Disclaimer: I do not own chamred

Chapter 9: Past Woes and Future Issues

"You spoke to Jenny? What did you say?..." Leo asked

"I, ugh, told her the truth" Chris mumbled

"The truth?" Leo balked

"I hope by truth you don't mean the whole truth Christopher" Piper had a warning note in her voice.

"um…."

-----------------------------------------------Flashback--------------------------------------------

30 minutes previously – UC Berkley

"So talk" Jenny eyeballed her boyfriend as they sat on a bench in the middle of the quadrangle

"It's not that easy" Chris began

"Oh, have I not given you enough time to think of a suitable excuse?" she drawled

"excuse?" Chris looked confused

"excuse for why you never mentioned that you had a daughter, excuse for why you walked out on her, your excuse for.."

"Jen, just listen to me"

"why should I , what reason could you possibly give me that doesn't make you seem like an irresponsible father, I've been up to your room there's not one photo of her in there, no one ever mentions her, how could you be so cruel as to neglect your own child?"

"..she doesn't exist yet!" Chris blurted in frustration "the reason I never mentioned her before is because technically she hasn't been conceived yet."

"what the hell are you talking about?"

"She is from the future, about 20 years or so to be exact"

"Christopher Halliwell, all I want is for you to be honest with me, and you can't even do that"

"I am telling the truth, she is from the future." He paused, ".as am I"

"you are in cloud cuckoo land" Jenny made to stand up " you expect me to believe that time travel is really possible?"

"Why not? You believed me when I explained about magic"

"Yes, and if you remember it took me a while to get my head around that, but I don't know, I guess on some level I could understand it, but time travel? You can't keep your trousers on so you concoct some stupid story that has us all staring in some bizzaro version of Back to the Future?"

"Wait" Chris grabbed her arm "You have to listen to me, I am from the future, I came back in time 4 years ago to help save my brother, and I ended up staying"

Jenny looked at him, properly for the first time, his jaw was set, there was a pleading look in his eyes "You're serious aren't you?" a look of horror spreading across her face.

"Yes"

"b..but..how..and…"

"I know it's a lot to take in, but, as I said, I am from the future, and so is Leona, but she is from a slightly different future than me, I mean a changed better future, and…"

" so are you telling me that everything you have ever told me is a lie? That I have been going out with a person who isn't even born yet"

"no..I have been born.."

"Then….?"

"My baby brother Victor…Yeah he is technically me"

"oh my god, I'm going out with a 2 year old! That's just wrong and disgusting and wrong and…"

---------------------End Flash back------------------------------------------------------

"…and then we argued some more, and then she stormed off again, and the end result is that I think we have broken up for good this time" Chris concluded.

"are you crazy?" Piper shouted

"mum!"

"don't you 'mum' me, how can we trust that silly little girl won't go running round and expose you"

"silly little girl? I thought you liked Jenny"

"Yes, well, I"

"In the eyes of a mother no girl is ever good enough for her son" Lillian interrupted

"who the?.." Chris noticed the elderly lady

"excuse us, Lily" Leo pushed his wife and son toward the kitchen

"very subtle dad, bring us out here so that we can argue without upsetting the guest"

"There is nothing to argue about Chris, your mother is right, I think you made a mistake in telling Jenny about the whole time travel thing, we may have to use the memory dust"

"Oh that's right, you'll use the memory dust on her, but not on your beloved first wife" Piper snapped

"Piper I've told you.."

"ew..dad that old lady was your wife?" Chris recoiled

"

"surely I must have mentioned her when you were growing up?" Leo asked

"yeah but.." Chris blushed "I kinda blocked it out, I don't like to think of you and mum being in love with anyone else other than each other..corny as it sounds"

"As mushy as that is Christopher , you are still not off the hook" Piper told him

"I'd better get over there and sort it out, ½ a pinch should do it, enough to wipe out today, yesterday and possibly a little bit of last week too" Leo stood up

"But that still means I have to explain about Leona somehow"

"Yes, but perhaps now you will have a bit of time to come up with an effective cover story" Piper replied

"I hate all this, I hate this lying too people I care about"

"That's part of the sacrifice you made when you decided to stay in the past" Leo said

"are you saying I should have gone back to the future?"

"No, I'm not saying that at all, I 'm saying is that you knew at times it would be difficult"

"well I didn't expect my dead child to reappear either"

"But she did, and now you have to be the grown up and deal with that even if it means loosing Jenny, your daughter should mean more to you than a bit of skirt, and I am not having a second generation of Halliwells being brought up by their Grandmother because their father finds things difficult" Piper shook her finger at him.

"Excuse me" Lillian appeared in the door to the kitchen "I think I will leave now, it sounds as if you need sometime to discuss matters"

"yes we do" Piper replied

"Sorry about all this Lily" Leo apologised "It was lovely to see you again, but could I ask that you keep the whole magic thing to yourself?"

"of course I can" the old lady assured him "On one condition…."

XXX

"……….I don't want to go the stupid house warming party" Chris sulked as

3 weeks later and a suited and booted Halliwell clan strolled over the road toward the neighbours house.

"neither do I , but Lillian wanted to us to meet her family and I said yes. Besides, even if she hadn't have invited us personally, her grandson put flyers in every mail box in the street, so we probably would have gone anyway"

" Chris, just when exactly are you going to lift yourself out of this mood you have been in?" Piper asked, getting a little irritated as her youngest sons constant bad mood. After Leo had altered Jenny's memory, Chris had gone round to explain about Leona, telling Jenny that his daughter was the result of a previous relationship and he had only just found out about her. Unfortunately, even without the time travelling angle, Jenny had still insisted on breaking up with him, this time citing unwillingness to take on a responsibility for a child as the reason.

"when I feel like it" Came the response.

"Has some one died?" Leona asked her second cousin as they plodded down the street.

"Not yet" Poppy responded "Why?"

"Because Daddy is in a real bad mood and you are wearing black"

"I like black" Poppy snapped, pulling her hoody even closer round her.

"Looks like quite a lot of people have turned up" Paige commented as they walked through the front door which had been left wide open.

"I'm so glad you could come" Lillian greeted them enthusiastically.

"wouldn't have missed it" Leo winked.

"Daddy look there's a sandpit and a slide!" Wyatt pointed out to the children's play area which could be seen in the back garden "Can we go play?"

"Yeah can we?" Ben chimed in

"Okay, but stick together" Phoebe told them as Ben, Wyatt, closely holding Victors hand and Leona, holding Rosie's all wandered off in the direction of the fun.

"Leo, have you actually met my grandson James?" Lillian signalled toward the home-owner who was now making his way toward them

"No, not at all" Leo grinned and extended an arm "how do you do?"

"Very well thank you" James replied "Do you know, you look like the spitting image of Grandma's first husband, he was a Leo too, Leo Wyatt, are you a relation?"

"Leo Wyatt" Leo feigned innocence " ah, I believe he may have been my great-uncle on my father's side"

"ah, that's where the resemblance comes from, you must introduce me to your charming family, seeing as we are all neighbours now"

"This is my wife Piper, and her sisters Phoebe and Paige, and their partners Cole and Kyle, my older son Christopher, and niece Poppy, the little ones have all gone to play in the sand pit.."

"Nice to meet you all, quite a crowd in your house, just me and my wife knocking about in ours for the moment, although you never know what might happen in the future,…where has she got to? Sweetheart have you disappeared?"

"I'm coming" a willowy blond with tanned skin and dazzling blue eyes, slowly made her way through the crowd, coming to stop at her husbands side. "Hi" she smiled.

"Sweetheart, these are the Halliwells, we have Leo, Piper, Paige, Phoebe, Kyle, um, Christopher and er..sorry I forget….?" James gestured toward Cole

"It's Cole" Cole supplied "but that's okay" His eyes narrowed "Caroline and I have already met…………."

XXX

TBC