"Chris! Leo!" Piper called out as she placed the last plates of food on the table. Seconds later Chris orbed in.
"Where are we?" Chris asked as he looked around the room.
"This is Gideon's private Dining Room. He kindly let me use it this morning, now sit down and eat up." Piper told him.
Chris then noticed the table full of food. "Wow, Mum, when you said breakfast, I thought you meant maybe a piece of toast and a bowl of cereal!" Chris said, surprised at the feast that lay before him.
On the table was a selection of eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, waffles, toast, cereal and fruit.
"I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just thought I'd make a selection of everything," Piper said, smiling.
As Chris moved to sit at the table next to his brother who was in his highchair, Leo orbed in.
"Wow!" Leo said, also, as soon as he saw all the food on the table.
"I don't know what the big deal is?" Piper asked starting to get a little annoyed at their reaction. "So, I just cooked a selection of things for breakfast. I wasn't sure what everyone wanted."
"No big deal," Leo dismissed immediately, sensing Piper's annoyance.
"Everything looks great, and I'm starving." He said as he moved to sit the other side of Wyatt.
"Really, Mum, this is great, and I can't believe you cooked it all yourself this morning. You must have gotten up really early, thanks." Chris agreed.
Piper sat down in between Chris and Leo, "Okay then, dig in." She said passing them each a plate. "I was up early anyway, I couldn't sleep again," Piper said as she watched Chris and Leo fill their plates with a variety of food from the table.
Leo put his plate down as he asked her, "You had more dreams again, too?"
She nodded, and then added, "So, I take it you did as well."
Chris had been busy constructing a large bacon and egg toasted sandwich, and was just squeezing some tomato ketchup on it when he asked his parents, "Were the dreams the same as last time? Was there anything new?"
When he was finished with the ketchup he put it back on the table and noticed both Leo and Piper staring at him. "What?" He asked.
They smiled, both slightly embarrassed at being caught out staring at their son. "Nothing, I'm just waiting to see how you're going to pick that sandwich up, let alone eat it." Leo explained with a laugh.
"It's not that big!" Chris said defensively.
"I'm just glad to see you're enjoying the breakfast." Piper added.
"Thank you, Mum, I am. Very much." Chris said gratefully. "I cannot tell you the last time I had a cooked breakfast like this." He said as he managed to take a big bite of his sandwich.
"It's something we should have done a lot more of while you were here, Chris. I'm sorry we didn't think of it before." Piper said to him.
Chris just shook his head pointing to his mouth, indicating he could not answer because it was stuffed with food.
She nodded at Chris as she started to get a bowl of cereal ready for Wyatt.
Leo had already started eating his breakfast when he decided to answer Chris, "As to your question, Chris, my dreams were almost exactly the same as I described, only stronger." Leo started to explain in between bites of food. "Lots of dark figures moving in circles, Gideon and a Darklighter. Still didn't make any sense, and there was nothing new."
"Same here," Piper said as she now started to fill a plate for herself. "This time, of course, I was more aware so I remember it more clearly, but everything was the same as Leo just described, except instead of a Darklighter there was The Source."
"Are you still going to warn Gideon?" Chris asked, before he took another bite of his sandwich.
"I think we should. Nothing else makes any sense." Leo answered.
"I've been thinking about that a lot this morning," Piper said, as she picked at the food on her plate, "If someone is trying to send us a message, I can't think of what else it would be. Gideon has done so much for all of us, we should definitely tell him about the dreams, even if we've interpreted them wrongly."
"So you both think it's a coincidence that you've had these dreams before I'm due to time travel again?" Chris asked them as he took the last bite of his sandwich.
"There's nothing in the dreams to connect it to your time travelling. Only the timing of them." Leo concluded.
"True, but what about Future Leo? His dreams couldn't have been about Gideon." Chris questioned.
"No, I honestly don't know what the connection is there." Leo answered, and then continued, "I think the best thing is to get you home safely to your own time, maybe even move it forward to today."
"Today!" Both Chris and Piper said at the same time.
"Why not?" Leo asked them. "I'm worried about all of this, I just want Chris home and safe." He of course stopped short in telling Piper that he intended to go with him, deciding to face that later.
"What about the potion or the spell?" Piper asked him.
"I will work on that with Gideon, and I'll get Paige to help." Leo said.
"I'll help too," Chris said as he poured syrup over a pile of pancakes he had just piled onto his plate.
"It's decided then." Leo stated.
"Only if we are sure the potion or spell will work." Piper said.
"Agreed," Leo said, and then they both looked at Chris, who only nodded because his mouth was full of pancakes.
They both smiled again.
"I'm so glad we were able to have this breakfast together," Piper said as she broke up some pancakes on a plate for Wyatt to eat. "I didn't think it would be your farewell breakfast, though, Chris," she said sadly.
"Neither did I." Chris said not really knowing what else to say.
"There's so much more I wanted to say to you. How can we ever thank you for what you've done?" Piper said to Chris.
Chris had now finished his plate of pancakes and was sitting back in his chair feeling very full.
"You don't have to thank me, Mum. I'm just happy and relieved it all worked out in the end. I really didn't think I would be here this long or it was going to be this difficult to find the demons that turned Wyatt." Chris explained.
"You risked so much just by coming here, Chris. Even your own existence!" Leo added.
"That, I hadn't thought through completely!" Chris admitted. "I really thought I was done for, I couldn't see any way of getting the two of you back together."
"I guess you were just meant to be." Piper said as she looked at Leo and smiled.
"Yes, but also I think you two are meant to be together." Chris said firmly.
"Yet you were the one who split us up in the first place." Leo challenged him.
"I know you'd like to blame me, but truth is you guys split up for a while in my time too when Dad became an Elder. But things worked out, and I'm living proof of that." Chris told them.
"I didn't know I became an Elder in your time as well," Leo said.
"Yes, well, even though the future's changed now, I still shouldn't be telling you too much, but yes, you did still become an Elder. What I did when I arrived just moved it forward a little, but it was always your destiny." Chris explained.
"So that's why I wasn't there for you, because I was an Elder." Leo concluded.
"That was part of the reason, but I really don't want to get into that again." Chris said, immediately putting his protective walls up around himself again, not realising he'd dropped them in the relaxed family atmosphere he wasn't used to.
"I just want to make sure I don't make the same mistake again, Chris, that's all. Anything you can tell me would be appreciated." Leo asked him gently, hoping he'd go back to the relaxed Chris who'd just started opening up to them.
"We're your family, Chris, there's no need to be afraid to talk to us, about anything." Piper added.
"I know, Mum, and I appreciate what you're saying," he said, and then paused seemingly deciding whether to continue or not. He looked at both of them looking back at him, eagerly waiting for him to say something. "It's just not as easy as that. Dad, you did become an Elder and did spend a lot of time "up there", but you always seemed to be able to make time for anything to do with Wyatt. Anything to do with me, though, was another story."
"He must have done something for you Chris." Piper suggested.
"No, sorry," Chris replied shaking his head, "I can honestly say that I can never remember Dad ever coming to see me at school in anything, or watch me play sport. He never even made it to any of my birthdays that I can think of."
"Not even your birthdays?" Leo asked incredulously.
"That just doesn't sound like you," Piper said to Leo.
"You know, if you'd said that to me when I first got here, I would have disputed that, but now I've gotten to know you better, I tend to agree." Chris said to both his parents. "The Leo I knew growing up and the one sitting in front of me now, seem like two different people. I always thought I was the reason you were never around. Maybe I did something or said something that made you not like to be with me." Chris explained, now not making eye contact with his parents but staring down at the glass of juice he was holding.
"Oh, Chris it could never be you," Piper reassured him.
"No, Chris, don't ever think that," Leo said firmly to him.
Chris looked at both of them and smiled, "The point I'm trying to make is I'm beginning to think that maybe something did happen to change you. I don't know what, but I'm hoping it had something to do with Wyatt being saved so it won't happen again this time."
"It won't happen again, I promise you that, Chris," Leo said sincerely.
"And I'll make sure it doesn't happen again as well," Piper promised.
"I'm so glad we had this breakfast and this time together as a family. I'll always remember this day," Piper said.
"It was a great idea Piper, thank you." Leo said to her, "but we'd better get working on that potion, if we're going to send you back to that better future later today." Leo said as he started to get up from the table.
Chris also started to rise, "I'll help you Dad," he said as he walked over to Piper. To her surprise he bent down to hug her, "Thank you, Mum, this has been really nice." He said as he hugged her warmly. This was the first sign of physical closeness Chris had shown her since she'd found out she was his Mum and she relished every second of it.
"I'm glad you both enjoyed it," she said to them, as Chris pulled away.
"We'll drop in to see Gideon first, then we'll be out in the Library working on the potion," Leo said, and then turned to walk to the door.
"Okay, I'll catch you later," Piper said as she watched them both walk out the room. She turned to Wyatt still sitting quietly in his highchair munching on the bits of fruit she'd given him after he'd finished the pancakes.
"Well I hope you're planning on doing the dishes, because I'm certainly not doing them," she said to him as she collapsed in a chair. "What a perfect morning," she mumbled to herself as she put her feet up on another chair and just enjoyed the peace and quiet for a few moments.