Mysterious Midnight - Nope, you weren't the first! But your reviews are always worth waiting for, like Christmas. Yey, it's Christmas soon!

CuteLittleBritt - Thank you so much for your review, it was really nice!

hazza123 - Gotta love your reviews, compliments will get you everywhere!

Pruedence.Halliwell - I was always slightly annoyed that Phoebe and Piper never really told Paige about Prue too, it always seemed a little unfair to her. And they never talk about her any more either. I don't like it! Thanks, as always, for your review!

Susan - Wow, you put a lot of thought into that list, didn't you! Thanks for all your suggestions, I don't want to make Nicki too powerful, because the Charmed Ones are meant to be the most powerful of all, but when her powers begin to advance, watch out for some of your ideas, I'll keep them in mind!

--Chapter Nine--

Once the sisters had cleared up the remnants of the spell and returned the Book to the attic, they all sat down at the kitchen table. Paige was playing with the baby monitor, turning it round and round in her hands, and Leo was leaning back in his chair, his eyes closed. Phoebe had her cheek resting on her arms, and she was looking at Piper. Piper, never having been able to sit still, had stood up and started making dinner. She'd put some pasta on to cook with a little butter, and was stirring a tomato sauce, slowly adding some basil. There was some chiabatta bread cooking gently in the oven.

Five minutes later, the kitchen was starting to smell gorgeous. Piper went over to the sink and drained the pasta into a bowl.

'Paige,' she said, as she put on some oven gloves, 'could you lay the table for me?'

Paige set the baby monitor on the side next to the phone. 'Sure,' she said, taking some cutlery out of the drawer. Phoebe and Leo both also got up without being asked, although nobody was talking. The silence wasn't uncomfortable; it seemed natural, as though everyone was concentrating more on their thoughts than on filling the space. Leo put four place-settings down, and Phoebe covered them with some large white plates. Paige set out the cutlery, and Leo went to get some glasses.

'Water or wine?' he said, holding up a tumbler in one hand and a wine glass in the other.

'Wine,' all three of the sisters said. Piper turned away from the stove, bread on a plate, and met both Phoebe's and Paige's eyes, smiling slightly.

Leo set the glasses out and took a bottle of red wine from the cupboard. Piper brought the pasta, Paige grabbed the boat of sauce, and Phoebe took the bread, and everyone sat down around the table.

They ate in silence for several minutes, and to everyone's surprise it was Piper who broke it. She'd seemed the one most troubled by the current circumstances, but it appeared as if she was trying to make up for it.

'So,' she said, absentmindedly stirring her pasta, 'what does everybody think about all this then?'

Her words were greeted by more silence, everyone looked up, but no-one really knew what to say. It fell to Phoebe to speak, a fact silently decided by everybody else.

'I think that we've got a couple of things we need to talk about,' she said slowly, looking back down at her plate. 'Although it's Nicki's decision in the end of course, do we want her to come and live here with us?'

The lack of uproar at this showed that everyone had been thinking about it on some level.

'Can she?' Piper asked, turning to look at Paige, 'legally, I mean?'

Paige was cradling her wine glass in her hands, swirling it round and round and staring down into it. 'Uh huh, we could adopt her, that's pretty much the only way,' she said, as she looked up to Piper. 'Seeing as she's from England, if we don't prove we're related then there's no way we could even do that, because we'd be taking her out of the country.'

'But you can prove that you're related, can't you? With DNA tests or something?' Leo said, looking quizzically at Paige.

'Yeah,' Paige replied, looking back into her glass of wine. 'That won't be a problem.'

'Is it a problem that she's here?' Phoebe asked. 'I mean, in San Francisco? That she left England?'

'It might be,' Paige said, taking a long sip from her glass. 'But if we report it in tomorrow then it shows that we care, and that will work in our favour. The fact that she got here won't be a problem because we didn't have anything to do with that. I'll talk to Mr Cowan tomorrow, we do a couple of transatlantic adoptions every year, and he knows more about them than me.'

'Won't the British Social Services be looking for her?' Piper asked.

'Probably,' Paige replied, 'but they'll never find her here. Not that we shouldn't tell them,' she added hurriedly, seeing the beginnings of a plan in Phoebe's eyes, 'we need to do everything by the book, for her. She's been uprooted enough times already.'

'So is she staying?' Phoebe asked, looking around the table at everyone's faces.

'Looks like it,' Piper said, smiling softly. 'Paige?'

'Of course she is,' Paige nodded, smiling too. 'I'll talk to Mr Cowan tomorrow.'

'I'm proud of you girls,' Leo said, rubbing Piper's shoulder next to him. 'I don't think you'll ever regret it, it's what Prue would have wanted. You three will always do the right thing, no matter how hard it seems to be.'

'Aww shucks, Leo,' Paige said, pretending to blush behind her hand. 'You sure know how to flatter a girl!' She batted her eyelids across the table at him, earning a quiet laugh from Piper and Phoebe.

Piper playfully batted her on the arm. 'Hey girl,' she said, 'watch who you're flirting with!'

'So where is she going to sleep?' Phoebe interrupted, watching the exchange between her sisters and smiling. 'I mean, she can sleep in my room for a while, but if she's staying here then she's going to need somewhere more permanent.'

Everyone was looking rather worried, they were all for Nicki coming to live with them, but had overlooked the small matter of where she was actually going to sleep.

'I could convert the basement, or one of the annexes in the attic,' Leo said, after several minutes of silent thinking. 'The attic would be brighter, but then there's the Book of Shadows up there, the basement would be slightly safer, but there's still the Woogyman,' he said, smiling at Phoebe.

'What do you mean, one of the annexes in the attic?' Piper asked curiously, nibbling at a little chiabatta bread.

'Well, you know when you walk in,' Leo said, tracing a plan of the attic on the tablecloth, 'there are three annexes, the one that you're in, one over to the far right, and one in front of you to the right,' he pointed them out of the diagram, which resembled a fat 'T' shape. 'I could turn one, say the one over on the right, into a separate room, and the rest could say as the attic,' he explained.

'That sounds like the best idea,' Paige said, putting down her knife and fork, 'for Nicki, I mean. As long as the Book isn't in her room, she should be okay. Besides, the attic would be much nicer than the basement.'

'Are you sure that she'd be safe?' Phoebe asked, looking slightly worried.

'We could always alter the Safety Spell for her room,' Paige said, taking a sip from her wine glass again, 'you know, make it a safe haven.'

'Piper?' Phoebe said, noticing that she'd hardly said a word. 'Don't you think that this is a good idea?'

'It's not that,' Piper said. 'I was just wondering what we were going to tell Nicki about her mom and dad.'

Piper's words echoed around, leaving an uncomfortable silence; nobody knew what to say. In the end, it was Piper who decided to alleviate the situation.

'You're right Paige, I think that the attic is a great idea,' she said, collecting up the plates and taking them over to the sink. She walked slowly back over to the table and sat down, taking a long drink from her glass of wine. 'I'm just going to tidy up the dresser in the attic, and then I have to get to P3,' she said, putting her empty glass on the draining board.

'Leave the attic honey,' Paige said, 'I'll do it later, don't worry about it.'

'Thanks Paige, but please don't use magic,' she said, grabbing her coat and purse from where she'd left them earlier. 'If there're any problems with Wyatt or Nicki, I'll be on my cell.'

'See you later, sweetie,' Leo said, kissing her on the cheek. 'Do you want us to come with you?' he asked.

'No, thanks,' Piper replied, as she headed towards the door. 'I'll be okay, see you two tomorrow.'

'See you,' Phoebe and Paige said from the hall, where they'd followed Piper. They sat down on the couch, and Leo sat on the armchair.

'Do you think she'll be okay?' Paige asked, putting her glass down on the coffee table.

'She'll be fine,' Phoebe said, 'she just needs a little time.'

Leo looked upwards. 'They're calling, probably about Nicki. I have to go,' he said, looking remorsefully at them. He orbed out, leaving the baby monitor on the table next to Paige's glass.

'So honey,' Phoebe said, cuddling up next to Paige on the couch, causing Paige to relax slightly and stroke her hair, 'in or out tonight?'

'In, definitely,' Paige said, kissing the top of her sister's head. 'Fancy a movie?'

'Sure,' Phoebe said, 'What have you got?'

'Umm, 'Stepmom' or 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer',' Paige said, as she looked at the two rental movies by the video recorder.

''Stepmom', of course,' Phoebe said standing up and picking up the glasses and the monitor, 'I can't do horror tonight. But first, you do the dresser and I'll do the dishes.'

'Okay,' Paige said, smiling, 'deal.' She gave Phoebe a quick hug as they parted, Paige to the attic and Phoebe to the kitchen.

Three hours later, Paige and Phoebe were curled up in their pyjamas, on the couch and under a blanket, both sniffling into a tissue as the credits rolled up.

'I love that movie,' Paige said, as she got her legs untangled from the blanket and went over to rewind the tape.

'I know, it always makes me so sad,' said Phoebe, as she folded up the blanket and put it over her arm. 'Ready to sleep?' she asked.

'Sure,' Paige said, 'I'll be up in a second.'

'No problem, I'll just go and put this in my room,' Phoebe yawned, gesturing to the blanket and heading to the stairs. 'Remember to bring the baby monitor up with you,' she said, as she started to climb.

She opened her door quietly, and was met by a wall of cold air; she hadn't closed her window before Nicki had gone to sleep. She placed the folded blanket at the end of the bed and went over to close it, when she saw Nicki's things on the floor. She'd neatly folded her jeans and her shirt and put them next to her shoes and her bag, everything was so tidy, like she didn't want to intrude on Phoebe's space. Even Nicki herself was taking up as little room as possible; she was curled into the foetal position, only her head was showing above the blankets. She'd let her hair down, and it was tumbling in curly waves all over the pillow, she looked just so vulnerable.

Phoebe went and closed the window, and pulled the curtains to, and then guided herself back to the doorway by the light on the landing. When she got to the bed, she stood there for a little while, just looking at Nicki. Her face was frowning slightly, and mainly out of instinct, Phoebe bent down and brushed her hair out of her eyes, kissing her on the forehead. When she went to close the door, Nicki's unconscious face was illuminated by the landing light, a small smile playing about her lips. Phoebe closed the door quietly, and padded over to Paige's room in her soft slippers.

--End of Chapter Nine--

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