Chris-Crossed (in which an overheard promise is misinterpreted)
A long overdue update! Apologies for the wait - it turns out balancing multiple jobs and trying to write a thesis doesn't leave a lot of time or brain space for writing. I know a lot of people were looking forward to this one. I hope it lives up to expectation (and that a longer chapter makes up for the delay)!
Phoebe watched Chris leave the attic. He was trying to hold it together, but she'd seen the unshed tears in his eyes when he'd told them that Bianca wouldn't be able to follow him back to the past again.
They'd all known what that meant. Whatever had happened while Chris was back in his own time had resulted in Bianca's death.
A piece of Phoebe's heart broke for Chris. It was the same walled-up part of her heart where she had locked away all of her love for her ex-husband, for Cole. Everything over the past day with Chris and Bianca had been enough to remind her of everything she'd felt when it was her and Cole cast as star-crossed lovers. All day, she'd been struck by the acute reminder of what it was like to love someone on the other side of the battle of good and evil, to actually let yourself love them, to believe whole heartedly you could change them, and then ultimately lose them to themselves. It was something that none of her sisters, for all of their own magic-related heartbreaks, could ever understand.
"I'm gonna go talk to him," she announced, interrupting whatever it was that the rest of her family were talking about. She couldn't say what it was exactly; she'd long since stopped paying attention to the conversation.
Before any of them could respond, Phoebe was leaving the attic, walking down the stairs to the second floor of the Manor. As soon as she reached the landing, she spotted Chris standing in the doorway of Piper's bedroom.
"If I can't save you, I swear to god I'll stop you."
Whatever sympathy Phoebe had felt for Chris left her, replaced with a flood of burning hot fury. He'd threatened Wyatt. He threatened our baby.
Before she had even fully thought through what she was doing, Phoebe launched herself at Chris. She needed to put as much distance as she could between him and her nephew.
Protect Wyatt. The instinct had been ingrained in her the moment she'd become an aunt. And she'd be damned if she let some bastard whitelighter-witch from the future hurt him.
Chris had landed in the corner of the hallway. He sat up, leaning heavily against the wall, and looked up at Phoebe with wide, red eyes. He held his hands up as if trying to appease the fuming witch, who stood over him with her fists raised.
"Phoebe!"
The crash of Chris hitting the ground had obviously alerted her sisters, who both hurried to her side. Paige wrapped a hand around one of Phoebe's forearms, ready to pull her away from the whitelighter if needed. Phoebe's eyes remained trained on Chris, lest she look away and he try to get to Wyatt.
"He threatened Wyatt!" Phoebe cried, "I heard him."
"He what?!" Piper spat furiously.
She raised her hands as if to attack Chris with her powers. Paige immediately let go of Phoebe to grab Piper's hands.
"Piper, no!" she cried, "He's part-witch, you could kill him."
"He threatened my son!" Piper hissed venomously, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill him!"
Paige sighed exasperatedly, not used to being to voice of reason amongst her sisters. She was as protective of Wyatt as they were, but something about all of this didn't make sense. Why would the first thing Chris did after losing his fiancée be to threaten Wyatt?
Chris had been strangely quiet through the whole thing. He hadn't even said anything to defend himself. Paige spared a glance at Chris, who was looking up at them all defeatedly. If she was honest with herself, the expression on his face reminded her of some of the children she'd worked with back in her social work days, the way they'd check out once the adrenaline faded, resigning themselves to whatever fate awaited them. She suddenly remembered what a long day it had been for all of them, but for Chris especially, who had had his powers drained, travelled through time twice and witnessed who knew what in the unspecified period of time he had spent back in the future, which had ultimately resulted in the death of his fiancée. Or ex-fiancée? Honestly, it wasn't all that clear.
"Let's all just calm down for a second," Paige said, trying to de-escalate the situation before things got really out of hand.
"Calm down?" Piper repeated incredulously, "You can't be serious."
Paige ignored Piper's protests, turning her attention to her other sister, "What did he actually say, Phoebe?"
"Does it matter? He threatened Wyatt!" Phoebe cried.
Paige shot Phoebe a look that said 'Humour me.' Phoebe sighed.
"Something about stopping Wyatt if he couldn't save him."
Paige wrinkled her nose as she thought about that. It sure sounded like a threat, or ominous at the very least, but it was really, really bizarre. They knew Chris had come back to save Wyatt, but stop him from what?
It just doesn't make any sense.
"What does that even mean?" she asked.
"Does it matter?" Piper demanded, "He's obviously planning to hurt Wyatt."
The words seemed to bring Chris back to the conversation. His eyes flew to Piper as he vowed solemnly, "No, that's- that's not true. I don't want to hurt him."
"Then why did you say it?" Phoebe asked suspiciously.
"Because he killed Bianca."
Though the words were spoken softly, the two youngest Charmed Ones reacted as if they had been shouted. Paige gasped, her hand flying to her mouth, and Phoebe flinched in shock.
Piper didn't even blink. She immediately began defending her son.
"You mean vanquished. Wyatt vanquished Bianca," she insisted.
"It wasn't a vanquish," Chris replied softly, his eyes closing momentarily.
Watching him, Paige wondered if maybe he was reliving the moment of his fiancée's death. Again, she'd seen enough traumatised children to be able to recognise a flashback when she saw one.
"She was evil. No matter how you feel about her, that's a vanquish, Chris," Piper argued.
"She wasn't evil," Chris sighed. Piper opened her mouth to retort, but Chris continued before she could speak, "I know what you saw when she was here, but that wasn't who she really was. She was good and she died protecting me."
"Protecting you from what?" Paige asked.
Chris's face twisted in devastation at the question. It was almost as if Paige had asked the one thing he'd hoped she wouldn't. His eyes darted between the sisters.
"Protecting you from what, Chris?" she asked again after a moment of silence.
"From Wyatt. I- I didn't come back to protect Wyatt from evil. I came back to… to stop him from turning evil," Chris said slowly, as if each word physically hurt him to say.
His eyes lingered on Piper as he waited for her reaction.
"You're lying," she cried immediately, folding her arms across her chest defensively.
"No, I'm not. He grows up to terrorise people with his powers. Takes over, kills, even," Chris replied solemnly.
"Say we believe you," Paige shot Piper what she hoped was an appeasing look, "Wyatt really is… Where does Bianca fit into all of this?"
Chris sighed wearily, "She was working for him. He's the one who sent her here. He wanted me back."
That made sense, if Paige stopped to really think about it. If Wyatt really was evil, and that was a big if, and Chris really had travelled back to stop him from turning (another big if), Wyatt would probably want Chris back in his own time before he could do any real damage to the timeline.
What still didn't make sense to her was why Chris had been the one to come back to save Wyatt in the first place. Why would the Elders send back some random whitelighter, instead of someone the Charmed Ones knew? Sure, Chris was dedicated and he clearly took his work very seriously. But surely the Elders must've known that his abrasive personality was going to be a problem, that it would prevent him from working effectively with the Halliwells. Surely any other whitelighter would have been-
And then it hit Paige. Chris wasn't just some whitelighter. He was a whitelighter-witch.
Had it only been a few hours ago that they'd found that out? They hadn't really had the time to think about it, because Bianca had dragged Chris back to the future and he'd needed their help to get back. After threatening Piper, who Chris had very adamantly reminded Bianca needed to live. Which, sure, could be explained by his obsession with preserving the parts of the future he wasn't trying to change, but in the context of everything else…
What was it that Chris had said again? Something about there not being a future for him to return to if Bianca killed Piper.
"Oh my god!" Paige cried aloud as the pieces fell together. She stared wide eyed at Chris, wondering how none of them had seen it before now, and repeated, "Oh my god."
Chris stared back at Paige, equally wide eyed, as if he could read her mind and knew the conclusion she'd come to. He swallowed hard and scrambled to his feet, though made no move to step away from the wall he'd been unceremoniously thrown into.
"What is it?" Phoebe asked, her eyes flitting between Paige and Chris.
"Paige," Chris pleaded.
"I can't believe we didn't see it. Some witches we are," Paige shook her head in disbelief.
"What are you talking about?" Piper demanded.
"Think about it. He knows us, knows our histories, knows the Book, knows our house, even. He cares enough about Wyatt to come back and try to save him from turning evil instead of just killing him and being done with it. Which- don't look at me like that, Piper, you know that would be most people's game plans if he's as evil as Chris says. He's a whitelighter-witch, like me, like Wyatt. And then there was that thing he said about destroying the future if Bianca killed Piper. God, there were, like, a hundred signs, I can't believe we didn't see it."
"See what?" Phoebe asked, "What are we missing here?"
Paige didn't answer. Her eyes were locked on Chris. He had a pleading expression on his face, silently begging Paige to leave his secret intact. In response, she sent him a steely, determined look that she hoped said, "If you don't tell them, I will."
"Well? What the hell have you worked out, Paige?" Piper demanded frustratedly when neither Paige nor Chris made any effort to explain.
Chris sighed resignedly. Satisfaction flared through Paige when she realised he'd understood what it was she'd been trying to tell him.
"She's figured out who Wyatt and I are to each other," Chris said by way of explanation.
"And?" Piper asked sharply.
Paige held her breath, knowing her oldest sister was likely a hair pin trigger away from losing her cool and trying to blow Chris up. She couldn't let that happen; Piper would be distraught if she unknowingly killed her son.
"We're brothers," Chris admitted softly, looking at Piper with anguish in his eyes, "I'm your son."
Just like that, all of the fight left Piper's body. Her arms fell to her side as her mouth fell open in shock. Beside her, Phoebe clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes round with surprise.
"What?"
The question seemed to fall from Piper's lips before she even realised what she was asking. Paige winced as what little hope there was in Chris's expression disappeared.
"Please," he sighed heavily, his voice shaking audibly as he added, "Please don't make me say it again."
No one spoke. Piper stared at Chris with a completely shellshocked expression on her face. He stared back at her with a devastated expression on his. It was the most open Chris had ever been with his emotions in front of them. Paige could only conclude that the trauma of his fiancée dying in front of him (being murdered by his brother, her brain reminded her) paired with the events of the last ten minutes had shattered whatever walls he'd managed to build to hide his true emotions from them all.
The silence felt deafening. For a moment, Paige wondered if it would ever be broken.
And then Chris spoke.
"Just know, I could never actually hurt Wyatt. He- he's my big brother. What I said- well, I'd find another way to stop him. But not… that, never that."
It felt like they'd been holding their breaths and with Chris's words, they all exhaled collectively. God, what words they were. They seemed to spur Piper into action, because she stepped towards Chris, her arms reaching out for him. He reacted immediately, flinching backwards so hard he struck his head hard against the wall.
Piper froze, her hands hovering in mid-air.
"Don't," Chris whispered, his eyes slipping shut, "Whatever you're gonna- just don't. I can't- I can't do this today."
"Okay," Piper replied softly, letting her arms fall back to her sides.
She'd only wanted to hug him, but seeing the wounded expression on his face, she wondered if maybe he thought she'd intended to do something else. There was a lot to unpack there, but it probably wasn't the best time to start working through it all.
Piper was so lost in her own thoughts that she barely noticed her sisters excusing themselves. Or more like, Paige excusing them both and dragging Phoebe away so that Piper and Chris had some privacy. Some tiny part of Piper whispered a reminder to thank Paige when she had the chance.
For a while, Piper and Chris just stood there, staring at each other. Piper studied him closely. She'd always found Chris hard to read, but he seemed to be as lost for words as she was.
"I, uh-" she shifted uncomfortably, "I don't know what to say here."
"What, they didn't cover this in 'What to Expect When You're Expecting'?" Chris replied drily.
"Not exactly," Piper chuckled nervously, unsure whether Chris joking was a good or a bad sign.
He sighed, "Look, I know you've probably got a lot of questions, but I- I just need some time before I can answer them. Just, give me a few days, okay? And then we'll talk."
Piper nodded and said, "Of course. Take as much time as you need." Even though she really wanted to demand Chris answer all of her questions right then and there, because he'd been in the past for so many months now and never said anything and although she hadn't known he was her son, she knew now and she didn't know how she could go another minute without knowing why he hadn't told her.
But she was a mother first. And that meant giving her children whatever they needed, even if it was the opposite of what she needed.
Chris nodded back relievedly, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "Thanks. I guess I'll see you around."
"Wait!" Piper cried as she realised his intention to leave. She threw her hands up, being careful not to touch Chris after his reaction earlier, "You don't have to go."
"Yeah, I do. It's been a really long day, and I think I just need some time alone."
Oh. Piper wanted to protest, to insist he stay with his family and let them be there for him in his grief. She couldn't find it in herself to do it though. Not when Chris looked like he was barely holding himself together.
So instead, she just said, "Okay. We're here when you're ready."
He mumbled back a, "Thanks," and orbed away before anything more could be said.
As soon as he was gone, Piper found herself sinking to the floor. She could feel the tears pooling in her eyes, but none fell.
In mere minutes, everything had changed. And she had no idea what any of it would mean for her family.
Chris was self-aware enough to recognise he probably wasn't coping with Bianca's death as well as he could be. In his defence though, there wasn't really a rule book on how to cope with the death of your fiancée in the future you were actively trying to rewrite.
He'd broken down that first day, after he'd left the mansion. He'd gone back to P3, cast an anti-orbing spell just in case Piper changed her mind about giving him space and tried to get Paige to orb her to him, and then had crawled into bed (or onto couch, in this instance) and let himself cry. He'd cried until he didn't have the energy to cry any longer. Then he'd just stared off into space until he'd drifted off to sleep.
Even now, five days after Bianca's death, he was still yet to get a full night's sleep. Every time he managed to fall asleep, he found himself back in the attic, facing Wyatt, watching Bianca die. The image would linger in his mind, behind his eyelids, until he finally gave up on trying to get anymore sleep and threw himself into something, anything else.
He tried not to let himself dwell on it though. He didn't have time to wallow in self-pity. He had a mission to complete. And if he did his job right, if he saved Wyatt, he'd save Bianca too.
Or so he kept telling himself.
Unfortunately, his newly-realised family weren't exactly on board with his plan. Not that he'd actually communicated it with them. He'd kind of hoped they'd just follow his lead and jump back into protecting Wyatt, preferably with a little more zeal now that they knew exactly what they were trying to protect him from.
No such luck. He was pretty sure they all thought he had a major case of denial. Paige, at least, seemed to recognise it wasn't her place to try and talk to Chris about any of it. Phoebe didn't bring it up but looked as though she wanted to say something. Then again, Phoebe always looked as though she wanted to say something, no matter the topic, so that wasn't exactly anything new.
Piper was the worst though. He knew she was waiting for him to give some kind of sign that he was ready to talk about everything she'd learned after he returned from the future. Just like he knew it was driving her crazy that he hadn't offered anything up yet. But she'd been uncharacteristically patient with him. About that, at least. Unfortunately, she kept trying to push him to speak about Bianca, and it was really driving Chris nuts.
She'd come at it from every angle.
"Would it help to talk about her?"
"It's okay to talk about it, Chris."
"Why don't you tell me about her?"
It was her fourth attempt in the space of about a week though, that finally got a reaction.
Chris was in the attic, where he was usually found these days, vigorously flicking through the Book of Shadows and comparing it with the encrypted list of possible threats to Wyatt he'd compiled when he first arrived in the past and had been updating periodically since. He was only half-listening to Piper's latest attempt to get him to open up when she said it, the absolute worst thing she could possibly say.
"You know, Chris, you can talk to me. I do have some idea of what you're going through."
Chris's hands stilled in the Book. His head snapped up to where Piper stood a few feet away, looking at him sympathetically. He tried his best to swallow down his fury before he replied.
"No, you don't," his voice came out strangled in his attempt to hide his emotions.
He looked back down at the Book, hoping Piper would take the hint and leave him alone.
"I know it seems that way, but-"
Unable to hold back his rage, Chris slammed the Book shut and fixed Piper with a ferocious glare. He ignored the pang of guilt that he felt at the way she startled at the sudden noise and intensity of his expression.
"Okay, I guess we're doing this," he folded his arms across his chest challengingly, "Alright, go ahead. Hit me with it. How could you possibly know how I feel?"
Piper gaped at him, seemingly shocked to the point of speechlessness by his outburst. When she didn't answer, Chris continued, "No, seriously, tell me. Because last I checked you have no idea how this feels."
"Well, I-" Piper stammered.
"You what? What, you lost your mom, so you know how this feels? Trust me, this is a completely different feeling."
Huh. So I'm dead in the future, some tiny part of Piper realised. The rest of her was too shocked to move, much less process the little tid bit of future knowledge Chris had inadvertently dropped.
"Or were you thinking about Aunt Prue? Because that's not the same thing either."
Piper finally found her voice at the mention of Prue.
"She was my sister," she croaked out, hating how small her voice sounded.
"It's not the same!" Chris roared back, "You lost your sister and you can never get her back. I lost Bi- I lost the love of my life. But I can get her back. I just have to save Wyatt."
Piper flinched at both the harsh tone and words. Still, she couldn't help but be reminded of the way she had tried so desperately to bring her sister back after she died.
"Oh, Chris," she sighed sympathetically, "I know you think you can-"
"I can! The future isn't set in stone. I can change it." Chris insisted, "If I can do what I came here to do, I can save her too. I just have to keep working at it."
"You can't keep working yourself so hard! I'm sure that's the last thing Bianca would've wanted," Piper pointed out.
Chris stiffened, shooting Piper an icy glare.
"Don't," he spat furiously, "Don't you dare. You didn't know her."
"I know I didn't," Piper said gently, taking a step closer to Chris, "But I know she loved you. And no one who loves you would want you to run yourself ragged or get hurt trying to save them."
For a moment, it seemed as though maybe she was getting through to Chris. Piper thought that maybe she'd be able to get him to come downstairs and either rest or eat something.
Then he squared his shoulders and looked at her with a steely fury in his eyes. Piper's breath caught in her throat. She'd never in a million years imagined one of her children would ever look at her like that.
"You would've hated her, you know. Even if I'd been able to introduce her to you, I wouldn't have, because you'd have hated her."
More evidence that she was dead in the future. Something for Piper to process after she'd helped her son work through his grief.
"You don't know that," she insisted.
"I do. You would've hated her as much as you hate me."
Piper couldn't help the tiny gasp that fell from her mouth.
"No, Chris, I don't-"
"You do!" he cut her off, "The only reason you're pretending you don't is because now you know I'm your son."
"I never hated you, Chris."
"Yeah, well, you've got a funny way of showing it."
"Chris, please-"
"Oh my god, can't you take a hint? You're acting like everything's changed and it hasn't! I'm still the same person I was before you knew. And whatever you'll be to me in the future, you- this you, you're not my real mom! So stop trying to be and leave me alone!"
Tears filled Piper's eyes. She stared at Chris tearfully. He stared back at her wide eyed, breathing heavily. Before either of them could speak, he orbed away.
Piper stood, shellshocked, staring at the spot where, a moment ago, Chris had been.
"Piper? Are you okay?"
Piper turned to see Paige standing in the doorway.
"I take it you heard all that," she said wearily.
"Only some," Paige replied.
"So you heard that he hates me," Piper sighed, "And here I thought I had at least another thirteen or so years before one of my kids hated me."
"He doesn't hate you," Paige insisted.
"Pretty sure he does."
If Piper were in a better mood, she'd chuckle at the irony of her conversation and how reminiscent it was of her argument with Chris.
"Trust me, Piper. He doesn't hate you. I think it's just easier for him to be mad at you than it is to be sad about Bianca."
Piper scoffed at that, swiping a tissue from the table and using it to dab at the tears in her eyes.
"It sucks, huh," Paige said with a knowing glint in her eyes.
Piper looked at her in confusion for a moment, not quite understanding what she was trying to say.
Oh. And then understanding suddenly dawned on her.
"Yeah. Yeah, it does," she sighed, "I never apologised, did I? For how I was when we first met."
"You didn't have to, Piper. I knew it wasn't me you were angry at. Just like Chris isn't really angry at you," Paige pointed out.
"He thinks I hate him," Piper said miserably, "How can I blame him? I've been so awful since he got here."
"You didn't know-"
"But I should've! I'm his mother, Paige. And I had no idea. And now he's hurting, and I just want to help him, and he won't let me in."
"You just have to keep showing up, Piper. You do that, eventually, he'll let you in."
Piper nodded at Paige's words, letting them fuel her. She straightened up, blinking away the last of the tears forming in her eyes and sniffed once. She could do that.
Chris found himself back at P3 after his argument with Piper. He sat at the bar in the empty club, turning an unopened bottle of room temperature beer in his hand and trying not to think about the growing feelings of guilt sitting in the pit of his stomach.
"Drowning your sorrows?"
The bottle stilled in Chris's hand as he turned towards the source of the voice.
Phoebe. She slid into the seat beside him. For a moment, Chris wondered if she'd come to kick him out of P3 on Piper's behalf. He realised he didn't really want to know the answer to that question.
"Thinking about it," he replied, looking back down at the bottle in his hand.
"Is that favourite of yours?" Phoebe asked, gesturing to the bottle.
Chris shook his head, "Not really. First beer I ever had was with Leo a couple months ago."
"Wait, really?" Phoebe thought about that for a moment, "I don't think I've ever asked this, but, how old are you?"
"Twenty-one. Or- I don't know, maybe, I'm twenty-two," Chris shrugged.
"You don't know?" Phoebe asked.
"The whole time travel thing really messes with everything. Makes it kinda hard to keep track," Chris explained.
"Oh."
They sat in silence for a while. Chris kept his eyes on the bottle in his hand, waiting for Phoebe to say something else. Finally, unable to bear the quiet any more, he spoke.
"Something tells me you didn't come here to talk about my drinking habits or how old I am."
"No," Phoebe chuckled, "No, I didn't."
"Did Piper send you here to kick me out?"
"No, Chris!" Phoebe gasped, "She- no, Piper doesn't even know I'm here!"
"What are you doing here then?" Chris asked, feeling a tiny flare of relief inwardly.
"I heard you and Piper at the house," Phoebe said carefully.
"Oh," Chris clenched his jaw, waiting for Phoebe to bitch him out or try to drag him back to the house to apologise.
He didn't want to apologise. He didn't want to let in the guilt he felt at bitching out his mother (future mother), the person he'd sworn to himself he'd never take for granted again if he ever got the chance. He just wanted to hang onto his anger a little bit longer.
"I figured maybe you'd wanna talk to someone who could actually understand."
Chris snapped his head up, looking at Phoebe with wide, surprised eyes. That hadn't at all been what he was expecting.
"You-" he suddenly realised what she was saying, "You're talking about Cole."
"I told you about him."
The way Phoebe said it, it was more of a statement than a question. But Chris answered anyway, "I was kinda obsessed with the Book as a kid. Read it cover-to-cover and came across the entry you wrote on him."
"So, you just know what I wrote about him?" Phoebe asked.
"No," Chris replied sheepishly, "We kinda studied him as the Source at Magic School."
"Magic School?" Phoebe repeated confusedly.
"Oh, right, you don't know about Magic School yet. It's exactly what it sounds like; a school for kids with magic," Chris explained.
"I- how do we not know about…" Phoebe shook her head, realising she was getting distracted, "Okay, not the point. The point is that you know how things went for Cole and I?"
"Yeah," Chris replied.
"So, you know then, that if there's anyone who understands what you're going through right now, it's me," Phoebe said.
Chris nodded, "Yeah. I guess you do."
"I just wanted to remind you of that, and let you know if you ever wanna talk, I'm here."
Chris thought about that for a moment.
"I don't know if I can," he finally admitted, "Talk about it, that is. I just- If I talk about it, it's like admitting she's gone. But she's not. Not if I can change the future. If I save Wyatt, it never happens."
"If you change enough, you might never meet her. You know that right?" Phoebe pointed out.
"Yeah, I know," Chris clenched his jaw slightly, "But she'll be alive."
Hesitantly, Phoebe reached forward and placed her hand over Chris's, squeezing slightly. She gasped a little as her fingers brushed the warm bottle he was holding.
"It's not even cold!" she remarked in surprise.
Chris chuckled bitterly, "I got it out of storage. I wasn't actually gonna drink it."
Or at least, he didn't think he was going to.
"That's good," Phoebe replied, pulling her hand back, "Because as much as I wanna be the cool aunt, I gotta tell you, drinking that won't make it hurt any less."
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," Chris said flatly.
Phoebe shrugged, "I probably shouldn't tell you this, nephew and all that, but I was kinda wild growing up. I had a dead mom, a deadbeat dad and Grams was- well, Grams. I tried a lot of different ways to make the pain go away. The only thing that worked was reconnecting with my sisters."
"Yeah, well, my brother's a baby, so there isn't exactly much reconnecting I can do," Chris retorted.
Phoebe rolled her eyes, "Chris."
"Or was that your not-so-subtle way of telling me I should talk to Piper?" he asked.
"I really do think it'll help."
Chris shook his head, his grip on the warm beer bottle tightening.
"I'm just not ready."
Phoebe sighed beside him. Again, he braced himself for a lecture on why he should apologise to Piper.
Again, it didn't come.
"Okay. Well, whenever you are, we're all here, okay?"
Phoebe placed her hand over his again, just for a moment. She didn't say anything else, and neither did Chris. Silently, Phoebe pulled her hand away and walked back out of P3, leaving Chris alone.
He sat in silence for what could have been hours, but more realistically was probably only a few minutes, moving the warm bottle from one hand to the other. He didn't even really know why he'd gone for the beer. He hadn't actually enjoyed the beer Leo had bought him a few months ago. And that had been cold. A warm beer just felt like a punishment.
And there it is. Okay, so maybe there was a reason he'd gone for the warm beer. Sighing, he slid off his stool and darted around the bar to put the bottle in the fridge.
It was as he was straightening up from the bar fridge that his eyes landed on it. Whiskey. He recognised the brand on the square bottle, not from a night of partying in the future, but from a pain-fuelled haze following a particularly serious run-in with some of Wyatt's demons.
"Here. Drink." They'd been lucky enough to find shelter in an abandoned bar. It had been ransacked, like most abandoned buildings had been, but Bianca must've found an old bottle of whiskey stashed away somewhere. She'd pressed the bottle to his trembling lips and begged him to take a few sips, promising, "It'll take the pain away."
Of course, she'd been talking about physical pain. Chris's shoulder had been torn up by a particularly nasty Malachi demons with especially sharp claws. He hadn't been able to go to a hospital, because by that time all hospitals were equipped with Wyatt's magic-scanning probes and his brother would have found him the second he walked through the door. And what few whitelighters were left had stopped responding to Chris's calls after it became clear that anyone who helped the youngest Halliwell was risking the elder's lethal temper.
Bianca had stitched him up herself, with what supplies, he'd never figured out. First he'd been in too much pain, and then once the whiskey had kicked in, he'd been too buzzed to think about it. They'd later found the ingredients for a salve which, when mixed with a couple of drops of his whitelighter blood, had helped the wounds heal without scarring. At the time, it hadn't seemed all that important that he not scar (he was more concerned with healing the wound as quickly as possible so he could get back to more important things like surviving the apocalypse, and the salve had helped him do that), but it had been a blessing since arriving in the past. He didn't know how he would've explained the scars to the Charmed Ones.
"It'll take the pain away," Bianca's voice whispered in his head again, pulling him back to the present.
Before he even really knew what he was doing, Chris stepped over to the bar and reached for the bottle of whiskey. He pulled out the pouring spout that had been inserted into the neck of the bottle and raised the mouth to his lips. He threw his head back, taking a couple of mouthfuls of whiskey. It burned going down, but it was a nice burn. A satisfying burn.
Far easier to deal with than the crushing pain in his chest.
CRASH!
The sudden noise made Piper jump. The spoonful of mashed potato she'd had halfway to Wyatt's mouth flew off of the fork, landing partly on Piper's arm, partly on the floor.
"Shit," Piper muttered, scooping the potato off of her arm and back onto the spoon.
Wyatt looked at her with wide, startled eyes, but didn't cry. Thank god. Piper sighed, pushing what was left on the spoon into his mouth.
"Whatever those aunts of yours are up to upstairs, we don't want any part of it, do we?" she asked Wyatt cheerfully, scooping more potatoes from the bowl in front of her.
She'd only gotten another couple of spoonfuls into Wyatt when Phoebe came hurrying into the kitchen breathlessly.
"Piper! You need to get upstairs!" she said, still catching her breath.
"I'm a little busy, Phoebe," Piper gestured to Wyatt with her free hand, "Whatever you and Paige have blown up will have to wait."
Phoebe shook her head, "Not an explosion. It's Chris. He's in the attic."
The spoon fell from Piper's hand into the half-empty bowl it had been hovering over. She leapt to her feet.
"Can you finish up with Wyatt?" she asked, already heading towards the stairs.
She didn't wait for a response. She knew Phoebe would do it. Phoebe loved anything and everything to do with Wyatt.
Piper hurried up the stairs to the attic. She didn't know what she was expecting to find, but it certainly wasn't a half-lidded Chris, leaning heavily on the podium that held the Book, arguing with Paige.
"- wast'd too much time 'lready."
Piper's eyes widened as she realised he was slurring his words. The smell hit her as she stepped into the attic too. He was clearly drunk.
Shit.
"I don't know how you expect to even read anything in there, let alone actually do research," Paige replied firmly but patiently.
"Nuh- nuh uh!" Chris replied, "'m fine. I c'n read i'."
Piper stepped forward and spoke before Paige could reply, "No, sweetie, you can't. Come on, let's get you to bed and then we can look in the Book tomorrow."
Chris's eyes flew to her. He seemed surprised, like he hadn't noticed Piper enter the attic, but it was hard to tell with how intoxicated he seemed to be. Piper expected him to argue more, but it was more like he deflated. All the fight left his body, and he slumped over, leaning more heavily on the podium than before.
The podium swayed. Both Paige and Piper rushed to grab Chris's arms to keep him upright.
"Alright, come on, time for bed," Piper said, pulling the arm she was holding across her shoulder.
She grunted a little as Chris leant on her more heavily. He was tall, gangly, and heavy, and at that moment, she honestly had no idea how they were going to get him down the stairs. He was not the toddler she was used to wrangling into bed each night.
And then the attic disappeared in a flurry of blue light and suddenly, they were all in her bedroom. Piper shot Paige an appreciative glance as they wrestled a mostly limp Chris into her bed. She made sure to lay him on his side, so he wouldn't choke if he was sick in the night, and was suddenly reminded of the nights growing up where she'd done the same for Phoebe. She'd never thought she'd have to do this sort of thing for her own children.
Without even having to be asked, Paige left the room and came back a couple of minutes later with a bucket. Piper placed it on the floor beside the bed, in case Chris needed it. He seemed to be asleep, so she quietly started to back away.
"Wait," his hand darted out to grab her wrist, "Stay."
Piper's breath caught. This was it. What she'd been wanting all along, to be there for her son. If only it hadn't taken Chris getting blackout drunk for it to happen.
She placed her free hand on top of his, squeezing it gently.
"Okay," she whispered.
Chris's hand fell from her wrist. Piper felt its loss immediately, the skin he'd been touching feeling cool when the air could reach it again. She walked around the bed and sat on the empty side, leaning against the headboard. Tentatively, she reached over and placed a hand on Chris's head, running her fingers through his hair.
He hummed contentedly.
"'m sorry."
"It's okay," Piper whispered back.
Chris shook his head and rolled onto his back. He grimaced and Piper winced sympathetically, having enough experience with drinking to know both motions had probably been enough to make the room spin and/or his stomach churn.
"Are you gonna be sick?" she asked, wondering if she should sit him up or reach for the bucket.
"No, jus- jus' dizzy. 'm okay."
"Okay," Piper replied, resuming her hand movements through his hair.
Chris was silent for a moment. For a second, Piper thought maybe he'd fallen asleep, but then he said, "'m sorry I yelled a' you."
"It's okay."
"No 'snot. I shou'n't yell 't you. Promised I wou'n't if I ever saw you 'gain."
Piper's breath caught in her throat at the reminder of her apparent untimely demise. Yeah, really need to dedicate some time to unpacking that.
"I shouldn't have pushed you," she replied softly.
"I shou'n't h've said you're no' my real mom," Chris mumbled, only just coherent to Piper.
"It's okay," she reassured him with a gentle whisper.
The words came out without Piper even really consciously thinking about them. She realised immediately that she meant it. It was actually okay. As hurt as she'd been at Chris's words that afternoon, she felt pretty confident that he hadn't actually meant any of it.
Especially now that she had an inkling of what the future might hold.
"'Snot," Chris insisted, looking up at Piper through half-lidded eyes, "I shou'n't h've-"
"Shh," Piper hushed him, "We don't have to talk about it now."
For a moment, she thought he may fight her on it. But it turned out putting drunken twenty-something year old kids to sleep wasn't much different from putting nearly one year old kids to sleep. Piper continued to run her hand through Chris's hair, watching as he relaxed back into the pillow and let his eyes slip closed again.
"I really am sorry about Bianca, sweetie," Piper whispered, not really knowing if he was actually awake enough to hear her.
"I know. Me too."
The words were soft, as if Chris was on the precipice of sleep. Piper didn't respond immediately, in case he was almost asleep. Moments later, his breathing evened out. Piper stayed on the bed beside him for a little longer, just to make sure he was really out. Once she thought it was safe, she slowly pulled her hand back and eased herself off the bed as quietly as she could.
She slipped out of the room, flicking the light off and closing the door behind her. Phoebe and Paige were both sitting in the sun room when she got downstairs, Wyatt tucked between them, half asleep himself.
"Asleep?" Paige asked as Piper made her way over to them.
Piper nodded, sitting down on an empty chair beside them. She let her head fall into her hands wearily. She heard Phoebe offer to take Wyatt to bed, to which she just nodded, feeling too exhausted by the day's events to even reply.
"You're a good mom, Piper," Paige said.
Piper snorted, lifting her head to look at her sister, "Something tells me kids with good Moms don't drown their sorrows in what I can only assume was half a bar."
"All kids mess up sometimes. Especially when they're grieving," Paige pointed out.
Piper considered that for a moment, snagging her lower lip between her teeth. She suddenly felt the need to share her growing suspicion about her future fate with someone.
"I don't think Bianca's the only one he's grieving," she said softly, slowly, choosing her words carefully, "I- I think I'm dead in his future."
"Whoa. That's heavy. But it would explain how he's been with you since you found out."
"Right?" Piper sighed, "I just- how do I even begin to process something like that? Let alone start to form a relationship with him?"
"I don't know if there's a person on the planet who could answer that question for you, Piper," Paige said.
"I know. It just- it kills me to think I'm gonna leave my kids so young, like Mom left us. It doesn't seem fair," Piper admitted.
"It's not," Paige agreed, "Your kids deserve their mom. Just like you guys deserved Mom and I deserved my parents."
Piper snorted, "We oughta start a club or something."
"What, like 'Halliwells with Dead Parents'?" Paige joked.
"Exactly," Piper replied.
Both sisters laughed at the thought of that.
"What's so funny?" Phoebe asked, re-entering the living room and sitting down beside Paige.
Piper shook her head, "The irony of history repeating itself."
"Huh?" Phoebe raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"I'm pretty sure I'm dead in Chris's future," Piper explained.
"And this is somehow funny?" Phoebe asked incredulously.
"We're choosing to see the humour in it, yes," Paige replied.
Phoebe looked between the two of them as if they had two heads. She looked as though she might say something or launch into a lecture, but ultimately just shook her head bewilderedly.
"I'm not even going to try to understand!" she declared.
Piper and Paige laughed again. Before either could speak though, blue light filled the room. Piper looked up as the orbs reformed into her ex-husband.
"Leo, what are you-"
"What the hell is Chris doing in your bed?" Leo demanded, his eyes wild and angry.
"Excuse me?" Piper replied.
"Chris. In your bed. I went to see Wyatt, and imagine my surprise when I found Chris, practically passed out in your bed. Are you two together?" Leo cried.
"Together?! Oh my god, Leo, no!" Piper's face twisted in disgust at the thought.
"Then what's he doing there? Why isn't he at P3?" Leo asked.
Oh. Piper realised suddenly that Leo didn't know. He'd gone back Up There before everything went down when Chris got back from the future. And Piper had been so caught up in her own reaction to the revelation Chris was her son and so focussed on trying to be there for him and form some kind of relationship, she'd completely forgotten to tell Leo that Chris was their son.
Piper stared up at Leo with wide eyes. Again, she dimly heard Paige excusing herself and Phoebe. If she hadn't been so shocked by the sudden realisation that Leo didn't know, she might've felt gratitude towards her youngest sister for so adeptly reading the situation.
"Piper?" Leo asked when Piper continued to stare at him silently.
"You should- you should sit down," Piper said softly, gesturing to the couch Phoebe and Paige had just vacated.
Leo looked confused, but he sat anyway.
"Piper, what's going on?"
Piper took a deep breath before saying, "Chris is our son, Leo."
"Our wh-? I don't- how- I mean, that's not possible," Leo stammered.
"You and I both know that pretty much anything is possible when it comes to magic," Piper pointed out.
"How- how do you know?" Leo asked.
"Paige was the one who figured it out. Chris confirmed it. He's Wyatt's little brother. Our son."
"How long have you known?"
"Since he came back from the future."
"What?" Leo cried, "Piper that was days ago."
"I know. And I'm so sorry I didn't tell you. I was just so surprised, and you were already gone, and he was so torn up about Bianca but he wouldn't talk about it, and then I was so focussed on trying to be there for him. I just forgot to even tell you," Piper explained apologetically.
Leo ran a hand through his hair, looking as bewildered as Piper had felt when she'd first found out about Chris.
"I- so, why is he in your bed?" he asked.
"We had a fight today. I pushed too hard and he snapped at me, and then he went off and drowned his sorrows. He came back drunk, so Paige and I wrangled him into bed to sleep it off."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
They sat in silence for a moment, Piper giving Leo some time to process. She watched the emotions flicker across his face for a while, before finally saying, "There's- there's something else, Leo."
Leo looked up at her, disbelief in his eyes, "What, is Chris a twin or something?"
"No, nothing like that," Piper shook her head, "It's about why Chris came back."
"What do you mean?" Leo asked, "He came back to save Wyatt, right?"
"To save Wyatt from turning evil."
Piper said it simply. Resignedly.
Leo blinked, "Wh- what?"
Piper sighed, "Don't make me say it again, Leo."
"How is that- I mean how could he- What would even-" Leo spluttered, finally asking, "Are you sure?"
"He killed Bianca."
"Oh my god," Leo's eyes grew wide with horror, "He- he really killed-?"
Piper nodded, "I know."
"In front of Chris?" Leo asked, though his tone told Piper he already knew.
She nodded in response again.
"God," Leo repeated, scrubbing a hand across his face, "God, Chris."
"That's why he was drinking. I pushed him to talk about Bianca and we fought and he left and when he came back he was- god, Leo, he was so drunk he could barely stand."
"Do you really blame him, Piper?" Leo winced at the incredulous look Piper shot him, hastily adding, "I'm not saying it's okay! Of course not. I just- his brother killed his fiancé. And he had to watch. I can understand why he'd need to escape at the bottom of a bottle for a little while."
Piper pursed her lips. She understood too, but that didn't mean she had to like it.
"He gets one pass. And he's used it. But tomorrow, it's time to talk about all of this."
For the briefest of moments when he woke up, Chris had no idea where he was. The first thing he was aware of was that his head was pounding. Automatically, he opened his eyes and looked around the room, groaning at the way the room spun around him. His stomach churned in response to the movement.
A moment later, after he'd stopped trying to look around or move and his stomach had settled, Chris realised he was in his mother's bedroom. And he had no idea how he'd gotten there.
He thought about trying to get out of bed for a minute, but quickly gave up on that idea when his stomach rolled again. He was pretty sure the only thing he was capable of was lying flat on his back and not moving an inch.
Okay, hangovers suck, he thought to himself with a grimace.
He couldn't say how long he laid there, feeling sick and sorry for himself. He might've even fallen back to sleep again - it wasn't really clear. All he knew was that eventually, some mystery amount of time later, he came back to himself and realised he actually felt a little better. Which really just meant that his stomach wasn't threatening to expel itself from his body through his throat every time he so much as twitched.
His head was still pounding though. Actually, it was really sore, to the point where he probably needed some aspirin, or at the very least some water. Carefully, Chris threw the covers back and eased himself up to a sitting position. He slowly climbed off the bed and made his way out of the bedroom and down the stairs, holding his head in his hands.
"Good morning sunshine!"
Chris winced at Piper's perky greeting, clutching his head tighter with his hands.
"There's nothing good about it," he grumbled.
Piper laughed. The sound was like daggers or ice picks or something else sharp digging straight into Chris's brain.
"Here," a glass of water and two round white pills were held out in Chris's eyeline, "I thought you might need these."
Chris took them gratefully, throwing back the pills and chugging the water as quickly as he could manage. He handed the empty glass back to Piper.
Who he suddenly realised was standing next to Leo. Chris's eyes widened.
"Crap."
He was struck by the urge to flee, to orb away, but the familiar, determined look on Piper's face stopped him. He knew it was no use. Not when Piper looked like that. Years of experience told him there wasn't a corner on earth where she wouldn't find him.
Plus, his head was still really sore. He'd rather just get it over with so he could go back to bed.
Chris sighed resignedly, "I guess you wanna talk about it?"
"Yeah, Chris, we do," Piper replied, gesturing to the kitchen table, "Come on, let's sit."
Chris sank into the nearest chair, resisting the urge to put his head in his hands. He hoped the aspirin Piper had given him would kick in soon.
"I'm really sorry about yesterday," he said, before either Piper or Leo could say anything.
"Oh, no, sweetie. We don't have to talk about yesterday," Piper said, shaking her head.
Chris's mouth fell open in surprise, "We don't?"
"We're not going to pretend we're happy about the state you drank yourself into. But we also understand that you've got a lot going on right now," Leo said.
"This is a pass. And it's the only one you're going to get. Ever. Understood?" Piper said sternly.
Chris nodded, too dumbfounded to respond verbally. That definitely hadn't been what he was expecting when Piper had agreed they'd needed to talk.
"So, what did you want to talk about then?" he asked.
Piper and Leo exchanged a glance before turning back to Chris. They seemed as uncertain about all of this as he felt.
"We just wanted to clear the air, so to speak," Piper said, "I mean, we obviously all got off on the wrong foot when you got here. But you're our son, Chris. We want to get to know you, to be there for you."
Chris folded his arms across his chest protectively. That was exactly what he'd been afraid of. It was one of the many reasons why he'd worked so hard to keep his identity a secret. He knew it would be too hard to let his family in, to let his Mom in, just to lose her when he went back to the future.
"That's not what I'm here for."
Piper looked a little taken aback, as though she hadn't been expecting that kind of response. Chris wasn't sure why she seemed so surprised. Nothing about his behaviour since she'd found out who he really was screamed "Let's get to know each other and play happy family".
It was Leo who answered though, calmly replying with, "Maybe not. But that doesn't mean we can't get to know each other anyway."
"I don't have time for that," Chris retorted flatly. Inwardly, he was a little relieved that Leo had stepped into the conversation. It was much easier (and more guilt free) for him to keep the Elder at bay than his mother.
"I think we all know that's not true," Leo said.
Chris bristled at the calm, even tone Leo used. It was the same way he'd spoken to Chris when he was growing up, and never failed to make him feel small and unimportant.
"You have no idea," he spoke with the kind of quiet that can only come from years and years of simmering rage, "No idea what I've come from. What I'm here to stop."
"Then tell us!" Piper pleaded, finding her voice again, "Help us understand, Chris."
"I can't. You already know too much," Chris replied.
"We hardly know anything," Piper insisted, "There has to be more you can tell us."
Chris took a deep breath to try to squash the frustration rising up in him. He'd forgotten, in all his years without her, how tenacious his Mom could be when she wanted something.
"There's not. That's why it's easier if things just stay the same between us. I can't share enough for you to get to know me, not really."
It was as good an excuse as any to keep them both at arms' length.
"That's not it. You locking us out has nothing to do with protecting the future. This is about protecting yourself, isn't it?" Piper said knowingly.
Chris sighed. He should have known Piper wouldn't let it go.
"It's not-"
"I know I'm dead in the future!" Piper blurted out.
"What?" Leo cried, though Chris barely heard it. He was too focussed on trying not to react to what Piper had just said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said as emotionlessly as he could. He kept his eyes locked on Piper, watching for her reaction, hoping he could successfully lie his way out of this one.
Hoping she wouldn't notice the tears prickling in his eyes at her words.
"Yeah, you do. You've got the same look on your face that Prue had when we saw our Mom in the seventies," Piper replied.
Chris's brow furrowed for a moment as he tried to recall the story that was from. It came to him quickly.
"The warlock, right? The one who made the deal with Grandma Patty?"
Piper blinked in surprise, before she remembered what Phoebe had told her, "Wow, you really did study the Book cover to cover, huh?"
Chris shrugged in response.
"I'm sorry, can someone explain what's going on here?" Leo asked, "You're- you're dead in the future, Piper?"
"Apparently," Piper replied, "But who really knows right? I mean, Chris is here to change the future. Maybe that's one of the things he'll change."
"Bianca… Bianca thought that too," Chris said slowly, hesitantly.
Piper's eyes went wide with surprise, but she smiled encouragingly and nodded for Chris to continue. Leo was watching them both quietly, still trying to put everything together.
"When we- when we put this whole plan together," Chris continued hesitantly, like he was choosing his words carefully, "She pointed out that what we were planning to change was so- so huge, it was unlikely anything would stay the same. It was- that was actually the reason I proposed."
It was the most he'd shared since he'd arrived in the future and it left him feeling vulnerable, exposed. His eyes dropped to the table in front of him, waiting for Piper to push him for more.
"Did I ever tell you the story about how Leo proposed?"
Chris's eyes darted up to Piper in surprise. He shook his head, shocked. Piper looked kind of surprised at his response.
"Oh," she blinked, "Well, uh- he was so nervous, I think I caught him practicing in the mirror at least three times."
Chris chuckled, not really sure how to respond to that. They sat in awkward silence for a moment before he finally said, "I wasn't nervous at all. Asking Bianca to marry me was the one of the easiest decisions I ever made."
"How did you do it?" Piper asked softly, tentatively, as if she were worried the question might set Chris off again. Which, he supposed he couldn't blame her for, considering how volatile he'd been every time she'd tried to talk to him over the past few days.
He supposed it wasn't like it would do any harm, telling them about how he'd proposed. If things went the way he hoped, it was one of many things that would change anyway.
"There's this garden, here in San Francisco. It uh- it was where Bianca and I first met and we kept finding ourselves there, together, so we decided it was our spot," he said slowly, choosing his words carefully, so as not to reveal too much, "The day I went back to the future, I took Bianca there and asked her to marry me."
"Just like that, huh?" Piper said with a small smile. Her hand twitched, as if she was holding back from reaching across the table for Chris.
"Just like that," Chris repeated.
They sat in awkward silence for a moment, no one quite sure what to say.
"I'm- I'm sorry for what I said yesterday," Chris finally said, breaking the silence, "This whole- it's been really hard, since I got back, and I know I haven't been handling it really well."
What exactly had been hard - seeing Wyatt again, watching him kill Bianca, coming back to the past and having his secrets revealed - went unsaid.
"I don't think there's a right way to handle all of this," Piper replied.
"That's why we just wanted you to know that we're here, for whatever you need," Leo added.
There was a part of Chris that bristled at the offer from Leo. Leo, who had never, not once in Chris's twenty-one-ish years of life, been someone he could rely on. There was another part of Chris though, a small part of him that wanted desperately to believe that this time, Leo would be there for him. He'd be the father he'd always been to Wyatt, the father Chris had desperately pinned for as a boy.
Perhaps if Chris hadn't been left so broken by Bianca's death at his brother's hands, he wouldn't have let himself believe his future father so easily. He'd have protected himself better.
Instead, he made the decision he was sure he would kick himself for later. He let himself trust Leo.
Chris took a deep breath, looked up at both of his parents and said, "Actually, there is something I think I need to do. Will you come with me?"
The garden was as beautiful as it had been a few days earlier. More beautiful, perhaps, because Chris was actually fully conscious and not fighting a half-completed magic drain.
He was sitting on the bench with a single rose clasped in his hand. Piper and Leo stood behind him, silent but comforting.
He looked down at the rose. He didn't even know if Bianca liked roses. Hell, he didn't know if she liked flowers at all. They hadn't exactly had the luxury in the future of exchanging gifts. But he wanted to do something to say goodbye to Bianca, or at least the version of her that he had known and loved. The only thing he had left of her was her engagement ring, and he'd be damned if he'd give that up to anyone. He planned to keep it with him until he finished his mission, and then give it to Piper for safe keeping, so when he met Bianca in the future, he could give it to her again.
So, that just left flowers. Of course, he didn't exactly have a lot of money on him in the past, what with his no paying job and all, so a single rose it was. His plan had been to bring it to the garden, say a few words and then leave the rose on the bench.
Only now that he was here. He didn't know what to say. Saying goodbye felt like admitting defeat, admitting that Bianca was gone to him forever. But not saying goodbye, pretending Bianca wasn't dead, that felt wrong too.
"I don't- What am I supposed to say?" Chris finally said softly.
He didn't look over at Piper or Leo, just kept his eyes fixed on the rose in his hand.
A hand suddenly rested on his shoulder. Chris looked up at Piper, smiling encouragingly at him.
"Just say whatever feels right," Leo urged him.
"But I- nothing feels right," Chris replied, "It's just- before, if I failed, I knew she'd be waiting for me in the future. Now- what if I can't do this? What if I can't save Wyatt, if there's nothing to save him from, and I have to go back and be where she's not?"
"Oh sweetie," Piper stepped over the bench and sat down beside Chris, her hand never leaving his shoulder, "It's not going to happen."
"How do you know?" Chris asked.
"Because we're not going to let it," Leo said, sitting down on Chris's other side, "You don't have to go it alone anymore. We're here, and we're gonna help you."
Chris took a deep breath. It wasn't much in the grand scheme of things. Nothing had been resolved, not really. They hadn't even made any progress. But somehow, in that moment, it felt like everything. Suddenly, the mission didn't feel quite so heavy anymore.
Bolstered by his parents' support, Chris closed his eyes, suddenly not feeling the need to say goodbye to Bianca aloud. He conjured up the image of her in the park on that last day they had together, the way she'd smiled at him when he asked her to marry him.
I love you, Bianca, he thought, I love you and I promise, I'll see you again one day.
After a moment, he opened his eyes again, and let out another deep breath. He felt lighter again, as if things seemed a tiny bit better after saying goodbye.
Silently, Chris stood, leaving the rose on the bench in the place he'd sat. Piper and Leo stood too.
"Let's go home, sweetie."