Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 30, 2008 21:48:52 GMT -5
Chapter Fifteen – Briefing Paige
Back in the attic Wyatt turned to Prue as he put his phone back in his pocket. “I talked to Cilly. She says that they will try and find Aunt Phoebe. Usually if they try hard enough they can use their powers to find Uncle Coop and he’ll know where Phoebe is.”
Prue nodded. “Good. Thank you.” She turned to look at Paige next to her. “We’ve been brainstorming about how to . . .” She trailed off and frowned. “You probably want to know what the problem is before I ask for help solving it.”
Paige looked at Piper. “Is this where I sit down, again?”
Behind them the door opened and closed at Alanna entered.
Piper nodded, not having noticed Alanna. “Probably a good idea.”
Paige sat down on the couch next to Pat. She looked at her, but didn’t say anything, though she was curious who this girl was. Seeing Alanna by the closed door, she beckoned her daughter to her side. “This is my daughter, Alanna. I’m told you don’t know her.”
“That’s right,” Prue agreed. She’d only know Paige’s small son. “It’s nice to meet you, Alanna.”
Alanna gaped at her, realizing that this really was her Aunt Prue, her dead Aunt Prue.
“I suppose you didn’t really expect to meet me,” Prue offered, smiling a little.
Alanna shook her head. “These things are more Janice’s realm.”
Prue raised an eyebrow. “Explain please.”
“Janice is my twin sister,” Alanna informed her, not sure what she did or didn’t know. “She has a tendency to have amazing things happen to her. She’s never met you before though. She will be sorry to have missed that.”
“It is our hope that we shall be around for a good long while,” Prue informed her, a bit of longing in her voice.
“You mean you can stay,” Paige stated a little stunned at the idea.
The room was silent for several seconds before Prue responded. “That is our hope, but we have been told it is impossible for all but me. I don’t think I could stand to loose them.”
“Who told you it was impossible?” Paige asked, her voice a bit deflated.
“Kevin,” Piper informed her. Somehow the fact that it had been Kevin, a friend among that group, it rang more true.
“Kevin?” Paige asked, having forgotten the teenage boy from so long ago.
Piper smiled, remembering the day they had met him. “Remember the witch who could draw things to life, the one that turned us into super heroes?”
Prue’s eyebrows rose at the comment.
“The one that got the powers of the elder that died?” Paige asked, remembering.
“That’s the one,” Piper confirmed.
“I remember.”
“That’s Kevin,” Piper informed her.
“Oh,” Paige sounded a little disappointed. “I wouldn’t think he would try to hinder us.”
Piper shook her head. “I think he was trying to warn us that time was limited.”
“He did wish us luck,” Pat offered.
“That’s right,” Vicki agreed. “He wants to be wrong.”
Paige turned to Pat, surprised, as if until now she hadn’t really registered in Paige’s mind. “Who are you?”
Instead of being insulted, Pat grinned. “I guess you wouldn’t recognize me, Aunt Paige, but I’m your niece. My name’s Pat, after Grandma.”
Vicki beamed as she added, “Dad said if they ever got a boy, he got to choose the name since both Pat and I are named after Mom’s relatives.”
“But no brother,” Pat informed her with a sigh, “so Dad didn’t get to name anyone after his family.”
“We want to stay,” Vicki told her, “but unless we do something, He says we will cease to exist.” It wasn’t entirely accurate, but Vicki refused to believe that at current they didn’t exist. As Mel had said, they were here weren’t they.
“He?” Paige asked, confused.
“Kevin,” Piper informed her, slightly amused at how they seemed reluctant to actually say Kevin’s name.
“I made a list of all our suggestions,” Pat told her, holding out the pad she had written on. “If you have any suggestions feel free to add to it.”
Paige took the pad and looked at it. She scanned the page, doing a double take as she read the last idea, Wyatt’s idea. “What on earth?” That sounds dangerous.
Wyatt turned a wry look at his brother. “Why do I get the idea she just read my idea?”
“Because your idea is crazy?” Chris suggested.
“Nope,” Wyatt disagreed, good naturedly. “You just think it is.”
Paige handed the pad back to Pat. “Nothing I can think of, but I’ll tell you if I come up with anything. What do we know?”
Prue’s face fell, for though it was the most needed topic at the moment, it was the last she wished to talk about. “Our world is gone. We have no place to go back to. I still exist here, as a ghost, but I’m still here.” She cast a sad look at her husband. “Andy was killed by a darklighter, so apparently he no longer exists and is in the same position as the girls. Pat, Vicki, and Melinda have never existed here, and He says They believe they never will.”
Paige gave Piper a curious look. “Why does she keep referring to the elders that way?” When Piper shrugged, Paige turned her attention back to Prue. “And who’s Melinda?”
A smile spread on Piper’s lips. Before Prue could answer, she did. “My daughter.”
Paige looked at Piper stunned. “When exactly did you have another kid?”
“She’s not exactly a kid, Aunt Paige,” Wyatt informed her. “She’s my age.” To the day, he thought wryly. It had been odd finding out on the way here that not only had Melinda just celebrated her twenty-fifth birth the same as he had, but she had done so twelve days before on the second of February, Wyatt’s birthday.
“Don’t you think we should start trying these ideas?” Leo suggested, forestalling more conversation on Melinda’s age, though that wasn’t the point. The point was that time was limited.
“Yes,” Prue agreed readily. “We certainly should. The sooner we start the better chance we have to try enough ideas that something works.”
“Exactly how will we know that it worked?” Wyatt wanted to know.
“I’ll know,” Chris volunteered. He sounded confident, but he was far from it. He had been sensing something odd whenever he was around the different people from the other reality.
Prue looked at him sharply. “Exactly how will you know, young man?”
“I’m half elder,” Chris stated simply. At least he thought that was the reason.
Prue stared at him stunned. “Half . . .”
When she couldn’t finish the statement, Chris finished it for her. “Elder.”
Prue looked at Leo. Apparently it hadn’t fully registered earlier when Piper had mentioned the topic. “You’re one of Them?”
Leo shook his head. “Not anymore. I’ve been mortal for most of their lives.”
Prue stared at Chris. “How does that help?”
Chris frowned, not sure how to explain what he didn’t understand himself. “You’re different. I can’t exactly explain it, but there is a difference of some sort. I can almost not sense Melinda, Andy, and Pat’s presence.”
“What about Vicki and me?” Prue had to know, especially about her younger daughter. Had they unknowingly found a way to save at least Vicki?
“You’re there,” Chris confirmed. “Vicki’s,” Chris frown deepened as he tried to figure out how to explain what he felt around Vicki. Finally, he settled for “Chaotic. Sometimes there, sometimes not.” He finished with simply saying. “I’ll know.”
Prue nodded, finally. “All right. Pat, what’s the first idea on the list?”