Chapter 11: Unimagined Consequences

Piper's mind was racing as she hurried up the stairs. What had she done? She knew well enough that one had to pick one's words carefully in the presence of a genie and yet she had just uttered a wish without thinking about it. She could only hope that Chris didn't have to pay for her stupidity now, although she knew that the chances for that were slim. Phoebe had granted her wish and now there was only the question of how bad the consequences would turn out to be.

As soon as she had reached the upper floor, Piper stopped for a moment, causing Phoebe, who had followed her, to almost crash into her back. Where had Chris gone? Was he in the attic, maybe looking at something in the Book of Shadows?

The witch was just about to call for the young whitelighter, when she heard noises coming from Wyatt's room. She realised that her two sons had to be in there, but now that she had certainty about Chris' whereabouts, her steps became hesitant.

What would she find in that room? Was Chris still himself? To this day Piper could vividly remember the weeks after Leo had taken the pain from their break-up from her and she had been cheerfulness incarnate. Had she done that to her son now as well?

When she was finally standing right outside Wyatt's bedroom, Phoebe still in tow, Piper couldn't bring herself to open the door. Although her hand was moving closer to the doorknob, it kept slowing down and in the end halted completely. She just couldn't do it.

She stayed like this for a few seconds, until there was an impatient noise behind her and Phoebe pushed her sister to the side to reach for the doorknob herself.

"I'll just do it then," she announced, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

When Piper could finally see what was happening in the room in front of her, she released the breath she hadn't even realised she had been holding. She didn't know what she had expected to find in here, but at first glance everything seemed to be normal.

Chris was standing at Wyatt's bed, holding the toddler, and looked over with a smile on his lips as he noticed the two sisters entering. Despite the seemingly harmless scene, however, Piper was still concerned about the possible consequences of her wish. She obviously wasn't the only one, either, as Phoebe's next words proved all too clearly.

"Is everything alright in here?" the genie asked, earning herself a confused look from the young whitelighter.

"I only went up here like twenty seconds ago, Phoebe. Why would anything not be alright?" To the so far silent older witch he added, "Piper, did anything happen that I should know about? Or is it just Phoebe's new outfit that's making her act this weird?"

Without answering, Piper continued staring at her son, trying to figure out if he was changed or not. He was in a good mood, that much was obvious, but apart from that he seemed to be just the same as before.

Could it actually be that her wish had – for once – not backfired? That Chris had simply come to terms with his awful past and would be happier in the future? It sounded almost too good to be true.

"Piper? Piper, are you listening to me?"

The witch snapped out of her thoughts as Chris waved his hand through the air in front of her a few times, trying to get her attention. Only now did she realise that she had been staring at him in silence for several seconds without replying to his earlier question.

"What? Yes, sorry, of course I'm listening," she declared hastily in an attempt to hide her concerns. "It's just…" she began, but then shook her head a moment later. "Never mind, it's nothing."

She threw a last long look at Chris, who was still standing with a peaceful Wyatt on his arms, before she turned to her sister.

"Pheeps, I think everything here is fine, we should…" But Phoebe never found out what exactly they should do, because a thought suddenly came to Piper that made her turn back around instantly.

Without her being able to pinpoint it, something about this whole situation had seemed off to her and now she finally knew what it was. Wyatt had never been this quiet around Chris. It was as if he was able to feel the young man's unrest and so was always rather fractious when Chris was carrying him. Now however, Wyatt was completely serene and peaceful, worrying Piper more than anything.

There was also something else. Something Chris had said, or rather what he had not said.

"Wait, what did you just call me?" she asked, a terrible suspicion forming inside of her. Judging by the look on the young man's face at this point, he was completely confused by her question, but Piper simply couldn't care about that right now.

"'Piper', of course," Chris replied, his brow furrowed. "That is your name after all, isn't it?"

Piper could practically see the gears in Chris' head turning as the whitelighter was trying to figure out what was going on and why she and Phoebe were acting so strangely. Knowing him, he was probably going through all kinds of magical afflictions already, to come up with something that would explain their behaviour.

Before she could answer his question, however, she was cut short by her sister, who had pushed herself further into the room and was now glaring at Chris.

"Hey, what happened to… ow!" The last part of that sentence had been directed at Piper, who had effectively silenced the genie with a well aimed and quite hard nudge with her elbow.

"Hey, what did you do that for?" Sulking, the blonde rubbed her sore ribs, but didn't receive any sympathy from her sister's side. Instead, Piper grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back out into the corridor.

"Please excuse us for a moment," was everything Piper had to say to Chris, before she shut the door in his face, not caring how obvious it had to be that she was keeping something from him.

As they were alone in the corridor, Piper's mind was reeling while she tried to deny the conclusion for Chris' behaviour her mind had come up with, but simply couldn't. It was the only explanation that made sense, really. She took a deep breath to calm herself, before finally addressing Phoebe, her voice utterly devoid of emotion.

"He doesn't know who I am."

Judging by the perplexed look on her face, Phoebe wasn't able to follow her sister's logic.

"What are you talking about?" the genie asked in a bewildered tone. "Of course Chris knows who you are, he just called you 'Piper', didn't he? I don't know what you think happened in there, but Chris clearly remembered both of us," she pointed out, only for Piper to shake her head in response.

"No, you don't understand, Phoebe. Obviously, Chris knows my name, knows that I'm a witch and so on, but he doesn't know that I'm his mother." She glanced over at the door to Wyatt's room for a moment, still uncertain, before she continued. "Well, either that or he forgot that we know about his identity, but somehow I don't believe that."

Phoebe's mouth opened as she was about to reply something, but then she hesitated as Piper's words really seemed to sink in. When she finally did say something, she was scratching her head, pushing some blond strands of hair out of her face in the process.

"But… why? I don't understand. You wish for Chris to be happy and he forgets that you're his mother? That just doesn't make any sense," the genie argued.

As Piper didn't know any answer to that question, either, she merely shrugged, feeling extremely worn out all of a sudden.

"I can't explain it either, Phoebe," she admitted, but then a thought occurred to her. "But you're the one who granted the wish. So, if anyone knows what that did to Chris, it has to be you."

Phoebe bit her lip as she seemed to ponder her sister's question for a moment. When she answered, she did so very hesitantly.

"I… well… I'm not entirely sure, but I think that I erased all of Chris' pain, and the causes for it, from his memories."

It took Piper a while to reply anything to that as she tried to fight off the tears that were rushing to her eyes.

When she finally spoke her voice was trembling and sounded strangely constricted.

"And the fact that he is part of this family is apparently one of the things that caused him so much pain."

Still slightly baffled, Chris stared at the closed door where only seconds ago two of the Charmed Ones had been standing. Although strange occurrences were nothing unusual in this house, as the fact that Phoebe was currently a genie proved all too clearly, Piper's behaviour had confused him in a way he couldn't explain.

He had merely called her by her name, what could have possibly been wrong with that? On top of that was Phoebe's obvious concern when the two had entered the room. Something was going on here that he didn't know about yet, but Chris wouldn't have come this far if he had ever tended to give up easily.

At this thought he looked down at the small boy he was still holding and chuckled briefly. How strange it was that the man, who was his worst enemy in the future, seemed to trust him this unconditionally here as a toddler.

It would have been so easy to simply kill Wyatt and eradicate the threat he posed to the entire world once and for all, but although Chris had killed before, and to his dismay not always exclusively demons, he was not a ruthless killer. To kill an, at this point, completely innocent child was not in his nature and he would only do it if there was no other option left.

Also, he would hate to have to go against the Halliwells. While he would most likely be able to catch them off guard at first, seeing as they trusted him now, betraying the Charmed Ones was the last thing Chris wanted to do.

Luckily, though, his situation was not that desperate yet, and the young man fervently hoped that it would never come to that. In these last few months that he had spent as their whitelighter, the sisters had grown on him quite a lot and he didn't want to hurt them under any circumstances or see them suffering.

As that included freeing them from any spells they might be under, the thought brought him back to his initial question of what was wrong with Piper and Phoebe. Chris put Wyatt back in his bed to go after the two witches and demand a real answer from them this time, but then he stopped dead in his tracks as he realised something.

Given the current situation, it was actually far more likely that it wasn't a spell that had caused their weird behaviour, but rather a careless wish. Piper must have wished for something by accident that had in some way messed with her and Phoebe's heads, and therefore probably Paige's, too.

Well, either that, or…

Chris' expression faltered as an unsettling idea manifested itself in his mind. What if not the sisters had been affected by the wish, but… him?

The two witches had come up here, because they had been worried about him. Something about his behaviour had confused Piper and caused her to leave the room to talk with Phoebe in private.

It was the only logical conclusion, judging by what little information Chris had to go on. Something wasn't right with him; something was off, but what?

The young man thought hard, racked his brain, but of course that was completely pointless. Whatever had been… changed about him, he wouldn't be able to remember it. All he could do was ask someone else who did.

With two long strides, Chris crossed the rest of the way to the door and opened it forcefully, about to rush outside, but stopped abruptly when he realised that Piper and Phoebe were still standing right in front of the doorway.

The genie and her current master were still standing in the corridor, both visibly moved by their discovery. Ever since they had become witches they had had to learn first-hand that it wasn't always easy to be a Halliwell, but at the same time it had always been their family that had supported them during these hard times.

Piper herself had wished more than once to live a life without magic, but to give up her sisters and her family for that? She couldn't even begin to imagine being happy like that.

But Chris' life is different than mine. This thought burnt itself into Piper's mind and stabbed into her heart as she stared at the door to Wyatt's room. It was as if she could sense her son through the solid wood and get at least a vague idea of what he had been through in his world.

She herself had Phoebe and Paige at her side and in the past with Prue a big sister to whom she had always been able to look up to, but Chris didn't have this connection between siblings. The brother who should have protected him had betrayed him, had betrayed them all and had become the biggest possible threat himself. Wyatt had trampled on everything the name Halliwell stood for and only now did Piper slowly begin to realise how much Chris must have suffered under his actions.

So much in fact, that his pain had almost eaten him up from the inside.

Despite the months he had spent here in this time and the distance he had brought between himself and Wyatt, Piper had always felt a kind of darkness surrounding the young man. In the beginning, before she had known who he really was, she hadn't been able to explain her feeling and had been afraid that Chris might be dangerous, but now she knew better.

It had been all the pain, the guilt and the responsibility he had constantly been carrying around with him, always trying to conceal it, because there had been no one in this time that he could have confided in. Still wasn't, really.

Of course Piper blamed herself for not preventing her own son from becoming a tyrant in Chris' future, but as he never wanted to talk about any details concerning that, she didn't even know what exactly had happened. After all, it hadn't happened for her, yet.

Contrary to Chris. The young whitelighter had seen it with his own eyes, had witnessed his brother turning evil without being able to stop him. And according to his own words, the rest of his family hadn't even noticed anything, until it had been too late.

Piper took a deep breath to calm herself and organise her thoughts. Only a few moments ago she had been angry and hurt – angry at herself and Phoebe that she had been so careless to make the wish and that her sister had fulfilled it and hurt that Chris didn't recognise her as his mother and didn't see himself as part of their family anymore.

However, even though these feelings were still there, there was also something else now, something that was growing stronger and was changing the way she was looking at everything.

Compassion. Understanding.

What, if it was better this way? If forgetting was really the only way for Chris to ever be at peace?

He could still remember a lot of things, their names, where he was, what was happening in the house at the moment, so he would probably also still know that he was here to protect Wyatt. Did it even matter then whether he knew the true reason for being here?

If it was less painful for Chris to protect a stranger from evil than his own brother, then Piper would accept that. Even more importantly, she would also make sure that everyone else accepted it, too.

All sadness and doubt vanished from Piper's expression and made way for a resoluteness she always felt when the well-being of her family was concerned. Even if in this case it meant not to treat Chris like a member of her family anymore.

Phoebe was watching Piper with growing concern. Thanks to the potion Chris had gotten for them months ago, she couldn't read her sisters' emotion anymore – although she doubted that it would even work now as a genie – and yet she had never wanted to be able to use her empathic powers more than right now.

She could see how hard the situation was for Piper, but what mother would ever take it lightly if her own son didn't remember her anymore? There seemed to be something else going on inside of her, though, and Phoebe could only hope that Piper was already coming up with a plan to fix this mess.

As far as she was concerned, another wish to undo Chris' memory loss was the best way to go, Piper just had to make sure to get the words right to not make matters even worse without meaning to.

The genie wanted to say something, something to ease Piper's grief and to stop her from blaming herself for Chris' terrible past, but for once she couldn't think of anything to say. And truth be told, Phoebe also knew too little about what happened in the future to completely eliminate the possibility that Piper, or maybe even herself and Paige had in some way contributed to Wyatt turning away from them and becoming a menace to the entire world. According to Chris, his brother had tended towards cruelty even when he was young, but all of them had been too blind, too impressed by the obvious power of the twice-blessed child to realise it.

"We're not going to tell him."

Piper's determined voice abruptly pulled Phoebe out of her own thoughts.

"What?" Startled, the genie stared at her sister, certain that she couldn't possibly have meant what it had sounded like. There was no way that Piper could even be considering not to undo the wish and to leave Chris in the dark about his true identity.

Piper's expression remained unwavering as she replied, however, leaving no room for interpretation of her next words.

"If the memory of his family is that painful for Chris, I don't think we should restore it. He's already been through so much, Phoebe, and it's still burdening him. He's got the right to a second chance, a little peace of soul, and I'm not going to destroy that by reminding him that Wyatt is his own brother. If it's easier for Chris this way, so be it."

Piper raised her hands in a defensive manner, signalling that the matter was done for her, but the genie was not ready to give up this easily.

"But Piper, you're talking about us here, about you. Chris can't just forget his family, even his own mother and then simply continue living with us as if nothing happened."

Piper sighed, obviously annoyed by Phoebe's opposition, before she replied.

"Oh yes, he can. After all, you're the one who made sure of that."

The genie didn't know what to answer to that, but she didn't even get the opportunity to say anything, as the door to Wyatt's room was suddenly ripped open and Chris stood in front of them.

He obviously hadn't expected to still find them here, and was now staring at the two women no less surprised than they were looking at him.

Phoebe opened her mouth to say something, anything to ruin Piper's crazy idea, but she never got the chance.

"Pheeps, go back downstairs into the bottle. Right now!" she commanded, giving Phoebe little choice in the matter.

"What? Oh, you can forget about… Yes, Master!" Against her will, the genie interrupted herself mid-sentence and shot her sister an angry glare, before she crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned into a whirl of blue smoke that immediately vanished down the stairs in the direction of her bottle.

Contrary to Phoebe, Chris obviously didn't have a problem with Piper misusing her control over her sister and so he gave her an appreciative grin.

"That was cool."

For one moment the two just stood there in silence, until Chris' expression suddenly darkened again. His brow furrowed, he was scrutinising the considerably smaller witch in front of him.

"Is everything alright, Piper? You seem… upset and you and Phoebe have been acting pretty weird. Did anything happen, like for example… a careless wish or something?"

Piper could feel the young man's concern and ran a hand through her hair shakily, trying her best to hide her nervousness. Chris had put together what had happened much faster than she had imagined, but then again he still was a Halliwell, whether he knew it or not. Now she had to come up with a plausible explanation, before he became any more suspicious.

"No, no, don't worry. Phoebe just had this feeling that something might be wrong, but I think her empathic powers are just going haywire, now that she's a genie. You're alright, aren't you?" Piper waited until Chris nodded in reply before she continued. "Well, then everything is fine, isn't it? You have no reason to be worried."

With these words she turned away from the young whitelighter and went back downstairs, while thinking desperately about the best way to convince her sisters of her idea. Phoebe had obviously been anything but thrilled, but hopefully she would change her mind eventually.

After all, Piper was only doing this for Chris. Although the young man, who was currently watching her walk down the stairs warily, not really buying her explanation, obviously had no idea about any of this.

To be continued…