Chapter 1 (Lea)
Chris woke up to the sweet smell that he had missed for months and years. The smell of his sweet little confidante, his little sister. His special little sister. Lazily he rubbed his eyes as they strained to open to see the dream in front of him. A soft smile cracked on his lips.
"Wake up Chris. Come on you promised me a walk in the park." Azalea said as her little hands patting on Chris's thigh. Chris just let out a loud sighed instead of answering her. "Chris…" She whined as she shook her brother more. "I'm telling dad." She finally said as she slapped his leg as hard as she could. Chris kept very still without even taking a breath.
Azalea froze. "Chris?" She said nearing her brother once again putting one finger underneath Chris's nose to feel if he was breathing. He knew she would do that. He held his breath for some second. Just enough to scare Azalea. "Please Chris… you promised me. You promise you would be with me forever. You promised me." She started crying as she wrapped her arms around Chris.
Quickly as she laid her head on his chest that he wrapped his arms around hers. "Hey, don't cry, baby girl. I'm just playing." He whispered in her ears. "Shh…" He hushed his crying little sister. "I'm just playing. I would never leave you remember." He coaxed her.
"It's not funny." Azalea pouted as she turned her head away from him. Chris gave her a sly smile as he cupped her face towards him. "Don't you ever do that to me again. Ever!" She screamed in his face. "Never ever." She said softer this time.
Chris let out a laugh. "Wyatt did it and you did exactly what I did and just came to me and play. What's wrong Lea? Why are you crying?" He asked softly as he took his sister on his lap. "Are you afraid of me leaving or something happened?"
"I'm scared." Azalea spoke softly as she rested her head on Chris's chest. "I know I'm not a little baby anymore, but big brother always pick on me. You are all I have." She said merely a whisper.
Chris pulled her away from him. "Don't you ever say that. You still have mom and dad and Wyatt. He's our big brother. I'm only two years older than you. And you're scared I'll leave you? You're silly, little sister. You're funny."
"Chris?" Azalea said looking at his face strangely. "Chris, you're bleeding. Chris." She said. But her words almost did not make sense to him.
"Your voice. They're different." He said in a daze. His tone is light. As light as his body were feeling. As light as a feather. "Lea, this is not you. This voice is not yours. Andy, why?" He asked in despair. "Why are you doing this to me?" he asked as the apparition in front of him disappears.
Chris heard a screaming from his mother's room. A scream of pain. A scream of extreme agony. An ache too much for a person to handle. Then he heard his father asking of what happened. "Hurts." Was all he heard his mother saying. "We have to go to the hospital. You're losing too much blood." He heard his father said.
Blood, mom, Andrianne. His best night just became his worst nightmare. He was going to lose his sister once again. He was going to lose her before he even gets the chance to see her one last chance. "Oh God, please hear my prayers. Please save my sister from any harm. Shall she be born, I know I will give her another chance. Give me another chance to prove that I am worthy for your love, dear God. Please hear me for this is my only wish." He said silently looking up at the sky, overwhelmed with hurt and grief.
"Don't tell Chris." He heard his mother said as his father and Piper passed his room before making their way down to the car. 'Couldn't dad heal mom?' he asked himself critically.
Five years old Wyatt ran off to Leo. Little droplets of blood dropped on the ground even as he was holding his knee after a fall that scraped it. "Daddy, daddy it hurts." He cried. Leo just smiled as he looked at the wound and dapped it clean with his handkerchief.
"Can't you heal him?" Chris asked innocently. He had seen his father healed his mom numerous time after a demon attack and even he had seen his father healed a man who was shot. "Can't you make the blood stop?" he asked.
Leo just smiled at his younger son. "Well, that's an emergency. This, my dear, is really just a little cut. I can heal it but you would just go on and do what you did again. So let this be a lesson for you boys to stop jumping. And the pain would go away in no time." He said.
It was hours after the little accident Wyatt had and Chris just could not go to sleep. "But why wouldn't you heal Wyatt daddy?" He asked as Leo sat on the edge of Chris's bed.
"Well, I wanted him to be more careful next time he plays." Leo answered. "Pain is a normal feeling anyone feels growing up." Leo said as he caressed Chris's hair. "Chris, magic cannot heal everything. There are some things that only doctors can do and there are some things that must learn to heal themselves." Leo spoke gently to his son.
Chris sat quietly on the kitchen bar as stared at the clock in front of him. The clock hand shows that it was almost seven in the morning. Chris sighed. Piper should have been awake for almost an hour in normal times. Lazily he walked to the pantry and took out a loaf of bread and then set them on the table. He took out an orange juice and peanut butter then he stared at the table.
"Morning darling." He heard his mother said to him. "Chris?" Piper called to him again. Without a word he almost ran towards Piper and hugged her.
"Is she okay?" Chris asked her. Piper knew he was going to do that. All night at the doctor's office she had been contemplating on whether to tell him or just continue to lie to her youngest son. "Mom? Is Andrianne okay?" He asked looking up to his mother.
Piper shook her head. "I'm sorry Chris. She no longer in there." Piper said in a whispery voice. Chris felt as if the world had came crashing down on him. His little sister. His wish. His eyes burned with tears that threatened to come out. His whole body shook with frustration. "Chris, there is still time. There is still hope." Piper said stroking his hair as she felt him breaking.
Chris looked up at his mother and his eyes were demanding of something. Something even his heart could not decipher. Piper somehow could. "She is going to be with us once again. I promise you. Andrianne is going to be fine."
"I had a dream." Chris started. "I had that dream they died in my arms again. Lea and Andy. Mom, why couldn't daddy heal you? Why couldn't daddy stop it from happening?" He asked.
"Because it has to happen. You know things happen for a reason right? Maybe if the baby grows in my belly it could be a little boy, so god had to take it away to replace it with Andrianne." Piper answered.
Chris smiled a little. He tries his best not to think too much or burden himself too much about it. "I prayed last night." Chris said after a moment of silence between him and his mother. "I prayed that god would give us one last chance to keep Andy, to bring her to the world." He said. Piper smiled. He never prayed in his eleven years of existence. He never even believed in Santa Clause. He never asked anything to be given or anything in return for his kindness.
"Don't you worry so much okay? She's going to be just fine. Your dad and I would think a way through it. Just be like you used to Chris. I missed the lively little boy who ran around carelessly around the house and talk just nonstop." Piper said.
"He grew up mom. He grew up to be twenty two by the time he was ten. And he had no idea how he could tell you and dad about it." Chris admitted. The dreams and the memories he had remembered from the past life he had gone to saved Wyatt.
"Still, you should not burden yourself so much. You are still a child. You are still my child." Piper said softly as she sat down beside her son. "What do you want for breakfast?" She asked him as she got up from the chair.
"Let me do it today mom." Chris said as he took the peanut butter from his mother. Piper let him. His eyes were distant, his mind was elsewhere, but at least she knew one thing, she might just get her son back. Her little helper.
Leo smiled and greeted the two chirpily. "He feels okay?" Leo asked quietly at Piper. She just nodded. "How are you feeling, sport?" Leo asked. Chris just smiled at him. "Hey, everything is going to be fine alright." Leo said smoothly. Chris just nodded.
"The best thing will always happen to us in the worst of times. But it will just challenge us more. But Chris, the best thing is not always what we want and what we want is sometimes worst than the worst thing we could even think of." Andrianne said softly as she leaned her tired head on Chris's lap. "Are you feeling fine?" She said looking up at his teary eyes.
"Of course I am. I'm supposed to ask you that question." Chris said softly caressing Andrianne's hair. "Princess, if only mom got the chance to see you, she will be very glad to see her daughter is growing up very beautifully."
"And her son very handsome and such a great young man." Andrianne said sitting up beside Chris. "What's wrong big brother? It's not Wyatt again is it?" She asked. Chris just shook his head. "Hey, everything is going to fine alright." She said softly.
"Chris? Chris?" Piper's soft voice called, startled him. "Don't think too much okay, I'm here, your father is here, you don't have to carry all these burdens yourself, dear." Chris just nod to his mother afraid if what he wanted say would stir up more memories from his past.