Disclaimer: I don't own charmed

A/N: Judging by the response I'm guessing that the last couple of chapters must have sucked but I may as well post this next chapter as it's already written. Might be a while before the next update...

Chapter 18: Meet the Parents

It was true, Chris is the spitting image of Piper, Paige thought as she observed mother and son, with matching expressions of shock mixed with surprise on their faces.

"You're pregnant?" Piper finally stated.

"Yes" Paige blushed, her hand subconsciously moved toward her stomach.

"well you've got some explaining to do missy" Piper began.

"ummm" Paige wondered how best to begin when Phoebe barged noisily through the front door with Prue.

"Howdy Folks" she yodelled, "hows about we….hey where did that come from!" she squealed noticing Paige's stomach.

"about time" Prue muttered under her breath

"Like I was just about to say to Piper, I'm pregnant" Paige began

"No shit Sherlock! Quite a bit by the looks of it" Phoebe exclaimed

"No, just 5 months or so" Paige shrugged

"5 months! You kept it from us for 5 months. Why didn't you tell us?" Piper exploded

"because I had my reasons"

"But how could have been so foolish? You were going on demon vanquishes, getting thrown to the floor, anything could have happened to you!" Phoebe admonished.

"well that's just me I guess, stupid old Paige"

"You don't seem so surprised by all this" Piper turned to Prue, noticing the eldest sisters' silence on the matter.

"well, I, um" Prue debated the merits of lying verses the telling the truth

"hang on a sec, you knew?" Phoebe interrupted, analysing her sisters' non verbal communication

"Yes" She admitted

"why didn't you say anything" Piper demanded

"because I asked her not to" Paige interrupted

"what?" Phoebe and Piper chorused in unison.

"because I didn't want anyone to find out"

"why ever not?" Phoebe puzzled.

"because it was a shock, I needed time to process how I felt about it before I told anyone else, and then I didn't want you judging me"

"judging you? Why would we judge you?" Piper asked.

"because it was different for you, you had kids when you were happily married and settled, and Phoebe, okay Ben didn't arrive in the most conventional mannor, but at least you were in love with Cole at the time, but what about me? I screwed up again.."

"Paige don't be ridiculous, you didn't screw up" Phoebe assured her.

"well that's what it feels like some times to me" Paige turned and stormed up the stairs " I 'm going to lay down."

"I'm confused" Piper sat down on the hall chair

"I think deep down she's just scared" Prue commented

"well, you could have told us!" Phoebe accused her.

"she asked me not to! I didn't want to betray a confidence. We're sisters"

"Yeah well so are we"

"honestly Prue sometimes I feel as if I don't know you at all anymore" Piper admitted.

"feeling's mutual" Prue cried as she stormed past her sisters and up the stairs.

"Great, just great" Phoebe sighed, "So Chris, how was your day…?"

XXX

The following day and tempers had calmed down some what. Paige admitted that perhaps she had been a little foolish keeping everything to herself, Piper and Phoebe accepted that sometimes matters were not up for public discussion. The upshot of the matter was that Paige no longer had to wear several different layers in the extreme heat, and a sulky Jo realised that her black mailing source was over.

Happy families were resumed once more. The only slight blot on the horizon was the fact that Leo and the senior elders were still locked in discussions of the demon behind Prue's kidnapping, with no sign that the conflab would end anytime soon.

So it was that Kyle, having been exempt from the supernatural pow wow because of police duties, orbed in the following evening to find Paige in the living room.

"wow have I entered a parallel universe" he asked upon noticing that Paige was wearing a figure hugging sun top.

"ha ha" she replied.

"where is everyone?"

"Pheobe's out, Prue's in her room, Piper is upstairs fretting about what to wear to this BBQ at Chris' girl friends house, Chris is busy imagining all the different meet the parents style worst scenarios that could come to pass, and Jo went round to Julia's house several hours ago and intends to spend the night there."

"so we have the house to ourselves then?" he leaned in to kiss her.

"shoe emergency" Piper came into the room clutching 5 pairs of shoes in varying shades of blue.

"women" Kyle muttered.

"Ok, which pair says 'respectable loving mother from a close knit family'?"

"um, don't know, but the one's on the end say 'middle aged frump' and the other pair say 'I'm 33 pretending to be 13" Paige contributed

"jeez thanks"

"I don't know what you're worried about, this Jennifer will love you, and so will her parents"

"You think?" Piper worried, "I'm just worried about Leo not being there. Well, he said he would try and pop down for 20 minutes, show his face. I don't want them thinking that Chris is from a broken home with an absent father and .."

"Piper!" Paige cut her off "It will be fine"

"mom, are you ready yet?" Chris stood in the doorway, Wyatt at his side.

"coming" Piper shoved her feet into the second pair of shoes, grabbed the carrycot containing Victor.

"Do we have to bring them?" He moaned, indicating the children. It was scientifically proven, the less members of your family you had in attendance, the less embarrassing any given social event would be.

"Jennifer said to invite your family, and seeing as your brothers are family then yes, we are bringing them

With that they all piled out of the door of the manor.

"so, when you called earlier you said he you had news?" Paige turned back to Kyle.

"Yeah, a couple of the other guys from the station get together with their families to have brunch once a month. They wanted to know if we would like to join them tomorrow?"

"that I'd be great, I 'll call Jo and tell her we'll pick her up early"

Kyle settled himself on the sofa, smiling, he indulged in a bit of channel surfing to pass the time until Paige returned a few minutes later looking slightly pasty.

"what's up?" his heart did a flip flop.

"I just called Julia's house, and Jo's not there, in fact Julia's mum was surprised that I was ringing given that Julia is supposed to be staying here tonight."

"The oldest trick in the book" Kyle seethed.

"Nevermind that, where the hell is she?" Paige shouted.

XXX

Chris pulled the grand chereoke into a tree lined suburban street on the other side of San Francisco. "I still don't understand why we couldn't orb" he grumbled.

"because we are pretending to be a nice normal family, and nice normal families don't orb, they drive" Piper said as she stared at the houses on either side of the street "gosh, what did you say Jennifer's Parents do?"

"don't know they work in the public sector or something like that "

"No wonder they can afford to live somewhere like this" Piper marvelled. She brushed an imaginary speck of dust from her skirt. " I hope I look ok"

With her hair tumbling down her back in lose curls, subtle make-up and a flattering blue halter neck dress, Chris thought his mother looked stunning, but still semi-annoyed about her insistence on meeting Jennifer and her family, he wasn't about to let her off the hook that easily "you look ok" he said grudgingly.

"I'll have to do" she responded as they car came to stop "I just hope your father isn't too late joining us. You did orb those clothes up to him earlier?"

"Yes" Chris said patiently "It's not as if he would join us wearing his Elder robes anyway"

"good good" Piper picked up the baby carrier and handed Wyatt to Chris "carry your brother, I don't want him getting his shoes dirty"

Wyatt smiled up at his older brother "don't you laugh" Chris hissed "she'll do exactly the same thing to you when you reach my age"

They heard laughter coming from the back of the house, as they walked through the side gate, coming out into a large Garden with a BBQ at one end, a food table at the other and a small crowd of people gathered in between.

"there she is" Chris pointed to a willowy girl with long brown hair who had her back to them. "Hey Jen" He strode toward her, breaking away from Piper slightly.

Here goes nothing, Piper thought…

XXX

A tense quarter of an hour had passed in which both Kyle and Paige had tried to sense their daughter with no avail.

"There's no need to panic yet, sometimes she's hard to sense when she's in a crowd" Paige reasoned.

"who's panicking?" Kyle asked as he paced the floor in front of the mantle, gritting his teeth. "we need to think logically, where could she be?"

"Theoretically anywhere, given that she can orb"

"you were a 12 year old girl once, where did you used to go?"

"to the park to hangout with a crowd of people that were way too old for me" Paige admitted. Kyle raised an eyebrow "but we're not talking about me, Jo's better than that, or at least I thought she was."

Kyle sighed, he glanced at the abandoned copy of todays Bay Mirror on the coffee table 'Black Eyed Peas, play 4 nights in San Francisco" read the Headline on page 3.

"oh she wouldn't would she?" he pointed at the paper.

"Oh yes she would" Paige replied.

Kyle disappeared in an orb cloud, reappearing 5 minutes later with a sulky looking Jo at his side.

"where was she?" Paige asked

"outside the arena" Kyle replied

"You went to the concert?" Paige turned to Jo

"Yes" Jo was unrepentant

"I can't believe you"

Something inside of Jo snapped. She was always so good, so sweet, so well behaved, doing as she was told all the time. Not that it mattered, all her mother and Kyle had seemed to talk about recently was the baby, and now that the aunts knew, it would only get worse. So what if she had sneaked out to a concert? She wouldn't have had to if Paige had let her go in the first place.

"what are you scared of mom?" She taunted, not caring what she said or did "That I'll sleep with some looser and wind up pregnant while I 'm still in High School? That I'll do drink and drugs , and then still not having learnt my lesson I'd go and do the same think all over again? Come on who would be stupid enough to do that?...…ah yes.. you" She spat.

Paige looked as if she was about to cry "Jo.." she began

"That is it! " Kyle interrupted " You've disobeyed us, lied, and been down right rude, you will not speak to your mother like that, you're grounded"

"who are you to tell me what to do?" Jo turned to face Kyle, a look of contempt upon her face "You're not my father!" She yelled.

"YES I AM" Kyle shouted, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them.

XXX

"Hey" Jennifer turned to Chris as he approached, pecking him on the cheek "Who's this little cutey?"

"My little brother Wyatt"

"ahhh sweet"

"and this" He took a deep breath "this is my mother, Piper and my youngest brother Victor "

Piper plastered on what she hoped was her best hundred watt smile. She remembered how Grams had scared off a fair few of her would-be suitors by giving them a death stare, and she refused to do that to Chris.

Jennifer turned round to greet her, Piper took in the slim figure, her eyes travelling upwards to he face, the big blue eyes, the freckles.She froze, her hand stretched out in a mid air greeting.

Chris looked at the two women, Jennifer with an expression of abject confusion on her face, Piper, her features contorted in a shock.

Before he could ask what was wrong, a man's voice boomed through the air.

"Jen! Do your guests want a drink?"

"Um" Jennifer recovered her voice "Yes , I think they do"

"Good good" he approached the crowd from behind brandishing a wine bottle "White or…or…..red " he trailed off.

"Hello Dan" Piper squeeked.

XXX