A/N: Thank you for the reviews. Cliffhangers are good, because if you don't know what's going to happen it means that this is definitely not too close to the original episode. Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty Six: Awakened (And Role Reversal)

Phoebe and Paige stood astonished in the quarantined room. Neither sister was sure that they had heard Piper correctly.

Piper repeated herself, from her position of sitting on the floor, saying: 'We have to reverse this spell.'

Phoebe shook her head slowly. 'We can't… You'll… You could… You might…'

'I know the consequences,' said Piper seriously. 'I know I might not make it, but… You could always call for Paige's adoptive dad… He can heal me…'

Paige raised an eyebrow. 'Please just call him Leo. It's weird hearing you call him: my adoptive dad.'

Piper shrugged half-heartedly. 'I don't see why it should be. That's what he is to you.'

Paige quickly came back with a retort. 'Maybe, but that's not what he is to yo–'

'Can we get back to the issue of reversing the spell?' Phoebe interjected.

'Sure. You two are reversing that spell,' said Piper. 'Call that whitelighter of ours and ask him to heal me… before it's too late for me.' When she noticed her two younger sisters' sudden expressions of guilt, Piper added, 'What?'

'There may be a slight issue about Leo,' said Phoebe.

'What do you mean? How would you know?' asked Piper.

'We may have already called Leo earlier…' Paige began.

'What?' Piper shouted. 'I told you not to call our whitelighter earlier!'

'Okay, that has got to stop!' Phoebe said stubbornly, all guilt disappearing from her expression.

'Hey! I am supposed to be mad at you. Don't turn this around on me,' said Piper. 'Why can't our whitelighter help?'

'Apparently Leo is not allowed to,' replied Phoebe. 'That's not the point! The point is that he has a name and you cannot call him our whitelighter or Paige's adoptive dad forever!'

Piper sighed and finally stood up from the floor. She took a deep breath before making her decision.

Putting emphasis on the name to make a point, Piper said, 'Even though Leo is not allowed to help, and even though you went behind my back by speaking to him about it, this spell still needs reversing…'

'Aren't you scared? We don't want to lose you…' said Paige.

Piper gulped. 'Of course I am scared, but Andy and other innocents out there have been infected by the disease because of this spell…'

'You shouldn't have to make this choice,' said Phoebe.

'I have to and I have,' said Piper resolutely. 'Paige, orb to the attic and get the spell.'

On one hand, Paige was happy to finally have an excuse to orb out of the locked room. On the other hand, the task she had been given was, in her eyes, a terrible one – Paige was going to retrieve the spell that would send Piper back into a comatose state from which she may never wake up.

Paige frowned. 'Piper… I can't… I can't do that… I won't do that…'

Piper smiled weakly. 'Paige, with astral Pr –' Piper paused to correct herself. 'With A.P. off elsewhere, you're the only one who can get to the attic. If anyone asks, we'll say you're the one under the sheets…' At those words, Phoebe quickly covered the unconscious Prue with the bed sheets again. Piper continued, 'Paige, you know as much as I do that we have no control over this. If I recover, I will recover… If I don't… then I don't…'

'Andy was supposed to die last year, but he's still alive,' Paige pointed out. 'We won't let anything happen to you.'

Piper took a deep breath. She made no reply to Paige's point. Piper only said the word 'Go' quite obstinately.

Paige glanced over at Phoebe. The second youngest Charmed One looked torn between supporting Piper or supporting Paige. Phoebe nodded sensitively, indicating for Paige to respect Piper's wishes.

Taking one last look at the quarantined room that had caused Paige nothing but torment, the part witch part whitelighter orbed out.

As she orbed into the dimly lit attic, Paige approached the Book of Shadows. It was still open to the page of the awakening spell. She, Prue, and Phoebe had not closed it after finding it as they had rushed straight back to the hospital to use it on Piper.

The reversal spell was on the page next to the original spell. Paige skimmed over the spell. Realising that she would not be able to memorise the whole thing, Paige found a notepad and a pen, copying the spell down. At the bottom of the entry on the page, there was a disclaimer. Paige hoped that the disclaimer was more of a suggestion than essential to reversing it all.

With the spell copied down onto the piece of paper that was now freshly torn from the notepad, Paige was ready to return to the hospital. However, many factors were stopping her, the major factor being what this spell reversal would do to Piper. Something else was on her mind too, and she decided to act upon it.

'Dad!' Paige called.

Leo orbed into the attic almost instantaneously after the call. He had a grave expression on his face.

'I guess I don't need to catch you up on anything…' Paige said solemnly.

Leo let out a profound sigh. 'I already know. I have been keeping a close eye on the situation since turning down the request to heal Piper the first time around. I know that your spell backfired and the only thing you can do is reverse it.'

'Will you heal her when we reverse it?' Paige asked.

Leo shook his head glumly. 'Like I told you and your sisters earlier, the Elders won't let me, because this occurred naturally. No demon caused it.'

'How can you say that? This is Piper we are talking about! I thought you cared about her!' Paige yelled.

Leo did not try to argue back. He knew Paige was right, but he also knew that he would get into trouble if he did heal Piper.

'If you are not even going to make a retort, I may as well leave,' said Paige. 'I have a spell to reverse, whether I like it or not…'

'Pa –' Leo began to say, but Paige had already orbed out before she could finish hearing him say her name.

Paige had orbed in behind the screen that was in the quarantined hospital room. This was a precautionary action, just in case any member of hospital staff was within view of the room from the corridor outside.

Paige peeked out from behind the screen and noticed that while Piper and Phoebe were the only ones, other than herself, present inside the quarantined room, the corridor outside was also empty.

Paige walked over to Piper and Phoebe.

'Did you get it?' Phoebe asked.

Paige nodded. Looking at Piper, the youngest Charmed One asked, 'Are you sure you want us to do this?'

Only a blank expression could be found on Piper's face as she confirmed, 'I'm sure.'

Paige held the spell out in front of her so as Phoebe could also see it. Since the bed was currently occupied by the eldest Halliwell, Piper decided to sit on the floor, leaning back against a wall. She knew as well as her younger sisters did that as soon as the spell was reversed, she would fall unconscious. Piper closed her eyes, preparing herself for what was to come.

Phoebe and Paige exchanged nervous glances before they directed their gazes to the piece of paper that held the words to the reversal spell. The sound of Phoebe clearing her throat was the cue for the two of them to begin chanting.

As they finished reading the spell, the two sisters looked over at Piper. Her eyes were still closed and her breathing rate did not appear to have changed.

'Piper?' Phoebe uttered.

Piper opened her eyes, looking up at Phoebe and Paige.

'Uh… How are you feeling?' asked Phoebe, beginning to wonder whether or not the spell had had any effect. There was always the minute possibility that the spell had worked, but Piper would have originally recovered without it anyway, which would explain why she still appeared fine.

Piper slowly got to her feet. She furrowed her brow. 'No different to how I felt before you reversed it… Are you sure you reversed it? I have a feeling the spell didn't work.'

'Why wouldn't it work?' asked Phoebe.

Piper and Phoebe looked over to Paige, wondering why she had not responded. Paige was looking at the hospital bed.

'We need Prue…' Paige muttered.

'What do you mean?' Phoebe asked Paige.

'There was a disclaimer on the reversal spell. I was hoping we could cast the spell anyway, but obviously not…' continued Paige, rambling more to herself than to her sisters.

'Paige… What was the disclaimer?' Piper asked.

Paige turned to face her sisters, and said, 'Three of us need to say the reversal spell…'

Phoebe shook her head. 'That makes no sense. This spell isn't a Power of Three spell. I saw the page on the Book of Shadows earlier and it definitely did not need all three of us to say it. It was our own decision to all say it for Piper.'

Paige sighed. 'I never said Power of Three, did I? All I said was that you, me, and Prue need to say the reversal for it to work.'

'Why?' Piper asked.

'The disclaimer, that's why. The number of people casting the original spell must match the number casting the reversal spell,' explained Paige. 'Unfortunately Piper cannot count as the third witch, because she is the one we are casting it on.'

'Ugh! Why can't anything ever be simple?' Phoebe looked over at the hospital bed where Prue lay unconscious. 'Prue! If you can hear us at all, we need you back!'

'I don't think that's going to work,' Piper said.

Phoebe shrugged. 'It was worth a try.'

'The only way to get Prue back here is to get out on the ward and speak to A.P.…' said Piper, pacing as she spoke her thoughts out loud.

The discussion continued over the next two minutes, because they had to think and talk fast, as the more time they wasted, the more the disease would have a chance to spread. Soon a plan between the three sisters was settled on. All they needed was for a staff member to come into the corridor.

Sure enough a nurse passed along the corridor within the next few minutes. Phoebe dropped to the floor, near the screen, and began coughing hysterically. Piper ran over to the window and began knocking on it frantically. The nurse stopped and pressed the intercom button.

'Yes?' said the nurse. The nurse had long blonde hair tied back in a pony tale. Her eyes were blue and she was relatively slim.

'There's something wrong with my sister!' Piper said anxiously. 'Please help her!'

The nurse looked past Piper and noticed Phoebe spread out on the floor, coughing loudly and dramatically. The nurse opened the door and hastily entered the quarantined room to check on Phoebe. Keeping the door open with one hand, Piper flicked the wrist of her other hand and the nurse froze mid-run.

Phoebe finished fake-coughing, smiling at the success of her convincing acting. Phoebe stood up. She took the nurse's staff I.D. badge and moved the screen so as if anyone looked in from the corridor, they would not see the frozen nurse. The next step was Paige's. Paige took a deep breath to concentrate as she glamoured into the nurse.

Phoebe had held the door open while Piper had ventured into the corridor. Piper came back into their quarantined room – which technically could not be defined as a quarantined room while the door was open – with some pale blue scrubs in her hands. Piper threw the scrubs towards Paige, who caught them.

'No nurse walks around in a patient's garments,' Piper explained.

Paige understood. Although she had glamoured her appearance, she was still wearing the garments that the hospital had provided her with when putting her in quarantine. She quickly changed into the scrubs. Phoebe then passed Paige the I.D. badge, which Paige attached to her scrubs.

Phoebe and Paige left the quarantined room, while Piper let herself get shut back in. Piper's task was to make sure the nurse staid frozen. Phoebe and Paige had the task of looking for astral Prue.

Paige's whitelighter senses were no use in looking for Prue, because she could only sense the whereabouts of Prue (who was in the quarantined room) and not astral Prue. As Phoebe had already had a premonition of the room that Andy was in, she knew where to look, and therefore Phoebe could guide them there. However Phoebe would not be able to wander around the corridors on her own without getting recognised. Being escorted by someone that looked like a member of the hospital staff, however, would allow them to go looking for Prue… at least, that's what they hoped and is what they had decided to act upon.

Phoebe and Paige began to walk along the corridor. Phoebe peered into every room they passed, looking for one that was similar to the one in her premonition. There were quite a number of interns and nurses who would be very likely to recognise Phoebe as one of the Halliwell sisters. However their main threat would be if they bumped into Dr. Williamson or a member of the CDC.

An intern approached them and stopped them in their tracks. 'Sally,' he said, addressing Paige. 'Why is one of the quarantined patients out of their room?'

'Dr. Williamson told me to take her to the room with the Trudeau patient in. The doctor wants to see if Mrs. Halliwell's sister can convince her to go back to the quarantined room,' improvised Paige.

'Oh… I see…' said the intern. 'Why didn't I get informed of this?'

Paige shrugged. 'Dr. Williamson's a little too busy with treating patients to go around informing everyone. Now if you excuse me…'

Phoebe and Paige continued past the intern. They dealt with any other intern or nurse that stopped them in the same manner and fortunately did not come across Dr. Williamson at all.

They were continuing down the corridor when Phoebe suddenly came to a stop at a door. Paige backtracked and came to a stop next to Phoebe.

'This is it,' Phoebe said quietly.

'Are you sure?' Paige asked quietly.

Without looking back at Paige, Phoebe nodded. Phoebe entered the room. It was not a private room. There were many beds set out, each bed filled with a hospital patient – presumably suffering from the disease.

As they passed the beds, Phoebe picked up clipboards that had each patient's diagnosis and treatment instructions on. Although she could not understand most of the medical jargon, Phoebe could understand the parts where it either said critical or not critical.

Placing down a fifth clipboard as they continued along the room, Phoebe let out a sigh of relief. 'By the looks of it, no one in here is critical. Hopefully that means that as soon as we reverse the spell, they'll all recover straight away.'

Paige nodded. 'That's good, because I doubt reversing the spell would bring anyone back to life… you know, if it were too late.'

They had finally reached the far end of the room. The wall at the far end of the room was not visible, because the area containing the last bed had been hidden from the view of the rest of the room by a curtain. Slowly Phoebe and Paige peeked around the curtain.

Andy was lying unconscious on a hospital bed. He was connected to a heart monitor and other electronic equipment. Astral Prue sat on a chair right next to the bed. Her cheeks were tear-stained. Her hand rested on Andy's hand.

Phoebe and Paige walked into the curtained-off area, making their presence known to astral Prue. Astral Prue glared angrily at Paige – there was no way that astral Prue could know that she was Paige in a glamour – but her glare softened as she noticed Phoebe there too.

'Phoebe, what are you doing here?' asked astral Prue.

Paige cleared her throat. 'And Paige too.' When astral Prue offered Paige a puzzled expression, Paige smiled and waved. 'We had to get to you somehow.'

'Paige?' astral Prue questioned.

Paige nodded. 'That's what I said.'

'What are you two doing here?' astral Prue asked. Then she went pale. 'Oh no. Is Piper okay?'

'Piper's fine… for now…' said Phoebe solemnly.

'What do you mean by that?' astral Prue asked.

'We need you back so as we can reverse the spell,' Paige said.

'Not just for Andy's sake, but for everyone else in this ward,' continued Phoebe.

'What about Piper?' asked astral Prue, who by now had stood up from her seat.

Phoebe sighed. She even began to well up a little as she said, 'Piper's the one who wants the spell reversed.'

Astral Prue gulped. 'We can't do this to Piper…'

'We don't want to, but Piper would rather it was her than any other innocent in this ward, including Andy…' said Paige.

'Are you with us?' Phoebe asked.

Astral Prue sighed. 'I will go back there with the two of you. Whether it's to talk some sense into Piper, or to cast the reversal spell… I don't know yet.'

Phoebe and Paige nodded.

'You are going to have to walk back with us. The staff know you are out here, so you can't suddenly appear in the quarantined room again,' said Phoebe.

Astral Prue nodded. She took one last glance back at Andy. She leant down and kissed him, before standing back up. 'I'll be back for you…' she whispered. Then she turned to her sisters and said, 'Let's go.'

The three sisters – or technically: the one sister, the astral version of another, and the third one disguised as a member of hospital staff – left the hospital room quickly. As they entered the corridor, they slowed their pace down a little so as not to look suspicious.

'Ow!' Phoebe said.

Astral Prue and Paige came to a stop. They looked around to see Phoebe standing still, bending over to rub her ankle. She was looking at the floor all around her.

'Pheebs, we're kind of in a hurry…' astral Prue pressed.

Phoebe looked up at astral Prue and Paige. 'I know,' Phoebe mumbled. 'I swear something sharp just poked my ankle…'

Astral Prue held out a hand to help Phoebe stand up fully. As Phoebe stood up, she put her free hand to her forehead.

'Woah, must have stood up too quick. I feel a little dizzy,' said Phoebe.

That was their only hold-up on their route back to the quarantined room. When they got back to the corridor outside the quarantined room, there was a nurse waiting outside. The nurse saw Paige – who was still glamouring as the nurse called Sally – almost immediately after seeing two of the Halliwell sisters with her.

'Sally!' the nurse said. 'What's going on?'

'I had to get the eldest Halliwell sister back here, so I took this other one to convince her to come back,' said Paige, a little bored of the excuse now that she had had to use it so many times.

Rather than questioning Paige, the nurse turned to the quarantined room's door. He tapped some numbers, entering the code to unlock the door. Once it was unlocked, Paige ushered astral Prue and Phoebe in. The nurse shut the door.

'Uh… A doctor said they wanted you in room 10…1?' Paige said, trying to make up a reason for him to leave.

'Er… Okay…' said the nurse. He ran down the corridor.

Once he was out of sight, Paige turned back to the quarantined room's door. She did not know the code to get in, but since no one was around, Paige took off the glamour, turning back into her normal self, and then orbed into the quarantined room.

Astral Prue had already disappeared, while Prue was getting up from the hospital bed. Now that Paige had orbed into the room, Phoebe took the I.D. badge back from Paige, in order to give it back to the frozen nurse. Phoebe thought it was best that she sit back on the floor, which is where she had been when the nurse was initially frozen. Piper unfroze the nurse that actually was Sally.

Fortunately Sally did not notice that an extra sister, Prue, was now in the room or that Paige was wearing scrubs instead of the hospital garments. Sally helped Phoebe – who was letting out a few throaty coughs – to her feet. As Phoebe got to her feet, she lost her balance, but eventually managed to get to her feet, swaying a little.

'Those coughs seem to be getting worse…' Sally pointed out. 'When did this start?'

'She's fine,' said Piper persistently. They did not have time to waste. They needed to cast the spell. 'Now you can leave.'

'Hmm… I think I should go and consult Dr. Williamson about your sister…' Sally said to Piper.

'Fine, do that. Just leave,' said Piper.

Sally left the room quite hastily. Prue, Piper, and Paige turned to look at Phoebe as soon as the nurse was no longer within view of the windows.

'Pheebs, the plan wasn't to continue fake coughing after we had gotten Prue back,' said Paige.

Phoebe frowned. 'I wasn't faking…'

A/N: Explanations can be found in the next chapter. For now you may theorise what's going to happen. Please review!