Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone.
This is set during Season 6. Everyone knows that Wyatt will turn evil, but they don't know who Chris is, until now…
Chapter 1: Carrying on as 'normal'
(Paige, Phoebe, and Leo are gathered in the manor living room. Piper descends the stairs)
Piper: well he's drifted off again
Paige: yeah but for how long?
Piper: I just don't know, it's the fifth time he's woken up in the past hour; I guess he just doesn't want to nap.
Phoebe: Well let's hope he's going to sleep for a while longer, you know how Chris gets when his little meetings get interrupted.
Leo: Chris is coming?
Paige: yeah he's been calling daily demon busting seminars, it's just easier to go along with it rather than listen to his moaning.
Leo: well in that case I'm leaving
Piper: Come on Leo, I thought you were going to stay and spend time with Wyatt.
Leo: I know, but I just don't trust Chris or indeed like him very much. I'll come back later to see Wy, by the way I've fixed that baby monitor, the fuse needed changing that's all.
Leo placed the monitor on the table and triumphantly flicked the switched, the machine fluttered into life and immediately the sound of Wyatt's cries filled the room. Groaning, Piper made her way up the stairs as Leo bade farewell and orbed out, promising to call soon.
Paige and Phoebe just about had time to roll their eyes before Chris entered the living room.
'Hi, are we ready?' he asked, his eyes scanning the room, 'where's Piper, I know Meatloaf thinks that '2 out of 3 ain't bad', but personally I prefer 100 attendance.'
'I'm here' Piper said wearily as she sank back into the armchair.
'Piper!' he exclaimed in his best 'rallying the troops' voice, 'that's not the attitude to have, we 've got 2 demons to vanquish today and then…..
'Look' Piper interrupted testily 'you try being enthusiastic about Demon hunting when you're trying to comfort a crying baby every two minutes'
'Oh come on it can't be that hard' he countered
"Oh really? Well would you like to try it?"
"Folks" Paige broke in "can we stop the arguing and get to the point…?"
As if on cue Wyatt's cries filled the room once again. Piper made to get up, but was stopped by Chris.
'No Piper, you stay here and I'll go'.
' What?' The charmed ones chorused in unison
' I'M trying to help' he replied
" Well why not?" Phoebe told Piper "you've tried, I've tried, Paige has tried, none of us can get him to stop crying for longer than 5 minutes so why not let Chris have a go."
" Fine" Piper conceded.
"Fine" Chris said "and when I come back down I expect to see you three researching ways in which to vanquish the Slurry demon ok?"
" OK!" they chorused
Chris sighed, turned on his heal and scurried upstairs ' come on Wy, I think we need a little brother to brother chat.' he muttered.
Back in the living room Paige flicked through the book of Shadows as Phoebe and Piper began organising possible potion ingredients. The sound of footsteps coming from the baby monitor signalled that Chris was walking across the nursery floor.
Piper leaned over and turned the volume up, ' well Mr Nanny lets see how long it takes you to quiet him' she sniggered.
Up in the nursery, oblivious to the audience downstairs, Chris picked up the crying baby and settled him down on his lap.
'Hey Wyatt' Chris cooed in a hushed tone that was in stark contrast to his usual sarcastic drawl. "Look little, well, big brother you need to stop crying, sush sush"
Down in the living room the silence was broken by the sound of smashing glass as the potion bottle slipped out of Pipers hand's and on to the floor.
"Come on Bro" Chris continued "you need to quieten down so that mom and the aunts can vanquish the nasty demon who makes you bad, and if you keep crying Dad is going sense you, and the last thing we want is for him to turn up, cos I really don't want to talk to him, seeing as he hates my guts right now"
Soothed by his brother's voice, Wyatt's sobs began to subside and he began babbling.
" Right, so now I've stopped the crying, what do I have to do to get you to go to sleep?" Chris pondered.
By way of an answer Wyatt simply blew bubbles and continued burbling.
" Do you want a story?" Chris asked
"yahudg"
" Well I assume that's a yes," Chris thought. He smiled thinking of all the times he and Wy had pestered their parents for a bedtime story as a way of delaying the moment when they had to go to sleep.
"Ok, so story….Once upon a time …err……there were two little boys who were both witch/whitelighters. The oldest boy was called Wyatt,and his younger, dashingly handsome and extremely intelligent brother was called Chris. ……..They lived happily with their mum and dad until one day….. Wyatt turned evil, so his little brother, who, loved his big brother ever so much, decided to go back to the past and change time, so that Wyatt wouldn't become evil, but…..um…. it was really hard because Wyatt wouldn't stop crying and drove us all mad. …. The End'
Chris looked down and saw that Wyatt's eyes were closing, he began to rock him gently, until soon Wyatt was sound asleep in his arms.
Two floors below, the sisters sat in silence. Paige and Phoebe were looking at Piper who seemed to be frozen in her seat staring into the middle distance.
Paige was the first to find her voice. "Well I guess congratulations are in order".
Phoebe attempted a small laugh ' yeah your gonna be a mom again'
Still Piper remained dumbfounded in her armchair.
" It explains a lot you know" Paige explained "how he knew us all, knew the book, the house, why he cares so much about Wyatt…."
"Not to mention why he was always so secretive" Phoebe added.. "He's gonna flip big time when he finds out that we know."
Piper suddenly came to life. 'No!' she shouted jumping to her feet.
Paige: Huh?
Piper: we're not going to tell him we know, not just yet
Phoebe: why the hell not? The poor guy thinks we all hate him, carrying this burden all alone…
Piper: oh cut the empath crap!
Phoebe: Piper!
Paige: she may have a point. He obviously didn't tell us for a reason, we need to respect that at least.
Piper began pacing up and down in front of the fire place, her hands swinging at her sides as if she didn't know what to do with them. ' I just….i..need time ok…
I don't know what to do …what to think…. what to say….what to feel….i …..i think its best that we…"
Piper stopped abruptly as footsteps were heard coming across the landing and Chris came back down the stairs. ' Wyatts snoozing away.. well like a baby!" he announced pleased with himself.
He paused, noting the broken potion bottle on the floor, Paige was sitting on the edge of the armchair, and Phoebe stood next to her, both suddenly became intent on examining the tips of their shoes. Meanwhile Piper stood stock still by the fireplace, was now staring at him, well, more than staring at him he thought, scrutinizing him.
would best describe it.
"hey what's going on down here? Where's the potion and/or vanquishing spell?" he inquired.
"Potion?" Piper replied a little confused, whilst continuing to look him up and down.
"Uh huh" Chris began speaking slowly " the one i told you to work on"
"Potion! Yeah right potion" Paige said a bit too loudly.
" we' re on it!" Phoebe chimed in.
"Good" he replied, but before he could continue he felt Pipers gaze on him "…um Piper have I grown an extra head or something?"
"N No No" she stuttered.
"Well you keep staring at me"
"St Staring, I don't keep staring I was just, um just errrr just well…"
" OK, I don't know what has gotten into you guys, but we're getting no where here, so I'm going to go and follow up some new leads, you lot make the potion, and I'll come back later." With that he took one last look around the room and orbed out.
Phoebe: soooo, that went well
Paige: yeah, we really nailed that 'acting normal' routine
They looked over at Piper, who was busying herself by sweeping up the shards of broken glass. She stopped mid sweep, set the brush down, and turned to face her sisters. "you try finding out that your whitelighter, who you have been rude to, shouted at , suspicious of, and bitched about, is actually your long lost son, your brave little boy, who's travelled back through time to help his family and got nothing but abuse, and then you tell me how to act normal" She was shouting now, normally she would be worried about waking Wyatt, but she didn't care. " I'm his mother, his mother, and I've treated him like dirt! Why didn't I see it? It seems so obvious…..he's got leo's eyes, my hair, dads jaw line….."
Paige: Its okay Piper, I mean, we missed it too.
Piper: you don't understand
Phoebe: yes we do, he pulled the wool over our eyes too!
Piper: NO YOU DON'T , you two don't have any
children
As soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted it. ' Oh Pheebs' she turned toward her younger sister who, shocked by Pipers words, looked as if she had been kicked in the stomach. " I'm sorry, I forgot about you and Cole I , I "
"it's OK" she replied.
" No its not, it's."
"look" Paige interrupted, sounding slightly shaky herself. " I say that we all go to bed, get some rest and discuss this in the morning"
"Yes" Piper agreed " I think that would be a good idea"
The next morning, following an extremely restless night, Piper uncharacteristically was the last person to wake up. She entered the kitchen to find Phoebe and Paige already up and dressed.
"morning" she said, putting an end to the hushed conversation that they seemed to be having.
'morning' the younger witches replied.
'so?' Paige began
' So' Piper answered 'I've been tossing and turning all night, but at least I 've been able to set things straight in my head"
'And?' Phoebe asked
' And' Piper replied ' I have decided that my energy is best spent in being nicer to Chris, rather than beating myself up. But, I remain by what I said yesterday, we are not to tell him, that we know, not just yet anyway. I'll find a way as soon as the time is right. Okay?'
'Okay' Phoebe said ' its just you see, Paige and I were wondering, well, what about Leo? Chris might not even be conceived if you two don't get back together"
Piper suddenly felt her checks start to burn and a pink flush made its way up from her neck to her cheeks. " I um don't envisage a problem there"
"What!" Paige probed.
" you know the other week, when Chris told us that Wyatt was going to become evil, and how I was really upset, so you two went out so that Leo and I could talk? Lets just say that he , err comforted me"
"oh"
"yeah, so I don't think that Chris need worry about that"
"Alrighty " said Phoebe. " we're all agreed then, the plan is, be nice to Chris and act 'normal' and vanquish some demons like usual"
They all raised their coffee mugs in a toast 'to acting normal' they agreed.
One week later.
' Piper' Chris groaned, raising his eyes heaven ward as his mother disappeared downstairs. He collapsed onto the sofa and waited for her come back.
This, he thought, had got to be one of the strangest weeks on record. First off, Monday, after saying yes to Piper's offer of refreshments, to his surprise he had received a glass of milk and a cookie, instead of the coffee and doughnut that she had doled out to everyone else. Wednesday afternoon he found Piper in his room as P3, with an armful of his dirty laundry offering to 'throw it in the machine' for him, Friday she asked him if he would prefer sleeping on the sofa in the manor as opposed to the club, and if that wasn't bizarre enough she had taken to feeding him at every opportunity. To top it all off, he had orbed in here today to collect the girls to go on a demon hunt, only for Piper to shout at him for leaving the house with only a t-shirt on.
' I would have worn a coat' he had explained ' except you took it'
' I know' she had replied ' there was a big hole in the sleeve, I wanted to sew it up, I'll just go get it'
It was almost as if she knew he was his son, but Chris rationalized, that was impossible, as the only person who knew was Wyatt, and as his sole vocabulary seemed to consist of 'mamma' and 'dadda', he was pretty sure that he was safe there. So, safe in this knowledge, he was kind of enjoying the attention, as it had been so long since he had been 'mothered' properly, although the coat thing was annoying.
Before he could think about it any further, the sound of Wyatt singing nonsense to himself filled the room.
'aw how cute' said Phoebe who was decanting potion into bottles.
'hey, where is Wy?' said Chris looking round the attic.
'In his room ' said Paige, as she thumbed through the book of Shadows.
"then how come we can hear him?"
"er through the Baby Monitor dummy!" she exclaimed. " you know, big white thing, looks like a walkie talkie"
Chris felt his temperature begin to rise and his pulse begin to race. " but" he squeaked, trying to keep his voice calm. " It's broken, its been broken for weeks"
"yeah well Leo fixed it"
"when?" Chris asked, already sensing the answer
" On Sund…" Paige stopped short, realising what she was saying, she looked to Phoebe, who also seemed to realise that it was too late. Chris had added 2+2 and it most definitely equalled 4.
"She knows" he whispered. " you all do"
Paige and Phoebe could do nothing more than nod. Chris took a deep breath. He felt the blood rush to his head, his heart seemed to be pounding in his ears.
"know what?" Piper bounced into the attic, "here you are, one neatly laundered and repaired coat."
"you know, what I know" Chris repeated.
"No, I don't know what you know" continued Piper, a little too brightly. She looked to her sisters for some help.
"he knows" Phoebe said.
"knows what!" Piper said through clenched teeth, giving her sisters a "keep up the act" look.
"That I'm your son"
The words, that he had wished to say for so long, came tumbling out of his mouth and seemed to hang in the air.
Piper realised that there was no going back now, and began to babble,"ah, that you see, we, well rather I, um"
Before Piper could continue, Paige and Phoebe thought it best to make their exit.
" We'll leave you guys to talk, just be an orb away if you need us!" Paige cried as she shoved Phoebe out of the door.
The door closed behind them and Chris and Piper were left facing each other. Chris sighed. He had invisaged this moment , how he would break the news to Piper, he had played it over and over in his head, rehearsed his lines as if in a play, but now he was here, he couldn't remember any of it. His mind was a blank, his palms were sweating, his brain had turned into cotton wool and he wasn't sure if he could trust his voice at all.
Piper walked over to the sofa, sat down and beckoned Chris to come and join her. He walked over to her slowly, thinking it best to avoid sudden movements in his present state. He perched on the edge of the sofa, about as far away from her as was possible without falling on the floor.
" I don't bite" said Piper.
" I know, it's your bark that I'm sacred of" said Chris.
Piper forced a smile. "why didn't you tell us who you were, or me at the very least?" she asked.
"The same reason that you didn't tell me that you found me out" he replied. " I just didn't know how. I couldn't find the words. Plus, to begin with I figured it would be easier if you got to know me before I dropped the bombshell, but then our relationship didn't exactly get off to a great start, and I realised that telling you was getting to be harder and harder. Until in the end I decided that I would keep my identity a secret. Trouble is, I never anticipated that it would take me so long to save Wyatt, nor how much you would distrust me."
"I'm sorry" Piper leant to touch his hand, Chris flinched and pulled away. Piper looked up at him confused.
"What is it? I know I said some horrible things to you recently, but I didn't know who you were"
"It isn't that"
"Then tell me,. am I such a terrible mother that you can't bare to even hold my hand?"
" No!" Chris practically shouted. "No, you're a great mom"
"Then what is it? 'cause I'm really at a loss here, as to why my baby boy hates me"
" I don't hate you" Chris cried. "I could never hate you. It's just" Chris felt his cool , calm exterieur, breaking, at the sight of his mothers eyes looking at him with concern.
He decided to go with the half truth. " it's just I haven't felt loved by you in a very long time"
Piper, interpreting this comment to refer to the many months that had elapsed since Chris had arrived in the past, moved herself further along the sofa to be closer to her son
" I know, sweetie and I'm sorry"
" Stop saying you're sorry, it's not your fault, none of this is your fault." Chris' voice was wavering now, she was so close that he could smell her perfume, the perfume that she wore everyday, including the day she died. The image of her dead body lying on the ground flashed before his eyes. Before he could react, he felt a pair of strong arms round him, as Piper pulled him into a hug. He collapsed into his mothers arms, tears welling up in his eyes.
They sat a while in silence, Chris resting his head on his mothers lap, as she stoked his hair. Chris felt at peace for once. He felt at ease, loved, calm, he hadn't felt like this in 8 long years.
After a while he spoke. "where do we go from here then?"
"The kitchen? I can make you some waffles" Piper attempted some levity.
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
"We take it one step at a time, I guess. I want to get to know you properly. That and I need to adjust to being pregnant again, and having a 22 year old son.'
'Are you going to tell Leo about me?"
" Do you want me to? I mean it might make it easier, he'll stop wanting to strangle you at least"
"No, I think it's best if we keep it between us for now, he'll find out soon enough."
"If that's what you want"
"It is"
"Now, lets go and find your Aunts as they're most likely dying from curiosity.
"Right".
Chris stood, he took Pipers hand and helped her from the sofa. She smiled at him and ruffled his hair, then she linked her arm through his, and they orbed downstairs to put Phoebe and Paige out of their misery.