Chapter 4

Piper Halliwell couldn't be happier with the way her life had turned out. She had the best family a girl could ever ask for. Her business was booming, she had yet another grand child on the way and she and her husband were about to go on a cruise around the world. Everything seemed to be going exceptionally well but there was a tiny voice in the back of her head that told the woman something wasn't right. As much as she wanted to ignore the voices and live in her own nice, happy and blissful little world, she couldn't, it was just too physically overpowering and she knew exactly who was to blame.

Her oldest son had been acting rather strange for over a month now and though her youngest son tried constantly to put her mind at ease Piper couldn't help but think other wise. At first she thought that it was just memories of the other time line that was confusing her and clouding her better judgment but then Wyatt started to become easily agitated and waving around this deep dark sense of humor that made her skin crawl. Of course he would try to cover it up and say that she was over reacting but deep down she feared the truth that had feasted itself in her brain a long time ago and that was the harsh truth that her son was in fact up to his old tricks again.

Although she wasn't ready to throw in the towel on her oldest child, she didn't want to hide her face and pretend that nothing was wrong either. All she could do was hope that her feelings were wrong and pray that her youngest son's years of fighting to save his brother, wasn't in vein.

As she pulled back the covers on her bed she could almost feel the pain coming from the person standing in the door way before he even said a word.

"Mom" Chris spoke softly studying the woman's melancholy face as he took a step towards her. "Mom, are you ok?" the boy said still unsure of whether or not to tell her the about the talk that he had with his brother.

Looking up into her son's face she already knew what he was going to say but the words were lodged in her throat and wouldn't come out. Instead tears fell from her eyes as she could now feel her son's arms around her and drawing her in close like she had done for him on so many other occasions.

They sat quietly for a short while before she finally had the strength to speak. "It's your brother, isn't it?" she questioned her son who tightened his jaw in response.

"It's ok Mom, I'll find a way to get him back. I swear"

"No Chris you won't" Piper replied in a firm voice that shocked her son.

"Mom…" he started before getting cut off.

"I know how much you love your brother but you can't keep saving someone who doesn't want to be saved Chris. Now you have a family of your own to look after so you should be concentrating on them" Chris rose from the bed and looked back at his mother.

"I can't believe that you're saying this Mom. I mean at first I was pissed at him too but he's my brother I can't sit back and watch him destroy his life not to mention the lives of my nephews and sister in law" the boy continued to stare at the woman in disbelief.

"You don't think that I want to save him too Chris?" Piper shouted before calming herself. "Listen baby I understand how much you love him because I love him too but we can not keep doing this ourselves we can't continuously put our lives on hold and run off to play Wyatt's personal saviors. He has to come back to us on his own this time"

As much as it hurt and as much as he wanted to save his brother Chris knew that his mother was right. He now had Bianca and his daughter to worry about and he couldn't brush them aside to save his brother again, this time Wyatt would have to fight his own battles and overcome the desire within alone.

Chris moved to sit at his mother's side as the tears of anguish and pain cascaded down his face and onto his shirt.

"I want my brother back Mom. I need him. There was so much that he was going to teach me about marriage about fatherhood, how am I going to go through all of this without him?" he continued as his mother now held him in her arms.

"You have us" a voice came from behind them as Leo made his way to sit by wife and child.

"How much did you hear?" Piper questioned.

"Everything and I have to agree with your mother Chris. You gave up way too much the first time around for your brother. Now it's his turn to come through for you and put you and the rest of the family above his need to be evil" the father said also wrapping his arms around the boy.

"Do you think that he'll ever come back to us?" the boy reluctantly spoke.

"I don't know Chris, I just don't know" a distraught Leo answered the boy hoping against hope that one day his son would return home to the family that loved him.