'Leo!'

No answer. Her voice echoed around the empty nightclub. She drummed her fingers on the bar impatiently, lack of sleep had made her cranky, and she was in no mood to be kept waiting.

'Le–oooo!'

Still no answer. Piper scowled at the dirty glasses that still littered the bar from last night's sell out – where was he? She was about to give birth right here on the floor of P3 and the doting father was nowhere in sight. Both she and their newly born magical child could be dragged down to the Under World before he even noticed anything was wrong.

'Le ..'

'Alright, alright I'm here' Leo announced breathlessly, as he orbed in behind her.

Piper jumped at the unexpected arrival, but quickly regained her composure, placing her hands on her hips and fixing him with one her dark stares 'You know what Mister, You're gonna have to respond a hell of a lot quicker than that when I really go into labour.'

'I know, and I will, I promise' Leo gabbled, 'but I was right in the middle of healing an innocent and I couldn't just leave, it was a critical moment.'

'And the birth of your child isn't a critical moment? Piper snapped in exasperation. He'd been working round the clock lately, trying to get ahead so that he could take some time off when the baby came. She understood his logic, but it meant that she'd hardly seen him. This was supposed to be their day together and already he had skipped out on her twice, first to answer a call from one of his charges, and just now to heal an innocent. Not that she wanted him to ignore his whitelighter duties of course, it was just that she'd been looking forward to spending some much needed quality time alone with her husband, and she was starting to find the constant interruptions annoying.

'Of course it is Piper,' Leo protested quickly. Piper had a tendency to be grumpy at times, and right now with pregnancy making her hormones go crazy, and Phoebe's nightmares interrupting her sleep, she was on a very short fuse. He had been tiptoeing around her all week trying not to make her mad, with varying degrees of success. She'd already lost her temper this morning and blown up several bar stools and numerous shot glasses. He looked at the damage ruefully, making a mental note to clean it up before he left.

'You know that you and the baby mean everything to me' he continued, attempting to placate her. ' It's just that this was just a practice and right now…'

'You're busy, I know' Piper interrupted testily. She knew she'd been snapping at him lately, and that mostly he didn't deserve it. As she got closer to the end of her pregnancy, she'd found herself becoming increasingly irritable and even the most insignificant event was likely to result in a burst of temper. She knew that it wasn't Leo's fault, but she couldn't help feeling disappointed that her husband, usually so intuitive, seemed unable to understand what she needed from him right now.

She'd wanted today to be about the two of them, an opportunity to put a little romance back in to their flagging relationship, but instead Leo had insisted that they use the time to practice their drill for when she went in to labour. This was their fourth dry run with Leo orbing in from different locations around the city. She knew that he was right, that it was something that they needed to practice, after all her due date was getting close, but she couldn't help but worry that whilst they were concentrating all of their energies on the baby, they were neglecting their relationship and it was starting to show.

She badly needed to talk to someone about her problems with Leo, but neither of her sisters seemed to have the time for a heart to heart at the moment. Phoebe was so busy with work, she'd hardly spent any time at home lately, and when she was home she was grabbing a cup of coffee and racing out the door or jabbering away on her cell phone.

As for Paige, on the rare nights when she wasn't out partying, she had recently taken to shutting herself away in her room claiming the need for a little down time. It was pretty obvious that extra sleep was just an excuse to avoid company, but Piper figured that Paige had been an only child for so long it wasn't surprising she sometimes craved some time to herself, and so she left Paige alone. It had been tough enough persuading Paige to move in to the Manor in the first place, she didn't want to give her youngest sister any reason to move out.

Still Piper couldn't remember when she'd last spent any quality time with either of her sisters, and she found it a little unsettling. Oh sure they got all excited every time the baby kicked, and they fussed over her whenever they thought she was doing too much, but they didn't have proper conversations these days. They didn't tell her what was going on in their lives, didn't come to her with their problems, and they weren't around to listen to her. She'd thought that the baby would bring her closer to her husband and her sisters, but it seemed to be having the opposite effect.

It didn't help that they had sidelined her from any demonic type action for the last few weeks. She wasn't stupid, she knew full well that stuff had been going on; there had been whispered talk of vanquishing potions, and secret meetings that they thought she didn't know about. She'd tried challenging them about it, but she'd just been told that she didn't need to worry everything was under control. She sighed heavily. She should be making the most of the magical downtime, all she'd ever wanted was a normal life, and here she was, a husband, a baby on the way and a magic free existence. She should be ecstatic, but for some reason she wasn't.

When she'd first learned that she was pregnant she'd been overjoyed. Okay so she'd had a few doubts in the beginning, but didn't every pregnant woman have doubts? And it wasn't like this was a normal pregnancy; most expectant mothers didn't have to worry about demon attacks at the same time as decorating the nursery and deciding on baby names. Still she'd coped with it, with all of it. She'd gotten past the horrible morning sickness and all the side effects of a magical pregnancy- why hadn't anyone warned her about those? She'd even gotten used to maternity clothes albeit grudgingly, so why was she suddenly having such a hard time with the whole mom to be gig?

Looking at Leo's earnest expression, her face softened 'I know you're trying honey, it's just that right now I feel…'

But Leo wasn't listening, instead he looked at her apprehensively 'I'm sorry Piper' he said reluctantly. 'They're calling, I have to go.'

'No, Leo, not now, I need to talk to…' but it was too late, before she could finish the sentence, he had dropped a kiss on her forehead and orbed out in a twinkling of blue lights.

'No' Piper howled in frustration. She couldn't help but think that the constant interruptions were a deliberate ploy by the Elders. She bet they were sitting up there right now dreaming up jobs to keep Leo busy for the rest of the day. She frowned. Why did they have to be so uptight anyway? She knew that lots of people didn't get on with their in laws, but the Elders were worse than the worst mother in law imaginable. Okay so they'd relented and allowed her to marry Leo, which meant that they hadn't had to sneak around and try to keep her pregnancy hidden the way mom and Sam had done when they'd been expecting Paige, but she knew that the Elders weren't exactly thrilled by the turn of events.

Although she hated to admit it she guessed she could see their point. Theirs would be a twice-blessed child, and according to the Elders, although the baby could become an incredible force for good, the consequences would be catastrophic if the child were turned to evil. She shivered at the thought. There was no way she or her sisters were gonna let that happen, but still it was a big responsibility and if she thought about it too much it kinda freaked her out.

Dropping dejectedly in to a chair she stared morosely around her. Right now the club was empty, but pretty soon it would be filled with people laughing and dancing and drinking. People having a good time, with nothing more pressing to worry about than deciding how they were gonna spend New Years. Just for a moment she wished she weren't eight months pregnant. She could get all dressed up, remind Leo just how sexy she could be. They could have a romantic night on the town, or a mad passionate night in a hotel; enjoy each other the way they used to. As if reading her disloyal thoughts the baby gave her a painful kick

'Ow' Piper grimaced, clutching her stomach. 'I'm sorry okay I didn't mean it' she apologised. 'It's just I don't think your daddy finds me very attractive right now.' She shook her head sadly. She sure didn't feel attractive right now, she felt fat and uncomfortable and about as far away from sexy as it was possible to be, no wonder Leo didn't want to spend any time alone with her.

With Leo gone she was at a loose end. She guessed she should head home, maybe take a nap or catch up on her soaps, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to relax at home knowing that all this mess was here. Humming softly to herself she spent the next half hour clearing up the broken glasses that she'd exploded earlier. Then she started on last night's mess, collecting up the glasses and stacking them in the dishwasher. 'There' she said happily, when she was finally done 'that looks so much better.'

Leo still hadn't returned and Piper still didn't feel ready to head for home. She decided instead to take a little peak at the books. After all what kind of businesswoman would she be if she didn't keep an eye on her investment? It wasn't like she'd deliberately come out to check up on Phoebe, she'd planned to spend the day with Leo, he was the one who'd left her alone here. Feeling just a teensy bit guilty at snooping, Piper headed out back to her office.

As she walked through the club, she eyed her surroundings critically. The festive season was in full swing, and the endless rounds of office parties and social events meant that this could be a boom time for any club. Sure P3 was doing okay, but she relied on her holiday trade to see her through January, always a quiet month after the Christmas excess. With more clubs opening up every week the market was competitive and P3 had to be at its best if it was going to remain viable.

A huge Christmas tree stood in the corner still undecorated, and boxes of decorations were stacked on the side, some opened, others still neatly packed from last year. It was as though someone had gotten them out of storage and then run out of enthusiasm for the task. Piper frowned. Phoebe had told her that she'd finished decorating the club weeks ago, and trusting fool that she was, she'd believed her.

Piper resisted the strong temptation to organise the Christmas decorations herself. She could have the whole thing done in a matter of hours, but Phoebe was supposed to do it, and Piper would just have to trust her to get the job done- eventually. Right now P3 was Phoebe's responsibility not hers, and as Leo was forever telling her these days, she had to learn to take a backseat. Her family had made it perfectly clear that for the last few weeks of her pregnancy, the baby had to be her number one priority. She frowned again. Like they would ever let her forget it.

She'd thought that getting out of the house and coming down to P3 would cheer her up, but being here just made her long for the life she'd had before she'd gotten pregnant. It wasn't as though her life had been easy, and she'd gone through a lot of changes over the last few years since they'd lost Grams and more recently Prue. She'd come to terms with being a witch, one of the famous Charmed Ones no less. She'd quit the bank and followed her dream of becoming a chef, then traded in her job at 'Quake' and re-invented herself as a successful club owner. She'd even accepted her new role as head of the family. So why was she having such a hard time with this latest change?

She wanted to talk to her family about how she felt, but she just couldn't seem to find the right moment or the right words. More than anything she wished that Prue were here. She'd always been able to talk to Prue, and she needed her big sister now more than ever. Frowning, Piper wiped away the tears that had escaped. She had to pull herself together, Prue wasn't here, that was the way things were and she would just have to accept that. She shook her head in disgust; she'd come to terms with Prue's death a long time ago, dealt with it and moved on with her life. Hormones that's all this was, her hormones were going crazy right now, no wonder she was getting over emotional.

'Shake it off' she told herself firmly. Retrieving the accounts from the shelf and her calculator from the drawer, she settled down at her desk, but for the next hour or so as she checked the books, she found that couldn't get Prue out of her mind.

To be continued ….