4 years after Babies, Secrets, and Surprises took place:
Piper Halliwell-Wyatt pursed her lips in annoyance as a spoonful of peas narrowly missed her face. "Ah, the joys of parent hood," she sighed sarcastically.
"No peas!" Shawn exclaimed in a joyous squeal of delight. He began waving his arms madly up and down, banging them on the highchair. With each vibration the bowl of peas in front of him slipped closer and closer to the edge, it was a smart little trick of his he'd learned. Bang on the table and the peas will fall so there for I don't have to eat them, is what Piper could almost swear he was thinking.
She gave a little laugh devoid of humor. "Not this time buddy," she told him as the bowl teetered, she threw up her hands and froze it before it fell. She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him as she picked the bowl up from its position and spooned another bite for him.
His bottom lip quivered and his eyes filled with childish tears.
"God help me," Piper groaned as he burst into tears. She rubbed her temples in a clockwise motion, trying to fight the migraine that threatened. "Okay, okay," she told him and picked him up out of the chair.
"Go to sleep you little baby, Go to sleep you little baby, Your mama's gone away, but your daddy's gonna' stay..." she began singing one of the songs from "O Brother Where Art Thou" that Shawn particularly liked.
She continued with the song until his crying had slowed down and was now merely sniffling. She replaced him in the highchair and walked over to the toaster where two pieces of toast had just popped up. She spread butter and jelly on them and placed them on separate plates along with some eggs. "David! Breakfast!" she called into the living room where her four year old was watching his morning cartoons.
The telephone rang while she was simmering a few pieces of bacon she couldn't bring herself to leave. "Leo, could you get that!" she yelled to her husband. Normally her mornings weren't quiet this busy, but for some reason today was.
The ringing stopped as David came racing into the room, he stopped next to her and waited patiently as she added two pieces of bacon to his plate and handed it to him.
"It's Phoebe," Leo said as he came walking into the room with the phone in hand.
"Feed Shawn will you?" she asked as she reached for the phone. "Hey Sis."
"Hey," her younger sister greeted from the other end of the line. "How's life at the Manor?"
"Busy, Shawn decided he didn't want his peas and so now there's a big mess," Piper replied concentrating on the bacon as well as talking. "How's the Loft?"
"Same ol' same ol'," Phoebe sighed. "Patience just got over an ear infection so that means I have to go to work again. No more luxurious days off."
"Awe, I wish I could have a day off from parenting," Piper complained. "Maybe we should all take a few days off and leave the kids to the guys?" she suggested as Shawn threw a spoonful of peas at Leo that hit dead in the center of his face. Piper gave a snort of laughter, "I take that back, they couldn't survive it!"
"I agree," Phoebe agreed. "Well I better go if I'm gonna' get to work early and drop Patience off at daycare."
"I'll call you," Piper replied and hung up.
* * * * *
Phoebe Halliwell-Turner took Patience's hand and led her into the Bay Mirror where she worked thirty minutes later. Immediately when she walked in she noticed something different about the building. There were a few new people and all the desks were arranged differently. The atmosphere was different as well, it felt like she'd walked into the wrong building.
"Carly, what's going on?" She asked her assistant as she walked by.
"The place is under new management, that's what's going on," a voice behind her replied before Carly could.
Phoebe turned to face a tall blonde man with a dark tan and nice smile, inspite of his good looks Phoebe couldn't help but feel a bad vibe from him. "New management?" Phoebe repeated.
The man nodded. "What part of that did you not understand?" he asked snottily.
Phoebe raised her eyebrows. "And who might you be?"
"I'm Brendan Price, the new manager slash editor, and you are?" he asked in the same snotty tone.
"I'm Phoebe Turner," she replied.
He looked at his clipboard, scanning it for her name. "I have a Phoebe Halliwell, but no Phoebe Turner."
"That's me," she nodded.
"Which is it?"
"Excuse me?"
"Halliwell or Turner, which one?" he repeated sighing frustrated.
"Turner," she replied. "Why wasn't I notified about the change?"
"What change?"
"The change in management," she repiled getting more than a little annoyed with the stupid game he was playing.
"There was a flyer in your box the day before yesterday notifying you of the meeting yesterday morning where we discussed the new changes," he replied as if she were the stupid one. "If you were smart and checked your box you would've known about it now wouldn't you?"
She stared at him. "I wasn't here yesterday or the day before, or the day before that."
"Well then you're fired," he replied with a shrug and began to walk off.
She stared after him. "Excuse me? Fired? I don't think so!"
"Well I think so," he replied.
"Do you know who I am? I'm Phoebe, as in Ask Phoebe, one of the reasons you get so much business! You can't fire me!" she exclaimed and let go of her daughters hand to march after him.
"I think I can," he called over his shoulder. "You didn't show up for work un-excused for three days, maybe more, I don't know."
"My daughter had an ear infection! It's not like I could leave her home by herself!" she replied and grabbed his shoulder forcing him to turn around and face her.
"It was un-excused," he answered.
"It was too, I Okayed it with Elise," Phoebe told him with her lips pursed in anger.
"But you didn't okay it with me," he shrugged as if there were nothing he could do.
"How can I okay it with you when I didn't even know you existed?" she asked sarcastically.
"You could've called," he countered.
"I asked for three days off so I took three days off. I wasn't aware that when I came back an idiot who obviously knows nothing about how to run a newspaper, would be running the place!" she yelled, then turned on heal and marched away, picking Patience up in her arms as she did.
She strapped Patience in her car seat once in the parking lot and climbed into the driver's side turning on her cell phone as she did. "Call Cole," she told the phone.
"Dialing Cole at the Office," the phone said in it's mechanical voice and began dialing.
"Cole Turner's office. This is Tracy, how may I help you?" Cole's long time assistant answered.
"Hey Tracy, it's Phoebe, is Cole in?" she asked still trying to cool down from being so angry. She pulled out of the parking lot carefully, fully aware she needed to calm down in order to drive.
"Yeah, one sec.," she replied, dropping the sophisticated act she used when answering the phone.
"Are you mad mommy?" Patience asked from the back seat.
"Mommy's very angry Sweety, but not at you," she replied smiling into the rear view mirror at her daughter. "Why don't you play with Pooh?" she asked pulling her teddy bear out of the front seat and handing it to her.
"Hey Honey," her husband Cole answered as he picked up the line.
"Hey Baby, you'll never guess what happened to me this morning," she said sarcastically.
"What?" he asked.
"I got fired," she replied.
"Fired? What? They can't fire you, you're like their celebrity!" he exclaimed.
"I know I brought that up, but the as-idiot," she corrected when she remembered Patience was sitting behind her in the back seat, "didn't care."
"Well what happened?"
"We're under new management and the guy decided that since I didn't ask him for the days off this week that I wasn't worth keeping," she answered.
"But you didn't know!" Cole exclaimed, she could tell he was getting angry.
"I know Baby, I said that too but he told me I should've called him and okayed it with him first. I asked him how I was supposed to call him when I didn't know he existed, but he wouldn't give so I just marched out," she replied.
"Well what are you gonna do now?" he asked after a moment.
"I donno, I guess I've got to find a new job," she sighed.
He was silent for a moment, she could tell he was thinking. "Do you want me to take care of things?"
"If you're suggesting I sue him, then no. I can't really accuse him of anything other than being a jerk," Phoebe frowned.
He sighed. "All right. Well since you have they day off, why don't you take Patience to the park or visit Piper or Paige?" he suggested. "Oh, uh I gotta go Honey, someone's knocking, love you and the baby."
"We love you too," she replied and flipped the phone shut. She glanced into the mirror and watched as Patience played with her teddy bear. "Where do you wanna' go Baby? We can go anywhere you want."
"Auntie Piper's house!" she exclaimed in remarkably good language for a three and half year old. She and Cole made sure to spend a lot of time with her because of what had happened before she was born.
When Phoebe was still pregnant with Patience a demon named Bera had stolen her out of Phoebe's womb when she was barely three months pregnant. She and her sisters had to wait until Bera had given birth to the baby before trying to get her back, otherwise they risked killing both Bera and the child in the process. Ever since she and Cole had gotten Patience back, they'd been extremely protective of her and spent as much time with her as possible.
Thanks to all that time with her, Patience was extremely smart. She could speak very well, count to over one hundred, knew her ABC's, a little basic math, and could read and write. She'd even been pre-accepted into a private school called Rosemary Academy, which was difficult to get into.
To say the least, Phoebe and Cole were extremely proud of their baby girl, and had high hopes for her future as both a witch-demon, and a career woman.
Her thoughts subsided as she pulled to a halt in front of the Manor and parked. She helped Patience out of her car seat and immediately when free, she ran toward the house. Phoebe ran after her as their tradition, it was always a race to see who could get inside first, and Patience always won.
"Auntie Piper! Surprise!" Patience exclaimed as she opened the door and ran inside.
Piper peeked her head out of the den smiling. "Hey!" she asked opening her arms for a hug. Patience jumped into her arms and squeezed her tight.
"Hey," Phoebe greeted as she put her stuff down and kissed Piper on the top of the head. "Where are my two favorite nephews?" she said loudly enough for David to hear.
"Shawn's sleeping upstairs," Piper replied as David came running in screaming for joy the whole way. "What brings you here?" she asked as Phoebe gave David a big hug and kissed him.
"Well, there was a little problem at work," she replied as she shooed the kids away. "I got fired."
"What? They can't fire you!" Piper exclaimed.
"That's what Cole said when I told him," she nodded.
"Well what happened? Why?" Piper asked as she motioned for Phoebe to sit in the chair across from her.
Phoebe sighed and went on to explain for the second time why she had been fired. "I got so fed up Piper, I just called him and idiot who doesn't know how to run a newspaper and walked right out."
"You didn't!" Piper exclaimed in shock.
"I did," Phoebe nodded. "It felt good too, he just pissed me off royally."
"If I worked for him I would've quit too," Piper agreed.
"I have a feeling that's what some other people did too, there were a few new people so either he fired the old or they quit," Phoebe shrugged.
Piper raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Well whatever the reason, I think you and Cole deserve a little alone time together. I'll watch Patience tonight," Piper suggested.
Phoebe bit her lip, unsure.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to your baby, I promise," Piper added when she noticed her sister's hesitation. "Scouts honor," she replied and help up two fingers.
Phoebe smiled and nodded, "All right." She sighed and looked over at a picture hanging on the wall above the fireplace. It was a family picture of everyone. In the middle were Piper, herself, and Paige, with Leo standing behind Piper, Cole behind herself and Glenn behind Paige. David and Patience were sitting on the ground in front of their mothers and Piper was holding a four month old Shawn. "How's Paige been? I haven't talked to her lately?"
"She's good," Piper replied with a nod. "She and Glenn are really happy together."
"I'm glad, the first year for us Halliwells has always been rough," she nodded. Paige and Glenn had been married about a year and a half, just after Shawn was born. They now had two adorable twin daughters just barely a year old.
"We should really get a new picture with Dee-Dee in it," Piper said when she noticed the direction of Phoebe's gaze.
Phoebe nodded.
"You know, Dee-Dee's the first set of twins in our family?" Piper asked. "Hopefully they're not the last," she added with a mischievous smile dancing in her eyes.
"Are you pregnant again?" Phoebe asked excitedly.
Piper frowned. "Of course not, two boys is enough for me. I don't think I could handle another one. I was talking about you."
"Cole and I decided no more children after what happened," Phoebe replied. "No more, we can't risk it," she added when Piper raised her eyebrows and nodded as if she didn't really believe her. "What was that?"
"Phoebe, we vanquished Bera, she's not coming back again," Piper replied with a sigh.
Phoebe bit her lip. Piper didn't know about the conversation that she and Bera had before they vanquished her. According to Bera she and Cole had been 'together' when he was a teenager, Bera had supposedly had a child with him, one he didn't know anything about. Phoebe had spent many nights, lying awake and wondering if Bera had lied to her, or if there really was a girl out there, living out life without her father.
She'd always had a secret fear that if she got pregnant again, the girl, Raven, would come and take the child as revenge against her mother's death. She couldn't risk it, wouldn't risk it.
"What are you thinking?" Piper asked after a moment.
Phoebe let out a long deep breath as she came back to reality. "Nothing, I was just spacing."
"Oh come on Phoebe, everyone knows you and Bera had a little talk before I killed her, and we all know she said something that seriously upset you. You might as well tell us since we already know half of it," Piper said with a shrug.
"I can't tell you, I can't tell anyone. If I do, it might turn out true," she said after a moment of hesitation. "I don't think I could handle it if it did." Before Piper could say anything else Phoebe's cell phone rang. "Hello?"
"Phoebe? Why aren't you at work?" a voice asked from the other end of the line.
"Who is this?" she asked confused.
"Brendan Price, the new editor at the Mirror. Why aren't you at work?" he repeated.
"What the hell is your problem? I'm not at work because you fired me!" she exclaimed, more than just a little agitated.
He was silent for a moment and she could hear papers being moved around. "Wait, what is your name again?"
"Phoebe Turner." she replied.
"Phoebe Turner," he mumbled to himself and the papers continued to shuffle around. "You write the advice column?"
"Well I used to," she replied.
He gave a little chuckle. "Well stupid me, I didn't realize who you were when I fired you. Okay, you're hired again, see you in twenty minutes, no later or I will fire you for good this time."
"But-" she began and heard a click. "Ugh!" she exclaimed as she flipped her phone shut. "That guy is so weird."
"He hired you again?" Piper asked.
"Yeah, said he didn't know who I was when he fired me," Phoebe shrugged.
"So now he comes groveling back? What are you gonna do?"
"Well I guess I'm going back to work," Phoebe replied. "Although if he really does act like this and isn't just pulling my leg, I don't think I'll stick around long."
"I wouldn't," Piper agreed.
Phoebe nodded and walked over to the door leading outside where Patience and David and run off too. "Patience Sweety, come say buh-bye," she called as her daughter was being pushed on the swing by David.
Patience jumped of the swing in mid air, no quiet landing on her feet, but got up and ran over to her ignoring the fact that she'd just scrapped a knee. "Bye Mommy!" she exclaimed and hugged her tightly.
"Oh honey, you just scrapped your knee," Phoebe said bending down to look at her knee.
"It doesn't hurt," Patience replied as she looked down at it as if she'd just noticed it for the first time.
Phoebe frowned. "Piper can you-?" she asked pointing to Patience's knee.
"Oh sure, you get to work," Piper nodded.
"Okay," she nodded and turned back to Patience. "You be good Sweety, you're gonna spend the night over here okay?"
"Okay," Patience nodded.
"Love you," she said and gave her one last kiss before heading out the door and off to work for the second time that day.
* * * * *
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please tell me what you think, if I don't get any feedback, I won't continue, so please review and if you can't review send me your comments at Sunnafire@sbcglobal. I will accept flames, but please be gentle I don't take criticism well and might be forced to retaliate, just kidding! But please if you want to flame me, send them to me at my email address. The next chapter will be posted soon if and only if I get reviews! Bye!
Piper Halliwell-Wyatt pursed her lips in annoyance as a spoonful of peas narrowly missed her face. "Ah, the joys of parent hood," she sighed sarcastically.
"No peas!" Shawn exclaimed in a joyous squeal of delight. He began waving his arms madly up and down, banging them on the highchair. With each vibration the bowl of peas in front of him slipped closer and closer to the edge, it was a smart little trick of his he'd learned. Bang on the table and the peas will fall so there for I don't have to eat them, is what Piper could almost swear he was thinking.
She gave a little laugh devoid of humor. "Not this time buddy," she told him as the bowl teetered, she threw up her hands and froze it before it fell. She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him as she picked the bowl up from its position and spooned another bite for him.
His bottom lip quivered and his eyes filled with childish tears.
"God help me," Piper groaned as he burst into tears. She rubbed her temples in a clockwise motion, trying to fight the migraine that threatened. "Okay, okay," she told him and picked him up out of the chair.
"Go to sleep you little baby, Go to sleep you little baby, Your mama's gone away, but your daddy's gonna' stay..." she began singing one of the songs from "O Brother Where Art Thou" that Shawn particularly liked.
She continued with the song until his crying had slowed down and was now merely sniffling. She replaced him in the highchair and walked over to the toaster where two pieces of toast had just popped up. She spread butter and jelly on them and placed them on separate plates along with some eggs. "David! Breakfast!" she called into the living room where her four year old was watching his morning cartoons.
The telephone rang while she was simmering a few pieces of bacon she couldn't bring herself to leave. "Leo, could you get that!" she yelled to her husband. Normally her mornings weren't quiet this busy, but for some reason today was.
The ringing stopped as David came racing into the room, he stopped next to her and waited patiently as she added two pieces of bacon to his plate and handed it to him.
"It's Phoebe," Leo said as he came walking into the room with the phone in hand.
"Feed Shawn will you?" she asked as she reached for the phone. "Hey Sis."
"Hey," her younger sister greeted from the other end of the line. "How's life at the Manor?"
"Busy, Shawn decided he didn't want his peas and so now there's a big mess," Piper replied concentrating on the bacon as well as talking. "How's the Loft?"
"Same ol' same ol'," Phoebe sighed. "Patience just got over an ear infection so that means I have to go to work again. No more luxurious days off."
"Awe, I wish I could have a day off from parenting," Piper complained. "Maybe we should all take a few days off and leave the kids to the guys?" she suggested as Shawn threw a spoonful of peas at Leo that hit dead in the center of his face. Piper gave a snort of laughter, "I take that back, they couldn't survive it!"
"I agree," Phoebe agreed. "Well I better go if I'm gonna' get to work early and drop Patience off at daycare."
"I'll call you," Piper replied and hung up.
* * * * *
Phoebe Halliwell-Turner took Patience's hand and led her into the Bay Mirror where she worked thirty minutes later. Immediately when she walked in she noticed something different about the building. There were a few new people and all the desks were arranged differently. The atmosphere was different as well, it felt like she'd walked into the wrong building.
"Carly, what's going on?" She asked her assistant as she walked by.
"The place is under new management, that's what's going on," a voice behind her replied before Carly could.
Phoebe turned to face a tall blonde man with a dark tan and nice smile, inspite of his good looks Phoebe couldn't help but feel a bad vibe from him. "New management?" Phoebe repeated.
The man nodded. "What part of that did you not understand?" he asked snottily.
Phoebe raised her eyebrows. "And who might you be?"
"I'm Brendan Price, the new manager slash editor, and you are?" he asked in the same snotty tone.
"I'm Phoebe Turner," she replied.
He looked at his clipboard, scanning it for her name. "I have a Phoebe Halliwell, but no Phoebe Turner."
"That's me," she nodded.
"Which is it?"
"Excuse me?"
"Halliwell or Turner, which one?" he repeated sighing frustrated.
"Turner," she replied. "Why wasn't I notified about the change?"
"What change?"
"The change in management," she repiled getting more than a little annoyed with the stupid game he was playing.
"There was a flyer in your box the day before yesterday notifying you of the meeting yesterday morning where we discussed the new changes," he replied as if she were the stupid one. "If you were smart and checked your box you would've known about it now wouldn't you?"
She stared at him. "I wasn't here yesterday or the day before, or the day before that."
"Well then you're fired," he replied with a shrug and began to walk off.
She stared after him. "Excuse me? Fired? I don't think so!"
"Well I think so," he replied.
"Do you know who I am? I'm Phoebe, as in Ask Phoebe, one of the reasons you get so much business! You can't fire me!" she exclaimed and let go of her daughters hand to march after him.
"I think I can," he called over his shoulder. "You didn't show up for work un-excused for three days, maybe more, I don't know."
"My daughter had an ear infection! It's not like I could leave her home by herself!" she replied and grabbed his shoulder forcing him to turn around and face her.
"It was un-excused," he answered.
"It was too, I Okayed it with Elise," Phoebe told him with her lips pursed in anger.
"But you didn't okay it with me," he shrugged as if there were nothing he could do.
"How can I okay it with you when I didn't even know you existed?" she asked sarcastically.
"You could've called," he countered.
"I asked for three days off so I took three days off. I wasn't aware that when I came back an idiot who obviously knows nothing about how to run a newspaper, would be running the place!" she yelled, then turned on heal and marched away, picking Patience up in her arms as she did.
She strapped Patience in her car seat once in the parking lot and climbed into the driver's side turning on her cell phone as she did. "Call Cole," she told the phone.
"Dialing Cole at the Office," the phone said in it's mechanical voice and began dialing.
"Cole Turner's office. This is Tracy, how may I help you?" Cole's long time assistant answered.
"Hey Tracy, it's Phoebe, is Cole in?" she asked still trying to cool down from being so angry. She pulled out of the parking lot carefully, fully aware she needed to calm down in order to drive.
"Yeah, one sec.," she replied, dropping the sophisticated act she used when answering the phone.
"Are you mad mommy?" Patience asked from the back seat.
"Mommy's very angry Sweety, but not at you," she replied smiling into the rear view mirror at her daughter. "Why don't you play with Pooh?" she asked pulling her teddy bear out of the front seat and handing it to her.
"Hey Honey," her husband Cole answered as he picked up the line.
"Hey Baby, you'll never guess what happened to me this morning," she said sarcastically.
"What?" he asked.
"I got fired," she replied.
"Fired? What? They can't fire you, you're like their celebrity!" he exclaimed.
"I know I brought that up, but the as-idiot," she corrected when she remembered Patience was sitting behind her in the back seat, "didn't care."
"Well what happened?"
"We're under new management and the guy decided that since I didn't ask him for the days off this week that I wasn't worth keeping," she answered.
"But you didn't know!" Cole exclaimed, she could tell he was getting angry.
"I know Baby, I said that too but he told me I should've called him and okayed it with him first. I asked him how I was supposed to call him when I didn't know he existed, but he wouldn't give so I just marched out," she replied.
"Well what are you gonna do now?" he asked after a moment.
"I donno, I guess I've got to find a new job," she sighed.
He was silent for a moment, she could tell he was thinking. "Do you want me to take care of things?"
"If you're suggesting I sue him, then no. I can't really accuse him of anything other than being a jerk," Phoebe frowned.
He sighed. "All right. Well since you have they day off, why don't you take Patience to the park or visit Piper or Paige?" he suggested. "Oh, uh I gotta go Honey, someone's knocking, love you and the baby."
"We love you too," she replied and flipped the phone shut. She glanced into the mirror and watched as Patience played with her teddy bear. "Where do you wanna' go Baby? We can go anywhere you want."
"Auntie Piper's house!" she exclaimed in remarkably good language for a three and half year old. She and Cole made sure to spend a lot of time with her because of what had happened before she was born.
When Phoebe was still pregnant with Patience a demon named Bera had stolen her out of Phoebe's womb when she was barely three months pregnant. She and her sisters had to wait until Bera had given birth to the baby before trying to get her back, otherwise they risked killing both Bera and the child in the process. Ever since she and Cole had gotten Patience back, they'd been extremely protective of her and spent as much time with her as possible.
Thanks to all that time with her, Patience was extremely smart. She could speak very well, count to over one hundred, knew her ABC's, a little basic math, and could read and write. She'd even been pre-accepted into a private school called Rosemary Academy, which was difficult to get into.
To say the least, Phoebe and Cole were extremely proud of their baby girl, and had high hopes for her future as both a witch-demon, and a career woman.
Her thoughts subsided as she pulled to a halt in front of the Manor and parked. She helped Patience out of her car seat and immediately when free, she ran toward the house. Phoebe ran after her as their tradition, it was always a race to see who could get inside first, and Patience always won.
"Auntie Piper! Surprise!" Patience exclaimed as she opened the door and ran inside.
Piper peeked her head out of the den smiling. "Hey!" she asked opening her arms for a hug. Patience jumped into her arms and squeezed her tight.
"Hey," Phoebe greeted as she put her stuff down and kissed Piper on the top of the head. "Where are my two favorite nephews?" she said loudly enough for David to hear.
"Shawn's sleeping upstairs," Piper replied as David came running in screaming for joy the whole way. "What brings you here?" she asked as Phoebe gave David a big hug and kissed him.
"Well, there was a little problem at work," she replied as she shooed the kids away. "I got fired."
"What? They can't fire you!" Piper exclaimed.
"That's what Cole said when I told him," she nodded.
"Well what happened? Why?" Piper asked as she motioned for Phoebe to sit in the chair across from her.
Phoebe sighed and went on to explain for the second time why she had been fired. "I got so fed up Piper, I just called him and idiot who doesn't know how to run a newspaper and walked right out."
"You didn't!" Piper exclaimed in shock.
"I did," Phoebe nodded. "It felt good too, he just pissed me off royally."
"If I worked for him I would've quit too," Piper agreed.
"I have a feeling that's what some other people did too, there were a few new people so either he fired the old or they quit," Phoebe shrugged.
Piper raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Well whatever the reason, I think you and Cole deserve a little alone time together. I'll watch Patience tonight," Piper suggested.
Phoebe bit her lip, unsure.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to your baby, I promise," Piper added when she noticed her sister's hesitation. "Scouts honor," she replied and help up two fingers.
Phoebe smiled and nodded, "All right." She sighed and looked over at a picture hanging on the wall above the fireplace. It was a family picture of everyone. In the middle were Piper, herself, and Paige, with Leo standing behind Piper, Cole behind herself and Glenn behind Paige. David and Patience were sitting on the ground in front of their mothers and Piper was holding a four month old Shawn. "How's Paige been? I haven't talked to her lately?"
"She's good," Piper replied with a nod. "She and Glenn are really happy together."
"I'm glad, the first year for us Halliwells has always been rough," she nodded. Paige and Glenn had been married about a year and a half, just after Shawn was born. They now had two adorable twin daughters just barely a year old.
"We should really get a new picture with Dee-Dee in it," Piper said when she noticed the direction of Phoebe's gaze.
Phoebe nodded.
"You know, Dee-Dee's the first set of twins in our family?" Piper asked. "Hopefully they're not the last," she added with a mischievous smile dancing in her eyes.
"Are you pregnant again?" Phoebe asked excitedly.
Piper frowned. "Of course not, two boys is enough for me. I don't think I could handle another one. I was talking about you."
"Cole and I decided no more children after what happened," Phoebe replied. "No more, we can't risk it," she added when Piper raised her eyebrows and nodded as if she didn't really believe her. "What was that?"
"Phoebe, we vanquished Bera, she's not coming back again," Piper replied with a sigh.
Phoebe bit her lip. Piper didn't know about the conversation that she and Bera had before they vanquished her. According to Bera she and Cole had been 'together' when he was a teenager, Bera had supposedly had a child with him, one he didn't know anything about. Phoebe had spent many nights, lying awake and wondering if Bera had lied to her, or if there really was a girl out there, living out life without her father.
She'd always had a secret fear that if she got pregnant again, the girl, Raven, would come and take the child as revenge against her mother's death. She couldn't risk it, wouldn't risk it.
"What are you thinking?" Piper asked after a moment.
Phoebe let out a long deep breath as she came back to reality. "Nothing, I was just spacing."
"Oh come on Phoebe, everyone knows you and Bera had a little talk before I killed her, and we all know she said something that seriously upset you. You might as well tell us since we already know half of it," Piper said with a shrug.
"I can't tell you, I can't tell anyone. If I do, it might turn out true," she said after a moment of hesitation. "I don't think I could handle it if it did." Before Piper could say anything else Phoebe's cell phone rang. "Hello?"
"Phoebe? Why aren't you at work?" a voice asked from the other end of the line.
"Who is this?" she asked confused.
"Brendan Price, the new editor at the Mirror. Why aren't you at work?" he repeated.
"What the hell is your problem? I'm not at work because you fired me!" she exclaimed, more than just a little agitated.
He was silent for a moment and she could hear papers being moved around. "Wait, what is your name again?"
"Phoebe Turner." she replied.
"Phoebe Turner," he mumbled to himself and the papers continued to shuffle around. "You write the advice column?"
"Well I used to," she replied.
He gave a little chuckle. "Well stupid me, I didn't realize who you were when I fired you. Okay, you're hired again, see you in twenty minutes, no later or I will fire you for good this time."
"But-" she began and heard a click. "Ugh!" she exclaimed as she flipped her phone shut. "That guy is so weird."
"He hired you again?" Piper asked.
"Yeah, said he didn't know who I was when he fired me," Phoebe shrugged.
"So now he comes groveling back? What are you gonna do?"
"Well I guess I'm going back to work," Phoebe replied. "Although if he really does act like this and isn't just pulling my leg, I don't think I'll stick around long."
"I wouldn't," Piper agreed.
Phoebe nodded and walked over to the door leading outside where Patience and David and run off too. "Patience Sweety, come say buh-bye," she called as her daughter was being pushed on the swing by David.
Patience jumped of the swing in mid air, no quiet landing on her feet, but got up and ran over to her ignoring the fact that she'd just scrapped a knee. "Bye Mommy!" she exclaimed and hugged her tightly.
"Oh honey, you just scrapped your knee," Phoebe said bending down to look at her knee.
"It doesn't hurt," Patience replied as she looked down at it as if she'd just noticed it for the first time.
Phoebe frowned. "Piper can you-?" she asked pointing to Patience's knee.
"Oh sure, you get to work," Piper nodded.
"Okay," she nodded and turned back to Patience. "You be good Sweety, you're gonna spend the night over here okay?"
"Okay," Patience nodded.
"Love you," she said and gave her one last kiss before heading out the door and off to work for the second time that day.
* * * * *
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please tell me what you think, if I don't get any feedback, I won't continue, so please review and if you can't review send me your comments at Sunnafire@sbcglobal. I will accept flames, but please be gentle I don't take criticism well and might be forced to retaliate, just kidding! But please if you want to flame me, send them to me at my email address. The next chapter will be posted soon if and only if I get reviews! Bye!