Valhalley of the Dolls, Part 1 (in which Piper and Leo's history comes back to bite Chris in the ass)
Author's note: The idea for this series came about from watching (and rewatching) season 6 and thinking about all of the ways Chris's identity could have been revealed. I decided to challenge myself to write a Chris-revelation one shot for each episode, basically picking a moment where Chris's identity could have come out to one or all of his family, and then continuing the story until both Piper and Leo found out. In some, all of his secrets are revealed, in others, just the big one. I've tried to consider how the other characters would react, based partly on how they reacted in the show, but also on their relationships with Chris in that particular episode. There'll probably be a bit of overlap/repetition between stories, though I'm trying to avoid that as much as I can.
Paige is the one who decided to take these stupid temp jobs. How is it that I'm the one stuck with the dogs? Chris grumbled to himself as the five dogs pulled him up the stairs.
Immediately upon stepping onto the landing, the five dogs took off in different directions. Chris barely managed to hang onto their leads, stumbling slightly as he tried to keep his footing. He let out a sigh of frustration, suddenly appreciative that his mother had never caved to Wyatt's incessant pleas for a dog when they were growing up.
When it became clear that he wasn't going to be able to wrangle the dogs up the stairs again by himself, Chris let the leads go and waved a hand, orbing the five dogs up to the attic. He stood at the foot of the stairs, slamming the attic door closed telekinetically so the dogs couldn't get out.
A roar sounded downstairs, followed by the sound of at least one body hitting the floor. Chris fought the urge to orb down and help, reminding himself that the sisters, the Charmed Ones, could handle a simple vanquish. In fact, it was one of the more well-planned vanquishes the Charmed Ones had undertaken, courtesy of their obsessive new whitelighter. If he orbed down now, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from jumping in and all that would achieve was revealing his witch powers, which would just lead to a whole suite of questions he couldn't and didn't want to answer.
So, he shifted restlessly, anxiously, on the landing of the second floor, listening to what he hoped was the sound of the Trok demon being vanquished. He was already heading down the stairs when Paige called out for him.
"Chris!"
He sped up, taking the stairs two at a time in his haste to get down and make sure the sisters were okay.
"Everything go o-?" the words died in his throat as he reached the bottom of the stairs and took in the scene in front of him.
The sisters were still pulling themselves to their feet. Piper was already on her way out of the room, wearing that same creepily cheery smile she'd been wearing for the last week or so. She seemed to be fine, although Chris couldn't be sure if she would have reacted differently even if she was injured. Phoebe also seemed fine, a little dazed perhaps, but unharmed. Paige, however, was wincing and holding one of her shoulders. She looked at Chris expectantly.
Shit.
It was the moment Chris had been dreading. Although, if he was being honest with himself, he'd been lucky to get away with it for as long as he had, given how reliant the sisters had become on whitelighter healing since one married into the family. Still, he'd hoped to go a bit longer without having to reveal this particular fact, because he knew once he did, it would only fuel the sisters' resistance to demon hunting.
"What are you waiting for?" Paige asked, gesturing to her shoulder.
Chris shifted uncomfortably as Phoebe and Paige both looked at him with growing confusion. He tucked his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor.
"I can't heal."
He winced at how the words came out. Soft and embarrassed. It had been a sore spot for as long as the young whitelighter-witch could remember, exacerbated by the knowledge that his oh-so-perfect big brother had never had issues accessing that particular power.
"What?" Paige asked irately, heading into the living room, "What kind of whitelighter can't heal?"
Chris followed her, defensiveness flaring up within him, "For the record, you can't heal either."
"I'm half-whitelighter," Paige shot back. Chris resisted the urge to say Me too. "How come you didn't tell us about this before we hired you?"
"Because you didn't hire me. I was assigned by the Elders," Chris pointed out. It was a weak argument, after all the sisters had never cared for, much less respected the Elders' authority. But it was all he had.
"Any other little surprises you'd like to share with us?" Phoebe asked, entering the living room with a tube of anti-inflammatory cream.
"No," Chris shifted nervously, hoping that the sisters would buy the excuse he had come up with for when they inevitably discovered he couldn't heal, "Look, I haven't been a whitelighter very long, okay? And healing, it's big, and takes a while to learn how to do."
Phoebe's hands stilled on Paige's shoulder and she looked over at Chris, her eyes narrowing, "That's not true."
Oh, for fuck's sake. Chris froze, doing his best not to react.
"How do you know?" Paige asked, looking between Phoebe and Chris with a mix of curiosity and confusion.
Chris was also curious to know the answer to that.
"Piper and Leo traded powers once, when Leo was dying. It only took Piper a few hours to work out the trigger and heal him," Phoebe said, her eyes never leaving Chris's.
Chris swallowed hard. He'd never heard that story before. If he had, he would have come up with a more believable excuse for the sisters. As it was, there was really nothing he could say to allay Phoebe's suspicions. He doubted she and Paige would believe him if he told them he knew what the trigger was for healing, but somehow had never been able to get it to work.
"You're not a full whitelighter, are you?" Paige asked knowingly.
Oh, come on, can't a guy catch a break? Chris resisted the urge to cry out. He didn't respond to Phoebe and Paige straight away, trying to think of anything he might be able to say to get himself out of this situation he'd found himself in.
Thankfully, Piper walked into the room with Wyatt on her hip, providing a temporary distraction for her sisters.
"I put a casserole in the oven, you can check it in about an hour or so," she said cheerily, "I'll be at the club if you need me. Have fun."
"Oh my god, she is so sad," Phoebe commented after Piper had walked out.
"Sad? Where are you getting sad from?" Paige asked. She didn't give Phoebe an opportunity to answer though, turning her attention back to Chris, "Whatever. One problem at a time."
Phoebe nodded in agreement, looking back at Chris, "What are you?"
Chris sighed. He really couldn't see any way out other than the truth. Crap. It hadn't exactly been his default since returning to the past.
"Part witch, okay?" he said defeatedly, "I'm part witch. Like you, Paige. And Wyatt."
"What else are you lying about?" Phoebe asked.
Frustration welled up within Chris. This was a really inconvenient time for Phoebe to actually be paying attention to something other than her work or her love life. If he'd had more time to gain the Charmed Ones' trust, they might have been less suspicious when his witch heritage inevitably came out, and probably wouldn't have questioned it as much.
Probably.
"Nothing," he told them.
The looks Phoebe and Paige shot him told him they didn't believe that for a second.
"Everything else I told you is true," he insisted, "I just let you believe I was a full whitelighter."
"Why?" Paige asked.
"So I could get assigned to you guys."
"Why?" Paige repeated.
"To protect Wyatt."
Phoebe looked at Chris with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, "There's something you're not telling us."
"There are a lot of things I'm not telling you. Because if I tell you, it could change the future in worse ways," Chris replied exasperatedly.
Phoebe shook her head, "No, that's not it."
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Paige interjected, studying Chris carefully.
"What?" Phoebe asked confusedly.
"Think about it, Phoebe. He's half-whitelighter, which probably means he's gonna be born soon, given how old he is and how far in the future he came back from. And the only family to ever produce whitelighter-witches in this time is?"
No. Chris's heart sank. Goddammit, she really is Super-Witch.
"Ours," Phoebe breathed, looking at Chris in wonder.
"I'm gonna assume you're not my kid-"
Of course you are.
"- which makes you Piper's," Paige said.
"And Leo's," Phoebe realised.
Chris folded his arms across his chest and clenched his jaw, feeling uncomfortable under the weight of Phoebe and Paige's gazes. Neither of them spoke. Almost as if they were waiting for Chris to confirm it. He didn't want to, but unfortunately he really didn't see any other option.
"You can't tell them," he said finally.
"We have to tell them," Phoebe insisted, "There's no way we can keep a secret like this from them!"
Dismay washed over Chris. Phoebe and Paige knowing was bad enough. But the thought of Piper and Leo knowing… it was almost unbearable.
"That's kind of beside the point right now. We need to fix Piper before we can tell her anything," Paige pointed out, "I swear, I think Leo did something to her before he left."
"You know what? I think it's about time we orb him down here and ask him," Phoebe replied.
Chris bit his lip nervously. This was another moment he'd been dreading. He'd known that eventually the sisters would wanna talk to Leo. But as seemed to be his refrain today, he hadn't been anticipating it to be so soon.
On the plus side though, with his identity now out in the open, at least with Phoebe and Paige, that meant he could just tell the Valkyries to let Leo go, rather than having to try to orchestrate some kind of rescue. Knowing he was their nephew (Future nephew, he reminded himself), they were less likely to kick him out, or even worse try to vanquish him, for kidnapping their ex-brother-in-law.
"Uh, about that…" he said slowly, still nervous about how Phoebe and Paige were going to react to his scheme, even knowing who he was to them now, "Leo's not Up There."
"Then where is he?" Paige asked.
"Valhalla."
"Val-what?" Phoebe frowned in confusion.
"Valhalla," Chris repeated, "Home of the Valkyries. Warrior heaven."
"What's he doing there?" Paige asked, folding her arms across her chest. She winced, the action causing a flare of pain from her still sore shoulder.
"I kinda put him there," Chris said sheepishly.
"What? Why?" Paige asked sharply.
Chris shrugged. There were several reasons he'd shipped Leo off to Valhalla the first chance he'd gotten. The first one being his general disdain for the Elder, stemming from years of broken promises, playing favourites, and frankly, just being a deadbeat dad. But he couldn't exactly tell the sisters that. Chris had also hoped that spending some time in Valhalla with the warriors would impart some sorely needed combat skills, which would come in handy for Leo, should the future Chris was trying to prevent still eventuate. But he couldn't say that either. So he went with the one reason he could actually share with them.
"He was suspicious. I needed him out of the way while I gained your trust."
"Why all the manipulation?" Phoebe asked.
"Because I didn't think you'd believe me if I told you the truth," Chris replied with a half-truth. He couldn't exactly tell them his real reasons for hiding his identity.
"Okay, how do we get Leo back?" Paige asked.
"I just have to contact the Valkyries and tell them to let him go."
Chris pulled a small potion vial out of his pocket, one he had been carrying with him since he'd first sent Leo to Valhalla. Without giving any explanation, he threw it onto the spot on the floor between his feet. Phoebe and Paige both jumped back in alarm, looking at one another in confusion when nothing happened immediately.
"It's a communications potion," Chris explained, "It'll send a signal to the Valkyries, and they'll be able to trace it back to us."
It didn't take long for the portal to form. Unsurprisingly, it was Mist who stepped through it. She smiled at Chris, though her expression soon became one of alarm when she noticed the two other witches standing beside him.
"What's going on, Chris?" she asked.
"Plan's changed Mist. You can let Leo go."
Mist's brow furrowed, "But you said-"
"I know I did," he cut her off, "But things have changed. We need him here now."
"Very well," Mist nodded.
"Tell Freyja I said 'thanks'," Chris gave Mist a small smile as she turned to walk back through the portal.
Mist shot Chris a sad smile back. They both knew this was the end of whatever it was that had been going on between them. For Chris, it was a relief, to no longer have to use Mist's feelings towards him to keep the Valkyries on his side. He was also grateful for Phoebe and Paige's presences, which stopped Mist from attempting any kind of physical farewell. Of course, there was some guilt too, for the way he had used Mist and toyed with her affections for him, knowing he could never be what she wanted. Knowing that his heart would always belong to Bianca.
Mist stepped back through the swirling portal, which closed instantly behind her.
"Now what?" Phoebe asked.
"Now we wait."
"And you're sure they're gonna just give him back? Just like that?" Paige asked incredulously.
"They only kept him there as a favour to me. They've been wanting to offload him since the second he got there. Trust me, they'll be glad to be rid of him."
"How do we know he'll even come here?" Phoebe asked, "He might orb straight Up There."
"He won't," Chris said certainly, "He'll wanna come make sure I haven't hurt any of you."
Neither Phoebe nor Paige quite knew how to respond to that. They fell into silence.
"Just- I know I have to tell them," Chris said resignedly, after a minute or so, "Can you just let me do it? Please?"
Phoebe frowned. She was terrible at keeping secrets.
"Yeah, okay, Chris. But you gotta do it sooner, rather than later. We can't keep this secret forever," Paige looked meaningfully at Phoebe.
"I know," he nodded.
They fell silent as light filled the room. Thousands of tiny blue orbs appeared in mid-air and slowly descended downwards, reforming into the shape of a man. As soon as he solidified, Leo's eyes landed on Chris and he threw himself forward in a fit of rage.
"You son of a bitch!" he yelled, his fist colliding with Chris's jaw.
Before Chris could even react, Leo had him pinned up against the wall. He thought about throwing the enraged Elder off of him with his powers, but figured it would only anger Leo more. Not to mention, force Chris to reveal his identity to his future father, which he was hoping to avoid for now.
"Why'd you do it?" Leo asked, his voice low and deadly.
"Leo!" Phoebe shrieked, trying to pull her ex-brother-in-law off of her new nephew.
He shrugged her off, his eyes never leaving Chris. If I was ever gonna be scared of Leo, this would be it, Chris thought wryly. He wasn't scared though. He knew all it would take was a flick of his hand and Leo would find himself on the other side of the room. Although that would mean revealing his witch heritage to Leo, and he really wasn't ready for that yet. He was hoping he wouldn't have to resort to using his powers, what with Phoebe and Paige now knowing his identity. Surely, they wouldn't let Leo pummel him too badly.
When Chris didn't answer, Leo let out an angry roar and threw Chris across the room. Chris flipped over the couch, landing on his side.
"Leo! Stop it!" Paige cried.
Free from Leo's grip, Chris figured his best course of action was to orb out, but when he tried, he found himself being grabbed mid-orb and thrown across the room again, this time into a cabinet, which gave way under his weight as he reformed.
So much for them not letting him pummel me, Chris thought as he pushed himself up into a standing position. Glass crunched underneath his feet.
Phoebe stepped in front of Leo, who had turned towards Chris as if he were ready for round four.
"Stop, Leo, he's your son!" she cried.
"Phoebe!" Paige hissed, at the same time Chris exclaimed, "You promised!"
Leo's reaction was more silent. He stiffened, looking from Chris to Phoebe and then back to Chris. For a moment, his anger slipped away as he studied Chris carefully. Then he shook his head and the anger returned.
"He's lying," he said through gritted teeth.
Chris couldn't quite hide his hurt at Leo's denial. A bitter part of him wondered why he'd expected anything different from someone who'd never shown any sign of even wanting him in the first place.
"No he isn't," Phoebe replied, still standing in front of Leo in case he came at Chris again.
"Don't bother, Phoebe. He never was interested in being much of a Dad to me anyway," Chris spat, all of the resentment and bitterness he harboured towards his father welling up in him. He clung to the feelings, knowing from years of experience that it was easier to be angry than to be hurt.
Leo looked shocked at that. He'd been so sure that Chris was lying, but the venom in his words, well he'd have to be a pretty incredible actor to fake that kind of longstanding hostility and resentment. But then that meant…
"Chris," he breathed, guilt overcoming him as he realised the young whitelighter he'd just flung around the room really was his son.
Phoebe let out a sigh of relief, stepping out of Leo's path. She looked at Chris, who didn't seem to be as relieved as she felt.
No, Chris looked panicked. So panicked, in fact, that it took Phoebe's breath away. She leant forward, clutching her chest as her breaths started coming shorter. She could feel Paige at her side, looking at her concernedly, but neither Leo nor Chris seemed to notice.
And then, just as quick as it had begun, it was over. The panic left Phoebe, and she came back to herself, straightening up and breathing normally again. Distantly, she heard Paige ask what had happened, but Phoebe was too focussed on the father-son interaction to respond.
Chris clenched his jaw and folded his arms across his chest defensively, "You're right, you know? I did send you to Valhalla."
Phoebe tensed, ready to jump in if Leo went for Chris again. Which strangely, seemed to be what Chris was going for. Almost as if he wanted Leo to hate him.
"Why?" Leo asked, all traces of anger having disappeared from his voice.
Chris shrugged, "Does it matter? I still did it. I'm the reason you spent five weeks with the Valkyries. Fighting their warriors. Worrying about your family. Missing Wyatt."
Yep, he was definitely trying to goad Leo. But why? Phoebe watched carefully for Leo's reaction.
"It matters to me, Chris," Leo said, the volume of his voice rising, "I must've been a pretty bad Dad for my own son to-"
"Shut up!"
Chris glowered at Leo. Before he could say anything else, Phoebe stepped in again. Without even realising what she was doing, she raised her fist and slammed it into Leo's jaw.
"You bastard!" she yelled furiously, "I'm not your son. You have no right to call me that!"
Chris's eyes widened in surprise as he realised what was happening. What had been happening for the past few days. Phoebe's an empath. She'd had the power of empathy for as long as Chris could remember, but as far as he knew, she hadn't developed that power until sometime after Chris had been born. Which wasn't for another year and a half, give or take. Something must have been changed by Chris's trip through time that somehow warranted Phoebe developing the power early.
"Phoebe!" Paige cried.
Phoebe blinked, as if coming back to herself. She shot Leo an apologetic glance, "I'm sorry. I don't-"
"You're an empath," Chris interjected flatly, "You're channelling me. And I know it's hard to control right now, but it'd be really great if you could stop."
"Get her out of here, Paige," Leo said, rubbing his jaw, "It's too hard for her to keep it under control with so many strong emotions in the room."
Paige nodded, putting an arm around Phoebe and leading her out of the living room. Chris thought about orbing away, but knew if he tried, Leo would probably stop him again. Better to change the subject then.
"Whatever you did to Piper, you need to reverse it," he said.
Leo blinked, surprised at the sudden shift in the conversation.
"That's the only reason you're here," Chris said antagonistically, "So just fix whatever you did and then run off and join the other Elders like you'd planned to before I banished you."
Leo didn't rise to the bait.
"I can't leave now," he protested.
Chris scoffed, "Like I'm supposed to believe that. Leaving me's never bothered you before."
Misery settled over Leo as he realised the depth of his son's hatred for him. I must be the world's worst father.
"Chris, whatever it is I've done, or will do, I wanna fix it."
"That's not why I'm here."
"Then why are you here?"
"That's really beside the point. Right now, we just need to reverse the magic to Piper before it screws with her powers any more than it already has, okay?" Chris said exasperatedly.
"Does Piper know?" Leo asked.
Chris sighed, "Not yet. Phoebe and Paige only figured it out like an hour ago."
Leo raised his eyebrows in surprise, "How'd they do that?"
"They found out I can't heal. Thanks for that, by the way."
"Huh?"
"Phoebe remembered your little power switch with Piper. Apparently healing's not as hard as I told them it was. At least not for a full whitelighter."
"Oh."
Leo got the feeling Chris was expecting an apology, which was ridiculous because had Piper not switched their powers and figured out how to heal him, Chris wouldn't even exist. And even if it wasn't ridiculous, Leo wasn't going to apologise for giving Phoebe the means to figure Chris's identity out. Who knew how long they would have gone on not knowing who Chris really was, not to mention how much longer Leo would have been stuck in Valhalla, had Phoebe not remembered the power switch.
When Leo didn't say anything else, Chris tried again to get him to leave, "Piper's at the club, so why don't you just head on over there and undo whatever Elder spell it was that you put her under?"
Leo closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating on Piper's presence in the back of his mind.
"She's not alone," he replied, opening his eyes, "I guess we'll just have to wait for her to get home."
"There's no we here. You can wait if you want, but don't expect me to wait with you. I have a job to do."
With that, Chris turned away from Leo, taking a couple of steps towards the hallway. He paused in the doorway, turning back to the disappointed looking Elder.
"Just, don't tell her, okay?" he said, hating that his secret was in the hands of Leo, of all people, "Let me do it. Please."
Leo looked unhappy by the request, and Chris half-expected him to refuse. To the whitelighter-witch's surprise, he nodded.
"Okay, Chris."
For a second, Chris thought about thanking the man who would one day be his father. But he didn't. Instead, he orbed.
It took a couple of hours for Piper to return to the Manor. Leo spent that time waiting in the living room, consumed with his thoughts. Three thoughts, in particular, seemed to go around and around in his mind, almost as if they were on a loop. He was going to see Piper again. He wondered if he was prepared for that. He wondered if she was prepared for it. He was going to see Wyatt too - God, how he'd missed his son. Part of Leo wanted to just orb over to P3, consequences be damned, just to get a few more precious moments with Wyatt, knowing he would eventually have to return Up There.
And then there was Chris. If he was being honest with himself, he really didn't know how to process that particular revelation. He'd spent the past five weeks being so angry at the whitelighter-witch, convinced that he was behind his imprisonment. He'd even begun plotting the revenge he'd enact on Chris when he was inevitably set free, with his various plans ranging in severity, based on how long he remained in captivity and how much havoc Chris had wrought in that time.
Of course, all of the anger was gone now that Leo knew who Chris really was. It didn't make what Chris had done okay, but somehow, strangely, Leo felt as though he understood it more now.
Now, if he could only figure out exactly what he'd done, or would do, to make Chris make hate him so much.
The sound of the door opening pulled Leo from his thoughts. He stood, swallowing hard.
"Phoebe? Paige?" Piper called cheerfully.
Leo stepped into the entryway.
"They're not home."
Piper's smile faltered. She readjusted her grip on Wyatt.
"Hi Piper," Leo said softly, resisting the urge to take Piper and Wyatt into his arms.
"Wh- what are you doing here?" she asked, all traces of her earlier cheeriness gone.
"It's a long story," Leo replied.
"I…" Piper looked confused, "Did you do something to me?"
"I took away your pain. But then-" Leo hesitated, not wanting to tell Piper what had actually prevented him from being able to pull the magic back, lest she make the same mistake he did and potentially damage her relationship with their son by reacting badly without knowing all the facts, "- something happened and I couldn't get back to reverse it. I'm so sorry."
I should probably be really angry about that, Piper thought dimly. Only there wasn't any anger. Only the crushing pain the magic had been keeping at bay, which was now threatening to swallow her whole.
Leo watched guiltily as tears filled Piper's eyes. Without even thinking about it, he stepped forward, wrapping both Piper and Wyatt up in his arms.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he whispered, "I didn't mean for this to happen."
A tiny voice in the back of Leo's head reminded him that no matter how he or Piper felt, he would eventually have to leave again. It did neither of them any good to take comfort in one another. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to let go.
"Is Piper ba-"
The words died in Chris's throat as he took in the scene in front of him. His father (future father, he reminded himself), holding his mother (future mother) and his baby big brother. Logically he knew it shouldn't, but the image hurt his heart. He felt like an intruder in his home (future home) and his family (future family). And no matter how hard he tried to remind himself that this wasn't his time, and they weren't his family, and this place wasn't his home yet, in that moment, he couldn't quite keep the present separate from the future.
It made him miss the family he had lost when he was fourteen. A part of him was struck with jealousy too, at the depth of feeling Leo so clearly held for his oldest son. It had always been easy for Leo to show his love and affection to Wyatt. Chris, on the other hand, well, his father probably did love him in some way, though he had a pretty crappy way of showing it, but he'd never shown Chris even a quarter of the love and care he'd shown his brother.
Leo turned his head towards the sound of Chris's voice the moment he heard it. The hurt look in Chris's eyes caught his attention, and he immediately jumped back from Piper and Wyatt. What was it Chris had said before? Something about how Leo had never had any trouble leaving him? He hadn't thought it possible, but he felt even more guilty at Chris's reaction.
Before Leo could say anything, Chris orbed out of the Manor. Leo tried to grab his orbs and prevent him from leaving again, but was too far away to do it this time.
If Piper thought anything of the strange way her new whitelighter had reacted to her and Leo, she didn't voice it. In fact, it was a testament to her pain that she didn't ask Leo exactly what Chris's problem was.
"I- Leo, I can't do this right now."
Unknowingly acting similar to her son, Piper hurried up the stairs with Wyatt, not giving Leo a chance to respond. For a second, Leo thought about asking if he could at least have some time with Wyatt, but he thought better of it. Piper had probably taken Wyatt with her for a reason.
And Leo had another son to focus on. He was still working through the fact that he would have another son, let alone that said son, who was yet to be conceived, was a grown man who apparently already hated him. Leo couldn't let himself get caught up in the complexities though. All that mattered was finding Chris, trying to mend some bridges (even if he didn't know exactly which bridges his future self had burned), and helping Chris find the best way to reveal his identity to Piper.
No pressure there.
Leo closed his eyes, trying to sense Chris. As an Elder, he should be able to find any whitelighter on Earth, though being away from the heavens for so long made that more difficult than it should have been. When he couldn't find Chris that way, he focussed on sensing his family. Piper and Wyatt's presences were the easiest to detect, due to both their physical proximity and the relationships he shared with them both. He cast his senses a little wider, first finding Phoebe, at the beach of all places, and next finding Paige in an apartment he didn't recognise.
But no matter how far he cast his senses, he couldn't find Chris. It had to mean his son was blocking him. After all, the only other explanation was that Chris was in the Underworld, but unless he'd been kidnapped by demons in the short time since Leo had seen him, that didn't seem all that likely.
Not having any idea of where Chris might have gone, having never actually seen him anywhere other than the Manor or Up There, Leo resorted to Plan B.
"Paige!" he called. He waited a moment for her to return, calling her again when she didn't, "Paige, please, it's important."
Orbs appeared just above Leo's eyeline, quickly converging into the shape of Paige and… two dogs?
"Don't ask," Paige sighed in response to Leo's confusion, "What's up? Did you fix Piper?"
Leo nodded, "She's upstairs. Do you know where Chris might be? He took off and I need to find him."
Paige pursed her lips in thought, "He might be at P3. He's been living there since he came back. But other than the club and here, I don't really know where he spends the rest of his time."
"The club? He's really been living there?" Leo's guilt intensified again, sitting heavily in the pit of his stomach. He felt terrible at the thought of his son living in P3 rather than at the Manor where he belonged, and it hadn't even been his doing. He could only imagine how guilty Piper would feel about it once she knew.
"Well, we didn't know who he was," Paige said sheepishly, "We couldn't exactly let him stay here. As it was, P3 was a stretch. We only let him move in there because he told us he couldn't go Up There. Something about needing to stay close to protect Wyatt."
Which Paige now realised was a lie. It wasn't that Chris needed to be close by, it was that, like Paige, he'd never been a full whitelighter and so had never actually lived Up There.
Leo sighed. A few hours ago, he would've been relieved to know the Charmed Ones had had the sense not to allow a suspicious stranger from the future to move into their home. Not to mention he would've been happy not to have been replaced. Now though, it made him feel sick to his stomach, even though he couldn't really fault Paige's logic. If they'd only known…
"There's nowhere else he'd go?" Leo asked.
"Not that I know of. Sorry," Paige replied apologetically.
"It's not your fault. Hopefully he went to P3."
With that, Leo orbed, reappearing in the main part of the club. To his relief, Chris sat at the bar, hunched over something.
Papers, Leo realised, as he got closer. There had to be at least five pages spread across the bar, filled to varying degrees with cramped handwriting, what appeared to be a flowchart, and a series of more complicated diagrams Leo couldn't interpret from where he was standing.
Chris didn't seem to have noticed Leo's presence. Or if he had, he hadn't acknowledged it. Casually, Leo took a seat beside Chris at the bar.
Or at least, he tried to. He hadn't quite sat down when he found himself being flung backwards. He landed on his back and for a moment, felt something pressing down on him, preventing him from getting up. It quickly disappeared though, allowing him to pull himself to his feet.
"You startled me," Chris said flatly.
He was standing beside the bar now, and Leo realised what must have happened. Chris must've just seen someone coming at him from the corner of his eye, and reacted before he realised who it was. Or at least, that was what Leo hoped had happened. He'd much prefer that to the idea that his son might use his powers on him on purpose.
"Sorry," Leo replied, standing in place where Chris had thrown him to, on the off chance that he had recognised him before using his powers, "Telekinesis, huh?"
"Something tells me you didn't come here to find out what powers I have," Chris said, crossing his arms, "So, what are you doing here? I'm busy."
"I came to make sure you were okay. You left before we could talk."
"Did you ever think that was on purpose?"
Leo chuckled humourlessly, "I had an idea it might be."
"So, what are you doing here then?" Chris asked defensively.
"Chris, I just found out you're my son. You've made it very clear that I'm a terrible father to you in the future, but I'm not that person yet. I just want an opportunity to know what I did so I can fix it," Leo pleaded.
"I didn't come back to fix us, Leo," Chris replied.
"Why did you come back then?" Leo asked, hoping that if he could keep Chris talking he might eventually be able to get the answers he really wanted, "I mean, it wasn't to defeat the Titans, was it?"
"No, it wasn't."
"So, why?"
"For Wyatt. Something gets to him in the next year and a half, and- Well, let's just say it's bad for everyone, okay?"
Fear struck Leo's heart at the thought of something happening to his infant son, "What happens to him?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Why didn't the sisters come back to fix it? Why did we wait so long to send you back?"
"Because no one knew anything even happened until it was too late."
"That doesn't make any sense? How could we not have known something happened to Wyatt? And if we didn't know what happened, how do you know when it happened?"
"You ask a lot of questions, you know that?" Chris said wearily, "There's a lot about the future I can't talk about. Not without risking making it worse. Can't you just trust that I'm here to protect Wyatt?"
As an Elder, Leo knew the importance of preserving the future. And he knew that meant there were some things Chris would never be able to tell them. But as a father, he was desperate to know what could have possibly happened to his son that would warrant time travel of this nature.
He opened his mouth to ask another question, but stopped himself as he remembered he wasn't just Wyatt's father anymore. He was Chris's father too. And right now, Chris needed Leo to stop interrogating him.
"Okay. I'm sorry," Leo said.
Chris looked surprised at that, apparently not having expected the Elder to drop the conversation so easily.
"Thanks," he mumbled, turning back to his work.
"Can I help?"
Chris looked back at Leo in surprise again, "Aren't you going Up There?"
"I can't leave now," Leo replied.
"Because of Wyatt," Chris cast his eyes to the ground. It was always about Wyatt.
"Well, there is that," Leo said.
Knew it, Chris thought.
And then Leo surprised him by adding, "But there's you too."
Chris looked up at Leo, gaping. He didn't really know how to respond to that.
Leo didn't really know what to say either. Chris's reaction was disheartening, to say the least. I think it's safe to say future me would have won a few 'World's Worst Dad' awards.
Chris shifted uncomfortably, "Don't think you have to stay because of me. I've been on my own for a long time now, I'll be fine. You don't need to stick around and risk getting in trouble with the Elders for me."
"I've been on my own for a while now." Leo filed that tiny piece of future knowledge away for later.
"That may be the case, but I at least have to stick around to make sure you're born."
"Uh- that's still- we- we don't have to worry about that for a while," Chris replied awkwardly.
"Even so. I think I should stick around and do my part to help," Leo said, "After all, technically the Charmed Ones are without a whitelighter. Who better to fill that role than me?"
"But you're an Elder. You can't- the other Elders won't like it."
"Let me worry about that."
Again, Chris was momentarily speechless. This Leo was so different from the father he'd known, who had walked the line with the Elders, always worried that if he didn't, they would use it as an excuse to take him away from his family permanently. He wondered, not for the first time that day, how much he was unintentionally changing just by being in the past.
"So, now that's out of the way, how can I help?" Leo asked again.
Chris looked down at the papers on the bar. Quite a few contained future knowledge, rough timelines constructed from stories he'd heard growing up and the seers he had consulted before coming to the past, and lists of demons who had gone after the Halliwell family around this time in the original timeline or who had been instrumental to Wyatt's rise to power and/or his subsequent reign. That list had been created merely as a failsafe, in case there was no keeping Wyatt good.
Chris was adamant that he would succeed in his mission. He had to, there were just too many people counting on him to fail. But he was realistic enough to know there was a possibility he would fail. In which case, he had to do everything in his power to make the future better. And that meant taking out as many of Wyatt's generals before they'd ever even met him. The final list was much smaller, and contained the names of demonic contacts Chris had had in the future, as well as any other evil or neutral beings he might be able to get information from.
But he couldn't very well hand any of those over to Leo, if not because of the future knowledge they possessed, because they could lead to questions Chris didn't want to have to answer.
Another page contained a series of quite complicated calculations and diagrams - Chris's attempts to work out how he could track his progress and work out whether he'd found the demon. Not exactly something Leo would be much help with, even with his extensive magical knowledge. Chris, himself, struggled with the difficult calculations, even with years of research specifically on time travel and changes to the timeline.
But the list of demons that could possibly be powerful enough to turn Wyatt without the Charmed Ones ever knowing, that was something Leo could work on. In fact, Leo's knowledge and experience could even come in handy there. The only problem, of course, was whether Chris was ready to accept Leo's help. Could he swallow down the resentment and distrust he felt towards the Elder, after so many years of neglect and broken promises?
Chris looked up at Leo again. He looked so hopeful, and yet reserved as well, as though he was prepared for Chris to reject his offer.
"Uh, yeah, actually," Chris said finally, sliding the list of potential threats to the vacant seat beside the stool he had been using, "This is a list of evil beings that could be powerful enough to t- to get to Wyatt without anyone noticing. You're more familiar with the demons of this time. Maybe there are some that I've missed."
Leo looked surprised, but happy, as he took the seat beside Chris.
"Okay, I'll take a look."
"Thanks," Chris replied quietly, sitting back on his stool.
He looked back at his timeline, trying to remember whether the Phantasms attacked before or after the Scabbar demons that were sent after the Charmed Ones by some upper level demon, whose name Chris just couldn't recall. And had the Striga clan clash been somewhere in between that, or was that after the Scabbars?
Chris stared at the page, his brow furrowed deeply in thought. Every now and then, he'd mutter something to himself and add an event to the timeline, or draw yet another arrow to amend the order of attacks. The page was becoming more and more cramped, making it difficult even for Chris to decipher. Not to mention that it was starting to give him a headache.
He sighed and sat back from his work, rubbing a hand to his forehead for the fourth time in about ten minutes.
"How about a break?" Leo suggested gently, having noticed Chris's strain a good half hour ago, but not quite knowing how to pull him from his work.
Chris opened his mouth to protest. But he was still looking at the increasingly messy timeline he was working on, and the words on the page were starting to blur together.
Maybe a break was a good idea.
"What'd you think of the list?" Chris asked, looking away from his work.
"That's not exactly the break I had in mind, Chris," Leo replied.
Chris shrugged as if to say, "This is as much as you're gonna get from me, so take it or leave it." Or at least, that's what Leo thought he meant.
"I have some thoughts. It's a pretty comprehensive list, but there are a few more I can think of."
"Like who?" Chris asked eagerly.
"Well, there're a few upper level demons the sisters worked with when they were dealing with Belthazor who may be worth looking into. They might feel emboldened to go after Wyatt, thinking they have some kind of inside knowledge that might bolster their chances," Leo explained, "I added their names here."
Chris looked down at the list in front of Leo, blinking twice in an attempt to clear his vision. It was better, but the words still appeared a little fuzzy.
"That's a good idea," he said.
Leo smiled, "I meant to ask before, what are these numbers here? And the symbols beside the names. What do they mean?"
"The numbers are a priority system, basically which demons need to be vanquished in which order. So, three for vanquish soon, two for vanquish now, and one for vanquish yesterday," Chris explained, pointing to numbers on the list, "And the symbols are how much power is needed to vanquish them. So the ones with this symbol here need the Power of Three, these ones can be vanquished just with Piper or Paige's powers, and those are ones I should be able to take out by myself."
Leo looked at Chris in horror, "You were going to hunt demons? By yourself?"
"I am going to hunt demons, yes," Chris corrected, "You know as well as I do, if I try to send the sisters after all of these demons, they're more likely to vanquish me than anyone else. I have to be strategic."
"You can't hunt demons by yourself. It's dangerous," Leo insisted.
"Actually, it's a lot less dangerous than the time I've come from. And I know how to take care of myself."
"Even so-" Leo protested.
"No, Leo," Chris interrupted him, "Whatever paternal concern you've got going on, you need to let it go. I know you're a father to a baby right now, so your protective instincts are probably off the charts, but I'm not a kid. I don't need you to protect me. In fact, I can't have you being protective if I'm going to do what I came here to do. It's one of the reasons why I didn't tell you all who I was from the start."
"One of the reasons." Again, another tiny snippet of future knowledge Leo took notice of, figuring eventually he might have enough to work out what kind of world Chris had come from.
"I know you're not a kid. But, cut me some slack, I only found out about you a few hours ago. This whole 'grown up son from the future' thing takes some getting used to," Leo pointed out.
"Probably about as long as it takes to get used to your Mom and Aunts only being a few years older than you," Chris chuckled humourlessly.
Leo felt a flare of sympathy at that. He remembered Chris's comment from earlier, about having been alone for a while now.
"This must all be really hard for you. Being around us all after being without us for so long."
Chris's eyes went wide, "What gave you that idea?"
"Just something you said before. Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask for any details," Leo promised. After a moment he asked, "Is that why you're living here? It's easier for you to be here than to be in the Manor around the sisters?"
"Well, they weren't exactly offering me my old bedroom after you left. Or future bedroom, I guess," Chris said wryly, "But, yeah, I guess having my own space has made things a little easier."
"You know, Piper will probably ask you to move in once she knows," Leo said.
Chris shook his head, "Even if I wanted to, there's barely enough room for Wyatt. He sleeps in a closet, for Pete's sake. Where would she even put me?"
"She'll find room."
"I don't want her to. Really, I'm fine here."
Leo shot Chris a disbelieving look but didn't press the topic further. He could feel that whatever trust was building between him and his new son was tenuous at best and he didn't want to undo that.
"When are you going to tell her?" he asked instead.
Chris's expression became wary, "I don't know."
"You should do it sooner rather than later."
"I know."
"The longer you wait, the more risk there is that Phoebe'll blurt it out."
"I know," Chris sighed. He paused for a moment before saying, "She doesn't like me very much."
"Who, Phoebe?" Leo asked, though he had a feeling that wasn't what Chris meant.
The look Chris shot Leo told him he was right. "No, Piper."
And suddenly it made sense. Chris was afraid.
"She doesn't know you, that's all."
"I don't want her to like me just because I'm her son," Chris admitted softly, hanging his head.
Leo didn't really know how to respond to that. He didn't know how to put into words how the revelation of his son's identity hadn't made him like Chris, but had shifted his perspective, made him understand Chris's actions. It wasn't so much the knowledge that Chris was his son that had changed his feelings, but rather the implications that knowledge had on his perception of Chris. Instead of seeing a suspicious, secretive time traveller, he saw someone who would give up everything and do absolutely anything to save his brother.
But it was all just too complicated for Leo to put into words. So instead he just put a hand on Chris's shoulder, in what he intended to be a comforting gesture. Chris stiffened at the contact, his head snapping up to look at Leo. He stood abruptly, almost knocking over his stool in his attempt to get out of Leo's reach.
Leo tried not to be too disappointed about Chris's reaction, or the stoic, guarded expression he adopted.
Underneath the façade, Chris was berating himself internally. How could he have slipped up and let Leo in? Leo, for god's sake! He'd never been someone Chris could count on. It was a lesson he'd learned long ago, that letting Leo into his heart only ever meant setting himself up for disappointment and heartbreak in the future. And he'd determined a long time ago that he wouldn't make that mistake again.
"I- I'll tell Piper tonight, okay," he said flatly, collecting all of the papers on the bar, including the one Leo had been working on.
Leo frowned but didn't say anything. Whatever headway he had been making with his new son was gone now. It was clear that Chris no longer wanted his help.
Still, Leo didn't make any moves to leave or orb away. Something told him that leaving before Chris would be interpreted as him giving up, walking out on his son. So instead, he watched as Chris turned and made his way towards the back room of the club, his bedroom, for all intents and purposes.
Chris paused in the doorway, looking over his shoulder. Leo still sat at the bar, almost as if he was waiting for something, though Chris really didn't know what. It surprised him, that Leo was still there. The Leo he knew would have orbed away by now, to something and someone far more important than Chris.
It was just being taken by surprise, he would tell himself later, that prompted him to say, "Thank you, Leo."
Chris stood in front of the closed bedroom door, his heart thumping hard in his chest. He raised his hand to knock, hesitated, and then let it fall back to his side. He couldn't remember being this nervous in a really long time, not even when he and Bianca had snuck into the Manor so he could travel back in time. That felt like an entire lifetime ago now, though in reality, Chris knew it had only been a couple of months.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. It didn't work. But it did give him the courage to raise his hand and knock on the door, once, twice, three times. He shifted anxiously.
It felt like an eternity, but also mere seconds, for the door to open. Piper stood in the doorway, her eyes red rimmed. Wyatt sat on her hip, looking at Chris with those big blue eyes of his. The way he looked at Chris sometimes, it made him wonder if perhaps his baby-big brother was more astute than the rest of the family, at least when it came to their mysterious whitelighter from the future.
"If this is about demons-"
Chris shook his head, cutting Piper off before she could finish, "It isn't... Can I talk to you?"
Piper frowned, "Can it wait?"
If Chris wasn't so nervous, he might have chuckled at the irony of it. He really didn't want to do this. Was dreading it, actually. And yet, he knew if he didn't do it now, he probably never would. And as hard as this was, Piper deserved to hear the truth from him.
"No, it can't. Can I come in?"
Piper didn't look particularly happy about it, but she stepped aside. Chris stepped into the room slowly, remembering the first and last couple of times he had entered this Piper's bedroom. She'd been none too impressed to see him the first time, mistaking his familiarity with the house, with her, for intrusiveness. And the second time, well, Chris had ended up in a world of pain, slammed against a cupboard and knocked out in an incident that had led to Piper finding her power as a goddess and vanquishing the Titans. When Chris had woken up and learned what had happened, he'd figured that if he had to be thrown around by his Mom, at least something good had come of it.
"What's going on?" Piper asked.
Guilt rushed through Chris at the slight hoarseness in her voice. She must've been crying most of the afternoon. Chris pushed the thought out of his mind. He couldn't be distracted. He just had to tell Piper. Rip the band aid off, so to speak.
He'd spent most of the afternoon thinking about how he was going to do this. He'd even practiced a couple of times in the bathroom mirror. But now that he was there, in front of Piper, he couldn't remember anything he'd planned to say.
"There's something I have to tell you. About me," Chris swallowed, "Maybe you should sit down."
Piper narrowed her eyes slightly, but sat on the edge of her bed. She readjusted her hold on Wyatt so he was sitting on her lap.
Chris took a deep breath.
"I haven't been completely honest with you," his heart leapt at the outraged expression on Piper's face, but he knew if he stopped now she'd jump on him and he'd probably end up blurting it out mid-argument, "I'm not some whitelighter from the future. I'm your son."
The outrage gave way to shock. Chris felt as though his heart had stopped as he waited for Piper to reply. When she didn't, he found himself very uncharacteristically babbling.
"I hadn't really planned on telling you like this, honestly I hadn't planned on telling you at all, and I know the timing's terrible, trust me, I know, but Paige and Phoebe figured it out and then Phoebe immediately spilled the beans to Leo and I really wanted to be the one to tell you and I thought that if I waited too long Phoe-"
An arm being thrown around Chris's neck startled him, and he very abruptly stopped talking. He looked down and realised that it was Piper hugging him. It was a somewhat awkward hug, what with Piper having to stand on her tiptoes to actually get her arm around him, not to mention that baby Wyatt had been very gently sandwiched between them.
At first, Chris didn't react. He grappled with the conflicting feelings inside of him. On the one hand, it had been such a long time since he had gotten a hug from his Mom. But on the other hand, this wasn't his Mom. He'd been right to keep Piper and Mom separate; it really did make everything so much easier. He knew he needed to keep Piper at arm's length, because whether he was successful or not at stopping Wyatt from turning, he'd eventually have to go back to the future where she wasn't, and the closer he got to Piper, the more it would hurt him to lose her all over again.
But then he remembered Piper's red eyes when she'd answered the door. And the hoarseness of her voice when she had spoken. She'd been crying. Because Leo had left. Because Chris manipulated things to make Leo leave.
And so it was his guilt that urged him to reciprocate, to wrap his arms around Piper. He told himself that he was just doing it for Piper, because it was what she needed and it would make her feel better. But he knew if it weren't for the fact that he would squish his brother, he'd probably be holding her a lot tighter than he was now.
A tiny voice in the back of his mind was screaming at him to get away now, to protect himself. But a much larger part of him felt content in a way that Chris Halliwell hadn't felt in a very long time.
She hugs like Mom.