Ah… I'm so glad I was able to update on my birthday! That means I shall be receiving presents in the form of reviews lol! Here come the replies!
Loz - Thanks, although there aren't many kid parts in this chapter!
Prince Halliwell – I'm glad you LOVED all of it lol! And you'll need to wait and see about Lorna, and Katrina will be sticking around for a while ;)
MasterYueKeroberos88 – No, Piper doesn't have her freezing power back yet. And I'm really sorry, but I would really appreciate if you didn't use the Elementals.
Chyp – Thanks!
Ravenix – LMAO! I don't know why your review made me laugh, but hold onto hope!
Kendall paige charity – Thanks! And you better believe it lol!
Anianka – Scared? Mwhaha. That was my plan all along lol! And yes, I hope you understood too otherwise you'll be in for a shock. Yeah, Pam was a little whiny there, but they were all fed up of Emma's behaviour. Heh… What would be the point of happy ending or there wasn't sadness along the way?
Princess Pinky – I know! I'm horrible! But hold out for better times. Thanks, and you won't find out what's up with Phoebe until the very end of the story, and yeah, Prudence took control again, she's going to play a major part in the sequel!
Grave
Pamela walked into the dark room carrying a glass of water and two pills. She had to take these to keep her schizophrenia at bay, the last thing she wanted was to have a hallucination around her little cousins and scare them. She set the objects down on the desk and ran a hand through her raven dark hair before sweeping her palms across her eyes, trying to wake herself up.
The wailings of a baby soon echoed through all the bedrooms of the floor. Pamela shook her head slightly, Lorna had usually been a good sleeper for her age, but ever since Emma died, the infant cried at every waking moment, and it was putting a strain on the family. Quickly scanning Emma's room, she picked up the water and pills before walking out. It has just lost its warmth now. Pamela closed the door as a sign of respect before making her way to her room, where she saw Chris sitting on her bed, waiting for her.
"What's up, little man?" She asked, putting her pills in her mouth and quickly taking a sip of water, swallowing them.
Chris held on the teddy that was wrapped in his arms. "I had a bad dream," The four year old admitted. Pamela looked to into his eyes for confirmation; the brunette had his bottom lip out slightly as he nodded.
The teen groaned slightly, it was the third time this week that this had happened, "You want to sleep in my bed?" He nodded slowly, she sighed. The first night this had happened, Pamela had asked Chris why he hadn't gone to Piper and Leo. The boy's reply has stunned her.
"Because you're my big sister,"
Pamela also had a sneaking suspicion that Chris didn't want to disturb his parents, who were clearly run down with Lorna's erratic behaviour and had barely enough time in the day to look after themselves let alone Wyatt and Chris. Over the past week, the teen had had to get her cousins to school, to bed, she had even went as far telling their teachers that if there was any problems, they were to come to her and not Piper and Leo.
"Sure, hop in," Pamela replied with a sigh, walking around the bed and getting in the other side while Chris clambered underneath the blankets, hugging his bear tightly as he curled up into a ball.
"Pam?"
"Hmm?" She grunted as she laid her head on the pillow.
"I miss Emma." The four year old replied.
Pamela sat up in her bed and looked at her little cousin. She held out her arms and he stood up, walking over to her and getting a hug. "I know honey, I do too…" She whispered in his ear before letting go and rolling over onto her pillow, turning off the dim light on the nightstand and settling in.
"Good night,"
Leo stifled a yawn as he shifted his tie back and forth, trying to make it sit properly. It was dark blue, almost purple and complimented with black stripes running diagonally across it. The elder run a hand over his pale blue shirt, straightening out some of the creases before picking up the black suit jacket on the bed, sighing inwardly and rubbing his eyes. It had been a tough week.
Pamela gave her reflection a hollow stare as she looked at her outfit. She had never actually been to real funeral before, crime scenes where someone had died was the closest thing she had had to that kind of experience. She gave an uncertain look to the smart black pants she had decided to wear. From what she had seen, Piper had been wearing a skirt that stopped just under her knees, the last thing Pamela wanted to do was to make a mockery out of Emma's funeral by wearing the wrong thing. It may have seemed trivial to many, but it was important to her.
She brushed her hair off her shoulders, letting it flow down her back. The teen gave herself another look in the mirror before grabbing her hair with both hands and lifting it up. Nodding with approval at herself, she picked up two black sticks she had on her vanity and expertly put them into her hair, holding it in position behind her head and revealing the looping material of the halter top around her neck. Pamela gave herself one last look before grabbing the cardigan like piece of black clothing and walking out of the room.
"Where are the kids?" She asked Piper, who was standing in the parlor in an embrace with Leo.
Piper sniffled slightly and dabbed her eyes with a tissue before answering, "Magic School. I don't really think a funeral is appropriate for them." They stood in silence, each realizing just how empty the Manor seemed, "Phoebe and Brennan are meeting us here," The eldest Halliwell sister announced, nodding her head as if to assure herself of something.
"What about Paige?" Pamela asked, shuffling her feet slightly and folding her arms defensively.
"She said that she would make her own way there when I went over last night."
Leo frowned at this, "The twins weren't in the nursery when I left Lorna and the boys. Do you think that she's taken them to the funeral?"
Piper shook her head, "No, Paige wouldn't subject her kids to something like that… Although she's been the one hit the hardest by this, her and Emma were best friends." Her look seemed to grow distant at talk of the deceased psionic.
The front door creaked open, a silhouette of two people showed through the misted glass as they entered. Phoebe adjusted the sizable black hat she wore on her head. The middle Charmed One was wearing sleek black dress with thin straps holding it at her shoulders. Brennan was dressed a lot like Leo, but instead, he had a navy blue shirt with a black tie.
"Hey…" The mutant greeted somberly, receiving a nod from Leo.
Phoebe looked up with heavy eyes, staring at everyone with a penetrating glare that bore into their soul as she used her recently redeemed empathy power to scan everyone in the room, "Shall we?" She croaked with a cracked voice.
Her big sister took a deep breath, "Yeah… Let's go…"
Piper looked up at the sun as she took her seat at the front. The sky was beautiful today, no one could have asked for better weather to give Emma her send off. There wasn't a cloud in sight, let alone a grey one, there was just the light and heat radiating from the sun and the artistic shadows of tree branches swaying as they danced a ballet on the grass, making obscure patterns that were hypnotizing to the eye. The eldest Charmed One let out a quiet sigh; it was such a sad day for them all, but the happy weather made mixed feelings boil in her heart as she stared at the large picture of Emma on the stand in front of her. It was if the world was against their sadness, against their pain, yet somehow, honouring it by giving Emma what she had wanted.
This had been exactly what she had requested in the letter she had left. For her funeral to be outside on a lovely day instead of being cooped up in a musty church or a gloomy cemetery chapel, it was almost to tribute to Emma to see how beautiful this was. An urn stood securely on the pedestal near the podium where the priestess would perform her ceremony. Emma hadn't given any indication to where she wanted her ashes scattered, only that "You'll know where to set me free" was written in the will.
"We'll know?" Piper thought in her head, "We didn't know this was coming. Where we were scattering your ashes wasn't exactly on the top of thoughts!" She angrily twisted at the schedule in her hands as salty tears fell to her lips. How was she supposed to speak when she was such a wreck?
Leo felt Piper's body jolt as she suppressed a hiccup. He took her hand away from tearing up the schedule and held it tightly in his own. The elder put his arm around his wife's shoulders and pulled her closer, silently respecting her pain and rubbing her back as she wept softly into his shirt.
Phoebe scowled as she left a third message on Paige's cell. She groaned and looked back into the sea of somber faces, pushing her hat down at the back so she could see easier and if Paige was on her way towards the ceremony. Brennan tapped her shoulder and made her turn around with pout.
"What's wrong?" He asked, keeping his hand on her shoulder.
"Paige isn't here yet, and neither is Aidan," She replied, seeing forms moving towards them out of the corner of her eye. Phoebe shifted her look and gaped when she saw who was coming towards the mourning party.
Shalimar strode across the cemetery with a steely glare. Her dirty blonde hair was tied in a ponytail with it waving down her back. The silver metal zips of her black cargo pants glistened in the sunlight as she walked. A grey wife beater accompanied the black denim jacket. With anyone else, it would have looked mismatched, but it seemed to work with the feral.
Jesse walked beside her, his hands stuffed in his pockets nervously and not nearly exuberating as much confidence as Shalimar. He was dressed smartly in a black suit that could only suit someone who had spent most of their lives in country clubs. The molecular's tie was slightly loosened around his neck with the top button of his deep blue shirt undone.
"I asked them to come. Me and those two have known Emma a lot longer than any of you guys," Brennan whispered to his wife, giving her hand an affectionate squeeze before pulling her to her feet to greet the new arrivals.
"Hey…" Phoebe choked out, her empathy picking up an extreme amount of rage coming from Shalimar. It was almost overwhelming her other senses, but she had learned to filter it out over the years and put on a weary look. "You okay?" The middle Charmed One asked, taking Shalimar's hand in a sympathetic way and offering a caring smile.
"Yeah…" Was the feral's reply, Phoebe noticed her friend's nostrils flare for a spilt second as her eyes narrowed, boring a hole into a tree she had focused her sight on.
The empath looked down, "You're pretty pissed…" She whispered to the conversing Jesse and Brennan wouldn't hear her, but the two were in the middle of a "macho hug" so they wouldn't have heard her anyway.
Shalimar swung her arm slightly, taking Phoebe's with her, "It's just…" She moved a wavy lock of blonde hair from her face, "People don't usually have to go through the pain of losing someone twice. It's not fair." The mutant stated with a sigh, her eyes going glassy as fresh tears sprouted, "Why did it have to happen again? Why did it… did it…" She began to choke on her own words, "Why did it… have to be her?" Shalimar bawled as Phoebe pulled her into a hug, letting her friend cry into her shoulder and pulling off her hat when it got in the way.
"C'mon…" The Halliwell whispered hoarsely as she put her hands on the sides of Shalimar's head, "Let's go give her a proper send off…"
Piper stared at the ground as she twisted a piece of her dark chocolate coloured hair between her index finger and thumb. The witch had now given up on wiping away her tears and had settled for just sitting in a catatonic state, not even listening to the ceremony the priestess was conducting. Paige was supposed to speak today, being Emma's best friend; she had known the psionic the most out of all of them. But the youngest Charmed One hadn't appeared as of yet, so it would go straight to Piper to say something.
What was she meant to say? That Emma had left a letter enclosing everything she wanted, coincidently right before her death? Not to mention leaving her daughter in the hands of the closest adults she could find. Piper never thought she would have anymore children, let alone from circumstances like this, but she just had to keep telling herself that this was meant to be.
What was this though? Lorna was meant to grow up with no real family? That she, and the Halliwells, were supposed to live a lie from now on? She shook her head vigorously, as if to tell herself that she would not do that to a child, to shatter their world so abruptly by telling her that she wasn't family. It was at this moment Piper vowed to herself that Lorna would always know her background. Always know that, although she was considered family, her true parents would always watch over her. But most of all, Piper vowed that she would treat the baby as her own, love her the same way, treat her the same way, anything that Wyatt and Chris had got, Lorna would too.
"And now, to speak for us, one of Emma's closest friends, Piper Halliwell," The priestess announced.
Piper still sat there, twisting her hair until Leo put a hand on her knee, bringing her out of the trance and making her realize it was her turn. The Charmed One turned to her husband, who gave her a look that said, "You don't have to do this," but she wanted to, to give Emma what she deserved. Piper stood, trembling with fear as she brought the speech she had prepared out of her pocket and walked towards the podium, looking out into a mass of hats and sniffling people who dabbed their eyes with at tissue occasionally.
"Um…" Piper hesitated in front of the microphone. She looked down at the piece of paper she had set down; all the words on it just seemed to be all jumbled up in her eyes. The witch looked out again, seeing her family in the front row giving her supportive looks.
"C'mon Piper…" Pamela whispered to herself as she clutched to Zach's hand, silently willing her aunt to say what she really felt.
"I had… prepared this whole… speech…" Piper stuttered into the microphone, holding up the piece of paper for proof, "But… I think I'm just going to… speak from the heart." She sent a weak smile out to her audience. Someone coughed, which gave Piper her cue to begin.
"Emma was…" She let out a languid sigh, "She was the kindest person that you could ever meet… She had his way of… knowing when something was wrong, and she would always go out of her way to help you, even if it meant her…" Piper's breathes began to shorten, "Her… her suffering." The witch looked out into the sea of faces courageously, "That's really what Emma was in a nut shell, selfless. She would keep all the bad stuff to herself, never sharing it in case she upset someone, to let someone know she was upset. She carried that burden everyday of her life, I guess that's the price she paid for having that power-," The entire front row, all magical beings, held their breath, "With people." A sigh of relief. "Emma didn't deserve to die. I know everyone says that when they've lost a loved one but it's true. It was before her time, and after spending so much time helping people, there was no time left… to help herself…" She began to wrap it up, turning towards the urn that seemed to be the centre of entire funeral, "But you're free now, so… take care…"
Piper stepped down, her heels clomping on the wooden stage as she walked down the small flight of stairs and back to her seat. She sighed inwardly, putting her hands over her face until they were pulled down by the two people sitting on either side of her.
Leo smiled and rubbed her hand, "You did great sweetie…" He murmured, leaning in to give her a peck on the cheek.
Phoebe clutched her sister's hand in her own, "It was beautiful Piper…" She added, rubbing Piper's arm lovingly before turning back to hear the conclusion of the proceedings.
"Paige, this is your very pissed off sister leaving yet another message. Where the hell are you?" Phoebe blistered into the receiver of her cell phone before snapping it shut with an aggravated grunt. She shoved it back into her purse and folded her arms.
Pamela looked up from where she was sitting on the edge of the wooden stage, "Is she still not answering?" Her aunt shook her head, "Have you tried the apartment?"
"Yeah, but I think it's disconnected or something. I'm getting nothing at all." She replied, turning to Shalimar, "Could you… come with me to her apartment? I just want to make sure Paige is okay,"
The feral shrugged, "Why not…?" She turned towards the hot sun, putting her arm on her forehead to shield her eyes from the harsh light.
All of the guests were now piling into their cars to go back to the Manor for the wake. Piper and Leo and gone with them to not arouse suspicion while the others had stayed here and waited for Paige, who hadn't yet turned up. Phoebe walked across to her husband and picked at his shirt slightly.
"You guys go on back to the Manor; we'll meet you there,"
"You sure you're okay?" Brennan asked, cupping her cheek with his hand.
She smiled, "Yeah, I'm sure," The witch replied, leaning up and kissing him deeply and putting her hands in his biceps, "Go, I just want to check on Paige then we'll catch up,"
"Whoa!" Jesse suddenly exclaimed, covering his nose with his arm, "What is that smell?"
Pamela frowned and stood up, "What? I don't smell any- Ugh!" She grimaced and covered her nose.
"Aw… Man!" Brennan let go of Phoebe's hand to cover his nose. Shalimar had reacted in the same fashion and even took a few steps back, her heightened sense of smell giving her hell as the scent went into her nostrils.
"Zach… Do you sense that?" Phoebe turned to her niece's boyfriend, who had been sitting with Pamela until the smell has hit.
"Yeah, something's coming." He looked towards the people who were still getting into cars, "We better hope it attacks after they get away, or-," The telepath was cut off by the appearance of the demon that was causing the smell.
"Oh my God…" Jesse spluttered into his sleeve.
It was the ugliest demon any of them had seen, and most obscure. It was covered in dull crimson skin from head to toe, with small streaks of blue running through it. On one side, it had a bulging arm that matched the rest of its body, but on the other side, it was if the limb had been horribly mutated, as it was almost as big as the demon's entire body and had two hook like claws on the end. But was most repulsing was the features of his face, he had one eye missing, and the other was swollen, in fact his whole faced was mismatched. One side was swollen, massive teeth and a large eyeball, while the other had tiny teeth and no eye at all.
Brennan swirled his wrist around, igniting electricity on the tip of his fingers and preparing to blast the beast. But Phoebe pushed his arm back to his side and shook her head.
"You power is a little too visible," She nodded towards the leaving mourners, "Just hold off for a minute and save your volts."
Shalimar, having no powers that could be seen by the eye, jumped forward at an amazing speed, almost flying, ripping through the air with her body as she let out an animalistic growl, punching the demon violently in the head, then doing a front turn kick into its chest before reeling back, taking her signature feral stance. The creature let out a moan of pain and began to thrash its limbs about wildly, beginning to roar even louder.
"Phoebe! Spell!" Jesse requested, nodding towards the mourners who were turning around and seeing the demon.
"Uh…" Phoebe shook her hands violently, "Wiccan forces new and old, bend their wills, make them fold, cast a web across their sight, and blind them now, with the light…"
The spell took effect instantly; all of the mourners that had turned around were immediately cursed and put their arms above their eyes, not being able to see anything thanks to the brightness of the sun that was beating down on the graveyard. The sunlight forced them to turn away from the fight and go back to loading into the cars.
"Done!" She shouted, levitating into the air and flying towards just low enough to make it look like a jump, "Damn dress…" Phoebe cursed as her roundhouse kick was put off centre by her inability to raise her leg any higher. She cringed as the demon raised his mutated arm, readying his claws to gut the Charmed One. But he was put off when he received a ball of orange light to the head. The light seemed to have caused pain as it recoiled instantly, holding its pulsing forehead with its normal hand.
"No one's around anymore." Zach stated as another sphere of telepathic energy shone brightly in front of his forehead, "I think it's safe to use our powers." He narrowed his eyes at his enemy and sent the orange light hurtling from his forehead, hitting the demon again and causing a roar of pain. The telepath prepared another attack, but the demon was quicker. It threw out its larger arm, it was as if was elasticized as it zoomed ahead and sent is claws deep into Zach's chest before retracted its arm just as quickly as it had came.
"No!" Pamela screamed as she dropped to her knees, pawing awkwardly at the wound as she didn't know what do with herself.
Phoebe and Shalimar shared a look, "I'll get him, you help the guys." The Charmed One suggested. Her friend nodded before joining the fight against the demon. "It's going to be okay, sweetie," Phoebe assured her niece.
The demon let out a frustrated grunt as Brennan blasted him with two tesla coils, electricity poured from the mutant's fingertips until only little neon blue sparks dripped from his hands. Even though the danger of the situation, Jesse couldn't help but smirk as he teased his friend, "You're not eighteen anymore…" He chuckled as he thrust out his hand outwards, releasing an invisible jet of sub zero energy. But the demon seemed to sense the attack suddenly took in a deep breath, somehow absorbing the thermal assault and leaving Jesse to gape at his failure before he was thrown across the cemetery by a whip of the larger arm.
"Jesse!" Shalimar screeched, running at an incredible speed across to grass to where she anticipated for her friend to land. As she was running, she kept an eye on Jesse as he tumbled through the air. Without her noticing, Jesse took in a breath and massed out as he fell, Shalimar's eyes widened as she watched the orange rocky lines spread across his body. The molecular crashed into a gravestone as he landed, sending a flurry of marble in all directions before hitting the ground, creating a large crater from his increased body mass and sending out a small shockwave that threw Shalimar back, making her hit her head off a gravestone and falling unconscious as Jesse lay in the same state from his tumble.
"Brennan, get away from it!" Phoebe yelled to her husband, who was momentarily distracted by his wife shouting to notice that the demon was about to swing its colossal limb again. The wind was knocked out of the mutant he soared into the air and landed in a crumpled heap on the grass. Phoebe looked torn, Leo still hadn't replied to her calls and she had figured out when she would get possessed by the unknown being every time she was in danger. The Charmed One could only hope that the same conditions applied for Prudence taking control of Pamela's body, her niece wouldn't stand a chance without her ancestor.
Pamela watched her aunt run across to Brennan as the beast advanced on them. She looked down to Zach. Her boyfriend was lying in her arms, dying, yet her eyes were as dry as a bone. She had been like this for the past week, even when she realized Emma was dead, she hadn't cried. It felt like an insult to the psionic's memory that a tear couldn't be created for her.
But her thoughts were broken when the demon cast its shadow across the two teens. Pamela looked up to it with a steely glare and threw out her arm, attempting to send the demon flying with a telekinetic push. The demon groaned as the energy hit him, but it only made him stumble back slightly. The witch looked down at her hand with shock, with the blast she had intended, the demon should have been on the other side of the graveyard. Why hadn't it worked?
The demon grinned with his misshapen teeth as he raised his tree trunk like arm above him. Pamela instinctively put up her forearm to protect herself and cringed as the beast brought his arm downwards. Suddenly, the teen's body glowed a ghostly blue before a pulse of powerful energy erupted from her person, causing a bright flash as the demon was hurled high into the air from the ripple of energy. Everyone watched in awe as the demon, ironically enough, fell into an open grave,
"Leo!" Was the first word out of Phoebe's mouth as she ran back to Pamela, instantly casting her eyes over Zach to see if he was still alive, "Leo!" She called again, frowning at the dead expression on her niece's face.
Finally, orbs began to fall from the sky, taken on the form of her brother in law, "What happened?" He asked, shocked to see Zach bleeding to death and Jesse and Shalimar knocked out. Phoebe waved his question away and pointed to dying telepath on the ground. The elder bent down and made his hand hover across the boy's wound before releasing a burst of golden healing light.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Pamela asked quietly as she stood up from crouching.
Leo looked up for a brief moment to face his niece before looking back down at the wound, "Yeah, he's going to be fine," He replied, before going back to concentrating on healing.
"Alright, divide and conquer." Phoebe began, "Brennan, you get those two…" She pointed to Jesse and Shalimar before tugging on Pamela's arm slightly, "We'll get rid of the demon for now,"
The two Halliwells began to walk across the cemetery and towards the open grave they had seen the demon sail into. Phoebe took off her large hat and decided to hold it in front of her as the two walked in silence. Pamela let out a sigh as she brought the sticks out from her hair, letting her dark locks fall and drape down her back.
"So… What was that back there? How did you repel the demon?" Phoebe asked, turning to Pamela who averted her gaze.
"I don't know… A new power maybe?" Pamela mused, not really listening to aunt's words as she was too lost in her own thoughts.
"Well, you're certainly becoming the most powerful out of all of us, especially if you nurture… whatever you did back there. Why didn't you send him flying before then though?"
"I tried…" She confessed, "But he only lost his footing a little bit."
Phoebe raised her eyebrows then put on a relaxed face, "Well, your powers are tied to your emotions so it makes sense they're acting little funny after everything that's happened in the past week." Phoebe put in arm around Pamela's shoulders, "How you been holding up?"
The teen let out a sigh, "I'm okay, when Lorna's not screaming the house down." She added, "You seem to have kept pretty together through it all. What's your secret?"
Phoebe looked straight ahead, "I didn't know Emma as well as you guys, and I have to keep it together, especially since we're going to get investigated after this…" The witch narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
She snorted slightly, "Are you kidding? She died from a fireball through the chest, and Darryl's been taken off the case because it's us. This is the last thing we need… Here we are," The two of them stopped at the edge of the open grave, looking down at the unconscious demon, "You want to do the honours?"
"With pleasure…" Pamela replied as she began to form a spell in her head, "It feels a little cowardly to vanquish him when he's out of it, but oh well… Day is birth, night is death, take this vile demon's last breath,"
Supernatural flames conjured themselves as they licked around the demon. They consumed him until a small explosion was contained in the large hole. Pamela and Phoebe turned their heads away from the heat until the only thing that was left was burnt soil and a quivering flame.
"Wow… I thought you would have just sent away somewhere, not vanquish him," Phoebe stared at the remains of the demon.
"You're disappointed?"
"No… I just thought after the fight he put up it would require the Power of Three," She admitted as she cocked her head.
Pamela sneered, "He wasn't all that tough, just some stretchy limbs and a body odor problem. C'mon," She gestured back towards the group as she began to walk. Phoebe stared at the grave a little more before letting out a sigh and catching up with her niece.
"Paige!" Phoebe yelled as she wrapped her knuckles on the door of Paige's apartment, "We know you're in there!" She warned, her nostrils flared as she bit down hard on her bottom lip. She hit the door a few more times before sighing and looking towards Jesse, "Well, this was a good idea…" She groaned to herself.
"Why did you ask me to come instead of Shalimar?" Jesse asked.
"Because you're a lot more useful when some breaking and entering is required. Could you phase the door please?"
Jesse mused the thought over, "It's not really breaking and entering since there's no breaking involved…" Phoebe just stared blankly at him, "Alright, alright…" He groaned, putting his hand on the door and taking a breath in, causing the molecules of the door to separate and allow the two witches to pass through.
Phoebe immediately grimaced as she looked around. Her sense of smell was instantly hit with the putrid stench of vomit; it stung her nostrils as she walked even further into the area, pulling another face when she spotted puddles of the smell's source dotted around the living room. On the carpet, the sofa, even the walls looked as if they had been thrown up upon. Deciding that she wouldn't walk in any further without a hazmet suit, Phoebe turned towards the kitchen and gasped when broken glass crunched under her feet. Everything was smashed, the glass in the cupboard doors, the numerous plates and bowls that had been ripped from another cupboard that's door was slightly ajar.
The burnt out remains of Paige's dining room table lay in a heap on the floor, the once polished oak was now the dull colour of charcoal, which it basically was considering the wood had been burnt to the crisp. Jesse frowned as he looked into a brown paper beg on the kitchen surface, he sighed when he saw its contents and pulled them out to show Phoebe.
"Does your sister drink?" He asked.
She immediately turned around on the spot, "No, not even a little."
Jesse wore a frightened face, like the one a doctor has before he gives his patient bad news, "Are you sure about that?" He hesitated, pulling out a tall empty bottle of vodka.
Phoebe looked around with wide eyes. Would Paige even…? No, she refused to believe it. Maybe she had just saw them on the hallway and decided to bring them in for recycling. The Charmed One could have come up with hundreds more rational reasons for the empty bottle, but nothing could explain the apartment.
"What else is in there?" Phoebe asked, walking towards him and peering over the edge of the bag.
"Uh…" Jesse fished his hand in, "Scotch, half full, tequila, hardly touched, and… orange juice?"
Just then, the door to Paige's bedroom creaked open and Aidan crept out, he was holding a bucket of some sort and cringing at its contents before he noticed the two people standing in the kitchen rifling through a bag of alcohol. He narrowed his eyes as they adjusted to the lighter atmosphere of the room, "Phoebe? How did you get in?" He asked with a slightly annoyed tone.
"Um… Jesse here can phase like Piper." She explained, "What you doing here? And what happened?"
He didn't answer before making his over to the sink and beginning to rinse out the bucket, that seemed to be full of whatever had been thrown up on the walls, "Paige has got alcohol poisoning,"
Those five words shattered Phoebe instantly, she had to take a deep breath before beginning to talk, "What….?"
"I came by last night to pick up the twins. You know, the whole joint custody thing we arranged. Paige was pretty down, I should have noticed it then, I knew I could smell drink in her breath!" He cursed himself slightly as he tipped the bucket upside down, getting the rest of its contents out, "Anyway, I came to take her to the funeral this morning, the apartment was trashed and she had just doused the table…" He nodded at the pile of blackened wood, "In vodka before throwing a match in. I put the fire out with my powers, and…" He turned his head so they could see a large gash in his temple and dried blood down the side of his face, "She clocked me with a bottle."
"Oh my God…" Phoebe stepped closer and peered at the wound, "Are you alright?"
"I was out for about half an hour. When I came to, she had made this place even worse. It didn't take long for her to pass out and choke on her own vomit. Luckily I turned her onto her side before anything bad could happen."
Phoebe processed all this information before asking more questions, "Why didn't you contact is all day? We've been worried sick about Paige,"
"Because you guys have had so much going on lately, it's the last thing you need. And do you really think you could handle seeing Paige like she was?"
"How is she now?"
"Shit." Aidan summed up briefly, "She's weeping, vomiting… just shit."
"Have you been looking after her all day?" Phoebe asked with wide eyes, she had never thought of Aidan the type to swear.
"Pretty much, she can't keep anything down. I've been giving her water now and again to keep her hydrated. I don't really want to take her to a doctor because they'll just ask too many questions."
"Well, Brennan could stop by tomorrow…" Jesse chipped in, wanting to help, "I mean, he is a doctor."
Phoebe nodded with approval, "Can I see her?"
Aidan let out a sigh as he washed his hands, "Yeah, but take the bucket, I need to plug in the phone again. Paige ripped it out last night,"
The Halliwell sighed as she took the blue bucket off the counter, standing there for a second as she tried to remember the events of the day. It all seemed to be a blur right now; maybe this was her mind's way of telling her that she wasn't up for trying to keep the family together. She shook off the feelings of doubt before walking towards Paige's room with a deep breath.
"Looks like I'm the last sister standing now…"
NEXT TIME: When a man arrives on the Manor doorstep claiming to be Pamela's real father, Andy, out of sheer pride and rage, breaks the rules the Elders had set out and reveals himself to his daughter, but is she really his? Paige agrees to stay in Atlantis while she mourns, but not before the sisters decide on where to scatter Emma's ashes…
Chapter 32 "Ashes To Ashes, Father To Daughter" will be up soon!