"You know I can't tell you that Phoebe."

"Screw future consequences! I want to know!" Phoebe and Paige sat impatiently in front of me as we sat under an umbrella. We were eating lunch in a crowded courtyard of a restaurant, enjoying the sun- well they were enjoying interrogating me while I was crowd watching. Sipping on my iced tea, I was only half-heartedly involved in the conversation.

Zoning them out, I watched as people swarmed past in a mad rush to make it to work in time. This was a rare moment that I actually let myself relax. Toying with the handmade bracelet around my wrist, I just sat, absentmindedly thinking about nothing.

I was woken from my reverie by jingling in my head as Piper shouted for us to come immediately. My head snapped to Paige.

"You hear that?"

"Yeah, you and Phoebe go. I'll stay and pay for the bill." We all moved to stand up. Readying myself to weave my way through the crowd to a secluded place to orb before Paige called me back "I don't have my purse with me" Phoebe also shook her head. No wonder I thought there's no room for it on the nothing you two are wearing. I threw my wallet and raced off.

"What's wrong?" I asked Piper as soon as I orbed in with Phoebe, narrowly missing an energy ball to the head. How many of those things am I going to have to avoid in my life?!

Piper waved her hands in the direction of the stairs, exploding the panels as the demon ducked.

"What's going on?" I shouted at Piper as a fire ball hit my shoulder from another of the three demons that crowded the front room.

"I don't know!" A black clad demon exploded into oblivion.

I threw my hand in the direction of the nearest demon sending it flying into a fire ball aimed for Phoebe. One down, two to go. What on Earth is going on?

The last of the demons were left as a pile of ashes when Piper was through with them leaving us a disgusting mess to clean up.

"Where's Paige?" Piper was cleaning up the broken shards of a lamp and I looked up in confusion.

"She should be here by now." As if on cue, the tinkling of orbs signalled her arrival.

"Am I late?" Paige looked at us sheepishly as Phoebe scanned the area for any demons we might have missed.

"Here's your wallet back Chris" Paige handed me the faded leather and I paled slightly as I realised how stupid I was in giving it to her. I tucked it away, along with the reminder to make sure they didn't notice anything that might have shown them anything to do with the future later before addressing the issue at hand.

"Who were those demons?"

"Book of Shadows?" Phoebe suggested with a smile.

"On it" Paige replied as Piper sighed in exasperation.

"Here we go again."


"Is it that one?"

"No."

"That one?"

"Keep checking" Piper was getting irritated as Paige pointed out more and more demons in the Book of Shadows. I paced the room restlessly, mulling over every fact barely registering that Phoebe was staring at me intently.

"Chris?" Phoebe interrupted me mid pace and I turned to look at her with a questioning look on my face.

"Who's the girl in this picture?" I walked over and took the picture she offered, the colour draining from my face when I saw it. Feigning ignorance, I continued my walk around the room tucking the picture in my pocket when she wasn't looking.

"That's none of your business."

"She's beautiful." The girls tried to stare me down as I absentmindedly rubbed the burn in my shoulder.

"Are you going to call Leo down or what? I need healed here."

"Stop trying to avoid the question, Chris. I want an answer." The determined look on Phoebe's face showed she wasn't going to give up. But she didn't know that we shared the same stubbornness. I wasn't going to give up that easily either.

Saved by the bell. "I'll get that." I orbed down to the front door before they could object and answered the door.


Damn neighbours and their nosiness, I thought grumpily as I stomped my way to the kitchen to get some coffee. An annoying passer by decided they wanted to check on the house after a series of 'strange noises' made him worry. It was probably well intentioned but it annoyed the hell out of me. Man did I need some caffeine.

I was leaning against a kitchen countertop nursing a steaming cup of energy when I heard the sister's loud conversation travelling down the stairs. I suppose they thought I'd left or something, because they weren't trying to disguise the conversation at all.

"After all this time he is still hiding things from us! Am I the only one who's sick of it? He said he lies were gonna stop." Piper practically shouted in annoyance. If only she knew how much I was hiding. It would break her heart. Again. I'd already heard this conversation before and I'd had enough. I broke the silence of the kitchen.

"Leo!" I called out loudly, since apparently none of the girls were going to. The burn on my shoulder throbbed and my head pounded although I didn't think the attack was the cause of my headache. I really wished they never noticed the picture. All it did was make me regret coming to the past even more. I just wanted to go home.

Leo orbed down n front of me with a serene expression on his face and hands clasped. Ugh. He was sickening.

"Can you heal me?" His hands glowed over my wound and the pain dissipated. That's better. The girls walked into the room.

"What happened?" Leo asked with the usual concerned expression as he turned to the sisters. "Are you hurt?" He looked pointedly at Piper's ever growing bump. Little me was growing in there and ever since everyone found out who I was they wouldn't get off my back about the future. Not that they didn't before but now it was just worse since they knew I knew more than I was letting on. As if I would tell them.

"We're fine" Piper waved him aside and looked pointedly at me. "What's going on Chris?"

"Ask them" I waved my arm to Paige and Phoebe "they are the ones who raided through my wallet and are asking about things that have nothing to do with them." I answered as carelessly as I could.

"We did not raid through you wallet...." Phoebe tried to deny, looking at Paige for support "the picture just...slipped out."

Scoffing, I did what I do best. I orbed out, avoiding the issue.


I orbed back into the store room at P3 that used to double as my own little room before Phoebe moved to Japan and Paige moved in with her boyfriend Richard. I sat heavily on the couch, my head in my hands, sighing loudly. This was getting too much now and I desperately wanted to go home. Before I could completely immerse myself in my depressing thoughts, I sensed Leo orbing to me. I looked up as he materialised, putting the nonchalant mask on before he could see my despair. I was good at that.

"You wanna talk?" Ugh, what's with the nauseating serene look he's got going?

"Not really."

Leo came and sat beside me, the old couch sinking under his weight. "They are just worried about you, you know."

"They don't need to; it has nothing to do with them."

"But it obviously means something to you. That little girl-" I interrupted him before he could finish that sentence.

"Has nothing to do with now. Drop it." I snapped, standing up and began pacing again. "The future is for me to know and you to find out. I wish everyone would stop interfering in things that don't concern them yet!"

"We're just trying to help."

"The only help I need is saving Wyatt from what ever evil it is that turns him! Aside from that, just leave me alone. I don't need anyone's help, especially not yours!"

Seeing the hurt in Leo's eyes, I almost regretted saying those things. Almost. I was more than relieved when he orbed away, finally leaving me alone.

Just as I thought that, the tinkling of orbs announced another arrival along with a tremendous crash, before something small catapulted into my arms knocking me to the floor and it was only out of instinct that I held onto the thing and didn't fall on it.

"Da-a-a-d-y-y-y!"

"What the he-" I looked at what was in my hands in shock. Oh. My. God.

"Hope?"

"I missed you Daddy!" Small arms wrapped around me tightly and I stared at her in shock. Tears filled my eyes as I registered what was actually going on.

"Oh Hope, I missed you so much." I clutched her to my chest, fighting back sobs. Another loud crash made my head spring up and I saw what else was in the room with me.

"Where did you take me you little-" storming from the wreckage of what used to be storage closet, disgruntled and blue in the face, was a tall figure that looked eerily familiar. I clutched Hope harder to my chest and orbed out again.


Arriving outside the manor, I set my daughter on her feet.

"Hope, what are you doing here? How did you get here? Why is he here? How are you? Has something happened?" The words blurted out of my mouth before I could stop them and Hope just stood there grinning at me.

"I found you! I just thought of you and wham! I was there!" Hope was bouncing up and down in her excitement, still clutching at me not wanting to let go of my hand.

"Hope" I put my hands on her shoulders, kneeling down in front of her. "How did you get here?" I searched her eyes, identical to my own with only a dot for difference and were as easy to read.

"I thought of you and I orbed" honesty permeated each of her words as she stared back at me in complete happiness." The Bad Man asked me lots of questions about you. I wouldn't tell him nothing and he hurted me and I ran away. I'm scared of him Daddy."

"It's okay Hope; you don't ever have to go back with him." I drew her into my arms and held her close for the first time in months. I missed her so much that I could barely believe that she was actually here with me.

"You wanna play a game, Hope?"


I walked into the manor, with Hope on my hip and called out for the sisters. As soon as they walked into the room, Hope began bouncing excitedly trying to reach out to be held by one of them, squealing all the while. She hadn't seen any of them in a long time, no wonder she missed them.

I whispered into Hopes ear and she immediately calmed down drawing back into me and tucking her head into my shoulder shyly.

"We have a problem."

"Aww, who's this little sweetie?" Phoebe went right up to me to look at Hope "Hi, I'm Phoebe!" Glancing quickly at me before staring wide eyed at Phoebe, she hesitantly held out her hand.

"I'm Hope" she looked at me again. "Nice to meet you." Phoebe shook her hand, a broad smile lighting up her face before changing into recognition.

"Isn't she the one from the photograph?"

"Yeah, that's why there's a problem. She's came from the future and brought someone with her that shouldn't be here." Hope shrunk into me again, feeling bad for what she had done, her bottom lip wobbling at the thought of her dad being angry with her. I noticed the tell tale signs of tears immediately.

"It's not your fault Hope, you did the right thing." Murmuring into her ear, I gave her a smile of encouragement and held her more tightly.

"What do you want us to do?" Piper asked from the doorway, Wyatt held in her arms.

Hope turned to me again, with a shocked expression and whispered conspiratorially in my ear "is that her?" Her voice was filled with reverence for the woman she never got the chance to meet.

"Yeah, that's her."

"Can I meet her please?" I set her on her feet and she went up to puzzled Piper as Paige and Phoebe also watched on in confusion.

"Nice to meet you Pi-pipor, my name is Hope." She smiled at her broadly, before turning and saying "Hiya Paygee!" before running back to me.

"So I was right!" Paige exclaimed as if confirming something she had already mentioned.

"We need to find a way to send him back."

"What about her?" Paige said, indicating Hope who was perched in my arms watching us in fascination.

"We'll worry about Hope later. It's him we have to worry about."

"Who is him anyway?" Piper put Wyatt in his playpen. He was gurgling happily, looking at Hope as if to say 'wanna play?'

"Him." I pointed.