A/N: This is my first Charmed fanfic and since I haven't been watching the show for too a long time there may be some mistakes in my story. Hope, you'll forgive me!!

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from Charmed but as I'm making no money with it - hey, it's just for fun! - don't sue me.

A/N: This is an Alternate Universe: Leo is no whitelighter but a mortal handyman. He is married to Piper but doesn't know about the powers of the three sisters. Their child's name won't be Melinda but Kevin. The other things are the same as in the TV show but as you'll notice they won't be important in this story. Please r/r!!!!!! (I want to know whether I should write some more stories or if I shouldn't keep on!)

Warning: character death!!



Life and Death are mixed up more than we think them to be

1 Life sometimes seems to be too good to be true



Although it had been very cold for weeks, it had only started snowing yesterday - two days before the 24th December. It was much colder this year than all the ones before.

A young man wearing a thin coat was waiting in front of a cheap pub. He was standing in the light of a streetlamp and in the falling snow he looked somehow like an angel. But he was just an ordinary man around 25 who was freezing and coughing from time to time. It sounded rough and tortured. His face was pale, only his lips were blue from the cold. He was waiting for his wife, who was working in the pub, although being highly pregnant. He had wanted her to stop but she had said they would need the money. Milk and diapers would cost a fortune nowadays, so they should earn as much as they could before the baby's birth since his pay as a handyman wouldn't be enough then. He still didn't agree with her still working but he could see her point.

The young man coughed again. His hazel eyes were looking tired and he seemed to be ill. He knew he hadn't been well for some time now but it had become worse this day and he realized he wouldn't be able to hide this from his wife any more.

The door of the pub was opened and a female figure with a huge belly appeared in the light shining through the entrance.

Leo lifted his head and looked at her. It was his wife, who had finally finished her work. She came towards him and he opened his arms to hug her tightly. She wasn't tall, her head came to rest on his chest. He stroked across her back and her long, dark brown hair was warm under his fingers. "Piper", he whispered in her right ear, "how are you both?" Leo could feel her smiling. "We are okay because I'm with my beloved husband now". They kept standing there, held each other, but suddenly Leo had to cough again. He turned his face away from her and covered his mouth.

"What's wrong with you?" Piper's face expressed her concern. She touched his forehead, it was hot against her palm. "You're running a fever, let's go home, you shouldn't have stood here in the cold. Why didn't you come in?"

"I was afraid your employers might fire you if I came in, so I decided to wait here."

Piper smiled. "They haven't been at work today. You could have come in without any problems. How long have you been standing there?"

"Um, a couple of hours, I didn't have many assignments today." He smiled weakly and felt really sad because she had deserved so much more than a handyman whose pay wasn't enough by far.

After half an hour they came home to their small apartment. It was cold inside, they didn't have the money to heat every day. "Leo, lay down a bit, take an aspirin, I will bring you some soup so that you will be back on your feet soon."

His only reaction was a slight nod and he went to their bedroom where he lied down slowly. He didn't feel well and he had the feeling that his condition had been getting worse the last half an hour. However, he fell asleep at once.

Piper was in the kitchen, heating some soup for her husband and thinking about their future with the baby. She knew it would be a happy one: A loving husband at her side, a wonderful child and they would manage everything although Leo sometimes thought she would be unhappy since he didn't earn that much.

A heavy coughing from the bedroom interrupted her thoughts. Piper ran towards it and what she saw terrified her badly: Her husband was lying on the bed, curled up like a small child and his head was red from the racking cough. His chest was raising and falling rapidly and he seemed to be in agonizing pain.

Piper helped him to lie down in a normal position and touched his forehead again. The fever seemed to be a lot higher than before, surely more than 40°C. His shirt was soaking wet but he was calm again when she took it off together with his shoes and pants. She carefully covered him with a blanket over and gave him another one, too.

"I think, I should take you to hospital... You're not looking well."

"No, no", Leo replied weakly, "I´ll be better soon, you're gonna see that. And after all, I should be taking care of you. You're pregnant and I just have a little cold."

"It's okay, honey, you've done so much for me.... You wanna have the soup now?"

"I´d like to."

Piper brought the soup, helped him to sit up again, gave him a few pillows to have it more comfortably and started to feed him the soup. He ate almost everything and she thought that this had been a very good sign.

"I´ll bring some cold water to cool you down a bit. Are you okay with that?"

Leo nodded slowly. "Would you mind if I slept some time? I can't tell you how tired I am."

"Honey, how can you ask if I do mind that you want to sleep? It will only help you to get better again."

Leo smiled weakly and tried to lie down but his strength wasn't enough to put away the pillows behind his back. His wife had to help him and she was full of concern again. What should she do if his condition worsened? They didn't even have a phone - it would cost far too much. But then Leo was a strong young man and there might be no problem, it might just be a little cold - like he had said.

Piper was looking at him again. He was sleeping peacefully right now and no coughing seemed to disturb him. She turned and left the room to get a bowl with cold water and a small towel.

When she came back a few minutes later he appeared to be fast asleep. He only coughed lightly from time to time. Piper sat down next to him, wet the towel and put it on his forehead. She did that periodically every 20 minutes and it really seemed to make the temperature go down.