AN: Many thanks to my lovely commenters, loveroffanfic, merryman, debbydo0dles45, and Little Miss-Spell-of-the-Week. I appreciate the encouragement.
"We were so close," Piper said the next morning.
"So close to what?" Paige asked, adding milk to her cereal.
"So close to a normal life," Piper said. "If we'd just put the damn glamour back on before we --"
"Before we saved your sons?" Paige asked. "Right, 'cause I'm sure you'd have wanted to waste a second before vanquishing whatever demons were attacking them."
"You're right," Piper conceded, "but still. So close."
"Well, we've made our bed, now it's time to lie in it," Phoebe said.
"Dear Phoebe, don't you ever get tired of cliches? Love, Sick of it in San Francisco," Piper said sarcastically.
"Hey! I was just trying to help."
"Yeah, well, don't."
"Guys!" Paige shouted. "Come on. We have to work together, stick to our story, or none of this is going to work.""So let me get this straight," the inspector said. "This guy threatened you, moved into your house and threatened to steal your 'powers,' and you didn't tell the police...why?"
"Because," Piper said for the fourth or fifth time that morning, "he threatened my sons. Do you have children, Inspector Davis? I'll do anything, anything to protect my kids."
"OK," he grunted. "Now, walk me through this one more time. You were in the attic...?"
Piper sighed inwardly, knowing her sisters were facing the same interrogation she was. She heard Paige's voice in her head -- they'd worked on their sisterly telepathic connection for hours the night before after getting back from opening the bomb shelter -- "Are we done yet?" Piper hid a smile, realizing that she could practically hear her youngest sister rolling her eyes.
"We'd barricaded ourselves into my room," Piper began, "but then Zack" -- she'd almost said Zankou, rather than the much more normal-sounding name they'd agreed to use -- "pounded on the door and told us he'd just killed Inspector Sheridan." Mentally, she thanked Darryl yet again for telling them that detail, when they'd called him first thing in the morning to tell him what they were about to do.
"He told us he'd send one of his assistants to my father's house to kill my boys if we didn't open up. So we opened the door, and he forced us up to the attic, and wanted us to give him our 'powers.' We kept trying to explain that we didn't have any powers, but he just wouldn't listen. Then he shouted, 'The basement! That's where your power comes from!' And he forced us all down to the basement. The other guys -- his backup, I guess -- had rigged up a ton of explosives in the basement. We tried to stop him, tried to tell him that he'd kill himself and his backup guys, too, along with us, but he was crazed. He said, 'I have the spell,' and started reciting some jibberish. He was so focused on his 'spell' that he didn't notice when we crept away and opened the door to the bomb shelter.""And there just happened to be an entrance to the bomb shelter from the basement of your house?" The inspector's voice dripped with sarcasm.
Piper bristled at the accusation. "Our Grams built it in the 60s. I guess she wanted to be able to escape from the basement without having to go outside, if there were an actual bomb. You're saying it's our fault that she was paranoid?"
Inspector Davis didn't answer her question. "So you opened the door to the bomb shelter...?"
"And we went in, and shut the door behind us. The corridor was dark but it was straight and pretty level, and we ran as fast as we could. We finally got to the shelter itself, and there's an airtight door that seals off the passage from the house. About a minute after we got there, we heard the explosion. We were terrified, and we didn't know if any of Zack's cronies were still around somewhere else, or if there would be any more bombs, or what. So we waited for hours. When we finally came out, we were still afraid to talk to the police until we checked on my Dad and the kids. And by the time we got there and explained everything that had happened to my father, it was late, and we figured we'd wait until the morning. And so here we are," she finished.
The officer gazed piercingly at her for a moment. "Wait here," he said abruptly, and left the room. About ten minutes later, he returned. "Alright, your story matches your sisters' stories. And we had someone verify that the bomb shelter exists, and he could see that the door had been opened pretty recently, so that checks out. You and your sisters are free to go."
Each of the sisters was escorted to the lobby of the police station by the officer who'd interrogated her. Together, they walked outside into the sunshine. "Ah, sweet freedom," Phoebe said dramatically. The other two laughed.
Inspector Davis came out after them. "Miss Halliwell, you left your cellphone," he said, holding it out to Piper. His arm brushed Phoebe, who did her best to hide her gasp. Piper and Paige both heard it, though, and knew what it meant.
"Thanks," Piper said, quickly grabbing the phone from the inspector's hand. "We'll be on our way, then." She and Paige each together propelled Phoebe down the street to where they'd parked their car, as Davis looked after them quizically. As soon as they got in and shut the doors, Paige asked, "What did you see?"
"The inspector," Phoebe said. "A demon's going to show him who we really are. But he won't believe it, and the demon," she gulped, "kills him, with an athame."