Chris was getting extremely tired of being carried everywhere and having to go wherever everyone else wanted him to go. He needed to pace, to throw things, to vent. Instead he couldn't even let himself get properly angry because then he'd probably have another temper tantrum.
He forced himself to take deep breaths and vowed to destroy something as soon as he was capable. When his anger finally subsided he looked to his mom who was taking him to her room. She walked into the bedroom and softly closed the door behind her, leaning on it for a moment for support. She steeled herself against the flood of emotions coursing through her and then walked over to the bed and sat down.
Chris was surprised at how calm she was and mentally chastised himself for being so immature and self-involved. I'm not the only one affected by this. He realized. I need to fix this mess as much for them as I do for myself. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Piper ignored it and Leo entered anyway, closing the door after him. He looked to Piper and she wordlessly gave him the ok to come sit with her and Chris. He sat down on his old side of the bed next to her.
Piper gathered Chris closer to her and then leaned her head on Leo's shoulder, never taking her eyes away from Chris's. Leo put his arm around Piper's shoulder and stroked her hair.
Any residual anger Chris had was instantly gone. The love he had for his parents overrode everything else he was feeling. He looked at Leo and saw his dad smiling back at him. The feelings of safety and happiness were overwhelming to Chris, who'd had his defensive walls up since she'd died and Leo had left him permanently at Wyatt's mercy.
He shrugged off the bad memories easily. That will never happen. The only place it ever exists will be inside my head. And Wyatt's he amended. He looked back to his mom and yawned loudly. Is it night already? I'm exhausted. He looked at the clock on the nightstand. 3pm? Damn baby body. He tried to suppress the next yawn but it came anyway.
Piper disengaged herself from Leo. "He needs a nap." She told him softly. She padded across the room to the nursery and gently set Chris down in the crib. Her bittersweet smile was the last thing he saw before his eyelids finally dropped closed.
Chris slowly woke up from his deep sleep but kept his eyes closed. Okay, I fell asleep, but they kept working on it and got me back in my body. When I open my eyes I'll be me again and in my own bed. He opened his eyes and cringed when he saw the mobile spinning above his head. So much for the power of positive thinking.
He stretched and then tried to locate someone with his sensing power. It felt like the power was working, but he couldn't expand it any farther than the nursery. Okay, weird. No problem, they're probably in the attic anyway. He orbed up and out of the crib but when he got to the ceiling he hit a barrier. Ouch. He involuntarily let out a whimper as he landed hard back in the crib.
Not good. What happened to my powers? And where are mom and dad? He spotted the baby monitor sitting on the dresser with the red light on. They're probably waiting for me to cry before they'll come down here. He suddenly remembered the noise it made when it got shut off, back when Paige and Phoebe conjured Mr. Right. Chris squinted at the switch and it shut off.
Less than 10 seconds later, 3 sets of orbing lights appeared and he could hear someone else running down the attic stairs. Leo, holding Piper's hand, Big Wyatt and Paige materialized and scanned the tiny room for the threat. Finding nothing they relaxed slightly.
Leo, looking at Chris's happy smile was the first to realize he'd turned it off himself. "Just like Wyatt setting off Paige's demon alarm." Leo said proudly.
"I told you he'd be fine." Paige said knowingly. "We blocked the room from any kind of magic going in OR out, there's no way a demon could've gotten in."
Phoebe burst in the door with little Wyatt in her arms. "What happened, is he okay? I can't believe you guys left me!" She said in one breath.
They protected the room from magic? Probably because of the soul-sucking incident I guess. That means that everything they've worked on while I was asleep has been for nothing. Great.
Wyatt was looking at Chris oddly. "I don't get it, he set off the baby monitor knowing it would get our attention?"
"Well, you did the same thing when you were a baby. You almost got your daddy killed too." Piper said picking Chris up and bouncing him.
"Yeah, but I set off the alarm knowing you guys always came running. He turned off the monitor, but it didn't make a loud noise that would get our attention, and we'd never come running before for him to learn that we would…"
Yes! C'mon Wyatt, you're right, keep going! Chris would've orbed to him or tk'd something at his head, but the bouncing was making him a little dizzy.
Paige walked over to Wyatt and clapped her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't be jealous, you were a smart baby too." She said patronizingly. Wyatt rolled his eyes and grinned at her.
Foiled again. Normally he would've been angry at Paige's interruption, but it was getting easier to control his temper. Another quirky side effect to being trapped like this, he supposed.
Paige and Wyatt orbed back to the attic. "Like hell I'm taking the stairs again." Phoebe fumed, annoyed at being the only one in the household to use the stairs anymore. "Wyatt!" Phoebe and little Wyatt were pulled up to the attic in a cloud of orbs and Chris was left alone with Piper and Leo.
Piper set Chris down on the changing table. From his point of view it looked like her and Leo were converging on him. No way in Hell, not again. He thought and orbed up with the rest of the family in the attic. Piper and Leo exchanged confused looks before he took her hand to follow their wayward infant.
Phoebe and Paige were already in the attic on the couch watching Wyatt pace when Chris orbed in on Paige's lap. "Oh, hey you. Running from your parents again?" Paige asked him semi-seriously while adjusting him in her arms. You have no idea Chris laughed.
"Hey Wyatt, do you think Baby Chris could help you find Big Chris?" Phoebe asked hopefully.
"The only thing I'm going to get from that Chris is 'goo-goo gaa-gaa,'" Wyatt said pausing his pacing for a moment as his parents orbed in.
Goo-goo gaa-gaa? I'm a way smarter baby than you were Wyatt. Chris huffed in annoyance, and then realized he was starting to scare himself with his thinking and tried to listen to what his mother was saying to Paige and Phoebe.
"…I'm telling you, there's something wrong with a baby that doesn't want to be held or fed or changed." Piper ranted. "Honey, I already tried to heal him, he's perfectly healthy, he's probably just excited that Wyatt's here. Plus, the emotions are running high around here, he's probably picking up on our anxiety. You need to stop worrying sweetie." "Leo, I can't, I'm his mother, I can just tell something's wrong."
Chris looked over to Wyatt who had stopped pacing and finally sat down on a wicker chair. "Where the hell are you Chris?" Wyatt said quietly to himself. Chris orbed over to him I'm right here, you people are just too dense to notice.
Wyatt looked down at Chris shocked. There was no way a newborn would know his own name, even if the rest of the family thought he was some kind of wonder-kid. Wyatt looked over to the couch where Piper was still vehemently insisting that something was wrong with Baby Chris, and then looked back to the person on his lap. His eyes widened. "Chris?" he whispered.
He could feel the wheels turning in his head. All the spells, they were for Big Chris but they kept finding Baby Chris. The baby monitor. The independent streak, always orbing off on his own. It all fits…. "Oh my God"
Wyatt jumped up from the chair and walked quickly to the Book of Shadows flipping through it to the spell he and Chris had frequently used when trying to avoid getting into trouble sneaking out or causing some other kind of mischief. The Mind-Link spell. Careful to substitute Chris's name into the spell so that he wouldn't be hearing everyone else's private thoughts he quickly lit a nearby candle and recited.
As flame lights shadow as truth ends fear
Open Chris's locked thoughts to my minds willing ear
May the smoke from this candle into everywhere creep
Bring his inner most voice to my mind in speech.
"Chris?" Wyatt asked again holding him up at eye level to inspect him. "Goo-goo gaa-gaa." Chris deadpanned, and then; "Wyatt, please get me out of here."
