Author's Note: So, the challenge was for a five-things fic, and I picked Piper's obsession with her so-called "normal life", and the consequences that came with it. These are just peeks into various alternate lives, but if one (or more) of the universes proves to be popular, I could be persuaded to write a full-length fic expanding on them.
(And, yes, I know I've got two other fics that need updates. I swear, I'm working on them.)
(Phoebe never comes back from New York)
Piper loved her baby sister, really she did. But, Phoebe had always been flighty and unreliable, and when she called from New York, Piper had honestly been expecting to hear that she was in trouble. That she needed her big sisters to swoop in and save her, just like when they were younger.
What she hadn't expected was to hear that Phoebe was flourishing in her new life. Her baby sister had gotten a scholarship to Columbia to study journalism, she was newly-engaged to a young man named Caleb who was studying nursing, and from what she'd told Piper, she was even starting to develop a decent relationship with their father. The confused, angry delinquent who'd left San Francisco had become a strong, independent young woman, and she clearly no longer needed to lean on her sisters.
When Prue heard the news, her only response was that it was about time for Phoebe to start growing up. Piper had been hoping for more pride from her older sister, but she suspected that was the best she was going to get, especially given the way that Prue and Phoebe had parted before Phoebe had left for New York.
But then, Prue's life was going so well, she probably didn't have time to think about Phoebe. She'd left her job at the museum only to land a lucrative position at Buckland's Auction House. She started dating her high school flame, Andy, and they were married within a year. She had two amazing kids, Patrick and Penny. Like everything else that happened to Prue, her life was coming up roses. Piper couldn't help but feel a little envious.
As for her own life, things weren't quite so rosy. It was fine, she guessed, it just wasn't what she'd imagined her life would turn out like. Her interview with Chef Moore was a bust; she'd been flustered and anxious, and he'd called her recipe forgettable. She hadn't gotten the job.
Two more interviews had gone the same way, and she'd wound up getting a job as a line cook at the same diner her mother had worked at as a waitress. It was long, impossible hours, and it barely paid the bills, but it was a job. At least it wasn't standing behind a counter at a bank, she reasoned.
Her romantic life seemed to be going just as well. She'd thought Jeremy was supposed to be The One, only for him to dump her days after her failed interview at Quake. She dated a couple more guys, but nothing really went anywhere. And then she met Dan. Dan was nice, and he was dependable, and, okay, there weren't exactly fireworks going off when they kissed. It wasn't the grand romance she'd always dreamed of as a kid, finding someone to sweep her off her feet, but fairy tale princes were for little girls, and she had to be practical about these things.
She and Dan married, and they had a son, and she had her job. And they went to dinner with Prue and her family once a week, and flew out to see Phoebe and her husband every other Christmas, and she did bake sales, and carnivals, and the PTA thing, even when it embarrassed her son. And everything was nice, and ordinary, and a little boring, if she was going to be honest. But it was her life.
And this was the normal life she'd always wanted. Wasn't it?
