Heya guys sorry its been so long. I hurt my wrist at the begining of last week and did "soft tissue damage" (not a clue what it means) and I had to rest it, so no computer. But I'm back!

Chapter 4 - Plans All Round

Piper awoke with a start, feeling strangely uncomfortable. She soon realised why - she was sat on the sofa which was uncomfortable to sit on at the best of times, never mind when she'd spent the night asleep on it. She tried to cast her mind back - why had she slept on the sofa?

Then she remembered Leo coming, and they were talking... Ugh, had she made a fool of herself? Probably.

She threw the blanket off of her, then realised he must have covered her over. Which meant she'd fallen asleep when he was still here, probably as he was talking, right?

Silently scolding herself, she got up and began to move around, getting ready for the day - moving day. Moving back home.

"Why am I doing this again?" She muttered to herself, as she fed Gracie and looked over the boxes scattered around the room. There was no need to move back home, none at all.

Maybe she could just call the manor and tell them she wasn't moving in? Not there, where he knew where they were. No where to hide when he knew the place, and yet plenty of places for him to do so.

But she knew that calling her sisters wouldn't do anything. They wouldn't let her cancel, she had to do it, now.

Several hours later, Piper pulled up outside the huge pink house she used to love. She lifted Gracie out of her car seat, picked up one of her bags as walked up the stone steps towards the front door. She raised her hand to knock, then remembered the key in her pocket. She unlocked the door, stepped forward, and jumped as Phoebe let out a high-pitched scream.

"Piper! You're here!"

"Yup." Piper said, glancing nervously around.

"Prue and Paige have gone to the supermarket, to stock up. Do you need some help? I'll get the rest of your bags. Put Gracie in Parker's play-pen." She added as she walked out of the door, waving towards the empty play-pen in the corner.

Piper put her bags on the floor and followed Phoebe, still holding Gracie. Put her down, leave her alone? No chance.

It was harder to carry them all in, and took longer, but Piper refused to put Gracie down. Finally, they were all in her room and Piper set up Gracie's crib next to her bed, sat her in it while she unpacked.

"Au' Piper?" The child's voice startled her, but Piper turned and smiled widely.

"Hiya, Parker!" She said brightly. "Is your mummy home?"

He nodded, looking around the room. "Gracie." He said, smiling at his cousin.

"Yep, Gracie." Piper said. He moved forward, walked over to the crib and started talking quietly to her daughter.

"Piper!" Prue appeared in the doorway, smiling brightly. "Are you all unpacked?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Piper nodded, looking around her old room. "Well, the stuff I'll need. I didn't want to leave all my stuff at home, but I won't need it all -" Prue frowned, and Piper stopped. "We both know this isn't permanent, Prue."

"It should be." Prue sighed. "I know you don't feel safe here, but you'll get used to it -"

"I don't need to. I have a perfectly good home, and I'm only here to... well, 'cause you made me. To help out."

"You can't live there forever. What happens when Gracie gets older? She'll need her own room?"

"Right back at you. She won't have a room here, either."

"We'll make room." Prue said steelily.

"Prue. I'm moving back in a few weeks, OK?"

"Fine." Prue sighed, but Piper knew this wasn't the end of it.

----

"She's back home." Zander remarked. "I didn't think she ever would."

"So we can get inside the manor now?" Another demon, Carkan,

"I'm not sure." Zander admitted. "But without the old witch around, we can see her again, and it's a start. She can't hide in that place the whole time, and there's a thousand and one places we can kill her."

"And the child? Can you sense her yet?"

"Her powers are bound." Zander said simply. "I don't know if it worked, if she's as strong as we thought she would be. I'd hoped that the binding potion wouldn't have been so affective on her..."

"We can reverse it." Carkan replied. "And start training her. But the questions are still there. How, and when?"

"Soon." Zander replied. "And how... well, Piper's death requires a lot of thought - I'll only get to kill her once..."

----

"Breath deeply." Leo was saying, and Piper breathed in, deeply and angrily. "Remember how you felt while you were there, remember every detail."

"No problem." Piper murmured. Sat cross legged on her bed, eyes closed, and breathing deeply, she felt like an idiot. "But how will it help?"

"Just remember it."

"I remember." Piper mumbled, and suddenly it was like she was there again.

"What do you see?" Leo asked softly.

"Him. Laughing at me. I - I'm confused, I don't know what's going on, what I'm doing here." Piper mumbled, and Leo was alarmed at how scared her voice sounded.

"Shh, it's OK, try to calm down. What else?"

"Uh - uh - it's all dark, the walls are dirty, and they're all around me. Demons. I don't understand, and the way he's looking at me, the way they're all looking at, it scares me. I want to go home, why won't he let me go home?"

"Shh, OK, calm down. What happens next?"

"I - I ask him again what's going on, and he laughs again. I've never heard him laugh like that. It's not - not human. Alex I'm scared. What's going on? And he says - says his name's not Alex, he's not who I think he is. He's a demon. I asked what he was talking about, and he told me that I was really a witch, and - and - that he was a demon, that he was the first part in a plan to create ultimate evil life forms. You fell for it, you actually fell for it, and me, and it was so easy, you stupid witch."

Leo reached out and took hold of her hands as he voice shook harder.

"He said that now I was pregnant, I had to stay here, and once the baby was born he could finally kill me, and raise the kid. With both of our powers combined, the baby would be unstoppable. Now they knew it would work, more demons could go after my sisters, and other witches, and then the whole world would be in their control. You are the start of the end." She opened her eyes, looked at him in terror. "What have I done?" She whispered. Then she fainted.

----

Only seconds had passed, but Leo had held his breath until she'd started to stir.

"Leo...?" She mumbled. "What...?"

"It's OK, you're OK." He whispered gently, lifting her into a sitting position. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Uh... I was remembering what happened... and... Oh, god. I'm the start of it all, she's the start of it all. I never remembered, I never understood, but it's all my fault, isn't it?"

"No, no, Piper, no." He said quickly. "It's not, nothing happened. You have Gracie, OK, you have her and he won't ever get her from you. You are going to raise her properly, she'll be good."

"How do you know?" She whispered.

"Because she has you. There's not an evil bone in you, and that gives her and advantage. Demons like him, they see people like you as weak, and he never thought that Gracie would be like you. He can't get to her, he can't use her."

"The plan - what if they try it on someone else - it worked, it worked on me -"

"No, it didn't. You got away, and he has nothing to show for what he did. They'll have moved on from that now, really."

"What if they do get her? What then?"

"Piper, do you trust me?" He asked her. He was holding her hands again.

"I..." She didn't trust people. Not since him. She didn't trust anyone, not even herself. The only person she allowed herself to be close to was Gracie, she needed Gracie. They didn't need anyone else. But something about Leo made her forget all of that. She looked into his eyes and the answer came without thinking.

"Yes."

"Then listen to me. I won't lie to you - he could get her, he could take her from you. But if he does, I'll do everything I can to get her back. OK? I promise."

"OK." She murmured. "OK."

He smiled at her, knowing he'd just made a breakthrough. He allowed himself a moment - just a moment - to wonder how he had become so attached to this woman and her daughter, so quickly, then forced himself to forget it. It wasn't important. It didn't matter.