Heaven Can't Wait
Chapter 5
Phoebe let her sister take the baby, still shocked by what just happened. Leo took her arm, and he barely had time to direct her toward the nearest seat that another bright flash of light appeared. This time, however, Cole stayed, carrying the unconscious wizard. Piper gasped at him, unsure if he was friend or foe. She moved to freeze him, just in case, but Phoebe stopped her:
"No! It's ok Piper."
Her sister turned to her askance, but Phoebe still had only eyes for the new form that her husband took. Cole looked at her quickly but turned away, transporting Paul to the couch. Phoebe wondered about his attitude. He should have been happy but instead, he seemed uncomfortable and almost…sad.
"Cole? Is Paul ok?"
Cole:
"Yes, I think so," he answered in a low voice.
Piper grimaced comically:
"Cole?" She repeated questioningly.
This one didn't seem very much in a hurry to turn toward them. The moment that he had settled Paul on the couch, he returned to his human form, but still kept his back to them.
Cole was debating how he should give them the awful news, but no matter how he turned it in his mind, it all sounded bad. Finally, he took a deep breath, preparing to perform the grim task, but the chime of a whitelighter orbing caught all their attention.
Coleridge materialized with a very serious expression, saying nothing. Piper suddenly realized:
"Where is Prue," she asked around anxiously.
When she got no answer, she asked again, louder but with a tremor in her voice:
"Someone tell us where Prue is…"
Phoebe had not known of her sister's presence in the underworld. However, seeing the utter panic on her sister's face gave her a chill.
"What are you talking about? What happened to Prue?" She asked turning to Cole, instinctively knowing that it was what bothered him.
Cole opened his mouth but closed it right back, and then he looked his father's way, as it was obvious that "They" knew too.
Phoebe saw his movement and insisted louder:
"Cole, what happened to Prue? Did the Source take her too?"
Finally Cole made eye contact with her and she saw right away that the news must be terrible.
Cole:
"She came to save you… She tried and fought hard but that wasn't enough…" He swallowed hard.
"The Source won…"
Piper:
"What do you mean, the Source won? Where is she?"
Cole turned to her:
"I mean, he killed her." He had said this very fast, as if the words were burning his lips.
The girls stared at him incredulously. They could not understand the finality of what he was saying; it was too much to bear.
Piper:
"You're lying, I don't know why, but you're lying…"
He didn't answer but looked sadly toward her. Phoebe stood up and walked slowly toward him, then she gripped his arm, disbelief mixing with anger and confusion:
"You can't mean that, not really?"
Cole:
"Phoebe…"
Coleridge finally confirmed:
"It's the truth, the elders felt it."
They turned in block toward him, now in a state of shock.
Piper:
"But why didn't anyone try to save her, why are you all standing here, maybe there is still time…"
Cole:
"There is nothing that anyone can do for her anymore, I'm sorry…"
Phoebe:
"You're sorry? You were there, didn't you do anything to save her, you could have…"
Cole was hurt by her accusations, mostly because he felt that he really had failed Prue. Phoebe stared at him angrily for a moment, and when he didn't say anything, she turned away and stormed out of the room.
Piper seeing her sister's distress, which mirrored her own, put the baby carefully in the cradle that they kept downstairs, then she went after her sister without another look to the others.
Leo finally found his voice:
"Couldn't…" He questioned hesitantly.
Coleridge put a hand on his arm, stopping him. Then he turned to Cole:
"What happened?"
Cole:
"Prue tried to distract the Source, probably in the hope that Paul could do something, but he was too fast. He killed her on the spot, and then he turned to Paul and knocked him out. I tried to stop him, but I didn't have any power to use then…"
Coleridge:
"And what about him, why is he still unconscious?"
Cole:
"I really don't know. I tried to heal him on the way back, but that didn't seem to work. I have no idea why. He doesn't seem to be that hurt, yet he won't wake up…"
The other wizards were coming to him, pleading that he calmed down. He heard them but chose to ignore them. In the dreamscape, he could almost see them surrounding him. He knew that they were there for a reason, but at this point, he didn't even care to consider what it was; he simply wanted to be left alone. He thought that he heard Lilith warning him, telling him to control himself or else, but nothing would do. The pain was too much to bear. Anger and sadness were eating up at him. They were almost close enough to touch him, but he turned away, hiding inwardly. After a long moment, though, he forced himself to look back at them, only to see them moving away, faster even than they had come. He wondered why they had given up, but in his state of mind, he was just happy that they had not insisted. A gapping hole was forming in his soul, one that he didn't even try to close. Had it been any other circumstance, he would have known better, but the pain blinded him to the danger. Then, the others came…
Cole was tempted to go after her; however, he had no idea what he could tell her that would make up for what happened. He felt a deep sense of guilt and failure in spite of what he had managed to do. No matter how he turned it in his mind, he couldn't help but think that if he had done more, he might have saved them all…
As Leo was trying to get Paul to wake up, Coleridge noticed his son's pained look and came closer, putting a hand on his arm to get his attention. "She didn't mean it, you know that don't you? She is just hurting."
Cole took a moment before answering, and Coleridge could see that he didn't believe him.
"She has good reason to doubt me. Maybe she thinks that I bargained Prue's life for hers…"
Coleridge was startled but still continued:
"That's ridiculous…"
Cole turned to him; unsure himself of what really happened at this point…"Is it? Maybe things didn't really happen like this, but if the choice had been offered, I might have taken it…"
Coleridge replied with conviction:
"The old you might have, but not anymore. And I don't mean because of your transformation… You have changed so much in the last year, I know that you couldn't have done that, and she will too…"
Cole remained unconvinced, as he resumed staring in the direction she had left…
Leo was trying all he could to shake Paul out of his unnatural sleep, to no avail. The wizard might as well have been in a coma. He was about to ask for Coleridge's help, when a wave of anger washed over him. It lasted only a moment, but he had felt just as bad as when he had been turned evil, only a few days ago. A twinge of fear knotted his stomach afterward, as he wondered if the counterspell might not be wearing off…
Phoebe was sitting very still, staring at the kitchen window, through which she could see the manor. A single tear was coming down her cheek, but otherwise, she seemed expressionless. That is the way her sister found her. "Phoebe…"
Phoebe just went on staring, ignoring her sister. Her calm exterior was masking the turmoil that she felt inside. "How could this be?" She asked herself for the umpteenth time. "She can't be gone. Prue where are you?"
Piper came closer and wrapped her arm around her sister' shoulders as much to comfort herself as her sister.
For a long moment, neither could say anything, while inside they both were asking the same questions. Piper finally broke the silence, leaving her sister' side and taking a seat:
"What are we going to do?"
Phoebe:
"I don't know," she answered with a little voice. Then she got angry again:
"What was it all for? All this destiny crap we've been told about. All for nothing…"
Piper tried to talk:
"Phoebe I…."
However, Phoebe turned to her abruptly:
"You probably are relieved that it's over, you never wanted this in the first place…"
Piper felt like she had been slapped. She stared her sister down, angry as well now:
"How could you say that? Our sister just died and you think that I would care more about being free?" She snapped.
Phoebe just then realized how unfair she had been:
"I'm sorry," she said sincerely, and then the tears that she had kept inside came, the grief swelling in her chest. She had held on until then, fearful that if she let herself go, she might fall into deep despair. However, seeing the pain in her sister's eyes, there was no denying hers anymore.
Both of them were hurting and appalled as well at the intensity of their reactions. Piper put her hand to her mouth, trying to contain the sobbing she felt was coming. The sisters looked at each other and finally recognized the shared grief. They fell into each other's arms, crying uncontrollably…
Paige crouched in a corner, still trembling. At this point, she started to think that maybe, just maybe someone had slipped something in her drink. Although, the thing that she couldn't figure out for the life of her, is who from work would do such a thing.
Nevertheless, it was the only explanation that she could come up with. Two hours ago, her life had been as normal as anybody can expect, with little every day problems. Now, she was either going insane or drugged but there was no way in hell that she would accept what she saw and felt for fact. She had spent the best part of those two hours in this corner, too shocked to move. Finally, she thought that she had figured it out and she almost made it up, when the bright light announcing the apparition came back. She growled in frustration.
The woman, who had assured her that she was her mother, was coming back. This time though, she looked afraid. Paige couldn't help thinking: "join the club".
Out loud she said instead:
"What are you doing here again. I don't want to see you. You do not exist," and she closed her eyes as if she could make her go away by sheer will.
The woman wouldn't let her…
"Paige, you have to get a grip on yourself. I'm for real, and if you don't believe me, you will be in deep trouble soon."
Paige opened incredulous eyes, as she stared at her mother:
"What exactly do you call having hallucination, and imagining that I can fly?"
Patti grimaced:
"You didn't imagine it," she continued calmly. "It is one of your gifts. And it's not flying…"
Paige was so angry that she forgot to be afraid. She stood up and faced her, as she almost screamed:
"Whatever you call it, I don't have it…I'm simply becoming insane."
Patti:
"You are not insane, this is all real and now you need to believe me, because you're in danger."
Paige:
"In danger?" She asked derisively.
Patti sighed:
"They could come at any moment, you have to be prepared."
As if on cue, someone knocked, and Paige jumped.
Patti insisted, turning toward the door anxiously:
"Get out of here now."
Paige was stuck in place, unsure of what she should believe. "And how am I supposed to do that, assuming that I believe this nonsense about someone wanting to hurt me…"
Patti:
"The same way you came home, Paige"
Paige gestured impatiently:
"I don't remember how I got home."
Patti:
"Yes you do, you just won't accept it."
Paige:
"You got that right!" She decidedly turned away from the glowing woman and went to the door.
Paul finally started to wake up to Leo's relief. However, when the Wizard opened his eyes, all he could read in it was pain and anger. And maybe something else, he couldn't decide what it was, but it disturbed him deeply. He wished that he still had his whitelighter's sense right then. As it was, he could only trust his instinct. And those were rusty at best. "Maybe, I'm just so distressed at the moment that I see trouble where there is none." He finally thought. Paul stood much faster than he would have believed possible, given the long period of unconsciousness. He hardly seemed affected by it.
"How are you," he asked him even though, he knew that it couldn't be too good in the circumstance.
Paul cast a derisive look in his direction:
"As well as one can be, considering."
The flat tone of voice and the impassiveness of his expression did nothing to reassure Leo, but again he put it on the grief and dismissed his worries.
Cole and his father noticed that he had awakened with a certain relief.
"Paul, I…" Cole had tried to say how sorry he was, but Paul simply dismissed him. Even avoiding looking at him. He simply went out of the room without another word, and they soon heard the front door close behind him.
The men looked at each other in puzzlement but as Leo had, Cole and his father thought his attitude understandable.
Paul walked slowly toward the manor, empty at the moment. Something ugly was worming its way into his soul, but he had no way of sending it back anymore. The entity, one he recognized as a powerful demon from the long past, was now taking over. When he had realized what was happening, it had already been too late. He knew that he had to get away from them, but couldn't resist the urge to see the manor, the places where they had been happy together. At least before he lost control completely…
"Maybe one of us should go after him," Leo told them.
Cole:
"I think that he really wanted to be alone… I'm sure that he will be back soon."
Leo:
"I don't know, I can't put my finger on it, but something seemed amiss with him."
Coleridge:
"What do you mean?"
Leo:
"Didn't you feel anything?" He questioned.
Coleridge:
"Like what?"
Leo:
"Oh I don't know exactly," he replied, somewhat frustrated. "I'm not sure of what I saw, but he seemed different."
Cole:
"He loved her very much, and I'm convinced that he is still under the shock. After all, he just woke up and to him it might as well have just happened. Give him some time…"
Leo was not entirely convinced, but he stopped talking about it. Besides he could see that Cole was not quiet interested in what was happening. He was still worried about Phoebe.
Coleridge noticed too:
"Go to her, she needs you."
Cole:
"Maybe… On the other hand, she might not be too happy to see me at the moment…
Coleridge:
"Go," he insisted.
Cole looked back at the cradle, still hesitating.
Leo:
"That's al right, we'll take care of him."
He nodded to them, obviously grateful for their insistence, and went toward the dining room.
Paige tried to dismiss the woman's concern, but a lingering doubt pushed her to look through the peephole before opening the door. However, when she saw the man that was visiting, she sighed in relief. Bob Lindsay was his name, and he was a long time friend of her family.
She was a little surprised of his visit, as those had been growing far in between since her parents' death. No matter, she was relieved to see a familiar face. What's more, he had always struck her as a reasonable person, well anchored in reality. She needed a dose of that at the moment.
She defiantly turned to her mother:
"There is nothing to worry about, I knew that I was just imagining things. Bob will help me and hopefully I won't see you again."
Paige found herself ridiculous as she was getting angry at a figment of her imagination. The knock on the door became insistent and she unfastened the dead bolt…
Patti lowered her eyes, defeated. She had hoped that her daughter would trust her instincts, but now there was nothing that she could do to prevent what was coming. Paige wouldn't listen to her. She had to go back, as her time was once more cut short. She felt the recall and tried to protest but it was time, she knew…
Paige finally opened the door and smiled brightly to the visitor:
"Uncle Bob," she exclaimed as she always called him. "I'm so happy to see you."
Bob didn't ask her why, and she threw herself in his arms, hugging him affectionately. The man who was tall, with dark hair and piercing green eyes just responded in kind while looking inside the little apartment.
Paige continued:
"You will never believe what happened to me."
Bob:
"Try me…"Over her head he was looking straight at the spot where Patti had stood only a moment earlier and his eyes glowed…
Cole entered the dining room hesitantly, seeing the two sisters still hugging each other. They had stopped crying but now, they couldn't let go of each other, taking the little strength they could from the other.
Piper noticed him first and reluctantly pulled away from Phoebe. This one looked at her sister askance, but then she saw that Piper was looking away and she followed her gaze. When their eyes met, he knew that whatever feelings she may have had about what happened, at the moment she simply needed him. He went to her and she hesitated only slightly before getting up and throwing herself in his waiting arms. She needed his strength more than she even thought, and only at this moment did she understand how much. Piper nodded sadly to him and she went back to her own husband, in as much need of his support as Phoebe had been of Cole's. Throughout her renewed sobbing, she asked:
"Jason?"
"He's fine, he's sleeping don't worry."
He tightened his hold on her. After a long moment, her sobbing stopped, but she just stayed in his arms.
He thought that now, he could talk to her about earlier, but all he could say was how sorry he was. For a split second, she tensed in his arms and he wondered if he had not been mistaken, but then she relaxed again and looked up.
"You have nothing to be sorry about, I was wrong."
Cole:
"No, I should have been able to do something, you were right. I failed her…"
Phoebe frowned slightly:
"What could you have done? At the time, it might just have made things worse. Paul, the baby and me are alive now because of what she did. But if you had died trying to save her, then her sacrifice would have been in vain. We would all be dead."
Cole felt angry nevertheless. All of this seemed so pointless:
"Why did she have to do this? How could she have thought that she had a chance to succeed?"
"I wasn't there," she answered sadly, " but I know… knew my sister, and no bad odds would have kept her from trying. She tried to protect us all to the very last…"
Prue was watching them, annoyed that she couldn't indeed protect them, as she wanted to. Patti came closer and Prue turned to her questioningly. Patti shook her head sadly, and that was answer enough.
"Why can't we tell them? They might be able to convince her."
Patti:
"Then what, we tell them and Paige refuses to help, where would they be then. I don't want them to have false hopes. Maybe I was expecting too much from Paige…"
Prue:
"Don't you remember how we felt when we found out? It's not easy to accept such a destiny." Her voice was still reproachful and Patti flinched.
Prue:
"You should have told us, you know that don't you? It wasn't right."
Patti:
"I did what I thought best at the time. My indiscretion was going to cost all of you as much as it would have me."
Prue:
"You loved him, they would have understood…"
Patti:
"Didn't you realize by now that the Elders are not as benevolent as one would expect from a force of good? It already angered them greatly to find out that I had been seeing Sam, but to find out that there was a child…"
Prue:
"How could you give her up?"
Patti:
"It was for her own good, and if…"She hesitated at this point knowing that it was a sore point. "If you had lived, she would never have needed to know."
Prue:
"She should have known, it was her right…"
Patti didn't feel like arguing the point again:
"No matter, right now, it's up to all of them. All we can do is try to guide them in the right direction. Please do not tell them. It's hard enough as it is…"
Prue:
"Maybe I can try something else…"
Paige let her friend in, and was relieved anew that the apparition was gone. She didn't think that she could have talked about it while the hallucination persisted. For it really did have to be it.
Bob:
"So what exactly happened to you?"
Paige smiled sheepishly:
"Now that I'm thinking about it, I really don't know if I can tell you, it sounds so crazy…"
Bob lifted an eyebrow:
"Crazy?"
Paige uttered a little laugh and turned toward her tiny living room, inviting him in,
She talked while walking toward the nearest seat and couldn't see the mean look that Bob gave her:
"I think that I must have had a nightmare, but it seemed so real…"
When she turned toward him, he had again the paternal smile on his face.
Paige was wondering how to begin with this and her silence prolonged. Bob seeing that she didn't continue, insisted:
"Come on, I won't think that you're crazy, I promise…"
Paige:
"Wait till you heard it, then you'll decide," she finally said.
"Well, how should I start? A few hours ago, everything was perfectly normal, then I started having weird sensations and…" she couldn't bring herself to finish. So Bob smiled encouragingly…
"Oh ok, I saw a lady… She was glowing and she looked exactly like the woman in the locket."
She had expected him to be at least surprised, but he just went on smiling.
"Then, that scared me of course, and all I wanted was to go home, and low and behold, I found myself home just like that…"
Bob:
"Just like that…" he said matter of fact like.
Paige got very puzzled by his attitude.
"You don't think I'm crazy?"
Bob answered mysteriously:
"No, I really don't… Tell me more about this."
Paige:
"What more is there to say? The lady was going on about her being my mother and me having sisters, who needed my help. All nonsense really…"
Bob's expression changed slightly, becoming more intense:
"What else did she tell you?"
His insistence made her uncomfortable suddenly. She started to wonder about him. Yet, she continued:
"She told me that people would be coming after me…"
Bob:
"Did she now?"
His tone of voice seemed somewhat threatening to Paige, but in her state of mind she thought that maybe she was reading things into this.
She shook the malaise and smiled:
"You're pulling my leg aren't you?" She asked, forcing herself to sound unconcerned but not completely succeeding.
Then she went on:
"Where are my manners? Would you like something to drink? I don't have much but…"
Bob again returned to the charming person that she knew:
"Of course, some tea maybe?"
Paige:
"Coming up…" She turned toward the kitchen, but in spite of herself she felt the need to look back at her friend. Something wasn't adding up and she was getting more anxious by the moment. Not at all what she had wanted… Yet, when she looked back, he just smiled at her. So she went on. As soon as she was out of sight though, Bob's face became deathly serious. He was pondering the worth of probing more into this turn of event. As soon as he had felt her awakening, he knew that it was his moment. He had waited a long time for this. He knew only that this witch was special, not exactly why. The ghost, obviously of her mother, and her insistence about the sisters interested him particularly. "Still," he thought, "it wouldn't do to wait until she figures out that it's all real. Who knows what powers she could wield?" A long knife materialized in his right hand. He started slowly toward the kitchen…
Meanwhile, Paige was putting the water to boil, still questioning her friend's attitude.
She had just about decided that she was really seeing things when the new voice startled her…
Paul had been in the room for only a few minutes, when he felt his control slip for the first time. He was holding her picture, standing in front of the dresser, when suddenly he dropped the frame and got startled by the glass shattering… He breathed deeply, staring at the broken frame, and finally managed to regain enough control to leave the room. He got out of the house quickly, but once outside, another wave of anger shook him. He felt the urge to go and hurt the others so strong that it took all his might to resist it. Without wait, and as soon as he could control himself again, he vanished…