Work Text:
A Different Perspective
There was something about Chris Perry that bothered Darryl.
There was something about his manner of speech, that annoying ‘I-know-something-you-don’t’ glint in his eye that got to him. He’d been a cop for almost a decade now, and he had met his fair share of assholes, criminals and mastermind and Chris…Darryl trusted his guts when his guts told him Chris was dangerous.
He didn’t meet the sisters’ new whitelighter right away. In fact, it wasn’t until two weeks after his coming from the future that he ran into him by complete chance, after stopping at the manor to greet the sisters. Chris Perry had been in the middle of an argument with Paige, looking frustrated and waving his hands around, trying to convince her to –or rather not to- start this series of temp jobs. He hadn’t thought much of him at first sight: a loud, tall, lanky kid trying to boss around the sisters –Leo had often tried and had quickly learned not to push when they were in a contrary mood. Nothing impressive; he even wondered how the young man had managed to handle himself so far.
And then the demon barged into the living room and attacked. The sisters were quick to vanquish him, but not before he had the chance to throw an energy ball in his direction. Darryl would have had severe burns if not for Chris’s quick reflexes. That lanky ‘kid’ tackled him while he was twice his size in muscles, and hid him to safety behind the closest couch in a matter of seconds.
He would never, ever forget the look on the whitelighter’s face. Tension, alertness –he was ready to spring like a jack-in-the-box at the slightest –what? Darryl didn’t know, and he honestly didn’t want to know –but in the end, he didn’t look scared or helpless. He looked ready to fight back. Leo, a veteran whitelighter, never fought back during demon raids.
And once the danger had passed, Chris had glanced down at him with an odd expression –was it sadness? remorse? guilt? suspicion? But it fled as quickly as it came –and asked if he was alright.
The tone sent Darryl’s senses in high alert and made him reconsider his first opinion of Future Boy. Chris Perry was used to danger. He knew how to react in the face of danger. He took clear-minded decisions in the middle of the battlefield, and Darryl had a sinking suspicion that he would have been able to hold his own against that demon. Later, he didn’t miss the calculating gaze, the way the tone of his voice and his arguments shifted around to make the sisters listen to reason. While he didn’t win against Paige’s determination to get into this temp agency, he did get her to agree to fight three other demons before starting.
He’s not as helpless as he makes himself look. He’s dangerous, a little voice warned in the back of his mind. Yes, perhaps he was, but dangerous to the sisters? Darryl didn’t believe that. For all their complaining, he never heard a hint where the whitelighter would really put them in tough situations.
He could have let it go. He could have kept to his motto and stay the farthest away from magic, he could have let Chris Perry try to boss around the sisters more in peace, and focus on his own life.
But there was something about Chris Perry that bothered him. It wasn’t his dangerousness. It wasn’t his predictions -he made it no secret that the future was bleak, although he didn’t exactly say why –‘future consequences’ and all. It was in his very physique, in his attitude, like an echo of someone he had once known but couldn’t put his finger on the memory.
Darryl was a detective through and through, and once something caught his attention, he didn’t let it go.
“A whitelighter from the future?” Sheila said when he told her the story. She looked amused. “Like Marty McFly?”
His wife was a lot more into science-fiction than he was. Not eager to jump into the magical world, but interested in a distant kind of way.
“Yeah,” he replied in disbelief with a shake of the head. “Except that he didn’t return through a flying car, but to save the future from some magic screw up.”
“I wonder if he’ll meet his parents,” his wife said absentmindedly, and he didn’t think more of it until nighttime.
Sleep wouldn’t come and his thoughts wandered towards Chris Perry and his situation. A kid thrown into the past, working to change a future he knew was doomed…it must be stressful. He wondered how he’d act in his position. Would he work hard? Would he take advantage of his future knowledge for personal gain? Would he try to meet his family again? If given the opportunity, the sisters would definitively try to meet with Pru-
He paused mid-thought and-
Sonovab-
Darryl showed at the manor one bright afternoon a few days later. He had no idea if he’d be able to catch the whitelighter, or how he would find an excuse to talk to him alone. Fortunately, Chris opened the door when he knocked and announced, with a polite but slightly annoyed tone, that the sisters weren’t home.
“Oh, it’s fine. I wanted to talk to you actually.”
The whitelighter looked confused. Darryl didn’t miss the way his eyebrow twitched as a thousand thoughts might be crossing his mind. That look –damn it.
“Ah…alright?” he stepped aside cautiously.
“Outside, if you don’t mind. I’d like this conversation to stay between us.”
Darryl had enough experience with the sisters to know that the lack of presence in the manor did not mean it would be empty forever. Paige or Leo could still orb back in anytime, and Piper or Phoebe might come home unexpectedly. Chris narrowed his eyes.
“If you want information about the future-“
“No, no, it’s not that.” Sheila had told him enough about the time travel screws up in her novels and he did not want to take the risk of meddling with that. Nor was he interested in the particulars either. He just had to get rid of that nagging feeling.
He led a reluctant Chris into the streets –thankfully empty at this time of day –and began walking away.
“How old are you?” he asked bluntly.
The young man blinked, twice confused now.
“Twenty-two.”
“Right. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not born yet, are you?” There was a cautious glint in his eye, and Darryl could tell Chris was watching him a lot more carefully. He didn’t know what his endgame was yet, and he clearly didn’t like it.
“Why? Do you intend to do a check-up on present me?”
Darryl used the fake smile he tended to show when a suspect was trying to be funny.
“Would I find you if I did?”
Chris rolled his eyes and muttered ‘unbelievable’ under his breath.
“Good luck with that.”
So no, he wouldn’t, either because he was using a fake name, or he wasn’t born yet. Which tended to confirm his theory.
“Alright.” And Chris seemed to tense even further at that, as if he realized he had unwillingly given out something, but wasn’t sure what. Darryl wondered if there was something in his voice. Did he know him in the future? “You seem to know your way around.” He pointed out. “Grew up here?”
Chris stopped walking and faced him. There was little expression on his face and yes, Darryl saw it right there.
“What do you want, Mr. Morris?”
Darryl crossed his arms and went for the kill:
“Did anyone ever tell you, you have Prue Halliwell’s eyes.”
He could have shot the boy right there, it would have made little difference. Chris paled visibly, said green eyes widening in the same way the eldest sister’s did when she was caught off-guard.
“The more I look at you, the more I see Prue in your face, in your manners. The same twitchy eyebrow when you’re looking for an excuse. The eyes. The Halliwell nose.” Before Chris could do anything –like run, or toss him into a volcano to hide the evidence –he added: “Look, I’m not here to pick up a fight. I’m just wondering what the hell-” he made an educated guess “-the second son of Piper and Leo is doing here, playing whitelighter to his family instead of telling them who he is.”
Aaaaand it seemed he hit the nail. Chris blanched at his words, like the world was crumbling around him and he didn’t know where to start to keep it together. He looked like a kid, then, truly young and oddly vulnerable and Darryl remembered -twenty-two.
When he was twenty-two, he was partying with his friends on Saturday nights, not running around in the past to save the future.
“They can’t know,” Chris eventually said. He sounded a more composed that Darryl suspected he truly was. “Morris, they can’t know.”
“Why?”
“It would-“ he began, stopped, shut his mouth, looked down. “Future consequences. I can’t say too much. I can’t say anything.”
“But you can say Wyatt is in danger,” he pointed out. Piper had told him that, at least. She was a bit skeptical, especially since her beloved powerful baby boy was concerned, but in doubt… “That’s why you came back, or so you say.”
The young man shifted on his feet and Darryl smelt a fish.
“Yes, in the grand scheme of things,” he admitted. “There is one event we are trying to stop from happening, and it concerns Wyatt. Wyatt is in danger.”
The words sounded true. They probably were true. But Darryl had been a detective for years now with a few interrogations under his belt. The kid was good at hiding his feelings, but he wasn’t at the top of his game right now. It made Darryl’s job easier.
“And you believe the threat is a demon?”
“Yes.”
It sounded more like a ‘yes, it has to be’ than a ‘yes, I am absolutely sure’.
Darryl wasn’t into magic at all. In fact, ever since learning about witches and stuff, he had wanted to stay far, very far away from that mumbo-jumbo. Aside from a few cases that actually needed the sisters’ interventions, he didn’t touch it much. But he had good guts, and his guts were telling him that whatever Chris was hiding, it was a lot worse than it sounded. Maybe just this once, he could make an exception.
“Why don't you stop at home sometime? I never had to solve a crime that hadn’t occurred yet, but I’m still a detective. Maybe I could help.”
The look Chris sent him was puzzling, flattering, and insulting at once. As if the thought had never occurred to him.
“I…” he started before his voice trailed off. “I can’t believe you found out so quickly,” he ended up saying.
Darryl knew the sisters could be hard to work with, and if the kid was trying to move things around without them knowing…it was a miracle he hadn’t been discovered earlier. How hadn’t he been discovered?
“And I can’t believe they didn’t recognize you,” he said with a slight shake of the head. “It’s eerie, truly. I mean, Leo spent a lot of time watching over the sisters, didn’t he-”
“Leo isn’t here. He’s been missing,” the whitelighter said cautiously. Darryl almost became worried –something in the other man’s tone…
“And you wouldn’t have anything to do with this?” Chris’s expression remained very neutral, but Darryl wasn’t fooled. “That will not endear you to them, kid.”
“I’m not here to endear myself to them,” he replied somewhat snappily. “I’m here to change the future and save Wyatt.”
“And if you have the Halliwell stubbornness, I’m sure you will in due time,” Darryl said soothingly. No need to answer to frustration with frustration, he knew better. It worked; Chris seemed mollified by his words.
“Sorry. It’s still early but I don’t know what I’m looking for yet and time isn’t really a luxury I have. People rely on me.” In the future.
He really looked tired. Not quite discouraged, but more like he had underestimated the mental strength he needed to go through his mission. Darryl suspected that, in true Prue –and Halliwell in general –behavior, he would just soldier on and keep moving, even if it hurt. He had the eyes for it –the determination, the resolve. It was reassuring somehow; they hadn’t sent a weak-kneed twig in the past. But on the other hand, that same attitude might disservice him in the long term.
“I’ll tell Sheila,” he warned, because he never hid anything from his wife. Chris nodded, as if expecting it already. “If you ever need a break, or to talk, or just a couch to take a nap on, seriously, stop by. Magic isn’t my alley, but criminals are. Maybe a different perspective will help you.”
And Sheila had good instincts and intuition too. In another life, she would have made an amazing detective –and since she had more affinity for science-fiction and magic in general, perhaps she could be of better help than him.
Chris gave him a tight smile –small, but genuine –and Darryl definitively saw an echo of the late eldest Halliwell in there.
“You’re good people, Mr. Morris. I’ll keep your offer in mind.”
He hadn’t expected an immediate agreement, but at least the invitation was out. Darryl thought he would take it eventually. For personally dealing with the sisters, he knew they could be tiring sometimes. He loved them as family, didn’t mean he was blind to their faults.
“I’ll be on my way,” he added, because he really needed to get going. “Good luck, Chris Halliwell. And call me Darryl.”
The young man from the future smiled a little more, his shoulders and his face relaxing, and-
Yep, definitively Prue, all the way.
“See you around, Darryl.”