Chapter 9

Present

"Oh, before I forget. Leo orbed back 'Up There' while you were at work. He wanted me to make this potion for you," Paige pulled a blue-green potion out of her pocket and handed it to Phoebe.

"What's it for?"

"To see why you can't use your empathy on Chris. Leo wants to see what he's hiding. If Chris used that empathy-blocking potion, this will undo it."

"Do I really have to? I have better things to do than play detective for Leo's stupid suspicions."

"Aw, just humor the poor guy."

"Ok, enough changing the topic. Paige, can you please just go talk to her?"

"But I don't want to. I'm still mad at her."

Phoebe gave her sister a dirty look that even Piper couldn't clean. "I'll stop bugging you if you do it. Do it! Do it!" Phoebe giggled at her own immaturity.

"You know, I'd orb an apple into your mouth but Chris ate them all."

"If you did that I'd have to vanquish you for being mean to your wonderful, talented, and favorite sister," Phoebe added in the best baby-talk voice she could muster.

"But I've never orbed an apple into Piper's mouth," Paige smirked at the poke at her sister.

"Haha. Very funny. It's up to the attic for you!"

"I'm going, I'm going." Paige climbed up the stairs and walked over to the attic door. She hesitated a moment before knocking.

"Come in."

Paige opened the door and looked around the attic for a moment. It looked different than it usually did. There was now a cot in the attic as well as some blankets sprawled all across the floor. But the Book of Shadows, as always, sat on top of its wooden pedestal.

"Hey, can we um, talk for a minute?"

Prue motioned Paige towards the couch, "Come sit."

Paige carefully treaded over to join her sister. "I just wanted to say I think I might have…overreacted a bit yesterday. We kind of started off our relationship on the wrong foot and yesterday didn't help much."

"You didn't overreact. I'm the one that should be apologizing, Paige. It's just it's so hard to…"

"I know. But I probably could've been more understanding. I mean here you are coming back from the dead and I've been being a bitch to you." Paige's eyes showed nothing but kindness and caring. She hadn't wanted to come up here and apologize, but now she was glad that she did. Her much ignored whitelighter side was bringing out the more empathic feelings that she possessed.

"I have something for you," Prue got up and crossed the room to an ancient-looking chest, which looked to have at one point in time been green, but had now faded out to an almost unrecognizable color. She carefully popped it open and pulled a small paper out of the bottom. It was an aged black and white photograph of a beautiful woman holding an infant in her arms. The hand of a melancholy-looking was placed upon the woman's shoulder, his hair graying and his eyes sad.

"Look."

"It's…"

"Mom. And Sam."

"Is that…me?" Paige gently took the picture in her hand and examined it. She smiled when she saw herself wrapped in the same baby blanket she still kept in her room. The letter P was embroidered across it. Her smile disappeared, however, when she noticed the look in her parents' eyes. They were holding their new daughter, a moment that should have been precious and beautiful. But instead of looking happy, their eyes were filled with grief.

"It must've been the only picture they took with you. I found it the other day hidden in this chest. It's yours."

Paige's eyes became watery and she hugged her sister for the very first time. "Thank you."

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"Chris!" "Chris!"

Chris orbed into the kitchen next to Phoebe, "What's up?"

"I want you to come join me for a drink at P3."

"No can do. Important whitelighter stuff to do."

"Ah, I see. I guess you don't want to know what demon I think is after Wyatt then," Phoebe internally congratulated herself when she saw Chris's face. She knew she had him.

"You have a new lead?"

"Orb us to P3 and I'll explain."

Chris took Phoebe's hand and together they orbed into the backroom of P3 where Chris had been sleeping for the past few months. It was a mess; there were scattered papers everywhere and drawings of many odd-faced demons on the wall. His obsession was blatantly present in the room. They walked together to the bar and each got a beer before walking back into Chris's small living space.

"So what's this demon you think you have a lead on?"

"His name is…shit," Phoebe spilled her drink all over the floor, but had luckily managed to avoid getting any on her clothes.

"I'll get it," Chris walked over to a drawer to get some paper towels. Phoebe hurriedly pulled the potion Paige had given her out of her pocket, and poured its contents into Chris's beer. It quickly fizzed and the blue-green color faded into the lighter color of the drink. Chris was completely oblivious to the fact that Phoebe had just slipped something into hisHeineken. He found the paper towels and wiped up the floor. Once he sat down again, he downed the rest of his beer in a few gulps.

"So who's the demon?"

"There is no demon."

"What? What are you talking about? I thought you were here to talk about a lead."

"Uh, no, actually, I came here to ask you a question. I just said that so you'd come. Now I want to know. What is it you're hiding from us, Chris?"

"I've told everyone a million times, nothing!" He slanted his eyes at Phoebe in distrust before asking, "Did Leo send you here to interrogate me or something?"

"You're lying."

"How the hell would you know if I'm lying?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I slipped a reverse empathy-blocking potion in your drink."

"You poisoned my drink!"

"I want to know what you're keeping from us. You promised no more lies."

Chris's eyes looked to his empty glass for help but found none. When he opened his mouth to speak he found that no words came out.

"I need you to be honest with me. No games, no running away, just the truth."

"Okay."

"Are you Wyatt's little brother?"

"Only if I can get Piper and Leo back together in time."

A/N: Reviews are very much appreciated. Please let me know what you think.