Chapter 12

'Legolas!' Piper yelled.

She ran to the front door and looked outside.

'Damn, that elf is fast.

'What was it that he saw on this thing', Aragorn asked.

'It's best we don't tell you until later', answered Phoebe

'Well we need to find him', said Gimli. 'There's no knowing what will happen to him while he's alone in this world.'

'I'll go phone Darryl', said Paige.

'Who's Darryl', asked Frodo curiously.

'Darryl is a friend of ours who can help us find Legolas easier.'

'And what did you mean by "phone"?

'Come into the kitchen and I'll show you.'

The two of them went into the kitchen followed by Sam, Merry and Pippin. Boromir was back in the living room watching a soap opera and Gimli and Aragorn had ventured into the basement. This left Piper and Phoebe free to discover what had scared Legolas so much. Piper sat down and put the computer's headphones on.

'Magic turned this thing off', said Phoebe. 'So I'm guessing your going to need magic to turn it back on.'

Piper sat there for a minute thinking. Then a spell came to mind.

'Let me hear, let me know

Let me help him, by his bow

Tell me what he heard and saw

I say these words, I make it law.'

The computer screen lit up with the picture of Legolas and she heard a voice.

'Hello, this is Orlando Bloom and welcome to '

Piper ripped the headphones of her head.

'Oh, not good. Not good at all.'

'What', asked Phoebe concerned. 'What is it?'

'Two things. One, he heard himself on the computer. Well, he heard Orlando Bloom on the computer. That brings up point number two. He is Orlando Bloom, just like Frodo is Elijah Wood and Pippin's Billy Boyd and Aragorn's Viggo Mortenson. We have a house full of celebrities, and an elf slash celebrity is now out there running lose in San Francisco. We are so dead.

'What are we going to do?'

'Well, Darryl's probably got every cop out on the street looking for him by now. I guess we can use his one of his arrows to scry for him for the time being.'

'YOU DID WHAT???'

Piper and Phoebe gave each other a quick glance and ran into the kitchen. Paige was on one side of the dinning room table with Frodo on the other side ready to run either way.

'What happened', Phoebe asked.

'This little maggot phoned New Zealand!!!'

She launched herself across the table towards Frodo. Frodo backed away, dancing just outside of Paige's reach. Thalion walked into the kitchen, took one glance at the situation and fell on to the floor, laughing.

'Man, I've seen orcs hunt better than this in daylight!'

'Shut up!'

Paige became silent for a moment with a look of concentration on her face. In a flurry of blue orb lights, she was off the table and on top of Frodo.

'Paige', yelled Piper. 'Get off of Frodo!'

Paige glared at Piper for a moment, then got up. Frodo ran to Phoebe.

'I'm sorry. I thought I was allowed to look around! Oh, where's Japan by the way because a woman on the phone said that's where I was phoning.'

A look of outrage passed over Paige's face.

'Come here you little...

Piper threw up her arms but didn't freeze Paige.

'Don't make me do this. We have worse problems on our hands. Legolas is out in the city and everyone is going to think his is Orlando Bloom the elf boy.'

'Who?' asked a chorus of voices.

'Oh boy', muttered Phoebe

A sob escaped from the living room. Everyone marched into the living room to see Boromir watching "Days of our Lives". He was crying.

'Boromir', said Piper startled that a man like him would be crying over something like a soap opera. 'What's wrong?

'She shouldn't be cheating on him', sniffed Boromir. 'That is wrong. Where I come from, if that happened, the woman would have been stoned long ago.'

'Well I know your dad is just psycho', Piper muttered to herself.

'OK', said Paige loudly. 'Enough TV for you.'

Paige strolled over to the TV and turned it off. Boromir sniffed but didn't say anything.

'GIMLI!' Piper called. 'ARAGORN!'

There was silence for a moment then a huge clamor of people trying to get up the stairs and the sound of something heavy being dropped.'

'Ouch', cried Aragorn.

Gimli and Aragorn stomped out of the basement into the living room looking much more dirty than before.

'We got a problem', said Piper quickly. 'We all have to go find Legolas because my sisters and I defiantly have to go and we're not leaving you all here by yourselves. Chris and Leo can't watch you because Leo is taking care of Wyatt and being an elder at the same time and Chris can't watch you guys because he's taking care of another charge or sleeping.'

'Why do all of you have to go', asked Sam who was still dirty from the blender attack.

'We may need the Power of Three to restrain him. He isn't going to be very happy when we meet up with him and my freezing powers only last so long. Anyway, our second problem is you all have doubles in this world, so to speak. So we need to keep you covered up. Plus you need to change your clothes into something more... modern.

'We could use Leo's old clothes', Paige suggested. 'I'm sure he won't mind that much.'

Piper nodded.

'That will work. OK, Phoebe, you come help me get everyone changed. Paige, you start scrying for Legolas. Use one of his arrows for the spell.

'Got it'

'Ok', Piper took a deep breath. 'Let's go.'

An hour later, with everyone dressed in modern clothes, they were ready to go. The hobbits and Gimli had been a bit tricky to dress since Leo's clothes were too big for them, so they just rolled up the sleeves and cut the jeans short. Now they just had one more little problem. Transportation. They couldn't go orbing around San Francisco hoping to bump into Legolas, but a cab wasn't an option either. Paige had been unable to track him down. He was just too quick for the scry.

'Think the jeep will be big enough', suggested Phoebe.

'Only if we stuff the hobbits into the trunk.'

'No', said Piper. 'We won't be that cruel. We'll have to stick Legolas in the trunk. He deserves it anyway after what he's putting us through. The hobbits and Gimli can sit in the middle seat. Paige, you can sit in the back with Aragorn and Boromir. OK everybody, into the car.'

Only Paige, Piper and Phoebe moved towards the door. When they saw nobody else had moved, they stopped.

'What', asked Paige. 'What is it? We got to go.'

'What's a car', asked Aragorn.

'What's a middle seat', asked Boromir.

'And what is a trunk', Sam added. 'Do you mean like the trunk of an Oliphaunt? I've always wanted to meet one of those.'

'Come and see what we mean.'

Everyone went outside to Piper's jeep and a light dawned in the fellowship's eyes. Everyone crowded into the car. Paige, Aragorn and Boromir were in the back, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were squeezed into the middle seat, and Phoebe and Piper were in the front.

They had been driving around San Francisco for about an hour when Darryl called Paige on her cell phone. Aragorn nearly jumped through the roof of the car when he heard the musical ringer go off right beside him. Paige got off the phone and put the phone on vibrate so it couldn't scare Aragorn again.

'Piper, head towards the police station. They got Legolas in custody.'

Piper hit the turn signal to turn left towards the police station.

'Why is he at the station', she called back.

'They've charged him for theft and being a disturber of the peace. Bails two hundred bucks.'

'In your world it's a crime for being a disturber of the peace', Frodo asked. 'Gandalf would have owed our deputy over a thousand bucks alone just in the Shire.'

Suddenly Frodo quieted at the memory of Gandalf's death and was silent for the rest of the trip to the station. When the finally arrived, Darryl was outside waiting for them. Everyone climbed out of the car and followed the three sisters at a slow pace, trying to take in the sights and smells around them. Darryl stared at them.

'I don't know what you guys are up to nowadays but did you really need to let Legolas Greenleaf out on to the streets?'

'Do you really think we did this on purpose? Something scared him and he ran out of the house cursing us.'

'Oh, you think that's bad', Darryl shook his head. 'He ran all the way to Chinatown and then started to pick up perfectly good food and either eating it, or throwing it across the street because it didn't look right or it didn't smell right. He was also complaining there was no lembas. What the hell is lembas anyway?'

'Elvish waybread', said Pippin. 'Pretty good too.'

Darryl looked down at him.

'I'm not going to ask who you are. Defiantly one of the hobbits. Anyway, we tried to calm him down but he started throwing a fit saying we were all the same. All of us control the evil magic. He really went nuts when he saw the computer screen on the front desk.'

'Oh dear', muttered Phoebe.

They walked into the station and went to investigation room one. Legolas was sitting there looking stubbornly quiet surrounded by two female police officers.

'OK, can you hand him over to us', asked Piper.

'Are you kidding me', asked Darryl incredulously. 'What about his bail? What will I say to those two when they hear I just let him go?'

Paige rolled her eyes.

'Fine. Do you take Master Card?

'Yes. Come on.'

Paige and Darryl walked off to pay the bail.

'How's a piece of shiny wood going to get Legolas out', asked Sam.

Everyone ignored him.

'OK now how do we get him out of there without him having another conniption', said Phoebe. 'And if we can't do that, how do we control him when we get home?'

'He's angry, and confused', said Piper. 'He'll only talk to one of the company, preferably Gimli because you guys have become good friends haven't you?'

Gimli nodded.

'I'll go talk some sense into him.'

'What about the two in there? I don't think they're going to let him go without a fight. Especially the tall one. She looks strict.'

'We'll make them agree', said Piper. 'Just no magic unless I say.'

They walked into the room and were instantly bombarded with shouting. There was some pushing and shoving and suddenly they were back in the hallway, this time with the officers. The one who was about Piper's height stepped forward. Her nametag read 'Beaton'

'What do you think your doing just barging in there like that? That criminal is under investigation. You have no right...'

'Erica...', the short officer began to say

'But Sheri, they're just...'

With a quick glance from Sheri, Erica shut up but kept her eye on Frodo who was fidgeting nervously.

'What right do you have in barging in like that', said Sheri coolly.

'We paid his bail and we want him out of there', said Piper just as coolly.

'We have no proof of that', hissed Erica.

'Ask Darryl.'

'We will.'

'Can't we at least talk to him?' asked Gimli.

Sheri shook her head.

'Not while he's under investigation. Only we can see him.'

A small smirk appeared on her face, as if she was glad only she and Erica could see him.

'Wonder who's got a crush', muttered Aragorn.

Piper smiled and kicked him in the shin. Sheri's smile disappeared and a scowl like Erica's took its place. They waited a few minutes until Darryl and Paige returned and let Gimli into the room. Darryl dismissed Erica and Sheri before he would let Gimli talk should anything awkward come up. On the way out Erica gave Frodo a friendly smile and Sheri kicked Aragorn in the leg 'by accident'.

Gimli walked into the room and began to talk to Legolas, explaining why he had heard his own voice and had seen a picture of himself. He also explained that Piper, Paige and Phoebe were good witches no matter what Legolas may think. They had gone through much trouble to find him and the least he could do is come back to the manor with them. Eventually, Legolas agreed. Half an hour later everyone was back at the manor eating the lunch Piper and Sam had prepared before Legolas had gone out on his own. By the end of the meal they were on friendly terms again.

It turned out Piper hadn't needed Prue to help her again after all. She had just needed the feel of home to clear her mind. Leo returned around seven o'clock that night and the fellowship was delighted to meet him.

Later in the evening, Piper and Leo went to the kitchen to talk about them all leaving to go back to Middle Earth.

'It's not safe Piper', Leo protested yet again. 'You don't know what's back there.'

'Yes I do. I know about Gollum and the Orcs and Saruman. We'll be fine.'

'No you won't. You've never been up against these things before. You don't know what could happen.'

'The Ring needs to be destroyed, Leo. They can't get back there unless we go with them. The story needs to be completed. I know we'll meet Gollum in the end and some unpleasant things are going to happen there. But we'll be OK. I know we will.'

Aragorn walked into the kitchen.

'The Ring must be destroyed', Aragorn said to Leo. 'Everything counts on Frodo destroying that Ring. Piper and her sisters are our only hope.'

Leo walked over to the kitchen window and looked outside. The sun was setting low over the horizon casting a blood red light over the world.

Leo sighed.

'Go'

'Leo...'

Leo disappeared in a swirl of orblights.