Chapter Three - Meeting the Charmed Ones
Kitchen Floor, Halliwell Manor
The five of them landed on the floor, in the kitchen of the Halliwell Manor. Mulder and Scully, who had not been prepared for the landing, were flat out on their backs. Scully sat up a little too quickly and felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She must have hit her head when she landed. Sitting up again, more slowly, she took in her surroundings. Her back leaned against a stool, and the kitchen counter was filled with ingredients you would not use to cook a normal meal. How the hell did I get here? She thought angrily, still surveying the kitchen she had somehow got to.
"Where are we?"
"Oh yeah, like you don't know!" Piper said skeptically
"Actually, we really don't." Mulder piped up.
"I wasn't talking to you!" Piper snapped at him.
"Sorry." Mulder apologized hurriedly; well she did look quite scary when she was pissed...
"Who are you?" Phoebe demanded of them.
"I'm Special Agent Dana Scully and this is my partner Fox..." She watched Mulder wince at the mention of his name, "Mulder. We're with the FBI."
"Oh that's just great, we got the Feds on our backs again!"
"Um, no... Actually, we were just on our way back from a case when we bumped into you... mind telling us who you are?"
"Piper, Paige, and Phoebe Halliwell - you really don't know who we are?"
"No ma'am, no idea."
Piper sighed; this would take a whole lot of explaining.
"Wait - did you say your name was Scully?"
"Yeah... why?"
"Any relation to Melissa?"
"My sister? She's dead."
"I know, we heard. She doesn't blame you, you know."
"And how would you know that?"
"I doubt you'd believe me if I told you."
"Try me." Scully rolled her eyes.
"Well, she was a friend of mine... actually we all knew her. Her magic was pretty impressive."
"Huh? Magic?"
"Told you, you wouldn't believe."
Scully rolled her eyes again; they were obviously talking bullshit, in her opinion. She arched her eyebrow in Mulder's direction, silently asking him what he'd gotten them into this time.
"Would you mind telling us how we got here?"
"Well, Mr. Mulder, that's quite a long story. And I doubt you'd believe that either."
"Well can you at least tell us where here is?"
"San Francisco."
"Ah..." Mulder stated, as though it explained everything, "well, how exactly does one travel from Texas to San Francisco in less than five minutes?"
"Phoebe already told you, you wouldn't understand."
Scully shook her head in disbelief, and finally rose to her feet. Piper held her hands in front of her, and Phoebe took hold of her wrists,
"No, you don't need to do that. We can trust them."
"No offense, Phoebe, but just how do you know that?"
"She doesn't need to do what?"
"Freeze you... or blow you up," she shrugged, turning to Piper, "and they aren't demons."
Both Mulder and Scully's eyes widened. Freezing people? Blowing them up? Demons? They don't actually exist, do they? It was Scully who voiced the thoughts that were on both the Agents' minds.
"Demons? What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Didn't Melissa tell you anything before she died?"
"Anything about what?"
"Everything! She was a witch like us, and I can sense that behind the skeptical mask, you have a power too. Just like Missy said. She wanted to help you learn to use it before she died, but she didn't get the chance. So I guess it's up to us..."
"What powers? I don't have any! This is a load of crap. Come on Mulder, I'm getting out of here!"
Mulder either didn't hear her or wasn't listening. She got as far as the door before she realized he hadn't followed and marched back through to the kitchen, in a bid to pull him up from his position on the kitchen floor. He still didn't budge, but stared at the witches in awe.
"Dana... what if we were to show you something that would help you understand?"
"I doubt you can but you might as well try."
Phoebe took Scully's hand and led her to the hall and up the stairs.