Try, Try Again Chapter 18 of 29
Chapter 18
The Discussion
Chris rolled over and slowly opened his eyes only to find himself staring into the eyes of his little big brother. He shot upright, all thoughts of sleep forgotten. “Hey there, Wy, what are you doing up?” He asked the toddler.
Wyatt looked at him for a long moment then repeated, “Wy…”
Chris smiled and pointed to him saying, “Yes, that’s right, you’re Wy, I’m Chris.” Pointing to himself in turn.
Wyatt pointed back to him and said, “Cwiss.”
“You are really a smart little guy aren’t you?” Chris said as he got up and began to pick up baby Wyatt. He wondered how much his little big brother understood from their bond. He knew that he could feel a full range of emotions from his brother. It must have been confusing for the little guy to suddenly feel all that from a stranger. Hell, it was strange for Chris to feel so much at once. “I think someone is getting hungry. How about we go and make some breakfast?”
Wyatt just smiled and allowed Chris to pick him up and take him down the stairs toward the kitchen. Chris set him down in the highchair and began pulling out the ingredients to make blueberry pancakes, which just happened to be both of their favorite of breakfast foods.
Chris continued to talk to Wyatt as he worked in the kitchen, “You want some pancakes? Hmmm? How about blueberry pancakes?” Wyatt just babbled back to him as Chris strode around the kitchen as if he had been working in it for years. In fact he had, just years in their now future.
Piper woke up hearing voices from downstairs. She quickly got dressed and quietly went towards the kitchen and watched in wonder as her fully grown, previously unknown son worked in the kitchen. It was amazing to witness his ease at cooking. It was something Paige and Phoebe had never mastered. Sure they could cook if it was really required of them but this, this was beautiful. Ok, maybe she was feeling a little biased, he was her son after all. She stood there watching until she felt hands upon her shoulders. She looked up and saw Leo looking back into her eyes.
Right about this time Chris caught the movement from the doorway to the kitchen and he turned to see who was watching him. He had been so caught up cooking and talking with his brother that he didn’t even notice he was being watched. That startled him a bit. He needed to keep an eye on that. There usually wasn’t a time when people could sneak up on him, better yet stand and watch him for a while.
He grinned sheepishly saying, “I, uh, I thought we could have some breakfast first. Wyatt was hungry…” He trailed off not knowing if he should have made himself at home so quickly. What if they were mad? He hadn’t planned on becoming so familiar with ‘their’ home but now that they knew… well… he thought maybe…
Piper relieved him from his worrying as she came up to him and smiled saying, “Thank you for making breakfast. You seem to be quite the cook.”
Chris grinned as he removed the last of the pancakes off the griddle and said, “Well, I kinda had to be. Grandpa is a terrible cook and Wyatt…” He shot is little big brother a conspiratorial look before finishing by saying, “Well, he doesn’t like to do it soo…”
Piper walked over to Wyatt and began to cut up some food for him saying, “You don’t like to cook, huh? Well we are going to have to work on that, then aren’t we.” She fought her sadness at the fact that she wasn’t around in their future. She knew they were going to change things. Her mind still wondered how she was able to leave her babies though.
Leo came up behind Piper and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, no doubt understanding what she was thinking. Chris was busy setting the table and didn’t notice the actions of his parents. Actually he was purposefully ignoring their interaction. He had no idea how to act around them considering he had only recently met his mother and never knew his father. He didn’t even want to get to know the man. So what that it wasn’t fair to Leo, right now Chris didn’t care. It just seemed that Leo was his safest outlet for his anger and frustration.
Phoebe and Paige chose this moment to walk in. Paige said, “Do I smell pancakes?”
Phoebe smiled and said, “Yummm, blueberry pancakes! They look great.”
Chris blushed at the unexpected praise and said, “Well, I thought maybe we should get something to eat before getting into the heavy stuff.” Apparently Chris had forgotten who he was dealing with. This group was comprised of three sisters; of course they could talk and eat at the same time.
“So, Chris…” Phoebe began, “Do you have any cousins?”
Chris choked on the bite of food he was chewing. He was coughing and reaching for a drink as Piper gave a harsh stare to her younger sister.
Phoebe gave her a look back that said, ‘what?’
When Chris was able to breathe again he said, “I can’t tell you that, future consequences.”
Phoebe pouted and had a funny feeling she was going to get really tired of hearing that. She thought she would give it another try. After waiting around a few minutes of stilted silence she said, “So, how do we all fit here in the manor?”
Chris, thankfully, had swallowed his last bite down and was picking up his plate to take it to the sink when he said, “Actually, you don’t…” Then he paused and turned around to her and said, “Aunt Phoebe you can’t ask me questions like that.”
Phoebe ignored the reprimand and instead squealed at the new title. Sure she had been an aunt for a while but now she had two nephews and this one called her Aunt Phoebe!
Chris rolled his eyes and looked at his mom and said, “Is she always like this?”
Piper smiled back at him and said, “You tell me.”
Chris blew out a breath and continued to place his plate in the sink and moved back to clear the table saying, “You’re right and yes she is.” As he finished everyone chuckled, even Phoebe.
Piper decided to take the focus off her newest son by saying, “How about we clean up the kitchen later and just go into the living room and talk.” All eyes were on her now. It was not like Piper at all to leave a mess in the kitchen. Even Chris was staring. “Come on, you know I need to hear this story and I have waited all night and all through breakfast. I can’t wait any longer!” Piper said.
Wyatt started to fuss and Piper went over to pick him up. He was rubbing his eyes with his syrup filled hands. It had been an eventful morning for him even if the rest of the family didn’t understand. Chris was afraid of a cranky toddler having full rein over their bond and what that would do to him. He decided to propose a solution, “Mom, why don’t you take Wy up and get him ready for a nap while I finish with the kitchen then we can talk without interruption?”
Chris didn’t see Piper’s face light up with the first word of that sentence but she was still smiling when she turned around. “Okay, we will do it your way. I think someone is a little sleepy here and that is probably the smartest plan.” She began to walk towards the stairs. She quickly turned and pointed to the others and said, “Don’t start without me!”
Leo stood and followed her out of the room to help with Wyatt.
Paige and Phoebe helped Chris clean off the table and highchair and begin the dishes. The silence was oppressive. Each sister was trying to think of a way to ask a question that not only would get an answer but also wouldn’t get them in trouble with Piper. Chris was trying to think of a way to keep his real age out of the discussion. He needed to decide how much to tell them now that the whole plan to hide who he really was, was blown out of the water.
Upstairs Piper and Leo made quick work of getting Wyatt cleaned up and into bed. Wyatt reached out and said, “Cwiss.”
Piper smiled down at him saying, “Aww, you want your brother? You take a little nap first and then you can play with Chris, Okay?” That seemed to appease the little guy because he accepted his toy bear and laid down. She reached over and flipped on the baby monitor before standing next to Leo again.
Leo looked over to Piper and said, “Wyatt already trusts him.”
Piper petted Wyatt’s back before saying, “It seems they only had each other.”
Leo pulled her into a hug and whispered, “It’s not going to happen that way this time. We won’t let it. This time we are going to do things differently. According to the books we have already changed most of the stuff the other Chris had against him. Thanks to your future self, this time we know he is our son.” Leo paused and said, “I wonder why he never told us the truth from the start?”
Piper pulled back to look Leo in the eye as she said, “I think he was afraid we wouldn’t accept him. He would rather us reject a stranger than risk us rejecting him.”
Leo pulled her in for another quick hug and kissed her hair, “He doesn’t know this family very well then, does he?”
Piper leaned away again and looked down, “I don’t know Leo. Apparently in his time I left him with Dad. I never even told you about him!” She softly cried.
Leo squeezed her hand and said, “Not this time. This time we are going to do it together. All of it.” Then he leaned over and turned on the baby monitor.
He kept a hold of her hand and led her out of the room and down to the living room to where the rest of the family had converged. “So, how do we start all of this?” Leo said as he clapped his hand together once. He completely missed the look of daggers Chris sent his way.
Piper continued on into the room and sat down on a couch and said, “We started to read the diaries, Chris, but what else can you tell us. I mean… I just don’t understand.”
Chris’s look softened once he was staring into his mother’s eyes and he said, “There is much that I don’t understand. What I do know is that this has all happened before and more than once.” He looked around the room at the others and said, “Mom and I decided to change the timing this time to occur before the attack to the Titans. Apparently in the times before I came during the attack and the Titans decimated Elderland.”
Paige asked, “Ok, but why you? Why didn’t we come ourselves?”
Chris looked down. He didn’t want to explain what he had already figured out. He had no desire to tell them about their deaths or explain how Wyatt had raised him, how he probably would have joined him and turned to evil himself.
Leo saved him by saying, “It would probably cause too much of a disruption to the timeline. Just sending one person is hard enough but sending the Power of Three, well that could cause a lot of damage.” Chris sent him a grateful glance. Maybe Leo wasn’t so bad after all?
“Look, all I know is that Mom thought if I came in time to save the innocent that I could convince you guys to trust me. Of course the plan was that you wouldn’t know who I was.” He gave his mother an accusing stare.
Piper held up her hands and said, “Don’t blame me, but for the record I am glad I know you are my son.”
Chris couldn’t help but smile at that statement, he blushed a little as he looked around the room and found all eyes were on him he directed the conversation away from him again. “Ok, we saved the innocent so part one is done. Now we need to save the Elders. Leo and I will need to come up with a way to convince them that I am not lying and to somehow protect them from the Titan threat.”
Leo winced slightly at the use of his first name. It saddened him that although Chris immediately started calling Piper ‘Mom’ he still referred to him as ‘Leo’. His shoulders slumped a little but he decided to go ahead and follow Chris’s lead. He had an idea of the nonexistent father he had been and maybe the boy just needed time to adjust. He could give him that time. Leo was beginning to understand that someone else had filled the roll of father during his absence when Chris was small. He had assumed it was Victor, but now they knew it was Wyatt. It was going to be hard for Chris to accept his actual father to suddenly take back over the roll. He surreptitiously glanced at Piper. He figured that no one had filled the roll of mom during her absence. Well, no one until the older version stepped back up to the plate. He pushed down the slight anger he felt at being denied knowledge of his son. He knew there was a good reason for Piper to do that, besides it wasn’t actually ‘his’ Piper that did it. No there was so much more that had gone on during that time. He hoped they never did fully understand it all because understanding it completely would mean living through it again.
Leo glanced up from his musings to find all eyes on him. Apparently the conversation kept going on while he had checked out. He tried to cover his embarrassment by asking, “What?”
Thankfully Piper said, “Do you think you can get the Elders to agree to meet with Chris?”
Leo nodded and said, “I am sure we can figure out a way for them to meet with us.”
Chris interjected saying, “Uh, no, I think it would be best if I met with them myself.” He hardly even knew Leo and had no intentions upon them ‘bonding’ with the man now.
Leo stood his ground, “No, Chris, I am not sure how you did things before but we are a family and that is the way we do things. Together.” His tone had an air of finality to it. Chris wanted to say something, anything to dissuade him but if he were honest, he didn’t really want to face the Elders alone.
Piper said, “That’s settled then. Now what do we say to convince them?”
Paige looked up to the group and said, “I don’t think they should know he is a Halliwell.”
Piper’s eyes darted towards her youngest sisters viciously.
Paige just continued, “I mean… I want to keep him protected for as long as possible. I don’t want them thinking our family thinks we can just go tinkering through the timeline to fix any error.”
Phoebe sat up and said, “But we don’t! The last time was their idea!”
Chris said, “Last time?” Oh this had to be good, he had never heard of a ‘last time’ the family went through time story. The group ignored him.
Leo said, “You’re both right. This is a good reason but we don’t want to cloud their judgment. I am not ashamed of our son either, Piper.” Leo added at Piper’s still harsh stare. This softened both Piper and Chris’s feelings on the subject. Chris was starting to worry the family wasn’t going to be as supportive as they were showing.
“But I want them to listen to why and not think about who is bringing the message,” Leo continued.
“I understand.” Piper said, “If you agree, Chris, we will continue to refer to you as Chris Perry, whitelighter from the future. Sent here to save the Elders and warn us of a threat to Wyatt.”
Chris was glad that they were finally looking for his opinion on the matter. “Well, that was the original plan so I say we stick to it and pretend that I’m not family.” If he had to admit, he was glad that Piper would rather have the world know that he was her son. He really never did understand how she was able to leave. This behavior only makes it all the more confusing. She just doesn’t seem like someone that would walk away from her family.
Leo stated firmly, “No.” All eyes were on Leo with his strange declaration as he continued with, “We are not going to act like you aren’t family. I will not be treating you like you are some kind of stranger!” Leo wanted to make sure the kid understood. This wasn’t some ploy to push him away. “It will be only around them that we will pretend anything.” At Chris’s astonished stare he softly said, “You are my son, Chris, I won’t treat you as anything different than that. It doesn’t matter to me that we just met, I already love you.”
Chris didn’t know what to say to that. This definitely wasn’t the man he thought he was going to be meeting! Fortunately for him, Wyatt chose that moment to announce that he was awake. Chris jumped up and said, “I’ll get him.” And he raced out of the room.
The people left behind watched him as he left. Piper reached her hand out to put it on Leo’s arm and said, “Don’t worry. It’s going to take some time.”
There were tears in his eyes when he looked back at Piper and said, “Your letter said we made mistakes with him. I guess this is going to be the biggest to overcome.”
Piper looked down in shame; she had caused this rift between father and son. How horrible was the future? Why had she decided not to tell Leo about Chris? Her internal monologue was interrupted by the voices on the baby monitor. Evidently Chris was still unaware that there was one in the room.
“Hey, Wy, are you awake?” they heard Chris asking. Then they heard sheets rustling and assumed Chris was getting the toddler up. Paige reached to shut the monitor off so they could continue their discussion when they heard Chris saying, “So, that is Dad, huh? Not who I imagined him to be.”
Leo reached out to stop his sister-in-law from cutting the power to the monitor. The group guiltily listened in to the brothers’ conversation.
“I guess in the couple of years that he was around you really did learn how to be a dad from him. I always wondered where you got it from.”
Baby Wyatt answered, “Cwiss.”
And then the sound became distant from the monitor and instead they could hear the boys in the hall with Chris saying, “Yeah, that’s right and you’re Wy.” He smiled as he shook his head, kids.
Paige flipped off the monitor before Chris could enter the room. As they entered they heard Wyatt saying, “Wy…”
All eyes were on the two boys and Chris fought the urge to fidget. Phoebe said, “I guess you two grew up really close, huh?”
Chris’s eyes shot over to hers and then roamed around the room. They couldn’t have heard that! There is no way they would have known so he just shrugged and said, “Sure, I guess… Why?”
Piper’s eyes darted towards her younger sister daring her to find a way to explain it without giving them away. Chris missed the stare. Thankfully Phoebe said, “Oh, it’s just the way you ran to get him and the nickname… Do you always call him Wy?”
Chris breathed a little sigh of relief, they didn’t hear anything. He said, “Yeah, I think I always have. I may be the only one that does though… Anyway,” Chris began to redirect as he placed Wyatt on the floor by some toys, “What are we going to say to the Elders?”
That brought the entire group back to the planning stages. Chris was still feeling relived that his family didn’t know about him and Wyatt.
The group had decided that Leo would set up a time to meet the new whitelighter with the Elders and they would together explain the threat. Leo sent a small smile over to Piper. He was glad Chris was finally letting him be a part of this. If all he could do was be supportive during the Elder meeting then that is what he would do! He had a lot to make up for and he was going to start right now.
TBC
Chapter 19
The Discussion
Chris rolled over and slowly opened his eyes only to find himself staring into the eyes of his little big brother. He shot upright, all thoughts of sleep forgotten. “Hey there, Wy, what are you doing up?” He asked the toddler.
Wyatt looked at him for a long moment then repeated, “Wy…”
Chris smiled and pointed to him saying, “Yes, that’s right, you’re Wy, I’m Chris.” Pointing to himself in turn.
Wyatt pointed back to him and said, “Cwiss.”
“You are really a smart little guy aren’t you?” Chris said as he got up and began to pick up baby Wyatt. He wondered how much his little big brother understood from their bond. He knew that he could feel a full range of emotions from his brother. It must have been confusing for the little guy to suddenly feel all that from a stranger. Hell, it was strange for Chris to feel so much at once. “I think someone is getting hungry. How about we go and make some breakfast?”
Wyatt just smiled and allowed Chris to pick him up and take him down the stairs toward the kitchen. Chris set him down in the highchair and began pulling out the ingredients to make blueberry pancakes, which just happened to be both of their favorite of breakfast foods.
Chris continued to talk to Wyatt as he worked in the kitchen, “You want some pancakes? Hmmm? How about blueberry pancakes?” Wyatt just babbled back to him as Chris strode around the kitchen as if he had been working in it for years. In fact he had, just years in their now future.
Piper woke up hearing voices from downstairs. She quickly got dressed and quietly went towards the kitchen and watched in wonder as her fully grown, previously unknown son worked in the kitchen. It was amazing to witness his ease at cooking. It was something Paige and Phoebe had never mastered. Sure they could cook if it was really required of them but this, this was beautiful. Ok, maybe she was feeling a little biased, he was her son after all. She stood there watching until she felt hands upon her shoulders. She looked up and saw Leo looking back into her eyes.
Right about this time Chris caught the movement from the doorway to the kitchen and he turned to see who was watching him. He had been so caught up cooking and talking with his brother that he didn’t even notice he was being watched. That startled him a bit. He needed to keep an eye on that. There usually wasn’t a time when people could sneak up on him, better yet stand and watch him for a while.
He grinned sheepishly saying, “I, uh, I thought we could have some breakfast first. Wyatt was hungry…” He trailed off not knowing if he should have made himself at home so quickly. What if they were mad? He hadn’t planned on becoming so familiar with ‘their’ home but now that they knew… well… he thought maybe…
Piper relieved him from his worrying as she came up to him and smiled saying, “Thank you for making breakfast. You seem to be quite the cook.”
Chris grinned as he removed the last of the pancakes off the griddle and said, “Well, I kinda had to be. Grandpa is a terrible cook and Wyatt…” He shot is little big brother a conspiratorial look before finishing by saying, “Well, he doesn’t like to do it soo…”
Piper walked over to Wyatt and began to cut up some food for him saying, “You don’t like to cook, huh? Well we are going to have to work on that, then aren’t we.” She fought her sadness at the fact that she wasn’t around in their future. She knew they were going to change things. Her mind still wondered how she was able to leave her babies though.
Leo came up behind Piper and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, no doubt understanding what she was thinking. Chris was busy setting the table and didn’t notice the actions of his parents. Actually he was purposefully ignoring their interaction. He had no idea how to act around them considering he had only recently met his mother and never knew his father. He didn’t even want to get to know the man. So what that it wasn’t fair to Leo, right now Chris didn’t care. It just seemed that Leo was his safest outlet for his anger and frustration.
Phoebe and Paige chose this moment to walk in. Paige said, “Do I smell pancakes?”
Phoebe smiled and said, “Yummm, blueberry pancakes! They look great.”
Chris blushed at the unexpected praise and said, “Well, I thought maybe we should get something to eat before getting into the heavy stuff.” Apparently Chris had forgotten who he was dealing with. This group was comprised of three sisters; of course they could talk and eat at the same time.
“So, Chris…” Phoebe began, “Do you have any cousins?”
Chris choked on the bite of food he was chewing. He was coughing and reaching for a drink as Piper gave a harsh stare to her younger sister.
Phoebe gave her a look back that said, ‘what?’
When Chris was able to breathe again he said, “I can’t tell you that, future consequences.”
Phoebe pouted and had a funny feeling she was going to get really tired of hearing that. She thought she would give it another try. After waiting around a few minutes of stilted silence she said, “So, how do we all fit here in the manor?”
Chris, thankfully, had swallowed his last bite down and was picking up his plate to take it to the sink when he said, “Actually, you don’t…” Then he paused and turned around to her and said, “Aunt Phoebe you can’t ask me questions like that.”
Phoebe ignored the reprimand and instead squealed at the new title. Sure she had been an aunt for a while but now she had two nephews and this one called her Aunt Phoebe!
Chris rolled his eyes and looked at his mom and said, “Is she always like this?”
Piper smiled back at him and said, “You tell me.”
Chris blew out a breath and continued to place his plate in the sink and moved back to clear the table saying, “You’re right and yes she is.” As he finished everyone chuckled, even Phoebe.
Piper decided to take the focus off her newest son by saying, “How about we clean up the kitchen later and just go into the living room and talk.” All eyes were on her now. It was not like Piper at all to leave a mess in the kitchen. Even Chris was staring. “Come on, you know I need to hear this story and I have waited all night and all through breakfast. I can’t wait any longer!” Piper said.
Wyatt started to fuss and Piper went over to pick him up. He was rubbing his eyes with his syrup filled hands. It had been an eventful morning for him even if the rest of the family didn’t understand. Chris was afraid of a cranky toddler having full rein over their bond and what that would do to him. He decided to propose a solution, “Mom, why don’t you take Wy up and get him ready for a nap while I finish with the kitchen then we can talk without interruption?”
Chris didn’t see Piper’s face light up with the first word of that sentence but she was still smiling when she turned around. “Okay, we will do it your way. I think someone is a little sleepy here and that is probably the smartest plan.” She began to walk towards the stairs. She quickly turned and pointed to the others and said, “Don’t start without me!”
Leo stood and followed her out of the room to help with Wyatt.
Paige and Phoebe helped Chris clean off the table and highchair and begin the dishes. The silence was oppressive. Each sister was trying to think of a way to ask a question that not only would get an answer but also wouldn’t get them in trouble with Piper. Chris was trying to think of a way to keep his real age out of the discussion. He needed to decide how much to tell them now that the whole plan to hide who he really was, was blown out of the water.
Upstairs Piper and Leo made quick work of getting Wyatt cleaned up and into bed. Wyatt reached out and said, “Cwiss.”
Piper smiled down at him saying, “Aww, you want your brother? You take a little nap first and then you can play with Chris, Okay?” That seemed to appease the little guy because he accepted his toy bear and laid down. She reached over and flipped on the baby monitor before standing next to Leo again.
Leo looked over to Piper and said, “Wyatt already trusts him.”
Piper petted Wyatt’s back before saying, “It seems they only had each other.”
Leo pulled her into a hug and whispered, “It’s not going to happen that way this time. We won’t let it. This time we are going to do things differently. According to the books we have already changed most of the stuff the other Chris had against him. Thanks to your future self, this time we know he is our son.” Leo paused and said, “I wonder why he never told us the truth from the start?”
Piper pulled back to look Leo in the eye as she said, “I think he was afraid we wouldn’t accept him. He would rather us reject a stranger than risk us rejecting him.”
Leo pulled her in for another quick hug and kissed her hair, “He doesn’t know this family very well then, does he?”
Piper leaned away again and looked down, “I don’t know Leo. Apparently in his time I left him with Dad. I never even told you about him!” She softly cried.
Leo squeezed her hand and said, “Not this time. This time we are going to do it together. All of it.” Then he leaned over and turned on the baby monitor.
He kept a hold of her hand and led her out of the room and down to the living room to where the rest of the family had converged. “So, how do we start all of this?” Leo said as he clapped his hand together once. He completely missed the look of daggers Chris sent his way.
Piper continued on into the room and sat down on a couch and said, “We started to read the diaries, Chris, but what else can you tell us. I mean… I just don’t understand.”
Chris’s look softened once he was staring into his mother’s eyes and he said, “There is much that I don’t understand. What I do know is that this has all happened before and more than once.” He looked around the room at the others and said, “Mom and I decided to change the timing this time to occur before the attack to the Titans. Apparently in the times before I came during the attack and the Titans decimated Elderland.”
Paige asked, “Ok, but why you? Why didn’t we come ourselves?”
Chris looked down. He didn’t want to explain what he had already figured out. He had no desire to tell them about their deaths or explain how Wyatt had raised him, how he probably would have joined him and turned to evil himself.
Leo saved him by saying, “It would probably cause too much of a disruption to the timeline. Just sending one person is hard enough but sending the Power of Three, well that could cause a lot of damage.” Chris sent him a grateful glance. Maybe Leo wasn’t so bad after all?
“Look, all I know is that Mom thought if I came in time to save the innocent that I could convince you guys to trust me. Of course the plan was that you wouldn’t know who I was.” He gave his mother an accusing stare.
Piper held up her hands and said, “Don’t blame me, but for the record I am glad I know you are my son.”
Chris couldn’t help but smile at that statement, he blushed a little as he looked around the room and found all eyes were on him he directed the conversation away from him again. “Ok, we saved the innocent so part one is done. Now we need to save the Elders. Leo and I will need to come up with a way to convince them that I am not lying and to somehow protect them from the Titan threat.”
Leo winced slightly at the use of his first name. It saddened him that although Chris immediately started calling Piper ‘Mom’ he still referred to him as ‘Leo’. His shoulders slumped a little but he decided to go ahead and follow Chris’s lead. He had an idea of the nonexistent father he had been and maybe the boy just needed time to adjust. He could give him that time. Leo was beginning to understand that someone else had filled the roll of father during his absence when Chris was small. He had assumed it was Victor, but now they knew it was Wyatt. It was going to be hard for Chris to accept his actual father to suddenly take back over the roll. He surreptitiously glanced at Piper. He figured that no one had filled the roll of mom during her absence. Well, no one until the older version stepped back up to the plate. He pushed down the slight anger he felt at being denied knowledge of his son. He knew there was a good reason for Piper to do that, besides it wasn’t actually ‘his’ Piper that did it. No there was so much more that had gone on during that time. He hoped they never did fully understand it all because understanding it completely would mean living through it again.
Leo glanced up from his musings to find all eyes on him. Apparently the conversation kept going on while he had checked out. He tried to cover his embarrassment by asking, “What?”
Thankfully Piper said, “Do you think you can get the Elders to agree to meet with Chris?”
Leo nodded and said, “I am sure we can figure out a way for them to meet with us.”
Chris interjected saying, “Uh, no, I think it would be best if I met with them myself.” He hardly even knew Leo and had no intentions upon them ‘bonding’ with the man now.
Leo stood his ground, “No, Chris, I am not sure how you did things before but we are a family and that is the way we do things. Together.” His tone had an air of finality to it. Chris wanted to say something, anything to dissuade him but if he were honest, he didn’t really want to face the Elders alone.
Piper said, “That’s settled then. Now what do we say to convince them?”
Paige looked up to the group and said, “I don’t think they should know he is a Halliwell.”
Piper’s eyes darted towards her youngest sisters viciously.
Paige just continued, “I mean… I want to keep him protected for as long as possible. I don’t want them thinking our family thinks we can just go tinkering through the timeline to fix any error.”
Phoebe sat up and said, “But we don’t! The last time was their idea!”
Chris said, “Last time?” Oh this had to be good, he had never heard of a ‘last time’ the family went through time story. The group ignored him.
Leo said, “You’re both right. This is a good reason but we don’t want to cloud their judgment. I am not ashamed of our son either, Piper.” Leo added at Piper’s still harsh stare. This softened both Piper and Chris’s feelings on the subject. Chris was starting to worry the family wasn’t going to be as supportive as they were showing.
“But I want them to listen to why and not think about who is bringing the message,” Leo continued.
“I understand.” Piper said, “If you agree, Chris, we will continue to refer to you as Chris Perry, whitelighter from the future. Sent here to save the Elders and warn us of a threat to Wyatt.”
Chris was glad that they were finally looking for his opinion on the matter. “Well, that was the original plan so I say we stick to it and pretend that I’m not family.” If he had to admit, he was glad that Piper would rather have the world know that he was her son. He really never did understand how she was able to leave. This behavior only makes it all the more confusing. She just doesn’t seem like someone that would walk away from her family.
Leo stated firmly, “No.” All eyes were on Leo with his strange declaration as he continued with, “We are not going to act like you aren’t family. I will not be treating you like you are some kind of stranger!” Leo wanted to make sure the kid understood. This wasn’t some ploy to push him away. “It will be only around them that we will pretend anything.” At Chris’s astonished stare he softly said, “You are my son, Chris, I won’t treat you as anything different than that. It doesn’t matter to me that we just met, I already love you.”
Chris didn’t know what to say to that. This definitely wasn’t the man he thought he was going to be meeting! Fortunately for him, Wyatt chose that moment to announce that he was awake. Chris jumped up and said, “I’ll get him.” And he raced out of the room.
The people left behind watched him as he left. Piper reached her hand out to put it on Leo’s arm and said, “Don’t worry. It’s going to take some time.”
There were tears in his eyes when he looked back at Piper and said, “Your letter said we made mistakes with him. I guess this is going to be the biggest to overcome.”
Piper looked down in shame; she had caused this rift between father and son. How horrible was the future? Why had she decided not to tell Leo about Chris? Her internal monologue was interrupted by the voices on the baby monitor. Evidently Chris was still unaware that there was one in the room.
“Hey, Wy, are you awake?” they heard Chris asking. Then they heard sheets rustling and assumed Chris was getting the toddler up. Paige reached to shut the monitor off so they could continue their discussion when they heard Chris saying, “So, that is Dad, huh? Not who I imagined him to be.”
Leo reached out to stop his sister-in-law from cutting the power to the monitor. The group guiltily listened in to the brothers’ conversation.
“I guess in the couple of years that he was around you really did learn how to be a dad from him. I always wondered where you got it from.”
Baby Wyatt answered, “Cwiss.”
And then the sound became distant from the monitor and instead they could hear the boys in the hall with Chris saying, “Yeah, that’s right and you’re Wy.” He smiled as he shook his head, kids.
Paige flipped off the monitor before Chris could enter the room. As they entered they heard Wyatt saying, “Wy…”
All eyes were on the two boys and Chris fought the urge to fidget. Phoebe said, “I guess you two grew up really close, huh?”
Chris’s eyes shot over to hers and then roamed around the room. They couldn’t have heard that! There is no way they would have known so he just shrugged and said, “Sure, I guess… Why?”
Piper’s eyes darted towards her younger sister daring her to find a way to explain it without giving them away. Chris missed the stare. Thankfully Phoebe said, “Oh, it’s just the way you ran to get him and the nickname… Do you always call him Wy?”
Chris breathed a little sigh of relief, they didn’t hear anything. He said, “Yeah, I think I always have. I may be the only one that does though… Anyway,” Chris began to redirect as he placed Wyatt on the floor by some toys, “What are we going to say to the Elders?”
That brought the entire group back to the planning stages. Chris was still feeling relived that his family didn’t know about him and Wyatt.
The group had decided that Leo would set up a time to meet the new whitelighter with the Elders and they would together explain the threat. Leo sent a small smile over to Piper. He was glad Chris was finally letting him be a part of this. If all he could do was be supportive during the Elder meeting then that is what he would do! He had a lot to make up for and he was going to start right now.
TBC
Chapter 19