Part Four

"I have the spoon and the bowl. You get to sit up against Phoebe and wear a bib." Said Piper.

"What?!? There is no way in hell you are going to spoon feed me. I am temporarily sick, not terminal. I can feed myself." Responded Paige a bit harshly.

"Uh-huh," said Piper in a wise, calm, and somewhat sarcastic voice. "So why don't you try sitting up by yourself? If you can't do that, do you honestly think you can feed yourself without over 50 of the bowl landing in your lap?"

Phoebe then chimed in with her words of wisdom. "Come on Paige. Admit it. You don't feel good. Let us take care of you now so you can get better faster. I know that you're not used to the whole sister gig yet, but this is part of it. We take care of each other."

"Fine" said Paige with a pout once she found that she could not raise herself to a sitting position. "But I don't have to like it."

"Don't worry. I know from experience that you'll love it." Phoebe said as she and Piper helped Paige sit up against her.

"Man, the last time I was spoon fed was … I actually can't remember the last time this phenomenon happened to me." Said Paige in between spoonfuls of soup. To be honest, Paige actually was enjoying the feeling she had right then of being loved and cared for.

Piper was very handy with the soup spoon and managed to feed Paige about half of the bowl along with some saltines before Paige protested that she was full, in almost the same amount of time it would have taken Paige to feed herself in her current condition. She also did it with very few spills. Phoebe thought it was extremely cute to watch her baby sister being fed by her older sister with the older one wiping the youngest's chin with the bib every so often to clean off any stray drops of soup. It reminded her a lot of when she was sick and Prue used to do the same thing with her.

"Okay Paige," said Piper. "Would you like some tea or water to drink?"

"Some water would be great, please" was Paige's response. Phoebe helped Paige drink a few sips of water from the glass. "You know, you're lucky this isn't a sippy cup." Medicine was the next thing Piper wanted Paige to swallow. "Okay sweetie. Time for the meds." She pulled out about three shot glasses worth of a translucent bluish-purple colored drink that was about half the thickness of pancake syrup.

"Bottoms up," Paige said right before she downed the glass's contents. "Ohh … I hope that wasn't some kind of poison because that tasted worse than some hangover cures I've concocted when I was younger."

"Nope," said Phoebe. "It's nothing but Grams' cure all potion. You're lucky. Imagine drinking that every time you were sick growing up."

"Yeah but it always made you feel better Pheebs and you know it." Piper said.

"Well yeah. That which doesn't kill you can only make you stronger."

Paige was relaxing in her sisters' camaraderie when she suddenly started coughing much like she had that morning in her apartment. This instantly stopped the teasing while Phoebe and Piper tried to help Paige stop coughing. With Phoebe rubbing her back and Piper helping her take small sips of water, Paige finally got her breathing under control.

"Uh, Piper. I think her temperature is rising." Said Phoebe once they finally got Paige calmed down feeling the warmth coming from her sister.

"Okay, I'll be right back with the thermometer." Piper said as she got up off the bed and headed towards the bathroom to return a minute later with the required item in hand. "Paige, I'm just going to put this in your ear for a sec," Piper said as she pushed back some hair that had fallen in Paige's face before inserting the thermometer into Paige's ear until it beeped. "Well Paige, you are the owner of a 102.8 degree fever," she said once she took a look at the readout. "I'll be right back after making a doctor's appointment for you for tomorrow."

"Wait," Paige said. "Could we wait at least another day or so before going to a doctor? I bet this is only a fever spike and it will go down really soon."

"Well," Piper thought for a moment. "Okay. But I do have ground rules that will be followed otherwise we are going straight to the ER, the first one being you listening to me and Phoebe regarding anything concerning your health until you are all better. Secondly, if it even looks like this is getting out of our control, you will go straight to the quickest doctor's appointment I can make or if need be the nearest ER. Agreed?"