Wow, thank you so, so much for all of your kind reviews evattude. And for the faving & following. It's really appreciated, and I'm glad you like the fic so far and hopefully in the future too.

"Thank you," Vanessa whispered softly. Perry didn't even realize until right that second, but their faces were only a couple of inches apart. Close enough that she could smell the peach in the blonde's breath.

Neither of them seemed able to move, either to break apart or to close that short distance, and they just stood there completely paralyzed by each other's closeness.

Then after what felt like eternity but was more likely a minute or less, a ringing phone broke the moment. Vanessa exhaled sharply, as though she was sighing with pain for having to move away from Perry, and picked up her phone.

"Yes," she answered whoever it was, sounding impatient, "Have you found him?"

Perry felt like she was slowly waking up, and said quietly while Miss Blunt was listening to whoever it was on the phone, "I should probably get goi- "

"Wait," Vanessa said, almost ordered, and moved the phone away from her ear.

"I want to thank you properly," she told Perry, and the young witch felt pretty certain she won't take no for an answer, "Over lunch. Just give me a couple of minutes to finish this call."

Before Perry even had a chance to nod, somewhat hesitantly because the intensity of their chemistry made her uncertain that this was a good idea, Vanessa returned to her phone call.

"They'll be the least of his concerns if he keeps avoiding me," the blonde woman said angrily, as she walked into another room and let the doors close behind her.

"So, you've always lived here, in San Francisco?" Vanessa asked, taking a sip from her glass of red wine.

By that point, two things were extremely obvious to the young Halliwell witch. First, that even though she was wearing what she thought this morning were perfectly nice pants and blouse, sitting in this fancy restaurant with this beautiful woman – she was very much underdressed.

And the second thing, that this lunch was definitely a date. This is such a bad idea… Perry knew, but she was too enchanted by Vanessa to be able to do anything about it.

"Yes," she answered the other woman's question, "In the same house, actually. My twin sister and I were actually born there.

"What about you? Where's home for you?"

"That's… not an easy question to answer," Vanessa admitted, "Nowhere, would probably be the shortest accurate answer. Growing up, my family never stayed in one place very long because my father was an officer in the navy. And then after I enlisted, and as a private contractor after that… I just went wherever conflicts brought me."

"And now you're in San Fransisco?"

"Don't worry, there's no war on its way here."

Actually, you'd be surprised, Perry thought to herself.

"No, I just…" Vannessa explained, "I decided a couple of years ago that I needed a change. Less warzones, more corporate security."

"I'm glad you did," Perry admitted.

She must have been too distracted by Vanessa to notice much of anything else, because she didn't even notice the approaching waiter until he put a beautiful decadent chocolaty dessert in the middle of their table.

"We're sharing dessert?" the witch asked, surprised but not in a bad way.

"Sharing it with a charming beautiful woman," Vanessa said, and Perry couldn't help blushing, "is half of what makes a good dessert truly marvelous."

It was late in the evening by the time Perry arrived back home to the manor, and her three sisters were gathered in the kitchen.

"So, how do we know that the guy doesn't really belong in hell?" she heard Phoebe asking their older sisters.

"What guy?" Perry asked, "What did I miss? Is there a warlock?"

"A ghost, actually," her twin answered.

"And only we can see him," Piper explained, "He's one of the Innocent we have to protect."

"Protect from what?" Prue asked her, "He's dead."

"All we have to do, is get Mark's family to give him a proper burial, and then he can move on," Piper told her sisters, "To… wherever it is he moves on to."

"Okay…" Prue said, "So… call the police, and let them know where the body is."

"I already did. I just, wanna give them a little time to notify Mark's mom before I go and talk to her."

"Talk to her?" Phoebe asked, "And tell her what? That you're a witch in touch with the ghost of her dead son?"

"No, I'm just gonna try and get her to have a funeral. As soon as possible. Before Yama gets Mark's spirit."

While the phone rang and Phoebe answered the call, Perry asked her older sister, "Okay, so I take it Mark's the ghost guy. Who's Yama? A demon or something?"

"Or something," Piper told her, "The Gatekeeper of Hell."

"That was my new boss calling. I gotta run," Phoebe said as she hung up the phone and rushed out of the room.

"Um…" Prue started to speak, uncharacteristically hesitant, "Okay, so, so…When you called the police, you… didn't talk to Andy, did you?"

"No," Piper said, "It was anonymous. Why, did you decide to not go away with him?"

"Actually, I decided to go. Until I went to tell him, and found him having dinner with his ex-wife."

"His what?!" Piper and Perry asked at the same time.

"Yeah… I mean, you would think that he would remember to reveal that… little fact, before we jumped in the sack."

"Well, what did he say?" Piper asked her, "Why didn't he tell you?"

"I don't know, I didn't hang around long enough to ask."

"But she is just an ex, though, right?" Perry gently attempted to remind her, when suddenly she was startled by the torso of a young Asian man poking in through the basement door.

"How's it goin' in there?" he asked.

"Wow, he's really a ghost," Perry said in amazement as the initial shock wore off, "That's so cool." And then, realizing he was an actual person who recently died, told him, "Sorry, that was really insensitive of me."

It was the following night, and Perry had just answered a phone call from Vanessa in the manor living room.

"Umm, I hope there's no problem with your swo-" Perry started, unsure if this call was work related or personal.

"No, no," Vanessa said, "Of course not. This isn't about… No, I just wanted to talk to you."

"Oh," Perry couldn't help the smile spreading all across her face.

Phoebe, who was just coming downstairs, raised her eyebrows curiously. "Who are you talking to all blushy? And where's everyone?"

"Please excuse me, just one second," Perry told Vanessa, and purposely ignoring her twin's former question, answered, "Prue's in the kitchen, and Piper's still out with Mark."

As Phoebe headed to the kitchen, Perry said, "Sorry, that was my sister."

"No, it's fine. I guess you're all pretty close."

"Yeah. We are."

"That's nice," Vanessa said, but it sounded like there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Umm, what about that guy you were looking for? Did you end up finding him?"

"Actually… I found out today that he isn't avoiding me. He… died."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Perry said softly. She imagined Vanessa must be feeling awful, after how angry she was at him for avoiding her.

"Thank you."

"Did you know him well?"

"Not really, we've only been doing work together for a few months," Vanessa said, "But I've wanted to give him a bigger role at my company, before… Well, you know."

"That's-" Perry started to say, but stopped when suddenly Piper walked into the manor looking distressed, with Mark the ghost following her inside through the door.

"Hey, where are Prue and Phoebe?" Piper asked when she saw her, sounding as upset as she looked.

"In the kitchen," Perry answered, and then told Vanessa, "I'm so sorry, I have to go."

"Guys, can you come here, please? You have to see this," Piper called their sisters.

Meanwhile, Vanessa told Perry, "It's no problem. Thank you for listening. I… don't get to have that very often. Good night."