Chapter 2: Curiosity almost kills the C…Witch.

"Phoebe!" Chris said exasperated. " Read my lips, THE ANSWER IS NO"

A month had passed since Chris' little secret had been blown, and he could honestly say that he had never been happier. His relationship with Piper was developing at a rate of knots, she remained ignorant of her own untimely death, there was no sign of Leo returning from Elder land anytime soon, and they'd managed to take down a record number of demons. There was only one teeny tiny problem, and it went by the name of Phoebe.

" Please Chris pretty please" his aunt pleaded.

"Are you pestering him again?" Paige inquired as shuffled into the kitchen to get her morning caffeine injection.

"Yes"-said Chris.

" Come on Paige" Phoebe turned to her baby sister. " Aren't you in the least bit curious"

" A little sure, but I prefer to have a more que será será attitude about it"

" Attitude about what?" Piper questioned as she strolled in from her morning date with the toilet bowl. " Oh wait, let me guess, the future right? Phoebe, Chris has already said no, about a zillion times"

" Please, just my kids names, or scratch that, just my husbands name, I mean it'll save me so many wasted dates, if I can just find the man I'm supposed to be with."

"Phoebe" Chris set his mug down. " For the billionth time, it is irrelevant. If, I manage to stop Wyatt from becoming evil, then I will be CHANGING the FUTURE. Thus, the FUTURE will be CHANGED, there will be people alive who in my timeline are dead, and vice versa. So there's no use in me telling you about any cousins that I may have, because, for all I know it could all be completely CHANGED when I go back. You know, like Piper seeing that she was going to have a girl and then ending up with Wyatt."

"Yeah but"

"But, I'm going to the club to see to the delivery" with that he rose, kissed Piper on the cheek and orbed out.

"Its not fair" Phoebe wined. " It's ok for you" she pointed to Piper " you already know who your husband is and your kids, me and Paige here have to fumble along in the dark waiting for a sign"

"Speak for yourself Missy" said Paige. " I 'm not "fumbling" anywhere, except maybe work, which I'm going to be sooo late for if I don't leave now." She grabbed the keys to her car and dashed out the door. " I'll see you later".

"I'm so glad she decided to return to social work" Piper commented. " She's been so much happier"

"Yeah" Phoebe was barely listening. Her mind was still fuming over Chris. " I'm going to work from home today, they're having my office painted. I'll be in the attic if you need me."

Piper sighed, " Looks like I'm doing the dishes again".

Up in the attic Phoebe tried to concentrate, but found that her mind kept wandering, envisaging all the possible future children she might have. Her eyes travelled around the room coming to stop on the family tree that was hanging on the wall opposite her. She smiled, as a plan slowly began to form in her mind…

2 hours, 3 loads of washing, two sets of dishes, a pile of ironing and a casserole later, Piper climbed the stairs to the attic to bring Phoebe her mid morning coffee.

She found her younger sister practically bouncing round the room in a state of excitement.

"Piper, Piper" she cried. " I have THE most amazing idea,"

"What?" the oldest Halliwell asked

" I've figured out how we can find out about our future lives without asking Chris"

"Phoebe!"

"No, come on just hear me out! You know how we have the family tree hanging on that wall right?"

"Yes"

" And how Chris said that in the future, they don't live here, cos its been turned into a museum right?"

"Yes"

"And how, in the museum everything has been preserved, left how it was when we used to live here, do you see where I'm heading with this?"

"erm no"

" Piper! Look, if everything is the same, then in the future, our family tree will still be hanging on that wall. Our updated family tree. All we have to do is open the portal, go to the future, take a peak at the family tree and then nip back"

"Whah- No, no, no, no, N-O"

"You're just as bad as Paige. Don't you want to know if you have more kids, get remarried?"

"Well…."

"Well?"

"Well… even if I was interested it's like Hello! Personal gain!"

" Not really" Phoebe reasoned." I mean I can't concentrate enough to vanquish demons whilst knowing that my future husband is out roaming the streets of San Francisco, so really it would be a help"

"Well… if you put it like that" Piper began to weaken, as deep down she was just as curious as Phoebe, though she would never admit as much.

" I knew it! I knew you'd say yes" Phoebe jumped up and began tracing the familiar marks on the wall.

" Hold on" Piper cautioned. "What about Paige? Don't you think we ought to wait for her, I'm mean we need the power of three to open the portal?"

" I suppose" Phoebe muttered.

"hey" Piper thought " How did you get the spell from Chris anyway? He'd never gie it to you"

"I kinda found it, it was laying around" Phoebe admitted.

"Laying around where?" Piper was confused, her younger son was a bigger neatness freak then she was.

"laying around in the bottom draw of his cupboard in P3" Phoebe confessed.

"Phoebe!" Piper admonished " He's my son, if any one is going to riffle through his things then its going to be me!"

" I know, I know" the empath replied " But while we're on the subject, we can't let Chris know we're going to the future, 'cos he'll only try and stop us or lecture us or something"

"fine" Piper said, as she was none to fond of his little "talks" either. " I won't tell Chris"

"Won't tell me what?" Chris asked as he orbed into the attic.

"nothing!" Phoebe cried,a bit too loudly.

" See ordinarily I'd stay and force a confession out of you, but I don't have time, I need to get going" he said.

"Going? going where?" Piper inquired.

"The underworld" Chris replied. " I got a new lead on who might turn Wyatt, so I need to go undercover for a while."

"how long will you be gone?" Piper demanded. " I'm not sure it's entirely safe for you to go…"

"Mum" Chris interrupted "I'm 22, not 12, you can't stop me. I'll be back in a bout 10 days, 2 weeks tops ok? I love you"

"At least take a coat" the oldest sister shouted to the retreating cloud of orbs.

"well " said Phoebe, " at least we won't have to worry about him finding out."

6pm

Paige pulled her car into the driveway of the manor, relieved to be home from work at last. She'd had 'one of those days', the photocopier had broken, her computer had crashed a record breaking 4 times in a row, she'd spilt coke down her white blouse, and had just spent an hour sat in a traffic jam. All she wanted was a nice warm bath, a mug of hot chocolate and a demon free evening in front of the TV. She pushed opened the front door, dropped her keys on the table and yelled " I'm home". Almost as if on cue, Phoebe ran from the kitchen, shoved a mug of coffee into Paige's hands and propelled her into the living.

"hey you're back! " she babbled " how was your day? Get up to much? You'll never guess what me and Piper did, we.."

" We" said Piper who had now entered the living room " said that we would give Paige 10 minutes to relax when she came in from work"

Paige in the meantime had managed tot sit down without spilling her coffee, gave Piper a confused look. " Is there any reason why Phoebe is on auto-witter this evening?"

Piper sighed "Long story short, Missy Phoebe wants us to take a trip to the future"

"what! why?"

"Its not just me!" Phoebe babbled. "Piper wants to go too!"

Paige groaned " Is this still part of your 'who am I going to marry kick?'"

'Sorta' Phoebe admitted. "Please, we'll be 5 minutes that's all, and then I promise I'll shut up, we wouldn't bother you, but we need a power of 3 spell"

"You two have no self-control" Paige lectured.

" Is that a yes?" Phoebe asked.

"lets just get it over with" Paige replied. " I have a date with the bath tub tonight."

The trio made their way up t the attic, where Phoebe finished the outline of the triquetra. They chanted the incantation, and the portal swirled open..

"I'm not sure about this" Piper worried "what if something happens?".

" Relax, we hop in, read the chart, hop back that's all it'll take" Phoebe pleaded.

" Alright"

"Yay!" She grabbed her sisters' hands and they stepped into the bright green light.

Stepping out on the other side, they entered an attic much like the on they had just left, except it was a lot more cluttered, and there were display cabinets, and red velvet ropes cordoning the room into different sections.

" There it is" Phoebe squealed with delight as she ran towards the peace of parchment bearing the Halliwell family tree. It was the same as the one they had in 2004, except that it was now slightly bigger, and was behind a sheet of Perspex glass.

"Phoebe, Phoebe" Phoebe muttered running her finger down the glass "….there I am! Lets see, Phoebe Halliwell marries Robert Clune, oohhhh, and we have Paloma born 2007, Paula born 2008 and Pelagia born 2012, 3 little girls awww how cute!" she gushed.

"What about me?" Piper demanded, overcome by curiosity herself.

" Piper…." Phoebe scanned quickly along the line. "Ah, marries Leo, Yadda Yadda, Wyatt, Yadda," fortunately in her haste, she didn't notice the 'date of death' printed ominously beneath Pipers name "Chris, Yadda and ….."

"What!"

" Victor, born 2006"

" Another boy" Paige smiled. "congratulations"

" Right, just got time to look for Paige.." Phoebe paused. "That is if you want to?"

"Oh why not, you dragged me all the way here anyway" Paige said.

, "

"here we are, Paige Matthews, marries some dude called Kyle Brody …anyway….you have Primrose aka 'Rosie' born 2008, Phillippa , aka 'Lil' born 2010, and ohmy god…."

"what?" Piper and Paige squealed.

"its, its uh"

"Pheebs what is it? We don't have time for this!" Piper cautioned.

" . well there's a 3rd daughter, the oldest,"

" And? what's the problem, did I give her some kind of stupid name like Fifi or Buffy or something?" Paige questioned.

"No"

"Oh for godsakes just let me see" Paige pushed Phoebe out of the way, she found her branch of the tree, looked at the glass, and read the inscription once, twice, three times, as she did so a feeling of nausea began to rise in her stomouch

"Wossit say?" Piper pushed closer, looking over Paige's shoulder she read aloud "Poppy-Jo Halliwell, bornMarch 9th, 1993, what the….?"

Suddenly, before anyone had time to say anything, they heard the sound of the front door opening downstairs, and a disembodied voice saying "first stop on our tour of the Halliwell Manor.."

"Quick! it must be some kind of Tour group coming, we gotta get out of here" Phoebe cried.

Piper and Phoebe ran toward the portal, they turned back to find Paige rooted to the spot, still staring at the chart,

"Paige! We have to go they're gonna find us!" Phoebe whispered.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, "Paige!" Piper hissed.

Paige suddenly snapped out of her trance, glanced at the door and dived for the portal, the three of them jumped through, as it closed behind them, just as the tour group reached the attic door.