Chapter 21: You Need Me

Disclaimer: When asked if Shannen Doherty was coming back for the Series Finale, Holly Marie Combs rolled her eyes, then smiled and said "Now that's a whole different show." That, my friends, is exactly the reason I neither own Charmed nor have the desire to.

A/N: Well here this is.

"Y—you're…mind?" Prue stammered.

"Uh-huh," Phoebe nodded absentmindedly.

"Phoebe, I think you're just tired," Prue tried to rationalize, "We all need to rest…this is too much—"

"You're right," Leo spoke up from his previous silence, "At least partly," He added, "You do all need some rest and time—you deserve more of that than you know. But not for the reasons you think, Prue. Phoebe's not delirious—she's telling you the truth. Seeing—seeing things in her mind—that's Phoebe's…it's her power."

"My what?" Phoebe choked out.

"Your power," Leo repeated, "Phoebe sees visions of the past and the future—they're called premonitions. It's why her potion trait is Perceptibility. She can literally see and feel what's going to happen."

Almost as soon as Leo had finished talking, two doctors and a nurse exited the morgue and entered into the hallway.

"Prudence Halliwell," The foremost doctor spoke solemnly to Prue, "Seeing as you're the only living Halliwell adult, we need you to come verify that the body we have is, in fact, Penelope Halliwell. This way please."

Hours later, Leo, Prue, and Piper sat in the Living room of the Manor. Leo had gotten the Elders to alter the memories of Principal Sandalsby, the school secretary, Justin, Missy, and anyone else who could've seen Piper at school during first period so that they could get their stories straight for the police: Piper wasn't in first period English and no one had seemed to see her so Leo took it upon himself to call her house and see if she was there. When no one answered and he didn't seem to see Prue anywhere, he drove to the Manor himself.

When he knocked on the door he found no answer on the other side. The door must've been unlocked because when he knocked it opened. He called out to Grams and Piper but neither answered. He walked further into the house, and when he did he found Grams dead in the kitchen. He brought Grams to his car and drove her to the hospital. After the doctors had confirmed her death and informed him that they needed a family member to be present, Leo drove to the Middle school and got Phoebe seeing as she was the oldest Halliwell he seemed to be able to find. He brought Phoebe to the hospital, went back to the school to get Paige, and the two of them had gone to get Prue and Piper. After that, they all went to the hospital so that Prue could identify Grams' body.

Leo had to do little work to get the Elders to alter the required memories since more than half of the story for the police was the truth. The police had contacted Principal Sandalsby as well as the principal of the Middle School and explained what happened so that all four girls were excused from school for the day and the days proceeding. Since there was such little school left and she was already accepted into college, Prue was exempt from school for its remaining three weeks in order to take care of the numerous legal matters surrounding Grams' death as well as the guardianship of Paige.

Shortly after they had been allowed to return home, Prue sent Phoebe and Paige to bed although it didn't take much to get them to go. Against Leo's wishes and insisting that Prue and Piper needed to rest as well, Prue had gotten Leo to stay so that he could explain to them more about their powers, magic, and the real reason Grams died.

"So they're evil then," Prue concluded, referring to the potions upon Leo informing her that Paige's Pain had stopped Grams from taking away her powers and in doing so had gotten her killed.

"Not exactly," Leo countered.

"Well how can they not be?" Prue fought, "They killed Paige's parents and Grams—they don't exactly seem like a good thing to me."

"It's only Paige's trait," Leo tried to clarify, "And the potions only act to keep you all together as sisters and witches. Because Grams was trying to take away Paige's powers, her trait stepped in to cause Pain so that Paige would keep her powers and you would all stay witches. Believe me; Grams knew this was going to happen."

"And she was okay with it?" Prue said indignantly, "I highly doubt that."

"She just knew the risks," Leo said, staying calm, "But she also knew the danger of Paige's Pain and didn't want her or you or anyone else to have to deal with that. She wanted you all to be able to grow up as normal as possible—she wanted Paige to be able to start growing up in an environment where she didn't have to worry about getting people hurt or having to fight demons. Grams—Grams just wanted Paige to be free."

Prue just stayed quiet for a minute and absorbed what Leo had said. After a moment, she spoke again much more composed than she had been a second earlier.

"Well now what?" Prue asked earnestly, "Grams hasn't changed anything except now she's not here to help us. What're we supposed to do? I don't know how to raise a family or—or fight demons and warlocks. I don't know how to control my powers; Leo—I don't know how to be a witch! I don't know how I'm supposed to do this without her."

Prue began to cry despite her best efforts to hold it together. Piper came forward and tried to console Prue the best she could.

"What're we gonna do Leo?" Prue asked over her sister's embrace.

After a quick moment of contemplation Leo spoke with resolve.

"You're going to rely on me," Leo said simply.

"What?" Prue asked though she had heard him.

"I'm your guardian," Leo elaborated, "Now more than ever you're going to have to call on me for help. It's—it's what I'm here for after all," Leo tried to issue a small laugh to lighten the mood but Prue had the same confused face in place.

"But we hardly know each other," Prue said; making it sound harsher than she had meant to.

"Well that's not entirely true," Leo rebutted, "I've been teaching Piper's class since…well Friday…but I've been watching you all since I was assigned as your Whitelighter and that was right after Paige was born. I've been in communication with Penny ever since and she's told me all about you. I've got nothing but your best interests at heart, trust me."

"All that proves is that you know us and we still don't know you," Prue stated.

"Well there's not much to me," Leo said bluntly, "I was born in 1924 and died in 1942 during World War II. I've been a Whitelighter ever since."

Prue stared at Leo for a minute, obviously not content with the auto-biography he had provided. After a moment, Piper spoke up after hours of silence; highly disturbed by the fact that Leo was not only dangerously close to Grams' age, but he had also been watching her since the age of five.

"All that proves is that you're even more of a creep than Andy said," Piper spat; breaking away from Prue and exiting into the kitchen.

Prue stood there with a bemused look about her face while Leo exhibited close to the same thing on his.

Prue made to go after her sister but Leo stopped her.

"Ill get her," Leo intoned, only increasing the confusion shadowing Prue's features.

"Like I said, you need to rest," Leo explained, only telling half the truth. Really, he had wanted to talk to Piper ever since their run-in with Andy in the Train Station and thought this was a great time to do it.

"It's natural for her to feel like this," Leo continued, "I'll send her right up after I talk to her."

With no reason not to trust Leo, Prue complied with his request and made her way up the stairs to her and Piper's bedroom.

As soon as he was sure Prue was gone, Leo walked into the kitchen to find Piper with her head on the island counter.

"Do you really think I'm a creep?" Leo said with a hint of hurt.

"What're you doing here?" Piper choked out through her tears as she got up and began to exit the kitchen past Leo, "Leave me alone."

"Piper," Leo sighed, "I want you to talk to me. You can't avoid me forever. As much as you hate to admit it you need me right now. All four of you do. I'm here for you whether you want me to be or not. It'd be great if you would just—just talk to me. Please."

"I don't want to talk to you," Piper huffed, trying her best to push past Leo, "I don't have anything to say to you."

"Well I have something to say to you," Leo retorted, getting a hold of Piper as she tried get past him.

"I know I lied to you," Leo started, taking a hold of Piper's shoulders, "I know I kept a hell of a lot of information from you. But none of it was my choice Piper. I never thought we'd—I never expected things to happen with you and I like they did. But as soon as they did I wanted nothing more than to tell you about everything. It's just—I couldn't Piper; it was a secret for a reason."

"That's all you wanted to say?" Piper questioned haughtily, "So basically you're saying you lied to me, but it wasn't your fault at all. Now I understand; all better."

"So you're honestly saying that you were planning to tell me about you being a witch?" Leo countered.

"Grams swore us to secrecy," Piper retorted after a moment's hesitation.

"So basically you're saying it wasn't your fault at all?" Leo commented.

Piper just stood there a moment, not having a bit of rhetoric that could've rebutted Leo's words. After a short time Piper lunged forward into Leo's arms and began to cry once more.

"It's not fair," she sobbed, "Everything's not supposed to be this confusing. Life's not supposed to be this confusing, is it? First I find out that—that I have a baby sister that happens to have been living right under my nose for some time. But don't dwell on that too long, because I'm also a witch who, in no time, will have evil coming at her from more sides than she knew existed. Then Grams got worse and Missy's bullying was getting worse too. And through the midst of all this one ray of happiness came through—one thing to take my mind off all the bad. You made me forget how to be sad, Leo—even though it was only for about a day."

Leo took heart in the comment, giving a smile and a laugh. He thought that maybe Piper was finally coming around and opening up to him like he hoped she would.

"But just like always," Piper continued, "As soon as something good happens in my life something horrible has to follow."

The smile wiped off Leo's face although he continued to listen to Piper all the same.

"You keep telling me to talk to you and tell you how I'm feeling," Piper went on, "But did it ever occur to you that I don't know what I'm feeling? I think I'm even more lost than Prue and twice as confused. And I want to lean on you, Leo—I really do. But it's not right—not at all. You know it, too. It's just not right."

"Who says?" Leo retorted, "It doesn't matter how old we are," he stated, "That shouldn't matter when it comes to how we feel about each other."

"No, it shouldn't," Piper agreed, "But it does. Leo this is wrong. It's wrong and has to stop. I—"

Piper words were cut short by Leo's proof that they were right for each other. He swooped in and kissed Piper with every fiber in his being; hoping that it might help his case slightly. When he broke away from her, he looked at her expectantly for some sort of reaction.

"Oh," Piper said in slight bewilderment, "I—that wasn't fair."

Leo laughed lightly and kissed her again.

"See," he said, "We're meant for each other whether you want to admit it or not. I know I haven't known you for all that long…well technically I mean—but I can just feel it. I don't care what people think is right or wrong. I know that this is right. And I know that on some level, you feel the same thing."

Piper smiled, not being able to contradict Leo's statement.

"I'm just afraid of being happy," Piper commented as she laid her head on Leo's shoulder, "I worry that something awful will happen and catch me while I'm vulnerable."

"Don't," Leo inserted, "Don't worry about any of that. I'm here for you and that's all you need to think about."

The two just stood there for an elongated moment; engrossed in each other's company.

"I came by to talk to Prue," A voice said from the doorway; making the two break away from each other and turn towards the source of the interruption, "But it's clear I have to deal with you first."

Andy charged forward headed straight for Leo.

"Andy no!" Piper screamed, attempting to stop him.

"It's time he learned to stick to people his own age, Piper," Andy spat, running past her.

Andy swung back an arm and, not having any time to orb, Leo was right in Andy's line of fire.

"Stop!" Piper screamed once more.

She threw up her hands only revealing her palms, and suddenly, all had stopped.

Andy and Leo stood frozen and time—Piper; frozen in shock.

A/N: So yeah. That's it.