Disclaimer: Please just leave me alone. I'm not hurting anyone!

Ch. 15:

Richard carried a lap tray filled with breakfast and had a vase with a single red rose on it over to the bed where Paige was sleeping.

"Morning." He said, smiling.

"Wow!" she said, sitting up as he set the tray down.

"'Wow'." Richard repeated. "One of the most powerful witches in the world, and you can say is, 'wow'."

"I don't know." Paige replied, smirking. "Maybe I just need a little more inspiration."

Richard smiled and leaned forward, kissing her.

"Well?" Richard asked.

"I still think 'wow' pretty much covers it." She told him. "You better be careful, 'cause a girl could get used to this."

"That's the plan." Richard replied.

Paige laughed.

"Did you tell your sisters you were moving out?" he asked.

Paige looked away and Richard sighed.

"No." he said, disappointed.

"Like, it just-it hasn't really been the right time." She told him. "You know, things have been a little funky, we're trying to get Meredith, and…"

"There's never a right time." He said.

"You don't understand." Paige told him. "Piper would probably blow a major gasket, and then we've got all family obligations, and…like it or not, we're stronger together."

"You gotta do something for you." Richard told her, nodding.

A cell phone began to ring and Richard pointed to it.

"Should I get that?" he asked.

Paige nodded and he handed it to her.

"It's the house." She said, looking at the caller id.

Richard looked away as she answered it.

"Hello?" she said.

Paige orbed into the manor, wearing only her nightgown, to find Leo and Wyatt sitting with the Book in the conservatory.

"Paige, when I said I needed you, I meant a fully-clothed you." He told her.

"Oh, please, Leo, what's the big emergency?" Paige scoffed.

"What would you say if I told you whoever attacked Chris was called a Phoenix?" he asked.

"Well, I would say, 'What's a Phoenix?', and then you'd probably tell me." Paige replied.

"They're a family of assassin witches who are very elite, very powerful, and who were born with a distinct birthmark symbolizing their rise from Salem's ashes." A voice said.

Leo and Paige turned to see Meredith leaning against the door with a cup of tea in her hand.

"And if Chris finds out I told you that, I will kill you." She told them.

She pushed herself off the wall and walked over to sit next to Leo.

"Well, does the book say what they want?" Paige asked.

Leo pushed the book towards her.

"Just whatever bounty they're after, which, in this case, is Chris, which means they're still after him." Leo told her. "And they won't stop until they succeed. Wanna tell us why?"

Meredith smirked and took a sip of her tea.

"Not really." She replied.

"Did you call Phoebe and Piper?" Paige asked Leo.

"No, Phoebe's at work, and Piper came in kind of late, so I didn't want to disturb her." He replied, looking anywhere but her.

"Oh!" Paige said. "Did she, um, come home alone?"

"Please don't answer that." Meredith said shuddering.

"Hey!" Piper said, coming into the conservatory, wearing her robe. "Talking about me?"

"God, I hope not." Meredith muttered, getting up. "Morning, Piper."

"Morning, Meredith." Piper replied.

"Well, I'm out." She said, getting up. "See you later."

She disappeared into the shadows before any of them could even move.

"I swear she and Chris are competing to see who can be more mysterious." Piper said before turning back to the others. "Morning!"

"Morning." Leo said nervously. "Hi. No. Uh…"

He stood up and carried Wyatt over to Piper.

"Listen, Wyatt's been fed." He told her as she took Wyatt and he stepped away. "And I'm gonna get some coffee and Paige'll fill you in."

He left the room and Piper gave Paige a look.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Oh, Leo just found out that a coven of assassin witches called the Phoenix are after Chris." Paige replied.

"So that's what you guys were talking about?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, in the beginning." Paige replied. "And then I just kind of asked him if you'd maybe come home with anybody."

"I see." Piper replied. "Well that explains why Meredith bolted."

Wyatt gurgled and Piper looked at him.

"Did you?" Paige asked.

When Piper ignored her, she continued.

"Oh come on." She said. "If a girl can't ask that, what can a girl ask?"

"Actually, no." Piper replied reluctantly.

"I'm sorry." Her sister told her. "Maybe he's just not the right guy."

"No, it's not Greg." Piper said, sighing. "It's just me. It's just weird now that I'm a mom. I feel like I'm betraying Wyatt somehow."

"I think you're just betraying yourself." Paige replied.

"Yeah, I know." Piper agreed. "It's weird." She sighed and changed the subject. "So, uh, coven of assassin witches."

"Yeah." Paige replied.

"Maybe we should call Phoebe." Piper suggested.

"No." Paige said. "I think we can do this by ourselves. I don't think you have to bother her."

"Well, what if we need the Power of Three after we find them?" Piper asked.

"You didn't need the Power of Three to blow up the last one." Paige pointed out.

"No, but…" Piper trailed off.

"So, we need to try out this whole Power of Two thing, learn how to be flexible, right?" Paige told her. "So, you stay here. I'm gonna go get the scrying crystal."

She left and Piper turned to look at Wyatt.

"Hmm." She mused.

"Phoebe, I offered you the time off." Elise told her. "Take it!"

The woman stood in the doorway of Phoebe's office, staring her down.

"Go see Jason in Hong Kong." Elise said.

"It's just another airport, another city." Phoebe replied, shrugging.

"You can always send in the column." Elise replied. "E-mail, fax machine. It's the 21 century, and I'd like to welcome you to it. When I say take time, I don't mean a vacation. Go live there for a while. Give it a shot."

"Elise, I don't-" Phoebe started.

"No!" Elise interrupted. "I want you to listen to me! It's time I gave you some advice for once." She stepped all the way into the office. "Don't let it be work."

"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked.

"There's a whole generation of women out there who followed the dream, built successful careers…" Elise told her. "But at the expense of everything else. Now, I'm not saying I think they all made mistakes, 'cause some of them are very happy, but some of us aren't. Trust me, you don't want to wake up one day and realize that all you've got is your career."

Piper and Paige stood in a hallway as an apartment door opened to reveal a wary woman.

"Hi!" Piper said cheerfully. "How's it going?"

"Can I help you?" the woman asked.

"Hopefully." Piper replied.

"Yeah." Paige added. "See, we just moved in from out of state, and we wanted to get to know our neighbors."

"Oh, well, welcome." The woman replied. "Where did you move from?"

"Phoenix." Piper replied with a huge grin.

"Really?" the woman said, wary again.

The sisters both smiled at her.

"Please, come in." the woman said, stepping back. "Come in."

"Thank you." Paige said as she and Piper stepped in.

"Mm-hmm." The woman replied, shutting the door and locking it as they walked into the living room.

"Wow!" Piper said, looking around. "Nice place."

"Yeah, real nice." Paige added.

"Thank you." The woman said.

A little girl ran out and tugged at the woman's shirt.

"Mommy." She said. "Mommy, can you play with me?"

"Bianca, sweetie, could you give mommy a minute?" the woman asked, taking the girl's hand. "Okay?"

"Okay." The girl agreed.

Piper noticed the phoenix birth mark on the inside of Bianca's wrist as the woman ushered her out.

"Go and play with your toys." She told her daughter. "I'll be right in, okay?"

"Now what?" Paige asked quietly.

The woman closed the door before turning and throwing an energy ball at Piper and Paige.

"Look out!" Piper cried as she and Paige dodged the blast.

The woman powered up another energy ball, but this time, Piper blew her up.

"The kid!" Piper said, quickly motioning to Paige.

They hurried into the other room just in time to see the woman reform inside and pick up Bianca.

"Hurry, Bianca!" she cried, shimmering them both out.

"They can re-form?" Paige said, starring at the place the woman had been, stunned.

"Apparently." Piper said dryly. "Which means the one that attacked Chris can, too."

Chris orbed into the arboretum, right in front of the angel statue. It took him much longer to re-form than normal, and when he finally appeared fully, he gasped in pain and sat on the bench.

"You really shouldn't try to orb anymore, you know?" Bianca said as she stepped out from behind the angel. "I could kill you."

"Is that what you want?" Chris asked her.

"If that's what I wanted, you'd already be dead." Bianca told him flatly. "All I want is to bring you back."

"What about Meredith?" Chris asked her.

"He doesn't care if she's dead or alive." Bianca said casually. "I guess it depends on how much she resists."

"How'd you know I'd be here?" he asked her.

"Same reason you knew I'd be waiting here." she replied. "I mean, this is still our spot…isn't it?"

"No." he replied, shaking his head. "This is what we hoped it would be. This is what we were trying to preserve for our future. Do you remember?"

"We were naïve to think we could change anything…to stop him." Bianca told him. "Turns out Meredith had the right idea all along. Join him before it's too late."

"Meredith didn't join him to save herself." Chris shot back. "She did it because she wanted to protect us as best she could. She was the only one Wyatt ever listened to at all."

"And look what it got her." Bianca sneered. "A dead daughter and a death sentence hanging over her head. It's better to be on his side."

"You don't believe that." Chris protested.

He looked at her and saw the look in her eyes.

"Or at least you didn't." he continued.

"Well, I do now." She replied.

"What happened to you, Bianca?" Chris asked. "How did he turn you back?"

"That's not important." She answered. "What is important is that I was interrupted in stripping you of your powers, and if I don't finish what I started, you'll die soon. Think of it as…an infection. And I'm the only one with the antidote."

"That's what you think."

Bianca spun around and grabbed Meredith's hand before she could throw the potion in it.

"Going to steal my powers?" she asked, throwing the potion harmlessly on the ground. "Naughty."

She pulled Meredith towards her and jammed her hand into the woman's chest.

"Ah ah ah." Meredith said, breathing heavily. "I don't have any power for you to strip, remember? I'm just a conduit for power."

"So you are." Bianca agreed.

An athame appeared in her hand and Meredith gasped as she stabbed her with it.

"No!" Chris shouted as Meredith stumbled back, holding the wound in her stomach.

"I told you, it depended on how much she resisted." Bianca said, watching Meredith fall to the ground.

There was a slow flash of orbs and Chris appeared at Meredith's side. Before he was even done re-forming, he grabbed her and pulled her to him, orbing away again. Bianca tried to grab the orbs, but it was too late.

They were gone.

"Wait." Phoebe said. "How old is the little girl?"

"I don't know." Piper replied as they sat in the living room. "Four? Five?"

There was a flash of orbs and Chris appeared, holding the bleeding Meredith in his arms.

"Chris!" Paige cried. "Meredith! What happened?"

Chris ignored them as they rushed over to the couple. Everything in him was focused on Meredith.

"Leo, heal her." Piper ordered.

The Elder reached over, but Meredith swatted his hand away.

"No." she whispered.

"Mer, let him heal you." Chris insisted.

"It's better this way." She said softly. "She's not going to stop. At least if she can take my body back, maybe he'll leave you alone. Maybe it'll buy you time. At least enough to finish what you started."

"No!" Chris cried. "You can't leave me. Not again. I won't lose you again."

"I'm sorry." Meredith said, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry. For everything. For leaving. For Jenny. I'm sorry."

"No, you don't get to walk away again." Chris told her. "I let you leave once. I'm not letting you go again."

"Chris…" she whispered, her voice growing weaker. "Should've told you…all those years ago…shouldn't have gone to him…should've…said…love…yo-"

She stopped breathing.

"No." Chris growled. "No!"

He felt a surge of power and his hands lit up. They all stared at him as he stared at his hands.

"But you can't heal." Leo pointed out. "You said so."

Chris ignored him and held his glowing hand over the wound in Meredith's stomach. After a moment, the blood receded and the wound closed, but Meredith still didn't move.

"Come on." Chris whispered. "Come on."

Suddenly, Meredith gasped and her eyes flew open.

"Wha-?" she said, looking around, confused, before looking at Chris. "But-how?"

He didn't answer. He just slumped over, shivering.

"Chris!" she cried.

She quickly sat up, holding him in her arms this time. Piper and Paige quickly helped her move him to the couch where he lay, delirious.

"Bianca…" he mumbled.

The other looked down at him as Meredith knelt next to the couch, holding his hand tightly.

A/N: Second chapter of Chris-Crossed down. Let me know what you thought.

Abbey