Again, Phoebe and Prue readied themselves before the wall of what was, in their own reality, Piper's bedroom. But this time, they were joined by a very determined, albeit changed, middle sister.
"Where's your spell?" she asked, looking to her cohorts.
Phoebe placed the slip of paper in her outstretched hand and offered her a small smile. "I wish there was a way we could help you find your Phoebe."
"I know you do. Prue and I will find a way to get her back. My only concern is that she'll be okay when we do finally bring her home. I don't even want to imagine what she's suffered these past two years."
Prue clasped Piper's hand. "Whatever it is, she'll be fine. After all, she'll have her sisters and her daughter to help her. Phoebe's strong," she added, offering her baby sister a knowing look, "stronger than even she thinks."
Piper nodded. "Let's get this done then, the faster you find her, the faster you can help her. Plus, I'm supposed to be searching for the spell that activates the amulet. I can't do that until I'm sure you're in the right reality."
The portal reopened a moment later, accompanied by the same surge of wind and Prue reluctantly released Piper's hand.
"Good luck," Phoebe called as they walked through the supernatural doorway.
"Well, this is a good sign."
They looked around the room. The bed and dresser were in their rightful places and there wasn't a hint of a child to be found. Phoebe walked up to the dresser and lifted a photograph from its surface. "Look."
Prue took the picture and studied it for a moment. The three of them were standing outside the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, tense postures and forced smiles abounding. "Come on. We have to find Piper."
~~~
Piper ached: her muscles, her bones, but most of all her head pounded in agonizing accompaniment with the pulsing of the blood through her veins. Forcing her eyes open, she worked to bring the world around her into focus. Her pain worsened when she saw the peroxide version of her baby sister kneeling next to her. She kept praying she would awaken from the hellish nightmare she seemed to be living, but each time she opened her eyes, she was simply faced with more of the same horror story.
"Sweetie?" Phoebe's face was a study in concern for her sister from the worry-creased brow to the deep pools of pain Piper found in her eyes. "Are you okay? Prudence went to call an ambulance."
"No." Piper said with more force and vehemence than she had thought herself capable of. "No, just let me go to bed and rest a little." She looked past Phoebe to silently beseech Prue to allow her this one bit of control. "I'll go to a doctor in the morning. Please, just let me sleep in my own bed tonight."
Prudence stood, uncertain, in the doorway, the phone clenched in a white-knuckled fist. "You won't back out again? I've heard that same promise before, you know, back before I moved to Baltimore."
"I swear it," Piper whispered. She tried to push herself up from the cold floor and was grateful for the strong hands that moved to help her rise. "Thanks," she said when she was once again standing. "I can make it on my own now. Pheebs, finish your meal. I'll be fine. Please, Prue," she added and noticed her elder sister stop herself from issuing a reprimand for her usage of the old nickname. "Stay here with Phoebe. There's lots to eat… and even more for you two to talk about…"
"But…"
"Please, I need to do this… alone."
Prudence relented and stepped aside to let Piper shuffle painfully past her. She made it as far as the hallway before the fight picked up again, sending waves of discord through the house. As she moved toward the stairs, Piper worked to devise a plan, some means of sending a message to Prue and Phoebe, but concentration proved to be a fleeting thing. Bits and pieces of spells they had used in times past mingled in her thoughts like drunken revelers at Mardi Gras, stubbornly slurred and directionless.
~~~
When Prue opened the bedroom door, she was greeted by angry shouts that seemed to originate downstairs.
"How could you leave her alone like this?" The voice that was filled with bitter resentment was, without question, Phoebe's and Prue turned to glance at her baby sister who shrugged. "You knew she was sick and you couldn't even get past your anger with me to tell me what was going on. I could have come back. I would have come back if I had known, especially since you felt so determined to desert her for your perfect life in Baltimore."
"I'm not the one who ran away to New York! She said she was fine with me moving to the east coast. She said she wanted me to take the job in Baltimore." Prue blanched at the venom in the voice she could only accept was her own and Phoebe stepped closer to her and looped an arm through hers.
"Oh, I'm sure she did, and you listened to her real well, didn't you? Damn it, Prudence, she was just telling you what she knew you wanted to hear. If you had really wanted what was best for her, you would have admitted it then."
"Okay, so I was selfish? Let's talk about being selfish. How often did you so much as think about Piper while you were partying in the Big Apple? Huh? How often did you call to check on her, or just to say hello?"
Prue and Phoebe paused on the stairs and waited for some clue as to where Piper might be. Time was short. They needed to act quickly but didn't want to risk running into themselves for fear of the possible backlash that might create. They stood hesitantly for five minutes more and listened to the raging battle as it continued to escalate.
"This is ridiculous," Prue muttered.
"I'm just glad that we didn't end up like that," Phoebe whispered, edging closer to Prue on the staircase landing.
"Yeah," Prue agreed, "but if this tells us anything, it shows what could have happened."
"Talk about your worst case scenarios. They… we… whatever, are so angry that they're ignoring the reason they're apparently supposed to be here to begin with. Who's going to help Piper if they can't even have a civilized conversation?"
"Prue glanced downstairs. "We can't afford to wait any longer. We'll just have to risk it. Come on."
Phoebe nodded and moved to follow Prue when she stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh my God."
~~~
She lifted one leaden foot to begin her ascent of the stairwell when she heard the gasp from above, barely audible over the roiling argument going on behind her. Piper lifted her face and braced herself for a fatal blow from the demon that had sequestered her in the hellish life to which she had been sent. Her starving mind was taunting her, playing tricks based solely on her desires rather than allow her to witness the disturbed reality that surrounded her.
Phoebe sprang into action and rushed past an immobile Prue in her attempt to reach her missing sister. She didn't pause even when Piper flinched at her approach, but threw her arms around her in a crushing embrace. Prue joined them both, adding her relieved hug to the mix, once she was able to force her mind past its petrification at seeing Piper.
Piper swayed, suddenly unsteady but kept upright with her sisters' supporting arms. She looked from one to the other, assuring herself that they were more than a hallucination. "What took you so long to find me?" she demanded gently.
"You know us," Phoebe quietly told her, "we had to do a little sight-seeing along the way."
"Sweetie? Can you make it upstairs? We need to get you out of here and back home before…"
Piper studied Prue's eyes. "Yeah, before it's too late. Home sounds really good right now."
Phoebe eased her arm around Piper's waist. "Leo's going to be so glad to see you. He's been worried sick… we all have."
"I think I'm sick enough for us all. Let's go home."
Leaving the sounds of the fight behind them, the three sisters carefully made their way upstairs and into the correct bedroom. A vial of potion was produced and Phoebe's spell was recited, creating the same wind and smoke of the previous trips.
"Piper!"
Disoriented by the portal, Piper swayed uneasily and her vision swam, which would have felled her had Leo's arms not swept her from her feet. Relief washed over her as she allowed her head to fall to his shoulder. The familiarity of his scent surrounded her and she relished the arms that clutched her to his chest. She was safe and loved and far from alone… at last.
"I love you, Leo," she murmured just before she succumbed to the encroaching blackness of unconsciousness.
"Leo!" Phoebe urged. She stood alongside Prue and they both watched anxiously as the whitelighter laid Piper on her bed and held his hands over her unconscious body. The soft glow that emanated from his palms entranced them as they waited on pins and needles for Piper to awake.
"Food, now."
Prue grinned at Piper's raspy demand. Her body wasn't nearly as emaciated as it had been in the alternate reality, but the lack of food for a day or more had obviously had a big impact. "Only the best. Take out or a restaurant?"
"Chin's in Chinatown, they deliver." Piper looked at the three who stood around her. "I am so glad to see you."
Phoebe plopped down on the bed next to her. "Not nearly as glad as we are to see you. And do we have some stories to tell you…"
to be continued…