2020
~Piper~

I crouched, staring down at the stagnant water of the pool, filled with fallen leaves and dead bugs. A cold breeze fluttered around my shoulders, and I pulled my jacket closer around me, shivering. I absent-minded picked up a nearby stick and began tracing patterns in the water as a single tear trickled down my cheek.

I could still hear the sounds of her, the joyful laughter as we played in the pool, and the petrified screams of laughter as Leo chased her around the edge. It was all so vivid and clear in my mind; it didn't seem possible that it was five years ago that it happened. It wasn't fair. Enough of my life was filled with pain and upset as it was, and now this...

"Hey, no fair, it was my turn to go down the slide. Dad, Patty pushed in," Melinda whined, ready to burst into tears. My daughter Melinda, and her cousin Patty were playing by in the pool, and Leo was keeping a watchful eye over the two of them. I was sun bathing with my sisters, catching up on the latest. It was getting increasingly harder to find time to do things together, now two of us had children, and the other was expecting.

"Patty, play nice," Prue called to her daughter, and then turned to me and Phoebe, smiling broadly. "I don't think life could get much better than this," she said, sighing contently.

She was right. Life was great. I had the six people I loved the most here with me, and I couldn't have been happier.

I turned back to the pool just in time to see Melinda poking her tongue out at her cousin.

"Melinda Wyatt, if I see you doing that again, you'll get your tongue washed out with soap," I warned, trying my hardest not to laugh as she smiled at me sweetly with her gappy teeth. I watched in amusement as Andy, our next-door neighbor came creeping up behind her. She get ready to dive in, completely unaware of him, and screamed as he pushed her hard into the water. Laughing, I wagged my finger at Andy, pretending to tell him off. Ever the little gentleman, he came running over to me.

"Hello, Mrs Wyatt, Miss Halliwell and Mrs Trudeau," he said enthusiastically, "How are you today? Is it OK to come and play with Melinda and Patty please?" It was hard to resist Andy. He was eight years old, had a shock of brown hair, and startling blue eyes. He was already a stunner, and I could tell her was going to break a few hearts when he was older.

"Of course its OK Andy, you know you"re always welcome here," Prue answered him.

Smiling happily, Andy went over and gently patted Phoebe's stomach. Then he jumped into the pool, splashing all three of us.

"Right, that's it," Prue shouted, jumping up. Using her power, she lifted made large waves form in the pool. The three children giggled delightedly. We didn't feel the need to be so careful about using our powers now. We had been demon free for over a year, and it didn't seem as though the Triad were ever going to be able to regroup.

Before I knew it, it turned dark, and I had to send Andy home. Prue had a small, sad smile on her face as she watched him walk up his garden path. I could tell she was thinking of her Andy, who had died a couple of years before. I knew she still missed him, and I didn't know what I could do to make her completely happy again. But even with such a great sadness inside her, I knew Prue would carry on in her happy, chirpy way like she always had. Ever the mum to all of us.

"Patty, Melinda, come on you two drowned rats, out of the pool. Its too cold to stay out here any longer, we're going inside," I called to the girls, as we all started to migrate back into mine and Leo's house.

Leo and I had moved out of the manor just before I feel pregnant with Melinda, and Leo clipped his wings for me. We had decided it was time my sisters had some space. And more than that, we needed our own space. Andy had moved in with Prue, and Phoebe had fallen in love with Simon, our new next-door neighbor. I'd given birth to Melinda a year later, and two years after that, Prue gave birth to Patricia, named after our mother. Four years on, Andy had been killed in a hit-and-run. After all the demons we had faced and he had come into contact with, it was a drunk driver that killed him. Life just wasn't fair. Then, a year and a half after that, Phoebe had fallen pregnant, and as soon as he heard this news, Simon scampered. He didn't even bother to tell her he was going.

So that brings us up to the summer of 2015. The summer MY life fell to pieces. Not long after that summer's afternoon, where life had been so great, Melinda had her first fit. At first the doctors thought it was just a minor thing that she would grow out of, but it soon became evident that it was something far worse than that. I think I blame the doctors for what happened next. They should have been able to do something for my darling Melinda; they should have caught it earlier.

It was a sudden blow for all of us. Melinda was such a healthy child, never ill once in her life. But that one time was all Fate needed. I can remember the night so vividly...

We were in the car, on our way back from the manor, after a Christmas dinner with my sisters. Melinda screamed, and her eyes rolled back. She started shaking, and her eyes rolled back in her mouth. I didn't know what to do; I had never been told what I should do. Leo, being the ever-calm one, told me to hold her tight, and make sure she didn't swallow her tongue. He drove to the hospital, breaking every speed limit. Lifting her effortlessly in his arms, he raced into the accident and emergency part of the hospital.

After that, Melinda had to undergo countless numbers of tests. I had to stand back and watch as every part of my baby girl was prodded and poked, and any shred of dignity she had was taken away from her. Test after test came back negative, but Melinda didn't get better. She got worse. The fits came more often now, and she had lost a lot of weigh, as well as her hair. The doctors had tried chemotherapy in case it was cancer, but it wasn't, and so she had lost all her long blonde locks for nothing.

It soon got to the stage where Melinda couldn't leave her hospital bed, she was so weak. I wanted her to come home, but the doctors wanted to perform more tests, and she would have been too weak to move back and forth from the hospital and our home. So instead I lived at the hospital with her, staying by her bedside constantly. Phoebe and Prue visited every day, and Prue brought Patty whenever she could.

Seeing her cousin was the highlight of Melinda's day, when she came. Her eyes would light up, and her face beamed radiantly. It took all my will power to stop myself from crying. Patty was oblivious to all the tubes, and the loss of Melinda's hair. To Patty she was still the same old Melinda. They sat and played with their Barbie's for ages, until Melinda either had another fit, or got too tired to play anymore.

I stayed by Melinda's bedside the whole time she was at the hospital, the whole four weeks. Each day she would wake me up at eight, and we would sit together and watch Sesame Street. Then we would flick through the channels until we found a film we liked, and we would watch television until a visitor came to see my little angel.

No matter what the doctors did to her, Melinda never lost her sparkle. She never gave up hope that the doctors would find a cure for her, and that was the worst thing of all. Because I knew the doctors would never find out what was wrong with her, and even if they did they wouldn't be able to save her. This was all my fault. If only I hadn't killed that demon, Bejoca, all those years ago, she would be fine. As I had cast the spell to vanquish him, he had cursed me, and told me that all children I ever had would die before they reached their tenth birthday. I vanquished him, he disappeared, and I had thought nothing more of it. But, as I sat looking down at the pain on my daughter's face, I knew that it was the curse that was killing her. And there was nothing could do to save her.

It was during the fourth week that Melinda was spending in hospital that she took a turn for the worst. I was dosing lightly, waiting for my daily wake up call. But it never came. I jolted awake at twenty minutes past nine, and Melinda was still asleep. Or at least I thought she was still asleep. I shook her lightly, trying to wake her up. But her eyes didn't open.

"Melinda," I called into her ear, trying to keep calm. "Melinda, sweetie, wake up. Sesame Street's on." But there was no response. None at all. Panicking I began to scream at her. This must have alerted the nurses on duty at the time, because they were instantly by her bedside. As one nurse checked her pulse, and vitals, the other tried to calm me down, and get me to leave the room. But I couldn't. I had to stay with my daughter.

After a few minutes, the nurse came over to me, and said "I'm sorry Mrs Wyatt, your daughter is in a coma. Now would be a good time for you to gather her family here, I don't think she is going to wake up again."

My knees gave way beneath me, and I slumped to the floor.

"What?" I whispered, finding it hard to breathe. "What do you mean she won't wake up? Of course she will. She has to. MELINDA, Melinda, sweetie, wake up. Mummy's going to take you home," I called desperately to her, struggling as the nurses held me back from her. I broke free from them, but as I did so, a pair of strong arms grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back.

"Piper, honey, calm down," Leo whispered into my ear. I turned to face him, the tears pouring down my cheeks. His eyes glistened with tears.

"But Leo, they're telling me all these horrible things. They said... they said she's not going to wake up. She has to, Leo, she's our baby, she has to," I sobbed uncontrollably, slumping into his arms, no longer resisting his embrace. Leo maneuvered me so he could sit down in the chair by Melinda's bedside, and he cradled me to his chest. We stayed there for at least half an hour, until Phoebe and Prue turned up with Patty.

They both had blood-shot eyes, but seemed to have composed themselves for me. I barely remember them being there. All I knew was Patty, who climbed up onto the bed next to her cousin, took Melinda's hand in hers, and lay down next to her. That small gesture was so touching, that it broke my resolve to stay strong, and again I broke down and wept.

After composing myself once again, I took time to get a good, final look at my daughter. Her pale skin was drawn tightly across her face, and it glistened with sweat. She was thin, having lost almost all of her weight, and her bones gutted out harshly. I took a hold of her cold, clammy hand, scared to let go in case she slipped away from me.

Bending down, I kissed her gently on the cheek, and one of my tears ran down her face. As I pulled away, her eyes opened. They were the same bright blue they had always been, although it was as though all the life and vibrancy had been taken out of them. Her whole face lit up, and she smiled at me, a knowing smile, and one which I knew was one of pure happiness. I smiled back at her, and felt someone leaning on my shoulder. Melinda's eyes flirted upwards for a second, and from the look on her face, I knew it was Leo. His hand gently came and brushed my tear away from her face, and she closed her eyes contentedly. Her breathing slowed, and she let out one last breath, a sigh of relief as her spirit left her body. Patty, still lying next to her, kissed her gently on the cheek before Prue picked her up, silently. My eyes locked with hers, and in that moment, we both shared all of our pain and longing with one another. I pulled my eyes away, and she moved away from the bed, holding Phoebe's hand, with Patty in her arms. I felt wet on the back of my neck, and realized it was Leo's tears. I turned into his embrace, and didn't let go until all my tears were gone.

Now, five years to the day later, I sit by the pool. The tears are flowing freely again. The wound in my heart reopened, and hurting more than ever before. You don't realize how much it still hurts, and how much you miss the person until you start to think about it again.

I stand and move away from the pool. Leo is standing by the back door, watching me, tears slipping down his cheeks. We hadn't spoken of Melinda since the funeral, it had been too painful for both of us. We had been drifting apart since that fateful day five years ago, and I didn't think it was a rift I could ever heal. But as our eyes locked, all my love for him returned, and I ran into his eyes and sobbed. When I had calmed down, we turned to go back into the house. Before I closed the door, I took one more look at the garden, before finally putting my heart at rest. I gasped as the faint image of Melinda came into my sight. She was sitting on the swing, and she waved happily. She mouthed the words, "I love you," and then the garden was empty again.

Finally at rest, I was able to turn from the garden, and I went back into the house, where Leo awaited me.