One Day

When she walked through the door she saw the note. She laughed openly. Chris wasn't going anywhere; the boy had nowhere to go. This was his family. He'd be back. She was sure that he'd be back.

Chris had gone back to the past to save his family because he couldn't live without them. There was no chance that he would stay away for long.

"What's that?" her oldest asked.

"It's a note from Chris"

"Chris?" Leo sounded confused. "Does he need something?"

"He says he's moved out" She answered.

"What!" That had come from Leo and Wyatt.

"Relax boys" she assured them, "Chris will be back"

"How can you know for sure" Wyatt wondered aloud.

"Easy," she shrugged, "We're his family"

One Month

So he didn't come back as soon as she'd expected. He would. She was certain that he would come back any day now. After all they were his family. He had no one else to go to, nowhere else to go.

"Piper are you sure we shouldn't look for him?" Leo asked hesitantly.

She felt a little guilty. She knew why he was nervous around her. She had been a little short whenever the subject of her youngest son came up. But really, could you blame her? Chris was playing a very dangerous game with her patience.

"He'll come back Leo" she assured, "He has nowhere else to go"

"Right" Leo hedged, "but it's been a month…"

"He'll be back" she snapped.

She watched as Leo held up his hands in a show of peace and backed out of the room. Honestly, the man should never have questioned her on this. Still, she shouldn't have snapped at him. It wasn't his fault that Chris was being stubborn.

Two Months

Alright, she could admit that he may not be coming back anytime soon. That didn't mean he wouldn't come back though. College would be staring in a month and Chris was never one to miss out on school. The boy practically loved school, always wanted to be there. If only Chris had been as interested in regular school as he had about magic school.

Regardless Chris had sent off applications for colleges in the area and he had been accepted into all of them. The boy just hadn't chosen which college he wanted before he decided to throw his little tantrum.

"Which one do you think he'd want?" She asked her husband as they were sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the mound of acceptance letter.

"I don't know" Leo admitted.

"Well if he's not here to choose then we'll just choose for him." She sifted through the pile until she pulled out the one she wanted.

"This is a local community college" Leo noted.

"Yes, it's one we can afford" Piper agreed.

"Piper" Leo sighed.

"No" She cut him off, "If he's too busy throwing his little hissy fit to choose for himself then he will live with the decision I've made"

"Why don't we just give it a little more time" Leo suggested, "Magic schools been talking about opening a college, maybe he'd prefer that?"

She sighed in irritation, "Fine. But if he's not back by the cut off date then he can pay for college himself"

Three Months

So he wouldn't be going to college on her dime. She could live with that. It just meant that she had a bit more money available. She would go on a nice vacation with her husband once Wyatt was off to college for his junior year.

Or she might save it for Wyatt's fifth year because the way that boy was going at his schooling Wyatt would need at least five years, if not six, possibly seven. Wyatt wasn't the world's best student and that college was rather highly ranked.

It didn't matter right now though because they were moving Wyatt into his on campus apartment tomorrow and she had to finish his goodbye party dinner and cake. The whole family was coming over to spend one last night together.

"So any news about Chris?" Coop asked casually as they cleaned up the dinner dishes.

She grabbed the plate in her hand so hard it broke, "He'll be home soon enough"

"How do you know?" Paige queried as she brought in the last pan.

"Because we're his family" she replied giving her typical answer, "He has nowhere else to go"

Everyone had just nodded their head and left her to the cleaning. That was fine. She was used to it.

Four Months

She might have to admit that Chris could be serious about this. She didn't get it though. If he wasn't living here then where was he? As far as she knew Chris didn't have anyone else to go to.

"Hey Wyatt?" She called out.

Sure enough seconds later her oldest son was standing in front of her. "What's up?"

"Did Chris ever mention anyone he used to hang out with?"

"You mean friends?"

"Yes"

She waited semi-patiently as Wyatt thought it over for a minute "Not that I can think of. I didn't really spend much time with him"

"Thanks"

He left and she reluctantly admitted that she didn't spend all that much time with Chris either. She didn't think any of them had that's why she'd called Wyatt, the two did share a room for almost fifteen years.

Five Months

OK, he wasn't coming back. She could openly admit that now. It was time to start the search. She just wished the trail wasn't five months cold. She also wished that she had some idea of where to start.

Where had Chris spent his time before? She didn't know. She should know. As his mother she should know where her son spent his time and who he spent it with. When she found him that was something that was going to change.

"What about magic school?" Leo suggested.

"What about it?"

Leo shrugged, "He used to spend a lot of time there when he was little. And he took classes there for years."

Not really thinking that magic school would be of that much use she agreed anyway. They didn't really have any other leads to go on.

Turns out magic school was a bust. None of the teachers could say much about Chris other than that he was a quiet person who got perfect scores. While it told them nothing about Chris' location it did tell both parents that they had missed something.

Before they left the headmaster had talked to them and given them all of Chris' awards. Neither parent had known about this.

Six Months

Half a year. Her youngest son had been missing for half a year now. She'd been searching for a month now and everything shed learned only made her more miserable.

First was the realization that no one in the family actually knew anything about Chris. Not who his friends were, or if he even had friends. Not where he had spent his time growing up. Nothing. Not a one of them could even answer what Chris' favorite color was or what his favorite food was. How could they not know? How could she not know? She was his mother.

Second was magic school. Chris had received just about every award the school had. He had set every record. It was a shock. Everyone had thought that Wyatt would be the one to do those things. Wyatt was the twice blessed. Chris was the neurotic child with only telekinesis and orbing as powers. How had Chris been so successful at magic school when Wyatt had practically flunked out of the place?

Third was that Chris' high school had still held the boy's diploma. Said that no one ever came by to pick it up. What was more disturbing is that the woman had required seeing her ID before giving her the diploma. When the lady behind the desk finally handed it over she had apologized, she'd just been confused. Turns out she had never been to her own son's school before – at least not for Chris.

Seven Months

Darryl proved useless. Apparently Chris was an 'adult' and since he'd left a note the police couldn't do anything. She had no legal standing to force her son home. It didn't matter that Chris was a Halliwell and thus over half the underworld would be after the boy if only for the soul reason of his last name. The cops didn't care about that.

She had tried scrying and summoning. Nothing worked. She had even summoned her mother and grandmother in order to strengthen the spells used to force Chris home. She was still down a child.

Thanksgiving was over and Chris hadn't been at the table. It was a strange feeling looking over at the spot that had always held her youngest son and seeing it devoid of life. That shouldn't have happened. She was starting to learn that she had helped cause it to happen.

Eight Months

The holidays had come and gone and still no Chris. She didn't know how much more of this she could take. Was this the universe's way of punishing her? Was it somehow telling her that no matter the time line she would only get to keep one of her sons? In the last time line it was Chris who had been the mama's boy – or at least that's how it seemed once he'd opened up to her. In this timeline was that Wyatt's job? Did that mean Chris wasn't allowed to be apart of her life?

Of had she driven him away?

Nine Months

She thinks maybe it's her. Maybe she is the one who drove her youngest son from her. She had always thought that her relationship with Chris was set. He would be a mama's boy. He would dote on her. She'd taken that for granted and then she'd ignored her baby.

It had been a mistake. She had never meant to ignore him. It was just that… she couldn't stand to look in his eyes.

Logically she knew that the Chris who came back to save Wyatt was dead. That Chris was never coming back and would never get the happy life he'd worked so hard for. The Chris she had now knew nothing of that life. And yet, if one were to look into his eyes long enough, they could be fooled into thinking that they were looking into the eyes of the other Chris. The eyes of the Chris who had suffered so much at his own brother's hands.

She couldn't bear to look in those eyes. She'd stopped looking eventually.

Ten Months

Darryl had come through eventually. Not with finding Chris. It seemed that the boy was good at disappearing into thin air. No, Darryl had found something else though. A tape of Chris' high school graduation.

She'd missed the event. She hadn't meant to. She knew that the other Chris, the one who had come back, the one who had died. Well, he'd never gotten to finish high school. The world had been destroyed before he'd had the chance.

Determined not to let the same thing happen to her Chris she'd planned on going to his high school graduation the day that she'd sent him off to kindergarten. How had she let herself miss it?

She queued up the video and pressed play.

There he was, sitting in the fourth row, waiting for his name to be called. She'd watched all the way up until they were about to call his name. She'd stopped the tape. She couldn't watch any longer.

Eleven Months

She can admit it now. This was all her fault. Her son left because she hadn't bothered to care about him. She hadn't noticed he was unhappy. And he's gone someplace that she can't follow. She would though, if she knew where he was. She would follow him to the ends of the earth.

"He'll come home" Phoebe assured rubbing her arm.

"No he won't" She replied as she broke out of her sisters embrace and headed to her room.

She'd been doing that more and more lately, moving away from the others and locking herself in her room. Unless she had the manor to herself. Then she'd clean the place spotless and cook meals made to feed an army. She was fairly certain that every one of her family members had enough food in their freezers to feed themselves for the next five months.

All except for the one who she desperately wanted to feed.

Chris had always been a skinny kid. It was almost as though the boy had never been interested in food.

Ok, that's not quite true. She remembered exactly which meals her son ate. Dinner. The boy had always said he couldn't stomach breakfast. She didn't know why though. She would almost always find his lunch boxes full when Chris came home from school. When asked he would say that he had forgotten. How could Chris forget lunch when there was a time set aside just for that one thing?

Over the years she had made dinner mandatory just to assure that Chris had eaten something. It was the one meal that she was assured her youngest son would eat and she would not let him miss.

Now she couldn't make her little boy eat. The poor child was probably skin and bones. He could be starving to death.

She pulled out the ingredients for chicken cordon blue.

Twelve Months

A year. It had been one year since she had found that note. She had been so cocky then. So sure that Chris would come back home in a few hours begging forgiveness. And she would have given it… eventually.

Now she would give anything to see her youngest again. To know he was safe. The worst part was not knowing if he was even alive.

They were all in the living room now. Her family had forced her. Said it would be good to spend a night in watching old home movies. She didn't agree. She knew that those movies would be missing someone. The same someone that was currently missing from the room. The same someone who had been missing on their trip to Disney land last year because she hadn't invited him.

As they sat watching the movies she could vaguely hear her niece say something about a dark lighter that had acted strange. She wasn't really paying attention. Paige would solve whatever issue the girl had. Paige was the mother after all and mothers are supposed to take care of their children's problems.

Someone switched tapes and she heard a name she never thought she'd hear on one of these things.

"Christopher Perry Halliwell" a voice announced.

There was cheering on the screen and she watched in stunned silence as her little boy waked across the stage and accepted the fake diploma being handed to him. He was smiling and standing still for a picture. Someone was taking a picture. She couldn't tell who it was. Probably just a hired photographer.

Did high school graduations hire photographers for such things? She didn't remember one at Wyatt's graduation. Or at Pepper's last week.

She grabbed the remote and skipped through the rest of the ceremony keeping a close eye on her son. Eventually the speaking ended and the graduates were set free. It was chaos for a while but she saw what she was looking for eventually. There standing off to the side was her son.

He wasn't alone as she'd thought he'd been. There was a teenage girl there along with a boy that looked to be around Chris' age. There was a woman who has hugging him and there was a man there. The man's back was turned so she couldn't make out a face. She silently willed the man to turn around. Maybe this was the person who had her youngest.

When the man did turn around she didn't even have time to analyze his face before Penelope shouted, "That's him! That's the dark lighter!"

Suddenly all eyes were on the fifteen year old who was pointing a finger at the television screen.

She was the first to react. Before she knew what she was doing she was on her knew in front of her niece grabbing the girl by the shoulders. "You've seen that man?"

"Yes" Penelope nodded enthusiastically. "But he's not a man. He's a dark lighter"

"A dark lighter?" Leo asked behind her.

It suddenly made sense. Her son hadn't left willingly. He'd been taken. By dark lighters. "Where? When?"

Penelope seemed a little scared and she could hear her sisters behind her trying to pry her hands from the teen. She wasn't going to budge though. She needed to know.

"Where did you see him Penelope?"

Penelope sucked in a breath, "In the underworld."

Voices went off all around, scolding the girl for her recklessness. She didn't care. She wanted answers. "Where in the underworld?"

"By the big market, near the bar that Aunt Phoebe killed the demon in last week."

She was getting closer. "When did you see him?"

"Two hours ago" Penelope answered hesitantly.

"What happened?" She heard Paige demand as she finally let the girl go. She paused in her leaving and listened. It might be good to know what kind of adversary she was up against.

"Well… I was just looking around the underworld because I'd heard of this big market that had a lot of things for both good and bad magic. I wanted to see if there was anything interesting there. I was at a booth when a couple of dark lighters realized that I wasn't a demon or one of them. They started to surround me. I was scared. Then that man broke through the others and held a cross bow up at me. He asked me who I was. When I told him my name was Penelope Halliwell he lowered the crossbow."

"He did what?" Phoebe asked in shock.

"He lowered the crossbow." Penelope repeated. "He made the others back away before looking straight at me. He said that I should leave and that I shouldn't come back. He couldn't guarantee my safety and honestly had no desire to."

"Then why did he?" She demanded. It didn't make sense.

"I don't know" Penelope answered. "I orbed out of there as fast as I could.

The second her niece was done talking she grabbed Leo's and Wyatt's hands and ordered Wyatt to orb. She didn't need to say anything else. Her oldest son would understand.

Seconds later she rematerialized next to her husband and oldest in the very marketplace that Penelope had described. Every demon and dark lighter in the place was staring at them.

Before anyone could make a move she blasted the first demon she saw, "Alright I need some information. You tell me what I want and I leave you alone. Are we clear?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A voice demanded from behind her.

She turned and saw the dark lighter. The one from the video who had been hugging and smiling at her son.

"I'm looking for my son"

"He's standing right next to you" the dark lighter replied.

"My youngest son" she corrected, "The very one you kidnapped."

The dark lighter appeared to take offense at her words. "I have kidnapped no one" he stated.

"Do you know where Chris is though?" Leo asked before she could reply.

"I do" the dark lighter confirmed.

"Where?" she demanded.

It seemed to take forever for the dark lighter to answer her. She desperately wanted to blow the man to pieces but Wyatt was holding her arms down. Just before she broke free of her son the man finally spoke.

"I will take you to Chris" he conceded, "but you must promise that you will listen to everything we have to say before you act"

"Agreed." Leo spit out instantly.

She did not agree. But she would keep her mouth shut for now so long as it meant finding Chris.

The dark lighter offered his hand for Leo to take, "Come with me then"

Hesitantly all of them joined hands and let themselves be dark orbed away. The feeling made her sick when she rematerialized. How did they do this? It was a nauseating feeling. Must be the demon thing.

Before she could snap at the dark lighter for the uncomfortable ride she heard a voice she never thought she'd hear again. Abandoning her husband, oldest and the dark lighter she followed the voice into the opening of a circular cave.

There, sitting on a boulder next to a few other teens around his age she saw him.

"Chris!"