Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Charmed!
Chapter 10: La verité s'il vous plaît
High above in the white fluffy mists of elderland, Chris waited patiently on the edge of a cloud. The whitelighters had been dismissed about an hour ago, and now only a few last stragglers remained. A knot of them, Leo included stood to the left of him, saying their final goodbyes, and trading stories, before orbing down to earth. Leo noticed his younger son looking pensive, broke away from the group to go join him.
"every thing finalised?" he asked his father without lifting his eyes from the horizon.
"yes"
"and they are 100 sure?"
"you know as well as I do Chris, nothing is ever completely sure, but they are sure enough for us to tell the girls"
"they're not going to like it"
"maybe not, but we can't alter what happened, and the main point is that Prue is back."
"I guess"
"I say we go put your mother and aunts out of their misery"
"I don't know if now would be such a good time"
"why not?"
"I sense Grams and Grandma, they must have summoned them"
"You're right. Lesson number 1 in this family, never get between the Halliwell women when they are having an argument, it's pure suicide. Perhaps we had better wait a while….."
XXX
"So what did you want to talk about dear?" Grams tried and failed miserably to inject a light airy tone into her voice.
"About Prue" Piper responded
"Prue? What about Prue?" Patty seemed confused.
"Well we've been thinking.." Phoebe began
"…. and seeing how it's been nearly 4 years " Piper continued " we think it's a good time that you let us see her, we're ready now, and Paige has never met her.."
"I don't know, it may not be a good idea" Penny attempted to deter them.
"Why not?" Piper was insistant
"I still don't think your ready" Penny rolled out her list of standard excuses "How do you know that seeing her won't set you back, especially as you've all moved on in your lives."
"hmmmm..perhaps you're right" Piper appeared to be placated.
"Of course I am dear, aren't I always" Penny was secretly reliaved that the subject had been dropped so quickly..
"Yeah"Phoebe chimed in, "Grams knows whats best for us, she would never lie to us"
"That's true" Paige agreed, enjoying the way that Grams was obviously uncomfortable on this topic and was trying not to show it.
"Was that the only reason you brought us down here?" Patty attempted to rescue her mother before she said too much.
"No, actually, there's some one we'd like you to meet" Piper told her.
"Really?" Now Grams was surprised.
"Yeah, come out come out wherever you are" Piper sing songed..
Prue guessing that this was to be her cue stepped around the corner.
"Prue", Patty ran forward knocking the candles left and right and grabbed Prue by the arms hugging her eldest child tightly.
"See now, that's where all this gets a little confusing, because don't you think mom is over reacting slightly, given that she see's Prue everyday?" Piper puzzled out loud to Phoebe in an overly fake voice, as Patty finally relinquished her vice like grip on Prue.
"Alright you got us" Penny caved in
"Well?" Phoebe asked quizzically.
"The reason why we never let you see Prue, is because she wasn't with us in the afterlife" Penny detailed.
"What?" all four girls shouted in unison.
"We knew she had died, literally the minute after she hit that wall, news filtered upwards" Patty began, as she stroked Prue's hair.
" This wasn't just you average witch in the street, this was a charmed one. So your mother and I waited for Prue to come join us" Penny continued.
"Except she never came."
"Didn't that ring alarm bells?" Piper interrupted.
"Well no actually. We saw you grieving, we saw the body ourselves. There are plenty of witches who never make it to the afterlife" Patty explained.
"How so?" Paige was intrigued despite herself.
"Some get caught in 'the inbetween', some are actually sent down to hell. So when she didn't reach us, we feared that she was going to be one of these witches." Penny detailed.
"Which is why when you asked if you could see her, we told her that you couldn't see her" Patty added
"Why the hell did you lie to us?" Piper's eyes flashed with anger. "again"
Paige blushed involuntarily as once again the stigma of her birth was brought into conversation.
"We had no choice. We saw how you were, the only thing that was keeping you together back then was the thought that Prue was at least being comforted by us." Penny pleaded.
"It's true" Phoebe had to agree, "that was my one positive thought, that at least Prue wasn't alone."
"So how were you going to explain it in say 10, 2 0years down the line?" Piper was impatient.
"I don't know" Patty adimtted, "we would have figured something out.."
"But now we don't need" to Patty finished.
"That still doesn't explain what happened to me" Prue cried
"I'm afraid we can't help there" Penny shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess only Leo can help us there" Phoebe sighed.
A wail from above interrupted the conversation.
"Looks like nap times over" Piper took a step forward
"I'll go!". Penny practically flew up the stairs.
"For a ghost she sure moves fast" Paige joked as she turned back to the group, noticing the tears forming in her mothers eyes.
"Look at you, my girls, all 4 of you, together, I always dreamed that I would see the day"
An awkward smile passed along the girls, who had subconsciously assembled themselves in order from the youngest to the oldest.
"Prue" Patty began to maker he way down the line, touching each of her daughters as she spoke "My brave strong girl, Piper, my sweet thoughtful child, Phoebe my free spirit, Paige my little miracle"
"How have you all been? Paige sweetie are you okay? She cupped her youngest daughters face in her hands.
"I'm fine" Paige bluffed.
"All he wanted was a hug from his great-grams" Grams returned toting baby Victor, "He gets more handsome each time I see him"
You're still not off the hook" Piper told her.
The door bell rang
"I'll get it!" Paige bolted for the door, to avoid the scrutinazing gaze of Patty.
"It's probably Dad and Ben" Phoebe said, just as Victor senior's voice boomed into the hallway
"What's with the cryptic message on my answer machine?" He was asking Paige. "Phoebe telling me to bring Ben home and get over here pronto for some special meeting.."
Ben ran through the door ahead of them. "Mummy! Guess what I did I" he halted in the room, realising it was full of strange people, his natural shyness overcame him
"Well" Penny nudged Patty, indicating Ben "there's no disguising who his father is"
"Mother!" Patty hissed
"What? I'm just saying, If you breed with demons…" Penny whispered.
"What's going on?" Victor finally entered the room, his eyes travelling over all the women before finally settling on.."Prue!" he cried.
"Hey Dad" Prue greated him "what's up?" she hugged him.
"Is this for real?" Victor goggled "or is this some kind of wiccan joke?"
"No, I'm for real Dad,don't know how, don't know why, but I'm here"
"She came back to us this morning" Piper explained "we're waiting for Leo and Chris to return with an explanation.
"Huh" Victor processed this information.
The twinkling sound of impending orbs filled the room.
"Perhaps this is them now!" Phoebe exclaimed.
The orb cloud cleared depositing Jo into the centre of the room, Prue instantly recognised her from the photos in Paige's room.
"Busted!" she muttered
"Did you just orb home from School young lady?" Paige attempted to be sturn
"Grandma, Great-Grams!" Jo chose to ignore her mother and ran to Penny for a hug "Great to see you"
"I said, did you just orb home from school? What happened to the good old fashioned bus?" Paige persisted
"What are you doing here anyway shouldn't you be in work?" Jo attempted to deflect her attention
"That is besides the point"
"People! This is a celebration, can we quit the bickering?" Phoebe butted in.
"Yeah" Piper agreed " I think we need to introduce Jo and Ben to their new Aunty Prue."
"aunty Prue? " Jo turned round, "isn't she..?"
"Alive! Yes complelety and untterly 100 not dead!" Phoebe finished her sentence. "Let's move along shall we. Ben, are you going to come and say hello to aunty Prue?"
"Yours and Cole's" Prue whispered as Ben was coaxed into shaking hands with his eldest aunt.
"Uh-huh, the only good thing to have come out of that marriage" Phoebe replied.
"You actually married him?" Prue goggled.
"Yes, can we not get into it right now, it wasn't the easiest part of my life"
"I'll bet!"
"what you saying about Daddy?" Ben asked.
"ugh" Prue was saved the task of replying by a commotion in the kitchen.
"Dad jeez, I told you mum had moved the centre island why do you never listen" Chris' voice could be heard.
He and Leo appeared in the doorway.
"Well?" Piper asked on behalf of the assembled adults.
"Well" Leo replied "we have an answer…"
XXX.