Treading Water - Part 5

The sound of a bell rang through his head, it sounded like a wind chime does as a small breeze blows through it. Leo frowned; he was caught up in the hazy world between the waking and the sleeping one. It almost felt as if he was wrapped in cotton wool, its softness preventing anything from reaching his senses.

The bell chimed again, this time only louder and, brought Leo a little closer to the land of the waking but, he was still too deep in the other to respond.

A final, more urgent ring brought Leo crashing down to Earth. The pleasant 'cotton wool' feeling shattered like a mirror and lay in shards before him. He was now forced to face reality as The Elders dragged a reluctant Leo to the land above the clouds in which they resided.

~ ~ ~ ~

He lay in a heap before them, not yet willing to look at the faces of those he had once served. They would have to force him to face up to them, they would have to physically make him look upon them, or so he thought.

"Leo," A voice called in a gentle tone.

Leo shook his head in dismissal of the instinctive urge he had to do whatever 'they' said. No. He had sworn a long time ago to never again server them. What happened that day had been the last straw. However, he wasn't allowed to stay in his train of thought for long.

"Leo!" This time the gentle voice took on a more commanding tone.

It was this tone, this edge, to the voice, which made him look upon the face of one of the ones he once served. The hood of the golden robe had been thrown back in order to make things seem a little more pleasant and welcoming to Leo. All around more of his former masters stood, all with their hoods back from their faces, their robes caught the light and it seemed as if they were shimmering pools of stardust.

"Leo, we brought you here in the hope you would respond better to us. I know this has been hard on you an---" He was cut off mid sentence.

"Hard? You don't know anything! How can you understand when all you do is sit up here and play God. Do you have any idea what it is like to watch your whole family being slaughtered before your eyes? What it's like to watch as your wife is murdered? See her take her last, agonising breath and know that you have failed her?" Leo spat. He pulled himself into a standing position slowly, his gaze wary.

The Elder sighed; he could tell this was going to be harder than they first thought. "All right, perhaps we don't understand but you must realise that you still have a charge who is alive and in need your help."

"No! For the last time no! I can't help her anymore," Leo stated, looking The Elder in the eye.

"Why?" The Elder asked in a calm nature.

Leo sighed heavily and turned away for a second. "You want to know so badly?" He asked with a glance towards the group of Elders who simply nodded. "Fine. I'll tell you..."

Leo sighed as he came downstairs and into the living room of the manor. The place was a mess, more so than it would have been if Piper were still alive. He had no time to clean it himself, from talking to The Elders to trying to keep Phoebe from harming herself. In recent months she had become a lot worse and had taken refuge in the basement. All she did was sit in a corner and no matter how hard Leo tried to convince her to come out she wouldn't, screaming at him to stay away from her.

He picked up a few discarded cartons and pushed the table back into place. It had been knocked over the last time Phoebe had an episode, before the basement became her permanent residence. She was sitting on the couch watching the TV, he had thought it was time they cleared out some of her sisters things from the Manor and of course she hadn't taken it too well. It was this day, which caused her to run down to the basement swearing that if he came near her she'd kill him.

With a shake of his head he made his way through to the kitchen and put some cereal into a plastic bowl, followed by the milk and lastly a plastic spoon. He had stopped using real crockery and cutlery with Phoebe a while ago, there was only so much they could afford to have broken.

After a quick draw in of breath Leo opened the door to the basement and then made his way down the wooden steps carefully.

"Phoebe" Leo called softly but was met with no answer. Despite the fact that it was rather bright outside the basement still held a lot of shadows, all of which Phoebe could be hiding in.

"Phoebe" He tried again but this time a little stronger.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone?" The voice was cold, nothing like what it used to be.

"I know, but you need to eat. I brought you some cereal." He said walking towards the source of the voice. In the dark corner he could just make out her shape and as he got closer he could see what a mess she was although her eyes remained hidden as her face was down cast. Her hair was greasy and all over the place, nothing like when she kept it neat, her clothes were tattered and soiled and he was sure her face was tear stained.

"I don't want anything to eat. I just want to be left alone." She said in a voice, which was all too calm.

Leo reached her and crouched before her. "Phoebe, please, you haven't eaten in days." Slowly he moved the bowl towards her until it was just a few inches from her face.

Phoebe lifted her head up so she could look at the bowl; her dark eyes examined its surface and the contents within. After a thorough examination of the food she took the bowl off of Leo slowly and cradled it in an arm. She continued staring at it as if she was still contemplating the process of eating.

"Here," Leo said handing her the spoon. When she took her he smiled a little.

With the bowl cradled in one hand and the spoon in the other Phoebe dug into the cereal, as if she was digging a hole, and put the heap on top of the spoon into her mouth. As she chewed she was aware of Leo watching her; he never left her alone, always observing and taking note of her every move. She was sick of it. With a quick glance at the spoon she put the bowl down next to her.

"Phoebe, you can't be finished."

She didn't answer him, just continued to look at the spoon.

Leo put a hand on her shoulder as he spoke, "Phoebe come on, just a few more mouthfuls and that'll do for now."

She nodded a little and put her other hand onto the head of the spoon

"That's a good girl," Leo said in a patronising tone and rubbed her shoulder a little.

Phoebe closed her eyes for a second and knowing Leo was slightly distracted with getting her to eat she broke off the head of the spoon discretely. With a quick glance at Leo to make sure he was still unaware of her plan she raised her hand and swiped at his face with the spoon.

Leo let out a yell of surprise and pain. He leapt back from Phoebe, a hand on his face, and looked at her, his anger building. "What the hell are you playing at?"

She stood up using the wall for support and held the hand, which contained the remains of the spoon out shakily. Its jagged edge was stained with fresh blood, Leo's blood. "I told you to stay away from me. But did you listen? No! Now you know I'm serious, so get out."

"Phoebe, I'm only trying to take care of you," He tried one last time.

"Well I don't want to be taken care of. You'd think you would've got that by now." She screamed.

For Leo, this incident was the last straw. He was sick of having to put up with her, he didn't deserve this. He strode towards her and grabbed the hand, which held the broken spoon tightly, so tightly that she dropped it. She brought her hand up to grab Leo's own but he took hold of that one too.

"Ow! Let me go. Leo, you're hurting me." Phoebe pleaded as she tried to pull her hands out of Leo's grip.

"Hurting you? You're the one who took a chunk out of my face. I'm sick of having to take care of you. You... ungrateful little wench." Leo hissed in her face.

"Leo, please! I'm sorry. I won't do it again, just let me go," Phoebe pleaded again and struggled against his hold. This only caused Leo to tighten his hold on her again. "Leo! Please!"

"No! You're going to listen to me and listen very carefully," He said, his face now as close to hers as physically possible. "I do not have to put up with this, ok? Yet I do but today, today you've pushed me to the limit."

"Then why do you put up with me?" Phoebe asked him, looking him directly in the eye.

"Why? Why..." Leo stopped for a second and looked down. "I'll tell you why. Because of her! Piper. Your her sister and I'm obligated to take care of you because of that. As far as I'm concerned you can rot in hell. No, no you can rot in hell with Cole! It's your fault she's dead, all yours. If it wasn't for you and your demon boy then she'd still be alive and with me." He shoved her away roughly.

Phoebe fell against the wall and slipped down it but her gaze never wavered from Leo. Her eyes had begun to brim with tears as Leo yelled at her.

Leo looked at Phoebe and shook his head "I can't ..." He sighed and then made his way towards the wooden steps but stopped a quarter of the way up them.

Thinking Leo had left Phoebe allowed her tears to fall, she allowed the sobs to course through her body, she curled herself up into a ball and she began to rock a little. "Why...why did this happen to me?"

Leo heard her as she cried yet again and he heard what she had said. "I can't," He repeated and then finished his journey out of the basement.

Leo looked at The Elders, "Now can you see? Now can see you why I can't help her? I gave up on her a long time ago and I don't intend to go back. She's safe where she is."

"No she isn't Leo. That is why we have been calling you. We have reason to believe Cole is involved in--"

"I do not care!" Leo yelled.

"Leo! If you do not help her something terrible will happen." The Elder stated.

"Why do I have to help her? Why me? Send someone else."

"She is your charge and--" The Elder was cut off again.

"Not anymore," Leo said in a low voice and orbed out, not allowing The Elder to finish his sentence off in Leo's presence.

The Elder sighed, "and it is the only way to save both of you."