"Ok, so what's the plan?" Paige asked, edging over to the stairs.
"Well," Phoebe said, thinking fast, as she didn't really have a plan, "I don't really have one. I figured I'd go up and just see what's going on. Then, maybe, he's either be so shocked he'd tell me, or I could figure it out for myself. Try to get a read off of him or something."
"Good idea," Paige said, nodding, "I'll be making the potion. I'm just an orb away if you need help." She gave one last look at the stairs and turned back, hair flipping out behind her, and went back into the kitchen, waiting for Phoebe's call.
Phoebe watched Paige walk back into the kitchen and then turned back to the stairs, watching and listening silently, not daring to breath. Once again she heard the creak of footsteps above her, in what was her old room. On closer inspection, she noticed that they seemed to be traveling in a circle, as though someone was pacing her room. The voices, one which she had already identified as Chris, were still talking softly; almost as though they were bickering like children.
"Here goes nothing," Phoebe muttered to herself, climbing the stairs and thanking everyone from God to the people who put in the carpet that it cushioned the noise her shoes would have made on hardwood floors. As she got to the top step and stepped onto the second floor she heard voices coming from her room and slowly walked down to the doorframe, careful to stay out of sight.
"…I don't know," Chris said furiously. "Can't you for once in your life just trust me to do what I'm going to do? I promise I'll do it right!"
"Why are you constantly yelling at me? I want the same things you want, Chris! I want to go back into a world where Wyatt isn't destroying it. There is no need to treat me as though I am a huge inconvenience!"
"Yes, there is," Chris barked. "Especially when you come from where you do and who you are!"
"So what?" the female voice cried. "Who am I?"
"You know very well, Melinda," Chris said, sounding angry. "If they know who you are, they'll want to know everything; it'll distract them from the task in front of them!"
"Chris telling them that I am a Halliwell from the future will only convince them to start now. Maybe if you just told them-"
"No!" Chris said before she could finish. "They don't need to know. I think they'd rather not know."
Phoebe nearly jumped out of her skin as she controlled herself. She so desperately wanted to look around the corner to see whom Chris was talking to. Could it be one of their daughters from the future? Possibly Piper and Leo's? Maybe Paige's? Or, could it be her own daughter she was hearing now? And what about Chris would they rather not know? Her curiosity was becoming painful and she had to fight all urges to just jump around the corner and scream, "Got ya! Fess up!"
"Chris, they're going to find out. If not now then later, say, I don't know, twenty years or so…"
"Will you keep it down?" Chris hissed, sounding furious with her. "You are going to ruin everything if you don't keep quiet! I don't even know why I didn't send you back when I had the chance! Now someone's gone and sealed up the portal back and I'm stuck babysitting you-"
"You don't have to baby-sit me, Chris," the girl cried furiously. "I'm going to be eighteen years old and unless you've forgotten, I've been taking care of myself since you left!"
"Don't try and make me feel guilty, Lin, I don't need that along with everything else. What I do need, however, is for you to just take a giant chill pill and stop making me look like a mental patient."
"I think you're doing a good enough job with that already, Chris," the girl said scathingly. "They didn't look that shocked to see you walking around the room with your arms outstretched."
"Listen, Melinda, I love you, alright, you mean more to me than anyone else on the planet, you know that," Chris said. "I don't want to see you hurt and I want you to get to know them, really I do, you deserve at least that."
Phoebe couldn't believe what, or who, she was hearing. This was a side of Chris she had never seen before. This was a sensitive, caring person who seemed to genuinely care for the person he was talking to. Could he be her boyfriend maybe? Phoebe frowned and leaned in closer to hear more.
"Chris, I just want to get to know her a little bit before we go back…" she trailed off. "Is that why, Chris? Oh, my God! It all makes so much sense now!"
"What does?" Chris asked.
"Why it's taking you so long!" the girl cried. "I've been so stupid!"
"Please enlighten me as to what revelation you've come up with," Chris said sarcastically. "I'm tingling with anticipation, so hurry."
"She's not there when you get back, Chris," Melinda said softly. "You've been taking your time because you know that when and if you succeed, she isn't going to be there either way."
"She'll be there," Chris said furiously.
"How do you know that?"
"I just do!" Chris sounded furious and Melina most likely sensed it, as Phoebe did.
"I'm sorry-"
"Maybe I'm just believing that this will change things…possible everything that I've lived through. Everything we've lived through. I'm here because when we get back mom will be there waiting for us."
Phoebe nearly keeled over on the spot. She wheeled around and tried to get downstairs as quickly and soundlessly as she possibly could.
Nearly twisting her ankle, Phoebe skidded into the kitchen where Paige was trying to brew a proper potion, without much success.
"About time," she cried, shaking her head, irritated. "I think I-"
"Paige," Phoebe hissed, motioning for her to come closer. "You're never going to believe what I've just heard!"
"What? Did you find out what's got Chris so bugged?" Phoebe nodded furiously. "He's an escaped mental patient from the future."
"No," Phoebe said, shaking her head furiously. "Oh, my God, Paige, it's so much bigger than that!"
"What? What is it?" She looked impatient.
"He's a Halliwell, Paige," Phoebe said breathlessly. Paige gaped for a moment before shaking her head once, as though trying to rid herself of cobwebs.
"A…what?" she said softly, looking around the room detachedly. "He can't be…"
"His sister is up there with him!" Phoebe said excitedly, pointing up at the ceiling. "You should hear her, she fights like a Halliwell."
"This doesn't make any sense," Paige said, sitting down hard on a kitchen chair, ladle still in her hand.
"Of course it does! It makes the most sense of anything!" Phoebe said. "He came back because Wyatt is a family member. Who better to stop him?"
"Chris does have Piper's nose…" Paige said slowly. "Who's is he?"
"I don't know…" Phoebe said honestly. "He probably wouldn't tell us."
"Does he have any belongings at P3?"
"Erm…I don't know," Phoebe said, slowly cottoning on as to what Paige was suggesting. "I suppose having a snoop around wouldn't really hurt, would it?"
"No, it wouldn't," Paige said, touching Phoebe's arm and orbing out of the kitchen. When Phoebe looked around the familiar sight of P3 came into view, empty.
"Alright, his room is back here, I think," Phoebe said, walking over to the back room and pushing it open. She looked around and noticed a cot in the corner. "That must be where he sleeps…see if you can find any photos or maybe a journal."
"Do you think he keeps a journal?" Paige asked, scrunching up her nose. "He doesn't seem the type to write down his feelings to a Dear Diary."
"Right," Phoebe muttered loudly and looked around. "Hey." She strode over to a side table and sifted through it. "Look, I think I found something…"
"What is it?" Paige rushed over and looked at the wallet Phoebe was holding in her hands.
"Hah," she said triumphantly. "Christopher Perry Halliwell."
"So he is a Halliwell," Paige said, taking the license from Phoebe as she flipped through the pages of photos.
"Look at these," Phoebe said. "There's Chris…and oh," she broke off with a gasp, "this must be Melinda."
"Who?"
"Chris's sister," Phoebe said softly. "Wow, she looks just like Prue…same eyes and facial features."
"Blue eyes…" Paige said thoughtfully.
"Wild Card gene Grams used to call it," Phoebe said ruefully. "Aunt Pamela had blue eyes, but mom didn't. Grams's sister Petra had blue eyes, Grams didn't. Prue had blue eyes…none of us did."
"Hey, go back," Paige said quickly, flipping the photo page back to three girls, all smiling into the camera. "Who do you think they are?"
"Must be cousins?" Phoebe asked thoughtfully. "Can't be Piper's. She has Wyatt."
"Must be one of ours," Paige said. "Ok, this is weird. It's like peeking at your presents or something."
"Look, that one has the same nose as mom…"
"You have the same nose as mom," Paige said and Phoebe turned to her, at a loss for words.
"No," she managed finally. "That can't be…"
"Of course it is! Look at the one on the far left. She looks just like you!"
"But…but…" Phoebe said, " that can't be."
"Why not?" Paige asked reasonably.
"Well…"
"Exactly," Paige said with satisfaction. "Hey, there's another photo."
"Three kids," Phoebe said vaguely. "Must be…yours."
"Wow," Paige whispered. "This is weird, put them back. I don't even want to look at them!"
"Oh, I can tell you're going to be a great mother," Phoebe said sarcastically.
"Hey, I don't even want to know what I'm having when I'm pregnant," Paige said reasonably, "I sure don't want to know what I'm having before I even get pregnant."
"So…that means that Chris and Melinda are…"
"Piper and Leo's kids…I mean, Chris is at least Leo's son, he can orb and all. It explains all the hate and bad feelings Chris has towards Leo..."
"You're right, this is creepy."
"Should we tell Leo and Piper? Or at the very least tell Piper that two of kids from the future are currently in our attic."
"No," Phoebe said, shaking her head. "Chris was saying that it would complicate things if we knew what was going on. I think we should play dumb, at least for now. When the time is right, we'll fess up that we already know and it'll be this giant relief to have it off his chest."
"Maybe we can get him to confess before "the time is right"," Paige suggested.
"You mean trick him into telling us?" Phoebe said incredulously and stopped walking to stare at Paige. "Actually…"
OoOoOoOo
Back at the Manor Chris and Melinda were talking quietly in the living room, after Chris went down to make sure the coast was clear.
"Do you remember when mom used to read to us right here on this chair?" Melinda asked softly, tracing the beaded line on the edge of the chair. "We used to beg her to read us just one more story about the Charmed Ones, never knowing that it was to be what we were growing into."
"She used to resist as though the memories were too ridiculous to repeat, but I could tell she was pleased we wanted to hear about them," Chris said.
"She loved to tell us stories, no matter how much she protested…Wyatt stopped listening, didn't he?"
"You were about seven and he was eleven. I think it was when things really began changing in him. He no longer wanted to hear them. One night he told me that they were just made up stories mom told us to get us on Good Magic's side. He said that good magic didn't exist."
"Something must have really gone wrong," Melinda whispered, looking at a picture of a smiling, playful Wyatt that was sitting on the end table.
"Sometimes I wonder why I'm doing this in the first place. When I get back I'll still know what it was like with Wyatt as a brother, what does it matter whether I changed anything."
"You never know…" Melinda said suddenly. "Maybe we'll be different and you'll no longer remember what the other world was like."
"I hope so," Chris said to himself.
"Did you ever plan on telling mom who you were?"
"No," he said honestly. "I didn't think it really mattered."
"Don't you think it's weird that she'll look at you one day and remember Chris from now?"
"No, because she'll never meet me now," Chris snapped furiously.
"Oh…I forgot," Melinda said, sounding confused. "I forget sometimes."
"Dad might, if he ever bothered to show up," Chris said bitterly. "When was the last time we even saw him? One, one and a half years has it been?"
"Longer," Melinda said. "I think he stopped caring as well."
"Well, why should he have cared? Mom was dead, Wyatt was too far gone to save…he never really knew us in the first place. We all know Wyatt was his favorite. He lost his faith in us."
"Do you think if he came down more, showed more interest that Wyatt would have been a little less severe with everyone around him?"
Chris nodded and looked over at her. "But you never know, maybe he was just always like this, dad or no dad around."
Melinda sighed and looked around the room again. "I miss this place sometimes."
"I know," Chris said, looking over at her.
"Sometimes I orb in here, just to lean against the walls and feel the Halliwell magic flow through me, as though it still existed." She broke off. "Wyatt caught me once. He didn't say anything to me, just watched me for a while and when I opened my eyes he smirked at me and walked from the room without saying anything."
"You're lucky he didn't kill you," Chris said sarcastically, and looked around the room.
"I don't think he would, though," Melinda said, shaking her head. "Deep down I really don't think he would kill me. I am his only, younger sister."
"I don't know what he may or may not do, that's why I stay out of his way."
"Or you did stay out of his way," Melinda said. "He was so angry when he found out what you did. And I mean pissed."
Chris smirked.
"He started blowing stuff up and screaming that he was going to find you and kill you. And then you escaped him again…"
"What's your favorite memory of mom?" Chris asked softly. Melina frowned.
"She was brushing her hair when I was really small and the light is flowing into her room. I must have been really small because I can remember looking up at her sitting on her chair. She turned to me, smiling and I felt so safe and comforted." She looked over at Chris. "What's yours?"
"The time she caught me smoking…" Melinda snorted with laughter as the front door opened. Without being told to, she went invisible.
"Hey, Chris," Phoebe said, a weird smile on her face. For the first time since he got here, Phoebe noticed a smile on Chris's face. She must be in the room somewhere, Phoebe thought to herself, with a smile.
A/N Please read and review.