Disclaimer: Alias isn't mine. Charmed isn't mine. This is depressing…

A/N: Okay, I'm going to have to ask you to bear with me. I proofed this as I typed it, so I hope it doesn't wind up disjointed!

The drive to San Francisco seemed to take forever. A major traffic accident had traffic tied up for miles on end. Vaughn wondered to himself why he got traffic jams when he drove, and Sydney always got high speed chase. At least they'd gotten the sedan with a decent air conditioner; Jack and Weiss followed in a surveillance van with a highly ineffective air conditioning system.

They talked little, but at least the silence was comfortable for the most part.

"I knew a girl in high school by the name Haliwail," Vaughn commented at one point, a kind of wistful affection in his voice at first. Then he frowned. "Her grandmother couldn't stand me. I still think she forced my parents to move somehow to keep me away from her granddaughter."

Sydney laughed.

"Can't imagine anyone disliking you that much," she teased.

Vaughn gave a self-depreciating grin.

"I went through a…well, a rebellious time from when I was about sixteen until I left for college," he commented dryly.

When they finally reached San Francisco, all four agents crowded into one of the four small hotel suits they'd been provided. Jack spread all the material they had on Piper, Phoebe, and Paige Haliwail out on the table and they each silently studied it.

"With all these unsolved murders, I think they should be presumed dangerous," Weiss commented finally.

Sydney shook her head.

"I think out best bet is to simply approach them. Get inside the manor." She looked to Vaughn for backup. "They'll have no reason to be hostile initially."

"If we go in with backup nearby, there's no reason it shouldn't work," Vaughn agreed.

"I don't like it," Jack said. "We've done no preliminary reconnaissance, this could be a trap. We could only be seeing the façade they show the world." He looked hard at Sydney. "You of all people should recognize that possibility."

"So act as backup," Sydney said, ignoring the rest of his comments. "I don't expect this to turn into anything; the sooner we make a move, the sooner we go home."

"This should be child's play," Vaughn added. He looked at his watch. "It's only five o'clock. I say we go now."

Piper answered the door curiously, Paige and Phoebe appearing in the entryway behind her. They were surprised to find two complete strangers outside. Piper observed that they simultaneously reached up to touch something on the lapel of their shirts.

"Can I help you?" Piper asked carefully.

"We were looking for the Haliwail sisters," the woman said, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder as if it was in her way.

Piper's gaze shifted from the speaker her companion, a handsome man with green eyes. Piper saw recognition flash in those eyes just as she recognized him.

"Pru…" he murmured under his breath as if unaware he spoke out loud.

At the sound of her lost sister's name, Piper froze the couple in front of her.

"What did he…" Phoebe began.

"One of Pru's old boyfriends!" Piper said in surprise. "The one Grams was so mad at when Pru was seventeen," she added to Phoebe.

"Well, what do you know?" Phoebe said, laughing. "Grams didn't vanquish his sorry butt after all. I wondered."

"I hate to put a damper on this reunion," Paige said sarcastically, glancing at the man in the doorway. "But it seems to me that old friends rarely show up on our doorstep--especially without knowing who we are, which he obviously didn't until he got here--without THEM having some reason behind it."

"Pru didn't even have her powers at seventeen," Piper protested.

"Why don't you unfreeze him so we can ask him?" Phoebe suggested the obvious.

Piper waved her hand. A look of confusion crossed their guests' faces.

"She," Sydney said, gesturing at Phoebe and speaking to Piper since she appeared to be the leader as well as the oldest, "Wasn't over there a second ago."

Vaughn pointed to the other side of Piper.

"She was standing there. And then she…blinked."

Blinked? Get it? Blinking is a warlock's power. And Vaughn accused Phoebe (unknowingly) of having a warlock's power! Lol. Yes, I'm sad, but I thought it was funny!