THE BEST LAID PLANS

SUMMARY: There's a new baby in the house and nothing is going the way Piper planned.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a standalone story, not a sequel.

SPOILERS: May contain spoilers for It's a Bad Bad Bad Bad World (Season 6 finale).

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but any characters I create and my story.

ARCHIVING: Please do not post this story, in part or in whole, without my permission.

Chapter 1

"LEO!" Piper shouted again. She could hear baby Chris crying and she could see him in his crib, but she was unable to reach him or do anything to calm him down. Besides giving her a headache, his frightened cries were heartwrenching.

"It's okay, sweetie. Mommy's here. You're okay." Piper tried to calm her youngest son with her voice, but it wasn't working. Chris just continued to cry inconsolably. She knew the feeling; she felt like crying herself. This was not the way this day was supposed to go. She had a lot of plans for today, and they didn't include hanging around the manor.

"LEO! I need you now!" Piper called again, for what seemed like the hundredth time. It felt like she'd been waiting for Leo to come for hours.

Piper heard the front door open and close. "It's about time." she thought to herself. She called out loud "Hey! I need your help in here." to whoever had just come home.

"Piper, is that you?" she heard Phoebe call out from the foyer. "Where are you? How come Chris is crying like that?"

"Just hanging out in the living room. Get in here!" Piper called out irritably.

Phoebe walked into the living room, not knowing what to expect. She could hear baby Chris crying miserably. Phoebe stopped in the living room doorway, unable to believe her eyes. "Piper! What are you doing?"

Piper was hanging from the ceiling by her arms. In fact, it looked like her arms ended at the ceiling – no hands were visible. Her arms looked as though they began at the ceiling - the same with the crib. The part of the crib where the baby was lying was hanging from the ceiling and the rest looked as if it were coming through the ceiling.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Check on the baby. Is he alright?" Piper called out, wishing it had been Paige or Leo to come home. They might have been able to orb her and Chris out of their predicament. Her arms were aching badly and she had long since lost feeling in her hands. Her hands were supporting her entire weight. She knew her fingers were still there, she'd been able to wiggle them, but her hands weren't designed to support the weight of her body for hours.

Phoebe craned her neck, trying to look in the crib that was over her head. She wished again that she hadn't lost the power of levitation. That would have made this easier. Instead, she retrieved chair and climbed up on it so that she could peer into the crib. Chris looked alright, he was just unhappy. There wasn't enough room to remove Chris. The rails were too close together and the top of the crib was sticking into the ceiling so she couldn't lift him out.

"He's okay, honey." Phoebe told Piper. "Where's Wyatt? Is he okay?"

"I don't know. He orbed down here earlier and saw what happened. Then he orbed out. He orbs in every so often. I've been calling him but he's ignoring me." Piper cried out. "Now get me down from here."

"Leo!" Phoebe called out, trying to get her brother-in-law.

"Oh, good idea. I never would have thought of that." Piper snarked.

"Maybe I should find Wyatt first. He probably doesn't like being by himself. Not after…"

Piper and Phoebe heard the sound of someone orbing into the foyer.

"It's about time!" Piper called out. "Leo!"

"What happened here, a demon?" Paige said from the doorway, laughing.

"I don't know what happened. She was like this when I got home." Phoebe said. "Can you help Chris?"

"Chris!" Paige said, and the baby telekinetically orbed out of the crib and into her arms. "Are you okay, sweetie?" She takes a whiff. "I think he needs a new diaper, Mom."

"I'll get right on that, Paige." Piper snarks, trying to glare down at her youngest sister.

"Why don't I take Chris upstairs and change him. Paige, you see if you can get Piper down." Phoebe said, taking the still crying Chris out of Paige's arms and hurrying out of the room.

"Maybe I could orb you out like I did the baby." Paige suggested to her cranky sister.

"It's worth a try." Piper replied.

"I hope your hands come with the rest of you." Paige added.

"WHAT?" Phoebe heard Piper shriek as she took Chris upstairs to Piper's bedroom. The changing table was in the closet, where Chris's crib was… well, where it normally was. When Phoebe walked into the closet she could see Piper's hands sticking up through the floor, next to the top of the crib.

"What the hell… oops… Sorry, Chris. You didn't hear Aunt Phoebe say that. What the heck happened here?" Phoebe exclaimed, looking at the odd sight.

Chris was still crying, so Phoebe quickly changed his diaper, which calmed him somewhat. Just then Piper's hands orbed out, leaving two holes in the floor behind. "Well, she got to keep her hands." Phoebe said, just as she heard a crash coming from downstairs. Holding Chris, she awkwardly bent down to peer through one of the holes. Apparently Paige had dropped Piper after orbing her out of the ceiling.

Phoebe straightened up and rocked Chris, who was still crying. She could hear Paige and Piper coming upstairs.

"I apologized, Piper." She heard Paige saying.

"I can't believe you dropped me." Piper replied, entering her bedroom. "Phoebe, is Chris okay?"

"I can't believe you're still saying that." Paige said as she entered the room behind her sister.

Phoebe quickly handed Chris to Piper. It was better to stop this argument before it could really get started. There was nothing like a crying baby to distract Piper. "Here you go, Chris. Go to mommy."

Piper grabbed her son, wanting to see for herself that he was alright. A cursory inspection showed him to be unhappy but in one piece. Now she had another son to worry about. "Where's Wyatt?"

Phoebe took the cue and grabbed Paige's arm, dragging her from the room. "We'll find him. He's around somewhere." To Paige, Phoebe says "Go check downstairs. I'll look in his bedroom."

Piper rocked her crying son, hoping that her oldest son was alright. He'd been acting strange lately. He was alternately clinging and distant. And he wanted nothing to do with his baby brother.

But, Piper just knew that everything would be alright. Leo had told her how the grown-up Chris had returned to his own time before his infant self had been born. Surely he would have returned if Wyatt was still evil in the future.

"I won't let you have that future, sweetie" Piper said, as she softly kissed her young son's silky brown hair. Soothed by the rocking and his mother's voice, Chris had calmed down and stopped crying. Piper could see that he was already falling asleep.

"Found him!" Phoebe shrieked, coming into the room holding Wyatt.

Chris, startled awake, starting crying again. Piper glared at Phoebe, even though she was relieved to see that Wyatt was alright. Her sons were alright. Now she just had to get back to making sure that today went the way she had planned. They'd had problems the day of Wyatt's wiccanning, and Piper was determined that Chris's wiccanning would go off without a hitch.

TBC…