PREVIOUSLY:

"It's ok, son. You won't have to come back." Leo pulled back to look into Chris's sad green eyes, holding his head and wiping away his son's tears. "We'll go home and the sisters will find a way for you to stay. You don't have to come back here; you don't ever have to come back." Leo brushed his son's hair back from his forehead and healed the split lip Wyatt had given him.

Leo pulled out one of the spare potions and got ready to throw it when Wyatt orbed in.

"You're just gonna run away, leave?" Wyatt spat out at Chris. He stood there with arms crossed and still radiating anger. Chris turned away, unable to face his big brother.

"No, I…"

"You don't have to answer him, Chris," Leo said.

"Yes, yes he does. He disappears for a year with no word or apologies, shows up out of the blue with no explanation, and then you run away again. When are you going to come back? How long will you be gone this time?"

Before Chris could say anything, Leo said, "He's not coming back. There obviously isn't any reason for him to stay and I'm not going to leave him here for you to kill. Come on, son." Leo raised his arm with potion in hand.

"And what give you the right to make his decision for him, dad," Wyatt spat.

"Dad, that's exactly right. I'm his father and I promised Piper that I'd bring him back, if it wasn't safe."

"Well, of course it's safe. There hasn't been a dark lighter attack in months."

"You just tried to kill him. You threaten to kill him. I will not let you hurt my son!" Leo shouted back at the arrogant Wyatt.

"Wait," Wyatt said confused. "You actually thought I was going to kill him? I'm still angry with him but not THAT much. He's still my brother."

"After everything Chris went thru, after everything he's done to save you, I am not going to let you hurt him."

"Everything he's done to save me? Well, that's a laugh. If you really did that much to save me, why didn't you do that much to save Melinda, or does she not matter to you," Wyatt scoffed.

"She really is dead," Chris said, feeling as if his feet had been taken out from under him. Leo grabbed him as he turned deathly pale.

"What?!? My god, Chris, is that why you stayed away, because you thought she was dead! No, gods no, she's alive, Chris. Mel's alive." Wyatt grabbed Chris's other side and helped Leo led him over to the couch. Chris was shaking.

"She's alive," Chris whispered in surprise. "I can't believe she's alive, Mel is alive."

"Chris, what was the last thing you remember when it happened?"

"It was raining, really heavy, lightning and thunder and everything. Mel always loved the rain. We were playing, getting all wet and muddy. And then she fell, I thought she'd slipped or something but she didn't get up, she wasn't moving." Chris held onto Wyatt's arm in a death grip as he relived that horrific memory. "And then I saw the dark lighter and the arrow. I threw his arrow back at him, killing him but it was already too late. He'd hit Mel.

"She kept telling me she was so cold and tired and to hold her and I was," Chris continued, clearly upset and fighting back tears. "You have to believe me. I tried to help her, heal her but I couldn't. I kept trying but I couldn't make the golden glow come and I just held her. I kept holding her and she died. She died, right there in my arms."

Wyatt pulled Chris into his arms, soothing his brother. Leo just sat there confused and guilty. He knew that in the future he abandoned his family. If he hadn't, maybe this Melinda would still be alive because Chris would have called him or Leo could have taught Chris how to heal.

"Sh, it's ok, little brother. She was suffering from Hypothermia and slipped into shock. It slowed down the poison. She was still alive when you orbed to me."

Chris pulled away from Wyatt in surprise. "But I never orbed to you, I never even told you. I hid her body; I buried her with Aunt Prue. You never knew."

"Chris, I don't understand. Don't you remember? You orbed to me after she was shot and I tried to heal her but I couldn't. We had to take her to a hospital. It was because she was shot with the new arrow. Magical healing didn't work but conventional medicine does. She's been in the hospital for the last year; we're still working on ways to totally purge the poison out of her system."

"Chris, I think things actually have changed. This Melinda is still alive and Wyatt isn't actually trying to kill you. We just assumed it hadn't because, well…"

"What are you talking about? Chris, where have you been for the last year?"

Chris took a deep breath, steadying himself to answer.

"Well, I've been in the year 2004." Chris cut Wyatt off with a wave of his hand, continuing with his explanation. "I'm your brother, just not the one you grew up with. I come from an alternate time line where you actually were trying to kill me. Mom and dad never told me what happened but I did learn that you'd been taken by demons before I was born. They corrupted you, twisted your morals around. You were obsessed with power, gaining and keeping it at the expense of everything else."

"I don't understand. If I was hungry for power, why was I trying to kill you? Killing you would mean I'd destroy our bond, the power of the Charmed and I'd loose all the power thru our connection."

"We're Charmed?" Chris asked.

"Yes, of course we are; you, me, and Melinda. Just like mom and the aunts."

"So the sisters have founded a new dynasty of magic, with Piper's and Phoebe's children as future generation of triumvirate witches," Leo mused.

Wyatt looked at Leo horrified. Chris just laughed.

"Dad, or rather this version of him, is from 2004 and doesn't know about Mel yet. When we left, Piper was still pregnant with me."

"So he doesn't know that Melinda is our baby sister and is his and mom's third child?"

Chris laughed, "He does now."

"I'm going to have another child, a little girl?"

"Yes," Wyatt answered, amused as well at Leo's shock. "A very powerful little girl who grows up to be a very powerful and wise woman. I don't know what happened in the other timeline but my Melinda was an elder. You were so proud of her." Wyatt beamed. Being made an elder was a high honor.

Chris looked disgusted. "Our worlds are very different. Mel laughed herself silly when I told her they'd offered to make me one. And when they asked her, she actually passed out, she laughed so hard."

Chris shook his head, trying to clear out his confusion. "In my time line, our bond as siblings never really got anywhere. Oh, I was close to Mel but we never all three grew close."

"Maybe that's why Melinda survived in this timeline. Her getting shot by the dark lighter was pre-destined, much like me and Piper, um, conceiving you, Chris. After all, she was never supposed to go into the ghostly plane with me. But the difference in the two time lines is that your bond as family, as brothers saved her life," Leo said. Chris nodded.

"I'd hoped by changing Wyatt I would change other things first, like saving Mel. I'm glad I was able to accomplish it but… Where's mom?" Chris asked scared, worried that he didn't change that as well.

"She's with Melinda at the hospital, of course," Wyatt said flippantly. He was shocked when Chris sagged in relief but then, to his horror, understood that Piper, their mother was no longer alive in the other time line. "Chris, just what all happened in this other timeline, if Melinda and mom were dead, what about the aunts, uncles, cousins?"

Chris looked at Leo and Wyatt with such sadness in his eyes that they knew it wasn't going to be a happy answer.

"They're all dead.

"After aunt Paige was killed, the power of three was broken. Demons started coming out of the woodwork. We tried to stick together but," Chris looked at his brother. "You left pretty early. Without you or Excalibur, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. We scattered but one by one, we were taken out. Mel and me were the last. Sometimes I wondered if you had anything to do with it. I thought maybe there was still something left in you, some good, and some connection of family but after Mel died, I couldn't even hope that you'd change. That's why I never told anyone she died; I didn't want you to know. I thought if maybe you still felt there was family, people who loved you out there maybe you'd change, try to help us. But it didn't take long before I knew that my death was coming soon. You weren't changing. I had to try something, anything to help you, to change you. You were the only family I had left," Chris said in a quiet whisper.

Leo finally understood. Chris wasn't trying to change the future, to save his family. He'd already said goodbye to them, he'd already felt keenly their deaths. He'd come back in time to save Wyatt because he was the only one left, the only one Chris felt he could save.

The new timeline's Wyatt looked both disgusted and touched. Chris had done so much to help him, his older brother, the last of his family. Wyatt was glad that Chris was in this new timeline, he deserved to be here after what he did.

And he'd greeted him with a fight, his new brother from a nightmare world with punches and angry words when all he anted was his brother back. And Wyatt had dashed all of Chris's hopes while confirming his fears.

Wyatt pulled his little brother to him, hugging him tightly and saying the words that Chris needed to hear; that Wyatt loved him and that Chris would always be his baby brother and that would never, ever change as long as he was alive.

This was obviously the straw that broke the camels back because Chris started sobbing deeply, his body shaking with them. He clung to Wyatt in a death grip as the fear, anger, confusion, and all those other emotions that he'd suppressed for the last few years came pouring out.

"Sh, Chris, it's ok," Wyatt whispered. He tilted Chris's face to look into his. Wyatt pushed the unruly chestnut bangs back then brushed his hand over Chris's eyes.

"Sleep, little brother, sleep," Wyatt ordered. Chris immediately sagged into slumber.

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews. It is true, feedback feeds the writing beast. Thank you. I'm glad you like this. big smile