Hey! So I'm back. I re-read this story and this idea just came to me.
As a reminder, the kids ages are:
Kenneth McGee - 17 years
Kimberly McGee - 13 years
Prue - 10 years
Piper - 7 years
Phoebe - 5 years
Paige - 3 years
February 12, 1982
After Kenneth, Kimberly, Prue and Piper were released from the hospital at the end of January, they were placed in separate foster homes. Kenneth and Kimberly were in two different group homes. Prue was in a group home with Kimberly, while Piper was placed in a foster home with Phoebe and Paige, the younger two had been moved from the Galvan home.
They weren't separated for long. Kenneth had turned 18 years old on February 2, which meant two things: one, he aged out of foster care, and two, that he got his inheritance from his parents. He rented an apartment and then got custody of his sister. But he wasn't able to get custody of his former foster sisters and he wasn't old enough to be a foster parent. In his desperation to keep his promise to Prue to get her and her sisters back, he concocted a plan to essentially kidnap Prue from the group home and her sisters from their foster home, but he didn't think of it like that. He thought of it as reuniting his family.
There was a landline phone at the group home which Kenneth called to let Prue know the time he would be arriving to pick her up and to be ready. After getting the call from Kenneth, Prue called the landline at her sisters' foster home.
The foster mom answered the phone, "Hello. This is Neva McKenzie. Who is this?"
"It's Prue. I'd like to speak to my sister Piper."
Neva called Piper over and then handed her the phone, "Hi Prue."
"Hey Piper, how are you?" Prue asked
"Good." The seven year old replied, "And you?"
Prue dodged that question and got straight to the point of her call, "Kenneth is picking us up tonight. Have yours, Phoebe's and Paige's go-bags ready and be outside at nine fifteen pm."
Piper heard Phoebe and Paige calling her. She focused on the call, "Did you want to talk with Phoebe or Paige?"
"No. I'll be seeing them soon."
Piper hummed, "Okay. I love you."
"Yeah. Ditto."
Piper hung up the phone and then headed back upstairs to tell Phoebe and Paige the good news.
Their foster parents - Neva and her husband Torben - were good people. They were kind, loving and strong Christian believers. They had two sons - 12 year old twin boys named Dakota and Indiana, who were just as kind and loving as their parents, and welcoming too, but all Piper wanted was to have her family back. Her older sister and the two older fosters siblings that she had gained in the last year. She'd lost one older foster sister - Stacey - and she'd lost her foster parents the day they were supposed to adopt her and her sisters. The seven year old was not prepared to lose any more family members.
On the way to tell Phoebe and Paige about how Kenneth was going to come for them tonight, Piper was stopped by Dakota.
"Hey Piper, how goes it?" He asked her
"Good, but I need to get Paige ready for bed." Piper told him
That was only half true. While it was just after dinner and both Paige and Phoebe usually would need be going to bed soon, Paige still had another half hour before bedtime and Phoebe had another hour. Tonight, would be different though. Piper would be keeping her sisters up since in two hours and forty-five minutes Kenneth would be picking them up.
The twelve year old hummed, "Hmm...okay. You don't have to do that though. My parents can handle bedtime."
"Yeah. It's just that Paige has a very specific bedtime routine. She won't sleep unless it's done right, and since I already know it, it's just easier if I do it."
"Alright then." Dakota replied
Meanwhile at the group home, Prue didn't really have to do much to prepare for Kenneth to pick her up. Her go-bag was already mostly packed. She just had to add in her toiletries and her pajamas, but honestly, she'll probably just wear her pajamas so as not to raise suspicion from the other kids in the group home and the couple who runs the group home.
Prue kept her go-bag hidden under her bed, while counting down the time. It was currently only 6:30. Still another two and a half hours to go until Kenneth would arrive to pick her up. She was elated to be going home.
Prue tried not to watch the clock, and instead found an activity to keep her busy. One thing she had learned from her foster mom Jacqueline was how to knit, so Prue decided to start on a new knitting project. She wasn't just what she was making yet, but she had only just started.
Every time Prue finished a row, she glanced over at the clock. It seemed that time was just dragging on and on. Only twenty minutes had passed in the time it took her to complete six rows. Prue held back a sigh, attempting to maintain her composure. The ten year old was not usually known for being impatient, but she just wished it was 9:00 PM already. It had been two weeks since she'd last seen Kimberly and she missed her older sister so much. Prue had seen her sisters at a sibling visit just a few days ago, but still, she had missed them tremendously and couldn't wait to see them either, to hug them and kiss them.
Prue held the knitting needles in her hands as she stared longingly out the window of the room that she shared with three other girls, but those girls were not in the room right now. They were in the common living space. She could hear them laughing, playing some kind of game.
Hearing their laughter made Prue think of the family - the parents who had been ripped away from her. If they had never died in the car accident, she and her siblings would be at home with them. She and Kimberly would probably be knitting with their mom, while they watched their dad and Kenneth playing some sort of kid's board game with Piper, Phoebe and Paige.
This time Prue did sigh, "I miss you, Mom and Dad."
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy. Comments are greatly appreciated.
What would you like to see happen next?
