It was 2 days after Piper and Phoebe learned the truth about Paige's daughter, and Piper was at her wits end. Remarkably, Paige was not the primary source of Pipers anxiety. In fact on the very day that she and Phoebe had grudgingly promised Chris that they would keep their newly acquired knowledge about Poppy to themselves, Paige had come home from work in an upbeat mood, rambling about how some car crash victim had made her see the light, put her priorities in order, helped lift her from the fog of depression, realise that life should be lived to the full etc. Piper wasn't too sure about the ins and outs of the case, but her youngest sister seemed more positive than she had since their little jaunt to the future, so all was well in that department for the time being.

No, it was the men in her life that were driving Piper mad. Firstly Chris seemed to be more determined than ever to find the demon that turned Wyatt, and consequently was often 'out at all hours', refusing to say where he had been and who he was with. " I don't want you to worry" was his usual response, to which Piper replied wearily " the less you tell me, the more I worry" yet this logic appeared to be lost on Chris.

Then there was Wyatt. He had recently discovered that he could not only orb things to him, such as his bottle, soft toys, his dummy, but also he could orb himself. So he was using this to his advantage, and had begun orbing himself all over the place. Every time Piper attempted to bath him, change him or feed him some kind of food that wasn't to his liking, he would disappear into a cloud orbs, and quite often reappear in a random location about the house.

Finally there was Leo. After nearly 4 months of non-communication she had decided to summon him. There were 2 main reasons for this, firstly she wanted discuss ways in which they could control Wyatt's orbing, and secondly, she felt that it was time for him and Chris to sort out their issues, as Chris was obviously going to be around for the foreseeable, and she really didn't feel like playing the role of mediator, especially when she was pregnant. However, after 3 hours of calling her ex-husbands name with no success, she had gone to the attic and found that some one had left a white post-it note on Leo's behalf, telling her that his diary was rather full at the moment, so a meeting has been arranged for 3pm next Wednesday if that was convenient?.

Piper sighed. She decided to try and give Wyatt a bath one more time. "Come on young man" she said walking over to the playpen, only to find it empty. Not again!

"Wyatt!" she screamed.

On the other side of town Paige was preparing for her last visit with Jo before she left hospital and was put into a temporary care home. As she made her way towards the entrance she almost collided with her boss who was walking back to his car.

"Paige?" he said, "what are you doing here?"

"I've come to see Jo one last time" she replied, " I guess you were just completing the paper work"

" Indeed. I have a temporary foster home lined up for her. She will be able to stay there for a week, in which time we should be able to track down her uncle"

"Her uncle?" Paige inquired.

"Yes" Mr Cowan explained. " We ran a trace based on her fathers dental records and her name. Turns out Jo's mother died about 7 years ago due to complications in a kidney operation. The maternal grandparents are still alive, but they live in a residential home for the elderly. On Jo's fathers side, the grandparents have passed on, but there is an uncle, a David Jenkins."

"Well that's good," said Paige.

"Yes and no" Cowan replied. Yes, of course its good news that she does have one immediate family member alive. No, in that he is in the Army, and is currently on a tour of duty in Iraq."

"Oh"

" Exactly. He was last seen in down town Basra, so we're trying to get a message through to him as soon as we can…. but surely you know some of this, seeing as you have come to visit her everyday for the past three days? "

" I know" Paige said. " But we tend to talk about more trivial matters, hair, boys, films, things to help her take her mind off what happened, even if its for just 2 hours a day. It helps, because once I'm gone and she's alone with her thoughts, who knows what's running through her mind. I'm just trying to be a friend."

Cowan nodded. " Well keep it up Miss Matthews, as she could certainly do with all the friends she can right now."

"Wyatt!" Piper screamed.

"Mom!" Chris' voice preceded him as he orbed into the hall. " Mom" he continued, " you've got to keep Wyatt under control!"

"What?" Piper asked as she turned to face her grown-up son. Chris stood there fuming, holding his baby brother in his arms.

Relief washed over her, as she picked up Wyatt from his brother. "Where was he?" she asked.

"Where was he?" Chris spluttered. " He was interrupting my date that's where he was!"

"You had a date?" Piper suddenly became interested.

"Well, it as more like a, you know, sort of a, yes, ok fine, yes, I had a date and.."

"What was she called?" his mother interrupted.

"Alison, and she..Hey can we get back to the point here?"

" Well what did he do?" Piper asked, "Did he orb in when you were eating, or in the queue at the cinema or what"

"No" Chris reddened," we were smdsjdfhg"

"What? I couldn't hear what you said" Piper grinned; now beginning to enjoy herself.

" We were..kissing all right, happy now? We were at the bar in P3 kissing and next thing I know , my baby-older-brother is sitting on my lap…its not funny!" he shouted, as his mother unsuccessfully fought back the urge to giggle.

"I'm sorry..its just too funny" she laughed. "Is that where you've been mysteriously disappearing to for the past couple of days? You've been on dates?"

Chris remained silent, his face growing redder and redder.

" I take it that's a yes"

"Maybe"

"Anyway" Pipers tone grew serious. " I'm glad you're here, I think its time we summoned your father"

"No way!" Chris shouted. "We don't need him, besides, he doesn't know that your pregnant, and you promised that I wouldn't have to speak to him, I don't need him, not now not ever"

"You might not, but your brother obviously does, this self orbing is a pretty big cry for attention. I know I haven't told him that I' pregnant yet, but he'll have to find out one day, and better to hear it from me now than for him to orb into the nursery one night and find two babies sleeping in there"

" You don't understand, you don't know what he did"

"Well tell me then Chris, help me understand."

However Chris was saved the trouble of answering by Phoebe, who fell through the front door grasping for breath. " Premonition…demon….here…2 minutes…called ..Paige"

"Demon?" Piper asked, getting ready to strike a battle pose.

"I just got back to the office" Paige orbed in, cup of coffee in hand, " where is this ugly jack-ass"

"oh good , I do like it when I get a proper welcome" the demon interrupted as he suddenly shimmered into the living room. " and here's my gift to you" he continued as he launched an energy ball at the trio of witches.

"well I hope you kept the receipt" Piper shot back as she blew up the ball.

"Never mind I have a spare" he replied, and prepared to launch another, this time the girls were ready. The ball had barely moved 2 inches across the room when Paige screamed "energy ball", and it flew backwards , hitting its creator squarely in the chest, causing him to explode into hundreds of tiny pieces, one of which hit Chris on the shoulder, it tore the skin and a greenish liquid began to ooze from the wound.

"Chris!" Piper ran to her son. "Are you ok?"

"I don't feel so good…" he wobbled slightly on his feet.

"Its ok baby, you go and lay on my bed, and we'll go and look through the book of Shadows, and find out who did this to you" she reassured him.

5 minutes later, Piper entered the attic to find Paige and Phoebe mixing up a potion.

"Well?" the oldest witch asked.

"Bright side?" Phoebe answered. " We found the demon, and the antidote to give to anyone that has been effected by him, but…"

"but..why is there always a but…?"

"but..The side effects include sweating, nausea, stomach cramps, and delusions. but they should all wear off after about 12 hours"

"great" Piper sighed. "bring that down stairs when you've finished will you? I best go and warn Chris that he's in for a rough night."

Several hours later, the trio were gathered in Pipers room, keeping watch over Chris. The young white lighter was running a temperature, yet appeared to be shivering, as he kept drawing the bed sheets up around his neck. The "delusions" were in full swing as the silence was periodically interrupted by cries of "No! No! Get away from me!" and other incoherent ramblings.

"you guys should go get some sleep" Piper said to her sisters "I'll say here with him"

"no honey" Paige said, " you need to rest more than we do"

Phoebe nodded in agreement.

" I will" Piper promised. "I'll send Wyatt to magic school tomorrow and sleep during the day. But I can't see me getting 8 hours of shut eye whilst my son suffers"

Reluctantly Paige and Phoebe agreed and shuffled out to their respective bedrooms, promising to check on them first thing in the morning.

Piper meanwhile, pulled on a pair of PJ's and crawled in to bed next to Chris, wrapping her body round his as if to protect him from the outside world.

"Goodnight sweetie" she said softly as she kissed him on the check, and tried to settle down to sleep…..

After what seemed like 5 minutes, but was in reality about 5 hours, Piper was woken from her light doze by the sound of orbs. She sat up in bed blearily rubbing her eyes. She noticed a figure stood at the end of her bed. There in full ceremonial Elder-robes stood her ex-husband.

"quick Piper" he cried, "where's Wyatt?"…………