Piper paced the kitchen, glancing up at the grandfather clock in the hall periodically. Despite it's many run-ins with various demons or malfunctioning powers, it kept perfect time, and that night was no different. It read one-O-nine, which meant that she was exactly three hours and eight minutes late. Eight minutes, since Piper had given her the extra minute after she got in the door to make her way up to her bedroom and be in bed before Piper made her nightly rounds at ten-O-two.
"Come on, Mom! Gimme a break here! I'm sixteen, you can't give me a ten-O-clock curfew!"
Melinda's voice rang shrilly in her mind. "It's not even a school night! I swear, I'll never ask for an extension again if you just give me this one night. Pwease?" Even the pathetic puppy-dog face that her daughter put on wasn't enough to make Piper budge that night."Fine,"
she had begun, only to be cut off by the exhilarated shriek of Melinda. "Fine. Be home by ten-O-one. And not a second later. I'll be checking your bed at ten-O-two, so you better be home by then. I just don't trust that boy, Mel. He gives me the creeps."Her daughter had moaned and groaned as Piper mimicked her sadistically. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I'm a horrible mother who never lets you have any fun. I just would rather have a child who was upset with me than a child who was found dead in an alley in downtown San Francisco. I'm sorry, but not tonight, Mel. Maybe if I can actually meet him for more than a few seconds at the door. Some other time." Piper had kissed her reluctant daughter goodbye as she dashed out the door at the honk of a horn a few seconds later. A slam of the front door told her that she was gone, and Piper winced as the broken down car sped off toward the city.
"Does she hate me, Leo? Am I really a bad mother?"
She recalled asking her husband, who wandered into the room a few moments later."She could never hate you, sweetie. You're her mom. You're only trying to protect her…"
Protecting Melinda was always Piper's top priority, but at one-thirty, she became too frantic to think about anything but having her home safely. "Leo!" she cried up the stairs, hoping that her husband would wake soon. "Leo, come on, you have to help me find her!"
The whitelighter orbed down into the foyer, pulling on a wrinkled flannel shirt as he pulled Piper closer to him. "Don't worry, I can already sense where she is," he said as he orbed them both out of the manor, and onto the streets of San Francisco. Piper paled as she gazed around the neighborhood.
It was uncharacteristically quiet, since the downtown area was usually buzzing with noise. The broken down buildings and cracking sidewalks gave her an eerie feeling as she started down the street. There were a few shouts from the other direction, and the clanging of trashcans off to her left, but it was the silence that led Piper down a dark alley in between the complexes, with Leo cautiously bringing up the rear.
A rat squealed as she passed it, jumping from it's place on the ground into a nearby garbage bin. Piper clung to Leo's hand, squeezing it tightly as she kicked out at the rodent. Shuddering, she glanced up at him. "She's down here somewhere, isn't she? You can sense her, I know you can. Just tell that she's not dead, so that I can kill her when I find her."
Leo faked a smile as he patted her on the shoulder. "She's alive, or I wouldn't have been able to sense her at all. Don't worry, she's down here somewhere." He stepped in front of his wife, placed a firm hand on her arm. "Wait here. Let me go ahead."
She paused as he walked forward slowly, craning his neck to see inside the last bin in the alley. She saw his mouth drop open and his face pale as he lifted himself up off the ground, hovering just above the opening. His hands were shaking as he lifted his daughter out of the trash receptacle, and placed her gently on the cement. Piper gasped faltered in her steps, unsure of what to expect.
Melinda's thin body was covered in sores, and there was a giant gash that traced her jawline down to her neck. The light blue shirt that Piper had bought for her the day before was torn directly down the middle, as though someone had taken a pair of scissors to it. Her breathing was shallow, but she was breathing just the same. Leo carried her over to her mother, who shook her arm vigorously.
"Baby, please, wake up… oh, God, please wake up…" she sobbed into Leo's arm as he orbed them all back to the manor.
***
The sores on her body disappeared after just a moment, but the cut on Mel's face took longer to heal. She shook violently as her father attempted to heal her completely. He spent nearly an hour bent over her unconscious form, trying to wake her from her state of shock. Piper wept from the chair in the corner, with Phoebe and Paige at her side. They both yawned together, but held onto Piper's hand firmly. Their respective houses weren't that far away, but they each had been woken from a sound slumber to hear that their oldest niece was found in an alley downtown.
"She'll be okay, Piper. We'll figure out what happened when she wakes up. Just let her sleep. It's alright, honey. Relax." Phoebe rubbed Piper's back gently, whispering in her ear. Paige bit her lip nervously, afraid that her pessimistic attitude would pop out of she opened her mouth. She watched as Leo sweated over his daughter, pausing every few seconds to catch his breath.
"Why is it taking so long?" Piper asked quietly. She shrugged away Phoebe's hand and sat forward on the chair. "Leo, what the hell is going on?"
"Piper, I understand that you're upset, I am too. But I really need you to be quiet right now. Asking questions won't wake her up. Just let me work, okay?"
She bit back a bitter retort, and began pacing the room. This can't be happening. I knew that something was wrong with that kid, I just knew it. God, why did I let her even leave the house? Piper let little blurbs of blame shoot through her mind. There was nothing more she could do for her daughter except pray to whatever deity came to mind first. Moments melted into minutes and minutes transmogrified into hours. Morning dawned on them before they had a chance to sleep, and the sun's light brought with it two very unhappy husbands.
Cole and Paige's spouse, Glenn, burst through the manor door at nearly the same time, pressing themselves through the entrance and into the hall with a loud crash. Glenn made a mad dash for Paige, who was dozing in a corner. "Paige! Jesus, what the hell happened? I woke up and you were gone! It's not like it was the first time, but you can't just get up in the middle of the night and leave without letting me know! God, I thought some demon thing came and ate you or something."
"This isn't the time, Glenn," Paige hissed, nodding toward the couch where Melinda slept soundly. He narrowed his eyes in question and sat down next to his wife. "They found her really early this morning in an alley after she went out on a date with some guy. She was beaten up pretty badly. It's been hours and she's still not awake. But at least she's still alive." She sighed and leaned against Glenn's chest. "Can you imagine what you would do if this happened to Kate? Speaking of which, did you get her to school on time?"
Glenn nodded. "Yeah, she's fine… Is she going to be okay? She looks… bad."
"She'll be fine," Leo cut in, tired of the small, side conversation that was disrupting his concentration. "Look, we appreciate all you guys coming down here, but there isn't anything you can do until we find out what went on here. Why don't you just head out to work or wherever it is you go during the day."
Phoebe stood up and took Cole's hand, upset with Leo's harsh words. Piper smiled at her and nodded, hoping that her sister wouldn't hold a grudge over this.
"I'll call you. Keep you're cell phone handy." Piper hugged her sisters as they walked out the door, their male counterparts tagging along behind. Cole waved at Piper, who smiled a quick thank-you at him in return.
When they were all alone, Piper kneeled down next to Leo and gripped the sleeve of his shirt tightly. "It's been too long, Leo. I'm so scared. What if she never wakes up?"
He sighed and removed his hands from over the top of Melinda's head. He took Piper into his arms and let her cry into his chest. "I swear, Piper, no matter how long it takes, I'll heal her. Just give me the time. I'll do it." He kissed her gently on the cheek, then on the lips with more passion. "Trust me."
"I do trust you, Leo. I only want our daughter back." Piper leaned against him, feeling his strong arms around her, and reached out to take Melinda's cold clammy hand. She twitched at her touch, and for a moment Piper imagined that her eyelids fluttered. But the spasm in her daughter's hand subsided, and once again she remained motionless. Her mother let out a deep breath slowly, and closed her eyes in thought. She has to be all right. She has to be all right. She has to be all right. "Maybe we should just let her sleep for the day. I'll stay with her until noon while you take a nap. Then you can try again."
Leo nodded in agreement and yawned. He kissed her again before he stood up and walked up the stairs, glancing briefly over his shoulder.
Piper remained in her spot on the floor, watching Mel's chest rise and fall with each breath. She resembled a fallen angel, the light from the window forming a small halo of light around her head. Her torn shirt was a bloody mess, soaked with an amount of the scarlet substance that made Piper cringe. "I told you not to go out with that boy, didn't I?" she whispered into her daughter's ear. "I should have made you stay home. I should have made you stay with me, where it was safe. Now look at you. And it's all my fault." She wiped away her tears and kissed Melinda's forehead softly. She traced the thin line of the scar where the gash used to be, raking her skin with the tip of her finger.
Melinda's dark brown hair fell away from her face, revealing the line of silver hoops that ran up the side of her ear. Piper had hated each and every one of the piercings on her daughter's body, from the butterfly belly button ring to the rod through her tongue, but at that moment, she would have let Melinda pierce anything she wanted if she would only wake up and yell at her for being a lame parent.
"What happened to you, sweetie? That's all I want to know. Just tell me what happened…"
