CHAPTER XVIII:

Suddenly the door opened and my dad came in, Jake following him close. Chris sat back down and we all turned around to face the new comers.

Still dad ran straight to Chris, as if the rest of us weren't really there; he kneeled in front of him, asking him anxiously "Are you ok, buddy? Did they hurt you?"

Jake gently closed the door and smiled at the rest of us reassuringly.

"I am fine dad, don't worry!" Chris answered comfortingly. "What about you? You haven't been doing anything crazy, have you?" He asked worried.

"Everything is going to be fine, son, don't worry!" Dad patted his knee.

"Ohhh… I worry dad, I DON'T want anything happening to you because of me!"

"Don't worry, Kid, everything is going to be fine." Jake said reassuringly. "I have to keep on going, I just stop by a second to check if you were fine. Leo, you just stay with them for a while, I'll take care of everything."

I hope Jake saw the gratitude in our eyes, because we were so grateful at that point!

"Thanks." Was the only thing my dad could come up with.

"No problem, that's what family is for." He said smiling broadly, yet sadly.

Once he left (through the door, cuz of course you couldn't orb out of the room, or we would have taken Chris back to the manor already!) I asked my dad.

"Dad, did you guys find a solution to all this or something?"

My dad seemed to be aware of us for the fist time since he entered the room. "We will buddy, don't worry, we will… We are working on it. I am sorry I left you alone for so long without any news." He told all of us, but mainly my mom.

My mom caressed his hair and kissed his cheek, smiling at him like telling him "it's ok, don't worry about it". Dad grabbed her hand in his, comfortingly and looked straight in to her eyes. Dad was really ignoring me and Wyatt today!

"I need you guys to go back to the manor right now, I'll be back as soon as I can with news, I promise!" He said.

"BUT DADDDDDDDDDDD…" Wyatt whined.

"Please! I am begging you… I know it's hard, but I need you guys to leave, and if you really care about Chris, you will do it" I never saw so much pleading in my dad's eyes, it was such, that none of us dare to argue.

My mom stood up and kissed Chris' cheek and hugged him tightly. "I love you, baby. Be good and DO WHAT YOUR FATHER TELLS YOU TO DO, clear?"

"Yes mom, I love you too." He said tiredly.

"Are you guys coming?" She asked us.

Reluctantly Wyatt and I went to hug Chris goodbye.

"Don't do anything stupid cuz you wouldn't want to have the double blessed against you, would you?" Wyatt said teasingly.

"Yeah dude, and you will have me against you, too and I know all your moves, remember? I happen to think JUST like you. So be careful, k?"

"I am locked in a room, how many things do you guys think I can do?" Chris whined.

The three of us walked to the door as my dad sat besides Chris.

&&&&&&

Once we got back to the manor, everybody was waiting for us, desperate for news and bombing us with questions.

We told them all we knew and just sat down and waited… just waited. Gosh… as if there was anything more annoying and nerve wrecking than waiting?

Almost all of us had already fallen asleep, at least I had, when dad and Jake orbed in, at the sound of the first orb we were already all completely awake.

"So, what happened?" My mom managed to ask before we all managed to say a word. I honestly think is a female skill the whole speaking under any circumstances and faster than any male ever could. Some have it more developed than others. Like Penny for instance that can babble 100000 words per second, or Emma… but I guess mom was kind of a little bit more worried than Penny at this point.

"There is going to be a trial, is the best deal we could get, the trial is on April 24th." My dad informed.

"Two days from now?" My mom said freaked out.

"Are we going to leave him trap in there for two days?" Phoebe said concerned.

"How are we going to raise enough evidence to defend him in two days?" Paige said worried.

"Chris' birthday is the 26… When are we getting the verdict? We won't be able to deal with everything together at the same time!" It was Wyatt's macho way to say… I won't be able to deal with everything together! But truth be told, yeah it was creepy for all of us!

"Mom might be dying on my birthday… we'll need time to prepare how to fix that too!" I said concerned.

"I wanna see Old Chris!" Patty pouted.

"YEAHHH Me too!" Prue added.

"Is he ok, Dad? Does he needs us to take him anything, can we go visit him, can we, can we? Please? Were they mean to him? What did they do to them? What is going to happen now? Is Old Chris going to be recycled? We don't want that daddy! What is going to happen to younger Chris? Is he going to be ok? And Wyatt…" Penny probably kept on ranting for a while longer (a looong one).

"Ok, ok… Everybody stop!" Jake ordered. "The trial is the 24th and there is no way to change it, I am sorry! We will have the verdict on the 25th. Yes, Wy I know its horrible, and I am sorry, but that's all we could do. My love, yeah there is very little time to prepare but we'll do our best. Phoebe, thank god Lionel it's still guarding him, so he is going to let us sneak in a visit him whenever we want. Patty, Penny and Prue, I would say Piper and Leo spend the night with Chris now, and the rest can go visit him first thing in the morning. What do you think?" The three girls nodded. "Now… do you guys think you can come and give daddy a hug? Cuz he had a REALLY long and terrible day." The three girls ran to hug him, though Prue was obviously not his daughter, she was almost always included in the bunch whenever Jake told "his daughters" to do something.

My parents started to orb out to spend the night with Chris.

'We want to go up there too!" Wyatt and I said

"Kids, He NEEDS to get some rest… knowing him, who knows when was the last time he slept… the last thing he needs is for everybody to be fussing around him right now! You need to sleep too! We all need to stay alert to make sure we help him as much as possible! So just get a good night sleep and just go there first in the morning, ok?" Dad explained us, reluctantly both agree and dad orbed away.

"And do we have any chance of winning it?" Paige asked to her husband, who was surrounded by the girls.

"Well… we've been talking and cutting deals with a lot of people, but I don't know." Jake answered

"Well… then we need to find a way to convinced them!" Phoebe said optimistically. "But right now, everybody off to bed that we need to wake up early!"

April 22, 2018

It was EARLY in the morning when I woke up; I went to get Wyatt knowing he would just kill me if I left the house without him. He was up faster than lighting, something weird in my normally "Just 5 more minutes" brother.

'COFFEE!" was the only thing he mumbled though, grabbing me and orbing with me to the kitchen to get some.

While I saw him pouring two cups of coffee, I remembered that in Chris' past life he had the same favorite coffee shop than I do and that he loved their Chocolate chip mocha and their cinnamon rolls as much as I do. So I told Wyatt we should go and get them some since he probably hadn't have some in over twenty years and would appreciate the gesture.

Wyatt loved my idea, we went and got him ALL his favorite stuff, candies, pastries, coffee, etc. And it was around eight when we orbed up there carrying more "presents" than Santa in Christmas. Lionel smiled affably at us and let us in.

Chris was sleeping on the bed, mom besides him. Dad was sleeping on the floor, holding Chris' hand with one hand and mom's with the other.

The sound of the door opening woke up Chris who looked around lost, like not knowing where he was. He soon remembered.

"Hi!" He whispered with a smile. Wyatt gave him the Mocha and he smiled widely. "Ohh this is great… I haven't have one of this till the place got burnt down" then remembering WHO ordered to burnt it down he said "I haven't had one of this in ages… thanks guys! This is great!" He said taking the rest of the stuff I was carrying. 'This is certainly awesome! I can't believe you guys remembered… all my favorites!"

Seeing Chris so happy in a time like this made us all smile. Mom and dad grabbed the coffee that was for them and we all had breakfast together.

&&&&&&&&&&&

About three hours later the door opened once again and leading the way of my three little cousins was an unexpected figure.

"GRANDPA!" Chris said happily running to him and hugging him "How is it possible? Non magical creatures aren't allowed in here!"

"Well… lets say you have an aunt that loves you very much and knew how much you would want to see me, and how much I wanted to see you!" Grandpa said with a smile, Chris looked at him perplexed.

"Mom transferred him her powers for a day" Penny explained "she knew you would probably want to see grandpa and she was going to spend the whole day in the library researching so she figured she wouldn't need her powers."

Chris smiled thankfully and gladly, probably thinking like I was, how nice of Paige to go and get grandpa and give him her powers, knowing how Paige really relays on her powers to do almost anything and how hard it was probably going to be for her to spend a whole day without magic.

'I taught him how to orb, Chris!" Patty told him to capture his attention.

"That's great sweetie, I bet you are a wonderful teacher!" Chris said leaning forward in front of her so he could look at her face while he talked. Patty smiled.

"Oh she is… the best!" Grandpa said just to make her happy, her smile grew even wider.

"What I don't understand…" Patty said contemplative, in such a child-like way, showing she still was on those years when everything is so simple, things are black or white, the people that help you are your friends, the once that harm you are your enemies and things get solved in a straightforward way. When life isn't already tangled in it's complications, in it's eternal shades of grays and you can't always solve all your problems by simply working hard. "Is…if we are all researching and planning for the trial and to avoid Piper's death, when are we going to start researching and planning on how to vanquish the elders if they decide that Chris can't come back?"

She said it so plainly, as if she was talking about vanquishing a low level demon, it sounded weird to us and I can't even begin to imagine how it sounded to grandpa, his little eight your granddaughter (or almost, the twins always consider him as their grandfather) talking about killing a whole bunch of people with the same naturalness as if she would been saying she has to solve a math problem she couldn't understand.

But then… welcome to the Halliwell family, were the ordinary stuff is weird and the odd stuff it's even weirder!

Chris signal Patty to come to him and sat her on his lap. Penny and Prue also ran to him, not wanting to miss his attention and somehow they managed to fit the three of them in Chris' overloaded lap, still he didn't seem to complain.

"See, baby" He said gently, caressing their hairs "We are not going to vanquish the elders."

"Why? They already told you they were going to let you leave?" Penny asked happily.

"No" Chris said plainly, but lovingly.

"Then?" Prue pouted genuinely sad.

"We can't vanquish the elders as if they were demons, cuz they are not… and you guys know that…they are the good guys."

"They don't look like good guys to me!" Penny pouted with glassy eyes, and she wasn't the only one that was getting teary, we all were! In their 1+12 childish mind, they were thinking what we were thinking. We all wanted to go back to childhood where 1+1 always equaled two! And it devastated us that the three kids had to become aware that that doesn't always happen so early in their lives.

"Yeah…we don't mean like vanquishing the good ones, like Lionel out there that was super nice." Patty explained agitated, as if we had misunderstood her, as looking for someone to tell her that what she had heard wasn't really what he had told her." I mean the BAAAADDD ones, the ones that don't let you come home with us, where you belong!"

Chris looked at the trio sadly.

"Chris… you've been away from home for too long!" Prue said sweetly hugging him. "It's time for you to come back already"

"Your family needs you!" Penny finished it and us.

My mom that was trying to remain calmed let go the sob of the century and broke down completely after hearing that. Dad ran to her and hugged her, kissing her temples. I wanted to go to… but I couldn't really move.

My eyes and Chris' were the only ones that still hadn't shed a tear. Wyatt was a sea of silent tears and he probably had to swim to get to me to hug me for comfort. I hugged him back, I wished I could have done it more affectionately, but I was so numb, it was like seeing myself from outside my body, as if I wasn't really there.

Grandpa was leaning against the wall… I guess, fearing that if he didn't have anything supporting him he might fall, he didn't look too good. I walked to him and Grandpa and Wyatt squished me with their lives… I guess that's what I get for being so god damn charming (HE-He! I wish!) or actually for being Chris' alternative life younger version (How weird does that sound, uh?).

"I wish it was that simple!" Chris voice broke, but he didn't cry, he hugged the three girls even closer to him and stared at a lost point on the wall.

Then Patty with the innocence of the childhood expressed with simplicity and ingenuity what we were all thinking.

"But I don't UNDERSTAND" She said sobbing "If they are good… why are they doing this to us?"

"Can't they see how much it hurts us all?" Prue added also crying.

"We love you Chris, we don't want you to go, can't you go tell them that? Tell them… that we really want you to stay! Tell them… that is time they give us back our cousin. Tell them… they had you for to long… now it's our turn! We need you!" Penny stressed the point dramatically through her tears.

"Yeah tell them that…!" Prue and Patty whispered sadly.

My mom's sobs intensified, if that was even possible, and she freed herself from dad and ran, sitting besides Chris on the bed. Hugging his face she kissed his temples, sobbing. Dad looked at him through his tear and pain stained eyes, it was almost as seeing someone ripping his heart open in front of us. Wy and grandpa were shaking uncontrollably.

"Everything is going to be fine." Chris told us all calmly and comfortingly, soothingly and softly, it was as if an aura of peace was emanating from his body, his eyes were drowning below those tears he wouldn't let fall. "Don't cry, Please don't cry… this might be my last few days, I don't want to spend them in tears. If I am going to live the life I worked so hard for, the life wanted, with the people I love, all alive and sane only for a few days, I don't want to waste them crying!"

"It's just…so unfair… all of it, Chris…it's going to be so hard to say goodbye to you again!" My grandpa said softly "We love you so much, champ!"

Chris smiled. "And it means everything to me that you do… I never wanted, never needed anything else…I will go happy knowing I saved you all!"

"It's not FAIR!" I said "You saved the world… you are the one that should be enjoying it…you more than anyone! And they want to vanish you? You saved them too!"

"YEAH IT'S NOT FAIR… You deserve to live more than ANYONE… MORE THAN ME… MORE THAN THE ELDERS… THEY SHOULD REWARD YOU…IT's NOOTT FAIR, NOT FAIR, NOT FAIR!" My passionate brother interrupted me yelling.

"Life is not always fair, Wy, but just seeing you standing like that, hugging him protectively as are you are doing right now, seeing what a great man you've become, makes it all worth it." He said still softly.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO… what's the point of being so powerful if all it's ever going to bring everybody is pain?" He threw himself to the floor and my grandpa kneeled down to hug him.

My dad was still staring from his spot, heart broken. Chris put the girls down and walked to him.

"Are you ok, dad?" He asked lovingly, my dad hugged him tightly.

"I don't know if I am strong enough to this again, Chris."

"Of course you will." Chris answered softly "Your family needs you."

"And I need you, Chris… you are my son…my father used to say that children are born to burry their fathers, that it should never be the opposite way around…I can't watch you die twice!"

"Don't worry, if the time comes, you don't have to watch me go…"

"NEVER… I am going to be there with you, I am going to be the last thing you see before… before… if we don't managed to save you… I am going to make sure I am the last thing you see…I am not going to let you go alone!" Dad said firmly.

"We'll all be there." My mom said pulling strength from some unknown place "But the battle is not lost yet… I am not giving up my baby without a hell of a fight!"

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Nathy1000000

Que bueno que te haya encantado! Si son los dos martyr complex neuroticos,… asi que se comprenden bastante bien. Si cuando Jake finalmente hizo presencia demostro ser un gran chabon : ) (me encanta cuando hablo de mis personajes como si fueran personas y no fuera yo la que los escribe para que hagan lo que yo quiero que hagan)

"me parece bien como mostrás a los elders, no como una unidad sino como una mezccla" Si ahora hay que hacer que de esa mezcla, la mitad mas uno vote por Chris … ademas en el show a veces aparecen elders macanudos

"...pero torturar a Chris? (Malos odiosos)." Lo se… they've gone to extremes… malos… como dice Patty… les go vanquish them… no todos… solo los malos.
"Pobre Chris, siempre sintiéndose culpable." Chris will be Chris.

"Y el event se acerca, se acerca." Lo se 4 dias y contando

"No, por ahora no me cuentes...me gusta el suspenso. Aunque si no lo aguanto te aviso! Así que voy a seguir esperando Dun Dun!" No falta tanto… calculo un capitulo por dia salvo que me zafe con alguna parte.

phoebe turner

TKS! Here you have… hope you enjoy it/

ilovedrew88

"Yep I have 12 siblings. Life at my house is kinda crazy but I love it." Wow that's a lot but I bet is fun… I have tons and tons of cousins and we are very close and I love it! "I can't believe Chris went up to elder land. Oh wait, yes I can, he's Chris." Totally… I was going to give you the same answer ! I hope you like this sad, but cute chappie too

FRENCH "Butt kicking" SPARKLES:

"I think they should speed Charmed up so that chris and wy are in their teen years. it would be so fun. Don't we all just prefer the older versions! " I know… specially with the little attention the pay to Chris in any form… that's sad "toddler wyatt is so cute...but their older versions are just better" Yeah toddler Wyatt is cute, but they don't make the kids do anything cute… so what's the point " esp chris YUM!" Triple YUM

"Chris' martyr complex contest - LOL! Ok i know dat wasn't suppose to be funny" OF COURSE it was supposed to be funny! Or at least I thought it was funny and it was true! They were like "NOOO I SHOULD DIE FOR THE WORLD" Y Chris… "NOOO I SHOULD" O Chris and blah… I am glad you liked it

"How dare they torture Chris. I'm gonna tourture them! grabs probes see how they like that! LOL!" I know… it seems to be a popular thought… so lets go all together and attack him!

I will always update for you, my darling.

teal-lover

"I know he's not supposed to talk back to his mother like that" Oh come on give the poor guy a break a teenager about to have a nervous break down! I am glad you found it funny " oh and I just thought of something--does he remember Bianca & um--you know:)" Yeah he does… he remembers everything… quite disturbing, uh? But that can be a funny talk between those two. Or even with Piper like

Piper: " Uh… Chris… I think it's time we have the talks of the birds and the bees…"

Chris: "Sex mom? Dude… I know about sex since I was born… you don't know what an animal Bianca was in the sack… all this kinky stuff she would come up with… and all this new positions."

Piper: "AH AH AH" I think I am having a heart attack!"
I promise I will do my best to save Chris :)… Promise… there are not many chapters left… so we'll know soon.

Victorious Light

"You know I actually thought you had updated yesterday, I have this fic on story alert, but I think my email is screwed a little, so I was glad to have a new email this morning with your fic in it!" I think I had updated that day really late the night before… but since you are in the UK… that means it was probably a very funky hour in the night for you or really early in the morning (I live in Argentina, south America), so I don't think there is a problem with the email, but with the whole time difference its sometimes hard to know.

"I liked at the beginning when Leo intervened between the arguments, he is very good at that" Yeah he is… always the voice of reason, but since he lost it so badly after Chris died the first time, I though I'd add a little of that too.

"I loved sarcastic Chris, though a little sharp handed with his Mum" Yeah… but well we have to give the poor guy a break he is a teenager about to have a nervous break down!

"Poor Piper, having the news of imminent death and losing her time travelling son too." Yeah but as a good mom, she is more worried about Chris and what might happen to her kids if she dies, than actually dying.

"I liked Wyatt again in this chapter, he is so protective, it's cute!" Yeah… they are all cute… I love Wy… he is adorable… though the Wy in the show was too good for my taste.
"
The door opening at the end is very ominous, I hope it's Leo " yeah you are good!

Nikki14u

I am glad you liked it… the next few chapters will come soon. I am with exams… so I can't leave the house, cuz I gotta "study" but then… oh.. miraculously whenever I sit down to study I have an idea and an URGE to write… go figure… haha… yeah… both of my stories are getting close to the finishing line, and both together… not that I've planned for that…weird…

Pukah

Yeah the Chinese torture encyclopedia and the medieval torture one that Chris lend me had a whole chappie on evil cliffies… you'll be shock what you can learn.

"Plus Chris is really really really really the worse martyr ever... He is like Jeanne d'Arc, William Wallace and saint Francis of Assis all in one. " Which of them?" Cuz Piper ruin the contest to see who was worst!

""I will never scare my family to death playing Martyr" ordered by Piper.
Plus a thousand:
"I will not traumataize my father again."
ordered by Leo.
Plus a thousand:
"I'm important, my family cares about me."
ordered by the psichiatrist Wyatt will arrange for him." Hehehehe that was funny. And yes… I swear that if they get out of this one, they keep them in a class of magic school for three day writing non stop!

"And you're right, there's some good elders too... pity they'll have to die with the rest when Psicho Chris attacks" Yeah I think if Psycho Chris go and talk to Patty, he will convince the kid for sure, and she will convince the other two… they are eight year olds… but they might help.

" by the way, I'm so sure they did hurt poor Chris more than what he shows! But of course, being him the martyr he is... tsk!" OF COURSE… you always read and interpret my stories better than I do… and that's not easy… cuz usually when someone interprets my story I am like Hmmm ok… if that's what's you think it's a free country… but NO… you…I read what you say, and most times its exactly what I thought when I wrote that particular line and even if I didn't think it when I wrote it's like yeah dude… that's exactly what I wanted to transmit and it's soo much better the way so thought about it!

"Is it the pink elephant?" Some day, some day… my little grasshopper… I am going to leave a cliffie of a door opening and a pink elephant will come through the door… I made Leo dance can-can around Chris cuz you said it and I thought it was funny… some day I'll get a pink elephant to come through a door.!

" It's good that sibilings play togheter... the fact that they'll be playing with their already dead Dad to make him deadder... well, it's a plus, isn't it?" HEHEHEHEHE yeah I think we'll have to send Piper a while after… Piper never lost it? I think cuz she is always yelling around, so she is mnever repressing anything! But then we can give her the tea and cookies Wyatt has for her and the speciall cookies Chris is brewing and let her wait while they kindly dismember the elder, right?

"" Como dice el chiste… jugamos a los muertos vivos? Tu te haces el muerto y yo me hago el "vivo". O al menos espero que en España usen "vivo" Para lo mismo que aca."
Creo que no debe significar lo mismo. Aqui vivo significa... bueno, vivo de por si, y tambien significa pícaro (vividor / jetas)." Si eso es lo que significa… y se supone que es una broma sexual por eso…

"Gracias, me alegro de que Truth te gustara!
" Truth es lo MASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS y un poco mas… you seriously have to find a ways to make it stop being charmed and publish it… its so good!

"And you got it! Yep, Piper died from a slowly disease, that's why Chris is so sure she can't be cured. And Leo was there the whole time, and probably did his best and did it fine, but at least for Chris it was too little too late and in the wrong moment. He wasn't in the mood of havong Leo being there, probably because it meant that it was important, that it was serious even if he didn't allowed himself to heed it. hehehe, por si no se nota es una de las cosas de las que estoy mas orgullosa de mi fic." Its like super great… I think its a great story and that you have the background and all… see eso es lo que hablabamos el otro dia… el tener idea de que es lo que le pasa al personaje, te da una idea del character, de como va a reaccionar y lo hace mas consistente… no que siempre lo tengas… pero muchas veces ayuda.
"The other think is the fact that everyone is guessing where psico Chris is and asking me hehehehe!" Bueno yo digo que esta descuartizando a Leo…pobrecito Leo, hace un ratito tenia a super cute 6 year old Chris y ahora esta siendo torturado por nuestro amigo Psycki

""Dad is not going to get in trouble because of me? Is he?" Chris pouted really, really sadly from my mom's lap.
This was so sweet I wanted to hug him! In fact I'm hugging unconscious psico Chris... (the rest said they weren't here to get hugged, go hug the mad one, you perv! TT I'm no perv.)"Hehehehehe NOOO tell them I say you are no pervy… come here and my Chris' and Wyatts allow people to hug them… I am glad you liked that aprt I thought it was sweet 2.

"And this os freaking poor Wyatt to the bones. The guy is kind of temperamental and emotional, isn't him?" Yeah… Wyatt is pure passion and more impulsive than anyone! He get's hit by a feeling, he gets overwhelmed by it and doesn't even stop to think about anything before he reacts…

Chris-Halliwell

"I'm a grasshopper now? My sister has a fanfictioner that calls her a grasshopper." Hehehehe… It's a line from an old, old TV show with David Carradine.

"Who's your other grasshopper?" Which other one? The big one? No big grasshopper, just you!

"How is the gagging, liquid-a-fieingness funny? It actually happened to Leo! " I don't know… it just was.
"Charmed just finished for me and Leo has joined the avatars! I can't wait till "Seventh Year Witch" it sounds so cool!" it was a cool episode… It will play an important part in the sequel of this fic.
"I'm scared, your vision of chris (younger) is like a magical, older (by like, uh, 2 years) martyr complexed version of me. The way he acts, talks etc. way" Well honey, he is you… of course is going to be a version of you with a lot of things in common and some differences too.
Who's at the door? Leo
Was I tortured? Yes
How could you? I didn't do it… the elders did it!
There are still good elders? Wow. See shocking! But we have to be nice to them… cuz they are going to be judging during the trial!