Chapter 4- Welcome to piper Halliwells'

Blinking a few times, Piper tried to steady herself as she studied her new surroundings, which just happened to be a huge, extremely busy kitchen, in what looked like a restaurant. Apart from the fact no one seemed to notice her magical arrival, the thing that surprised her the most, was she hadn't been taken to the manor, or even P3. Instead she stood in this kitchen, one that she had never been in, or even seen before. The chiefs and waiters were running around like head less chickens though one door and out the other as they prepared all sorts of delicacies, for what seemed like a very successful business.

"I need two roasts with all the trimmings, two side salads and one pot of the chief's special taken to table 34J! NOW!" She heard someone scream almost instantly as she arrived, the person's voice was practically hidden however by the sound of beeping ovens and the clattering of cutlery and pans.

Jumping out of the way of someone pushing the desert trolley, piper just gazed at the room she was in. All the work surfaces were made out of pure metal, with four or five cookers in the middle of the room.

There was food being prepared in every area of the place, with it barley being put on a trolley before being wiped up again and taken out of a big metal door way. The ceiling seemed to go on forever, and it had the most beautiful pattern around the edges, which was obviously a popular style in the future.

"Karl I need more meat from the freezer and will someone get me a glass of port juice!"

"Yes boss!"

"Paul, take these to table 12 and don't mess up this time!"

"Yes sir!"

"Mimi, where are the oven trays?!"

"On there way now sir!"

"One order of Halliwell special, a side salad and chicken noodle soup!" A Woman, who piper presumed was in her late thirties yelled as she briefly poked her head though the door, shortly followed by someone else of the same age.

"The inspector will be here in less an hour, we need the cleaner!" the man yelled as he pushed his way into the kitchen.

"Pam, Annie and Charles are on there way!" The chief who had been barking all the orders before yelled out in response as he pulled a turkey from the oven.

"That's not good enough! Miss Haliwell insists on perfection!"

"I'll do it!" A young man who had nearly hit piper with a trolley yelled back. Without paying any attention to the witch, he raced past, not even bothering to stop to apologise as he knocked a tray of pasta from someone's hands.

Realising she had to get out of the kitchen, the time traveller ducked and slid her way to the door people seemed to be coming in and out of, not even bothering to register the name of the soup that kept popping up.

When she finally managed to exit the manic back room, Piper just about managed to turn around the corner before freezing in shock all over again.

The restaurant design was exactly how she imaged her dream business would look like, right down to the floor patterns and chair and table layouts. Although that was weird enough, it wasn't until she saw the massive eight foot sign hanging over the cash register that everything fell into place.

"Welcome to Piper Halliwells'

The grief like feeling that she had felt over losing her sons, husband and everyone she had really ever cared about soon evaporated as an almighty smile crossed her face. She had done it! She had managed to forfill her dreams, she had finally found the time and money to open up her own dream business.

"But at what cost?" A little voice inside her head answered, which many people referred to as their conscience, bringing her mind back to the fact she no longer had a proper family.

The horrible numb feeling instantly returned as her heart sank in realisation that she only achieved her dream because she no longer had her beautiful, talented baby boys.

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Sitting down in a park, lily and Kelly quickly busied themselves on the swing set as their parents just looked on.

"Chris why did you tell Piper that your dad remarried?" Kayla asked after ten minutes of nothing but silence.

"I didn't!"

"You as good as, 'dad would have never meet our mother… oh I mean Claire'?!"

"I duno, it just slipped out, presides, Jimmy is my brother and taffy is…"

"My little sister! Look you and Wyatt, well all the Halliwells actually, have always been part of our family, and I know you just really wanted to hurt your mum, and I don't blame you for that, but don't you think you went that little bit to far?" Kayla asked as she put her hand on her husband's shoulder, concern written all over her face.

"Actually no I don't think he did!" Wyatt replied, seeing his brother seriously debating that in his mind.

"You don't?"

"No because Chris didn't actually say anything that wasn't true! Your mum used to be one of dad's favourite charges, they were always close, and Chris never really had a mum, so we all know he considered your mum to be like a role model to him, we were always close to Jimmy, and he is technically our brother by law, now you guys are married, so he didn't actually say anything that isn't true! Piper just took it the wrong way, presides, Claire is Chris mother in law and some people call their mother in law mum, its just piper wasn't smart enough to figure that out!!"

"She looked crushed!"

"No more than she deserved, believe me!"

Kayla just shrugged her shoulders and the three of them went back to sitting in silence, staring at the two little girls playing together on the slide.

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"Mummy! Mummy please, just one more scoop of chocolate ice cream!" A little girl squealed as she plunked herself by the bar, just inches away from piper, snapping her out of the trance.

"No you have already had way more than a normal kid should!" the child's mother answered as she stood beside her daughter, her back turned to piper.

"Oh please! Just one more!"

The woman sighed as she turned to face the man who was standing behind the counter.

"James can I have one more ice cream Sunday with a chocolate split?"

The man nodded and began to prepare yet another bowel of ice cream, whilst muttering something rather rude under his breath, something which ended with 'spoilt snob'.

As the child's mother walked away, her voice suddenly registered in piper's mind, making her realise she knew that sound! After all it was the one that came out of her mouth for the last thirty four years.

Not looking where she was going, piper headed towards the little girl, only to bump into the girl's mother, the slightly older identical twin.

The future counterpart eyes instantly widened and without saying a word, she grasped hold of pier's arm and dragged her towards the store room.

Pushing her inside, the businesswoman slammed the door shut and turned the key in the lock, insuring that the two of them wouldn't be disturbed.

"What the hell is going on?" she demanded instantly, her eyes locked with the intruder. "What are you doing in your… our… my future!"

"Wait you don't think I'm a demon?" Piper replied confessed, knowing that would be her first reaction.

"No because they don't bother me anymore, now I'll ask again, what are you doing here?!!"

"Somehow I ended up in the future after arguing with Leo over Chris powers, where your son informed me, that in next to no time I would lose my whole family! I cast a spell to find you and ask why! Now who was that little girl?!"

"My baby daughter, Melinda!"

"You have a daughter? How?"

"Well I had a one night stand eight years ago and nine months later she was born! My angel!"

"But what about…?"

"No buts! As far as I am concerned my life is perfect! And yours will be too! Just wait until the day she is born, and everything will be great, I have a perfect daughter, no demons ever disturb me and a dream business, honestly what more could I want?"

"Oh I don't know? How about your sons!" Past piper practically screamed, not understanding how this women, how she could call her life prefect without her baby boys being apart of it. What horrified her though, was the fact that she didn't even care.

"Well I'll admit at first I missed them…"

"At first! What do you mean at first? You, you can't be me! If you were I would be hunting night and day for the rest of my life to find them! I would always miss them!"

"Well I am you, and don't judge me! You have no idea what happened!"

"Then tell me! Make me understand!" Piper yelled, tears streaming down her face, how could this heart less woman be her future self? It just wasn't possible, Wyatt was her baby, her pride and joy, there was no way she would just forget about him, and no way she would call her life perfect without him!

Without Chris even, she knew she didn't exactly have a bond with him the way she had with Wyatt, and that maybe she was a little hard on him sometimes, but who could blame her he wasn't the easiest kid, he always got into trouble!

But despite all that, despite what he had done when he was in the past, Chris was her son and she loved him, there was no way she could imagine her life without either of them. Maybe she didn't have the same feelings for him as she did for Wyatt, but no matter what he was her baby boy and nothing could change that, she couldn't or wouldn't ever abandon him.

"I can't! I can't tell you about your future!"

"Well your gunna have to, because im not leaving here until you do!"

"Piper, listen.."

"No you listen! You know how stubborn I am, and you know if I say im not leaving then I mean it! You might have lived having your sons taken away from you, but I haven't, and to know its going to happen is killing me! I'd rather die than live without them! So either you tell me everything or I'll kill us both right now!" Past piper screamed, truly meaning her words. The older version of her looked shocked, but nodded, slowly understanding why she was so upset, she still had her boys with her, and she still loved them.

"Okay… but I warned you!"

Taking a deep breath, future piper forced herself to remember the tale she hadn't been over in her mind for over fifteen years, the tale of the last time she saw her boys and everything which had happened.

"When Leo first disappeared I was beyond heart broken, there were days I just didn't want to get up in the mornings, I spent months on end moping about and taking my pain out on anybody who had a little bit of happiness, even other children. I ended up having a complete breakdown, every time I closed my eyes I saw their faces and remembered the day they just disappeared. "

Flashback

"Look it is for his own good!" piper yelled as she tried to bottle up the potion she had just made.

"To hell it is! Do you want Chris to die? Is that is? You take his powers away from him and he'll be completely defenceless!"

"His powers didn't help him yesterday did they!"

"He was scared, he's only four for Christ sake!"

"SO! We nearly lost Wyatt trying to protect Chris and I wont risk that happening again! We are binding his powers and that's final!"

Scooping the vile into a liquid piper bottled the formula and rushed out of the room. Leo instantly followed her, well more like chased her and just about climbed up the stairs in time to see the potion flying towards Chris.

"Chris ORB!" Leo screamed, scaring the life out of the four year old who had never heard his father shout like that, but he immediately disappeared in a swirl of orbs only a second before the potion hit him .

Somehow knowing that the potion was meant to hurt him, Chris reappeared in Leo's arms in absolute hysterics. As his father tried desperately to calm him down, he glared daggers at piper who stormed straight past Wyatt and out of the house.

"I didn't want to hurt Chris, I just wanted to make him safe, demons were only attacking him to get to Wyatt and I knew that even if Leo didn't, I couldn't let Wyatt be harmed trying to help his brother. It was for the best, even now I believe that! But no one else saw it like that… I came back only three hours later but it was too late."

"Wyatt honey, mummy's got a present for you!" The brunet witch called out as she stepped back into the haliwell manor. Expecting to see him watching bob the builder, piper walked straight into the conservatory but froze when she realised that not only was he not there, but neither was his favourite train set which was always spread across the floor.

"Wyatt? Wyatt, where are you?"

Running up the stairs she burst into her son's bedroom and looked around, fear crawling beneath her skin. The cupboards were all empty and half of the toys had disappeared, even Chris' blankly, that he never went anywhere without was gone.

"Wyatt? Wyatt?... Leo? Chris?" She screamed, the panic quickly setting in as she ran full pelt though every room in the house until she got ton her own.

Slowly turning the door knob, she headed straight to Leo's wardrobe, praying she wouldn't find what she thought, even though she knew it would be empty, deep down, it didn't make it easier when she peeled back the doors, only to be presented with nothing but a piece of paper hanging of a hanger.

In a blind rage she ripped the note from its holder and flicked it open, tears streaming down her face.

Sorry its for the best

We both know that

We cant keep living like this its not fair on the boys

Especially not Chris

I will always love you, but we will never see each other again

As long as I live I will make sure you don't find us!

Leo xxx

End flashback

"I tried every spell in existence and then some to try and bring them back, but nothing worked and then I discovered by sisters had gone too, that they'd abandoned me like Leo. That they had been apart of his ploy to get me out of my sons lives! It took a while but finally the loathing hatred set in!"

"Hatred?"

"Leo stole my children from me! He left me all over again! And expected me to just accept they had gone, even the elders wouldn't help me, he had got to them first apparently weeks before he left, and they had hidden them from magical means of location! He had completely ruined my life! The feelings I felt for him soon turned to deeper than hate! I despised him!"

"So what did you do?" piper said slowly, silently wishing she hadn't asked, this was more than she had expected, Leo had planned to leave her all along and a part of her was wondering, if the husband she knew had thought of it too.

"I snapped out of my self pity and spent eight long heartfelt years trying to find them!"

"Then you stopped looking?"

"No actually… I did find them! It was the 13th October in California, it was a lovely crisp day, and I will always remember it!"

"But they said…"

"Oh they would never admit seeing me, especially in front of Leo! But to be perfectly honest, looking back now, Chris never recognised me, apparently he doesn't have any memories of me, Wyatt however knew exactly who I was!"

"Then why didn't you…?"

"Take them back with me? Kill Leo? Believe me I wanted to, but I never got the chance, Wyatt didn't want to know, pretended he didn't have a clue who I was and disappeared! I went back to the same spot every day after that, but they never returned, not once! Four months later I went home and vowed to get on with my life!"

"Why?"

"Because I realised they didn't want me! The first day I saw them was my only chance of getting them back, but I let them fall though my fingers, I couldn't take it anymore, so I gave up and opened this place and it was the best thing I have ever done!"

Back in 2008

Appearing in a swirl of lights downstairs, Wyatt and Chris positioned themselves in front of their train set and started playing with the electronic piece of equipment. Wyatt had gotten it for his birthday earlier that year and the boys were constantly on it. The track started of being a simple basic circle, but over the months it gained a few bridges and twirls, stop and change track switches. There was a choice of four cars, a red one, green one, blue one and yellow one but two were rarely used. Wyatt always had the blue one, whereas Chris only played with the red, if either of the boys were ever told they couldn't be that colour, an all out war would break out. Leo was beyond dreading the day that they burnt out the motors, which judging by the amount of time they spent on it, was going to be sooner rather than later.

"Chris race?" Wyatt asked in his baby voice, he never talked properly, the way normal five year olds when the adults weren't around, he figured what was the point, when Chris understood him just fine without all the long words, presides it took half the time to say what he wanted.

"Yeah, but me be red, okay?"

"Yeah, okay!"

Grabbing the cars the boys placed them on the track and picked up the small but simple controllers.

"On the count of three we race Chris!"

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!" Chris screamed and pressed the green go button on his remote control. His dad always said he was clever, knowing how to count to twenty already, but he thought that it was hardly surprising since he and Wyatt always played orb and go seek and you had to count for that.

"That was not fair Chris! I wasn't ready yet!" Wyatt complained instantly trying to take Chris' car from the track.

"SO I said three!"

"But I wasn't ready and it's my game not yours!" Wyatt yelled, still trying to grab at the car. "We have to start again now!"

"No I'm winning!"

Giving up on trying to, pick the red car up, Wyatt sat back and blinked. Instantly both the car and controller Chris was using orbed into his lap, causing the twice blessed to smirk as Chris jumped to his feet.

"I'm telling daddy on you!"

"Daddy won't care! He's too busy looking for mummy!" Wyatt yelled, orbing to the stair case to block Chris' path.

"So daddy always cares!"

"Nuh huh, he wont this time, you'll just annoy him!" he replied, speaking as if what he was saying were bare facts. The brunet toddler's eyes instantly started watering as his lip quivered, tears quickly forming and streaming down his face, something Wyatt defiantly wasn't expecting to happen.

"Don't cry!"

"Daddy doesn't care about me, no more?!" he wined as his legs collapsed causing him to fall to the floor in a little ball.

The five year old instantly realised why his brother acted the way he did and rushed over to comfort him, he hadn't meant it that way! He Had long ago realised he had to be very careful on what he said to Chris, as the littlest things upset him, something he very much blamed his mother for.

"He does Chris! He does, he loves you very much and will always care! And when mummy gets back, she'll care too!"

"No she wont, don't lie!"

"She will, pinkie promise!"

Chris gazed up at his older brother in shook, Wyatt never pinkie promised about anything unless she was 100 sure.

"Really?"

"Yep really, really!" Wyatt replied helping Chris to his feet and wiping one of the tears from his eyes. "I Know!"

"How?"

"Well, remember my special power I didn't tell mummy about?"

"Yeah! Auntie Beebe's one?"

"Yep, well I saw mummy doing something every bad, which made daddy take us far away, so we didn't see mummy ever again!" Wyatt explained as the two boys wondered into the living room. Chris' eyes went wide and never left his brothers as they sat down next to the train track again, his little mind wondering what it would be like without piper around.

"I don't care! Mummy doesn't love me so I don't care!" he replied bravely, not really meaning it, but figuring that was what he should say.

"That's why I sent her away Chris! So the big me and you could yell at her the way big people do and then she wont do the bad thing or make you cry or sad ever again!"

"Oh!"

"Yeah, so daddy will have to tell us a story for a few days, while mummy does some... soul..Soul... searching... I think that's what grown ups call thinking anyway!"

Chris giggled at that and gave Wyatt a huge hug, who instantly hugged him right back, before grabbing hold of the cars and placing them back on the track.

"Now lets play!"

As the boys settled back into their game, they never realised that phoebe was standing by the door way, biting her lip, she had heard absolutely everything!"

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Meanwhile, back in the future...

"What do you mean you just let them fall though your fingers? Are you out of your mind??? They're your children! Your sons! After eight years you found them, only to let them go just like that???" past piper screamed at her future self not quite believing what she was hearing.

"They were better of without me!" her future self yelled back, ignoring the clattering of dishes that could be heard from the other side of the door, figuring she would deal with her staff later, after she made herself understand.

"How the hell did you figure that one out?"

"My using my brain, maybe you aren't aware of how to do that!"

"What's that supposed to mean? "

" Exactly that, those kids were better of without me in their lives, and via versa!"

As those words left her future counterparts mouth, piper swung her hand out and slapped her hard across the face, which surprisingly hurt her just as much as the fifty year old.

"How can you say your better of without your baby boys in your life? How could you say something like that? I would never be better of without them! How the hell did I become such a heartless bitch?"

Future piper just shook her head, as she placed her hand next to her burning check, not regretting her decision to leave them be one bit. Dreading what she was going to say, but knowing she had to say it, to make the woman understand, piper removed her hand and stared straight into her counterpart's eyes.

"Actually love, its you whose the heartless bitch not me!"

"I'm sorry? How did you work that out?"

" Oh I don't know how about the fact you play favourites with your children and consider Wyatt to be much better than Chris? That in the middle of the night you find yourself wondering what life would have been like if you had an abortion like you originally wanted?" seeing piper's shocked and horrified expression, the future woman added." I'm you remember? I know what I used to think!"

"Yeah well... its just thoughts! Its not like I mean them! But as you said you had them to! And at least I didn't try to have Chris killed! I am no way more heartless than you!"

"That's where your wrong, you see whether you want to believe it or not, Chris and Wyatt are best out of my life, and before you say anything, I mean they are best as far away from me as possible! You see, after I saw them, I was more determined than ever to find them again and take them home to where they belonged, then I watched a home video, and saw for myself how differently I treated Chris to Wyatt. That's when I realized, they were happy, I saw that for myself! They had a life and who was I to take that away from them, when I made theirs a misery with my attitude towards my youngest son!! That day I declared that I would never look fro them again, because deep down I knew it was best for them to stay as far away from me as possible! I will always love them, always remember them, they will always be in my heart, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to keep the people you love happy, and that's what I did that day!" when piper had finished her little speech, she had tears trickling down her face as she reached into her pocket and talk a photo out. It was a picture from Chris fourth birthday party, the only one she had of him smiling, and one she would never let leave her pocket.

Past piper just remained silent, but as she opened her mouth to argue, her future self put her hand up, stopping her before she could even talk.

"Do you want me to finish the story or not?"

Past piper just nodded as she stared at the photo that got pushed back inside piper's jeans, where it had been for the last fifteen years.

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Back in 2008...

"Is piper really that cold hearted?" Paige asked Leo in disbelief after phoebe had finished telling the story she heard the boys talking about.

"Well she is a lot harder on Chris than she is on Wyatt, but I didn't think for one minute the boys realised that!" he responded, putting the book of shadows down. It was true what he said, he didn't think Chris or Wyatt noticed pipers attitude, to be honest he just figured if he ignored it then she would realise it herself or one day just stop, as stupid as that sounded.

"Well they obviously do!"

"I know that phoebe!" Leo snapped, but instantly regretted it, knowing that he shouldn't take his frustration out on her, it was piper he was angry at after all, not his sister in laws.

"Ooo stroppy Leo!" Paige whispered to phoebe in a sing-along voice. "I thought I was the one who was hormonal!" she added, so Leo could hear her, before she rubbed her temples as she felt the most gigantic headache come on.

"So exactly how has she been neglecting Chris?"

"She hasn't been neglecting him phoebe!" Leo yelled, jumping instantly to his wife's defence, there was no way he would let it get that far!

"Uh huh, sounds like she hasn't to!"

"Hey, your not around here that often anymore, so don't jump to conclusions!"

"Well maybe if I was this wouldn't have gotten so out of control and piper wouldn't be god only knows where!"

"Oh sure blame me!"

"Well you are her husband!"

"Guys!" Paige whimpered, as she gripped hold of her swollen stomach as she felt a worrying burst of pain shoot though her abdomen.

"That doesn't mean I can control how she thinks or feels, this is piper for god sake!" Leo yelled, completely ignoring the youngest charmed one.

"But you knew something was up! You should of confronted her!"

"I tried, but she just kept changing the subject!"

"Well you should have tried harder then!"

"Phoebe..." Paige tried again as she felt something drip down her legs, but yet again the duo ignored her and continued arguing.

"Hello, if I remember rightly you grew up with her, you know what the woman is like!"

"So what, Leo this is your son's happiness we are talking about!"

"Don't you think I know that!"

As phoebe opened her mouth to responded, Paige gave an almighty whistle and yelled for them once again.

"What?" they said in union, turning to face the youngest charmed one.

"My waters have just broken!"

(a/n) Important, important, important note!!!! My computer has a huge virus on it which has wiped my whole system!!! I can't even get on the computer because as soon as it gets to the log on to your account page the computer resets itself, therefore I don't know when I'll be able to update this story or a not so rosy future again. At the moment I'm using my dad's laptop, but it is a work one so I won't have access to it while he's at home or when he takes it with him. Luckily I did manage to save my fan fictions on to my usb pen yesterday because I thought something was wrong, that is how I am able to post this chapter!