Well hey again all you fan fiction readers out there! I bet you didn't expect to get TWO chapters in the space of six hours! (give or take lol) I was on a role and decided to keep going... So um, this is the big resolution scene - not giving anything away, just RR&E. Pleasies? LoL, cheers guys... not long to go before it's finished! Then i can start the ONESHOT that follows and the SEQUAL (yes, A SEQUAL!)


Chapter fifteen

Both Piper and Leo had tried an umpteenth amount of times to get little Phoebe to open her bedroom door. Piper tried sweet-talking her, lying to her, yelling at her, telling her the truth – nothing. Nothing worked. Piper was getting impatient. It was now sunrise. They had spent an entire twenty-four hours awake. Most of those hours were spent rescuing Prestyn. A small amount was spent trying to get little Phoebe out of her room. Three hours had passed, slowly, by and the poundings on the door had stopped and Piper was now pleading with little Phoebe to open the door – which was hopeless.

"Let me in Phoebe. I know you know what's going on…" There was no reply. Piper stomped her foot with a grunt. "Phoebe I really don't want to have to do the sneak approach…" No comeback. She looked to Leo. He, reluctantly, took her hand and orbed her inside the bedroom, then orbed back out as soon as he rematerialized. "But I will if I have to."

"No fair, using magic…" little Phoebe mumbled. She didn't even seem shocked at the way Piper entered the room.

"Yeah I know… It's really mean, huh?" Piper played. She walked further into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. She looked at little Phoebe, who was picking at her cuticles. Do all of us Halliwells do that?

"I don't wanna talk, Piper…"

"So just listen," she said gently. "You can't stay a child forever, Phoebe, you have one of your own to look after; she needs a mom."

Little Phoebe's head snapped up; her big, brown, puppy-like, eyes hardened and glazed over with tears. "I can't be that great of a mother if I got my own daughter kidnapped," she snapped. She looked at Piper; her face softening in the slightest. "You seem to be great at it; I mean you have two kids who love you to death."

"Two kids that are going to be upset that their aunt won't change back, and a five-year-old who is going to be more than devastated that her mommy won't change back," Piper countered.

Little Phoebe thought about Piper's comment before responding.

"I don't like being an adult Piper," she said in a voice so soft, it was barely audible.

Piper had to hold back a scoff. "Phoebe, at that age you couldn't wait to be an adult; do you remember ever saying that to me?"

Little Phoebe, vividly remembering the comment, answered Piper's question, knowing full-well that she was backed into a corner. "I said that to you yesterday."

Piper perked up with a small smile. She made herself more comfortable on the big double bed. "How do you know what being an adult is like anyway? You're technically a kid."

"Doesn't mean that I haven't been surrounded by 'em my entire life," little Phoebe shot back without even needing to think about a comeback. "Too much goes on in the adult world. Don't you ever wish you were still just a kid? Like me?"

Piper thought about her question seriously. "Everyday… but we ascend in age, Phoebe, we don't decrease." Little Phoebe frowned at the comment, knowing that Piper was right, crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. Big Phoebe was definitely in there somewhere, and Piper knew it. "You're cheating life right now, not to mention screwing with it." Little Phoebe gasped at Piper's language with a shocked expression. Piper brushed it off. "Oh Phoebe it's nothing you won't end up saying by the time your in junior high." Little Phoebe rolled her eyes, and kept her arms crossed and the frown on her face. Piper softened her tone and changed her attitude. "Change back, Phoebs. Prestyn needs you," she said as gently as she could.

Little Phoebe shook her head, without even giving the thought a chance. "No. I like being a kid. I like being ten." Her tone was short, blunt and monotonous.

Piper was taken aback. "You're ten?"

"You didn't know?" Little Phoebe was surprised that Piper didn't know how old she was. She had been here for three days and Piper didn't know how old she was? She was 'supposedly' her sister!

Piper seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. "Phoebe, what date is it?" She asked coming out of her daze.

Little Phoebe looked at Piper quizzically. "3rd of March."

Piper shook her head. "Not today's date. What's the date right now, from your time?"

Little Phoebe noted that Piper seemed really interested to know, so she thought back. "It's uh… the 20th of September…"

September… "Do you remember what happened two months before?" Piper didn't want to bring up painful memories, but if it would help to bring her Phoebe back, then she would do what she had to do.

Little Phoebe closed her eyes, fighting the tears that suddenly sprung up. "As clear as glass," she murmured. "Daddy left our lives completely."

Piper was finding herself fighting her own tears as the painful memory erupted. "Why would you want to stay in that world?"

"Because that world doesn't exist here," she said looking up into Piper's eyes. "The arguing doesn't exist…"

Piper was confused. "Is that all you're trying to escape?"

"I'm escaping my future!" Little Phoebe snapped. "I've seen it and I don't want to know all that you know – I don't want to go through all that big Phoebe has gone through!" She yelled at Piper with such force, such passion.

Piper sighed inwardly. "What has grams always taught us, huh? Things happen for a reason; you wouldn't endeavor all that you have if it wasn't for a reason," she tried.

Little Phoebe cocked an eyebrow with a look of displeasure; sick of being interrogated. "And what reason is that?" She spat.

Piper didn't even have to think twice about the answer to that one. "To shape the person you are to us today; caring, loving, a great mother and sister and auntie –"

"But that right there is too much responsibility!" Little Phoebe snapped, cutting Piper off.

Piper was beginning to lose her patience – she was surprised she lasted this long as it was. "Phoebe, you're a strong person who has dealt with life's turmoil," She said firmly. "Life isn't easy – you know it, I know it – everyone knows it." She wasn't getting through to her and she could see it. She tried a different, gentler approach. "All the responsibility isn't just being panned off to you, and thirty year old Phoebe knows this; she knows that I have helped her,herentire life all that I can." Little Phoebe's face began to soften. "If you stay this way you won't be able to encounter all that you have to become the person you are today."

"It's all bad." Little Phoebe's voice came out in a whisper.

Piper began to sympathize with her. She had been down this road way too many times herself. She had to assure little Phoebe that it wasn't. "No. No it is not all bad; there is good to it as well…" She answered quickly – maybe a little too quickly. She hoped it would go unnoticed. She got back to the bigger topic at hands. "But what do you think is going to happen, Phoebe? You think you'll stay a kid forever? It isn't a loophole; you will still get older; and you cannot live your life out in this existence. You need to go back and we need our Phoebe back." Piper's voice was more begging than ordering.

Little Phoebe glared at Piper. "Why? So I can encounter everything she has?" She spat.

Piper was surprised that the girl had so much attitude and rage and suppressed emotions in her. She felt like she barely knew her own sister. Piper shrugged with a small smile. "It's what's known as the circle of life; everything that happens in big Phoebe's life, is going to happen in little Phoebe's life."

Little Phoebe looked into Piper's eyes. Piper noted the sadness in her sister's eyes. Phoebe fought the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. "So mommy is still going to die?" She asked weakly.

As much as Piper didn't want to answer it, she knew that little Phoebe was sure to have seen it in her premonition, so it was best not to lie to her. "Yeah honey," she nodded while answering.

"And daddy is still going to leave and grams is going to die?"

Piper nodded with a sad smile and sad eyes. "And Prue will die; we'll find Paige; you'll fall in love; you'll find some heartache; you'll have a child…" She trailed.

Little Phoebe looked at Piper – struggling to find an answer to her unasked question within everything Piper had mentioned. "Where's the good?"

Piper smiled genuinely. "All the bits in between. When you're in love; when you have Prestyn; getting to know your nephews and getting to know Paige." Piper leaned in closer. "Between you and me, she's not all that bad," she whispered with a wink.

Phoebe smiled at Piper's bad confession of a joke. Her face twisted in question again. "Do I find my prince?" She asked with a hopeful attitude.

Piper smiled sympathetically. "We're still working on that one… but you're happy." She nodded in assurance.

Little Phoebe frowned again, although through her frown, Piper could see confusion. "I can't have been happy if I'm here now."

"That's because something awful happened, but everything is okay now… only big Phoebe doesn't know that; little Phoebe does…"

Little Phoebe stared at Piper and shrugged, looking away. "Big Phoebe doesn't want to come back."

Piper knew too well what little Phoebe was up to. "No, I think little Phoebe just doesn't want to go back and face all the problems she knows is heading her way. She wants to stay in this world because it has already happened."

Little Phoebe sighed. "Can you often read big Phoebe's thoughts too?"

Piper smiled briefly and looked down at the bedspread – this time Piper was avoiding little Phoebe's eyes. "Big Phoebe has gotten very good at shutting me and Paige out," she answered. Her voice full of sadness.

Little Phoebe scoffed. "Even I know that there is a reason behind that!"

Piper rolled her eyes. "Of course you would, you are Phoebe. You've lived her life out heaps of times before."

Little Phoebe looked at Piper. "Huh?" Her face was scrunched up in confusion.

"Don't think on it too much honey, you'll just get confused."

Little Phoebe shrugged her shoulders. "Well anyway, do you want to know the reason why?"

Piper shook her head. "No. We'll figure it out, or she'll come to us, one of the two."

Cries filled the air around the same time that blue and white lights entered the room. An irritated Paige and a hysterical Prestyn evolved from them. Prestyn was pushing away from Paige with all her might, squealing and crying. Paige clearly didn't know what to do. Piper was surprised that Paige had managed to capture her and get her back to the manor.

"She wants Phoebe. She keeps screeching at everyone who tries to come into contact with her and keeps fighting us off," Paige managed to get out over the top of Prestyn's squealing.

Piper stood up and tried to take hold of Prestyn. "Give her to me." This made Prestyn more hysterical. She batted her tiny fists on Piper's shoulders and tried to push away from her with every ounce of strength she had left in her tiny body.

Little Phoebe looked worried at the hysterical form in Piper's arms. "What's wrong with her?"

Piper locked eyes with little Phoebe. "Some things only a mother can cure." Piper never intended her answer to come out as a snap, but she was now at the end of her tether. "Phoebe I know that you like being a child, but nothing gives you greater joy than being a mother and an auntie!" She sat on her bed trying to rock Prestyn. "Look at this little girl; your little girl; she needs you right now."

Tears spilled down little Phoebe's cheeks. She didn't like this pressure. "I'm scared Piper," she squeaked.

Piper sighed and tried to commiserate with little Phoebe as best she could. "I know you're scared, but you learn as you go along; and you've done great so far, but this little girl needs you now." Piper could see her little, little sister caving in. Piper took it down a notch. "One thing that big Phoebe has always said to me, even before she became a mother was that she never wanted to be a bad mother. She never wanted to leave her child, the way our mother left us. You want to know what crosses the line between good mother and bad mother? This, right here. You can be there for your five-yr-old or you can abandon her." Piper's face hardened and serious.

Little Phoebe smiled. "Thank you," she said. As soon as the words left her mouth, golden light surrounded little Phoebe. It disappeared as soon as it came and big Phoebe was sitting in little Phoebe's place. She pulled her daughter out of Piper's arms and stroked her hair, rocking her back and forth. "Shh baby, it's okay I'm back…" She soothed. She looked at her sisters. "I'm back." Piper and Paige smiled and began to walk out of the room when Phoebe stopped them. "If I shut you out, it isn't because I want to hurt you –"

Piper waved her hand to silence her sister. "We'll talk about that later on; just be there for your little girl." Piper and Paige smiled at the scene one last time and walked to their bedrooms to steal some sleep.


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