Please Be Careful With My Heart

Disclaimer: 'Charmed' is not mine. I just love it so much so I did this. So, please don't sue me.

Thanks to all those who reviewed and this is my gift to you this Christmas. A fast update! longer chapter! it's almost 2000 words. Yay!

Charmed-100: it was nice chatting with you. and I believe in you.

psychokitty3: I'm a very big fan of your fics. thanks for reviewing mine.

kk241289: here's more!

hmcfanaddict: thanks a lot! mwah!

Piperfan48: thanks so much for the compliment! you'll see more of piper and leo.

syad yniar: here's the update! yay!

CharmedMiLliE: here goes paige. though she's not their sister. Oh well…

HollyShadow: love u too! thanks so much!

phoebe turner: more sad chaps coming up!

C.Charmed24/7: thanks so much! i'm lookin forward to touching your heart again with the rest of the story.

Dark Halliwell: i'm happy i made u cry! wait, that doesn't sound so good, lol!

Chapter 10

It was weekend, Piper was off to her acting workshop. She joined a theatre group and they were offering some courses on acting. Piper decided to join because everytime she acts, she felt freedom and peace. Because she gets to be different people. She gets to portray different characters. Deep inside, its because she does not like herself. With all the failures she did in her life and the sufferings she had given her family, she hated herself. And putting herself into someone's character gave her the chance to at least bear with herself and prevented her from killing herself. Acting is her way of release. In their workshops, she can cry, yell and just give out her emotions because it's permitted. The people think it's still acting. What they don't know was that every tear that falls from her eyes were not from imagination and internalization, but from the angst and disappointments she felt towards herself.

She went downstairs to the kitchen.

"Hey, Grams. I'll get going. Don't wait up for me at lunch. I'll be back maybe… later this afternoon. OK?" Piper said as she kissed her Grams goodbye.

"Ok, honey, bye, be careful. Take your medicine with you. You'll never know…" Grams warned.

"Yes, Grams. Everything's here. I'm gonna be fine. Don't be such a worrywart." Piper smiled at her Grams and left the room.

When she was about to open the front door, Phoebe entered the manor, sweaty from her morning jog. They had an eye contact for a moment but then Phoebe just walked past Piper.

"Uhh… Phoebe?" Piper called hoping her sister would acknowledge her. To her surprise, Phoebe turned around and looked at her expectantly, with her arms crossed, she leaned back on the banister, boredom and irritation on her face. 'At least she turned around'. Piper thought.

"What?"

"Uhh… " Piper was out of words.

"'Uhh…Uhh…', You're wasting my time!" Phoebe imitated her, then she turned around to go upstairs.

"Cole told me you broke up with him." Piper said.

That stopped Phoebe on her track and she turned around again to face Piper. "So what? Whether we're still together or not, that's none of your business." then Phoebe turned around again and started to run to her room and almost halfway upstairs.

"Just be careful. Ok?" Piper said softly. Phoebe stopped but did not turn around.

"I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I wouldn't be able to handle that. Please beware of him." Piper continued.

Phoebe contemplated what her sister just said, torn between the idea of turning around and running to her sister and the idea of just leaving and acts as if she didn't hear anything.

'Don't run to her and cry. She'll just hurt you and you won't be able to pull yourself together.' Phoebe thought.

So she decided to keep her mouth shut and just ran to her room.

Piper sighed deeply. 'At least there was no yelling.' She looked at her surroundings, 'There's nothing to do here. I better get going and do something out of this life.' Then she left the manor.

Piper had been attending the workshop for 1 week now. At least there, people were nice, they never judged her because of something from the past, and they accepted her for who she is and what she can do. She entered the room and sat down the floor beside a girl with dark hair and pale complexion. 'I've never seen her here. Maybe she's new.' Piper thought.

Then their mentor arrived, Sir Joey.

"Hey class. Good morning!" Joey greeted.

"Good morning, sir!" The students replied.

"Now, our today's session is about being sensitive. Why sensitive? As actors and actresses, you should be sensitive of your co-actors. You should be sympathetic of their emotions, their timing and their energy. To build rapport and chemistry whether onscreen or on stage. Clear?" Everyone nodded.

"Now, I want all of you to go get a partner…. Go on." Joey encouraged.

"Uhh… do you already have a partner? Maybe we could be partners." Piper offered the girl beside her.

"Sure! Thanks. It's my first day, so… I don't know anybody yet." The girl replied.

"Good. I'm Piper, by the way." Piper stretched out her arm to welcome the newbie.

"Paige here. Nice to meet you." Paige accepted and they shook their hands.

"Talk with each other. And by 'talk' I mean silently, without words. Confused?" Joey asked when he saw the confused faces of his students. "Alright, I want you to feel your partners, communicate with each other without talking. Just hold each other's hands, look in each other's eyes and find out what the other is feeling. Through their hands, feel them. Are they cold, hot, or sweaty nervous?"

Piper and Paige did as they were told. They faced one another, held each other's hands and looked in each other's eyes.

"Now, as you looked at each other. I want you to feel your own emotions, your deep feelings that you've been keeping all this time, resurface. You are now exposed! Vulnerable!"

The memories came back to Piper, all the anger she felt from Phoebe and the loss she felt ever since her mother died. When she lost her mother, it felt like she had lost her whole family in the process.

Phoebe's words:

'You should be dead right now!'

'I hate you for ruining my life!'

From Daddy's goodbye letter:

'I can't look at you three and not see your mother. I'm sorry, but it hurts.'

Grams' cries at the hospital when she thought I was asleep:

'It should be me! I'm supposed to go first, not my daughter!'

'How could you take her away from us!'

The words I heard from Prue's room the night we buried mom:

'Mom, come back to us, please! I'm not ready to take over, I'm not ready to take charge! Mom, please! Our family has broken down, we need you to get us back together!'

'It's all because of me. All the hurts and emotional baggage my family has been carrying all this time, it's all because of me. You shouldn't have saved me, Mom.' Piper thought as the tears of anger towards herself fell down from her eyes.

Paige's mind brought back the memories of her parents.

Mom's conversation with Dad:

'I failed. I've done everything to show her that I love her. But it's not enough. Why does she still do things to hurt us?'

Dad's reply was:

'We didn't fail. Maybe, someday she will understand us. Just wait for her. We can do that.'

Mom said:

'She hates us. You heard her. And it hurts me to hear those words from her. How can I fail as a mother?'

'You didn't fail, Mom. I did. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.' Paige thought as the tears of guilt fell down from her eyes.

"Now, look at your partners' face. Analyze the expression, feel the emotion surging from them."

After a few minutes.

"Now, Let go. Take a deep breath. And… great. That's it."

Paige and Piper both sighed deeply and faced their mentor.

"Ok. Now, I'm going to call each pair and you will do an impromptu scene. You will make a plot out of what you felt from each other earlier. There's gotta be continuity and connection. Understood?"

Everyone nodded.

"Ok, our first pair would be…" Joey scanned the room and spotted two girls. "You two, up."

Piper and Paige looked at Joey then to each other, they stood up and went to the front.

"You deliver the first line. Action!" Joey said as he pointed to Paige.

"I know you're tired. Too tired to go on with your life but you have to. I know you feel you're all alone. You hate yourself. Why don't you just get over it and move on?!" Paige delivered.

"Look who's talking. Why don't you look at yourself? Or maybe you can't do it. You can't look in the mirror and see yourself. Because you're angry! Angry with that person in the mirror, you wish you were somebody else. So don't teach me about getting over it and moving on when you can't even do it yourself!" Piper counteracted.

"That is not true! You don't have the right to say that, you don't know me!" Paige was shaking her head in anger because what Piper said was true, she felt trapped.

"And you do me?! Why don't you fix yourself first before you start fixing others?" Piper mocked.

"Because… Because…" Paige ran out of words.

Piper just raised her eyebrows, waiting for Paige.

"Because I want to help you." Paige said softly. "And I need your help, too." she continued looking down.

Piper's defences went down and she looked at Paige expectantly.

"Maybe we could help each other and be each others' pillar." Paige said.

"But I may not be strong enough to help you. What if I end up hurting you?" Piper said softly.

"Me, too. I'm afraid that if I fail you, I won't be able to get you back." Paige whispered. "But I guess, we just have to take that risk and just do it. We can do it together."

"Thank you." Piper smiled and hugged Paige and closed her eyes.

"Hey! We're sisters and I love you." Paige said cheerfully at the same time tearfully.

The word 'sisters' struck Piper as her mind went to Phoebe. 'I so wanted to hear those words from her. 'I love you.'' Piper thought tearfully. "I love you too." Piper said as she imagined it was Phoebe she was hugging.

"And… cut! That was wonderful. That's what I call 'rapport'. Thank you, girls! Alright, next! You two, go ahead!" Joey said clapping his hands together and pointed to another pair to participate.

When they got back to their seats, they were both wiping the tears they shed during their scene. Then Piper felt her chest tightened, she hurriedly went to find her medicine from her bag and took one. Paige watched Piper inhaled deeply a few times after taking the medicine.

"Are you alright? What was that for?" Page asked worriedly.

Piper looked at Paige. "Oh, they're just… vitamins. Nothing to worry about." Piper smiled at Paige.

"Oh ok. Are you sure?" Paige doubtfully asked.

"Absolutely! Hey, you were good back there." Piper praised Paige to change to topic.

"No, you carried the scene. You were really good." Paige said.

"Ok. To stop the who's who, we're both good. Happy?" Piper smiled.

Paige just laughed at Piper. "Happy." They laughed together.

'I have a new friend!' They thought. They smiled inwardly.

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May you all have a Christmas full of love and
a New Year full of blessings!