A/N: I'm so sorry I didn't update sooner. I lost track of time. .

Chapter Seven – Planning with the Dead

"Dead?!" Phoebe exclaimed. "How... how can we be dead?!"

"Maybe…. Without Piper, we couldn't handle it? You know... The 'power of two'?" Paige guessed. Then she adopted a curious look and looked at Piper. "Hey, maybe that's what Bianca was talking about when she threatened to kill you."

"Knowing what we know now, we know she never would have finished the job…," Piper murmured. "But we have to figure out how we're going to talk to Chris when he wakes up… and how we're gonna stop the aging spell. That witch obviously lied to us."

"What? You took her on without me?" Phoebe asked, putting a hand to her chest.

"Well we were antsy," Paige said, shrugging. "So we put the little Wyatt baby out there and caught her. She said she released Chris from her spell and then she left."

"Except that she didn't release Chris because he's still aging… and rapidly," Piper finished, pointing over to her son.

"I say we start working on our own spell," Phoebe suggested. "And we should check the book and see if it says anything about ending a witch's curse."

"I'll get it," Leo said, turning and orbing to the attic.

Chris groaned as the sound left the room. It seemed he still had a way of reacting to the sound of orbs. Paige lightly pushed the other two toward the exit.

"Get out. I'll talk to him. If you two are dead, it's not going to help," she said before they could ask. They gave her disgruntled looks but did as they were told. They stayed just out of sight.

Paige knelt by Chris and waited. He took another whole minute of stirring to finally open his eyes. His hand reached up to hold his head and he groggily looked up at his aunt. Then he gasped and pushed himself up on his elbows. He scanned the room quickly, his heart rate rising. Then he took a deep breath and let himself fall back onto the pillows.

"I had the craziest dream, Aunt Paige," he murmured. He closed his eyes and held his head again.

"Oh yeah?" Paige asked, playing along. "What happened?"

"I woke up and everyone was here... Aunt Phoebe was there, you were there… Mom was there… but she was pregnant and didn't look a day over forty. None of you did… and…," Chris trailed off, leaving his 'dream' incomplete. Paige sat completely on the floor.

"And?" she urged. Chris sighed.

"Dad was there… and he looked so young… and he looked at me with worried eyes like he's never looked at me before. It was almost like… like he was… like he cared, ya know? I mean, I know he cares, but he's never cared so openly to my face in real life… and you all looked so good standing together… but I was frightened. Even in a dream, I couldn't handle seeing them all at once… especially not dad… it's been such a short time since he… since he left," Chris murmured, turning his head away despite his eyes still being closed. He was savoring the memory of his dream. "It's only been a week…"

"Chris…, I know this may sound weird to you right now… but I need your help to find a witch," Paige said. Chris snorted.

"Good luck. Witches don't come out in the open anymore," he said, continuing to keep his face turned from her.

"Exactly… so I need your help. I can't do it on my own," Paige explained, adding a hint of sadness to her voice. Chris looked up at her and then pushed himself to a sitting position.

"Alright," he agreed, pushing himself to a standing position. "What do you know so far about this witch?" and Chris actually seemed excited to help. That was the spark they knew in their Chris, always looking to catch a demon or stop an evil creature of some sort. This was the same determination. It was good to see it in there.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"So you think this spell will work?" Piper asked, gazing over Phoebe's shoulder.

"Yes… that or get him stuck at whatever age he's at when we read it… but I'm almost positive it'll just reverse the magic," Phoebe replied to Piper's discomfort. "Look, we'll just keep changing it until it's perfect, alright?"

"Right," Piper grunted and took a seat in the rocking chair. She rocked back and forth a few times, eyes closed. Then, all of a sudden, she stopped and looked at Leo. "Where's Wyatt?"

"I left him... with the elders, why?" he asked, motioning above his head.

"I was just checking. The double looked so much like him," the mother explained, starting to rock again.

They could hear Chris and Paige talking animatedly downstairs, but they were confined to the attic. Chris didn't seem able to handle seeing them all when they were apparently dead. Piper felt rather useless sitting up in the attic and doing nothing. Phoebe was writing the potential spell, Paige was working with Chris, and she… she was sitting in a rocking chair like an old grandmother.

There was a tapping of shoes on the stairs and then the creaking of floor boards accompanying the sound of footsteps. The three 'dead' people stared at the door. Should they hide? No. Paige would have warned them if he was coming, wouldn't she?

"Hey," Paige kept her voice low as she came into the attic. "So our sweet nineteen year old says he knows where the witch probably lives and has a plan of action... of course this is assuming the witch hangs out in the same place witches hang out in the future, but I told him I was coming to get the book for him to buy some time."

"Good thinking," Leo said. "You'll need your sisters to beat the witch but we have to keep a low profile around Chris."

"God, I wish he would just age another three years so we wouldn't have to hide anymore," Phoebe complained as she scanned her spell.

Then a jingle of blue bells entered the attic beside Paige. Before anyone had a chance to run and hide, Chris was standing there. He didn't smile like he had in the conservatory. Instead, he looked mildly put-off. He glanced at them all and then made a vague pointing motion.

"Anyone care to explain how I went from standing in the attic to sitting in the living room?" he asked. "And what happened to Wyatt?"

"Chris? How old are you?" Piper asked hesitantly, standing. Chris gave her a questioning look.

"Twenty-two, Mom. You already knew that," he said, looking concerned for his mother's mental health. "Do we have time for this? What happened to the witch?"

"Oh thank god!" Phoebe exclaimed in relief, moving over to hug Chris. "You're back to normal!"

"The witch left, but not before she put a spell on you to make you age. About seven hours ago, you were two years old, and you've been steadily aging ever since," Leo explained. Chris gave him a thankful look for his explanation and tried to pry his aunt off his neck. Then he became confused again.

"Aging? How come I don't remember any of this?" he asked, finally getting Phoebe off him. She was no longer effected by his emotions or she'd know he was feeling disgruntled with her right now.

"It's a hard story, Chris… but in essence, you only had the memories you would've had at each age. It was hard on us. We've been trying to play along with it all and then there was the time two hours ago in which you ran away to your grandfather's house and when you tore apart the kitchen and when you threw Leo across the room and then there were the moments when you were so adorably young and you had a tickle fight with Leo!" Paige explained, becoming giddy with memories toward the end. Piper tried to tell her to shut up before she got started, but it hadn't worked.

"I… tore apart the kitchen?" Chris asked in shock.

"Well, technically it was the conservatory," Phoebe interjected. Piper held her head. They should NOT be bringing this up. Chris looked contemplative for a moment and then his face became rapidly downcast. He looked toward the floor.

"O-oh… I see. Sorry about that… I'll clean it up later," he mumbled a reply. He knew what they had seen. Piper could see it written all over his face. "So what happened to the witch?" Chris asked to cleverly change subjects.

"Still on the run, but don't worry. We're hunting her down and writing a reversal spell as we speak," Phoebe explained, going back to her work. Piper glanced out the window at the dark sky and then to her watch.

"And we have to hurry. The witch gave us another… seventeen hours to fix this," she warned.

Chris just stood there, looking lost.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Another hour later, Paige was sleeping on the old couch upstairs, Leo had gone and gotten Wyatt so Piper could hold him. Now Leo was leaning against a wall looking like he may die of fatigue, if he could die at all. Piper was playing with her son and Phoebe was angrily scribbling out bad lines of text. Chris knelt by the rocking chair and looked between his mom and brother.

Chris used to be searching the Book of Shadows, but had grown tired of it. After seeing random witches; like Inundane the fickle, Esther the stupidly named, and Lord Callaway – the man whose only fault was him trying to make the world into one giant castle for him to rule over; Chris had grown so disappointed and upset with the book that he'd nearly thrown it across the room. Now he contented himself to watching his mother and brother. It was sort of calming.

"So," Piper began. "When did Leo die?"

Chris was stunned by the question, but he did not instantly come back with his usual 'changing the future' excuse. Instead, he frowned and cast his eyes down to his hands.

"A month or so after I turned nineteen. All the elders, save for three, were slaughtered. Wyatt got the remaining three to join forces with him under the promise that they would be kept safe," he murmured. Piper was the only one who could hear and understand him. Wyatt paid him no mind.

Piper frowned. "And Phoebe?" she asked softly. Chris turned his head away and smiled sourly.

"Mom, you know I can't tell you all of this," Chris scolded, though it sounded more like he was scolding himself and not his mother. Piper frowned and pet his hair. Chris closed his eyes and sighed contently.

"I know. But it didn't hurt to try," she said. Chris snickered and Piper smiled.

The last time she'd heard him laugh at all was when he was only nine before her eyes. After that… well it almost seemed like Chris couldn't laugh. Sure, they'd all seen him laugh during his time with them, but in the last eight hours, Piper had missed it. It seemed like an entire lifetime had passed since she'd last heard him laugh.

"Leo was an elder in your time too?" Piper asked softly. Chris nodded.

"It took longer originally, but he did. It was always his fate, I guess. I just sped it up this time," Chris replied sadly. He glanced at his mother's stomach and a small smile graced his lips. Piper smiled too and pet his hair again.

"Don't worry about anything, Chris," she said. "We'll make sure you're okay and then we'll all save the future together." Chris nodded but then sort of backed off from her hand so he could look up at her.

"So why are we still trying to reverse the spell? I'm back to normal," Chris pointed out, motioning to his body. Piper opened her mouth to explain that they weren't sure it was going to stop yet when her point was proven.

Chris closed his eyes and groaned as his hair got longer and he aged about ten years. When it finished, Chris stood and quickly moved to the long mirror. When he gasped, both Leo and Phoebe came to attention. Paige was beyond help.

"Mom," Chris began and Leo jumped to his side. Chris sounded so worried while still trying to hold on to his control. "Mom, we have to stop this now."

"Don't worry, Chris. We will. We're not going to let anything happen to you," Leo promised before Piper could even take the breath needed to answer. Wyatt cooed on her lap to regain her attention and Piper gasped, standing with her baby.

"The witch. We have to bring her back and vanquish her. I don't care what she says. She'll never release Chris of her own free will, so we'll try killing her to reverse the curse," she said. "She obviously hasn't realized the Wyatt we gave her is a fake, so I don't know how to lure her here, but –," and she was interrupted.

"I know a few places we could check out," Chris said, reminding them of when his nineteen year old self had been trying to help.

"Alright. After the spell is done, we'll head over," Piper decided. Chris shook his head at the same time as Leo.

"No. You need to rest," they said at the same time. They exchanged a shocked but approving stare. Then Chris nodded and continued. "Right. We all need to sleep. If we're going to stop this witch, we'll need you all fully charged and awake."

"Now we sound like batteries," Phoebe teased before yawning. It was contagious because Chris and Piper yawned directly after her. Chris covered his mouth like it was something to be ashamed of.

"Ok then… off to bed. Look, even Wyatt's sleeping," Leo pointed out.

He walked over and lifted the slumbering baby out of his wife's arms. Piper sighed but nodded. Chris just watched, frowning, as Leo began to lead her toward the door. About the time they reached the door, however, Leo stopped and turned around. He looked Chris over once, but Chris was now trying to hide his previous frown. Leo smiled encouragingly.

"You coming?" he asked. Chris couldn't help it. He beamed.

"Y-yeah," he replied and nearly hopped over. Together, as a family, they went down the stairs to fall asleep in the same room… one big happy family – as Chris had never experienced before.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The wind howls. Bodies turn to dust. Hair turns to silver. Love turns to legend. Things of the past are forgotten in time. People are forgotten. Memories fail everybody sooner or later.

Chris stood in the center of a cobblestone path, staring around at his dismal surroundings. He was in a graveyard. The world was dark like dusk though it could have been midday. Chris knew this graveyard. He walked left through the endless tombstones. They seemed to go on forever.

Finally, he stopped. There was a low gate surrounding four particular graves with room for more. The stones read the names of Chris's two aunts, his beloved mother, and his courageous father. Chris put his hands on the iron fence and felt himself beginning to shake. Why was he even here?

"Chris."

The voice sounded distant and yet close. It was familiar. Chris turned toward the sound. Piper stood behind him, a young child sitting on her hip. The child was blonde and appeared about nine. Piper let the boy slip down to stand on his own two feet.

"Chris," this voice belonged to his father, Leo. The elder appeared beside Piper, walking out of a light as bright as the sun. It vanished when Leo was out.

"Mom…? Dad…?" Chris asked in stunned awe.

"Chris," now Phoebe and Paige appeared, walking out of nothing but air. The five people smiled at him before all of their faces turned sour. There was a sound buzzing in Chris's ear that he couldn't place, and there was the ticking of a grandfather clock.

"Who's Chris?" the little blonde boy asked, squinting ahead past the fully grown man in front of them all.

"You know… I don't really remember… but I do remember he was loved," Phoebe replied softly, kneeling down by the young Wyatt. What? Chris narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"He was family. What more do we need to know?" Leo asked, smiling down at his first son. What were they talking about?! What was with all the past tense?

Chris gasped and turned around to look back at the graves… but they had vanished. In their stead, one lone grave stood. It read Christopher Perry Halliwell. The buzzing in Chris's ear grew louder.

"No…," Chris murmured. "No I'm not dead!" he screamed.

He knew the sound in his ears now. It was sand… It was the sound of sand rushing down into a pile – like the sands of an hour glass. Knowing the sound made his skin feel like it was crawling for some reason, and he looked down at his hands. He gasped, eyes widening. His skin-! He was turning white and dissolving into sand! Chris spun around to face his family, but they were already far away, walking away and disappearing into a foggy distance. Chris tried to run after them, to beg them for help, but it seemed his legs were already gone and he fell.

'No, no, no, no, NO!' he shouted in his mind. He didn't want to die like this!

And then he woke up screaming.