Chapter 2...
It had been a week since the three knew about Leo. Both Phoebe and Paige had noticed Piper's attitude and mood changing. She was going back to how she used to be. Mopey and lost. They knew he was the reason. Piper refused to talk to or about him when they interfered. That was when they devised a plan. They weren't about to let history repeat itself due to one stupid mistake.
Piper laid in bed not fully awake yet. Then suddenly she felt lips on top of hers. She smiled against them and kissed back. She touched her hands to his face and pulled him more into her. She soon felt his weight on top of her and he moved his kisses slowly down her cheek to her neck. Piper felt relaxed and secure as his tender kisses left their trail on her smooth skin. They came back up to her lips and she took them in. Finally satisfied she hugged him. "Good morning." she whispered into his ear.
"I take it you missed me as much as I missed you." he whispered back with a chuckle. Piper opened her eyes and looked into Evan's blue beauties. The grin that was spreading from ear to ear just seconds ago had shortened and she was now flashing a small smile. "Of course." she said.
Before he had woke her with the passion, she was coming out of a dream. She dreamt about him last night. About Leo. When she felt nothing beside her but empty space, she knew it was a dream and hated herself for it. Not like she could control what she dreamt about, but it still buggeed her. I guess that's what I get for crying over his dumb ass yet again. she thought to herself. It had been like this since she saw him.
Then here came the kiss and she actually thought dream was reality. She took advantage with thoughts of it being a rare moment. When she opened her eyes and saw Evan, her boyfriend, she couldn't help to feel stupid. She wanted to bang her head againt the wall for the dissappointment she felt. She barely now noticed that throught the week, she hadn't seen much of him either. Suddenly all that turned to bitter hate toward him. Harsh anger toward the man she was struggling to hide her true feelings from. All against Leo. Why did he do it? How did he do these things to her so unknowingly? It was mentally abusive.
"Yeah, Phoebe let me in. I've been trying to come over, but lately I-" Evan was cut off mid sentence by Piper's lips this time. She hoped filling herself with Evan would knock out every thought of Leo she was thinking. Fuck you, Leo. I don't need you. She ran her hands under his shirt. You don't even know what love is. She pulled it up and over his head.
"Right now, Piper?" he said pulling away from her as she dropped it to the floor. He probably questioned do to the fact she wasn't exactly a morning person.
"Thought you missed me. Are you trying to complain?" she questioned back. He smirked, "Never." and crawled under the covers with her.
Downstairs, Paige ran into the house. "Phoebe, Phoebe, I got it." she ran into the kitchen. Phoebe was listening to the radio and eating. She looked up from a sandwhich. "Hush, I like this song. You got what?" she asked. Paige turned off the music. She couldn't have seriously forgotten.
"The number. Leo's number. Here." she said handing over a profile peice of paper with alot of Leo's personal information. Phoebe looked it over and her eyes widened.
"Wow. Screw the yellow pages." she said sarcastically. Paige rolled her eyes.
"He wouldn't be in it anyway. Plus, look, address.", she pointed, smiling "Yes I am that good. Told Stop N Go manager I was his long lost sister."
Phoebe laughed. "Kudos. You know, if I was the manager, I would ask if you were the adopted sister or not considering you next to Leo have no resemblance whatsoever."
"Oh, shut up. I completed the mission. Now onto stage two!" Paige said excitedly. "Where's the cordless?"
"Um, Paige, wait. Are you sure were not making a bigger mess out of this?" she asked worriedly. Piper did have a tendency to lash out. Especially when it was because her sisters doing something she specifically asked them not to. And Piper did ask them to not speak to him.
"Come on, Phoebe. Sure she may be a little ticked off, but when their on their honeymoon, she'll totally be thanking know as well as I do that he's all she's ever wanted, so let's get a move on huh?"
Phoebe took the phone from her. "Honeymoon? Paige, he broke her heart, like really broke it. I admit coming up with the idea it sounded 100% workable, but now that I rethink it, maybe not so much."
"Phoebe, she's had 7 damn years to heal. I think she just needs that little push to really give up what she's been hiding. We, my dear, will be saints."
Phoebe was really starting to think it wasn't such a great idea anymore and was throwing everything out there to make Paige see that too. Then she remembered. "What about Evan? Poor Evan. We can't ruin her relationship with him. He's come closest I think. If we destroy that, she'll hate us for sure. Please, Paige, look all this over one more time."
Paige sighed deep. "I did Phoebe. I thought about him too and I agree, he's amazing. But your not looking past him. She's continuously using these guys to cover up what she really wants but is to afraid to go for, fearing what happened before will replay and she'll be caught in the same boring, empty cycle. She's stubborn, Phoebe, you of all should know that. She wont admit anything until you beat it out of her. Doing this might hurt her, but in the end I assure you we'll have done a lot of saving also."
Phoebe took in her words and smiled. "Well when you put it like that..."
Paige smiled back "Yes!" and grabbed the phone from her, dialed his number and waited. Ring, ring, ring, ring... "Nothing."
"Let me try." Phoebe re-dialed. Ring, ring, ring, ring... "Maybe he's out?"
"One more time. Just in case." Ring, ring... "You wouldn't dare." they heard laughter.
"Shit, it's Piper!" Paige hit 'end' and threw the phone at Phoebe who threw it back and Paige ran it to the hook and ran back to Phoebe.
"Good morning, sunshine." Phoebe hugged Piper as she came into the kitchen with Evan at her side "Or sunshines." she nudged Evan and laughed way to fake to take seriously. Paige rolled her eyes. Way to play natural, Pheebs. she thought.
Piper looked at them, knowing instantly something wasn't right. "What's going on?" she said.
Paige grinned "Does something always have to be up to be in a good mood Piper? Your such a worry wart!"
Silence fell for a breif 5 seconds and everyone looked at each other. "Well," started Paige, "I think I'm gonna run into town." Phoebe followed "Good idea, I wanted to get some stuff."
They had just dashed by Piper when the phone rang. She, being next to it picked it up hitting 'talk'. "Hello?"
They turned praying with everything they had that it wasn't him. "Hello?" she said again.
Phoebe and Paige stood there staring at her reaction. Then 3 seconds later, they sawthe shocked, hurt and angered expression they were dreading as she hung up and slammed the phone down.
"We need to talk." she said through gritted teeth and dragged them to the conservatory.
Leo woke up to his phone ringing. He let it ring. His mom always did say "If it's important, they'll call back." Which they did. Finally he pulled himself out of bed and went to the kitchen where he left it. It was a number he didn't know. While it rang, he debated to answer the unknown number or not. Finally before he missed it a third time he answered, "Yeah?" He just heard the dial tone.
Why the hell wake me if you ain't gonna say shit? he thought. He wasn't gonna stand for that. No one calls him 2 times, then hangs up when he finally answers.
He called the number back. Ring... "Who are you and what the hell do you want?" he talked to hiself. Ring... Finally, "Hello?" came a voice. Her voice. He stopped breathing. He didn't need to see a face. He could never forget that voice. Sweet and soft, spoke like an angel. When in a good mood of course. He felt his heart twitch. Why is she calling me? How does she know I'm back? How did she get my number? "Hello?" she came again.
Damn it, Leo. Talk! "Uh, P-Piper?" he stuttered, "I-Is that you?" Then just as fast as his hopes shot up, they were crushed when the dial tone once again started beeping. The thought crossed his mind to call back, but it was shot out when he figured it might be useless so why bother.
Back at the manor, the sisters were "talking".
"We were just trying to help, Piper. We didn't expect it to turn out like this." Phoebe was arguing.
"Yeah, just like all you other million failed plans right? I can't believe you did this. How did you do this? You two have to ruin everything. I was fine. I was doing just great without any of your help."
"Oh, quit acting Piper, you are so in denial. You've had nothing on your mind but him since you knew he was back and you know that." Paige said back.
"Shut up." Piper muttered.
"See, that's it. Everytime he comes up, you drop it like he doesn't mean anything. We get that he hurt you. We see the pain, but how do you expect to get over it if you keep throwing it to the side. It's time to face it and move past it." she continued.
Piper opened her mouth to rebutle, but Phoebe beat her. "Don't try to say you are over him. It's crystal clear your not and you need to stop kidding yourself. Just because he hasn't attempted anything since he's been back doesn't mean he doesn't care either. Why are you fighting this when you know your gonna lose?"
Piper thought about what they were saying. About how right they were. Maybe it wasn't another failed plan after all. Maybe it was supposed to happen just like this so they could talk some sense into her. After all that's what they had done. Everything they said was true and as much as she hated to admit it, he was the only thing on her mind since she saw him. It all made sense. Then she remembered Evan.
"It's not as easy as you make it sound! I have a boyfriend, remember! Who I should really be getting back to." she said. Then thinking it wouldn't even worth it at all, she looked at them hopeless. "Just forget it. Stay out of it now. I don't want anything to do with him. Just pretend he still isn't here. Drop it. He's dead to me." she said and walked back into the kitchen.
But they were sisters. Would they ever listen? "House call?" Paige said going for her keys and grabbing the paper with his address. Phoebe still coming out of Piper's talk gave a 'are you serious?' look to her back.
"Paige, you are not serious." she said on her tail. Paige got to the door and turned around.
"Yes I am. You may enjoy seeing her like that all sad and out of it 24/7, but I can't stand it anymore. She's miserable Phoebe. Either with your help or not, I'm going to straighten this whole mess up." she opened the door and walked out.
"God, please let this be the right thing." she sighed looking back at the kitchen to where Piper was probably faking happiness in front of Evan, then ran out to Paige's passenger side.
"This it?" Paige said looking at the small apartment building.
"214 Ampton Street, apartment # 6, yea this is it." Phoebe said folding the paper back up. They parked and got out slowly walking up to his door.
Leo was still thinking about that stupid phone call when he heard a couple knocks at his door. He rubbed his eyes, "Yeah, just a sec." he yelled and got up off the table. Why did it have to be so damn complicated? Why couldn't he be a man about all this instead of running from it?
He looked out the peekhole and saw two faces he remembered just as well as the one he wanted to see. Can't be. he thought and swung the door open.
Neither of the three knew what to say for a awkward 5 seconds. Then finally, "Leo, hi, how are you?" Paige said hugging him.
"Paige, hey, I'm great. Gosh, I never expected this. What are you doing here?" he smiled "And Phoebe, How have you guys been?"
"Good, were good. Suprised to see you. Who'd ever see you back in San Francisco after all this time." Phoebe said.
"Yeah, I know. Just missed this place you know?" he looked around noticing they were still at his door, "Well come in, come have a seat. Did you want something to drink. That heat's something I don't miss to much." he chuckled.
"Sure, water sounds refreshing." Paige said as the two sat down on his couch and curiously looked around. The place wasn't as small as it looked on the outside. He had a decent looking living room, the kitchen was seperate, unlike most apartments. They could see the one bedroom and bathroom down the hall.
He came back with two water bottles, handing them over. "I'm quite surprised to see you guys too. I mean, not that it's bad your here, but how did you find me or even know I was back?" he asked taking a seat hiself across from them. He wanted to jump out with the phone call from this morning or ask about Piper, but that could wait.
Phoebe laughed upon that question. "Yeah, tell him how we found him Paige." she pushed.
Paige smiled nervously. "Well, Leo. I'll be honest. I went to your work and told them I was your sister looking for you in emergency."
Leo looked at them, "You what?" How did they even know where he worked? For a second he thought she was joking, until Phoebe continued.
"About a week ago, um, Piper went to get us some ice."
She saw me?
"She came back empty handed. We didn't think nothing of it, but later that night, she mentioned you being back and well, everything got, um what's the word?"
"Depressing?" Paige offered.
"Paige." Phoebe looked at her.
"What? I told you what I wanted." she told her back "Leo, you need to talk to her. Ever since you left the first time she's been a wreck. When you moved, there was a change, she was a bit happier and at some points even stopped caring, but now you coming back, her seeing, it's all back to the same thing. I don't know how you are on all this or what happened, that's personal, but I can tell you that she isn't over it and she wont be until you guys get everything cleared up."
Leo was still stuck at her seeing him. If what Paige is saying is true, why didn't she talk to me? Why didn't she buy her damn ice?
"She's scared." Leo looked up. Was he saying what he was thinking out loud? "Can you really blame her? How do you go about talking about the past? About what you did to her? It's not something to take lightly, Leo. You really hurt her. She hasn't been the same in a long time and now it's beating her up more." Paige was determined.
"Paige, take it easy." Phoebe said noticing Leo's hurt expression.
She realized how forward she was being and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." she apologized.
Finally Leo spoke up. "No, it's fine. I think I needed to hear that. I know what I did. I've regretted it every damn day of my life. I regretted never being able to fix it. I never wanted to leave, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I wanted her so bad it hurt and she wanted nothing to do with me. That was my only option." he looked at them "I want her back. Can you help me?"
They looked at each other remembering what she said- 'He's dead to me.'
"You see, about that, um, she doesn't even want to see you, but don't freak. We'll talk to her. I swear she'll be much more calm now that we know your willing." Phoebe said.
"You sound so sure." he replied.
"Don't worry, Leo. She hasn't forgotten."
"Thanks. For coming. Helping. Everything. Between us, if it weren't for her, I would never have returned."
They smiled and after a few more minutes of talking and catching up, they said bye and started home.
Paige was ecstatic about her work. She was scared of Piper's wrath when pissed, but she kept reassuring herself that it would work. And if anything, Phoebe was in it too. She wasn't going down alone.
How was it? A little blah in my opinion, but it'll get better...