The Witching Hour
Part 5
By JewWitch
Prue's eyes opened very slowly, blinking in the dazzling sunlight that made everything in her room seem a little bit fuzzy. Her mind drifted sleepily in and out of the shapes thrown onto the wall from the shadows of the curtains, as the waking world began to take shape. She looked across the room and saw Piper still asleep in the other bed, arms wound tight around Prue's favorite teddy bear. The impulse rose in Prue to go straight over and yank it from her three-year-old sister's sleeping arms, but it died before she'd even thrown off the covers. She was mad at her sister. She wanted her teddy bear back. But...she didn't want Piper to wake up crying. And she certainly didn't want to be the reason Piper woke up crying.
Instead, Prue wiggled out of bed and found her Bert and Ernie slippers, and padded quietly to the door, down the hall to the stairs, her hand thumping lightly against each rail in the banister as she went. By the time she reached the bottom step, she could see the back of her mother's head over the top of the couch. She smiled widely.
"Mommy," she said happily, and pattered quickly across the entryway of the manor, to the sunroom where her mother was nursing her new sister.
"Up already, little girl?" Her mother wrapped one arm around her as Prue burrowed against her side, barely feeling the baby's tiny feet resting on top of her head. "Is Piper up, too?"
"No, she's still dreaming." Prue sat up and looked dubiously at the tiny, wiggly creature her mother held so close in her other arm. It was basically just a lump of blankets with a head, and no hair.
"Did I look like that when I was a little baby?" Prue asked doubtfully.
"You certainly did, my love," Her mother answered with a smile. She held Prue's chin in her hand, and tilted her face gently to one side, her thumb stroking Prue's cheek lovingly. "You've grown into such a beautiful, big girl, do you know that?" Prue grinned shyly, and buried her face against her mother's side again. Then she turned and snuggled down on the couch, her head once again under the baby's feet. When Phoebe gave a particularly hard suck and kicked her tiny heels, Prue giggled.
"But she's so little!"
"Yes, and one day she'll be a big girl like you...but until then, you and Piper, and Grams and I, have to help her, and take care of her." Prue sat up suddenly, a huge grin on her face.
"Like how I showed Piper how to walk!" She beamed at the memory of the many afternoons she'd spent walking backwards around the living room, holding one-year-old Piper's hands in hers, Piper shrieking with laughter as she stumbled around after her big sister. Then, one day Prue had let go-- and Piper had stayed on her feet.
"That's right, Prue. You've been a very good big sister to Piper...and now you're Phoebe's big sister, too." Prue frowned thoughtfully.
"Piper's her big sister too," she pointed out. "Maybe Piper wants to teach her how to walk."
"There's plenty of time for that, darling," her mother smiled, kissing her on the top of her head. "Do you want to hold her?" Prue nodded eagerly, sitting up with her legs crossed and both arms resting on her knees, palm up, like her mother had shown her. "Here we go," Patty murmured, and the next thing she knew, Prue was holding all six pounds, seven ounces of Phoebe in her lap.
"Hi Phoebe," Prue cooed, staring down at the baby's huge brown eyes. They blinked at each other for a moment, silently. "She's thinking!" Prue announced, thunderstruck.
"Of course she is," Patty smiled.
"Does she know what we're saying?" Prue asked seriously.
"Not exactly," her mother explained, "she just knows the sounds of our voices."
"She knows who we are," Prue said confidently.
"Yes, baby girl, she knows we're her family." Prue nodded at her mother's words, staring intently into the baby's eyes again.
"Her eyes are so big," she murmured. "And dark," she added. The smile faded slightly from her mother's face then, and she laid a hand lightly on top of the baby's head.
"She's going to see a lot more than the rest of us," Patty sighed. Prue blinked up at her mother in confusion. "Prudence, you know that our family is very, very special." Prue nodded. "And we can do things that other people can't."
"With magic!" Prue agreed happily, resisting the urge to bounce up and down. She was still aware of her baby sister's tiny, fragile body resting in her arms.
"That's right."
"Like how I can move things, and you and Piper can freeze things."
"Yes, baby, exactly. Phoebe's power isn't going to be like that."
"You mean she doesn't get anything good?" Prue asked, frowning.
"No, I don't mean that," her mother said slowly, with a shake of her head. "Phoebe's power is very good...when you are all big girls together, her power is going to help lots and lots of people. But it won't be fun for her, the way yours and Piper's are. Of course, you're not supposed to use your powers for fun..." Prue giggled as her mother poked her lightly in the ribs. "But Phoebe's going to see things before they happen."
"That sounds fun," Prue shrugged, imagining being able to see her Christmas presents in July.
"What if you saw Piper falling down and getting hurt?"
"I wouldn't want to see that," Prue said simply.
"Well Phoebe won't be able to choose what she sees," her mother explained. "She'll see a lot of bad things, Prue...she'll see where our magic is needed the most."
"And then we fix it?"
"Right."
"Cause we're good witches."
"We," Her mother grinned imperiously, "Are the best witches." Prue giggled, then a funny, dizzy feeling came over her; she closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her mother was gone. An adult Phoebe sat next to her now, holding a tiny skeleton wrapped in a baby blanket close against her chest. Prue felt a sick, cold feeling plunging down into her stomach as she looked up into Phoebe's anguished eyes, the same eyes she'd been looking down at moments before. She tried to reach out for her sister's arm, but she was frozen, completely unable to move or speak.
"Prue..." Phoebe whispered, tears running down her cheek and dripping onto the yellow baby blanket. "Why won't you help us?"
...Prue woke up sobbing, with her head buried in Faith's raven hair. The dream had been so real, so vivid in its sensory details...she could still smell her mother's perfume, and Phoebe's powdery infant freshness. Overcome with missing them both, she sobbed harder, clinging to her girlfriend's warm body with a dim awareness of Faith's voice in her ear.
"Sssh, baby, shh, it's okay...we're gonna get her back, P, I swear we are." Faith began to stroke Prue's sleek black hair as she spoke, lulling Prue from her state of fevered agitation.
"How could I let this happen?" Prue choked. It had been over a week since Phoebe had been snatched right from under their noses, and Paige had disappeared. Each day that they searched, and scryed, and hunted, Prue felt her heart growing heavier with despair. "I'm supposed to protect this family."
"Prue," Faith said patiently, marking the seriousness of her words by actually using her girlfriend's name, "This is not your fault, and you know it. Don't torture yourself, please?"
"I can't help it," Prue mumbled with a shake of her head. "I keep dreaming about when Phoebe was a baby...and then I drop her, or I let her drown, or I'm not holding her right and she breaks her neck...and I keep seeing her eyes, those huge, baby Phoebe eyes, just staring up at me in shock, like: how could you let me die?"
"Hey." Faith grabbed Prue by the shoulders, letting her girlfriend feel a little more of her slayer strength than she normally would have. "Phoebe is not dead, Prue. Don't you go burying her. She is still out there, and she still needs you, so don't start the pity party just yet."
"You're right, Fai," Prue sighed, her ice blue eyes hardening with fresh resolve as she wiped her damp cheeks roughly.
"Damn straight." Prue snickered at her girlfriend's typical bravado.
"You're a piece of work, you know that?"
"Yeah, but that's why you love me," Faith teased. Then her grin froze, sliding into an expression of absolute terror that Prue had never seen her wear before-- even when facing the most monstrous of demons. "I mean--" Faith stuttered, "I-- I-- I didn't mean--" Prue leaned forward and silenced her girlfriend with a very firm kiss, holding Faith's face with both hands. Sometimes Faith was very aggressive-- she was a slayer, an alpha dog if ever there was one. And Prue liked that...she liked it a lot. But sometimes (like now) Prue sensed that her slayer needed to know she could turn the tables anytime she wanted to. After they'd broken apart, Prue leaned down and whispered with a hot breath in Faith's ear-- "That's exactly why I love you." Faith leaned her head against Prue's lips, an incoherent sound coming form the back of her throat. Then she turned and pinned Prue on the mattress beneath her, kissing her with a gentleness completely at odds with the strength holding Prue's hips in place. With one long, low sigh of pleasure, Prue squinted and threw Faith off her with her powers, pinning her girlfriend back against the headboard, arms above her head as if she were handcuffed.
"Hey!" Faith's outraged expression only served to increase Prue's delighted grin.
"What's the matter, Faithy? You can dish it out, but you can't take it?" Prue's grin took on a decidedly sultry edge as she teased her girlfriend, crawling up her body and brushing her exposed skin with her breasts. Faith's back arched, the only part of her body that she could really move.
"Goddamit, P, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Faith snarled, struggling against the magic that held her down. Prue's smile half-slid off her face, and she looked down, releasing Faith's arms from the headboard.
"The same thing you do to me all the time," She said coldly. "Remember?"
"But I thought you liked it!" Faith exclaimed plaintively, her eyes wide and overwrought, looking like a confused child.
"I do like it, Fai," Prue assured her, crawling into the space beside her anxious girlfriend and curling up against her shoulder. "That's why I wanted you to get a turn, too." She looked up, winding a lock of Faith's wavy brown hair around her finger. "But if you don't want to..."
"No--" Faith shook her head-- "I mean, yes--" she sighed in exasperation. "I do want to. I want you to be, y'know, in charge sometimes. I just didn't know...how scary it would feel." Faith looked down at her hands at this admission.
"Oh, honey!" Prue cried, holding Faith's face in her hands, a look of bewildered shock on her face. "You know I'd never, ever do anything to hurt you. Don't you?"
"Yeah," Faith shrugged, her dark eyes looking back earnestly into Prue's stormy blue ones. "But you could. ...That's not something I ever had to think about, before." Prue could sense what this admission cost her girlfriend, sensed how vulnerable she was allowing herself to be, maybe for the first time. She wasn't sure what to say.
"I promise I'll never hurt you on purpose." They both realized they were no longer talking about who was more aggressive in bed.
"Me too," Faith said quietly, stroking Prue's long, raven-black hair. She smiled softly to herself as Prue leaned over to kiss her. At least I took her mind off her sister, she thought to herself. Where the hell are you, Phoebe?