Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed.

This is a repost of chapter three because I got ahead of myself and forgot to edit before I submitted this chapter. Hehe, oops.

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Chapter 3: On the Edge

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While up in the attic with his mother and aunts, Wyatt made little cooing noises from his playpen, and Piper found herself tempted beyond all reason to fly over to her little angel-boy and smother him with kisses, anything to—

"Okay, this is ridiculous!" Paige huffed, throwing her hands up and then closing the book with a loud thump. "There's nothing," She orbed the book carefully back onto the stand with a sigh.

Piper froze, stunned at her sister's outburst as she was shaken from her motherly thoughts.

The half-witch reached out to pet her nephew, who had crawled towards her from the confines of his playpen and now stood against the side, reaching his hands out to her and smiling.

She smiled, too, and reached out to lift the toddler into her lap.

"Well, maybe we're just not looking in the right place," Phoebe offered, dropping her chin into her hand and closing her eyes.

"Maybe there's just nothing to find. Could be we've hit a dead end for a reason," The eldest charmed one said calmly, standing with her arms crossed.

The psychic sister opened her eyes immediately, shooting up to sit straight in her chair as the fury hit her.

"I can't accept that, Piper, especially when there is an innocent who could die because we didn't try hard enough to save him."

"Chris is anything but an innocent, Phoebe, and besides, we did try. There's nothing we can do." The mother's tone was final.

Phoebe glared up at Piper, before looking away, possibly to brood on her own failure to locate and save an innocent.

"Hey, guys," Paige's sudden exclamation startled the reflecting witch, causing her to look over at her sister with surprise.

That sounded like hope in the witch's voice.

"What about scrying?"

And Phoebe's head dropped again, along with her hopes.

"We already tried that, Paige, we don't have anything to go off of," Piper said, an air of irritability and impatience around her.

"Yeah, I know, nothing here—but what about P3? Chris stays there, doesn't he? Maybe we can find something there," the half-witch said, bouncing Wyatt on her knee and listening to him giggle with a smile.

Phoebe looked up again, stunned by her cleverness—and also peeved that the older, more experienced sisters hadn't thought of it first.

"Alright. Paige, you go check it out. We'll wait here for you," Piper said, urging her sister to go and get it done quickly.

Paige nodded, and after setting Wyatt back down in his playpen, orbed out with a smirking salute.

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No one was there to notice the blue glow coming from under the office door as the youngest Halliwell sister orbed into the dark room. Gasping as she tripped over something in the dark, she fumbled blindly for the light switch, wishing she could just call for it to turn on without the whole switch face orbing into her hand.

Finding it soon enough, light suddenly flooded the room and Paige had to raise her eyebrows in surprise. It was spotless. If she didn't know any better, she'd have to say that no one had ever stayed here before.

There was the office couch in the middle of the room, only a folded blanket and pillow sitting on the cushions. The fire extinguisher was on the wall near the bathroom doorway, and there were still photos and magazine articles on the walls like she remembered. The crates of beer that they regularly stored in here were still there in the back corner and to Paige's appreciative delight, still full.

Nothing in here seemed to be expressly belonging to Chris and only something that was truly his would work for scrying.

About to return empty handed, Paige could only sigh and drop her head a little. She really didn't want to let Phoebe down; she could tell her sister really wanted to help Chris. And the more time that passed without the presence of their snarky whitelighter, so did she.

She turned to orb out when, all of a sudden, something caught her eye. There was something peeking out from under the couch, something she would not have seen had it not been for its shiny, reflective surface.

Bending down to inspect her curious findings, Paige realized it was the corner of a photo and quickly picked it up, hoping that it was not one that had just fallen from the wall.

The powers that be must have heard her wish, because when she brought it up to the light, she saw Chris's smiling face, though slightly younger, with another boy's arms looped around his shoulders. The face of a boy she didn't recognize.

He had somewhat wavy blonde hair and his brown eyes were soft and happy. Not to mention he had the same million-dollar watt smile like someone else she knew, though she couldn't quite remember who it belonged to. There was this unrecognizable edge to the picture, despite the innocence of the whole thing, and she just couldn't figure out why the other boy seemed to be familiar.

She flipped the picture over absentmindedly, inspecting the back real quick, and did a double take when she saw writing on it, in the top left corner.

'Chris and Wyatt, May 4, 2018'

Holy shit.

Chris really did know Wyatt. So he was telling the truth—he did know them in the future.

Completely forgetting her mental note to chew Chris out for leaving such dangerous information just lying around for anyone to pick up, she orbed off to the attic, eager to show her sister what she had found.

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Darryl, nearly twenty years in the future, swallowed thickly as he watched the young man, who had come to be like a son to him, slip two potions in his pockets, and turn around to retrieve the spell he'd written earlier from his desk.

"Jordan," Darryl's rough voice immediately had the man's head snapping up from his work to lock eyes with his surrogate father.

"Yeah?" The older man saw Jordan mentally curse the waver in his voice. Apparently the boy thought now was a time to remain strong and not falter. He couldn't agree more.

"Are you sure you want to do this? There are others who could go back."

"It has to be me, Darryl," the blue eyes of his friend were imploring and the ex-cop could see desperation lingering behind determination. "I have to go."

"Chris won't be happy with you."

"Yeah, well Chrissy can kiss my ass. This is all for his benefit, anyway." Jordan said with a growl and a curse as he cleared the table away from the wall so he could draw the triqueta on the wall.

"He won't be happy with me either," Darryl countered, knowing he was playing dirty, but beyond the point of caring. "You know he asked me to watch out for you. I can't do that if you leave this time."

With a heavy sigh, the brunette at the wall slumped forward, the chalk in his hand stilling.

There was silence for a moment before Jordan seemed to work up the strength to speak.

"Darryl, I know this is dangerous. I know that this could very well turn out to be a suicide mission. Hell, I don't even know if Chris is still alive back there," Jordan paused here, his grip on the chalk tightening so much that Darryl thought he might crush it into dust.

"But, I think I owe it to him to tell him what's happened. He thinks she's dead, Darryl. He needs to know. It could very well be the only thing that could motivate him to either get his ass in gear and get back here, or pinpoint what happened in the past and change it."

Darryl looked at the man in front of him, crossing his arms in thought. "You've been thinking about this for a while, more than you've let on."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I have." Jordan turned to face him, his chin lifting to stare down the cop rebelliously and resolutely.

A sigh.

"Alright, Jordan. But you get your ass back here in one piece—and bring that delinquent friend of yours back with you. I want both you boys back here whole and healthy so you can survive the tongue lashing I'm going to give you."

Jordan smirked and walked over to Darryl just in time to catch the bigger man in a fierce embrace, the same kind he had given Chris the day he had left for the past.

"You be careful, Jo," Darryl ordered, his voice quiet but no less demanding in his ear. "You be careful like you were taught."

"I will, Darryl. You trained me well enough," Jordan said to him with a pat on the back, and a second later that had separated and the determined boy was back to finishing the triqueta, while Darryl wiped his bright eyes.

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Piper looked at the picture incredulously, her eyes drawn to the boy that had been labeled as her son. He looked so much like Leo, there was no question.

"You found this in the office?" She asked, her voice restrained.

"Yes, under the couch." Paige replied, looking at her sister warily. "Piper?"

"I could kill that stubborn ass whitelighter of ours! How could he leave something like this out in the open for others to find? It's reckless, not to mention the exposure risk."

"Piper, look at it this way: if he hadn't left it where he did, we wouldn't have been able to help him."

"I know, I know, just let me rant for a minute!" Piper snapped, rolling her eyes and growling.

Phoebe and Paige stayed silent through it, sharing smiles and amused snorts over their eldest sister. Always the mother hen.

Paige had come back with the picture, and, even after scrying, they hadn't been able to find Chris despite the extra boost.

Piper and Paige tossed theories back and forth for a moment, while the youngest was silent. She had surprised them by saying that maybe Chris wasn't somewhere on the map.

"You really think so?" Piper had asked her.

"Makes sense. It might be why we can't locate him," Phoebe had answered with a shrug.

"Wait a minute, I have an idea," Piper had exclaimed, turning to her youngest sister. "Paige, try sensing for him. Maybe we can find him that way."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Paige had started, her brow creased and her hands up in front of her. "I'm not a strong enough whitelighter to do that."

"Maybe not normally, but you do have something of his right there," Phoebe had said, indicating the picture in her sister's hands. "Try using that to help you."

"Alright, I'll try," Paige had griped, closing her eyes with a frown.

In the end, it had worked, and the youngest Halliwell had been able to get a lock on Chris's location, though she didn't know exactly where it was.

Now they were just getting over the shock that they really did seem to know Chris in the future—provided that this was not a trick just to get them to believe him. After all that had happened, suspicion was called for.

"Okay," Piper sighed, apparently over her previous ire for their furtive man from the future. She tilted her head back, and lifting her eyes towards the ceiling. "Leo! Leo, we need you!"

They waited a moment to see his orbs, but nothing ever happened.

"LEO?"

Nothing, not even a jingle.

"Ugh, Paige, take Wyatt over to Sheila's and get her to watch him for a while. Leo's not coming and we can't take a baby on a rescue mission with us."

"Alright, but she won't like it," The half-angel said, picking the little blue eyed boy up from his playpen and settling him on her hip.

"We know, but try your best. Piper and I'll stay here and make some general vanquishing potions while you're gone. The second you get back, we're going." Phoebe said, stopping Paige once more as she tried orb out. "And, Paige?"

"Yeah?"

"Please hurry. I don't know how much time Chris had left," her psychic sister pleaded, her voice softening at the last part, nearly making her half sister cry.

Paige nodded, far more serious this time as she orbed out with Wyatt in her arms.

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End.

Well, thanks for reading--finally updated!! I actually had a reviewer give me a little criticism and I'm glad they did--it gave me just the ideas I needed to break out of writer's block. Thanks!

REVIEW!!!!!