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Chapter 2: Dealing with the pain

"Leo!" Piper shouted again with a shaking voice. She couldn't believe what just happened. What she'd just done. Chris was still lying next to her in a puddle of blood that was now also coming out of his mouth. Piper knew that he was dying and that it was just her fault. She had blown him up. She had blown her own son up. But she wouldn't let him die like this.

"Leo! Please! Your son needs you!" she shouted on the verge of hysteria. Finally Leo appeared on her left side with a worried look on his face.

"What's up with Wyatt?" he asked immediately but then he noticed that Wyatt wasn't even there. "Where is he?" he added alarmed.

"He's by Sheila. You have to heal Chris" Piper said impatiently and moved slightly away from her son so that Leo could heal him.

With clear hesitation Leo knelt down by them and hold his hands over Chris' wound. While the golden glow came from his hands he turned to Piper "Why did you say that Wyatt needs me?"

"Why does it work so slowly?" Piper asked back instead of answering his question while her eyes were fixated on her son.

"He lost a lot of blood" Leo answered. "What happened?"

Again Piper ignored Leo's question. She couldn't tell him. The guilt was too much. Why haven't she seen it earlier that Chris was her son? If she would have taken the time to look at him – really look at him, then she would have seen it. He had the same amazing green eyes as Leo. And he was determind to save Wyatt. It now made sense to her why Chris had come back from the future. She had always asked herself why didn't a family member have come back. And all the time it has been like this anyways.

"Piper?" Leo asked worried as he noticed the look of fear and pain she was giving Chris. He also noticed that she was holding his hand tightly and didn't seem to want to let go. Before he could ask his ex-wife anymore questions Chris' wound closed and he started to sat up slowly.

"Chris…" Piper stated uneasily but also reliefed.

Chris turned his head in her direction and he tried hard to fight the tears back that threatened to fall again. He knew that Piper now seemed to know who he is or else he wouldn't even live right now anymore. And the look that she was giving him was also different from the one she had given him a few minutes ago. There was so much pain and guilt in it that Chris had to look away from her.

"Chris" Piper repeated while she started to sob again. "I'm so – I'm so sorry honey."

Leo looked at them shocked. What the hell was going on here? Why did Piper call Chris honey with such a loving voice? Was ist really possible that they were together? But he just couldn't believe this. Just yesterday Chris had proven to them that he couldn't be trusted. He had put Wyatt in serious danger. Leo couldn't believe that Piper would make out with a man who seemed to want to hurt her son.

Chris just stared to the ground. He didn't know what to do or say. Finally his mother knew about him but this wasn't the way he had imagined it would came out. He had somehow hoped she would find out his secret especially in the last few weeks though he has been also afraid of it. It has been so hard for him to be in her nearness again after she had been dead for eight years in his time. And he knew that if he get close to her he probably couldn't bear it when she wouldn't be there in the future again.

Piper watched sadly as tears formed again in her son's eyes. What kind of mother was she? She couldn't believe what she had done to her son. Not just now, but also in the past months. She had treatened him so terrible and yesterday she had even told him that she never wanted to see him again. It must have hurt him so much and Piper felt horrible as she realized that all he had ever wanted was really just to save their family. "Chris please look at me" she said and reached out hesitantly with her hand to touch his cheek.

But Chris fliched away and looked back at her for a second before he finally spoke "I'm so sorry" he said again. Then he orbed away, leaving a distraught Piper and a very confused looking Leo behind.

Piper broke down in the instant her son left the room. She started to cry heavily once again and Leo hold her tightly as she threw herself into his arms. He couldn't understand what had happened between Chris and her but he could see that they seemed to feel a lot for a each other. It made Leo angry that Chris had made him become an elder and now he and Piper seemed to have a relationship.

"Piper what happened?" he asked her finally.

For a few seconds Piper didn't respond but then she answered with a pained voice "I blew him up."

"Who? Chris?"

Piper just nodded and moved slightly away from her ex-husband. "I almost killed him Leo."

Leo couldn't help but wasn't very afflicted by Pipers words. "Well after all he has done I think he deserves…"

"Don't you dare to finish this sentence!" Piper shouted furiously.

"Piper he has manipulated all of us for the last months and…"

Again Piper didn't let him finish. "He has done this just because he wanted to save Wyatt. So don't dare to speak like this about him!"

Leo was again shocked and confused about how much Piper seemed to feel towards Chris. How was this possible when she'd just yesterday told him that she never wanted to see him anymore? But then suddenly his gaze fell onto the picture that was lying just a few centimetres away from him. Curiously he grabbed the picture and just like Piper he was confused when he saw the brown haired boy.

Piper who saw the expression on his face simply said "Turn it around."

Leo gave her a funny look before he turned the picture around and the look of confusion on his face quickly turned into one of disbelief and shock. This couldn't be. Chris was Wyatt's brother? His son? But it didn't make sense. All the things Chris had done since he got here – it just wasn't possible. But then suddenly a memory came into his mind. It has been a few weeks ago. Leo has been following Chris everywhere to find out what he was up to and when Phoebe had called for them to take care of Wyatt Chris had said "Looks like Wyatt needs another babysitter, dad." He had called him dad.

And on the same day Chris had stated "Looks like we're one big happy family again." Leo swallowed hard when he remembered what he had answered. "You're not family." As he now looked at the little boy on the picture he just knew that this wasn't right. Chris was really his son. A huge feeling of guilt and pain rushed over him as he remebered how he had beaten Chris up when he had came back from Valhalla. Or how he had threatened to kill him with a sword.

He could understand how Piper had to feel right now though he gladly hadn't stabbed Chris on that day. But the other things he had said and done were enough. He couldn't believe what pain they all had caused Chris though all he had ever wanted was to save his family. How should they ever be able to make all these things up to him? Leo would understand it if Chris hated them all for what they had done to him.

"Can you sense him?" Piper suddenly asked and pulled him out of his desperate thoughts.

Leo closed his eyes and concentrated hard. "No, I mean yes. I can sense him, but I can't locate him" he said and he opened his eyes again.

"We have to find him Leo" Piper said, determind to work things out with her son. She needed to talk to him, to tell him how sorry she felt for everything. Leo just nodded and took her arm to orb them to the attic in the manor to look into the book of shadows to find a way to get their son back.

In the meantime Chris sat alone on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. He had won the fight with his tears but holding it in didn't make him feel any better. He had hold back his tears for too long. Since his mother's funeral he hadn't cried again. It was this day Chris remembered that he had started to wear this unemotional mask on his face. He hadn't wanted to let anyone near him again after he had lost his whole family except from his father and brother. But they weren't like family to him. His brother now began to take over the world and his father – well it wasn't like he had ever been there for Chris. And after Piper's death and Wyatt's terrible rule it still didn't change the fact that Leo didn't give a damn about him.

Chris could clearly remember the day three years ago Wyatt had been able to capture him. And it has been only Leo's fault. Even when Leo had been able to see that Wyatt was evil he still had trusted him more than Chris. He had told Wyatt where to find him because his precious twice blessed child had told him that all he wanted was to talk with his brother. What has followed were hours of torture in which Wyatt had tried to break Chris and make him join his brother. Chris had tried to call for his father for what seems like a hundred times. But he never came. If it was because Wyatt had blocked him or Leo simply didn't care wasn't important to Chris any longer. Luckily Bianca had been able to rescue him before Wyatt had lost his patience and killed him.

Bianca. She was the only person he had been able to rely on since his fourteenth birthday. Since the day his mother had died. In the beginning Chris had refused to let her near him, not just because he didn't want to become emotional but also because she had been actually hired by Wyatt to bring him on his brother's side. But soon Chris had realized that Bianca really cared about him and he couldn't resist any longer to give in the comfort she was able to give him.

But now she was dead. Murdered by his own brother. It seemed like to Chris that everything in his life was just messed up. He didn't know when it was the last time he had been really happy and carefree. It seemed like an eternity to him and he just hoped that he was still able to change the future now that Piper knew the truth. He knew that he hasn't much time left to do it because his conception date was in a few weeks. And it was rather clear that his parents weren't going to be together again that soon.

Now that he thought about his mother the tears he had hold back for so long threatened again to fall. Chris tried hard to hold them back but he couldn't any longer. The images of Piper's look of hatred towards him and the angry move with her hands with that she had blown him up were too much for him to bear. Finally he broke down and cried heavily while he wished that his mother would be there to comfort him like she had done when he had been her little boy.

TBC... (Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! I'm so happy about the feedback I get for my stories!)