Most of you picked up on the nephew thing at the end of the last one, I put that there just to see who would. It'll be explained in this one, of course, in the first couple of lines, actually. So I don't really know why I'm writing this bit... I should stop now, shouldn't I?

Oh, and I know it's been a while, but for some reason or another I haven't been on the computer in the last couple of days. But here it is...

Chapter 3 - The Last Goodbye

Piper cradled Gracie as she walked slowly up the isle of the church. Gracie stayed silent, looked around herself with what seemed to be, to Piper anyway, sadness. in the front pew sat Prue, holding tightly onto her husband Andy's hand, her two-year-old son Parker sat on her knee, resting his head on her chest. Next to her, Phoebe was staring into space, her eyes glazed over and rimmed with red, evidently a result of crying. On her other side sat Paige, who seemed to be crying silently. Behind them sat a few more people, Gram's friends, and neighbours, and... Well, that was it. The place was empty... scarily so. Piper liked to be in large crowd, somewhere she could blend in, slip away unnoticed...

She took her seat next to Paige, shifted Gracie so the baby could face the front, for no reason at all, really.

"I can't believe she's gone." Phoebe murmured, not expecting a reply and not getting one. Phoebe seemed to have gone into some kind of shock, Piper had noticed. Prue was... well, she was dealing with it, as far as Piper could tell. But the in the last four days since Grams had died, Piper had spent her time at home, talking to her sisters on the phone. Paige was clearly distraught - she had been less than a year old when their mother had died, and so Grams had been the only mother she'd ever known. She had cried continuously at the hospital, all through the journey in which Prue drove Piper back to her flat. Every time they'd spoken on the phone - which had been often, more in the last four days, Piper guessed, than since she had moved out of the manor - Paige had been crying, or sounded like she'd just stopped. Or been about to start. She was dealing with it badly, and Piper didn't know how to help her. Selfish though she knew it was, she couldn't help but think Prue or Phoebe would have to help her... Piper had her own things to worry about right now. Sure, she was upset about losing Grams, but she was more scared than anything else... Without Grams, how did she know if the protection spells were still in effect? And without Grams, what was she supposed to do if Zander ever did attack?

She felt guilty, too, for being so self-absorbed at a time like this.

She barely registered the words spoken during the funeral, somehow it passed her by in a blur. Then, they were all back at the manor.

She took a seat in the conservatory, as close to the doors as she could, in case she needed to run. It was an amostly laughable thought... picturing herself running with Gracie screaming while Zander fired things at her was almost funny... if it wasn't so serious.

The friends and neighbours soon left, after filling up on the free food, Piper thought cynically. Then she was alone with her sisters, and she waited...

"You know what I'm going to say." Prue said, and Piper just gave a small nod. "But I'll say it anyway. Are you going to move back here?"

"There isn't enough room." Piper replied instantly, and Prue sent her and icy look.

"We'll make room." She said cooly. "We managed before.

"Prue, I've said before, I am not moving back in here. Geez, I'm 25. It's normal for me to have left home now, why move back in?"

"Because Grams wanted you too." Phoebe murmured.

"Don't try to make me feel guilty." Piper snapped. "I moved away because this place isn't safe for me and Gracie."

"Grams has it protected -"

"Had. She had it protected. How do you know those spells will still work? Prue, think for a moment that it was Parker who could be kidnapped at any moment, that it was you who would be killed to get to him. And you tell me that you wouldn't do everything and anything you could to protect him."

"And you imagine that it was me, or Phoebe or Paige who was in constant danger of being killed, and that we were off somewhere alone, with no one to help out if he did ever come, and you tell me you wouldn't want them to move back in."

Damn it, Piper thought in annoyance. She's right.

"I would, I know that. But please, just understand how dangerous it is here, how scared I am..."

"We need you here, even if it's just for a little while." Paige said, looking at Piper with her red, sore looking eyes. Piper knew they were thinking that after a while she'd want to stay here. But she found herself saying yes anyway...

----

Her whole flat was packed up into boxes, everything she owned. And tomorrow, she was moving back there, to the manor, where it was less safe than here.

She threw the last of the wine down her neck, then tossed the empty bottle into the kitchen bin, and picked up another. Gracie was sleeping, and Piper, not knowing what else to do, Piper had opened a bottle of wine and settled down to watch a film. Now, the film was finished and she was on the third bottle.

When she heard the sound of him orbing, she made a loud, angry noise, and turned spun round. Then she got dizzy and had to clutch the worktop to steady herself.

"Are you OK?" He asked her uncertainly, and she glared at him.

"No, I'm not. My grandmother has just died, my sisters are forcing me to move back into that stupid house, where he could easily come and get her, but do they care? Um, no. Have they ever? Nope, no one gives a damn what I think, or what I feel and I'm just expected to go along with everything, and now you're orbing in here unasked, unannounced, probably to annoy me and make my day a whole lot worse, right?"

"Uh, I just wanted to check in on you." He murmured. "And, um, well if you ever want to talk to someone... well, I'm here, and I care."

"Ha. Sure you do. He said that to me too, you know." She said, and walked unsteadily into the living area and sat on the old battered couch. "Alex. No, Zander, isn't it? He used to say to me that he cared, and he used to listen to me pour my heart out..."

"It wasn't easy, Piper. Trying to make you fall for me, trying to stop myself from just ending your pitiful life. Listening to you, day after day after day. You used to go on and on. "My sisters never listen to me, they expect me to just do what they say, Grams is always so preoccupied by them and their stuff that she barely notices I exist, and mum, I miss her so much, and why doesn't dad ever get in touch, is it so hard to pick up a phone?" Well get over it, and stop moaning! No one cares about your pointless little woes..."

"Piper?" Leo repeated, and she shook her head a little, only just realising he was saying something.

"What?"

"I said, I really mean it. I'm not him, Piper." He said patiently, and she nodded slightly.

"Still, he was right. Why would anyone what to listen to me complaining forever... No wonder he couldn't wait to kill me, no wonder he hated me..."

"That was because he was a demon, Piper." Leo said quickly. "It's the way they are, it's nothing to do with you."

"Yeah, right. You're only saying that so I'll be a Charmed One."

"Piper, I really don't care if you do that or not. All I want to do is help you... you're my charge, it's my job."

"You were right, what you said the other day. I don't regret it, any of it... She's amazing, you know? There's nothing like it, when she looks up at me... she's so trusting, like she thinks I'll always be there to protect her... and I know I wont be... I love her so much, and I couldn't imagine not having her. And even though I know she's a part of him... she's just so perfect, sometimes I forget it." Her voice had a dreamy quality now, and he guessed that pretty soon she would fall asleep.

"I don't know what I'd be without her." She continued, laying her head against the sofa. "She... she gives me a purpose, you know? A reason. I can believe that it wasn't such a bad thing, what happened, because I got her out of it..."

"Everything happens for a reason." Leo murmured.

"And she's my reason for everything." Piper murmured back. She smiled dreamily at him, then closed her eyes. After a few seconds he realised she was asleep, he'd been right. He got up and started searching for a blanket, knowing that it would make more sense to carry her over to the bed in the corner, but he didn't want her to wake up as he was carrying her and panic, as he was certain she would. So instead he dragged the quilt off it, and draped it over her.

"You will get through this." He mumbled, knowing that she couldn't hear him. "I promise you, I'll help you...