Title: New Years Eve Marathon
Summary: But still, Prue thought. She couldn't help but be a little disappointed at the events that had turned her night alone with her boyfriend into a night of babysitting.
Spoilers: None.
Pairing: Prue/Andy.
Disclaimer: The Halliwell sisters and Andy Trudeau were created by Connie Burge and then taken over my Brad Kern. Since I am neither Connie Burge nor Brad Kern, I don't own them. Dammit.
Author's Note: Response to a friend's prompt: the Halliwell sisters watching a scary movie. I kind of adapted the prompt and it's not so much scary movie as it is Twilight Zone marathon, so I hope she doesn't mind! Flashback!fic ages: Prue and Andy, 16; Piper, 13; Phoebe, 11. Feedback = love. Enjoy!

Eleven-year-old Phoebe Halliwell bounded into the parlor, where her older sister Prue was busy getting things in order for their quiet New Year's Eve party. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" she squealed as she flopped down in the easy chair. "A night of TV and junk food and--"

"Hold it right there," Prue instructed, turning from her task of straightening up in order to glare at her little sister. "This isn't going to be Little Halliwells Run the Show Night. This was supposed to be just me and Andy, remember."

Unaware that Piper had even entered the room, they both whirled around to face her when she spoke up, uncharacteristically taking umbrage to her older sister's tone of voice. "Hey, we both had plans for New Year's Eve. It's not our fault the plans fell through."

In an instant, Prue softened. Piper had a reasonable point. Phoebe and her friends had all made plans to stay at Kellianne McCoy's house that night, but Kellianne had called earlier that morning to say that her little brother had been diagnosed with strep throat and was still contagious and unfortunately, the party was off. As for Piper, she and her friend Melanie were supposed to go to the movies and then to Melanie's to watch the fireworks, but Melanie tripped down the stairs in her house the day before and was now hobbling around on crutches.

But still, Prue thought. She couldn't help but be a little disappointed at the events that had turned her night alone with her boyfriend into a night of babysitting. She'd been excited when she learned that the Manor was going to be empty on New Year's Eve. As a matter of fact, she'd been so excited that she called Andy and told him to cancel whatever plans he'd made for them. It was a perfect night, she'd decided, to invite him over and just stay in, enjoying each other's company.

It was purely kismet that one of the cable channels was running marathon of The Twilight Zone. It was a show that Andy loved and though Prue wasn't as much a fan of it as her boyfriend was, it had been her hope that they wouldn't really be watching much of it anyway.

Of course, her sisters being in the room and watching the marathon with them would severely hinder that plan. When she called Andy earlier to give him the bad news, she could tell that he was disappointed, but as was typical for him, he told her that it was no big deal. That he was sure they'd find a way to make the most out of it. Prue had every intention of holding him to that.

She had just set down a couple glasses of ice water on the end tables when she heard a quick, sharp knocking on the front door. In spite of her disappointment and hesitation about the night ahead of her, a wide grin curled onto her lips. She hurried through the foyer and whipped the door open, her heart fluttering when her eyes settled on Andy Trudeau. Just the sight of him standing there, a paper grocery sack in his arms and a lopsided grin on his face, made her giddy. "Hey, you," she said, her voice low as she stepped outside to give him a kiss.

"Hey, yourself," he replied when she pulled away a long moment later. "I hope you three are hungry, because I just about emptied out the supermarket."

He shifted the weight of the bag in his arms and Prue took the hint, ducking back into the house and waving him inside with her. After closing the door and setting the lock--because she knew she'd never remember to do so later on--she went to the kitchen, where Andy was pulling out the contents of the grocery bag.

Apparently, he wasn't kidding when he said he'd cleaned out the supermarket. Piling up on her counter were bags of chips--two different flavors of potato chips and a bag of tortilla chips--and a bag of pretzels, ranch dip, salsa, a box of crackers and a ball of spreadable cheese, a box of ice cream sandwiches, and some Jiffy Pop. "Are you high right now?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No," he answered with a sly grin, "but I am hungry. I guess it's true that you shouldn't go food shopping when you're hungry."

"I guess it is!"

The two of them set to work, pulling bowls out of cabinets and serving trays out of cupboards to start getting the snacks doled out and ready to eat. Neither of them even looked up until they heard someone gasp. "Oh my God!" Piper exclaimed, her eyes wide. "That is a ton of food."

Andy shot her a grin and Prue held out a small bowl. "And for pointing out the obvious, now you get to help serve it all up."

Piper took the bowl from her sister's hand, set it on the counter, and picked up the jar of salsa. "There's no way we're going to eat all this," she said, frowning at Andy. "There are only four of us, you know."

Andy gave her another wide smile as he headed to the stove to begin cooking the popcorn. "I know there are only four of us and I know we're not going to be able to eat all this food, but it'll be fun to try, right?"

At that, Piper laughed. At least he wasn't as upset about having the younger Halliwells crashing their New Year's Eve party as Prue seemed to be. She knew in her heart, though, that once everyone was settled, Prue would calm down. She'd still be disappointed, of course, and Piper could understand that, but she would lighten up a bit.

With the three of them working, the snacks were all ready to be served in a matter of minutes. Prue arranged the bowls, small plates, and napkins on three separate serving trays and they each carried one into the parlor.

Phoebe had already plopped in front of the television and was fully engrossed in whatever episode of The Twilight Zone was being aired. At the sound of their entry, she tore her eyes from the television and did a double-take at the sheer amount of food on the trays. "Holy crap!" she exclaimed. "It's like a Thanksgiving menu a kid would plan!"

At long last, Prue laughed. Andy had gone completely overboard with the food, but at least it was funny. Maybe tonight wouldn't be as disappointing as she thought.

-----

As it turned out, the attention span Prue and Piper had for The Twilight Zone was considerably shorter than the attention span Andy and Phoebe had for it. They had been watching for hours now, and Piper and Prue had long since tired of it. Instead, they were passing their time by trying to guess, just from the teaser of each episode, what was going to happen.

They'd earned their fair share of shushes from both Phoebe and Andy, but they didn't particularly care; they were having fun. Piper was especially astute and had called over half the episodes that had aired since they'd started playing their little game. Each time she was proven correct, she earned a glare and a "Stop taking the fun out of it!" from Phoebe.

Andy, on the other hand, was rather impressed with how well Piper was doing. "If you'd been born thirty years earlier, you could have written for this show!" he'd said, giving her a wide smile.

When Piper's cheeks colored slightly, Prue smiled. Andy had certainly taken the change in the evening's plans far better than she had. She could tell that he was disappointed, of course, but he hadn't let his disappointment show to her sisters. He'd been patient with them and he teased them, just like they were his own sisters, and he always managed to reel it in before he hurt any feelings.

Suddenly feeling a bit tired, Prue snuggled closer to Andy, leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder. "You can't be getting tired yet," he whispered into her ear as he checked the wall clock out of the corner of his eye. "It's not even eleven o'clock."

"I'm just a little tired," she whispered back, pulling the blanket up to cover her shoulders.

He slouched down into the corner of the sofa so that she could comfortably lean against him and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She smiled and snuggled even closer, fixing the blanket so that it covered both of them. When she turned her head up to meet his gaze, he kissed her.

Unfortunately, she had to pull away before she fell too deeply into the kiss. He just grinned at her before refocusing his attention on the television. A moment later, she felt his hand slowly slide all the way down her arm until he found her hand and interlaced his fingers with hers. She smiled, her cheeks flushing, and played with his fingers while once again silently cursing the presence of her sisters. If it weren't for them, she'd be making out right now!

Forcing herself to think of something positive, she turned her attention to the coffee table. "We made quite a dent in the food," she murmured. Ice cream sandwich wrappers were piled up in the middle of the table. A few chips and some straggling pretzels were in the bottoms of a couple of the bowls, and broken tortilla chips were in another. The bowls of dip had been scraped clean but there was still half a cheese ball and some crackers left on the tray.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Phoebe said in agreement. "My stomach still hurts."

"We should clean up," a nervous Piper said, eyeing the mess. "Grams'll be mad if she comes home and finds all this food out."

Prue was entirely too comfortable at the moment to get up to clean. "We'll clean it all up later," she assured her sister through a tiny yawn. "Grams said she won't be home until about one-thirty or two. We've got plenty of time."

Piper nodded and the foursome fell silent as the next episode began. When the show went to commercial, Prue sat up a little in order to address her sister. "So what do you think is going on? I think the kid's a ghost."

"I think the kid is the woman's memory," Piper answered with a shrug.

When Andy let out a breath through his nose, Prue looked up at him with a frown of puzzlement on her face. He nodded at her, and she understood in an instant that Andy knew how the episode ended and that Piper was indeed correct. "Damn," Prue muttered under her breath, both disappointed that she was wrong and impressed that Piper was correct once again.

"Are you sure she's never seen this before?" Andy asked in a whisper, not wanting to ruin the episode for Phoebe.

Prue just shrugged. "I don't see why she would have. This isn't really her cup of tea so I can't imagine her watching it by herself. I've never watched it with her and Phoebe would have snitched by now if she'd watched it with her."

Andy nodded, taking in that information. "Then she's just damn good at this."

At the end of the episode, Phoebe whirled on her sister, her mouth open in surprise. "How do you do that?" she asked. Apparently, she'd gotten over her indignation at being spoiled and had moved into amazement at Piper's intuition.

"I don't know," Piper answered with an uncomfortable shrug. "I just … guessed."

Her luck unfortunately didn't hold and she guessed the outcome of the next episode incorrectly. As soon as the credits began to roll, Phoebe flipped the channel so that the four of them could watch the fireworks being broadcast by one of the local news stations. When the countdown in the corner of the screen hit zero and it was officially midnight, Piper and Phoebe jumped up from their seats, tossing confetti they'd made earlier in the day by ripping up colored note paper. Prue and Andy didn't move from the couch, but they did share a kiss.

"Ew!" Phoebe joked when she turned around. "PDA! PDA!"

Prue laughed, breaking the kiss with Andy, and tossed a throw pillow at her sister in protest.

Once the new year had been properly rung in, Andy flipped the station back to the marathon. Piper reclaimed her seat in the easy chair while Phoebe stretched out on the floor in front of the coffee table. Prue straightened the blanket around her legs and once again snuggled close to Andy.

She started and sat up a little bit when she felt her eyelids drooping a few minutes later. When she forced her eyes open, she fully took in the mess in the parlor for the first time. It was as if a hurricane had moved through a supermarket before depositing the debris in the parlor, and the confetti covering the floor did not help things at all. She knew she should get up and clean, but her muscles were so relaxed that they ached at the very thought of movement. Oh, forget it, she thought, slumping back against Andy. She could clean later.

Once she was comfortable, Andy picked up a lock of her hair and began twirling it around his finger. Prue smiled as her eyes slid closed.

-----

As soon as Penny Halliwell stepped into the Manor and flipped the outside lights off, she heard the tinny sound of voices coming from the television in the parlor. She glanced at her watch as she pulled the front door closed behind her. It was just after two in the morning. Which of her granddaughters was still watching television at two a.m.?

She followed the flickering light to the parlor and stopped short in the doorway. All she could see was the complete and total mess. Bowls of broken and staling chips and plates of crackers were on the coffee table, empty soda glasses were on the end tables, and the floor was littered with small bits of colored paper.

But before she could get angry, she spotted Phoebe lying fast asleep on the floor in front of the television. Piper was also sound asleep in the easy chair, curled up into a ball. Her eldest granddaughter was out like a light on the sofa, lying against Andy, who was slouched against the arm of the couch. Prue's head rested lightly on Andy's shoulder.

With a soft sigh, Penny stepped into the room and attempted to rouse Prue only to find the task impossible. She didn't have any more luck trying to wake Piper or Phoebe. Finally giving a smile, she crept back over to the sofa and shifted Prue so that she was lying on the opposite end, foot-to-foot with Andy. The last thing she needed was Donna Trudeau calling her and accusing her of allowing anything untoward to happen. Then she picked up the blanket that one of the teenagers had kicked to the floor and spread it over them.

She rustled up two other throws and spread one over each of her younger granddaughters. Then she crept to the television, turned it off, and tiptoed out of the room. She paused with her hand on the table lamp's switch and looked back into the parlor, surveying the innocent scene one final time. "Happy New Year, my darlings," she whispered, turning out the light and leaving the room in darkness.