Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, but I own DREW!! (whacks self on the head) I mean, I own...um...the sandwich that I'm eating right now. I named it Drew, just like everything else I have!

"I'm fast forwarding to the morning," Brian announced nonchalantly. He flicked his hand at the two of them.

It was just as dark as before, but it was windy in the cave. In no time the candles had blown out and there was no light source to guide them; not that either of them could move, their muscles numb from the cold.

"I hate winter," said Bianca bitterly. By now she'd already forced Chris' blanket back onto him and attempted to knock some sense into him, though it didn't quite work. "Look," she said through chattering teeth, "I can't take this anymore. We need to call Leo. We're almost out of food and if somebody doesn't help us soon, we'll freeze to death!"

"Later," Chris pleaded. "He'll be busy. I don't want to disturb him, especially if he's on to Wyatt."

"Why can't we just orb or shimmer out?" she whined.

Chris' pale face turned serious. "That would be suicidal and you know it. Wyatt would have us murdered before you could look at the sun."

"It would blind us anyway," she scoffed. They both tried to laugh but it turned into a weak cough. "Of all the places for the elders to put a magical shield on, it just happens to be the most uninhabitable cave in the world."

"I wonder if that has anything to do with Gideon trying to murder me," Chris mused. They both shivered.

"Can you find the matches? It's too dark."

"No," Chris replied, searching for them with his hands. "Can't find them. Besides, I probably couldn't light one if I tried."

Bianca slumped. "I'm calling Leo in two hours whether you like it or not. Two hours," she repeated firmly.

Chris rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Two hours. Agreed."

Brian sighed. "Two more hours, coming up..."

"LEO!" Bianca screamed. Chris gave a jolt, half-asleep and clearly not expecting Bianca to cry out so loudly after all the quiet talking in the dark.

"Damn, you could've warned me..."

Bianca ignored him. "LEO, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Bianca...I don't really have a good feeling about this..."

"LEO! GET YOUR ELDER ASS—"

"Bianca!" Chris scolded.

"—DOWN HERE, NOW!"

Blue orbs filled the room and both Chris and Bianca put their heads in their hands, blinded by the sudden light source.

"Oh Leo, we thought you were—"

It wasn't Leo standing before them. It was a whitelighter, presumably, because the girl wasn't wearing the required elder robes from Up There.

"The elders assumed you dead!" she cried. "This is truly a miracle!"

"Yeah, not for long," Bianca retorted. "Who are you?"

"Where's Leo?" Chris added.

The girl, maybe in her twenties, let out a great sigh. "My name is Annabelle and I am a novice whitelighter. In truth, this is my first mission down to earth since my, um, death. It's not as nice as I remember it..."

"Go figure," Bianca interrupted. "We've been hiding down here for months. How could you assume us dead?"

"After Leo..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry, Chris, but Leo is dead."

Paige's stomach sank.

"We thought that you two had died with him."

"Oh my god..." Bianca whispered. "How...?"

"A darklighter arrow. It was Wyatt's doing—or so we think. It happened about a week and a half ago...I'm truly sorry for your loss. I will inform the elders of your survival once I arrive back Up There, and then we will do what we can to help." She orbed away and the entire cave was silent.

"Chris?" asked Bianca hesitantly.

He didn't respond. Paige winced, almost able to see the horror and shock written all over his face. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he clutched the blanket tighter, shivering. Bianca didn't say another word and they remained silent, waiting, until they eventually fell asleep.

Piper yawned, awaking to the bright light of morning. She saw Leo sound asleep beside her and smiled. She felt so...refreshed. How long had they been sleeping?

She checked the clock, watching it blink 9:00 am. She hadn't slept in this late since forever ago.

She shook Leo awake. "What happened?" she asked groggily. "How'd we...?"

Leo shook his head. "I don't..."

They exchanged glances. "Oh my god—Wyatt!" Piper screamed.

"Are you awake now?" Phoebe gasped. "Oh thank goodness—Wyatt's gone, Bianca's dead, and Chris needs desperately to be healed."

"What?"

"Leo, just orb down to the couch! Chris is dying as we speak!"

Leo orbed down, leaving a very frazzled and confused Piper standing next to her in the hallway. "Where's Paige?" she asked.

"I sent her up to the attic to work on a spell to unbind Chris' powers. I haven't heard from her since last night, come to think of it..."

They made there way upstairs and stopped dead in their tracks. Imprinted on the heavy layer of dust on the attic stairs were two pairs of footprints—one Paige's and one...

"Brian," they said together.

"She wouldn't!" Phoebe groaned.

"We never DID get to finish..." Piper said lamely. "But why is time still going on? It froze for us while we were missing."

"Probably because it's only one witch this time."

Piper bit her tongue back before she accidentally said, "But it froze for me..." She didn't want Phoebe to know about her little midnight escapade from the other day. But did it freeze for her? She was only gone for what, one or two hours? Maybe it didn't freeze and she didn't notice.

"BRIAN! BRING PAIGE BACK!" Phoebe screamed.

A ticked-off looking Brian orbed in with Paige. "Keep her," he muttered, orbing away.

Chris walked up the stairs, fully healed. "Does anyone want to explain to me what happened?"

Phoebe and Paige hugged Chris and Piper joined in, still not fully aware of what happened.

"We thought you were done for!" Paige squealed.

"Not quite," Chris laughed. "Mom, you're awake!" he noticed.

"Yup. That was the best night of sleep EVER..."

"Maybe for you," Phoebe whined. "I'm going to bed now."

"Me too," Paige groaned.

"Might as well," said Chris with a shrug. "Then somebody could PLEASE explain to me what was happening."

"Right." Phoebe yawned. "Sleep first, though."

Sorry I haven't updated too consistently. It's been, erm, hectic you might say. And then AOL got all screwy...but hey, here it is now! Yay!

Thank you so much for all of the cookies!! YOU ALL ROCK!! Lol