Chapter 3

Piper found Leo watching over Chris yet again, 3 hours later. He said the fever hadn't changed after Chris took the pills, and Leo was wondering why. Piper was wondering why too, at she was also wondering why Leo was being so nice to Chris. Then she remembered that Chris had confessed something to Leo, and maybe that was why. And so, currently, she was walking up to Phoebe's room to see what was going on with her neurotic whitelighter.

She opened the door to see Leo sitting on a chair next to the bed, watching the man sleeping on her sister's bed. She stopped in her tracks as she saw how much Chris looked like a child when he was asleep. How his face was half-hidden in the pillow, and how he cuddled under the blankets.

Leo looked over at her as she entered the room. "Where's Wyatt?" he asked, as she came into the room without her son. "He's taking a nap. How's he doing?"

"His fever's gotten worse, if not stayed the same." Piper looked over to the sleeping boy and felt his forehead as if she doubted Leo's words, and sure enough, Chris was burning up.

"Any idea how he could have gotten it?" she asked.

He shook his head sadly. "He hasn't been awake long enough to tell me, and the last time he woke up, he was delirious. He keeps mumbling for his mom and a bunch of other people in his nightmares." At that moment, Piper's heart went out to the boy sleeping in Phoebe's bed as she heard about his mother. A maternal instinct came over her, and she wiped his overgrown hair away from his face, and the heat of the fever brushed against her fingers.

She got an idea and walked into the bathroom. She got out a small towel and ran it under ice-cold water. "This should help lower his fever," she answered at Le's questioning glance. She pushed his hair back and gently placed the towel on his forehead.

Chris stirred at the cold, wet substance and his eyes fluttered open. He moaned and fought weakly to get it off. Leo quickly went to quiet the young man. "Shh, it's okay. Don't worry, it's going to help." The only response he got was a half-slurred "No…too cold."

Piper decided it was her turn to try. "Chris, you want to get better don't you?" She spoke to him as if he were a child. He nodded weakly. "Well, the towel will help. It'll lower your fever. Don't worry, Chris, just go back to sleep."

"Wait," he said. "What is it Chris?" his father asked. He mumbled a "Thirsty."

"I'll go get him a glass," Leo suggested, and left the room. Piper exhaled deeply through her nose. "So Chris, do you have any idea why you might be sick?"

He hesitated but then answered "I didn't feel so good last night, but I thought it was nothing. It's probably just a regular fever." Piper knew he was hiding something but didn't push it.

Leo came back with the water, and Piper helped Chris sit up. He gulped down the water so quickly you would've thought he hadn't had water for weeks. "Thanks, Leo." His father smiled tenderly at him in response.

Piper scanned the boy over and realized how thin he actually was. She came to the conclusion that he probably hadn't eaten in a while. "Chris, are you hungry?"

Chris was suddenly having flashbacks of his mother cooking him her famous chicken noodle soup whenever he was sick. "A little bit," he admitted.

She smiled kindly. "Well, I'll go make you some soup." She walked out of the room and Leo asked his son, "Do you want more water, Chris?" he shook his head 'no'. "Well, Piper will be back in a little bit so why don't you lie down and rest for a while."

"But I'm not tired," Chris argued. Leo sighed. "Chris, you are sick. You need to rest so you can get better." Chris finally surrendered as he didn't have any energy to fight his father. He settled down and was asleep within minutes.

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Piper came back a half hour later with a bowl full of soup and a glass of water. Leo woke up Chris and the boy happily ate the soup.

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Piper finally realized that she should tell her sisters about Chris. She walked down the hall to her room, to find Wyatt awake and playing with some toys. She called for Paige and told her to bring Phoebe. A few minutes later, Piper was relaying the information to her sisters.

The three sisters and one baby walked into Phoebe's room to see Leo sitting in a chair beside the bed in which their young whitelighter was in a deep sleep, cuddled under a few blankets.

Phoebe was the one who noticed Chris was still in his clothes. "Why don't Paige and I orb to P3 and pick up his pajamas and other stuff he might need." Paige orbed them to the backroom of P3 and she and Phoebe started to sift through the mess Chris had created.

"God, how did it get to be such a mess?" Phoebe joked to her baby sister.

"Ask future-boy. He lives here."

Suddenly Phoebe froze. Paige noticed her sister stopped moving. "Pheebs, what's wrong?" Phoebe held up a picture and passed it over to Paige. In the picture there was a gathering of teenagers; 11 girls and 7 boys. Some were standing, some were sitting, some were on others backs. Paige finally spotted Chris, with a girl of about his age (Chris was 19 at the time) on his back piggy-back style. She had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Next to Chris was a dirty blond girl who looked very familiar to them. Looking at the others in the picture- 2 girls had their arms wrapped around 2 guys, a set of caramel-haired twins were sitting on the floor back-to-back. 2 blond sisters (they had to be, they were almost identical, though one was older than the other.) were standing with a boy around 15, as were two other brunettes with a boy around 16 or 17. Two boys stood on either side of the group, and everyone was smiling.

"This must be his family and friends," muttered Phoebe. Paige nodded in agreement.

"We'll ask him about it when we get home…Aha!" Paige turned her head to see what she yelled for, and saw Phoebe holding a pair of pajama pants and another t-shirt.

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-Musical Magic