Chapter 3

Late night kitchen pondering

It was dead quiet in the manor. Everyone was fast asleep, well everyone except for me anyway. Not that they knew that I was here, if they did they would probably not be too happy about it. The conversation hadn't gone to bad, not that overly good either. They believed me when I told them I'd come from the future to save Wyatt, and that I had good intentions. Though I could feel the distrust aimed at me. But considering that it was two in the morning, I figured I'd be safe from the wrath of my mother and aunts. I couldn't, or rather wouldn't allow myself to sleep. Not right now. Not until I find some answers. I didn't come here to relax and just tag along; I came here to change the future. And time was running out, quickly. I could almost hear the clock's tick tock as the minutes flew by, mocking me. Whoever had gotten to Wyatt had done it before Chris was born, which meant that I had to work my butt of to find the demon responsible. I suppressed a yawn and continued flipping through the pages in the book, ready with a pen and paper to write anything down who might be a threat that they hadn't already dealt with. Although, I really didn't think that I would find something new all of the sudden after already looking through it about 50times. The fact that I hadn't technically slept for over two days was starting to get to me, and I realized that there wasn't much point in continuing right now. I wasn't as strong as my dear brother Chris. I'm sure that he would have been up all night with it, several nights. Maybe he should have gone instead of me. How I missed that overprotective, sarcastic and irritating brother of mine. Even though he drove me insane, he was all I had left. I smiled, remembering a particular fond memory that we had a few years back.

I was sitting on the floor in my bedroom playing school when I heard a knock on the door and my mother walked in and sat down on the bed. White spots of flour colored her face.

"Mel honey, do you know where your brother is?" Mom asked in a soft voice.

"No, I haven't seen Chrissie. Is he in trouble?" I smiled innocently back at her with my six year old grin, showing of the glug of a tooth that I lost yesterday. I was so excited when I woke up the next day and found five dollars underneath my pillow. I was going to save it; I really wanted a new doll.

"No sweetie, I just need him to help me with something." She smiled back at me.

"I can go look for him mommy." I jumped of the floor, eager to help.

"Thank you sweetie, I'd love that. Just be careful." She bent down and gave me a kiss.

"I promise!" I hugged her quickly and orbed off to where I knew that Chris would be.

"Hi Chris." I said happily, causing him to jump high in surprise at my arrival.

"Hi Mel, what are you doing here?" He said calmly, and took a step back.

"Mom wants you to come." I explained, and stopped as I heard a strange noise.

"What was that Chrissie? Are you hiding something?" I went closer, trying to catch a glimpse of it.

"Nothing, there's nothing here Mel." As soon as he said it, the noise sounded again.

"Yes there is, you are hiding something. Tell me now or I'll go get mom." I threatened him.

"Wait. Don't tell mom." He surrendered." Okay, I will tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone. This is our little secret, okay?" He looked at me with a serious expression.

"Not even Wyatt?" I asked, knowing that they told each other everything.

"No, not even Wyatt." I smiled, feeling special that we had our own little secret. Cool.

"Okay, I promise. I won't tell anyone." He gave me a nod and turned around to pick up something that was lying on the ground, a blanket? I was confused; this was a strange thing that Chrissie wanted to keep from everyone. Why would he not want anyone to know about it?

"Mel, this is Raven." Chris lifted the blanket and revealed a brown creature within it. A puppy dog.

"He's cute." I reached out a hand and gently patted his head. I've always wanted a dog.

"I found him when I walked home from school. He needs someone to take care of him; I can't do it by myself. Will you help me Mel?" He looked at me, pleading with his eyes. I smiled.

"Yes, I will." This was our secret, our puppy, and I was going to keep it. I wouldn't let him down.

With a sigh, I gently closed the book and orbed it back up to the attic so they wouldn't find out that I had used it without their knowledge. I didn't want Piper to have another reason to not trust me. It killed me seeing my beloved mother look at me like that with eyes filled with distrust. I knew that it was going to be truly hard facing them all once again, and making them believe my act. I just didn't think that it would go so smoothly. They all used to tell me that I was the spitting image of my mother, including my temper and stubbornness; still they didn't recognize me at all. An exact copy, except for my emerald eyes that is that I got from Prue.I was a stranger to my own family. Damn, it was hard to keep up appearances and act like it didn't bother me at all, but I knew that I couldn't ever let them know who I really was. They only needed to know enough to save Wyatt. That's why I came, and then I would go back again. Hopefully into a better future, where they were all alive again and Wyatt was my good big brother who'd criticize the boy's I wanted to date and occasionally be the loving brother I wanted him to be. It hadn't been easy, being the only girl and all growing up with two brothers who mostly just wanted to be with each other, but they still managed to make me feel included. Well, that is before he decided to join the dark side and I started to hate him with all my heart. Yet, no matter how much I despised him, I knew that there was still good in him. Somewhere deep down, he still cared about us, Chris, anyways. It was the good that made me start to hope that maybe there was still a chance to save him. And that's precisely what I am going to do.

And there you have it, a new chapter. I hope you'll like it. To be honest, I had a bit of a problem deciding how to proceed. Maybe you wanted a big showdon between Piper and Melinda, could possibly still happen I suppose though. Nothing is ever impossible when it comes to stories, right? I thought it would be a nice idea to ad in a little memory, please let me know if you would like to have more of those. And yes, there will be coming up demons and battles soon enough, promise. As always, let me know what you think about the chapter and what you'd like to happen next. I haven't really fully decided how the story is going to proceed so you have a change to decide how it will play out. xo xo