“So apparently he’s not mine,” Paige said as she, Prue and Phoebe were cleaning up the attic. With all the fuss about the new comers the mess of the previous day had never been cleared.

Their copping mechanism had been to hope older Paige had managed to escape and after Prue had gone and locked herself in her old room for hours, Chris had orbed out for the same hours, Piper had vigorously scrubbed the kitchen, Phoebe written a heart wrenching column and Paige brewed a potion after the other, they had all decided to go on with life as normal.

“In a way he is,” Phoebe said.

“Who is what?” Prue asked.

Phoebe looked at her and Prue sighed, “This is easy you know? You two just start talking to me again and we pretend you never ignored me.”

“I don’t know you,” Paige said defensively.

“No,” Prue smiled, “but you’ll get to. And I kind of know you but at the same time don’t. After all we’re trying to change that all.”

Paige shrugged, “Why not?”

“Phoebe?”

Phoebe looked sad and about to cry, “I missed you and you weren’t there and Piper had to start bossing around.”

“She always bossed around,” Prue said dryly.

“Yeah, but now I actually had to listen! And I missed you.”

Prue dropped the piece of furniture she was lifting and walked to her sister and hugged her, “I missed you too you know? These last four years. Seeing you alive again wasn’t easy. I know what you’re feeling but do you know what I learned these four years?”

Phoebe shook her head, “Never take the time you have with the people you love for granted because you never know what will happen. We saw death every day, friends and family. People that became family, brothers in arms. I don’t even know how Paige and Leo are now because a day away is all that takes to everything be different were I come from. But I will give you your time if you need.”

Phoebe shook her head and hugged Prue tighter.

After a while they separated and Prue asked, “So who isn’t Paige’s?”

“Chris?” Paige answered and at Prue’s chuckle she cried defensively, “We were speculating!”

“Well, Phoebe is right in a way he is.”

“Because of the whole second mum?” Phoebe asked.

“That too, you Paige, took him under your wing after his mom died. His dad, well,” and Prue looked like she wasn’t very happy with Chris’ dad, “His dad often forgot he had more than one son and Chris was left by himself.”

“So he’s a jerk,” Paige said.

“No,” Prue said cautiously, “He just- he needs to straighten out his priorities. He had time for the whole world and for his firstborn but he never made time for Chris, and when he realized what he missed there was no going back. Too much history, too much disappointment. Especially regarding his mom’s death.”

“What do you mean?” Phoebe asked.

“She died in Chris’s arms while he made himself hoarse calling for his father who had a habit of not answering Chris,” Prue answered.

“Why didn’t he call for you or Wyatt?” Leo asked from the door.

“I was being punished for not adhering to Whitelighter rule crap. I had been Up There and not aloud contact for a month. Wyatt was Up There in the same meeting Chris’s dad was and well he wasn’t aloud to answer by Chris’s dad,” Prue huffed clearly angry. “His father on the other hand just couldn’t be bothered. He finally decided to show after Chris didn’t stop after hours and before he even finished orbing in he was already lecturing him. Took him a while to realize his fourteen-year-old son was crying and holding his ex-wife’s dead body. There was evidence everywhere that Chris had tried desperately to save her. No one knows how long he stayed there with her dead.”

“How could he?” Leo asked disgusted. “How could he ignore his son’s calling?”

“I don’t know. I hope he doesn’t this time,” she said straight to Leo and Paige had the feeling that she meant a lot more then just story telling by that remark.

---

“I think Gideon might be our best source of information. After all he is down here and probably the most approachable Elder,” Chris said as he studied the lists with Piper.

“I don’t know,” she said. “He is always on Leo’s case about going back Up There.”

“But he was one of the ones that supported you marriage. I don’t think someone that supported your marriage can be against any kids you have.”

“Yeah, still. I get a funny feeling from him,” Piper said and Chris shrugged.

“Did you know him in the future?” she asked.

 “Yeah, I went to magic school too. My mom wanted me to have a normal life so I went to regular school, but I was also magic so I went there part time, after school,” Chris explained and Piper could sympathize with his mother. She was in the same dilemma after all.

“He was always good to me. Took an interest. He was always preaching about the importance of my destiny, that was annoying but he was a sight better then most of the teachers who fawned over Wyatt and had not time for the others.”

“You sound jealous,” Piper remarked.

“Annoyed mostly,” he shrugged. “I don’t want what Wyatt had; I just wanted the minimum I had the right to, you know? I know he wasn’t at fault but I was annoyed by the people who kind of got dumb-fied because of a title. “Twice-Blessed”” he sneered. “I blame them too for what he became you know? They let him think he was better than everyone else, above everyone. They aren’t innocent in this.”

“Me too I guess then,” she asked quietly. She always worried about that. About all the talk about Wyatt’s power and how that could go to his head.

He looked sadly at her, “No, you where one of the few people that treated him normally, praised him when he deserved and called him on his faults. You treated both your both your boys equally. The rest of the world didn’t and when Wyatt didn’t get a Whitelighter and his brother did, they assumed that was because he was weaker, and let everyone, Wyatt include think that. And because of that Wyatt thought he could control him.”

“But he couldn’t?” she asked.

“No,” Chris shook his head. “He managed to build the resistance right under Wyatt’s watchful eyes.”

Piper couldn’t help the proud feeling she got. Everything she heard of Wyatt made her shudder and be ashamed but at least her second boy had come out right. At least he had fought for what was right.

“What do you propose we question Gideon about?”

“I don’t think we can question him out right he might comment to the wrong person. But maybe feel him out. Leo is too new at being an Elder. He is kind of a Junior and therefore not privy to all the information. There may have been discussion about the threat Wyatt might pose and we need to know who argued against Wyatt.”

Piper nodded. That did make sense. But she still wasn’t a hundred percent sure about Gideon. But as Chris said they weren’t going to be outright with him, maybe he was a good bet. Besides he was the one they were going to feed the false intel to anyway, since he was the closer link.

“The Darklighter is a good lead too. Whoever hired him had to have left some trace. Maybe I could go undercover and try to get some information.”

“Undercover? How?” she didn’t like the sound of that. Somehow in the last few months since accepting that Chris had Wyatt’s best interest at heart and after seeing him with her sisters she had started getting attached to him. And whereas before she never questioned the danger he put himself in, now she wasn’t all that comfortable with the idea.

“You know, black clothes, bow, a little spell to change the color of my orbs.”

“Must I remind you that their arrows have poisons?”

“Must I remind you they are our best lead?” he asked her raising an eyebrow.

She sighed, he was right, “Fine, but at the first sign of trouble orb out!”

“Yes mam!”

He muttered bossy and she was about to slap his head when she heard a crash from the living room where Wyatt was. They both got up and ran towards the living room. Wyatt’s shield was up and a demon had been thrown back. Chris swiped his hand in the air and had a second demon, that was going straight at Piper, fly away. Orbs formed and Prue, Phoebe, Leo and Paige joined the fight. They weren’t that much of a threat. A few blows here and there and they had the little group under control. Chris took care of the last one by blowing him up but not before being grazed by a fireball that lit up his shirt.

“Shirt!” Paige yelled and Chris shirt was orbed out of him and into a vase full of water. Prue ran to heal Chris and that is when Piper had a clear view of Chris’s naked torso. His back and front were littered with scars and Piper just knew, in that horrifying moment, how he got them. Everything suddenly clicked together. All the scattered pieces made sense.

“He pried his brother out of bed and tortured him for weeks”.

His familiar way in the kitchen. Her way.

“Like mother like son” Prue muttered.

“He cooks better than Piper.”

“I’m not the one you have to apologize too.”

“I don’t think he would welcome my apology.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. He is very much his mother’s son.”

Why Prue could talk to him through the link, she’s family

“His brother will protect him!”

“But Chris, Chris still thinks there was no way Bianca would have been able to get him out if Wyatt hadn’t wanted her to. That that proves there is still good in him.”

He still thinks that after being tortured, Piper thought and said her next thought out loud.

“You are my son.”

The whole room froze.