Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or anything related to it. I also do not own any of the songs mentioned in this story. This is not a songfic, though.

Author's Notes (edited 12/2/07): This work is a series of one-shots that take place throughout the series. The common link between them is that they all have to do with Piper and Leo's relationship. Each moment in this story has a song that I had in mind as inspiration; each chapter title is the name of one of the songs.

I hope everyone who reads this enjoys the stories. Thanks for any feedback!

Katie

Disclaimer 2: I don't own Charmed nor do I own anything related to Kenny Loggins' song, "For the First Time." I especially don't own the dialogue from the episodes, "Thank You For Not Morphing" and "The Witch is Back." This takes place throughout the stretch of time between "Thank You For Not Morphing" and "Secrets and Guys."

Through the Years

One: For the First Time

Such a long time ago
I had given up on findin' this emotion
Ever again
But you live with me now
Yes I've found you some how
And I've never been so sure

And for the first time I am looking in your eyes
For the first time I'm seein' who you are
Can't believe how much I see
When you're lookin' back at me
Now I understand why love is,
Love is, for the first time...

-Kenny Loggins, "For the First Time"

Leo stood outside of the manor, toolbox in his left hand, nervously tapping the package in his right hand against his leg. He had been standing there for five minutes, and added to the additional twenty minutes it had taken him to conjure up the nerve to orb to the house, the waiting seemed to be an eternity. The truth was, he was scared out of his mind; he hadn't been this anxious about a job since his first charge. But these were the Charmed Ones. They were not ordinary charges. How could he possibly be calm about this job?

For nearly twenty-three years, Leo had been waiting for this moment; ever since Phoebe had been born and the Elders had revealed to him that he was the Whitelighter of the Charmed Ones. Being the Whitelighter of any children born into the Warren line was honor enough, but to be the Whitelighter of the Charmed Ones? It was stunning, how amazing and nerve-wracking that felt.

Since the girls' powers had been bound at such young ages, Leo had had very little opportunity to get to know any of them. It had been unnecessary, what with Patty and then Penny to look after the girls and guide them, for him to be an active part of their lives at that point anyway, but compounded with their bound powers Leo's role had been almost completely passive. He had met each of them, once, after they were born, but other than that he had merely listened for any cry for help they might need. Up until two weeks ago, there hadn't been anything that warranted attention.

The Elders had forewarned him, recently, that the sisters were about to come into their powers, but it had still come as a shock when the girls went from being less than a blip on his radar to a full fledged red alert. The night after they received their powers he began to feel their slight panic, combined with anticipation, and then, suddenly, his sense of Piper had gone through the roof, fear clearly overriding her entire being. Immediately, he orbed to her, not allowing himself to be seen, but merely lingering, waiting to be of use if she needed him. To his relief, though, all three sisters managed to hold their own extremely well against the warlock, and he had no need to reveal himself.

It was, however, necessary to get closer to them, which was precisely why he used his dust on Prue and convinced her to hire him as a handyman. Now that he was here, though, he wasn't sure he would be able to go through with it.

For the tenth time that night he reassured himself, going through his mental list of reasons that this was no big deal, just a job like any other one. Something tickled at the back of his mind, though, telling him just the opposite; this would be a job that changed his life. He ignored it, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell.

Within seconds, the door swung open in front of him, spilling light onto the front stoop. Leo managed to put a shaky smile on, looking down at the sister in front of him, whose presence radiated even from this distance and shrouded him like a blanket. It was Piper, he thought.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Leo Wyatt, the handyman."

"Oh hi," she said, looking slightly surprised. "I'm Piper. Why don't you come on in?"

Leo followed her into the house, glancing around as he went. It really was a beautiful place; despite all of his worries he was going to enjoy working on it.

Piper led him into the living room, and they stopped in the doorway, where he was finally able to get a good look at all three of the sisters together. Despite his lack of contact with them, it was incredibly easy to sense which was which: Prue's confidence and pride; Piper's warmth and comfort; Phoebe's energy and enthusiasm. All three were very distinct.

"Uh, hi," said Prue. She was distracted. "You must be Mr. Wyatt."

"The handyman?" said Phoebe, disbelief sketched across her features.

"Call me Leo," Leo said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. It was slightly easier with Prue in such close quarters.

"Gladly," said Phoebe. She smirked, and Leo shifted a little uneasily. Then he remembered the package.

"This was on the front steps," he said, holding out the yellow envelope towards Prue. She took it from him and opened it, while Leo fumbled awkwardly for something else to say. "This place is, uh, you don't find many like this around anymore."

"Yeah, it's kind of falling apart," said Piper, speaking for the first time since she'd answered the door. Here, finally, was a topic he could feel at ease with.

"The problem isn't the manor," he said truthfully, "it's the manner in which it was treated. I'd love to see more." It had been too long since he had been here; he needed to re-familiarize himself with the house.

"I would love to show it to you," said Phoebe. "The attic is right this way." Eagerly, she pushed past Piper and linked her arm with Leo's, pulling him towards the stairs.

"Guys," Prue said, and Phoebe turned slightly, probably reading the distress in Prue's voice as well as he could.

"Uh, I'll be right up," she said, and Leo watched her for a moment before heading up the stairs himself.

His first instinct was to go to the attic; it'd be helpful to see the Book of Shadows again and reacquaint himself with the room. If Phoebe caught him looking at the Book, though, who knew what would happen. No, he'd have to save that for a day he was alone in the house. Instead he wandered up the stairs and moved towards one of the bedroom doors, genuinely inspecting the wood, albeit with more time than he normally would have allotted. A few minutes later he heard someone coming up the steps, and he was surprised when Piper tapped him on the shoulder instead of Phoebe.

For the first time, he really looked at her. She was more petite than he had expected, and she stood in front of him, ringing her hands slightly, but maintaining eye contact. Her eyes were gorgeous. If he hadn't been able to read her already, one look in her eyes could have told him everything.

"I'm really sorry," she said, "but I think we're going to have to put off the grand tour until tomorrow. We...um...just got a package from our dad, and we haven't heard from him in awhile, and so-" She cut off abruptly and laughed a little nervously. "Sorry," she said. "You don't want to hear all this."

"No, it's okay," said Leo. "I understand." He smiled, hopefully, reassuringly. "I'll come back tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Yes, that would be great," said Piper. "Um...So I'll show you out."

Leo followed her back down the stairs and to the front door, which she opened up and held as he walked through. "Thanks a lot for stopping by tonight," she said.

"Oh, yeah," said Leo. "It was no problem." He shifted his toolbox from one hand to the other. "So...I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," said Piper. "Goodnight."

"'Night," said Leo, and he turned to walk away, waiting until the door was closed to orb away.

It was strange how quickly working at the Halliwells' went from being a nerve-wracking job to being a pleasure, and Leo supposed if he had been forewarned about what was to come, this fact would have been the first to send off warning bells. Perhaps if he had known, he would have gone to the Elders and asked to be reassigned. Perhaps he would have been able to stop himself. But hindsight is twenty-twenty, and there was no way Leo could have predicted that the ease he felt around the sisters was merely the tip of an incredibly large, dangerous iceberg.

The entire debacle began innocently enough. He became more and more accustomed to the girls' habits (Prue was always the first up and the first out; Phoebe was crabby if she had to make her own coffee in the morning, because it would always be too weak; Piper hated her job and put off leaving the house every morning), and found himself soon at ease in the family atmosphere. It had been fifty-some years, after all, since he had been in a true family situation, and he had never thought he really missed it until he began to spend time with another family. But he simply assumed it was natural; he had never had charges from the same gene pool before, but certainly other Whitelighters had encountered the same phenomenon in their work with families.

What was neither as innocent or as easy to justify, however, was the way he found himself gazing at Piper whenever she entered the room. Here's your coffee, Leo, and he'd begin a mantra in his head to keep himself from staring at her lips. I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything, and he'd try not to watch her ass as she walked away from him. He started to notice little things, like how much talking she did with her hands, and then he'd have to summon all his strength not to grab her hands and stop them in their nervous movement. The one thing he could never avoid, however, no matter how much he reprimanded himself, was looking into Piper's eyes. He had never seen eyes so alive, so deep, so expressive; if anything would bring about his downfall, it would have to be that. Deep down, though, he continued to believe that his sudden fascination with the middle Halliwell sister would never amount to anything, so long as he continued suppressing his desires.

It was hard though, without a doubt. One morning he arrived at the manor later than usual to find Prue already gone and Phoebe running out the door, "To do some research," she babbled awkwardly before disappearing. He assumed it was code for a demonic problem, and entered the house with the full intention of orbing Up There to talk to the Elders just as soon as he had a cup of coffee (in another hopeless moment of finally belonging in a family, he had become addicted the dark liquid forced on him at least four times each morning). When he walked into the kitchen, though, he was surprised to find Piper, still in her pajamas and bathrobe, standing on tiptoe and trying to reach something in the highest cupboard.

"Dammit," she swore, and Leo suppressed a smile. Without thinking it through, he walked up behind her and reached up into the cupboard, grabbing the box of muffin mix Piper's outstretched arm was still trying to grasp. In the process, his body brushed up against the back of hers, and immediately he regretted his instinct to help; there was nothing innocent in the shock that went through his entire body at the contact.

Piper turned around slowly, trapped between the counter and Leo, who, despite his retrospective chastising of his haste, had yet to move away. "Uh...did you need this?" he asked, swallowing hard. She was staring him straight in the eye again.

"Yeah," said Piper, and suddenly Leo was very aware that she still in her pajamas. And in her bare feet. Wow, she was tiny. If he wanted to kiss her he'd have to lean down much further... Wait, had he just thought about kissing her?

Shaking his head, he handed Piper the box, and dropped his hand, grazing her hip as he went and resisting the urge to let it stop and rest there. Piper licked her lips, and for an eternity of mere seconds, Leo simply stared at her in total awe. Then, without warning, Kit jumped up onto the counter and knocked over a coffee mug, breaking the moment. Leo backed away quickly, and ran a hand through his hair while Piper let out a nervous laugh and scolded Kit with words that seemed incoherent to Leo. Kit leapt back to the floor and stalked out of the kitchen, sending Leo what he was sure was a scathing look.

"Sorry about that," said Piper, as Leo commanded himself to focus. "I don't know what gets into that cat sometimes."

"Yeah," said Leo, forcing himself to laugh a little. Piper looked up at him somewhat hopefully and Leo mentally kicked himself. "I...uh...better go look at the...thing," he sputtered, and swallowed the bitter guilt he felt when Piper's face dropped a little.

"Oh, yeah, sure," said Piper. "I'll...uh...bring you some coffee in a few minutes."

"Don't go to any trouble," said Leo, ignoring his brain's incessant mantra of get the hell out of here before you do anything else stupid.

"It's no trouble," said Piper. "I have the day off, so Phoebe made the coffee this morning, and hers is terrible, so I have to make a new pot anyway." She turned around to face the counter again, disconnecting herself from Leo, and finally allowing him the opportunity to steal away.

Yes, it was certainly the moments like that that should have sent him hightailing it back Up There and asking for someone else to take over. But back then, Leo had been certain he could resist Piper, no matter how crazy she made him.

Nearly three weeks later, Leo found himself entering the manor to yet another unusually quiet morning. He had knocked on the door three times, but when none of the sisters answered he tried the door handle and the door swung open, allowing him to walk in to find a house devoid of any activity. Maybe, he thought, they were sleeping late after such a hard vanquish the previous day.

He figured he'd start working without disturbing them, and headed off towards the downstairs bathroom. Just as he neared the stairs, however, Piper bounded down, already dressed, and looked at him in surprise.

"Leo," she said. "You're here. Why are you here?"

What in the world, he wondered, was she so agitated about at this time of the morning that she had forgotten that he came over at this time almost every day. It couldn't be another demon already.

"I thought I'd work on the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom," he said, trying his best to resist temptation to sense what Piper was feeling at the moment. In another moment he supposed was a sign that he should have resigned as the sisters' Whitelighter, he had resolved to respect Piper's privacy, and her sisters' too, unless they specifically needed his help. That was something he couldn't help but sense.

"Oh," said Piper, still looking anxious about something. "Now's not really a good time. We're getting our cousin Melinda ready to go away."

Leo bit back the noise of sudden clarity he had been about to make and simply nodded.

"Can you come back later?" Piper continued. "Like tomorrow?"

"Sure," said Leo, but inside his stomach dropped. Spending time at the manor had fast been becoming his favorite part of his job, and the idea of having to spend his day elsewhere wasn't at all approached with anticipation. He quelled the feeling, though, and turned to leave.

"Uh, Leo?" said Piper, sounding even more nervous than she had just before she'd told him about Melinda. He turned back around and looked up at her; her eyes were wide with fear and hope. He swallowed hard and tried to act casual. Piper took a deep breath. "Would you like to go out sometime?" she asked. "With me, that is."

Leo felt light in his head and dizzily captivated by the look on Piper's face, so much so that he wasn't even certain who he was anymore. "I'd love to," he said. "Give me a call."

Piper's expression melted into something so full of love and expectation Leo had to resist gravitating towards her and kissing her right then. "Okay," she said, and she flashed him a smile before turning and running back up the stairs.

For several minutes after she left, Leo stood rooted in place in a state of utter shock and euphoria. He had just been asked out by Piper Halliwell. Piper Halliwell, the warmest person he'd ever met. The quickest with a quip. One of the Charmed Ones.

One of the Charmed Ones?

Leo eyes widened and he turned and walked out of the house as fast as he could. What the hell had he been thinking? He couldn't go out with one of the Charmed Ones. One of his charges. "I'm losing my mind," he said.

After realizing how foolish it had been for him to accept a date from one of his charges, Leo spent a good deal of his free time trying to figure out how to get out of it. At first he figured he'd just tell Piper he couldn't when she called him. Instead of calling him, though, she found him alone in the house one day, and finalized plans with him there. With her standing two feet away from him, he couldn't bring himself to break it off, so they'd agreed to go out to dinner, and maybe a movie afterwards.

Once his first plan failed, Leo figured he could count on Phoebe as a fallback. After all, the first time Piper had asked him out, Phoebe had conveniently been around to horn her own invitation. If she did so again, then there was no chance of him doing anything else inappropriate. Unfortunately, he realized quite quickly after formulating this plan, that Piper and Phoebe had apparently come to some mutual understanding. Even when openly discussing the date around her, Phoebe didn't even nibble at the bait.

His final plan, the one he had the least faith in, was to go on the date and simply pretend it was a getting to know you session. The level of confidence he had in this idea was very little, and as the night of their date...no, getting to know you session...arrived, it became very apparent that his plan was going to erode before his very eyes.

It all began with a nice little warning from Prue, in which she pretty much told him not to hurt Piper or he'd be facing her wrath. From there, his fragile facade chipped away a little more, as Piper came down the stairs looking more gorgeous than he'd ever seen her. Then the innocent touching began: his hand on her lower back; their knees bumping under the table; their fingers touching as he handed her the salt. And that led to the not so innocent touching, beginning after dinner, when Piper took his hand, and leading all the way to the end of the date, when he slipped an arm around her shoulder.

In the end, though, it finally collapsed on the front porch, when Piper stood in front of him, looking beautiful, ethereal in the moonlight, tucking her hair behind her ear and murmuring that she'd had a wonderful time. It was in that instant, that he ceased to be a Whitelighter, and she was no longer his charge. They were simply a man and a woman, and he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and never let her go.

So he kissed her, and from that moment on, nothing could be the same.