I'd like to thank the following people for their reviews, *smile*: Freed Kyes, X3, k, The Proud Canadian (go Canada! We probably have more in common that we know), Shaz, and Sci fi fan Gillian. This quick update is just for you seven.

Leo and Phoebe appeared in the attic of the mansion, but neither of Phoebe's sisters were home.

'Where's Chris, anyway?' Phoebe asked with sudden curiosity.

'Well, that's a good question.'

'You mean you don't know?'

'That about sums it up.'

'How can you not know? You're an elder for Christ's sake!'

Leo stared at her for a long moment, this sudden obsession with Chris' whereabouts making him wonder if he'd missed anything important. 'Early this morning he just sort of dropped off of the map.' He explained.

'And you're not the least bit worried, are you? God, Leo, he's your- he's our whitelighter!'

'We're doing everything we can to find him, but in the meantime I'll be in charge of you three.' He paused. 'Since when do you care so much? You don't even trust him!'

'Things change!' she found herself yelling at him. Okay, calm down. She ordered herself. 'Leo… go find out which whitelighter it was who took the girl. We need to know what happened.'

'Yeah, sure.' And he was gone without another word.

'Now,' Phoebe muttered into the empty room, 'Time to find Paige and tell her we may have a problem.'

Chris had been worried that his parents might never get around to conceiving him, could they have run out of time? Phoebe could only hope he hadn't disappeared because of that.

*

There were eight of them gathered around the table, Piper's casserole sitting in the center, hot steam billowing off of its warm surface. Chris looked around at the familiar faces, some of which were not as familiar to him as their owners would have liked. Phoebe's daughter, Penelope, for instance, kept glancing over at him expectantly.

'You really don't remember me, do you?' She asked suddenly as she helped herself to some vegetables.

Chris squirmed under her brown gaze. 'No. In my timeline, you never existed.' He confessed.

'I think I like this timeline better.' She announced. At 16, she certainly hadn't lost her child-like innocence.

'Yeah,' Chris agreed, 'me too.' Even as he said this, his eyes made their way over to Kirra, who was sitting at the far end of the table. Bianca scowled, but he didn't notice. They didn't realize that, in his past, he'd seen Kirra die, hit by an energy ball. It was one thing to meet people you never knew existed, but to see someone alive and talking was most disconcerting.

All in all, he was beginning to realize one harsh fact. He'd changed so much that he would always be the outsider, the one who didn't really belong.

'Chris?' It was his mother, fussing. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, yeah I'm fine, just a little… off balance.'

'Maybe we shouldn't have had this party,' she muttered. 'You need time to adjust and we just got so excited that we threw it all into your lap…'

'Yeah, we're sorry,' Phoebe agreed with her sister. 'If you wanted to leave, get some rest, we'd understand.'

'Maybe that really is for the best. I'll… I'll see you all in the morning.' He pushed his chair back from the table and stood up.

'Oh, in case you've forgotten, your room is the one that used to be mine.' Paige called after him as he left the room.

'Thanks, glad to see some things are the way I remember them.'

He walked slowly up the stairs, glancing back only once, in time to see his mom stop Bianca from following him up. He hated to admit it, but he was glad she did. He didn't want to talk to any of them for the time being, he just wanted to rest.

The room was not filled with the low-cut dresses and makeup that Chris would have recognized as Paige's, but nor was it filled with the X-men comics, gameboys or dirty socks that would have decorated his floor as a child. However, he could associate it with the room he had kept above P3, posters, CDs he hadn't listened to in who-knows-how-long, papers, pens, books, all the things a normal guy his age should have had.

It also hadn't been cleaned in a really long time.

'God, I'm a pig.' he muttered, stepping over the junk to the bed (which was the only clean thing in the room, no doubt his mom had come in and made it specially for his return). He carelessly let himself fall onto the soft, bouncy mattress and stared up at the ceiling for a few, long moments. Finally, something completely familiar. He thought, the rolled over on his side to be greeted by the sight of his bookcase.

The bottom shelf was full of journals. 2013, 2014, 2015…

'Jackpot!' Chris crawled to the end of the bed, then glanced at the treacherous floor that lay between him and the bookshelf; it did not look like something he wanted to step on. So, of course, he did what any other person would do, he stretched until he could just reach the shelf and then just a little more until he could pull one of the journals from its perch.

'Gottcha.' It was one of the later ones, which suited him just fine. Making himself comfortable on the bed, he opened the book and began to read. After all, it couldn't hurt to get caught up on his past.

But the pages were blank, aside from having his name written on the first page, there was nothing what-so-ever to read. 'Dammit!' And he threw the book across the room. 'Why couldn't I have actually done something with those?'

*

Paige had been staring at the map of San-Francisco for so long, she was going cross-eyed. The crystal she had been using to scry for her youngest nephew continued to swing back and forth across the map, not even leaning towards a certain direction.

'This is useless!' She suddenly exclaimed and threw up her hands in defeat, accidentally letting go of the crystal and sending it flying through the air. Fortunately, Leo orbed in at that moment and, as it nearly hit him in the head, caught it. 'Oops.' Paige muttered as her former whitelighter crossed the room and put it down on the table.

'Who were you scrying for, anyway? Is Piper missing?' The sudden concern in his voice made Paige smile internally. Hear that, Chris, there's hope for you yet.

'Piper's fine, she took Wyatt to the park. They'll be back eventually.' Phoebe informed him.

'Oh, so who were you looking for?'

'Chris, who did you think?' Paige snapped, the hours she'd spent scrying to no avail making her irritable.

Leo stared. 'You too? What's gotten into the two of you? Why this sudden interest in Chris' safety?'

'You mean to say that he might be in danger!' Paige concluded.

'No, I don't mean that at all, I…'

'You can't tell you you're not even a little worried, can you?'

'Sure I am, but there's nothing we can do that isn't already being done.'

'Okay people, we have work to do. Leo, what did you find out?' Phoebe cut in, not wanting to go over this argument again and have certain things slip out that really should remain a secret for the time being- like her nephew's parentage.

Leo sighed. 'Not much. The whitelighter who took your mystery woman wasn't recognized by anyone I was able to talk to. I don't think he's really one of us.'

'Then how was he able to orb?' Phoebe demanded. She was tired of not having the answers she wanted.

'What if he was a witch, like me?' Paige suggested, but Leo shook his head.

'I don't think so, somebody would have known. If it was a witch, he or she would have had a charge, especially if they were practicing.'

Down stairs, the front door opened and closed, followed by Piper's voice. 'Hello, is anybody home?'

'We're upstairs!' Phoebe called down

'Well come down here, there's somebody I want you to meet!'

The three of them shared a look before Paige shrugged and headed for the door.

Downstairs, Piper was sitting down on the couch next to a strange man with long, wavy blond hair. In his arms, Wyatt was sleeping peacefully.

'Guys, I'd like you to meet Patrick, Patrick, these are my sisters, Paige and Phoebe, and Wyatt's father, Leo, who I would ask what he's doing here but won't for the sake of trusting that it's a good reason.'

Paige and Phoebe stared at their sister; they'd never quite seen her be so out-right rude to Leo, who nodded. 'I was just leaving,'

'Oh, wait, I suppose I should tell you that Patrick here will be looking after Wyatt when I can't be around so you'll have more time for your 'elder' duties.'

'What, Piper, I thought we agreed…'

'Yes, well, things change.'

'I am really getting sick of that comment.' He muttered. 'What about Wyatt's... talents?'

'You mean powers? Oh, Patrick knows all about that sort of stuff. His family was big on the whole 'witch' stuff, right Patrick?'

'Yes, that's right.'

'Great, so, you can take Wyatt up and put him to bed, okay?'

The man only nodded and walked over to the stairs.

'Isn't he great?' Piper asked. 'He's the perfect babysitter for Wyatt.'

'Hold on, I thought Leo was the perfect babysitter?' Phoebe countered.

'Yes, well, he is, but he can't be around all the time, can he?'

Leo shrugged sadly and orbed out.