One More Time - Chapter 6

by shjohnso.

Summary: Future Chris risked his life to save his brother from a fate worse than death—evil. But did it work? Or will he have to do it all over again? This is my take on the events that followed his birth.

Rated PG

Disclaimer—I don't own charmed, or any of the characters from the show, so don't sue me because I get no money from this.

Everyone was quiet as they traipsed back through the Magic School door into the Manor.

Paige motioned to the toddler clinging to Leo's shirt, "I hope we don't have to go looking for him again."

Leo tried to pry Wyatt's fingers from his shirt collar, "I'm going to go put him down for a nap. Maybe he'll be calmer later after he's rested for a bit."

Piper smiled knowingly, "You mean before he gets a look at Chris?"

Leo grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, I guess that is what I meant. Paige? Can you orb upstairs and make sure Chris isn't in the nursery?"

Paige nodded as she was about to orb out, but Piper called her back.

Piper clapped her hands with a wide grin, "Wait, I'll come with you. Cause I just can't wait to see to see how the big baby handled the little baby."

Phoebe's eyes lit up as she grabbed Paige's other hand, "Ooh. Me too, me too."

Upstairs……

Piper stood in the doorway of the nursery with her hands on her hips. At the sight before her, her smile quickly faded into a frown of annoyance, "What on earth are you doing?"

Chris continued what he was doing and replied matter-of-factly, "Exactly what you told me to do."

"So, I told you to stand on the opposite side of the room while your changing the baby? And just how do you expect to get his little tushie clean by flicking your hands with a wipie?" She rushed into the room and pushed him aside, "And you can't even see what you're doing from over there---Move out of the way."

Phoebe and Paige covered their mouths in laughter at their nephew's inventive way of changing a diaper, while Chris stood back looking rather pleased with himself.

Paige clapped him on his back, "I've got to hand it to you, Chris. That's definitely a new use for telekinesis."

Chris smiled back at his aunt before turning to Piper and letting out an exhausted sigh, "Mom, stop fussing over him, he's just fine. If he wasn't, I would be the first to know about it."

Piper played with the baby's feet, causing him to giggle, while she finished changing him, "He's my baby. I don't want to stop fussing over him." She picked him up and bounced him in the air before she turned to Chris and pinched his cheek. "And since he's my baby, I can fuss over him all I want--no matter how big he gets…"

Chris groaned as Phoebe and Paige laughed at him again.

"By the way, your Dad wants to bring Wyatt up for a nap," his mother informed him.

Chris shrugged casually, "So. Why are you telling me?"

"Because Wyatt went into hiding the last time he saw you. I don't think it's such a good idea for you to be in here right now."

Chris' mouth flung open in shock, just as his eyes suddenly displayed a wounded look. His shoulder's sagged before he started to orb.

Piper pulled on his arm, "Chris, I don't mean you're not welcome in this house--I just mean that you shouldn't be in the nursery when he comes up. Just until he gets used to you again. Honey, don't feel bad--he ran from all of us. I'm not sure what's going through his head right now, but I think it's best to err on the side of caution. Don't you?"

Chris gave her a quirky grin in understanding, "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry I overreacted. Do you want me to move back into the club for awhile?"

"No, Hun. I don't think that's necessary at this point. We'll just take babysteps around him for the time being. You know, gradually reintroduce you to him--in small amounts of time."

"Chris, why don't you come up to the attic with me and we'll see what we can find on that thing that attacked the boys." Phoebe said as she held out her hand for him.

Chris smiled at her extended arm, "Nope. You laughed at me. I'll see you upstairs" as he orbed out and left her to walk.

Paige and Piper shared a laugh as they watched their sister spin on her heels in annoyance to exit.

She cuddled her young son in her arms. "Would you go and bring Leo and Wyatt?"

"Sure. Do you think he'll have a problem with baby Chris?"

"No, I don't think so. He was protecting him when that thing attacked. Although Sheila told me something very interesting about his behavior toward the baby." She proceeded to recite the story she herself had just heard earlier in the afternoon.

Paige's eyes widened in surprise, "Do you think it's just jealousy?"

Piper sighed, "I really hope so, Paige. I don't even want to think about the possibility that we were just too late to save him from Gideon." She choked back a sob at that thought.

Paige wrapped her arms around her oldest sister and tried to lighten her mood, "Hey, don't worry. It's going to be ok. Thank goodness that Chris came back, because now we know that we have to work harder to fix it. But it's not impossible. So don't go getting yourself all worked up. Besides, there's only one emotional breakdown allowed in this household at a time. And Wyatt has the floor right now."

Piper laughed, "Thanks, Paige. What would I do without you?"

Paige tossed her hair over her shoulders as she looked back, "Probably have a much harder time finding the humor in weird situations like this."

Upstairs, Chris was flipping through the Book of Shadows when Phoebe arrived looking extremely irritated.

Chris stifled a chuckle at her expression, "What took you so long? I'm already half-way through the book."

"Well, if someone hadn't decided to leave without me, I would have been here a lot sooner."

"It's one flight, Phoebe!" He muttered under his breath, "Mom was right, you are lazy."

Phoebe thought she heard something about the word "lazy", but couldn't be sure. "Excuse me? You had better learn to respect your elders young man."

Chris rolled his eyes and focused again on the book, "Whatever. So far, I haven't been able to find anything about a demon with sharp claws that can stay invisible like that."

Paige and Piper walked in, followed shortly after by Leo.

"Did you find anything?"

"Not yet." He looked at Leo hopefully, "I guess there's no way to check with the Elders, huh?"

Piper glared at him angrily, "I wouldn't trust them even it there was. We don't need their help. We don't need anything from them."

Chris took a cautious step backwards. He glanced at Phoebe and nodded at his mother questioningly.

Phoebe pulled him over to the corner and whispered, "Don't worry--she's not mad at you. The Elder's are still a sore spot with her. We try not to mention them so nothing gets blown up around here. She's still pretty pissed about one of them murdering her son."

"But I'm right here."

Phoebe saw the hurt look on her nephew's face and tried to console him with an explanation to his mother's short temper. "But you've been gone for seven months. And we've had to deal with these bouts of rage ever since. Though it has gotten somewhat better since Grams came to see her. But all of that anger is not just going to immediately disappear now that you're back. In fact, having you home is going to go a long way in helping her through it."

Chris nodded slowly in understanding.

Leo tried to soften his wife's reaction and changed the subject. He addressed her while glancing back at Chris, "You know, Chris had an idea earlier."

Piper seemed to calm down with Leo's distraction, "What's that?"

"Well, it wasn't really an idea. It was more of a theory. I just thought that maybe my Wyatt from the future had something to do with the attack. Especially since it started almost as soon as I got back here."

Piper scoffed, "And risk hurting himself? Evil or not, I'd like to think that any son of mine wouldn't be that stupid."

Paige couldn't keep the hint of surprise out of her voice, "What are you saying? That Wyatt would go after your younger self? His own brother?"

Chris sighed loudly as the thought suddenly struck a deep cord of sadness in him. "I already told you. He broke the sibling bond long ago. But even then, I still used to think that there was just no way he'd ever try to hurt me. But after Bianca took me back--I guess that was just the last straw. He tried--and would have succeeding--in killing me if she hadn't stopped him. Now, I'm nothing more than an irritating fly on the wall to him. Something to be squashed. So yes--erase my existence before I can grow up and become more of an annoyance? That's something that he would definitely do. He would have found it so incredibly amusing to find I almost did it to myself."

His family closed in on Chris; everyone offering their own consolation as they scrambled to envelop him in a variety of hugs, kisses and gentle touches.

Phoebe was the first to speak, "Chris, we're going to change all of that. It's not too late for Wyatt, or they wouldn't have sent you back. And I can see how much you love your brother, so the sibling bond can't be broken." She held up her fingers with a small space in between, "Maybe just a teensy-weensy bit bent?"

Chris smiled graciously at his aunt as he was pulled out of his somber mood. He rubbed his hands together with a new found energy rearing to go, "So. What do we deal with first? Dad's lack of powers; Wyatt's mental breakdown; Mom's anger management", the last one earning him a hardened glare from the eldest Halliwell sister, "--or the invisible creep?"

Paige felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end seconds before her shoulder length hair flipped up of its own accord, waving as if blown by a strong gust of wind. She looked around at all of her family in front of her and glanced over her shoulder. Seeing no one there, she scrunched up her nose at feeling a hot breath on her neck, "Uh--I vote we deal with the invisible creep first…."

TBC...