Thanks again for all the reviews and thank you for being patient considering my slow updates as of late. I hope you enjoy the last few chapters now that the story is winding down.

xxxxxx

Chapter 11

As Prue's astral-self materialized in the living room of the Halliwell manor, the witch immediately glanced nervously around herself. She was entirely unsure of what condition the house would be in prior to projecting herself here. She also was understandably fearful that she may be projecting herself into the middle of something dangerous. She narrowed her eyes as she looked around the room. Everything seemed as it should - nothing appeared to be broken, everything was quiet, and it seemed like no one was here.

She stepped slowly and quietly as she crossed the room. For the first time in several hours, walking didn't hurt her. Of course, she wasn't technically even here. Her injured ankle wasn't really walking, though she did still feel the dull throbbing pain of both her ankle and her wrist. Just because she wasn't physically exercising her limbs didn't mean she couldn't still feel them.

As she made her way around the first floor of the manor, Prue glanced upstairs. She was beginning to feel worried. Of course her sisters had probably left the house since they had known demons would be coming after them, but where had they gone? Did they have plans to come back any time soon? Were they even able to come back? They could be hurt... or worse. There was no way she could know. She wouldn't have blamed them for not wanting to come back right away, but she desperately needed to know they were okay.

Sighing softly, she made her way back toward the kitchen, which was where the land-line phone was. She'd just have to call one of their cell phones. Hopefully her sisters had thought to take their phones with them. Prue certainly hadn't had time to grab hers before leaving the house. In fact, she had no idea where she had even left it.

Just as she was reaching for the phone, a familiar voice spoke up from somewhere behind her, "Prue?"

Prue spun around at the sound of Leo's voice. Sure enough, he was standing in the kitchen's doorway. He looked just as relieved as Prue felt, "Leo!" she couldn't help but smile as stepped toward him.

Leo took a few strides toward her as well, enveloping her in a hug, "where have you been?" he asked, "Piper said Cole took you someplace, but she didn't know where. Are you alright?"

Prue smiled as she kept her arms wrapped around Leo. She almost wanted to cry tears of joy, "I'm fine," she promised, "Piper and Phoebe are okay?" she finally pulled out of the embrace and looked up into his eyes.

He nodded, "they're fine," he informed her, "Piper called me here this morning. She said that Cole had just been by saying something about demons planning to cast some sort of spell that would render magic useless. She told me that he had plans to take you all someplace safe, so we waited a minute for him to come back but he never did... And by the time we started getting worried, our magic wasn't working. We didn't know how to find you... I'm so glad you're okay."

Prue smiled, "is everything alright around here?" she wondered, glancing around the room once more. It didn't look like anything at all had happened. Somehow she had expected that even if none of them were home, the demons would have come here looking for them, and would have no doubt left a mess in their wake. That didn't seem to be the case.

"We told Daryl what Cole had told Piper. The police kept a watch on the house, but Phoebe, Piper, and I left so they couldn't find us. I took them to a house I had lived in years and years ago. Piper and Phoebe are still there. I orbed back so I could make sure everything was safe here before bringing them back."

Prue nodded. She was appreciative that Leo had taken good care of her little sisters, "I'm glad Piper thought to call you here before it was too late. Thank you for keeping them safe," she smiled.

"What about you, Prue," Leo furrowed his brow as he looked her over, his eyes lingering for a moment on the over-sized jacket she was wearing, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Prue promised, "well, I might like for you to heal a few things later, but I'm okay otherwise."

"What do you mean?" Leo widened his eyes as he looked her over with more scrutiny. He reached out and touched her cheek. He must have noticed a bruise there. After all, Prue had been hit quite harshly several times by two different demons, "what happened, Prue?" he asked.

She had almost forgotten about the bruise. She recalled noticing it forming on her cheek earlier when she had looked at herself in the mirror at the rest stop, but it really didn't seem like anything to worry too much over. Her ankle and wrist were the most painful aspects of her injuries at the moment. The bruise didn't really bother her so much, "not that," she looked down, feeling a bit embarrassed. Maybe she shouldn't have Leo heal her. It wasn't like it was an emergency. She'd hate to abuse his power for something that wasn't a necessity, "it's really not a big deal," she explained, "I just have a twisted ankle and I hurt my wrist."

"How?" Leo's eyes were sympathetic and skeptical, and even a bit angry, "Did Cole do this to you?" he gestured back toward her cheek, "where is he?"

She shook her head, "No, he didn't do anything. I don't think Cole would hurt me, Leo. If anything, he protected me. Some demons tracked us to the house where Cole took me. Apparently they were keeping a close watch on all of our whereabouts, and since Cole and I shimmered there prior to the demons' spell, they found us. The fact that you guys didn't have your magic anymore when you left is why the demons didn't find you. We stayed put at the house - Cole didn't know he had been being watched, and I didn't suspect that they could track me like that either, so they found us pretty quickly. It was a bit of a challenge, but we made it out okay," she forced a laugh.

Prue really didn't want to go through all the agonizing details of the events that took place tonight. Leo didn't need to know that Orthon had all but blatantly threatened and attempted to rape her. He didn't need to know that more than one demon had held her down and hit her just because they wanted to see her in pain. And he certainly didn't need to know that Prue had viciously stabbed Orthon to death. It was probably best that he didn't find out that Cole had killed three of the demons all on his own without the use of his magic either. Leo already seemed to be skeptical of Cole's intentions. Mentioning that he had successfully killed three people this evening didn't really sound like such a good idea. The important thing was that she and Cole had made it away from the demons who had threatened them. They were okay, and their magic was back. That's all that mattered.

Leo narrowed his eyes, "where's Cole?" he asked again.

"Back with me at a rest stop in Kansas," she explained.

"Back with you?" Sighing, Leo closed his eyes for a brief moment, "you're not really here," he noticed, "this is your astral projection."

"Well, yeah," Prue frowned. She always forgot to tell her sisters and Leo when she wasn't really there. Somehow she always assumed they would be able to tell the difference, "I'm here doing the same thing you are, checking to make sure everything is okay before Cole and I come back... That, and I needed to know that Piper and Phoebe were okay. We're going to need to come up with a spell as soon as possible - one that will shield our magic from being dried up like this again."

"Phoebe's already on top of it. She's got some more ingredients to collect for a potion, but I think besides that, she's got a spell already written," Leo spoke, "I guess Halliwell minds think alike..."

"I guess so," Prue smiled.

He narrowed his eyes once more, "Cole was nice to you?" he seemed skeptical.

"Sure," she nodded. He had saved her life, more than once. He had been wonderful to her. Sure, they had their disputes. Their relationship was far from perfect, but considering the circumstances and their history of not quite getting along together, Cole had been perfectly kind of respectful toward her. She didn't want to elaborate on that too much to Leo, of course. He probably wouldn't understand how she could go from hating Cole with a passion to pretty much completely accepting him into her family. He had really proven himself tonight. Prue wasn't sure if that hint of doubt in her mind would ever vanish completely, but at the moment, she honestly felt she could trust Cole with her life, and maybe even with her sisters' lives.

"Were you nice to him?" Leo laughed with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorta," Prue grinned.

Leo shook his head in amusement, "well, everything seems to be alright around here. I'm going to sweep the house once more to be sure. Then I'll orb back to Piper and Phoebe and bring them back here. You and Cole can meet us in a few minutes if that's alright."

"That's perfect," Prue smiled, "I'm glad you're okay," she added as she reached out and grabbed Leo's hand. He had been in just as much danger as the rest of them. The demons would have surely killed him too if given the chance.

"I'm glad you are too," Leo stared into her eyes and squeezed her hand, "we were all so worried about you."

Prue looked down, almost feeling guilty for making Leo and her sisters worry, "I'll see you in a few."

xxxxxx

One more chapter to go. I'm not going to really get into what Piper, Phoebe, and Leo were up to all this time because this story isn't really about them. We know everyone is okay, so there's no need for me to dwell on telling an aspect of this story I really don't have much interest in exploring. Just imagine that their ordeal was a lot more comfortable, uneventful, and therefore a lot more boring. They probably mostly just talked about preventing this from happening again and about how worried they were about Prue and Cole.

Please review this chapter and I'll try to get the next one up in a more timely fashion than I did with these last few. :)