Another chapter! To be honest, I'm not all that happy with this chapter, it's more of an in-between chapter. Still, I hope you enjoy it.
Warning: Brief description of vomiting
Chris lay his head down on his arms. The smell of the vomit in the toilet beneath him was disgusting but he couldn't find the strength to move.
He had no idea how long he had been asleep for before he was woken up by his stomach trying to escape through his mouth. He couldn't tell how long he had been curled around the toilet, either. He just knew that he was too tired, too aching and too hot to crawl back under his blankets.
Well, he was too hot at the moment, sometimes he was too hot and sometimes he was too cold.
His arm was throbbing and when Chris had checked under the bandage, and triggered another round of vomiting, he had seen a black, spider web crawling out around the dark wound. It was disgusting. And, Chris knew, it didn't bode well for him.
He could hear the sisters calling out to him but he was just so tired. They sounded irritated, and then more and more worried. If he could, he would have been more concerned. Right then, he was content to leave their problems to Leo.
Chris rose to his knees only to find himself immediately over the toilet again. He kept heaving long after his stomach was empty. He was coughing up blood at the end. Chris was sure he should be worried by that. He stared at the lumpy mess for a moment before spitting at it, trying to clean out the taste.
Chris groaned and his head flopped back to his arms. He could still taste the vile taste of vomit in his mouth but he was tired. Chris closed his eyes.
He could hear Leo calling for him now. Chris didn't want Leo, he didn't want to be in the past anymore. He just wanted his mother, or his sister. But neither of them were here, not really. "Leo." He croaked.
If he wanted his sister to be born, he had to make sure he didn't die before he could get his parents back together. He needed Leo for that.
Chris sobbed when he couldn't hear the familiar sound of orbing. His dad had let him down again, it seemed. And he didn't even know that it was his son that he was abandoning. Chris guessed he had failed in trying to Wyatt, and now he was going to die curled up in a dirty bathroom. But then, that would be the pathetic fate of the useless second son of a Charmed One. With a sigh, Chris slipped off to oblivion.
Leo had been, somewhat, ashamed when he realised that he had no idea where Chris liked to spend his time. He wasn't at the Bridge, he wasn't at the house and Leo wasn't even going to try looking in the depths of the underworld.
He had orbed to the house hours ago. He had spent most of the night pacing, waiting for one of the girls to wake up. He had hoped that one of them might know where Chris would go.
Leo hoped that whatever had happened to Chris, he had been able to orb out of the underworld. He just didn't know where he could be.
He had checked his room in P3 and Leo knew Chris had been there recently. He didn't know when exactly. Chris could have been there last night or even minutes before he got there.
At seven o clock, Leo gave up waiting for the sisters to wake up and shook Piper awake. She had been as angry as he had suspected she would be. And, after a twenty minute long, loud scolding, she had only gotten angrier when Leo had told her that something was wrong with Chris.
"What? What, Leo? What has Chris done now?" She snapped, irritably. The long hours of being a single, working mother were not agreeing with her at the moment.
Leo silently resolved to sneak down and stay with Wyatt more. Piper definitely needed more sleep. "The Elders told me – "
"Uh, what have the Elders said now?" Paige groaned, shuffling downstairs in her pajamas.
Phoebe followed close behind. Both of them looked like they had been woken up from a deep sleep, and they were clearly annoyed about it.
Leo waited until the girls were all sitting around the kitchen table, glaring at him. Except Phoebe, who looked somewhat sympathetic. She could probably sense the worry and unease that must be pouring off of him.
Now that she was more awake, Piper also looked concerned about him. Not that it dulled her annoyance.
"The Elders told me that Chris has been vanquishing a lot of demons, recently – with and without you. They're concerned that he's doing it alone."
"Leo, we have lives." Paige reminded him. "The kid has a serious obsession with demon hunting. Every day, he had more and more demons for us to vanquish. We want to help him, I mean, he's trying to save Wyatt but I don't think anyone can handle as many demons as he wants us to."
Leo felt his unease rising. Had Chris been hunting demons 24/7? Was he alone against demons so often because the sisters refused? He couldn't deny that Chris had an obsession but was it better to leave him to it or to join him?
"Did the Elders say anything else about Chris, Leo?" Phoebe asked.
"Or did you just wake us up for nothing?" Paige groused, without any actual annoyance.
"Um, actually Piper woke you up with…" Leo trailed off at the glare Piper was giving him. It didn't really hurt when she blew him up, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. "Apparently, a whitelighter has warned the Elders that their charge had a vision about all this demon hunting killing Chris. They think that he's already been injured, that he needs help."
"What was he doing hunting demons in the middle of the night!?" Piper exclaimed.
"I don't know." Leo shrugged, he had had that same thought many times throughout the night. "But I don't know where he is."
"Well the sooner we find him, the sooner I can get back to sleep." Paige said, grinning. She jumped to her feet. "I'll start scrying, someone else start calling him, and someone else make me some coffee."
Phoebe yawned and turned to the coffee maker. "I'll make coffee."
"Did you check P3?" Piper asked.
Leo nodded. "He wasn't in his room, or on the Bridge." He frowned.
"And he's not here." Piper summarised. She sighed. "You watch Wyatt, while I try calling him." She ordered, shuffling back up the stairs.
"You're worried about him?" Phoebe guessed, leaning against the counter top.
"Should I not be?" Leo asked.
"I'm worried about Chris." Phoebe assured him. "But I'm more worried about why the Elders told you that Chris was hurt. I'm worried that it took someone else, someone who didn't know Chris, to tell us that something was wrong with him." She smiled, sadly. "Chris seems to be very important, but not to us."
Leo said nothing. It was strange that the Elders had known Chris was in trouble. Especially before the sisters did.
"I think we need to start paying more attention to him." Phoebe sighed. "When we found out that he was half-witch I had just hoped that he looked young. But I think he really is just a neurotic young man. And I think we need to look after him, like he tries to do for us, for Wyatt. He came back to save Wyatt from evil, but I think that's going to end up killing him faster than his future ever could."
Leo nodded. "I'm going to try look out for him more, but I'm not his father. I can't tell him what he can and can't do."
Phoebe shrugged. "You're an Elder. We're his charges. Between us, I think we can trick him into staying alive."
This feels like a good stopping point. In case anyone is confused, Chris' part and Leo's part happen at around the same time. Leo couldn't find Chris in P3 because he was in the bathroom. Sorry about any of the characters being OOC, like I said earlier, I haven't watched the show in a while.
Don't worry, Chris will get some comfort soon enough.