Price of Love– Mirandabelle

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Disclaimer: Charmed is the property of WB and Aaron Spelling Productions, and I do not own the actual idea or storyline.

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Summary: Three young witches all eager to fall in love little realizing that they're about to wind up in the middle of some pretty serious trouble! Max, James and Brendan, Prue Piper and Phoebe's new boyfriends seem too good to be true, and the feeling appears to be mutual until a premonition on Phoebe's part wakes them up and starts a very interesting ride, resulting in three broken hearts - but not to whom you might think.
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Max, James and Brendan certainly were biding their time in gaining the Charmed Ones' trust. Three peaceful weeks later Phoebe happily greeted her boyfriend at the door with a kiss. "Oh, hi, umm Piper! James is here!" The policeman stood behind Brendan. Piper rushed downstairs and straight into James's arms.

"I don't know how long it's been since I last saw you. But every time the wait is so worth it."

"Two days, Piper, two days." Phoebe shook her head as she and Brendan went upstairs. Outside, Prue helped Max from the seat of her car and slowly got him up the steps of the house with Piper and James helping.

"Thanks, Piper you too James." Prue helped Max away. Piper and James sat on the couch nearby, and began to talk quietly, every now and then smiling and punctuating a sentence with a kiss.

Although Prue and Piper were too rapt to notice, it was at exactly the same time that Max and James pulled a ring from their pocket, and presented it to the girls. James getting down on one knee, and Max simply presenting the ring, the cast on his leg still making it impossible.

"Oh my god yes!" Piper responded first. Prue's answer was a split second behind her. After kissing their new fiancés thoroughly Prue and Piper ran to each other for an ecstatic hug.

"I can't believe it, I'm so in love!" Prue cheered, as Phoebe and Brendan bounded down the stairs happily.

"Say hello to your new brother-in-law!" Phoebe shouted jumping almost on top of her sisters for another hug.

"Say hello, to your brother-in-laws!" Piper announced, Phoebe's jaw dropped.

"What... you two too?" Phoebe's question was answered by Prue and Piper's smug nods. The stunned two second silence was broken abruptly by Phoebe's joyful shriek as she once more tackled her sisters into a rough, excited hug. Max, James and Brendan were busy meanwhile, watching their new fiancées with proud eyes and shaking each other's hands.

"Brendan, babe... you want to come back upstairs?" Phoebe asked with a mischievous grin.

"No, Max James and I decided we're going to go out together, seeing as we're going to be brother-in-laws we'd better get to know each other. It will also give you time to celebrate without bursting our eardrums!" Phoebe grinned and almost blushed, realizing she had come out with two high-pitched shrieks in as many minutes.

"Alright then honey," Piper said, kissing James gently. "Have fun you three!"

"Look, look at the ring!" Phoebe skipped back from the door, having shut it after the men, and presented her hand proudly in front of Prue's, then Piper's and then Prue's face again, so quickly nether sister had a chance to actually see the ring.

"Slow down Phoebs," Piper laughed, catching her sister's hand. She brought the hand close to her face and then dropped it so quickly; Phoebe began to protest about how Piper couldn't have even seen the ring properly.

"Your ring... it's the same as mine..." Piper inspected her ring, and Phoebe brought her hand closer to her sister's. "Prue?" Prue did the same, and the three girls realised, shocked, that the rings were identical. On closer inspection, the apparent garnets gracing the rings didn't shine in the late afternoon sun warming the lounge, and when held to the light, instead of the traditional new-ring sparkle, the deep red gem was cloudy, the inside appearing to swirl and ebb as though filled with a thick, sinister fog.

"Take them off!" Prue announced, dropping Piper's hand from under her nose and yanking on her own, "Get them off, they're probably jinxed."

"Jinxed Prue?" Phoebe giggled, "They went to the same jeweler is all."

"I've got to admit jinxed is a lame excuse Prue. These guys aren't warlocks." Piper admitted, tugging reluctantly on her ring, preparing to humour her elder sister for a while.

"Then why won't it come off?" The authority in Prue's voice was beginning to fade as she sounded more and more anxious.

"Bad fitting?" Phoebe too, sounded less confident, noticing Piper's trouble in removing the ring. After a few minutes, it became clear that the rings were not doing to be removed, despite Phoebe's - self proclaimed cheap jewellery queen - multiple tricks, olive oil, soap and lip gloss to act as lubricants which succeeded in making a mess, Piper's - "I-read-this-in-a-magazine" - idea of chilling her finger to make it shrink so the ring could slide easily that appeared to work only on the ring, and Prue's - somewhat more practical - theory of running the ring under hot water to help the ring expand, which although didn't remove the rings, cleaned up Phoebe's sticky mess and thawed Piper's nearly blue hand.

"This isn't right," Piper's voice held more than a twinge of doubt, "The rings should come off." It's not that the rings were badly fitted, the girls had no discomfort and the rings could rotate freely, but any attempt to remove them resulted in the distinct impression the metal was fused to the skin.

"Attic." Phoebe said suddenly an hour or so later from her position on the sofa where she'd been alternately studying her engagement ring, and trying to pull it off.

"Hmm?" Piper too, had relaxed to a chair where she was also scrutinizing her new ring. Although perturbed, they saw no real danger to them in the immediate sense, and had resorted to meditating on the situation.

"The Book of Shadows," Prue elaborated. "There'll be an answer in there."

A few minutes later, and with a little help from Grams, the girls learnt that their rings were part of a binding spell, making their powers weaker, and allowing the giver of the rings to get closer to them.

"So… how do we get them off?" Piper was scanning the page.

"It doesn't seem to say." Prue replied, the tail end of her sentence being lost in a crash and footsteps running up the stairs.

As three Love Demons burst into the room, Piper threw her hands up, but the demons only froze for a second, continuing their entry. Prue pushed both her hands up, and was able to hold them back for a second, before the power rebounded, throwing her against the wall.

"Prue!" Piper yelled, kicking the nearest demon into a bookcase. Suddenly, a whistling filled the air, and one of the demons began to turn to dust, being sucked towards Prue's ring, which had shattered as she landed.

"Break the stones, it breaks the spell!" Phoebe hollered, bringing her left fist into the face of the demon attacking her with such force the ring shattered, and that demon also began to turn to dust, being sucked into the ring.

Piper caught on quickly, and giving her attacker a final kick, she smashed her hand against the altar the book sat on.

As she did so whistling filled the air again, and screaming with pain the final demon was sucked into the ring.

The room was quiet again suddenly, and with a small clatter, the rings fell off the girls' fingers. Prue quickly scooped them up, and dropped them into a larger potion bottle and corked it.

"Pity," she mused aloud. "Those rings would have been worth a fortune at Buckland's." Piper and Phoebe could do nothing more than let out a relieved laugh.