As Paige distractedly tossed potion ingredients into a pot, she stared at
Phoebe, who sat sullenly at the kitchen table, gazing out of the window
into the night. Phoebe hadn't said a word since Samantha had...
Paige did not know exactly what Sam's outburst meant. While she felt compelled to say something to her sister, Paige had no idea of what words could possibly be appropriate for the situation. She had seen the fear that gripped Samantha just as Phoebe had. How could she possibly say that "everything's going to be fine" or "it's not as bad as you think"?
Just as Paige opened her mouth to offer Phoebe some words of comfort, Piper and Leo entered the kitchen with Samantha trailing a few steps behind them.
"Paige, what are you making?" Piper peered across the kitchen counter and into the pot.
Paige had lost track of what ingredients she had added to the mixture and she stared blankly at the concoction. "This? Oh, nothing really. I was just keeping my hands busy."
"Uh huh. Well, you'd better be careful before you add any more of that. You might have a fairly big explosion on your hands," Piper cautioned.
Paige nodded absently and placed the herb back in its container, as she stared over Piper's head at Sam, hiding behind Leo and looking as though she wished she could disappear.
Samantha pressed herself into a corner of the kitchen, gripping the counter until her knuckles turned white. Cautiously she peered around her father, watching as her... She couldn't call this woman her "aunt," not after all the warnings Paige and her mother had given her about what she might do to the family--not after watching her destroy the people she loved the most.
Sam stopped herself. This woman, who seemed so tiny as she drew her knees up against her chest, was not the person who had threatened her family all of those years. At least she wasn't that person yet. Sam watched as she hesitantly glanced around the room, her gaze meeting Sam's for only an instant before moving away, trying to pretend that she hadn't noticed Sam noticing her. But in that instant, Sam recognized something in her eyes: fear. That was not the cold, hard stare of the person who had let her family die; this woman was as afraid as she was.
Steeling her resolve, Samantha loosened her grip on the counter and pushed herself toward the kitchen table, which stood only a few feet away, but miles seemed to separate her. She felt as though she were walking in water, her movements slowed by some invisible force. Sam concentrated on the chair she tried to reach, hoping that focusing on an object would keep her from retreating back into the corner, hiding childishly behind her parents. After what seemed like hours, her hand finally grasped the wooden back of the chair, and she slowly drew it out, the legs scraping at the floor.
Phoebe breathed in deeply as Samantha sat down across from her, holding her breath for a few seconds before expelling it audibly in one long whoosh. Sam rested her hands on the kitchen table and Phoebe could see them tremble, but her expression revealed her resolve.
Even though the fear in her mounted as she sat staring at this girl who seemed to hold her future in her eyes, Phoebe couldn't help but study Samantha's face. This was the first opportunity Phoebe had had to look at her niece since she had arrived. She has Piper's eyes, she thought.
"You are so beautiful."
Samantha appeared taken aback as her eyes widened in surprise. "Th-- Thank you," she stammered. "I look like my mother," Sam continued after a few uneasy moments of silence.
"I see that." Phoebe smiled warmly. "But I can see a little of Leo in you too."
As Sam stared self-consciously at the table, tucking a loose strand of her long, dark hair behind her ear, Phoebe thought to herself that she was exactly like Piper as a teenager, all awkwardness and timidity.
"What's your name?" Phoebe asked, leaning forward.
"Samantha," she replied shyly.
Phoebe swallowed hard and moved uncomfortably in her chair as she prepared herself for the question she had to ask: the question that had been plaguing her since she watched her niece cower from her in terror. "Samantha, what did I do to you?"
Sam's eyes hardened as she stared at Phoebe, her chest rising and falling with her short, quick breaths. She sat in silence as she tried to find the words to describe what had happened, the scene replaying over and over in her mind. But her brain couldn't translate what she had seen into sentences; her tongue couldn't make the right sounds. After a few minutes, Samantha felt a hand on her shoulder, someone pulling her out of her memories and back to reality.
"Samantha." Her name drifted into her consciousness, and she looked to who had spoken. Her father was sitting next to her, a concerned look on his face that was all too familiar to her. After gazing at her for a few moments, he looked to the person sitting on the other side of her, and she felt someone slipping their hand into hers.
"Sam." Her mother squeezed her hand, and the warmth of her touch seemed to surround Samantha entirely, offering her a promise that her mother would absorb all of her pain if she had the power. "Sam, I know it's difficult, but you need to tell us what happened. You need to tell us why you came here."
Sam nodded, her eyes still vacant and staring. "I know I do. And I want to. But my memory of what happened seems to get blurry whenever I try, and I can't find the right words..."
As Sam lowered her head, her hair fell forward across her face, and Piper reached to brush it behind her ear. "Please try."
Samantha's gaze met Piper's. "You...you die," she said slowly. "You all die." She looked to Paige, who stood silently behind Piper. "It happened so fast when they attacked...I couldn't do anything to stop them."
"Who's 'them'?" Piper asked gently.
"Her," Samantha glanced timidly at Phoebe, "and...him. The demon."
"What demon?"
"I don't know his name," Sam admitted. "But he looked familiar. And he was powerful. He killed...Paige...with..." Her voice grew softer and softer until she spoke at barely a whisper and then she became silent, lost in memories too painful to articulate.
Piper stroked Samantha's hair, and did not press her to continue. She felt so powerless. She could do nothing to stop her daughter from suffering.
"The powerful demon," Paige began hesitantly, drawing Piper out of her reflections. "Do you think that could be..." Even though Paige left her sentence unfinished, everyone knew whom she implied, and the name hung heavily in the space between them.
"Cole." Phoebe verbalized what no one else could. "From what she said, we can't be certain. But I know how we can be."
Piper realized what Phoebe suggested, and her mouth opened slowly in apprehension. "Phoebe, are you sure you want to--"
"Piper, we need to know what happened, and I don't think she's able to tell us." Phoebe's expression hardened. "I want to know what I did."
The sisters stared at each other for several moments, both of them waiting for a sign that indicated the other had conceded. When Phoebe saw the corners of Piper's mouth relax, she knew that Piper had admitted defeat, and Phoebe looked to Samantha, who still sat deep in thought.
"Samantha," Phoebe said firmly, and Sam glanced up at her. "I know that this is hard for you to talk about. But I have a way of seeing what happened, so that you don't have to tell us. I have to touch you though."
After a few seconds, Samantha very tentatively extended her hands across the table. As she stared at the palms of Sam's hands, which looked so vulnerable, Phoebe felt her resolve weaken, her stomach twitch with fear. But before she could back down completely, Phoebe grasped Samantha's hands and immediately a premonition overtook her.
Phoebe watched what happened through the eyes of her future self. She was in the manor, in the midst of the attack, and she blew a powder at Sam that created a force field that imprisoned her. She turned to see Piper fling her hands at her, as if to blow her up, but with a wave of her hand, Phoebe deflected the power and sent Piper flying backwards into a bookshelf. Leo orbed in to try to heal Piper, but she drew an athame from her pocket and hurled it at him. The knife struck Leo in the chest, and his eyes widened before he crumpled to the floor, unmoving. Paige orbed into the room in front of Phoebe, kicking her in the stomach and knocking her to the ground. When Phoebe looked up, Paige was hovering over Piper, trying to help her stand. Reaching into her pocket again, she threw a potion vial at them, but Piper froze it before it could break. Then an energy ball flew at Piper, and struck her in the chest, her body falling heavily to the floor. Phoebe glanced behind her to see Cole, his arm still extended. Phoebe ran to him, but before she could stop him, Cole launched another energy ball, and she turned to see Paige, who was lunging for something, fall to the ground.
As Phoebe emerged from her premonition, she gasped for air, tears stinging her eyes. She felt like her entire body was collapsing inward; she couldn't believe what she had just seen herself do.
"Oh my God," Phoebe sobbed. "Oh my God..." Phoebe looked at Samantha, her vision fuzzy with tears. "Sam, I am so sorry. Oh my God, I am so sorry."
Hurriedly, Phoebe stood up from the table and ran from the kitchen, unable to face her niece who had watched as she had killed her parents. When she reached the foyer, she pressed her back against a wall, slowly sliding downward until she was sitting on the floor. She covered her face with her hands, and her shoulders shook as she cried.
How could she? How could she kill her family? She wouldn't. She would never do that, Phoebe tried to tell herself. But she would--Sam had seen her do it and she had watched as she let her sisters die.
"Phoebe?" She felt someone touch her arm, and she lowered her hands to see Paige crouching next to her. Phoebe reached for her sister, pulling her close and squeezing her tightly. The warmth of Paige's body was comforting, a reassurance that she still could keep what she had seen from happening.
Phoebe's arms tightening against her ribcage felt almost painful, but Paige didn't vocalize her discomfort. As Phoebe cried quietly on her shoulder, Paige smoothed her sister's hair and glanced up at Piper who stood nearby, her mouth drawn in concern. After a few moments, Phoebe drew away from Paige, who handed her a tissue. Gratefully, Phoebe accepted it and wiped the tears from her face.
When her vision cleared, Phoebe noticed Piper standing silently beside her. "Piper." Rising quickly to her feet, she kissed her sister on the cheek and enclosed her in a quick, firm hug. "I am so sorry."
"Phoebe, what did you see?" Piper asked.
"I saw what happened. In the attack." Her sisters waited as she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on stopping her insides from feeling like they were shaking. "I, uh, I saw Cole kill you."
"So it was Cole," Paige said slowly.
"Yeah." Phoebe focused on twisting her tissue around her finger, as she struggled to tell her sisters what she had seen. "We attacked together, I think. I trapped Sam in a force field, and then Piper tried to use her exploding power on me, but I deflected it or something and you went flying into a wall. Leo orbed in to heal you, but before he could I stabbed him with an athame and he collapsed." Phoebe felt her tears rising in her throat, and she fought to keep from crying. "Then I tried to throw a potion at both of you, but Piper froze it and while she was distracted by that, Cole threw an energy ball at her and..." Tears were running down Phoebe's face and her body felt numb, but somehow she managed to continue. "I tried to stop him, but I couldn't get to him in time and he threw another one at Paige and...he killed her too."
Phoebe felt arms surrounding her, bodies pressing against her, and she tried to accept her sisters' comfort, but she couldn't. She didn't deserve it.
"I killed my family," Phoebe mumbled into Piper's arm.
"Phoebe, that wasn't you," Piper said drawing away from her to look her in the eye.
"But it will be. Don't you understand?" Phoebe's voice broke with emotion. "My future is to kill my sisters."
"That's not your future yet," Paige told her. "We still have time to change it."
"Even so, it wasn't you who killed us--it was Cole," Piper continued. "You said you tried to stop him from killing Paige."
"I killed Leo, Piper." Phoebe saw something flicker in Piper's eyes, and her determined expression wavered. "Even if I don't understand how, it doesn't change the fact that I killed your husband. I put your daughter in danger. Just by being there, I helped Cole kill you."
They stood silently for several moments, Piper and Paige staring solemnly at Phoebe, unable to say anything. Piper broke the silence, saying, "Phoebe, you--"
"Whatever you're going to say, Piper, it's not going to change what I saw." Taking her sisters' hands, Phoebe kissed the back of each one. "I love you both very much, and I'm sorry, but I think I need to be by myself for a little while to think about this."
Giving them a final squeeze, Phoebe released her sisters' hands and walked across the foyer to the staircase. As she began climbing up the stairs to her bedroom, she could feel her sisters' gazes resting on her back.
Paige did not know exactly what Sam's outburst meant. While she felt compelled to say something to her sister, Paige had no idea of what words could possibly be appropriate for the situation. She had seen the fear that gripped Samantha just as Phoebe had. How could she possibly say that "everything's going to be fine" or "it's not as bad as you think"?
Just as Paige opened her mouth to offer Phoebe some words of comfort, Piper and Leo entered the kitchen with Samantha trailing a few steps behind them.
"Paige, what are you making?" Piper peered across the kitchen counter and into the pot.
Paige had lost track of what ingredients she had added to the mixture and she stared blankly at the concoction. "This? Oh, nothing really. I was just keeping my hands busy."
"Uh huh. Well, you'd better be careful before you add any more of that. You might have a fairly big explosion on your hands," Piper cautioned.
Paige nodded absently and placed the herb back in its container, as she stared over Piper's head at Sam, hiding behind Leo and looking as though she wished she could disappear.
Samantha pressed herself into a corner of the kitchen, gripping the counter until her knuckles turned white. Cautiously she peered around her father, watching as her... She couldn't call this woman her "aunt," not after all the warnings Paige and her mother had given her about what she might do to the family--not after watching her destroy the people she loved the most.
Sam stopped herself. This woman, who seemed so tiny as she drew her knees up against her chest, was not the person who had threatened her family all of those years. At least she wasn't that person yet. Sam watched as she hesitantly glanced around the room, her gaze meeting Sam's for only an instant before moving away, trying to pretend that she hadn't noticed Sam noticing her. But in that instant, Sam recognized something in her eyes: fear. That was not the cold, hard stare of the person who had let her family die; this woman was as afraid as she was.
Steeling her resolve, Samantha loosened her grip on the counter and pushed herself toward the kitchen table, which stood only a few feet away, but miles seemed to separate her. She felt as though she were walking in water, her movements slowed by some invisible force. Sam concentrated on the chair she tried to reach, hoping that focusing on an object would keep her from retreating back into the corner, hiding childishly behind her parents. After what seemed like hours, her hand finally grasped the wooden back of the chair, and she slowly drew it out, the legs scraping at the floor.
Phoebe breathed in deeply as Samantha sat down across from her, holding her breath for a few seconds before expelling it audibly in one long whoosh. Sam rested her hands on the kitchen table and Phoebe could see them tremble, but her expression revealed her resolve.
Even though the fear in her mounted as she sat staring at this girl who seemed to hold her future in her eyes, Phoebe couldn't help but study Samantha's face. This was the first opportunity Phoebe had had to look at her niece since she had arrived. She has Piper's eyes, she thought.
"You are so beautiful."
Samantha appeared taken aback as her eyes widened in surprise. "Th-- Thank you," she stammered. "I look like my mother," Sam continued after a few uneasy moments of silence.
"I see that." Phoebe smiled warmly. "But I can see a little of Leo in you too."
As Sam stared self-consciously at the table, tucking a loose strand of her long, dark hair behind her ear, Phoebe thought to herself that she was exactly like Piper as a teenager, all awkwardness and timidity.
"What's your name?" Phoebe asked, leaning forward.
"Samantha," she replied shyly.
Phoebe swallowed hard and moved uncomfortably in her chair as she prepared herself for the question she had to ask: the question that had been plaguing her since she watched her niece cower from her in terror. "Samantha, what did I do to you?"
Sam's eyes hardened as she stared at Phoebe, her chest rising and falling with her short, quick breaths. She sat in silence as she tried to find the words to describe what had happened, the scene replaying over and over in her mind. But her brain couldn't translate what she had seen into sentences; her tongue couldn't make the right sounds. After a few minutes, Samantha felt a hand on her shoulder, someone pulling her out of her memories and back to reality.
"Samantha." Her name drifted into her consciousness, and she looked to who had spoken. Her father was sitting next to her, a concerned look on his face that was all too familiar to her. After gazing at her for a few moments, he looked to the person sitting on the other side of her, and she felt someone slipping their hand into hers.
"Sam." Her mother squeezed her hand, and the warmth of her touch seemed to surround Samantha entirely, offering her a promise that her mother would absorb all of her pain if she had the power. "Sam, I know it's difficult, but you need to tell us what happened. You need to tell us why you came here."
Sam nodded, her eyes still vacant and staring. "I know I do. And I want to. But my memory of what happened seems to get blurry whenever I try, and I can't find the right words..."
As Sam lowered her head, her hair fell forward across her face, and Piper reached to brush it behind her ear. "Please try."
Samantha's gaze met Piper's. "You...you die," she said slowly. "You all die." She looked to Paige, who stood silently behind Piper. "It happened so fast when they attacked...I couldn't do anything to stop them."
"Who's 'them'?" Piper asked gently.
"Her," Samantha glanced timidly at Phoebe, "and...him. The demon."
"What demon?"
"I don't know his name," Sam admitted. "But he looked familiar. And he was powerful. He killed...Paige...with..." Her voice grew softer and softer until she spoke at barely a whisper and then she became silent, lost in memories too painful to articulate.
Piper stroked Samantha's hair, and did not press her to continue. She felt so powerless. She could do nothing to stop her daughter from suffering.
"The powerful demon," Paige began hesitantly, drawing Piper out of her reflections. "Do you think that could be..." Even though Paige left her sentence unfinished, everyone knew whom she implied, and the name hung heavily in the space between them.
"Cole." Phoebe verbalized what no one else could. "From what she said, we can't be certain. But I know how we can be."
Piper realized what Phoebe suggested, and her mouth opened slowly in apprehension. "Phoebe, are you sure you want to--"
"Piper, we need to know what happened, and I don't think she's able to tell us." Phoebe's expression hardened. "I want to know what I did."
The sisters stared at each other for several moments, both of them waiting for a sign that indicated the other had conceded. When Phoebe saw the corners of Piper's mouth relax, she knew that Piper had admitted defeat, and Phoebe looked to Samantha, who still sat deep in thought.
"Samantha," Phoebe said firmly, and Sam glanced up at her. "I know that this is hard for you to talk about. But I have a way of seeing what happened, so that you don't have to tell us. I have to touch you though."
After a few seconds, Samantha very tentatively extended her hands across the table. As she stared at the palms of Sam's hands, which looked so vulnerable, Phoebe felt her resolve weaken, her stomach twitch with fear. But before she could back down completely, Phoebe grasped Samantha's hands and immediately a premonition overtook her.
Phoebe watched what happened through the eyes of her future self. She was in the manor, in the midst of the attack, and she blew a powder at Sam that created a force field that imprisoned her. She turned to see Piper fling her hands at her, as if to blow her up, but with a wave of her hand, Phoebe deflected the power and sent Piper flying backwards into a bookshelf. Leo orbed in to try to heal Piper, but she drew an athame from her pocket and hurled it at him. The knife struck Leo in the chest, and his eyes widened before he crumpled to the floor, unmoving. Paige orbed into the room in front of Phoebe, kicking her in the stomach and knocking her to the ground. When Phoebe looked up, Paige was hovering over Piper, trying to help her stand. Reaching into her pocket again, she threw a potion vial at them, but Piper froze it before it could break. Then an energy ball flew at Piper, and struck her in the chest, her body falling heavily to the floor. Phoebe glanced behind her to see Cole, his arm still extended. Phoebe ran to him, but before she could stop him, Cole launched another energy ball, and she turned to see Paige, who was lunging for something, fall to the ground.
As Phoebe emerged from her premonition, she gasped for air, tears stinging her eyes. She felt like her entire body was collapsing inward; she couldn't believe what she had just seen herself do.
"Oh my God," Phoebe sobbed. "Oh my God..." Phoebe looked at Samantha, her vision fuzzy with tears. "Sam, I am so sorry. Oh my God, I am so sorry."
Hurriedly, Phoebe stood up from the table and ran from the kitchen, unable to face her niece who had watched as she had killed her parents. When she reached the foyer, she pressed her back against a wall, slowly sliding downward until she was sitting on the floor. She covered her face with her hands, and her shoulders shook as she cried.
How could she? How could she kill her family? She wouldn't. She would never do that, Phoebe tried to tell herself. But she would--Sam had seen her do it and she had watched as she let her sisters die.
"Phoebe?" She felt someone touch her arm, and she lowered her hands to see Paige crouching next to her. Phoebe reached for her sister, pulling her close and squeezing her tightly. The warmth of Paige's body was comforting, a reassurance that she still could keep what she had seen from happening.
Phoebe's arms tightening against her ribcage felt almost painful, but Paige didn't vocalize her discomfort. As Phoebe cried quietly on her shoulder, Paige smoothed her sister's hair and glanced up at Piper who stood nearby, her mouth drawn in concern. After a few moments, Phoebe drew away from Paige, who handed her a tissue. Gratefully, Phoebe accepted it and wiped the tears from her face.
When her vision cleared, Phoebe noticed Piper standing silently beside her. "Piper." Rising quickly to her feet, she kissed her sister on the cheek and enclosed her in a quick, firm hug. "I am so sorry."
"Phoebe, what did you see?" Piper asked.
"I saw what happened. In the attack." Her sisters waited as she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on stopping her insides from feeling like they were shaking. "I, uh, I saw Cole kill you."
"So it was Cole," Paige said slowly.
"Yeah." Phoebe focused on twisting her tissue around her finger, as she struggled to tell her sisters what she had seen. "We attacked together, I think. I trapped Sam in a force field, and then Piper tried to use her exploding power on me, but I deflected it or something and you went flying into a wall. Leo orbed in to heal you, but before he could I stabbed him with an athame and he collapsed." Phoebe felt her tears rising in her throat, and she fought to keep from crying. "Then I tried to throw a potion at both of you, but Piper froze it and while she was distracted by that, Cole threw an energy ball at her and..." Tears were running down Phoebe's face and her body felt numb, but somehow she managed to continue. "I tried to stop him, but I couldn't get to him in time and he threw another one at Paige and...he killed her too."
Phoebe felt arms surrounding her, bodies pressing against her, and she tried to accept her sisters' comfort, but she couldn't. She didn't deserve it.
"I killed my family," Phoebe mumbled into Piper's arm.
"Phoebe, that wasn't you," Piper said drawing away from her to look her in the eye.
"But it will be. Don't you understand?" Phoebe's voice broke with emotion. "My future is to kill my sisters."
"That's not your future yet," Paige told her. "We still have time to change it."
"Even so, it wasn't you who killed us--it was Cole," Piper continued. "You said you tried to stop him from killing Paige."
"I killed Leo, Piper." Phoebe saw something flicker in Piper's eyes, and her determined expression wavered. "Even if I don't understand how, it doesn't change the fact that I killed your husband. I put your daughter in danger. Just by being there, I helped Cole kill you."
They stood silently for several moments, Piper and Paige staring solemnly at Phoebe, unable to say anything. Piper broke the silence, saying, "Phoebe, you--"
"Whatever you're going to say, Piper, it's not going to change what I saw." Taking her sisters' hands, Phoebe kissed the back of each one. "I love you both very much, and I'm sorry, but I think I need to be by myself for a little while to think about this."
Giving them a final squeeze, Phoebe released her sisters' hands and walked across the foyer to the staircase. As she began climbing up the stairs to her bedroom, she could feel her sisters' gazes resting on her back.
