Daughter from the Future
Chris rubbed his temples, getting the unwelcome feeling that it was going to be a long night. Paige and Phoebe were searching for that eternal, ever-elusive demon in the Book of Shadows, while Piper was resting on the couch. She had gotten one of her infrequent bouts of birth sickness. It still seemed so odd to him the he was here, and...there. His mom was pregnant with him! He shook his head, half to clear his thoughts and half a futile attempt to rid himself of the headache, and he started to trudge upstairs to help Paige and Phoebe.
Sarah took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and stepped into the portal. All of a sudden, she felt like she was exploding, only without the pain, only the sense of being more than one. In a moment it was over. She blinked, trying to clear her vision. She heard a gasp, and a familiar voice.
"What in the world-" then she was staring at Piper. Her mom. Her young mom. She couldn't believe it. It had worked! She was here! "Yes!" She cried out jubilantly. Wait-she'd better make sure she was in the right when. Hearing someone dashing down the stairs, she spun around, wondering if it was her father, or one of her aunts. She came face-to-face with-
"Chris!?!"
"Sarah?!? How did you get here? Where- who- WOW!"
"You know her? Are you sure she's-okay?" Piper jumped in, looking as if she would do Sarah damage at the slightest sign of danger from the girl.
"Yes, yes, she's fine. Don't worry." Chris reassured absently, staring.
"All right Chris, you have some explaining to do." Piper eyed Sarah. "And so do you, young lady."
Piper was confused, to say the least. This strange young girl had just-appeared through this...portal thing. The girl-Sarah?-would never know how close she came to being incinerated!
"Chris. I need to see you in the kitchen. Alone. Now."
Piper couldn't help staring at her son as they stepped into the kitchen. He couldn't keep an odd smile off his face, two parts wondering, one part disbelieving, and something Piper couldn't define. As soon as the door was closed behind them, she said firmly,
"Talk. First-how do you know her? She's from the future?"
"Yeah. And Mom, you know I can't tell you too much. It might disrupt the order of things. You know, the time-space continuum and such. The future might turn out too different."
Piper fought to keep her calm. "Chris, just tell me what you can."
"Okay. Well, first of all, from when I came, she wasn't this old. More like 10. Now, I'd say she's about, oh, 13. She was, uh, a friend of the family."
"A little young, isn't she? I mean, she's like, oh"-she did some quick figuring-"9 years younger than you?" She raised her eyebrow, and then something occurred to her. "Or did I have more kids after you?"
Chris schooled his face into a nonchalant mask. "That's classified, Mom," he answered in a voice full of false regret.
"Oh yes, might disrupt the perfect 'order' of things. Well, you know what, Chris, I don't care. Just tell me!"
"Umm, I beg to differ. Don't tell me you forgot when I almost wasn't conceived. You may not, but I definitely care." He added, in a voice so low Piper was sure she wasn't supposed to hear, "And I think Sarah cares too."
Now that gave Piper something to think about. While she pondered this, Chris made his escape.
He couldn't believe it. Sarah. His little sis. Here! He had to get the full story out of her. He found her in the hall, turning around, looking at the walls thoughtfully. Hearing him, she turned around and gave him her unique, brilliant smile. He smiled back wistfully, realizing just how much he missed his real time family. It just wasn't the same in the past. Interesting, but definitely different. Right. Enough with the home-timesickness, and down to business.
"All right, Sari, tell me everything. Why are you here? How are you here? What happened after I left?"
She grinned, taking the questions one at a time, as she tended to do.
"I am here to save this family. Obviously, I did a time spell. To the last question-lots. But you weren't gone 'long'. I mean, about a couple of weeks; you came back to our time a little after you left. I probably shouldn't have told you that, but I never was as strict about the rules as you. And no, I can't tell you how I need to save the family. You should know better than that!" She mock-scolded; correctly guessing what he was about to ask. Chris groaned out loud. Now he knew how Piper, Paige and Phoebe felt when he couldn't tell them everything.
"Okay, I do know. But can you at least tell me about the spell? And how you did it? You're a little young from that level magic, aren't you?"
"Hey, you were doing that level difficulty at my age, weren't you?"
"No! I couldn't do that until a year ago, and you're-well, that's about 4 years younger." He rubbed his head. "Boy, this time thing is confusing my age-math."
"Age-math? Never heard that term before," she teased him. He laughed. God, he'd missed these little banters.
"So," she continued, "tell me all. How are our Aunts and Dad and Mom? And how have you been? Vanquished any particularly nasty demons lately?"
"Actually, we're hunting a shadowy one right now. And everyone's fine, except Mom's been feeling a little queasy."
She gave him a confused look.
"What, you didn't calculate when your spell would take you? Mom's pregnant with me!"
She contemplated this.
"Okay, that's just plain weird. I didn't realize I had timed it like that."
They just stood there for a moment, thinking their own thoughts.
Paige rushed down stairs, calling, "I think we found hi-"she stopped short at the sight of Chris and a strange girl standing in the hall, both looking deep in thought.
"Okay, someone want to tell me what's going on here?"
She saw Chris quickly whisper something into the girl's ear, but all she caught was, "-n't tell the...dangerous...-rupt the ord-...Sarah."
She rolled her eyes, reminding Paige of someone she couldn't think of, and spoke back to him; this time Paige heard more. "Oh, all right Chris. You-...-rict with the rules. I pr-...Chris, I won't-."
Chris, apparently satisfied, stood up. "Sarah, Paige, Paige, Sarah. Sarah's-uh-from the future; friend of the family. And yes, she knows about you being the Charmed ones." He smiled affectionately at Sarah. "You don't have to worry about anything."
Paige narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Sarah, but said nothing.
"All right, Chris, but this isn't exactly the time for entertaining company," she informed him a bit tersely, pointing upstairs at the book. "I really think we got a lock on him now." Paige noted with interest that Sarah seemed about to say something, but caught herself.
"'Kay, I'm coming. I'll be right back Sarah. Don't go anywhere," he told Sarah, who laughed, as if at a private joke, and Chris smiled back. Chris? Smiling? That's just weird. He's like, the King of serious expressions. Oh well, she'd get the full story later. Right then they needed to kick some serious demon butt.