I am so sorry about the wait for this chapter but my computer ended up wrecked and I spent weeks waiting to get my files recovered only to be told that they couldn't be recovered. Luckily, I got a new computer for Christmas and I've been trying to fit all my notes together in some semblance of order. Anyway, I would just like to thank everyone who has favourited or followed or reviewed this story, I was tempted to give up on this story but I couldn't do that to you. Mostly because my brother wouldn't let me, so thank him for this chapter
I'm sorry about any mistakes in this chapter but it's nearly three in the morning here and no one else is awake to read over this chapter.
Mel and Matt arrived a short distance away from the Bay Mirror. They didn't want to draw any attention to the building. It was a smart tactical move on Matt's part. Mel imagined that she would be more impressed with him if it weren't for the stabbing sensation in her chest. Grief. If she felt this bad, she didn't want to think about how Kat was feeling.
"Oh god," she muttered, covering her heart with her hand. "Tammy," she moaned. Mel squeezed shut her eyes. It didn't matter that she had turned on them once, she had tried to protect them in the end. She had tried to save Chris. Just like her mother, just like Aunt Phoebe, just like Uncle Coop, and Uncle Henry, and Grandpa. It never ended. The death.
"Mel," Matt pulled her hand away and held it tightly in his own. "We need to move. They're expecting us. We need to hurry if we want to save Chris."
Matt had said the magic words that got Mel moving. She nodded. They needed to save Chris. Then he would save them. If Chris succeeded, then maybe Tam would come back.
The short walk to the newspaper was done in silence. They hurried, wary of any spies around. Mel's thoughts were on Chris, as they always were, and on Wyatt. She wondered how he could have done such a thing to Tamora. Wyatt had always claimed that he cared about their family most of all but with him killing Bianca and Tam... The others had died when demons had attacked, Wyatt had claimed that he was not responsible for their deaths. Mel wasn't so sure anymore. He could have been the one to arrange their deaths.
"Don't let him get into your head, Mel," Matt warned. "Don't give him that satisfaction."
Mel exhaled heavily. "I know," she pulled away from Matt when they reached the doors of the Bay Mirror. She led the way to their meeting room.
Kevin, the Elder, and Daryl Jr were sitting outside of Phoebe's office. They watched her with sad eyes as the sounds of Kat sobbing reached them. Mel didn't say anything in response to their quiet condolences. She had already begun to harden herself again the grief. After her mother, her aunt, her uncles and her future sister-in-law's deaths, Tam's death was nothing new.
"What have you done to my sister?" Piper asked, holding her hands ready.
The demon growled and then screamed as Piper flicked her wrists to blow him up. "Nothing!" He screamed. It had been a hurry after orbing into the attic to set up a crystal cage for the captured demon.
Piper frowned and looked back at Phoebe and Paige. After her collapse, Paige had been very drowsy and confused but she didn't have any explanation for why she collapsed. She didn't know what her feeling of something being wrong was about. Now Paige and Phoebe were watching Piper interrogate the demon with worried looks on their faces. She turned back to the demon. "What have you done to our white lighter?" She demanded.
The demon grinned. "White lighter? Do you mean that little witch lighter from the future?"
Piper let her powers answer for her.
"Fine!" He shouted. "We had orders to attack him! He gave us the poison, we don't know what it was. We don't know who he was! We just wanted to kill that little witch lighter."
Piper grit her teeth. "You don't even know what poison it was? You don't know about any cure for it?"
The demon sneered. "We always know a cure, witch. We never use poison without knowing. We know a cure – but not the cure," he growled. "You will leave us alone if we tell you where it is?"
Piper considered the demon for a minute. She could tell the demon that she would leave him alone but she didn't have to follow through. She could be being lied to. "I'll think about it."
She wouldn't get her hopes up.
Leo felt each horrible second that Chris suffered through a seizure. After thirty seconds, the erratic twitches died down and Chris was left gasping on the bed. Leo didn't move for a long moment. Wyatt sat on the bed crying and a demon that the girls had captured screamed in the attic.
Leo took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He couldn't remember feeling this helpless when he was a medic. He had gotten too used to his healing powers over the years. Leo carefully checked Chris in the aftermath of his fit. He was still breathing, if too shallowly. He seemed to be breathing better than he had before the seizure. His heart beat was better too, even if it was racing. Leo suddenly had a horrible thought. What if this poison was designed to prolong suffering before it killed? He wouldn't be surprised if it did. Magic was truly evil sometimes.
He rolled Chris over onto one side to prevent him from choking and pulled the covers on the bed up around him. His fever was still high but Leo didn't want him falling off the bed too easily. He ignored the voice in his head that accused him of trying to make Chris as comfortable as he could. Chris wasn't going to die, not while he was watching over him. Right now, the witch lighter was basically one of his charges and Leo did everything he could to keep his charges alive.
Leo turned to Wyatt who had crawled over to Chris and was now petting his head. It might be sweet if Wyatt wasn't still crying and Chris wasn't suffering. Leo sighed. He pulled Wyatt onto his lap. Wyatt protested until Leo positioned him in a way that he could still see Chris. Then he sat quietly, occasionally hiccupping, and watched Chris in way that was much too intently for his age.
Leo had worried about how close Wyatt had gotten to Chris after they had worked through their differences. He had had some wild and crazy theories about Chris trying to take his place in Wyatt's life until he made himself reconsider if he was just jealous. Chris didn't look at Wyatt like he was his son. Chris probably hadn't even considered having kids, Leo reflected. Then again, he mused, he had been engaged. Maybe Chris had wanted a family.
He certainly seemed to see the girls as part of his family. Leo had watched Chris interact with Wyatt and he knew that, despite their rough start, they were quite friendly when Chris played with Wyatt. There was a level of familiarity that made Leo guess that Chris was a good friend of Wyatt in the future, before he needed to be saved by Chris.
"Who are you, Chris?" Leo muttered. "What sort of family let their son travel back to the past on some suicide mission? What family did you have?"
What sort of family do you have left? Leo didn't say his last question aloud. Chris probably couldn't hear him but he didn't want to kick the guy when he was down. Chris was alone in the present, he didn't want to remind him of that.
"You're not alone here," Leo said, arguing with his thoughts. "You'll have us." He was certain that once Chris recovered – because he would recover – Piper would be mothering him so much that he would want new charges. Leo chuckled, he couldn't wait to see that.
"Tam," Chris whispered, so quiet that Leo wasn't sure that he had said anything. "I'm so sorry," he murmured. He sounded so heartbroken that Leo felt his own heart clench in sympathy. Whatever Chris was remembering, whoever he was remembering, things hadn't ended well for them.
"Don't worry buddy," he muttered, reaching out to squeeze Chris's shoulder. "We'll fix this."
Chris was in pain. He knew pain. He was familiar with pain throughout his body. It was a common result from his strenuous demon hunting, from attacks that he didn't dodge and from his own repeated training of his body. He wouldn't let himself slip even when there was no threat. That was what Wyatt wanted.
"Don't worry, buddy," said his dad, "we'll fix this."
Fix what? Chris wanted to ask. When was his dad? Why wasn't he helping? What was happening?
Tamora was dead. She was another family member that he had failed to save. Chris added her to his mental list of failures. His failure to save Wyatt meant that another innocent had died, even if Tammy wasn't so innocent. She was still his little cousin, it was his duty to protect her. And he had failed. All he ever did was mess up. That was what his dad had always said. He was always in the way. That was why he needed to fix something now, because Chris had messed up.
"You didn't mess up, Chris. I'm the one who messed up. I should have listened to you and Melinda. I should have listened to you about Wyatt. I should not have left you alone with Wyatt. I'm sorry."
"Dad?" Chris was confused. That wasn't his father. His father never apologised to him. This wasn't Leo either. Who was talking to him? He felt like he was surrounded by light. It reminded him of 'up there'. But it had been destroyed. What was happening? How was his dad talking to him? Why did he not hurt anymore?
"Yes, Chris. You're very sick right now. But you need to hang on. Your sister would be very upset if you left before she got to see you again."
"Mel?" Mel was coming? How? She was in the future – or, present. Chris was too sick to figure that out.
"Yes, she's coming, buddy. You need to wait for her. For me, alright? I'm sorry I wasn't around. And I'm sorry that I can't tell you this in person, but I love you. You need to hold on for me. For everyone. We need you – not just to save Wyatt."
"Dad!" Chris called out as the light faded. He was left alone in the darkness. Something was wrong, he knew it. He wasn't awake but he wasn't asleep. He was in some strange sort of limbo. Was he sick?
Poison.
That was it! He had been poisoned!
That wasn't good.
Chris got the feeling that he had come to this conclusion before. He wasn't thinking all that clearly at the moment. It was disconcerting. He was used to his quick thinking. His sharp mind had saved his life on numerous occasions. He didn't want to lose that.
Chris felt his limited awareness fade with a surge of panic. Something was very wrong with him. And there was something else.
Oh god, Mel was coming to the past!
Phoebe watched Piper torture the demon with one eye as she stirred her tea. She had gotten some for Paige after her collapse but she was needed to have something in her hands to occupy her attention while Piper, her big sister, was this angry. She was in full mama bear mode and it was freaking out Phoebe.
Whenever Prue had been mad, it had only been a cold sort of anger. Paige's anger was quick and sharp but Piper's was out of control. Even with the empathy blocking potion, Phoebe could feel Piper's rage and it scared her. At the same time, she began to understand Piper's anger even more.
Piper was angry because of Chris, she was angry for Chris. All this was to protect him. Chris had done everything he had done to protect Wyatt, in his own strange way. He had done questionable things for people he cared about. Piper was the exact same.
No wonder Piper was so protective of Chris all of a sudden. She saw herself in Chris. They both cared deeply about their families, whoever Chris's family was. Phoebe hoped that they knew how much Chris loved them.
Her thoughts were cut off by a strange feeling in her heart. It was a pulsing, pulling sensation. She gasped.
"Phoebe?" Paige worried.
Phoebe looked to her little sister. It felt like she had formed a psychic link with someone. It felt familiar but she was sure that she had never felt this connection before. It was incredibly strong. And it was getting stronger.
It was coming.
Cole had been the King of the Underworld. He commanded demons who surely could have fought against him with only himself. That took an awful lot of charisma, of presence, of power.
He was using every inch of that now as he silenced the room simply by rising to his feet.
Everyone turned to him, awaiting his orders on what to do next. This was his plan. He was in charge. Mel didn't envy him. She had always been in awe of Chris, of Piper, of Wyatt – even now – with their power to order others and to have them follow.
"We don't have a lot of time," he began. "So, let's get this done quickly, who is coming to the past with me? Someone needs to stay and protect the safe havens. Paige – your healing powers are needed, yours too Leo. Parker – Pearl and Peyton are too young, you need to stay and protect them. That leaves Mel, PJ and Kat free to come. Are you alright with that?" He asked.
"I'm coming," Mel agreed. She wasn't going to let anyone change that. She was going to see Chris again. "And so is Matt."
Matt nodded. "They've met me in the past. They'll recognise me. And, having another half-demon would only help you Cole. It will draw fire," he argued.
"I'm going as well," Henry said. He held Kat in his arms, still shaking. Yet, his gaze was hard. Henry, being the only mortal in the Charmed family had been forced into more danger than anyone else but he had never let it change him. Seeing his sister murdered in front of him by his oldest cousin had finally done that. Henry wasn't going to take no for an answer any more than Mel would. He wasn't going to let Kat slip away from him before he could do anything about it. Mel wouldn't stop him.
Cole wouldn't either. "Fine," he muttered.
"Three Charmed Ones, two half-demons and a mortal," PJ observed, she twirled her bow in her hands. "The past won't know what hit it."
Mel happened to glance over at her father in the same moment that he opened his mouth to speak. Their eyes met for a moment. Nothing was said between them but Mel felt as though they had communicated something important between them both. Leo pulled Parker, Peyton and Pearl over to him as Paige stood up, releasing her children from her arms.
They were all that was left of the last generation of Charmed Ones. They had watched their loved ones die. They didn't want to lose any more children.
"Stay safe," Leo had silently begged. "Come back home to me."
"I will," Mel had promised. "We'll fix all of this."
It was what they had all told Chris before he travelled back. Leo, Bianca, her and Matt had all said their goodbyes to him last. Leo had nearly been too late to say goodbye, but his words hadn't lost any meaning when he had told his son to keep safe. Bianca had begged Chris to come home. Matt had asked him to fix their past, to undo the mistakes that had been done.
Mel had only hugged him goodbye. When she saw him next, she would tell him she loved him.
She was coming.
Thank you for reading this chapter. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed to winter break and I hope that this chapter is up to scratch - I've made you wait too long for anything less.