-----

A soft breeze blew through the oak trees, lifting Piper's short dark hair off her neck and cooling her just a little bit. That summer had been the hottest, most oppressive one she could remember: hazy, hot, and humid with any indications of rain few and far between. To help alleviate the stress of the heat, Penny had allowed Prue and Andy to take Piper and Phoebe down to the park to play. While going down to the park took them out of the stagnant humidity of the Manor, the area of the park where Phoebe liked to play provided very little shade.

On a hunch one day earlier in the summer, Piper had slipped into the woods, trying to find some place to cool off. Just as she had suspected, the woods provided a much cooler area. The humidity seemed to abate, there was a lot of shade, and there was even a small breeze that ran through the trees almost constantly. While she was exploring, she had remembered that there was a climbing rock deep in the woods. Andy and his friends used to climb it, and he had taken the girls down there one day a year or two prior to show off. She decided to go looking for it, just for something to do.

When she finally found it, the spot was more gorgeous than she remembered. The top of the rock overlooked a small clearing filled with wild flowers in pale pinks and purples. She had quickly taken to sitting on the rock and just looking out over the clearing.

Not only was her little spot nice and cool, it was also very quiet. When she was sitting on the top of the rock, all the other sounds from the park seemed to melt away until they were merely a quiet drone in the background. She had taken to craving the quiet more and more. Maybe it was because she had two sisters who were always around her and she didn't get much quiet time, but she loved the peace and quiet she found in the woods.

She had also taken to bringing along a little red memo pad and a pen. She had developed a penchant for writing. It wasn't much; just her thoughts and feelings at the time, sometimes the start of a short story or poem. Even still, she wanted to keep her little notebook a secret from her sisters. It was hard to keep a secret in her house, but she was trying desperately. She didn't think that such a small amount of privacy was too much to ask.

She sighed, pulled her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs, staring out at the flowers. The notebook and pen were lying unused at her side. She didn't feel like writing at the moment. The flowers were swaying in the breeze, and it was too pretty for her to turn away.

"It is beautiful, isn't it?"

Piper jumped to her feet with a tiny scream, kicking her pen off the rock as she did. She whirled around and found herself face to face with a young girl about her age. Her light brown hair was pulled into two long braids which started at her ears and ended just before her waist. She had deep blue eyes and she was wearing a simple long brown dress that hung just to her ankles and almost covered black boots. The entire look was one out of the late nineteenth century. Piper regarded her curiously, wondering how the girl was even comfortable in that get-up. "Where did you come from?"

"Back there. I didn't mean to frighten you."

"You didn't," Piper replied. It was a lie; the girl had scared her half to death. She looked her over warily. She seemed nice, though a little strange. Piper couldn't understand why she was wearing such an old- fashioned outfit at all, never mind on the hottest day of the summer. "My name's Piper," she said a moment later, remembering her manners.

"I'm Melody Thomason," the girl replied.

"Nice to meet you," Piper said, smiling.

"Likewise." Melody grinned, then stepped away and started to climb down the rock.

"What are you doing?" Piper asked. She followed Melody down slowly, wondering how the girl could go so fast without tripping over her dress.

"I'm getting your pen," she answered. She jumped down the last two feet or so and began peering at the ground, trying to find the pen. She grinned, crouched down, and dug the slim black pen out of a pile of dead leaves. She straightened, turned to Piper, who had just jumped down from the rock, and handed the pen back to her. "After all, it is my fault it fell. If I hadn't startled you, you wouldn't have dropped it."

Piper accepted the pen with a smile. "You didn't have to."

Melody smiled and started back up the rock. Piper followed her and reached the top a good minute and a half after

Melody. "How are you so good at climbing this thing?" she asked, panting as she plopped down on the rock next to the girl.

"I climb it all the time," she answered with a shrug. "My mother constantly gets angry with me because I come out here instead of doing my chores. How old are you?"

"I'm eleven," Piper replied, turning around so that she was facing Melody.

"I am, too!" she exclaimed, her blue eyes twinkling. "Finally, someone my own age!"

"Really?" Piper frowned. "How come I've never seen you in school? Where do you live?"

"I live back there," Melody answered, pointing over her shoulder towards the park.

"But the park's back there," Piper said hesitantly, the wary expression returning to her face. "You can't live back there."

"Oh, well, I live next to the park," she quickly corrected herself. "A few houses over."

Piper nodded, but she was pretty sure that Melody could tell that she didn't quite believe her. The girls sat in silence for a few minutes, just staring out at the flowers. It wasn't until Piper heard Prue calling her that she moved. She jumped up and stuffed the notepad and pen into the back pocket of her denim shorts. "Oh, shoot, I have to go!"

Melody jumped up as well. "What? Now?"

Piper nodded. "I don't want my sister to find out that I sit out here. It's really the only place I can be alone."

Melody gave her a sympathetic smile. "Will you be back?"

"Probably not today . . ." Piper said thoughtfully. "Tomorrow, unless it rains. Meet back here?"

"That would be wonderful!" Melody said with a wide grin. "I will see you tomorrow!"

Piper waved goodbye to her and ran back towards the park. She was running so fast that she didn't see Prue until she crashed into her. The force of the collision almost knocked her down. "Whoa! There you are!" Prue said, gripping

Piper's arms to steady her. "I thought I told you I didn't want you disappearing into the woods."

"I'm a big girl now, Prue," Piper said, rolling her eyes. "I can take care of myself for a couple of hours."

Prue opened her mouth to argue, then closed it, changing her mind. What would be the point of arguing? It would only make both of them angry with each other. "I know you can," she said instead, wrapping her arm around Piper's shoulders. "Come on. Let's go home."

Piper nodded and pretended to listen to Prue as she told her a story about a game she and Andy had played. As they walked out of the woods, all Piper could think about was Melody. The girl sure was strange. Everything about her, her clothes, even her vocabulary all seemed to be out of another time. Not only that, but some of the things she said simply didn't make sense, like her being so excited about finding someone her own age. There were tons of kids in the neighborhood around Piper's age. Adding that to the fact that Piper had never seen her in school and the fact that Melody had lied about where she lived, Piper was sure she had walked into the middle of a mystery. Though, despite all that, Piper couldn't help but like the girl. She grinned to herself, excited at the prospect of solving the mystery that surrounded Melody Thomason.

Piper slowly trudged down the stairs, the humidity in the air making her sluggish. The air was stifling and it was hard for her to breathe. She was bored, hot, and tired all at the same time, and it was all making her cranky. Every little noise seemed to annoy her and she couldn't even bring herself to talk to anyone without getting aggravated. While she was upstairs, she had decided that playing under the sprinkler might lessen some of the edginess and cool her off, and she was on her way to ask her grandmother if she could set it up in the backyard.

"Grams, I'm telling you, the girl is driving me crazy!"

Piper gasped and quickly ducked down on the stairs, hiding behind the decorated wood of the banister. She had a funny feeling that Prue was talking about her, and she wanted to know what she was going to say. Prue and her grandmother stepped into her view and she kept perfectly still, silently praying that no one would look up and see her.

"Keep your voice down," Penny hissed, glancing from side to side. Once she was satisfied that she and Prue were alone, she turned back to her oldest granddaughter, keeping her voice low and quiet. "What's been going on?"

"Piper keeps disappearing into the woods for hours at a time," Prue answered in a rush. "She won't tell me what she does in there, she won't tell me where she goes, and she won't listen to me when I tell her I don't want her in there. You need to tell her to stop going in there." She finally stopped to catch her breath.

"Whoa, whoa," Penny said, holding out her hand. "First of all, if I tell her that she can't go into the woods, it's just going to make her want to go in there even more. Making it forbidden makes it attractive. And secondly, it's not that bad, Prue. So she disappears for a couple of hours. Maybe she just wants to be alone. It's not like this house is buzzing with alone time."

"But why all the secrecy?" Prue persisted. "Why won't she tell me where she goes or what she does?"

"Sweetie, your sister's getting older," she replied, smiling gently. "When you were her age, did you tell me everything?"

"No, but--"

"Okay, then," she interrupted. She rested her hand on her granddaughter's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"Sweetie, she's not going to share everything with you anymore, and I know that hurts, but it's part of growing up."

"But that's not even what I'm worried about," Prue said frantically. "What if she's playing somewhere and something happens? What if she gets hurt? She'd be all alone and I wouldn't know where to find her!"

"Okay, okay, I'll talk to her," Penny said, sighing. She did have to admit; Prue had a very good point. She wanted to allow Piper some freedom, but she also wanted her to be safe. "I'm not going to tell her to stop going in there, but I will

tell her to be careful, okay?"

Piper didn't stick around to hear Prue's answer. She quietly crawled back up the stairs and headed back to her room, hoping to make it look like she had upstairs the entire time. As she flopped down on her bed and grabbed a book to pretend she had been reading, she felt herself growing angry. Why was Prue making such a big deal about her going into the woods? Who cared if she spent her time in the woods? It wasn't like she was in there getting into trouble. She was just sitting on a rock and using the quiet serenity to think.

A minute later, there was a quiet knock on the door. "Piper?" Penny asked softly.

Piper looked up and saw her grandmother standing in the doorway. Even if she hadn't been listening on the stairs, she would have known just from the look on her grandmother's face that the two of them were about to have a talk. She closed the book and set it down on the foot of the bed. "Come on in, Grams."

Penny entered the room and sat down on Phoebe's bed, directly across from Piper. She quickly looked her granddaughter over. "Prue told me about the woods," she said matter-of-factly.

Piper dropped her gaze to her hands, hoping that she looked surprised and saddened enough. "Are you going to tell me to stop going in there?"

"No," she answered, a smile on her face. "I'm not even going to ask you why you go in there. All I'm going to tell you is to be careful. If you get hurt, no one will be able to find you."

Piper grinned and jumped up off the bed, running over to her grandmother and wrapping her arms around her. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" Even though she had heard Penny tell Prue that she wasn't going to make her stop going into the woods, it still felt like a great relief when her grandmother told her herself. "I'll be very, very careful, I promise."

"Good girl," Penny said. She patted her granddaughter's back, then let her go a moment later. "I have to start dinner. Want to help?"

"Sure!" Piper smiled. Suddenly, all of her anger and aggravation was completely gone. She didn't even feel as hot or tired. She didn't know whether it was because her tiny bit of freedom had remained intact or because she was asked to help in the kitchen, but it didn't matter. She slipped her hand into her grandmother's and practically skipped downstairs,

excited to helping with dinner.

-----

The next day dawned hotter than the day before. Piper didn't think it was possible, but when she awoke that morning, she was already sweating. The heat was making everyone cranky. She had already gotten into a fight with Prue. The fight itself wasn't even really that bad, but the heat made it seem much worse. Despite her grandmother's warnings to the contrary, Prue had asked Piper what she does in the woods. Piper had refused to go into details, telling Prue instead that it was none of her business. Prue got angry, then Piper got angry in return, and they both had said things they didn't mean.

As soon as the sisters and Andy had arrived at the park, Piper had taken off into the woods, eager to escape into the quiet solitude of the tall trees. She headed straight for the rock and plopped down on the top, hugging her knees to her chest. She didn't even realize she'd been crying until she felt a tear slip off her cheek and drip onto her knee. Sniffling, she wiped her eyes and stared out at the flowers. Normally, the scene would have relaxed her, but she was too wound up from the fight for anything to calm her down.

"Piper? Are you crying?"

Piper gasped, startled, and looked over her shoulder. She found herself staring at Melody. The girl was wearing the same long dress she had been the day before, and her hair was done the same way. Piper nodded and turned back around, looking out at the flowers once again. "You don't have to stay. I'm in a bad mood and I won't be very fun."

"Nonsense." Melody sat down next to her and wrapped her arm around Piper's shoulders. "What's upsetting you?"

"My sister and I got into a fight," she said, sniffling.

"What about?"

"About me coming here," she answered, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "She doesn't like me coming in here by myself, but my grandmother told her to leave me alone and let me do my own thing. But she doesn't know how to leave me alone. Why can't she understand that she's my sister, not my mother?" She trailed off, starting to cry again.

Melody tightened her grip around Piper's shoulders. "Did your mom tell her to stop?"

"My mom died a few years ago," Piper said, letting her tears drip off her cheek. "My grandmother takes care of us, but she relies on Prue a lot to help her. Sometimes Prue takes the parenting too far, though." She buried her face in her knees, trying to stop sobbing. "I don't need her to be my mother. I need her to be my sister."

"Oh, Piper, I wish I knew what to say to you," Melody said.

"It's okay." Piper looked up and wiped her eyes, sniffling. "You don't have to say anything. I just . . . I'm so angry right now!"

Melody sighed and released her grip on Piper's shoulders, hugging her own legs tightly instead. She shook her head slightly, wondering what she could do to make Piper feel better, then smiled. "Come here." She stood up and grabbed Piper's hands, pulling her onto her feet. "I want to show you something." Piper frowned in confusion, but she allowed Melody to drag her through the woods.

They were going deeper into the woods than Piper had ever gone before. She didn't recognize anything, and she didn't think she could find the way back. She hoped that Melody knew how to get out, or at the very least, how to get back to the rock. After a few minutes of trudging through dead leaves and low bushes, they reached a small clearing surrounded by tall evergreens. In the middle of the clearing stood a little wishing well, complete with a bucket and a ladle for scooping water. "Oh, this is so cute!" Piper exclaimed.

"Isn't it?" Melody asked with a grin. "This is my other little thinking spot. I climb the rock quite a bit, but sometimes I like to just sit here at the well, dropping pebbles into the water."

"Doesn't your mom get mad at you for being out here by yourself for so long?" Piper asked as she turned the crank to

lower the bucket into the water. She smiled when she heard the quiet plop of the wood hitting water.

Melody shrugged, her face falling slightly. "It doesn't matter anymore."

Piper turned back to Melody, catching the shift in the girl's mood. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered, shaking her head as if to clear it and smiling.

Piper nodded, not really believing her. There was something about Melody that she couldn't quite figure out. It wasn't any one thing; just a lot of little things. This was only the second day she had spent time with Melody and it was the second time that Melody had said something that made Piper stop and think. Why wouldn't it matter if Melody's mother got mad at her? And it wasn't even as if Melody simply didn't care. She had said that it didn't matter anymore, which meant that it had mattered once.

"Are you feeling better?" Melody asked.

Piper nodded, shaking herself out of her reverie, and smiled. "Yeah, I am."

"Good. I'm glad."

The girls played at the well for a little over an hour. Piper had calmed down considerably and Melody's sudden mood swing had gone away. Suddenly, Melody gasped and grabbed Piper's hand, starting to lead her back to the rock.

"We should get back! If your sister calls you, you won't be able to hear her all the way out here."

"Okay," Piper said, shrugging. She really didn't want to go back, but she also didn't want Prue traipsing through the woods looking for her. She followed Melody back through the maze of trees and bushes. Unwittingly, she stepped through a patch of briars and winced as the sharp thorns scraped her legs. She didn't have time to stop and see if she was bleeding, though, because Melody had run through them unharmed. Just as she was trying to figure out how she could have run through a patch of thorns and not have been hurt at all, she heard Prue calling her name.

She groaned, wondering what her sister could possibly want, and continued to follow Melody. Prue can wait, she thought bitterly. Maybe she'll even get herself lost. She gasped at the thought, surprised at how angry she still was over their fight that morning.

She turned a corner on the path as Melody slipped out of her view, and for the second day in a row, she ran right into her sister. After catching her breath from the fright of colliding into someone, she looked past Prue, trying to find Melody. The girl was nowhere to be found. "Oh, Prue, now I lost her!"

"Lost who?"

"My friend Melody," she replied. "I was following her back to . . ." She trailed off, reluctant to reveal where she had been or where she was going.

"Piper, you were alone. I didn't see anyone else."

"But--" Piper glanced around and was sorry to find that Prue was right. There was no indication at all that someone had been accompanying her. There were no swaying branches ahead of them and no other sounds in the woods. "She was here, I swear!"

"Is that what you do in here?" Prue asked. "Meet a friend?"

Piper nodded distractedly, trying to figure out where Melody went. "I just . . . where did she go?"

Prue wrapped her arm around Piper's shoulder, giving her a small hug. She knew beyond a doubt that Piper had been alone. Through the trees, she had seen her running before they collided, and there was no one else with her, either in front of her or behind her. "I don't know where she went, but I have something that might make you feel better. Andy and I are going to buy Phoebe some ice cream and we were wondering if you want some, too."

"Sure," Piper said with a smile.

"Good." Prue smiled and started walking her sister out of the woods. "I'm sorry about this morning."

"I am, too," Piper said. She looked up at Prue and grinned, telling her sister that she meant it. Prue smiled back and the two of them silently made their way out of the woods. As they emerged from the trees, Piper looked over her shoulder just once, then sighed. Melody was still nowhere to be found. She glanced over at Prue and caught her looking at her with a concerned expression on her face. Piper just smiled, trying to calm her sister's nerves, but the truth was, Piper was concerned herself. Where in the world had Melody disappeared to?

Prue finished drying the last of the dinner dishes and put them back in the cabinet with a triumphant grin. "Done at last," she muttered as she threw the dish towel into the wash. With a sigh, she walked over to the back door to check on her sisters. Through the screen door, she watched as Phoebe ran around under the sprinkler and as Piper settled herself on the long adult swing on the swingset. The swing was swaying gently, but Piper looked like her mind was miles elsewhere. Prue smiled sympathetically and stepped outside, letting the screen door slam shut behind her.

She waited for the sprinkler to turn and spray the other side of the lawn, then ran across the yard and sat down on the swing with Piper. The second she sat, she gasped, lifted her feet off the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest. The swing was a lot hotter than she had expected it to be and the long metal slats burned her bare skin. "How are you sitting on this thing?" Prue asked, running her hands over the backs of her legs.

Piper started and whipped her head around, blinking as if shaken from a daydream. "What?"

"It's so hot." Prue took Piper's hand and held it down on the empty spot between them for a split second. Piper winced in pain and pulled her hand away, cradling her hurt hand in the other. "Doesn't it hurt your legs?" Prue asked.

Piper shook her head. "I wet it a little before I sat down," she said quietly. She wiggled her fingers, the pain in her hand now a mere tingle in her fingers. "It doesn't hurt."

Prue nodded, then looked her sister over. As much as Piper was trying to pretend that everything was okay, Prue could tell otherwise. "Piper, what's going on?"

"What?" Piper asked, staring straight ahead.

"Your mind is like, a zillion miles away. Is everything all right?"

"I'm fine," Piper answered with a small shrug. She was torn. Part of her wanted to tell Prue to go away and leave her alone, but another, more rational part of her wanted to confide in her sister. The thing with Melody really had her upset. First of all, she didn't understand how someone could just disappear into thin air, but what was bothering her the most was that it didn't seem like Melody existed at all. When they had arrived home, Piper had gone searching the phone book for Melody's number. She had intended to apologize for earlier and ask where the girl had disappeared to, but there was no listing at all for Thomason in the phone book. Nothing was adding up and she needed a little help figuring things out. "Prue, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything. You know that."

She turned around on the swing so that she was sitting sideways, placing her heels on the metal. "My friend Melody . . . there's something weird about her."

Prue turned around as well, facing her sister. Could this be what was upsetting Piper so much? "What is it?" she asked, concerned.

"I met her yesterday," Piper said, shifting uncomfortably under Prue's gaze. "She sort of lied to me about where she lives. She told me she lived 'back there' and pointed towards the park. When I told her that she couldn't live back there because the park was back there, she said she lives next to the park. Then she disappeared today and I was going to call her to find out where she went, and her number wasn't in the phone book."

Prue thought a moment. So far, it didn't seem too bad. If Melody had only met Piper yesterday, she might not have wanted to tell her where she lived. And it was quite possible that Melody's phone number was unlisted. "Is there anything else?"

"Well . . ." Piper said hesitantly. She sighed, shaking her head. You have to go through with it now, she thought. "She dresses really old-fashioned and she talks funny, too. And I've never seen her before. Not in school, not at the park, not anywhere."

Prue sighed as well, trying to think. It did seem a little mysterious, but she was sure she could find some logical explanation for it all. "Maybe she just moved here," she said with a shrug. "That would explain why she doesn't know exactly where her house is, why her number's not in the phone book, and why you've never seen her in school."

Piper mulled that over for a moment and started to nod, then stopped herself. "But what about the clothes and the way she talks?"

"Well," Prue said thoughtfully. She honestly had no idea how to explain that part of the mystery. There was one explanation she could offer, but it was too much of a long shot for it to really satisfy Piper's curiosity. "Maybe she was raised in an old-fashioned household, like by a great aunt or something. She'd be used to dressing in a certain way and talking like they did back then, especially if she didn't get to play with kids her own age a lot."

Piper just nodded slightly. She appreciated Prue's effort, but Melody had told her that she lived with her mother. Plus, Prue's story didn't explain how Melody just seemed to disappear earlier that afternoon. Normal people don't just disappear into thin air, she thought to herself. "I guess that makes sense," she said, trying to humor her sister.

Prue smiled, though she knew Piper wasn't convinced. Truthfully, it all seemed a little strange to Prue, too, but she kept her mouth shut. She was lucky that Piper had confided in her this much. Her sister had been distancing herself a little and while it hurt, Prue didn't want to push her. The last thing she wanted was to make Piper feel like she was being babied.

Suddenly a spray of cold water hit Prue right in the chest. She screeched and jumped off the swing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Piper jump up as well. Then she heard giggling. As she whipped her head around in the direction of the sound, she got hit with another splash of water.

Andy was holding the garden hose, obviously having snuck into the yard and disconnected it from the sprinkler, laughing at the two of them. He gave Phoebe a high five, then turned back to Prue, a smug smile on his face. "Oh, I'm going to kill you!" Prue yelled as she rushed at Andy.

He wasn't expecting a tackle. Taking advantage of his surprise, she wrestled him to the ground, both of them getting soaked by the hose in the process. As soon as Prue had Andy pinned, Piper smirked, ran over, and grabbed the hose, turning it on her sister and Andy.

Pretty soon, they were all drenched, but they were laughing. Prue smiled when she heard Piper's high-pitched squeal as Andy sprayed her one last time. She was glad that Piper had, at least for a moment, forgotten about her little mystery and was able to enjoy herself.

-----

The next morning was brighter and hotter than any other day that summer. It was so hot and oppressive that Grams had refused to allow the girls to go down to the park. "You three will wind up with heatstroke if you play out in the sun all day," she had said, and that was that.

Piper had started to argue. If she couldn't go to the park, she wouldn't be able to see Melody at all. There was so much she wanted to ask Melody, and now she wouldn't be able to. However, Prue gently stopped her from causing a scene.

Arguing wasn't going to get anyone anywhere. Instead, Prue had suggested that Penny drop the girls off at the library for a few hours. The building was air-conditioned, after all, and taking the girls to the library would get them out of the thick, humid air for a while. Plus, it would get them out of their grandmother's hair.

Penny had agreed and the girls had been at the library for a couple of hours already. Phoebe was happily settled in the children's section with a ghost story and Piper was nestled in an overstuffed chair with a few of the latest entertainment magazines. Prue checked on both her sisters, then turned back to her old newspapers.

It wasn't as though Prue was a history buff. She wasn't. She just thought that paging through the old newspapers was interesting. The library had copies of the local papers dating all the way back to the mid-1800s. The earlier papers were kept on microfilm, but the microfilm machine required the help of a librarian to set it up and feed the film through the machine. She didn't want to put a librarian through all that if she wasn't doing actual research.

The paper she was flipping through at the moment was from late July of 1881. There was nothing really going on in the news. There was a drought that summer, and a lot of the editorials were bemoaning that fact, but other than that, it was pretty standard stuff. She was just about to put that paper back and get another one when something caught her eye. It was a small story, one that could have easily been overlooked, but there was something about the picture under the headline that stopped her from turning the page. It was a picture of a rock overlooking a clearing. I know this, she thought to herself. Why do I know this?

After a moment of thought, she suddenly remembered why the spot looked so familiar. It was the climbing rock that Andy and his friends used to play on. He and a bunch of his buddies used to climb that rock every day. They were pretty good at it, too, until the day that Tommy MacIntosh fell and broke his arm. After that, the parents of all the boys had refused to let the boys go back.

Even still, Andy had taken Prue and her sisters there one day after Tommy fell so he could show them how fast he could climb up and down. Prue had pretended to be impressed, but in reality, she had been petrified. The drop off the rock was almost vertical and the few ledges Andy was using as footholds and places to hold onto were small and narrow. She had only been there that one time, and that was enough for her.

She looked back down at the article and began skimming it. Her jaw dropped open in horror. A little girl had been climbing the rock, just as Andy and his friends used to do, and she had fallen off the top. She hit her head on the way down. Once the doctor was able to get to her, he tried his hardest, but he couldn't save her. She died a couple of hours later. The paper wouldn't release her name because she was so young, but the reporter did write that she was only eleven years old. Just as old as Piper is, she thought, shaking her head. Glancing over her shoulder at her sister, she tried to imagine what she'd do without her. She couldn't. The thought was just too much for her.

She sighed and quickly turned the page, trying to put the horrible story out of her mind. The fact that she knew the spot where it happened, that she had been there, made everything more real. It could have just as easily been Tommy that hit his head, or even Andy. Or even . . .

She gasped, jumped out of her seat, and ran over to Piper, crouching down in front of her sister's chair. "Piper," she panted, "I need to know . . . when you go into the woods, do you go to the climbing rock Andy showed us?"

Piper's jaw dropped as if Prue had found out some big secret, but she quickly recovered. "It's none of your business, Prue," she said, a steely edge in her voice that surprised her.

"Piper, I'm serious!"

She closed the magazine she was reading and crossed her arms over her chest. "So am I."

Prue straightened halfway and grabbed her sister's arms. "Look, whether you already go there or not, you have to promise me you won't go there ever again."

Anger flashed into Piper's eyes as she tried to pull out of Prue's grasp. "I don't have to promise you anything!"

"Yes, you do." She tightened her grip on Piper's arms, trying to make her listen. "It's a dangerous place, Piper, and if you get hurt . . ." She trailed off, choking up a little, then she cleared her throat. "Just promise me you'll stay away. Please."

Piper stopped struggling and looked up at her sister, softening instantly when she saw how upset Prue was. "Okay, fine, I promise," she said after a moment.

Prue smiled, relief washing over her. "Good. You can go back to your reading now," she said as she stood up and let Piper's arms go.

Piper shot her a bewildered look, but she wordlessly reopened the magazine and began reading again. Prue headed back to her table, intent on seeing if she could find out anything else about the girl that died, but just as she sat down, she saw Penny walk in the door. Her grandmother was there to pick them up. Oh well, she thought with a sigh as she picked the newspaper up and put it away, my research will have to wait.

The following day provided a tiny bit of relief. The heat wave had broken overnight with a short but heavy rainstorm. When the girls awoke that morning, it was about twenty degrees cooler than it had been in weeks. The cooling of the air was accompanied by a cooling of the tension in the Manor. Everyone seemed to be more at ease, with each other and with themselves.

On the way to the park, Piper and Prue had actually gotten along, something that hadn't happened in a couple of weeks. Piper couldn't tell whether they were getting along because the heat had finally abated or because Prue had Piper's word that she wouldn't go near the climbing rock and she was therefore more relaxed, but she suspected that it was a little bit of both. However, Piper was now standing in the woods, trying not to break her promise. She didn't know how she was going to find Melody if she couldn't go to the rock to wait for her.

Sighing, she made her way to the rock. "Sorry, Prue," she murmured as she pushed a branch back out of her path. I'll stay here just long enough to find Melody, and then I'll have her take me somewhere else, she thought insistently.

Cautiously, she stepped through the oak trees and approached the rock. All of a sudden, the spot wasn't the serene place she had thought it was. It was a scary spot, a dangerous place. One wrong move and she could fall twenty feet to the rocky ground below. "Come on, Melody," she whispered. "Where are you?"

She carefully sat down on the very back of the rock. Normally she would have let her legs dangle over the edge, but not today. Not anymore. Why didn't I notice how straight that drop is? she asked herself. Her sister was right; the place was much too dangerous to play. When they had gotten home from the library the day before, Prue had explained why she had freaked out and asked Piper to stay away from the rock. When Piper heard the story of the girl who had died while playing on the rock, she had been horrified. She had known that Tommy had broken his arm from falling, but knowing that someone lost her life from falling frightened her. One wrong step and that could be her.

Her heart was pounding, but she crawled a little closer to the edge. It was like driving by a car wreck. She wanted to turn away, the scene made her uncomfortable and more than a little scared, but she just couldn't. Before she knew it, her fingers hit the end of the rock. She curled her fingers over the edge and leaned forward, gazing down at the stony outcropping at the foot of the rock. I wonder if that girl ever woke up again, she thought with a shudder.

"What are you doing?"

Piper screeched and jumped back, kneeling up. For a split second, she thought that she was going to fall forward, but she soon realized that her mind, in its surprise, was playing tricks on her. She wasn't going anywhere. She backed away from the edge and stood up, whirling on Melody. "You scared me to death!" she exclaimed, panting as she held one hand over her heart. "Don't do that!"

"I'm sorry," Melody said, her surprise evident in her voice. "I didn't realize I was going to give you such a fright. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Piper answered, taking a deep breath. She was starting to calm down. At least her heart wasn't beating a mile a minute anymore. After taking one more really deep breath, she looked up at Melody, instantly feeling guilty when she saw the shocked expression on her friend's face. "Look, it wasn't your fault. My sister told me that a long time ago, a girl our age fell and died while playing on this rock, and it scared me--"

"How does she know about that?" Melody asked frantically, panic flashing briefly into her eyes.

Piper gasped at the sudden venom in her friend's voice. "She read about it yesterday in an old newspaper," she answered, trying to hold back her surprise. "Grams didn't want us outside because it was so hot, so we hung out at the library. Prue likes reading the old newspapers, and she found the story. Why does it matter?"

Melody hesitated a moment. It seemed as if she was trying to find an answer. "Because that girl was my ancestor," she said eventually. "My mom used to tell me that story all the time when I was little to scare me and keep me away from here, but it backfired on her. All it made me do is want to come here and master this thing."

"Wow," Piper said with a low whistle. "I had no idea"

"How could you?" Melody asked with a smile. "Anyway, I can tell you don't want to stay here and it's getting close to lunchtime. Would you like to eat at my house?"

"Sure!" she exclaimed. Eating at Melody's house would not only be fun, but it could also provide some clues as to who Melody was. "I have to tell my sister first, though."

"Oh, no, you don't," Melody said, waving her hand dismissively. "We'll be gone all of ten minutes. Besides, she's not your mother, remember?"

Piper grinned. As strange as Melody was, she did seem to understand Piper in a way that Prue never could. "You're right! Come on. You lead the way."

Melody grinned back and grabbed Piper's hand. She began dragging her down a small, worn path in the middle of the dense trees. They were heading back towards the park. Piper was a little confused, but she kept her mouth shut. She figured that Melody would obviously know where she was going.

When they emerged, Piper was more than a little bewildered. She knew where they should have come out. The slides should have been at her right and the seesaws should have been to her left. But what she was looking at wasn't the park at all. Instead, she saw a farmhouse at the back of a small expanse of land. She heard the clucking of chickens and a cow mooing in the distance. It was quaint and pleasant, and Piper couldn't help but smile, but it was all wrong. "Wait a second," she said softly, pulling her hand out of Melody's. "This isn't right. This shouldn't be here."

"What do you mean?" Melody asked, smiling sweetly. "Of course we should be here."

"I meant that this is all wrong," she clarified, shaking her head. "The slide should be right there and . . ." She trailed off, the details of what should have been where getting fuzzier as time passed. She looked out over the farm and smiled, her apprehension melting away. "Never mind."

Melody gently took Piper's hand once again and tugged her towards the house. Piper allowed her jaw to drop in amazement as she walked past a small pasture where two cows grazed on the deep green grass. On the other side of the pasture was a small chicken coop surrounded by a wire fence. Her eyes settled on the coop and she giggled in delight when she saw a few tiny brown chicks jumping around at the adult hens' feet. "Oh gosh!" she exclaimed, breaking away from Melody and running up to the fence. "They're all so little!"

Melody grinned and opened the gate to the fence. "Come here," she whispered, tapping Piper's shoulder. Piper followed her into the caged area and Melody then closed the gate tightly to prevent the chickens from getting loose. Then, Melody crouched down, cooing to the chicks, and picked one of them up. "Hold out your hands," she instructed Piper.

Piper did as she was told and Melody gently placed the chick into Piper's hands. "Just curl your fingers a little bit to keep her from falling," Melody said, gently forming Piper's hands into a small bowl. "Cradle her in your hands and once she's comfortable, she'll start hopping around."

Piper kept her hands perfectly still, just as Melody had positioned them, and giggled when the chick did indeed begin walking around in her palms. "This is incredible," she whispered. She began cooing to the chick, caressing her soft feathers with her thumbs. "Does she have a name?"

"Trixie," Melody said with a smile. "She's the friendliest."

"Hi, Trixie," Piper said softly, bringing her hands closer to her face.

Melody grinned. "Come on, let's go eat. You can bring Trixie inside if you want. My mom's not going to care."

Piper nodded, following Melody out of the chicken coop and up to the house. "This is unbelievable," she breathed as she and Melody settled into two rocking chairs on the front porch. "I mean, I never knew a place like this still existed, never mind by the park."

"You really like it?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I do."

"Well, you can come over any time you want. We'll meet in the woods and I can bring you back here. Even if all you want to do is get away from your sisters for a while."

Piper looked up at her, regarding her warily. "What makes you think I want to get away from my sisters?"

"It's more than a little obvious, Piper," Melody answered with a knowing smile. "I know you better than you think I do. In fact . . . I know that there are times you wish you didn't even have sisters. Am I right?"

Piper's jaw dropped once again. How could Melody know that? She'd never mentioned that to anybody. She'd never even written it down in her notebook. It was a thought she hated admitting she had, but it was the truth. And she was afraid that if anyone in her family found out she thought it, they'd hate her. "How did you--"

"--know that?" She grinned. "I told you, I know you better than you think I do. And I won't tell anyone you think that because I know that you know they'd all hate you for it. But the reason I brought it up is this . . . what would you say if I could get you away from your sisters? Even if it's only for a night?"

"I'd say great," she smiled.

"Good. When you go home tonight, ask your grandmother if you can stay over here sometime."

Piper hesitated. Something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't place what it was. There was something off about everything; the farm that shouldn't exist, Melody knowing Piper's innermost thoughts . . . yet, there was also something strangely comfortable about it all. "I-I don't know."

"Come on, Piper. I just proved to you that I know you better than even your family knows you. And I don't hate you for thinking what you think. They would. All I'm offering is a chance for you to get away for a night."

"What do you get out of it?" Piper asked. The way Melody was talking, it was almost as if they were making a business deal.

"A friend's company," she answered, smiling. "No more and no less."

Piper looked down at Trixie and smiled. "Okay. I'll ask when I get home tonight."

"Great! You won't regret it. I promise."

Melody stood and entered the house. Piper followed her in, a strange sense of peace settling over her. She knew she should have been uncomfortable with the whole thing, but she wasn't. She was perfectly calm, regardless of the fact that she was going to ask permission to stay the night at a farmhouse she was pretty sure shouldn't exist at all.

Penny sighed and sat back in her chair at the dinner table. Piper had asked if she could stay the night at her new friend Melody's house. Penny was a little uncomfortable with the idea, seeing as she didn't know Melody or Melody's family. Plus, Piper herself admitted that she'd only known Melody for a couple of days. "Piper, I just don't think it's a good idea."

Piper's jaw dropped open and she let her fork drop onto her plate with a clatter. "But Grams--"

"No buts," she said, clearing her throat. "We'll talk about it after dinner. Finish your ziti."

"Why can't we talk about it now?"

Prue and Phoebe exchanged a silent surprised glance. They were both thinking the same thing: it wasn't like Piper to talk back to anyone. Their grandmother fixed a stern glare on Piper. "Because I said we'd talk about it later. Now, finish your ziti, or you may be excused from the table."

Piper angrily stood up, wrapping her hands around the edges of her plate. "You can try all you want, but you're not my mother. You never will be." She picked up her plate and full glass of milk, turned on her heel, and carried her things back into the kitchen.

"Piper Halliwell, get back here!" Penny yelled at Piper's retreating form. She cringed when she saw Phoebe make herself small in the chair.

"You said I was excused if I wasn't going to eat," Piper yelled from the kitchen. She slammed the plate down into the sink, dumped her milk down the drain, and slammed her glass in the sink as well.. Then, she stomped back through the dining room on her way upstairs.

Penny jumped up and followed Piper out of the room. She grabbed Piper's arm and gasped in shock when Piper violently ripped her arm away. "What has gotten into you, young lady?"

Piper narrowed her eyes at her grandmother, whirled around, ignoring her grandmother's pleas for her to stop, and stomped up the stairs. Penny let out an exasperated sigh and followed her granddaughter up the stairs. When Piper ran into her bedroom and slammed the door, Penny whipped it open and followed her in. "Piper, what is wrong with you?"

Piper wordlessly flopped down onto her bed, picked up her stuffed rabbit, and clutched it tightly. She was so angry that she was trembling, but she was afraid to say anything. She couldn't be sure of what she would say, and she didn't want to say anything else that she'd regret.

"Piper Ann Halliwell, when I ask you a question, you answer me," Penny said through clenched teeth. "What on earth has gotten into you?"

Suddenly, Piper's eyes filled with tears. She didn't know why she was so angry, she didn't know why she was acting like such a spoiled brat, and she didn't know why she had said what she did. "I don't know," she answered, choking up. "I really don't know."

Penny softened. This was the Piper she knew, the one who was a quiet and sweet, though a little unsure of herself. She crossed the room and sat down next to her granddaughter on the bed, wrapping her arm around Piper's shoulders.

"Honey, I know the past few years haven't been easy for you. They haven't been easy for any of us."

"Not even for you?" Piper asked, sniffing back some tears.

"No, darling, not even for me." She pulled Piper onto her lap and pushed Piper's hair behind her ears. "I already raised my child. I never dreamed that at my age, I'd be raising three little girls. Plus, a parent should never outlive her child. But we have a nice little family here despite it all, don't we?" Piper nodded, gazing down at her hands. "Well, if we want to stay a nice little family, we have to talk to each other. If we don't, we're never going to make it."

Piper allowed the tears that had been gathering in her eyes to fall. "I'm so sorry, Grams. I love you. I love Prue and Phoebe, too, I really do, but sometimes I just want to be alone. I can't be alone here. But if I stayed at Melody's, I could get away for a little bit. I'm only asking for one night, Grams. Please just let me stay over there for one night."

Penny sighed. "I would, but I don't know her family, sweetie. I don't even know where she lives."

"You let Prue stay over at Corinne's before you knew Corinne's mom really well. And Melody lives down by the park. Please, Grams? You know you can trust me."

Penny sighed again, looking Piper over carefully. She was silently begging her with her eyes to say yes. Piper never asked for very much. All she wanted was this one thing. How could she deny her that? "Okay," she said against her better judgment. "You can stay over there. One night, though, Piper. We'll talk about any more once we see how it goes."

"Thank you!" Piper exclaimed. She dropped the stuffed rabbit and wrapped her arms tightly around her grandmother. She found herself echoing Melody's words from that afternoon. "You won't regret it. I promise."

-----

It had been almost a week since Piper had spent the night at Melody's. From what Prue could gather, Piper had had fun, but it wasn't easy to get even that much out of her. Ever since that night, Piper had been more distant than ever. She spent all day in the woods with Melody, and she spent her nights in her room with the door closed.

One night, Phoebe had walked in and caught Piper writing in a little notebook. Piper had flipped out. When Prue told Andy about what happened, he suggested that she try to find the notebook to see what was in it. At first, Prue had been opposed to the idea, but as Piper became more and more distant, Prue decided that the benefits of invading her sister's privacy outweighed the risks. If Piper found out, she would be furious, but Prue figured she could handle the screaming match. She had to find out what was going on with her sister.

She had set her alarm for three that morning, but she had been tossing and turning since she went to bed at eleven. She was way too nervous about what she was about to do to sleep. Squinting, she glanced at her clock, trying to see the face in the dark. It was quarter of three. Ehh, close enough, she thought as she climbed out of bed. She snatched the flashlight out from where she had hidden it under her bed, switched it on, and quietly tiptoed into the hallway.

She crept down the hall and eased the door to Piper and Phoebe's room open. Both of her sisters were fast asleep, Phoebe sprawled out on her back and Piper curled up on her side with her hands tucked under the pillows. She slipped into the room, keeping the flashlight pointed at the floor, and knelt down next to Piper's bed. Perhaps the notebook was hidden under her mattress. Carefully, she stuck one hand between the mattress and box spring, keeping one eye on Piper, just to make sure she wasn't disturbing her. She laid the flashlight on the floor and felt around under the mattress for a moment or two longer. She came up empty-handed. She sighed, pulled her hands out, and sat back on her heels. Where else could she look?

She smiled. She had suddenly remembered that when she had kept a diary, she kept it under her pillows. She raised herself up on her knees and bit her lip. How was she going to get under the pillows if Piper was facing her? Just as she was getting ready to give up and go back to bed, Piper rolled over onto her other side, sighing softly. Once Prue was sure that she wasn't going to wake up, she slipped her hand under the pillows. Her fingers hit what felt like a small notebook. She grasped it and pulled her hand out. Grinning when she saw the little red notebook in her hand, she sat down on the floor, shining the light on the pages.

Prue squinted. Piper's handwriting was small, and that coupled with the fact that she was trying to read under a flashlight at three in the morning hurt her eyes. She allowed her eyes to adjust and then began reading.

At first, there was nothing really drastic; it was all normal preteen stuff, the kind of things Prue herself felt when she was Piper's age. However, the entries started getting angrier just after Piper had met Melody. Piper wrote about craving privacy more and more and about how Melody was making her realize that Prue and Penny were refusing to recognize Piper's independence. Prue's jaw dropped open as she read, the handwriting getting messier as Piper grew angrier.

Prue cast a concerned glance over at Piper before flipping the page. She never would have suspected that Piper was that angry. She gazed back down at the little book, finding herself disturbed by Piper's vivid emotions.

Prue's attention was jerked from the book when Piper sat up in bed with a gasp, whatever dream she was having waking her out of a sound sleep. "Prue?" she asked groggily. "What are you doing in here?"

Prue quickly dropped the notebook into her lap and hoped that Piper was still too sleepy to notice. "I'm just checking on you guys. Go back to sleep."

Piper rubbed her eyes and turned to face her sister. "But--"

Prue picked herself up off the floor and sat down on Piper's bed, lying her sister back down. "It's okay. Just go back to sleep."

Piper closed her eyes and sighed, but she didn't argue. Prue waited until her sister's breathing became deep and even, then stood up with a sigh and settled herself back on the floor. That was way too close, she thought. I'll read just one more and then I'll put it back and go back to bed.

Prue sighed, shaking her head, and stood up. She was going to put the notebook back, but then she changed her mind. This wasn't something she could just ignore. Piper was obviously going through something that she needed to talk about with someone. The writing was so angry that frankly, Prue was even a little scared of her. She left the room and eased the door closed, biting her lip. Piper was going to be furious beyond belief, but there was no doubt in Prue's mind about it. In the morning, she was going to have to show the notebook to her grandmother.

Penny set the little notebook down on the table with a sigh. How come she never noticed how angry Piper was? How could she not have seen it? She knew that they girls each had their own problems, and that was okay. Hell, it was to be expected. But she had never in a million years imagined that Piper was as angry as she was. And from reading what she had, she had no idea how to even approach the subject without Piper taking it as an attack on her budding independence.

"Grams, I know I shouldn't have read it," Prue said softly, bringing her grandmother back to reality, "but I was worried about her, and then when I read it, I knew I had to show you. I'm so sorry--"

"Darling, you did the right thing," Penny assured her, gently resting her hand over her granddaughter's. "I just need to figure out how I'm going to talk to her."

"Talk to who?" Piper asked from the doorway. She had already gotten dressed, but she hadn't brushed her hair yet. Her eyes darted from Penny to Prue and finally settled on the notebook. She drew in her breath, seemingly afraid. "What's my notebook doing down here?"

"Piper, sit down," Penny said sternly. Piper reluctantly did as she was told, moving out of the doorway and sitting down at the table across from her grandmother. She reached for her notebook, but Penny quickly slid it away from her. She covered it with her hands as she looked Piper over. "Is Phoebe still asleep?" When Piper nodded, Penny cleared her throat and opened the notebook. "Good, because we need to talk and I don't want her to hear this."

"Talk about what?" Piper asked softly.

"About this notebook." She glanced over at Prue, who dropped her gaze to her hands. Penny could tell that Prue was now wishing she had never said anything. She gripped Prue's hand comfortingly, then looked up at Piper. "What's going on with you?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" Piper asked, gulping.

"Don't play dumb with me, young lady. The stuff you wrote in here isn't healthy, and it definitely isn't like you. Remember what I told you about having to talk to each other?"

Piper looked down at the table, refusing to look her grandmother in the eyes. "That notebook is private," she mumbled, her voice barely audible. "You had no right to read it. Either of you."

"Piper, I'm your grandmother. I had every right to read it," she said, her voice even and controlled. "You sister only read it because she was worried about you, and I'm glad she did. You're angry, you're hurting, and I want to you help you, but you have to let me help you. You have to talk to me."

"Do you really want to help me?" Piper finally looked up, glared quickly at Prue, then turned her attention to her grandmother. "Leave me alone. That's how you can help me. I hate everyone treating me like I'm three years old! I can understand it from you, but from you?" She glared at Prue again. "There's no excuse. You had no right to read my notebook and you had no right to show it to Grams. I will never, ever forgive you for this."

Penny jumped out of her seat, rushed to Piper, and gripped her arms tightly. "Piper, that's enough! I want you to apologize to your sister right now."

Piper ripped her arms out of Penny's grasp and jumped out of her chair. "No, and you can't make me!" With one quick move, she pushed the chair backwards and ran out the back door.

"Piper!" Prue called. She stood up to follow her, but Penny held her back. "Oh, Grams, this is all my fault!"

"No, it's not," Penny said. She knelt down in front of Prue and held her at arm's length. "Listen to me. This is not your fault. You did the right thing, you understand me?" Prue nodded, blinking back a few tears. "Good. Come on, now. We have to wake Phoebe, get her dressed, then go try to find your sister. If the past couple of weeks is any indication, she's heading for the woods, and you know your way around there better than I do. I'm going to need your help."

Prue nodded again as Penny let her go. She followed her grandmother up the stairs in a daze. She couldn't believe any of this was happening. She didn't even understand how it happened. All she knew is that her little sister had run away, and no matter what her grandmother said, it was all her fault.

-----

Piper ran through the woods, tears streaming down her cheeks. She couldn't believe that Prue had betrayed her like that. She had thought they were friends as well as sisters, but now Piper even want to call Prue her sister. Sisters wouldn't invade each other's privacy like that. Piper wouldn't have read Prue's diary, so how dare Prue read Piper's? And then to show it to her grandmother? What Piper had said in the kitchen was true. She would never forgive Prue for what she had done.

I hate her, I hate her, I hate her, she thought angrily. The refrain kept running over and over in her head, going faster than angrier she got. "How could she do this to me?" she muttered. She practically tripped over a root as she ran, her vision blurred by her tears. She had no idea where she was going. She wanted to go to the rock, just to defy Prue, but the rock frightened her. It was strange how much the place had changed for her. It once made her feel safe, but now she was petrified of it. Prue ruined that for me, too, she thought.

Before she knew it, she found herself at the small wishing well. She was sobbing so hard that she couldn't stop. She needed to find some way to calm down. She ran up to the well and leaned her hands on the stone well. The sun was shining through the trees, and it was catching the water at the bottom of the well, making it sparkle. She leaned further forward, gazing down at the water. I wonder how far down that water is, she thought, starting to calm down.

"Piper? You've been crying! What's the matter?" Melody rushed over to Piper and gently pulled her away from the edge

of the wall. "Come away from there before you fall."

Piper wrenched out of Melody's grasp, the tears building in her eyes again. She sank to the ground, leaning back against the well. Melody wordlessly sat down next to her and gently wrapped her arm around Piper's shoulders. Piper tensed up at first, but she didn't pull away. "I hate my sister," she mumbled through her sobs. "I hate her."

"What happened?"

She just shook her head. Somehow voicing what had happened would only hurt her more. It still felt like a dream, like it hadn't really happened. If she told Melody about it, it would make it real.

"Piper, tell me what happened," Melody pleaded. "Maybe I can help."

Piper sighed and bit her lip. After taking a minute or two to calm down, she explained everything that had happened that morning. "She had absolutely no right to do that," she said once she had finished. "No right at all."

"No, she didn't," Melody agreed. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Melody spoke up again. "You know I'd never do that to you, right?"

"I know," Piper said with a nod. "You're so lucky."

Melody looked over at Piper sharply. "How do you figure?"

"You don't have anyone asking you all the time where you're going or what you're doing. You don't have sisters that invade your privacy or that try to keep you away from your friends." She shrugged, sniffling. "You have complete freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want. You don't have to answer to anyone."

"Oh, Piper, it's not all it's cracked up to me, believe me." She let Piper go and turned around slightly so that she was facing her. "At least you know they care about you."

"Your mom cares about you," Piper said with a small gasp. This was something Melody had never mentioned before.

"I know," she sighed. "I just wish she would have shown it." Piper's brow's furrowed at Melody's use of the past tense, but Melody started speaking before Piper could ask her what she meant. "But this isn't about me right now. It's about you. Is there anything I can do?"

"Not unless you know some way to get me away from them forever," Piper muttered bitterly. She sighed, looking up at Melody. "I'm sorry, I just" She stopped short when she noticed that a look of realization had settled onto Melody's face. Her eyes were bright and a sly smile was spreading across her lips. "What?"

"What if I told you I could get you away from them forever?" she asked. "And what if I could do it in a way that no one could ever try to keep us away from each other?"

"What, like run away?" Piper asked.

"Something like that."

"Where would we go?"

"The farmhouse," Melody answered. Piper could practically see the wheels turning in her head. "We could stay there."

Piper shook her head. "That's the first place they'd look."

Melody grinned. "The beauty of my plan is that they won't be able to find us. I know a way to . . . hide, I guess is the word for it."

She knew she shouldn't say yes. She didn't really hate her family. She was just very angry with them at the moment. But the prospect of a life like Melody's, a life of absolute independence, was seriously weighing on her rationality. In all senses, it was a bad idea. But it was also a very attractive idea. She took a deep breath and smiled. "I'd say what do I have to do?"

Prue led her grandmother and Phoebe down a worn path in the woods. If she remembered correctly, this path would take them straight through the center of the trees and out to the cemetery. The climbing rock was to the left and she was pretty sure that there was a wishing well to the right. But she still had no idea what she was doing. She hadn't been in the woods enough to know her way around. She only went in there to get Piper when it was time to go home, and Piper was always in the same spot. They had checked that spot first, but Piper hadn't been there. Prue didn't really expect her to be, but she had figured it was worth a shot. "Grams, she could be anywhere!" Prue exclaimed, breaking the silence that seemed to be taking over. "She knows these woods so much better than I do, and if she's with Melody, we'll never find her. Melody's practically an expert on these woods."

"Just keep walking, darling," Penny said gently. "We'll find her."

Prue sighed and quickened her pace just a little bit. "Prue?" Phoebe asked, running to keep up. "Did you ever meet Melody?"

"No," she answered, slowing down once she saw how much trouble Phoebe was having. "Why?"

"Because I was going to ask you if you thought she was nice," she said as she slipped her hand into her grandmother's.

"Wait, you've never met her?" Penny asked. Prue shook her head and stopped short on the path, her brow furrowing in confusion. "That's weird."

"Piper's always alone when I tell her it's time to come home," she shrugged. "I've never seen Melody. Why?"

"No reason," Penny said. She nudged Prue forward on the path. "Keep walking, darling."

"Do you think she made Melody up?" Phoebe asked as she hurried alongside her grandmother.

"No, I think Melody's someone your sister really sees," she answered.

"You think she's like an imaginary friend or something?" Prue asked. She held a branch out of the path until her grandmother and sister passed, then let it go and ran in front of them.

"Or something," Penny mumbled thoughtfully. She and the girls wandered down the path for a little bit longer, and eventually wound up coming out of the woods at the back of the cemetery. The sun was shining through the oak trees, casting spots of sunlight on the ground. It was an eerie effect, the brightness of the sun mingling with the dark headstones, all from the mid- to late-1800s. "Okay, girls, turn around. We're going through the woods again."

"Grams, wait a second," Prue said, her voice low in amazement. She was staring at once of the small dark stones. She stepped forward and began tracing the etched letters with her forefinger. "This has to be a coincidence, right? I mean, it's probably her ancestor or something."

Penny walked up to her granddaughter and stood behind her, gazing over her shoulder at the stone. The name at the top of the stone was Melody Thomason. The date of birth was listed as March 7, 1870 and the date of death was listed as July 20, 1881. "She was eleven," she whispered.

"Just like Piper's Melody." Prue turned around and stared up at her grandmother, searching her eyes for an explanation. "It's just a coincidence, right?"

"Of course it's just a coincidence," she said quickly. She smiled at the girls, hoping that they couldn't see through it to her concern. "It's entirely possible that Piper's friend was named after this Melody, just like you were named for your ancestor, Prue. Anyway, we really need to find your sister. Come on, girls. Back into the woods."

Phoebe groaned and Prue sighed as Penny herded the girls back through the trees. Prue was more than a little uneasy. Her grandmother had said it was just a coincidence, but something was making Prue think that she believed otherwise. Perhaps it was that a heightened sense of urgency had fallen over the three of them. Prue got the feeling that her grandmother thought that Piper was in immediate danger and that there was something more to that tombstone than just a coincidence.

-----

"Melody, where are we going?" Piper asked nervously. Melody had been leading her through the woods for about fifteen minutes, taking every single twist and turn along the way. Every time Piper thought she had figured out where she was taking her, they turned another corner. It was almost like Melody was trying to confuse her and keep her guessing.

"You'll see in a second," Melody answered with a sweet smile. "We're almost there."

A couple minutes later, they emerged into a small clearing. At first, Piper was a little disoriented because they had come out on the opposite side of what she was used to, but she soon recognized the place. They were at the climbing rock.

"No, Melody" she started, turning away from the girl.

"Wait, Piper, come here," Melody called.

Piper turned around, her heart pounding. She was completely terrified of the rock, and Melody knew that. "What?" she asked as she faced Melody.

"Just come here." She held out her hand, waiting for Piper to take it. After a moment's hesitation, Piper slipped her hand into Melody's.

Melody shot her a friendly smile and gently led her to the edge of the rock. She sat down, letting her legs dangle over the ledge, and looked up at Piper, silently telling her to do the same. Piper stood there for a moment, debating what to do, then took a deep breath in and sat down next to Melody. "See?" Melody said once Piper was settled. "It's not that bad."

"Melody, why'd you bring me here?" Piper asked warily. "You know I hate it here."

"It's part of my plan," she answered with a smile. "Look at how pretty those flowers are. Remember how this place used to calm you down?"

"Yeah, but that was before Prue told me about the girl that died," she said quietly.

"Piper, how many kids do you think played on this rock over the years? Hundreds. And just one of them died." Melody looked out over the flowers and sighed. "Besides, it didn't hurt when she fell. She never felt a thing."

"Yeah, but she died!" Piper exclaimed. It was a second or two before exactly what Melody had said sunk in. "Wait, how do you know it didn't hurt?"

"I only meant to make my mother worry," she said softly. Tears were welling in her eyes as she swallowed hard. "I wanted to see if she actually would worry. She never told me she loved me or anything like that, so . . . Anyway, I ran away and I came here. That was when it hit me. If I fell and got hurt, she'd feel bad for not showing me she cared. Plus, if she thought I had almost died, maybe she would be more loving towards me."

"Melody, you're scaring me," Piper said quietly.

"So I just sort of . . . slid off the edge," she went on, ignoring Piper. "But something went wrong. Somehow, I hit my head on the way down. Everything went black and the next thing I knew, I was back home. Only, no one could see me. My mom was crying and the doctor was telling her he was sorry for something."

"Melody, stop," Piper said as tears built up in her eyes. "You're really scaring me."

"I was scared, too, at first." She turned around and gripped Piper's hands tightly. "Piper, I died in 1881. The girl your sister read about in that newspaper was me."

Piper gasped in realization. Suddenly, everything made sense. Of course she would have an old-fashioned vocabulary and a wardrobe from another time. She was from another time. Piper suddenly understood everything that had given her pause. Melody's occasional use of the past tense suddenly became clear, along with why Piper felt like the farmhouse shouldn't exist. It didn't exist, at least not anymore. By some strange supernatural loophole, Piper had been allowed to travel to Melody's time. Perhaps Melody had some sort of control over time and could bring a friend back to the 1880s. Or perhaps it had all been some sort of strange, potent illusion Melody had created in order to keep Piper from guessing her secret.

She knew she should be scared, but for some reason, she wasn't. Instead, she was overwhelmingly sad. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Melody. All the girl had ever wanted was an indication that someone had cared about her, and even in death, she hadn't found it. "B-but how? How come you can talk to me and touch me and stuff?"

"I don't know," she answered, shaking her head. Then she into Piper's eyes. "Wait a minute. You're not afraid of me?"

Piper shook her head, giving Melody a small, comforting smile. "Maybe that's why, then. Maybe we were meant to be friends."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it, Piper. We both can give each other what we want. You quickly became my best friend, no questions asked. You were there for me in a way no one else had ever been. All I wanted was someone who cared about me, and you gave that to me. And I can give you what you want. I can get you away from your family."

"How can you get me away from my family?" she asked cautiously.

"The same way I got away from mine," Melody answered.

Piper backed away from the edge and jumped to her feet. "No. No way."

Melody stood up as well and gripped Piper's wrists tightly, trying to get her to listen. "Piper, listen to me. You wanted a life like mine, a life of absolute freedom. If you do this, you'll have exactly that. There will be no one to tell you what to do, no one to hound you about where you're going, no one to invade your privacy. It's just what you want."

"Yeah, but Melody, you don't have a life!" She cringed when she saw a hurt expression cross Melody's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"Yes, you did," Melody said, smiling gently. "But it's okay. It's hard to think about, I know. But in a way, it's what you want. You can be absolutely free to do whatever you want whenever you want, just like me."

Piper tore her eyes away from Melody's and looked out at the flowers. What Melody wanted her to do was crazy. There was no way she could do that to her family. She still remembered how upset everyone was when her mother died, and there was no way she wanted to put her family through that again. But what Melody wanted her to do also seemed like the only way she could get some freedom. "I-I don't know."

"Piper, it's not going to get any better," Melody said, making eye contact with Piper once again. "They're going to keep you under their thumbs for as long as you live. You're going to be answering to them forever. You don't want that, do you?"

"No," Piper said hesitantly.

"Then come on." Melody held her hand out and smiled. "I promise it won't hurt."

Piper glanced over at the rock's edge, then back at Melody. She was right. She was never going to be free from her sister's scrutiny. It wasn't so much her grandmother she was worried about; it was Prue. She knew in her heart that Prue was only looking out for her, but she couldn't help but feel a little put out by how much Prue tried to tell her what to do. All she wanted was to be left alone, and this was the only way for that to happen. She took a deep breath, set her shoulders, and slipped her hand into Melody's.

Prue tiredly pushed through some low brush. She, Phoebe, and her grandmother had been wandering through the woods for the past forty-five minutes. They were tired and sweaty, and so far, they had come up empty- handed. Piper was nowhere to be found. "Grams, I can't walk anymore," Phoebe whined, panting. "My feet hurt. Can we stop for just a second?"

"Sweetie, we have to keep going," Penny said, out of breath as well. "Piper needs us."

"I say we let her stay lost," Phoebe grumbled angrily. "She wanted to be alone, so let her."

Penny stopped and took a deep breath in. "Phoebe," she chided, then turned around and knelt down so that she was eye-level with her granddaughter. Phoebe wearily looked her in the eye. "We can't give up on your sister. She's part of this family, and Halliwells always stick together."

"Tell that to Piper," Phoebe said quietly. "She hasn't stuck by us."

"I don't think that's entirely her fault," Penny said as she comfortingly ran her hand down Phoebe's cheek. "I think Melody influenced her a lot more than she said she did."

Phoebe sighed as her grandmother stood up and started heading down the path once again. Prue ran ahead of them, wanting to be in the lead. She still felt like this whole thing was her fault. If she had just left Piper alone like she wanted, they wouldn't be in this mess. They'd all be home and Piper wouldn't be all set to hold a lifelong grudge. "Prue, do you even know where you're going?" Phoebe asked tiredly.

Prue stopped and leaned back against a nearby tree, shaking her head as tears welled in her eyes. "I have no idea," she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking.

Penny stepped forward and gripped Prue's shoulders. Her hold was strong, and her voice was both comforting and insistent when she spoke. "Prue, I know you're hot and I know you're tired, but you have to stay focused for me. Your sister's life could depend on it. Now, think really hard . . . is there somewhere you know she goes that we haven't checked yet?"

Prue closed her eyes and took slow, even breaths, trying to keep from losing it completely. "I'm not sure if she goes there, but there's a climbing rock over there somewhere."

"Then that's our plan," Penny said with a smile. She took both her granddaughters' hands, squeezing them tightly. She already had one granddaughter lost in the woods. She didn't think she could handle having two. "Just tell me where I'm going, Prue."

Prue was able to talk her grandmother through the woods to the climbing rock. She was surprised that she remembered how to get there. She had only been there that once when Andy took them there. Through the thick trees, she thought she saw someone standing on the rock. She pulled out of her grandmother's grasp and ran ahead, fighting through the trees. She gasped when she saw that the person standing at the edge of the rock was Piper. Her sister was staring down at the ground, slowly making her way closer to the edge. Her toes were already off. "Piper, no!" Prue yelled, rushing forward.

Piper started and turned around. Then, she slipped. She couldn't be sure if she had turned her ankle on a large pebble or if someone had pulled on her ankle, tripping her. She screamed and managed to grab onto the top of the rock. She was holding on as tightly as she could, but with nothing to stand on, she wasn't sure how long she could hold on. "Prue, help me!" she cried as she kicked at the rock, trying to pull herself up.

Prue was at the edge in a flash, tears of terror in her eyes. She grabbed Piper's hand, trying to pry her fingers from the edge of the rock so she could hold her hand to pull her up. "Piper, let it go," she said as gently as she could manage. "I've got you and I won't let go."

Piper just shook her head, kicking her legs. She would start climbing up, then she'd slip back down again. Penny yelled at Phoebe to stay back, ran over, and quickly took charge. "Piper, listen to me," she said calmly. "Try to find a foothold." She grabbed Piper's wrist and silently instructed Prue to grab the other one. Prue did as she was told, holding onto her sister's arm so tightly that she thought her fingers were going to break. "Piper, just find a foothold," Penny repeated. "We're not going to let you go."

Piper kicked at the rock once again, trying to find anything that would work as a foothold. "I can't!" she cried. "I can't find one!" Suddenly, she felt a hand grab her ankle, the same ankle she had twisted, and guide it to a small ledge. She put weight on her foot and sobbed in relief. Then she looked down to see who was at the bottom of the rock. The only person she saw was Melody, who was standing at the bottom, looking up at Piper with tears in her eyes. Melody smiled at her and nodded. Piper smiled back, put all her weight on her foot and stood. She quickly found another foothold.

"I've got it!"

"Good girl!" Penny cried in relief. "Prue and I are going to pull you up, but I need you to climb up with your legs. Can you do that?"

Piper nodded. Prue and Penny began pulling on Piper's arms and slowly but surely, she began climbing up the rock. It was like climbing a ladder, only she was using the small ledges instead of rungs. It took a few minutes, but as soon as she was up far enough, her grandmother turned to Prue. "I'm going to let go for a second so I can grab her. Can you hold her up?" Prue nodded. "Good. Piper, do not move. Lean as close to the rock as you can and try to stand really straight. I'm going to let your arm go, but I'm going to grab your waist and lift you up the rest of the way. Okay?"

Piper nodded, did as she was told, and held her breath. She closed her eyes, felt her grandmother let her arm go, and then felt a strong arm wrap around her waist. She collapsed against her grandmother as she lifted her up and over the edge. As soon as Piper's feet hit solid ground, she let her breath out and sank to the ground, relief washing over her. Prue wrapped her in a tight hug, and after a quick moment, Penny and Phoebe joined the embrace. "I'm so glad you're okay," Prue whispered, choking up.

"I am, too," her grandmother said, finally allowing her tears to fall.

"Me, too," Phoebe agreed. She gave her sister a really strong squeeze and when they let Piper go, Phoebe was surprised to see that Piper was crying. "Piper, what's the matter?"

"I'm so sorry," she said between sobs. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you all. I'll never do anything like that ever again. I promise. When I fell, I thought I was never going to see you guys ever again. I was so scared. I love you."

"We love you, too, sweetie," Penny said gently, stroking her hair. She tugged Piper up so she could stand and started leading her out of the woods. "Come on, girls. It's time to go home."

"Grams?" Piper asked softly. Her sobs had dwindled down to a choking sniffle. "Am I in big trouble?"

"We'll discuss that at home, darling."

Prue followed behind her grandmother and her sisters, trying to digest all of what had happened. She had come within inches of losing her sister, and Piper had come within seconds of . . . She didn't even want to think about it. Her sister was obviously going through something serious, and it was something Prue didn't think she could ever understand. She turned around, glancing over her shoulder at the rock that had almost taken her sister from her, and stopped short.

A figure in a long brown dress was sadly watching them go. She caught Prue's eye and smiled. "Don't blame her," she said, nodding in Piper's direction. "It was my idea. She really didn't want any part of it. She's a special girl, Prue. Take good care of her."

Prue nodded in amazement. "I will. Who are you?"

"Who do you think?" She smiled again. "Will you do me a favor? Tell her that she has given me more than she could ever know. And tell her it's time for me to go home."

Prue nodded again. She stared at the girl, and suddenly, it hit her. "You saved her, didn't you? When she couldn't find the ledge to stand on, you helped her."

"Best friends help each other," she said by way of an answer. "Just remember what I told you. Please."

Prue smiled and turned back, running to catch up with her family. She wrapped her arm around Piper's shoulder and grinned down at her. Piper smiled back as they stepped out of the woods. As they were heading back to the car, Prue sighed heavily. She had had enough adventure for one day, possibly her entire lifetime. Melody's words came back to her. It was time to go home.

-----

Prue and Phoebe were sitting on the floor of the playroom with a game of Sorry set up between them. They were going through the motions, but neither one of them was really paying attention to the game. Prue had actually missed a chance to knock Phoebe back to start, but neither of them seemed to notice. They were trying to listen to what was going on upstairs. Piper and their grandmother had been up there since they had arrived home from the park, just talking. But try as they might, the girls couldn't hear much of anything from downstairs.

Penny came down the stairs a few moments later and peeked into the playroom. "How's Piper?" Prue asked as she moved her five spaces.

"She's sleeping now," she answered.

"Grams?" Phoebe asked uncertainly. She seemed almost unsure if she should as her question. "Is Piper crazy?"

"No, sweetie, she's not." Penny entered the room and sat down on the sofa in front of the girls. "I want you to listen to me carefully. Your sister is not crazy. What happened to her was very real. Even though Melody died over a hundred years ago, Piper was able to see her, talk to her, and interact with her."

"But that would mean Melody's a ghost," Phoebe said, interrupting her grandmother. "That's impossible. Ghosts aren't real."

"Darling, there's a whole side to this world that we're simply not equipped to understand," she said, patting her lap. Phoebe climbed up onto her lap and Prue settled next to her on the couch. "Some people explain it with religion, some people just accept it, and some people don't believe in it at all. But what happened to your sister is proof enough. Melody was real, and she had a very strong influence on your sister."

"What did Melody want with Piper?" Prue asked quietly.

Penny sighed. "From what Piper told me, Melody was a very unhappy girl. She had thought that no one cared about her at all. That is, until Piper came along. Piper befriended her, and Melody didn't want to let her go. So, she made Piper think we were trying to control her, and once that idea was in her head, everything we did became twisted."

"Is Piper still furious with me?" Prue asked, gazing down at her hands. "Does she hate me?"

"No, darling, she doesn't hate you. I think now that Melody's gone, she'll start calming down and she won't be so angry all the time. We'll get our Piper back."

"Is she going to have to go to a psychiatrist?" Phoebe asked.

"No," Penny said, hugging Phoebe lightly. "And even if she did, it wouldn't be a bad thing. All they'd do is talk things out with her so she could figure out what she was feeling the way she was. Then, they'd help her figure out how to get better. But like I said, I think that with Melody gone, she'll start feeling better on her own. And I told her that if she ever needed to talk, she could come to me."

Prue nodded sadly and stood up, stretching slightly. "Can I go check on her, Grams?"

"Sure, sweetie. Just don't wake her up."

Prue smiled a thank you and headed out of the playroom. As she quietly climbed the stairs, all she could think of was how horribly this all could have ended. What if Melody had succeeded? She didn't think she could handle losing a sister. Not after what she had already lost.

The bedroom door was open a crack. When Prue peeked in, she was surprised to see Piper staring up at the ceiling. "Piper?" she said, knocking softly on the door. Piper jumped and turned her head, looking over at the doorway. "Can I come in?"

Piper nodded, quickly wiping tears from her eyes. Prue entered quietly and closed the door tightly. "I thought you were asleep."

"I pretended so Grams would leave." She looked over at Prue, smiled, and pushed over so that Prue could lie down next

to her. Prue smiled back and did as Piper wanted. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Piper spoke up again. "I gave everyone quite a scare, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did," Prue answered softly.

"I'm so sorry." She sighed and watched the ceiling fan spin around swiftly. "I wonder if Melody's okay."

Prue looked over at her sister sharply. "Piper, why do you care? She's evil. She almost killed you!"

"Prue, she's not evil. She 's lonely." Piper turned over and faced Prue. "She had no one in her life who cared anything about her, but I did. I think she realized that I'm going to grow up eventually, and she'll be eleven forever. She didn't want to let me go." She stopped to read her sister's face. Prue was not convinced at all. "Besides," she continued, "she saved me. I couldn't find a foothold and she guided my foot to one. In the end, she sacrificed her happiness for mine. If she was really evil, would she have done that?"

"I guess not," Prue said with a small sigh. She turned over and propped herself up on her elbow, looking her sister over.

Her eyes filled with tears as she thought back to what had happened on the rock. For a while there, Prue was afraid that she was never going to see her sister again. Even worse, she was afraid that she was going to watch her sister die.

"Piper? Did you want to . . .?"

"No," Piper answered. "No, I didn't. But she was making it seem like the only way I was ever going to get any privacy was to do it. I was so scared, but she kept promising me that it wasn't going to hurt. I just . . . I don't even know what I was thinking!" She stopped, swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat. "I think I thought . . . maybe I'd see Mom."

"Piper!" Prue gasped.

"What? I mean, Melody's proof that there's life after death. And obviously Melody and I were going to stay together after, so I figured it was possible." She looked Prue in the eye, finally starting to cry. "I didn't want to hurt you guys, I promise. I just . . . I don't know. I'm so sorry, Prue. I'm so sorry."

Prue sat up in a flash and gathered her sister in a tight hug. "Shh, it's okay. It's over now."

Piper nodded and pulled out of the hug a minute or so later, sniffling. "I'm kind of tired now. For real."

"Lie down then," Prue said gently. "Close your eyes and take a nap. You'll feel better."

"Will you stay with me?"

Prue smiled, touched that her sister actually wanted her there, especially after the past couple of weeks. "Sure, if you want me to." Piper nodded, laid back down, and closed her eyes. Prue smiled again and closed her own eyes. A nap would do her good as well. The last thing she thought of as she drifted off was how glad she was that her sister was pretty much back to normal.

-----

Piper could feel someone watching her. She opened her eyes, expecting to find her grandmother standing in the doorway. Instead, she saw Melody sitting at the foot of the bed. "Melody?" she asked groggily. "What are you doing here?"

"Shh. Don't wake your sister," Melody answered quietly. Piper glanced over and saw that Prue was fast asleep next to her. She grinned, then turned her attention back to Melody. The girl smiled at Piper. "I just had to make sure you were okay. What I did to you was so incredibly wrong, and I don't even know how to begin to apologize for it."

"You don't have to. I'm fine," Piper said, sitting up. "How are you?"

"Great! I found my mom. She told me that she always loved me. She just didn't think she needed to tell me, and she told me she wished she had said she loved me sooner. But she does love me, Piper. She always did."

"See, I told you," Piper said with a shy smile. A moment later, her face fell as she realized something. "I'm not going to see you again, am I?"

Melody shook her head sadly. "I've hung around long enough. It's time for me to be with my family. Just as it's time for you to be with yours." She glanced in Prue's direction before placing her hand over Piper's. "Cherish them, Piper.

They're all you have."

"I had you," Piper said, tears welling in her eyes.

"And I had you, too." Melody smiled, trying to fight her own tears. "Oh, why couldn't you have been born in 1870?"

"Why couldn't you have been born in 1970?" Piper asked, grinning.

"Touché." Melody smiled again and stood up. "I have to go. We'll see each other again someday. So, it's not really goodbye. It's . . . see you soon."

"See you soon." Piper smiled through the tears in her eyes.

Melody returned the smile and slowly disappeared. When she was gone, Piper sniffled and buried her head in her knees, trying to stop crying.

She felt a hand begin running up and down her back. "Are you going to be okay?"

Piper turned around to see Prue sitting up, comforting her. She didn't know how much of what had happened she'd seen or heard, but it didn't matter. "Yeah," she said, wiping her eyes. "We each have our families again. We're both going to be okay."