Post by StoryGirl83 on Oct 4, 2008 21:59:27 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Safe Topics of Conversation
Wyatt found Leo and Paige upstairs in the room he shared with Chris as a little boy. He smiled as he walked in and looked at his dad standing next to his bed. Paige was sitting at the end of the bed, baby Chris in her arms. She looked up at the sound of his footsteps. “Hi, Wyatt.”
Leo turned his head enough to see the older version of his son standing in the doorway. He smiled, happy to see his son happy, healthy, and good. “Are you going to stay a while?”
“Just for the night,” Wyatt replied. “If I can talk Chris into it. He’s rather fanatical at times when it comes to the timeline. Made Uncle . . . well, never mind that, but he made someone tell us a whole bunch of family history once.”
“Uncle?” Paige asked curiously. “My husband or Phoebe’s?”
“It’s not . . .” Wyatt began, his eyes catching with the sleepy little version of his younger brother in Paige’s arms. “I’m thinking if I answer that question I’ll find myself in worlds of trouble.”
“Good grief!” Paige exclaimed looking at her nephew. “What’s so hard about confirming that one of us marries someday?”
Wyatt scoffed at that. “Yeah, well, as I hear it Aunt Phoebe’s been married already.”
Paige nodded. “Her ex-husband is dead, too.”
Wyatt nodded in return. “That I heard as well, more than once over.”
Leo shook his head at Paige. “Give him a break. We don’t really need to know and you know Phoebe is going to pester him.”
Paige nodded, reluctantly. “I was just curious and he did bring it up, but you’re right. I did promise Chris I’d try not to ask questions.” She looked down at her small nephew in her hands. “You know I love you, but did you have to grow up into someone so secretive?”
Wyatt chuckled. “Funny, somehow I think Chris would take that as a compliment.”
“So true,” Paige returned with a laugh. “I have never seen anyone so good at it. Any idea if he actually spoke to Phoebe in this mysterious conversation of his?”
Wyatt grinned and nodded.
“Well?”
Wyatt shrugged. “He spoke, but I don’t know what he said. I don’t even know what the topic was about, so it does little good to quiz me.” Wyatt walks over to the bed. “Would it be okay if I held Chris?”
Little Wyatt climbed out of his bed, and before anyone could stop him he crawled over to his little brother. “Mine.” He put a hand on baby Chris’ arm.
Wyatt looked at his little version surprised. “I thought you didn’t talk.”
Paige looked down at her little nephews and over at Leo.
Leo reached out his arms and picked up little Wyatt. “Come on. Nothing’s going to happen to Chris. That’s . . .” Leo hesitated as he looked up at the adult version of his older son. How exactly am I to explain to my two-and-a-half-year-old that the man standing a few feet away is actually an adult version of him? He shook his head at his young son. “He’s safe, Wyatt.”
Little Wyatt eyes adult Wyatt warily. He looked up at his dad and snuggled close to Leo.
Leo smiled. It was always reassuring when his young sons trusted him. If they could manage to stay that way until adulthood, like these two seemed to, then things might just be all right. “So what brings you up here?”
Wyatt shrugged. “I guess I wanted to get out of the kitchen. I’m not much of a cook. Chris is amazing, but not me. It’ll give me a chance to spend some time with you. I mean, we don’t all live in the manor in my time.”
“Do you live in the manor?” Paige asked. She wasn’t trying to pry, really she wasn’t. It was just that he gave her such good openings.
Wyatt groaned. “I probably wasn’t supposed to say that. Really how much can knowing if I live in the manor or not change though.”
“Probably best not to answer, anyway,” Leo informed him. “Why don’t we try safer topics, such as things that have already happened?”
Wyatt shrugged. What he knew about the past of the present time, was all from stories. His memory just wasn’t good enough to remember much before he turned two, or three for that matter. “Sure. How about you tell us a little about your life before you became a whitelighter?”
Leo starred at his son in surprise. That subject didn’t really come up. “That’s was another life time, son, literally.”
“I know and it really annoys me when people use that to hide things from me,” Wyatt informed him, remembering so many conversations with Chris that ended abruptly with “It wasn’t you, so don’t worry about it,” or “It was another lifetime, Wy. Forget about it.” Except he never could, because he knew it bothered his little brother and he didn’t know what had happened. Had it been anyone else causing troubles in the original time line, Wyatt suspected he would have been told in great detail by now, or at least know something other than that bad things had happened.
“If you really want to know,” Leo hedged.
“You were an eighteen-year-old who died and became a whitelighter,” Wyatt reminded him with a laugh. “I hardly think you could have done anything that objectionable.”
Leo shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s just that most people don’t want to hear about their dad being married to anyone other than their mom.”
Wyatt just grinned. “Trust me, Dad, it was so long before you met Mom that I don’t think even she minds. And you couldn’t have been married more than a few months, so if you don’t want to talk about Lillian, how about tell me something about your childhood.”
Leo was silent for a moment, thinking. “Just this once. I’m guessing this isn’t a topic that came up when you were growing up, so if you want to hear more, talk to me in your time.”
Wyatt just smiled. “Deal. So tell me, what made you decide to be a doctor?”