Chapter Six - Anger and Guilt
The Kitchen, Halliwell Manor
That night, Phoebe had given up her bedroom so that Mulder and Scully had somewhere to sleep. Mulder had let Scully take the large bed and slept on the couch by the window. He lay awake, trying to figure out what had made Scully become so suddenly cold toward him. When they'd been working in Texas, they'd opened up to each other, talked about their past, their dreams, everything really. But, now, it seemed that she'd rebuilt all the barriers that had gradually fallen over the years. And, no matter how painful a headache he got wondering about it, he couldn't think of why. He heard her moan in her sleep and glanced across the room at her. He could have sworn she was lying some distance above the mattress but dismissed it. Maybe I really do need some sleep. He thought, and rolling over he eventually did fall asleep.
Next door, Piper lay awake too. Leo had left almost six months ago, and left her to raise Wyatt on her own. Making matters worse, she found out she was pregnant again just a month after Leo decided that being an Elder was more important than being a husband and father. She wondered if he knew she was pregnant. Or if he even cared. Probably not, she decided. After all, if he did really care about her, she figured he'd have stayed. But he hadn't, he'd left her alone. Just like so many people had done before, her mother had left her when Piper and her sisters needed her most. Then Grams died, then Prue and now Leo was gone too. She'd often wondered if she had any tears left to cry, but she found that each time she thought of all the people who had left, she most certainly did have more tears left unshed. With each person that left her, the anger masked the pain she felt inside. Mixed with the anger and sorrow though, was guilt. She felt guilty that she was angry at Penny, Patti and Prue for dying though she knew it wasn't really their fault. Guilty that she was unable to fill Prue's shoes as the oldest sister. And somehow, she even felt responsible for the fact that Wyatt's father was no longer around.