The trip to her sisters' house was a very short one. Portia couldn't decide whether
or not she thought this was a good thing. It was almost to much to think, that for nearly
two months she had been living so close to her sisters, and she hadn't even known.
She was so nervous. What would they be like? Would she like them? More
importantly, would they like her?
They turned on to Prescott and parked in front of a huge Victorian house. They
got out of the car, and Portia realized that she could stand. She had been so scared that
she had expected her legs to collapse, or something. In a daze, she followed her father to
the front door.
~*~
Inside, Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were just as apprehensive. None of them had been
able to sleep much after the visit from their mother and grandmother, so they had spent
most of the night cleaning and trying to prepare themselves for the day ahead.
They had given Victor a spare key, so when Phoebe saw them pull up, they went
into the living room and waited for them to let themselves in.
Their father appeared in the doorway. Behind him stood a little girl. Portia. Their
sister.
In that moment it became real. That girl, Portia, really was their sister. She wasn't
just a problem to be discussed or handled. She was real.
Shyly, she stepped out from behind her father. She immediately recognized her
sisters as The witches from the night before. They recognized her, too, but chose to
pretend that they didn't, for Victor's sake. Prue slightly jerked her head toward him,
signaling Portia not to say anything. Not that Portia was going to say anything. Saying
something would involve telling him that she had been late coming home from school
that day, which would involve telling him why. No, this was best kept between the four of
them.
"Hi." Portia said softly.
"Hi," Prue responded, and began the introductions. "I'm Prue, and this is Phoebe,
and Piper."
"Right, then, I'll go and let you girls get to know each other." Victor said, and left.
The girls silently watched him drive away through the window. Then Piper turned
to Portia. "Why don't you sit down, sweetie?" she suggested. Portia sat opposite her
sisters.
"Sooo... what, exactly, happened the other night?" Phoebe asked, because no one
knew where else to start.
"I'm not sure," Portia began slowly. "That... thing... it's been following me since
my 13th birthday. That's when I had a... vision. Daddy called it a per- premonition. I saw
the thing attacking me. I told Daddy, and he told me everything, about Mommy and
Grams, and the magic. He told me to concentrate on my pillow, really hard, and I did, and
it flew across the room. It was really freaky." she paused. "He didn't say anything about
you, though. Not until a couple of days ago."
"Hmm. People in this family tend to... tend to leave things out." Phoebe mused.
"They didn't tell us about you until yesterday, and there's still so much we don't know."
Such as what, exactly, your powers are." Piper interjected. "You mentioned
claivoyance and telekinesis. Can you... honey, have you ever frozen time?"
Portia nodded. "I accidentally froze my teacher once, so I could finish a test.
That's how I found out i could. Oh, and there's one more thing - and this is what freaks
me out the most. I can set things on fire. Like, without matches."
"Wow," Piper said, turning to Prue and Phoebe. "She's got all our main powers,
plus pyrokinesis. I'm impressed." She turned back to Portia. "How well can you control
your powers?"
"I can't," she answered, "not really. I don't know if I'll ever be able to."
"Oh, honey, you will. Trust me. Not too long ago, my powers started to expand,
and every time I got the tiniest bit upset..." Piper flicked her wrist, and made the glas of
water sitting on the coffee table explode.
"Cool!" Portia exclaimed.
"You think that's good?" Prue asked, and then she astral projected herself behind
Piper. "Hi!" she said, just close enough to her sister's ear to cause Piper to jump slightly
and grumble, "She loves to do this to me." Portia giggled. Astral-Prue disappeared, and
Prue woke up just in time to be hit with a throw pillow, tossed at her, of course, by Piper.
This cause both Portia and Phoebe to completely lose it, until Prue threw a pillow at each
of them.
It was getting later than they realized. Just as Phoebe and Portia were flinging
their pillows back at Prue, with the four of them giggling hysterically, Victor appeared in
the hallway.
"Glad to see you girls are getting along so well." he remarked.
"Hi, Daddy." they greeted him, still laughing.
"Hey, Portia, why don't you come back tomorrow. We've got something to show
you." Phoebe suggested.
"Daddy, can I?" Victor nodded. "OK," Portia said, "see you tomorrow."