DISCALIMER: Basically I own it all! IT'S ALL MINE! Well... No… Not really… I own some socks, and many of those are lonely because the dryer ate their partner. *thwacks the sock-eating electricity-guzzling dryer with an encyclopaedia* but I don't own Charmed. Ok? Ok. Good. I'm gonna shut up now. Bye. Yeah. Ok. That's great. Ok, I know. Shut up. Ok. I will. Bye… again.
The quotes by the priestess in this chapter are from Prue's funeral. Having a memory like a sieve I failed to remember any of it, so I googled it and came up with where there's a list of all the Season 4 scripts.
Pixie Wildfire: - Don't cry! Aw! *hug* Glad you liked, have a tissue.
xx*an*insomniacs*nightmare*xx: - Don't cry too much! Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Dark Fires: - I try not to do cliff hangers, it's just that I tend not to stop otherwise, and then I have to look back and find a good point to stop and the best points often seem to be cliff hangers… Thanks for your nice review, I really appreciate it.
Carla: - Thanks so much, I really try my best. Thanks for reviewing.
Pheniox-skye: - Ok, Ok! I shall give you more, lol! It's down there… Just scroll… Thanks.
Nautica7mk: - Yup, Leo finds out in this chapter… Not in the best way possible either, but he does find out. I know, they were so nasty to him before, and then suddenly when he lets slip that he's family they couldn't be nicer… Oh well, I guess... Thanks for your review.
princesscatie21: - Yes, hate him! He's evil! Ok, I will.
cherry7up56: - How did you find me? *sulks* Oh well, thanks for your review. Aw, well don't cry too much…
Aldrea: - I seem to be saying this a lot lately but: DON'T CRY! *offers a tissue* And by the end of today I won't have any of those left either… thanks for your review and yes! Hurt Wyatt, he's evil.
Queen of the Elven City: - Ok, sorry for taking so long. This one didn't take so long, though! Thank you! Thank you!
Cat: - Aw, thank you. ^_^ Thanks for your review, and don't cry!
Jessie Halliwell: - Wow, thanks so much! I hope I didn't take too long to update!
Chrisoriented: - You love it? Really? Thanks a lot.
MJ Rosemary: - Sorry about the slow update! I didn't mean it! Yes, he learns the truth, thanks for your review, it was really kind.
Karone Evertree: - Yes, I'm still wondering what her reaction is going to be… But yeah, thanks for your review!
Claddagh Ring: - Aw! Have a tissue! Yes, damn Wyatt. He's evil. Thanks a lot, I really liked your review. She definitely does love him, ands wants to be a good mother. Yup, comic relief, thought I'd add a bit of that…
X3: - Yes, bad Wyatt! She was thinking of Wyatt as she died, not Chris… I know, it's sad. Thanks for reviewing.
More angst – Piper's funeral and another childhood memory. Thanks for your support. Ok, on Monday it's back to school, so fewer updates that normal. :-( Sorry about that… Thanks a lot, all of your reviews mean a lot to me. Also I may have got Piper's year of birth wrong.
Charmed Leo
**********
Paige narrowed her eyes, not liking Wyatt's tone of voice at all. She ignored an explosion from behind her, announcing the last of Wyatt's demons being killed by Phoebe and fixed her gaze on him.
"What did you do to him?"
"You've got to stop this, Wyatt. There's got to be a way that we can resolve this peacefully without anyone getting hurt…"
"That's nice, father," Wyatt said, ignoring Paige. "I don't want to listen to any of your Elder pacifist crap though,"
"I'm not speaking as an Elder, I'm speaking as a father," Leo growled back, hating to watch his son torment another human being like this.
"But you never were much of a father to me, were you Leo?" Wyatt snarled, his upper lip curling. "You were even less of a father to him…" The sisters' eyes widened in shock, while Leo looked confused.
"I was never much of a father to who?"
A sick grin slowly spread across his face. "You didn't tell him, did you?" Wyatt asked sadistically. He looked down at his brother, nudging him with his foot. "Did you hear that? They were so sure that he wouldn't care, they didn't even tell him about you!" Chris looked at the floor, shying away from his brother's touch.
"Tell me what?" Leo said, turning to Piper. "What is he saying?" Paige looked to the floor, muttering out a reversal spell. Immediately Piper's stomach swelled back to its previous size and Leo looked at it in shock.
"You're… you're having another baby?" He said, failing to keep the hurt out of his voice. Piper nodded and studied the floor.
"It's your baby, though…" She whispered, looking back at him. "It's yours, Leo…"
"It's Chris!" Wyatt blurted out with a snort of laughter.
"What?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you, Dad?" Wyatt asked, sounding annoyed. "You, Mom. Sex. Baby… My brother…"
"Is it true?" Leo asked, not looking at anyone else in the room but Piper, demanding it all from her. "Is Chris my son?" Piper nodded, a tear silently escaping down her cheek. "Oh my God…" Leo said, suddenly remembering all of the times that he had been mean to Chris, yelled at him, hit him even…
"Got any more?" Phoebe asked Wyatt, walking over and smirking. She was relishing the outlet for all the emotions she was feeling inside her. Wyatt cocked an eyebrow at his aunt and waved an arm. Phoebe stood still and the attack rebounded. Wyatt used his shield as deflection and then threw the power back at his aunt. Phoebe, unprepared this time, sailed backwards into the corner and was knocked unconscious.
"Phoebe!" Paige yelled, starting to orb furniture at Wyatt in a rage. How dare he! How dare he come into their home and hurt her sisters, what gave him the right to kidnap Chris? The blond man crushed all of the orbs, making the furniture reappear and then sending it back at Paige. Eventually the red-headed witch-whitelighter was hit by a sideboard, which sent her to the ground and landed on her leg. There was a very audible crack and Piper turned to see the bone protruding from her sister's skin.
"Stop this," Piper pleaded, turning to her son. "Please,"
"Ow…" Paige muttered, trying and failing to heave the cabinet off of her. She felt the two pieces of broken bone in her leg grate together and spasms of pain overtook her. Eventually she slipped into unconsciousness.
"Please…" Piper murmured again, torn between her sisters and her son. Leo turned to heal the younger Charmed Ones but Wyatt grabbed his wrist, and then reached out for Chris. "Stop it!" Piper yelled, trying to pry her son's fingers from his father's wrist. "Stop i-" A cold blast shocked her body and very suddenly she wasn't in the sunroom anymore.
**********
"Ok, where are we?" Piper looked over at the sea of black surrounding them. It looked a lot like Prue's funeral.
"It's a funeral home…" Leo said, stepping up behind a man standing at the back. "Excuse me…" The man didn't answer. Leo tapped him on his shoulder, and his hand passed right through the man. Leo withdrew his arm and inspected his hand.
It was translucent, the colour faded somewhat and he could see his skin, and yet through the back of his hand he could see the marble floor also.
"Oh my God… Piper, we're… This is a memory…"
**********
The scene around Chris blurred as tears threatened in his eyes. He silently watched the motion of the casket, the slow march up the aisle. He sniffs, and Victor puts a hand on his grandson's shoulder.
"It'll be ok, Chris. It'll all be ok…"
"How?" The teenager managed to croak out. How could this ever be ok? He grown up accustomed to loss – first his aunts, his cousin… But now his mother was dead. He hated to admit it but Piper had been the centre of his world and now… Now there was a void. An empty, meaningless void where she used to be.
Wyatt was sitting a seat away from him, putting an unoccupied chair between him and his brother. He was saving the place, he had told Chris, for Leo. ''He'll come. He loves me enough to come…' Chris had ignored how much those words had stung, how Wyatt believed that Leo only loved him enough, not Chris…
Victor, seeing Chris' eyes flick over the empty seat beside him, bent his head to whisper into teenager's ear, "Where's your father?" Chris just shrugged, not having seen him for weeks. It had been four days since he'd been knelt by his dying mother, screaming for his father's help. Leo hadn't come then, there was no reason to think that he would now.
"I don't know…" He glanced again towards the empty space next to him and his eyes hardened. "And I honestly don't care…"
Victor shook his head, pursing his lips as his last daughter's cream casket was placed on a podium at the front of the building. After what he had done to his three children he had no right to speak ill of Leo. But he had tried to make it up to the sisters, and there was nothing he could have done anyway… Leo, on the other hand… Leo had the power to heal, to keep them alive. He had the power to be able to hear his charges and family, and yet he hadn't even turned up when Chris and Wyatt had needed him most, he hadn't even cared…
"Oh no…" Piper said, backing away from a woman.
"What?" She pointed to the booklet in the woman's hand. Embellished on the front in raised gold lettering were the words:
'Piper Halliwell, 1973-2018. Dearly departed, now you can be at peace. We love you, Mom,'
"I'm in that casket…" She looked around the hall, spotting her much-older father sitting with two teenagers. "Wyatt and Chris…"
**********
The priestess at the front began the ceremony, and the whispered conversation between grandfather and grandson stopped. Victor looked around the room, taking in what a good job his grandsons had done of the funeral arrangements. Victor – having been out of his apartment for a while – had not picked up Chris' message until late last night. He had caught a plane straight to California when he had found out.
They had had no help, and yet white lilies and roses were arranged neatly around the building, the podium was draped in a white muslin cloth, there were programmes and guests, and the priestess that had done all of the girls' funerals had been called upon again.
"…The wheel turns. As life is a day, so our sister has passed into night…" This is too much for Chris, whose body begins to shake and tears slid down his face. Again. Tears falling for Piper, for her life, for her death… He gave a hiccupping sob, his shoulders shaking. Victor patted him gently on the arm, trying his hardest to hold back his own sobs. Wyatt stayed staring steadily ahead, his face a completely neutral mask.
"…O' blessed spirit, we bid you farewell, for you await a new destiny…" Chris sprang up from his seat and took to his feet, drawing stares from the gathered mourners. He hit the doors and turned, watching the blue-grey smoke rise from the snuffed out candles.
"Bye, Mom…" He said, turning and fleeing from the marble palace of the dead.
"Chris! Wait!" Victor yelled, standing up and making his voice echo to the very ceiling. Chris kept running, blinded my tears he wrenched at creeping ivy that tried to trip him and stumbled over gravel paths, jumping headstones and weaving around people paying their respects to dead relatives.
"Chris!" Piper yelled, taking off after her son with Leo close behind.
"He can't hear you, Piper!" Leo reminded her, running through a headstone in his haste.
Chris took shelter under a spreading oak, sitting on the dusty ground beneath its spreading branches and hugging his knees to his chest. The leaves above him dappled the sunlight onto his arms and face, but he didn't notice or care. Piper was gone; the ceremony had well and truly marked her passing…
From his vantage point he could see the building begin to empty, the attendees shaking hands with Wyatt and Victor and offering condolences. He was pretty sure that he couldn't be seen here… The last to leave was the priestess, who shook hands with Victor and hugged Wyatt – who didn't return the gesture of comfort – and walked away. Chris saw Victor looking around nervously, but he couldn't see his grandson. Knowing that Chris had powers at his disposal and knowing that he had a reception to help run at the Manor he left with Wyatt.
"Oh…" Piper whispered, wanting to sweep him into a hug.
"Why Mom? Why?" Chris whispered, resting his forehead on his knees.
"I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry…" Piper said, beginning to cry. Chris didn't hear her. A gentle warm wind blew around him, but he was too absorbed in his grief to notice.
**********
Weary feet trudged the sidewalk as Chris turned the corner into Prescott Street. The night was cooling rapidly around him, and the moon above him offered little in the way of warmth. Crickets chirped in the long grass. He paused in front of the Manor, taking a deep breath and walking up the garden path. He could still here some people inside so he slipped around to the kitchen door.
**********
"Ok, where are we now?" Piper hissed, forgetting that there was no need to keep her voice down.
"I think we're back in the Manor," Leo replied, looking around the kitchen.
"But-"
"Shush, listen. They're arguing,"
**********
Hearing raised voices Chris shrank into the shadows of the porch, crouching down to listen. He realized that Leo had come down at last, and was currently having an argument with his ex-father-in-law.
"He's your son, Leo! For Christ's sake, man!" Victor bellowed, leaning on the kitchen island.
"Chris will be fine," Leo said coldly, staring down the older man.
"You didn't seem to think that Wyatt would be fine! You sat with him for nearly forty minutes! I heard you! Apologizing over and over… And Chris is missing!"
"If Chris chooses not to be here when I visit then that is his own fault," Leo insisted, not getting angry at all.
"I said that?" The past Leo asked, shocked.
"How can you say that! You have another son, Leo, whether you like it or not!"
"You have another son, dammit!" The spirit-like Leo yelled, getting angry with his future self.
"I'm fully aware of that, Victor," Leo said curtly. "But it is my belief that Wyatt needs more attention than Chris because of who and what he is!" Leo said, his voice rising for the first time. "Maybe I don't like having a teenager vying for my attention while I'm trying to save half the world!"
A tear slipped down Chris' cheek. More proof that Leo didn't care for him as much as he did Wyatt. He caught his grandfather's shocked expression. The old face darkened.
"I don't know how you can say that! Chris is a great kid, and would really benefit from spending some decent time with his father…"
"Chris is a trooper. He'll get through it. Wyatt!" Chris' older brother appeared in the room.
"Leo!" Piper said, totally shocked.
"I didn't know," he said, turning to his ex-wife. "I didn't ever think that I would be like this…" Piper put a hand protectively onto her pregnant stomach and looked back at the argument.
"What? Where are you taking him?" Victor demanded.
"We're going away for a little while. I want to help Wyatt get over this."
"Only Wyatt?" Past Leo asked in disbelief. "Why didn't I take Chris as well?" Piper didn't answer him.
"What about your other son?" Victor growled through gritted teeth.
"Chris? You can tell Chris where we've gone,"
"He won't mind, he never does," Wyatt added, walking closer to Leo.
"Did it never occur to you that he was pretending that he didn't mind? Just not wanting to be a burden?"
"We're leaving Wyatt," Leo said icily. "And Victor, when I want fathering tips I will go to someone who didn't walk out on their wife and kids because she got bored and had sex with another man, ok?"
"Son of a bitch!" Victor roared, slamming his fist down on the kitchen island and making the dirty crockery and cutlery jump. "How dare you?"
"If Chris calls we'll come," Wyatt said, and together father and son orbed out.
Victor was breathing heavily, trying hard to control his anger. "Bastard…" He muttered. "Complete and utter bastard…" He checked the kitchen clock, went to the cordless phone and dialled. "Hello? Yes. I'd like to report a missing person. Yes. He's fourteen, dark hair. Uh… Black jeans, a white, button-down shirt without a tie and a black leather jacket. Yes. Well for about four hours now… Well yes, I understand that, but he's missing now. Something could be happening to him now. I don't want to call back in seventy-two hours! I want the city searched for him NOW! H-hello? Hello?"
He slammed the phone back onto its cradle and turned around. Chris had to duck out of sight to stop Victor seeing him and his elbow knocked a plant pout. It hit the floor, soil spewing out and terracotta flying in all directions. Chris swore and got up, only to realize that his foot had gone to sleep from crouching. The door flew open just as Chris hobbled to the steps.
Leo had his face in his hands. He shook his head. "I can't believe that I was like that! I was so mean, I didn't care…"
"You've got another chance, Leo," Piper said, indicating her bump.
"I won't screw this one up…" Leo vowed, turning as Victor opened the back door.
"Who's there?" The porch light clicked on. "Chris? Is that you?" The teenager turned to his grandfather, the tear tracks too conspicuous in the harsh light.
"Yeah…"
"Where have you been? I was so worried…" Chris looked at the floor and there was a long pause. "Oh, Chris… You were there all the time, weren't you?" Victor asked softly. Another tear was the answer that Victor needed. "Come in, I'll get you something to drink..." Chris sniffed and crossed the threshold, closing the door behind him.
**********
"Oh my God, Chris," Piper whispered, snapping out of it and snatching her hand back in horror. "I'm so sorry for leaving you…"
"Chris…" Leo began, emotion closing up his throat. That was all he could manage as he looked at his second son, so battered and bruised, feeling so hurt and dejected. "I'm so sorry," Leo murmured, turning his head away in shame. "I didn't know that I'd be like that…"
"Well now you do," Wyatt said, pleased that the turmoil he had caused in his father's mind.
"Is this what you've been doing? Showing him things like that?" Piper demanded. "How could you? Look what you've done to him!"
"Correction, mother," Wyatt snapped. "Look what you've done to him. I just replayed those memories in his head; you were the ones who did them in the first place…" Piper gasped, seeing truth in that statement.
"What did I do?"