Wow! I love all of the reviews from the last chapter, however I am going to decline to answer questions about the baby at the moment other than Piper is pregnant with a girl. PrudenceHalliwell: Sorry there will be no Wyatt...ever. Princess Pinky. I'm glad you noticed all of the little things in the last chapter. Yes, Phoebe has two middle names in this series. About the timeline, I never set one but Amanda was born in Oct 2002, so Pipers baby could be about 4 in 2009.wyatt333: The new power of three question will most likely be answered by the end of the story.
Charmed in the Afterlife: Furious Prue
Instinctively, Andy's hands fell to Prue's shoulders kneading them gently. "Don't touch me" she hissed stepping out his embrace. All stared silent as Prue purposefully made her way towards to the stairs
"Prue? Prue, I'm sorry...," Paige stepped forward, to follow but Andy grabbed her hand preventing her from going any further.
"Let her go, Paige."
"But I just wanted to help"
Grams stepped up to Paige, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. "She knows Dear, but one thing that you need to learn is Prue always has to handle things her own way"
From the opposite side of the room, Cole leaned over, whispering in Phoebe's ear, "so I take it, this is not a good time to ask Penny how she feels about having demonic grandchildren"
Prue stood with her back pressed tight against the attic door shaking. "I'm okay," she told herself, "I can deal with this". The "this" meaning that Paige had somehow managed to give Piper what should have been her baby. "Fate happens to me all the time, why is time so different?" She didn't know. Demons, she needed to find, more Demons.
Despite Andy's objections to it, it had worked so far. Releasing her body from the door. Prue marched over to the book of Shadows. The book was still opened to the Wendigo page. "Don't need this anymore," she said flipping through the pages until she found a relatively simple summoning incantation.
"Evildoers far and near come to me and settle here," Three women with a long dark hair, all sporting black leather and long talons appeared ready to do battle.
"Ewe, who does your make-up?" Prue snapped noting their black and white war paint facial designs. One of the women laughed, lunging forcing Prue to use her power, while the other two smoked out, reappearing behind her, pinning her arms.
"Let me go!" Prue struggled as the first women recovered, and smoked in closer so that she and Prue were face to face.
"My pleasure," Prue heard the women's voice in her head as Grey smoke, parted from her lips, descending into Prue's mouth making her cough. The three women, all laughed silently, and then smoked back out, leaving Prue to catch her breath.
"Cowards"
Piper's Room
A Short Time Later...
Piper sat on her bed with her legs crisscrossed holding a pillow. "So let me get this straight, I'm pregnant with a child that you and I were never suppose to have? And Prue isn't pregnant at all? Leo how is that possible?"
Leo eased himself to the mattress sitting beside her, letting his hand fall into her chocolate colored hair, "because Paige brought back the soul of the child that you and I dreamed about the having. The child you and your sisters saw when went to the future".
Piper felt her chest tighten as she looked down at her womb, "Melinda?" The thought of her possibly being pregnant with the namesake of Melinda Warren had Piper lifting a cautious brow because according to Dr. Marshall she could never conceive a child on her own.
"I think so" Leo nodded with smile as Piper rolled her eyes.
"Wait a minute how do we know that Paige didn't make a mistake and that this isn't someone else's demonic baby, instead of ours? You know it has been that long, since she threw book out of the window and turned herself into Miss 34 DD" Piper held her hands out in front in of her breasts in a mocking tone.
"Because children from the dimension of the lost are bound to the parents who desire them. They are essentially nothing but dreams that turn into living souls, by the love of the people who created them. Another persons baby couldn't find it's life inside of your body.
Tears welled in Piper's eyes, "so Paige really brought us our Melinda Christina?" Melinda "Melanie" Christina Wyatt-Halliwell.
"I think so" Leo beamed pulling her into his arms where Piper settled for several minutes relishing in the thought. She then sat up, speaking with a sense of regret.
"So then what about Prue's baby?"
Dimension of the Lost
"I don't believe that my plan backfired," Paige grumbled to herself as she actively searched through the rows of lanterns, tossing them about like they were clearance items at the after Christmas sale. Not that she wasn't ecstatic for Piper, but her purpose had been to help Prue. "Prue and Andy's baby has to be here somewhere!"
Gumbel, Haar, Habeck, Hagglund, Hale, Hammond. "No Halliwell" Maybe she should try the "T's" she reasoned skipping over several rows. Tobias, Todd, Tovar, Trost, Truitt. "No Trudeau either, damn it!" What in the hell had happened to Prue's baby. Frustrated, Paige shoved a hand through her dark reddish brown hair, and held it for several seconds before letting it collapse about her face.
"I have to keep to looking, maybe the keeper made a mistake in his alphabetizing." Determined, Paige went back to rummaging through the lanterns of little lights.
"You will not find, the child you seek here"
"What? Why?" Paige whirled around to see Natalie standing directly behind her.
"Because Pure lost her child due to a need to gratify her own personal gain. Her baby was sacrificed to save Andy"
Paige's left eye narrowed with her head titling slightly to the side, "you say that like it was a bad thing"
"It was a choice" Natalie stated simply. "As you are beginning to see, Prue's choice to be with Andy has already altered the destiny of many things. Your finding Piper's baby was destiny's way of correcting itself, its setting things right" Natalie didn't want to go into the fact that Paige had been scheduled to take Prue's place in the power of three when Patty had cast the spell to reunite Andy with Prue.
"Setting things right? Hmm...," Paige returned smartly, What did Natalie think she was trying to do? Giving back Prue and the child they had lost could not be wrong. "No offense, but how do I know that you just didn't take Prue's baby and pawn her off to some other unsuspecting social worker?" Paige turned her back and marched down towards the end of the row.
"Because, I don't have the power to remove souls from this demission, only you do. You're the chosen guardian of the Orphan Plane."
"Then what about the warlock?" Paige tossed out over her shoulder. "How did he get my niece's lantern?"
"Evil isn't always bound by the same laws that you and I are. Sometimes it finds a way to seep itself in to obtain the upper hand. That is the reason you were allowed to tap into your sister's powers to defeat the warlock"
"And if I was meant to defeat that warlock, then why can't I find this baby!"
"Because you aren't meant too" Natalie replied, coldly, "It's not what the greater good has planned"
"The greater good?" Paige looked shocked, "what kind of greater good, would want to see my sister suffer like that?"
"The same greater good, that took your parents in that car accident" Natalie replied trying her best not to sound like a cold hearted SOB. She paused for moment, allowing Paige to reflect upon the wounds she had opened. Natalie's hand then fell to Paige's shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "We aren't meant to reconfigure the grand design of human life, we are only suppose to serve and protect it while it is here"
Tears slid down Paige's cheeks, smearing her make up as Natalie started to disappear. "Don't fight the real destiny Paige. It will prevent you from serving those you are truly meant to save
AtticAndy stood in the doorway of the attic watching as Prue started her never-ending quest to scry for evil. He heard Prue let out a muffled cough, and looked at her with curious concern.
"Prue you okay?"
When no answer came, Andy blew out a tense sigh, and shoved his hand into the pockets of his jeans as lumbered up behind her.
"I thought you were leaving" Prue said not bothering to look up from her scrying crystal.
"Prue we need to talk" Andy's hands hovered just millimeters above her shoulders as if he were afraid to touch her.
"I don't have time, I'm scrying for Shax" Prue lamented taking a step forward.
"C'mon Prue, stop treating me like I'm the demon here, I didn't do anything!"
The crystal dropped to the map and Prue leaned forward, "3rd and-" her sentence, was cut short as Andy pulled the crystal from the map and chucked it towards the window.
"Damn it Prue!" Andy's hands fell to her shoulders whirling her around. What he saw next made his eyes widen, in fear.
"Prue what happened to you?" Prue's pretty face was marred with black war paint. Her fingernails had turned to talons. "Prue your-you're a fury!"
Sinking her talons into his shirt, Prue pulled him forward and then used her power to throw Andy into the wall with a resounding thud. She then spotted a couple of blue and purple vials sitting on a table, and flicked her wrist hurling them at Andy as he attempted to recover.
Blue and white lights started to circle as Andy began to orb in time with the explosion caused by the potions hitting the spot where he'd been laying. When he returned, Piper, and Phoebe were standing in the doorway with their mouths hanging open at the sight of their sister.
"Uh-Oh!" Piper's eyes were as wide as saucers, as she stood behind Phoebe. "Wh-What Happened?"
"She's a fury" Andy answered rubbing the back of his head. "She let her grief consume her and got smoked"
"Do something...do something Now!" Piper shoved Phoebe forward, expecting her to take the lead.
"Uh honey your seriously not thinking about going out in public looking like that are you?"
Prue's eyes narrowed, as she brandished her talons, and blew threatening smoke at her sisters as a distraction.
"I think she is," Phoebe swallowed, stepping back as Prue smoked from the room.
"Damn it!" Piper swore looking heavenward, "Prue. Prue you get your fury ass back here now! I don't believe this! How in the hell did this happen?"