He did it for me

Chapter 26

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

AN: Hey, what do you know—one more Chris/Wyatt chapter. The family was going to be in this, but I had to break up the chapter for consistency because it was so long. So, I'll split it into about 3-4 parts. They're definitely in the next. Unless, of course—you would prefer to see what's up with Christopher? You decide:)

€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#

"PLEASE! You have to help us," Penny pleaded with hands together. "This isn't right what they're doing…"

The man shook his head sorrowfully, "Penny, you know I would love to help you, but I'm supposed to remain neutral. If I step in and bring him back, it could seriously shift the balance."

Penny sighed in resignation as she closed her eyes. She wasn't ready to give up, but his refusal was now going to force her to make light of certain facts. For the past few hours, she had pushed them to the back of her mind, as if doing so would mean that it wasn't true. But deep down, she knew otherwise. Fortunately, her granddaughter didn't know the full extent of the problem. And she wasn't about to add more worry lines to the poor thing's face.

The older woman took her granddaughter aside and spoke in a hushed voice, "Prue? Would you excuse us for just a moment?"

"Why?"

She lied very convincingly, "Because now it's time to call in that favor, and I have to mention a few things that he's very sensitive about—and well, I'm one of the only people who knows about them. Trust me, he won't even acknowledge that it happened with anyone else in the room. It's ok, Dear. Just wait for me outside, ok?"

Nodding reluctantly, Prue did as she was asked throwing only a parting glance her way. No sooner had the door closed that Penny admonished the man, "He is nineteen years old. He's a good boy, always has been. He doesn't deserve this."

The man eyed her somberly, "I know he doesn't. Believe me I do. I'm sorry Penny, but no. I can't help you this time."

She grabbed his arm as he started to walk away, "You know that they will stop at nothing to get what they want from him, especially if they were willing to bring demons onto a spiritual plain. They knew they couldn't get the information from the rest of us. So they took him—now just what do you suppose is going to happen? Christopher has not crossed over yet. He can still feel pain. You know as well as I do that they will torture that boy until there is nothing left of his soul. You have to help him, please?"

"Penny—"

"You OWE me!"

Beginning to loose his temper, he shrugged out of her grasp. "Woman you are my friend, but you are also trying my patience. It was his time, and I can't just ignore the rules and give Christopher his life back."

She shot back quickly, "I'm not asking you to. Clarence, please? You're an angel of death, and it's your job to guide good souls to their afterlife. If he was destined to die, then you know that his soul can't make it there if they destroy it in the process!"

"You don't want his soul to cross over. That's why you intercepted him and didn't take him there to begin with. Now, I've already broken the rules for you by allowing you to prevent both Chris' from reaching their final destination. None of this would have even been necessary had you not interfered. And now, you want him alive."

Penny admitted, "You're right. I won't deny it. I want him safe and alive and back with his family. But if that's not possible—I DO NOT want to loose him altogether. Come on, you remember Jeremy Wentworth. He never crossed over and he went crazy."

"He was crazy when he got here," he scoffed angrily.

"Maybe he was, but still—he was a good person to begin with. When that other boy followed him—and how that bad little seed ever ended up in any place other than hell, I'll never know—"

"Ricky saved someone's life selflessly at the expense of his own just before he died." He rolled his eyes distastefully, "That automatically gets you a free pass, no matter how rotten you were in life."

Penny ignored his pointed glare and continued with her story, "but he screwed him up completely. Harassed and bullied him to the point where he pushed poor Jeremy over the edge. And as a result, where did he spend the rest of his dead-but-undead life?"

He admitted reluctantly, knowing what her point was going to be "On earth."

She crossed her arms and asked smugly, "Doing what?"

"Terrorizing the living as a violent poltergeist. Yes, I know Penny. But Christopher wasn't already on his way to a loony bin when he got here. Jeremy was."

Agitation rolled off her shoulders as she glared stonily at him. "And you think this isn't enough to change that? In good conscience, how can you let this go on?"

Sighing loudly, Clarence stared up at the ceiling before answering. "I guess I can't. Alright, Penny. You win. I will help you get Christopher back—but I WILL NOT bring him back to life. If that's his destiny, you and the rest of his family will have to figure out a way around that. I'll have to plead his case…"

"I know." She said eagerly.

"And you'll have to find a place to keep him…"

She smiled warmly before enveloping the angel in her arms, "He's not a puppy, Clarence."

Pulling back slightly, he raised an eyebrow in mock annoyance at the woman, "I meant keep him from the Elders and the others until I do that…"

Crossing her heart with her fingers, she smiled sweetly, "I promise. I will take him to a safe place to keep him away from them—as soon as you bring him back to us. I'll start looking right now. In fact, I think I already know just the place. How can I ever thank you?"

He bent down and kissed the top of her hand in a gentlemanly gesture before winking. "I'll think of something…"

Strolling off, Clarence shook his head at the flirtatious way she batted her eyelashes at him and the girlish giggle that escaped her lips.

As Prue reentered, she thumbed in his parting direction as she asked, "Grams, why is he smiling like that? Is he going to help?" Facing the older woman, she studied her carefully, "Are you ok? You look a bit flushed." Her question causing Penny to turn a brighter shade of crimson with embarrassment.

Bypassing her granddaughter to avoid looking at her, she answered while Prue trailed behind her. "I'm fine, Dear. Yes, he's going to get your mother and Christopher back for us. So for the moment, we only need to find someplace to take them upon his return."

"How about with Wyatt? His shield and that spell must make a really powerful block if they still can't find Chris."

"My thoughts exactly. Let's go. Besides, I think it's time you met your other nephew."

€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#

At the Cabin…

"…yeah but you know the funny part? Until I was almost eleven, I never knew the word "DUCK" used to refer to an animal," Chris joked.

Laughing animatedly, Wyatt's eyebrows raised inquisitively, "Well, what did they call them when you did finally figure it out."

"Extinct. When I came here, I was completely blown away when we brought you to the park one day. This duck waddled up to your stroller and I tried to get Piper to vanquish it." Chris rolled his eyes as Wyatt began laughing heartily, "Give me a break, I didn't know what it was since I'd never seen one before. They couldn't stop rolling on the ground laughing. I didn't think it was that funny." Chris glared at the older boy doing much the same thing, "It's still not that funny! I was trying to protect you…" Chris pushed Wyatt off the bed as he demanded, "Stop laughing!"

Undeterred by the landing, Wyatt continued with his boisterous laughter. "You wanted to vanquish a duck?"

Settling down moments later, Wyatt held his hands up in mock surrender as Chris crossed his arms, glaring down at him petulantly. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry I laughed at you."

Chris snorted while extending his hand to help him up, "As soon as we leave here, I'm going shopping to get the pinkest—most frilly—tutu I can find to stick you in, you know that, right?"

"Hmmph. I only made a deal like that because I know you're not going to need it." He glanced at the clock beside the bed, amazed that they had been talking for hours. "You know it's getting really late. Are you tired yet?" the blonde asked.

"Noooo," he yawned.

"Sure you're not. Wow. I can't believe all of the things you've been through. And you've done so much in your short life. No offense or anything, but I'm actually kind of surprised you still have your sanity."

His green eyes twinkled with amusement, "That's kind of debatable. At least according to your family. I was a neurotic nutcase. Of course they never bothered to ask why I was like that." His expression suddenly dispirited, "I could never give them any real details about the future or their lives or anything. But I could talk about myself because it wouldn't have harmed the future any, especially if they succeeded in changing my life. If they had asked me, I would have told them. But not once after they found out who I was—NOT ONCE did they ever ask me. They never cared. Oh wait, you know what, I'm wrong. The only time they ever cared enough to ask me anything, was because they were under a spell. Phoebe asked me how I got my name."

"Dad's father."

"Yeah. I guess it was too much of a bother to actually talk to me…"

"Chris—"

"Don't try to make it better, Wyatt. It's the truth." He added bitterly, "Grandpa knew more about me in the one and a half hours he spent with me than the one and a half years they did. You know it was bad enough growing up in this family with a surname that did nothing but draw a demonic bulls eye on your chest. But in a way, they were the ones who made me the way I am—at least them from my timeline. Yet they could care less for the reasons."

"Yeah, I guess living with a lunatic brother bent on world domination wasn't easy," Wyatt joked.

Chris' green eyes locked with his brothers as he spoke honestly. The pain in them causing the blonde haired man to fidget uncomfortably. "Actually, that part wasn't so bad. Because I knew deep down he still cared about me. In fact, I was probably the only one he ever really cared about. It took awhile before things started to go downhill."

Almost afraid to ask and hear the unfortunate answer, Wyatt decided that it was most likely now or never and asked shyly, "When was that?"

Lowering his eyes, his voice quivered a bit as he responded, "When I turned fourteen."

"What happened?"

The brunette shook his head furiously, his eyes glazed over with tears threatening to spill over, "I don't want to talk about it. I can't Wyatt…"

Wyatt refused to give up now that he was so close, "Then how about we have a go at what happened back at the Manor. You know when Aunt Phoebe and I shared one of your memories. Just like a premonition. Chris, I can see how much it bothers you. So maybe I can help you to put it out of your mind so you can finally let it go."

Sighing reluctantly, Chris gave a small nod. "What do we do?"

"Just take my hand. I'll do the rest."

Through the memory, it seemed like hours later, but was actually only several minutes. Wyatt was in shock of what he had witnessed himself, and could only imagine the horror of what Chris must have went through at such a young age. He wrapped his arms around the younger boy, trying to ease the pain of the memory as he relived it. "Dad never came, did he?"

"He came. For the first time in over a year. But it was too late by the time he decided to grace us with his presence."

Wyatt shook his head in disgust, "What a bastard."

"Yeah," he offered with a grim smile, "but I got my birthday wish."

He winced at the response, "Oh, man. I'm sorry you had to go through any of that."

Ignoring his platitudes, Chris whipped his head around angrily, "Wyatt could have done something."

"He didn't have a choice, Chris. He did the only thing he could. I'm not evil, but I'm sorry—if faced with a choice like that—I would do the same thing. She would want it that way."

"Maybe."

Wyatt didn't respond, instead hunching his shoulders as he looked around alertly. He whispered, "Do you hear that?"

Chris mimicked his actions exaggeratedly, "No."

Wyatt glared at the boy for a moment before he slipped off the bed stealthily. "This is no time to fool around. Someone's here. And I cloaked my presence from everyone. So no one should have been able to find us—and it feels like they're trying to get through my shield. It also feels like an Elder. If they were responsible, I'm not gonna' let them get to you. I promise." He held his hand out silently and called for Excalibur before turning to head for the door, the younger of the two hot on his heels. Annoyed by his new shadow trailing him, he spun around and hissed, "Stay here!"

"No, this is ridiculous. I can help you. Besides, I was hunting demons while you were still crapping your diapers. I'm going."

Wyatt narrowed his eyes and ignored the dig, "In case you forgot, you don't have any powers right now. So the best you can do is mouth off to them, which you seem to be pretty good at. I said I would take care of this. And you're staying here while I do."

"No. I don't want you risking your life for me. Wyatt if they're here for me, it doesn't matter—I'm already dead and I don't want you joining me."

"Chris, I'll be fine. If things get out of hand, I'll orb back up here to get you since I'm the only way you can get out of here anyway. So I promise—I won't do anything stupid. Now grab the Book, and be ready if we have to run again." Seeing him ready to protest again, Wyatt cut him off quickly, "Please, Chris. Do this for me, ok?"

Chris practically snorted in irritation, "Fine. But you better come back." He placed his hand on the Book of Shadows, pacing nervously as the Twice-Blessed Witch tip-toed out of the room and crept down the stairs to face the unknown…

TBC…..