Notes: I wanted to get this out before Thanksgiving as I won't have much internet connection for the duration of the eat-way-too-much holiday. Perhaps it will give me more time to write? Anyway, here's chapter 3, which contains parental bickering, the kids being cute, and introduction of an OC as a shameless plot device. For those that worry, no Mary Sues from me, EVER, and definitely not a romantic interest. Charmed, of course, is not mine.
"Gideon's gone, Wyatt and Chris are safe, it all worked out" –Piper, "A Call to Arms"
In Chicago, Chris found himself watching over two of the most boring charges ever. One of them wasn't even aware of the fact that he was a witch, and had never even accidentally cast a spell or used a power. He was far too busy playing football and trying to pick up women. Chris kept tabs on him only sporadically. His other charge had no spell casting ability and only a mild power that helped things grow. She went to weekly meetings with her hippie college coven and had no idea that watering her plants once in a while would have down the same thing as her power.
He knew that the elders had given him two charges that didn't need, nor had they ever had before, a whitelighter. He took their advice to heart and enrolled in a few classes each semester. He studied business and law, and even took a few cooking classes. Once a week he took his books to the coffee shop where his charge met with her coven and tried alternately to prevent himself from laughing at them or teaching them.
After five years, Piper found herself picking Melinda up from her last day in kindergarten. She would be starting first grade in the fall, shortly before her sixth birthday. Piper held her on her hip and looked lovingly into warm brown eyes. She had done her hair in pigtails that morning, and now she ruffled the remaining mess affectionately.
"Did you have a good day?" she asked.
"We got to play animals!" Melinda exclaimed, and held up a rough picture of a tiger. Piper took it from her and oohed and aahed appropriately. It would be up on the fridge tonight, along with Wyatt's final report card from the second grade.
Both of his charges required extra time to graduate, and after five years, Chris found himself with more than enough credits to claim a degree. In the coffee shop, where the staff knew him only as the-guy-who-came-in-once-a-week-to-eavesdrop-on-the-coven, he stared down at his transcripts and thought about graduate school or law school or getting a real job. It blew his mind a bit, not much more that actually getting a degree did, but enough that he truly felt like his old world was gone and going to stay that way.
He was engrossed in his thoughts and startled when he heard someone call his name.
He looked up to see the speaker was a newer member of the coven. She was an older woman who had come only about every other week for the past couple months.
"It is Chris, right?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, and set his papers down. He watched as she came over and sat herself at his table.
"I'm June," she said, and stuck her hand out. "I know your parents."
He looked at her hand but didn't take it. "You must have me confused with someone else."
"No," she said, "I'm sure it's you. I saw your picture at their house while I was out in California, before I decided to move my daughter and me here. Your little sister and my daughter were friends in pre-school, so your mother and I arranged play dates."
"I don't think so," he said.
She pulled her hand back finally and studied him. "I won't tell them I saw you," she said. "Piper wouldn't talk about you except to say you were her son, so I understand if there's some tension between you. I was on the outs with my family for years; I get it."
"Like I said, you've got me mixed up with someone else," he said, and gathered his papers together and began shoving them into his bag.
"Alright, well, maybe I'll see you around again sometime, Chris. You should come and join the coven next time, instead of just sitting over here by yourself."
He picked up his bag and stood up to leave, but found himself still looking down at her, unable to look away.
"They really have my picture up?"
Leo was already home when Piper and Melinda got there, half listening to Wyatt's talk about his new Transformers while he got a snack ready for the kids. She sat Melinda down and watched her run right to her older brother and join in on the Transformer talk. She kissed Leo on the cheek and hung the picture of the Tiger up on the fridge, next to the already posted report card.
"What's for snack?" she asked.
"Peanut butter apples," he said, and held one up for her inspection.
"Yummy," she said, and stole it from him to eat it herself.
"How are things at the club?" he asked. "Is the band going to come through?"
"No," she said, "but I've got a local band lined up already to fill in. I think everything will work out okay. They've played P3 before and done a great job. What did you do today?"
He took the apples over to the kids and helped Melinda and Wyatt get situated at the table.
Turning back to Piper, he said, "I heard something interesting today, Up There."
"Oh yeah? Another demon?"
"No, it was about a whitelighter. I think maybe…" He trailed off and looked uncertain.
"What, Leo? Should I get Phoebe and Paige for this?"
"Let's talk later," he said, with a glance at the children.
June was something of a nomad. She traveled a lot, met up with other witches when she could, and raised her daughter to read maps for the road and keep her powers in control. Chris sat back down at the table and let her tell him about play dates at Halliwell manor. He got her to tell him about Melinda, a happy little girl who was very much loved, and Wyatt, an energetic little boy who still sometimes orbed without much thought to the consequences.
"And your parents are doing well," she said. "The only time I saw them as anything other than proud parents was when they refused to talk about you. Then they just seemed sad."
"Yeah," he said, and couldn't think of anything to add.
"You know," she said, "if you went home again, they'd only be happy. They want you there."
"I don't know about that."
"I do. I went home again. You can, too."
"I think Chris is still alive," Leo said, as soon as the bedroom door had closed behind them. "I heard some of the elders talking about a whitelighter with no real charges. One of them wanted to reassign him, but the other said he didn't have healing powers. It must be Chris."
"Now come on, Leo. You don't know that. There could be other whitelighters out there with no healing abilities. Paige can't heal."
He shook his head. "What are the chances of yet another child from a witch and a whitelighter?"
She sat down on the bed with a sigh. "Probably pretty high," she said in a dry tone.
He stood in front of her and studied her face. "Why don't you want this to be Chris?" he asked.
"What? Are you serious?"
"Every time I try to talk about him, you change the subject."
"Things are good now, Leo. We have two wonderful children, there haven't been many demon attacks, and we even have nieces now. I want to dwell on the things that are good."
Leo looked down at her sadly. "We have three children, Piper."
She looked away from him for a while, and when she finally looked back, there were tears in her eyes. "We lost him, Leo. He's not coming back."