Work Text:
Nosy
“See anything?”
Piper glanced again at the list of names again and came up empty. Chris had been acting oddly for the past couple of weeks –short tempered, disappearing without answering calls, distracted…and he always quoted demons as a reason and always redirected their attention on a new quest. The few times they actually had to scry for him, the crystal had landed on a residential area and not the P3. It had been intriguing enough to investigate.
“Nope, nothing,” the eldest sister replied. “No Chris, no Perry, no C –something or P –something. And if he’s using an alias, I don’t know which one it would be.”
Phoebe touched the side building, probably hoping for a premonition. Nothing happened. Paige sighed impatiently.
“I don’t think calling him will help our case,” she muttered.
At the same time, an old woman pushed the door open on her way out. Piper stepped aside to let her pass, but the resident merely stared at them.
“Can I help you ladies?” the old woman asked kindly.
Phoebe saw the opportunity and said:
“We’re looking for someone. A young man named Chris, about this height?” she mimicked his size with her hand. “Early twenties? He moved in recently. We’re his family and we wanted to surprise him but he didn’t give us the full address.”
Instead of denying her knowledge, the old woman’s eyes sparkled.
“You must be talking about Christopher Warren!” she exclaimed. “Of course, such a lovely young man. A bit sour-faced, but always willing to help. You’re family you say? I see it,” she added, pointing at Piper. “You have the same…” she waved a hand over her face. “You know, there are features that don’t lie. Cousins?”
“Yeah,” the eldest sister said, a bit taken aback by the woman’s enthusiasm and wondering –do we really look alike? “Do you know where he lives?”
“Apartment A03, second floor dear. Lovely young man, yes,” she stepped side to let them. “I hope you have a nice afternoon.”
They watched the old lady walk away.
“That’s why I hate apartment complexes,” Paige muttered under her breath. “Noisy people like her never mind their own business.”
“Except when it’s helpful,” Phoebe replied and led them ahead.
The building was painfully ordinary. Piper wasn’t sure what they were expecting to find when they reached the door. There was no name tag and when they tried the handle, the door was unlocked.
They pushed in, checked the inside. They found another perfectly ordinary apartment, small but cozy, opening straight on the kitchen and living room. Small table, large couch, grocery bags spread on the floor…like someone had just put down everything and hadn’t bothered putting it away yet.
And then Piper caught a glimpse of empty, strangely familiarly-shaped-bottles in the sink and thought –oh, what is going on?
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
The sisters jumped and turned around. Coming from the living room, a woman in her mid-twenties was now facing them. She wore old and comfy clothes, hair tied up, and look absolutely furious.
She also held a knife in her hand and was pointed it at them.
“Sorry!” Phoebe blurted. “We were looking for Chris! I think we got the wrong apar-“
“Get the fuck out!” she snapped again and Piper raised her hands and tried to freeze her.
It didn’t work. The woman still moved, which meant she was probably a witch, and which also meant they probably were in the right apartment, but dealing with the wrong person.
“Look,” Piper began as calmly as she could. “We know he lives here, we just want to talk.”
Her sisters gave her a surprised look but followed her lead and nodded vigorously. The young woman stared back unimpressed.
“Are you deaf?” she snarled. “I said OUT!”
She threw her knife. It flew straight at them and Piper reflexively activated her powers. Three things happened at once.
White orbs fused into a panicked-looking Chris.
The woman’s body exploded into pieces.
A baby started yowling in another room.
And Chris stared at the place the woman used to stand, then back at the sisters, an expression of utter disbelief and horror on his face.
“Did you just blow up my wife?”
Pause.
Wife?
His wife?
“You’re married?” Paige echoed everyone’s thoughts, in shock, just as Piper was beginning to feel weak in the knees. What had she done?
Chris didn’t reply. Instead, he stormed out of the room. The three sisters exchanged glances. He returned a few minutes later, holding a fairly new born –and very upset –baby close to his chest. They didn’t dare to question him. The look on his face could have killed the Source itself.
“Get. Out.” he hissed with such ferocity the sisters flinched. Paige hurriedly took their hands and orbed away.
“Chris is actually married?” Paige repeated, still stunned at the turn of events.
Piper sat on the couch, staring at her hands. She had blown her up. She had blown up a woman she didn’t know, just because she threw a knife at them –at intruders in her apartment, when she had an infant in another room. She had blown her up as a reflex! As if she had been another demon, not a human being –not Chris’ goddamn wife. What was wrong with her? Since when did she stop thinking before attacking?
Too many demons in their lives. Too used to split-seconds decisions that made the difference between saving a life and laying dead. What had become of her? Was she starting to hurt others because she couldn’t control a knee-jerk reaction?
“We didn’t suspect him to have a double life,” Phoebe said in turn. “That would explain his long absences. And if there is a baby in the mix…”
“I just murdered its mother,” Piper blurted, still shell-shocked.
She couldn’t imagine how she would have reacted in her stead, facing strangers inside her home, with her own child nearby, and they insisting on talking to someone who wasn’t there like they had every right to do so. She certainly wouldn’t have invited them for tea.
Phoebe immediately sat next to her and took her hand.
“You were defending yourself, you didn’t know. It was an accident, Piper.”
And Piper wanted to say ‘no, it wasn’t an accident, it is something I have been doing for the past few years so easily I didn’t realize it, and she’s dead because we broke into a house because we were just stupidly noisy, and now that baby will never meet its mother because of me’, but she didn’t have the time.
Jingles announced someone orbing in, and it was Chris that stepped into the living room. Piper risked a glance, feeling terrible and ready to face whatever wrath he would throw at her. She had never seen him with such a red face, with his usually cool features twisted in such rage she wanted to cower away. No-one dared to pip a word before he spoke. And even then, his voice was amazingly controlled for someone who looked like he wanted to tear them apart.
“My fucking personal life is none of your fucking business,” he snarled. “What the hell were you even thinking, snooping around like that?”
Piper could tell her sisters wanted to speak –to say what, she didn’t know, but certainly something that wouldn’t arrange matters. She stepped up instead.
“I am so sorry,” she began, and felt the tears prickle behind her eyes and her cheeks flush red. “I didn’t mean-“
“-to blow up my wife?” he cut so sarcastically she shut her mouth with an audible ‘clap’. “No, I’m sure you didn’t mean to.”
“She threw a knife at us,” Phoebe pointed out. “And you didn’t tell-“
“You shut the fuck up.” Phoebe, amazingly, obeyed. “I’m going to say this once, and you are going to fucking listen. If she had wanted you dead, you’d be dead. And she’s still alive. It will take a lot more to kill her.” And Piper left out a heartfelt relieved choke. The guilt was still there, but at least, she hadn’t done anything that couldn’t be fixed yet. “She’s from the future, like me. We came together because if she had stayed behind, she would have been executed. She came so she’d be safe,” he added bitterly. “I never thought I’d have to protect her from you.”
“Chris-“ Paige began and was her turn to meet his eye and shut up. He stared at them, one after the other, before speaking very slowly, so that they could hear each and every syllable:
“You stay the fuck away from her and our daughter. I swear if you don’t, you will regret it.”
And upon those words, he orbed away.
Bianca was asleep when he orbed back into the apartment. Baby Hope had been moved to her playpen and was wrapped up, blinking silently ahead of her. Chris watched the Phoenix’s relaxed face, and noted the moment she realized she wasn’t alone anymore.
“Chris?” she mumbled, and he took a seat next to her. Still halfway sleeping, she shuffled closer and laid her head on his shoulder. “How did it go?”
“I yelled at them. We’ll see if it sticks this time. How are you?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” She sounded so tired.
“Hope is alright?”
“Did her nap. Been quiet since. Oh, and Lynn stopped by to drop off groceries,” she waved at the mess at the front door. “Didn’t have the time to sort them yet.”
Chris had never met Bianca’s mother before. He had heard of her, in both flattering and unflattering terms. But when Bianca insisted on going to meet her upon arriving in the past, he knew she would be trustworthy. And while Lynn might have not been the best mother, she did care for her daughter. She had provided them with a place to stay –one of the Phoenix Coven’s unused hideouts, no questions asked –and occasionally stopped by to visit both daughter and granddaughter.
While Chris thought they might have done alright on their own, he was glad for Lynn’s help. It was a shame he had to hide himself from his own mother.
Bianca’s head felt a little heavy. He smiled a bit when he realized she was fighting to stay awake.
“Go to sleep,” he ordered gently. “I’ll take care of her. I don’t think the sisters will call me unless there’s real trouble brewing on right now.”
Bianca hummed, stood up and toddled towards the bedroom. He watched her leave, so very glad Piper wasn’t powerful enough to blast her at first shot. He wasn’t sure what he would have done, had she truly been killed.
Hope made a little sound, like a soft whimper. He stood up and approached the playpen, all thoughts of the sisters forgotten. He picked her up gently, returned to the couch, holding her close to his chest. She had big bluish eyes, wide and aware, and seemed to be staring straight at him with curiosity. Her small mouth pinched as she blinked, those black, thick eyelashes slowly batting against her cheek. She was beautiful and perfect.
“You are a miracle,” he whispered. He couldn’t believe they had beaten the odds and brought life in spite of their crumbling world. Couldn’t believe she was there, in his hands, alive. “Your name suits you perfectly, you know.”
The baby made another sound, like a quiet hum, before her gaze was caught by something else. Chris kept talking to her in low tones, knowing she was listening, and while he wasn’t a believer, he prayed, deep inside, that they would manage to change the world. If they wanted their daughter to have a future, they had to.