Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to their respective creators: that would be Chris Carter for the X-Files cast, and Constance M. Burge for the Charmed one. I'm borrowing them all for a few moments but I'll give them back.

Piper Halliwell was not having a good day. Her car had broken down first thing this morning, forcing her to borrow Paige's. Wyatt and Chris had decided that today was as good a day as any to behave like little monsters at their play group, forcing Leo to drive back home to deal with them because Piper had to deal with a broken water main at Halliwell's.

And to top it all off, now demons were attacking. They had managed to knock out Leo before they'd even realized what was happening. Wyatt was now busy keeping his dad, brother, and sister safe while Piper took on the spawns of hell.

"You guys really should have learned better by now," Piper exclaimed as she blew up yet another low-level demon. "Paige! A little help here!"

Piper waved her hands again, and another demon fell to her combustion power. Five down, three to go, she thought. But even as she turned to face then, an energy ball clipped her shoulder, sending her flying back against a wall. Piper scrambled to get back to her feet. But the demon's next attack was stopped by a bright shimmering shield.

"That's my boy," Piper smiled as she got back to her feet.

Three more waves of her hands produced three vanquished demons, and Piper quickly made her way to her fallen husband.

"Paige! Coop! Anyone!" Piper shouted in frustration.

With a shake of her head, the Charmed witch approached her son's Orb Shield.

"Good job, Wyatt."

With a little smile, the six-year-old dropped his shield.

"Mind healing your dad for us, sweetie."

Wyatt happily clambered to his father's side and laid his hands on his head. At the same moment, Paige Orbed into the room, along with her twin girls and her adopted son.

"Sorry. We were just attacked by demons."

"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing to you," Piper said as she indicated the broken furniture all around them.

Paige winced as she noted her sister's bleeding arm and quickly went to heal her.

"Know what this was all about?" Piper asked through clenched teeth.

Paige shook her head as she finished using her powers. "We were attacked just like that too. Gosh I hope Phoebe's okay."

"Coop!" Piper shouted again, rather angrily.

A groan sounded as Leo regained consciousness and the two adult witches went to him.

"What happened?"

"Demon attack," Piper snarked to her husband. "What else? Paige, go check on Phoebe. Leave your little ones here. They'll be safe with us for now."

Paige nodded and Orbed away. She stumbled slightly as she landed in the shade of a few trees in what appeared to be a deserted pedestrian street. Looking around, she saw no Phoebe and immediately got worried. As she near enough ran out of the side street, she realized she was in North Beach and that something was evidently happening across the street.

And suddenly, Paige had a very bad feeling about the events so far. It wasn't like the demons to be so organized. They had attacked Piper and her children in force, forcing arguably the most powerful members of the Charmed extended family into a standstill. Paige herself had been attacked by three demons. She'd been so focused on protecting her young children that she hadn't heard her sister's call until after the fact. And now, her usually very accurate Orbing power took her to a deserted street instead of to Phoebe while Coop the Cupid didn't answer their calls.

"What is going on?" she muttered to herself as she crossed the car park in the direction of the somewhat large crowd gathered on the opposite side of the street.

Paige felt the breath leave her lungs when she saw baby P. J. with two strange women.

"Little Phoebe?"

The girl looked up, saw her aunt, and started crying loudly. She ran to her as fast as her little legs could carry her. At the same time, an ambulance came screeching round the corner followed moments later by two police cars. Paige swallowed hard, suddenly scared to find out what had drawn the crowd.

"Excuse me, do you know this little girl?"

Paige turned to see one of the women who had been sitting with P. J. had approached her.

"She's my niece," Paige murmured as she petted P. J.'s hair.

The woman grimaced as her eyes darted to the side, in direction of the crowd.

"I think there's been an accident."

Paige nodded but knew better. It had been no accident. And she swore there and then to find the demon who had hurt her sister and make him pay. And the same went for whoever had ordered and helped organize the attacks. Swallowing hard, Paige gathered P. J. in her arms and arranged the little girl so she faced away from whatever Paige was about to see. And when the two paramedics came charging past, she followed in their wake.

The sight of Phoebe, pale and seemingly helpless, and lying in a pool of her own blood had Paige almost gasping for breath. A red-haired woman was kneeling by her sister's side, checking her pulse and talking with the paramedics as they set up a gurney next to Phoebe and put an oxygen mask on her. By the woman's side stood a tall, lanky man in jeans. Both of them had blood on their hands.

"You need to get her to hospital as fast as possible. Her lung collapsed and I've had to perform an emergency decompression. I'm rather certain her liver was hit in the attack. She lost consciousness for twenty-thirty seconds but she seems rather responsive, all things considered."

The paramedics nodded as they loaded Phoebe unto their gurney.

"You know her name?"

"Only her first name: Phoebe."

Paige chose that moment to push through the crowd.

"Hey! That's my sister!"

The paramedics and the two strangers turned to look at her.

"My name's Paige Matthews. Her name's Phoebe Halliwell."

The paramedics exchanged a look then motioned for her to follow just as a cop arrived.

"We're taking Miss Halliwell to San Francisco General," the paramedic said to the cop. "Miss Matthews here needs a lift, the little one shouldn't be in with us. And those two provided first aid. Probably saved the lady's life."

At that, Paige turned to watch the two mortals who had somehow managed to save a witch. And she vowed she'd find them again. But for now, she followed the police officer to his car – silently shouting at the Elders to get Coop to Piper and everyone to the hospital as quick as possible.