Disclaimer - I do not own Charmed or any of the characters. I will not be making any money from this simple story.

Chapter One

"love and hate get it wrong

she cut me right back down to size

sleep the day let it fade

who was there to take your place"

-Bush "Comedown"

Piper Halliwell sat on the floor watching as her oldest son played contentedly with her favourite pots and pans. At first she had been in a state of shock to see her precious cooking materials used in such a brutish manner but now she was amused to see how much enjoyment he got from making as much loud noise as possible. Piper smiled as he attempted to sing along and she was glad that Phoebe had gone into work, she was stressed enough as it is and Wyatt starting his first rock band was enough to send her over the edge.

Thinking of Phoebe, Piper clicked her tongue, feeling like a mother hen again. Since Prue had died she had been thrust into the role of the big sister, making her more neurotic than ever. She sometimes felt as if she had three children instead of the one and a half that she already had. Smiling ruefully, she plaited her hair while listening to her budding musician.

Wyatt had begun to drum loudly again and Piper felt a painfully too familiar throb around her bladder. Chris was up to his tricks again, namely aiming sharp, swift kicks to her bladder. She struggled to her feet and made her way quickly to the downstairs toilet, conscience of Wyatt's noisemaking the whole time. She was just finishing up when she heard a large crash downstairs. Instantly on alert, Piper ran into the conservatory only to find Paige and Chris pacing frantically as Leo leaned over an innate form. The familiar glow coming from her husband's hands told her that he was busy healing somebody.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Piper asked, stooping down to scoop up Wyatt.

Paige looked up, a frown on her face, as she played with something in her hands. Piper scanned the ground and saw the culprit of the crash. A new vase lay in pieces on the ground.

"Sorry mom," Chris began.

"New innocent," Paige interrupted. "He crashed right in front of us."

Piper looked from her son to Paige, a look of confusion on her face. "Huh?"

Instead of waiting for a coherent answer she gave Wyatt to Paige and went over to where Leo was busy healing. She looked at the young man who lay on the couch and instantly felt sorry for him. He was covered in scratches and she could see that one of his arms was in an awkward angle.

"What makes him an innocent?" She asked as she turned around to face her half-sister and son.

"He mentioned demons;" Chris explained when Paige didn't answer.

Piper noticed that she had put Wyatt down on the floor and he was playing with the pots again, though on a lot quieter level. She sighed as she wondered if she would ever have a demon free day again.

"He also threw this to me;" Paige spoke, holding out a pendant.

"So...?" Piper asked, knowing that there was more to the story.

"Telekinetically," Paige finished.

Piper took the pendant, which was hanging on a fine silver chain. The pendant itself was an intricate design and Piper thought that it might be Celtic in origin. As she held it in her hand she realised that it wasn't getting warm, in fact it remained very cold.

"Hey," she said in surprise.

"I know," Paige replied.

Leo moved back and Piper turned around to see the young man was now sitting up with a slightly sheepish look on his face.

"You must be Leo, then," he murmured. "Thank you for..." He indicated the healing.

Leo smiled. "You're welcome."

"Hey, are you feeling okay?" Piper instantly went into protective mode.

He nodded and offered a weak smile before staring at the pendant that she held in her hands. Piper looked down at it as well and smiled.

She held it out to him. "Here you go, safe and sound."

"Thank you, kindly," he said. As he took it from her hands, Piper was certain that she heard a slight accent.

"I'm guessing you're not from around here?"

"Good guess. My name's Charlie, Charlie Garretson," Charlie replied with an English tinged accent.

He held out his hand in Piper direction and she took it, wishing that Phoebe were here as they could really use her power of premonition. He stood up and shook everyone's hand, thanking them all. He was shorter than Chris but had otherwise similar features, apart from an intense brooding quality that Chris had mastered.

"I'm Piper and this is Paige, Leo, and Chris."

"I guess today is my lucky day if you are the Piper and Paige that I am thinking of," he replied.

Piper raised an eyebrow, questioningly.

"You are two thirds of the Charmed Ones?"

Piper was about to answer when the windows behind her suddenly exploded inward. She heard herself scream in fright as she spun around to face whatever was lurking behind her, bringing her hands up at the same time.

Paige Matthews echoed Piper's scream as small shards of glass flew around the room. Leo had moved over to where Wyatt sat and had quickly orbed him away and Chris had moved closer to where Charlie stood. Instinctively they had all moved into the best defensive positions available to them. Paige smiled ironically, thinking that they were getting way too use to explosions and demon attacks.

Paige turned her attention to the window and stared in amazement at the several figures that now stood in the conservatory. She could tell, from there appearance, that they were there for business. She could also tell that they hadn't realised whose house they had just imploded into. What was more surprising was that not one of the demons looked the same, it was as if a mixed group of demons had banded together.

"Look at that mess, boy, Piper is really going to kill you for that," Paige tutted.

She could almost see Piper rolling her eyes at the sarcasm.

"We want the boy," one of the male demons growled, pointing at Charlie.

"Sorry, he's not for sale;" Paige quipped, throwing Charlie a grin.

The demon growled again and raised his hand to reveal a rather large energy ball. He took aim and hurled it at Paige.

"Energy ball," Paige called as she redirected it at the demon that had thrown it at her. She smiled grimly as the demon disappeared in flames.

"I will never get tired of that," Paige murmured.

"If you give us the boy we will let you live." Another demon, female this time, stepped into take the lead.

"Still no on that," Piper replied as she blew up one demon and froze the rest.

"Thank you for that," Charlie spoke softly.

"No time for that. We need to get to the Book. Paige," Piper indicated the stairs.

"Gotcha," Paige nodded and grabbed Charlie's arm before disappearing in a swirl of lights.

They arrived in the attic and Paige hurried over to the Book of Shadows, rapidly flipping through the pages in an attempt to recognise at least one of the demons that were frozen downstairs. Occasionally she would glance up only to find Charlie staring at her, a worried look on his face.

She heard him utter a startled gasp as Piper and Chris appeared in front of him.

"Why are they after you?" Chris gasped, holding his side.

"You found anything, Paige?" Piper called as she helped Chris to a chair.

"No specifics, there are too many different ones down there."

Paige continued to flick through the book looking for a general spell to get rid of their demonic problem.

"Piper? Paige? Chris? Where is everybody?" Someone called.

Paige looked up suddenly, catching Piper's eyes.

"Phoebe," they said at the same time.

"Hey, where are you guys?" Phoebe called again.

Paige orbed downstairs startling Phoebe. Before Phoebe could say anything Paige put her hands over her mouth and orbed them both upstairs.

"Okay, what was all that about?" Phoebe demanded the minute Paige removed her hand from her mouth. "And who are you?"

Paige saw Charlie jump in fright before smiling sheepishly.

"This is Charlie, our innocent of the week," Paige replied.

Charlie waved slightly only to go flying through the air when the door was blown open behind him.

To be continued...