Disclaimer: Is this really necessary after, like, twenty chapters? I'm sure my wonderful readers have enough common sense to conclude that if I didn't own Charmed the first chapter and the last chapter, that I STILL don't own it now. I mean, really.

A/N: I know the scene I narrated was a little different than in the show but I don't really see that it matters. Just so ya know and won't feel the need to 'inform' my of my 'mistake'.

"Chris!" Prue called, the first one to snap out of the shocked trance-like state they'd all found themselves in. She instantly started after him, Piper hot on her heels. The rest of the FU team (being Duncan and Andre), however, took several more moments to blink and try to figure out what had just happened.

"Chris!" Prue cried out again, minutes later, unable to see anything in the darkness of the nighttime corridors. Piper came to a panting halt beside her. Both were out of breath after chasing the silent, quick teenager for what felt like hours. He wasn't too far ahead of them, they knew, but he wasn't stopping or responding, either. And he wouldn't orb or flame for risk of alerting other (evil) magical beings to the location of the safe house.

Piper stood up straighter, breath caught at last. Her dark eyes scanned the pitch black halls again, but knew they wouldn't find anything new. He was just too fast. Too quiet. Taking the sister's stop into account, he was probably across the building from them now. "Prue… this is no use. Does he always run when someone wants to really talk to him?"

"Pretty mu--AHH!" the older sister ended in a surprised scream as a hand came out of nowhere and clasped firmly over her mouth, effectively muffling the scream.

The two spun around only to find the boy in question removing his hand from his aunt's mouth, mask of indifference in place. "I do not always run from a talk, Prudence," he said tonelessly, seeming to look at some point in the distance. They couldn't tell because of the sunglasses and darkness.

Prue shot him a look that spoke of sudden death while Piper just stared. There had been absolutely no trace of him seconds before. He had been in front of them, so how was he suddenly behind them without them seeing him, or him orbing/flaming? Hm, she mused at length, I guess he's just good. It was actually kind of scary.

"You do, too, Christopher," Prue shot back, albeit gently. Her eyes swept over him briefly. "Are you okay? Just tired?"

"Mmm," was all the reply she got. His attention was still elsewhere.

Prue wasn't too put off, however. She'd known him for way too long than to have expected a coherent answer concerning feelings. Maybe when he was younger… but not anymore. Not since he'd killed Piper and been cast down from grace. "So… you want to go find that spare room we were talking about earlier and practice?" she asked, deciding to give him a minute or two before laying into him about what was going on in his head, making out with his ex-assassin.

His head barely moved as he nodded absently. Prue shot Piper a look over her shoulder, seeming to invite her to come along. Piper instantly understood and nodded, much more vigorously than her son had.

"Come on," Prue said, taking Chris by the hand and pulling him along. He didn't object, but allowed himself to be led down the staircase and through more hallways until they reached an empty classroom. Piper shut the door behind them and flipped on the lights. As most college classrooms were, this room was large and had more than enough room to practice in.

Chris and Prue moved to the center of the room, Prue telekinetically sending the desks moving gracefully into a corner, while Piper sat down a little way away. She still felt like she was intruding. Or maybe it was just her curtain of guilt that kept finding its way between them. Either way, she didn't want to push her presence on the teenager. Her conscience just wouldn't allow it.

"Okay, Chris," began Prue, eyes suddenly twinkling mischievously. She started circling her charge, inciting a suppressed grin from him automatically and Prue knew it. "Let's forget your intangibility for a while. There's not really anything I can tell you about that except don't act so surprised. Let's see how good your retro-cognitive astral projection is. Show me something from… three weeks ago."

"Three weeks?" repeated Chris, and the two women could feel how he was changing the atmosphere subtly from an awkward one into a comfortable one with his halfway suppressed easy smile. "Random, much?"

Prue shot him a look, suppressing her grin much better. She crossed her arms in a no-nonsense manner, though her eyes were still twinkling. "I know you can do two weeks because that when Cheese happened. Just one more week."

"So you do spy on me." But he already had taken on a thoughtful presence, trying to think of something from three weeks ago. "Hmm… Ah. Here we go."

He flicked his fingers much like Piper did to blow thing up, but instead of everyone having to duck, the small 3-D movie-like thing appeared.

Chris was in a forest of some sort with his FU team. They were picking their way through the hanging vines and branches when suddenly a Valkyrie jumped down from a tree, holding a knife to Joden's throat threateningly.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" she demanded, not removing the blade from the young man's throat.

The Chris from the memory looked intrigued by the woman. He smiled and said smoothly, "We need your help concerning the Final Battle."

"Okay, that's good," Prue said, cutting the moment short. Chris flicked his fingers again and the images disappeared. "Now try from a year ago."

"A year ago…" came Chris' almost hesitant remark. "…Nothing good happened a year ago."

The good feeling they'd all started to become aware of was abruptly gone. Piper and Prue could hear the reluctance in his voice, and the two shortly realized where it must be coming from. About a year ago, he'd been in Wyatt's captivity. About a year ago, Wyatt had been pressuring him to 'join the dark side' basically. About a year ago, he'd been tortured almost constantly because he wouldn't succumb to that pressure. Nothing good had happened a year ago.

But… Piper could hear something else in his voice besides hesitancy and she felt her heart sink, unable to believe he would be thinking such a thing. And she somehow felt it was her fault, too. Closing her eyes, the woman took a deep breath, forcing the calm back. After a moment, she reopened them and they were glittering with tears. She looked to Chris, who wasn't exactly making eye contact with either her or her sister.

"Chris…" She said softly, drawing his attention to her. For a second, she stopped and didn't want to continue. This was her son. And he was feeling… "Chris, there's nothing to be embarrassed about," her mouth didn't even think about quitting this speech for a second. "Both me and Prue have been tortured for not abandoning our beliefs. We've both been burned. It's nothing to be ashamed of. You didn't let him get to you. That's something to be proud of, if anything, not embarrassed. You did nothing wrong."

For a moment Prue gaped. Even though she knew this was her sister from the past, the innocent one, it still felt so weird seeing those words coming out of that mouth to this boy. It had been such a long time… And she had to admit, she hadn't even thought for a second he was embarrassed about being hurt. It happened so often… She had just overlooked his feelings concerning the all-too-familiar physical pain.

"… But it's my fault he turned in the first place… I pushed him over the edge when I… I killed our mother…" Chris whispered, not so much to her as to himself. "It's my fault Wyatt… Wyatt hurt me. I ruined his life…"

Piper opened her mouth to deny everything he'd said and comfort him again when the impact of what he'd just said hit her. Wyatt. Evil. Hurt Chris. Evil. Wyatt was evil. The Source. That hurt her baby. Source of all Evil.

Her eyes went wide and her mouth came open. Prue didn't understand why she was having this reaction when she was also hit, but by another fact. She hadn't told Piper about her firstborn being the Source. Of all the things to forget! But right now her nephew needed her more. He had been harboring that guilt all along, she now realized.

"Chris, it was not your fault!" Prue said in a voice written in stone. "He surprised all of us when he turned. You know better than anyone how strong he was, and you know that one single event would never be enough to turn his morals so completely. He had to have had some amount of darkness in him from the very start, before you were even born, to end this badly. There's no way you can hold yourself responsible for that, Chris. No way."

Her eyes shot over to Piper to see how she was faring now. Actually, the younger woman wasn't too bad off. Prue supposed after having learned everything she just had, nothing would surprise her now. First, Chris was her son, then she had abused the hell out of him, so why should she be surprised Wyatt was evil? After all, didn't things always happen in threes? She was sure there was some quote or another about that…

But for Piper, it still hurt. It hurt badly. Everything was threatening to overwhelm her again, even as she thought she was getting a handle on it.

"Piper…?" Prue said carefully, watching her sister, sensing the new shift. Then… whoops.

"What?" Chris' voice cut through her thoughts like a knife and she immediately realized her mistake. She inwardly let out a stream of swearwords.

She opened her mouth, mind blank, but didn't have time to reply before the door flew open and Leo stood in the doorway (in his glamoured state, remember). "Honey, what's wrong? You scared me to death when I felt your pain! What is it?" The man choked, breathless from running all the way down. He'd at least had the courtesy not to orb in this secret place.

Piper turned to her husband in something like a trance. She had no idea that her cover had just been practically blown wide open. Prue doubted, judging by Piper's countenance, that she even knew where she was. "Leo… Oh God, Leo…" the wife's soft response came slowly. Her feet moved her forward until she was in Leo's arms, burying her face in his shoulder and letting the tears fall anew.

Chris was backing away slowly, haunted green eyes wide open in shock behind the sunglasses. From his expression, Prue couldn't decide if the walls were closing in on him, or if the floor was collapsing beneath his feet. Maybe it was both. "Chris…" she tried softly but firmly, hoping to call his attention to her instead. But he was already losing control of his thoughts, his mind. He was already unintentionally drowning himself in the past. His mind was pulling him under. "Chris!" she shouted now, recognizing what was happening and praying that she could bring him back out again. "Chris, listen to me--"

"Is it-- is it r-really them, Prue?" he asked shakily. He wasn't as far gone as she'd thought, but if her mouth answered, he would be soon.

Her mouth answered. "It's Piper and Leo from the past, Chris, before you were born. They don't even know you yet-- Chris!" She added sharply as he shook his head, taking the denial route. She reached out, without thinking, to take his arm. Big mistake.

On pure reflex, he threw out his hand to push it away, inadvertently sending a massive wave of telekinesis at her. Prue was sent clear off her feet where she crashed into the wall, the wave of telekinesis wrapping around the room as she did. He couldn't control it anymore. At once, his magic swept into his parents, throwing them backwards, too. But something happened, and somehow the telekinesis reflected back to him, bringing with it a memory from Piper and Leo.

The usually small 3-D image now filled the entire room, making the characters life-sized.

It was in Piper's bedroom and showed the woman sitting up slightly, obviously pregnant. She was looking at the Leo that stood in the doorway with a false cheery smile. He was looking back at her with the obvious cover-up-guiltiness grin.

"Hi. I may be stuck in bed, but I'm not stuck on stupid," she said brightly. "I know that something's going on."

Leo shifted nervously but didn't drop the false smile. "Well, you wanted a doctor and she told you to relax, so… relax." The man chuckled to 'disguise' his nervousness.

"Mm, how can I relax when I know that you're hiding something from me? All the strange noises and weird behavior. Why don't you just tell me what's going on?"

"Okay, uh, well, it's really nothing to worry about. Magic has disappeared from the world and Phoebe and Paige went to a summit meeting with evil so they can fix it. See? Nothing to worry about." Again he laughed slightly, so nervous he was practically sweating.

Piper stared at him. "I see. Okay, I'm not gonna get upset about this. I am just gonna blow you to pieces." She flicked her fingers, trying to blow him up but nothing happened. Her eyes clouded over, widening minutely.

"See, I tried to tell you," said Leo, smile not quite as large as it was a second ago.

Piper's eyes widened noticeably now. She looked winded. "Oh, no."

"Listen, I-I'm sure it's nothing," Leo tried to say convincingly. "Phoebe and Paige--"

"Leo, no," Piper said, eyes rising to meet his own. She said with infinite clarity, "My water just broke."

Prue struggled back to her feet, along with Piper and Leo. With a faint sigh, she knew it was over so she muttered a spell to take away the glamour, but was surprised to find that Chris had been glamouring as well. As soon as Piper and Leo's false appearances fell away, his did too. He had a dark bruise across his face from where Future Leo had struck him during their brief earlier encounter. There was a gash in his shoulder from where that same Leo had pushed him into Piper's line of fire, another gash on his other cheek from the fight with Damien the night before, and he had even more white hair than she remembered… But he didn't seem to even notice. His body was visibly quaking… he was shaking his head… backing away… He already knew who the previously disguised ones were and he was panicking.

Prue watched her charge with mounting anguish. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't get near to him without scaring him to death or getting knocked on her butt again. But she couldn't just watch him lose himself. Already, he was retreating into himself, going into his own world where she wouldn't be able to help him. She wouldn't be able to reach him at all in twenty seconds, flat, unless she got to him now.

Without a further thought, she rushed to the boy who had found his way to a corner and forced his hand in hers. Regretting it deeply, she found his fingers with her own and squeezed them. Hard. "Chris, baby, focus. Don't go. Focus on this, baby. Focus on this pain. This pain is real, and you don't want to go away from it. Don't go. Stay here. Focus on this. This is real. Focus, Chris. Please, baby," she added softly. He was shaking, hardly breathing. His eyes, she knew, were haunted. Haunted and lost. He was so lost in his own world. He was losing his view on reality. "Chris… this pain is real. My voice is real. Focus on it, on them. Focus, sweetheart."

She didn't know how long they stayed like that, and she didn't care. Whatever it took. Piper and Leo had found their own way back to the moment and were now hovering somewhere behind her, uncertain about what to do. She didn't really want them to leave for some reason. She wanted them to see what they had done-- were going to do-- to their baby. Or, their son and her baby. She wanted to see how screwed up he was because of them.

After what felt like hours, Chris stopped shaking and started breathing again. And after some more 'felt-like-hours', she decided he was stable enough to speak. "Hey, honey. You scared me. You back, now?"

Chris didn't nod, but she felt his attention turn to the ones behind her. "Prue…" he said in a soft, quavering voice.

Prue closed her eyes. She didn't know how she could explain it to him in a way he would like. She knew it wasn't that complicated, but still…

Leo knelt down beside her and Piper followed suit. Prue silently scolded them for this act of stupidity. They had made her baby flinch back so far he seemed to want to become the wall behind him.

"Chris," Leo began in a gentle tone, holding his hands out, palms up, in front of him so Chris could see them. "I promise I'm not going to hurt you. Neither is Piper. We're not even the Leo and Piper you grew up with. We're from the year 2004. You see, Piper and Phoebe and Paige cast a spell so we could come to this time period to get something we couldn't get in the past. …We had no idea… you… what we did to… that we're your…" His voice trailed off, eyes welling up. He couldn't finish any of the sentences, but they got the point anyway, and they hoped Chris did, too. But Chris didn't visibly react.

And, for the second time that night, Piper sensed something no one else was able to sense. "Chris, I promise you we're not lying. We really are from the past and we would never dream of hurting you. And… I want… we want to… to tell you… we're going to change what… what happened to you, this time around. We won't let that happen again. We're not going to hurt you, ever. Okay?"

Prue had to compliment Leo's method and Piper's word choice. They really wanted to change what they did to him. Chris had to be able to see that, too. He had to.

But Chris didn't move, besides to try the wall again. His intangibility wasn't working, apparently. Prue felt how trapped he was feeling. She felt how afraid he still was and it all broke her heart. What was she thinking? She had to get Piper and Leo out of there! He wasn't ready to face them. Not after that afternoon. Not after what his Leo had just done to him. Of course he was reacting like this.

"Piper, Leo," she hinted pointedly, starting to get up. Piper hesitated at first, but deciding she would give her son his space, she got up too and waited for Leo without speaking.

Leo sighed quietly, feeling Prue's heated stare, Piper's uneasy gaze, and Chris' trepidation all at once. He knew he had to go, but… Without a word, he reached toward Chris, pausing for a split second as the boy flinched, tensing himself, but didn't stop again until his hand was hovering over Chris' cheek. He healed the bruise, then Damien's cut on the other cheek, then the gash on his shoulder, then the bruise he knew was on the child's stomach from where his future self had kicked him backwards.

He offered his future son a soft smile and stood, leading Piper out of the room. There was silence in their wake. Chris was too shocked and confused to even move, and Prue was too lost in thought to speak.

However, time passed and they gradually came out of their self-induced stupors. Then there was silence again, but a tense one.

At last, Chris voiced shakily, "Prue… why… why did he…" Pause. Swallow. "Why did Leo h-heal me?"

"Because that Leo is still a good person. Remember, I told you they weren't always… like… like that," Prue responded softly, 'that' meaning 'abusive'. Her breathing was regulating itself finally, and she hadn't realized she'd been holding it the entire time Leo had been healing her nephew.

There was another pause and Chris slowly got to his feet, steadying himself with the wall as he did so. All this time, he'd been around both his parents without realizing it. And they hadn't been, well, mean to him. They acted… like normal people. But, then… "Are Naomi and Gabrielle Phoebe and Paige from their time?"

Prue nodded, watching him. The teen was silent, now, face turned towards the floor, lost in contemplation. He wasn't drowning himself in emotions like before, but merely feeling. And thinking. She had known that when this moment came, he wouldn't understand fully. She'd known he'd be confused. She had told him about how his parents used to be, but she had never been able to talk for long because she could see that it hurt him. She could see that, when she told him how good his parents were, he felt like them hurting him was his fault. After all, if good people hurt you, they had to be doing the right thing, right?

She knew that wasn't the case, though. She knew her sister and brother-in-law were under a spell or something. Anything. It wasn't them. It hadn't been them at all. "So, what do you think of them?" She asked quietly. She couldn't help but feel curious, but at the same time, she moved closer to him letting him know she was there to comfort him if he needed it.

He took a step back, not meeting her gaze, but staring at a spot on the floor. He shifted uncomfortably, and when he could stand Prue's gentle, querying gaze no longer, he whispered, "Are they… will they… will they hurt me?"

Prue felt her heart clench, but her face stayed strong and even. "What do you think? You met them; you heard them."

The teenager's eyes flitted up to meet hers abruptly and flicked right back down. There seemed to be an internal struggle going on within him. One he didn't want to press upon his greylighter. One that he didn't even want to have, himself. After several more silent moments, he wrapped his arms around his chest. Prue instantly recognized it as a movement of insecurity and resisted the urge to hug him against his will. He had to come to terms with this on his own. "I think…" he hesitated, then stopped totally, collecting his thoughts before starting again. "I don't want them to," he murmured. "But… they've lied to me before, right? And… and I just seem to be able to make people mad just by doing little things, so even if they weren't lying… I might change their mind accidentally. Stuff happens…" He ended with a hollow little shrug.

Prue closed her eyes. She couldn't stand the hopelessness in his voice. The insecurity. She couldn't bare to hear how intimidated he was. Making the decision in less than the time it took to think it up, Prue waved her hand and consumed Chris in orb lights. She sent him to Piper and Leo's room and sealed their door instantly with a spell that even Chris wouldn't be able to break.

She didn't care if he panicked again. Piper and Leo would handle it. She just couldn't let him keep on thinking his parents were cruel, heartless people their entire lives. She couldn't stand the thought of him not ever knowing them. And maybe Piper and Leo could convince him that they loved him like two parents should.

Maybe.

A/N: Feedback, people! Reviews really make this story worth it all.