Title: Daddy's Girl
Author: xhearttothee, otherwise known as Molly
Feedback: Feedback is loved. Constructive criticism is welcomed; just don't make it too harsh!
Timeline: March 2008

Status: A one-shot on the aftermath of the birth of Piper and Leo's third child, Melinda.

Author's Note: I was bored and had nothing else better to do. So, it's not fantastic but I tried. I was thinking about doing a small piece on their daughter's first birthday too but we'll see what comes of this first.

Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, nor do I own any of the characters mentioned or involved. The lyrics at the top are from an amazing song by Dashboard Confessions called "Rooftops and Invitations".

"To stay like this is everything you'll ever need."

The small, pink, wrinkled baby girl lay wrapped in a pale pink blanket in the hospital crib, her eyes wide in wonderment. She was only a few hours old, yet she hadn't slept a wink. It seemed tiredness had yet to come over her.

"She's perfect," Leo, the proud father, said as he gazed down at his newborn daughter. He had only had a daughter for a few hours but already he loved her more than life itself.

"I can't believe she's still awake. I can see this being an interesting problem when she's a toddler," his wife joked. Piper was still pretty tired from giving birth to the 7lbs 3oz baby girl only hours beforehand. Although the doctors' had advised her to have a caesarean section due to the complications that had arisen in her previous pregnancy, she wanted to have a natural birth so she could see and hold her baby the moment they were born and feel that rush of love for this tiny, new person straight away. Her second child, Chris, had been born via c-section and she felt she had missed out on that. She loved her son more than anything but she felt she had been robbed of those first few precious bonding moments with her son when he was just minutes old. She knew there was complications with the labour so there was emergent need for the c-section but she still wished it had all turned out like she had planned. And she also had to admit, she had been somewhat jealous that Leo and her sisters had seen her new baby before her, his own mother.

She gazed down at the baby and watched the baby's eyes gaze up at her parents and smiled widely. She really was perfect.

"I wonder who she'll look like," Leo pondered, more to himself than Piper. He hoped she developed Piper's beautiful brown eyes and smile because each of those features belonging to his wife took his breath away, even after all this time.

"Who knows. Chris doesn't look like just one so maybe she will be a mixture too. Or maybe we'll end up with another blonde!" Piper smiled as she imagined a feminine version of their eldest child, Wyatt.

"Mmm," Leo murmured and then looked down at Piper. "Either way she'll be beautiful." He gave Piper one of his infamous smiles. The 100-watt smile that melted Piper's heart every time. He leant down and placed a soft kiss on her waiting lips and then pulled away but remained close so their noses were almost touching. "I love you," he said, just loud enough for Piper to hear. She still got a fluttering sensation inside every time she heard those words. Without pausing to contemplate her own reply, she said," I love you, too."

Leo smiled slightly and then kissed her again. He too loved the sound of those words and how they so easily rolled off her tongue. He hadn't loved her more than he had today after he saw his child being brought into the world. Holding the tiny baby just moments after she was born was breath taking. It brought back flashbacks of the first time he held Wyatt and Chris. Nothing could describe the feelings you get at those particular moments. They were memories that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Those feelings had all come back the moment he held his new daughter, however, holding his baby girl arose a different set of feelings. Of course, there were feelings of love, overwhelming and general amazement, but there were also feelings of fear and worry for this tiny baby girl. He supposed it was to do with the fact that she was a girl and she was his only daughter. He envisioned her being a typical 'daddy's girl' and he welcomed this feeling. He knew from that moment he'd do anything for his daughter.

"We still haven't settled on a name for her," Piper's soft voice said, breaking Leo from his thoughts.

"Well, we had a name chosen for a girl when Wyatt was born and as he turned out to be a boy we discarded the name, for obvious reasons," he smirked. He turned his gaze to the baby once more and smiled.

Piper looked down at the baby too and smiled. "Prudence Melinda," she said softly and reached out and gently brushed her hand over the top of the baby's head, her downy, brown hair feeling soft beneath her touch. The baby's eyes fluttered softly at the touch of her mother's hand and she then screwed her face up into a small, gummy yawn. "Melinda," Piper said finally.

"Knock, knock," a voice came from the door and Phoebe peered round the doorframe. "Can we come in? We have two little boys who are dying to meet their new sister."

Piper nodded in reply and smiled as she saw Phoebe open the door wider allowing Wyatt and Chris to come into the room. They each had a perplexed look on their innocent faces as they gazed around the room, but the look changed to a smile when they saw Piper in the bed. "Hey little guys," Piper said and she widened her smile when they rushed towards her. "Woah, easy," she said as they ran into the side of the bed. They looked up at Piper and smiled toothy grins and then saw Leo standing beside the crib.

"You wanna come and see your baby sister?" Leo asked and the youngsters nodded vigorously. "Then come on, but not too fast as you might knock the crib." They boys nodded seriously in reply and then tip toed around the bed towards the crib. They opened their mouths slightly in hesitation as they stood beside the crib. Wyatt peered in and widened his eyes as he looked down at the baby. Chris, however, pouted when he realised he was too small to see over. He was jealous that Wyatt got to see the baby and he didn't. He looked over to Piper and then to Leo.

"Daddy, lift him up so he can see too," Piper said to Leo and then smiled down at Chris who's pout immediately changed into a grin. Leo did as he was told and watched as Chris' face turned to the same expression Wyatt still had on his face the moment he saw the tiny baby in the crib.

"Is that my sister?" Chris asked quietly as he continued to stare the baby who was in turn looking up at them.

"Yeah, she is. She's your baby sister," Piper replied and then looked to Wyatt who was still staring at Melinda. "What do you think, Wyatt? Should we keep her?"

"Yeah, we should keep her. She looks much more fun than Chris," he answered with childhood innocence plastered all over his voice.

Chris looked up at the sound of his name and screwed his face up in confusion. "Is she called Chris too? But that's my name." He looked over to Piper for an answer.

"No, honey, her name's not Chris." Chris simply mouthed, "oh" in reply and then looked back at the baby.

"Well, does this little angel have a name yet?" Phoebe asked. Paige was now standing beside her after having just entered the room a few moments ago after having ringed around with the good news. They both headed to the crib to get their first glance of their baby niece.

"Yes, she does. This is Prudence Melinda," Piper said with a great sense of pride.

Phoebe looked to Piper and smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. They both shared a thought of their late sister and both knew how happy she'd be if she could have been there at that very moment.

"It's a beautiful name," Phoebe said and leant down to place a soft kiss on the little girl's head. "Hey, Melinda," she whispered and looked at the baby who looked up at her with wide eyes. She smiled down at her and then stood back up.

"Has she slept at all?" Paige asked as she looked down at the baby and noticed how awake she looked.

"Not a wink," Leo laughed.

"Awww, she's going to be a difficult one I see," Paige joked as she looked at Piper who smiled and then stifled a yawn. "Maybe we should go and let Piper sleep. We'll come back later. Besides, we still have to ring Victor. He wasn't in when I tried earlier."

"Yeah, you're right. You look wrecked, Piper. No offence," Phoebe smirked.

"None taken. I'll just wait and see what you look like after having been in labour for 6 hours," Piper said and then grinned at Phoebe. Phoebe rolled her eyes and then touched Wyatt's shoulder.

"C'mon buddy, we gotta let Mommy rest."

"I want to stay and watch," Wyatt whined as he looked up at his aunt Phoebe.

"We'll come back later. Mommy's very tired, and don't worry baby, Melinda will still be here when we come back. She's not going anywhere." Wyatt nodded and then looked to Piper.

"Don't sleep long, Mommy. I wanna come back soon," he said and then took Phoebe's hand. Piper laughed softly at her son and then yawned once more.

"C'mon Chris, we'll come back later," Paige said as she held out her hand for her nephew.

"No, I wanna stay," Chris said loudly and gripped his chubby hands onto the side of the crib, his knuckles turning white as he gripped harder.

"Chris, buddy, Mommy has to rest. You heard what aunt Phoebe said, we'll come back later when Mommy's not tired. C'mon, I'll get you some sweeties in the shop and we can watch Spongebob when we get home. Yeah?" Bribery always worked on Chris and he let go of the crib instantly and held his arms out to Piper.

"Hug?" He asked innocently and Piper happily obliged. She leant forward and wrapped her arms around her son and kissed the top of his head. "Bye Mommy. Bye baby sister," he said to Melinda in the crib and then took Paige's hand.

"We'll come back later, yeah?" Paige asked and Leo nodded in reply. Moments later it was just Piper, Leo and Melinda again.

"I wish Prue could see her," Piper said quietly and then looked to Leo. "It's moments like these that I miss her the most."

Leo sat down on the bed beside and took his wife's hand and kissed it. "I know, I know. Get some rest, you do look pretty rough," he smirked and then grimaced when he received a small slap on the shoulder for his comment. "I'm going to get some coffee, be back in a few minutes," he said. He placed a kiss on top of her head and then exited the room.

Piper turned to look in the crib once more and then lay back in the bed. She shuffled her position a number of times before she finally found a comfortable spot. Hospital beds were always uncomfortable, she thought to herself. Within minutes she was sound asleep and all that could be heard in the room where the gurgles coming from the baby in the crib and Piper's soft breathing.

Several minutes later Leo came back in with a coffee cup in one hand a bagel in the other. He smiled when he saw Piper silently sleeping, one hand placed over her forehead, the other placed on her stomach. She looked so peaceful. He placed the coffee and bagel down on the table and walked to the crib quietly. He reached down and lifted up the small bundle carefully and held her close to his chest. He began to rock her slowly and kissed her head. Melinda's eyes fluttered as Leo kissed her forehead and then she yawned once more.

"Are you tired, baby?" Leo whispered. He walked away from the crib and sat down in the rocking chair that was on the opposite side of the room. He used one foot to gently rock the chair and gazed down at his daughter. He began to talk to the baby and watched as she stared up at him. "It's been a long day, hasn't it? I know I am pretty tired and so is your Mommy. She went through a lot to bring you into this world and I love her very much for it. She's an amazing Mommy you'll love her; I know I do. Your Mommy's the lady who's sleeping. You can't see her though but she loves you very much. So do I. And so do your brothers who you saw a little while ago. And you have two aunts who already think the world of you." He continued to talk to her and the baby stared up at him, the occasional gurgle escaping from her mouth. Her facial expression showed that she appeared understand what Leo was saying to her, although Leo knew that was quite impossible. He then laughed softly. "Nothing's impossible in this family," he said and then looked down at her again. She yawned another gummy yawn and then sneezed softly. "You still tired, huh? Maybe I am boring you," he smiled softly. He stroked the baby's head with his free hand softly poked her nose. "No, that can't be it. Daddy couldn't bore you. Not yet at least. I'll have to wait a few more years for that." He continued to smile down at her and watched as her eyelids began to get heavy. "Your brothers are going to have a lot of fun with you, but if they bully you or tease you, you come straight to me and I'll sort them out, okay? We can't have them teasing you just because you're a girl." The tiny baby's eyelids slowly closed and this time they remained closed, signalling that she had fallen asleep. Leo placed another kiss on the baby's soft head and then leaned back into the wooden chair and gazed down at his sleeping baby girl. Yes, Melinda was definitely going to be a daddy's girl. He could feel it.

And that was it. Ok, so it wasn't anything special but I wanted to try and do a small one-shot on Leo's feelings of having a daughter. I thought the idea of adding him talking to the baby was perfect. You see it in all the movies! Leave me a little review and let me know what you think, eh?!