Author's Note: The first part of this story was written in June 2005, and the last eight pages or so were written in July of 2006 (yes, a year later).
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, and I am not making any money from these stories.
Warning: Non consensual disciplinary spanking of an adult by parents.
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Home Again Chapter 2
When breakfast started, Chris was subdued. After a few minutes of quiet eating, Leo turned to Piper and asked, "How have you been feeling with this pregnancy?"
Piper smiled at him and said, "Pretty good right now. I had a lot more morning sickness this time around. I was
ill pretty much every day a couple of times a day for the first four, almost five months."
Leo nodded, and Chris felt guilty. Piper continued, "And now that we know Chris doesn't have a protective bubble the way Wyatt did, I'm a little more nervous about demons attacking."
Chris muttered, "Do we have to keep bringing that up?"
Piper gave Chris a thoughtful look. "I don't think you should be jealous of Wyatt's powers Chris. Being the oldest and most powerful comes with it's own set of issues and responsibilities. I know your Aunt Prue wasn't always happy that she was who she was."
Chris had nothing nice to say to that and kept his mouth shut. Leo said to Piper, "If you're really worried about it, you and Wyatt could move to magic school for the next three months. I'm sure there would be room for the both of you in one of the dormitories. Then you would be fairly safe even if a demon did attack."
Piper thought about it. Chris thought about it for a second, and wondered why he hadn't thought about it before. It sounded like the perfect solution to the problem of protecting Wyatt. He said, "I think that's a great idea, Mom. You should definitely do it."
Piper said, "I'll think about it. Not right now, but maybe in the last month when I can't get around as well."
Leo nodded. Chris persisted, "Why not move there now? It would be a lot safer for both of you, and we could spend more time concentrating on searching out demons who might have it in for Wyatt instead of protecting you."
"Kids like routines. It would be really hard on Wyatt to leave everything that was familiar to him and start living somewhere else. And besides, last I heard I was the only one who could blow up demons when they attack us, so I should be staying here to help protect all of you."
Chris scoffed, "Wyatt practically lives at magic school already. He may sleep here, but he's there all the time. I don't think it would be a hard adjustment for him at all. And just because you can blow up demons, doesn't mean that the rest of us are
"
Leo interrupted with his usual calm voice, "Chris."
Chris looked over at Leo, and Leo said, "She said she'd think about it."
"But I don't think she
.."
Leo held up a hand and said, "Piper is perfectly capable of making her own decisions."
Chris was furious with Leo for daring to interrupt him while he was badgering his mother, and said in a snotty voice, "Yeah, because you guys made such great choices the first time around."
Piper clearly annoyed said, "And you've been making such great choices since you've been here."
Chris sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Fine. Don't listen to me."
Leo said, "Are you done eating?"
Chris gave a slight nod. Leo said, "What do you have planned to do today?"
"I was going to look in the book of shadows and pick out the next demon that I think is most likely to try and hurt Wyatt. I've been going through the book systematically, and trying to eliminate each of the upper level demons who might benefit from turning Wyatt evil."
Leo nodded and said, "Okay, we'll do that together."
Chris said with very little enthusiasm, "Great."
Leo stood, and Chris did too. Piper started to clear the table, and both men walked upstairs to the attic. Once in the attic Chris stood in front of the pedestal that usually housed the Book of Shadows. He opened it, and started scanning pages. Leo stood to the side and slightly behind Chris. Chris tried to concentrate on the book but was acutely aware of Leo standing there looking over his shoulder. About two minutes later, Chris couldn't take it. He kept looking at the book but said, "Stop hovering!"
Leo was a little surprised and saddened that Chris couldn't even stand to be near him without it bugging him. Leo walked over to the couch and sat down. Leo decided to try and break through the barrier with normal conversation. "What characteristics are you looking for specifically to decide which demon to go after?"
Chris sighed with annoyance and said, "I would think that would be obvious Leo."
"Humor me."
Chris talked slowly as if talking to a child, "I'm looking for any demon who might have a reason to want Wyatt evil."
Leo, who had the patients of a saint, felt some irritation but didn't let it show in his voice. "But that could be any of them. Anything more specific?"
Chris turned the page he was looking at more quickly then was necessary, and kept his eyes on the book as he said, "Maybe if you'd shut up I could concentrate, and actually find something useful."
Leo stood, and couldn't keep the irritation from his voice as he said, "Look Chris, it's obvious that you hate my guts, but you're going to have to find a way to work with me anyway. And I'm sorry, but I'm not going to just sit by and take abuse from you for the next week."
"I already told you how we can work together. You stay quiet, and let me do what I need to do." Chris looked up at Leo and continued, "It's really not even that hard."
Leo held up his hand and showed Chris the space of half an inch between his finger and thumb as he said, "You're about this close to spending the rest of the day in your room with no orbing abilities."
Chris bristled, and thought of at least ten insults he would like to toss at Leo. But he didn't want to take the chance that Leo really would take away his orbing, so he took a deep breath to calm himself down. He mumbled an insincere, "Sorry."
Leo thought that was a step in the right direction. He nodded and said, "Now I don't mind if you need the room to be quiet while you concentrate on looking through the book. Next time just try to be nice about it."
Chris gave a slight nod and worked hard at keeping his voice level as he said, "Actually Leo, I would be able to concentrate better if you weren't in the room. Maybe you could go help Piper for about an hour, and then I'll tell you which demon I've decided to go after."
Leo thought about it. He was glad that Chris had calmed down enough to talk in a reasonable tone, but he didn't think it would start the week off on the right foot if he left Chris alone for the first hour. Leo shook his head. "Sorry. I'll stay on the couch, and keep quite for you, but you're going to have to get used to working with me around."
Chris flipped another page in anger and said, "Fine."
Leo went to the couch and sat down to meditate for a little while to try and calm himself down. It took Chris about five minutes, but soon he was able to block out the fact that Leo was in the room, and concentrated on the book. He'd been through the book enough times in his life, that he had large sections of it mostly memorized. But he went through it page by page again looking for anything he might have missed.
As he was looking, he came across a page dedicated to a demon named Samantha. He had always thought that was a funny name for a demon, especially because of the Bewitched TV show. He had never paid that much attention to the entry until today. Piper's mom, Patty, had written the entry. Chris took a look over at Leo and saw that he was meditating. Chris rolled his eyes in annoyance, and looked back at the book. It had a picture of Samantha. Chris thought she was very pretty. She was smiling and had blond hair and blue eyes. The entry read:
SAMANTHA a 'Vorish' demon. Samantha is an upper level demon who prays on pregnant witches, and their unborn babies. Once she chooses a victim, she starts to push her way into that person's life through false friendship. She is always outwardly kind and pleasant to be around. Samantha will remain friendly and supportive of the witch, until the witch is six months pregnant. Then some time during that sixth month, Samantha will attempt to slip a special potion to the witch. This potion knocks the witch out, and allows Samantha time to perform a ritual. During this ritual, if everything is successful, the baby is magically transferred into Samantha's body. Then Samantha will try to hide for the next three months until the baby is born. Samantha will slowly feed off the baby's soul during those three months until it is completely gone. She will become even more young and beautiful during this process. By the time the baby is born, it will be a soulless demon, and Samantha will kill it shortly after birth.
The baby can be recovered and put back into it's mother, if it is found within two weeks of being taken with the following spell and potion:
Chris looked at the bottom of the page and saw there was a potion and a spell for getting the baby back into the mother. He also saw there was a potion to vanquish Samantha, and at the very end there was a side note also by Patty. It said in an angry scroll, "Vanquished during my third pregnancy."
Chris read the entire entry one more time as an idea formulated in his mind. No one else knew, but Chris knew his time was running short, and he knew how much easier it would be to concentrate on finding Wyatt's tormenter with Piper and Wyatt safely tucked away at magic school. He doubted that he would be able to talk Piper into going to magic school with Leo interfering all the time, so he would just have to make it more urgent for her.
He read the entry a third time and made plans. As he was staring at the page and lost in his own thoughts, he heard Leo say, "Did you find something?"
Chris had pretty much forgotten that Leo was in the room, and his comment made Chris jump. Leo thought Chris looked a little nervous. Chris tried to cover his nervousness with anger. He slammed the book shut and said, "You said you were going to be quiet!"
Leo looked at Chris with intense scrutiny. He said, "Is there something you're not telling me Chris?"
Chris tried to sound offended, "What?! Don't be ridiculous."
Leo stood up and walked closer to Chris. He looked him in the eyes and said, "What were you just looking at so intently in the book?"
Chris covered with, "I wasn't really looking, I was pausing to think about how screwed up my plans have become now that you and Mom are interfering."
Leo wasn't sure if he believed Chris or not, but he was sure that the day wasn't working very well so far. He said, "Okay Chris, this isn't working. We're gonna try something else. Come sit down on the couch."
Leo walked towards the couch, expecting Chris to follow. Leo went past it and got a pad of paper and a pen from the table that held the supplies to make potions. He turned and noticed Chris was still standing where he had left him. Leo went and sat on the couch and said, "Come here."
Chris really just wanted to be left alone, but knew that wasn't going to happen. He frowned and slowly walked over to the couch. He sat as far away from Leo as possible. Leo handed him the pad of paper and the pen. Leo said, "On that first page write down everything you know about Wyatt turning evil."
Chris lied and said, "I've told you everything I know."
"Well then write down all the things you've told me."
Chris was almost whiny as he said, "Leo, we're wasting time. I need to look through the book."
Leo shook his head. "After your done with that page, you can start a second page that holds all the reasons you hate me."
"You know I can't tell you about the future."
"Well you should know that if you don't start opening up to me and telling me about the future, then you'll be spending a lot of time hanging out around the manor doing not much of anything. I believe that you sincerely want to change the future, but you are trying to accomplish that in the wrong way. Try telling me the truth."
Chris shook his head thinking how ludicrous it all was. Leo tapped the paper with his finger and said, "Write."
Chris studied the paper. He knew he would have to be careful about what he wrote. After a few minutes he wrote, 'Wyatt has been evil since I can remember. Aunt Phoebe told me Wyatt was turned sometime before I was one.'
Chris looked at the paper for a second and then handed it to Leo. Leo shook his head, "That's it? There has to be more then that. Didn't any of us have some theories as to what happened?"
"I don't know, you wouldn't let me hear you guys talk about it when I was fourteen."
"Fourteen?"
Chris realized he had said more then he intended, and didn't respond. Leo continued, "Did something specific happen when you were fourteen?"
Chris didn't see a way around telling Leo something, so he said, "That is when Wyatt leaves home and starts killing innocents."
Leo couldn't bare the thought of that, and all that came out of his mouth was "Oh."
After a few minutes of silence Leo had a handle on his emotions and said, "Write that down too."
Chris did. Then Leo asked, "If Wyatt starts killing innocents at sixteen, then how do we know he was evil as a child."
"We just do."
Leo shook his head. "That's not a good enough answer Chris."
Chris glared at Leo and said, "How do we know? None of you knew until he was sixteen. Wyatt was a master thespian, but I knew all along. None of you would believe me, and I stopped trying to tell you about it early on."
Leo looked down not wanting to believe Chris now. He said quietly, "Write that on page two."
"What exactly?"
"That part of why you hate me is because I didn't believe you when you tried to tell me about Wyatt when you were little."
Chris thought it was stupid, but after a few seconds wrote it down.
Leo said, "How did you know he was evil?"
Chris thought about it and said, "Promise you won't tell Piper?"
Leo said, "I won't lie to her, but if she doesn't ask me specifics, I won't divulge any information."
Chris nodded. "When we were alone he acted differently. He would draw violent pictures and then magically change them to something happy when someone came in the room. He would make his toy action figures torture each other for hours. He started hurting bugs really early on, but by the time he was five it was mice, birds and cats. If I tried to stop him he would hurt me, and then heal me to cover his tracks. When he was about twelve he told me about his plans to take over the world. Said if I told you he'd kill you."
Chris seemed to be lost in thought for a few seconds. When he looked over at Leo, he saw that Leo had a couple of tears running down his face. Chris was uncomfortable, and got up to pace around.
Leo looked at Chris and said, "I'm so sorry."
Chris wasn't sure why, but he felt bad about telling Leo now. He said, "You couldn't have known. He was a totally different kid around everyone else. He knew from an early age the difference between good and evil, and he was extremely good around you and Mom. He enjoyed watching me struggle with that. And as long as I went along with the things he told me to do or not to do, he didn't hurt me."
Leo didn't want to really hear it; he wanted to block it out. But he knew that wouldn't help anything. He wanted more then anything to make it up to Chris, and thought that believing Chris now would help start to heal old wounds. He said, "Tell me about some of the times Wyatt hurt you. Especially if it was a time you told me about it and I didn't believe you."
Chris ran a hand through his hair in frustration and said, "I don't see the purpose of that Leo."
"Do it anyway."
Chris went to sit on the edge of the potion-making table. He said, "Well, Wyatt was smart about it. He didn't hurt me very often, because then I would show obvious signs of being afraid of him. So he only did it when he wanted to prove something to me, or make me do something. When I was three or four he brought a mouse into the room for the first time. I had seen him torture bugs before, but not a mammal. As he nailed one of it's feet to the floor I ran out of the room calling for you. You picked me up, and I told you Wyatt was hurting a mouse. When you got into the room, Wyatt had a stuffed mouse in the place of the live one nailed to the floor. Wyatt said something like he did it because I kept trying to take his toys away. You took the nail out of the stuffed mouse and handed it to Wyatt. You told him to try and be more understanding of me, and you told me to stop taking Wyatt's things. You left the room, and Wyatt said, 'Later tonight, I'll get you for that.'"
Leo said, "And did he?"
"I fell out of bed that night. I landed the wrong way on an action figure, and broke my finger."
After a few seconds Leo said, "Tell me another."
The rest of the morning was filled with what Leo thought of as horror stories. And the worst part was that he was partly to blame, even if he hadn't done it yet, he would have done it if Chris hadn't come back and changed things. Leo was surprised and pleased at how much Chris was opening up to him. He thought it was a good step that Chris was telling him so many details about the future, even if it wasn't exactly relevant to finding out who turned Wyatt. Leo hoped that being heard and believed by his father this time around was helping Chris heal some of the wounds from his past.
Chris had just started yet another story, when Piper knocked and poked her head in the attic door. She was holding Wyatt and said, "Lunch is ready if you guys are hungry."
Leo said, "We'll be down in a little bit."
Piper nodded and went back down. Leo said, "Tell me the rest."
"So you guys left us there even though I asked you to take me with you, but I can see why you would think home was safer then the underworld for me. Wyatt loved it once we were old enough to be left alone in the house, and I should have known better then to go up to our room. But I heard this pitiful noise, and couldn't help myself. He had that damn Excalibur sword of his, and he had found a dog. He had already cut off one of its legs when I got there. I didn't really think about it, I just used my powers and tossed him against the far wall. I ran to the dog and orbed him and his leg to the back door of the local vet where I volunteered. I banged on the door, and as I heard someone answering I orbed home again. I should have stayed away. I had never used my powers on Wyatt before. He was pissed. He didn't even say anything, he just stuck the sword into me about here
."
Chris pointed to an area on his lower abdomen. "
..all the way to the hilt. I think he may have picked me up off the ground with it. It's blurry. He must have yanked it out, and I fell to the ground. He immediately healed me, and as I was becoming more coherent again he said, "Never again little brother. Next time I won't heal you."
The room grew silent, as Chris was lost in his memories. Leo shook his head and said, "Did you try and tell me?"
Chris looked over at Leo as if he had forgotten he was in the room. He said, "Of course not. He might have gone after one of you. But it didn't matter anyway. That was only about a month before he left home. I don't know if he just couldn't stand to pretend with you guys anymore, or if it was because he thought he was powerful enough."
Leo stood up and walked over to Chris. Chris had been pacing and was already up. Leo grabbed an unsuspecting Chris into a hug. Leo held him tight and said, "I'm so sorry that I didn't believe you back then Chris. I can see why you hate me, and I promise you it's not going to happen this time around."
Chris wasn't exactly sure what to do. He gave Leo an awkward pat on the back, and then let go, hoping Leo would do the same. On the one hand Chris enjoyed hearing the words, but on the other hand, he wasn't sure that he bought them. When Leo didn't let him go, he felt even more uncomfortable. He said, "It wasn't all bad. Wyatt actually helped me learn to control my magic. He could talk for hours about potions and help me learn how to make them. Of course his ulterior motive was that he hoped to make me evil someday too, but we had a strange kind of fun doing that. And we killed demons together, although he got much more enjoyment from it then I did, it was still a twisted kind of bonding experience."
Leo hugged Chris tighter and said, "I'm glad you have at least some less horrible memories."
Chris said, "Um
..maybe we should go eat?"
Leo let him go and patted his shoulder as he said, "Sounds good."
At lunch Leo didn't eat much. He just kept looking at Chris and Wyatt. Chris ate, but was quietly thinking about his plans. When Piper was cleaning up Wyatt, Chris said, "Have you thought any more about moving to magic school Mom?"
Piper said, "I've decided not to."
Chris sat back and said, "It would be so much better if you did."
"Better for who? You? Not better for me, and not better for Wyatt. This is my home, and I'm not going to be driven out."
Leo said, "Maybe it would be a good idea Piper."
"Don't you start too. I'm not going, and you two can just deal." Piper turned to Wyatt and in a happy higher tone said, "Isn't that right sweetie."
Wyatt said with sincerity, "Mama."
Piper smiled, "Yes, Mama is always right."
Chris rolled his eyes, and Leo smiled.
Piper turned back to Leo and said, "Did you guys decide who to go after?"
Leo said, "Not yet, but we've made some progress."
Chris nodded and said, "We should go back up."
The rest of the afternoon Chris and Leo had an easier time working together. They looked in the book together and talked about different demons that might have it in for Wyatt. They talked about who Chris had already gone after, and decided who to go after next. They spent most of the afternoon and evening in the underworld gathering information on a demon who specifically preyed on children, only to find out he had been killed by another demon a few months ago. They got home late in the evening both tired. They warmed up some leftovers for a late dinner. Phoebe came in and said, "There you guys are."
Leo said, "Were you looking for us?"
"Wyatt was just asking for you. He's asleep now."
"I'll go check on him before I go to bed."
Chris was done and said, "Well I'm beat. I'm gonna hit the sack."
Leo and Phoebe both told him good night as he went upstairs. When he was gone Phoebe said, "Looks like things are going better between the two of you."
Leo gave a half smile and said, "It's a start."
Phoebe put a hand on his arm and said, "It will just keep getting better now that you're both working on it. I'm sure of it."
"Thanks Phoebe."
"You bet. So are you
.staying here tonight?"
Leo nodded and said, "Yeah, is Piper here?"
"Nope she's at the club."
Leo frowned. Phoebe saw it and said, "With Paige."
Leo nodded. He said, "I guess I'll make up the couch then."
Phoebe nodded and said, "I'll get some sheets."
Upstairs, Chris set his alarm for 3AM. He knew his mom usually got home around 1:30AM when she had a band at the club, so that gave everyone plenty of time to fall asleep before he got up. He kept his clothes on and went right to sleep.
Chris didn't sleep very well, and was actually ready to get up at three, even though he had only been asleep for four hours. He stood up and quickly sensed that Leo was asleep. Chris smiled to himself and orbed to the underworld. One of the benefits to having Wyatt for a brother was that he knew his way around the underworld. And even though it was a different generation in this time and different people were in power, he still knew enough of the long time demons to get around. He knew he only had a couple of hours to work if he was going to be back in his bed before someone woke up. He stopped the first demon he saw and asked where he could find a demon named Shorb.
Chris was almost surprised at how easy it was to find and get to Shorb. But then he realized that twenty years, and his brother's influence would have done a lot to change the demon. Shorb was Wyatt's right hand man for lots of reasons, but the biggest reason was because he knew how to resurrect vanquished demons. And that was a big reason why Wyatt had won the war between good and evil in Chris' time line. Chris was planning to vanquish Shorb before he left this timeline, but now he thought he would use him first.
Chris found Shorb in a demon bar, drinking and playing poker. Chris thought he looked exactly the same. He was short and thin with short gray hair and dark brown eyes. Chris looked carefully and though maybe he had fewer wrinkles now, but that was about it. Chris waited for him to finish his hand and then said, "Hey Shorb."
Shorb looked up; "Do I know you?"
"No, but I know you, and I have a job if you're interested."
Shorb excused himself and Chris led him to a smaller booth near the back of the room. Chris said, "I need a demon resurrected tonight."
Shorb laughed. "That's a good one kid."
"I'm not joking. She's a Vorish demon named Samantha. She was vanquished twenty eight years ago."
Shorb laughed even louder and slapped his thigh as he said; "Now that is the best joke I've heard all night. That was so good, I'll buy you a drink."
Shorb put his hand up to wave at the waitress, but Chris used his powers to force both of Shorb's hands flat onto the table. Chris said, "Listen old man, I don't have a lot of time, and I need this job done tonight. I know for a fact that you can do it, so cut the crap and tell me how much it's gonna cost."
Shorb tried to move his hands and couldn't. He glared at Chris, and then took a good look at him. He said, "What does a witch want with an old vanquished vorish demon?"
Chris shook his head. "That's my business. Now how much?"
Shorb thought about it. "Five hundred."
Chris nodded and said, "Deal. I'll give you Six hundred if you can do it in the next hour."
Shorb nodded and said, "Okay. I like a challenge. Show me the money."
Chris looked disgusted. He said, "Get started while I get it. Where do you want to perform the ritual?"
Shorb said, "I would give you the address, but my hands are currently unavailable."
Chris let Shorb move his hands again and even handed him a napkin and pen. Shorb wrote down an address and said, "It's an abandoned warehouse. I'll get my stuff together and meet you there, but I won't start the ritual until I see the money."
Chris nodded and orbed away. As soon as Chris was gone, Shorb orbed in a cloud of dark specks. Chris orbed to the side of a small credit union that was downtown. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head, and pulled the strings as tight as they would go, so that there was only a little circle left for his eyes. He pulled his sleeves down so that his hands were covered too. He orbed into the credit union's vault and fumbled to grabbed two of the bound stacks of twenty-dollar bills that said $500.00 on the band with his hands still in his sleeves. He orbed out of the bank with the money and orbed to the front of the warehouse.
Chris pulled his hood off his head and pushed his hands out of his sleeves. He tore the two bands off the money and put them in the small garbage can that was beside a turned over table. Chris said a few words, and the bands caught fire, and burned down to nothing. He put the table up right, and put one stack of twenties on the table, and put the other stack in his pocket. Then he waited. Ten minutes later Shorb orbed in.
Shorb looked surprised to see Chris already there. Chris looked at his watch and said, "Tick tock."
Shorb nodded and went to count and inspect the cash. He nodded and put it in his pocket. Shorb said, "How did you hear about me kid?"
"Shut up and work. Time is running out."
Shorb shook his head. "Not until you tell me."
Chris knew Shorb well enough in the future to come up with a convincing lie. "I've worked with Barbus before, and he told me about you."
"Barbus the fear demon?"
Chris was annoyed, "Yeah, is that a problem for you? Do you want to get paid, or should I just take my money back?"
Shorb shook his head. "I'll do it."
Chris paced and watched while Shorb did his ritual. Forty minutes later Samantha appeared in the middle of a pentagram that Shorb had put on the floor. Samantha looked around her, and touched her arm not quite believing she was really there. Chris looked at his watch, pulled out his money, and gave Shorb one hundred more. As he handed him the money he said, "Now get out."
Shorb gathered up his stuff and left. Samantha looked at Chris and said, "Where am I?"
Chris said, "What's the last thing you remember?"
Samantha thought about it for a second and said, "That bitch Patty took her baby away from me and threw that potion at me."
Chris nodded and said, "You've been gone for the past twenty eight years."
Samantha looked shocked and slowly walked over to the table to sit down. She said, "I was vanquished?"
"Yes. Now how would you like some revenge?"
Samantha took a few minutes to think about it, and then gave Chris an evil smile as she said, "I'd love it. Where is she?"
"Dead, but her daughter is six months pregnant."
Samantha looked disappointed, but gave a slight nod. "I guess that would still be fun. And if it's been that long, I'll need a baby soon."
Samantha looked over at Chris and said, "You got me here, so I assume you have a plan."
Chris nodded and said, "I do. Come with me."
Chris held out his hand and she took it. He orbed them to a hotel that was close to the manor. He led her with him to the front desk. He said, "A room for one for the night please."
Chris made Samantha write down some false information, and he paid cash for the room. They took the keys and headed to the room. Once inside, he counted his money, kept fifty, and handed her the rest. He said, "Tomorrow morning go buy yourself an outfit, and whatever else you need to make yourself look normal."
She counted the money and said, "If you want me to look good it will take more then this."
Chris shook his head. "No I don't want you to look good, I want you to look like an innocent."
She gave him a questioning look, and he told her his plan. When he was done with her, he made one more trip to the underworld to make some more arrangements with the fifty he had left, and finally at 4:45am he was able to orb back to his room. He sighed and smiled to himself as he thought of his plan falling into place. He took off his hooded sweatshirt and as he was about to lay back down on the bed, he heard someone clear his throat.
Chris spun around and even though it was dark in the room, he could see the outline of Leo standing just inside his closed door with his arms crossed. Chris had been startled, and now that he saw who it was he was more then a little nervous. Before thinking much about it he said, "Jesus Leo, you scared the crap out of me."
Leo whispered so he wouldn't wake anyone up as he said, "Where were you?"
Chris thought quick, and kept his voice quiet as he said, "Sorry Leo, I know you told me to stay here, but I couldn't sleep, and I just needed some space. I went up to the bridge to think."
Leo took a couple of steps into the room so he could see Chris' face in the dark and said, "That was the wrong answer."
Chris felt his stomach twist at being caught, and shook his head no once as if trying to convince Leo he wasn't lying. Leo held up his hand and took away Chris' orbing abilities. Chris could feel it leaving him, and felt vulnerable without it. Chris sounded slightly desperate, "No, Leo please don't do this."
Leo shook his head. "You promised me you wouldn't run off, which you did, and then you just lied to me about where you were. I'll give it back in a week."
Chris glared at him and hissed; "If you knew where I was, then why the hell did you ask me about it?"
"I wanted to give you the chance to explain why you were in the underworld at 4:40am when your family thought you were safe in bed."
"So you're spying on me again?"
Leo shook his head no. "No, I actually believed you when you promised me you would stay put. So imagine my surprise when I woke up a few minutes ago and couldn't sense you in the house. I couldn't believe it and came up here to see for myself. When I saw you really were gone, I tried to sense where you were, and I was about to go see what you were up to in the underworld when you orbed home." Leo took another step towards Chris and said, "So what were you doing Chris?"
Chris crossed his arms too and said with bravery that he didn't feel, "None of your God Damn business."
Silence stretched out between them. Leo eventually said, "I thought we had made progress this afternoon. I though that you were going to start trusting me, and confiding in me. How can I make a new future for all of us if you won't give me a chance to prove that things will be different?"
Chris felt bad. He had felt closer to Leo that afternoon then he had in years, and he also had felt the beginning of a trust between them. Leo showing up in his room, and taking his orbing away had caught him off guard, and now regretted what he had said, and wished he had thought up another lie instead. Before he could say anything Leo said, "You went after another demon on your own didn't you?"
Chris thought that sounded convincing and nodded his head. Leo sighed and uncrossed his arms. He put one hand on Chris' shoulder as he said with sincerity, "I understand that it's hard for you to trust us after the childhood you had. But to make things better, and to accomplish what you came here to do, you are going to have to make more of an effort to work with us instead of alone. Maybe after a week of being forced to stay put, you will be more accepting of our help and our trust."
Leo pulled Chris into a quick hug. Chris sounded slightly desperate even to himself when he said, "Please put it back Leo. I understand now how important it is to you, and I promise I won't orb anywhere without letting you know about it first."
Leo let him go, and shook his head. "No."
Chris got mad and turned his back on Leo. He said, "Fine. I'm tired, and I'd like to go to sleep."
Leo had been prepared for Chris to be unhappy and just nodded and said, "Good night again."
Once he heard the door shut Chris sat on the edge of his bed and thought about his plans. He thought it would still work, and he was glad he had been able to get everything done before he had been caught. He lay down and thought about what Leo had done. 'I can't believe he actually took it away again! What the hell gives him the right? I'm an adult, but even as a child, he wouldn't have the right. He lost that right when I was pawned off to Grandpa.'
Chris sighed knew his thoughts weren't true. 'But like Mom said, he hasn't done that yet. He's not that man yet. This is the Dad from when I was little. The Dad who was always smiling. The Dad who was always patient and tried to understand even when he thought I was lying about Wyatt. The Dad who took us to the park, and to magic school to play. But that's what makes it so bad later when he doesn't care.'
Chris put his hands on the sides of his head and pushed in, trying to make his thoughts stop. 'Things would be so much easier if he'd never found out he was my father. If he had just stayed away. I wonder why he stayed here this time. Trying to make up for the future that hasn't happened? I wonder if things had been different, if he would have taken my orbing away for doing something wrong when I was a kid. But what's the use of thinking how things might have been? I have to concentrate on Wyatt and the mission. My issues are not important, and I can't let them interfere with what I came to do. For all of us, not just for me.'
Eventually Chris was able to talk himself into believing this and fell asleep. He was able to get another couple of hours of sleep before the activity in the house woke him up.
Chris went into the kitchen and got himself some coffee as he mumbled good morning to everyone. Piper was scrambling some eggs at the stove, and everyone else, besides Phoebe who had left for work already, was sitting at the table. Chris hoped that Leo hadn't said anything to anyone, because he was still tired and not in the mood to talk about what he had done. Chris stood by the counter and sipped his coffee and watched his mom cooking. She turned to him and said, "You look tired. How did you sleep last night?"
Chris figured Leo must not have said anything to her, so he picked up his coffee and casually said, "Just fine."
He walked towards the table, and as he set his coffee down he heard a familiar popping sound and felt a surge of pain in his rear end. He jumped a little and hissed in pain. He turned around to look at Piper. Piper had put her left hand down after giving him a magical swat, and was now pointing at him with her spatula. She said, "You better stop lying to us mister."
Chris was angry and embarrassed. He was angry that Leo had taken his orbing away, angry that his activities were being monitored, angry that he had been caught in yet anther lie, and embarrassed that Piper had just magically smacked him in front of everyone. He said the first thing that came to his mind, "Then you better stop asking me questions you already know the answers to!"
Piper looked at him with disbelief, which quickly turned to indignant anger. She turned off the stove and put the spatula down. Chris, not quite believing he had actually said that out loud, quickly put his butt in the chair next to him. As Chris was sitting down, Leo stood up and walked over towards Piper. He cut her off half way to Chris and said, "How are those eggs coming? I'm starved."
Piper glared at Leo and said, "You don't even need to eat, so stop trying to distract me."
Leo took her hand in his and said, "His intentions are good Piper, even if he doesn't go about things the right way yet. Give him some time."
Piper looked around Leo and glared at Chris who was looking at his coffee. She nodded and walked back over to her eggs. Leo sat back down and the room fell silent.
After a few seconds of silence, Wyatt squealed and banged his hands on the highchair tray expecting more food now that his handful of Cheerios was gone. Paige gave him the crust of her toast, which he happily gnawed on. Chris darted his eyes up at Leo. Leo had been waiting. He said, "Did you really think I wouldn't tell her?"
Chris said nothing and thought, 'How the hell should I know? She's not around when I'm old enough to understand your relationship, and I changed the relationship you had with her when I sent you to Valhalla.'
A few minutes later Piper brought over a bowl of eggs for everyone. She put some on a plate and put them in front of Wyatt, and then did the same for Chris. Chris noticed that she didn't serve anyone else, just him and Wyatt. As Piper set the eggs in front of Chris she said, "Care to explain why you spent half the night in the underworld young man?"
Chris bristled at her actions, her words, and her tone. He said, "No."
Piper said, "Then I guess Leo was right to make sure you couldn't orb for the next week. Maybe longer if this attitude keeps up."
Chris stood up and pushed his chair away from the table as he yelled, "I'm not a child, and I came back here to this time to do a job. You and Leo are making it impossible for me to get that job done! I need to be free to come and go, and I need to be able to orb. You two are so focused on me now that you're missing the big picture."
Chris pointed to Wyatt and said, "Very soon he is going to be turned, and we have to keep it from happening. I wish you would stop worrying about me and concentrate on him."
Chris turned and walked away. Once he was two steps away Piper raised her hands and flicked first the right hand in the direction of Chris' bottom and then flicked the left hand immediately after. This time Chris couldn't keep in his "Ow!" He covered his butt with both his hands as he turned around to face Piper. He said, "Stop it!"
Piper said, "Come sit down, eat, and talk to us."
Chris desperately wanted to orb away. His butt really hurt now, he was still tired, and arguing with Piper made him feel slightly ill. He slowly walked back over to the table aware that everyone was watching him. He was able to sit in the chair without an obvious wince, even though it took effort. As soon as Chris was sitting, Wyatt clapped his hands and laughed as if it was all a show put on for his amusement. Chris glared over at him, but Wyatt was looking at Piper and missed it. Piper said, "Thank you, now eat something."
Chris was hungry, and put a bit of food in his mouth. The next few minutes were filled with the sounds of everyone eating. The phone rang and Paige went to answer it. A few minutes later she hung up and said, "That was the temp agency. I've got a job doing filing today. Sounds boring. Do you think this outfit is okay for that?"
Piper said, "You look fine. Have a good time, and call us if you need anything."
Paige nodded and got her stuff gathered up to go. By the time she was gone Chris was done eating. He shifted around in his chair and waited for Leo to get done. Piper noticed he was done eating and said, "What are you going to do today Chris?"
"Same as yesterday. Book of Shadows, and demon hunting."
"Like you did last night?"
"Like I do every day, and every night, and every chance I get, because if Wyatt turns evil, this whole family is screwed."
Piper said, "What if you already got the demon who turns Wyatt? What if you've already accomplished the job you came here to do, and now you're just running yourself into the ground for nothing?"
Chris shrugged and said, "I hope to God that I already have, but what if I haven't? I have to keep trying to find out what happens, and trying to kill off as many demons as I can before my time is up. And if I run myself into the ground
.. Oh well."
Piper and Leo gave each other a look. Leo said, "Okay Chris, I'm done. You ready to take a look at the book and decide who to go after?"
Chris nodded and was happy to stand up.
Chris tried not to be obvious about looking at his watch, and two hours later finally decided on a demon named Max to go after. Leo said, "Why him? He isn't even an upper level demon."
Chris said, "Because I know him in the future, and he may be a lower level demon now, but he's power hungry, and he's very close to Wyatt as soon as Wyatt goes to the underworld at sixteen."
Leo accepted that answer and orbed them to the underworld. Leo stood back and let Chris take the lead in looking for the demon. Leo thought Chris was pretty good at getting information out of demons. He seemed to know what to say or do to get them to talk, and seemed to know some of them even though they didn't know him. Very soon they had a lead and were headed towards a cave in the underworld which Max apparently called home. Before they got there, they heard a woman screaming.
Chris and Leo both turned towards the sound, and as the screaming continued they both started running towards it. They both arrived on the scene at the same time. A male demon with greenish skin and no hair was pointing a staff towards a woman's head. There was a red light going from the staff into the woman. The woman was on the ground writhing in pain. Leo yelled, "Hey!"
The demon was startled and the light went off. The woman stopped screaming and lie still breathing hard. The demon glared at Leo and said, "Now I'll have to start over. This is my human, get yourself another."
Chris said, "I don't think so."
Chris waved one of his hands towards the demon, and he went flying a few feet back. He landed with a thud on the ground, and Chris waved his hand again and sent the staff flying the other direction. Leo went to the woman and said, "Are you okay?"
She started to get up with Leo's help and said, "I
I think so."
The demon started to get up, and looked ready to fight. Chris went and put a hand on Leo as he said, "I think we should get out of here Leo."
Leo looked over at the approaching demon and orbed all three of them to the manor. The woman looked around and gasped. She said, "How did you do that? Are you one of them? Are you going to hurt me too?"
Leo talked in a soothing voice; "You're safe here. We aren't demons, and we're going to protect you to make sure you won't get hurt again."
The woman looked at him and apparently believed him. She gave a slight nod. Leo said, "Are you hurt anywhere?"
She shook her head no and said, "It really hurt when he was pointing that light at me, but once the light was gone I was fine."
"Good. Okay, how about you sit down on the couch here."
The woman sat and Leo turned to Chris and said, "Go get Piper, so she can help."
Chris nodded and went to find Piper. He found her putting Wyatt down for a nap. She saw him and took the monitor with her as she lay Wyatt down and left the room. In the hall she whispered, "What's up?"
"We have an innocent downstairs, and we need your help."
Piper nodded and they went downstairs together. After some introductions and explanations of witches and demons, Piper asked, "Okay Sam, tell me what you were doing right before the demon attacked."
Sam thought for a second and said, "I was taking a walk. It was such a nice day out, I decided to take a short walk. Then this monster
. demon I guess, jumped out from behind a tree and grabbed me. I was about to scream, but then we were in that huge cave, so maybe he knocked me out for a while. Or maybe he can get from place to place like you can."
Piper said, "Did he say anything to you? Did he tell you why he wanted you, or what he was going to do to you?"
Sam said, "He said he wanted to take my memories. I don't understand why he would want them. All I know for sure is that I'm glad it's over."
Chris said, "I wouldn't be too sure about that. I got a good look at him, and I think I remember him from the book. I'll be right back."
As Chris left the room Piper said, "Anything else you can remember?"
Sam shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, it was all just so sudden. Do you really think it's not over? Will that demon be back for me?"
Piper said, "Maybe, but we'll do everything we can to protect you."
A few seconds later Chris came back downstairs holding the book open to the correct page. There was a picture of the demon that had been attacking Sam, and he was holding his staff. Chris read it "Janbox Demons These demons are able to erase a person's memories through the use of a spell and a cane or staff. Once the person's memories are erased, they can possess the person's body and often try to take over their lives so that they can live out in the open. At the bottom of the page there's a vanquishing potion for them, and a spell to get back memories."
Sam looked really scared and said, "So he might be coming back for me. He might know about my life already and he wants to have it for himself."
Piper asked, "Are you married? Is there anyone who might be worried about where you are right now?"
Sam shook her head. "I live alone."
Piper said, "Then you're probably a good target, and he might be back."
Piper turned towards Leo and said, "I'll keep Sam here with me and Wyatt in case the demon tries to come after her, and while Wyatt's napping I'll make the vanquishing potion. You two go find out where the demon is so that when the vanquish is ready I'll know where to find him."
Leo nodded and put a hand on Chris' shoulder to orb them both back to the last place they saw the demon.
Phoebe was just about to go to lunch when she got a call from Darryl. As always she was happy to hear from her friend. "Hey Darryl, what's up?"
Darryl sounded serious and upset, "We've got a problem Phoebe. Could you come down to the station? There's something that you should see."
"Sure, I'll be right there."
"Okay. When you get here pretend you came over to have lunch with me, but keep your eyes on the TV screen next to Bob's desk."
"Got it."
Fifteen minutes later Phoebe arrived at the police station. She had been there plenty of times, and most of the cops knew her as a casual acquaintance of Darryl's. No one thought much of it when she came in to take Darryl to lunch. As she walked in the room Darryl said, "Hey Phoebe, could you wait for just a few seconds before we go to lunch?"
She nodded and sat down at his desk to wait. Darryl was talking to Bob and said, "I don't know what you're gonna tell that guy at the credit union. You could tell him his video tape is faulty."
Bob said, "There's nothing wrong with the tape!"
Darryl said, "There obviously is. People don't just appear and disappear."
"Well this guy did!"
Darryl shook his head and said, "Let's see it again really quick before I go. Then take it to the lab and I'm sure you'll find out it's been tampered with somehow."
Bob grumbled and rewound the tape in the VCR for a couple of seconds and then pushed play. As the three of them watched a hooded figure appeared, took some money, and disappeared. Bob said, "There! That wasn't faked! I've seen faked tapes, and that was real, and the money is missing."
Phoebe felt kind of queasy as she watched and recognized the sweatshirt that Chris usually wore.
Darryl smiled and said, "Sure Bob. You call the credit union manager and tell him some guy just appeared in the vault, and took some money. Tell him we have no leads, and that we have no way to help him. Or take the tape to the lab."
Bob nodded and popped the tape out and headed to the lab. Darryl and Phoebe exchanged a look. Phoebe said, "How about the deli across the street for lunch?"
"Sounds good."
As soon as they were outside Darryl said, "The only people I know who orb are Leo, Paige, and Chris. The guy on the tape wasn't a girl, and was thinner then Leo."
Phoebe nodded and said, "He wares that sweatshirt all the time."
"What the hell was he doing Phoebe? I didn't see any demons in the vault, and I don't see how stealing a thousand dollars is working for the greater good."
"I don't know what was going on, but believe me I'm going to find out. I'm sure Chris thought he had good reason
."
Darryl sighed and said, "Phoebe, I'm a cop. I can't just overlook a crime like this. No reason is good enough."
Phoebe nodded. She said, "I agree, and I promise you that it won't happen again. We will make sure Chris understands that it can't happen again, and if it does, we'll make him turn himself in."
Darryl said nothing and thought about it. Phoebe pleaded, "Come on Darryl, you know Piper and Leo well enough to know that they are honest people, and they aren't going to let their son run around stealing money."
Darryl did know all of them pretty well, and he knew they were good. He slowly nodded and said, "What about the tape?"
Phoebe said, "After lunch get me as close to the tape as possible, and I'll do a spell to erase it. I shouldn't need to touch it, I'll just need to be a few feet from it, and I can say the spell under my breath, so it's okay if some people are around."
Darryl nodded again and said, "Okay Phoebe, but this is a one time deal. If I see Chris doing anything illegal again, we'll be doing things my way."
Phoebe sighed with relief and started thinking about how to word a spell to erase the tape.
Back at the manor Piper had started to make the potion. Sam was standing watching, and when Piper was half done Sam said, "Would you mind if I made some tea? My nerves are shot, and I really could use something soothing."
"Go right ahead."
"Would you like some too?"
"Sure, I like the mint tea in the top cupboard."
Sam nodded and put the water on to boil. She got out the two cups and put a mint tea bag in each. In one of the cups, she added some powder from her pocket. By the time the kettle boiled, Piper was done with her potion. Sam poured the tea and handed Piper a cup. They both sat down and took a few sips and talked a little bit about Piper's pregnancy. Once her tea was about half gone Piper felt a little drowsy. She took another sip and said, "I'm gonna get Leo over here to see if he's found anything out yet."
Piper said, "Leo!"
A few seconds later Leo and Chris orbed in. Piper said, "Did you find him?"
Leo said, "Yeah, he doesn't seem too concerned. He's sitting in a bar drinking."
Piper yawned and said; "He must not know who he's dealing with."
Piper got up to get the vanquishing potion and felt a little lightheaded. She said, "Oh." And sat back down.
Leo and Chris both rushed to her side. Leo said, "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"
Piper took a deep breath and waved them both off as she said, "I'm fine. It's just the pregnancy."
Piper started to stand up again and Chris said, "But if you're tired, you should stay home. Leo can get Paige or Phoebe, and they can vanquish the demon while we stay here and let you relax. I can protect Sam if you want to lay down."
Piper was feeling tired and reluctantly nodded. She said, "The potion is on the counter."
Leo nodded and said, "Okay. I'll be back when it's done."
Leo decided since Paige was at a new temp job, and since the jobs usually turned into someone needing her help in a magical way, that he would go ask Phoebe first. He orbed close to the building she worked at, and walked in. He found out she was out to lunch, and turned to leave when Phoebe walked in. Phoebe said, "Leo?"
Leo said, "Hi Phoebe. Do you think you could take another fifteen minutes or so for lunch?"
Phoebe nodded and said, "Actually I need to talk to you too, so this works out well."
Phoebe let her secretary know she would be gone another half an hour, and left with Leo. As soon as they were outside Leo handed her the vanquishing potion and said, "We have a demon to vanquish, and an innocent to save."
Phoebe nodded and said, "I had lunch with Darryl today, and saw a really interesting video."
"A video?"
"I guess the local credit union was robbed last night, but no one broke in. Someone just appeared in the middle of the vault, and took a thousand dollars, and then disappeared again. Someone wearing a familiar gray hooded sweatshirt."
Leo shook his head not believing it. He said, "Chris? Why would Chris steal money?"
"I think that's a question you should ask your son."
"You saw him do it? You know it was him?"
"I saw the tape. I couldn't see his face because he had his hood pulled up over his head, but I'm sure it was him."
"But
.. Why?"
Phoebe shook her head not knowing the answer. Leo said, "What about the tape? Did you get it? Are they going to be able to figure out it's him?"
"I did a spell and erased it."
Leo was immediately relieved, but at the same time knew it wasn't exactly the right thing to do. He said, "Thank you Phoebe."
"Well I had to stop people from finding out about magic. We don't want the Cleaners to come back, and we can't have people knowing Chris can orb. But really I mostly did it for him. I've become attached to him, even if he is a thief."
Leo didn't find it amusing and just stood there thinking. Phoebe said, "But Darryl knows, and he said the next time he sees Chris doing something illegal, he won't let it slide."
Leo nodded in understanding, but still couldn't figure out why Chris would be stealing. Phoebe said, "Leo?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't we have a demon to vanquish?"
"Oh, sorry."
Leo put his hand out, and she took it. They orbed to the underworld.
Piper went to lie down on the couch and was slightly wobbly as she walked. She put a hand to her head and said, "I guess I'm more tired then I thought. I can't keep staying at the club until one and getting up with Wyatt at six. It's just not working."
Chris felt a stab of guilt at that. He knew how hard his mom worked at both the club and at home, and then this pregnancy was wearing her out. He helped her put her feet up and said, "Do you want me to get you anything? Are you comfortable?"
Piper nodded and said, "I'm fine. I just need some sleep."
Chris nodded and very soon her breathing became even. Chris looked over at Sam and saw that she was smiling unpleasantly. He started to have some serious second thoughts about his plan. 'Crap, what if something goes wrong? But what if I don't do this and Mom ends up dead because of it? I have to make them do things the way I think they should be done, because I'm the only one who understands what the future is really like.'
Samantha started to chant and spread some gray dust over Piper's stomach. Chris stammered, "Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all."
Sam chanted louder. Chris thought, 'Oh well, just let her do the spell, and then I can talk Piper into moving to magic school, help them find Samantha's entry in the book, and hopefully have little me back inside the correct womb by the end of the day.'
Sam's stomach started to swell, and Piper's stomach started to diminish in size. Chris felt odd, and looked down at his hand. It was transparent. He looked back over at the scene in front of him and said, "Oh Sh
"
Soon the ritual was done and Sam felt the baby move inside her. He had a strong soul, and she knew that once she had consumed it, the soul would keep her young and beautiful for a long time to come. She turned back to talk to Chris and found he was gone. She mumbled, "He could have at least said goodbye."
She orbed in a cloud of black specs to the underworld and tried to decide where she was going to hide.
Vanquishing the demon took less then ten minutes, and Leo orbed Phoebe back to work. Leo orbed home wondering how he was going to bring up the subject of the tape to Chris, and wondering if he should talk to Chris alone first, or discuss it in front of Piper. Leo saw Piper lying on the couch, and immediately noticed her stomach was thin. He ran to her side and put a hand on her shoulder as he said, "Piper?"
Piper stirred in her sleep. He shook her slightly to wake her up, but it didn't work. He yelled, "Chris! Sam!"
When no one answered, Leo tried to sense Chris, and was shocked to find that he couldn't sense him anywhere. Leo tried to sense Wyatt and knew he was still asleep in his crib upstairs. Leo tried to heal Piper, but there was nothing to heal. He yelled, "Paige!"
A few seconds later Paige orbed in. Leo said, "Something is very wrong. I need you and Phoebe home now. Chris is gone, and baby Chris is gone, and Piper is unconscious."
Paige shook her head no not believing, and with a look of horror on her face orbed to Phoebe. Once she was gone, Leo put his hand on the side of Piper's face and said quietly, "You have to wake up Piper. We need you to wake up and tell us what happened."
Leo reached down and felt her stomach, which was completely flat. He whispered with desperation, "Chris, where are you?"
Paige and Phoebe orbed in, and as Phoebe saw Piper she put her hand to her mouth and whispered, "No."
Phoebe walked over and kneeled down next to Piper and Leo. She said, "What happened?"
"I found her like this. I can't sense Chris anywhere."
Phoebe said, "Wyatt?"
"Upstairs asleep."
Paige said, "I'll look at the book and see if I can find anything."
Phoebe said, "I'll try to scry for adult Chris."
Leo felt helpless. Phoebe put a hand on his arm and said, "We'll get him back Leo."
Leo nodded. As she stood up, Phoebe said, "Try to sense baby Chris."
Leo hadn't thought about that. He wasn't sure if he could, but he closed his eyes and tried.
Five minutes later Paige and Phoebe were both up in the attic. Paige was frantically flipping pages in the book, while Phoebe was scrying for Chris with a piece of his hair she had found on the brush in his room. The attic was devoid of conversation. Suddenly the Book of Shadows flipped some pages by itself, and left itself open to the page that had Samantha's entry. Paige said, "Did you see that?"
Phoebe turned and said, "What?"
"The book opened itself to a page."
Phoebe looked up and said, "Thanks Grams."
Phoebe ran over to the book and took a look at the entry. Phoebe nodded and said, "This has to be it. I'll go tell Leo, you start on both potions."
Paige nodded and Phoebe ran downstairs. Leo was still trying to sense the baby, and as she touched his arm Leo looked over at her with tears in his eyes and said, "It's very faint, but I think I can sense the baby. I think he's still okay."
Phoebe said, "We think we've found the demon that did this."
As she was talking Piper stirred and put a hand to her head. Piper said, "Wow, my nap didn't help at all. I feel worse now."
Piper started to put her hand down and froze. She jerked up to a sitting position and looked down at her stomach. She felt her stomach and looked over at Leo and Phoebe with panic. She said, "The baby?!"
Leo held her hand and said, "I can sense him just barley. He is alive, and well. We think we know who took him, and we're getting him back."
Piper started to cry and said, "He's only six months old. That's too premature. Some baby's don't survive
.."
Phoebe shook her head and said, "No sweetie. He's inside a demon right now. He hasn't been born."
Piper looked around and said, "Where's Chris?"
Before anyone could answer Piper jumped up and said with panic, "Wyatt!"
Leo kept a hold of her hand and said, "Wyatt's asleep in his crib, and he's fine."
Piper turned to Leo, "Chris?"
"I can't sense him anywhere."
Piper broke down and couldn't do much besides sob. Leo pulled her into a tight hug and said, "We'll get him back Piper, I promise we will."
A few minutes later Piper was able to get out between crying, "But
.. if Chris is gone
That means
we don't save the baby!"
Leo shook his head. He let go of Piper and held her at arms length and gave her a little shake. He said, "No Piper. I don't believe that, and you can't either. You have to be strong and work with us to get the baby back. Chris will be back with us as soon as we get the baby back inside you."
Phoebe who had been standing there not sure how to help said, "That's right! Remember when you two got stuck in that other dimension, and you
.you know
.conceived Chris, he had disappeared for a while, but then reappeared once you two were safe."
Piper wiped at her face and tried to make herself believe them. She nodded once and said, "Okay, let's get them back."
Leo kissed her forehead and held her hand as they all went upstairs to look at the book and make the potions.
Fifteen minutes later Piper had written down the spell, and was holding a vial of the potion she needed to take once they had Samantha. Phoebe, Paige, and Piper all had a vial of the vanquishing potion. Phoebe started to gather up the crystals and put one on the attic floor. Piper said, "No, let's do the spell in the living room. Just in case the reverse needs to be done in the same place."
They all headed downstairs and Paige said, "I don't get how it can be her, when she was vanquished by our Mom so long ago."
Piper said, "We're gonna find out."
As they were walking by Wyatt's room Piper looked in and saw he was still asleep. Soon they were downstairs, and Phoebe had set up the four crystals in a square to hold Samantha once she was summoned. Leo stood back, and the three sisters held hands, and did a summoning spell to get Samantha in the crystal cage. Samantha appeared and looked startled. She tried to orb, but couldn't . She tried to run, but couldn't. She turned to look at Piper and said, "How did you get me back here?"
Phoebe said, "Yeah, you haven't been around for a while have you? Ever heard of the Charmed ones? The power of three?"
Samantha gave her a blank look.
Piper didn't say anything and drank the potion and said the spell to get her baby back. Piper looked down and her stomach started to swell. Samantha looked at her stomach as well and screamed, "NO! He's mine! I need him!"
Piper just kept looking at her stomach. She was pleased that it didn't hurt as it swelled. The millisecond that the spell was completed, adult Chris reappeared in the room and said, "
..it"
Everyone turned to look at him. He took a step back, being surprised by everyone in the room with him. Piper went to him and pulled him down into a crushing hug. She whispered, "You're safe now. You're both safe now."
Chris hugged her back and realized what must have happened. He said, "How long was I gone?"
Piper let him go and said, "Less then half an hour."
Chris got a good look at her and saw she was crying. Piper turned back to Samantha and walked up to the cage. While she was doing that, Leo walked over to Chris and pulled him into another hug.
Piper yelled at Samantha, "How did you get to this time!?"
But Samantha wasn't looking at Piper, she was looking at Chris. She said, "You were the baby? But that doesn't make sense. You had to know what was going to happen. Why would you want me to take you?"
Leo let go of Chris and looked over at Samantha not quite believing what he had heard. Chris panicked. He used his telekinesis to move one of the crystals and then used it again to take Phoebe's vanquish vial out of her hand and fling it towards Samantha. It only made it half way there. The vial hung in mid air and Chris turned his eyes to his mother who had frozen it in place. Piper still had her hands up and used them to also freeze Samantha for the time being.
Piper turned to Chris and stared at him. Chris' eyes darted around the room and noticed that everyone was looking at him, and they all looked furious. He backed up a couple of steps and said, "I can explain."
Piper yelled, "You did this?!"
Chris swallowed and said, "Well
Um
"
Piper knew by his reaction that he had. She yelled, "How dare you try to hurt my baby!!!"
Leo could tell that Piper was seeing red, and stepped in between Piper and Chris. He was facing Piper when as he said, "He IS your baby Piper. He tried to hurt himself."
Piper glared at Leo. Leo said, "Let's put the crystal back, and get the whole story from Samantha and Chris before you start blowing people up."
Piper got some control over her anger and nodded as she plucked the vanquishing potion from mid air. Leo put the crystal back into formation to make the cage, and Piper turned to Chris and said, "Talk."
Chris paused gathering his thoughts and Piper said, "And remember we'll be asking Sam to tell her version when you're done, because I don't trust you right now."
Chris could feel his stomach twisting at that. He looked down at the floor and decided to be honest, because Samantha knew most of it. "I know a demon from the future who can resurrect vanquished demons. I had him resurrect Samantha. I told her my plans, and then I set Leo and myself up to 'accidentally' run into Sam at noon. I made sure she was here alone with you so she could give you the potion. Then when I got here, she did the spell to get baby me inside her. I didn't plan on disappearing, that was a surprise."
The room was quiet for a second and then Piper said, "Why? Why would you do that Chris?"
Chris looked up at her imploringly, "To make you move to magic school where you and Wyatt will be safe."
Piper shook her head not believing it at first. "So let me see if I've got this right. You had Samantha brought back from the dead. You set us all up to believe that she was an innocent. And then you just stood there while she cast a spell on me and took my baby! All because you wanted to make me move!!"
Piper had started off in a normal tone, but by the end she was yelling. Chris cringed at her volume. He said, "You need to move Mom. I need you and Wyatt out of the way and safe, so that I can keep looking for the demon that turns Wyatt evil. I tried to talk you into moving, but you wouldn't agree."
Piper had heard enough. She turned back to Samantha and unfroze her. She said, "I would really appreciate it if you would tell me how you know my son."
Samantha said, "How can he be here and
." She pointed to Piper's stomach "
.there?"
Piper raised her hands and flicked them at Samantha's shoulder. Samantha was thrown back and knocked against the force field that the crystals put up. Samantha got up holding her shoulder. She took her hand off her shoulder and saw some blood. Piper said, "How do you know my son?!"
Samantha took a shaky breath and said, "I appeared in a warehouse yesterday in the middle of the night. I saw Chris there, and another demon. Chris paid the demon, and then he left. Chris orbed me to a hotel, and paid for me to spend the night and get myself some clothes. He told me he was going to help me get revenge on Patty for vanquishing me. He said I could have her daughter's baby since Patty is dead. He told me to pretend to be an innocent, and he told me where and when to meet him. He said he was going to get a Janbox demon to help us out with the charade. But I still don't know why he would want me to take him."
Piper nodded. She was close enough to the force field to kick one of the crystals out of the way. Before Samantha realized what was happening, Piper had tossed her vanquishing potion at her. As Samantha burst into flames and screamed, Piper yelled, "He's my baby, and you can't have him!"
A second later Samantha had disappeared. Piper turned to Chris. She pointed at him and said, "You turn around."
Chris looked confused for less then a second. Then he looked at her with surprise and took a step back. He gave his head a barely noticeable shake no. Piper glared at him. He darted his eyes to Phoebe who looked a little confused, and to Paige who looked embarrassed. Piper yelled, "Turn around!"
Chris looked back at her with panic and said, "I
"
Then Leo was in between them again with his back towards Chris. Piper said, "Move Leo."
Leo shook his head no. "You're very angry Piper, and you've just been through a trauma."
Piper raised her hands and flicked them both at him. Leo exploded into a spray of blue lights, and then reformed in front of her. Piper yelled, "Trauma?! You mean the trauma where my baby was ripped from my womb while my son just stood there?! That trauma?!"
Leo held his hands up and said, "You are in no shape to deal with Chris right now. You need to calm yourself down. All of this stress can't be good for the baby. I'll deal with Chris."
Chris thought this sounded like a very good idea, and anxiously waited to hear what Piper would say. Piper raised her hands up again, but then heard Wyatt making noise on the baby monitor. She put her hands down and gave Leo a glare. "Fine. You deal with him for now."
She leaned to the side so she could see Chris behind Leo and continued, "But we WILL be talking later young man."
Piper turned and walked away towards Wyatt's room to get him up from his nap.
Everyone was quiet until she was out of the room. Chris felt relief wash over him, and he took a deep breath now that the immediate danger to his butt was gone. Leo looked over at Paige and Phoebe and said, "Thanks for being here for us, and helping us."
Phoebe said, "You know we'll always be here for you and Piper, and our nephews."
Paige nodded in agreement. Leo smiled and said, "Thank you. I'm gonna need to talk to Chris alone for a few minutes now."
Phoebe nodded. "I need to get back to work."
Paige took her hand and said, "Me too. See you tonight."
Paige orbed them away. When they got to Phoebe's office, Phoebe asked Paige, "Why do you think Piper wanted Chris to turn around?"
Paige explained what had happened that morning at breakfast. Phoebe looked shocked, but then nodded in understanding.
Leo watched the sisters leave, and then took a deep breath before turning to face his son. Chris didn't look up but said, "Thanks for helping out with Mom."
Leo put a hand on Chris' shoulder and said, "Look at me Chris."
Chris looked up. Leo said, "I want you to tell me where you got the money."
Leo watched Chris' eyes open a little wider at that. Chris said, "I
.. I brought it with me from the future."
Leo shook his head. "Wrong answer again Chris."
Chris wasn't sure if Leo knew the truth or not, but it seemed like he did. Chris cursed in his head. Leo said, "You've told me that I didn't believe you when you were younger, and that that is a big part of why you hate me. But how can I believe you, and how can we start building a trusting relationship, when you continue to lie to me?"
Chris wasn't sure what to say. He mumbled, "I'm sorry."
Leo put an arm around Chris' shoulders and started walking them towards the couch. Leo said, "I'm sorry too. I'm sorry that you don't trust me. I'm sorry that the childhood you had was so much worse then the childhood I had planned for you. I'm sorry that you think you have to lie and steal to get things done. But mostly I'm sorry that I have to punish you now."
Before Chris had time to react to what Leo had said, Leo sat on the couch, and pulled Chris over his lap. Chris' first thought was that Leo was going to spank him, but quickly disregarded that idea, because he just couldn't believe his father would do that. He tried to stay calm and said, "What's going on Leo?"
Leo wrapped his left arm around Chris' waist, and pulled Chris up tight against his torso. Leo said, "I'm going to spank you for lying, stealing, manipulating your family, and putting yourself and your mother in danger."
Chris was speechless. He shook his head no, still not believing it, and not believing that Leo had sounded so calm and matter of fact about it. The first smack surprised Chris and made him jump. The second smack made him jump again, and he kept shaking his head no with disbelief.
Leo had never considered himself the kind of parent who would spank his kids, and if someone had asked him if he would ever spank one of his kids once they were grown up, Leo would have laughed at the notion. But then if someone had told him his son would do the things that Chris had done, he wouldn't have believed them. He still found it hard to believe that Chris had stole the money, and just stood there watching while a demon had taken Piper's baby. He thought that he needed to do something drastic to show Chris that what he had done wasn't acceptable, and he also knew this was similar to what Piper had had in mind and would agree with what he was doing.
By the tenth swat Chris finally accepted that this really was happening to him. But he still couldn't put together in his head the fact that the person swatting him was his father. He yelled, "Leo, this isn't you! You don't spank me or Wyatt! Even when you thought I was lying about Wyatt you didn't spank me!"
Leo kept spanking and said, "It wasn't me before but it is me now. You've changed me Chris. Valhalla was only the first step towards changing me. I may hate this, and I may regret that it's necessary, but I will do it, because I think it's what is best for you, and I'm sure Piper agrees."
Chris remembered his confrontation with Leo in Valhalla. He had actually been afraid Leo would hurt him for a few seconds before it was over. Chris was quickly brought back to the present, as the spanking was continuing, and starting to really hurt him. He wasn't sure how many swats he had gotten, but it seemed like a lot. He started squirming and said, "Leo! This is all wrong! You're a pacifist!"
Leo had been keeping track, and knew he had given Chris twenty swats over his jeans. Leo's hand kind of hurt already, and judging by Chris' reaction he didn't think they were anywhere near done. He stopped spanking and let Chris stand up.
Chris took a few steps back from Leo and took a deep breath. He was glad he had talked some sense into Leo. Leo stood up also and covered the distance between them with one large step. He grabbed the waistband of Chris' jeans with both hands, and quickly undid the button and zipper before Chris realized what was happening. Chris belatedly put his hands on Leo's arms, to make him stop, but it was already too late. Chris said again, "But you're a pacifist!"
Leo looked in Chris' confused eyes and said, "Yes that is a part of me. But there is another part of me that will do anything and everything I think is necessary to protect my family. This may be against my nature, but so is sitting by and doing nothing while you hurt yourself and others."
Leo let go of Chris' pants and was about to grab his arm again when Chris used his telekinesis to fling Leo back onto the couch. It was Leo's turn to be in shock. He just stared at Chris for a few seconds while Chris zipped up and buttoned his pants. Leo sat up and said with a calm he didn't feel, "Okay Chris, if you won't accept this punishment, then I'll get your mother and sisters to bind your powers, and we'll try it again when they're done."
Chris shook his head no vehemently, knowing that his mother probably would agree to strip his powers for a few hours, especially in the mood she was in. Leo said, "Then come over here and take your pants down. We aren't done yet."
Chris stood there thinking for a few seconds. He certainly didn't want to go over to Leo, but he didn't see many other options. He couldn't orb, and if he didn't let Leo do it, his mother and aunts would bind his powers. And he knew that without his powers, Leo was stronger then he was. He decided to try a different approach. "Please don't Leo. I understand that you're mad, and that what I did
.."
Leo raised his voice for the first time during their confrontation and said, "Come here, Right Now!"
Chris knew that he was out of options, and that he would just have to accept whatever Leo was planning on. As he slowly walked over to Leo, he tried to console himself with the thought; 'Maybe he'll heal me when he's done.'
Once Chris was next to Leo, Leo reached up and undid the pants again. He let his irritation show by yanking the pants and boxers down to Chris' knees and then yanking Chris back over his lap. Chris landed with an, "Oof."
Leo started spanking again harder and faster then before. Chris immediately noticed the difference and yelled, "Oww! Shit! Oww!"
Very soon Chris was kicking his legs and yelling or grunting with each swat. Leo paused long enough to say, "You will stop lying to us Chris."
Leo brought his hand down again and Chris yelled, "Okay!! Aahh! I got it!"
Leo gave Chris another ten swats before pausing again. Chris was close to tears and hoped Leo was done. Leo said, "Darryl called Phoebe today, and showed her a video of you stealing money from a bank."
Chris groaned at that news. He was in such a hurry, he hadn't checked for video cameras. Leo said, "Phoebe got close enough to the tape to erase it, so you'll be happy to know you won't be going to jail for bank robbery."
Chris was a little irritated with Leo's sarcasm. Chris said, "Like I couldn't just orb out of prison."
Leo couldn't believe his ears. "You seem to think you're above the law."
Chris struggled for a second against Leo's arm that was holding him down. Leo didn't let him up. Chris said, "I am here to save the world. Not just us Leo, the world. If I don't succeed, the whole world will not only know about magic, but they will be afraid of it. Wyatt is the law in my future. I don't even exist in this time yet, so yeah, I think I am above the law. I'll do whatever I need to do, to keep Wyatt from turning."
Leo said, "But you didn't take that money because Wyatt was in imminent danger of being turned. You took it so you could pay off some demons to hurt your mother."
Chris didn't like the way Leo phrased that. "I wouldn't let anyone really hurt Mom."
Leo gave Chris ten more swats and then said, "You hurt her today, more then you can even imagine Chris."
Chris shook his head and said, "I didn't want to. I
I had to."
"No you didn't, and now you've damaged the bond that was forming between the two of you. Piper will forgive you, but it won't be easy for her. You're going to have to work pretty hard at earning back her trust."
Chris started to cry when he heard those words. Leo continued, "And now we'll have to try and come up with a thousand dollars to pay the bank back, and you know with your mother and Phoebe being the only ones brining in a regular paycheck, that it won't be easy to come up with it."
Chris was surprised out of his crying. He wiped at the couple of tears that had slid down his face and said, "What?! What do you mean pay back the bank? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! The bank makes plenty of money! They can afford to loose a thousand without even blinking."
"But we can't afford to let you get away with it."
Leo started spanking again while Chris furiously struggled and yelled, "Don't be stupid Leo! Oww! You can't make
Mffff! Mom pay for the
. Ahh! Money I took!"
Leo kept spanking and said, "We will pay it back, and your mother will agree with me."
Chris was a mess of emotions and pain. He started crying again. Leo could tell he was crying, but still gave him a couple more swats. Leo knew Chris had to be pretty sore by now, and saw that his butt was a deep red. Leo said, "Okay Chris, we're almost done. I just want to go over things one more time, so it's clear in your head why I'm doing this. Because you better believe me when I say I'll do this again if you don't learn what I'm trying to teach you this time. You don't lie to us."
Smack! "Do you hear me Chris?"
Chris nodded and said through his tears, "Yes!"
"You don't steal." Smack! Smack!
"Okaaayyyyy!"
"You are going to stop manipulating us, because it makes us not trust you, and it isn't even an efficient way to get things done. But that shouldn't be a problem anymore since you won't be lying. Isn't that right?" Smack! Smack! Smack!
"Owww! Please stop!"
"Tell me you're going to stop manipulating us."
"I promise
.. I won't do it again!"
"Okay this is the last one Chris, and I'm very serious about it."
Chris wanted the whole thing to be over and said, "Noooo!"
"You won't deliberately put yourself or any of your family in danger again."
Leo gave him ten more hard swats during which Chris yelled, "I'm sorry! Dad! I'm sorry! Please!"
Leo was a little surprised to finally hear Chris call him 'Dad', but was sad that the first time was obviously a slip up on Chris' part because he was so distraught. Leo stopped spanking and rubbed Chris' back for a few seconds while Chris cried. Leo reached down and pulled the boxers and pants back up. Chris gave a little whimper as they went over his butt. Once the pants were in place, Leo orbed them both to Chris' room. Leo was sitting on Chris' bed with Chris still over his lap. He helped Chris to stand for a second and then pulled him down to sit in his lap.
Piper had left the living room furious. She had stormed up the stairs and went to pick up Wyatt. As always, seeing him calmed her down a little. He smiled to see her coming to get him, and she smiled back at him. She got him out of the crib and asked him if he had a good nap while she was changing his diaper. Once he was dressed again and in her arms she decided she didn't want to go downstairs and face anyone just yet. She picked up one of Wyatt's books and sat in the rocking chair with him so they could look at it together. She flipped the pages and absently told Wyatt the names of the things he pointed at, while her mind was busy thinking about Chris.
She thought, 'How could he do it? He just let that demon take him from me. Does he have a death wish? Is he this reckless all the time? How dare he try to force me into moving with this elaborate scheme! It's like our emotions mean nothing to him as long as he gets his way! I can't let this go. I'll have to do something to make sure he understands he can't keep doing it.'
Piper was distracted by the sounds of a scuffle and yelling downstairs. She put Wyatt in his playpen knowing his bubble would protect him if demons were attacking. She rushed out to blow up whoever was attacking. She got halfway down the stairs and as she turned to look into the living room she froze. There across the room was her husband spanking their son. Leo had his back to her, and she couldn't see much of Chris except his back and butt. Leo stopped and said, "You will stop lying to us Chris." And then he started up again.
Piper stood staring at the scene not understanding how they had gotten to that point. She knew Leo had seen her swat him with her magic a couple of times, but she wouldn't have expected this. Then she heard Leo talking about Darryl and the fact that Chris had apparently stole some money to put together his scheme. Piper shook her head, appalled at Chris' attitude towards what he had done. A few minutes later Piper nodded and agreed with what Leo was saying and doing. She felt baby Chris inside her move, and she put a hand on her stomach. She looked over at adult Chris obviously suffering, and didn't want to watch anymore. She thought Leo was doing the right thing, but she didn't think she could do it, and was glad she didn't have to.
She turned and walked back to Wyatt's room and shut the door behind her. Wyatt looked anxious and was reaching up his hands to her to be picked up. She picked him up and he rested his head on her shoulder for comfort. She hugged him close and said, "It's okay sweetie."
She turned on some music that Wyatt liked to drown out the noise, and played with him upstairs for the next half an hour.
Leo was surprised and pleased that Chris didn't try to get off his lap while he was crying. Chris was too distraught to do much besides cling to Leo. Once Chris could think about something besides pain and things his father had said to him while he was getting spanked, he started thinking about Wyatt. He remembered all the times Wyatt had hurt him, and how he had felt after. He had always wanted to get as far away from Wyatt as possible. Even the times that Wyatt had healed him after hurting him, Chris had still always felt the need to run, and be away from his brother. So it was hard for Chris to understand why he didn't even want to let go of Leo right now.
Leo could tell that the crying was slowing down and he said softly, "I love you Chris."
Chris held Leo tighter and finally understood the difference in his reaction to getting hurt by Wyatt and getting hurt by Leo. Leo hugged Chris tighter too and said, "I love you, your mother loves you, your aunts love you, and Wyatt loves you. It's not right to lie to the people who love you. It's not right to manipulate the people who love you. We wouldn't do it to you, and we expect you not to do it to us. Do you understand?"
Chris nodded on Leo's chest. Leo said, "Good. Now I know it's going to be hard for you to trust us, and I know you are going to want to do things your way without consulting us, but I want you to try. And if you keep today in mind for the next few weeks it should help, because I was very serious when I told you I will spank you again if I think you need it."
Chris felt more tears rolling down his face, but nodded in understanding. Leo said, "Tonight I'll talk to Piper, and your aunts and we'll figure out how to get together the money that you owe to the bank. Then tonight, I'll orb you in, and you can do a spell to mess up the security cameras and put the money back."
Chris shook his head thinking this was a very bad idea. Leo said, "Do you need to go back over my lap right now?"
Chris shook his head more violently. Leo said, "Then you will put the money back. And tomorrow morning you and I will go visit with Darryl for a while, and see what he has to say about what you did."
Chris said, "But I
."
Leo swatted him before he got any further. Chris cried out and put one of his hands back to cover his butt. Leo said, "Now is not a good time to argue with me."
Chris kept quiet and tried to stop crying. Leo was done talking and just held Chris for a while.
Ten minutes later they heard a knock on the door. Chris scrambled off Leo's lap, and wiped at his face. Leo stood up and went to answer the door. Piper was standing there holding Wyatt. She looked at Leo for a few seconds, and he was sure that she knew what had happened, and that she wasn't angry anymore. She said, "Can I come in?"
Leo said, "Sure. I'll hold Wyatt."
Piper handed him over and said, "He needs a snack."
Leo nodded and took Wyatt out while Piper walked in. Chris wouldn't look at Piper. He was pretty sure she had heard what had happened, and was embarrassed both about the spanking, and about what he had done. Piper walked over to Chris and looked up into his face. She said, "Chris?"
He looked away from his feet and looked down at her concerned face. She saw his tear streaked face and said, "Oh Chris honey, are you okay?"
He shook his head no. She reached up and pulled him down into a hug. He let her, and was soon crying again and holding onto her. He kept mumbling, "I'm sorry Mom. I'm so sorry."
She put a hand up on the back of his head and held him to her as she said, "I know honey, I know."
A few minutes later she said quietly, "Shh. It's gonna be okay. I know you didn't mean to hurt yourself or me. I forgive you, and still I love you."
Chris didn't cry as long this time. Five minutes later Piper let him go and said, "Why don't you lie down for a little while and rest. I'm going to go talk to Leo."
Chris nodded and let her go. As soon as she shut the door Chris walked to the nightstand and got out some tissues to blow his nose. Then he lay on the bed face down exhausted.
Downstairs Leo was feeding Wyatt some mixed fruit when Piper walked in. Piper went and sat next to him and wrapped her arms around his middle. She said, "How are you?"
Leo set the mixed fruit down for Wyatt to feed himself and turned to Piper. He put his arms around her too and said, "I've been better. How about you?"
"Not so great."
"I need to talk to you about money."
"I know."
"Chris told you?"
"No. I thought there was a demon attacking, and I went down to see you spanking him. I heard that he took some money."
Leo let her go and looked into her eyes. He said, "He took a thousand dollars. Can we get that much together by the end of the day?"
Piper nodded and said, "Actually the club has been doing pretty well since you've been away. I have about three times that in savings right now. It's no problem."
Leo was surprised. He smiled at her and said, "Well that's really good to hear. Can you get that in cash in the next few hours? I want everything to be fresh in his mind when he puts it back."
She nodded. "I can't believe he thought it was okay to take the money in the first place."
Leo sighed. "To hear him tell it, the future he comes from doesn't have much in the way of laws besides whatever Wyatt decrees. So I can kind of understand it. But he still needs to know we don't approve, and won't let him do it."
Piper nodded again. Leo said, "I'm gonna call Darryl and set up a time to meet with him tomorrow so he can talk to Chris personally about what he did."
Piper opened her eyes wider and said, "I wouldn't have thought of that, but it's a really good idea."
After a few seconds of silence Leo said with uncertainty, "Are you angry that I spanked him?"
Piper pulled him down into a kiss and when she let him go she said, "No. I know it had to be hard for you, and I'm proud of you for doing it."
Leo was relieved to hear this, and was more then pleased about the kiss. She hadn't kissed him like that since the night Chris was conceived. And before that it had been over a year. He pulled her in for another kiss, and she let him. When they were done Piper looked over at Wyatt. Wyatt had eaten all of his fruit, had dumped the juice from the plate onto his highchair tray, and was currently taking turns rubbing it all over the tray and into his hair. Piper said exasperated, "Oh Wyatt, we don't rub juice in our hair."
Wyatt looked at her with confusion. She got up to get a wet washcloth. Leo smiled at Wyatt and said, "Oops."
Wyatt smiled and laughed. Piper said, "Don't encourage him!"
The rest of the day Chris was pretty miserable. He had fallen asleep right after Piper had left the room for a short one-hour nap. But when he woke up he hurt all over, with extra throbbing in his head and his behind. He groaned and looked over at his clock. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. Chris lay there and tried to will his head to stop pounding. He couldn't believe that just two days ago he had been punching Leo in the face for not knowing him, and for never being there for him. It seemed like a lot had happened in a short amount of time, and now he truly believed that Leo did know him much better then he had when Chris was a teenager.
He spent most of the late afternoon playing with Wyatt while Leo looked on, and Piper went to run a few errands.
Around five thirty both Paige and Phoebe arrived home within minutes of each other. Phoebe was first. She came in and saw Chris kneeling on the floor rolling little cars around with Wyatt standing beside him watching. She looked over at Leo who was sitting in a chair watching. Phoebe said, "Well this isn't what I expected."
Everyone turned to see her, and Wyatt toddled over to her so she could pick him up for a hug. She picked him up and glared at Chris. She said, "How could you do that to your mother?"
Chris didn't know what to say. Leo said, "Phoebe."
Phoebe glared over at him. He said, "It's over. Chris has been punished, and he's sorry about what he did. We're not going to keep bringing it up."
Phoebe was completely taken aback by what Leo had said. She eventually looked at Chris and said, "Punished?"
Chris turned bright red and refused to make eye contact. Phoebe wasn't sure what had happened, but Chris was obviously effected by it, so she nodded and said, "Okay."
She said, "I'm going to go get out of my work clothes."
She put Wyatt down and turned to leave. But before she made it to the stairs Paige arrived home too and called out, "Hello everyone!"
Phoebe detoured and went to link arms with Paige as she said, "Come up and help me change."
Paige gave her a look and said, "What?"
"Just come on."
Paige let Phoebe take her upstairs, where Phoebe told Paige what had happened. They both speculated on what had happened while they were gone.
Piper was home in time to make dinner. It was obvious to everyone that Chris couldn't stop squirming and ate as quick as he could. Paige and Phoebe exchanged a look. As soon as Chris was done Leo took pity on him and pushed his half-eaten food away as he said, "Why don't you come look at the book of shadows with me, and we'll see who we can go after tomorrow afternoon?"
Chris practically jumped out of his chair and followed Leo to the attic. Once they were gone, Piper told Paige and Phoebe what had happened without going into too much detail. When dinner was done Piper went to the club to work, Paige did the dishes, and Phoebe watched Wyatt.
Later that night when most people were going to sleep Leo and Chris orbed to the credit union and Leo orbed Chris in to put the money back. Chris did two spells, one to erase the videotapes, and one to erase fingerprints off the money after he had put it in the middle of the vault floor. Leo nodded and orbed them home to Chris' room. Chris hadn't tried to talk Leo out of it again, but he was upset about it. When it was done Chris said, "We shouldn't have wasted Mom's money like that Leo."
Leo gave Chris a hug and said, "You shouldn't have stole it in the first place."
Leo let Chris go and said, "Get some sleep. We meet with Darryl down at the precinct tomorrow at ten."
Chris nodded and as Leo was leaving Chris said, "Hey Leo?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you could
. I mean it would be nice if you would
. I'm sure I could sleep better if you would
Heal me?"
Leo shook his head no and said, "Take some Advil."
Chris looked disappointed but didn't argue. Leo said, "Good night." As he shut the door.
Chris did take some Advil and slept pretty well.
The next day Chris had a horrible time sitting in the interrogation room with Darryl and Leo for about an hour, while Darryl yelled at him and told him all the reasons why what he had done was wrong. By the time Darryl ran out of steam, Chris felt like crying again and was more then ready to go. Leo shook hands with Darryl and thanked him for his time. Leo also told Darryl they had replaced the money, and Darryl felt better about the whole issue.
That night when Leo and Chris got home from demon hunting they found Piper packing. Chris said, "What's going on?"
Piper said, "I've decided that since it's so important to you, Wyatt and I will move to magic school for the next three months until you're born."
"Really?"
Piper stopped packing, and went to give Chris a hug. She said, "Yes. I know how important it is to you, and I'm tired all the time now. I talked to the manager at the club last night, and he will be taking over for me while I'm gone. And when he has owner type questions he will call Paige. I think I could use a break. Not to mention a lot more sleep, and there are plenty of people there to help me watch Wyatt."
Chris said quietly, "Thank you."
Piper nodded. "You both remember to visit us at least once or twice a day though, or we will feel unloved and move home whether you like it or not."
Chris took her seriously and said, "We will I swear."
Leo snickered and said, "Twice a day Piper?"
Piper rolled her eyes and said, "Okay once every other day, when you aren't in the middle of a demon hunt."
They all helped Piper finish packing, and went with her and Wyatt to check out the room they would be staying in at magic school.
*************************************
Over the next four days Leo and Chris fell into a routine. In the morning they would eat breakfast with Phoebe and Paige and discuss current duties or jobs the Charmed ones were doing. Then they would look through the Book of Shadows, pick out a demon, and spend the afternoons in the Underworld hunting it. Then in the evenings they would go to magic school and have dinner with Piper and Wyatt.
The day after Leo had spanked him, Chris had been cautious around him. Leo could tell that Chris was spending a lot of his time that day thinking about his behavior and how it would be received by his family. Near the end of that day Chris had been tired, not to mention still sore, and had made a snippy comment to Leo about not being able to orb. Leo had seen a look of worry flash across Chris' face as he took a step away from Leo right after saying it. Leo had wanted to reassure Chris that he wasn't going to whack him at the drop of a hat, and had just calmly told him he wasn't going to get his orbing back until the week was up. He could tell Chris was relieved with his answer, and started to relax and get back to his usual self.
Chris hated not having the ability to orb, and he couldn't wait to get it back. He understood why Leo had taken it away, but he felt incomplete without it, and still found himself trying to orb before realizing he had to ask Leo to orb him. The only other time he had been without his orbing was when he was fourteen and Wyatt had taken it away for a month. He thought it sucked just as much, if not more, this time. After realizing Leo wasn't going to spank him for his less then pleasant opinions, he ended up asking Leo to put it back every day, sometimes several times a day, only to get the same patient answer of, 'You're still grounded, but you can have it back when the week is up.'
Piper and Wyatt were living in one of the dormitories reserved for the teachers at the school. They had a living room, bedroom, and private bathroom. Piper usually ordered food from the kitchen and had it brought up to her room when Chris and Leo came over. Today they were a little late.
Piper looked at her watch again and sighed. She looked at Wyatt and said, "Daddy and Chris are late."
Wyatt said, "Dada."
Piper said, "Yes Daddy is coming to eat with us. I'm hungry. Let's call for our food, and Daddy and Chris can go down and get their food later."
Piper picked up the phone just as Leo and Chris orbed in. She smiled and handed Wyatt to Leo as she ordered food for all four of them. She put the phone down and said, "You two are later then usual."
Chris gave her a look of irritation and said, "It's Leo's fault."
Piper looked at Leo who looked calm as usual. He said, "Chris got slimed today when we killed a Blogar demon, and he had to take a long shower and wash about four times with tomato juice to get the smell off."
Piper tried not to laugh at Chris since he was obviously upset about it. She asked, "So how is that Leo's fault Chris?"
Chris huffed and said, "Because if I could have orbed, the slime wouldn't have hit me."
Piper said, "But you're still grounded for two more days."
Chris had already heard that from Leo more then once over the past hour and was irritated. He tossed his hands in the air and said, "I'm twenty-two!" as if this were all the explanation anyone should need to understand why he shouldn't be grounded.
Piper could tell he was unhappy and having a bad day. She changed the subject. "Why were you hunting a Blogar demon?"
Chris could tell neither of his parents were impressed with his argument of being too old to be grounded, so he sighed and said, "We weren't exactly after him, he just kind of got in the way."
Chris and Leo told Piper about their day, and soon the food came. During dinner Piper told them what she and Wyatt had done for the day. When the food was gone, Piper said, "I should probably go give Wyatt a bath and get him ready for bed."
Leo started to stand but then Chris stood and said, "Hey Mom, why don't you and Leo talk for a while. I could give Wyatt a bath."
Piper turned to him with a surprised expression, not quite believing he had offered to help like that. Then she glared a little and said, "What kind of ulterior motive do you have?"
Chris feigned surprise and said, "None!"
"Chris." Piper said in a warning tone.
Chris' eyes darted nervously between Leo and Piper for a second, and then he looked down as he muttered, "Okay, you got me. I just thought maybe you two could use some time to talk alone. Maybe
you know
. Work some things out
.. talk about the future. Your future."
Piper and Leo exchanged a look. They both understood Chris wanting to still have an intact family when he went back home, and thought it was sweet of him to be playing match maker. Leo said, "Okay Chris, that's nice of you. Thanks."
Chris gave him a shy smile and turned to Wyatt. He said, "What do you say Wyatt? Want me to give you a bath?"
Wyatt held his arms up to be picked up and said, "Iis"
Chris looked at Piper and said, "Did he just try to say my name?"
Piper nodded and beamed. "He did it twice earlier today when I was talking to him about you."
Chris just stared at Wyatt for a few seconds not believing how such a little thing could bring out so many emotions in him. He cleared his throat and got up. He picked up Wyatt and took him into the bathroom asking if he wanted to play with the rubber duck or the frog in the tub.
Piper and Leo looked at each other for a few seconds. Then Piper said, "How's it been going?"
"All things considered I think it's going very well. I'm amazed at how much he knows about the underworld. I guess not all that much has changed in twenty three years. We've killed off at least two demons every day."
"That's good."
"I guess
."
"What do you mean you guess?"
Leo sighed, "It's just that it never seems to be enough for him. I think Chris would keep going and pushing his way through demon after demon until every last one of them in the underworld was dead. We kill one, and he wants to kill three more. I just
. I just wish he could be happier."
Piper put her hand over Leo's. Then she had a thought and said, "Oh, I'll be right back. I need to tell Chris that I used up the last of the baby shampoo yesterday, and the new bottle is in the cupboard."
Piper got up and walked over to the bathroom and opened the door. The site that greeted her did not make her happy. She said, "What do you think you're doing young man?"
The bathtub was filling up with water, Wyatt was standing next to it with his clothes still on, and Chris was kneeling on the floor in front of Wyatt holding a small wand with a blue light at the end against Wyatt's forehead. Chris immediately put the wand down and the blue light faded. He stuck it in his pants pocket, and said, "I
I was just
."
Leo was now at the doorway looking at him too. Piper held out her hand and said, "Give it to me."
Leo looked confused and Chris didn't move. Piper said, "Give me whatever that wand thing was that you were using Christopher."
Chris grimaced at the name and pulled the wand out of his pocket. He stood up and handed it to her. He said, "It's no big deal Mom. It's just a little trinket I picked up today. I thought Wyatt would think it was pretty. I was just about to put him in the bath."
Leo said, "Can I see it."
Piper handed it to him. He looked at Chris and said, "You were out of my site for about half an hour in the underworld today, and you got this?"
Chris looked away and didn't answer. Piper picked up Wyatt who was trying to climb into the tub with his clothes still on and asked Leo, "What is it?"
"It's a Jamko wand. It's used to test a person's morals, and it's very rare. How did you get it Chris?"
Chris mumbled something that neither parent could understand. Piper said, "Turn the water off, you've got way too much water in there anyway."
Chris turned the water off, and Piper started to undress Wyatt who was straining to get down and into the tub. Piper darted a glare at Chris said, "How did you get it?"
Chris looked back and forth between his parents and worried that this whole story wasn't going to go over very well. "Leo and I were going after another Scabber demon today. I had made a vanquishing potion, but he thought it was too dangerous for me to go in since I can't orb."
Chris turned to glare at Leo and said, "Which would be easy enough to fix if he would stop being so stubborn."
Leo's voice held annoyance as he said, "Chris."
Chris turned back to Piper who had Wyatt down to his diaper. She reached down and pulled the stopper out of the bathtub to let some of the water drain out. Chris said, "So Leo wanted to leave me at home while he went to do it, but I told him I should at least be in the underworld so that I could help him if he needed it. I do still have my telekinesis which could help if there was a fight. He finally agreed, and took me down with him. We went to one of the gathering areas for demons, and he told me to stay in that area while he went to find the Scabber demon. While he was gone, I saw a Jamko demon. I didn't believe it at first, but they are pretty distinctive with their yellow skin. So I started a conversation with her."
Piper thought the water was low enough now, so she put the stopper back in, and tested the water temperature with her arm. She turned to Wyatt, took his diaper off, and said, "Okay sweetie."
Wyatt orbed into the tub, and splashed a few times, happy to be there playing with his rubber frog. Leo asked Chris, "Jamko demons don't just give up their wands. How did you get it?'
Chris looked at the floor and mumbled, "I took it."
Piper put her hands on her hips. "You stole it?"
Chris was incredulous at her accusation. He said, "From a demon."
Leo shook his head. "Now she'll be after you. They're tricky, and most of them hate witches and like to kill them."
Chris' voice got slightly louder, and he said, "Well if you had given me back my orbing, the second I saw her there I could have went home, made a vanquishing potion, and gone back. Then I could have talked with her, gotten the wand, and vanquished her ass before she had the chance to even notice that I had taken it!"
Piper couldn't believe that Chris was being so belligerent after Leo had spanked him just five days ago. She said, "I'm fine with you taking something we need from a demon Chris, but why didn't you tell Leo about it so that you two could vanquish the demon before she had a chance to come after you?"
Before Chris could come up with an answer Leo said, "Because he wanted to try out the wand on Wyatt before we had the chance to tell him he couldn't."
Chris turned a little pink at his father's correct assumption. Piper glared and said, "So you didn't tell Leo you had it. You used it on Wyatt without telling me first. You manipulated your father and me into thinking you were being sweet and letting us have some time alone, when really you were trying to get time alone with Wyatt to do something we might not approve of. And then to top it off you lied to me about what it was the first time I asked."
Chris started to feel nervous when the words manipulated and lied came out. Piper then asked, "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Chris shook his head and said, "It's not like that. It's just something I wanted to try. Something that might help determine if Wyatt's been changed. Please don't make this into a big issue Mom."
Piper wasn't having it. She looked at Leo once, who looked just as unhappy as she did. She said, "Too late. It is a big issue, because you were recently punished for these exact same things, and now you're doing them again. Turn around."
Chris backed away from her a few steps, and shook his head no. His butt was fully recovered from the spanking Leo had given him, but he certainly didn't want more.
Piper's voice booked no room for argument, "I told you to turn around Chris."
Chris looked panicked and shook his head no again. He took another step back, and bumped into Leo.
Leo grabbed Chris' arm automatically to steady him. Leo almost let him go, but then at the last second got a tighter grip. Leo had vast amounts of patience, and he could tolerate a lot from Chris without getting angry. But he found he had almost zero patience for Chris not doing what his mother had asked him to do. Leo quickly put the wand in his pocket, and then used that hand to give Chris six hard swats. Chris jumped and yelped in surprise with the first couple of swats, and then tried to get his arm out of Leo's grasp for the rest. When Leo finished he said, "When your mother tells you to do something, you to do it."
Chris looked back at Leo with big eyes full of surprise and hurt feelings. Leo let him go without turning him around and said, "Do as your mother says."
Chris looked at Piper who still looked pretty angry. He closed his eyes, wishing he could disappear, and turned his back on Piper. The swats Leo had just given him had stung, and now he knew his mother planned to give him more.
Chris heard the familiar popping noise and then felt two magical swats in rapid succession landing on his butt. He grit his teeth and tried not to make any noise, but the pain was sudden and strong and a little grunt came out of him even though he tried not to let it. The magical swats hurt much more then the swats Leo had given him. Each swat seemed to hurt his entire butt instead of just one area, and they felt more like an electrical shock then a swat with a hand.
Piper said, "That was for manipulating us."
Chris said, "I'm sorry."
Piper asked, "Didn't you just get spanked for that very same thing less then a week ago?"
"Yes." Chris whispered as he turned bright red.
He heard the noise again, and two more swats came. He had trouble not putting his hands back to cover his butt. And as the pain hit him, he went up on the balls of his feet for a second and yelled out, "Ow! Mom, that really hurts! I said I was sorry."
Piper said, "That was for lying. Your father and I have been working very hard to be honest with you, and to earn your trust over the past few days, and we thought you had been working on it too."
Chris was close to crying at those words. He said, "I know
I do trust you guys....."
Piper cut him off with another swat. Chris couldn't take it, and covered his butt with both hands and said, "Ow! Damn!" and turned back around to face his mom.
Piper said, "Don't tell me that you trust us when you were just caught lying and manipulating us Chris. How does that show trust?"
Chris could see the hurt and disappointment in Piper's eyes, and he felt his own eyes start to fill. He said, "But I do tru
."
She glared at him, and he decided to revise his statement. He found it hard to explain. He trusted them to protect him and Wyatt. He trusted them to always do what they believed was right. He trusted them to protect innocents. He trusted them to use magic for good. But he didn't trust them to make decisions based on the bigger picture. He was taking into account what happened in the future, but they couldn't take that into account because they hadn't experienced it. When he took the wand he had thought about telling them, but he hadn't trusted them to let him use it on Wyatt. And he hadn't considered getting caught either. He stammered, "I really am trying to trust you. Both of you. But
. Sometimes if I think you're going to argue with me about something
. It's just easier to
. well
to do it without asking."
Piper shook her head and said, "You need to think about this the next time you decide it will be easier to do something without talking to us about it first."
Chris nodded. "I will."
"Good. Now turn back around, and keep your hands to your sides."
Chris said, "But
.I
.."
Piper shook her head. "You used that wand on Wyatt without asking me or Leo about it. You turn back around."
Chris felt the tears that he had been keeping at bay slide down his cheeks. He turned around and clenched his hands into fists to try and keep them at his sides. He kept his eyes closed so he wouldn't have to see Leo's expression when his mom swatted him.
Piper saw Chris' tears and felt a stab of guilt for what she was doing. She looked at Leo to see if she had his support. He gave her a small nod to show her he agreed that this was the right thing to do.
Chris heard the noise again, and this time as soon as the two swats fell he shifted from foot to foot, and cried out, "Ow! Mom, Please!" and he felt even more tears, but tried not to be obvious about the fact that he was crying.
Piper put her hands down and said, "That was for using the wand without asking me or Leo about it first."
The room was quite for a few seconds aside from Wyatt's splashing and Chris' shaky intakes of breath. Chris kept his hands to his sides with effort, and he kept his eyes on the ground not wanting to face either parent. He was frustrated that his parents refused to treat him as an equal, and the throbbing pain in his posterior didn't help him feel like an adult.
Piper looked at Leo and said, "Can you finish Wyatt's bath while I talk to Chris?"
Leo nodded. He put his hand on Chris' shoulder and squeezed it once. Then he knelt down on the floor next to the bathtub to play with Wyatt. Piper took a few steps over to Chris, took his hand in hers, and pulled him towards the living room with her. She sat down on the couch and pulled him down to sit down next to her.
Chris automatically tried to stand back up when his butt hit the couch, but Piper kept her hand in his, and he sat back down with a hiss of pain. Piper put an arm around his waist and pulled him towards her. She said in a soothing voice, "Chris honey, I love you, and I'm sorry."
Chris wiped at his face. He darted a look over at her and said, "You're sorry?"
Piper rubbed his back with one hand, and pushed some of the hair out of his face with the other. She nodded and said, "Yeah I am."
He sniffed and wiped at his nose with his sleeve. "Sorry for what? For swatting me?"
Piper leaned over the other way and got some tissues out of the box that was on the small table beside the couch. She handed them to Chris and said, "Don't use your sleeve."
He took the tissues and blew his nose. When he was done Piper pulled him into a hug. He was leaning down a little and resting his head on her shoulder and upper chest. She said, "It's hard to explain. I think you deserved it. I'll do it again if I think you need it. But I'm sorry about it too. I hate knowing that you're hurting."
Chris wrapped his arms around her and felt more tears coming. Being so close to her, smelling her, and having her hold him like this brought old memories to the surface, and opened up old wounds he had buried from her death.
Soon Chris was sobbing into his mother's chest. Piper held him close and rubbed his back while he cried. She didn't know exactly what had brought on the sudden rush of tears, but she knew enough about his past and her future to understand that he had more then one reason to cry.
Piper started rocking them slightly, and started humming to him the way she would hum to Wyatt when he was about to fall asleep.
Eventually Chris said between his tears, "I missed you so much."
Piper knew she would die sometime before Chris came back to save his family, she just wasn't sure when. She squeezed him tighter and said, "I'm sorry I was gone."
Both of them hoped that the new future would be different. Piper kissed the top of Chris' head. "You know my temper sometimes gets the best of me, especially now that I'm pregnant."
Chris nodded. Piper continued, "But it goes away as fast as it comes, and I'm not angry about what you did anymore. Don't get me wrong, if you do it again, I'll be even angrier, and I'm sure either your dad will spank you or I'll swat you. But for now you're forgiven."
Chris shuddered thinking about getting spanked by either parent again.
Piper had said all she wanted to, so she simply held Chris and waited until she felt him shifting around trying to get more comfortable. She let him go, and he sat up. She said, "Look at me."
He reluctantly did. "Did you learn your lesson this time?"
Chris turned pink, looked away, and nodded. She said, "Good. What was it?"
Chris muttered to his lap, "Don't lie, or manipulate you. And don't try out things on Wyatt without asking first."
Piper patted his knee and said, "That's right."
They both heard the bathroom door open, and Leo came out holding Wyatt in a towel. Piper awkwardly pushed her six month pregnant body up from the couch and went over to them. Leo handed Wyatt over and Piper said to Wyatt, "Let's go find you some pajamas."
Piper walked into the bedroom she was sharing with Wyatt to get him dressed for bed. Chris stood up, put his hands in his pockets, and found the coffee table interesting. Leo walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. Chris was surprised at first, but after a few seconds hugged him back.
Leo said, "You should have told me about the Jamko demon, and the wand."
"I know. I'm sorry."
Leo let him go and took the wand out of his pocket. He said, "When Piper comes back out we'll try it on Wyatt."
"Really?" Chris said with some disbelief.
"Sure. I would have let you use it if you had asked. They're harmless enough. It's just the demons that usually carry them that I have a problem with. As soon as we're done here, we're going to have to go make a vanquish for her and track her down."
Chris nodded, knowing that the Jamko demon would come after him if they didn't hunt her down first.
Piper came out with Wyatt, and Leo said, "We're gonna have to go hunt down that Jamko demon, but before we go, I thought we could try this on Wyatt."
Piper asked, "It's safe?"
Leo and Chris said, "Yes." in unison.
Piper put Wyatt on the couch, and Leo held the wand up to his forehead for a few minutes while the end glowed blue. Eventually the light turned yellow and Leo smiled. He turned to Chris and asked, "Feel better now?"
Chris gave a curt nod. Leo put the wand in his pocket and said, "Okay let's go."
Leo picked up Wyatt and gave him a kiss. He said, "Sleep good son. I'll see you tomorrow."
Piper pulled Chris down into a hug and said, "I love you honey. See you tomorrow."
Chris hugged her back and whispered, "I love you too."
After Piper let go Leo tried to hand Wyatt to her, but he held out his hands to Chris and said, "Iis, Iis."
Chris couldn't help smiling and picked Wyatt up long enough to give him a hug. He handed him back to Piper. Leo put a hand on Chris' shoulder and orbed them both back to the Manor.
They were up half the night hunting the Jamko demon, but they did find her, and didn't have any problems with vanquishing her.
A few days later Chris was overjoyed during breakfast when Leo said, "You're week is over."
Leo held up his hand and some blue lights went from Leo's hand into Chris' chest. The second he put his hand down, Chris orbed up to his bedroom and then back down to the kitchen table. He had a huge smile on his face and said to Leo and his aunts, "Just checking."
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