Even though she had acted as though she wasn't worried, Piper truly was. She had no idea who could be at the door. It was true that demons didn't knock, but that didn't mean that whoever was on the other side of the door wouldn't ruin their already horrible day. Slowly, she opened the door. A policeman was standing there with a very dazed Billie.
"Hello, I'm Officer McGee. Are you Piper Halliwell?" Piper nodded. "I found her roaming around the streets. You know, the streets. She was trying to buy drugs. Illegal drugs. Her contact person is you. I'm going to let her off with a warning this time, but next time I'll have to arrest her. Keep her off the streets."
"Thank you officer, I appreciate it. Have a nice day." He nodded and headed back to his car. Piper slammed the door shut before turning to Billie.
"What the hell were you thinking, Billie? Drugs? Your daughter is missing! She needs you to be strong, not high! You've been clean for ten freaking years! This is not the time for a relapse!" Billie looked at her defiantly.
"I don't need you telling me what to do, Piper. I know good and well that Astrid is missing." Her words were slurred. Piper glared at her.
"Apparently you need someone telling you what to do! What the hell are you on, anyway?" Billie shrugged. Piper groaned.
"We have enough to do without babysitting you on top of it," Paige said, joining her sister. Billie glared at her white lighter.
"I don't need you telling me what to do either!" She shrieked. Phoebe sighed, walking into the room.
"Fighting isn't helping anything. Right now, we need to find Astrid. I'll watch Billie," Noticing Piper's look of protest, she added, "You'll still have the Power of Three with Prue. Someone needs to watch her. You three have the most active powers anyway. And don't argue with me Piper, you know I'm right." Piper sighed in defeat.
"Fine. Paige, come on. We have work to do." The two sisters walked back into the living room, without even giving Billie a second glance. Phoebe sat down at the kitchen table. She was just as mad as her sisters were, but she knew that they needed to focus on Astrid right now, not Billie. If they were right, Astrid was safe—for the moment. Derek wouldn't mean to hurt her. But he was unpredictable, especially is he wasn't clean.
"Billie, how could you do this?" Phoebe sighed. Billie glared at her.
"Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do, Phoebe," Billie hissed. Phoebe shook her head.
"Do you want to lose Astrid, Billie? You nearly lost her once. You heard what the judge said. If you end up in his courtroom again, you won't get her back. She'll be put up for adoption another family will get her. She'll call someone else Mommy. I don't want that to happen either, and you better believe we would do anything we could to help, but we aren't going to knowingly put her in danger." Billie's eyes flashed with anger.
"You think I'd hurt her?" Phoebe shrugged.
"I think that when you're high, you aren't thinking straight. I've seen you do things while high that no sane person would do. Do you really want Astrid to grow up with a mom like that? We are trying to help, Billie, but we can't do everything for you. You need to take responsibility for yourself. We can't do that for you."
"Are you done lecturing me?" Billie asked sarcastically. Phoebe rubbed her eyes and nodded.
"Good. Then I'm leaving." She stood up and started leaving.
"Billie, don't you dare leave," Phoebe said, getting up to stop her. Billie turned and punched Phoebe onto the floor before running out of the door. Everyone rushed into the kitchen.
"Phoebe, what happened? You're bleeding!" Prue exclaimed. Leo knelt down and held his hands over her bloody face. Coop helped his wife up into a chair. Prudence rushed over to her mother.
"Mommy? Mommy? Are you hurt?" The eight year old started crying. Pandora and Padma were right behind her.
"Leo, Henry, take the kids upstairs," Piper commanded. The two men nodded and herded the seven kids upstairs.
"Mo-om! Can't I stay down here?" Melinda asked. Piper knelt down next to her daughter.
"Honey, right now I need you to help Uncle Henry with the younger children. Prudence looks up to you. She's really upset right now. Please, don't argue with me right now." Melinda frowned, but followed the other kids upstairs. Piper turned back to her sisters.
"Shit. What do we do now? If she gets caught again…" Prue shook her head.
"Listen, we can worry about Billie right now. She is a grown woman who is making her own choices. We need to focus on finding Astrid and our demons. Here's the deal: Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Cole, and I will go back down to the Underworld and look for clues about the demon. The last thing we want is this guy attacking while we're dealing with all of this. Leo, Coop, Bianca, and Chris, you guys need to search for information about Derek. See if you can find out where he might be right now. Look for records. Anything that might help us find him. Kendra, Wyatt, you two should take to the streets and see if you can find Billie. Be careful; we don't know what she'll be like if you can find her. Sound good?" Everyone nodded and the group split up.
"I don't see anything," Phoebe said for the millionth time. Piper groaned loudly.
"Phoebe, we have to keep looking. We don't have a choice." Phoebe knew her older sister was right, as usual, but she didn't want to accept it. Of course, she didn't want to accept the alternative either. The fact that none of this was familiar to Cole worried her even more. Twenty years was a long time, but she didn't like that the Underworld had changed this much. She could tell no else, especially Prue did either.
"This is you specialty, Cole, why can't you help us?" Prue challenged. Cole sighed. He knew Prue didn't like him much. Neither did Paige. Or Piper for that matter. Phoebe wasn't too fond of him either if you stopped to think about it. But none of that mattered right now. What mattered was finding the demon, finding Astrid, and then helping Billie.
"Prue, a lot has changed since I was a demon. I'm trying the best I can to help and you know it," Cole responded. And Prue did know it. After all, she hardly recognized San Francisco. She bit her lip guiltily. She knew she was being selfish, but there was a part of her that hoped this would take a long time to clear up. She didn't want Astrid to be hurt, of course, or Billie, but if it just took a bit of time… She shook her head. Selfish, Prue! You are being selfish! She knew that the only reason she wanted this to take a long time was so she could be human for a bit longer. Being a ghost was quite boring. Nothing to do all day except listen to other ghosts reminiscing about their human days. She missed having sisters, people who loved her and she loved back. Hell, at this point, after twenty-one years, she even missed demon hunting. She was being selfish, though. She needed to focus.
Piper snuck a glance at her older sister. Prue seemed conflicted about something, somehow, but Piper couldn't put her finger on what exactly was wrong. She was probably overreacting anyway. She smiled. This was where Chris got his neurotic tendencies from. Prue was just nervous. They all were. It had been a long time since anything this bad had happened. The last time it had been this bad was… probably Billie and Christy. So typical.
Paige sighed, but didn't say anything as they as they continued to walk on through the long, winding, passage. She hated the Underworld. She wanted to be at home with her husband and kids. It had been so long since she had been able to cuddle up with Henry on the couch and watch a movie. She missed that. She couldn't even remember the last time they'd had dinner as a family, or when she'd last gone to one of the twins' soccer games, or even just asked them how their day went. It had to have been ages. She mentally kicked herself. At least she knew her children were home safe with Henry. Billie had no idea where Astrid was. Damn that girl. What was she thinking, getting high again? Poor girl, she must be sick with worry. Only something as bad as that little girl could send Billie spiraling downhill again. Keeping the young girl in her mind, she trudged along after the rest of her family.
"Thanks, I appreciate it," Leo said into the phone for what felt like the hundredth time. A few hours ago, they had found Derek's blog. Turned out, he went to rehab, cleaned himself up, etc. They were trying to find the rehab facility he had been to. With a bit of urging from Wyatt, they had cast a teeny spell that threw doctor-patient confidentiality out the window. So far, there was nothing. They had to hurry. If Piper found out about the spell…
Chris read the blog quickly. There had to be a million entries. This guy seemed to have documented his whole recovery. Except, he didn't seem too recovered. Even so, he hadn't managed to find anything important so far. They had to keep digging.
Bianca climbed back into her car. She and Wyatt had both gone out to local bars to see if anyone recognized Derek. No one had. They were running out of time.
Wyatt knew this wasn't adding up. Why hadn't anyone seen anything? This guy was a major drinking. So why wasn't he at any of the bars they'd checked out? And where was he getting his drugs? The drugs… He needed to get to Billie.
Billie closed her eyes. She was tired. So tired. She couldn't go to sleep. Astrid needed her. Her head was pounding. What was she even on? She couldn't remember. What if they didn't find her baby? What would she do? Where would she go? [Tara, she'll go to Tara. She'll go home and think of a way to get her back!]
Coop looked at the computer screen. Chris had called him to ask for some help with Derek's blog. Shifting through the crap was a tedious job. They needed to find what was important and what wasn't. A box popped on-screen. Coop had to give the screen a double look. He picked up the phone.
"Chris? You need to come here now!"
Henry was about to lose his mind. These children were driving him crazy. His own son wouldn't sit down and be quiet; Padma and Pandora were both shooting questions at him from every which way; Penelope and Patricia were a bit better, but they couldn't stay still. Melinda was being an angel. Wait till he told Piper. Prudence was in hysterics, not listening to anyone except her older cousin. Piper was going to be amazed, but her daughter really was great with the little girl. Prudence looked up to Mel so much, and lately with the sisters being so busy, it was helpful for her to be so sweet. She would never admit it, but Henry knew that Mel was really attached to the younger girl.
Astrid looked at the man and woman in front of her. She looked at Derek. If you squinted, they looked kind of alike. Same smile, though Derek wasn't doing too much smiling. She felt like she was missing something. The woman standing next to Derek definitely wasn't smiling.
"All right, we've got the girl. What do we do next?" The woman took a drag of her cigarette and blew the smoke out of her nose.
"Now we wait."
Oh my gosh, has it really been since New Year's? I am so sorry it's been so long! Hope you enjoy the update.
