He did it for me

Chapter 9

By: teal-lover

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Being twice blessed, Wyatt thought that nothing could ever hurt him. It's devastating to find out how wrong you can be. Takes place in the future that Chris changed.

Chris just turned 19, and Wyatt is three months shy of his 21st birthday.

Disclaimer in chapter 1


Penny wandered down the long hallway in search of her great-grandson. She found him in the room he had designated as his own for the past several years. Pushing open the door, "Chris?" She questioned gently.

When he didn't seem to hear her, she paused and watched him bouncing the basketball she had given him to keep him occupied. He continued to ignore her so she asked him again, "What are you doing?"

He bounced the ball harder and gritted his teeth, "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Faster than Chris ever thought she could move, he looked up in surprise as Penny grabbed the ball in mid air and held it under her arms. "Don't you take that tone with me, young man."

He glared for a moment before he lowered his eyes down to the floor. "What do you want? Don't you have your hands full with the Boy Genius?"

Penny sat down next him, "No, I think I have my hands full with you. Why are you being so snippy with me? Now I know you're upset with your family, but have I ever given you reason to be upset with me?"

"No." he said reluctantly. "And I don't have any family. Except maybe you, Aunt Prue, and Grandma Patty."

"What about Piper, Leo, Paige, Phoebe? They're your family?"

Laying down, he clasped his hands behind his back as stared up at the ceiling. He muttered quietly, "No, my family's been dead for a long time. And the worst part about being dead like this is that I'll never see them again. I always thought that if I died, it would be ok because I'd get to see my mom again. But I guess now that I've erased that future, she's gone right along with it."

Penny reached out and pulled him into a sitting position. She knew that he needed the comfort of family right now, and decided to wrap her arms around him. "Darling, you mother's not dead. She's alive and well—all because of you. And so is the rest of your family."

He scoffed angrily, "Like I care!"

Sighing heavily, Penny made a decision to press further about his feelings before she mentioned her ulterior motive for being in his room. "Chris, I know you're angry at them in general, for not looking for you. But what specifically about them bother's you the most?"

Chris was tempted to tell her to simply go away and leave him alone, but the look of genuine concern on her face compelled him to answer truthfully. He no longer had any secrets or the guise of future consequences to hide behind. For most of his life, he was so used to being independent and relying on no one but himself. And as a result years ago, the thought of opening up to someone would have made him cringe. But as he glanced at Penny Halliwell out of the corner of his eye, he was reminded that she was one of the few people that he truly believed cared about him. He no longer felt the need to hold back his thoughts and feelings.

He took a deep breath and answered sadly, "I just wish they hadn't even pretended that they cared about me."

At his crestfallen look, she waited patiently for Chris to gather his thoughts. When he finally began again, it was as if a damn had burst as the words rolled off his tongue.

"It would have been so much easier if they had just acted like they had in the beginning. Did you know that back then, they hated me? Didn't trust me? Thought I was evil? Threw me out of my own house, cursed me off, and even tried to kill me?"

At her incredulous look he quickly cleared up, "Ok, well maybe not kill me. But at the very least, they all wanted to kick my ass at one time or another. And even when they started to come around, they still really only tolerated me. But then the day I thought I was going back to the future, they hugged me and said how much they would miss me and all. And for the first time, I felt—I don't know. Like I belonged. But it wasn't really true. They adjusted just fine without me. Like it didn't even matter what Gideon did. Cause I didn't really mean anything to them. I was just the irritating whitelighter from the future. I was just some unreal version of the son they were going to have."

"That's not how they felt, and you know that. They loved you. but they've always thought that you were a part of their Christopher."

Chris shrugged nonchalantly, "Who cares. I don't need them just like they didn't need me."

Penny raised her eyebrows slightly in disbelief, "You don't mean that. You miss them, don't you?

"NO!" he answered abruptly. "Well maybe a little."

Deciding that now was a good time to spring it on him, she added conspiratorially, "How would you like to see them again?

"I can see them anytime I want. I can look in on them just as well as you do."

"No, I mean—see them. In person. Talk to them. Interact with them."

Narrowing his eyes warily, Chris asked her, "What's the catch?"

She deftly avoided his question answering, "Well, you always wanted to get to know Wyatt. Now's your chance."

Chris laughed, "Why, so I can see what I've been missing? And besides, you didn't answer my question, Grams. What's the catch?"

Hesitantly, she mumbled "Uh. We don't—tell them—who you really are."

His smile quickly faded as his voice grew bitter again, "Because I'm not their precious little boy that they've watched growing up?"

Penny shook her head adamantly, "No, Chris. Because in their eyes—you ARE that little boy. They simply don't know that there are two of you. And you won't get to know them, really talk to them, if they're distracted by the fact that both of their second-born son's are dead." She knew her reasoning was shaky at best, but hoped that his desire to be with his family again would outweigh his rationality. She decided to dangle one last proverbial carrot on a stick and use his favorite pastime against him. She added in a sing-song voice, "You can play some basketball with Wyatt."

His green eyes flashed with excitement at the possibility before he relented. He quickly schooled his expression and acted as if he were doing her a favor, "Well. I suppose I'll go if you insist…" He added as an afterthought, "What about Christopher", he asked shyly as if he feared the rug would be pulled out from under him if he didn't tread carefully.

Penny smiled broadly, "He's agreed to stay here. He thinks you should go."

Chris questioned once more for clarification and tested some of the nicknames he remembered his family giving him, "But I can't tell them that I'm their "irritating" "pushy" "future-boy" "creepy-pod-people-smiling" whitelighter from the future where Wyatt was evil?"

"I wouldn't recommend it. But we do have some work to do, so it won't be all fun and games…We still have to find out who killed Christopher, and why."

At the mention of the second version of himself, Chris glanced down at his own wardrobe and noticed his lack of more recent and stylish clothing. He smiled sinisterly at the thought of usurping anything of the young man's in a mild form of payback. "Well if I'm going to go meet the family, I guess I'm going to need new clothes." As he imagined snatching the clothes off the younger boy's back, he added with grin, "And I know just where to get em'."

Tbc…

AN: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS!

I'm hoping to add Wyatt back to the next story now that he's had his breakfast. (and since it's supposed to be a story about him & his brother after all.) But, I guess it's just going to be longer than I planned.