Post by StoryGirl83 on Sept 21, 2013 23:12:22 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Five - Another Choice to Make
The excitement in Prue bubbled up as Piper, Phoebe, and Paige unfroze.
“Prue?” Piper looked around, startled to see Prue missing. “Where . . ?” Her voice trailed off as she noticed the Angel of Destiny standing there. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”
“Not for you,” he reminded her. “That was a onetime offer. This one was for Prue.”
Startled, Piper looked around until she found Prue. “Prue?”
“He stripped my powers,” Prue stated in a sort of awe, not saying what she really meant to say at all.
“What?!” all three of her sisters exclaimed stunned.
“They’re gone,” Prue admitted. “I already checked.”
Piper turned to glare at the Angel of Destiny. “Isn’t it enough that she’s dead? Did you have to go and take her powers, too?”
“Your sister was given a choice, as she will tell you herself, just as you were three years ago.” He gave her a stern look. “Now, that I have spoken with your sister I have an issue to take up with your whole family.”
“And what is that?” Piper demanded.
“This last battle of yours was far too public to the nonmagical world,” the Angel of Destiny informed her.
“We don’t even know what happened,” Piper admitted. “We returned here and the house was surrounded by the police and SWAT and everyone else.”
“While you were away Zankou killed Inspector Alyse Sheridan,” Prue informed her. “She was wired and wearing a camera, so they witnessed Zankou killing her.”
“What was she doing her?” Phoebe wanted to know.
“What do you think?” Piper shot back. “She never did give up trying to prove we were the bad guys.”
“We should have saved her,” Paige commented, sadly.
Piper turned to Prue. “How did you know anyway? You said you were in here the entire time.”
Prue pointed to the unmoving form of Leo. “Leo heard it from someone in the crowd. Not the Zankou part of course, but that she was killed and how. He extrapolated the rest.” She looked at the Angel of Destiny. “You have a point to all this. What is it?”
“People died here during the time you slept,” the Angel of Destiny added. “There is no getting around that.”
Prue opened her mouth to say something, but when he shook his head, she closed it.
“They are dead and they have moved on,” he told them. “You need not worry about them. The outside world will not easily forget. You may chose to simply walk away and the outside world will eventually forget you. You might run into people and they will wonder why you never returned, but there will be little else. However, the more difficult choice is to remain here, to face the questions and there will be questions, make no mistakes about that. Agent Keyes is no longer here and he will not remember seeing you in the house, so there will be no one to know that you were in the house when everything went down. He does not blame you. He does not think you capable of what happened in there.”
“That’s all well and good,” Piper declared, “but it will be impossible to explain our absence to everyone.”
“If you should decide to stay, then that will be taken care of.”
“In what way would it be more difficult, then?” Paige wanted to know. “We have lives here. We may have to pick them up differently then how we left them. Our jobs are no doubt long gone, except perhaps P3 since Victor has the deeds on that. But it seems to me that it would be easier to start again here.”
“If you leave, you will not have others expectations,” he informed her. “You will not have the questions to answer. We will not make them go away, only make them easier to explain. As before you will have to decide as a group, only this time this is between all four of you. You must decide where you will live, here or elsewhere.”
Three sets of eyes turned to stare at Prue as realization set in.
“He said . . ,” Phoebe trailed off as she stared at her older sister.
Piper didn’t bother with words. She mimicked her son’s earlier actions and hurled herself at Prue, embracing her in a tight hug.
“I just got my life back,” Prue teased. “Are you planning on hugging me to death?”
Piper pulled away. “I already lost you once. Don’t you ever joke about something like that.”
Prue gave her a quick squeeze and looked past her at Phoebe and Paige. “What are you two doing all the way over there? Get over here.”
Phoebe needed no more invitation. She scurried over and slipped under Prue’s arm and hugged her torso.
Prue continued to look at Paige. “Come on. I know you don’t know me, but I want you in on this celebration if you’re willing. After all, we are sisters.”
“But you don’t know me,” Paige protested.
“Correction,” Prue shook her head. “I know you. I had three years to get to observe you and learn who you are. I don’t have a relationship with you, but if I am going to be alive, then I certainly want to form one and I’d like to start here.”
Paige considered this. She looked like she might still bulk at it, but she came over and joined the group hug.
When they finally moved away from each other, Paige first, Piper last, they sat down together on the one piece of furniture in the room that had survived the battles over the last seven years unharmed. It was a wicker sofa with flower cushions.
Prue sat in the middle of the sofa with Piper at her side.
Phoebe walked over and plopped down on her lap.
Prue laughed at her in surprise.
Paige decided to sit down on the other side of Prue.
“So what do we do, now?” Piper wondered aloud. “It seems almost perfect.”
“I don’t really want to leave San Francisco,” Phoebe admitted. “I’ve tried that when I went to New York and then Hong Kong.”
“A lot has changed since you got back from New York,” Piper commented.
“You mean like we became witches,” Phoebe retorted.
“And you became a wife and mother,” Paige added.
“And we got a new sister,” Prue smiled looking at Paige.
Paige smiled back. She didn’t know what to think of Prue, but it certainly was starting out well. Having another sister might be nice.
“So Phoebe wants to stay,” Prue commented. “What about you, Piper?”
Piper nodded. “I know everything has probably changed over the last seven years, but it’s still home. I want to stay.”
“Paige?” Prue looked at her.
“Well, I certainly would like to travel,” Paige admitted, “but I’m pretty sure I’d like to do that without having to hide. Besides it’s been far too long since I visited Aunt Julie and Uncle Dave. I’m not just leaving them behind, again.”
“Make it unanimous then,” Prue announced. She looked over at the Angel of Destiny. “We’ve come to a decision.”
He smiled as he walked over to them. “Now, that you have decided that I have one more thing to deal with,” the Angel of Destiny announced without getting their decision. He walked outside and across the lawn a ways before he waved his hand. To everyone’s surprise and shock the immobile newcomer he revealed was a face none had expected to see, again.