Piper gently slid from under Leo's protective arm and dressed, glancing at her clock instinctively. Her eyes widened. "Oh, god, I'm late," she muttered, and raced out the door, thundering down the stairs.
Phoebe was already standing there, dressed (as always) in a dress so skimpy she could barely keep herself from blanching. At least she had a better taste in clothing, if not the internal clock everybody boasted nowadays. Piper snatched a jacket from the closet and flung it at her younger sister without explanation; her glance had been enough. She hastily scribbled a quick note to Leo, then raked her fingers through her hair, pulled it into a quick ponytail, and followed her sister out the door.
They piled into the car; Prue had been waiting outside already with the stacks of presents. "You could have woken me up," Piper grumbled. Phoebe smiled sweetly.
"We didn't want to disturb your beauty sleep," she teased. Piper glared at her.
"Leo wouldn't have minded. You know that. And now we're gonna be late."
"Not if I can help it," Prue said determinedly. She gunned the engine of their black SUV and cruised down the road.
They entered the large building, Piper remembering when she'd been there last. A lump rose in her throat as she remembered how she'd killed Dr. Williamson…Prue yanked her back to the present as they approached the front desk, plunking a brightly-colored box in her hands.
"Excuse me, we're here to see Darryl. You know, the police guy?" Phoebe bounced up and down in front of the desk. The present in her hands rattled and the balloon she held bounced in unison. The secretary looked over her horn-rimmed glasses sternly.
"Are you friends or family?"
"We're really close friends. The Halliwells." Apparently, the secretary had received an approval for their entrance from Darryl. Heaving a sigh of resignation and giving them a look that stated clearly, "What is this world coming to?" she nodded and waved them in.
"He's in Room 115."
"Okay, thank you." Phoebe put on her brightest smile, a smile that dropped quickly from her face as she turned her back on the disapproving old woman. She turned again when the woman looked away and stuck her tongue out at the hunched figure. "Why do I always have bad luck with secretaries?" she grumbled, thinking of the time Piper had been in the hospital.
Prue smiled and walked through the hall, stopping at Darryl's room. "Tough luck, Phoebes."
The hospital room was filled with decorations. A banner proclaiming "Happy Birthday Daddy" in a childish scrawl hung above the windows. Several balloons strained at their ribbons, weighted to the ground with enormous boxes of many colors, shapes and sizes.
And, of course, in the middle of the room lay Darryl in the meticulously made cot, his leg, encased in a cast, raised by a sling hanging from the ceiling. "Hey, guys. Meet my family." The young woman and boys by the bed greeted the three sisters and introduced themselves.
"I'm getting my cast off today," he broke in, unable to control his excitement. After being confined to that bed for five weeks, he was greatly anticipating his release from the hospital. He already had his police uniform draped over a chair near his bed. Prue grinned widely.
"Congratulations, Darryl." She handed him the cake she had made that morning. His smile grew and became infectious.
"After all that hospital food, this is great!"
Piper heard a commotion in the hall from her stand near the doorway. Looking out, she was astonished to see Leo amidst a crowd of nurses who apparently thought they were hallucinating. She quickly flung a hand out to freeze them so Leo could pass through unhindered. He gave her a grateful look and then continued to walk in with his own armful of gifts.
"Hey, Darryl. Happy birthday." The blond man looked sympathetically at the curly, dark-haired figure lying in the bed. Darryl's eyes widened with shock and recognition. After that last encounter with the reincarnated demons where Leo had saved his sight (not to mention his life), he'd felt a lot more kindly towards Piper's handyman.
"Hey, Leo …whoever you are." The last words he murmured under his breath. Leo heard them and smiled mysteriously.
The door burst open at that moment and a nurse, dressed in a starch white uniform, preceded the doctor into the room.
"Your cast can be taken off now, if you'd like." The doctor's kind eyes reminded Piper again of Williamson. She tried to clear her mind of the memory and sighed. Leo reached for her hand and squeezed it consolingly.
Darryl nodded assent with enthusiasm, then leaned back into his pillows, a blissful smile on his face as the sound of the saw at work filled the otherwise silent air.
Piper gently closed the door behind the others as they made their way back into their house. "Guys, have you had enough of partying or do you want to go to the club?"
Leo chuckled at the thought. "I doubt any of us could ever get enough of partying. Let's go," he said as Phoebe nodded eagerly.
"I think you'll have to go without me," Prue said reluctantly. "I still have to finish developing my film so that I can show them to my boss tomorrow."
Phoebe stuck her lower lip out into a ridiculous imitation of a pout. "Can't that wait? Your boss will understand that you needed a day off," she wheedled.
"No, Phoebes. He's not the understanding type." Prue gave her sister a little shove to shoo her out the door. "Now get going, guys. Have fun for me," she said wearily as she turned to go to the basement and return to her darkroom.
As soon as Piper entered the club she felt something was wrong. The crowds were still chattering away and the band was playing; yet there was a strange feeling within that she couldn't trace. Shrugging, she led her sister and Leo in toward the bar.
By the time Leo and Phoebe had gotten themselves drinks ("Free on the house," said Piper), she was certain there was something ominous lurking within the club. She looked around but could see nothing out-of-place. Excusing herself, she made a quick exit and walked outside to try and figure it out.
The cool night breeze seemed to beckon to her as she stood under the streetlight. Her feet began to move of their own accord, pulling her towards a quiet side road and then into an empty alley. Unsuspecting, she rested against the crumbling brick wall that lined the alleyway.
Suddenly, she heard the snarls of two demons. Looking around quickly, she saw one of them—Balthezor, the one who had been stalking her and her sisters for the Book of Shadows—trying to hold back another one. This new demon kept throwing reddish spells at Balthezor, who seemed to be protecting itself with a pouch full of white powder. She froze time when another one of the sparks flew through the air, then walked over to pluck it out of midair.
It was that motion that was her mistake.
She felt a strange sensation, then felt weak and helpless. Her eyesight began to blur… She waved her hand lightly, watched as Balthezor used his enemy's surprise to pounce upon him and tear him up, and threw another freeze spell as police cars began to pile up at the entrance to the alley. Then, as the demon changed shape—"Cole?"—and held out the pouch toward her, she felt her energy drain away and she passed out.
Leo was getting apprehensive when Piper didn't show up after fifteen minutes. Phoebe was sitting, drumming her fingers on the bar and looking bored. Apparently she had wanted her attorney friend, Cole, to show up. He frowned. Something peculiar was going on.
"Come on, Phoebe, let's check if she went outside," he said, breaking herself out of her mindless reverie. She sighed and stood to follow him out.
His eyes narrowed when he saw that she wasn't outside. Their car was still parked in its spot and Piper was nowhere to be seen. "Something's wrong," he fretted. Phoebe tried to cheer him up.
"Well, maybe she went home," she ventured.
"Without the car?" He looked at her, incredulous.
"She didn't want to strand us here without a way of getting home, did she?" she retaliated. "Come on, it doesn't hurt to try." She unlocked the car door and plopped herself in the driver's seat. "Besides, this is one of the only times I'll get around here to drive." Leo looked skeptical, but dropped into the passenger seat.
"What do you mean, Piper's gone?" Prue spun from her trays of prints, dropping the current set with an exasperated sigh. "She was with you guys, wasn't she?"
"She asked to excuse herself, then she left."
"And you didn't even see where she went?" Prue glared at her sister and at Leo, in turn.
"Prue, we looked everywhere," Phoebe objected. Then she suggested, "Why don't I scry for her?"
Prue looked at her. "This had better work," she growled. "I ruined a set of prints because of you."
"We found her!" Phoebe came skidding back into the darkroom. Prue jumped, then hissed angrily as a second set of prints flew through the air to land with a splat on the wall. "Oops…"
"Do you mind?" She whirled on her sister. "Or are you trying to destroy all of my pictures?"
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? She's in this alley over here…" Phoebe pointed to a point on the map she held in Prue's face.
"Alright, Phoebes. I'll get her. You guys stay here and clean up my prints," she grumbled. "If this place isn't cleaned up by the time I get back…" Phoebe winced.
"Okay, okay. I get the picture."