Disclaimer: If I owned Charmed, I would be a much happier person.
Ch. 22:
Phoebe lit the candles while Chris, Meredith, and Leo leaned against a table, and Piper moped.
"You know, if I hadn't taken over Paige's room, this never would've happened." She said. "This is all my fault."
"What's done is done." Leo and Chris said at the same time.
They both froze and stared at each other as Phoebe laughed.
"Okay, you two really need to get a room." She said.
"Yeah, 'cause that was creepy." Meredith added.
Chris knocked her with his shoulder and she stuck her tongue out at him. Phoebe watched with interest as Meredith reached over and wrapped her middle finger around his.
"Yeah." Piper drawled, glancing at Phoebe as she also noticed Meredith's motion.
Phoebe smirked and straightened as she finished.
"Here these words, hear my cry, spirit from the other side." She chanted.
Chris squeezed Meredith's finger before pulling away and moving away from the table.
"Come to thee, I summon thee," Phoebe continued, "cross now the great divide."
Lights began to swirl inside the circle.
Outside the circle, a glob of green goo attached to Chris's foot began to grow and move him against his will.
Grams materialized in the circle and stepped out, becoming corporeal.
"Well, it's about time you called to say hello." She said. "Oh, how are my darlings?"
Phoebe held out her arms for a hug, not noticing Chris struggling behind her.
"We got a problem." Piper said.
"Well, you're not the only one." Grams said, looking at Chris, who's legs were encased.
"Chris!" Meredith shouted, raising her hand to blast the goo.
"No!" Chris told her quickly.
"Orb out!" Leo ordered.
"No." Chris said. "Magic makes it grow. Summoning her spirit already gave it power."
"Oh, you must be Chris, the new whitelighter." Grams said, stepping forward before looking at Leo. "You know, he doesn't look very qualified for the job."
"Chris, just let me electrocute it." Meredith said.
"And let it latch on to you?" he shot back. "I don't think so."
"Of all the…" Meredith grumbled. "Forget electrocuting it, I'm just going to electrocute you."
"Meredith." Phoebe warned. "Chris, she's right. Orb!"
Chris shook his head.
"Fine, you won't let me?" Meredith growled. "Piper can blast the damn thing, just orb, damn you!"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, listen to them." Grams told him. "We'll find a way to vanquish the foul thing later."
Chris sighed and orbed just as the goo encased him completely. The moment he was out, Piper blasted the goo and it shattered. Chris reformed a second later, gasping for breath, and Meredith ran to his side, wrapping her arm around him and letting him lean on her. They watched as the goo sank into the floor.
"Uh-oh." Phoebe muttered.
Chris shook his head before leaning it on Meredith's shoulder with a sigh.
"You and Paige moved out?" Grams demanded. "When?"
She sat on a chair across from Piper and Phoebe.
"Uh, uh, a few weeks ago." Phoebe told her. "But we're handling everything."
"Dear, you have Paige stuck in the past and demonic blob roaming the manor." Grams said. "Exactly how are you handling things?"
"We're still in an adjustment period." Piper defended.
"There would be no adjustment period if you were living under one roof." Grams said, surging to her feet angrily. "Why in heaven's name did you move out?"
"To be with Jason." Phoebe said. "You said it yourself-never give up on love. Remember?"
"I didn't say give up on your sisters, and you-" Grams rounded on Piper. "You're the oldest! How could you let them move out?"
"You know, it really wasn't that hard, 'cause they deserve a shot at a normal life." Piper told her.
"They're not normal, Piper, and neither are you." Grams told her. "When are you going to learn that?"
"Well, I guess never." Piper said, exasperated.
"Uhh!" Grams exclaimed. "All this over men. How many times have I told you men are utensils? You use them, wash them, and throw them in a drawer until you need them again."
Leo, Chris, and Meredith walked into the living room, looking around at the ceiling and walls.
"Shh!" Leo said. "Everyone quiet."
Chris walked over to the wall and put his ear next to it.
"I can hear it." He said softly. "I think it's in the wall."
The wall surged and cracked and Meredith quickly pulled Chris back by the collar of his shirt.
"Yep, it's in the wall." Leo said, sitting down on the arm rest next to Grams.
"Okay, are you guys really attached to, you know…the house?" Meredith asked.
"We're gonna need Paige." Chris said, ignoring her. "It took the Power of Three to vanquish this thing in the future."
"What?" Piper demanded. "If you knew that, why didn't you tell me that in the first place?"
"We can barely get two of you together, let alone three." Meredith told her.
"You were complicated in this?" Phoebe asked.
Meredith shrugged and Chris sighed.
"The point is, that thing's not that big right now, and I thought two could handle it." Chris told them.
"Leo, you take point." Grams said. "Chris here is much too green to guide my girls."
"Hey!" Meredith exclaimed. "Chris is a great whitelighter!"
"Quiet!" Grams told her. "It's time to give this floundering ship a rudder."
"I think I miss Aunt Prue." Meredith muttered to Chris who chuckled.
"Aunt Prue?" Piper asked, shocked.
"You're allowed to talk to her in the future, just not yet." Meredith told her. "Even in death, she's kinda a fanatic."
"Can we get back on point?" Grams asked. "Now, which boots did Paige put on?"
"Red." Piper told her. "Go-go boots."
"We've got a problem." Grams said. "Those boots took Paige back to the Summer of Love, which was one of the most crucial times of my life."
"What do you mean, 'crucial'?" Phoebe asked.
"Your grandfather Allen, rest his soul, was a sweet man, but he led me straight down the hippie-dippie trail." Grams told them.
"You were a flower child?" Phoebe said, laughing.
"Yeah, well, don't rub it in." Grams told her. "What's important is that Allen was killed by my best friend. I didn't know it then, by she was evil, and I walked in right after it happened."
"What did you do?" Piper asked.
"Well, let's just say that my peacenik days ended fast, along with that bitch Robin." Grams replied. "Why, if she hadn't killed Allen-"
"You'd still be a flower child." Leo finished.
"And the Charmed Ones would be dead." Grams added. "I know I'm a ball buster, but it kept me alive to protect my girls from all the demons that came after them as kids. Now, I cast my return to owner spell on a lot of clothes that summer, so-"
"So, we get to go back there?" Phoebe interrupted excitedly. "And we get to meet our grandfather?"
"Don't make too much out of it," Grams told her strictly, "because whatever you do, you can't change the past or tell anyone you're from the future."
"Well, why do they get to?" Phoebe demanded, motioning to Meredith and Chris.
"Because we know what we're doing." Chris retorted.
"In theory." Meredith added as Piper scoffed and rolled her eyes and Phoebe laughed.
"Not from where I'm standing." Grams said. "I'll stay here with Leo and the newbies to contain the slime until you can bring Paige back to vanquish it, ok? Okay, girls, get dressed. You are going to the Summer of Love."
Allen stood in the middle of a group of people, some of them playing drums.
"Hear the drums!" he said. "Liquid beats crashing down on parched shores, pounding like the feet of ten thousand soldiers, whispering, 'Why? Why?'."
"Right on!" Paige said, surging to her feet.
The drumming stopped and the audience applauded.
"Sorry." Paige said, sheepishly. "I just got a little carried away."
"Don't be sorry." Allen told her. "That was gone."
"Gone." Paige agreed. "That's right. That's exactly what I should be-gone, because I'm actually starting to dig th-like this. Ha! It's kind of cool, everybody being so free."
"You are exactly what we're all about, Paige." Penny told her, standing up. "You want to hear my dream? I dream of a crusade to rid the world of evil, not through fighting or the inner anger that makes us want to fight, but through the magic power of love."
"Are you sure you're Penny Halliwell?" Paige asked, laughing. "How long have you felt this way?"
"Ever since I met Allen." Penny said, smiling and wrapping her arm around the man.
"It must be so great to share this together." Paige said, smiling softly.
"Your old man's not into magic?" Allen asked.
"He's not so old, but nah." Paige replied. "Not so into it, either."
There was a flash of lights, and Piper and Phoebe appeared.
"Hey, Groovy Girl." Piper said. "We've been looking for you."
"Welcome." Penny told them. "I'm Penny. Any friends of Paige's are friends of ours. But you shouldn't use magic so openly."
"That's Grams?" Phoebe exclaimed excitedly.
"Shh!" Piper hushed her.
"I'm Allen." Allen told them. "Peace and love."
"Oh, yes, love." Phoebe gushed. "Lots and lots of love. I have so much love for you, man. You have no idea."
"You here for the happening at the manor tonight?" Penny asked.
"No." Piper replied. "We were just looking for our friend Paige, actually. Excuse us."
Piper grabbed her and pulled her aside.
"I'm so glad you guys found me." Paige told her.
"We need to get out of here." Piper replied.
Before she could say anything else, cop cars approached, sirens blaring. They stopped outside the park and cops began breaking up the gathering.
"It's the pigs!" Allen called.
"Okay, everybody, let's break it up!" a cop ordered. "Let's go! Everybody out!"
"Move it!" his partner added.
"This is a park, man!" Allen told him. "You can't control god's green earth."
"It's the taxpayers' green dollars that pay for this park, and you're loitering, so move it!" the cop told him.
"Hell, no we won't go!" the attendees started to chant. "Hell, no, we' won't go!"
The lead cop removed his baton.
"Hell, no, we won't go!" the crowd continued to chant. "Hell, no, we won't go!"
"They have no right, they have no power." Penny chanted, holding her hands in front of her. "Turn their hate sticks into flowers."
The cops stared as their batons turned into bouquets of flowers.
"Hell, no, we won't go!" the crowd kept chanting. "Hell, no, we won't go! Hell, no, we won't go!"
"Let's jam." Robin said, appearing at Penny's side. "If the cops get us, we'll miss tonight."
"Hell, no, we won't go!" the crowd got louder. "Hell, no, we won't go!"
"Freeze him!" Phoebe said.
Piper waved her hands, but nothing happened. The cops dropped the flowers and grabbed Phoebe by the arm and slapped handcuffs on Piper.
As the crowd continued to chant, Penny grabbed Paige's wrist.
"Paige, come on, come on." She told her, pulling her away as the cops took Piper and Phoebe.
The cop shut and locked the cell door as Piper and Phoebe conferred inside.
"If what's happening tonight at the manor is what I think it is, this might be the night that grandpa dies." Piper said, sighing.
"Let's just hope that Paige tries to get us out of here first, because I don't want to be raised by that flower child we saw in the park." Phoebe said. "We'd never make it to puberty!"
"You don't own me!" a black man in the next cell shouted. "You think you own me, but the man will never own Luther Morris."
"I said, 'keep it down'!" a guard shouted back.
"No." Phoebe gasped as she and her sister stared at the man.
Standing in front of them was a clone of Darryl – with an afro and a goatee.
"What are you two looking at?" Luther demanded as he took off his sunglasses.
"Please," Paige pleaded with Allen and Robin, "there's got to be a way to get my friends out of jail."
"Stay cool, Paige." Allen told her. "We've all been hassled by the pigs. It's a rite of passage. They'll let your friends go…after a night in jail."
"Okay, everybody, time to prepare for the party!" Penny called, coming down the stairs. "Take a crystal, bless it, and hide it outside the manor. We want to form a perimeter."
"What are those?" Robin asked.
"Those are pyrite crystals." Paige replied immediately. "They resonate a harmonic tone when exposed to evil, kind of like a demonic alarm system."
Penny looked at Paige, surprised, as other witches took crystals from the bag.
"How did you know?" Penny asked, impressed.
"I was taught by the best." Paige replied, smiling.
"I thought our gathering tonight was a peaceful one." Robin protested.
"I want to give peace a chance as much as anyone, Robin, but I'm not dumb." Penny told her. "You know how many covens are coming tonight? We'll be sitting ducks."
"Right." Robin said, uncomfortable.
As she left, Allen watched her go, suspicion in his eyes.
"I would really love it if my friends could come tonight, if there's anything that we can do to help them." Paige said, trying to bring his attention back to her.
"I'll tell you what." Allen said, his thoughts still far away. "I got a friend who's an A.C.L.U. lawyer. I'll call him…right after we set the crystals."
"Thank you." Paige replied.
Allen hesitated for a moment before following Robin up the stairs.
A/N: Sorry for the long way again! Still waiting for the 70th reviewer! This was very disappointing. So, if we can get to 70 and 80 this time, perhaps you'll get a faster update. Yes, I am holding your chapters hostage. What are you going to do about it?
Let me know what you think.
Abbey