Phoebe poked her head in the door. "Are you guys done yet?"
Joy and Chris broke apart. They smiled at Phoebe. That was the first time Chris had smiled in a month.
"Yes, Phoebe, we're done." said Joy. Leo and the girls came back through the door into the living room.
"You two have some explaining to do," Leo said in a business tone.
"What do you want us to explain?" Chris asked.
"Well for starters," Piper began, "Why were you passed out on the floor twenty minutes ago? What happened?"
"I'm so sorry, guys," Joy said, "This is all my fault. I was trying to protect Chris from the Mazging—"
"And that is?" Paige interrupted.
"The royal fairy court. Mazging in the word for punishment in the fairy dialect. Now, none of the other courts before them have been called that. But when the last court term ended, the Mazging took over. I don't think I've ever seen more panic and fear in our world since the Mazging term began."
"But what's this got to do with Chris?" asked Phoebe.
"One of the main laws of our world is that we can't fall in love outside our species. It's stupid, I know, because almost half of the fairies are in love with something else. The law was never really enforced, so nobody was ever punished. But when the Mazging took over, they punished the ones who broke the law."
"What's the punishment?" Piper asked.
Joy looked at Chris, then at Piper. "In short, they force the fairy to watch the person they love die." Phoebe and Paige gaped in horror. Joy continued, "They secure the fairy to a spot and bind their magic, so they can't interfere. Then they torture the fairy's lover until they die. It takes hours, and usually the fairy dies right there too. It devastates them to watch the process, and then they die of a broken heart."
Joy looked at Chris again. "That's why I left. I don't want to watch you die. I was just trying to protect you."
Chris stroked her hand with his fingers. "I know. I just wanted to be with you, and I wasn't thinking of how much you were already giving up to be with me. I'm sorry." Joy smiled.
"Ok, Chris?" Piper began, "You still haven't answered my question. What happened to you that made you pass out?"
"It was the picture you gave me of me and Joy. I looked at that and realized that I couldn't remember what it felt like to hold her. I had spent so much time convincing myself that Joy was going to come back any second and say that we could be together now. But when I saw that picture and realized she wouldn't, it broke my heart."
The light bulb went off in Leo's head. "That's why I couldn't heal you. Emotional pain can't be healed by a whitelighter."
"So all you're trying to do is protect Chris from getting killed by the rulers of your world?" Piper asked. Joy nodded. "Okay, just checking."
Suddenly, Phoebe got an idea. "Guys, I'm just gonna check on something. I'll be right back." She hurried up the stairs, her shoes clunking with every step.