The Repairman
By Risa
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone/anything from Charmed – this is purely for entertainment purposes.
Summary: What happens after the Halliwells have vanquished the demon and need to repair their furniture?
Author's Note: Well, the idea for this came from my other fic "If Clocks Could Talk". I just wondered about what a scene with the repairman would be like for the Halliwells and I wrote this. If there are any inaccuracies – such as how repairs are done – I apologise for that in advance. I hope you enjoy it!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Pete's Repairs," Pete said, answering the phone as he was looking through the lists of furniture that he had to deliver back to their respective owners that day.
"Hello Pete," a female voice said from the other end of the line.
"Oh no," Pete muttered under his breath and sighed, before he forced out a cheerful voice, "Good afternoon Miss Halliwell. What can I do for you?"
"Well…" she hesitated. "The windows are shattered and we've got a couple of broken cabinets that need repairs. Could you come by to get them fixed?"
"Again?" Pete said without thinking. "I just replaced those windows three days ago."
"I'm sorry," she apologised, "If it's too much trouble…"
"No, no, Miss Halliwell," Pete said quickly. "I'll be able to drop by…" he checked his schedule, "Wednesday morning at about nine. Is that ok?"
"Yes, yes. Thank you!" she said gratefully before she hung up.
Pete shook his head and sighed as he scribbled down the details.
"Phoebe, did you call the repairman?" Piper asked when Phoebe came down to the kitchen for breakfast.
"Yes, Piper. You've reminded me only about two hundred times," Phoebe said. "Pete said he'll be here at about nine today."
"You called Pete?" Piper said in surprise. "He just repaired the windows earlier this week. He's going to be suspicious. You should have called the other guy."
"Paul is in the hospital and Jake is out of town. You refuse to let any other repairmen near our furniture so I had to call Pete," Phoebe said, exasperated.
"The cute one?" Paige said as she walked into the kitchen and sat by table, pouring herself some juice.
"Paige…" Piper said.
"What?" Paige said defensively. "I'm the only one still unattached. Besides, I just said that he was cute."
"Piper, don't worry," Phoebe said, going back to what she had been saying earlier. "Even if Pete's suspicious, he wouldn't ask too many questions. He wouldn't want to lose such a good source of income."
Just then the doorbell rang. "That must be him," Phoebe said as she got up and ran to the door.
"Good morning Miss Halliwell," Pete said as the door opened.
"Good morning Pete," Phoebe greeted cheerfully.
"So, what's broken this time?"
"Well, there are the windows," Phoebe said, "and these cabinets," she pointed to the broken furniture on the floor of the foyer.
Pete whistled at the mess. "It's going to be tough piecing this back together. It's going to cost you and I've no guarantees that I'm going to be able to fix it."
"Just give it a try," Piper said, coming out of the kitchen with Paige following behind.
Pete bent down to get a closer look to assess the damage. "Looks like someone crashed into it or something… How did this happen?"
He didn't notice the nervous looks that the sisters exchanged between themselves. "Well…" Paige began, "we were having this-this… party the night before. A lot of people, really noisy and everything – "
"Yeah and some of them had a bit too much to drink," Piper hastily continued, talking quickly.
"And a couple of them got into a fight and crashed into the cabinets," Phoebe finished, smiling brightly at the repairman.
"I see," Pete said, raising an eyebrow. "Must have been some party. You girls sure throw wild parties if that's how your furniture keeps getting broken."
The three of them laughed weakly.
Then Pete noticed something bright green on the broken furniture. "What the hell is that?" he exclaimed as he bent for a closer look.
"What?" Piper said anxiously, bending to look as well. Her face paled. It was a bit of demon goo from the last demon they had killed. They must have missed that bit when they were cleaning up.
"Phoebe," she ordered quickly, "go get some towels and wipe that-that thing off," she turned to Pete and said reassuringly, "It's really nothing Pete. Just some bits of food people dropped during the party."
"Bright lime green food?" Paige said sceptically as she bent to take a look.
Piper glared at her as Pete looked at her quizzically, asking her the same question. "Food colouring!" she exclaimed loudly. "You add yellow and blue colouring to a certain kind of food and you get that colour. It tastes really great too, people absolutely love it," Piper babbled, keeping her fingers crossed in hope that Pete would believe her.
"Yes!" Paige said, trying to help convince Pete. "You know that Piper used to be a chef? She's a really great cook…"
"I suppose…" Pete said, "Though I won't eat something of that colour though." Paige and Piper heaved a sigh of relief that Pete seemed to have believed what they had said.
"Coming through!" Phoebe shouted as she dashed out of the kitchen with a yellow and white chequered kitchen towel. She made a face and quickly wiped off the demon blood. She held the towel away from herself and made a sound of disgust. "God, it stinks!"
"Decomposed demon, what do you expect." Paige said softly. Piper elbowed her and glared at her again to keep quiet.
"All right," Pete said then, "I'll just bring all of this back with me and see what I can do. As for the windows, I brought the glass panes with me since I still have the measurements from the last time. I'll replace them for you now…" he turned to go out to his van.
"Thank you!" Phoebe said as the three of them showed him to the door.
Pete was bringing in the glass when he heard voices coming from the kitchen.
One voice which he identified as Paige's said, "I still think he's cute."
"Paige!" Phoebe said, laughing. "One repairman in the family is quite enough…"
"It'll be useful! Think about it…" Paige said.
Pete shook his head. They were a weird bunch, but they helped paid his bills so he supposed he could put up with a bit of weirdness…
*~Finis~*
