A/N: I am soo sorry for the lateness in updating! It's just that I was either battling a case of writter's block, had things pop up at the last moment, or simply just didn't have the time. But if you've noticed, this chapter's hella long compared to the others ;-) Well, here's the semi-final installment of Discussing Chris' Letter! (PS: I'll fix up some parts of this chapter later, but now I gotta go to sleep. It's the middle of the night and I gotta wake up early for work tomorrow! Oh, and please keep in mind that I had to rush through when writing this chapter. I promise to re-write better parts later when I have more time.)

Thanks to the following people for reviewing the previous chapter: Wonder5413, oxChelseaBlackox, chattypandagurl, and Queen Isa.

Story Title: Discussing Chris' Letter

Chapter Title: Borrowed Time

Author: Grey Daze's Nirvana

Status: 3/3 (not inlcuding epilogue)

Chris got up from where he was sitting. It was now around six-thirty in the afternoon and the sun had already begun to set. He couldn't believe that he had spent the better part of the day just sitting there, moping over almost having a real mother/son moment after eight years. Well, considering that he still couldn't tell Piper that he was her long-lost son from the future (assuming that he was going to), that was as close he would probably ever get.

He calmly stood up, closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath, and orbed back to the Manor, hoping he could get away with pretending like nothing ever happened.

-:-

Phoebe was having trouble sleeping, so she walked out of her room to see if she there was any chamomile tea left in the kitchen. There wasn't any, so she just made some instead and quietly drank it by herself while sitting at the table and thinking over recent events. Her thoughts then went to Chris, who she was completely convinced was not who he claimed he was (or at least not entirely) to the point where it was really beginning to bug her.

'Out of all the people from his timeline, why exactly have him come here?' she thought. 'And he has such a one-track mind when it comes to helping Wyatt…. Why? I keep on getting the feeling that there's something more he's not telling us -- in fact, I know there is -- but whatever it is, I just hope that it doesn't come back to bite us all on the ass….'

With that final thought, she finished the last of her tea and headed back upstairs to her room. As she was about to open her door, she heard a light noise coming from the attic. Her first instincts told her that it could be a demon coming to try and steal the book (for the umpteenth time), but as she was running up the attic stairs, her instincts then told her that the presence she felt upstairs was faintly familiar.

She quietly opened the attic door to find Chris asleep on the couch, surrounded by what seemed to be many different pieces of paper and an assortment of potions. He jerked in his sleep and almost violently tossed his head to the side, causing Phoebe to believe he was having one intense nightmare.

Chris seemed to have said something in his sleep, and although it came out mumbled, judging by the tone of his voice he seemed very worried over something. Phoebe felt like she should help him out somehow, so she kneeled next to him and tried to soothe him by placing her hand over his forehead.

"Chris? Hey, wake up," she said in a low voice, as to not startle him should he actually wake up. "Chris?"

Apparently, that wouldn't be enough to wake him up for he mumbled something else, this time a bit more comprehensible.

"What?" Phoebe asked out loud.

"…Bianca…" Chris murmured again, although this time a bit louder.

Suddenly, the memory of having read Chris' note from Bianca came rushing to Phoebe, and she thought this the best time to tell him the truth: that she knew about Bianca, and hopefully Chris would decide to open up a bit to her.

"Chris, sweetie, wake up. Look, I know about Bianca--" But Phoebe couldn't finish her sentence as Chris interrupted her.

"…No," came the slight whimper, which slightly shocked Phoebe. She had never known him to seem this… vulnerable before….

"Hey, come on; it's okay." She started to shake him a bit more roughly to see if that would wake him, but before she could give him a good enough shake, he moaned in his sleep and gave what seemed to be a frown.

Phoebe stopped what she was doing and stared intently into Chris' face. She didn't know why, but he looked kind of familiar to her when he frowned in that way. For a second there, he reminded her of Piper when they were teenagers and she had accidentally burned a birthday cake she was baking for Prue.

With her hands still holding Chris' shoulders, she remembered how worried Piper had become when she realized she probably wouldn't have enough time to bake another one in time for Prue's surprise birthday party. Everyone knew that Prue had grown to hate those types of surprises, which is exactly why they decided to do it in the first place. Piper had no choice but to run down to a bakery that was close by and give Prue a store-made cake instead of one that was baked at home by her sister.

"…Mom…?" Chris said groggily.

Phoebe, now roused out of her reverie, found herself wondering how Chris would be so worried over his former fiancée one second, then be equally just as worried over his mother in a matter of moments.

"Mom, please don't be mad at me…. It wasn't my fault; it was Wyatt's…."

'Wyatt? Mom? What does his mother have to do with Wyatt? What does he have to do with Wyatt?' she wondered suspiciously. She just hoped that Leo, wherever he was, wasn't listening in on Chris' sleep talk. As if Leo wasn't suspicious of him enough as it was.

"Dad…? Where are you…? Mom's in trouble; we need your help…." And after a short pause, Chris mumbled, "Leo… please. You have to help Mom…!"

'Okay, now that was freaky! First Piper, and now-- Wait, is he, like, channeling my thoughts or something! How would that be possible?'

Finally, Phoebe had had enough and decided to give him one hell of a shake. Chris immediately sucked in a sharp breath as he opened his eyes, and bolted up into a sitting position.

"Oh, my God! What the hell do you think you're doing here, Phoebe!" he practically shouted into her face.

"What am I doing here! What are you doing here! Unlike you, I live here, remember? And I do believe you're the one slumming it on some ratty couch down at P3!"

Phoebe's rant seemed to have shacken him out of his anger, and he slowly slumped forward, placing his face in his hands and his elbows on his knees.

"Sorry," he apologized quietly. "I didn't mean to yell at you like that. It's just that you weren't supposed to be here--"

"Excuse me, but I do believe that this is my--"

"Yes, Phoebe!" He sat up straighter and stared angrily into her eyes. "I get that you live here, okay! This is your house, not mine; I'm not stupid!" Phoebe looked a little hurt at his outburst, but Chris was in no mood to apologize. "I was in the middle of something and you interrupted me."

He stood up from the couch and walked over to where the Book of Shadows was. Phoebe stood up as well from her crouching position by the couch and walked to where Chris stood.

"What spell, Chris? And why were you dreaming about my family? What do they have to do with this spell of yours?"

Chris didn't answer -- in fact, didn't even seem aware of her presence -- and continued leafing through the pages.

"Chris! I was talking to you!"

"I know," he responded dully, still not looking up at her.

"Then don't treat me like I don't exist! Chris, you have to tell me what you were doing. Why were you dreaming about Piper, Wyatt, and Leo?"

Chris suddenly looked up from the book. "Wait-- what did you just say?"

"I thought you said that you heard what I said." Phoebe seemed smug at what she thought was making Chris feel like a deer caught in the headlights, because judging from his facial expression, that's exactly how he was feeling.

"Yeah, I heard something like dreaming about a family, but I didn't hear you say it was yours, okay?" He wiped the stunned expression off his face and tried to look natural as he resumed his work.

"Chris. This is enough. You're gonna tell me what you were doing just now and you're gonna tell me it's involvement with my family," she warned.

Chris sighed deeply and closed the book, but not before marking his place with the string of ribbon that was attached to the top.

"See those potions and spells?" He motioned with a nod of his head to where he had been sleeping just minutes before.

"…Yeah." She looked over to where he had nodded and raised an eyebrow as she glanced back at him.

"They were spells to take me back to my past memories. I was hoping that doing so would help me maybe catch something I didn't really notice before, and I would have some actual clue to go by."

"Yeah, but that doesn't really explain what I was asking about."

"I guess I dreamt about your family because I had met them when I was younger. There's not really much to say, though; it was just a few times."

Something in his tone of voice clued in Phoebe to the fact that he was quite obviously lying through his teeth. Maybe it was how he had rushed through his explanation, but Phoebe became more convinced that she was alone in a room with a man who had just willingly lied to her face, a fact that she didn't really like.

"Okay, you know what? That's enough from you. I'm tired of always trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, and I'm tired of you always ly--"

"Well, you know what! I don't care anymore! And you know what else? I'm the one who's sick. Sick of trying to play by all of your guys' rules when no matter what the hell I do, I get a slap in the face! I keep on trying to do my job as best as possible under Leo and everyone else's scrutiny, and so far it hasn't really been working out for me. So just do yourself a favor and stop trying to give me the benefit of your doubt, because regardless of how I've handled things recently, I can at least say with all honesty that I have your nephew's welfare in mind at all times, okay!"

And with that, he turned from her and reopened the book to where he had previously been. Phoebe was too stunned by Chris' reaction that she was left with her mouth wide open. Never in her life had she seen someone so angry with her. Well, maybe she had. Like the time that she had been caught making out with a boy that Piper had a crush on in high school. At first, Piper just stormed out of there and gave her the cold shoulder whenever she would walk into the room later on. But after a few days, Phoebe could no longer stand it and decided to confront Piper. Not expecting Piper to be so angry, Phoebe didn't give a good enough argument, which only seemed to have infuriated her jilted sister that much more. Piper had a complete meltdown as she explained to her sister how she had been crushing after that boy all year long, and finally had the courage to talk to him and ask him out. He had given her a maybe and when he noticed how nervous she was, offered to stop by her house and have a friendly chat. And apparently, Phoebe had been the one to greet him at the door.

With her mind back onto present matters, Phoebe narrowed her eyes at Chris, trying to see what kind of reaction she would get from him. Chris, again, didn't seem to notice her as he quickly read through a passage in the book.

"You're Piper's son from the future, aren't you?"

Chris almost knocked the book off from its stand and froze, although judging by the look in his eyes he was urgently looking in his own mind for a reason why Phoebe would know such a thing. Were her empath powers becoming that accurate?

"H-How did you know that!" He quickly turned to face her.

Phoebe, who's eyes had grown to the size of Piper's favorite China plates, opened her mouth to respond, but nothing would come out. She tried again, but this time only let out what sounded oddly enough like a squeak.

"Phoebe! I asked you a question! How did you know that I was Piper and Leo's son from the future!"

Phoebe could feel him grip her shoulders tightly, as if he was about to shake her, but her mind had gone numb with shock. Not only had she been half-joking about him being Piper's son -- and not only had he accidentally admitted to being as such -- but he had also confessed to being Leo's son as well! Completely unprompted, too!

"Phoebe!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly, the attic door violently swung open and in walked a robed Piper, Wyatt in arms, and a drowsy Paige, too busy rubbing sleep out of her eyes to notice the looks on both Chris and Phoebe's faces at being caught in such a compromising position. It was, after all, the middle of the night; both standing near the book while Chris gripped angrily at Phoebe's shoulders, who had a look of complete shock on her face.

"What the hell is going on in my house!" Piper practically screeched at the two. Wyatt seemed to be leaving Fussyville and entering Wailing Town at the tone in his mother's voice. "See what you two did! You woke up Wyatt! Do you know how long it took me to get hit to take a nap this time!"

"Sheesh, sheesh, Piper; I'm sure it's no big deal. Children have odd sleeping habits all the time," Paige calmly explained to her peeved sister as she took Wyatt into her own arms. Piper only gave her a death glare. "I was a social worker, remember? Jeez." And without saying goodbye, Paige walked back downstairs and into Wyatt's nursery to try and get him back to sleep.

"Now, please," Piper said in false sweetness, "do explain to me why your yelling woke up my son." She added a cheesy fake grin for good measure.

Phoebe quickly glanced over to Chris at the mention of Piper's son. Noting that she was still in shock, Chris spoke up for both of them.

"I was busy trying to find a spell I really needed to help Wyatt-- you know, your only child," he risked an angry glance at Phoebe, "and your sister here interrupted me and demanded to know what I was doing up here so late. That's all."

'Oh, you big liar, you! I can't believe that you'd so shamelessly lie to your own mother like that. I can't believe that she's your mother!'

"Phoebe?" Piper looked to her sister for an explanation.

"Um, what he said." She pointed at Chris, not caring about the fact that she was pointing to a man who was only two inches away from her, instead of across the room.

"Phoebe? You seem kinda freaked out. Almost as if you just seen a ghost, although with this family, that's a huge possibility."

'Well, at least she seems more relaxed,' both Chris and Phoebe thought simultaneously.

That's when Chris had a thought. 'Oh, dammit! If she's this freaked out about seeing me in her attic in the middle of the night, imagine how she'll react when she finds out who I am!'

Phoebe felt a sense of worry wash over her, the thing is, it also felt foreign, which could only mean that Chris was panicking over something, yet again.

"Um, it's no biggie, Piper. Look, I've just been having a rough day at work and was planning on a nice, relaxing sleep in my own house. I simply heard a noise coming from upstairs and decided to check it out. I found Chris up here, by himself, and was just surprised at that. So, you know, sorry if I woke any of you guys up, okay?"

Piper looked at her intently, as if trying to judge her sister's honesty, but feeling too tired and sleep-deprived to worry about it, she decided to just let it go… for now.

"Fine. Whatever. I'm going back to bed," she announced and turned to leave.

Chris let out a sigh he hadn't known he'd been holding in. "Thank you… for… you know… not ratting me out to Piper…."

"Don't you mean Mom?"

Chris tensed, then slowly relaxed. "Yeah… guess so." He wouldn't look up to her, but Phoebe knew that she had basically turned over a new leaf with Chris, her nephew. She now knew a very important fact that the rest of the Halliwell household would later be able to figure out on their own.

"Well, I guess it's time to go hit the hay. I'll see you tomorrow, dear nephew." She hugged his shoulders with one of her arms and stood up on her toes to give him a quick peck on the cheek, then walked back to her room.

Chris stood there, not knowing how to process what had just happened. How could he have been so careless as to reveal his entire identity like that! And what if it had been Leo-- or worse, Piper?

Not feeling like figuring out his own stupidity at the moment, Chris walked back to the couch, deciding he would work on more memory spells as soon as he woke.

-:-

By the next afternoon, Chris woke up after having taken the memory dream potion again, to find himself in the bed of the guest bedroom. He wondered how he got there, but then decided he didn't care and orbed back to the attic. Once there, he noted how all of his mess had been cleaned up and how neat the attic looked, almost too neat, Chris thought.

He orbed downstairs to the kitchen, feeling like getting a quick snack before resuming his duties of saving the world. On the kitchen table was a sealed letter addressed to him, written in what seemed to be Phoebe's writing.

Dear Chris,

I'm sorry if I didn't react better last night. As you could probably tell, it was a bit of a shock to me. Anyway, I should probably tell you now that I couldn't help myself and felt like telling someone.

Chris suddenly felt a huge sense of anger swell up inside of him.

Thankfully for you, I didn't tell anyone who really shouldn't be knowing just yet. The ones I ended up telling where my mother and Grams. Don't worry; I only told them because I know they can be trustworthy when it counts.

Anyway, we got to talking about a lot of things, such as all the things you've been doing to ensure the safety of the future, and even talked some about… other things.

'Other things? What's that supposed to mean?'

So please, head to P3. I promise you'll have the whole place to yourselves.

Much love,

Phoebe

'To yourselves? Okay, things are kinda getting weird. But whatever. Guess it wouldn't hurt to just check it out….'

With that in mind, Chris orbed to P3, where the lights had been dimmed down and romantic candles assorted around the club. In the center of the room was a table set with a few more red candles and yet another letter addressed to his name, so he opened it.

Turn around….

Chris did as he was instructed and turned around. What he saw was an image that he would forever stay in his mind. Dressed in a dark red dress that reached slightly beyond her knees, stood Bianca, in the flesh.

"Oh, my God! Bianca! What are you--?"

She walked toward him and gently placed her index finger on his lips. "Don't worry; Phoebe took care of it." Realizing that wouldn't be enough explanation for Chris, Bianca continued. "She talked to her mother and grandmother, and the three decided to see if they could bend the rules just this once and allowed me to return for exactly 24 hours."

She gave him a smile, and Chris then gave her arm a poke. Bianca couldn't help but let a small laugh.

"Oh, I'm corporeal, all right. If you really want to skip our romantic dinner, I guess I could prove to you just how corporeal I really am," she said seductively.

"Is this really happening…?"

"Yes, you dummy; it is. Now, I highly suggest you take advantage before our time is up and the Elders realize how much we've broken their rules…."

She leaned forward and began to kiss him passionately. Deciding to worry about the 'how' later, Chris started to kiss her back, not worrying over the fact that he would only be allowed 24 hours with the love of his life.

A/N: Wow! 3,505 words! That's gotta be some kind of world record for me! And okay, I realize the chapter, especially the ending, royally sucked. To which I respond: "Hey, gimme a break! It's the middle of the night, I have to wake up bright and early tomorrow (or is it today?), and I wrote this at the last possible moment! So myeh!" Anyway, I know there may be a few things here that won't make that much sense to you (such as Bianca's sudden temporary resurrection), which is why I've decided to come back later on and try to fix them, so don't worry about commenting on my many mistakes, unless they really annoy you :-P So yeah, I hope you can review positively! Thank you so much for reading my story!

PS: I hope I can post the epilogue in a few weeks. (Would that mean that this is the official last chapter? I dunno. Whatever.)