Chapter Five

“Then why are we waiting?! If the way to get him solid again is to kill the snake, we should be killing the snake!” Piper shouted like it was obvious.

“We just thought you’d like the honor.” Paige glared at Parsel and the snake just chuckled, obviously lost in his joy to have taken out a high standing, important whitelighter.

Piper glanced down at her son, barely breathing on the floor. Chris’s body shook as a wave of pain shot through his body. She frowned at him and then they all began to panic. Chris’s body had faded away. They could no longer see it.

“Chris?!” Piper called out, searching the area.

“It’s okay, Piper. Our spell probably just wore off. Just get rid of this creep and he should be fine,” Paige tried to consul Piper and herself.

Piper nodded and turned back to Parsel. She raised her hands and concentrated on all the anger she was feeling against this demon for causing her all this pain and worrying... and now for poisoning her son.

“Kill me.” Parsel seemed to be daring her. He obviously didn’t know Piper, because in the next second Piper was glaring at the remains of a demon she’d just blown to smithereens.

“Good thing he was in that cage or we’d have snake guts everywhere,” Phoebe nodded. Then, remembering Chris, all heads shot to the spot where he’d vanished.

Slowly... Very slowly, a bright light began to shine. It encompassed all of where Chris had been and then it became pieces, little spinning lights, which gradually became one light and then vanished and left behind Chris.

“Leo.” Piper didn’t even have to say anything else. Leo was at Chris’s side faster than Piper could mood swing. His hands began to glow and Chris opened his eyes to look at his father. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it quickly, finding no voice to speak with.

“It’s okay, Chris. You’re okay,” Leo assured him as his healing took effect and the wounds on Chris’s neck became smaller and smaller before finally vanishing altogether.

– – – – –

“You know... Not long after he got here, I was taken to Valhalla... which, now that I think about it, was probably all Chris’s fault but for different reasons than what I accused him of back then.”

“He probably just didn’t want you to leave,” Phoebe replied. Paige sat by while Phoebe spoke.

“Yea... but at the time, I was so blinded by anger at myself and suspicion on him that I actually took him to Valhalla and attacked him. I put a sword to his throat.”

“You didn’t know to do any different, Leo. Stop beating yourself up. You thought you were doing the right thing at the time.”

“Since when is threatening someone on your team considered ‘doing the right thing?’”

Leo, Paige, and Phoebe were sitting in the livingroom, discussing things they’d done to Chris in the past. Like when Piper yelled at him to get out or whenever Leo attacked him. The girls could also remember wonderful things. Like when Chris saved Wyatt when no one else could, when he’d babysit Wyatt, when he saved them from the demon of desires, or when he’d gotten his parents back together.

They remembered Chris’s suspicious behavior and his abilities. They remembered his fiancee and wondered what happened to her in the end. They remembered Chris’s sadness over future events and his joy of spending time with his family - his father and all.

For every bad memory, there was at least two good memories. But most of the bad memories included Leo’s anger toward Chris and times where Chris nearly died.

“Let’s stop being so depressing, guys. I mean we defeated Parsel and got Chris back to normal, right?” Paige tried to comfort everyone’s minds.

“But I couldn’t heal the poison entirely.” Leo seemed to be angry at himself for it.

“It was perfected snake poison. Demon snake poison, Leo. It’s not like you killed him,” Phoebe replied. She was determined to get Leo out of this little self hatred thing he was in. It was driving her powers crazy.

“I know.” Leo pat his knees and stood up. “I’m going to go upstairs and see how Piper and the boys are doing.”

“Okay. Remember. Chris is friend. Not food.” Paige winked and Leo smiled. Score one for Paige!

Leo went upstairs the old fashioned way, with the stairs. He walked down the hallway and he could hear Piper talking and laughing with her son. With Wyatt.

“Hey. How are my boys doing?” Leo asked, scanning the room.

“Well... Wyatt would like you to heal him. He’s coming down with an itty bitty cold,” Piper began. She was sitting in a chair right beside Wyatt’s crib, holding him lovingly.

Leo smiled and did as he was told. Piper kissed him on the cheek in thanks and then handed Wyatt to Leo.

“And Chris would like some water, cause he’s parched.” Piper hadn’t spoken this time.

Leo looked over at the bed where Chris lay. He’d been sleeping a lot in the last day. He’d thanked Leo for healing him and then promptly passed out. Since then, he’d only been awake maybe a half hour. Leo knew there was still some poison in Chris’s veins that his body was fighting off.

“Good morning,” Leo greeted. He handed Wyatt back to Piper and walked over to Chris. “How are you feeling?” he kissed Chris on the forehead.

“Sluggish. Can you not do that? It’s embarrassing,” Chris sighed and felt his own head. Leo did too.

“You’re fever’s completely gone. I think you’ll need to take it easy but you could probably go tell your aunts your okay once you’re fully awake,” Leo suggested. “But lemme go get you that water.”

Leo orbed out and Chris looked over at Piper lazily.

“He’s really happy you’re okay, Chris. We thought we’d lost you for a week and then you nearly died of snake poisoning. You cause almost as much trouble as you stop.” she laughed lightly.

“Almost?” Chris repeated, looking skeptical. Wyatt giggled a little.

“Okay. You cause MORE trouble than you’re worth. You happy?” She asked, giving him a playful annoyed smiled.

“Sure. I’m happy.” Chris looked up at the ceiling. “After all, I’m alive, right? I should be glad. I have a loving family. I couldn’t ask for more.”

Piper set Wyatt in his crib and knelt by Chris. She stroked his hair and smiled lovingly.

“You have a very loving family, Chris. We all love you to death,” she whispered.

“I love you all, mom. I love you so much,” Chris opened his eyes and took her hand. He managed to sit up and hug her.

When Leo came back, Chris smiled at him and stood up, just to prove he could. Leo smiled widely and hugged Chris like he was about to vanish. Chris returned the hug and then cleared his throat when his father didn’t let go.

“Can I have my water now?” he asked. Leo laughed and pulled away, handing him the bottle of water.

THE END

Reb: So what did you think?