Neurotic
A story of Christopher Perry Halliwell
Disclaimer: Charmed doesn't belong to me.
Chapter The Seventh
"Right." Piper looked faintly disturbed at her father's slack-jawed expression, and then changed her expression to one of acute suspicion. "I think we all need to go downstairs and sort this out." She waved a finger at her father. Victor winced. "And you- you are in some almighty trouble."
Phoebe helped Leo to his feet. He gently started to glow as he did so and all his small cuts disappeared. "I need to heal Chris, too," Leo said.
"Right. Downstairs!" Piper said roughly.
They turned to move, and Leo stopped. "Wait a second," he said obtusely, and turned to stride across the room. He picked up the paper roll Chris had cast aside in his scramble to- well, none of them were sure what Chris had been intending to do. "Got it," he said.
Piper and Phoebe looked at him curiously, the latter unable to speak after the backwash of emotions from Chris had almost bowled her over too.
"W-what is it?" Phoebe eventually managed after moving her mouth uselessly for a second.
"Chris' Map," Victor and Leo said at the same time, exchanging wary glances afterwards.
"Map!" Phoebe exclaimed. "That's what the fortune teller told us about! Piper-" She stopped at the look on Piper's face.
"Right, yeah," Piper said, dazed. "Down. My head hurts, and the baby's deciding to kick a rather catchy drum beat on my kidneys, and if I don't get an explanation soon my head may just explode." Leo nodded at her, and then Piper realised exactly what she had just said, and the consequences of it. She looked suddenly uncertain at him, then down at her bump, and then back at Leo. "Uh-" she said, floundering.
"It's okay, I know," Leo said grimly.
"You do?" Piper asked, her heart catching in her throat.
"I think explanations are due," Victor said slowly, "and that downstairs is a good place to do it."
"Glad you agree," Leo said. Victor had only a second to look puzzled as Leo's eyes went a little distant, and then the ground disappeared beneath them. They appeared in the living room almost instantly, and Victor stumbled backwards in shock. An abrupt sense of nausea made him stagger again, and he let himself fall into the nearest available free chair. Opposite him, Paige and Chris were sat on one of the sofas, Chris looking almost hollow.
"Jeez, you should warn a fellow before you do that," Victor exclaimed, squinting at Leo.
Leo shrugged a little unapologetically before moving over to where Chris was seated. He moved his hands over him, and a yellow glow flowed through his hands and over the young man. The blood and gashes disappeared from his skin and clothing. Chris winced a little, and then looked up at Leo gratefully.
"Um, thanks," he said, his voice quiet.
"No problem," Leo returned, patting Chris' shoulder gently, sympathy in his eyes for Chris' emotional outburst.
"I-" Looking almost frightened, Chris lifted his gaze. "I- I'm sorry I was in the house without your permission," he said quickly, "but all I was doing was looking at the book, I swear-"
"It's all right," Phoebe said quickly. Piper opened her mouth to protest, but shut it quickly as Phoebe edged a glare at her. "You're the map reader we need, anyway."
Chris looked at her, confused.
"We met a fortune teller at the fair," Paige said, before stopping herself. "Did that sound like the beginning of a children's poem to anyone else?" She shook herself a little. "Anyway, she said we needed a map. She said-" Paige frowned. "Someone help me out here."
"She said a Map will show you the way," Phoebe said. "Allow the map reader to help you, for he has gone through much trials and sufferings and seen too much death for someone as young as he, to get this Map to you."
Chris looked at her, hard. "I see," he said, dubiously. "What else did she say?" At Phoebe's panicked look, he bit his lip a little in thought. "Okay, if she said a lot, let's hear each bit and try and decipher it."
Phoebe nodded in ascent. "One of you is concealing something. A child, yet not a child. Conflicted, who dreams of the destruction that has happened and yet has not happened so far. He is in mortal danger," Phoebe said.
"We thought that bit referred to the baby," Paige added. "You know, 'cuz he's concealed in the womb-"
"He?" Leo's head jerked up. Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Chris all nodded. Victor caught himself from doing so, just about.
"Yeah, we'll get to explaining things to you in a minute," Piper said.
"I thought it referred to Chris," Victor said, his cheeks a little red.
"You did? And you didn't say anything?" Phoebe demanded. "And how-"
"You were concealing him," Piper realised, her eyes wide in disbelief. She looked almost as if she'd been betrayed.
"I'm not sorry about it," Victor said, reasonably. "Christopher told me how much danger Wyatt was in, and I believe him."
"You also believed that freak that married you and wanted to kill Wyatt!" Piper snapped back, her voice rising with her temper.
Victor's face hardened. "This is different," he snapped back.
"Oh? You have proof this time that he isn't evil?" Piper demanded.
"Piper Halliwell, you shut up right now," Victor said, his voice rising too. "This may be your house, but it does not give you the right to yell at him. Or me. No, I do not have any proof, but Christopher has told me things that nobody but- who he is – could know." He shifted awkwardly.
"Chris- sorry, Christopher-" Paige adjusted with a narrowed glance at Chris "-told you who he is?" She turned on Chris with an accusing glance on her pale heart-shaped face. "Well, go on! Who are you?"
"I can't tell you," Chris told them miserably. Actually, he told his shoes, but everyone else heard. He lifted his head and directed his gaze at Piper. "I want to. Believe me. But I can't."
"We'll get back to this later," Piper promised through gritted teeth. "But- he had proof for what he told you? And you trust him from it?" She asked her father.
Victor nodded. "I do."
"Well, then," Piper said. She looked at Chris, hard. "You are going to run any of your wilder stunts through one of us before you go off and do them. If there's an issue with- who you are," and there was a lot of sarcasm in her tone at that point, "then run it through dad."
"Then that means… I can be your Whitelighter again?" Chris asked, not believing it.
Almost as if in a huff, Piper nodded. "The fortune teller seemed genuine enough. This Map… could help my son. And I don't want to hurt my son. And I don't want him to be a... a killer," she added, a little tentatively.
Chris relaxed a little in his seat. Paige and Phoebe exchanged a glance, knowing that Piper was thinking about the last part of the fortune teller's words to them.
"What was the next part?" Chris asked, looking at Phoebe.
"She said that my view is clouded of late," Phoebe said, looking troubled. "And that my emotions are still in turmoil. I have seen something of the truth, and yet haven't acknowledged it yet. If I do not realise the one thing I have missed, the child who is not a child may suffer."
Chris frowned. "She said this directly at you?" At Phoebe's nod, he looked away for a second, and then back again. "Something only you've experienced, then."
"Then Piper asked if the child who is not a child, blah, blah, blah, was her child," Paige said helpfully. "I remember that bit."
"And the woman said…" Phoebe cocked her head a little as she tried to remember it verbatim. "You look at the world through a narrow perspective, but you will understand."
"I get that part," Chris said blandly. "But move on."
Phoebe eyed him evilly for a second, then shrugged. "Then there was the map bit. And then she said, keep your minds open, all of you. The pieces of the puzzle are there, you just have to put them together. A friend who is not a friend will betray you. And your son- You three will hurt him, quite deliberately. You will mean him harm and you will deal him harm. And he has been hurt so much already—"
That bit obviously disturbed Chris, as he rocked backwards a little. "A friend who is not a friend will betray you?" His face was blank for a second.
"Chris?" Victor prompted. Chris looked at him, slightly nervously. "What have you figured out?"
"Oh, nothing specific, just…" Chris frowned a little. "I've been plotting on the Map all the possible evils that will attack Wyatt, the best order to vanquish them, et cetera, but… Only evil." His face was blank as he thought.
"So you think-" Paige looked shocked. "A friend? Someone we know?"
"Or knew," Phoebe said, a little startled too.
"Well, it can't hurt to add them to the Map too," Victor said reasonably. "We have to be prepared to keep everything away from Wyatt for the next five weeks."
"Next five weeks?" Piper asked.
"Whatever happens to Wyatt happens before-" And Chris inexplicably hesitated for a second. "Before your second son is born."
"Five weeks," Piper repeated. "Huh. But doesn't that make it- uh- late?"
Chris shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. But it has to happen then, Piper."
She glared at him a little.
"Just think of it this way," Chris said good-naturedly, "you won't have any false alarms."
"Uh-huh. Thanks a lot for that, Christopher." Piper looked disgruntled, and folded her arms across her bump. Chris wrinkled his nose at his full name. Piper raised one eyebrow, as if to say to him 'what are you going to do about it?' and Chris quickly stopped pulling a face.
"Um," Leo said, looking a little white-washed. "Are you going to tell me now how come you know it's a boy? And um, when, when were you going to tell me?"
"Well, to be fair, you weren't here to tell," Paige said agreeably.
Leo ignored that, except for a slight tightening of his jaw. "Paige-" he warned gently.
Paige rolled her eyes and spread her arms. "Just trying to be helpful," she said.
"Uh, well, you know- It was hard enough for you to leave Wyatt… I couldn't bear telling you there were going to be two for you to-" Piper couldn't finish the sentence. "Anyway. Phoebe had a vision in the school of the second child – a boy."
"He was really cute," Phoebe said, nodding.
"And then I had the sonogram," Piper said. "Boy."
"There's a sonogram?" Leo's head lurched up, and he looked at Piper hard, his eyes searching her face. She flushed under the scrutiny.
"Yeah," Piper said. "Paige, would you-"
Paige nodded, and scampered off to the kitchen. She ran back in clutching it, and passed it to Leo. "Here you go. Although I still can't see it."
Leo looked at the photo in disbelief, his eyes widening. "Yeah," he whispered, "cute," he said, agreeing wholeheartedly. "And, um, you can tell it's a boy by that little thing there-"
"Ohhh," Paige said. Victor peeked over Leo's shoulder to look at it, even though he'd already seen it several times over the last couple of weeks when he'd come to the manor to sneak small peeks at the Book for Chris' Map. He looked at Chris, who had squirmed a little in disbelief at what they were saying.
"Chris, you want to look?" Phoebe said, putting her head on one side as Leo dazedly passed it back to Paige, and Paige passed it to Phoebe to admire again.
"Uhhh---" Chris said. "I think I'll pass." He looked decidedly queasy. At Phoebe's quick glance of worry, he tried to explain. "I really don't want to throw up over it, and I still feel a bit-"
"I think it's time to get you home," Victor said stridently, getting to his feet. At that, he turned and looked a little sheepishly at Piper. "I let him stay with me, at my apartment," he explained quickly. "You feel up to orbing, Chris?"
Chris looked at him in gentle surprise. "You sure?" He looked dubious. "I know you get used to it in the future, but-"
"I do?" Victor said, at the same time as Piper amusedly said, "He does?"
Chris looked a little startled that he'd said too much, and he paled. "Um. Anyway- Leo, man, would you mind teaching them how to use the Map? I'm totally beat, and-" He edged a look upstairs, a look of fear washing over his face.
"You don't want to go up there again," Phoebe said, understanding washing over her face. She looked at him shrewdly. "It really hit you hard, didn't it? Normally I can't feel anything from you, but I- I felt that…"
"I'd rather not talk about it," Chris said quietly, tilting his chin upwards in a rather mulish way.
"Okay," Phoebe said. "But we'll be here if you do want to."
"Nice try," he said, with a wry smile stretching his face. "Mr. Bennett?" He said, and if it was a little hesitant or stilted, no one picked up on it. "You ready to go?"
"In a sec," Victor said. "You want to wait in the kitchen for me?"
Chris nodded. "Sure. Um, thanks, Leo, for, you know, healing me-"
"No problem," Leo said, as Chris walked swiftly to the kitchen, hands deep in his pockets.
Victor watched him go uneasily, and turned to Piper seriously. "He's been through a lot, that kid. He really does want to save Wyatt."
"And would you trust him with your life?" Piper questioned briefly.
"Yes."
Piper was caught off-guard by his confident, quick answer. "Wyatt's life?"
"I would trust him with the future of human life," Victor said loyally. "After all- that's why he's here."
"Well, then, I suppose he does deserve a second chance," Piper said. "But if he puts Wyatt in danger deliberately one more time-"
"I'll talk to him," Victor promised. "I love you, sweetheart," he said, leaning down and pressing a kiss into her hair. Smiling at her, he walked across the room, did the same to Phoebe, and grinned at Paige before leaving the room. He walked into the kitchen, where Chris was looking at him curiously.
"You heard," Victor said. It wasn't a question.
Chris nodded. "I- Thank you."
"No problem," Victor said, his voice light. "I meant what I said. You do have to tell them who you are."
Chris shifted, uneasily.
"But not today," Victor conceded. "They- and you- have been through enough. Just one thing-"
"What?" Chris asked.
"Does Wyatt really kill—your mother?" Victor asked, phrasing it carefully in case anyone could overhear.
Chris' face instantly tightened. "I didn't-" His voice faltered, and he looked through the window, miserable. Finally, he whispered, "Yes. Yes he did."
"Can you tell me when?"
For a second, Chris looked as if he was about to, then he shook his head violently before turning away. It took Victor a second to realise that Chris wasn't crying, even though his shoulders shook.
"Hey. We're going to stop this, Chris," Victor said. Chris turned around, and put his hands out. Victor took them, and they orbed away.
There was no movement for a long moment, and then a face appeared at the back window. An obscured face except for the eyes. Dark eyes. Dark black eyes. He sprinkled the last of the cherry blossoms on the ground, his gaze lingering on the empty kitchen. Oh, Christopher, this pain is only the beginning… The figure smiled, the cloth over his face shifting at the expression.
Rubbing his hands together at his handiwork, the figure grinned wider, and disappeared in a twinkling of very familiar blue lights…
Orb lights.
