Disclaimer: Nothing in the Charmed world belongs to me and no copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 3 Shocking Revelations
"He's avoiding me," Chris complained angrily as he stalked into the attic. Both his aunts were there. Paige was scrying for her newest charge, who was avoiding her at all costs and Phoebe was on her laptop trying to finish her latest column. "I've been trying for two days now to pin him down on the changes to the future and every time I bring it up he just tells me not to worry and then makes a beeline for the door with some excuse to get out of here."
Both aunts looked up at his words and both shared the same perplexed look. "Well maybe he's just waiting for you two to go back so you can be surprised by all the good you've done," Paige suggested.
Phoebe had a skeptical look on her face at that comment but she smiled at Chris hoping to allay his fears.
Chris crossed over to the couch and flopped unceremoniously down with a huge frown covering his face. "Yeah, I'd like to believe that one too, but considering the fact that he bails every time I mention us going back also, it just doesn't seem all that likely."
"What reason is he giving for you guys hanging around here anyway?" Phoebe asked realizing too late just how it had sounded. "Sorry, I'm not saying I want you to leave or anything, it's just…."
"That's fine, Pheebs. I understand," Chris quickly assured her. "He says that he wants to make sure that mom makes it home okay and settles in fine."
"But since he's from the future he should know whether or not your mom does okay coming home." The look on Paige's face could only be described as suspicious.
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Chris agreed.
"Well your mom should be home anytime now, so I guess we should be able to find out more then, and besides your mom is better at getting information out of people than anyone I know," Phoebe suggested.
"I don't know if we should worry the parents about this." Chris was worried that his fears would be too much for his mom to handle so soon after having surgery.
"Worry us about what?" a sharp voice came from the doorway to the attic.
Chris had been relaxing on the couch with his head laying back so he hadn't seen his parents enter but his mom's commanding voice immediately brought his head up. He looked to his aunts for support but both of them had that 'melt into the table look' about them. He rolled his eyes at them and then faced his parents again. "Um, don't worry about it. It's nothing." He knew he sounded like his brother and it was just as infuriating coming from his own lips than from Wyatt's.
Leo had remained quiet until that point but the evasive look in his son's eyes gave him a bad feeling. "Chris, haven't we discussed this? If you have a problem, come to us? That's what we are here for."
Chris enjoyed the sentiment that his father was offering. It felt good to be able to count on him but still… what if this was all in his head? Was he jumping to conclusions?
Phoebe finally had to say something. She could feel Chris' hesitancy to rely on his parents and she knew it wasn't right. "We are just worried about Wyatt."
Both parent's eyes flew to the playpen where little Wyatt was playing quietly. Nothing looked amiss. Phoebe saw the reaction and corrected herself. "The other Wyatt."
"Why?" Leo's brow crinkled in worry. Had something gone wrong? Were they wrong about how successful they were at keeping him from evil?
"Don't freak out now, Dad!" Chris said quickly seeing the panic in his father's eyes. "It's just that he seems off. Distant, sort of sad even. I'm just worried about the future I'm going back to and whether or not it's what I'm hoping it will be."
"Haven't you two talked about it yet?" Piper asked taking a seat next to Phoebe. She was holding baby Chris, who thankfully was sleeping soundly. She had assumed that while she was in the hospital the two future versions of her sons would have spent that time getting to know one another again.
"I wish we had. I've been trying to get him to talk but he won't say a word," Chris admitted.
Leo took a seat next to Chris on the couch and sat for a moment in thought. "Maybe he just doesn't want to say anything yet because he's worried one of us might hear too much. Future consequences and all."
"That still wouldn't explain his demeanor though," Phoebe offered. Just at that moment blue and white orbs formed in the attic before them and the person they were discussing appeared before their eyes.
"Darn, I wanted to make it back before you got here, Mom," he said smiling warmly and stepped over giving her a kiss and a hug. "How you feeling?"
Piper returned the affection from her oldest son and looked at him quizzically. "I'm doing fine," she drew her words out implying a question to them as if to say 'how are you doing?'
Wyatt glanced around the room and could see the questioning looks on all of their faces. "Is something wrong?" he asked backing up slightly.
"I don't know. Why don't you tell us?" Piper suggested with a look that warned him not to dare trying to put her off.
Wyatt backed even further away and his face held a defensive look that none of them liked. "I don't know what you are talking about."
Leo decided to take over the interrogation at that point. "It seems your brother and aunts are worried about you, Wyatt. Is there something they need to be worried about?"
Wyatt glanced at his aunts and then at Chris who had a very intense look on his face, which Wyatt had to admit, disturbed him slightly. He closed his eyes and his shoulders slumped slightly as he found a chair nearer to the door and sat down dejectedly. "I thought I was better at hiding my emotions than that." It was time. He knew it was. He had been putting it off too long already.
"What are you hiding from us, Wyatt?" Leo asked in concern. "Whatever it is you can tell us. We will do anything it takes to help you. You know that don't you?"
"Yeah, Dad. You have always been there when I needed you." Even though he knew he had to tell them he still hated the idea and he held back stalling. "First of all, this isn't fair to you, any of you, and I didn't want to do this to you."
Chris' fears came to full bloom with his brother's words and he couldn't keep silent anymore. "It's The Event, isn't it? I didn't change it. It still happened, didn't it?"
Piper looked to her youngest son and a moment of panic hit her but she also felt the urge to stop all of this nonsense and bring it out in the open. "Quit calling it that, Chris. Just say it. The day that I die."
Leo blanched snow white. He hadn't been on earth when Chris had let that information slip and he hadn't heard anything about it yet. "What do you mean, when you died?"
"Ask your sons. I'm still in the dark on the details," Piper suggested a slight bit miffed.
Chris looked to Wyatt but saw that he wasn't gonna offer any details for them so reluctantly he revealed the worst event of his life. "In my future, my unchanged future, mom and the aunts died on my fourteenth birthday. It was the final straw that sent Wyatt over the deep end," he said quietly looking down at his hands. It was still way to painful for him to dwell on for long and having to say the words was just too much for him to handle. Silent tears began to form in his eyes and he just couldn't look up at his mother. He had almost been positive that changing Wyatt's future would somehow change what had happened to his mom too.
Leo looked to his wife and tears also began to spring to his eyes. Fourteen years. Was that all they'd have left together? It seemed like so little time. And that would leave his boys without a mother during some of the most crucial years of their lives. But he had to turn his attentions back to his son, who he could tell was not dealing well with this revelation he had been forced to tell. "Chris, we can still change this. I promise you we will," he tried to reassure him resting one hand on his shoulder offering support. Then he turned to Wyatt. "That's why you came back here, isn't it, Wyatt? You came back to warn us."
Wyatt looked at his father and mother and shook his head the look on his face very sad but in a way perplexed also.
Chris had seen that shake of his head and couldn't believe it. Did his brother not want to save their mother's life? "You can't be serious right? You don't want to change it!" he said bitterly the tears truly coursing down his face now.
"I can't change what didn't happen, Chris," Wyatt said shaking his head again. "My lord they never told me that one. They said in your former past that I had been evil, but none of them ever mentioned mom dying. No, Chris! Mom is very much alive in our future now," Wyatt said hastily. "And so are Aunt Phoebe and Paige."
A collective sigh of relief flitted through the room.
"I'm sorry, Chris. If I had known that that was what you were worrying about for the last couple of days, I would have told you immediately." Wyatt really wished that his family had remembered to tell him that one before he came back to the past. He hadn't wanted to make this more painful for his brother than it had to be.
Chris looked at his brother and just took a deep breath trying to calm himself. Then he looked at his mother and a large smile spread across his face. She lived. Once he went back she would be there waiting for him. He didn't have to face a future without her.
"But you are still hiding something, aren't you?" Phoebe asked. She was glad to hear that her and her sisters had survived but still she could feel the worry and sorrow coming off her oldest nephew with her empathic power.
Wyatt looked down not meeting any of their eyes. He just couldn't do it. He couldn't say the words. "I'm sorry. It's just so hard to say."
Chris finally decided it was time for action. No more sitting here waiting for his brother to fess up. He stood and walked purposefully towards the other end of the room passing by his brother. He grabbed a piece of chalk from the desk as he went and stopped at the blank wall on the far side of the room. He held the chalk in place on one of the higher boards and started to draw the Triquetra.
Wyatt turned to watch his brother. "What are you doing, Chris?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going home. If you won't tell me what's got you so spooked about our future I'll find out for myself. Dad, you got any of that time travel potion left? I don't think he's gonna help me get there," Chris asked resolutely as he continued to draw the symbol of power that he needed to open a portal into his time.
"I still don't want you going back alone, Chris," Leo answered looking strangely at his oldest son, who was just sitting his eyes transfixed on what his brother was doing.
"Stop, Chris. I can't let you do this." Wyatt finally spoke up his voice trembling slightly.
Chris turned angrily toward his brother. "What?"
"You can't go back there, Chris. Not until I find a way to change things," Wyatt answered in a defeated tone.
"Why, Wyatt? What are you afraid of me seeing?" Chris' voice had rose angrily and it wasn't hard to see his brother flinch at the sharp tone.
Phoebe gasped as her empathy powers picked up the feelings pouring from her oldest nephew. "He's not afraid of what you'll see, Chris. He's afraid of you!"
Wyatt looked to his aunt and scowled. "Thanks, Aunt Pheebs. Not exactly what I wanted to be known right now."
Piper looked from one son to the other and confusion lit her face. "Why would you be afraid of Chris, Wyatt? He came back here to save you. He's a hero." She could see her youngest son blush at those words but in her eyes he would always be a hero after what he had done for his brother.
Wyatt couldn't look at her as the words came out of his mouth. "This Chris may be a hero, Mom. He may have kept me from turning evil in our future, but that version you are holding in your arms is a whole other story. You see in our future I'm not the one who turns evil, Chris is."
A/N: I know, I know, evil Cliffhanger there. But I just had to do it. One of my reviewers guessed the secret. So cdfe88 wins the prize for being the most insightful, and once I figure out what the prize is, I'll let you know.