hot-pepper96: - Thank you! You're so kind.

Nautica7mk: - I'll try my best, but after reading over this a couple of times I don't think it's gonna come across very well…

Pixie Wildfire: - You'll have a very interesting conversation with her! Thanks for all that you've done, and all that you're continuing to do. This wouldn't be the way it is without you!

princesscatie21: - I know, it's sad. And unfortunately there's gonna be more sad stuff in store for Chris. Thank you!

Queen of the Elven City: - Did I ever write that I liked your pen name? if not I do! Lol, thanks for your review, every one means a lot to me.

Magical Princess: - Lol, really? I don't like Wyatt, but in this chapter I gave him a break and portrayed him as less evil…

Taynna: - *Sucks in deep breath… And begins* I don't think I've seen that particular episode, and if I have I've forgotten it. I agree with you, Wyatt needs to be less antagonistic, so I picked this memory out so that he was. No, I think Piper would blow her top if she caught Wyatt doing that, but then again Wyatt probably isn't dumb enough to get caught. Yeah, the book is in the house. I mean they seem to rely on the book way too much, for every little spell. I mean there's got to be at least one that they remember, but they always use the book. Lol, even I remember the power-switching spell, and I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed…

M J Rosemary: - Sorry! But then again I don't think that I've ever given anyone withdrawal symptoms before, so… I'm sorry for taking so damn long, I had a bit of writer's block. I haven't even finished my GCSEs yet and already my teachers are talking to me about A-levels… Ugh… Anyway before I get into a rant about that thanks for your review and let's moves swiftly on!

X3: - Lol, thanks for the advice… Now the only problem is to get Chris to hear it… Thanks for your review.

Karone Evertree: - Thank you! It's ok, I don't mind. They do get into the house, just in a rather different (I hope) way that everyone else was thinking about… Thank you, and wait no more!

Willows2: - Thank you!

Dark Fires: - *Blush* Thanks. You're really sweet.

cherry7up56: - Lol, when you get to the end of this chapter you're one of the people I'll have to add to the list to hide from, huh? There's a kinda cliffy at the end of this. *dives under desk* but please carry on enjoying and reviewing!

Claddagh Ring: - I don't mind late reviewers; it brightens up the whole week if I have reviews trickling in a few at a time, rather than a lump together. It is very sad how much I rely on reviews, though… Thanks for loving so many things about this, you're really great.

Ennaurial: - Whoa, ok, that's a lot of reviews! My computer broke too, and it stayed broke so we had to get a new one, lol! Thanks for that, it was really nice.

Lol, thanks for carrying on and reading more. It means a lot to me.

Yeah, I think this apart from my other stories. I needed to move on, I think. Keep reading and I'll keep writing! That's the deal I strike up with most of my reviewers, anyway, lol.

Please don't cry too much! Be happy!

I was thinking about giving Leo a small role in this story, but it's pre-Spin City, so… He can have a small part, but I don't want to give him a huge part otherwise he'll find out about Chris, lol… I don't know. You guys in Oz are only like 2 episodes behind us, and we're all catching up with the Americans, because they've stopped filming them because Holly's pregnant and they're not showing the ones they have done because of some ratings war or something... Something about not showing them until May because that's when the stations are monitored for viewers… Something like that… Have fun on holiday and I haven't forgotten my promise, you can beta if ya want.

Thanks so much for all of your encouragement; it really means a lot to me.

The spell I used it from Season 4, and it's the spell that Phoebe used to take herself to Cole. Being bad at writing spells I based this one on one already used, although it's no changed beyond recognition… Hm…

Charmed Leo

**********

Bass thumped through the walls of Piper's office. Piper herself was sitting behind her desk, the lamp throwing a pool of light in a small circle, its radiance barely reaching Paige and Phoebe who were sitting on the floor, baby Wyatt in between them.

"I'm so selfish," Piper began, staring at something on the desktop that didn't exist. Paige and Phoebe looked up.

"Honey, no! Why?"

"I'm too scared of what Leo might say about…" She stopped, gesturing absently to her stomach. "To actually call him… I'm such a bad mother and my baby isn't even born yet…" Tears welled up in her eyes, making the chocolate pools shimmer in the light.

"Aw…" Phoebe rubbed Piper's back and Paige crouched down next to her sister.

"No, you can't think like that. And anyway, I don't think we're gonna have to call Leo," Phoebe and Piper looked at her.

"Why?"

"I think I have a plan."

**********

"Get over yourself already, Wyatt," Chris said tiredly. "I can't be bothered with you." Wyatt had been fishing for reactions from his younger brother and now Chris was determined not to react at all. He took a clam tone watching the older Halliwell with cool green eyes, the blindfold once again hanging loose around his throat.

The moon was rising, casting its eerie skeletal light over everything. The silver glinted on the fallen glass from the smashed pictures, the shards glistening like raindrops. It left half of Wyatt's face in shadow, the other half glowing with the odd luminescence of a full moon.

His arms were folded across his chest and he was leaning on the doorframe staring thoughtfully at Chris. Chris stared back, trying as subtly as he could to loosen the rope binding his wrists together behind his back.

"I mean what is it that you want, Wyatt? To keep me tied to a chair for all of time?" Again, he didn't receive an answer and despite himself, he squirmed slightly under Wyatt's cold steel-grey gaze. He wiggled a finger and felt a knot slip through itself.

He looked down, not wanting to break the eye-contact with Wyatt but needing to concentrate. His bonds stopped moving and he desperately tried to twist his wrists to find another knot to undo.

"Chris, just give it up and sit tight," Wyatt walked towards him. "Unless you want to see more of our past that is…" Chris closed his eyes – he didn't want to see anything else. "Do you? I've got a memory in mind as well..."

Wyatt's arm shot out, sending a telekinetic blast at Chris' chest. The chair toppled backwards, trapping both of Chris' hands between the chair back and the glass-strewn floor. Slowly he felt blood well up from his hands and a stinging pain. Tiny streams of crimson began to flow across his flesh, trickling in between his fingers and pooling under his palms.

"Don't insult me by thinking I wouldn't notice you trying to escape, Chris," He now towered over his younger brother, smirking down at him as he lay on his back on the floor. Wyatt raised a foot and Chris' body tensed up, waiting for a blow that never came. Instead Wyatt put his foot on his brother's chest, sending another memory blast through him.

**********

"And you still remember the spell?" Paige nodded, now slightly uncertain. "I'm pretty sure, yeah. Phoebe will need to rewrite it, though…"

"Why me?"

"Because you're the best at it," Piper handed the middle sister a pad of paper and a biro with an overly-happy smile. "Get to it!" Phoebe rolled her eyes, writing down the spell that Paige was reciting to her and formulating a way to change it.

**********

Again we see Chris, lying on his stomach on the bed with his head hanging off of the end and reading a much-crumpled letter. Eight-year-old hands clutched at the grubby edges, eyes scanning the elegant looping lettering.

He finished, folding it in half along a worn-out fold line and burying his face in his mattress, as always taking deep, steady breaths to stop a flow of tears. When he looked up again there was a slight sparkle to his eye. He folded the letter again, putting it back into its envelope. The envelope went back into a wooden box, which was then locked and put back on his nightstand.

Leo had always insisted on leaving letters if he was unable to come to a main event in his sons' lives – Chris noted how many more he had received than Wyatt – but rather than being a comfort they often made the situation worse. Leo always gushed his heart through the nib of a pen, making them more than slightly painful to read.

As far as Chris knew Wyatt had put his through the paper shredder as soon as he had got them – something that his mother did not encourage, but then again did nothing to stop him either – and sometimes Chris felt as if he should do the same.

In that box there were letters about how Leo was sure Chris would do well in his latest role in the school play; (never mentioning the actual character, Leo had either forgotten or never bothered to find out) a letter about how big he was getting now he was five; (Chris had actually been six) letters apologizing about missed parent-teacher evenings; a letter saying that Leo would be late to Chris' guitar recital; (he hadn't turned up at all, and, in the style true to his father, there was a letter about that too.) and one letter wishing Chris a fast recovery from the Chickenpox.

Suddenly Chris felt himself slowly rocking back and forth. There was a crash as a lamp fell from his desk and shattered on the floor. Books tumbled off of the bookcase as it was shaken to and fro, eventually toppling over and the lamp sparked as it was crushed beneath it. He slipped and fell, his head colliding hard with the desk corner. Blood trickled in his eyes.

Chris rolled under the desk, grabbing two of the legs and closing his eyes, trying to reassure himself that it was an earthquake, it would pass, it was just an earthquake… But things continued to shake and continued to fall around him. The mirror fell off of the wall, sending reflective shards flying at him. He put up a hand and deflected them without meaning to and sent them thudding into a wall, burying them deep in plaster.

A shelf came loose, swinging by one screw and throwing its contents all over the room. The light fitting shook wildly from side to side, eventually shattering the bulb and sending glass and sparks all over the desktop. A pot of pens fell over, spilling its contents onto Chris. Then just as quickly as it had started it stopped. Chris scrambled out from underneath the desk and ran for the stairs.

"Mom!" He yelled.

"She's not here, get in the doorway," Wyatt instructed, beckoning his younger brother. "There'll be aftershocks."

"But she was here…" Chris said, huddling next to Wyatt. "And where's Dad? He was supposed to be here too…"

"There was a demon they think was causing this," Wyatt started to explain, but he was cut off by the sudden eruption of sparkling of orbing lights as his mother and aunts appeared.

"Are you two alright?" Piper asked, kneeling down and hugging them both. She looked to the ceiling. Where's your father?" Both of her sons shrugged. "Leo! LEO!" Yet again orbing lights appeared, this time announcing Leo's arrival.

"Piper. Blessed be. How are you?" A serene smile was on his lips, and the golden robes flowed around his body.

"How am I? How am I?" Piper exploded, her fingers twitching to blow something up. "There is a demon-related earthquake and I ask you to watch your sons. Watch. Your. Sons. Not orb up to the Elders and leave a ten -year-old and an eight-year-old ALONE!"

"I thought that the Council of the Elders could find something useful. I didn't realize I was gone so long. Is anyone hurt?"

"Not yet," Piper said through gritted teeth, refraining from arguing in front of her sons.

"Well-"

"Demon!" Paige yelled, rolling under an energy ball and letting the momentum carry her to her feet again. Piper gestured frantically with her hands, but the demon just staggered backwards, the explosion making a small 'poof' noise on his chest. A staff materialized in the demon's hand and he griped it tightly, raising it above his head.

"Paige!" Piper yelled.

"Staff!" It disappeared in a swirl of orbs, which dissipated in midair, returning the staff to the demon. "Uh-oh…"

Terremotos (A/N: - That means earthquake in Spanish and I think Italian. Ya, I know. How original… it just seemed like a really good name…) struck the tiled floor with it, sending cracks blossoming from where the wood hit. Immediately the Manor began to shake again. Chris covered his face with his arms.

Wyatt sprang out of the doorway, raising his arm at the demon but falling to the floor from the tremors, narrowly missing having a vase smashed on his head. He started inching backwards from a growing crack that was trying to consume him.

"Wyatt, protect Chris! He's not as strong as you are!" Leo commanded - the only one left standing and had barely lost his serene Elder look. Wyatt looked back at Chris, who was looking hurt and insulted, and just gave a helpless shrug; it wasn't his fault that Leo had said that. Wyatt crawled back to the doorway, putting up his shield as a display cabinet toppled onto them.

Wyatt jumped with the shock, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead as he tried to keep the shield up. It began to fluctuate, the cabinet too heavy for it.  Chris shot it away with telekinesis, pinning the demon under it. The demon growled and went down in a mass of splintered wood and shattered crockery. The staff rolled away, coming to rest about four feet from its master.

The chandelier began a terrible rattle, slowly worming the bolts out of the ceiling before they sheered altogether. It crashed to the floor, striking Phoebe on the shoulder and knocking her out.

"Phoebe!" Piper blew up a crack in the floor, widening it and making the display cabinet and demon fall through the tiles and into the basement. There was a strangled cry and the earthquake stopped, a plume of black smoke rising from the hole. The staff immediately crumbled to a line of black dust, which then blew away.

An ominous silence followed before a collective sigh of relief went up. Wyatt lowered his shield and both brothers ran to Piper, hugging her.

"Leo, Phoebe," Piper said, resorting to as few a words as she could to stop a scathing remark escaping. She kissed Chris' head, then Wyatt's. "Are you two alright?" They both nodded and she hugged them again. "If anything had happened to you…" She stopped, glaring at Leo's back.

"Nice move with the display cabinet, by the way, Wyatt," the Elder said, the golden glow ceasing as Phoebe woke up. "You wanna come with me and practise that some more?"

"Yeah!" Wyatt said enthusiastically, his eyes shining. He looked at Chris, his face falling. "But it wasn't really-"

"Modesty is a good thing, Wyatt. But not if you use too much of it."

"But Chris…"

Leo turned to Chris. "You don't mind, do you?" Wyatt looked at Chris with understanding, but at the same time almost asking his permission to go.

Chris shook his head, some tears welling up in his eyes. Leo didn't want to take him, all he ever wanted to do was take Wyatt places. "No, you go. Don't worry. Have fun." He managed a tiny smile before his brother and father disappeared, Wyatt shooting Chris a sympathetic look. Leo had not even noticed or bothered to heal Chris' cut head.

**********

"See, Chris. It's not my fault. You were my brother and I loved you. I protected you. It was just that Leo always favoured me, our parents never seemed to notice you…" He spread his arms wide, a look of remorse etched onto his face. "I'm sorry…"

The memory still stung in Chris' mind, and Wyatt's words weren't helping. He could see that what Wyatt was saying was true, that it wasn't his brother's fault that he was favoured; it wasn't Wyatt's fault that they had a lousy dad… But it still hurt, still hurt that Leo had always chosen Wyatt or Elder duties over him, still hurt that Leo had considered him inferior…

"Thanks for looking after me, Wyatt. In the Quake, I mean…" He mumbled, inspecting his jeans.

"It's ok…" Wyatt righted Chris' chair. "I was always there for you Chris, remember that." Chris nodded slightly, still looking at his jeans.

Wyatt only smirked.

**********

"Ok, done," Phoebe said, stopping scribbling. "Piper, you've got to be our anchor,"

"Why me?" She protested.

"Because you're a Mommy and a kid can't be looked after by three sleeping people," Piper put on a slight pout, but then agreed.

"Ok, alright."

"The returning spell is on the way too," Phoebe said, taking a deep breath.

"Are you sure this will work, I mean Chris isn't on-"

"It'll work; I think I wrote around that."

"If you say so…" Paige and Phoebe sat on the floor and began to read off of the pad.

"Whither our Halliwell,

On our plane he doth dwell.

Wherever he is, take us to he,

Through barrier, shield and the powers that be."

"Doth? You used doth?" Paige said in disbelief, having just enough time to see her sister give a helpless shrug before slumping sideways asleep.

**********

Phoebe and Paige appeared in the foyer and started to look around. The manor was ominously silent, the ticking of the grandfather clock reverberated around the high entryway and moonlight pooled in liquid silver puddles on the tiles and furniture.

"Where is everyone?" Phoebe whispered.

"I can't hear a thing," Paige said back, equally as quiet.

"Witches!"

"Oh, ok, now I can!" Phoebe spun on her left foot and drove her right heel into the demon's stomach. He crumpled.

"Remind me to never piss you off," More demons appeared in the entryway, throwing Paige into the hall table. She looked at the wreckage that surrounded her. "Piper's gonna kill you! Table leg!" Nothing happened.

"No powers when you astral project, honey." Phoebe said, jumping and kicking two demons at the same time.

"It's my first time, ok?" She picked up the table leg the mortal way and rammed it through a demon's heart. He exploded, taking her weapon with him.

"I've never seen this kind of demon before…" Phoebe remarked, snapping a kick to a demon's jaw that broke its snout. He gave a howl of rage, fully transforming into Jackal mode. He dropped to all fours, snarling and growling, yellow eyes bulging and filled with rage.

"Oh, oh!" Phoebe said, backing away with shock.

"Leave." The voice was cold, and at once the demons disappeared without any argument. Wyatt was leaning against the doorframe and clapped his hands three times. The noise echoed around before stopping. "Well done, a truly great performance."

"Where's Chris?"

"How did you get in here?" He said, ignoring the question.

"I asked you where Chris was." Wyatt stepped aside, revealing their younger nephew bound and blindfolded. Phoebe and Paige ran at him, Phoebe grabbing the banister and using it as leverage to kick Wyatt in the chest and Paige continuing past Wyatt. Wyatt staggered before falling to the floor. Paige ran into the sunroom, dropping to her knees and skidding behind Chris.

"Wyatt?"

"No, it's me."

"Paige? How… How did you?"

"Long story. Let's just get you out of here."

Chris sighed. "Why bother?"

"What?"

"Wyatt was the only one who ever looked out for me. Leo just thought I was inferior and you were all too busy to care. What's the point?"

"Chris, the point is that we don't keep you tied to a chair. We… we…" There was a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood. Phoebe was not winning the fight in the foyer. Paige suddenly realised that she had no way of getting her nephew out of her. But she didn't need to tell Chris that.

**********

"What's the matter, Aunt Phoebe? Not up to channelling my powers today?" Phoebe spat out blood from her mouth and got to her feet.

"I don't need powers to whoop your ass," She balled her fists under her chin, spun and kicked Wyatt in the face. He staggered, clutching a bleeding nose. He waved an arm angrily, slamming her into the ceiling and then letting her drop to the floor. She screamed but before she hit he threw her through the glass front of the Manor's doors. As she flew she disappeared in a blur of red, leaving coloured shards tinkling to the steps outside.

"Astral projection… Hm…" Wyatt said, sounding mildly impressed. He summoned two demons. "One of them is still astral projecting. Sleeping like a baby and totally defenceless. Try not to hurt them too bad." The two demons disappeared as quickly as they had been summoned.

Paige's eyes widened as she tried to persuade Chris to move again, realizing that Wyatt was coming closer. "Chris, please. I don't know what Wyatt's been doing to you, but I know that you can fight it. We love you." Chris suddenly blinked and bent forward, starting to unpick his feet. "Yes!" Paige cried.

"Aunt Paige?" Wyatt stepped into the room, fixing Paige with his glare.

"Don't make me orb some glass into your eye." She said, standing up.

"Astral projections have powers now? Not the last time I heard. Chris, sit back down," He forced Chris back onto the chair with his magic, and then sent his aunt crashing through a window. She landed in a crumpled heap before disappearing in the same blur of red that had taken Phoebe.

Chris's arm shot out, but Wyatt put up his hand. The palm glowed blue, sending the attack straight back at Chris. Chris was catapulted backwards, smashing into a wall.

"I think Aunt Paige was starting to undo what we had going. What do you think?" He grabbed a fistful of Chris' hair, smiling as another memory rush overtook his brother.