Author's Note: Over a year ago, I came up with an idea. I'd do a novelization of Season 6, but besides the scripts, I'd also include fanfics that include scenes that should've been part of that season and weren't. Well, I wrote and got the permission for a number of authors to use their ideas, however, for various reasons, that novel died. This probably does the best job of showing how I was planning on doing that novel--it first retells the episode "I Dream of Phoebe" from Phoebe's point of view--my own favorite of the episodes that I retold--and then retells one of the best "tweener" fics ever written.

DISCLAIMER

I don't own any characters from Charmed--they are all owned by Spelling Productions and the WB. This story was not written for sale, but is meant only for the visitors to websites for fans of the show Charmed. My thanks to Shay Fitzpatrick of charmedscipts.tv for the transcription of Charmed Episode 6.15: I Dream of Phoebe" which I used as a basis for the first part of this story (http://www.charmedscripts.tv/idreamofphoebe.htm) and to Aurora Nightstar for her fantastic fic, "Aftermath of a Wish", which I used with her permission as a basis for the last part. This fanfic is lovingly, gratefully dedicated to her.

I DREAM OF PHOEBE--AND ITS AFTERMATH

CHAPTER ONE

A few days later, I walked into the Mirror's bullpen, heading for my office. I stopped by Sophie, my assistant, asking her if I had any calls. She handed me a large stack of messages with a roll of her eyes. "Take your pick…adulterers, cross-dressers, 34-year-old virgins, your nephew."

"Chris called?" I asked, surprised.

Sophie shook her head, smiling as she remembered, ""No, Wyatt. Actually, Piper did the dialing." Then she looked at me in confusion. "Do you have another nephew?"

Oh, Chris, I thought, frustrated. Why did I have to be the one who found out? I'm still the Halliwell who can't keep a secret! Aloud I said, "Um, sorta. I mean, someday…You know what? Just give me those." Flustered, I grabbed my messages and hurried into my office, shutting the door.

To my surprise, the very nephew whose existence I was trying to help keep secret was standing in my office, waiting for me. ""Phoebe, I need your help."

"Chris!" I cried. "I've been calling you all week. Didn't you hear me?"

He smiled, shrugging. "The first couple days…then I put you on mute."

I looked at him in shock. "You can put me on mute?" Leo never did that to us. Or at least I didn't think he did!

He shrugged again. "I had to; I was busy. Now I need your help."

I plopped down on my chair. "Yeah, and I need yours. You dropped this bombshell on me and then took off. Keeping your secret isn't easy, you know, and I'm not even sure why I'm doing it."

He looked at me, terrified. ""Nobody can find out Piper and Leo are my parents--it could mess with the future."

I glared. "Well, if you didn't want anyone to find out, you shouldn't have told me."

Again he shrugged. "I told you because you busted me!" Then he smiled again, admitting, "But I'm glad you did. I've been so focused on saving Wyatt, I forgot about me, my conception date--it's THIS month."

"Your conception date?" I asked, confused.

"That's where I've been--soothsayers, oracles, fortune tellers--they all say the same thing. If Mom and Dad don't screw this month, I'M screwed!"

I stared in shock at his language, putting up my hand to stop him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm still getting used to you being my nephew. Wait, I never hit on you, did I?"

"What?" he asked, before impatiently asking, "Oh, could we focus here? Mom and Dad need to have sex. You wanna tell them or should I?"

Said, WHAT?? Then I shook my head, very firmly insisting, "Nobody's telling them anything. The divorce tore those two apart. We're not reopening those wounds."

"Then how do we get them together?" he demanded.

Oh, no, he didn't! "'We'?" I asked sarcastically. "Don't 'we' me, buster. You're the one who broke them up. And why did you split up your parents exactly?"

He sighed impatiently, rolling his eyes as he explained. "Dad had to become an Elder to make room for me as your whitelighter. It was my only chance to stop Wyatt from turning evil."

I almost laughed. "You know, you're some piece of work. Most children from broken homes feel guilty they caused the divorce, but for you--" I shook my head in amazement and a bit of disgust. "it was the master plan."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm sensing some issues here."

Now I was mad. "You're damned right! You can't just pop in from the future like this and play with people's lives because your big brother picked on you!"

"He picked on the world!" he exclaimed.

"I'm not finished!" I cried. "Your parents were happy until you broke them up. And now you want MY help because your master plan didn't include a family plan to cover your ass? Too bad!"

He waited for a few minutes, then grinned. "Feel better?"

I hated admitting it, but I shrugged, yelling, "Yes!"

"Will you help me?" and big puppy-dog eyes begged me.

I tried to ignore them. "No! I mean --I don't know. I want to, Chris. But Piper's finally passed the pain of breaking up; Leo too. If we mess with that --"

"You'll save my life," he reminded me, those puppy-dog eyes begging louder, now with a bit of fear and desperation in them. "If I'm not conceived in the next couple weeks, I'll disappear forever!" He grabbed the stack of letters for Ask Phoebe. "You're willing to solve problems for strangers; how about family?"

I grabbed the stack of letters from him and was hit with a premonition: A demon shooting a light dart at a terrified dark woman, dressed in a strange costume, and who cowers and falls to her knees, as the light dart sparks against the wall over her head.

As I came out of it, Chris asked, "What is it? What'd you see?"

I looked at him. "A woman--being attacked."

And if I ever wondered if he was truly Piper and Leo's son, the look of concern for an innocent convinced me, as did his impatient, concerned. "Where?"

Soon, after a quick orb to the Manor attic where I did some quick scrying, Chris orbed us into a dark cave chamber somewhere in Arabia. Arabic inscriptions were painted on the torch-lit walls, while large holes were dug into the ground, surrounded by discarded shovels and scaffolding…all evidence of an archeological dig. With the desert behind us, Chris and I entered the chamber, looking around tensely.

"Looks like a dig site," I commented.

He nodded. "Yeah, under a desert in the Middle East. Are you sure your scrying wasn't off?"

I shrugged. "Maybe Jinny was an archeologist."

He shook his head, confused. "Why would an archeologist in the Middle East send a letter to an advice columnist in San Francisco?"

I shrugged. "You read it; it said she was involved with a very controlling man."

He rolled his eyes. "You're missing my point. I'm saying what if we're being led into a trap?"

He bent to look into a hole, and suddenly a scimitar flew right by us, embedding itself in the wall where his head just was. We both spun to the entrance of the cave to see two Arabian thieves cornering us.

I smiled at my nephew. "Then I'd say it's a good thing I came armed." And grabbing a vial from inside my pocket, I threw it so it landed at the feet of the thieves and exploded, vanquishing both of the thieves.

Chris uncovered his ears, then looked around. "Think anyone heard them?"

Suddenly, a light dart struck Chris hard in the shoulder, knocking him across the cave and into a wall. I turned in shock to see the demon from my premonition, on a flying carpet no less, a strange-looking bottle tied to his waist. The demon dove at us, and Chris gestured, sending a scaffolding off the wall. The demon reared back on his carpet, barely avoiding the scaffolding, but it knocked the bottle free. Watching it fall, he cried out, "No!!"

But before he could retrieve bottle, I threw another potion vial--it exploded against the bottom of the hovering carpet, spinning it, and the demon, around…but not vanquishing him. He retreated out of the cave. and I hurried over to Chris, whose shoulder was bleeding, "You okay?" I asked, worried.

Again the customary shrug. "I'll live." Then he asked in surprise, "Was that a flying carpet?"

I didn't reply as I muttered, "I wonder what this is…" I picked up the bottle and as I wiped away the dust to reveal faded Arabic writing, a puff of green smoke shot out and Jinny, the woman from my premonition, our innocent, smoked in. She smiled at me. "Thanks for responding to my letter."

I stared at her in shock, now recognizing her outfit as that of a genie. ""Wait, are you…Jinny?"

She smiled, bowing. "At your service…Master."