Not mine, do not own anything I didn't make up.

Chris paced the room, throwing dirty looks at Melinda as he passed. After three minutes of this she grew bored of his actions and busied herself with wiping dust piles off of the trunks and tables surrounding them.

"You know who did this, don't you?" Chris barked at her, moments later.

"Yes," she replied easily, "Wyatt must know I left…"

"No, not quite where I was going," Chris said. "If he knew where you left or if you left he would have been here moments after your arrival."

"Stupid bastard," Melinda muttered to herself, shaking her head. She picked up the crystal used for scrying and turned back to Chris. "So do you know who it was that turned him evil? Any leads?AnythingI could help with?"

"No. No. And are you freaking kidding me?"

"What? I'm help! I could help!" Melinda protested, tossing her brother a glare. "I helped you get here, didn't I?"

"How have you come to that conclusion, though I'm afraid to ask?"

"I was the one who kept Wyatt out of the Manor," she replied. "He would never think perfect, helpful Melinda would do such as thing as to lie to him." She snorted, still bent over the map of San Francisco. Chris looked over at her and went back to staring at the book, willing it to give him some clues.

"I just wish I knew who it was!" he cried in frustration, moving the book across the room in anger. Melinda watched it soar across the room and then looked back at her older brother.

"Hey," she said comfortingly, "we're gonna figure this out. You and me. I can help you, you know I can do it, Christopher Perry Halliwell, I've done greater."

They were silent for a moment. Chris looked back up at Melinda who was glancing down at picture of their mother. "When did you realize that Wyatt was evil?"

Melinda glanced up at him, her eyes wide as though he had surprised her. She thought for a moment and shrugged. "I think I always knew," she said finally. "There was always something off about him; the way he looked at you, the way he looked at the book…his indifference towards us and his anger towards good magic. It was always there, we just never saw the real evil in him until…"

"The Event," Chris finished for her. She nodded silently.

"After that he just seemed to go from bad to worse. He wanted control of his magic back, almost immediately after the funeral. He didn't even cry…that's when I knew he wasn't there and that's when I knew he was going to do something bad, and that when he did, he'd have to be stopped. We'd have to stop him." Chris nodded. "I always thought we could just kill him or something."

"Oh, that's nice," Chris snapped. "Real sisterly."

Melinda rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch in a huff. "Do you think I could meet them? Maybe you could introduce me as your sister from the future, coming back to help you fight off Wyatt…Or in the very disgusting least a future girlfriend you couldn't live without." She made a face.

"I don't know if they'd believe me about anymore people from the future," Chris said. "Not after Bianca."

"Oh…that's right," Melinda said, frowning. "I made sure she…you know, got a proper burial."

"Thanks," Chris said, looking down at his hands. "Erm, what happened with Wyatt after that?"

"He was so angry…it would have been scary if I hadn't been so angry at him," she said, her voice lowering. "He tried to kill me, Chris. That's why I came here. He said he was going to kill me."

"He did what?" Chris bellowed, leaping back to his feet. His face was filled with a familiar rage Melinda had seen only three times.

"Don't worry, Chris, he wasn't serious, or at least I don't think he was." She shrugged. "It wouldn't be a Monday if it wasn't filled with death threats."

Chris sighed and sat back down. "Do you remember when we used to think he was kidding?"

"Yeah," Melinda said with a sigh. "Like, 'I'm going to kill you if you come into my room again.'"

"Now that I think about it I don't think that was a joke…" Chris said with a frown. Melinda also frowned and then shrugged.

"Oh, well. So about me being your sister-"

"I don't think so-"

"But-"

"Hey-"

"I thought-"

"Will you stop-"

"-and why-"

"-interrupting me!" Chris bellowed. Melinda was silent for a moment and pouted, crossing her arms and turning her head away from Chris. He sighed again and tried to appeal to her before she got angry and something exploded. "Lin, you look too much like mom."

Melinda turned back to him with a smile on her face and a sleeker shine to her eyes, as though tears were going to form because of his comment.

"You think?" she asked, stroking her hair.

"Yeah, except for the blue eyes, you're a dead ringer for mom," Chris said. "I just fear that they'll take one look at you and suddenly understand exactly what's up."

"So what if they do?"

"It'll distract them!"

"That's bull-"

"Chris!"

Chris and Melinda looked up at each other and then towards the attic door where footsteps were coming. Chris turned back to Melinda and glared at her, wide eyed.

"Do it," he said.

"No," she replied stubbornly.

"Melinda Prudence Warren Halliwell!"

"No!" she said louder. Outside the attic the footsteps grew, as did the voices.

"Please?" Chris pleaded.

"Fine," she growled, slowly dissolving from sight. And not a moment too soon because just seconds later Piper walked in, carrying two vials in her hand. She looked around the room and frowned.

"Were you talking to yourself again?" she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Um…yeah, it er, helps me think…" Chris said. He too scanned the room and felt a wave of anxiety when he realized Melinda had also dissolved from his sight, making him unable to see where she was. He couldn't stand when she did that, as she had a reputation that made you want her in your sites at all times.

"And what is the book doing on the floor?" Piper snapped, picking it up and placing it back on it's stand. She flipped through the pages in silence.

Chriswalked around the table and walked over to where she had been standing moments later.

"What're you doing?" Piper asked, looking up from the book. He had been walking around, arms outstretched as he searched for her.

"Stretching…" he replied, feeling himself begin to get angry at Melinda. She had a habit for doing this at the most inopportune moments, and would of course take advantage to his already mounting nervousness.

"You know," Piper said, closing the book over, "you're weird today…"

"I'm just excited," he lied. "I think I've got a lead."

"Another lead?" Piper asked sarcastically. Chris laughed sarcastically.

"Yes," he snapped, "another lead. And this one's good. I think I have good help this time from someone I didn't have before."

Melinda suddenly came into view near the window, beaming. He rolled his eyes at her and turned back to Piper, who had followed his eyes and was also looking at the window. For a wild moment Chris was sure he had seen her, she seemed stunned for a moment.

"What's the matter?" he asked quickly.

"Nothing," Piper said, sounding confused. "I just thought I saw…I thought I saw…"

"You thought you saw….?" Chris prompted. Piper seemed to snap out of her trance.

"I thought I saw Prue, is all," she said shaking her head. She suddenly seemed disorriented andshort tempered with him, and tried to pass her slip-up as ajoke."Must be sleep-deprivation or something. Alright, so just give me that name and I'll round up my sisters."

"I thought you had a date," Chris said.

"Me too," Piper muttered, snatching the name of the demon and the vanquishing potion from his hands and walking from the room; pausing to glance back at Chris suspiciously before walking from the room again. He breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the attic landing to make sure she actually went all the way down. She did.

Chris whipped around and stalked over to Melinda, glaring at her as she became clearer, making herself seen for anyone who wanted to look.

"You made yourself visible, didn't you?" he barked.

"Maybe a little," she said, wincing at his apparent fury. "By accident."

"You need to make sure accidents don't happen, Melinda, because if you're seen everything I've been working on for three months is going to be ruined. Ruined, do you hear me?"

"Yes," she mumbled, "I hear you, Chris. There's no need to yell at me."

Chris suddenly felt guilty and remorseful. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Listen, I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean to yell…I'm just stressed. I've got to get mom pregnant, Wyatt good and still find a way to kill that demon who turns him. And," he added, "I have to do all of this while keeping me identity secret and dodging Leo who won't lay off of me."

"Dad?" she asked quickly. "You've talked to dad?"

"I wouldn't call it talking, but-"

"What did you talk about?" she said, looking at him with wide eyes. He realized, maybe for the first time since this idea had popped into his a little over a year ago, that he had been unfairwith Melinda. She felt the same loss he did, knew the same fear he did, felt the same pain he did, yet he was the one to go back in time and be with their mother and father and aunts while she was back in the future with their murderous brother who made weekly death threats.

"What if I made a deal with you?" Chris asked, trying to distract her attention from Leo. Melinda had never really hated him as much as Chris did, still believing that above everything he was their father, no matter how much they denied him.

"Deal? I like deals. Especially when they allow me to stay in the future with the mother I lost six years ago."

"You stay, invisible…uh, bu, bu, don't interrupt," Chris warned as she made noise to protest. She closed her mouth with a snap. "And then, when I, meaning me and only me, see it's fit, I'll let you reveal yourself with another identity until I tell them the actual truth."

"That is the worst idea I've ever heard," she snapped.

"Well I can just tell them you're a demon and have them blast you back into the future."

"You're threatening me!" she cried, surprised. "I like it. I respond to it…" She looked at him and then nodded. "You've got yourself a deal."

"Good," Chris said, nodding to himself and going back to the potion.

"Although I could just walk downstairs and tell them who I actually am…" Melinda said, edging over to the door slightly, trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible.

"I would knock you down and send you back before you even got there."

"Who would they believe, though?"

"Most likely their whitelighter," Chris growled, glaring at her.

"But I know things no one but a Halliwell would know," Melinda said, walking even close to the door.

"Melinda…" Chris said in a warning tone. In the blink of an eye she had dashed from the room, making Chris rush after her, down the stairs just as they did as kids, only they were usually fleeing from Wyatt's presence or trying to get their side of the story to their mother first.

Chris managed to knock her into the wall, making her lose her balance, sending them both tripping down the last four steps and falling onto the floor with a great UMPH.

"Chris, is that you?" Phoebe called from the kitchen. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, you can be visible if you leave right now," he said, pleading with her.

"I knew I could get you to see it my way. I'll be in my room…well what will be my room," she said, orbing out from view. Phoebe came in from the dining room moments later, spotting him on the floor and rushing forward.

"Oh, my God, are you hurt?" she asked, concern written all over her face. "Wow! You're angry at someone. What's going on Chris?" She winced. "Now I'm feeling anxiety…worried…and fear. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing," Chris said, helping himself up and wiping off his jeans. "I'm really stressed about this new demon you guys are looking for."

Phoebe didn't believe him, his emotions were something too raw for demons, but she made her face passive and believing all the same.

"Oh, well, don't worry about that," she said, forcing a friendly smile. "We'll get that figured out." Chris wasn't looking at her but up at the ceiling. "Paige and I will be in the kitchen if you need anything."

"Yeah, alright," he said before orbing away. Phoebe stayed where she was, silent as possible and thought she heard faint voices from up above her, where her old room was. She frowned thoughtfully and went back into the kitchen where Paige was stirring something in a pot.

"Hey, demon?"

"No, just Chris," Phoebe said. "He fell down the stairs."

"How clumsy of him," Paige remarked, draining the tea leaves. "Did you get a read on his feelings like Piper said too?"

"Yeah, and something is definitely stressing him," she replied, looking back up at the ceiling.

"What?" Paige asked.

"I don't know," Phoebe replied, "but I'm going to find out."

A/N Please read and review.