THE BEST LAID PLANS
SPOILERS: Contains spoilers for It's a Bad Bad Bad Bad World (Season 6 finale).
Chapter 3
Piper sighed. Wyatt was acting out, jealous of his younger brother. Baby Chris's day had already been disrupted enough; he needed a little peace and quiet, as well as a nap, if he was going to be awake and alert for his wiccanning that evening. Frankly, so did she. She just didn't have the time. "Leo, why don't you take Wyatt to the park for a little father-son time."
"What about Chris? I don't want him to think that I'm spending more time with Wyatt than him." Leo asked, concerned.
"Leo, he's only two months old. Right now your older son needs some reassurance that you still love him." Piper explained. "I wish I could spend more time with him, but I can't touch him right now. So he needs you. My sisters can stay and help me if I fall through any more floors."
Leo reluctantly agreed and took Wyatt downstairs. After fetching Wyatt's coat and stroller, Leo walked them both to the park. He wanted to spend more time with Wyatt, but he was worried about Piper. She was concerned about falling through the floor and luckily hadn't asked too many questions about why the Elders had clipped his wings. He was glad she hadn't asked. He didn't want to explain his reasons for killing Gideon. Piper had enough to worry about. She didn't need to know the truth about Chris. Piper deserved some peace in her life.
Back at the manor, though, life was anything but peaceful.
"You can't leave me alone with the baby. I… I can't touch him. What if there's a problem? What if he needs something?" Piper said. She wanted to get her sisters out of her bedroom before they woke up the baby… again.
"Piper, I have to get back to work. Those temp jobs are my raison d'etre. You know that." Paige tried to explain, putting her coat on and preparing to go outside.
"Your family should be your reason for being, Paige. Your nephew needs you. I need you." Piper said, trying to guilt-trip her sister.
"Don't worry about it, Piper. I'll fix it with Elise so that I can work from home today. Paige can go back to her temp job and the whole Power of One deal." Phoebe said, sneaking behind Piper into the nursery. "Aunty Phoebe will watch the baby. Yes she will. Yes she will. Oh, I could just eat you up."
"Still not cute, Phoebe." Piper said, moving to drag her sister away from the baby.
"Okay. I could just smush your cute little cheeks. Yes, I could. Yes, I could. We're going to have so much fun. Yes, we are. Yes, we are." Phoebe was cooing at baby Chris as Piper dragged her out of the nursery.
"Buh-bye" Paige called as she dashed out of the room and hurried downstairs before Phoebe changed her mind.
With quiet once more descending on the manor, Piper began straightening the attic. Apparently a lot of furniture had been broken while she'd been off at the Magic School. And they had all been stashed in the attic until they could be repaired. If they could be repaired.
Piper dusted off the stand holding the Book of Shadows. Past down through the generations from Melinda Warren, and one day Piper would pass it down to the boys. And possibly Phoebe and Paige's children.
She, Phoebe and Paige had eliminated all of the demonic forces that could threaten the matriarchs: creepers, zombies, rigors. Everything that feed on the lifeforce of spirits had been vanquished. With every demonic force taken care of, there should be nothing to get in the way of Chris's wiccanning. Now if only she could figure out why she kept falling through the floor.
Piper began looking through the book, searching for a clue to her mysterious problem. Her mind focused on the book, she didn't see the demons shimmer into the attic.
Phoebe was dining room, working on her column and listening for baby Chris on the baby monitor. She had wanted to work in her bedroom, but Piper had guessed that she just wanted to be able to peak in on the baby. He was so adorable. Of course, he'd been a good looking grown-up too: Leo's eyes, Piper's coloring, and a combination of their features. It should have been obvious from the start that he was there son, but it hadn't been. It hurt to think about adult Chris. "God, I hope he made it home." Phoebe thought out loud. It had been one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do – keeping the truth from Piper. "Okay, I gotta get back to work or Elise will never let me work from home again."
"Dear Phoebe, the other day I came home and found my husband wearing my…" Phoebe read the letter aloud, but was interrupted by the sound of a crash and then Chris's cries coming through the baby monitor. Phoebe jumped up from the table and dashed up the stairs. A quick check in the nursery showed that nothing was amiss there. Chris had woken up and was crying, but seemed fine. After checking to make sure that Paige's demonic alarm system was in place in the nursery, Phoebe dashed up the stairs towards the attic.
Up in the attic, Piper ducked behind a sofa with a big burn mark on the one of the cushions. "Maybe I can cover that burn mark with a blanket" she thought as she waved her hands at one of the demons, blowing him up. "Three down, three to go." She thought.
Piper ducked behind the sofa again as one of the demons powered up a fireball and threw it at her. From her hiding place she heard Phoebe come into the attic calling "Piper!"
One of the demons grabbed Phoebe by the arm, pulling her all of the way into the attic. Piper stood up just as an athame appeared in the demon's hand. Phoebe punched the demon in the face, and then grabbed the athame out of his hand and stabbed in with his own weapon. The demon perished in a fiery blaze.
Piper through out her hands and blew up one of the two remaining demons. The other fired up another fireball and threw it at the newly exposed Piper before she or Phoebe could react. Piper threw up her hands to freeze the fireball, but nothing happened. As she saw the fireball coming towards her, Piper remembered how Chris had told her father that she died when he was young. It wasn't supposed to be yet, though. "I was supposed to have more time" Piper thought, just as the fireball reached her.
But instead of incinerating her, the fireball flew through Piper and hit the wall, leaving a blackened scorch mark.
Phoebe stabbed the last demon with the athame, vanquishing him.
"Oh my God, Piper. What just happened?" Phoebe cried out, rushing over to her sister.
"I don't know." Piper confessed, confused.
"You don't think this could be a new power, do you?" Phoebe asked.
Piper was shocked. "No. No, it couldn't be. Could it?"
TBC…