Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 27, 2008 15:30:54 GMT -5
Chapter Six - Family Dinners and Phone Calls
An hour or so later found Wyatt and Chris sitting on opposite sides of the dining room table. Piper was sitting at Wyatt’s left and at Chris right. Opposite Piper was her husband and the two young men’s father, Leo Wyatt. For someone who was born over a century before, Leo looked like a man less than half that. The food was partially eaten. Throughout the meal, Leo kept stealing glances at Chris, as if something wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t identify it.
Finally, Chris looked up, catching Leo’s quizzical look. “Is something wrong, Dad?”
The question Leo asked, was not one Chris expected. “Did you get a haircut?”
“Huh?” A puzzled look crossed Chris’ face as he looked across the table at Wyatt. “Did I?”
Everyone heard Chris’ whispered question, but Piper only gave him a raised eyebrow and Leo frowned. Wyatt shook his head. “Your hair didn’t look like that last night.”
Chris sighed. “I was hoping you would say yes.”
Wyatt shrugged and put a forkful of food in his mouth.
“So what did you want to talk about, Chris?” Piper asked, changing the subject.
Wyatt and Chris both looked at their mother worried.
“Uh . . ,” Chris began.
“Well . . ,” Wyatt hedged.
Piper gave her sons a look. “You two are the ones who said you wanted to talk, so talk.”
It was just then, that the phone began to ring. Wyatt started to stand. Piper stopped him with a look. To reinforce it she added. “Sit. The answering machine will get it.”
Wyatt and Chris looked at each other. Chris gulped. “Actually, it won’t.”
Piper looked at him suspiciously. Wyatt glanced across the table at Chris who shrugged his shoulders. Wyatt looked at the phone on the phone jack across the room. The phone disappeared in blue-white orbs. It then reappeared on the table in front of Wyatt. He picked it up and turned it on. “Hello?”
Piper and Leo stared at him. Then, Piper turned to Chris. “Since when do his powers work?”
Chris glanced over at his brother. Wyatt stood listening to the person on the other end of the phone. After a few second he walked out of the room.
Chris turned back to his parents. “I suppose that’s as good of a place as any to start.”
Piper and Leo looked at him expectantly.
Chris sighed. “See when I closed my eyes the last thing I saw was Dad. Then, when I opened then, the first thing I saw was Wy.”
Leo frowned. “But I didn’t see you yesterday.”
Chris shook his head. “No, but when I closed my eyes I was twenty-three years in the past.”
Piper and Leo both gasped.
Chris forged on. “I’m still the son you know . . . both versions of him, but I have really big gaps in my memory.”
Chris waited a moment, looking at his parents. Finally, Piper spoke. “Does Wyatt know?”
“Know about the memory gaps, the duel lifetimes?” Chris questioned making sure he understood her correctly. “Yeah, he knows. I told him, but I didn’t tell him a whole lot of details. Not that I have much to tell him, since he can probably tell me more about this me, than I can. As to the other, what can I tell him? It’s not normal to tell you big brother that you went back twenty-two-year-old to make sure that some event that happened the day you were born didn’t turn him evil. I can’t just tell him that. He’s not that person. He’s not and I’m so very glad. I died trying to make sure he wasn’t that person.”
“I saw you die.” This time it was Leo who responded. “How is it that you are here, with his memories?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” Chris said uncertain. “But I don’t just have one set of memories any more. And it’s not just memories I got from that day.” Chris picked at the sleeve of his jacket. “I am wearing the same clothes. And when Wyatt woke me this morning, I had the same wound from the athemé as I got them.”
“Chris!” Piper gasped.
Leo looked at him worried. “What happened?!”
“Wyatt orbed me to the attic and he started looking through the Book of Shadows. He found a spell that Aunt Phoebe wrote just for this along with a potion it says that you made, Mom.”
Piper thought about it, but nothing came to mind.
Chris looked thoughtful. “I got the idea that she did this many years ago. While, Wy was looking I got annoyed at him and I closed the book. After he healed me, he realized that I had used my powers. That’s how he knew that he could use his. I just simply didn’t know that there was any possibility that they weren’t available.”
For a moment Piper was transported back in time to a time when her sons were both very young. “I think I remember what you are talking about. It was right after . . . Phoebe gave you a hug one day and she got a premonition. She didn’t tell me what she saw, but she came in with Melody in tow.”
There was confusion in Chris voice as he asked, “Melody?”
Piper smiled with memories from long ago. “She’s our muse. One time before, warlocks were trying to capture the world’s muses and that’s when we learned about Melody.”
Curious Piper asked the obvious question. “So what happened?”
Piper smiled some more and continued. “Phoebe told me that she needed me to make a potion and that Melody was there to help. She said it was very important, so I made the potion. When I asked her what was going on Phoebe wouldn’t tell me. She said she wanted to find out if it worked first.
“Aunt Phoebe kept a secret?” He remembered well his aunt’s inability to keep a secret. Not only from stories told, but also from personal experience in that one and a half years of clear memories.
“Yes, your Aunt Phoebe kept a secret,” Piper informed her son with a slight chuckle in her voice.
“Thanks, Mom.”
Piper shook her head. “Thank Phoebe, I didn’t even know what was going on.”
Chris inclined his head slightly. “I’ll be sure to tell her that it worked the next time I talk to her.” Chris made a small movement with his hand and the butter slid across the table stopping by his plate. He put some butter on his roll.
On the other side of the room Wyatt reentered the room. No one seemed to notice as he walked around behind Chris and put the phone back on the hook.
“So all magic is back?” Piper asked.
Chris shrugged. “Looks that way. That’s why the answering machine wasn’t going to get the phone. I unplugged it and hid it.”
Piper gasped. “Christopher! What did you do that for?”
Chris grinned, but it was Wyatt who answered. “Because there were some messages on there from people telling you that they are seeing magical things happen and Chris wanted to talk to you first.”
Piper turned to look at her oldest. “Wyatt. Who was on the phone?”
“Phone?” Wyatt looked at her confused. Then, a smile tugged at his lips and he responded, again. “Oh, that. It was a telesolicitor. We had a nice little chat about why he should take this house off his phoning list. He was very accommodating.”
Piper laughed. “What are we going to do with you, Wyatt?”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Wyatt appeared to think about it. “Maybe a cake?”
Chris, Piper and Leo all laughed.
“What?” Wyatt pretended to look confused. “I like cake. I’ll even share it with all of you.”
“Maybe when you learn how to bake one yourself,” Piper quipped back.
“Ah, Mom,” Wyatt said with his best fake whine. “I’ll starve and you know it.”
“There’s always takeout,” Chris reminded him teasingly. “And I’ll cook. I mean I really couldn’t live with myself if I let you starve while I ate my home cooked meals.”
Leo stood and walked over to Chris. He put a hand on his son’s shoulder and smiled down at him. “I’m glad you’re all right, Chris.”
Chris looked up at his father with a smile. He pushed out his chair and stood Chris pulled Leo into a hug. “I’m glad you didn’t give up, Dad. You reached him in time and he reached me in time. Thanks.
The End