All You Thought You Left Behind

Sequel to "Now That You're Gone", here by popular demand. Please, read and review that fic before reading this one (don't worry, it's pretty short).

Summary: Set one year after NTYG. Piper, Leo, Phoebe, Paige, Wyatt, and Lin are still living in New York. None of them has used magic since leaving San Fransisco. Piper's family is together again, and she couldn't be happier. Until, that is, she realizes that she can't outrun her demons - figuratively and literally speaking.

Disclaimer: I don't own Piper, Leo, Phoebe, Paige, or Wyatt. Lin, Ananda, Darvy, and anyone else not from the show are mine.

A/N: Just to clear up a bit of confusion regarding Lin's powers - Before Piper left San Fransisco with Wyatt, she bound both of their powers. Although she didn't know it at the time, she was pregnant with Lin, so the potion bound the baby's powers, too. Neither Lin nor Wyatt know anything about their family's magical past. Also, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige never sold the manor out of respect for family tradition (it's been in their family for generations), but Piper has never been able to go back there, and Phoebe and Paige rarely go, either.

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"Wyatt Matthew and Prudence Melinda, get down here before you're late for school!" Piper called up the stairs. It was a typical day in the Halliwell-Wyatt household. Leo, who in the past year had managed to become the unofficial town handy-man, was already fixing a sink next door, where Piper's close friend and surrogate grandmother, Ananda, lived. Phoebe and Paige were in the kitchen, preparing for breakfast with their sister, niece, and nephew as per usual. The cabin-like house Piper had bought when she'd first moved to New York hadn't been large enough for the entire Halliwell clan, but Piper's other next-door neighbors had been looking to sell their house for some time, and so Phoebe and Paige now resided there, though they spent as much time at their sister's house as at their own.

Seven-year-old Wyatt ran past his mother, his auburn hair flying into his face as he jumped over the last few steps. Six-year-old Lin eagerly followed her brother, though she was less brave than he in the stair-jumping bit. The brother and sister skidded into the kitchen, Wyatt hurtling into Phoebe's arms and Lin jumping into Paige's.

"Aunt Phoebe, do I hafta go to school?" Wyatt asked pleadingly. "Why can't I just stay home with you and Mommy and Aunt Paige?"

"Hey, if Wyatt doesn't go to school, I'm not going neither!" Lin declared.

"You're both going to school," Piper insisted from the doorway. "Now hurry up and eat, because Nana will be here to pick you up in five minutes."

Wyatt pouted, but Lin just shrugged. "I like school," she said, taking a sip of orange juice.

"That's because you're just a first-grader," her brother replied, rolling his eyes. "You don't get as many tests, and you're work mostly involves staying in the lines with your coloring books."

"Nuh-uh," Lin countered. "We get spelling tests and adding and subtracting and we only color in art class."

"You think your work is hard?" Wyatt scoffed. "Okay, smart one, what's five times five?"

Lin frowned. "That's not fair, Wyatt, I won't learn that until I'm your age."

"Exactly," he said triumphantly.

"Okay, Wyatt, what's six times seven?" Piper asked to even the score between her two children.

Wyatt thought for a minute, then shrugged.

"Thought so," said his mother. "When you get home, we're going over those multiplication tables."

"Come on, Mom," the little boy whined. "I was gonna go play basketball with Brennan."

"You can do that on the weekend," Piper told him firmly.

Wyatt sighed, knowing there would be no arguing his way out of it. Phoebe and Paige exchanged small smiles, appreciating this nice, normal family exchange. It never ceased to amaze them that, after everything they'd been through, they were now just a regular family, hardly any different from anyone else in the small, close-knit town.

Their momentary reflection was interrupted by Phoebe's cell phone going off. "Hello? ...Wait, what? ...But why..? ...Okay, okay, I'll be right there." She sighed, hanging up. "That was Jason. Somebody called out, he needs me to work today."

When Phoebe had quit her job at the Bay Mirror to move to New York with Paige, Jason had offered her a new job at a small paper he'd just bought out east. Her column was still syndicated in both the New York and San Fransisco areas, but she hadn't been working nearly as much as she had at the Mirror. That changed, however, when Jason moved to New York in order to have more hands-on control of the paper.

"Again, Pheebs?" Piper questioned. "You worked overtime every day last week. This waas supposed to be your day off." Her eyes suddenly narrowed suspiciously. "Hey, you Jason aren't getting back together are you? I mean, you'd tell us something like that, right?"

Phoebe started to shake her head, then stopped and sighed. "The truth? I don't know. I mean, ever since he came back from Hong Kong things were kinda weird between us, and then when he gave me this new job, it got stranger than ever because it's like this is the one thing that hasn't changed, and it's gotten bad enough that I'm actually considering writing to myself."

Her sisters giggled. "Honey, breathe," Paige advised. "Now, did you try talking to him?"

"No," Phoebe admitted. "I thought it might be... weird..." Seeing the irony in her own train of thought, she added, "But not as weird as leaving things the way they are. I'll talk to him. But first I have to actually be there, because if I get fired then talking to him is going to be really awkward. Wyatt, Lin, I'll drop you guys off at school on my way, so finish eating."

The kids nodded and started chewing. Just then, Nana came in with Leo, praising him for the great job he'd done fixing her sink.

"Hey, stranger," Piper greeted, getting a kiss from her husband. "Sit down. You left this morning before I had time to cook breakfast."

"I've only got a few minutes," he replied, grabbing a plate. "Some kids got bored and trashed the awning in front of the grocery store. I promised Kurt I'd help him fix it."

Piper and Nana exchanged rolling eyes. In addition to owning the grocery store as well as several other properties he rented out to community businesses, Kurtis Mahoney was the mayor. Like most of the town's residents, Kurt was a bit eccentric, as well as a bit of a control freak, which often made him the target of local kids' pranks.

"Okay, and I have to leave, like, now. Oh, you don't have to take the kids to school, Nana, I'll do it," Phoebe said. "You guys ready?"

"No," Wyatt grumbled. He and his sister grabbed their backpacks, kissed their parents good-bye, and ran out the door. Phoebe was right behind them, barely pausing at the door to say good-bye to her family.

Paige was the next to go. Unlike Phoebe, she hadn't been able to find a job as a social worker close enough to commute every day, so instead she'd gone back to school to become a kindergarten teacher. She took classes at the closest community college, a forty-minute drive away. "I've got a test today," she said, grimancing as she got up. "I can so relate to Wyatt right now."

Piper smiled. "Oh, so that's where he got it from," she joked.

Paige grinned. "I gotta go. See you guys later."

"Good luck, dear," Nana said.

Paige waved them off, then scurried out the door. Leo left a few minutes later. Piper and Nana sat down at the kitchen table, enjoying the rare quiet.

"Okay," Nana started, "What's up with you?" Piper started to protest that she didn't know what the older woman was talking about, but Nana interrupted her. "Don't give me that, Piper. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? You've been acting strange lately. Talk to me about it."

Piper sighed. Nana knew her better than anyone, aside from her husband, sisters, and kids. She was like family, and Piper felt she could talk to her about anything, so she began. "Okay. You're right, there is something up. But I haven't talked with Leo or my sisters yet, so promise not to say anything to them." Nana nodded, and Piper continued, taking a deep breath. "I think I might be pregnant."