He did it for me
Chapter 31
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, a nice somewhat long chapter for ya. (well long for me)—just to show you how much I appreciate the wonderful reviews:)
€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#
After they saw and felt many more moments from Leo and the sisters, everyone in the room felt drained and began to pull back to conserve energy.
Wyatt, however, had other ideas. He decided to take advantage of the current situation and show them much of what he had learned in the past several hours. He began to pull words and images from their earlier conversation into his mind, transmitting it to the others.
Chris panicked when he realized what his brother was doing and jumped up, breaking the connection. "Wyatt, NO!"
He calmed the younger boy with a half joking-half serious look, "To know you is to love you, Chris. They need to understand. They need to know you, and there's not a lot of time to do it. For once, I know what I'm doing. Trust me, will ya?"
Wyatt gently pushed his shoulders, guiding him until he was again joining the circle. He glanced at the younger man sitting cross-legged in between his parents to make sure he would stay put before closing his eyes in concentration. He held his hands out, and someone found them both as he replayed earlier revelations.
Before he could show many scenes, Phoebe interrupted, "How do you know any of this, Wyatt?"
He answered shortly, "Because I asked him. I took the time, and I asked him." Wyatt asked the question that he knew had been Chris' mind, "You know I can understand how he's feeling. I mean, how was he supposed to know how much you cared for him when you never bothered to find out anything about him?"
"Wyatt—" his mother began.
"No. Do you know anything about him? Anything at all?" he asked them sadly. At the downcast and shame ridden faces, he answered the question himself. "You don't know anything about him or his life. Well I think it's time you learned…"
€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#
Earlier that evening…"…I had a life they never knew. They didn't want to know."
"Did you want them to?" the blonde haired man asked.
Chris shrugged his shoulders, doing his best to feign indifference. "Sure, I guess. But it's not like I could just walk in and say, 'Hi! I'm your son, your nephew—Chris Halliwell from the future. How about you pretend you give a damn and lets play 20 questions…"
"No, smartass. But maybe you could volunteer something?"
"Like what?"
Blue eyes squinted at him in irritation, "Hey, here's a thought to start out with: "Hi, my name is Chris Halliwell, and my favorite color is--this is where you come in, Chris."
He replied mildly startled, "Oh, uh—greenish-blue."
"Good start. And my favorite thing to do is…"
Chris answered hours worth of questions in the same manner, imagining what he would say to his family if it had been them asking.
€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#
Before long, Wyatt began to change the scene to what he believed was Chris' pivotal moment. The event that changed his life and made him who he was.
€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#
…"Happy Birthday tooooo youuuu." Nearly everyone finished singing and cheering as Piper brought out the cake lit with candles for her youngest to blow out. "Make a wish, sweetheart."
Chris looked through the flames at the cake, laughing when he saw the words 'Happy Birthday' scrawled across the top in his mother's sloppy handwriting. Directly below it was a picture of an oddly drawn peanut symbolizing her nickname for him since he was a baby. Piper Halliwell had been many things in her life—a chef, a witch, a goddess, a superhero, a popular nightclub owner, but an artist she was not. He looked up and even saw his surly older brother peeking over his shoulder and cracking a tiny smile at the design. Definitely a priceless moment. He was thrilled when his Aunt Phoebe snapped a picture of the two boys sharing a grin in front of their mother, who smiled back at the camera proudly. He vowed to get that picture from her since it was indeed a rare occurrence for the older boy to express anything other than displeasure.
He chuckled softly as Wyatt saw the flash, his hardened expression returning and immediately took a step toward his aunt to retrieve the evidence of his momentary weakness. She ran to the other side of the table playfully waving the camera in front of him, "ah ah ahh. This is for Chris. You wouldn't deny your baby brother this tiny little moment of everlasting happiness, would you?"
Phoebe turned and gave her youngest sister a high five as soon as Wyatt turned his back and orbed away sulkily.
Piper noticed the almost non-existent wax and the flames licking at the icing, so she froze what was left, "Hurry up, Chris. You're not going to have any cake left if you don't blow them out and make a wish."
He motioned for her to unfreeze them before staring dazedly into the fire. He took a deep breath and leaned over the cake, blowing with every last ounce of breath he had in his body, hoping that if he did it right this time, maybe his wish would come true. He leaned back a little lightheaded as his mom put her hand on his shoulder with concern, "Easy there, Peanut. You're going to make yourself dizzy."
Phoebe held the camera up prepared for another picture, anticipating him asking for the new holo-game she had wrapped for him on the table. She asked excitedly, "What did you wish for? Because you never know, you might get it."
The teenager answered dejectedly before getting up from the table and heading toward the couch, "The same thing I wish for every year. For Dad to come."
Everyone held their breaths sadly at his response. An uncomfortable silence had filled the room. The doorbell rang, and being closest to it and wanting to avoid the look of heartbreak in her godchild's eyes again, Sheila practically ran to answer it. Her voice lowered at seeing who was on the other side, "Hello. Did you forget something, cause I'll be more than happy to get it for you while you wait here."
"I need to see Piper," the tall dark haired man answered, his eyes looking over the woman and peering into the house.
Sheila had only met the man a few times, but had never quite trusted him. When she had first encouraged her friend to stop pining over her former husband and start seeing other people, she was glad when they had been introduced. But it was fairly evident shortly after their first meeting that he was not the caring and compassionate man that Piper believed him to be. The possessive and jealous behavior he exerted over her was a dangerous combination. The attention she lavished on her children seemed to bring out the behavior even more so in his secretive and shifty glares at the boys.
She had urged her friend to stop seeing him when she first witnessed it, for the sake of her children. She started to close the door, "Now is not a good time, Kevin."
He stuck his foot in to prevent the door from closing before he pushed his way past her, knocking her down in the process. "Piper! Get out here now!"
Shaking her head angrily, Piper twitched her hands by her sides, ready to freeze him if he caused any problems. "See this is why we broke up. Now we're trying to have a nice birthday celebration for my son. So do me a favor, and get out!"
Kevin pointed to Chris, "NO—HE'S why we broke up. Him and that other little bastard son of yours." His blue eyes suddenly turned a bright shade of red as he formed a fireball, surprising everyone in the room.
The Charmed sisters all gasped in shock while Sheila asked her friend before ducking into a corner, "Can't you girls ever date someone who's NOT magical?"
Piper ducked behind the couch as she pushed her son out of the way, narrowly avoiding being hit by the volley of angry fireballs he sent in every direction in the manor. She called out to the woman, "This is SO not the time to be on my case…Besides, you're the one who wanted me to start dating again."
She noticed that while the demon was focusing on the Charmed Ones, Sheila was completely ignored in the corner. Deciding quickly that it was the safest place for Chris, she could get them both out of the line of fire while she and her sisters came up with a plan. Facing her son, "Chris, can you orb and get both yourself and your Aunt Sheila out of here?"
"Mom, I'm not leaving you." He declared forcefully.
"Please, Peanut. Do me this one favor. I'll take care of this." She peeked up quickly to see her sisters fighting frantically as well, each having no luck with their powers against him, and resulting to orbing all over the room to avoid being hit. She flicked her own wrists in surprise as none of her powers seemed to effect her former boyfriend either. Her hand braced his shoulder, "Now go. Sheila doesn't have any powers to protect herself, so get her out of here please?"
Chris nodded reluctantly, orbing out from under her touch. He slipped back in to the other side and reached for his godmother to get her to safety. The faster he helped her, the faster he could get back and help his mother.
Bitter over Piper's rejection, Kevin saw the twinkling of orbs out of the corner of his eye and smiled sinisterly, recognizing his chance for hurting her in the most painful way possible. He spied the boy slowly rematerializing and powered up a fire ball, releasing it the second his small form took shape.
From her position on the floor where she had been hit by fallen debris, Paige saw what was about to happen and tried to redirect the ball of flames heading directly for her nephews back, only succeeding in shifting it a bit as it clipped his side.
The impact sent Chris hurtling across the floor as he cried out in pain, the keening sound forcing Piper out in the open as she called out for her son.
With a satisfied smirk, Kevin turned and fired another round at the distraught mother, having only seconds to enjoy the damage he had wrought upon the household. A second twinkling of orbs formed in front of him before he felt the cold steel burning and disintegrating his flesh from the inside out.
Left in the wake of the echoing screams, Wyatt stood holding Excalibur and shifted his gaze from his mother to his brother. Both injured fatally, he closed his mind off to her pained gasps and went to his brother's side.
Phoebe shouted for her brother-in-law, knowing that time was of the essence and that Wyatt could only heal one of the two. If Leo came, both could be saved. She dropped to her knees in tears, holding onto her oldest sisters hand through the ragged breathing. "LEO! Piper, don't do this. Don't leave us like this…Chris. Wyatt. They need you…I need you."
Piper's body shook as she fought to sit up, her only concern was for the dark-haired teenager that was currently enduring the laborious process of being healed on the other side of the room. "Chris?"
"Wyatt's got him."
Hearing that her son was safe, Piper closed her eyes as her head fell back against her sister.
Paige crawled over to her, willing healing powers that she never possessed to suddenly find their way into her hands. She yelled at the ceiling, her vision clouded with tears, "LEO! IF EVER THERE WAS A TIME TO COME DOWN HERE AND HEAL, NOW IS IT! Piper needs you…"
Now almost fully healed, Chris sat up looking around frantically for his mother. He panicked when he saw his Aunts huddled over her still frame. He noted with terror that her chest did not move with the telltale signs of breathing. "MOM!" his teenaged voice screeched, trying desperately to break free of Wyatt's strong grip to get to her.
"She's gone, Chris." Wyatt replied, only the barest hint of emotion tingeing his voice.
€#-€#-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#€-#-€#
When the vision ended, a somber and depressive mood draped over them like a blanket. They found out more in the last hour then they had in the entire year and a half they had known him.
Prue seemed to have calmed considerably in light of all that she had witnessed. But the hard-edge to her tone and words had not diminished completely. She spoke softly, "I'm putting it mildly when I say that Chris has had a difficult life since the day he was born. And none of you made it easier for him while he was here the first time. His afterlife has been just as painful, if not more so as a result. Mom, Grams, and I have been there for him ever since the day he died and have tried so hard to make things better for him. But there's only so much we can do, and the rest is up to you. There's not enough time to do it in one day, but you all have about 19 years worth of sucking up to do."
Paige was determined to explain to her new found sibling, "But we didn't do it on purpose! You saw for yourselves how we felt; what we were thinking; how hard it was. You have to know that we never would have—"
Piper placed a hand on her arm, gently demanding her baby sister's attention. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her husband reach for her other hand. Years of being together had told her in the squeeze of a response from him, he felt as she did. With a deep sigh that caused another sob to erupt from her, she muttered softly, "They're right, Paige. We messed up. And Chris paid the price for it, as always." Looking into his green eyes that stared back at her in confusion under the weight of her admission, she broke down and sobbed uncontrollably with guilt.
With her husband's comforting arm around her shoulder, she finally found her voice and took Chris' hand tightly, refusing to let him back away from her even though he tried. "I guess it's just easier to be angry about all of this than it is to face you. I know I messed up, baby. We all did. And I'm so sorry. I don't even know how to ask for your forgiveness. But please, even if you can't forgive us—please, believe me when I tell you that I love you. And I would never have left you there if I had thought for ONE. SECOND. that you were not already with us..."
Leo took his cue from Piper, finally able to voice things that he had tried desperately to forget over the past several decades. "I hated myself for failing you. I promised you I would get you home safely. You can't possibly know how much it hurt when you died. And when I lost you—I guess I just lost it. That's why I went on a rampage after the baby was born. I kept telling everyone that it was to keep the boys safe. And that may have been a small part of it. But mostly, I just didn't know how to handle loosing you. And it made the pain go numb for awhile. But it's never gone away. And now I find out that I let you down again—I don't know what to do, Chris. I love you so much, but I don't know how to make things right…Please tell me how?"
When he finished, there wasn't a dry eye in the room; including the misty green orbs of the one he spoke to.
Chris wanted to ignore Leo's plea, but deep down he couldn't. The look in the Elder's eyes reminded him of something important. He had quickly forgotten in the 19 years that had passed since he'd seen it, but it was still there. The blue eyes that bore into him now were again full of fear and concern, and a desperation only possible through the love of a parent for a child. It was the last thing he saw before he took his final breath. And it was that look alone that gave him the hope that eventually turned to despair. The hope that they would come for him; that they would want to see him; that they would care enough to look for him.
Looking around the room, he saw the same look in his Mother and Aunt's eyes. The intensity there made him shift uncomfortably. He wanted to believe that it was real. That they actually cared about him, and not someone else that he happened to look and sound like. But that niggling fear of rejection in the back of his mind still made him question suspiciously, "After all I did while I was here. Every lie I told you guys. Every time I manipulated you or made deals with demons. When I sent Leo to Valhalla and made him an Elder. When I betrayed your trust to get what I wanted. You hated me for those things before you knew who I was. How can you now tell me that you loved any of that?"
"Because we know why you did what you did," Leo answered.
Paige added, "You did it to save us."
Piper had not let go of his hand yet, and stroked it gently with her other hand. "You saved me. I didn't understand at the time why you were so hell bent on us giving up the idea of having 'normal' lives. But that's why you went to that demon of desires, Gith, isn't it? To show us the error of our ways before it got us killed?"
Chris hung his head down shyly before mumbling, "Yeah. She thought he was 'normal', and that's why she went out with him." His green eyes filled with water as he stared at the floor. "When you wouldn't give up the idea, I didn't think that I could save you."
Piper smiled warmly and tried to reassure him, "But you did."
"No, I didn't. I don't know what happened, but it wasn't something I did."
Leo put his hand on his shoulder tentatively, "It was you, Chris. You saved our whole family. And I know exactly how you did it." The younger boy eyed him with wary confusion before he continued confidently, "You told me that I was a terrible father to you, and that I was never there for you. I promised myself that I wouldn't let that happen again. So in this timeline, when Kevin made a pass at Piper that day in the mall—I was still in the picture because I wanted to be there for my son, and she turned him down. And she never died. Phoebe and Paige didn't die because the Power of Three was never broken. Wyatt was saved from turning because of you."
Leo looked around at everyone nodding emphatically before continuing, "You did all of that, single-handedly. And that is more honorable than anything you say you may have done that wasn't on the up-and-up. You gave us our lives back, Chris. How could we not love you? How could you think we would have just given you up had we known?"
Chris' voice trembled, fearing the answer as he looked up, "Well even if you had known about me. What would you have done?"
Leo spoke up quickly, "Gotten you back."
Chris shook his head, "Come on. With the baby being alive and well and obviously having a soul of his own—are you seriously trying to convince me that you would have fought to get me back?"
All of the family that he had been angry with chorused in together, "YES!"
"To go where?" he asked softly, "to replace the baby's soul with little ole' dysfunctional me? If we're laying all our cards on the table, can we at least be honest here?"
Leo didn't have to look for confirmation in those around him. He spoke with a conviction that he knew everyone else in the room felt as strongly as he did. "We would have found a way to keep you both. A Halliwell has never given up yet. Neither does a Wyatt. And we don't intend to start now. We're going to find a way…"
Tbc…
