Disclaimer: If I owned Charmed, I would've kidnapped Drew Fuller long ago.
Ch. 3:
Paige and Richard quietly walked into the kitchen.
"Looks like they're all asleep." Richard said. "Maybe I should sneak out of here."
"No." Paige replied, turning around and wrapping her arms around him and walking backwards. "Why don't you stay for breakfast? How do you like your eggs?"
"What about your sisters?" he asked.
"What about them?" Paige asked.
She continued to walk backwards until she tripped over a pair of legs sticking out from under the sink. She slipped out of Richard's grasp and fell backwards.
"Whoa!" Richard called, trying to grab her, but he missed.
Piper stood up and brushed off her clothes before looking at Paige.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Sorry. You okay?"
"What are you doing?" Paige asked as she got to her feet.
"Trying to fix the garbage disposal." Piper replied, glancing at Richard. "What are you doing?"
"Messing around." Paige replied.
"Oh…"Piper said. "heh."
"Piper, I think I may have damaged your washing machine even worse than it was." Meredith said, walking in and freezing when she saw Richard. "Oh, hi. Richard, right?"
"Right." He replied shaking the hand she offered. "You must be Meredith."
"Uh, yeah." She replied. "So, like I was saying, if the washing machine wasn't dead before, it probably is now."
"Great." Piper sighed.
"Sorry." Meredith told her.
"No, it's fine." Piper replied. "I'll see what I can do."
"You want me to go check on Wyatt?" Meredith asked.
"Um, sure, if you don't mind." Piper answered. "I mean, Chris usually keeps his distance from Wyatt, so I figured you would too."
"Yeah, well what can I say?" Meredith replied. "Chris has issues. Shout if you need me."
She turned and left and Piper turned back to Richard and Paige.
"Oh, hey, sorry." Richard said when she looked at him. "I should have told you I was here, right?"
"No, don't be silly." Piper told him. "Paige is a big girl. She can hang out all she wants to, not that she does, a lot. I mean-"
"You can stop now." Paige told her.
"Great." Piper replied, sighing.
Richard glanced at the sink, which was filled with murky water with Fruit Loops floating on top.
"Hey, do you mind if I take a look?" he asked.
"Sure." Piper replied. "Go ahead."
"Okay." He said, flipping the disposal switch on.
"What's wrong with the disposal anyway?" Paige asked.
"Not disposing." Piper replied. "Washer not washing. Cable not cabling."
"Don't forget the sink upstairs." Paige told her.
"That's next on my list." Piper said.
"Sounds like fun." Paige said.
"That's my life, actually, all about fun." Piper replied. "At least I have Meredith now. She doesn't seem to be able to fix things, but she can at least watch Wyatt."
The two sisters watched as Richard held his hand over the clogged sink and magically unclogged it.
"There you go, as good as new." He told them.
"Hey, he's handy to have around." Paige said, smiling.
"Yeah." Piper said warily. "I thought you didn't use magic anymore."
"Just once in a while for little things." Richard replied. "You want me to fix the washer?"
"No." Piper said.
"Yes!" Paige said at the same time.
Phoebe chose this moment to walk in, two sets of earrings in her hands.
"Can you guys help me pick out some earrings?" she asked, not looking up. "Meredith was totally useless." She finally looked up and froze when she saw Richard. "Hi. I didn't know you were here."
"Hey, yeah." Richard replied, aware of the awkward atmosphere. "Well, we got in late last night."
"I see." Phoebe replied.
"He fixed the garbage disposal." Piper told her.
"Really?" she asked.
"Mm-hmm." Piper replied. "Magically."
"Really." Phoebe said.
She looked at Richard, who looked away awkwardly.
"Can you help me with my earrings out here, please?" Phoebe asked Piper, nodding to the door.
"Sure." Piper replied.
Phoebe turned and left the kitchen.
"Excuse me." Piper said, grabbing her tools and following Phoebe.
Richard and Paige watched them leave before Paige turned back to Richard.
"So, how do you like your eggs?" she asked. "Scrambled or over easy?"
Piper followed Phoebe into the dining room, phone in one hand and tool box in the other.
"Okay, listen, was that weird?" Phoebe asked.
She moved into the main hall and Piper followed.
"Why are you so dressed up?" Piper asked.
"Because I have a date with Jason, but that's besides the point." Phoebe told her. "Didn't Richard lose it the time he used magic? I mean, like, really lose it?"
"Uh, I can assure you that he stayed in complete control over the garbage disposal." Piper said. "It's 7:00 in the morning, how can you have a date?"
"Oh, 'cause it's 7:00 her, but it's evening in Hong Kong." Phoebe replied. "Okay, so you're not concerned about Richard using magic?"
"Yeah, I am, but I'm more concerned with Paige being really pissed off because we butted into her business again." Piper replied.
"Yeah, I know, but we're sisters." Phoebe protested. "That's what we're supposed to do."
"Back to your date:" Piper said. "I don't understand. Is Chris orbing you to Hong Kong?"
"No." Phoebe replied. "We're video-conferencing. We just open our laptops, and there we are, in color."
"Mm-hmm." Piper replied, smirking. "In each other's laps."
"So do you think we should talk to Paige…about…Richard?" Phoebe replied.
"We don't really know him." Piper said.
"I know." Phoebe shot back. "We don't, and neither does she. That's the problem."
Piper stared at her.
"What?" Phoebe protested. "Can't I worry?"
"From afar, yeah." Piper told her. "Now, excuse me. I have to go unclog a sink."
Piper took her tools and left. Phoebe nodded and held up her earrings before walking away.
Meredith made her way over to the playpen in the attic and set Wyatt down.
"Chris." She called.
A second later, he appeared.
"I'm not really supposed to be here." he told her.
"Yeah, well I'm one charge Leo can't take away, and I want you here." she shot back.
Chris glanced at Wyatt behind her.
"Piper has you playing babysitter?" he asked.
Meredith glanced at Wyatt and smiled softly.
"I volunteered." She replied before walking past him to the book.
"Really?" he asked, following her. "I would've thought you'd stay as far away from him as possible."
"I don't blame him for what happened." She said, opening the book and flipping through it.
"Why?" Chris demanded.
Meredith sighed and finally looked up at him.
"Because the Wyatt that killed Jenny doesn't exist." She told him. "Not yet. And if you and I can stop it, he never will. But speaking of changing things, what's with this Richard dude? If you've managed to change things so we don't get Uncle Henry, I'll personally beat your ass."
"You're just saying that because he was your main source of cash." Chris said, chuckling.
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "Assuming, the sisters still take me in, which we need to have another whole conversation if that doesn't happen, why would I want to give up my main income?"
"Well, if you can break them up, go for it." He told her.
Meredith huffed and went back to examining the book.
"It's amazing how small it is." She said. "I imagine you have a list of demons who might be able to corrupt Wyatt, so what have you come up with?"
"I have some ideas, and I've been having the sisters vanquish them as I come up with them." He replied, joining her at the book.
"You're such a task master." She said, grinning up at him. "Always were."
He grinned at her, but after a moment she looked away.
"Anyway." She said, clearing her throat. "Where do you want me?"
"Actually," he said, "I was hoping you could look into a way to get back."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, eventually, if we manage to finish what we meant to do, we're going to need a way back home." He told her.
"Can we get home?" she asked, curiously. "I kind of always figured that this was a one way trip for us. I mean, without the evil, we wouldn't have a reason to go back in time, so where does that leave us?"
"I don't know." He replied. "You were always better at temporal theory then me, that's why I wanted you to look into it."
She nodded. There was a sound like splashing water and they both looked to the door.
"I better go." Chris told her. "Before Leo finds out I'm here."
Meredith nodded and he orbed away.
A second later, Piper walked in.
"Um, a woman made of water just popped out of the sink, so Paige, Phoebe and I are going to go check it out." She told Meredith.
"You want me to watch Wyatt for you?" Meredith asked.
"If you don't mind." Piper replied.
"Sure thing." Meredith replied. "Be careful."
"Will do." Piper replied, kissing Wyatt goodbye before walking out.
Meredith walked over to the playpen and squatted before Wyatt.
"So what do we do now?" she asked.
Wyatt grinned up at her and she smiled.
"You wanna go for a walk?" she asked him. "Let's go for a walk."
She went to the table and grabbed a piece of paper to write the note.
Paige orbed Phoebe and Piper to the park.
"Okay, so watery lady pops up from the sink." Paige said as they started looking around. "You sure she's not a demon?"
"I'm sure she needed help." Piper replied.
"What else did she say?" Phoebe asked.
"That was it." Piper told her. "Harding Park, pond, and poof."
They looked at the pond as it began to bubble and a sword slowly began to emerge.
"Over there." Piper said.
The sword was followed by a woman, holding the sword as she rose up and out of the pond. She glided through the water and moved towards them, seemingly made of water. As she reached the land, the water turned to flesh and she approached Piper.
"They're coming!" the woman said, rushing towards Piper. "Take this. It does not belong to them."
As she rushed forward, a knife hit her in the back, causing the sword to fly away from her as she fell to the ground. Behind her stood a man dressed in black, armed with a shield.
The sisters ran to the woman as two Executioner Demons appeared next to the man. The rushed past him as a sword materialized in his hand.
Paige and Phoebe stood to fight the demons, leaving Piper to tend to the woman.
As one Executioner rushed forward, Phoebe grabbed his wrist and elbowed him in the ribs, causing him to double over.
Paige stepped forward to take on her demon. He swung his axe, just barely missing her in the abdomen. He swung again and she ducked.
"Axe!" she called.
The axe orbed to her and she swung it, hitting him in the neck. He burst into fire and disappeared. Paige then watched as Phoebe head butted her demon, swung him around, grabbed his axe away and hit in the stomach with it. He burst into flame and disappeared just like his partner.
Meanwhile, Piper knelt next to the woman as the man approached them. He swung his sword around and leveled it at Piper, who responded by blasting him, which he deflected with his shield. He did take a couple steps back from the strength of the blast.
Phoebe and Paige stepped forward to stand between the man and their sister.
"I'm liking these odds." Phoebe told him.
He shimmered away and Phoebe and Paige dropped their axes.
"Wuss." Paige muttered.
They turned around to check on the woman.
"The sword." She said weakly. "The sword is…"
The woman died and her body turned back to water.
"Where'd she go?" Phoebe asked. "What did she say?"
"She said something about the sword." Piper said. "Where is it?"
Paige looked around and spotted it.
"It's in the stone." She answered.
Piper and Phoebe followed her look and gaped.
"The sword in the stone?" Phoebe asked.
Paige rolled her eyes and nodded.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me, right?" Piper demanded.
A/N: First chapter of The Sword and the City. In the beginning, Meredith's involvement will be limited, mainly because she interacts the most with Chris and he's not in these first few chapters. That will change as the story progresses. Also, I'm kind of struggling with the voice of Charmed, mainly due to the fact that I mostly do large stories based on British works, and their tone is very different, so I'd like it if you guys told me if I'm capturing the sound of the show well. And if you get what I meant by that, you're a better person than me. Lol. Just review, please!
Abbey