CHARMED

Title: This Time Love Will Find Us

Pairing: Chris Perry/Piper Halliwell Chris is not Piper and Leo's son.

Spoilers: Season Six (mostly AU)

Summary: Begins after an AU version of events in Oh My Goddess p1 & p2 in which Chris did not arrive to save the day, Paige lived, and Piper lost Leo to Elder-hood anyway. A stranger arrives with his young ward to live next door to the Charmed Ones. Can he be trusted or is he just another Cole in disguise? What will happen when they discover his true purpose and his true origins?

The Boy Next Door

Piper seemed to always be falling in love with the boy next door. When she was eight she convinced herself that she wanted to marry Peter Finch who lived three houses down the road and had a dog named Gillie. When she was fifteen she dated Aaron Stevens who's grandmother lived opposite Piper. Then there was Leo who was both the ultimate boy next door – with him being a handyman and literally having watched over her Piper's whole life – and him being the total antithesis of the boy next door; unreliable, unpredictable, unavailable, and magical. And of course who could forget Dan – the literal boy next door! And now it seemed there was a new attractive, if a little young, male neighbour moving in complete with his own little ward and mystique.

"Hi, I'm Phoebe Halliwell!" Phoebe had rushed over as soon as she had spotted the new talent. While she was still seeing Jason he had moved to Hong Kong for six months so she considered herself free to flirt although Piper doubted she would go any further; after all she loved Jason very much.

Just like Piper loved Leo very much. And she wasn't over that – not by a long shot! Piper was still fuming mad at her now ex-husband at his careless abandonment of her and his infant son. It was hard enough raising a baby alone; let alone a magical child by herself! Which was why she had been selfishly glad that Phoebe and Paige were still living with her even though she could sense that Phoebe missed Jason terribly and that Paige was feeling a little… stifled by always doing everything magical as part of the power of three; which helped explain why she was on this strange temp job kick; although Piper wasn't complaining after all it was making Paige happy – in a general way rather than specifically on a day to day level – and it was helping to support them all.

"Hey… I um… I'm Chris. Chris Perry." The tall man with a great head of brown hair and wicked green eyes replied. He seemed unable to tare his eyes away from Phoebe although it wasn't exactly in a 'oh god she's gorgeous' way; kind of a creepy way actually as if he wasn't truly sure she was real.

"And who's this little lady?" Phoebe asked, bending down to meet the shyly averted eyed of the tiny brunet girl who stood next to Chris holding a blanket up to her face.

"This is Paget. She's my ward." Chris told her and Phoebe looked from the older man to the shy girl and saw that there was no similarities between them which probably meant they weren't related. Paget's hair was darker than Chris's – closer to black than his chocolate brown. Her eyes were gentle brown where as her guardian's were sparkling green. Her skin was creamy-gold but Chris's was pale and red from where the sun had burnt him slightly. Chris had freckles but this tiny girl had none. Paget's face was heart shaped – Chris's was more oval… the dissimilarities went on.

"Hello, Paget. I'm Phoebe. May I ask how old are you?" Phoebe asked, and the child looked up at Chris who must have given the affirmative because the next thing Phoebe knew the girl moved her comfort blanket away from her face revealing rose-bed lips that spoke with a childish lisp. "I'm five." She told Phoebe before bringing the blanket back and sticking a thumb in her mouth. Chris smiled at her.

"Five!" Exclaimed Phoebe in surprise. "Wow. That's really old!" And the little girl giggled. Phoebe smiled and almost instinctively reached out to tuck one of Paget's dark locks behind her ears. In doing so she suddenly felt a pain dash through her head as black and white images flashed before her eyes. A premonition and this one was obviously unpleasant.

Phoebe stood up quickly, her stomach was tied in knots, her head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it and she wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. "Are you okay, Ms Halliwell?" Chris asked. If Phoebe had been more 'with-it' she probably would have noticed that Chris didn't actually look freaked out the way most people do after they see her having a premonition; he just looked worried and fearful.

"She's fine!" Piper said, running across the lawn to get to her sister. She had witnessed the incident from inside the house and knew she needed to get Phoebe back inside. "She just gets migraines. Really suddenly." Piper explained not caring if it made sense to the stranger or not. She put her arm around her sister and made her way back to the house never once noticing the amazement and longing in Chris Perry's eyes as he watched them leave.

"What did you see?" Piper whispered to her sister as they walked up to their front door.

Phoebe, who was physically shaking in a way that was totally freaking Piper out, shook her head. "Nothing good." She promised.

End of Chapter One. Please Comment. I know this is really different and maybe too different (maybe a little OOC?) but I am really enjoying writing this and I hope someone out there is enjoying reading this!