OK, I am SO sorry that I havn't updated sooner! What with art shows, forensics meets (I got second place on Saturday!) And all that, I hasn't had time! Also, I've just been in a real down mood lately, and just havn't had the heart to write. But, anyway, here is the update you have been waiting for. I give you, to popular demand, the One Shot that Wasn't: I Love You Too.
(Also, I gave Paige a middle name.)
A.N. I don't know if any of you have ever had to crawl under an electric fence to get into the pasture, and in the process, brushed your head up against the current, but if you haven't, let me tell you; NOTHING bring you back to your senses faster!
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Piper sat at her self appointed post, at the edge of her bed, looking down at the young man deeply asleep before her. He was curled on his side, his long hair tousled out on his pillow. His right hand was brought up beside his face, and his other was held lovingly in Pipers. His extreme pallor was replaced by a deep blush to his cheeks and the tip of his nose. He was warm to the touch now, which was a blessing after his near brush with death.
She assumed she should be...shocked, hurt, in denial...but amazingly, she was taking the news quite well. It seemed natural, now, to be sitting here with him as he slept, holding his hand, soothing him, as though she'd been doing it since his birth...which, in some world, she had... She was already planning all the ways she could to spoil him, and get some meat on his bones!
A while before, after he'd started to 'defrost', Paige had left the room, under the guise of telling Phoebe and Wyatt that he had a baby brother, though Piper knew she was letting Piper have some alone time with Chris.
Suddenly, she felt Chris tense under her touch. Alarmed, she looked quickly down at him. He was stirring under his blankets, his brow furrowed in anxiety; a dream, most likely.
"Shh, it's ok baby," she cooed softly, brushing his dark hair away from his face and gently stroking his cheek. He stirred for a moment more, then settled back down, leaning into his mothers touch.
'In my world, families hardly existed. I never had a chance to know mine!'
His words rand out resoundly through her mind. They had died in his future, all of them, apparently. And he must have been young...
"Oh baby," she whispered, her voice breaking. He had been through so much, it seemed, and how did she welcome him? By throwing him through a door. What kind of mother treated her son like that?
The answer was obvious, of course...
'Me...'
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"Paige Anya Matthews, would you sit down and TRY to string three coherent words together!" snapped Phoebe.
The two where down the hall now, in Paige's room, discussing The current situation.
Or, trying...
Paige couldn't seem to find the right words. Really, how do you tell someone that the person they hate, loathe, humiliate or just ignore, is actually flesh and blood, who's risked his very life to save theirs? How do you tell them, her, that he was so devastated by their rejection, he was ready to give up on everything?
However one went about doing that, completely eluded Paige.
"Well, see, it's...it's Chris..." she began. Still not certain as how to let this particular cat out of the bag. Cause this sure was one fricking huge tom cat.
"What about Chris!" Phoebe demanded, her patience wearing. "Chris...lemme guess...He's a demon?"
"What! No, nono, nothing like that!" Paige defended.
"Ok, than...he's oh! I got it! You're in love!" Phoebe grinned.
Paige, however, gagged melodramatically. "Oh Hell no! That's just sick and twisted! I mean, hey, kinky's fine with me, but incest is SO not my cup of tea!".
Phoebe started to chuckle at Paige's attitude, until it finally dawned on her what Paige had just said. 'Incest', she'd said. Meaning a family member. Meaning Chris. Meaning...
"Oh My God!" Phoebe exclaimed, her eyes suddenly going quite round. "Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My Freaking God!" Paige shifted uncomfortably under her sisters gaze. "Do you mean to tell me that that boy, who split up Piper and Leo, who sent us after a dozen demons a day, who was rude, surly, and crabby, is FAMILY!" She demanded of Paige.
"Um, yeah...that would be right," Paige stammered, trying her best to smile, though she was sure it turned out as more of a grimace.
Phoebe lowered herself on to her bed, looking for all the world like she was about to prove that people really COULD die from emotional chock.
"Whose?" she asked after several long moments, the one syllable slipped and short.
"Huh?" Paige was off in her own thoughts.
"Whose?" Phoebe repeated again. "I mean, He's what, 21? 22? And being from twenty-something years in the future, he's not yet, but soon to be, born. Which makes him one of our kids So whose is he? Yours, mine, or Pipers?"
Paige smiled to herself, remembering how just minutes ago she'd noticed for the first time how much like Piper he looked.
"Guess." she said quietly. "Who does he look like?"
Phoebe pictured her neurotic and paranoid Whitelighter in her mind. His dark hair, high sheeks, pale skin..
"Oh my God he looks just like Piper!" Phoebe suddenly realized. Paige nidded her head, smiling. And the room fell silent once more, each sister wandering through her own musings.
After a few more moments, it was Paiges turn to break the silence, "So, what do tou think?"
"I think Chris would look so handsome in a green button down and denim."
"Huh?" Paige laughed, Phoebe's suddenly chipper tone amusing her.
"Or maybe red," Phoebe continued, concentering. "Red would look great against his skin. Oh! Maybe..."
"Phoebe, mind letting me in on your ranting?" Paige budded in, shaking her head happily.
"Paige, come on!" Phoebe said to Paige, as though the answer was starring her in the face. "It is our solemn duty as aunts to spoil our nephews to the fullest extent, and we have twenty years to make up for!"
Paiges tone sombered noticeably as she herself added, "And one very important Christmas."
Phoebe nodded sadly, no longer laughing.
"And one very important Christmas," she agreed.
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Chris's first thought as he once again awoke into conciousness was a quick return to sleep. He felt exhausted, and achy, yet his qualms where overridden by an extreme sense of calm, warmth, and safety. He hadn't felt a serenity this profound since he was a child, and would awake in his mothers arms, after an evening of nightmares or illness...
...wait...
Mom!
Chris's eyes suddenly flung open in shock, his body startling as though he'd just leaned against an electric fence. He made a mad scan of his surroundings, and recognized the soace in an instant as his mothers room...
He also recognized his mothers voice.
"Chris, Chris? It's ok, Sweetie, calm down. It's Ok,"
And he also knew her warm, tender embrace, surrounding him, enveloping him and pulling his close.
"It's OK," She repeated softly. Her hand reached up and ran through his thick hair, soothing his worries.
Chris wracked his brain, trying to pick his way through the muddled, murky memories he could uncover. The cold, the bitterly icy wind, reciting the story his mother spent every Christmas reading to him. He remembered praying for Death, awaiting it...God, everything was all piecemeal! Everything he could drudge up from the previous night appeared to have been nibbled upon but mice; everything was full of gaping holes.
He recalled someone screaming...something warm at his back, oh so warm against his frozen skin...And he remembered...Oh God, he remembered calling Piper Mom!
He groaned aloud at that particular memory. No way, oh I did NOT do that! Please tell me I didn't do that!
Hearing his moaning, Piper instantly turned to gt a better look at him.
"What's wrong Chris? Do you hurt anywhere? You OK?" Piper asked, assuming he was in pain.
Chris turned slowly towards her, but couldn't respond. She knew. Oh Good God, she knew! After months of carefully protecting his secret, of guarding his true identity, he spilled it all out in a moment of weakness.
But looking into her deep, chocolate eyes, he saw something that pushed his self punishments aside. He saw something that he had never thought he'd see again. In her eyes where a hundred emotions, spinning through her mind, all whirling around at once. Chris could read them as plainly as he read a piece of literature. There was worry, concern, uncertainty. He could see doubt, excitement, even a bit of fear. Those hazel orbs held within their depths a sense of foreboding, as though she was anxious about the young man. Which Chris had no doubt in his mind that she was. For overlaying all those feelings or sorrow and pain, was joy, eagerness, and, most if all, love. Always, forever, love.
Chris felt a shiver run down his spine, as he remembered the last time he'd looked into her eyes like this. He was fourteen, and had come home from school, excited to show his Mom his report card, all A's. And he'd stopped dead in his tracks when he found his mother slumped on the stairs, bleeding and barely hanging on, For him. She had pulled up every ounce of will she had to keep herself alive to say goodbye tp her son. He'd rushed to her, tears already staining his pale face. He'd yelled for Leo at the top of his voice, but his call went unanswered. Then Piper had reached out slowly, took his face in her palm, and smiled. And her eyes portrayed everything that her voice hadn't enough strength to express in her last moments...
Chris startled out of his memories when he felt a weight settle over his body. Turning, he saw Piper finishing wrapping a thick, red blanket all around him; She'd seen him shiver, and thought he was cold. And given what had happened, that was the last thing he wished upon him.
Satisfied, she scooted herself over more, to see Chris more directly. He looked frightened, apprehensive, and for all the world like he would shove aside the blankets and sprint from the room, had he the strength to do so.
"Chris?" her voice whispered to him, so soft and sweet. "Chris, talk to me. Are you alright?"
Talk to her...Talk to her! Chris nearly laughed out loud, though he suppressed it. He didn't wan Piper to think he was insane as well as neurotic. Talk to her! She had no idea how long he had wished fervently, with all his heart, to just talk to her once more! But, though he wanted to talk to her more than anything, try as he might, sound refused to come from his mouth. 'I love you so much!' he wanted to tell her. 'I've missed you!'! But he just couldn't seem to remember how to form sounds, words, sentences. Grammar lessons were a mishmash in his skull, vowels and consonants all whirling and twirling and spinning in his head. And through all this mayhem, he was able to utter only one, single word...
"Mom?"
The word came out feebly, shaky, and he admonished himself for sounding so weak.
Piper smiled at her son. He looked so lost, so forlorn. He must be so overwhelmed! Piper realized. He was asleep so long, and he probably barely remembered any of his near-death experience. But maybe that was a good thing...
"Hey baby." she beamed at him, and brushed a stubborn lock of hair away from his face. She sighed. She'd always thought 'beautiful' was a word to only describe woman and tiny baby's. But it fit so very well when describing the young man before her. His thick, richly colore hair, smooth, pale skin set of deep jade eyes. Handsome didn't cover it. Neither did attractive. Beautiful was the only word in the English language to perfectly describe her baby.
"Hey Chris. How are you feeling?" she asked, continuing to run her hands through his hair.
How was he feeling? Every inch of his very being aches and burned; his head throbbed and swam at the sudden realization that his deepest secret was now open news. His stomach rolled with an unpleasant combination of hunger and nausea...
And he'd never been happier in his life.
Without bothering to answer, he shrugged off the blanket, and threw himself into Pipers welcoming arms, his body shaking.
Piper was rather taken aback, but wrapped her arms warmly around Chris. He was failing to chocked back racking sobs, as he buried his face against Pipers shoulder. This seemed so out of character for him, but Piper reasoned that NO ONE would be quite in character, given the circumstances Chris had been stuck with.
"It's ok honey. Everything's gonna be OK." she soothed, rubbing large circles across his back.
"I-I'm sssorry for nnnot tt-ttelling yooou..." Chris choked out between sobs. Piper held him ever tighter. "I just di-di-didn't know wwh-what to sssay and..." Piper shushed him quietly.
"Chris, you don't have to explain yourself," she told him. "I understand. I don't think I'd be able to go back 30 years and be able to tell MY mother who I as either!" She'd always been so angry at him, keeping secrets the way her did. But...putting herself in his shoes, it suddenly all made perfect sense.
"B-but I ccaussed so much trtrouble." He continued, though he seemed to be calming down a bit.
"Caused, past tense." Piper smiled slightly, planting a kiss on top of his unruly head.
Chris suddenlypulled out of her embrace, and looked her square in the face. His eyes where bloodshot, and his tearstained face was read and blotchy.
"How can you s-s-sit there and just excc-cept all this?" he asked so quietly. "How ccan you just forgive m-me like that, like I-I never did anything?"He sounded so desperate to Piper, but really he was disbelieving. It was just too good to be true. Surely she wasn't just going to welcome him with open arms? Things never turned out like that for Chris...
"Because," Piper replied calmly. "You're my son. You always where; I just didn't know it. But ignorance of a fact doesn't make the fact any less true," she reasoned, but Chris srtill lokked unconvinced. So Piper moved closer, enveloping him once more in her warm arms.
"I'M the one who should be sorry, baby. I was so cruel to you! All this time, all those things I said!"
"You didn't know," Chris reasoned.
"Doesn't matter," Piper went on. "It gave me no excuse to treat you the way I did. But you know what?"
Chris wiped a hand over his eyes, suddenly ashamed of his tears. "What?" But Piper grasped his wrist, and gently took his hand away. Raising her own, she wiped the salty tears off his cheeks.
"Things are going to be different now." she promised him ever so gently.
And Chris couldn't help but smile.
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And there you have it! This chapter was originally intended to be longer, but I'm gonna save that for the third and final chapter. Keep a look out for the new chapter of Like a Story That Had Just Begun, coming...eventually!
HA! Anyway, see that pretty blueish gray button on the bottom left there? If you push it, you get a prize!
Well, I guess if you call talking to an insane bookworm a prize. But it's a prize for me!
Lottsa Love,
LLC