Post by StoryGirl83 on Sept 20, 2008 18:53:35 GMT -5
Chapter Seven - Awkward Meetings
Piper entered the dining room from the kitchen. She had caught the tail end of Melinda’s statement. “First, we eat. Maybe we can come up with more ideas once we have eaten. Come in.”
Chris, Paige, Henry, Alanna, and Janice all entered the room and headed toward the table. As they began to sit down, Vicki appeared in the doorway behind them. “Everyone’s coming.” She walked over to the table. As she passed Janice, who had pulled out a chair to sit in, she stopped and smiled. “Hi, Janice. It’s nice to actually meet you.”
Janice looked at her confused. She looked over at Alanna and then back at Vicki. “Right. Alanna said you knew her on sight.”
Vicki looked around. “But where is your brother?”
“I don’t know,” Janice admitted softly. She was worried about him. “He didn’t come home last night.”
Vicki looked disappointed. Unnoticed by her, her parents and her sister, once more carrying a notepad, entered the room from the doorway behind her. “I had hoped to meet him, but perhaps,” Vicki sighed before continuing. “I guess we’ll just have to make this work so I can.”
Behind her, Andy looked amused as he said, “An interesting reason to survive.”
Vicki turned toward the doorway as Leo entered the room. Grinning at her dad, she said, “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, Sweetie,” Andy replied. “Behaving?”
“Always,” Vicki assured him. As if there ever was any other choice.
Pat eyed her sister silently. She wasn’t sure if her sister was just adjusting to this place better than her, or if she was just giddy with freedom, but she was going to keep an eye on her sister. If we survive. The thought depressed her, but she hoped that if they made it through all this, her sister would calm down. Vicki had already told her that the people here were like in her dreams. Alanna had told her that it had been rather disconcerting when Vicki had known her without ever meeting her. Based on the way Vicki had described first meeting Alanna, she had wondered if there wasn’t some tiny spark of whatever Vicki’s powers was, but now looking across the room at the twin sisters, she discarded the thought. She too saw the feint signs of warmth and cold on their otherwise identical faces. Pat walked over to find a seat at the table just as everyone else seemed to be doing with the exception of her mother.
Prue walked over to Henry. It had been nearly two years since she had laid eyes on Paige’s husband, but two years and an alternate time line apparently changed nothing. “I know you don’t know me, but it’s good to see you, Henry.”
Henry looked at her, a bit confused. He recognized her from pictures, but as she said, they had never met. “I guess that means you knew me.”
Prue couldn’t keep the sadness out of her voice. “Yes.”
“Not a good thing?” he hazarded to guess.
“Not in the end,” Prue admitted. “Paige . . . in our reality . . . lost you a couple of years ago.”
“Oh.” He couldn’t think of any other response to that. “So I’m dead,” just didn’t seem appropriate.
“Sorry,” Prue told him. “It’s just kind of overwhelming, all the differences. I’m glad you’re here, that Paige still has you.”
“Thanks,” Henry said, but it just felt a bit awkward to thank a stranger for being glad you weren’t dead, no matter how that stranger was related to one’s wife.
Prue looked across the table to where Piper stood. “You still haven’t called Dad.”
Piper nodded and headed toward the door. “I’ll go do that right now, while everyone starts eating.” Piper escaped the room before anyone could object. Not that talking to her dad was going to be any less tense than that room seemed. How did one go about telling their dad that his dead daughter was there with her family?