Disclaimer: I don't own anything, now leave me alone to die.
"Sounds like a good plan to me," responded Piper, and before Chris could protest, Leo and Piper took hands and invisi-orbed out; Paige took Phoebe's arm without waiting for approval and did likewise.
Chris swore loudly, causing the students in the back of the room to look up, startled and confused. The witch-whitelighter grimaced. Well, he thought unenthusiastically, Might as well follow them and at least annoy the hell out of them. That might distract them enough from finding out why Phoebe's going to call me 'sweetie' after every sentence… He wasn't bothered by the possibility of his young self calling her 'Aunt', though. His family was so informal he'd probably just call her 'Pheebs'. Wyatt might call her Aunt Pheebs just to annoy her, though…
He orbed out to find everyone already in the future Phoebe's spacious office. There were pictures lining the walls, along with unopened boxes on the floor and newspaper clippings scattered on her already messy desk. There was a miniature basket ball hoop in one corner right above the trash can, too. His thirteen year old self was sitting in an upholstered rolling chair across from the future version of Phoebe, legs drawn up to his chest, chin resting on his knees. The future Phoebe was something surprising.
Her hair was cropped raggedly, but fashionably, around her ears and had streaks of bubble gum pink in it that 22 Chris still found extremely annoying. The ones from the past were digging it, though. He rolled his eyes. Okay, so that's one thing that's not going to change. Darn.
She was still well shaped, though-- even bigger surprise-- now she was wearing a modest looking t-shirt and loose jeans.
The ones from the past didn't even look up as Chris orbed in beside them, but listened to the conversation attentively. They were still determined to find out his secret. Too bad this has nothing to do with Mom and Dad, Chris thought bitterly. Or, not directly, at least.
"Mrs. Barnes told me the topic today was major depression and suicide," Future Phoebe said softly, watching the boy with gentle concern welled in her eyes. "Thinking about Jessie, again?"
"Naw, just contemplating suicide myself," he bit sarcastically. "What do you think?"
Both Phoebes flinched at his harsh words.
"Who's Jessie?" whispered Paige.
Chris didn't reply.
Future Phoebe, however, had a very scientific reply (though not to her younger-er sister's question, obviously), having gone to college for more years than the past Phoebe, and said in only two breaths,
"Chris, you know sarcasm is just a defense mechanism people use because they can't handle letting themselves delve any deeper into the painful void of hurtful emotions they most likely suppressed and don't want to ever have to see again. But it's bad because the longer you suppress something the harder it is to face when the day comes that you have to, and it always hurts more because for the first time your eyes are really opened and without sarcasm as your shield anymore, and you haven't ever bothered to find another way to deal with hurt, there's nothing to protect you from the pain and you're going to get the full blast of emotions and you wouldn't have to if you just learned to talk about it, now."
13 Chris stared at her, mouth slightly opened. "Okay… could you repeat that?"
"Sweetie, I simplified it to the point that a kindergartener could understand," The counselor said gently, not meaning any offense.
The boy continued to stare at her, saying dazedly, "Well excuse me that English is my second language."
The ones from the past stared at the adult Chris. "I thought you were from San Francisco," Piper pointed out, perplexed.
"I am," he responded simply. "But that doesn't mean that I was with my parents during the years I learned to talk."
Future Phoebe looked astounded. "That's the first thing you've ever said to me about growing up Up There." She paused. "Then again, I thought they spoke English Up There, too."
"Oh, yeah," said 13 Chris sarcastically. "Because we all know how only American and British folk die and become Elders. I mean, really. Everyone else is immortal."
Future Phoebe sighed. Apparently sarcasm was just in his nature.
The ones from the past were looking at Chris with pronounced confusion and skepticism.
"Why would you grow up in Elder Land?" demanded Leo incredulously. "No one's allowed up there unless they died."
"I can't tell you that," responded Chris curtly. Yeah, like he was going to tell that jerk why his life started out completely wrong even from the very beginning.
Future Phoebe, dropping the 'Up There' thing, set herself back on course.
"Chris," the future Charmed One tried again. "I know it's hard, but you can't just tell teacher they don't know what their talking about-- they went to college for years to study their subjects--"
"But still, somehow, they remain oblivious to the effects their words might have on someone who knows their subject even better than they," the boy said as if automatically. He wasn't even in the room, or so to speak.
"And what effects might those be?" queried F. Phoebe, as though forcing herself not to cry. Something deeper was taking place than the two were letting on, all the past ones could see that.
The boy shook his head. "It was four years ago. I'm over it."
The older Phoebe looked surprised. "You are, are you? Well, I'm not. And I wasn't even as close as you two were, sweetie. Anything you might be suppressing is bad, especially with all the magical influence-- I don't want to wake up and find you're a Fury, or something worse."
"Already been a Fury, remember?" 13 Chris reminded her with a half smile.
Future Phoebe glared playfully. "And you are the only person I know who actually had fun reeking havoc on the city and trying to kill your relatives."
"Yeah… those were the days," said the boy, smiling fondly, reminiscently.
Future Phoebe rolled her eyes in playful exasperation, but soon returned to her serious state.
"Chris, talk to me, sweetie. I can help. Not only I am just the school counselor, but I've got my empathy and--"
"And I can block that and everything else you've got," 13 Chris cut her off, not warmly.
The counselor glared. "You can't block out my annoying voice."
The boy glared back. "Sorry, what'd you say?"
Future Phoebe sighed in frustration. "Really, honey, I can help you! I know what you're going through, what you're feeling."
"No you don't," 13 Chris said with a sudden, almost frightening cold sharpness. "Don't you ever assume that you do. You don't know what happened. You don't know what she said to me. You don't know what my reaction was because you don't know me. You do not know what I'm feeling!"
Without another word he opened the door and left, leaving yet another shocked stunned silence in his wake. Before Piper, Paige, Phoebe, and Leo could collect the will to speak, though, blue orbs filled the room and Wyatt materialized. That stopped everything.
"Hey, Pheebs, what's up?" he asked, concerned.
"How did you know to orb right now?" Future Phoebe asked with a sigh. "How did you know anything was up?"
"Your distress signal just went crazy," the blonde said, brushing it aside. "So what happened?"
But instead of answering, older Phoebe asked, "Wy, how do you get Chris to talk to you? I mean, he tells you everything. How do you do it?"
For a moment it looked as if Wyatt was going to tell her politely where she should shove it, but he seemed to stop himself. He considered her seriously for a moment. To the ones from 2004, it looked as if he really wouldn't risk saying anything to jeopardize his "friend's" trust. At last he sighed.
"I don't know what to tell you. You just gotta be there and let him know that you're not going anywhere, you know? He'll come to you when he's ready. There's really no way in hell he'll tell you anything before that. Everyone has to figure that out before they try to go and pry. It just won't work."
Every person in the room smiled when he said this. Yeah, they had figured that out. It was just funny how simply and matter-of-factly he had said it.
Smile fading slightly, Future Phoebe took a breath. "Has he talked to you about Jessie lately?" she asked somewhat reluctantly.
The way Wyatt tensed didn't go unnoticed by the room's occupants. "Why do you ask about her?" He inquired with an unintentional sharpness. F. Phoebe sighed and shook her head. "He didn't throw another kid out of a window again, did he?" Wyatt pressed. "Oh, shoot. It was on the third floor wasn't it?"
Phoebe's future counterpart laughed. "Thank God he didn't," she grinned. "He would have been sent to more people than just me. No, just an outburst in class about suicide."
Wyatt grimaced.
Before they could get further, however, the time remote geared up and they felt themselves being hurtled forward into the future.
"Who was Jessie?" Paige repeated. "And how did Phoebe and Wyatt know about her, too? Why was she so important to you all?"
"I can't tell you. Future consequences." Chris said, happy to say his annoying catch phrase again.
He hadn't liked the suspense that was building in that office. He had been sure that Phoebe was going to say something to Wyatt like, "Well, he's your brother" and positive Wyatt would reply,
"Well he's your nephew."
And his entire cover would have been blown wide open. If that had happened, he would have been glad at least that Piper and Leo hadn't figured out that they had abused him. He wouldn't have been able to handle the look of horror and guilt on their faces that would have been plastered there for weeks on end. He almost laughed, too, thinking about what their reactions would have been like if they found out what really happened when he was out of school with "Schizophrenic Shock". They would have placed themselves as his undying servants for the rest of Time.
"Yes, you can tell us," Piper snapped, tearing him out of his thoughts rather rudely. Well, she wouldn't be placing herself in servitude anytime soon. "I've already told you, if you want us to trust you, you will stop with the 'future consequences' crap. Who was the broad?"
Was it answer enough when Chris lost control just long enough to throw the woman to the ground with a violent slash of telekinesis? "Don't you EVER call Jess a broad, EVER AGAIN!" He shouted, unable to stop himself. Piper was furious as she scrambled back to her feet.
There was no doubt, had the time remote not chosen that precise moment to stop, there would have been more powers flying, but as it was, the time remote did chose that moment to stop.
Piper, Leo, and Phoebe went flying, but Paige took Chris' hand just in time. She gave him a soft smile as they went to go help the others up, Chris deliberately helping Phoebe to her feet rather than Piper or Leo. They avoided each other throughout this stop, needless to say.
They were somewhere in the mountains. The very high mountains. Everywhere they looked was snow, ice, and rough mountain ridges, not to mention their icy breath in front of their faces. As soon as they landed, they had heard the sound of metal on metal clashing, echoing ten times louder off the mountains in the cold air. They turned to see two figures in the near distance going at it with swords, with six other figures watching the match.
Chris was confused and murmured more to himself than anyone else, "This isn't… possible… this is at least a year after that…" What he didn't say was: This was after Piper had died. After Wyatt turned. This was the year I had abandoned magic in order to flee… from the wrath of the Elders.