Blood Strangers

Disclaimer: Don't own, never have. If I did I'd have Drew Fuller's phone number (ahh if only:)

Chris Halliwell sat outside the principal's office again. This was the third time this week and it was only Thursday. It wasn't like he went looking for trouble, but trouble always found him.

He could see his mother nodding her head understandingly at whatever Mrs Allen was saying. Chris couldn't see her face, but he could tell from the way she hung her head that she was sick and tired of all this. He knew his mother had enough on her plate what with the club and the many demons she had to deal with and he felt guilty, he didn't want to hurt her, but he couldn't help getting into trouble. Isn't that what fourteen year old boys are supposed to do?

Piper came out of the office and motioned for him to follow her. "Well," she began with a sigh "Do you want the good news? Or the bad news?"

"The good news," Chris answered. There was no way he wanted the bad news.

"Well the good news is I have a helper around the house and club for a week. Because the bad news is you've been suspended,"

"Mom I ..,"

"Save it Christopher!" she cut him off. That's when he knew he was in real trouble. She only ever called him Christopher when he had done something wrong. Otherwise it was Chris, Chrissy or even Peanut; But Christopher was only ever saved for special occasions. And if it was Christopher Perry Halliwell he was really in the shit!

Piper fished into her bag for the keys to her jeep "Why is it you can never keep out of trouble Christopher," she asked getting into the car.

"Mom I didn't mean to, it's just…"

"Just what? Come on Chris tell me why you are always causing me such grief. Don't I have enough to cope with,"

Chris just stared out of the window watching the traffic pass by. "You don't understand mom. I only hit Tommy because…" he trailed off.

Piper saw the tears forming in her baby's eyes. She couldn't stay mad at him. "Because?" she gently urged.

"Because he said I had no dad. He said that because dad was never around he didn't love me,"

Piper felt like her heart was breaking. She hated the thought of Chris feeling so unloved by his father. But she could understand why he felt so abandoned by Leo. Because that was whathe had become very good at doing, abandoning those who loved him. "Listen Peanut, I know your dad isn't around much and that it can seem like he doesn't care. But.."

"But what mom? Please don't try to make excuses for him. You and I both know that I can't even compare,"

"Compare to what honey?"

"Wyatt," he answered quietly. He looked over at his mother and saw her pained expression. He knew the mention of his older brother would evoke painful memories. Wyatt had disappeared before Chris had been born. They had discovered that the elders had taken him in the middle of the night. Their excuse, the child was too powerful to be exposed to magic. They had told the family that they were concerned that Wyatt may abuse the powers he had been given and that they had bound them and placed him with another family, a none magical family.

Nothing had ever been the same since. After Wyatt's kidnapping Leo had lost it. Went into his own little bubble of grief and wouldn't let anyone else in. He had wanted answers and when he hadn't got the ones he wanted, he sought revenge. He had caused the death of many elders in his anger and because of this he had left his family in fear that those left 'up there' would harm them in an attempt to dish out some sort of punishment for crossing them.

Piper basically had to raise Chris as a single mother. Sure she had her sisters there to support her, but it's not the same as having your husband there beside you. Leo had rejected Chris from the start. At first Piper thought she was imaging it. Wyatt had only been taken about six months before and she dismissed it, that Leo was just busy searching for their son. But as time went on she noticed that Leo wouldn't even pick Chris up, even in situations where he had no excuse not to, he would find one. It angered her, Chris hadn't done anything wrong, he'd just been born. She was hurting too. She'd lost her son and was scared that the elders were now going to take the other. She had needed her husband, damn it! Yet he was never there. Not then and certainly not now.

She pulled into the drive of the manor and turned off the ignition. Things were going to change though. It was about time that Leo took responsibility for his son. She was going to make sure of it.