Post by StoryGirl83 on Feb 13, 2015 19:58:13 GMT -5
Chapter Five - No One's Writing
Patty exhaled as she stared at her former son-in-law.
“Patty?”
Finally she nodded. “Please don’t tell them.”
“They will find out eventually,” he pointed out. “You know that.”
“Please, not yet,” Patty pleaded. “Not so soon on top of Phoebe’s death. Give them time to grieve before they deal with this.”
Leo frowned at her. “You make it seem like this is a bad thing.”
She shook her head. “Not bad, no, just something that should have its own moment in time.” She gave him an imploring look. “Give them time.”
Leo looked at her for several seconds. He finally nodded. “I will give them time to find out on their own, but if at any point they need to know…”
Patty nodded. “They’ve waited this long to find out, but if you really think they need to know, you have my permission. Try and get their powers unbound at least.”
Leo smiled at that. “You really don’t know how?”
Patty shook her head. “Sorry. Tell Piper I heard once that a potion had been made that unbound powers.”
“Tell her yourself,” Leo instructed her.
“Sorry,” Patty shook her head. “I have to leave. Take care of my girls.”
Leo nodded. “I’ll try. I’m sorry about Phoebe.”
“Me, too,” Patty admitted with a catch in her voice. “Unfortunately, it was meant to be.” Sparkles formed around her as she added, “Say good-bye for me.” And then she was gone.
Leo sighed as he headed into the front room. He found Prue and Piper on the coach with their friend, sister, Leo corrected mentally. He noticed the pad of paper once more in Paige’s hand.
Piper looked up at the sound of his footsteps, standing up as she asked, “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
Leo nodded.
“Anything you’d care to share?” Prue asked, slightly impatient.
“Not yet,” Leo informed her. “She did ask me to tell Piper that she heard that a potion had been made once that unbound powers.”
“A potion?” Piper asked surprised as she walked over to him. “How could a potion undo a spell?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I think it was just a rumor she heard. Or maybe there is a way to bind powers with a potion and a potion will unbind powers bound that way.”
Piper nodded. “Yes, I suppose that would make sense.”
“Guys,” Paige called, her voice a little wobbly.
Prue, Piper, and Leo turned to look at her. The pad of paper was on the coffee table and Paige was gaping at it. She looked up at them, her eyes wide. “No pen, no person, but someone is writing on the paper.”
Prue and Piper hurried over to her and looked down at the paper. Sure enough words were appearing line by line, curve by curve.
My darlings,
Bound powers will no longer protect you from evil for they know who you are. To this end, I am giving you these two spells. The first is merely a normal unbinding spell for if you ever wish to unbind powers of someone you have bound. The second is the spell you are seeking, a spell that will allow someone to unbind their own powers if the one who bound them is dead.
Blessed Be.
Grams.
Below Grams’ note two spells slowly appeared on the page. Prue and Piper looked at each other. When the spells were done, the words were not.
Your sister asks me to give you her love and to tell you that you shouldn’t feel guilty for not saving her. She thanks you for the attempt.
The words stopped then. Prue and Piper looked at each other, sadness in their eyes.
Paige sighed as she looked up. “It’s hard to imagine someone who is dead as being all right, but reading that I can almost imagine that she is in fact all right. Should we try these spells?”
“Well, we clearly can’t try the first one,” Prue retorted. “We didn’t bind anyone’s powers, least of all our own.”
Piper picked up the pad of paper. She looked at first Prue, then Paige, and finally Leo. When no one responded, she sighed. “Who wants to try first?” she asked, offering the pad to out for Prue and Paige to grab.
Paige pushed the pad back at her. “I think you should. Your power will come in handy if we need to buy time. Besides, you already have the spell in hand,” she added with a wink.
Piper looked hopefully at Prue who just nodded in agreement with Paige. She didn’t really want to be the guinea pig with this, but it had come from Grams, so it had to work, right? “Okay, here it goes.” She held up the pad and began to chant. “Someone held their hand in mine, with a string my powers to entwine. Death has loosened up the bind. Break it now until the end of time.”
Putting the paper down, she looked around for something to freeze. Her eyes stopped on her soon to be ex-husband and a twinkle of mischief lit her eyes. Phoebe would have been proud. She waved her hands up and down and then waited to see if Leo moved. “Did it work?”
When Leo remained motionless, Prue nodded. “Looks like. Now, unfreeze him.”
Piper waved her hands up and down, again. “Now, that we know that, Prue or Paige.”
Leo frowned and raised an eye brow at her.
She ducked her head down and bit down to keep herself from laughing.
“I take it that you tested your powers on me,” Leo commented wryly.
“Easiest way to test them,” she shot back.
“Easy, children,” Paige separated them with a laugh. “We need to get this done, so that we all have our powers back. And since I wouldn’t even know how to use my powers, or what they are, I think Prue should be next.”
Prue shook her head with a smile as she watched Piper and Leo before picking the pad up from where Piper had placed it. “Someone held their hand in mine, with a string my powers to entwine. Death has loosened up the bind. Break it now until the end of time.” She handed the pad to paper to Paige and waved her hand at one of the pillows still on the couch. A satisfied smiled settled on her lips as the pillow flew across the room. “Never thought I would be glad to see that, but right about now, I am so very glad for my powers.” Looking over at Paige, she asked, “Are you ready to have your powers?”
Heaving in a huge breath, Paige nodded. She held the spell up so that she could read it and said, “We don’t know until I figure out how to use them, but I’m game.” Pushing past her worries about what finally having her powers might mean, she chanted, “Someone held their hand in mine, with a string my powers to entwine. Death has loosened up the bind. Break it now until the end of time.” As soon as she finished, she put down the pad of paper and shrugged her shoulders. “I image that worked, unless of course the person who bound them really is still alive, but until powers show up, I won’t know more.”
Prue dropped down onto the couch and heaved in a breath. Now that she was safe, everything that had happened caught up to her. Her shoulders began to shake and her head dropped down into her hands.
Piper said nothing as she sat down next to her and hugged her arms around her, tears visibly falling down her cheeks as she did.
On Prue’s other side, Paige wrapped her arms around Prue, too.
Silence reigned in the room except for the occasional sound of a sob. Leo stood by the couch, wishing he could be of some comfort to them, feeling like an outcast not permitted to help since things started going downhill between him and Piper.
Finally, the silence was broken as Prue looked up, her eyes red, tears streaking her face. “This is all my fault.”
Piper frowned and looked at her. “No. Prue, no. This isn’t your failt.”
“If I had helped Phoebe that day,” Prue protested. “If I hadn’t put her off, she never would have killed that man after the verdict went bad. She never would have been on this path.”
“You couldn’t have know,” Paige argued. “That was something so unlike Phoebe, you never could have known.”
“You aren’t trying to say that I made the right choice?” Prue scowled at her.
Paige shook her head. “No, never. I’m just saying this isn’t your fault. You made your choices, but so did Phoebe and she’s the one who killed Greene, not you.”
“I’m the oldest,” Prue sniffed. “I should have found a way to protect my baby sister. Now, I’ve lost her.” Turning her eyes to Piper as they began to well up with tears, again, she stated only, “She’s gone.”
That was all that was needed to start the tears, again. Now that they had come they had no desire to stop. They may have lead separate lives for a long time, but through it the bond, though sometimes buried, had never died. Tears flowed out of the eyes of all three women as they mourned a woman who had been so much a part of their lives for so long. For Prue and Piper, they remembered nothing pre Phoebe. For Paige it had been over half a decade since she had met and become friends with her.