Chapter four

The kidnapping of the Easter bunny

In the dead of night as most of the children slept soundly one did not. PJ tossed and turned in her bed pleading with someone in her dream. "No! Stop! Please go away!" Parker sat up in her bed across the room and rubbed her eyes. She looked at her sister in confusion over what was happening, and after a moment of observation, she feared her sister was hurt and she climbed out of bed and walked over to her sister. She attempted to wake her by poking her forehead but this had no effect. Now she was frightened and she started to cry because she didn't want her sister to be hurt. Then, the bedroom door opened and their father walked in, Parker looked over at him still crying. He walked over to his daughters and lifted Parker into his arms and rubbed her back to calm her as he whispered in her ear. "It's okay. PJ's fine, it's just a bad dream." Parker stopped crying but didn't stop worrying about her sister. She kicked her legs to ask to be put down. Coop placed the mere toddler down on PJ's bed and woke PJ by shaking her shoulder. PJ's eyes shot open and she started breathing heavily, her face buried in her arms. Coop rubbed her back as he whispered to her. "Shh, it's okay, baby. It's daddy. You're safe." PJ uncovered her head and sat up. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness of the room and when they focused on her father, she threw her arms around him and started to cry. Coop pulled her onto his lap and held her tightly and Parker wrapped her own little arms around her sister. It took several minutes before PJ had fully calmed down and realized she was perfectly safe in her bedroom.

"It's alright, baby. You just had a bad dream," Coop explained gently.

"A bad dream?"

"Yep. Bad dreams can be scary but they are not real."

"The Easter bunny didn't have any chocolate."

"What?"

"The bunny, because a kid took it all."

"Oh. I see. That is a bad dream."

"A very bad dream."

"The dream is over now."

"Can I sleep with you?"

"Yes, baby. Parker, you want to sleep with daddy?"

"Yes."

Coop lifted both of his daughters into his arms and beamed them down to his room. Phoebe was still sound asleep in the bed and Coop laid the girls down in the middle of the bed and laid himself down beside them. PJ snuggled up to her dad while Parker's head rested on her sister's stomach and Phoebe rolled over as though she sensed their presence. Coop covered himself and his daughters with the blanket and closed his eyes to fall asleep. Parker quickly fell asleep but PJ stayed awake as she was too scared to go back to sleep.

In the morning, Phoebe's brown eyes opened and she smiled at the sight of her sleeping daughters and husband. She sat up, leaned over, and kissed the top of their heads. She admired them for a brief moment before becoming sad over how big they had gotten when it seemed like only yesterday they were tiny babies. PJ was a month shy of being three and a half and would be starting kindergarten in the fall, and Parker was nineteen months old, but would be twenty months in a few days. Parker opened her eyes and looked around, her eyes landed on her mother as she smiled at her. Parker squealed happily and her mother leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips. The two cuddled together for a few minutes until PJ and then Coop awoke.

Down in the kitchen, another busy morning had started. Piper was a bit behind with preparing breakfast so a few of the kids and none of the adults had been served yet. At the table, Chris and Melinda were having their daily argument over whether or not Melinda was still a baby, and Wyatt was attempting to stop the argument but was ignored. Wyatt had been served his breakfast but had not started eating, and Tamora and Kat were currently eating their toast and making sure to not speak to each other. They were in conflict because Kat, who had been sleeping in Melinda's room for the past month, wanted to move back in with Tamora because according to her Melinda snored though Melinda denied the accusation. Tamora had been enjoying having her own room and did not want Kat to move back in. Little Henry hadn't been served yet and was waiting in his seat patiently whereas Payton was banging on her high chair tray out of frustration due to being hungry. Andy attempted to kiss her goodbye before his meeting with the Elders but Payton kept moving her head away from him. Now a tad offended, Andy kissed his wife and orbed out. Henry and Paige both had an early shift and didn't have time for breakfast, so they simply gulped down some coffee, kissed their kids goodbye, and left. Leo told Chris to shut up and to leave his sister alone, and told Melinda to stop setting herself up, because he had had enough of their arguing. Piper quickly handed Payton her bowl of cheerios, almost slipping on a puddle of juice she hadn't gotten around to mopping up, then returned to the counter to start preparing Henry Junior's bowl of cereal. Coop and Phoebe came into the kitchen with their daughters. PJ seated herself at the table and Coop placed Parker in her high chair while Phoebe went to give Piper a hand, and Leo dealt with the juice spill. Once Parker was in her high chair, Coop also helped with breakfast.

"You know, PJ has been complaining about sharing her room with Parker lately," Phoebe mentioned.

"What brought that up?" Asked Piper.

"Well, if Tamora wants her own room and Kat doesn't want to share with Melinda…"

"Are you suggesting we move Parker in with Melinda and Kat in with PJ?"

"Not exactly. What if we put Parker in with Payton, those two get along well, and we could put Kat and PJ together or give Kat her own room and put Melinda in with PJ."

"Prue, what do you think?" Piper asked.

"I suppose we could try it. Parker and Payton in a room together."

"Okay. Kat, do you want to share with PJ or have your own room?"

"I will share with PJ."

"Are you okay with that PJ?" Phoebe asked her daughter.

"As long as she doesn't cry."

"As long as you don't snore," said Kat.

"Okay then, we can try it. Who has the day off?" Asked Piper.

"Not me," Prue stated.

"Me neither," said Phoebe.

"I could skip a day," Coop offered.

"Great, then you can rearrange the bedrooms," Piper declared.

"Can we have a new room?" Asked Kat.

"No, honey. We do not have money right for that right now."

"Not fair, the babies get a new room."

"No, they don't. I'm sorry Kat, but we do renovations once a year and we did it this year in January."

"What's reno...reno...vacations."

"Renovations. It means re-decorating. Like new beds, new wall colour."

"But that's what I want."

"I know sweetie, but that costs a lot."

"So just go get more money."

"It doesn't work like that. We get money by working but we can't just pick up more money anytime we want, we get it at a certain time."

"Well that is dumb, what if we run out?"

"You have to spend money carefully to make sure you don't run out. That means don't spend money on big expensive things when you don't need to."

"I will get a job to get more money."

"Honey, let's start by getting through the rest of preschool before we start talking about you getting a job."

After the children had been sent off to school and/or daycare, Coop got to work on the bedrooms with Billie's help. They put Parker's toddler bed on the left side of the room with her dresser behind the bed lined up alongside the wall, and kept Payton's things where they were. Then, they replaced Parker's bed and dresser in PJ's room with Kat's bed and dresser. When the next January came around, they would reevaluate who should be sharing a room, by then, Tamora might want Kat back in or PJ might decide she doesn't want to share her room, or perhaps there would be a new baby and a bunch of kids would have to switch around depending on everyone's preference and needs at that time.

At daycare, Kat walked up to her teacher. "Do you have a job?" She asked. Mrs. Grace was a bit surprised to be asked this but she nodded and replied. "This is my job. To look after all of you kiddies while your parents are at their jobs." Kat considered this. "So you get money?" "Yes, I do. Not much money, I'm afraid." "Why not?" "Well, some jobs give you more money than other jobs. This job gives me enough money but it's not a lot of money." "Oh. Why not get a job that gives you a lot of money?" "Because I like this job." "Oh. You have to be careful, don't get expensive things." A puzzled look came across Mrs. Grace's face as Kat skipped away. "That child is something else," she muttered to herself.

"Who would like to share what job you would like to have when you grow up?" Mr. Andrews asked his class. A bunch of kids raised their hands. One boy wanted to be a pirate which caused the entire class to laugh. One girl wanted to be a police officer and another wanted to be a hairdresser. "Wyatt? How about you?" Mr. Andrews asked. Wyatt shrugged. "You must have an idea?" Yet, Wyatt shook his head in response. "Well what do the adults you live with do?" Wyatt straightened himself up in his chair. "My daddy's a teacher for special kids and my mom is a cook. She owns her own restaurant. She has a club too but I'm not allowed there." Mr. Andrews nodded. "You don't see yourself doing a job like them?" Wyatt shrugged. "I don't think I want to teach and I don't really like to cook. My auntie Prue takes people's pictures, she takes my picture too sometimes but I think that would be boring. Uncle Coop helps people find love and love is gross, and auntie Phoebe gives people advice but I'm not good at that. My brother and sister don't ever listen to me. Uncle Henry keeps bad kids out of trouble, that could be kind of cool." "Oh, he's a parole officer or a cop?" "Parole officer, and auntie Paige is a social worker. She says it's a lot of work so I don't think I want to do that job." Mr. Andrews chuckled softly. "I'm sure you will find a job you like one day." "I hope so. I don't want to have no job like Billie." "Who's Billie?" "My mom's friend. She used to babysit me. She went to college but now has no job...but she has a boyfriend and they kiss all the time at my house." The entire class burst into laughter and even Mr. Andrews chuckled. "Billie is picking me up from school today because she doesn't have a job but everyone else does." "Okay, thank you, Wyatt. Who else would like to share?" Dakota raised her hand. "Go ahead Dakota." "My parents are always kissing and my grandma says if they keep kissing that much I'll be a big sister one day." Again, the class burst into laughter. "Okay...I definitely think we've heard enough...let's have some silent reading. Take out your books please and remember there's no talking during silent reading."

As school was almost finished for the day, Billie was unsure where to collect Wyatt and Chris and decided to pick them up from their classrooms starting with Wyatt. She knocked on the door and all heads turned to her. "Hi Billie!" Wyatt shouted from his seat. "Hey, bud. Are you ready to go?" "See? What did I tell you...no job, that's why she's early," Wyatt stated. His classmates started to laugh and Billie looked at Wyatt in confusion. "We were talking about jobs today, Wyatt mentioned a thing or two about you." Billie nodded and Mr. Andrews shushed his class. "Not everyone has jobs, that is not a reason to laugh at someone." "Do you kiss your boyfriend as much as my parents kiss?" Dakota asked. Billie did not know how to respond but her face went red. "If you do, you're gonna have a baby soon," Dakota added. The class started to laugh again and Billie shook her head and had to admit being called out by second graders was a little funny. Mr. Andrews looked over at Wyatt. "You can leave now, and perhaps let's not share so much personal information about someone else in the future." Wyatt nodded and followed Billie out of the classroom.

"Sorry, Billie. I didn't know they would all laugh at you."

"It's fine, I would have laughed too."

"Are you mad at me?"

"Nah, you're just a kid."

"Are you going to have a baby soon?" Wyatt asked.

"No...well...I don't know. Maybe, in a few years."

"How do you have a baby?"

"Um...that's a question for your parents. Let's get your brother and then I'll drop you off at home."

"Who's home?"

"Your dad will be home when we get there."

"Okay."

It was a nice Saturday afternoon in April, two days before Payton's actual first birthday but her party was taking place today so that Wyatt and Chris didn't have to miss it...not that they really cared about attending a party for a baby without their own friends being there. The usual guests soon arrived and Andy carried Payton into the living room. Andy sat down on the couch beside Prue and placed Payton on his lap. "So how was the first year?" Victor asked. "Tough at times, the worst was at night, there were wonderful times too of course," Prue stated. "It was the same with Parker," Phoebe said as picked up one and half year old Parker. "Is she talking yet?" Darryl asked. "Yes, she can say mama and dada," Andy responded proudly.

Little Henry was sitting on the ground looking through a picture book. Melinda, P.J., Tamora and Kat were running around like wild animals. Wyatt and Chris were trying to capture them with plastic handcuffs and butterfly nets. It took them a while to catch them, when they did finally catch them, the boy's orbed them to their room. Not long after Melinda and the twins orbed back down and P.J. beamed back down. "Hey be careful," Piper said as she grabbed the lamp beside her as it was about to fall when the kids ran into the table it was on. "Kids," Piper muttered to herself as she rolled her eyes.

"So are the kids doing those school plays this year?" Billie asked.

"Yes they are, Wyatt is playing a dwarf in his class's play of snow white, and Chris is playing the prince in his class's school play Rapunzel," Piper answered.

"We have those tickets you asked for, I'll go get them," Phoebe said and got up.

It was the following day in the middle of the afternoon and the children were starting to get bored and therefore rowdy and destructive. In an attempt to avoid any fights, messes, or broken objects, the adults had set up most of the kids to paint Easter eggs at the kitchen table while Victor had taken the youngest wanting to spend some quality time with her. The adults had joined in with the children. Paige suddenly looked up and said, "Oh. The Elders are summoning me." This had caught Andy's attention. "That's odd, they're calling for me too." He said. Leo looked up and informed the Elders were also asking for him. Andy, Leo, and Paige orbed up to the Elders while the others exchanged looks. It was very rare all three of them were needed by the Elders at the same time, especially Leo since he wasn't even an active white-lighter agent anymore, hadn't been for years.

"I wonder what this is about," stated Phoebe.

"I don't know but it must be serious if all three of them were called in," Prue assumed.

A splat sounded. "Parker, that wasn't very nice," PJ said to her little sister. "Did Parker throw your egg on the floor?" Phoebe asked her. Parker had recently entered a throwing phase. P.J. nodded and looked down at her hard work that now lay splattered on the floor. "I'm sorry honey, and I'm sure Parker is sorry too. I will get you another egg." Phoebe pushed her chair away from the table and got up, she walked over to the counter where a few spare hard boiled eggs rested in a bowl. She picked one up and headed back to the table, handing the egg over to her daughter as Leo, Andy, and Paige returned home.

"The Easter bunny has been kidnapped," Paige reported.

"Did you just say… the Easter bunny?" Asked Coop.

"Yep."

"You have got to be kidding me," retorted Piper.

"PJ? In your bad dream… who kidnapped the Easter bunny?" Coop asked his daughter.

"A kid."

"And who is a little demonic child we happen to know…"

"Wyatt, what is your little demon girlfriend up to?" Andy asked.

"She is not my girlfriend, and I don't know."

"Well maybe it's time we pay her a little visit," said Phoebe.

Paige took her sisters to the cave where they had last seen Ava while the guys stayed behind to look after the children. The cave looked completely the same. It was still spelled to resemble a normal home. The kitchen was full of broken dishes, and there was a faint stain where the little vampire, Anika, had been vanquished by Chris. A couple of chairs knocked over as well. The sisters searched the entire place but there was no sign of Ava or the Easter bunny. However, they did find proof they had been here. "They were here, I found some fresh chocolate eggs," Prue said, holding up some chocolate eggs. "She moved, that's smart if she knew we would come looking, but I'm still going to blow up her little demon ass," Piper stated. Paige kept one of the eggs to scry for the bunny with, but this would prove unsuccessful.

The following day, during the last two periods of school, Westcott elementary was holding an open house to prospective parents looking to enroll their child for the fall. Most of these parents had children who would be starting kindergarten in the fall, and some of those parent had older children who already attended the school. There were also a few parents there looking to switch their child into a new school or parents who had just moved into the area and needed a school to send their children to. The sisters already knew they wanted to send their daughters to this school and it only made sense since Wyatt and Chris already attended this school. (Wyatt was in the second grade and Chris was in first grade.) However, this was a good opportunity to allow the girls to meet their teacher and have their first look at the classroom, and possibly meet some of their classmates. So, while little Henry, Parker, and Payton were at daycare, and Wyatt and Chris in class, the sisters and their husbands brought Melinda, Tamora, Kat, and PJ to the open house.

Leo and Piper entered the junior kindergarten classroom with Melinda and Mrs. Wellington recognized them straight away, she shook hands with the man she had been speaking with and approached the Halliwells. "Mr. Wyatt, Mrs. Halliwell. It's been awhile. How are the boys?" "They're good. Wyatt's eight now and Chris will be seven in October," Piper told her. "Wow, eight already. Has it really been four years since he first entered my classroom, wow time does fly." Mrs. Wellington looked down at Melinda and smiled at her. "Hello, sweetie. What is your name?" "Melinda." "Well, it's nice to meet you, Melinda. Are Wyatt and Chris your big brothers?" Melinda nodded with a big smile on her face. "I assume you're here because this little princess will be in my class in the fall." Leo and Piper both nodded. "Wonderful." She looked at Melinda again. "My name is Mrs. Wellington, I am going to be your teacher." Melinda didn't reply. She was now feeling a tad shy. "Why don't you look around the classroom?" Melinda looked up at her mom asking for permission and Piper nodded to her to grant her permission. So, little Melinda ran off. Leo and Piper shook hands with Mrs. Wellington before following their daughter.

Mrs. Wellington's attention was caught as Henry and Paige approached them with two little innocent-looking devils holding onto their hands. "Hello, I'm Diana Wellington." "Henry Mitchell." "Paige Matthews." Both of them shook hands with the teacher. "And who are these lovely little ladies?" Mrs. Wellington asked, looking at the twins. "These are our daughters. This is Kat, and this is Tamora." "Oh. Nice to meet you girls. You know, I don't think I've ever had a set of twins in my class before." "Really?" Asked Tamora. "Really." Kat looked up at her mother. "Can we go play with Melinda?" She asked. "If your teacher says it's okay." Mrs. Wellington nodded and the three adults watched the twins run off towards Melinda. "Nice to know they already have a friend here," Mrs. Wellington said. "Melinda's their cousin. My sister's kid," Paige informed. "Oh, yes. I thought I recognized you. You two often dropped off the boys or picked them up." Henry and Paige nodded.

After parting ways with Henry and Paige, Mrs. Wellington found herself meeting with Coop and Phoebe. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Halliwell." She shook hands with them and then looked down at PJ who was hiding behind her father. "Hello, what's your name?" PJ started crying and her father lifted her into his arms. "She's a little shy," he explained. "Oh. Well, I'm sure we'll be friends in no time. My name is Mrs. Wellington." PJ didn't respond and wouldn't look at her. "This is Prue-Johnna but we call her PJ." Coop looked around the room as Phoebe started to cry as she unintentionally sensed her daughters' feelings. "PJ, go play with your cousins while Mrs. Wellington and I talk with mommy." He placed his daughter down and PJ scurried over to Melinda and the twins. "She's a really sweet little girl, very polite. She just needs time to warm up to you," Coop told the teacher. "I understand...Um, Mrs. Halliwell, are you alright?" Mrs. Wellington asked. Phoebe whipped the tears off her face. "Yes, sorry. Just wait till her first day, I'll be bawling like a baby."

Chris left his classroom needing to use the washroom and found Ava out in the hall. "Ava?" "Hi, Chris." Chris took a step back not knowing why Ava was here. "What are you doing here? You don't really go to school." Ava laughed and shook her head. "No. Thank god, school is so boring. We can agree on that, can't we Chris?" Chris nodded his head. Ava took a step forward towards him. "You killed my sister, Chris." Chris took a few steps back but Ava would just take another step forward. "She wasn't really your sister, technically." "Does that really matter?" Ava asked silently. "No, I guess not. I'm sorry, Ava, but in all fairness, she was planning on eating me." Ava's eyes flashed red and she waved her hand at Chris sending flying backwards. Chris got up, quickly sensed his mother's location, and darted down the hallway with Ava chasing after him. Chris ran into the kindergarten classroom, almost knocking down a little boy, and ran over to his mother. "Ava is here," he said. Panic grew in Piper's eyes and she looked over to Leo and Melinda. "Leo!" She called out. He turned to look at her. "Chris needs my help. I'll be right back." Leo nodded and Piper and Chris quickly left the classroom. The hall was empty. "She followed me all the way here. She… she must have left." He closed his eyes and concentrated. "Yea, I don't sense her here anymore." "What did she want?" Piper asked. "To kill me probably. She was mad that-" he trailed off as a couple of people passed them. "She was mad about Anika." Piper nodded to say she understood. "Okay. Get back to class and keep a lookout. Tell your brother too." Chris nodded and went to Wyatt's class to tell him.

"Ava was here. She wanted to kill me because of Anika."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, and mom said we should keep an eye out."

"Okay."

The sisters left the open house pretty quickly after Ava's brief unfriendly visit with Chris. Paige went searching for Ava again, this time using her power of sensing to track her location and brought Prue and Piper with her while Phoebe had to speak to her boss about an extension. They found themselves in a tree house in the forest outside Golden Gate Park. However when they arrived, Ava and the bunny were long gone. Melinda orbed to them. "They're in the alley behind P3," Melinda informed them. "You sensed the bunny?" Leo asked. "No daddy, I sensed Billie," Melinda replied. "Billie? Why?" "Billie said if I ever needed demon help I could go to her, and I wanted to help you." "That means Billie is close to them, let's go sisters, and you too, little niece," Phoebe stated. "Really? I get to go too?" "Sure, this is great practice for you," Piper stated. Paige orbed them there and Melinda tugged on Billie's arm making her jump in fright.

"Guys! You scared the crap out of me!" Billie stated.

"Sorry, Billie. We're after a little bunny napper," Paige informed.

"I was right!"

"What?"

"Well, at first I thought the bunny was just handing out some candy to a little witch, but then I started to wonder if it was by choice."

"She's not an innocent little witch. She's the demonic child who planned to turn Wyatt evil earlier this year," Piper corrected her.

Piper stepped forward and shouted, "Ava! Step away from the bunny or be vanquished!" Ava looked at her but didn't move. "I'm serious. I will literally hunt down the ice cream truck and you can join them and the nothing." Ava immediately backed away from the bunny and ran off. "Thank you. Your children will get extra chocolate this year...as a thank you." The bunny said. He hopped away before the sisters or Billie could say anything. "Why did you let her go?" Paige asked Piper. "She might be evil but she is just a kid. I felt bad when Chris vanquished Anika. Let's give Ava a last chance to behave herself." "Okay, let's go home. Billie, you want to join us for supper?" Paige offered. "Sure, thanks."