Disclaimer: The Charmed Characters are the property of Aaron Spelling and Constance Burge. I just borrow them for your enjoyment and my writing addiction.

The fire crackled in the background as Piper curled next to Prue. She starred at the roaring fire with her thoughts on her little sister. How could she have lied to them about Cole? Did she honestly think she could get away with it? The second he came back she might have known that they would find out.

Prue starred at the fire before them as she felt the warmth of Piper against her. What she was missing was Phoebe. Her baby sister was almost avoiding her and Piper since she had come clean about Cole. She didn't really blame her. She was furious inside with Phoebe but somewhere she understood. She wrapped her arms around Piper in a hug as they both sat there in the warm blaze.

"How long are we going to be mad at her Prue?" Piper asked not taking her eyes off the fire.

"I don't know yet Piper. Parts of me want to kill her, but deep down I can almost feel her pain and I understand why she did it."

"Wow, that's pretty profound coming from you. I thought you were big time pissed off."

"I was when she told me. But I started to think of her reasons. And we talked about it a bit the other night."

They continued to sit in silence each in their own thought as to why their sister had not told them she never vanquished Belthazor.

Phoebe walked up the steps to the Manor and stopped before she even reached for the handle. It had already been a few days since her and Prue had talked about Cole, and ever since then they had barely spoken two words to each other.

She reached for the handle and then pulled back. Closing her hands tight to a fist she changed her mind and stepped back down the steps quietly and made her way around to the back of the Manor; avoiding her sisters.

Carefully opening the back door she entered quietly. Hearing her sisters talking softly in the living room she slowly made her way up the stairs. Stopping a few stairs up she turned and listened to what they were saying.

"Piper I can really see why she did it. I mean let's say we found out that Andy was a demon after all those years. I still loved him and in that I can see where she would be the same. I saw her with Cole. Hell I felt the emotions the two of them had for each other when I was an empath. It was the same feeling that I had with Andy."

"So you are condoning what she did?" Piper asked confused.

"No. But I am her action. Some how I will fix this Piper. She's still my baby sister and I love her with my whole heart, no matter what she did."

Phoebe sat a bit longer before the tear started to appear on her cheeks. She hadn't even really noticed that she was crying. She felt the love inside her for her sisters and she felt bad for betraying them the way she had. All for love. Yet they had always loved her unconditionally.

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Prue sat as the fire slowly dwindled out and Piper slept with her head on her sister's lap. Prues thoughts went to her youngest sister as they had most of the night. But her thoughts soon turned to worry as she realized that Phoebe had not come home. Here it was almost 3AM and still no sign of Phoebe.

"Piper." She said quietly at first so not to startle her sister. Getting no reaction at first she tried again a bit louder.

"Hmm Prue what's wrong?"

"Phoebe. She hasn't come home yet."

Piper sat up fast as she looked at Prue. "What do you mean she isn't home yet?"

"Well I haven't heard her come in yet, so what do you think that means?"

"Ok you check upstairs and the attic and I'll check down here and the basement."

"Piper?"

"Look maybe she came in when we were both asleep."

"I wasn't sleeping."

"Ok then maybe she came in the back door and didn't say anything. She has to be here Prue." Piper started to panic.

"Ok. We'll look." Prue agreed, as she made her way up the stairs not wanting to scare Piper any more then she already was. As scared as Prue was, she didn't let on to Piper.

Piper checked the first floor in all the places she thought that Phoebe may be. Yet she came up empty. Making her way down the stairs she once again came up empty. As her worrisome escalated, she made her way up the stairs in search of both Prue and Phoebe. As she reached the top of the stairs her worries did not leave her as she saw Prue standing at Phoebe's doorway.

She walked up behind her sister and looked over her shoulder into Phoebe's room. "You ok?" she started to ask though she stopped as she looked in on her baby sister sleeping soundly. Soundly. How ironic is that? She thought. Here we are worrying the last bit of the night away and she is laying up her fast asleep.

"She never even let us know she was home." Prue said quietly as she watched her sister sleep. "She never let us know she was ok." She continued quietly.

Piper didn't say a word as she wrapped her arms around from behind Prue. They were all feeling a little betrayed about what had happened and it was something she wasn't sure if they would ever get back. Trust in each other.

Phoebe felt the warmth of the sun on her face. She remembered what she had over heard from her sisters the night before but was still unsure if she should say anything or not. Everything seemed to happen at once. She betrayed her sisters and the next thing she knew that betrayal came back to bite her in the ass.

She rolled over towards the window and welcomed another beautiful California day. But as she lay there she heard the door to her room creak open. Bracing herself for the lecture she was about to get for them worrying about her she didn't even move.

"Phoebs you awake?"

She lay still, not sure if she should answer or not. Should she pretend she was still sleeping or should she let her sister know she was indeed awake?

"Look I know you're awake. I just want to talk to you a minute."

Phoebe took in what her sister was saying as she also took in a deep breath, before rolling over to face her sister.

"Look I know you are hurt and you feel that we never supported you in the whole Cole thing. But you have to remember what you did. You let a demon live. A demon that has tried to kill us on more than one occasion." She said as she watched for any reaction for Phoebe. "If you think about it can you really blame us for feeling betrayed by you?" she finished as she stepped into the room and sat on the bed.

Phoebe didn't even move. "Look I just want to talk to you about last night. I didn't and don't want to give you a lecture about Cole." She said as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Promise me you will never do that again. Coming home and not letting us know you are home safe. Prue was worried and I was frantic. It was selfish of you."

Phoebe locked eyes with Piper as she sat on the bed beside her. She had not wanted to worry any of her sisters when she came home. Truth was; she didn't even think about what would happen if she didn't inform her sisters she was home.

Finally finding her voice, "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Just don't do it again."

"Yeah. Don't do it again." Came the voice from the doorway.

Prue stood there motionless as she watched Piper and Phoebe on the bed. She felt as she had the first day Phoebe came home from NYC, overwhelmed yet mad all at the same time. But in the end her overwhelming feeling won out. Her love won out.

Prue stepped up to the bed with hesitation. "Look I was thinking. We all need a break. Be it demon fighting or a break from the world. Why don't we all go away together? A chance to re-connect to each other. A chance to hash out everything that we have inside."

"Can't we do that here Prue?" Piper asked innocently.

"Yeah we could. But if we go away then if it gets to heated no one can leave the other two."

Phoebe saw what Prue was doing. In her own way she was reaching out to her. Knowing that it would be either her or Prue that walked away from the heated arguments that were sure to happen. "What did you have in mind?" she finally asked.

Prue locked eyes with Phoebe. She knew that they both had a lot of talking to do and even she wasn't sure if they could do it all in a weekend. "Well one of the guys from work as this cabin out on Lake Hawthorn. He said we can use it this weekend if we like. And before you get all mad at me. No I did not plan this before hand. I just called him now. I think we need to do this in order to reconnect as witches."

There was silence that sat heavy in the room before it was broken, "Witches or sisters Prue?" Piper asked as she looked from one sister to the next.