“One big happy family,” Chris said to Leo smiling.

Leo’s smile faded and he said coldly, “You’re not family Chris.”

Chris’s insides burned. He tried very hard to convince himself that this wasn’t his father. The one that would take him up to the Golden Gate Bridge, and because Wyatt was afraid of heights, turn it into their special place. The one who died in his arms.

“As a matter of fact Chris, the girls and I need to talk to you. Seriously. Follow me.”

Chris followed him downstairs dreading this meeting. He had been certain he had just averted a crisis. What now?

The girls were seated waiting for them and their postures screamed trouble. Piper started:

“We talked, the three of us, and we’ve decided-“

“When?” Chris asked.

“Right before this whole empathy mess started,” she snapped, “That is not the point here. The point is that we don’t believe you.”

“On what?” There were so many things that he said and his family didn’t believe him. Which was ironic since Chris avoided at the most telling lies, he preferred half-truths. When he had to lie, like when he told them Paige died, he was always left with a profound sense of guilt. He couldn’t help it. It was something his mother had instilled on him.

“That some evil is after Wyatt,” she said. “That we would have allowed someone to hurt him. We reached the conclusion you are the evil after Wyatt and are trying to gain our trust so he’ll drop his shield and you can get him. I want you out of here or I’ll just blow you up.”

There was a rushing in his ears, his mother had just threatened, no promised to blow him up, kill him, and all of that because of that stupid shield. He wanted to laugh. He was the one telling Wyatt to put his shield up so they would keep their guard up for any evil and now they were using that as proof of his evilness. He didn’t even have arguments against it.

He was tired from his investigations, from being alone for so long, from having to fight the people he loved every step of the way. That little phrase from his father had already been a harsh blow on his oversaturated spirit and this was just the last drop. His brain was telling him to deal with this rationally, to try and reason with them but the temper he inherited from his mother just made him blow up on her face.

“Fine!” he snapped. “Don’t help me! I’ll save Wyatt alone and fuck the balance. It’s not like you’ve been helping anyway! You won’t see me for almost a year and then you can just dump me in the first dumpster you find if you want!” and with that he orbed away n a flurry of blue and white lights.

“Er- that went well,” Paige said but Piper wasn’t dissuaded.

“We got what we wanted, he’s gone.”

“What if he was telling the truth,” Phoebe asked.

“He wasn’t,” Leo said firmly.

“He wasn’t or we don’t want to believe we failed and Wyatt got hurt in the process?” Phoebe asked.

“He is lying,” Piper hissed and stalked away angrily.

---

At P3 Chris was frantically searching his notes. He took away an enormous list, every demon that came in contact with a Halliwell from the moment Wyatt was born to the moment he left the future. He had a plan, he would go after the biggest threats and he would investigate with the Charmed Ones help to find out which of the demons had been after Wyatt. He knew he couldn’t just vanquish them all, there was balance to be kept, but right now he was desperate and not thinking straight.

They wouldn’t help him, and he didn’t know if he was going to be conceived. Piper and Leo didn’t seem any closer to getting back together than they were the day they separated. What if he just ceased to exist? He had been counting on the fact that if that happened the Charmed Ones and Leo would keep going and save Wyatt, but now that hope was lost.

He looked at the list and made a decision, Wyatt was more important. He had two months to vanquish nineteen years worth of demons. He orbed away.