A Daughter Unexpected (3)
AN/Hey look, an update! Are you shocked? I am! SORRY! Real life and other fandoms have sort of gotten in the way of my beautiful Charmed plots. So here it is, part three. Not the final part but another chapter. As always please comment, comments mean the world to me because they help me keep faith and help me write else there would be no incentive.
Last time on ADU:
Piper and Leo's second born, Melinda Halliwell, time-travelled back to 2004 in order to warn Chris that Wyatt, his husband, is trying to find him. Mel, having inherited Phoebe's amazing ability to keep a secret has split the beans.
"Well, now that's out of the way do you think you can worry about the part where hubby-dearest his going to burst through that portal and into 2004 intent on bringing you back? Or killing us both?"
AND NOW: UPDATE
"Oh, I get it!" Piper said, relief flowing through her voice as she regarded the leather clad girl and her brother-in-law Chris. "You two are evil and Wyatt is coming to vanquish you!"
Melinda looked at her mother the scorn in her green eyes hiding the pain she felt at her mother's words. She tried to remind herself that this Piper wasn't mom-Piper. She was a Charmed One who believed that her only child would grow up to be a beacon of peace and unity in the magical world. She hadn't (yet) witnessed the destruction of everything the Halliwells hold dear, all by the hands of one Wyatt Matthew Halliwell.
"I told you, Melinda! There is a reason I didn't tell them the truth, not just because I like frustrating them with 'future consequences'! Although that is fun, too." Chris admitted, mostly to piss Piper off who was glaring at Melinda like she was bad, and that was something he just couldn't stand. Not after everything.
"Yeah well you forgot to mention my mom was mean!" Mel spat out childishly. Chris just folded his arms in a very older-brother type of way.
"Look," he said, turning to face his (future? Past?) mother-in-law. "We are not evil. We're just trying to… correct the timeline."
"Why? What's wrong with the timeline? And what does that mean anyway, 'correct the timeline'. It sounds the same as future consequences to me!" Paige asked, still slightly bitter that she was still due to bite the dust first, even though she was the youngest.
"It means something goes wrong about the time of Melinda's birth. Something happens to Wyatt which changes his outlook on life so much that good and evil get twisted around in his head so that one day he thinks it's okay to dictate to people how to live their lives, and that exposing magic is for the benefit of others, and working with demons is truly a good idea. After all what's a few innocent souls in the fast of world domination?" Chris said, finally breaking his vow of silence on matters of the future. He was tired of people doubting him, hating him, just because he was trying to protect them from horrors that a ten month old baby would commit in roughly twenty years time.
"I don't believe you?" Leo said serenely from the back of the room.
Rolling his eyes Chris turned to the man he had never considered a father-in-law and exclaimed with irritation and exasperation, "do you expect me to be surprised at that? But let me tell you something that'll save you a lot of trouble later on in life. You predict that Wyatt and my relationship wouldn't make it past the first fuck… we've lasted nearly six years but hey, thanks for the support, Leo."
"You still love him?" Phoebe asked from across the room.
Chris looked straight into her eyes and smiled a painful, raw, honest smile. "Of course. Why else would I do this?"
"He might not return your feelings when you change the timeline. He will change. Maybe loving you… being gay… will change for him." Phoebe points out and Chris nods, these things he has already figured out. He wasn't one of those people who believed that being coddled by your mother turned you gay, or that it was born in you. He couldn't explain his own theory on why some people were gay and others were straight or worse, homophobic, but he knew that he loved Wyatt and nothing felt better than kissing the tall blond man who he had once proudly called 'husband'.
"I know that. But I'm not selfish enough to watch him destroy himself and the world go to hell just because I want to be loved. If Wyatt falling in love with a woman and getting married, having kids and never even knowing my name helps him stay good, stay more like himself, then that makes this worth it." Chris explained. Phoebe nodded, understanding. If she could have found a way to let Cole find his human self, even if it had meant a sacrifice on her own behalf, then she would have done it without regret, because she had loved him and in the end if love isn't selfless then it isn't love at all.
"Phoebs! I cannot believe you are swallowing this bull shit!" Paige said angrily.
"It's what I feel, Paige. You can't lie to an empath."
Paige rolled her eyes, sometimes her older sister sounded so smug and sure that it made her want to hit the other woman. "You can if you've taken the potion. I lie to you all the time!"
"When?" Phoebe demanded. "Was it about the stain on my red sweater because if so you are-"
"Focus, sister!" Piper yelled at the girls. "Melinda. Are you telling me the truth? Your oath as a daughter and a witch." Piper said looking straight at her daughter, with her eyes so like Leo's and her hair like her own.
Tears welled up in those stormy green eyes and she nodded her head. "Yes, mom. Always." And Piper let herself go to the girl, holding her close and feeling the bond between them as if it was a physical pull.
"Goddess help us all, then." Piper muttered.
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