"Look, Chris, I don't want to go into it," Piper said, and Chris was pretty sure his scowl told her that he was about to reply, but she didn't even pause as she continued with the only response he hadn't considered, "But I'm not going to be out on a date with the fireman, or anybody else for that matter anytime soon so that I can focus more on Wyatt."

Chris looked the past version of his mother in the eye, and he could see that she wasn't joking. "W-what?"

"Did I stutter?" she said, joking, yet, at the same time, not joking at all.

Everything was going wrong, and Chris didn't know what to do. Yes, he'd been trying to stop her from going out with Greg, but that was difference, that was about his very existence.

He tried for reassurance -"Piper, you can't give up on love," he insisted, "ever."

Piper looked at Chris like he had grown a second head. "Why not?" she asked rhetorically, in a 'why the hell do you care?' manner.

"Because… you just…" Chris floundered for a reason that wasn't the truth. "Can't! That's why! It's not natural!"

"Look, all I'm saying is, is you don't have to make that kind of sacrifice to protect Wyatt. That's why I'm here!"

"Well, you weren't here earlier, were you?" she said tauntingly, grabbing her basket of laundry and walking briskly out of the room, forcing Chris into a slight jog to catch up. "Look, the only thing that matters right now is what's best for Wyatt," she continued calmly.

"This is not what's best for Wyatt, Piper!" he urged.

"How do you know?" she asked briskly.

Chris sighed heavily. He couldn't exactly shout 'Because I exist!' for all the house to hear, and he didn't even want to, really. He'd gone so long with the secret kept, and it was getting harder, but… he didn't want to know how she was going to react. Instead, he said, "Because I've seen the future and this isn't supposed to happen!"

"So what is supposed to happen?" she said, whirling around to face him.

Even Chris was starting to get tired of the words that came out of his mouth, "Come on, you know I can't answer that." I wish I could, but I can't.

"Well, since you're sent from the future to change it, maybe this is one of the things that needs to be changed," she suggested, backing into Wyatt's room.

He immediately insisted, "No, it's not! Believe me, it's not!"

She shushed him, careful not to wake Wyatt, who Chris was certain would still turn evil even if Chris himself was not born, which simply could not happen.

"Look, if you're so concerned about protecting Wyatt, there's other ways to go about doing it, you know."

"Like what?" she asked distractedly.

"Like letting Leo take him up there for a while," he suggested. It was a reasonable idea. Leo would love it, and maybe he'd even trust Chris a little more if he found out that Chris encouraged some more Daddy time for everyone's favorite elder.

"Or," he said, approaching Wyatt cautiously as an idea that would solve more problems than just his own occurred to him. Almost as if reading Chris's mind, Wyatt put up his force-field. As if his brother could possibly hurt him. He may be the future Source of all Evil, but if Chris couldn't kill him then, he sure as hell couldn't kill him now. "You could always bind his powers."

"Leo left me a birthday present. How sweet," Piper muttered, reminding Chris of how little attention she was paying him.

He walked towards her, glumly noting that Wyatt took down his force-field as Chris walked away, and pressed, "Will you think about what I said?"

"About what?" she asked, still looking at Leo's letter, barely sparing any thought to Chris's presence.

"Binding Wyatt's powers!" he repeated urgently.

She seemed to consider it for a moment, but she dismissed it with a simple, "No way."

"Why not? No one would ever be after him and you'd have your life back!" he insisted, realizing how effectively this would solve everyone's problems. If he had no powers, no demons would want to turn him or kill him, Mom wouldn't have to worry about demons going after him, and Dad might even give me the time of day-

He stopped himself before he could completely fathom the possibility. No. Leo wasn't there for you in the future, and that's not what you came back to change, so forget about it.

Piper seemed to seriously consider what Chris said for a moment, giving him some hope. Maybe this is what I was supposed to do! Maybe this will solve everything! Maybe-

"But that would be selfish of me, wouldn't it? To put my needs ahead of his destiny?"

Chris scowled, thinking of the millions that could die if she didn't.

"I'm not being a martyr, Chris. Really, I'm not, I just get it now. I'm the mother of a very special child that, if I do my job right…"

But she had. She had done her job to the best of her ability, she'd been the best mother he and Wyatt could have ever asked for, and Wyatt had still turned. Through no fault of her own.

"…Is going to do very special things." No, he isn't, Mom. He's going to grow up to kill you. Why don't you understand that?

"What could possibly be more important than that?"

Chris looked at her with pain in his eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay, and, for the first time since he got there, he willed her to make the connection. To realize the truth. To look past all the lies and see what he was hiding.

Then, just as something changed in her eyes, Wyatt started fussing. She went over to him and shushed him, turning off the light. Chris stared at him, hurt, as he thought about what could've happened, how this could've gone if he hadn't chosen that moment to make a noise. She was about to leave the room, when Chris's mouth acted on its own, without his brain's consent.

"Well, there is one thing that might just fit the bill," he said quietly, without looking away from Wyatt.

She stopped in her tracks, and he could feel her staring at him with shock. There was silence for a moment, before she gasped out, "W-what?"

"There's one thing that I think is right up there with Wyatt's future," he continued, trying not to meet her eyes.

"And what exactly do you think could possibly be as important as Wy-?" she asked rudely, and he could hear the malice in her voice, begging him to give her a reason, any reason, to blow him to holy hell.

"Forget it," he said, cutting her off, wanting to avoid a conflict. "I shouldn't have said anything," he choked out quickly. "I should just go. I'm sorry I bothered you. Really. Forget I said anything."

"Uh, uh! No-no!" she exclaimed, grabbing his arm to stop him from orbing. "You cannot – CANNOT – say something like that and look that sad and open then expect me to let you just ditch! No! Spill, future boy!"

He sighed, and took a last look at Wyatt. "Alright. I'll tell you. But first off, we should leave Wyatt's room. We shouldn't have woken him up in the first place."

She cocked her head at him for a second, then grabbed his arm, half-dragging him out of the room.

Once we reached the living room, she hauled him over to the couch and made him sit, before settling down next to him.

"Okay, Chris, tell me what the hell is going on. You are acting really weird, and since I've caught you in the most open mood you've been in since you got here, I am pushing the issue."

"Fine. But remember, I can only tell you things that I can't see how could negatively impact the future, so don't expect too much, okay. No details. What do you want to know?" I asked, wishing I could bury myself deep underground.

"Okay. First off, what did you mean? What do you think could possibly be anywhere near as important as Wyatt's welfare?" she asked, surprisingly calmly, though a fire was burning behind her eyes.

"Nothing," he replied calmly. "But that really depends now doesn't it?"

She looked at him incredulously. "What?" she asked, probably expecting some kind of answer that they had come to expect of him, like 'hunting demons' or 'killing demons' or 'forgetting about a normal life.' "What do you mean, that depends?"

He took a deep breath, and steadied himself for what he was about to say. "It depends… on which son you're talking about."

There was silence for a moment as Piper looked at him in disbelief, before she stuttered, "But- But I only have one son… unless," then she gazed at him with unadulterated shock. "You know him, don't you? You know us, from the future? And… if what you're saying is true, then… I'm going to have another son… And that's how you know so much about us, isn't it? It's because you're friends with him, aren't you?" she asked, looking at him, her mouth slightly open.

Chris wanted to scream. She had given him the perfect out, the perfect way to avoid revealing his identity, but here, sitting on the couch he had grown up with, in the house he'd grown up in, with the woman who had raised him until she had been so cruelly whisked away – he didn't want to lie anymore. He didn't want to lie anymore.

But he had to. "Yeah, I guess you could say that I know him as well as I know myself. And, I did know you guys growing up. Hell, you guys practically raised me." His cheeks burned as her eyebrows raised a little more – she was thinking, about him, for the first time since he'd arrived here, with no negative preconceptions clouding her vision. He'd said too much.

"And- and that's why you said that's not what's best for Wyatt, isn't it? You said it because of his little brother?" He nodded again. "Who's the father?" she inquired.

"About that… do you really need to know?" he asked, laughing nervously and trying not to meet her eyes.

"Uh, of course?" she expressed. "How else is he going to get… you know? Unless he's much younger than Wyatt… Either way, it'll save me playing the dating game. Please?" she urged, and I gave in after a few seconds.

"Um… isn't it kind of obvious? I didn't say half-brother, did I?" he replied sheepishly, all but spelling it out for her.

She furrowed her eyebrows at this. "Wait… Leo? But he's an Elder! You made him an Elder!"

"In my time he doesn't become an Elder for another year, but the Titans take a while longer to defeat. I did lie about Paige dying, however. Sorry about that. Your son gets conceived in a few months, which is shortly before Leo would've become an Elder in my time. After that, well, let's just say Leo gets rather busy with his job. I just sped up the process a little bit. How was I to know that he'd completely ditch you guys right from the start – um, no offence – and put my friend in danger of not being conceived. Sorry,"

"So, let me get this straight. Leo and I have another son after Wyatt, you're his best friend, we practically raised you, and you accidentally sped up the deterioration of our marriage… to do what exactly?" Piper asked accusingly, glaring at him a little.

And Chris had almost thought she was on the road to forgiveness. "I told you already, to save Wyatt."

"But you don't know from what," she concluded, glancing at him suspiciously.

Chris shrugged. "Well, isn't that what I've been trying to tell to you for the past… I don't know how many months?"

"Yeah, that's what you've been telling us, but I think there's more to the story, now isn't there," she assumed correctly, still with that apprehensive look on her face. Suddenly, she asked, "What happens to Wyatt?"

Chris was taken aback, but he answered with his carefully built half-truth, "A demon gets to him."

"What does the demon do to him? There are many kinds of demons, Chris. Does it kill him on the spot, does it infect him with a demon disease, does it turn him evil, does it…" she stopped, seeing him look down and bite his lip when she said evil. No, no, no. This can't be going this far. I was only going to answer one or two questions, not spill everything save my identity. "That's it, isn't it," she asked, alarm evident in her features. "He turns evil, and that's why you came back. That's why you want his powers bound, so he can't hurt anyone. That's what happened isn't it?"

"I… I can't tell you that," he whispered, pain in my voice, but that was all the answer she needed.

"It is," she said once more, doubt no longer lingering in her voice. "That's why you came back, to stop him from killing. To stop my sweet, beautiful, harmless baby… from becoming a monster."

Chris met her eyes forlornly. "Yeah, pretty much. He takes over the world, and good was quashed so completely in him that he can torture, destroy everything, and," he looked away, "kill, even. He brought about a reign of darkness, one that's still going on. That's why I came back, to stop Wyatt from turning evil, and becoming the Source of all Evil."

Piper leaned back in the couch, a tear trailing down her cheek. "But I'll fix it!" Chris swore, "You were right earlier. He's a very special boy with a very special future. But, you were wrong about one thing. This has nothing to do with how you do your job, but, rather, how I do mine. And all I know is that he turned evil in my time, but you didn't have my help the first time. Now you do, and I intend to stop that future from happening."

A moment of earnest silence followed, and the urgency of his words seemed to echo.

"Chris?" she asked hesitantly after a few minutes.

"Yeah?"

"Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but… were we… close in the future? I mean, you said we practically raised you, but-" she rambled, most likely having difficulty finding the right words to ask the question with.

Chris chuckled a little at her attempt, and as the perfect half-truth came to him. "Yeah, we were really close. My mom died when I was young, and my father was never around, so you guys kind of helped to fill in the space, you know?" The last part was the only lie. She died on his fourteenth birthday, Leo was always absent, and the aunts – "you guys" – did help to fill in the space. He just expanded it to include her. Very little lying there done…

She mumbled something under her breath, and then did something that was definitely… unexpected. She hugged him. "I'm sorry, Chris. The way we've acted towards you, it must've hurt. I'm so sorry."

It was true, it did hurt. But it wasn't as if Chris had expected them to immediately agree with him on everything, so he had managed to disassociate them with their future counterparts - his family. Yet, here, now, this was different. He could feel his eyes watering up, just being in such close proximity with his mother, and yet, it still wasn't his mother, so he was able to force down the tears.

He gently pried myself from her grasp and stood up. "Okay, I've told you way more than I should have, so don't give up on love and I'll be on my way," he said briskly, and went to orb away, but again she stopped him.

"Just one more thing," she said quietly. "What's Wyatt's little brother's name?"

There was silence as he stared into her hopeful eyes. Could I… his mind dared to wonder. Would it really hurt if told her the truth? I mean, she seems so open right now… if I told her, would the consequences really be that dire?

Shaking the poisonous thoughts away, he mumbled something about future consequences and orbed away, cursing himself for having this conversation in the first place.