For the first time in a long time, Prue was actually able to enjoy her morning shower. Normally after no more then five minutes she would hear someone pounding on the door, yelling at the top of their lungs.
"ARE YOU DONE YET? YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE FOREVER!"
She took a little longer then usual, allowing the nice hot water to wash away some of the stress that was bound to be waiting for her just outside that bathroom door. Her usual ten minutes extended to twenty. Upon exiting the bathroom, feeling more refreshed and relaxed, she met Piper in the hall as she was exiting her bedroom.
"How you feeling Piper? Did you sleep at all?"
"Some. It's just a lot to think about. Not to mention, I'm a little worried about Phoebe. She looked so stressed out."
"I know what you mean. Don't worry, we'll figure it out. She still sleeping?"
"Yea, I just looked in. Covers tossed on the floor and all."
"That's our Phoebe. The more worried she is when she falls asleep, the more stuff we have to pick up off the floor when she wakes up. Why don't you go take your shower? I'm going to get dressed."
"I hope you left enough hot water. You know how much Phoebe hates a cold shower first thing in the morning."
Prue just let out a small giggle as she closed the door to her bedroom. Piper too had to laugh. She knew that after she was done, there wouldn't be much hot water left.
Piper, like Prue lost track of time in the shower, and took longer then she was allowed. As she exited the bathroom she decided to check on Phoebe one more time. As she approached the door she could only hope that her baby sister was still fast asleep. Piper knew that first and foremost, Phoebe needed the sleep. Piper and Prue both knew that when it came to Phoebe's premonitions, there would be no more resting until an answer was found.
Piper also figured by the time Phoebe got up, there might be a little more hot water. Quietly opening the door, Piper inched her head inside the room. She let out a sigh of frustration when she found Phoebe wide awake, laying in her bed staring at the ceiling.
"Pheebs you ok?"
"Yea, I'm fine. Just thinking?"
Piper walked into the room and took a seat on the bed. Phoebe sat up and locked eyes with her sister. Piper could always read Phoebe, even as a child, but this was different. Phoebe looked like the whole world was on her shoulders.
"About Grams?"
"No about everything. Like who was the lady? Why did she choose me? And why now?"
"Well everything happens for a reason. No one knows that better then us. We'll figure it out."
"I guess your right."
Phoebe jumped off the bed, walked over to her closet, and grabbed her bathrobe. Turning around she made her way to the door. As if coming out of daze, Piper realized where Phoebe was heading and jumped off the bed. She stood in Phoebe's doorway; she wanted to find a way to stall.
"Where you going?"
"I don't know. Thought I would take a shower. Crazy thought I guess."
"Well I just thought that maybe you were to tired to take a shower. You know you look like you could use some more sleep."
"Well Piper you see, besides getting clean, part of the reason people take a shower is to help them wake up when their tired. Now move out of the way. I want to get to work on those letters so we can figure out what kind of demon we are up against."
"What makes you think it's a demon?"
"When's the last time I got a premonition that didn't involve a demon. Now for the last time move!"
"Oh, right sorry. I guess I'll see you downstairs."
Piper moved out of the way, allowing Phoebe to make her way into the bathroom. Piper simply stood in the hallway and listened to the door being closed, followed closely by the water being turned on.
Prue decided it was a good time to check on her sisters. She knew that Piper didn't usually take her time when it came to getting going in the morning. Prue stopped at the top of the stairs when she noticed Piper staring at the bathroom door.
"Piper? What are you doing? What's wrong?"
"You'll see…….3.…….2.……1.…"
"OH MY GOD….I'M GOING TO KILL YOU GUYS!"
Prue didn't need to ask anymore questions, she turned on her heals and headed straight downstairs. Piper looked over her shoulder expecting to see Prue still standing there. When she saw she was gone, she followed suit, running into her bedroom to get dressed as fast as possible.
About a half an hour later, Phoebe came down the stairs, fully dressed and towel drying her hair.
"Thanks a lot you guys. That's all I needed today was a freezing cold shower. What are you guys doing?"
Phoebe looked around the kitchen table. Letters and papers were spread everywhere.
"Sorry Pheebs. We tried to wait for you, but our curiosity got the better of us."
"That's alright I guess. If I had been the first one up, which next time I will, I would have done the same thing. Did you guys actually find anything?"
"Nothing at first. Just lots of letters about life on the road, and stuff like that. They weren't telling us anything about Paul, or his wife. Then it dawned on us that maybe the family history would."
"But you didn't actually find anything right?"
"Sure we did."
"That can't be. I've read that book cover to cover, I don't know how many times. I would remember him being there."
"Well he's here now. It's not like it's the first time stuff popped up in one of our books."
"Remember Barbas? Mom put that stuff in the book when she knew he was coming. Then she added things as she saw fit."
"You know just when we think we have all the secrets of this family uncovered, poof, more show up."
"Thanks a lot Grams. Since when are we detectives?"
Piper looked up to the sky. She knew her Grams could hear ever word she said. She also knew that she wouldn't appear unless she was summoned.
"You know maybe we should just summon Grams."
"Not yet Piper. Besides summoning her doesn't mean she'll tell us anything. We just need to figure it out for ourselves. Give me the book."
Phoebe poured herself a cup a coffee, then joined her sisters at the kitchen table. Prue placed the old book in front of Phoebe. Taking a sip of her coffee she cleared her throat before she began to read aloud.
PAUL ANTHONY HALLIWELL
First male witch to be born in the Warren line. He possessed the power of mind jumping and mind speaking. Unlike mind control, this gave him the ability to jump into peoples minds and speak to them, and for him to hear what they had to say.
Since the Wiccan line always ran through the women in the family, his powers were never very strong, and therefore grew at a very slow pace. Always wanting to learn more about his powers he spent a great deal of his time trying to learn everything he could from his mother.
Feeling bitter that his mother devoted most of her time and energy helping his younger sister Patty learn the ways of a witch, at the age of 18 he left home, not even leaving a note behind to say goodbye. He searched for many months until he found someone who was willing to teach him about magic, with the guarantee that his power would grow in a very short amount of time. Feeling that he would finally be worthy of being a Halliwell, he used his power to link with his family, and received many warning from his mother to walk away.
He was taken in by a group called the Powers for Life, although the rest of the magical world knew them as the Controllers. Their goal was to have all natural born witches under their control so they could rule the world.. Joining members knew nothing of their leader's plans, but were simply told they would help their powers to grow to help the world. Paul decided to learn what he could from these people, so that he could take his new advanced power back to his home and help protect his family, namely his little sister Patty. The leaders would often as about his family history, and where he got his powers from. Never wanted to have them involved, he would lie, and say that his parents were dead, and he didn't know much about them. They accepted this from him and allowed him to stay.
Paul spent many years in the group, but never took the final steps that would put him under their control. He convinced the leaders that he could be very useful in other ways, and he was allowed to stay to recruit new members, and work the finances. One day he met a new member of the group who he fell deeply in love with, and together they found the strength to leave the group. They realized the dangers that they were in, and knew they could never fully be together while in the group. They ran for many years before settling down, and starting a family of their own.
Phoebe turned the page of the old book expecting to read more. When she saw there was nothing there, she slammed the book closed in frustration.
"What? That's it? Where is the rest?"
"Grams probably never had the chance to finish Paul's story. We know that he did get married to Sarah, and had a child."
"How do you know that?"
"We think that where the book leaves off, the letters pick up. Read this."
Dear Mom,
I just wanted you to know that on February 26, 1987 save gave birth to your newest granddaughter. You wouldn't believe how much she reminds me of Patty. She has your eyes, and Patty's smile.
We named her Nancy, sorry mom, I know what your thinking, but we needed to break the 'P' names sometime. She has become the one real pleasure in our lives.
I will write more later.
Love Always,
Paul and Family
P.S. How are the girls doing? Please let me know if you need anything, I will try and send you what I can.
"That means that Grams must have written him, he knew about us."
"Yea, we know. This letter was written 5 years later."
Dear Grandma,
I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS
Love your Granddaughter,
Nancy
Hi Mom,
Nancy is so smart. The teachers say that she has an IQ of over 200, and will probably be out of college by the time she is 16. We don't want her to grow up too fast, so we decided to wait on sending her to school. We are letting her finish her one year of preschool, then we'll keep her home for a while. They don't know where to put her anyway.
Even though she has never met you, she knows all about you, and is always asking when we can write grandma again. She is so proud to be a witch, and is totally excited to know that the Charmed ones are her cousins. Sarah and I are just happy to finally discover what her power is. She has my power, only more advanced. She can leap into people's dreams, and pull us into hers. Last night, she was having a nightmare and was scared, so she pulled me into her dream. She said she needed me to keep her safe. At least some of the dreams we have had since Nancy was born make sense now.
Well I have to go and get ready for work. Yes mom can you believe it. I finally have a full time job, and it never felt so good. Sarah says hi, and is really starting to push for us to see each other. Maybe this summer. Who know.
Love Always,
Paul and Family
P.S. I have included Nancy's school picture. Thank goodness she isn't as devilish as Patty was, then again right now Nancy is an only child. Give us time.
"Where's the picture?"
"Right here."
Prue handed the picture to Phoebe, and watched as Phoebe starred at it."
"She looks like you when you were young Pheebs."
"She does. Really?"
"Yea. People always used to say that you were a dead ringer for mom when you were kids. You might not remember, but Grams used to slip all the time and call you Patty. I asked her why once, and she said you reminded her so much of Mom. Even with how you used to get into trouble."
"Now I remember. I wonder what Nancy…..HUH…"
For the second time today, Phoebe was pulled from her own thought, and shoved into the black and white world of a premonitions, that through pictures in her mind.
As she came out of it she could say nothing. She developed a sheer look of terror on her face. Her stomach began to turn as she tried to form force words out of her mouth. Her hands began to shake, and her lower lip quivered. Seeing the stress on Phoebe's face, Prue told Piper to get some water, as she kneeled in front of Phoebe taking hold of her hands and speaking in a soft and calm voice.
"It's alright Pheebs take your time. Drink some of this water. Just relax."
Piper handed Prue the water and then sat back down in the chair next to her baby sister. She watched as Phoebe tried to calm down so that she could tell them what she had saw.
"Good, now can you tell us what you saw?"
Taking a deep breath, she placed the glass of water back on the table, and took a hold of Prue's hands one more time. She almost felt like she had to draw some strength out of Prue in order to put her thoughts into words.
"I saw, I would assume it was Sarah and Paul being killed. I'm pretty sure it already happened. I saw, well a form of Nancy there. She looked like this picture."
"A form?"
"Yea, it's a little hard to explain. It was like a hologram of Nancy, or something like that. I'm pretty sure she got away. If she did, then she is all alone, and has no one to help her. You know it's bad enough that Warren witches have to loose their mothers at a young age, buy why fathers too. I don't understand."
"Phoebe calm down we don't know for sure that it already happened."
"Yes we do Prue. Look."
Piper handed Prue the family tree. Like the words in the Family History, dates appeared next to Sarah and Paul's names. They held their breath and waited to see if a date another date appeared next to Nancy's name, but it never did.
"We have to find her."
"How Pheebs. We don't even know where she is. None of these letters have a return address. Grams probably had it memorized, and threw it away so no one could find it.
Piper was trying to be the voice of reason, but she knew that I wasn't coming out the right way. She could see the wheels of thought rolling in Phoebe's mind.
"Maybe, if I concentrate hard enough on this picture, I can force a premonition, and find out where she is, or at least if she's alright."
Prue and Piper both knew that Phoebe was both emotionally and physically drained, but knew that trying to reason with Phoebe right now wouldn't be the best idea. So for the better part of the rest of the day, they watched as Phoebe focused all her remaining energy concentrating on the picture. While they all hoped that a premonition would pop into Phoebe's head, and show that Nancy was not just alive, but happy, Prue and Piper knew the odds of that were very slim.
As night drew closer, Phoebe tried harder and harder, with no success. She eventually gave in to her sister's demands, to get some sleep, and try again in the morning. Prue and Piper tucked their exhausted baby sister into bed, kissed her goodnight, and turned in for the night themselves.