Little Monsters (in which Chris doesn't freeze)

Wow! Thank you all so much for the reviews and follows/favourites! It's so exciting to me that there are so many people still reading Charmed fics (and so many who love Chris-revelation fics as much as I do).

Not gonna lie, this chapter was kicking my ass for a bit, but I finally got it finished and I'm actually pretty proud of it. I was able include a moment between Chris and Paige which I really love. I'm hoping the next chapter will include a Chris x Phoebe moment, but I haven't even started that yet, so can't promise anything.

Also, I literally just finished this and decided you'd waited long enough, so please let me know if you spot any errors so I can fix them.

Why am I the only one taking this seriously? Chris wondered not for the first time that day.

Watching Leo heal the now-human Beast sent an ache through Chris's heart. Here was a man who was so devoted to his son that he would give up being human just to keep him safe. Who believed in his son so completely, that he was willing to put in the work and raise him to be good, in spite of his demonic heritage. Chris had never been able to get his father's attention, much less any kind of sign of such devotion.

"Aren't you glad you didn't kill me now?" Piper's voice drew Chris back into the conversation.

"Not funny. I don't think that's funny," Leo said.

"Agreed," Chris commented, trying to push down the emotions that flared within him at the thought of his mother being killed fifteen years earlier than her death in his timeline. To add insult to injury, had she actually been killed today, he'd not only have lost his mother forever, he'd have ceased to exist entirely.

"Oh, what, are you two on, like, the same team now?" Phoebe directed at Leo and Chris who both wrinkled their noses in identical expressions of disgust. She rolled her eyes, turned to the Beast and vowed, "We're gonna get your baby back, I promise."

Chris sighed irately, feeling dangerously close to losing it, "Do we not get a say in this?"

"No, we don't. One thing you gotta learn about being their whitelighter is once they make up their mind, that's it," Leo said, adopting that annoying tone he used when he was trying to be Zen and Elder-like.

Chris was already feeling frustrated. This entire vanquish had gone south from the beginning, and now, just as they'd gotten a stroke of luck and gotten rid of the freaking Manticore baby, the sisters wanted to risk their lives to get him back? And Leo wanted to let them?! Unbelievable.

And then Leo said the only possible thing he could've said to make Chris's frustration boil over.

"Besides, I'm a father first."

"I guess there really is a first time for everything," Chris scoffed bitterly, before he even realised what he was saying.

Four sets of eyes were suddenly on Chris. Piper, Phoebe and Leo all looked indignant, no one more so than the Elder, whose blue eyes were bright with anger. The Beast looked startled, not knowing any of them well enough to know what was going on.

"Excuse me?" Leo asked, his voice a dangerous and deadly kind of quiet.

Chris froze. He really didn't know how he was going to explain this one away. As an Elder, Leo couldn't be around Wyatt as much as most fathers were around their children, but he made sure what little time he did spend with Wyatt was quality time.

He was as much of a father to the infant as he could be. Which, again, was more than he'd ever done for Chris.

"Phoebe, how about you take our new friend upstairs and fill him in on the plan," Piper suggested. Like Leo, she spoke calmly, but was not able to completely veil her rage.

Chris swallowed hard. In the fourteen years he'd had with his mother, he'd never managed to inspire this kind of quiet, deadly fury in her. He was suddenly more terrified of Piper's reaction than the risk that he might inadvertently reveal one of his secrets.

She may very well try to blow him up. And though unbeknownst to the fuming eldest Charmed One, as a half-whitelighter, he wasn't entirely sure that that was something he'd survive.

"Do you wanna explain what you meant by that?" Leo asked once Phoebe and the Beast were out of earshot. He sounded pissed. Perhaps the most furious Chris had ever heard him sound in his entire life.

And that was including the time he and Wyatt had stupidly gone joyriding around the Grand Prix track that night in Monaco when they were twelve and fourteen.

"Not really," Chris mumbled, folding his arms across his chest defensively.

Piper narrowed her eyes angrily, "You can't just say something like that about my hu- my son's father and not explain yourself. Who do you think you are?"

Your other son. A tiny part of Chris yearned to say. The more logical part of him ruled out though. He may not get out of this without parting with at least one of his secrets, but he sure as hell wasn't going to give anything away if he didn't have to.

And there was still the question of whether or not Piper and Leo would even believe him, especially after everything that had happened since he'd arrived in 2003.

When Chris didn't say anything, Leo reminded him, "You made me an Elder, Chris. You're the reason I have to spend so much time away from my family. So what makes you think you have any goddamn right to comment on my relationship with Wyatt?"

The frustration was flaring up again. Under Leo and Piper's rageful gazes and their tag-teaming berating, bordering on lecturing, he felt like a teenager again.

Which was maybe why he shot back before he could think twice, "I'm not talking about Wyatt! I'm talking about your other son."

Both Piper and Leo's entire demeanours changed, their anger giving way to shock. They stood stiff and silent until finally someone spoke.

"Our- our what?" Piper asked dazedly.

Fuck. Instead of getting himself out of trouble, Chris had just dug himself a deeper hole. He clenched his jaw tightly, in the hopes that it would prevent his mouth from running away with him. Again.

It turned out he needn't have worried. Because seconds later, Leo launched himself at Chris with a roar, slamming him into the sunroom wall in a similar fashion to the way he'd attacked the young man after returning from Valhalla. Chris was too startled to do anything to protect himself from Leo, who held him pinned against the wall with his forearm against the younger whitelighter's throat, preventing him from orbing away.

"You son of a bitch!" Leo spat, his eyes wild and angry again.

Chris was still too startled to appreciate the irony of Leo's insult.

"Leo!" Piper cried out in astonishment.

"He split us up, Piper! How are we supposed to have another son if we're not together?" Leo said roughly, his eyes never leaving Chris, "What gave you, of all people, the right to screw with our family and risk our son's existence?!"

"I have more right than you'll ever know!" Chris shot back as steadily as he could manage with Leo's arm pressing against his windpipe.

To his surprise though, Leo didn't react to Chris's statement. In fact, he wasn't reacting to anything. Fuck. Too late, Chris realised what had happened. Why Piper had chosen to intervene in this way and what she was hoping to achieve he didn't know. Unfortunately, though, Chris hadn't been expecting it, and in any case had been far too consumed with his furious future father to pay much attention to his volatile future mother. And now it would cost him at least one of his secrets.

"You're not frozen. Why aren't you frozen?"

Chris shot Piper an exasperated look over Leo's frozen shoulder, as if his answer should have been obvious, "Maybe because your powers don't work on witches."

Piper stared at Chris, her eyes locked on his as she tried to decipher the hidden meanings behind all the cryptic clues he had given her. Still looking at Chris, she placed her hand on Leo's shoulder and pulled her ex-husband off of Chris, breaking the freeze in the process.

Leo blinked, startled by the sudden movement. He took a step towards Chris again, but was stopped by Piper's hand gripping his arm before he could get any closer.

"Chris, what do you mean you've more right to this than we know?" Piper asked. Her voice was calm again, only this time there was no hint of her earlier anger.

"What are you talking about?" Leo looked over his shoulder at Piper in confusion.

"I froze you, Leo. Actually, I tried to freeze both of you. Chris didn't freeze."

"How is that-" Leo trailed off, understanding flashing in his eyes, "He's a witch."

Leo looked back at Chris, who had pressed himself as far back against the wall as he could manage. If he could've submerged himself into the wall to hide from Piper and Leo, he would've. He could feel the heavy weight of his future parents' gazes on him as they searched his face for answers.

"Is it… Are you-" Piper struggled to find the right words. She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly before asking, "Is this your right because it's your existence you're risking? Are you our son?"

Chris opened his mouth, intending to lie. His eyes flickered between the two of them and for a brief moment, he considered telling them the truth.

"Yes."

The answer came out as a whisper before he could stop it.

You idiot, he berated himself, You didn't have to tell them.

He watched his future parents carefully, trying to gauge their reactions. They seemed as lost for words as he was.

"That- that can't be true," Leo finally said.

Chris clenched his jaw, hoping it would be enough to keep the hurt Leo's words had stirred from showing on his face. Had he been able to look at his future father, he would have seen the guilt and regret on his face.

"Yeah," Chris said as evenly as he could muster, "Yeah, you caught me. I'm lying."

"No, you're not," Piper replied before Leo could say anything else.

"No, I'm not," Chris repeated resignedly, still unable to look Leo in the eye.

"I- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said… I just- this is a lot to take in," Leo stammered.

That was an understatement, Chris was sure. He tried not to feel bitter about how Leo was taking the news, but it was hard not to. He supposed he should've been used to rejection from his father, but somehow, this time felt more personal.

Though there was a part of him that wanted to take all of his hurt and frustration out on Leo, there was no universe in which Chris could ever hurt Piper like that. So, he swallowed his feelings down.

"Yeah. I guess I'll just… leave you guys to it."

He orbed away before the tears could fall, and before Piper or Leo could say anything else.

"Leo!" Piper cried in frustration as soon as Chris disappeared in a flurry of orbs. She turned to her ex-husband with fire in her eyes, "Why the hell would you say that?"

Leo looked at her guiltily, "I don't- God, I know. I know. I screwed up. I'm sorry, I just- Piper, I've been so awful to him! And now it turns out he's our son. How am I ever supposed to make up for that?"

"I dunno, Leo, but accusing him of lying about being our son probably wasn't the best start," Piper retorted.

Whatever Leo was going to say next was interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Both he and Piper looked up as Phoebe, Paige and Derek hurried back into the living room.

"Okay, sorry to interrupt but- Wow, nothing's been blown up. Impressive self-control, Piper," Phoebe commented, casting her eyes around the room, "Chris took off, huh? Or did you blow him up?"

Piper narrowed her eyes at her sister, wondering how the empath couldn't sense the tension in the room. Sure, Phoebe was no longer able to sense any emotions from her sisters, but she'd been attuned to others' emotions even before she got her power. A tiny part of Piper wondered if perhaps the middle Charmed One was becoming too reliant on her magic.

Beside the point.

"This really isn't a good time," Piper sighed.

"Maybe not, but this," Paige waved the vials of Manticore-killing potions in her hands, "Is time sensitive."

Piper suddenly remembered what they'd been in the middle of before Chris's revelation. She found herself torn between wanting to tell her sisters to handle it so and Leo could go and work things out with her newfound, fully grown son, but felt guilty at the thought of abandoning Derek and his son.

As always, her family won out.

"I can't," she shot Derek an apologetic look, "I'm so sorry, but something's come up."

"Whatever it is, Piper, it's going to have to wait," Paige argued.

Annoyance flashed through Piper. She knew it was irrational; her sisters didn't know what she and Leo had found out. But every single one of her maternal instincts was screaming, It can't wait. My son can't wait.

"What do you need me for?" Piper asked, "You've got the potion and it's not like I can blow any of them up. You'll be fine without me."

"You've spent the most time with the baby. You might be our only chance of getting him away from the Manticores before we can vanquish them," Phoebe pointed out.

Piper barely managed to supress her frustration at Phoebe, who was seemingly completely clueless as to her sister's internal struggle.

Some empath.

"Why do you need to get him away first? Why not just vanquish them?" Derek asked.

"Well, because the potion vanquishes Manticores, and your son is half Manticore," Phoebe explained.

Phoebe and Paige both looked at Piper expectantly. Derek's eyes were also on Piper. She could see the desperation in his eyes and wondered if it was reflected in her own.

It was ironic, how suddenly Piper desperately understood how Derek felt. Like him, her son might also be lost to her forever. Only Chris hadn't been taken away by forces of evil that were easily defeated by the famed Charmed Ones. Something told Piper that the distance between her and her son was much more complicated and ran deeper than the distance between Derek and his son.

She had a choice to make. As much as it broke her heart and went against all of her maternal instincts, she knew deep, deep down that she had to help Derek. His relationship with his son was still salvageable, though it wouldn't be for much longer.

Though she was unconvinced of the salvageability of her relationship with Chris, logically, she knew that fixing what Leo had broken could wait until later.

"Okay. Okay, I'll do it."

Later turned out to be that afternoon, after Derek's son had been rescued and Piper sent them on their way with some clothes Wyatt had grown out of. She would've given him Wyatt's old stroller as well, but knowing that she would be having another son, likely in the very near future, made her rethink that decision.

Shortly after Derek left, Paige hurried off to reverse some spell she'd apparently cast on Daryl and Phoebe had left to fix her relationship with Jason (again).

As soon as Piper was alone, she called Leo. He'd taken Wyatt Up There while the sisters went after the Manticores. He must've been just waiting around, listening for her call, because she didn't think he'd ever come so quickly when she'd called. Certainly not since he'd become an Elder.

They stood in silence for a moment when Leo and Wyatt materialised, neither sure of exactly what to say.

"Have you-?"

"Has he-?"

They both spoke simultaneously.

"Oh, uh, you-"

"No, you can-" Leo chuckled when they did it again, "Uh, you go first."

"Have you seen him? Spoken to him?" Piper asked.

Leo shook his head, "He's blocking himself off from me. I didn't even know whitelighters could do that."

"Maybe it's a whitelighter-witch thing?" Piper suggested.

"Maybe," Leo repeated with a dejected shrug.

They lapsed back into silence for a moment.

"Ugh, this is a mess," Piper sighed, "What are we gonna do, Leo?"

"What are you gonna do about what?"

Piper startled at the sound of a new voice. She turned toward the source, finding Paige standing in the entryway of the living room, leaning against the wall with her arms folded across her chest.

"This is about what Chris said, isn't it?" Paige asked when neither Piper nor Leo answered, "Phoebe told me. You know he was out of line, right? I know you're feeling guilty about not being around for Wyatt as much, but you're a great-"

"Chris is our son," Leo said flatly.

Paige's eyes widened in surprise, "Wait, what?"

"We're his parents, apparently. Or will be, in the future," Piper explained.

"Oh. Shit," Paige scrubbed a hand across her face.

"Yeah," Piper replied.

"So, where is he?" Paige asked.

"We don't know," Leo answered.

"What'd he tell you and take off?" Paige thought about it for a moment, "Actually, yeah, that kinda sounds like something Chris'd do."

Piper bristled at that. It sounded like criticism and if there was one thing the fiercely protective mama bear in her didn't appreciate it, it was criticism of her precious children. Even if said child was actually a fully grown man from the future who had been lying about being her son and probably hated her.

"He didn't just tell us and take off!" she snapped, "Leo didn't believe him."

"It's not that I didn't believe him. It just- it's complicated and hard to believe. I didn't mean to react badly," Leo tried to justify.

Piper shot him a glare, "And yet you managed to scare him off and now we can't find him!"

"Piper-"

"Hey!" Paige interjected before Piper and Leo could argue further, "It doesn't matter whose fault it is. The most important thing is finding Chris and fixing this."

Both Piper and Leo had the decency to look sheepish at that.

"I think we made a mistake not going after him straight away," Piper admitted softly.

The expression on her younger sister's face suggested she agreed. Which was really fucking annoying, because Paige was one of the people who had convinced Piper not to go after Christ straight away. Although, granted, Paige didn't actually know that was what she was doing when she and Phoebe persuaded Piper to help Derek and his son.

Piper wrung her hands together as she wondered if this might just be something she and Leo couldn't fix with Chris. God, how could she have been so stupid as to prioritise something over one of her sons?

"Maybe," Paige said tactfully, "But it's not an unfixable one. You just have to find him."

Piper looked at Leo, wanting to take his hand, partly for comfort and partly so he could orb them all over the city looking for their son, but knowing that their relationship wasn't in a place where she should do so.

"Go. I'll stay here and watch Wyatt," Paige promised, taking her nephew from Leo.

Only somewhat awkwardly, Leo placed his hand on Piper's shoulder and orbed them away. They tried P3 first, though neither was surprised to find the back room where Chris had been staying empty. They struggled to think of other places Chris might be, other than the Underworld, though neither was willing to think of their son down there, taking his frustrations out on evil beings who wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Unsure of where else he might be, they started trying places they'd frequented with Wyatt in the few short months they'd spent together as a family. It was a long shot, but both Piper and Leo figured that maybe the spots had been ones they'd taken Chris to in the future.

Three hours had passed by the time they returned to the Manor, both feeling defeated and overwhelmed with worry about their son. Paige looked at them hopefully as they orbed back into the sunroom, her face dropping as she realised Chris wasn't with him.

"No luck?" she asked, though her tone indicated she already knew.

Piper shook her head, swallowing back the tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. She reached out to take Wyatt from Paige, holding him tightly. At least I know where one of my sons are.

Paige narrowed her eyes as her hands fell to her hips.

"Chris!"

Piper and Leo startled at the sound of her voice, calling out to their son loudly.

"What?" Paige shrugged at their perplexed expressions, "It's worth a shot. Maybe if we bug him enough, he'll come over."

She continued to call his name.

"Chris! Chris!" Piper joined in, calling loud enough to hopefully get Chris's attention, but not so loudly that she startled Wyatt.

Leo joined in not long after, "Chris!"

They continued calling over and over, yelling as loud as they could without upsetting Wyatt. Piper bounced him in her arms to try to keep him calm, though eventually, he grew tired and fussy and she was forced to give up on calling Chris to put Wyatt to bed.

Despite Leo and Paige's assurances that they would find Chris eventually, Piper went to bed shortly after putting Wyatt down. There was a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach as she crawled under the covers. She pulled the covers up to her shoulders, burying herself in the hopes that when she surfaced, things would be better.

Two days passed before any of the Halliwells saw Chris again. Piper had reluctantly filled Phoebe in the next day, forced into telling her sister after she had been unable to match her exuberance at the news that she and Jason had once again made up. Somewhat predictably, Phoebe had been put out that she had been the last of the family to find out, though she'd quickly gotten over it once she realised that this meant she would soon have a new nephew to spoil.

It was Paige who found him. She'd offered to stop by P3 and deal with some last minute shift changes after one of the bartenders had to hurry home to Pasadena at the last minute after his mother had a fall. Piper was still in a funk over Chris, and Paige hadn't had any work come up with the temp agency, so she'd offered to fill in.

She hadn't expected Chris to be there. He'd managed to successfully avoid them all up until then. Paige had expected to continue on much longer, so she'd been surprised to find him sitting at the bar, hunched over what looked to be a messy pile of papers. Knowing Chris, there was a logic to the disorganisation. A logic that no other human could identify, probably one designed to appear illogical and disorganised given his intense paranoia.

Paige was so taken by surprise that she stumbled on the last step into the club, only just catching herself from falling. Chris looked up at the loud noise of her feet on the ground, his eyes widening as they landed on his future aunt.

"Hey," Paige said awkwardly, giving a little smile and wave.

Chris leapt from his chair and began sliding his papers together hurriedly.

"Sorry, I'll get out of your way," he said, fumbling with the papers in his haste to get them gathered up.

"Oh, come on, you don't have to do that," Paige took a few steps closer to Chris, her hands hovering in front of her, as if she wanted to reach out to stop him but was afraid of spooking him.

"Sure I do. I gotta go, right? Isn't that why you're here?" Chris stopped moving the papers, but refused to look at Paige. He hung his head defeatedly.

"What are you talking about?" Paige asked confusedly.

"You're here to kick me out."

"What? Oh my god, no! No, no one's kicking you out. I'm just here to sort some shift changes for Piper," Paige explained.

"Oh," Chris let out a sigh of relief.

"We've been calling you, you know?" Paige said casually.

Chris looked at her sheepishly, "Yeah, I kinda put you guys on mute."

"You can do that?" Paige asked, surprised.

Chris nodded. Huh. She wondered if that was something he could teach her to do. There were times it would come in handy to be able to mute her sisters, especially now that she and Richard were getting more-

No, no. Bad Paige. Focus.

"This is all so messed up," she ran a hand through her hair and gestured to the bar stools in front of them, "Maybe we should sit."

Although Chris looked as though he'd rather do anything but, he reluctantly took a seat beside Paige. They sat in awkward silence for a moment before Paige finally spoke.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the conversation with Piper and Leo wasn't exactly how you imagined this all coming out."

Chris scoffed bitterly, "I didn't plan on it coming out at all. I didn't want them to know."

Paige contemplated that for a moment. She supposed she could understand that. She thought about the years after P3 had opened, when she'd got in her head that the Halliwells were her sisters and had found herself drawn to the club over and over again. She'd never told Piper or Phoebe, but she'd seen them there with Prue on several occasions. She'd never been brave enough to even talk to them, let alone share her suspicions. She'd probably have never said anything if Phoebe and Cole hadn't found her.

"You know, I actually kinda get it," she chuckled at the look of surprise on Chris's face, "I'm not saying our situations are the same. I don't think there's a person on the planet in the same situation as you. But I can relate. You know I'm adopted right?"

Chris nodded. It didn't surprise Paige. She'd always been open about being adopted, she couldn't imagine that would change in the future.

"My parents, my adopted parents, were the best parents a girl could ask for. I loved them more than anything. But there were times when I wondered about my birth parents. Especially when I was angry at my Mom and Dad. I would fantasise about finding my birth parents, meeting them. I'd imagine what I would say, what they would say, what we'd do next. When I was really mad, I'd even imagine going to live with my birth parents," Paige admitted, her cheeks flushing slightly in shame at her past behaviour, "But in every scenario I could come up with, I never imagined my parents wouldn't believe me."

Understanding flickered across Chris's face as he realised why Paige was telling him this.

"It's not the same thing," he said bitterly, "Grandma Patty and Sam, they knew they'd given up a baby. I haven't even been born in this time. It makes sense that Piper and Leo wouldn't believe me."

"Hey, Piper always believed you," Paige pointed out, "And Leo… well, he just-"

Chris scoffed and rolled his eyes, "I'm not surprised he reacted that way that he did."

"I know you guys haven't always gotten along-" Paige began.

"Stop," Chris cut her off, "You don't have to defend him. Leo and I have never gotten along. He didn't like me when he knew I was his son, I didn't expect him to like me here."

"Chris."

Chris wrinkled his nose at Paige's sympathetic tone and the pity he could see on her face. She reached a hand out towards his hands on the bar, though it was left hovering in mid-air when Chris pulled away. He folded his arms across his chest defensively.

"I don't need your pity, Paige. I'm a big boy. I made my peace with my relationship with my father a long time ago."

Something in Paige's eyes suggested that she didn't quite believe that. Chris clenched his jaw in annoyance.

"Look, okay, I get it. You're not here to kick me out, but you want me to talk to Piper and Leo, right? Message received," he said.

Paige sighed, "So, are you gonna talk to them?"

"I can't exactly avoid them forever, can I? I still have a mission to finish."

"Okay then," Paige slid off her stool, "Let's go."

"Go?" Chris repeated confusedly.

"Yeah, let's go talk to Piper and Leo. They've been going crazy trying to find you."

"And yet, I'm right here, at the club Piper owns, where they both know I've been staying. They can't be trying too hard."

"Chris," Paige said warningly.

"What? It's true."

"They've been checking here multiple times a day, trying to find you. Which I suspect you know, because you've conveniently not been here every time they tried."

Chris didn't respond. It was true, he had been trying to avoid Piper and Leo. He'd become particularly attuned to his whitelighter sense, relying on it to tell him where they were at any time. In the beginning, he'd been tracking Phoebe and Paige as well, particularly Paige, who had spent an hour or so screaming for him that first afternoon. But when neither of his aunts had made any further effort to find him, he'd figured it was safe to focus his senses only on his parents. Constantly keeping track of two people was exhausting enough.

Too bad it led to his downfall.

"You've gotta talk to them eventually," Paige pointed out, "Why not today, when you've got your kickass aunt with you, who's probably the only person in the family who can even try to relate to what you're going through?"

Despite his inner turmoil, Chris chuckled under his breath at Paige's description of herself. She'd always been pretty confident in her abilities as an aunt when he was growing up.

He let out a small, defeated sigh. This version of Paige was as tenacious as the version he'd grown up with. She wasn't going to let him get out of talking to his future parents without a fight.

"Come on," Paige waved her keys in the air, "I'll even drive so you have time to think about what you wanna say."

"Piper!"

The sound of her name made Piper jump, pulling her attention from Wyatt, who was playing happily in his playpen, to Phoebe, who was standing in front of her with a disgruntled expression on her face.

"You're not even listening!" Phoebe complained.

"No, I- I was," Piper insisted, though there was no conviction in her voice.

Phoebe raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "What were we talking about?"

Piper narrowed her eyes at her sister. She wasn't listening, but god, she'd had a hell of a lot on her mind the last few days. Surely she got a pass?

"Jason," she replied, figuring it was as good a guess as any. After all, Jason dominated at least 70% of Phoebe's conversations lately.

"Lucky guess," Phoebe replied, her tone flat and unimpressed.

"I'm sorry, Phoebe, I just can't stop thinking about Chris," Piper sighed, "I just don't know what else we can do to find him."

To her credit, Phoebe's annoyance seemed to ease. She shot Piper a sympathetic look as she sat down beside her on the sofa and pat her arms a few times in an attempt at comfort.

"Oh, sweetie, he'll turn up sooner or later. If only because he needs us to vanquish a demon."

Piper rolled her eyes at Phoebe's attempt at humour, "That's not exactly helpful, Pheebs. How are Leo and I ever supposed to fix things if the only thing Chris will talk to us about is demons?"

"I wouldn't worry about that."

Both Piper and Phoebe's heads snapped to the entryway, where Paige was standing with Chris beside her. Piper leapt to her feet, hurrying towards them. She automatically opened her arms to hug Chris, freezing when he took a step back.

Oh.

Her hands automatically clenched into fists as she dropped her arms back to her side.

"It's so good to see you," she said softly, trying to mask the hurt she felt at Chris's reaction.

Chris just nodded in response. He looked so guarded and awkward. He clearly didn't want to be there.

Piper barely heard Paige usher a protesting Phoebe out of the room. She was so focussed on studying her son. Her son. Looking at him, she wondered how she and Leo had ever missed that he was their boy.

He was pure Halliwell. She could see so much of herself and her sisters in him. His hair, his ears, the way he carried himself. All Halliwell. And his eyes. Those were Prue's eyes, in both shape and colour. If she looked at them closely, it was like being transported back to her teenage years, when she and Prue had shared a room and fought terribly, always getting stuck on the many differences that sat between in the deep, long chasm between them, rather than those things that made them similar. God, they'd driven Grams crazy with their fights.

"I can't believe I didn't see it," she breathed finally, shaking her head a little, "You look just like-"

"Aunt Prue," Chris answered. The words were spoken automatically, as if he'd grown up hearing the comparisons to his late aunt his entire life.

Piper nodded, tears pricking in her eyes, "I don't suppose you can tell me whether we ever get to see her again?"

"I shouldn't."

Piper wasn't surprised by the answer, though she couldn't help but be disappointed. Chris frowned, seeming to regret his answer. Instinctively, Piper sought to comfort him, to make it better.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have asked," she said, flashing him a small, reassuring smile, "That's not the most important thing for us to talk about."

"No, I suppose it isn't," Chris replied wearily.

"We should sit," Piper gestured towards the sofa.

Though he looked as though he wanted to do anything but, Chris walked over to the sofa and took a seat. Piper sat down beside him, clasping her hands together.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, neither sure what to say to the other.

Piper knew that she needed to call Leo. It wasn't fair to have this conversation without him. But she worried that if she even brought him up, Chris would take off again.

In the end, her loyalty to Leo won out. They may not be together anymore, but they were still trying to be a team when it came to their sons.

"Would it- would it be alright with you if I called Leo down?" she asked quietly, hesitantly. She didn't want to spook him, but she wouldn't feel right doing this without him.

Chris sighed, as if he'd been expecting the question.

"Might as well."

The "Get it over with" went unsaid. But Piper wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She called out for Leo, who materialised seconds later.

"Chris. Hi."

"Hi," Chris replied, sitting up slightly straighter and folding his arms across his chest.

Piper's heart broke at the defensiveness of his posture, as if he was trying to protect himself from Leo.

How did we get it so wrong? she wondered.

There was no time for pity and regret though. This was the chance they'd been waiting on for days. She didn't intend to waste it.

"Chris, I really appreciate you coming to talk to us," she began, "I know we didn't react well to-" The news that you're our son, "Well, you know."

"I'm so sorry, Chris," Leo said, taking a seat on the coffee table in front of Piper and Chris, "I should never have accused you of lying. I need you to know that I didn't mean it. I just-"

"I get it, Leo," Chris interjected, "It wasn't that you didn't believe it. You didn't want to believe that I could be your son."

"No, no, Chris, that couldn't be further from the truth. It wasn't about you at all. It was about me. About all the things I've done since you came here. I didn't want to believe I was capable of treating my son that way," Leo tried to explain.

"You didn't know. Don't worry about it, no harm, no foul," Chris replied dismissively.

Leo didn't look convinced, but Piper jumped in before he could say anything else.

"Why didn't we know?" she asked, "I mean, why didn't you tell us?"

Chris shrugged, "I dunno. Lots of reasons, I guess."

"Like?" Piper prompted.

"Would you have believed it?" Chris asked, "I mean, Wyatt was barely a few months old when I got here. Most parents aren't even thinking about a second kid at that point."

"It's pretty unbelievable, but I think we've both seen enough to know anything's possible with time travel," Leo replied.

Chris didn't seem to know what to say to that. He opened his mouth slightly, as if he was going to speak, then closed it.

"Something tells me that's not the real reason you didn't tell us," Piper said gently.

Chris bit his lip, looking away from both Piper and Leo and down at the floor. The Charmed One and the Elder sat silently, waiting patiently for Chris to explain.

"It was just easier this way," he said finally, "I can't explain why, not without telling you things about the future you can't know."

Piper frowned. She didn't like it, but she knew how stubborn Chris was about protecting the future. And she worried if she pushed him too far, he'd run.

"Okay. I can accept that. For now," she said.

Chris looked up at her, surprised but grateful.

"Thank you."

"I can accept it too," Leo said.

Chris didn't thank Leo, but he did nod once appreciatively at the Elder, which was practically a 'thank you' for the normally acrimonious pair.

They lapsed back into silence again.

"So, what happens now?" Chris asked, his voice small.

It suddenly struck Piper that Chris was young. Younger than they'd realised, given they'd always assumed that he had just died young and had been a whitelighter for a while.

Young and practically homeless and stranded in the past with his family who didn't know who he was. Her heart broke for him all over again.

"I just-" he cleared his throat in an attempt to make his voice sound stronger, "I don't want anything to change."

"Chris, everything's changed," Piper replied, "I can't continue on as if I don't know you're my son. I'm sorry, I just can't."

"Neither can I," Leo added.

Chris looked between them both.

"What does that mean?" he sounded so lost.

Piper considered it for a moment.

"I don't know," she said finally, "There's not really any rule book for connecting with your adult son from the future. I guess all we can do is take it one day at a time."

Chris pursed his lips as he thought about that. After a moment, the corners of his mouth quirked into a little smile.

"I guess I can do that."

"Good," Piper beamed, feeling a sense of relief she hadn't felt since Chris had dropped the bombshell two days earlier. She stood and clapped her hands together, ready to get moving after what felt like so long in limbo, "Well, first thing's first. You can't keep staying at the club."

Chris's face fell, "Paige said you weren't kicking me out."

"Kicking you out?" Piper repeated, "Of course not! No, I just meant, you can move in here."

Chris looked apprehensive at that.

"Where?" he asked, "This place is filled to the brim as it is."

"We'll find the room," Piper insisted, "You're family, Chris. And family belongs in the Manor."