Any characters you recognise belong to the WB and other people that are NOT me.

Plot... thats mine! “Can you explain that… in like English? Coz I have no idea what you just said,” the bitter ring in her voice did not go unnoticed by those in the room.

“Piper!” Leo shot her a look.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…” the tears welled up in her eyes as she paused before continuing, “it’s just this is so hard… I can’t believe… hows is…” and with that, Piper collapsed in tears.

Leo quickly scooped her up and held her close.
“It’s okay sweetie, we’ll work out something. As long as I have you, that’s all that matters.”

“But… we can’t… how can she not be here? How can I never get to meet her? She was… *sob*… so… *sob*… beautiful…”

“Maybe I should give you both a moment,” the doctor got up and went towards the door. “Leo? I’ll just be outside.”

Leo looked down at his wife, and could see her falling apart in front of him. He felt so helpless. Because so was he.

**********
Phoebe came bounding down the stairs, only to find Piper staring into space on the couch.

“Hey Pip… honey what’s wrong?” She hurriedly sat down next to her and pulled her big sister into a hug.

“I.. er.. it’s nothing Phoebs. Everything is okay,” but somehow her voice betrayed her, revealing her true feelings.

“Piper, you look terrible…”
Suddenly Piper let out a huge sob, and dissolved into tears.

“Shh. Sweetie it’ll be alright. No matter what it is. You just have to tell me.”

“I… ah… there’s nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Something is very wrong, I know you. I just saw Prue upstairs, so she is fine. And I can hear Leo thumping around in the kitchen. So what is it?” Phoebe looked straight into the stormy eyes of her sister, usually so calm and friendly, now full of distress.

“I… we… Leo and I went to see the doctor… and.. well… I can’t… just can’t… I’m sorry Pheebs…”

At that point Leo walked in and quickly assessed the situation.
He sat down next to them and took Piper from her sister.

“Piper and I have been seeing a doctor because we haven’t been able to conceive. It was because Piper had some scarring, and, because of that her, ah, ovaries don’t work properly.” Leo paused for a moment, and Phoebe seized the opportunity.

“Oh, honey. It’s okay, we can work something out. You should have told us, we can get through this together. There are things they can do, IVF and stuff, to make it all work out, they’ll help you solve this problem.”

“Phoebe, it’s not that simple,” Leo explained, “We gave the meds ago, and…”

“It didn’t work Phoebe!” Piper wailed. “I can’t have kids. Ever.”

Phoebe just stared and took in the implications of what had just been revealed.
That evening, Phoebe sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor with her laptop on in the sunroom. Her sisters thought she was working on that obedience study due in a few days.

Well, she was… sort of.

She did have a window open, with the bold heading ‘Ethics in Obedience Studies,” and had a few paragraphs on their benefits to psychology, but she also had another window open. Entitled “Infertility- Issues and Solutions.”

After the startling revelation from her sister, and her heart breaking reaction to the news, Phoebe knew she had to do something. And somehow, she knew that a dinky little Wiccan fertility ritual was not going to help her out. So she was researching.

Her return to college the previous year had ensured that she knew how to find out about just about anything. Researching she was great at… it was just getting around to writing it all out after that caused her problems… but that was not an issue for that evening.

Phoebe was reading all about the different problems women could have to prevent pregnancy. Piper’s issue was not uncommon, unco-operative ovaries can be caused by many different things. However, she was sure demon hunting didn’t often rank that high. There are special hormones you could take, that could encourage activity, but if they don’t work, that’s pretty much it. The woman could never have a child that was biologically theirs.

The problem was, Phoebe had discovered, that whilst men are born with their lifetime supply of their contribution to baby making, women aren’t. They created them once a month. So if the ovaries didn’t make them, that was it. End of story.

“Phoebe! Earth to Phoebe!”

The youngest charmed one jumped when her oldest sister entered the room.

“What are you still doing up? Don’t you have class early tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah… I er… have an assignment due soon, and I’m kinda behind, with all the demonic activity and stuff…”

Phoebe wasn’t entirely sure what made her lie straight away. Something told her it wasn’t her place to inform Prue about Piper’s situation; and until she did, explaining her sudden interest in pregnancy and all things gynaecological was going to be difficult.

“Phoebe!” Prue stared down at her little sister, “We haven’t fought a demon in ages! What you mean to say is, you haven’t caught up on all you’ve missed this semester, and now your trying to make up for it. Leaving it to the last minute, as per usual.”

Phoebe quickly glanced up, feeling like she was fourteen again, and her sister was scolding her lack of commitment to high school. She let out a sigh of relief when she noticed the sparkle in her eyes.

“Yeah… maybe just a little. It’s just there’s so much to do.” She put on her most innocent face, the one that evoked her sister’s sympathy every time. She then slammed down the lid of the computer and sighed for effect.

Well it wasn’t a complete lie. She *was* still behind a little, and there certainly was plenty of work she had coming up.

“Oh Pheebs!” Prue sat down beside her, and hugged her little sister, “No matter what, I’m proud of you. And there is no point in pushing yourself too hard. I would rather a sane baby sister, then a basket case with a degree any day. “

Phoebe leant into the hug, and relished in the comfort she found there. She did need this tonight. All the stuff with Piper had left her shaken. Playing happy families one day was something she figured they would all get to eventually. Even if *her* eventually was not going to be happening any time soon if she could help it. She had been working hard, and loosing tonight was going to be a slight problem. She’d just have to pull an all-nighter tomorrow to make up for it.

All too soon, Prue was getting up, and she was heading for the door.

“Just don’t overdo it honey. Go to bed soon, okay?”
Phoebe nodded, and went back to her work.

“Hey Pheebs?” Prue called, as an after thought.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Piper’s okay? She seemed very distant today.”

Phoebe shrugged, but kept her eyes down, knowing they would betray the concern she also felt.

********
That morning, on her way to the bathroom, she checked on her baby sister, knowing she might have slept in, given her very late night. She was surprised to find there was no one in her room, and that the bed was still beautifully made.

Curious, Prue bypassed the bathroom and headed down stairs, and wandered from room to room.

Finally she came to a stop in the sun room, and discovered her little sister, in the most uncomfortable position. Her legs were folded under her, and she was leaning back against the sofa behind her. Her glasses were precariously hanging from one ear.

Prue sighed, and went to the kitchen to make some coffee.

Upon return, her sister had not moved. She gently shook her sister.

“Come one babe, it’s time to get up.”

Phoebe awoke with a shock. “What time is it, am I late, oh shit!”

She attempted to jump up, and if Prue had not grabbed her quickly, she would have bowled over her laptop and done a spectacular face plant.
“Slow down there hun. It’s okay, you’ve got plenty of time. It’s only 7am. But here, I have coffee for you.”

“Oh,” she sat back down on the couch and accepted the cup gratefully.

Prue walked out slowly, and headed upstairs to get ready for her day.

Phoebe leaned back and thought about her discoveries the previous night. Then with a sigh she got up, knowing she would need some serious make up to hide her pitiful two hours sleep that night.

Piper avoided both sisters that morning, and was headed out the door when Phoebe finally caught up with her.
“Pipe, I gotta tell you something!”

“Not now Phoebe, I have to go to the club.”

And with that she marched out the door.

Phoebe watched her go out and sighed. She found out so much, and she wanted to share it with her sister, but she was gone.
“Tonight then,” she promised herself aloud and she grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

*******
“Hello Dr. Dalton, I just wanted to apologise for yesterday, I was a little…“ Piper paused as she searched for the words, “upset.”

“Not a problem at all Piper, “ the smiling doctor replied, as he ushered the couple into the room. “Please take a seat.”

As they did so, another person entered the room, Katrina, the nurse. “Hi guys, how are you both holding up today?”

Leo and Piper nodded in response, and took a deep breath, preparing themselves for the meeting. Leo took his wife’s hand, and squeezed it.

“Okay, what Dr. Dalton and I wanted to discuss with you today, was other options that you both can choose to take at this point. “

“Like what… how can you fix this? Why didn’t you mention this earlier? I can still have a baby?” Piper’s eyes flashed from confusion, to anger, to hope. She was still exceptionally emotional.

The entire thing had completely hit her for six. She had always thought the eventually, she could have children. That one such child would be the Melinda from the future. She knew she would be a good mother, and was extremely desperate to have that chance.

Family had always been the most important aspect of her life, and she couldn’t imagine not having her own family. Whilst she knew her sisters would be happy to share, it couldn’t be the same thing.

If nothing else, it was pretty much expected that apon marriage, a wife and husband had children. It was her duty as the woman, to help make that happen. And whilst Piper was definitely not a 1950s housewife; no, Grams would never accept that; Piper still wanted to be a good wife. Her inactive ovaries made her feel like a failure.

Identifying all these little ideas didn’t come easily for Piper, some were irrational, some not so much. But Piper had been awake all night, sifting through her mass of thoughts. The resulting lack of sleep probably made her still feel emotional, and was why she had avoided Phoebe this morning.

Identifying, and the subsequent analysing was all well and good. But it still didn’t resolve the deep pain that Piper felt all over. And she knew Leo had it too. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in his shaking tone, and in some way it was comforting. It reminded her that it wasn’t just her. They were in this together. And together they could deal with it.

Leo squeezed Pipers hand again, and nodded at Katrina to continue.

“The first option is egg donation,” Katrina paused for a moment awaiting an outburst, but did not receive any. “We would combine this with sperm from Leo, and implant this into you Piper. At this stage we have little reason to believe you would not be success in carrying a child to term.

“If you have some one in mind, you can ask them to donate the eggs, otherwise we can use an anonymous donor. Any female relative of yours Piper would be ideal.”

Piper thought for a moment. She knew her sisters would jump at the opportunity in a second. It would be hard, but this was probably as close as she was going to get to her own child. It would be better then sharing any future nieces or nephews.

But then it would leave her with a difficult choice. Who to pick?

*****
Phoebe sat in the college grounds that day with some of her friends, discussing all the work they had coming up.

“That obedience stuff is a nightmare, it’s going to be the death of me I swear!” exclaimed one of Phoebe’s friends, Cathy, who wasn’t known for her dedication to her studies, but rather her long and drawn out rants about her drunken college parties.

“Well Cath, if you had actually gone to class…” muttered Michael, who was tall, and very intelligent. Also a Psychology major, he and the youngest Halliwell got on well, and often helped each other out with work.
Phoebe giggled at his cutting remark.

“I just keep thinking about the phys. test in a few days,” moaned another of the group.

“Don’t forget presentations for social.”

“Or the approaching finals.”

“Stop it! Stop it right now, before you all freak yourselves out!” Phoebe looked around at her friends who all looked extremely stressed, “You guys need to relax. It will all be okay. It’s only college. If these are our worst problems, we are very lucky!”

“Whatever Pheebs, you don’t have to worry. You pull all-nighters before all your work is due, and you always score great marks!” reminded Emily smiling. She was a tall blonde girl who, ,despite academia not being her strong point, was very sweet and loyal.

“That’s not the point!” returned Phoebe smiling back. It was often amusing for her, because, despite this group being her best friends on campus, they had so little idea about her outside life. If they knew that it was always demon fighting that caused her last minute essays, they would be quite surprised.

Phoebe always saw her role at college as being the relaxed one, and to calm her friends down. Inside, she was as stressed as the rest of them. Phoebe’s return to college had seen her grow up a lot. She really wanted to make her sisters proud, show them she could do it, not unlike her determination as a teenager to show her sisters she didn’t need them. She often dreamt at night, of her graduation, where her sisters would be so proud, and tell her she was a ‘proper grown up.’ At college, she tried to be the grown up she wanted her sisters to see her as, and that included being the ring leader, and mother figure of her group of friends. Her vast experiences of the world and the world of demons and witches made her feel so much older, and wiser than her friends.

She had even been secretly searching for a job. She didn’t want her sister’s to continually support her, so she had hoped that she could start to support herself also. She even had an interview for a small coffee shop near campus that afternoon.

Yet at home, she did still struggle to be that person. Prue would always baby her, no matter what. The assumption that Pheebs was that little bit younger, and thus naïve, frustrated her to no end. And she often let herself be that younger, naïve person at home, due to her self doubt about the person she was. She remembered her feelings that lead to her use of the smart spell, and her hurt when her sisters voiced all the self doubt she felt when they were infected by the Demon of Rage. But her sisters meant the world to her, and she rarely voiced these thoughts, because she wanted them to be happy.

And this lead her to her thoughts of Piper. She was extremely worried about the middle sister. Piper’s desire for a normal life was once again, being thwarted by her magical life. She had discovered that the only way for Piper to have children, was by egg donation, or adoption.

It never occurred to Phoebe that she would be and option for egg donation. She automatically assumed Prue would be first choice. And she knew all about the procedure, and she would support them both all the way. Besides, if you were getting to pick a child, half Prue, or half Phoebe, Phoebe thought she knew which one she would pick…

“Halliwell! Hello, are you in there!”

Phoebe was abruptly awaked from her musings.

“Dude, class in five!”

Phoebe hurriedly grabbed her things and followed her friends.

Phoebe walked out of the café several hours later. She’d done great. She’d done better then that. Her boss loved her, told her she was perfect, and she’d done all her training then and there.

She had served several customers, and then one particularly rude speciman had started yelling at one of the waitresses, because she had forgotten to put sugar in his coffee. For reasons she didn’t understand at the time, Phoebe intervened.

“Is there a problem sir?” she’d asked politely.

“Yes there is. This stupid little broad didn’t put sugar in my coffee. It wasn’t a difficult request! This is completely unacceptable!” he’d roared.

“Oh, I see, how about I grab you a new coffee, with sugar… “

But she had been interrupted by a colourful display of language that had shocked even her, the girl who had lived in, and waitressed in, New York for a time.

“Excuse me sir,” she’d interrupted him, as the owner sat back and watched with interest, “I really don’t think I can help you if you speak to me like that. Now, I will go and get you a new coffee, how about I make that a large as well, and for waiting so patiently, I’ll even throw in a VIP card so that when you purchase your ninth coffee, we’ll give you the next one free.” She smiled sweetly at him, and proceeded to make the coffee. She turned to the poor kid he’d screamed at, who couldn’t have been out of high school.

“Why don’t you grab this gentlemen a VIP card, while I fix this up.”

The moron got his coffee, and would return again to use his VIP card.

The owner was quite impressed. He’d been looking for a team leader as well as regular staff. And he thought he’d just found it.

So Phoebe left, hired and promoted in the one day.

Not far down the street, her cell rang. It was Piper.

“Pheebs, feel like going out for coffee?” she’d asked.

“Ah, make it a milkshake and you have yourself a deal.”

Excited, she wandered down to another café down the street, to meet her sister. She had so much news for her. She could tell her all about her new job, and her research last night.

****

They had exhausted the normal conversation topics, and Phoebe was just about to launch into all her big and exciting news, when Piper leant back in her seat, and studied Phoebe carefully.

“What?” asked Phoebe self consciously, “have I got something on me…”

“No Pheebs, just thinking about something…”

“Is it about, what you told me last night? Because…”

“Yes it is,” she interrupted, “And now I have to tell you about my doctor’s appointment.”

“Is that where you went this morning in a hurry?” asked Phoebe, understanding

“Yeah. It is. Now I have to tell you everything that happened.”

“Okay honey, take your time.” Phoebe grabbed her sisters hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

“Well, Dr. Dalton explained why I can’t have children. Because of some ‘scarring’ my ovaries don’t work properly. He asked if I’d ever had a hard blow to the abdomen before. I didn’t think ‘on a weekly basis’ was the answer he was looking for.”

“You actually told him that?” Phoebe asked in shock.

“I told him I a very big dog, that jumped... a lot.” They both giggled for a moment, before Piper continued.

“We tried to get them to respond to some medication, but it didn’t work. This is bad, because….”

Phoebe unintentionally tuned out for a moment, thinking for the umpteenth time that day how unfair the whole thing was. Piper would be the most wonderful mother, and Leo a great father. Their children would be the most beautiful…

“So, they suggested that we consider egg donation. That means that it would be Leo’s… contribution, and… well… someone else’s egg.”

And that point Piper stopped, and took a deep breath, looking up to meet Phoebe’s gaze.

“So, you and Prue would be the closest genetic match to me.”

“We would, and you know we’d both do anything for you.”

“And… well, since you are younger….”

“Don’t worry Piper, I completely understand. And I’ll support you both one hundred percent.”

Piper looked at her quizzically not convinced Phoebe was following.

“Seriously Pipe, I get it, if you had a choice between the two of us…. I know who I’d pick. And as you started to say, I’m younger, and more immature. But I know all about it, I read about the procedures and stuff, and I can help you all I can, and I can help you both with like, diet and stuff and…”

“Phoebe!”

Phoebe stopped abruptly, looking at her sister.

Piper sighed, suddenly aware of how Phoebe’s little insecurities often showed in these moments. But that was an issue for another time.

“Phoebe, A. You are not immature. Well… most of the time. B. Immaturity is hardly hereditary. C. I don’t want Prue… I want you.”

“Piper, are you sure? Don’t get me wrong, I’d do it in a second, but are you sure you want me?”

“I spoke to the nurse, Katrina about it. Your younger, so your reproductive system is more likely to be in better nick. And you and I, on appearances anyway, look more alike, which suggests that we are a closer genetic match. Same hair, same eyes and same height. And Phoebe, like Prue, you are a fantastic person. This was an incredibly hard decision, the hardest I’ve ever had to make. Thankfully, Katrina gave me some ‘medical’ criteria to make it easier.”

“Piper, if you want me, I’m in. Of course I’m in. Just tell me where to be, and I’ll be there.” Phoebe looked Piper in the eye, and both understand the determination in the eyes of the other.

“I want you to think about it first Pheebs, this is a big thing. You need to understand the consequences of all this.”

“What? That the baby is biologically mine? Well, lets face it, biology doesn’t play a huge role. Look at Dad.”

“Not just that, you have to live with it, at least for a little while, and knowing what you do.”

“So I’m an aunt with a vested interested. Honey, I’m going to spoil all my nieces and nephews rotten, no matter what!”

“What about the procedure, you hate hospitals!”

“I know all about it, I read up on the internet when you told me to start with. I know what I’m in for. And even if I didn’t, my answer would be the same. If you want me, I’m there. You’re my sister Pipe, I couldn’t dream of saying no. You could give me five years to write a thesis on this, and my conclusion would be the same. “

“Phoebe, you can’t understand how much I love you right now!”
Jumping from the table, they gave each other one of those special hugs. That only sisters with that special bond can share.

And so it starts...