The Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or any of the characters that appear in the story, just the plot.
My Personal Disclaimer: Sorry it took longer for this chapter, I was on vacation up north with no internet, but the up-side is that I had a lot of time to sit on the beach and write so it's a lot longer... it's actually like 3 chapters but I couldn't bring myself to chop it up, enjoy!
As the light faded and the portal receded back into the wall, Chris immediately recognized his older brother now standing in the attic with him.
He looked different than the last time Chris had seen him. His hair was a little shorter than it had been, and it was tamer. He wore dark-colored blue jeans and a light blue hooded sweatshirt.
Wyatt took a few cautious steps into the attic looking around before seeing Chris lying on the couch against the far wall.
Wyatt? Why is he here? Does he know what happened to me? Is he good? He looks good, and he seems… unsure? That's something I've never seen. Should I stay up here with him or try to find someone?
A million questions flew through his head many too quick to even recognize. Before Chris could make a decision, Phoebe and Paige orbed in between Wyatt and Chris. Paige was holding the mini version of Wyatt, who didn't look happy to have been pulled away from his breakfast.
Phoebe ran to Chris and scolded him. "I don't know why you keep doing that, are you trying to scare us to death? What Paige?!" She turned to face Paige, who was urgently tapping her shoulder and finally noticed the stranger with them in the attic.
Phoebe hastily scooped Chris up from the couch to protect him. "Who are you?" Phoebe demanded warily.
"I'm, uh, him." Wyatt said distractedly looking at his younger self who was likewise staring back at him. And then, noticing that Paige was eyeing the potions shelf; "Whoa, wait, I'm not evil, don't shoot." He put his hands up in front of his body in an 'I'm innocent' stance. "I'm here for Chris, to bring him back. And to thank him."
Paige and Phoebe looked at eachother, neither one wanting to say out loud that Chris was dead.
Chris himself was a little confused. Shouldn't he know I got killed by Gideon? And by extension, he should know that I'm right here in the baby, right? Unless they never told anyone, including Wyatt about me, future me.
Suddenly Piper and Leo orbed in, Piper was now completely healed by Leo and looking just a little tired. Leo let go of Piper and walked in front of the girls, putting himself between Wyatt and them.
"Leo?" Piper looked to him and then her sisters questioningly. "It's Wyatt." Leo said shortly, not taking his eyes off his eldest son. He cast an appraising gaze over the man in front of him
Wyatt flinched at the look his father was giving him. He knew from his original set of memories that he deserved much worse, but nothing in his new memories of the life Chris had given him and the rest of their family could help him deal with distrust or rejection from his father.
"Dad, please don't look at me like that. I can't… I'm not…" he trailed off and looked away and mentally tried to compose himself.
Chris was torn, a big part of him had been afraid of his older brother for almost as long as he could remember. That part of him wanted to orb back down to his crib, or maybe that was the baby instincts kicking in again.
But there was another part inside of him now, that part could tell this Wyatt wasn't the man he knew from his timeline. It was all wrong, the look, the behavior, the voice.
Chris decided to take a leap of faith, he took a deep breath and let the orbs come again and transport him from Phoebe's arms to Wyatt's across the room. He mentally slowed the orb to give Wyatt time to catch him before he materialized.
Wyatt held Chris carefully and stared down at him while Chris stared right back. Wyatt was a little surprised at Chris's quick trust in him. Growing up, in either timeline, Chris had always been the more cautious of the two brothers.
Wyatt chanced a look at his family to see their reaction to Chris's judgment of him. Paige and Phoebe still looked uncertain, but Leo seemed to trust Chris's judgment implicitly and Piper, drawing on Leo's faith in Chris and in turn, Wyatt, stepped forward and embraced him warmly.
When she finally let go of him, he handed Chris to her and looked to his father. For a minute, Leo didn't say anything and then he finally said simply "I'm so glad you're okay, Wyatt" and pulled him into a hug.
Chris was caught up in the moment and thrilled that Wyatt was good. He'd actually done it! He'd changed the future and saved his family. And then it dawned on him. He died, there wasn't going to be a happy ending for him. His body had evaporated and the only way he was able to be on this plane was as an inhabitant in the baby's body.
Once they exorcized him, so to speak, he'd have to move on. He realized he was in danger of doing something baby-like so he quickly stifled his emotions, something he'd become rather good at over the years. Only a single tear rolled down his cheek. No one noticed.
The family including both Wyatt's and Chris made their way downstairs to the family room so they could talk. Piper and Chris sat with Phoebe and Paige on the couch. Leo and Little Wyatt took one armchair, and adult Wyatt took the other.
Piper was trying to get a smile from Chris or any kind of emotion but instead he just lay in her arms with a distant look in his eyes.
"Leo, do you think something is wrong with Chris?" She quietly inquired, not taking her eyes off of him.
Leo handed Wyatt to Phoebe and sat on the arm of the couch, next to Piper. He held his hands over Chris and summoned his most valuable gift. His hands glowed, but after a few moments he pulled away.
"There's nothing physically wrong with him, maybe he's tired." Leo tried to quell Piper's fears. "Let me put him down for a nap, I'm sure he'll be fine after a little rest."
Chris could hear the exchange going on between his parents but he couldn't let himself get emotionally involved. He needed a little time to get his thoughts together and god knows he didn't want to get himself caught up in another tantrum.
He noticed his dad trying to heal him. I don't think you can fix it that easily this time Leo. I don't know if anyone can.
He briefly entertained the idea of staying like this again. I could be a child prodigy, get the best grades, go to a good school. I could have a chance to grow up with a big brother who wasn't so corrupted with power he took over the world. It really would beat the alternative.
He knew he couldn't do it, even if he really wanted to. It had been hard enough lying to his family when he came back to save them, and that was only for a year and a half. There was no way he could lie to them, impersonate their baby for twenty-some years.
Leo reached out for him and Chris heard him tell Piper he needed a nap. No, I need to know why Wyatt's here.
Of course Leo couldn't hear him and started towards the stairs with Chris in his arms. Chris orbed away to his mom still sitting on the couch.
Leo masked his disappointment and told Piper, "I guess he wants you to do it." She stood up and took a few steps towards the stairs before Chris orbed away from her too and into Wyatt's surprised grip.
"Maybe he wants to stay down here with everyone else. If he's tired, he'll just fall asleep anyway, right?" Wyatt said, secretly happy that Chris seemed to be so comfortable with him.
Piper and Leo exchanged looks at Chris's strange behavior, for a baby, but shrugged it off and took their seats. Wyatt continued to hold Chris who seemed more alert now. He was staring at Wyatt again with an intensity that slightly unnerved the twenty-five year old. He couldn't pull his eyes away from Chris's dark green ones.
Piper finally moved her look from Chris to Wyatt. "You still haven't told us why you're here, Wyatt." She prodded gently
Wyatt tore his gaze from Chris and looked to his mother. "Right, well, this is going to be really difficult for you to hear, but to help Chris, you have to know."
He took another look at Chris before looking back at Piper. "Chris, your future Chris, and my brother, didn't come back to the future." He paused gauging her reaction. She looked confused more than anything else but indicated for him to continue.
Wyatt looked to his father, but Leo couldn't meet his eyes. Phoebe and Paige wouldn't look at him or Piper either. Piper's heart dropped as she quietly but urgently asked, "Wyatt, what happened to Chris?"
"He was stabbed by Gideon. Gideon was trying to get to me, or, him." He said pointing to his younger self. "Dad couldn't heal him because Gideon blessed the athame. Chris died before anyone could reverse the magic."
He let the sentence hang for a moment. That part of the story Leo, Paige and Phoebe knew about. They didn't, however, know about the rescue effort in the future.
Chris had renewed hope that he'd be freed from his predicament and at least be able to move on. If Wyatt knows I died, but came back anyway, he's here to find my spirit. Enough with the dramatic pauses though, Wy. He thought crossly. Just finish what you're going to say. Once more he had to check his emotions and take a deep breath to avoid doing something embarrassing.
Wyatt continued, despite the fact that by this point no one would look at him. "We had a plan though. We saw his death entered into the history books and created a spell that we could save him with. It's pretty damn hard to try to pull someone through time unless they're willing, especially someone as powerful as Chris. But it's easy to summon spirits or souls, and we realized that it would be fairly simple to pull a soul-less body through time too since it doesn't have a will to resist. The spell that we cast called Chris's body and spirit at the exact instant they separated and pulled them to the future, where we hoped we could rejoin them long enough to heal him."
So why am I not hearing about this spell in the future instead of you coming to the past to tell us about it? Chris thought wryly and then decided it really wasn't as much fun to be sarcastic when no one could hear you and roll their eyes at you.
"His body came immediately, it materialized on mom's bed just as we expected, but his soul never came. At first we thought it had already moved on, but we checked the spirit realms and checked with Grams, and he wasn't in either place, besides, I knew he was still here.
When we cast the spell, I could feel it start to work and then something else, a stronger force, jerked him away from us. That's why I'm here." He finished, "to find his spirit and try to get it back with his body in the future."
Wyatt looked around the room to see their reactions. Piper still looked upset and shell-shocked. She was hearing about Chris's violent death for the first time. But everyone else looked excited that they still had a chance to save him.
"What are we waiting for?" Paige asked brightly jumping up from her place on the couch. "Let's find him."
Chris smiled for the first time since Wyatt had shown up. He let out a laugh of relief and happiness, which came out as a goofy-sounding giggle, but for once he didn't care. I have another chance, I'm not going to die! Well, I already did technically, but I'm going to live!
Phoebe looked at Chris and smiled at his happiness. "Do you think Chris is an empath?" She asked Wyatt. "He seems to feel what everyone else is feeling even though he doesn't understand what's going on."
"That is weird." Wyatt said looking closely at Chris. "He does have quite a few powers, but empathy was never one of them. Maybe his powers are enhanced this time around since dad was an Elder when he – you know." Wyatt said smiling at Leo.
"So where do you think he is?" Paige asked, ready to do whatever it took to find him.
"I'm going to try scrying first, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get anything but the baby version of him." Wyatt said standing up. "Did he leave anything here I can scry with?"
Scrying won't help, you'll only find the baby, because I'm in him. Try the mind-link spell. He thought to no one but himself. Paige was already orbing to the office at P3 to see if he left anything there.
Wyatt walked to Piper and handed Chris to her. "Don't worry, I'll find him." He told her confidently. She smiled and then looked at baby Chris, lost in thought.
"We can start with this." Leo announced coming back from the hall with one of Chris's sweatshirts. "Hopefully Paige can come up with something better, but it can't hurt to try with this."
Wyatt took the sweatshirt and jogged up the stairs, Leo bent over and kissed Piper gently and then smoothed Chris's hair fondly before orbing to the attic to help Wyatt.
"Hey, wait for me!" Phoebe called after them belatedly, jumping up from the couch and running up the stairs as fast as she was able with Wyatt held close to her hip.
"I guess it's just you and me now." Piper said to Chris. He really wanted to be upstairs, but he couldn't deliberately hurt his mom, so he stayed with her.
He made a mental note once again to apologize profusely to his mom as soon as he was able to. He was very aware of his mother's desire for a normal life, and having to rescue her future son's soul after he got himself killed and stuck in the past was anything but normal. She deserved better.
Paige orbed in, apparently excited with what she found. Chris looked to see what it was and saw his wallet clasped triumphantly in her fist.
He smiled to himself. There's no way she found that by non-magical means. He'd popped a piece of paneling loose from the corner of the room and tucked it into the wall. There were only a few dollar bills, which he'd realized he couldn't very well spend since they'd been printed way after 2004 and a family picture from when he was 6 and Wyatt was 8.
"If anything will work, this is it." She said showing Piper the picture.
A cool gust of wind blew the curtains into the room and made them all shiver. Paige's eyes lit up. "Do you think that's him trying to communicate with us?" She asked excitedly.
They see me in the wind, but a baby that tries to spell out 'help' goes unnoticed. He laughed at Paige's excitability. "So is everyone in the attic?" She asked Piper. "Yep, they're working off one of his sweatshirts though, so they'll be glad to see that. Paige held her hand out to Piper. "C'mon, I'll orb you two up there."
"No, Paige, I think I'd rather-"
"Piper, it's not going to help him to sit here and blame yourself or cry over the baby. You're his mother, we need you and he needs you."
Piper smiled sadly at her and blinked back tears. "I just can't help it, my son got killed trying to save us and I didn't even know about it."
"Piper, that's not your fault, we didn't want to tell you partly because you needed to conserve your strength and partly because we're cowards. And there's no way you can blame yourself for him dying. He knew what he was doing and he was, is, as much of an adult as any of us. We can fix this, but we need your help."
She put her hand out again and Piper took it.
