FALSE MEMORIES

My first posted story here. Also my first Charmed Fanfic, although I have written fanfiction for other shows.

Disclaimer: The characters in Charmed do not belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.

Summary: Loved the Piper/Leo/Chris family dynamic in Season 6 so that's when this story is based. Set after Chris-Crossed and Prince Charming. Nobody knows who Chris is yet, but they're about to find out, courtesy of an unexpected visitor from the future…

Notes: Hi! Quick update for me. Don't expect it too often. I don't usually write this fast but this part just flowed out of me. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for all the encouragement, muchly appreciated.

Chapter 4

The bright morning sunlight streamed in through the gap in the drapes, its golden radiance waking the slumbering young man curled up in a foetal position on the bed.

Awareness slowly infiltrated Chris's senses and he jolted upright, surprised to find himself in his parent's bedroom at the Halliwell Manor, rather than on the lumpy sofa in P3's back office. The previous day's events suddenly crashed in on him and he fell back against the pillows, struggling to come to terms with the conflicting thoughts and emotions whirling about inside his head.

All his life, all he ever wanted was his father's love and affection and, last night, he had been handed that on a plate. The restored memories had hit him like a lightening bolt from the heavens, and he couldn't help but succumb to their potent power.

Chris closed his eyes and groaned, remembering his humiliating breakdown – an event that had occurred in front of his whole family, much to his horror. He wasn't used to expressing his feelings quite so openly in front of them, preferring to keep things bottled up inside instead.

Yesterday though, utterly overwhelmed by the devastating effects of the potion, he'd given in to his strong desire for paternal acceptance. Now however, in the cold, harsh light of day, he was plagued by sudden doubts.

What if it was a trick? What if his earlier memories were the truth and these new ones the lie? Could he risk letting his father into his life again? What if he turned around and rejected him once more? Could he handle that? Maybe it was best to maintain some emotional distance; it would be preferable to getting hurt again.

But, on the other hand, past Leo's attitude and personality made more sense now. He closely resembled the Leo of these newer memories – the Elder who was fiercely protective of his family – all his family without fail. If the Leo of Chris's restored memory was harsh in his dealings with his sons, it was usually for good reason, and he was always fair with it. This was exactly the way that past Leo treated the whitelighter – although without the added benefit of a father's love.

It could all still be a very clever illusion however…

"Arrgh!" Chris pressed his fingertips to his temples, willing his head to stop spinning. How was he supposed to make sense of this when he didn't know what was real and what wasn't?

"Hey!"

Jumping out of his skin, he whirled around at the softly spoken greeting. His Mom – no Piper, he reminded himself – stood in the doorway, a tray of food clutched in her hands.

"I thought seeing as you stole my bed, I should bring you breakfast in it," the eldest Charmed One said, crossing the room to join him.

"You didn't have to do that," Chris mumbled, somewhat confused by her sudden change in attitude towards him. Usually all he got from her was out and out suspicion, mixed in with a healthy dose of resentment for bursting her bubble about her precious baby boy. Now though, she seemed almost friendly.

"I know," Piper replied, not even attempting to explain the reason for her changed demeanour. She set the tray down next to him on the mattress. "Blueberries pancakes and maple syrup, is that okay?"

Chris's lips quirked up into a small smile and he nodded. "My favourite," he said, lifting the tray over his lap and picking up the knife and fork.

"I used to make them for you and Wyatt, huh?"

Chris looked up into her beautiful face, shocked. What the hell had Leo told her? He had promised that he wouldn't say anything. "I…," he stammered, not knowing how to respond.

Piper smiled and patted his hand. "Relax – time-traveller Leo explained that you and Wyatt were friends in the future. You should have told us before, you know."

Realising that his father had been true to his word, Chris breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to his breakfast. God, he was hungry, although… "I think there's enough to feed a small army here," he remarked, raising one eyebrow at the veritable mountain of food on his plate.

"Well, you're a growing boy," Piper replied in a motherly tone, causing a painful stab of remembrance to run through him. "And besides, you've apparently lost weight, so I've got to fatten you up, haven't I?"

Chris nodded, blinking back the tears as he bent his head over his breakfast. He began to eat, using the activity to cover up his embarrassingly emotional reaction to her mollycoddling.

Piper sat down in the armchair by the bed, and watched as her whitelighter literally inhaled the food on his plate as if he hadn't eaten a proper meal in days. With his hair all mussed from sleep and his protective walls shattered, she was struck by how young Chris looked. Her stomach burned with guilt – he'd only been trying to help Wyatt and she'd treated him so horribly. Still, hopefully now she had a chance to remedy that.

"How about we start with a clean slate?" she said, offering the proverbial olive branch to the young whitelighter.

Chris froze in the act of bringing a forkful of syrupy pancakes to his mouth. "Okay," he agreed warily.

"You could sound a little more enthusiastic about it," Piper gently reproved.

Chris looked down, uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation. How could he tell her that the thought of getting close to her scared the hell out of him? He had somehow managed to dissociate Piper from his mother in his mind, but if she continued to be nice to him, he didn't know how long he could keep that up. He needed to keep his distance for the sake of his sanity. Losing her again would kill him.

"I see you're finally awake," Leo's voice sounded from the doorway.

Relieved at the interruption, Chris turned to look at his father. Squinting slightly, he tried to work out which version of Leo he was dealing with, unfortunately coming up empty. They looked virtually identical; he knew them both but he couldn't tell them apart for love nor money.

"Future," Piper told him, sensing his dilemma. "We gave them both a badge to wear."

"Huh?"

Piper pointed out the large plastic emblem pinned to Leo's shirt. It looked like a child's birthday badge – the kind that usually said something like '5 Today' on them. This one had a bright blue 'F' stencilled on the front of it though.

Chris grinned. "Nice accessory," he quipped, trying not to laugh.

"We thought so," Piper said airily. "Only neither of them seemed that enamoured by the idea for some reason."

Chris did laugh then and Piper smiled in reaction, warmed by the unexpected sound. Despite his dry, sardonic wit, the witch-whitelighter rarely laughed. In Piper's opinion, he was far too serious for his own good, it simply wasn't healthy. She resolved to get him to lighten up a bit in the future, not fully knowing where this sudden need to take care of him came from. She just assumed that she must be feeding off Future Leo's protective attitude towards the boy. It was the only thing that made any sense.

Piper stood up. "Well, I'll leave you two to it. I'm sure you've got a lot of catching up to do."

Leo nodded to her as she left the room, and then sat down on the edge of the bed, facing his son. When Chris opened his mouth to speak though, he held up his hand in warning.

"Shut the door," he quietly instructed.

"What? Oh," Chris casually gestured with his hand and telekinetically did as Leo asked.

"Shoot!" they both heard Piper exclaim in frustration, her voice muffled by the thick wood of the door.

"She's so predictable," Leo said with a roll of his eyes. With his head cocked to one side, he waited for the sound of his wife's retreating footsteps, and then turned to look his son directly in the eye.

"So - how are you feeling?"

Refusing to hold his gaze, Chris turned to stare, glassy-eyed, at the far wall. "I don't know what's real and what's not."

Without thinking, the Elder reached out to lay a comforting hand on Chris's forearm, a gesture that he immediately flinched back from. Trying not to let the withdrawal bother him too much, Leo folded his hands together in his lap, his eyes still intent on his son's face.

"I know it must be very confusing for you right now but it'll get better with time, I promise," he said, attempting to offer reassurance through words, rather than actions.

Chris ached to accept the comfort that his father offered, but something held him back. "I'm afraid," he whispered, his eyes downcast.

"I know son, I know."

Leo was filled with sudden urge to pound the inanimate objects around him with his fists. Even knowing what Wyatt had become, he still couldn't quite believe that his son had done this to his own brother.

"What did you tell the girls?" Chris asked then, deliberately changing the subject.

Sensing that his son wasn't yet ready to deal with the more painful repercussions from yesterday, Leo allowed the change in topic. "Not that much. They know about Wyatt's spell and the potion - and that you're here to help, not hinder."

"You should tell them who you are though," he added. "There's no reason to keep it a secret."

Chris shook his head stubbornly, his expression shuttered.

"Why not?"

"I... I can't. It could change the future in even worse ways."

Leo closed his eyes, finally realising what the problem was. "Chris," he said soothingly. "Revealing your identity is not going to affect what happened to Piper."

"You don't know that!" Chris said harshly.

"Chris – I don't know whether your Mom's death was related to what happened to Wyatt, or was simply her destiny, but I do know that it had nothing to do with you. You've been given a second chance with her - to say all the things that you never got to say - don't waste it."

"I don't want to lose her all over again." Chris tearfully admitted, his head bowed.

"I know, but isn't taking the risk better than enduring a lifetime of regret?"

"I... I don't know."

"Just think about it okay?"

"Okay," Chris agreed, finally looking his father in the eye. "Do they know?" he asked. "About Mom, I mean."

Leo shook his head. "No, not the specifics anyway. They know Wyatt has two of them imprisoned in the underworld, and that the other is dead, but that's all I told them. That's all they need to know for now."

Chris nodded. "Mom – I mean, Piper - thinks me and Wyatt were friends as children."

"Well, I had to say something to explain away our connection," Leo lamented, giving his son a pointed look - a look that he conveniently ignored.

"Besides, it's not exactly that far from the truth," he added, a fact that Chris acknowledged with a brief incline of his head.

"Speaking of the truth – I think you forgot to mention a few things yesterday." Leo's voice was light and non-accusatory, but Chris started fearfully nonetheless.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean… I didn't know that would happen," he stuttered nervously, his eyes wild and his manner suddenly becoming agitated.

Leo once again cursed his eldest son. "I'm not angry…," he began.

"Just disappointed," Chris cut in bitterly.

"Neither actually," Leo immediately shot back. "You did what had to be done to save Wyatt. I understand that."

"But I split you and Mom up."

"Not intentionally."

"No but…"

"But nothing," Leo cut off his son's protest. "Besides it's all fixed now anyway."

"How?"

"I offered a bit of relationship advice," Leo replied with a hint of a smile. "It seems to have done the trick - seeing as it was Paige, and not Piper, that slept on the sofa last night."

"And I so did not need to know that," Chris said, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Leo laughed. "I'm trying not to think about it either," he admitted ruefully. "I know he's me but still…"

Lulled into a sense of security by his father's calm attitude, Chris almost relaxed, but there was still that lingering doubt in the back of his mind. Realising that he could be falling into a trap, the young whitelighter suddenly straightened, slamming those protective walls back up and shutting the Elder out again. Leo sighed heavily, finding it impossible to conceal his disappointment.

"I'm sorry. It's just…" Chris trailed off with a shake of his head, unable to meet his worried father's gaze.

"Don't worry about it. Just take your time, okay? Nobody said this was going to be easy."

There was a sharp knock on the door then, and they both jumped at the sound. Past Leo poked his head around the doorframe. "Hey! Can I come in?"

Future Leo nodded. "Sure, I was just leaving anyway." He reached out and lightly squeezed his son's forearm, then quietly left the room.

"Umm – Piper asked me to bring you this," Past Leo said, handing Chris a steaming mug of coffee.

"You mean she sent you to find out what was going on."

"Yeah well that too," past Leo acknowledged with a shrug of his shoulders and a glimmer of a smile.

"She's so predictable," Chris said, echoing his father's earlier comment.

Past Leo pulled up a chair and sat down. "Why didn't you tell me we knew each other? That you knew Wyatt?"

Chris shrugged. "It was easier not to."

"I might have been more supportive if I'd known."

"Maybe," the young whitelighter reluctantly conceded.

"Only that's not what you'd come to expect of me right? Because of Wyatt's spell?"

Chris didn't reply but his silence spoke volumes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Leo asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

It was strange but Chris felt much more comfortable talking to the past version of his father. It was easier somehow, less emotionally charged. Their relationship wasn't the best, but they'd reached an understanding of sorts in recent weeks. They were slowly starting to work alongside each other without the constant rivalry getting in the way.

"It's just so confusing. Everything's all jumbled up inside my head," he said tiredly, rubbing his hands over his face and raking his fingers through his hair.

Leo nodded in understanding. "I can imagine."

"I don't know how to make sense of it."

"I suggest you try to block out the emotional aspects of the situation," Leo quietly advised. "Work through the problem logically. Think about what you'd do if it were someone else in the same predicament. Basically just treat it like you would any other magical dilemma, and forget that it's personal to you."

Chris nodded thoughtfully. "I can do that," he said eventually. "Thanks Leo."

Leo could almost see the cogs working inside the young man's mind. "You're going to orb out and get me in trouble with my wife now, aren't you?" he guessed.

Chris grinned at the word 'wife.' "I'm sorry about well, you know," he said, gesturing with his hand.

"Tricking me into becoming an Elder and banishing me to Valhalla?"

"Yeah that."

"So it was you."

Chris cringed, realising what he'd inadvertently revealed. "I needed you out the way for a while. I guess I didn't think the consequences all the way through."

"Obviously."

"I'm sorry, all right? It was for Wyatt, I didn't…"

"Relax Chris, okay?" Leo quickly cut in. "My future self seems to trust you. More than that, he cares about you. I've decided to trust his judgement."

Chris blew out his breath between his lips. "Thanks."

"No problem – just don't make me regret it."

"I won't, I promise."

With that quiet avowal, Chris orbed out, leaving past Leo to wonder just what else there was to learn about their mysterious visitor from the future. He had the distinct feeling that there were a lot more surprises to come.

To be continued…