Author's Note: Hello, it's been a while! Turns out I've not written any fan fiction since 2010. Thirteen whole years, wow. I discovered the House of Halliwell podcast earlier this year, which of course led to my own rewatching of Charmed. Yep, all 8 seasons. It had been a good while since I'd seen any episodes, but from the moment I started listening to HoH I started feeling a bit lighter and happier. I started trying to rewatch while also pottering around the house, or in the kitchen, but kept finding myself drawn to the screen, needing to actually watch what was happening. I haven't watched tv that enthralling in so long! I raced through the later seasons fully focused, but also found myself thinking over scenes, or hints of scenes where I just felt like I wanted more. That's where this arises from. I'm planning to collect an assortment of 'unseen' moments here, primarily from the later seasons. They won't be in order of episode as it depends when inspiration strikes, but I have a LOT of ideas at the moment.

Turns out I'm still a big Piper and Leo fan, and I find Chris' storyline so interesting, but it feels like we've only scratched the surface. So this starts with Piper's stunned face at the end of the Courtship of Wyatt's Father. I hope my writing isn't too rusty!

Do we still do disclaimers too? Clearly, nothing belongs to me, that characters just won't leave my head.

As Chris rounds the corner and stands in the doorway to her bedroom Piper's face shifts into something nearly unidentifiable, it's both incredulous and all sorts of emotional. She looks at him with a complicated entanglement of confusion, shock, fascination and while she stares at him her mind feeling like it's nearly spinning out of control, trying to catch up with what she's just discovered and marry up all that's taken place since he's arrived. She wills the racing thoughts to slow down, at least enough so that she can attempt to talk. She looks at him in only the way that someone in her situation can - someone that's been told they've just barely conceived a child with her oh so complex and wonderful and messy one true love, and yet somehow that baby, that right now is barely more than two cells is also somehow looking right at her as a fully grown, very real 22 year old man, with a slight question on his face.

As she regains control of her facial muscles, she opens her jaw, before closing it again and then all that she can is "Chris…?" in a hushed but emotionally laden tone.

Realisation dawns on Chris' face, his eyes widen for a second, and then he looks to his aunts. He takes a step back, eyes darting between Piper and her sisters and then shakes his head. "You told her?!" He wants to ask how they could do that to him, and obsess about how it changes everything, for all of them. He inhales, letting that thought go, knowing it won't help anything, and they don't know the half of what he does. He looks back at Piper…his mom, and feels like a lost and confused boy all over again. "I…I…" He doesn't have the words to explain.

Phoebe and Paige glance at each other, before looking back at mother and son entrapped in a sort of strange staring contest, both of them internalising…just…a lot.

"Maybe we should…" Phoebe whispers, nudging Paige with her knee and nodding towards the door.

"Oh…yeah, okay, got it." Paige nods and gets to her feet, resisting the urge to stay and watch the scene unfold.

Phoebe quietly walks up to Piper, squeezes her shoulder, and kisses her on the cheek, silently reminding her that they're here for her if she needs them. Paige tells Chris to relax as she walks past him, rubbing his arm, and giving him a smile.

The physical touch from her sister seems to have bought Piper back into the room, and she softly moves towards Chris.

"Chris." She repeats his name softly as she pulls him into a hug. As her arms reach up and wrap around him, Chris relaxes for the first time in a very long time. He inhales and her familiar scent washes over him. He slowly returns the hug, before his reality catches up and his muscles start to tense up and they separate. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asks quietly.

"It's not that I didn't want to." He says quietly as he looks down at his feet, finds some resolve and his eyes meet hers again. "You know I couldn't give too much away. The future…"

"I know…" She admits, closing her eyes for a second, and wishing, once again that time travel wasn't so complicated. "Sit with me?" She reaches her hand out towards his arm.

His eyes dart across the room, and then back into the hallway, as if searching for an exit. And then his eyes land on her, and oh god, how long has he wished for just one more opportunity to sit with her. He'll have to stay guarded, he can't let himself fall apart, not now, but he can't deny her this. He nods, and allows himself to be pulled towards the sofa by the window. It's not an unfamiliar place, he'd spent plenty of time with her here before but not like this, not in this unsettling way.

Piper sits cross legged on the sofa, her back to the arm so she can take him in. Chris feels himself sort of awkwardly flop down next to her. He pulls one leg under himself and places his palms on his thighs.

"Talk to me?" Piper says after a couple of minutes of silence.

He looks at her, sighs and shakes his head. "I can't…I don't…" He looks away, and then tries again, "I can't tell you much…"

"All of this, for your brother?"

"Yeah. I need to protect him from evil."

"You know," Piper says softly, placing her hand on his knee. "This is no small thing." His eyes meet hers curiously, has she worked out what this means for him? She always was good at reading him. "What you're doing here. Coming back all these years to try and help us save him." Maybe she has some ways to go with learning to read him still, and he thanks the stars he's not been that obvious.

"Look Chris, I don't know what happens in the future…what happened in your past, but I know this is important. Thank you."

"Of course." He gives her a bit of an impish grin and then shrugs. "I had to try."

"Life hasn't been easy for you." She states, with a hint of a question and he gives one silent nod. "I guess the future's pretty bad then."

"It feels pretty different to…" he gestures at the room. He's trying not to say anything, yet also worrying that any words he speaks may give too much away.

"If you're successful it'll all be worth it, then." He nods in agreement, unable to say much more than that. "Can I ask you…?"

Chris shakes his head "No," before she has a chance to ask her question.

"But I didn't even?!"

"I might have already said too much." He admits honestly.

"There's so much…"

"I know." He agrees, there's so much neither of them can say or ask.

"Do you…do you have any questions for me?" She asks him.

He looks at her and a few emotions dance across his face. She spots one that is all Leo though, a kind of thoughtful, hesitant concern, as if he's choosing just how much to say and give away. Spotting that kind of makes it all feel real, and she feels a tug deep in her stomach knowing that Leo's just left to join the Elders, this time without his lingering ties to her and Wyatt. Knowing about this would change everything, she's sure, but she can't be confident that what she selfishly wants is worth the sacrifice for the greater good of Leo being an Elder. Before she can let herself obsess over that problem though she realises Chris hasn't said anything, and figures he probably won't.

"I should have known," She tells him, leaning one arm against the back of the sofa and supporting her head with it, "Who you were. I should have realised." She adds at his quizzical look.

"How?" He squeaks.

"Look at you." She gestures, taking him in. "It makes sense now."

"Yeah?"

"You have his eyes, but you look more like me." She smiles at him. "We always knew you were a white lighter, but discovering you were also a witch, that should have been a giveaway. And don't think I haven't noticed you share my neurotic ways." He lets out a half smile at that, there's no denying he takes after her in that department. "It explains some of the cryptic things you've said - knowing the Book so well, things like you saying 'in all your life'. And that serious stare you like to give us, there's something about that that reminds me of Prue. You've got a lot of Halliwell in you," Piper reaches a hand towards his face, but pauses. He doesn't move away so she continues and strokes a finger down his cheek, along his jaw, and over his chin. "I think I see some Leo here too, and I know your height isn't my genes." She smiles slightly but notices the uncomfortable look on Chris's face. "Something happened between you…before you came to us."

"It's complicated." He shrugs, unable to say more. Piper doesn't have any reply to that because that feels like an understatement to her own connection to Leo. Maybe someday there'll be room for change, she can only hope.

"Hey," Chris interjects, trying to distract her from asking him anything else that might lead to him saying too much. "How are you doing with all this? Bit of a bombshell, huh?"

She widens her eyes, then rolls them. "Which part?" She lets out a hint of a smile, "It's a lot. Unexpected. Confusing. Still trying to wrap my head around it all. I'll get there though."

"Sorry." Chris shrugs, feeling slightly awkward.

"I guess I know how mom felt when we told her about Phoebe."

"What?" Chris asks confused.

"Did we never tell you about the time we went back to the 70s?" Chris continues to look confused. "We went back to the time when Mom hadn't quite worked out she was pregnant yet. I think she'd figured out she was pregnant while we were there - premonition." She shrugged. "We kind of…ah…needed someone to bail us out of jail so…"

"Woah, wait, JAIL?" He looks at her surprised.

She smiles sheepishly at him "We sorta kidnapped mini Prue and Piper. So anyway, she ended up bailing us out and Phoebe told her we were her daughters."

"Wow." He considers these new facts he's discovered, and muses over the fact that they have a similar shared experience. "That must have been hard, knowing she wouldn't be here when you returned."

"It was. But it was also really good to see her again."

Chris considers the parallels he didn't know he shared with his own mother, and his aunts. If only he could ask more about what it was like coming home again after that experience. He couldn't help but feel that knowing how they felt might help ease his concerns about eventually having to return to his time - if that was even still possible.

Wyatt chooses that moment to start crying, and they both look towards the baby monitor.

"You should probably…" Chris starts.

"Yeah." Piper nods, and gets to her feet. As she moves towards the hall way, she feels compelled to turn back. "Hey, future boy," she's said those words before, but this time it's different. Much softer, after all he is her future boy. "For what it's worth, I think future me would be proud of you for everything you're doing." She then walks towards Wyatt's room.

Chris feels stunned for a moment. He's only ever wanted to make her proud, but there's no future her to know what he's doing. He hangs his head, rubs his palm over his face and feels an assortment of complicated feelings. "Mom" he whispers, feeling homesick for somewhere that doesn't exist anymore, and all the things he's longed for floating just beyond his reach. Even if he's successful in protecting Wyatt, how can he go back to his own timeline? Chris stands, looks around the room, and then orbs away. He needs to get out of the house, so he lets his body burst into thousands of blue and white pieces, because that's the only thing he can do to keep his head from falling apart.