A/N. Thanks for the reviews. This chapter is based on the season two episode Morality Bites. Hope you enjoy.
777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777
Chapter 11 – Two months later"Mommy! Mommy!"
Piper let the oven mitts slip through her fingers as she spun away from the stove to her daughter's raised voice. Panic filled her mind and she raised her hands to attack.
"Mommy!" Lexy charged into the kitchen, her chocolate brown pigtails flying behind her.
"Where's the demon?" Piper demanded.
Lexy skidded to a halt beside her mother. "No demon, silly."
"Oh." Piper dropped her arms back to her side, grateful no one else was here to witness the scene. Ever since the Source had been vanquished, she had been convinced demons would take revenge. Luckily, in the two months since the battle, there had been no further attacks. "What do you want sweetie?"
"Look." Lexy fixed her mocha brown eyes on the tray of cookie dough Piper had been about to put in the oven. The baking tray slowly began to rise a few inches off the surface, Lexy blinked and it slammed back to the counter top.
Piper stared at Lexy, her mouth hanging slightly open. "Did – did you do that?"
"Uh – huh," Lexy replied proudly.
"Can you try that with something else please honey?"
"Okay." The witchling jerked her head up and the door to the fridge swung open.
"Wow," Piper breathed. She bent down to Lexy's level, despite the six – month – pregnant bulge in her way. "When did this first happen?"
"Just now. I wanted my drink and suddenly it flied at me!" Pink blush crept into Lexy's cheeks, and she lowered her gaze. "The sofa got a little wet."
"Don't worry about it Ladybug." Piper wrapped her in a tight hug. "I need to call daddy."
"Why?"
"Because I think you just got another power."
"Oh."
Little did either know that this was just the beginning of Lexy's rise to power.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Prue slammed the boot to her SUV shut, while balancing Caitlyn one on hip and two shopping bags on the other. Beside her, Andy was also struggling with a mound of shopping. Together they set off up the path towards the Manor.
"You know, we should really do grocery shopping on line," Prue mused.
"Ah, where's the fun in that?"
"I don't know about you mister, but having my arm muscles torn is not my idea of fun." Prue stopped abruptly as something squelched under her shoe. She brought her foot up and looked down tentatively. The sole of her shoe was covered in a brown, sticky substance. "Eww, dog's sh-"
"Sshh!" Andy interrupted. "Not in front of minors."
"Right, sorry. We wouldn't want you picking up any nasty habits, would we?"
Caitlyn just gurgled contentedly and continued sucking on her finger. At 10 months old, the little witch still liked to experiment with things.
By now the trio had reached the Manor's front door. Prue put down the bags and slipped off her shoe, leaving it outside to be cleaned. She slid her key into the lock and turned it with a sharp click. The door swung open and the married couple stepped through.
"I'm sick of that guy thinking he can let his dog do its business right outside our house," Prue complained as she and her husband entered the kitchen.
"It hasn't happened again?"
"Uh – huh. I stepped right in it." Prue settled Caitlyn into her high chair and began unloading the bags.
Piper scurried over to help. "We should complain."
The two sisters fell into silence for a few moments while Andy came and went with more bags. Both looked at each other as a dog began barking.
"It couldn't be," Piper stated.
"Oh, I hope it is," Prue said as they made their was to the living room.
When they reached it, Phoebe was already at the window, peeking behind the curtain.
"That's him. That's the guy and his dog," Piper said incredulously.
"It's so rude, he's just gonna walk away," Prue said angrily.
"Then don't let him. Use your magic," Phoebe ordered.
"Wait, we can't just use our magic to teach him a lesson," Piper protested.
"Why not?" Phoebe returned. "It's for the greater good. Think of it as community service." She nodded her head to Prue.
Prue lifted the window and shifted the curtain. With a flick of her finger a splattering of dog poo sprayed across the man's trousers. He cried out in disgust and tried wiping his shoe, looking around.
Prue, Piper and Phoebe ducked quickly.
"D'you think he saw us?" Prue asked quietly.
"So what if he did? What's he gonna do, cry witch?" Phoebe replied.
They peered over the window in time to see him walk off.
"Well, that's our good deed for the day," Phoebe said as they straightened up. "I think I deserve fifteen minutes of channel hopping."
Prue and Piper had just left the room when Phoebe switched on the T.V.
A news report about the baseball player Cal Greene appeared on screen. Phoebe was just about to turn over when the vision hit hard and fast.
The premonition ended as quickly as it had come. The remote control fell to the floor with a dull thud. Phoebe let out a cry of anguish.
"What's wrong?"
Prue's concerned voice pulled Phoebe back to reality
"I – a vision."
"What did you see?" Piper asked.
The sight of her made Phoebe cry out again. How could she tell Piper her daughter was going to be murdered? It was too horrible to comprehend.
"What did you see?" Piper repeated. She could tell from Phoebe's reaction it was something bad connected to her.
"I saw…" Phoebe paused to control her erratic breathing. "I saw Lexy being… being burned alive."
"You what?" Piper asked roughly.
"Saw Lexy being burned."
"You can't have," Piper said. "She's up-"
"In the future," Phoebe interrupted. "It happened in the future."
"When?" Prue asked softly as Piper sat down heavily.
"2017. At least, that's what a calendar on the wall said."
"Was Leo or I there?" Piper wondered weakly, her face pale.
"Us three were, but we… we did nothing."
"That can't be right. I wouldn't just stand by and watch my daughter die." The words made tears well up in Piper's eyes, but she fought them back; Lexy wasn't dead yet.
"You wouldn't," Prue agreed soothingly. "But maybe your future self would. What triggered the vision?"
"A news report on Cal Greene."
"What the hell has he got to do with Lexy?" Piper asked, voicing the question on all their minds.
"There's only one way to find out," Phoebe replied. "We go to the future."
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Prue asked nervously as they knelt in front of a copper bowl in the attic.
Phoebe and Piper looked at her, bother wearing identical 'I can't believe you just asked that' faces.
"I'm just saying we should think this over a little bit," Prue defended herself.
"Look, I had that premonition today for a reason. It must mean that we're supposed to do something about it. And going to the future might be the only way to find out what Lexy did to put herself on that pyre," Phoebe pointed out. "Plus Leo knows where we're going in case anything goes wrong."
"How do you know it's something that she did? I mean, it might be a demon or a warlock that puts her there," Prue argued.
"Do you really want to wait to find out? Okay, pack your bags, we go, try to figure out what happened and hopefully come back with enough information to stop it," Piper decided. "We're gonna need a date, Phoebe."
"February 12, 2017. That's two weeks before the date I saw in my premonition," Phoebe supplied.
"Alright, that should give us more than enough time to figure out what put you there."
"Okay," Prue said, lighting a match. She burned a slip of paper slowly. "Hear these words, hear the rhyme."
"We send to you this burning sign," Piper continued.
"Then our future selves we'll find," Phoebe added.
"In another place and time," the three of them finished.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Mommy! Mommy!"
'Lexy?' Piper pushed herself off the sofa. No, the little girl running towards her was only about ten, and she was blonde, while Lexy had always been dark haired.
"Uh, I think you have the wrong house. Certainly the wrong mommy," Piper told her gently.
"Stop fooling!" The girl threw herself at Piper.
And suddenly it dawned on Piper. The little girl didn't look like Piper, but she had Leo's amazing green eyes, his nose, and of course the blonde hair. She must be their daughter, the one Piper was pregnant with in 2007.
A car honked, causing the girl to shout "Car pool!"
As the girl raced off, Piper wondered over to the door and stopped suddenly as she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her hair was longer and curly, but apart from that she looked the same. She stopped gazing at herself as the reflection showed a news report begin on the TV.
Piper turned sharply. "Lexy! Where's the volume?" She began to search for the remote, but already the TV was getting louder by itself.
"Coming up shortly, a news report on Alexandra Halliwell. Now back to your regular scheduled programming MTV's real world eighteen on the moon," the reporter intoned.
"Mom! I'm going to be late."
"Err, right. TV, shut up. Mute. Something." Piper left the television and joined her daughter in the foyer, where a strange woman also stood.
"Hey Piper. You okay?"
"I guess," Piper replied uncertainly.
"I know it's awful with your daughter, but don't worry about this little one. I'll pick her up from school like you asked. Are you sure you want me to take her to your ex's?"
"Ex? As in mine? If that's what I told you to do then yes."
"So you and he are getting along better now?"
"Maybe. Prue? Phoebe?"
"Okay kiddo, let's hit the road," the woman suggested, giving Piper a strange look.
Piper's daughter grabbed her school bag and turned to hug her mother.
"Don't worry mommy," she whispered. "I promise to do as you ask. I won't use magic again. Ever."
Piper followed them outside, wondering why she'd ask her daughter that. As the car pool pulled away, a black limo filled its place almost instantly.
Piper's smile turned into a confused frown as a blonde Prue stepped out, dressed in a short black leather dress. Two others joined her, brushing down her clothes and fussing with her dyed hair.
"Okay people enough," Prue barked, jogging up the steps. "Stay!"
"What the hell was that?" Piper asked.
"I dunno, but I could certainly get used to it. And get me, I don't just work for 415, I own it! Along with three other magazines in Paris, Tokyo and London."
"And you're blonde," Piper added.
"Yeah, strange."
"Wait a minute, you had time to go to work already?"
"Actually, I woke up there. It was amazing, I had all these assistants, a huge office and a chauffeur. How d'you do?"
Piper gave a bitter laugh and turned into the house.
"Is that a good thing or..?"
"Well, if you ignore my apparently failed marriage and the fact I'm still living in the Manor…"
"Wait, you and Leo split up?"
"Apparently so."
"Why?"
"I have no idea, but at least our daughter lives with me," Piper said sarcastically.
"You have a daughter?"
"Yeah, and she's beautiful."
"Oh, of course she is. What's her name?"
"Oh God, I don't know. But Prue, she has powers, but for some reason I told her not to use them. Why would I do that?"
"Well, speaking of why. Why are we in our future bodies? I thought we were supposed to come here and see them."
"Well apparently, going to the future isn't the same as going to the past. I just wish I had some memory of the past few years, like how I got a divorce," Piper replied.
"Wait, if I'm in my future body and you're in yours, then that means…"
"Oh, TV louder, louder!" Piper cried.
The volume on the TV once again raised itself. "Now, back to the execution. We're less than eight hours away from the burning of Alexandra Halliwell, a witch accused of murdering Cal Greene six months ago."
"Eight hours?" piper gasped, appalled. "We were supposed to be here two weeks before."
Prue waved a hand to shush her.
"Let's go there now, live where Sierra Stone is standing by," the reporter continued.
The screen changed to show an African American woman in front of a huge glass and concrete structure. "San Francisco district attorney, Nathaniel Pratt, whose discovery of the witch last August, has made an early favour for the governor's seat, just came out to make a statement. Let's listen in."
Nathaniel Pratt strode from the building, surrounded by dozens of cameras. "This is a reflection of our citizens resolved to fair it out, the hidden evil. To turn fear into fight, and to band together as one. To cleanse our city of its greatest threat. Tonight, Alexandra Halliwell will burn for her crime. And when she does, let that be a warning to other witches out there. You're next."
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Phoebe awoke to find herself lying on a soft four poster bed, her head propped up by many fluffy pillows. For a brief moment she wondered why she had woken in a large bedroom, the walls painted a fashionable cream with contemporary paintings hanging from the walls. But the she remembered. Apparently whatever she did in the future kept her wealthy. Rolling over, she caught sight of a beautiful picture frame.
The photo showed her and Jake, both around twenty-six, on their wedding day. Both wore beaming smiles and Phoebe didn't think she had ever seen herself look so happy. Next to the picture frame, on the bedside table, lay a journal. Phoebe couldn't resist. She picked it up and began to read, instantly recognising her own handwriting.
22 May 2015Today, Jake and me went to the hospital for the results of our fertility tests. It felt surreal, walking into that room and knowing our future would be decided in a few short moments. I was so nervous I wanted to turn and run, run away from the room, run away from the pain I'd felt when my period arrived ever month. How long has we been trying now? Two years, ever since our wedding night. Two years of heartache. Only Jake understood how I felt, he was my rock.
He was the only reason I was still standing in that room. If it hadn't been for him, I would've run. But he needed to know why we can't have kids.
I sat down opposite the doctor, Jake next to me. When the doctor told us Jake's sperm was healthy, and that the count was normal, my hopes rose. Maybe we could have children after all. But then we got the news that shattered our entire world.
Apparently, due to blunt trauma to my abdomen, or something, I have scar tissue lining my womb.
Because of me, Jake and I can never conceive naturally.
