Disclaimer:

"Charmed" and all related characters and events are the property of the WB television network, except for those characters specifically created for this story. This is a work of fan fiction and no infringement of copyright is intended.

Author's Note:

Pleas note that I am making Bianca's age closer to Chris' for story purposes. I am fully aware that this deviates from the show, as will many details; it is not a continuity issue.

This is another of the original stories running around in my cranium. There will be one or two original characters, but if you've read my stuff you know I lean toward the family drama side with Piper, Leo, Chris, & Wyatt. If you take the time to read and enjoy it please review it for me. If you take the time and don't enjoy it please tell me why.

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Chris was slinking his way down the hall past the bathroom to get to his room. He just had to get inside before anyone came down from the attic. Things sounded quiet and he knew if their demon was already vanquished then his aunts had filled his parents in and he was positive someone had heard Melinda slam that door.

"Freeze lover-boy." Piper had her son in her crosshairs. Standing by her bedroom door she couldn't tell if he was creeping to or from someplace.

He was trying to come up with something plausible to tell his mother because if she got wind of things the wrong way she would go on a tear that would last for hours. And he honestly didn't know if they had that kind of time.

"Hey, mom, is everything under control up there?" Chris had turned around to face her, but still made no move to go to her.

"Oh yeah, demon-wise things are settled, for now. Your aunts shared some interesting facts with your dad and me though before they left. When did you get a girlfriend and since when do we share our family secrets with outside people? Come here. I'm not going to shout this conversation down the hallway." Walking back into her room Piper didn't have to turn around to know that her son was right behind her.

"Mom, I know what you're going to say. I'm sorry this is the first everyone is hearing about or meeting Bianca, but I had my reasons for keeping it a secret." He had plopped down on the bench in front of her bed and watched as she paced non-stop in front of him. This was her lecture stance and if Bianca wasn't sweating it out down the hall he wouldn't dare interrupt the pending tirade.

"Chris you know better than to orb people in the house unannounced. What's gotten into you? You could have put that poor girl at risk. More than magical secrets were at stake up there. You are not a kid anymore. You're nineteen and smart enough and trained enough to know better."

The sisters had agreed long ago that they wouldn't do to their children what had been done to them. No one's powers would be bound, but serious rules, protocols and consequences for magic had been put in place and every second generation Halliwell could quote them chapter and verse. Chris' actions spat in the face of all she had tried to instill in him.

"Can I tell my side please?"

"You don't have a side in this. If you broke the trust then what's done is done and we may all suffer the consequences." She shut him down caustically.

"Mom we don't have time for this." Piper stopped short mid-pace and glared at her middle child. "It's just that Bianca's in trouble and we need your help. I told her you would help."

Chris' voice went all gentle and pleading and Piper softened a little. "You shouldn't make promises that I may not be able to keep." The break in her diatribe lasted all of ten seconds until she saw her daughter standing in the doorway.

"Is he in here putting yet another spin on why he left me this time? Or telling you why we had to orb home?" Melinda was in a full fledge pout now and was playing it for all the attention she could get. Plus if her mom nailed her brother to the wall in the process all the better.

"What?!" Piper's energy was kicked right back up. She turned on her son and venomously looked at him. "There better be more good explanations for this too."

Not even looking at his sister Chris threw up his hand and said, "Thanks a lot brat."

"Alright, put the breaks on, one crisis at a time. Mel, go start dinner for me please… just get the salad done. And I'll deal with this later. I'm sure your brother's sorry." She suggested eyes boring into Chris.

"Yes, Melinda, in case the three times I said it before didn't register… I am sorry." There wasn't an ounce of sincerity in his voice.

"Mom the only reason…." Piper held her hand up and halted him mid-stream.

"Take me to meet Bianca." This was a little easier then he thought it would be. Only he hadn't had a chance to tell her the most important part of his news, that Bianca was a witch too.

They walked down the hall and Chris opened his door to find Bianca splayed across his bed obviously having fallen asleep. He stood there next to his mother willing this awkward moment to go away.

"My, she doesn't look that stressed out over her looming troubles." Piper kept looking from her son to the girl. What the hell was she supposed to make of this? She was about to get her answer in the form of a rising Bianca.

"Oh, my God, I must have fallen asleep." Bianca jumped up from the bed. Great she thought what every mother wants to find a girl sleeping in her son's bed. "I'm really sorry. This is…."

"Relax. Something tells me this isn't the worse thing I'm going to see or hear in the next hour or so. We should go downstairs. I'll meet you in the conservatory." With that she walked away and headed down to put together some snacks, check on her daughter and wait to hear what trouble this girl was about to drop in their laps.

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They nervously awaited Piper's return. Bianca checked her cell phone and her mother had called her a half a dozen times. If she didn't start answering she knew her mother would start scrying. And no good would come of that confrontation because she knew her mother wouldn't be anywhere near as gracious as Piper Halliwell was being.

Crossing in from the dinning room Piper directed her first comments to her son. "You seriously have to make things right with your sister. This forgetting to pick her up is giving her a complex and you're the only one to make it right."

"Mom, I can't deal with Lindy's issues right now. She needs…."

"She needs to know that her brother loves her and isn't forgetting her on purpose. I'm not saying to run in and do it now, but make sure that it happens. She just needs reassuring, it's why she stomps around pouting and stirring up trouble for you all the time." Piper sat down and placed the tray of iced-tea and cookies on the table. Chris and Bianca sat on the wicker loveseat and Piper got comfortable in the chair.

"Before we tell you what the problem is we need to tell you who Bianca is." Chris leaned in and looked his mom square in the eyes. "Mom, Bianca is a witch. It's why I didn't have to hide who I was from her. She knows all about magic and all about the Charmed Ones."

Piper attempted to process all of this information. When Paige and Phoebe told her and Leo about this girl they knew the name was no coincidence. Chris hadn't retained any conscious memories from his little jaunt to past, but they had all kept there's. And this twenty-something raven hair docile beauty before her was still the girl who had held an athame to her throat so she could take her son back to his then murderous older brother. She had no idea what to do with this information. Certainly now was not the time to be blurting out unlimited and unfiltered truth to either one of them. The possibility of Chris' past life catching up with his present was still out there, but she wasn't going to force that revelation.

Remaining calm and neutral, Piper inquired, "So what is this big problem that needed my immediate attention.

Bianca picked up the story. "Have you ever heard of the Phoenix?"

Piper wanted to scream yes you murdering little witch, but refrained. It seemed Bianca didn't have memory of the alternate timeline now either. Piper thought how nice that must be, but she also knew that either of them could have their memories catch up at an unexpected time and it could be devastating. "No. Who or what are they."

"We are a family of assassin witches, descendents from a line that dates back to the witch trials, who are elite, very powerful and born with the distinctive birthmark of the Phoenix, symbolizing their rise from Salem's ashes. They have no allegiance other than to seek their vengeance and they will seek out and kill any bounty they're hired to bring down." Bianca let the information flow from her mouth without stopping for a breath and when she was done it all just hung in the air like a heavy suffocating blanket.

"Leo!!!" There was no way Piper was going to deal with this alone. She had to give the girl credit though she hadn't skimmed on any of the ugly details. This version of Bianca was slightly smoother around the edges, but no less forthright.

Leo's orbs entered the room and he took in the scene before he addressed anyone. Going to his wife's side he asked, "What's going on?"

"This is Bianca… Chris' girlfriend and she just told me all about her family. Believe me you're gonna want to sit down for this one."

Leo took the other chair across from his wife and Bianca explained it all to him in the same succinct rapid fire way she had only moments before. But what she added made them both sit a little straighter and focus in on this new information.

"I don't… I can't join them. I've been avoiding being brought into the fold for years, but my twenty-first birthday is next month and the coven is planning my initiation. They're planning to take me on my first kill. And I won't do it. I just won't!"

Chris put his arm around her and addressed his parents. "This is why we came to you. Bianca walked in on the meeting and freaked out. She called me and I brought her straight to you. Her mother knows about me, well she knows about a guy she's seeing, but we've been gone a few hours now and we think she may come looking. She needs help to get out of this. I didn't know what else to do." He was pleading with his folks to help. Knowing it was an impossible situation he just hoped they would have some idea of what to do next.

"The first thing we have to do is buy you time. You have to do what you can to get your mom off your trail at least for a little while. Can you do that honey?" Piper actually felt sorry for this girl. She wasn't sure why, but she could tell how much Chris cared for her and she seemed truly frightened at the possibility of joining the family business.

"I think so. I just need to call her. That should keep her from scrying for me and finding me in the house of a Charmed One." Bianca took out her cell phone and walked to the opposite end of the conservatory to make her call. Piper gestured for Leo to follow her into the living room.

"What do you think? Can we trust her? The last time either of us laid eyes on this girl she was one of those deadly assassins and she didn't seem to mind the job." Piper hadn't completely let go of her first impression of this girl from years ago.

"Things have changed though. We both know that. This is an innocent, for all intent and purposes, and she's seeking our help. I don't think we can turn our backs on her." Leo would always try to see the good in a person.

"I have to call my sisters, because if this blows up in our faces it could affect everyone."

"You do that and I'm going to check some things at Magic School. We may be able to help and without revealing ourselves to her mother." He kissed his wife and orbed out of the house.

Piper didn't believe for a second that this would go that smoothly at all. "Chris."

"Yes mom," he called from Bianca's side. She had just hung up with her mother, who wasn't happy, but did seem understanding enough about Bianca needing time to process. She was understanding because her daughter had left out a great many details and had shinned her on letting her believe that there was a possibility that she'd come around. She accepted that she was staying at a friend's and didn't pry for more details. They were both breathing a sigh of relief when Piper called him. Now they just had to get her to agree to let Bianca stay at the Manor for a few days.

"Tell your sister to set another place for dinner." Chris darted into the room and threw his arms around his mother. He wanted her help, but until just now wasn't sure she'd go for it all.

"Thanks mom. I wasn't sure…" Chris was cute off mid-sentence.

"Don't get your hopes up. Right now it's just dinner and talking. I can't make you any promises and certainly not before I speak with Paige and Phoebe. I think a coven of assassin witches might be something they want to weigh in on."

Chris thought to himself that now was when things got really complicated. His mom and aunts met on all things magical even though they didn't live together and had totally separate lives for the most part. Bianca staying at the Manor would have to go before committee. And Chris knew it wouldn't be easy. Piper went upstairs to call her sisters and Chris went back into the conservatory to Bianca. Dinner wouldn't be for another hour or so and all they could do until then was wait.