CHAPTER 14: LOST FAMILY WOES WRITTEN BY CLAIRE
An hour later Phoebe was laying in Dan's arms. Her usual smile had returned and Dan was lying stroking her back. He looked over at her and with his free hand he brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes.
"You are so beautiful Miss Halliwell" He said kissing her lips tenderly.
"Thank you Mr. Brewster." She said giggling.
"I guess we better get dressed, I have duties. Captains going to be wondering were I am by now."
Dan said as he peeled himself away from Phoebe and got his clothes on. Phoebe did the same, but into a summery dress, and not the one she wore for the ball.
"Yea my sister's are going to be suspicious too" She said laughing.
What happened next happened so fast, Phoebe heard a knock on the cabin door and Prue's voice on the other side, but all of a sudden, a dark figure appeared in the room, making Dan gasp. Phoebe screamed as a fireball was thrown and it hit Dan square in the chest. He burst into flames and vanished as Prue threw the door open and threw the demon into the wall. He stumbled up and after looking at Prue and Phoebe he shimmered out. Phoebe screamed louder as hot tears fell down her cheeks. Prue grabbed her in her arms. Falling to the floor Prue held Phoebe while she screamed and shook in pain.
A few days later, the girls were back home, Phoebe had stayed mainly in her room. Prue and Piper were worried about her, Brenda called daily, to enquire as to her wellbeing.
Phoebe was lying on her bed, thinking back to what she told the captain about Dan. A passenger had informed him that she had seen Dan leave with Phoebe, and the captain had sought Phoebe out. Phoebe had lied and told him that Dan had escorted her to her cabin and left. The captain had believed her and gone on his way. The last she heard they were treating it as a 'man overboard' situation, when they hadn't been able to locate him. At the present moment she was laying on her bed, a large pillow tucked under her chin and tears silently falling down her cheeks. She couldn't get that look of terror on Dan's face as he burned out of her mind.
Piper and Prue entered her room.
"Knock, knock, can we come in?" Piper asked.
Phoebe just nodded her head and her sister's walked toward her. Prue sat on the bed and placed her arm around Phoebe's shoulder, causing her to lean into her. Piper took hold of her hand.
"Are you coming for something to eat, Phoebe, you haven't eaten since we got home?" Prue asked concerned.
"I'm not hungry." Phoebe replied.
"Please, for me?" Prue begged, putting on her best puppy-dog face.
Phoebe looked at her, and couldn't help but grin, Prue always knew how to get her own way.
"Ok, just a little bite. If you promise to stop with that face." Phoebe said hugging Prue before getting up of the bed.
Prue followed but swayed and had to sit back down on Phoebe's bed again.
"Woah, dizzy spell." Prue said standing again, shaking her head then looking at her sister's who grabbed her arms looking concerned said.
"Don't worry, it's probably too much sun. Come on Pheebs, waffles a la Prue coming up."
Grabbing Phoebe's hand Prue led her downstairs. Reaching the kitchen Phoebe sat down at the table while Prue went about preparing a meal for her.
"So waffles and bacon with egg on top sound ok?" Prue asked.
"Sure, but can you do me a favor? Let Piper cook it." Phoebe said grinning at Prue.
Prue turned and looked at her, placing her hand on her chest she feigned hurt.
"Phoebe honestly, I'm hurt, do you not like my cooking?"
"Not as much as Piper's" She said grinning.
"Oh..you..oh" Prue said grinning then throwing a dish towel at her.
Piper took up the position of chef while Prue sat down next to Phoebe.
"So you and Jamie? That was pretty serious between you two wasn't it? Is he going to come visit?"
"He only lives in the town over. It's amazing, he's been so near all this time and we happen to meet on a cruise liner. It's insane." Prue said smiling.
"So you think he's a keeper then?" Piper asked while flipping bacon in a pan.
"It's a definite possibility. I just don't know how to tell him about our secret is all?" Prue said looking away thoughtfully.
"I told Dan." Phoebe said, Prue and Piper looked at her.
"You did? How did he take it?" Piper asked.
"Well, we made love afterwards so I think he took it quite well." Phoebe said looking down at her nails.
Prue knew she was dwelling on his death again. She pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back.
"It's so unfair sis, you finally find a guy, and evil takes him from you, it's just....so unfair." Prue said still hugging her.
"I know. Ok what's say we eat then go do some sister-time shopping. I could really do with some new outfits, don't know 'bout you guys.!" Phoebe said after pulling away from Prue, but keeping hold of her hand.
"Sounds good to me, they have a new mall opening in south bay, we could check that out." Prue said.
"Great." Piper said.
An hour later they were pulling into south bay mall, They parked up the car and went in. Looking around they saw it was packed with people. They saw a bloomingdales and headed towards it. People were pushing and Phoebe was getting a little irate until she was nudged by a young woman with long brown hair.
Suddenly she was seeing her mom and her mom's old white lighter Sam, holding a baby in their arms. Just as soon as it had come, it left her. The young woman whispered 'sorry' and went about her business. Prue stopped in front of her and looked into her face concerned at her sister's sudden obvious vision.
"What happened? What did you see?"
"I saw mom and Sam holding a baby." Phoebe replied.
"Sam, as in mom's white lighter Sam? That Sam?" Prue asked.
"Why would you see mom and Sam after knocking into that girl?" Piper asked
"Why are you asking me, how could I know, but it's what I saw." Phoebe replied, shocked.
Phoebe looked around, she couldn't see the girl anywhere. Allowing Piper to pull her into the shop, Phoebe tried to shake that vision, but she couldn't No matter how hard she tried, she knew it meant something. She just had to find out what.
Phoebe spent the rest of the shopping trip not really concentrating, she couldn't shake the feeling that that girl had given her. Prue brought her round when she poked her, making Phoebe jump.
"Hey, what was that for?" Phoebe asked Prue, rubbing her side.
"I have asked your opinion on this dress twice and you have just stood there blankly, snap out of it Phoebe, that girl is gone."
"I can't Prue, and the dress is nice, I have to go look for her." Phoebe said,
Without another word she left Prue standing there, open mouthed, watching her back as she rushed off. Piper walked over to Prue.
"What's her hurry?"
"She's going to look for that girl." Prue said her face frowning.
"Are you worried?" Piper asked.
"When are you going to learn, I'm always worried.... but seriously. Joking aside, I'm worried she's doing this so she doesn't have to think about Dan. I mean she hasn't really talked about what happened to me. Has she to you?" Prue asked looking at Piper.
"Not really, I figured we would just let her work through it, and be there if she wants to talk to us."
"Oh, well that's a given, but I think one of us should talk to her." Prue said, watching as Phoebe's back turned a corner.
"You want me too don't you?" Piper said looking at Prue
"Well, you two always were closer than me and her." Prue said with her best puppy-dog face.
Piper slapped her arm. And Prue jumped giving a little 'oh'.
"Ok I'll talk to her tonight, happy now?" Piper said, and turning quickly on her heel, went looking at clothes.
Phoebe looked in all the shops she could find, but the girl was nowhere in sight. She walked around looking until her legs hurt, finally giving up and heading back to the entrance to the mall, to wait for her sister's. As she was waiting she heard a faint scream that was coming from outside, sensing danger she rushed to where she heard it, and saw a woman being attacked. She had long dark hair and Phoebe recognized her immediately. Rushing to help, Phoebe kicked the attacker who turned round surprised at Phoebe's attack. Phoebe screamed at the girl to stay down, and, jumped up and flew at the guy, knocking him hard onto the ground. Shocked he shimmered out and Phoebe stood there breathing hard. Turning to face the girl she saw her crouched down, her arms over her head, shaking, and she rushed to her side.
"Are you ok?"
The girl stayed quiet, until Phoebe tried to put her hand on her shoulder, she flinched and moved away. Phoebe tried again.
"It's ok, he's gone. What happened, why did he attack you?"
"I....I....don't know, I was leaving the mall when he approached me, said he needed help, that his son was hurt. I followed, I was stupid, always have to help, way to go Paige, good going" She said getting worked up.
She looked up at Phoebe, slowly lowering her arms.
"If you hadn't been near, I don't know what he would have done to me, thank you, you saved my life. I was stupid to follow him." Paige said her eye's looking into Phoebe's eye's, Phoebe could see the gratitude in them.
"Paige, it wasn't your fault."
Phoebe helped her up and Paige brushed herself down.
"What is your name?"
"Oh, sorry, I'm Phoebe...Phoebe Halliwell." Phoebe said holding her hand out to Paige.
"Paige Matthews" Paige said taking hold of her hand, then jumping as Phoebe seemed to loose her breath.
Phoebe immediately saw her mom and Sam again, they were holding a baby and smiling down at her.
She opened her eyes and saw a scared Paige looking at her worriedly.
"Are you ok, Phoebe, you went all ...weird?" Paige asked.
"Er...um...er..do you need to be anywhere right now?" Phoebe asked.
"I have to get back to work why?"
"I...er...I have a friend in the police, I think he could help pick out the attacker...."
"No I don't think so, I don't want to go to the police, I just want to forget this happened...."
"Ok, well if you ever want to talk about it, you can find me most nights at p3, my sister owns it...."
"...Oh, I've been there, it's a great place."
"Well, my sister thanks you." Phoebe said laughing, Paige grinned.
"Well. I really better get going, I'm already late." Paige said starting to walk away.
"Hopefully I'll see you at p3 tonight." Phoebe called after her.
"Sure, why not." Paige said before waving and turning the corner.
Phoebe sighed and began walking back toward the mall. She saw her sister's waiting like they always did, and she rushed over to them.
"There you are, I was just about to call missing persons." Piper said hugging Phoebe.
"Did you find her then?" Prue asked.
"Oh I did better than that, I saved her." Phoebe said looking at her sister's shocked faces.
"What do you mean, what happened?" Prue asked again.
"Well I went looking for her yea."
"Yea..."
"I didn't find her, so I waited for you guys here, then I heard a scream and went to investigate, and saw her being attacked by a demon." Phoebe explained.
"By a demon, why would a demon attack her?"
"Maybe she's a witch and they want her power?" Piper suggested.
"No...No, she didn't seem to have one, but I'll tell you what else happened.....I had that same premonition, when I shook her hand."
"The one of mom and Sam?" Prue asked.
"That's the one, So I thought maybe when we get home, we could ask mom if she knows why a stranger would make me have a vision about her and Sam?" Phoebe asked, jumping on the balls of her feet.
"I think we better, you had that premonition for a reason, and we need to find out what mom knows." Prue said
The sister's all headed to Prue's car and they jumped in and drove home. Once they had all entered the manor they headed up to the attic, passing Leo, who had a bemused look on his face, when Piper just kissed him in passing. He watched as they ascended the attic stairs and decided to follow them, he was curious as to why they would need to go to the attic after a shopping trip. When he reached the attic he found Phoebe setting up white candles in a circle, and Piper and Prue flipping through the book.
"What's going on?"
"Summoning mom." Prue replied.
"Wait...why are you summoning Patty again? Did something happen?"
"You could say that..yea." Piper replied as Phoebe came and stood beside her and Prue. They said the spell.
"Here these words.
Hear my cry.
Spirit from the other side.
Come to me, I summon thee.
Cross now the Great Divide."
Swirling white lights filled the center of the circle of candles and Patty Halliwell appeared, she looked at her girls curiously.
"Girl's, why have you summoned me, has something happened?"
"Well no one's dead, or you would know about it right?" Phoebe said "We have a question for you."
"A... a question?" Patty said nervously.
"Yea, we would like to know why a total stranger, who bumped into Phoebe earlier today, would give her a vision of you and Sam with a baby." Prue asked, her face straight.