Chapter 13 - One More Thing
I sat on the swing, and yawned again.
"Tired?" Leo asked. I rolled my eyes at the unnessisarity of the question, but nodded anyway.
"All the sleepless nights and early mornings lately." I told him. "The last few years have been one thing after another, and I guess it's taking it out of me."
"You make it sound so romantic." He joked.
"It was." I smiled. "Our whole ... relationship was."
"Was what?" Prue asked, walking over with Andy and a huge smile.
"Nothing." I replied, looking around the park. Paige and Henry were stood by the baby swings, pushing Chris gently, Phoebe and Cole were chasing Wyatt and Patty around, climbing over slides, roundabuts and the climbing frame in the process. Struggling to ignore the instint telling me to call out to them to be careful, I looked again at Prue.
"What you smiling about?" Come to think of it, Andy had a goofy grin on his face too.
"What's going on?" Leo asked.
"We kind of have some news." Prue admitted, looking at Andy. Ah, an eye conversation. I never quite managed to grasp the concept of them - I would simply stand there saying "What? What?" Loudly until the other person gave up and just said it.
Eventually, Prue turned back to us, and squeezing Andy's hand, called for the others to join us.
"What's up sis?" Paige asked, bouncing Chris a little bit.
"Paige, you might want to stop that," I chided predictably. "You don't want him to -" The way she rolled her eyes and changed the subject forced me to shut up - But isn't it my right to worry?
"Well?" Paige prompted.
"Andy and I ... Andy and I - We -" Prue smiled nervously.
"I asked her to marry me. She said yes." Andy explained.
"Wow! Congratulations!" A few minutes of hugging later, and Prue got that look again. The I-have-something-to-tell-you look.
"What else?" I asked.
"Nothing else. There's nothing else."
"Prue." I warned.
"OK, maybe there is one more thing." She admitted. Andy looked at her curiously. Damn, another eye conversation.
"Andy and I ... Andy and I are having a baby." She smiled eventually.
"What!" I cried, "I mean, congratulations! Again!" I added, jumping up and hugging her. An action that was made difficult by the five-month baby bump I am currently dragging around.
"Well done." Paige smiled, hugging her next.
"I'm really happy for you." Phoebe said brightly. "I know it's what you've always wanted."
"Yep, it is." Prue smiled.
"It's what we've both always wanted." Andy smiled.
"And - ah - how pregnant are you, exactly?" I asked. "Cos at this rate we're going to have to get some additions to the house -"
"We're staying in the manor?" Andy questioned. It sounded as though he wanted to move out, understandably, of course.
"Aren't we?" Prue asked. Yep, she wants to stay.
"I don't know ... do you want to?"
"I think it would be safer, for us and the baby, to be near my sisters." Prue said. Uh-oh. I sense an argument ...
"You know what, you guys have nine months to think about this." Phoebe quickly intervened.
"Ten months." I corrected, speaking from three experiances.
"Ah, actually, we have seven months to think about this." Prue grinned apologetically. "But we only found out a few days ago." She added quickly.
Doing a quick calculation, my eyes widened.
"But ... you'll have your baby two months after mine." I gaped. "That's not a lot of time Prue. I mean -"
"I know. We'll look into getting a couple of additions." Prue nodded.
"Nice 'n' stressful." I muttered.
"OK, mrs. Halliwell, if you'd like to lay down ..." Dr. Harris smiled. Nervously, I did so, and winced at the cold gel.
"OK ... OK ..." He muttered. I looked at Leo. What if something's wrong? He answered my silent question with a smile.
"There we have it." Dr. Harris smiled. "Right there - You see?" He gently touched the screen, pointing to the graining image.
"Is it OK?" I asked anxiously. "Any porblems?"
"Not that I can see. Try to relax." He said sympathetically.
A few minutes later, we were ready to leave.
"Oh, one more thing." Dr. Harris said suddenly. "Would you like to know the sex of the baby?"
"Yeah." I said. We'd decided last night we would if they asked. And they had.
"OK." Leo agreed.
"You're having a girl." He smiled.
"So, are you going to call her Melinda?" Phoebe asked, back at home once we'd told everyone.
"I ..." I looked at Leo. "I don't really want to." I admitted. It wasn't a name that stood out to me, just what was expected. We met Melinda, our anncester, and she was great but ...
"We could look at others." Leo agreed.
"Maybe you could bust out the family tree?" Paige suggested.
"Yeah, but not right now." I nodded. "I don't want to - you know - temp fate."
"Of course." Prue smiled.
As Andy's cell phone rang, we began to discuss the house again. But glancing up, and seeing Andy's worried face made us all stop.
"What? What's happened?" Prue asked.
"That was Darryl." He said, as though we would all instantly understand him.
"Saying?" Phoebe prompted.
"He's out." Andy said horsly. "Dan ... he's just ... vanished. There's no way he could get out ... but he has."