Hi, here is another chapter, I am so glad that I managed to get this out before Christmas. Therefore I am going to make this note rather short and sweet.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
I know the timeline is off because it is a month between the start of Season 2 and the end of Season 1 but for this story it has been changed into a week/two weeks simply because I couldn't write Prue and Andy staying away from each other for a month.
Please Read and Review.
Before And After
Chapter 2-Love Amongst The Ruins.
Prue's version of events as a demon steels the Book of Shadows and guilt and grief tries to batter the relationship between her and Andy.
She had not believed it even when she could see it for herself. Even now it was a struggle to comprehend all that had happened even though it was a week. She wondered how she would feel in a month of so. How long it would take for a demon to pop up and again destroy the equilibrium.
It all seemed to be a blur. Since that day when Rodriquez had died, since Andy had almost died and for Prue Halliwell it seemed like one long nightmare that didn't seem to end and there was no end in sight. Everything was muddy, confused and she was so unsure.
It was an unusual feeling for Prue Halliwell. She had always been confident, always been able to dominate the workplace. She'd been like that since she was sixteen and she'd suddenly grown in confidence and bra size all at the same time.
One moment it had been as Phoebe had seen it in her vision. There had been a flash of light and she'd fallen back against the wall and she had heard rather than see Andy come through the doorway and before she's blacked out she'd heard an almighty crash and she'd thought stupidly that that was it.
When she'd come back to consciousness several moments later it was to find herself with a splitting headache, an ankle that was twinging in a way that not natural and Andy half kneeling next to the upturned couch, bleeding, broken but very much alive.
Destroying Rodriguez was easy after that.
They'd gotten Andy to the hospital, well Piper had, together with Phoebe both of her younger sisters had cobbled together a half decent story that anyone could see through if they were looking hard enough. The glorious thing was that nobody seemed to be looking apart from Morris who upon turning up to the hospital had told them flatly that he didn't want to know unless he had to and even then it had to be under dire circumstances and he didn't think this was dire enough for what they knew would be an earth shattering secret.
The relief that passed through all three of them at that point had been staggering.
Andy had gone into surgery twice and though she had stayed for both of those times exhaustion had managed to get the better of her and she'd fallen asleep against Phoebe's shoulder. Eventually between the two of them, her sisters, her best friends in the whole world had gotten her home and then they had dragged her into the shower uncaring of the mess and the water and the fact that the whole place had been ransacked by the local PD and washed the death and the blood and the demon splatter off her and then tucked her into bed and held her through the night when she shivered so violently that she thought she was going to be sick.
That had been the third night. Since then it had not improved.
Andy she had been told was on the mend once he'd come out of the second surgery and Morris (speaking through Phoebe) said that there was a good chance he'd wear his badge again. Apparently the San Francisco PD were dedicated to tracking down Rodriguez but considering Piper had cleaned a good chunk of what they thought was his blood off the walls it didn't seem like it was going to happen.
In a daze Prue went back to work. Piper was looking at buying a club that had long gone derelict and Phoebe had taken to making sure that the repairs of the house had been done to her exacting standards and that the Book of Shadows remained hidden from prying eyes. It was difficult—it was not like their old handyman was available any more either.
Bucklands was at least familiar. There was nothing new or complicated about it and it never changed. Claire had gone back to the bank and a new overseas buyer was settled though for how long Prue was not sure. But the office was comforting, it was the same, her desk and her chair and her lamp that had not changed from Rex to Hannah to Claire to that dratted Matthew Tate.
Everything else was changed.
Andy was alive.
Prue was still not sure how that was possible. While they had stopped the outcome of Phoebe's premonitions before this one had seemed so certain especially with the added time loop. Andy had to die for the time loop to break and yet somehow he had survived a blast to the chest that should have easily killed him before he hit the floor.
None of them knew how that had happened but Phoebe who had taken her Wicca Craft seriously over the last few weeks thought that the Powers That Be, that had supported and saved Leo might have saved Andy for reasons that she thought had to do with fate.
"Maybe" she'd said when she'd come to collect Prue from where she was outside the hospital corridor studiously trying to ignore what was going on in the room.
"Maybe it's all part of a bigger plan. For Piper and you, to have the men you love in your lives just a little bit longer. For me as well. For us to have that support as "
"But Phoeb's Leo's not around anymore and besides Andy's mortal isn't that supposed to be a big no, no for them upstairs"
That had been Piper and Phoebe response and Prue had tuned them out because there appeared to be no magical explanation other than fate and that was just stupid.
The questions still remained.
Once it was clear however that Andy survived she stopped seeing him. Once it was clear that he was going to get his job back she stopped going to the hospital. It was hard to put into words the guilt that commanded her in that week. It was hard to even find the strength to get out of bed on some days and when she got home all she wanted to do was sleep.
When she got to sleeping all she wanted to do was stay awake.
She kept seeing it.
She kept seeing him falling even though she hadn't actually seen that. She kept seeing those eyes that she'd fallen in love with when she'd been a teenager, she kept seeing a coffin with white roses on top of it and her sisters flanking a sober looking Darryl.
It was the opposite of what the reality was.
Whatever Prue was thinking, whatever Prue was going to do the choice was taken off her. There were the normal day to day matters that involved Piper and her club and the (admittedly) sexy bank loan guy, and a widow whose words hit her more than she wanted to admit and then the final piece of the puzzle that was Phoebe insistent that they should celebrate their one year anniversary of becoming witches.
Actually that was not the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back
The final straw came at six that morning when they were awoken by the sound of flipping pages and a strong gust of wind that despite all the windows being shut and all the doors being shut managed to get through to them all.
"Fight it with the power of one?" Phoebe had just finished her face creased in confusion but before she could say anything there was another huge gulph of wind and Prue managed to get a look at something horned with horrible skin coming out of the wall before it was gone and the Book of Shadows with it.
The only plus side of that horrible wake up call was they got to meet their new neighbours, Jenny the confused teenager (and boy even in her muted emotional state did Prue remember what that felt like) and Dan who was…well…he was…he was…he was…
Well if there was a God and Prue was not sure that there was but if there was one then Dan had not been standing ideal when he had parcelled out the good looks.
But it didn't distract her or change anything for her. Nothing seemed to distract her or change anything for her anymore. Andy was still in the hospital and she had put him there so what did it matter that their neighbour had a six pack that was built like stone and that another demon was about or that the Book of Shadows was missing. What did any of it matter when Andy was still in danger and this world was closing in around them?
What could be worse than that?
Lots of things apparently.
First there was the return of Jeremy, then the Woogyman and then Nicholas. When she woke up in the hospital to find both Piper and Phoebe looking over her with concerned expressions it was hard to listen to what the doctor was saying to her. Especially when she was hyper aware that Andy was only two floors down and really! Did fate have to throw her the temptation of taking her to the same hospital that he was at?
"You know you could go and see him" that was Piper, pragmatic Piper who didn't mince her words and yet was always unsure of them anyway.
"No" she said shaking her head. It was difficult for her to understand so how could her sisters? How could they understand that the best thing for Andy was to cut off all contact wit him. that It might gut her from the inside out but that it was for the best. At least until (as Phoebe pointed out) Abraxus got to the front of the book and then it was all over.
To Prue that was not the worst idea that came to mind. If it kept Andy safe…if it kept Daryl safe…and all the other mortals that they came into contact with then losing their powers had to mean something…right?
Phoebe and Piper disagreed.
And perhaps that was why she came back to the house.
Even if she failed.
It was Phoebe. It was always Phoebe, Phoebe who had never ran away from the hard conversations that came knocking at her door, Phoebe who had been the first one to accept what they were, who had been the one who had chanted the incantation that had made them the Charmed Ones in the first place. Phoebe who from the age of three had never changed when it came to having (or forcing) the conversations that needed to be had.
And this was one of them.
"Something" she said her eyes blazing. "Is blocking you Prue. And if you don't figure it out then were all dead!"
And that was what really sent things spiralling.
"Yes. That's right Phoebe" she snapped. "I'm the big sister, I'm the one with the dominant power, the one who is always supposed to fix everything! If that is the case then how come Andy is lying in a hospital bed with half of his body broken I mean my God! Don't you get it? If I am the so called powerful witch then how come he's where he is? He came in this house that day because of me! He came here because of me! I told him what he was facing and he came to protect me and because of that he almost died. I mean what is the point of being witches if all it does is get the people we loved either killed or in hospital?"
There was a very long pause.
"You didn't get him where he was today" Piper said finally. "He came through those doors not because of who you were but because of who he was and if you went to see him instead of tying yourself in knots over this then he would tell you that himself. Everything he ever did was his choice. Prue he chose to be with you, to love you and I think you and I both know that if he had to do it all over again he would because he's been in love with you since we were teenagers witches or not"
It was a stirring speech and for some reason, for reasons she didn't understand she found that she was listening to it. That she could see it clearer. That she could see the path in front of her and that there was nothing stopping her but herself.
"If you want to walk away from him that's fine" Phoebe said quietly. "If you want to walk away from being a witch that's…fine I suppose. But you owe Andy the truth. And you owe him the dignity of a choice. If he wants to stay in this life then you owe him the choice to do so because Prue…were not going to gain a massive amount of allies here. We need all the help that we can get"
And with that Prue nodded.
She was in no way ok with what had happened but she was managing and because of that they vanquished the demon and saved the Book.
After all witchcraft was a part of all of them. Even without the Book, even with her hating the craft as she'd been doing all week she was not sure she could have lived without it in her, thrumming in her blood and in her bones.
The second they got the book back she let Phoebe and Piper take it home and took the car to the hospital.
She knocked on the door and then when he said come in she opened the door and stepped inside.
Mercifully Andy was alone.
"Hi" she said into the sudden silence.
"Hi" he said back.
And suddenly, just like that, just looking at him, she found, that she could breathe once more and she knew that regardless of what happened here today, regardless of the sensibility of it she was still utterly and hopelessly in love with him.
And there you go, I hope you enjoy this and I will do my best to update sooner rather than later.
I am not sure if I will be able to update again before New Year but if not I wish you all reading this a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Next Chapter-Prue and Andy talk though there are several things still left to be finalised. A trip to the future brings shocks to all of the Halliwell sisters