Chapter 2: Reality or Not?
"Leo!" Piper yelled. She got out of bed and nearly fell down. Once standing, she instantly had the feeling of having to throw up. He ran into the bedroom as she ran for the toilet. He heard the sound of her vomiting.
"What is it, honey?" he asked. He helped her back to the bed. Then he got out a thermometer and took her temperature. "Oh no, you have a high fever. You should get back to sleep."
"What are you, my mother?" Piper asked. "You need to get Phoebe and Paige home. We have an issue that needs resolving."
"What is it?" Leo asked, more concerned about her illness rather the issue.
"I just saw Cole. He was talking to me in my dream."
"It was just a dream, Piper. Now get some sleep. I'll bring you some soup and crackers for lunch, but rest up until then."
"I can't sleep, Leo," Piper insisted. "I have responsibilities I have to tend to. I can't just drop everything for a headache and stomachache." She paused for a moment. "And a sour throat, and a backache, and vomiting."
"It's okay," Leo said. "I can take care of things. Just go to sleep." Without giving Piper time to fire back a response, he left the bedroom.
Piper decided to take his advice. She felt really exhausted, so the few hours of extra sleep couldn't harm her any. She slowly closed her eyelids to relax in the peaceful slumber.
Piper woke up in the same jungle as before. She walked in the same direction. This was unlike any dream she had had before. She could control what she did, what she said, and what she thought. She found the same cave as before. She wondered if she should go in again or not.
"Come on in," a voice said. Cole stepped out of the shadows. Piper held her hands up to blow him up. Nothing happened. "Powers are useless here. Believe me, I've tried."
"Where exactly is here?" Piper asked. Cole held out his arms and shrugged.
"Your guess is as good as mine. I've been trying to escape for a while now."
"Why am I here when I go to sleep?" Piper asked.
"Are you sure you're not in a coma again?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Piper said. "I just spoke with Leo."
"Maybe you only think you spoke with Leo. Maybe, you've been dreaming all of that up."
"Maybe, I'm dreaming you up," Piper said. "Have you ever thought of that?"
"I sure feel real to me," Cole said. Piper rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, you're too obnoxiously like Cole to be fake. How do I get out of here? I need to get Phoebe and Paige…"
"Phoebe?" Cole asked in a daze. "How is she? Did she like my assistance with that prison door a few weeks ago?"
"We all did, Cole," Piper said. "Which brings me to ask, how did you do it? How can you shift between planes, since I'm guessing I'm in another plane."
"As I said before, your guess is as good as mine."
"You know, you're just as worthless now as you were before."
"Are you kidding me? Think of all the times I've saved your sorry ass. An instance, a few weeks ago when I opened Phoebe's cell door so she could get out." Piper sneered as he proved himself right.
"You're still a good-for-nothing, worthless piece of…"
Piper awoke, drenched in sweat again. She didn't know whether her dreams were real or not. She got up to take a look in the Book of Shadows. She met Leo as she left the bedroom.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.
"I'm going to check the Book of Shadows for something," Piper said.
"No, you're not," Leo said. "You're going back to bed. I've already called the doctor. I'm taking you in later today. He said to rest up until then."
"You called the doctor?" Piper asked with a hint of anger in her voice. "I'm not going to see a doctor over a small flu."
"You're temperature is 104.3," Leo said. "You need to be seen. You haven't been there for a while anyways. Now back to your bed." Piper tried to freeze him to make him shut up. He didn't freeze.
"Huh?" she asked, puzzled.
"See? You're powers aren't even working right. You need to lay down. Now back to bed." Leo stuck around to make sure that Piper went straight to bed. Then he went back downstairs to look after Chris and Wyatt. "Wyatt, don't touch that!" Wyatt had been about to put his finger in an electrical outlet. Wyatt got a sad look on his face. He orbed away. "Oh great! Wyatt!" Leo didn't want Piper to find out about Wyatt and have to get up, so he thought it best not to tell her. "Paige!" he called out. Paige orbed into the manor.
"What?" she asked. "I'm a little busy at the moment."
"Well, then go get Phoebe from work. I need her. It's about Wyatt." Paige got a concerned look on her face.
"What happened?"
"He orbed away. Now hurry and get Phoebe." Paige quickly orbed away. She came back a few minutes later with Phoebe. Paige orbed away again to rejoin her charge. Phoebe rushed to get a map and a crystal.
"Are you sure he's not in the house?" Phoebe asked. Leo's face went blank.
"I never checked." Sure enough, the crystal landed on the manor's address. Leo put on an embarrassed smile and ran upstairs to find Wyatt. Wyatt wasn't in his room, so Leo decided to check his own. He cracked the door open a bit to see Piper zonked out and Wyatt sitting right next to her. "Wyatt," he whispered harshly. He picked Wyatt up and took him downstairs.
"If you don't mind," Phoebe said. "I'm going to have to get back to work." Leo nodded his head as he set Wyatt down. "Paige!" Paige orbed in again.
"What am I, a taxi?" she asked sarcastically as she grabbed Phoebe and orbed.
"Now no more orbing," Leo said. Leo went into the kitchen to get the chicken noodle soup ready to take up to Piper.
"I need to write my column," Phoebe said frustrated. She had yet another disruption from a coworker.
"I know, Phoebe," he said. "But will you please just look these papers over?" Phoebe groaned as she took a stack of papers.
"I'm not guaranteeing they'll be done fast," she said.
"It's okay, take your time." He opened her office door and stepped out. Phoebe felt overworked.
"Not like I don't have enough to do already."
"I can take a load off your shoulders," a voice said to her.
"I don't know how you're doing this, Cole," Phoebe said. "But you need to knock it off now."
"Why?" he asked. "I've just started to have my fun."