Do You Really Want to Know 2-Who I am…
Chapter -- 7
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: this story has been the hardest to write, and I'm hoping that my creative juices just keep flowing on it. So let me know if you think I should try pounding it out, otherwise, I'm afraid I'm going to have to put this story on a bit of a hiatus--I'll be starting classes again next week, and there just isn't enough time to do it. I hope you'll forgive me, I'm not giving up on it, just admitting that the updates will be a bit longer. Though if I'm really lucky, the last 3 or 4 chapters will be able to be finished in the next few weeks…and then I'll wake up from my dream.
Ok, if you're still there--except for the parts on the bridge, this chapter is the original, unchanged future, circa 2021.
Rating: T (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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After he left Phoebe in the attic, Chris continued writing in the new journal she had given him. As the wind blew through his hair, it comforted him somehow, almost like his mother's warm fingers that had held him not even a week ago.
'Maybe I should start from the beginning? No, no. I've relived that enough for one week. Maybe later. I'll start with—afterward. When I became, well—who I am...'
It was three days later when I finally awoke from what I only just found out, was my father's Elder-induced sleep state. If I had known that it was to be the last bit of relaxing and dreamless sleep that I would get for several more months, I would have stayed asleep.
My body had fully recovered from Dad's healing by then. I only had a few lingering sore spots, but I knew even then that it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Kind of like how you hear about a person who's just lost a limb, only they still feel it?
Opening my eyes to the sight of the apartment that my brother owned, the unfamiliar surroundings sent me into a panic. Wyatt was there, trying to calm me. What a joke. After he was the one who ordered what happened. He actually expected me to trust him. To be comforted by him. For most of our lives, his hand patting my back would have worked and done just that. But now? It only reminded me of the demon he had become, and I found myself pulling away sharply and clamoring up under the blankets that he had covered me with. Wyatt was no longer a source of comfort for me, and I don't think that would ever change.
I hadn't missed the brief flash of hurt that crossed his features as he backed away, but I didn't care. He didn't have the right to be hurt.
I wanted to call for Dad, but since he left, I thought he didn't care at all. It was only last week that I found out that Wyatt had banned him from seeing me. But still, what good what it have done? They had both ignored my calls. Left me to those demons. My voice didn't matter.
"You've been asleep for three days. You have to be hungry by now. Chris, are you listening to me?"
'No,' I had wanted to yell at him. Instead, I said nothing, merely allowing my gaze to drift down to the floor to avoid his piercing ice-blue eyes. They made me uncomfortable. Suspicious. What more could those demanding eyes possibly want from me?
"Christopher?" he raised his voice a little louder and I couldn't help but cringe. But the question fell on deaf ears. I had made up my mind. I was never going to talk again.
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Wyatt stormed out of the bedroom and paced the floor in frustration. He looked up, growling out her name, "BIANCA!"
The leather-clad woman shimmered in moments later, athame in hand. She swung her silky brown hair over her shoulders in annoyance as she faced the wall in front of her.
He took in her attitude and grabbed her arm roughly, spinning her around to face him. "You have a problem with me summoning you?"
Her lips quirked up in a deceptively false smile, "Not at all, boss. I love being pulled away when I'm in the middle of a job. One that I'm doing for you, I might add."
"Well, you've just been reassigned to keep an eye on Christopher while I'm gone."
She yanked her arm away with a sour look and started to shimmer. "I'm not a babysitter. I have a job to finish."
"You have a problem following my orders all of a sudden?" he hissed.
"No, I have a problem with YOU all of a sudden…" Wyatt's expression hardened, but he made no move to vanquish her so she continued with a calmness she didn't feel. "I used to have respect for you, even admired your ambition. Who would ever imagine that the son of an Elder and a Charmed One would be next in line to rule the underworld. And your steady but quick rise to power so far is nothing short of pure genius. That's something that the rest of us wouldn't be able to accomplish in our wildest dreams. But I think you could have done it without alienating the only family you have left. What you did to your own brother? Even I wouldn't stoop that low."
"You're an assassin and you have the audacity to speak to me about morality?"
Bianca lowered her brown eyes under the heated glare, silently debating whether or not to continue on her path of angering the Twice Blessed Witch. She took a deep breath and finally decided that if she wasn't dead yet, then she may as well keep going until he snapped. Her voice dipped in tone and intensity, "There are some things—lines—that just aren't meant to be crossed, Wyatt."
He advanced on her menacingly, clenching his fist and causing her to choke. "Like me? If you want to continue breathing, you'll do as I tell you and keep your mouth shut."
She clutched her fingers around her throat, desperate for even a single breath. When he finally released her, she collapsed to her knees, greedily sucking in air.
Wyatt kept his gaze on her, the twisted smile threatening in way that needed no words. He only added them to make his point perfectly clear. "It feels good, doesn't it? That first breath? Don't forget that I can take it away just as easily as I just gave it back. Now, you will stay with him until I return from business every time I call for you. And if any harm comes to him in your care, there will be no plane of existence you can hide from me."
With his threat looming over her head dangerously, he disappeared in a flurry of orbs, leaving the Phoenix witch to drag herself to the comfort of the plush loveseat behind her. She drew her knees to her chest and rested her head in her hands heavily. What had she gotten herself into now?
She looked up just in time to see the bedroom door that had been cracked earlier, close with a soft click, and knew that the young man had been listening. Well, she thought, there's no time the present to go and meet my new charge…
Rapping on the door lightly, Bianca expected a loud 'go away', or at least the click of a locking door, but when she turned the handle and entered hesitantly, he didn't appear to object. She had also expected to find a large, imposing hell-raiser much like his brother, especially after all she had heard of his relentless vanquishings of Tem'als followers as of late.
What she saw now was obviously no match for Tem'al and his horde of demonic minions that seemed intent on breaking him out of that bad habit.
She didn't expect the tall, albeit wiry frame, that had him curled up with his knees to his chest protectively, staring up at her warily through a veil of dark bangs. He did his best to hide behind them.
He was no more than a teenager, but the haunted look he wore spoke of years beyond his actual age. And despite her declaration to Wyatt that she was not a babysitter, there was just something about this younger Halliwell that drew her to him, made her want to protect him.
Cautiously, Bianca made her way over to the bed and sat down on the far corner, secretly pleased that he made no move to pull away from her. She extended her hand then dropped it after she realized that he still didn't intend to move, or take his eyes off of her. "Ok. I already know your name. Mine is Bianca. I'm no good at any of these introduction things, so how about I just move right along to the point of my visit? You must be hungry by now. You probably haven't eaten in days. How about a grilled cheese?"
She was quickly growing frustrated with his lack of response and huffed in irritation. "It's the only thing I know how to make, ok, so take it or leave it."
The woman waited for him to answer as patiently as she could. Minutes went by with no sound being uttered from either of them, and the silence was driving her crazy.
She doubted that the introvert that now sat beside her ever had it in him to kill a fly, let alone the numerous demonic vanquishes that had been attributed to him. But Bianca knew of the Halliwell history, and that if the women had raised him, he would have been just as dangerous in his own right. And four days ago, she was betting that he was. But a full night of hellish torture was enough to change him. Staring into his crystal blue eyes, she wondered with determination, what it would take to change him back.
TBC…
Yes, I know Chris's eyes aren't blue, but you either have to have read the first story to understand the reference, or ask me & I'll tell you.