a/n: wow, I come back from Madrid to find over 100 reviews! That's certainly inspired me to get a move on.

Disclaimer: I do not own charmed.

Chapter 20: Appeasement.

"….and then what happened?" Phoebe clutching at her breakfast mug of coffee, pleaded like a little child wanting an extra chapter of a bedtime story.

"and then" Piper continued to her assembled audience of sisters, nieces and nephews, " Dan staggered back slightly, knocking into the buffet table, which in turn sent all the food and plates crashing to the floor. He stumbled forward and tried to clock Leo, who dodged him but ended up falling into the garden wall, by which time I had managed to put Victor down safely, and could freeze the place. Chris went to fetch Wyatt, I gave Leo a good talking to, we unfroze Dan and we made a swift exit. "

"so you didn't actually get to meet Jenny's parents then?" Prue asked.

"No, her father had gone out to pick up some more wine, and we left before he got back , I saw her mother from afar, but after the whole Dan thing I didn't really want to stick around and introduce myself."

"Dan ay, talk about blast from the past, who'd have thought it?" Phoebe commented

"Not me, that's for sure" Piper admitted.

"so it was an eventful night all around" Phoebe concluded, glancing at Paige who merely sighed, and Jo who was looking at her plate.

"….that was Jenny" Chris stormed into the room, slamming the cordless phone onto the counter.

"and how is she?" Piper ventured.

" a little upset, given that a harmless family bbq descended into caos, and as a result isn't sure if we ought to continue seeing each other, given the circumstances" he fumed.

"Oh" Piper offered

"Yes, 'oh', where's Dad?"

"Now, Chris, I don't think it was entirely your father's fault"

"I said , where's dad?"

"In the attic.."

"right" Chris clomped out.

"on that note, I think I'll go take a shower" Prue jumped up "don't worry" she reassured Piper "He'll calm down soon enough."

"yeah, eventually" Phoebe continued, grabbing Ben by the hand and exiting the room.

"this is all such a mess" Piper sighed

"what's new?" Paige grumbled.

"Good Morning Ladies" Kyle breezed into the kitchen

There was a knock on the front door."I'll get it" Piper dragged herself to her feet, noticing the obvious tension that had filled the room the second Kyle had entered.

"Yes?" she asked wearily , flinging the door open.

"Morning" Dan replied.

XXX

" Dad" Chris burst into the attic

"Good Chris I could do with your help" Leo responded looking up from the book stand, "look I .."

"I'm sorry, but did that bump to your head give you short term memory loss?" Chris asked, indicating the nasty looking graze on Leo's fore head.

"No"

"So you do remember humiliating me terribly last night?"

"That's a bit of an overstatement.."

"Oh no? so were my eyes deceiving me or did you not in fact throw the first punch?

"Well, yes.."

"Let's see, you start a brawl at my girlfriends house and then suddenly expect me to help you…well, I don't feel in a benevolent mood"

"Alright, I know it wasn't big and it wasn't clever, but you have to understand where I was coming from.."

"Um, you were coming from a left hook if I recall"

"Chris" Leo sighed in frustration "this isn't easy to explain, and it is going to sound unbelievably cheesy but never mind…when I first saw your mother, it really was love at first sight. The fact that she then proceeded to date Dan hurt me so much that I really did feel as if I was dying inside.."

"You're already dead" Chris remarked petulantly

"and" Leo ignored him "every time I see Dan, it reminds me of that pain, and I get this uncontrollable urge to start hitting things, it's crazy as it goes against all my whitelighter pacifist instincts….."

XXX

"I had to come round" Dan explained as he stepped inside. "and apologise for last night"

"well, I suppose it wasn't completely your fault" Piper said graciously, noting the black eye that Dan was now sporting.

"No, but I should have acted with more decorum" he sighed "It just threw me for a loop, seeing you again"

"I think it's safe to say that we were all as surprised as each other"

"and I think it also hurt me a little bit, the fact that it confirmed to me that you were with Leo."

"I thought you wanted me to be happy?"

"I did, I still do, and I know that being with Leo makes you happy, it's just I've only just managed to move on in my life, start dating other women".

" Did I really , hurt you that badly?"

"yes" there was no hiding the pain in his voice.

"But the genie…" Piper muttered

"what?" Dan couldn't quite catch what she said.

"nothing"

The sound of raised voices could be heard wafting down the stairs

"look , Piper, I'd better go" Dan glanced upwards "tell Leo I'm sorry"

"I'm sure Leo is feeling pretty bad too" Piper offered, as she escorted him to the front door.

"and tell Chris, I 'll have a word with Jenny. He's a great bloke, you've got a wonderful son there, it's not his fault what went on between us"

"I know" Piper smiled

"who knows, perhaps one day we will all be able to stand in the same room together and be civil"

"Hopefully"

"and I promise I will be on my best behaviour at the wedding" Dan quipped

"wedding, what wedding?" Piper panicked at the thought of her 'baby' boy ever getting married

"Joke" Dan explained "bit of a lame one though.."

"Oh right"

"Goodbye Piper, all the best.."

"Thanks Dan, I hope things work out for you too, I really do" She pecked him on the cheek.

He turned and walked wistfully toward his car.

Piper closed the door slowly, casting her eyes upward, she debated going upstairs to intercede between Leo and Chris, but decided that the pair were big enough to sort their own problems out, she chose instead to go and put her feet up for a peaceful 10 minutes or so.

XXX

"so how are we all this morning?" Kyle asked the room at large

"Good" Paige smiled "I'm , just going to hang some of this washing out" she said pointedly, motioning at Jo. She grabbed the laundry basket and headed for the back door.

"Jo?" he asked, noticing that her eyes hadn't risen from the table.

"been better" came the mumbled reply

"Still, upset about last night I see"

"what do you expect from me Kyle?" she asked, "for me to rush into your arms and tell you that you're the greatest Dad in the world? Well tough luck I had the greatest dad in the world, and now he's dead"

"I think your mother already explained what I expect from you Poppy Jo"

Jo raised an eyebrow, Kyle shot her a look as if to say 'if you can play the name game, so can I'.

"and that" Kyle continued "is some respect and understanding."

"doesn't mean I have to like you"

"No, it doesn't, though it's safe to presume that you did like me a little bit, prior to last night?"

Jo remained silent.

"thought so. Look, you can hate me if you want, it doesn't change the way I feel about you, I love you, and whether you chose to believe that is up to you, but there is one thing I won't put up with , and that is causing your mother anymore undue stress"

"so…?"

"so I say, that we both make an effort to be civil to each other, at least until the baby is born. Ok?"

Jo brooded.

"I said, are you ok with that, Poppy?" Kyle wasn't sure but he could have sworn that he saw the smallest of smiles flicker quickly across Jo's face, before disappearing.

"Yes Kylie" she retorted, before orbing up to her room.

"daughters!" Kyle exclaimed to the empty room.

XXX

"still doesn't mean you had to punch the guy" Chris persisted

"Chris" Leo pleaded

"I'm just saying…"

"I'm sorry ok, is that better?"

"No, it won't be better until Jenny decides that it is safe enough for us to go out again without starting world war 3"

"she'll come around, they all will eventually"

"easy for you so say"

"Do you want me to have a word with her? I can if you want"

"No way! That is quite frankly the worst thing you could do right now. I seriously think you are suffering from brain damage, jeez were you ever young?"

" In which case" Leo humphed "just be patient, I was with your mother and look where that got me. You wouldn't be standing here now if I hadn't"

"ugh Dad, seriously I don't want to think about that"

"speaking of which, I don't need to have a father son talk with you about 'that' do I?"

"No, dad really, I think I'm ok"

"because you know, if you ever do want to talk about certain 'things', I am always here, you don't need to be embarrassed"

"Dad, please , shut up" Chris was now bright pink.

"just checking" Leo continued flicking through the book "It's always best to.."

"Dad!" Chris cried " I forgive you ok, just please be quiet, because I'm 30 seconds away from orbing out of here"

Leo smiled to himself.

"what are you looking for anyway?" Chris asked, eager to change the subject.

"I was about to tell you, before you started shouting at me" Leo retorted, setting down his copy of Readers Digest Guide to Upper Level demons, A – H. " We've found the demon who was behind Prues' kidnapping"

"and? Who is he?"

"That's the thing, we don't know his name, we just have a picture of him, I tried to find him in the book of shadows but he's not there. Hence I brought these down from Magic School for a little light reading." He indicated to the pile of dusty books on the attic floor. "here" he chucked a copy of Who's Who in the Underworld 1975, at Chris.

"so what am I looking for exactly?" Chris began flipping through the pages

"This" Leo handed him an A4 piece of paper with a water coloured image on it, not unlike those found in the Book of Shadows. "The elders seem to think that a Power of 3 spell complete with potion ought to do the trick, we just need to ID the demon before we tell the girls"

"I'm not hearing any flipping" Leo called out after a short while when Chris still hadn't begun to look through the books. "Chris?" he asked quizzically. "I thought you were going to help me? You're not sulking still are you?"

"I don't need a book to tell me who this is, it's the Caixa Demon" Chris replied, his voice tight.

"Battled him in the future have you?"

"Battled him?" Chris' eyes opened wide with terror "It's the demon that killed mum".

XXX