History Repeats Itself
Chapter 5
By JewWitch
Paige slept like a rock for almost 8 hours before waking up to use the bathroom. Feeling strong enough to walk herself, she decided not to call for Piper, who she hoped was sleeping. She didn't know what time it was, but it was still dark, and Paige had every intention of going straight back to sleep. Carefully, she sat up and found her slippers in the thin shaft of moonlight flooding her bedroom. Using the bedpost for support, Paige stood on shaky legs, allowing herself a moment to stave off the dizziness that threatened to put her right back down. It passed quickly, though, and tentatively Paige made her way down the hall. She got to the bathroom without incident, and by the time she stood washing her hands over the sink, she felt more awake, and more clearheaded, than she had in days. Splashing some cold water on her face, Paige glanced at her reflection, afraid of just how awful she might look. One look at her face made it plain that she wasn't back to her old self quite yet—her normally pale complexion was still flushed with the fever, her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was a mess, and her nose was still very red from all the sneezing and rubbing. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Paige thought with a wry grin, remembering the nickname that Phoebe had teasingly given her the day before. She hoped her sister wouldn't get too sick; no matter what Phoebe or Piper said, she still felt guilty for giving her sister her germs, especially since Phoebe had been taking care of her at the time. Tiptoeing back down the hall, Paige decided to sneak a quick peek into her older sister's room, just to make sure she was okay.
Finding the door ajar, Paige silently poked her head into Phoebe's room, her gaze quickly finding both her sisters in the dim light. Phoebe was curled up in a ball, half on top of Piper, who was reading quietly to her sister, one hand holding the book, and the other gently rubbing Phoebe's back. Several partially drunk mugs of tea littered the bedside table, and a faint humming sound drew Paige's attention to the humidifier billowing out small clouds of steam in the corner.
"…So I am going to the banks of the great, gray-green, greasy Limpopo River, to ask the Crocodile what he has for dinner," Piper read, not seeing her youngest sister in the doorway. Paige recognized the story Piper was reading from her own childhood; it was one of her favorites, from The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. From the familiar way Piper read the words, and the weathered fabric of the book's cover, it was obviously one of their favorites, too. Paige tiptoed quietly into the room, and curled up behind Phoebe, feeling the intense heat radiating off her sister. Without a word, Paige reached across to the bedside table and picked up the damp cloth that had been discarded there, next to a bowl of ice water. She carefully squeezed the excess moisture from the cloth, and held it against Phoebe's forehead. Phoebe sighed quietly.
"Thanks, Paigey," she whispered, her voice so hoarse it sounded as if she'd swallowed a bag of broken glass.
"Shhh," Piper gently chided her, "no talking. You'll just start coughing again." Phoebe nodded slightly to show Piper she was listening, and leaned back into Paige, closing her eyes. Paige's eyes closed, too, as Piper continued to read, transporting them to a faraway world of curious elephants, cunning crocodiles, and shrewd, bi-colored python rock snakes. Within a few minutes, Paige was nearly asleep again. Then Phoebe's body shook with a violent coughing spasm, jolting all three of them into immediate alertness. Piper reacted first, dropping the book and pulling her sister up hard against her, holding both her arms above her head while Phoebe gasped for breath. Paige wanted to help, but the sound of her sister fighting for air terrified her. She hesitantly reached out and laid one hand against Phoebe's back, feeling the heaving in her chest. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
"Easy, baby, you're okay," Piper was murmuring, one hand pushing Phoebe's damp hair off her face while the other held both her sister's thin wrists above her head. "Just breathe…good girl…I've got you." Phoebe collapsed against Piper's chest, breathing hard. A tiny whimper escaped her lips, but she didn't try to talk. Paige was equally speechless, her hand still firmly on her sister's back, proof that she was still breathing. Tears of pain poured down Phoebe's flushed cheeks as she bit her lip to keep from sobbing, obviously afraid to provoke another coughing fit.
"I know it hurts, baby," Piper crooned, rocking Phoebe gently and cradling her head like an infant. "Just keep breathing, that's good…shhh…" Looking up, Piper noticed Paige still sitting on Phoebe's other side, looking almost as distressed as the quietly crying girl in her arms.
"Paige, honey, I think you should go on back to bed," Piper said gently. "We're not gonna be getting much sleep in here."
"I can't just leave you both here like this, Piper," Paige said desperately with a shake of her head. "Please don't ask me to. I won't sleep anyway; I'll just lie there and worry. Please, Piper, let me stay with you." Piper sighed.
"Okay then…go get your pillow and some blankets, and bring them to the bathroom."
"The bathroom?" Paige echoed blankly.
"Yup," Piper nodded. "We need to get this girl breathing easier, and the humidifier just isn't cutting it. Prue did it once with me when I had pneumonia—you turn the shower up as hot as it can go, and open the curtain so the whole bathroom fills up with steam. It works great, but it'll probably be a little uncomfortable; you can still go back to bed if you want, sweetie."
"No," Paige insisted, happy to have something concrete she could do to help. "I'll come. You just wait here with Pheebs while I get it nice and comfy in there." Paige leaned down and gently kissed Phoebe's hot cheek, tasting the saltiness of her tears. "We're gonna make you feel better, Pheebs, I promise." Phoebe smiled weakly, but it didn't reach her eyes.
Determined to ease her sister's suffering, Paige quickly crawled out of the big bed and scampered down the hall, pulling as many pillows and blankets as she could carry into the upstairs bathroom, and turning on the shower to a scalding hot blast. Within a few moments, the small room was hazy with thick clouds of steam. Paige wanted to orb them in from the bedroom, but Piper flat-out refused, worried that Paige was ignoring her own body's needs in her concern for Phoebe. Eventually, the three of them found their way to the impromptu steam room, which Paige had made very cozy. Piper managed to get herself into a fairly comfortable position against the wall, propped up on a nest of fluffy blankets, with Phoebe leaning back against her. Paige curled up next to them, her head resting on Piper's hip.
"Paige, promise you'll go back to your room if you start to feel lightheaded," Piper said quietly, combing her fingers through the dark hair spilling across her side.
"'Kay," Paige murmured, though privately she thought that no power on earth could move her from this spot. The fabric of Piper's pajamas was soft and cool against her cheek, and the feel of her sister's fingers running through her hair made Paige feel safe, protected and loved, in a way she hadn't since her parents died.
"And how are you doing, little one?" Piper asked Phoebe, who dropped her head back against her sister's shoulder and looked up at her with a weak smile. Piper smiled back. Then Phoebe reached up and tapped her fingers against Piper's lips.
"Okay, baby, I'll sing." Paige and Phoebe both closed their eyes as Piper's soft voice wove through the steamy room, slowly but surely guiding them away from the cold hard tile of the bathroom floor, and into the gentle world of dreams.
The next time Paige opened her eyes, it took her several moments to remember why she was staring at the bathtub. Pale morning sunlight glinting into her face, Paige sat up and rubbed her eyes as the memory of the night before came flooding back. She turned over to look at her two sisters, both still asleep on the pile of blankets next to her. They both looked so young, she thought, barely more than teenagers. Piper still had both arms wrapped protectively around her little sister, who looked extremely pale in the morning light. Still, she was breathing, and right at that moment, that was all Paige cared about. She leaned across her sisters' sleeping bodies to lay her head down on Phoebe's chest, listening to the steady in and out of her breath.
"I used to wake up with her lying on me like that," Piper murmured, blinking at Paige with a sleepy smile. "She'd crawl into my bed whenever she had a nightmare, and just put her head down on my chest, and listen to my heartbeat. She always said my heart sang her lullabies." A sweet smile touched Piper's lips as she reached out and rested her fingers gently against Paige's forehead.
"Your fever's down," she said quietly. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," Paige yawned, sitting up and blinking in the morning light. She noticed the shower was still running, and got up to turn it off.
"Well I want you to take it slow, okay? Don't go jumping back into anything too soon; you're not Supergirl."
"But I do have super-powers," Paige pointed out with a smirk. "Want me to orb you and Pheebs back to bed?" Piper looked ready to say no; but then she glanced down at Phoebe, who was still fast asleep, and touched her face.
"You sure you're up to it?" Piper asked cautiously.
"Sure I'm sure," Paige grinned, stretching her stiff arms over her head with an enormous yawn.
"Okay…" Piper said slowly, "but then you need to take your medicine, and go straight back to bed."
"Aye aye, captain," Paige said cheekily with a formal salute. Piper grinned.
"You are feeling better, aren't you?"
Paige followed her sister's instructions to the letter, but after lying in bed for almost an hour, she knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore. With another long, luxurious stretch, Paige rose and headed for the bathroom, looking forward to a nice, long shower. She was keenly aware of the several days' worth of dried sweat that clung to her skin, and her hair felt as if it might turn to dreadlocks at any moment. With the warm water sluicing over her sticky skin, Paige felt refreshed and rejuvenated, as if the sickness were being washed from her body. She spent several minutes lathering her hair, and even scrubbed behind her ears and between her toes, like she did when she was little. She remembered the game her mother used to play with her when washing behind her ears—What are you growing back there, Paigey? Then Paige would make a big show of considering the question, before coming up with an answer: potatoes, spinach, broccoli, whatever struck her fancy. The memory actually made Paige laugh out loud, right there in the shower. She knew her parents were still watching over her (though she hoped they weren't watching right at this exact moment). Ever since her sisters had sent her back in time to deal with her feelings of guilt over their deaths, she'd found a peace she had never imagined possible. Not only had they seen everything she'd worked so hard to become since her troubled adolescence; they'd seen her sisters, too. And she knew they weren't angry, or hurt, that she had found her blood family. Knowing that had made it so much easier for Paige to embrace her new sisters wholeheartedly, without guilt or confusion.
Stepping out of the shower, Paige glanced at her reflection, happy to see how much better she looked. Her sisters had certainly taken good care of her, and she was determined to return the favor now that she was feeling a bit better. Dried and dressed in fresh, clean pajamas, Paige padded lightly down the hall to Phoebe's room, and peeked in. Piper was still asleep, but Phoebe wasn't. She lay silently staring out the window, her face still horribly pale, but without the pained expression of the previous night.
"Hey," Paige whispered, coming in and sitting next to Phoebe on the bed. She smiled encouragingly at her sister, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. She could feel the fever still heating her face, but she seemed alert, so Paige wasn't too worried. "Want me to bring you some medicine, sweetie?" Phoebe held out one hand, palm up, and with the other pantomimed writing on in. "You want a pencil and paper?" Phoebe nodded. "Okey-dokey, I'll be right back. Don't you move a muscle." Paige tapped her finger on Phoebe's nose, trying to look stern. From the smirk on her sister's face, it obviously wasn't working, but Paige was equally happy to get a smile out of her. A moment later, Paige reappeared with a pad and pencil, handing to Phoebe, who wrote: Tea?
"You want some tea, honey?" Phoebe nodded. "Okay, I'll be right back." Paige was about to get up when Phoebe's hand reached out and pulled her back down, writing another note. Don't rush. You're still sick too.
"I'm okay, Pheebs, I can make some tea. I feel a lot better today, thanks to my two nurses." Paige winked, and earned another small smile from her sister. "Be right back, okay?"
Five minutes later, Paige was back with the tea, as well as another dose of medicine, which she made Phoebe take immediately. She was going to help her sister drink her tea, but Phoebe shook her head and stubbornly pointed at Paige, then the medicine.
"Okay, okay," Paige relented, amused that her sister still had the ability to boss her around, even with no voice. She quickly swallowed the bitter red liquid, then turned and gave Phoebe a smile. "Happy, Mom?" Phoebe nodded. Paige giggled. Then she patiently helped her weak and exhausted sister sit up, and slowly spoon-fed the hot tea to her. A long, low sigh from the other side of the bed let them both know that Piper was stirring.
"Hey…" Piper murmured, blinking dazedly as she sat up in bed. "What are you guys doing? Why didn't you wake me?"
"Cause you needed to sleep," Paige said simply, with Phoebe nodding emphatically beside her. "You're not Supergirl, you know." Piper pouted at having her own words thrown back at her by her baby sister, but she couldn't well argue. "Besides," Paige continued, "we're okay here…aren't we, Pheebs?" Phoebe nodded, a small sigh escaping her lips as Piper reached out and felt her head.
"Oh, honey, you're still so hot," she sighed. "I think we'd better get some more medicine into you." Phoebe pointed to the bottle on the bedside table beside Paige. "Oh," Piper said blankly. Then she narrowed her eyes at Paige suspiciously. "I thought I told you to take it easy, Paigey."
"I am taking it easy," Paige assured her, stretching out on the bed next to Phoebe and blinking up at Piper with big, innocent eyes. "See? Easy!" Piper chuckled in spite of herself.
"Okay, miss, just as long as we're clear…you can make tea, and you can get things for Phoebe if she asks, but absolutely no working, lifting, cooking, or preparing things of any kind. Are we clear?"
"Yeah Pipe, I got it. Don't worry, I promise to be as lazy as possible." Piper couldn't help the huge smile that blossomed on her face then; Paige had never called her Pipe before, the way Phoebe did. She couldn't believe how good it felt; such a tiny thing, but right now, with both her little sisters smiling up at her, she felt like flying.
"Okay, then," she smirked, finally allowing the moment to pass. "And you, little girl," she said to Phoebe, reaching over to ruffle her hair, "will not move from this bed without a helper. And absolutely, positively, no talking of any kind for the next 24 hours." Phoebe nodded, in no hurry to test the wary peace she'd made with her throat by not using it. Piper leaned down and gave them each a kiss on the cheek, then rose to make breakfast.
"Oatmeal okay?" she asked, tying her hair back into a ponytail. Phoebe nodded.
"Uh, do we have any…uh…" Paige sniffled, grabbing a handful of tissues from the bedside table. "Ah-choo!" Then she disappeared.
"Paige, you orbed!" Piper said happily, once her sister had reappeared.
"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" Paige grumbled, squinting as she blew her nose.
"Of course it is, silly," Piper grinned. "It means you're getting your strength back."
"Oh." Paige turned when Phoebe tugged on her sleeve. She held up her notepad. It said, Bless you.
"Thanks, Pheebs," Paige grinned.