Change Happens
Chapter 22: For Whom The Belland Tolls
Death motioned impatiently towards the swirling portal. "Hurry! I haven't time to sit around and wait for you." He waved his list at the ghost. "Death is occurring all over the world and I have to be there!"
Glenn placed a transparent hand to his cheek, wiping away a clear tear. He reached out for his wife, attempting to place his hand on her quivering shoulder. Instead, his hand moved right through her.
Paige turned her head. Her face was burning red and sopping with tears. Her dark hair was plastered to her face as she wept over her husband's lifeless form. She'd felt something just a moment ago. Or at least she thought she had. Nothing was there, however. She couldn't see anything.
Glenn looked up, his lashes now wet and sticking together. "Where am I going?"
"Just step through the portal," Death instructed. He motioned again to the portal.
Glenn stood for a moment, just staring in silence. Then he stepped forward. He was literally weightless. A ghost. To him, however, every step felt like he was a block of cement. His mind was reeling and his heart was aching. He was walking away from everything he'd ever known; everything he'd ever loved.
He was at the portal now, staring into its swirling depths. He could see nothing. What awaited him on the other side was a mystery. He glanced back over his shoulder as his bawling wife. Now both her and his daughter were at his body, as Leo had healed Pearl just minutes ago. He blinked back the tears and stepped forward.
"Stop!"
Death reeled around. His eyes were as bright as fire.
"Let him go, Death."
The Angel of Death clenched his teeth together. "The witch made a deal, and it must be honored."
A plump white man stood just inches from Glenn Belland's body. He had fluffy, snow white hair and a round button nose. His eyes were a calm, sea gray and his skin was softly wrinkled. The old man was draped in white robes, trimmed in golden silk. Although he exuded all that was kind and forgiving, his also presented a strong aura of authority.
"You can't do this," Death growled. "Death is infinite! You can't interfere."
The plump man looked towards the ceiling. "I can, and I will. You know destiny has authority over death." He narrowed his gaze at the dark clad angel. "You will let the mortal go."
Death held the man's gaze, not moving a muscle.
"This is a direct order." He moved towards the Angel of Death, his gray eyes sparking. "I am the Angel of Destiny, and I have far more authority than you do." He lifted his plump hand, pointing towards Glenn. "Mr. Belland's destiny is not over. It is my duty to see that he fulfills it."
Death crossed his arms smugly. "Prudence's destiny wasn't over either, but you didn't intervene in the Charmed One's case, yet you intervene for a mere mortal? What kind of sense does that make, Destine?"
The Angel of Destiny pulled his head a little higher. "That is none of your concern, Death. You are to follow the orders I'm giving you now."
"I want to know what's going on."
Destine elicited a throaty growl. "Enough!" He waved his hand and Glenn's spirit began to glow white, before it was literally sucked back into its limp body on the floor. His index finger whipped out towards the Angel of Death. "You've just been relieved of your duty!" In the same fashion that Glenn's soul had been sucked into his body, the Angel of Death was vacuumed into his own swirling portal. Destine clicked his fingers. He and Death's portal vanished.
Suddenly Glenn gasped, and his body jolted upwards.
"Oh my Goddess!" Paige jumped back in shock and surprise. "Pearl. Pearl!" He hand began to wave incessantly at her husband's body. "Heal him, heal him!"
Pearl's hands hovered instantly above her father's bloody shirt. The blood had begun to dry a while ago, forming a large black ring around the spherical wound. It began to disappear, however, when a warm golden glow began to spray from her hands, unlike when Leo had tried.
Piper pulled herself away from her husband's chest. She'd buried her face into the crook of Leo's neck, mourning the loss of her brother-in-law. Now she was as wide eyed as Paige. "Leo, how?"
Leo shook his head. His brow was darkly creased. He had no idea. If he couldn't heal Glenn, it made no sense for him to be able to just resurrect. Not even magical creatures could do that!
Paige wrapped her arms around her husband. The position was highly uncomfortable, as her large belly was getting in the way. She didn't care, though. All she was thankful for, was to have her husband back.
Glenn scratched his head, unsure of why Paige was hugging him so tightly. "Paigey?"
"Thank goodness you're okay." She kissed his lips.
"What happened?"
That seemed to pull her back to reality. She looked confused. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Glenn looked around. The entire Halliwell family seemed to be in the attic. "I, uh, I jumped in front of an energy ball."
"That's all?"
Phoebe, who'd shimmered back with Cole only seconds after Leo had announced Glenn's death, now moved in closer. "You don't remember anything? You didn't see a man in black?"
Glenn shook his head. "I saw an energy ball and then black."
Phoebe placed her hands to her lips. In her vision, she'd seen Glenn die by the energy ball. She'd also seen him and the Angel of Death walk into death's portal together. It doesn't make any sense! She activated her empathy. The feelings in the room were so intense that it almost knocked her off her feet, literally. But he's telling the truth.
"Phoebe," Piper motioned her little sister over. "Come see if you can get a vision."
Phoebe came hesitantly. She couldn't place her finger on it, but something was definitely amiss. She touched Glenn. Nothing.
Glenn looked down at his healed chest. "Maybe where my wound was?"
Phoebe nodded and placed her hand over the previously bloody stain. Again, nothing. She looked up forlorn. "I'm sorry."
"But this just doesn't make sense!"
Glenn cocked his head at Piper, waiting for a plausible explanation.
"You died, Glenn," Leo intervened. "I couldn't heal you. You were gone. Dead."
"But then-"
"I don't know." The male whitelighter glanced to his wife.
Piper still clung to Leo. Her lashes were slowly drying into a matted mess. "You just suddenly woke up. Resurrected."
"Not that that doesn't make me happy, but I feel like you're not glad to see me."
Paige gripped her husband's arm in the horror of his words. "How could you ever say that?"
"You just keep asking why, instead of being thankful that it happened. Whatever 'it' was."
Paige sniffled. "I'm sorry."
Glenn smiled softly, and placed his hand on the back of her neck. He pulled her close and just held his pregnant wife within his warm arms. "Shh. It's okay. Everything's fine."
Leo shifted uncomfortably. I don't like this. He kissed Piper and whispered, "I'm going to check with The Elders."
The timer nodded, and gave her angelic husband another peck on the lips. "Hurry back."
Brianna paced awkwardly around the attic. Then she stopped, cocked her head back, and looked at the ceiling. "I guess my work here is done." She walked over to the Belland's and offered a sympathetic smile. "I don't know about you, but I'm guessing a higher power was at work here." She patted Paige's arm. "You'd better enjoy it while it lasts, girl. You can't stay mad at the people you love, because you don't always get a second chance." She turned to Pearl and offered a small wink. "And you,I know you're destined for great things. I can see it in your eyes. You just stay on the right track and you'll be fine."
"Thanks," Pearl choked. "Will you tell your mom 'hi' for me? And, uhm, thanks for the name?"
Brianna elicited a hearty laugh. "Definitely." She turned, glancing at her distant family. "Blessed be." And with those words, her body faded back to the afterlife.
Pearl was silent for a moment, then whispered, "Blessed be."
Phoebe looked between her sisters, and then back at Cole. She knew that the current situation was important, but she also knew that there was something equally important that had been eating away at her husband for years. She swallowed as she walked over to Piper and whispered, "Do you mind if I go? There's something really important that I have to do."
Piper rubbed her sister's arm. "Leo probably won't be back for a while. Go ahead."
Phoebe smiled thankfully, and hurried back over to Cole. "C'mon, let's go get Pam. We've got something to take care of." She looped her arms around her husband's neck and leaned into his strong chest. Soon she felt his arms encircle her, and then the familiar sensation of shimmering over took her and then they were gone.
----
"What're we doing here?" Pam asked, as she swatted away dust particles that were tickling her nose. She knew the crumbling mausoleum should've made her feel uneasy, but for some reason she felt completely safe.
The clairvoyant knelt down in front of her daughter, and took Pam's hands in her own. "Daddy and I need you to do something for us. Something very, very important."
"Pam?" Cole approached his daughter, and he too knelt to her eye level. "Do you remember the stories I told you about Grandpa Benjamin?"
"You dad?"
Cole nodded.
"Yes."
"Well, what I didn't tell you is that a long time ago, a very bad demon trapped him. The same demon who took Brianna." Cole held out the small case that he'd shown Phoebe earlier that day.
"What's that?"
"It's where his soul is."
"But I thought the demon took him?"
"I got his soul back, but I had to wait for you. You're the only one who can set him free."
"You mean to the afterlife?"
"Exactly." Cole flipped open the box and the sphere of white light floated out. Cole blinked back a tear when he saw the sphere float to Pam, as if it knew exactly what was happening and who Pamela was.
"Grandpa?" Pam held out her palm, and the sphere settled safely above it. She smiled. "Dad, what am I supposed to do?"
"Just tell him that you release him. Tell him that he's free."
Pam nodded and held up her hand. "You're free, Grandpa Ben."
The light floated from Pam's hand and ascended higher into the air. Then it seemed to expand outwards into a bright white starburst. For only a fraction of a second, the face of a man who looked a lot like Cole appeared within the light. He was smiling at Pam. "Thank you."
Cole wiped his eyes as he moved behind his daughter and scooped her into his arms. Then he placed one arm around his wife and pulled her close to his side. Without Phoebe and Pamela, his father never would have been freed. "Bye, dad."
----
Andy legs drifted back and forth, as if completely limp, as they hung off the edge of a wooden swing in Golden Gate Park. Despite the hot sun, he was dressed in a black leather jacket and dark blue jeans. His daughter was in his lap, pressed securely against his chest. And out of the corner of his eye, the widowed man could see the golden glint of his wedding band glowing in the sun's bright rays.
Sitting on the swing, their swing, he had almost everything that reminded him of his long lost wife. Except for Paige, who now carried his and Prue's unborn child. Half of his screamed to have her their with them, but the other half couldn't bare it. The mistakable resemblance between them was almost too much for Andy to bare. And it didn't stop at physical features. They're personalities were also so much alike.
Asoft fingertouchedAndy's cheek. "Don't be sad, daddy."
Andy opened his eyes to meet the bright eyes of his young 5-year-old. He pulled her hand into his and laced his fingers with his daughter's. "I'm sorry baby. Am I upsetting you?"
Pandora's head bobbled. "When you is sad, me too."
Andy ran his hand through the witchling's fine, raven hair; Prue's hair. He stroked the side of her face. She looked so much like Prue.
----Flashback----
"I wanna show you somethin'!" An 8-year-old Prue clasped her hands together, and her eyes seemed to twinkle in the summer sunlight.
Andy, also 8-years-old, crossed his arms. He was standing in the middle of a sandbox in Golden Gate Park, wearing a flashy cowboy outfit. "What is it?"
"Come with me."
"I don't know..." Andy glanced over his shoulder. From his vantage point, he could see Prue's grandmother reading a newspaper on a park bench and a few yards from her he could see a 6-year-old Piper pushing a 3-year-old Phoebe in the baby swing. "What if your Grams gets mad?"
"She won't," Prue insisted. She was visibly getting a little more irritated now. She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes.
He flinched at the look, remembering the look all too clearly. He thought it strange how things always used to fall over or switch places when she did it, just a few years earlier. But after Phoebe had been born, she never really squinted her eyes much and when she did, nothing strange happened. Never the less, he glanced around just to make sure. "Oh-okay, I guess." He shuffled across the sand, making the brown dust swirl around his dirty white boots, and then he hopped over the wooden edge and landed next to his best friend. "Where we goin'?"
Prue giggled mischievously. She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the sandbox, heading towards a thick clump of trees on the other side of the park. It took her only three minutes to drag Andy all the way there, and when they finally stopped, she was panting for breath.
"It's just trees," Andy snorted. "What's socool about trees?"
Prue rolled her blue eyes. "It's not trees, dumby." She squirmed behind a clump of green bushes, wiggled under some limbs, and then reached out and pulled her best friend through. "Look!"
Andy glowered at her, as he brushed from stray leaves out of his brown hair. "What?"
Prue held out her arm, her index finger pointing directly at a beautiful white swing, hanging from some thick branches.
"What is it?" Andy's interests had been peaked.
"It's a swing!" Prue nearly yelled. "C'mon!" She ran ahead of him and bounded onto the swing, propelling it backwards.
"I dunno, Prue. What if it's someone else's swing?"
"Andy!"
Andy trudged over to the swing, grabbed onto one of the metal chains keeping it hanging, and yanked it to a stop. "Okay...But if we get in trouble, I'm telling your Grams that it was your idea!"
The Halliwell child just rolled her eyes, and patted the empty space next to her.
Andy climbed into the swing and let a small smile grace his lips, as he began to pump his legs.
"Told ya it'd be fun!" Prue folded her arms proudly. It was always the stance she gave when she wanted a person to know that she was right, and they were wrong.
Andy turned his head away. "Whatever." He closed his eyes, but no sooner had he done so, did he feel Prue's head on his shoulder. He craned his neck, glancing at Prue, who looked perfectly content to fall asleep right there as she leaned into him. Andy Trudeau just smiled.
----Flashback----
Andy's thoughts were interrupted by a soft murmuring of breath. He looked down, seeing that his young daughter was leaning against his chest with her head softly bedded on his arm, sleeping peacefully. He could feel the prick behind his eyes, as a floodgate of salty droplets formed. Then it broke. The cleansing tears tore down his cheeksin a raging river of grief and pain.
----
Piper sat on Pearl's couch, with her knees pulled to her chest and hidden under a gray wool blanket, when she felt her husband orb in next to her. She turned hopefully to him.
Leo's eyes displayed nothing. He wrapped his arms around his wife and gently kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, Piper. They didn't know anything."
"Or didn't tell you."
"What?" Piper shook her head. "I just can't stop thinking about what Brianna said."
"And that was?"
"That she thought a 'higher power' was behind Glenn coming back."
"A higher power?" Leo scratched his head. "There isn't a lot that's more powerful than The Elders."
"Do you know who is?"
"The Angel of Destiny, for one. And there are others, but I don't know who they are. They all work for a supreme being, that nobody has ever seen or met."
"A supreme being? Like God?"
Leo shook his head. "No. It's a female. All life stems from females, you know? Males, well, we're pretty much a genetic mess up. 'A mutated woman,' is howone of myfellow whitelighters put it. You know, with only onex chromosome and all?"He waved his hand. "Anyway, I'm going off topic.What I mean is, if ittruly is a higher power, then maybe they didn't even tell The Elders aboutit?"
Piper shrugged. Maybe Leo is right? But then again,They haven't been fully honest with him in the past.
----11:55 P.M.----
Phoebe paced living room. Her cell phone had been ringing none stop since eleven o' clock. Elise, Phoebe inwardly groaned. She'd been trying to think of a story to tell her boss all day long. Finally, she thrust her hand into her back pocket and retrieved her cell. She flipped it open and placed it to her ear. "H-hello?" Her eyes squinted as the shrill voice of a panicked Elise came barreling through the phone. "Oh, Elise! Hi." She knelt down at her coffee table, examining a large pickle jar that Elise's toad niece was sitting in.
"Well, actually, we uhm..." Her voice wavered. She glanced down at her watch. 11:58 P.M. "We went out for some drinks," she finally blurted out. Crossing her fingers she added quickly, "And I guess Eliza had one too many. She really didn't want you to know about it, Elise. I promised I wouldn't say anything." She was desperately hoping that Elise wouldn't follow with any questions, as Piper's Truth Spell was still in effect. She couldn't risk telling her boss what had really happened. She listened to Elise's shallow groans on the other end of the line. "And that's why I haven't answered your calls," she pressed on. "She was just going to spend the night at my house, and I was going to take her back to work with me in the morning."
Again, she looked at her watch. One minute until she's supposed to turn back. Phoebe wrapped her fingers around the metal lid of the pickle jar, and unscrewed it. She tilted the lid and gently let the warty toad slide onto the carpet. "Hey, Elise, I really have to go." She placed the jar back on the table. "Right. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow. Bye!" She flipped her phone closed, without waiting for her boss to respond. Apparently she'd chosen her lies correctly, because Elise didn't seemed surprised to hear that Eliza had drunk too much. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a green hue. She gave a small sigh of relief.
The green hue enveloped the fist sized toad, and began to expand outwards. Slowly, it elongated and formed into the lengthy woman whom Phoebe had met that morning. Her skin, however, still held an almost green tinge.
I wonder if she's sick, or if the spell is still lingering? The Charmed One mused.
Eliza's eyelashes batted, and she placed a feigned hand to her head. "Wh-where am I?"
Phoebe crossed her arms, as she leaned over the woman. "You're at my house."
"Y-your house?" Eliza Fields looked around in horror. "How the hell did I get here?"
"I drove you. What's the last thing you remember?" Phoebe slid her hand into her pocket, lightly tapping a bag of whitelighter dust that Leo had loaned her, just incase Eliza remembered what had happened during the spell.
"I, uh," she squinted her eyes. "I don't know. I remember my aunt telling me that you'd show me around the city."
"Ah, yes." Phoebe smiled, satisfied. "So you don't remember us hitting a few bars?"
Eliza frowned. I would never go to a bar with her! She scratched her head. Right?
"So I take that as a 'no'?"
Eliza nodded numbly.
"Well in short, you had one too many and passed out. I drove you to my house to let you sleep it off."
Again, she nodded. Something still felt amiss, but she couldn't remember a thing. "What time is it?"
"Just past midnight."
"Midnight? Oh no! Aunt Elise will be furious!"
"Relax. I already talked to her. I told her you're staying here tonight. We have several spare rooms. My husband's already prepared one for you."
As if on cue, Cole walked into the room. He had not been too happy about preparing a room, especially for someone he knew his wife despised. He knew, however, that keeping their secret was far more important. "Ms. Fields?" He walked over, held out a hand, and helped the wretched woman to her feet.
Eliza's cheeks flushed. "Hello, Mr..."
"Turner. Cole Turner." Cole motioned towards the hallway. "This way. I'll show you to your room."
Eliza grinned. "Thank you." As he walked out with their new guest, he glanced over his shoulder and glared at his wife.
'Thank you,' she mouthed. Her lips formed into an adorable smile that she knew her husband couldn't resist. As they disappeared down the hallway, she heaved a sigh of relief and dropped onto the sofa.
----Next Morning----
A hand stretched through the cracks between the double doors of the courthouse. It was formed into a fist, and then the fingers jetted out and the hand curved in a semi-circle. The entire room grounded to a halt.
At that moment, the doors swung open to reveal Piper. She pulled back her outstretched arm and began to march down the center isle. "C'mon, let's get this over with. I've got some plans with Paige, and she's probably already there."
Cole nodded, and swung the heavy double doors closed. He picked up his brief case and followed his witchly sister-in-law down the center of the room.
"Wait!" Piper spun around, waving her hand at Cole. "Maybe you should go stand at the back of the doors. Open them, actually. So when I unfreeze things, it looks like you're just walking in."
"Right." Cole moved back to the doors.
Piper, on the other hand, burst through the swinging gate and stopped at the pair behind the frozen defense table. She reached intothe pocket of her white jeans and yanked out a vial of a standard binding potion. A little research in the Book of Shadows had proved that the Defense Attorney was a low level demon who used his magical connections to get high profile criminals off of whatever crime they had committed, in exchange for his access to their successful companies in the mortal world.
Piper was amused by the fact that demons actually needed mortal connections to gain clout in the real world. After all, she mused, they don't exactly follow the rules for personal gain. But then again, they did need mortal money to put demons like Cole through law school. Finally, she shook away her thoughts and slammed the vial at the low level demon's feet. She would've preferred to vanquish him right then and there, but it would raise too many questions, and possibly even endanger Cole.
The timer stepped back as a haze of purple smoke whirled around the demonic defense. She snickered at the alliteration. "Okie dokie, all done." The witch moved back down the isle and past Cole. "Have fun."
Cole rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Piper."
"No problem." Just before she closed the door, she added, "And if you need me to vanquish him, just call."
"I don't think that'll be a problem," the half demon replied earnestly. "I'll see you later." As the door shut, the room unfroze and he moved down the isle. He knew he'd win this case. He could smell it. Or perhaps, he sniggered, it's the leftover potion.
----
Tyler rounded the corner of the crowded hallway. He was panting as he reached Persia's locker. He held up his cell phone, displaying a glowing screen with a text message on it. "You," he placed his hand to his stomach as he tried to catch his breath, "rang?"
"Actually, I texted." The electrokinetic closed her locker and leaned against it. "I wanted to talk."
Tyler nodded eagerly.
"Look, I've thought a lot about what you said." She raked a hand through her hair. "And I want to be friends again too."
"So does that mean-"
"Let me finish." Persia placed her finger over the boy's lips, quieting him. "But I really need people I can trust." She watched his face fall. "People who can trust me too. Not someone who's going to trick my baby cousin."
"I know," he breathed. "And I know that you know how sorry I am."
Persia nodded. She placed her hand to his wrist. "I'm going to give you one more chance. But that's all, Tyler. If you break my trust again, it's over. Everything will be over. Do you understand?"
The Firestarter nodded. This was what he'd been waiting for. "Yes, and I swear I'll never do anything like that ever again!" He literally scooped the teen witch into his arms and swung her around. "Thank you!"
----
"Paige! Paige!" Piper came running up the sidewalk with a sorrowful look on her face. "I'm so sorry I'm late. I had to help Cole with some demons at the courthouse."
Paige crossed her arms. "You mean you took out everyone except the judge?"
"Haha." Piper motioned towards the glass door of the ice cream shop. "So, shall we try this again?"
"Gladly." Paige walked past her sister. "Hey look, no line!"
"Guess it's our lucky day."
"You know, I did find a penny today."
"Lucky penny, lucky day, doesn't seem like much of a coincidence, does it?"
Paige shook her head as she told the man at the counter her and Piper's orders.
"So did you check out that store while you were waiting?"
Paige shook her head. "I thought about it, but I decided that I'd rather do it with you."
Piper was grinning before she even realized it. "Really?"
"Mhmm." Paige accepted the ice cream cones and handed one to Piper. As she reached for her purse, she felt Piper slap her hand. "Hey! What was that for?"
"I'm paying, remember?" Piper slapped a ten onto the counter. "Keep the change." She grabbed her baby sister's hand and pulled her out the door, bringing them to a small table just outside the shop. It was one of two, on either side of the door. Both had a cute little umbrella shade and two chairs. She pulled out a seat for Paige, and then took the other.
"Wow, someone's in a good mood," the youngest commented. She placed her lips to her cold ice cream and elicited a soft moan. "Mmm!"
"So you like it?"
"Am I Charmed?"
"Yes, and yes." Piper pulled a tissue from her pocket and leaned over the table, dabbing the corner of Paige's mouth. "You also had chocolate fudge on your face."
Paige rolled her eyes. "You know, Piper, I am a grown woman."
"But you're still my little sister," the elder countered. "And besides, I never got to do that for you when we were kids." She laughed as a distant look washed over her eyes. "I always used to wipe Phoebe's face when Grams would bring us here to get ice cream."
"You guys used to come here as kids?"
Piper nodded, taking a lick of her scoop. "Almost every Saturday afternoon at twelve-thirty, on the dot."
"It must've been really nice."
"Mhmm. I would always get strawberry, Prue would havevanilla, and Phoebe would talk Grams into a double scoop of chocolate."
"There's Phoebe for ya." Paige rolled her eyes as she slid her tongue over the cold treat.
"Hey, there's something I've been wanting to ask you."
Paige quirked her brow, waiting for Piper's question.
"You know how you said you had two turtles as a kid?"
Paige nodded.
"What were they're names?"
Paige lurched forward in an obnoxious burst of laughter. "You'll laugh."
"Oh really?" Piper narrowed her eyes playfully. "If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine."
Paige tapped her nails on the glass surface of the table, and then finally relented. "Rumple and Stiltskin."
Piper's cone flew from her hand as she started laughing. Moments before it could touch the ground, however, it became suspended in mid air. She leaned over the side of her chair and grabbed it from its frozen place, about an inch above the cement sidewalk. "Wow. And I thought my names were bad."
Paige glared playfully. "Okay, I told you about my turtles. Now spill, sister."
"I had a really playful pair of turtles when I was young. I mean, they acted so much like a little couple, that I really thought they were gonna have babies. I would get up early every morning and check the tank, just to see if there were any baby turtles."
"And lemme guess, one day there were?"
"Not exactly." Piper's cheeks flushed. "One day we took Daisy and Duke-"
"Daisy and Duke? As in Jessica Simpson, Daisy Duke?"
"No! As in Chatherine Bach, from the original 'Dukes of Hazzard' television show. I was a huge. I always wanted to look like Daisy Duke when I was little."
Paige rolled her eyes. "I think you look better as a brunette."
"Thannks."
Paige waved her on. "So you took Daisy and Duke where?"
"To the pet shop. I begged Grams to take me, so I could ask how to make my turtles have babies. And they told me that Daisy wasn't actually a Daisy."
Paige's eyes popped. "Daisy was a boy?"
"Yeah. But Duke was well named."
"Oh my Goddess! You had a Brokeback Tank!"
"Exactly!" Piper shook her head in embarrassment. "You should've seen the look on Grams' face. She knew what was going on, but Ididn't understand."
"What'd she tell you?"
"That everything happens for a reason."
"And what do you think the reason for you having gay turtles was?"
Piper was silent for a minute, and then she reached her arm across the table and placed her hand over Paige's. "So that I could share that story with you today."
Paige just stared. She didn't know what to say, so she didn't. It was the closest she'd felt to Piper since finding her sisters. She finally felt at peace. She did have a place in the Halliwell family, and she could finally see and feel it now.
TO BE CONTINUED...
