Mom's Awake!
"No, Mom, wait!" Lee cried, as Jared was slammed into the upper kitchen cabinets, crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Piper squeaked, realizing the young man she had just blasted was clearly not a demon.
"Ugh!" grunted Jared, rolling to his side.
Lee was in a state of wide-eyed shock. "Apparently your disciplinary techniques have changed quite a bit over the years."
"My disci-what?" Piper's level of excitement started to rise. "Look people, I don't mean to sound like an ungracious hostess here, but just who the hell are you and why are you blowing up my kitchen?"
Lee was no stranger to this tone in his mother's voice. "Mom, I promise I'll explain everything just… please put the hands down before somebody gets hurt?"
Jared groaned from the floor, "Um, Hello?"
Piper stared suspiciously back at Lee. "Excuse me, young man, but nobody calls me 'Mom' unless they come out of my uterus, got it?"
Jared winced. "What if they will come out of your uterus but haven't quite made it yet?"
"Dude!" objected Lee "That's gross!"
"Well?" said Jared, "It's the truth isn't -?"
"Hey," Lee cut in, "Mom's a virgin. I don't care what anybody says. Mom equals virgin!" Lee then shook his head, trying to shake the mental images out of his mind. "Blech!"
"Clearly you've never taken a good look around the dinner table and…"
"Immaculate conception! Every single one of us! The end!" Lee interjected, his boyish voice struggling to sound forceful.
What little patience Piper had was rapidly diminishing. "Hey! Fellas! Up here! Remember me?"
"Oh right!" replied Lee, snapping back to reality…
Piper put her hands on her hips. "Well?"
Lee looked up to the kitchen ceiling, a look of desperation in his eyes. "Chris!" he called, then let his eyes hesitantly meet his distressed mother. "Mom's awake!"
No sooner than spoken, glistening white and blue orbs appeared and congealed to become none other than…
"Chris?" asked Piper, in disbelief.
"Mom!" shouted Chris, clearly delighted.
"Chris, the surly second son?"
"Yeah Mom, it's me." answered Chris, having anticipated his mother's hesitation. "Two years older than last time but it's still me!"
From the corner of his eye, Chris noticed Jared lying on the floor. "What happened to you?"
"Karma," Jared said with a sigh.
"Okay!" Piper interrupted. "Somebody needs to start talking or you're all getting fireworks for breakfast."
"Mom!" Chris pleaded. "I promise it's me, and I'll explain everything just… please put the hands down."
Piper ignored his request. "Okay, if you're Chris, then you ought to be able to prove it!" she demanded.
Chris thought for a split second before deciding his response. "You think I need a shrink."
Piper was almost convinced. "Because..."
Chris swallowed his pride. "Because I'm a neurotic little freak."
Piper's tention instantly melted away as she stepped up to hug the young time traveler. She smiled knowingly, "Well hel-lo there," she said as she she hugged him. As she stepped back to get a good look at him, anyone could see the deep sense of relief that shown through her eyes. "But, how is this even possible?" she asked. "Your dad saw you die. He felt you fading in his arms. When he opened his eyes you were gone."
Chris smiled to see the softness in his young mother's eyes; she was so deeply happy to be welcoming her son back from the dead… sorta kinda.
"Well" said Chris, "as it turns out, the Elders are pretty big fans of renegade time travelers who just happen to save the future as a part-time job."
Piper seemed stunned. "Then you did it. It worked," she affirmed, with a hint of a mother's pride. "Your plan. It worked?"
The light from Chris' eyes dimmed slightly. He wanted to respond in a manner that was entirely truthful, but at the same time, not too alarming... and that was going to take some time. Wyatt had been saved, that much was true. The rest would be harder to explain.
Before Piper had time to ask again, she was distracted by the look of shock on Lee's face as he looked up at the ceiling.
"Uh-oh!" said Lee, in a quiet, concerned tone.
"Lee?" said Chris, turning around. "What's the matter? You've got that 'Japanese Horror Movie' look in your eyes."
"Okay, don't be mad…" said Lee, expecting Chris' response to be a loud one, "but I think Steve's upstairs,"
"WHAT?"