Disclaimer – I do not own charmed or have any part in the show other than boosting the ratings, I just wrote this story.

Chapter 19 –

He stood beneath a tall billowing gum tree. His back slumped against the base, his eyes downcast, withdrawn. In his hand he held a piece of paper. He was staring at it as if engrossed, but his eyes did not see it, they had read the writing many times already, he did not need to read it again.

Around him darkness was invading the world, the sun was setting and night was about to begin. He tried not to notice the shadows encircling him. He stood in a place that was strange to him. For a time now he had avoided the places in which his presence had appeared before the event. In this early evening of the night he stood in a strange place and remembered. He tried with all of his might not to remember, but the slightly crinkled piece of paper he held in his slackened grip made not remembering impossible.

The thoughts possessing his mind centered around one woman, a woman he did not want to have to remember but one in which he would never forget. He blinked and he was in the past.

"What are you doing here?" asked a slightly surprised but happy voice.

The question came from the voice of an angel. As he walked down the stairs of the nightclub his mouth did not move to answer the question, instead his eyes swept the room and took in his surroundings. Except for the one other occupant the room was empty. Nightclubs generally were in the middle of the day.

"Owen?" The angel spoke again.

He still did not answer. Instead a slightly amused appeared on his face. He reached the bottom of the stairs and walked towards her, stopping only inches from her face. He was invading her personal space, he knew that as well as she, but neither made a move to take a step back.

"What are you doing here?" she asked again.

This time though, her voice was raspy, her breath was hitched in her throat. Finally he spoke.

"Can't a guy visit his friend?" he asked not really answering her at all.

"Normally no, but it's you, I'm starting to think there isn't anything you won't do." Her sentence was whispered.

"You're not starting to think that, you've been thinking it for a while, that's what's scaring you."

"Why are you here?" she asked again as she twisted her hands together nervously.

"Got a call from Chris this morning, about five o'clock. Wants me to take him to baseball this afternoon, give him a few pointers before practice, thought I should clear it with you," he replied, holding a steady gaze.

"I'm not scared," she said trying to make herself believe the statement as much as he.

"Prove it," he challenged.

Her eyes flickered to his lips. His did not leave hers. She took a deep breath. Resolve grasped her features. A loud noise burst from the storeroom. The resolve disappeared. Worry took its place. She turned from him. She began to walk away.

"You can pick him up from school if you like," she said, her back walking away.

"Piper…" he said in slight desperation.

She stopped. Her back still turned.

"I'm not scared."

"You are." He took several steps forward and stopped right behind her. "You don't have to be." He spoke as he looked over her shoulder. His breathe tickling her neck.

"I can't, I have responsibilities, Wyatt, Chris."

"I love your kids."

He placed a hand gingerly on her back. She didn't make a move to remove it.

"What if it didn't work? It'll be too complicated, too messy."

"It won't have a chance to be complicated, it's already working." He began rubbing circles on her back and smiled as her body reacted and edged slightly back into his hand. "We just don't get to do the fun stuff," he said trying to keep a lighthearted tone.

"Did you come here with the plan to seduce me?" she asked. He heard the smile in her voice.

"No, I came here to talk about Chris," he answered honestly. "When I saw you though, I just did what came naturally. It's your own fault really, you're too beautiful."

Piper looked at herself through the mirror on the opposing wall. She didn't look beautiful. She was in her oldest pair of jeans, a pair that were ripped at the knees, her hair was a mess, straggly and needed washing, pulled back into a loose ponytail, and her brow was dripping in sweat. She didn't understand how he could see even a remote beauty in that image.

"You're at your most beautiful when you're at your most natural." He had caught her looking and he saw the smile that escaped her lips when he spoke.

She took a deep breath. For a moment she simply stood in the same position and looked at him through the mirror. His soft blue eyes were dancing as they always were. His dark brown hair, usually so perfectly gelled, was a mess. His warm features wore their usual smile.

"Don't hurt me ok," she whispered.

"Wouldn't dream of it." With that said he smiled wickedly and turned and walked away.

Startled, she turned and looked at his retreating form incredulously.

"Where are you going?" she asked, confused.

"Lunch breaks over," he said while throwing a smile over his shoulder.

"You own the company," she stated annoyed.

"Therefore I have to set an example don't I?" He continued to walk.

Piper glared at his back for a full three and a half seconds before stalking over to him and yanking his arm so he spun around. The look on his face while he spun was one of wide-eyed innocence, as if questioning her as to why he was stopped. She never saw the look though. Within a second of his face facing hers their lips had joined. A moment later and the main room of the nightclub was completely devoid of people, the only sound heard, the shutting of the office door.

Inside the office he laid on top of her, pushing her back into the sofa. Suddenly Owen broke the embrace, propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at her face, which was only inches below his.

"Well I suppose they aren't going to take much notice if I don't come back."

"Why would they?" she said while lunging forward in an attempt to capture his lips once again, but he pulled back further.

"Does this thing here, does it mean I have to cancel my dates next week?" he asked innocently.

She let her head drop back on the pillow and looked up at him with a surprised expression she was trying hard not to turn into jealousy.

"I'd say so. What dates?"

"Oh you know, just the usual. Kathy, Mary, Tanya, all those woman out there who want me."

Looking at her annoyed features he had to let a grin break out.

"Piper I've barely talked to another woman since I met you at the park nine months ago."

She smiled and brought her face up to his, "Who would want you anyway?" and with that she kissed him and their life together began.

A month later the same pair stood in the living room of her house, three feet apart and screaming at the top of their lungs.

"I just don't understand, why do you get to make all the damn decisions?" Owen bellowed at her.

"You've got to be kidding me. Me? Make all the decisions?" asked Piper.

"That's what I said. You decide what restaurant we go to, you decide that we can't take a trip to New York, you decide everything."

"Oh please not the New York issue again, we buried that one last week," yelled Piper, annoyed.

"If you call you laying down the law about it burying it then yeah I guess we did."

"So we're picking on all of my faults now then are we, what about yours?"

"I don't have any," he said while shooting her a glare.

Piper let out a hollow laugh at that.

"Please, you're like a damn overgrown kid. You don't even eat your green vegetables. You surf, you don't take your job seriously, you have the emotional capacity of a two year old, you didn't even cry when we watched Titanic."

"Not everyone cries after the seven hundredth watching." Owen scoffed.

"You can't even match your own socks, look at them now, one of them is yellow, the other is blue, what's wrong with you?"

"Well at least I don't strive after perfection and I'm not obsessed with having a 'normal life'. You know I still don't know what's bloody unnormal about your life. If it's the divorce thing get over it, plenty of people get divorced. I suppose it could be the endless family emergencies, an emergency that often, now that's not normal. But that's just one of your little secrets isn't it, something you will never let Owen in on, he's not important enough."

"You're talking about yourself in the third person." He didn't respond to that, simply continued to glare at her. "I'm making the damn cookies!" she finally shrieked and turned to stalk into the kitchen.

"Fine, I didn't want cake anyway," he yelled at her retreating form.

"Fine," she yelled back.

He blinked then asked in a disbelieving voice, "Were we just fighting about cookies and cake?"

"I think so," she snapped.

She took two more steps then stopped and looked back at him confused. Before either could say another word a voice interrupted them.

"You guys are driving me insane, you're fighting about cookies and cake." It was Paige. She rolled her eyes at the two and stalked past them and up the stairs.

"Do you really think I'm an overgrown child?" asked Owen.

"No," laughed Piper, "I could never love an overgrown child."

She turned to walk away once again but suddenly came to a halt. She spun around quickly and saw Owen who had a completely startled expression on his face.

"What… I mean…" She was cut off by Owen's voice.

"You love me?"

Piper didn't say anything, simply deciding to stare at the ground. After a minute of debate in her head she decided that it was all too much, especially judging from the fact that she hadn't heard a response, and raised her hands, getting ready to freeze him. Before she could however, she was interrupted by Owen pressing his lips to hers.

"I love you too, have since the day I met you I think. I didn't say anything, thought you weren't ready." He lent in to kiss her again.

Bringing his mind back to the park where he stood he noticed that the light had gone and darkness had completely engulfed his world. Looking down at the wrinkled paper in his hand, he read it once more. It was a document confirming a flight to New York. A quick glance at his watch and he confirmed his suspicions. The plane was about to take off.

He was supposed to be on that flight. He was supposed to be sitting in a first class seat, his wife at his side, toasting to her, wishing her a happy birthday, and calming her nerves while she worried for the children they had left for the weekend.

The children. Owen sighed and lifted his body from the tree. That one phrase was all he ever needed to remind him why he shouldn't be in a park. His wife might have moved on but she had left her children, their children behind. He had to get home, to the place where so many memories were held, all of them of a better time, all painful to recall, but he had to go. He knew he would feel better once he got there. The only thing he wanted was his wife. He couldn't live a life without her. His home was where he found her again.

As he walked through the front door of his home her presence captured him, it filled every part of his being. The aroma of her secret recipes hung in the air. The smell was wafting out of the kitchen. As he walked towards it he had to remind himself that his wife's face would not greet him when he walked through the door. What did meet him was his son. He watched as Wyatt stood over a large pot, stirring the contents to perfection. Cooking was a skill he had inherited from his mother, that and her humor he noted, as Wyatt offered him a witty one-liner while still bending over the contents of the bowl. He hadn't even looked up when he had entered the kitchen, he'd just known he was there.

Leaving the kitchen and walking upstairs he found more pieces of the puzzle that was his wife. Sitting on the bed in his bedroom were Chris and Shawn. One look at Chris and images of her face rushed into his head. They had the same skin tone, the same soft features, even the same nose. Shawn, however, looked nothing like his wife. He had his hair, his face, his build, not stocky, yet not lanky either. What Shawn did have was her great ability to panic. Shawn was not able not keep a cool head in any situation, he worried about everything, but in a very charming way, just like his mother.

All three boys had their mothers kind, gentle nature, they were all very worrisome, all slightly neurotic, Chris more so than the other two. Despite this there was still so much of his wife that had left him forever. Not one of his boys had her eyes. Wyatt had his grandmothers, Chris had his fathers and Shawn had his aunt Phoebe's, her eyes were gone. As was her heart. There was not a single person on earth who had his wife's heart. His children had bits of it but not all. And no one had her laugh. He missed her so much but he had to be content with what he did have left of her, he was just thankful he had any left at all.

Owen stood in his doorway and watched his sons for a moment. They were sifting through a box of photographs, both oblivious to his presence. They too were remembering their mother on her birthday. He watched a Chris pointed to a photo that was of their family, telling Shawn it was taken the day he was born. He saw himself in that photograph, but it was like looking at another man. He just wished he could tell that overly happy man who was looking at his wife so adoringly, that it was all going to end. Maybe if he had known the end was coming it would have hurt less when it did.

-------------------------------------------

He stood on top of the Bay Bridge looking down at the world below, the world that was passing him by. It was an activity that he had done many times in his years. Standing on top of the bridge removed his body from the world and his attachments to it. It offered him perspective. It allowed him to think only of the greater good, something that was central to an Elder's life.

On this night he stood in his usual position, arms spread wide, neck straight, forcing him to look directly ahead to the city in the distance. He could feel the wind rush through him. He could feel himself become an insignificant life force in comparison to the world at large. But his mind, it did not empty. Usually when he took part in this activity his mind would become a void. On this night, and so many nights for some time now, it did not become a void. Thoughts traveled around his head, refusing peace, offering only guilt.

His wife was dead.

He remembered the last conversation he had with her, only moments before her demise. It hadn't really even been a conversation. It had been an argument.

"Leo we've been through this too many times before, you need to get over it, you need to move on with your life," Piper had sighed whilst rubbing her head in frustration.

"Piper come on, I love you, I know you love me, what more to is then that?" Leo said, looking at Piper with a pained expression.

"There's a lot more to it and you know damn well there is," Piper snapped.

"What? Your so called husband, your not even married," said Leo, also becoming frustrated.

"Yes we are! It's…"

"No you're not," Leo cut her off. "We never got divorced, not officially anyway," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Leo we never got married officially, there could be no legal divorce. And if we're playing the technicality game then when we got married you were still married to Lily, therefore our marriage could not have been technically correct."

"That's beside the point," said Leo.

"Exactly Leo. The point is I am married to Owen, I love Owen with all my heart. We have children together…"

"Child," Leo said cutting her off once more. "You only have one child with him, Wyatt and Chris are mine."

"We have children together," continued Piper while shooting him a glare. "Owen is their dad because their own dad couldn't be bothered with them. We have a life together. You can't just swoop in here after all these years and say 'oh honey I'm sorry, I think I made a mistake' and think that its all going to be ok, that we can just pick up where we left off fourteen years ago. You can't do that Leo, not with me. You may have another chance with the boys but not with me, never again."

"I don't think that Piper, I just want you to understand that I do love you and that I want another shot at making this work with us because we are meant to be together. That thing that happened with Gideon, it changed me and not for the better, but I'm better now. Piper we're soul mates, you can't deny that."

"I'm not denying anything Leo, I'm just saying that in this lifetime we have already had our shot and it didn't work. Maybe in another we will have another go at it, or maybe I'll end up with Owen again, I don't know and frankly I don't really care. I'm living the life I have now and that one is with Owen. Now you need to leave."

She had been killed minutes later. She had denied him and everything he once lived for and then she had been killed. Her death brought about an even more profound change in him. He had looked down at his son while he begged his mother to stay alive and for the first time actually let the boy into his heart as his own. And then he had done something he had not done in fourteen years, he had denied the greater good.

One statement to his son was all it took. "If you hadn't distracted me I could have saved her." That was all it took to deny the greater good. His son, along with his two brothers, had a destiny greater than any before them, greater even then the charmed ones themselves. That one statement would have caused his son to deny magic, to not let it ruin his life as it had done to his mother and father. With that simple statement, he had saved his son, or so he believed.

Standing on top of the Bay Bridge, Leo let out a small smile. For the first time in his sons life he had put the boys needs before his own, before the needs he was expected to uphold. The statement probably made any reconciliation between the two impossible, but at least his son would be alive hating his father, rather than dead loving him.

A/N: Alrighty well that's another chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it. I'm starting the next one right away but it probably won't be up for awhile yet. Reviews do keep me motivated though, so if you want to write a small something to tell me what you think or to ask any questions you might have do so. By the way Ican'tthinkofanick, you're possibly my favorite reviewer. Your reviews are always so long and give me so much to smile about, thanks heaps dude.