This chapter is pretty much the second half to the previous chapter…once again, if that makes any sense.
There's some Cole here that could be considered fairly OOC – I am aware of this, but remember that he is not any kind of prince of evil, he's a teenage boy, and all teenage boys are able to be compassionate at some times.
Chapter Eighteen: Decisions
Piper been home from Leo's for abut an hour, and, upon arriving at the manor, had headed straight up to he room, and had been laying on her bed ever since, staring at the wall and thinking.
"Piper, can I come in?"
Phoebe's voice, accompanied by a soft rap on the door, disturbed Piper's thoughts.
"Sure."
The younger sister shut the door behind her as she came in, and perched on the end of Piper's bed.
"If I ask you something, can you promise that you will tell me the absolute honest truth?"
"Okay," sighed Piper, not really up to listening to Phoebe's dramatics.
"Piper…are you pregnant?"
For a minute Piper was stunned. Had Leo told Phoebe? How else would she know?
Noting her sister's silence, Phoebe added, "Prue found a pregnancy test in the bin and thought it was mine."
"Does anyone else know?"
Phoebe shook her head. "I don't think so. Prue probably thinks I'm lying, and no one else even knows it exists."
"Please don't tell anyone, Phoebe," begged Piper, taking hold of her sister's hand.
"Calm down, I'm not going to." Phoebe grinned. "Give me a little credit at least."
"Sorry…I'm a bit all over the place."
"Can I just…I knew you and Leo had…you know…but I thought you guys used…you know…" Phoebe stammered, unable to say the words to her big sister.
Piper crinkled her nose. "Yes, Phoebe, but, I guess, sometimes…heat of the moment and-"
Phoebe held up her hands in mock disgust. "I don't need to know the full story, thank you. Have you told Leo?"
Piper nodded. "Yea, when I went to his earlier."
"And…?"
"And he said that it's my choice what I do. But that he'll stand by me no matter what," Piper replied.
"You know that he will."
"I know."
"Do you know what you're going to do?"
Piper sighed, shaking her head. "I've no idea. At all."
"Well, I'm here for you if you want to talk."
Piper hugged her little sister gratefully. "Thank you."
Cole didn't bother to knock on Leo's door before opening it, and, upon entering his stepbrother's room, found him laying face up on his bed, doing what appeared to be simply staring at the ceiling.
"Leo."
"Fuck off, Cole."
Cole chuckled. "I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be the other way round. And I don't think I've ever heard you swear before."
"Cole, I'm really not in the mood for you to mock me."
"I'm not here to mock you. Your dad sent me up to find out if you were okay. Said he hadn't seen you since Piper left."
Cole moved to sit on the chair at Leo's desk. "Did you guys have a fight or something?"
Leo shook his head, his teeth gritted, his jaw tense.
"Look, I know I give you a hard time. But you're a good guy, and you help me out a lot. So if there's something on your mind…it might do you some good to talk about it." Cole shrugged. "And who am I going to tell?"
"It's complicated." Leo shut his eyes, gathering his thoughts. "Piper…Piper and I…" he sat up and buried his head in his hands. "Piper's pregnant."
Cole sat back in the chair, clearly shocked. "Well…wow…I mean…"
"I know," muttered Leo. "Pretty huge."
"It's very huge, Leo," pointed out Cole. "What are you guys going to do?"
"I don't know. Piper's a bit…no…very confused at the moment. And at the end of the day, I'm not going to make her do something she doesn't want to. It's her choice how we handle this."
Cole nodded thoughtfully. "That's a fair point." He leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "But, what do you want, Leo?"
Leo smiled the tiniest smile. "I think I'd be pretty open to being a dad."
"Does Piper know this?" asked Cole, smiling his own smile.
"No…I didn't want to influence her decision."
Cole made a sound that could've been tutting. "That's admirable. But…it is your child too. So maybe you need to tell Piper how you feel."
"Maybe," sighed Leo.
…I don't really have any after comments. Hope you liked, and review please.
