"Anyone home?" Phoebe Halliwell-Hart yelled out as she let herself into the huge Victorian she and her sisters had owned for almost twenty years. She had moved out soon before she married her husband Coop ten years ago but she still had the key. Her nose automatically picked up on the smell coming from the kitchen. A mixture of rotten eggshells and pancakes wafted through out the ground level of Halliwell Manor.
Phoebe made her way into the kitchen. Piper Halliwell moved about like an energized bumblebee. "Pancakes with a side of rotten eggs? Sis, you can do better," Phoebe said as she sat at the breakfast table that sat in the kitchen.
Piper wrinkled her brow and added a pinch of red powder to the bubbling pot. The pot exploded but Piper's reflexes had quickened in the past eleven years. When the sound suddenly stopped, Phoebe knew what happened but she ran over anyway. Piper, with her hands still up, stood there frozen in shock. There was at least three large pieces of metal shrapnel headed for her torso.
"OH GOD! Honey, are you okay?" Phoebe said as she moved Piper out of the way of the destroyed pot.
"Yeah, just frustrated, and you know, surprised by the fact that I was almost made into a shish kabob."
"Frustrated?" Phoebe asked as she brushed what looked like pancake batter off of Piper's shirt.
"Yeah, I've been making potions for the last three hours," she said as she used her fingers to comb the potion goop out of her hair.
"You've been up since three?" Phoebe inquired.
"Nope, two forty-five. I was woken up by a crash from down the hall. I ran down to Wyatt's room only to find that he was still asleep with a shield over him. A demon stood above his bed and… well; let's just say some of him is still on Wyatt's wallpaper."
"Wyatt's power works when he's asleep?"
"Yeah, he subconsciously protects himself. We found that out when he was little and—," an explosion ripped through the kitchen. Phoebe took Piper by the waist and slammed them both down to the linoleum covered floor.
"Dammit, I forgot all about the pot," she said as she got up and looked around the kitchen, "I hope IHOP delivers,"
"That's beside the point Piper," Phoebe said as she dusted her vest off. She fixed her hair, "I have a demon problem too," she got up and righted a fallen chair. She sat and continued, "Coop was out driving Liza and Casey to school and I was finishing up my column for the day. There was a huge crash in Lauren's room and I ran in, you know, thinking she had hurt herself or something. When I got in there a demon was laid out on a pile of what was a verrry expensive TV. I guess she used her power to send him back. She was sitting on her bed crying and I got a potion out of a drawer in her room. I threw it and bye bye big bad and ugly."
By this time Piper had cleaned up all of the potion goo and pancake batter and was tossing the twisted metal that was the pot in the trash can. "So we've had similar times huh? I bet Paig—."
Piper didn't finish her sentence when Paige Orbed in. She fully materialized and hopped up on the counter. "Guess what happened this morn… what's that smell? It's like vanilla, sulfur, and gunpowder," Paige said as she sniffed the air.
"There was a… mistake. Potion explosion," Piper explained.
Paige shrugged as if it was a daily occurrence then her eyes widened, "What potion for what?"
"Demons have been heavy lately. One attacked Wyatt two days ago…,"
"And Laurie yesterday," Phoebe interjected as she walked over to the cabinet and fixed her a bowl of Special K. "And we're sure your story is something like ours," she guessed as she poured milk into her bowl.
Paige joined her sisters at the table with her own bowl of Honey Smacks and began her own story, "Yeah it was. Henry's off today and he was sleeping in. The kids were getting ready and I was fixing breakfast. I heard one of the twins scream and I ran into the bathroom. Tara was floating above the demons head and she kicked him in the face. He almost fell backwards but before he did, he slapped her and she hit the shower wall really hard. I called for a knife and I stabbed him in the chest. He blew up and I ran over to Tara. She was bleeding from the head and I healed her," Paige began to cry.
"It's okay honey. She's okay right?" Piper cooed at her baby sister.
"Yeah. She said her head still hurt and Henry is at the ER with her now. I went ahead and let Kara go to. They're not going to school today."
"Understandable," Piper said. Just then Wyatt walked downstairs, dressed for school. He wore a nice button down shirt and some khaki pants. He smelled like his father's Christian Dior cologne but much, much stronger. Paige coughed. Phoebe fanned her nose fervently.
"Oh crap, too strong?" Wyatt asked as he smelled his shirt.
"Oh of course not honey," Piper said as she hugged her fourteen year old.
"Just don't light any matches," Paige said under her breath. Phoebe snickered.
"Very funny Auntie," he said as he went upstairs to change into a less cologne-saturated shirt.
Melinda and Chris came down together. "Hey mom," Chris said as Melinda hugged her aunts. They sat for a bowl of cereal and went picked up their lunchboxes from the fridge. Before they left, Piper caught Chris's arm.
"Chris, would you happen to know who Wyatt is getting so dressed up for?" Piper asked.
"I've been instructed not to tell. But for a small sum…," he said as he held his hand out.
Piper maid a mock disgusted noise and fished in her pocket for a five dollar bill. "Here you go, you crook."
Chris smiled, held the bill to the light and, satisfied, stuffed it in his wallet, "He's dating a girl," he said as he ran out, Melinda in tow.
"When I used to rat out Prue when I was in middle school five dollars from Grams got her a name, an address, and a family tree," Piper said as she cursed her clever child.
"Guess the rates went up," Phoebe said as she and Paige cracked up. Wyatt walked in wearing a new button down. "How do I look," he asked the three sisters. Each nodded in unison and a satisfied Wyatt collected his three bucks for lunch and his book bag and left. Phoebe and Paige continued laughing and Piper joined in.