Chapter Nine

Piper looked past Leo and saw Andy being held by a large man. "Andy's here, too?" she wailed. Looking closer, she saw that Andy wasn't so much as being held as being propped up—and his eyes were closed. "What's wrong with him?"

Nick and Leo both answered at the same time: "Nothing!"

Piper covered her eyes with her hand. Something had gone very wrong with the spell. Prue was going to have a melt-down when she discovered Andy and Leo had been sucked into the spell, too. She looked behind her. And just where was Prue anyway?

"Prue? Prue, honey?" she began to call.

"Maybe she—" Leo started to say.

"Shhhh!" Piper said and slapped at the hay with her palm.

There was a groan coming from one of the stalls several feet away from them.

"—is in one of the stalls," Leo finished, smiling sheepishly.

Piper scrambled to her feet and went to the stall. She bent down looking underneath where a six inch gap between the stall floor and wall allowed her to see Prue leaning against the plank wall, clearly disoriented. But what took her breath was the large muscular horse that was stamping and weaving within inches of Prue, spooked by her presence in its stall.

Piper put her hands up to freeze the horse, but nothing happened. "Oh, no." She tried again to freeze the horse. Nothing. If anything the horse became more agitated, snorting and stamping at the stall floor forcefully.

"Oh God, Prue. Be still. Be very still." She tried the door but it was bolted shut. And the wall was at least six feet high… Frustrated, Piper looked around for something to pry the door open with. She had to get Prue out of there before the horse trampled her.

Leo and Nick had followed her over. Seeing the dilemma Prue was in, Nick motioned for Piper to stand back. At first, she had no intentions of leaving her sister's side, but then Leo whispered, "Let Nick help her." And so she reluctantly stepped back.

Nick peered over the top of the stall and then hurdled the wall, coming down between the horse and Prue. "Whoa, big guy, whoa. Nobody's gonna hurt you." The horse calmed and stood still, looking at Nick curiously. "That's it, big guy, I'm here to help. Give me half a minute and I'll have her out of your space," he said, soothing the horse, and stroking its back.

While leaning down, Piper watched in amazement as Nick hoisted Prue up by her waist with his thick arm and then launched himself back over the wall to safety. She looked to Leo who seemed to know the behemoth of a man. "A friend of yours, I presume."

"Yeah," Leo said, preoccupied. Piper noticed his burning gaze on at the low neckline of her dress. "Like the view?" she muttered, flushing.

"Huh?" Leo startled.

"I said, do you like the dress?"

Leo's eyes swept over her, lingering where the material clung to her curves. He swallowed hard before saying in a husky voice, "You look beautiful."

Piper smiled and was about to thank him when Nick's low gravelly voice said, "I don't believe your sister was hurt."

Cradling Prue in his arms, he gently carried her back to the hay and laid her down. Her eyes fluttered and then opened, looking up into the chiseled face above her. "Hi," she said breathlessly.

"Prue?" Piper questioned. She wanted to make sure Prue was alright.

Prue waved her away, not taking her eyes off of Nick's face. "Don't wake me," she said groggily, one arm still encircling Nick's neck.

Piper tried again. "Prue, you're embarrassing yourself. Wake up."

"Piper?" Andy was sitting up and seemed to be trying to get a handle on the situation. He rubbed at his eyes and then looked again. "Prue?"

Prue's eyes opened wide. "Uh-oh."

Andy was struggling to his feet, his eyes throwing daggers at Nick. "Get away from her!"

Leo put a hand on Andy's chest, but Andy just knocked it away.

"Andy…" Piper said, leaping forward to ward off the confrontation, "he saved Prue's life."

Andy's glare didn't immediately give way. "What do you mean? What happened?" He grabbed his head. "We were just at the hardware store…"

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