Chapter 4

It was mid April when spring decided to grace Forks with its presence and start melting the ice and snow. It had been nearly six weeks since the day I had almost died and woken up in a hospital and here I was again. Back in a hospital. This time it was a scheduled visit.

"Your eyesight is still 20/20 but I will give you a new bottle of drops. Use them any time you need to"

The redhead doctor said in monotone while scribbling on his pad choosing to ignore my earlier statement that I hadn't yet finished the drops he had given me three weeks earlier.

"And the color? It's still not back to brown"

Ever since James had flung me through a mirror and against the wall, and had given me the mother of all concussions, my eye color had changed. Nothing too extreme but the dark chocolate brown I had been born with was now only a ring on the outer half of my irises and their center was closer to a scotch golden. It amused my mother. It intrigued my father. It freaked Edward out, but then again, a lot of things annoy my boyfriend out these days.

"It seems to be permanent. I do believe it will darken again but perhaps it needs more time"

With that the conversation was over and after getting hold of my crutches and stuffing the prescription in a pocket, I was led outside the examination room. Charlie was waiting for me on the uncomfortable red plastic chairs in the egg colored corridor

"Seems I'm stuck with it"
"As long as you can see normally"

He shrugged and stood. Shrugging things he couldn't control or change, has always been one of my father's qualities. Together we headed two floors up to orthopedics for my next appointment. Another injury sustained in the dance studio was a clean break of my right calf bone. The doctors in phoenix had said it would take at least 3 months for the bone to heal but I had good reason to suspect t was healed already, just like my broken ribs were healed in less than a week instead of the month it'd take normally.

And it was. Much to the doctor's surprise the bone was healed and the cast could be removed. I was instructed to take things slow but could finally stand without tilting to the side, not to mention I could finally wear jeans instead of mini skirts or shorts.

That night I had the best sleep of all the six weeks.

Ever since my second unplanned visit to the astral plane I began going back every night in my dreams. No matter where I fell asleep, in sleepovers at my boyfriend's house, on the couch, in my bed, alone or with a house fulf of people, I would find myself all alone in the off kilter world, well rested and ready for action.

I was always healed and able to find (or rather stumble) across another breeze, space-bending path, or 'pathway' as Prue called it. It had a lot of roads to travel like a giant vein but the hum it sung in my head always led me to the south-east and to the same Victorian house in San Francisco.

Every time Prue would be there keeping an eye on her sisters, helping them when they needed help and scrutinizing another woman that now lived with them. If the house was empty, Prue would be in a rocking chair holding a family album or a photo of her with a dark-haired guy but she was always ready for yet another lesson in the "How to become a witch in a year and a day" curriculum she had decided for me.

Tonight Prue was seething.

"Hey, what's up?"
"That brainless bimbo took the book!"

'Brainless bimbo' was her nickname for the half sister she had no idea she had and who had replaced her not only in the magical prophesy she and her sisters were living up to, but in her sisters' lives as well. I had pointed once that Paige aka the 'brainless bimbo' was a little too similar to Prue, both were headstrong and quite authoritative, and had been rewarded with an icy hot glare that made me happy that for some reason her powers seemed to not work on me despite them being physical and not mental.

"The Book of Shadows? I thought you said it was bound by the property circle and couldn't be taken out"
"It can if a Warren witch carries it out. In that future we visited I had put it in my workplace for safe keeping"
"You've been to the future? How did you miss the fact you were dead?"

I wondered aloud. She signed and moved her hand as if she was swatting a fly and tossed a raven curl back over her shoulder

"Long story. The point now is that she took it out, was stupid and almost exposed them and Piper baked her cookies instead of punishing her!"

She shouted. I licked my lips thinking of how to word my response

"Prue, she found out she's a witch the same day I did. She also found out the tangled web you call family. So she made a stupid mistake. Cut her some slack"
"She's a charmed one, supposedly. She doesn't get to make stupid mistakes"

She snapped and I rolled my eyes

"Were you, Piper or Phoebe perfect little charmed ones the moment you found all this crap out?"
"No but we figured things out quickly. It's been six weeks and she's still giggling like an idiot and making mistakes. It's bad enough..."

I raised my brows waiting for her to continue

"I remember mom being pregnant both with Piper and Phoebe. I don't remember mom being pregnant with Paige, Bella. I don't know who that woman is, but she's not my mother's daughter"