Phoebe was caught off-guard as the tiny form leapt from the bed and barreled into her, small arms encircling her waist as the girl tilted her face up to gaze adoringly at the startled woman.
"Oh, baby…" the words froze in the air as the woman from the hallway stepped into the room. "Oh my God." Piper's hands flew up in an attempt to freeze the trespassers. When her power failed, she looked down protectively at the child before speaking. "Patty, honey, could you go tell Uncle Leo we have guests, please?"
"Okay." The girl was obviously reluctant to release her grip. Slowly she relaxed the hug and turned to leave, but not before she beckoned Phoebe to lean nearer her small face. "I knew you'd find a way home, Mommy. I just knew you would. Promise you won't go away again for so long. You were gone a long time, Mommy."
"I promise," Phoebe solemnly stated. She looked up to Prue only to see her own questions mirrored in her sister's eyes.
Once the door was closed and they could hear little Patty's excited voice racing down the hallway, Piper spoke again. "You shouldn't have told her that. Who are you? I know you're not my sisters, you didn't have any idea who Patty was," she said, looking directly at Phoebe. "Besides, Phoebe's been gone for two years. What are you doing in my niece's room?"
Prue shook her head. "Nothing, we aren't here for Patty. We're here, or at least we thought we were here… for you."
The explanations were slow in coming, hindered by the very complexity of the nature of their predicament. Huddled around the kitchen table with Leo under strict orders to read Patty another bedtime story, Piper kept her distance from the two interlopers. She eyed them warily.
"How can I be sure you are who you say you are?"
Prue glanced at Phoebe. "I guess that would depend on where our realities split. We would have the same memories up until that point." She paused. "Obviously, you were able to unbind your powers before your Phoebe disappeared. Was it when she came back from New York? Did she read the spell that unbound them?"
Piper narrowed her eyes. "Phoebe never went to New York. She tried… but I went after her and brought her back to the manor. We found the book a few weeks later when we were trying to clean out the attic but Prue, my Prue, read the spell."
"Okay," Prue sighed. "That must be the starting point."
"You stopped her from leaving?" Phoebe asked quietly.
Piper nodded. "Grams had just died; none of us were thinking clearly. I didn't want to lose my baby sister too."
Prue placed a reassuring hand on Phoebe's. "Piper wanted to go after you but I told her to let you go. The question now is, what could we tell you that no one else would know?"
They satin heavy contemplation and felt the weight of their situation bearing down on them. Finally, Prue broke the silence.
"I asked you, before Grams died, to be my maid of honor."
"You did what?" Phoebe cried, snatching her hand away from Prue's.
"Yeah, Piper was pretty shocked too but I was closer to her than I was to you then. It seemed to be the natural choice. But now? I think I would just have to have two maids of honor."
By the time Piper was convinced, Prue and Phoebe had related a good part of their childhoods. With each story, Piper released a little more of her suspicion until she finally demanded they stop.
"I have an idea," she said after a long silence. "You're able to open doorways into alternate realities but you aren't strong enough with just the two of you to be able to pinpoint the exact one you need. If you just keep popping into random ones…"
"We'll be too late if we do ever reach the right one," Prue finished for her. "Our Piper will be dead."
"Exactly." Piper ran her fingertip along the edge of a child's rough drawing that lay on the table. "Patty drew this after her nap today. She said she had a dream about her Mommy, that she came back and the Power of Three was restored. She also said that she left again, through a glowing hole in her bedroom wall. See?" She slid the picture across the table. "Patty's premonitions aren't always focused, but they're never wrong and I think I understand this one. We can use the Power of Three to send you to your Piper."
"You'd be willing to help us?"
Piper turned to Phoebe and smiled. "You're still my sisters, in some odd way, and as much as I miss my Phoebe, I know you don't belong here. You aren't Patty's mother or the woman I stopped from running away to New York City. I know that you need to leave although it's going to break my heart to try to explain it to Patty. She misses her mother so much."
"I'll talk to her," Phoebe offered as she rose from the table. "You two can work on the potion." Phoebe paused at the threshold. "It's nice to know," she added softly, "that despite all the changes, all the differences, you're still… Piper. Even here, in another reality."
Piper smiled sadly. "There are some things that just don't change, I guess."
Prue waited until Phoebe was out of earshot. "Where is your Phoebe?"
Piper closed her eyes for a moment. "The Source has her, he's had her for two years now. Cole tried to rescue her but… he was killed in the process. We keep trying to find some way to get to her… Nothing works, but we can't give up, at least not until we know that she's dead. That's why Prue isn't here, we heard about an auction of a mystical amulet that supposedly is able to open a portal between this world and the place where evil dwells. She flew down to LA to buy it. I just hope it really works. Patty needs her mother and I need my baby sister almost as much."
Prue bit her lip and reached out to take Piper's hand. "I wish there was something we could do."
"There is, let me help you find your Piper and take her home. At least one reality's got to have a happy ending."
~~~
Phoebe took a deep breath before she opened the door to Patty's room. The little girl sat up in her bed, her eyes huge with expectation.
"You gotta go away again."
Phoebe nodded.
"'S okay. I know you'll comeback."
"Yeah, and until then, your Aunt Piper will take real good care of you. She and Uncle Leo love you very much," Phoebe reassured her.
"Uh huh, just like I was their own baby. Aunt Piper says so all the time." The sincerity in the little girl's voice was heart wrenching.
"Your Aunt Piper is an amazing woman," Phoebe admitted. "And you know she means what she says, don't you?"
"Aunt Piper would never lie. Lies are bad and they hurt people's feelings."
Phoebe smiled. "How did you get to be so smart?"
Patty giggled and snuggled down into the covers. "Aunt Piper says I'm just like you."
Phoebe leaned over the bed and placed a kiss on Patty's soft cheek. She watched as sleep came and quickly evened the child's breathing and relaxed her body. She was still watching her when Leo appeared at the door.
"I'll move her into our room so the three of you can work in here." He bent down and gathered the child into his arms before making an exit.
"Thanks, Leo."
Phoebe was alone when Prue returned, followed quietly by Piper. She looked up, gave them both a small smile, and studied Piper closely. She noted the differences between the woman who stood in front of her and the one she had bid goodnight less than twenty-four hours before. This Piper was on edge, stressed beyond belief by the loss of a sister and the addition of instant motherhood, not to mention the ever-present threat of demonic attacks without the benefit of the Power of Three.
"Don't worry about us," Piper said as if reading Phoebe's thoughts. "We're going to be fine."
~~~
The house filled with the savory scents of cooking as Phoebe stepped off the bottom step of the stairwell, her shower-damp hair wrapped in a towel and clean clothes on. There wouldn't be any sleeping that night, despite the all too obvious fact that Piper was completely worn out.
"Okay, Piper? I know I said I missed your cooking, sweetie. And believe me, I do, but…" She quirked an eyebrow and waved to the veritable feast set out on the table. "I hope you're expecting an army of guests because there's no way in hell I could eat all that."
Piper braced herself against the counter and eyed the mass of food she had piled on the table. Phoebe was right, she had gone way overboard and she wasn't even sure why she was doing it. It was as if she had become someone else, she couldn't fight the urge to over-compensate any more than she could manage to make herself eat. "I'm sorry, I just…" And why the hell did she keep feeling the need to apologize?
"Hey, it's no big." Phoebe grinned. "Maybe Prue will prove to be human and show up on the doorstep after all. Oh, baby, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything," she quickly amended when Piper's face fell at the mention of their eldest sister. "Leave it to me to screw things up and stick my foot in my big fat mouth."
Phoebe pulled the towel off her head and draped it over the back of a chair before she pulled Piper into a warm hug. Piper wanted to be able to let herself relax into the embrace but found it impossible to do so. For all that the woman sounded and, more or less, looked like Phoebe, she was every bit as much a stranger as the countless nameless people she passed everyday on the street. Even in Phoebe's hug she felt completely abandoned.
"First thing in the morning, honey, we're taking you to a doctor. You're gonna get through this," Phoebe promised, "even if it means I move back to San Francisco and force feed you your own cooking." She pulled back and looked Piper in the eye. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you too." Phoebe gently brushed a lock of hair back from Piper's face.
They were seated at the table, Phoebe scarfing down a plate of pancakes while Piper picked at a muffin, when they heard a knock on the front door. Piper's hopes rose again, her thoughts willing Leo to make an appearance at last.
"Who could that be?" Phoebe asked, rising from her chair before Piper could make her legs cooperate. "You stay here and keep working up to actually eating that thing. I'll see who it is."
Piper listened as Phoebe left and opened the door. The exchange that followed nearly startled her enough to topple her from her chair.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" Prue's voice rang out in the entry.
"Wow, Piper will feel so privileged that the great Prudence Halliwell-Prescott has deemed her worthy of a visit. Tell me, was it too difficult to tear yourself away from your oh-so-perfect life in order to face the responsibility you have to your sister?"
"Can it, Phoebe. I didn't come all this way to listen to you bitch. To be completely honest, I wouldn't have even come if I had known you would be here."
"Yeah, it's amazing how easy it is for you to write off both of your sisters. Just screw the fact that Piper in there looks like she's gonna keel over any minute now."
"Where is Piper?"
The angry tones resonated through the house, ringing in Piper's ears like a hurricane of unrest. She clapped her hands to her head in an attempt to muffle the noise and squinted her eyes shut against the sudden bout of dizziness that washed over her. Something was wrong, she couldn't think straight and the room wouldn't stop spinning. Somehow, she needed to get to Phoebe and Prue and let them know.
The room continued to ebb and twirl as she slowly stood up. She leaned heavily on the table, trying to focus on the meal in front of her but failed to manage even so easy a task. Even in a house filled with her sisters, she was alone.
Prue barged past Phoebe, leaving her baby sister to chase after her. She walked directly to the kitchen. "You have some nerve to talk about me writing off you and Piper. When's the last time you bothered to call or visit Piper without wanting something? At least I make sure I call her couple of weeks to make sure she's still alive."
"Well, you won't have to worry about that for much longer now, will you? Tell me, Prudence, just how long has Piper had this problem? How long have you been ignoring it so your life wouldn't be inconvenienced? When were you planning on telling me? Were you just going to wait until she didn't answer your call one day and then assume she was dead and gone from your responsibilities?" Phoebe's anger seeped into the air around her, adding to the already heavy atmosphere.
"Shut up, Phoebe. You don't know anything about my life." Prue stopped short just as she reached the kitchen. "Piper!"
Phoebe looked up in time to see Piper crumple to the floor.
to be continued…