Title: Deeper Into the Light
Author: sbender333 (sbender333@yahoo.com)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Leo disengages himself from the Elders. Chris opens up to his aunts. Leo and Piper bond over their two sons. Chris finally cracks and opens up to his father.
Spoilers: "Spin City"
Author's Note: Thank you all for the feedback and encouragement, and please continue to review.
~*~
"Sunny-side-up or scrambled?" Phoebe asked, enveloped in an apron and dangerously brandishing a spatula.
"Uh…scrambled," Piper answered, trying, but failing, to suppress a laugh.
"What?" Pheobe questioned indignantly.
"Well…it's just you cooking for me."
"I can cook, you know!"
"I know you can. And I'm sure those eggs will turn out great if you can prevent them from burning."
Phoebe spun back around and quickly scraped the eggs into a plate. She set the plate in front of Piper. "They're a little brown but a little salt and pepper should do the trick," she said, sprinkling on the seasonings.
Rolling her eyes, Piper stuck a fork into her eggs and took a bite. "They are great."
"Well, probably not great…but I just wanted to make this day a little easier on you," Phoebe replied, twirling the spatula.
"Phoebe, I'm just going to be at the Magic School; it's just an orb away." Piper ceased eating and looked up at her sister.
"I know, but it'll be different here without you," Phoebe said.
"We've been apart before. You went of to Hong Kong to be with Jason, and Paige moved in with Richard," Piper replied.
"And see how wrong that turned out."
"Well, it's just going to be for a couple of months, until the baby is born," Piper reassured.
Phoebe turned back around and began to crack several more eggs. "It's going to be great to see Chris, isn't it?" She said excitedly.
"We've already seen him. In fact we see him every day," Piper said sardonically.
Turning to face Piper, Phoebe implored, "Couldn't you be a little more excited? You're having a baby!" She squealed again at her last statement.
Piper set down her fork, once again and gave Phoebe a look, trying to settle her down. "Well, it's different this time. It was an accident. I mean I don't regret it, I don't regret it at all," she hastily added, then continued, "but this thing with Leo is really undefined, and Chris is…well, Chris. And Wyatt isn't even two, yet. How am I going to handle all of this? I don't even know if Leo is going to be around." Piper couldn't seem to stop; she let her thought's flow out to her younger sister. She had tried to repress these feelings, had tried to stay strong, knowing that she would have to raise two children alone. But now everything was up in the air. Leo was attempting to spend more time with his family. But, then again, would he succeed with the Elders? She didn't know what to expect anymore….
"Oh, honey." Phoebe embraced Piper, telling her, "We'll always he here for you. You know that, right?" She let go, and added, "And, you know Leo wants to be here too. He does love you, we can all see that."
"I know that," Piper said. "He, uh, he is actually trying to be here more." At Phoebe's questioning eyes, Piper explained, "I don't know what he's going to say to the Elders, but he feels guilty for leaving Wyatt. And now with Chris…he completely resents him. For leaving him. And Leo doesn't want that to happen, so he's trying to 'cut back his hours.'"
"Well, that's great! I mean, Paige and I were just telling Chris how much we were missing Leo. And Wyatt will be so happy."
"Yeah, I know," Piper answered, smiling at the thought. "But I just don't see how he can. These are the Elders we're talking about."
"He'll figure something out. He did when you guys got married and had Wyatt--"
"Speaking of Wyatt…here he is!" Paige made a dramatic entrance into the kitchen, Wyatt in her arms.
Dropping the spatula, Phoebe rushed over to them. She relieved Paige of Wyatt and held him tightly, showering him with kisses. "How's my little nephew. I'm going to miss you soo much."
Piper pushed her chair back, ready to rinse her plate, but was prevented by Paige. "No, let me get it."
Sighing, Piper handed her plate to Paige. "You are ridiculous. Both of you and especially you," she directed at Phoebe, still smothering Wyatt, who was squirming in her arms.
"Oh, baby, are you gonna miss me? Huh? Your Aunt Phoebe?" Phoebe cooed at her nephew.
Piper motioned to the pair, questioning Paige.
"Well, we are going to miss you, having to hold down the fort on our own--" Paige offered, an excuse for their lavish attention being paid upon Piper and her child.
"Paige! You are an orb away," Piper repeated to the youngest. "And especially you--you can any time you want."
"Yeah, you're right, but you know Phoebe," she said gesturing toward her. "Just take the treatment happily for a change." Grabbing a piece of toast, she sat down across from Piper.
Piper rolled her eyes as she told Phoebe, who was blowing raspberries on a cackling Wyatt, "Get a grip."
Shooting a hurt look at her sister, Phoebe replied, "He likes it."
"Yeah, well, give him back to him mother. He needs his breakfast."
"Well, I can feed him. You'll get to be with him all the time. Anyway, you just take it easy."
Chuckling slightly, Piper realized she was trying in vain to show Phoebe the absurdity of her actions and remained silent, pouring herself some orange juice.
"So, is Chris doing alright?" Paige asked Piper, unsure whether to bring up this topic with Piper or not. She still felt that Phoebe was the one that talked to Piper about her emotions and issues, and not because she was the Empath, but due to her tighter bond with Piper.
"Uh, yeah, I guess…why?" Piper replied, confused.
"Oh. Leo didn't talk to you?"
"No, why?" Piper repeated, impatiently this time. Phoebe looked up from her feeding of Wyatt, taking on a greater interest in the conversation.
"Well, I don't know. It's just when I came home from P3 around one, I saw Leo and Chris in the living room. And they seemed a little, uh…distraught," Paige explained hesitantly, unknowing to whether she should discuss this with her sisters. Leo obviously hadn't brought it up; maybe he wanted them to remain oblivious.
"I didn't realize Leo was awake then. I was pretty sure that he fell asleep as I did," Piper pondered.
"Wyatt was with him so maybe he woke Leo up," Paige said.
"Well, he was asleep all afternoon. He probably got a little case of insomnia," Phoebe supplied.
"Anyway, that's not the point. Do you know what happened between them?" Piper asked. At Paige's sign of unknowing, she added, "Leo was worried about Chris, last night. He wanted to change things between them for the positive. He wouldn't provoke Chris, would he?"
"I don't know if they were arguing or not, all I can say is that they seemed distraught. When Chris saw me he began to orb out, and Leo went back upstairs without mentioning it. I don't know…maybe Phoebe should have been here, she can read emotions a lot better than I can."
"Well, I was with Mitch. And this Mitch was particularly cute, might I add," Phoebe said in her defense.
"I hope they are okay. I haven't seen them since last night. Leo was gone before I woke up. To Magic School, I presume. And Chris, I just haven't seen," Piper stated, still focused on Chris and slightly worried.
"I wouldn't worry about it, sweetie. You know how those men can be." Phoebe tried to reassure Piper in her delicate state.
"Well, Chris is barely a man…." Piper mused, not sure what she wanted to insinuate, as she swirled her finger around the top of her glass.
Paige glanced at Phoebe and shrugged, and turned back to her toast. Feeling as if her attempt to set Piper at ease didn't quite work out as intended, she diverted the topic away. "So, what's Leo still doing over there?"
"He's just trying to set up the specifics; that's what we discussed last night," she answered, not looking up from her orange juice. "Where is Chris anyway? He should be here by now, continuing his quest for demons or something. Maybe I should call him." And without waiting for the opposition that she knew was coming, she called out, "Chris!!"
Phoebe scoffed as she cleaned Wyatt's face. "Piper, take it easy. You don't need worry about him."
"I'm fine, Phoebe."
"Yeah, but-"
At that moment, Chris, rubbing his eyes groggily, orbed into the kitchen to preventing further bickering. "Yeah?" he asked in response to the call.
"I'm just wondering where you've been?" Piper questioned her son.
Chris, glancing at the clock above the stove answered, "It's not that late…"
"Well, for you, it's pretty late."
Chris just shrugged.
At the silence that followed, Paige offered Chris the option of breakfast. He shrugged once again in indifference, but sat down at the table.
"So, I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks at the Magic School. Leo felt that it would be safer there. Just thought we'd let you know," Piper told her son, not only to give him information, but to draw some conversation out of him.
"Oh, okay. That's probably a good idea," Chris replied, nodding his head.
Realizing she wasn't getting anywhere, Piper tried a different tactic. "Agreeing with Leo…wow."
"Well, he is right about this," he simply said.
Paige set the plate in front of Chris and mumbled, "I'll get the bags from your room, Piper." She did not want to get involved, still afraid she had leaked some information she shouldn't have. Then, at Piper's nod, she orbed out. Piper looked pointedly at Phoebe. Phoebe got the message and said, "You haven't packed Wyatt's bags, have you? Well let's go check, Wyatt." She walked out the kitchen and upstairs, carrying the child.
"What's up?" Chris asked, knowing exactly what was up. He did not really want to talk about last night, though, not even with his mother. Not yet, anyway. He barely understood what had happened; last night he had pushed the thoughts of out of his mind as he went to bed, afraid of the alien emotions that they would extract. So now with his mother, he couldn't explain the events, for he hadn't had a chance to really examine them. He decided he would try to brush it off for now. And as expected, Piper put forth the question, almost verbatim as he had imagined it.
"What happened with Leo? Paige told me she came home and saw you guys talking."
"Yeah, we talked."
"About?"
"Nothing really."
"Come on, Chris," she prodded.
"We just came to an understanding, I guess," he stated, attempting to inject the words with a finalizing tone.
"Alright," Piper said, understanding he wasn't ready.
"Well, then. Thanks for breakfast." Chris stood up and placed the plate in the sink. He turned back to Piper. "Do you need anything, mom? I can orb you and Wyatt to the Magic School, if you want."
Piper smiled at the care etched on his facing. "No, Leo is going to come back here when it's ready over there." She paused, and then included, "You can go upstairs to the attic if you want to avoid Leo. I'll tell him you're demon hunting as usual."
Knowing she was trying to make some sort of point, Chris rolled his eyes, somewhat good-naturedly though. He, then, walked to his mother and embraced her, leaning down to kiss her cheek.
After he pulled away, Piper asked, chuckling, "What was that for?"
Chris shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "Uh…you're going off to Magic School." Chris relayed the first excuse to come into his head.
Then after a beat, Piper decided to play along, "Well, you're as bad as Phoebe. Go back to work. Now, off to the attic." A smile played at her lips; she understood there was a hidden meaning to his action.
As he did orbed out, Paige materialized in front of Piper, the bags at her sides.
Seeing her, Piper stood up and said to her younger sister, "Thank you, Paige. And, I'm tired of just waiting, so I'm going to call Leo, now," and she proceeded to do just that.
Leo came as soon as he was called. "Hey..." he said with some concern in his voice. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to get there. They are driving me crazy here," she answered.
"Hey!" Paige interjected indignantly.
Leo smiled at the exchange. He felt this cheerfully pleasant air in the room, and it was refreshing. "Well, I can orb you over there and let you can get acquainted, and then I can take Wyatt over along with the bags," Leo offered, toward Piper.
"Uh, yeah. Okay. But let me say bye to Phoebe, first. She'll be a wreck if she doesn't get to see me off," she replied. "Phoebe!"
Hearing her name in Piper's voice, she rushed downstairs. "Yeah?"
"Well, I'm off for Magic School," she said a little dramatically, knowing it would, in turn, provoke a dramatic action out of Phoebe.
"Oh, I'm going to miss you so much," she said tightly hugging her sister. "Do you have to take Wyatt now? He's in his crib." She asked this as she stepped back from Piper.
"No. Leo said he'd come back for him after he drops me off," Piper responded.
"We'll miss you," Phoebe said, embracing Piper, though not quite as flamboyantly as Phoebe.
"Don't worry guys. I'm just an orb away." Piper did her best to reassure them.
"Ready?" Leo asked. At her nod, he took Piper's hand and orbed out. As they dissolved, Phoebe flopped into a chair, looking dazed.
Glancing her way, Paige said, "Phoebe, get a grip would you. Piper's right; she is only an orb away."
"Yeah, I know, but…"
"Well, I'll go get Wyatt for Leo." She orbed upstairs and within minutes was in the kitchen holding her now, awaken nephew. Just as she did, Leo orbed in. Phoebe sighed, seeing him, and Paige handed his son to him.
"Can I talk to you guys for a second, before I go," he said, taking Wyatt into his arms.
"Yeah, sure," Phoebe replied.
"If you need Piper, call me first, alright? She needs her rest, without any stress. So, just call me first."
"Okay. So you're not going back up with the Elders?"
"Uh, no, not right now at least. I don't know about later, though. It's so tough with those Elders….Well, anyway, I should get going."
"Bye, Leo," Phoebe said, a little misty.
Leo laughed, gathered the bags, and orbed out.