These Shattering Memories

Chapter One

It was half five in the morning at the Halliwell Manor and Chris woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily with his duvet wrapped around his body in a tight and awkward way. He wiped his face with his hand hastily, looking around his room as if expecting to see a demon ready to kill him. Suddenly Chris' entire family burst through the door, Piper had her hands at the ready whilst Leo and Melinda wielded blunt objects and Wyatt was ready to use any of his extensive power range.

"What's attacking?" Melinda yelled, swinging a baseball bat in front of her.

"Nothing," Chris answered quickly as he unwrapped himself from his duvet and stood up from his bed, Melinda dropped the bat to her side limply.

"Then why am I up?" she asked sarcastically before exiting the room, Chris stood there remembering the dream he had just woken up from where his mom had died in his arms, tears were still streaming down his face but he wiped them with his hands and looked at his family standing before him, including his mother.

"Then what were you yelling about?" Piper asked, approaching her son who was standing beside his bed with a wet face.

"Just a bad dream, absolutely nothing to worry about," Chris told them, he'd had the dream once before when he was fourteen and even then he didn't tell anyone about it.

"Are you sure it's nothing?" Leo asked, eying his son with concern.

"Yes I'm sure," Chris snapped bitterly, everyone paused at the tone he had used with his father, he wasn't even sure why he'd replied like that but he wasn't about to take it back.

"Maybe we should all get another hour sleep," Piper suggested and began to usher her eldest and husband out of the room.

"I'm gonna hang back," Wyatt said moving out of his mother's way as she and Leo left the room, headed for their own.

"What do you want Wyatt?" Chris questioned his older brother whilst sitting back down onto his bed.

"What makes you think I want anything?" Wyatt replied, putting a hand on his chest with his mouth hanging open in mock hurt. Chris looked at him with a look that said: 'you don't fool me' "I want to know what your dream was about," he caved; he was always a terrible liar – a trait he inherited from his Aunt Phoebe. "It must have been more than just a bad dream."

"It was nothing Wy, honestly just go back to bed I'm fine," Chris lied easily; he was the best liar in the Halliwell family. Wyatt assessed him with a critical eye as he leaned against the wall beside the door. "Would I lie to you?" he lied again knowing full well they both knew that he would.

"Probably but there's no way to tell with you so I may as well stop trying," Wyatt replied to the question where 'yes' was so clearly the answer.

"Goodbye then, I'll see you at breakfast," Chris got into bed and faced away from his brother and waited silently for the click to indicate the door had been closed before sitting up again to avoid falling back to sleep. Wyatt walked back to his room thinking that something was definitely bothering his little brother, he decided that he was too stimulated to go back to sleep so he went downstairs and out onto the front porch for some fresh air. No one discussed the early morning situation at breakfast because they were mostly afraid of how Chris would react to being questioned about a moment of weakness; the only person never afraid of having an argument with Chris was Wyatt. Leo and Piper were too afraid of losing him after losing him all those years previously and Melinda hated to anger him because of his anger issues, normal sibling arguments were allowed but anything to do with feelings and weakness were not.

Later that day Piper was having Paige and Phoebe over for dinner whilst the kids and Leo had takeout in the living room, it was five in the evening and the girls were due any moment, Melinda was out with her boyfriend whilst her brothers were in the conservatory.

"Are you gonna tell me about that nightmare yet?" Wyatt asked abruptly and casually, it wasn't even a topic they were dancing around.

"No," Chris replied simply, not even averting his eyes from the telly.

"Come on Chris, whatever it was about it scared you. I could see it in your eyes, you forget that I can read you like a book… well almost, I still can't tell when you're lying but that's beside the point," Wyatt trailed off and by the time he had finished Chris was leaving the room. "Chris, just tell me!" he raised his voice as he followed his brother.

"I'm not telling you Wy!" Chris revealed as he walked through the sitting room, heading towards the stairs.

"Chris please, I just want to help you," Wyatt pleaded as they reached the foyer.

"I said no Wyatt! Now leave me the hell alone!" Chris' voice boomed loudly as if something in his mind snapped, he glared at his brother with dangerous eyes that flickered white as the tiniest bit of electricity bounced around his fingers before he turned around and stormed up the stairs leaving Wyatt glued to the floor in shock; he had gotten Chris angry before but never that angry.

"What did you say to your brother?" Piper asked, she had stood up from the table in case she needed to step in as Phoebe and Paige observed stunned.

"I asked him about his dream," Wyatt told his mother, flinching in anticipation of the ear bashing he was most likely about to receive. Despite being a twenty-three year old man, he was still afraid of his mother but who wasn't afraid of Piper Halliwell.

"Now why would you go and do that? You know how your brother can be when it comes to his emotions," Piper questioned harshly.

"Because no one else will, no one else seems to care enough to," Wyatt shot back, he regretted it immediately; he wasn't exactly sure what made him say it.

"Why would you say that?" Piper asked in disbelief, flashing back to a time when she told future Chris that no one cared about him.

"Oh mom, I'm sorry I didn't mean it. I'm just annoyed, I know that you care about him," the eldest Halliwell progeny rushed to his mother and was about to hug her but she started talking again.

"No Wyatt, tell me why you said that. There must have been a reason," she demanded as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Honestly mom I don't know why I said it, you know my mouth has no filter and I say stupid things," Wyatt was so confused at why his mother was having such a strong reaction to his words.

"Calm down Piper, he didn't mean anything by it," Phoebe soothed her sister by putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Of course, sweetie I'm sorry. Do you want to eat dinner with us? There's plenty of food," Piper apologised to her eldest.

"No mom it's ok, this is your night with your sister's I'm just gonna go out," Wyatt replied, he kissed his mother on the cheek before walking out of the front door.

"You ok sweetie?" Paige asked her eldest sister.

"Yeah, I'm just worried that Chris is going to remember everything that happened," Piper announced her fears.

"Don't be silly," Phoebe said trying to reassure the second born.

"He turned twenty-two last month and he was twenty-two when we met him all those years ago," Piper revealed in case they had forgotten which of course they hadn't.

"Our past lives always seem to haunt us…" Phoebe observed in sudden realization as to where her sister was going with her train of thought. "P. Baxter," she said pointing at Piper. "The Evil Enchantress," she added pointing at Paige and finally pointing at the ceiling, "other Chris."

"That was an alternate timeline though not necessary a past life," Paige pointed out.

"He died just before he was born though," Piper choked out, even after twenty-two years she still had trouble talking about it.

"Let's abandon this subject," Paige chirped as she clapped her hands together and turning the topic to their respective careers.

A/N: So what do you think? Please review I want to know what everyone thinks.