A/N. Thank you for the reviews. Be prepared for more Piper/Leo action in this chapter!
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Chapter 9 – Two weeks laterPrue stared out the calm, steely grey water of the lake, a single tear running down her face. This camp, where Prue used to come as a little girl, once held happy memories for her. But ever since that day in 1978, Prue could only remember one thing.
---A seven year old Prue raced through the crowd of people towards the dock. She couldn't find her mother, and she was scared.
"Mommy!"
The crowd parted to let Prue through. She reached the dock and stopped short. A woman with long golden blonde hair and hooped earrings lay, half-covered in a black sack. Her mother had earrings like that, but this woman looked wet, and she was pale… to pale.
Unnoticed by the horde of police officers, she crept closer to the lady, trying to convince herself it wasn't her mommy.
But then she heard it. A police officer reading the name 'Patricia Halliwell.'
Prue stopped again after hearing name. It was her Mommy's name. But her mommy was no where to be seen… unless…
"Hey. Can someone get this kid out of here? She shouldn't see her mother like this."
Gentle arms lifted Prue up and began to carry her away. As he black sack was zipped up over the woman's face, Prue realised that was the last time she would ever see her mother.
"Mommy!" Tears began to roll down her cheeks.
"It's okay Prue. Your Grams is looking for you." The strong arms deposited her on the ground and moved away.
"Mommy!"---
It had been thirteen years, and yet Prue remembered that day like it was yesterday; the confusion, the fear, and the pain.
The pain. It had never really gone away, despite the fact that she could still see her mother occasionally. It was still as all consuming and raw as thirteen years ago.
Maybe that was why she came here, to the closed down camp, so often. For some strange reason she felt close to Patty here.
The ring of her phone made Prue jump. She brushed her tears aside and took a deep breath before answering.
"Hello?"
"Prue, where are you?" Penny asked. "College finished an hour ago."
"I'm stuck in traffic," Prue lied. She couldn't tell Penny and Phoebe she came here; they would worry and convince her to talk about her feelings. But Prue didn't want to talk. Nothing would change the fact that her mom was gone. The only person who knew she came here was Andy. He never tried to pressure her into talking, he knew she would open up when she was ready.
"Prue?"
"Sorry, I, uh, got distracted." Prue's eyes wondered over the lake, resting on a boat that bobbed near the dock.
"With what? You're stuck in traffic."
The man in the boat was leaning far over the side. He jerked back, but some invisible force seemed to attach him to the water. "I've got to go. The traffic's moving." Prue snapped her phone closed and dumped it into her bag.
"Help me!"
That was all the invitation Prue needed. She sprinted closer to the man, lifting her arm to use her power.
"No!"
Something charged into the side of Prue, pinning her arms down as the boat sank into the water, along with the man.
"Get the hell off me!" Prue ordered, wrenching herself free. She spun around to face the person who had cost her the innocent.
It was a stout man, around fifty-five; his grey hair and unshaven stubble making him appear older. His eyes were ice blue, and held a secret pain also shown on the fine lines of his face.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Prue demanded angrily.
"It already had him."
Prue turned towards the water. What already had him? She whipped back around to face the strange man, ready to ask him that exact question, but he was gone.
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"I don't think your Grams likes me very much." Jake Ellison's voice was low as he warily studied Penny, who was hovering by the kitchen stove.
"Don't be silly, she loves you," Phoebe replied in a whisper.
"Umm. I don't know." Jake flinched, as Penny looked daggers at him.
"Okay. Maybe she isn't your biggest fan," Phoebe agreed. "But I love you, and that's the main thing." Phoebe snuggled up to her boyfriend. "Piper likes too."
Jake's warm hazel eyes flicked from his girlfriend's grandmother to her new sister, who was munching on a cracker. "So what's the deal with her? Some guy gets her pregnant and then leaves?"
"That's what she told us. But I'm hoping Leo may restore her faith in love."
"Leo? As in your whitelighter? Isn't that kind of forbidden?"
"Well…. Yeah," Phoebe admitted. "But she's been through so much, I'm hoping the Elders would go easy on them."
"That's if they're interested in each other. They may not be," the male witch pointed out.
Phoebe squinted her eyes and bobbed her head up and down. "Oh, they're interested."
"And you have a sixth sense for these things?" Jake teased.
"Yes, I do," Phoebe replied playfully. "Empathy, remember?"
Prue came crashing into the kitchen, disrupting all conversation. "We have a prob… Piper! What are you doing here?"
"Phoebe invited me round, so I could meet Jake."
"Oh." Prue spun around. "Maybe you should leave Jake."
"Prue!" Phoebe leapt up from the table, appalled at her sister's rudeness.
"We have a problem."
"And it can be discussed in front of Jake, who is a witch also."
"I think it would be best if Jake did leave," Penny piped up.
"Actually, me and Phoebe…" Jake began.
"I think this is a bit more important," Prue cut in.
"Geez, she is a tight ass," Jake muttered to Phoebe as he left.
"Well that was rude," Phoebe said angrily the moment he was gone.
"I'm sure he'll get over it," Prue mocked. "Now, as I was saying, we have a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Penny asked.
"A man drowned."
"On the free-way?" Piper asked.
"No. At the lake," Prue admitted quietly.
"What lake?" Piper looked more confused by the minute.
"The lake… where Mom was killed," Phoebe realised. "What were you doing there?"
"I go there sometimes, to think," Prue confessed.
And you didn't think to tell us?" Phoebe demanded.
"Girls, we'll talk about this later," Penny said in a firm voice, which left no room for argument.
"Mom was killed in a lake?"
Prue looked at Piper sympathetically, knowing it must be hard to cope with her adoptive parents and her birth mother dead. "She drowned."
Penny coughed awkwardly and shifted from foot to foot. "Actually, she didn't."
"What?" Phoebe demanded, stalking over to the island.
"She, uh, was killed by a water demon," Penny told them sheepishly.
"A water demon," Prue repeated incredulously. "And you didn't tell us this why?"
"Because I knew you would want revenge, and it would be too dangerous without the Power Of Three," Penny replied imploringly, desperate for them to understand.
"So you lied to us about this too!" Phoebe cried, hurt.
"I didn't want to see my granddaughters killed the same way my daughter was."
"We'll talk about this later as well," Prue decided, something in Penny's tone telling her to be kind. "Right now we need to stop this thing before it hurts anyone else."
"Right," Piper agreed. "Tell us everything you know."
"It takes over its victims' bodies and drowns them form the inside."
"You mean…" Phoebe gasped, tears springing to her eyes.
Penny nodded silently.
Prue slipped her arm around Phoebe's shoulders, their earlier fight forgotten. "So, uh, how do we vanquish it?"
"My baby!" Piper cried.
"What's wrong?"
Piper waved her hand dismisively. "Nothing. The baby can vanquish the demon."
Phoebe frowned. "How, it's still in the womb."
"I know that. But it has the power of electrokinesis…"
"And electricity is the only substance that can separate water particles," Prue finished.
"What she said," Piper agreed.
"I don't know Piper, you shouldn't use your baby's power like that," Penny said hesitantly.
"She's right."
The four witches looked up at the sound of the male voice, to find Leo standing at the other side of the island.
Piper's heart fluttered at the sight of him. He was looking at her… she was melting. 'Snap out of it,' she instructed herself. He wasn't interested in her, so why was he looking at her like that, tenderly, regretfully?
"Why?" Phoebe asked.
"Because it's dangerous, the baby could get hurt."
"I'm going," Piper told them decidedly. "I'm not the kind of woman to sit on her ass eating bon bons throughout my pregnancy."
"But," Leo protested.
"Why do you care so much?" Piper wondered.
'Because I don't want to see you or the baby get hurt. Because I'm beginning to fall in love with you,' Leo answered mentally. In the past week, Piper and Leo had met a few times. It had all been Leo's idea; he claimed they needed to build a relationship as witch/whitelighter, but secretly, Leo just wanted to see Piper. And despite how hard he fought, every time he saw her, he fell just a little bit deeper. He knew it was forbidden, and he knew it was fast, but Piper was so funny, so beautiful and so strong. "As your whitelighter it's my job to care," he answered eventually.
The words stung Piper like a slap across the face. They were so cold. Piper was beginning to think he felt something for her, like she did for him. But no, he was all profession.
"Maybe you shouldn't go," Prue said. "We don't want to risk the baby's health."
"I would never let any harm come to my baby," Piper replied sharply. "I want to go."
"Fine," Prue finally relented. "But Leo's coming with us in case you need healing."
"Okay," Leo agreed. "I'll orb."
Prue took Leo's hand, while Phoebe took hers, leaving Piper to hod his other one.
"Wait? Isn't Grams coming?" Piper asked.
"Oh no. This is your fight," Penny replied.
Piper nodded and grabbed Leo's hand, trying to ignore how right it felt to touch him as he orbed them away.
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"Whoa." Piper stumbled away, her hand resting on her stomach, which felt like it had been ripped out through her mouth. She fell onto a sun lounger.
"Your first orb, huh?" Leo guessed.
"Yeah."
"Don't worry, the feeling soon fades," Prue assured her.
"Can you stand?" Phoebe asked.
"Yes." Piper got to her feet. "I'm ready."
"Just be careful." Phoebe hugged Piper tightly.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Prue asked.
"Positive," Piper replied with more confidence than she felt. "We can't let this thing kill any more innocents." Piper pushed her shoulders back and marched onto the dock, feeling more scared with each step. But she couldn't turn back now.
She peered over the edge of the wooden planks, once at the end of the dock. "I know you're there demon." The water bubbled. "And I know you want me." More frothy, white bubbles. "So come and get me."
"Piper, behind you!" Leo yelled, sprinting towards her while her sisters looked on in horror.
Piper spun around and flicked her wrists. Leo froze half way down the wooden poles, out of harms way. At the same time, a bolt of neon yellow electricity shot from her hand, striking the huge tower of murky water that was rising above her. Electricity crackled up and down the watery spiral, encasing it. The electricity wrapped around the tower, squashing it, until finally, it collapsed and sloshed over the dock.
Leo unfroze and ran for Piper, followed by Prue and Phoebe, who were both crying.
"You did it!" Phoebe cried. "You killed it!"
"Thank you so much." Prue launched herself at Piper, joined shortly by Phoebe.
From under the pile of sisters, Piper saw Leo smiling warmly at her.
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Leo dropped Piper's hand as soon as their feet touched the ground. She fell immediately onto a sofa, still not used to the sickening effects of orbing. They had already taken Prue and Phoebe back to the Manor, so they were alone.
And now they were alone, away from distractions, Leo was finding it increasingly difficult to find his emotions. When the water demon had attacked Piper from behind, he had been terrified. It was in that moment Leo knew that he couldn't ignore his feelings for her.
"Uh, thanks for bringing me home," Piper said awkwardly, wondering why she still felt like that around him. After all, they had met four times since the kiss. Piper gazed up at Leo. He was looking at her that way again, the way Dan used to. Suddenly it dawned on Piper why.
"Piper, I…"
"Don't," Piper interrupted, a pained expression on her face. "I know what you're going to say… but we can't." This had been what she wanted, so why was she fighting it?
"Piper, I love you," Leo told her, despite the witch's protests.
"You can't… we can't." Piper's voice was begging him to stop, to make it easier by just going.
"I don't care about the Elders!" Leo cried. "All I care about is you."
"But, what will they do to you?"
"I don't know. But I love you. I know we've only known each other three weeks, but I feel like I've known you my whole life."
"Me too," Piper admitted. "But I don't want you to get hurt." If being together meant harm would come to Leo, then she'd rather they ignored their feelings and stayed friends.
"They won't. The Elders aren't like that," Leo promised.
Piper's face broke into a huge, happy grin as Leo tilted his face towards hers and their lips met in a sweet, perfect kiss, which sealed their future, no matter what may come their way.