PART 2:

For Those That Believe…

7

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For a moment everyone was silent. There were times in the past few months that the sisters had doubts about Leo. For one, he had shown up out of nowhere and without seemingly having a past. In fact, Leo was very vague when it came to even the most innocent questions about himself, leading Phoebe and Piper to question his motives and constantly warn Piper to be on her guard. The dark forces were always trying to pose as a friend or lover and break the Power of Three.

But of course, this was lost on Piper. And granted, each week that went by without Leo morphing into some kind of demon or warlock, was all the proof Piper needed to trust her instincts. Now, even Prue and Phoebe had relaxed their guard to an extent, trusting that Piper could tell good love from bad. Yet, none of the three sisters could deny that Leo was definitely hiding something.

"How about that coffee?" Phoebe asked when the silence had stretched its limit. "Piper, would you help me in the kitchen?" to which Piper gave her sister a scathing glance.

"Coffee?" O'zeph mused. "I think I would like to try that."

Leo laughed, "Try it? You've never had coffee before?"

Phoebe and her sisters looked sidelong as one another. Phoebe held her breath; this was the second test as to whether O'zeph could pass as a human. Covering those red eyes of his with dark sunglasses was one thing, but could he tackle the everyday, modern situations?

O'zeph fixed his sunglasses on Leo. "Some take vows against such things."

Leo's hand went to his head. "Ah, I should have realized…the robes and the shaved head…"

the broken vow of silence…Phoebe thought to herself. But maybe all monks didn't take that vow. Though, it would be a lot less stressful if this one had.

"You should try your coffee with a dash of cream the first time around and maybe a little bit of sugar," Leo advised him. "Then try it black to get the whole coffee experience."

"Why thank you. I will," O'zeph said.

"Okay, coffee coming up," Phoebe said, and then she and Piper went to the kitchen leaving Prue to keep an eye on Leo and O'zeph.

Once behind the closed door of the kitchen, Phoebe panicked. "We've got to get rid of Leo after the coffee break," she told Piper. "We're running out of time."

Piper took down two coffee mugs and handed one to Phoebe. "I'm not getting rid of Leo—why should we get rid of Leo?—he'll be busy all morning tending to the repairs."

"And maybe overhearing us. Besides, we don't know for sure when the Mother will come, it could get dangerous. Do you want Leo to get hurt? Witness who we are? 'Cause that's not the way to start a relationship, believe me. And Piper, he's not the kind of guy who's just going to let somebody come in and hurt you"

Piper shook her head.

"Then send him away, Piper. The enemy will always hurt you by hurting him and he would have no chance against someone like the Mother. You have to tell him to come back on another day."

Piper whispered, "But what if I don't see him again? What if something happens and the Aox Mother wins—"

"Stop it. Just stop it. If we think like that, she will win." Phoebe hesitated. "Is that why you've been so loony since he got here?"

Piper went on as if she'd not heard a word Phoebe had said. "…and I've never even told him how I feel. We're not even to the stage where we can go out on a first date." Piper sighed. "We haven't been alone for over five minutes in this house because you and Prue are convinced he's demonic."

Phoebe denied it. Maybe at first they did shelter Piper too much, but they'd stopped playing babysitter to the two for the past month. If anything was holding them back it was their own shyness toward one another. They were so crazy about each other, and yet utterly scared to death to make the first move and tell the other. Meanwhile, they had a crazy itch for closeness: a finger brushed between coffee mugs, sitting too close on the sofa. It was so obvious to everyone but them. And sometimes it was painful to watch, but always mesmerizing to see how it was sweet torture for them to be around each other and not touch. This, after all these months, would only make it sweeter when it did happen.

And Phoebe was jealous. Rotten-dirty jealous. But it was a happy- jealous, too. She was so glad for Piper. And she prayed that one day she herself would have that kind of slow crazy itch.

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