Chapter Twelve

Chris closed his eyes and buried his weary head into his palms. Then, grimacing, he lifted it up again. Ew. His palms were sweaty. And, he observed with slight concern, they were shaking.

By this point in his oh-so-complicated life, Chris was simply overwhelmed. He couldn't believe this was happening to him. All he'd wanted was to save the entire world without any problems or repercussions- had he aimed too high? He must have, Chris concluded bitterly, because now, everything was crumbling around him. Things were playing out just as they were supposed to (which was very badly), and nothing Chris had said, done or endured had made any difference what-so-ever.

Somewhere in the back of his mind (the part that wasn't aching to the point of tears), a memory popped up in Chris' mind. Wyatt. A young boy- though he prematurely wore the the sulky, irritated expression of a teenager, his floppy blond hair hiding eyes filled with contempt (which, at that point, had seemed more like mere childish annoyance than the glare of a killer). And Piper (or mum, or... whatever!), looking down at the boy sternly and dishing out the phrase that, in Chris' time, she was very fond of. "You reap what you sow, Wyatt!" Chris saw Piper chide, as she'd done so many times during the troublesome period just before... the event...

Chris tried to think of any time he'd sown evil. He was sure he never had. Not really. And yet, for some reason, his life had turned out utterly shitty, while Wyatt- the evil dictator- waltzed around, bloody... dictating... without a sorrow in the world other than, possibly, who would he torture today that he hadn't already, and, after said torture, who would be left to wipe his oh-so-special backside...?

Wait, thought Chris, his imature anger momentairily becoming woe, that should not be he does, but he did.

Because I killed him.

The most horrifying thing about this entire situation- his failure and the very real possibility that things might play out completely as they were supposed to- was that if Chris didn't change the future, then he really had murdered his brother (or will do, depending on how you looked at it). Dead. Gone. No second chances. And to think, before then, he'd sown near enough no evil, but reaped a whole load anyway. It was utterly unfair.

"Life's unfair." Muttered Phoebe.

"Oh... Sorry." Chris said sheepishly. He'd forgotten Phoebe's amazing- and slightly intrusive- empath abilities. "I shouldn't sit here feeling sorry for myself, but..."

"You can't help it. How could you possibly not think pessimistically when you've got all this time on your hands! I don't know how Piper managed it for so long." Phoebe wondered. She looked up from where she was sat, head in hands on the kitchen table, and gave Piper a questioning glance.

Piper was making coffe, breathing heavily and sweating a lot, holding the small of her back every time she walked from the counter to the fridge. Chris and Phoebe had offered to help on numerous occasions, but, after Piper met them with angry defiance, they thought it best to let her get on with it. If it helped her.

Piper looked back at Phoebe. Her eyes were haunted and weary; heavy with the months of heart-ache that she'd had to endure. She didn't expect anyone to comprehend just how difficult it had been, which is why, when Phoebe questioned her, wondering how she'd managed, Piper didn't yell and scream in frustration like she wanted to. She just sighed and smiled.

"I managed it for so long because, even though it was hard, I had faith in you guys." She said simply.

Phoebe gave a tiny, amused smile back. "You've been having too many heart-to-heart chats with Darryl, haven't you? I can tell."

Piper scoffed and turned back to her coffee- the term 'turned' being very loose. She shuffled into position, more like.

"You alright, mum?" Chris asked for the dozenth time. He was feeling terribly guilty, considering he was the reason Piper was so immobile.

"Yes, worry-guts, I'm fine. I'm perfectly capable of making a few cups of- oh..." Piper suddenly winced and doubled over, breathing erratically.

Chris jumped out of his seat. "Oh my God, are you having the baby? Are you having me right now! No, not now... That'll mean it's too late! Cross your le..."

"If you're about to say what I think you're about to say, then don't you dare!" Piper screeched, and Chris blushed, feeling like a child. "No, Chris, I'm not having you. Not yet." Piper sighed as Phoebe helped her sit down. "You're just a feisty little rascal, that's all."

"I can't believe I'm still in there! With all the stress, I'd have thought..." Chris trailed off. This was more than slightly awkward.

"Chris, do you really think I'd be so selfish as to possibly jeopardise your health by letting you be born prematurely? I would never."

Chris decided he wouldn't bother asking how it was possible to just decide not to have your baby just yet. Anyway, she was giving him a look that said, "I just can, I'm that incredible" so he left it at that.

"I wonder if the others are getting any further with our escape plan." Phoebe mused, finishing her sentence in the very same moment that a loud bang came from upstairs. Never once in Charmed history had 'a loud bang from upstairs' been a good thing. Without hesitation, Chris got to his feet.

"I'd better check."

Xx

"Sigmund?" Leo cried as the man himself clumsily orbed into the attic (his orb a strange golden colour, rather than blue), tripping and knocking the Book of Shadows off of it's stand as he did so. This, however was a good thing, Leo thought, as it a) warned the others down stairs that something was happening, and b) gave assurance that this man was, in fact, Sigmund, and not an evil imposter, who would've repelled the Book instantly. Sigmund had touched it. He was okay.

As Sigmund stood and started to compose himself, Chris orbed in.

"What happened, we heard..." He spotted Sigmund. "How the hell did he get in?"

"With great difficulty. Hense the pitifully ungraceful entrance. I'm sorry if I startled you." Sigmund appologised, shuffling nervously, as if affraid someone would suddenly attack him. Leo couldn't blame the guy. Paige and Chris were shooting the man daggers, although Leo couldn't see a reason to want to hurt Sigmund.

"Sigmund, thank heavens you came! You have to get us out of here. Gideon is evil, and he has Wyatt, and if we don't find him..."

"He knows."Chris stated. If looks could kill, Sigmund would've dropped down dead at that very second.

"It's obvious." Paige agreed, catching Chris' trail of thought. "You and Gideon were inseparable at Magic School; always... whispering." She paused, as if for effet. "Conspiring." Darryl, too, suddenly became very threatening, eyeing Sigmund with distrust. Leo was just about to object- to say that his good friend and college would never wish to harm anyone, especially his own son- but Sigmund lowered his head in admittance and defeat. Leo was perplexed.

"I did know. And I helped." He admitted shamefully.

Leo felt his heart contract and his fists clench. "What?" He said, looming towards his 'friend'.

Sigmund, however, took a step forward, rather than back. "But Leo, listen to me! I believed we were doing good, not evil! And in a twisted way, so did- does- he!"

"What do you mean! What about any of this could possibly be good!" Chris screamed, voicing Leo's thought's, minus the curses.

"Believe me, please! Chris, you, more than anyone must understand, coming from a future so desolate and filled with suffering at the hands of Wyatt Halliwell. Gideon and I, we were in agreement that so high a concentration of power shouldn't exist in one boy- we knew it was dangerous." Sigmund turned his attention to Leo, who was seething, his veins popping out of his neck in fury. "Leo, I'm sorry. We never wanted to hurt you, but it was the only way. Or, I thought it was... but now..."

Then, Leo exploded.

Lightning errupted from his fingertips, and Sigmund was wrapped in the glowing claws and hurled off of he ground- he was held up, as if hanged, suspended in the air. Painful bolts of energy buzzing through his body, he jolted and kicked helplessly, feeling the full force of Leo's rage. Chris stood, wide-eyed. He could feel his own skin tingling with the energy.

"Leo, stop!" Darryl cried, but it was Chris who lunged to stop his father. He tackled him down, ripping him away from the flow of light. Sigmund grunted and dropped to the ground in a smouldering heap.

"Dad!" Chris cried as he wrestled Leo to the ground. "Stop! Calm down. What happened to being a pacifist!"

Darryl helped to calm Leo as he screamed, "he's trying to kill my son! Why shouldn't I kill him!"

The burning lump of black material sifted, and Sigmund's reddened, blisterd face revealed itself. "Because- I... I'm here to help you!" He coughed, shakily lifting himself up from the floor. Smoke was coming off of his charred cloak like he had smouldering cigarette-butts sown into it.

"What do you mean?" Paige snapped.

"I was wrong. I should never have indulged in Gideon's ideas- in his twisted sense of good and evil." He said, eyes glistening with rueful tears. "Gideon lost himself long ago. His vision of the future is warped, and I no longer want any part in it. What he's doing is wrong."

Great. Cheers very much, Sherlock, for figuring

that one out! Chris thought bitterly. Then, he stopped. Why was he so negative lately? When all of this was over (if it ever is, continued his negative voice), he really had to try being more upbeat and optimistic. Like his dad. Or, like his dad usually is, when he's not pulverising his enemies.

"So, why are you here?" Chris asked, back on track now, as he eased the grip on his dad, who was much calmer from having his faith in a friend restored very slightly.

"Because, like I said, I wanted to help you. So I broke the barrier." Sigmund replied.

"What?" Chris said dubiously. "When?"

"When I orbed in, it was with a special spell that collapsed the barrier that had you trapped here." Sigmund explained. When Leo began to stutter guiltily, Sigmund lowered his head.

"You're welcome, Leo. It's the very least I can do, considering." He said. "I'm so sorry. I should leave. I hope you can forgive me." And with that, and a final glow of blue, Sigmund was gone, and only a few trails of smoke and the smell of burning flesh was left lingering in his place.

For about a minute, no-one said a word. They were all quite unable to believe that they were free- just like that! And Piper had been here for so long...

"Well," Chris scoffed, "he could've come sooner." Then, he remembered his new plan about thinking more positively. "But at least he came at all." There. Positive. "Oh! We can leave now!" Chris cried suddenly, jumping up. Leo didn't react. He just lay on the floor where Chris had pinned him.

"Leo." Daryll approached him. Leo had become very pale.

"Dad? Are you alright?" Chris crouched down to his fathers level and searched for life in his still gaze.

Leo's eyes suddenly snapped into life. "Yeh. I'm fine." He assured Chris. "I just... I just scared myself for a second there. Being so angry and all..."

Chris shrugged. "Just shows how much you care."

Leo smiled gratefully, and Chris smiled back, but after about ten seconds of continuous smiling, they both began to feel awkward and slightly insane. Paige stifled a giggle.

Chris cleared his throat. "Umm, let's just... let's go find mum."

When Chris appeared, his form solidifying from the glistening blue lights, he was surprized to find the kitchen empty. He, Leo, Paige and Darryl, who'd orbed behind him, all split and searched the house.

"Piper!" Paige called. "Come quick, we've got good news! Come share the love, God knows there's enough of it!"

"Ha ha, very funny." Chris said dryly.

With Piper still not answering their calls, Chris raced about the house, but skidded to a halt when he noticed that the front door was wide open, the almost blindingly, but wonderfully bright sunlight pouring through it, cleansing the dank, depressing air of the Manor. Chris found that he was smiling. Again. Flipping hell, he thought. Blinking, he forced the smile to go away before he ran through the open doorway.

Chris' eyes darted momentairily across the homely street where the houses stood, perfectly ordinary homes, lined up in a perfectly ordinary neighbourhood. However, there was nothing ordinary about the pregnant woman who was crouched in the middle of the road, seemingly kissing the gravel. Phoebe watched Piper's display of emotion, bewilderment rooting her to the pavement.

"Mum?" Chris yelled, running to where she was knelt, sobbing as if she were kneeling before the gateway to heaven. Chris fell to his knees next to her and let her sob into his chest like a child in desperate need of comfort. The dam had finally broken, and Piper was overwhelmed by the effort it took to let out her built up pain and relief in the wails. Eventually, the worst of it passed, and it seemed to Piper that the world had gone silent, and her senses had been dulled. The only things prominent were her choked, wheezing breaths, and Chris' hand stroking her hair.

"Mum, this isn't like you," was what Chris wanted to say. But he didn't. Of course she was reacting this way, after what she'd been through. Even so, Chris felt like crying himself to see his mother- Piper Halliwell, the grittiest, most hard-headed Charmed One- so weak and vulnerable. His mother.

"It's alright, Piper." Phoebe said, kneeling down next to her sister, hugging her with tears in her eyes.

Piper sniffed, wiping away her tears. And Chris nodded. "Yeh. It is. Because now we can finally go get Gideon and kick his ass."

Though her face was blemished with blotches of red and tear-stained, and her hair greasy and unkept, when she smiled, Chris thought she looked so beautiful, despite it all.

"That's my boy." She said eventually, and Chris decided he shouldn't underestimate Piper's grit too much. .

Xx

Xx

A/N: Sorry about the long wait and so-so chapter. Back to school = very busy! If you're still keeping up with the story, thank you very much! Please review if you can!

:-)