Chapter 4 of 9
What have we done?
A week had gone by and things didn’t look up for the relationship between parents and sons. Chris had made himself scarce from the manor which didn’t mean he wasn’t working hard. No, the research just had moved from the manor to Victor’s apartment. Victor had gone and exerted his authority with his grandsons, dragging both boys to his apartment where he could make sure the boys were taken care of and where Chris wasn’t allowed to live on snacks. Wyatt had to admit, Grandpa had a lot more authority than big brother.
Wyatt was avoiding his parents like the plague and the only news Piper had from her son was when Phoebe or Paige came with a message about a demon they had to go and vanquish. She had been a little mollified by the fact that at least now Wyatt was living with Victor and not alone with Chris. But she had been angry to know Victor had invited Chris too. She had let Victor know and his answer had been simple.
“Honey, you better start doing some soul-searching before you do something you’ll regret forever, if it’s not too late for that.”
Piper had narrowed her eyes and wondered what was Chris planning against her family now. He had managed to turn all of her family except from Leo against her.
Leo, Piper sighed. That had been awkward. They had barely spoken and the last time she saw him was when he healed her after a vanquish two days ago. Something had happened there because as he was healing her he got this really surprised look and then couldn’t get away fast enough.
They didn’t mention what happened between them but that had been enough for Piper to realize that she had been kidding herself and that there was no one else for her but Leo. The next day she had talked to Greg and ended whatever they might have been starting.
She huffed as she checked the pockets of Paige’s trouser before putting it in the washing machine. She huffed even more when she found a few sheets of paper. Honestly, Paige would forget her head in her clothes if she could.
Piper put the papers on top of the washing machine and continued putting clothes in the machine. Once the machine was loaded she started it and grabbed the papers, intending to give them back to Paige, when she caught the Wy written on top of the first page. She couldn’t help herself, she started reading.
Leo sighed as he orbed into the manor. He couldn’t avoid this anymore. If she found out by herself and then figured that Leo knew she’d be furious. He had stayed away because he didn’t know how to feel about this new development. After all, they were separated and Piper was even seeing that fireman. He so hated that fireman.
Leo closed his eyes and sensed for her. She was in the pantry. He walked slowly there and when he found her he was shocked. She was sitting by the washing machine, crying.
“Piper,” he knelt in front of her. She raised her eyes and they were dark orbs of pain.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered brokenly.
“I know,” he bit his lip. “I felt the baby when I healed you.” He sat down in front of her crossing his legs. “I know we are separated and we didn’t plan this but we can make this work.”
Piper shook her head, “No, he’ll hate us.”
“Piper, no he won’t,” he tried to soothe her, “I know things are difficult with Wyatt now, but that doesn’t mean we’re bad parents.”
“We’re horrible parents,” Piper sobbed.
“No, we’re not. Where is this coming from?” he asked her.
“Chris,” she whispered.
Leo’s blood boiled. What had Chris done now? “Look Piper, Chris will go nowhere near this baby-“
“Chris is this baby,” she cried desperately putting the letter in Leo’s hand. “I found this in Paige’s pocket.”
Leo started reading and his heart broke piece by piece as he realized how wrong they had been, how horrible they had been. “What have we done?” he asked horrified.
Paige orbed into her room instantly seeing the book she was looking for. She was about to orb out when her eyes landed on her bed. Her bare bed, she worriedly looked around and her eyes rounded up. Oh, no! Piper had gone on one of her cleaning frenzies where she gets every piece of cloth out of place into the washing machine. She dropped the book and barreled downstairs just to come face to face with the crying and shocked parents.
“Letter,” she called and in a flurry of blue orbs the letter left Leo’s slack grip and went into her hand. “You had no right to read this,” she hissed angrily.
That brought Piper out of her shock, “And you had no right to keep this from me!” she snapped back angrily getting up and stalking to her sister.
“Did you read the letter? Did you understand it? Because if you did you’ll see that we did this for you and Chris. Because if you did you’ll understand that there is no way now to convince him that your love is genuine. Because you managed to destroy the belief in his mother’s love Piper. A love that was immense from what Wyatt says. There was no one more important to Chris than you. And there still isn’t. Maybe Wyatt gets a real close second. But now he doesn’t believe you ever loved him. And now tell me Piper, how will we convince him that you are not just sorry out of obligation? That you really care for him. Because remember, once they reenter the time line the baby in you will get all of Chris’s memories.”
‘I didn’t know he was mine,” Piper whispered sadly.
“That’s no excuse for how you’ve been treating him Piper,” Paige said firmly. “Think very hard on what you’ll say to him before you do, because you have no idea how badly you have hurt him. And I’m not letting you hurt him anymore.”
Piper nodded feeling like the enemy.
Chris read the information carefully. So yes the details would be different but he remembered what his advisor had told him. The program had been instituted 20 years previously, meaning, two years ago.
He never got a chance to tell his family. He had heard his mother’s frantic call as he had left his advisor’s office. But Chris had been offered a full scholarship to Oxford University in England. He hadn’t thought of accepting after all he never had applied. The thought of moving so far away from his family had never crossed his mind before. But Oxford chose students from all over the world who they thought were worthy and they wanted in their ranks. One from each country and Chris had been chosen from all of the students in the US. That was a huge honor and a huge statement on his academic success.
He had thought he would have refused, choosing a University in the US where he could just pretend to live off campus and orb home. But lately he had been thinking seriously of accepting. He hadn’t known how to approach the subject with Wyatt though so he waited for both Victor and Wyatt to leave to use his Grandfather’s computer and look up Oxford University.
The doorbell rang and he quickly closed all the windows in case Wyatt had come back home and forgotten the keys, again.
He got up and opened the door ready to tease his brother when his smile faded completely at the sight of Piper and Leo.
“Oh,” he said flatly. “Victor and Wyatt aren’t home,” he finished swinging the door shut and going back to the computer. The doorbell rang again and he just ignored it opening back the web browser and going back to the page he was in.
He heard the jingle of orbs and sighed.
“I said,” he gritted his teeth. “That Wyatt and Victor-“
“We want to talk to you,” Piper said and he turned around slowly to face them.
“I have a mission to complete before I can go my separate way from your son Piper,” he said flatly. His face a stony mask. “But don’t worry, I’m seeing to it that you’ll never have the displeasure of having to stand my presence again once we go back home.” He then turned around to face the computer and ignore his parents.
“Chris, please, we want to talk to you,” Leo pleaded in a soft voice that had Chris frowning. He slowly rose from his chair and faced his parents crossing his arms suspiciously. What were they up to? Did they have some spell that was going to send him away? Or was Piper just going to blow him up but couldn’t do it to his back?
“What do you want?” he asked glaring at them.
Piper’s heart was breaking. She knew she more than deserved this hostility but this was her baby and he hated her. He hated her because she made him hate her.
The problem was that Piper didn’t understand that Chris didn’t hate her. He still loved her immensely but he didn’t believe her anymore. He didn’t believe that the love she had for him was true and not out of some convention that made her force herself to love her son. He believed that she couldn’t stand him but that his mother had pretended to love him for convention’s sake, whereas Piper, who wasn’t held by conventions, showed what she truly thought of Chris. And that only hurt because he loved her.
Piper on the other hand had finally realized that what her sisters were saying was true. Neither she nor Leo even knew Chris. They saw an enemy from the first second and never gave him a chance to show himself seeing only what they wanted to see.
Piper had wanted to beat herself up once she remembered the talk she had witnessed between her sons. He had said she was her son: “Mom would throw me a party” and then “Piper would rather blow me up than throw me a party”. How many hints had she missed because she didn’t want to let go of her convenient punching bag?
“Snape kills Dumbledore at the end of book six. Snape is the one who told Voldemort the prophecy -“
“What?” Piper asked shocked.
“Oh, so you are there? I thought you two were just going to stare at me all day long,” Chris sneered. “I’ve got things to do if you don’t mind.”
“Like research Oxford University?” Leo asked looking at the computer screen. “Do you think the demons might be British?” he asked with no amusement. When he landed his eyes on the screen his heart stopped at the implication of what his son looking at a University across the world could mean.
“That’s none of your business,” Chris hissed angrily.
Leo didn’t back down though, “My son moving to another country is very much my business.”
“Wyatt isn’t coming with me if that’s what you are worried about.”
“We’re not talking about Wyatt,” Piper said sadly.
Chris stared at her for a whole minute before he hissed angrily “Who told you? They promised-“
“No one did, we found your letter,” Piper said sadly. “Chris- we didn’t know-“
“Save it Piper! I don’t want to hear your lies,” Chris said tightly. His voice hoarse and his jaw trembling slightly. It was taking all his willpower not to orb away and not have to hear his mother saying that now that she knew who he was she loved him. She believed him, because now he didn’t believe her.
The irony wasn’t lost on Piper. He called her a liar. She deserved that didn’t she, after all the times she called him a liar. This wasn’t going well.
“What? And you just let them go?”
“I wasn’t given a choice,” came the irritated voice on the phone.
“Great,” he huffed. “Come get me. I need a lift home.”
“Wyatt maybe we should let them talk alone.”
“No way I’m leaving them alone with my baby brother. Come now!”
Piper inhaled deeply, “I’m not lying. We’re here to apologize,” she said slowly and Chris snorted. He didn’t have time to answer though as orbs formed between him and his parents and Wyatt and Paige materialized, Paige crying defensively.
“He made me!”
“What are you two doing here?” Wyatt glared at his parents.
“Wyatt,” Leo said slowly. “This does not concern you.”
“The hell it doesn’t!” Wyatt growled crossing his arms. “I’m not letting you hurt him more!”
“I’m not a toddler!” Chris protested to his over protective brother, even though Wyatt and Paige’s stance was making him feel warm inside. But it wouldn’t do to let Wyatt know or he’d never let Chris out of his sight again.
“We’re not going to hurt him,” Piper said sadly and with a bite in her voice that said she was offended..
Wyatt’s only response was to raise a skeptic eyebrow.
“Wyatt, please, we want to talk to Chris,” Leo said politely but firmly. “Allow us to.”
“Well, I wanted you to treat him decently before but you didn’t give me what I wanted did you? So why should I?” Wyatt asked firmly.
“I’ve got nothing to talk to you,” Chris answered sidestepping his brother and facing his parents. “I know what you’re going to say and I don’t want to hear.” He finished firmly and orbed away.
“He hates us,” Piper sobbed.
“No, he doesn’t. If he did this would be a lot easier for him,” Wyatt said.
“You want him to hate us?” Leo asked.
Wyatt looked at him sadly and shook his head, “No, I don’t dad. But sometimes I think you’d deserve it. You really hurt him, and the excuse that you didn’t know who he was isn’t a good one. He might have used questionable methods to get you to help him but he never hurt you. And he saved little me many times didn’t he? Just before you found me out hadn’t he just saved me from the Order? You never gave him a chance. What if he wasn’t your son? Does that make the way you treated him right?”
“No,” Piper shook her head.
“Then start apologizing for that,” Paige said. “Don’t excuse your actions with your ignorance because that won’t make him believe your being genuine. Piper, trust me. I’ve been in his shoes. I love you, but you’re not an easy person to deal with, especially if you are an outsider entering the family. And you have a tendency to take out your frustration and anger on others, innocent others. Be honest, the only reason you didn’t treat me exactly like you treated Chris was because you knew I was family. And even so you were not going light with me.”
“Sorry,” Piper said wincing. She had often regretted how her relationship with Paige started.
“I’m not blaming you Piper. I’ve forgiven that a long time ago. But Chris might have a harder time forgiving that because, unlike me back then, he was used to being treated like family by you. And that is why he might have taken every blow harder than I did,” she finished walking towards Piper and hugging her desolated sister. Yes, she had been furious at Piper but she didn’t want to see her suffer. Unfortunately Piper and Leo had made it impossible for them and Chris not to suffer and all the rest of the family could do now was be there for all of them.
Chris looked at the city, his feet dangling over the highest beam of the Golden Gate Bridge. Anyone looking would think him crazy for sitting so relaxed at that height but the truth was he was anything but relaxed. His mind was racing a mile a second. He didn’t know what to do. All of this time here all he wanted to hear was for Piper and Leo to apologize and trust him, but not this way. He knew this would happen if they found out his identity. They’d feel obligated to like him and he didn’t want that. He wanted them to really like him.
He sighed and let his back fall on the beam and looked at the sky. What now? What should he do?