A/N: Thank you for your continued encouragement! I'm overjoyed that so many people like my story!

Part 4: Baby Tears and Chicken Soup

In the attic of the Halliwell Manor, the dust was settling after the vanquish of the Jardax demon. Paige shut the Book of Shadows, Phoebe started gathering up the crystals and Piper was restacking some fallen boxes in the corner.

Suddenly the sound of crying came over the baby monitor.

Wyatt was wailing, his pitch and volume increasing by the second. Alarm filled Piper as she recognised her toddler's cry – her son was frightened. Her first thought was to get to him. Anticipating this, Paige held out her hand to orb her downstairs.

Piper's second thought, as she took her sister's hand, was to wonder what was scaring him. Then, as the room began to dissolve into blue-white light, she wondered why she couldn't now hear Chris trying to soothe Wyatt.

Arriving in the conservatory, Piper rushed over to the playpen to pick up her son. Wyatt was flushed bright red and his face was soaked with tears.

"Hey, you're ok, you're ok," she soothed, holding him close. "Mommy's got you."

Her son continued to cry and she followed his fixed gaze at the same time as Paige yelped. Both brought Piper's attention to the young man collapsed on the floor.

"Chris! Oh God!" she exclaimed.

Paige was at his side and gently eased him over onto his back. He was a deathly shade, his lips were grey-blue and there was a large red stain on his shirt.

"Is he…?" Piper asked, trying to get Wyatt to turn away as she took a step forward.

Her fingers pressed against Chris's neck, Paige looked up as she replied, "He's alive, but barely." She threw back her head and yelled, "Leo!"

Piper joined in the shouting for her husband, as they heard Phoebe running down the stairs.

In seconds, Leo orbed in. Concern was etched into his forehead by the urgency of the sisters' call.

"It's Chris," Piper said.

Paige stood up to make way for the Elder.

"What happened?" Leo asked, kneeling at the side of the unconscious young man.

Phoebe came in at that moment and gasped in horror, raising a hand to her mouth.

"We don't know," Piper replied. "We were in the attic when Wyatt started crying."

Leo pulled up Chris's bloodstained shirt to reveal a deep puncture wound in his side. Holding his hands over the injury, golden light radiated from the Elder's palms. His frown deepened.

"Darklighter poison… This wound is from a Darklighter's arrow!" Leo exclaimed.

"But where's the arrow?" Paige asked, looking around the room.

"And why didn't we hear anything over the baby monitor?" Phoebe added.

Chris's wound was healing under Leo's administrations. Soon no sign of the piercing remained, but he was still far too pale and his eyes failed to do so much as flicker open.

"I've done all I can, but he's still very weak," Leo said, drawing back his hands. "Help me get him to the couch."

He wrapped his arms around the young man and picked him up with Paige's help. Phoebe cleared the way for them into the living room, while Piper returned a quietened down Wyatt to his playpen.

Leo gently lowered Chris onto the sofa, Paige guiding his head down onto a cushion.

"Why isn't he waking up?" Phoebe asked, worried.

"The poisoning was far advanced," Leo answered, gently. "He was very close to the end."

Paige perched on the edge of the sofa and brushed a damp strand of short, dark hair back off Chris's pale forehead. She looked anxiously up at Leo. "But he's going to be ok, isn't he?"

Leo hesitated. "He should be."

Piper appeared with a blanket that she draped over Chris. At that moment, the young man's eyelids finally flickered, supporting Leo's words. Piper tenderly ran a hand over his cheek and called his name, coaxing him into consciousness.

Chris slowly opened his eyes and mumbled a word that was too soft for any of them to catch. Then the film across his eyes cleared and he focused on the faces looking down at him.

"Hey, sleepy head," Piper greeted.

Chris shifted so he was raised up a little more. "Hey." A quiet half-smile appeared on his lips. "Did the vanquish go ok?"

Piper stepped back and frowned, while Paige looked at him as if he was delusional.

"We got rid of the Jardax demon," Piper told him. "But what we're all dying to know is what just happened to you."

"I had a nightmare," Chris said, simply, avoiding everyone's gaze.

"Oh, really?" Paige cocked her head and raised her eyebrows at him.

He nodded.

"A nightmare?" Phoebe frowned at him.

He nodded again.

"A nightmare that very nearly killed you?" Piper looked at him accusingly.

"Chris, you were wounded. You'd been hit by a Darklighter," Leo told him. "Even the worst nightmare can't do that to do."

"Oh, but it can," Chris said, wearily. "I've got a Nightmare demon after me."

"A what?" Phoebe asked.

"A Nightmare demon," Chris repeated. "Or the Sandman's apprentice, as he calls himself."

"I've not heard of one before," Leo said. "What else do you know about him?"

"That he wants me dead. And he can kill me in the dream worlds he creates."

"I'll get the Book," Paige said, and orbed up to the attic.

Chris shifted on the sofa again, and tried to push himself upright. A sharp pain in his head stopped him and caused him to cry out. He fell back against the cushion, a hand clutched to his forehead.

"Take it easy," Phoebe urged, gently squeezing his arm. "You're still very weak."

Piper disappeared and returned with painkillers and a glass of water. Chris took the pills gratefully and washed them down.

After handing the glass back to Piper, he shifted uncomfortably and kept his gaze lowered, uneasy under the scrutinising stares of the two sisters and Leo. He felt vulnerable lying down, but couldn't find the strength to try to sit up again.

It was ironic how they chose to pay him the attention he often craved at a time when he didn't want them to. Not that it wasn't nice that they cared that he had nearly died. It wasn't the affection that bothered him so much, but their curiosity – it was never a good thing to have them curious about him, regardless of the circumstances.

Perhaps it was paranoia, but he could see multiple ways of how a harmless question about his nightmare could lead to being bombarded with questions about who he was, what happened in the future and what his agenda was. After all, it wasn't exactly uncommon for the sisters to jump from one topic to another seemingly unrelated one.

Chris didn't feel up to fending off an interrogation. There were only so many times he could repeat the phrase 'future consequences' in a row before they would get mad. He didn't trust himself, in his current exhausted state, to be able to conjure up a more witty reply and not let something slip, and he certainly didn't have the energy to orb out.

Paige returned with the Book of Shadows and set it down on the coffee table. She opened it up and began flicking through. The others crowded around her, while Chris lay back and shut his eyes, covering them with a hand. He would have enjoyed the removal of their stares were it not for the pounding in his head and the waves of vertigo, which were now sweeping over him regardless of whether he moved or not.

"Here we go: Nightmare demons."

Paige's triumphant words caused Chris to open his eyes and slowly roll his head until he was looking over at them. He couldn't read the Book from where he was, but the youngest sister began reading out the passage so there was no need.

" 'Nightmare demons exist in a different plane, like Sandmen. They have the power to kill sleeping victims by manifesting dreamt injuries into reality.' " Paige sighed. "That's all it says." She threw up her hands. "Nothing about how to stop or vanquish one. Absolutely nada."

They all looked dismayed and worried, glancing back at Chris with sympathy.

"There isn't even a picture," Paige grouched.

"Oh, that's easy. I can add one in if you like," Chris said, dryly. "He's tall, pale and dressed like a nineteenth century dandy."

"Bizarre," Paige muttered.

"Yeah, and rather Dracula-esque," Chris added, frowning thoughtfully.

A wail sounded from the sleepy toddler in the next room.

"Mommy's coming!" Piper called, as she hurried out into the conservatory. "It's time for beddy-byes, I know, honey, I know."

Chris listened, his thoughts slowly changing track.

"Bad mommy, yes," Piper cooed to her fair-haired son. "Come on then, up you come."

Suddenly he reached the memory.

"I need to find Hychek. He knows something." Chris shakily sat up.

"You're not going anywhere," Phoebe declared, easily pushing him back down.

"Who's Hychek?" Leo asked.

"One of my Underworld informants. He…" Chris paused, swallowing the bile that rose to his throat. Moving so much really had been a very bad idea. He wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "I spoke to him yesterday and he warned me that a Nightmare demon was interested in Wyatt. He might know something of use."

"Well, you're in no state for trips to the Underworld," Piper stated, having returned with the toddler in her arms.

"Maybe we could go talk to him for you?" Paige suggested.

"No. He's petrified of you three. You would reduce him into a gibbering mush that wouldn't be able to tell you the time of day." Chris tentatively pushed himself upright again and slid his feet to the floor. "I need to be the one to go."

"What you need is rest," Piper corrected, sternly.

"I can't rest," Chris snapped, fighting against the weakness and complaints of his body. "If I go to sleep, I'll be landing myself right back into the Nightmare demon's hands."

"You don't have to sleep to rest," Piper told him, patiently.

Chris slumped back, defeated by his frailty and the sisters' insistence.

"Leo, can you put Wyatt to bed while I rustle up some chicken soup for Chris?" Piper carefully handed the half-asleep child to his father.

"Sure."

Leo orbed up to Wyatt's room and Piper walked off into the kitchen.

"I don't have a cold..." Chris's mumbled sulking faded out.

While Piper was getting Chris some food, her two sisters went through the Book of Shadows again in vain hope of finding something more. Leo appeared briefly to announce he was going to consult with the other Elders and orbed up.

Chris had severely doubted that he would be able to stomach anything Piper brought him, and so was surprised to find that the warm smell emanating from the bowl she handed him actually reduced his nausea. The familiar smell stirred up tender memories in him that calmed and soothed him.

"It's your soup!" he exclaimed, when his tongue confirmed what his nose was telling him.

Startled, the three sisters looked at him strangely.

"I-I mean it's too good to have come out of a can," Chris fumbled. "It must be homemade."

Piper looked pleased. "It is," she told him, smiling. "I froze some of the last lot I made."

"It's very good!"

"Thank you."

By the time Chris had finished the soup, he was looking a bit healthier. He was feeling better too, his dizziness and nausea finally gone. Though he hadn't been able to get any bread down, Piper's delicious chicken soup had helped restore some of his strength.

It was an hour after leaving the manor that Leo returned. He had found out nothing of use, and none of them would be able to risk sleeping until they knew how to defeat the Nightmare demon. So, it was decided that Chris would have to pay Hychek a visit.

Two visits in twenty-four hours – Chris did not foresee delight on the cowardly tattletale's part.