Author's Notes: Here's chapter three! I had a lot of fun with emphatics in this chapter, so I hope I didn't miss any of my italic tags. I had this story designed first for a website, and it doesn't do automatic italics or anything, so I always have to mark it. If I forgot any, just lemme know. Sometimes my double checks don't always catch these things. As always, don't own 'em, and don't forget to review :D

"Damn it, Chris, what was that?"

"I don't…nngh…I don't know," Chris muttered between somewhat gritted teeth. Pain was coursing through his body in ways that he hadn't felt in a long time. Slowly and carefully he scooted toward the wall, batting away his brother's hands that were trying to help stabilize him. "I'll be fine, Wyatt."

"No, you won't be, Chris. Not unless we can—" Wyatt paused. Once Chris was resting against the wall the older one reached out and pointed at a strange looking patch of dry, purplish red skin on Chris' collarbone. "What is that, Chris?"

"What is what?"

"That. On your collarbone."

Wyatt continued pointing, which made Chris uncomfortable. Ignoring the pain for the time being he decided to look at what his brother was pointing at. How he hadn't noticed that odd patch of discolored skin he wasn't…really sure. All he knew was that it was news to him. Suddenly he was thinking that maybe it would have been a smart idea to let everyone know about what had happened to him the day before.

The pain that was racking his body had dulled the sound of his charge's cries in his head, but as it waned the cries became much more noticeable. They were going to have to deal with this later. If his charge was killed, Chris didn't know what he would do with himself.

He reached out to grip his brother's hand. "Wyatt, come on, my charge—I need your help. Orb me to her." He winced. "I can't let her die just because I can't figure out what the hell's the matter with me."

Even though Wyatt obviously wanted to argue about it, Chris was thankful that he didn't. With Wyatt's powers at the helm and Chris' mind focused on the charge, they were able to safely get to where she was. At first neither of them saw her, instead only heard her—she was still crying Chris' name aloud.

"Sophie!" the younger Halliwell called out. "Sophie, where are you?"

Chris looked frantically about in the parking garage that they had orbed into. He didn't recognize it, but he didn't really need to—all that he needed was to find his charge, and quickly. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a figure darting out from behind one of the pillars, a figure that he instantly recognized as Sophie. Just behind her was a man, a man larger than either him or his brother, who was wearing black leather and boots. He was carrying a dagger in one hand and had a fireball formed in the other.

"Chris!" Sophie cried out again.

Without thinking about it Chris pointed his fingers at the dagger and tried to get it out of the demon's hand. Instead, though, the dagger went nowhere, and one of the halogen lights on the pillar not too far away cracked and exploded. Sophie screamed in surprise and darted off to the left, the opposite direction of where Chris' power had misaimed.

"Damn it!" he cursed angrily.

The demon, although momentarily frozen because of the sudden explosion of glass, turned his attention away from Sophie and focused on Wyatt and Chris. Even though the darker haired one stepped forward first he felt a hand on his shoulder and was then pulled back. His brother took his place.

"I got this, Chris," he said, not even looking over his shoulder at his brother.

Despite himself, Chris didn't argue. He ignored the reignited pain in his body and headed over to an area with a few cars where Sophie had hidden.

Kneeling down beside her, he reached out and gripped her hand. "Sophie, are you okay?"

"God, Chris, he—he attacked me when I was trying to get into my car. I don't even know why." Sophie wasn't crying, but her voice was shaking, as was her body.

"It's okay," he reassured her. "Promise."

As Chris spoke, he saw the demon flying through the air not too far away from them. Wyatt flicked his hands in a move reminiscent of his sister and caused the demon to explode, the only remnants of it being an anguished cry that faded away quickly. With the threat sufficiently erased, Chris moved to his feet and helped Sophie up as well, leading her out and away from the parked cars and toward his brother.

Wyatt rubbed his hands together, and was looking a little smug. "Well, now that he's been dealt with…"

Sophie brushed her fingers over her forehead. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what he was doing, he just…"

Chris shook his head. "No, it's okay, Soph. Don't worry about it."

"I wasn't expecting both of you, though," she continued on. "I was only calling for you, Chris. Not that I'm complaining about the help, but!"

Though he was about to open his mouth and speak again, Wyatt cut him off. "Oh, uh…yeah. I was just coming along because we have something we have to do after this, and it was just easier."

There was no way she was going to believe that, Chris thought. No way. So, he was more than floored when she smiled.

"Oh. Well, thanks again. I really appreciate it."

"No problem." Wyatt clasped his brother's shoulder, who winced and groaned quietly, trying to hide his pain. "Come on Chris, let's get going."

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"Wyatt—Wyatt, damn it, listen to me, I—"

"Chris, I don't care. You're gonna sit right here on the couch and I'm gonna get Mom from the restaurant, and we're gonna figure this out."

Chris looked up from the couch at his older brother, almost scowling. Even though he understood why Wyatt was doing this, it didn't make him like it. He felt he was fully capable of getting things figured out himself.

That is, until he coughed, sneezed again and caused the nearby chair to tip backward and slide across the floor a few feet. Chris covered his mouth and sniffed. This was embarrassing.

"Be back in a little bit," Wyatt said.

Before Chris could object his brother orbed out of the living room, leaving him by himself. He rubbed his forehead and then ran his hands down his face, wondering what he was going to do. There was something wrong with him, something that was beginning to affect his physical well being along with the magical. It was causing issues not only with him in general, but what he could do to take care of his charges. He needed to take care of himself.

Or…he needed his family to take care of him.

Even now, it was still sort of hard for Chris to let that happen. He was so used to being independent, used to relying on himself for things, that it was difficult to not try and solve this problem himself. He knew that he couldn't, though. Or could he?

Screw sitting here on the couch, Chris thought. He got up, fixed the chair and then headed into the kitchen. He wasn't in much pain anymore, thankfully, but he took an ibuprofen just to be on the safe side. Afterward he went up to the bathroom to check out the spot on his skin that Wyatt had pointed out. He couldn't see it very well by looking at it directly, and so when he stepped into the bathroom he flicked on the light, stepping toward the mirror. He gently tugged the collar of his shirt downward to reveal the patch of skin that Wyatt had pointed out.

Sure enough, the skin on his collarbone looked awkward, dark, and pretty unhealthy. It worried him a little, and for the first time in a while, he was also the tiniest bit scared. What if, from some crazy fluke, what had happened to him was unfixable? Then what was he going to do? His powers were going to deteriorate worse and worse until finally they…

Well, he didn't want to think about that.

It didn't hurt to touch it, which perplexed him. Usually wounds like this gave off some sort of pain when poked and prodded. All that he felt, however, was the gross scaly feeling…similar to the—

"Oh my God," he said aloud. "Why didn't I realize this sooner?"

The demon that had attacked him had drooled on him there. That had to be the answer. Chris ran through these thoughts in his mind as he worked his way up the stairs, eventually coming upon the Book. He flicked through its pages and tried his best to ignore the fact that the ibuprofen hadn't yet kicked in. Where was the page on the demon that they had gone to the park to fight?

"The Wendigo…Astral Echoes…Zombies…damn it, where is it? Ah!"

When Chris found the page with the nymph-killing demon on it, he looked over it carefully to see if there was anything on it that mentioned its saliva or its blood. Unfortunately, there wasn't, just like there was no spell or potion to vanquish it. It apparently didn't have much to it other than the fact that it was a low level spawn that liked killing nymphs for food. He hoped that there would be more about what it was capable of, because there was obviously more to it than its taste for magical creatures. If it could infect him like this…

Chris was so into what he was reading that he hadn't realized Wyatt and Piper had orbed into the attic. It wasn't until he heard his mother clearing his throat that he looked up from the Book. He blinked.

"Chris, what the hell are you doing up here?" Wyatt asked.

"I was checking out the Book," he stated. "This,"—his fingers came up to tug down the collar of his shirt again—"was caused my that damn demon we fought not too long ago. It's the only thing I can think of."

"That's what Mom and I thought. Or…actually, what Mom thought."

Chris looked confused. "Mom, how did you—"

"I've been at this for a long time, Chris. I think I know when someone's been poisoned. I just wasn't sure if the demon caused it, or if something else had." Piper stepped closer to the stand and her son. "There's a spell in the Book that we can tweak a bit to fix it if Wyatt can't do it."

Wyatt moved closer to his brother then, bringing his hand up to hover it over the other's collarbone. The familiar golden glow appeared, but the discolored and dry skin didn't disappear.

"Part of me expected that," Piper said. "Demon poison is usually hard to counteract." Although Wyatt had healed her of a poison in the past, there were certainly some that could not be easily done away with. "Here, let me see…"

Both Chris and Wyatt moved aside to let their mother look at the Book. After a few moments of flipping through its pages she stopped, turning the stand to face her sons. At the top of the right page in curly letters read the phrase "To Counteract a Poison".

"I know Melinda is at school," Piper began, "but just to guarantee that this spell will work to its fullest, why don't you go get her, Wyatt?"

Wyatt only nodded before disappearing in the same familiar outbreak of orbs.

Shortly thereafter, Piper reached across the stand and brushed her fingers through Chris' hair. Without realizing it, he moved into it.

"You've got to stop letting them target you," she said to him. "You're not the only one fighting, Chris."

He knew that. Even if he didn't like admitting it to himself, he knew that. In a quiet voice, he said, "I didn't want it to hurt Mel. And I'm still not used to having her involved in this. She's only been helping us for a few months, and it's…"

"It's hard, I know." Piper pulled her hand back a little to pat the side of her son's face. "And it's sweet that you want to watch out for her like that. You're a good brother. She'll need to learn how to handle it, though. You won't always be there."

"I know."

"And Wyatt or your Aunt Paige can heal her."

"I know."

Piper smiled a little. "It took your Aunt Prue a while to learn how to deal with your Aunt Phoebe and I being out there on our own, too. Don't worry so much. She'll be okay."

Even though it felt repetitive, Chris responded with, "I know." And despite himself, he smiled some.

About that time Wyatt arrived back in the attic with Mel gripping onto his arm. With Wyatt's height it was kind of awkward, as Mel was shorter than both of her brothers, being about the same height as their mother. When they fully materialized they both walked over to the Book. All three of Piper's children reached up and joined hands while reciting the spell aloud:

"Hear our call for those who fall…Purge him to awaken from this toxic take-in."

A very strange golden glow similar to the one that came from healing magic appeared on Chris' body. The patch of discolored skin faded in its intensity until it matched his own somewhat pale complexion, and the dry flakes disappeared as well. As if someone had shot air through his nose, the haze within his head disappeared. Unfortunately, the pain from his stunt in the kitchen earlier that morning didn't.

Still, he felt much better than he had just a moment ago.

"Looks like it worked!" Mel said, patting her darker haired brother on the back. "Nice to have you back to full capacity."

"Thanks," Chris said, laughing some.

Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult to rely on his siblings every once in a while.

…Maybe.