Eternal flame
Chapter 16 - Baby names
A week has passed and Phoebe finally got permission to get the twins out of the hospital. She refused to go to the Manor without them so she remained in the hospital that week. Doctor Peterson actually thought that it was a wise decision, since she had a hard time giving birth and needed to recover from it. Piper, Prue and Paige visited her and the babies every day. Leo came whenever possible, which was rare; the mix of the worlds was still activated, and the Elders were desperate trying to find the way to 'turn it off'.
"We're finally home!" Phoebe yelled happily as she entered the Manor, holding her son. Piper was behind her, carrying her daughter. Piper was new with the baby-girl thing, since she had two boys, so she found Phoebe's daughter very cute. "Yay!"
"Hi!" Prue yelled and ran to the front door. She looked at the babies and smiled. They were really gorgeous. "May I hold him?" she asked Phoebe, looking down at her nephew.
"Sure." Phoebe handed the baby over to Prue. "Watch his head." she warned Prue.
"Hey, no fair!" Paige said, entering the hall. "Which baby am I gonna hold?" she asked.
At that moment, they heard a cry from the living room that sounded a lot like Chris's cry. "I think I can answer that." Phoebe smiled and they all went to the living room. Chris was crying because the lack of attentions, and Wyatt was at the verge of tears, too. "What is it?" Phoebe asked and picked up Chris. "Not getting enough attention?"
"Oh, no." Piper looked at her kids. "We spoiled them."
"Good morning, sister." Paige said. "And it's natural, since they were the only kids in the house."
"Well, now they have no choice, but to accept that they have cousins, and that they'll have to share popularity with them." Prue laughed, tickling the baby's tummy. He boy giggled.
"I want to give them names." Phoebe sat on the couch, holding Chris. "I mean, we can't call them 'baby', 'cause then, there's no difference. I want their names to begin with P if possible, but I don't know any boy name that starts with P."
"Peter?" Paige asked, but when she saw the look of sick on Phoebe's face, she quickly said. "Better not Peter." (A/N: Hey, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the name Peter, but it's my ex boyfriend's name and he was a total idiot, so...)
"And what about a girl?" Piper asked.
"Well, I always thought that I'll call my girl Prudence, since Prue was... well, dead. But now we already have Prudence in the house, and one is more than enough." Phoebe laughed.
"Well, than? What will be her name?" Piper asked again.
"The option is Pearl, Paris, Patricia, Penelope, Paulina, Pamela, Precious, Paula, Princess, Patience, Paloma and Phoenix." Phoebe said, looking down the list of baby names for girls. "Could you believe that someone would call his baby-girl Lexus?" she asked, looking shocked at the letter L at the list. (I really found the list of baby names, that's where I get all these names from!)
"Well, Phoenix and Princess are not mush better, you know." Paige said, staring at the list.
"I know." Phoebe sighed. "And Pamela is not an option. I mean, it's in Baywatch stile. Pamela Anderson."
"I thought the same thing!" Piper said.
"Well, what do you choose?" Prue asked, and than rolled her eyes. "What a choice! Paris sound like Paris Hilton; Pearl remind of those Latin novellas, since almost every girl's name is Perla; Penelope and Patricia are fine, but we're repeating ourselves in that case; Paulina and Paula are like our biology teacher at high school, remember? Her name was Paulina, but everyone called her Paola. Well, she was a bitch; Precious is not really a name; Patience is... well, okay; Paloma is like a Latin novella again."
"I know." Phoebe sighed. "I know."
"What about the boys?" Piper asked and Phoebe took another list
"Patrick, Parker, Peter, Pedro, Payton, Philip, Pierce, Porter, Prince, Perry and Paxton. Awful, isn't it?" she asked.
"Ooooh, look!" Prue took a book. Here are much more baby-names. I bought this once, 'cause Andy needed a name for his nephew. I'll first look for the girl names starting with P." she sat and turned the pages for a couple of minutes. "Listen: Pabla, Padma, Padmini, Paige, Paiva, Pakuna, Palesa, Palila, Pallavi, Palma, Paloma, Palomi, Pam, Pamee, Pamela, Pamelia, Pandora, Paniz, Pankhudi, Pankita, Pansy, Panya, Panyin, Paola, Papillon, Papina, Paprika, Parisa, Parmida, Parnika, Parnita, Parthivi, Parvati, Parveen, Partia, Patience, Patrice, Patricia, Patsy, Patty, Paula, Paulette, Paulina, Pauline, Paulomi, Pauravi, Pavi, Payal, Pazia, Pearl, Pearly, Pearlie, Pebbles, Pagine, Paggy, Peggy, Peigi..."
"How much more?" Phoebe asked.
"Four pages." Prue smiled.
"Okay, spare us and read just the good once, okay?" Piper said nervously.
"Okay. For example: Perla, Petunia, Penelope, Phoebe, Piper, Pleasance, Pretty, Precious, Prudence and Prue."
"Okay, we'll decide later." Phoebe concluded. "What about the boys?"
"Just the good ones, right?" Prue asked and Phoebe nodded. "Well: Pablo, Patrick, Paul, Peace, Pedro, Percy, Perry, Peat, Peter, Phil, Philip, Pierce, Porter, Powell, Price and Prince."
"Ooooh, my God!" Phoebe yelled frustrated. "Why didn't they choose some other letter?"
"Like M?" Paige asked. "Well, I always wondered that. If you ask me - names Penelope, Patricia, Prudence, Piper, Phoebe and Paige are the only normal P names."
"Well, not really." Prue said. "Penelope means a Dream Weaver, that's okay. Patricia means Noble Decent. Prudence means Cautious, Intelligent one."
"They're right about that." Phoebe laughed.
"Piper means a flute player!" Prue said, and Piper stared at her, shocked. "Phoebe means bright, shining one. Paige, however means an assistant."
"Oh, crap!" Paige yelled. "I am an assistant. You know, I work as an assistant in South Bay Social Services. I hoped that I'll be promoted to a social worker once, but, as much as I can see, it's clearly not my destiny."
"Don't take it so personal." Prue said. "Who knows what these names really mean? Maybe this is just a lie."
"No, it's not." Phoebe said, turning to a letter A. "They say that the name Alexandra is a Greek name and that it means 'Protector of the Mankind'. I did an essay about that name when I was going to college. It is true, you know."
"How can you do an essay about a name?" Prue wondered. "How much did you write? One line? Or two, maybe?"
"No, there's really a lot to write about the name. Well, it's a female name that comes from Greece. It became as a female version of the name Alexander. It means 'The Protector of Mankind' or 'Defender of the Mankind'."
"Okay, that's enough." Prue cut her off. "Why didn't you do an essay on Phoebe?"
"Because the essay had to be about a name longer than 6 characters." Phoebe explained. "Anyway, let's go back to the subject. You know... the names of the twins."
"Oh, yeah." Piper said. "What do we do? I didn't like any of them, did you, Pheebs?"
"No, not really." Phoebe replied.
"Powell is kind of nice." Paige said.
Prue looked at the book. "Paige, Powell means 'Lust Provoker'!"
"Oooops!" Paige laughed. "Didn't know. How about Power? It's cool. I mean, they will be very powerful babies, won't they?"
"Yes, they will be, but I don't want to call my son Power!" Phoebe rolled her eyes.
"How about Jonathan and Lea?" Prue asked, and Phoebe gazed at her. "They are pretty cool twins from the book I read. Something like a 'Parrot's Theorem' or something like that."
Phoebe rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, I'll call my son Jonathan, and start watching Smallville. You know - Jonathan Kent, superman's father." Than everyone started thinking and the room suddenly got silent.
"How about we call them like we want to? No P restrictions or anything?" Paige asked. "Wyatt and Chris don't have a P name."
"I think we'll really call them like we want to." Phoebe agreed. "There's no other way. And in that case, there are a lot nice names like Faith, Alexandra, Sandra, Melinda, Alyssa..."
"Hey! Alyssa!" Prue yelled. "That's a nice name! Call the girl Alyssa!"
"Yeah, it's a very nice name." Piper agreed and Paige nodded.
"Okay, than. It's settled." Phoebe smiled. "My baby-girl is Alyssa! And now the boy."
"You could call him Cole." Piper slowly said. "Since he is... you know... dead." she saw two bright tears glide down Phoebe's cheeks. "Or, you can call him Benjamin, like Cole's father. Come on, Pheebs, don't cry." she sat next to her sister and hugged her.
"He didn't even say goodbye." Phoebe whispered. "Who did it, Piper? Why?"
"We don't know, honey. And we'll probably never find out. But, you have his kids now. When you look at them, you'll know they're part of Cole. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe you got pregnant because it was Cole's destiny to die, and you to give birth in that moment, so the kids can ease your pain. Be strong, Pheebs... For them." Piper finished.
"But, it's... not fair." Phoebe wiped away her tears. "We grew up without a father, and you know how hard it was."
"That's different, Pheebs." Prue said. "We grew up without a mother, too, and that's why it was so hard for us. The only family we had was Grams, and she died, too. Besides, our father abandoned us and that's why it was so hard for us to accept the fact that he's not there for us."
"Maybe." Phoebe whispered painfully. "But, what if my babies start thinking like Jason does?"
"What does he think?" Prue asked.
"Well, he visited me at the hospital two days ago. He told me that he can be the father of my kids and that he'll really love them. He said that Cole knocked me up and than started panic when the kids were about to be born."
"That son of a bitch!" Prue yelled. "What did you tell him back?"
"Well, better ask me what I did." Phoebe looked at Prue. "I kicked his ass. Really. He ended up in really bad condition. Than the nurse came and called the doctors who put him in the room next to mine."
"Way to go, sis!" Prue laughed.
"You actually fought him?" Piper yelled. "Phoebe..."
"He deserved it. No one will ever insult Cole in my presence, and I told him that." Phoebe said, her eyes filling with tears again. "I mean, he didn't want to die. He wanted to see his kids. And I was so mean to him... I accused him for the things he never really did. I gave up on him after I promised in front of all of you at the wedding that I'll never give up on him again. I'm a real bitch."
"No!" Paige said and looked at her sister. "You're not a bitch. You were just confused. And I was thinking... We'll make a funeral, if it'll make you feel any better."
"I was thinking about that, too." Phoebe admitted. "But, it's impossible. A man has to be alive to die, and Cole would be 120 years old now. How would we explain that? And what's a funeral for if there's no body? I don't want to put myself through that again."
"That's a good way of thinking, Pheebs." Prue kissed Phoebe's forehead. "Your kids are too young to be at a funeral, especially if it's their father's. They'll feel that loss. It's less painful like this."
"I know." Phoebe nodded. "But it still hurts."
"I know hoe you feel." Prue whispered. "Remember when Andy died? I felt even worst than you. At least you have Cole's kids. I never had that luck to have Andy's kids. And I was angry at every demon, because he didn't belong to our world. The demon shouldn't kill him, because Andy didn't belong here."
"Who's Andy?" Paige asked, but when Piper and Phoebe looked at her with an 'it's-a-long-story' look, she said "Never mind."
"But, the only thing you mustn't do is try to hide the pain." Prue continued. "Talk to us. Whenever you feel like you can't hold on from all the pain, talk to us. Don't keep it all inside of you. We'll help you through all of this.
"Thank you." Phoebe smiled through tears. "You three are really the best sisters that a person can have."
"Well, that's what the sisters are for - to give you words of confrontation and to ease your pain when you're scared and hurt." Piper explained. "Now, let's go and eat, the dinner's getting cold."
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This isn't the end, either. It just sounds like one. Well, this is most the baby-name chapter. If you have any idea about the boy's name, let me know. Any name you like. And please, review. PLEASE! Review and tell me how was the chapter. Please. Blessed be...