Disclaimer: Still own nothing.
Summery: A story about letting go and moving on.
This is my first fic, so I'm learning as I go. Thanks for all the positive feedback.
This chapter is mostly Future Piper talking about Chris. This is kind of filler chapter; I'm trying to figure out where to go from here.
Chapter 5
The silence in the attic of Halliwell Manor was deafening. Two mothers, who except for age and experience were one and the same, sat both grieving. One for a child she had raised and known all his life and even before his life had started. Another for a child she only just found out was hers. A father who could not believe he would let his son die in his arms unable to heal him, to save him in this time and in the future. Two aunts, who did not understand why, with all their powers, they couldn't save their family again. And a sister, who loved her brother more than anything, but who knew that by changing a single moment of time could mean losing a future he had fought so hard to save. A sister that knew there would be no way to spare him the pain he and her family would have to suffer, no matter how much her mother wanted to.
And so they sat, in silence. All staring at the face of a sleeping man, boy really, who it seemed they were destined to lose, each in a different way. And yet, Melinda knew that death was not the only road to loss.
Future Piper began to speak, not about the fate of her son, or what would happen, but instead she talked about a little boy her past self had yet to know.
"Chris was such a content baby, he hardly ever cried, never fussed. He was always looking around with his big eyes, trying to take everything in. Not like Wyatt. Wyatt was a ham from the second he was born, making alarms go off to get attention. He was such a little goof, still is. But not Christopher" Future Piper shared with her family's past selves.
They made no attempts to stop her, or to question her about what would happen, they just listened.
"No Chris was just content, trusting. You know he had powers since he was born, but we had no idea, not until he used them in front of dad when he was almost two years old. We just figured they hadn't developed yet. We found out later that he had always had them, and only Wyatt knew, he had just never really felt the need to use them. When we first brought him home from the hospital, Wyatt had a hard time adjusting to having a little brother. He would orb his pacifier away from him or his blanket. We thought he was even orbing Chris off places, turns out Chris was orbing himself. And Wyatt got in trouble for it." Future Piper laughed.
"I'm guessing he had powers from the womb too?" Past Piper asked
"No he didn't a fact he didn't like too much when he found out Wyatt did. But we found out later that he would have had powers from the womb, if this Chris hadn't been in the past using his." Future Piper tolled her past self.
"Do they, did they get along, Wyatt and Chris" Leo asked.
"Chris adored Wyatt, followed him every where. Wyatt was the same way about Chris, they were always so close, best friends. All three of them were always close. But those two boys could get into some stuff let me tell you. I never saw so many toys magically come to life."
"Not more dragons I hope" Past Piper smiled.
"Oh they pulled some stunts, all three of them" Future Piper said glancing at Melinda.
"Hey I did it to a Barbie doll, not a dinosaur." Melinda defended herself.
Future Piper smiled "Chris was slow with talking; he took forever to start, ironic since when he finally did, we couldn't get him to shut up. You know Wyatt and Melinda's first word was Mama, not Chris. Chris said everything else: Dada, Beebe, Pay Pay, even said Wyatt and Gramps before he said Mom. I couldn't stand it. I would try and try to get him to say it, but he would just smile and give me a hug. He was almost two years old before he said Mama. I was crying about something, I don't even know what it was about. He toddled over to me and wrapped his little arms around my neck and said Mom. He touched my face and said "Kwis love Mama." It was the first time he had said it since, since I heard him call me mom" she said pointing to Chris. "He followed every step I made after that, like my little shadow. Helped me clean and cook. Chris loves to cook, only one of my kids that could. Wyatt and Melinda set the kitchen on fire."
"One time and it was Wy's fault" Melinda said smiling remembering Chris orbing in with the fire hose and how her mother banished her and Wyatt from her kitchen after that.
"Chris was always so much like me, a good bit of Leo in him too. My stubbornness, a little bit neurotic" Future Piper smiled.
"A little bit?" questioned Paige sarcastically. Future Piper laughed.
"A whole lot of heart and strength, just like Mom" Melinda added. "And a walking talking Book of Shadows, just like Dad."
"It was hard not to look at this perfect little baby and not see a twenty two year old whose life was a living hell. Hard not to let your mind wonder to the place where you feared his birthday ever year, when you should have been celebrating it. It got easier as he got older, at least for a while. I convinced myself he was safe that history wouldn't repeat itself. There where moments when I saw it. Chris would say something or do something just the same way he did it in this time. Or he would say he had déjà vu about something. But I ignored it, didn't want to believe that he somehow knew." Tears poured down Future Piper's face.
Her younger counterpart took a deep breath and asked the question she wasn't sure she wanted answered. They could stop him from being killed now, but would it save him in the future, or would it be Prue all over again, except worse. Because this time, it was her child.
"What happens to our son?"