Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the television show Charmed. All characters belong to Spelling Television, and The WB.

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The Pain of Future Wrongs – Chapter 39

As predicted it wasn't long before the Elders returned to the manor. And just as Chris had thought, they were willing to compromise in order to secure the Charmed Ones' services. Wyatt was given back a limited amount of power, enough to defend himself but not enough for him to terrorize the world again.

Life for the Halliwells was remarkably uneventful for the next few days. No demon attacks, no family crises, and no unwanted Elder visits. Wyatt slowly became accustomed to his limited restoration of powers, although he was still reluctant to use them. Chris spent as much time as he could with his family, knowing that if the two mysterious strangers that he had encountered were right, he might not get many chances to be with them in the near future.

He tried not to let the words of the mysterious strangers bother him, but they were nevertheless always in the back of his mind. He didn't really understand what their words meant, but he knew that there was no escape from his destiny. He had slowly resigned himself to accept the fact that he was never going to have a relaxed, comfortable life. Instead, it will always been filled with struggles, hardships and probably pain.

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Wyatt walked slowly down the quiet street, grocery bags in hand. He smiled as he enjoyed the warm sunshine. He chuckled, realizing how radically his life has changed. From trying to dominate the world to grocery shopping – who would have thought? Of course, Wyatt could have orbed home with the groceries given that he had some powers back. But Wyatt felt that he had wasted so many years with his quest to conquer the world that he really missed out on many of life's normal things. So today, he decided to do what normal people would do and walk home with the groceries instead.

He was jostled from his thoughts by a horrified scream nearby. He dropped the groceries and ran towards the sound, ending up in a dark alley. In front of him was a young woman slightly younger than him. She was surrounded by four older men and she cowered in fear.

"Let her go," Wyatt ordered, causing the men to turn around to face the uninvited visitor.

"And who are you?" one of them asked.

"None of your business. If you know what's good for you, you'd leave."

The four men snickered and charged at Wyatt. The fight that ensued was short and Wyatt easily subdued the attackers without even breaking a sweat. The men, seeing that staying was not a good idea, quickly ran away.

"Are you okay?" Wyatt asked the young woman.

"Yes," she smiled. "Thanks to you."

Wyatt smiled and blushed slightly. He took another glance at the girl and found her to be the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. He stood there in a daze, staring at her.

"Uh, I guess I better go now," she finally said softly.

Wyatt snapped back to reality as he watched the girl leave.

"Wait!" he called after her. "Where are you going? I'll walk you there."

The girl turned around and smiled sadly. "I don't know where I'm going yet, but I'll be fine."

"Are you new to the city? Are you staying with family or friends?" Wyatt asked.

The girl shook her head. "No. My parents died when I was very young and I don't know anyone in the city. But I'll manage."

"Why don't you come over to my place? You can stay with my family until we figure out some arrangements."

The girl smiled shyly at Wyatt. "Thanks for the offer, but I wouldn't want to impose."

Wyatt laughed and felt his heart melt as he took in the girl's smile. "Don't worry, you won't be imposing. Come on, I'm sure my family would be able to help you out."

Seeing that she won't win the argument, the girl finally agreed. "Thank you...uh..."

"I'm Wyatt."

"I'm Melanie."

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"How long does it take to get groceries?" Piper asked for the fifth time in ten minutes. "How am I supposed to start working on dinner if I don't have groceries?"

Chris laughed and pulled his mother over to a chair by the kitchen table. "Mom, you need to chill out. It's only four o'clock. There's plenty of time to make dinner."

Piper snickered and didn't look convinced. "That's easy for you to say. You're the one who whips up gourmet dinners in thirty minutes."

"Actually, I think my record was thirty-five minutes," he corrected.

"Smart ass."

Chris laughed again, it's a sound that was music to Piper's ears. "Look, Mom. I said I would make dinner."

"No, young man. You are not making dinner tonight. You've been in the kitchen way too much lately. At this rate, I'll lose my cooking touch soon."

In the other room, Ryan was playing with baby Wyatt while Phoebe and Paige flipped through the latest fashion magazines. Leo was reading the newspaper and strangely enough, the Halliwell household actually resembled a normal family.

The sound of the front door opening brought Piper out of her ranting. She immediately charged towards the hallway, eager to give her eldest son a piece of her mind. "Where have you been, Wyatt Halliw....oh," she stopped abruptly as she noticed the guest.

"Sorry Mom," Wyatt answered sheepishly. "Kind of got sidetracked."

"So I see," she said absent-mindedly, her eyes still on the girl. "I'm Piper, Wyatt's mother."

"I'm Melanie," the visitor answered. "Wyatt here saved me from a bunch of would-be robbers."

"Hey, what's with the groceries?" Chris called out as he emerged from the kitchen, wondering what was taking his mother so long. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the visitor. "Wyatt, aren't you going to introduce your friend?" he asked with a mischievous grin.

"Uh, yeah," Wyatt answered with a slight blush. "This is Melanie. And this is Chris, my younger brother."

Piper smiled slightly as she saw Chris and Melanie locking their gazes. Chris looked dazed and Melanie looked like she had just met the object of her high school crush. Piper coughed softly, breaking both of them out of their dreams.

"Uh, so I guess I'm go start preparing dinner," Chris said rather quickly, embarrassed at being caught in such an awkward position by Piper.

"I'll help you," Piper chimed in, leaving Wyatt and Melanie in the foyer.

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"Wow, that was really good," Melanie said as she finished her pasta. "I mean, that was really, really good," she laughed as she looked at Piper.

"Hey, don't look at me," the Charmed One answered. "It's Chris' creation."

"Wow, a guy who can cook gourmet meals. That's very impressive," she laughed.

"Uh, thanks..." Chris answered, desperately trying not to blush as he noticed Ryan's smirk out of the corner of his eyes.

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The Halliwells quickly warmed up to Melanie and arrangements were made for her to stay in the manor until more permanent arrangements could be made. Chris was upstairs setting up the guest room while everyone was still downstairs chatting.

As he set up the bed, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. The pain was so sharp that the fell to his knees and found it difficult to breath. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to suppress the pain. He refused to cry out for fear of alarming the rest of his family. The last thing Chris wanted was to shatter the normalcy that the Halliwells have been enjoying for the past few days.

to be continued