Chapter Three

At my voice, Leo turned his head to look right at me. "Phoebe!" he cried as he fell.

"Let me call you back," I told you, as I quickly disconnected the phone, then turned it around, ready to use it as a weapon, pointing it at Leo as he stood up with the light bulb still glowing. "Phoebe, wait!" he begged. "I can explain."

Yeah, sure he could! I started backing away from him, him following me, while I tried to decide what to do next. I decided to just confront him. "You're a warlock, aren't you?"

Leo shook his head, "No, Phoebe! Of course not!" But I kept backing up. "Wait, Phoebe! Wait! Let me explain!" He tried to grab the phone while he was saying this, but I quickly pulled it away from him. "Think about it," he reasoned. "If I were a warlock and I wanted to hurt you, don't you think I would have done it the last time I was here?"

"OK," I admitted, but not convinced.. "Good point, but still most, normal handymen use ladders to fix chandeliers" I stuck the phone under his chin.. "Are you a witch?"

He shook his head. "No."

'Then what are you exactly?"

He started answering, then stopped, then tried again. As he did, he accidentally waved the light bulb, still glowing, in front of me. My eyes followed the light bulb, still startled by his power. Suddenly it stopped glowing and he gave me a goofy smile. "I guess I'll just tell you. I'm not a bad person; I'm a very good person. I'm a whitelighter."

"A what?"

"A whitelighter.

"Yeah right. I mean up until today, I thought you were a handyman, and now I find out that you're a…

"Whitelighter." he repeated.

"A whitelighter." I repeated, still confused, since there was no mention of whitelighters in the Book. "What exactly is a whitelighter?"

"Well, we're really just messengers. Guides." I must have still looked confused, because he kept trying to explain. "Think of us as guardian angels for good witches. Your tea is cold."

"Tea?" I turned to where he was pointing. There was a cup of tea sitting on the foyer table. There was no saying how long it had been sitting there. Leo walked over to it and waved his hand. Immediately the tea began to steam.

"Wow!" I cried. "Well, you are handy!" and he smiled a little at that. "So, all this time, you knew who we really were?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I was sent to watch over you and your sisters when you first came into your powers. You know, help out wherever I could."

"Sent by who?" I wanted to know.

"Whom," he corrected and I stuck my tongue out at him--he sounded too much like Prue! "They're a group of elder whitelighters. They're just known as the Elders. You were never supposed to find out. I screwed up and got caught."

"So, what?" I asked. "You're here again to help us out with something else?"

"Uh, actually I'm here to help a boy named Max."

"MAX? Wait. That's the…the…"

He nodded. "The spirit board. I know. See, Max is a budding good witch new to his powers. But he's very young and vulnerable. And he's in serious trouble. Someone wants to take advantage of his gift."

"So why don't you help him?" I wanted to know.

"I did," he explained. "I made sure Prue received his cry for help. That's why I was sent here. That's all I'm supposed to do for now. The rest is up to Prue."

"Yeah, but Prue doesn't know anything about him. She doesn't even know that he's a little boy."

"Well, she will. In the mean time, you must help me keep my secret or I could get into trouble." and I grinned, glad I wasn't the only one who got in trouble with my elders! "No, I'm serious, Phoebe. Piper and Prue can never know what I really am."

"Me?" I asked. "Keep a secret? Hel-LO! Wrong Halliwell!"