Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed. I'm just having fun.

A/n: This is the fourth part of my "Alone, Eternally" series ("Alone, Eternally," "Nothing I've Become," "Reaching for You."). It is not necessary to read those stories before this one, although it will give you a good background for what's to come in this story. This story won't be too long. It's almost more of an interlude between the last story and the next one.

For anyone unfamiliar with my post-series stories, Nora and Lena are Phoebe and Coop's daughters.

I hope you enjoy this story. There will be probably one or two more parts to this.

Katie

Setting: October 2021

Hiding Underneath

sequel to Reaching for You

a story by Ryeloza

My lullaby, hung out to dry.
What's up with that? It's over.
Where are you, Dad? Mom's lookin' sad.
What's up with that? It's dark in here.

-Natalie Imbruglia, "Smoke"

Conner Hawkins asked Nora to the homecoming dance the day the school announced that tickets were on sale. She said yes, calmly and sophisticatedly, and then met up with Meli and Cara before first period to tell them the news in a much less dignified manner.

"Lucky," said Cara. "I wish a sophomore would ask me to the dance." But Cara didn't really sound the least bit jealous. By the end of the day, Roger Kenny, a boy in their math class, had asked her.

Nora was on cloud nine for the rest of the day, gushing to Meli and Lena about what color dress she would wear and how she would do her hair and other little details the entire walk home. She only stopped when, one block before the separated, Lena looked up at Meli and asked, "Are you going too?" and Meli answered, "Probably not."

After Meli had parted company with them, Nora said, "Maybe I can get one of Conner's friends to ask Meli. Oh! And then we could go in the same group!"

Any thought of finding her cousin a date, though, flew out the window when her mom got home from work that night. Her mom had started a new job about nine months before as a grief counselor at the hospital and the shift she worked meant she got home around eight o'clock. It had been a big adjustment for them, but Nora tried really hard not to complain. Most of the time.

"When can we go dress shopping?" she asked, shifting her weight from one foot to the other in her excitement.

"I don't know, honey," Mom said. Her voice was tired, but her eyes were bright, which was reassuring. "I'm working the next two weekends."

"Oh," said Nora, trying not to sound crestfallen. "But I want to get a good dress. And everything will be gone if we wait too long." Her subtle manipulation went right over her mother's head.

"Maybe one of your aunts can take you," Mom said with forced enthusiasm.

Nora nodded, hugged her mom briefly and then went to the bedroom she shared with Lena to make some attempt at her homework. She didn't even remember her resolve to find Meli a date with one of Conner's friends until a week later, when Meli announced that Ben Frost had asked her to the dance. Ben was great friends with Kenny, which meant that Meli and Cara would be going in the same group; Nora felt a pang at the realization. Oblivious, Meli quickly invited Nora to go dress shopping on Wednesday after school.

Aunt Piper picked them up after school on Wednesday, dropping Lena at her viola lesson before driving Nora and Meli out to the mall. Despite her disappointment that her mom couldn't take her, Nora couldn't help but feel excited when she saw the dresses. She had decided on red or hot pink—something bright and sexy. Maybe black.

Without considering her mother's warning of "under one hundred and fifty dollars," Nora dove right in. She and Meli had each picked out about nine dresses when the finally went into the fitting room. Aunt Piper, looking grateful for the break, plopped down on a seat outside and waited for them to model the dresses.

Nora loved the first dress she put on—bright red, low cut in the front and back, and short—but the moment she stepped out of the dressing room Aunt Piper shook her head and said, "Absolutely not." A second later, Meli stepped out in a hideous pale pink that was definitely not her color and said, "You're not getting that, are you?"

"I won't if you don't get that," said Nora, and she disappeared back into her dressing room.

She and Aunt Piper didn't end up agreeing on anything until Nora's fifth dress: a black number with a hem only two inches above the knee and a fitted, strapless top. "That's beautiful," Aunt Piper said, and Nora clapped her hands, certain that she had found her dress. Then she glanced at the price tag: three hundred dollars. Nora's stomach plummeted to the floor and she swallowed hard, not glancing at Aunt Piper as she muttered, "Maybe not," and went back into the fitter.

Meli found her dress first: a warm, sunset-colored orange with an asymmetrical hem that began at her right calf and ran to her left ankle. She looked really pretty and Nora felt a twinge of jealousy when Aunt Piper said that Meli could get it, even though it cost a little over two hundred dollars.

In the end, with a lot less enthusiasm than she'd started with, Nora picked out a strapless teal halter top dress with a knee-length skirt. Both Aunt Piper and Meli declared it perfect.

On the way home, Aunt Piper said casually, "You know, Nora, topaz jewelry would look great with your dress. I'm sure your mom has some. It's her birthstone."

And Nora perked up at the thought as a vision of a cluster of pearls around a topaz on a silver chain came into her mind. And certainly Mom would let her borrow it!

"Absolutely not," said Mom when Nora asked her about the necklace.

"Why not?" demanded Nora, finally snapping. How, after everything, could her mother possibly say that she couldn't wear the necklace.

"You can wear the one Dad got me for my birthday," said Mom, "or any of my earrings or bracelets, but you're not wearing that necklace."

"That's not fair!" yelled Nora. "You never let me have anything! I couldn't even get the dress I wanted because of you!"

"Nora—"

"I can't stand you!" said Nora, and she stormed to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her and then falling onto her bed, crying. It wasn't fair. Her mom was horrible and mean and completely unfair! And the worst part was that Dad wasn't even here to tell her that she was being unfair, so nothing was going to change.

A few minutes later, Lena came into the room and sat down next to Nora. She stayed there until Nora finished crying.

Three weeks later, Nora arrived home at the empty apartment with a plan: she was going to borrow the necklace, regardless of permission. The dance was this Saturday and today was Wednesday; her mother certainly wouldn't miss the necklace in just four days. Stealthy, she crept down the hall to her mother's bedroom.

Nora left the bedroom door open so she could hear if anyone came in the apartment and immediately went to her mother's jewelry box. Dad had bought the piece for Mom a few years ago for Christmas; the box opened with two doors instead of on top. Inside were three shelves that could be removed: Mom kept earrings and rings in the top shelf, bracelets in the middle one, and necklaces in the bottom. Carefully, Nora pulled out the bottom shelf.

Seven necklaces lay in perfect order on the shelf: a gold chain that held a heart-shaped locket (Mom never wore this, but kept it because Grandma had bought if for her right before she died); four beautiful necklaces Mom had bought herself at some department store; a silver chain with a heart made of tiny diamonds attached (Dad had gotten this for Mom for her birthday); and a chain that had four jewels dangling from it—her mom and her aunts' birthstones—that Aunt Paige had had made a few years ago (she and Aunt Piper had identical ones). But where, Nora wondered now, was the pearl and topaz necklace?

She quickly checked the other two shelves in case the necklace had been misplaced, but it wasn't there either. Maybe, somehow, it had ended up in her mother's box for less precious jewelry by mistake. Nora opened the top drawer in her mother's dresser, and felt for the other box while trying not to disturb the socks and underwear. At the very back of the drawer, her fingers touched something wooden, and eagerly Nora pulled out the box. It was bigger and heavier than she remembered, but before she even entertained the thought that she might have the wrong box, she opened the lid.

For a long time after, she would wish that she had just listened when her mother said she couldn't wear the necklace.