Brit, you're making me start this chapter at 3 AM! I know, that's what makes me evil. glares I'm drawing your picture today, too. Cool! Now can we get writing please? glares Let me collapse into sleep first.

/Time passes

Ok, it's now 3:30 AM! snickers I just "pretended to go to bed" so I could say that I couldn't sleep, and just stay up. So I'm eating chocolate to keep me awake, and I'll write more!

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Dani, Beth, Maria and Robert adjourned into master bedroom, where Robert sat in the chair, and the girls sprawled out on the bed. They were having a question and answer session. Robert noticed that whenever they came near the topic of families, the other girls distracted Robert, or they answered extremely vaguely. Robert made a mental note to find out what was going on. Maria looked over at him. "I have a question for you. How did you know we were Charmed ones?"

Robert smiled lightly. "I'm afraid I can't answer that." He was sent a glare by all three girls. "I'm sorry, but the Council told me, and didn't tell me how they knew."

Dani groaned. "Why do I have the feeling that-" Dani cut off extremely quickly at a shudder from Maria, and both she and Beth immediately took a defensive stance while staying on the bed. Robert began to ask what was wrong, but was silenced with a discreet motion of Dani's. Maria's head snapped up, and Robert immediately noticed a glint in her eye that wasn't normally there. She opened her mouth to speak when he heard Dani softly mutter to Beth, "Freeze him."

Beth complied instantly, and Maria froze in place. Both of them jumped up very quickly and Dani did a quick happy dance. Robert was baffled at why she would be doing a happy dance, until she started singing, "It's not immune to our powers! It's not immune to our powers!" Taking pity on Robert, she explained. "We've had many demons and warlocks and other evil demon-y things that are immune to witch's powers, or use them against us. It's not fun. In fact, if we were in the kitchen right now, we'd probably be fighting with knives." Dani began to giggle at Robert's shocked expression. "Yes, I did say knives. We're quite adept with them."

Robert stared at her disbelievingly. "What's going on here? I see she's… possessed or something, you're talking about knife fighting, and you're happy and laughing while you're being threatened by a demon or whatever? What have I gotten myself into?"

Dani playfully slapped him. "Very nice. For your information, it shouldn't be a hard fight. Beth, go get the Book." Beth instantly left for Maria's room. Turning back to Robert, she continued. "She's getting the Book so we can see if we can tell who it is. We've basically memorized it; it's just for fact checking. Right now, we're going to let it do its evil monologue while we figure out who it is, and then we either use the Book's spell, or I create one for us. Beth's going to be skimming the Book for information while I fight this guy."

Robert shook his head. "Why, might I ask, are you the one fighting it? And how you know Beth's not going to?"

Dani suddenly looked bored. "It's what we always do. She heals when we need it, she blows it up or freezes it. I fight it since I'm immune to the spells and stuff. It's routine. And you are going to be hiding behind that door so it doesn't see you. Demon hunting binges aren't fun, and that's what I'll have to do if he sees you, because that well let it get out that I'm a Slayer, and I don't want that." He looked like he was going to object, but she cut him off. "Don't play the Watcher card, either. You're still new to the Charmed branch of the job, and until we're more secure with the whole Slayer thing, it has to stay secret. Now go, before it unfreezes."

Robert ducked behind an open door just as Maria began to move. Seeing Dani, Maria snapped her arm out in front of her and swung to the side, as if she were sweeping papers off of a desk. The motion triggered a telekinetic episode which caused everything on that end of the room to start flying backwards, save for Dani. Dani laughed in Maria's face, and began to speak. "I will never tire of you guys forgetting that I'm immune to all of that. It's completely amusing. I do know, however, that you're not immune to my power, huh?"

Robert looked on in amazement as he saw Dani seamlessly shift from a carefree, bubbling teenager to a young woman who exuded power and confidence. Maria sneered at Dani. "You don't even know who I am, witch. I'm…" Maria trailed off, beginning a monologue that Dani eventually turned her back on.

"Whatever, dumbass. You're not worth the time it takes for me to write a spell to vanquish you. Beth, the honors?" At the cue from Dani, Beth stood up, smiled sadistically, and snapped her hands open, causing a burst of fire to come from where Maria was standing, and caused Maria to drop to the floor. Dani checked her watch. "Exactly 90 minutes. Thanks, Powers that Be, for that amazing amount of time for band practice and fun. You better send me some chocolate to repay me." With a glare towards the sky, Dani turned back to Maria to see that Beth had healed all the damage the demon had done and was helping Maria to her feet.

Robert walked out from behind the door. "Very nice. I can see that you all are very used to doing this." He smirked at the three matching looks of exasperation he received from the girls. "Okay, okay, I get it. You're sick of it, I know, but you have to deal with it. Dani, could I talk to you for a few minutes."

Dani turned her head to him. "Yeah, just a sec. Beth, you and David put up a force field around you and Maria. I need to clear my head, so I'm going swimming for a few minutes. Robert's coming out back with me. Make sure the field keeps out everything." At a nod from her friends, Dani turned back to Robert and said, "Follow me, we're going out back. Just let me change." Dani grabbed her bag and walked into the bathroom, emerging a minute later in a bikini. "Ok, out back, follow me."

Dani lead Robert through the house and out the back door. She dove into the deep end, staying down for a minute or so, then popping up to catch her breath. She let herself float suspended in the deep end of the pool, with her head in the water and her eyes closed. Stroking to the edge of the pool, she pulled herself out and grabbed her towel. She looked apologetically to Robert. "I'm sorry about that, I've just had an overload of stuff to deal with today; I needed to cleanse myself. Water's my element, so I came out here to sort through it all. I'm good now. What's up?"

Robert shook his head, still amazed at how quickly Dani's emotions changed. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about the Charmed Ones." At Dani's confused look, he continued. "You three seemed so… familiar with your roles. When that demon possessed Maria up there, and caused a telekinetic landslide, you didn't even flinch. You just smiled condescendingly. And the other two did what you told them without any questions. It's… different than what I expected. I expected three teenage girls who fought over who had the most power and talked constantly about boys. Instead, I see three powerful witches who have perfect harmony and a band."

Dani smiled slightly at the veiled complement. "We've been doing this for two years. It's normal for odd things to happen around us. As for them listening to me, I do that for them, also. In this line of work, if someone has an idea, it has to get tried fast, or someone can die. And you'd be surprised how often we talk about boys. But, yeah, we do mesh well, don't we." She spoke with her voice light, but her eyes pensive. "The Power of Three is so familiar, you know, but… This Slayer thing is so new. It's exciting, but slightly nerve-wracking. I don't have any training in fighting and stuff…What if I'm no good? What if I endanger Beth or Maria?"

Dani looked so lost and forlorn that Robert pulled her into a one-armed hug. He noticed worriedly that she flinched at the contact. Making a mental note of that information, he spoke soothingly to her. "If what I saw up there is any indication, you'll do fine." She looked up at him skeptically. "I'm serious! You had an… an aura of power radiating off of you during that fight. Even if you weren't a powerful witch, you looked the part. And I don't want you worrying about the Slayer bit just yet. You don't live on a hellmouth, which you should thank the Powers that Be every day for, so you don't have to Slay everything in sight just yet. I'll be training you a little bit here, and we'll be training on a normal schedule once we get to the school."

Dani let herself relax slightly. She knew she could trust Robert; her empathy powers were telling her he didn't want her to be upset or hurt. She smiled at her Watcher, then pulled away and stood. "We better get back inside before they kill each other." She shook her head. "How those two became friends is beyond me, but, hey, they like each other." She giggled. "I so didn't mean that the way it sounded. Come on!" Dani grabbed her towel and half bounced, half skipped to the back door, letting herself into the house. Robert, shaking his head at the girl, followed her.

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I know, I know, it's short. This has actually been done for a few days, I was just too lazy to post it… :sheepish giggle: Anyway, I know that this has been going pretty slowly, and I have actually come up with somewhat of a plotline! (Cheers heard in background) This will speed up in a few chapters, I just have some important information and character setup to do at the moment.