Unplanned Changes

Chapter 4 of ?

By: teal-lover

Summary: Chris changed more than he ever expected with his trip to the past, which in turn lead to more changes to his future. Series finale fix.

AN: Sorry it's been so long—but I've been out of commission with a sprained hand in a splint. It's off now, so I'm trying to catch up. Just one other note—I started typing this with it on, so if you find any glaring typos—blame it on the one handed peck & type:)

Major spoilers for season 8 finale because I hated the way it ended and Chris just seemed so unhappy.

Rating: T, PG-13 for some language.

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or any of the characters or get any money from writing this fiction.

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Wyatt beamed happily, "Times up Chris. Either you're going to let us help, or you're not going to let us not help. What's it going to be?"

Chris lifted his head and stared at his brother incredulously. The older man had a nasty habit of ruining the English language with double negatives. If he didn't know better, he would swear that the elder witch did it on purpose just to annoy him.

He should have known that once he had shared that tidbit of information on the past, Wyatt would latch on to it with a relentless determination that would make him give in out of sheer exhaustion. "Fine, Wy. I'll listen, but I'm not making any promises," Chris warned before turning to his grandfather. "So Grandpa, what's your idea--and I'm telling you right now--I do not want them to know that I remember."

Victor cocked his head inquisitively. "Why wouldn't you want them to know?"

"Because that will change how they act, how they teat me."

Wyatt shared an equally confused look with his grandfather as they tried to understand the younger witch's reasoning.

Chris tapped his fingers on the table, waiting expectantly for them to nod in understanding. He glared at the blonde when he started to laugh.

"Ok, perhaps that made sense in Chris' world, but to the rest of us mere mortals—uh, wasn't that kind of the point?" Wyatt asked humorously.

The brunette rolled his eyes, "No," he answered a little too quickly, then amended, "Well yes. But that's not the way I want it. I mean, would you want someone to change the way they felt about you out of a guilty conscience? Because you know that's all it would be. I'm empathic, remember?"

Wyatt was thoroughly confused now. "Yes, you are. And that's what I don't get. You've had the ability to change the way they feel about you your entire life, yet you've never even bothered."

"Right. And I suppose you'd want someone to like you just because you made them like you. I'd rather them be honest in their feelings than to live a lie that I made up."

Finally, Chris got the nod of understanding that he had been waiting for. He wanted to make sure that there could be no misunderstanding, so he spoke firmly. "Just in case you've forgotten what I said earlier—I do not want them to know. Now Grandpa, what's your idea?"

The older man bit his lip, shrugging in mild amusement. "Well, I had several, but you just shot most of them down. One of my other ideas was to do a spell to make them see how unfair they are to you, because talking to them is like talking to a brick wall. I've tried over and over again to get them to change, but the only things that happen are: 1) they deny it, 2) they don't believe it, or 3) they just flat out tell me that I'm imagining things."

Wyatt shared a knowing glance with his younger brother before laughing softly.

Victor eyed the two strangely and felt as if he was missing something between their silent communication again. "What!" he demanded impatiently.

"Grandpa, it's just that we've heard that argument a million times before. In the future, whenever you're arguing with mom and dad, nine times out of ten it's going to be over Chris."

"Don't tell me how to raise my son!" Chris raised his voice dramatically in a perfect imitation of Piper. It seemed that he had a lot of practice doing it because the sound, facial expression, and body movement was so much like that of his mother, that Victor could picture his daughter saying them.

Wyatt laughed, adding the rest of her sentence in his own high-pitched tone, "It's not like you're Mr. Voice of Experience not having raised ANY children!"

Chris stopped laughing and frowned suddenly, reprimanding his brother with a light smack on the back of his head.

Wyatt winced as he realized that he may have inadvertently insulted his grandfather. "Sorry Grandpa."

With an exasperated sigh, Chris shook his head. "Yeah, don't mind Wyatt. Now you know why he orbs everywhere. He has a hard time walking with his foot in his mouth all the time."

Victor shrugged it off easily. "Don't worry about it boys. It's no secret that I would never win any father of the year awards while my kids were growing up. I left my girls when I couldn't stand the idea of them being involved in a magical life that would likely get them killed. It doesn't excuse the fact that my girls grew up without me in their lives, even if I didn't agree with their lifestyle. But I don't intend to make that mistake again with my grandchildren."

Chris gave the older man a shy smile before answering. "We know grandpa. You've always been a major part of our lives, especially mine. So don't worry, you're still awesome."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that, because that leads me to my other plan."

"Which is?" the younger man prodded.

Victor smiled nervously, then let his words run together as he sped through them. "I-want-you-to-come-live-with-me."

"You want me to what?" Chris practically yelled.

Victor cleared his throat nervously and repeated himself calmly. "I said I want you to come live with me. Your baby self. Right now, until you're an adult--or as long as you want."

Even Wyatt frowned at that. "But Grandpa, we've always been together. We work well as a team. And besides, I'd miss the little rug rat."

"I'll get a house close by, and he'll only be an orb away from you guys. I don't want to separate the two of you; I can see how close a relationship the two of you have."

Chris shook his head, "I don't know Grandpa. How is that going to help?"

"Because I would be raising you. I remember what you told me about the original future. If I'm still awesome, I guess that you were happy when you were with me?"

Chris pursed his lips in deep thought, avoiding his brother's intense stare. "Yeah. But it wasn't all bad. Most of the family was cool, even Wyatt here."

Wyatt's eyes drifted down to the floor while he mumbled sadly, "Yeah, but Chris--he's got a point. You've always been happier when you were spending time with Grandpa. It's almost as if you can forget about the way they treat you when he's around. But it's usually only when they're not. So I guess it kind of makes sense."

His tone dejected and his mouth hanging open in disbelief, Chris stared at his older brother. "You--you want me leave?"

Wyatt shook his head immediately, "No, of course not. But I just want you to be happy. We could always still hang out. I mean, if you want to. And of course we'd still do vanquishes together, probably still go to the same school and all--right Grandpa?"

"You bet. I would never want to come between you two in any way. I'd never take Chris and run away somewhere or anything. I'd make sure it was in walking distance for you guys--even if you don't really need it with the orbing and all. But look at your mom and her sisters. Paige didn't grow up with them. In fact, she didn't even know them back then and they still are as close as if they known each other from birth. They came together as adults."

Victor smiled as both young men seemed to brighten up after that, and it encouraged him to go on. "And I'm sure you'll both indulge an old guy and graciously spend weekends at my house in the future, right?"

"Of course."

"Then you'd both be together all the time. You just wouldn't sleep under the same roof every night. But what's to stop you from orbing over any time you felt like it?"

"Nothing," they both chimed in happily.

"So what do you say?"

'If Wyatt is ok with it, maybe it could work', Chris perused thoughtfully. His face fell as he thought of something else and he pouted. "It doesn't matter what I say, Grandpa. You know how stubborn mom is. She's never going to let you basically raise me. I think even dad would protest over that one, so what's the point even asking?"

Wyatt frowned in agreement, then brightened with another thought. "Maybe not with just Grandpa asking, but if all three of us give it a shot, then maybe we could work on them?"

"And just what are we supposed to tell her? I already said I don't want to tell them about my past self. And you really think they're going to believe that they'll be anything less than perfect over the years?"

Wyatt shook his head, instantly formulating a plan to counter Chris' argument. "They will if we tweak the projection spell. They won't see the actual future, but they will see how miserable you've been as a result of how they've acted. Who knows, maybe that will even be enough to get them to change."

"Not likely. They're going to see me here, and see that I turned out ok. They'd never believe that this whole problem has anything to do with them. You forget Wyatt; I've known them a whole lot longer than you have. I've known them in two lifetimes, plus I got to know them when I came to the past. They just don't think like that. Not that they don't take responsibility for their actions, but most of the time, they tend to look for other reasons that have nothing to do with them." Chris said in irritation, thinking back to how his family refused to believe that Wyatt could have been evil. No matter how hard he tried, even after they discovered his identity, he was still usually the bad guy whenever he mentioned it.

He took a deep breath and sighed loudly. His mood turned sour as soon as he began thinking about his family's actions over the years. He couldn't even begin to count how many times in his life that he had pretended to be sick or hurt just to get his mother's attention. All of it done just so that he wouldn't feel like she was pre-judging him. It was almost as if she was just waiting for him to do something wrong or slip up somehow.

He recalled one particular time...

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"Chris are you ready yet?" his mom called upstairs. "Wyatt's ready to leave you. Come on, you're going to be late. You know the rules about orbing--you don't get to do it unless it's an emergency."

With the widest grin the twelve-year-old could muster, Chris threw the covers off his legs, mumbling a spell that flushed his cheeks. He quickly began to sweat as his body overheated and he stood in front of the mirror, holding his midsection as if in pain. He moaned pitifully and began a slow trudge down the stairs. "Mom, I don't feel so good."

Piper took in his appearance and her eyes widened with worry. She rushed to meet him halfway and touched the back of her hand to his forehead. "Chris, honey--you're burning up." She wrapped her arms around him and began leading him back the way he came. "Come on, it's back to bed for you."

Chris turned his head behind her back, partially grinning at his brother from the top of the stairs as Wyatt shook his head and headed off to school…

The younger boy knew that his mother would dote on him all day long while his brother was away at school. It wasn't as if he didn't want to go, but it had been awhile since he tried anything like this. He didn't want her to get suspicious by doing it too often. Now, the prospect of spending time with her, free from judgment and full of warmth, was simply too inviting to pass up.

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Wyatt snapped his fingers in front of his brother's face, irritated that he had apparently zoned out. "Hey! Chris! Anyone home?"

Chris blinked a few times as he pushed the memory away. He again thought about the possibilities and seemed a bit hesitant, "I still think we should try your other ideas first. We should try a spell. If it doesn't work, then we'll try your other option, Grandpa."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow in confusion. "How are we going to know if it works or not? When we go back to the future, nothing may have changed. And then what?"

"I guess we'll just have to do a little time traveling, won't we?" Chris said with a smirk.

Wyatt was surprised with the suggestion. He wrinkled his nose curiously before smiling with amusement. "Are you kidding me? You're the one who is always forbidding everyone else to time travel because it will 'mess with the future too much'. And how many times have you done it?"

The brunette looked up at the ceiling, ticking off on his fingers the amount of times he remembered traveling through time. "Let's see, there was the trip back to save you; the trip forward when you requested my presence; the trip back again to finish the job; this trip to get your powers back; and we still have to get home. So that's only what, five times? I'm pretty sure you don't hit the limit until you run out of fingers."

Victor wasn't a fan of anything supernatural, but he readily agreed since it would benefit his youngest grandson. "Exactly. It's for a good cause, so that makes it ok. So I'll work on them for—let's say, three years from today's date and you guys will go back to the future. That way, we'll still have time to change things before Chris' baby self starts to remember the past life. If things are ok, then you boys don't have to come back. But if nothing changed, you guys will come back and help me convince Piper and the gang. Until then, we say nothing to any of them in the mean time." He held out his hand to the younger man first and asked, "Deal?"

Chris took the proffered hand and shook on it in agreement. His brother followed his action.

Both young men confirmed at the same time, "Deal."

The younger of the two leaned over and clapped his grandfather on the back, "No offense or anything Grandpa, but I hope I don't see you in three years. I still have hope."

Victor nodded sadly at the genuine hopeful expression in his eyes. He hoped that they would listen for his sake too. But the Charmed Ones weren't known as the most stubborn witches of all time for nothing. But they hadn't gotten it all from their Halliwell genes, either—so Victor fully intended to make the most out of the three year opportunity. "Understandable, Chris." He decided that that was enough sadness for the moment, and stood up with a cheery smile. "Now, how about some ice cream? It sure does wonders for the little ones."

"Yeah!" they chimed in and jumped out of their seats, sounding much like their younger counterparts.

It was a familiar tradition with their grandfather in the future. Whenever one of them was having a problem, he would help them solve it, then suggest mulling it over with a bowl of chocolate ice-cream—vanilla for Chris. They made sundaes with all of their favorite toppings that Victor made certain to keep on hand. Wyatt, having been taller of the two boys, would always dig out the bowls; Chris grabbed the spoons and toppings, while Victor dug out the sweet delight.

"I told you he was awesome," Chris teased and stuck his tongue out at his brother.

Wyatt shared the childish amusement and elbowed the younger witch, playfully pushing him out of the way to receive the first helping as Victor dipped into the ice cream. "Don't ever change, Grandpa. After every tradition we've had at home, this has still got to be the best I've ever been a part of."

"Def..initely," Chris agreed through a mouthful of chocolate.

Victor was surprised at Wyatt's confession and Chris' shared sentiment. Having been spurned from a family wrought with traditions, particularly their Wiccan heritage, he would have thought that the boys would have found something along those lines to be fonder of. He was bursting with pride at the moment, and he wiped his misty eyes. "Wow. Boys, I'm flattered. I don't know what to say…"

Chris slid another bowl in front of his Grandfather, "How about dig in?"

TBC…