“Paige! Phoebe!” Piper yelled from the attic and Chris winced.

“You do realize that with Paige’s whitelighter blood you can just call her in your mind, there’s no need for yelling.” He rubbed his ears.

“How do I do that?” she asked curiously.

“You just concentrate on Paige and on what you want to tell her. You picture her in your mind. That’s actually what you’re doing when you’re yelling for Leo or me for instance. I guess yelling helps you,” he said nonchalantly as he continued studying the book of Shadows.

“That can come in handy,” Piper nodded thoughtfully.

“Yeah,” Chris smirked and Piper had a feeling he was recalling something.

“Did you and Wyatt talk like that?” she asked cautiously and prepared herself for the customary “Future consequences response” but was surprised when he nodded.

“That came naturally to us. With Aunt Prue, Aunt Paige and our cousins we had to actively be opening a link, wanting to tell them something. But with Wy, he’d just know what I was feeling or thinking and vice versa. We used the link a lot for mischief. As we grew up there were thoughts and feeling I definitely didn’t want him to know so we kind of learned to block the other. Maybe if we hadn’t, maybe if we’d made a point of leaving the link always open I’d have noticed-“ he shook his head. “He left the link closed more and more often and I just thought he was angry at me, because I couldn’t save you. I was so stupid, so selfish-“

“Chris,” she stopped his frantic turning of pages with a hand on his, “You couldn’t have known. You were grieving too and he was a teenager. Teenagers are known to be moody, and you were just a boy.”

Chris didn’t really meet her eyes but he didn’t move his hand and that gave Piper hope. Her hope was short lived though as he withdrew his hands when they heard voices approaching.

“What’s up?” Paige asked as she entered followed by Phoebe, Prue and Leo.

“Right,” Piper tried to compose herself. “We need to make a spell to change the color of Chris’s orbs and we need to figure out what those demons wanted.” She said matter of factly.

“Why change the color of Chris’s orbs?” Leo asked.

“Because I am going undercover to see if I can find out who ordered the attack on you,” Chris answered with his chin held high and his eyes held Leo’s in a defying way as if asking him to object and sure enough he did.

“That’s dangerous,” Leo cried “If you’re caught-“

“I’ve been in many dangerous situations before Leo and you haven’t cared. I recall you attacking me with a sword and not caring what would happen.”

“That’s,” Leo looked flushed and Piper could read guilt in his eyes, “I didn’t know who you where and I didn’t know what you wanted.”

“I never lied on that aspect. I came to save Wyatt and I always told you that.”

Piper could hear the hurt in his voice and she wanted to defend herself but he was right. He always said he was here to save Wyatt and maybe they should have trusted him more even if he was secretive.

“Chris!” Prue scolded. “You know Leo being suspicious was part of the plan.”

“There’s suspicious and suspicious,” Chris muttered but said nothing more so Piper decided to intervene before tempers got heated.

“Look, that’s not the issue here. Chris had a good point. The Darklighters are our best bet in finding out who is after Wyatt and he knows his way in the underworld. Besides, he promised to orb out at the first, the FIRST sign of trouble,” she fixed Chris with a hard and pointed stare, “and we have an Elder and a whitelighter at our disposal if anything goes wrong. You two,” Piper told Leo and Prue,  “will stay here with Wyatt and ready if you’re called. The three of us,” she finished pointing at Phoebe and Paige,” are going to find out about those demons that attacked yesterday.”

“Piper, you’re pregnant and the baby doesn’t have a shield. What if you fall or get hurt?” Paige asked.

“All covered,” Chris said finishing copying what he was studying in the book. “This is a potion to protect Piper from most harm. Can’t be against everything but this should at least prevent her from losing the child because of bumps.”

Phoebe came to read the potion’s recipe and asked, “Isn’t that personal gain?”

“No, because this is a potion to protect an innocent,” Chris said. “This is not to protect Piper but the baby. This won’t make a shield,” he said firmly to his mother. “This will protect only the womb so don’t get cocky.

“Yes sir,” she mock saluted and he groaned.

---

“So, let’s ask you again, why did your clan think they could attack us?” Phoebe asked one more time the bloodied demon. They had found the clan and vanquished most of them. There was just this one left and they still had no answer.

His arm blew up with a very good chunk of rock peppering them with dust. “Oops,” Piper said, “I meant to blow the wall beside him,” she shrugged as the demon howled in pain. Paige glared at her.

“So?”

“He paid us too. He wanted to know how protected the baby was?” he cried.

“Who?” Piper asked icily and brought her hands up.

“I don’t know, he never showed his face,” she lifted her hands, “HE ORBED! He orbed! Didn’t shimmer!”

“An Elder then,” Phoebe nodded grimly. “Do we let him go?” she asked the other two and Piper just blew the demon up.

“Can’t let him let the Elder know,” Piper said stonily and she understood Chris better now. Sometimes you just had to do what you had to do, no matter if you don’t like to.

---

“Any luck?” Prue asked as her nephew orbed back. She had been startled at first at the black orbs but as soon as she saw him she relaxed.

He scowled and shook his head. He dropped on the couch next to her. “Would be too much luck to find out on your first outing. At least the girls got somewhere.”

“What?” he asked curiously.

“They were hired by an Elder to test our protection on Wyatt.”

“Elder then,” he nodded grimly. “Thought so. The cleaners wouldn’t insist after they failed once.”

Prue grimaced with him. He took her hand and asked, “You okay Aunt Prue?”

She shrugged, and nodded and they both leaned on each other touching their heads. His Aunt Prue was always the calm that kept them going. At times she acted as the baby of the sisters, and in a way she was. Her sisters all got married, became mothers, grew up. And as wise as whitelighters might be she never did get to experience growing past 30. She was more like a friend than an Aunt and Chris liked that

“She’s fine you know. She knows how to get out of there. She’s back at HQ with dad,” he finished huskily.

“I hope so.”

---

Leo walked into the room and saw who he was looking for. He grimaced bitterly but quickly changed his expression into a warm smile.

“Gideon,” he called. “May we talk?”

“Leo,” Gideon looked surprised. “Still around I see,” he finished disapprovingly.

“And I will stay as long as my family needs,” he said firmly trying to gauge Gideon’s reaction. Was he the traitor? Was he one of the supposedly most pure beings around who would try to kill an innocent child? But Gideon was his mentor and even Chris trusted Gideon. And Chris didn’t trust many or easily. Only Piper didn’t like him but Piper had a dislike of Elders in general. Leo didn’t want to believe that but he didn’t want to fool himself. Not after what the girls said. That one of his own would try to kill his boys.

“Do you have any leads as to who will get to Wyatt?” Gideon asked interested and Leo couldn’t decide if that was concern for Wyatt or for himself.

“Yes,” he answered and tried to make a relieved face. “Chris thinks that a Clan of demons may be behind this. He said that in the future they were Wyatt’s primary source for his army’s and high on the hierarchy list. We think they might have wanted to make their own source and be the power behind the power.”

“Good,” Gideon said and Leo heard the relief in his voice but again couldn’t point out why he was relieved, for preventing Wyatt from turning or from escaping being caught.

“We were joined by someone else from the future lately,” Leo said, they couldn’t keep Prue a secret so they had  decided to let them know and of Piper’s pregnancy, since that would be obvious soon.

“Oh, really,” Gideon asked with a curious tone to his voice.

“Yes,” Leo smiled. “She came to let us know that so far nothing has changed. Apparently she was to come all along but for strategic reasons she had to wait for Piper to be pregnant so Chris’s identity wouldn’t be known before.”

“Piper is pregnant?” and Leo could swear there was shock in his voice.

“Yes,” Leo said firmly. “With Chris.”

“Chris is-“

“My son, yes. Wyatt’s brother.”

Leo could swear Gideon was shocked but to be honest these were shocking news.

“Yes, that does make more sense than a stranger coming to alert you,” Gideon said walking a little away but Leo had no intention of not being able to see his face so he just walked too. “And the visitor?”

“His whitelighter,” Leo said. “An old acquaintance.”

Gideon’s mouth was open like a fish but he quickly regained his composure, “He has a whitelighter then?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Well, the concern is understandable, after all his brother is evil-“

“He was turned,” Leo said firmly.

“There might be a chance-“

“We have that covered. Don’t worry Gideon,” and here was the clincher, where he wanted to see Gideon’s reaction. “If no one turned Wyatt by the deadline Chris told us, we will strip his powers so he can’t do what he did.”

Gideon was shocked to say the least but he was very good at masking his emotions if he was the one after Wyatt. Leo had expected to see at least a little triumph but that could also be because now he was thinking that even if Wyatt was powerless they still had Chris to deal with.

“That’s a wise choice,” Gideon said firmly. “I’m glad to hear that you can at least think of the greater good.” Leo wanted to snort, that was their last resort and hopefully that would not happen. “You never told me who the old acquaintance was.

“Prue Halliwell.”