Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed nor do I own anything related to Cher and Peter Cetera's song, "After All." This takes place sometime after the Avatars and before "The Seven Year Witch." You can choose where you think it fits best.

Through the Years

Nineteen: After All

When love is truly right
(This time it's truly right)
It lives from year to year
It changes as it goes
Oh, and on and on it grows
But it never disappears

After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back
To these two hearts
Two angels who've been rescued
From the fall
And after all that we've been through
It all comes down to me and you

I guess it's meant to be
Forever you and me, after all

-Peter Cetera and Cher, "After All"

"I can't believe we finally got them both to sleep at the same time," said Piper as she leaned back against the door to the boys' bedroom.

"I still can't believe they finally have their own room. How'd you manage to swing that with your sisters anyway?"

Piper shrugged. "I didn't. Paige was being generous."

"Remind me to thank her sometime," said Leo. Piper grinned and Leo wondered if that had been wildly inappropriate of him to say in the current state of their relationship. He still had no idea where they stood. He felt as though they were drifting, and he couldn't quite figure out to where. Every day felt like they were on different territory with one another. And whose fault is that? asked the little voice in his head.

"I will," said Piper in answer to his statement, snapping Leo back into the moment. Her smile grew mischievous as she stood up straight and, taking the initiative she'd always shown in their relationship, walked over to him and took his hands. Then she leaned up and kissed him lightly on his neck.

"Piper," he said, amazed that one kiss from her could practically render him senseless. "What are we doing?

Piper kissed his neck again, closer to his jaw line. "Well," she said, her lips moving against his neck, "right now I'm trying to get you in the mood." She kissed him again. "But since you haven't dragged me down the hall to our bedroom, I'm not sure it's working."

"Our bedroom," said Leo. He put his hands on Piper's shoulders and gently pushed her away from him so he could look into her eyes. "You think of it as our bedroom then?"

"Don't you?" asked Piper.

Leo frowned, uncertain how to articulate how he felt in words, but at the same time eager to lay his mind to rest once and for all. "Well," he said, "we've been together the past six months, but we haven't really been...together, you know?"

"Are you talking about sex?" asked Piper bluntly, wrapping her arms around him and letting her hands come to rest on his ass. She certainly had a one track mind tonight. "Because it's really been more like a year. Over a year."

"Piper…"

Piper sighed and stepped back, folding her arms across her chest. "Okay," she said. "I'll stop. But you really should think about it because I'm sure that I can't be the only one who's frustrated."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Leo wryly. Then, more seriously, he said, "Look, Piper, I know that this is my fault. I know that I've been the one hemming and hawing about getting back together—"

"Whoa!" said Piper. She held up a hand in a stop gesture. "Are you telling me that you don't consider us 'back together'?"

"Do you think we are?"

Piper shrugged in an, "isn't it obvious?" sort of way. "Yeah," she said. "I mean, I know we've been having problems. And that you still haven't moved back in. And that we haven't had sex in way too long. But I do consider you to be my husband again. We've just had a rough patch."

"A rough patch?" said Leo skeptically. "Piper, you asked for a divorce. You dated other men."

"Hang on a second," said Piper. "First of all, if I recall correctly you left and then I asked for some space. If anyone initiated divorce, it was you. Second of all, I didn't even care about any of those other men."

"You certainly looked pretty cozy with the fireman. You're telling me he didn't mean anything?" said Leo bitterly. As Piper's eyebrows narrowed he immediately regretted the words. Now she was really going to be on the offensive.

"I was mad, Leo. I was mad that you said you were leaving me and that you basically asked for a divorce, but then you never left. You were still hanging around the manor all the time. So maybe I wanted to punish you a little. And to get my sisters off of my back." She rolled her eyes and added under her breath, "As if dating proved that I was over you. Give me a break."

Leo opened his mouth to apologize again and to tell her that as it was all in the past, maybe they should focus on the present, but then something stopped him. He realized that if Piper was still upset about this—and obviously he was too, as he had opened this can of worms—then ignoring it wasn't going to make it go away. As much as both he and Piper hated discussing the painful parts of their relationship, they had to this time. Maybe sweeping things under the rug was part of their problem.

"It worked," said Leo instead. When Piper furrowed her brow in confusion, Leo clarified, "Watching you with those other men was a punishment, but I felt like I deserved every second of it. I was the one who left, even if I didn't want to."

"Obviously you didn't want to, Leo, seeing that it took you ten months to actually leave."

"I didn't ask to be an Elder, Piper," said Leo. For the first time in a long time he felt himself getting angry with her. Strangely, the anger felt good; it felt as though he was waking up from a long slumber. He had been treating Piper like china, he realized, because of how guilty he felt. That hadn't helped anyone, had it?

"You certainly jumped at the chance to be one fast enough!"

"I only did it to protect you!" said Leo. "Chris said—" He shut his mouth abruptly. Even if he wanted to be more honest with Piper that was one thing he never intended to tell her.

"Chris said what?" asked Piper. Leo kept his mouth shut and Piper stepped closer to him, pointing a finger in his face. "So help me, Leo Wyatt, if you don't tell me this instant I will blow you from here to next Thursday. What did Chris say?"

"I don't want you to be angry with Chris," said Leo quietly.

"He's my son, Leo. I'm not going to hold it against him, whatever it may be."

Leo sighed. "He told me that I had to become an Elder to protect my family. He told me… He told me that something happens to you in the future."

"And that's why you became an Elder?" asked Piper.

"At first," said Leo. "But then after Chris sent me to Valhalla I wanted to stay an Elder so I could figure out who he really was. Then you started dating other people and I realized that you deserved the chance to move on and be happy. You didn't need me screwing up your life anymore."

To his surprise, Piper began to laugh. Instantly, Leo's ire rose and he crossed his arms. "Is that really that funny?" he asked.

"No," said Piper, trying and failing to quell her chuckling. "I was just thinking about how frustrated Chris must have been. Whatever he may have told you, I don't think he intended for you to stay an Elder. He must have thought we'd work it out fairly quickly, or else he wouldn't have risked his existence."

"That's not that funny," said Leo. "He must have been scared to death."

"Oh, lighten up. He made it. He's lying right in there." She waved a hand towards the boys' bedroom door, and Leo cracked a small smile.

"You know, he did tell me to go home in the end."

"You should listen to him, Leo. Except for underestimating what martyrs his parents are, he's a smart kid."

Leo smiled. "I do want to come home, Piper. I've wanted to for a long time now."

Piper grinned, her smile growing more and more with each passing second, her eyes sparkling. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to say those words," said Piper. "And I mean really say them, without me having to plead with you to come home."

"Trust me, Piper," said Leo. "I've never been so sure of anything in my life. I want to be your husband again. I want to be a real father to Wyatt and Chris. I want to be a family again. If, you know, you want those things too?" The words came out as a question, almost a quiet plea, because despite everything, Leo honestly wanted Piper to make the choice. He wanted her to be sure that he was what she wanted.

The next thing he knew, Piper had practically leapt towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck and capturing his mouth in a heated kiss. "Yes," she said, kissing him again. "Yes, yes, yes."

Leo grinned, feeling happy and certain and fulfilled for the first time in years. Before anything else could happen, he took Piper by the hand and led her down the hall to their bedroom.

Late that night, Leo lay in bed next to Piper running his fingers lightly up and down her arm. A quiet hung over the room, punctuated only by occasional sighs of contentment. Still, as calm and satisfied as Leo felt at the moment, in the back of his mind the Elders hung like an ominous cloud. Leo was trying his best to keep them out of his thoughts so he could just enjoy this time with his wife—how good it felt to say that again!—but he couldn't quite ignore them completely. Any day they could destroy everything he'd just gotten back a few hours ago.

Without warning, Piper lifted her head from his chest and turned, staring across the room at her dresser. "What is it?" asked Leo curiously. It seemed that she had something entirely different on her mind.

"I just thought of something," said Piper. She slipped out of bed and went to her jewelry box. Leo raised an eyebrow, but a minute later Piper had crawled back into bed with something clutched in her fist.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I know," said Piper quietly, "that the Elders could swoop in any day now and take you away." Leo almost smiled at the coincidence; perhaps their thoughts hadn't been so different after all. "I know this might only last another hour, but you need to know that I'm so glad that if nothing else, we had tonight."

"I am too," said Leo. "But can't we forget about the Elders, just for tonight?"

"Trust me," said Piper, "they're the last thing I want to think about right now. I just remembered something." Slowly she opened her fist: lying on her palm was both of their wedding rings and her engagement ring. "I just thought that this way everyone, even the Elders, will remember what we mean to each other."

"You kept them," said Leo, honestly surprised. After everything Piper had said to him before Chris was born, he had almost expected her to get rid of them in an attempt to cleanse him from her life.

"Of course I did," said Piper softly. "Do you want to—"

"Of course," said Leo. He picked up Piper's rings and she lifted her left hand, looking slightly teary-eyed. Slowly, his eyes on Piper's beautiful face, he slipped on both rings. Without hesitating, Piper returned the gesture, taking his left hand and putting his ring back, right where it belonged.

"I love you," said Piper. "I really do."

"I love you too," said Leo. "And nothing is ever going to change that."

A/n: This was one of the first chapters I drafted, but I actually changed it quite a bit in light of chapter eighteen. The end is the only idea that still exists from the original draft. This chapter, of course, goes hand-in-hand with chapter eighteen and it's another huge moment I thought was missing from the show. I know this sounds weird, but the idea was actually born from how much it always bothered me that Leo had a wedding ring tan in "The Seven Year Witch" when he hadn't been seen wearing his ring in so long! I also like giving Piper and Leo some kind of defined relationship since the show didn't seem willing to (was it really necessary to have Phoebe doubt love twice in the same season, yet scarcely give Piper and Leo's relationship airtime?! Sorry, I sound a little bitter, but that always bugged me).

I'm not sure why Piper's been so eager to get Leo into bed in the last two chapters. I guess she deserves to be since it's been a year and a half and the last time was in an alley. Hehehe.

Anyway, the next chapter will be up sometime soon. I'm having a little bit of trouble with it and I'm probably going to be starting a second job soon, but I'll make time to get it done.

Thank you all for the reviews! You have all been so positive and encouraging that it makes writing this a true joy. I can't believe that there are only five chapters left! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Katie