Chapter Eleven

Six weeks passed and Paige had spent a lot of the time packing up. She and Henry were selling all their furniture, so they didn't have to worry about packing it up. It was nice that Leo and Coop had offered to help out. Actually, they hadn't exactly offered. Their wives told them that they had to help out. None of the girls could really pick up the boxes.

While they were moving the boxes to Paige's new house, the girls went shopping for new stuff for the house. Paige and Henry had already gotten new bedroom furniture. Paige arranged for the new furniture to be shipped to the new house.

"You need to get baby furniture," Phoebe told Paige as they finished up shopping for most of the furniture and decorations.

Paige stopped walking and looked completely shocked. "I've been so preoccupied with getting regular furniture that it totally slipped my mind about getting baby furniture."

"How could you forget?" Piper smirked as she looked at Paige's belly. Paige lightly hit Piper on the back of her head.

"Have you already picked where you're putting the nursery?" Phoebe asked trying to ignore Piper.

"There's a sitting room attached to the master bedroom. We're turning that into the nursery," Paige replied.

"Let's go find you some baby furniture," Piper said. "You should really start getting ready for having the baby."

The girls got to a baby store that sold furniture, clothes, and toys. Paige looked around. Everything looked so happy and bright. It didn't really look like anything Paige would personally want, but she guessed that the baby needed something comforting.

A perky petite clerk came up to the girls. "What are you looking for today?" she asked sweetly.

"I need to buy stuff for my nursery," Paige responded trying not to mock the sweetness in the clerk's voice.

"Well, what theme nursery are you looking for?" the clerk asked, not picking up on the girls being annoyed by her perkiness.

"I'm not sure. Let me call my husband."

Paige called Henry's cell phone. "I'm really busy right now," he responded as he looked at the boxes he'd just moved into the house.

"I know, but I'm at the baby furniture store and I need to know what theme the nursery should be."

"Paige, you pick it. I need to go," he said rushed. Paige was annoyed by Henry's tone and quickness to hang up on her. She tried to brush it off, but it continued to annoy her for a while.

Paige frowned as she looked at her closed phone. "I guess it's up to me."

"So what would you like?" the perky clerk asked.

"Bears," Paige replied. She remembered liking bears as a child. She also liked clowns, but she'd had a bad experience with her clown toy coming to life a few years earlier.

"Aw, bears. That's such a good choice."

The girls looked at each other as the clerk turned her back on them. They made little mocking faces at her. They walked around the store picking out furniture and accessories. Paige bought enough stuff to fill two nurseries.

"You should save some stuff for your baby shower," Piper reminded her.

"Would you like to take this home or have it shipped to your house?" the clerk asked.

"Shipped, please," Paige replied as she wrote down her new address.

"The delivery should come tomorrow."

"That'll be really nice," Paige said mocking the clerk. She couldn't help it. The clerk still didn't seem to notice that the girls thought she was too perky.

The girls shopped at a few more stores before Piper started to drive home. "I need to stop by the Manor for something," she said as she looked at Paige while they were stopped at a light.

Piper ran inside and came out with two huge paper bags full of stuff. She put them in the car.

"What's all that?" Phoebe asked.

"Some of the boys' old clothes and other things that I won't need for Prue," Piper replied.

"Aw, thank you," Paige said sincerely.

"No problem," Piper replied. "You'll need it."

Paige smiled as Piper took her home. When they arrived at the house, the guys looked thoroughly exhausted. Paige felt bad that she couldn't help the guys out. She wanted to bring things in, but Henry told her that someone in her shape shouldn't be lifting all of the boxes. She could fight all of the demons she wanted, but she couldn't carry heavy boxes around. She couldn't orb the things inside because her sisters reminded her that that might be considered to be personal gain.

"Paige," Piper began as she looked at her sister concerned. "Maybe the two of you should spend the night at our house."

"That would be nice," Paige responded as she almost accepted the invitation. Henry gave her a look, though. She looked at Piper and rolled her eyes towards Henry. "I guess we're staying here tonight."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Henry replied trying to sound more masculine.

"At least have dinner with us."

"We'd love to," Paige replied without looking at Henry.

The next day the furniture arrived. Paige got the delivery men to get the furniture in about the right places. She tried to unpack some of the boxes before Henry came home, but as soon as he saw her he had to lecture her. "I thought we agreed that you wouldn't do that."

"No," Paige started as the anger circulated through her blood. "You decided I wouldn't without even asking me. You're making all of these decisions for me. It's pissing me off. I'm pregnant. I'm not some porcelain doll. Quit treating me like I'm fragile!"

"I thought I was doing what was best for the baby. I thought that you would be cool with that. I didn't realize it was upsetting you so much."

"Well, it is," Paige said in a softened tone. She still sounded angry, but not as angry as she had been.

"Do you want to help move this stuff?"

"No, I don't think I can."

"Why'd you make such a fuss about it?" he asked as he grew annoyed.

"I just wanted to be asked. I will still help unpack."

Paige and Henry spent the day and night unpacking. It seemed like there was a lot more stuff to unpack than before they moved.

"I wish you could use your powers to help out."

"I do, too, but I might lose them if I try. Right now, I need my powers, especially deflection."

"But deflection is the baby's power. They can't strip his powers, can they?"

"Probably, since I'm using it right now."

Piper called Phoebe the next morning. "We need to throw a baby shower for Paige sometime in the next few months. She deserves that."

"But who would we invite? She doesn't seem to have many friends anymore," Phoebe replied as she started looking through letters at her office.

"We could invite some of her charges, Billie, and a few other people. She deserves a good baby shower."

"Phoebe!" Elise called as she walked into Phoebe's office.

"Yes, Elise?"

"I want you to do a special column about marriage. That way you could show off your newlywed advice."

"But Elise, I haven't been married to Coop that long, and my marriage with Cole failed. I don't think that a column giving advice about marriage would be a good idea right now."

"It would be the perfect column," Elise continued acting like she hadn't heard a single thing Phoebe said.

"Fine, I'll get to work on it."

Phoebe sat down at her desk and looked through some of the letters she'd picked for her column. All of a sudden, Coop teleported into the office.

"Hey, sweetie," he said as he closed the door.

"Hey," she replied looking up from the pile of letters. "What's up?"

"I was thinking that we could have a candlelight dinner tonight."

"That would be nice," she sighed, "but I may have to work tonight."

"Why?"

"Elise wants me to give advice to newlyweds. I tried explaining to her that it might be a little early for that."

"I'm sorry. Maybe we could have a late dinner," he said softly and looked at her intensely.

"That would be great," she blushed.

Piper sat at the bar at P3 waiting for Billie to show up. Billie had overbooked that Friday, booking Ashlee Simpson and the Goo Goo Dolls. Piper wanted to get Billie to fix it since that was her job.

"Sorry, I'm late," she said as she bolted down the steps. "My psych teacher wanted to talk to me after class, and before I knew it, I was running 15 minutes late. So what's the big problem you needed to talk to me about?"

"You double-booked Friday's guests."

"I did?" she said as she looked at the calendar.

"Yeah. Now you have to cancel or postpone one."

"Is that going to be hard?"

"Aside from being cussed out by one or both of the managers, it should be relatively simple."

Piper got home to a relatively annoyed nanny.

"I don't think that I can do this anymore."

"What? Why not?"

"Your son is out of control!"

"Wyatt?"

"No, Chris. He's using magic all the time. He started using my powers on me. Until you get that child under control, I refuse to watch your children."

The nanny left quickly. Piper walked over to Chris and knelt in front of him. "What am I going to do with you?"

The phone rang, but Piper didn't want to leave the boys. She was torn between being near the boys and talking on the phone. Before she knew it, she was in the kitchen answering the phone.

"How'd I get here?" she asked as she picked up the phone. It was one of her friends from her "normal" life.

"Piper, how are you?" Wendy asked.

"I'm exhausted."

"Yeah. Having two kids will do that to you."

"And one on the way doesn't help much either."

"You're pregnant again."

"Yeah."

"Boy or girl?"

"Girl."

"Aw, I bet she'll be so adorable. Are you still with Leo? Or did he leave again?" Wendy's voice started to sound judgmental.

"I'm still with him," Piper said noticing the tension.

"So you've worked all your problems out?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure he'll stand by you? I mean, he's left you three times in the past four years."

"He's here for good this time," Piper responded as she started getting more annoyed with her friend.

"Are you sure? He's nice, but it seems like he doesn't care about you or the boys."

"I know he cares about us, Wendy," Piper said curtly.

"Oh, okay. Well, I need to go. Bye, Piper."

"Bye."

"How far along are you?" Elizabeth asked Paige.

Elizabeth was Paige's newest charge. She was a future Whitelighter. Paige had befriended Elizabeth at her OB/GYN's office.

"About five and a half months," Paige replied. "You?"

"Eight and a half."

"And the father?"

"He lives in L.A. with his new girlfriend."

"Oh."

"I'm not bitter. He keeps in touch."

"That's good. Does he want to be a big part of the baby's life?"

"Yeah. He's talking about moving back."

Paige was happy to hear that. She knew "future Whitelighter" cases mean the person was probably going to die soon. It wasn't fair that Elizabeth was going to be taken away from her baby. It wasn't fair to the baby. Paige couldn't imagine that happening to her baby.

Elizabeth was a teacher of at-risk teenagers. She volunteered at a tutoring center. She didn't need to do much more good to "earn her wings". The Elders had told Paige to just make sure Elizabeth continued doing good in the world.

"How's work going?"

"It's difficult. I have this one student who seems like he's mad at the world. I worry about him."

"Maybe he just needs a little guidance."

"Yeah. I'm hoping I can reach him. It'll be a while before I can, though."

"You're going on maternity leave?"

"For about six weeks after the caesarian."

"That's good."

"I always mean to ask you what do you do?"

"I'm like a social worker. I just don't get paid for it."

"Oh. You do it out of the goodness of your heart?" Elizabeth smiled.

"You could say that."

When Elizabeth left, Paige figured that Elizabeth would die at the hands of the teenager. Paige wanted to keep her safe and alive. She deserved to live.

The Elders weren't thrilled that Paige always wanted her future Whitelighters to survive. They understood that she felt strongly that good people shouldn't be punished by death. They had explained to her that death was not punishment, but a part of the grand design. Paige never believed that.