Piper climbed out of bed with a small sigh. Prue had stayed Abby for the second night in a row. Abby was still a little nervous when she was left alone and Prue was afraid that the little girl would have a nightmare, wake up frightened, and be even more afraid if no one was there for her.

Prue had been frustrated when she went to bed the night before. She hadn't been able to find anything in the Book of Shadows that could help Abby. When Phoebe promised that she'd look a little later in case Prue missed something, Prue relaxed slightly, but not as much as Piper would have liked. She knew that Prue felt like time was running out for them and if they didn't find Abby's mother or stepfather, it wouldn't be long before they would have to give Abby up to the state. She'd be abandoned once again.

Piper stepped out into the hallway and took a deep breath in. The hot, oppressive air from the day before had been cooled by a small overnight rain storm and the cool air that had taken its place was deeply refreshing. On her way down the hall, she passed Prue's room, then backed up. Maybe she should peek into the room, just to see if everything was okay.

She turned the knob and the door creaked open slowly. Prue was sound asleep, curled up in a ball with her hands tucked under the pillows. At first glance, it seemed as though Abby was sleeping with Amethyst clutched tightly to her chest. It wasn't until Piper began easing the door shut that she heard quiet sobbing. She opened the door back up and peered into the room. Abby's little shoulders were shaking and her face was buried in Amethyst's soft fur. "Abby, are you okay?" she whispered.

Abby gasped, abruptly stopped crying, and sniffled. "Yeah."

"No, you're not." Piper entered the room and sat down on the bed above Abby's knees. "What's the matter, honey?"

The little girl shook her head and squeezed the teddy bear harder. "Nothing."

"I think Amethyst would disagree," she answered, her tone gently teasing. "You can talk to me, you know."

"I know." Abby sighed, closing her eyes against her tears. She took a deep breath in and held it for a moment, then she let it out slowly. "I'm an orphan, Piper."

"Oh, honey, no, you're not--"

"Yes, I am," she said, choking up again. "They're not going to find Peter or my mom and then I'm going to have to go to the orphanage."

Piper brushed the girl's hair out of her face. "What makes you think they're not going to find them?"

"Please. I'm seven, I'm not dumb," she said, rolling her eyes. "They would have found them already. Now I'm all alone and I'm going to have to go live in the orphanage and maybe someone else will want me, but most likely they won't. People want babies, not bigger kids like me."

"Sweetheart, you're not alone," Piper said comfortingly. "You have us."

"Yeah, but I can't stay here forever." She sighed and closed her eyes again, squeezing Amethyst so hard that her arms hurt. "Forget it. You don't understand."

"Sweetie, we understand more than you think."

Both Abby and Piper gasped, startled, and turned in the direction of the voice. Prue was sitting up, her dark hair tousled from being slept on. "Did we wake you up?" Abby asked quietly.

Prue looked into Abby's eyes and smiled. "Yeah, but that's okay. I'm going to tell you a little story, all right?"

Abby nodded and turned onto her back. She held Amethyst in her left hand and ran the bear's satin ribbon between her right thumb and forefinger.

"Okay." She glanced up at Piper, asking her permission. Piper gave her a barely noticeable nod, telling her that it was okay to tell Abby what they themselves had been through. "When we were very little, our dad left our mom. He stayed in touch for a year or so, then he disappeared and we had no idea where he went. Then, a couple of years after he left for good, when I was just a little bit older than you are now, our mom died."

Abby gasped and sat up. "Really? Who took care of you?"

"Our grandmother did and I helped out whenever I could." Prue pulled Abby onto her lap and began playing with the girl's hair. "We may not know exactly what you're going through, but we do understand what it's like to feel lost and abandoned."

Abruptly, Abby turned around, dropped Amethyst by her side, and wrapped her arms around Prue's neck tightly. "Please, can I stay here? I'll be good, I promise! I'll be quiet and I'll be good and you won't even know I'm here. Please let me stay here, please." She broke off as she dissolved into tears.

Prue hugged Abby back, squeezing her tightly to try to calm her down. "Oh, honey, shh. I don't know if the courts will let you stay here."

"Well, you can ask, right? Please, don't you guys abandon me, too."

Prue locked eyes with Piper as she rocked the little girl back and forth. Piper looked away with tears in her eyes. She had been on the fence about Abby's stay becoming permanent, but this clinched it for her. They couldn't allow Abby to be shuffled to any more homes. They had an obligation to Abby, and if that meant taking the little girl in as their own, she was more than ready. Piper looked back up at Prue, smiled, and nodded, telling her that she wanted Abby just as much as Abby wanted them.

**********

"No offense, but you two have lost your marbles," Phoebe said, glancing up at her sisters before crossing her arms over her chest.

Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were having a processing summit up in the attic. Abby had cried herself back to sleep in Prue's arms and after Prue laid the girl back down and spread the blanket over her, she and Piper had gone to find Phoebe. As it turned out, Phoebe was already up in the attic, paging through the Book of Shadows like she had promised. "We haven't lost our marbles," Prue insisted. "We can totally do this. She needs us, we want her. What's the problem?"

"The problem is our world is much too dangerous for her," Phoebe said, shifting position in the chair to make herself a little more comfortable. "Prue, we have beings with otherworldly powers gunning for us constantly and they're not going to stop until we're dead. How can you willingly put her in that environment?"

"And how can you willingly put her in the orphanage?" Prue asked. "At least here she'd have a home with people who care about her."

"Yeah, a home that could get her killed."

Prue groaned, running her hand over her face. "Look, I know this isn't going to be easy--"

"Easy? Prue, it's impossible!" Phoebe exclaimed. "I am talking about a little girl's life here."

"So am I!" Prue yelled, a little more loudly than she meant to.

"Okay, guys, stop." Piper interrupted. She stepped in between her sisters and held her hands out to her sides. "You both have very good points. Now here's how I see it. The little girl downstairs has nobody at all. Nobody except for us. If we were normal, there would be no reason why we couldn't take her in. We can at least try it. We can have Andy set something up, try it out for a month or two, and if it isn't working, I'm sure Andy can take care of it."

Phoebe shook her head unbelievingly. She couldn't believe that Prue and Piper were actually considering this. "How could we even attempt to protect her?"

"We'll think of something," Prue assured her. "We always do." She sat down on the floor and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Changing the subject slightly, did you find anything in the Book that'll help us?"

"There's a spell to call a lost love, but it's not going to work," Phoebe said with a sigh. She shifted the heavy volume on her lap and began flipping pages to find the spell again.

"Why not?"

"It's written in the first person." She found the yellowed page and pointed to the spell. "That means Abby has to say it and she can't say it without finding out who we are. I mean, what are we going to say, that saying this little poem will bring her mom back?"

Prue groaned. Another brick wall. She put her hand to her head, trying to think. "Maybe it's not such a bad idea," she said thoughtfully.

Both Piper and Phoebe looked over at her, identical surprised expressions on their faces. "Are you out of your freaking mind?" Phoebe exclaimed. "Prue, we cannot tell her about us."

"If she's going to stay here permanently, she deserves to know."

Piper could practically see the steam coming out of Phoebe's ears, so she broke in before Phoebe could say a word. This conversation needed a logical approach, not one fueled by emotion. "What could be gained by telling her about us?"

"Let her hear how she's going to be living," Prue shrugged. "Let her decide for herself if she wants to stay in this kind of environment." She stood up and crossed the room, taking the Book of Shadows from Phoebe's lap and placing it back on the lectern. She peered down at the page, smiling to herself. "Plus, if this spell will find her mother, how can we deny her that?"

"We can't," Phoebe sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, Prue was right. At least on her last point. They couldn't give up an opportunity to find Abby's mother simply because it would inconvenience them. However, she still wasn't sold at all on the rest of Prue's insane ideas. "I can't believe you're willing to give everything up for a girl we've known for three days."

"Phoebe, what are we giving up?" Prue asked defensively. "Look, we help innocents, right? We do everything we can for them. Are you telling me Abby's not an innocent?"

"No, but--"

"Then we help her, even if we have to expose ourselves doing it. We've told people before. What makes this time so different?"

Phoebe just shook her head. There was no way she was going to change Prue's mind. "Never mind, Prue. Just do what you want."

Piper sighed in aggravation. She hated when her sisters fought and she hated it even more when they fought over their supernatural obligations. "Phoebe--"

"No!" Phoebe exclaimed. "Listen to me for once. What she's asking us to do is crazy! I care about Abby just as much as you guys do, but we cannot take her in. If our lives were normal, I'd have no objection, but we have evil beings with even more evil powers coming into our house left and right to kill us. What happens if Abby gets caught in the crossfire? Or what happens if those evil beings succeed and Abby is left by herself yet again?"

"If we send her to the orphanage, she gets left by herself yet again anyway," Piper said softly.

"Stop fighting over me," a teary little voice said from the doorway.

The sisters whirled around and faced Abby. The little girl was standing in the doorway, almost hiding behind the doorjamb. "Abby," Prue started gently, "what--"

"I heard you from downstairs," she said quietly. "I heard you yelling and I followed the voices up here. If you don't want me to stay, I won't."

"Oh, sweetie, it's not that we don't want you to stay," Phoebe said, approaching the little girl slowly. Abby backed away, going down a couple of stairs. "It's just that it's complicated."

"Complicated how?" Abby asked as anger flashed briefly in her eyes. "I thought you guys cared, but you don't. You're just like everyone else."

The words tore through Prue's heart. The thought of Abby thinking that the sisters would abandon her just as everyone else in her life had made Prue sick to her stomach. She shot Phoebe an angry glare, then turned back to Abby. "Honey, just give me a chance to explain why it's so complicated."

Abby looked from one sister to another, finally settling on Prue's face. Prue was the sister she was closest to and the one she trusted most, and the thought that all this time she really didn't care made Abby want to cry. She wanted to hear a reason, any reason, for the argument she had just heard. After a long moment, she stepped into the attic and took Prue's hand. This better be good, she thought as Prue led her across the attic and sat her down in an old chair.