“Mommy, mommy, mommy!”

Phoebe walked into the room behind the 4 year old and set the car keys down on the counter. She headed over to the fridge.

Piper heard exited squeals as her daughter came running into the kitchen. Piper was standing by the stove cooking dinner but she stopped when she saw her little girl.

“Hey Sweetie” she said, scooping her up, “how was school today?”

“I drew a picture” Poppy announced proudly “There’s you, and aunt Phoebe, and aunt Paige and Kate and me!” Piper smiled at her long run-on sentence and looked down at the brightly coloured painting.

“And there’s Daddy” Poppy continued, pointing to the figure in the sky. “Can you see Mommy? Can you?”

A tear came to Piper’s eye but she quickly brushed it aside. The little girl squirmed out of her mother’s arms.

Phoebe watched on from the other side of the room. She put her glass down on the side and walked over. She placed a hand on her older sister’s shoulder but Piper shrugged her off.

“So anyway” she started, quick to change the subject. “Where’s Kate?”

Phoebe sighed, she wanted to help her sister, but she just wasn’t letting her in. “Upstairs” she finally replied, “Did you not hear the door slam?”

Piper rubbed her forehead anxiously, worried about her 12 year old daughter. “What's wrong now?”

Phoebe shrugged. “Would you like me to go and talk to her?”

“No” Piper said, lifting some plates out of the cupboard, “It only makes it worse. There’s no getting through to her when she’s like this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, she’ll come down when she’s ready.”

Piper set the plates around the table awkwardly. She didn’t look up once, trying to avoid any eye contact with her younger sister. Phoebe stood there, wanting to speak. Wanting to say something to make Piper feel… To make Piper feel.

She had been like this ever since it happened. Bottling all her feelings up and not expressing any sort of emotion. She had cried non-stop for two weeks, but since then she was just numb.

Phoebe and Paige had tried to help but she just wasn’t letting them in. She just went about her work and her chores and looking after the kids as normal, not really wanting to believe that she was doing it without Leo.

That she would be without him forever.

“Did Poppy go upstairs?” Piper asked in a quiet voice.

“Yeah, shall I go and tell her dinner’s ready?”

“Umm… No” Piper replied, “leave it a minute.”

Phoebe nodded, understanding.

* * *

Poppy knocked timidly on her older sister’s door. “Katie” she said shyly, “can I come in?”

Kate sat cross-legged on the bed flicking through a magazine, a scowl spread across her face. She looked up and her expression softened slightly when she saw who was at the door.

“What do you want?” she grunted.

Poppy shrugged. “I dunno, just to talk?”

Kate noticed the look on her little sister’s face and knew that there was really something on her mind. “What’s up?”

“I drew Mommy a picture” she stammered, pulling the crumpled piece of paper out from behind her back. Kate leant forward on the bed to take a better look. “I don’t think she liked it very much, she went all quiet.”

Kate took hold of the painting and sat back on the bed. She began to climb on but paused. She checked to see if it was ok, but she didn’t meet any resistance from her big sister so she carried on. She sat looking worriedly up at her sister’s face.

This must be serious; Kate never let her in her room.

Poppy waited a bit but Kate didn’t say anything, she just stared at the painting. She eventually crawled up beside her. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like it either?”

Kate smiled and put the picture down. “I love it, it’s beautiful. But you know how Mommy gets sad.”

Poppy looked confused. “I know. She misses Daddy. So I drew her a picture of Daddy to make her feel better.” She paused and looked down at the floor. “Did I make it worse?”

Kate sighed, she didn’t really know what to say. Maybe she was quiet for a bit too long.

“PK?” Poppy said, using her pet name for her.

Kate snapped out of her trance. She hated that nickname. Poppy knew she did. She once threatened to drop her teddy in the fish tank if she called her that again. Poppy wouldn’t dare use that name if she thought Kate would yell at her. She must’ve looked really upset.

She finally spoke up. “Umm… Maybe it’s better if we don’t talk about him to Mom.”

“Just forget you mean?”

“No, definitely not” Kate replied, tears welling up in her eyes. “We can still talk about him.”

“But not to Mommy?”

“That’s right.”

Poppy looked thoughtful for a second but appeared to shrug it off. “Are you coming down for pasta?” she asked.

Kate shook her head. “Maybe later.”

* * *

“Hello trouble.” Paige greeted her young niece as she walked through the front door. She ruffled her hair and hung her coat up on the stand.

Poppy smiled at her and walked through to the kitchen and slid into her chair.

Paige followed looking a little confused. Phoebe shrugged at her and she shifted her gaze to Piper absently standing by the sink, trying to stay occupied. Paige didn’t say anything; she just sat down at the table next to Poppy.

She had given up asking what was wrong a long time ago. She knew what was wrong, of course. It had been the same thing for 6 months now. She just didn’t have anything else to say and it seemed like the best thing to break the ice. It was no use though, Piper wouldn’t talk.

Paige noticed Poppy looking at her mother with a solemn expression on her face. “So missy” Paige said, trying to be cheerful, in her best effort to distract the child. “What did you get up to at school?”

Poppy shrugged. Paige placed a hand on her back, comforting her. She didn’t even flinch.

Phoebe looked at her and gestured for her to take Poppy into the living room. Paige nodded.

“Hey, why don’t we go and watch TV and let your Mom finish the dinner?”

Poppy climbed down off the chair obediently and followed her aunt into the next room.