Phoebe rolled over in bed, completely exhausted. The sound of footsteps and the hallway light seeping in between the crack of the slightly opened door had caused her to awake prematurely. She pulled her bedside clock closer to her and squinted to read the red, digital numbers. It was 3:00am.
Outside her bedroom, she could hear the footsteps running steadily down the stairs from the attic. The light from the hallway was cut off momentarily as someone passed her room. Phoebe groaned and sat up so that her feet were dangling off the side of her bed. She prepared herself before stepping onto the cold, hardwood floor.
She tiptoed through her bedroom and peaked through the crack between the door frame and her door. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the bright light. During that time, she listened for any signs that would give her some idea of who was awake. The last thing she wanted right now was to walk into another demon attack. She slowly pulled the door open and ventured into the hallway.
She immediately noticed that Prue's bedroom light. Without hesitation, she moved quickly to Prue's room to find out why she was awake so late. She leaned on the door frame and looked at her sister, who seemed to be doing a full reorganizing of everything in her bedroom.
"Too much coffee?" Phoebe yawned as she moved further into her sister's room and sat on her bed.
"Couldn't sleep," replied Prue.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Phoebe asked. She watched her sister move around the room with a pile of books in her arms, trying to find a place for them.
"Where do you think these should go?" Prue asked.
"I liked them where they were," replied Phoebe. "Your room looked fine that way it was."
Prue sighed and carried the books back to their previous resting place. She knew Phoebe was right. Any time she felt troubled, she felt the need to re-arrange or clean something.
"What's bugging you?" Phoebe asked. She motioned for her sister to sit next to her. "And don't tell me it's nothing because I'll know you're lying."
Prue sat beside her sister and rested her head on Phoebe's shoulder. "I don't know," Prue sighed. "Just general worrying I guess."
"You're worried about Piper," Phoebe coaxed.
"Am I that transparent?" Prue laughed.
"No," replied Phoebe. "I'm just that good."
Prue smiled and brushed her hair behind her ear. "I know the doctors said she was fine," said Prue. "But something doesn't feel right. It just doesn't make sense. I wish I could see her."
"Careful!" Phoebe snapped. "You don't have total control of that new power of your yet. You're going to end up astrally projecting yourself into a room full of doctors."
"What if I astral projected into her bathroom?" Prue suggested. "There shouldn't be anyone in there this late."
"I don't know," Phoebe hesitated, but without warning Prue gasped and collapsed onto her bed. Phoebe rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"That's so not fair!" she pouted. "I want a cool power like that!"
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As the trio of doctors and Nurse Pritchett got Piper back into bed, Piper began freaking out again. She screamed and tried to use her power to get them all to freeze, but Chase grabbed her hands and pulled them above her head.
"Grab the cooling blanket!" Foreman shouted to Nurse Pritchett. She nodded and scurried away. Piper attempted kicking her legs and twisting herself out of Chase's grip, but Foreman quickly grabbed her legs and fastened them to the bed before helping Chase secure her arms to the bed. Cameron moved quickly to administer a sedative to calm Piper down.
Nurse Pritchett returned with a cooling blanket in hand and placed it over Piper's body.
"She has a fever of 103.6," Cameron stated as she read the screen of the tympanic thermometer.
"Where the hell were you?" Foreman spat as he looked over at Nurse Pritchett.
"I was heard the alarm and went looking for her," replied Nurse Pritchett defensively. "I sent the rest of the nursing staff to look for her as well."
"I'll go call the staff and let them know we found her," said Cameron. Foreman nodded and looked back at Piper. She seemed to have calm down a bit and had stopped pulling on the restraints. She was still shaking from her fever and from the cooling blanket. Chase had already begun to replace the IV she had pulled out as well as the heart monitor. The familiar beeping of the heart monitor soon reverberated through the room.
"Temp's normal," said Chase after a few minutes. He and Foreman removed the cooling blanket and checked all of Piper's vitals before leaving her room. Nurse Pritchett followed close behind leaving Piper half-asleep and still restrained to keep her from leaving her room again.
Just as Piper began to nod off, Prue peered through the bathroom door. Once she was sure there was no one in sight, she moved to her sister's side and took her hand in her own. She frowned when she noticed the restraints.
"Piper?" she whispered as she gently pulled Piper's face so that she was facing her.
"Prue?" Piper slurred. She could feel the sedative pulling her into a deep sleep. She squinted in order to focus her vision on Prue. It took every last bit of strength she had to stay awake.
"Are you ok?" Prue whispered. "What did they do to you?" Piper mumbled something inaudible and her eyes drooped closed. Prue let Piper's head roll back onto the pillow and watched her sleep. Before long she could hear footsteps making their way to Piper's room. Prue quickly kissed the top of Piper's hand before astral projecting back to the manor.
Nurse Pritchett walked slowly into the room, closing the door and the curtain around Piper's bed behind her. She whispered something silently under her breath while holding a crystal which was strung around her neck with a silver chain. The crystal shone a deep red for a few seconds before returning to its normal state.
A swirl of red smoke began building up from the tiled floor. It grew larger than Nurse Pritchett and vanished. From within the smoke, a large body emerged. From his appearance, he looked like a normal, 6'2" male with chiseled cheekbones and jet-black hair. His eyes were an intense green colour and his smile was toothy and bright. He was by all means an attractive man. However, this was not a man, but a very powerful, upper-level demon with one desire. To destroy the Charmed Ones and gain possession of their treasured spell book.
"Do the Charmed Ones have any idea?" he muttered quietly. Nurse Pritchett shook her head.
"They are completely clueless," replied Nurse Pritchett. "Except Piper. I don't know how she keeps figuring it out."
"You've been careless," snapped the demon, Mika. "I shouldn't have to keep cleaning up your mess." He placed his hand on Piper's forehead and closed his eyes. His hand emitted a glowing red light, similar to that of Leo's when he used his power to heal someone. The light went out and the demon opened his eyes once again. This had erased Piper's memory of the night's events. "I don't want to have to do this again," Mika grumbled. "From this moment on you are to play your little Nurse role and show no sign that you have a connection with me or any other demon."
Nurse Pritchett nodded timidly. She had become connected with the demonic world quite by accident. Her husband had been involved with the demonic world before they had married. Only eight months ago he had been on his deathbed. Desperate, Nurse Pritchett sought help from the demon, Mika. In return for his services, she was forced to serve him until his demands were met.
Nurse Pritchett was forced to track down the Charmed Ones and incapacitate them one by one. She had planted a few sand flies in the box of fruit which had been sent to Piper's club. She wanted to do Mika's biddings in a way that would not provide any suspicions that she had been involved. When the Orroyo Fever had failed to kill Piper, she knew she needed to take more elaborate measures in order to keep Mika happy and avoid having her husband left to die.
She had stalked Piper for a few days following her miraculous recovery and eventually broke into the Halliwell manor and switched Piper's prescription. It only took a few days for the pills to take effect. Since then, she had been slowly poisoning Piper and providing House and his colleagues with a healthy patient's test results. The mutated DNA had been provided by taking samples of Mika's blood and mixing it with Piper's samples.
Nurse Pritchett felt horrible, but she desperately wanted to keep her husband alive. It was Piper's life or his.
"You're lucky," Mika hissed. "I could make you take out the rest of the Charmed Ones, but then my comrades wouldn't get the enjoyment of the kill."
"Can't they kill them now?" Nurse Pritchett asked. "There are only two of them. What is stopping them?" Mika backhand Nurse Pritchett, sending her to the floor. She grasped at her cheek and looked up at Mika.
"How dare you question me!" he snapped. "You need to mind your own business and hurry up and kill this one. And hurry up! You're only wasting the precious few days you have left with your husband." With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke.
Nurse Pritchett held back her tears and scrambled to her feet. She looked down at Piper and sighed. She had been giving Piper just enough of a number of different medications and poisonous substance to keep her sick, but not kill her. The truth was that she didn't want to kill Piper. She didn't think she could live with that kind of guilt. She had hoped that Mika's demon friends would off the other two sisters first and then come for Piper before she could kill her. However, something was keeping the demons from killing the other Charmed Ones and Mika was growing impatient with Nurse Pritchett for not killing Piper yet. She was soon going to have to choose between murdering Piper or losing her husband.
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"Prue will you stop and talk to me!" Phoebe begged. Prue had been unbearably angry once she'd astral projected back home and she hadn't said a word to Phoebe since. Prue was searching everywhere for her keys. She wanted to drive to the hospital and give Piper's doctors a piece of her mind for what they did to Piper.
"Prue!" Phoebe shouted, completely irritated by this point. She grabbed Prue's arm and forced her to stop and talk to her. "What the hell is going on?"
Prue stared her down for a second before forcing herself to calm down.
"They have Piper completely restrained to her bed and knocked her out with some kind of sedative!" Prue snapped angrily. She could feel the anger within her begin to build again.
"I'm sure there was a perfectly good reason for doing it," said Phoebe. "I mean, she's flipped out once before, maybe she did it again."
Prue hadn't thought of that and now she felt like an idiot for getting herself all worked up about it. Piper had been pretty out of it the last time she disappeared from her room. There was no telling what kind of problems she could have caused.
"See," said Phoebe. "I'm sure she's fine. She's in a hospital. Dr. House and those other doctors are doing everything they can to keep Piper safe and healthy."
"I know," Prue sighed. "I'm sorry. After seeing Piper like that, I wasn't really thinking. I guess I can wait until tomorrow to ask the doctors about it."
"So… does that mean we can go back to bed?" Phoebe asked hopefully. Prue rolled her eyes and nodded. The two of them turned off the lights on the main floor and made their way back to their own beds.
Phoebe curled up under her blankets and sighed. She took one last look at the clock beside her bed. It was 4:30am. She groaned and closed her eyes. She couldn't see Prue letting her sleep in late that morning. They'd probably be up and out the door in just a few hours from now.
