Prue sat down in the parlor beside her grandmother and leaned against her. "Grams, I'm hungry." She told her as she scratched the freckle beside her nose. Penny smiled and put her arms around her oldest grandchild. "I'll start making dinner right away, honey." Prue nodded and her smiled turned into a smirk, "Did you see the drawing Piper made of you?" She asked her.
Penny let out a chuckle, "Yes, dear, I saw it, " She stopped and looked over at her middle granddaughter who sat on her mother's lap, "and it was beautiful. Not to mention that I look very good in green." Piper gave her a proud smile and then rubbed her face sleepily. She sighed deeply and snuggled closer against Patty. "You tired again, sweetie?" Penny asked her. Piper closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. Patty brushed some of the hair that had fallen down in her face away.
"You wanna come with me and put your sisters down for a nap, sweetie?" Patty asked her oldest daughter. "Don't wanna nap…" Piper started fussing and tried to suppress a yawn. Patty got up from the chair and placed Piper on her hip.
"Listen to Mommy, Piper." Prue softly reprimanded her little sister. "Thank you, honey. Come on, let's go upstairs." Prue nodded and grabbed a hold on Patty's hand. "Victor, bring Phoebe will you?" Patty questioned her ex as she started climbing the stairs with Prue and Piper.
With the two youngest Halliwells nicely tucked in bed and the third one playing with some toys on the floor, Victor put his arms around Patty. "We did good you know." Patty turned around to face him. "I know. It's just hard to think that they were only a year older than this when I died." Victor cupped her chin in his hand. "You're here now, Patty." She smiled and picked Prue up. "Pretty good for a guy who always says the wrong thing."
"Let's try not to wake your sisters up now shall we." Patty told Prue. They were about to leave the room when Piper started to whimper in her sleep. Patty handed Prue to Victor and told them to go ahead downstairs. She moved towards the bed and lay down next to her middle daughter. She gently ran a finger over her little cheek and shushed her with a soft voice so she wouldn't wake her up.
Not stirring from her sleep Piper somehow managed to clutch her mother's finger tightly in her hand and her whimpers were subsided. It touched Patty to see how dependent her daughter was of her. She hadn't realized how much it truly was until now. What she wouldn't give to be alive again, to be with her girls everyday.
Patty woke an hour later by her mother hollering for her and by some extra weight on her stomach. Phoebe had woken up during the nap and had apparently thought that her mother would make a perfect pillow. "Patty! Dinner!" She heard Penny was about to get impatient. "Coming, Mom." She called back. "Ok, babies, let's go eat."
Phoebe sat placed neatly in her highchair eating or rather trying to eat her spaghetti. All the food seemed to go everywhere else but her in mouth, along with Piper her face was also fairly well covered with tomato sauce. After some searching they hadn't managed to find the old booster seat for Piper in the attic, so she sat on her father's lap by the table. Prue laughed by the sight of her little sisters, both determined to eat themselves no matter how much of a mess they made.
"Phoebe, why don't you let Mommy feed you?" Patty coaxed her youngest, Phoebe didn't agree and responded with a high-pitched scream when Patty tried to lure the fork away from her. "Alright, alright, I won't take it!" Patty raised her hands in defeat. Phoebe stopped screaming as soon as Patty pulled back and giggled at her victory. Victor gave Patty a sympathizing smile. "What can I say, she knows what she wants."
After some struggle with her spaghetti Piper found that her fingers were much better of eating with than the fork. "Piper dear, we eat with the fork, not the hand." Penny lightly scolded the three-year-old. She silently laughed to herself knowing the little girl was one of the most prominent young chiefs in San Francisco. Well her adult self was anyway.
Piper looked up at her with her chocolate brown eyes and sighed deeply. "But Gwams…" The despair in her voice was obvious. "…It's too hawd." And before Patty could intervene Piper had wiped the mess she had made all over her shirt.
"Honey, look at your shirt now…" Patty sighed and ran a hand trough her hair. To go from being dead the last 20 some years to become a fulltime toddler parent wasn't the easiest thing in the world. To say she, Penny and Victor was out of practice was not an understatement. "Sowwy." Piper apologized as Victor tried to clean her hands with a cloth. After her had cleaned her up he kissed her on the cheek. "That's ok, baby."
"Can we go play in the backyard?" Prue asked her mother. She had become fairly antsy from sitting still so long and was more than ready to be excused from the table. "Sure sweetie, but not for too long. And wear your jackets, it's cold outside." Patty told Prue and picket up a jacket for both of the girls. She handed one to Prue and helped Piper get hers on.
Kneeling down she looked her middle daughter in the eyes and placed a finger on the tip of her nose. "Stay where I can see you, ok?" Piper grinned and grabbed Prue's hand. Piper had always been a somewhat quiet and shy child, but her curiosity got the best of her sometimes, something Patty remembered very well.
"Don't worry Mommy, I'll take care of her." Prue promised as she lead her little sister out the backdoor.
Patty watched as her children ran around playing in the yard. She laughed as she saw Prue pretending to be tackled to the ground by her younger sister. It was no doubt her oldest daughter was amazing with her two younger siblings, especially with Piper. She would never forget how proud Prue was the day Piper was born. Victor and her had been concerned that she would get jealous of her new baby sister, but she never did. She adored her, the same was she eventually would adore Phoebe when she was born.
It fascinated Patty how her children even at this age showed so strong traits of their personalities. Or rather the personalities they eventually ended up with originally. Even at this age Prue was a leader and showed the way for her younger siblings. Piper wasn't acting up like a three-year-old would; she was such a sweet and incredibly kind child. She was already the mediator between her sisters. Phoebe was a delight and her spirit never seemed to be broken, a true Halliwell. Pride couldn't even begin to explain what she felt for her daughters. All three of them were perfect in their on unique way, so different, yet so alike.
She was jerked out of her thoughts when she saw Piper falling down from one of the garden chairs she had been standing on. It had rained earlier that day and the chairs had become all slippery because of it. At first it seemed as the middle child was okay and didn't seem to mind at all. But that was before she saw the small lines of blood forming on her scraped hand. Prue ran to her side and tried to console her, but she knew there was no use. Prue knew that when Piper got like this only their mom could calm her down.
With her bottom lip trembling Piper looked up at her mother seeking her comfort as she started crying. Patty picked up the little girl in front of her and tried to soothe her the best way she could. It was a well-known fact that her middle daughter had never been too keen at the sight of blood.
"It's ok, sweetie. Mommy's gonna fix it." She cooed and kissed Piper's tear stained cheek. "Let's go clean your hand up and put a band-aid on it, okay?"
Piper nodded and buried her head under Patty's chin, holding her hurt hand out of her sight. "Dumb chaiw…" Patty tried not to laugh when she heard Piper muttering as they past the garden chair on their way into the kitchen.
Placing Piper on the counter she stared at her for a minute. "Why did you climb the chair, honey?" She asked the little girl softly while cleaning her hand. Patty knew that Piper was well aware that she had done something she had been told not to do.
Piper gave her a guilty look through the tears and shook her head slightly. "I dunno." She cried and rubbed her face with her uninjured hand. It was the truth too; she didn't know why she had done it. Her mother and father had always said that she shouldn't climb things like that, because she would only fall down and get hurt. They sure knew what they were talking about.
"You know you have to listen to me when I tell you not to do something." Piper looked down on the floor and nodded. Patty finished fixing her hand and pulled her daughter in for a tight hug. Piper rested her head on Patty's shoulder and studied the band-aid on her hand. "I just want you to be safe and not get hurt. Mommy would be very sad if anything happened you or your sisters."
"Patty?" Penny called from the parlor. "Kitchen, mom!" Patty yelled back to her mother. Penny smiled at her daughter and granddaughter as she walked into the room. "So how are my girls doing?"
Piper lifted her head from her mother's shoulder and held her hand up for Penny to see. "I fell." She told her grandmother sticking her bottom lip out. Penny lifted her out of Patty's arms and placed her on the hip. "Oh, my poor dear!" Penny put on a dramatic act and showered Piper with kisses. "Gwaaaaaams!" Piper laughed and tried to squirm away from Penny's grip.