"Wyatt? Would you please sit down?" Phoebe asked from her position sprawled across the couch. "All your pacing is making me anxious."
"He should be back by now," Wyatt mumbled, mainly to himself, each word punctuated by a step as he walked up and down the entrance to the living room.
"I'm sure he's fine," Piper said consolingly, rocking baby Chris in her arms. She shot her sisters a worried gaze and Paige shrugged.
"I mean you said he has all those powers and stuff, right?" Paige said, the last word slightly desperate as she rose from her seat to place a hand on Piper's shoulder.
Wyatt paused for a moment, studying the carpet intently and crossing his arms. "Look, Mom, Aunts and baby versions of my younger brother and myself, I'm perfectly aware that he's able to look after himself. But there's also the fact that he's my little brother and there were too many times when we were little that I had to go rescue his ass because he hadn't got a handle on his powers yet. Oh, and then there's the fact that I pretty much raised him after the age of fourteen," Wyatt was beginning to pace again, his voice getting louder, "So, yeah, I think I'm entitled to be a little worried!"
Piper looked more nervous than she had before. "'Lots of times you had to save him'? Oh God, you two are going to make me worry so much, aren't you?"
Wyatt cringed. "Well, we try not to, Mom. But it's kind of difficult when the demons come to us rather than the other way around."
"Oh God," Piper repeated. Paige quickly grabbed her arm, lowering her onto the couch as Phoebe grabbed baby Chris.
"Oh, come on Piper," Paige said jovially, "you knew that two magical children were going to be a bitch to raise. You got through the whole labour thing, don't go complaining now!"
"In her own weird way Paige's right," Phoebe added, shooting Paige an odd look, "I mean look at them, honey. They turn out pretty good even with everything."
"Aunt Phoebe's right," Wyatt added helpfully. "We're both good kids and I'd like for you to remember that around the date of or perhaps exactly on Chris' eighth birthday."
The sisters all looked at him.
"I can't say anymore," Wyatt said quickly, holding his hands up in surrender.
"You mean you won't say anymore," Piper accused suspiciously.
"Hey, future consequences and all that!"
Piper folded her arms and fixed him with a glare that made Wyatt fidget his feet on the worn carpet. Luckily for him Piper's interrogation was interrupted by the tinkle of orbs and the appearance of Leo supporting a giggling Chris.
"You found him," Paige pointed out unnecessarily, her eyes wide as she watched her nephew lean heavily into Leo.
"Chris?" Wyatt asked in disbelief. "Please God let the massive amounts of alcohol you have so obviously consumed mean that you didn't find the demon that killed Mom. Will kill Mom. Whatever, you are way too drunk to care about my tenses!"
Chris exaggeratedly shook his head. "Nu-uh, Wy." He stumbled away from Leo and flopped into a chair. "Wy, Wy, Wy," he giggled. "Your name sounds like why."
"Christopher," Wyatt said, a definite warning in his voice.
"I found him!" Chris said happily and Wyatt visibly sagged, running a hand through his hair.
"Oh God," he murmured before turning to Leo, "Where did you find him?"
Leo crossed his arms, obviously not happy talking about where he found his drunken offspring. "Up at some demon bar by the Northern lava pools in the Underworld."
"Yup," said Chris, rejoining the conversation loudly, "You remember that bar, right Wyatt? The one we went to when I turned eighteen?"
Piper turned angrily on her oldest son. "You take him out drinking when he's eighteen!?"
At that moment Wyatt looked for all the world like a child caught stealing cookies. "No?" He tried.
"Wyatt! I will be looking to you to take responsibility for your little brother and now I find out…"
"Piper, honey," Leo said consolingly, placing a hand on her upper arm. "Now may not be the best time."
Piper huffed. "Fine! But we are talking about this later, young man!" She warned, pointing a finger at a now smirking Wyatt. "And you two can stop smiling!" She yelled, whirling to point at Phoebe and Paige in turn.
"Anyway," Wyatt said, sighing heavily, "Chris, what happened?"
Wyatt moved slowly to crouch in front of his brother. Unfortunately Chris was occupied staring at the ceiling and humming happily to himself.
"Christopher," Wyatt tried again.
"God, he's good at that parental yelling thing, isn't he?" Phoebe whispered to Paige under her breath.
Chris jerked his head back and blinked rapidly as the room chose that moment to spin violently around him. A smile lit up his face as he saw Wyatt crouched there. "Wyatt!" He didn't say anything more, just went to flop his head back again and continued humming. Wyatt sighed in annoyance and grabbed his head, tilting it up so that Chris had to stare at him. Chris frowned in an attempt at concentration. "What's up?"
Wyatt sighed again and he distinctly heard Paige stifle a giggle. "What happened with the demon, Christopher?"
"Oh, I killed it," Chris replied nonchalantly. He tried to tilt his head away but Wyatt held firm. Chris sighed loudly and removed Wyatt's hand forcefully. "Fi-ine. I went to a bar I was told he would be at by a demon with an Australian accent. Aren't Australian accents cool? They're all Australiany.
"And then I killed him, not the demon with the Australian accent but Pertinax, because the only reason that stupid demon ever won fights was because he stayed in a gang and then his date flirted with me and got me drunk. She was pretty. And drunk. Or maybe I was just drunk. Though she was definitely pretty. I think. Wyatt, you'll have to meet her and tell me if she's pretty."
Wyatt breathed deeply and stood up. "So let me get this straight. You killed Pertinax."
"And got a date," Chris added triumphantly.
"And you got drunk why?" Leo asked, sounding so like a scolding parent that Piper smiled.
Chris shrugged, grinning happily. "Dunno." He looked confused for a second. "I was only ordering orange juice."
"They spike all their drinks with alcohol. It's a demon bar, Chris," Wyatt explained absent-mindedly. He was staring out of the window, looking pensive when he suddenly sat heavily on the couch. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Gotten drunk?" Chris guessed, his head once again thrown back and fixedly admiring the ceiling.
"Wyatt, maybe it's all okay," Piper said, coming forward to rest a hand on his shoulder. "I mean Chris," he looked up at the mention of his name, "I mean the Chris who came to stop evil Wyatt," Chris dropped his head back again, "could never tell when he'd changed something. It wasn't like his memories would change. But you're both still here and that means that neither of you died in the attack."
"Good point, Mom," Chris said sleepily.
"Go to sleep, sweetie," Phoebe suggested gently, looking at both the Chris in her arms and the one passed out in the chair.
"It wasn't like we were the only people there, you know!" Wyatt yelled. Chris' head shot up and blinked at him sleepily.
"Don't yell, you'll wake me up," Chris said and on cue baby Chris began to cry.
Piper shot Wyatt a disapproving glance and went to retrieve the baby from Phoebe, hushing it when it was in her arms.
"What do you mean?" Paige asked.
"I mean that yes, we were all there but there were also innocents involved and…other people." Wyatt looked directly at Phoebe as he said this.
"My child?" Phoebe guessed.
"Mel," Chris added, half-asleep.
"Mel?" Phoebe said happily, a grin breaking out on her face. "I have a little girl?"
"Chris!" Wyatt reprimanded and then he pointed at Phoebe. "Mel can be a boy's name too."
Phoebe wrinkled her nose. "Oh, you guys are no fun," she shrugged, "well, drunken Chris is."
"I'm so glad you like my drunken son," Piper said sarcastically, lightly batting Phoebe in the back of the head.
"Anyway," Leo said, "back to the issue at hand. Wyatt, there is nothing you can do about any of this. It's been changed now. The only thing you can do is go back to your time and see what has happened."
Wyatt sighed and regarded his father seriously. "You're right, Dad." Leo beamed at the name. A slight snore made Wyatt glance in the direction of the chair. "But maybe we'll wait till Boy Wonder has woken up."
Paige laughed. "That might be a good idea. Hey, want to go play with yourself?" Phoebe barked out a laugh. "Okay, that came out wrong. But you know what I meant!" She stalked past Phoebe. "Mind in the gutter!"
"Actually," Wyatt said thoughtfully, "That might be a kinda cool idea."
Piper smiled. "Come on then. We'll leave your little brother asleep and you can play with much smaller versions of him and yourself. However weird that really, really is."
A hammer was splitting his head in two. That was Chris' first coherent thought as he slowly gained consciousness. He tried vainly to remember how he had got home the previous night and could only come up with a vague memory of slanted green eyes and his father's arms.
That didn't sound right.
Chris blearily opened his eyes and then decided that closing them again straight away might be a good idea.
"Don't even think about it," Wyatt warned. He was perched on the coffee table looking distinctly pissed off.
"But you look really mad," Chris muttered, his voice hoarse. "And when you look really mad I like to keep my eyes closed."
"I look really mad? You want me to bring Mom in here?"
"Fine, fine," carefully Chris peeled his eyes open. Wyatt's expression hadn't changed. "You know this really wasn't my fault."
Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "What? You didn't run off to kill a demon whose death would unequivocally change the future?"
Chris paused. "Okay, that I did. Though 'unequivocally' is a really mean word to use on a hungover person. What I meant was that I was only ordering orange juice and therefore the whole drunkenness was so not my fault."
Quirking a tired grin Wyatt offered his brother a tall glass of a steaming green mixture. "Yeah, you always say that," he said wryly, "and yet the recipe for hangover potion is one I know off by heart."
"And you being all against personal gain," Chris mocked kindly as he took a sip of the noxious potion that really never tasted better with time.
"Actually that's you. And I still say potions don't count. Anyway," Wyatt began, his voice becoming more tired and his expression becoming serious, "you killed the demon."
"Pertinax," Chris supplied.
"I know his name, Chris," Wyatt said, an edge to his voice. "Do you know what you did by killing him?"
"Saved Mom," Chris said, an edge creeping it's way into his voice as well. He placed his glass next to Wyatt who stood and began pacing the instant it hit the surface.
"Are you sure about that?" Wyatt demanded. "Or maybe you just killed Aunt Paige or Aunt Phoebe or Uncle Daniel or…or Mel!"
Wyatt froze as he watched Chris' face go white.
"I saved Mom," he said in a small, far more unsure, voice.
Wyatt sat back down, leaning forward to grab Chris' hands. "I know you were just trying to help," he smiled quickly, "time-travelling to solve problems appears to be a genetic quirk of yours. But you don't know what you did."
"What do we do?" Chris asked softly, his features drawn.
Wyatt sighed, his hand cupping the back of Chris' head in a brotherly gesture. "We go back. Or move forward."
"Or whatever. Tenses suck."
"They really do."