Piper had to stifle a laugh when she looked at her two younger sisters. Paige was attempting to help Phoebe eat and Phoebe wanted no part of it.
"Paige this is wrong. You are MY baby sister, not the other way around, I should be feeding you."
"Deal with it honey, now eat." Paige held the spoon of fruit in front of Phoebe as she shoved it in her sisters' mouth.
"And me without the camera." Piper stepped in the room and made her way to her sisters. Leaning down she placed a soft kiss on the top of Phoebe's forehead. "Morning sweetie."
"Morning."
"How you feeling?"
"Other then my baby sister feeding me. Just great." Piper hadn't missed the sarcasm in her sisters' voice.
"Give it time sweetie. You were shot in case you forgot that part."
"I know."
Piper took Phoebes hand in hers and gave it a light squeeze. "Phoebe I haven't really had the chance to ask you. When you woke up the other day. You said Prue hurt you."
Phoebe looked up at Piper. There was something in her eyes that Phoebe understood. "She held me. It felt like when I was little and hurt myself, she just held me in her arms. I wanted to stay there forever." She broke her gaze from Piper and looked up. "But she made me realize that I would be leaving you two behind."
Piper sat there listening to Phoebe talk about Prue and how it was when they were young. "And this hurt how?" Piper asked.
"I wanted to stay. I wanted the pain to stop. She said if I didn't feel the pain that meant I would stay there. So I let it go. I let the pain go." She closed her eyes as she felt the tear start behind them. "She wouldn't let me. She squeezed my shoulder. She made me feel the pain."
Piper took Phoebe's hand in between both of hers, "I'm glad she did. Don't you EVER give up like that Phoebe. Believe it or not I need you in my life."
"We both do." Paige added in.
"I'm sorry."
Piper placed a kiss on the back of Phoebe's hand as she reached over and wiped away the tear on her younger sisters face, "I know. I'm just glad you're here now and getting better."
Paige got up sensing that maybe Piper and Phoebe needed a minute to themselves, "I'm going to get something to drink. Piper you want anything?"
Piper looked up and gave Paige a weak smile. "I'm ok, thanx Paige." Piper turned attention back to Phoebe. "So she kicked your ass hey?"
Phoebe gave a slight laugh, "Ya, like always. God I miss her so much Piper."
"I know sweetie, so do I. I'm just glad she was the one to make you see your senses. I can't go through that again Phoebe, don't ever scare me like that again."
"I won't." Phoebe looked up at Piper, "I love you."
Piper ran her hand brushing the hair off Phoebes face. "I love you too."
--- ----
Later that evening, Phoebe looked up at the ceiling above her, thinking over what had happened a few days before. Piper and Paige had filled her in on everything but it seemed surreal.
"Pi..Piper?"
Piper looked up at her little sister. "Hey sweetie. What's wrong?"
"Hu..hurts."
Piper took Phoebes hand in hers; "Ok Phoebes hang on I'll get someone ok?" Piper took the nurses call button in her hand and pressed down hard and held it in place. "You should have said something sooner honey."
Paige leaned against the doorframe watching her two sisters interact. "Hey you two ok?"
Piper looked up at Paige and gave her a weak smile, "Yeah, Phoebe just had some pain. I called the nurses to give her something."
Paige sat on the other side of Phoebe. "Hey you. Giving Piper a hard time I see."
"No."
Paige smiled as she held on to Phoebe's hand, "Right."
Phoebe gave Paige a weak smile as she felt the pain to her shoulder and chest. She closed her eyes pushing out the pain she felt, but when she felt Pipers hand on her forehead she knew she wasn't hiding anything.
"Hang in there sweetie someone will be her soon." Piper encouraged her little sister, as she knew the pain had gotten worse.
Once the nurse left, having put the pain medication into Phoebes IV drip, Paige took her sister hand in hers, "Don't fight it Phoebs. Try and get some rest."
"Selena?"
"She's fine. Darryl has her safely tucked away."
"Where you guys should be as well."
Paige looked up as Piper turned around to see Darryl walk in the room.
"Hey Phoebe glad to see you awake."
"Glad to be awake."
"Shelia sends her love and get well wishes."
"Thanx. What's this about us safe?"
"Ever since the shooting I have been trying to get your sisters into protective custody."
"And as I told you before Darryl we will not hide from this guy. And we weren't leaving Phoebe." Piper explained to him the same conversation she had a millions times before.
"And my same argument applies. He is dangerous and will do anything to get at you three. I know you have your powers to protect you, but what about Phoebe? She doesn't have an active power and it's going to take her a long time to recover from this. She won't be able to fight him again like last time."
"And you have had an officer outside that door every minute since Darryl." Paige put in. "And we discussed what would happen once Phoebe was out of the woods."
"But you two won't go?" Darryl resigned the argument
"No." Piper felt Phoebe give her hand a squeeze but at the moment she ignored it she knew her sister wanted to know what they had decided and what was going on.
"Ok. I may not like it but ok. Just be careful. This guy only needs one shot. Phoebe almost died because of him. He's a cop so he knows how to use a gun, at any distance." He gave each sister a last look. "I'll make arrangements for Phoebe." And with that he started out of the room.
Piper waited for the explosion she knew was about to happen. She felt Phoebe's hand in hers loosen slightly but gave it a squeeze of her own.
"What the hell is going on? And what arrangements is he making?" Phobe demanded to know
"Phoebe calm down." Piper held her sisters hand in hers still.
"Piper no. I have a right to know what the hell is going on."
"Yes you do, but you need to calm down first." Piper gave her sisters' hand another squeeze.
Paige started to stand from her seat next to Phoebe as the two argued. "Maybe I should ….."
"Paige stay. That way I can yell at both of you once." Phoebe said as she held on to her little sister.
"Ok Phoebe, enough." Piper looked down at her baby sister. Her colour still hadn't come back even though it had been nearly a week since the shooting. "You want to know what's going on, then fine. Paige and I decided it would be best, once it was ok with the doctors, to move you to the safe house with Selena."
"No way. I'm not hiding from this guy. He used us to get to her."
"I know that honey but you can't fight him, not right now. Paige was feeding you this morning because you don't have the strength to do anything for yourself."
"Piper."
"We are not discussing this Phoebe, that's final."
Paige felt the uneasy silence in the room but said nothing to break it. Piper was right, Phoebe was safest in a safe house. She just wondered what would happen when the time came to actually move her there and what would happen after that.