Price Of Love– Mirandabelle

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Disclaimer: Charmed is the property of WB and Aaron Spelling Productions, and I do not own the actual idea or storyline.

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Summary: Three young witches all eager to fall in love little realizing that they're about to wind up in the middle of some pretty serious trouble! Max, James and Brendan, Prue Piper and Phoebe's new boyfriends seem too good to be true, and the feeling appears to be mutual until a premonition on Phoebe's part wakes them up and starts a very interesting ride, resulting in three broken hearts - but not to whom you might think.
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Chapter One:

Prue Halliwell stared at the pile of crumpled clothes on her bed, and then at the note in her hand. It was the tag off her new dress and Phoebe had borrowed it without asking, leaving behind the shiny tag, with a promise, written on the back of the tag to return it after she had worn and dry-cleaned it. Down stairs, Piper and Phoebe had just got back Phoebe, from a college lesson and with Prue's beautiful blue dress, Piper from arranging to have a new band play at her club, P3. Prue heard the front door slam and Phoebe's cheerful voice calling, "I'm home Prue!"

Tossing the tag on her bed and heading for the stairs, Prue responded with a cry of "When I get my hands on you, you are sooo dead Phoebe!"

Piper, in the process of letting Kit in the back door, looked surprised at Prue's death cry and looked at Phoebe, "Explain."

Phoebe blushed, "I umm, borrowed her new dress without asking and I think I'd better go!" dumping the dress on a chair Phoebe fled for the still open back door.

"Oh no you don't young lady!" Prue appeared at the bottom of the stairs and seeing Phoebe about to escape, sent out a blast of her power, slamming and locking the door.

"Hey, no fair!" Phoebe protested loudly. "Just because you have active powers doesn't mean you can use them against me!"

"I can too! You borrowed my new dress, which I need tonight and you didn't even ask me!" Prue retorted fiercely.

"Well maybe if you weren't such a work-a-holic and not at Bucklands from 6 this morning I could have asked you." Phoebe said, believing she had caught Prue out, her smug face portrayed as much to Prue.

"At least I have a job!" Prue snapped. "How long have you had a job for? Let's see, 17, first job, florist's assistant, ooh six weeks? That is the longest you ever held a job for, plus it wasn't even a job you never got paid." Prue's smug smile faded rapidly as Phoebe burst into tears and dashed upstairs and into her room, slamming her door behind her. Piper gave Prue a stern look

"That was mean Prue, Phoebe's never had much luck with jobs, but at least she hasn't had a boss who's tried to kill her." Piper, once more fell into the role of peace-maker.

"Okay, you got me on that one, now if you'll excuse me, I have a dinner meeting with Bucklands." Prue swept past her sister, picked up her blue dress and went into the downstairs bathroom.

Piper went upstairs to Phoebe's room. She tapped gently on the door, where she heard Phoebe still sobbing noisily. "Phoebs, it's me, Piper can I come in?"

"As long as you don't have Prue with you." Phoebe said shortly and went back to crying. When Piper opened the door and stepped into the room she was surprised to have Phoebe rush to her and put her arms around her, like she never wanted to let her older sister go.

"Phoebs, honey it's alright, Prue will get over it, and so will you and you'll forget about the whole thing." She steered Phoebe to the couch in her room and sat her down gently. Phoebe laid her head on Piper's chest and sobbed.

"It's not fair Piper, it's not my fault the florist needed a volunteer for six weeks while her regular assistant was away. When I was at the hospital, we had to face warlocks. I tried to stay on but the thought of facing more was too scary." Phoebe burst into a fresh lot of tears as Piper stroked her sister's hair soothingly.

"I know Phoebe the option of facing more warlocks isn't appealing at all. Besides Prue's wrong, and she knows it, give her a while to swallow her pride." She kissed the top of Phoebe's head, hugged her and stroked her hair until Phoebe's sobs subsided and she was quiet. Prue opened the door without knocking and the younger Halliwell sisters looked up, Piper's arms still around Phoebe whose eyes were red from crying.

Prue looked ashamed and then recovered quickly. "Still got the unemployed cry-baby Piper?"

Phoebe looked as though she was about to cry again, but instead, stood up and began to yell at Prue. "You Prue are a snob! You have a well paying job and you think you can hold it against everyone! I never had a boss who was a warlock! I try hard, I'm the one who's home all the time, to answer the phone, cook dinner, clean up, feed Kit." Prue's face reddened and she stalked out of the room, the hem of her ice-blue dress getting caught in the door as she left. Hastily, she turned around and snatched the silk skirt from the door. Once again, Phoebe began to cry, she threw herself down on the bed and Piper followed her, she lay down beside her sister. She knew she needed to take Phoebe's mind off Prue before Phoebe's crying fit got worse.

"Hon, I just happen to know that "Jack The Ripper" is playing at the cinema, and if we go now, we'll be just in time for the buy one ticket get one free show." Phoebe had an unfortunate love of old, gruesome horror movies; this had once got the three witches into trouble and then out of it.

Phoebe stopped crying and rolled onto her back. "Really?" She sniffed.

Piper nodded, "Yep, so pull yourself together, wash your face and we'll go." At this, Phoebe was herself once more, excited, and cheerfully singing to their cat, Kit who was sitting on the edge of Phoebe's bed, looking surprised at Phoebe's many out bursts.

"Race you to the car Pipes!" she banged on her sister's door and Piper emerged and chased her sister downstairs laughingly calling threats as she followed Phoebe out the door and into her car. Piper started the engine and backed out of the drive, joining in Phoebe's rendition of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" as the two sisters smiled at each other and became normal people who didn't have to worry about warlocks or magic for just one evening.

"Piper! Get up!" Piper looked at her watch, lifting her head from the musty-smelling cushions on the sofa, which Phoebe inexplicably both loved and refused to wash.

"Ugh! Phoebe, it's 4 in the morning."

"I know, Piper, but there's a policeman downstairs who says Prue's been in a car accident! He says she's hurt too, she's in hospital!" Piper was awake instantly and she dragged on her shoes and forced her self out of Phoebe's room, where she and Phoebe had been watching trashy videos since they returned from the cinema. Downstairs, there was a tall man in a blue uniform.

"Piper Halliwell?" Piper nodded and Phoebe pressed a cup of tea into her hands.

"Yes, that's me, thanks Phoebs." Piper smiled at the handsome man.

"Your sister, Prue has been in a serious car accident, she swerved across the road and collided with the driver's side of a large moving van. We don't know why as yet, but she has been hurt and is in San Francisco General Hospital. I'll take you in my car as you are too tired to drive safely." Piper took a last sip from her tea, placed it on the table and followed the policeman and Phoebe out.

Prue lay, dazed and sore in the white hospital bed trying to remember what happened. She was going out for coffee with a man from the dinner she just went to, he had dropped a line she had found irresistible, but now, as she tried to remember what she had found appealing, she couldn't. She knew though, that it was his fault she had crashed her car, tried to kiss her and she had been distracted for a second and swerved, after that all she could remember was a crunch and then she was in hospital. The man in question, was wheeled past her room as she looked around, one leg in plaster.

"Serves you right you slime ball" whispered Prue. Her new, expensive dress was soaked in blood from a two inch deep gash on her arm, where a piece of glass slashed it and the lacy bodice was from where the medics had cut it off her to treat her wounds. She sighed deeply and fell into a doze.

Arriving at the hospital, Phoebe dashed straight to the desk to ask Prue's whereabouts. The policeman put a hand on Piper's arm, stopping her from following her sister.

"Ma'am I realise I shouldn't be doing this while I'm on duty, or while you have more serious matters to worry about, but I was wondering if you'd be... be interested in... I mean... would you like to go out with me sometime?" The actual question came out in a rush and it took Piper a second to comprehend.

"Yes, I'd like to, but not until I'm sure that Prue is well again. Piper said, quickly. There was something intoxicating to her about the tall man in the blue uniform.

"My card." The policeman quickly slipped the small item into Piper's hand as Phoebe turned around, and tugging on Piper's wrist, led the way to Prue's room.

"Prue, honey! Are you alright?" Phoebe burst noisily into the room, interrupting Prue's sleep. As Prue groggily opened her eyes, Phoebe looked at her sister. "Oh you poor thing, I'm sorry about the dress," she held up the bloody, ripped gown, "and I'm sorry I borrowed it too." Prue smiled dazedly, and reached out her non-injured arm to hug her sisters. Phoebe leant forward and tenderly hugged Prue, as she did so she felt a jolt, telling her a premonition was about to occur. Her vision blurred abruptly and then just as quickly cleared she saw Prue's car, there was the man in the passenger seat, his arm around Prue he unbuckled his seat belt and leant over to try to kiss Prue. Prue pushed him away, taking her eyes off the road as she did so, when Prue looked up again, she was on the other side of the road, and heading straight for the moving van. Desperately, Prue hit the brakes and Phoebe could hear them squeal as she saw her sister's car collide with the van.

Phoebe opened her eyes and was back in the hospital room, "Oh... Prue..." Phoebe whispered. Aware that the policeman was still in the room she said nothing more, and Piper swallowed her question. Fortunately, distracting the cop from the situation a nurse entered and told Prue she was going to take her to her room for the next twenty-four hours or so. She explained that Prue still needed some more observation and plenty of rest. Consequently to aid the rest, they were going to give her a mild sedative and as a result Prue was going to be very sleepy and the police man who had brought them here was willing to take them back home. Taking the hint Piper and Phoebe said good bye to their sister and half an hour later were back in Phoebe's room talking over cups of tea.