Chapter 7

Leo fell to the ground and lost all consciousness. He was enclosed in darkness. All of a sudden images from his past surrounded him. He tried to concentrate on these images but found it very hard.

"What's going on?" he said, hearing his voice echo through the darkness. An image of him and Piper flashed before him. "Piper..? Honey are you there?" he called out, but no reply came. "Phoebe, Paige? Piper!?" he continued calling. An image of his wedding day appeared before him.

"We are gathered here today to unite two souls as one. Do you, Leo Wyatt, and Piper Halliwell, join us here of your own free will to acknowledge the eternal bond shared by both of you." Grams asked.

"I do." he answered

"I do." Piper smiled and looked in Leos eyes.

"You may face each other and join hands. Uh, Leo, you may recite your vows." Grams said.

"Piper, through all the tears and struggles, I always knew in my heart that we'd make it here. I promise to love and respect you from this point forward as your husband, as my wife, my lover, my friend, and my soul mate. All I am is yours." Leo gazed at her lovingly.

"Piper..."Grams began.

"Leo, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I was afraid that you were too good to be true, that maybe I didn't deserve someone so pure and beautiful and loving as you are. But here we are surrounded by the people that I love the most and I feel so proud, and so blessed to be your wife. Leo, I was born to love you and I always will."

Leo watched with tears in his eyes as the scene slowly faded away. But before he could even say anything, another appeared.

"Oh. Is that what I think it is?" Paige asked

"Uh, if you're referring to Mr. Winkie between the legs, yes." Phoebe replied.

"You mean...I got a boy?" Leo said looked awestruck.

"Here you go, mama." Phoebe said, handing Piper the baby.

"Hi. Hi, little guy, what are you doing? Look what we did." She smiled looking up at Leo.

"I see." He smiled back at her, and the baby.

"It's a miracle." Paige whispered

"A little miracle." Piper said looking at the tiny baby in her arms

"He's beautiful." Phoebe said.

The sound of Phoebe's voice echoed all around Leo, before disappearing completely. Leo looked around. He saw nothing. Another small light began forming in front of him. It grew bigger and bigger until he could once again see himself and Piper, only this time, tears of sadness were streaming down her face

"How am I supposed to do this alone?" Piper asked Leo.

"You have your sisters." He replied, inside his heart was breaking.

"It's not the same. Will I ever see you again?"

"I don't know. I'll always be watching over you."

"But you won't be there for Wyatt. You're gonna miss so much." She pleaded with Leo.

"I will never leave Wyatt's side. He will always feel my presence. It's not the same as human love, he needs you for that." He promised.

"He's got me. And I hope that's enough. But what if it's not?" she cried.

Leo fell to the ground on his knees and sobbed his heart out. He couldn't believe how he treated Piper. "I should have just said no, I didn't want to be an elder, I wanted Piper," he cried. He knew now, why he was seeing all of this. He was dying. There was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Once again light surrounded him, he lifted his head up and watched.

"Can we see Piper?" Phoebe asked.

"Well, maybe just one of you for now." Dr Roberts replied. Phoebe and Paige exchanged a look, both knowing who it should be.

Turning to Leo, Phoebe said, "Go, tell her we love her."

Leo nods and, holding baby Chris, follows the maternity nurse back in through the double doors, into the recovery room. Piper, lying on a gurney, drained, exhausted, but awake, looks to see Leo and baby Chris coming in. She smiles, silently locking eyes with Leo. He lays Chris onto her chest and, as she holds him, she looks out to the lobby, with Phoebe, holding Wyatt, and Paige, looking back at Piper, emotional, happy, smiling. Piper smiles and turns back to baby Chris smiling at him.

Leo watched as yet another piece of his life slowly faded away from him. For some reason unknown to him, he had a strange feeling he knew what scene was coming next. He sighed as he watched the scene appear before him.

Leo stormed passed the golden doors and into the giant hall.

"Leo Wyatt, fellow Elder, please enter the hall of the Wise more graciously next time." The old Elder, Raghnall said.

"There won't be a next time!" he shouted.

"And pray tell, what exactly do you mean by that..?"another Elder asked

"You saw what happened! One of your wonderful fellow Elders murdered my son! And attempted to kill my other!" he roared.

"Your son took a great risk by coming back to this time, he knew what the consequences could be..." another Elder, Mirith started.

"This had nothing to do with Chris' coming back! Gideon murdered him did you hear that? MURDERED! You so-called all knowing, wise people didn't see what he was planning?"

"Leo, if I recall correctly, Gideon had us all fooled, and that includes you, and the Charmed Ones. Even Chris himself." Mirith said

"Don't you dare try to put the blame on me, or the girls for that matter. Or even Chris." He started.

"Leo," Mirith, never really liked Leo in the first place spoke again. "You seem to have forgotten that you committed a great act of evil also..." he said.

"I killed Gideon because he killed and tried to kill my son. An act of great evil had to restore the balance of the universe, and you know that." Leo shouted again.

"Silence!" Said the Elder Raghnall shouted. "Leo, I acknowledge the fact that indeed, a fellow Elder tried to kill and did kill one of your sons, you must also acknowledge that you killed Gideon. Therefore, you have-how do you say it- gotten revenge for what has happened. After-all, several members of the council wished to have you punished, but being the head of the council, I wished you weren't, because a great injustice to you, and your family has been done. . What more can we do..?" he said calmly.

Leo stared up at the Elders. "You can clip my wings." He said.

"Leo, that would be punishing yourself."

"I should punish myself. I was unable to save my son! It was my fault." Leo cried.

The Elders stared at Leo, mostly in a state of shock after all he had said. "I see no reason for you to punish yourself. You are the only Elder here, with a family. I understand that. Nobody else here is knows what you're going through. And also, I see that it was a big mistake to have made you an Elder, when you so rightfully belong with your family." He finished

Leo looked up at the old Elder.

"I hereby, demote you back to a Whitelighter. Your only charges will be the Charmed Ones, so you can spend time with your family."

"But-"interrupted Mirit.

"Silence man!" Raghnall said, and waving his hand, he caused Leo to be surrounded by blue and white orbs.

"Now go. Hopefully, we shall never have to hear of this matter again."

Leo orbed out.

Leo sat there, slightly stunned at what he had said, but also quite proud too. All the lights faded away. And none came after that memory. "I hope the girls are ok.." he thought. "What do you mean, Leo old you fool, you know that they're ok. They probably wiped out the entire cave of demons." He answered himself. He sat there in silence for quite some time. Until all of a sudden, the darkness disappeared and was replaced with a beautiful golden light. He was shocked, but even more shocked when he heard the sound of a familiar voice.

"Hey dad..."