A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Please keep reading and reviewing!


Chapter Four: Short Straw

Piper and Phoebe, with Chris, stood staring at their frozen baby sister.

'So we keep remembering the correct parts of the film when we get to that section, right?' said Phoebe.

Piper nodded, not taking her eyes away from Paige.

'The point is that I am suddenly remembering about the tin man and how they unfreeze him in the film,' continued Phoebe.

'The tin man in the film wasn't frozen, he was…' Piper trailed off.

'Exactly. You seem to be remembering this part now too,' said Phoebe. Phoebe looked around and noticed a nearby shed. 'They used oil to get him moving again.'

Phoebe made her way towards the shed, but stopped when she noticed that Piper was not following.

'Pheebs, Paige is not made of tin. She is a living, breathing person… Just in the same way that you are the scarecrow, but you are still flesh and blood,' said Piper. 'I don't think oil will unfreeze her.'

Phoebe sighed. 'Piper, the shed would not be there if there was nothing in there that would help.'

Piper gave in. Finally taking her eyes off her baby sister, Piper followed Phoebe into the shed.

'We are lucky it was not locked,' said Phoebe as she began to rummage through the items in the shed.

'Which means it could be a trap,' Piper pointed out as she kept look out by the door of the shed. They had to make sure that no more demons tried to attack Paige while she was so vulnerable and defenceless.

Phoebe was digging deeper into the pile of garden tools in the shed. Suddenly Phoebe laughed in triumph as she picked up a can of oil.

'Phoebe! I told you! She is not tin! That won't do anything!' hissed Piper.

Phoebe walked past Piper out of the shed.

'It is worth a try, Piper,' said Phoebe. 'We may as well try.'

Piper sighed. Phoebe was obviously not going to listen. Piper watched as Phoebe stuck her hand into the can. When she pulled her oil covered hand out of the can, Phoebe flicked some of the oil at Paige.

'Wait for it…' said Phoebe, holding a hand up to Piper from blurting out that nothing had happened.

'How long do I have to… How did you say it? Wait for it?' asked Piper sarcastically after nothing had happened for five whole minutes.

Phoebe sighed. 'Well it worked in the film.'

'Yes, but there were not demonic animals or Charmed Ones or little boys in substitute of dogs in the film either, Pheebs,' said Piper. 'Nor was there a basket of po…' Piper sighed. She had forgotten about her wicker basket so easily. Piper pulled the blanket cover from her wicker basket only to notice that the basket was now empty. 'What?'

'What?' asked Phoebe, who had now dropped the tin can onto the floor.

'My wicker basket. My source of cool potions. It's empty,' said Piper in disbelief.

'This is what I know about films: If the writer thinks that something is becoming a bit of an easy get out clause, they will remove it,' said Phoebe. 'Your basket of potions was too much of a cop-out. The potions had to disappear.'

Piper sighed. 'So what now? We cannot leave her like this.'

'Have you tried to unfreeze her with your freezing power?' asked Phoebe.

'Number one: My freezing power does not work on good witches. Number two: I don't have my powers here,' said Piper.

'You don't?' Phoebe said, surprised.

'Why do you think I was relying so heavily on my wonderful wicker basket of potions?' said Piper.

Phoebe sighed. She automatically stuck her hands in her pockets. Phoebe groaned in annoyance when she suddenly realised how sticky the hand she had soaked in oil had become, because when she pulled her hand out of her pocket, straw was sticking to it.

Piper laughed. 'Do you really want to be a scarecrow that much, Pheebs?'

Phoebe tried to rub the sticky straw off onto Piper's shoulder. Piper tried to move away from Phoebe in an attempt to not get covered in oily straw. However, Phoebe was not going to let Piper get away.

Phoebe chased Piper, who was running in a circle around Paige. Piper was still cradling Chris in her arms as she did this. Chris reached out and grabbed hold of his frozen auntie. As Piper was holding Chris, his attachment to his aunt caused Piper to come to a halt. Therefore Phoebe crashed into Piper as Phoebe had not realised Piper had stopped running. Piper let go of Chris, who happily clung to Paige's shoulder to stop himself from falling. Meanwhile Piper and Phoebe tumbled to the dirty floor.

Piper stood up, picking some of the straw off herself. As she did this, Piper noticed something about the straw.

'Pheebs…' said Piper, picking at a piece of straw.

'What?' asked Phoebe.

'Take a piece of straw,' said Piper, still fumbling at the piece in her hands.

Puzzled, Phoebe did as Piper asked.

'Do you notice anything about it?' asked Piper.

Phoebe shrugged. 'It is a piece of straw.'

Piper shook her head. She suddenly managed to unravel the straw. That is when it became evident that the straw was not straw. It was…

'Oh my gosh… Is that..?' asked Phoebe.

Piper nodded. 'A page from the Book of Shadows.'

'You mean to tell me that my pockets are full of pages from the Book of Shadows?' asked Phoebe.

Once again, Piper nodded. Piper looked at the spell that was on the particular piece of straw she had unravelled. Phoebe glanced over Piper's shoulder.

'Is that chance or what?' said Phoebe, reading the page.

Piper shook her head. 'When I had the potions, they became whatever I needed them to be. I think your straw Book of Shadows pages are a similar deal.'

Phoebe screwed up her face. 'Does this mean it will disappear later too?'

'Probably, which is why you should recite the spell now,' said Piper, passing Phoebe the piece of paper.

'Why me? You found it,' said Phoebe.

Piper smiled. 'You drew the short straw. That's why.'

'I think the corniness of this film is rubbing off on you, Piper, because that was a bad joke,' said Phoebe.

'Which is another reason to hurry up, Pheebs,' said Piper. 'I actually prefer there being demons here. The place is too perky without them.'

Piper took Chris into her arms again. Chris tried to get to the ground, so Piper gently put him down so as he could stand on his own two feet.

Phoebe nodded and recited the spell: 'Our time is thin, help one whose heart is of tin. On our quest we can no longer deter, allow movement to consume her.'

As Phoebe finished reciting, both she and Piper looked at Paige with bated breath. Paige suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Piper and Phoebe both knelt down to help Paige up. They could see that she was conscious. Piper and Phoebe helped Paige to her feet. Paige stared at her two sisters in shock.

'What's going on?' asked Paige, a little hysterically.

'It's okay, Paige. We saved you,' began Phoebe.

Piper and Phoebe helped to support Paige as she stood up. She seemed to be finding it difficult to stay on her feet.

'There were wolves,' Piper continued for Phoebe.

'No. I know what happened. I may have been unable to move, but I saw and heard every word of it,' said Paige. She looked extremely freaked out.

'Paige, it's okay,' said Piper. 'We are here.'

'We have been through worse than this,' said Phoebe.

'According to your demeanour, I guess you did not cast the spell that put us here either,' added Piper.

'Which means this is evil at work and not a spell gone awry,' concluded Phoebe.

'Yes, but what's going on?' Paige almost shrieked, still unable to keep standing without her sisters' support.

'Paige… You said you knew what had happened…' said Piper. 'Oh. I guess you don't know the fact that we seem to be stuck in a Wizard of Oz world where I am Dorothy, Phoebe is the scarecrow, you are the tin woman, and Chris is… Well, let's stop there, because I am not calling him that.'

'Toto the dog,' Phoebe hid in a cough.

Piper made a face at Phoebe. Phoebe laughed.

'I can cope with all of that,' said Paige. 'What I cannot cope with is the fact that I cannot feel a thing and you two don't seem to have noticed!'

Piper and Phoebe suddenly realised that although they were gripping onto Paige's arms, she was not holding onto them. The fact that she could not stay standing up was because she had no feeling over her legs. The reason that she was not looking at either of her sisters, but was staring ahead was because she was not too sure whether she could move her head.

'Paige…' said Piper worriedly.

'She is the tin man…' sighed Phoebe. 'Piper, you got Dorothy's costume and the d– companion, oh and I assume you also had the crashing manor. I got the scarecrow outfit and the terrifying position of standing in the middle of a farm. Have you not noticed that Paige is wearing an outfit I have seen her wear millions of times before? This world did not change her outfit. Instead it changed her. Although she is still fresh and blood – just like I am not made out of straw – she is like a robot… like a tin man… She cannot feel.'

'The tin man had no emotions,' pointed out Piper. 'He had no heart.'

'I am not saying that Paige has no heart, because I also know that I have a brain. What I am saying is that you cannot take someone's emotions away magically, but you can take away their ability to touch, and hence that is how this world has affected Paige… our tin man,' explained Phoebe.

'Tell me again how you were given the role of the scarecrow?' laughed Piper. 'I doubt I could have figured all that out.'

Phoebe shrugged, smiling at the compliment Piper had just given her.

'Would you stop calling me a tin man and help me?' moaned Paige. 'I don't like this one little bit. I want to be back with Henry. I would rather carry on our argument than this!'

'You were arguing?' asked Phoebe, surprised.

'About me not opening up,' explained Paige. Tears were rolling down her face, but she could not feel them. 'I guess me getting the role of the tin man justifies the fact that I am heartless.'

'No! Don't say that, Paige!' said Piper. 'You have a heart. You just find it hard to let people in. Henry didn't say you were heartless, did he?'

'Of course not!' said Paige. 'I just… When I saw his face, I could see the pain I was causing him, but even though I knew I was causing it, I still refused to talk to him about… me…'

'Paige, you have a heart,' confirmed Phoebe. 'We know that. You know that.'

Paige let out a faint chuckle. 'Pheebs, you are only saying that, because you don't want to admit you are brainless.'

'Are you implying something there?' asked Phoebe, laughing, knowing that her baby sister was joking around.

'Well, you sure aren't brainless, Pheebs, and you sure aren't heartless, Paige, but I sure do want to get home,' said Piper.

'We need to get back to the yellow brick road and find Leo,' said Phoebe.

'Find Leo?' asked Paige. 'He is here too?'

'Your doppelganger was the one who sent me looking for him,' Piper said to Paige. 'Know anything about her?'

'I have a doppelganger?' said Paige quizzically.

'Your question answered my question,' laughed Piper. 'Okay, Paige. We need you to walk.'

'I don't know if I can, Piper,' said Paige.

Piper took Paige's left hand and squeezed it.

'Can you feel this?' Piper asked.

'No,' said Paige croakily.

Piper looked over at Phoebe. 'Phoebe, do you have another spell that could help?'

'I don't know…' said Phoebe.

Phoebe began to unravel any bit of straw that she found. She kept shoving them back in her pockets when she realised the spell was no help.

'Piper! I thought you said these spells would work like your potions and be exactly what I need them to be!' moaned Phoebe.

'Apparently it's not that easy,' sighed Piper.

'Phoebe, give up,' said Paige. 'It is pointless. Go on without me.'

'They did not leave the tin man behind in the film,' said Phoebe.

'Tin woman, in this case,' quipped Piper. 'Paige, you are our sister. We will never leave you behind.'

Tears were rolling down Paige's face again, but she still had not noticed.

'Aunt Paige…' said Chris, hugging Paige's leg.

Paige let out a laugh amongst her sobs. 'Chris probably thinks this is some sort of fun adventure. The first one he gets to have without Wyatt to bother him.'

'Oh my gosh! Wyatt! I never thought – I hope he is still with Leo!' said Piper, appalled that she had forgotten about her eldest son.

'Piper, relax. I think wherever we are made you forget about him, just like how we only remember parts of the story when we need to,' said Phoebe.

'We remembered the cowardly lion though, Pheebs, and we have not met him yet,' said Piper.

'You are right. Who do you think he is? He must be someone we know too,' said Phoebe. Then she added, 'Or the lion may be a her…'

'Who though? We have run out of sist… ers… You don't think…' began Piper.

Phoebe shook her head. 'Don't even get your hopes up. She is dead. I don't want you to get your hopes up just to have them come crashing down when it is not her.'

'Besides from what you two have told me about her, Prue would never let someone call her a coward,' said Paige respectfully.

Suddenly demons shimmered in around the three Charmed Ones and Chris.

'What? Did you run out of demonic animals already?' was Piper's greeting to the demons surrounding them.

'At least this is what we are more used to,' said Phoebe, going into a fighting stance.

'You may be used to hand to hand combat, but I am not!' said Piper, pushing Paige to the ground as she dodged a fireball.

'It's okay,' said Phoebe. 'I have got this!'

'Phoebe! You are wearing patchwork clothing that is filled with straw! You are practically as flammable as a real scarecrow!' shouted Piper.

'The demons did not need to know that!' yelled Phoebe.

Phoebe began dodging fireballs as she began to fight the demons. Piper checked her wicker basket for potions. It was still empty. In this brief moment of letting her guard down, Piper was knocked out by a fireball. Paige watched from the ground as Phoebe was caught off guard by a demon and knocked to the ground. Chris cowered behind Paige. The demons had their eyes on the two of them as they were the only conscious ones left.

I cannot let them get you, Chris, thought Paige. I have to stand up! I have to!

The determination in Paige allowed her to get to her feet. She could not feel a thing, but somehow she was managing to move. As she stood up, Paige picked up the can of oil which Phoebe had found earlier. She could not feel the coldness of the tin can in her hands, but she knew it was there. It felt like she was detached from her body, but she could still control it.

Paige chucked oil over the demons that surrounded her and Chris. The demons sneered. Oil was not exactly going to kill them or slow them down. As fireballs formed in each of the demons' hands, each demon caught alight, bursting into flame.

Paige smiled. Silly demons. Oil is flammable.

Chris was looking up at Paige, fear in his eyes. Paige followed his line of sight and almost jumped in shock. Her sleeve was on fire, but she had not noticed. Automatically, Paige began patting the fire out with her other hand. Soon the fire was out. The sleeve on her left arm was non existent and her left arm looked badly burnt. Her right hand which she had used to snuff out the fire was also blistering a little.

'Damn,' said Paige, unsure whether she should be pleased that she could not feel the pain or worried about the damage she had done.

Piper and Phoebe slowly came back to consciousness. Piper noticed that Paige was on her feet. Slowly Piper stood up, helping Phoebe up at the same time.

'Paige… Where did the demons go?' asked Piper. Her eyes widened as she surveyed Paige. 'Your arm! Your hand! They're –'

'Paige, you are standing by yourself!' said Phoebe happily.

'Piper, the demons are vanquished. Yes, I know I am injured, but I cannot feel a thing. Honestly, I am fine to such an extent as that. Phoebe, I noticed,' said Paige, smiling at her two sisters. 'We have a Leo to find. Now where's this yellow brick road that you mentioned?'

'Follow us,' said Piper, picking up Chris.

Phoebe and Paige followed Piper. When they had made it back to the yellow brick road, Paige laughed.

'What?' asked Phoebe.

'This is too strange,' said Paige. 'After all we have been through… This is even stranger than when we faced the evil witch from the fairytales.'

'If I remember correctly, you did not have to face her,' said Piper. 'You were sleeping.'

'Under a spell!' corrected Paige. 'Technically I was dead, not sleeping.'

'Can we focus? We have to find Leo,' said Phoebe. 'You know, Leo, the Wizard of Oz?'

Piper shook her head. 'Remember how we keep talking about the cowardly lion?'

Phoebe sighed. 'Do we have to? He will only slow us down.'

'We have to follow this through, remember?' said Piper.

'Lead the way, Dorothy,' said Paige, grinning.

'Don't ever call me that,' snapped Piper as she began to walk.

Phoebe and Paige shared a snigger.

'I don't think we can ever stop calling her that again,' Phoebe whispered to Paige.

As the two younger sisters followed the eldest and Chris, Paige decided to whistle 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road', only to get a 'Phoebe has already terrorised me with that song between finding her and you! Please don't start too!' from Piper.