Chris carefully tipped two teaspoons of newt eyes into the cauldron, listening carefully for the "soft hiss that should emit" from the bubbles. He nodded to himself and went back to adding the other, easier ingredients he needed for that particular potion.
With a sigh, he wiped his hands on his pants, mindful not to stain, and fetched the ladle from the table by the giant chest, which to his knowledge would soon be filled with past artwork and old quilts. His mother had started this when Wyatt was about four and suddenly became infatuated with painting with his fingers.
A sudden gust of wind made Chris wheel around, ready to strike. He stared, horrorstruck, at the portal that was opening before him. His first thought, though not quite irrational, was that Wyatt had found out where he was and that he had come to get him.
He didn't quite get to think his second thought because the time-traveling person stepped over the threshold and surveyed the room with a giant smile.
"It looks exactly the same, doesn't it?"
"What are you doing here?" Chris hissed, throwing down the ladle and walking over to the person standing in front of him. "What if you had been followed or seen? Honestly, where is you brain sometimes? Get back in that portal, right now, and-" The portal closed. Chris licked his lip and ran his finger threw his hair furiously. "Well, I hope you're happy now."
"Oh, come on, we can always make a new spell and get me back, Chris! I just wanted to see you. I missed you, you know that."
"He could have followed you! You could have ruined everything, don't you understand that?"
"Of course I understand that. That's why I fed him fake information about you going back to 1998-"
"You did what?" Chris screamed. "Great, now what happens if mom dies or Phoebe?"
"He isn't going to kill them! He obviously needs mom, Chris."
Chris surveyed his younger sister with anxiety and anger before lowering his eyes and shaking his head. He went back over to the potion which was now hissing furiously, warning that it should be taken off the fire.
"You need to go back, Lin," Chris snapped. "It isn't safe for either of us to be here right now and you know that!"
"I know," Melinda whined, stamping a foot and padding over to her brother, puppy eyes. "I can't stand the other place, though, can't you hurry?"
"I happen to have a lot on my plate right now, thank you very much," Chris snapped, glaring back over at her. Melinda raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
"What kind of problems?" she asked.
"Well," Chris said, almost sheepishly. "I kind of broke up mom and dad."
"You what?" she screamed.
"Calm down, I'm already freaking out enough as it is, I don't need you harping in my ear as well," he snapped, pouring some potion into the bottle. "Don't worry, I'll figure it out."
"And if you don't?" Melinda asked, folding her arms.
"Mom and dad don't conceive me, I don't go back in time and save Wyatt and the world and you also have a very good chance of just being obliterated," Chris said evenly.
"Awesome," she said sarcastically. "I thought you said you were going back to help mom and dad, not break them up and almost ruin my chance of conception!"
"And mine," Chris reminded her. She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, forget you, Chris!"
"Hey, if I'm never born, no one comes back to save the world!"
"I might."
"Yeah," Chris said with a snort, rolling his eyes. "I can just picture it now. I would feel amazingly safe knowing Wicken Barbie is our savior."
"Oh, you know what-" She began furiously, but broke off as footsteps started up the stairs. Chris wheeled around and looked at her in horror.
"You have to go," he warned. "Go right now. Quickly."
"No way," she said, rolling her eyes. "Why do you get to hang out with them? Please, Chris, let me stay! I want to see them! I miss mom…"
Chris felt his dissolve soften at that moment and he cursed her for playing the mom card when she knew it always worked.
"Fine," he snarled. "But you go invisible. And quick."
"Fine," she said carelessly and a moment later she was gone, or to the naked eye she was.
Just then Piper and Phoebe came up the stairs, Piper with Wyatt in her hands.
"Hey," Phoebe said, looking around the room suspiciously. "Is someone up here?"
"Erm, no," Chris said, shrugging and trying to keep a steady hand as he went back to the potion. He felt Phoebe and Piper look at each other.
"I could have sworn I heard two voices," Piper said carelessly, looking around again. She frowned at Chris and walked over to the pen, tipping Wyatt into it. "So, what's this about a new demon?"
"Yeah," Chris said, trying not to be distracted by Melinda who, he was able to see, was staring at Wyatt with delight. She looked over at Chris and smirked, while pointing down at Wyatt. He wanted, with all his might, to glare at her and warn her to quit it, but instead turned, with a blank expression, towards Phoebe and Piper. "Um, it's a Tracer Demon. It could possibly be working for the demon responsible for turning Wyatt-" Melinda was now walking around the room, making too much noise in his opinion.
"Are you alright?" Phoebe asked, looking first at Piper and then at Chris. "Because you don't look alright-What's wrong? You're nervous. I can feel it…and annoyed. Who are you annoyed with?"
Melinda raised an eyebrow and pointed at herself questioningly. He didn't answer but she smiled anyways, and silently promised to stop fooling around.
"Chris!" Piper exclaimed. "Are you with us today? I canceled my one and only date this month to come and be at this foolish little meeting you're holding and you're not even paying attention to us!"
"I'm sorry," Chris said, shaking his head and fixing his sole attention on Phoebe and Piper. Melinda picked up a picture of the family behind the two women's backs and looked at it carefully. She smiled to herself and placed the picture unevenly back onto the end table. It fell to the floor with a smash, making both Phoebe and Piper jump and wheel around, Piper's hands up in defense.
Melinda winced and shrugged apologetically at Chris while he glared furiously at her.
"Maybe we should get the broom," Piper suggested after a moment.
"No, I think we can-"
"I'll get the broom-"
"Son of a bitch!" Phoebe screamed. "You are going to ruin everything! Why can't you listen to me for once in your life?"
"I'm sorry, we'll pick up the pieces by hand-"
"No," Phoebe said, shaking her head. "It's not that. It's you." She pointed at Chris. "I felt some serious anger vibes a moment ago. What in the world has got you so pissed?"
"That…" Chris trailed off, looking over at Melinda who was pointed at the lamp and making "love" in sign language. "That was just my favorite lamp, is all." He said, trying not to roll his eyes. "And I asked you to be careful with it."
"Oh," Piper said skeptically, "I wasn't aware. I'm sorry. Maybe I can fix it…"
"Don't worry about it," Chris said. "So, this demon…"
Ten minutes later Phoebe and Piper left, demon-bound to meet Paige in an alley just south of Chinatown. As soon as he heard Phoebe drive away, he turned towards Melinda furiously.
"Are you happy? You almost got yourself caught! You're lucky Piper didn't get more suspicious than she usually does! You could have ruined everything I've been working towards."
"Oh, call her mom, you neurotic nerd."
"Shh," Chris hissed, walking over to the attic door and closing it. "Don't call her that out loud!"
"Chris, you haven't mastered telepathy yet, so we can't exactly talk in our heads." Melinda sighed and sat down hard on the couch.
"Are you still invisible?" he questioned suspiciously, waiting for the call from Phoebe.
"Yes, I'm still invisible," she mocked in a sarcastic tone. She rolled her eyes and looked over at the pen where Wyatt was still standing in his pen. "Do they always leave him with you?"
"Yeah," Chris said, "they trust me."
"Hmm," Melinda said, another smirk, not unlike Piper's, threatening to slide onto her mouth at that moment. "Funny. They trust you, Chris, to watch Wyatt."
Chris understood what she was getting at and glared at her. "Don't start that right now-"
"It's just funny," she said with a shrug. "They wouldn't even let you watch yourself until you were seventeen!"
"Same with you-"
"No," Melinda reminded him. "They trusted me, Chris. You not so much. I think I can safely say it was the orbing the Hawaii with Alexis Smith that really did mom in."
"I am never going to live that down," Chris groaned to himself.
"Nope," Melinda said with satisfaction.
A sudden white-blue light burst down from the ceiling, making Chris and Melinda look up in alarm. Chris gave her a fleeting, warning look and waited for the girls to come back.
"So?" he said, the moment the solidly appeared.
"Vanquished."
"And gooey," Paige said with disgust. She wiped a giant glob off of her shirt and tossed it over her back. It smacked Melinda into the face, nearly making Chris laughed. A lot of training over the years had trained Chris to not smile, he couldn't remember a time in six years he had actually truly smiled.
Apparently he had been staring into space because Paige leaned over towards Piper and whispered, "I see what you mean."
"Huh?" Chris asked, snapping out of it.
"Yeah, we're going to go. I need to get back to work and Wyatt has another play-date in an hour…Are you alright here by yourself?"
"Yeah," Chris said. "Things to do, demons to track."
"Right…" Paige said. "Well, I must be off. Richard and I are meeting for coffee."
"Richard?" Melinda said, after everyone had left again. "Richard? She's married to Henry! What about the twins? Chris-"
"Don't worry, Lin, they break up!"
"Yeah, and soon?"
"Yes and soon! She doesn't even meet Henry for another two years or so."
"And what about Phoebe?"
"I think she'll-" He broke off, glaring at Melinda. "We need to get you home. Right now."
"No!" Melinda burst out. "Let me stay! Please?"
"No."
He walked over to the book and ripped out the spell, walking over to her and holding out his hand.
"Take my hand."
"Fine," she grumbled.
They chanted the spell together, but nothing happened.
"Oh, that's just wonderful!"
"Guess I'm staying, then, huh?"
A/N Please read and review.
