Wyatt was sitting through an Economy lecture for the third time in three years. He had taken economy 101 in his first year of university as it was one of the standard courses but he just couldn't manage to pass it. He was now in his third year of university and he had to pass the course this time otherwise he would be put on academic probation.
It wasn't that he was dumb he just couldn't get through some of the required courses that included mathematical thinking. He excelled in psychological and logical courses and had already picked his major; he wished to be guidance counselor in a high school and help youngsters but he first needed to pass this course also mathematics 151.
His life wasn't helping at all with his desire to lead a bit of a normal life and get a degree. His brother who had been missing for the last fifteen years had popped up and while Wyatt had not been too sure about him when he had first learned about him, it had taken a handshake with him to put all his worries to rest, Wyatt had always felt out of place and that something was missing in his life. He had always thought that these feelings were there because he was supposed to be twice-blessed, Charmed, magical and all and he felt out of place both in the mortal world and well as the magical world because of these things and not because he was missing his other half.
He had very quickly realized that his younger brother was the missing part of his personality and that Wyatt had been missing him since he had disappeared all those years ago. He had remet his brother only four days ago and his life had been turned upside down or was it that it was finally the right way round? He found out that they shared a physic link and that his brother was a genius who despite being outwardly extremely quiet had a comment about anything and everything he met in life and a sarcastic personality as well as a streak for trying to get into trouble.
After a disastrous meeting which had led to Chris fleeing the manor they had gotten together with their teacher that somehow Salek had produced within several hours after finding about their physic link. Wyatt had tried calling his younger brother Derek in his mind, as well as aloud but it just didn't seem to fit him, and just yesterday Chris had told him that he did not mind being called by another name by his brother. So he was Chris to Wyatt, Derek to Salek and Theo to Bruno and he didn't seem to mind.
Their teacher was an old witch that lived literary in the middle of nowhere. Wyatt was told it was somewhere in Scotland and Harriet, as that was her name, seemed like someone's sweet grandmother than a formidable witch. She was a nonsense of person when it came to magical training but did not mind feeding them endless chocolate chip cookies when they were done.
They had gotten together again just the next day after the dinner party and they had found out that Harriet could interfere with their link. It wasn't that she could hear their thoughts like they could but she could get in between and cut off their link. Apparently that was one of her active powers, useful if you were hunting down people with links; you cut them off from each other and then hunted them one by one. Apparently people who shared links felt a great loss when their other half was suddenly silent and were quite distraught therefore made easy targets. Wyatt had wondered how Salek had known of this witch and how he found her and got her to agree to take them on so quickly but those where questions for a later date.
Their first lesson had been a disaster with Harriet running interference at every moment. It seemed that Chris objected to Wyatt being in his mind at every possible moment and Wyatt was left with a migraine, man he wanted to know how Chris was able to squash him mentally.
The second lesson they had taken with the rest of the cousins in attendance. Wyatt was a little disappointed in that lesson as well. He always had a hero worship among his female cousins but the moment they met Chris they were in love. They couldn't stop asking him questions and wanting to know stuff and man was Chris calm and really cool about it all. He hadn't had the nervous reaction he had had meeting his actual family but he was relaxed and Wyatt was sure that Penny, Aunt Phoebe's youngest at 12 years old was actually in love with her cousin. She had followed him around everywhere.
Perhaps it had been Wyatt reaction or that they were all at different places with their links that Harriet had decided that they should all have separate training. Wyatt was glad. Harriet had wanted to see them every day this week hoping to give them enough familiarity with their link so they could live without the migraines at least on Wyatt's part. They had had two more lessons or training sessions since then and they had been going moderately better. Even if Chris objected to having Wyatt in his mind they had gotten on like a house on fire and Wyatt believed that he had found the best friend he had always been searching for.
Wyatt was fascinated by Harriet's instruction technique, for the first hour they would explore the depth of the link with Harriet there so she could run interference if anything went wrong, which it did at every turn. Wyatt at least was learning not to look too deeply into his brother's mind which seemed to be working out fine for both of them.
Then the next hour they would play hide and seek. Wyatt thought this was the silliest thing he had ever done but he saw the merit in the exercise, not only did hiding from each other reinforce their link when they were trying to find one another, it also helped them mute it when they were trying to hide from each other.
Wyatt had found out just yesterday the hard way that his brother liked to pounce on him whenever he managed to sneak up to him. It wasn't only Wyatt's body that was bruised from being thrown onto the ground but his ego, no one had ever gotten the better of him before, however Wyatt had also felt the joy that radiated through the link whenever they were allowed to play and by just glimpsing into some of Chris's memories he had seem how little he had been allowed to play while growing up so Wyatt had decided that he would put up with it as long as it made Chris happy.
He felt his brother steer at the back of his mind and realized that Chris had been sleeping and that is why it had been so quiet until then and Chris was just waking up. Through the link he got a load of feelings and thoughts about how shitty mornings were and just that you should not get up and while the sun was great and all did it have to be so bright in the mornings? Wyatt smiled thinking that his little brother was definitely not a morning person while he just loved mornings. "Good morning" he whispered under his breath, he had yet to learn to send his thoughts as direct speeches through the link and had to speak them to be heard. He couldn't help but smile as he got a feeling/thought back like, 'you know what, you take your good morning and …'
Wyatt's concentration was cut of there when he realized that the professor was speaking directly to him asking him something. Wyatt found out that he wasn't even listening to the lecture let alone know the answer to the question the professor was asking. Wasn't university professors not really suppose to care if you were listening or not? He was momentarily surprised when the answer popped into his mind and he found himself answering. He wasn't sure who was more surprised him or the professor however the professor recovered first and retaliated by asking him another question.
He felt a shuffling of his thoughts and realized that it was not him who had answered the question. It had been his brother who had just woken up minute ago and had heard his thoughts and provided him with an answer. Now the teacher had a new question that Chris did not know the answer to, so he was searching. Wyatt wanted to tell him to stop looking because he did not know. He was more shocked when the knowledge he was seeking was found within his own memories at a lecture he had taken the first year of university.
He answered the professors' question and the professor told him that he was glad that he was putting in the extra effort to pass his course this time around and wanted this attitude to continue. To this comment he felt an intense anger and hate directed towards the professor and felt his hands heating up as his powers started to activate. "Stop it," he whispered and the student that was next to him turned to him like he was insane. And he knew he must look like a nut talking to himself but Wyatt was sure that the anger wasn't his.
He had a hard time hating anyone, his uncle who was a cupid had told him that this trait had the makings of a great cupid if he wanted. However Wyatt in just the four days realized what anger and hate felt like, although his brother rarely attacked on these feelings he still felt them regularly on a daily bases and Wyatt knew for sure that Salek knew what had been talking about when he had told them that Derek was undecided.
He provided his brother with a distraction by recalling to mind a funny memory of when he was younger and in magic school when a potion he was learning had gone wrong and had left majority of the class with woo do tiny heads and it had taken the power of three to set it right. He felt the anger melt away although promises of revenge were still there. He felt his brother clearly be amused by what he was being shown and again felt the shuffling, he had come to know the feeling as Chris looking around. Harriet had told them that it was natural, if they had been connected since birth as they were supposed to they would have gotten each other's memories daily and therefore would not be this curious about each other.
Wyatt had very quickly realized that he did not mind having Chris in his mind or the fact that he had access to all his memories. He had nothing to hide and his other half was welcome to it however he knew that the feeling was not mutual. Chris guarded himself and hid behind walls. Wyatt got used to having several migraines a day as he could too with a thought shuffle through Chris's memories and most of the time Chris would object to sharing and Wyatt would receive a mind crushing headache in return for his curiosity.
In Chris's mind he had glimpsed at a lot of different things, Chris did not really object to sharing his memories of the Catar Monastery, his teachers, and his friends or his trouble making scenes. After a chat about the FBI Wyatt had even been convinced to help him along, he was sure that Chris would make one hell of a lawyer if he wanted, he was that convincing. However Chris was reluctant to share any of his memories before he came to be with Salek, and from what Wyatt had seen in the milliseconds before Chris had dropped a ton of bricks on him every time they were not pleasant. He really had to get together with his brother and tell him that he did not mind but he knew that this would be a long and hard road. He would prefer if Chris told him about them first on his own terms before he was allowed to see them.
'Pay attention!' with that Wyatt jerked up startling the girl next to him more than before and looked around, who had said that? In a second he realized that it had been Chris. He tired to pay attention but it was difficult to do so when Chris was thinking of breakfast. Wyatt could always eat so he was distracted by his brother who had finally gotten out of bed and was thinking about what he should eat along with paying more attention to Wyatt's lecture then him.
Wyatt was suddenly stuck with a genius idea. He carefully shielded his idea from his brother with the techniques he had been learning from Harriet and hide and seek games. Now all he had to do was get him to be quiet. He bent over his notebook and whispered, "if you are quiet and help me through this lecture then I promise to get you a breakfast you would not forget easily."
The girl next to him shushed him and he gave her an evil look that would have made Chris proud and he felt Chris make an effort at trying not to think too much, which Wyatt thought was difficult and got what he could only describe as a mental slap from the other end who had heard that particular thought.
He saw/felt Chris go outside onto what he assumed was a balcony and settle down overlooking what Wyatt thought was one of the most beautiful views he had (ever or was it never) seen? And suddenly Wyatt found himself focused on the lecture and he was taking notes. Looking down at his notes he saw that he did not really understand most of them and realized that he was following along to Chris's thought process. Suddenly Wyatt realized that taking finals with Chris in his mind might be easier than anticipated. 'I somehow think that Harriet might object to that' came the thought. And Wyatt smiled thinking of the reaction their Mum would have at learning that they had used their link to cheat.
At the thought of their Mum he felt Chris's heart give a jolt and checked that his shields were in place about what he planned for after class and smiled. "Concentrate," he whispered to him and got a response back 'it's not me who is having a hard time concentrating, now be quiet, what that idiot is saying is actually interesting' and Wyatt found out that he did indeed understand what the professor was saying when the thoughts where filtered by his brother. When the lecture was over he used the moving students' noise to cover his speaking and told his brother to stay put and that he would orb to him and take him out to breakfast.
After finding a spot he was sure that was secluded he concentrated on his brother and orbed to where he was.
He orbed onto the balcony his brother was sitting on and this time his breath hitched when he saw the view. His brother was sitting on a balcony overlooking trees and then the sea (or was it a river?) there were boats and tankers going both ways and he could see the other side that was also green with a few houses among the trees. It was breath taking.
"It's the Sea of Marmara; you are actually looking at another continent on the other side," said Chris who was longing on deckchair.
"It's pretty cool," he replied trying to whack his brain thinking about what continent he was on and what was the other side.
"You are in Istanbul where I live and this part is in Europe overlooking Asia," came the answer and Wyatt thought that he should get used to having his questions answered without voicing them.
"Yes, you should," said the annoying person from the deckchair before getting up, "you promised me breakfast if I was quiet and I think that qualified as quiet. Now I want what I was promised!"
Without answering him Wyatt reached over and grabbed him on the forearm and orbed them both.
They rematerialized in the foyer of the manor with Wyatt shouting, "Mom? Mom?"
"What are we doing here?" asked Chris in a panicked voice.
"I promised you a breakfast you would not forget and this is where we are going to get it," answered Wyatt in a real calm voice trying to send clam thoughts to his panicking sibling.
At that moment Piper Halliwell came into the foyer after hearing her oldest call for her. She froze in her place when she saw that both of her sons where standing there. Since the attempted dinner she had yet to see her younger son who had been reluctant to return to his home and here he was standing with a deer caught in the lights look.
Piper decided not to make a too big a deal of it, "hello boys, what can I do for you?"
Wyatt gave her a smile and she had realized that this was exactly how he had wanted her to behave.
"See Mum, Chris here just woke up, it is morning where he lives and I promised him a breakfast he would not forget and this is where we can get that breakfast," he said with a clear face and Piper could see that Wyatt was holding onto Chris so if he decided to magically disappear he would have to take Wyatt with him.
"Please …" pleaded Chris in a voice he hoped was strong enough, and stopped before he could get any further, what on earth was he supposed to call her? Mother? Mum? Defiantly not, Eldest? Mrs. Halliwell? Ma'am? This was impossible.
Wyatt also froze hearing Chris's thoughts, he had not thought that simple things could be this complicated.
Piper looked between her children, silence she had expected from her younger son but what was wrong that her older son had suddenly seemed unsure as well. She looked at them both but focused her attention onto her elder as she knew she could get him to fess up.
"What is the problem?" she asked Wyatt while glancing between the both of them.
Wyatt looked unsure not wanting to break the confidence of his brother but he was sure Chris was not going to voice this question and this was something his parents should have anticipated and told him when they had seen him for the first time.
"You see…" 'what on earth are you doing?' came the thought and Wyatt momentary filed away the fact that while he had to speak his thoughts that he wished Chris to hear aloud Chris apparently didn't have to. He turned to him and whispered a "trust me," both through their link as well as aloud before turning back to face his mother.
"Chris is not sure what he should be calling you," he told his mother.
Piper was momentarily taken back but then inwardly cursed when she too realized this was something they should have addressed five nights ago. She took a deep breath and turned towards her son who seemed more interested in examining the carpet then looking at her.
She very gently said, "hey," she too was unsure what to call her son, while he had been introduced as Derek Wyatt seemed to call him Chris with ease. He very slowly lifted his eyes to look at her and while Piper knew of his intense green eyes she was still taken back by seeing them again.
"While I would love to hear you call me Mum, I also know that it is too early," with the relief she saw in those eyes at being given that choice she knew she had made the right suggestion however her hearth gave a lurch that she wasn't too pleased with, "how about we go with Piper?" she suggested.
Chris frowned and then took a deep breath and decided to voice his concerns "I have been raised to never call someone older in age and in station than me by name and I don't think I would be that comfortable by calling you by your given name."
Piper looked uncertain for a minute, her son was raised in a culture she was not familiar with and she was faced with its repercussions, "in that case how about, and I don't really like this but we can go with Mrs. Halliwell," she said with a smile trying to put her son at ease.
"Thank you Mrs. Halliwell," and after a short pose he continued, "and you do not have to make me breakfast," he suggested, "I am sure we can find somewhere that is more appropriate to my time zone to have breakfast."
With that Wyatt decided to take charge once again. He knew how much his mother wanted this, well maybe not breakfast but at least her son in her home and beside she was a chef, she enjoyed feeding people. This he decided to voice aloud.
"You see Mum is a chef," he started while pulling and dragging his brother towards the kitchen, "feeding the hungry is one of the things she enjoys most and I am sure she is not put out by the thought of making you breakfast. Right Mum?"
Piper who had been following them as if she was in a daze was taken out of with her son's suggestion; she plastered a big smile on her face to hide her nervousness and started gathering stuff while talking. "I would love to make you breakfast, is there anything you would like to eat specifically?" she stopped to ask Chris.
She saw that Chris was looking at her and he was shaking his head, "anything you wish to make is fine with me."
"He likes sugar," came the suggestion from the other side of the kitchen from Wyatt who was taking down stuff to make pancakes. Growing up with someone like Piper Halliwell as your Mum you could not get away without learning to cook and he knew he made great blueberry pancakes that he was sure Chris would love.
Chris threw him a look that Wyatt was sure was meant to kill but through the link he knew his brother was not pissed he was just nervous and wanted to make a good impression on his Mum. On reflection Wyatt saw that he saw their Mum as the legendary Elder Charmed Sister and there was definitely hero worship and he did not yet view Piper as his Mum. Wyatt reflected that his family would take what they could have from Chris before demanding more of him.
Piper on the other hand smiled, sugar was something that she could do. "I am guessing you are making pancakes right," this see directed at Wyatt and then surveyed her realm thinking about what else she could make, "how about sugar scones, apricot compote…eh oh I know cheese and banana toasties as well homemade strawberry jam," she said as well as few other ideas that were flying thought her mind as she started to gather ingredients.
"Please, Mrs. Halliwell," at the quiet request she looked over at son and raised an eyebrow wanting to know what he wanted, "you don't have to make so much food and be put out just because of me," he said.
At that Piper smiled a relaxed smile, "there is nothing I would rather do," she said.
She saw that her son at least accepted that fact and was biting his lower lip before coming to decision, "what can I do to help?"
She wanted say nothing but wanted him sit and relax but she knew that he would not feel that comfortable with that choice so she said, "why don't you sit down here and help me measure stuff."
After a moment she decided to be honest with him, "just so you know I would not let you cook in my kitchen before you can prove yourself however you will be allowed to measure and chop."
"I think I can do that," said Chris feeling a bit more relaxed at least. He moved towards the counter and tried to see what he could do to help.
The next half hour was filled with pleasant conversation at least between Wyatt and Piper. He filled her on how life in university was going and how he was doing in class.
"I am sure I will pass both the economy and math class this time around," he informed her while throwing a look at his younger brother.
Chris who was very carefully cutting strawberries to perfect sizes had to hold in a snort. "Anything you wish to share?" asked Piper of her youngest, one she had seen his reaction, two she knew her older son and his ability when it came to anything mathematical.
"No ma'am," said Chris with a smile in his voice as well as a faint of a smile on his face.
Suddenly Piper decided to change the focus of the conversation, "how about you?" she asked of Chris.
At that Chris looked up confused, "how about me?" repeated.
"Is there a future of higher education in your future?"
"I don't know," Chris said while transferring his gaze back to the strawberries. He wondered if it was ok if he popped one in his mouth while doing this. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Wyatt move towards him and grab a bunch of them and stuffing them into his mouth.
"Hey!" screeched Piper, she did not let people munch on stuff while preparing, not that she could stop it, everyone seemed to do it especially if she was washing salad, her family seemed to materialize out of thin air to grab the freshly washed lettuce.
She froze when she saw Chris's look of fear at having done something wrong and at that moment realized what Wyatt had been doing. Chris had been dutifully cutting strawberries and he had not eaten a single one. Leo would have eaten the occasional while feeding her one as well, Wyatt could not be trusted with the task and if Melinda was to do it Piper knew she would have ended up with only half of the strawberries.
"Stop that!" she told her oldest and turned her attention to her younger son, "you are welcome to eat the occasional strawberry if you wish," she told him and saw him look between her and Wyatt, nod his head and go back to his task. She reached over for an uncut strawberry and picked it up and reached over to her son. She left him the opportunity that if he did not open his mouth to take the strawberry in he would have to lean back and make a grab for it.
After a moment of debate Chris lifted his eyes to meet hers and opened his mouth to bite the strawberry and couldn't help the blush that worked its way onto his cheeks, he could not recall ever being feed by anyone but he was sure that the woman in front of him must have since he was her son. That brought up a question he had been burning to ask.
"How old was I when I was taken?" he asked and actually saw and felt the mood in the kitchen shatter and wanted to take it back. "You don't have to answer it if it makes you uncomfortable, I was just curious," with that he turned his gaze back to the task at hand.
Piper held in a breath and was determined not to cry, "no, it's alright you have every right to know," she saw that he had yet to respond, "I however object to talking to the top of your head," she informed him gently.
With that she saw Chris's head snap up and he looked at her. She smiled at her, "you have beautiful eyes that I would always like to see," she told him and saw the blush that had yet to leave his cheeks now make its way down his neck.
"You were four years, two months and seventeen days old when we lost you."
Chris nodded his head thinking if people actually remembered anything before they were four, "and how long has it been?"
"Fifteen years, six months and twenty one days, I have been counting."
"And that would make me?" wondered Chris.
"Almost twenty," said Piper and Wyatt joined in the conversation, "November 17th." At his mother's look he just shrugged. He had been following along onto his brothers thought process and knew that he was trying to figure out when his actual birthday was.
Piper saw that Chris was not actually happy with this particular piece of information, "what's wrong?" she asked suddenly afraid.
"I am younger than I anticipated," Piper couldn't help but laugh at the response and the disappointed look on her sons face.
"Never mind," she told him while moving the dishes they had made to the table in the kitchen and getting cutlery and stuff. "You will grow soon enough and you do now what this means right?"
At her sons blank look she continued, "it means that your birthday is in just three months." She smiled they had fifteen years of birthdays to make up for and wondered what kind of presents that her son might enjoy receiving.
She wanted to leave the more dramatic discussions for a later date and just enjoy that her son was here alive with her. She looked around at the massive breakfast they had prepared, "well it looks like we are almost ready, what do you gentleman have planned for this afternoon?"
She ushered her boys to the late afternoon breakfast table and sat down with them and listened to them discuss what they were going to that afternoon apparently they were planning an outing after their training with Harriet. She watched as both boys descended on the breakfast like they were starving and checked the time so she would be better prepared for breakfast for her son tomorrow and made a mental note to have breakfast ready for him and get Wyatt to get him to come with or without him.
She sat back to enjoy the moment of having her brave young son back in her kitchen.
Well here you go, not much happening in terms of the moving the story along however many of you where looking for Chris and Wyatt interaction, I hope you are OK with this because if the story wishes to move along we have to jump to other things and happenings however I can take another chapter to see what Wyatt and Chris could get up to. I have a feeling that they could get into quite a bit of trouble. I have the next chapter which is moving the story along almost written and if Wyatt and Chris wishes to go on a field trip it would take more time. Let me know...those that do let me know do affect the way the story is going... as you can see no Melinda in this chapter so if you are silent you don't get what you want.