Alive
*
They were in the living room. Phoebe was sitting on the couch when Chris walked in, a happy smile on his face and a small vial that held a red-coloured potion in one hand. She looked up from the laptop that was positioned on her lap, saw the vial in his hand and said, "No."
Chris' smile faded away and he sat on one of the chairs' arms. A little dejectedly, he asked, "Why?"
"Because," Phoebe simply answered, typing away at the keyboard while she said this.
"Because why?" Chris persisted. "Why can't you guys take one little moment out of your lives just to vanquish a demon?"
"Because," Phoebe repeated, but this time she looked up from the laptop screen and looked him straight in the eyes. "I don't want to be bothered by going after demons while I'm trying to work on an article." She saved her work and got up from the couch, Chris following her. "Personally, I think this whole demon-killing rampage that you've got going on here is a little much," she told him, going up the stairs to the second floor. He followed her still. "Piper's done this before and it nearly got us killed. The last thing we need is you going on a demon-killing rampage too."
"Hey," Chris responded, offended. "I'm doing all this so that you guys won't have to be bothered to vanquish these demons later. This is to get you guys more free time. You shouldn't be complaining."
"Since when have you ever thought of our needs?" Phoebe asked him, turning around on the stairway and placing a hand on her hip.
"Since I became your Whitelighter," Chris answered.
"Well, I hate to break this to you, Chris," Phoebe said, turning back around and heading back up the stairs, "but Leo let us handle demon killing by ourselves. He didn't bombard us with all these demons to kill now rather than later. He respected our space, and that is exactly what you should do too."
They had arrived at the top of the stairs and Chris followed her all the way to her bedroom but stopped short as she closed the door in his face. He sighed and said to the closed door, "Fine! I'll go see if Paige will help me."
No answer. He folded his arms and shook his head. In the past few weeks, he had found that it was hard to get any of the sisters to do anything remotely demonic related unless it had something to do with Piper being too cheerful after losing Leo or when Wyatt had made a TV dinosaur come to life. All three sisters concentrated on their personal lives and ignored his requests to go after demons that were going to go after Wyatt someday.
Chris started for the attic stairs, knowing that Paige was up there taking care of the cat the Temp Agency had asked her to look after while its owner's were away. At the top of the stairs, he tucked the vial into his pocket, effectively hiding it, and found that the door was open and looked through it to find Paige sitting on one of the couches patting a fluffy black cat while reading something in the Book of Shadows. When Chris came into the room, the cat, Fluffles, looked up at him, her nose twitching.
"Sorry, Chris," Paige immediately said before Chris had a chance to ask her anything. Her eyes didn't leave the Book. "I really can't."
"Aw, come one, Paige," Chris pleaded, walking over to stand in front of her. "You can help me vanquish one little demon, can't you?"
"No can do," Paige told him. She still didn't look up at him and was staring quite intently at a page that had vivid drawings of a monster with a lengthy description on the next page. She waved her hand at him as if swatting a fly. "Now, go away. I'm trying to concentrate."
She went back to reading and left Chris standing there. He didn't move, but watched in mild bemusement as Fluffles jumped down from her spot on Paige's legs, which were stretched out on the couch, and went to rub her body against the bottom of Chris' legs, purring. Chris looked down at her consideringly before bending down to tickle the cat's ears.
At this, Paige looked up from the Book and watched Chris pat Fluffles. She raised her eyebrows and spoke, "You know, that's the first time I've seen one of the pets I babysit actually like you. Remember Oscar, he used to growl at you like you were the Source of All Evil or something."
Chris didn't say anything to that and didn't look at Paige. He kept patting Fluffles and tried to keep the temper that he had at bay. He could feel his skin heating up in anger as he felt Paige move her eyes back to the Book. He wouldn't let her see how much it angered him when they treated him like a useless toy. Sighing, he picked up the cat and walked out of the attic, going to look for Piper. He went down to the kitchen first, knowing that Piper had wanted to cook dinner in the morning so that the heat of the kitchen didn't bother her in the afternoon.
Walking into the kitchen, he found all the windows were open to let the now-accumulating heat out and the drapes were blowing in the soft breeze flowing out of the kitchen. He found Wyatt lying in his bassinette, sleeping peacefully. However, Chris didn't find Piper, even though there were pots on the stove that were cooking. One pot was bubbling over and Chris put down the cat quickly before walking over to turn the lid so that some air could get in. As he was doing this, he noticed Fluffles going towards the door to the basement which was open.
He waited, leaning against the counter with his arms folded, and half a minute later, Piper came up the stairs, shooing Fluffles away from the door before closing it. She then noticed Chris, who was looking at her expectantly, before syaing, "No, and that's final."
Chris made a frustrated noise before starting, "Piper-" but she held up her hand to keep him from talking further.
"I already said no," Piper told him, putting the new bottle of cayene pepper she had brought up into the spices cupboard, careful to put it into the place Paige had assigned it to awhile ago. She shut the cupboard and turned to Chris, who was staring at the counter, supposedly engrossed in its contours. "Besides, it's too dangerous to go after demons this way. You are only going to piss them off even more and they will come to us in droves to kill us next time."
"But-" Chris began again, looking up at Piper.
"No 'but's," Piper said, taking on a tone that suggested she was talking to a little boy who has been bad. "I want you to stop going after demons night after night and I want you to stop it now."
Chris looked down and saw that Fluffles had taken to wrapping herself around his legs again, purring. She looked up at him expectantly and he picked her up again, wondering to himself what the cat liked about him while the girls always found him a nuisance.
"You know, maybe you should get a job," Piper said suddenly. He looked up to see her standing by the stove top, watching him pat the cat with amusement in her eyes.
"Excuse me?" he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Piper shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, it would be something you could do. You have way too much time on your hands. You need something to do besides be our Whitelighter."
"I don't think I'd be able to have other charges," Chris said a little frostily, taking her suggestion the wrong way. "I don't heal, remember?"
Piper waved it away. "I don't exactly mean that," she told him. "I mean something like what Paige is doing. Maybe you could sign up at the Temp Agency and walk dogs like Paige used to."
"Okay, now you're just mocking me," Chris observed.
"No," Piper said. "I'm not mocking you. Well, maybe just a little. But if you don't want to sign up at the Temp Agency, then you could do more things around the house then. You could repair the roof shingles, do the laundry, help with the cooking and cleaning, maybe mow the lawn so that we won't have to get that annoying kid from down the block to do it."
"Okay, stop," Chris said to her. She smirked and continued, bringing the subject to his lack of dating.
"Maybe you could find someone you like at work and take her out every Saturday. Maybe buy her flowers and bring her to an expensive restaurant. Or how about that girl at the supermarket who was eyeing you the other day? She seemed nice."
"Stop," Chris repeated, blushing a little at the thought of that girl in the supermarket. He remembered who he was talking to and forgot about it quickly, trying to hide his blush from Piper.
"You know, the woman next door seemed interested," Piper remarked. "Of course, she has a kid of her own who is five years old and seeing as how you don't exactly like kids, I don't think that will work out too well."
"Please stop," Chris persisted, fed up.
Piper grinned and said, "The point is that you have a lot of free time in this house every single day and it will drive us crazy, it may even drive you crazy. So why don't you use that time wisely, feed Fluffles and mow the lawn today? Huh? How 'bout it?"
She went back to cooking dinner as he let Fluffles down and went to feed her. Once he had put the kitty food box back, he sighed and went out to the shed and took out the push lawn mower, checking to see if there was any gas in it and refilling it when he found that it had been almost used up. He suddenly found a twelve year old boy with blonde hair and glasses standing next to him, looking troubled.
"What?" Chris asked moodily.
"That's my job," the boy said, pointing at the lawn mower.
"Not anymore," Chris said icily. "Now, go kid. I don't want to accidentally cut your legs off."
The boy ran off, but instead of going down the street to his house, he entered the Manor by way of the back door. Chris frowned at this, but started up the mower anyways and began to mow the lawn. After a couple false starts, he was labouring away at the lawn and found his mind wandering to the idea Piper had mentioned.
He had to admit, it did have its perks. He would no longer have to feel restless and bored when he had nothing to do. Plus, he would be able to buy his own clothes and belongings without having to rely on Piper for money. He could even save up to buy a car or rent an apartment of his own. He kept thinking about the idea while he mowed the front and back lawns and about half an hour later, he had come to a decision.
Four weeks later...
Chris was running down Prescott Street after a bunch of mangy dogs who had gotten loose from him while he had been talking to Piper in front of the Manor. He was now running as fast as he could to stop the dogs without using magic since that blonde boy was there on the other side of the street laughing at him. It was all Chris could do to keep from tk-ing that boy back on his--
"Chris!" someone yelled behind him. He stopped and turned around, seeing Paige run up to him, concerned with just a hint of amusement in her eyes. Behind her, he could see Piper standing on the front lawn of the Manor, laughing. "You take this side of the block and orb when you get past those bushes over there. They'll hide you from that really annoying kid. I'll take the other side of the block."
Chris nodded and they split up. Once he was covered by the bushes, he orbed out and appeared in front of half of the dogs, a couple blocks away. They all skidded to a halt in front of him and he smiled, panting from the run. He gathered all of the leashes up and began to usher them back to the Manor. Only after getting back to the bushes he had orbed out of, he realized that Paige had actually dropped everything just to help him. And he also found that both she and Piper had already gone back into the Manor. The blonde kid was also not in sight.
Sighing, he went up the stone steps to the Manor and let the dogs inside, taking their chains off and letting them loose. Most of them scuttled away before being greeted by the dogs Paige had went after, but he found that no one else came to greet him.
After standing by the door for a couple of seconds, he sighed and went into the living room, a little deflated. The hope that Paige had stopped finding him a nuisance dwindled down a little as he collapsed onto the couch and watched as all the dogs gathered in the living room around him, laying at his feet. He felt the sweat start to pour out more heavily now that he had finished running and closed his eyes to listen to the dogs roll around on the carpet together.
After a while, he felt a finger tap his shoulder and he opened his eyes wearily to see Piper sitting on the arm of the couch beside him, a glass of water in her hand. She smiled down at him and held the glass out to him. "Thirsty?" she asked.
"Very," he answered, taking the glass and downing its contents in a couple of seconds. "Thanks," he said when he was finsihed.
She just nodded and commented, "I didn't know Whitelighters could sweat."
He looked away and watched as Fluffles fearlessly made her way around all the dogs in the living room towards him. Once he was at his feet, he picked her up and set her on his lap where she sat down and started to claw at his legs. He winced when every once in a while, her claws went through the fabric of his jeans and scratched a leg.
Piper began to walk out of the living room, heading for the kitchen, when he called out to her. "There's a reason why I can't heal people," he told her. "Or have other charges."
She stopped and looked back at him, before nodding. "It's because you're alive," she finished for him, a little matter-of-factly. She gave him a small smile before continuing on to the kitchen, leaving him staring at Fluffles and wondering how she knew.
When Fluffles simply looked back at him, he picked her up and put her on the ground before standing up and gathering all the dogs again to bring them back to their owners, leaving the few whose owners didn't get home until nightfall. Fluffles sat by the door adjoining the living room to the foyer and watched Chris put most of the leashes back on the dogs, shooing away the couple of dogs who came up to go too when they were supposed to go home at seven o'clock. Afterwards, he smiled at Fluffles before opening the door and going outside, holding onto all of the leashes tightly. He then began to wander around the closest neighbourhoods, bringing back each dog to its owners.
He arrived home before supper that night and helped Piper set the table. He was determined to make the Charmed Ones trust him and he basically would do anything to get their trust. He now helped Piper clean the house more and cooked meals with her every second day. He and Paige cooperated together when they were at the Temp Agency picking up their next jobs and helped each other with their jobs. He helped Phoebe carry all the Dear Phoebe mail she got from the car to the house when she came home after long days at the Bay Mirror office. He was even repairing the roof shingles to the house after the last wind storm ripped most of them off, but had relinquished his job of lawn mowing to the blonde kid so that Piper could remain on good terms with the neighbourhood and the blonde kid's mother.
And the three sisters were now starting to get along with Chris. Life was becoming pretty good for him. He had a makeshift family he could help, and for once he belonged somewhere. He belonged with the Charmed Ones.