Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed
Present Mistakes
Dinner was slightly awkward, not helped by the fact that Jenny spent the entirety of it starting at Chris, which was making him uneasy. However, the sisters didn't seem to notice and kept up a stream of questions about what Jenny had been doing since they had last seen her.
"What about you Chris? What subjects did you take at school?" Jenny asked, giving him that intent gaze she kept directing at him, and the easy going nature of the dinner faltered as the sisters all looked at Chris worriedly, and his mother with slight interest as well.
"Um, I didn't finish school." Chris said sadly, and he saw Piper's eyes widen in alarm.
"Really? How come?" Jenny asked nosily, and he glowered at her.
"Because my mom and aunts died, my school was destroyed and my brother lost it." He snapped, and she flinched back, and he earned a slight nudge from Paige, who was giving him a slightly scolding look, but then again she could hardly blame the boy.
"Oh, I'm sorry. What did you want to do?" Jenny asked in interest, apparently taking his retort in her stride.
Geez, was there no way to shut her up? He hadn't minded so much when his mother and aunts had been talking to her, but now she was focusing all of her attention on Chris and the questions would only get worse.
"History I suppose." He answered honestly, he'd always been good at history before the world had gone straight to hell.
"Oh cool, what sort of history, there's so many choices and I'm worrying about what one I should pick for next year..." she prattled, and fifteen minutes later, after encouraging Jenny to choose European history, he was saved by a cry from upstairs.
"I'll get it." He said hastily, darting away from the table and headed up the stairs to his crying brother in relief.
"Hmm. I don't think he likes me much." Jenny pouted as Chris escaped up the stairs, and Piper looked at her, eyes slightly suspicious.
"Well, you are Dan's niece Jenny. He nearly killed Chris, it's only natural that he's a little jumpy around you." She said, sending a concerned look up the stairs after her son.
"I think it's more to do with the fact that Jenny is being pretty obvious with the fact that she likes what she sees in Chris." Phoebe said a few minutes later as she and Piper carried the dishes through to the kitchen.
"Come on, he's bound to have girls throwing themselves at him before." Piper dismissed, but Phoebe shrugged.
"Yeah, but considering what happened to his fiancé, maybe he isn't so keen to be reminded of any girl who likes him in a romantic way." She said softly, and Piper frowned, thinking of the pain her boy had been in after Bianca had died a few months back, and the most concern they had shown for him was when Phoebe had said she was sorry. Yet another screw up they had made, no wonder he was such a paranoid, reclusive, neurotic little freak. She did smile slightly though. After all, her was her neurotic little freak.
"Didn't think of that." She said, as Chris entered the kitchen, looking around edgily, Wyatt cooing happily in his arms.
"Hey buddy." Piper said, kissing her son's forehead, then her other son's cheek.
"Sorry about that, she's just..." Chris said sheepishly, but Phoebe shook his head.
"It's ok honey. And we do know that she is ever so slightly annoying." She admitted, and Chris grinned, having gotten his mother to admit the same thing about her not that long ago.
"What's with the twenty questions though? She's like Dan, just as nosy as he is. I swear if she gets her dad to check up on me again, there will be issues." He said darkly, sitting at the table with Wyatt, and Piper smiled.
"Somehow I doubt her father can check up on anyone anymore. With a little help from your father, Darryl arrested him for perverting the course of justice, and when his bosses found out what he'd been digging around in people's files for his brother, and also that he did Dan's assault charge from the police, he was kicked out pretty quickly. Serves him right too." She said firmly, beginning to wash the dishes.
"And the questions will be because you're the one closest to her in age." Phoebe assured him, and Chris sent a worried look back through the door.
"I'm worried she fancies me." He said nervously, and Piper smiled.
"Yeah, she might do, she thinks you're cute. Don't worry honey, I'll protect you from the big bad teenager." She said teasingly, and he glowered at her reproachfully.
"Mom, think about it. For a start, she's Dan's niece. She's annoying. She's both too old and too young for me all at once. I doubt she'd be able to cope with magic, not without blabbing about it. And to top it off, she has a really intense stare, it makes me feel uncomfortable." He moaned, and Piper stroked his hair fondly.
"Look, I'm not advocating that you should encourage her, I don't want you dating her. In fact, it would probably be best if you took a vow of celibacy as soon as you're born." She mused, and Chris rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Don't worry mom, I was the good boy, I waited until after I was legally of age before I had sex for the first time. Wyatt killed her not long afterwards mind you. And he was actually sorry, he was aiming for a demon, but it turns out the demon had a shield. She didn't stand a chance." Chris reminisced painfully, and Phoebe felt a flicker of hurt as he recounted it.
Piper however had other matters on her mind.
"Wait, Wyatt had sex illegally?" she asked, and Chris hesitated, before nodding.
"Well yeah. I mean, he had proclaimed himself Emperor, the police were hardly going to come and give him a ticking off when he could obliterate them with a flick of his hand. Especially with what he did to the FBI building, he destroyed it with a sonic screaming power he stole, crushed virtually the entire lot of them inside." Chris said darkly, and Piper shuddered, hating when Chris told her all these things about the future.
She hadn't thought she would ever miss his 'future consequences' response, but sometimes, when she heard about what sort of a powerful, all encompassing evil her son had become in the future, she wished he would just reply with that instead of letting her in on all her son's crimes.
"Any other delightful things he did you want to share with us?" Phoebe asked, as Paige entered.
"Jenny thinks you don't like her." She said in amusement, pouring herself and Chris another glass of white wine.
"Well, she might be right." Chris said irritably, and she gave him a scolding look.
"Chris, she's a harmless kid, would it kill you to be nice to her?" she asked, and he glowered back at her.
"She may be a harmless kid, but she's still irritating. I'm sorry Paige, but I don't like her. Besides, I'm six years older than her on one end, and I'm not even conceived at the other, so she's sixteen years older than me. And I didn't come here to be fancied, especially not by some sixteen your old girl." He said, and she smiled softly.
"Alright, I suppose so. And no, I'm not trying to match make. Just, take it easy ok? I know it's making you uncomfortable and I know what Dan nearly did to you, but still, she is a teenager and I don't need my new roommate whining 'he loves me, he loves me not' while she's staying here." She said and Chris grinned.
"Alright, I'll apologise to her if it makes you happy. But if she falls for me, that's her problem, because it won't get her anywhere." He warned, and she nodded, grinning.
"And even if she does fall for him, it won't matter anyway, we think it'll be best if he takes a vow of celibacy." Piper said, and Chris rolled his eyes.
"Mom, I am not going to practice celibacy, no matter what you say. And besides, Wyatt's the one who should, if you ask me he's a sex addict." Chris said petulantly.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he's celibate too." Piper said absently, and Phoebe and Chris shook their heads behind her back.
Jenny then entered the room, looking interestedly at Chris. He hid a grimace and figured he might as well get it over with.
"Look Jenny, I'm sorry about dinner, I just don't like people poking around in my past. I have secrets and things I like to keep private, and my life and my past are two of those things. Ok?" he asked, and the sisters all exchanged looks with each other, knowing full well he was having a subtle go at them too.
"That's ok, I guess I was a little full on. Can I hold Wyatt?" she asked brightly, and Chris looked to his mother, who nodded and he passed his brother to her, and she began talking to him in a baby voice.
But despite that, she still kept her eye on Chris as he moved about the kitchen, putting dishes away, with Piper looking at him fondly, and for some reason extolling the benefits of celibacy to him.
XX
Chris was rather reluctant to wake up the next morning. Since they had found out who he was, Piper had insisted he stay in the house, and as such, she had moved the recliner from her room into Wyatt's room and made it up as his bed, so that he was always close to his big brother. And he had to admit, the recliner was a lot comfier than the couch in P3, and considering this was the room he had grown up living in, he didn't mind at all, other than the fact that Wyatt would wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, either needing him for his mother to deal with him, but he could cope with that.
He yawned widely and opened his eyes, and jumped back, closer to the backrest of the couch as he saw Jenny staring down at him, her wide protuberant eyes fixed on his bare chest.
"Hi, sorry, I was looking for the bathroom!" she said cheerfully, and he pulled his covers up to hide his modesty.
"Wrong door, it's the one opposite." He said warily, and she thanked him and practically skipped out of the room.
How long had she been standing there? Had it simply been an honest mistake? Had Wyatt been fussing and had she came in to see him? Or, was she standing there, staring at his half naked body like some sort of creepy stalker? Chris shook his head, he knew he was being silly. At most, she was a girl with a crush, and there wasn't much she could do to him anyway.
Still, he thought darkly, playing with Wyatt's teddy to make his brother giggle, the sooner she was out of here, the better.
XX
"I woke up and she was staring at me." Chris told his mother, who frowned slightly in concern.
"She probably just got lost on her way to the bathroom, took the wrong door or something." Piper assured him, and he shrugged, brushing his hair with his fingers self consciously.
"Yeah maybe. I know I'm being paranoid, I'm sorry." He said softly, and she touched his cheek.
"Sweetie, I can hardly blame you. After we first found out we were witches, and because my boyfriend at the time was our first ever vanquish, I couldn't look at men for ages, even delivery guys I ran up the stairs, Prue and Phoebe kept laughing at me. I can't blame you for being spooked honey." She said, as Jenny entered.
"Hi Chris. Sorry about earlier. Cool tattoo you have though!" she said brightly, and Chris made a panicked noise in his throat as his mother turned to him expectantly.
"You have a tattoo?" she demanded angrily, and he rolled his eyes, and Jenny looked at him nervously.
"Oh, did she not know you had one?" she asked worriedly, and Chris ground his teeth and shook his head.
"No, she didn't, and I'd have preferred it stayed that way." He said, and Jenny blushed with embarrassment.
"Oh, sorry." She said sheepishly.
"How could you get yourself a tattoo?" Piper demanded sternly, and Chris rolled his eyes.
"You have them, Phoebe has them, so does Paige! And I'm surprised you didn't know, it's on my shoulder, you would have seen it when you found me." He said, and she was looking at him expectantly, and he pulled down his tshirt to show her the tattoo on the top of his shoulder, a pentagram surrounded by what looked like an exploding sun.
"Well honey, I was a little more concerned with the fact that you were legally dead at the time. Why would you do that to yourself?" she demanded, and he grinned, about to take the wind out of her sails.
"It prevent demonic possession." He answered smartly, and she gasped in slight surprise.
"You guys believe in that stuff?" Jenny asked, and they both nodded.
"Well, I suppose that's alright then." Piper said, and Chris crouched to her ear.
"Hypocrite." He muttered, and she shot him a fond, scolding look.
"I'm your mother, I'm entitled to be. But I suppose if it works I can't complain, and you do sort of suit it." She muttered, and he grinned triumphantly.
"Alright Chris, I'm fighting fit and ready to find this demon...stration!" Paige said nervously as she saw that Jenny was in the kitchen.
"Another demonstration? Are you like one of those anti-government types?" Jenny asked excitedly, and Chris looked at her incredulously.
"No I'm not, it's an animal rights convention we're helping to set up. Protect the penguins and all that." Chris said, and Paige grinned.
"Cool, can I come?" Jenny asked, and Piper grimaced.
"Um, no, we're just setting up today, we don't even see any of the animals today, it's all office work." Chris invented wildly, and Jenny pouted.
"Oh, alright then." She said and slouched off to the living room.
"God, she's like syphilis." Chris muttered under his breath, and Piper laughed in spite of herself.
"Alright, be careful while you're out there. Paige, be careful, and if there's one too long hair out of place on his head," Piper said, and Chris shook his head in exasperation, "then you and me, issues." She warned her sister, and Paige shot her a dirty look.
"He will be fine. Aren't you going to give him the opposite warning?" she demanded, and Piper smiled.
"Nah. Son trumps sister honey, sorry." She said teasingly, and Paige threw an apple at her, which Piper froze.
"Thanks mom." Chris said, smiling, and took Paige's hand and dragged her from the kitchen before she got into a fight she had no chance of winning.
XX
Jenny was bored. Phoebe was at work, Paige and Chris were at this convention thing, and Piper and Wyatt had nipped out to the shops. Meaning she was in the house on her own, and liked Chris though she did, there was only so long that she could daydream about him. Bored, she decided to go and make herself some lunch.
When she entered the kitchen, she saw the massive fridge freezer, and hoping for some ice cream, she opened the freezer, and was surprised by what she saw, strange Tupperware boxes marked with strange things. Pulling them out, she saw them marked with things like rabbits blood, sea slugs and pigs feet. What sort of weird dinners was Piper planning on making with stuff like that, especially with the slugs?
Jenny was curious. She knew Piper was a great chef, and from what the sisters had been saying last night, Chris was too. So, she could conceivably cook something like pig's trotters or something like that. But the rabbit's blood and the sea slugs, they were a different matter all together. Jenny took the sea slugs out of the freezer, pondering what she could possibly make with them. After all, the French ate snails, why not slugs?
She found a large frying pan, and put a little oil in the pan, and began warming it up. Piper had said that she could cook herself something, so she would try and cook a slug, see what it tasted like and then if she liked it, she could cook more of them. She figured the oil should be hot enough by now, and threw a slug into the pan, and smiled as it gave a satisfying sizzle.
The doorbell rang, and Jenny cursed, dashing through to the foyer to go and answer it.
"Yeah, can I help you?" Jenny asked the salesman at the door.
"Are you the homeowner?" he asked jovially, and she gave him an unimpressed look.
"Do I look like the homeowner?" she asked irritably, and his smile faltered.
"Well is the owner of the house in?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No, she's out to the shops, she won't be back until later." She said, and the man nodded.
"Alright, then I'll come back later then." He said, and she bid him goodbye before shutting the door and heading back through to the kitchen.
And as she did so, she saw the room filling with smoke, and fire leaping from the frying pan.
"No, oh no!" she shrieked, running to the sink, and filling up a glass of water, throwing it into the pan, but that only caused more vapour into the air, filling the room with steam as well as smoke.
The kitchen was getting unbearably hot, and Jenny was afraid, afraid she was going to burn down the beautiful house, when Piper was trusting her to look after herself for a little while.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she cursed, and grabbed a hold of the pan and threw it into the sink but there was still fire blazing from it, and she was faced with no choice, and ran for the phone, dialling the fire brigade, hoping it would be over before Piper got back.
XX
Piper pulled into the driveway, taking note of the fire engine that was parked outside the house, and as she saw where the hose was pointed, she was immediately filled with a feeling of trepidation as she saw that it was headed inside for her own home.
"Oh dear, come on honey, let's see what happened." She said, and picked up her son, rushing towards the house.
What had happened? She had only left Jenny for an hour, what could have gone wrong in such a short space of time? But what if a demon had attacked, how the hell would they get out of that one? She dashed up the stairs, and saw the hose heading into the kitchen and quickly ran through, and relaxed slightly as she saw that Jenny was alright.
"Oh Piper, I'm so sorry!" Jenny said tearfully as she entered, and saw the cause of the problem.
A fireman was pulling a cremated frying pan out of the sink, smiling slightly.
"What happened?" Piper asked, assuring herself that Jenny was alright.
"I was trying to make myself a snack, the door went, I only left the room for a couple of minutes, and when I came back the thing was on fire, I couldn't put it out, I'm so sorry." Jenny said sadly, and Piper shook her head.
"It's ok sweetie, as long as you're alright, it could happen to anyone." She assured her, and then took a double take as she saw who the fireman was.
"Gregg?" she asked in shock, seeing a fireman who she had dated for a few weeks before they had drifted apart, and then of course Dan had come along, and everything has changed.
"How you been?" he asked, smiling at her shyly, and she blushed.
"Um, yeah I'm good, you?" she asked, and he shrugged.
"Can't complain. Jenny's alright, she didn't hurt herself, and I opened the windows to get rid of the smell. Hey Wyatt." He said, smiling at the baby.
"I'm so sorry Piper." Jenny said miserably, but Piper patted her shoulder.
"It's ok sweetie. What were you trying to cook anyway?" she asked, and Jenny scuffed her feet.
"I was experimenting, I found sea slugs in your freezer, and I thought you might be able to eat them, like the French do snails." She said, and Piper blanched.
What the hell else had the girl discovered while she had left her alone? Piper was just thankful that she had had the foresight to lock the attic door before she left, and was seriously beginning to wonder about this living arrangement. She could hardly have Jenny snooping around the house and finding their magical ingredients.
"Sea slugs?" Gregg asked in confusion, and Piper had to do some very quick thinking.
"Yeah, sea slugs, I had some smart assed patrons and I was going to tell them they were anchovies." She invited wildly.
Jenny seemed to accept this answer, but Gregg was still looking at her incredulously.
"Well what about the rabbit's blood and the pig's feet?" Jenny asked, and Piper hissed. Chris was right, she really didn't know when to shut the hell up.
"I'm thinking of making black pudding, and then stuffing it into pig's feet." She said, and just then, she was saved the trouble of answering as Paige and Chris orbed right into the hallway, and Piper hissed and froze both Jenny and Gregg in a panic.
"What's going on?" Paige asked nervously, seeing the fireman and the frozen girl in the kitchen.
"Jenny had a bit of an accident and is trying her hardest to expose us, she went exploring in the freezer." Piper said through clenched teeth.
"Uh-oh, am I in trouble?" Paige asked worriedly, and Chris shook his head.
"Not as much trouble as Jenny is. I told you we couldn't have her staying here." He growled at her, and Paige at least had the good grace to look ashamed of herself.
"Did you get the demons?" Piper asked, and Paige nodded, just as Wyatt began to cry, and his orb shield suddenly enveloped him, his brother and his mother, as a demon shimmered in, just as the kitchen unfroze.
"Crap!" Piper cursed, freezing the room again, as the demon fired a light dart at them, which bounced off Wyatt's shield and into a plant pot.
Chris turned and flicked Gregg and Jenny to the floor, hoping they wouldn't unfreeze, while Paige orbed out of the way of another light dart. Chris then orbed a knife across the room, catching the demon in the throat, and he vanished in a blaze of flames, just as Gregg and Jenny unfroze.
"Whoa, what happened?" Jenny asked in shock, sitting up and looking around at the destroyed plant pot, and at her and Gregg sitting on the floor.
"There was a..." Piper said hesitantly, thankful that Wyatt's shield had dropped before anyone had seen it.
"Short in the toaster, and it pinged and took out the plant pot, and Gregg tackled Jenny to the floor before it hit her." Chris said smoothly, and she had to admit, keeping secrets from them had turned him into an accomplished liar.
"Wow, thanks." Jenny said, impressed.
"But I don't..."
"So that's it, everything's ok? I promise we'll get a new toaster first thing tomorrow." Paige said, clearly trying to usher Gregg out of the house, and Chris looked urgently to his mother, who regretfully fired a small blast at the toaster to keep their cover.
The door then opened, announcing the return of Phoebe.
"Whoa, who burnt the po-"
"Phoebe! Hi!" Piper cried, blocking out the rest of her sister's question, and Phoebe's eyes widened as she came into the kitchen and saw the mess.
"What happened here?" Phoebe asked in a voice of forced calm.
"Wow, I could swear the toaster didn't look like this a second ago." Gregg said.
"Is everything alright now though?" Piper asked, and Gregg nodded.
"Um yeah, the fire's out, no one got hurt, and the only damage is your plantpot. Want me to take your toaster?" he asked, and she nodded.
"Ok Gregg, thanks for stopping by." Piper said, walking him to the door, while Chris, Paige and Phoebe all turned to fix Jenny with lethal gazes.
"Would it help if I said I'm sorry?" she asked nervously.
XX
Gregg frowned as he climbed back in to the firetruck. Something clearly wasn't right at Piper's house. Why on earth would she have slugs and things inside her freezer? And why did everyone suddenly appear different, as if time had stood still for a few seconds, and where had her sister and the kid come from? And he had been sure he had seen some sort of blue bubble in the room, and he definitely didn't remember pushing Jenny out of the way of the so called exploding toaster, which didn't look as though it had shorted, it looked as though someone had tried to blow it up and had mostly succeeded. The entire thing was strange, and it was creepy.
Gregg fingered the cross he wore round his neck, beneath his wavy black hair. Something was definitely wrong in that house, he just couldn't place his finger on it. People appeared from nowhere, weird accidents, suddenly changing positions and winding up on the floor, it was all very mysterious.
He remembered back to his studies as Sunday school, when reading the Malleus Malificarum. Witches, if he remembered his studies correctly, used strange things in spells and potions, and it had sounded like Phoebe had been about to say something like potions when she had entered the house. Strange things in the freezer, strange accidents, people suddenly appearing...could it be that the warnings from school were right? That there were dark forces out there, in league with the devil?
Gregg scoffed. Piper and her sisters seemed so nice...mind you, she had kept disappearing when they had been together, and had often suddenly changed at a second's notice. And there was that blue bubble he had seen out of the corner of his eye, and he was sure that the toaster had been fine after the boy had said it had shorted out, and a second later it had turned into its present state. Surely they couldn't be involved in things that went against the word of God? They couldn't be in league with the devil, the entire idea was just preposterous.
Either way, Gregg was determined to keep an eye on things at the Halliwell manor. He still liked Piper and her sisters, and he didn't want an accident befalling them. But either way, the presence of those things in her freezer were enough to make anyone slightly suspicious. He knew something was wrong. And if the Halliwells were indeed witches, then it was his duty as a member of his congregation to report it. Witches could not be tolerated, they spread mistrust and lies, sealing pacts with the devil by having sex with him, pledging their souls to further his darkness.
No, he would keep a close watch. After all, if they were witches, he would have to make sure to bring them back to God's guidance...or expose them in the process.
Touching his cross for comfort, he pulled away from the manor.
XX
"I'm really sorry." Jenny said sadly as the four Halliwells entered the kitchen to discuss things, closing the door behind them.
"She has to go." Chris said firmly, and Piper was slightly inclined to agree.
"Chris, she's just a kid, she made a mistake, it wasn't her fault the pan caught fire." Paige said patiently, but Chris shook his head.
"That's not what worries me aunt Paige. Why the hell was she going nosing in the freezer? She could have gotten us exposed, she's clearly just as nosy as her uncle is, and that could be dangerous." He said in concern, and Phoebe frowned.
"Look, I know you don't particularly like having her around Chris, but she made an honest mistake, and we got away with it didn't we?" Phoebe asked, and Piper nodded.
"Yes we did, but it was far too close. And the demon could have killed her, and that would have been difficult to explain wouldn't it?" she asked, and Chris nodded.
"Exactly. And that doesn't even mention the fact that she was trying to cook slugs. I mean, come on, how dumb is she?" he muttered, and the three of them did have to give him that.
"And if she is as nosy and interfering as Dan, then what if she strolls into the attic and finds the book?" Phoebe asked grimly, and that was also a point.
"Well, we can still keep her around, we just can't leave her on her own, that's all. We can't just throw out an innocent kid onto the street, not after we told her to live with us." Paige said, and then saw the reproachful look in Chris' eyes, and she knew full well what was playing over in his mind.
Chris looked pleadingly at his mother, who sighed.
"You're both right. She can't be left on her own, clearly, but we can hardly throw her out on the street." She said, ignoring the sad look on Chris' face.
Yeah, but you can throw me out when Dan says so, he thought miserably.
"So what do we do?" Paige asked, and Piper heaved a breath.
"She can stay. But," she said, cutting Chris off as he protested, "she can't be left alone anymore, and only until the weekend, then Paige can take her home." She said, and looked at her son, begging him to accept the compromise.
He looked at his aunts, and saw Paige willing to accept it, and Phoebe didn't seem inclined to argue, so he nodded irritably.
"Alright fine. But if she does anything else that might expose us, she has to go? Please?" he begged, flashing his puppy dog eyes at his mother, and Phoebe and Paige smiled as she immediately crumbled.
"Agreed." She said, and they headed back through to Jenny.
XX
"So I can still stay here?" Jenny asked brightly, and Piper nodded.
"Yes Jenny, but only until the end of the week." She said firmly, and Jenny hugged Piper happily.
"Thank you! I thought you were going to throw me out! Sorry I almost wrecked your kitchen." She said, and Chris eyed her warily.
"Just stick to soup next time." He said, and she nodded in agreement.
"When are you making the black pudding?" Jenny asked eagerly, earning Piper a strange look from her sisters.
"Next month, the blood needs to lose some toxins first." She explained, and the girl seemed to buy it.
Dinner returned the atmosphere mostly to normal, though Chris kept a wary eye on Jenny all the same, but she seemed less interested in him tonight than she had been, which suited him. But still, by simply trying to cook something she should never have been trying to cook anyway, she had almost set the house on fire, discovered their private business and had also risked exposure, all in one afternoon. He might have been being irrational, but now he wasn't so sure when he considered all the trouble she had caused. He had told the girls she could be trouble.
But he supposed she was a kid, whose parents were absent a lot, and he could relate to that, she didn't even have any other close family members to help guide her, so he supposed he should cut her some slack, which he would do provided she kept the lustful glances to a minimum.
As his mother and aunts cleaned things off the table, she approached him shyly.
"Are you still mad at me?" she asked uncertainly, and he shook his head.
"No, it's just, you could have gotten someone hurt." He said diplomatically, but her grin brightened, thinking he was concerned about her welfare rather than being worried about the possibility of exposure and the damage it could have done to his home, mother and brother.
"I'm sorry, it was stupid, what I did. Would they even taste nice?" she asked, and Chris snorted.
"Somehow I doubt it." He said, stretching his body slowly, freeing up his joints.
It had been a good day's vanquishing, and doing it with Paige while she was in her prime was great fun, they had wiped out a load of nasties, and the only blip was the one that had followed them back here, and despite the chaos that had been dealt with relatively easily.
"Is that tshirt one of the things you bought yesterday?" Jenny asked curiously, eyeing his dark green tshirt which accented his eyes, and he shook his head.
"No, it's an old one, mo-Piper wanted to iron them first before I wore any of the stuff I got yesterday." He said, heading through to the living room, hoping he could find something interesting to watch for a change. Past tv was good, he knew that, but he was either too late or too early for all the shows he really liked, and it was irritating to the extreme.
"Sorry about this morning, me and my big mouth." Jenny said sheepishly, sitting down on the couch beside him. Chris suppressed a grimace, he'd been hoping she would go and help the others in the kitchen.
"It's ok, Piper's just really overprotective of me that's all, she doesn't want me doing anything too extreme." He said with a small smile, and she shrugged, then looked at him curiously.
"Did you have hair gel in one of your bags yesterday?" she asked in interest, and he shook his head, praying she would suddenly lose her voice.
Why was this girl so interested in what he looked like? Yes he had a few cosmetics and he'd bought some clothes, but he had also bought books that would most likely establish him as a nerd, why couldn't she ask about them, it might get her off his back.
"No, I had wax, why?" he asked politely, wishing she would shut up and leave him alone.
"I'm just trying to imagine how you would do your hair. Whatever it is, I'm sure you'd suit it." She said earnestly, smiling and edging a little closer to Chris, who had his eyes closed in irritation and didn't notice.
"I style it back and to the side, it sort of makes my hair look naturally slicked back." He explained reluctantly, and she smiled at the thought of how nice he would look.
"Bet you have a girlfriend." She said teasingly, and he shook his head, ignoring the painful memories that conjured.
"Not anymore. She died." He said bluntly, hoping she would shut up when she realised that was a painful subject.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Second time today my mouth's gotten me into trouble." She said nervously, wondering why he was so closed off from her. He seemed open with the girls, but she was a girl, why wouldn't he talk to her?
Only the second, Chris thought in dark amazement, he figured it must be some kind of new record for her.
"Did Gregg really push me out of the way?" she asked softly, closing the distance between them even more, but as he was focused on the TV he didn't notice.
"Yes." Chris said, his tone inviting no reply, but she gave him one anyway.
"I wish it would have been you. I'd love it if you were my knight in shining armour." She said, and he turned to look at her incredulously, and as he did so, she leaned in and kissed him on the lips.
Chris pulled away from her, leaping to the side of the bed and looking at her in alarm, while she looked up at him in shock.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded angrily, wiping his lips to get rid of the taste of cherry lip gloss, he hated cherry.
"Oh, I-I'm sorry, I thought, well, I..." she said, hurt tears of rejection streaming into her eyes, and before Chris could say anything else, she leapt to her feet, gave a dramatic sob, and ran up the stairs, howling.
Chris stood in the same spot, thoroughly confused, weirded out and repulsed, and then looked at where she had disappeared.
"Uh oh. That can't be good." He said uncertainly, as his mom and aunts came in from the kitchen, their faces demanding an explanation.
Hello again!
Here we are with the second chapter, and things are starting to heat up.
Jenny really is annoying and stupid, hence her actions. Who tries to cook slugs (mind you, one of my friends once made a cheese string stir fry so maybe I cant say much, and also believed vegetarians can eat snails as they dont have backbones). But worse, she had kissed Chris, and believe me, I'd rather see him with anyone other than her. But what do her actions entail for the rest of the story?
And Gregg...what is he up to? He seems to think the girls might be evil (no offence intended to any devout Christians, but I had a flatmate last year who had a holier than thou routine that pissed me off, and he was a nutter to boot) and is going to be keeping an eye on things to make sure there is no evil going on...
Anyway, hope you're liking so far, sorry for the lateness but I was watching the tennis final. So, until next time, please read and review!