"Well, tough shit, I'm the pessimist of my family," Chris smirked, "If you wanted an optimist, you should have asked for my brother."

"We didn't ask for you." Leo's confirmation stopped the boys smirk.

"Doesn't change anything. I won't do it," Chris stopped Leo from interrupting, "Don't even try to sic the girls on me. It. Wont. Work."

"You have a brother?" Piper interrupted the two men. Chris broke looks with Leo, focusing the woman.

" I did- have an older brother."

"Did?"

"I am dead."

"But he isn't?"

"No." Chris spoke shortly. Piper only hesitated for a moment before asking the next question.

"Is he the one you are protecting?" Nothing reacted on the man's face, but his hands crossed over his chest. Leo raised an eyebrow, though. Piper didn't let it go, "You're here to protect Wyatt. Are you here to do that, because it will save your brother? Is he the one you protect?" Both men were silent. Piper waited patiently.

"I'm not doing this for my brother."

"For whom then?" She didn't want to give up; she understood she was pushing luck.

Her luck didn't run out.

"Nic and Susie." It felt so good to say their names again; the guardian almost smiled wistfully.

"Who are they?" Asked Leo, even though Piper knew full well that it wasn't going to get an answer. Chris dropped his hands to his hips, continuing down the original reason Leo and Chris were talking.

"I wont take you, or the girls. It will just end in a bloodbath." Leo waited a moment, but realized soon enough, he wasn't controlling the conversation.

"This demon you used is dangerous. We need to cut all ties to him."

"Thank you, Leo, for pointing that he is dangerous. That is why I used him; he gets the job done."

"But don't you think that if he found out that he was being played by a whitelighter, it might end tragically?" Chris rolled his eyes.

"Which is why I posed as a demon."

Paige walked into the living room, where the other three were.

"Hey, sleepy head. Did you dream any good dreams?" Chris chose to ignore her. He had slept on the couch the entire night, only waking up a few hours ago. Almost immediately upon waking, he had left the sister's house, returning because Piper had summoned him. It had been a trap. She hadn't known that Leo was going to interrogate the man as he was, but knew that Chris wasn't going to come to Leo's call.

"I made a promise." He said quietly.

"To a demon? Break it."

"Look, it may not seem like it, but I don't like lies. And the promise it not to the demon."

"That's bullshit! You lie all the time!" Leo exclaimed.

"I hide the truth. I lie rarely." Replied back tightly.

"Same thing."

"They are very different."

"You lied about Valhalla." Chris sighed, voice raising,

"Does 'I lie rarely' process in your brain?"

"Take me to the demon."

"No."

"Take me!" Yelled Leo.

"No. Don't make me lie."

"GUYS!" Yelled Paige. Both men stared at one another. Leo stood completely stiff, like a guard dog sensing danger. Chris stance took on more of a protective approach. There was no hint of aggression in any of his features. His arms were crossed again, and Paige noticed, he had taken a step away from Leo.

Paige may not have trusted the man, like Piper was now; when mysterious men mixed with her family, it rarely ended well, but she was not about let him get injured by Leo.

Physically, Paige thought Chris could take Leo. All that unknown future fighting, who knew what he was capable of, but emotionally, she knew, for some strange reason, Leo held the power to hurt the man.

Chris was the first to break eye contact; he spoke to the floor.

"I did not endanger your precious girls. If there is one person that I did endanger, it was me.-So, you have no worries, because if something does go wrong, you get rid of me. It's a win-win situation for you. Girls are protected either way." His voice lowered in volume with each word until it ended in a near whisper.

When both men looked to the stars, as if listening, Piper just sighed. Chris looked down first.

"Sounds important, Leo." The addressed man mirrored his wife's sigh, and disassembled in blue lights, lifting off toward the ceiling.

Chris breathed out.

Flashback

Pain ebbed and flowed throughout the limbs of the fallen man. His brain didn't process the movement around him, didn't noticed how it all stopped. Each breath he took didn't exist, a phantom idea. A memory of the past.

Couldn't be the past, it was only a moment ago.

The fallen man didn't feel the ground beneath him, didn't feel the air move, or the feet kicking him, as the people ran away.

It was only the pain the fallen man noticed.

It felt that way for hours, time was just wandering at it's leisure. His eyelids couldn't open, wouldn't open. Even for the faintest of moments, the fallen man thought he heard the sound of twirling purple fabric. Even then, he couldn't make his eyes open.

It was strange to think he heard something, but know that he couldn't.

But then he felt the warm little hand on his face. He wanted to smile, but knew that he couldn't.

Papa

He wanted to cry, laugh, cheer, spin the little girl in the air.

She was safe.

Nic was safe.

He felt the warmth of another hand find itself in his.

"Daddy, Papa promised." The girl cried. Chris' heart broke hearing his precious angel cry.

"Chris.." Nic couldn't begin to voice his feelings, "Oh, honey…" The grip tightened on the fallen man's hand.

Tears fell onto his cheek. Chris couldn't cry.

"Daddy, save Papa Daddy." She wrapped her arms around the fallen man's neck. "He promised."

"Honey-," Nic was crying now. Chris' memory of his heart broke even more hearing Nicolai's tone falter. He had promised to be there for them, protect them. And now they were crying over him. "Honey, a long time ago, when we first got you. We made a promise. Both Chris and I, to protect you onto our death.-He-" Nic grabbed Susie, hugging her to him, while never letting go of Chris' hand. "He made that promise first. He broke one promise to save another."

Papa

The three stayed like they were for uncounted moments. Neither the girl, nor Nic wanted to leave Chris.

Chris didn't want to leave them. Strange that the only things he felt where their hands and tears.

And then Susie's scream resonated throughout his body. He couldn't feel the warmth in his hand anymore. Nothing was there, only screaming, only his angel's screaming.

And then Nic's joined his angel's. His didn't last as long.

The fallen man waited, phantom breaths increasing, waiting to feel the hands of this family in his again.

Time floated on, wearing thin the memory of Chris' life. No longer did he feel the need to pretend to breath, to hear, to feel.

His hand lay empty, until slowly, fingers crept into it, soon a whole hand. It grasped his.

It wasn't warm.

"Christopher, I will love you until the end of time. We will see you soon."

There was no heart left.