It had been five years since Melinda's disappearance. At first things had been hard, but slowly the wounds began to close. Phoebe and Cole were now married and Paige had a steady boyfriend. All seemed well for the Halliwell family, that is except for Piper and Leo. They spent nights dreaming of the little girl they'd never get to see grow up and they were too frightened to try and conceive again. Then one day their wish for a little girl came true.

Paige was in her car driving up Elmer Blvd and drumming her hands on the stirring wheel in rhythm with the music. She was stuck in traffic and was trying to keep herself occupied by looking at the scenery when she saw it.

There was a house on the corner of the street and it appeared from Paige's location that chaos was occurring inside. She saw a woman, in about her thirties wrestling what appeared to be a large beast. When Paige caught a glimpse of it she quickly phoned her sisters.

"Piper! I need you to get to the corner of Elmer Blvd as fast as you can. There seems to be an innocent that needs saving!"

In moments Piper and Phoebe were out the door and on their way. Because they had to frequently run to demon sighting Piper knew all the back routes and arrived at Elmer Blvd in record time. When she saw the traffic jam she quickly pulled over and hopped out of the car with Phoebe following her. As they got to the corner they saw Paige from the window attempting to smash a lamp over a large beasts head. Minutes later they were in the house and had injured the beast enough that they could recite a spell. It wasn't a very good one but it worked and the demon soon vanished into thin air leaving the living room of the house looking as though a hurricane had struck. Paige soon went looking for the young woman she saw previously trying to fight the demon, but when she found her she was upset to see that the girl had not survived.

"She didn't make it. He killed her." Paige said

"It's so sad when we aren't there on time. She didn't deserve it." Phoebe said

"Do you think anyone saw? I mean if you saw it Paige then what's to say another driver didn't?" Piper asked

"I don't.." Paige began before she heard it "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Phoebe asked "It sounds like someone's crying."

"There!" Piper said pointing towards a corner in the room

When Paige and Phoebe looked over they found a little baby no younger than a year huddled in the corner crying.

"A baby! Do you think it was hers?" Paige asked

"It looks to me like she was." Piper said as she picked up the little girl who looked identical to the woman that lay motionless on the ground.

"So what do we do? Wait for the cops to find her?" Phoebe asked

"How about we take her to stay at the Manor for awhile and I'll do some research at work to see if she has a father, if not then I'll take her to the orphanage." Paige said

And with that they took the little girl to their house.

It had been well over a month since they had found the baby in the house. Paige had tried and tried to find her father, but came up empty handed. She had made up her mind at work that day that she was going to bring her to the orphanage tomorrow, her only problem was breaking the news to Piper, who had become the little girl's adopted mother for the month she had stayed at the Manor. Leo had taken all the baby furniture, that they had used for Melinda, out of the garage and put it back upstairs. Piper and Leo had already named her Melinda and were crazy in love with the little girl.

* * *

Piper sat in a rocking chair singing a lullaby to the baby she had in her arms. The little girl had on her pacifier and was nuzzling close to Piper, her eye lids slowly growing heavy. Soon she was fast asleep and Piper placed her in a beautiful wooden crib and departed the room.

When Piper got to the kitchen she found Phoebe and Paige sitting at the table engaged in a conversation.

"I need to tell her."

"Yeah, but you know she'll be heart broken."

"There's nothing I can do about that. I just hope they don't take it too bad, then I'd really feel terrible. I talked to my boss about it and he says that's the best decision. It's either this or they have to arrest them and send someone to get her. That'd be worse."

"Hey guys what are you talking about? Who's leaving?" Piper asked "Umm.no one." Paige said quickly

"Paige, there's no time, tell her."

"Tell me what? Come on guys what's up?"

"Umm.I don't really know how to put this but."

"But what?!?!? PAIGE!!!"

"I have to take Melinda with me."

"What?!?!? You have to be kidding."

"No. She's not legally yours and Leo's so she has to go to the orphanage."

"No! No! I won't let you take her and neither will Leo. You can get us custody of her can't you?"

"I could try but we'd need Darryl's help. Not to mention we'd have to give her father a window of about two months to reclaim her."

"Can she stay with us those two months? Please! That's all I ask."

"That's really not my decision. I'm sorry Piper."

"Well I'm going to talk to Leo about this!!!" Piper said and then she stormed out to her bedroom where she began to call for Leo. Minutes later he orbed in.

"What? What is it? Are you okay? Is Melinda okay?"

"Paige told me that we have to give Melinda up to Child Services!!"

"What?"

And with that Piper began to explain to Leo their situation and why they could no longer keep Melinda. Leo agreed that they should go to court and try to win custody and he tried many times to get Piper to see that they had to let Melinda go for a little while, but Piper just wasn't buying it.

"No Leo! I won't! She'll be in that horrible place with all those other homeless kids! What if she doesn't remember us when she comes back? I mean she's already so used to us! She just called me Mama the other day! That means she thinks I'm her Mom. I need to be there for her. I just can't leave her! I won't! So there."

"Piper I understand that you're upset, but if you try to keep her we'll have less of a chance of winning custody. Let's just talk to Darryl and then we can go to court."

"Okay, but you better be right because if you're not."

* * *

The next day was a horrible day for everyone. Early that morning Child Services arrived and took Melinda. Piper cried uncontrollably for she felt she'd again lost her precious Melinda, but Leo continued to reassure her that it was only temporary and that soon Melinda would once again be theirs.



Hey guys! I'll try to get the other chapter, The Courtroom out by this week. Hope you like it so far!!