A/N: Many thanks to my new beta Alcandre for all her helpful suggestions!

Chapter 2- Seeing Double

LEO's eyes gazed into Piper's own for a brief moment. Within those pale blue-green depths Piper saw a magnitude of pain and sorrow she could have never fathomed possible. Her heart clenched at the sight of her ex-husband looking so distraught and disheveled, and all of her carefully erected walls came crashing down.

He looked away tiredly, brought his knees up to his chest, and buried his head in his arms. "Just leave me alone…" he moaned pitifully.

Collapsing to her knees, she reached out for the nearest crystal and removed it. The crystal cage deactivated in a flash and she crawled the short distance to her ex-husband, fearful of what had caused him to arrive in such a state.

"Leo? Honey… what happened to you?" she asked, her eyes filling with tears.

Before she could reach him, he held up a hand to stop her, still not looking at her. "Don't!"

"Don't what? Are you okay?" she asked, reaching her hand out to his shoulder.

He flinched causing her hand to fall off his shoulder. He then scooted away from her, almost fearfully, and resumed his position curled up in a ball. "What you are doing is sick! Stop messing with me…"

Piper looked up to her sisters for guidance realizing that she wasn't getting through to him for some reason. "What's wrong with him? It's like he doesn't recognize me!"

Phoebe helped Piper to her feet and gently said, "Sweetie, I don't think that this is Leo…"

"What? Of course it is!"

Paige walked around the man carefully trying to take in his appearance. "I don't know. It looks like Leo, but what if it's a demon or a shape shifter or something. This could be a trap."

Piper shook her head. "This is Leo, I know it somehow. But what could have happened to him? I just saw him this morning," she said mournfully.

The man hadn't moved during the conversation and seemed intent at trying to ignore them. Phoebe squatted down to look at LEO properly, a vanquishing potion still held firmly in her hand. Something seemed off about this whole situation, and she knew without a doubt that it had to be because of the spell. Suddenly she was hit by an onslaught of emotions and had to take a few steps back, not wanting them to overwhelm her.

"What is it?" asked Paige, noticing her sister's reaction.

"He's afraid of us," Phoebe explained, using her empathic senses. She shivered slightly as she channeled the trembling fear the man was projecting. "He sees us as a threat."

"Why would Leo be afraid of us?" asked Piper, still staring at the man that so resembled her ex-husband.

Paige crinkled her nose and said, "Are we even sure that it is Leo?"

"I think he is Leo, but maybe just from another time," Phoebe suddenly suggested.

"What do you mean?" Piper asked irritably.

"I don't know," she responded with a shrug. "It's just a feeling I have."

"Did you have a premonition or something?"

"Well no. I don't know how to explain it," said Phoebe. "But it would make some sense."

"Well you better try because if you know what's going on, I sure as hell would like to hear it," said Piper, growing more irritable by the second.

Phoebe held up her hands in defense. "Piper, calm down… I'm just saying that there is no way that this is our Leo, at least not from our time. He's much thinner than our Leo and something just seems different about him. Don't you see it?"

Paige nodded. "Phoebe's right. I think-" she began, but was cut off by the sound of laughing.

Surprised by the sudden noise the girls looked down to see the man, grimacing in a sick sort of smile. "Well done… you practically have me convinced," he said, still laughing somewhat manically.

"Convinced of what?" asked Piper.

"That you really could be the Charmed Ones… But I'm not falling for it. Not this time," he said, shakily rising to his feet. It seemed his fear had given way to irritation. "So leave me in peace!"

"This is our attic so we're not going anywhere, mister," said Paige, putting her hands on her hips.

LEO looked around and took in his surroundings. He then began to shake his head sadly. Shouting towards the ceiling he said, "You've really out done yourself this time!"

"Um… who is he talking to?" Paige whispered to her sisters.

"Why don't you just come down here and show yourself!" LEO shouted.

"Who are you talking to?" Phoebe asked him, looking quite concerned. This was not the behavior of a sane man.

"Like you don't know," LEO said, addressing them once more. "He's the one that sent you demons to create this stupid illusion."

"Demons? He thinks we're demons?" said Paige.

"Did you really think that you could break me!" LEO resumed shouting up to someone. "I told you before... I WILL NEVER JOIN YOU! Just KILL ME and be done with it. I'm sick of your psychological torture! How many years are we going to play these games!"

"Is he talking to the elders?" Phoebe wondered aloud, thinking about how LEO was staring at the ceiling.

"Elders?" LEO asked, turning his attention back to them again. "All the elders are dead. You should know that. Your source killed them all…"

"No they're not. In fact you just left a few hours ago to commune with them or something," Piper said.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," she said defiantly. "You left to talk to the elders."

"No I didn't. I've haven't left my cell in... I don't know how long…"

"Well Leo did. So if you are not him, then who are you?"

"What are you talking about?" LEO asked in confusion, looking at the three of them one at a time. "Are the elders really alive?"

"They are in this time," said Phoebe.

"What do you mean?"

"We think you traveled back in time," she began to explain. "We wrote a spell and it brought you here."

"A spell?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper. "You mean this isn't 2025?"

All three girls shook their heads. "No. This is 2003," Phoebe offered. "And you are standing in our attic, not some cell."

"This is really the attic? And you're really the Charmed Ones?" LEO asked in disbelief. His eyes were frantically looking around, as if making sure someone wasn't going to ambush him.

They all nodded again, trying to gauge his response.

LEO crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "I don't believe you. This is just some trick."

"Well, if you really are Leo, ask me something only I would know," Piper challenged.

LEO thought about this for a few moments. "Alright. What happened the first time we made love?" he asked cautiously, his eyes still searching attic, though not really seeing.

Piper was obviously surprised by the question. She hadn't expected that one. She darted her eyes away embarrassment thinking about her response. "I was so nervous, I kept freezing you," she said finally, blushing deeply when she heard Paige stifle a giggle.

LEO's mouth dropped open in shock. "You really are Piper…" he whispered.

She nodded again, starting to feel a bit like a bobble head with all of this nodding and head shaking.

"Then that means…"

Realization seemed to suddenly dawn on LEO, because he seemed to lose all composure. Soon tears were streaming down his face. Turning away from them he began to mutter to himself as he paced around the attic anxiously, snippets of which the girls were barely able to hear. "I can't believe this is happening… I'm not in the cave anymore… could this really be happening… there could be consequences if I reveal to much… they're really here… what am I going to do…"

"Do you think he's alright?" Phoebe wondered aloud. "He seems to talk to himself a lot."

"I don't know," said Paige. "Can you get another reading off of him?"

Phoebe took a step forward trying to sense the man's emotions. "Only the obvious… that he's really upset about being here. He's feeling sad and lost and depressed."

"Why would Leo be depressed?" Piper inquired.

"We don't even know if it's really Leo," argued Paige again. "Just 'cause he asked Piper about their night time affairs doesn't make him our Leo."

"Can you sense if it's really him?"

"No, you know I can't," Paige replied in an annoyed tone. "Is there any other way to know for sure?"

"Well, I can think of one way. Leo!" Piper shouted to the ceiling, waiting expectantly. "Leo! You better get your Elder butt down here right now!"

After a few moments Leo orbed into the attic in a blur of white and blue lights. "Piper, you know you can't just call me whenever…"

"Oh, cut the crap! We need your help," she said, pointing to the other LEO.

It was strange having two Leo's in the attic. It was like seeing double. If you excluded the future version's apparent lack of hygiene, they were nearly identical, except for a few subtle differences. The future version seemed thinner and slightly older than his counterpart for some reason.

"Who's that?" Leo inquired.

"You, we think," said Paige. "But from the future."

Leo looked at the man in surprise. "But how?"

"It doesn't matter. We need to figure out if he is a threat. Can you sense yourself or not?" asked Piper.

"I've never tried…" Leo began. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. When he opened them again he said, "Far as I can tell, he's me... or will be me, I guess…What year is he from?"

"2025," Piper responded.

The other LEO was ignoring them still, pacing around the attic trying to avoid eye contact with them, muttering to himself. His tears had stopped, but he was just as distraught as ever.

Leo looked at his future self with bewilderment. "What is wrong with me? I mean him?"

"We don't know. He's been like this since he arrived," Piper admitted sadly.

"And how exactly did he get here?" Leo asked, looking to each of the girls knowingly.

"We might have cast a little spell," Paige admitted, cracking under Leo's scrutiny.

"What kind of spell?"

"One that would tell us who turns Wyatt evil," explained Phoebe.

"But that's personal gain!" Leo admonished them, looking as though he was about to launch into one of his lectures.

"Don't waste your breath," said Piper bitingly. "We knew the consequences before going into this, and we willingly accepted them. We just didn't realize that this would happen."

"Do you think he really knows who turns Wyatt?" Paige asked. "Cause he doesn't exactly seem right in the head, if you know what I mean."

"I don't know," said the eldest sister, looking at the distraught man. The other Leo was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even seem to notice that his present self was standing in the room with him. "What should we do?"

"Talk to him," Leo suggested. "If anyone can get through to me, you can."

Piper looked into Leo's eyes and knew how much that was still true, even if they weren't together anymore. She carefully walked towards LEO and tried to catch his gaze.

"LEO? LEO?" she called. He tried to walk away from her, but she reached out and caught his hand.

She was surprised to find it so calloused and rough, but she held onto it tightly. She gave it a squeeze and the small action seemed to break LEO from whatever trance he was in. He turned to her and stared at her searchingly, as if really seeing her for the first time. "LEO? It's me Piper… do you remember me?"

LEO took a shuddering breath and whispered, "Of course I remember you. How could I not? You're the love of my life…"

She was somewhat surprised to hear this given that she and the present Leo were currently separated because he had chosen to become an elder.

"Then why are trying to ignore us," she said gently. "What's wrong?"

"You wouldn't understand," he said, looking into her eyes one more. Again she was shocked by the depth of pain and sorrow she saw in his steadfast gaze. "You couldn't possibly..."

"Then make me understand," she implored.

"I can't," he said miserably, his eyes filling with tears once more. "Too much has happened." He closed his eyes and bowed his head in despair.

Unable to bear seeing him in so much pain, Piper pulled him into an embrace and held onto him as he began to sob mournfully. It was the first time she truly allowed herself to believe that the future could possibly be as awful as Chris had made it out to be. He seemed so weak that Piper feared that he might topple them both over if he leaned his full weight onto her any further. She held onto him for several minutes before he finally pulled away and roughly brushed away his tears.

"I'm sorry… this is just a lot for me to take in," he explained as he tried to compose himself. "I'm not sure if I can handle all of this."

"It's alright," Piper said softly, as she led him over to the couch. They sat down beside each other as her sisters and Leo joined them. "Tell me what's happened."

"I can't," LEO replied, shaking his head firmly.

"But you have to," she implored.

LEO shook his head once more. "I can't," he repeated. "There could be consequences if I revealed too much about the future."

"Not you too," Piper said in frustration. "I have had about enough of this future consequence crap. First Chris and now you!"

"Chris?" LEO asked in surprise.

Ignoring him, Paige added, "Yeah, what good is a spell if the person that it sends to help you with your problem won't tell you the solution."

"Chris?" LEO asked again hoarsely.

"Well, what do we do?" asked Phoebe. "We can't force LEO to tell us anything he doesn't want to."

"Maybe we should tell Chris what is going on? Maybe the spell brought LEO here for a different reason," Paige suggested.

LEO cleared his throat and finally made himself heard. "Chris is here? In the past?"

"Yeah," Phoebe affirmed with nod. "Do you know Chris Perry in the future or something?"

LEO gave her a curious look before standing up and walking away, muttering to himself once more.

Paige rolled her eyes and said, "Here we go again!"

"There were rumors… I didn't know what to think…" LEO began, looking distraught.

"LEO, are you okay?" Piper tried calling out to him. "What's wrong?"

LEO closed his eyes and took a deep breath before addressing them once more.

"Chris is really here? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, he's our whitelighter. Why?" Piper asked.

"I need to talk to him," LEO said determinedly, his eyes shining with emotion. "Now."

The Charmed Ones looked at on in another in bewilderment. This day was getting stranger and stranger by the minute.

A/N: I hope it wasn't too confusing having both Leo's in the story. Just to clarify, future Leo will always be signified by capital letters- LEO. Please leave a review!