O.O

Inner Demons:

Chapter 8: Facing The Facts

Chris gasped as he suddenly woke up, looking around.

Paige, Phoebe, and Leo were still at his side, looking kind of shocked at him just waking up like that.

Chris didn't see Leo, but only Paige and Phoebe. "Where's Dad?"

"Right here," Leo said from the other side of him.

Chris quickly turned and stared at his father for a moment before hugging him tightly, tears in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Dad. I'm so sorry."

"Shh. It's all okay now," Leo said, stroking Chris's hair. "Everything's okay."

"No it's not. I shouldn't have treated you like that. I'm so sorry," Chris said, tears starting to stream down his face.

Phoebe and Paige looked over at each other, looking happy.

"No, Chris, it's okay. It's okay," Leo said, holding Chris even closer.

O.O

The next week, everyone was happy in the manor. Well, almost everyone. Piper was still staying at magic school, so she wasn't happy in the manor. She was happy at magic school! : P

Paige walked into the kitchen to see Leo and Chris laughing a smiling together.

"Well, this is quite a change," Paige said, smiling, sitting down next to the two.

"Well, my 'journey' forced me to think about some things, as well as discovering others," Chris said, taking a swing of his beer, having told the three about what was going on while he was asleep.

"You're just going to watch him drink alcohol like that?" Paige asked, raising her eyebrows over at Leo.

"Well, he's twenty-two. He can drink. And I can't stop him," Leo said, shrugging.

"Sure you can. Like this," Paige said, getting up and taking Chris's beer from him and pouring it out in the sink. She smiled at the halfway pissed off Chris and sat back down.

"Well, I guess that's one way to do it," Leo said, smiling.

Paige smiled and turned back to Chris. "What things were you forced to think about?"

Chris sighed. "Do I really have to share?"

"Yes! We were worried sick!" Paige said, smiling slightly.

Chris smiled. "Okay." He took a deep breath. "Basically I was forced to think about the things I feared from Dad. And then conquer those fears."

"Wait. You're scared of Leo?" Paige asked, looking confused.

Chris laughed. "No. It's a bit more complicated than that."

"Well, what did you fear?" Paige asked, looking interested.

Chris sighed and looked down at the floor. "I feared that Dad would forget about me, like he did when I was nine."

"What do you mean, I forgot you?" Leo asked, looking confused.

Chris looked over at him. "You were supposed to pick me up from school. The elders had made you do something or other, and you ended up forgetting about me. I was there for an hour before you finally showed up."

"Oh. I'm sor -"

Chris smiled. "Don't apologize. You haven't done it yet. Beside, you took me to the zoo afterwards, so I was a happy camper."

"The zoo makes you happy. I'll remember that," Leo said, smiling.

"What else?" Paige asked, breaking the happy moment.

"Well, I also feared that Dad wouldn't show up when I really needed him. I watched almost everyone I cared about die, and I called and called for him, but he never showed up," Chris said, tears coming to his eyes. "I watched Mom, Aunt Phoebe and both my uncles die that day. And I was screaming for him the whole time. But I was forced to watch them die. And I couldn't do anything about it."

Leo put an arm around Chris and held him close.

"Oh my god," Paige said, tears coming to her eyes. "You didn't watch me die?"

"No. You had already been killed that morning," Chris said, looking up at her. "It broke Mom and Aunt Phoebe's hearts. They couldn't believe that they were forced to lose their older sister and then their younger sister. They took it so hard."

"Why weren't you killed?" Paige asked, looking confused.

"Oh, that's real nice," Phoebe said from the doorway. "'Yeah, basically your whole family was killed, so why not you, too?'"

"I didn't mean it like that," Paige said as Phoebe sat next to her.

"Well, one of my uncles, your husband, Aunt Paige, tried to save me. Tried to get me away. But that's how he died. Trying to save me," he said, sighing deeply.

"Chris, none of it was your fault," Paige said, putting a hand on his hands.

"I know. Up until last week, I blamed Dad. But it wasn't his fault. Nothing was," Chris said, tears coming to his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Paige asked, looking confused.

"I found out something," Chris said, looking over at her.

"What'd you find out?" Phoebe asked.

"I can't tell you," Chris said, looking over at her.

"No. If it made you forgive Leo, then we want to know, mister," Phoebe said, pointing a finger at Chris.

Chris smiled. "Okay. I'll tell. But not now. I wanna finish with my fears first."

"Okie dokie. Then tell," Phoebe said, smiling.

"I was afraid that Dad was going to leave me again," Chris said, getting teary eyed.

"Leave you?" Paige asked, lookin confused.

"I watched him get killed right in front of me," Chris said as a few tears fell. "Right after my cousin was killed. I was afraid that he was going to leave me all alone again. With no one to turn to."

Leo pulled Chris even closer and held him tightly as Chris silently cried on his father's shoulder.

"So, I was the only one that you didn't watch die?" Paige asked, sounding upset.

Chris got control of himself and pulled away from Leo, wiping off his face. "Yeah. You were the only one."

"Oh my god. Chris, that must've been so hard for you," Phoebe said, putting a hand on his.

"Yeah. It was. That's why I learned that I can't let my past affect my present. Because if I let, I'll be in too much pain," Chris said, forcing back tears. "And what really stinks is that you guys were killed on one of my birthdays, and then Dad and my cousin were killed on another."

"Wow. What great birthday presents you got," Phoebe said sarcastically.

"Who killed us?" Paige asked, interested.

"You know I can't tell you that," Chris said, looking over at her.

"Please?" Paige asked, doing the puppy dog pout.

Chris sighed and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at Paige. "Wyatt. Wyatt killed everyone. He killed Aunt Phoebe and Mom with Excalibur, my uncles with fireballs, my cousin with an athame, and Dad with a darklighter arrow. It's like he had it all planned out," he said, staring at the table.

"You don't know how he killed me?" Paige asked.

Chris shook his head as he looked up at her. "No. No one knew. You're body looked perfectly intact. You had no bruises, cuts, nothing. But you were dead. It was like your soul was just sucked right out of you."

Phoebe put her hand to her mouth as she gasped. "Oh my god."

"What a lovely way to die," Paige said sarcastically.

"Well, is there anything else you fear?" Phoebe asked, trying to get over the image of her baby sister's soul being sucked out of her body.

"No. Nothing," Chris said, looking back down at the table.

"Well, it seems as if they all revolved around Leo," Paige said, smiling.

Chris looked up at her, half-glaring. "So sue me."

"Well, what did you find out?" Phoebe asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Dad never meant to abandon me. The elders made him," Chris said, getting teary eyed.

"What?!" Leo yelled.

Chris looked over at him. "I don't know. The elders just said that since Wyatt was more powerful than me, you had to pay more attention to him. So nothing happened to him. And whenever you tried to be there for or hang out with me, they sent you away to one of your other charges. At first, they tried to put a spell on you, but Mom found out and took it off. Neither you or Mom understood it. And you both hated it. You didn't understand why the elders wanted your little boy to grow up without a daddy."

"Oh my god," Phoebe said, looking pissed.

"I have half the nerve to go up there and give them a piece of my mind," Paige said, putting her hands on her hips.

"That's horrible. Why would they do such a thing?" Phoebe asked.

Chris shrugged, looking back at her. "I don't know. They just did. Because I wasn't as powerful as Wyatt. The said that if Wyatt wasn't as powerful as he was, then Dad wouldn't be able to see either of us."

"So that's why he was never there?" Paige asked.

"Yeah. Basically. He made promises that knew he couldn't keep, though. He tried. He really did. He tried to keep everyone of them. And I'm wishing now that he didn't keep the promise to meet me at Golden Gate park on my seventeenth birthday. Because that's when Wyatt killed him," Chris said, looking down at the table again.

"Your life as been so hard," Paige said, getting up and hugging Chris.

"So let's stop talking about it and go out," Phoebe said, getting up. "We have to stop by P3 anyway. Let's go have some drinks."

"Phoebe, elders can't drink," Leo said, raising his eyebrows.

"Break the rules. It's not like you haven't before," Chris said, smiling as he got up.

"Well, Chris, I don't want to watch you drink," Paige said, looking sorry.

"Why not?" Phoebe asked. "He's over twenty-one."

"Yeah, but he's not even technically born for us yet," Paige said, looking over at Phoebe.

"Oh, Paige, grow up," Phoebe said, smiling.

Leo sighed. "Okay. Let's go. I guess I can have something to drink just this once," he said, looking over at Chris.

"That's all I ask," Chris said, smiling.

"Let's give them a minute," Phoebe whispered to Paige, pulling her out of the room.

Chris turned back to Leo, smiling. "You know, I may have not realized it before, but you're a pretty cool Dad. And I'm really glad I had to go through what I did. Or I wouldn't have ever realized it."

Leo smiled. "Well, I'm just really glad that you gave me another chance," he said, putting an arm around Chris's shoulders.

"You have Aunt Prue to thank for that," Chris said, smiling, remembering that he had left out the little detail that Prue was there the whole time.

"Prue?" Leo asked, looking confused.

"Yeah. She helped me. But don't tell the other aunts that. Or Mom. They'll have a fit," Chris said, smirking. "Now, we should go before the aunts that are alive get mad."

"Good plan," Leo said, nodding as the two left the room.

O.O.O.O.O

I liked the ending. I'm actually sad to see this story come to an end, but I'm glad I don't have to worry about it anymore. Review if you want a sequel. I don't know what I'd do in a sequel, but I'm sure that I'd figure it out. Ciao!

Hannah