Post by StoryGirl83 on Sept 20, 2008 18:04:57 GMT -5
Chapter Three – Freezing Out of Control
Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt were asleep, snuggled in each other’s arms. The door opened and Melinda looked inside. She just stood there and stared, a smile on her lips. It was an unfamiliar scene, one she wished she had seen more of growing up. She sighed and took a few steps into the room. She stopped a few feet from the bed. She look down at her hands and sighed. “Good morning.” There was no response from the bed, so she tried a little bit louder. “Good morning.”
Piper’s eyes popped open and she pushed herself up. She looked around. Seeing Melinda she looked startled and waved her hands.
Melinda stopped moving.
That shouldn’t have worked, Piper thought as she realized who the intruder was. She waved an absent minded hand at Leo. She shook him while staring across the room at Melinda’s transparent hands.
Leo’s eyes slid open and he looked at his wife. “What’s wrong, Piper?”
“She froze,” Piper informed him, fear growing within her.
“What?” Leo asked confused as he turned his head to see what Piper was looking at. Seeing Melinda frozen still he frowned. “Probably because of Kevin’s claim that they don’t exist here.”
“Piper?” Prue’s voice called questioningly from outside the room.
Piper looked at Leo. “In here.”
Prue appeared at the door. She stopped at the sight of Melinda. “And here I was wondering why you froze the household,” she commented sardonically.
“The household?” Piper asked, a bit freaked out. “That was only supposed to freeze the room.” She climbed off the bed and walked over to the window.
Prue shrugged. “Well, you froze Andy and apparently Mel, so I’m guessing the whole house, though I suppose it could just be the floor.”
Outside, Piper could see movement, she she turned back to Prue and Leo. “At least I appear to have confined it to the house.”
“Don’t you have control over your powers?” Prue asked worried.
Piper shrugged. “Ever since magic came back . . .”
Before Piper could finish the statement, Prue interrupted. “Came back?”
Piper nodded. “I’ll explain later.”
Prue glanced over at her niece, still froze still. “Would you at least unfreeze them?”
“Right,” Piper agreed. She waved her hands.
Melinda looked around startled. “What’s going . . ? What ha . . ? Why?” She focused her eyes on her mother. “Did you freeze me?”
Piper nodded.
Melinda gulped. “Does that mean I’m not even a witch anymore?”
“I don’t know,” Piper admitted.
Melinda sighed. “I was just coming to wake you up and tell you I was going to fix breakfast.”
“Don’t worry about breakfast,” Piper told her. “I’ll get that.”
“I want to make breakfast,” Melinda persisted. If this doesn’t work, I won’t remember, but I want you to have that memory. I want that memory. She felt like crying. She didn’t want to go, to stop being. “Can I at least make it with you?”
Piper looked at her, a tender expression on her face. She nodded.
“Thank you,” Melinda replied before she turned and promptly ran into Prue. “Sorry, Aunt Prue.”
“That’s okay,” Prue assured her. Prue waited as Melinda left the room. Once she was gone, Prue looked at her sister. “You saw her hands?”
Piper nodded.
Prue held out her hands. They were still solid. She dropped them to her sides. “It’s all four of them.”
When neither sister spoke, Leo did. “Why don’t I call the boys, see if they are up?”
Prue looked at Leo surprised. “I forgot you were here.”
“I was that quiet?” he asked.
“No,” Prue denied. “It’s more I’m not used to you being here, with Piper that is.”
“Why’s that?” Leo asked confused. “If we had a daughter . . .” He trailed off as he remembered a long ago conversation with Piper, so long ago they hadn’t even been married yet.
Not knowing his thought, Prue none the less confirmed his suspicions. “You were divorced.”
“Oh.” Leo looked at Piper with a smile.
Piper looked back at Prue.
“Well, thankfully we managed to make it through all our rough spots here,” Leo informed her.
“Barely,” Piper added, remembering back. “When Chris made you an elder. . .”
“Chris?” Once more Prue interrupted. “Your son? How could he make Leo an elder?”
“He was time traveling,” Piper informed her, reluctant to go into that right then. “It’s a very long story.”
“I want to hear it, but I supposed it will have to wait.” Prue looked at Piper and Leo for a moment. “I’ll leave you so you can get dressed.” She walked out of the room.