Chapter 11

"Whoa," Phae muttered as her molecules began re-arranging herself, and she prayed that nothing would go wrong. The orbs cleared, and the inside of the Magic Box came into view.

The gang sat at the tables, heavy volumes open in front of them. Phae cleared her throat, and everyone looked up. She smiled nervously as she went over to join them, plonking herself on the edge of a table.

"Hey, Phae," Willow chirped, the only one to say something. Everyone else closed their books or shifted them such that they were hidden from Phae's view.

"What're you guys doing?" the young witch asked suspiciously, having a vague feeling that they were discussing her.

"Oh, you know, research," Tara piped in.

"I need to go…Um…Count the money," Anya said, getting up with her book and going behind the counter.

Phae frowned and folded her arms. "What the hell is up? I came here to tell you something but I'm not going to do it unless you tell me what is going on."

Giles took off his glasses, proceeding to wipe them fervently. Buffy looked down uncertainly. Xander sighed.

"Okay that's it I'm telling her."

Phae raised an eyebrow, waiting.

"Well, you see, the thing is, what we were doing before you came…"

"Oh for the love of God we were researching your aunts!" Dawn finished.

A look of surprise crossed Phae's face. "You were what! Why!" she demanded.

"That was partly my fault," Giles said. "You see, I wanted to check on something your aunts said."

"God, I can't believe you would do such a thing! Why would they lie to me?"

"Why are you taking their side all of a sudden?" Dawn asked, frowning.

"That's what I came here to tell you. I'm moving to San Francisco with them."

Paige orbed back to the stairs, where Phoebe was talking to Piper, who was crying. Concerned, the younger Halliwell witch ran over to her sisters.

"Phoebe, what's wrong? Why's Piper crying?" She was a little shaken, having never seen Piper cry before.

"She's thinking about Prue. We were…talking about Phae and then we started remembering Prue and now…" she gestured to Piper.

Paige sat down beside her sister and put an arm around her, leaning softly against Piper. "It's okay. I got Phae to agree to move to San Francisco with us. It'll be like having Prue there again."

Wiping away her tears, Piper looked at her youngest sister. "You what! How?"

Paige smiled and straightened, looking at Piper. "I talked to her. I told her about how you guys discovered me and how I realized that I could help people in another way. And then she totally opened up. She told me that she wanted to agree sooner but she didn't want her friends to think that she was too eager to leave them. But then she agreed."

Phoebe was impressed. "Guess your old social worker days aren't that gone yet, huh?" she joked.

Paige's smile grew. "Thank you!"

"So where's Phae now?" Piper asked.

"Good point. Where is she?" Phoebe asked.

"She's at the Magic Box. She wanted to tell her friends first. Say, do you guys feel like you've seen that Giles person before?"

And thus began a new conversation, with the sisters trying to place where they'd seen Giles before.

A/N: Short chapter, yeah. Sorry. It's sorta supposed to be that short. Sorry again! Don't skimp on the reviews, people! -wink-