Chapter 7

Silently, Piper asked her sisters to go, who understood at once. This was something that the 5 of them had to work out together; her sisters had no role here. Paige lightly took hold off Phoebe's hand and orbed out.

"M-om?" Wyatt asked quiveringly, as even he sensed the silence that had descended at his words.

The word carried such a note of timidity and fear, that it broke Piper's heart to hear it. It seemed as if Wyatt was no longer sure of his right to call Piper 'mom'. As this thought occurred to her, she grimly reminded herself that this was probably the case.

"Yes, sweetie?" Piper answered her oldest son, injecting as much maternal love as she could muster into her voice.

"I just… I just don't understand how I … I could… do that… do that to Chris… how…how I could order…" Wyatt fell silent once more.

Knowing that not knowing exactly what Wyatt had ordered would drive her nuts, she gathered whatever that remained of her emotional strength, and asked, "Honey, what is it that you did?"

"I…I…" Every bit of hesitation on Wyatt's part steadily increased the oldest Charmed One's apprehension. What could he have done, that was so terrible? What?

For Wyatt's sake, however, she hid her own fears, and instead brought down her lips to kiss the top of Wyatt's head, as she soothingly rubbed his back.

"Sweetie, there is absolutely nothing that any of my sons could do that would make me hate them. And this is something that you haven't even technically done. Since when do you keep secrets from me, huh? You know you can tell me."

"The Zanqhàth…" Wyatt finally said, speaking as if every syllable caused him pain.

"I got… I got t-them to… to… rape Chris…"

Chris, who so far had been maintaining absolute silence cried out, "NO!" at Wyatt's words.

"Wy, you threatened to do that, but you never carried out the threat," he said gently, kneeling beside Wyatt, "No matter how evil you got, you would never hurt me that badly, Wy, never."

The First Born Twice Blessed witch looked at his brother with pain and remorse filled eyes- eyes which also held a flicker of hope. Could it possibly be true?

"B-but the… the vi-vision…" Wyatt stammered, wanting badly- but not daring to- believe Chris.

"In the vision you saw yourself saying, 'The Zanqhàth will be pleased with their client tonight.'", Chris cut his brother off, "But did you actually see it happening?"

Flashback

Christopher Perry Halliwell was afraid; he was very, very, very afraid. More afraid than he'd ever been in his entire life.

Shackles on his arms and legs bound him to the damp Underworld wall. Despite the perpetual chill that prevailed in the Underworld, his tattered shirt was drenched in sweat.

His heart began beating painfully fast as footsteps sounded; footsteps that surely and deliberately came towards him.

Flickering torches revealed the owner of the feet- a tall woman stood, looking at Chris and licking her lips.

A tiny leather blouse and an even tinier leather skirt flaunted a perfectly formed feminine figure. Waist length raven hair framed an aristocratic face; with wide eyes, a perfectly shaped nose, and sculpted, voluptuous and scarlet lips.

Even with the above attributes however, the woman was far from beautiful… for just beneath the superficial beauty (?) lay a deep cruelty and evil.

Chris tensed up as she strode towards him. Ineffectually, he tried to free himself from the bonds that held him- but exhaustion had robbed him of both physical and magickal strength.

Smiling smugly, she slowly ran her hand over his face. Chris' entire body broke out in goose bumps as the icy, deathly cold hands touched him, and his muscles spasmed as her fingers slowly made their way to his chest, ripping open his shirt like tissue.

The fingers began to caress his body as they began to move steadily downwards, towards his pants, down…. down…. "NO!", with a burst of power that was both alien and familiar to him, he vanquished the demon.

End of flashback

Everyone in the room, including the person who was talking, were close to tears when Chris had finished- but all held them back, for fear of distressing the other- it was commonly known that Piper and her family were professional martyrs.

However, with the pain also came wonderful, blissful relief- a relief that Darmuid felt more than anyone else, Wyatt had borne this misconception for a few hours, Piper and Leo for a few seconds, before it'd been dispelled; but Darmuid? He'd had to bear this partial knowledge for almost a week.

He had gotten close to asking Chris about it several times; but each time, his courage had failed him- he had been too afraid of the answer.

"You mean… you mean… I d-didn't…" Wyatt said; a certain fraction of normality creeping back into his voice.

Chris simply smiled and hugged his brother- a gesture that was worth a 1000 words of comfort to Wyatt.

Darmuid protested good naturedly at this, saying, "Hey! What am I supposed to be? A next door neighbor?"

Laughing through their tears, both brothers grabbed their baby brother into a three armed group hug, into which Leo and Piper soon joined.

Finally, a good 5 minutes later, they disengaged. "Mom? Dad? Will it be all right if I orb you guys home, and the three of us spent some brotherly time together? Alone?" Wyatt asked his parents.

"Sure, honey." Both witch and mortal assented. Wyatt flicked his hand, and waved a goodbye as they were enveloped into blue orbs.

"So…" Wyatt said conversationally, flopping down on the bed as only the three of them remained. "So…" Chris replied, sitting down beside him. "So…" Darmuid echoed, sitting on Wyatt's other side. "So…" The Twice Blessed Witch repeated as he wound an arm through each of his brothers, pulling them towards himself.

In that moment of unquestionable, ineffable love; Darmuid finally understood the reason for all this- it wasn't meant to dissent the brothers, it was meant to bring them closer than ever.

THE END

Very special thanks to Alwyn Elderberry, the incredibly talented and gifted writer of THE BROTHERS HALLIWELL, for her valuable suggestions. Thanks to all my readers as well. Hope you like the ending!