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 74
Chris was sitting on his bed, deep in thought, when Wyatt decided to pay his younger brother a visit. "Trouble with the women?" he quipped with a smile.
The voice of his brother snapped Chris back to reality and he just smiled helplessly at Wyatt. "I wouldn't quite put it that way…"
"What? The Chris Halliwell charm isn't working anymore?" Wyatt teased.
"Wyatt, if you are here to give me any more trouble, I swear…"
"Relax, lil' bro," Wyatt chuckled at the frazzled look on his normally in-control brother. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. You took quite a beating, you know."
As if a lightbulb suddenly went on in his head, Chris looked at Wyatt with alarm. "Oh my god, Wyatt. I totally forgot. Are you okay? You took those energy balls…I'm so sorry…"
"Chris, just relax, would you?" Wyatt interrupted before Chris could continue his rambling. "I'm fine. Not a single scratch on me, see?" he said to his younger brother, just to reassure him.
"Still," Chris argued. "It was my stupid plan…I'm so sorry, Wy…"
Wyatt sighed with exasperation. "Would you just relax?" he said once again. "Chris, I'm fine, okay? Stop freaking out. The last time I remembered, I'm the older one here. I'm supposed to protect you. That's what older brothers usually do."
Chris remained quiet and just stared at the floor, nodding meekly. Wyatt sighed again and sat down beside Chris, putting his arm around his younger brother's shoulders. "I know that I never did what I was supposed to do before and you've grown up not being able to or not needing to rely on me, but things have changed now. We're in this together, Chris. You don't need to always feel that it's your job to protect all of us."
Chris tried to absorb his brother's words as he sat in his bedroom. Things were so confusing to him. On the one hand, this has always been what he had wanted, a real family where he didn't have to feel like he bore the weight of the world. On the other hand, his knowledge of his destiny and his inability to share this with his family made it all the more difficult for Chris to find the needed equilibrium in his life. All of this resulted in Chris feeling torn and confused most of the time.
"Having said all that," Wyatt continued, snapping Chris out of his thoughts, "don't you ever pull stunts like that again." To emphasize his point, the older Halliwell playfully punched his younger sibling's arm, not hard enough to hurt him but strong enough to get a reaction out of Chris. "I love you dearly, don't get me wrong. But I'm not crazy about using my body to shield you from energy balls every couple of weeks or so, you know."
"Okay, okay!" Chris laughed. "I get the point. You guys don't have to keep abusing me to get your message across!" he added with mock hurt.
Wyatt just rolled his eyes at the comment. "Quit being so dramatic, Chris. You're not in drama class anymore."
Chris just snorted in response. "Yeah, well, you better hope I'm good at putting on that 'I'm sorry' look and acting the part because I think Jamie is mighty angry with me. And I don't think I'm completely out of the woods with Mom yet either."
"Good luck, lil' bro. You know I'll support you," Wyatt said with a grin.
Chris rolled his eyes and grinned. "Yeah, right. You'll probably sit on the stairs and watch me squirm instead."
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Meanwhile, 'Up There'
"So you said you had a new plan?" an Elder asked in a low voice.
"Yes, it's actually quite a good one," another Elder replied. "An even better plan than the original."
"And what would this plan entail?"
"Havoc. Lots of it."
"How will you get past the Charmed Ones and their offsprings?"
"That's where this potion is going to come in, my friend."
"Really…and just what is this potion supposed to do?"
The Elder chuckled softly. "You'll see in due time, my friend. I'm still working on perfecting the formula, just to make it foolproof. I don't care how powerful Chris Halliwell is…even an army of Chris Halliwells won't be able withstand this potion once it is done."
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"Hey Jamie," Chris said softly and timidly as he walked into the kitchen where she was chopping vegetables. "Can we talk?"
"I'm listening," Jamie answered while continuing her work.
"No, I mean, talk talk, not me talk you listen," Chris replied, getting even more nervous.
"What's the point of me talking?" Jamie asked. "As if you're going to listen to what I tell you! You'll just go right ahead and do whatever pops into your mind anyways."
Chris ran his hand through his hair and sat down by the kitchen table. "I already said that I'm sorry," he offered weakly, not wanting to provoke his girlfriend even more.
"Okay, so you apologized," Jamie answered, her earlier anger and frustration returning. "But what about next time? Can you honestly tell me that you won't repeat this episode again?"
"Hey, I did what I had to do, Jamie," Chris defended himself. "It's not like I decided to go out and get injured because I had nothing better to do."
Ryan walked down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen for a quick snack when he was intercepted by Paige and Wyatt. "No entry, sorry," Wyatt said.
"What?" Ryan asked, not sure if he heard right.
"Fireworks in the kitchen," Paige added.
Ryan just looked at the two as if they were both crazy. "What are you talking about? I'm just going to grab something to eat."
Before either Wyatt or Paige could answer, all three of them heard Chris and Jamie's voices rising in a heated discussion.
"No, Chris. You did what you wanted to do. You could have called for help. You could have talked this over and see what everyone else thought. But no! You just had to do it on your own, without discussing it with anyone."
"What did you want me to say to them, Jamie? 'Oh, Mom, by the way, I think that Wyatt might be turning evil again. Can you help me out on this plan of mine?'" Chris shouted as his emotions began to spiral dangerously out of control.
"You're not even listening to what I…"
"No!" Chris cut in. "Jamie, we're talking about my brother's life here. I couldn't just stand by and watch Wyatt walk down the same path again. It's my job to protect my family. And if anyone thinks that I would just sit here and let things take care of themselves while my family is attacked, then they couldn't be more wrong."
"It's great that you're so protective of your family. And it's great that you love your brother so much. But what about you? What if something happened to you? What about your parents? What would they have done if they hadn't saved you in time? What about me? Have you thought about that?"
"This isn't about me," Chris shot back. "This was never about me and it never will be about me. Why can't you understand that?"
"Fine, I understand that it's not about you," Jamie answered, her frustration clearly showing. "What about me then? Take my feelings into account. I'm just a normal human being. I don't want to worry day and night about whether or not my boyfriend would be hurt or killed by some demons because he decided that the world was his sole responsibility."
Chris' posture tensed upon hearing Jamie's words. "I didn't choose to take on this responsibility, Jamie. You think I don't want a normal life like everyone else? You knew that fighting demons was a part of my life when we started out. I asked you if you were okay and you assured me that you were."
"Well, I guess I was wrong," Jamie blurted out before she could control herself. Her own frustration and ego clouding her judgement, she refused to back down. "I didn't know what I was getting into. I thought I could handle having a magical boyfriend, but I guess I overestimated myself."
Chris' eyes betrayed the hurt that he was feeling and glistened with tears that he desperately tried to hold back. "So what are you saying?" his voice trembling a bit.
"Maybe we should give each other some time and some space," Jamie answered softly, her eyes avoiding Chris.
Hearing this from the parlour, Wyatt wanted to go into the kitchen to help his brother, but Paige held him back. "This is between Chris and Jamie, Wyatt. You can't interfere like this."
"She's breaking his heart," Wyatt protested. "I can't let him go through this again."
"It's not your place to do something like this!" Paige chastised her nephew.
Ryan also wanted to go into the kitchen to help but he knew that Paige was right. This wasn't his fight. He just hoped that things would turn out alright.
Back in the kitchen, Chris couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So is this your way of breaking up with me?" he asked, as the first tears slid down his face.
"I just need some time to think," Jamie answered.
Chris shook his head. "Jamie, don't do this…" he pleaded. "Can't we work something out?"
"I don't know. I'm just so confused," Jamie replied. "I can't deal with this right now. I just need to figure this out on my own. Give me some time, okay?" she begged as she walked over to give Chris a quick kiss before turning around and walking away, her own face streaked with tears.
For a while, Chris stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen, trying to come to grips with the unfolding events. Hearing the front door close and Jamie's car pulling out of the driveway confirmed to Chris that this wasn't a dream. He grabbed a mug on the table and hurled it angrily at the wall. His strength sapped, he leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor before breaking down into anguished sobs.
Wyatt, no longer able to control himself, rushed into the kitchen only to see his brother on the floor, heartbroken and distraught. Not being experienced in dealing with these situations, he did the only thing that he could think of at the moment – he knelt down in front of Chris and held him close, letting Chris cry on his shoulder.
to be continued -