"Oh Jerry, don't be such a fuddy-duddy. Get with the program" Phoebe was saying to her husband Jerald Bowen in the conservatory. Patience and Penelope were eavesdropping in from the Parlour.
"Problems in Paradise eh?" Penelope whispered to her cousin.
"Penelope" Patience reprimanded and then sighed. "She wants the speakeasy and he doesn't. That's the basic problem," she explained but Penelope shook her head in disbelief.
"No the problems have been more and they've been round for a while The Speakeasy is just the excuse, the cover-up" She said wisely then contemplated as she looked on at the happy couple. "Makes me glad I divorced mine. Men are a complication. Hold you back" She turned to her cousin, "You'll be lucky if you never…" She stopped, realizing what she had been about to say. "Sorry I didn't mean…" She started to correct herself but trailed off as Patience held up her hand.
"I know. It doesn't matter" Patience also trailed off. She had been madly in love not too long ago. Her lover had been called away for the war like most men, and unfortunately he never returned. "Missing In Action" was the official phrase, but Patience knew the Angel of Death had taken him. Patience had felt he was her soul mate and now without him…well, Patience didn't know what. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and resumed eavesdropping, sister-style, on her cousin.
"I cannot condone this Phoebe!" Jerry was saying, or rather he was starting to yell, meaning Penelope and Patience no longer had to strain to listen in on the conversation that was fast becoming an argument.
"Well lucky for me, because believe it or not Jerry, I don't need you to condone it. I am my own person and I can do what I bloody well like!" She finished before storming off in the direction of the kitchen. Jerry, at a loss, flopped down in Patience's Aunt Pearl's (Phoebe's mother) old sofa in the conservatory. Patience sighed again as she realized her Aunt Pearl was another person in the family been taken by a demon. In the vanquish of the said demon actually. She had joined together with her cousin Laura, Penelope's Mother, to vanquish a Skeletal being that had been wreaking havoc and terror on San Francisco Bay. The two had believed themselves to be indestructible, not even bothering about the fact that the potion they were making contained both Burdock Root and Eye of Newt which Patience knew as common witch sense, was a volatile combination. Despite the fact that the potion making almost killed the two alone, they still, being Warren Witches and their priority being to protect the innocent, went after the Skeletal being. They vanquished him but the impact of the vanquish killed the two witches as well. Patience had been upset but her cousins had been devastated. She wouldn't know what it felt like till four years later when her Mother died at the hands of a demon as well. The event that prompted the three to move back in together. Even though Patience would never shun her Warren destiny and duty she sometimes wondered if every witch in the family's only destiny was to die. She pulled herself out of her deep thoughts as she looked on at the down trodden Jerry.
"Aww poor Jerry" She sympathized but Penelope whacked her on the arm.
"Jerry knew what he was getting himself into-a free-spirited witch. Phoebe never wanted to be thoroughly tied down. He's got to stop trying to control her"
"Says the other free spirit" Patience smirked and Penelope had to laugh.
"Which is exactly why people should start taking my advice" she retorted. Patience was about to reply when she heard a yell and Phoebe came hurtling through the air, out of the kitchen and she crashed into the wooden alcove and dropped to the floor in a heap.
"Demon!" Phoebe warned them.
"Really?" Patience asked sarcastically as the two headed over to join their cousin. They helped Phoebe stand up and gain her balance and turned to face the red-skinned demon heading towards them. Patience threw up her hands and froze him.
"Okay, anybody got a vanquishing spell?" Penelope asked and the two shook their heads in panic. "Luckily I do" She told them "Repeat after me" Yet, before she had a chance to start chanting the demon broke through the freeze and sent an energy ball at Patience. She went hurtling backwards and slammed into a chair in the conservatory.
"Patience!" Penelope yelled and headed over to her. Phoebe held out her palm and blew lightly and as she used her power of cyrokinesis, the demon was literally frozen. She then ran over to both her cousins.
"Holds hands with her and I'll say the spell," Penelope told Phoebe. As she took Patience's hand she noticed that the ice on the demon was starting to melt.
"Okay-hurry Penelope. He's starting to break free," Phoebe, told her.
"I'm hurrying. I'm hurrying." She said before taking a breath and starting to say the spell. "Hellspawn demon, messenger of hell. To the wasteland we three send you with this spell!" The ice on the demon melted completely and he exploded into oblivion. Thankfully, leaving no remains behind.
"Phoebe! Are you okay?" Jerry, now that the demon fight was over felt it was safe to come and see if his wife and her cousins were okay. As Phoebe turned around to her husband to say she was fine she noticed the severe injury on Patience's arm and neck.
"Oh God. Patience" Phoebe said then held her head up heavenward. "Lance! Lance!" She yelled calling for her and her cousins' whitelighter. A moment later a tall blonde man who looked to be no older than 30 orbed in.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Patience, she needs healing" Penelope told him and Lance down next to her. He held his hands over Patience's wound and they started to glow and the wound started to heal. Eventually, Patience's injuries were gone completely. Patience sat up dazily, blinking slowly.
"Whoa. What happened?"
"You were hit by an energy ball, that's what happened." Phoebe told her sombrely. "We're lucky Lance healed you in time"
"On the upside we vanquished his sorry a-" Penelope was cut off with a look from Patience.
"Language Penelope" She reprimanded and Penelope rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Well, she's definitely okay. She's back to telling me off" She turned to their whitelighter "Thanks Lance" She told him and he nodded
"Anytime" he said before orbing out.
Patience stood up and started pacing silently in the sunroom. Penelope and Phoebe looked at each other in puzzlement before heading after her.
"Erm Patience? Problem?" Phoebe asked and Patience briefly stopped pacing to face the two.
"Maybe we should re-think this Speakeasy business" At the sound of this Jerry's ears perked up from across the room.
"What! Why?" Penelope asked in shock.
"Well the demon attacked you in the kitchen, right Phoebe?"
"Yes darling, but…" Phoebe admitted
"And the fight came into the dining room and sunroom, no?"
"What's your point?" Penelope asked, but Phoebe felt she already knew.
"Well what if that happens when there's a house full of people here for the Speakeasy? A house full of innocents?" Patience asked, confirming Phoebe's suspicions.
"Well we'll protect the ground level. We'll cast a protection spell. Cydarite crystals-anything." Penelope pleaded.
"Cydarite crystals only warn us of evil-it doesn't keep it away. And protection spells? If they worked so well we would have done it already." Patience argued.
"Well, we'll think of something…" Penelope said. All this time Jerry had been listening in and seeing Patience's rising doubt at the idea of a speakeasy he zoned in.
"Maybe Patience is right…maybe you shouldn't-" he began but Phoebe held her hand up in the air to quieten him.
"You!" She told him "You stay out of this" She then turned to her younger cousin. "Patience, we cannot let demons and warlocks rule our lives"
"Or ruin them for that matter" Penelope added.
"Come on. Trust us. We can make it work." Phoebe pleaded, grabbing both her cousin's hands and Patience nodded.
"Okay. Fine. But keeping it all an entire demon free affair will be up to you two alone" she said pointing at the two of them, "Okay?"
"Fantastic" Penelope exclaimed giving her youngest cousin a hug.
