Disclaimer: I don't own charmed
Chapter 12: Look what tomorrow brings
The next morning Piper was very nearly run over by Paige as she entered the kitchen to heat a breakfast time bottle for the baby.
"woa, where do you think you're going missy?" She asked, as her baby sister engaged in her daily round of hunt the car keys.
"meeting kyle for breakfast" came the hurried reply.
"Kyle?"
"Yeah, you know Kyle, the guy I'm semi-seeing, the long lost father of my child…"
"I know who Kyle is thank you very much, I mean what are you going to see him for? Our eldest sister has just returned from the dead, and we have some kind of demon on the loose, and you schedule a date? Can't it wait?"
"It's not a date! And no I can't, he rang last night and said that he needed to speak to me about something, and I need to talk to him about something and.."
"Paige.."
"what? Look I'm just an orb away if the demon turns up!"
"Morning" A sleepy Prue trundled into the kitchen,
"Hi, bye" Paige cried as she raced out the door.
"where's she going?" Prue asked.
"don't ask! How did you sleep?"
"Phoebe still kicks" Prue offered by way of a reply.
"That good huh!"
"Yeah!"
"so how does it feel?"
"How does what feel?"
"To be given a new start, a new shot at life.."
"That's the thing, I didn't know I was techinically dead, I 've been told that all this stuff happened to me, but it's hard to accept that it really did happen,…in someways it doesn't feel like a new life, not just yet, more like a continuation of my old one…"
"It'll take time for us all to get used to the situation…"
"I know, especially as my whole identity, my job, my friends, they're all gone as the whole world thinks I'm dead"
"I think the Elder's need to have a word with the Cleaners' about that, decide what they're going to do"
"I don't even want to think about that, every time I try to make sense of things, it just makes my head hurt"
"Well, a lot has happened"
"You tell me, new sisters, kid's, décor, clothes…but one thing does intrigue me more than anything…"
"what?"
"what's the deal with this Chris?..."
Piper laughed "it's a very interesting story…"
XXX
"Hi" Paige stood in Kyle's doorway , she glanced down and noticed that ironically he was wearing the same clothes that he had the day in the restaurant when she dropped the whole long lost daughter bombshell. She smiled to herself as she noticed that this time, Kyle was the one who was visibly nervous. Not that she herself was calm, not with what she needed to tell him at any rate.
"Coffee?" He waved a jug at her.
"Please"
Kyle downed what was clearly his 4th mug.
"I've got something to tell you" They both blurted in unison.
"You first" Paige said, hoping to buy herself sometime as they both moved into Kyle's living area.
"No you first" Kyle insisted
"No, really it's ok" She repeated.
"Ok" Kyle took a deep breath
Great, thought Paige, he's about to ditch me, or rather us, good job Jo still doesn't know who he really is..
"I need to ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth"
"Yes" Paige said simply, looking at the serious expression on his face
"Do, you…do you believe in Magic?"
If he hadn't have been so serious Paige would have burst out laughing at the hilarity of it all.
"Yes" she smiled "Kyle, I.."
"Good, good" He continued. " that's really good, because what I'm talking about is proper magic, none of this riding on your brooms, pointy hat wearing , abracadabra nonsense, but real good verses evil magic.."
"Yes, the thing is , I.."
"because" Kyle inetrupted. " I figured that if I am to play a part in Jo and ultimately your life, then it's best you know the truth about me….I'm a whitelighter…that's a kind of guardian angel for witches.."
"ha"
"look I know this is huge, but yes witches exist and demons exist ," Kyle detailed, mistaking Paige's attempt to stifle a giggle as a cry of shock.
"Funny you should say that because…"
" and they battle each other, it's like a whole different society, complete with it's own hierarchy, at the top are the elders kind of like gods or leaders, then us, the white lighters, then your average witch on the street..oh and in between you have the legendary Charmed Ones.."
"um, Kyle, seriously can I just.."
"…of course very few people come into direct contact with the Charmed Ones, who are a trio of the most powerful witches in the world, I'd love to meet them one day..but anyway that's not important right now, what's important is that I really think that.."
"KYLE!" Paige could take it no longer. " You don't have to explain anymore to me..of all people"
"What do you mean?" Kyle was confused
"what I mean is.. book…" Paige called as a dog eared copy of the Da Vinci Code came flying into her hands from a nearby shelf.
Kyle's jaw physically dropped a good two inches. "You're a..a witch?"
"not only that" Paige grinned "I'm a Charmed One"
"No you're not" Kyle spluttered "You're a , a, a," He paused, as it all clicked into place, a witch with a 'P' name, living in an old Victorian house in the part of San Francisco where the mannor was said to have been located, 2 older sisters…
"My god" he sighed "I feel like an ass…."
"But a very cute ass" Paige smiled "so tell me, how did you get to be a whitelighter…"
XXX
Back at the mannor, a minion who had flamed in halfway through Piper and Prue's catch up conversation, found himself on the receiving end of Pipers wrath.
His entire body was suspended, frozen two feet above the ground, while only his head was able to move.
"I said, who is your boss?" Piper tapped her foot against the tiled floor of the kitchen.
"and I said I don't remember"
"you, see I just don't like that answer" Piper flicked her wrist and blew one of his feet off "because one of your lot almost killed my son the other day, and nobody go's after one of my children and lives to tell the tale…so I'll ask you again…who are you working for..?"
Piper's voice was steely, edged with determination, her usually soft brown eyes were cold and emotionless. Prue had never seen her younger sister like this before, but then Piper didn't have children before….
"how were we to know that boy was your son"
"research" Piper spat, blowing off another foot.
"He's called Hechizado" the minion cried as pain began coursing through his body at such a rate he would have done anything to have stopped it.
"Thank you" Piper told her him, before blowing him up completely.
She turned to Prue " I think we need the others"
Prue nodded
"Chris!" Piper yelled "Go get Phoebe for me"
XXX
"….so because of that the Elder's decided I should become a full whitelighter" Kyle finished.
PAIGE
Uh oh, Paige heard the unmistakable sound of Piper's voice in her head.
"Kyle , I gotta go"
"But wait, what we need to discuss this.."
"what's there to discuss? You're a whitelighter, I'm a witch.."
"but didn't you want to tell me something?" He asked her retreating orb cloud.
"It can wait til next time" Paige's voice called out.
She materialized in the kitchen to find Piper, Prue , Phoebe and Chris waiting for her.
"Glad to see you made it" Piper drawled
"I came as soon as I could, I couldn't just orb out with out a bye or leave"
"nevermind that" Piper continued " we've found out which demon we need to vanquish"
"do we have a plan?" Phoebe, who had arrived just moments before Paige, asked the room at large.
Prue, feeling the old adrenalin rush of a demon hunt, come running back to her opened her mouth to speak , but was beaten to it by Piper.
"Yep, you" She pointed at Phoebe " need to write a spell, I'll sry for his location, you" she pointed at Paige, need to make the potion, and you" her gaze settled on Chris, "need to go to work"
"work?" he squeeked, " as in P3?"
"um, yes, unless you have some other job that I don't know about?"
"No, mom, I need to stay here and help you"
"No, Chris, you don't, you're not our whitelighter anymore, you're simply my son, and I would rather you were out of harms way."
"But mom"
"no but's Christopher, we coped just fine before you came back, and we can cope just fine again…go, please, and drop your brothers and Ben off at magic school enroute"
"fine" Chris sulked, grabbing his jacket and orbing outwards.
"Don't think I won't ground you for insolence young man" she shouted in his wake
"Piper" Phoebe hissed "this is really not the time"
"You're right!" Piper agreed "onwards and upwards"
The three younger sisters headed up stairs, Prue trailing wordlessly behind them.
It's fine she reassured herself, Piper probably just dosen't want you to over do it, that's why she didn't assign you a role. After all, I have the most useful active power, she most likely just want's me to rest until the showdown.
Reaching the attic, Prue plopped herself down on Aunt Pearl's sofa to watch as the others sprang into action. She looked on in awe as Phoebe began scribbling a spell without a second glance at a rhyming dictionary or asking the others for a second opinion. Over at the table, Paige was tossing ingredients instinctively into the potion pot, as if it were so second nature to her that she no longer needed to look things up in the book of Shadows.
They certainly have come along way in 4 years she thought
"Found him" Piper's scrying crystal hit the map with a small thud. "Do we have a potion?"
"Yep" Paige finished corking 3 bottles
"spell?"
"All done" Phoebe waved the piece of paper.
"Let's go" Piper beckoned them.
"About time" Prue jumped up.
"Uh Sweetie, where are you going?" Piper asked her older sister.
"Um, to kick some demon ass?" Prue ventured, wondering if vanquishing protocol had also changed in the past 5 years, and that they now followed some kind of bizarre chivalric code whereby both parties would hold fire until the otherside was ready to fight.
"I don't think that's a good idea, you're still recovering , and with all due respect, are slightly out of practice" Piper replied.
"But, I.."
"yeah honey it's okay, let us see to this" Phoebe interrupted. "You just rest"
"..don't mind" Prue trailed off as her sisters linked hands and orbed upwards.
"unbelievable" she spluttered, returning to the couch "absolutely unbelievable, they left me, they went to a vanquish with out me.." Her desire to be with her sisters was so overwhelming, that completely without meaning to, she astral projected out of the attic.
She found herself landing down in a cave in the underworld. Ducking behind a large rock, she could hear the sounds of a battle going on toward the far end. She lifted her head up to peak over the top. Phoebe was levitating upwards to miss the fire balls, throwing potion viles at the demons from on high, Paige was tking the fire balls back at their owners, meanwhile Piper was blowing up minions left right and centre. As the battle reached it's cresciendo, the sisters came together and vanquished the leader with a power of 3 spell.
"Nice work ladies" Piper cried as the demon exploded into millions of tiny parts.
"a pleasure as usual" Phoebe commented, pulling her sisters into a 3 way hug.
Diving back behind the rock to avoid being seen, Prue felt hollow inside, as if she had been stabbed in the stomouch. They don't need me, she thought, a single solitary tear rolling down her check. They replaced me and moved on…I shouldn't even be here…were her last thoughts as her astral self moved to rejoin with her actual self, before anybody noticed that she was gone.
XXX