Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize, I'm just borrowing them.
Ch. 34:
Piper sat with another mother at the Day Care, watching the toddlers playing. A little ways away, Wyatt sat playing with some toys while Mer sat quietly, just watching him.
"All I'm saying is that you're way behind with little Wyatt and Meredith." The other mother told her. "You really should've applied before this."
"Yeah, well, you know, Meredith didn't come to us until recently and Wyatt's not even a year old yet." Piper protested.
"So?" the other mother replied. "I had my Jake signed up for Mommy and Me when I was still pregnant with him."
"Really?" Piper asked, surprised. "You can do that?"
"Oh, absolutely." The mother said. "In fact, I'm surprised that they let you sign up this late. Because everybody wants to get in here because it gets you into Adlebery Preschool, which is a feeder for Hoskins Elementary, and Bentley Middle School."
The woman laughed as if these facts were obvious.
"Heh." Piper laughed uncomfortably.
They both turned and watched Wyatt and Mer.
"Doesn't have any siblings, does he?" the other mother asked.
"Uh, no." Piper replied. "How did you know?"
"Because he doesn't play well with others." The other woman said. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's a common problem among only children. All the more reason to start developing their social skills early. First thing preschools look for, you know."
"Yeah." Piper said. "Well, that's why we're here."
Piper turned back to the children in time to see Wyatt grabbed a toy away from Mer.
"Meredith Victoria St. James, don't you dare!"
"Mer, no!"
Piper turned and saw Phoebe, Paige, and Meredith walking towards them, both Meredith and Phoebe focused on little Mer. Meredith glared at her younger self and little Mer stared at her innocently.
"Don't look at me like that, Mer." Meredith told her. "What's the rule?"
She went and kneeled next to the two children as Paige and Phoebe headed towards Piper.
"Excuse me." Piper said to the other woman, standing up to join her sisters. "Hi. Thanks for coming."
"Oh, of course!" Phoebe said. "You know, anything for your little nephew and niece."
"What's going on with them?" Piper said, nodding to where Meredith was quietly lecturing her younger self.
"Wyatt took little Meredith's toy." Phoebe explained. "I felt her get angry and Meredith felt her start to call up fire."
"Ah." Piper said in understanding.
This had happened several times now. Piper knew Wyatt would protect himself if Mer actually got mad enough to try to hurt him, but they were trying to teach her to stop reacting with her powers.
"Now, can someone tell me what we are doing for our little nephew and niece?" Phoebe asked.
"Showing family support." Piper replied. "They look for that. Especially when the father's not around a lot."
Paige nodded and quietly turned around to dial her phone.
"What are you talking about?" Phoebe asked. "Leo's around all the time."
"Yeah." Piper agreed. "For Wyatt, but he won't be for the school. He can't be."
Paige made an outraged noise and Piper and Phoebe turned to see Meredith snatching Paige's phone away.
"On behalf of your niece who is too young to really be annoyed with you, I am going to step in and say that this thing needs to go away." Meredith told her. "Now."
Paige sighed and took the phone back, putting it back in her pocket.
"I'm trying to get a hold of Richard." Paige tried to explain. "I can't find him."
"Yeah, well, you've been trying to call Richard for the last couple of days." Piper said. "Maybe you should give it a rest."
"I know, but I'm just afraid he's off on some…magical freak-out or something, you know?" Paige replied. "And I just want to be able to help him."
"Maybe he just needs a little time alone." Phoebe suggested.
"It just makes me question whether or not I can even save an innocent, if I can't save my boyfriend." Paige said, wincing as she looked at Phoebe. "No offense."
"Oh, no." Phoebe said, waving her hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm over it."
"Jason?" Meredith asked, surprised. "You're over Jason?"
"Yeah." Phoebe said. "When you get to my age, you can't spend the time crying over spilt milk."
"Your age?" Paige asked.
"Yeah, the whole biological clock thing." Phoebe explained. "It's very real, and it's echoing. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick."
"Okay, hey!" Piper interrupted. "Neurotic people, can we get back to my neurosis right now, please?"
"Sure." Phoebe agreed. "Which one were we talking about?"
"The one where I'm a rotten mother who's raising not one, but two anti-social children." Piper replied.
"Hey!" Meredith exclaimed. "I am not anti-social!"
"Shh!" The other told her quickly.
"She's right though." Paige said as she shook her head at Meredith. "That's ridiculous! And not true."
She took her phone back out and turned her back to Piper as Meredith sighed at her.
"Is it?" Phoebe asked.
"Wyatt doesn't have any friends, and we seem to have to worry about Mer setting kids who upset her on fire." Piper pointed out. "Phoebe, you and I had each other when we were growing up, and maybe Mer and Wyatt will be like that someday, but up till this point, he hasn't had anybody. He's been all alone."
"Hey!" Paige protested. "I was all alone."
"Yeah, but you didn't know you had powers." Piper said. "So it was safe for you to have friends. Your mother didn't have to worry about if you were going to orb out during a play-date or something. And, no offence Meredith, but little Mer is still recovering from the foster parents from hell. I can't take the risk that she's going to go get upset and create a hurricane in the solarium."
"In my defense, I probably won't do that until I'm about ten." Meredith told her. "Right now I don't have the ability to channel that much power."
The other three sisters stared at her.
"What?" she asked.
"I gotta say," Piper told her, "not really that comforting."
"Piper, despite Meredith's frightening warning of things to come, don't you think you're over-reacting a little?" Phoebe asked.
Just then, Wyatt orbed out of the play room.
"No." Piper replied.
Wyatt stood at the base of the stairs in the manor, staring up at something on the stairs. A white blinding light on the wall revealed a door in the wall.
Piper, Phoebe, Paige appeared in a flash of orbs, and a second later Meredith and little Me
r stepped out of the shadows.
"You cannot keep doing this, sweetie, really." Piper told her son.
Phoebe went and picked up Wyatt, while Meredith stared the wall. Paige followed her gaze and she also stared.
"Oh, guys…" she said.
"What the hell is that?" Meredith demanded.
Phoebe and Piper turned around and noticed the door.
"Oh, what the…" Phoebe said.
They moved directly in front of the stairs and looked up at the door in their wall.
"Oh, this is not good." Piper said.
They heard a horse neigh from behind the door.
"Help!" someone called.
"Orb them out of here." Piper ordered. "Go."
Paige took Wyatt from Phoebe and Meredith put Mer's hand in Paige's so she could orb them both out. When she was gone, the door opened. A man dressed in black robes rushed through it and looked at them with relief.
"Oh, thank god you're home!" he said with a sigh.
Behind him, they heard the sound of galloping and turned around. Directly in front of him, a headless horseman appeared. The horse rears high on its hind legs and the horseman swung his sword, chopping off the man's head. The head fell to the ground and partly down the stairs as the door slammed shut.
"What the hell was that?" Piper demanded.
"Did anyone else just see…" Meredith said at the same time. "With the…and the…and there's a head on our staircase! What the hell just happened?"
"That…"
The three women looked at each other before looking at the head.
"…was the headless horseman." The head continued.
The three woman stared at him.
"That's a head." Meredith said.
"Yes it is." Piper replied as Phoebe's mouth moved up and down.
"It's talking." Meredith pointed out.
"Yes it is." Piper agreed.
"I need to sit down." Meredith said.
She sat down on the ground as Piper pinched her nose and Phoebe pointed at the head and began to babble.
A/N: I know it's been a while. Let me know what you thought.
Abbey