Chapter Ten

Today you were wearing forget-me-not blue,

I held you and said, "I'll never forget you,"

You smiled at me and stroked my hair,

But you were never really there.

As the dust settled and we found our home,

For the first time we were on our own,

Then it came and changed it all again,

Tell me, did we see our end?

MONDAY MAY 1ST, 1989

Prue's POV

"Well, that sucked," Phoebe decided. "Why do we have to go, again?"

"Because if we don't go to school we're pretty much screwed for life," I informed her, rolling my eyes exhaustedly.

"Thank you," Phoebe replied sarcastically, climbing out of the car and mock-stumbling towards the house as if she were too tired to walk in a straight line.

"Need some help?" I offered, picking Phoebe up with my mind and pushing her towards the door.

"Hey! That is SO not fair! Pipeeeeeerrr!" She turned her head and looked pleadingly at the usually peace-making middle sister.

"What? Something wrong?" Piper grinned at Phoebe, taking my hand and walking up with me, I giggled at her mock ignorance to what was happening. "Wow, you're practically floating! Something good happen?" I laughed out loud as Phoebe groaned in frustration and Piper looked up at me, grinning. Things had gotten a lot better over the past few weeks, we'd all grown used to our powers and were all moving on from what was now known as 'The Truco incident.'

We all turned around as we heard a car pull up outside our house. I gently lowered my youngest sister to the ground and watched as a lady got out- she was quite pretty with long, dark brown hair and appeared to be about thirty. She started walking towards us and I felt a twinge of worry run through me- who was this?

"Hi, my name's Katie Summers. I'm a social worker."

Oh, crap.

"Okay," I began, trying to gather my wits about me. "I'm Prue and this is Piper and Phoebe." They waved hesitantly when their names were mentioned, obviously thinking the same thing that I was: what was the woman doing here? Our unspoken question was soon answered.

"I'm just here to check up on the situation: you know, make sure you're all happy." I breathed a small sigh of relief – at least she wasn't coming to take anyone away. All we they had to do was show her how well I was managing to look after everyone – easy.

"Of course, your father has been contacted and has agreed to take on a partial parenting role, as well as helping to pay for everything–"

"WHAT?" I couldn't help it – that asshole thought that now Grams was gone he had a right to come back into our lives? He had disappeared for eleven years without a word as to where he was – not even a birthday card.

"Ah," she muttered. "He said you might react like this."

"Of course! I can't believe the nerve of that man!" My hands were clenched into fists and it took all my willpower to resist the urge to start throwing things with my mind.

"Listen to me: you don't have to see him or even talk to him if you don't want but you need money coming in. The money your grandmother left you isn't enough to cover you forever, especially if you want to go to college," she spoke earnestly, obviously trying to sway me to her way of thinking. Piper put her hand on my arm and I looked at her – her eyes pleaded with me to calm down. I sighed and I felt my heart swell with love for her, she always looked out for me even though it really should be the other way around.

"Okay, fine. Just so long as he knows that I will never forgive him," I said, finally. Katie looked quite relieved – seems I'm scarier than I thought!

"Well, now that that's sorted: we have to set up a debit account that your dad can put money into for you to use. You also need to tell him, or at least me, how much you need every month. So it would be a good idea to set up some kind of budget." I nodded – it wasn't all that hard to understand. I was kind of glad that someone had come a long to help – I wasn't talking about dad, of course. "Right, so can I come in?" she prodded. That was when I realized that we had had this whole conversation on the front steps. Grams would probably kill me for my lack of manners.

"Oh, sorry. Yeah, come on in." I motioned towards the door and my sisters followed my lead. "Where did we leave the Book?" I muttered to Piper, if she found it there would be a lot of questions.

"It's back in the attic. Do you think she'll want to go there?" she whispered back. Katie looked at us curiously and I smiled a bit before talking to Piper again.

"Freeze her." She rolled her eyes at me but complied.

"I think you must be obsessed with my power or something," she said jokingly. I grinned and took the bait.

"Only cuz I find you incredibly sexy when you use it." She blushed heavily and I couldn't help giggling slightly.

"Hey guys! Frozen person in our foyer!" Phoebe had to wave her hand in our faces in order to get us to pay attention.

"Oh, yeah. What was I gonna say? Er…" Piper was doing that distracting thing with her tongue and…

God, THINK! Don't look at Piper…resist…

"Right, yeah. I was going to make sure that all potion ingredients and stuff are in appropriate hiding places. So, are they?"

"Yep," Piper agreed.

"Yeah," Phoebe followed.

"That all?" Piper asked, gesturing towards Katie and indicating that it would be a good idea to unfreeze her now. I nodded briefly and fixed my expression in the way it was before the whole freezing event.

"What are you guys talking about?" she inquired upon being unfrozen again.

"Sister stuff," I replied, simply. She looked vaguely suspicious but let it go. Good for her – I'm not entirely sure about the rules about what to do when someone finds out you're a witch. She could be a warlock or a demon for all we knew, anyway…

"Well, that was boring," Phoebe decided, curling up on the couch and resting her head on the arm. I just smiled slightly and thought back on the strange afternoon we'd just had: dad was kind of back in our lives and although I wasn't sure how I felt about that, I was glad that we had some money coming in, no matter where it was from. Don't get me wrong, though, I wasn't about to forgive him for leaving us.

"So, anyone got any homework?" Piper and Phoebe groaned simultaneously and I laughed. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"Prue?" Piper started. "Prue, can we visit Grams?" It had been about a week since we had last been, so I agreed.

"Yeah," I said. "Finish off the homework though first, all right?"

"Come on!"

"You want to get me in trouble with Katie? I'm supposed to look after you, remember? And doing that involves making sure you don't screw up in school. So, come on. The faster you get it done, the faster we get to the cemetery, okay?"

They grumbled and protested for a few minutes before they decided to do as I asked. They were pretty diligent workers when they wanted something and within about half an hour, both were finished and ready to go.

It took about an hour to get to the cemetery. Piper asked me to stop at a flower shop. I stayed in the car while she and Phoebe went in to pick some out for Grams' grave. They came out with sunflowers, Grams' favorite. However, I hated sunflowers. There's just something about them that doesn't set right with me. So, I made Phoebe hold both bouquets in the back seat.

As I drove, I felt Piper's hand grab onto my arm, her thumb caressing my elbow. I glanced over at her and she smiled. I smiled back and continued driving.

The cemetery was pretty much deserted. It was around six o'clock in the evening and the sun was just beginning to set. We parked near Grams' grave and wound our way carefully through the graves until we found hers.

Piper laid down her bouquet and stepped back as Phoebe moved forward, placed her flowers beside Piper's, and placed her hand briefly on the gravestone. Her eyes automatically shut and she gasped, still surprised at the effects of an oncoming premonition.

She saw a woman, in her late teens or early twenties, staring blankly at a plaque on the wall. After a moment, she recognized it as a morgue. The woman slammed her fist against the plaque before sinking to the ground, her body shaking with sobs. Phoebe was able to look closer at the plaque now and read what was written there.

Prudence Halliwell

October 28, 1970 – May 17, 1993

Phoebe came out of the vision, her voice choked with sobs from the premonition. Prue and Piper were instantly at her side, holding her up and pulling her toward the car.

Phoebe looked up at me, her eyes tear-stained. She buried her face in my chest, keeping her arms around her my waist. I gave Piper a surprised look as I wrapped my arms around my little sister.

"Phoebe, what did you see?" Piper asked. "It obviously involves Prue, so…"

"I saw her grave. It was just a section in the morgue but…she was only twenty two. She died…"

"When, Phoebe?" I asked quietly.

"Um…May seventeenth. Ninety three. Someone was crying in front of the plaque thing but…I couldn't see her face."

"Phoebe, do you know how she died?" Piper asked.

"No," Phoebe said. "I have no idea. Demon, maybe. Probably."

"Well, you must have gotten that vision for a reason…" Piper mused.

"Looks like we need to work a little magic," I said. "Come on. Let's get in the car and go home. I think we'll need The Book of Shadows for this." They nodded and slipped into the car. I had Piper in the back this time, since Phoebe was a little clingy. I think she was trying to assure herself that I was still here.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said, placing my hand on her knee and squeezing gently. "I promise. We'll figure this out."

"Okay," she said softly, placing her hand over mine for a moment. I felt Piper lean forward and rest her chin on my shoulder a moment later.

"Piper…"

She gently kissed my neck. My eyes threatened to close at the touch of her lips but I forced them open.

"Sit back, Piper," I said quietly. "If something happens, I don't want you getting hurt. She moved away from me. I glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "I'm not going anywhere," I repeated making sure they both heard me. "Not for a long time."

I saw a faint smile cross Piper's lips and noticed Phoebe nodding. I couldn't let this get to them. We were going to make this right. We were the Charmed Ones, after all.

"So what are we looking for, exactly?" Phoebe asked.

"Something to help us look into the future – to see what happened. Then we can decide what to do about it," I explained. I wasn't sure I wanted to see my own death, but I knew that we couldn't do anything before we knew all the facts.

"Got it!" I looked over at Piper who had been scanning the Book and she looked back hopefully, turning the book towards me so I could see the spell.

"To See a Future Event," I read aloud. "That's great Piper!" She smiled shyly and I reached over to squeeze her hand and take the book from her arms.

"Okay, so we need a bowl of water…"

Twenty minutes later we were holding hands in a circle around the bowl, surrounded by candles. I looked at my sisters and began to chant:

"Candles dance and light the way,

Bring the events of tomorrow, today,

And in this pool of water show,

Everything we wish to know."

The surface of the water flickered and shimmered like an old TV set trying to start; then it cleared with an image of a blue demon.

Winds were sweeping leaves through the manor; the demon wore an evil smile and sent some kind of force towards Piper and I throwing us through the wall to the sun room. Phoebe didn't seem to be anywhere, all we could see were the bodies of the Piper and myself, laying next to each other. Suddenly, a whirl of blue orbs appeared next to them, gathering together and forming a person – a man, looking down at them sadly before leaning over and putting his hands just above their bodies, gold light emanated from them and Piper sat up seemingly gasping for breath She looked over at my body which was still lying there. She crawled over to me and frantically searched for signs of life before breaking down and sobbing helplessly, shoulders slumped in defeat. The man tried to comfort her but she pushed him away, holding onto me.

"Wait, where was I?" Phoebe demanded. The image flickered again, this time showing a picture of a young girl, no more than fifteen huddled in a cavern surrounded by demons.

Phoebe was fighting them off, trying desperately to get to the girl in the middle but she couldn't. They grabbed her, tied her up and threw her down next to the scared-looking teenager and smiled maliciously. Phoebe's mouth seemed to form a word: "Leo!" She gazed upwards and seemed to scream it: "LEO!" Blue orbs appeared again and the man appeared, looking disappointedly at her. She shrugged helplessly and held out her hand, giving her other to the raven-haired girl. T he man concentrated for a second. They disappeared into blue orbs but seemed to bounce off some invisible wall. The demons grinned and grabbed them before they could work out what had happened, taking them deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels.

"I was trying to save an innocent…and that cost me you." Phoebe stared at me and I could only guess at what she was feeling.

Phoebe's POV

Guilt. That's all I could feel: a huge ball of shame building up in my throat making me sick with it. My own arrogance had cost Prue her life, it was my fault. I couldn't do that to my sisters: we had to change it, to stop it, now.

"Piper, was there anything in the Book about going to the future?" I asked abruptly, obviously shocking them from the moment of silence. Piper frowned for a second, thinking.

"Uh…yeah, I think there was…" She looked over at Prue, gesturing for her to give us the book which had been placed behind her. Piper shuffled closet to me so I could see and quickly flicked through to a page entitled "To Move Ahead in Time".

"Good thing we don't have a daily spell limit," Prue said dryly.