Chapter 21 - Over
I had another letter from Dan a few days ago. I read it.
I was going to throw it away, I really was, but I couldn't help it.
It was pretty much the same as the other one, moaning. He said he heard about me and Leo, congratulated me, and asked how long I expected it to last.
And magic. He asked about it. Said he had told his lawyer what he saw, but he didn't believe him. Blamed me.
But I can't think about that right now. So much is going on with me right now. Magically.
My new power. I can blow things up. Something about molecules. Whenb I freeze I slow them down, and when I blow them up, I speed them up. I don't really get it to be honest. It makes my head hurt.
Phoebe got a new power a few days ago too. She can levitate.
Beats me what it has to do with premonitions.
And Patty.
She has another power - my power. The freeze one. Leo says she'll probably get my other when she's older. He doesn't think she'll get any more soon. She can protect herself, that's all that matters.
Oh, and the source. Of all evil, that is.
Sounds like a great guy, doesn't he?
Maybe we could be friends, you know, if he wasn't intent on killing us.
Yeah.
Phoebe's working on a spell to vanquish him, which we have to do soon. Before he attacks us. We have to be prepared.
Cole told us the source is going to come after us. Kill us before we get more powerful.
We have to get him first.
Fabulos. No rest for the Charmed Ones.
I wondered if it was worth it, getting free of Dan.
If the source kills us, it was all a waste ...
But then ... Even if Leo and haven't been together long, I'm glad of the time we had.
"Finished!" Phoebe sang.
"Huh?" I asked, looking up.
"We figured out what the spell was missing." She said, waving her arm across Cole's chest.
"And?"
"Our anncesters. That's what we were missing. If we can draw our magic from the entire line ..."
"We might have enough power to vanquish the source." I finished.
"Yes." She held out the peice of paper and I skimmed the spell.
This is good.
"This might work." I told her.
"I'll go tell the elders." Leo said, orbing out.
"Hey! You didn't sign the -!" I sighed.
"Honey, are you still on that last will and testement kick? I gotta tell you, it's very, very morbid."
"No, it's responible. I have to make sure Patty is looked after, and Leo is the most likly to survive, so -"
"I know what you're saying, but ... I have a good feeling about this. We can make it."
"Sure. Source or no source, we still need a will, especially if this family's gonna get bigger ..."
"I know, I know. Just ... Piper, I'm as scared as you, you know that?"
I nodded. "Phoebe, this is bigger than any other demon. This is ... Phoebe, I stood in my daughters bedroom once, thinking that I was going to die, that my little girl would see my last breath, then it would be her turn. I escaped then. Then I faced Jermey, and again, I was convinced it was my last day. We escaped. Then I stood in that room -" I jerked my thumb towards the conservetory - "And felt a bullet tear through me, and I laid in that hospital, finding it harder to breath, and thinking that, once again, I'd never wake up. I escaped again."
She looked at me.
"You're telling me you expect us to escaped again, to carry on living, breathing, after all of this. No one is that lucky."
"Maybe we are." She said carefully.
I stormed away.
"Give her some time." I heard Cole say to Phoebe.
In my room, I broke down, crying. In my eyes our days were numbered.
Mum. She died young, left her daughters.
Grams. Not so young, but we were. She left us.
And now, it was our turn. Our turn to die, and leave Patty ...
"It's not."
I turned to see Leo.
"It's not your turn, Piper. If you believe that, then you might as well give in now. You don't want to leave Patty or me. You want to beat it, you want to have another daughter, that little girl you saw. You want to be happy." He said softly.
I nodded. How does he know what I'm thinking? It's nice and scary, all at once.
"What time is it?" I asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I remembered something.
"Huh?"
"What time is it?"
"Twenty to two ... Why?"
"I have a doctors appointment." Damn. A secret doctors appointment.
"What? Why?"
"A ... fertility test ..."
"What? Piper ... we haven't been trying that long -"
"I know. It's just to make sure." I assured him. "Really. I have to go."
"Piper?" Paige said when I reached the bottom of the stairs. "Are you OK?"
"Fine." I told her, then carried on walking.
"Piper? Piper!"
I ignored her. If I spoke, I'd cry.
When I got into the car I crying anyway.
"Honey." Paige said. I jumped.
"Paige! What's wrong with you! Orbing? Outside?"
"Relax." She shook her head a little. "Are you OK."
"Fine."
"See you keep saying that, but I don't think you are. Talk to me, Piper."
She sounded so hurt. I sighed.
"My ... my period was a little late this month, and I kinda got my hopes up." I confessed.
"Honey, come on, it'll happen. You haven't been trying long?"
"A while." I said. "But Patty was a ... surprise.- A great, amazing surprise - but she wasn't planned. And I was just ... being throw around by demons every day probably doesn't help. So I booked a doctors appointment."
"Do you want me to come?"
"If I say no will you come anyway?"
"Yep."
"Let's go." I sighed, starting the car up.
"Ms. Halliwell, there's ... some problems." Dr. Harris said carefully.
"There is?"
He explained. Something about scarring or scar tissue, something about blunt trauma injury.
"Have you suffered any serious blows to the abdoment?" He asked.
"Um ... kinda ..." I muttered. Try several.
Oh, god. Being a witch is going to stop me having that little girl ...
"... it would be difficult, if not impossible for you to conceive." He finished.
I stood up, ran from the office.
I was halfway across the car park when I threw up.
"Honey, it's going to be OK. It's going to happen." Paige was saying.
"When ... when we went to the future, I saw that little girl, my little girl. And I saw what she looked like, sounded like, the sound of her laugh. And I ... I can't imagen not knowing her, not seeing her and Patty playing ..."
"You still might."
"I might not." I said, leaning against a nearby car. "I just ... I don't know what to tell Leo. He's so exited about having a baby ..."
"Sweetie ..." She trailed off.
"Let's go home." I said, walking towards the car.
I have Patty.
I have my little girl ...
But Melinda ...
Her face is torchering me. I can't face never meeting her. Never seeing her.
Can I live with Patty being an only child?
We walked into the house in silence. Paige hadn't tried to get me to talk, hadn't pushed me.
I just wanted to cry.
"Piper ..." Prue said carefully.
"What?" I snapped. I didn't mean to snap.
"A demon came, here. He's took Phoebe's powers."
"What! How? Did you get him!" I asked. Everything else was thrown from my mind.
"No. Phoebe checked the book. He can steal powers by touching you, or having them used against him. It says in the book the source imprisoned him, because he was threatened. Looks like he's out, somehow, and after us."
"There's more." Leo said, orbing in. "The Elders think he'sbe working for the source. Which means the source is desperate. This demon could double cross him ... But the source could take your powers and -"
"Oh, no." Paige gasped.
Yep. A demon.
"Piper - no!" Prue yelled as I flicked my hands out to blow him up - I gotta admit I love that power - completely forgetting what I'd just been told.
He smirked at me, then left.
"Now he has your powers Piper. Great." Prue snapped. She turned and walked.
I stared at her, stung.
"She's just worried." Phoebe assured me. "About the source ..."
I nodded.
"She's right. I'm so stupid. I should've thought -"
"You have a lot on your mind right now." Paige said. "I'll go talk to Prue."
The source. He was coming closer.
My chances of having that little girl were gone.
"Well, we need our powers, either way." Paige said.
"How do we get them?" I asked septically. Something told me my baby sister had a plan.
And Paige's plans weren't always that great.
"Call for them." She said simply. "Prue!"
Prue joined us, shooting a "i'm sorry" look at me, and Paige told her the plan
"No." Prue said. "We're aren't doing this. It's suicide. We take the powers away from him, he'll follow."
"No it's not. We're doing it." I said. "Are the crystels in the attic?" Phoebe nodded. "OK, so we call our powers back, and if he comes we orb upstairs."
"Piper -" Leo said slowly.
"Take Patty upstairs." I said to Leo. He looked at me uncertainly. "I love you, OK?" I said to Patty, kneeling down. "Don't ever forget that, kay? Mummy loves you."
She nodded.
"And you." I said softly to Leo. "I love you."
"I love you too." He whispered. Then he and Patty disappeared in a cloud of orbs.
"Let's do this." Prue said.
"Powers of the witches rise -" We chanted. "Course unseen across the skies. Come to us who call you here, come to us and settle here."
Not exactly what I expected.
The house shook, the source flamed in.
"Oh my god." Paige whispered.
"Not quite." The source smirked.
"I thought we called for our powers?" Phoebe hissed.
I tried to blow him up. He came back, but it worked.
"We did." I replied.
"Run!" Phoebe cried.
"Orb!" I added. Paige obediantly orbed up into the attic.
"Paige, get the crystels ..."
"He's coming." Phoebe gasped.
He flamed in, and looked around us all.
"Seems almost anti-climatic, doesn't it?" He said.
"Crystels, circle." Paige yelled.
He laughed at us.
"You think you can beat me?" He tried to throw a fireball at us - and it rebounded.
"Yes. I do." I replied. I grabbed Prue's hand on my right, and Paige on my left. Phoebe grabbed hold of Prue.
"Penelope, Patricia ..." Prue said loudly, her face fixed, determined.. When did she learn the spell?
Oh, right. Must be my turn. Don't tell me this is how we're doing it then.
"Melinda, Ashford," I continued, straining to remember. God, I hope this works.
"Helena, Laura ..." Phoebe added, her eyes wide with fear.
"And Grace." Paige looked ... I don't know. There was definetly fear in her eyes, but she looked determined, confident. Like she had no doubts about this, she totally believed it would work.
"Halliwell witches -" Oh, we're chanting again. "- Stand strong beside us, vanquish this evil from time and space."
Amazingly, a fire lit beneath his feet, then spread.
He didn't scream. He didn't shout.
He didn't make a sound. Just looked across at us all.
He met my gaze, locked him eyes on mine. I shivvered.
"It's over." Prue breathed
I know I kinda changed it a bit, but I decideed Cole isnt going to be the source. Or not any time soon. Review!