Charmed Reborn Chapter Twenty-Nine, "Normality Strikes Again".
Phoebe paced back and forth around her bedroom, her hands tingling with anticipation, she sat down on the edge of her bed, then immediately stood back up, who was she kidding? She was terrified, her first real day on the job actually giving people advice, talking through their problems, seeing how she could help, she wasn't ready. She suddenly felt a pair of strong hands on her shoulders, squeezing lightly, she looked up, she had almost forgotten Paige was here.
"You are going to be amazing" she said slowly.
Phoebe huffed, "you don't know that" Phoebe said glumly.
Paige nodded, "I do so, I haven't known you a long time, but I know you were born to help people, look at how you've helped me these past couple of months".
Phoebe nodded half-heartedly, she faintly heard the front door shut, Prue and Piper must have left, Prue was nervous as well, it was her first day back at her job after her accident, Phoebe steeled herself, if Prue could make it back to work after all the injuries she sustained, then she could do this, if dating a one hundred year old demon assassin didn't make her qualified then what would?
"You're right" she said calmly.
"Will you drop me off?" she asked nicely, smiling as sweetly as she could.
"I can do better than that, grab your stuff" Paige instructed.
Phoebe complied, picking up her bag.
"What are you….." she began but couldn't finish as her and Paige were suddenly covered in blue orbs, when the orbs faded Phoebe felt sick, she was in the police station parking lot, before she could throw up Paige orbed away, hmph, she was just like Prue, Phoebe knew she had orbed her here on purpose so she couldn't change her mind in the car, how did Paige even manage that when their powers had been acting so strangely lately? She filed it away in the back of her mind, she had more important things to do right now, she marched into the police station to begin her new job as police counsellor.
"We got a real psycho for you today" an Inspector Phoebe had never seen before said as she walked in.
What on Earth was she in for?
She approached Kira, "nervous?" she asked.
Phoebe nodded, unable to speak much through fear of vomiting.
"Well prepare yourself" Kira warned, handing Phoebe a file.
She went to sit at her own desk and gasped slightly as she opened the file and gazed upon the photo staring back at her, she knew this man, everyone in town did, it had been a huge scandal months ago, his name was David McKane, he had been a doctor until he was caught purposely murdering dozens of patients under his care, not giving them correct treatment or botching their surgeries, he had been caught by an Intern and was arrested, he'd pleaded not guilty but the town had labelled him as a maniac serial killer.
Phoebe put down the file, they wanted her to see him? Someone awaiting trial for mass murder? How was she possibly going to help this man? This man who deserved life in jail or possibly worse, she stared at her blank computer screen, she didn't even know where to start. According to the file she was just going in today to assess whether or not it would be plausible that he was in fact, insane. Was she really qualified for this? Time to put her big girl boots on she thought as she grabbed the file and marched toward the back of the station, the interrogation rooms were back here.
"Ready?" a guard waiting outside room 3 asked.
Phoebe nodded, the guard opened the door for her and let her in, he shut the door behind her and Phoebe came face to face with a man for all she knew, was worse than almost any demon she had encountered.
"You're my shrink huh?" he asked politely.
Phoebe took her seat opposite him, he was cuffed to the table with both hands, she was safe, strange she thought, her powers had been weird lately, but she wasn't getting any bad vibes off this man, she hoped she'd at least have enough power for that.
She cleared her throat, "Mr McKane, my name is Phoebe, I'm here to assess your plea for innocence today" she said calmly.
He stared back blankly. He didn't look evil, if you could even look such a way, he looked defeated.
Phoebe put the file down and placed her hands together on the table where he could see them, "Why don't you tell me what happened?" she asked quietly.
"You didn't read my file?" he wondered.
Phoebe nodded, "it was cold, clinical, factual, I want to hear what happened with your own voice, with your own feelings".
"There's no point" he said glumly, "this city thinks I'm guilty, the evidence is pretty damning".
"So you're just outright admitting what you did it?" Phoebe queried.
"My lawyer wants me to plead insanity, but I'm not insane, I'm just guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time" he said, exasperated.
"I'm not the city, I'm just me, and I don't know if I think you're guilty or not, so tell me" Phoebe urged.
David nodded, "I was set-up by my boss, Dr Franklin Jones", "I found out he had been doing experiments on patients, altering drug dosages, seeing what people could handle, I threatened to go to the police, and he told me he'd kill my sister if I did".
"You're sister?" Phoebe asked, opening the file and gazing down the paragraphs, "there's no mention of your sister" she said evenly.
"It won't be in you file, my sister was at the hospital, awaiting a liver transplant, her liver had been almost destroyed by an auto-immune disease, she needed one desperately, I would have donated in a second if I were a match".
Tears began to fall from David's eyes, dampening the metal table beneath, "but she passed away six months ago, because Dr Jones intercepted an incoming liver that would have saved her, and redirected it to a different hospital, even though it was hers", David was trembling from grief.
"I found out what he had done and went to the police, but somehow when they pulled up the footage, it was me they were seeing on the camera altering medicines, I don't know how, it wasn't me" he said weakly.
Now Phoebe was suspicious, "did anything ever come of Dr Jones?" she asked.
"As far as I'm aware they investigated him shortly, found nothing and didn't bother with him again, but I know it was him, and I don't care how insane it makes me sound, I just want justice for my sister, and all those people he experimented with".
An hour later Phoebe sat back at her desk, something about this case was wrong, she had managed to pull up the footage the police had attained but it was pretty concrete, it showed David changing dosages of drugs in a lab, but it was weird that there was no other footage, no other cameras that had picked this up, she had asked Kira but she didn't know anything about it, this case was mostly done and dusted before she had even moved here.
She grabbed her bag and headed for the door, "hey where you off to?" Kira asked as she stalked past.
"Going to see another expert for some advice" Phoebe said, rushing out of the door.
"Elise Rothman?" Phoebe asked as she peered into the office before her, she was at The Bay Mirror newspaper downtown, this had been the paper that had broken the story, she needed to get more facts.
"That's what it says on my door" Elise replied sarcastically, "who are you?"
Maybe this wouldn't be so easy Phoebe thought as she held out her badge.
"I'm Phoebe Halliwell, a city counsellor, I was hoping to ask you a few questions about David McKane" she said as confidently as she could, she felt a little thrill at getting to hold out a badge, she had always been a little jealous when Darryl or Andy had done it.
Elise sighed and leaned back in her chair, "take a seat" she said pointing to the chair before her desk.
An hour later and Phoebe wasn't much closer, Elise had basically told her the same thing the file did, what was interesting was that the source of the tip had been anonymous, and no-one had ever been able to figure out who it had been, definitely suspect Phoebe thought, aside from that the only highlight of the trip was giving some slime-ball advice columnist a slap for telling her she had a great rack. If she had her powers she would have levitated his ass out the window. Well not really, but it was always nice to fantasize. She'd thought about calling her sisters but she didn't want to bother Prue on her first day back, not to mention she was sure that would break some kind of confidentiality clause, no, she would have to solo this one, that meant next up on her list was speaking to the intern that had supposedly caught David in the act.
"So you caught him?" Phoebe asked the meek looking female intern an hour later.
The woman nodded profusely, but Phoebe looked closely, she was sweating, "you seem nervous Audrey" Phoebe said quietly.
"N…no I'm not nervous, I just don't like being a….asked questions is all, this was a while ago for me now" she stammered.
"Hmm" Phoebe said, pretending to jot down some notes in her notebook.
"What are you writing?" Audrey asked, the wobble in her voice giving away her lack of composure.
Phoebe slammed the notebook shut and slammed it onto the table, they were in the hospital waiting room.
"I don't think you're telling me everything" Phoebe said as sternly as she possibly could.
Audrey gulped and looked from left to right, checking for an escape route Phoebe thought.
Phoebe suddenly got an idea, looking at Audrey's bracelet, "ooh how pretty" she said, grabbing Audrey's hand and pretending to study the craftsmanship, come on she thought, don't crap out on me now. Phoebe gasped and let Audrey's hand go as she felt the familiar rush of a premonition, she was still getting used to her now full color visions, especially now her powers were on the fritz she barely got them at all anymore. She paid close attention, the vision showed her what she was expecting, Audrey was taking an envelope full of cash from Dr Jones, sneaking it into her pocket and walking out of the hospital parking lot, he'd bribed her.
The vision ended and Phoebe looked upon the nervous intern with disgust, "admit it, you covered for him didn't you?"
Audrey quickly stood and charged off, Phoebe grabbed her things but Audrey had been too fast, she had disappeared behind a restricted door, she couldn't follow, but now she knew the truth.
"You need me to what?" Paige asked in disbelief, she and Phoebe were stood in the attic, in front of the book of shadows.
"I thought maybe you called me here because you chickened out of work or something".
"Gee Paige thanks for the vote of confidence" Phoebe drawled.
Paige at least had the good grace to look mildly guilty.
"Prue is busy with work and Piper and Leo are unreachable, and since our powers aren't working so well and yours seem okay I need your help, I can't risk this going wrong, a man's life is at stake" Phoebe pleaded.
"Okay, okay, chill out woman you had me at Prue's busy" Paige teased.
"Let's go" Phoebe said as she took Paige's hand, the rush of waviness erupted around her as her atoms scattered and they orbed across the city to the apartment of Dr Franklin Jones.
"I'm pretty sure this is called breaking and entering, and since you're in law enforcement now, I'd have thought that you'd frown upon this" Paige whispered in Phoebe's ear.
Phoebe shushed her and took her hand, leading her new half-sister through the hallway, "I have a bad feeling about this" Phoebe mumbled.
"Way to fill me with encouragement" Paige hissed.
After searching for almost ten minutes, they both met back in the living room, they hadn't found anything suspicious, though Phoebe did have a bad vibe about a part of the wall, which she relayed to Paige.
"The wall?" she asked, confused.
"Right here" Phoebe said, pointing to a patch of wall that had nothing on it, no paint, no wallpaper, no decorations or ornaments of any kind.
"It just feels out of place".
"It's a wall" Paige said, stating the obvious.
Phoebe rolled her eyes, "well obviously", she approached the wall and placed her hand on it only for the wall to begin to make a hissing noise and collapse in on itself, revealing a doorway.
"Well that was unexpected" Paige said.
"Now what?"
"Now we go in" Phoebe said, mustering up as much courage as she could.
She wished she hadn't.
Her and Paige gasped as they took in the magically hidden room, a large table sat in the middle, rust marks all over it, marks that could only have been left by blood.
"I'm gonna be sick" Paige gasped as she ran to the corner and vomited.
"Let it out sweetie" Phoebe said absent-mindedly as she scanned the dozens of shelves, jar upon jar sat on them, full of all kinds of things, herbs, spices, and she gulped as she began to see body parts, human body parts, predominately organs if she knew her biology.
"Well, well, well" said a gravelly voice behind them. The duo whirled round and came face to face with Dr Jones, "this will be fun" he smirked.
He stepped into the room, the door sealing itself shut behind him.
End of Chapter Twenty-Nine, stay tuned for Chapter Thirty, "Nightmare".
