Chapter 6: "It's My Life it's now or never, I ain't gonna live forever, I just wanna live while I'm alive"(Jon Bon Jovi)

The following morning Chris could be found in the sunroom lazily flicking through the channels on the TV, Wyatt playing with his toys at his side. Chris', insomnia had been abaited since the vanquish of Gideon, but now with all the uncertainty about it his future, it seemed to be coming back. It was still early, the rest of the house was fast asleep, the connection he shared with Wyatt meant that he had sensed the little boy's desire to get up, and had orbed into the nursery to collect him, before the two of them had settled down on the sofa. He was somewhat surprised therefore, to find his father of all people, entering the room shortly after 7am.

"Dad!" He exclaimed "what are you doing here?"

"I woke up and saw that Wyatt wasn't in his bed, and then sensed that the two of you were down here" The Elder explained.

"No, I mean, here, as in on earth, as opposed to Elder-Land"

"Oh, right, I came back yesterday, your mother wanted me last night"

"ew, Dad too much info!"

"What?.. no, not like that, she wanted to talk to me, about you as a matter of fact"

"lemme guess..about me wanting to stay in the past?"

"Yes"

"I knew it would cause too many problems! I'm such an idiot, I shouldn't have said anything, I should just return to the future and live with it."

"No, Chris, there is obviously a good reason why you want to stay in the past, and we all know that you don't act on impulse, I'm assuming that you have given this a lot of thought"

"I've done nothing but think about it"

"Good. That's what I explained to the elders"

"The Elders? Why do we have to drag them into this?"

"Because they are the Elders! You can't just decided to play around with the space/time continum and not expect to get them involved"

"Well what did they say?"

"What did they say?" Piper stood in the doorway, the baby on her hip. She walked forward and settled him down on the sofa in between Chris and Wyatt. She seemed to contemplate the scene for a moment "aw, my boys, perhaps I should take a photo.." then she snapped out of it and turned back to Leo "yes, you got back very late last night, I'd like to hear this myself….what did they say?"

"Well.." Leo began.

XXX

Lazing in bed on the second floor, Paige was busy replaying her 'none-date' of last night back in her mind.

----Flashback----

She entered the balloon covered gymnasium, trying to glide seamlessly on the killer 4 inch stiletto black heels that she had borrowed from Phoebe, whilst simultaneously trying not fall over and break an ankle. 'Great it's prom night all over again' she thought, not that she actually remembered a lot about that particular night, a whole bottle of Vodka had soon seen to that.

She stood by the wall, subtly scanning the room for 'kyle',who didn't appear to be there. 'Why did I let myself get talked into this?' she admonished herself. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure approach her from the left.

"Hey…"she spun round to meet them "I wondered where…"her voice trailed off. Lucas stood there a sleezy grin on his face,

"Not who you were expecting?" he smirked.

"Drop dead"

"Paige, Paige Paige, I thought we were past all this, I mean we are practically family"

"Family? How did you work that one out?"

"That little girl of yours, got me thinking, judging by the age of her, I reckon that there is a 50 she is mine?"

"She is not yours"

"How do you know?"

"because she is nothing like you, and I just know ok"

He took a step forward, inching himself close to her so that she could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"You're right there, she looks nothing like me, she's an almost exact replica of you, looks the young ingénue, but is really up for anything, and shall we say..anyone.."

"get away from me!"

"come now, don't be shy"

"I believe the young lady asked you to step away" Kyle Brody stood there, Police shield held out. "Don't make me have to ask you again"

"sure officer" Lucas replied, the sincerity not quite reaching his eyes. "whatever you say" he scuttled off.

"You took your time" Paige half reprimanded him.

"waiting for me were you?" Kyle asked.

"might have been"

"well, let's not waste anymore time then, shall we?" he offered her his arm, and they headed off toward the seating area.

--End of Flash back--

The rest of the night had passed by in a bit of a blur. They had talked none stop, danced, joked, it was as if something had just clicked and they acted as if they had known each other for years, rather than a few short hours. Paige smiled to herself. Yep definitely a good evening. Yawning she opened her eyes, she turned slightly, and it was then she noticed, she was not alone. Kyle Brody lay fast asleep to the left of her.

Oh Crap. There was a light knocking on the door "mum" Jo's voice was calling. Double crap

XXX

"..well" Leo began "They said that it was preposterous, ludicrous and not to mention highly irregular, and that it could cause irreparable damage to the timeline, have unforeseen consequences on the future of this family and all others who come into contact with us, and was ultimately down right absurd"

"I knew it!" Chris muttered

"..and I said, that this was my son, who helped save their miserable asses from the evil influences of Gideon and Zankou, and they could either help us or forget about the charmed ones ever rescuing innocents again, because if they refused permission his mother and aunts would not be pleased in the slightest"

"so what did they say?"

"They capitulated of course"

"Brillant!"

"That's wonderful news" Piper began stroking her newly promoted 'oldest' son's hair.

"of course" Leo added, "there is one teeny tiny condition.."

XXX

Paige lept out of bed, flung on dressing gown, and opened her bedroom door a tiny amount before Jo's knocking woke Kyle up.

"Mum" Jo exclaimed "How did it go last night?..can I come in?"

"it went really well" Paige babbled "really well, and urgh you can't come in because..umm" Paige stole a backwards glance into the room behind her, she saw a vase of Daffodils on the table "I've broken my vase and there's glass and water all over the floor"

"Ok, do you want any help to clean it up?"

"No, it's fine, why don't you go have a bath and we'll talk later ok?"

"Okay" Jo agreed, wondering if perhaps her mother had had too much to drink last night and was acting a bit crazy.

Phew. Paige shut the door behind her. That was close.

"Kyle" Paige began to shake him slightly "Kyle wake up"

"hey….morning gorgeous" he muttered

"morning, look you've got to go!"

"go?"

"Yeah, go, do the walk of shame and all"

"But what about last night?"

"Last night ..we were great, I mean, it was great, I mean, you know we had a lovely time, but I don't really want my daughter to find a half -naked man in my bed"

"right, yeah of course." Kyle jumped out of bed and began pulling his clothes on. "you do want to meet up again though?"

"Of course I do" Paige reassured him, "I meant what I said, last night was amazing"

"Sure was" Kyle agreed as he fastened up his jacket "even better than the first time!"

"First time?" Paige repeated as she handed him his shoes.

"Yeah, you know, summer of 1992, Jimmy Klein's house party? I guess my memory is a little clearer, as they say every guy remembers his first time..mind you we had had a lot to drink. Are you okay?" he asked, as Paige froze in front of him.

"Yeah" she stuttered.

"Cool" He gave her a quick peck on the cheek " I'll call you ok"

"Yeah"..with that he slipped out of her bedroom and made his way quietly down to the front hall.

Oh my god. Paige thought as she watched from her window as he strode down the front path. That's how I know him! It wasn't from maths class, it was from that party, the party…he was Jo's father!

XXX

"Alright" Piper drawled "what's the catch?"

"It's not a catch persay"

"Leo!"

"Well, via a combination of elder magic, the cleaners and memory dust, we can add Chris to every governmental data base, electoral roll and telesales call list in existence, and also implant him in the memory of those people outside of the family who don't know who he is…the only problem is the um physical aspect of things"

"what do you mean?" Chris asked

"The problem is, is that it is going to be very hard for people to believe that you are our son when there is only 10 years age gap between us, no to mention the fact that you look older than 22 anyway"

"so what do they want me to do? Pretend like I'm some long lost relative?"

"They said it was up to us, so I've been thinking and the easiest way all round is for you to loose a few years"

" For me to what?"

"To lose some years, and for your mother to gain some years"

"Hang on now!" Piper interrupted " I am not suddenly going to age 10 years!"

"Can we all just calm down and listen! Chris, you would lose 4 years, as in you would become 18, and Piper you would just gain 1 year and become 33, that way, it would look as if you had Chris when you were 15, as opposed to 10 which would be a lot more believable"

"Dad! You just said I look older than 22, how the hell am I going to pass for 18?"

"There is a spell we can cast, that will make you look physically younger, you will still retain all your memories and the mentality of a 22 year old, you will just look younger. Plus 18 isn't so bad, you're still an adult and you won't have to go to school"

"wait a second mister" Piper cut him off "you're going to cast some mojo on me to make me look 33?"

"No," Leo continued "In your case, it is just enough that we alter all the official documentation, physically you can remain the same"

"I hope so!"

"So Chris" Leo asked "What do you think?"

"If that's what it takes to keep me in the present then I guess that's what I'll do"

"Well, the elder's have given you a week's grace to think about it"

"A week? What am I supposed to do in the mean time?"

"Well, I 'm glad you asked me that, follow me.." Leo beckoned, The family trooped through the sunroom and into the kitchen.

"Hey family outing?" Phoebe entered the kitchen, a pyjama clad Ben on her hip staring shyly at them all.

"not quite" Piper replied "Was Ben awake all night?" she asked noticing the dark rings under her younger sisters eyes.

"No, after all the sugar and making new friends with Wyatt, he just zonked out. It was me, I couldn't sleep, I kept checking on him every 5 minutes, I was worried he might stop breathing, or he might be in trouble, that and I just wanted to watch him because he looked so perfect laying there…how do you do it? How do you sleep?"

"because pretty soon you realise that you need at least 7 hours sleep in order to run round after a small child all day" Piper explained. "You'll get the hang of it"

"People, can we keep it moving please?" Leo asked as they stood by the back door.

"What do you think?" he continued.

" I think it's the back garden" Chris quipped.

"No" Leo replied "This is part of the house, or it will be"

"huh?"

"With all these new additions, your mother and I decided that we needed to make some changes around here, namely, give you a proper room if you're going to stay, give the boys a proper bedroom instead of our closet, a bedroom for Ben for when he comes to visit, a spare room now that Jo has the current spare room for her bedroom…thus, your mother suggested that we magically extend the house, add two extra rooms onto each floor, so six in total.."

"..and your father gave me a lecture on the use of magic for personal gain, and wanted to reaffirm his masculinity by getting up close and personal with hammers and nails.."

" ..so that's going to be our project, you and me, to build an extension out here what do you say?"

"um, okay?" Chris wasn't convinced, it was certainly a lot to think about.

"Good" leo's eyes glistened, thinking about his new construction project, as Piper patted him on the back indulgently. Phoebe looked on, pleased at the thought of Ben coming to visit every weekend, tickling the boy slightly under his chin. Upstairs Paige continued to stand in her window, dumbstruck by the latest twist in her increasingly complicated life.

It was going to be an eventful week…

XXX