Author: Regency
Title: Loving Melinda, Leaving Piper
Category: Cole/Piper UST/Friendship. Don’t worry, Piper is happy with
Leo. Leo/Piper, Angst, Cole/Phoebe, kind of.
Rating: PG-13, maybe higher
Spoilers/Season: Prue’s already died and Phoebe and Cole aren’t
together anymore.
Pairing: Look upward and onwards, who knows
Summary: Cole realizes something that he’s known all along. He loves
Piper and he loved Prue. But now, someone even higher than the Elders has a mission for him. He has to leave Piper for the
daughter she may never get the chance to love for herself.
Author’s Notes: This is the 2nd chapter of “Loving Piper, Losing
Prue.”
I was never meant for this. No, never me. Leo, definitely. Me not in a million
friggin’ years. I was never meant to hold Charm…huh, what a beautiful name. I know what her name was going to
be though, until the Elders intervened. It was going to be Melinda. Melinda Halliwell-Wyatt. Her name literally speaks her
heritage. She’s tiny, but not an infant, aged to maybe three or four, which is telling of the Elders intervention. Had
things been the way they would’ve she’d be just like this down there, with here momma and daddy. But she’s
here with me. Why you ask, of course. Well, the ever-cryptic Elders claim it to be her current destiny.
One Elder, Prudence Charlotte Warren, an ascendant of the Halliwell’s
(Melinda Warren’s daughter, older sister to a Piper Eve and Phoebe Anya) took me aside an told me in the strictest of
confidence, that one of Charm’s oldest and most cherished memories was being made right now as I held her in my arms.
She’d remember waking up and feeling safe and warm, and that this particular memory would follow her through her life
and would gently guide her into her powers. So whether I kept her or not, I’d already affected her.
I’m holding the daughter of the love of my lifetime (this one anyway)
and it feels so right when it can’t possibly be.
Yet, I’ve had two Prues confirm it. Charm belongs with me. My Prue
came by on her way to see her charge. Prue passed whitelighter training school. I didn’t even know they had that. She
warned me firmly to watch over her niece and to at least try to love her.
She also kissed me. It was nothing big, I assure you. But it felt amazing.
She floated up… Yes, she actually floated up to me… and pressed her lips chastely to the corner of my mouth. She
said I was right all along about her reaction to us going out together. She also made it very clear to whatever still existed
of Belthazor, that this little pixie-Piper mini was off-limits. She was trusting her little niece to my care and somehow that
made it feel more important that all the Elders had told me.
After that I was orbed, yes orbed, back to Earth, but instead of ending up
at the penthouse, I found us outside a house sporting a for sale sign. I think the elders are trying to tell me something.
I feel a heavy gust of wind push me towards the front walkway. Yep, they’re definitely trying to tell me something.
I know I’ve seen this place before. Is this déjà vu or what?
Moving to 1321 Prescott Street
*The Manor is 1329 Prescott St.*
Well, I did it. Whatever it is, anyway. I bought the manor at 1321 Prescott
St. Would you believe they orbed me to the house down the street from Phoebe’s? They can be real a real funny bunch
when they deem it fit.
It’s a nice house. It’s not too drab, but flashy enough that
Charm would know or recognize it when she saw it. It’s a two-story with a deep-wraparound porch that reaches from the
front yard, to the side, to the backyard. There’s a fairly-sized front and backyard, which as soon as Charm woke from
her nap, she loved. Talk about perfect names. She ‘Charmed’ the pants off the real estate agent. I think he cut
the price a bit just for her.
She really loved her room or the room she designated as her own as soon as
we reached the upstairs. It’s not the biggest, but somehow, I know it’s just right for her.
Speaking of her more thoroughly…She is her mother’s child. From
her accent she speaks with to the scar on her eyebrow. Not to mention that smile. You know the one where her two top canine
teeth sit just over her bottom lip and make her look like she’s up to something.
Well, we’re moving in as soon as possible, as in tomorrow. Most of
my things from the penthouse just ‘suddenly’ appeared in the house, exactly where I would have put them. So, the
Elders are good for something. Not much, but something.
5:30 AM, 1321 Prescott St.
The Turner Manor
I stick my head out the door and peek to the left and to the right. It’s
still pretty dark outside. It’s so early, in fact, that the dawn dares not show its face for fear of its life.
In my sweats and t-shirt, I creep, yes creep out onto the porch and down
the sturdy front steps to the stone pathway where our paper is sitting. I just touch it with the edge of my fingers when I
feel more than hear a tell-tale click’ and feel a fireball start to gather in the palm of my hand. I turn; ready to
defend myself like never before, only to find myself with a face full of water.
It was the sprinkler system. I knew there was something the realtor forgot
to mention. But I guess that’s what happens when they find themselves ‘charmed’. They simply forget.
A tiny giggle from the direction of the front door takes my little bit of
introspection outward.
Standing there in her little Garfield pajamas is a giggling Charmaine Prudence
Halliwell-Wyatt-Turner. And breathe. Damn, that’s a long name.
Grinning evilly (in a good way, I promise), I charge up the front steps towards
her. She squeals and takes off into the house and out of sight pretty quickly. I, taking much care to shut the front door,
noisily follow after Charm as she makes her way through the house.
I chase her through the house and out the back door into our yard. I get
out just in time to catch her silhouette slip behind a tree, and hear a tiny, muffled giggle as she looks on.
“Now” I mutter as I say wander closer to the tree Charm is hiding
behind. “Where could she be? Oh, where, oh where, did little Charm go? Oh, where, oh where, could she be? Could she
be…behind the tree!” In a sneaky move I bolt behind the tree, and barely miss catching the back of her pajamas
before she’s off again.
As I ready to give chase, I’m stopped in my tracks by Piper standing
there, a few (back)yards away staring me straight in the eyes. Instinctively, I drop down to a crouch and chase Charm, who’d
stopped to see what I was doing, back into the house.
After I make sure she’s tucked securely under her favorite Garfield
throw, I find myself pacing near madly in the downstairs *parlor in front of the bay window. My thoughts rush by at twice
light speed.
She saw me. She looked dead at me. She knows I’m here now. And I suspect
it won’t be long before she figures out where I am and comes in hands a blazin’ with her two very un-merry sisters
at her side.
I am in so much trouble. *Knock, knock, knock, slam* So much trouble.
Author: Regency
Title: Introducing…Charmaine Halliwell-Wyatt-Turner…Or Not
Season/Spoilers: “Death Takes a Halliwell” and just general knowledge
of the show, its characters and their relationships.
Pairing(s): Leo/ Piper…Cole/Piper?
Archived: Anywhere is okay.
Summary: Introducing…The child they should have had.
**********************************************
*Knock, knock, knock, slam.* There they go again. If I am who they know I
am, how stupid would I have to be to open the door for them to come in? A lot stupider than I am. And that’s for damn
sure.
*Orby sound, twinkly, swirly lights.* Damn, gotta get orb protection.
I turn around very slowly, as I value my life. I stop to face my ex-wife(Phoebe),
the love of my life(Piper), and the source of my strife(Paige). And they’re all in their PJs. Ooh Piper in a tank top.
How could I have missed that the first time around.
“Hello, Piper…Phoebe…Pain.”
“Paige!” Like there’s really a difference.
“Whatever.”
“That’s enough already!” Piper. Always the mother.
“Cole, what are you doing here? I thought we had an agreement. You
leave me alone and we’ll stop trying to vanquish you.” Hey, I tried telling the Elders that, but they were insistent.
They even used thunderbolts to make their case. Talk about good character witnesses. They really say it all.
“It’s not that simple. There are mitigating circumstances- -“
Paige cuts in.
“What mitigating circumstances, like you’re obsessed with my
sister? Well, newsflash, bucko she doesn’t want you anymore. And it’s really about time you got it through your
demonic peabrain.” Would it really bother Piper if I kilt this one? I mean, there’s got to be another Halliwell
sister out there somewhere.
“Paige, I can speak for myself.” Phoebe steps forward a bit and
looks me in the eye. “But she is right, Cole. It’s over between us. There’s no way I can forgive what you
did enough to let you back into my life that way. So you should just give up.” Um, okay. If I cared that would shatter
me. But I don’t so…
“If you say so, Phoebe.” Someone is very hung up on themselves.
Can anyone say Mizz Phoebe?
“I’m serious, Cole. There’s no chance.”
“Yeah, I figured that, since you know…you’re standing in
my living room at 6:00 in the morning! If anyone were to see this scene, they’d assume it was you who didn’t get
the message, Pheebs. I’m no longer hung up on you. I live here. You live down the street. My dog hasn’t crapped
on your lawn and yours hasn’t crapped on mine.”
Piper looks confused. “We don’t have a dog.” I sneer at
Paige.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” I receive a sneer in
return I turn back to Piper. “Anyway, there’s absolutely no reason for us to speak or even acknowledge each other’s
existence. There’s a full…What? Three houses between us. Seeing each other isn’t a must.”
“Why are you here, Cole?” None of her business.
By now we’re drawn half across the room like two armies deciding when
to go to war. Or when to start back where we stopped.
“Again, I live here. What are you doing in my house?”
“When Piper saw you we thought you had something planned and we wanted
to know what it was.”
“Well, ladies and gentleman, you are sadly mistaken. I was just chasing
a pixie through my backyard.”
“Pixies. He gets Pixies? We never get Pixies and we’re the good
guys.”
“Pixies prefer demons, thank you.”
“Shut up, dragon-dung.”
“Bite me, bile for brains.” Piper’s had enough.
“You two had both better shut up, right now or I’ll turn you
into each other!”
That’s slightly disconcerting. I’m gonna just sit here and stare
at Piper in that nice little tank there. She notices my staring and throws up that eyebrow I love so much on Charm. She looks
down at her chest looking for that imaginary stain she thinks my eyes are drawn to.
“What? Is there somethin’ on my shirt. What?” I shake myself
back to the moment.
“No, I was just looking. Nothing’s there.” And there’s
that damn eyebrow.
“You were just looking?” I don’t like this question. Or
that look on her face. It’s a bit too predatory for my liking.
“Uh, yeah. Just looking. It’s a nice view from here, that’s
all.” It’s time to get good with my maker, ‘cuz I’m gonna die. Piper looks dead surprised, but it’s
the noise behind me that’s making me nervous.
A word of warning: Never turn your back on your ex-wife and most hated ex-sister-in-law
when you’re hitting on their other sister. Especially not when this sister’s the one you wanted all along. Or
when they’re witches.
Have I mentioned that I hate the Elders in the last five minutes. Well, now
I have. I’m gonna die. I can feel her winding up…uh oh…here it comes…and nothing. Nothing. I crack
an eye open to see Piper facing the wide doorway towards the staircase. I stand and peek over her shoulder to see what made
her stop. I see.
It’s Charm. She’s just standing there. Just standing there with
her beautiful eyes turned toward us in a slightly angry, slightly terrified way. Prue (one of them) told me that in her short
life, Charm has had little family and what she has she protects like nothing else.
Standing there in her Garfield pajamas, she asks, “Why you pointing
that at my daddy, Piper?” Piper looks at her still outstretched hand and suddenly can’t seem to justify what she
had almost done. She looks to the other two. “What were you gonna do, Phoebe, Paige? Were you gonna hurt my daddy too?”
They look at each other, then to the floor, shame written all over their admittedly beautiful faces. “Why were you gonna
hurt him? He isn’t doing stuff to you.” Her expression gives away her anger. “I think it’s time for
you to go home.” She turns her gaze to the door and wiggles her nose, jerks her fingers and narrows her eyes. The deadbolt
comes undone, the knob turns jerkily, and the door flies open. With a sweeping motion of her arms they were gathered up in
a hefty wind and out the door they go. With the same motions the door closes. “Bye, bye, Miss American Pies.”
“You are one scary little miss, Charm.” She grins and bounds
over to my side. Oh, did I mention that the Charmed One’s daughter or sons, as the case may be, will be at least three
times more powerful than their mothers. I believe fate has spoken. Correction: shouted
Last Part
