[You might notice I've borrowed from a theme which presents in the last season, and toyed with it a little.]
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'Wait, where'd she go?' Piper was the first one to notice that their visitor was no longer on the sofa – or, in fact, anywhere to be seen. 'Nora?' She started looking around the room, whilst Paige and Phoebe both instinctively glanced toward the attic.
'She's not after the book.' Chris still sounded bitter, if a little more sober than before.
'Chris, sweetie, I know you think you know this girl – but you've been here a long time. It's possible that the future has changed while you've been away, or that she's not the same person that she was when you left.' Phoebe tried to be gentle with her nephew, well aware of what it was like to have to cope with accusations being thrown at someone you cared about.
'She's right, son.' Leo finally chimed in, orbing up to the attic before anyone could argue. Chris didn't try to retort, though. He just crossed his arms and waited for the older man to return to the parlour. 'She's not up there.' Annoyed that his word wasn't taken on face value by now, Chris ignored their questioning looks and started pacing again.
'Chris, you've gotta level with us, okay? Who is Nora? And how do you two know each other?' Piper intentionally avoided making anymore assertions. She was concerned about Wyatt and the fact that in the future he had apparently just tried to murder someone, but even more so with her heart stricken son who was here with her now.
'And what does Wyatt want with her? And what did you mean when you said she helped you get here?' Paige hadn't caught on, though. Not that it really mattered, because Chris wasn't listening. He was standing almost perfectly still, with his eyes shut tight and his breathing steady. He was concentrating or maybe meditating, it looked like.
'Okay, what is-' Throwing her hands up in frustration, the middle Halliwell was starting to loose patience at the lack of answers they were getting. That is until she was stopped in her tracks when she spied the wide-eyed look spreading across Leo's face.
'Oh my god...' He mumbled to himself, obviously having realised something that the girls had not. But before anyone could question either man, Nora reappeared.
'Wait a minute...' Piper watched Nora curiously, noting the fact the the sad girl who had been sat on her sofa not half and hour ago, now looked beyond furious and had her maddened gaze fixed squarely on Chris.
'How dare you!' She darted an angry finger at Chris, her voice almost growling as she stared at him pointedly with her eyes brimming with silent accusations and betrayal. 'You have no right!' Chris shrank at her harsh tone, obviously aware that whatever he'd done to bring her here wasn't going to be well received, but also not so concerned about it that he was sorry.
'Nora is your true love?' Leo wasn't even paying any attention to the rest of the room anymore. He was focused solely on Chris. The girls looked like they were watching a game of tennis with their confused looks darting from one man to the next, while Nora maintained her steely gaze.
'Wait, what?' Phoebe tired to shake some answers from her brother-in-law the Elder to no avail. 'What?' So she tried whispering to Piper, thinking maybe her sister might have garnered something that she hadn't.
Chris tore his gaze away from Nora's to meet his father's, his face apparently confirming everything that Leo already knew. 'It's too dangerous – what if he comes back? What if he finds you?!' Turning back to Nora, Chris tried to explain himself.
'I don't need you to take care of me, Chris. I've been looking after myself just fine for quite some time now, remember?' Her acerbic words were thinly veiled, but enough to keep the rest of the room in the dark. 'You don't get to use that power against me anymore.' For as angry as she obviously was, the cracks in Nora's voice told a longer story. 'Don't you dare use that against me, Chris.'
'Okay, wait – I'm still confused.' Not one to give up easily, Phoebe figured it couldn't hurt to shatter this particular moment as a chance to finally get some answers.
Nora stepped away from the battle stance she'd taken, clearing the way for Leo to tentatively explain his son's situation. 'You know how when you need me, you call – or with Cole even, you would call and he would hear you?' The girls all nodded hastily, willing him to get on with it. 'Well, when two people are completely and truly destined to love one another – they become like one.' Nora and Chris had stalked as far away from the exchange as they could without actually leaving the room, so neither of them saw the wide-eyed looks that the Halliwell's tossed their way in light of Leo's revelation.
'And when two people have that kind of a connection-' Leo went on, '–they can summon one another. That's what he did, right Chris?'
Nora looked up at Chris again, waiting just as keenly for him to announce his answer out aloud as everyone else. 'Yes.' He sighed at his family, 'Yes.' He moved to get closer to Nora, who only backed away further with each step closer he got to her. 'We need your help. You have new information, right?' She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing where he was going. 'Irrespective of how you feel about me - if you want a future to go back to at all, you need to help us.' Fuming at his dirty tactics, Nora nonetheless seemed to resign herself to his point.
'You're a witch?' Paige was obviously having trouble keeping up with everything, although by the looks of everyone else she wasn't alone.
'Yeah. She cast a spell to get here, remember?' Phoebe chimed in.
'Oh, yeah.' Paige looked like she was starting to straighten out all of the information ruminating around her head. 'So, what are you packing? Power-wise, I mean?' Remaining slightly blunt, no one was quite sure of the best way to approach the girl from the future who was the true love of the youngest Halliwell son, and an apparentenemy of the elder one.
'Paige!' Piper scolded her sister. 'You don't have to answer that.' She turned to Nora, reassuring her with a small smile.
'It's okay,' Nora stuffed her hands in her pockets uncomfortably. 'I can fade-'
'Obviously.' Chris muttered under his breath, earning him several scalding looks.
'You wanna tell them?' Sarcastically, she retorted and waited pointedly for him to shake his head. 'So the fading, as well as some conjuring, molecular deceleration and telekinesis.' Her admission earned her some impressed, if slightly bewildered looks.
'Impressive.'
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