Charmed Reborn Chapter Twenty-Five: "Problems".
Will Marks was at the hospital, it had seemed like forever since he'd seen Prue smile, it had only been just over a month, a long, long month.
He sipped from his cup of tea and contemplated for a while, what to do with himself should Prue's sisters decide to withdraw care, he had no say it in, but he hoped they wouldn't give up on her yet.
He rubbed his eyes, he was exhausted, the nurse had recommended he go back to his hotel for some rest but he just couldn't face it, he would never forgive himself if something happened and he hadn't been there. He shut his eyes, breathed and concentrated on the hospital, this had been his past-time for the past month, using his power to sense the building, sense the people in it, it made him feel like he was providing security for Prue, even though he knew it was pointless, the demons were gone, who would be after The Charmed Ones now?
He could sense someone in Prue's room, it was Paige, that's ok he thought, just one of Prue's sisters, though something was off about her, her aura felt….stressed, contaminated, if he could describe it to another person it was like Paige's base white aura had hints of red and yellow, like a watercolour painting.
Something didn't feel right, he drained his cup and threw it in the trash, before making his way back to Prue's room.
Paige stood to the right of Prue's bed, her eyes unfocused, glazed over, where was she? It was like she was glued to the spot, unable to move her own body, like she'd been drugged, but she hadn't, had she?
Feeling started to return to her body, her hands twitched, slowly she could make out the sound of a beeping machine, she slowly turned her head, her mouth slowly opened in horror, it was Prue's life support machine, it was going crazy, a thin line was blaring across it, she wasn't breathing. Paige awoke from her stupor and spurned into action, she ran to the door, threw it open and yelled for help.
Several nurses and a doctor came running in.
"Paddles!" The doctor yelled.
"Oh God, what did I do?" Paige asked herself quietly.
A man appeared in the doorway, Will.
"Paige?" he asked.
"What's going on?" his eyes filling with terror as the doctor charged the paddles.
"No wait!" Paige yelled, she raised both her arms and orbs surrounded the hospital staff as well as Will, and they were flung onto the ceiling, staring down in horror.
"What is this?" A nurse shrieked in fear.
Suddenly the woman froze, everyone did but Will, who continued to struggle free of the binding orbs.
"We'd like the answer to that as well" A voice said from behind, Piper.
"What the hell have you done?" She asked in cold anger as her and Phoebe shoved past Paige and to the side of Prue's bed.
"I don't….I don't know" Paige said quietly, confused.
"Phoebe she's dying" Piper said in panic.
"No she isn't" Phoebe said with determination, thrusting her hand onto Prue's forehead and closing her eyes.
Prue looked up into the sky, a warm, calming presence was echoing through the clouds.
"Prue" it whispered, "follow my voice Prue".
"Phoebe?" Prue asked, wondering what the heck was going on.
"Feel me Prue, feel my emotions, and Piper's" Phoebe said, grabbing onto Piper's shoulder in the human plane.
Prue cast her heart upwards, she could feel her sisters, they were calling to her, guiding her, it was now or never.
She raised her arms and the flew into the sky at a rapid pace. The wind stinging her eyes.
"Come to us Prue" Phoebe yelled.
And she did.
Prue gasped as she awoke, sitting bolt upright, trying to catch her breath.
"Leo!" Piper yelled.
Leo appeared instantly, "Oh my God is she alright?!" he asked as he saw Prue awake.
"Not sure, memory dust now, explain later" Piper said, pointing upwards.
Paige stood there, tears flooding her face, "I don't know what happened" she gasped out through sobs.
"Paige, listen to me, take my hand" Leo asked.
Paige looked into Leo's eyes and composed herself, nodding, she took his hand and let the healing touch comfort her.
"Paige look up" he said.
"Get those people down, use your power, guide them down gently".
Paige used her other hand and lowered it, slowly freeing the people from the orbs and floating them down onto the floor.
"Good job" Leo said, giving her a small smile.
He produced a bag from his pocket and threw what looked like colorful dust over the people's heads, erasing their short term memories.
Paige took a step towards Prue.
"Stay back" Piper snarled.
"I….I just want to make sure she's ok" Paige stammered.
"She is, and no thanks to you, get out" Piper ordered.
Paige grabbed her stuff and ran, tears flowing down her face.
"Something isn't right here Piper, I could sense something off with Paige" Phoebe said carefully.
"Something's off alright" Piper muttered.
"Prue can you hear us?" Phoebe asked gently.
Prue nodded, smiling, which quickly turned into a frown.
"What is it?" Piper asked.
Prue opened her mouth, "I….um….I can't think of the word" she said, panic reaching her eyes.
"What does that mean? What does she mean?" Piper asked Leo.
"The doctor should take a look" Leo suggested.
"Your sister's temporal lobe shows some signs of damage, her memories are hazy, and her speech is sluggish, this is probably caused by the hypoxia she suffered after being dragged out of the water" the doctor explained.
"You couldn't have mentioned this before" Piper seethed.
"Ms. Halliwell, until today quite frankly, I believed your sister was to put it mildly " a goner" he said, getting frustrated
"The good news is this isn't usually permanent, it will take her some time to remember, to get her old patterns back in place, but she'll get there eventually".
"Thank you doctor, for everything" Phoebe said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Phoebe turned to Piper, "now we need to talk about Paige" she said quietly
Piper glared at her, "what about her?" she said, a cold rage settled in her tone.
"I know you think Paige was trying to hurt Prue, but I felt no negativity from her, no, I take that back, there was something there Piper, inside her, it made her attack those people" Phoebe explained.
"What like a" Piper gulped, "demon?" she asked.
"Not exactly, I could just feel some kind of emotional presence that wasn't hers, I've never felt or seen anything like it".
"I think she might need our help Piper".
"Phoebe, I want to help Paige as well, but right now Prue needs us" Piper said desperately.
Phoebe nodded, "she needs you".
"What does that mean?" Piper asked.
"Come on, its no secret, you and Prue have always been best friends, and I've always kind of felt like the odd one out" Phoebe said, almost guiltily.
"Phoebe if we've ever said or done anything that made you feel like you aren't our sister then I'm so sorry" Piper said, her eyes tearing up slightly.
"That's not it Piper, and I don't have a problem with it, its only natural that certain family members will get on better with others, but I feel like I have a real connection with Paige, I know you haven't spent a lot of time with her, but she reminds me a lot of me, but younger" Phoebe said sheepishly.
Piper nodded, "ok, go and find her, make sure she's ok, I'll tell Prue you went home to get some of her things".
Phoebe gave Piper a quick hug, "you're the best" and power walked away to the elevator.
"Where's Phoebe?" Prue asked as Piper returned.
"Oh, she just went home to pick some of your stuff, the doctor says you might be here for a few more days".
"Oh, that's nice of her, Piper, is something going on between you two?" Prue wondered.
Piper turned her face, not wanting give anything away, Prue was excellent at reading people.
"Piper" Prue said in that final tone she usually used when she wasn't impressed.
Piper sighed.
"The past month has been rough to be honest Prue, me and Phoebe….had differing opinions on what to do about your situation".
Prue raised her eye brows in expectation.
"Phoebe wanted to switch off your life support" Piper said, her eyes closing at the same time so she didn't have to see Prue's expression.
"I see" Prue said, sinking down into her pillow.
"I wanted to wait" Piper continued.
"Piper, I don't want you two to fall out, I was gone for a whole month, from what I can tell the neuro…." Prue looked downwards in confusion, not able to remember the term.
"The neurologist?" Piper suggested.
Prue nodded eagerly.
"He told me I should have died, that I had almost no chance, Phoebe is an emotional person, she probably didn't want to see me hooked up to a machine, maybe suffering for God knows how long, I understand why she wanted to switch off the support".
"You do?" Piper said, disbelief apparent in her voice.
Prue nodded, "for what its worth, if it had been you in this bed I would have sided with Phoebe".
"Well then thank God it was you" Piper said, half-joking.
Piper looked around, "hey, where did Will go?"
"I sent him back to his hotel for some sleep, the poor guy looked exhausted".
"He's been here every day for the past four weeks" Piper said.
Prue blushed and looked away.
Paige slammed her apartment door shut and sunk to the floor, she let the tears flow silently down, she didn't know what was going on, she remembered being at the apartment and finding Lucas' body, and then….nothing, her mind was totally blank, the next thing she knew she was in Prue's hospital room, orbing people up onto the ceiling. If Leo hadn't been there to calm her down then God knows what would have happened to those people, she shuddered.
She got up slowly and made her way over to the bathroom, maybe a shower would make her feel
better, all she knew was that Prue was awake, so thing couldn't be all that bad could they?
She would call for Leo later and explain what happened, maybe he could help her piece things together, he's been a whitelighter for a long time and had many charges, surely one of them had experienced random, unexplainable memory loss.
Twenty minutes later Paige felt a lot better, she'd had her shower and thrown on some pyjamas, she'd just sat down when a soft knock surprised her, someone was at her door.
"Paige?" Phoebe's voice called from the other side.
Paige bit her lip, she considered not answering, pretending she wasn't in.
"I know you're in there I can sense you".
Darn it.
She got up and made her way to the door, opening it a crack, Phoebe was there, a sad but gentle smile on her face.
"Can we talk?" she asked.
Paige nodded and let her in.
"I'll make coffee" Paige said, she was going to need it.
Prue laid in bed, looking up at the ceiling, she remembered everything about the ghostly plane, being on the run, but her brain was still foggy, she felt like she'd been told something important, but she just couldn't quite grasp it, she could taste it on her tongue, one thing for sure is she knew she couldn't sleep, she'd spent a month in this bed, she didn't want to be in it anymore.
She threw back the covers and made to stand up when the door to her room opened and Will walked in. Prue breathed in, taking in the sight, she had to admit, she'd forgotten what a babe he was. Wavy brown hair sat on a head with high cheekbones and soft blue eyes. He looked like a catalogue model.
"I'm glad you're awake" he said in that gentle British accent she loved.
"Piper said you've been here almost every day" Prue said quietly.
Will nodded, "how could I not be?"
Prue laid back down, she wasn't sure she was ready for this.
But she didn't want to waste anything, she'd learnt very recently that life could be so delicate, she was going to accept everything and anything that came her way if it was positive.
She reached out her hand and took a hold of Will's.
"Hold me?" she asked nervously.
Will eyes looked like a thousand fireworks had just been set off at once.
He shrugged off his jacket and laid down next to Prue, holding her against him gently. Within moments she had returned to sleep, despite not wanting to.
Phoebe's eyes widened, "you don't remember at all?"
Paige shook her head, she had told Phoebe everything that had happened, she hoped she'd believe her.
"I did sense something wrong inside you when we were at the hospital earlier" Phoebe said, sighing, putting her mug of coffee down.
"Give me your hands" she offered her own.
Paige looked warily.
"I'm an empath, I can sense emotions, feelings, maybe by using that in conjunction with my visions, I can get some kind of sense of what happened….help fill in the blanks?"
Paige sighed in relief, Phoebe believed her, she put down her own mug and held out her hands.
As soon as Phoebe grabbed hold she was put into some kind of trance.
Paige shook with nerves.
"It's ok sweetie, don't be worried, this won't hurt, I'm just trying to see" Phoebe explained.
Paige breathed out slowly and let Phoebe work her magic.
A moment later Phoebe shrieked in pain, knocking her mug off the arm of the couch.
Paige stood in panic, letting go of her hands.
"What's wrong?" she yelled at Phoebe.
"I don't know" Phoebe stammered out, "my head feels like someone is shoving shards of glass into it" she got out though gritted teeth.
Suddenly a large cascade or orbs appeared behind the couch, and slowly materialized into Piper and Leo.
"What are you doing here?" Paige asked quickly.
"I could feel Phoebe's pain" Leo said, hurriedly making his way around the couch to lay his healing hands on Phoebe.
"Hmph, figures you'd have something to do with this" Piper muttered.
Paige had had enough.
"You know what lady? If you say one more damn thing I will fling your sorry ass out of my apartment and onto the ground, try freezing that" Paige yelled, exhilarated at finally getting her emotions out.
Piper stood dumbfounded.
"How dare you! You endangered Prue and now you've got Phoebe in pain, what am I supposed to think?" Piper yelled back.
"Oh let's face it Piper, you've hated me from the moment you met me and I have no idea why, so whatever it is just get over it" Paige finished.
Piper momentarily looked offended and then walked around the couch to be with Leo and Phoebe.
"It's ok, I'm alright now" Phoebe said, slowly getting to her feet.
"What happened?" Piper asked quietly.
"We need to take Paige back to the manor" Phoebe said.
"What?!" Piper shouter in disbelief.
"There is something seriously wrong here Piper, I tried to use my power to work out what happened to Paige, why she turned off the machine, why she attacked those people, something compelled her to do it, I just can't figure out what" Phoebe explained quickly.
Paige folded her arms, giving Piper the smuggest face she could muster.
Piper rolled her eyes, "fine, but I still haven't told Prue about her yet".
"She'll be at the hospital another few days, we can deal with it then?" Leo offered.
"Pack some things Paige, we need to keep you safe for now" Phoebe said.
Paige nodded and walked to her bedroom to begin packing.
"Ae you sure this is a good idea?" Piper whispered.
"She's our sister Piper, and she needs our help, I told you at the hospital something was off and this just confirms it, something or someone made her to do what she did and took control".
"I'll go ask the elders while she packs" Leo said, orbing away.
The Angel of Destiny codenamed "D-3" looked down upon the Earth, and smirked.
"Things are going well I take it?" D-1 asked behind him.
"Oh yes, the sisters are taking Paige home, soon the power of three will be shattered, and there is nothing they can do to stop it".
End OF Chapter Twenty-Five, stay tuned for Chapter Twenty-Six, "The High Priestess".