Neurotic
Summary: "My name's not Chris Perry" Chris said, as if it was the hardest thing he'd ever had to say. "It's Christopher." He paused, almost reluctantly. "Christopher Halliwell."
Disclaimer: Charmed and Chris don't belong to me, doo dah, doo dah, I'm not making any money from this, oh, dah doo dah day.
Chapter The Twelfth
"W-wait a second," Piper said, her own voice sounding suddenly alien to her. "That's-"
"You're right," this other-Piper said, amusement colouring her wearied and more line ridden face. "I'm a future you." She turned to Leo, gratefully. "Thank you, Leo." Her voice held a tone of distance, which visibly shocked Leo, who looked saddened at the lack of warmth in her voice.
Other-Piper got to her feet, dusting her trousers off as she did so. "Although how future is a little bit beyond me." She looked around, peering at each of the sisters in turn. "Phoebe's in her short hair period…" Other-Piper wrinkled her nose as Phoebe edged an uncertain look at Piper. As she did so, she saw Chris, and his reaction puzzled her. He was shaking, literally shaking.
Other-Piper squinted a bit at Paige, and then at her obviously past self. "Hmm, baby two?" Other-Piper eventually asked, looking a little dubious as to whether she should actually ask that.
Piper nodded dully in surprise at seeing herself- her future self. Apart from a few lines on her face and, obviously, sans the bump, the only thing that really distinguished them was Other-Piper's hair cut – a severe bob that ended above her neck. It looked weird, but Piper was relieved to know one day that cut would suit her.
"But you-" Other-Piper was staring vaguely at Chris, her brow furrowed. "I don't remember you…"
"Ahah! I knew we wouldn't really know you in the future!" Paige crowed, smirking at Chris a little, expecting him to at least sneer a little bit back at her. He didn't; preferring instead to look at Other-Piper as if he couldn't quite believe she was there.
"I knew you weren't dead," Chris whispered, and it was then that they realised his eyes were shining more brightly than they had since they'd known him. He was staring at Other-Piper as if she was the only thing that mattered a damn to him in the world. "I knew it."
Other-Piper studied him with a confused look for a second, before recognition flooded her older features. Her mouth snapped open, and she stepped forwards, pushing past Leo.
"Chris?"
Piper watched in complete surprise as Other-Piper nearly launched herself at Chris, gathering him at elbow's length, staring up at him in disbelief and with a look of joyous pain on her face. "Chris-" Other-Piper said again.
Chris looked absolutely torn as he lifted up one hand, touched Other-Piper's cheek with two fingers. "Sshh. They don't know who I am." He edged a look at the girls, who were looking back at him like he'd just told them up really was down. "I just-" His voice cracked. "I missed you so much…"
"Oh, baby…" Other-Piper breathed. "You- I've been gone so long?" Her eyes searched his face, and found truth. Her face fell further into despair. "What about-" And she spoke the name with fear. "…Wyatt?"
Chris stepped back, as if being in Other-Piper's semi-embrace was too painful. "That's why I'm here. To stop whatever turns him."
Suddenly his persona had changed from being overwhelmed by emotion to brisk and emotionless. "Okay, there has to be a reason you're here. What's the last thing you remember?"
Other-Piper blinked, startled at the sudden edge in Chris' tone. "You, crying my name, and Wyatt-" She shuddered once, violently.
"Right." Chris' eyes darkened. "Wyatt must have held you in some form of stasis. Why, I'm not sure right now. Unless he's been tapping your power as you've been in stasis, but why would you be released now?" He was obviously thinking out loud. "Perhaps it's Paul's appearance in the past. With the strongest concentration of Halliwell blood being in this present time, perhaps that's why you arrived here. Unless he sent you here deliberately- but I have no idea why that would be beneficial to him…"
"Maybe it was unintentional," Other-Piper suggested, a haunted look in her older eyes.
"Look, Piper- future Piper- ugh, this is why time travel is evil and should not be allowed," Phoebe said with a grimace. "Uh, what should we call you? Can't go around calling you Piper, 'cause that's just weird and, you know, confusing."
Other-Piper still looked a little shell-shocked as she tried to take everything in. She was obviously having trouble coping with the fact that Chris had thought she was dead. Actually, most of them observed, she was having trouble with coping that Chris was so obviously different to her.
"Pippa," Chris suggested suddenly, an inexplicable grin tugging momentarily on his face. "We should call you Pippa." Now there was an unmistakable note of teasing in his voice, despite the obvious pain and look of anguished longing on his face.
Other-Piper rolled her eyes a little, her gaze remaining trained on Chris as a smirk nevertheless crossed her face. She opened her mouth to protest, and then set it firmly in a line that almost immediately convinced the others of her authenticity. That was a genuine Piper expression, if nothing else. "All right," she ground out. "Pippa it is."
Chris held back a laugh, and then did start to laugh, holding his stomach as he started to laugh hysterically. 'Pippa' starred at him in shock for a second, before her mouth twitched and she started to laugh too. Soon, Victor, Leo, Piper, Paige and Phoebe were just left to stare confusedly as the two howled in laughter.
"You-" Chris managed to gasp out between laughs, "you're alive, hahahahaha, and you're really, haha, here!" He collapsed in more helpless laughter.
Pippa snorted back at him, giggling. "What," amongst helpless giggles, "happened to your arm?"
"Oh, this?" Chris tried to stop laughing, and started again. He started to pull off his bandage. "Oh, hahahah, Paul pushed me, haha. Leo he- hehehe- healed me."
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Victor demanded, looking edgily between them, his face reminding the others of a startled horse about to bolt. The fact that there were two Pipers was clearly pushing him close to the edge of the brink.
"Shock," Paige said quietly, her gaze hovering between the two people from the future, currently howling with laughter, Chris so bad that he was now on the floor, laughing into his knees. "Future Piper – Pippa – she'll have just thought Wyatt had almost killed her. Her firstborn child. And Chris- Chris obviously thought she was dead, too."
"And we're obviously a lot closer in the future," Piper mused, her eyes still flickering over her future self with a hint of panic on her face.
"Come on, now." Victor bent to his knees, putting his hand on Chris' arm. Chris laughed a bit more, hiccoughed, and looked up at his granddad, his face pallid with shock. As if Victor had snapped Chris back to reality, his face flung towards Pippa, and he started struggling to his feet.
He pushed past Victor and Leo quickly, pelting to the door, but Leo quickly moved and put his hand on the door so he couldn't get out.
Chris stared at him, like a rabbit trapped in headlights. He looked around to see Pippa, who had also stopped laughing.
"Chris-" Leo said.
"No…" It came out as a hoarse whisper, and he shook his head violently, his hair falling like a curtain onto his face. "I can't. Please, don't make me, I can't."
"Chris-" Pippa started, her face twisted with an expression that was hard to place. She was in pain, and shock, and completely feeling displaced, and incapable of comprehending the huge consequences of what had happened.
"Please…" Chris whispered, and Leo, understanding washing onto his face if nothing else, stepped back.
"Chris, don't leave! We have to figure this out-" Pippa started.
Chris held up one hand bitterly. "Don't. You could have gotten out of there, but you didn't. You could have listened to me, but it was easier to think I was crazy than your precious firstborn child was evil!" His voice rose with his temper. "How were we supposed to cope without you, huh? How? You left us alone. You left us." His hand stilled on the handle. "You left me."
The words rang into the stunned silence. He shook his head, in complete and still mounting disbelief, before turning on his heel and leaving the house. Even though he was several steps away, the door slammed, hard.
"Elvis has left the building," Paige commented. The others just rolled their eyes at her, and shook their heads, uncertain of what to say.
"Chris! Hey! Wait up!"
Paige narrowed her eyes as Chris continued stomping away. He was nothing if not determined…
Casting about quickly to make sure no one was watching, Paige quickly orbed and landed on the pavement in front of Chris.
Chris sighed, and managed to stop just in time before he ploughed straight into her.
"You are going to turn around and get your half-whitelighter ass back into that manor, or so help me, I'll-" Paige started.
"You'll what?" Chris challenged.
Paige was struck by the sheer amount of pain radiating from those sea-green eyes, and she was so stunned that for a moment she let him walk away from her.
"Dammit!" Running, she caught up and started stomping along at the same pace as him. Chris, although clearly knowing she was there, resolutely stared forwards obdurately as they power-walked along faceless streets.
"All right, so there's not much I can do," Paige said. "I can pummel out of Victor who you are, and then go tell your mom to ground you for forever for being so melodramatic!"
"My mom. Huh." Chris' voice was laced with some sort of sarcasm that Paige could not decipher.
"Chris, Future Piper – Pippa – oh, god, I'm confused. Why is she called Pippa now?" Paige asked.
"Oh, that…" He continued walking, but a grin flashed across his face for a second. "When Wyatt went to school, and learned the alphabet, he- well – didn't quite learn it properly. When he was nine he got a glimpse of his birth certificate, and, um, couldn't quite read Piper right. He was right stroppy for ages, thinking he had a different mom- man, you should have seen his face when Piper told him that's how her name was spelt, and he wasn't the offspring of the fifth Halliwell sister…"
"You know, when you said that time about knowing Piper a long time, and that she would never rise to bait that quickly, you really meant it, didn't you? You really have known us a long time," Paige said, her eyes widening.
Chris stopped, and looked down at her. "I- I guess so."
"You guess so? You either do or you don't!" Paige demanded, hands on her hips.
"I can't tell you," Chris said, suddenly miserable. "I shouldn't have said what I did…"
He looked so saddened, that Paige felt a wave of sympathy for him, and she touched his shoulder gently. She was surprised when he stepped closer, and she pulled him into a hug, the gesture feeling right. She patted his back, and was surprised when it didn't feel awkward.
He pulled back after a minute, his cheeks red, and he looked embarrassed. "Let's not mention that, eh?" Paige suggested briefly, a smile on her face nonetheless. She was pleased that she'd been able to offer the tortured young half-Whitelighter a little. For a moment, she had recognised herself in him, that feeling of sheer displacement when your whole world disappears from beneath you… "You going to come on home?"
She saw the way the colour of his eyes changed when she mentioned the word home, and decided to file it away for future reference. He nodded hesitantly, and, sticking his hands in his pockets, they started to walk back to the manor, together.
Paul smirked as he rounded the corner. "Yes, he did always have an affinity with Aunt Paige," he said, slowly. The image of Wyatt before him nodded.
"Yes, better than either of us," Wyatt said slowly. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I think so, Wy," Paul said, in a passable Pinky impression, "but I don't think pink's your colour."
Wyatt ignored his brother's flippancy. "No, you idiot," he said, in perfect evil overlord swagger, "Paige. Let's get her out of the way." His eyes darkened, and Paul resisted the urge to swallow. "For good."
