Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed...yet. Muhahaha!
Bianca gazed out the window at the shinning moon. Cole had appeared that afternoon to the sisters, and now the houshold, excluding Leo, who was nowhere to be found, had split up, trying to figure out how to send Cole home and how to prevent Wyatt from turning evil.
Mel, Phoebe, and Cole were working in Magic School, writing a spell to send the Ella and Cole home. Paige and Piper were making a potion downstairs, for it was needed for the spell, and Chris and her were researching in the attic on demons that could turn Wyatt evil.
So far, no group had had any success.
Bianca left the research to Chris, since he seemed to get a thrill from it. She was deep in thought…and that, for her, was rare.
Ever since she discovered she was pregnant, she had been on the run. From, the darklighters, from Wyatt, from one of his underlings: it didn't matter whom; she just ran. And with every step, leap, and shimmer, it had occurred to her that this might be the life her child would have to endure, or die intrying to survive. Those thoughts had pierced her heart, like the very arrows hunting her down.
She had lived in terror for months, and Chris, who had been her shoulder to cry on or to support her, was in the future, trying to make the world safer for her, and unknowingly, their child.
She didn't realize she was crying until she felt a strong hand wipe them away, then cup her chin. She refocused her eyes and saw Chris' loving face in front of her.
"How are you?" he asked gently, and she embraced him, tears flowing freely.
"I'm so scared," she admitted. "What if this doesn't work? What if our child has to go through life fighting, like we have? What if she gets hurt because of us? What if Wyatt kidnaps her? What if –"
Chris kissed her, and she stopped talking, merely taking in the brief moment of bliss. The worries of the world left her, and she kissed him back.
After a few moments, they pulled away, and Chris continued to embrace her.
"Wait," he pulled away. "She? Her?"
Bianca looked down, embarrassed.
"It's just a feeling I have. I think we're having a girl…"
Chris broke out into a silly smile.
"Well, let's get moving!" He sat down to the books with newfound enthusiasm. "We need to make our world safe for our daughter!"
Even in their current situation, Bianca could not help the grin spreading across her face as she witnessed her fiancé's pure joy. Chris would definitely make a great father.
Blue orbs filtered into the attic, materializing right in front of Chris in the form of Leo.
But this Leo was not the same Leo who had left the manner an hour ago. This Leo's hair was grayer, and face more worn. He didn't look older, in a way, but more worn and wary. His eyes no longer twinkled with joy and love; instead, they flashedwith alertnessand anger.
"Hello, Dad," Chris greeted the Leo from his time with false joy. Bianca stepped back several feet. Leo had always hated her, and still didn't know she was pregnant. Hopefully, he wouldn't find out until she was safely away from him with her newborn in her arms.
"Bianca, shimmer. Now!" Chris demanded, and she disappeared, leaving the father and son glaring at each other, with menace in their eyes.
"Why aren't you at your precious son's side, being as gullible as ever?" Chris asked conversationally.
"I'm taking you home, Christopher," Leo replied coldly. His son looked back as him defiantly.
"I'd like to see you try."
The elder made a move for him, grasping him shirt and tearing off a piece of the sleeve. The thin fabric fluttered to the floor, and Leo turned to the stairs, listening for the footsteps he was sure he had heard. And he watched his wife enter the room and stare at him.
"That's not Leo," Piper stated, sure of herself.
Piper looked at the strange man in her attic, who looked so much like her husband, but so different from him. Leo looked down at the floor, trying to hide the tears welling up in his eyes, threatening to fall, as the woman from the past tranformed into the dead body in the future under his eyelids. He remembered his anger at her upon choosing Chris, not Wyatt, as her heir for the Power of Three, and the tears dissipated instantly. He gazed upon her emotionlessly.
The potion vial clattered to the floor, and spilled onto the thin rug placed under the table covered with research books.
"Paige!" she hollered. The man who looked like Leo moved toward her, and she put up her hands.
"Piper, it is Leo," Chris confessed, "but he's the Leo from my time."
She studied him more thouroughly, and was shocked at his expression. The loving husband was gone; all that remained was anger. Anger and perhaps tiredness.
"What happens in the future?" she asked softly. Leo glared.
"You choose him," Leo spat.
Paige thundered up the stairs, and halted upon seeing Leo.
"Whoa."
"What do you mean, "I chose him"?" Piper demanded.
"Wyatt deserved to be your successor! He deserved the Power of Three," Leo ranted, "Chris is nothing, just a weak second son. Wyatt is twice-blessed!"
"What are we talking about?" Paige asked, confused. She realised she must have missed a vital part of the conversation.
Chris looked down at the floor, trying not to cry. His father's argument caused old, painful memories to resurface. He remembered his mother yelling herself hoarse, trying to get her husband to pay attention to him, and not to favor Wyatt. She said that Wyatt was beginning to show signs of corruption; he was using spells and magic for person gain, and he used his powers to bully kids at school. He closed his eyes for a moment, and his memories flooded back to him, vividly replaying themselves under his eyelids: one of the many fights his parents hadabout him. It was when he was eleven, and already his father despised him...
"Leo! Chris is pure good. Just the other day, Wyatt and Chris went to the park. Wyatt came back with out his brother, and when I asked why, he said 'Chris is just being stupid again'."
"So Wyatt left the park without his brother. Chris is a big boy of ten; he can talk care of himself." Leo had dismissed Piper's concerns.
"I wasn't finished yet, and Chris is eleven." Piper crossed her arms. "Chris returned an hour later. When I asked him about it, he said he had witnessed a kidnapping, and wanted to help."
"What?" Leo had demanded, "What could he have done?"
"He sensed the child, brought her back to the police and got out of there without exposing magic. Leo, your second son saved an innocent. Wyatt's never done that!"
"Don't favor Chris over Wyatt!" Leo had yelled.
"I don't! I love both of my children the same – like you should too."
"Then choose Wyatt! You can still change your mind; it's not too late!"
"Wyatt has a different destiny, whether it but good or evil, great or small. He is the Twice-blessed. Chris is a Charmed One – it's his path to travel, not Wyatt's."
"Chris, what is he talking about?" Chris looked up and saw Piper, his mother, looking at him with concern. Her face showed bewilderment, and behind her, Leo's showed only rage.
"Um…" Chris mumbled, and tried to think of an escape route for this situation.
"Hey," Jonas called from the doorway, "Ella's fallen asleep, and—"
He stopped and gaped when he noticed the Leo from his time in the room. He had managed, for the most part, not to kill past Leo, since he knew that he hadn't done anything yet. But this Leo… he was fair game.
Jonas raised his hand, and bright blue lightning crackled from it. Leo glared at him, and brought up his own power.
"Jonas, I don't want to hurt you. I just want Christopher."
"Over my dead body," came a new voice. Mel walked into the attic, followed by her parents. Cole quickly darted out of the room, realizing that his youngest daughter may be in danger. Leo had always despised both of his children, and unlike Melody, Ella was not as confident in her powers.
"You," he growled, and Bianca found the tone of voice similar to the tone he had used on her the day before, when he attacked her.
"What the hell is going on?" the three sisters demanded in unity. Leo orbed out.
Since their 'informant' had left, they turned to the only other place they knew the answers to their questions resided. They spun to face Chris, Jonas, Bianca, and Melody.
"Well?"
A/N: Sorry for the shortness of the chapters. But the next stuff doesn't belong in this chapter.