Chapter 5
The next morning at the manor, Prue got an icepack out of the freezer and placed it on her brother-in-law's neck. "I'd like to know something. You keep healing all those innocents, but you can't somehow heal yourself?"
"It's kind of hard to heal myself when I'm knocked out," he reminded her, holding the pack down. Phoebe walked in to hear the conversation in motion.
"Leo, how is it possible for an angel to even get knocked out? I mean, you are, after all, technically dead."
"Three years together, and now you're asking these questions?"
"Well..."
"What I'd really like to know, is how exactly does a whitelighter get someone knocked up," Prue asked Leo, much to Phoebe's amusement.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What do you think it means?"
"If it's about Paige, I swear, the Elders had no idea that she even existed, or that she was your sister."
"Sister witch," Phoebe corrected.
"Half-witch, half-whitelighter," Prue re-corrected, "Remember that stunner? How could Mom not tell us?"
"Well, it sounded like she didn't have much of a choice," Phoebe told her.
"But we're her daughters. At some point, she could have..."
"Maybe she just didn't have time to..." Phoebe said sadly.
The sisters shared a meaningful look as the doorbell rang from downstairs. The group filed out of the attic and started down the stairs. Prue answered the door and was almost knocked to the ground as Darryl bowled past her. "Hi Prue," he told her, barely even paying attention to her.
"Hi there," she responded almost sarcastically.
"Where's Cortez?" he demanded.
"Who?" Leo asked.
"Inspector Cortez - the one I hit over the head, the one you said you would take care of. He's missing. Police inspectors are not supposed to be missing. Where is he?" Phoebe's face began to take on a rather strong redness.
"Well, I kind of sent him to..."
"Timbuktu," Prue cut in, slightly amused, "Couldn't find another word that rhymed with 'undo'... not even 'Peru'." Phoebe looked at her.
"Okay, don't have to keep hitting me over the head with it, I get it."
"Timbuktu..." Darryl repeated.
"It's okay. Cole went to get him," Leo jumped in before Darryl lost it.
"Cole?" Just as the word left his mouth, the demon in question shimmered in, looking very much like he'd been dodging energy balls for a few hours now.
"Cole!" Phoebe gasped, but he held up his hand.
"Wait." An energy ball formed in his hand, crackling electricity, and he stood at the ready. A bounty hunter blinked in and Cole tossed the energy at him, vanquish on contact. "Damn bounty hunters... they're like gnats."
"Where's the inspector?" Darryl asked, getting in the demon's face.
"Don't worry. I found him. Moved him to a place he can't tell a soul what he saw. Literally," he smirked to himself.
"What do you mean?" Darryl asked, getting more infuriated by the second. "Where'd you put him?" Cole pointed to the floor.
"In the basement?" Phoebe asked hopefully.
"No. I think he means a little bit further down than that," Prue told her sister.
"Oh."
"Cole, he's a cop. He's one of the good guys," Leo reminded him.
"He's also the one who can expose them as witches. I think that you, above anybody, would want to avoid that at all costs."
"Not at that cost. We have to save him."
"Save him?" Darryl cut in, "What do you mean, save him? Wh-what's going on?"
"You know what, Darryl?" Phoebe started to drag him to the door. "We are going to take care of this whole mess."
"Wait a second. Hold..." he tried to resist.
"You don't worry about it." And she pushed him out the door, closing it behind her.
"Okay, there has to be a way to make Cortez keep his mouth shut, right? Leo?" Prue turned to him.
"And what if he can't?" Cole asked her, "What if you two get exposed? What's to say the same thing won't happen to you that happened to Piper?" The sisters almost broke at that.
"Well it's a risk we'll have to take," Phoebe told him.
"Yeah well, you know what? There's another risk you guys have to worry about. On the way back, I heard gargoyles."
"Gargoyles? Like... statues?" Prue asked.
"That's only when they're in their resting state. They come alive to ward off evil. In this case, I think they're trying to ward off the Source. I think he's surfaced." Panic rose in the room within half a second.
"Wait - what? He's here? Now? Where?" Phoebe asked nervously.
"I don't know. Could be anywhere. Or anyone."
"Probably came for Paige, but she doesn't stand a chance against him. She doesn't even know what her power is yet," Leo pointed out.
"Leo, we don't stand a chance against him. Not without Piper," Phoebe told her brother-in-law, and the reminder of the loss of their sister and his wife ripped at their hearts like some violent claw.
"But you might with Paige," Leo spoke slowly, "The new Power of Three."
"Can you sense her?" Prue asked.
"I don't think so. She's too new."
"Well then we just have to start with the church, the one Mom told us about," Prue nodded to herself.
"Prue..." Phoebe sensed a certain part of unwillingness in that statement.
"Look, Phoebe... This whole thing with her, I'm having trouble with it, but I'm not gonna let her die because of that. That's not what Mom wants, and I know it wouldn't be what Piper would want." And the decision was made.
*
Elsewhere in town, Paige was getting ready for work, and something just felt off. Her bird, Oscar, was going positively nuts, and something about Shane didn't feel right. But she couldn't think about that. She had an important case to deal with at work. Abusive parents just got under her skin, especially this one. 'Don't worry about it, Paige. It's okay,' she told herself over and over, unaware that her fears were well founded, that her dear Shane had been possessed by something dark, something more sinister than she could imagine.
*
She arrived at South Bay Social Services, and a strange prickling on the back of her neck just screamed to her that something wasn't right. But she pushed ahead, got to her desk. When she did, she had the strongest urge to call her uncle, ask him something that had been on her mind since the previous night.
"So, how's Aunt Julie? Yeah? Oh. Is her hip any better?" Just then she spotted a couple at the reception desk. It was them... the couple from the case. She shrugged it off, not wanting to lose her focus. "I'm sorry. Say that again? I got distracted." She kept her eye on the man, Jake Grisanti, like her life depended on it. "Hey, before you go, can I ask you a question?" she continued speaking with her uncle Dave. "Do you guys still go to that church Mom and Dad used to go to? Is there still a nun called Sister Agnes there? Yeah, right. The one that found me. No, no, I haven't spoken to her but something's come up, and I think I should." She saw Mr. Grisanti talking to her boss and she almost gripped at her desk. "Uh, Uncle Dave, I gotta go. I'll call you back, okay? Yeah, I love you too." She hung up and ran up to her boss. "Mr. Cowan."
"Hey, look Paige. I got this, okay?"
"No. But you can't let that little boy go home with that jerk."
"Paige, number one, you don't know for a fact that he's abusing the boy. And number two, this is none of your business. You are an assistant, not a social worker."
"That's because you're too cheap to make me one." Cowan almost rolled his eyes as he went into the meeting room and closed the door in her face. With an inward huff, she peered through the window. Grisanti gave her a look that sent chills down her spine before Cowan closed the blinds and she sighed, defeated.
*
Prue climbed the stairs to the second floor, searching for Phoebe as she held the phone book. Finally she found her in a place where she should have figured she'd be... Piper's room. She sat on her bed, holding snuggly in her arms a small pillow, with tiny pink flowers all over the pillowcase.
"I found the church..." she announced to her younger sister slowly as she stood by the door.
"So much fuss was made over this pillow..." Phoebe spoke, choking back tears.
"Yeah, I remember..." Prue smiled lightly. "It was Mom's first. After she died, Grams gave it to Piper... Because she needed it, to hold on to her..."
"It smelled like her, even years after..." Phoebe laughed in jumping bursts, sounding more broken than she had since it had happened a few days ago. "Sometimes I just wanted it, because I needed to hold on to her too... But I was too afraid to ask Piper, I didn't want to keep it from her. Even then... all those nights I felt that way, it was just waiting on my bed when I went down for the night. She'd let me put it back on my own, when... when I was ready." She took it close to her face, breathed it in. "It smells like both of them now..."
"I think she'd want you to keep it." Phoebe laughed again in that same vibrating manner.
"Yeah..." Prue sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "I just... I miss her so... so much."
"So do I," she let her lie her head on her shoulder. "Glad you finally let it out."
"Had to be strong. For you, for Leo... for me. And then with Paige... I'm scared, Prue, I'm really, really scared. She was always there to keep us together, in all those times we butted heads." Both laughed lightly. Phoebe sat up, looking at her big sister. "How are we supposed to go on without her? How are we supposed to go up against the Source without her?"
"I don't know," Prue sighed, "But all I know is we can't let Shax get another of us, even if we don't know her. She's our sister, and we have to protect her."
*
Back at the social services office, Paige was pacing like crazy. When she found out they'd let the boy go home with his parents, it made her furious. She nearly lost it on Grisanti, but finally she decided to get away, cool off. Besides, there was some place she needed to go.
"Where do you think you're going?" Cowan asked.
"Church."
The next morning at the manor, Prue got an icepack out of the freezer and placed it on her brother-in-law's neck. "I'd like to know something. You keep healing all those innocents, but you can't somehow heal yourself?"
"It's kind of hard to heal myself when I'm knocked out," he reminded her, holding the pack down. Phoebe walked in to hear the conversation in motion.
"Leo, how is it possible for an angel to even get knocked out? I mean, you are, after all, technically dead."
"Three years together, and now you're asking these questions?"
"Well..."
"What I'd really like to know, is how exactly does a whitelighter get someone knocked up," Prue asked Leo, much to Phoebe's amusement.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What do you think it means?"
"If it's about Paige, I swear, the Elders had no idea that she even existed, or that she was your sister."
"Sister witch," Phoebe corrected.
"Half-witch, half-whitelighter," Prue re-corrected, "Remember that stunner? How could Mom not tell us?"
"Well, it sounded like she didn't have much of a choice," Phoebe told her.
"But we're her daughters. At some point, she could have..."
"Maybe she just didn't have time to..." Phoebe said sadly.
The sisters shared a meaningful look as the doorbell rang from downstairs. The group filed out of the attic and started down the stairs. Prue answered the door and was almost knocked to the ground as Darryl bowled past her. "Hi Prue," he told her, barely even paying attention to her.
"Hi there," she responded almost sarcastically.
"Where's Cortez?" he demanded.
"Who?" Leo asked.
"Inspector Cortez - the one I hit over the head, the one you said you would take care of. He's missing. Police inspectors are not supposed to be missing. Where is he?" Phoebe's face began to take on a rather strong redness.
"Well, I kind of sent him to..."
"Timbuktu," Prue cut in, slightly amused, "Couldn't find another word that rhymed with 'undo'... not even 'Peru'." Phoebe looked at her.
"Okay, don't have to keep hitting me over the head with it, I get it."
"Timbuktu..." Darryl repeated.
"It's okay. Cole went to get him," Leo jumped in before Darryl lost it.
"Cole?" Just as the word left his mouth, the demon in question shimmered in, looking very much like he'd been dodging energy balls for a few hours now.
"Cole!" Phoebe gasped, but he held up his hand.
"Wait." An energy ball formed in his hand, crackling electricity, and he stood at the ready. A bounty hunter blinked in and Cole tossed the energy at him, vanquish on contact. "Damn bounty hunters... they're like gnats."
"Where's the inspector?" Darryl asked, getting in the demon's face.
"Don't worry. I found him. Moved him to a place he can't tell a soul what he saw. Literally," he smirked to himself.
"What do you mean?" Darryl asked, getting more infuriated by the second. "Where'd you put him?" Cole pointed to the floor.
"In the basement?" Phoebe asked hopefully.
"No. I think he means a little bit further down than that," Prue told her sister.
"Oh."
"Cole, he's a cop. He's one of the good guys," Leo reminded him.
"He's also the one who can expose them as witches. I think that you, above anybody, would want to avoid that at all costs."
"Not at that cost. We have to save him."
"Save him?" Darryl cut in, "What do you mean, save him? Wh-what's going on?"
"You know what, Darryl?" Phoebe started to drag him to the door. "We are going to take care of this whole mess."
"Wait a second. Hold..." he tried to resist.
"You don't worry about it." And she pushed him out the door, closing it behind her.
"Okay, there has to be a way to make Cortez keep his mouth shut, right? Leo?" Prue turned to him.
"And what if he can't?" Cole asked her, "What if you two get exposed? What's to say the same thing won't happen to you that happened to Piper?" The sisters almost broke at that.
"Well it's a risk we'll have to take," Phoebe told him.
"Yeah well, you know what? There's another risk you guys have to worry about. On the way back, I heard gargoyles."
"Gargoyles? Like... statues?" Prue asked.
"That's only when they're in their resting state. They come alive to ward off evil. In this case, I think they're trying to ward off the Source. I think he's surfaced." Panic rose in the room within half a second.
"Wait - what? He's here? Now? Where?" Phoebe asked nervously.
"I don't know. Could be anywhere. Or anyone."
"Probably came for Paige, but she doesn't stand a chance against him. She doesn't even know what her power is yet," Leo pointed out.
"Leo, we don't stand a chance against him. Not without Piper," Phoebe told her brother-in-law, and the reminder of the loss of their sister and his wife ripped at their hearts like some violent claw.
"But you might with Paige," Leo spoke slowly, "The new Power of Three."
"Can you sense her?" Prue asked.
"I don't think so. She's too new."
"Well then we just have to start with the church, the one Mom told us about," Prue nodded to herself.
"Prue..." Phoebe sensed a certain part of unwillingness in that statement.
"Look, Phoebe... This whole thing with her, I'm having trouble with it, but I'm not gonna let her die because of that. That's not what Mom wants, and I know it wouldn't be what Piper would want." And the decision was made.
*
Elsewhere in town, Paige was getting ready for work, and something just felt off. Her bird, Oscar, was going positively nuts, and something about Shane didn't feel right. But she couldn't think about that. She had an important case to deal with at work. Abusive parents just got under her skin, especially this one. 'Don't worry about it, Paige. It's okay,' she told herself over and over, unaware that her fears were well founded, that her dear Shane had been possessed by something dark, something more sinister than she could imagine.
*
She arrived at South Bay Social Services, and a strange prickling on the back of her neck just screamed to her that something wasn't right. But she pushed ahead, got to her desk. When she did, she had the strongest urge to call her uncle, ask him something that had been on her mind since the previous night.
"So, how's Aunt Julie? Yeah? Oh. Is her hip any better?" Just then she spotted a couple at the reception desk. It was them... the couple from the case. She shrugged it off, not wanting to lose her focus. "I'm sorry. Say that again? I got distracted." She kept her eye on the man, Jake Grisanti, like her life depended on it. "Hey, before you go, can I ask you a question?" she continued speaking with her uncle Dave. "Do you guys still go to that church Mom and Dad used to go to? Is there still a nun called Sister Agnes there? Yeah, right. The one that found me. No, no, I haven't spoken to her but something's come up, and I think I should." She saw Mr. Grisanti talking to her boss and she almost gripped at her desk. "Uh, Uncle Dave, I gotta go. I'll call you back, okay? Yeah, I love you too." She hung up and ran up to her boss. "Mr. Cowan."
"Hey, look Paige. I got this, okay?"
"No. But you can't let that little boy go home with that jerk."
"Paige, number one, you don't know for a fact that he's abusing the boy. And number two, this is none of your business. You are an assistant, not a social worker."
"That's because you're too cheap to make me one." Cowan almost rolled his eyes as he went into the meeting room and closed the door in her face. With an inward huff, she peered through the window. Grisanti gave her a look that sent chills down her spine before Cowan closed the blinds and she sighed, defeated.
*
Prue climbed the stairs to the second floor, searching for Phoebe as she held the phone book. Finally she found her in a place where she should have figured she'd be... Piper's room. She sat on her bed, holding snuggly in her arms a small pillow, with tiny pink flowers all over the pillowcase.
"I found the church..." she announced to her younger sister slowly as she stood by the door.
"So much fuss was made over this pillow..." Phoebe spoke, choking back tears.
"Yeah, I remember..." Prue smiled lightly. "It was Mom's first. After she died, Grams gave it to Piper... Because she needed it, to hold on to her..."
"It smelled like her, even years after..." Phoebe laughed in jumping bursts, sounding more broken than she had since it had happened a few days ago. "Sometimes I just wanted it, because I needed to hold on to her too... But I was too afraid to ask Piper, I didn't want to keep it from her. Even then... all those nights I felt that way, it was just waiting on my bed when I went down for the night. She'd let me put it back on my own, when... when I was ready." She took it close to her face, breathed it in. "It smells like both of them now..."
"I think she'd want you to keep it." Phoebe laughed again in that same vibrating manner.
"Yeah..." Prue sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "I just... I miss her so... so much."
"So do I," she let her lie her head on her shoulder. "Glad you finally let it out."
"Had to be strong. For you, for Leo... for me. And then with Paige... I'm scared, Prue, I'm really, really scared. She was always there to keep us together, in all those times we butted heads." Both laughed lightly. Phoebe sat up, looking at her big sister. "How are we supposed to go on without her? How are we supposed to go up against the Source without her?"
"I don't know," Prue sighed, "But all I know is we can't let Shax get another of us, even if we don't know her. She's our sister, and we have to protect her."
*
Back at the social services office, Paige was pacing like crazy. When she found out they'd let the boy go home with his parents, it made her furious. She nearly lost it on Grisanti, but finally she decided to get away, cool off. Besides, there was some place she needed to go.
"Where do you think you're going?" Cowan asked.
"Church."