Chris stood for a long time in the quiet white poorly lit hallway.

Prue had disappeared awhile ago. Her guidance had been needed elsewhere or something so she had just left him. Maybe, she had felt that all he needed after he had restarted his life all over again was that bomb of truth dropped on him. He didn't know.

He felt so numb. He felt so morbid and sick and tired. He felt the world. He felt her being so close to him all over again. Like a habit you couldn't break. Like a person you couldn't lose. She was there but she wasn't. He was alive and she was alive again but he felt dead.

He knew that if he really cared about what was good for her he should just leaver her be.

Chris stared ahead of him at the plain white wall. His eyes had matched every little detail of white shipping paint and every scratch made from juvenile instincts. He felt stupid. He felt wrong he felt horrible. He was being pulled in every way.

His mind had gone black after everything.

He was still there though. He was still breathing and standing in that hallway to the high school that he knew so well and hated so very much. Soon, life had started passing around him again. He saw it happen out of the corner of his eye, but this time he was the one who remained frozen.

He loved her. He loved her so much. He had since the moment she had looked at him. The way she smiled could leave him for days feeling good. Her eyes the way they changed to a lighter brighter color when she was happy a color that reminded him of the sky on a summer day. The way they darkened to midnight blue when she was pulling away from his kiss.

The way she smelled. Always of apple. Always so fresh and so new to him. Everything she did was ... she was the one with magic. She had put a spell over him since their first moment together and now.. This couldn't be the last. He couldn't just say goodbye after everything he had done to save her as if it all meant nothing.

After losing her the first time.

The gray bell rang steadily beside him, but he didn't look at it. If he did he had a feeling he would blow it up. He just stared ahead.

People walked from their classes rooms. They walked around him as if he didn't exist. They all had their own friends. He saw a few of the Goths walking around making fun of the jocks who were slapping each other on the backs over their last games victory. He saw the preps check their flawless makeup for the thirtieth time in a row. He saw a few couples. They walked together with their hands held. He saw them look at each other like nothing else in the world existed as they went walking by him.

Everyone had someone. Everyone had something somewhere else to be going towards. Someone was always out there waiting for somebody else. He had been waiting for awhile there. Straggling on the corners as he watched the happy couples pass and do their coupling thing.

Then she had come.

Jade.

He could almost see himself walking past with her. He could almost feel the past of what he had once known come over him again as he pretended to be there living in it all over again.

Her long hair was braided in pigtails. She was holding onto his arms and laughing about something a teacher had said that had amused her. He could see her as she breathed in a low breath before she turned her cerulean blue eyes up to wait for him to find the humor in it. Her black and red jacket that matched her hair weaved into his as she leaned further into him making him take on most of her weight.

They had been good together. She had been the first person to ever actually make him feel.

But he had to give that away now.

He had to say no to it. If he didn't this all would have been for nothing. He knew Prue was right, but he didn't want to let it go at all. Chris swallowed hard trying not to cry in school. People already wondered about him sometimes. He didn't want them to see this.

He shook his head as he felt the tears threaten but slowly retreat back into him.

The kid that had been stapling the flyers for the play passed him with a confused side glance at him, but Chris chose to ignore it as he stared at the black and white silhouette of the star crossed lovers on the poster. He knew how they felt about right about now as he stared ahead of him.

He felt like he had the two angels on his shoulders. He had the devil who said 'screw it and be with her. You know you want to be with her so why not chance it?' And then there was the angel who was saying 'don't risk it. Let her live and be happy.' But every time he kept coming to a crossroads.

He had a new chance. He knew what had happened before so he could change it this time around. He could do it all differently now and then she wouldn't die like that. Since, she hadn't hated him for being a freak of nature witch whitelighter version of superman the first time round then she would be fine with him again.

She was the one for him. She was the one he was supposed to love, right?

Forget the fact that she had died in her last life. Forget the fact that she had been breaking up with him before it all had happened because she couldn't deal with it anymore.

This time he wouldn't screw up that bad and send her to hell.

This time... This time.. This time...

Those two words were where the crossroads came in to play on his morality.

Last time he had screwed up. Most people didn't get a second chance to fix their lives. He wanted her so much in his it was sickening. If he didn't have her though she would be safe on her own. She would be alright and he could live knowing she was going to be alive, happy, and safe.

He had been the reason last time for her dying.

He knew that. He hated that fact. He knew it was the main determinant on what he was about to do this time round.

Chris bit his lip hard. Hard enough to feel blood pour into his mouth as he did.

The hallway was empty now. There was no one else around. The bells had rung. He was late as usual to his class. Everyone was back in their lives own again and here he was.

He really really wanted to know if the Elders had it out for him. Why else would they kill off the only person who had ever been good enough for him? Who had been a human but had been able to accept his secret double life?

"You're like batman right?" Jade asked him lightly as she sat next to him.

He had finally told her his secret. Well, told her wasn't the best term for it. He had just shown up in her room. He was supposed to have been on vacation with this family, but instead here he was with her.

He was hurt. A vampire had taken a bite out of him. Sure, he looked like crap now, but hey, he thought, you should have seen the other guys.

She placed her red wash cloth over his sweating head. The cold water chilled his skin on his forehead as she did, but it felt good. The dark lighters arrow had caught him off guard too. He had barely been able to sneak past him and then he had been hit. Not fully, but it had made a large bleeding wound for him to deal with.

He had known the moment it had happened that he had had to get somewhere to someone he trusted fast and he had had to orb to her house in able to do so.

He wasn't fool enough to believe that just a scratch from a darklighters arrow was alright. He knew it was poisonous. With a large hole in his shoulder he had known that it was a lot more deadly to him whether the arrow was still in him or not.

So, he had orbed into her room. She hadn't saw him at first. She had been so into typing on her computer and listening to music on her headphones that she hadn't even figured he was anywhere in sight. Then he had thrown the arrow on the ground and she had looked behind her. She had screamed and then had been confused about how he had gotten in. She had ranted and she had raved. Then, he had explained it to her in order to get her to call his parents who were going to kill him. And also, to finally let her know.

So she had asked, "You're like Batman right. You know Mr. Double Life?"

"Yeah, well Batman had fantasy gadgets I just have.. Powers."

"Wow, cool. I wanna see. God, keeping that secret must've been crazy hard or something right? Wow, I can barely keep a secret longer then five minutes. You must have some self control." she told him as she leaned into him. She was sitting on the bed Indian style as she leaned over him to put the cloth over his face.

He was experiencing a loss of control at that moment because she had been so close. She had been so beautiful. He had just wanted to pull her into him and kiss her. Of course, when he tried to he'd ended up screeching in pain as his shoulder wound came back to bite him in the ass.

"Sorry, did I?' she asked as she pulled away and made a face at his wound.

"I.. No. You didn't. I need you to do me favor?"

"Sure, anything."

He stared at her a moment in the cool blue toned room. Her dark midnight blue eyes stared down at him in askance as she leaned towards him to hear his whispering words. Her long black hair was up for once in a ponytail that only she could make look glamorous with her long red streaks falling down out of it to softly lie over his neck. "You're so hot."

She blushed and laughed as she pulled back from him. "Well, Mr. Halliwell. I am. I know, but still I am not going to be Florence Nightingale to your icky woundedness so tell me what is the favor you ask?"

"I need you to call my parents."

"Wow, what a way to kill the mood." she replied as she sneaked over him and took her cell phone off the dresser. "And what is it that I tell them? Huh? Their son is bleeding and pale and wounded. Do jump on the next jet plane out?"

"No, just tell my mom to tell my dada to get here."

"Yeah, like he can do that in ten seconds flat." she remarked shaking her head.

Chris only laughed at her as she told his mother that in the mildest most gentlest way. It was cute how she was saying all his terms like vampire and darklighter questioningly as if he might be the crazy one and she didn't really want to bother his mother with that kind of business. Of course, within an instant of her saying Chris was hurt by a darklighter his dad was there.

She had just gaped at them, dropped the phone, and stared the whole time his father had healed him.

He couldn't keep her this time. He had to give her that chance to live a life without his witchcraft / white lighter baggage.. He had to. He was the reason why she had been killed in the first place.

He knew that now as he stopped biting his bleeding lip and turned away from the wall bleakly and saw her coming from the office. He didn't think. He just moved. He quickly ran into the boys bathroom and watched from the corner as she came out.

Just the sight of her took his breath away.

Jade came to the glass doorway of the nurses white office and looked around at the empty hallway. Her long black and red hair flew around her to a stop as she stopped as if in a daze. Even from where he was he could feel herHe could feel her expecting to find him out there in the hallway.

He could almost feel her feel him, but not know where. She looked in every direction and frowned in confusion. Her hoped faded from her mind as she shook her head as well as her 'stupid' feelings away.

Jade held hard to her black backpacks strap as she gave the hallway one more once over. Then, she started out of the office. She went in the other direction as she did. She didn't pause this time. She was completely fine now. She had given up on him.

For now that was all he could do to save her. Chris fell back into the cold stone walls of the bathroom and took a hard cold breath into himself. Then he closed his dark green emerald eyes to the world around him as the small inaction of doing nothing sunk into his body.

He felt the memories that had once existed that had happened around this time the first time being erased from his mind as the pain filtered through him. When it was finally over he was felt feeling empty like a piece of him had been taken.

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So, how am I doing with the drama / consequences?