Author's Notes: Those of you who have read my "I Dream of Phoebe...and its Aftermath" and/or "Epilogue to the Courtship of Wyatt's Father" know what this is all about. For those of you who don't, during S7, I came up with an idea. I'd do a novelization of S6, but include scenes from fanfics that I felt should have been part of the season. I then decided to do it as a letter written by Phoebe to her nephew Chris, telling him all about that mysterious whitelighter from the future, Chris Perry!
Well, I wrote and got the permission from a number of authors to use their ideas, Two of my best online friends, Aurora Nightstar (Aurora) and scififantasychic (Scifi), agreed to help me and although we spent several months trying to hash all of the stories and the episodes together to make one large, elaborate epic of the Chris story-arc, it didn't go quite as well as planned, perhaps because we had bitten off more than we could chew.
But I still liked a lot of what we wrote and have been sharing pieces with all of you. Who knows? Maybe you'll be the one who someday will help me finish it!
Also, most of "No Greater Love..." is set in the universe Scifi created with her own fanfics, and assumes that her own novel, "The Witch and The Assassin", is the true story of Chris' past. I count this fic as a sequel to hers. If you haven't read "The Witch and The Assassin" yet, parts of "No Greater Love..." may not make as much sense as it would if you had, so I thought that anyone who has not yet read this wonderful fanfic should have a chance! I posted the link in my profile. If the Charmed Sons spin-off was going to be based on Chris' unchanged past rather than his changed future as I hope it will (I want it to be just like Twin-Sword's "Destined: The Charmed Sons" virtual series--you can find the link in her profile!), I'd want it to be based on Scifi's fic!
On a purely practical note, keep in mind that Scifi wrote "The Witch and The Assassin" and the other fics that helped form her universe and that work as backstory for my novel during S6 and the summer following that season. Therefore Scifi had to come up with husbands and kids for Phoebe and Paige that do not coincide with what the show has come up with, and we used those names while trying to write our novel. Once we saw how "Charmed" was handling S7 and S8, specifically how they were handling references to Chris and Wyatt, we decided to totally ignore both seasons, so you can assume that S7 and S8 never happened (if you don't already do that!).
DISCLAIMER:
I don't own any characters from "Charmed"--they are all owned by Spelling Productions and the former WB, now the CW. This story was not written for sale, but is meant only for the visitors to fanfic sites. Most of the plot points come directly from episodes of the sixth season of "Charmed" (with many thanks to the writers of the spoilers at If you read anything that's different than the way it was shown during the actual episode, it means that the script was changed after the spoilers were released) and ignores all episodes of the seventh and eighth seasons.
However, this story is also based on the fanfiction, "The Ties that Bind", written by Scifiantasychic, used with her permission. Specifically, the characters of Jonathan, Kit, Cassie, David and Helen all belong to Scififantasychic and are all used with her permission.
Rori, although based on Aurora Nightstar's Paris in her stories, "The Family Curse" and "Three Powers of Wyatt", is my own character.
This fic is dedicated with a lot of thanks and a lot of love to both Scifi and Aurora!
NO GREATER LOVE...
by Esmeralda
PART ONE: OH, MY GODDESS!...AND ITS AFTERMATH
Based on the scripts written by Krista Vernoff, Curtis Kheel (Part 1)
and Daniel Cerone (Part 2),
"The Ties That Bind", written by scififantasychic
and "Rori's Story"
, written by Esmeralda, Aurora Nightstar and sciffantasychic
CHAPTER ONE
Chris! This is your Aunt Phoebe writing to you. Understand something right off the bat, Chris! I'm going to tell you something that your mom does not want you to know, something she made your Aunt Paige and me promise to never tell. I understand why she doesn't want you to know, Chris--she wants you and Wyatt to have as normal a life as is possible for children of the Charmed Ones to have, the same thing I want for my own daughters, your cousins, Kit and Cassie, and that I know your Aunt Paige wants for her little Helen. But after what happened today, I knew I just had to.
Chris, Cassie told me everything that happened. She told me how she followed you to the underworld after she got that premonition about you being in trouble, even after you insisted she didn't, how she got her cousin Helen to orb them to you, and how they got caught by the demon you were spying on. You came out of hiding to try to save her, even though you knew the odds were against you. You fought them hard trying to protect her. Your big brother Wyatt came in and saved the day. He got rid of the demon and healed both Cassie and Helen.
After everyone got back safely, I couldn't believe how much one little comment you made hurt my little girl. She came to me, crying. "How can I become as powerful as Wyatt?"
So I told her, "You can't, sweetie. He was born on a very special day. That's why he's the Twice-Blessed Witch. You're special, too, but you'll never have the powers he has."
I didn't need my empathy power to realize how hurt she was. I touched her, hoping to get a vision of what had happened and I did. Chris, she thanked you for helping to save her, and you told her, "What did I do? Wyatt is the one who got rid of the demons, Wyatt is the one who healed you. Wyatt is the one with all the powers; he is the one who is special."
Chris, she took your words to mean that she isn't special because she is not as powerful as Wyatt. I know you well enough to know you did not mean she isn't special. You meant you are not!! I would like you to see just how wrong you are.
Chris, as the youngest of the original Charmed Ones, and the only one with a non-active power, I know what it's like to be jealous and feel inferior to the other members. Your powers are nothing to sneeze at, Chris, but compared to Wyatt, the Twice-Blessed Child who's now the Twice-Blessed Witch, I can understand how you feel! You've put yourself down all your life when you compare yourself with him, and I've finally had it!
Please, Chris, don't try to tell me you don't feel this way--yes, you can block against my empathy, but not completely! And you have no reason to feel that way! If you but knew! Why, if it weren't for you..., but that's getting way ahead of myself.
I once wrote your mother a letter like this, and she told me that had I not, she and your father would have probably never stayed together all this time, so I'm going to do the same thing for you, that I did for her. Just like that letter, I'm going to hide this in a place where I know you'll find it and your parents and brother won't. I hope that you will find it when the time is right, the way your mother found hers.
Remember, Chris--you can not let anyone else know that I've told you! If you don't think you can keep this secret, Chris, then, please, rip this up right now! Don't read another word!
OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can tell you. This takes place before you were even born, Chris, before you were even conceived, when Wyatt wasn't even a year old yet. Your dad was still our Whitelighter, but he and your mom were having the typical problems a couple has after having their first baby, complicated by things Charmed.
Actually, all of us Charmed Ones were having problems with love. Your Aunt Paige had run into problems with a guy who lied about being married, and she was now turning into a guy-hater. And I can now admit that since we vanquished Cole, a man who despite being half-demon still loved me and understood me better than anyone, I was looking for love in every guy I found, with no lasting success, until I met your Uncle Jonathan, who changed me from a not-so-nice person into the aunt you know by simply loving me.
Paige's problems and mine were emphasized when we were at P3, checking out guys, trying to talk them into being part of the celebrity auction that the Bay Mirror was sponsoring. I was doing it by turning on all my charms and flirting, telling them that if they signed up, they just might win a date with me, while Paige kept showing no interest in them, but kept discussing these weird dreams she kept having. Obviously my method was working better and when I called Paige on it, she admitted that she was off, that those dreams she'd been having of ancient wars and fire and brimstone was driving her nuts. I couldn't help wondering if she was getting some sort of goddess-complex and was thinking she was causing all the horrendously hot weather we'd been having, so strange for San Francisco. It was amazing that Piper hadn't grumbled more about us not being able to fix the air conditioning thanks to the huge phone bills I was ringing up with my then-boyfriend, the owner of the paper, Jason Dean, who was in Hong Kong. But then I understood--Baby Wyatt was sleeping the whole night long, putting a lot less pressure on her and Leo, something I know you now understand, nephew mine, even if you don't want to think about your folks that way. Actually Piper's life was pretty good right then, which, when you're a Charmed One, means that it's about to change!!