Chapter 37

Piper drove up the street and came to a stop on the curb near an alley. Everyone got out of the car and looked around. "You sure this is the place?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, down that alley." Phoebe said.

"Thank god we didn't orb in." Paige said.

"Well, we couldn't." Leo said. "They would've known we were coming."

"Well, maybe they know already." Piper said.

Phoebe turned around to look at Piper. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, since when do Darklighters hang out in broad daylight like this? It could be a trap." Piper looked at Leo. "Maybe you should stay here."

"No, I'm the bait, remember? Besides, if it is a trap, you might need me to help you orb back." Leo said.

"Well, I got Phoebe." Paige said. "You get Piper out of here for Chris…. For Wyatt's sake."

Phoebe grabbed the potions bottles from Paige and they headed into the alley. "Let's just do this."

They walked into the alley. "I don't see anything." Paige said.

Piper looked up and saw a Darklighter standing on a rooftop above them. She waved her hands and blasted the Darklighter. A second Darklighter appeared next to him. "Uh…. you take Piper." Phoebe said to Leo.

Paige took Phoebe's hand and orbed her out of the alley and onto the rooftop where the second Darklighter lifted his crossbow to take aim. They both threw their potion vials at the two Darklighters, vanquishing them. A fourth Darklighter appeared behind Phoebe. From their vantage point below, Leo and Piper saw him and called out a warning. The Darklighter swung and hit Phoebe across the face. She flipped and fell over the side of the building onto the trash can below, rolling off it and landing on the ground. The Darklighter orbed out from the rooftop. Paige rushed to the side to look down into the alley as Piper and Leo rushed forward to check on Phoebe.

"Behind you!" Paige yelled.

Piper and Leo turned around as the Darklighter from the house raised his crossbow and took aim. Piper blasted him and he exploded. The blast from the explosion was greater than a normal vanquish. The fire rolled outward engulfing both Piper and Leo completely. The flames sucked inward into itself, then vanished completely. When it cleared, nothing remained.

"Piper!" Paige orbed down to the alley below. Phoebe, stunned by the fall, was just coming to. "Phoebe." Paige helped Phoebe only to find her palm covered in blood.

"Whoa." Phoebe said.

"Oh, my god, you're bleeding."

"Yeah. Uh. Maybe we should get me to the hospital."

Paige helped Phoebe to her feet. "Yeah. I got you." They made their way out of the alley and back to the parked car on the busy street. Paige opened the car door and helped Phoebe into the passenger seat. She shut the door behind her and ran around the car to the driver's side. She took off for the hospital, tires screeching, as fast as she could, swerving back into traffic and maneuvering around pedestrians and other cars alike.

The ER Doctor looked over Phoebe's x-rays up against the view box. "No broken bones, no internal bleeding. Other than a mild concussion, I'd say you're a very lucky woman."

"Great!" Phoebe said. "Does that mean I can go home now?"

"Actually, I think I'd like to keep you here over night just for observation."

"Oh, no. That's not possible."

"Miss Halliwell, I don't have to remind you. You took quite a fall. It's possible you might have more than just a concussion, and sometimes other symptoms don't develop for 24 hours. Yeah, well, I don't have 24 hours. I gotta go. Gotta go."

"You'll have to sign a release." He handed her the form.

"That's fine."

"If you feel any dizziness or light-headedness, call me. Otherwise, I'll see you in a week to remove the stitches."

Phoebe signed the form and handed the chart back to the doctor. "Thanks." The doctor took the chart and left. Phoebe sat back on the table to get dressed.

In the hallway, Paige paced the floor. Just outside the emergency room doors, an ambulance was parked while various injured people were being wheeled in on gurneys. The doctor walked out of the room, saw the injuries, handed the chart to the nurse nearby, and rushed forward to assist.

Paige turned and walked into the room just as Phoebe was putting her jacket on. "Hey. What'd he say? Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Well, he's releasing me, isn't he?" Phoebe said. She saw Paige's worried look. "Ok, don't worry about this, Paige. We're gonna figure something out."

"Ok, but what about Chris?"

"What about Chris?"

"Well, what if he doesn't exist anymore because his mom and dad don't exist anymore?"

"No, if Piper were gone, I would sense it, I know it." They stepped out into the chaos in the hallway. "Oh, my god. What happened?"

"Truck hit a bus." The Emergency Room hallway was extremely busy with emergency personnel and injured people.

They picked their way through it. "Excuse us!"

"Coming through!"

Phoebe stopped and turned around. "What? Do you hear something?"

"Hear what?"

"I could've sworn I heard someone call out my name." As they listened, the sounds of the doctor working on the bus driver on the gurney got louder, the voices becoming more pronounced and clear. The driver apparently died and then was revived. "Let's go."

They turned to leave, but the bus driver murmured, "Leo…. Leo…. you must be an angel."

"Leo?" Paige said. Phoebe suddenly gasped and grabbed her shoulder in pain. "What? What's wrong?"

"Piper." Phoebe said.

"Piper?"

"She's here."

"She can't be."

"She's here. I know it."

"Come on." Paige pulled her to the exit. "We've got to get to Buffy and make sure she's doing ok." Once they were out of sight, they orbed into Buffy's room at Magic School.

"I'm telling you, I felt Piper, as if she were standing right next to me." Phoebe insisted.

"But she wasn't."

"I know. I'm still trying to figure that part out." Phoebe looked at Buffy. "Hi sweetie, how's it going?"

"What's going on?" Buffy asked.

"Piper and Leo are, uh…. Well…."

"Uh, Phoebe. Paige." They turned to see Chris walking tiredly into the room toward them.

"Chris, you're ok." Paige said. "Which means Piper and Leo are ok."

"Well, I don't know about them, but I'm, uh…. I'm definitely running out of time here." He pulled out his left hand from his pocket and showed them his transparent arm, slowly disappearing from existence with each passing moment.

"I'm sorry I can't be more help, Chris." Buffy said.

"No. It's cool. I knew you wouldn't be able to do anything today. That's why I'm pushing Phoebe and Paige."

"You knew Alex would be coming today?"

Angel's cell phone started ringing. "Wow. Didn't think I'd get reception here." He pulled it out. "It's the Hyperion. Yeah? Cordelia, I…. No. What's wrong? Can't you guys deal with it? I'm kind of busy. No, this is important. I know the Powers sent it for a reason, but they also sent this baby for a reason and I came back from the dead to be here for the birth and Buffy went through hell and back to have me here. Yes, she's having the baby! Yes, right now. I don't care, Cordelia. Deal with it." He hung up.

Buffy looked at him with a huge grin. "Oh, you are so going to get an earful!"

"Well, I'm not missing this for anything."

"We've also got other problems to deal with." Paige said. "We need to find Piper and Leo so they can make with the nice nice and make Chris. I'm going to go get the Book and bring it here." Paige orbed out just as another contraction hit Buffy.

"Has her water broken?" Phoebe asked Angel.

"Yeah, about an hour ago." Angel said.

"So, we're well into the big show. I need to check and see how far, though. Where's the nurse's room here?"

Phoebe slammed the Book of Shadows closed and put her forehead down on it in frustration. "What?" Paige asked.

"I don't know what else to try." Phoebe said.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean? There's nothing else to try."

"Oh, great. Why don't you try telling that to Chris as he fades away?"

"No, I can't."

"You felt Piper." Buffy said. "So that means she's gotta be out there somewhere, and if you can figure out where, then maybe you can figure out how to bring them back. You said we weren't gonna lose her."

"The bus driver." Phoebe said.

"The bus driver what?" Paige asked.

"Well, he was dead. I mean, at least for a little bit, so maybe that wasn't a coincidence. Maybe he actually did see Leo…. in limbo."

"That's good. No, that's bad because that would make them dead."

"Not if someone put them there." Angel said. "Like the Darklighter."

"The one that Piper vanquished?"

"Unless it wasn't really a vanquish." Buffy said. "It was just made to look like a vanquish."

"Check you out! In labor and still thinking clearly." Phoebe opened the Book of Shadows again, this time with something specific to look for. "Ok, ghosts. Ghosts, ghosts…. ghosts…."

Paige walked around and lit the candles on the floor of Buffy's room while Phoebe helped Buffy through another contraction. "You sure a séance is the right move?" Paige asked.

"Well, if they are stuck in the spirit realm, then they're ghosts, right?" Phoebe said, wincing slightly at Buffy's strength.

"Hopefully."

"What, now you're a pessimist?"

"Hey, a girl's allowed to vacillate. It's not like this is an exact science, right?"

Buffy let out a breath. "That was closer that time."

"You're getting closer to getting this little girl out." Phoebe said, patting Buffy's belly.

"Yeah. Go find Piper and Leo."

"Ok, let's do this." Phoebe hopped up just as Chris walked in.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be pushy, but…." They realized that Chris was completely transparent.

"We're working on it. We're working on it." Phoebe said.

"You don't look so good." Buffy said.

Chris smiled slightly. "Neither do you."

"You try doing this and then talk to me about looking good."

Phoebe laughed and went over to recite the spell. "Sister spirit, we call to thee, cross on over so we may see." As they waited for something to happen, Chris disappeared from in front of them.

"Wait, that wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" Buffy asked.

"I'm thinking no." Angel said.

Chris reappeared. "What happened? Where'd you go?" Phoebe asked.

"I just saw Piper and Leo." Chris said.

"And!"

Chris disappeared again and reappeared a minute later. "They think somebody made a portal for the Darklighter to pass through."

"Somebody who?"

Before he could answer Darklighters orbed into the room. "Darklighters!"

"What…." They turned to find two Darklighters standing there.

"They can't be here!" Buffy cried. "This is Magic School."

Phoebe and Paige grabbed potion vials out of their pockets and threw them at the two Darklighters. They vanquished in a wall of fire and smoke as the alarms went off.

"I can't sense Piper anymore." Phoebe said.

"It's too late. And not just for Piper and Leo. Take care." Chris suddenly vanished completely.

"Chris?"

Gideon rushed into the room. "What's going on?"

"Darklighters." Angel said.

"We vanquished them." Phoebe added.

"Gideon, we need your help." Paige said.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, we think we may have lost Chris." Phoebe said.

"What?"

"And Piper and Leo…. And us, too, if we're not careful." Paige said.

"Somebody's got a bunch of Darklighters after us, and one of them's got Piper and Leo trapped…." Phoebe started, but Buffy started having another contraction and she rushed over to her.

"In the Ghostly Plane." Paige finished. "Or the Spirit Realm."

"It's the same thing." Gideon said.

"Right. We made contact with them, but then we lost them. And we lost Chris, too, although we're not sure why, because she can tell if Piper's Dead."

"Yeah, and I can't." Phoebe said.

"So, she must still be around somewhere, we just don't know where. So we need to figure out how to use the Darklighters' portal to get them out. And if you follow all that, you're really a very powerful Elder."

"But Darklighters don't have the power to make portals, let alone use them." Gideon said.

"Right. We have to figure out who can."

"I warned Leo. I told him something like this might happen. What do you need?"

"Well, we know where to find the portal. We just don't know how to reverse it."

Gideon walked out and returned a few minutes later with a large book in his hands. He opened it and showed it to Paige. The page in the book read: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT PORTALS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK. "There." He said.

"Handy."