Phoebe and Paige walked into the kitchen the next day to find Piper making breakfast. She looked anything but happy. "Hey," Phoebe said.

"Hi," Piper said as though nothing was wrong. Her tone betrayed her though.

"Are you okay?" Paige asked.

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Piper asked.

"I don't know. Maybe because the Elders, Leo included, told you just yesterday that you aided in Chris' suicide attempt and once they left, you locked yourself in your bedroom," Phoebe said.

"I don't want to talk about Chris," Piper said. She didn't even want to think about Chris. Thinking about Chris brought her nothing but guilt. She tried not to feel it. She tried to tell herself that what happened to Chris was not on her, that Chris' suicide was his fault and his alone. Hell, she'd even tried to tell herself that it was just another one of his manipulations, but she knew all of that was simply justification. She was trying to justify the way she treated him. And the more his suicide attempt sunk in, the more she realized it was unjustifiable.

"Honey, you're going to have to talk about him. You're going to have to talk to him. He's going to be in this house soon and you won't be able to avoid him. Piper, you do realize that Leo and that other Elder were wrong, right?" Phoebe asked. She knew that Piper had said some heated things to Chris, but that didn't make her responsible for hurting himself, and honestly, after what he'd pulled with Wyatt, she couldn't really her sister.

Piper sighed. She didn't want to talk about this, but it seemed her sisters weren't going to let her be about it. Besides, Phoebe was right. She couldn't avoid the subject of Chris for long thanks to the freaking Elders. "You know, I've spent nearly every waking moment since I found out what Chris did thinking about the last time I saw him. He came to me and he begged me to listen to him, but I wouldn't."

"Piper, he tried to manipulate us into binding Wyatt's powers. He got him kidnapped. You had no reason to listen," Phoebe said. She felt for Chris, she really did. He was brought to the point where he felt the only out he had was through death and that was truly sad, but it didn't excuse all the lies.

"You don't get it. It's not about what he did or how wrong it was. That really doesn't matter right now. It's about how he was when he was here. He was still actively trying to gain my trust. He was still determined to do what he came to do. He wasn't suicidal. What am I supposed to make of that? He wasn't suicidal when he got here, but he was when he left," Piper said. That was the thing that got her. If it weren't for her knowing he was okay when he came to see her and not when he left, she could make herself believe that her sisters were right and it wasn't her fault.

"Okay, Piper, I don't think that's entirely true. Chris didn't do this because of one conversation. Look, maybe you're right and you did push him over the edge, but I think it's very likely that he was already on the edge to begin with," Paige said.

"Right, but I gave him the final shove. Do you have any idea what that is doing to me right now? I'm supposed to protect the innocent. I'm supposed to be someone whitelighters and witches can trust and count on. Chris is both and I nearly killed him," Piper said guiltily. She'd said to more than one person that she thought Chris might be evil, but the truth was that that was just something she wanted to believe. She wanted to believe that so she didn't have to believe that that title went to her son. Chris was manipulative and deceptive more often than not, but that was a far cry from evil. He was a witch and a whitelighter and he tried to kill himself because of her.

"Come on, Piper. One conversation could not have had that big an effect on him," Phoebe said. She found it hard to believe that a few harsh words from someone he barely knew could cause Chris such pain. There had to be another reason he did what he did.

"That's not necessarily true. I'm sorry, Piper, I don't mean to hurt you, but when I worked for Social Services, I heard of much less driving a suicidal teen over the edge. When you already have it in your head, it's not hard to find the one thing to push you over the brink," Paige said.

"Are you saying it is Piper's fault?" Phoebe asked with a glare.

"No, not alone. She didn't create the original problem. But did she deliver the final blow? Probably," Paige said. With what Piper had just told them about Chris coming to try to make amends, it made her believe that maybe Piper was right. That her harshness had pushed him to his breaking point.

"There's no probably about it. I did this. Leo's right, Chris shouldn't be here," Piper said. Like Leo, she was afraid of what happened happening again. She felt a lot of guilt for what happened, but she still had a lot of issues with Chris that had nothing to do with his suicide. She was still angry at him for all the lies and getting Wyatt kidnapped, and she still wasn't ready to accept what he told them about Wyatt. She was afraid that Leo was right. That she would lose it again and cause Chris to hurt himself again.

"But there's no choice. If we don't do this, Chris will lose his powers and you probably will as well, Piper. That's not n anyone's best interests," Paige said.

"But is this any better? I'm just not sure me being around Chris is a good idea.

"It won't happen again, Piper. You're aware of what happened. You know how that Chris' emotional stated is fragile. You won't make the same mistake twice," Paige assured her.

"Well, Leo wasn't so sure of that," Piper commented.

"Leo's acting weird. It's like he's Chris' new protector. It's really strange," Phoebe said.

"I think Leo was really shaken by Chris' suicide attempt. I think after finding him like that, Leo saw something in him that he hadn't seen before. For the first time, he saw him as a messed up kid instead of someone who made him leave his family," Paige said.

"Then Leo will protect Chris. He'll protect him from me if he has to," Piper said. He had to. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she hurt Chris like this again.

"Piper, that won't be necessary," Phoebe said confidently.

"I hope you're right. Now I need to finish breakfast and get to the club, so if you guys wouldn't mind," Piper said, indicating that she wanted to be alone.

Both sisters were reluctant, but they did as Piper asked and left the room.