Oh lord, I'm on an update high!
Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter one, I love reading what you have to say!
I don't have much more of an A/N here, so what do you say we just get on with the story, hmm?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Piper stood there on the porch, half stooped over, seemingly frozen in time. She heard someone screaming for several long moments before realizing that it was Piper herself that was wailing
After finally gaining control over her vocal cords, she took a moment to catch her breath, panting slightly. He looked down at the squirming bundle apprehensively. She loved kids, she really did. She just wasn't sure how she felt about kids left on her doorstep.
"This is SO not happening," Piper tried to convince herself, though the thing that supposedly wasn't happening was literally staring her in the face.
The baby, wrapped in powder blue and nestled in a wicker basket, had awakened during her banshee impression. But instead of matching her screeching with it's own wails, it simply pried open it's pale little eyelids, peering at her with blue eyes; the color almost all babies are born with. It's drowsy gaze seemed to be asking "well, lady, aren't you gonna pick me up?"
Tucking her loose hair behind her ears, Piper crouched to take a better look at the young child.
He was newborn, just a couple days old. Could be a She, Piper reasoned, but the blue blankets and blue cap implied that it was a male child.
Timidly, almost as though she feared the infant would bite her, she reached out with both hands and gently lifted the little boy from his impromptu cradle. He was so small, even for a child no more than five days old. Instinctively cradling the baby against her chest, to shield it from the November cold, she rose to her feet, unable to keep her eyes of the boy. As she looked closer, she saw that his eyes were already beginning to change; they had a glimmer of green around the edges, making them startlingly bright.
"Piper? You OK?" Paige's voice called to the young witch. She turned in time to see her two sisters, each half awake and pajama-clad plop down the bottom step and into the living room.
"Yeah, Piper. What's with the sing...ing..." Phoebe's attempt at humor died on her tongue as she saw the squirming bundle and Piper's horror-stricken face.
Paige seemed to come back to reality first, rushing over to where her eldest sister stood in the doorway, and peered over her crossed arms.
"Oh my God, is that what I think it is?" she gawked.
Piper, still dumbstruck nodded.
"Uh-huh"
"And it was just lying on the porch?" Phoebe gaped in disbelief.
Another nod. Another "uh-huh"
"Where'd he come from?" Paige wondered aloud, rather awe-struck.
Piper, her wits frayed already, snapped "How the Hell should I know?" though she immediately regretted it.
"Hey hey!" Phoebe admonished her sister. "No swearing around the child missy!" she chuckled at Piper's face, then turned her attention back to the boy. "Now let me see the little bugger!"
Careful not to rattle the newborn to much, Piper carefully laid him into Phoebe's awaiting arms.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, rocking back and forth. "Just look at you handsome!" Looking back up at her sister's her demeanor turned serious. "I wonder who he belongs to?" she mused.
"I think you mean belonged, past-tense," Paige admitted aloud. "Doesn't really seem like his parents wanted him..." her voice trailed off as she realized the weight of what she'd said.
All three sisters were quiet, their attention fixed on the sleeping child in Phoebe's arms, each feeling pity for the poor thing.
Suddenly Phoebe's head snapped up, her eyes glittering with a ray of hope.
"Do you think Chris might know something?" she suggested. It made sense; Chris seemed to know everything about them; he claimed that they were studied in school as often as Washington and fractions.
The three shared a silent agreement, not needing to speak. Phoebe was about to holler for the little pest when he came into view on the stairs.
"Chris might know something about what?" he asked, having heard the end f their conversation. And Piper's unholy screeching.
"This," Phoebe stated, coming forward with the baby.
She was met with only a blank stare for an answer.
Paige caught the look, and filled him in, "Piper found him on the doorstep, in a basket..."
"And we thought you might know something about him," Piper finished, looking expectantly at her Whitelighter.
"About the baby?" Chris clarified, leaning against the foyer doorframe casually. He thought back to the stories his mother had told to him as a child. He recalled tales of heroic vanquishes, encounters with fairies, trolls, dragons, even, but no tale of an abandoned baby rang a bell. Shaking his head, his too-log hair swishing, he replied "No, nothing. Sorry."
"Are you sure you don't know anything?" Phoebe wheedled, adjusting the sleeping infant in her arms.
Chris just shrugged. "I don't remember any stories, any rumors, nothing about a baby. If it happened in my future, you probably just gave him to the cops or an orphanage or something." Seeing the desperate look on his families faces, he sighed.
"Well, was there a note, or a...a card?" Chris suggested, and Paige stuck her head out of the open door, peering into the basket. To her relief, a single white envelope lay un noticed at the bottom of the basket. Paige knelt to pick it up, and examined the back. On the solid white panel, the name "Halliwell" was scrawled in black ink, in a loopy cursive.
"Bingo!" she called, waving the thin envelope above her head.
Glad that he was in no more danger of being badgered to death by aunts and Mother, Chris wanted nothing else than to go continue his brooding in peace and quiet, but something stopped him from making the simple sojourn up the steps. His curiosity was nagging quietly in the back of his mind, wanting to know who the kid was. Maybe he DID know him from the future; he was likely to have been raised in San Francisco, so maybe Chris had run into him at school or something...
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Piper demanded. "Read it!"
"Geez, hold your horses woman!" Paige mumbled, slicing the paper open with one long painted fingernail. Reaching inside she found two pieces of paper. The first, hand written on note-book paper, appeared to be a letter. The second was smaller, thicker, on off-white aper. But it was completely blank, both sides.
"Well that's odd..." Phoebe commented, taking the small paper from her sister in her free hand. She too, flipped it over to examine both sides.
Piper, who by now as stressed, peeved and irritated, grabbed the letter from Paige and unfolded it.
"I just wanna get this over with," she explained, and apologized for her crabbiness. Her nerves, however, caused her hands to shake with such ferocity that she couldn't concentrate on the writting. So Paige slipped the latter back into her own grasp.
As her sisters gathered closer to hear, Chris stood a few feet away, lounging against the wall, all ears.
Paige held the letter a bit closer and began to read:
Dearest Halliwell sisters, and most especially, Piper and Leo;
I can't even imagine, how much of a shock it was, to find our son lying on your porch this morning. And I apologize, for any stress it might have caused you. But we really had no choice, my boyfriend and I.
As much as it pains me to say this, we can not keep this child. It isn't a matter of not loving him, nor a matter of necessity; we are both willing, capable and ready to raise a family, but it just isn't possible.
You see, I'm a witch, and was raised as such. My boyfriend is my Whitelighter of several years. Well, technically, he isn't a Whitelighter anymore. He clipped his own wings about a year ago, to live a normal life with me and raise a family.
And normal is what we got. I long ago shunned my Wiccan heritage, wanting nothing more than to be a regular person. In fact, the day of our wedding I took a potion, stripping my powers. I've scorned them and reviled them since I was old enough to know better.
When I was far enough along, I had a doctors appointment, to find out if I'd be having a boy, or girl. We were hoping desperately for a boy; we assumed that only a girl could inherit any powers from me, seeing as my husband is now mortal. I would have loved a girl ,all the same, but there is no way, after all we've been through to have a normal life, that we could raise a magical child.
But our son, the nice mortal son we had long awaited, was delivered four days ago in a cloud of orbs. Within hours, we were ducking as he made teddy bears and bottles soar across the room. And we made a decision; as much as we hated to, we could not raise this child.
We could have stripped his powers, of course, as I had my own, but doing so do a newborn is dangerous, and could be fatal. And as much disappointment as it causes us to even look at him, we couldn't do that to him. We would have to wait at least a year, and we just couldn't bare that at all.
That's why we've come to you. We know who you are, like we know the legendary heroes in story books. If there is any place in the world were the boy would be safe, where he would be raised as the Gods intended, it is with you .
We also know, Piper and Leo, that you have a young boy yourselves. Which is why we ask of you two to be the ones' to raise our son as your own. We know that it is a radically unfair request, to just drop everything and take him in, but it's our only chance.
If you don't want him, please find a home for him, a magical one, were he'd be cared for.
If you do take the boy in, then the piece of paper I've enclosed with this letter will take the appearance of a legal adoption certificate; the work of a spell, with credit to the Elders themselves.
We know how much this is to ask. But please, for his sake...
Much Love,
The Perry's,
The letter wasn't signed with any first names. No return address on the envelope either.
Paige folded the letter back up with shaking hands. Looking up at the rooms other occupants, each wore almost identical expressions of shock, pity, even anger, in Piper's case.
The eldest Charmed one was gaping at the letter clasped in Paige's hand. Her mouth was agape, as though she wasn't able to find the words to describe her outrage.
"Oh my God!" she finally spat, reaching out and ripping the letter from her sister's slacken grasp. She scanned through ir hurriedly, as though trying to find were she'd ms heard Paige.
"How...how could two people be so selfish?" she demanded of the room, causing each girl to look uneasy, and making Chris startle as though he'd just been scolded.
Piper, however, didn't even seem to notice. "How could someone be so selfish to put their own petty wants before their own child!"
"Piper, calm down!" Chris begged, having really bad childhood deja vu at hos mother's ranting. He felt like he was four all over again!
"Calm down?" Piper demanded. "How can you not be disgusted by this?"
Breathing deeply to calm her already frayed nerves, Phoebe said, "He is disgusted Piper, we all are" she assured her, the other two both nodding in agreement.. "What those people did is wrong, but what are you gonna do? You can't keep the child."
"And why not?" Piper asked, her eyes drifting to the sleeping infant, swadled in blue flannel.
"Because, Piper, how would you be able to raise him, when you already have your hands full with Wyatt?" Phoebe wanted to know.
"Leo's back now, Pheebs. He'll help me, and you know he won't give the child away.
"But Piper, you can NOT keep this kid!" Chris tried to reason where her siste's failed.
Piper glared at the Whitelighter with dagger ridden eyes.. "OK, and what's your reason!"
Chris sighed inwardly. He knew Piper wasn't mad at anyone in particular right now; she as just acting on that whole maternal instinct thing.
"You can't, Piper, because you didn't."
"Come again?" Prompted Paige, as Piper and Phoebe exchanged looks.
"You can't keep this child, Piper, because you didn't keep him before," Chris calmly clarified. "If you had kept the kid, he'd be a Halliwell. And the only male Halliwell for years past and years to come is Wyatt," he partially lied. Wyatt was the FIRST male Halliwell, but there had been one other, of course.
"Well, how do you know the future isn't meant to change like this?" Piper reasoned, THIS CLOSE to blowing Future Boy into a thousand tiny bits.
"Why?" Chris begged the question, now getting thoroughly agitated. "Why would this change? Piper, listen; I know you want to keep him, Hell, you probably love him already. But it isn't meant to be!"
Piper's gaze darkened on the young man, and she took a threatening step towards him.
"You know what? You're right." Chris looked dumbfounded, until she added with bite, "I DO love him already. I know that you don't think I should, and I know my sister's don't thik I can, but I'm going to keep this child!" She shook the letter, still clenched in her fists, punctuating each word. And something caught Chris's eye...
"I mean, how would you feel if your parents just left you on a doorstep? How would you feel if you grew up knowing that not only did your parents not want you, but neither did the people you were left with? How could..."
But the rest of Piper's rambling was lost on Chris. His focus was on the letter.
It was folded into thirds, the folded flaps laying towards Chris. The writing took up the front, and half way down the back of the paper. But Chris was seeing the bottom flap, on the back of the Paper, where one single sentence was sloppily scrawled, as though as an after thought.
Paige had apparently missed it when she read the letter.
Piper hurriedly stopped her ramblings with an indignant "Hey!" as Chris reached out and snatched the paper right from her hand.
"Why you ungrateful little ba...are you OK?" she switched modes with a quickness as Chris's face seemed to drain of every dram of blood, leaving his face ashen. His eyes where saucer-round, and his jaw slack. His hands started shaking, almost convulsing.
"Chris?" Piper took a timid step forward. "Chris are you OK?"
His face was the very image of shock, and she thought she could here him whispering,
"No, God no. nonono..."
"Chris? Chris, please," she begged, laying a hand on his forearm. Startled he raised his focus away from whatever it was that was distressing him so, and looked at Piper as though he had never seen her before in his life.
And his pallor went from white to sickly yellow.
He opened his mouth slightly, as though ready to speak, but his body had other thoughts. His eyes rolling back into his head, Chris crumbled into a heap on the floor.
"Oh my God, Chris!" Piper screamed, all anger gone from her voice. Her and Paige rushed forward, rolling him onto his back, calling his name, trying to rouse him into consciousness.
All the while, Phoebe, still clasping the baby boy to her chest, stooped down to pick up the letter which had fallen and slid across the floor. She scanned the back, trying to find whatever it was that scared Chris SO badly...
And she found it, on the back. A postscript, one sentence long;
P.S. His birth name is Chris, Christopher Perry.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Alrighty, there you go! Coming next chapter, we have a panic'd Chris, and Leo appears.
BUT ONLY if you review!
Lottsa love,
LLC