History Repeats Itself
Chapter 6
By JewWitch
"C'mon, Pheebs, you have to eat. Just three bites, okay?" Piper held the spoon patiently in front of her sister's mouth, but Phoebe's lips stayed firmly shut.
"Phoebe, please," Paige begged, sitting on her sister's other side with a distressed expression on her pale face. "You know you can't get better on an empty stomach. Anyway, you made me eat—you don't want me to think you're a hypocrite, do you?" Phoebe sighed and turned her face away, eyes half-lidded, looking as if she wanted to go back to sleep.
"Phoebe." Piper put the bowl of oatmeal aside, and held her sister's overheated face firmly between her hands, forcing her to make eye contact. "I am not kidding around. Either you eat here, or I will take you to the hospital, and they can give you an IV. You choose, baby girl." Phoebe's expression was beyond mutinous, but she was in no position to resist-- and on balance, she seemed to reach the conclusion that the energy required to eat a few bites of oatmeal was far less than the amount required to make a trip to the hospital and get poked with needles. With a resigned sigh, Phoebe finally opened her mouth, allowing Piper to feed her.
"Good girl," Piper murmured, stroking her sister's pale cheek. She looked up and gave Paige a reassuring smile. Paige had seemed to need a lot of reassurance since Phoebe had gotten sick; it was sweet, in a way, the instinctual way Paige seemed to latch into Phoebe's basic well-being to feed her own. Piper remembered Phoebe exhibiting the same behavior when either she or Prue was sick or hurt when they were kids; a single tear from Piper, and Phoebe would immediately fall to pieces.
"Still want me to paint your toenails, honey?" Paige asked sweetly, stretching out against Phoebe's side and stroking her hair very lightly. Phoebe shrugged half-heartedly. Even though her notepad and paper were lying on the bed right next to her, she didn't seem to have the energy to pick it up and write anything
"Well, you're already lying here, might as well get pretty doing it. Right Paigey?" Piper winked. Paige nodded, and wiggled out of bed to get her polish. Once she was out the door, Piper said quietly, "I know you're feeling really awful right now, baby, but try to remember that Paige still needs you to be her big sister. Just be nice to her, okay? Let her comfort you; you might be surprised how much better you'll feel." A guilty expression clouded Phoebe's face, and she nodded. Piper leaned down and kissed her forehead gently. "That's my girl," she murmured. Sitting back on her heels, Piper regarded her sister with an unreadable expression. "I'd be so lost without you, Pheebs," she said finally, her eyes wide open, hiding nothing. Phoebe smiled at her big sister, and opened her arms. Piper crawled into them, hugging her with a contented sigh.
"Okay," Paige said brightly as she re-entered the room, "Are we in the mood for blue, purple, or pink with sparkles?"
After all three of them had acquired matching sets of brilliant blue toes, Piper allowed Paige to orb herself and Phoebe to the downstairs couch so they could watch cartoons. Making sure they were comfortable, Piper decided to take a quick trip to the grocery store, after telling Paige about fifty times to call her cell phone if anything, absolutely anything, was wrong. She finally got out the door when Paige called her "Grandma Piper," and Phoebe wrote get going, worrywart on her notepad. When she returned, loaded down with groceries, she found her sisters curled up together on the couch, looking as snug as anything. Phoebe was fast asleep, her head pillowed on Paige's arm, lips slightly parted. Paige was gently stroking her hair, completely ignoring The Powerpuff Girls in favor of watching her sister sleep. She looked up at Piper and smiled.
"Everything okay with you guys?" Piper asked quietly, sitting down on the arm of the couch and running her fingers through Paige's dark hair, pleased to feel that her fever was nearly gone.
"Yeah," Paige murmured, sighing happily at Piper's attention. "I just can't stand to see her suffering," she added, glancing back down at Phoebe's sleeping face.
"Well it's very mutual," Piper assured her, smiling at the picture the two of them made together on the couch—two peas in a pod, she though privately. "She said the same thing about you when you first got sick."
"She did?" Paige asked, looking up at Piper with genuine surprise.
"Paige," Piper said with a wry grin, "She broke down and cried when you were screaming in your sleep."
"Oh…wow," Paige murmured, leaning down to kiss Phoebe's forehead with a shy grin on her face, as if she didn't quite believe she was worth it. Then the ringing of the phone pulled Piper off the couch, and jerked Phoebe from her slumber.
"Hey, sweetie," Paige cooed, wrapping her arms around Phoebe's stomach and nuzzling her hair. "Did you have a good nap?" Phoebe nodded drowsily, turning over to snuggle against Paige, burying her face in her sister's warm neck with a small, sleepy sigh. They both looked up curiously when they overheard Piper's end of what was obviously a work-related conversation.
"You're going to have to handle this one without us, Darryl," Piper was saying in her most no-nonsense voice. "The Charmed Ones are off duty this week."
"Off duty?" Darryl repeated incredulously. It was a phrase he had never heard from any of them before. "What does that mean?"
"It means Phoebe and Paige are sick, and can't come out to play," Piper explained patiently, looking over her shoulder to give her sisters a playful wink, as if she could sense them watching her.
"Sick? I didn't think you guys could get sick," Darryl said slowly.
"Of course we can get sick, Darryl, we're human beings for God's sake. Like I said—" Paige looked down as she felt Phoebe tugging her sleeve. Phoebe pointed to Piper, and the phone.
"Piper, Pheebs wants the phone," Paige announced, stretching out her hand for the cordless handset.
"Why? She can't talk," Piper said impatiently, trying to juggle two conversations at once. "No, Darryl, it's nothing serious, just the virus from hell…no, Darryl, I did not mean that literally…" Phoebe glared at Piper's back, and then looked back at Paige, rolling her eyes and stretching out her hand restlessly.
"Piper," Paige said again, a bit louder, "Phoebe really wants the phone." Piper turned and gave them both a very mom-like look of exasperation.
"Phoebe, no!" She said impatiently, as if her sister were a small, yapping dog. Phoebe scowled.
"Phone," Paige said simply, holding out her hand. Immediately, the phone orbed into her open hand.
"Paige!" Piper squealed indignantly.
"Hey Darryl, it's Paige. Talk to Pheebs a second, okay?" Paige handed her sister the phone with a bright smile, completely ignoring Piper's spluttering. The moment Phoebe touched the phone, she gasped and went rigid, clearly thrown into a premonition. Angry though she may have been, Piper would never interrupt one of Phoebe's premonitions, and she immediately fell silent. After a few moments, Phoebe's eyes fluttered open, and she motioned toward the pad and pencil on the coffee table, which Paige quickly handed her. Phoebe began to write furiously, ignoring Darryl's confused voice reverberating out of the phone. Then, with a tired sigh, she handed the pad over to Paige.
"Darryl," Paige said crisply, "Phoebe says the missing boy you're looking for is trapped in the sewer under the South Van Ness BART station, and the demons who kidnapped him have been killed by bounty hunters, but they never found the kid. So you can just go on down there and get him. 'Kay? Bye." Paige hung up smiling. "Good job, Pheebs," she grinned, and the two shared a high five. They both looked over at a scowling Piper.
"C'mon, Pipe, don't even try to tell us we shouldn't have done that," Paige said reasonably. "Phoebe didn't even have to get off the couch!"
"I know, I know," Piper admitted, with a grudging smirk. After a pause, she added, "You two are gonna drive me completely insane, aren't you?" Phoebe and Paige looked at each other innocently. Phoebe rubbed her nose, and shrugged.
"Think of it as practice for when you and Leo start having kids," Paige grinned. "When will that be, anyway?"
The rest of the morning passed uneventfully, and at lunch Paige even managed to get Phoebe to eat almost an entire bowl of lentil soup without complaint.
"Hey," Piper said suddenly after she'd cleared the dishes, "I almost forgot, I got you guys a surprise while I was out."
"What is it?" Paige asked, eyebrows raised in interest. Piper reached into a bag, and pulled out a copy of the new Harry Potter.
"Oh, yay!" Paige said happily. "Will you read it to us, Piper?"
They'd gotten almost a quarter of the way into the 600-odd page novel when Piper looked up to see both her sisters fast asleep in her bed, curled up against each other like a couple of baby penguins. Grinning, Piper slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the closet, where she pulled out Prue's old camera. She knew they'd kill her if they saw her taking their picture right now—and, objectively, Piper knew that her sisters weren't looking their best at the moment—but she simply couldn't help herself. Looking through the viewfinder, Piper focused in on the two of them, arms and legs tangled together, Phoebe's head snuggled under Paige's chin. Phoebe always looked incredibly young when she was asleep, and with her flushed cheeks and pink little nose, Paige did too. Piper had the strangest sensation, as she snapped the picture, that she actually was taking a photo of her sisters in their childhood. Quietly, Piper stowed the camera back in the closet, and crawled into the big bed behind Paige, deciding that an afternoon nap was a perfect idea.
The daylight had faded into a murky dusk when Phoebe woke coughing. Sleepy and disoriented, Paige immediately sat up, pulling Phoebe with her.
"S'okay, Pheebs," she murmured, rubbing her sister's quivering back without opening her eyes. Piper crawled over Paige and reached out across her, grabbing the water she'd left on the bureau.
"Take a little sip of this, sweetie," Piper urged her. Phoebe doubled over violently, unable to catch her breath. For a moment her eyes widened with panic.
"It's okay, Phoebe, you're okay," Piper soothed. "Paigey's got you; just relax, and breathe." Paige's eyes opened more fully at that, suddenly alert and unsure of herself. She was sure that Piper wouldn't let anything bad happen, though, so she figured she must be doing something right, and kept up her firm rubbing of Phoebe's back until her sister finally took a normal breath, collapsing back against her in relief. Paige pressed her hand against Phoebe's forehead, holding her there as she rocked her gently, murmuring soothing nonsense in her ear. Piper wondered whether the fact that Paige had been sound asleep less than thirty seconds ago was what allowed her to act so instinctually, rather than go to pieces as she had before. She handed over the water glass, and watched silently while Paige helped Phoebe take a few small sips. Then Paige took a short, deep breath, and sneezed right into the back of Phoebe's hair. Phoebe jumped in surprise as Paige orbed out.
"Oops," Paige mumbled, both hands pressed over her face with an abashed expression in her eyes when she reappeared. "Sorry," she squeaked from behind her hands. Phoebe was grinning in mild amusement, though, and gave her little sister a pat on the head, then reached out and playfully tweaked her nose.
"I know, I know," Paige groaned with a roll of her eyes. "Rudolph here, reporting for sleigh duty." They all giggled for a moment. Then Paige twisted her whole upper body away from Phoebe, sneezing several times in rapid succession, and orbing in and out like a human strobe light.
"Gesundheit," Piper said mildly, handing Paige a fresh box of Kleenex. "I'd say it's definitely time for both of you to have another dose of the good stuff."
"Ugh," Paige mumbled behind a handful of Kleenex, either in agreement or complaint, Piper couldn't quite tell which. It didn't matter, though, as Paige was far past the point of trying to resist Piper's command, swallowing the bitter concoction without uttering a sound.
"Piper," Paige said softly, in a very stuffy voice, "Cad we hab sobe ice cweamb?"
It was the first thing Phoebe had been happy to put in her mouth all day, and her smile seemed to help Paige perk up, too, despite the heavy, leaden feeling in her head and a sudden return to almost constant sniffling. Phoebe reached for her notepad, holding it up for Piper with wide, hopeful eyes. Tell Paige a story about Prue, she'd written.
"You want to hear about Prue, huh little one?" Piper asked, smiling. Phoebe nodded, curling up with her head in Piper's lap, giving a small sigh of pleasure when Piper's hands found her hair. "Okay. Let's see…"
"Piper, where's Prue?" Twelve-year-old Phoebe asked urgently. "She promised she'd make it! She promised!"
"I'm sure she will, Pheebs," Piper assured her agitated sister. "Now you better get out on the field, your teammates are all warming up." With a disgruntled sigh, Phoebe jogged out onto the grass, joining in the group exercises. You better show, Prue, Piper thought angrily, replaying the argument that had erupted over breakfast in her head. It had been stupid, as most of Phoebe and Prue's arguments were; as usual, Phoebe had borrowed something of Prue's without asking, and Prue had had a fit. And while Piper knew that her older sister had every right to be pissed at the youngest, sometimes she just wished that seventeen-year-old Prue would cut twelve-year-old Phoebe some slack; today of all days. But it didn't look like Prue would be forgiving Phoebe in time to come and watch her final soccer match of the fall season.
The whistle blew, and the players all moved into position. Piper felt a pang when she saw Phoebe's eyes search the crowd hopefully for a head of long black hair, and a pair of piercing blue eyes.
"Dammit, Prue," Piper sighed under her breath. Another shrill whistle, and the game had begun. Being so small and spry, Phoebe was usually the fastest forward on her team, but today Piper could see that she was lagging, letting two perfectly good passes get by her without taking advantage of them.
"C'mon, Pheebs, do your thing!" Piper hollered, hoping she could somehow make up for her older sister's absence. Then another whistle blow caused Piper to turn, along with the rest of the crowd, toward something coming toward them from off the field. A sea of red and white puffballs slowly resolved itself into the high school cheerleading squad, marching purposefully toward the junior high field, already in formation with Prue in the lead.
"Okay, squad!" Prue hollered when she reached the edge of the field. "Today is my sister Phoebe's birthday, so let's give her team some love!" The cheerleaders shrieked with enthusiasm, quickly going into a call-and-response cheer with the crowd, who welcomed them with an even greater shout of approval. Piper's face split in a wide grin, as she looked from Prue, who raised her arms triumphantly at the top of the human pyramid with a silly grin on her face, to Phoebe, who stood motionless in the middle of the field with an even sillier grin. Then Phoebe snapped out of it, and raced to intercept the ball. By the time her team left the field in triumph, Phoebe had scored three goals out of the winning five.
"Prue!" Phoebe shouted at the top of her lungs, flinging herself at her sister at top speed as the field was emptied. "You came! You really came!"
"Of course I came!" Prue laughed, twirling Phoebe around in her arms until they both got dizzy, and Prue fell back into the grass with Phoebe sitting on her stomach, laughing hysterically. "You didn't think I'd miss your last game, did you?" Phoebe looked down at her hands, and shrugged silently.
"Thought you were mad at me," she mumbled.
"Hey." Prue tilted Phoebe's chin up in her hand. She was smiling, but her eyes were very serious. "I was mad. But there are some times when that just doesn't matter. I'll always be here for you when it counts, baby girl." Phoebe studied her sister's face silently. Then she flopped down and wrapped both arms and legs around Prue, and kissed her cheek.
"Happy birthday, Phoebe," Prue grinned.
"…You played soccer too?" Paige asked quietly, a small smile creeping onto her face.
"She was great," Piper confirmed, lying down on her side and giving Phoebe's lower back an affectionate scratch. "She scored more goals at twelve than anyone else at fourteen!"
"Wish we could've played together," Paige murmured. The faraway look in her eyes was soon replaced by a telltale fluttering of her lashes, her hand going up automatically to swipe at her itchy nose. As usual, it didn't do a bit of good, and Paige quickly cupped her hands over her face, sneezing three times in a row.
"I'b too tired for this," Paige whined, and Piper noticed that she did indeed have dark circles forming under her eyes. Phoebe held up her bless you sign, smiling gently at her grumpy little sister and pulling her down onto the pillow. They both closed their eyes as Phoebe stroked Paige's hair, and Piper began to hum quietly. It took less than five minutes for both of them to slip into a peaceful slumber, and another five for Piper to join them.