FIVE

"You did what?" Piper shrieked after Paige had told her what had happened. "Paige, are you out of your mind? You told me yesterday that you understood about protecting magic."

"I do," said Paige. "But what was I supposed to do? The cop was going to blow his brains out. Was I just supposed to stand there and watch it happen?"

"Yes," said Piper. "Paige, I know it's not easy. But sometimes you just have to stand by and let things take their course. You can't save everyone. And a situation like that was just too risky. You may have exposed magic to the mortal world."

"I'm sure no one saw what I did," Paige said. "Only Darryl. And he's not going to tell anyone."

"What about the camera crew?" Piper asked.

"They were focused on the cop," said Paige. "No one was even paying any attention to me."

"You'd better hope so," said Piper. "You could have put us all in danger with this little stunt. I knew you weren't taking us seriously."

'No, I was taking you seriously," said Paige. "I only had a second to act. I just thought.…"

"No, Paige, you didn't think," said Piper. "This is exactly what Phoebe and I were talking about yesterday. You have to be on your guard every second. Exposing magic is simply not an option. There's no telling what could happen because of this."

"It will be okay," said Paige. "Like I said, only Darryl saw what I did. Everything is going to be okay, you'll see."

"It had better be," said Piper. "If this gets out I'm not sure how we're going to fix it."

"We won't have to," said Paige. "You'll see. Everything will be fine."

"You'd better get to work," said Piper. "Your boss is probably mad as a hornet as it is. We'll deal with this tonight."

As Paige orbed out of the manor she was thinking there was nothing to deal with. She was sure there wasn't anything to worry about. This would all blow over very soon.

"I'm home," Paige called coming into the manor after work.

As she walked into the entryway she glanced into the living room. Piper, Phoebe, and Leo were sitting on the sofa. Cole was conspicuously absent. Probably moved on to avoid the bounty hunters, Paige decided. There was also someone else in the living room. Darryl was sitting in one of the chairs. The looks on all their faces indicated they were not happy.

"We need to talk," said Piper.

"Sure," said Paige, coming into the living room. "What's on your mind?"

"I think you know about what," Piper said.

"Piper and Darryl have filled us in on what happened," said Phoebe. "Paige, how could you do that? After everything we've told you? Do you have any idea just how dangerous what you did was?"

"What's the big deal?" Paige asked. "Like I told Piper, no one saw what happened. No one came to my office to interrogate me. So everything is fine."

"No, it's not," said Darryl. "One of the news camera crews caught the whole thing on tape. Including you handing the gun to me. I've spent the entire afternoon trying to explain what happened to internal affairs."

"What did you tell them?" Paige asked.

"I told them I had no idea who you were," said Darryl. "I told them you asked what was going on and then did that orbing thing. Then you just ran away. I don't think they believed me."

"Oh," said Paige. "Well, they can't prove anything. All they have is a videotape that was shot from what, sixty feet away? At that distance I doubt they can even identify who I am."

"Paige," said Leo, "they have ways to enhance videotapes. It's possible they can identify you."

"That's not all," said Darryl. "After internal affairs was finished I got a visit from some federal agents. They asked a whole lot of questions I couldn't answer. I had to do a lot of double talking."

"I'm sorry," said Paige. "I was just trying to help."

"Sorry isn't good enough," said Leo. "We've all tried to make you understand how important it is to protect magic. You may have exposed it to the entire world."

"I'm sure the local news will be carrying the story tonight," said Darryl. "And once the wires pick it up it could be on the national news."

"This isn't good," said Paige.

"No, it's not," said Phoebe. "Our only hope is to get that tape back from the news station. Without the tape they don't have any proof of anything."

"You aren't seriously thinking about breaking into the news station?" Darryl questioned. "That's a felony. I can't be a party to that."

"You want to have another session with internal affairs or the feds?" Piper asked. "The way I see it, we don't have much of a choice. Besides, it's not like we'll be breaking in. It will be more like orbing in. All we have to do is find the tape and destroy it."

"But you'll have to do that after the station closes," said Leo. "By then the tape will all ready have aired. And a lot of people tape the news so they can watch it later."

"Then we should get there before they air it," said Phoebe. "All we have to do is find out which machine they're going to be using to broadcast the tape from. Then Piper can blow it up. If we're real careful they won't ever know we were there."

"And if you can't find the machine?" asked Darryl. "You're talking about the major broadcast for the station. There are going to be dozens of people there to put out that broadcast. You might not even have a chance to find it."

"You have a better idea?" Piper asked. "Look, I know it's not the perfect plan. But I don't see we have any other choice. It's a little after five right now. That means we have less than an hour to get to the station, find that tape, and destroy it before they can air it."

"What about a spell or something?" Darryl asked. "Something you can cast from here."

"Too risky," said Phoebe. "There's no way we can be sure we get the right tape unless we're there. No, Piper is right. The only way to fix this is to make sure the tape is destroyed before they can air it. That way any proof they have will be gone."

"Did you hear something?" Leo asked, looking around.

"No," said Piper. "What did you hear?"

Before Leo could answer the front door burst open. Several men dressed in military type uniforms and carrying weapons rushed into the house. As they did another group of men dressed similarly came rushing out of the kitchen. Before any of them could move Paige felt a stinging in her neck. She reached up and pulled a dart out of her neck. She looked around and saw Piper, Phoebe, Leo, and Darryl all suddenly slump to the floor unconscious. Before Paige could even utter a sound, she suddenly lost consciousness.