Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Key.

Phoebe was glad to have her sisters here. After they had appeared at the party Phoebe had introduced them to all of her new friends and they had retreated to private quarters to talk. Phoebe had promised Captain Janeway that they would call a meeting of the senior staff and explain the situation once the sisters had a chance to talk in private. The captain trusted Phoebe by now, so she had been okay with that.

"So you've really been here for two weeks?" Piper sounded shocked.

"Yep, 16 days to be precise."

"Well Leo did say that time would be moving faster in here, but he didn't know how much it would be."

"So what? I was only missing for half the night in reality?"

"Yes."

"Wild… And here I was beginning to think that you were never coming for me."

"You know we would never leave you hanging Pheebs." Prue assured her.

"Yeah I know. It just seemed like a long time… I have been having a good time though."

"Yeah, we could tell. So what do we tell these people about the situation? We can't tell them the truth."

"Yes we can. We tell them everything, except for the fact that they are not real. They think that I came from the past and not from reality. So we just stick to that story and then tell them the rest."

"Are you sure you wanna do that?"

"Prue, these are good people, and they feel very real to me. Maybe they can even help us find this key thingi."

"Okay, you know them better than we do. Call a meeting then, and we'll let them in on the situation."

* * *

The entire senior staff was assembled in the meeting room along with the Halliwell sisters. Janeway looked around to check that no one was missing and then started.

"Well, we're all come to know Phoebe over the last couple of weeks, and as you well know her sister have now arrived to get her home I presume. Miss Halliwell?" Janeway directed her eyes at Prue as Phoebe had informed her that she would be doing most of the talking.

"Well I'm not able to reveal to many details, but it appears that a demon called Souta brought Phoebe to this time."

"For what reason?" Chakotay asked.

"Well, generally they don't need a reason, but in this instance it was probably because we vanquished her brother Ralow."

"But demons and warlocks are always trying to kill us or devide the power of three to make us weaker." Piper cut in.

"So how do you return to your own time?" Janeway inquired.

"That's just it, we don't know precisely. We were just told to find a key and it would bring us back. But it could be anything, an object, a combination of numbers or even a person."

"How will you know what to look for then?" Tom asked.

"Our White-Lighter told us to use the power within to locate it."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "White-Lighter?" Harry turned to him and started to explain.

"It's sort of like a guardian angel for witches, they help them with magical problems and make sure they find they're way and are safe. Phoebe told me all about it." Phoebe smiled at him, it was nice to know that he was paying that close attention to everything she said. He had seemed interested when she talked about all the witch stuff. One time they had talked all night and she had told him lots of stories of how they had vanquished all these different demons. It seemed he never tired of listening to her talk about her and her sister and their powers. He would just sit quietly and gaze adoringly at her.

The sound of the captain's voice broke Phoebes train of thought.

"Well, you are all welcome to stay here while you locate this key. In fact I don't see any other way. If we can assist you in any way with the search please do not hesitate to ask."

"Thank you very much Captain. But I have a feeling that it will just come to us at one point. Leo said that if we didn't force it, it would be easier to find. Let the key come to us and not the other way around."

"Very well then. Meeting adjourned."

* * *

"Your sisters seem nice."

Phoebe was walking the corridors of Voyager with Harry after the meeting. B´Elanna had volunteered to take Prue and Piper back to their quarters so Phoebe could talk to Harry in private.

"Yeah, they're the best."

"You all seem really close, I guess that sort of comes with the job huh?"

"Oh yes, if we hadn't gotten our powers I doubt we would even be talking today, much less living together. I thank god every day for these powers and what they did to bring us together like this."

They stopped as they came to Harry's quarters. He smiled at Phoebe.

"Come in?"

"Sure."

They entered and the doors shut behind them. Harry was standing very close to her and she noted how nice he smelled. He softly brushed his hand along her left cheek and looked her deep in the eyes.

"You have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, do you know that?"

Phoebe closed her eyes and took in his scent as he continued to caress her face.

"Harry, we shouldn't do this. You know I´ll have to go back eventually."

"I know, that's why I don't want to waste any time any more. I can't hide how I feel forever." Phoebe opened her eyes and looked right at him.

"How do you feel?" She got her answer as he leaned forward and softly kissed her lips. She didn't resist and the kiss grew more and more passionate. Every thought, every sense of reality just fell away and Phoebe surrendered to the moment. She gave herself to Harry body and soul and when she feel asleep in his safe, warm arms much later, she mused the it all felt very real to her.

* * *

Her sisters had given her a hard time at first. But she had explained that it was just to strong for her to control and they had eased up on her. Phoebe was happy, even though she knew that she would have to leave eventually.

The Captain had agreed to give her sisters a tour of the bridge that day and Phoebe tagged along even tough she had seen it. Mostly because she would get to see Harry that way.

"And this is the Conn. from which Mr. Paris flies the ship. It…"

Phoebe was only listening with half an ear. She was busy sending eyes at Harry who in turn was trying to concentrate on his work. It didn't look like he was succeeding though. But then something other than Harry caught Phoebes attention. Out of thin air a tall man, maybe mid-forties, appeared on the bridge. He was wearing a starfleet uniform and Phoebe noted that his pips where those of an admiral. She wondered where a starfleet admiral had come from, out here in the middle of nowhere. He smiled broadly and Phoebe wasn't entirely sure she found the smile pleasant. There was something of about him. He headed straight for Captain Janeway, apparently he knew her.

"Ah Kathy, nice to see you again…"

The Captain didn´t look at all pleased to see him. As a matter of fact she looked annoyed and worried, and so did the rest of the crew.

"Q ! ! ! What the hell are you doing here??? ! ! !"

To be continued…

Okay, now I'm just teasing… Because I know in my head what's going to happen and you'll just have to wait until I write it… ha, ha…

No, I´ll be good now. I´ll write really fast, I promise…