Chapter 12- Going home
"Ha!" The blond cried. "You guys get stupider with the passing of time," he chuckled as he sent a demon flying away. "Scorch this one Chris." And he passed on to the next one but when he didn't hear the familiar sound that came with his brother sending his bolts of electricity he looked back ready to berate his brother. "Chris I said- CHRIS!"
The demon had gotten his bearings back and was gaining on his brother who was just standing there. Doing nothing. Wyatt quickly blew the demon up and turned to blow the other. Playing with them was fun but right now he needed to get rid of them and find out what they did to Chris. He went over to Chris and put a hand on Chris's shoulder and the other hand on Chris's cheeks, "Chris," he called but Chris didn't answer. What was more scary was that Chris eyes kept furiously darting from one side to the other. Wyatt closed his eyes and reached for their bond but had to quickly retreat. There had been a rush of images that he couldn't almost identify but he had seen flashes of his parents dead or dying and he did not like that. He orbed both of them to the Manor.
"MOM!" he called "DAD!" he hoped his mother wasn't at P3. He needed help. He made Chris sit down on the couch and Chris sat there. Stiff as a board, only his eyes moving. Blue orbs formed and Leo appeared next to them.
Leo was still an Elder, but upon reflecting on Chris's memories he had decided he didn't want a life where he would outlive all of his relatives, unless he was struck by a Darklighter's arrow. So he had gone Up There with all the intention of resigning when they had stuck another deal. He would still be an Elder but he would give up his immortality, aging as a mortal and one day finding his death of old age.
He looked good. He still had blond hair but it was now deliberately streaked with grey hair. He looked definitely as someone in their late forties.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I don't know," Wyatt said nervously. "We went after those low level demons and we were just fooling around you know.? Taking our time to get some practice when Chris just froze. They did something to him dad. I tried to reach him trough our bond and a million of images kept flashing, and they weren't nice ones. All full of death and dark- er dad?"
Leo had gone from trying to heal Chris to staring at Wyatt and then he had started smiling. He realized his son must have thought that odd, but honestly, how did they forget what today was? They had only been waiting for this day for the last 18 years and now all of them just forgot! Leo put a calming hand on Wyatt and said:
"They didn't do anything to him. He'll be fine. He just, er, needs time to process this information."
"What information?" Wyatt snapped at Leo. Unfortunately for Leo both his sons had inherited their mother's temper. Where Wyatt was the one that not only looked more like Leo but was also closest in likes and dislikes while the same was true for Chris and Piper, both of them had Piper Halliwell's mighty temper, which had been compared to Penny Halliwell's and should not be messed with. "My brother is completely unresponsive, right when we were fighting demos and you're just sitting there!"
"Wyatt," Leo said calmly and grabbed both of his son's upper arms to stop the flailing. "I need to explain something to you. Actually, we all need to. Let's get your mother and aunts and we have some history to tell you. So go get your mother and I'll ask Paige to orb Phoebe here.
xx
"Why the hell didn't you ever tell us this?" Wyatt asked angrily. Leo had taken Chris to his room where he was still in the same state. They didn't know how long he would take to process all the memories of a lifetime. As Leo explained, he was a full Elder, so he was wired to get loads of information at once. So when he got Chris's memories the process had been smother. Chris on the other hand was just half-Elder.
They then had gotten all together in the living room. His Uncles and grandfather having joined the storytelling, after all Henry and Coop had been privy to many of the "Do we tell them?" discussions. Wyatt was on the couch between his parents and Phoebe and Paige were sitting on the coffee table in front of them. Coop and Henry were standing behind their respective wives while Victor was just sitting back comfortably in one of the armchairs.
"Because we wanted you to live whatever you could of your life unburdened. What happened wasn't your fault Wyatt, you were under a spell. And we didn't want Chris to worry about what would happen," Piper said gently.
"Look son," Leo said. "I had your brother's memories from his last time, and because of that we were able to prevent some disasters," he smiled. "But at the same time I lost the chance of being surprised at something new that happened, and sometimes when I knew something bad would happen I had to let that happen because I knew how that would be important for our life later on. Like when you were seven and caught chicken pox from your friend at school and spread it to your brother and cousins." Everyone winced at that experience. "I knew that in the end you'd be okay and have very much needed antibodies, but believe me, I was very tempted to keep you home in quarantine at the time. But someone," Leo smiled at Piper, "talked some sense into me. I tried to change a lot. So we could build up those new good memories, and the last four years have been completely new, but living with that knowledge, that expectation was very hard. And we didn't want you and your brother and even your cousins to live with that. With the knowledge that I knew what you would be doing and that your mother, aunts and uncle had a very vague idea."
"Annoyingly vague," Paige huffed.
"So that's how you knew I was going to take the car for a spin when I was fifteen?" Wyatt asked grimacing.
"Believe me," Leo patted his son's arm. "I saved you from a very unpleasant punishment."
"Humph," Piper scowled crossing her arms. "I still say the intent should have been enough for a grounding."
Wyatt looked down nervously, "What if he hates me now? Because of what evil me did?"
"He won't," Phoebe said squeezing his hand. "He never did." Wyatt nodded unsure.
"We should go tell the girls all this now," Henry said. "Or they'll have our heads."
"Yes," Coop agreed. "Definitely."
xx
Chris abruptly shot up gasping for air. He closed his eyes and tried to get his breathing to a regular rhythm. When he opened his eyes he was staring at Wyatt's blue eyes. Wyatt had been sitting on a chair next to Chris's bed since his talk with his parents had ended. That had been four hours ago.
Wyatt said nothing, and neither did Chris. Wyatt tried to understand the look in Chris's eyes. Was that hate? It looked like hope.
"Wy?" Chris asked in a whisper.
"I'm sorry Chris, I'm-humph-" Chris had lunged himself at Wyatt and was hugging him fiercely and crying. Wyatt was confused. Chris was always so composed, so cool. He never broke up like this. Wyatt brought his hands up and started rubbing circles on Chris's back like when they were little and Chris had hurt himself.
"It's okay," he said calmly. "Everything will be fine."
"I know," Chris said and Wyatt knew that even through his tears Chris was smiling and was happy. He was content for what felt like the first time in a long time. Wyatt could feel it. "We really are One Big Happy family."
"I guess we are," Wyatt smiled intoxicated by what Chris was feeling.
The end
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A/N- I had planned some long coming back full of conflicts but then this scene came to my mind and this was just the perfect ending that I changed my plan!
I hope you had fun and thanks for reading!