Part Eight
"What?" asked Piper trying to remain calm although her body and brain was going into overdrive from Phoebe's comment.
"Paige. She … was whipped at least once to the point of unconsciousness. Piper, our baby sister was beaten and tortured growing up." At her words, both the sisters broke down in each other's arms. They stayed like this for several minutes until Phoebe noticed someone missing from the room.
"Piper, where's Paige?"
"Uhhh. She said … said something about being hungry and feeling better, so I let her go downstairs to the kitchen."
"I think we had better go and have a little discussion with our sister," said Phoebe, determined to get to the bottom of this. Both the sisters headed downstairs, ready to get Paige to spill her guts. On the way down, they were both wondering silently why Paige hadn't told them. Sure they hadn't known each other long, but they were sisters. As they entered the kitchen, the sisters were surprised to see no sign that Paige had even entered the room.
"Uh-oh," said Phoebe. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"If it's along the lines of 'my new sisters have discovered my big secret and I don't feel like sharing so I'm going to orb away even though I'm sick and need their assistance', then yeah, I think we're on the same page." Replied Piper sarcastically.
"Any ideas where she might have gone?" asked Phoebe, now extremely concerned for her sister.
"Well, she was still in the clothes we gave her so maybe her apartment to get dressed?"
"Sounds good. I'll drive."
"No way," said Piper as she grabbed the keys to the Jeep and her jacket. "My car, I'm the oldest, I drive." Phoebe stuck her tongue out at her sister's logic but grabbed her own jacket and followed Piper out the door and into the car. Both of the sisters were hoping they could find their sister and quickly.
The drive over to Paige's apartment was completed in silence, Phoebe and Piper each lost in their own thoughts. When they pulled up into the complex, they saw that her car was missing from the parking lot.
"Okay, now what?" said Phoebe in frustration as she slammed her hands on the dashboard.
Piper raised her eyebrow at the sign of Phoebe's temper, but didn't comment. "We are witches aren't we? We can go home, scry for her, and then bring her home where we can hopefully talk this whole thing out." As Piper was saying this, she turned the car around and headed back the way they'd come.
As soon as the car came to a somewhat complete stop, Phoebe had jumped out, gone in to the house not even bothering to close the door behind her, and run up the stairs to the attic. Piper entered a bit more sedately, closing the door behind her and taking off her jacket before rushing up the stairs after Phoebe.
When she arrived upstairs, she found her sister leaning over their much-used map of San Francisco and the surrounding area, twirling the crystal over it. As she looked over her sister's shoulder, Piper saw the crystal land on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge in the section of the map marked Golden Gate State Park. Looking even closer, she saw that it had landed on the small beach that was part of the park. "Okay. Phoebe, bring the map and the crystal in case she leaves where she is. We also need to bring a set of warm clothes, some blankets, and Grams' medicine." Piper ordered. "And if she was stupid enough to get soaking wet in the Pacific Ocean, while she is already sick, then we are also going to need some towels."
Phoebe and Piper quickly grabbed what they thought they needed and rushed out to the Jeep with all of it. Piper once again drove once everything and one was in the car.
Reaching the beach took a half hour as they fought traffic to get over the bridge and off the freeway onto the appropriate exit. Once they had pulled in to the park, Piper asked Phoebe to scry again to make sure Paige hadn't gone anywhere. The crystal landed in the exact same spot as before so Piper began to navigate the SUV down the steep and narrow road to the cove where the beach was. Thankfully, when they pulled into the parking lot, they quickly spotted Paige's car. Piper and Phoebe got out of the car, thankful for their jackets as the wind coming off the ocean was cold. Piper grabbed a blanket before closing the door and following Phoebe towards their wayward sister who was somewhere on the beach.
After about ten minutes of searching, they found her sitting on the sand right where the waves were stopping on the beach. Her shoes were off, indicating that she had been in the water. That and the fact that she was wet from the waist down. Her eyes were red from crying and her hair was wet from the ocean spray. Phoebe sat down beside her while Piper wrapped the blanket around Paige's shoulders before sitting on the other side of her.
"How did you find me so fast?" asked Paige after sitting in silence with her sisters for a few minutes.
"Scryed for you." Replied Piper.
"Oh" was Paige's response and they relapsed in to silence for a few minutes more.
"This is my favorite place in the whole entire world." Paige said quietly while her sisters listened intently, not wanting to miss a thing. "I always come to the ocean to relax, get away from the world because the ocean offers you the opportunity to do that. I can take the ocean to almost anyplace in the world. It is limitless in its ability to give freedom unlike people who are stuck on land." Paige choked back a sob.
"Paige, honey. Why didn't you tell us?" asked Phoebe gently.
"I didn't want you to know." Replied Paige. "It's part of my past. I've dealt with it and moved past it. If I told you, you would act only God knows how and it would just continue over something that isn't that important in the grand scheme of things."
The sisters sat silent at Paige's last remark. Finally, Piper asked, "Paige are you ready to go? In case you forgot we had a deal which currently you are in violation of."
Paige sat looking at the incoming waves for a minute before answering, "Yeah. We can go."
Phoebe and Piper got to their feet and helped Paige to hers. They then guided Paige to the Jeep. When she protested about leaving her car, Piper's look and Phoebe's explanation of how they would come back to get it silenced her. She also protested taking another dose of Grams' medicine even though Piper could feel how much warmed she was than earlier. The only thing Paige didn't object to was changing clothes. Finally medicated, and in warm clothes, Paige got into the car, laying with her head in Piper's lap in the backseat. Piper pulled a blanket over both of them. Paige fell asleep with Piper running her fingers through her hair.
Phoebe drove them home, but as she pulled into the driveway Piper asked her to continue driving until they reached the San Francisco Memorial Hospital ER entrance. Paige awoke at hearing the words, hospital and ER.
"What?" she complained sleepily. "You guys can't take me there. Please don't. If you do and they see something they shouldn't, how are we going to explain ourselves?"
"When you say something they shouldn't," Piper asked levelly looking into Paige's brown eyes. "Do you mean something witchy or something having to do with your abuse?"