Hey there! I have decided to do another chapter on Piper and Paige! This chapter was inspired by the holiday season, so enjoy!
PS: This there isn't really any peril in this chapter, it's really just a little Christmas story, which I thought would be good to do, as they never address it in the show, btw, Wyatt is 4 and Chris is 2.
A Charming Christmas'Hmmmm… no, a little more to left,' Piper was completely redoing the decorations on the Christmas tree.
'Here?' Leo asked as he moved the decorationover to the left.
'No, a little more to the right,' Piper paused and stood back to admire her work, she smiled, and then scowled 'Nope all wrong,'
Leo sighed out of frustration 'Piper, it's a Christmas tree, not a masterpiece,'
'Well it is to me, so you go and do what you want,' Piper retorted.
Leo sighed again; he knew she would be unapproachable for a while so he went for a shower.
It was December 23rd, and although the decorations had been up in the house for a while, Piper had redone the Christmas tree about 6 times. Paige came in with two cups of hot chocolate and handed one to her flustered big sister.
'Alright, what tree branch is a centimetre out of place this time?' she asked mockingly, taking a seat in the in the living room.
Piper glared at her 'I know seems silly to you but it's important to me, Wyatt is now at an age where he can appreciate Christmas and although Chris isn't there yet, I want to have the perfect Christmas,'
'Aw sweetie, I didn't know Christmas was so important to you,' Paige stood up, putting an arm around her sister's shoulder 'I will not mock your psychotic obsession with perfection ever again,'
Piper smiled 'Thank you, now could you get Wyatt for me? I promised him he could put the star on top of the tree,'
'I'm surprised you didn't go with an angel, seeing as how we've met one,'
'I may have married an angel, but I don't want one on the top of my tree, now could you please go and get Wyatt?'
At the sound of his name, Wyatt appeared next to his mother in a glow of orbs.
'Alright honey, now see this star?' Piper gave him the large Silver Star 'Why don't you put it on the top?'
Wyatt smiled at his mother; he looked down at the object in his hands and orbed it to the top of the tree.
The three stood back to admire the centrepiece of their Christmas spirit. Piper had been in charge of decorating the house, Leo was always annoyed when she bought an expensive decoration, he said that what was the point in spending a lot of money on something that's only useful for 3 weeks?
But all he got from Piper was the silent treatment; he had learned just to keep his mouth shut.
'Well I have to say sis, you've really outdid yourself this year,' Paige said
'You think?' her big sister answered, want more praise.
'Of course! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to wrap up some presents for certain nephews,' she said, looking down at Wyatt and ruffling his hair.
'Is it that wed fire twuck I saw at the toy store, Auntie Paige?' Wyatt asked innocently.
'Maybe, but you need to wait for two days until you find out, speaking of presents,' she looked to Piper 'Have you got Phoebe a present?'
'Yeah, but I was just going to give it to her when she got back,'
'Well give it me, me and the boys have put together a Christmas box that we were going to send to her magically, you can put your present in,'
'What's in it?'
'You know, presents from all of us, cards, photos, stuff that lets her know we miss her,'
'Alright, I'll give it you later, but you go and wrap your presents, and you, little man,' she said, picking up Wyatt 'are going to bed, big boys need their sleep,'
'And so do big girls,' Paige said stifling a yawn 'C'mon, Wyatt, lets go and let your mom bask in her magnificent Christmas display,' she left the room with Wyatt in her arms. 'Good night!' she called to her big sister.
'Night!' she called back.
'Don't forget! We're going after the Sol Demons tomorrow,'
'Yeah, yeah, just wake up before dawn and I'll be there,'
Piper flopped back into a vacant chair, she was about to nod off, but forced herself to move, as she needed all her rest if she was going to be awoken at 5:30am………
'Piper, Piper wake up!' Paige whispered to her sister. Piper's eyes fluttered open, she saw Paige standing above her, heavily wrapped up, with a flask in one hand, and a bag of vanquishing potions in the other.
'Ugh… what time is it?' she asked groggily.
'It's just after 5:40,' her sister answered, pointing at the numbers on the digital clock beside the bed.
'Okay, gimme 5 minutes and I'll be ready,'
Paige nodded and walked out of the room, Piper got of bed and started to pull on some heavy clothes, the snow had kept going ever since the day with the centaur, it had been on and off, but since none had melted, it mounted up.
To make things worse, because of the snow clouds, they couldn't see the sun, so the two sisters had to get up early every morning, just so they wouldn't miss the demons. The Sol Demons only attacked at sunrise, so they had to be prepared to fight demons before 8am! Piper then groaned, she remembered that tonight was a full moon, which was when the Luna Demons came out to play, she would need to remind Paige later, hopefully before the moon rose tonight. Of all days to be full of fighting, it had to be Christmas Eve.
She crept out of her room, being careful not wake Leo, and made her way downstairs to the kitchen, where Paige was sitting with a cup of coffee.
'Want some? It's really strong,'
Piper nodded and got a cup out of the cabinet, and let Paige fill her up. She took one sip and made a face.
'This is like tar!' Piper exclaimed.
'I said it was strong, I didn't say it was good,' her sister replied in her defence.
'Let's just forget it and go for the demons,' she said 'What have you got in the flask? More 'strong' coffee?'
Paige shot her a look 'No, it's hot chocolate, we might as well have a nice hot beverage if we're on stake out,'
'Won't that make us sleepy?'
'Probably, but here's the incentive for staying awake, if you fall asleep, I'll be forced to hit you with a snowball,' she answered innocently.
'Oh really?' Piper said with a smile 'Alright, that applies to you too, lets go!' she took her sisters hand and they orbed out to their destination………
'We've been sitting here for half an hour, are you sure your scrying wasn't off?'
Piper was offended by this comment and gave her sister a hurt look.
'My scrying is never off! Your orbing was probably off!'
'Ugh! We don't have the time or the patience for this just get the crystal out and try again!'
They had been sitting in this ally for a long time, waiting for the demons to show up, Paige had surrendered to her tiredness and sat down on the top of a trashcan. Their hot chocolate supply was nearly gone and it was getting a bit lighter in the sky, you could see that even through the clouds.
'Our innocent is still here;' Piper answered, she folded up the map and put it back in her pocket 'This is ridiculous! It's Christmas Eve! We should be sleeping in, watching corny Christmas films on TV while the gentle aroma of turkey fills the air! Not hunting for demons and freezing our asses off at the same time!'
'Well, looks like your little rant as finally moved this along, down here!' Paige beckoned her big sister to behind a dumpster 'There he is!' she whispered.
Their innocent was a man, was breathing into his gloveless hands in a vain attempt to warm himself up.
Suddenly, there was a glow behind him, and three demons appeared, they were dressed in rags, and all had a tattoo of the sun on their foreheads. One of them ignited something in their hand and prepared to strike.
'That's our cue,' Paige said, the two of them ran out from behind the dumpster, Piper froze the innocent so that he wouldn't be an exposure risk. The demon looked at each other baffled but knew what was going on when Piper and Paige came into view.
'Up for a party boys?' Piper asked them.
The demons just growled and threw some sort of sunbeam at the girls. Piper grabbed Paige's hand and massed out before the beams hit, the beam reflected in all directions, the light was blinding on this dark winter morning but unfortunately the demons were used to this sort of light.
One of them ran forward and telekinetically threw Paige against the ally wall, she was knocked out! Piper realised that she would have to do something to stall them for a couple of seconds, which would give her enough time to get to Paige, who had the vanquishing potions.
She flicked her wrists to blow the demon up, but it only caused it to stumble. Piper then blew up a small part of the wall of the building that she was next to. This caused all the bricks to fly towards the demon.
She took opportunity to check on Paige.
'Paige c'mon, shake it off, get up!
Paige was slightly groggy, but awake enough to see that the demons were coming at them again, but Piper couldn't see them, as she had her back to them. Paige quickly came to her senses and threw her arm out, causing all three demons to crash into the opposite wall.
She stood up and handed some of the potions that were in the bag to Piper, who then threw them at the crippled creatures lying on the ground, causing them writhe in their vanquishing flames and even melting the snow they had landed on.
Paige went over to the pile of ash that was now the demons and held her hands over it.
'Mmmmm… toasty!' she said with a smirk.
Piper unfroze the innocent, who was shocked to see two woman standing where, a second ago, had been empty space.
'Nice weather huh?' Piper said, holding her hands out as if to catch the snow. The man gave her a look then nodded and continued walking.
'C'mon, let's go home before we end up with frickin frostbite,'
Paige laughed at her dramatic sister and orbed their weary selves home………
The Great Hall was buzzing with the chitchat of the Magic School students that were going home for the holidays; Leo was looking over them, asking the more forgetful students if they had everything. Paige orbed into the middle of the hall, earning 'wows' from the students, she just smiled and went over to Leo.
'Paige? What are you doing here?' he enquired
'Hello to you too,' was her sarcastic response 'I was wondering if this place stocks powdered dragon scale, we ran out at home and we need it to make the Luna vanquishing potion,'
'Uh I don't know, you'll have to ask Miss deLauro,' Leo answered
'Miss deLauro?'
'Yeah I just hired her, she's the new head of potions,'
'Alright, where will I find her?'
'Uh, she might still in her classroom, but I'm not sure,'
'Okay, thanks,'
Paige walked down the hall and crossed the courtyard to the other part of the building, she looked at her watch, it was only 2:30 and the sky was already dimming.
I guess that's to be expected of a winter's night Paige thought, she wrapped her arms around herself and jogged across the rest of the way.
She entered the potions department and heard voices coming from a classroom; she looked around the doorway and found who she was looking for.
She guessed that the woman in the black robe was Miss deLauro, she was a lot younger than Paige expected, she looked about 25-30, she had red hair that went just past her shoulders and was wearing jeans and a turtle neck underneath her robes.
The other woman looked about the same age, but she was a little shorter, and had long, blond, wavy hair. They hadn't noticed Paige standing at the door, as the redhead was wiping down the blackboard
'So I was talking to Jess a couple of days ago, he said that they have a new addition to the team,' and blond woman began.
'Really? What's she like?'
'Apparently quite nice, she has powers like yours, but I'm planning on going up there, just to check her out, can't have an unwanted visitor in my house now can we?'
'Shal,' and redhead sighed 'You are so territorial, do me favour and try not to scare this one, okay?'
'Hey! That was only once and I can't help the fact that being territorial is imprinted into my genes,' Shal said with a laugh.
Paige decided it was about time she interrupted, she knocked on the door and waited for a reply.
'Can I help you?' the teacher said kindly.
'Hopefully, are you Miss deLauro?' Paige asked
'Yeah, and call me Emma, what can I do for you? You don't look like a student,'
'I'm not,' Paige smiled 'I'm Paige by the way,' she held out her hand
'Well, I'm Emma,' she answered, shaking Paige's hand 'Oh! And this is my friend, Shalimar,'
'Nice to meet you,' Shalimar stepped forward and shook hands.
'You too,' Paige smiled
'Alright, now you must have had a reason for coming here besides introductions,'
Paige laughed 'You're right, I was wondering if you have any powdered dragon scale?'
'Dragon scale? I think I've got some in the store cupboard, let me check,' Emma replied and went to the door at the back of the classroom.
'Hey Em, I gotta run, I'll see you later,' Shalimar called to her friend
'Alright, bye!' she called from the store cupboard.
Shalimar gave Paige a respectful nod as she left the room; she stopped at the doorway and said 'Merry Christmas,'
'Oh, you too,' Paige replied.
Emma came out of the store holding a jar 'There you go! One jar of powdered dragon scale,'
'Thanks!'
'Powdered dragon scale huh? Must be a pretty powerful vanquishing potion you're making, but I wouldn't expect anything less from a Charmed One,' Paige gave her a shocked look 'Oh! It's just that Leo was telling me about his family this morning, and Paige isn't a common name, so I put two and two together…'
Paige nodded, although the explanation seemed a little far fetched, maybe it something to do with her powers… she would need to ask Leo about her later.
'Uh… yeah! It is powerful, my sister and I are going after the Luna demons tonight so we need a kick ass potion, thanks again,'
'Alright! Nice meeting you! Merry Christmas!' Emma answered cheerfully before Paige orbed out………
Paige orbed into the kitchen, to find Piper laughing with her father, he had been invited by Piper for Christmas and was staying the night in Phoebe's room.
'Paige!' he said, holding out his arms for a hug.
'Hey Mr. Bennett!' she answered enthusiastically, giving him a hug and putting the jar down on the counter top as the same time.
'Call me Victor,' he said, releasing her.
They sat down on the stools in the kitchen.
'Okay, you wanna take over?' Piper asked her sister, Paige had really become the potions mistress of the house, Phoebe was the best with spells, they had had to learn and master these areas of witchcraft when Piper was pregnant. They had been a poor substitute for The Power Of Three, but the two had hadto make do with what they had.
'Sure,' she switched places with Piper and began stirring the simmering potion.
'So Victor, how long are you in town?' Paige asked.
'Probably just for the holidays, maybe for new years, I don't know,'
Paige nodded 'Could you pass that jar please?'
Victor picked up the jar and looked at the turquoise dust in it 'What is this stuff?'
'Powdered dragon scale!' Piper replied.
He gave his daughter a look with one eyebrow raised, but handed over the jar none the less.
'I'm ready to go, I'll get your coat,' Piper said to her baby sister, as soon as the potion was ready, they were going on stake out again to find and kill the Luna Demons.
'Alright,' she answered, Piper left the room 'Victor, you might want to stand back,'
He eyed Paige wearily and backed away, as did Paige. She took a pinch of the powder in between her fingers and threw it at the pot; the result caused an explosion in the pot that made Victor crouch in fear.
'Told you to stand back,' she said as she began bottling the potion.
'Here you go,' Piper had come back in and handed Paige her coat 'Okay Dad, could you look after the boys? Leo will be home soon, but I don't know how long this is going to take so I might not be home in time for dinner,'
Victor nodded and marvelled when his daughter and her sister disappeared in a dazzle of lights………
Piper and Paige yet again braved the cold of a San Francisco winter, this alley looked exactly like the one they had been in that morning, but it was even colder. They been in the alley for over three hours, the frustration, coldness and boredom had set in.
'I thought these scum were supposed to attack when a full moon rose? The moon's already half way across the- finally!' Paige ended with triumph.
A shaft of moonlight passed over the alleyway, then demons appeared, they were dressed in the same way as the Sols, but they had a tattoo of a moon.
They huddled together, as if they were planning something, the girls were impatient and decided to attack.
Paige astraled out in front of them, grabbing their attention.
'Hey you guys!' she said cheerfully.
The Lunas attacked in the same the Sols did, except it was with moonlight, as soon as Paige was hit her astral form disappeared, this left them confused, Piper took advantage of this.
'Looking for me?' she appeared out of the shadows and threw the vanquishing potions and killed all three instantly.
Paige came out of her hiding place, where she had went to astral out safely.
'Well! That was a lot easier than this morning!'
'Yeah! And we only waited three hours for three seconds of fighting!' Piper answered sarcastically.
'Oh stop your complaining! Let's go home,' Piper was in complete agreement and took Paige's hand, willing her to orb faster………
Wyatt was dragging his Mom and Dad down the stairs, Paige was following with Chris in her arms and Victor behind her.
'Slow down!' Leo pleaded 'I know you're excited about opening your presents but they're still gonna be there in two seconds!'
'Oh c'mon Leo,' Paige warned 'It's Christmas Morning after all,'
They entered the living room and Wyatt gasped at all the presents that were lying there.
'Well, looks like Santa visited during the night!' Victor said………
After 10 minutes, Wyatt and Chris were busily opening their presents; they were especially pleased at the fire truck for Wyatt and the police car for Chris.
'Thank you Auntie Paige!' they said in unison as they continued to open the abundance of presents from their parents.
'Your welcome,' Paige replied, unable to keep the smile off her face at the sight of her nephews almost drowning in a sea of wrapping paper. She was even happier when she opened her present from Piper and Leo. She opened the box and gasped, it was the leather jacket that she had been staring at ina shop window with Piper a couple of weeks ago!
'Piper I love it! Thank you!' she exclaimed, almost as excited as Wyatt and Chris as she tried it on, but then she stopped 'You guys, this must of cost you a fortune, not to mention all the things for the kids,' she said guiltily.
'Don't worry about it,' Leo assured her 'It's Christmas, that gives us the right to splurge on gifts,'
Paige smiled 'Well, if that's the case, here are your presents,' she handed over two small boxes. Piper and Leo opened them and where immediately grinning at the contents. Piper's box held inside a beautiful gold necklace, which had a pendent on it, and on the back of the pendent, there was a triquetra engraved on it. Leo had received a watch, since he was always late and always orbing off at inappropriate times, Paige had given him something to keep on track, an expensive something………
After dinner, everyone had eaten so much that they ended up falling asleep in front of the fire, all except Leo and Piper.
'So, was this the perfect Christmas?' Leo asked his wife.
Piper looked around, and boys had been playing with all the things that their parents had got them, it had tired them out and they fell asleep beside Victor. Piper had to hold back a laugh when she saw Paige snoozing on the sofa, with her leather jacket draped over her as a cover.
'Yes,' she said simply 'But there's one more thing I need to do,'
Piper stood up and walked into the sunroom, there was a large box on the coffee table; it was the box they were planning on sending Phoebe through 'Magical Mail'
Piper had one more thing to add.
Earlier on in the day, when they were all awake, Paige had taken a picture of all of them together, she had held the camera telekinetically so she could be in the picture. Piper put the picture in, along with letters, presents, and cards and closed the lid of the box. She was suddenly inspired by her happiness and managed to write a spell with ease.
'Send this gift to my sister, wherever she be,
Through time, through space, give this to thee,'
The box disappeared in a flurry of white lights………
Phoebe was just turning in for the night, even without family this had been a good Christmas; she sat down in front of the computer in her room and looked wearily at her reflection in the screen.
Suddenly, white lights appeared on her bed, when they disappeared, a box was in their place. Phoebe was cautious, she opened the box carefully and when she saw what was in it, her heart broke.
There was a picture of her sisters, Leo, her nephews, and her Dad; she looked further and found presents, letters and cards, all from her family. She noticed a card that was on the top of the box, she opened it.
Just to remind you that you'll never be alone…
Love,
Piper, Paige, Leo, Wyatt, Chris and DadThat was her breaking point; she burst into tears and began crying into her hands. Brennan who had to pass her room to get to his own, noticed that she was upset and went to see what was wrong.
'Hey, what's wrong?' he asked quietly. She looked at him, but just kept on crying, he quickly comforted her by kneeling down in front of her and pulling her into a tight hug.
She hadn't expected this to be so hard, she had been having a great time with her new friends, but now she missed her family more than ever. She then realised that she would get over this; she had such a strong friendships with Mutant X already. Brennan was alreadycalming her down, stroking her hair and letting her use his shirt as a tissue, she eventually fell asleep in his arms. He delicately lay her down on the bed, got a throw from her closet, and gently put it over her. He left the room, putting the light out on his way, and hoped that in the morning, everything would seem better…
Wow! That was even longer than the last chapter! But I enjoyed writing it! And I hope you all enjoyed reading it!
Chapter 8 'Love At First Fire' will be up soon, it's a Piper and Paige chapter, I think I will be back to Phoebe after that…
