He did it for me
Chapter 29
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, sorry about the extreme cliffy with Christopher. Those damned Cliffhangers Anonymous classes just aint working for me;)
And a HUGE THANK YOU all for so many wonderful reviews that I just don't know what to say. I'm positively speechless, so I decided to write a longer chapter to express at least some of my gratitude. Enjoy:)
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Everyone gaped both in shock and anticipation at the figures that had strolled over to the dark-haired young man, guarding him protectively. More specifically, they gaped at the younger of the two women whom they hadn't seen in decades, and some present had never laid eyes upon her at all save in photographs.
Despite their outstretched hands and obvious tears of affection, Prue did not seem even the slightest bit interested in a warm and heartfelt reunion. She only glared at her family in response, her icy-gray eyes casting a chill over the room. Of course, with the exception of her two nephews with whom she held no grudge against. For the first time in years, she had come face to face with the only people in her life that she had once held in such high regard, and had effectively let her down.
She loved her family, without a doubt, but their willful neglect of her nephew angered and hurt her far too much to let the issue slide. One look at Penny's intimidating stance told her that she was not alone in the feeling. And now that everything was out in the open, she was free to express those feelings to those that she felt needed to hear them.
She let the displeasure seep through her voice as she heard Leo mumble a disconcerted, 'excuse me?'. "You heard me. I said you—none of you—bothered to find out, did you?"
Her eyes never leaving the older adults in front of her, her voice softened a bit as she extended a hand to her right, "I'm your Aunt Prue. It's nice to finally meet you, Wyatt. Though I wish it were under better circumstances."
He took the outstretched hand in awe, her powerful presence radiating strength in the simple gesture. "Likewise." he stammered simply.
Paige had watched the interaction intently before finding her own voice and stepping forward, "I'm Pa—"
Prue cut her off brusquely, "I know who you are. Don't get me wrong dear, I've pretty much watched you grow up, and I've grown to love you as much as my other sisters. But this major screw up on all of your parts doesn't sit well with me. It's certainly not going to get any of you on my welcoming list."
Most in the room had been stunned by the cruel dismissal, especially Paige who looked vaguely reminiscent of a dear caught in headlights. The remaining Charmed sisters, however, were used to the bluntness of the older one, and immediately stood rigidly on the defensive.
Phoebe was at a loss for words and only managed to parrot a response, "SCREW UP!"
Penny and Prue both answered at the same time, "Yes."
Piper raised her voice incredulously, "You act as if we did it on purpose!"
"Well did you?" Prue half laughed.
"Of course not!" everyone fired back simultaneously, Piper being the loudest.
Penny tried to be a little more diplomatic in her approach, "You ALL made a major miscalculation Piper. Not once did you ever question the how-the what-or the why. I'm very disappointed in you because I know I taught you better than that."
"You didn't teach us anything! All you did was leave us a damn book!" Piper declared angrily.
Annoyed at the accusation, Penny tried to reason with the distraught mother, "I taught you growing up to always look for the least obvious answer. To always question things that you're instincts told you weren't right, and then to fight to make them so. Your instincts and ability to think outside the proverbial box are what made you excel at everything you've ever done. Made you one of the greatest witches this world has ever seen. But for some reason, you chose to ignore all of those instincts in Chris' case. You made the wrong choice. This was a huge mistake. And now you have to face the consequences of that mistake."
Piper hissed at Penny, "There would beno consequences if you hadn't taken it upon yourself to keep his very existence a secret. You had absolutely no right to do that! So if you want to talk about mistakes, there you have it. You made the wrong decision by not telling us!"
The matriarch shook her finger at the younger woman, her eyes and tone flashing angrily, "And you made the wrong decision by not asking me. DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO SHOULDER THIS RESPONSIBILITY ON ME, MISSY. Had you asked, I would have told you were he was. But I refused to let you hurt that boy any more than you already had. You were irresponsible Piper! Irresponsible in your motherly duties and there's no excuse for that!" She glared around the room before continuing, "There's no excuse for any of you—mother, father, aunts—all magical beings who should have known better."
Piper's mouth fell open in shock at the harsh words coming from the older woman. Practically the only mother she had ever known, the woman had never so much as looked at her crossly in her life, let alone scolded her so sharply. She glanced at her husband, who also stared back mutely.
If Piper and Leo thought that this fight was all theirs, they were mistaken as Phoebe and Paige jumped in admonishing their grandmother while the couple shrunk back and digested her words.
Paige held her fingers up close together, "And in all these years, you couldn't have even made one little suggestion?"
The empath furthered, "…even a small hint that they weren't one in the same! SOMETHING that would have put us on the right path and made us question what happened to him?"
Prue's blue-gray eyes flashed with fury at her now middle sister. "Why should you have needed to question what happened? You know what happened—Gideon shoved a giant piece of steel through half of his internal organs. He cursed the blade, Phoebe. You know that! That fact alone should have made you question what happened to him. But it was just easier for all of you to dismiss him. Face it—you abandoned him."
"22 years Prue," Phoebe said as she crossed her arms, her icy brown eyes reminiscent of the day she became the Source's Queen.
"What?" Prue retorted in irritated confusion.
"That's how long you've been absent from our lives. You're the big sister. The one who should have looked out for us, yet you died and never even looked back. Paige has never even met you. You abandoned US, Prue-and now you have the nerve to come down here and lecture us about abandonment issues?"
"I was dead Phoebe," she answered sarcastically, "in case you hadn't noticed. Still am, by the way."
Taking offense to the earlier dismissal, Paige added in cool and clipped tone, "It hasn't stopped Mom or Grams. Or the dozens of other Halliwell Matriarchs that came down for the boy's wiccannings. Where've you been, Prudence?"
Prue smirked turning first to her youngest sisters then to Piper and Leo as she threw her fingers up doing air quotes, "Watching over your 'NEPHEW', your 'SON' after he was murdered by that son of a bitch elder—with a cursed athame, mind you. He disappears, and what do you all do? NOTHING!" She looked sisters and brother-in-law, "What happened to you guys? Were you all just not smart enough to think that intuitively? I guess you really did need me, didn't you?"
The long dead sister watched her empathic sister opening and closing her fists to her sides and her own eyes gleamed in response. "What's the matter, Phoebs? You want to hit me for telling you the truth?" Stepping closer to tower over the shorter woman, she challenged, "GO AHEAD! I'd like to see you try it!"
Sheila stood on the sidelines shaking her head. She refused to get in between the sisters again, looking about ready to rip each other's hair out. 'Were they under a spell', she thought to herself. She looked hopefully to Chris to intervene, but rolled her eyes finding no luck there as he seemed to be enjoying the debate. With his eyes gleaming intently accompanied by that knowing little smirk of his, he looked like all he needed was a tub of popcorn to munch on.
Piper and Leo seemed to have run out of steam, and the vulnerability that emanated from their sagging shoulders' while they fought back the tears, proved that they would be of no use either.
Finally, she turned her attention to her oldest godchild. He stood back a little dumbfounded at the prospect of seeing all of his Aunts come to blows. She nudged him in the ribs, nodding in their direction. He shook his head vehemently as if to tell her that he wasn't getting in the middle of that pure Halliwell fury.
Sheila threw her hands to her hips and glared at him pointedly, her expression leaving no room for his refusal. Blowing out a deep breath, he relented finally.
Just as the empath stepped closer to her oldest sister, he stepped in between all of them, pushing them apart and yelled, "STOP IT! ALL OF YOU! You know what will happen to the book if you guys get into this! The Power of Three will be broken—and Chris will be the one in danger because he'll be stuck here with no where to run with whatever is after him. Grow up! You're all acting like a bunch of children. Now did you all forget why we're here in the first place?"
The sisters backed away, slinking their heads down ashamedly at his admonishment. Wyatt breathed a small sigh of relief that they hadn't turned on him, but quickly brushed that feeling aside as he now implored the boy. "Now, Chris, come on. You promised you would give them a chance. At least hear them out!"
Chris shook his head stubbornly, his reply more acerbic than usual. "I've already heard their lame excuses. And I don't need a bunch of phony I'm sorry's that'll change the second the other Chris gets here."
Wyatt pleaded with him, his blue eyes showing a desperate intensity that he had never seen before, not even in his own future. "Please, Chris? I know you're hurting right now, and I agree that they screwed up. Big time. And you have every right to be angry about it. But they love you, I know they do. So why can't you give them another chance?"
Everyone looked on with a mixture of hope and anticipation as they awaited Chris's response.
The dark-haired teen shrugged his shoulders and replied with a smirk, "Because they don't deserve one."
Refusing to give up, the Twice-Blessed Witch was quick to point out, "Neither did I. Or at least, my other self didn't. Yet you loved me and forgave me enough to come back here and save me. You said that you don't have much time. Do you really want to leave things like this?"
Chris tried to ignore the strong feelings the question produced, and relied on his old habits of sarcasm and wit. "To see you decked out in a pink tutu and pretty little satin slippers? Quite possibly."
Wyatt winced at the incredulous looks everyone else in the room gave him. He knew that remark was going take some explaining later. And he hoped that they wouldn't tell the other Chris, because he would never let him live it down. He gritted his teeth and resisted the urge not to growl at his brother before continuing, "So even after all of the horrible things my other self had done to and around you, you still managed to forgive me. You proved that you have an enormous capacity for forgiveness; more than anyone I've ever known or seen in my life. So I know you have it in you to do it again."
Turning to the others, he gave in and began to rant. "Fine. So let's hear it. What else have you got? Because I've already heard the lame excuses of how you thought I was part of your Chris. So explain to me why you didn't bother to make sure. Why, if I meant so much to you, did you just forget all about me and act like I never existed? I mean, after everything I did, you didn't even tell Christopher and Wyatt about me. Did it mean so little to you? Did I?"
Leo snapped out of his revelry and answered firmly, "No, it was not easy." He glanced at Wyatt and mumbled an apology before turning back to Chris, "Do you know what happened right after you died?"
"Yeah, I saw. Leo got some new powers…" he mumbled sarcastically.
Paige remembered how her brother-in-law had destroyed the attic after Chris had faded away. The intense rage that took hold of him that day was more than she had ever seen the Elder display in all of the twenty-two years she had known him. She knew now what his questioning was getting at, and defended him. "No Chris, he killed Gideon."
Throwing his hands up, he pointed out wildly, "SO WHAT! He did it to set the balance back to the way it was supposed to be. 'A great evil' remember? I'm not stupid."
"No, that was not why I killed him. Even after we got back from the evil world and he had tried to kill Wyatt, I had originally intended to take Gideon to the Council for his soul to be recycled. It wasn't until you died in my arms, because of him, that I lost it. It was at that moment that I decided that Gideon, Elder or not, would die by the same hands that held you when you took your last breath."
Chris shook his head in disbelief, "Yeah right. You killed him for me. You expect me to believe that load of crap?"
"See for yourself. I can show you. We can all show you how hard it was…" Leo held his hand out for Phoebe to initiate the premonition. He reasoned that if she could do it by accident, she could do it intentionally.
Everyone seemed to catch onto the Elder's train of thought and quickly formed a circle to witness what Leo wanted to project into the young man's mind. If he couldn't hear it and believe it, he wanted him to see it, experience it.
As everyone took a seat and stretched out their arms to join hands, they waited patiently for Chris. His eyes had wondered from one face to the other before meeting the eyes of his brother. He expected a note of seriousness to accompany them, but all he found was amusement twinkling in the crystal blue orbs. He chuckled softly as the blonde goaded him, "Come on Chris—do it and maybe we can put that shopping trip on hold…"
Still smiling, Chris sat down cross legged on the floor and placed one hand in his father's, while the other found it's way into his mothers to complete the circle.
Waiting patiently as the two empaths enhanced and channeled the connection, Chris was glad that they had all chosen to sit after hearing the multiple gasps surrounding him. They had all felt weakened a bit as the premonition of Leo's memory was projected into their minds…
19 years ago…
After Leo had orbed from away from Paige, he detoured in his direction to the underworld, landing in Gideon's office at the magic school instead.
As he approached the mirror, the black clad figure stepped into view in the same position on the other side. "Why did you come here?" Leo asked his evil version.
"For the same reason you did, I assume." Evil Leo's voice saddened uncharacteristically, "I wanted to know if he was at least alive somewhere…"
"I guess that answers my question, then doesn't it? I promised him I would get him safely—"
"home…Where he'd be waiting for us years from now to catch up to him. But instead that bastard—"
Leo finished angrily, "took him away from us. Gideon will pay for what he did to Chris. If it's the last thing I do, I will kill him with my bare hands."
"Yes I will…" Evil Leo smirked.
Leo shook his head, "No, I'm sorry to deny you your revenge, but you can't do anything. Both of our worlds have to be set right, and me killing him will do that. You killing him will just set the balance further out of line."
Evil Leo raged on incredulously, "You want me to just sit back and let him get away with this! Chris was my son! Gideon deserves to be punished for what he did to him!"
"And he will be. Yours and mine. Just go to the underworld. You'll get to watch him pay, at least. I swear to you, I won't make it quick."
Evil Leo saw the truth in the hardened gaze of his counterpart's eyes, and the evil nature that had surfaced in them. The pledge of impending violence settled his outrage a bit, and he grinned in approval, "You're more like me than I thought.
Leo appeared to mull it over for a bit before responding. "I guess I am. For Chris…"
Evil Leo nodded his spiky head slowly before agreeing to the lengths either of them would go to for the boy, "For Chris…"
Leo asked his evil double, "Now. Show me how you draw out the lightening bolt longer…"
"Gladly…"
When Leo's memory ended, Chris was surprised to see memories from the others flitting through his mind. Included also were their thoughts and feelings about his death in the years immediately following. He saw scenes that he had somehow missed in his haste and anger; back in the beginning when he had refused to look in on them after their apparent dismissal of him. His head lolled to the side as the influx of memories invaded his mind. He realized that none were focused on Wyatt or the other Christopher, but only of him, and him alone. And he began to smile.
TBC…
