A/N. Sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I can't reply to your reviews individually but thanks everyone who did! And all of you didn't like how Glenn behaved, and neither did I, but I've never liked him and I just wanted to show he wasn't perfect for Paige!
The Cake:
Paige was in the kitchen, pondering her thoughts over a steaming cup of coffee. Glenn had been gone for a week now, and hadn't been in touch, not even a phone call to see how his daughter was doing,
"hey, what ya doin?" Prue asked, walking in and putting some bread in the toaster, Paige just looked at her, "stupid question really," the eldest sister said, pouring herself a drink.
"So, are we going after that demon today?" Piper asked them, as she strolled into the kitchen with Patrice balanced on her hip,
"you mean the astral demon? yeah, but we need to make the potion to keep him away from his body so we can vanquish it," Prue replied,
"I'll make it," Paige said,
"well while you're doing that I'm gonna bake a cake," Piper told her,
"and I'm going to work," Prue said, grabbing her bag and leaving the manor.
Not much later, Paige was in the attic making the potion when she realised she didn't have any beetle toe, so she carried the bowl. containing what she'd already mixed off the potion. downstairs and into the kitchen. She placed it down next to the bowl filled with Piper's cake mixture and began searching through the cupboards,
"I'm just going to put Patrice down for a nap," Piper said, carrying her tired daughter upstairs, Paige turned around and dropped the beetle toe into the bowl, but it was the wrong one. She put the jar back and then picked up the right bowl, heading back upstairs and not realizing what she'd done. Piper walked into the kitchen and began adding more ingredients to her cake mix, she saw something strange in there but assumed it was a piece of dried fruit, as it was a fruit cake, not even thinking that it could be beetle toe.
That night, Prue returned home from work to find three potions vials and a cake on the dining table,
"I hope we eat first and vanquish later," she said, jogging up to the attic where she was sure her sisters would be. Leo walked out of the living room with Patrice in his arms,
"wow, look at the cake mommy made," he said in a childish voice, for once Patrice wasn't giggling, she frowned at the cake and then a burst of cold mist sprayed from her palm, covering it in ice.
"Uh oh, we better sort this out before mommy sees," Leo told her, holding his hand over the cake and releasing a warm glow, defrosting it, "I better taste a bit to make sure there's none still frozen," he said, breaking off a small piece with her fingers and popping in his mouth. As the Elder swallowed, he felt a sharp pain travel through his stomach, twisting and turning, then he dropped to the floor. Luckily Patrice orbed out when he collapsed so she wasn't harmed, she orbed onto the table and glared at the cake, once again encasing it in ice. The charmed ones ran downstairs, having heard a crash, to find Leo on the floor, his eyes were bloodshot and his lips were turning blue,
"oh my god," Piper gasped, running to her husband's side, "what happened?" she asked him.
"Patsy…turned the…the cake to…ice…and I sorted it…but then I tasted some to make…make sure it was okay to eat…again…and this happened," he stuttered, his voice weak and muffled,
"how could a cake do this?" Prue asked,
"I think I know, I came downstairs and added beetle toe to what I thought was my potion, but it must have been to Piper's cake," Paige told them, "I'm so sorry," she said. Somehow Patrice understood that Paige was responsible for what had happened to her father and shot ice at the youngest charmed one,
"Patsy no!" Piper exclaimed, blowing up the ice and causing her daughter to cry at the top of her lungs.
"We need to look for a cure, Paige go get the book," Prue instructed, helping Piper support Leo so he could walk to the couch, once he was lying down Piper sat beside him while Prue went and got Patrice off the table. Paige orbed up to the attic, grabbed the book, and orbed back down again, she began flipping through it, looking for a way to help Leo,
"I can't find anything," she said, slamming it shut with frustration.
"Try healing him," Prue told her, Paige nodded and stretched out her hands over Leo's face and chest, a glow began to form around her palms but when it reached Leo it turned to electricity and a scorch mark formed on his chest. Prue squinted at the electricity but it wouldn't work, instead the flickering bolts blasted Paige backwards through the air and vibrated all over her body, Piper carefully blew up the electricity and they helped Paige up,
"beetle toe's more powerful than I thought," the whitelighter-witch said.
"What a shame there's no one to heal you now," said a man, who appeared out of a red flare, Piper was about to blow him up but Prue stopped her,
"that's an astral projection, there's no point, we can only vanquish him through his body," the eldest said. The astral demon waved his hand at Leo, making him dissolve into orbs and fly over to him, shrinking and travelling into the left pocket of his long, leather, coat,
"Leo!" Piper exclaimed, but it was too late, the demon flared out.
In the underworld, Baxtril, the astral demon, flared in and released Leo's orbs into a cage where they formed the ill Elder again,
"I know a demonic healer who can save you, and I'll get him to in exchange for your powers," Baxtril told him. Leo shook his head,
"never," he said,
"fool," Baxtril spat, knocking Leo out with a crimson beam which she shot through the cage bars. He then returned to his body, which was on a stone slab nearby, and shimmered out.
At the manor, Prue was scrying for Leo, while Paige tried to sense him, and Piper tried to get Patrice to calm down,
"oh Patsy, daddy will be home soon, just go to sleep and he'll be here when you wake up," she said, jigging her about. This didn't settle Patrice, she began launching ice in all different directions, which Prue telekinetically moved into the wall where she had moved all of the previous ones her niece had thrown. The infant witch began to change into orbs,
"Patsy, don't," Piper warned, but then she found herself becoming orbs as well, Prue and Paige could only watch as they disappeared.
They orbed into the underworld to find Leo unconscious in a cage and Baxtril practicing his aim by throwing thermal energy balls at a series of targets,
"hey, demon," Piper called, he glared at Piper and threw a fire ball towards her. Patrice wriggled in her mother's arms and extinguished the flaming sphere with a cloud of frost, then icicles began to spring from her fingertips, shattering against his body,
"you little witch," he snarled, releasing lasers at the mother and daughter. Suddenly, Piper found herself being protected by a dome of ice,
"good girl," she said, for the first time in a few hours Patrice let out a giggle,
"Piper," Leo murmured, as he woke up to find his wife and daughter hidden by ice. The middle charmed one blew up the shield and froze Baxtril, before blowing up some bars on the cage so Leo could get out,
"Patsy, orb daddy home," she instructed, passing Patrice to Leo and watching her orb him out, before Leo could protest. Baxtril unfroze to find himself face to face with Piper, he grinned,
"I love tricking you charmed ones with my astral projection," he laughed,
"here's our trick," a voice said, he turned to see Prue and Paige. Prue was holding a potion vial and Paige was holding a piece of the poison cake, the eldest sister drizzled the green potion over the cake before telekinetically throwing it at Baxtril, creating a green aura around him,
"how did you do that? wasn't the potion useless without the beetle toe?" Piper asked,
"it was, but we realised the beetle toe was in the cake, so mix them together and you've got a potion," Paige replied.
"Why can't I get back to my body?" Baxtril snarled,
"because we don't want you to," Prue grinned, choking him in a telekinetic hold, "where's your body?" she questioned,
"I'll never tell you," he hissed, she tightened the hold.
"It's over there," he said, finally giving in and pointing to where a piece of black material covered something, Paige lifted the material and Piper blew up his body, vanquishing astral Baxtril along with it.
"Now we need to save my husband," she said, as Paige orbed them back to the manor.
The charmed ones walked into the living room to find Leo lying back on the couch with Patrice sitting on him, she was glowing and he was slowly returning to normal,
"what's happening?" Paige asked,
"she's healing him," Prue replied, Piper walked over and plucked her daughter off her husband just as she stopped glowing and the healing was complete.
"That's my girl," Leo said, as Piper passed Patrice back to him and he gave her a kiss, before planting a passionate one on his wife's lips,
"I'm sorry for poisoning you, it's all my fault," Paige said,
"well technically it's Glenn's fault, if he hadn't of left you wouldn't be all over the place," Prue stated, Paige nodded,
"I'm going to bed," she told them, going upstairs.
To be continued…
A/N. Okay, so that wasn't very Paige-centred, but the next chapter is.
Next chapter- Paige is saved from a warlock by a federal agent named Kyle Brody. But when she goes searching for her saviour she discovers he's missing, will she going looking for him?
'The Fed' should be up soon.