A/N Woohoo! cheers loudly i've managed to finish this chapter and i actually have the ideas for the next one all lined up in my head! YAY! Thanks to EVERYONE for all their support, it's very much appreciated! Hopefully, the next chapter won't take as long as this one did! Thanks again! xxx
The Charmed Ones, Leo and Victor stood in shock as they stared at the two brothers. None of them seemed to be able to form any words. Wyatt nor Chris said anything either and just looked at their family. Both of them had small smiles on their faces.
"How?" Leo managed to force out.
Wyatt shrugged. "We don't know. All we do know is we're not allowed to stay for long. It's sort of a visit I guess. To try and help you guys deal with our deaths."
"We'll never be able to deal with it." Piper said quietly. She didn't look very happy. "Why are you here?"
Chris and Wyatt frowned. "To help you deal with it." Wyatt repeated.
"It's an hour after your funeral! We just buried you both and I managed to push most of my pain away and now you being here is bringing it all back! Why are you two doing this to me! Piper cried as tears poured down her cheeks.
She turned on her heel and ran out the room. Phoebe reached out to her as she ran past her but Piper dodged her and made her way down the stairs. Wyatt looked shocked as he watched her go and Chris looked downright crestfallen.
"I thought she'd be happy to see us." he said quietly.
"I think it's too much for her at the moment." said Paige. Without saying anything else she pulled the closest brother into a hug which was Chris.
Phoebe hugged Wyatt tightly and began to cry into his shoulder. She pulled away and put her hand on the side of his face, smiling gently at him. During this Leo stood in the background. He couldn't bring himself to go near them. He couldn't help thinking it was his fault they'd been killed in the first place and he could end up hurting them again. He knew it was stupid and he wanted nothing else in the world except to hug them both tightly but he just couldn't do it.
Paige and Phoebe swapped boys so they could hug them both and then broke away. Victor smiled and walked forward, pulling Chris into a hug. He broke away and then hugged Wyatt. Leo still stood in the background.
Suddenly the sounds of three pairs of feet ascending the stairs reached their ears and Kanira, Lucy and Bethany appeared in the attic.
"Hey why is Aunt Piper so ups-
Kanira stopped talking as she saw Wyatt and Chris standing in the middle of the attic. Lucy gasped and Bethany squealed in delight at the sight of their older cousins. They sprinted forwards, flinging themselves at Chris who was closest to them. His eyes widened in surprise but he opened his arms and caught them, stumbling backwards a bit. They were crying noisily, burying their faces into his chest but he held them closely and whispered comfortingly to them. Kanira burst into tears too and ran forwards, latching herself onto Wyatt who hugged her tightly in return. The girls swapped cousins and after all the hugging was done, they broke away.
"How are you alive?" asked Kanira.
"Well technically we're not." said Chris.
"You're whitelighters?" asked Lucy.
"Um no. I guess we're kind of in a corporeal form like when Grandma or Grams are summoned." said Wyatt.
"So you're not able to stay?" questioned Kanira looking down at her shoes.
Chris and Wyatt shook their heads sadly.
"No." said Wyatt.
Bethany started crying again and Chris knelt down to her height and pulled her into a gentle hug.
"It's okay, ssshhh, it's okay." he whispered to her.
"But how did you get here?" asked Paige.
"We don't know. The last thing i remember is the truck hitting the car." said Wyatt.
"Really? I remember the truck hitting the car, then getting carried out the car wreck, then everything was completely dark but i could hear voices talking to me." said Chris once Bethany had calmed down.
"The voices...they were me and your mom talking to you when you were in the hospital." said Leo speaking for the first time in the past 15 minutes.
Chris turned his head to look at him and smiled. "I tried opening my eyes or even just moving my hand but my body wouldn't do what my brain wanted it to."
"It's okay, we knew you were listening." said Leo.
"How?"
"Call it parental instinct." said Leo.
"I don't remember anyone talking to me in a hospital." said Wyatt with a small frown on his face.
No-one said anything for a moment and everyone in the room apart from Wyatt and Chris glanced at each other.
"What?" questioned Wyatt.
"You don't remember anything like that because you died when the truck hit the car." said Phoebe somberly. "Chris survived the crash but he was seriously injured and died in hospital a week later."
Both brothers looked shocked and slightly sad at the new information. No-one said anything, allowing them both time to try and handle what they'd just heard.
"But...i thought we both died at the same time..." said Wyatt thoughtfully with a frown.
"You can't have. I mean, you would have arrived in the afterlife before Chris, surely you realised he wasn't dead yet?" said Paige.
"We didn't go to the afterlife. Wherever we were, there was no sense of time or even existence. It was kinda weird." said Chris.
"Who told you you weren't allowed to stay permanently?" asked Leo.
Wyatt shrugged. "Some man in a white cloak. We just assumed he was an Elder but he kept his hood up so we couldn't see his face."
Bethany tugged at the sleeve of Chris's black shirt. He looked down at her.
"Was it sore being in the car crash and the hospital?" she asked innocently.
Chris thought for a moment. "I don't really remember, all if it is kinda hazy."
"I bet it was sore." said Bethany thoughtfully.
"Yea me too." said Chris with a small smile.
"Would it be sorer than the time i broke my arm?" Bethany asked.
Chris chuckled softly. "Yea, i think that'd be a definite yes."
"So is it okay for us to go downstairs or are there people here?" Wyatt asked.
"There are people there but they're frozen." said Paige.
"Okay cool." said Wyatt.
He made his way over to the door.
"You lot coming?" he asked the other occupants of the room. Everyone nodded and followed him out the door.
"So," Victor said quietly to Leo so only he could hear, at the back of everyone else as they made their way downstairs. "do you want to tell me why you're avoiding your sons?"
"What? I'm not avoiding them! " Leo said quickly snapping his head up to look at Victor.
"Oh come on Leo, you haven't even hugged one of them yet!" said Victor.
"I just...It...It's hard to see them again." said Leo sadly.
"Yea i know. It was hard for me too but just think how it's going to make them feel. They might take it the wrong way and think you just don't want to see them or you're mad at them or something."
"It's not like that!" Leo protested.
"But they might start thinking that." explained Victor.
Leo looked down at the ground as he walked, his eyes starting to tear up slightly.
"Leo, we've been given a second chance to say our final goodbyes to them. We've got a chance to tell them all the things we wanted to say before but kept putting it off. Don't waste this chance. You'll regret it, i assure you." said Victor.
"I know...i know." Leo said.
Everyone reached the bottom of the stairs. All the guests were still frozen so everyone had to move carefully around them all.
Wyatt and Chris looked around the manor with smiles on their faces.
"Finally we're back." said Wyatt.
Chris nodded. "We're home."
Piper clattered the used plates into the sink. She was working at a fast and furious (A/N excuse the pun!) pace, mostly due to her mental state. She went to grab a knife of the counter and ended up cutting her finger. She gasped and clutched her finger as it started bleeding. She shook it and then grabbed the knife by the handle, throwing it into the sink angrily. She closed her eyes and leaned forwards with both hands placed on either side of the sink.
She just felt so angry! Angry at Wyatt and Chris for putting her through this! Angry at them for leaving their family!...But really, the anger was just masking what she really felt. She actually felt a mixture of over-whelming happiness and heart-wrenching sadness. The happiness being because of seeing her sons again and the sadness being because she knew they would have to leave her again. It was that fact that stopped her from spending any time with them even though she could hear them and the rest of her family talking in the next room. She was mere metres away from hugging them tightly and she was wasting the time they were there in a kitchen, washing dirty dishes. But she couldn't face them. It was just so hard. The last time she'd seen them was when she had to identify Wyatt's body at the Morgue and when she and Leo had sat at Chris's side, both holding his hands as he drew his last breath. She just couldn't get those images out of her head...
"Mom?"
Piper's eyes snapped open and she spun around one her heel. Standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room was Chris. Piper breathed out heavily and turned back around to face the sink. She stuck her hands into the hot, soapy water and began to wash the dishes. Chris sighed and walked over to stand beside her.
"Mom please."
Piper ignored him. He tried to put his hand on her shoulder but she shrugged him off.
"Why are you so mad at us?" he asked her quietly.
Piper dropped the plate she was washing back into the sink with a clatter. Her face went thunderous and she turned to face quickly.
"You want to know why i'm so mad! Can't you figure it out yourself!" she said angrily.
"No, i don't get why you're so mad at us! I thought you would care enough to at least give us a hug or something! We died mom! You could at least act like you're happy to see us!" he retorted.
"That's exactly it! You don't know how hard it is to lose a child Chris! I lost both my children in a week!" Piper started crying and her voice started cracking as she talked. "And it feels like my heart has been ripped out my chest and stomped on! It is the hardest thing i've ever had to go through in my life! Me and your dad had to bury our only children today, we had to come back here and have strained conversations with all those people out there and just when i thought "You know, i'll never get over this but maybe because the funeral is over i can start to continue my life" you and Wyatt came and it brought up all that raw emotion that i felt the day i was told Wyatt was dead and the day when i watched you slip away and join him!"
Piper wiped the tears from her eyes but more came in their place. She continued talking.
"I'm sorry if i've hurt you but i just couldn't handle it! Part of me wants to just hold on to both of you and never let go and another part wants to push you away so that i can try and push the pain in my heart away! I just..I.." Piper couldn't continue as sobs racked her body.
Chris pulled her to him and hugged her close to his chest. She wrapped her arms around him and clutched the back of his shirt tightly. He felt hot tears prick his eyes and he couldn't stop one from escaping and rolling down his cheek.
"I've missed you so much baby." Piper whispered as she cried.
More tears rolled down Chris's face.
"I've missed you too mom." he whispered back.
The two clung to each other tightly as they cried. Even though Piper still wanted to be mad she couldn't. Her true emotions came forward as she hugged her youngest son, her baby boy. All that mattered to her at the moment was him and Wyatt and the time they had left.
She had her boys back. They were the most important people in the world to her and she wasn't going to waste the time she had left with them.
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