Her hands shaking, she quietly braids her long brown hair. She's managed to completely block all thoughts other than over, under, over, under, over, under. If she thought, really thought, about what she would be doing later that day, she might just give it all up and crawl back in bed, letting the world go to hell for all she cared.
So she didn't. Think, that is. Instead she concentrates on her hair and twisting her fingers away in time to avoid wrapping them up in a tangled mess. It seems to take forever, but she finally finishes. A quick glance in the mirror tells her that mindless braiding looks pretty much the same as spending forever trying to get it to look perfect. The only difference is that this way she's not nearly as stressed out.
With a sigh, she walks down the hallway to the front door.
"You ready?" a voice asks.
She turns to see her husband, soon to be ex, standing at the foot of the stairs with her son. Their son. The look he's giving her is one she's seen a million times before, only instead of making her want to smile and her heart skip a beat, she wants to cry. He's not hers anymore, and it's taking all her strength to not be selfish and demand that he come back to her. Deep down she knows he would, which makes this whole situation ten times more difficult.
So she forces a grim smile and says, "Ready as I'll ever be."
He smiles at her and walks their son over to her. He kisses Wyatt on the head and then looks into her eyes, and for a minute she wants to kiss him. Because it's what they would have done before, because it's what she should be able to do. But she can't.
"Take care of yourself," he says, effectively killing the moment. "It's cold out there."
She nods. "Of course. Thanks for watching Wyatt." She takes her son into her arms and holds him close.
"The car's all set up. You should probably go," her husband says.
So she does. She walks to the car and straps her son into his carseat before climbing into the driver's seat herself. It feels kind of weird to not just orb there with someone, but today isn't about magic.
They drive and Wyatt falls asleep on the way. She almost chickens out, but forces herself to keep driving. When they arrive, she manages to avoid waking him up. She pulls him close again, taking comfort in the soft baby smell that surrounds him most of the time.
"You ready?" she asks him as they set off. He doesn't even open his eyes.
The grass is crunchy beneath her feet and she tries not to think about the dying grass because then she thinks of death, and today isn't about death either.
It doesn't take long to find the place she's looking for, the place where she and her sisters cemented their involvement in witchcraft. Where Prue finally began to get over Andy's death, and where Piper knew her older sister used to visit when she was feeling guilty over losing an innocent. It's one of the few places that wasn't directly tied to the sisters that she felt closest to Prue after her death.
She sits down and manages to wake Wyatt up in the process, which is probably a good thing, all things considered.
Piper looks up at the sky and waves Wyatt's pudgy little baby hand. "Can you say hi?" she asks.
He blinks but says nothing.
"It was worth a shot," she says. She turns her attention back to the sky. "So, I know it's been awhile, but I honestly thought you'd be back by now," she begins. "But you're not, so I thought I'd bring him to you, since they still won't let us see you. I know it's not the same, but it's something."
She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Prue, this is your nephew, Wyatt Matthew Halliwell."
Wyatt blinks his large blue eyes and seems to focus on a cloud in the sky. She looks up to see it seem to stop directly overhead. Then she sees something twinkle and before she can stop to think about it, Wyatt begins to laugh.
"I guess she likes you, little guy," Piper whispers.
And just like that, things don't seem to hurt as much. The pain she's been carrying for the last three years seems to slowly float away. This isn't to say she's completely healed, because she's not.
The whole Leo situation still exists after all. But the guilt she's felt for living while Prue died? It doesn't seem so bad. The anger at Paige for existing and replacing Prue somehow? The resentment towards Phoebe for chasing after Cole and leaving her sisters unprotected? The frustration at being denied the ability to see her older sister immediately?
It's all going away, or will sooner enough. So maybe those quacks who said that time would make things better weren't as crazy as she originally thought. Or maybe her older sister is still looking out for her. There are worse things than that.
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