Chapter 4: Meanwhile

A/N: Finally, I finished this! And managed to type it. It's taking me forever. Maybe it's because I mostly write this in French class. I love you reviewers! Carmix AKA anime-obsessed, I love how you type this, but I just couldn't wait. Your reviews are great, keep them up. Everyone else…I love you! Please keep reviewing!

What happened in the attic that warm sunny day was a rare occurrence. The whole family, minus two very important members, was in the same place at the same time. Piper, Phoebe and Paige were still exceptionally close, as far as sisters went, but now they all had their own families and their own lives. At least one of the children always had something to do. Wyatt worked, Chris had charges, Charlie and Patty always had some activity or other. What had brought them together was a crisis.

Piper hated leaving any of the children in her family alone for even a moment. She felt unbearably guilty. After going to the store for a short half hour, she came home to a terribly empty house. Her precious baby girl Melinda and her niece Patience, whom she loved as much as her own child, were no where to be seen. She felt sick even thinking of the horrible possibilities.

All around the attic, there were signs of anxiety. Piper was doing what she always did when she was nervous, she cleaned. Prue's shinny black hair was in her mouth, a nervous habit she had lost in adolescence, but got back suddenly. Charlie was sitting in a corner, uncharacteristically quiet. Patty was nearly in tears. Phoebe was very pale, her mind unwillingly going back to the night Prue had died. Her sister's death devastated her, but if Patience were to die…she would die too. Phoebe violently shuddered at the thought.

For several painful moments, after Piper had frantically called the entire family, there was an uncomfortable, almost painful, silence. They knew that time was fleeting. They knew that the longer they waited, the greater the chance that something horrible had happened. Still the couldn't do anything useful, because that would made their fear all the more real. Finally, Paige couldn't take the silence anymore.

"We need to do something", Paige said definitively. Nobody answered her. So the silence continued; as did the pacing.

"What do we do?" Prue finally asked no one in particular.

"No idea", Piper answered sadly.

The horrible, painful silence enveloped them once again. "I'm open to suggestions!" Leo said angrily. Leo often got angry, but the only time he openly displayed it like that when he was worried. The only response he got was a shrug from Phoebe. Then Leo was furious in a way I had never witnessed before.

"MY LITTLE GIRL IS MISSING AND YOU'RE DOING NOTHING!" Leo roared. Discarded potion bottles flew off the table and hit the wall, shattering into a million pieces. No one knew how to react to that. Chris stood up quickly. Everyone stared at him, clearly not realizing that he was in the room. He had been unusually quiet.

"You don't have the right to call her that", Chris said, more coldly than anyone had ever heard him speak. His bright green eyes flashed menacingly.

"And why don't I?" Leo asked his tone defiant.

Chris' teeth were clenched. His hands were curled into fists. It was as if he was trying not to blow up – or blow someone else up for that matter. Chris launched into a tirade that he had been clearly holding in for years.

"The only way you are Melina's father, my father, or Wyatt's father is biologically. You are not our father in any way that counts. Have you seen one of her piano recitals? Did you ever meet her teacher? Do you know anything about her? Her favourite colour? Food? Sport? Anything?" Leo was completely silent. "I knew the answer was no. You are not her father, and you never were."

Leo opened his mouth to say something, and rapidly closed it. He was stunned, unable to say a word. Without making a sound, he orbed out, leaving the Halliwells in his wake. The silence was back again, more painful than ever. No one knew what to do or how to act.

Phoebe looked up with a curious expression on her face. "I've just remembered something", she said in wonderment.

"What is it mom?" Prue asked, looking up instantly. She was much more jittery than usual. She may rarely show it, but Prue really cared about her little sister.

Phoebe looked at her oldest daughter and jerked her head in a non-committal way. "I'm not sure", my mother admitted. "This memory just popped in my head and I'm positive that it wasn't there before. I was twelve, and I remember meeting distant cousins named Patience and Melinda. They looked an awful lot like our missing girls."

Piper scrunched up her face in concentration. "That's funny", she said in a strange voice, "I don't remember that at all." Phoebe's dark brown eyes lit up. She was on to something both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

"You don't think they…" Phoebe started.

"No", Piper said firmly.

"They couldn't", Paige said finally catching on, "they wouldn't."

Charlie hated when her mother and her aunts finished each other's sentences like that. It made her feel shut out from everything.

"What are you talking about?" she asked angrily. None of them answered. Without a word, Phoebe walked to the book of Shadows and opened it to a page that was written in a hand that none of them recognized. The title said "to move backwards through time." What followed was a spell, and instructions for a potion. None of the Charmed Ones had any reason to believer that either Patience or Melinda had said the spell. The potion, however, was an intriguing possibility. Everyone knew of Patience's carelessness when it came to potion making.

"Look", Wyatt said, "there on the floor." They all kneeled down, noticing for the first time what a mess the attic floor was. Herbs were strewn everywhere. Broken glass from potion vials littered the wood floor. It was clear that Patience and Melinda had been making potions, and they had been interrupted.

"Do you really think they could have time traveled without meaning to?" Kyle asked.

"Sure", answered Patty, "you know what aunt Piper always says…"

"Of course", Wyatt added, "it is true that when your mother's a Charmed One, anything can happen."

None of them noticed that Chris was gone. He couldn't stand staying in that room anymore. Chris went where he always went whenever he was upset. He orbed, unnoticed and unseen, to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. He watched the cars whiz past. They had a calming effect on him. His anger slowly ebbed away. He was blocking his family's sensing powers. They would only find him if he wanted them to.

"Chris?" a soft voice said from a beam parallel to his. Chris spun around to see his father standing on the beam. He kicked himself for not remembering that Leo came here too. He was about to orb out, when his father's voice stopped him in his tracts.

"I'm sorry son", Leo said with sadness in his voice. Chris was flabbergasted. Leo never admitted he was wrong, and he rarely called him son. Chris' closed expression softened for a split second, but he quickly pulled himself together.

"I'm too late", Chris said coldly. Chris didn't mean it, not really. Chris resisted showing weakness in his father's presence. If he showed weakness, it made it hurt more when Leo disappointed him. Leo sighed a very large sigh, his shoulders slumping.

"You're right", Leo admitted, "about everything." I was what Chris had always wished for, every single birthday. All he had ever wanted from Leo was an apology, and an admission. He stole a glance at his father, surprised to see tears in his clear blue eyes. Not once, in all of his 23 years of life, had he seen his father cry. Despite his best efforts, he felt a tear form in the corners of his emerald eyes.

"I don't hate you", Chris said softly. Leo smiled through his tears. Leo moved forward to hug his son, but though better of it. Chris held out his hand, and Leo took it, shaking it vigorously. Father and son said nothing, at a loss for words.

"Well…see you around son", Leo said somberly. He orbed out in a swirl of blue-white lights, leaving Chris alone on the bridge.

"I love you dad", Chris said into nothingness…

The image in the water faded and died. As one, we all took a step backwards. I turned to Melinda and I saw tears in her eyes. She tried to pretend that Leo's frequent absences didn't bother her. Knowing her, as I did, I know that that was a lie. Everything that Leo did, or didn't do, affected her deeply.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm sorry he's still like that", the Chris in our attic said. I looked once again at Melinda. She was looking at Leo, studying him intently.

"Melinda", Leo whispered. He looked crestfallen, appalled by the behaviour that he had witnessed from his future self. Melinda looked up as she heard her name. She shot her father a vehement look. Her eyes, so like Leo's, were filled with a mixture of pain and anger.

"Shut up", Melinda said bitterly. She would never forgive Leo. I then saw Leo do what he had done so many times in the future. He disappeared in a swirl of blue-white lights.

I finally tore my eyes away from Leo, to look at Grams. I knew this was a lot for her to take. She was getting a little teary, something I had never seen before. She walked to Melinda, who was standing there, shocked, and wrapped her in a motherly embrace.

This had been a trying ordeal for all of us. All I wanted to do at that moment was to go home. I walked to the Book of Shadows. This book was a great source of comfort for me. It was always an answer for all of my problems. I ran my finger along the green cover. The moment I touched the cover, my mind was assaulted with a series of images.

I saw a darkened cave. A large red demon with black markings. He threw a fire-ball into a crumbling wall. Another muscular demon. Secret plans. Murder. It was all so jumbled.

I gasped, and I took an involuntary step backwards. It took me a moment to realize that I was trembling from head to toe. I hoped against all hope that what I had seen would never happen.

"Patience, What did you see?" Melinda asked nervously.

I gulped, trying to control my trembling. My voice, barely a whisper as I answered, "My dad…"

TBC…