Here we are again. Another chapter. And It may be my last one for a while. I'm going to be taking a hiatus from this story to write another one on fictionpress. My pen name is A.D. Halliwell. You may read it if you wish. I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, and hope you like it.

--Adam.

Chapter 5

"I can't find them." Phoebe whined in defeat.

"Then why don't you stop trying?" Paige asked rhetorically, beginning to become somewhat annoyed with her sister.

"But this isn't a good sign." Her older sister persisted. "They shouldn't have dropped off the radar like this. I think we should—"

"I don't care what you think." Paige cut her off rudely. "We just have to trust that if she gets into trouble, she knows to come home. I mean we know she can handle herself."

"True." Phoebe agreed. "But I still think—"

"Oh just drop it." Piper bounced cheerily into the attic, humming a little tune, and giving her sisters a big smile.

"God," Paige said reverently. "What's got you so perky?"

"Oh, I don't know," Piper answered airily. "I guess it's just this whole thing with Chris getting married." After saying this, her smile grew broader, and her humming louder. With the increased volume, the tune could be heard to be 'Here Comes the Bride'.

"Looks like someone's got a case of wedding fever." Phoebe said in a sing-song voice.

"And it's not even her wedding." Paige added.

"So what's up?" Piper asked. The humming had stopped, but the smile was still there.

"Oh, nothing." Paige answered. "Just your paranoid sister again. And would you kindly tell her that she should stop worrying about her niece."

"Stop worrying about your niece." Piper said to Phoebe, the smile growing, if that was possible. "Wait, why is she worrying?"

"Because she doesn't approve of my daughters choice of dates." Paige replied angrily, shooting a nasty look at Phoebe. "Not that it mattered when we didn't approve of her date. Or husband for that matter." she added under her breath, but Phoebe heard her nonetheless.

"Would you please not bring up Cole?" she asked, almost pleadingly. "That was seventeen years ago. Are you really going to hold it over my head for the rest of my life? I made a mistake, alright? Everyone makes mistakes." The last sentence faded away, when Phoebe realized that she'd made her sisters point.

"Exactly," Paige said, punctuating her sister's thoughts. "Everyone makes mistakes, so even if you think Parker is making a mistake, we need to let her make it. And it seems like she really likes this guy. We just have to stand under her and catch her if she falls." To emphasize the significance of her little speech, she gave a very philosophical looking nod.

"Oh, alright." Phoebe surrendered, throwing her hands up in defeat. She put down the scrying crystal, and got up from the table to face her sister. "But if he lays a hand on her, or, energy ball, or anything like that, promise me that we can take him down in the most painful way possible." Paige grabbed her sister by the shoulders.

"Only if I get the first hit." Both sisters smiled, and gave each other a big hug. Pipers smile was now so big, that it looked as if it was going to jump right off her face, and do a little jig. Phoebe walked out of the attic, muttering something about baking cookies, and Paige and Piper looked at each other.

"If you don't stop smiling, I'm gonna orb it right off your face." Paige remarked, with as straight a face as she could muster. All this remark accomplished was making Piper smile broader, so now instead of doing a little jig, it seemed as if it could perform the whole of Swan Lake by itself. Paige orbed out in mock frustration, and left Piper standing all alone in the attic, whereupon she spent the next ten minuets rolling around on the floor and laughing joyously, before composing herself and going downstairs to see what Phoebe was really doing.

The bucket of chicken was empty, as was the bottle of faux champagne, and the mood had lightened considerably. They were now sitting on the edge of the building, looking out at the San Francisco sky line. They had just finished up a rather large fit of laughter, and were now gazing deep into each other's eyes.

"Your eyes are blue." Hunter stated matter-of-factly.

"Yes they are." Parker agreed, a small smile forming on her face from the obviousness of their conversation.

"And they're very beautiful." He added. Parker blushed.

"Well I have to say," Parker began. "That this has got to be the best date I've ever been on." This wasn't a lie. But seeing as this was the only date she'd ever been on, it pretty much won by default.

"And I would have to agree." Hunter said with a smile. And after a few more moments of staring and smiling, and in a seemingly random act, they kissed. It wasn't a very long kiss; well the first one wasn't anyway. It was just a regular kiss. But it left them both wanting more, so they kissed again, this time more deeply. After a few minuets of this, they pulled away, blissful smiles on their faces.

"Wow." Parker breathed.

"Wow." Hunter agreed. They both sat there for a few minuets in awe of what had just happened. Suddenly, Hunter got up, offering a hand to Parker who took it. "Let's go." Without questioning where they were going, Parker nodded.

"Okay, but we do it my way." Squeezing his hand, she orbed them out.

With a little mental direction from the floating Orbs next to her, Parker managed to get them to where they were going. When they rematerialized, she was surprised to find herself in a tree. It was a very tall tree, and she was sitting in one of the top branches.

"Ahhh!" she screamed, when she suddenly remembered she was afraid of heights, and hugged the branch tightly.

"Relax," Hunter cooed. He was sitting nonchalantly on the branch next to her, swinging his legs in the open air.

"Relax!" she yelled at him. "How can I relax when I'm sitting in a tree, like a thousand feet off the ground!"

"It's alright," he said, trying to calm her down. "The tree won't hurt you."

"It's not exactly the tree I'm worried about!"

"Well then if it's the height you're worried about, then why don't you stop looking down there, and start looking out there." He suggested, grabbing her arm comfortingly. Taking his advice, though still wary of the large distance between her and the ground, she looked out to where he was pointing. What she saw almost made her fall out of the tree. They were on the beach. Well, they weren't on the beach. They were in a tree. But the tree was on a bank, overlooking the beach. Her mouth hung open.

"Like it?" he asked hopefully. She didn't answer. She couldn't, because she still didn't have full control over her jaw. When she finally collected herself, she answered.

"It's amazing." She breathed. After a few more seconds pause she asked a question. "Can we go down there?"

"But of course." Hunter replied in a gentlemanly voice, and grabbed her hand and blinked them down to the beach. Parker laughed with joy as her shoes sunk into the wet sand. She took them off, letting the sand squish playfully through her toes. Still holding hands, they began to walk. They talked occasionally, but mostly just strolled in silence, enjoying each others company. After a good bit of walking, they finally plopped down on the shoreline, letting the tide dance circles around their feet. They sat there for a bit, until the tide began to rise; now soaking not only their feet, but the bottoms of their jeans as well.

"Let's jump in." Parker suddenly suggested, jumping very enthusiastically to her feet.

"What?" Hunter questioned, also getting to his feet, though with a lot less energy than she had.

"We're already soaked." She pointed out. "Let's just jump in." Hunter considered it for a second.

"Sure." He finally agreed, and grabbing her hand with more energy than he had shown before, the two of them bounded into the ocean.

"Well I had a great time tonight." Parker said, dripping. Both were thoroughly soaked, and standing on the front porch of the Halliwell Manor.

"So did I." Hunter agreed. "We should do it again sometime. Say Saturday?"

"Saturday sounds great. Seven o'clock. And this time," she added. "Try to show up on time." She gave him a playful smile, before leaning in for what some would call an overly passionate kiss, which was only broken up when Paige rudely opened the door.

"Okay, okay. That's enough." She said, trying to shoo Hunter away with her hands. "Party's over. Shoo, shoo!" Hunter held up his hand and waved goodbye, before blinking out. Parker was sad at his hasty departure, but quickly forgot this and rounded angrily on her mother.

"Mom!" she yelled, as the two of them walked inside. "What was that for?"

"What was that for?" Paige repeated mockingly. "I don't know where you were just now, but that looked like a little more than a first date kiss."

"Okay fine," Parker admitted. "So maybe we went a little overboard. But you didn't have to be so rude about it."

"I thought I was being nice." Paige muttered under her breath. Upon hearing Parker arrive, and the shouts that ensued as a result of that, Piper and Phoebe entered the room.

"Everyone okay in here?" Piper asked. "You made it home safely, virginity still intact?"

"Barely," Paige muttered, but everyone heard her.

"Why," Phoebe asked. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing." Parker replied, before her mother could answer. "Just Mom being overprotective again."

"I am not being overprotective." Paige said, trying to protect herself. "If you had seen the lip lock that was going on out there, you would've gotten the Jaws of Life."

"God." Parker sighed dejectedly, folding her arms.

"Don't you 'God' me, missy." Paige scolded. "Go up to your room until I can figure out what to do with you."

"I don't believe this!" Parker yelled, before stomping up the stairs. Once she was gone, her mother sighed.

"I don't know what we're going to do with that girl." She walked into the living room, and plopped down on the couch.

"I don't know if we should do anything." Phoebe reasoned. "Sounds to me like she's just being an ordinary teenage girl, and her mother is being way too overprotective."

"I am not!" Paige insisted. Her sisters gave her a sarcastic look. "Okay, so maybe I am." She admitted. "But don't I have the right to be overprotective?"

"Of course you do." Piper agreed. "But you have to ask yourself, is it fair to her that you exercise it?"

"I guess not." Paige sighed. "And I guess I should probably go up there and talk her down." Both her sisters nodded. Paige rose from the couch, and walked to the stairs.