The Enemy Within

Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed, if I did Brian Krause would never have been missing for half of season eight due to budget cuts, because I would have saved money by not creating the characters of Billie and Christy.

Authors note: This is a sequel to Blood Strangers. This story is set about two months after that story ends.

Chapter One

Have you ever wished you could take a moment in your life and rewind time? Go back to just before it happens and replay it differently. There wasn't a member of the Halliwell/Wyatt household who didn't wish for that chance.

Piper Halliwell was at the top of the list. Her world had come crashing down around her ears and looking back she had had ever chance to change the outcome. She just hadn't!

Life at the manor had become unbearable in the last couple of months. Each member of the family blaming themselves for Chris' disappearance. Piper's heart had broken in that one moment when her youngest son had chosen strangers over her and disappeared to god knows where.

That night on the beach would be forever etched in her memory. She had lost Chris and nearly lost Leo too. If it hadn't been for her quick thinking and called Paige, Leo would have been dead by now.

Saying that however something inside Leo had died. That moment after he realised Chris had shot him to save a stranger, Leo had retreated into a similar state to when Wyatt had been taken. The only difference was that this time he had no elders to punish. Just himself.

She had tried so hard to bring him back, but just like last time she knew Leo would have to deal with it alone. She just hoped it wouldn't take him another fifteen years to snap out of it. She needed help to get her son back, she didn't need a self-pitying ex husband, who was hell bent on doing some serious damage to himself.

Before Chris had left they seemed to be getting closer again. And that afternoon in her office had proved that the love and passion they had once had was still there and very much alive. But neither one of them had broached the subject of them since their youngest disappeared.

Piper had noticed that Leo had not just drifted away from her but he had drifted away from Matt as well. Until recently Leo had spent a great deal of time with Matt, helping him train his powers had given him a chance to get to know his eldest son. Looking back, Piper now realised that Leo had been rather unfair on Chris. He hadn't just missed out of Matt growing up, he had missed out on Chris' childhood too. Yet he had made no real effort to get to know Chris. And she knew that that was something that Leo was greatly regretting. She just hoped that there was by some small miracle a way to get her family back together and be given the chance to make it right.

Matthew Turner headed up the stone steps to the place he had recently been calling his second home. Since Chris had disappeared he had been spending more and more time here. He knew that Piper found it comforting having at least one of children near by and after losing his brother he realised that she wouldn't be able to handle it if he disappeared on her too.

However it was difficult. Since Chris had dropped his little bombshell on Matt's un-expecting parents he had been torn! One on hand his biologically parents needed him right now for support, but in the other he knew his adopted parents were still reeling from the shock of him having found his birth parents.

Piper had recently met his adoptive parents. Something that Matt had been rather apprehensive about in the beginning. However things had worked out for the best in that situation. Piper explained that she was in no way trying to replace his mom and dad and complemented them on the wonderful job they had done in raising him. She explained that she and Leo had not given Matt up for adoption, but that he had been taken in the middle of the night, leaving out the elder part.

His mother and father seemed to take to Piper quite well and he knew that they felt great sympathy for her; she had after all just lost her youngest son. Again they didn't know all the in's and out's of what had happened, all they knew was that Chris had run away.

There hadn't been a day when Matt hadn't thought about his little brother, wishing that things had turned out differently. He felt like he had let Chris down. He had been so wrapped up in trying to process the past couple of months himself, he hadn't even thought about how his brother had been taking it. Chris had been the closest thing he had ever had to a best friend and he had hoped that now that they knew they were brothers, the bond that they had recognised that first day in the attic by the book would have grown. Unfortunately that hadn't happened, the bond hadn't grown, it had just been ripped apart by bitterness and jealousy.

Not that Matt could blame Chris. He hadn't at the time realised how difficult it had been for the younger Halliwell to cope with having a new brother who was getting all the attention he had or hadn't been getting from certain members of his family.

Most of Chris' anger and resentment had come from the fact that Leo had always made him second best when it came to the two brothers. Firstly Chris had to grow up without his dad because his was hell bent on finding Matt and secondly when he finally got his dad back it was as if he didn't give a shit about his youngest son. He had been too busy with Matt to care about Chris.

The ironic thing was that now Leo was treating Matt just like he had treated Chris for the last fifteen years. He had been avoiding him over the past couple of months and Matt knew it was because he was feeling guilty for spending so much time with him, while neglecting Chris.

Leo made his way through the underworld with one firm objective. To torture and kill anything that got in his way. He was down here for one reason and one reason alone. He had heard of a demon that could shift and control realities to his own advantage and Leo was determined to find him.

Something inside Leo had changed. After Wyatt had been taken all those years ago, he had been in a really dark place. But this, if it was possible was worse. The guilt he felt over losing Chris was eating him up inside. Once again he had closed himself off from his family, but unlike last time he had no elders to punish, just himself and he was doing a really good job at that.

Every time he thought of his youngest son, he felt like his insides were being torn apart. It had taken his disappearance for Leo to realise that there were serious problems in their relationship. He had hoped that after he had gotten to know Matt that he could build up a relationship with Chris as well. He should have realised that he should of being spending his time getting to know both his sons, not just the one.

Leo would have given anything to turn back time and treated Chris better. That was why he had been trying so hard to find away to get him back.

Hopefully this reality demon could help, And if not at least Leo would have something to vent out some of guilt and angry he had been carrying these past couple of months!