Chapter 1

Piper sighed sadly as she laid Wuvey down gently in the crib she and Paige had finally gotten around to setting up. She couldn't restrain the tears that started to build up in her eyes. Wyatt would have just turned 2 last month had they been able to rescue him. She smoothed her fingers over the soft blue blanket that she'd tucked into the mattress just minutes before.

She felt horrible that she was so sad throughout the last half of this pregnancy. She hadn't been really, truly happy since the morning of the incident.

She had woken up to the feeling of the butterfly fluttering of Chris, Leo's arms around her and Wyatt curled into her side sucking his thumb. She still could vividly picture his sweet face with its no longer strictly baby features, slowly changing to those of a precocious toddler. His light blonde curls with their golden highlights sparkling in the sun that shone through the window. Curls just like his dads. Beautiful ice blue eyes framed with long lashes as he gazed up at her smiling groggily, those eyes that made her think of her big sister every time she saw them. His sweet baby laugh as Leo started tickling him.

She remembered lying in bed watching as Leo untangled his arms from around her body and reached over her pulling Wyatt to him and putting him on his shoulders as he winked at her. "Hey Wyatt, let's go make mommy breakfast in bed" his own bright blue eyes sparkling conspiratorially.

"Ya!" Wyatt exclaimed enthusiastically bouncing up and down on Leo's broad shoulders. She compared how alike her two boys looked and wasn't at all disappointed when she noted that Wyatt definitely resembled Leo more than he did her.

She watched them leave the room calling out teasingly as they went "Please don't ruin my kitchen boys!" Piper laid back on her pillows and felt completely at ease until she heard the loud clatter in the kitchen. At first she thought nothing of it believing that Leo had dropped a pan or tried to grab one without moving the ones that she had placed on top. It wasn't until she heard the second loud series of bangs that she panicked.

She raced down the stairs as fast as she could to find Leo unconscious on the kitchen floor and Wyatt nowhere to be found.

"Paige!" She screamed her voice raising an octave as she began to hyperventilate. She only managed to move to Leo's side a few steps away before the white and blue orbs signaling her baby half-sister's arrival appeared. Paige's face was troubled having obviously picked on Piper's own panic. She had only been upstairs but sometimes her supernatural mode of transport was just that much faster and in her family a few seconds could mean the difference between a vanquish or not, living or dying, losing a family member or getting there in time to save them.

Both sisters heard Phoebe's rushed footsteps on the stairs as she raced to join them also picking up on the urgency in her older sister's voice. "What's going on?" She asked as she rounded into the kitchen gasping unconsciously when she saw Paige kneeling over Leo her hands glowing brightly.

Phoebe grabbed Piper around the shoulders and made Piper face her. "Where is Wyatt?" Piper gazed around frantically until Phoebe gave her a gentle yet forceful shake "Pipe, do you know where Wyatt is?"

"No! Leo brought him down to make me breakfast!" Piper practically shrieked. "Paige is Leo going to be ok? We have to find Wyatt." Her panic making her jump back and forth, unable to focus specifically on one of the men she loved.

"He will be fine" Paige assured her though her own voice was laced with fear, worried as to where her small nephew was, as to who could have possibly stolen the innocent toddler. "Phoebe go get the book and scrying crystals. We will need them." Paige was trying to stay calm for all of them and Piper knew that it was killing all of them not knowing what had happened, what was happening. Phoebe raced out of the room her bathrobe billowing behind her.

As Phoebe flew up the stairs Leo finally regained consciousness, groaning loudly as he struggled to sit up. He took one glance at his wife's face and knew that something was terribly wrong, far worse than he could ever have imagined "Wyatt?" he questioned as he finally stood.

"What happened Leo?" Paige asked softly trying not to sound antagonizing.

"We came down to make Piper breakfast. I put Wyatt in the booster seat and pulled the chair close to the counter. I turned around to get the frying pan and then everything goes black." Leo shook his head trying to see if clearing the last few cobwebs littering his memory would bring any small thing back, even the most seemingly insignificant detail could mean everything.

Phoebe had grabbed the crystals and map as well at the Book of Shadows, the Halliwell's tome of all things mystical and magical and then raced back to her waiting family. It was as soon as she placed everything on the still-standing kitchen table that Piper turned into mother bear. She had gone from panicked and silently freaking out to panicked and angry in seconds flat. She grabbed the crystal and tore open the map and concentrated on her son. She concentrated on the image of him from only a short time before- the way he looked, the way he smelled, the sweet sound of his voice, the light tinkle of laughter.

She concentrated with everything she had and still the crystal gave her no hint to where her son was. It stayed limp in her hand, refusing to move even a little bit. Piper racked her brain trying to figure out where Wyatt could be. Something nagged at her insides yet she couldn't put her finger on what. She felt Paige's dainty hand on her shoulder and Piper grew even angrier. She threw the crystal as hard as she could across the kitchen and shouted "Damnit, it has to work, we have to find him."

"We will Piper," Leo promised as he took his wife in his arms "We will find him and everything will be ok I promise."

All of a sudden it hit Piper like a brick someone had thrown directly at her. The realization made her knees grow weak and she was very glad Leo was holding onto her "He didn't scream" she remembered. "Not a single noise aside from that of the pans falling. He knew whoever took him." She took off like a bat out of hell as soon as she realized this and her sisters and husband were hot on her heels. She ripped open the magic school door that had become a semi-permanent fixture on the landing between the first and second floors of their family home. Gideon had shown an intense and slightly unnerving interest in Wyatt and his powers. Piper had a bad feeling as she ran as fast as her pregnant belly would allow her. She was only 5 months along but already the new baby was hindering her ability to perform her magical duties.

"Piper who do you think has him?" Leo asked a quality of begging edging into his own panicked voice.

"Gideon" Piper stated simply as she continued her hurried pace towards the school's library.

"Piper there is no way Gideon would have taken him like that." Leo argued. Piper knew he would try to stick up for his old mentor but the nauseous feeling she got around him just wouldn't leave her mind. She didn't trust the man and it didn't matter what she had to do she was going to find out if he had her son.

"Leo are you sure?" Paige asked. She knew Piper's feelings about the man and her own feelings mirrored her sisters. As they reached the entrance to Gideon's office through the school library she felt her heart rate skyrocket.

They slammed the door open without bothering to knock and hurried in. Piper didn't wait for an answer or any comments from her family and instead started tearing the room apart. Paige quickly followed suit, Phoebe only a minute or so behind her. Leo lagged behind unwilling to believe his former mentor had anything to do with his son's disappearance.

The sisters took apart most of the room in very little time and found nothing until Phoebe accidently touched the edge of a gilded mirror. Her sisters and Leo watched as she was sucked into a vision by a familiar feeling. She saw Wyatt lying on a stone floor with Gideon standing over him looking very pleased with himself and she heard Gideon's voice call out "I did it master- I killed the child, our kind, all evil, shall live on." As suddenly as the vision began it was over and Phoebe's legs just about gave out underneath her. She tried desperately to suck air in, to overcome the shock and devastation this vision pointed to.

"Piper was right but Wyatt isn't here. Gideon has him in a cave in the underworld somewhere. I have no idea where though" Phoebe tried to explain quickly. She saw the fury in Piper's eyes and the shock in Leo's.

"We have to get to the underworld then, I can't try to sense where he is up here" Leo said his voice audibly shaking. He reached and grabbed Piper while Phoebe took Paige's hand and both pairs orbed out of the brightly lit school emerging in a dark dank tunnel obviously in evil's domain. Instantly a look of concentration emerged on Leo's face and he grimaced just as quickly. "I can't sense him"

"No he is not dead" Piper stated adamantly "Try harder Leo."

"Piper I am trying as hard as I can" Leo groaned as he tried again to sense his son.

"I have an idea" Paige piped up and surprised everyone. "I have been trying to see if I could reverse my powers, you know orb myself to an object instead of orbing the object to me. It works half the time but it's worth a shot."

"You're right Paige it is worth a shot" Piper nodded grabbing her sister's hand. Phoebe grabbed Paige's other hand as Leo linked his hand with Piper's. Paige concentrated just as her sister and brother in law had and finally they made progress. They were orbed to the dark edge of another tunnel, this one right on the edge of a cave. Piper walked out of the tunnel and threw her hands in the air making Gideon freeze as well as a set of guards standing near him. She blew up the guards with another flick of her wrists and raced towards the prone form of her baby. Leo and her sister's were only steps behind her.

Before Piper could get to Wyatt, Leo's long stride over took her own steps and he had his hands out over their little boy the yellow-gold glow engulfing them. Nothing happened. It wasn't until Leo looked at her a devastated look on her face that she realized she had been holding her breath. It wasn't until her sister's grabbed her that she realized the anguished cries were her own. Her son, her golden boy was gone. And that was when she snapped.

She stopped crying and turned on the frozen elder. Paige and Phoebe watched terrified and distraught as their elder sister thrust her hands out and unfroze Gideon following with a succession of small explosions against him. Each explosion built up in intensity as Gideon began to scream.

"Piper, Leo listen he would have destroyed the world it was our duty to eliminate the danger, the evil!" Gideon begged as he landed on his knees.

"He wasn't evil! He was an innocent little boy, MY BABY!" Piper roared with fury as she moved closer to the monster that killed her son. "You killed my baby, how dare you try to justify that."

Gideon tried to crawl away but Piper never let up and with a final series of explosions the man who destroyed her life went up in flames. It was only then that Piper felt how weak her knees were, how heavy her heart was. It was only then that she let the deep sadness engulf her as she collapsed on the ground and sobbed.