Thanks to all those who have reviewed! We're almost reaching the half waypoint of this story!
I See Past People
'This is a great place,' Emma's date complimented P3 as they sat down at a table.
'Thanks, my friend, who is also my roommate, owns it,' Emma replied.
Emma had feeling about this guy, she didn't whether it was a good one or a bad one, but she definitely felt something.
'I'm really glad we could do this,' he took her hand, but as soon as she did, Emma closed her eyes and put her hand to her forehead. Emma looked back up with frightful eyes.
'You okay?' he asked
'Uh… yeah!' she wore a fake smile and laughed nervously 'Would you excuse me? I'll be right back,' he nodded and Emma made her way towards the bar.
'Okay, thanks,' Piper put the cash in the register after serving someone and went on to the next person. Emma pulled up the piece of wood that allowed access to the bar and rushed over to Piper.
'Piper! Piper! My date is a demon! He melts his victims from the inside out, and I'm his next victim!' Emma whispered to avoid other people from hearing.
'What? How do you know?'
'When he touched me, I got some sort of psychic flash, I think my powers are growing because it definitely seemed like one of those premonition things you told me about!'
'Oh for Gods sake!' Piper threw out her hands, freezing all the innocent clubbers, leaving the demon to wonder what happened.
'Hi!' Piper shouted from the bar.
He noticed that Emma and Piper were the only people not frozen 'Witches…' he growled.
'Bye!' Piper shouted before flicking her wrists and shattering the demon into a million pieces. She sighed and made another gesture to unfreeze the club, she turned to Emma to demand an explanation
'Emma, Wednesday's date had a scary foot fetish, last night's guy was agoraphobic, and tonight's is a demon! What's going on with you?'
'Ugh,' Emma grabbed a bottle of beer from the bar 'I don't know, I've attracted weirdo's all my life, usually I just send them a little mind blast and they run away, but I just don't feel like it anymore,'
'Being a man-eater too much for ya?' Piper smirked.
Emma gave her a friendly glare 'No… it's just that… I would always use my powers on a date, in a minute I could know everything about him, and since I knew everything, I got bored and moved on the next guy,'
'It that why you're finding out about guys the hard way? To not be bored?' Piper picked up her already open beer.
'Maybe… I dunno,' Emma looked down at her bottle.
'Speaking of guys…' Piper nodded her head towards the entrance.
Emma looked around to see Paige and Aidan walking towards them, hand in hand.
'I think she's just showing off…' Emma smirked.
Piper laughed and turned to her little sister, who gave them a funny look and wanted to know why they were laughing.
'Private joke. What can I get you?' Piper asked.
'Uh… I'll just have some water,' Paige said, Aidan shook his head, indicating he didn't want anything.
'How was your date?' Paige asked Emma
'Cut short. By us vanquishing him,' Emma replied.
'He was a demon?' Paige widened her eyes
'Yeah,'
'Aw… Honey, I'm sorry. He was a smooth talker on the phone,' Paige said
'So you're saying I should stick to guys who have a stutter?' Emma laughed, along with everyone else.
Piper put an arm around her shoulder 'Wanna help work the bar and make crappy drinks for rude customers?'
Emma chuckled 'Na, I think I'll just go home, night you guys,' she said to Paige and Aidan before walking out of the club.
She walked into the Manor and hung up her coat she saw Leo kneeling down on the floor with his children and playing with them. He stood up when he saw Emma.
'Hey,' Leo looked at his watch 'That was a short date,'
'Yeah, it was also demonic,' Emma replied.
'Really? Boy, you really have struck out these past few nights, haven't you,'
Emma raised her eyebrow 'Uh… I mean…' Leo began.
'I know what you mean. Have you seen the senior class's potions exams around? I have to grade them,'
'Uh… I think you left them on the table,' Leo pointed towards the dining room.
'Thanks,' Emma turned back to see Leo had knelt back down, but now that he had, Emma could see a woman standing just behind him, smiling at Wyatt and Chris! She had long brown hair and alive blue eyes, except that 'alive' was impossible, she was a ghost!
'Leo! Leo! Do you see that?!' Emma was hitting Leo's shoulders.
The woman turned round and faced Emma 'Oh my God! You can see me?! Oh crap!' the ghost disappeared in a flurry of white lights.
Emma turned back to Leo, 'Okay, did you see that?'
'No, what should I be seeing?' Leo looked at the blank space in the middle of the sunroom.
'She was just right… never mind… I think I'll just go to bed,' Emma told him.
She walked up the stairs and into the hallway; she noticed a picture on top of one of the wooden units in the hall. She picked it up and laughed, seeing the size of Piper's fringe in the old photo, Emma recognised the woman on the right was the middle Halliwell sister, Phoebe. Emma looked at the centre of the photo, and almost dropped it in surprise when she saw the woman in the middle of the photo, it was the ghost she had saw downstairs!
'Mommy! Mommy!' Emma spun round to see a little girl come running out of Piper's room, wearing pyjama's and holding a teddy bear. The little girl ran into Paige's room, Emma decided to follow.
It was dark in Paige's room, which was unusual as she always left the lights on when she went out. A lamp ignited on the nightstand to reveal a woman lying in the bed, she looked slightly older than Emma and was in a nightgown.
'Mommy! I had a bad dream!' the little girl jumped up onto the bed, making the woman sit up. She lifted up the little girl and put her on her lap.
'Piper, do you remember what I told you about the monsters in your dreams? Just tell yourself that they're not real and that they don't exist, and they'll go away!' the woman said with a smile on her face. Emma watched on, completely confused about what was happening. The little girl was Piper? She was even more surprised when the woman walked right through her on her way to taking Piper back to her room. Emma watched them disappear into the other room, and when she turned back, Paige's room was just like it had been before! Messy. She decided that she couldn't go to sleep after this and went to check the book.
Paige walked into the kitchen; she stretched and suppressed a yawn as she went over to the coffee machine. She was surprised when someone had already made a pot; she just took this as luck and felt the side to make sure it wasn't yesterdays. She sat down at the table with her coffee and waited for the bagel that she'd put in the toaster, she noticed Emma sitting outside on the bench in the back yard, and went to investigate.
'Hey,' Paige closed the door behind her and joined Emma on the bench.
'Hey,' Emma replied.
'What are you doing up so early on a weekend?' Paige asked.
'Uh… I couldn't sleep… I was doing research with the book…'
'Uh oh,' Paige pulled her coffee away from her mouth, when someone checked with the Book of Shadows, it usually spelled 'we're wasting our weekend to go demon hunting'
Emma chuckled 'No, it isn't anything like that! It's just…' she trailed off.
Paige gently nudged her shoulder 'C'mon, I not be able to feel and manipulate emotions like you, but I can tell when my best friend is down,'
She smiled at Paige's remark 'Okay, I'll tell you. I'll probably need your help anyway. It all started last night when I saw this ghost in the house,'
'A ghost?'
'Yeah, but I just shook it off as being too tired, so I went upstairs and this photo on the dresser caught my eye, I looked at it and one of the women in it was the ghost that I had saw!'
'Wow!' Paige was trying to remember what photo she was talking about, there were so many in the Manor, she gasped as she realised what Emma was talking about.
'That's not the weirdest part! When I put the photo down, this little girl came out of Piper' room and went into yours, looking for her mother, and the woman in your room called the little girl Piper! It was like watching a home movie or something,' Emma took a sip of her hot chocolate; she wasn't one for coffee.
'Power growth spurt?' Paige suggested
'Maybe… I did have a premonition last night, that's how I knew about my demon date,'
'Well, you said you can always tell what happened in the past at a certain place, maybe your powers are now showing you what happened?'
'That's not all,' Emma continued, 'I've been seeing these things all around the house since last night! I think I've got the entire story of the Halliwell childhood!' she said with fake enthusiasm.
As if the heavens were reacting to her mood, the dull clouds that had been overhead finally released torrents of rain and forced the two girls indoors.
Thunder crashed overhead, it seemed as if it was directly over Manor. Emma had explained everything to a sleepy Piper as Paige had went to retrieve the photo had Emma had been talking about.
'So you us… as kids?' Piper sat down and stifled a yawn
'Yeah, I had no idea you guys were raised by you grandmother!'
'How did you find out?'
'Oh, I saw your Grams bring you home after your Mom's funeral… I'm sorry,' Emma held her head down.
Piper waved her hand 'It's alright, we got over it a long time ago. What else did you find out?'
'Um… I wouldn't call this finding out, just an observation, but I didn't see little Paige in any of the visions,'
'Yeah… Um… That's because Paige didn't grow up here, we only met her about four years ago,'
' But you've been witches for seven years, so that means…'
'Yeah, we had another sister,' Piper confirmed.
Paige came down the stairs holding a picture frame; she walked into the living room and handed it to Emma.
'Is the woman in the middle the one you saw?' Paige asked.
Emma quickly scanned the photo 'Yeah, definitely,' Emma handed it back.
Paige and Piper exchanged a glance as Piper snatched the photo away from her sister.
'Are you absolutely sure you saw this woman?' Piper wanted to be sure before she got her hopes up.
'Positive,' Emma nodded her head.
Piper looked at her, then at the photo, and ran up the stairs with a confused Paige and a blissfully ignorant Emma. Piper reached the attic and started flipping the pages frantically.
'Piper, what are you doing?' Paige asked cautiously; her sister didn't seem herself.
'Don't you get it?! If she is allowed to see us, that means we're allowed to see her! Orb the candles into a circle!' Piper ordered.
'But Piper, I don't think-,'
'Paige!' Piper shouted as thunder rumbled above them.
Paige was now quite scared 'C-Candles, circle,' he waved her hand and the candles on the old wooden unit orbed out and orbed back in the shape of a circle on the floor. Piper grabbed the lighter from the table and lit the candles, one by one and returned to the book.
'Piper, maybe you should-,' Emma tried one last time to get her to see reason.
'Hear these words, hear my cry
Spirit from the other side
Come to me, I summon thee
Cross now, the great divide!'
White lights began to appear in the centre of the circle, but before the spirit was revealed, lightning flashed over head, igniting the room in blazing light for one second, but when it stopped, the power had went out and they couldn't see who they had summoned. There was a ghostly glow now coming from the centre of the room and once their eyes had focused, the Charmed Ones saw that the ghostly glow was Prue Halliwell.
All Piper could do was let out the breath she had been holding, Paige and Emma was looked on, clearly shocked.
'Prue…' Piper finally spoke.
She smiled, 'In the flesh… Well, in about a second I will,' she walked out of the candle circle and became corporeal.
Piper's eyes began to well up with tears as she ran over to her big sister and hugged her tightly. Paige's face remained neutral as she watched the scene; she nudged Emma to get her attention.
'C'mon, let's go shopping or something,' Paige led her friend out of the attic.
'So what's the deal Paige? We're gonna have to go home eventually,' Emma said as she sorted through a clothes rack looking for a bargain. Paige sat on couch that was in the store, eating away at a bag of chips.
'Yeah, and hopefully 'Big Sis' won't be there…' she mumbled with chips in her mouth.
'What is it? You two have a bad past?' Emma guessed
'Try no past,' she answered, her hand diving back into the bag 'Look, it's not as if I have anything against her, I would love to get to know her. It's just that it took a long time for Piper and I to be as close as we are now, and I just think that it's all gonna be thrown out the window now…'
Emma turned around from the full length mirror where she had been holding clothes in front of her to see if they would fit 'Look, I may not have known Piper for as long as you have, but she treasures family more than anything else, and you're family, so I think you should get to know your oldest sister while you still can,'
'Sage advice there, whose mind did you probe to get that little tidbit?' Paige joked.
Emma gave her a 'I'm not amused' face 'Look, I just don't want you to regret passing up this opportunity. There are a lot of things I regret doing…' she looked down at the floor.
'Emma?' Paige stopped munching on the food to notice her friend's condition.
She looked up and smiled 'I'm fine… Just remembering the past,'
Paige got up and hit her playfully on the arm 'C'mon, lets go drown our sorrows in two extra foamy lattes! '
Emma grinned 'That's the most worthwhile thing we've brought all day!'
The rain was still pounding the road as Paige turned into Prescott Street; she was dreading an actual meeting with her oldest sister, as she had fled the scene earlier. She pulled into the driveway and quickly got her shopping out of the trunk along with Emma, she ran inside to avoid getting soaked as the rain was bouncing of the ground.
The two of them entered to find no one in the house and the power out.
'Piper! Leo!' Paige called. There no response, she walked further into the Manor with Emma at her heels.
'I'm gonna go put these upstairs,' Emma held up her shopping bags and went upstairs. Paige walked into the kitchen to put the groceries away, she thought she heard a creak and quickly turned round to investigate, she couldn't see anything so she went back to filling the cupboards with food. Paige suddenly went flying back and landed in the dining room, she was slightly dazed and all she could see was a black figure coming towards her, she instinctively threw out her arm and sent the mystery person into the air.
Both stood up and went over to each other, Paige realised it was Prue.
'Why did you attack me?!' they said in unison.
'I thought you where a demon!' they talked at the same time again.
Both sisters sighed in frustration, that was the thing about first impressions; you only got one.
'Where the hell did you come from anyway?' Paige snapped.
Prue glared back 'I was in the basement checking the circuit box, you know, the thing you left before you decided to go on a shopping spree?!' Prue spat back, her voice raised.
'Oh! I'm sorry!' Paige shouted sarcastically 'It's hard to find anything down there due to all of your stuff taking up all the space! And by the way, what made you think I was a demon?! Did you think I was the infamous grocery packing demon?!'
'You just answered your own question with the way you're talking?!' Prue retorted.
'Me?! I'm not the one who uses her powers every time they see someone!' Paige retaliated.
'What the hell is wrong with you!?' Prue shouted.
'What the hell is wrong with both you?' a calm voice came from the kitchen door.
Prue and Paige turned around to see that Piper had been observing their fight.
'Why don't you ask 'Big Sis' over here? She seems to know everything' Paige sneered.
'Oh please! You're the one that snapped when you were sent back a couple of feet! You must be useless when a demon attacks!'
'Useless?! I'm not the one who deserted her sisters and went to a cosy afterlife! I'm the reason Piper and Phoebe are still alive!'
'You guys…' Piper stepped in.
'Shut up!' Paige and Prue yelled at their sister and continued to fight.
'Why are you still here anyway? Shouldn't you have went back to sit on your fluffy cloud and gaze at the stars?' Paige used a fake happy voice to patronise her.
'No, but I know someone who will be seeing stars in a minute!' Prue threatened.
'Oh really? Bring it on!'
'SHUT. UP. NOW!' Piper screamed, but it was too late; Prue had already pushed Paige to the ground and was glaring at her. Paige reacted by picking up the toaster and throwing it her. Prue reflected back telekinetically, Paige orbed out the way of the rebounding toaster and Piper massed out as the toaster came hurtling towards her, making it bounce harmlessly off her.
Paige reappeared and glared at her sisters, before orbing out to an unknown place, Piper just stormed into the dining room and Prue stomped back into the basement.
Emma had gone into the attic to put the candles back in their place, as Piper hadn't bothered to do so. She was picking up the last candle, when a glow from the Book of Shadows attracted her gaze. Emma went over and saw that the triquetra was emitting an orange light, and that all three points were beginning to shake and come apart. She watched on in horror as the points moved away from each other and left an empty circle.
Paige knocked the door of Aidan's apartment; she couldn't remember his work schedule and hoped that he was here. Tears were streaming down her face, on the orb over here, she realised that she hadn't even meant the things that she had said to her oldest sister, she had just been acting out of fear and anger.
She breathed a sigh of relief when the door creaked open and Aidan appeared, he smiled at her but then saw she was crying. He silently brought her in and wrapped his arms tightly around her as she cried into his shoulder. He brought her away slightly so he could look into her eyes; he brushed a strand of hair away from her face and cupped her cheek.
'Can… Can I stay here tonight?' she whispered shakily.
'Of course,' he didn't push her for a reason, as he knew she would tell him in her own time.
'Okay, and if a flick this switch… voila!' Prue said triumphantly as the power came back the house. Piper was holding the flashlight behind her as she could see would she was doing. They walked back up the stairs and into the kitchen.
'I just don't understand how you guys ended up throwing punches at one another,' Piper said.
'Yeah, I don't understand either, but we have to fix this because I don't want to leave with my baby sister hating me,' Prue replied.
Leo orbed in and gave them a look 'What?' Piper asked
'Did you guys have a falling out?' Leo looked at both of them.
The two sisters looked at each other 'Um… It was sorta a big battle, really,' Prue answered.
'Where's Paige?' he asked urgently
'She orbed out afterwards. What wrong?'
'Could someone explain this to me?' Emma walked in, holding up the Book of Shadows so everyone could see the broken triquetra on the cover.
'That's what's wrong!' Leo said.
'Oh my God!' Piper went over to examine the book, 'How could this happen? Prue isn't even Charmed anymore!' she exclaimed.
'That not all,' Leo turned to Prue 'Apparently, when the Power of Three broke apart, it made you alive again,'
Prue stared at him 'What?'
'You're just as alive as Piper or Emma!' Leo confirmed.
Prue still stared at him, she stunned; she had another chance! She was going to live again! Be Charmed again!
There was a surge of water in the middle of the floor that slowly took the form of Aidan. Prue, not knowing who he was, picked up a butcher knife and threw it at him.
Aidan noticed the knife just in time and became water, the knife passed right through his watery body and he took his original form.
'Not the warmest welcome I've ever had,' Aidan said.
Prue narrowed her eyes, 'Friend or foe?' she asked Piper
'Friend,' she turned to Aidan, 'Please tell me that Paige is with you,'
'Yeah, she showed up a wreck and I came here to find out why,' he folded his arms and looked at Prue.
'What?' she said
'Is it always your first instinct to throw a knife at a stranger?' he asked.
She glared at him 'No, usually I send them through a window with my powers, but I don't have them anymore,'
Aidan gave Piper a confused look, she sighed, 'We had a really big fight, it tore apart the Power of Three,' she showed him the book 'And now we've lost our powers, so could you do your best to Paige back here as soon as possible? Don't force her, just try and persuade her,'
Aidan nodded and splashed out.
'Okay. We're sitting ducks right now, so Prue, defend yourself without powers, you need the least protection, so stay near Emma, and I'll stay with Leo and the boys,'
'Wait, what about Paige?' Prue asked.
'Her boyfriend is the elemental guardian of water, she'll be fine with him,' Piper walked off with Leo.
Emma and Prue shared an awkward silence, before one of them broke it.
'You're like me, aren't you?' Prue asked.
Emma gave her a shocked look, then bowed her head, 'Yes,'
'Do Piper and Paige know?' Prue asked.
'No, and I'd like to keep it that way for now,' Emma replied.
'Fine by me. I don't want to make anymore enemies today,'
Paige orbed into the kitchen, and saw Emma and Prue sitting at the table, talking to each other. Emma noticed her friend had orbed in and stood up.
'I'll go get Piper,' she left the room and Paige took her seat.
'Aidan told me that we've lost our powers because of our fight,' Paige said, barely above a whisper, Prue merely nodded.
Piper walked in with Leo and Emma behind her 'Alright, are we ready for a little bit of group therapy?' she said.
'What?' Paige frowned in confusion.
'If you want your powers back you need to reconstitute your bond as sisters,' Leo replied, before leaving with Emma.
The three sat in silence for a while before Paige spoke up
'I'm sorry for the things I said to you, I didn't even mean any of them! It's just that… it took me a long time to accepted by this family and I was afraid that I would get pushed into the shadows when you came back,'
Prue took her hand 'Paige, I'm not here to replace you, and you're weren't brought into the world of magic to replace me, you're here to make your own destiny with your family.' Prue sighed and began again 'And for what it's worth, I'm sorry too, I tend to go on the defensive when I don't know someone,'
Paige smiled and put out her hand 'Friends?'
Prue was hesitant, but then shook her hand 'Let's just start off as sisters for now,'
Paige laughed 'Deal!'
Piper cleared her throat very loudly; she was obviously trying to get their attention. Prue and Paige smiled at each other and brought her into a three-way hug.
'We're sorry for the double 'shut up',' Prue said in a baby voice
'Yeah, really sorry!' Paige said.
'Yeah, yeah, I know. Now get offa me! I can't breath!' Piper wheezed
Leo and Emma sat in the living room with the children, the book began to give off a faint glow and the three points of the triquetra came back together, they smiled at each other.
'They're back…'
I hope that wasn't too boring for you! I just needed to sort out Paige and Prue's relationship! I hope you liked it!
Chapter 20 'Making The Effort' will be up soon!
