CHAPTER ELEVEN

"It was a genie's wish," I reminded Leo, desperately. "Doesn't that mean she get a second chance?" I begged.

He thought about it. "That's a good question. I don't know. I'll check with the other Elders," and he orbed out.

When we returned to the living room with the coffee, we found Chris and Prue laughing together. I was happy to see them getting along so well and couldn't help but notice that Chris looked as much like Prue as he did like Piper. They told us that typical Chris when he wanted to tell someone something, he'd just come out and said it, explaining to Prue that Shax had only killed her and that she had been dead for the last few years and was brought back by a genie's wish. Somehow that had distracted her from finding out about Paige. I wondered what they were laughing about. Much, much later, I found out about the rest of their conversation:

Prue shook her head, still trying to wrap her head around the idea that she had actually died, but couldn't remember anything about being dead--as far as she was concerned, we had only just battled Shax trying to save the doctor. "Really, that is a very interesting story. Lucky for my astral-projection power, otherwise, I would have just died again from suffocation. Thanks again for saving my life!" and she smiled at Chris.

He grinned. "Any time."

"So, what's your story?" she wanted to know. "Where you from?"

"Oh, that isn't important," he replied sadly. "I probably won't be around much longer anyway."

"Neither will I," she told him, already accepting what Leo was even then telling Piper and me. "Death never gives up a claim."

"Oh," then he added. "At least you get one more chance to see your family again."

She looked at him strangely. ""What family, besides Piper and Phoebe? Most of my other relatives are already dead. Unless you're counting my father. But he wasn't much of a father anyway. He was never there."

Chris smiled, and I could imagine how he felt, finally feeling some empathy with one of us. "Neither was mine," he told her. "I just got lots of broken promises and that was about it."

She nodded. "Letters saying he would definitely be there next time." Then she did a bad imitation of our dad: "Sorry princess, I have an important business meeting."

Chris smirked. "Exactly, well, not the princess part of course, but..." and they both laughed, and that's when Piper and I came in with the coffee.

I brought Prue up to my room and together we found her a nightgown and a robe that would fit her, then we went back down to the others. All four of us continued to talk for hours. Piper showed off Wyatt, who was awakened by the commotion. He seemed to take an immediate liking to Prue, climbing into her lap and falling asleep on her shoulder to her delight. She was surprised to find out that she had a nephew rather than a niece, but still seemed to fall madly in love with him, just like the rest of us. Well, the rest of us except Chris, but as always, he did a good job of hiding that fact.

Eventually both Piper and I knew we'd have to go get some sleep. Neither of us wanted to but since it was already passed three in the morning and we both needed to go to work later that day, we decided that we better get to bed. Chris and Prue nodded, so Piper took the still-snoozing Wyatt from Prue, and she and Chris continued to chat even as Piper and I walked up the stairs, both of us wishing Leo would come back with some good news from the Elders, even if we knew that was pushing. Piper was afraid that he might not come back at all, and thinking about Chris' upcoming "non-conception", so was I, but we were both so happy about having Prue back, at least for awhile, that we decided to worry about that the next day.

The next morning, when we dragged ourselves out of bed, we were surprised to find Prue and Chris still yakking away, getting along like gangbusters. I wondered if Chris had told Prue who he really was, but if he had, there was no indication. Ditto for his telling her about Paige.

Piper and I explained to Prue that we had to go to work. Of course, she knew that Piper owned P3, but she didn't know anything about me and Ask Phoebe. To my surprise, she was actually thrilled for me, agreeing that it was a perfect job for me. It felt so very good to finally get her approval for something that didn't do with magic, and I finally understood why Chris felt the way he did about Leo, or at least about the Leo he knew in the future. and why each time Leo pointed out something Chris hadn't done right, it just helped convince Chris more and more than his father would never give him his approval or his love. I was just as sure that just wasn't the case if he'd just let Leo know who he really was and why he had come back to the past. But I wondered if after all the lies he had told us, if he was afraid that Leo might not believe he was trying to prevent Wyatt from becoming evil. I'm sure Chris thought that Leo would be sure it would be Chris who became evil in the future, not his precious first-born son.. I wondered if that's why he was so determined that neither Piper or Leo found out who he really was.

At any rate, Prue agreed to stay behind and watch Wyatt for us, since she loved the idea of getting to play with her newfound nephew, having no idea she also had another one. Then I had to ask Piper if Leo had ever returned. She shook her head dolefully and I alone caught the look of panic in Chris' eyes. He decided to orb Up There and see if he could speak with him or one of the other Elders. I would've loved to know what he said, but unfortunately, that was something we never found out.

Later when we got back from work, Prue told us what happened after we all left. She played with Wyatt until he began getting cranky. So she brought him upstairs, looking into the various rooms until she found Wyatt's crib. She tucked him into bed and watched him until he fell asleep. Kissing her newfound nephew on the forehead, she went back downstairs and fixed herself another cup of coffee her way, which means that it was so thick and so strong, a spoon could stand straight up in it. She was bringing it back into the living room, where she was going to watch some television and try to catch up on what all she'd missed over the last few years when she thought she heard something moving around upstairs.

Wyatt!

Running upstairs, she saw a strange redhead standing over Wyatt's crib, reaching down to pick him up!