Disclaimer: I do not own charmed
To Look Again – Wake Glen's
Prue sat alone in her hospital bedroom, staring down at her bruised and scarred wrists and forearms. Slowly a single tear dripped down her pale cheeks, she instantly wiped the tear away brashly with her hand.
"Why," she sobbed quietly to herself, "Why can't I stop? If not for me, why can't I stop for them?" slowly more tears began to fall, I have to stop… I have too, I'm hurting everyone around me and I have to stop… why am I not strong enough to stop? Why can everyone else be strong except me, people deal with shit like this every day but they all deal with it! Why can't I? Before she knew what was happening she was digging her shortened fingernails deep into her skin. Not hard enough to cut her skin but still callous enough to cause her skin to become red. Suddenly the door burst open and a short man stood before her,
"Prudence Halliwell?" asked the man, Prue sat up in bed and instantly jerked her hand away from her wrist. After a few seconds she answered him,
"Yes… erm, yeah I'm Prue… Prudence, can I help you?" she stuttered, praying that this man whom she assumed was a doctor wouldn't pay attention to her reddened wrist.
"Hello, Prue is it? I'm Dr Harrison. The on-site psychiatric specialist. I'm here to discuss some things with you," he said, Prue looked confused,
"Yes… I mean yeah its Prue… what do you want to discuss with me?" she asked, the man walked quickly into the room and took a seat next to Prue's bed,
"I want to discuss your current situation with you," he sighed,
"What do you mean? I'm getting discharged today so there isn't really a situation," she said,
"Well by getting discharged… that means that you're getting out of this hospital but we don't feel that you're… I mean we're not confident that you should be at home just yet," he said,
"What? Where would I go? If I don't go home, then where?" she asked, dreading the answer,
"Well, we are considering admitting you to Wake Glen's Hospital for a few weeks, or it might even be less than that," he said,
"Wake Glen's? That's a mental institute… why? I mean, I feel way better now… I don't need to go there. And I'm eighteen now… you can't force me to go if I say no," she protested,
"We can Prue… we'd like you to go voluntarily but if need be we will get a court order…we'd prefer not to do that but… if we have no choice," he sighed,
"No!" she yelled, "I'm not going!"
"I'm afraid it's for your own good," he sighed, getting up out his chair, "Your grandmother will be in soon, to make arrangements with you, remember we're all just doing what's best for you,"
"Yeah." She said moodily, "You forgot to say I'll thank you for this one day," with that the doctor left the room and Prue tore into the bathroom in a mood.
Piper pushed open the door to Prue's bedroom door; she walked in and placed the magazines that she had brought with her on Prue's empty bed,
"Prue?" she asked, "Prue? Are you in the bathroom?" she said as she knocked three times on the doorstep,
"Yeah…" came a mumbled voice from inside, "I'll be right out," Piper heard a few quiet coughs and then the door opened, Prue lifted her water and took a big gulp,
"Are you alright?" she asked, looking concerned,
"Yeah. Those stupid pills that the doctors… upset my stomach," she said as she climbed onto her bed,
"Oh, ok. So, I thought you were getting out today, I was going to come and walk you home but Grams said that you might not be coming home… I wasn't sure. I brought magazines," she said, looking confused and hurt,
"Well, I thought that I was getting out too. But then, some doctor came and…" she paused and looked at her baby sister,
"And what?" asked Piper,
"And… they want to… I mean they're going to," Prue stuttered and tried to hold back tears,
"Just tell me Prue, I'm a big girl I can handle it," sighed Piper, secretly dreading what Prue was going to say,
"But you shouldn't have to… handle it. You're my baby sister and I shouldn't be putting you through all this, and I'm making it so hard on you and I wish that I could make things go away but I just can't and now they're taking about locking me away," Prue's face was red with tears as she sobbed her heart out to her sister for the first time ever,
"Locking you away?" Piper questioned,
"Wake Glen's…" sobbed Prue,
"Wake Glen's? The psychiatric place?"
"Yeah, for a couple of weeks… at the least," she sobbed, trying to wipe tears from her eyes,
"Its ok Prue… things will be alright… I'll visit you every day, and we can talk, and play cards and order Chinese or whatever and things will get better and you'll see. Everything is going to be all right… I promise," said Piper, pulling her elder sister in for a hug, they sat for what seemed like the longest time locked in a sisterly embrace.
Half an hour later Grams and Phoebe showed up, Grams was clutching Phoebe tightly by the hand, Piper was still reeling from the news that Prue was going to be locked away. Out of her reach, all alone for god knows how long. Grams had set about gathering up the things in Prue's hospital room, putting all the magazines in a tidy pile and opening the window to let some air in.
"So Prue… how are you this morning?" asked Grams, being careful not to make eye contact with her granddaughter, Prue let out a disgruntled sigh and glared at her grandmother,
"Pissed off," she said bluntly, Grams stopped what she was doing and turned to face Prue,
"Prudence. I will not tolerate that language!" she scolded, Grams always scolded Prue's language, however Prue didn't care at this point,
"Grams, they are going to lock me up! I'm not getting home today, I'm just getting moved into a worse place, where I'll have to ask to go for a walk or to use the bathroom probably!" yelled Prue, glaring viciously at her grandmother, Phoebe slowly curled up on the chair in the far away corner, trying to make herself invisible,
"Prue you're exaggerating. Things at Wake Glen will not be that bad, and we'll visit you all the time and you'll get through everything," sighed Grams, Prue opened her mouth to speak and then thought for a second,
"I… I never told you that it was Wake Glen's they wanted to send me, how did you know that?" demanded Prue,
"I know that because… the doctors spoke to me about things first and I approved their idea to admit you," sighed Grams,
"You! You agreed to let them lock me up! How could you? How dare you!" yelled Prue,
"Prudence! Don't take that tone with me! I did what I thought was best for you," said Grams in an equally loud tone,
"Don't you think that I know is what's best for me? I don't want to go there, it'll make things worse I promise you!" yelled Prue, completely ignoring Grams warning,
"Prue! Now we can talk about this rationally or we cannot talk about it at all! Your choice," said Grams, after that Piper made an excuse to leave and quickly left the room.
Piper ran quickly through the hospital corridors, she wasn't sure where she was running to all she knew was that she had to get away from Prue's room. She couldn't stand the tense atmosphere in the room, she felt guilty for leaving Phoebe there but right now all she could think about were the tears welling up behind her eyes and slowly beginning to drip down her face. She continued to run until she felt herself bang straight into something in front of her, it was another person, a guy. Both of them fell to the ground and landed with a thump, the guy was carrying papers, and folders of all kinds which went every where when Piper bumped into him,
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Piper, quickly trying to wipe away any tears that had fallen onto her cheeks,
"That's alright," smiled the guy whom sat across from her, Piper looked up and was startled by his warm, handsome smile,
"Here, let me help you with the papers and stuff," she said quickly pushing her hair behind her ears and beginning to put them into neat piles,
"Thanks," he said. A few moments later after everything was in neat and tidy piles, they stood opposite each other,
"Hey, you ok?" he asked, noticing Piper's reddened face,
"Yeah. My Grandmother and sister were arguing so I thought I'd better disappear and let them yell it out," joked Piper, hoping not to sound like a complete mental case,
"So… you wanna go for a cup of coffee or a soda or something?" he asked, smiling,
"Erm… I probably shouldn't," sighed Piper,
"Look, you look like you could use a break and I was heading there anyway so… I could use the company," he smiled once more,
"Er… all right. I could use something to drink, just let me go back and get some money from my bag." She smiled, for the first time in a long time Piper felt like a normal girl, not someone who lived in such a world of hurt,
"That's alright… its on me," he smiled and then pointed his hand towards the sign for the cafeteria., "I'm Dan by the way,"
"Piper,"