Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 9, 2011 13:43:12 GMT -5
Chapter Four – Changing Around
and two unidentified magical young men
“How are you and Andy adjusting to your home?” Piper asked as she wrote “Aphrodite Crystal Cure” on a label and stuck it on the vial.
“Not all that well,” Prue admitted. “As you know I found a job at that art museum on Fifth, but a nearly thirty year employment gap doesn’t look good for me or Andy. He still hasn’t found anything and it’s beginning to bother him. We really appreciate all the help you two have been giving us.”
“Not help my sister,” Piper teased with a mock look of horror on her face. “I’d never do that.”
Prue grinned. “Ben and Alice have helped some, too, but I hate causing all this trouble.”
“We’re glad to help,” Paige assured her. “And speaking of help, my girls were wondering if your girls would like to spend a weekend over at our place. Think you could help me arrange that?”
Prue smiled. “Sure. The girls have been having trouble making friends in school, especially when it’s someone they knew before and now everything’s different and everyone looks the same, but they’re all strangers. My girls would really enjoy the chance to hang out with their cousins and not have to worry about knowing too much, especially Pat. A little over two weeks ago she came home in the doldrums. She’d run into a girl who’d been a good friend in school. Her friend was killed in a car accident just before they started high school and Pat says she completely messed things up and now this girl thinks she’s a freak and it has Pat pretty depressed.”
“That’s awful,” Piper commented. “Have you run into that, too?”
Prue nodded. “There’re too many memories, too many things that are close, but way too far away. It’s hard to remember what we should and shouldn’t know. That’s why I’m so glad I have you two, that Andy has Ben and now Darryl to talk to, and that my girls have their cousins.” She looked over at Paige with a grin. “Pat’s been calling all three of your kids everyday for the last two weeks, so they can help her on various school projects. She doesn’t want to deal with the kids in her own school anymore.”
Paige laughed. “So that’s who Hanks been talking to. I’d been wondering.” She cocked her head to the side, “But are you sure they’re talking about homework?”
Prue frowned. “What else would they be working on?”
“Magic,” Paige announced. “I’ve heard Hank discussing potion ingredients, demons we’ve dealt with, and how to write spells. It’s not something I usually hear one of my kids discussing over the phone.”
“I hope she doesn’t think she needs to hide that from me,” Prue commented with a frown. “I’ll have to talk to her when I get home.”
“I wish you would just move back to San Francisco,” Piper commented as she put away the last of the potion ingredients. “It would be a lot easier to visit you if we didn’t have to drag Paige into it every time.”
“Paige doesn’t mind,” Paige retorted, “so long as you don’t call me when I’m busy or a charge needs me.”
“And why is Paige referring to herself in the third person?” Piper teased.
“Because she’s feeling left out,” Paige returned.
“Right,” Piper drawled, “because all this talk about your kids is so far from discussing you.”
Paige chuckled. “True. Speaking of kids, do you think we should call yours?”
“As much as I want to, I promised Chris I’d give him an hour before I started calling him or reinforcements.” She glanced down at her watch. “He still has twenty-five minutes. It’s frustrating. The potion will work. I verified that girl’s findings, but that doesn’t tell me if Chris will get it to everyone in time.”
“Twenty-five more minutes,” Prue mumbled. “Why’d you give him so much time?”
“Because he’s my son,” Piper informed her, “and I trust him with magic, because he can do this. And by giving him a time limit I have an excuse to call him as soon as it’s up which he can’t complain about, because I warned him. It’s not working too well though, because right now I want to be more involved than just making potions. Problem is, other than when Tyler coming to me, I haven’t had any idea where to look to find innocents in need of help. They’ve pretty much been falling into my sons’ laps, but they are trying to protect me. Me! They’re the kids. I’m the parent. It’s supposed to go the other way around. And without Phoebe we don’t even have premonitions, because none of the kids got them. It’s probably the universe conspiring against us so that all four of us can’t be together.” Piper scowled.
“Calm down, Piper,” Prue directed her, putting an arm around her shoulders as Paige stood nearby looking concerned. “Phoebe is alive and she’s out there somewhere. Grams or Mom would have told us if she wasn’t. We will find her and we will bring her home safely.”
Piper sighed and snuggled up against Prue. “I know. I’m just so worried about her.”
Paige came over and hugged Piper and Prue. “We’ll find her.”
Piper wiped away a tear forming in her eye. “Someone distract me, please. There’s too much time left.”
“Next time, give them less time,” Prue suggested with a chuckle. “How about you tell me about your restaurant? You have one in the other reality, but you called it Chez Magique.”
“House of Magic, huh,” Piper replied with a laugh as she turned in her sister’s arms. “A little obvious, don’t you think?”
Prue chuckled, again. “A reporter asked you about that at the open and you said whatever anyone said or thought, Phoebe was your sister whom you loved and she died because she was accused of magic, but the only magic you would admit to was the magic of sisterhood, which was kind of ironic considering our relationships when she died.”
“I got that idea,” Piper admitted. “Your assistant hadn’t even met me.”
“She’d met you,” Prue assured her, “but it had been a long time. Let’s not talk about that, though. I’d rather you tell me about The Manor.”
Piper smiled. “Well, up until November I had a full crew. Then, I lost two of my chefs when they moved to Florida. Since I still had Callie and Jen I didn’t worry too much about it, except Jen quit the next month citing personal reasons.” Piper scowled. “I also lost various waiters and waitresses over the last few months for different reasons. And one of my waitresses, Chelsea Michaels was on maternity leave for three months. It pretty much left me scrambling and then on top of it demons were attacking, again.”
“Sounds like it hasn’t been easy for you lately with your restaurant,” Prue commented.
“Well, now that Chris works for me, it’s been going a lot better,” Piper admitted. “I’ve hired some more waiters and waitresses and I have a new greeter to help out Drinka. You’ve met Drinka. She’s an absolute marvel and she knows about magic so she can help me or Chris by covering for us if needed.”
“How about chefs?” Prue asked. “You said you lost three, but Chris is the only one you’ve hired on.”
“I hired a girl yesterday who has potential,” Piper informed her, “but she wants to work as a waitress, so we’ll see. I also have a couple of kids on my wait staff who either have interest or talent. Of course at least one of those is only seventeen, so I can’t have him in the kitchen quite yet.”
“Sounds like you are getting things back in place,” Prue commented as she sat down on the couch.
“Yeah, it’s getting back to normal,” Piper agreed as she sat down on the arm of the couch.
“She’s also got a teenager working for her that has decided she’s going to cover for them,” Paige informed Prue as she plopped down on the couch next to her.
Prue frowned. “I understand telling Drinka, since you explained that, but a teenager? Does she even have magic?”
“Not the type you mean,” Paige announced. “And it wasn’t Piper’s decision. That’s all on the boys, but they don’t seem to be handling well. You saw her earlier, the girl that brought the box for Piper.”
Prue looked at her. “Oh, her.”
Piper turned a questioning look on her. “What do you mean “oh, her”? Emily has been sticking her nose in things and she could get into trouble.”
“Has she actually gotten in the line of sight of any demons?” Prue asked, because she came to us today.”
“She came to us, yes,” Piper agreed, adding, “but who’s to say where she went when she left. When James Thomas kidnapped all those kids, she spied on some people who were most likely witches and reported what she saw to Chris.”
“Sounds like she is trying to impress, Chris,” Prue chuckled.
“Well, she’s not,” Piper informed her. “She’s got Chris regretting his decision to let her remember his saving her.”
“What happened?”
“She fell off a ladder in my kitchen and almost got knifed,” Piper told her, remembering the story her son had told her. “Chris orbed her out of the way and then he used the truth spell on her, but he changed it.”
“Right,” Prue stated, remembering the conversation earlier that day. “Not his brightest move. Hopefully he’s right and she won’t change her mind or circumstances won’t change it for her.”
“Darryl never did,” Piper reminder her. “Even when things went badly, he never told anyone other than his wife.”
“So all we have to do is fear the person this Emily marries?” Prue retorted with rolled eyes.
“I’m sure if that’s a problem, we can worry about it later,” Piper responded, laughing.
“She seemed like a nice girl,” Paige commented. “Hopefully she will be a good friend for your boys and a good employee for you.”
Piper sighed. “Yes, if all she does is cover for us, she should be fine, but it worries me that someone dropped off something magical for me at her house.”
“She might have been picked simply because she worked for you.”
“Which worries me even more,” Piper admitted. “If that’s true, then any of my employees could be in danger.”
“Remember the muses,” Paige reminded her. “The warlock brought Melody to P3 on a busy night. That could have been bad.”
Piper groaned.
“Remember the guardian demon,” Prue added. “We had some dead bodies at P3, because of that.”
Piper winced.
“And it sure wasn’t good when Abbey was so obsessed with me,” Prue continued. “And she wasn’t even a demon. Things happen around us, Piper. It’s not often a good thing, but it’s something we have to live with.” She smiled at Piper. “So you’re just going to have to enjoy your restaurant and do your best to see to it that nothing happens there.”
“But it will,” Piper moaned. “Is that what you are saying?”
“Not necessarily,” Prue shook her head. “Just if something does, don’t waste time bemoaning it and just deal with it as best you can.”
“And call for reinforcements,” Paige added. “You’ve got a large family to help you. Utilize it.”
“I’m closing The Manor and P3 now,” Piper said, pulling out her cell.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Prue instructed her as she grabbed the phone out of her phone. “P3? It’s still open?”
“Oh course,” Piper agreed, letting her have the phone. “Of course for all I’ve been there lately it could have been condemned and I wouldn’t have noticed. I’ve been so busy these last few months trying to put my crew at The Manor back together and dealing with the demons my sons throw my way that I haven’t had time for much else. Leo and I have tried to spend a couple of free days together only to be interrupted. Once it was because demons had attacked Wyatt and cut his spinal cord. Thank goodness for Paige.”
“I didn’t do that,” Paige told her. “I was going to heal him, but I never did. Someone else did or else Wyatt has learned to self heal, something I can’t do.”
“Great another mystery I don’t need,” Piper bemoaned. “I haven’t had a proper date with my husband in almost six months. My sister has been missing for almost three months. I have an over curious teenager working for me who knows about magic. And I haven’t even been in P3 since Jen quit in December. Not even once.”
“I would have thought you would have sold P3,” Prue commented. “Didn’t you need the money to start The Manor?”
Piper shook her head. “I couldn’t have sold P3. It’s got too many memories of you, Phoebe, and me together, something I didn’t think I could ever have more of.” Thinking of Phoebe she gulped. “Something I still don’t know if I can have more of.”
Prue hugged her arm around her and pulled her off the arm of the couch onto the cushions. “We are going to find Phoebe and she’s going to be all right. We’re here,” she reminded her sisters as she pulled Paige into the hug, “all three alive and well. If that’s possible, then anything’s possible.”
Piper grinned. “Right. So P3’s not going anywhere. Besides it’s a good club with a good income.” She laughed as she added, “With all the damage done to this house over the years . . .” She winked at her sister. “We need the money.” A sudden though stilled her. A grin grew wide on her face as the idea took root and grew wings. “Hey, Prue, what would it take to get you to move back to San Francisco?”
“A job for one,” Prue retorted.
“Done,” Piper announced. “There’s about to be an opening at P3 for a manager/entertainment coordinator. It’s yours if you want it.”
Paige snorted as she realized what was going on. She knew why that job was about to be open.
“You are not firing someone to give me a job,” Prue informed her, her brows furrowed together.
“Of course not,” Piper agreed, thinking about the note downstairs. “He’s quitting to return to school.”
Prue relaxed a little. “Well, as long as you aren’t firing someone.”
“Besides as an original investor in P3 I owe you all sorts of pack pay,” Piper added.
“I’d have to discuss this with Andy,” Prue hedged.
“Naturally,” Piper agreed. “It needs to be a joint decision. Moving across country is a big deal.”
“And we’d have to find a way to explain everything to Andy’s parents and his sister,” Prue added, her mind elsewhere as she played with the possibilities in her mind.
Paige looked at her surprised. “You mean you haven’t told them.”
Prue shook her head, pulling her mind back to the attic. “Mark and Alice never told them that Alice was a witch, so we couldn’t figure out a way to explain without mentioning that.”
“Oh, boy,” Paige whispered.
Prue gave her a look. “And how much does Henry’s family know?”
Paige nodded, understanding. “Fair point, but still it’s going to be tough to dump all of that on them all of a sudden.”
“No kidding,” Prue agreed. “Andy would love to be able to talk to his parents and his sister. Sarah and her husband have twin daughter who are just a year younger that Vicki and she just told Mark and Alice last week that she’s expecting another baby, maybe even more twins since they run in Josh’s family.” With a chuckle, she added, “A lot.”
“Is Josh Sarah’s husband?” Piper asked. This was the first time she’d heard much about Sarah’s family. And Sarah was so many years younger than her brothers that it was the first time she’s actually heard much about Sarah at all. Sarah had been so much younger than them, just starting high school when they’d gone to Andy’s funeral all those years before.
Prue nodded. “Yeah, Josh Gibson. According to Ben he’s a pretty nice guy, but I’ve never met him.”
In a dark corner of the attic not quite illuminated by the light the sisters were using the air shimmered and formed into two people. They crouched down and looked across the room.
How long you think it will be before they notice us?
The question popped into the head of one of the two intruders as an almost audible voice. The turned and glared at the young man next to him, the source of that voice. A while if we are silent and don’t move. I don’t intend to wait that long.
An audible sigh popped into his head along with the words, Good. Let’s get this done then.
Are you sure you want to do this? he replied through his thoughts, as if talking telepathically was common place for him. It wasn’t. It’s not too late to turn back.
I’m sure, the thought popped into his head. From what I saw they are going to need this if they are going to get their sister back.
So offer them your help, he suggested. Tell them what you saw.
His companion’s head shook. No. They have to see if for themselves. He bit down on his lip to stifle an exclamation of pain.
I thought I said silent, he retorted in his thoughts.
Repeat that.
Why?
I couldn’t concentration on reading your mind. There was several seconds of silence followed by, Please.
He sighed. All I thought was a stupid comment about being silent. You okay?
Not really, his companion admitted. Let’s get this over. His companion pulled out a folded piece of paper. He turned his head and looked him. Any chance you can cast this?
He rolled his head. You’re the witch here, not me. No spell casting for me.
Expecting that answer, his companion nodded his head and in a low whisper began to chant. “A sisters’ bond is always there, even after thirty years. What’s Prue’s is Phoebe’s, what’s Phoebe’s is Prue’s. There is so much to lose. To keep them from this pain I find, let their powers cross the line. I offer up their gifts to share, switch the powers through the air. As the powers switch around, undo it only when Phoebe is found.”
Across the room Prue noticed a spiraled ball of light exit her body and head for the window. She jumped to her feet and waved her hand at it. It didn’t slow down.
“What on earth?!” Piper exclaimed as she rose to her feet.
“Light ball!” Paige called out as she held out her hand.
Nothing happened.
Prue groaned, catching the attention of her sisters.
“Prue?”
“I can’t use my powers,” Prue informed them as she waved her hand at a chair across the room. “Nothing. I think someone just stole my powers.”
That was when the second ball of light entered the room from the same general path of the first. It went straight for Prue and slammed into her, entering her body before she could even protest.
Prue waved her hand, hoping it was her powers returning to her. Her hand brushed against Paige and she was pulled into a premonition.
Piper and Paige looked at Prue worried as she stood there unmoving.
Prue gasped and looked at them in shock.
Before she could say a word, Paige’s cell phone rang. Paige dug into her pocket.
Piper opened her mouth to speak.
Prue gasped as she came out of the premonition and looked at her sisters in shock.
They were both looking at her worried.
Before she could say a word, Paige’s cell phone rang. Paige dug into her pocket.
“Prue, what happened?” Piper asked, concerned. “You zoned out there for a moment. It reminded me a little of . . .”
“Phoebe,” Prue finished. “It reminded you of Phoebe, because somehow I just had a premonition.”