Chapter 3

9:03

The sister arrived at the old potion shop scene after retrieving Billie and asking her to watch Wyatt and Chris. Darryl spotted them, giving them a nod as he strode across the gravel parking lot to meet them. and motioned them closer. "I thought, maybe, you guys could help or something. After all it does seem to be your specialty, and..." he hesitated for a moment before continuing, "I know, we don't do this anymore, but it doesn't mean I can't tip you off now and again. It's just I don't want to risk my life anymore, my family, I can't..."

"Darryl," Paige said interrupted, giving him a small pat on the arm, "it's alright, you don't have to explain."

He looked at the three of them, and glanced around before lowering his voice, "Maybe Phoebe could get a premonition or something."

Piper sighed, her hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets as she took in the scene around her. Only several hours before, the alley had been quite, now, police lines were drawn and blood had been spilt. Maybe if she hadn't been in such a hurry she could have stopped it. "I know who did this," Piper said a bit sadly.

Darryl tried to catch Piper's eyes but she refused to meet his stare, "Tell me you didn't have anything to do with this."

"I assume it happened shortly after I left here today." Piper explained.

"Was it a...demon?" Daryl whispered.

"I don't know, but if he was human, I can describe him for you. I'm willing to bet he killed her with that athame too." Piper shook her head, "I shouldn't have left, I was, just, in such a rush."

Paige gave her sisters shoulder a comforting rub, "You don't have to go inside." She told her quietly, "Phoebe and I can go."

Piper swallowed the lump in her throat, "No, I'm fine." Paige nodded and the sisters started to walk inside leaving Darryl standing there perplexed.

As Piper followed Paige into the shop she couldn't help but notice that everything was as it had been only hours earlier. Not a hair was out of place, except for the body that lay on the floor.

Piper approached the covered figure first, "I am so sorry" she whispered as she dropped to her knees and pulled the cover back a little to reveal a stab wound in the woman's stomach.

Phoebe gagged and Paige caught it out of the corner of her eye. "You alright Phoebs?" Paige pursed her lips at Phoebe who looked more pale than usual but Phoebe waived her off.

Piper turned to look at her sister, tears forming in the corner of her own eyes as she fought her emotions, "Do you think you can get a premonition so we can know what were looking for?"

Phoebe took a deep breath, suddenly feeling very unwell, "I don't know if I can, " Phoebe clenched her fist to stop it from shakking.

Piper and Paige exchanged looks of confusion, "Can you try?" Piper asked her sister firmly looking her sister in the eye.

"I don't know." Phoebe burst out as she gasped for breath, the world around her seemed to swirl and her vision blurred.

Paige's brow creased with worry as she stepped towards her sister wrapping and arm around her to keep her upright. Phoebe leaned into Paige, relying on her sister to keep her up. "Are you okay?" Phoebe pulled back and nodded, fighting the nausea she dropped down to her knees beside Piper and offered her sister her hand. Piper squeezed Phoebes hand and watched as her sister gently placed a hand on the woman's head and was immediately swept into a vision.

The demon stabbing the woman with an athame in the shop. P3, switching the herbs in Pipers bag. The Manor, Billie, Wyatt, and Chris asleep, but something seeping from the cupboard and going through the house like a gas. Wyatt's shield goes up in his bedroom, but Chris begins to cry and Billie goes to him, she begins to cough as she enters Chris's room, before she can get to him. She collapses.

Phoebe gasped, as she came out of the vision "What'd you see?" Piper asked immediately, wrapping an arm around Phoebe to keep her upright.

"We need to get back to the Manor now!" without letting go of Piper, Phoebe reached out to Paige, who looked around quickly before enveloping them in a flurry of blue and white lights.

They orbed in front of the house, "We'll get them out of the house first," Paige said, trying to be the sister who remained strong, "And then we'll need a spell for getting rid of that thing, whatever it is. Lets just call them from the house first? Okay?"

The girls held hands, Piper didn't care who saw them, but the other two looked around briefly. They began to chant:

"Powers of the witches rise, course unseen across the sky, come to us who call you near, come to us and settle here"

In a swirl of lights Billie, Wyatt and Chris, all appeared in front of them. Wyatt seemed fine and Phoebe picked him up, but Billie was barley breathing and Chris had stopped all together.

Piper's breath caught in her throat as she dropped to the ground to scoop baby Chris into her arms, "Paige," her voice quivered "heal him. Please." Paige immediately knelt beside Piper and put her hands over Chris, after a moment, a warm light emitted from her hands and Piper let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, as Chris woke up. Piper smiled through her tears and and she hugged Chris tight. After a moment, she pulled back to look at him. "Your okay baby. Arn't you? Yes, mommy's here now." And she hugged him again.

"Paige," Phoebe said, "Billie"

Paige moved to Billie and held her hands over the young woman, this time it took a little longer, but finally the light appeared and Billie's eyes fluttered open. Paige helped her to sit up, "You okay kiddo?"

"Yeah, I think so. What happened?" Billie asked confused as she took in her suroundings.

"We think there was some kind of spell put on one of the herbs Piper bought today, which we really need to get rid of before it leaks out of the house and infects half the neighbourhood." Paige replied, "...any suggestions?"

"Uh I think I may have one," Billie suggested, "it's not really for this but I could maybe make it work."

"Well make it work fast!" Piper said "before it's too late, we can't go around healing everybody."

"Okay..." Billie thought for a moment then began...

"From the earth through whence it came, take thee to the ground, Release the evil from it's grasp, to extinguish what was found."

A wave washed over the house, "not bad for on the spot" Phoebe commented glancing at Billie.

"What did you say that spell was originally for again?" Paige asked.

"I didn't." Billie replied.

Paige looked like she was about to start an argument with Billie, but Piper intervened. "We'll talk about that later. Right now we need to get to the book and figure out what that bast..." she looked at Wyatt looking at her, "...uhh guy did to my sons and how to kick his sorry..."

"Butt?" Paige offered. Piper glared at Paige and started inside.

Chapter 4

9:04

Piper reached the attic, still clutching Chris, with her sisters and Billie following close behind. She grabbed the Book of Shadows and began flipping through it. Paige took Chris from her. "Do you think someone should go downstairs and check the herbs?"

"I'll go." Phoebe said and she headed downstairs.

When Phoebe arrived in the kitchen there was somewhat of an odour coming from the cupboard. Phoebe gagged. It was not difficult to spot out which herb the demon, or whatever they were dealing with, had tampered with. Phoebe grabbed the jar labelled rosemary and trekked back upstairs.

"Found it." Phoebe announced as she re-entered the attic. She held it slightly away from her, "It doesn't smell good."

Piper went to Phoebe and snatched the herb out of her sisters hand to examine it, "This isn't rosemary at all. It's belladonna."

"Belladonna?" Paige asked taking it from Piper to examine it herself "There's something else mixed in here too." Paige exclaimed. "I think its...I think it's blood. Eww."

"That doesn't make any sense." Phoebe said.

"Yeah." Piper agreed. "The smell of belladonna can't hurt you. And why would there be blood..."

"But when combined with the blood of an innocent, spilled by a certain dagger, it can." Bille had been leafing through the book and had clearly stumbled across something. The sisters joined her at the book and read:

Belladonna is a sedative, often used in tea to succumb the user to a restful sleep. However when used in excess, may cause the person to become unconscious for several hours, in extreme cases it can sometimes result in death.

Belladonna has been used in demonic ritualistic potions, which involve the process of spilling an innocents blood, and combining the blood with the belladonna by using an animus dagger. The dagger represents the innocents soul and in turn creates a extremely strong poison that can cause death within several minutes.

"Oh my God." Phoebe said covered her mouth as they all took in how close a call they avoided.

"Paige, can you take the boys to Magic School and leave them with Leo?" Piper asked and Paige nodded.

"Common baby." Paige said softly, taking Wyatt's hand, and leading him over to where Piper was.

"You wanna go see daddy for a little while, huh buddy?" Piper asked her oldest son pulling him into a hug, "Okay," she continued handing Chris over to Paige, "Bye bye baby." She pressed a kiss to his head, and fixed his hair, realizing just how close she was to loosing her boy, but she forced the thought from her mind, "Hurry back Paige, so we can figure out what's going on." Paige nodded before disappearing in a flurry of orbs.

"Okay now lets see what kind of demon uses this animus dagger and summon his sorry ass." Piper snapped.

Paige orbed back into the attic, to find her two sisters waiting for her return. "Did you find him?" she asked.

"Well," Phoebe said "We found a demon who uses daggers to spread disease, suffering, and pain. His name is Acerbitas."

"Do we have a summoning spell?" Paige asked.

"No, we don't" Piper replied, her patience cleaning waning, "There's only a spell in here to take us to him, so..."

Phoebe interrupted her, " …I don't think its a very good idea. It could be a trap and..."

"I don't care Phoebe," Piper snapped, cutting her off, "he attacked my sons, so I'm going to vanquish him!"

"We don't even know how to vanquish him" Phoebe supplied.

"He's not even an upper level demon, what is your problem?" Piper growled.

"My problem is, that I'm not sure I'm ready for this...again." Phoebe replied, her eyes glistened.

"Well you better get ready!" Piper replied and Phoebe sighed, "Paige what do you think?"

Paige shrugged, "Well, if he isn't an upper level demon, then we'd probably be able to vanquish him with a power of three spell."

"Ha!" Piper eyed Phoebe.

"But…" Paige continued, "to go there, and not know what to expect, he could already have a poison planted and ready for us. It could be a trap, to lure us there."

"Ha." Phoebe said to Piper, although she sounded more relieved than anything.

"Fine" Piper said "I'll do it on my own." Phoebe and Paige exchanged nervous glances.

"Piper..." Phoebe began.

"No Phoebe. If you don't want to hunt demons that's your own business, but they attacked my sons and I will do whatever I have to, to make sure that whoever did this rots in hell. " Piper strode out of the attic.

Paige followed Piper into the hallway, "Ugh, hello, earth to Piper," Paige called and Piper kept walking. "Hey! Can you stop ignoring me for onesecond and listen." Piper stopped but didn't turn around so Paige scooted in front of her, "Going in there alone would be suicide"

"Well unless you plan on helping me, get outta my way" Piper responded.

"I'm not letting you go in there alone" Paige told Piper, indicating that if Piper insisted on this, she had her support.

"Neither am I." Phoebe appeared at the door way "It's just, we've been trying so hard to have normal lives and it's finally happening. Everything we've ever wanted. I, I've wanted to tell you guys something all day, but, I haven't been able to find the right time..."

"Phoebe I'm not sure if now is the right time" Paige tried to defuse the tension between her two older sisters.

"No Paige, I have to tell you guys this now, so you understand," Piper was watching her sister intently. "I..." Phoebe took a deep breath "I'm pregnant." Both of her sisters stared at her in shock. Her and Coop weren't even married, or engaged as far as either of them knew. "And I'm scarred, I don't want anything to happen to this baby, I've wanted this for so long."

Piper immediatly crossed the hallway towards her sister and Phoebe fell into her arms, "Sweetie, I am so sorry, I, I didn't know." Piper pulled her sister back and looked at her. "We won't let anything happen to our niece, I promise." She hugged Phoebe again.

When the two finally pulled away, Paige could see Phoebe was crying, she went to hug her big sister "Congratulations!" Paige said with a smile as she embraced her.

Phoebe laughed, choking back her tears. Piper looked worried, "Okay, well Paige, we're going to have to do this without the power of three then, are you up for it?"

Paige pulled away from Phoebe and looked at Piper "Of course" she replied, softly brushing a piece of hair out of Phoebe's eyes.

"You have the power of three. I'm coming with you." Phoebe told them.

"I'm not sure…" now that Piper knew the truth, her big sister instincts were in high gear.

"Yeah Phoebs, Paige agreed, we're good, don't worry."

"No, I love Wyatt and Chris too, and we are going to have to learn to protect our kids, together. I can't do this alone, and I don't want you guys to do it alone either, we're sisters after all."