A/N If you don't know who Alice or the Tantrix demons are you need to read 'The Rising'

Chapter One

Secrets

A day previously:

"Say what?"

"I'm going to ask her to marry me."

"Why?"

"Because, I love her and she loves me. We've been together for three years and every six months she has to go back to Britain to get a new work visa, so it just makes sense."

"You know the authorities don't look well on marriages of convenience little brother, and how the Elders look on marriages of the Charmed Ones."

Chris simply raised an eyebrow at this comment, but he didn't mind so much as he could hear the laughter in his older brothers' voice.

"Okay, so it's not a marriage of convenience, I know it's not and if I'm honest, I'm a little jealous, after what happened with Leah."

"Well, maybe, you should have chosen a slightly less ostentatious way of proving you had powers than orbing a girl who's afraid of heights to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge!"

Wyatt Haliwell grumbled quietly to himself, in a way so similar to the boy's mother, Piper, that it made Chris Haliwell smile just to hear it, especially as he knew it came from anger at admitting the wisdom of what his younger brother was saying, for as close as they were and whatever they had been through together, they were still brothers and so, still held on to the last vestiges of sibling rivalry which so often defines that type of relationship.

"So why did you decide to do this then?"

"I don't know I just did. I summoned Alice yesterday and she helped me to chose the ring. I got it from that new place in town."

"You let a dead person help you pick an engagement ring, yet you choose to leave it until now to tell me, your real, live, big brother!" Wyatt smiled then "Well congrats' Chris. Seriously. She's great, man."

"Thanks, it means a lot coming from the Overlord of all good magick even if he is a little jaded. Speaking of which did you call Eden?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because dating a witch is really complicated!"

"Tell that to Leah!" Wyatt turned and threw bar towel at his younger brother who ducked smoothly. They looked at each other for a long beat and then simultaneously burst out laughing.

Meanwhile back in the present:

Kara dropped the shoes she had been holding.

"Could you repeat that please, I think I just hallucinated?"

"Will you marry me?"

She stared at him, her jaw hanging open like the hinges were broken and his heart sank a little further towards his boots for every second that she stayed like that and didn't answer.

"Yes," her voice no more than a whisper. Louder now "Of course I will."

Chris grinned widely and his heart soared up from where it had been residing in his boots so fast it made him dizzy. He reached under his side of the bed to retrieve a square, black, velvet box, before coming to stand beside her.

He pulled her close and kissed her with all the urgency of that first kiss in the Tantrix demons cave, three years ago.

He drew back and opened the box. Kara stared at the ring. A small, white opal, she had never liked diamonds. It wasn't big or ostentatious it was just...

"Perfect" she said softly, "it's prefect."

"It's okay?" Chris drew back his face worried and she felt such a fierce rush of love for this man that it nearly overpowered her. "It's wonderful, but it would still been perfect even it was a Hula Hoop, as long as it came from you. This is just a bit better than a Hula Hoop though," she joked her voice shaking with emotion.

He smiled and kissed her again gently, before drawing the ring from the box and slipping onto her finger...

...And staring open mouthed as she disappeared.