Guess who's back... Back again... Chuffy's back... Tell a friend!
I am so so so sorry that this took so long - writer's block sucks to the max!
However, i want to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this story. Especially you, KJ! You rock, girl! Thanks for your great advice and help on this, and for listening to me rant about my story almost every time we were on the net.
Yes... the 'thanks' that can only mean one thing... the end is near my friends. This is the last chapter of my "Gift of Innocence" story... Tear...
So for the last time guys, the only thing i own of this story is the plot and the character of Prestyn. I don't own any lyrics, or poems. And the 'Sunshine song' (as Prestyn refers to it) does not belong to me either...
For the last time, guys - read, review and enjoy :)
x3x.Ky.x3x
Chapter seventeen
Phoebe lay on her bed assuming the fetal position, hugging a pillow tight. Phoebe couldn't get her mind around the events of the past three days. She had come so close to losing her daughter that she could almost feel death's shadow lingering. Leo had, successfully and reluctantly, dusted Prestyn with no problems. It was quite simple and quite quick.
As Phoebe was finishing getting Prestyn dressed, she called for Leo. He poured the sparkly dust into the palm of his hand and, hesitantly, blew it into her face, causing her to sneeze quite a few times in a row. He had managed to convince Prestyn that within the three days that had passed she was in bed, sick with a cold, and she wasn't kidnapped by Cole 'The Bad Man', and she didn't have a horrible dream in which Phoebe was killed. She had a cold and the past three days were filled with everyone giving their attention to Prestyn. The real test came when the inducing was over. Prestyn blinked a few times, looked around and saw Phoebe. A huge smile lit her face as she told her mother that she felt a lot better and that she didn't need to stay in her bed anymore. A wash of relief ran over Phoebe's body at the site of her daughter's sudden attitude change. In fact, Prestyn felt 'so much better' that she, Wyatt, Chris, and Leo were all down at the park. Phoebe had managed to sneak off into her bedroom somewhere between telling Prestyn to take her coat and Piper telling her boys to take their coats also.
Phoebe hugged herself tighter and drew in a shaky breath, stopping the tears, which had formed in her eyes, from falling. She jumped when she heard a knock on the door, but didn't turn around. She stayed on her side, looking out of the window blankly, not even taking in any of the day's features – not that there was much to take in. The sky was grey with even darker clouds that were threatening to split open and pour buckets. Mother Nature must have decided to take pity on Phoebe and placed a day to match her mood.
Footsteps sounded and made their way into her room. They shuffled and were out of sync with each other; more than one person was entering the room. Phoebe felt a soft, yet firm hand on her arm; and that was all it took. Her body erupted with the shakes, and sobs escaped her mouth. She couldn't stop herself. She hadn't wanted to take it like this, but it was oh so much for someone like her to bear.
She felt another hand on her hip, and those sobs turned into wails.
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Prestyn sat on the love seat in the conservatory with a teddy bear, and watched as Chris and Wyatt destroyed, yet, another block tower. Chris and Wyatt didn't destroy the tower, silly! Prestyn chastised herself. The mean dinosaur did! She glared at the dinosaur, and got back to the teddy in her hands.
Leo watched from the entrance of the conservatory, observing the children... Prestyn mainly; but still observing their behavior. She was quiet. Prestyn, especially being Phoebe's daughter, just wasn't quiet. He made his way over to the youngest member of their ever-growing family. "Prestyn, honey, are you okay?"
Prestyn looked up at her uncle with her big hazel eyes. She smiled and nodded. "Yes." She returned her gaze to the teddy. "Teddy doesn't have a name," she remarked, absent-mindedly.
Knowing that it was best not to push, he played along. "She doesn't?"
"He doesn't… Teddy's a boy because he has blue coveralls on," she stated, leaving no room for question.
Leo reached over and gently took the teddy out of her hand to look it… him… over. He looked at Prestyn with curiosity. "So what should we call him?"
"Cole," she stated. Her response was so quick and sharp that Leo could have sworn it was done on reflex. She was with him for so long, that she was bound to have known his name. Maybe she had called him by his name on more than one occasion? It came out too quick for there to have been any actual thought about it. She didn't seem scared by the submission of his name. Maybe it was just a reflex. For his sake, he hoped it had been. It took everything he had not to show a reaction. This was something he would keep from Phoebe.
He looked at the toy and looked back at Prestyn. "I don't think teddy likes that name, do you teddy?" Subtly, Leo made the bear shake its head, by grabbing its neck and twisting it from left to right. "What about…" Leo thought about it for a while. Who'd of thought that naming a stuffed toy could be so hard? "Um… how about…"
"Mikey!" She exclaimed with a toothy grin.
Leo looked at the bear, now known as Mikey. Mikey 'nodded' his head and Leo said, "I think he likes his new name." He made Mikey walk over to Prestyn and Prestyn grabbed him and hugged him close to her chest.
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"I tried to hold it… Hold it together," Phoebe hiccupped. "To be strong for… for… her…" She reached for the tissues that Paige was offering her and blew her nose.
Piper, Phoebe and Paige were now sitting in the middle of Phoebe's bed. Piper sitting next to Phoebe with an arm slung around her waist and Paige in front of her, giving Phoebe her undivided attention.
"Phoebe," Paige began tentatively. "You don't have to go through this alone…" She let the statement hang in the air.
Phoebe gulped down the next wave of tears, and said, "But it's not your guys' problem." She cringed inwardly at how horrible that sounded. Her sisters were here, trying to help her, and all she could do, was give them the brush off. She began to rectify her statement, but Piper got in before her.
"It isn't happening to us, Phoebe, but it doesn't mean that it isn't our problem…" Piper's voice was gentle, yet stern. "We're family, and we stick together through the good and the bad."
"Which means," Paige began, as she crawled over to sit on Phoebe's left side, and put her arm around her shoulders. "That while it isn't necessarily our problem… We're going to make it our problem anyway, and we're gonna help out all that we can." She tucked a loose strand of Phoebe's mocha colored hair behind her ear, and smiled.
Piper rolled her eyes. Paige was trying to help, that was true, but her attempt at humor at this point in time was highly inappropriate. She redirected. "You don't always have to be the strong one for Prestyn. I don't think she expects you to be –"
"But she expects me to be there… and I wasn't." A fresh wave of tears spilled over her cheeks.
"You were scared," Paige stated.
"And so was she!" Phoebe yelled. Piper and Paige jumped at the outburst. Phoebe took a deep breath. "So was she." She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "I was scared, but that doesn't excuse me from abandoning her. I wasn't there throughout her entire ordeal. What kind of mother does that make me?"
"You didn't intentionally do it, Phoebe," Piper tired.
"But I did it." She looked down at her hands.
Annoyed that Phoebe was letting it go with ease, Paige decided to try a different approach. She nodded her head. "Yeah… You did it." Phoebe's head snapped to the left to look at Paige. "But she doesn't remember it. It happened, there's no denying that, Phoebe, but dwelling on it won't rewind time and make it disappear…"
Finally realizing where Paige was going with this, Piper continued on. "I think that the main thing you need to concentrate on right now is Prestyn. And she's home, and she's safe."
"And Cole is dead," Paige concluded.
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It was seven thirty that same night and Piper and Leo had just finished tucking both Wyatt and Chris in. Getting the boys in to bed that night was an easy task after having been up for nearly seventy-two hours straight. Prestyn, however, was the one having troubles. She wasn't tired. She didn't want to go to bed. Just five more minutes. Then the shimmering started. Phoebe knew she was beat once that started, so she relied on Paige.
A whole ten minutes passed before she orbed back into the living room. "The kid should be a lawyer!" She spat out. When everyone looked at her in part shock, part confusion, she elaborated her statement. "She said she'll go to sleep if she can sleep in your bed." She pointed at Phoebe.
Without a word, Phoebe started up the stairs and walked into her bedroom, where Prestyn was sitting in the middle of the bed, playing with Mikey and singing gibberish words to him.
"Hi," Phoebe greeted. She walked around the bed and sat up near the headboard, dragging Prestyn with her and sitting her on her lap.
"Hi Momma." She shoved the bear in her mother's face. "This is Mikey."
"Oh… Um… Hi, Mikey." Prestyn yawned. "Tired, sweetie?" Phoebe asked without missing the beat.
Rubbing her eyes and shaking her head, Prestyn denied it. "No." She stifled a second yawn, and Phoebe moved and placed Prestyn on the bed so that she was lying down and under the covers, with Mikey stuffed protectively under her arm. Phoebe propped herself up on her left elbow, with her legs dangling off the bed, stroking Prestyn's head and brushing strands of hair out of her face. "Sing to me, Momma…" she said drowsily.
Phoebe raised a brow. "What do you want me to sing, baby?"
Prestyn shrugged. Then her face lit up. "The Sunshine song."
"Okay, well, snuggle up." She helped Prestyn pull the covers up to her chin. "And close your eyes." Prestyn complied. Phoebe took a deep breath and began singing her daughter to sleep.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy, when skies are grey.
You never know dear, how much I love you.
So please don't take my sunshine away…
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy, when skies are grey.
You never know dear, how much I love you…"
She watched Prestyn as she sang, and saw that Prestyn's breathing had evened out and she had let go of Mikey. Phoebe slowly got up off the bed. She walked, quietly, to the door and opened it slowly, so as to not disrupt the sleeping form of Prestyn. She watched her sleeping for a few minutes. She looked up at the roof, looking to the Elders. "So please don't take my sunshine away."
