Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Charmed. I wish I did, but I don't.
A/n: I know that in "Forever Charmed" it was stated that Leo went back to teaching at magic school, but I'm going to make this slightly AU by ignoring that. Honestly, I really didn't like anything about magic school, so in my post-series stories it doesn't exist.
Thanks for the reviews so far!
Katie
Setting: November/December 2006
Coming Home
"You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right."
-Maya Angelou
Two: A Scene of Domesticity
While Paige and Henry were slouched on the couch sharing two dozen brownies for dinner, fifteen miles away Leo had just come home to a house saturated with the smell of homemade spaghetti. Within seconds, Wyatt had run up to him and flung his arms around Leo's legs, Chris toddling behind him as quickly as he could.
"Hey, buddy," said Leo to Wyatt, ruffling his hair. Chris collided with Leo's left leg and jumped up and down a couple of times excitedly. Grinning, Leo bent down and picked Chris up, raising him above his head and then back to the ground. Chris shrieked, delighted.
"Daddy, guess what?" said Wyatt. He grabbed Leo's hand and began tugging on it to make sure he had Leo's attention.
"What?" asked Leo.
"We had s'ghetti for dinner!"
That much was obvious, both from the smell and the fact that both of his children had spaghetti sauce all over their faces. "Mmm," said Leo, scooping Chris up again so he could walk through the house. Wyatt continued to hold onto his other hand. "Was it good?"
"Yeah," said Wyatt.
"Good!" echoed Chris.
Leo led them back into the kitchen and found Piper cleaning off Chris' high chair, which appeared to have spaghetti sauce from one end of the tray to the other. "Hi," said Leo, leaning in to give Piper a quick kiss. She smiled.
"Hi," she said. She looked down at Wyatt. "Come on, Wyatt," she said. "It's time to finish up dinner."
Wyatt dropped Leo's hand and went back to his chair, climbing up and picking up a fork that seemed to be buried in a plate half-full of spaghetti. Leo shook his head, amused, and walked to the sink to wash off Chris' face. "How was your day?" he asked.
Piper raised an eyebrow which Leo took to mean, "wait until I tell you what happened," and then said, "Good. Interesting."
"What happened?" asked Leo. He managed to get the sauce off of Chris and took a seat at the table, happy to be off his feet for a minute. Piper finished with the high chair and leaned back against the island, her arms crossed.
"Nothing bad," said Piper. "Paige came over for a little while."
"How's she?" asked Leo. Chris began squirming and Leo set him down. Immediately, his younger son took off towards the conservatory, where Leo was sure he had a large collection of toys strewn about the room.
"She's good," said Piper. "I think. Actually, she seemed kind of distracted, but that's not the point. Did you know that Paige has a grandmother?"
"Doesn't everyone?" asked Leo. Piper swatted at him with the washcloth she was still holding.
"I mean her grandmother is still alive and living in Virginia, apparently. Paige never mentioned her before, at least to me. Did she say anything to you?"
"No," said Leo. "But Paige never really talks about her family, does she?"
Piper snorted. "Pot calling the kettle black," she said. "You won't even tell me anything about your father, the man we apparently named our son after."
Leo decided not to fall into this baiting, as he and Piper had had this conversation more times than he cared to count. He had learned that it was better just to ignore these remarks and move on. "So Paige has a grandmother you just learned of today. Is that all?"
"No," said Piper. "The grandmother invited us to her place for Christmas."
"Us?" said Leo. "As in you and me and the kids?"
"And Paige and Henry and Phoebe and Coop," said Piper. "The whole family. Paige really wants us to go."
"To Virginia?"
"Yes."
"And you don't want to go?"
Piper sighed and crossed the room to the stove, where she began to pile two plates high with pasta. Leo stood and went to help her, waiting for her to speak. Once he had both plates in hand, she did. "I don't know what I want to do," she said. "I've never spent a Christmas anywhere other than here. In the manor," she added unnecessarily.
"So we won't go," said Leo.
"I didn't say that," said Piper, taking her plate from his hand and going to the table. Leo followed her. "Paige really, really wants to go. I can tell. But she also wants to spend the day with us. And Paige was very supportive last year, while you were…gone. I feel like I should stop being selfish and give her what she wants."
"So let's go," said Leo. "It's just one Christmas."
"Yeah, I know," said Piper. "But am I going to feel comfortable in a stranger's house? Do I want to go through that on Christmas? And what if the boys do magic in front of Paige's grandmother? Or her whole family? She didn't say who all was coming. What if we all fight the entire time and Christmas is miserable? What—"
"Whoa," said Leo. "Slow down. You can ask Paige how much of her family is coming. And as far as getting along with everyone, well, you never know for sure, but they did help to raise Paige and you love her. And like I said before, it's only one year. If it's that much of a disaster we can celebrate again when we get back home."
"You're right," said Piper. "I know you're right. I just feel…I don't know. Hesitant or something. Like I know something is going to go wrong."
Leo wanted to tell her that nothing would go wrong, but with their family's track record it wouldn't be a fair assumption. He settled for saying, "Isn't it worth it, for Paige?"
Piper stared at her plate for a moment, and then looked up and nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, it is."
"Then that's your answer," said Leo. He squeezed her knee under the table and then picked up his fork, digging into the spaghetti. Slowly, Piper did the same.
"So how was your day?" she asked.
"Good," said Leo. "I'm almost done at the Myers'. There's probably only another week of work left."
"Mommy?" said Wyatt from across the table.
"Yes?" said Piper.
"Can I be done now?" he asked. Piper glanced at his plate a nodded, but when Wyatt jumped up and began running out of the room, Piper said, "Hold on a second, mister. You need your face and hands washed."
"I'll do it," said Leo. He stood and guided Wyatt to the sink, where he began to scrub off the stubborn sauce stains.
"How is Mrs. Myers?" asked Piper.
"I don't know," said Leo. "She was only there long enough to let me in this morning." He gave Wyatt a pat on his behind and said, "Good to go, Wyatt," then watched as his son fled the room.
"Hmm," said Piper. Leo threw a look over his shoulder and saw that she was staring at him with mirth dancing in her eyes. He stood up. "I don't know how I feel about you being a handyman again, you know," she said. "After all, that's how you seduced me."
"By being a handyman?" asked Leo, laughter in his voice.
"The tight pants, the tools," said Piper, now grinning. "How could I resist?"
"And here I thought it was my charm," said Leo. He sat back down and leaned over to kiss Piper again before turning back to his dinner.