Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed….yet :p
Heather: I'm glad you like it! Please keep reading!
Julia Adele: Thanks. Sorry, but no Zayon in this chapter. He'll be in the next one though ;-)
Night-Owl123: I love writing mushy stuff. Long live fluff! Lol. Enjoy the story!
JadeAlmasy: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying reading this. Here's the update!
Nikki14: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Enjoy!
Chattypandagurl: Yeah, Leo did a Chris. I wonder if doing a Chris´ will end up in the dictionary? Lol! You're right for being suspicious of the happy ending. Sadly, in Chris´ universe, happily ever after doesn't last very long ;-)
Teal-lover: I'm proud of my Leo too :p Chris got his just rewards for sending Leo to Valhalla ;-) I'm glad you like it! Keep on reading!
Starra86: I like the idea that Chris and Wyatt are really close in the future. He deserves it after going through hell (rather literally) the first time round. So I like mushy Chris and Wyatt scenes ;-). I'm glad you share my liking of fluff :p Enjoy the update!
Cassi: Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Phoebe Turner: Sorry for not updating faster. I hope the chapter makes up for the wait though. Enjoy!
Wonder: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Here's the next chapter!
Don´t forget to review!
End Chapter 7:
"Thank you," Wyatt said.
"For what?" Chris asked him ashamed of his actions; "I threw you into the basement."
"For what!" Wyatt said, not daring to believe Chris didn't understand what he meant, "For stopping me from becoming a deranged psycho!" He said while trying to lighten the mood.
Chris cracked a smile.
"You still are a deranged psycho, Wy" Chris teased.
"Good to know," He said as he joined in with the mocking, "I guess it runs in the family."
"Probably comes from growing up around women," Chris continued as he followed his brother back into the kitchen where the book lay.
"Hey!" both Paige and Phoebe exclaimed as they took the bait and rushed into the kitchen after their nephews.
Piper and Leo were left in the living room to enjoy the moment. They could hear Wyatt and Chris laughing at their aunts´ reactions from in the kitchen. They finally let it all sink in. They had the family they had always hoped for. Everyone was safe, happy……
and good.
Chapter 8
"Apparently, being neurotic is also a family trait," Wyatt said as he continued to laugh with his aunts.
"I can't say I disagree with that," Paige said as she looked at Chris.
Chris caught the, not so subtle, hint, "Hey, I'm not that bad."
"You can make us believe a lot of things, Chris, but that's not one of them," Phoebe said.
"Fine," Chris gave in as he walked back towards the book to continue his search for the amulet.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Wyatt said as he placed himself between Chris and the book, "Wait a sec. Are you sure it's safe for you to look in that thing? I mean, we may have a large supply of basement doors but…"
"Wy, chill. Are you going to stop me from ever looking in the book again?" Chris said, "I'll be fine." He walked around Wyatt and sat down behind the book once again, "We have to find that amulet in here, it's the only lead we've got."
The mention of the amulet got Wyatt thinking again. He could swear he'd seen it before. But where?
"So Chris," Phoebe said cautiously, she wanted to know just how much Chris remembered but she didn't want to strike a nerve, "I was wondering, you know, what kind of stuff you remember from last time you were here?"
"Quite a lot," He answered with a slight laugh as he continued to look through the book.
"What's a lot?" Phoebe asked him.
"Well, I have some blanks, like what happened after the whole Mr. Right and Wrong thing and then I remember trying out the time travel potion with dad and realizing it didn't work, but it's kind of a blank after that."
Phoebe and Paige swallowed hard, Chris didn't remember about his death.
"But all the rest I remember," He continued, "Right down to you in pantaloons," He said as he laughed at the memory of Phoebe as a genie.
"Pantaloons?" Wyatt asked as he razed an eyebrow at his aunt.
"Yeah, it was a whole genie thing that got kind of out of hand…" Chris said.
"Like Arabic sleeping potions?" Paige asked him in a mischievous tone.
"You didn't tell mom and dad about that, did you?" Chris asked quickly in a panicked tone, his parents would kill him if they found out what he had wished for.
"Tell us about what?" Leo asked as he and Piper entered the kitchen.
"Oh… nothing," Phoebe said innocently. She still had to get her revenge on Chris for having commanded her to grant that wish. She would torment him with that knowledge as long as she possibly could.
Chris continued to flip through the book. Leprechauns, some spell to get into someone's mind, Gith, Zahn, the power sucking athame.
As Chris looked at the page about the athame, images started to flood his mind once again. He saw the words ´Witch Wars´ appear in a hologram that was projecting out of a crystal, he saw a witch named Tali, he saw Gideon standing over Wyatt holding an athame as both evil and good Phoebe and Paige said a spell to vanquish him, and then the images stopped and he found himself standing in the attic as he flipped through the book as little Wyatt stood in his playpen nearby.
He heard a creek, "Hello?" he asked.
Chris found that he was just a spectator in his own body, he could only watch as this memory relived itself, but he felt the wave of panic that spread through his body as the creaking continued.
He ran over to stand by Wyatt.
The creaking now came from all around the attic, but he still couldn't see the source of it.
"Ok, it's time to get you outta here," He said as he bent down to pick up Wyatt, but an invisible force threw him away from Wyatt and across the attic where he landed on a table, hard. He felt the pain rush through his body but he knew he had to get to Wyatt. He looked up to see Gideon there.
"Don't make me sacrifice you both," Gideon warned Chris as he turned around to pick up Wyatt.
Chris threw out his hand with as much strength as he could muster as he telekinetically threw Gideon away from the playpen.
Chris´ hart almost stopped beating as he saw Gideon conjure up an athame and disappear.
Chris picked himself up off of the floor and ran towards the playpen as fast as he could. He had to get to Wyatt before Gideon did.
But suddenly he was stopped as he saw Gideon appear in front of him as he plunged the athame deep into Chris´ stomach.
It was pain beyond anything that Chris had felt before. It was pain beyond pain. It was unbearable.
Gideon pulled the athame out of Chris and he cried out for his father.
"Dad!" He managed to call out before he fell to the floor.
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Wyatt saw Chris fall off his chair and onto the kitchen floor as he yelled out in pain clutching his stomach.
"Dad," He heard Chris whisper.
Wyatt knelt down next to Chris, "Chris?" He asked him worriedly as he saw Chris´ face filled with pain as he held his hands over his abdomen, "Chris!"
Chris wasn't responding. He had his eyes closed tight.
Wyatt heard Chris whisper his name in pain, "Wyatt, Wyatt."
Wyatt placed his hands over his brother, but realized that there was nothing to heal.
"What's wrong with him?" Wyatt asked his family while starting to panic. Chris was obviously in a lot of pain.
"You have to find Wyatt," Chris said shakily as he struggled to breath. There was a slight pause, as he seemed to wait for an answer, then he continued, "It won't work. You've already tried. Gideon's magic did this to me. He's the only one who can stop it……..Just go. Saving Wyatt saves the future. You know that."
"What's happening? Who's he talking to?" Wyatt demanded of his parents.
"He's reliving a memory," Leo said shakily as he tried to recover from the shock of realizing which memory it was, "He's talking to me."
"Only until the trauma turns him," They heard Chris whisper.
"Which one?" Wyatt asked.
"The one where…" Leo hesitated.
Paige and Phoebe knew what he was going to say and they held their breath as they tried
to hold back tears as they saw their nephew so helpless on the floor.
"You don't have to, dad. Find Gideon and you save us both"
"Which one, dad," Wyatt said rather aggressively.
"….he died." Leo said in a whisper as he looked away from his son's interrogating gaze.
This shocked Wyatt more than anything else had that day. He stared at his family members and saw the same teary look on their faces, and then he looked back down at Chris as he registered the agony written on his face, his uneven breaths and realized that his brother was dying.
"Where are you going?" Chris asked softly with a note of despair in his voice.
"Do you mean to say that Chris is dying and all he can think about is how to save me!" Wyatt asked angrily. He couldn't believe it. He knew his brother cared about him but he had never realized how much. Chris should of thought of himself first, saved himself.
He heard Chris breath heavily as the pain overwhelmed him.
"We've got to do something!" Wyatt yelled as he looked around the room and saw everybody staring down at Chris sadly. Wyatt couldn't stand to see Chris in so much pain and he felt utterly helpless because he could do nothing to help him.
"All we can do is wait until the memory ends and he wakes up again" Phoebe said as she sat down at the table.
"No" Leo said dismissing the idea, "We have to get him out of there now."
"But Leo…" Phoebe began but Leo cut her off.
"No, you don't understand. This isn't like one of your premonitions, Phoebe. What's happening to Chris is more like a vision quest. If Chris dies in the memory, he dies here too."
Leo registered the looks of horror on his family members´ faces.
"No!" Piper said as her legs gave way, but Leo managed to catch her before she fell to the floor and he let her sob into his chest, "I can't loose him again, Leo. I just can't."
"It's okay, Piper. We're not going to let him die" Leo tried to comfort his wife, but he found it hard to believe his words himself.
Paige was the first one to snap back to her senses. She wasn't going to break down while Chris needed her. She needed to stay calm and focused if she wanted to save her nephew.
"Everyone," She said in a soft but firm voice, "I know this is a really hard time, but we can still save Chris, you've got to pull it together."
"How?" Phoebe asked her sister questionably, "How can we help him?"
"We're witches aren't we?" Paige asked and she waited for the nods from her various family members, present and future ones, before she continued, "There's got to be something in the book."
She walked over to the book but she froze as she heard Chris´ pained whisper.
"Paige?"
They were running out of time. In only a few minutes she would go back into the hall and call for Leo, and Chris would have his departing words with his father before fading away.
Paige was trying her best to fight back tears as she thought back to that day.
"Where's dad?" Paige heard Chris whisper in-between shallow breaths.
She wiped away the tears that had started to roll down her cheeks with the back of her hand.
She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and she looked up over her shoulder into the face of her eldest nephew. His determined yet encouraging look gave her renewed energy.
No. She wouldn't let Chris down again.
Paige and Wyatt walked over to the book and started to anxiously search through the book for a solution. A spell, a potion, anything that could help them save Chris.
Piper and Leo were now sitting on the floor beside their son, tears were silently running down their cheeks as they whispered to him to hold on, that they were going to fix it, even though they knew that Chris couldn't hear them.
Phoebe went into the living room to fetch a pillow and she gently placed it under Chris´ head. She then joined her sister and brother-in-law on the floor next to Chris.
"Dad." They heard Chris whisper, "Dad…"
Paige knew that in Chris´ memory she would soon walk back into the hall to call for Leo. They were running out of time…
Paige continued to hastily flip through the book.
"Wait," Wyatt said as he placed his hand on a page in the book to stop Paige from turning it, "This is it. This is the answer."
He waved his hand and candles appeared already lit, on the kitchen floor forming a circle.
"What are you going to do?" Leo asked his eldest son from his position on the floor next to Chris.
Wyatt picked up the book and walked into the circle, where he sat down.
"Mind connection," He explained simply.
"No! It's too much of a risk!" Leo exclaimed as he stood up and ran towards the circle in an attempt to stop his son, but when he reached the circle he found that an invisible force was keeping him from entering it. Wyatt was blocking him, "If you're still in his mind when the memory ends, you could die too!" Leo tried his best to convince his son. He wasn't going to lose both his sons. He wouldn't be able to handle it.
"Don't worry, I'll get out in time," Wyatt told his father in a determined voice and then he turned his attention to the book.
"No!" Leo yelled but he was too late.
"Life to life and mind to mind,
our spirits now will intertwine,
I mould my soul and journey to,
The one whose thoughts I wish I knew."
Wyatt slumped to the floor.
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Wyatt immediately recognized his surroundings. He was in the manor, in his parents´ bedroom. Everything looked pretty much the same as he knew it, except of course for the old fashioned furniture, but he recognized plenty of it from when he was younger.
He stared in shock at what, or rather who, he saw lying on his parents´ bed.
It was Chris. He was in the same state that he had been in, in the kitchen except for one big difference.
This Chris had an enormous wound in his stomach and blood was flowing freely from it. Wyatt knew that his brother's last minutes were quickly approaching.
He quickly ran over to his side, "Chris," he whispered but as he reached forwards to comfort his brother, his hand passed straight through him.
"Chris," Wyatt span around and saw his father rush into the room and bend down next to Chris exactly where Wyatt was sitting. Leo was sitting in him!
Wyatt quickly moved from his spot to standing next to the bed.
"Hey," Chris whispered weakly, using all his strength to muster up the energy that it took to say such a small word.
Wyatt could see the pain in Chris´ eyes and he felt his hart being crushed. He just couldn't stand Chris being in so much pain for a second longer.
"Chris!" He yelled around the room hoping that his idea would work, "Chris, if you can hear me, you've got to snap out of this right now! It's only a memory Chris!"
"You can hold on, okay?" Leo comforted his son.
Wyatt saw his aunt Paige standing quietly in the doorway as tears started to stream down her face. Wyatt hadn't realized that she was there.
"Hold on ... hold on. I'm here" Leo brushed Chris´ sweaty hair off of his forehead gently, "You can hold on, okay?" He asked his son as tears also started to form in his eyes.
Chris nodded softly.
Wyatt knew he had to act fast. Chris obviously hadn't heard him. It was time for plan B. He always had a plan B, it was a long shot, but it had to work. It just had to.
"Don't give up okay?" Leo said.
Chris nodded, trying to fight back tears of his own as he saw his father's helplessness.
Wyatt quickly started the spell,
"The painful truth has been revealed,
We've been told of what was concealed…."
Wyatt heard his brother's last words, "You, either."
"…Chris´ pain I can bare not to see,
Let it end, this memory."
Paige's tears were now flowing freely down her cheeks as her breath caught in her throat.
"No, no, no. Please, no…" Leo was pleading with his son.
Chris was loosing consciousness. He knew his time had come. It was time to let go.
"No, please." He heard his father's voice only as an echo, far, far away.
He closed his eyes.
The next thing he knew, he was blinded by a white light…
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A/N: Cliffhangers really are evil, aren't they?
You'll just have to wait until the next chappie….
Incase you were wondering, I always figured there was a scene between Paige orbing in to the manor and her calling for Leo, so I kind of made it that the SWAT team found Chris and that he then called out for Paige because he had heard her voice. (That's why Chris says "Paige?" in his memory) I also figured the first thing he would ask her was where his dad was so he would know that his dad was looking for Wyatt. Then I expect that Paige would have told him that he was indeed looking for Wyatt and Gideon and I also assumed that she would have tried to comfort him for a while, but that when Chris felt that his time was short that he wanted his father so that's why I made him call for his dad. I hope that kind of explains the things that Chris said during his memory that weren't in the show.
Please review!
TBC…