That night, Piper, Prue and Phoebe had a cozy night in. Piper had told Phoebe she had planned to tell Prue, she just had to work up to it. And a sister night was the perfect way to do that.

That was how the three came to be sitting on the couch, Prue in the middle, as she always seemed to. Piper sat with her legs on Prue’s lap, her back against the arm rest. Phoebe was curled up in a ball, head on Prue’s shoulder’s.

As the first scene of the movie came to an end, Phoebe was fast asleep.

“She’s hopeless, absolutely hopeless!” muttered Prue, as she gazed upon the youngest.

“Yeah…” replied Piper absent-mindedly. Without Phoebe, she lost all confidence. Whilst the choice made sense, how could she explain that to Prue?

Prue would be so hurt, that she’d been rejected in favour of Phoebe, and Piper couldn’t face that alone.

“You okay honey?” asked Prue turning to the middle sister. She could see a raging battle going on in her eyes.

“Oh, yeah, nothing big Prue. Now shhh! Your interrupting the movie.” And with that she turned to the movie, and nothing would avert her gaze.

So Prue let her be.

If only Prue realised that her personal demons were not helping the situation. If she wasn’t so hung up on not being needed, she would realise that she was.

Piper’s silence was not going to help the situation. ‘Never put off unto tomorrow what you can do today,’ Grams had always said. How true it was. The longer she left it, the harder it would be, and the more hurt Prue would be about being left in the dark.

*****

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my ga-wd!!” squealed Phoebe running out of the house that morning.

Piper and Prue looked back at each other in surprise.

“Do you have any…”

“None what so ever.”

“Neither.”

****
“Don’t worry Pheebs, Michael will have it all worked out,” commented Emily calmly as she drove towards campus.

“But that’s not fair. It’s OUR presentation, and I forgot all about it. I don’t deserve any marks!”

Emily looked at her friend, and giggled at the frazzled appearance of her usually cool headed buddy. “How did you just forget, girl? That’s not like you. You’re usually so…together.”

“Hmm… other… more important stuff on my mind.”

When they arrived, Phoebe ran out of the car at full ball, and ploughed straight through Michael as he slowly wandered to meet his two mates.
“Wow there! How did your interview go?”

“Interview… interview… yeah, got the job. Got promoted. Anywho, presentation!”

“Wait up Phoebe. That interview was yesterday, and you didn’t tell me how you went!” said Emily in mock offence. “Congrats! Well done.”

“Thanks… *anyway*,” said Phoebe hurriedly.

“It’s here, read it over, we’ve got twenty minutes, “ smiled Michael, handing her a piece of paper. “It’s just notes… you need to use that head of yours and just talking… you can do that right?”

Phoebe didn’t even look up as she scanned through the page.

“We cool?” Michael tried again.

“Yeah… cool…”

*****

“So, Phoebe, how was your day?” asked the smiling woman sitting in the cozy office across from her.

“Oh, it was okay, had a presentation at college and somehow aced it, “ said Phoebe remembering.

“Great, so you’re at college. What’s your major?”

“Psychology.”

“Fantastic. Well, I suppose we should get on to why you are here. Piper called to say she got caught up at work, but would catch up with you later.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” returned Phoebe, with a look of apparent calm. In truth, she felt a little pang of desertion at this news, but suppressed it quickly.

Piper had called after class to say they could fit her in down at the IVF clinic for that afternoon if that suited. A little affronted by the suddenness of it all, Phoebe had caught the bus, and now found herself talking to the midwife Katrina.

“On to business, firstly I wanted to say what a wonderful thing you are doing for your sister. It’s a very special gift you are giving her and her husband. You must be a very great person.”

“Yeah, we’re sisters, we’d do anything for each other, “ she dismissed the kinds words, feeling a little shy at the attention. Being complemented for being a good person was not something she was used to.

“I need you to fill out some forms about your medical history. Is there anything I need to know?”

“Ah…” Phoebe thought for a moment, “not really. No real dramas come to mind… I’m on the pill...”

“That’s great, works really well for us actually. Now, I’m going to explain the procedures to you, okay?”

“Okay. I’ve read a little about it, when I found out Piper couldn’t have kids.”

“Great, it’s good to see you’re so interested in all of this. Well, what we need to do, is make you ovaries work really hard. Harder then they’ve ever worked before, and hopefully… ever again!”

******
Phoebe stumbled to work in a daze. This was all happening a little fast. Her period was due tomorrow. She would start a new contraceptive pill then. In three months, it would all be over.

She was excited for Piper, so very excited.

But she was also a little overwhelmed. She hoped that by the time she got back from the café, Piper would have told Prue about everything, so she could talk to her about it.

Rounding the corner so that she could see her new work she paused for a moment. Be confident, she told herself. Be calm. Be Together Phoebe. Be Work Phoebe. She physically shook herself before continuing forward.

And it was Work Phoebe who breezily glided into the café, and smiled confidently at the customers at the counter, grabbed her waitress apron, and got to work, all thoughts of her sisters, her little appointment with Katrina, and college well behind her.

*****

Piper and Leo sat in her office at P3, in a heated discussion.

“I just don’t think its Victors business! It’s our business. No one else’s!” contended Leo glaring at his wife.

‘What about Phoebe! She is gonna need someone to, to, to talk to about all of this!” returned Piper waving her hands in the air.

“Piper, I get that you want to tell Prue, and that’s fine with me honey,” sighed Leo, attempting to calm himself down, “but this is our thing. No one else’s. We haven’t even dealt with this properly ourselves.

He stepped forward and pulled the most important thing in his life into his arms. “I love you so much, and I’m so excited that we get the opportunity to have a child, a little baby and be a family. That excitement is ours, and I really don’t want anyone to take that away from us.”

“Oh, Leo…” she looked up at the man she lived every day for, and gazed into his eyes, “I love you so much too, so much it hurts sometimes. And I’m so sorry I can’t give you a child…”

“Piper!” he pushed her back abruptly. “Don’t you *ever* say that again! I love you, and *we* are having a child. This is not your fault. It is just something that life is throwing at us, and we are fighting this challenge, like we would any other. You don’t blame Phoebe if she gets a premonition that leads you a demon!“

“Well… no…” Piper looked to the ground.

“And we are not blaming you, because your destiny lead you to battle some gnarly beast! This is *our* problem, together. We fix it together. And we will.”

And he pulled her into a passionate kiss before she could even contemplate ranting back.

******

Prue watched as her little sister ran into the house late that evening and escaped to her room straight away.

“Well hello to you too!” she called up the stairs bitterly.

She had hardly seen Phoebe at all that week. She just seemed to go about her life, and her big sister’s absence didn’t seem to cause hassle to her at all.

This irritated her. It irritated her that she was apparently needed so little. She was used to Phoebe needing her guidance and help.

Through out her childhood, Phoebe had needed Prue. Prue fought away bad dreams, cleaned up her scraps and helped her with her homework. As she reached her teenage years, when Prue wasn’t really interested in Phoebe, more in her own life, she knew that Phoebe still needed her. It was Prue that would speak with her teachers about Phoebe’s latest escapade.

If Prue had realised Phoebe’s behaviour at the time for what it was, perhaps things could have been different. Perhaps their relationship repaired so much sooner.

“I can’t believe you Phoebe! What the hell where you thinking!” The seventeen year old Prue had screamed. She was missing a milkshake with Andy to speak with Phoebe’s principal.

“Smoking! You were smoking! That crap can kill you! What will Grams say! You are not leaving this house again! “

The angry young teenager just glared back, with raging fury in her eyes.
“You can’t punish me! You don’t have any control over me!” Phoebe had shot back.

“I can and I will. I’m you big sister. Are you trying to ruin my life?! Huh! Is that it Phoebe? How can you do this to me, to Piper, to Grams?! You are such a little screw up! You are going to ruin your life, and drag everyone down with you!”

Phoebe didn’t say anything at first. Her fury was growing, her fingers curling into fists.

“Big sister- and aren’t you doing a damn fine job of that. What would you care anyway?” she muttered slowly in a low voice.

“What?! What did you say?” Prue screeched back, sounding like a galah at sunrise.

“I said,” Phoebe started, maintaining that same quiet, dangerous voice, “that you don’t care what I do. If I do something well, it’s not good enough. The only time I spend with you is when I screw up, and you bail me out. You’re only the big sister when it suits you. And lets face it Prue, you like the power it gives you.”

“You are a selfish little bitch!” Prue yelled.

But Phoebe merely turned around and marched up the stairs.

Prue recalled her younger self slamming her own door, and thinking to herself how selfish, and horrible Phoebe was.

Looking back, Prue knew what it was. It was Phoebe just craving some attention from her older sister. And she was too wrapped up in her own life to notice. She was too busy being bitter about being responsible, that she couldn’t see that Phoebe just wanted to be loved.

Prue stood up and shook herself, attempting to physically shake of her mood.

However, she was still needed, now… Phoebe didn’t need her.
She walked purposefully up the stairs, intent to at least have a little idle chat with her baby sister.

She knocked softly on the door, and found Phoebe typing furiously at her computer.
“Hi Pheebs, how was your day?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She muttered not even looking up.

“Oh-kay. Don’t overwhelm me with information there.”

“Oh,” Phoebe turned around, peering at Prue with her glasses on, “sorry, lots of things to do and all,” She sighed and got up.

“I’ve got this assignment and stuff, and I’ve been at work, so I’ve gotta get it all done.”

“Are you sure this job is such a good idea Pheebs? Do you really have time for it?” Prue didn’t mean for her tone to be so accusing… but somehow it was.

Phoebe blinked in shock, before looking again at her sister. ”A good idea? I thought it was a great idea actually. I need to make my own money, so I can be independent. Stop sponging of you and Piper.”

“Independent!” Prue’s voice seemed to go and octave as she continued. “Independent?! All that is going to happen is that you’ll take on more that you can handle! You are barely handling college alone!”

“Hey! You have no right to say that Prue! You have no…”

“I’m your big sister. I know these things. And you are not going to cope. It’ll all get too much and you’ll just come crying back to me.”

Phoebe glared at her, with a fury in her eyes, that didn’t seem natural in such a sweet person.

“Get out Prue,” Her voice was low and menacing, “now.”

Prue turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind her with a satisfying ‘thunk.’

As soon as she was out of the room, her anger dissipated. She was furious with herself for the stupid argument she had just caused.

It had all the hallmarks of a typical Prue vs Phoebe argument… but was completely unnecessary. Phoebe was right to be angry. She should be furious.

“Way to go Prue…” she muttered to herself as she retreated to her darkroom.