"Neither choice would have affected yours and Leo's destiny," the Angel said mysteriously as Phoebe gave him a look.
"What?"
The Angel smiled mischievously. "You'll find out." He lowered his eyes to Piper's stomach, then turned away to leave. Phoebe heard a click in her head as the pieces fell into place.
"Don't you get it?"
Paige looked at Phoebe for a moment, then to the Angel, and back to her sister again. Her eyes widened as she realized what the Angel's words meant.
"She's pregnant!" Phoebe turned to Piper, who had one of those out-of-the-loop looks on her face. She scrunched up her eyebrows and in confusion, not really understanding what her sisters were so excited about. "Who's pregnant?"
"You're pregnant!"
"I'm pregnant?!"
"You're pregnant!"
Piper sucked in her breath as two bodies flung themselves at her abdomen. Phoebe latched on around her waist while Paige threw her arms her shoulders. She let out and enormous sigh, mostly of relief, as Phoebe commenced talking to her stomach.
"Hi, baby... hi, baby."
A whoosh of warm air passed them quickly as the Angel of Destiny flew past in a blaze of bright light, and out the door with enough force to have it close behind him. Piper couldn't see straight. She couldn't breath. Was it really happening? Finally, after all the time, the trying, the tests, the tears, was it over? Piper couldn't comprehend the jolt that shot through her mind, saying, You're going to be a mother… She had imagined it so differently, standing with Leo, hovered over one of those little plastic home pregnancy tests, then screaming and weeping together when the little strip turned blue. But here she was, her husband was frozen, and her sisters were draped over her like two ecstatic afghans and she couldn't have asked for a more perfect moment.
The noise from the construction crews resumed outside, and the three sisters looked up in time to see Leo kiss the air where Piper had been standing. He looked confused for a minute before he looked up and saw his wife just a few feet away. "Did the Angel come back? What happened? Did you guys give up your powers?"
Piper grinned and walked toward him, and placed a finger across his lips. "Shh. Don't worry about it. We'll always be the Charmed Ones."
Leo hesitated as he wrapped his arms around her and saw the tears in her eyes. "Piper, what's wrong?" He tilted her chin up with his hand and looked into her flushed face with concern.
She laughed through her sobs and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. "Nothing is wrong. No, for the first time in a long time, everything is just right." Piper stood on her toes and kissed him gently, then rested her forehead against his own as she began to whisper. "Congratulations, Daddy."
Leo stood, frozen in place, as he warm, fuzzy feeling that he had heard so much about washed over him. He could hear lullabies singing themselves in his head, and the most beautiful words that he ever thought he could utter slipped past his lips. "You're pregnant…"
Piper nodded as she began to tear up again. "It's amazing, isn't it? I guess we're just lucky. We were blessed with these gifts, and it was the gifts that brought us together, you and I, and now here we are. I'm going to be someone's Mommy…" She paused as she heard Phoebe clear her throat behind her. She craned her neck to see both of her sisters standing, arms crossed, and waiting for her to acknowledge them.
"Yes, you do have sisters who aren't finished congratulating you yet," Paige said with a grin. "And we have a lot of congratulating to do."
Piper smiled and opened one arm to her sisters. They once again flung themselves as the eldest, squeezing her and Leo together in a giant group hug. While Phoebe and Paige screamed loudly in her ear, Piper took Leo's hand and placed it delicately on her stomach. His palm glow briefly as he felt his child growing inside her. He could hear the heartbeat in his mind, and it sent shivers up and down his spine.
"You know that this changes everything, right?" he murmured into her hair.
"Of course," Piper replied, gazing up at him. She could almost see the baby that she and her husband would bring into the world when she looked at him, with her big brown eyes and his light hair. Melinda. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
