Chapter Five – The Joys of Fatherhood

As the day passed on, Leo & Piper spent time with their new grandson, it made for a very comfortable day. As the dark grey clouds and thunder played outside, a warm fire was in the family room, and Piper made a nice beef stew, and formula for Josh. This was the first time since Christmas that all the Halliwell family sat around the table and enjoyed their time with each other. At the end of the day, Paige went back home to her house and her husband Henry, Phoebe went back to her Loft, and Wyatt orbed back to the University of California, Berkeley before asking Chris to take Josh to get a girl or two. But as Wyatt was leaving he gave Chris a small present; a necklace. It was on a black leather string, with a small silver piece (the size of a coin) that had "C" on the front and "J" on the back (another one of Wyatt's instant materialization gifts). After all their farewells, Chris took Josh up to his brand new room for a nights rest.

Chris sat in the chair with Josh in hands, rocking back and forth; Josh was dazing in and out of sleep. Chris looked up and saw the rain now coming down lighter then before, and according to the weather guy it was suppose to let up before the next night. Chris then stood up from his chair and gently walked over and placed Josh in his crib. He moved his hands ever so gently away from him not to wake his sleeping son. Chris then backed away and watched Josh sleep for a few moments before Piper walked in.

"How is he?" She asked in a soft whisper.

"Sleeping." Chris replied, "Wish I could say the same."

"The first few weeks are rough, but in a month it'll get better." Piper replied, "When you were little, you woke up every 2 hours, so sleep is a precious thing these coming days."

"I figured you were going to say something like that."

"The joys of fatherhood, gotta love em." She said leaving the room.

"I will." Chris replied, He stood in the doorway, he looked back at his son. He looked like a sleeping angel, his head resting on his arms, Chris smiled. He wanted to take a shower, cause he hadn't one in nearly two days, but he didn't want to leave Josh' side.

"Go." Leo said coming up from the stairs.
"Excuse me? Go where?" Chris asked his father.

"The bathroom or wherever you need to do." He said walking past him and into the baby's bedroom.

"Oh." Chris smiled, "I was going to take a shower, but-"

"You don't want to go, every new parent is like that." Leo said, "you're mother was very much like that with Wyatt, in fact if I recall the only thing that drove her away the first time was a demon who was after Wyatt."

"A demon was after Wyatt when he was a baby."

"Yep."

"Amazing." Chris rolled his eyes. "Okay I am going take a five minute shower, I'll be right back."

"Okay. I'll keep watch."

"Awesome, thank you!" Chris said tearing himself from the room. He ran into the bathroom and turned on the water to full blast, he undressed and as he was about to removed the necklace Wyatt gave him, he stopped. He looked at the silver coin that had "C" on one side, and "J" on the other. He left it on. He jumped into the shower and the hot water never felt so good in a long time. He turned around and let it beat his back, he leaned against the wall as the warm, hot, water massaged his skin.

After a very long what seemed to Chris, but quick, five minutes, he got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom. As he walked down the hallway he saw Piper now standing in the room with Leo.

"Everything okay?" he asked, in a soft voice to his parents.

"Yeah, everything is great." Piper replied

"Awesome." He replied. He ran into his bedroom, and used the towel to dry everything else off, before slipping on pajama bottoms and white t-shirt. He came out of his room as fast as he went in. Then he went into Josh' room and took over the lead on watching him. Piper and Leo headed off to bed, for they valued their sleep as much as Chris would in the coming later days.

Chris grabbed a novel from his backpack and sat in the chair in the room and read. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, but he couldn't concentrate on the words, all he could think about was that dream he had the night before. He put the book down and thought about his new life set before him.

The dream, it seemed so real, and yet he wasn't living in manor, he was living in another house, about the same size, but different. A small town, he couldn't remember though, but it wasn't San Francisco. And what was that written on Josh's jacket? It began with a "C". And then what Josh looked like, made him think a lot. He looked like Wyatt, His father and himself all put into one person. He had Wyatt's build, his fathers smile, and his eyes. That stood out in the dream, Josh's deep green eyes; almost an emerald green. His hair was brown, but he couldn't remember if it was crew cut or longer.

"I want to dream that again." He told himself, he knew it would never really come true, kind of like a useless wish to himself.

He sat in the chair for the next hour without realizing it was going by, thinking about how he was going to live his life. High School, finding a job, Josh, everything, his mom offered him a job that he could be a part of the set-up crew at P3 and when he was 18 work as a bartender. He took her up on the offer obviously, but not for about three months, then he took great thought about High School. He was in his Junior year, one of the schools top juniors, but he had a new class, a new schedule, a new life. School now had to come second, and Josh was number one. He could remember the day going back, first day of school, when Bianca met him outside his school.

…"Chris!" Bianca yelled, from a black limo. She didn't look well, round faced and scared.

"Hey baby." Chris said coming up. He had just gotten back from Hawaii with his family and had a tan. He hugged and kissed Bianca. "Aren't you suppose to be at St. Angelo's?"

"I need to tell you something." She said

"Oh, is it bad." Chris asked trying to keep a good spirit about things.

"Really bad." She said, crying into her hand.

"Oh no, don't cry." Chris said hugging her. "Whatever it is we'll get through it together."

"No we won't." Bianca replied. "Cause I am not going to St. Angelo's anymore, I am being home schooled."

"Oh damn, why?"

"Chris I am not fat." She said looking at her straight in the eye.

Chris stopped, he looked back at her, everything around him fell to a dead silence. He looked at Bianca like she was about to break out and say "its all a joke." But nothing. "Are you?-"
"Yes. I am pregnant." She said, "Its due in February."

Chris gripped the car from falling, he looked around. The other kids running up to other kids laughing and cheering, hugging "I haven't seen you all summer!" He looked back at Bianca would was crying into her hand, Chris couldn't believe this was happening.

"How?" He asked

"How do you think how?" She snapped.

"Well I know how, but-" He got in closer to her in a low whisper, "We were really careful."

"Not careful enough." She replied.

"No, this can't be happening."

"Well it is Christopher!" She snapped, "I've accepted this, and you can too."

"No, not happening." He said dropping his backpack, he began to pace back and forth.

"Look, can we save the freak out for later, I have to meet my parents at St. Angelo's in about twenty minutes."

"Okay." He said coming back up to Bianca, "Okay, okay." He closed his eyes trying to think. "Do you know which time it was?"

"I think so."

"Okay, which?"

"Oh my god Chris!" Bianca snapped walking from her car, "IT WAS THE TIME THE CONDOM BROKE!" She yelled. Chris looked up and saw A few people turn around and look over in his direction.

"Okay, calm down." He said, "But I pulled out, you yourself said nothing was down there."

"It only takes one!"

"Why don't you get rid of it?"

"I can't!"

"Why, why not!"

"Cause I am to far into the pregnancy to get rid of it now. It would be murder!"

"Abortion is not murder!"

"Yes it is!"

"No its not, we'll just go to a clinic."
"Good-bye Christopher." She said with a sad look in her eyes. Chris was helpless he watched Bianca get back into the limo and the driver got into his seat and they drove off.

Chris shook his head, he looked up and saw Josh resting softly in his crib, Chris very quietly got up and walked up to the crib.
"I am right around the corner." He said, he took the back of his finger and put in the baby's hand, it was so big compared to his. "My son." He then snuck of the room. Chris left his bedroom door open, and as he pulled off his shirt he laid down on his bed. He looked up at the clock it was 10:20 pm, and he saw a walky-talky looking thing sitting next to his clock. He knew exactly what it was, and with that he fell right to sleep.

Chris' eyes shot right open, 11:23 pm, the walky-talky was giving off the sound of a baby crying. He jumped out of bed, and into Josh's nursery. The baby was laying on his back, crying. Chris picked up his son in his arms, and put the baby over his shoulder. He patted, and rubbed the baby's back as it cried. He tried the giggle.

"Shh." He said, "What's wrong?" he felt the bottom of the baby, for the diaper. It wasn't stiff or feel full. "You hungry?" He said, he left the room, walking down stairs, when he got into the kitchen, he was at his surprise to see Piper already in the kitchen testing milk on her hand.

"Oh hey." Chris said

"That's a hungry cry." Piper replied. "Here you go sweetie." She said giving the bottle to him.

"Thanks." He replied. Josh who was still crying, he rested him on one arm, and then put the bottle in Josh' mouth, the baby instantly stopped and sucked from the bottle. Chris smiled, "Better?"

"Well sweetie, I gotta go to bed." Piper said after watching them for a few minutes, "I gotta be at P3 early. Good Night." Piper then walked passed them, kissing her fingers and touching the baby's forehead. Before leaving the kitchen, Chris then paced back and forth with Josh in hands. The baby drank most of the bottle, when Chris put the bottle down.

He then did as Leo and Piper showed him earlier. He grabbed a towel from a drawer and, and put the baby over his shoulder and patted the back ever so gently. He then walked back up to the Nursery and sat in the rocking chair. Chris rocked back and forth, then he felt someone jerking on his necklace.

"Hey," he said looking at Josh, "That's mine." He smiled as he pulled the tiny hand from the leather string, Then he saw the hand was wrapped around his index finger. He was amazed, looking at the baby resting gently on his bare shoulder. As Josh drifted in and out of sleep, he could still feel the tight little grip on his finger.

After they rocked for a few minutes, Josh was finally asleep, the little grip was now only a touch. Chris kissed his son's forehead. "I love you." He said. Then he placed Josh in the crib and walked back to his room, but as Chris entered his room, Josh cried out.

(Author's Note: I just want to let you all know, that Incomplete is a Introduction to the bigger story. You saw a sneak peak in Chapter 3. Once This story concludes, The Untitled bigger story will begin. Thanks for reading.)