Do You Really Want to Know 2: Who I am…
Chapter 3
By: teal-lover
Summary: How Chris learned the cunning and duplicitous behavior we saw for over a year. Alternates between the past, unchanged future, and the changed future.
AN: Background in previous story is that something terrible happened to Chris and changed the way he saw things and learned to survive. This is the prequel/sequel to "Do You Really Want to Know", but can stand alone. Spoilers for all of season 6.
Rating: PG-13, which may change later on in chapters depending on where my mind takes me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or any of the characters or get any money from writing this fiction.
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May 2021, Changed Future, Manor
"Phoebe? What just happened?" Paige asked quietly while the others ran back to Chris' room.
"Come in and shut the door," she motioned wildly.
Paige folded her arms and stared at her middle sister inquisitively, "They can orb in here, you know."
"Of course I know that. But they won't—at least not for a few minutes."
"Why did you break it off? We were just getting to the heart of his dream."
Phoebe spoke softly, "I broke it off because it wasn't a dream. It was a memory. And I'd seen it before. I already know where it goes from there."
Paige leaned in, whispering much the same way. "I knew that place looked familiar. We saw it when Piper was a Valkyrie that time. Are you telling me that Chris and Wyatt snuck off to Valhalla?"
Phoebe bit her lip nervously, trying to decide how much to reveal without revealing the full truth. "No. Not our Chris and Wyatt. The Chris and Wyatt from the old future where Wyatt was evil. That was the other Chris' memory."
"How do you know that?"
"Because he showed me. That's when I first wrote the memory projection spell. After he beat up Leo in the Spider demon's cave, I waited up for him that night to find out why he was so upset with him. Well, I found out that he had good reason to be. Leo treated him horribly, and called him a liar right to his face."
Paige furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she leaned back on the sink. "Ok, so Leo deserved to get pulverized. But what does that have to do with the reason our nephew is currently in his room yelling his head off in his sleep?"
She answered the question with one of her own. "When he woke up, did you notice anything about him?"
"You mean other than him screaming loud enough to be a banshee?"
Phoebe slapped her hands on her thighs impatiently at her sister's sarcastic remark. "No, Paige. His eyes. They were blue."
"And?"
"And, our Chris' eyes are green. But when he stared straight ahead, I could see that they were blue. Just like the old Chris. And when was the last time they were blue?"
Paige tilted her head in concentration, trying to recall. "I think back when he was about 14. I thought it was odd because I never thought that his changed colors, but then they went back to green."
Phoebe nodded. "That's because they don't normally, except when he's extremely troubled. Look, we don't have much time, so I'm going to make a long story short. I never told you guys any of this because he made me swear not to. But that week that Leo took you guys up there and he stayed with Daddy? Well that wasn't entirely true. I summoned his mother from the future to help me help him. She told me that whenever he was very upset about something, his green eyes would always turn blue—and guess what? Ninety percent of the time we knew him, they were always blue. And you know why? Because that's just the kind of crappy life he had."
"Then you know what it is that is bothering him? And if you do, you have to tell Piper and Leo so they can help him." Paige admonished.
Phoebe couldn't hold back the tears that fell, only this time, they were hot and angry tears. She swiped at them roughly as she stood up, "No! No way in hell am I going to tell them any of that."
As Paige backed up a little, trying to figure out why the sudden anger was stirring up in her sister, Phoebe continued to rant. "His life was just one big heartbreak after another. And then it was only made worse by that psychopath brother of his and his crazy idea to reign in an unruly teenager. You want to know why your nephew is in there having a meltdown? Because the other Chris' lunatic of an evil brother took him to Valhalla and had a bunch of his demons torture that boy within an inch of his life! And I saw it Paige! Through his memory, I saw it! And I have to live with that for the rest of my life. They don't!"
The empath turned away and whispered despondently, "They wouldn't be able to…"
Paige couldn't control her own tears after hearing the explanation. She couldn't even imagine what horrors Chris must have faced, and she had never wanted to think about how bad things must have been for him to travel back in time to repair them. And now after hearing the abbreviated version, she knew from the violent reaction that there was a lot her sister wasn't saying. She didn't know quite what to say as the empath broke down again. Instead, she pulled the shorter woman in closer and leaned her head into the crook of her neck, allowing the woman's tears to soak through blouse. She rubbed her back gently, "It'll be ok, Honey. You can talk to me. You don't have to do this alone."
"Yes, I do. I made him a promise. I couldn't help him the way I wanted to, so I have to keep my promise. It's the only way I could help him."
"Well maybe you don't have to tell Piper and Leo even as much as you just told me—just enough for them to be able to help him."
Phoebe drew back and stared at her imploringly, "No, Paige, you don't understand. There is nothing I can say that would help to explain why his subconscious is so traumatized. Piper would want details and you know how demanding she can be, and Leo would probably just loose it again—you saw how he reacted when he lost Chris the first time. He starts getting depressed every single time that he's mentioned. How do you think he'd handle the idea that as bad as the other Chris' life was, as bad a father as he was to him, that now his son that he has doted over to make up for that for the last 17 years—now remembers that other life?"
Paige looked up with a haunting expression, "How could he remember?"
"Because I think you were right the day in the hospital when Chris was born. Maybe we didn't loose him after all."
The youngest Charmed One's reply was interrupted by Piper storming into the bathroom, deciding that she had given the empath long enough to recover, "I want you to try again."
Phoebe looked up and answered firmly but gently, wiping her eyes with a tissue that Paige had handed her. "No, Piper. I'm sorry, that's just not going to work. We'll just have to find another way."
"It was working just fine until you broke the spell. You can't just give up now."
"I'm not giving up, Piper," she searched her mind for a small lie that wouldn't arouse suspicion, finally adding, "I just won't invade his privacy like that again."
Piper nearly screamed in outrage, "My son's life is in danger, and you're worried about his privacy! Trust me Phoebe—he'll get over it!"
"Piper, this is not something that is life threatening—I would tell you if it were. It's just upsetting—"
"UPSETTING! No, upsetting, Phoebe, is when his favorite football team looses the playoffs. Upsetting is when he doesn't get the car he wants for his birthday. UPSETTING IS NOT waking up in the middle of every night screaming bloody murder!"
Phoebe dipped her head down and accepted the verbal onslaught, visibly jumping at each increase in her sister's octave. Her own emotions were on edge right now, so she could easily understand the distraught mother's reaction. She took a moment to calm herself, breathing in deeply before she responded. "That didn't come out right. I'm sorry, Piper. I didn't mean it that way. What I meant, was that this is something that he's learned to deal with before, and maybe he can again with a little help."
"Don't you think I would know if he had ever dealt with something like this before?"
"No, actually, I wouldn't think that. Because I don't think you understand where this is coming from."
Paige spoke up for the first time between the two of them, mumbling under her breath, "I'm betting that you don't."
"Well, I'm betting that I do," Piper answered flippantly before her voice increased with annoyance and anger. "Sometime recently, Chris and Wyatt slipped off to Valhalla, where they are expressly forbidden to go, and got into some kind of trouble. You know how crazy those warriors are. I certainly do since I was one of them. Wyatt denies it, but since they've never supposedly been there, there's no way that Chris could possibly know what Valhalla looked like. And I need you to find out what happened."
Phoebe's gaze fell on her younger sister, finding the encouragement in her hazel eyes before she answered. She had decided to tell at least part of the truth. "Piper, Honey. There is another way that Chris knows what Valhalla looks like. The fact is, that he remembers. What you saw in that dream, wasn't a dream. It was a memory, one that I saw part of a long time ago." She paused to allow her sister, and herself to prepare for what she was about to say, "And I saw it from the Chris that died saving his brother. Looks like we didn't loose him after all."
Piper's jaw nearly hit the floor as she finally understood her middle sister's earlier flight out of her son's room. Her mouth moved several times but no sound came. Finally able to speak, everyone turned as someone else voiced her concern before she could.
"What?"
TBC…
An: thank you enormously to everyone who has reviewed so far. I tried to answer any questions I noted in the reviews, but if I haven't—feel free to tell me again :)
Alyssa Halliwell
thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you like the idea of a sequel, cause I certainly wasn't sure. Is she going to tell the truth—only partially. But that's not to say that they wont find out :)
Beleninwe
thanks, and thanks for reviewing. And I'm so sorry, I'd love to tell what happened in Valhalla, but since this is kind of a rating lower (which may change), I can't—or I shouldn't. but if the rating changes, I will definitely work it in. In the mean time, if you're really curious, read chapter 1 of the first in the series & it will lay most of it out for you. but it's kind of angsty, so I warn you—beware. If you do, I hope you're still reading after that.
CaliforniaChick
thanks so much. I like to think that I've gotten a little better at writing since I started the first one, so I hope you like this too. And if you like the flashbacks, well, there will be plenty of those since we'll see what happened after Piper, Paige, & Leo left to go back to the future, as well as the old future where everything went wrong.
I hope this is soon enough for you:)
Ceres217
Thanks a lot. I'm glad you seem to like it. I don't want to give too much away, but Phoebe will keep her promise by leaving things out, and working with Chris to resolve his issues. But it will be rough on everybody. And yes, they do love him to death, especially wyatt. They've always been close.
CharmedOne24
Well thank you! now that you know why he may have been a little afraid of wyatt, we'll get to see some background as to how things progressed for the first chris.
IcantthinkofaFnick
thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked the other one—and that it's easy to pronounce. I guess it stands out because it's so long, huh?
So only 2 argentinians, huh? I think that's pretty cool (makes you kind of unique). Besides, when people write in from all over the world, I don't feel so lonely in my little corner of it anymore. Makes me see that there is so much out there that I have yet to see.
And no, phoebe will actually keep her mouth shut for once. I'll have her make up some things even. Bad girl :)
JadeAlmasy
thanks for reviewing! I hope this was soon enough for you.
jenna51980
oh, I'm so glad you like the first one. I crossing my fingers nervously that you'll like this one too. Thanks for reviewing.
Julia Adele
thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you liked the way I set them up. Though I did cheat a little since the first chapter was actually the last chapter in the previous story—shhh--don't tell anyone ;)
Kelsey
Thank you for taking the time to review! I'm glad you like it.
Mellaithwen
thanks for reviewing. As to what she'll say, it won't be much. I think what she doesn't say speaks louder. And wyatt is kind of cute and he cares so much about it, that it's just tearing him up that he cant help. That feeling just may get worse.
midnite-magic
thanks for reviewing and I'm so glad you liked the stories. My apologies though, you probably didn't notice a sequel because I had it under a different name—"who I am". But then I tried out that new search & saw something else with that name, and started thinking that I should have probably listed it as a subtitle. So I fixed it.
Nathy1000000
Glad I made you happy on this—and yes, I do have to thank you. only a few people had ever mentioned anything about a sequel, and was getting around to it, but you're the only one who had ever mentioned it consistently;)
So let me return the favor---BROTHER'S BOND! You're killing me girl! I'm dying for an update. Just a little bit. Even a paragraph. Please—must have fix…
Anyway.
Thank you so much, I'm happy you're enjoying it. After he was such a tyrant in the first one, I wanted to make him super sweet in this one—his penance.
And phoebe will be able to work through her own issues as she helps chris.
Next chapter, you'll get to find out who was at the door, and maybe even wyatt's reaction:)
Night-Owl123
I love your little symbols, btw. I always recognize your reviews before I even see the name. Anyway, thanks so much for reading & reviewing. Glad you liked it.
Sparkling Cherries
fab-u-low-so!—I wont ask, but I think I get the meaning, and I LOVE IT! Thank you! I'm glad you liked that line. I wanted to sum up how much phoebe really cared for him, so I hope it really came across. But the good part about putting the last chapter first—is that you know there will eventually be a happy ending. Just a lot of angst in between :)
Starry Sky 44
hey, you didn't have time to review but you still managed, so thank you with lots & lots of hugs. Oh, and the restaurant, I went on a French-english website and I think it means charmed, but since I don't speak French, I don't really have a way of being sure.
Don't worry, chris will be ok. The first chapter was actually the last chapter of the first story, but it is years later & they are all doing ok. But it's going to be a bumpy ride in the interim.
Stony Angel
thanks dear! I'm blushing here. So you've waited patiently for a sequel—that makes me so happy that you like it that much.
But I hope I've answered some of your questions? If not, you can always email me. I have three words for you: brad, forgotten, nobody--that was a subliminal message & cause I'm missing them & getting real antsy:)