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: Relatively quick update because my muse appears to be working pretty well at the moment. Keep your fingers crossed that it lasts! Please review – I like reviews :-)

Re: Septdeneuf - I will think about how to update the summary. I deliberately kept it vague at the beginning though, because I didn't want to spoil the surprise about Leo being the visitor from the future.

Chapter 14

Later that evening, Chris lay flat on his back in the middle of the garden, looking up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. He remembered his whole family doing this on several occasions, his Mom, Dad, brother and himself, lying with their heads close together, whilst Leo told them the ancient stories behind the constellations.

When he was a little boy, he had believed that his father knew everything, that he would always have an answer to any question he might ask, the solution to any problem he may encounter. It was only as he grew older that he realised that Leo wasn't infallible. He was wiser than most by virtue of his Elder and former whitelighter status, but he had flaws just like everyone else.

Somehow, that only served to strengthen Chris's admiration for him though – he was twenty-one years old but his father was still his hero, probably always would be.

"Hey!"

"Hey," Chris returned his father's greeting in a subdued tone, before sitting up and hugging his knees to his chest.

"You okay?" Future Leo asked, as he sat down besides his son and stretched his legs out in front of him.

"Yeah," Chris said quietly, resting his chin on his knees and looking off into the distance, his eyes unreadable. "Are they dead?" he asked suddenly.

"Who?"

"The demons that killed Mom."

"Yes," his father replied solemnly. "Your brother saw to that."

Chris nodded his head as he silently absorbed that piece of information. "Good," he said eventually, his tone fierce and unforgiving.

"Chris, listen to me," Leo said, placing a calming hand flat against his son's back. "Don't let the need for revenge consume you, okay? Once the demon after Wyatt is vanquished, then you need to let it go and move on with your life. Don't dwell on the past at the expense of living the future you've fought so hard for. Promise me you'll make the most of your new life."

"I will Dad, I promise," Chris said, then sighed. "I just wish you could be there too. There'll be two halves of me, why not two halves of you?"

"Because when the time shift occurs, I will cease to exist."

"But if that's how it works, shouldn't I disappear from existence too?"

Leo smiled. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The rules of time are extremely convoluted."

"Yeah, I'm kind of getting that. So why is it different for me?"

"In simple terms, it's because you'll be part of this reality when the timeline shifts away from the old one. You therefore need to be part of the new future to maintain the balance with its past. Of course, there can't be two of you because, genetically, you're the same person, so…"

"I'll merge into one and become some weird hybrid of my present and future selves?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Chris let out a short laugh. "Well, at least I won't be just Wyatt's bland, boring brother anymore."

"You were never that, Chris."

"Go tell that to the kids at school. Tobey Clayton even questioned whether you were my father once – he said that you couldn't be because I wasn't as powerful as Wyatt."

"Tobey Clayton – the ginger-haired psychic right? The one whose nose you broke in eighth grade?"

"Umm yeah – that's the one."

"And that was the reason? Why on earth didn't you say so?"

"Because I was afraid it was true."

"Chris…"

"I know, I know – I was going through an insecure phase at the time, I suppose. Still, it ended up being worth the lecture I got from you and Mom about using my telekinesis like that. Tobey never questioned the strength of my power again."

Leo laughed. "No, I bet he didn't. He looked like he'd been hit in the face with a lead weight."

"You healed him, didn't you?"

"That's kind of not the point."

Chris grinned. "Maybe not," he said. "At least it got me noticed - I was significantly more popular after that. I guess I wasn't the only one who Tobey tormented."

"His mother was somewhat of a dragon, I recall," Leo said conversationally. "She questioned whether you and Wyatt were stable enough to be around other children after you disfigured her precious son."

"I bet that went down well with Mom."

"She was rather irate when she heard about it, come to think of it," Leo said with a broad grin. "Luckily, your head-teacher was wise enough to call me in to deal with situation rather than Piper. Otherwise, I think Mrs Clayton might have ended up being turned into a toad or something."

Chris laughed. "Me and Wyatt didn't cause that much trouble, did we?"

Leo shook his head. "No - boys will be boys, of course, but you didn't get yourselves into half as much strife as some of your peers. Magic School was created so supernaturally gifted children could learn how to control their powers in a safe environment, and that led to some interesting situations, I can tell you. Your Mom resisted sending Wyatt there at first, but after he orbed a little girl in his Kindergarten out into the playground for stealing his toy truck, she changed her mind."

"Wyatt deliberately exposed Magic?"

"He was three, Chris. He didn't understand why he couldn't use his powers in public. Your Mom eventually agreed to send you both to Magic School, but only on the condition that you didn't board there like the other children."

Chris looked confused. "But lots of kids didn't board at school."

"In your day, yes, but before Wyatt only the very youngest children went back to their parents at night. You could say we started a new trend. The Elders were furious at first, until they realised that behaviour was improving because the children didn't have to endure such long separations from their families anymore. It was Paige who came up with the idea of the transporter door to get pupils safely in and out of the school without exposure."

"I always wondered how that worked."

"Pretty simple really - it's infused with Elder power and it simply orbs you home or into school whenever you step through it."

"Cool."

"Yeah – I thought so too. I wouldn't necessarily tell Paige I said that however, it might go to her head."

"The girls don't seem to know about Magic School though. At least, they've never mentioned to me."

"No, they wouldn't. I didn't bring up the subject with Piper until she started talking about putting Wyatt into Mommy and Me classes, and I don't think we're at that point in the timeline yet. It's probably something worth mentioning to them now actually, you might need the protection the School has to offer over the next few months."

Chris nodded. "So are you going to tell them, or shall I?"

"No, we'll get my other self to do it. Speaking of which – I think there are a few things you need to resolve on that front."

Chris sighed, guessing where the conversation was going. "It's just that he was the worse one," he tried to explain. "The person who most suspicious of me, you know?"

"Well, that's hardly surprising given what you did to him. Banishing him to Valhalla and supplanting him as the girl's whitelighter wasn't the best way to gain his trust."

"I guess not."

"I think it'll be easier for you both when I've gone back to the future. Because you've got me, you don't need him right now. I imagine that's killing him at the moment."

"You think so?" Chris asked, not so sure.

"I don't think, I know so," Future Leo replied. "He is me, remember? He'll have got over the shock of finding out you're his son by now and will want to get to know you properly. Unfortunately though, he has to compete with another version of himself to get a look in, one that's got an unfair advantage at that."

"I just don't see how it can ever be the same."

"That's because you're looking at it as if we're two separate people. We're not – we look alike, most of the time we think alike, the only difference between us is twenty-two years of life experience. Look at it this way – you love this time's Piper even though she hasn't loved and nurtured you for fourteen years, don't you?"

"Yes, of course I do. She's still my Mom."

"Exactly. And if your other Mom could come back from the future, would you suddenly stop caring for this Piper?"

"No."

"So why should it be any different with me?"

"It shouldn't but it is somehow. I don't know why."

"Could you be projecting the anger that you feel towards the version of me, which Wyatt implanted in your memory, onto him?"

"I guess that's possible," Chris said thoughtfully "That's kind of unfair though, isn't it?"

"You said it, son."

"I'm sorry. I guess everything's still all mixed up inside my head."

"That's perfectly understandable, but you need to recognise that those memories are a complete fabrication. This is the man who's going to change your diapers and feed you; take you to the park to play on the swings; read you bedtime stories at night; smooth things over when you deck some kid at school. He is me, in other words, and he's not going to neglect you. He's going to love you like a father should."

Chris smiled. "All right; I get it. I'll try, okay?"

Future Leo nodded. "Good."

"No matter how good my life in the future is, there'll always be some part of me that needs this version of you though. They won't ever be able to understand what it was truly like in our future, however much they try. I'll have to carry those memories alone inside of me until the day I die."

Not knowing what to say, Leo reached out to squeeze his son's shoulder in silent understanding. They sat quietly for a while, each contemplating the sacrifices they were being forced to make for the greater good. A few minutes later though, they were startled out of their joint reverie by the sound of a door slamming, and turned to see Piper and Present Leo walking down the path towards them.

"Hi!" Piper said. "We were hoping we could ask you something?"

"Sure, fire away," Future Leo replied.

"Well, we were wondering when we need to start thinking about trying to conceive Chris."

"Okay," Chris said, immediately bolting to his feet. "I think I'll go and see if Paige and Phoebe need any help."

Future Leo grinned after his fleeing son. "Bona fide way to embarrass your children – start talking about your love-life in front of them," he advised, tongue in cheek. "Kissing and cuddling them - or better still each other - in front of their friends works pretty well too."

Piper laughed as she and Leo sat down on the grass besides him. "We'll try to remember that," she said, gracing him with a sunny smile.

Future Leo shook his head in amusement. "How Chris has managed to keep it together around you these past few months, I'll never know. I remember how freely we used to talk about dating and the like – you've probably shocked him to the core."

"He's hardly innocent," Present Leo said, remembering how he'd caught Chris and his female charge, in a state of undress, in the back room at P3, several months earlier.

"No, I don't expect he is," Future Leo agreed. "I imagine he's just like any other twenty-one year old in that respect. However, that doesn't mean he's comfortable with his Mom and Aunts talking about stuff like that in front of him."

Present Leo chuckled. "No, I guess not."

"Anyway – back to your question. We always believed that Chris was conceived on Wyatt's first birthday, although, realistically, it could have happened a week either side."

"But that's only two months from now!" Piper exclaimed.

"Is that a problem?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready yet to be pregnant and a Mom again, that's all."

"Well, that wouldn't be that much different from last time."

"How do you mean?"

"Put it this way – Chris was a rather unexpected addition to our family. A welcome one as it turned out, but it threw us for a loop when we first found out about him, I can tell you."

"Well, I suppose I can live with being indestructible again for nine months."

Future Leo shook his head. "Chris didn't have a forcefield, Piper. I think that's partly how someone managed to get to Wyatt without us realising. We were so focused on making sure Chris made it into the world unharmed at the time."

"You make it sound like he was under threat."

"Because he was. He became a target for all sorts from the moment it was obvious that you were pregnant again. They thought he might be another Wyatt, you see."

Concerned, Piper's hands instinctively went to her belly, despite the fact that her second child wasn't yet cocooned there. "How are we supposed to keep him safe?" she asked worriedly.

"We managed it before. I'm not saying it was easy but we got through it okay. In the end, Chris was born perfectly healthy. I see no reason for that to be any different this time round. Try to conceal your pregnancy for as long as possible though. It was only after it became common knowledge that things got bad."

Piper nodded, although her expression was still troubled. Present Leo slipped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a gentle kiss to her temple. "It'll be okay," he quietly assured her. "Nobody is going to hurt either of our boys. I'll make sure of that; I don't care what I have to do."

Future Leo looked at his past self thoughtfully, a glimmer of an idea stirring in the back of his mind. "Is there anything else you specifically want to know?" he asked. "I have to leave tomorrow remember?"

"You said Chris was twenty-one, right?" Present Leo asked. "If he's conceived in two months, we've missed his birthday recently, haven't we?"

Future Leo shook his head. "No, I'm the one who's going to miss it. Chris was a month premature. His twenty-second birthday is in a couple of days."

"He was alright though?"

"He was fine, just a little on the small side, that's all." Future Leo replied. "He fed well, so he soon gained weight."

Piper nodded, reassured. "So - anything else?" Future Leo asked.

Piper and Present Leo looked at each other and then back at him, shaking their heads in unison.

Future Leo got to his feet. "All right then, if you'll excuse me, there's something I need to do," he said, then orbed out, leaving the two of them alone.

The baby monitor in Piper's hand crackled into life then, and Wyatt's plaintive grizzles for attention filled the small garden. The brunette witch climbed to her feet and held out her hand to her husband. "You want to help me bath our baby boy?"

Leo nodded, slipped his hand into his wife's and allowed her to haul him upright. As they walked, hand in hand, back into the house, a warm glow of contentment filled him. "We haven't done this in a while," he said. "Bathed Wyatt together, I mean."

Piper squeezed his hand affectionately. "I know. I've missed us being a family."

Leo smiled at her. "Me too."

"Maybe we could take Wyatt out to the zoo or something in a few days time. Maybe on Chris's birthday - we could invite him along and make it a real family day out, just the four of us. I think that'll be good for all of us, don't you?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Leo said as they began to trudge up the stairs.

When they reached the first floor landing, they could hear voices filtering down from the attic above. "Are Phoebe and Paige still working on a way to trap this demon after Wyatt?" Leo asked, pushing open the door to the nursery.

Piper nodded. "Yeah, I think so. They're just brainstorming right now though. I think we've all taken on board what your future self said about not rushing into things and planning things properly for once. Chris and Wyatt's safety is too important for us to take any chances."

"Can't disagree there," Leo said, lifting a happily cooing Wyatt out of his cot. "Okay little guy, time for your bath."

While Leo wrestled his squirming son out of his day clothes, Piper pulled out a pair of mini PJs from the chest of drawers. "What do you think?" she said, showing them to her husband.

They were navy blue in colour and had the words 'Am I cute or what?" written across the front of them in white lettering.

Leo laughed. "Perfect," he said. "We'll have to get Chris a matching set."

Piper giggled. "I don't think they make them in adult sizes," she said. "Plus I think he might object somewhat."

Leo's face broke into a wide grin at her deliberate misunderstanding. "I meant baby Chris," he said, crossing his eyes at her.

Piper was about to respond when suddenly an almighty crash from above shook the whole house on its foundations. They both jumped to their feet in alarm.

"Oh my God! What the hell was that?" Piper exclaimed.

To be continued…