Disclaimer If I owned Charmed, I wouldn't be writing a disclaimer. But it's here, so I don't.
Summary Paige has a cold. Unfortunately, her sneezes tend to have bad consequences. Slightly AU with a dash of Chris revelation thrown in.
Chapter 16
Chris hurriedly jumped away from Paige, not wanting to be touching her if she sneezed again. A moment later he realised that it was probably best if he was touching her so no one would have to go after her, and rolled his eyes. The redhead snuffled loudly, groaning as she realised that once again her cold had returned. She looked at the irate Piper and Phoebe, and decided that her bed was calling.
"Aunt Paige!" Chris yelled angrily after the disappearing orbs. "Coward." Persuading himself he was braver than his aunt, he glanced at the floor and waited for his mother to explode. He wasn't disappointed.
"Seventeen?! My first grandchild was born when my son was 17?!"
"Jesus, mom, let it go." He rolled his eyes, then turned serious. "I swear, I will wipe your memory of my goddaughter if that's what it takes to ensure she's born." His voice was deadly, and struck dumb, his mother winced.
"Oh, yeah, Chris. That's another thing." Phoebe chimed in, filling the silence. "Let's ignore for a second the fact that you would wipe our memories clean of any knowledge of who you are. Let's also ignore the fact that you never told us." Now Chris was the one wincing.
'Here it comes.'
"Why on Earth didn't you make sure that you would end up being born?" He blinked.
'That was milder than I expected.'
"I am sure your brother wouldn't want you behaving so stupidly for his sake." Piper pointed out.
"Yeah, he was a bit pissed off with me. Actually, both of them were." Chris admitted, remembering both the earsplitting yells and the attempt to kill him. He held up a hand to stop Piper as she started again, wanting nothing more than to lie down for a while.
"Look Mom, I'm tired, and I'm hungry, and I'd just like to go to P3 and crash. Can I take a raincheck on the lecture?" Without another word, he orbed out, ignoring her repeated calls.
"Urgh, my son is so annoying!" Piper complained.
"You should be pleased, Piper. He takes after his mommy." Phoebe grinned.
"Ha. That's funny. You should do stand up. What am I gonna do, Pheebs? This is all just one big mess."
"Well, things always look better in the morning, so how about we sleep on it and decide tomorrow? You can kick his ass then, ok sweety?"
"All right." Conceded Piper, slightly mollified. She voiced one last question as they headed down the stairs. "What am I gonna tell Leo?"
The morning dawned bright and sunny, not that Paige noticed. Staying up until 4 the previous night, combined with her cold and the energy drain of constantly using her powers meant she slept straight through until 2 o'clock. Piper had left for P3, but Phoebe was working at home while looking after Wyatt. She knocked on the door of her younger sister's room to see if she was awake, and was rewarded with a groan.
"Go 'way!" A voice called through a heavily stuffed up nose. Phoebe grinned and ignored the order, bringing a bottle of Vitamin C tablets and a glass of orange juice into the room.
"How are you feeling, honey? Any better?"
"Do." Paige grumbled. "Worse. I kida wish I could go bak to aduther udiverse ad get rid of this agaid."
"Well, don't Neither Chris nor Piper are here to go after you, and I'm not feeling like today's gonna be my lucky day. So I'd probably screw any rescue mission up."
"How cub you feel udlucky?" Paige asked curiously.
"I don't know. Maybe you feel unlucky, and I'm picking up on that."
"You cad't be." Paige replied, shaking her head. "Rebeber, the ebpath potion?"
"Well, I don't know then!" Phoebe threw up her hands in exasperation. "This whole situation has got me rattled." She sighed.
"Chris?" Paige asked sympathetically.
"Partly, I suppose. Well, a lot Chris. I just…how come he kept this from us for so long? Screw future consequences, he's our nephew!"
"Yeah, but I dod't thidk that registers very highly id his mid. He thidks Wyatt's bore ibportadt thad adythig." Phoebe laughed.
"I can't understand a word you're saying." Paige stuck out her tongue, then froze.
"Uh oh." Her nose twitched, and Phoebe immediately scurried backwards.
"Don't sneeze, don't sneeze!!"
"I'b tryig, Phoebe!" Paige protested, covering her mouth with her hand. She hesitated. "Although just id case…" Paige jumped up out of bed and scrambled around her room looking for clothes. Phoebe dashed downstairs to check on Wyatt, bringing the toddler back up to Paige's room, where, thankfully, the redhead was sitting crosslegged on the bed.
"It's god!" she said cheerfully, bouncing slightly. "Although I'b all dressed dow. That's addoyig." Phoebe shifted Wyatt to one hip and reached out to pat Paige on the shoulder.
"That's ok, sweety. Probably just as well to be –" A loud 'achoo!' interrupted her, and when the lights had cleared, the room was empty.
"Peter, Preston would kill us if he knew we were doing this. Can't you leave it alone for once? I mean, think of the personal gain issues for one!"
"Paul, quit whining. Preston isn't going to know, unless you tell him."
Well, if you want to get blown up, I'm not going to stop you." Paul claimed. Phoebe glared at her sister as the voices came closer.
"Why are we in the attic?" she asked Paige, bouncing her young nephew on her hip. The witchlighter shrugged.
"I always end up here." She told Phoebe, just as the door opened.
"What the…? Who are you people and what are you doing in our attic?" Two brown haired men came through the door, freezing when they caught sight of the Halliwell sisters and Wyatt. Paige held up her hands placatingly at the two.
"Hi. Look, we're not going to hurt you, we're not burglars. We're just…we're…uh, Pheebs?"
"Hey, don't look at me. We've never had to come up with an excuse for why we're in our own house before!" Phoebe protested.
"Why you're in… this is our house! Not yours!" Wyatt scrunched up his face at the noise and Phoebe glared stonily at the two males.
"Ok, first of all, shush, or my nephew will get annoyed at you. And second…I don't suppose you believe in magic?" The other two exchanged a wry glance.
"Yeah, you could say we do." The taller of the two proclaimed. "Why?"
"This might sound kind of crazy but…we're witches." Paige informed them. They looked surprised, but not disbelieving. "From another dimension." Phoebe added helpfully.
"Good or bad?" the one who had answered before asked.
"Good. Definitely good." Paige assured them.
"Well, as long as you're not demons. I'm Peter, this is Paul." Peter introduced them. Paul rolled his eyes.
"You are way too trusting. A demon in disguise isn't going to say that it's evil, is it?" He slapped the other man lightly across the head.
"So. I'll ask again. Who are you and why are you in our house?"
"I thought Whitelighters were supposed to be pacifists." Peter muttered.
"I'm only half Whitelighter." Paul replied briefly, not facing him.
"Ok, well, I'm Phoebe, and this is Paige. Funnily enough, she's part Whitelighter too. Oh, and this adorable little guy is my oldest but currently youngest nephew. Wyatt." The small blond giggled and waved his arms about happily. "Like I said, we're from an alternate dimension, and in our world, this is our house. We're not evil, you can trust us on that. We're actually supposed to be the most powerful good witches of our time. The Charmed Ones."
"…What?" Peter asked, the same time as Paul declared flatly
"You can't be."
"And why not?" Paige demanded.
"Well, because that's who we are."
"Don't mind me, I'm just here to check something in the Book!" Chris called out, orbing into the attic. He didn't want Phoebe and Paige downstairs thinking he was a demon, so he yelled a warning down just in case. He waited for a few seconds for them to reply, but no sound came.
"Don't tell me they're still annoyed at me." He muttered. He shook his head and opened the Book of Shadows, flipping to the page he wanted.
'I knew I did something wrong. Mel would kill me if she knew I was making potions, I'm no good. Though how I'm able to cook and not make potions is beyond me.' He sighed. A slight cough jerked his head up, and he saw Leo looking at him curiously.
"What are you looking for?"
"Potion recipe. I think I screwed the last batch up, so m- Piper decided that she was going to make the next one." He rifled around in one of the nearby chests, finding a pen and a notebook. He grinned triumphantly and started copying from the Book.
"But there're no potion ingredients out. And isn't Piper at the club?" Leo questioned.
"Yeah, we're working from there because yet another of her employees has called sick and we need to set up. Plus, she won't let me bother A- Paige because she's got a cold." He pouted for a second as if not annoying his aunt for a day would lead to his destruction.
"Paige has a cold? I hope she's not minding Wyatt." The Elder commented with a frown.
"No, Phoebe's working from home. M – Piper says she doesn't want him catching her cold. You really should be around more often, Leo." Maybe it was just old prejudices speaking, but right now Chris was finding it hard to believe that he and this man would ever be friends. Leo was just never in the picture.
'Although who's to say that he wouldn't be if you told him.' He pointed out. He shook his head and returned to copying out the potion.
"So why are you here?" he asked Leo casually, trying for the sake of the father he had just met to keep his tone unaccusing.
"Piper called me and asked me to check on you, actually. She said you had something to tell me."
"Really? Can't think what it would be." Chris replied calmly.
'Damn mothers. She's so interfering! I've told her that he doesn't need to know!' He kept a blank face while Leo was there, calling down the stairs again as he finished writing.
"I'm going! But Leo's here, and he might be hanging around!"
"No, I'm going to go too, if there's nothing you wanted to talk about." Chris shrugged and relayed the message downstairs.
"What did they say?" Leo asked as Chris went to orb out.
"I don't know. Nothing. I don't think they're talking to me. Well, Paige is, but she might be asleep." He paused and looked worried, realisation dawning on him as he thought of the alternative. "Unless…" he didn't complete the sentence, instead running downstairs, Leo hurrying after him.
"Paige? Phoebe? Wy?" He dashed from room to room, finding each one empty. Eventually, he cursed and headed for the kitchen. Picking up the phone, he quickly dialled P3's number. Piper picked up after the third ring, and Leo listened confusedly to Chris' side of the conversation.
"Hi, Piper?...No, I won't. No!...Cos Leo's here. …Yes, oh, Piper. Why did you – That's not important, I told you, I've got three months…I don't care if you want me to tell him…No. Listen, Paige is gone. … Yes, again, and Phoebe and Wyatt have disappeared too. … Well, they must be, otherwise Phoebe would've called. … There's nothing we really can do. They can handle it. … No, Piper, I'm not going to tell him. Ok, I'm on my way over. Bye." He hung up the receiver and turned to Leo.
"Weren't you going?"
"Chris, what's going on?" the Elder asked, ignoring him. "Where are the girls and Wyatt?"
"That's a long story, which you would have known if you ever bothered to be around. Look, ask Piper if you want. Bye!" He orbed out to where his mother was waiting, leaving Leo dumbfounded in the Manor kitchen.
AnimeAlexis: Don't ask. Really, don't ask. Who knew that you could possibly be as busy as during school time in the middle of the freaking summer holidays? … Ok, random poll, to take everyone's mind off the fact that it's been soo long since I updated last. Do people thing birthday cards are a waste of paper or a good idea?
OH!! And I'm afraid I can't take credit for the world Phoebe and Paige are currently in. That idea belongs to AlphaPsiOmega, and I'm writing it cos they refused when I asked. Bye!