FALSE MEMORIES
My first posted story here. Also my first Charmed Fanfic, although I have written fanfiction for other shows.
Disclaimer: The characters in Charmed do not belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.
Summary: Loved the Piper/Leo/Chris family dynamic in Season 6 so that's when this story is based. Set after Chris-Crossed and Prince Charming. Nobody knows who Chris is yet, but they're about to find out, courtesy of an unexpected visitor from the future…
Notes: Hiya! My move went well, but there's a delay with getting the phone-line fitted, which means I'm internet-less for another couple of weeks (grr). I'm only going to be able to post when I can manage to get over to my parent's house therefore (where I am now). Sorry, but there will be more delays until I get things sorted.
On a brighter note, I can still write, so hopefully there'll be plenty of updates to post when I do finally get properly back online :-)
Anyway, here's the next part for you. Hope you enjoy and thankyou for all the lovely reviews so far. Warning: this is not a happy chapter…
Chapter 10
At first, Chris was observing events from the outside as if he was watching a TV show. Everything was just so normal, they were simply a family going about their daily business and interacting with each other along the way. His mind was screaming at him, telling him that there was something very wrong, but he couldn't remember what it was. He should be warning them, he knew, but about what he didn't have a clue.
Suddenly his perspective shifted and he found himself looking out through his past self's eyes.
Oh God! No! Not again, please not again! he silently pleaded, seconds before his memory completely left him and he became fully immersed in the person he used to be - the fourteen year old boy who was totally oblivious to the tragedy about to befall him and his family…
"Wyatt, come and help your brother set the table please. Lunch is nearly ready."
"'Kay, Mom. Be there in a minute," Wyatt yelled from the other room.
"No actually you'll be here now," Piper called back to her son, her tone stern. There was a flurry of blue orbs and Wyatt obediently appeared in the kitchen next to Chris.
"Is it really necessary to orb everywhere?" she asked him with a sigh. "Don't you have legs?"
"But you said I had to come straightaway," Wyatt replied, all wide-eyed innocence.
Chris began to laugh, but quickly stifled his amusement when his mother's unwavering gaze turned on him. "Was there something funny?"
"No, no Mom, I was just… I'll set the table." Lowering his head, Chris hurried over to retrieve the soup spoons from the cultery drawer, wisely removing himself from the firing line.
His mother turned back to her impudent elder son. "Don't be smart, mister."
"Yes Mom."
"And don't you encourage him either," Piper added, pointing an accusing finger at her husband, who was trying to hide his smile behind his hand.
"Yes Mom." Leo replied solemnly, an answer which caused both his sons to erupt into delighted laughter.
At first, Piper looked steadily at her grinning husband, her expression frosty, but then she gave in with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Boys," she lamented playfully. "Why did I have to have boys?"
"Hey!" The indignant protest came from both her teenage sons and she smiled.
"Don't worry – Mommy loves you really," she said, reaching out and affectionately ruffling their hair as they passed on the way to the table. She leaned forward and planted a warm kiss on their cheeks as she did so. Her boys wrinkled their noses in disgust at her actions, both being of an age where being overly mothered was definitely not cool.
"Err Mom!" came from her youngest, whereas "Hey, watch the hair!" was her eldest's grumble.
Piper didn't care though, they were her babies and she'd hug and kiss them all she liked. While she was proud that they were both growing up into fine young men, she missed the uninhibited affection that they used to bestow on her as small children. Learning to let go and allowing them to find their own path in life was tough, but if she was to do her job as their mother properly, then it was something that she had to do.
With a soft sigh of regret, she turned back to the stove and began to serve up the soup that she'd heated up for lunch, while the boys finished setting the table. It was just after she handed the plate of accompanying sandwiches to Leo that the attack occurred. It came without warning and she was completely unprepared for it.
Chris looked up from the table as the demon shimmered in behind his Mom, but his shout of warning was cut off when he was grabbed from behind and hurled bodily into the other room. His head hit the wall with a resounding crack and he blacked out for a minute. When he came to, the demons were gone and the house was eerily quiet, the playful bantering of a few moments earlier silenced forever.
Scrambling to his feet, he rushed back into the kitchen, his heart thumping wildly in growing anxiety. His Dad and older brother were slumped on the floor by the table, but had no visible injuries as far as Chris could tell. Strangely, they both appeared to be sound asleep, their chests moving up and down in the measured cadence of peaceful slumber.
A soft moan from behind the kitchen counter spurred Chris into movement again. "Mom!" he said, getting to his feet and hurrying to her side. As he rounded the corner, the horrific scene that greeted him stopped him in his tracks. It was an image that would be imprinted on his memory for the rest of his life.
Piper lay slumped against one of the kitchen cupboards, a dark red pool of blood slowly gathering underneath her. Her skin was grey, her lips blue, and her deep brown eyes open wide and filled with terror. Chris could clearly see the athame lodged in her side, while the steady drip, drip of her blood resounded loudly in his ears.
"No, Mom!" he breathed in horror, falling to his knees beside her, heedless of the warm, sticky blood seeping into the material of his jeans and staining his skin.
"Chris," Piper croaked, struggling to remain calm for her son's sake. "Sweetie – are you okay? And Wyatt? Your Dad?"
"I'm okay," Chris quickly reassured her. "Dad and Wyatt too – I think they're asleep."
"Sleeping potion," Piper guessed, sighing in relief. She had been scared that the bottles of potion, which had felled her husband and eldest son, had been something more sinister.
Curling her fingers around the athame's handle, she proceeded to tug the dagger free from her body, but couldn't prevent the sharp cry of pain that left her lips as a result. The tears overflowed down Chris's cheeks as the full horror of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks.
"I'll get help," he said, rising to his feet. "Auntie Paige and Phoebe will know what to do. They'll know how to wake Dad and Wyatt so they can heal you."
He tried to orb out of the house, but was prevented from doing so by an invisible barrier that forced him to amalgamate back into his solid form. Closing his eyes and clenching his fists, he tried again, only to fall to the floor gasping, the wind knocked out of him.
"Chris honey – what's wrong?"
"I can't get out!"
Running into the hallway, Chris tried the front door, but it wouldn't budge. It was stuck fast, seemingly super-glued into its frame. Rushing back into the kitchen, he frenetically emptied one of the cupboards until he found his baseball bat, and then ran though into the Conservatory.
He swung the bat with all his might at one of the windows and succeeded in cracking the pane. The shattered glass didn't fall in on itself though; it remained intact inside the frame, held together by an unseen force. Chris tried again with another window, but the same thing happened.
With panic rising inside of him, he took the stairs, two at a time, and attempted to shatter the bedroom windows as well, all to no avail. Finally, after ascending yet another staircase, he swung the bat at the attic's stained glass windows. However, even when he added the weight of his telekinesis power behind the blow, the windows just wouldn't break and he fell to his knees sobbing in anguish.
"Please somebody help me," he cried, lifting his face to the ceiling. "All you Elders and whitelighters out there – please, somebody help, please!"
There was no response. Chris's sensing power was still developing, but he couldn't hear anything and suspected that nobody could hear him either. He was trapped inside the Manor with no means of escape, and no way of getting help for his fatally injured mother.
Hefting the Book of Shadows up into his arms, he orbed back downstairs, dropped the huge volume on the table, and then knelt down next to his father and brother. He shook them frantically, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Please Dad, Wyatt – you have to wake up, you have to wake up. Please!"
Piper jumped as Chris's plaintive pleas for his father and brother to wake up burst forth from the unintelligible sounds that he had been muttering in his sleep up until now.
"Shouldn't we wake him up?" she asked Future Leo worriedly, her forehead creasing in concern.
Leo shook his head. "No, I used to do that and it totally freaked him out. He can't distinguish reality from his dream if you force him out of it before his mind is ready. As awful as it sounds, it's best just to let him come out of it naturally."
Piper nodded and knelt down next to the bed to wait it out. Reaching over Chris's restlessly tossing form, she tenderly brushed away a stray lock of hair from his sweat-dampened forehead. Her son lifted his hand off the mattress, seemingly in response to her gentle caress. However, moments later, she felt a stinging slap across her cheek, despite the fact that he hadn't touched her.
"Oww!" she protested, her hand going to her burning face.
"Sorry about that," Leo said. "I should have warned you. His TK power goes a bit haywire when he's dreaming like this. I think he's projecting what's happening in his subconscious out into reality."
"Dad! Please wake up, please!"
Tears filled Piper's eyes as her son began to cry pitifully in his sleep. She wanted to climb inside his head and make everything all right, but she knew she couldn't. The only thing she could do was wait until he woke up from his nightmare, and then attempt to comfort him if that was possible…
Not knowing what else to do, Chris slapped his father hard across the face, desperately trying to awaken him. Leo however, didn't even stir, just carried on snoring, oblivious to the horror that was going on around him.
"Dad! Please wake up, please!" Chris pleaded before he completely broke down, his sobs hiccupping in the back of his throat.
At the sound of her son's distress, Piper roused herself out of her pain-filled haze and called out to him. "Sweetie, come here," she whispered, her voice faint and shaky.
Choking back his tears, Chris rushed to her side. She was deathly pale and the breath was rattling in her chest as she struggled to draw air into her punctured lungs. Holding his hands out over her wound, he desperately tried to heal her – he was half-whitelighter, he should be able to heal. Why couldn't he heal, dammit?
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it won't work. I can't do it," he cried out in broken-heartened anguish, starting to cry again.
"Ssh honey, ssh. It's okay, it's okay."
"No it's not! I can't get out and nobody can hear me calling."
Ice-cold fear ran through Piper's veins at that, and it was then that she knew. She was going to die, murdered in her own home by god knows who, for god knows what purpose. Worse still, her beloved son was going to play witness to the whole event and be powerless to help her. She dreaded to think what effect that would have on him in later life.
"Maybe I could make a potion to wake Dad and Wyatt up," Chris said desperately, scrambling to his feet once more. "Or find a spell to break down the mystical barrier around the house."
Piper opened her mouth to protest but then closed it again, figuring that she had to let him do all he could to help her. She knew he would never forgive himself if he didn't. She had the horrible feeling that it would take the Power of Three to countermand both the sleeping potion and the barrier spell though.
This was the work of a powerful upper level demon; it had to be. Nothing else could have executed such an efficient attack on a Charmed One and her magically gifted family. She, her husband and their two sons were a force to be reckoned with, after all.
As Chris frantically searched through the Book of Shadows for something to help, Piper struggled valiantly to stay conscious, knowing that once she succumbed to the darkness encroaching her, she probably wouldn't wake up again. She was only dimly aware as her son anxiously attempted to help her with a variety of different spells and potions therefore.
When all of his increasingly desperate attempts to save her came to nought, Chris telekinetically hurled the small metal cauldron against the wall with a howl of frustration. "Work dammit!" he cried, then buried his face in his hands and began to sob uncontrollably.
Piper started to cough, her lungs heaving painfully as they attempted to expel the fluid, which was cutting off her air supply. The edges of her vision were starting to turn grey and she could feel the life-force slowly draining out of her. Tasting the copper tang of blood in her mouth, she instinctively knew that she didn't have much time left.
"Honey stop. It's no use," she whispered, as Chris partially regained his shattered composure and started to flick through the Book of Shadows again.
"No, no, no – don't say that, don't say that. You can hold on, you can."
As her son sank to his knees next to her, Piper reached up and cupped the side of his tear-smudged face in her hand. "Listen to me, sweetie. I love you so much – don't ever forget that okay? Even if I'm not here beside you anymore, I'll always be with you in spirit. I'm going to be watching over you every day of your life, I promise."
"Mom don't, you're not gonna die. You're gonna be okay, I know you're going to be okay." Even as the words left his lips, Chris knew that they were a lie. His mother's skin was cold and clammy, while the usually strong sense of her presence was gradually fading from his sensing radar.
Piper ignored his reassurances; there were things she needed to say before it was too late. "Tell your Dad and Wyatt that I love them," she continued, her voice weak and thready.
"And Paige and Phoebe too…," she added before a wracking coughing fit overcame her and sapped her dwindling strength. Exhausted, she closed her eyes but forced them open again at her son's panicked plea.
"No Mom, please don't go, please don't leave me, not yet, not yet."
Completely distraught, Chris buried his face against her shoulder, his bitter tears dampening her skin through the thin material of her blouse.
Piper's eyes filled with tears of regret - she didn't want to leave her sons motherless. She wanted to see them grow up, get married, have babies of their own. All of that was about to be snatched away from her though and there was nothing she could do to stave off the inevitable. Choking back her tears, she stroked her hand over Chris's dark hair and murmured soothingly to him, trying to cram a lifetimes worth of mothering into the few short minutes that she had left.
"Ssh sweetie, ssh. You have to be strong now. Be that brave young man that I know you are. I know it's hard to imagine, but even after terrible tragedy, the world keeps on turning. You have to make the most of every minute you have, because that's what life's all about – living it to the fullest, despite the obstacles thrown in your way."
"I don't want you to go. You can hold on – Dad and Wyatt will wake up soon, I know they will. I love you so much, Mom, please stay, please."
"Look at me, honey," Piper gently urged.
Chris dutifully did as she asked, raising his head and looking down into his mother's familiar brown eyes. His face was pale, his green eyes filled to the brim with the tears that refused to stop falling. Using every ounce of strength that she had left in her, Piper brushed his dark hair off his forehead, and then cupped his beloved face between her palms.
"I love you more than you could possibly ever know," she said softly. "You and your brother – you're the best thing that I ever did with my life, and I've done a whole lot over the years as a Charmed One. Nothing compares to you two though, and I know you're going to go on and make me proud of you."
"I'll try, Mom, I'll try."
"I know you will, sweetie, because that's who you are - my very own Mr Tenacious." Piper replied with a smile before she pulled him close and fondly kissed him on the forehead.
"It's nearly time," she whispered, stroking the side of his face as her breathing started to become laboured.
"No, no – please no," Chris sobbed as her hand slipped from his cheek and fell limp by her side. He gathered her ice-cold hands in his and held on for dear life.
"I'm so sorry; I never meant to leave you or your brother so soon," Piper said, her voice so faint that Chris was forced to lean close to hear the words. "Tell everyone I'm sorry, and that I love them."
With that, her eyes fluttered closed and she finally slipped into unconsciousness. His heart pounding loudly in his ears, Chris held his breath and watched her chest slowly rise and fall in a faltering rhythm, until eventually it stopped. Moments later, her spirit disengaged from her body and he gazed up at his mother's filmy form in stunned disbelief, not wanting to accept that she was leaving him for good.
"I love you, my beautiful baby boy. Be strong and be happy," she said, her voice clear and bell-like. Chris felt a whisper of a kiss against his cheek, and then she was gone.
Hugging his knees to his chest, Chris began to rock back and forth, as a tidal wave of grief overwhelmed him. "No, no, no, this isn't happening. Please tell me this isn't happening, please."
"Mom!"
Gasping for breath, Chris shot upright in bed, propelling himself out of his nightmare as the avalanche of sorrowful emotion became too much to handle.
"Ssh sweetie – I'm here, I'm here," Piper said, moving to take him in her arms. She was acting out of instinct, the awkwardness of a few hours earlier all but gone. Her son was hurting and comforting him was the only thing that mattered right now.
Chris clung to her as if his life depended on it. His Mom was here – warm and alive, not deathly cold and lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. "Mom," he repeated, his voice breaking. "I tried to be brave; I tried to make you proud, I did, but everything went crazy after… Wyatt, he's not Wyatt anymore, and I'm so scared we'll never get him back."
Realising that he wasn't really talking to her, but rather the future version of herself, Piper turned her head and pressed a kiss to his temple. "We're going to get him back, I promise," she soothed. "You've been so brave coming here to warn us. We have a chance to save him now."
The last vestiges of sleep fell away from Chris at Piper's words and he quickly pulled away from her, finally recognising where he was. She might be here now, but he still had to go back to where she wasn't. He couldn't let himself get too close, no matter how much he wanted her comfort.
Piper looked confused and a little hurt at his abrupt withdrawal. Sensing Chris's dilemma - because in some ways it mirrored his own - Leo sat down opposite his wife and reached out to pat his son's shoulder.
"Listen to me, son. Wyatt isn't the only one that we're going to save."
Uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation, Chris looked down at the comforter. "I'm afraid to hope for that," he whispered.
"I know - me too. But you can't let that stop you from making the most of the time that you have now."
"Because that's what life's all about – living it to the fullest, despite the obstacles thrown in your way?"
"Exactly."
"That's what Mom said before she…" Chris broke off and bit his lip.
Leo's eyes widened - this was the first piece of information that Chris had ever offered about what had passed between himself and Piper that terrible day. "Maybe you should take her advice," he suggested softly.
Chris nodded and turned to Piper. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean… It's just so difficult to be near you sometimes."
Piper reached out and took his hand in hers. "I understand," she said quietly. "I lost my mother too, I know how it feels. We agreed to take things one day at a time though – let's just stick to that, okay?"
"Okay."
"Good. Now I think you should try to get some proper sleep. We can talk some more in the morning."
"Yes Mom," Chris said, automatically responding to her slightly peremptory tone.
Piper beamed at his unintentional use of the term 'Mom,' and Chris was embarrassed, despite knowing that he shouldn't be. She was still his mother, even if he hadn't been born yet. Snuggling back under the covers, he closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep, his slumber thankfully free of nightmares this time.
Piper gently tucked him back in and then got to her feet. "You're going to stay with him?" she asked the future version of her husband.
Leo nodded. "Yeah – he should be fine now though. The nightmares don't usually bother him more than once in a night. Besides, I think we had a breakthrough – I know he didn't say all that much, but he's never voluntarily spoken about what happened before."
"I hate that I'm the cause of all this pain."
"Piper, it's not your fault. And he only finds it so painful because he loves you so much."
Piper smiled shyly. "Really?"
"Yes really. Now go get some sleep – Chris isn't the only one who could use it, it's been a long day for all of us."
Piper crossed to Leo's side and pressed her warm lips to his cheek. "We will save our family," she vowed as she straightened up. "And make the future right again for our boys."
"God Piper, I really hope so," Future Leo replied, reaching out to squeeze her hand.
Piper returned the gesture, then let go of his fingers. "Goodnight," she said, turning towards the door.
"Goodnight," Leo answered quietly as he watched her leave.
Turning back to his son, he checked Chris was comfortable, and then settled himself on the couch, weary exhaustion overtaking him all of a sudden. He hoped to god that Piper was right; he desperately needed to believe that they would be able to change the future for the better right now. He missed the happy family that they used to be so much.
To be continued (probably not until next weekend though, I'm afraid)…