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: Phew! Writing this chapter has been really slow going – I just couldn't get it to flow right. Anyway, it's finally finished, so here you go. Apologies if it's still a little disjointed in places, but I need to move on before it drives me completely mad! LOL!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed - replies to individual ones at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 20

Chris tugged the long-sleeved black tee down over his head, and then surveyed his reflection in the mirror. His hair flopped in front of his eyes, obscuring his vision, and he irritably pushed it back off his face, for the first time noticing how unruly it had gotten.

In the weeks before his future father's arrival, he'd been getting more and more preoccupied with finding whoever turned Wyatt, and so had been paying very little attention to his outward appearance. Often forgetting to eat and never sleeping for more than a few hours at a time, he had gradually lost all sense of self. He had been a nervous breakdown waiting to happen but, trapped in his obsessive search for the ones responsible for his brother's downfall, he hadn't been able to see it.

The events of the last few weeks had changed all that though. Future Leo's unscheduled appearance had pulled Chris back from the brink, just when he had been about ready to crash and burn. The terrible numbness inside had gone now - he was Chris Halliwell again, the lonely and reticent Chris Perry was no more.

Frowning slightly in concentration, he muttered a quick spell under his breath and then watched as his mirror image shimmered and changed, his unkempt locks becoming shorter and more manageable in an instant. Giving his altered reflection a satisfied nod, he turned towards the door, then stopped, as several sheets of paper lying on the bedside cabinet caught his eye.

His father's letter - he'd read it again last night for what must have been the hundredth time since he'd received it two weeks ago. Moving back towards the bed, he sat down on the edge of the mattress, reached over and picked up the bundle of paper. Smoothing out the top sheet, his eyes dropped to the familiar words written in a neat, slanting script…

Dear Chris,

I think I can safely say that this is the hardest letter I've ever had to write. How do you say goodbye to one of your children? I honestly don't know, so I'll just write down whatever comes to mind and hope that it's enough.

Time – it goes so fast, doesn't it? It may be a cliché, but it's still true. It seems like only yesterday that your Mom was telling me that she was pregnant with you. I think we both thought that Wyatt would be our only child, so you were a rather unexpected addition to our family to say the least! However, no one could have been more wanted or welcome.

Looking back on our first few years together, the thing that I remember the most is your cheeky smile. You were constantly happy as a young child, I recall. Those big green eyes of yours were always full of such innocent joy as you took in everything the world had to offer you.

It saddens me that the trials of life have knocked that high-spirited nature out of you. We all lose some of our innocence as we grow older, but yours was ripped away in the worst way imaginable and it's left its mark. I know that the pain will never truly go away, but I hope your new life can restore some of what you lost and give you back some peace of mind…

Chris's stomach growled loudly at that point, informing him that it was well past time for breakfast. The delicious smell of his mother's cooking was drifting upwards from the kitchen down below, calling to him like a siren's song and he quickly succumbed to his body's need for food.

Carefully folding his letter, he pushed it back into the envelope and stashed it away in a drawer for safekeeping. He didn't need to read the words on the page anymore anyway; he knew the entire letter by heart. It had helped him deal with the loss of his other life, and stepped up his determination to change the future for the better at the same time.

When Chris had first arrived in the past, he'd been astonished at how lost his Mom and Aunts had seemed without Leo to guide and encourage them during their battle with the Titans. Growing up, they'd always seemed so strong and capable and he had never appreciated his father's role in that. He understood it now though. It didn't matter how dire the circumstances were, Leo could transform fear into confidence and doubt into self-belief with a few well-chosen words, just as he had done for his son in his final letter to him.

As Chris left his bedroom and wandered down the hallway to the top of the stairs, he mused over the changes that had taken place in his life over the past couple of weeks. With the revelation of his true identity, the roles in the Halliwell household had subtly shifted and he was still getting used to the new regime.

Leo had finally negotiated his position with the other Elders, striking a similar deal to his future self with regard to his family life. Reconciled with his wife, he had moved permanently back into the Manor, and was around a lot more as a result. With their former whitelighter's increased presence around the house, Piper, Phoebe and Paige were once again turning to him for advice, and Chris had been effectively sidelined from his role as their guardian angel.

Not that he minded - he had come to the past to save his brother, becoming the Charmed Ones' whitelighter had simply been a means to an end. To be honest, if anything, it was a relief to step aside. He had found his Mom and Aunts incredibly frustrating at times, not to mention utterly impossible to keep control of. He had wanted to strangle them on any number of occasions, and had no idea how his Dad managed to stay so calm and collected when they were running amok.

Chris had mentioned this to Leo, the previous day, and the Elder had thrown back his head back and laughed heartily. "Years of practise, I guess."

"That and an incredible amount of patience," he added, before throwing a shrewd, sidelong glance at his son "You handled it well, considering."

"Yeah right!" Chris scoffed.

"No, I mean it. It was always going to be difficult for you to relate to your Mom and Aunts on that level. You overcompensated that's all, became too draconian in your dealings with them."

Chris nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose."

"With the right charge, you'll do just fine," Leo assured him confidently.

"'Iss!"

Chris startled as Wyatt's excited squeal intruded on his consciousness. Lost in thought, he had unintentionally come to a halt outside the nursery, lingering there long enough for his brother to notice his presence. Wyatt was standing in his cot, his little hands clutching the bars for balance and a gap-toothed grin splitting his cherubic face almost in two.

Chris shook his head. It was still weird, he was never going to get used to this strange role reversal. All through his childhood, he'd been the one in awe of his big brother and now, it seemed, it was the other way round. Wyatt's blue eyes followed his every move whenever they were in the same room together, and he often orbed out of another family member's arms into his brother's lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

While his Aunts thought it was cute, Chris found the whole situation extremely disconcerting. His feelings for his brother were mixed-up as it was, without little Wyatt's hero-worship confusing the issue further. As much as he tried to ignore it and tell himself it wasn't really Wyatt's fault, he was still struggling to contain the deep resentment that he felt towards his brother for destroying their future.

He would never forget the look of abject astonishment that had crossed Wyatt's face when he had finally realised that his younger sibling was never going to support him in his efforts at world domination. Chris didn't know whether it was just supreme arrogance on his brother's part, or whether Wyatt did truly did believe that he was incapable of thinking for himself and would therefore blindly follow his lead, no questions asked.

Whatever it was, his adamant refusal to join Wyatt's cause had been the death knoll to their already rocky relationship. Up until then, Chris had retained some hope that his brother would see the error of his ways and make things right again. But, as Wyatt walked away with barely a backward glance, he'd finally had to accept that all was lost.

Already estranged from his father, it had been a bitter blow – their once happy family was now just a distant memory. Everything he knew and loved had gone. He had never hated Wyatt more than he had in that moment. Despite all of this though, when his brother's baby self beamed up at him with something akin to adoration in his gaze, Chris felt a great rush of affection that was impossible to ignore.

They used to be so close once, inseparable until the day of their mother's death. Chris had to believe that they could be again, or else everything he was fighting for would be for nothing. It was down to him to turn that hope into a reality. He had to stop this mysterious demon from getting to Wyatt; he just had to.

"'Iss!" Wyatt said again, louder this time, obviously not impressed with being ignored.

"All right!" Chris said testily, striding over towards the cot and hoisting his brother up into his arms. "Learn a little patience, why don't you?"

He perched a gurgling Wyatt, facing outwards, on his right hip, and then holding the little boy in place with one arm looped firmly around his waist, he descended the stairs at a jogging pace. Following the sound of voices into the kitchen, he discovered his Mom and Paige in the midst of their breakfast. The two women broke off their conversation as he entered and Piper looked up with a smile on seeing her sons.

"Morning sweetie," she greeted Chris as he joined them. "There's eggs in the pan – help yourself if you want some. They should still be warm."

"Thanks Mom," her son said as he deposited Wyatt in his highchair. "I think Mr Twice-Blessed wants feeding too."

Piper nodded, swallowed the last of her coffee and got up to prepare her eldest child's breakfast. Meanwhile, her youngest spooned a mountain of scrambled eggs onto his plate and moved over to join his Aunt at the table. As Chris buttered his toast and tucked into his morning meal, he gradually became aware of Paige's eyes on him. Glancing up from his plate, he saw that she was looking at him with a puzzled frown creasing her forehead.

"What?" he asked around a forkful of eggs.

"You look different," she said slowly, still struggling to work out what had changed.

"You've had your hair cut!" she exclaimed once it finally clicked.

Her expression of confusion quickly returned though. "How did you manage that between going to bed last night and getting up this morning?" she asked, perplexed.

"I… umm, you know," Chris replied vaguely, waving his hand to illustrate his meaning.

Paige's eyes widened. "You cut it yourself?"

"Err… not exactly," her nephew replied, flushing a little.

Paige smiled as she cottoned onto his meaning. "I think that's what they call personal gain, mister," she playfully admonished him.

"A little personal gain is good for the soul," he told her airily, "Provided it remains within acceptable limits of course. Abuse Mother Nature's hospitality too much though, and she'll bite back with a vengeance."

"Mmm – interesting theory that. I'd be intrigued to know who came up with it."

"Err… that would be you," Chris told her, a triumphant gleam lighting his green eyes.

"Damn! Walked right into that one didn't I?" Paige shook her head ruefully.

"And don't look at me like that," she added off her sister's disapproving look. "Someone's got to teach them how to have a little fun in life."

Piper humphed noncommittally and began to feed Wyatt his breakfast, while Paige stuck her tongue out at her grinning nephew, who, in her opinion, was enjoying her misfortune with an indecent amount of relish.

"So what's with the black-on-black look?" she asked, gesturing at his jet-black tee, jeans and boots.

Chris hesitated, casting a wary look at his mother before replying. He knew his plan of action wouldn't go down too well with her. She'd freaked out when he'd apparently 'gone missing' a few days ago; never mind what he had in mind for today. He hadn't actually gone missing at all, of course; he'd simply gone down to the Harbour Front for a walk and lost track of time.

Although he'd been in the past for months now, he hadn't really registered that he was back in the city of his childhood until that day. Seeing the children ride their bikes along the Harbour Front, and climb on the jungle gym that his Mom used to take him and Wyatt to as small boys filled him with a deep sense nostalgia. He had sat quietly and watched the activity going on around him for several hours, utterly entranced by it.

It was so very different from the devastated San Francisco that he'd left behind twenty-something years into the future, and it gave him another reason to keep on fighting - which brought him back to the purpose behind his dark-coloured attire.

"I, umm… thought I'd do a bit of snooping," he said lightly, attempting to sound casual. "See if I can find out more about how this demon guy is persuading the darklighters to cooperate with each other and work as a team."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Piper asked sharply.

Chris winced at her tone but stood his ground. "By going undercover and pretending I'm one of them," he explained matter-of-factly. "And before you say anything," he added defiantly. "I'm going to do this whether you like it or not. I'm twenty-two, not two."

Piper opened her mouth to protest, but Paige jumped in first. "He's right, Piper."

"WHAT?" Piper turned her furious gaze on her sister.

"He's an adult, not a child," Paige said calmly. "He has the right to make his own decisions."

"I've been doing this kind of thing for months now, Mom," Chris pointed out reasonably. "I'll be alright, I promise."

"Like you were the last time you mean? You could have been killed, or have you forgotten that?"

"That was different. I was acting on impulse because of…," Chris trailed off, dark pain reflected in his eyes as he was unpleasantly reminded of his Mom's horrific death. He swallowed hard before continuing. "I was reckless then, I admit, but I've thought all this through, I swear."

"How about we go over the details? Make sure you have everything covered," Paige suggested in an attempt to mediate between mother and son.

Chris started to object, but she held up her hand to interrupt him. "No Chris," she said firmly, "Piper needs to learn to let go a little, but you need to accept that things have changed as well. This is what family is all about – we look after each other, take the time to respect each other's feelings. She's your Mom – you can't stop her worrying about you. It's no longer acceptable for you to go off on your own without letting one of us know where you are, okay?"

"Okay," Chris agreed, both lamenting and rejoicing this loss of freedom.

In one respect, it was downright annoying, but it warmed him from the inside out nevertheless. He had waited so long for this sense of family to return to him. Bianca, his cousins and friends had been his anchor in recent years, but it wasn't the same, not really. This is what he'd been yearning for ever since his brother's defection had torn his family apart at the seams.

"All right," Paige said decisively. "Black clothing is one thing, but passing yourself off as a darklighter is quite another. How are you going to manage that? They know you're our whitelighter for a start."

"No they don't," Chris immediately contradicted. "They know of me, sure, but very few in the Underworld know what the Charmed Ones' new whitelighter looks like; I made sure of that."

"What about the darklighters who attacked us a few weeks ago?" Piper pointed out. "They've seen you."

"Yes, but they're all dead, remember? Dad energy-blasted them into a million pieces."

Not to be deterred, Piper tried a different approach. "So where are you planning to get a darklighter bow and arrow from then?"

"I made some vanquishing potion last night," Chris told her calmly. "It will be easy enough to track one down and disarm him."

"You make it sound like an everyday occurrence," Paige said.

Chris shrugged. "Because in the future it is - for me at least anyway. Wyatt used them as his personal army. I had to learn how to get past them to avoid being captured."

Piper and Paige fell silent as the implications of that statement sank in. Feeling guilty for making them face the painful truth about the grownup Wyatt once again, Chris shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"I'm sorry…," he started to apologise, but Piper cut him off mid-sentence.

"No," she said firmly, placing her hand over his. "It's hard to accept, but we have to - for your sake. It's what you went through and it's important that we recognize that. We wouldn't be much of a family if we ignored it."

Chris nodded, curled his fingers round hers and squeezed her hand in silent acknowledgment of the gesture.

"You need be careful not to get scratched by an arrow," Piper continued in a lighter tone, leaning back in her chair and returning to the original subject of the conversation.

Chris smiled wryly. "Why do you think I'm wearing a top with long sleeves?" he said, holding up his right arm.

"You really have thought of everything." Paige said, sounding impressed. Chris glowed with pleasure, until she took it upon herself to deflate his expanding ego.

"Except there's one problem."

"What?" he asked in a disgruntled tone.

"Your orbs."

"What about them?"

"Well they're blue."

A wicked grin spread across Chris's face. "That's easily remedied," he told her.

"How? You can't turn yourself evil."

"No, but the colour change spell I wrote when I was in sixth grade works a treat."

"Huh?"

Chris pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. He moved to stand in the centre of the kitchen and began to recite the spell.

'Red, and yellow, and pink, and green,

Are the first four shades of nature's queen.

Let the colours of the universe merge and unite,

Then fill my orbs with an orange light!'

He then orbed in and out on the spot, his previously turquoise orbs shimmering a garish tangerine colour.

Paige laughed. "Cool!"

Chris grinned at her. "The wording's really lame, I suppose, but I was only a kid at the time."

"How do you change them back?"

Chris demonstrated, amending the last line of the spell to 'Then fill my orbs with their original light."

"Black is essentially the absence of light though," Paige pointed out. "The last line doesn't really fit."

"Yeah well, I didn't think of that at the time," Chris replied. "I was only eleven – and I'd have been grounded for months if I turned my orbs black back then. I adapted it later when it became useful to pass myself off as a darklighter. All you have to do is substitute the last line with 'Then make my orbs as black as midnight.'"

Paige nodded. "Seems like he's got everything covered to me," she commented to her sister.

Piper studied her son, obviously trying to come up with a reason to prevent him from going. Eventually though, she had to admit defeat.

"All right," she said. "Go – just make sure you check in with us at regular intervals, okay? I need to know that you're safe."

"I will Mom, I promise," Chris assured her, leaning over and giving her a quick hug. He helped himself to another bit of toast and then left the room.

"You did the right thing, honey." Paige said encouragingly, patting her sister on the hand.

"I know," Piper replied. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"He'll be fine," Paige reassured her. "You've got to admit, he's pretty resourceful for a young guy."

"I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing."

Paige smiled. "Well, for now, I'd say it's a good thing. When baby Chris comes along however – maybe not so much."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me."

"You are excited though, aren't you?"

"About what?"

"Being a Mom again."

"Umm, well yeah, I guess."

"You could sound a little more enthusiastic," Paige reproved.

"No, I am – it's just different, you know. I mean, he's already here, isn't he?"

"You've only seen the end product though, Piper. You're yet to meet the original prototype."

"Paige! My son is not a 'product.' He's…," Piper stopped, the indignant look on her face melting into something else entirely. "Wow! I'm going to have another baby," she breathed, her brown eyes shining.

"Now that's more like it!" Paige said, smiling warmly at her suddenly glowing sister. She glanced at her watch. "Anyway, got to go; don't want to be late for my new temp job."

"Okay," Piper said vaguely, still lost in the heady realisation that she was going to have another child in less than a year's time.

Grinning broadly, Paige fondly kissed her sister's cheek and orbed out. Piper stood there staring into space for a few minutes more, during which time her eldest son managed to up-end his half-eaten bowl of oatmeal in an attempt to feed himself.

"It's nothing to be proud of, young man," she gently chastised him, when his delighted giggles broke her out of her stupor.

Wyatt just beamed toothily at her and she couldn't help smiling back. "What am I going to do with you, hey?" she said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head before fetching a cloth to clean up the mess. "I think we're going to have to get you a bit more house-trained before your little brother arrives, don't you?"

Half an hour later, a freshly diapered Wyatt sat in the centre of her and Leo's bed, his sticky pyjamas exchanged for a red t-shirt and a pair of blue denim dungarees. He was ostensibly leafing through a picture book, cooing at the bright pictures inside as his mother sorted a vast pile of dirty laundry into whites and colours, ready for washing.

There was a tinkling of orb sounds and Leo materialised behind his wife. "Hey!" he greeted her, wrapping his arms round her waist and pressing a warm kiss to the side of her neck.

"How you doing buddy?" he added, reaching over her shoulder to ruffle Wyatt's blond curls.

"The Elder Council meeting over then?" Piper asked.

"Yeah – finally," Leo said wearily, as he sat down on the bed and pulled his toddler son into his lap. "Sorry I didn't make it home last night."

"Doesn't matter – you'll just have to make it up to me tonight."

"I guess I will," Leo agreed with a warm smile. "So where is everyone?"

"Phoebe and Paige are both at work, and Chris is somewhere in the Underworld trying to discover more about the darklighter army. His Mom, incidentally, is deliberately immersing herself in domesticity in a vain attempt not to think about the danger he's in."

"He'll be fine," Leo assured her.

"So everyone keeps telling me."

"Chris hasn't made it this far by being stupid, Piper. He's twenty-two and a powerful witch. Stop worrying so much."

"That's easier said than done."

"I know, but you have to learn how to deal with it, or it'll drive you crazy," Leo said solemnly. "Try to keep busy, that's always helped you cope with this type of situation before."

Piper let out a resigned sigh, bent and gathered a huge armload of laundry to take downstairs to the machine. "Can you keep an eye on Wyatt while I do this?" she asked her husband, indicating the bundle of clothing in her arms with an incline of head.

Leo nodded. "Sure."

Piper looked back at him, irritated by his calm, unruffled tone. "Doesn't this bother you at all?" she burst out in frustration.

"Of course it does. Just like it does every time you and your sisters go into battle. I suppose I get through it by constantly reminding myself that you're all more than capable of taking care of yourselves. With Chris, it's a little bit different because he's my son, but the same theory holds – he can and has dealt with far worse dangers than this, Piper."

Calmed slightly by her husband's assurances, Piper nodded, then turned and left the room. She knew Leo was right – it was just a bit of an adjustment, that's all. She was used to being a mother to a ten month old; she hadn't gotten to the stage where she was ready to let her offspring fly the nest yet.

Chris had arrived in her life, fully-grown and independent, a man, not a boy, but it was difficult to treat him as such when her motherly love for him was only in its fledgling stage. The urge to nurture and protect him was so strong, that resisting it was proving to be problematic. She knew deep down inside that she had to find a way to combat her overprotective behaviour though. Because if she continued to smother him, it would drive her – and Chris – completely round the bend before long.

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Piper glanced up at the old-fashioned clock in the hallway. Chris had only been gone an hour and yet it felt like much longer. She sighed heavily, trying hard to ignore the worry gnawing relentlessly at the lining of her stomach.

Today was going to be a very long day, she decided.

To be continued…

P.S. Re: Future Leo's letter. You will hear more from it later, I promise. However, I wanted to show its impact on Chris and therefore decided not to write it out in full. Instead, you'll hear little excerpts whenever Chris thinks about it, or reads it again.

Re: Nice Hobbitses – Thanks for the long review. Much appreciated. Love your screen name! I do try my best to cut out the 'Briticisms' in the character's dialogue. However, it's sometimes very hard to tell what is and isn't used across the Atlantic. If anything slips in, it's usually because I don't realise it's only a British turn of phrase. If I consistently have the characters saying something that's incorrect though, please let me know – I like to make my writing as authentic as possible.

Re: Septdeneuf – Yes, the pace is a little bit slower at the moment, but that's because I've explored the emotional effects of Future Leo's departure a lot more than I originally intended. We're heading into the latter part of this story now though, so events will soon start to move at a quicker pace again.