on the other hand he did not force the issue of him onto Chris, and Chris was somewhat thankful for that.
He wasn’t sure he would be able to remember that this Leo hadn’t been the one to ignore him all his life. And would end up blaming him for what he’d not yet done, though this Leo had hurt him plenty. He knew rationally that making him suspicious was part of the plan, but the extents to which Leo had taken his suspicion hurt him enormously. He had tried to have Chris recycled, had attacked him physically. Leo who was a pacifist had tried his best to attack Chris.
Chris groaned and decided to go downstairs for breakfast, pondering on his father’s behavior would get him nowhere.
“They are in need of a teacher lately and maybe being around Gideon I’ll get to hear more of what goes on in Elderland,” he heard Paige’s voice from the kitchen say.
“And if Gideon is the one you’ll have a better chance at finding the proof we need to go to the other Elders with,” Piper’s voice stated.
“Chris and Leo both like Gideon,” Phoebe’s voice sounded doubtful. “And they don’t agree very often.”
“That’s no reason to discard him,” Chris said opening the door and going to sit on the table. “We could be mistaken.”
“You said he always took an interest in you?” Paige asked.
Chris nodded, “Gideon always viewed every magical child as special. Not just the very powerful ones.”
“But, did he take a special interest?” she insisted.
“How so?” he frowned.
“Well, I’ve been thinking. I find it weird that the Elder that tried to get rid of you and Wyatt would try once and then do nothing else except clean his track,” she said. “I think they would try a different route like molding you.”
“That makes sense,” Piper said shaking her finger at Paige while dumping an enormous content of scrambled eggs into Chris’s plates that made him want to groan.
“Except,” Chris said slowly. “That Gideon didn’t give Wyatt more attention then he did the others. And he didn’t know the extent of my powers. Mum always was very insistent with me that the less people knew of my powers the safer I’d be.”
“But Wyatt had the attention of all the Elders didn’t he?” Phoebe asked and Chris nodded. “So Gideon would have had him there. What if he had wanted to mold you too, what if he hadn’t been fooled by Piper?”
Chris thought on that. Gideon did give him more attention then he did the others but he always thought that was to compensate for everyone else pushing Chris aside for Wyatt. His mum did that often, when his dad came and took Wyatt with him and left Chris behind his mum would have special outings for just the two of them.
“I guess you could be right, doesn’t hurt to keep an open mind and our options open.”
“Chris,” Piper called him as he was getting ready. “Could you do me a favor?”
Chris looked up as he finished tying his boots, “What do you need?”
“Leo is Up There and he’s going to meet me at the doctor’s but I’m late and I still have to drop Wyatt off at Sheila’s…”
“I can drop him off if you want to,” he said putting the long coat on. Piper looked uncomfortable.
“Er, I’m very late; like I’m supposed to be across town in five minutes I was wondering if you could go with me after we drop Wyatt…”
“You want me,” Chris said slowly pointing at himself, “to go with you to the doctor’s appointment where you’ll be discussing muffin me?”
“Muffin?”
“You know? Because I’m still in the oven,” he smiled cheekily.
Piper raised an eyebrow, “Yes.” She said dryly.
“Call Leo!”
“He’s feeling the Elder’s out and he promised he’d be there for the ultrasound! He did Chris! Don’t snort!”
“I was going underground,” he said crossing his arms.
“You can go after the appointment, please!” she begged and made puppy eyes and Chris huffed and conceded.
“Fine!”
Piper smiled happily. “Lose the coat,” she said and he rolled his eyes.
“Well, Piper. You are in very good health, all that is left is to check the baby’s ultrasound,” the doctor told her and went to get the ultrasound machine ready.
“Oh,” Piper looked at the doctor and at Chris and bit her lip. “Can we wait? My husband promised he’d be here.”
“I’ll see where he is,” Chris said and Piper hoped Leo had remembered. She really didn’t want for Chris to know he missed his doctor’s appointment.
Chris was opening the door when Leo came barreling in.
“Sorry,” he said bumping into Chris. “I was afraid I was late. I’m not late right?”
“No sir,” the doctor said and Leo sighed relieved coming to Piper’s side. Piper smiled especially as she saw the smile in Chris’s lips. Piper laid down and the doctor smeared the gel on her stomach.
“Well here you are,” the doctor said pointing at the monitor. Here is your baby and here is his heart beat.” Piper and Leo looked amazed and Chris just said.
“This is so weird.”
“Oh, he’s going to be a cutie!” Phoebe gushed over the ultrasound photo.
“Hey! Will you stop that? That’s personal! I don’t go around showing naked pictures of you!”
Paige looked at him over the table where they were all bended to see the photo and smirked, “That’s just because you don’t have them.”
“Can you see the sex?” Prue asked.
“Not yet,” Leo answered holding the ultrasound fondly, “But here you can see the hand and-“
“Oi!” Chris cried bending over and grabbing the offending picture. “Stop that! This is so embarrassing!” he mumbled taking a peak at the ultrasound and trying to put it in his pocket. Piper was faster and took the ultrasound from his hands.
“This is going into your baby album,” she smiled and Chris could only gawk outraged at her.
“Weren’t you supposed to go undercover?” she asked innocently.
“I was deterred by having to protect my dignity!” he cried outraged and orbed out. As soon as he disappeared everyone started laughing.
Chris stumbled through the hall. His hands groped for the wall in search of support but he found none as his knees buckled making him fall forward. He coughed but couldn’t utter a word because of the blood in his throat, he didn’t know why, but he thought of his dad as he fell forward.
Leo had been putting Wyatt to sleep. He smiled at his boy; he had showed him the ultrasound and tried to explain that was his brother Chris. That he was going to be a big brother. He was sure the boy didn’t understand but hey, he could try. His head shot up as he heard Chris voice in his mind.
“Dad.”
The voice had been faint, weak and Leo’s blood froze. He closed his eyes and tried to sense for Chris. He called him in his mind hoping the father son bond was enough to make Chris hear but there was no answer. He could feel him, faintly. He was in the hall and there was only one explanation for his presence to be so faint. Leo ran and his heart stopped when he saw his son sprawled on the floor with a pool of blood forming.
“CHRIS!”
He cried and ran to him. He turned him over and saw the arrow sticking out of him. He was about to pull the arrow out when he heard Phoebe’s cry.
“Wait Leo.”
“I need to heal him.”
“I’ll pull the arrow out! Poison remember?”
No he didn’t. All he could think was of Chris, dying. He heard Piper gasp behind him. Phoebe pulled out the arrow and he hovered his hand over the chest wound, he closed his eyes and felt for the wound, for the poison, willing his son to get better. He could feel the poison had taken most of his son’s body and he willed harder. He didn’t know how long he took but he only stopped when he could feel no more poison. No more hurt. He heard Chris taking a shuddering gasp and he pulled Chris up in a hug.
“Don’t do that again,” he said pressing his mouth to Chris’s hair and Chris didn’t move. He knew this was due to exhaustion but he was not comfortable letting go right now.
“Sorry.” Chris said in a tired voice.
“What happened?” Piper asked rushing forward and checking Chris over.
“They started fighting with each other. I got caught in the crossfire. Good news is I saved one’s life so he might open up for me,” Chris said tiredly. “I’m tired, why?” he seemed to notice his position and tried to get out of Leo’s grip but had no strength to fight Leo.
“The poison spread a lot. You used too much energy. You best rest.” Leo said helping him up and to his room.
Leo smiled at her as she got in bed.
“What?” she asked.
“He called me dad.” He said simply.
“Uh.”
“Granted, he was dying and probably delirious with pain but he called me dad.” He said shrugging and still smiling
“Oh, he did…that’s good,” she said vaguely and got into bed fluffing the covers a little too forcefully.
“Are you jealous?” he asked cheekily.
“No.” she said with a straight face.
“You are!” he said leaning forward and wrapped her waist with his arms. He put his head on her stomach and looked at her face with the same cheeky smile.
“No.”
“He was delirious,” he offered. “I doubt he realized.”
“Well he called me mum too,” she said crossing her arms with a scowl.
“He did?” he asked happily. Maybe they were making progress. She shrugged. “He was talking about the future and he referred to me as mum.”
Leo kissed her, he knew that this may not look as progress but this was a little step.