Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the television show Charmed. All characters belong to Spelling Television, and The WB.

This is my first Charmed fic. I apologize if I get any of the show's details wrong. I'd love to get feedback! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed the story so far. Please continue to review the story or e-mail me at jeff_langdon@hotmail.com!

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Anguished Soul - Chapter 12

"Let go of me," Piper yelled angrily. When Chris refused to budge, she shoved him again and slapped him hard across his face.

A flicker of shock and hurt flashed across the young Whitelighter's face before it quickly disappeared again.

"Don't you ever touch me again," Piper warned, her face red with fury.

"You really do blame me," Chris muttered as the realization dawned on him.

"What are you talking about?"

Chris laughed bitterly, completely ignoring Piper. "I thought maybe my feelings were wrong. But I guess I had been right all along. You do blame me for Leo being gone."

"Who else would I blame?" Piper shot back. "If you had never shown up, Leo and I would still be together. Wyatt would still have a father. But because of you, I lost everything!"

"Oh grow up, Piper," Chris yelled in response. "If I hadn't shown up, your sisters would be dead by now."

"Don't flatter yourself, Chris. You might believe that you're a Whitelighter, but you're nothing compared to Leo. Look at you, you can't even heal."

Piper's words felt like another slap to the face. "Think what you like, Piper. But for your information, I didn't choose to end up here. And do us all a favour and put your self-centred, self-righteous, know-it-all act to rest. The world doesn't revolve around Piper Halliwell, in case you haven't noticed."

"Get out," Piper ordered, her anger rising to dangerous levels.

"Yeah, that's right. That's your only way of dealing with the truth. Hide from it, and pretend it doesn't exist. You're lucky Wyatt is not old enough to see how pathetic you are right now."

"Shut up," Piper yelled as she unleashed her magic on Chris, sending him flying across the room and slamming against the wall.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Chris sneered as he got to his feet.

"I said shut up!" Consumed by fury, Piper took out her anger on the young Whitelighter, hurling him around the room like a helpless rag doll.

The commotion alerted Paige and Phoebe as they came rushing upstairs. The door opened and the sight that greeted the two younger witches horrified them. "Oh my god, what's going on here?" Phoebe yelled.

Paige felt her knees weaken at the sight of a battered, bruised, and bloody Chris, lying unconscious on the floor. Looking up at Piper with questioning eyes, she tried to speak only to find herself overcome with emotion. "What's wrong with you, Piper?" she finally managed to ask.

Phoebe rushed over to calm the visibly shaken Piper. As the realization of her actions dawned on Piper, she became increasingly distraught. For fear of a complete mental collapse, Phoebe ushered Piper from the room and left Paige and Chris alone. After helping Piper settle down somewhat, she came back to help move Chris to Paige's room. There, the youngest witch painstakingly tended to the Whitelighter's injuries. Paige sat by her bed watching Chris. "He looks so vulnerable," she thought to himself. His wounds had been cleaned but the battle scars were very apparent. What she didn't understand was why Piper reacted the way she did and how she managed to injure Chris so seriously.

Paige had completely lost track of time when Phoebe quietly entered the room. She sat down beside Paige and squeezed her hand for comfort. "Has he stirred at all?"

"Nope. He hasn't regained consciousness yet. Do you think he'll be okay?" Paige asked with uncertainty.

"I hope so," Phoebe answered. "This whole thing is just so weird."

"I know what you mean. What happened to Piper? That wasn't even the Piper that I knew who was standing in the room."

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Paige awoke to find herself in an awkward position, slumped forward on her bed. Her muscles ached from the strange sleeping position and she tried to remember why she was sleeping this way. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she looked right into a pair of mesmerizing eyes.

"Morning," Chris greeted weakly, his voice coarse.

Paige quickly shot up from her position and repositioned herself on her bedside chair, embarrassed at the awkward situation. "Morning," she answered hesitantly. "Uh, how long have you been awake?"

"Quite a while now."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"You were sleeping so I didn't want to disturb you," he answered somewhat shyly. "Uh, I'm sorry for taking over your bed."

"That's okay," she answered. "How are you feeling?"

"Lousy, but I'll survive."

The door opened and Phoebe walked in. "You feeling better, Chris?"

"I'll live," he answered with a weak smile. "How's Piper doing?"

"I think she has calmed down a bit now," Phoebe replied. "I really don't know what came over her last night."

Chris looked down at his hands, remaining silent. "I guess I pushed her too far last night."

"What do you mean?" Paige asked. "What happened last night?"

Chris sighed as he thought back to the events of last night. "After dinner I decided to talk to Piper. I mean, I figured that I had to knock some sense into her before she put herself or any of you in danger." Paige and Phoebe nodded, and encouraged Chris to continue. "I figured that given her attitude towards me that I would need to be blunt and direct. I guess I said some things that really ticked her off."

"Still, I can't think of anything that you could say that would make her react like that," Phoebe reasoned.

"Under normal circumstances, that would be true," Chris explained. "But when you're possessed, then the rules of the game changes entirely."

"Possessed?" Paige exclaimed. "Piper is possessed??"

"Was possessed," Chris corrected.

"By what?"

"One of the most powerful demons in the realm of evil."

"How long have you known about this?" Phoebe questioned incredulously.

"A while, I guess."

"Why didn't you tell us? We could have come up with a spell from the Book of Shadows!"

Chris shook his head and smiled. "The Book of Shadows wouldn't have helped. And unfortunately, I don't think either of you could have defeated the demon."

Looking slightly indignant, the two witches wondered what kind of demon would possess such great powers. "Okay, so this demon is not described in the Book of Shadows and our powers are useless against it. So what made you think you could defeat it?"

"Simple," Chris answered. "Piper hates me. The same can't be said for you two."

Phoebe and Paige looked at each other, not quite knowing what to say. Finally, Paige decided to ask the question that was begging to be answered. "So what exactly was this demon?"

"Anger."

"Anger??" the two witches asked in unison.

"Yes, Piper was angry that Leo was taken from her. Angry that her family was broken up. The anger was so great that it was beginning to take control of her."

"Okay, I see what you're saying, sort of," Phoebe replied. "But how exactly did you fit into this whole thing?"

"Well, in order to defeat the demon of anger, you have to diffuse it," Chris explained. "Under normal circumstances, this would not be a difficult thing. But in Piper's case, the only method of diffusing the anger was to let her act out her anger. She was approaching the stage where she would take out her anger on innocent people."

"And so you stepped in to take her anger before she had a chance to take it out on other people," Paige continued.

"Well, sort of," the young Whitelighter answered. "In her mind, I am the reason and cause of her misery. Therefore, the only way to defeat her demon of anger was to basically absorb her anger. Let her act out her anger on me, you could say."

"Which is why you didn't defend yourself or fight back."

"That's right. If I had fought back, it would have made things worse."

"At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful witch," Phoebe began, "you realize that you were playing with fire with that stunt of yours, right?"

Chris managed to smirk somewhat. "I have a knack for doing things like that, don't I?"

"Just wait until you get well, Christopher. I'll give you a piece of my mind then," Phoebe mock chastised. "Until then, I better head off to work. You rest up, Chris."

After Phoebe left, Paige remained in the room. "You know, if you have stuff to do, you don't have to worry about me. I think I'll manage to stay out of trouble," Chris offered.

Instead of answering Chris, Paige looked into the Whitelighter's eyes and smiled shyly. "Thanks, Chris for what you did. You putting yourself on the line for us is getting to be quite a habit."

Chris blushed at the comment, although he recovered quickly. "Hey, that's what I'm here for. It's my job, remember?"

"Well, thank you all the same," Paige replied with a smile. Before Chris could say anything, Paige leaned in and kissed Chris on the lips, sending the young Whiteligher into complete shock.

~ to be continued ~