Lots of thanks to wiccagrl, PIPER LOVES LEO 1701, and chyp for reviewing!
This chapter jumps a bit in time so its now a month or two after Prue's death (-ish anyway)
I think this is my longest chapter yet so enjoy...


Chapter 7

"Okay, turn left up here." directed Piper, "And can you step on the gas a little?" she demanded.

Cole bit back an exasperated retort and slammed down the accelerator, wrenching the wheel around. The car screeched around the corner to the cacophonous sound of car horns, narrowly missing a taxi.

In the backseat Phoebe gave a little scream of fright, covering her eyes as the taxi swerved out of the way, the driver gesturing furiously and mouthing something, which although Phoebe couldn't hear she could give a pretty good guess as to what the words were.

"Off the gas! Off the gas!" she pleaded, reaching forward to emphasise her plea with a sharp hit on Cole's shoulder.

Cole eased his foot of the accelerator and sighed, annoyed at the contradicting instructions from the two sisters. "Does somebody else want to drive here?" he asked hopefully.

"Phoebe, the demon, who might I point out may well be Shax, is not waiting around for us to come and vanquish him." Piper informed her pointedly, completely ignoring Cole.

Phoebe breathed deeply trying to block out the chaotic world around her. She had finally thought that things were getting back to normal, or at least as normal as thing could be without Prue, but then… Phoebe didn't know what exactly had happened.

Piper had changed. From being totally against any fighting for fear of losing Phoebe too, she had gradually become more and more obsessed with hunting demons, especially with hunting Shax, without any thought for her own safety 'or even the safety of others' thought Phoebe, grimly as she hung onto the back of Cole's seat for dear life, hearing the car's engine judder in protest at the rapid acceleration and swerving.

"Hello?" snapped Piper, turning round in her seat and clicking her fingers impatiently in front of Phoebe's face.

"We don't even know if it is Shax." Phoebe pointed out, "Or even if we have the power to vanquish whichever demon it is. Scrying for random evil tells us nothing."

"It tells us where the demons are" contradicted Piper, "and since we vanquished two already this week, I say it's working pretty well. And, what if this is the demon that could lead us to Shax? We can't miss this chance."

"Piper, two witches and half a demon does not the Power of Three make. We need to stop hunting every Tom, Dick and…and Beelzebub in San Francisco!" exclaimed Phoebe, "We need some time to…to readjust, to learn to live without Prue, but instead for the past few months we've been repeatedly giving every demon in San Francisco the opportunity to kill us."

"So what are we supposed to do?" retorted Piper, "Sit around and wait for them to pick us all off? If we weren't going after them, they'd be coming after us. And let's not forget Shax. We need to avenge Prue."

"Speaking of, do we have any kind of plan here or…" cut in Cole, swinging the car around another sharp corner.

"The plan is to vanquish the demon." stated Piper, annoyed at the interruption.

"Great." muttered Cole.

The car entered an alley and Cole slammed on the brakes. Around a stack of crates the two sisters and Cole could see a tall, bald demon holding a man dangling in the air, his taloned hands in a tight grasp around the man's neck.

"Hey! Big scary demon!" taunted Piper, getting out of the car and recklessly approaching the demon.

The demon silently turned his glowing red eyes in Piper's direction and a cruel smile spread across it's face as it saw a more desired target of a witch.

The demon released the man, who fell to the floor gasping for breath, but still managed to scramble to his feet and stagger out of the alley.

The demon took one step forward and Piper smiled mockingly back at the demon. She raised her hands and made a slight flicking gesture.

For a moment the demon stood there, his face gradually turning redder and redder before it suddenly exploded in a burst of green goo.

Phoebe and Cole exchanged brief glances before they hurriedly closed the car doors as the hail of goo splattered across the windscreen.

Piper wiped a globule of goo off her face then strode over to the passenger seat, "Next!" she announced, grinning at the easy kill.

Phoebe slumped back in her seat and covered her face with her hands.


Shane eased his car into a space across the street from the manor and surveyed the house, searching for any signs of life. He couldn't see any movement and he noticed Piper's SUV was missing from the driveway. The sisters were out again. Shane sighed, wishing he had been here earlier so he could have followed them.

After following Inspector Cortez from the cemetery after Paige's funeral Shane had realised that Cortez was watching the Halliwell sisters, that he suspected them of being involved in Paige's death. 'Paige's murder.' corrected Shane silently. And not only that but newspaper reports had also told Shane that Piper and Phoebe's sister Prue along with a prominent doctor had been killed in the Victorian manor. Shane had realised that these murders were the two that Cortez had mentioned at the hospital; the two murders that were suspected of being carried out by the same person who killed Paige.

Ever since then, on and off, Shane had been cautiously following the sisters, watching their house. The police had stopped their surveillance after a few weeks, which Shane supposed meant they hadn't spotted anything and Cortez still refused to tell Shane what had made him suspect them in the first place.

Hearing the sound of a car engine Shane lowered himself down into the seat as Piper's SUV drove past and stopped in their driveway. Shane narrowed his eyes as he stared at the sisters. They could be treble murderers.

A man Shane had identified as Phoebe's boyfriend got out of the drivers seat and moodily slammed the car door and stalked into the manor.

Behind him Piper and Phoebe got out more slowly, obviously having an argument. Shane was too far away to hear what they were saying, but their angry, exasperated gestures showed they were clearly in dispute over something. 'Even thieves fall out.' thought Shane bitterly.

At the sound of another car engine entering the street Shane automatically ducked again, hitching a curious eye over the window as the car stopped outside the Halliwell manor just as the doors closed behind the sisters.

A lone man got out of the car and strode purposefully up the steps to the front door. Shane frowned in confusion as he caught sight of the man's face. It was Cortez.


A few hours previously:

Cortez reread the case file for the third time almost unable to believe his eyes. How had this not come to light before in the investigation? The case was a few years old but the similarities were uncannily alike.

Cortez narrowed his eyes as he focused on both the scene of crime and the investigating officer. The murders of the doctor and Prue Halliwell had not been the only deaths to occur in the Halliwell manor and this case looked suspiciously like another cover up by Darryl Morris.

'How many other murders have you ignored just to protect them?' The words swum around inside Cortez's head as he recalled his angry words to Darryl. It looked like he had found the answer to that question.

Cortez smiled grimly as he looked over at where Darryl was working. Maybe no-one would believe that the Halliwell were witches, not solely on his own testimony anyway, but this was evidence the courts would understand. If he could link this death with the other three, then the CPS could not deny that he had enough evidence to take the two Halliwells to court for the murders.

Cortez abruptly stood up and grabbed his jacket. He crossed the room pausing only briefly at Darryl's desk. Cortez dropped the case file on top of the paperwork Darryl was working on and hissed "I'll get you for this and the Halliwells too."

Darryl watched in surprise as Cortez strode out of the door then turned his attention to the case file Cortez had given him. One name in particular stood out, Andy Trudeau.

"Oh no." whispered Darryl, reaching blindly for the phone. He hurriedly dialled the manor and drummed his fingers impatiently as the computerised ringing sounded in his ear.

Piper's voice came over the line, "You've reached Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, we're not in right now but if you wish to leave a message…"

Darryl hung up the phone swearing softly. They were out. 'At least Cortez won't find them,' realised Darryl, 'for the moment at least'


Phoebe closed the manor door behind her, trying hard not to slam it shut out of frustration. The sound of a car pulling up nearby filtered through the door as she followed Piper through to the living room, but Phoebe ignored it, her mind concentrating on Piper's out of character behaviour.

Phoebe reached the living room door and saw Piper standing over the Book of Shadows, a black marker pen poised above the ancient pages.

"Oh, woah!" protested Phoebe, as Piper crossed out a page, the heavy black line contrasting with the book's authentic aura. "I know that you're happy that we got him Piper, but is it entirely necessary to disfigure the book?"

Piper ignored her, tapping a finger on the crossed out page. "This one could incinerate human flesh with his eyes." Piper commented looking up, "That must sting."

Phoebe opened her mouth, about to reprimand Piper about her flippant behaviour when Cole stepped in, eyes flashing angrily.

"You think that's funny?" he snapped, striding over to glare at Piper, "You could have gotten yourself killed. Do you understand that?"

The sharp ring of the doorbell cut through the brief silence as Piper recoiled slightly. An image of Prue's body flashed across Piper's mind but she ignored it, using the pain to fuel her anger. "Yes, Cole, I understand killed very well." retorted Piper tightly, ignoring the doorbell.

Cole glanced towards the door, making out a figure behind the glass, but refused to let it interrupt his argument. He turned back to Piper, "Then why would you want to keep risking your life and Phoebe's, not to mention mine?" snarled Cole, his voice rising in anger, "There's a legion of Bounty Hunters on my ass. I'm supposed to be laying low but instead, I'm out protecting you guys!"

"You know what, Cole?" yelled Piper, losing her temper completely, "Next time, you can stay home."

Cole slammed a hand down on the book, making Phoebe jump, "If you insist on taking these suicide missions, you force me to be there because there's no way in hell I'm about to let Phoebe lose another sister." Cole had lowered his voice but his cold controlled tone was more ominous.

Phoebe walked over to Cole and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, "Why don't you go see who's at the door for us, okay?" she suggested, trying to diffuse the icy atmosphere that had suddenly formed in place of the yelling.

"Sure." agreed Cole sarcastically aiming a pointed glance at Piper, "If it's Shax, I'll just ask him to come back later." Cole turned and left the room muttering "We need to talk." to Phoebe on the way out.

Piper glared at Cole's back until he left her sight before turning back to the Book of Shadows. Phoebe walked over to Piper and tried to speak calmly, "Piper, Cole's right. We have a system for fighting demons and it's worked pretty well for the last three years."

Piper tensed her jaw as she retorted "I think, uh, Prue being killed counts as a pretty big glitch in the system."

Phoebe gave Piper a sympathetic look, "I know that you're angry." she told her gently, "I'm angry too."

"Then why are you fighting me on this?" demanded Piper, "What's the problem with getting a little proactive?"

"Because we're not ready to get proactive." Phoebe tried to explain, "That's what's wrong with it. We're barely ready for anything right now. I mean, just dealing with our everyday normal lives is hard enough."

"That is precisely the point. The faster we get rid of these demons, the faster we can get back to our everyday normal lives or at least what is left of them." snapped Piper, turning her back on Phoebe and heading for the kitchen.