I don't own Charmed or Smallville!

"Do I need to worry about competition?" Phoebe turned to see her husband standing in the doorway of her office, their three daughters staring wide eyed at the most ostentatious flower arrangement she'd ever seen.

"Apparently this is Lex Luthor's way of saying thank you for saving his relationship." She had seen the pictures of the man and his young boyfriend in a magazine. It was obvious the picture hadn't been authorized by either party as it was taken from a distance, and the younger man's face was a little distorted, the most she could make out was dark hair and eyes.

She'd read the article, curious as to who it was that had stolen the heart of the heir to one of the richest men on the planet, not to mention the fact that his own company was starting to show promise. She was suprised to find out that his partner was so young, younger than her own nephew. In fact, the young man was right around Chris's age, if Chris was even still alive.

She still remember the day her nephew ran away, how could any of them forget it. She'd been so worried when her sister had called telling her that Melinda had almost been kidnapped, that she'd gone right over there with her own daughters to check on everyone. She hadn't been there long before there was a loud commotion from upstairs, and they rushed upstairs to find a giant hole in the wall, and Chris standing on one side, while Wyatt was lying on the other side unconscious and bleeding from multiple places.

Piper and Leo had rushed to their eldest, but Phoebe had almost been crippled by the waves of self hate and fear she felt coming from the younger brother. She blamed herself for Chris being gone, had she just pulled herself together she would have been able to go after him, to stop him from running, but his pain had been too much for her to feel.

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"Hey Jonathan, do you have a second?" Chris could see the man was busy, he was always busy, but he'd been working up the courage to do this all day, and if he didn't do it now he probably never would.

"Sure thing Chris, is everything alright?" He took off his gloves, giving Chris his full attention, and Chris had trouble stopping himself from fidgeting.

"I was wondering if you'd teach me to ride a horse? I mean, you taught Clark right?" He'd thought long and hard about this, and decided it was time to face his fears. Besides, there wasn't a whole lot to do in Smallville, and even less that was date worthy.

You know you'd have to get near the horse right?" Jonathan asked with a teasing smile. He'd always made sure the horses were out of the barn before mucking out the stalls, as he caught Chris on verge of a panic attack once before. Chris had told him about almost getting trampled, and Jonathan had always made sure the stalls were empty of horses.

"I know, but I also know that having a crippling fear of horses isn't very practical while living on a farm" He was suprised when Jonathan was willing to stop what he was doing and start with the lesson right then and there.

They both want out to the pasture where the few horses they owned were grazing, and he stood at the fence while Jonathan selected one th attach a lead rope to, and brought it over to him. "First things first, we gotta get you used to being around them."

It took him some time, but he finally worked up the nerve to approach the horse, thankful as Jonathan stood there patiently keeping the animal calm. They got as far as him petting the horse, but he couldn't bring himself to get on the animal.

"Don't worry about it, it takes time to get over that kind of trauma." Jonathan said as he put an arm around him, before leading him back toward the barn.

That had been three months ago, in fact, right after the tornado. It had only taken him 2 months to work up the courage to actually get on the horse, but Jonathan never gave up on him.

He reminded him so much of his own dad sometimes that it lessened the longing he felt for the man by a fraction of a degree. His dad had never made his fears seem trivial, and showed pride whenever he'd faced them, no matter how small the accomplishment.

"What's on your mind?" He was pulled from his thoughts by the voice of the man on the horse next to him. Every Saturday he and Jonathan would get up early and go for a ride, sometimes Martha and/or Clark would even join them.

"Is there anything Clark could ever do to make you stop loving him?" He wasn't sure what he wanted the answe to be, if Jonathan said there was, then maybe his parents had stopped loving him a long time ago. If he said there wasn't, then he could be hurting them by staying gone so long.

"There is nothing a child could do that should make a parent stop loving them." Jonathan's tone showed his conviction, but Chris picked up on what he'd actually said.

"Should be nothing, but obviously there is." It just made his heart sink lower, " would almost killing both of your siblings be one of those things?" He had a hard time fighting back tears remembering the brother and sister he'd adored.

"I said should because there are some people who just shouldn't have kids, Lionel Luthor for example, but no, even almost killing a sibling shouldn't make parents stop loving their kids. They may not like them much, and they definitely hate what what they did." Jonathan turned to look at him, "Especially if it was an accident."

"I lost control of my powers and threw my older brother through a wall." He found himself blurting it out, feeling like a weight had lifted just having someone else know about it. He saw the confused look on Jonathan's face, and launched off into a in depth explanation of witches and demons, and the battle of good versus evil. Last time he'd tried to explain this all to them, they'd had a hard time believing it. Now Jonathat was truly listening, and he hoped he was believing him.

"So what happened to make you want to leave?" Jonathan asked, showing no sign that he though he was lying. In fact, he sounded more curious than anything else.

"I just kept screwing up and hurting my family." He saw he should stop there before he gave Jonathan a reason to make him leave, but it felt so good to open up about it he couldn't stop himself. "It all happened in one day really, I mean I'd always struggled to control my powers, but this time it wasn't just my powers, it was me too. My mom was stressed at home trying to make cookies for a school bake sale, so I offered to take my little sister to the park to get us out of her hair."

By this time the two had stopped riding, and were sitting side by side on the ground, leaning back against a tree. "I saw three demons in the park, and drew them away from Melinda, but what I didn't notice was some pervert watching her. He tried to lure her into his car, and probably would have succeeded had our older brother Wyatt not shown up."

"How old were you guys at the time?" He was surprised by the question, and had to stop and think about it.

"I had just turned 13, almost 14, so Melinda was 11, and Wyatt was 15." It was hard to believe that was almost three years ago, that he'd been living with the Kents for almost a year.

"When I was finally able to lose the demons I went back to where I left Melinda, but she was gone so I ran home to get my mom." He continued.

"I have yet to see what it was you screwed up, you didn't know your sister was being watched, and you protected her from three demons. Not to mention you were a 13 year old kid." He wasn't sure if the man was confused or angry, and if he was angry, then with whom.

"I didn't get the chance to tell them about the demons. When I got home they were waiting for me, dad was healing the bruises Melinda got when she was grabbed, and mom was pacing the floor. She yelled at me the second she saw me for not watching my sister, then sent me to my room."

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"What are you doing up here, mom's going to be so mad you didn't listen to her." He looked up to see Wyatt standing in the attic doorway. It had been an hour since he's been sent to his room, and this was the first time anyone had been up to check on him. It told him just how mad his parents were, his dad never let them stew that long when they were in trouble.

Turning the Book of Shadows so that Wyatt could see the page it was open to, "Those are the demons that attacked me in the park, luckily there's a vanquishing potion." He went back to filling the potion bottles.

"You were attacked by a demon!" Wyatt was quickly shushed by him. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to tell his parents about the demons anymore, it was almost like he was afraid they wouldn't believe him if they didn't attack again, if they didn't see them for them selves.

"Three actually, and I'm fine as you can see." Wyatt just nodded as he walked around the table to help fill potion bottles.

He stopped short when he got a good look at Chris's shoulder, "You were hit!" He gently grabbed him so that he could examine the large burn, "This looks really bad Chris, you need to tell dad so he can heal you."

"It's fine Wyatt, I'll have him heal it when I'm done here." In reality it hurt like a bitch, but he just grit his teeth and worked through the pain. When Wyatt's hand came to rest on his shoulder again it sent pain coursing through his body, "I said I was fine!" The anger that had been simmering since he'd been sent away without getting to tell his side exploded out of him, and then Wyatt was laying on the other side of a hole in the wall bleeding out.

He couldn't believe what he'd just done, Wyatt was only trying to looking out for him. Seconds later his parents and Aunt Phoebe were there, but he didn't stick around long enough to see what they'd do to him this time. He did stay long enough to make sure Wyatt was being healed, before running past his Aunt Phoebe, and out of the house.

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"Was your brother ok...after you threw him through the wall?" There was no judgement or fear in his eyes, just understanding. Almost like he knew that Chris had just been a scared kid, was still just a scared kid.

"Dad was healing him, so he was fine." Chris was sure of that much at least. He was very careful not to say where he was from or give away too many details about his family, as we wouldn't put it past the man to try and find them, thinking it was the right thing to do. He didn't think he could handle his parent's rejection, though, so decided he was better off gone.

"Besides, I know no ones looking for me. I charmed my necklace to work as a sort of cloaking device, as long as I wear it the magical community can't find me." He was about continue, but Jonathan cut him off.

"You were in the hospital for a week without it on." The understanding and compassion in his eyes made it impossible to fight back the tears.

"All they had to do was scry for me once...My dad or aunt could have tried to sense me...I was right there...out in the open...they didn't even try." He was surprised when strong arms wrapped around him, but let the older man hold him close as he cried out his pain at the loss of his family.