HEY! We're back!! Sorry we had to post again... but there were some minor problems with some other author or something so we decided to fix some things up... as well as the layout and stuff like that. And I'm reminded to tell you that AHEM that this story is Close to the story Letting Go by Shell, but is entirely our own work and any similarities are simply coincidental. Ok... so now that's over with... lets get on with it.
You are Reading--- 'What if' By Laura-Emily
Chapter 1- Broken Slumbers
A sigh escaped Andy as he was, yet again, ripped from the land of nod, by the sound of insistent crying.
"The third time in the last 5 hours!" he thought with exasperation after a glance at the clock on his bedside table. As he sat up, his wife beside him muttered incoherently and he shushed her with a simple:
"I'll see to them Prue, you just sleep." With that he slipped out of bed and crept towards the door, carefully shutting it not to wake Prue, though there was no need. She had always slept soundly since the birth of the twins, the only thing able to wake her being the imminent attack of demons. Her ability to sense it in her sleep was still puzzling him, even now, 2 years after his discovery of her secret.
Leo was also awakened by the sounds of crying, but not from sleep. He had been deep in thought, his main concern at that late hour the fact that he couldn't sleep. Barely able to contain the groan that accompanied any disruption of his deepest thoughts, he began to climb the Manor stairs, to sleepy to even orb.
Andy reached the twins' room nursery after Leo did. The room was a soft shade of yellow with two cots near the window and an array of toys and other nursery necessities.
Leo was bending over at the cot on the right about picked up his nephew, whose face was red from crying. Seeing Andy in the doorway, he paused about to hand the mischievous little man over to his father, but Andy looked so tired that it struck a chord in his heart.
"Leave the little man to me. God knows I could do with some practice" Piper was 4 months pregnant and judging by her size, another set of twins was imminent.
"Well if you're sure?" Came the sleepy reply.
"Gosh man, you look as if you need matchsticks to prop open your eyes. I can't sleep anyway. You go back to bed and don't worry about a thing. If the little guy wakes again I'll make sure he's fine."
With a look of gratitude and a simple- "Thank-you" Andy headed back to bed, and his wife, who was still sleeping.
He heard neither the sounds of singing coming from the nursery nor the cries of his other son, who awakened soon afterwards.
Next morning, the reasonable hour of 7am (well with two babies in the house what else can you expect?) found Andy, Piper, and Phoebe in the kitchen.
"What really gets to me is that even the nightshift never took this much out of me. I haven't been this tired since my first days on the job when I tried to party all night and work all day." Andy's comment was not unusual these days. With everyone helping make sure Andy and, in particular Prue, got enough sleep, everyone was helping out with the nightshift of looking after of the twins.
"Maybe its time we got some help in, what with Piper's two on the way as well." Phoebe, now completely over Cole, or so she kept telling everyone, was full of advice to her two older sisters, even though it was hard to bear the fact that they, and not she, were having kids. It made her feel left out, however much Piper and Prue tried to make up for it afterwards, when they discussed all the things new mother's, and mother's-to-be discuss.
The dark haired woman sat at her computer in her busy workplace. The buzz of people passing and the smell of the coffee from the tearoom were driving Paige Mathews insane! She had to get out of there. Ever since she had found her Birth mother, she had trouble concentrating on the simplest things. She picked up her jacket and left. She had to talk to the Halliwell sisters.
It was late at night and Phoebe had been woken once again by the twins. She had walked towards the room where they slept and peeked in. Neither Prue nor Andy had been to attend them. She walked up the crib.
"You know. If you don't stop crying Aunt Phoebe is never going to get her beauty sleep. And that's not a good thing." she spoke in Baby talk.
The very same that she used to use on Cole to get her own way. She thought of him like this. All the time. Just simple things. Like if she's in the wine stall she finds herself asking herself if it's something that he would like. She still half expected him to be there beside her when she woke up in the morning. She actually wanted him to be there too. She picked her little nephew up and cradled him in her arms. His little cries stopped almost immediately. She always was good with kids. Or so she was told. Her sisters always said what a good mom she would make, and she always wanted kids, but she had never found the right person to share the joy with.
Well actually she had but she had trouble admitting it. The twins reminded her of her own baby. The one she lost. She was told that it was never her baby, and that it was the Source, but Phoebe had carried the baby for two months. She had felt the Morning sickness and then she had seen him on the monitor at the doctors. He had moved. Inside of her. No one else. She had shared his small life with Cole. Not the source. Even if he had been the Source at the time, he was still there. Phoebe had fallen in love with Cole, NOT the source.
'O.k. that's enough of thinking about Cole.' Phoebe thought to herself. 'I've been swooning over him for the past 7 months, no more. And by the looks of it someone needs a new diaper' Phoebe smiled as she bought the baby to the change table and cleaned him up.
It was once again late at night. Piper had crept down to the kitchen to get herself a midnight snack. As she made her way to the refrigerator, she heard one of the twins wailing. She wondered if she should go up and see to him when the crying stopped. She quickly figured that someone had gone up to see to them, and averted her attention back to the fridge. When she opened it her nose was met with... the most disgusting smell she had ever encountered. It was enough to make her puke!
Piper's Pregnancy had made her nose overly sensitive to the smell of eggs. Leo had been eating scrambled eggs for dinner and Phoebe had cooked too much, so as if it was a normal thing in the Halliwell manor the leftovers were placed in the fridge. Piper quickly closed the door and made herself comfortable at the kitchen table, which wasn't easy as she was showing enormous signs of pregnancy at just 4 months. Just as she was comfortable she heard someone coming down the stairs. Her motherly instinct said for her to panic, but her common sense kicked in, which was just as well because it was only Phoebe coming down the stairs. She stopped as she saw Piper. Her plan was to come down to the kitchen and make herself busy so she wouldn't start crying about Cole, which was pretty much all she did when she was alone.
"Hey Phoebes" Called Piper softly.
"Hey Piper. Twins wake you up too?" Answered Phoebe.
"No I just couldn't sleep. And I was hungry... but that's normal... you know Being Pregnant and all." Phoebe didn't answer her. She just smiled a distant smile.
"Phoebes? Are you O.k.? You've been a little... Well... Distant lately. Do you want to talk about it?" asked Piper in a sisterly manner.
"No. I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Phoebe answered, once again Distant.
"But that's the thing. I am worried about you. I can't help it." When Phoebe didn't respond piper asked hesitantly:
"Its Cole, isn't it?"
"No!" Phoebe answered all too quickly to believe when she shot up at the mention of his name.
"Phoebe..." Piper exclaimed sternly. "You can't lie to me." Piper added.
"What makes you think I'm lying?" Phoebe insisted.
"I'm your sister... and besides I know that it's been so hard on you these past months. What, with the divorce and all."
Phoebe's body jolted at the word DIVORCE. She never wanted to divorce Cole; she just felt she had too. She had to keep up her reputation to run when disaster strikes. When Grams got sick she ran to New York, and then came back after a pretty bad break-up with Clay. (Which her sisters didn't know about) then when Grams died she ran back to New York, only to find herself homeless and jobless, and that was when she came back to live at the manor. Which pretty much brought her to Cole. Face it, if she had never found the book of shadows and read the incantation she and her sisters would have never became the charmed ones and therefore Belthazor would have never have been sent to kill them. So the whole divorce thing was a substitute. If she couldn't leave her sisters and run, she would run away from Cole. The Divorce was the perfect answer. It wasn't the one she would have desired... Hell... It was the exact opposite. She wanted nothing more than to be with him and to be experiencing the things her sisters were. The Beginnings of a family. Sure she loved her little Nephews... but she wanted more. She needed more... she needed Cole.
"Jeez Piper, I'm getting tired. I need to go back to bed." Said Phoebe trying to avert to more discussion about the D word. So feigning tiredness she left the table and headed toward the stairs, hoping that it would take her sister a long time to stand up. Phoebe didn't want to be chased.
Piper watched her sister going up the stairs. And wondered what she was going to do about her.
Yay! First Chapter! Please read and Review so we know your thoughts and feelings about our fic. You can even suggest some things to us, to make our story better if you wish. If not, just review to say you read it. You didn't have to love it... but just let us know that you read it!!!
We will post the next chapter as soon as we come up with a title for it!