CHAPTER TWO: Hurt

Believe it or not, Chris Perry actually apologized! I guess there's a first time for everything! "I'm sorry; I should have," he admitted, "but, uh, it's complicated. I didn't do much planning before coming back here. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision," and I could hear the typical self-depreciative shrug in his voice. "We thought it was going to be a quick and easy thing to jump back and change little things to alter the course of history."

"How's that working out for you?" she demanded, before quickly adding, "Don't answer that; it was uncalled for. Sorry," and I grinned, knowing that like Paige and me when we first found out, she was having a hard time dealing with the difficult transition between thinking of him as a nuisance and thinking of him as a son. "Who's 'we'?" she asked instead.

"Well, Bianca, for one, and, well, I probably shouldn't get into the specifics."

She sighed impatiently. "This is really hard for me, Chris."

"I know. I'm sorry," and now he truly sounded contrite, and I knew that of us all, the last one he wanted to hurt was his mother.

"You have made it incredibly difficult to get to know you and even trust you!" she accused, and I couldn't disagree with her, even though I knew he had his reasons. "Tell me the truth - you were the one who banished Leo to Valhalla, weren't you?" Before he had a chance to reply, she demanded, "And the inhibitions demon, you helped him, too, didn't you?" Again, before he could say a word, she started to yell, close to screaming, pain in every word. "Why? Were you trying to punish us? What happens in the future that warrants you coming back and treating us this way? And don't even try to hand me that crap about future consequences, buster, because I've had it with that nonsense!" and I could tell she was working up a full head of steam and almost felt sorry for him, even though I knew he deserved every word.

Chris' voice was small and soft, but I could still hear his answer. "I had to get Leo out of the way so I could be assigned as your Whitelighter. I thought that would be the perfect way to be close enough to all of you to see if I could figure out who turns Wyatt. As far as the inhibitions demon goes, I'm sorry. That was a really bad mistake. I was hoping he would teach you a lesson to stop focusing on the trivial things and to start focusing on saving Wyatt - and yourselves."

"Why do you hate Leo so much?" and I wanted to know, too. "He's your father!"

There was a long pause this time. "Let's just say he wasn't around much in the future that I know," but somehow I didn't think he was telling the whole truth, and I wondered why not.

C'mon, Piper, I was thinking. Give him what-for for blaming our Leo for something he never did, and for something he might never do. If he'll listen to anyone, he'll listen to you!