Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, but once I do I'll make sure that the show last forever and Chris comes back!
Chapter 18
Chris had never been more nervous and scared. His father had just left to get Piper home so they could tell her the truth about him. He still wasn't sure if this would make everything better or even worse. But now he couldn't avoid this revelation any longer, Leo wouldn't let him anyways. He was too worried about this whole cease-to-exist-thing and thought that Piper wouldn't even think about getting back together with him if there wouldn't be a damn good reason.
"Hey, what's going on? Why do you kidnap me from work?" Piper asked immediately when she and Leo orbed into the living room of the manor. Just the sight of her made Chris' nervousness grow to an almost unbearable level and he had to take a deep breath to calm himself down and prevent himself from leaving on the spot.
"Well, Chris and I have to tell you something" Leo responded and sat down on the couch beside his son.
"And what?" Piper asked a bit annoyed. She didn't have time right now, the band she had booked had canceled in the last minute and now she had to look for someone else who would play tonight at P3.
Leo looked over to Chris who was staring down at the floor. He knew that this has to be hard for him but still he thought it would be right if Chris would tell her. "Chris?" His son looked up at him and Leo smiled encouragely. "Come on, tell her."
When Chris remained silent and began to stare a hole into the floor once again Piper was getting really annoyed. "Tell me what?" she asked again. "Listen, whatever it is I think we can discuss this later. I need to get back to P3, could you please orb me back?"
"No I can't and we can't discuss this later" Leo answered firmly. "Chris you need to tell her now."
"You know what? Piper's right" Chris said suddenly. "Orb her back, she seems busy."
Leo sighed frustrated. "Chris…"
"No, I'm serious" Chris cut him off. "We can talk later."
"No we can't" Leo contradicted. "We…"
"Hey!" Piper interrupted them angrily. "When you two finally agreed if you want to tell me whatever it is then just spill it, but as long as you are still argueing I want to get back to work, okay?"
Leo glanced over to Chris and said "I really think that you should tell her but if you don't do it now, I'll do it."
"Fine, then go on" Chris shot back. He leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Again Leo sighed before he turned back to his ex-wife. "You should maybe sit down" he started.
Piper raised her eyebrows but decided to do what Leo asked for so she could hopefully soon return to P3. She sat down on a chair in front of them and waited curiously for what would come now.
Leo gave his son a last chance "Are you sure you don't want to tell her by yourself?"
Chris nodded hesitately. It was hard enough for him that Piper was going to know the truth but he didn't thought that he could get one word out of his mouth if he was the one who should tell her.
"Okay then…" Leo looked at Piper before he continued. "Yesterday I found out who Chris really is – why he's really here."
"What do you mean with who Chris really is?" Piper asked confused.
Chris tried to suppress the urge to orb away. His fear grew bigger by every second that passed. What if she don't want me as her son? But she seemed to like and care about him. In the beginning they haven't got along because her break up with Leo, what had been partly his fault, but in the last weeks they had grown closer, even if Chris had tried to avoid it.
"I mean – " Leo hesitated a second, not really knowing how he should tell her but he knew that it would be the best to say it directly. "Chris is our son, Wyatt's little brother." Finally Chris looked up at his mother and could see how her mouth dropped open.
Chris is our son. Leos words seemed to repeat themselves in Pipers head. She had never felt so much different emotions than in this moment. The first were shock and disbelief. Chris her son? Never. But then everything started to make sense. Why he was here, why he was so determind to save Wyatt, why he had been sometimes so emotional in her presence and why Leo suddenly seemed to care about him so much. Chris was her son. Her adult son who had come back from the future to save their family.
"Piper?" Leo asked uneasily when she didn't said anything.
Finally Piper snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Chris who was staring at her nervously. Oh my god, I have to say something. But what? Frantically she searched for the right words, but her mind seemed just blank. "Chris…" she then said lowly but didn't know how to continue.
"Piper I know that this is – well unexpected" Leo said softly while he glanced worriedly over to his son who was still looking at his mother with a vulnerability Leo was not used to see on his face. But it was understandable under this circumstances. He wanted to turn back to Piper to make her say something but suddenly Chris' eyes widened and he shouted "Demon!" before he stood up quickly and waved his hand at something behind Piper.
The demon who had just shimmered in behind Piper was thrown over the room until he hit a bookshelf. Piper turned immediately around and blew him up before he could even recover from Chris' attack. "What the hell was this? I thought this stupid demons would know already who lives here!" Piper yelled frustrated and annoyed. Then she turned around again and came face to face with Chris – with her son.
It was then she saw it. He was so much like her, except for his eyes. This amazing green eyes were Leos. "My baby" she whispered finally and smiled. She couldn't believe that this brave young man was her son.
Chris automatically returned her smile. She had always called him baby in his time even when he was already fourteen and begged her to stop with it. But she hadn't and secretly he had never really wanted her to stop. He felt a huge happiness coming over him now that he could finally hear her calling him like this again.
Leo also smiled happily when he saw that Piper walked over to their son and pulled him into a hug. Just before Chris wrapped his arms around her too another demon shimmered behind them and immediately threw an energy ball in Pipers direction. Chris quickly pushed her out of the way and instead of her the energy ball hit him into the chest and caused him to yell out in pain and to fly back onto the couch.
While Leo quickly rushed over to him and began to heal him Piper got up from the floor again and blew up this demon too. Then she turned frightened back to her son who was lying on the couch with a huge wound on his chest and a pained expression on his face. But a few seconds later Leo had finished healing him and he sat up again only to be thrown back by Piper who was hugging him impetuous.
"Breathing would be good mom" Chris gasped. Piper jerked away from him and an even bigger smile than before spread over her face. "What?" Chris asked a bit confused when he saw it.
"You just called me mom, didn't you notice?" Piper asked him while Leo sat beside them and watched pleased.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I really didn't…" Chris started to say but Piper cut him off.
"Why are you sorry for calling me mom? I mean, I am your mother and when I think about it then it was really not nice calling me by my first name during the last months young man" she playfully scolded.
"Don't worry. He's still doing it with me" Leo interjected and tried to sound jokingly too but actually he was hurt at Chris' behaviour towards him.
Chris glared at him for his comment but then he saw his fathers dejected expression and immediately felt guilty. But in the next second he got angry again. Leo had always managed it to make him feel guilty about every little thing that went wrong. Even when he had just accidently crashed a mug, his fathers almost furious expression would make him feel like he had just done an incredible crime.
"Really? Well I think then I should feel honoured" Piper continued to joke, not realizing how serious everything actually was.
Chris quickly tried to change the subject. "I should go and get Phoebe and Paige. This demons were from the Raven-Clan and there will be more coming if we don't vanquish their leader."
Piper hold him back when he wanted to orb away. "No, Leo goes. I mean I just found out about you, you can't leave now."
"But-"
"No buts" Piper cut him off. "Leo, go and get Phoebe and Paige" she ordered. Leo quickly obeyed and orbed away.
Chris suddenly felt really uncomfortable being all alone with his mother now that she finally knew about him. Before he had traveled to the past he had sworn himself that he wouldn't tell anyone about his true identity. It would just make everything even harder, especially returning to the future after he has finished his mission. What if Piper was still dead? He realized that he couldn't get close to her here or it would be too painful to go back. "I go and get the vanquishing spell from the book" he said abruptly and orbed up to the attic before Piper could stop him.
Surprised she just stared for a second at the spot on the couch where he had been sitting but then she quickly got up and followed him upstairs. "Hey, which part of you can't leave now didn't you understand?" she asked once she was in the attic and standing in front of her son.
Chris sighed. "We have to take care of this demon…"
"Listen I know you're obsessed with demonhunting" Piper interrupted him. "But you can't drop this bombshell and then act like nothing changed."
"Nothing has changed" Chris responded while he wrote the spell from the book of a piece of paper and avoid to look into her eyes.
"Nothing has changed?" Piper repeated unbelievingly. What the hell was wrong with him? He acted like he wouldn't even care if she knew the truth or not. "Chris you are my son. I think this changes a lot."
Chris finished the spell and gathered all his composure before he finally looked at her. "It changes nothing" he said unemotional. "I'm here to save Wyatt and not for some happy family reunion."
Piper was completely stunned. In the last weeks they had been very close and now this whole feeling of protection she always had when she was around him also made sense to her. But why was he acting so cold now? "Chris what's the matter? Why are you suddenly acting like you don't give a damn about-"
"They're here" Chris interrupted her and walked over to Leo who had just orbed in with Phoebe and Paige. "You just need to read this spell and that should be enough to vanquish him. But Piper should freeze him before you do it because…"
"Whoa, whoa. Slow down" Paige cut him off. "What are you talking about?"
Before he could answer Piper had also walked over to them and said "And don't Piper me. What's wrong with you?"
Chris sighed frustrated. He shouldn't have let Leo tell her about him. Why had he been so stupid? "Listen we can talk about this later, first you have to vanquish this demon" he said firmly.
"Talk about what?" Phoebe asked curiously. She could clearly feel a lot of tension in the room.
"Nothing" Chris quickly answered. "Would you please now vanquish him?"
Finally Piper gave in. "Okay but when I'm back you have a lot of explanation to do young man."
Chris nodded. "Whatever."
Piper shot a last warning look at him before she linked hands with her sisters so Paige could take them to the underworld.
"What was this about?" Leo immediately asked his son.
"What do you mean?" Chris asked innocently.
"You know exactly what I mean" Leo answered. "Piper seemed really pissed off. I think you broke a record because a minute ago she was totally happy about what I told her and now she looked like she wanted to strangle you."
Chris glared at him. "You shouldn't have told her! What the hell was I thinking by letting you anyways" he mumbled.
"Chris I thought we have discussed this already. She needed to know" Leo tried to convince him. "And she seemed so happy about…"
"That's not the point!" Chris yelled. "I can't get close to her, don't you understand this?"
Leo frowned confused. "Actually no, I don't understand this. Why can't you get close to her? I mean she's your mother."
"Because – because, I just can't okay?" Chris said and went back to the book of shadows.
"Why?" Leo asked again while he followed his son over the attic.
Chris groaned. "Just leave me alone – after all you have a lot of practice with it."
The words hit Leo hard. But he tried to ignore it and said "I won't leave you. Not this time. I promise I won't make the same mistakes like in your timeline. You just need to give me a second chance. And apparently you also have to give Piper a second chance."
"She don't need a second chance" Chris stated. "She was a great mom. She never needed second chances."
"Was?" Leo asked while realization came over him. Suddenly Chris' behaviour started to make sense but still he couldn't believe it until he heard it from his son.
Chris looked like he had been trapped. "Is" he quickly corrected himself. "I mean – "
"Chris is she – dead in your time?" Leo interrupted him.
For a few seconds Chris didn't reacted at all. Then he looked sadly down at the floor, unable to hold back the tears but not willing to show them. "She maybe won't if I can save Wyatt" he answered still avoiding Leo's gaze.
Leo had known it before he had even asked him but still he was shocked. Piper was the love of his life and even though they were seperated now he had never given up on the hope that one day they would find a way to be together again. Just the thought that he had to live completely without her almost killed him. As he looked over to his son he could tell that Chris felt the same way. "We will save Wyatt. And Piper too" he stated determind.
Chris looked up at him with watery eyes. "How do you know? We can't be sure. And if I can't save her I have to go back to a world where she isn't. I just can't get close to her because I can't loose her again."
Leo quickly walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. First Chris struggeled to get free but Leo wouldn't let him. "Chris I promise you I won't let this happen. We'll save them both, I swear."
Reluctantly Chris relaxed a bit in his fathers embrace. He wasn't really comfortable but felt glad that Leo really seemed to care about him. Still he couldn't really believe in his promise. After all Leo had never kept any promises to him in the future and this one wasn't easy to keep either. But he couldn't deny it that his fathers promise gave him a bit hope for the future.
TBC…
