AN: I do not own Twilight or Charmed. Please read and review xoxox
Chapter 25- Four Women and A Baby
"Piper, have you seen my slides anywhere?" Prue asked, walking over to her sister who was putting things into a basket.
"By the TV." Piper told her sister without looking up.
"Thank god. I thought I'd lost them. Jack would've killed me."
Piper looked up. "Jack?"
"The boss is sending two empolyees with the best presentation to New York for a conference, all expenses paid and Jack and I are hoping he'd pick us." Prue explained.
"Are you going to sleep with him?"
Prue rolled her eyes. "Piper, it's a business trip, that is all. Who's the present for?"
Piper sighed. "Lisa Kreggers baby shower."
Prue cringed. "I forgot."
"I know. So did Phoebe and Bella, I'm making this from all of us."
"What's in there?"
"Stuff, and I've knitted her a little baby blanket, that's all."
Prue smirked. "You knit? I didn't know that you knit."
Piper blushed. "Yeah, and I even had extra yarn left over and made her a little bear to match. Kinda cute, huh?"
"Oh, he's adorable!" Prue gushed, taking the small blue bear off her. "I guess this is really good practice for you, huh?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You, Dan, little Dan."
Piper laughed. "Whoa, slow down. Dan is the one that has our relationship on the fast track, not me. But don't get me wrong, he's great, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to move in with him or anything else in that nature."
"You know, I just hate guys who aren't afraid to commit, they're so typical!" Prue said sarcastically.
"It's not funny, Prue, it's a real problem."
"Piper, I don't see what the problem is. I mean, you and Dan are great together and you think you love him, right?"
"I think so, it's just everytime I feel I'm ready to commit to him, I flash back to our little trip to the future and seeing me with Leo and-"
"Piper, you know how Bella's future changed when Joey died. Dan is here, now in the present and that's all that matters." Prue told her firmly.
"I know, I know. But I'm not ready for a baby shower either."
...
"Come on, Darryl!" Phoebe whined. "This could so work!"
"Look, Phoebe, it's not that I don't appreciate your offer, it's just my stock in this precinct is not is not exactly blue chip. The last thing I need is for word to get out that I'm using psychic to solve my cases." Darryl said with a sigh.
"So, no one needs to know. You just give me the evidence, I touch it and if I get a flash then we're in business." Phoebe told him, picking up a butter knife and gasped. "Oh my god, I see...blood...flesh."
Darryl and many other officers stared before her eyes snapped open and she looked at Darryl. "You had the sausage for breakfast, didn't you?" Phoebe asked with a teasing smile and Darryl smirked.
"I hate sausage."
Phoebe giggled. "Little joke."
Darryl rolled his eyes before turning to the people watching. "Alright, moving along."
A baby's cry caught Phoebe's attention and she turned her head to see a baby boy crying his eyes out as officers kept jiggling things above him to calm him down.
"Who would bring a baby to a police station?" Phoebe asked.
"It was abandoned. Look, Phoebe-"
Phoebe's eyes widened. "Abandoned? That's awful."
Darryl rolled his eyes again. "That's what they call crime. Now, Phoebe-"
"You know, they're scaring him by waving that rattle in his face like that." Phoebe said, quickly walking over to them. "Excuse me, do you mind if I try?"
The officers moved out of the way and she sat down next to the baby. "It's okay, baby, it's okay." Phoebe said softly and the baby's cries died down. "Hello Matthew." Phoebe said when she saw his name on the silk sheet. "There you go, you're okay." Phoebe picked Matthew up and smirked at Darryl. "See, I told you I could help. All babies need is love."
Phoebe smile faded as she was pulled into a premonition of a man carrying Matthew being chased by a ghost.
"Phoebe, are you okay?" Darryl asked when she opened her eyes again. Phoebe didn't answer, too busy looking down at the little baby in her arms.
...
"So, I can't figure out if the premonition was from the past or future." Phoebe explained as she and Bella watched Piper hold Matthew. "If it was the past, it would make sense that they would abandon him to try and save him."
Piper sighed as she juggled the baby in her arms. "Uh...you know, I'm not really good with these things."
Phoebe chuckled while Bella smirked. "They're called babies. Just do the rocking walk. He loves the rocking walk."
"Are you sure it was a ghost?" Bella asked.
"Yeah, I think I know ghost's by now. I just can't figure out why a mean ghost would want to hurt that cute little baby."
"How did you get Darryl to let you take him home?"
Phoebe shrugged. "I just told him about the premonition. But we have twenty-four hours before Social Sevices start asking questions."
"So what are we supposed to do with him now? Raise him in the ways of witchcraft? Teach him how to fight ghosts?" Piper asked sarcastically before her eyes widened when Matthew started crying. She turned to Bella. "Here! Take him! Take him!"
She gave the crying baby to Bella who stared at him in panic. "Why'd you give him to me?"
"Bella. He's a baby, not an alien." Phoebe laughed as Bella held Matthew at arms length.
Bella frowned at her laughing sisters. "What's the difference?" Piper and Phoebe laughed at Bella's serious tone. Bella bit her lip as she pulled him closer towards her and Matthew's crying softened but didn't stop. "Okay, okay." Bella said quietly and her sisters laughter stopped as they watched Bella put Matthew into his car seat.
Piper smiled slightly. "You're...really good with him."
Bella sent her sister a mock glare. "You sound so surprised."
"Just a little Bells, you don't like kids. You said you never wanted to have them." Phoebe reminded her, Bella just rolled her eyes. Phoebe sighed. "I can't wait to have a baby of my own one day."
"I think Dan fell in love with the wrong girl." Piper said, making Phoebe and Bella look at her confused. "Nothing. Never mind." Piper picked up the little blue bear and stood by her sisters. She waves it in front of him with a smile. "Hi, sweetie, do you like bears?"
Matthew threw up on it and Piper's smile faded.
"Well, on the bright side, he's stopped crying." Bella said but Piper just glared at her.
"He doesn't like things being waved in his face." Phoebe said as she and Bella hid a smile.
"Obviously." Piper said dryly, picking up a towel.
"This better be good because my New York trip is at stake." Prue said loudly as she walked into the room.
"Shhhh!" The three on them hissed and Prue froze when she saw Matthew.
"We have a baby?"
"Phoebe picked him up at the police station."
"Okay, I thought you went there to get a job, not a kid." Prue said, turning to Phoebe.
"I was and I was trying and then this abandoned baby came in."
"Abandoned?" Prue frowned as she walked closer into the room.
"Yes."
"In an Eddie Bauer car seat and a blanket lined with silk?"
"He's falling to sleep." Bella said in relief.
"If the parents could afford such expensive stuff, then how come they couldn't keep the kid?"
Phoebe sighed. "I don't think that's why he was abandoned."
"Oh no!" Piper said when Matthew started whimpering. She pushed her sister into the hall way, ignoring their looks. "He's like a car alarm. Any sudden vibration sets him off and theres nothing you can do to stop it."
"She has baby problems." Bella said and Piper rolled her eyes.
"Oh, like you don't." Piper scoffed. "Look, Phoebe had a premonition about a ghost chasing the baby."
"And a man carrying the baby. Probably his father. Darryl said I could stop by and he could get a sketch artist to help me ID him." Phoebe explained.
"Good, because the only way to find out why the ghost is after the baby is by finding out who he belongs to." Prue said, glancing at Matthew.
"I gotta go." Phoebe said suddenly.
"What?" Piper asked, her eyes wide again.
"Yeah, I gotta get back to work. Keep me posted." Prue said as she and Phoebe put on their coats.
"You can't leave me alone with him!" Piper said, slightly hysterical.
"You have Bella." Phoebe pointed out.
"Actually, I only have about half an hour before my lunch break ends." Bella told them and Piper looked even more panicked.
"Just think of it as a test run." Prue said with a smile.
"I don't need a test run. I remember when Phoebe and Bella were babies, it was hard on mom, and with you keep dropping them all the time!"
"What?" Phoebe and Bella turned to Prue.
"Oh, moving on, what's the point?" Prue asked quickly.
"The point is, we need diapers and bottles and formulas and a million other things."
Prue shrugged. "I'll go shopping."
"And I'm going to see Morris. You're gonna be fine. Just do the rocking walk." Phoebe said as she and Prue left the manor and Matthew started to cry.
"Rocking walk...okay..." Bella muttered to herself as she walked over to the crying baby and picked him up. The moment he was in her arms he stopped crying.
Piper smiled as she watched her baby sister. "I don't get why you don't want kids, I think you'll be a good mom. You used to want to be a mom too, when you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up you said 'married with seven kids'. Now you don't want either."
"Seven?" Bella asked stunned. "How old was I?"
"Five or six."
"Ah, that explains it." Bella nodded in understanding and Piper scoffed.
Piper bit her lip as Matthew looked up at Bella in wonder. "You know, seeing you with Matthew makes me wonder how you were with EJ."
"EJ?" Bella looked down at Matthew. "Haven't thought about him in a while."
"Well, there's no point in dwelling on what could've been if Joey had lived." Piper said sadly before frowning when Bella froze.
"What's Joey got to do with it?"
"Didn't we tell you that Joey was EJ's father?"
"No, you forgot to mention that part." Bella said quietly and Piper cringed.
It was silent for a while before Bella looked at the clock. "I've got to get back to school." She said, handing Piper the baby without looking her in the eye.
"Bella, are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Bella asked before leaving the manor without waiting for a reply.
Piper sighed, wishing she hadn't said anything, before closing her eyes when Matthew started crying again.
...
Prue prayed that everything would not fall out of the trolley. It would probably take her hours just to get everything back in again.
She looked around for diapers, finding them on the top row. What's the point of putting them up there?
She sighed as she tried jumping up to reach them, not being tall enough to get them. She bit her lip as she looked around, when she saw that no one was looking she used her powers to get two packets of diapers.
She smiled to herself as she put them on top of all of the other stuff.
"Prue." She looked up to see Jack standing a few feet away, holding a scooter.
"Jack. Hey, what are you doing here?" Prue asked confused.
"Getting my ass kicked by a five year old. Hey, you little rugrat, best two out of three!" Jack called after the kid.
"So...um...how did you find me?"
"Your assistant told me. But what she didn't tell me is what the hell are you doing here?"
"Just a little bit of a family emergency." Prue told with a shrug and Jack raised an eyebrow.
"And you needed diapers?"
"Yeah, they're for my cousin. My baby cousin, Matthew. Just staying with us for a day or so."
"And you'd be coming back to work, when?"
"Right after I drop this stuff off and believe me, there'll be no more interuptions after today."
"Good, for a second there I thought you'd changed your mind about New York." Jack said and Prue frowned.
"Okay, wait a second! Who has been the one working late for the past three nights to get our presentation done?"
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, well, that was before I thought we had a chance to win. So when you disappeared, I figured maybe you had second thoughts."
"No, I want to go to New York. And believe me, I would much rather be at work than trying to find out whether to get aloe lined or...velcro tabed or elastic lef cuff...thingy...diapers." Prue sighed before turning to Jack. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about diapers, would you?"
"Me? Noo. That would involve knowing something about babies which I know absolutely zero about. But what I do know something about is the Big Apple. Specifically romantic restaurants, hip clubs, secret getaways." Jack said with a smirk and Prue couldn't help but smirk back. "Presentation's today at three. Plane leaves tomorrow at nine. I gotta kid to catch." Jack got back on the scooter and left. Prue smiled after him before catching sight of a women holding her baby.
...
"This is called the jiggle." Dan told Piper, who watched him closely. "It gives babies a nice, warm, moving around in the womb feeling."
"You are absolutely amazing. I tried everything and nothing worked." Piper said with a sigh as Dan smiled down at Matthew.
"Well, it helps to come from a big family." Dan said quietly. "Once you've mastered the jiggle, you'll be able to do the wave. You wanna give it a try?"
Piper shook her head quickly. "Let's not mess with a good thing."
Piper watched as Dan held Matthew and couldn't help but smile.
"Your staring." Dan said when he looked at her.
"I like seeing you this way." Piper said and Dan smiled back at her.
"You have no idea how expensive having a baby is." Prue said loudly as she walked into the kitchen, placing all of her bags on the table. "So I'll tell you. $312.46 to be exact."
Piper looked stunned. "No way."
"Well, your timing is great. Cousin Matthew needs a change." Dan said.
"Okay." Prue said quickly as she lay a blanket on the table, putting Matthew on it after Dan passed him to her. She takes the diaper off and both her and Piper cringe at the smell.
"Ohhh, that is ripe!" Piper said, pulling a face.
"What does this kid live on? Wheat grass?"
Dan was smirking. "I can change him."
"No, we got it." Piper insisted, making Dan smirk even more.
"Alright, I got hyper-allergenic wipes, diaper rash cream and super absorbent diapers." Prue told Piper.
"What are we supposed to do with the..."
"Just toss it."
"Alright."
Dan sat up straighter. "Hey, don't forget to clean up under his-" Dan was cut off when Matthew peed. It squirted up and Piper froze the room just before it hit them.
"Maybe only one of us should change him." Prue suggested.
"Be my guest."
"On the count of three." Prue said nervously. "Ready? One, two, three." Piper unfreezes everything and Prue uses her powers to move it so it misses them.
"Boys will be boys." Dan chuckled.
Prue puts the new diaper on Matthew before frowning when it didn't cover all of him. "It doesn't fit!"
"Probably the wrong size." Dan said and Prue glared at him.
"How was I supposed to know what size to get?"
"Look, I got it." Dan said, grabbing a tea towel.
"Oh, thanks." Prue sighed in relief.
"There we go." Dan said as he put the towel on Matthew like a diaper. "How is that?"
"Wow, you're like MacGyver with estrogen." Piper said.
"Thanks... I think. Actually, cloth diapers are more environmentally friendly but harder to use. There, such a good boy."
"Yes, he is." Prue said to Piper.
Piper rolled her eyes. "Alright."
"If you want, I can pick up the right size on the way home." Dan offered.
"Thanks, that would be great." Piper said as Prue nodded frantically.
"Not a problem." Dan handed Matthew back to Prue. "See you tonight." Dan said to Piper before leaving.
"You know what's so weird?" Prue said as she handed Matthew to Piper.
"What?"
"Is that...um..."
"Why are you giving him to me?"
"'Cos I gotta go." Prue said before running out of the room.
"That's twice, I'm counting!" Piper called after her.
R&R :)