Ok so this chapter was starting to get really long so I thought I'd split it up. I'll try and post the second part by tomorrow, if you guys want it ;) Thanks as always to ashley62197 for reviewing this story :) and thank you to the anonymous reviewer as well, you're both so kind :)
Two weeks had passed since Alison's funeral. Paige, Phoebe and Leo had all gone home and Ella was due to start her new teaching position at Rosewood High the next day. Every day after school Aria and Ella would spend a couple of hours practicing magic up in the attic. It was Ella's main priority to make sure that her daughter was ready to face a demon if one found her. She couldn't be left unprotected. Ella could only hope that they left Byron and Mike alone, considering they didn't have powers and the demons would have nothing to gain from their death.
Ella was already in the attic when Aria arrived home from school. She came in to find her mom searching through a trunk for something. Beside her were four white candles.
"Hey mom. What are you looking for?" Aria asked.
"Another white candle. I know there's one in here somewhere."
"Can I help?"
"Yeah, could you set up these four candles in a circle on the floor please?" She told her daughter. "Found it!"
Ella got up and placed the final candle in the space that Aria had left for it.
"What are we doing?"
"We are going to try and summon your Aunt Prue. Come with me to the Book." Ella instructed. She had already opened it to the right page and told Aria to read the spell aloud with her, calling out to Prue with her mind.
Together they said the spell and lights began to appear in the circle. Aria couldn't believe that it was working. She was actually going to meet her aunt who her mom had loved so much.
Suddenly a young woman, who looked to be in her late twenties, was standing in the circle of candles.
"Piper?" She asked.
"Prue!" Ella smiled, reaching out to hug her sister who had just walked out of the circle and become solid. "I've missed you." She said, tears forming in her eyes.
"Oh sweetie don't cry. I've heard you have a lot to celebrate." Ella gave her a questioning look, as if to ask Prue how she knew what was going on in her life. "Grams." She responded in reply to her sister's unanswered question. Ella nodded with a small smile. Of course Grams had been watching them, she reasoned. "Is this Aria?" Prue asked, bringing Ella out of her thoughts.
"Yes. Come over here and say hello." Ella smiled at her daughter, her eyes still glistening with unshed tears.
"I... ummm..." Aria hesitated, suddenly nervous. This woman standing in front of her was dead. Actually dead. She was a ghost. It shouldn't be possible to talk to ghosts, let alone hug them, yet here she was looking completely alive and smiling a welcoming smile at her.
Slowly she took a step towards Prue, who took this as an invitation to move closer to her niece as well.
"It's nice to meet you Aria."
"Why don't we sit down on the couch?" Ella suggested and the three women took a seat. "Prue, I actually summoned you for a reason." She admitted. "Something's been happening to me, Aria and some of her friends and I needed some advice. I didn't want to worry Phoebe or Leo and it's not something I feel I can talk to mom or Grams about."
Aria shot her mother a questioning look. Was she really going to tell her about 'A'? Ella just nodded at her, indicating that she knew what she was doing and had thought it through. It wasn't as if Prue was a threat to 'A' so she was sure there would be no repercussions if she told her sister. Prue had always been there for her growing up and she really needed some advice from her big sister right now.
"What happened?" Prue asked, noticing the silent exchange between her sister and niece.
"Well we've been getting threatening messages from someone called 'A'." Ella started. Prue stayed silent, gesturing for her to continue. "Whoever it is knows we're witches and apparently they know things about Aria and her friends that only her friend Alison knew."
"And you don't think it's Alison?"
"She was found dead three weeks ago." Ella said sadly.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Prue replied sincerely. "Can I see these messages? What do they say?" She asked.
"I don't have my cell on me." Ella realised. "Aria, have you got yours?"
Aria hesitated. Yes, she did have her phone but she couldn't let her mom see it. There were texts from 'A' about Byron and Meredith and texts about her and Ezra. There was no way she could show her those messages. Instead of replying, Aria merely shook her head. She was never any good at lying to her mom and didn't trust herself to talk without Ella seeing straight through whatever she said.
"Ok, I'll grab mine from my bag downstairs." Ella said, getting up to leave.
Once she had left, Prue turned to Aria with a serious look on her face.
"What aren't you telling her?" She asked. Aria looked shocked. "I may not know as much about what's going on as Grams does but I'm not completely oblivious. You do have your cell phone with you, don't you?"
For some reason, Aria found herself nodding.
"Can I see it?" Prue questioned, holding out her hand. Reluctantly, Aria handed over her phone. Prue read the most recent text from 'A'. It was one Aria had received the previous night warning her to tell Ella about Byron's affair. If her mom had looked at her phone the cat would have been out of the bag straight away.
Aria expected her aunt to immediately hand her phone over to her mom and show her what 'A' had sent her but instead she simply gave it back with a whispered promise that they would talk later as Ella reappeared at the doorway.
"Is there no one else you can tell about this?" Prue asked after she'd read the messages of Ella's phone.
"Not without risking 'A' finding out and telling the world about us." Ella replied.
"What about that cop guy you recognised from the news the night they found Ali's body?" Aria suggested. Prue raised a questioning eyebrow at Aria. "Darren or something."
"Darryl." Ella corrected.
"Darryl?" Prue questioned. "As in Darryl Morris?"
"Can you think of another cop called Darryl that I'd trust with our secret?" Ella asked rhetorically. "I only found out he lived in Rosewood a couple of weeks ago. I thought about telling him but 'A' has something on all of us and no one wants it getting out. If whoever it is found out we'd told the police we'd all be in trouble."
"Surely you can do some magic to make sure 'A' doesn't find out?" Aria asked.
"Ok well you should have a look in the Book just in case." Prue suggested. "Do you want to do that downstairs Piper? You know that book better than anyone now and I'd like a chance to get to know my niece." She smiled.
"Ok." Ella agreed. "I'll be in my bedroom when you're done." She said, returning her sister's smile. After all these years she was happy to be able to give Aria the opportunity to get to know her other aunt, and for Prue to know her niece. Once in the privacy of her bedroom she sat on her bed flicking through the pages of the old book and looking through all the familiar spells and potions that she'd used over the years. She didn't know what she was expecting to find that she hadn't thought of before but 'A' was a big threat to them and anything seemed worth a try right now.
Meanwhile, in the attic, Prue was trying to help Aria decide what to do about the threats that 'A' had made.
"So what happened between your dad and this other woman?" Prue asked.
"I caught him kissing her last year. I confronted him about it and apparently he'd been having an affair with her. I don't know how long for but, from the sounds of it, it was a while. She was one of his students. That's when he decided to take us all to Iceland to get away from it so that I wouldn't tell mom." Aria confessed, close to tears.
"Oh, honey. Did you keep this to yourself this whole time?" She was trying to appear calm for Aria's sake but the thought that some scumbag could cheat on her sister was enough to make her blood boil. She'd never had the best luck when it came to falling in love, from the Warlock Jeremy to her Whitelighter Leo, Piper seemed to always fall for the wrong guy. And now her husband had cheated on her. Prue had every intention of giving him a piece of her mind, being the protective big sister that she'd always been, but decided against it if not only for the fact that he knew she was dead and exposing her sister's secret would cause more problems that she'd solve.
What was worse was that the man was actually making his daughter lie to her mom about it and has been hiding it from her for over a year. Did he even know how that was affecting Aria?
"The only other person that knew was Alison." Aria replied in response to her aunt's question. "What should I do?"
"You don't have to do anything. You shouldn't have to be responsible for telling your mom something like that. Leave it with me and I'll try and talk to her. I don't want 'A' hurting either of you any more than necessary." Prue said, feeling very protective over her younger sister and her daughter.
Aria nodded. "Shall I go and see if mom found anything?" She asked, but was interrupted from doing so by her cell phone ringing in her pocket. Seeing that the message was from Ezra, Aria tried to hide a blush. "Actually, I need to go and meet a friend. Can you let mom know I'm with Hanna please?" She asked, knowing that Hanna would cover for her if it came to it.
"Sure. And leave this 'A' thing with me." Prue replied.
"Thanks. It was nice to finally meet you Aunt Prue. My mom really misses you."
"I know she does. I miss her too. I just wish I could come back more often. Hopefully I'll see you again soon." She smiled. "Now don't keep your friend waiting."
Aria hugged her aunt and left the attic, making her way downstairs and out to her car.
Meanwhile, Prue was left contemplating what to tell her sister. Telling Ella would break her heart and she couldn't exactly confront Byron about it but the texts on Aria's cell phone told her enough to know that 'A' could seriously hurt her whole family if whoever it was told people they were witches. Plus, she reasoned, as much as it sucked Ella would find out anyway. Surely it was best that she heard it from her sister than some stranger, right? Realising that she had made it to what she assumed was Ella's bedroom, considering it was the only one with the door shut and light shining from underneath, she knocked on the door.
"Come in." Ella called out to her. "Where's Aria?" She asked when Prue opened the door.
"She went to see Hanna. Did you find anything?" Prue asked gently, taking a seat next to Ella on her bed.
"A couple of ideas, but they would only work if we were near 'A'. Remember the truth spell and the spell to hear secret thoughts?"
"So you intend to go round everyone in Rosewood in 24 hours asking them if they are 'A'? Piper that's ridiculous."
"I know." Ella sighed. "If 'A' was a demon or a warlock we could at least try and scry for them but it's such a long shot it's not even worth trying."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Whatever it takes to keep Aria and her friends safe. If that means not going to Darryl then so be it." Ella said decidedly.
"What about when 'A' starts making demands?"
"Do you think they will?"
"Whoever it is has already started."
"What do you mean? How do you know that?"
"Sweetie..." Prue started and Ella immediately locked eyes with her. She'd know her sister for long enough now to know that something was up when she started like that.
"What is it? What have they said to Aria?" She asked frantically. When Prue didn't make a move to reply after a couple of seconds she raised her voice slightly. "Tell me." She said firmly. This was about her daughter and Prue knew not to mess with her when it came to Aria. She herself had been exactly the same when it came to protecting her and Phoebe.
"Aria's been keeping something from you." Prue started, hoping that something would happen to allow her to put off this painful conversation, but at the same time not wanting it to fall on her niece to tell her. Ella's expression turned from one of shock to one of pain in a split second and Prue knew she'd have to continue now that she'd started. "It wasn't her fault, she was just trying to protect you, but now 'A' is threatening to tell you themselves if she doesn't do it soon. I figured this sort of thing would be best coming from a sister."
"Prue just tell me." Ella said, close to tears in anticipation of whatever horrible secret her daughter had been carrying around with her and what she would undoubtedly rather not know.
"Last year, before you went away, Aria caught Byron kissing another woman, one of his students. When she told him what she saw he let slip that he'd been seeing her for a while." Prue told her sadly. Ella let out a cry of shock as she let the tears fall. On instinct, Prue moved closer and enveloped her little sister in a hug as her body shook with tears, both from the pain of Byron's betrayal and at the thought of what her daughter must've been living with this past year, especially recently with 'A's threats. "Honey I'm so sorry." She said as she gently rocked them back and forth in an attempt to sooth her distraught sister. In truth, nothing hurt Prue more than seeing one of her sisters in pain.