SIX

Two days passed without any solution to Chris' problem. He was steadily getting worse but the medication Alister had prescribed seemed to be slowing his deterioration. Leo spent his time between the hospital and the Elders trying to find something that would help.

Phoebe and Paige spent as much time at the hospital as they could. But they both had jobs and couldn't spend all their time there. Paige was perplexed by her job in the morgue. She had been there nearly five days and not one person had needed her help for anything. She knew her jobs were meant for her to help someone but so far no one had any magical problems they needed help with.

Piper had been allowed to visit Chris a few times. Each time she could only stay a few minutes and Chris had to stay in the pediatric ICU. The entire medical staff was very supportive but it was clear that none of them expected Chris to live much longer. Still they continued to do whatever they could to help.

"It just doesn't make sense," said Piper as they sat in her room. "Nothing they do seems to help. Leo and Alister have both tried to heal Chris several times but it just doesn't seem to work."

"Well, you know we don't really heal people," said Alister. "What our power does is to stimulate a persons' natural healing ability. But I don't understand why it hasn't been working with Chris."

"Maybe his being half Whitelighter has something to do with it," suggested Phoebe.

"That's can't be it," said Leo. "Paige is half Whitelighter and I've been able to heal her several times."

"But her body wasn't producing Dark Lighter poison," said Alister.

"Frankly, I'm not sure there's anything we can do for Chris. I've been performing some additional tests. Our healing powers are getting rid of the poison in his system but somehow his body is producing more quicker than we can cure it."

"We could still try using a spell," said Phoebe. "I could try to come up with something to cure him with."

"That's not a viable option," said Alister. "We've been discussing that with the Elders. If you use a spell to alter his chemistry there's not telling what repercussions there might be. Chris is only four days old. His body is going to be developing for several years. If you alter that now it could have dangerous side affects later on."

"What about a potion?" Piper questioned. "The doctor said I could go home any time. He's only letting me stay because Chris is still sick. I could go home and work on a healing potion that might work."

"That might work," said Leo. "She could incorporate some of the medications you've been prescribing into the potion. That might be enough to cure whatever is going on with Chris."

"I suppose it's worth a try," said Alister. "A potion would be less risky than a spell. I'll see that you get some of the medications I've been using. We're running out of ideas. Without our healing powers there's not really a whole lot we can do about the situation."

"I'll get started on it first thing this afternoon," said Piper. "I want to see Chris again before I go home."

"I need to get back to the morgue," said Paige. "I don't really even know what I'm doing there. All they have me doing is sterilizing instruments and logging in peoples' valuables and things like that. A lot of what I do doesn't make any sense. I mean, why sterilize the instruments? Are they afraid a corpse might catch something?"

"Actually," said Alister, "it has nothing to do with that. The instruments need to be sterilized so nothing gets contaminated. Especially if there's a question about how a person died it's very important that there not be any foreign matter on the instruments that might contaminate the tests and give false results."

"Well, that makes sense I guess," said Paige.

"You go on, honey," Piper said to Paige. "There's nothing you can do here anyway. And I'm sure there's some reason you have a job there. Today might be the day you find out what that reason is."

"I suppose," said Paige. "I'll be back in a few hours. If anything changes you be sure to let me know right away."

"We will," promised Phoebe. "I'm going to check the Book of Shadows and see if there's a potion or spell that might help. I know we've all ready checked it but we might have missed something."

Paige kissed Piper on the cheek and then left the room. As Leo and Alister had been doing, she was going to orb out from an empty room so no one would see her. There was one particular janitors closet that she normally used just down the hall from Pipers' room.

"Well," said Alister, "I'm going back to pediatric ICU. I've been trying some new medications and I want to see what affect they've been having. I'm hopeful they will be more effective than the previous medications."

"Alister," said Phoebe, "I'm curious about something. Most of the staff here knows that Chris is infected with an unknown toxin. Isn't that going to cause some other problems? Like with the CDC? Wouldn't they have been notified about something like this?"

"Normally yes," said Alister. "But as you know I can be somewhat persuasive with people. I've been able to convince them not to report it. Sometimes having special Whitelighter powers can be very useful."

"Not useful enough," said Piper. "I'm sorry Alister. I'm just so worried about Chris. Nothing we do seems to work."

"I understand completely," said Alister. "And no apology is necessary. But we'll figure this out I promise you. You said you wanted to see Chris before you went home to work on the potion. Why don't you come down with me now? Maybe I'll have some good news for you."

"I think I will," said Piper. "Phoebe, why don't you go home and get started checking the Book of Shadows? I'll be home soon and the sooner I can get started on the potion the better."

"Sure thing," said Phoebe. "Leo, want to give me a lift?"

"Sure," said Leo. "Then I'll check back with the Elders again. They might have come up with something by now."

Together the four started to leave the room. As Alister opened the door to Pipers' room he nearly collided with Paige who was rushing back into the room.

"Paige," said Piper, "I thought you had to go to work?"

"No time for that now," said Paige. "I think I might have figured this thing out. I need to ask some questions first. But if I'm right I think I might have just figured out a way to save my nephew."