Try, Try Again Chapter 26 of 29
A/N: Following the muse again has led us to Witchstock. This chapter has spoilers for and dialog directly from that episode. I didn’t go into what happened to the sisters in 1967; suffice it to say that everything that happened on the show happened here too. I am only showing what happened during 2004. And on with the story…
Chapter 26
The Demon With No Name
Chris reached over and answered the phone as he checked the clock next to the bed, four thirty in the morning. “Hello.”
“Chris, there are some problems over here,” Chris heard Darryl say. “Some,” and the next words were whispered, “magical problems. I need your help.”
“Alright, be there in a minute,” Chris said. Then he smiled as he glanced up at his bedroom door. There was no need to wake anyone. He could handle this! His family was still asleep so there would be no one to stop him.
Chris was tying his shoe when the guilt hit. He really should wake someone. He paused as he thought about the talk he had with his parents before he went to sleep.
\FLASHBACK/
“You’re dad and I are going to do everything we can do to keep you safe,” Piper said, “I’m sorry it upsets you but that is what parents do.”
Chris sighed again as he said, “I know Mom. Wyatt wouldn’t have let me go either. He would have kicked my butt if I had yelled at him like that.” He blushed as he realized he had just said too much so he pushed on, “I’m the one that’s sorry. I was just worried about Seth.”
He remembered how nice it was when his mom kissed his forehead and told him he was a good friend. He was still lying in bed thinking about what his mother said before she left the room, that ‘everything was falling into place.’ He hoped she was right. He felt that things were happening the way they were supposed to also.
He was lost in thought when he heard the door open once more. He thought it was Piper again so he was surprised when he heard the soft voice from Leo ask, “Chris, can I talk to you for a sec?”
Chris rolled over to his back and pushed himself into a seated position, “Sure, Dad, what’s wrong?”
Leo smiled sadly and walked into the room. He pulled the desk chair with him and sat it next to the bed so he was closer to Chris. “I… wanted to talk.”
Chris started to panic. Was he in more trouble for the back talking he did? His heart rate picked up and he fidgeted with the blanket as he said, “Uh, yeah, about earlier…”
Leo placed a gentle hand over Chris’s and said, “I’m sorry for the way I handled that.”
Chris stopped and shot his eyes up to his father’s. He didn’t understand, sorry about what?
Leo continued, “You and I have seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot. First I just followed your lead and then, when we found out how young you were… I…” Leo’s eyes slid down as he tried to explain. “I have become some kind of dictator.” Leo shook his head trying to find a way to explain then he sighed and said, “I’m doing this all wrong.”
Chris wasn’t following; Leo was just being a dad. Chris knew he was pushing boundaries. He didn’t mean to always test the limits but he did manage to do it. There was something that pushed Chris to do things on his own. He knew and he was sure that Wy knew that unless there was someone to stop him, Chris would push too hard and put himself into danger.
Chris asked hesitantly, “You don’t w-wanna be my dad?” Is that what he was saying? That he didn’t want to be the one to help rein Chris in? Is that why he left in the original timeline; was Chris just too much work?
Leo saw the insecurity crop up on Chris’s face. He spoke quickly to reassure him, “Of course I want to be your dad! There is nothing I would like to do more than be a father to you and your brother.”
Chris scrunched his eyes as he said, “Then what do you mean?”
Leo gave him a small smile as he said, “I just mean I should be explaining instead of dictating. And there was no reason for me to manhandle you when we were talking to Derek.”
Chris blushed a little and said, “Yeah, well…”
Leo continued as he reached out and brushed the hair out of Chris’s eyes, “I just wanted to say that I was sorry. It’s just that as soon as I saw how young you were and the danger you were putting yourself in… I just kinda lost it. And then knowing how the other Chris died and that other Leo couldn’t prevent it… I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe, Chris.” Leo smiled and gave a self-depreciating grin as he said, “I’ll just try to talk it through with you.”
Chris gave a small chuckle. He hadn’t even realized that Leo wasn’t talking about discipline with him before. Chris felt that what he was doing was pushing it and Leo was taking a no nonsense approach. “Thanks, Dad,” was all he could think to say.
“I love you, Kiddo,” Leo said as he kissed his forehead and got up putting the chair back under the desk.
Chris snuggled into his covers feeling loved and wanted. He fell asleep wondering if there was any way to use this new found information to start going on solo vanquishes…
\END FLASHBACK/
Chris finished tying the other shoe and stood, grabbed his jacket and paused by his door listening to see if anyone else was up yet. He peeked out the door and when he saw nothing he closed the door again and orbed to the factory. He should be able to do away with this simple green blob before anyone woke up. He still felt a little bad, but it seems that even if Dad found out he would only want to talk it over with him now. Hmmm, guilt seemed to work in Chris’s favor. Without the threat of punishment weighing over his head, Chris thought he could do anything he wanted.
Chris walked over to Darryl and had him keep the factory workers out for a little bit longer. He was sure that he could handle slime all on his own. How hard could it be?
He stood in the room waiting for the blob to attack, silently wishing that Seth were here with him. They had the best times fighting in the underworld. Heck he would even deal with the half ass battle that Wy allowed him to be in. Wy… He did miss his big brother…
Just as Chris thought those words blue and white lights began to form on the cement floor in front of him. Before the figure coalesced into the body of his little ‘big’ brother the green slime shot out towards the twinkling lights. Chris quickly raised his hands and threw lightning out blob causing a huge explosion. Chris was grateful that it didn’t take that much energy. The last time he had used that power he knocked himself unconscious for a while. First he made sure that no more slime was hovering around. Except for the splatter left on his clothes, they seemed to be safe. He ran to the door and gave Darryl the all clear before he jogged back and picked up Wyatt, orbing them back to the manor.
Chris set his brother down on his bed and then checked to see if anyone was up. Luck was on his side as the house was still quiet. He whispered to Wyatt as he got changed, “You can’t tell Mom and Dad about that, OK? That little adventure just needs to stay between me and you.” Chris was so busy directing Wyatt not to tattle he didn’t see some of the slime that covered his clothes inch its way off the shirt he had been wearing.
Once he was redressed he scooped Wyatt up taking him down to the kitchen and began to make breakfast. Each of the sisters came downstairs and made themselves a cup of coffee. Piper gave Chris a kiss on the cheek and Leo patted his arm. Everyone dug into the pancakes and chatted about their plans for the day. Chris let out a sigh of relief that he had gotten away with this morning’s vanquish with no one the wiser.
“No, I’m serious,” he heard his Aunt Phoebe saying, “I need some help finding that book. If you guys could just look through the boxes with me I am sure we will find it in no time.”
“But it’s Saturday, Phoebe,” Aunt Paige whined, “I don’t want to spend all morning in the attic.”
“If you help me then we won’t be spending all morning there. Please Paige.” Aunt Phoebe begged.
“Oh all right, but you owe me. I wanted to spend some time with Richard,” Aunt Paige said. Chris wondered who this ‘Richard’ was. It sounded like a boyfriend, but Chris had never met him. Chris’s mind wandered to the diaries. He remembered that in the other timelines that Aunt Paige was living with a boyfriend during this time. He guessed his arrival somehow stopped that. He wondered if his being here was going to interfere with Aunt Paige meeting Uncle Henry. He hoped not. He had three cousins that needed for them to get together.
“Well, at least one of us has a boyfriend to worry about. It seems that Jason and I are over. I wouldn’t move with him, so…” Phoebe started.
“But he wanted you to move to Hong Kong! How could we be the Power of Three if you moved that far away?” Piper questioned.
“Yeah,” Chris said, “It never would have worked out anyway…” Then he looked up at his aunts and mother realizing he had said too much. He grabbed his plate and set it in the sink as he said, “Uh, I mean…” Nope, he had nothing. He grabbed Wyatt out of the high chair. The little boy was completely covered in syrup. “I’ll just go and get Wy cleaned up…” and he all but ran out of the kitchen.
“Wait, what do you know?” Phoebe tried to ask but Chris was faster.
“Do you think he knows anything about Richard?” Paige asked.
Piper looked over to her baby sister; something was going on there. “What’s going on with Richard?” Piper asked her.
All attention on her now, Paige picked up plates and took them over to the sink and she began to wash the dishes. “Well, it’s just with his problem with magic…” She paused and thought about exactly what she wanted to say. She needed help with this and her sisters were the best place to go for that. She sighed heavily, “I don’t think this is going to work out. I need to be surrounded by magic. We are the Charmed Ones. And then there is the threat against Wyatt.” She sighed again. Maybe if she had been with Richard more she could forget how much she needed to be around her sisters. She wondered if she had moved in with him when he offered if she would be thinking the same thoughts about leaving him. “I just don’t think he can be ‘the one’ if I have to hide my magic usage around him. I don’t want him to be uncomfortable, but…” Paige let the statement drop.
Phoebe completely understood her sister’s situation. Both of them were happy enough with their boyfriends but when you threw magic into the mix, all bets were off. They both needed to be with someone that would understand their need to be around for ‘family emergencies’. She thought she would inject some humor into the atmosphere, “Well, I think that we are going to be fine. I get the feeling that in Chris’s future we have husbands that understand magic. And there are always the children that Chris didn’t want to discuss with us.” She smiled.
Paige finished up the dishes and left them to dry in the drainer. “You know, I think you are right.”
“Of course I am, and I know just what will get your mind off of all of this,” Phoebe says with a big smile.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll help you find your book,” Paige tells her.
/ CHARMED / CHARMED / CHARMED /
Chris took Wyatt upstairs to the bathroom. He tried to clean the syrup of him but it proved to be a much harder job than he had anticipated. “Did you bathe in this stuff? I wish I had a camera so I could take a picture of you like this.” Chris laughed as he decided it would probably just be easier to give the boy a bath.
“Boat,” Wyatt said as he pointed to one of his bath toys. Apparently bubbles were not enough to entertain his little ‘big’ brother.
“Boat huh. You wanna play with your boat?” Chris asked the toddler.
Wyatt nodded and Chris handed him the toy.
Chris laughed again as he was washing the baby’s hair and made little spikes with the suds, “Oh man! If I could show you this! You would NEVER live this down.”
Wyatt filled the boat with water and drained it saying, “Green… BOOM!”
Chris tensed as he realized that the boy was playing a repeat of this morning’s vanquish. “Uh, remember, Wy, that is just between us, right?”
Wyatt grabbed Chris’s fingers and said, “Cwiss… lighs… fingwers… BOOM!”
‘Oh shit!’ Chris thought! That was all he needed! If his family hears Wyatt saying ‘Chris, lights, fingers boom’ he would be sunk! They could figure out that Chris used his powers to zap the slime but worse than that, not only did he go on a vanquish but he took Wyatt with him. Albeit not intentionally but he seriously doubted that his parents were going to see it that way! “No buddy, no boom… boat… Let’s play with the boat,” he said as he tried to get his brother’s attention on something - ANYTHING - else.”
“Boat,” Wyatt said and seemed happy enough to play with Chris and the boat. Chris could only pray that Wy didn’t bring any ‘booming’ into the conversation with his parents around.
He let the boy play while he finished rinsing his hair then allowed him to play with the boat as he dried him off. “Yes, see, boat! That’s right, buddy, go ahead and play.” Fingers crossed that was actually going to work.
/ CHARMED / CHARMED / CHARMED /
The three sisters were up in the attic looking through old boxes.
“Oh, wow, Phoebe,” Piper pulls out red knee-high boots. “These are some boots.”
“No, they're not mine,” Phoebe says, “But I wish they were 'cause they're hot.”
“The box says 'Penny'.” Paige stated, “Penny as in Grams Penny?”
“No way,” Phoebe exclaims, “I refuse to believe that Grams ever wore anything this hot.”
“Yeah,” Piper says, “I figured her more for steel toed orthopedics, you know, the better to kick your ass with.”
Phoebe takes the shoes and turns them over to check them out, “They're your size, Paige, try them on.”
Paige groans, “I don't know.”
Phoebe laughs lightly, “Oh, come on, just do it.”
Paige takes off her shoes, wrinkles her nose and says, “They're kind of sixties.”
“So what's wrong with the sixties?” Phoebe asks.
Paige looks up and states, “The sixties was like the worst fashion era. Hello!” She puts on the boots as she continues, “Bad clothing, bad hair, and extremely questionable personal hygiene. Hey, they fit!” Suddenly Paige disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Right,” Phoebe starts to say then as she looks up she says, “Where'd she go?”
The two remaining sisters look dumbstruck at the spot where Paige was. Piper yells out, “Leo!”
Chris had just laid Wyatt down for a nap heard the yell and immediately orbed upstairs. Leo orbed in a second later.
The girls quickly explained the situation.
“What do you mean you lost Paige?” Chris demands.
“Well, it was really weird,” Phoebe began, “I mean one second she was here and the next second... poof.”
Piper took over saying, “It kind of happened after she put on a pair of Grams' boots.”
Leo nodded, “Grams used to cast a spell on her clothes when she was younger.”
Phoebe startled, “Wait, you knew Grams when she was young?”
Leo looked down as he explained quietly, “Yeah, we crossed paths once or twice when I was a young Whitelighter.”
Piper wrinkled her nose, “Eww.”
Chris opted to say nothing although he totally agreed with Piper’s ‘Eww’ comment.
Leo blushed, “Well, I barely remember it.”
“Huh,” Piper replied.
“Eww,” Phoebe repeated.
“Uh-huh,” Piper said.
Chris thought he better get them back on topic, “Well, if the boots did belong to Grams, then we better summon her from the dead. Maybe she can tell us what happened to Paige.”
Phoebe thought that was as good a subject change as any, “Okay, let's get the candles.”
Piper wasn’t deterred, “But you...”
Phoebe took Pipers arm and pulled her away.
The green slime that had been on Chris’s shirt earlier inched over and was on the top of the shoe when the sisters came back in the room.
Phoebe lit the candles and said the spell:
"Here these words, here my cry,
Spirit from the other side, come to me,
I summon thee, cross now the great divide."
The green goo on Chris's foot multiplied and covered his whole shoe.
Grams appeared in a swirl of lights.
“Well,” Grams began, “It's about time you called to say hello.” She reaches out and hugs Piper and Phoebe. “Oh, my darlings.”
Piper hugs her back but says, “Ah, we got a problem.”
Grams looked over to Chris and said, “Well, you're not the only one.”
The green goo rose up both of Chris's legs.
Leo shouted, “Orb out.”
Chris shook his head, “No, magic makes it grow. Summoning her spirit already gave it power.”
Piper didn’t like the looks of this and said, “Chris, just let me blast it.”
Phoebe nodded, “She's right. Orb.”
“Oh, for heaven sakes,” Grams said, “Listen to them. We'll find a way to vanquish the foul thing later.”
The slime was covering more and more of Chris’s body. He decided to risk it and orbs out.
“Now,” Leo tells Piper.
Piper blows up the goo and it scatters into a million pieces. Chris orbs back in. The goo disappears into the floorboards.
“Uh, oh,” Phoebe said as she watches the slime vanish into the cracks of the floor.
Grams looked over again at Chris and said, “So you must be the whitelighter from the future.” She looked back at Piper and says, “I thought you sent him back?”
“Uh, well,” Piper begins, “Not exactly. This is my son.”
Grams squints her eyes at Chris and says, “No. That isn’t Wyatt.”
Leo puts a reassuring hand on Chris’s shoulder and says, “This is our second son, Chris.”
Chris gave him a grateful smile.
“Okay…” Grams said, leaving the sentence hanging for Piper to fill in as she led the sisters to the living room. Chris and Leo walked over to the Book of Shadows to see if there was anything on the green blob that could help them.
Grams continued once she was out of ear shot, “Another son, Piper? This is becoming a pattern here, isn’t it?” She could tell she was about to get a full on Piper explosion so she quickly changed the subject. “I thought he came back because of the Titans?”
“Yeah, there was more than that threat that sent him back here. There is also a threat against Wyatt that he came to stop,” Piper explained, “But we're handling everything.”
Grams wasn’t pleased, “Dear, you have Paige stuck in the past and a demonic blob roaming the manor. Exactly how are you handling things?”
She may have said more but Leo and Chris walked in.
Leo paused and said, “Shh. Everyone quiet.”
They all listened as the house began making strange noises. Chris put his ear up to the wall.
“I can hear it,” Chris said, “I think it's in the wall.”
The wall he was leaning against cracked.
Leo pulled Chris back protectively. “Yep, it's in the wall,” Leo said unnecessarily.
“Okay, we're gonna need Paige,” Chris began, “Since one of us alone isn’t powerful enough; it’s probably going to take the Power of Three to vanquish this thing.”
“What?” Piper asked, “How do you know that one of us isn’t powerful enough?”
Chris thought fast on his feet, he was going to be in so much trouble if they figured out what he did this morning. “Because, uh, you tried to blow it up and it didn’t work,” he said quickly. Too quickly if his parents had been paying attention, but they were distracted by Grams as she began to give out directions.
“Leo,” Grams began, “You and Chris check out the book to see if there is anything on this blob.” Then she turned to the remaining sisters and asked, “Now, which boots did Paige put on?”
“Red go-go boots,” Piper said.
Grams paused and then she said, “We've got a problem. Those boots took Paige back to the summer of love, which was one of the most crucial times of my life.”
Phoebe asked, “What do you mean crucial?”
“Your grandfather, Allen, rest his soul, was a sweet man, but he lead me straight down the hippy-dippy trail,” Grams explained.
“You were a flower child?” Phoebe marveled.
“Yeah, well, don't rub it in.” Grams said in her usual no nonsense tone, “What's important is that Allen was killed by my best friend. I didn't know it then, but she was evil. And I walked in right after it happened.”
“What'd you do?” Piper asked.
“Well, let's just say that my peacenik days ended fast, along with that bitch Robyn. If she hadn't killed Allen...” Grams left the sentence hanging.
Leo finished it with, “You'd still be a flower child.”
Grams nodded, “And the Charmed Ones would be dead. I know I'm a ball buster. But it kept me alive to protect my girls from all the demons that came after them as kids. I cast my return to owner spell on a lot of clothes that summer, so...”
“So we get to go back there?” Phoebe asked excitedly, “We get to meet our grandfather?”
“Don't make too much out of it because whatever you do,” Grams informed her, “You can't change the past or tell anyone you're from the future.”
Phoebe pouted, “Well, why does he get to?”
“I didn’t, Mom did!” Chris said importantly.
Grams ignored the byplay and said, “I'll stay here with the boys to contain the slime, until you can bring Paige back to vanquish it. Okay, go, get dressed. You are going to the summer of love.”
Piper came up with a spell that would counter the return to owner spell that Grams had placed on the clothes. Phoebe worked on a spell that included the Power of Three to vanquish the blob. Then they each put on something that Grams had put the returning spell on and they vanished.
Grams looked at Chris and Leo, “The way I see it, we're all targets for the slime. We need a plan to control it until the girls get back.”
The silence permeated the room until Chris said suddenly, “The diaries. If this happened before then we will know what they did.” And he took off towards the room. He was glad to get away from Grams and his father. Grams seemed to be a little distant, must be the shock of finding out he was family. And with his dad, well there was that whole finding out how the slime got into the manor.
When Chris joined his family they were standing in front of Wyatt’s crib discussing ways to contain the slime. No one was paying attention to little Wyatt trying to reach his sippy cup.
Leo said, “We could orb it to an ice drift.”
Chris didn’t look up from the page he was on as he said, “Nah, that's bad.”
Grams shook her head, “It's not bad, it's awful. You can't orb that thing, it feeds on magic.”
Chris was getting a little tired of Grams attitude. With that and the lack of sleep from last night his own sarcasm crept in, “So what's your great idea?”
Grams didn’t even blink as she asked, “Are you giving me lip?”
Chris, chagrined said, “No.” Just as he saw Wyatt orb his sippy cup and the slime demon shot out of the wall. “No!” Chris exclaimed.
Leo grabbed Wyatt and they all ran downstairs. Pieces of the roof fell into the room.
Leo paused his steps and said, “Hold on. I think it's stopped.” He then looked at Chris and said, “Get Wyatt out of the house. If it tries to follow, I'll fire off an orb or two to distract it.”
Chris looked at Grams, still unable to rein in the sarcasm and asked, “You okay with that?”
Grams gave a one shouldered shrug and answered, “Yeah, it's just what I had in mind.”
“Good,” Leo said as he handed Wyatt over to Chris. At least both boys would be safe until they could figure out what to do.
Chris hurried towards the front door but the slime had just covered it so he turned and took Wyatt to the kitchen so he could go out the back door but it was covered too.
“What'd it do?” Leo asked, “Split in half?”
Chris turned to look at his father, “How do we get out?”
Leo shrugged, “I don't know. Orb?”
Chris shook his head, “The last time I orbed, that thing almost swallowed me whole.”
Leo asked, “What do you think, Penny?” and he turned to face her.
Instead of seeing the Grams as she was when she arrived they saw her standing in the doorway wearing tie-dyed sixties clothes.
If the change weren’t shocking enough, the next words out of her mouth would be, “I think love conquers all. I think that we should take the demon into our arms and make it feel safe.”
Neither Leo nor Chris knew what to say to that so they only looked at each other.
“Dad,” Chris began, “Could I talk to you for a second, please?”
Leo looked to Grams and asked, “Do you mind holding him for a second?”
Grams smiled, “Of course,” she said as Leo handed Wyatt over, “Come here, Moonbeam.”
Leo stiffened slightly, “Wyatt. His name's Wyatt.”
Chris rolled his eyes as he walked a bit away from Grams with Leo following him.
Before they could say anything the slime that was bulging through the wall hit the electrical socket. A spark flew out. This caused the blob to retreat away from that spot.
Grams began singing to Wyatt and they all missed Wyatt whisper, “Cwiss, lighs, fingwers, booooooom.”
Chris said, “One of the sisters must have changed the past because Penny clearly never made the change from flower child to demon hunter.”
Leo looked over at Grams singing a definite sixties song to Wyatt.
Leo grimaced, “Clearly. Think the girls can fix the timeline and get back here?”
The slime demon oozes up into the back door.
Chris looked at the back door. “I don't know. But this thing is trying to back us into a corner,” he said and his eyes stopped at the appliances on the kitchen counter, “Take Wyatt and Joan Baez here into the conservatory. I have an idea.”
Leo hesitated, “I’m not leaving you here.”
Chris sighed, grabbed the blender and led them out of the kitchen. He wanted to yell at his dad for not trying to protect Wyatt at all costs but a small part of his brain told him it would be useless since he was asking instead for himself to be put in danger. He was learning really fast that his family was not going to allow that. And all along he had thought that it was just Wyatt being overprotective when he was growing up. He set the appliances down. He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed Wyatt orbing to his arms. He quickly caught the toddler and asked Leo to retrieve some more electrical things from the kitchen.
It was good timing too, since as soon as Leo entered the kitchen Wyatt, who was now securely in Chris’s arms waved his little fingers and said, “Cwiss… boom!” Chris’s eyes shot up to the kitchen entryway but Leo was no longer there. He grabbed little Wyatt’s hands gently and put the waving fingers down as he said with a quiet yet frantic voice, “No buddy… please… no boom… OK?”
“O tay, Cwiss, no boom,” Wyatt told his brother solemnly.
Chris breathed out a sigh of relief that his dad hadn’t heard the exchange and hoped that the little guy would keep to his word.
A short time later they had an impressive stack of kitchen appliances all plugged together on the dining room table.
“Why isn't it attacking?” Leo asked, “It's like it cornered us and now it's just waiting.”
Chris looked over his pile and said, “I think we need the toaster oven.”
Leo went to the kitchen and grabbed the toaster oven.
Grams glanced at the mess of appliances and said, “You know, that's a disaster waiting to happen.”
“That's the idea,” Chris explained, “You saw how the slime reacted to electricity.”
Leo added the toaster oven to the pile.
Chris continued, “Well, if we can get it to attack this pile, maybe we can get to zap it.”
Leo looked for room on the power board where all the appliances are plugged in. “If I can find a place to plug it in,” Leo added.
“No offence, you know,” Grams began, “But my dear Allen would have taken the path of peaceful resistance. Have you tried talking to the slime?”
“No,” Leo said, “I haven't, and you shouldn't either.”
Leo finally found a spot to plug the toaster in, “Got it.” As soon as he plugs in the toaster oven the power goes out.
“Damn it!” Chris exclaimed.
Leo was distraught as well and decided not to call him on the language use.
“I told you, boys,” Grams said, “Violence is not the answer to anything.”
Chris ignored her and said, “I’m going to the fuse box,” and he handed Wyatt over to his father.
“It's in the basement,” Leo told him, “There’s a flashlight in the laundry room.”
Chris rolled his eyes as he left the room and it took all his strength not to say ‘Duh’ since of course he knew where the fuse box and flash light were!
Chris stood near top of the stairs, pointing the flashlight at the floor of the basement. “Dad!” he yelled as he ran up the stairs and shut the door.
Leo ran in. “What is it? What is it?” he asked urgently.
“The slime,” Chris told him through panting breaths, “Is in the basement feeding on the Nexus.”
“How big was it?” Leo asked as he opened the door and shined the flashlight down the stairs. The slime was covering the entire floor. He quickly shut the door as he says, “Big.”
“Yeah,” Chris agreed, “Big.”
They walked back in to the dining room. Leo handed Wyatt back over to Chris and picked up two live wires. He stood so that he was protecting his sons as he said, “If the demon comes at us, I'll try and hold it off with this.”
While Leo was holding the wires, ready to shock anything that came near them, Grams opened the basement door and walked in.
“Don't be afraid of us,” Grams said serenely, “We won't hurt you.”
“Penny, get back!” Leo shouted.
The slime demon formed a green hand, grabbed Grams and sucked her in.
Chris set Wyatt down in the pack and play then joined Leo in the kitchen. Both of them were holding the basement door closed.
Leo got a better foot hold as the door was pushing back against them. “Hey, what did the diaries say?” he asked Chris.
“Nothing, just that they came back and said a Power of Three spell,” Chris informed him.
“Well, that’s not very helpful then,” Leo said.
It took all of Chris’s strength not to answer with ‘Duh’ again.
Suddenly Piper, Phoebe and Paige appeared.
“Stand back, fellas,” Piper told them.
Paige said the spell,
"Drawing on the power of three, destroy this evil entity."
There was a large explosion in the basement and the slime demon was vanquished.
Piper gave Chris a quick hug and then asked, “Where's Wyatt?”
Chris hugged her back saying, “He's in the living room.”
“What about Grams?” Phoebe asked.
Leo looked down as he said, “She didn't make it.”
The basement door popped open and smoke billowed in the air.
“Nonsense,” Grams said as she walked out of the basement, coughing, “You can't damage an old war horse like me. I'm already dead.”
“Yay,” Phoebe exclaimed in her annoying baby voice. She hugged her as she said, “Grams, I'm so glad you're back.”
Wyatt cried in the other room and Piper left the kitchen.
Paige sidled up to Leo and said, “Hey there, sun god.”
“Hey,” Leo said quietly, “That was a long time ago. Let's just keep that between us, okay?”
Chris pretended he didn’t hear what Paige and Leo were talking about. He would rather not ever know what was said between the two in the past.
Grams looked over between Chris and Leo and said, “I wanna thank you two for not giving up the fight. I'm really proud of you boys. You did good!”
Leo placed a hand on Chris’s shoulder and Chris gave a proud smile. He was very aware that this was Grams way of saying ‘Welcome to the family’.
/ CHARMED / CHARMED / CHARMED /
Later that evening, after Grams was sent back to the afterlife, Leo and Piper were talking about everything that had happed. Piper explained how Paige had stopped Robyn from killing Allen, thus causing Grams to try to peacefully meet with the warlock. They finally were able to convince her that they were her grandchildren and that she needed to become a demon hunter to protect them.
Leo explained how they were stuck here in the present with a peacenik Grams trying to ‘chat’ with the demon. “You should have seen Chris, though, I was really proud of him. He came up with the plan to try to electrocute the demon. He was even willing to leave to keep Wyatt safe,” Leo told her.
Piper got up to answer the phone and Leo looked over at his sons playing with blocks on the floor. Leo smiled as he watched the two interact.
Piper stormed back into the room and immediately Leo knew something was wrong. He stood up and walked over to her. He gave her a hug and tried to help her calm down. He didn’t ask what was wrong. He knew that with this mood she was in she would need a moment to compose herself.
Piper took two deep breaths and sat back down on the couch with Leo following suit. She glanced over at Chris and Wyatt as the boys were cleaning up the blocks that they had been playing with. Piper calmly said, “Oh Chris?”
Chris stood up bringing Wyatt over with him. He had been getting ready to put the boy to bed. “Yeah?” he answered, unsure where this conversation was going.
“Do you have any idea how that unnamed blob got into the manor today?” Piper asked.
Even though Piper’s demeanor was calm, Chris’s heart rate picked up. He shot his eyes over to his father’s then back to his mother’s before he asked, “What?” as evenly as he could manage.
“I wanted to know if you had any idea how that blob got into the manor,” Piper repeated.
Chris fidgeted and realized he was still holding his brother. He decided that was his best chance for escape so he answered, “I don’t know. I’m going to go and put Wy to bed.” And he walked quickly towards the stairs hoping beyond hope that his mother didn’t have a clue as to how the slime appeared.
“Piper?” Leo questioned.
“That call was from Darryl to thank us again for helping him with the big green blob that was at the factory today. It seems that WE managed to vanquish it before breakfast,” Piper explained to her husband. She was still trying to determine how to handle what Chris had done when they both heard Wyatt’s voice from the stairs.
“Cwiss, lighs, fingwers… BOOM!” came the distant sounding baby voice.
The next word could be heard throughout the house when Piper yelled, “CHRISTOPHER!!!”
TBC
Chapter 27
Chapter 26
The Demon With No Name
Chris reached over and answered the phone as he checked the clock next to the bed, four thirty in the morning. “Hello.”
“Chris, there are some problems over here,” Chris heard Darryl say. “Some,” and the next words were whispered, “magical problems. I need your help.”
“Alright, be there in a minute,” Chris said. Then he smiled as he glanced up at his bedroom door. There was no need to wake anyone. He could handle this! His family was still asleep so there would be no one to stop him.
Chris was tying his shoe when the guilt hit. He really should wake someone. He paused as he thought about the talk he had with his parents before he went to sleep.
\FLASHBACK/
“You’re dad and I are going to do everything we can do to keep you safe,” Piper said, “I’m sorry it upsets you but that is what parents do.”
Chris sighed again as he said, “I know Mom. Wyatt wouldn’t have let me go either. He would have kicked my butt if I had yelled at him like that.” He blushed as he realized he had just said too much so he pushed on, “I’m the one that’s sorry. I was just worried about Seth.”
He remembered how nice it was when his mom kissed his forehead and told him he was a good friend. He was still lying in bed thinking about what his mother said before she left the room, that ‘everything was falling into place.’ He hoped she was right. He felt that things were happening the way they were supposed to also.
He was lost in thought when he heard the door open once more. He thought it was Piper again so he was surprised when he heard the soft voice from Leo ask, “Chris, can I talk to you for a sec?”
Chris rolled over to his back and pushed himself into a seated position, “Sure, Dad, what’s wrong?”
Leo smiled sadly and walked into the room. He pulled the desk chair with him and sat it next to the bed so he was closer to Chris. “I… wanted to talk.”
Chris started to panic. Was he in more trouble for the back talking he did? His heart rate picked up and he fidgeted with the blanket as he said, “Uh, yeah, about earlier…”
Leo placed a gentle hand over Chris’s and said, “I’m sorry for the way I handled that.”
Chris stopped and shot his eyes up to his father’s. He didn’t understand, sorry about what?
Leo continued, “You and I have seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot. First I just followed your lead and then, when we found out how young you were… I…” Leo’s eyes slid down as he tried to explain. “I have become some kind of dictator.” Leo shook his head trying to find a way to explain then he sighed and said, “I’m doing this all wrong.”
Chris wasn’t following; Leo was just being a dad. Chris knew he was pushing boundaries. He didn’t mean to always test the limits but he did manage to do it. There was something that pushed Chris to do things on his own. He knew and he was sure that Wy knew that unless there was someone to stop him, Chris would push too hard and put himself into danger.
Chris asked hesitantly, “You don’t w-wanna be my dad?” Is that what he was saying? That he didn’t want to be the one to help rein Chris in? Is that why he left in the original timeline; was Chris just too much work?
Leo saw the insecurity crop up on Chris’s face. He spoke quickly to reassure him, “Of course I want to be your dad! There is nothing I would like to do more than be a father to you and your brother.”
Chris scrunched his eyes as he said, “Then what do you mean?”
Leo gave him a small smile as he said, “I just mean I should be explaining instead of dictating. And there was no reason for me to manhandle you when we were talking to Derek.”
Chris blushed a little and said, “Yeah, well…”
Leo continued as he reached out and brushed the hair out of Chris’s eyes, “I just wanted to say that I was sorry. It’s just that as soon as I saw how young you were and the danger you were putting yourself in… I just kinda lost it. And then knowing how the other Chris died and that other Leo couldn’t prevent it… I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe, Chris.” Leo smiled and gave a self-depreciating grin as he said, “I’ll just try to talk it through with you.”
Chris gave a small chuckle. He hadn’t even realized that Leo wasn’t talking about discipline with him before. Chris felt that what he was doing was pushing it and Leo was taking a no nonsense approach. “Thanks, Dad,” was all he could think to say.
“I love you, Kiddo,” Leo said as he kissed his forehead and got up putting the chair back under the desk.
Chris snuggled into his covers feeling loved and wanted. He fell asleep wondering if there was any way to use this new found information to start going on solo vanquishes…
\END FLASHBACK/
Chris finished tying the other shoe and stood, grabbed his jacket and paused by his door listening to see if anyone else was up yet. He peeked out the door and when he saw nothing he closed the door again and orbed to the factory. He should be able to do away with this simple green blob before anyone woke up. He still felt a little bad, but it seems that even if Dad found out he would only want to talk it over with him now. Hmmm, guilt seemed to work in Chris’s favor. Without the threat of punishment weighing over his head, Chris thought he could do anything he wanted.
Chris walked over to Darryl and had him keep the factory workers out for a little bit longer. He was sure that he could handle slime all on his own. How hard could it be?
He stood in the room waiting for the blob to attack, silently wishing that Seth were here with him. They had the best times fighting in the underworld. Heck he would even deal with the half ass battle that Wy allowed him to be in. Wy… He did miss his big brother…
Just as Chris thought those words blue and white lights began to form on the cement floor in front of him. Before the figure coalesced into the body of his little ‘big’ brother the green slime shot out towards the twinkling lights. Chris quickly raised his hands and threw lightning out blob causing a huge explosion. Chris was grateful that it didn’t take that much energy. The last time he had used that power he knocked himself unconscious for a while. First he made sure that no more slime was hovering around. Except for the splatter left on his clothes, they seemed to be safe. He ran to the door and gave Darryl the all clear before he jogged back and picked up Wyatt, orbing them back to the manor.
Chris set his brother down on his bed and then checked to see if anyone was up. Luck was on his side as the house was still quiet. He whispered to Wyatt as he got changed, “You can’t tell Mom and Dad about that, OK? That little adventure just needs to stay between me and you.” Chris was so busy directing Wyatt not to tattle he didn’t see some of the slime that covered his clothes inch its way off the shirt he had been wearing.
Once he was redressed he scooped Wyatt up taking him down to the kitchen and began to make breakfast. Each of the sisters came downstairs and made themselves a cup of coffee. Piper gave Chris a kiss on the cheek and Leo patted his arm. Everyone dug into the pancakes and chatted about their plans for the day. Chris let out a sigh of relief that he had gotten away with this morning’s vanquish with no one the wiser.
“No, I’m serious,” he heard his Aunt Phoebe saying, “I need some help finding that book. If you guys could just look through the boxes with me I am sure we will find it in no time.”
“But it’s Saturday, Phoebe,” Aunt Paige whined, “I don’t want to spend all morning in the attic.”
“If you help me then we won’t be spending all morning there. Please Paige.” Aunt Phoebe begged.
“Oh all right, but you owe me. I wanted to spend some time with Richard,” Aunt Paige said. Chris wondered who this ‘Richard’ was. It sounded like a boyfriend, but Chris had never met him. Chris’s mind wandered to the diaries. He remembered that in the other timelines that Aunt Paige was living with a boyfriend during this time. He guessed his arrival somehow stopped that. He wondered if his being here was going to interfere with Aunt Paige meeting Uncle Henry. He hoped not. He had three cousins that needed for them to get together.
“Well, at least one of us has a boyfriend to worry about. It seems that Jason and I are over. I wouldn’t move with him, so…” Phoebe started.
“But he wanted you to move to Hong Kong! How could we be the Power of Three if you moved that far away?” Piper questioned.
“Yeah,” Chris said, “It never would have worked out anyway…” Then he looked up at his aunts and mother realizing he had said too much. He grabbed his plate and set it in the sink as he said, “Uh, I mean…” Nope, he had nothing. He grabbed Wyatt out of the high chair. The little boy was completely covered in syrup. “I’ll just go and get Wy cleaned up…” and he all but ran out of the kitchen.
“Wait, what do you know?” Phoebe tried to ask but Chris was faster.
“Do you think he knows anything about Richard?” Paige asked.
Piper looked over to her baby sister; something was going on there. “What’s going on with Richard?” Piper asked her.
All attention on her now, Paige picked up plates and took them over to the sink and she began to wash the dishes. “Well, it’s just with his problem with magic…” She paused and thought about exactly what she wanted to say. She needed help with this and her sisters were the best place to go for that. She sighed heavily, “I don’t think this is going to work out. I need to be surrounded by magic. We are the Charmed Ones. And then there is the threat against Wyatt.” She sighed again. Maybe if she had been with Richard more she could forget how much she needed to be around her sisters. She wondered if she had moved in with him when he offered if she would be thinking the same thoughts about leaving him. “I just don’t think he can be ‘the one’ if I have to hide my magic usage around him. I don’t want him to be uncomfortable, but…” Paige let the statement drop.
Phoebe completely understood her sister’s situation. Both of them were happy enough with their boyfriends but when you threw magic into the mix, all bets were off. They both needed to be with someone that would understand their need to be around for ‘family emergencies’. She thought she would inject some humor into the atmosphere, “Well, I think that we are going to be fine. I get the feeling that in Chris’s future we have husbands that understand magic. And there are always the children that Chris didn’t want to discuss with us.” She smiled.
Paige finished up the dishes and left them to dry in the drainer. “You know, I think you are right.”
“Of course I am, and I know just what will get your mind off of all of this,” Phoebe says with a big smile.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll help you find your book,” Paige tells her.
/ CHARMED / CHARMED / CHARMED /
Chris took Wyatt upstairs to the bathroom. He tried to clean the syrup of him but it proved to be a much harder job than he had anticipated. “Did you bathe in this stuff? I wish I had a camera so I could take a picture of you like this.” Chris laughed as he decided it would probably just be easier to give the boy a bath.
“Boat,” Wyatt said as he pointed to one of his bath toys. Apparently bubbles were not enough to entertain his little ‘big’ brother.
“Boat huh. You wanna play with your boat?” Chris asked the toddler.
Wyatt nodded and Chris handed him the toy.
Chris laughed again as he was washing the baby’s hair and made little spikes with the suds, “Oh man! If I could show you this! You would NEVER live this down.”
Wyatt filled the boat with water and drained it saying, “Green… BOOM!”
Chris tensed as he realized that the boy was playing a repeat of this morning’s vanquish. “Uh, remember, Wy, that is just between us, right?”
Wyatt grabbed Chris’s fingers and said, “Cwiss… lighs… fingwers… BOOM!”
‘Oh shit!’ Chris thought! That was all he needed! If his family hears Wyatt saying ‘Chris, lights, fingers boom’ he would be sunk! They could figure out that Chris used his powers to zap the slime but worse than that, not only did he go on a vanquish but he took Wyatt with him. Albeit not intentionally but he seriously doubted that his parents were going to see it that way! “No buddy, no boom… boat… Let’s play with the boat,” he said as he tried to get his brother’s attention on something - ANYTHING - else.”
“Boat,” Wyatt said and seemed happy enough to play with Chris and the boat. Chris could only pray that Wy didn’t bring any ‘booming’ into the conversation with his parents around.
He let the boy play while he finished rinsing his hair then allowed him to play with the boat as he dried him off. “Yes, see, boat! That’s right, buddy, go ahead and play.” Fingers crossed that was actually going to work.
/ CHARMED / CHARMED / CHARMED /
The three sisters were up in the attic looking through old boxes.
“Oh, wow, Phoebe,” Piper pulls out red knee-high boots. “These are some boots.”
“No, they're not mine,” Phoebe says, “But I wish they were 'cause they're hot.”
“The box says 'Penny'.” Paige stated, “Penny as in Grams Penny?”
“No way,” Phoebe exclaims, “I refuse to believe that Grams ever wore anything this hot.”
“Yeah,” Piper says, “I figured her more for steel toed orthopedics, you know, the better to kick your ass with.”
Phoebe takes the shoes and turns them over to check them out, “They're your size, Paige, try them on.”
Paige groans, “I don't know.”
Phoebe laughs lightly, “Oh, come on, just do it.”
Paige takes off her shoes, wrinkles her nose and says, “They're kind of sixties.”
“So what's wrong with the sixties?” Phoebe asks.
Paige looks up and states, “The sixties was like the worst fashion era. Hello!” She puts on the boots as she continues, “Bad clothing, bad hair, and extremely questionable personal hygiene. Hey, they fit!” Suddenly Paige disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Right,” Phoebe starts to say then as she looks up she says, “Where'd she go?”
The two remaining sisters look dumbstruck at the spot where Paige was. Piper yells out, “Leo!”
Chris had just laid Wyatt down for a nap heard the yell and immediately orbed upstairs. Leo orbed in a second later.
The girls quickly explained the situation.
“What do you mean you lost Paige?” Chris demands.
“Well, it was really weird,” Phoebe began, “I mean one second she was here and the next second... poof.”
Piper took over saying, “It kind of happened after she put on a pair of Grams' boots.”
Leo nodded, “Grams used to cast a spell on her clothes when she was younger.”
Phoebe startled, “Wait, you knew Grams when she was young?”
Leo looked down as he explained quietly, “Yeah, we crossed paths once or twice when I was a young Whitelighter.”
Piper wrinkled her nose, “Eww.”
Chris opted to say nothing although he totally agreed with Piper’s ‘Eww’ comment.
Leo blushed, “Well, I barely remember it.”
“Huh,” Piper replied.
“Eww,” Phoebe repeated.
“Uh-huh,” Piper said.
Chris thought he better get them back on topic, “Well, if the boots did belong to Grams, then we better summon her from the dead. Maybe she can tell us what happened to Paige.”
Phoebe thought that was as good a subject change as any, “Okay, let's get the candles.”
Piper wasn’t deterred, “But you...”
Phoebe took Pipers arm and pulled her away.
The green slime that had been on Chris’s shirt earlier inched over and was on the top of the shoe when the sisters came back in the room.
Phoebe lit the candles and said the spell:
"Here these words, here my cry,
Spirit from the other side, come to me,
I summon thee, cross now the great divide."
The green goo on Chris's foot multiplied and covered his whole shoe.
Grams appeared in a swirl of lights.
“Well,” Grams began, “It's about time you called to say hello.” She reaches out and hugs Piper and Phoebe. “Oh, my darlings.”
Piper hugs her back but says, “Ah, we got a problem.”
Grams looked over to Chris and said, “Well, you're not the only one.”
The green goo rose up both of Chris's legs.
Leo shouted, “Orb out.”
Chris shook his head, “No, magic makes it grow. Summoning her spirit already gave it power.”
Piper didn’t like the looks of this and said, “Chris, just let me blast it.”
Phoebe nodded, “She's right. Orb.”
“Oh, for heaven sakes,” Grams said, “Listen to them. We'll find a way to vanquish the foul thing later.”
The slime was covering more and more of Chris’s body. He decided to risk it and orbs out.
“Now,” Leo tells Piper.
Piper blows up the goo and it scatters into a million pieces. Chris orbs back in. The goo disappears into the floorboards.
“Uh, oh,” Phoebe said as she watches the slime vanish into the cracks of the floor.
Grams looked over again at Chris and said, “So you must be the whitelighter from the future.” She looked back at Piper and says, “I thought you sent him back?”
“Uh, well,” Piper begins, “Not exactly. This is my son.”
Grams squints her eyes at Chris and says, “No. That isn’t Wyatt.”
Leo puts a reassuring hand on Chris’s shoulder and says, “This is our second son, Chris.”
Chris gave him a grateful smile.
“Okay…” Grams said, leaving the sentence hanging for Piper to fill in as she led the sisters to the living room. Chris and Leo walked over to the Book of Shadows to see if there was anything on the green blob that could help them.
Grams continued once she was out of ear shot, “Another son, Piper? This is becoming a pattern here, isn’t it?” She could tell she was about to get a full on Piper explosion so she quickly changed the subject. “I thought he came back because of the Titans?”
“Yeah, there was more than that threat that sent him back here. There is also a threat against Wyatt that he came to stop,” Piper explained, “But we're handling everything.”
Grams wasn’t pleased, “Dear, you have Paige stuck in the past and a demonic blob roaming the manor. Exactly how are you handling things?”
She may have said more but Leo and Chris walked in.
Leo paused and said, “Shh. Everyone quiet.”
They all listened as the house began making strange noises. Chris put his ear up to the wall.
“I can hear it,” Chris said, “I think it's in the wall.”
The wall he was leaning against cracked.
Leo pulled Chris back protectively. “Yep, it's in the wall,” Leo said unnecessarily.
“Okay, we're gonna need Paige,” Chris began, “Since one of us alone isn’t powerful enough; it’s probably going to take the Power of Three to vanquish this thing.”
“What?” Piper asked, “How do you know that one of us isn’t powerful enough?”
Chris thought fast on his feet, he was going to be in so much trouble if they figured out what he did this morning. “Because, uh, you tried to blow it up and it didn’t work,” he said quickly. Too quickly if his parents had been paying attention, but they were distracted by Grams as she began to give out directions.
“Leo,” Grams began, “You and Chris check out the book to see if there is anything on this blob.” Then she turned to the remaining sisters and asked, “Now, which boots did Paige put on?”
“Red go-go boots,” Piper said.
Grams paused and then she said, “We've got a problem. Those boots took Paige back to the summer of love, which was one of the most crucial times of my life.”
Phoebe asked, “What do you mean crucial?”
“Your grandfather, Allen, rest his soul, was a sweet man, but he lead me straight down the hippy-dippy trail,” Grams explained.
“You were a flower child?” Phoebe marveled.
“Yeah, well, don't rub it in.” Grams said in her usual no nonsense tone, “What's important is that Allen was killed by my best friend. I didn't know it then, but she was evil. And I walked in right after it happened.”
“What'd you do?” Piper asked.
“Well, let's just say that my peacenik days ended fast, along with that bitch Robyn. If she hadn't killed Allen...” Grams left the sentence hanging.
Leo finished it with, “You'd still be a flower child.”
Grams nodded, “And the Charmed Ones would be dead. I know I'm a ball buster. But it kept me alive to protect my girls from all the demons that came after them as kids. I cast my return to owner spell on a lot of clothes that summer, so...”
“So we get to go back there?” Phoebe asked excitedly, “We get to meet our grandfather?”
“Don't make too much out of it because whatever you do,” Grams informed her, “You can't change the past or tell anyone you're from the future.”
Phoebe pouted, “Well, why does he get to?”
“I didn’t, Mom did!” Chris said importantly.
Grams ignored the byplay and said, “I'll stay here with the boys to contain the slime, until you can bring Paige back to vanquish it. Okay, go, get dressed. You are going to the summer of love.”
Piper came up with a spell that would counter the return to owner spell that Grams had placed on the clothes. Phoebe worked on a spell that included the Power of Three to vanquish the blob. Then they each put on something that Grams had put the returning spell on and they vanished.
Grams looked at Chris and Leo, “The way I see it, we're all targets for the slime. We need a plan to control it until the girls get back.”
The silence permeated the room until Chris said suddenly, “The diaries. If this happened before then we will know what they did.” And he took off towards the room. He was glad to get away from Grams and his father. Grams seemed to be a little distant, must be the shock of finding out he was family. And with his dad, well there was that whole finding out how the slime got into the manor.
When Chris joined his family they were standing in front of Wyatt’s crib discussing ways to contain the slime. No one was paying attention to little Wyatt trying to reach his sippy cup.
Leo said, “We could orb it to an ice drift.”
Chris didn’t look up from the page he was on as he said, “Nah, that's bad.”
Grams shook her head, “It's not bad, it's awful. You can't orb that thing, it feeds on magic.”
Chris was getting a little tired of Grams attitude. With that and the lack of sleep from last night his own sarcasm crept in, “So what's your great idea?”
Grams didn’t even blink as she asked, “Are you giving me lip?”
Chris, chagrined said, “No.” Just as he saw Wyatt orb his sippy cup and the slime demon shot out of the wall. “No!” Chris exclaimed.
Leo grabbed Wyatt and they all ran downstairs. Pieces of the roof fell into the room.
Leo paused his steps and said, “Hold on. I think it's stopped.” He then looked at Chris and said, “Get Wyatt out of the house. If it tries to follow, I'll fire off an orb or two to distract it.”
Chris looked at Grams, still unable to rein in the sarcasm and asked, “You okay with that?”
Grams gave a one shouldered shrug and answered, “Yeah, it's just what I had in mind.”
“Good,” Leo said as he handed Wyatt over to Chris. At least both boys would be safe until they could figure out what to do.
Chris hurried towards the front door but the slime had just covered it so he turned and took Wyatt to the kitchen so he could go out the back door but it was covered too.
“What'd it do?” Leo asked, “Split in half?”
Chris turned to look at his father, “How do we get out?”
Leo shrugged, “I don't know. Orb?”
Chris shook his head, “The last time I orbed, that thing almost swallowed me whole.”
Leo asked, “What do you think, Penny?” and he turned to face her.
Instead of seeing the Grams as she was when she arrived they saw her standing in the doorway wearing tie-dyed sixties clothes.
If the change weren’t shocking enough, the next words out of her mouth would be, “I think love conquers all. I think that we should take the demon into our arms and make it feel safe.”
Neither Leo nor Chris knew what to say to that so they only looked at each other.
“Dad,” Chris began, “Could I talk to you for a second, please?”
Leo looked to Grams and asked, “Do you mind holding him for a second?”
Grams smiled, “Of course,” she said as Leo handed Wyatt over, “Come here, Moonbeam.”
Leo stiffened slightly, “Wyatt. His name's Wyatt.”
Chris rolled his eyes as he walked a bit away from Grams with Leo following him.
Before they could say anything the slime that was bulging through the wall hit the electrical socket. A spark flew out. This caused the blob to retreat away from that spot.
Grams began singing to Wyatt and they all missed Wyatt whisper, “Cwiss, lighs, fingwers, booooooom.”
Chris said, “One of the sisters must have changed the past because Penny clearly never made the change from flower child to demon hunter.”
Leo looked over at Grams singing a definite sixties song to Wyatt.
Leo grimaced, “Clearly. Think the girls can fix the timeline and get back here?”
The slime demon oozes up into the back door.
Chris looked at the back door. “I don't know. But this thing is trying to back us into a corner,” he said and his eyes stopped at the appliances on the kitchen counter, “Take Wyatt and Joan Baez here into the conservatory. I have an idea.”
Leo hesitated, “I’m not leaving you here.”
Chris sighed, grabbed the blender and led them out of the kitchen. He wanted to yell at his dad for not trying to protect Wyatt at all costs but a small part of his brain told him it would be useless since he was asking instead for himself to be put in danger. He was learning really fast that his family was not going to allow that. And all along he had thought that it was just Wyatt being overprotective when he was growing up. He set the appliances down. He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed Wyatt orbing to his arms. He quickly caught the toddler and asked Leo to retrieve some more electrical things from the kitchen.
It was good timing too, since as soon as Leo entered the kitchen Wyatt, who was now securely in Chris’s arms waved his little fingers and said, “Cwiss… boom!” Chris’s eyes shot up to the kitchen entryway but Leo was no longer there. He grabbed little Wyatt’s hands gently and put the waving fingers down as he said with a quiet yet frantic voice, “No buddy… please… no boom… OK?”
“O tay, Cwiss, no boom,” Wyatt told his brother solemnly.
Chris breathed out a sigh of relief that his dad hadn’t heard the exchange and hoped that the little guy would keep to his word.
A short time later they had an impressive stack of kitchen appliances all plugged together on the dining room table.
“Why isn't it attacking?” Leo asked, “It's like it cornered us and now it's just waiting.”
Chris looked over his pile and said, “I think we need the toaster oven.”
Leo went to the kitchen and grabbed the toaster oven.
Grams glanced at the mess of appliances and said, “You know, that's a disaster waiting to happen.”
“That's the idea,” Chris explained, “You saw how the slime reacted to electricity.”
Leo added the toaster oven to the pile.
Chris continued, “Well, if we can get it to attack this pile, maybe we can get to zap it.”
Leo looked for room on the power board where all the appliances are plugged in. “If I can find a place to plug it in,” Leo added.
“No offence, you know,” Grams began, “But my dear Allen would have taken the path of peaceful resistance. Have you tried talking to the slime?”
“No,” Leo said, “I haven't, and you shouldn't either.”
Leo finally found a spot to plug the toaster in, “Got it.” As soon as he plugs in the toaster oven the power goes out.
“Damn it!” Chris exclaimed.
Leo was distraught as well and decided not to call him on the language use.
“I told you, boys,” Grams said, “Violence is not the answer to anything.”
Chris ignored her and said, “I’m going to the fuse box,” and he handed Wyatt over to his father.
“It's in the basement,” Leo told him, “There’s a flashlight in the laundry room.”
Chris rolled his eyes as he left the room and it took all his strength not to say ‘Duh’ since of course he knew where the fuse box and flash light were!
Chris stood near top of the stairs, pointing the flashlight at the floor of the basement. “Dad!” he yelled as he ran up the stairs and shut the door.
Leo ran in. “What is it? What is it?” he asked urgently.
“The slime,” Chris told him through panting breaths, “Is in the basement feeding on the Nexus.”
“How big was it?” Leo asked as he opened the door and shined the flashlight down the stairs. The slime was covering the entire floor. He quickly shut the door as he says, “Big.”
“Yeah,” Chris agreed, “Big.”
They walked back in to the dining room. Leo handed Wyatt back over to Chris and picked up two live wires. He stood so that he was protecting his sons as he said, “If the demon comes at us, I'll try and hold it off with this.”
While Leo was holding the wires, ready to shock anything that came near them, Grams opened the basement door and walked in.
“Don't be afraid of us,” Grams said serenely, “We won't hurt you.”
“Penny, get back!” Leo shouted.
The slime demon formed a green hand, grabbed Grams and sucked her in.
Chris set Wyatt down in the pack and play then joined Leo in the kitchen. Both of them were holding the basement door closed.
Leo got a better foot hold as the door was pushing back against them. “Hey, what did the diaries say?” he asked Chris.
“Nothing, just that they came back and said a Power of Three spell,” Chris informed him.
“Well, that’s not very helpful then,” Leo said.
It took all of Chris’s strength not to answer with ‘Duh’ again.
Suddenly Piper, Phoebe and Paige appeared.
“Stand back, fellas,” Piper told them.
Paige said the spell,
"Drawing on the power of three, destroy this evil entity."
There was a large explosion in the basement and the slime demon was vanquished.
Piper gave Chris a quick hug and then asked, “Where's Wyatt?”
Chris hugged her back saying, “He's in the living room.”
“What about Grams?” Phoebe asked.
Leo looked down as he said, “She didn't make it.”
The basement door popped open and smoke billowed in the air.
“Nonsense,” Grams said as she walked out of the basement, coughing, “You can't damage an old war horse like me. I'm already dead.”
“Yay,” Phoebe exclaimed in her annoying baby voice. She hugged her as she said, “Grams, I'm so glad you're back.”
Wyatt cried in the other room and Piper left the kitchen.
Paige sidled up to Leo and said, “Hey there, sun god.”
“Hey,” Leo said quietly, “That was a long time ago. Let's just keep that between us, okay?”
Chris pretended he didn’t hear what Paige and Leo were talking about. He would rather not ever know what was said between the two in the past.
Grams looked over between Chris and Leo and said, “I wanna thank you two for not giving up the fight. I'm really proud of you boys. You did good!”
Leo placed a hand on Chris’s shoulder and Chris gave a proud smile. He was very aware that this was Grams way of saying ‘Welcome to the family’.
/ CHARMED / CHARMED / CHARMED /
Later that evening, after Grams was sent back to the afterlife, Leo and Piper were talking about everything that had happed. Piper explained how Paige had stopped Robyn from killing Allen, thus causing Grams to try to peacefully meet with the warlock. They finally were able to convince her that they were her grandchildren and that she needed to become a demon hunter to protect them.
Leo explained how they were stuck here in the present with a peacenik Grams trying to ‘chat’ with the demon. “You should have seen Chris, though, I was really proud of him. He came up with the plan to try to electrocute the demon. He was even willing to leave to keep Wyatt safe,” Leo told her.
Piper got up to answer the phone and Leo looked over at his sons playing with blocks on the floor. Leo smiled as he watched the two interact.
Piper stormed back into the room and immediately Leo knew something was wrong. He stood up and walked over to her. He gave her a hug and tried to help her calm down. He didn’t ask what was wrong. He knew that with this mood she was in she would need a moment to compose herself.
Piper took two deep breaths and sat back down on the couch with Leo following suit. She glanced over at Chris and Wyatt as the boys were cleaning up the blocks that they had been playing with. Piper calmly said, “Oh Chris?”
Chris stood up bringing Wyatt over with him. He had been getting ready to put the boy to bed. “Yeah?” he answered, unsure where this conversation was going.
“Do you have any idea how that unnamed blob got into the manor today?” Piper asked.
Even though Piper’s demeanor was calm, Chris’s heart rate picked up. He shot his eyes over to his father’s then back to his mother’s before he asked, “What?” as evenly as he could manage.
“I wanted to know if you had any idea how that blob got into the manor,” Piper repeated.
Chris fidgeted and realized he was still holding his brother. He decided that was his best chance for escape so he answered, “I don’t know. I’m going to go and put Wy to bed.” And he walked quickly towards the stairs hoping beyond hope that his mother didn’t have a clue as to how the slime appeared.
“Piper?” Leo questioned.
“That call was from Darryl to thank us again for helping him with the big green blob that was at the factory today. It seems that WE managed to vanquish it before breakfast,” Piper explained to her husband. She was still trying to determine how to handle what Chris had done when they both heard Wyatt’s voice from the stairs.
“Cwiss, lighs, fingwers… BOOM!” came the distant sounding baby voice.
The next word could be heard throughout the house when Piper yelled, “CHRISTOPHER!!!”
TBC
Chapter 27