Disclaimer: I will give anything to own Charmed, as long as Drew Fuller comes in this deal.
Ch. 27:
"Hey there, little one." Meredith said as she walked into her room. "Time to get up."
Mer slowly stirred.
"Where am I?"she asked sleepily.
"You're at your new home." Meredith told her, sitting next to her on the bed. "Remember, we came and got you yesterday?"
"Frank and Anne." Mer said, her face scrunched in confusion. "They're gone?"
"Forever." Meredith assured her. "They won't be able to hurt you again."
"They no hurt." Mer said, shrinking back. "No hurt."
"Shh." Meredith said, soothing her. "You don't have to hide anymore. I know what they did to you."
"I was bad." Mer protested.
"No, you weren't." Meredith told her. "You are a very good little girl and they were the bad ones."
"Frank and Anne…bad?" Mer asked, her voice small.
"Very bad." Meredith assured her. "No child should be treated the way they treated you. But it's over. The people here, they are going to love you. They're going to take good care of you. You're going to be so happy."
"How you know?" Mer demanded.
"Because, they took me in." Meredith told her. "They made me part of their family. They loved me. Now they'll love you."
"Who are you?" Mer demanded.
"I told you, I'm Meredith." The older woman told her.
"You can do what I can do." Mer said. "You make things go boom and catch on fire. Can you make it rain and blow too?"
"Can you show me what you can do?" Meredith asked instead of answering.
Mer's face took on a deep look of concentration until a small tornado appeared in between the two girls. It only lasted a few seconds before disappearing as Mer took deep breaths.
"That's very good." Meredith told her. "But it makes you tired, right?"
"Yes." Mer replied, nodding.
"Okay, well, why don't you get dressed, we'll go get breakfast, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the family and then we'll talk more about what you can do." Meredith said. "That sound good?"
Mer nodded and Meredith helped her off the bed.
"I really don't hafta go back to Frank and Anne?" Mer asked quietly.
"I promise you." Meredith said, kneeling in front of her. "You will never see them again. Now, let's get dressed."
"Hey!" Phoebe said as Meredith came down the stairs, holding Mer. "There's our little girl!"
"Mer, you remember Aunt Phoebe from last night?" Meredith said.
"Hi!" Phoebe said happily, waving.
"Hi." Mer replied shyly, returning the wave.
"You're scaring the poor girl." Paige said, swatting her sister's arm.
"And the woman picking on Aunt Phoebe is Aunt Paige." Meredith told the little girl.
"Hi, honey." Paige told her.
Mer opted to just wave this time.
"Good morning." Piper called.
She came downstairs, carrying Wyatt.
"Okay, that lady is Aunt Piper." Meredith told Mer. "The little boy is Wyatt."
"Wyatt, that's Meredith." Piper told her son. "She's going to be living with us."
"Aunt Meredith?" the little boy asked.
"No, sweetie, a different Meredith." Piper told him. "You can call her Mer, okay? Say hi."
"Hi, Mer." Wyatt said softly.
"Hi." Mer replied.
There was a flash of orbs and Leo appeared. As the light appeared, Mer shied away.
"It's okay." Meredith told her. "It's called orbing. Lots of people around here can do it. It won't hurt you. And that man is Uncle Leo."
"Hi, little one." Leo said, smiling, before turning to the sisters. "I took care of the mess left in New York. As far as Social Services is concerned, Anne and Frank skipped town, leaving Meredith alone. Paige was a family friend who was in town and decided to take Meredith with her. We'll make sure the paperwork for her to be put into your custody as her foster mother is taken care of quickly."
"Thank you, Leo." Piper told him.
"No problem." He replied. "I have to get back."
Piper nodded and he kissed Wyatt's forehead.
"It was nice meeting you." He told Mer.
He orbed away, and this time, the little girl watched the process with interest.
"Chris, breakfast." Meredith called.
A second later, the young man appeared.
"I heard something about food?" he asked.
"You are so predictable." Meredith said, shaking her head. "Mer, this is Chris. He's a very good friend."
"Hi, little one." Chris said, taking the little girl's hand and shaking it.
Meredith chuckled and he looked at her.
"What?" he demanded.
"Sorry." She said, smiling. "It's just, 'Hi, little one'."
"What about it?" he asked.
"Leo used that exact same phrase to greet her." She told him.
She and the sisters laughed as Chris's face took on a look of horror.
"Come on." She said to the little girl. "Let's get you fed."
The family sat down at the dining room table while Meredith and Piper put Wyatt and Mer at the little table. When Piper put down the food, Mer immediately began eating quickly.
"Mer, slow down." Meredith told her. "I know you're hungry, but if you eat that fast, it'll upset your tummy."
The little girl nodded, but only slowed by a fraction.
"You'd think she hadn't eaten in days." Paige said.
"She might not have." Meredith said, shrugging. "Frank and Anne weren't the best foster parents ever, remember? Plus she made me a mini tornado earlier. That alone would make her hungry."
"She can already exhibit that much control?" Chris asked.
Meredith nodded.
"She had to learn control." She told him. "They'd hit her when she didn't."
The rest of the table somberly watched the little girl eat.
"You should've told us." Piper said finally. "We would've gotten her out faster."
"I didn't want to risk changing the time line any more than need be." Meredith replied. "I knew that even if you couldn't get her out, eventually she'd vanquish them and be brought here."
"How could you know that you wouldn't change something that would affect that?" Phoebe asked.
"I didn't." Meredith replied. "But I-she is the strongest elemental to be born in over a century. There was no way the Elders were going to let go of me without a fight. I just had to trust that they're as stubborn as I think they are."
"Probably a safe bet." Paige muttered.
"Exactly." Meredith said.
The adults went back to eating and finally finished just as the children began throwing their food at each other. Well, Wyatt threw his food, and Mer would use the wind to throw it back at him, at which point he would orb it away.
"I would like to take this moment to apologize for whatever my younger self is going to do in the next few years." Meredith said as she snapped her fingers and the food went up in smoke. "Believe me when I tell you she will feel bad in about 15 years."
"Good to know." Piper said.
Mer pointed her finger at Meredith and her shirt caught on fire. Meredith sighed and summoned water to put it out as the sister jumped up to help her, only to stop when they saw it was under control.
"Okay, first lesson." Meredith said, kneeling down in front of her younger self. "While that didn't hurt me, that will hurt other people if you do it. You have to be careful with your powers. Fire may not hurt us, but it can kill other people, understand?"
Mer nodded, wincing away from Meredith. The other woman gently reached out and took her hand.
"No one is going to hit you here." she told her softly. "But you have to be careful not to hurt other people."
Mer nodded before hugging Meredith.
"I sorry." She said softly.
"It's alright." Meredith told her, returning the hug. "Just promise you'll be careful."
"I promise." The girl said.
"Okay, so now that you've been fed, let's work on your powers, okay?" Meredith said.
Mer nodded and Meredith took her hand, leading her into the conservatory. Wyatt took it upon himself to follow them, but him mom stopped him.
"It's alright." Meredith told her. "He'll protect himself if he needs to."
Piper sighed, but let the little boy go, while Chris followed and she and her sisters cleaned up the table.
"Okay, you've showed me you can control the wind and fire, but what about water, earth, and electricity?" Meredith asked. "Can you call water for me?"
The sisters were talking in the kitchen when they heard a loud crash.
"I can fix that!" Meredith yelled.
They ran outside to see the conservatory filling with water. Surprisingly though, everyone was dry.
"Meredith!" Piper shrieked.
"It's alright." Meredith told her. "I've got it under control."
The water was pouring out of a wall which had burst open. Meredith raised her hand and the water receded until it formed a bandage of sorts around the break made out of water.
"That'll hold for now." She said. "At least until I can fix it."
She looked around and saw that Mer was trying very hard to stay awake. Meredith sighed and picked her up.
"I guess next time we should do this outside, huh?" she said, wincing. "Come on, let's get you upstairs to take a nap."
Piper sighed.
"Leo set up another bed in the nursery." She told Meredith. "You can put her down there."
Meredith nodded.
"At least nothing got damaged." She told her foster Aunt. "There are some perks to having an elemental in the house."
"Yeah, yeah." Piper said, waving her hand as Meredith walked towards the stairs.
"I'll meet you back at the club." Chris called after her before orbing away.
"Yeah, we better be going too." Phoebe said, hugging Piper. "We're going to go shopping. Call if you need anything."
"I will." Piper promised.
Paige and Phoebe orbed away just as Meredith came back down the stairs.
"Chris and I were going to do some recognizance." She told Piper. "Mer is out like a light and she'll probably sleep for a few hours. Are you alright here by yourself?"
"I'm fine." Piper assured her. "Be careful."
"Will do." Meredith replied. "And I'll pick up what I need to fix the wall. Promise."
She smiled, stepping into the shadows and disappearing.
Piper sighed and looked at the hole in her wall before looking at Wyatt.
"Wanna take a nap?" she asked, picking him up. "Yeah, me too."
Piper stood next to a snow-covered tree as a very handsome man walked by with a pair of skis over his shoulders.
"Come on," he beckoned. "Let's go skiing."
"Uh, I want to, but…" she said.
"But what?" he asked. "What's holding you back?"
"Ma-ma…" Piper heard.
"Wyatt?" she called.
"A'nt Piper!"
"Mer!" Piper yelled.
She looked around as the man slowly stepped back.
"He must be pretty special…" he said. "For you to give up everything."
The man disappeared, leaving Piper alone.
"Mama!"
Piper looked around again.
Flash
Piper jumped out of bed as she heard Wyatt and Meredith cry over the baby monitor.
"Wyatt!" she yelled, running out of her room.
She ran into the nursery to find a man in a robe standing over Wyatt, who was protecting himself and Mer in his crib with his shield. The man was holding a scepter that was emitting a pink light that hit the shield and dissipated.
"Wyatt!" she yelled.
The man held his hands above his head and dropped the scepter. As it fell, it disappeared. Piper quickly blew him up and ran to Wyatt's crib.
"It's okay." She said, picking up Wyatt and stroking Mer's head. "Mer, how did you get into the crib?"
"Wyatt orb me." The little girl said, still hiccupping. "I no like, but bad man bad."
"Okay." Piper said. "It's okay now. The bad man's gone." She sighed. "He's gone."
A/N: So what do you guys think? Let me know.
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FishluvsJasperCullen!
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