Chapter 22

Chris walked into the attic early the next morning. He figured the sisters would be more willing on the vanquish if he had already prepared the potion and the spell. Now that they knew he was a witch, it would be much easier.

When he walked in, there was a bed, a dresser, and a television set up in one corner of the room. There was a note on the pillow. Chris recognized it as being in Piper's handwriting.

Dear Chris,

In case you wanted some place quieter to stay. Please consider it.

Love,

Mom

Piper had taken Connie's suggestion to heart. She wanted him at the house, and hoped he would take her offer. She worried he would start the obsession again now that his friends were gone, and she didn't think she could handle that. She didn't want him to kill himself over this, but it made her proud the lengths he would go to in order to protect his brother.

Chris looked at the note for a long while, a mass of emotions passing across his face. He wanted to want to be there. Even all those years before it felt like home, but he had to keep them distant. If they started treating him like a child, they'd take over and wouldn't let him do anything. But would that be so bad? He was so tired of the pressure. Before he'd come back to the past, he'd led thousands as the leader of the Rebellion. He'd watched family and friends suffer and die. Then, coming back here, he'd had to deal with the distrust and the hate. He wanted to trust them. he wanted to just let them be his Mom and Aunts again. The women who protected him in his childhood, but he wasn't sure if he knew how to be that kid again.

Looking at that note, he once again saw his Mom, lying cold and motionless on the atrium floor. He could still smell the singed flesh and the metallic scent of blood. He hadn't had a flashback like that in a while. When he first came back, he relived it every time he saw her. Every time he smelled her perfume. Every time she smiled at him. Every time she yelled at him. But that had faded the more he separated the past from the future, and now all that was unraveling.

Suddenly emotionally drained, he let himself fall onto the bed. Turning the television to MTV and opening up the Book of Shadows to the current demon of the week, he let himself get immersed in his mission. Focus on the mission.

Downstairs, the sisters were rushing through the kitchen and their daily routine.

"Ok," Piper started, "I'll be at the club this morning, and I have lunch with Eva, and then back at the club. I should be home by three until around 8. I'll take Wyatt with me."

"Yeah," Phoebe chimed in, heading for the bagels, "I'll be at the paper this morning, and the mall with my newest nephew around two. We can be back by five if we want to do the vanquish about 5:30?"

"5:30 works for me," Paige agreed, pouring a tall cup of coffee. "I'll be teaching throughout the day, and I have some administrative stuff to do. Magic School has a great library if we need to do any extra research. Gideon was all but insistent that we use it. Could be a good resource."

"I'd like to see it," Phoebe admitted. "All right, I'm off. Tell that son of yours I'm coming for him."

"5:30 vanquish," Paige confirmed. "See you guys then," and she orbed off.

And even further below, the Syndicate had joined together once more to formulate their next plan.

"We must act quickly. Now that the two from the future are gone, the Charmed Ones are weaker," the Seer urged. She and Gideon were in her lair in the underworld, along with a small group of the Syndicate. "We must keep them busy for us to attack our target. We cannot let them interfere with this plan."

"We must bide our time," Gideon replied. "This is not something we can rush into. I can gain information from Paige to ensure they do not get too close. For now, we must put things in place for the birth of child."

"Very well," the Seer agreed.

Gideon, satisfied that his orders would be followed, orbed out of the cave and back to magic School.

"I still am convinced we should target the Twice Blessed child as well," the Seer announced to the members of the Syndicate still in the cave. "And as for that, I have a plan-"

"Hey," Leo said, knocking on the doorjamb of the attic. He was glad to see that Chris had taken Piper's offer and was lying on the bed. However she probably was hoping he'd be asleep on it, instead of writing spells and looking through the Book of Shadows.

"Hey," Chris replied. "What do you want?" He still wasn't sure how to deal with Leo in this time, and even less so now that Leo had chosen to quit being an Elder to come be with his family. He'd spent so long trying to hate him, and now Leo was different and Chris didn't know how to be. Would this be the Leo that raised him? Or was it inevitable that he would distance himself again? Focusing on Wyatt and forsaking his family for the rest of the world.

"Well, Piper went into P3, and she wanted me to tell you the vanquish is scheduled for 5:30, and Phoebe is picking you up for shopping at 2. I thought I could help." Leo still stood fidgeting in the doorway, unsure. He didn't know what to do to make it up to Chris. Not only had he been completely wrong about Chris trying to hurt Wyatt, but Chris was his son. He'd screamed at him, threatened him, even beaten him up on several occasions. He was quite possibly the worst father in the history of the world. And to make it worse, he knew Chris felt the same.

"Great, can you help me get out of this shopping trip?" Chris asked, climbing off the bed, and putting the Book back on its stand.

"Sorry, I'm not that good," Leo smiled, "but I could help you make the vanquishing potion."

"Thanks, but it's not much work. I can handle it." He really wished Leo would leave. He had that "we need to talk" look on his face, and it was making Chris uncomfortable. He'd cut Leo out of his life for good when he was fourteen, and that decision had only been made easier in dealing with the Leo of the past. He wanted to keep it that way.

"Chris, I just want to help, that's all. I'm the girls' whitelighter and it's my job to help," Leo stated, trying to keep it professional. Trying to be confident but not confrontational. "Besides, I promised your mom that I'd make sure you had breakfast." Piper had given him one task for the day, and he was determined to come through for her.

Chris paused a moment. The whole thing was so awkward, but he had been trying to get them to help him for months, and now they were offering. He knew he should be thankful and just go with it, but it was so hard to say yes, especially to Leo.

"Chris," Leo started again after a few seconds had passed, knowing why the young man was pausing, "we do want to help, but you have to meet us half way. So I'll grab all the ingredients, if you'll sit down and eat the bowl of cereal Piper left in the kitchen. Deal?"

"Deal," Chris acquiesced, handing over the list of ingredients he'd written out. "So you're really back?" He asked, ducking his head and walking past Leo toward the stairs. He didn't want to ask, but he had to know. He hated this feeling. He was so unsure. He felt like he was eight years old asking if Leo would make it to his birthday party again.

"Yeah," Leo grinned, as the two moved to walk downstairs. His heart swelled a bit. Chris wanted him around. He wasn't ready to admit it, but he did. "It took a lot of convincing, but in the end, the Elders agreed that I needed to be here. I can't believe I stayed gone for so long. I can't believe I ever agreed to abandon my family. I suppose I should thank you," Leo said, still staring at Chris's back. He really wished is son would just look him in the eye. They walked into the kitchen, and Leo put the bowl of cereal Piper had left out on the table, as well as a glass of orange juice. "Piper told me about your plan, and I guess it worked. So thank you. I am so sorry for how awful I was to you." Leo finally stepped in front of his son, trying to get him to just look him in the eye.

"It's nothing," Chris mumbled, staring down at his feet. He didn't want Leo to apologize. He didn't want to have to deal with this Leo. He wanted to keep hating him.

"No Chris," Leo declared, putting his hands on Chris's shoulders. "You came back here to help us, and I was awful to you. You deserve an apology. Now, sit down and have some breakfast before your mother blows me up."

"You have got to be kidding me," Chris laughed, looking at the "bowl" of cereal. It was a medium size Tupperware bowl filled so that it was overflowing, "how am I supposed to eat all of that?"

"Listen, she'll calm down eventually, but she still feels guilty about the whole 'you running yourself until you literally lost consciousness' thing. Just humor her for a while longer. She'll calm down."

"Alright, fine. Are you going to go grab the ingredients?"

"Actually," Leo admitted, a little abashed as he sat down next to Chris, "Piper made me promise to make sure you ate. I'll go after you finish."

"How have classes been going?" Gideon asked, entering into Paige's classroom. She'd had two classes in the morning, and was on break, before her third in the afternoon.

"It was wonderful," Paige enthused. "I mean, the kids were rowdy at first, but I think they're really starting to respect me. In fact, Jonathan pulled off the transfiguration potion today and he was so proud. I mean a few days ago he hated his craft, and now—it's very rewarding."

"I knew that you would be a good teacher Paige. It is definitely your calling," Gideon said, taking a seat on one of the desk chairs. "Though it makes me sad when students are ashamed of their powers. If only they could live openly in the world. But sadly the world is fearful about those that are different. You've done well so far," Gideon transitioned, rising and moving toward the door, "I look forward to seeing your progress."

Paige stared after him, thinking of what he said. She remembered what it was like when she first became a witch. She had been so proud of her powers, but also hated having to hide it from those she cared about. What if they could expose magic to the rest of the world? What if they could live in the open? Magical beings wouldn't have to cower in the darkness. She could be super witch and have a normal life.

"This is ridiculous," she mumbled to herself. She knew what happened when magic had been exposed before. The world wasn't capable of handling magic. It always ended in abuse and persecution.

Back in his office, Gideon shut and locked the door and sat down behind his desk. "I have planted the seed, but it will take more for the Charmed Ones to come over to our way of thinking."

"I am still not sure that is necessary," the Seer challenged, moving out of the shadows. "We should focus on our target."

"It would be beneficial to have them on our side. We do not want to have to fight them later. I have a plan to convince them to join our ranks. I will share it with the Syndicate when next we meet. Now you should leave before someone sees you. I can only keep the barrier excluding evil down for so long."

"As you wish," the Seer acquiesced.

"Piper! Over here," Eva called. She and her daughter Roma were sitting at a table overlooking the Bay. "I'm so glad we could do this. I feel like ever since I became a mom I hardly ever get out."

"Tell me about it," Piper sighed, setting Wyatt in a high chair next to Roma's. "And having a . . . special child makes it harder to do the whole 'play date thing.' I'm always worried that Wyatt is going to do something to expose us, and the whole process is just so nerve wracking."

"Agreed. Thank goodness for Magic School. I think it's important for my Roma to have a place where she doesn't have to hide a part of herself. And a place where I don't have to hide part of myself either."

"Yeah, especially now that I have another one on the way," Piper quipped.

"You're pregnant too!" Eva squealed. "The doctor just called me this morning."

"Really?" Piper asked. "I know this is a strange question, but I've always wondered about other magical mothers, does your baby have powers in the womb?" Piper didn't know any other witches that had given birth, and she wondered if it was normal or just some quirk in the Halliwell-Warren line.

"I didn't with Roma," Eva explained. "But her father was a Valhalla Warrior. With this one, however, there have been a few . . . incidents."

"A Valhalla Warrior?" Piper asked. Suddenly curious as to whether this woman knew anything about Leo being kept there. She made a mental note to ask Chris about it later, not wanting to ruin a perfectly good lunch out with family drama

"Yeah, I come from a line of Valkyrie warriors, though my husband and I decided to leave the island and raise our family in San Francisco. Why? " Eva was worried that she had just ruined a friendship by bringing up Valhalla. That place seemed to always ruin everything for her.

"No reason, I just didn't realize Valkyrie Warriors could reproduce." Piper explained. "Anyway, I've heard the Alfredo here is wonderful. The shrimp is freshly caught."

"Ooo sounds fantastic," Eva concurred. "To Mom's day out," she toasted.

"Well it looks like the potion is all done," Leo commented. He and Chris were back up in the attic working on the vanquishing potion together. He was happy that he'd had the day to spend with Chris, and the two had managed to get along fairly well.

"Yeah," Chris mumbled, suddenly feeling awkward again. While they had been busy with the potion, he'd been too preoccupied to be uneasy around Leo. But now, without something to occupy them, there was nothing but awkward silence.

"Why did you try to get rid of me?" Leo asked suddenly. He didn't mean to ask it, and he knew Chris wouldn't want to talk about it, but he couldn't stand not knowing why his son didn't want him around.

"I . . . I . . ." Chris stuttered. Suddenly trapped like a deer in the headlights. He didn't want to hurt Leo's feelings . . . wait, he didn't? Since when? This whole thing was just so confusing.