He did it for me
Chapter 10
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
After Wyatt had finished his breakfast, he sat at the kitchen table watching his Godmother do the dishes. He suddenly had a doubt, but didn't want to worry her any further.
The woman hadn't even turned around when she spoke, "What's on your mind, Wyatt?"
He choked back the cider he was drinking as he thought, 'She must have eyes in the back of her head.' Out loud, he merely asked her "How do you know that something's on my mind."
Putting the dish towel down, she smiled and sat down at the table with him. "Because I know you. And you're suddenly very quiet. That always means your thinking."
"Oh." He said as he avoided her eyes in embarrassment.
Sheila chuckled softly at his reaction, "What did you think that I had eyes in the back of my head?"
"Of course not!" he half laughed indignantly to cover himself.
She prompted him again, "So what is it? You want to go over there, don't you?"
He sighed heavily, "Yeah. How am I going to face mom and dad? Knowing that I killed their son?"
"But you didn't" she pointed out.
"Well maybe not physically," he insisted, "but I was sure responsible for it happening. Aunt Sheel—I've never been so scared in my life." His voice grew steadily faster and louder as he started to panic. "But what if I fail? What if I can't bring him back? What am I going to do?"
Sheila grabbed both of his hands to calm him, "Calm down, Wyatt. You many not even need to do anything depending on what your family comes up with. You need to talk to them first before you do anything. Besides, whatever you do—you will not fail. You'll do just fine. I have faith in you. You just have to have a little in yourself as well."
Wyatt immediately felt comforted by her words of encouragement. "You know, Chris is always saying that to me. If they don't find a way—you know he's probably depending on me to do this for him. After all, he did it for me, right?"
She nodded with a slight curl of her lips, "Right. But you still need to talk to your family first."
He asked hesitantly, "Will you come with me?"
"Did you even need to ask?"
Back at the manor, Paige had excused herself to go and get dressed before they explored what was going on, while Phoebe left to inform her family of the situation.
Both nervous parents paced the attic in the younger sisters' absence. It was Piper that noticed the pages of the Book of Shadows fanning on their own. She tapped her husband to get his attention, "Leo, look!"
He rushed over to the book and looked up excitedly after his eyes glazed over the familiar spell the pages opened up to. "It's the summoning spell."
Piper's breath caught in her throat as she anticipated being able to see her son again. "Do you think it could be Chris trying to contact us?"
"I don't know. But there's only one way to find out. Grab the candles, I'll get your sisters."
Piper raced downstairs and into her bedroom to find the candles they usually used for summoning their grandmother. She skidded into the room, her heart pounding nearly as bad as it had when she had run to the house the previous night.
Scanning the room quickly, she wasn't sure where she had left the candles since she hadn't used them in such a long time. With a frustrated growl, she tore things from the shelves and discarded anything that didn't remotely resemble something she could light. Which meant that the room was in utter chaos when she finally found the scented candles she was looking for and dashed back up the steps.
Out of breath, she gasped to Leo and her sisters awaiting anxiously in the attic, "I found them…"
One by one, the sisters each lit a candle and squeezed each other's hands as they began to recite the once familiar chant to summon their grandmother.
In the center of the circle, the white orbs coalesced slowly. Everyone held their breaths in unspoken hopes that Chris would return.
When Piper recognized the familiar form, she quickly felt her heart sink. "Grams."
The older woman pretended to be annoyed by her despondent reaction and replied sarcastically, "Well. It's good to see you too."
Piper was too disappointed to speak and looked to Leo to fill in her missing words.
He took his cue from the pleading look in his wife's eyes and stepped forward to greet Penny Halliwell. "Hello Penny. It really is good to see you, and Piper doesn't mean any offense. But something terrible has happened and we were kind of expecting someone else."
Penny feigned surprise, "Why—whatever do you mean?"
Phoebe was all too familiar with the avoidance tactic her grandmother used. After all, she had used the same on the woman many times in her rebellious youth. "You know, don't you?"
"Well, since you asked. Yes, as a matter of fact—I do."
Piper asked hopefully, "Have you seen him? Is he ok?"
"Ok-is not really the word I would use, but I have seen him."
Looking to her oldest living granddaughter, Penny spoke serenely to the distraught mother. "Don't worry, Dear. I don't believe this was supposed to happen, and I'm sure we'll find a way around it."
"But I need to see him Grams! I can't loose him again."
Penny nodded with a cheshire-like grin, "Well, maybe I can arrange something for you?" She tuned to them and cautioned, "But just remember—he's been through a lot. So don't overwhelm him."
The older woman walked over to the center of the room and stepped out of the circle to become corporeal. She chanted something incoherent to the others to appear as if she were reciting a spell to call their son/nephew.
In actuality, the chant was just for show so that the family wouldn't take it upon themselves to summon the young man. It was a rare known fact that once a spirit had been summoned, that spirit could in turn communicate and summon others. And the Halliwell matriarch had counted on them not knowing that particular fact.
Chris and Penny had already planned when he would appear to them at her beckoning. She was mumbling under her breath the words to a song that had been one of her favorites in her flower-child days before she mentally told him to appear.
Hearing his great-grandmother call for him, Chris took a deep breath and prepared to greet his family once again. And once again, he was going to see them under false pretenses. For the second time meeting him since he returned to the past, they would not know who he really was. And now that it was time to do it again, for that—he was glad. He took a deep breath and materialized in swirl of soft yellow and white shimmering lights.
Piper saw the dark haired, green-eyed young man slowly coalescing in the center of the circle at her grandmother's summoning. In her minds eye, it had only been less than a day since she had seen her youngest son, but it felt like an eternity. She rushed forward to meet him on unsteady legs. "Chris…" she murmured softly.
The butterflies doing summersaults in Chris's stomach rapidly turned to a heavy weight bearing down on him. At seeing his family again; all at once, the emotional turbulence he had experienced since he died many years ago flooded back. Simultaneously, he felt anger at them for giving up on him; hurt by them for dismissing him; and scared of the rejection and disappointment he knew in his own mind they would display if they found out who he really was.
On instinct, he took one step back from them at each step forward they took.
Raising outstretched arms, his mother called his name again. Piper halted in her tracks as soon as she saw him backpedaling. 'What's wrong with him?' she thought to herself. "Oh Sweetie, I'm sorry I wasn't here to stop this from happening…"
Piper took another step forward but stopped again when she saw the momentary surge of anger that flashed in his sage-green eyes. The anger, she half expected since she too blamed herself for his untimely demise. But she was completely stunned by the reaction that followed. The anger was quickly replaced by a hesitant look of fear as he distanced himself both mentally and physically from everyone in the room. His wide-eyed and wary expression reminded her of wounded puppy.
She wasn't sure what to do herself, but she turned and silently pleaded with her husband to do something.
Leo and Paige were both confused by Chris's reaction to them as they were expecting a much warmer welcome. They both stepped forward and tried to calm the boy, but an outstretched arm across Leo's chest coming from the empath stopped him. Paige's arm was grabbed by her grandmother to halt any advancement.
Phoebe, on the other hand, remained as far back as possible sensing the intense emotions emanating from the dark-haired teen. She was surprised by his fear directed toward them but remained calm and impassive. She put her hands up letting him know that she was not approaching him, "It's ok, Chris. Do you know where you are? Who we are?"
Chris was ready to give up now and throw in the towel before he even spoke to them. He had been so sure that he could get past the despairing feelings they brought up in him, but now he didn't think it was possible. He lowered his head sadly, avoiding the question and suddenly finding his shoelaces extremely fascinating.
Penny shook her head at the absurd question Phoebe had just asked and brushed her aside strolling over to Chris. She knew he would not retreat from her and stood as a barrier between him and the rest of the family. Having known him for so long, she had a feeling that he would react this way, and had been prepared for it. She also knew that with the right encouragement from her, he could get past it.
As she started to speak to him, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the others were cautiously moving forward. Her head shot up with a glare warning them away.
Piper began to protest to the silent warning, "But he's my—"
Penny quickly lost her patience deciding that her great-grandson was her only concern for the moment. She verbally lashed out at them, "I don't care! Stay back! I asked you not to overwhelm him." Pointing to the other side of the attic, "Now go over there!" she ordered.
The Charmed Ones reluctantly followed Leo to the opposite end of the attic. They tried to listen in to what their grandmother had been whispering to the young man. They got nervous when he shook his head negatively and seemed to pull away. 'Where was he going? NO, don't let him leave!' They all seemed to think with worried glances to each other. However, the family on the opposite end were all amazed at how quickly Penny was able to calm him, as if she had been doing it for some time rather than simply overnight. When she kissed his forehead and murmured something to him, Chris seemed to relax considerably and even formed the beginnings of a smile as she stared into his green depths.
Penny took his hand and gently led him over to the rest of his family. "Darlings, I've mentioned that Chris is having quite a difficult time with this situation, so I need your word that you will not push him." She waited for a nod from each head before continuing. "Good. Then one more thing. Chris has a question for you." She turned to him and nodded for him to ask.
Chris rubbed the back of his neck and mumbled hesitantly, "Um. Is Wyatt here?"
Of all of the questions they were prepared to answer, that certainly hadn't been one of them.
Tbc…
AN: Sorry this took so long to update, but I was away for a few days with no access to the internet. But I was so thrilled when I got back to find so many wonderful reviews & that you guys really like the story. That really makes my day, so thank you soooooooo much.
