Love and Fear

Chapter 3: Desperation

Piper was sitting in a chair in her room, looking out of the window. It was almost five hours after Chris' outburst. She couldn't understand what had happened. She had thought that Chris finally believed her that she loved him. Why did he suddenly think that she hated him? What happened that he could think that? Okay, a lot had happened in the last weeks and months that could cause him to think like this, but two days ago they had worked things out and yesterday they had spent such a great day together – as a family.

"Hey, are you okay?" Paige suddenly asked from the door. Phoebe was standing beside her, also concerned about their older sister.

Piper turned around to them and snapped "My son's missing! Do you really think that I'm okay?"

Phoebe quickly went over to her and said soothingly "Piper, he's maybe just in the underworld. You know how obsessed he is with finding the demon who's after Wyatt."

"No Phoebe, he's not in the underworld" Piper said frustrated. "He's just hurt right now and I can't even help him!"

"Did Leo come back yet?" Paige asked carefully, not wanting to piss Piper even more.

"No, not yet" Piper sighed. Leo had gone to the Golden Gate Bridge to find their son immediately after Piper had told him about what had happened, but Chris hadn't been there. So he had said that he would try to find him somewhere else. But the truth was, how should he know where to look? They didn't know a thing about Chris, well at least not much. And certainly not things like where he goes when he wants to be alone or something like this.

"Don't worry, Leo will find him" Phoebe tried to comfort her.

"I hope so" Piper whispered dejected.

Leo was on the edge – literally. He was standing on the Golden Gate Bridge and tried for what seemed like the hundredth time to sense for his son, but it didn't work. "Chris!" he then yelled. "Please, if you can hear me, then come! Your mother is worried sick about you!"

Leo waited a few seconds but nothing happened. He sighed. What was wrong with Chris? Piper had told him about his outburst and he just couldn't believe it. If he wouldn't be so worried about his son right now then he would be very, very angry at him. Piper had been really upset about his behaviour and Leo just couldn't understand why he had acted this way. With a last try to sense for Chris, which failed like all the other tries before, he orbed back to the manor.

"Leo!" Piper exclaimed hopefully when she saw her husband orbing in. "Did you..." She trailed off when she saw Leo's dejected expression.

"I can't sense him" Leo admitted. He looked at Phoebe and Paige and asked "Could you scry for him?"

They shook their heads. "No, we tried it but it didn't work. We even tried to summon him but – nothing" Phoebe sighed and sat down on Piper's bed.

"Leo what's going on here?" Piper asked, getting scared. "Why did he suddenly think that I hate him?"

"I don't know" Leo said and knelt in front of her. He took her hands and squeezed them slightly. "But I swear we'll find him and then we'll give him a little talk, because he really needs to stop with blocking us out."

"And how are we going to find him?" Paige asked while she grabbed a picture from Piper's bedside table. It was the picture from Piper's future family.

"Do you really want to piss me off today?" Piper asked annoyed.

Paige sighed and sat beside Phoebe. "I'm just being realistic. I mean, he's blocking every way we could find him, so what shall we do?"

While everybody started to think of a solution Phoebe grabbed the picture out of Paige's hand. Immediately she was thrown into a premonition.

PREMONITION

Chris was sitting on the ground in a dark, lonely alley with his back leaning against one of the walls. He was crying and Phoebe could feel that he was incredible hurt and scared. Suddenly a tall man dressed in black appeared a few feets away from him. Chris didn't look up and the man summoned a darklighter crossbow in his hands. He pointed it at Chris and shoot...

END OF PREMONITION

"Oh my god" Phoebe gasped in horror.

"What happened? What did you see?" Piper asked frantically when she noticed that her sister had obviously gotten a premonition.

"Chris... he's attacked by a darklighter" Phoebe answered while she looked at the little brown haired boy on the picture.

Leo tried hard to suppress the panic and fear that came over him. "Do you know where he is?" he asked.

Phoebe shook her head. "I just saw that he's in some dark alley and..."

"A dark alley?" Paige interrupted her. "That means it's not going to happen until tonight, right?"

"Err... I don't know" Phoebe said uneasily. "But yeah, I think that would make sense."

"Or it happened already" Piper mumbled desperately. "He left when it was still dark outside, how do we know it hasn't happened yet?"

They all looked at each other and couldn't help but had to agree with Piper. Leo quickly took his wife in his arms when she started to sob slightly. "Shh... it's okay Piper, we'll find him. Don't worry..."

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Piper yelled furiously and pulled away from him. "Nothing's okay and we have no idea how to find him! So excuse me if I do worry!

"Piper calm down" Phoebe tried to sooth her. "Yelling at Leo won't help us to find Chris." She turned to her brother in law and said "Go up there and ask the other elders if they can do something and we'll going to check the book again."

Leo obeyed immediately and orbed away while the sisters went upstairs to the attic.

Never in his life Chris had wanted to call for his father as desperately as now. He was hurt and he needed him. The poison from the darklighter arrow that had hit him in the left shoulder a few hours ago slowly started to do its work. He shivered heavily while he tried to stop the bleeding with his right hand but it didn't really help.

He had to call for his dad. He would die if he didn't. He opened his mouth to call out for him, but then suddenly this annoying voice in his head started to talk again. "Do you really think he's going to come? He hates you too. He will be happy when you're finally dead."

"No..." Chris moaned in pain. "No, that's not true..."

Barbas sighed and said "You just need to remember." Then he stood up and used his powers to conjure a vision for Chris.

VISION/FLASHBACK

"Forget it Chris. This time I don't believe you. I trusted you but everything what you wanted was to get my son, right?" Leo said.

Chris shook his head. "No, I want to save him. You don't know how the future will look like. Wyatt will be the ruler of all evil and no one is save from him. He even tried to kill me."

Leo frowned confused as he heard the emphasis Chris used as he said me. "And why exactly would this be so horrible?"

Just like in old times, Chris thought at Leo's comment. "I almost forgot that for you it would be a reason to celebrate" he said bitterly.

"Well after what happened today, yeah I think it would be" Leo responded. He didn't see the hurt expression on Chris' face because Chris looked again down on the water. "And remember, if I ever see you in Wyatt's nearness again I'll make up for what I missed in Valhalla." With that he orbed away.

END OF VISION/FLASHBACK

Barbas knelt once again down to Chris and whispered "See, he hates you. He wanted to kill you. The only thing that kept him from doing it is that he's an elder. A pacifist. But that doesn't change the fact that he wants you dead."

Chris choked back a sob. The voice was right. Leo had always hated him even in his own time where he had known who he is. Why else would he have been there for everyone else, but not for him? He won't come, even if I try to call him, Chris thought to Barbas' satisfaction. It was this moment that Chris decided to let go. He took his hand away from his shoulder and tried to relax as much as he could, while the darkness slowly surrounded him...

TBC... (Evil cliffhanger, isn't it? Sorry... but if you want to know what happens, you know what you have to do! Review! ;) )