Love and fear

Summery: Sequel to "The picture". Phoebe and Paige will finally find out Chris' identity too. But when Barbas returns to confront Chris with his greatest fear will they be able to save him before it's too late?

Chapter 1: Aunties

Chris turned and tossed on the couch in the living room from the manor. He was having a nightmare from the day his mother had died. He could clearly see her beautiful face before him, trying to stay strong for him, telling him that she loved him. All that while she was lying in his arms, slowly bleeding to death. When she took her last breath he screamed out loudly and with that he woke up abruptly and sat up straight.

He needed a few seconds to take in his suroundings and to steady his breathing. Bright sunlight was shining through the windows and Chris tried to get the images from the worst day in his life out of his mind. A small smile spread across his face when he thought about the reason why he was lying here. Piper finally knew about him and she had said that she loved him. Not that everything had been easy in the last days, but he was glad that she found out.

Yesterday, after they had a nice dinner with Leo, she had asked him to stay in the manor. Reluctantly he had agreed and obviously he had fallen asleep during the movie they had watched because he couldn't remember the end of it. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone sqeal loudly. Alarmed Chris looked up and saw Phoebe running over to him with a smile on her face that was even brighter than the sunlight.

"There's my favourite nephew!" she exclaimed and before Chris could even react she was sitting beside him and hugged him tightly. A second later she pulled away and said "I still can't believe this. This is so exciting!" She once again embraced him. "Why didn't you tell us? You're Wyatt's little brother, this is so cute!" She pulled again away from him and pinched his cheeks. "You're going to be so cute! Oh gosh, when are you going to be born? Where did you get your name from? Am I a cool aunt? I bet I am..."

Chris just looked at her with a stunned expression on his face. When he looked over Phoebe's shoulder he could see Leo standing there, who watched them clearly amused. Chris mouthed a 'Help me' as Phoebe once again hugged him.

Leo continued to look at them for a few seconds but then he decided that his son really seemed to need help. Phoebe didn't seem to want to let go if no one stopped her. He quickly walked over to them and said grinning "Phoebe, I think your favourite nephew needs air."

"Oh sure, but I have to make it up for the last months" Phoebe said, not letting go of Chris. "I mean he kept this as secret and I didn't get to hug my nephew for four months! Now he has to live with the consequences."

"Seems like you forgot about this sort of future consequences" Leo said to his son while he sat down on the table in front of them.

"Very funny" Chris responded sarcastically. "Phoebe please... I really need to breathe."

Reluctantly Phoebe moved away from him. She turned to Leo and asked "Can I tell Paige? Oh she's gonna be so surprised! I wanna tell her, can I?"

"Geez, you sound like a kid on Christmas" Piper said smiling when she entered the living room.

"I can't help it, I'm so excited!" Phoebe exclaimed happily and threw her arms around Chris again.

"Mom! A little help here please" Chris whined a bit frustrated. "She's totally crazy."

Piper grinned before she walked over to them and pulled Phoebe away from her son. "Okay, it's really enough for now. You're gonna soffucate my son before I even get to know him."

"Oh okay, okay. But I can tell Paige, right?" Phoebe asked and stood finally up from the couch.

Piper nodded. "Yeah, you can tell her."

"I'm gonna call her" Phoebe said excitedly and started walking away. "I just hope that I'm not gonna bust and tell her on the phone because I want to see her face when she finds out." With that she was gone.

Chris sighed reliefed. "I thought she's gonna push all the air out of my lungs."

Piper and Leo laughed. "Breakfest is ready, are you hungry?" Piper asked her son.

"Err... listen I think I should go upstairs to the book. I think I have a lead on..."

"Who turns Wyatt, yeah I know" Piper finished. "You can do that after you've eat something and I'm gonna help you, got it?"

Chris nodded.

"Fine, then come on" she said and walked back into the kitchen.

Chris wanted to follow her when he noticed that Leo stared at him. "What?" he asked with a frown.

"Nothing" Leo answered quickly. Too quickly.

"Yeah I can see that" Chris said sarcastically. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just..." Leo stopped, searching for the right words. "Overwhelming."

Chris looked down at the floor before he asked "Do you mean that positive or negative?"

"It's absolutely positive" Leo answered immediately. He smiled at his son who had looked up at him again after this statement. Chris hesitantly returned his smile before the two went into the kitchen to join Piper.

Ten minutes later they sat in the dining room, eating Piper's pancakes. Chris had luckily managed it to sit away from Phoebe, who was still in the 'Hug-Chris-until-he-can't-breath' mode. However Piper had distracted her a bit and was talking with her about how and when Phoebe was going to tell Jason about the fact that she's a witch. Leo acted like he was listening to them but actually he didn't get a word they were saying. All he could think of was that the young man next to him was his son. His son. Oh god, he really had to get used to this first.

Suddenly Paige orbed into the room. "Good morning! What's the big news?" she asked Phoebe.

Jason immediately forgotten, Phoebe stood up and ran over to her. Chris wished he could just vanish while Phoebe hopped up and down in front of her younger sister. "You'll not believe it!" she exclaimed excitedly. "This is such a surprise. I was thrown from the loop when Piper told me!"

Paige stared at her for a few seconds before she turned to Piper and Leo. "Is she on drugs or what?" she asked before she noticed Chris' presence. "And what are you doing here?" she added harshly.

Piper and Leo winced when they heard Paige's tone. Worriedly they looked over to their son who just stared at the plate in front of him. "Paige! He's our..."

"Hey! You said I can tell her" Phoebe cut her off.

"Then just do it already" Piper said impatiently.

"Tell me what?" Paige asked curiously while she still eyed Chris with a not really friendly look.

Phoebe grinned at her and exclaimed happily "Chris is our nephew! He's Wyatt's little brother! Isn't this great? We'll have two adorable nephews! Oh, I'm so excited!"

"We get that already" Piper said annoyed.

Paige looked like she had just received a shock. "Our – our what!"

"Nephew! You know, just like Wyatt" Phoebe said slowly, like she was talking to a five-year old. "Piper's and Leo's son. Wyatt's little brother. Well, right now he's bigger than him, but still..."

"I'll go and check the book for something" Chris said suddenly, becoming very uncomfortable and orbed away before anyone could stop him.

Paige finally got in motion and sat down on a chair. "Is this a joke?" she asked, still not able to believe it.

"No, it's not" Piper said while she got up. "And I strongly advice you to be nicer to him. He's gone through too much already." With that she left the room to go upstairs to the attic.

"Chris is my nephew?" Paige asked Leo.

He nodded. "Yeah, we've found out yesterday. Believe me, it was also a shock for me but Piper's right. We all have a lot to make up to him after all we put him through. Sometimes we were just plain cruel to him."

"Oh my god, I can't believe this" Paige sighed, while she tried to deal with what Leo just told her. "The order... Piper kicked him out and none of us stopped her. Holy shit, this is bad..."

Phoebe was also a bit more serious now. She didn't even think about things like that until now. But they were right. Chris had come back to save them and all he'd got was distrust and hatred – from his own family. Phoebe swallowed hard. "Yeah this is really bad" she then agreed.

"You can't think like this" Leo interrupted their guilt trip. "Chris has already said that he forgives us. Of course that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to make it up to him but still, you shouldn't be too hard on yourselves. I mean, we didn't know who he is."

Phoebe and Paige slowly nodded their heads. "Okay, I want to hear the whole story now" Paige said after a while. "How did you find out?"

Leo sighed. He wanted to forget about yesterday and what Piper had done to Chris. And the conversation on the bridge was also not something he wanted to remember, but then he took a deep breath and told Paige about everything.

"Hey, are you okay?" Piper asked softly, worry evident on her face when she walked into the attic.

Chris looked up from the book of shadows and smiled slightly. "Yeah, I'm fine." He hesitated a second before he asked "How's Paige?"

"She's shocked" Piper answered and went over to him. "Give her some time to deal with it."

Chris nodded. "Sure. Does she..." he trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence.

"Does she what?" Piper asked curiously.

"Err... nothing, forget it" Chris answered quickly and started to leaf through the book again.

Piper smiled and put a hand on his arm. "You know this could have worked two days ago, but I can see that something's bothering you and I want to know it."

A few seconds passed before Chris finally spoke again, with his eyes still downcast. "Does she like me? I mean, as her nephew..."

Piper looked at him in sorrow when she once again realized how horrible they had treated him in the last months. He even asked himself if they liked him, yet alone love him. What did that say about her mother skills? She was about to say something when suddenly Paige's voice came from the door "Of course I like you as my nephew."

Chris looked up, surprised and a bit embarrassed. He knew he'd just sounded like a child, asking if his auntie like him or not. He didn't want her to hear it. But it was too late to change this now. He watched uneasily how Paige walked over to them.

"Chris I'm really sorry" she said immediately. "I can't even imagine how terrible..."

"It's okay" Chris quickly cut her off, knowing exactly what she wanted to say.

"No, it's not okay" Paige contradicted firmly. "You deserved better and..."

"Paige you didn't know who I am" Chris interrupted her again. "And I certainly didn't act like someone you can trust sometimes, so forget it, okay?"

Paige hesitated a moment and glanced over to Piper who looked proudly up at her son. A smile came across her face and she said "I won't just forget about it. I'll make it up to you. How about we go shopping? I mean, you really seem to need some new clothes and I'm your aunt. I've got to spoil you a bit."

"That's really not necassery" Chris said. After a second he added "But you could help me to keep Phoebe away from me. She's acting a bit crazy today..."

Paige laughed slightly. "Deal."

Barbas watched from the corner from the attic how Piper, Paige and Chris left the room. He had heard every word they had said and it had been very easy to find out the greatest fear from the boy. He smirked evilly. Actually he had planned to attack the sister again but this was better. Chris was Piper's son and her greatest fear was to lose him. He could get them both if he was careful. And then he would finally get his revenge.

TBC... (I hope you liked the first chapter. Please review!)