Neurotic
Disclaimer: Charmed does not belong to me.
Summary: His name is not Chris Perry. It's Christopher. Christopher Halliwell.
Chapter the Fifty-First
"Labour of Love"
"Dying?" Cole stared at the young man in front of him, his brow furrowed, confusion washing over him. "How can you-"
"I'm sure," Chris said, a little unevenly, but if he was dying (dying!) then it was the least of what Cole could expect. "What are you doing in here, anyway?"
"Apart from being confused, it was a little weird with Phoebe in the room," Cole said, then narrowed his eyes at Chris. "And don't deflect the topic. Explain how you're dying, so we can save you."
Chris inhaled, and then exhaled. "I used too much power. I've access to a power that shouldn't be used by one person. But I couldn't ask anyone else to help, because no one else can use it. It was too much, and it channelled itself through my body, and my body can't take that much stress."
"And this power-"
Cole looked worried
"It's not an evil power," Chris said. He pulled a wry face, and then winced as another pain shot through him. "Not a good power either. It's just power."
Cole wasn't fully convinced, but knew that Chris probably wasn't going to tell him where the power came from. "How do we stop it from killing you?"
Chris looked at him blankly. "I don't know," he said.
"Bullshit."
"All right," Chris said, his voice taking on the hint of a challenge, "you can't stop it."
Cole was about to respond with another flowery retort, but Chris' face told him the young man was being serious. Actually deadly serious.
"I'm sorry," Cole said, eventually, unsure of what else to say or do. "But if you're dying-"
"We're in a stressful period, with a deadline," Chris said. "The last thing we need to do is lower morale. So we're going to keep it a secret."
"We're going to have to tell them you're at least sick."
"Bu-"
"No buts," Cole said sternly.
"Okay," Chris said, his breath hitching as he relented, and then cocked an eyebrow at Cole. "What did you mean before, anyway?"
Cole screwed up his face. "What do you mean?"
"When you said you boys and your secrets," Chris said, his eyes searching into Cole's. "What has Paul told you?"
"I-"
"I already know he has a secret. Something only he and my mom knew. But she's gone, and from the look of things, you know too." Chris' eyes were flat. "What. Is. It."
Cole opened his mouth, closed it, and then started to speak. "He's not-"
Chris shook his head quickly, and Cole stopped talking. Cole twisted his head in time to see Victor mouthing something at them. Chris jerked his hand and the silence barrier fell.
"What's going on in here?" Victor's eyes were switching between Cole and Chris, favouring the latter more, worry creasing his forehead.
"Nothing," Chris said automatically.
"Nothing?"
"Chris isn't feeling well," Cole said, "but his messiah complex compelled him to hide it. Putting up that barrier's has had a physical effect on him."
"My god, are you all right?" Victor stepped closer, but Chris slowly got to his feet, his face muscles tightening as he hid the pain.
"Um, could do with a lie down," Chris admitted, his voice lacking conviction.
"Come on," Victor said, taking Chris' arm. "We'll get you into the sitting room."
Cole hurried to Chris' other side, supporting as much of Chris' weight as he could, which wasn't that much, and they slowly started to help him walk.
Piper breathed a sigh of relief as two figures orbed into the sitting room. Paul grinned at her, and Leo moved over to her and kissed her lightly on the lips before sitting on the arm of the sofa next to her.
"Is Jenny all right?" Dan asked, his voice quite melodic with worry.
"Yeah," Paul said. He looked around, waved his hand, and created a silence barrier. "We put her in the cave with all the fairies. The Elders were all killed in my time – older Wyatt has no idea about it."
Paul waved his hand again and the barrier dispelled.
"Good thinking," Piper said.
"They're going to look after her for the next few days until little Chris is born," Leo said. "Or at least until we've found and killed Gideon, which I hope will be sooner."
"Any news of him?" Phoebe said from the corner, which lead Paul and Leo to look over at the chair and stare, open mouthed. She folded her arms. "You hadn't noticed I was back?" She looked at them incredulously. "Not even that your own son was back?"
Leo stared at Phoebe, and then slowly dragged his eyes across to the playpen, where a much cleaner baby Wyatt was sat, gurgling at him. He immediately crossed the room to his son, and picked him up, making gurgling noises back at him.
Paul ran and hugged Phoebe, and she relaxed into the hug. "Welcome back," Paul said, his voice rough with emotion.
"Thank you," Phoebe said, grinning and ruffling his hair.
"Where's Chris?" Paul asked, twisting his head about as he pulled away from Phoebe. "We need to scry for Gideon, and-"
Piper watched, worried, as Paul broke off in mid-sentence, and then realised why he'd stopped talking.
Her stomach froze too, and her chest tightened.
Chris was standing in the doorway, his face gaunt and thinner than she remembered, his hair hanging lank and lifeless over his pale forehead, his eyes flat and dry. He was leaning as if his life depended on it against Victor and Cole, and he looked unsteady.
In silence, Victor and Cole helped Chris to the nearest armchair, next to where Paige was sitting, and they lowered him gingerly to the chair.
"Chris," Piper said, meaning to ask a thousand different questions, and ending up elucidating them all in that quiet way she breathed his name.
He looked at her, and for a moment it felt like her heart was breaking, his look was pure terror, until he masked it as quickly as that look had appeared.
"I'm just weaker than I thought I should be," Chris said, his voice weak. "I'll be fine. I just need to rest some."
"You look like you schmucked head first into something big and powerful," Paul said. "And lost."
"Nothing like that," Chris said. "Cole found me like this in the kitchen."
"You walked into the cooker?" Paul said, putting his hands on his hips.
"No," Chris said, quite seriously, only to look up at Paul, offended, when Paul started to laugh. "You're a moron," Chris added darkly.
"Thank you," Paul said, dropping a mock-curtsey.
"What did you mean, though?" Paige asked, confusion splayed on her face.
"Why did Cole have to find you," Phoebe said, explaining Paige's question.
"I kinda fainted a little," Chris said, chewing on his bottom lip and looking away.
"Fainted," Paul said, his voice sounding a little strangled, and he ducked his head. When he raised it, ten seconds later, his cheeks were still a bit too red. "Like a little girl."
"I didn't faint," Chris snapped irritably. "I just passed out a little bit."
"Passed out?" Piper said, her voice rising, and then gasped a little.
"Um, yes?" Chris looked at her suddenly, nervously. "Uh, are you okay?" He looked at her flatly. Piper stared back. "You gasped."
"Nothing, just a bit of heartburn," Piper said. "But passed out? That's so much more a reassuring way to put that you fainted," Piper said.
"Definitely where we get our sarcasm from," Chris said, waving his hand at Piper. Paul just smiled instead of saying anything. "I'll be fine," he added, his voice a little bit more firm.
"It's a good thing we've got a few more days," Paige said, and she narrowed her eyes at Chris. "And you're resting, you hear me? You'll be no good to us if you manly faint again."
"Yes, Aunt Paige," Chris said, forcing his voice into a higher pitch, the breathy tone of his voice indicating he'd said the phrase a lot in the past. "But you're right. We've only got a few more days. We need a battle plan."
"Yes, we do," Leo said, his voice grim. "We should-"
No one found out what he was going to suggest as the entire room was suddenly plunged into pitch-darkness.
Chris' stomach plummeted as the room plunged into complete blackness. A stench of rotting eggs reached his nostril, and he reached out blindly with his hands.
"What's going on?" Paige said, her voice carrying out quite loudly.
"I don't know." That was Leo's voice, unmistakable despite the unusual hostile edge. "Chris? Cole? Paul?"
"Sulphur," Cole said. "A cloud demon?"
"Whirlfog," Paul said, before Chris could say it.
"A what?" Phoebe demanded. "Oh, ow!"
"Phoebe!"
"Kicked myself getting baby Wyatt," Phoebe said quickly. "I'm okay."
"What's a Whirlfog?" Piper demanded, her voice higher, her breath quickening.
"Fog formed from the creation of a Whirlmire in a place that hasn't had any magic happen there in a long time," Chris said, finding it hard to breathe himself. "It sort of tracks the strongest source of magic around." He smirked despite himself. "Wyatt should be pretty annoyed that it didn't go straight to him."
"Is it dangerous?" Paige asked.
"What does it do?" Dan said.
"And who just grabbed my butt?" Victor said, a little plaintively.
"No, it's not dangerous," Paul said. "Just blinding. It's usually why Whirlmires are created in the first place, to send in Whirlfog to blind the enemy."
"Sorry, was an accident," Cole said, a little inexplicably until Chris remembered his grandfather's words, and he choked back a laugh.
"So a demon's getting ready to attack," Piper said, her voice low and harsh.
"Possibly," Paul said. "We need to get rid of it."
"Especially before the neighbours see," Phoebe said.
"The spell's a long one," Paul said. "Chris, can you-"
Chris was already trying hard to recall the spell, but in his weakened, pained state he could barely think straight, especially with all the darkness surrounded them. The thing about Whirlfog was that it wasn't just darkness, it was more the sheer absence of light, in a heavily physical form. The darkness pressed down on your lungs, on your eyes, and made you dizzy even if you were in the best of health.
Chris was far from being the best of health.
So when something very large and loud crashed against a wall in the house, Chris knew they didn't have time for the spell, however short it was in reality, and tapped into the powers that were killing him.
Almost instantly the Whirlfog dissipated, and the light of the real world was blinding. Chris shut his eyes against the light and the pain that was like liquid fire curling down his spine, and he blinked furiously, his hands outstretched in case of a large attack, he had no idea what was out there, and his vision vaguely refocused – albeit more blurred than before – just in time to see Paige orbing an energy ball back to the very large demon stood in the doorway to their sitting room.
His head pounded, and when he tried to move his head, the room span. When it finally settled, he felt like he was sitting on a slope, like the entire house was tilted.
"Zargler demon," Paul said, "typical Whirlfog demon. For once, I think that was just an ordinary demon encounter."
"Ordinary?" Dan spluttered a little.
"Ordinary," Paul said, smiling at him, unruffled.
"Oh," Paige said. "Ordinary." She looked across at Chris, and her expression softened. She looked suddenly, desperately upset. "Are you all right?"
All eyes were on Chris as they realised she was asking him.
He wasn't.
Using that power was killing him. And at this rate, he only had hours.
"Fine," Chris said tightly. "Migraine is all."
"I'll get you some Tylenol," Leo said, worried, running off to the kitchen so fast that Chris almost laughed, but the air he inhaled to do so burned his lungs. He could feel his heartbeat, straining against his ribs, and thought maybe this is the end.
"But we've still got time, right?" Paige said, looking around the room. "We've got a couple of days at least to find Gideon and make this all right."
Chris was about to agree with her. There was no way he could mention now that more than likely because of that last rush of power he probably wouldn't survive for a couple more hours.
Nothing like your own death to ruin a family gathering.
"No," Piper said, suddenly, and Chris' eyes flew to hers with worry, worry that their bond really was too great, and she could see it in his eyes that he was dying and not telling them. "We don't have time," she said, inextricably, and Chris' fear strengthened. She knew. She knew and Chris didn't know how she knew, but she obviously did, because with her eyes trained on Chris she said, so slowly, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," he said, his voice low, past quiet, almost just mouthing the words, but she said.
"I've let you down so badly," Piper said, her voice creaking, her eyes glassy but alert, her hands pressed against her stomach, and her eyes downcast on the carpet, fixed on a large stain on the floor.
A large water stain.
Realisation clung in Chris' throat, and his head flew up. His gaze met Piper's.
"We've only got a few hours," Piper said, her voice truly miserable.
"Why?" Paige said, still clueless.
Phoebe breathed in sharply. "Piper," she said, gasping her sister's name. "Leo? LEO!"
Leo ran back into the room, his face slightly flushed, holding a bottle of Tylenol in his hand. He stopped at the sight of Piper, her face red and twisted in disappointment. "What's happened?"
Piper looked at him, so despondently that he stepped forward unconsciously in shock and dropped the bottle of Tylenol to the floor without noticing.
"We don't have much time before Wyatt's turned," Piper said.
"Why?" Leo said, his eyes searching her face quickly, as if her dejected and hopeless expression held all the answers.
"Because," Piper said, her voice a whisper that caught and held and resounded on the taut atmosphere, "my waters just broke."
T - 2
