Really sorry about the late update guys, this would have been up here three days ago but from some reason something was up with the site and wouldnt let me update - oh no! lol well never fear, chapter 16 is up here :D
P3Phoebe - There's not long to go until the ending, so keep an eye out for it
KJ - i'm really glad you liked the chappie, lol hopefully this one is alright... it's not one of my proudest chapters, but i needed to fill in the between bits... plus it's the resolution... i've already hit the climax of the story, so what goes up has only gotta come down lol
Anyways, enjoy dudes and dudettes :)
Read and review
Chapter sixteen
Phoebe's eyes fluttered open. She looked at the alarm clock – eleven a.m. She looked at Prestyn, who was wide awake. "Momma," she smiled. Her voice was hoarse from the crying and screaming she had done.
"Hey baby," Phoebe greeted with a smile. She sat up and pulled her daughter into a hug, kissing her forehead repeatedly. Prestyn giggled; Phoebe had never been happier to hear that sound coming from her daughter's mouth.
"You were sleepin' for a long time," Prestyn acknowledged.
"I was?" Phoebe played. Prestyn nodded sleepily. "And how would know how long I was sleeping for, baby?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and a smile.
Prestyn had a far away look in her eyes and Phoebe wondered whether it was a look of fear or a look of recollection. "I watched you…"
Phoebe felt guilt run straight through her body – it turned her blood cold. She brushed a few strands of hair away from her daughter's face. "Let's go downstairs." She scooped her daughter up and carried her down the flight of stairs, walking straight into the kitchen. "Morning," she greeted. Five heads snapped up.
"Prestyn!" Wyatt screamed.
"Auntie Phoebe!" Chris squealed.
Both boys came bolting in from the conservatory straight up to Phoebe – who had put Prestyn down – and Prestyn; questions flying all over the place.
"Are you okay? Are you still sad? You don't need to be sad anymore, Mommy killed the Bad Man good!" Wyatt speed talked, failing to notice the Prestyn cowered back into her mother at the mention of the 'Bad Man'.
"Where'd you go? You for gone were for soooo long! And scared, we were scared! You left, why'd leave us for?" Chris had made no sense of his words because of how fast he was talking. All Phoebe could do was laugh at his incoherency.
"Chris and Wyatt, what did daddy and I tell you this morning?" Piper warned.
"Not to pester…" they both mumbled, guiltily looking to the floor. "We're sorry," Wyatt tried.
"Yeah mommy, we're sorry." Chris echoed slowly. "We won't do it again."
Piper tried not to laugh at her sons' antics. "Go and play." Wyatt immediately looked at Prestyn. "She'll be in soon…"
"Once she's had her breakfast," Phoebe finished.
Prestyn tugged at her mother's shirt. "I'm not hungry…"
Phoebe squatted down in front of her. "Baby, you have to eat breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day…" She tried to persuade.
Prestyn shook her head, her eyebrows furrowed inward and her arms over her chest. "Not hungry."
"She is her mother's daughter," Piper mumbled. Paige elbowed the eldest sister.
Phoebe nodded her head reluctantly. "Okay baby. You can go and play, but if you get hungry, you let me know, okay?"
"Okay momma."
"Promise?" Phoebe raised a brow
"I promise momma," she nodded.
"Do you pinky promise?" Phoebe held out her pinky for her daughter to take.
"I pinky promise." She hooked her mother's pinky with her own, and after shaking it, she scampered off into the conservatory with the boys.
Phoebe suddenly worried. "Chris, Wyatt," she called. Both boys came running in. She squatted down in front of them. "Boys, I want you to promise me you won't mention the Bad Man in front of Prestyn okay?"
Both boys nodded. "Okay, aunt Phoebe," they answered simultaneously.
"Good boys." She hugged them both and kissed them both on the forehead. She watched as they scampered off. She stood up and walked over to the coffee.
"There's one already here waiting for you," Piper told her.
Phoebe turned around and noticed that Piper was right. She walked over to the table and sat down in front of the coffee, next to Leo. "Thanks." She brought the mug up to her mouth and let the warm brown liquid slide down her throat.
Piper wanted so desperately to ask Phoebe how she was but she knew the answer. She wondered if Paige wanted to ask the same thing – she stole a glance at her baby sister, and the look on Paige's face confirmed Piper's thoughts. Phoebe's voice threw them both out of their reverie.
"I want you to dust her, Leo."
Three heads snapped up and an eerie silence filled the kitchen. All eyes were on Phoebe.
"Phoebe –" Leo began, but didn't get to continue.
"I mean it, Leo." Phoebe looked at her brother-in-law with a firm yet desperate look. Piper and Paige could only watch on; this, after all, really had nothing to do with them.
"Phoebe," he tried again. "Do you realize what you're asking me to do?"
Phoebe rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be asking if I didn't know, Leo," she replied through gritted teeth.
Leo tried to grip this conversation. Forming a plausible argument in his mind, he continued. "She is five years old Phoebe, if she is dusted, we risk her losing her memory entirely."
Phoebe looked into Leo's pale green eyes with an intimidating glare. "Then you had better be cautious in the way that you do it then."
Leo began shaking his head apologetically. "Phoebe –"
"Leo, I have never asked you for anything like this before. I'm asking you please… Do this – please." Phoebe's eyes grew soft and tired with a facial expression to match. "I don't want her to remember any of this nightmare – especially of her killing Cole – she'd be traumatized by it."
"She killed him?" Leo's eyes widened.
"You know?" Paige finally spoke, directing her question at her older sister.
Phoebe looked at her youngest sister and then stared into the brown pool of her coffee. "I saw it in my premonition…" The kitchen fell quiet again.
Phoebe barely even moved when a hand reached over and covered her own. She looked at the hand – pale, but not too pale; reddish undertone; long and slender fingers; silver wedding band. The hand belonged to Piper.
Leo's voice cut through the silence. "Are you positive you want me to do this?"
"Yes," Phoebe replied without a second's thought and without lifting her gaze from her coffee.
"And you know the risks, right?"
"I know the risks," she answered, her voice quivering with sadness as tears welled in her eyes.
Another hand covered Phoebe's hand – Paige's. "Sweetie," Paige began gently. "You don't have to do this. We can help you help herto get through it."
"No… You don't understand. She killed someone; and at five years old, she's not gonna know the difference between good and evil. This will haunt her for the rest of her life unless we do something about it." Tears spilled down her cheeks. "I can't let her go through that; I won't," she spoke determinedly.
"Phoebe it will be okay –"
"It will be okay because she is not going to remember doing it!" Phoebe snapped looking Paige straight in the eyes, making her sisters and Leo jump from her outburst.
After a few minutes of another awkward silence, Piper squeezed Phoebe's hand, nodding her head. "Okay."
Phoebe moved her gaze towards the eldest Halliwell. Phoebe saw understanding in her older sister's eyes. It was then that she realized that Piper had in fact been there to help out all she could throughout Phoebe's life. She had always known it; she just always took it for granted and always expected it from her. She knew that Piper knew that Phoebe often took it all for granted too, but, yet, here Piper was still offering everything she could to her younger sister.
Phoebe squeezed Piper's hand back with a small smile.
"When do you want it to happen?" Leo's voice broke through Phoebe's reverie.
Phoebe blinked a few times to come back to reality and looked at Leo. "Uh… the sooner the better. So, um, as soon as you get the dust, we'll settle it and then this nightmare will be over for her."
"For you too, Phoebs," Paige said with a reassuring squeeze of Phoebe's hand.
Phoebe nodded. "For me too…" The lack of realism in her own correction did not go unnoticed by Piper and Paige. The two exchanged worried glances.
"I guess I'll, uh, go and get the dust," Leo started, feeling rather uncomfortable over how many silences took over the kitchen this morning. "It may take a while, considering I may have to convince the Elders of it –"
"Don't ask, just take it and run… Orb… Whatever," Phoebe ordered irritably.
Leo opened his mouth to protest, but on site of his wife's glare, he closed his mouth and orbed out.
Phoebe sighed, though whether it was in aggravation or in relief neither Paige nor Piper knew. She slowly took her hands out of Piper and Paige's grasps and put one of her hands underneath her chin and gripped the coffee mug with the other. Though she was looking directly at her sisters, they both knew she was staring straight through them.
"Sweetie," Piper's voice came in a gentle, hushed tone. "Why don't you go and rest?" She suggested.
"No, I'm okay," Phoebe answered, quickly snapping out of her trance. She brought the mug to her lips and took in a mouthful of the coffee; she didn't even notice that the coffee was now cold.
"Phoebe, you're looking worn out," Paige objected. "You really should –"
"I said I'm okay," Phoebe repeated.
Paige and Piper were stunned at how Phoebe remained absolutely calm over Paige's persistence. Phoebe and Paige never usually butted heads on anything, but when Phoebe said one thing and Paige persisted another, Phoebe was more than likely to snap – this time, however, she didn't. Piper and Paige cast another set of worried glances.
"Okay, well why don't you go up and have a shower?" Piper suggested. "It'll wake you up a bit."
Not in the mood to talk or argue, Phoebe got up and left the kitchen.
Paige waited until she heard a door close before speaking. "Maybe we should think about giving her a dose of memory dust too."
"That's not such a bad idea," Piper concurred. "Leo won't do it though…"
"Who said anything about Leo?" Paige countered with raised eyebrows.
"Paige, do you know how much trouble we could get into?"
"From the Elders?" Paige scoffed. "Pfft, they know that all we do is break the rules, they should be used to it by now…"
"I'm not talking about the Elders…" Piper let on. "I'm talking about Phoebe."
Paige opened her mouth to retort, when tiny footsteps and a whimper interrupted her.
"Momma?" Prestyn's big hazel eyes glazed over with tears and she scanned the kitchen for her mother. Piper pushed her chair out, got up and scooped her niece up, bringing her back to the table. "Where's momma?"
Piper brushed some hair out of Prestyn's face and tucked it behind her ear. "She's having a shower, sweetie. She'll be downstairs soon."
This answer seemed good enough for Prestyn. She nodded as she tried to stifle a yawn. She cuddled up to Piper, resting her head on her aunt's chest.
"Are you tired, angel?" Paige asked. Prestyn nodded, while rubbing her eyes. "Do you want to have a nap?"
Prestyn shook her head rapidly. "No! No, no, no!"
Piper hugged her niece tight. "Okay, okay, shh…" She soothed. "Just cuddle up to me and we can sit like this okay?" She began rocking back and forth slowly, stroking her hair.
Blue and white lights filled the room and Leo emerged from them.
"How'd it go?" Paige asked.
Noting that Prestyn was in the room, he approached evasively. "We're good to go… Where's Phoebe?"
"She's in the shower." Leo nodded and took his seat at the table, looking worried. "What's wrong?"
Leo didn't say anything.
"I'll, uh, take this one into the lounge room with me… I think it's a bit uncomfortable for her anyway," Piper said, realizing that Prestyn was more than likely the reason for Leo's quietness. She got up, with Prestyn still in her arms and walked into the lounge room.
Paige watched them disappear. "Well?" She asked impatiently.
"Phoebe doesn't know what she is asking me to do. She doesn't understand that if it goes wrong, Prestyn will not remember the last five years of her life –"
"That's happened how many times Leo?" Paige countered.
Leo changed his question. "So what happens if ten years down the track something triggers her memory? It comes flooding back, there's no telling what she'll do – either to herself or to us."
"We'll go down that road if it happens. It's no use in driving yourself crazy thinking about it now… Besides, the last say is all on Phoebe; Prestyn is Phoebe's daughter…"
"Yeah, but I am your guys' White Lighter. So technically I have the last say," he countered.
"Don't bring the technicalities in on us, because if you want to get 'technical', Leo, you are our brother-in-law as well as our White Lighter, and Phoebe will make that known to you in the harshest possible way. You're not going up against Phoebe as a witch, you're going up against Phoebe as a mother, and you will lose."
Leo knew Paige was right; he was beat.
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Piper rocked Prestyn back and forth on the rocking chair in the lounge room, humming a nursery rhyme, hoping she would drift off into sleep. She knew that Prestyn had not slept in the three days that the nightmare had begun and she knew it was bound to catch up with her. Prestyn, about as stubborn as her mother, refused to let that happen, and she fought her tiredness with everything she had. Her eyes would close and, instantly, she would snap them back open again.
"Auntie Piper?" Prestyn squeaked.
"Mm-hmm…" Piper couldn't help but notice the troubled look on her face.
Prestyn looked up into her aunt'sbrown eyes; her ownhazel ones glossed over in tears. "The Bad Man… He said he was my daddy… Is he my daddy auntie Piper? I hope he isn't because he is mean and mommy said I would like my daddy and I didn't like him…" Silent tears fell down her cheeks.
Piper stopped rocking and tried to think of an answer to provide for her niece. She silently thanked a higher being when she heard footsteps descend the stairs, followed by Phoebe's voice. "What are you doing in here?"
Prestyn's head snapped up upon her mother's voice. She scrambled out of Piper's grasp and ran straight for her mother, who picked her up and placed her on her hip.
Piper stood up and walked over to her sister, who was standing on the last step. "Prestyn came into the kitchen looking for you, and then Leo orbed in –" Piper didn't get to finish her sentence as Phoebe gave Prestyn back to Piper and walked into the kitchen. Piper quickly followed.
"Did you get it?" Phoebe asked.
Leo shifted, uncomfortably,in his seat. "Yeah."
Phoebe nodded, and then turned back to her daughter and her sister. "Come on baby," she grunted as shetook Prestynfrom Piperand placed her on her hip. "Let's get you cleaned up as well." Without so much as a glance toward her sisters or Leo, she headed up the stairs.
The kitchen fell quiet again; no one knew what to say, and if they did know what to say, no one knew how to say it. Paige looked at Piper, who looked at Leo, who looked at Paige, and when they were caught out in their staring, they quickly shifted their gaze.
Paige sighed, breaking the silence. "This is gonna mess Phoebe up…"
"No it won't," Leo objected, before Piper could agree with Paige. Both Piper and Paige looked at him in confusion. "Because she is going to have her sisters to help her move forward from this disaster." Piper and Paige looked at each other and then back at Leo waiting for him to continue. "She's going to need all the support she can get because she is going to be break down, and you two are going to need to be there for her…"
"And then she won't be so messed in the time to come," Piper finished. "It'll just be another memory."
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