AN: I just wanted to give my awesome and lovely friend Maugurt a shout out. (she also has an account here on so check her out. :)) She gave me this idea and she wanted me to write it, so she is to thank for this story coming to life. I hope you like it. Thoughts and criticism are always welcomed.

I do not own any of the characters.

Thanks for reading. Love always.

Lost and found

The heavy rain kept thudding on the big window. It had been coming down all day in the same great amount. The wind could also be heard, giving the rain extra force against the window sometimes. The naked trees kept swaying in the late autumn storm, although it was too dark to see them dancing in the wind at that moment. As the storm kept bustling on outside, Piper sat warm and content inside her big room with candles lightning it up. She was wrapped up in a cozy blanket and was long lost in a book. Her parents were away on some of her father's business trips, her mother probably drinking her night away in the hotel bar as her father was surely off at the business event flirting with other women. At this thought, Piper closed her eyes and tried to keep them away, but they kept swirling around in there. These thoughts had been keeping her company the whole night. She loved to be home alone, but it was the nature of her parents absence that kept her somewhat bitter. Ever since she saw her father outside that movie theater kissing another woman, she had started to view her parents relationship on a whole different level. She could see how they slowly grew colder and colder against each other. How the fake smiles grew larger and larger. Every Christmas picture kept getting stiffer and stiffer.

She put the book down to try and clear her head better. The words just kept jumping around when she thought about how shitty her whole family situation was. Lucky for Danny, who had moved away a few years ago, he didn't have to go through the worst passive aggressive years. He didn't even bother to visit much. His quest to become a star doctor was apparently more important than to visit his family and check on how is siblings were doing.

Cal, as well as Danny, wasn't home much and was out doing his thing, her parents didn't even seem to really care. He was basically only at home for meals and forced to stay home on so called important family events. They already had their two "star" children to account for, so what Cal really did wasn't accounted for on the same level as what Piper did.

She sighed deeply and stood up to go to her big window to maybe let the storm clear her head. The only thing visible though, was her own faint reflection in the window. She sighed again, about to give up on clearing her head, when a sudden metallic noise caught her attention. Piper abruptly turned to the window again to look for the source of the sound, but was met by more darkness. After having roamed the backyard with her eyes, she found nothing of interest and shook her head, thinking she had imagined the sound. Thankful for this distraction she went back to her bed and blanket, ready to yet again lose herself in the wonderful world of words.

After about two pages, she heard something again, this sound was much more distinct. She rose from the bed again and went downstairs to the living room that had two large french doors towards the backyard. She tiptoed to the doors, not sure if someone or something was really out there. As she got closer to the door, she raised her arms to her chest and clenched her cardigan tightly in her fists. Her breathing got faster as she gazed out and slowly laid one hand on the door handle. In the same pace she walked out on the small wooden patio that had a roof over it. She left the door open to be sure to have a quick escape to safety.

The only thing she could see was the dark yard and the rain that kept hitting the ground with it's big wet drops.

"Hello?" She said, although not in a loud voice. It didn't feel safe to shout out into the night when it was this dark outside. Like she wanted to find the disturbance, but at the same time she didn't if there actually was something there. She didn't get an answer, though. All that could be heard was the wind and rain, but at one point the wind almost stopped and she thought she could hear faint footsteps. The kind of footsteps that were stuck in wet and muddy grass. She stood deadly still and tried not to breathe, until the wind picked up again. She let out the breath that she was holding and was about to turn around when she could hear something falling. Well, it was surely more a someone than something as the sound resembled a body hitting the wet grass. Her eyes went wide and she turned around again, more alarmed than before.

"Hello?!" This time she said it more loudly. She didn't really want to walk out there with her brand new uggs, but what if someone had just collapsed there? Like an old person or something. So, she squared her shoulders and took the first step down on the wet grass, sure to destroy her new shoes. Even so, she continued on and kept her eyes open for a body on the ground.

When she rounded the corner of the house and got closer to the old tree that was the center of the backyard she could see something moving slightly. At first she stopped, scared of what might lay in front of her.

"Hello...?" She said, although this was more like a whisper. She took a few tentative steps closer to the lump in front of her when she stepped on a twig that gave way under her weight with a sharp snap. This awoke the lump and it turned around shielding it's face with it's hands.

"Please don't hurt me, I'm not a burglar." A raspy girls voice exclaimed. Piper was a bit taken aback by the voice, but relaxed some when she could hear that it was a girl. Ignoring the quite cold rain, she took another step towards the body. Even if she took some comfort in the stranger on the ground being a girl, she couldn't quite understand what she was doing there.

"I'm not going to hurt you. What are you doing out here in the rain?" Piper asked as she got closer, but it seemed as the girl didn't want to be near her.

"Please, just... just don't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." The girl said in a broken voice that told Piper there was so much more to this story than she originally thought. Sure, a stranger out in her backyard when it rained heavily in the night was bound to be a long story all by itself, but just by the way the girl was acting told her that it was an even longer story and not as simple as just walking in to the wrong backyard.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not trying to harm you. Are you hurt?" Piper gently asked as she crouched down so she was more on the same level as the other. She had read somewhere that being on the same level as another person signaled that she wasn't a threat. It could've been complete bullshit, but it felt right to do it at the moment. She wanted to know what the girl was doing there.

The wind slowed down again, and she could her faint sobs coming from the other girl, but she didn't get a verbal answer. Even so, the sobs were an answer enough that something terrible must've happened to the girl.

"What's your name?" Piper tried in the same gentle tone as before, maybe she didn't want to talk about whatever had driven her there.

"Alex..." The gravely and broken voice answered her.

"Hey, I'm Piper. We should go inside. It's warm and safe there." Piper stretched out her hand, even so, the other girl flinched at the movement. She bit the inside of her cheek when she saw this. A normal person wouldn't do this. So something really terrible must've happened to the girl for her to react like this to a friendly gesture. After some time of Piper being completely still, the girl took her hand and they slowly rose from the ground together. When they both had risen to their full height, Piper lead them both inside.

When they reached the doors, she took off her wet and slightly destroyed shoes on the patio and the girl did the same. She hadn't let go of Alex's hand yet, as if she was scared that she might run away and then Piper would never know what had happened to her.

As they stood on the shielded patio, Piper could tell from the faint light coming from inside that the other girl's clothes were dirty and ripped on some places. Her hand was so cold. How long could she have been out there in the rain? Days, weeks? Piper felt weights coming down on her shoulders, but not from the burden of taking care of the Alex. They came from the sorrow she felt for the other girl, for what she may have suffered. One does not simply end up in a strangers backyard without a reason.

She lead them inside, closing the door. Piper paused, unsure if she wanted to let go of the others hand. Like she thought Alex would run away the first chance she got. So she didn't let go of Alex's hand. Slowly she took Alex upstairs to her room, where the candles were still glowing with their warm flame. Piper turned around and faced the girl for the first time in somewhat good lightning. When Alex realized that the other girl was staring at her face, her gaze fell to the floor, aware of how she must look.

She had a large bruise following her right cheekbone, and even if it rained outside, traces of dried blood could be found on her face and around the bruise. She also had small cuts all over her face, like she had run straight through a compact thorn bush. Even if she looked rough she was still beautiful. Her wet raven hair cascaded down her shoulders. Standing taller than Piper, she looked to be a little older, but not by much. Black rimmed frames covered her gentle spring green eyes and if she hadn't looked so beaten up, it would have been a happy and beautiful picture to keep in mind, but it was just sad that someone would want to hurt the girl in front of her.

"What happened to you?" Piper whispered, but Alex didn't offer a reply as she just shifted in her place. Piper sighed and closed her eyes as tears started to cloud her vision. She felt sympathetic towards Alex, even if she didn't know what had happen. The wounds didn't look self inflicted.

Since she didn't get a reply, she thought she should get Alex more comfortable.

"We should get you warm, those wet clothes look uncomfortable." Piper said, but blushed immediately when she thought of how that might sound.

"I don't mean that I'll warm you up, just that a warm shower could warm you up since you've been out in the rain and your hand was so cold, so I figured that you're cold and wet clothes are never comfortable so..." Piper bit her lip when she realized that she had just showed Alex one of her special talents: to rant on endlessly and end up in an even more awkward situation than before. Even if the situation Alex was in wasn't idealistic, a ghost of a smile played on her lips as she lifted her gaze to meet Piper's.

"Thanks, that would be nice." Alex said while her gaze shifted to the floor again.

After showing Alex the bathroom and laying out a towel and some clothes that she thought might fit the older girl, she closed the door to the behind her and went to her bed. She laid down to think about what had just happened. It was a huge risk letting a complete stranger inside her house, but she had acted so wounded and scared and she felt more of an obligation to help the girl. It wasn't like this obligation felt like a burden, she wanted to help the girl in any way she could. It was highly unlikely that she would have let the other inside had she been hostile. She could only think of what her mother would say. Scolding her for letting the girl inside. It wouldn't matter to Carol what the other girl had obviously been through. She couldn't let her mother know, since she didn't want to kick Alex out. Inevitably her parents would be a problem, but that would be a problem for later. She really felt the need to protect the other girl from whatever was out there and that was the only thing she wanted to focus on at the moment.