Within a wood of deepest green
Where snow sleeps silver in the blue moonlight
You'll meet a boy with enchanted eyes
Gazing with wonder into the night
The Hundred Acre Wood
"On no, am I too late?" asked Piper as she entered her bedroom. "Have you vanquished Rider already?"
Chris' lips spread into a wide smile.
"Hang on. Am I in the right dimension?" said Piper, her face scrunched in suspicion. "Is that a smile that just crossed your face?"
Chris rolled his eyes. "Come on Mom, you've seen me smile before."
"That's only partially true." corrected Piper. "I've only ever seen half of your face smile and that whole teeth thing is new altogether."
"What?" Chris exclaimed. "No way."
"I am in a state of shock right now." declared Piper. "I may very well need to sit down."
"Well, if you ever wonder where Steven gets his flare for drama..." muttered Chris.
"Excuse me?" Piper interjected. "Ya know, dad or no dad, I am still the mother here, and you would do well to remember it."
Chris chuckled silently to himself. "Duly noted."
Piper startled Chris a bit as she stepped within inches of him. With her thumb and index finger she raised Chris' upper lip to inspect the interior of his mouth. "Are you aware just how abnormally white your teeth are?"
Chris stepped away from his mother to get his mouth in safer distance from her fingers.. "Did someone fix the coffeemaker, because I've never seen you so…"
"Maybe we could get you a commercial for Crest White Strips while you're here."
"Is there an end to this rant?"
"You're right." said Piper with a nod. "Too controversial."
"Mom?"
"Then there's of course that Listerine stuff…"
"Mom?" Chris said, waving his hand in front of her face. "Snap out of it."
Piper flinched. "All right, huffy!" she said. "Consider me snapped."
Chris looked questioningly at his mother, as though not convinced it was truly her. "What is with you today?"
Piper shrugged. "I don't know. I think it's the learning that I'm going to raise nine children." she replied. "And not just any nine children; nine boys who, for reasons that more than likely have nothing to do with genetics, talk at a pace that would exhaust The Barenaked Ladies."
Chris chuckled. "Rambling." he said.
"Hey! That's my word."
"I was just borrowing it; I was gonna give it back."
Piper began to massage her forehead. "Oh boy."
"What? The reflection off my teeth giving you a headache?" Chris joked.
"How is it that your 'barenaked brothers' got to you too?" asked Piper, half-heartedly.
"Mom, we're a family of eleven." Chris replied, his hands and eyebrows raised in a classic "Duh!" expression. "If you want anyone to hear you, you have to jump in the conversation the second you get a chance, and if you're not going at least as fast as the brother in front of you, you'll be passed up." he explained. "Unless, of course, you're Wyatt."
"Why not Wyatt?" Piper asked, sounding liked she'd trapped Chris in a conversational corner.
Chris sighed, wishing he hadn't brought up the subject of his princely older brother. "Because he stays abnormally quiet for such a long time that it gets creepy, so he eventually gets the floor for as long as wants."
"And then he talks at lightening speed?"
"No… He pretty much just yawns and nods 'yes' or 'no'." Chris answered in an intolerant tone.
"Well, it's nice to see the inferiority complex is still alive and well." Piper observed.
"Well I was never one to go against tradition."
Piper poked Chris in the chest in chiding accusation. "Dear one, I'm pretty sure that casting a spell to make your parents do 'the wild thing' is going against tradition."
Chris grimaced. "And if I had one wish left, guess what it'd be."
"I give."
"That you would please GOD never say 'wild thing' in front of me ever again... and just so we're clear, that's any version of me; past, present, future, future's future…
Piper blushed sympathetically. "Granted." she agreed.
"Thank you!"
"Back to my point…"
"Launch pad." said Chris, as if by reflex.
"Beg your pardon?"
Only then did Chris realize that he'd spoken at all. "I'll tell ya' later."
"How many times are those words gonna get thrown in my face today?" huffed Piper.
Chris shrugged his shoulders in apology. "Sorry.. 'launch pad' is the 'magic word' you use when we've all gone on a tangent and you want to get us all back to the original point."
"Why 'launch pad'?"
"You'd have to ask Dylan." answered Chris. "He's the evil genius behind the whole system."
Piper folded her arms and stared at Chris in feigned disappointment. She sighed dramatically, playing up the role of the displeased parent. "I've got to say, I am sorely disappointed in you."
Chris' jaw dropped in a plea of innocence. "What did I do now?"
Piper sounded like she was very serious in her explanation. "Well, Whenever I enter the 'Hundred Acre Wood,' I expect to you to be the one in the Eeyore costume." she said. "Not Pooh, not Tigger, not Piglet; Eeyore!"
"You've got to be kidding me." Chris thought to himself. "You've clearly confused me with Baby Chris." he insisted. "By the way, where is he?"
"He's at your grandfather's."
"I'll go get him and you can both go to 'Pooh Corner' together."
"Uhhh.. Space Station." chanted Piper, hoping to return to the original topic.
"You mean, Launch Pad?" Chris corrected.
"Like it matters?"
"Just warning you;" Chris cautioned, "if you say 'Space Station' that means…"
"What's the phrase for 'Oh my God, would you please stop; I'm getting a headache?"
"Well," Chris began, pretending to ponder the question. "What you said seemed to do the trick."
"Thank God." Piper sighed. "Now then... So Rider..."
"Well, he's the second son of Christopher Halliwell; he's 6'2", enjoys long walks on the beach…"
"Okay, see what I mean?" Piper scolded. "You've completely broken character. Lost your motivation, the whole bit."
"Sor-ry!" Chris groaned defensively.
"Yeah… Uh huh. And, did I hear you say 'second son'? Is there a 36 year-old running around that I haven't met yet?"
"No," Chris smugly replied. "But as it turns out, Rider was born 36 minutes after Riley."
"Twins." Piper uttered, to no one in particular.
"Yep," Chris replied with a sublte, proud nod. "Apparently twins run in the family…"
"Really?" asked Piper is surprise "Who else?"
"Sworn to secrecy?"
"Promise. Witches honor."
Chris eyed his mother with an accusing smile. "Are you lying?"
"Absolutely." Piper proudly affirmed.
Chris figured, after all the sons his own parents had met, answering couldn't cause real harm. "Paige has twin girls."
"Seriously?" Piper asked excitedly. "She's gonna flip!"
Chris cocked an eyebrow in his mother's direction. "When she has them she's gonna flip, right?"
"What else could I possibly mean?" Piper coyly responded.
Chris and Piper held onto that moment for awhile, enjoying the familiarity of being wrapped up in one conversation or another. Piper's questions returned to the forefront of her mind. "So then, Riley's the oldest?"
"Yes." Chris answered plainly.
Chris could see Piper's mental wheels turning by the look of concentration on her questioning face. "So then. Let's start with how you have a sons who's three years older than his uncle."
Piper's question took Chris immediately to a place of concerned sadness.
"Chris?" said Piper, surprised by his quick change of mood. "What's wrong?"
Chris put his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground. "It's just…"
"Okay hold it..." Piper calmly insisted. "Whatever this is, I need the truth. And all of the truth." she said frankly. "None of this editing crap that you did last time."
Chris sighed, feeling a bit guilty. "Okay." he quietly agreed.
"Chris, I mean it." Piper asserted. "We could've avoided a hell of a lot if you'd have been straight with us from the beginning."
"You're right." Chris uttered, gazing down at the bedroom floor. "I'm sorry."
Piper's manner returned to that of motherly concern. "Chris, I don't want you to be sorry." she assured him "I'm just trying to prevent any future disasters, because there are a lot more people in this house…"
"Mom. Please." Chris interrupted, feeling he had done enough apologizing. "I get it."
"Okay." said Piper, empathizing with her son's situation. "So what happened?"
"That's actually a big part of it." Chris said, not quite sure how to begin. "It's what hasn't happened."
"Fill me in." Piper said coolly.
"There's something I want you to see." Chris said sadly, with concern and regret in his eyes. "Rider and Riley don't know anything about it. I know you're not a big fan of keeping things from people but… After you read this letter you'll understand."
Chris took a folded leaf of paper out of his pocket and handed it quietly to Piper. From the wrinkled weakness of the creases she could tell that the letter, or at least the paper, was quite old.
"So, this is a letter you wrote yourself?" she asked, recognizing the handwriting.
Chris shook his head in denial. His face shone of sympathy for his mother, not at all envying the task of trying to understand his situation. "No. My 32 year-old self came to my time from my future. He gave it to me."
"So, he never sent it?" Piper wondered aloud.
Chris sighed and nodded towards the leaf of paper. "It's all there in the letter."
Beloved,
I've been staring at this sheet of paper for what feels like hours now. I keep wanting every word that falls on this page to be worthy of your memory…
"Do you know this woman?" asked Piper, traces of concern creeping into her voice.
Chris shrugged slightly. "I don't think so." he answered, aware how awkward such a response must sound to his mother. "The letter never mentions a name."
"And she died before the 'future you' wrote this." Piper clarified, not quite certain how to respond.
"Apparently." answered Chris regretfully.
Piper read on.
Please forgive me for the choice I made. I couldn't bear the thought of you walking the world with my blood on your hands. As far as I'm concerned, there was no choice to be made.
Piper sounded like she was anticipating being frustrated by the mysteries that the letter may not solve. "Please tell me that 32 year-old Chris told you about this choice.
"He did." Chris answered. "The story goes that, there was a demon-run facility of some sort doing DNA research on witches. They wanted to see if a witch could be identified before birth."
"Did he say why?" asked Piper, an irritated uncertainty in her eyes.
Chris took in a long, deep breath. "All he could tell me, or would tell me, was that the project was secretly funded by wealthy politicians. He seemed like he knew more than he was letting on though."
"Oh God." Piper exclaimed with a roll of her eyes.
"My wife, or girlfriend, or whoever, and I were being held by these people. I don't know why they were holding me, but I do know they wanted witches who were pregnant with identical twins."
"Unfortunately, that does make sense." Piper said, familiar with the vast amount of genetic research using twins as a means of causational discovery. "And the choice?" she asked cautiously, her voice slightly losing some of its usual steadiness.
Chris looked sympathetically into his mother's eyes, having been in her place once before, having more questions in his mind than he could sort through to ask. "Whoever was in charge of this whole thing gave me the choice of dying myself or killing my wife. If I refused to make a choice, they would kill the twins."
Though Piper's face was calm, still, and relaxed, a shy tear fell from her right eye. "You actually had to kill her yourself?" Her voice trembled with discreet subtlety.
Chris nodded hesitantly, hoping not to be deemed a selfish murderer in his mother's eyes. "That's what he said, but he didn't tell me how he did it."
"And the choice..." Piper gritted her teeth, bracing herself for Chris' inevitably disheartening response.
Having explained this situation many times before to various family members, Chris was a bit surprised to feel his pulse quicken and his hands shake slightly. "The one who lived would be cursed. And so, after she died I was cursed to feel the guilt and the grief of a killer. The grief was to never heal. Everyday when I woke up, I would feel exactly what I felt the day she died. The day ki-"
"Please don't say it." Piper firmly requested.
Chris nodded with a quiet understanding, though said nothing. He somberly continued. "That's why the Future Chris chose to live." he said. "He thought it'd be better to die than to live each day feeling like..." he paused briefly, just in case his mother would rather he not finish his sentense. "...like she killed me."
Piper folded her arms and gazed off in the distance, much as she did long ago, when she feared that Leo might once again be taken from her. "Did your wife… Did she know what was happening?" she asked, annoyed at the sick injustice of the situation.
"No." Chris answered, only slightly above a whisper. "That was part of the deal. If I told her what I was doing or why, they'd kill the twins, and probably her too." Chris nodded again towards the letter, prefering that it do as much of the explaining as possible. "Keep reading."
It's a crime, that this world will continue to turn without you in it.
"Your future self really loved this woman." Piper acknowledged, a slight smile trying to break through her settled frown.
Chris stared at the ground and nodded, though he smiled with heavy eyes.
But, thanks to Dad, Wyatt, and Rory, we did save them. Your wish was granted... They were allowed to live, but not without a price.
"Not without a price?" Piper asked, ready to devour whoever these sadists were.
"Keep going." Chris gently urged.
"Who is Rory?"
"Finally," Chris thought, "the one and only ray of hope in this bleak conversation."Though tainted, his smile was still genuine."You're about three weeks pregnant with him now."
Though Piper felt she should be smiling, the darkness of the letter outweighed such a response. She promised herself she would later make up for this, feeling she'd somehow treated her unborn child unfairly.
As for my brothers and I... Well, you already know who survived, since those who did not are there with you. I'm sure of it.
"Did he tell you?" Piper asked hesitantly. "Who didn't make it?" Though she had only known the four new additions to her family for less than a day, the thought of any one of them being murdered at the hands of such perverted tormentors was one she was neither willing nor prepared to tolerate.
"No." Chris uttered, sounding like a ghost.
Piper continued:
As promised, my curse is to be inherited by the twins on their thirteenth birthday. Dad has done everything he can to try and find a way around this, but has found no answers. But I believe I've found a way to spare them.
"Inherited? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Piper asked loudly.
"It's okay, Mom." Chris assured her. "They escaped the curse!"
"They did?" Piper asked, her voice timidly grateful. "And you? Did you also manage to dodge this... thing?"
Chris calmly nodded in response.
"How?"
"That's actually not my story to tell." Chris said gazing downward. "It's not a secret. It's just..." his mind was a blank. "Just keep going."
Thanks to the blood, the lock of hair, and the charms you left behind, I've been able to create a means for them to escape back in time. I'll be twenty years old when they arrive.
"So then, your sons are from your future?" Piper asked, sounding somewhat relieved that the questions were slowly becoming easier to ask.
Chris smiled with subtle pride. "I've been raising two teenage boys for five years."
It is my hope that the curse cannot reach the twins in the past. And as for their survival, yet again, your wish will save them. No matter what happens in the past, they will survive, even if you and I do not. And because of the gifts we were given by the Elders, they will remain safe from this dark day, and can always find the younger, hopeful me.
"Her wish?"
"Idon't know. He said he couldn't tell me." replied Chris matter-of-factly, feeling he'd perhaps been given a taste of his own secret-keeping.
"What about this gift from the Elders?" Piper scoffed. "I'm almost stunned they did something helpful for once."
Chris stared at the ground. "Dad did his best, but the Elders said that, since the curse existed outside of space and time, there was nothing they could do to erase it. But, they did give us these." The young man presented his left hand to his mother, displaying a ring with a wide, silver band, and an emerald stone. "They'll always be able to find me with the rings, and they'll never come off as long as we're alive." There was no trace of doubt in Chris' voice.
"But you and the twins did escape it." said Piper, wanting to hear, for herself, a short, simple answer.
"Yes." Chris answered. Something about his facial expression suggested to Piper that, though they may have avoided the curse, they still feared it.
"What aren't you telling me?" asked Piper, concerned but not accusing.
"Mom, I can't. It's just not for me to say."
"I hate this." Piper declared with tamed frustration. "I really, really hate this."
"I know." Chris answered, regret in his tone. "And I hate not telling you. But, trust me, I know I'm doing the right thing."
Piper gave this all a moment's consideration. "Okay. I'm trusting you with this."
"Look, let's just focus on tonight." Chris suggested, itching to escape the current topic. "No sense in moping around all night, right?"
"I can't believe you're the one telling me this." Piper said, her face finally permitting her to smile. "What happened to you?"
Chris blushed a bit, but said proudly:"A lot of people have told that fatherhood agrees with me."
Piper stepped toward the young father and warmed him in her embrace. "Add me to that list."