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 45
"Hey, what did I say about doing any cooking, young man?" Piper asked sternly as she stood in the doorway.
Chris looked at his mother with innocent eyes. "To be careful not to start any fires?"
"Not funny, Christopher Halliwell," Piper continued, showing that she wasn't going to fall for his innocent routine this time. "I said no cooking!"
"Actually, your exact words were no cooking today, Mom. And you said that yesterday."
"Watch it, Christopher," Piper warned, a smile creeping up her face.
"Oh alright. I'll let master cook Piper Halliwell take over the kitchen. I can still be your apprentice, right?" he asked with his puppy eyes working overdrive.
"NO!" Piper laughed as she pushed him out the door. "No cooking, no demon hunting, no cleaning, no working. Just resting and relaxing."
"Gee thanks, Mom. You make me sound real useful," he quipped sarcastically, running out of the room before Piper could throw anything at him.
As he was running down the hall, he almost bumped into Melanie. "Oh great," he thought to himself. "Just what I needed."
"Chris..." she said tentatively.
"Melanie," he nodded in acknowledgement.
"Can we talk?"
"Let's not," he answered quickly before walking into the parlour, only to be followed by a persistent Melanie. Chris plopped down on the couch and tried to ignore her, wishing that she would just go away. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side.
"We can't go on ignoring this."
"Why do you always have to use we when you speak. Let me be clear: there is no us, okay? I don't know how you got the crazy idea in your head but it's not real, okay?"
"Chris, you need to think of yourself instead of thinking about other people. You deserve to be with the person you want just as much as Wyatt or anyone else?"
"Let me ask you something, Melanie," he continued. "If what you say is true, why are you still with Wyatt and leading him on?" The accusatory tone of his words were sharp and to the point.
"We are not talking about Wyatt here. We're talking about you, Chris."
Chris laughed at the response. "Looks like you're the one who's refusing to accept reality, Melanie."
The young woman took Chris' hand in hers, causing the witch-whitelighter to look at her in shock. "I love you, Chris. And deep down, I know you feel the same way."
Chris was so stunned by her words that he had nothing to say in reply. The two just stared at each other for what seemed like eternity. Chris felt his breathing quicken as the seconds ticked by.
"Melanie?"
Both Chris and Melanie turned to see Wyatt standing in the doorway with a puzzled expression on his face. Chris thought quickly to get out of the awkward situation. "Uh, Melanie, thanks for the medication. It's just a small cut, I'm sure it'll be okay."
Seeing where Chris was going, Melanie played along. "Okay. You better get some rest. See why Piper told you to stay out of the kitchen?"
"What happened?" Wyatt asked, taking a seat beside Chris.
"Just a minor cut. But as usual, everyone in this house likes being overprotective," Chris continued with his lie.
Wyatt grabbed Chris' hand and examined his wound. In the course of doing so, he didn't notice the look of awe on Melanie's face as she realized that Chris managed to create a wound on his hand without even lifting a finger.
"Melanie's right. You really ought to stay away from the kitchen," Wyatt agreed after examining the injury.
"Gee thanks," Chris answered with mock hurt. "This is what you get for slaving away in the kitchen trying to feed your family! Gang up with your girlfriend against your poor, defenseless, younger brother now!"
Wyatt laughed at his brother's antics, once again reminded of just why he loved Chris so much. He got up and ruffled Chris' hair. "Don't worry, I still love ya!" Turning to Melanie, he whispered, "I love you too!" before kissing her.
"Oh puh-leez," Chris muttered. "Like I said before, get a room!" he pleaded before walking back to his room.
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Chris pounded his bed in frustration, careful not to break it in the process of doing so. Melanie was driving him nuts and he hated the feeling of not having control. "If this keeps going on, I'm going to go insane..." he muttered to himself.
He pounded his bed again, getting angrier the more he thought about the situation. He hated himself for what he just did to Wyatt, lying to his face – all because of strong desires that he found increasingly difficult to suppress.
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Later that night...
"We've looked through the entire Book of Shadows...there's absolutely nothing. Nada. Ziltch!" Phoebe motioned in a frustrated manner. "How could the Book not make a mention of this at all?"
"Then we'll keep looking," Piper said calmly. "Whatever it is that's messing with Chris' powers and causing him this pain, we'll find it. And when we do...I'm going to personally make this demon suffer a most horrific fate."
"Why don't we ask Chris..." Paige began before she was cut off.
"NO!" Piper interjected. "We're NOT getting Chris involved. He doesn't need anymore stress as it is."
"But wouldn't he know best about..."
"I said Chris is not getting involved with this. End of discussion."
"Fine," Paige relented. "But you know that if we don't find something soon, Chris will take things into his own hands, right?"
"We don't need to worry about that, because by then we'll have the answer to our questions," Piper said confidently.
Wyatt's laughter and Melanie's squeals could be heard, piercing the silence in the manor. It was apparent that the two were sharing yet another passionate moment. "Okay, that boy needs to keep his testosterones in check..." Paige said with a slight frown. "This is getting a little out of hand."
"Oh relax!" Phoebe said with a grin. "They're young. They should be having fun!"
"They seem to be having fun 24/7. They were having fun at 3am this morning!!"
"Oh they're just in love. It's normal..." Piper offered.
"Actually, you weren't like that with Leo," Phoebe observed, "but then again, you aren't exactly normal."
Piper's glare quickly caused Phoebe to shut up and attention was turned back to finding the cause of Chris' pain attacks.
"You know what?" Paige asked to no one in particular. "I don't like her."
"What?" Phoebe asked, not knowing what Paige was talking about.
"Melanie. I don't like her," Paige said again, this time with a bigger frown.
"But she's such a sweet girl!" Phoebe argued. "And Wyatt and her look so cute together!"
Paige looked thoughtful for the minute before continuing. "I don't know. There's just something about her. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is...but something's not quite right about her."
Piper rolled her eyes and went back to the Book of Shadows. "I think you're being paranoid, Paige."
"No, call it my gut feeling. I don't think she's the good, wholesome girl that she tries to portray. There's just something...devious...sinister about her..."
- to be continued -