To Love Her

Chapter 6: Almost

"Prue! Prue!" Piper shouted as she ran downstairs in her nightgown. Prue was suddenly on the platform alarmed at Piper's sudden panic.

"What? Is there a demon? The Source is back? One of my nephews gone missing?" Prue said all in one breath. There was definitely hell on the horizon for whatever/whoever caused Piper's distress.

"You're here. You're really here!" Piper said hugging Prue. Prue s panic died down replaced with warmth and love.

"Of course sweetie. Another advantage of being a Whitellighter is that I actually don't have to sleep. Did you get a nightmare or something?" Prue disengaged herself a little bit from her sister's hug enough to look at her face.

"Well, yeah. In my dream you were gone and you left us and didn't come back and I had to become the big sister and I hated it because you're the big sister so I didn't get it. In the last part, like it was some cruel joke, you came back and then I woke up. So yeah, I thought you were gone..." Piper was already crying like she did when she was 5 and Prue would be the one to calm her down and tell her it was okay.

"Oh, sweetie. It's fine. I'm here. I'm never going to go away ever again. Even if you're hair is all gray and all you have are wrinkles instead of a face." Piper smiled Piper was still in her arms not letting her go. She wanted to use her magic to help her with her sister's weight but she refrained from it. Wanting to support her sister with all that she can without magic.

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise. Now up you go." Prue coaxed her to go up the stairs and Piper did but she never let go of Prue's hand. This was often the scene when Piper had nightmares, especially right after their father left. Another reason why Prue hated their father for leaving. It was for making Piper get nightmares almost every night.

Once they reached the landing. Piper looked at her hand holding Prue's hand and then decided on something.

"I don't care if you sleep or not but we're sleeping in the same bed tonight. I'm holding on to you tight till morning to make sure you stay in this manor." Prue was going to protest but she missed her sisters too. As if on cue, Paige and Phoebe orbed in together on the second floor.

"What are you two doing here?" Piper asked.

"Well..." They said in unison. Piper smiled and so did Prue realizing that they too must have trouble sleeping.

"There are sleeping bags in the attic. We can all sleep there." Piper said decisively. Phoebe and Paige just looked sheepish and followed their two older sisters up to the attic.

Prue stayed up while all three of her sisters were curled up as close to her as possible. While waiting for dawn which she usually spends meditating, she found herself thinking of Billie in Phoebe's old room.

Without being conscious of it, she found her Astral self in Billie's room. Her surprise took a millisecond but once she took a look at Billie sleeping soundly, she couldn't help but stare at her again. Billie jerked a bit but didn't wake up. It was as if she felt Prue's presence and for some odd reason, Prue thought Billie's face was calmer if that were even possible for someone sleeping. She leaned in and took the blanket resting on Billie's waist and put it on her shoulder. Billie shifted slightly and her face was now inches from Prue. For some reason, Prue's eyes rested on Billie's lips. She thought how soft those lips might be and wondered what would it feel like for someone to kiss them. Unknown to Prue her face was moving closer and closer to the blonde's face. With only a hair's width away from Billie's lips, Prue, still hypnotized from Billie's lips, closed her eyes and was about to kiss Billie when Billie spoke softly.

"Prue..."

Prue's eyes snapped open and immediately went back to her body. Looking at her position and her sisters, they didn't seem to notice that she was gone. She sighed heavily and mouthed, What the hell was that? She didn't understand what happened and the rest of the night was left thinking nothing but the almost kiss.

Billie was having a dreamless sleep but even in her sleep, there was this empty feeling that she couldn't shake. She may not be dreaming but there was some sense of uneasiness that she felt disturbing what could've been a very peaceful and restful sleep. It was of course impossible for her to know how long it was that she stayed in that feeling of uneasiness but she involuntary jerked when she felt something in her surrounding.

A sense of warmth and safety rushed all over her. As the uneasy feeling left her, an image came to her mind's eye.

Prue.

She slowly opened her eyes and felt a weird tingling sensation on her lips. It was also weird that she thought she saw Prue but then shrugged it off as nothing but a shadow of her dream.

She went back to sleep and come morning, have forgotten all about it.