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! Sorry to keep you waiting for this update. I ended up suffering with a severe case of writer's block on the very last chapter of the story. Go figure! Anyway, this epilogue ended up extra long so I'm posting it in two parts. This part is a little bit shorter than usual, but it ends at the natural breaking point in the chapter. The second - and longer – part will be up sometime over the weekend (probably Sunday), and then we'll finally be done. After over two years of writing, this story will at last be complete.

OOOOOO

Previously…

Piper smiled up at Leo and he bent to kiss her upturned lips.

"He's here," she said quietly when their mouths parted.

"Yes, he is," he agreed.

"Do you want to hold him?" she asked.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" he replied laughingly.

Piper giggled and relinquished her child to his proud father. Leo took his baby son in his arms and gazed down into his round little face. Chris blew bubbles at him and he smiled.

"Welcome to the world, Christopher Perry Halliwell," he intoned solemnly. The choice of middle name seemed appropriate somehow, and he didn't think his wife would have any objections.

"Oh and by the way, just in case you were wondering, I'm your Dad."

OOOOOO

Epilogue – No Place like Home

Twenty-three years later…

"Piper?"

Leo awoke to find his wife not in bed beside him. He glanced at the bedside clock – Five A.M. Piper didn't answer his softly spoken query, but he could just make out the outline of her form curled up on the window seat nearby. Her chin was resting on the top of her hand as she watched the approaching dawn through a gap in the drapes.

Pushing back the covers, he slipped out of bed and crossed the room to join her. As he sat down beside her and laced his fingers through hers, Piper forced a smile, although he could tell her heart wasn't really in it. She was in her fifties now, but she was still as beautiful as ever as far as Leo was concerned. A few lines marred the smooth skin of her face, but only the odd grey hair disturbed her dark locks. She'd cut her hair shorter in recent years so that it now framed her face in a sleek, shoulder length bob, a style that suited her greater maturity. He reached out to tuck a stray strand behind her ear, loving the silky feel of it against his skin.

"Today's the day, huh?" he said softly, instinctively knowing what was troubling her without her having to tell him. After nearly thirty years together, they were so in tune that sometimes it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.

Piper nodded. "I didn't think I'd be so nervous," she confessed. "I want it so much and yet I'm dreading it at the same time. It's been twenty-three years and there's been this ache inside me for so long… but the thought of giving up our Chris…" she trailed off and looked down at their entwined fingers, biting her bottom lip in anxiety.

Leo squeezed her hands. "We're not giving up anything, Piper. Things are about to come full circle that's all. We've watched our sons grow up - become men - but there's always been something missing. I know it; you know it and the boys do too."

"Wyatt doesn't," Piper pointed out.

"I think he does in a way, even if he doesn't know why. And not telling him was Chris's choice – you know that."

"And that absolves us from all responsibility does it?" she said.

"No of course not, but we have to trust that Chris knows what he's doing. If Wyatt takes it badly, then we'll deal with that, but I honestly don't think it's going to come to that. Sure, he might be angry and upset at first, but he'll get over it. He's not the type to hold a grudge."

"What if he's disappointed?" Piper asked fearfully. "The other Chris, I mean."

Leo laughed softly at that. "Piper – you're here, Wyatt's good. Trust me – he is not going to be disappointed. What Chris wants is pretty elemental after all. He wants a happy family and a second chance at life. We've given him both of those things so I really don't think there's anything to worry about."

"I guess not," Piper agreed somewhat dubiously.

Leo wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. "It'll be all right," he assured her as he rubbed his hand soothingly up and down her back.

Piper sighed and settled into him, taking comfort from his quiet strength. "I hope so," she said, "This day has been such a long time coming. I don't think I could handle it if it all went wrong at the last minute."

"It won't," her husband said firmly, "Because we're not going to let it. After twenty-three years of waiting, our family is finally going to be complete, and nothing is going to get in the way of that. Nothing."

OOOOOO

Three hours later…

Chris emerged from a vast sea of nothingness into a hazy kind of dream world. Stepping into the portal had been different this time around. At first, it was all a blur of unintelligible sights and sounds, and then his whole body had pitched forwards into a spinning vortex of brilliant white light. He remembered feeling sick to the stomach and then… nothing… everything had gone black and time had ceased to exist.

Now though, he could feel the pleasant warmth of the early morning sun on his face, and the resultant light turned the blank scene behind his closed eyelids a fuzzy orange colour. The sounds of cars gunning their engines and the chatter of people on the street outside filtered into his confused consciousness, and he could hear the chirping of the birds in the background as they greeted the new day with their usual dawn chorus.

He cautiously opened one eyelid, quickly followed by the other and was instantly blinded by the yellow sunlight streaming in through the open window. With a plaintive groan, he hid his face in the pillow and rolled over, turning his back on the too-bright light. Opening his eyes again, he found himself in unfamiliar surroundings, which felt oddly like home nonetheless.

A photograph on the bed-stand caught his eye then and he quickly sat up, reaching out for the picture with eager fingers. It was a photo of him - with shorter hair - and Wyatt, also looking significantly more groomed than his first future alter ego. They were with their parents and all four of them were beaming happily into the camera. That's not what grabbed Chris's attention though – it was the banner he could vaguely make out in the background. 'Happy 21st Chris' it read in brightly-stencilled letters and his heart leapt inside his chest at the sight. His Mom was still alive – at least she had been two years ago anyway.

He sensed for her with a kind of desperate hope burning inside of him and sagged in relief when he felt her familiar presence coming from somewhere across the city. So he was still in San Francisco then. Where exactly was something of a mystery however. He frowned. Wasn't he supposed to have merged with his other self? Why didn't he feel any different?

He searched within and finally touched on the vague sense of another presence nestling in a far-off corner of his consciousness. There was a wary kind of curiosity in that awareness and he grinned in spite of himself.

'Okay, so that's weird', he thought.

'Tell me about it,' the other half of him seemed to respond before the presence quickly faded out again.

Chris was somewhat disturbed by that. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He wasn't supposed to replace his other self; he was supposed to join with him. They were supposed to experience this new existence together, become two halves of the same whole. The other Chris would've been loved by their family as much as he had been, and he didn't think they'd be very happy if he was all they got, regardless of how much they may have missed him in the years since his departure.

He didn't have too much time to ponder over that though, because the door suddenly opened and a familiar face appeared around the frame and smiled cheerily at him.

"I brought you coffee," Sarah Macklin said, as she came fully into the room and closed the door behind her.

Chris stared at her in abject horror as she pattered on tiptoes across the polished floorboards and handed him a steaming mug of rich-smelling coffee. She was dressed in a pair of low-slung, red cotton pyjama pants and a form-fitting white vest-top with tiny cerise hearts embroidered all over it, and had quite obviously spent the night. Her shiny mane of caramel-coloured hair was tousled and sleep-mussed, while her dainty feet were bare, her toenails painted a pale pink colour.

"Move over," she said, climbing unceremoniously into the bed beside him and propping up her back with a mound of pillows.

Chris shrank away from her in wordless dismay. Oh no, this was definitely not good. What the hell was his other self thinking? Geez! It was practically incest.

Sarah seemed oblivious to his shocked musings however. "Lazy-bones is still asleep," she told him, "So I thought this'd be the perfect opportunity for us to talk in private."

Chris blinked. "Lazy-bones?" he enquired.

"Wyatt," she explained pedantically as if he should have automatically known to whom she was referring. "I was thinking that we should do something special for his birthday."

"His birthday?" Chris repeated stupidly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know it's not for a few months yet," Sarah said, completely misinterpreting his confusion. "And before you say it, I hadn't forgotten that your birthday is only a couple of weeks away either. It's just that twenty-five is a significant milestone. A quarter of a century. I figured we should organise a surprise party or something to celebrate. I mean if we don't, who will? As his brother and his girlfriend, it's our duty don't you think?"

Chris spat a mouthful of coffee across the bedclothes at that. "His what?" he exclaimed.

"Okay, so now you're acting weird," Sarah said, eyeing him suspiciously. "You're not under some kind of spell, are you?" she demanded.

"No, no, I'm fine," Chris rushed to reassure her. "I just…" He stopped as something clicked together inside his brain. "You've felt like this all along, haven't you?" he said with a sudden clarity of understanding. "About Wyatt, I mean."

Sarah blushed furiously. "Yeah, well, the less said about my silly school-girl crush the better," she said, ducking her head in embarrassment. "And I didn't think you'd noticed," she added, punching him lightly on the arm in remonstrance.

"I hadn't," he confessed. "I only just put two and two together. That's why you've…"

"Been a walking disaster area around men for most of my life?" Sarah finished for him. "Pretty much, yeah. I suppose I went into self-destruct mode when all Wyatt saw was his little brother's tomboyish best friend and nothing else. Looking back on it, I'm glad it happened this way though."

Chris gazed down into her upturned face. "You are?" he asked.

"Well, yeah," she admitted shyly. "A guy like Wyatt - he had to break a few hearts before he settled down, didn't he? And despite my frankly cringe-worthy moping over the whole 'he'll never look my way' scenario, I've gotta say I'm glad he got the wild-oats thing out of his system before he finally decided to notice I was a girl."

"Okay, so this is going to take some getting used to," Chris remarked in a muttered undertone.

"What is?" Sarah asked.

Chris sighed. Damn her and her super-sharp hearing. "You and my brother 'settling down'," he said.

"I thought you said you were okay with this?" Sarah said, a look of dismay crossing her pretty features.

"Would it make a difference if I wasn't?"

"Not now, no," Sarah told him frankly. "It might have done in the beginning though. You've been my best friend for like… well, ever, Chris. I wouldn't want anything to jeopardise that."

"Me neither," he admitted.

"Wyatt and I have been together for ten months now though,. If you had issues with it, you should have said something before."

Sarah's voice was cool and accusatory in tone and Chris flinched. "Sarah, it's not that, I swear. It's just… well, let's just say it's been a weird morning."

Sarah didn't look particularly convinced and he felt a wave of guilt wash over him. The revelations had been coming thick and fast and he wasn't getting any time to process them, resulting in him offending her when he honestly hadn't meant to.

He reached out and placed a consoling hand on her forearm. "Look Sarah," he told her earnestly. "Something is happening here that you don't understand so you're going to have to forgive me if I keep putting my foot in it. I'll explain it all to you very soon, I promise. And just so you know - if I was okay with you and Wyatt yesterday then I'm okay with it today. I just don't necessarily know it yet."

Sarah looked steadily at him. "You do know that didn't make any sense whatsoever, don't you?" she told him.

Chris laughed a touch ironically. "Yeah."

"Well, I always knew you were weird." She shot him a sidelong little smirk and he grinned back at her in return.

"There's a few other things you haven't been telling me lately though," Sarah went on, her tone more serious now.

"What makes you say that?"

"Chris, I know you. I know you've been hiding something – and Wyatt does too by the way. He's not stupid. He knows there's something going on that he doesn't know about."

Chris nodded. Obviously his other self had some inkling of what was about to happen. Had their parents warned him? "All right so that's probably true," he admitted, "But there are reasons, I assure you."

Sarah sighed. "He'll kill me for saying this, but Wyatt's really worried about you, Chris. He's scared of a repeat of four years ago. We both are."

Chris hadn't a clue what she was talking about, but he was luckily saved from having to pretend that he did when Wyatt's familiar voice suddenly rang out and interrupted their conversation.

"Sarah?" he called.

"Damn," Sarah swore, scrambling out of the bed and heading for the door. "Trust him to go against type and actually shift his lazy ass before noon on a Sunday for once. Keep it zipped about the birthday thing, okay?" she said, turning back to look at him and running the tips of her thumb and forefinger across her lips to illustrate her point.

Chris nodded obediently, but when Sarah twisted the handle and opened the bedroom door, a flutter of butterflies stirred in his stomach. This would be his first encounter with his non-evil brother for nigh on nine years now. He was suddenly inexplicably nervous.

"Here, Wyatt," Sarah called and Chris heard the approach of footsteps followed by the sound of a brief kiss.

"Should I be worried?" his brother's amused voice filtered in from the hallway.

"About what?" Chris heard Sarah respond.

"About you being in my brother's bedroom dressed like that," was Wyatt's reply.

"It's a lot more than I was wearing in your bedroom last night," Sarah pointed out with emphasis.

"Good point," Wyatt mused with aplomb.

"And besides," Sarah went on, "I have better taste."

"Hey! Still within earshot here," Chris protested.

Sarah ducked her head back into the room and grinned at him. "Honey, you know I love you, but I mean, come on - that'd just be so… eww!"

She shuddered exaggeratedly and Chris smiled, remembering his own sense of revulsion when he wrongly thought she'd spent the night in his other self's bed. "Definitely eew!" he agreed.

"Some girl is going to be lucky to have you some day though," she told him with a warm smile.

Wyatt appeared in the doorway then, dressed in a pair of dark-blue jeans and a simple white t-shirt. "I'd say that's a matter of opinion," he said dryly.

"Wyatt!" Sarah admonished, and he doubled-over with a slight 'oomph' when she elbowed him lightly in the stomach in remonstrance.

"Hey! I was kidding!" he griped, rubbing his lower ribcage. "There's no need to get physical."

"There's not?" Sarah asked cheekily and Wyatt eyed her suggestively up and down in return.

"Well, if you're offering…" he drawled, hooking an arm around her waist and tugging her up close.

"… then you really need to get a room," Chris interrupted before he could stop himself.

His brother threw him a cat-got-the-cream grin, then effortlessly swept a giggling Sarah up into his arms, and playfully threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. "I was gonna make pancakes for breakfast if you're interested," he called over his shoulder as he strode out of the room with her.

As Sarah's squeals of protest faded into the distance, Chris settled back against the pillows with a sigh. This was going to take some getting used to, he decided. He was so within the mindset of his other life that he couldn't fathom out this one at all. His brother was good – and dating his best friend no less. He hoped Wyatt was treating her right.

He shook his head, knowing he shouldn't be thinking that way. His brother was good – his first loyalty should be to him not to Sarah. It was hard to see it that way though, not when the memory of the other Wyatt was still so fresh in his memory. The only experience he'd ever had of a good Wyatt was as a child and a teenager. He didn't know the man at all, and maybe that was the problem.

Throwing aside the bedclothes, he climbed out of bed, went through into the adjoining on-suite and took a quick shower to clear his head. Five minutes later, he emerged from the bathroom, went to the closet and selected a pair of faded Levis and a forest-green t-shirt to wear. Once dressed, he turned for the bedroom door and the new life that lay beyond its threshold.

Something caught his eye as he opened the door, and he grinned at the sight at the pair of roller-blades and hockey stick that were propped up in one corner. His other self had kept up his childhood hobby then. He'd been in the roller-hockey league at High School and, in this life, had apparently followed the sport through into… college maybe? He wondered what else his brand new life entailed.

He wandered down the unfamiliar corridor towards the sound of voices, spying another bedroom on his left and a bathroom to his right before the narrow hallway widened into a large open-plan living area. The kitchen was off-shot from the lounge with a large breakfast bar making up one of the interior walls. Sarah was perched on a high stool at that bar, while Wyatt stood on the opposite side, looking out from the well-equipped kitchen behind him. His brother held a large frying pan in his hand and was currently dishing up the promised pancakes onto three separate plates.

"Took your sweet time, didn't ya?" he remarked as Chris joined them and climbed up onto a stool beside Sarah.

"Oh and of course you're the perfect example of an early riser, aren't you?" Sarah retorted on Chris's behalf and he grinned. Obviously dating Wyatt didn't mean she'd given up on being his own personal cheerleader. Somehow, that made him feel a whole lot better about things and he relaxed a little.

"Are you all right?" Wyatt asked then, casting him a searching look, the expression in his blue eyes full of concern.

Chris immediately tensed back up again, startled by his brother's ability to read his uncertain mood. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he said too quickly and Wyatt frowned.

After a tense moment, his brother apparently decided to let it pass though and instead pushed the maple syrup across the counter towards him without any further comment.

Chris drowned his breakfast in the sticky, sweet liquid and tucked in, surprised to find Wyatt was actually a very good cook. An ex-chef had raised them both, so it made sense that he would be of course. He didn't take much part in the conversation as the three of them ate their meal, content to sit back and observe the changes that an entirely different future had wrought in his brother and best friend.

Sarah seemed so much happier, her eyes were shining and she laughed often. Her sparkling wit was still as acerbic as ever however, which he found particularly reassuring. She was still the girl he knew, just a little more relaxed and laid-back about her life. He supposed not living in a world run by his evil dictator brother had something to do with that.

Wyatt was a complete revelation. Where his evil counterpart had gloried in his eminent power, this Wyatt radiated a kind of calm self-possession and seemed utterly self-effacing about his magical superiority. His humour was dry and understated, but Chris got the distinct impression that he could turn on the authoritarianism like a faucet should the occasion demand it.

The doorbell rang as they were finishing up their breakfast and Sarah jumped like she'd been shot. "That's not your Mom, is it?" she anxiously demanded of Wyatt.

"So what if it is?" he asked her in a maddening tone of voice.

"She's gonna know I stayed here last night," Sarah said, looking down her pyjamas in wide-eyed dismay.

Wyatt laughed. "I think she knows you stay over already, Sarah," he told her.

"Well there's knowing and there's knowing, isn't there?" Sarah replied. "I'll get dressed," she decided, then slid down from her seat and escaped into the bedroom, her long hair streaming out like a banner behind her.

Wyatt watched her go, his expression unreadable, and then sighed and looked over at his brother. "I've got it so bad," he lamented with a rueful shake of his head.

Wyatt's confession was reassuring to say the least, but Chris wasn't quite sure what to say even so. His brother was obviously sincere, even if he did appear a little resigned to his fate.

"And this is a bad thing?" he asked, finally settling on what he hoped was a suitable response.

"I just thought I'd be a carefree bachelor for a little while longer," Wyatt bemoaned, "But she's under my skin now. She snuck in behind my defences whilst I wasn't looking."

Chris had an epiphany at that point. Wyatt was talking to him man-to-man, brother-to-brother. This is what he'd fought so hard for. For the right to have a normal relationship with his older sibling, to be friends with him and share a slice of his life as he always should have done in the first place. He grinned.

"Maybe bachelorhood is overrated," he suggested.

Wyatt chuckled at that. "Maybe," he conceded. "Fun though," he added as he went to answer the ringing doorbell.

"I won't tell Sarah you said that," Chris called after him and Wyatt laughed again.

It wasn't their Mom at the door, but it was someone Chris recognised.

"Stacey," he exclaimed, jumping down from his stool and hurrying over to greet her.

"Hey you!" Stacey grinned at him as she came into the apartment. "Did I beat everyone else to it?"

"Seems so," Chris replied, giving her a quick hug before he stepped back to take in her altered appearance.

"Don't. I'm old and ugly!" she protested and he laughed. Yes, she was older but she certainly hadn't lost her looks.

He transferred his gaze to the man who had entered the apartment behind her, carrying a large flat package under one arm. "Still around I see?"

Paul Bradshaw set the package down on the floor, leaning it against the sofa to stop it from falling over. "Apparently," he replied.

"Uncle Paul!" Sarah's voice exclaimed from the doorway. "And Aunt Stacey? What are you two doing here?"

"I think the question is – what are you?" Stacey replied teasingly as she hugged her niece hello.

Sarah blushed and cast a quick look at Wyatt before letting out an embarrassed little giggle. "Well…"

Stacey laughed. "Honey, you're past the legal age of consent. It's really non of our business."

Sarah grimaced. "Try telling Dad that," she said.

"Yeah well, my brother always has been manically overprotective."

"So what are you doing here?" Sarah pressed.

"I came to bring my god-son an early birthday present," Stacey replied with a sly, sidelong glance at Chris, who stared at her in utter amazement.

"Your w-what?" he stuttered.

Stacey giggled. "Yeah, I found it a little weird at first too," she said, then gestured at the wrapped package. "Open it. I've been saving it for you."

Chris unceremoniously tore away the brown paper wrapping and admired the painting within. It was the one of the Golden Gate Bridge that she'd been working on when he'd left. "You finished it," he said.

"Yeah."

"Wow Aunt Stacey, it's stunning." Sarah said. "How did you know what the Bridge looked like from that angle?"

"With some imagination and a little help from a good friend," Stacey replied with a wink at Chris.

"So – anyone for coffee?" Wyatt asked then and they all nodded.

"Uncle Paul?" Chris enquired teasingly after Sarah had followed his brother through into the kitchen.

"For twenty-one years," Stacey said, proudly showing him her wedding ring before her expression turned serious again. "Are you okay?"

"Umm yeah, I think so. It all feels kind of weird and my other self seems to be shunted off to one side at the moment."

Stacey nodded. "Your Dad said that might happen," she told him.

"He did?" Chris was remarkably relieved to hear that.

"He said the merging of two souls was a pretty cataclysmic event," Stacey explained, "And that it might take a few weeks for everything to balance out."

"So what's he like then? The other me?"

"Like you for the most part," Stacey replied, "Just a little more carefree, I guess. Not quite so serious and fanatical about things."

"And is he… I mean, am I okay with that?" Chris asked, gesturing towards the kitchen and the couple within.

Stacey giggled. "I think you were a bit shell-shocked at first, but you've gotten used to the idea now. You were concerned about what would happen if they split up, but you don't seem so worried about that any more. Not quite sure why to be honest. Wyatt's a great guy, but he's never been one for long-term relationships."

Chris smiled, remembering his brother's earlier comment. "I think maybe I have a reason to believe that may have changed," he told her.

Stacey beamed. "Well, that's good, because she's head over heels, always has been in fact. I thought when you said she was self-destructive around men that it was you she was hankering after - seems I picked the wrong brother."

Chris sat down on the sofa and curled his legs up underneath him. "And do I know about me?" he asked.

Paul and Stacey exchanged a meaningful look before the latter reluctantly replied in the affirmative. "Yes."

"But Wyatt doesn't?"

"No, no, he doesn't."

"And does the fact that you're both acting all weird have something to do with 'what happened four years ago'?" Chris enquired astutely.

Stacey nodded solemnly. "Yes, but I think you should be talking to your Mom and Dad about that. It's not my place to say anything and I don't really know everything that went on anyway."

Chris looked at her and Paul, unease stirring in his belly. "It was bad, wasn't it?" he asked.

"It was a rough time for you – and your family," was all Stacey would say.

The doorbell rang again then and Chris was bowled over by the sense of a very familiar presence from outside the apartment. "Mom!" he murmured, and then he was on his feet and heading for the door.

Wyatt wandered back into the apartment's living area just in time to see his brother pull open the door and launch himself into their Mom's waiting arms. "Mom," he repeated, his voice thick with emotion.

"Hey honey!" Piper's eyes filled with tears as she held her son close and Wyatt was concerned to see his brother's shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

He hated this. After Chris's emotional breakdown four years ago, he had slowly come to realise that his family were keeping something from him. Something important. They hadn't lied to him exactly, but there was definitely something they weren't telling him.

"It's not time for you to know yet, Wyatt," his father had told him when he'd questioned him about it shortly after his brother's discharge from the hospital.

He'd had to accept that and for the majority of the time, he did. Chris had recovered and things had gradually returned to normal. Except these last few weeks, his brother had started to get antsy again and Wyatt had feared a return of his depression. When he'd shared his concerns about this with his parents though, they hadn't seemed all that bothered. It was almost as if they'd been expecting it and didn't think it was anything to worry about, which only made him even more suspicious.

Chris pulled back from their Mom and turned to greet their Dad, who hugged him and slapped him on the back with an emotion-filled, "Good to see you, son," just as a twinkle of blue orb lights announced the arrival of their two Aunts.

"Oh, I've missed you," Phoebe exclaimed as she and Paige hugged their nephew in a jumbled three-way embrace.

"Not the endless demon hunts though," Paige put in laughingly.

Wyatt's eyes narrowed, they were greeting each other as if they'd been apart for years, when in fact it had barely been forty-eight hours. Something inside him snapped. He'd had enough. They were going to tell him what was going on whether they liked it or not.

"All right, so is someone going to explain why my entire family seems to have completely lost the plot this morning?" he demanded stridently.

They all turned to look at him, shock written across their faces. Okay, so maybe he'd gone a little overboard and turned all 'Twice-Blessed' on them, but damn it, he wanted to know what was going on! He saw his father glance questionably at his brother and that irritated him even more. Why did Chris get to make the decision? It was him who was being unfairly kept in the dark. Just as he was about to point this out, his brother inclined his head in silent acquiescence and his father turned to face him.

"I think you'd better sit down, son," he said, his tone solemn.

Wyatt's heart sank like a stone inside his chest. Something told him that whatever he was about to learn would rock his world on its foundations. Suddenly, he wasn't so sure he wanted to know, but there was no going back now. He'd gone ahead and asked the question, and now he was going to get his answer...

To be continued…

A/N2: I think part of the reason I had trouble with this chapter was because I felt like I was betraying my character, Chloe, from my 'Unrequited' universe with the Wyatt/Sarah relationship. I had to keep telling myself that this was a completely different AU – one where the first Chris didn't die. I guess I've gotten too attached to my Emily and Chloe characters, huh? LOL!

Anyway, see you all soon with the final part.

CharmedBec x