Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, but if Kern wants to sell it, I'll give him a shiny penny!

Author's note: This takes place a couple days after the season finale. This plot has come out of my sincere desire to get big Chris back and not be subjected to double the baby hi-jinx this coming season. Please be nice! This is my first fanfic ever and the first piece of fiction I've written in a number of years.

Chapter 1

"Hurry up with those streamers, Paige, they're going to be back any minute!" Phoebe fussed as she knelt down to straighten Wyatt's overalls. "And remember, not a word about Chris. She's got enough on her plate right now, with the new baby and recovering from her C-section."

"Hey! I can keep my mouth shut. But don't you think she's going to find out sooner or later? It was easy enough to keep it from her at the hospital, but I don't think that's going to work for very long here."

Phoebe sighed. "I know, hon. She's going to find out. Soon. But Leo wants to be the one to tell her. He needs to be the one to tell her. And we've got to let him do that in his own time."

Just then the door opened, saving them from having the same depressing conversation for what felt like the millionth time. The girls quickly plastered smiles on their faces. "Welcome home, Piper and Chris!" They chimed as they ran over to hug their sister and coo over their new nephew. Well, new in a sense.


"That was a great meal, you guys! I was a little worried when Leo told me you were cooking a welcome home dinner for me, but it looks as though you've taken some classes in my absence. It was all more than edible!" Piper said, smiling.

"Well, you were at the magic school for quite a while. If we hadn't learned how to cook a halfway decent meal, we would have starved!" Paige joked, relieved that her sister hadn't been too critical of her less developed cooking skills.

Piper laughed and stood up, grabbing a few plates. "Hey, Missy!" Phoebe scolded. "You sit your butt back down in that chair! You just got back from the hospital, no way you're clearing the dishes."

"Well, if you insist." Piper grinned. "Actually, I'm feeling a bit wiped. I think I'm going to head off to bed. Thanks so much for the welcome home party, though! I really loved it."

"I'll put the boys down." Leo said. He stood up, picked up the newborn Chris, took Wyatt by the hand, and orbed upstairs to the boys' bedroom. Piper watched them go with a sentimental smile. "There go all the men in my life." she sighed as she headed up the stairs.

Piper had just settled herself under the covers when Leo came in and smiled at her. I felt just like old times. "Hey cutie." she said, obviously having the same thought. "Why don't you hop on in and cuddle with me?"

Leo glanced down at the bed with an extremely nervous look on his face. He tried to make himself crawl under the covers, but he just couldn't. Memories of Chris lying in that very spot and fading away in his arms came flooding back, making him almost lose his balance. He felt like all the breath had been knocked out of him.

Piper got a worried look on her face and sat up. "What is it, honey? Are you ok?"

Leo walked over to the other side of the bed and knelt on the floor, taking Piper's hands. "There's something I need to tell you. I wanted to wait until you were fully recovered from your surgery, but… I just can't do this anymore."

Leo paused and avoided Piper's face as he tried to form the words. "Piper, Chris didn't go back to the future." He finally said, looking up into her eyes.

"B-but you said..." "I know. We let you believe that because we didn't think you were ready to hear the truth yet. You had been through so much already. Piper... Chris is dead. Gideon killed him. He- he died right here in this bed. In my arms." Leo's voice had dropped to a whisper as he tried to fight back the tears.

"He was trying to protect Wyatt. Gideon stabbed him with a blessed athame. I couldn't save him." Leo dropped Piper's hands and turned his back to her as the tears streamed down his face. "I'm an elder, with all this power, and I couldn't even save my own son."

Piper was in shock. Her mouth kept opening and closing, but no sound came out. This wasn't real. He couldn't be serious. Finally she said, "Maybe he's not... Maybe he did just go back. He saved Wyatt, maybe the spell just played itself out." She said, looking to Leo to validate her reasoning.

Leo sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry, honey. The spell couldn't have played itself out, Gideon and Barbus still had Wyatt when Chris died. He's... gone."

Piper felt the tears already streaming down her face as her head dropped into her hands. Her body was racked with sobs. She felt Leo's arms encircle her. They were shaking as he cried himself. She found it comforting, but it didn't do anything to fill the hole that had just been torn in her heart.


Piper opened her eyes when Leo's steady breathing told her he was finally asleep in the chair. As much as he'd wanted to hold her, he hadn't been able to get himself to lie in that spot, and she couldn't blame him. She was having a hard time staying in the bed herself, and she hadn't been there to witness Chris's death.

Piper got out of the bed and tiptoed out of the room, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could with her shaking hands. This whole thing wasn't right. Chris couldn't be dead. He'd already sacrificed so much to save his brother, had it really been necessary for him to sacrifice his life too? But as much as she tried to deny it, she knew in her heart it was true. It was meant to be. Chris had known that, even if the rest of them hadn't.

Before she had pretended to go to sleep, she'd asked Leo what had happened to Chris's spirit. Had it gone up to where Grams and Prue were? Leo had admitted he didn't know. Chris's had been an extremely unique situation, and the other elders either didn't know or wouldn't tell him what had become of his son's spirit. Sometimes the pacifist in her husband made him accept things way too easily. Piper simply could not settle for that explanation.

Piper walked silently up the steps to the attic and closed the door behind her, opening the book with a trembling hand. She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. This had to work, she told herself. It hadn't with Prue, but that had been because she had been unable to accept her death. With Chris she just needed to know he was in a better place, a place where he could finally find peace. She knew she would never be able to get on with her life without knowing that for sure.

Piper set down the last candle and recited from memory:

Hear these words, hear my cry,

Spirit from the other side.

Come to me, I summon thee,

Cross now the great divide

She held her breath and waited on edge as she felt the familiar gust of wind. A swirl of white dust started to coalesce in front of her and then dissipated. Piper choked back a sob when all of a sudden she heard a loud crash from downstairs followed by a yell. "Wyatt!" she thought as she ran down the stairs into the boys' room.

Piper stopped dead in her tracks at the door, her eyes wide and her mouth ajar. She felt Leo crash into her back with the same reaction. Phoebe and Paige were not far behind. "What in the world...?" Phoebe started to say, they all stared, unbelieving, at what was before them.