Reb: Yea... I got the idea cause I was watchin something with my friends and someone mentioned 'the look.' I don't remember what we were watching or who had 'the look', only that it gave me the idea. I hope you enjoy the story.

The Look

Chris didn't know he let any of his emotions through. Not for his father anyway. And when he came back from the future, he tried hiding most of his normal easiness around his mother as well. It was his greatest deception. His greatest lie. His greatest fault.

Chris had realized that in the year he'd spent with his family that he was letting something through. Piper noticed it while Chris was there, having spent nine months with a Chris who showed his emotions more openly than she could have hoped for. Leo, however... Leo didn't notice it until Chris started becoming a man.

When his son turned sixteen, he could already see the dashing looks, the charming personality, and the hopeful eyes forming in his son that he'd seen in the Chris from the future. When Chris turned twenty, Leo was having some problems. Chris was behaving just like any normal kid would when his father tried to bond with him... especially when they still had their teenage streak and tried to go against everything you said.

So Leo tried harder... but tried less often. Chris was twenty and didn't need his help. But seeing his son looking exactly like the twenty-two year old from the future made it hard to keep his cool.

It was here that Leo noticed something. Something the other Chris had accidentally let through even when Leo knew nothing about him. Chris probably would argue that he didn't let anything of the sort through, but Leo could tell. Now that he knew what it was, he could tell. He hadn't noticed until they had the same face...

The look in Chris's eyes... when he wanted to tell Leo something, or be told something important,... or begged with his eyes to be caught in his lies. It was all the same basic look and Leo hadn't caught it with the other Chris.

He'd caught different similar looks when Chris was a child and even as a young teenager, but he hadn't seen anything like this look in any stage of the boy's life.. Until now.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Chris asked angrily when he noticed his father giving him a sympathetic look, as though thinking something cute about him... which he hated.

"Nothing... I was just thinking about that girl you've been hanging out with. Bianca, was it? She's a nice girl. You should ask her out tonight when you and your friends go to the movies," Leo shrugged, twiddling with the screwdriver in his hands.

"How did you know I was-?..." Chris was stunned. How did Leo know he wanted advice on asking her out? Chris's face fell into a smile. "Uh... Thanks, dad."

Leo watched his son leave the house, both of them smiling. Chris had stopped in between his job and going to the movies with his friends, seemingly for no reason... Leo just happened to figure out what his real purpose was.

Leo sighed in content as he started screwing the door hinges in. Demons. They loved breaking the door. Realizing what that look was, Leo wished he'd noticed it a lot sooner... like twenty years sooner.

"Oh, he was fine without you knowing," Pipper said as she pat him on the back. "I wondered about it too." she smiled at her husband.

"How'd you know what I was thinking about?" Leo asked with a smile, kissing her on the forehead.

"Come on. Where do you think he got those 'looks', tough guy?" Piper laughed. "I'm gonna go make dinner. Try and finish up, okay?"

Leo shrugged and nodded as his wife went to the kitchen. Chris and him were more alike than he'd thought, apparently... and there was nothing that could make Leo happier.