A/N: Thanks for the reviews in the previous chapter. Hope you enjoy this next one.


Chapter Twenty Eight: Ms. Hellfire (And A Witness Named Phoebe)

Multiple shots pursued the first. Phoebe and Paige had ducked down between the two sofas to avoid getting hit.

Prue and Piper must have heard the commotion, because they appeared at the living room entrance. Piper kept throwing up her hands, freezing each bullet that entered the living room. Prue used her telekinesis to deflect many of the bullets. Louis appeared to have been knocked unconscious by his injury. Paige grabbed Louis' hand as well as Phoebe's hand, orbing them out of the living room.

As Phoebe and Paige appeared with Louis in the dining room, Prue ran in and swept her arm outwards with great force, causing the contents of the table top to fly into the wall telekinetically. Phoebe and Paige used the new space on the table to place the injured Louis somewhere flat.

Piper made her way into the dining room.

'What is going on?' Piper shrieked.

'It's your fault for being care free about it being Friday the thirteenth!' said Phoebe. Then she shouted, 'Leo!'

'Why are you calling for Leo?' Paige asked.

'We don't exactly want your adoptive dad to die, do we?' said Phoebe. 'Leo!'

'Oh crap!' said Prue, sweeping her arm forward, telekinetically pushing Louis off of the table onto the floor. Fortunately, Prue had been looking out the dining room window, while the others had been talking. 'Duck!'

All four sisters ducked to the ground as a tirade of bullets came blasting through the window.

'Since when did demons use guns?' Piper yelled over the sound of gunshots.

'Take my hands and someone reach across to Le- Louis!' said Paige.

After this hurried instruction, Prue and Piper each took one of Paige's hands. Phoebe took hold of Louis tie, which she was just about able to reach as they were ducked down on the other side of the table from where Louis lay unconscious. With her other hand, Phoebe grabbed Prue's free hand. Knowing that everyone was ready, Paige orbed them all to the safety of the attic.

Prue ran straight to the attic door as soon as everyone stood up.

'Where are you going?' Piper asked Prue. 'We can't go back down there with someone shooting at the house!'

'The fact is that someone's shooting at the house,' said Prue. 'I have to go down there. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I can use my telekinesis to divert any bullets away from myself.'

'Let me come down with you,' said Piper. 'I can freeze them.'

Prue hesitated to contemplate this. 'Okay. Let's go.'

Prue opened the attic door and ran out. Piper followed her, shutting the attic door behind them. Phoebe and Paige were now alone in the attic with the unconscious Louis. Louis was face down on his front. Therefore the bullet hole in the back of his head – which was so low that it could be defined as on his neck – was visible to both Phoebe and Paige.

'Leo!' Phoebe began shouting again. 'Ugh! Why's he not an –' Phoebe paused as she stared down in shock at Louis' neck. The area where the bullet had gone in began to shine with a golden glow. This was followed up by the wound disappearing as Louis' neck healed.

Slowly Louis sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. 'Ow. What happened, Pai –' Louis stopped when he saw Phoebe looking down at him. Phoebe had gone pale.

Phoebe looked from Louis to Paige a few times before resting her eyes on Paige. 'I thought you said he was mortal! Unless an invisible white lighter just healed him, I believe he just self-healed! What mortal does that?' Phoebe was reasonably a little freaked out.

Louis got to his feet, still rubbing the back of his neck. 'Phoebe, relax. There's nothing to worry about.'

'There's plenty to worry about,' said Paige. 'Including the gun blazing downstairs.'

'Gun..? Gun… Gun!' Louis said a little repetitively until he remembered why he had been temporarily injured and unconscious.

'Is anyone going to explain your adoptive dad to me?' said Phoebe. 'You don't seem nonplussed by your mortal adoptive dad self-healing himself, Paige!'

'I'll explain everything later, Pheebs. I promise,' said Paige. 'Just calm down and if Prue or Piper ask, tell them Leo came, healed, and left, okay?'

Phoebe took a deep breath to calm down a little and then said, 'Okay.'

Phoebe, Paige, and Louis approached the attic door and listened against it for any signs of what was going on downstairs. The sound of bullets were still occurring. A few shrieks from Piper were heard followed by Prue shouting over the sound of the bullets to instruct Piper through the maze of flying bullets. Then all went silent.

Paige strained her ear as she listened for any sound coming from downstairs.

'What do you think is going on down there?' whispered Paige.

'Sshh!' said Phoebe, trying to listen for any sounds from downstairs.

Everything in the manor had gone so quiet that the sound of a door opening on the main floor was audible from the attic. Footsteps were audible walking along the main floor. The echoing steps sounded like high heels. Prue and Piper had not been wearing high heels that morning. A final gun shot was heard quickly followed by the sound of a body dropping to the floor.

Phoebe, Paige, and Louis exchanged anxious looks. The question floating through each of their minds was very likely to be: Who got shot? and Are Prue and Piper okay?

'Prue and Piper aren't injured. They're fine,' said Louis, quickly opening the attic door and running down the steps.

Phoebe looked around at Paige. 'How did he know that they are fine and were not hit?'

'Er, you know when I said I would explain later? Your newest question comes under that category,' said Paige. She quickly left the attic at a fast pace, running down the steps. Phoebe followed.


Phoebe, Paige, and Louis found Prue and Piper in the dining room. They were crouching over a woman who was lying on the floor. A gun lay on the floor not far from the body. Paige stepped around the pieces of glass and many bullets that littered the floor as she made her way over to Prue and Piper. Phoebe and Louis followed. Piper stood up to face Phoebe, Paige, and Louis, while Prue remained on the floor, looking through the dead woman's pockets.

'Louis, you're fine? Did Leo..?' began Piper, but before she could finish, Phoebe said:

'Leo did a bit of a heal-and-run.'

Piper frowned. 'He wasn't interested in finding out about the gun fight going on down here? He didn't care that we were being ambushed by a hit woman? Or should I say hit demon? Then again, what demons use guns?' Piper paused to contemplate the fact that the still body on the ground could be human. 'Do demons always have to disappear in flames on vanquish?'

Louis nodded. 'Demons disappear in flames when vanquished in order to help avoid magical exposure.' When he received a surprised look from Piper, Louis added, 'I have learnt a lot about demons over the last couple of decades – after being married to a witch and then being good friends with a magical family, you learn a lot.'

Piper seemed to accept this explanation. However Phoebe was glaring at Paige. Paige returned an expression to the glaring sister which said Later. Phoebe sighed and dropped the glare.

'Oh! We – we – we murdered a human being!' Piper squeaked in terror.

'Piper, try to calm down a little,' said Louis. 'She was trying to kill you. It was self-defence.' Louis was about to lean forward to give Piper a consoling hug, but Paige purposefully stopped him. Louis seemed to keep ignoring two important factors: One – He was currently under a guise, so no one except Paige (and possibly Prue – if Paige's suspicions were correct – and possibly Phoebe – if everything she had witnessed so far that morning had led her to the correct answer) knew that he was Leo. Therefore hugging Piper was a definite no; and two – Piper was dating Dan, so would not be welcoming to a hug from Leo, even if she did know it was him. 'Do you have any cops that know your secret? You're going to need some help.'

Prue stood up. She had finally finished rooting through the hit woman's pockets. Prue now held the hit woman's purse in her hands.

Prue looked over at Louis and said in reply to his question: 'We can't use the Portland police service for a San Francisco situation, so Andy is out of the question.' Prue turned to Piper. 'Piper, go and ring Darryl. We need his help. Ask him to come straight here.'

Piper nodded silently. She took one last glance down at the hit woman before fleeing the dining room for the refuge of the hallway where she would find the phone.

Prue emptied the contents of the purse onto the dining room table. Louis stood back a little while Prue, Phoebe, and Paige examined the items that had fallen onto the table.

Phoebe had picked up the hit woman's multiple I.D. cards, which suggested she was used to taking on multiple aliases. Paige's eyes widened in shock as she picked up a throwing star that had been amongst the purse's contents. Phoebe put the I.D. cards down to pick up a key she had noticed and pointed it out to her sisters. The key belonged to a room at Sutro Heights Apartments.

Meanwhile Prue had come across the hit woman's day planner. Prue was flicking through it and came to a stop on a page.

'She had our names – or one of us, at least – on a list…' muttered Prue. At these words, Phoebe and Paige put down the keys and the throwing star to take a look over Prue's shoulders at the planner. Louis also took a step forward to peer at the mentioned list.

There were twelve names on the list. Nine had been crossed out. The three remaining names not yet crossed out were: P. Halliwell, P. Wyatt, and M. Steadwell. Paige suddenly did a double take as she realised what she had just read.

Prue did not seem fazed, but Phoebe did. Phoebe was joining the dots in her head. She suddenly went extremely pale and started to babble a little in shock as she hastily looked from Paige to Louis. Phoebe's breathing rate was rapidly accelerating from the shock of realising the truth.

'Paige, take her to the attic. Now,' said Prue, who was hastily applying a pen to that particular name on the list. She was attempting to change it by lengthening the first vertical line in W and adding two horizontal lines to make it an I. The second and third vertical lines of W were also lengthened to look like an l next to another l. Prue then rounded the top of the y to make it into a g. All in all, she had changed the name Wyatt into the name Illgatt.

'Prue..?' said Paige. Phoebe appeared too busy struggling to breathe to take any more pat in the conversation. The sudden revelation of the familial connection between Paige and the man that Phoebe believed to be a glamouring Leo was a lot for her to process. Meanwhile Paige was perplexed by Prue's calmness and willingness to conceal the secret.

Prue already knew, Paige thought.

Piper returned to the dining room. 'Darryl's on his way…' Piper trailed off when she noticed Phoebe hyperventilating. 'Phoebe, what's wrong?'

Prue had put the pen down, but her eyes were still on the day planner. 'Phoebe's just having a little panic attack. Paige will be taking her upstairs with Louis now.'

Paige noticed the indirect order from the eldest sister. Slowly she took hold of Phoebe's shoulder. Louis gripped Paige's arm. Paige was a little too startled still to react fast enough to orb upstairs. Therefore Louis initiated the orbing, not that anyone in the dining room except for Paige noticed.


Phoebe, Paige, and Louis appeared in the attic. As soon as the orb was over, Phoebe ran to the other side of the attic and leant up against a cabinet, facing Paige and Louis. Phoebe's breathing rate was still increased and she was still not ready to speak coherently in between her gasps for air.

Paige and Louis exchanged anxious glances. Paige decided that she was the best one to start speaking.

'Phoebe, are you okay? Do you want a glass of water or something?' asked Paige.

Phoebe glared at Paige before shaking her head.

'Okay. You need a little bit more time. That's okay…' said Paige, trying to put on a smile.

Phoebe was still breathing very heavily, but had managed to slow it down enough to manage comprehendible words. With her eyes bulging in fury, Phoebe uttered, 'Now's later, Paige!' Phoebe coughed for a few seconds as her breath finally caught up with her. She pointed at Louis. 'Th – Th – That's Leo, isn't it? He's gl - glamouring, isn't he?' Phoebe paused, waiting for a response. Paige nodded sheepishly, while Louis took off the glamour, turning himself back into Leo. Phoebe decided to continue. 'White lighters can't die… Only the poison of a dark lighter's arrow can fatally wound them… So it should be obvious a wound from a mortal weapon like a gun would not harm you… It's a totally different question if I were to ask how a dead person could actually be knocked unconscious…'

Phoebe began to pace around the attic as she thought through what she was going to say next. She was no longer making any eye contact with Paige or Leo. Paige and Leo were now both backed up against a wall as they wanted to give Phoebe as much space to pace as possible.

Phoebe stopped pacing and looked directly at her younger sister and her white lighter. 'Paige Wyatt. Wyatt. Wyatt.' Phoebe paused to shake her head. 'Every time we think you have no more secrets, another – even bigger – one comes bursting around the corner!'

'Phoebe, cool your voice just a little. Piper's downstairs and –' Paige began, but stopped as Phoebe's cold glare returned.

Phoebe flailed her arms about as she expressed her frustration. 'Piper has to know! I don't understand why you never told us that Leo adopted you! It makes so much sense now that you were being trained as a white lighter by him even before you knew you were magical at all! He was just using his adopted daughter to help him learn about his charges!'

'Please, Phoebe, we understand your frustration, but we need you to speak quieter,' said Leo.

'I don't have to comply with anything the two of you say!' said Phoebe, shaking her head.

Paige gulped. The idea that she had only turned up in her sisters' lives initially to help Leo out with his new charges had stung… but it was true.

'Phoebe,' began Paige. Her voice was quite hoarse and as low as a whisper as she tried to hold back tears. 'If Leo had never adopted me, I may have never found my real family… Prue, Piper, and you…' Paige paused to contemplate such an existence; the existence where her sisters did not know her, like that faked future. 'I may have never found out about magic or the destiny that I share with my amazing sisters.'

'Paige, I am grateful for that part,' mumbled Phoebe, shielding her eyes with her hand as she concentrated on what she was saying. 'What bugs me is that you kept this from us for so long. You obviously came here today with the premise of lying. I mean, I doubt Leo was going to glamour back into himself during dessert and go 'it was me all along!' like it's all been a light hearted joke.'

Paige shuffled her feet a little guiltily. She did not know what to say. She suddenly heard a creak beneath her. Looking down at the attic floorboards, she noticed one was loose. Paige desperately wished that she was small enough to hide away in the space beneath that floorboard so as she did not have to sit through the torture of Phoebe's reaction to this revelation.

'Piper has to know! You dated her, Leo! You dated your adopted daughter's sister! Isn't there a law against that sort of thing?' asked Phoebe, a little disgusted.

Leo held his hands up in the air innocently. 'I am not related to Paige. I just raised her. There's nothing wrong with me dating Piper.'

Phoebe shook her head and looked away from the two guilt-ridden liars that stood in the attic with her. Suddenly she looked back towards the two of them, her eyes widening in shock as she realised what she had not yet covered in her ranting spree.

'Prue knew?!' Phoebe almost shouted in a high pitch shrill.

It was Paige's turn to hold her hands up innocently. 'To be fair, I never told her, and I did not even know for sure that she knew until the way that she acted so oblivious to the fact today. I still need to figure out how she found out and why she is so willing to help me conceal it.'

'Well, we may as well find out now,' said Phoebe, marching towards the attic door. 'We may as well tell Piper in the process!'

Paige sighed. She was not exactly going to stop Phoebe from telling Piper, considering it seemed that two out of three Halliwell sisters had already found out the big secret. Phoebe was already halfway down the attic steps before Paige decided to turn to Leo to see if he was going to join them back downstairs for the exposure.

'I should go,' said Leo quietly.

'You don't want to stay for the wrath of Piper and Phoebe? Add that to whatever torturous scheme of payback for lying Prue has up her sleeve? The fact that she knows but did not tell us she knows probably means her scheme involves making me insane with guilt,' said Paige, trying to lessen the impending downstairs atmosphere with humour.

'I – I can't,' said Leo. 'I don't want to be there when Piper finds out… The look on her face…' With a shameful expression, Leo orbed out.

Paige wondered for a brief second or two whether she would be better off orbing away too instead of facing her sisters. Making the crucial decision, Paige headed for the attic door. She knew she had to face the reaction that she would find down those dreaded stairs.