HI!

ducks the tomatoes

Hum...

Er...

Hum...

Sorry?

There's not exactly one big good excuse out of my lack of updates... just lots of things getting in the middle. Like... like... like when AsAlways (lovely Beta) and I were calles to save the world from the terrible... er... the horrible dark beast of AAAAAAaaaaargh!... it was horrible... and we fought..., and then we won... but the elders told us to go to that other cave with that big spider-demon (not the gothic wanna be of the show, a really big and scary one) yet we were saved by our amazing bug armies. We thought that that was it, that we would be going back then... but oh, fatality, we found ourselves in a weird hippy place in the middle of the council and before we knew what was happening we'd been engaged into a new adventure with some other fol and a man that looked weirdly similar to Mr.Smith put us a funny name and send us to I don't know where in order to destroy some weird piece of jewelry... mmmh... we walked a lot (I mean, they could have constructed their home far nearer the damn volcano... or better, lend us those damn eagles to make the travel) and did what we had to do for the greater good (even when that meant that we had to throw the good old Frogo into the volcano because after all the walking he got cold feet and decided to keep the damn thing)... Ah, but our adventures wouldn't end there, after the whole Mr. Of the Rings thing the damned golden gowns said that we had to go and find some lost Ark, and later it was a lost temple, and then a lost goblet... when they asked us to look for their lost wash... well, it was too much and we quit and came back to do the update.

All true to the hurt... isn't it As Always?

(absolutly faked AsAlways voice: Yeah yeah, true!)

Hum... I hope there's stil someone reading this after the completly honest explanation... yeah, better quit it while I'm still alive.

So, I know it's late, but thanks for all the reviews:

Jennie: You were glad that I finnally updated and... hum... let's drop that. Yep, Wyatt was with Victor, I thought that if Chris had to leave him with someone that someone would be the 'awsome' grandpa. And yes, I meant 'liar' TT ups! I keep doing that mistake again and again.. like 'quiet' an 'quite'. Josefina was my grandma, thanks for caring. Oh... and you refered again about updates.. hum... leaves whistling

Terra fea: Hum... you'd been checking the fic for updates then... I hope you're still around now because I really liked your reviews. I'll give you very big cookies, and yes, I'll try to mark it... I did, but erased the separations somehow TT

Zoned-out: I'm alive, I'm alive! I'm still alive! I swear it. Dies in shame.

Kilikapele: XDDD I'm glad you liked it U and I hope you're still around to check for this new one... this so delayed new one. (I have good excuses, read at the top! TT)

Piper wyatt-Halliwell: Thanks!

Allaboutelephants:You welcome and... hum... well, about the updating soon... looks around at the glares and runs.

Teri: Hey! You read the whole story? Ouh! I'm impressed! Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

Wonder: Should I feel guilty for making you cry? I don't... TT sorry, it was the intention, I'm in fact happy I got it thanks for reading.

I don't know : Hum... er... about that of being finished soon... well, it make take longer (at a regular update) because while writing this chapter somethings were brought into my atention and... well... the story keeps developing by itself without me... hum... runs

Update already: I sense some subliminal message from that name... Sorry for the delay, here's the update.


In the last chapter:

"Fault?" the kid asked, his voice smooth like silk. "Fault like 'Big problem that should have never occurred'?"

"What?" the older charmed asked, fooled by Chris's calmness. "I didn't said that..."

"Then you wanted this to happen?"

That wasn't fair for Piper, Victor thought, Chris was playing with marked cards while Piper was unaware even that there was a game.

Lier. Lier. Lier. Lier.

"No! I mean... not exactly... " The witch felt the teen eyes were nagging in her skin like nails. She felt the sudden need to explain herself, yet unable to express a straight thought. "I wasn't planning on this, but it happened and..." this was so confusing.. "Well, I just said that this isn't your fault. I did a mistake and..."

Chris orbed away.

A moment ago, Piper was talking and the kid was in Paige's arms.

Now, he was away and Wyatt's wall up a second too late to stop the kid,
but not to stop Paige's senses to locate where he was heading.

"What... did I say?" Piper asked, looking around for an explanation.

"You said 'mistake'." Paige explained, furious at her, yet knowing Piper had done nothing in fact.

"I meant that I had..."

"I know what you meant... but he doesn't."

"I don't get it." The older Halliwell witch confessed.

"That's the main problem." Victor stated, still holding an upset Wyatt that simply orbed away and to Leo's arms. The plan was to get away, and it didn't really worked because the elder was actually appearing right to that moment through the kitchen door.

"Woah, man! Where's the fire?" he exclaimed at the nervous toddler. "Hey! Chill, Wy! There's no need to be like this!"

What shows how much an all knowing angel can, in fact, know nothing of the current situation.

And now in the Charmed Ones:

Let's see.

Leo looked around at his ex-family:

Piper was looking flushed and slightly green.

Paige was generally glaring at everyone and everything.

And Victor, whatever he was doing in the manor, was now glaring at him.

The elder took a better grip of Wyatt, who was trying to break free of his hands even if that would mean an ugly fall.
"Hey, hey!" he tried to calm his son. "What's happening?"

And that was pretty much the question. What now?

"Teen Chris came with Victor and Wyatt." Paige explained in a conversatory voice, just like if she was telling him the new gossip some stupid reality show. "Victor came with Chris, I think. Chris and Piper had a discussion, again. Chris left. Now can you tell me again why shouldn't we tell Piper what she doesn't know?"

"What is it I don't know?" The alluded asked, confused.

"Nothing!" spat Leo, glaring at his sister-in-law.

"Leo?"

"It's nothing."

"Paige, what is it?"

The younger sister looked at the elder who shook his head. She'd made a promise.

"It's not my decision, Piper. I can't tell you." She answered, wondering if that was the right decision. Wondering how Piper hadn't found out by herself. Although she'd been living with Chris for half a year and she'd never suspected anything. It was hard to guess.

"Oh for gods sake! What is it? I mean, it can hardly be worse... " She stopped herself before finishing the sentence. "... hardly be more surprising than... than..."

The witch breathed deep. There was so much to talk about... so much to do... she had to tell Leo. Yet if he knew, everything would be far more difficult. Paige knew, though... and Victor. Leo would find soon, and better if he knew from her than from some kind of elder memo or sister gossip.

And there was teen Chris too. He seemed pretty disturbed. Maybe he knew the kid. He probably did know the kid, they may be friends in the future. Yes, that explained everything. A/N: ��U...

"We should be looking for Chris." Leo finally said, not looking at her. "He is alone here, far from everything he knows. And he may change again..."

"You're right." Piper conceded. "Let's start looking for him and put this 'Secret-that-Piper-can't-know' in the list of things to talk about later."

Paige raised a brow.

"There's a 'things to talk about later' list?"

"Yes... and it's growing longer and longer every time Chris enters in the discussion..." The older witch answered, sighing. At least her stomach was settling down.

"Why don't we discuss everything once we've found Chris?" Paige interrupted them. "We should split up... a whitelighter/elder and a common charmed witch per team." The witch exposed her plan, waiting for their nod before adding. "Perfect, then... I'll go fetch Phoebe and we'll go to the underworld... you two start scrying and sensing."

And with that she orbed away before one of them could even think of protest for the arrangements.

"And what about Wy? We can't bring him with us..." Piper took the kid from her ex-husband arms, a little afraid that he'd still be angry.
But he was quiet, looking around with worried eyes, a little too much knowingly for his own good.

"I could orb Wyatt 'up there'... so he'll be safe." Leo proposed.

The witch frowned. She highly disliked Leo taking Wyatt with him to elderland, they were all so fussed about her son. They meant well, yet it wasn't right for a kid to be treated like some kind of wiccan Dalai Lama...

Victor interrupted them.
"Or I could take him with me to my apartment where he'll be safe and no one will be able to find him... Or so the midget said..."

Victor, for once, disliked the elders more than he disliked Leo. They had his daughters and Paige enslaved in order to
serve that greater good that, for what he knew, had never done any kind of good for them. The only thing it had done was take away his older daughter. The brave Prue.

He knew Leo would die for his daughters, for his grandson. Yet he knew too that the elders would let them die without a blink of an eye if that served their greater good.

No matter what his daughters and Paige thought, he did payed attention when they talked about magic.

"That would be great, dad..." Piper immediately grabbed the chance to spare her son from the elders.

"I'm not so sure... I mean, Chris told me that if we ever knew about where Wyatt was hiding, the spell will be broken." Leo explained, happy to have a better argument than 'It's safer up there'.

Piper cursed.

"Chris told you so?" Victor asked with the shadow of a suspicion.

"Yes, when I asked him to take Wyatt to a safe place again. I didn't ask for more details because he'd been ranting of how this was his plan and we should not interfere with it."

Victor's eyebrow raised like two feet higher.

"His plan?"

"Yeah, that's what he said..."

Piper's dad sighed, drawing a small smile.

"Ok, let's check it, nevertheless. Leo, orb me to my apartment and let Piper look for us with her crystal thingy."

"But..."

"No 'buts' young…old man, give me some confidence, will you? I know what I'm doing."

"Leo, please..." Piper asked, wondering what her father was talking about. "Give it a shot, ok? Wyatt have been safe there until now, and I will be more comfortable to have him there, if it is still working."

And because Piper was asking him to do it, he obliged and brought Victor to his apartment.

The moment he set a foot in it, well both feet at the same time in fact, Leo felt a wave of nausea and dizziness that nearly knocked him unconscious.

"What the...?" Victor helped him sit on the coach. "Are you okay, Leo? What is it?"

The elder breathed deep, trying to focus, and was suffocated by a deep, penetrating, smell.

Blood.

The realization snapped his eyes open.
All kind of symbols, unknown words from unknown languages, and a dozen different runes of protection covered the apartment walls. A safe house painted in blood that, some how, was still wet and dripping. It smelled like a slaughterhouse, even worse, for although part of the blood was from demons, there was something else, some blood that wasn't damned but pure, and stinked in his nostril for the abomination it meant.
Fresh blessed blood from beings that were only meant to be looked at, to be admired.
To be loved.

"I told Piper he'd done some painting in the walls." Victor explained. "I suppose it's not red paint, then... it doesn't smells like paint."

"You can bet it's not red paint." Leo agreed trying to calm down his anger. He was not going to jump to conclusions; he'd learnt to do better than that in the past few hours.

But you can bet I'm going to talk with Chris about all this... he thought. Oh, sure I'm going to talk to him about certain kind of magic he's been using.

"About my grandson..." Victor began.

Leo sighed, not wanting to start a discussion.

"Look, Victor, I know you're trying to help, but this place stinking of blood does not prove he is going to be save here." Leo tried to explain. "And in fact I'm not sure I want him near..."

"I wasn't talking about Wyatt..."

The elder had the decency of looking uneasy.

"I was talking about the young man/midget and who knows what else that came from the future to do some task. Apparently it's related to my other grandson, and about my daughter who knows little or nothing but the fact that she is currently pregnant, again, from you."

"She knows she is pregnant?" Leo's heart skipped a beat or two.

Victor sighed, could this be even more drama? What else? Was Paige soon going to discover she had a secret Siamese twin that had been raised by gypsies?

"Yeah, she knows because the small time traveler told him a few minutes ago, in the middle of a hot discussion that finished when she said how big a mistake it had been..."

The elder's face fell at Victor's words.
"What? She said what? She thinks it's a mistake?"

The 'apparently' older man rolled his eyes.
"Leo, focus! She doesn't think it's a mistake. She is tired and worried. She just got angry and yelled the first thing that came through her mind at the top of her lungs..."

"Piper is not like that." Leo defended.

More eye-rolling.
"Yes she is. My daughter tantrums where mythical and terrible when she was a kid, yet so spared that people only remembered Prue's. And for your information, she got that from her grandma, yet Penny's were far more regular..." Victor felt a little fun when Leo cringed at the thought that Piper could have inherited something from Penny. And he passed probably it to his son. "I mean, from what I know, last time you left she nearly drowned us all... The thing is that she said lots of things not knowing who Chris was, and Chris said lots of stuff because... well, because he was angry too... and in the middle of that, she told him it had been a mistake and then he orbed away. Believe me, I may not know my daughter, as good as I should, but I do know Penny and her bitchy moments, and she would say lots of stuff just the moment they crossed her head... and she may not always mean them... well, when she was yelling at me, she did meant them for sure, all of them, probably. But not with her daughter, and not with those she loved. She just had this very bad temper and this capacity to hold grudges till death..."

"What do you mean, Victor? Because it looks like if you're saying that Piper is like Penny, and that may be pretty offensive..."

"Don't be silly, my daughter is nothing like Penny... yet her tantrums may be, and her son tantrums too..." he explained. So when you find him, if he starts yelling and throwing things at you all, don't let it bother you too much, he is probably angry..."

"And what do you think I should do?"

Victor thought about it.
"Well, with your grandmother-in-law, I usually shut up and let her rant for as long as she thought it was necessary, hoping the day would come when she'd finally have a heart attack and die."

Leo looked at him with a blank stare, not knowing if he should take his words seriously.

"You don't have to hope for the kid to die, but you better not try to reason with him…just let him stay mad for a while and he'll calm by himself." Victor finished.
Then smiled and added. "If not, I found that a couple sleeping pills in her tea would do the trick as well."

Leo couldn't help but to smile. Sleeping pills. Penny would have killed Victor if she'd ever found out.

"Ok, thanks... look, I'm gonna go back to Piper and see if she's been able to track you with the scrying, ok?" The elder asked, thinking : then I'll orb Wyatt to a place where people don't drug their mother-in-law to keep them calm. Even if that mother in law was Penny.

Leo disappeared, leaving Victor alone with his own thoughts that were revolving around Penny. He decided to think about something else, Penny usually gave him an ulcer.

The not as old man, yet grandpa nevertheless, walked around the room, looking at the walls and guessing how much would it cost to take the paint away. Or maybe he could leave it there, so Piper could bring Wyatt there every time she thought the kid was in danger.

Would it still work if he painted over the wall?
Or maybe some papered over it?
It was pretty messy to do... yet it may work.

And talking about messy, he should clean up a little his apartment.
There were some clothes on the floor and old papers on the table, plus like a dozen blankets on the coach he couldn't even remember what where doing there.

Leo orbed in with Wyatt in his arms. Apparently, the kid didn't mind the smell.

"You couldn't find me, then?" Victor asked with a smug smile.

"Neither scrying nor sensing... the charm is still working." Leo conceded, handing him the kid. "How did you know?"

Grandpa's smug smile grew.

"It was HIS plan, as you said, he was not going to allow you onto it, even if that meant a lie."

"He lied to me just because he didn't wanted me to know where Wyatt was?" Leo asked, startled. "That's... that's... did he inherited that too from his great grandmother?"

"More likely he inherited it from me..." Victor said with a shrug. "Now you can understand why Penny and I had such big problems?"

Leo nodded, wondering if these confessions were some kind of truce between them. Also wondering how many things did Victor actually know about the Charmed Ones.

What happened in the past that made him leave?... living with Penny looked like a hell of a reason. Nevertheless, he could no longer complain about that, could he? It would be like the pot calling the kettle black.
"I'll be leaving," he muttered. "We must find Chris."

ooOoo

Leo looked at his ex-wife scrying and supressed a moan.

Chris was not on the map.

Meaning they were physically unable to find him there.

Meaning he may be in the underworld, dead or running around San Francisco covered in bloody symbols, words and runes.

And when I said bloody I wasn't being British.
I was being literal.

Or he may not.

He may be dead. Leo thought, worried to death. Maybe he was, maybe he'd been hit by a car.

Or maybe a demon had eaten him...

Maybe it was already currently devouring him in some dark alley in the worst part of the city.

Maybe it was cooking his lungs and stuffing apples where his guts should be.

Heating the oven.

Getting the sauces ready for the meal.

There were so many things that could have happened in the five minutes they'd been looking for him.

Piper had been scrying and he was watching her, feeling absolutely useless.

There was nothing he could do to help, nothing but look at the crystal twirl round and round above the map. The inactivity was killing him..., knowing that some demon could be in some cave, checking a 'How to Cook Humans' book, wondering if he preferred Chris grilled or if a simple soup would do... and he was sitting around, useless...

"Can you sense him?" Piper asked, interrupting his momentum of hysteria.

"What?"

"Sense him... with your elder powers..."

The elder felt a stupid grin forming on his overstressed face.
"Oh... yeah... sure... my elder powers... of course... I was just going to do so... sense him... what a great idea."

Leo closed his eyes and began sensing, but there were too many feelings in the manor and even if he wasn't able to empathize with them, to feel them as Phoebe could, they were still there, interrupting his powers.
Finally he gave up. "I can't do it here..."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked, raising her head from the point on the map she was scrying. Cold Chris actually orb to Cambodia"

"I mean that everything in the house is too messed up... the attic, for a start is impregnated with his powers. It keeps getting my attention every time I try to sense him."

"So the sensing is related to the powers?" Piper wondered. "Curious... anyway, the map isn't helping, yet the only thing I have right now from him is this sweater." She showed him the oversized pullover Chris had forgot in the manor some time ago. "We should drop by his place in P3 and grab something better. Let's do both things, you can bring me to P3 while and then go to the bridge, let's see what you can find there? It's ok?"

"Sure..." Leo agreed, grabbing her a little too tight, not that Piper complained, orbing to the local first. He said his good byes and then orbied to the bridge.

And that's the thing with writing only from one point of view, even if I go changing the source of that point of view every few sentences... while I was telling you how worried Leo was, I wasn't telling you that Piper's mind had been the whole time focused on her pregnancy, so focused that every time she'd tried to find Chris on the map the crystal kept going round and round and suddenly pointing at her belly.

Fortunately, now she is alone and I can focus on her and tell you that she is enjoying again the marvels of pregnancy... resumed again in headache, backache, stomachache, nauseas and general dizziness. On the plus side, she was beginning to override the shock and Chris words were sinking in her head: A new child. A little partner in jokes for Wyatt... a little brother or sister (had they been talking about a he or a she?)... a kid that wanted to be a doctor because he or she couldn't heal.

What kind of future awaited him/she?

Realization shocked her when she remembered something she'd asked to Chris... another child... in that future, a bother for Wyatt.

Evil Wyatt.

Was the child evil too?

If not, how will he cope with it?

What will Wyatt do to him?

Another child.

She would talk to Leo. She was not disposed to do this alone again, not without fighting for her family. And this time there would be no elder magic to sooth her.

Thinking of the child, Leo, and what was to come, Piper had absentmindedly walked to the office where Chris was living these days. She was about to open the door when it opened first and she crashed with someone who was actually leaving. The witch nearly fell, but a hand grabbed her in time.

"Piper? What are you doing here?"

ooOoo

Let's put a cliffhanger here (be thankful I didn't drop the chapter in this same spot) and go visit Paige and Phoebe who, by the way, weren't having any more success in their quest through the underground.
They'd been walking around, kicking some asses and trying to sense the kid. Nothing worked and, although the witches were unaware of it, they crossed paths with a certain and all hated elder (whose name rhymed with... well, does not rhymes with bastard but should) that was there looking for some demons for a secret project we would not ask about.

But Chris wasn't there either.

Where was he and why weren't they able to find him?

There's a long and a short answer to that.

Teen Chris would have probably told you the long one; with lots and lots of long words and incomprehensible stuff he'd learnt from aunt Paige. You'd be sleeping or having a headache by the time he'd simply finished the introduction.

He knew it, it was his way off explanations.

"Chris, why does your bedroom looks as if a horde of Tartarians had spend there the night?"

"You see, mum, I was working on that multidimensional spell aunt Paige want me to do for Wednesday and the hiperbolican wiccaning sphere got sucked into the multyfacial neutronical..."

Instead of "I forgot to clean it up."

"Chris, why did you came this late?"
"See, mum,... the multfractional portals that interconnect the threshold gates between the magical world and ours have had a sudden seizure on the bipolar miliplanes of..."
Instead of "I was talking with my friends".

Unfortunately, sometimes you just got THE answer...

"Chris, I don't give a damn about multiultradimensional magicogenetically altered proteins evolving in spite of whatever long word you want to introduce here... I want that herd of teddy bears OUT of my home!"

This was a pointless remark about Chris's young years that I thought you'd like to know, just to demonstrate that he was a kid as normal as any other, except for the fact that his excuses were far more elaborated.

Oh, and that he orbed and practiced magic but hey! Who doesn't?

Well, about Chris, at last let's say that teen Chris was in the city; he'd been wandering around having hell of a tantrum for some time.
He'd even scared to death a thieve that tried to mug him by yelling at the top of his lungs incoherencies in the line of "HOW DARE SHE? HOW DARE SHE? WHAT THE HELL DOES 'MISTAKE' MEAN?" while the poor young mugger ran for his live... However, now he was in the only place in the entire city where you could neither be sensed, nor scryed, nor felt, nor any other kind of similar power.

That place being, of course, Victor's apartment, where he was half naked, completely covered by lots of blankets, on the coach.

He hadn't gone to the apartment on purpose. Actually, he was lost in the city and soaked to the bone... so he'd
orbed away again and his body, or his powers, or maybe his mind, had taken him to the only safe place he knew:
Granddad's apartment. Where he'd taken off his wet clothes, fetched some blankets and stumbled to the coach.

He loved to sleep on that coach, it was warm and comfortable. He would just rest there for a couple of Zzzzzzzzz.
Fortunately, he didn't snore.

ooOoo

Let's leave Chris sleeping, god knows the kid is exhausted, and go back to that little cliffhanger we had some minutes ago.
Piper was in P3, nearly falling over when someone grabbed her.

The witch raised her eyes, startled, ready to blast whoever was there, and found Chris. A whole grown up Chris, looking at her, puzzled at first and than worried. The young man looked at the watch in his wrist.
"It's been only a couple hours since the demon left, but you girls shouldn't be going around alone." He said, reproachfully. "And you've just been de-demonized only a little while ago, you especially shouldn't be going around, period..."

"Not in you state", added the half whiteligher, taking a new sip of his coffee. He was starving, yet unwilling to cook, so coffee would have to do the trick.

"Not in my state", Piper repeated, wondering how the timeline obsessed freak would react if he were to learn about her finding about her pregnancy... from him.

But that would mean telling him about those alternate versions that had been occurring because of their spell. Which, from what Paige said, he didn't know about. She suspected it wasn't exactly the best moment to do so.

"I just came to find something." She explained, not exactly lying."The... agenda... the agenda of the bands... I have to find a band for Friday."

Chris looked around.
"Well, it wouldn't be in here..." he signaled the little room he called home this days.

"No, it wouldn't, but I... er... I thought you would be here."

"Really?" Chris cocked his head with a small frown, Piper wondered how much he knew and how much she could say without giving anything away.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you." Yet she didn't know what to say, she'd yelled at the other Chris not this one. And her intention was plainly of dragging this one home in order to talk to the other one if he changed again. And that last thought just made no sense at all.

"About what?" the young man looked pretty pissed, not too willing to talk with her. And she couldn't blame him; after all, she'd actually yelled at him, she'd even slapped him (not that she was feeling particularly guilty of the last part, he'd more than deserved that).

The witch sighed soundlessly, without knowing the whole true about what was happening and Chris being so secretive of his ways and demeanors, talk to him was like trying to play cards with a band in her eyes.

"Look, Piper," Chris interrupted her thoughts "...I know you may wanna know where Wyatt is, yet I can't tell you, ok? Any minute now you could be possessed again and then you'd know where he is and he'd be in danger..."

That comment broke her current chain of thoughts and she failed at repressing a smile.
"It's not that, Chris... I... look, there's lots of things I must tell you, ok?" What the hell, she finally decided, let's play for the true. "We... I... all of us have made lots of mistakes, and... I'm sorry..."

Chris raised his eye brows curiously, his head still tilted.

"What?"

"I'm sorry... Chris, even if I had my reasons, even if I was worried for Wyatt... I've done and I've said things I should not have done."

The half witch made a step backwards, glaring although it didn't looked like he was glaring at her, but simply glaring.
"So you know... is it? You know?"

"What? Chris, wh...what?" Piper tried to replay her words, wondering what she'd said wrong this time. Was Chris talking about her pregnancy? But it made no sense.

"Son of a bitch! I knew he wouldn't keep his mouth closed!" The young man growled, not really yelling but looking as if he was about to do so any minute now. "Shit!"

"Chris, what are you talking about? What's that I can't know? What is it?"

"Why did you apologized?... He told you, didn't he? One damn thing I ever asked him to do... one damn thing and he screws it up, that's just SO typical..."

"Hey hey hey hey hey!" Piper stopped him, raising her hands. "I'm so sorry my apologizes are such a drama for you... what am I supposed to know?"

"What? You know what I mean!"

"No I don't!"

"Sure you do, he told you and now you're feeling sorry, that's why you're here!"

"Chris, what are you talking about?"

"About what Leo told you!"

"What?"

"You know!"

"I don't, Leo didn't tell me anything... In fact, Paige said I should know something yet Leo said I shouldn't know and now I don't know what I'm supposed to know because they don't wanted me to know what they know!"

"... and I'm growing a headache over that sentence..." Chris stated, trying to reconstruct what he'd heard and discover if Piper had been saying that she knew or that she didn't.

Piper snorted.

"Then the both of us will be having one."

Chris became concerned.
"You don't feel well?" he asked, sounding worried. "No, of course you don't. I am such an idiot, you were just possessed and I'm here, acting like a stupid brat... Come on, do you want me to orb you home?"

"No." she answered. Although her intention was to bring him to the manor, she was feeling far more comfortable at P3
than she'd felt at home. The place was, after all, hers. "I'm fine, but I'd like to sit for a while... do you want to accompany me? I think I may have some pre-cooked food in the bureau, and you should eat something else than just that coffee."

"I'm alright." He answered, sulking again. "Look, I have to go follow some leads in the underworld, you sure you'll be fine?"

"Don't." The witch grabbed him by the sleeve. "Stay a little while, will you?"

ooOoo

The thing, one could only assume it was a demon by the fact that it was actually in the underground and moving of it's own will, tried to grab Phoebe. She kicked it hard in the... somewhere… and did a complicate movement that efficiently threw it across the cave and into a wall. It crashed and fell, apparently broken or dead. It was the last one so Paige approached it's remains.

It looked pretty much like a bed side table.

It was square and not very tall and it's skin looked like wood. It had a drawer and even a small light lamp above a green and blue old tablecloth. It also had big teeth inside the drawer-like mouth and a single eye in the lamp prosthesis.

"This is gross..." the witch stated, kicking it for the last time.

They'd been feeling for Chris for nearly an hour now and they'd had no clue yet. She could sense him in the underworld, but he kept orbing around every few seconds, leaving a horrible mess behind.

"Did you see this?" Phoebe complained, looking around. There were nearly fifteen of those demons splashed around... and they'd only killed six or seven, the rest where already part of the surroundings when they'd arrived.
And those hadn't been the first ones.
He'd done so with the XXX demons, the Ydfurtgh demons, the Koko demons, and a couple of new species they'd never faced before, and would probably never face again.

"The boy is doing a hell of a job here..."

"Sure... but we'll better find him before one of those demons around gets a lucky shot and kills him..." Paige grabbed her sister and orbed one more time. She hoped that the demons her nephew was leading them to would at least have something resembling an ass to kick.

They did. They were big and blue and there was, indeed, an ass they could kick. They had two in fact... one of which was on the head and the other on the... well, it was the ass.

And Chris was still there, fighting one of them with something similar to a club and trying to dodge the claws of the rest. He managed to do so a couple of times, but finally one of the creatures got to him, slashing the half witch in the back. Chris yelled in pain and turned to face the demon, but then the one he'd been fighting attacked.

"Club!" Paige yelled while running, the weapon orbed to her in time so she could hit the foresaid demon in the head.

The... let's call it Blue demon… turned around with a yell of rage and tried to slash her. Luckily for Paige, Phoebe had managed to get there in time and kick the beast hard enough to send it away.
Without even stopping, the Charmed witch whirled around, grabbing her sister's club ready to face the other demon that had been attacking Chris. But she was too late, for the young man had already taken care of the demon and was, in fact, swinging to punch her.

Phoebe barely ducked in time.

"Are you out of your mind, young man!" The witch took two steps backwards, trying to maintain some distance between herself and her nephew, thinking that he was probably too worked up with the fight to notice her.

She quickly found out that it was not the case. Chris, the one in his late teens, was looking at her, face full of recognition and with a wild smile in his face.

"Come come, auntie... now YOU are backing away from ME?" he let out a rough laugh. "How wrong is that."

"Let's make a deal..." she smiled trying to put him at ease. "You stop trying to hit me, I'll stay still."

Without warning, the half-witch took another swing.

Phoebe ducked again.

He was good. She was better… but he was good.

And she would not be able to keep avoiding him forever.

A few steps to the right.

"C'mon, Chris... let's get to the core of this. Why are you so mad at us? I mean, I could understand you getting mad at Paige... but me? I must be something like the super aunt, you can't be mad at me."

Chris followed her, not seeing the Blue demon that would have slaughtered him if a really big rock hadn't orbed in top of it a couple of seconds before it's attack. Either young man didn't noticed it, or didn't care.

"I'm not mad at you..." he finally answered.

"You sure? Because it looks as if you are..."

"I'm not mad at you because you're not here."

With a wave of his hand, a really big rock crossed the cave-like chamber they were in, forcing Phoebe to levitate in order to avoid it. The moment her feet left the ground, Chris changed the direction of his tk wave and hit her.

Hard.

The witch barely managed to stay awake after crashing into the rocky cave walls.

ooOoo

Leo orbed to the bridge in the cascading rain, ready to start sensing any minute now. Ready... yet it proved itself unnecessary, for even before he stood still and let his elder powers flow a clear and slightly panicked voice filled his head.

"WYATT!"

It wasn't a message meant for him.

"WY! PLEASE!"

It was meant for someone else... someone who couldn't answer it.

"WY? WY?"

Someone who had redirected it to him.

Leo orbed away from the bridge, to the root of the plea, and was startled when he found himself in the middle of the street. In fact, barely a few corners away from the manor.

Sitting on the stairs that lead to some old long abandoned garden was Chris, with his knees up to his chest and his arms wrapped around the legs. Wet like if he'd just jumped into a pool, he was unsuccessfully trying to suppress the tears that were falling from his big bright eyes.

"Chris!" the elder ran to his son, and was puzzled when he found that there was a grating separating them. The rain had practically made it invisible, so he accidentally hit it, swearing loud.

Startled the kid, that hadn't heard him due to the rain, looked up.
"Dad?"

"Chris? Are you... are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?"

"You hit the grating..." the kid said, with a smirk. "You said shit. Mom said that if we ever learned another swa... swe... swear word from any of our family members she'd curse them into the underworld. She was talking about the aunts, though."

The elder saw that the kid wasn't crying anymore and relaxed knowing that he'd probably just been scared from waking in such weird place.

"Did she?" he asked, trying to soothe Chris, chatting conversationally.

"Yep... she was very angry because Wyatt had said 's-...s-son of a witch'... I think... although it doesn't make any sense, does it? I mean, mum's a witch... what's bad about it?"

Not really knowing what to answer to that, the elder simply shrugged.

"Did you hear him saying that?"

There was a mischievous smile now upon Chris' face.
"He taught it to me, said that he'd curse me a couple of rabbit ears if I ever told mum I'd learnt it from him... then the next day he just said it in front of her... I don't think he realized what he was saying until he'd already said it... I mean, we were watching a soccer game and the umpire did something wrong, I'm not sure of what, and then he yelled that to the tv... "

"And all hell went loose... your mum should have been very, very, very upset at him..."

Chris nodded, still puzzled at the memory and a little relieved, as every sibling ever is, that the yelling hadn't been directed at him.

"Was I annoyed too?" Leo was slightly anxious to hear about him from this Chris, the only one that didn't seemed to loathe him. Yet the second he'd said it, Chris frowned a cute frown and looked a little upset.

"You weren't there." He explained. "You were doing elderly things..."

Leo felt a pang of guilty and felt the necessity to explain himself.

"There must have been some kind of emer..."

"There's always an emergency." The kid replied not looking upset or angry, just sad. Mournful, if it hadn't been such a wrong feeling for a little kid.

It must have been hard, the elder had to admit, he'd probably had to leave more than once in the middle of something more or less important every now and then. Yet Chris had to understand that there were...
"The innocents..."

But the look on the kids face made it too hard for him to finish the sentence.

"It was my birthday. You promised."

"I'm sorry." There's was nothing else to say.

Again, Chris shrugged with a faked acceptance that Victor would have recognized it as the one you should beware in the Halliwell saga faces and gestures.

"Don't be," he told Leo. "You finally managed to stay with us for a whole game like three months later. You even took us to the stadium to see it and bought us coke and caps."

"It sounds like fun." The elder felt his pang of guilty sooth a little.

"It was Wyatt's birthday."

Leo knew then that he hadn't been feeling guilty. Guilt was the sudden and heavy weight of repentance that the grief in Chris's voice suddenly dropped on his soul.

He could barely understand where that feeling came from, which were his exact sins? How could the failure of broking a promise develop into his all-grown-up son's hatred for him?

How many promises had he broken?

He'd thought that Chris was angry with him because he'd done something.

Something that he could signal, something that he could write down so he'd remember and avoid in the future.

But it looked like the main problem that Chris had with him as a father was, basically, that Leo wasn't a very good one.

And that wasn't something you could accomplish in a one time, big mistake.
That demanded time, that demanded dedication... that demanded lots and lots of broken promises.

Like a whole young live of them.

And that wasn't something you couldn't fix with an 'I'm sorry', or with a couple of nice words and the woe to never ever do it again.

He should just grab him and orb him to Piper; she'd know what to say. Or maybe Paige and Phoebe, at least until he changed into some Chris that wouldn't tell her the truth the moment he saw her.

Maybe he should let someone else with some actual skills for this kind of things, someone that could handle the situation.
Someone to explain to him that he wasn't really a bad guy, that he had responsibilities, that... the elder stopped his chain of thoughts, heeding how wrong they were, realizing how lame they sounded even in his own head.

Leo climbed over and dropped himself to the other side of the grating, guessing that orbing may not be the right thing to do right then.

Silent, he sat next to his son, using his jacket to cover the kid from the rain as much as possible.

Chris looked at him, less sad and more startled.

"So... do you mind telling me how you got yourself in this side of the granting?"


Ok so... what do you think? Harakiri for me? Or a new opportunity... you don't really have to be honest with the answer... lie to me.

I won't swear again, because I hate breaking my woes, but I'll try my best to have this updated soon...