A/N: OKAY... READ and REVIEW...I'm still in a ''screw grams'' kind of mood. i like her enough, i just think that 90 percent of their family mess ups are her fault.
Prue used her key to let herself into her dad's one story house. It was only about ten minutes away from the manor and was closer to school. It had three bedrooms; a master for her dad with a bathroom connected to it, a room for her and a room for Phoebe and Piper to share. It was cute and new and most importantly it was private.
It had been three weeks since the incident in the park and Grams was still mad at her for moving out, but was taking her frustrations out on the numerous demons she was going after with Dean's dad and Uncle Bobby. Prue, however, didn't want anything to do with demon hunting after her life as a witch had caused her to lose Dean. In one moment they were talking about running away together and the next Dean was running away from her. Moving in with her Dad allowed her the time and privacy she needed -and wouldn't get at the manor- to work things out for herself, and at that moment Prue had a lot to work through.
Victor was still at work, and Prue had stopped at the pharmacy on her way home from school. Throwing her backpack down on the couch and made her way to the bathroom with a brown paper bag. Locking the door, she removed the package from the bag and stared at herself in the mirror. She had no idea what she should be hoping for.
Dean was living in Sacramento in the spare bedroom of the general contractor he was working for. The older man was a widower whose had been killed in an automobile accident four years earlier. He hadn't asked too many questions when Dean had come around looking for a job, and when he realized Dean was just a kid he had invited him into his home and treated him like his own son and was teaching Dean everything he knew about the business.
Michael Gordan was a generous and kind man. During the time that he had allowed Dean to stay with him, Dean had discovered that the man had two kids; a son named Daniel who was being scouted by colleges for a baseball scholarship even though he was still only a sophomore and an older daughter who was engaged to a man who worked for the state department.
They may not have been the family they needed, but they were the family that they had created.
Victor dropped his keys on the small table next to the front door, and went through the mail that his daughter had forgotten to collect. Looking through, he was surprised to see so many letters from universities; he knew that Prue had been thinking about graduating a year earlier, though he hadn't told his ex-wife. Since Prue had moved in they had become a lot closer.
Walking to her bedroom, he knocked three times before opening the door. "Prue, why are you crying? What's wrong?"
Prue sat up and wiped her eyes. "Daddy," she whimpered. "I think I made a mistake," she told him while clutching her pillow to her stomach.
"What is it? Prudence, you know you can tell me anything, right," he asked her after she appeared hesitant to answer his questions. He waited for her, trying to be patient before he finally looked down at the item she had pressed into his hands. Eyes shot wide open and then tears filled them. "Prudence, are you trying to tell me that you're pregnant?"
Prue nodded her head and then jumped into her father's arms before bursting out into tears for the second time that day.
Victor shut the door before making his way to the kitchen and taking out a casserole Piper had sent over the week earlier with instructions to warm it up at 375 degrees forty-five minutes. That was what he loved most about his middle daughter; her motherly nature to provide and care for those she loved. For his youngest, Phoebe, it was her passion and conviction even if it turned out later that she was wrong, Phoebe always believed in herself and had a way of making things happen. Both girls were a combination of his eldest daughter, and if he was honest he would admit that Prue was his soft spot. Not that he loved one more than the others but Prue was Victor's first child, his first little girl and the first real love of his life. He had taken better care of her sisters when he couldn't.
Sitting down with coffee, he waited for the casserole and gave himself time to come to terms with what he had just learned. Okay, so he wouldn't come to turns with it in under an hour but maybe he would be able to realize that it was real and not just some nightmare he had endured. Prue, his pride and joy, was pregnant with his first grandchild -okay, so he was kind of holding out hope for a grandson even though he had known for years that Halliwells breed magnificent women- and his ex-wife and entire family had no clue. He thought and thought over again about how things were going to work out and before he knew it he was taking the casserole out and calling Prue out for dinner.
Prue walked out in sweatpants and a tight white t-shirt, hair pulled back in a high pony tail and her eyes still red from crying. She picked at her food and Victor finally figured out what they were going to do.
Dean climbed into Mike's truck as the workday came to an end and the two stopped to pick up pizza before heading home.
"Steal home," Dean was shouting over a slice and cola. The men shouted through out the entire baseball game and by the end of it Dean's voice was hoarse. "Ah, man. That was a good game. I think the Mariners might be my new favorite team."
"That's 'cause they're the best team out there," Dan told his surrogate brother. "I'm gonna play for them after college."
"First you have to get into college," Mike said and stood up, starting to clean. "We watched the game, now go finish your homework."
"Alright, dad," the fifteen year old said. "I only have spanish left," he said and took off for his room, grabbing his back pack and coke and took it with him.
Dean started helping with clean up and Mike stopped to stare at the young man. "You miss her, don't you," Mike asked.
Dean was startled by the statement and dropped the pizza box. "What do you mean? I'm fine," he said gruffly, putting the mask back on that he had learned to put up years before.
"Who was she? Your mom; maybe a girlfriend?" Since meeting Dean, Mike had been unsuccessful in getting the kid to open up and he realized that the boy was running away from something."She must have done a lot of damage," he added.
"Who says it's all from her," Dean asked. "Maybe it's a bunch of different people," he said, not able to help himself keep quiet. He had never had a normal person to talk to before.
"Well then, I'd say you've had some really bad luck. But I'd also say you're not alone, that you have people who care about you and want to be there for you. I'd probably also say that whoever it is you left behind probably feels the same way you do. Maybe you should call her," Mike suggested.
"What difference could it make," Dean asked. "It's over," he said and walked away.
"Prue," Victor said watching his daughter scraping food from one side of her plate to the other. "Did you get a chance to read your mail? You got letters back from at least half a dozen universities if not more."
"What difference does it make now," Prue asked. "Like Grams will let me go once she realizes she'll have another witch to train," she said sounding detached and cold.
Victor was surprised by the tone of her voice. "This is a baby, Prue! Not just some witch to be trained and used. I always hated that Penny treated you as witches first and little girls second," he said flustered and surprised by his own outburst. "This is a baby," he repeated and threw his napkin down on the table. "It makes a huge difference, Prue, because now more then ever you're going to need an education if you want to give this baby everything they deserve. Do you want to keep the baby?"
"Yes," Prue said looking up at her father for the first time. She was so afraid of what he would say, especially since she was living in his house. Prue had heard stories about other girls her age whose parents had kicked them out after finding out that they were pregnant. The last thing she wanted was to be forced back into the manor.
"Did you get into any of the colleges," he asked, knowing full well that Prue could get into any school she wanted. When she nodded he asked, "Which ones?"
"All of them. Berkeley, Stanford, NYU, Michigan, etc."
"Do any of them have family housing?"
"Berkeley," Prue told him. "It has the best availability and they offered me a full ride but if I enter family housing then I forfeit free room and board. They said I would have to pay the difference between what they would have covered and the rates for living in family housing."
"So you've already thought of this?"
"Yeah. I wasn't sure, you know, if I were really pregnant but I knew there could be a chance. But that doesn't matter now. I can't go."
"Yes, you can," Victor told her. "I've been offered a new position; a better position. I can cover your room and board and anything else you might need for the baby. Does the school have a daycare or anything you can use?"
"The education program runs a daycare program for a reduced rate since they use undergrads to provide most of the care. It's really cheap, like fifty dollars a semester," Prue told him. "But it doesn't matter 'cause once I tell Grams she'll hold me hostage just like she's been planning to."
"Not if we don't tell her before you go," Victor said.