Chapter 13:
On the way back to the manor Phoebe asked, "So did you find anything out about the demon?" "Oh yeah, I completely forgot to tell you. So his name is Golierth and apparently he gets his powers by taking them from unborn witches" "Oh great" Phoebe said sarcastically, "But, in order to take the powers he has to have the mother give them up willingly." Sounding slightly interested Phoebe asked, "How does he do that?" "Well in this respect he's actually quite like a human. He will try to trick the mother, bribe her, but his most common method is to try and force her to consent by stealing something she loves or finding out a secret." "Just what I need" Phoebe said as she rolled her eyes, "How do we vanquish him?" "Well in order to vanquish him make sure that he doesn't hold anything against you and then there is a power of three spell." "Well then I guess the first thing I'm going to have to do is tell Leo and Piper." With an encouraging smile Paige said, "Way to go Phoebe."
As Phoebe and Paige came back into the house, Piper was up and about cooking dinner and seeming happier for the first time in weeks. "What's all this for?" Phoebe asked as she looked at the elaborately set table, "I just thought that it might be nice for all of us to eat dinner together, seeing as we haven't in a long time" "Well that was very sweet of you Piper" Paige said as she put her purse down. "Yeah and I just thought that we should go ahead and put the past behind us and move on to celebrate the future" Piper said all of this positively glowing and looking at Phoebe the whole time. "Thanks Piper, that's great" Phoebe said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. "Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes, so why don't you two go on upstairs and change." Piper said as she practically waltzed back into the kitchen. Eyeing Paige as they walked up the stairs Phoebe whispered so that Piper couldn't hear them, "I guess it won't be so easy to tell them after all." Patting Phoebe on the shoulder Paige replied, "Yeah I know, but you still have to tell them"
As dinner progressed, Phoebe became more and more anxious about telling Leo. Wringing her sweating hands under the table, she turned to Paige and whispered, "Paige, I can't do this. They'll hate me." Giving her a look, Paige whispered back, "First of all, Piper and Leo would never hate you. And Phoebe, as much as you don't want to tell Leo, it's just going to get harder to tell him." "Oh all right I'll tell them." Sitting up straight after her whispering match with Paige, Phoebe waited until Piper went into the kitchen then said, "Uh…Leo, there's something I want to tell you." Glancing up at her from his plate Leo said, "What's that?" "Well…Um…" Phoebe said, then she gave up and sighed, "It's about the demon." "Yes?" Leo asked actually looking at her this time, "What did you find out?" "His name is Golierth and he feeds off the power of unborn witches. He forces the witch's mother to give up the baby, by taking something she loves or holding a secret against her." "Oh that's horrible" Leo said.
Pretending to cough while looking at Phoebe, Paige said, "Is there anything else that you wanted to talk to Leo about?" Glaring at Paige, Phoebe saw Leo looking expectantly at her and quickly said, "Oh right, we vanquish the demon through a power of three spell." "Phoebe" Paige whined "Tell him!" Sighing Leo asked, "All right you two, what's going on?" Taking a deep breathe Phoebe looked up and said, "Paige is right Leo, there's something I want to talk to you about. It's pretty important." "What'd I miss?" Piper asked as she walked back in from the kitchen carrying a steaming pie. "We were just talking about the demon that's after our baby" Leo said, "Phoebe was about to tell me something important" "Oh, what's that Phoebe?" Piper asked as she sat down. "Oh" Phoebe laughed nervously, "I was just going to tell you that we should vanquish the demon soon so no one gets hurt again." Nodding Piper said, "That's a very good idea. We should start now, I'll go and look up whatever the vanquishing spell is." "Alright Piper, I'll come help." Paige said as she stood up and glanced over at Phoebe.
"Leo" Phoebe said once Paige and Piper had gone up the stairs. "What I said to Piper, that's not really what I was going to tell you." "I figured as much" Leo said "What was it that you wanted to tell me?" "Well Leo, this is really hard for me to say, but I guess I might as well go ahead. I think that maybe…um possibly the demon was wrong." "What are you talking about Phoebe?" Leo asked with a confused laugh. Biting her lower lip, Phoebe sputtered, "It's not like I meant for it to happen or anything and I really do want you and Piper to be happy. It's just that, you know, fate finds odd things to be funny and I really don't want you to be mad or upset, because it's not my fault. It's nobody's fault, in fact it isn't necessarily an all bad thing anyways…" "Phoebe" Leo said sternly grabbing her shoulder from across the table, "What on earth are you talking about? What's not anybody's fault?" "Oh Leo" Phoebe quietly whimpered, "The demon, the demon was wrong about the baby, Piper isn't pregnant. I am" "What?" said Leo obviously taken aback by the answer, "Who's the father?" Looking up at him, Phoebe whispered, "The daughter of a White Lighter and a Charmed One, remember? Leo you're the father."
Finally realizing what was happening Leo whispered, "No, oh no. Piper will be crushed, this can't be happening." "Piper! How do you think I feel!" Phoebe snapped, then calming down she said, "I'm sorry Leo; I know that you only have her best interest in mind. It's just that Piper's reaction is all I've been thinking about for the past few days, I haven't really even had time to figure out how I feel about the whole thing." Stroking her hair Leo whispered, "You're right Phoebe, I'm sorry. How do you feel?" Sighing Phoebe said, "Well, you know Leo, if it weren't for the whole Piper situation I think I would be thrilled. But even with Piper, I think that I'm going to keep the baby. I want her to grow up happily, so I was hoping that maybe her father could find it in his heart to love her." "Her? It's a girl?" Tears welling up in her eyes, Phoebe whispered, "Yeah we're going to have a daughter. The question is, can you care for her lovingly?" Softly smiling Leo said, "Of course I will love my daughter." Then his face fell as he sighed, "I just don't know how we can tell Piper, she's so happy." Finally letting the tears escape her eyes, Phoebe said, "I know, but we have to tell her. Otherwise she might think that we've been purposely hiding this from her, and that would hurt her worse than knowing the truth." "You're absolutely right Pheebs, we have to tell her. But first, let's go help them vanquish the demon."