A/n: Welcome to the fifth installment of the "Alone, Eternally," series. It is not necessary to be familiar with the four stories that come before this one (if you are interested in reading them, please check my profile), but it would give you some background information for this story. Basically the one thing you have to know is that in my post-Forever Charmed universe, Coop and Phoebe have two children, Nora and Lena, and that Coop has died.

I really hope everyone enjoys this story. In a lot of ways, this story is a climax point in the series, and I hope that those of you that have been reading since the beginning won't be disappointed. Thanks for all of your support with this series! I'd love any feedback on this story too!

Katie

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. The end.

Setting: March 2025

Waits for You

sequel to Hiding Underneath

a story by Ryeloza

Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
Are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

-Billy Joel, "Vienna"

They were fighting. Again. Lena turned up her music to try to drown them out and tapped her pen against her chemistry book. She had read the same passage at least three times now, and she couldn't help but think that she should have gone to Aunt Paige's after school again. But yesterday Mom had said, "You've been over at Paige's a lot, lately. We miss you around here, kiddo." Lena hadn't been able to ignore that blatant, sincere attention, and so here she was.

What a fool she was for possibly believing that they'd get through an afternoon without Mom and Nora fighting. How did they miss her when they were too busy yelling at each other? At least at Aunt Paige's she could concentrate.

Just as Lena had decided to creep out and make her way over to Aunt Paige's, she heard a door slam, her mother yell, "Nora!" and then blessed silence. "Finally," she muttered. A moment later, though, her bedroom door opened and her mom walked in.

"I don't know what is wrong with your sister!" her mother said as she began to pace the floor. Resigned, Lena pulled off her earphones and sat up on the bed. She had learned that the best thing to do in these situations (whether it was her mother or sister) was to just let the other person vent.

"Why does she act that way?" Mom continued.

According to Aunt Piper she's just like you were at that age, Lena's brain supplied. In reality she remained steadfastly silent.

"I swear she's only doing these things to get under my skin! I just don't understand it, Lena! And I don't know what to do anymore! Has she said anything to you?"

"About what?" asked Lena, leaning her elbows on her knees.

"About why she's so angry with me," said Mom. She sighed. "Lena, it's more than just us fighting about this guy she's dating—"

"Tyler," supplied Lena.

"—or about how her grades are slipping or anything else. I certainly did worse things at her age! But she's mad at me, and I just can't figure out why."

"She hasn't said anything to me, Mom," said Lena. Truthfully, she'd noticed how oddly Nora had been acting. The older she got, the worse it seemed to be and Lena was certainly as fed up (or maybe more so) than her mother. Nora seemed determined to keep whatever was wrong bottled up inside of her and this was doing nothing than making things incredibly tense at home. Often, now, Lena wished she could just move in with Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry and be done with all the pain at home. She'd never, ever admit this to either Mom or Nora, though.

"You'd tell me if you knew, wouldn't you?" asked Mom.

"Sure," said Lena. "I'd tell you." Anything to make things better here.

Mom smiled and sat down on the edge of Lena's bed, pushing a strand of dark hair behind Lena's ear. "I do love you, baby," she said. "I don't think I say it enough."

"I love you too, Mom," said Lena. She wanted to add something comforting, like she was sure Nora would come around or that things would get better soon, but the words seemed trite. Probably because they're so untrue, thought Lena.

"I'll let you get back to your homework," Mom said as she stood up. "What are you working on anyway?"

"Chem," said Lena.

Mom wrinkled her nose. "I always hated science," she said.

Lena smiled and shrugged, almost fearful to admit that she loved her science classes most of all. She almost felt that admitting it would only further highlight how different she was from the rest of the family. And she was positively sick of emphasizing her differences when all she wanted to do was fit in.

"Well, I'll see you in the morning, sweetie," said Mom.

"Goodnight," said Lena quietly.

At nearly two o'clock in the morning Lena was woken by the sound of her sister swearing. Annoyed, she sat up in bed and squinted at Nora in the darkness. "You're just getting home?" she hissed.

"Shhh!" said Nora even more loudly than Lena has spoken. She stumbled towards Lena's bed and half-collapsed on it, holding out a hand as if to cover Lena's mouth. Lena batted it away easily and said, "You're drunk, aren't you?"

"Just a little," said Nora, holding up her fingers just an inch apart.

"Ugh," said Lena. She ran her fingers through her hair and groaned. "What the hell is wrong with you, Nora?"

"Nothin'!" said Nora. "I just needed to get OUT OF HERE!"

"Shhh!" Lena said this time. "Please, Nora. You and Mom do not need to get into it right now."

"Mom doesn't even know I'm here," said Nora. "She thinks I'm at Mel's."

"Why aren't you at Meli's?" asked Lena. "Isn't that where you usually go to sleep this off?"

Nora flopped back on the bed so she was half-sprawled across Lena's legs and said, "Our cousin said she didn't want to deal with me tonight."

"I can't imagine why," Lena muttered.

"Mmm," said Nora.

"Oh no," said Lena, grabbing Nora's hand and tugging her towards the edge of the bed. "You are not falling asleep on top of me!"

"Le-na!"

"No. No way. Get in your own bed!"

"Fine!" said Nora. She lurched into a sitting position and a moment later stood and fell towards her own bed.

"You're such a goon," said Lena. Sighing, she got out of bed and grabbed the afghan on the edge of Nora's bed to cover her sister. "Why do you do this to yourself, anyway?"

Nora didn't respond, and Lena sat down on the edge of the bed near her sister's shoulder. "I wish you and Mom could just get over whatever this is," she said. "You've been acting like a lunatic since Dad died."

"I miss Dad," said Nora.

"Yeah, well you're not the only one," said Lena. She sighed and dropped a quick kiss on her sister's temple. "I love you, nutcase."

"Love you," said Nora.

Lena slipped back into her own bed and lay on her side, looking at her sister's prone form. She knew already that sleep was not going to come back easily. Families weren't supposed to be like this. Her aunts' families weren't like this; why was hers? Nora was always talking now about how she couldn't wait to graduate and leave and never look back, but how was that going to help anything? Mom would be devastated and Lena knew, despite all the problems her sister caused, that she would miss her terribly. Running away couldn't possibly be the answer. It just couldn't.

I just have to find the answer. I have to…

But I only have three months left…

Lena fell asleep with this thought running through her mind.