Reality Bites

Disclaimer: Don't own anything apart from the plot, Danni and Meg

Chapter Ten – One more to the mix

Meg's own mouth fell open as the light cleared, and she stared at the figure who was looking around the room suspiciously. His gaze fell on Chris and he frowned.

"Chris? There you are. What happened?" he asked and Meg blinked in shock.

"What… L-Leo?"

"Do I know you?" Leo asked with a questioning look at Meg, who shook her head slowly. She stared at him, dumbfounded. Christ on a crutch. One Charmed character was fantastical enough, now she had two in her living room!

Leo's frown deepened as his confused green eyes swept the room, and Meg was startled at how much like Chris's they were. She'd always thought Chris had gotten his eye colour from Prue, but seeing his father's eyes this close, it was a lot easier to believe that the two of them were related.

The Elder looked at his future son, whom apart from swearing under his breath, hadn't said a word. He raised an eyebrow.

"Chris? Why are you wearing a glamour? Who are these people? And what the heck happened?"

"That's Brian Krause. You're Brian Krause."

Danni's thunderstruck voice bet Chris to the punch. She stared at the newcomer, shock and disbelief stamped across her features.

"No I'm not," Leo answered as he looked at her. "My name is Leo. Who are you?"

Danni pursed her lips in consideration as she continued to stare at him.

"Oh, Meg?"

"Yes Danni?" Meg answered weakly.

"Why is Brian Krause standing in the middle of your apartment, why is he denying that he is who he is, and most importantly, how the freaking hell did he get here?"

Danni asked all these questions in a pleasant tone, like she was working behind the desk at customer service. Meg grimaced. She knew and very much hated that tone. When her best friend spoke like that, the shit was about to hit the fan.

She turned to Chris. "Take off the glamour."

He scowled. "What?"

"She already knows something's going on, so we may as well show her the whole thing. This way I don't have to continue lying to her."

She smiled gently when she correctly interpreted his expression. "I'd trust her with my life, Christopher. She's not going to tell anyone."

Chris frowned for a long moment, his eyes wary. "If you're sure."

"I am."

He nodded, looked at Leo briefly, who was watching Chris and Meg with a baffled expression, and clicked his fingers. Dull yellow lights appeared out of nowhere and zoomed over him, removing the fake Chris and revealing who he truly was.

Meg nodded in satisfaction when he was once again looking at her with bottle green eyes, his dark brown hair falling over his forehead. Much better.

"Holy crap on a cracker."

Meg looked over and moved to Danni's side as the other woman goggled. Her blue eyes were wide, and surprisingly, a little scared.

"Danni? Are you okay?"

"But…? You…? How…? Wha…? Oh, Lord, I need to sit down."

And she did just that, her legs folding under her until she was sitting cross legged on the floor. Meg crouched down beside her in concern.

"Danni…"

"Meg, what the hell is going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Leo said. He frowned at the two women on the floor, his eyes lingering on Meg's bandaged cheek. His eyes then narrowed when his head swung round to settle on the bandages on Chris's hands.

Chris followed his gaze and bitterness swept his features before he scoffed. "Don't worry Leo, I didn't do it. You don't need to get all High-and-Mighty on me."

"What? Of course it wasn't Chris!" Meg exclaimed, standing back up as she realized what he was talking about. "He saved me! My ex attacked me and Chris saved me! He hurt his hands by putting the bastard in the hospital, not by hurting me! How can you even think that?"

"It's okay Meg," Chris said quietly and Meg shook her head in agitation.

"No it's not! He should know you better than that! Didn't he tell you he trusted you the last time you were on top of the Golden Gate Bridge together?"

Chris's brows winged. "Wow, you know that series back to front. It's a little scary."

"If you're talking about Charmed, season six in particular, then that would be a very firm yes," Danni said in a slightly dazed voice. Meg frowned down at her, Danni copying the expression when she looked up at her friend.

"What? You've exposed me to enough of that show that I know the actors when I see them, and that my friend, is Drew Fuller," she said, waving vaguely at Chris. "Add Brian Krause over there, and you have season six. Or maybe season eight, but most likely six."

"I'm in season eight?" Chris blinked in surprise. Meg shrugged hurriedly and looked back at Danni. Best to just gloss right over that.

"So you know what's going on?" she asked. Danni shook her head.

"Nope. Have absolutely no clue. Wanna explain it to me?"

"And me," Leo piped up. "That woman obviously doesn't know about magic-"

"Magic?" Danni interrupted.

"Okay, maybe we better start from the beginning," Meg said with a sigh. She looked at Chris. "Separate or together?"

"Oh, most definitely together," Danni answered for him as she pulled herself up. "Don't think you can get away with separating the celebrities. I'm staying right here, and so are they."

Meg rubbed her forehead tiredly and looked at Chris again, who funnily enough, was scowling. She sighed. She really hated explaining things.

~0~

"So he really is Chris Ha-"

"Perry. Chris Perry," Meg said, quickly cutting off her friend before she exposed Chris to his father. Danni frowned at her in confusion.

"Season six, Danni."

"Oh. Oh!" Danni said, her eyes flicking over to Leo, who was standing at the window with his back to them. "Right then. He's Chris Perry, and that's Leo Wyatt, the… Elder?"

"That's right," Meg answered.

"So you're saying that none of our world is real? It's all make-believe?"

"It's real to you," Meg said softly, looking at Leo's back. "It's your life, and it'll still be your life when you go back to it. That seems real enough to me."

Leo sighed and turned around. "I don't understand why I don't know about this."

"What's this? Your all-knowing Elder knowledge was a few gaps? Oh, the horror!" Chris snarked. Meg threw him a look and the time traveller scowled down at the floor.

"Why would you know about it? You and the other Elders focus on your world, not on any others. You can't, can you? If you split your focus, the safety of your world would suffer."

Surprise shone in Leo's eyes before respect replaced it.

"That's very true," he said with a smile. Meg smiled back – or at least tried to. It was at that moment that her cheek decided to make itself known. She winced and sat back, her hand coming up to cup it.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Chris asked as he got up from where he was sitting at the computer, picked up the glass of water and pills that were on the coffee table, and handed them to Meg. She grimaced as she accepted them, wondering if she could pass if off as not all that bad.

Seeing her expression, Chris sighed, took back the pills and popped a couple into his hand before shoving them back into his face. He scowled at her.

"Take them," he demanded.

"They'll put me to sleep," Meg protested.

"So? Sleep's one of the best medicines. You're in pain, Meg. Take them. Don't make me force you."

Her eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

"Wouldn't I?" Chris said with a smirk.

"Okay, enough bickering kiddies," Danni said, making them both look over at her. "But I do agree with Chris, Meg. You should take them and go to bed."

"Fine, fine," Meg sighed, reaching for the pills. "I'll take them but I'm not going to bed until I have to."

"Christ, and people think I'm stubborn," Chris muttered. Meg swallowed the pills and glared at him.

"Shut up you. You're more stubborn then I am."

"Whatever you say, Megan," Chris said with a grin. Danni laughed while Meg sat there, grumbling about annoying whitelighters. All three of them turned when they heard a throat being cleared.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but we do have a situation to solve," Leo said quietly. He was watching Meg and Chris, his eyes narrowed in speculation. Guilt flashed across Chris's face and he scowled again, heading back over to the computer.

"This'll help then. Your author answered your email, Meg," he said in a brusque voice. The mortal blinked in surprise and got up.

"Really?" she queried, heading over to him. Chris looked back over his shoulder and scowled once again.

"What are you doing? Sit back down!" he ordered. "I can handle a simple email, you know."

"Why don't I save all this arguing and just heal you?" Leo suggested softly. Chris stood straight up and looked at the Elder.

"Yes. That's a good idea," he urged.

Meg shook her head as she sat. "No it isn't. I have to go back to the hospital and get the stitches removed in a couple of days, plus the cops will probably want to speak to both of us again. How's it going to look if I suddenly have nothing to prove Fergus belongs behind bars? That's not going to work."

"Prick needs more then to just be behind bars," Chris muttered. Danni chuckled.

"I totally agree sunshine. But Meg's right though. She needs all the physical evidence she can get, so that The Asshole can go away for a very long time."

"So no healing," Meg said firmly. "It'll be fine, I can put up with it. I've had worse."

Chris's expression darkened and he quickly turned back to the computer. He muttered something that the girls didn't catch, though Leo did going by the surprise on his face. Speculation once again filled his eyes as he watched the younger man. Chris ignored him and fiddled with the mouse.

"Okay, your author says that the spell wasn't made up. They apparently took it from a Wiccan book that belongs to their Grandmother. They also say that they remember reading it as a kid, and thought it would be 'cool' to add a real spell to a work of fiction."

He scoffed. "Yeah, real 'cool' when the spell actually works and ends up messing with my life. Lord, some people are stupid."

"They didn't know it was going to work, though did they?" Meg pointed out.

"Hold on, hold on, back up the train a bit, would you?" Danni said. "What spell? And who's this author you're talking about?"

"I second those questions," Leo said. Meg sighed and leaned back.

"I came here because Meg read a spell aloud that she found in a fanfiction story," Chris explained, his eyes on his host.

"Fanfiction?" Leo questioned.

"It's this silly little thing fans of movies, TV shows and books do. They write stories about the characters."

"Hey! It isn't silly!" Meg protested half-heartedly. She could already feel the waves of sleep approaching. She sighed again. She really disliked taking pills, because no matter what they were, she always reacted the same way.

Chris ignored her protest. "She read out this spell and then suddenly I was here. It doesn't have a reversal, so I have no way of getting back. Or at least not until I fulfil the requirements of the spell."

Leo cursed under his breath and Chris frowned at him. "What?"

"The spell that was used to get me here doesn't have a reversal either," the Elder said with a wry twist of his mouth. "I was counting on you having figured it out."

Chris stared at him in disbelief. "Well that was intelligent, wasn't it?" he said, the words dripping with sarcasm. Leo grimaced and scratched the back of his neck, apology in his eyes.

Meg frowned at them before blinking slowly when Danni leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Look at that honeybunch, two hunky Charmed men to keep you entertained!"

She snorted. "I can entertain myself well enough, thank you very much."

Danni's brow went up. "Yes, I agree, you probably can, but isn't it a lot funner with a partner?"

"Funner? Love the made up word there, my friend," Meg yawned. Danni grinned and shrugged.

"And you're not getting my meaning. You really must be tired."

"Oh, I am. I'm just choosing to take the high road and ignore you," Meg answered softly, making Danni snort. The pain was slowly fading, as was her consciousness.

"What are you two whispering about?" Chris asked. Danni sat up and grinned again.

"Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about sunshine," she said. "But I do think it's time for someone to hit the hay."

"I'm fine. Really. I just need… caffeine," Meg mumbled as her eyes drooped.

"You need sleep," Chris said and Meg's eyes shot open before slowly closing again when the world tilted.

"What are you doing?" she slurred.

"Taking you to bed," came the rumbled reply.

"Oh, if only," she whispered and Chris's steps halted for a second before they resumed. Meg sighed, resting her head against his shoulder.

"Are you carrying me?"

"No, you're just magically floating down the stairs," Chris said dryly.

"It could happen," she said. The witch snorted.

"Christopher?" she murmured as her limbs began to feel heavy.

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for saving me from Fergus."

She sighed again as her head met her pillow and Chris pulled the covers up over her. The world faded to almost nothing, making her wonder if the hand that reached out to brush back her hair was part of a dream.

"Anytime. Now go to sleep Meg."

"You always seem to be saying that," Meg grumbled. She half-smiled in contentment when she heard him chuckle.

"Because you always seem to need me to. Sleep now. I'll be here when you wake up."

For how long? Meg thought distantly before that disturbing thought was pushed aside as the pills got the best of her, sucking her down into slumber.

A/N - Sorry it's shorter then usual. I thought it was a good place to end it. Hope you enjoyed!