Piper, Phoebe and Paige found themselves once again in the long corridor that seemingly led nowhere, with Prue along for the ride this time. Prue, who seemed a bit astounded at first, before she remembered whatever it was that angered her and made her come here in the first place, her face showing the quick shift in emotions, and making her sisters cringe in advance at what they know is to come.
Gideon was standing in the middle of the library flipping through the pages of a rather large book, when the persistent, and angry clicking of heels caught his attention. He looked up and found a furious Prue stalking towards him, her angry steps nearly setting fire to the marble floor.
"Ah, Prue. I see your sisters have told you about the school. Welcome" he greeted, as he closed the book and turned to face her.
"Welcome" she sneered, "really? Is that all you've got to say to me?" she yelled, "after years of standing around, watching us as we stumbled about with our powers, and the constant demon attacks; only interfering when you wanted to make life even harder for us. You didn't warn us about Tempus, you didn't bother to send anyone to let us know about the time loop. You left us out there to dry, and an innocent man died because we couldn't be sure that if we didn't vanquish Tempus that he won't kill us" she screamed, with all three sisters standing silently behind her, knowing that interfering at this moment would not be a good idea, neither was interrupting, but it seemed that once again, Gideon was stupid enough to disagree with a pissed off Charmed One.
"Prue, this was all part of the Grand Design. You out of all people know that things must happen in a certain way, I can't interfere when I am not meant to; it's against the rules" he reminded her calmly, but it only added to her fury.
"Rules?!" she barked, "grand design?" she hissed, "those rules forced our mother to give up her own child, and your kind didn't even know that she existed until she was needed, and it was only then when they decided to get off their high horses long enough to see that she was worth too much, to them that is, since she was already worth more than you could possibly fathom to us. We weren't there for her when her parents died, and she was forced to vanquish the Source twice before she was even a witch for a year" she hollered, and Paige's head snapped up at the mention of her name. She was pretty surprised that Prue was that angry about her situation, enough to count it as a failure on the Elder's part.
"Your kind was so clueless that they didn't even know that Cole was the New Source, and that he was once again uniting the Underworld under his command. And they were even more useless when Phoebe joined him. You and your rules, and all that crap about the Grand Design has done nothing but make our lives difficult, and cost us so much. And after all of that, you have the audacity to say 'welcome' to me. How. Dare. You?" she bellowed, enunciating the every syllable in the last sentence.
"I understand that you are very upset, and I realize that you may not see the big picture right now, but I assure you that one day you will be able to see the picture as we have always seen it" he said, a bit too arrogantly for her taste.
"I am not the one who is blind! You and your kind are the ones who have been letting things fall through the cracks all the time, and we are always stuck cleaning up your mess. So neither you, nor them have any right to tell me what I am or am not allowed to do any more. I owe you nothing, and how I choose to do things is none of your business. I will not wait around till one day I look back and realize that I could've stopped your stupidity from ruining this world, and regret it. And if you have any ounce of wisdom, then you'll know to stay out of my way" she warned dangerously, and he wisely nodded.
"Don't worry Prudence, one day you'll see that I am not the enemy here, but a friend, or perhaps a useful resource in the least" he remarked.
"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?" she scoffed, "now where's my daughter?" she asked firmly, and he pointed in the direction of the nursery, "allow me to show you the way" he gestured politely, and her only response was to step aside to let him pass.
Leo and Chris were both sitting on the floor with Andie and Wyatt between them, as they played with building blocks and cars, when the door swung open, and in walked the eldest Halliwell.
"Mommy" Andie squealed, sprinting towards her mother and jumping at her.
Prue easily caught her daughter, and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek once she was secured on her hip. She smiled softly at Chris, who was eyeing her closely as he walked over to her, while Leo picked up Wyatt and got to his feet as well.
"Mom, are you alright?" Chris asked worriedly.
"Yes, sweetie, I'm fine" she assured him, as she put her arm around his waist, when he was within her reach. He put his arms around her shoulders in return, knowing that she was far from alright if she looked like that.
"Mommy, can you play with me?" Andie asked sweetly.
"How about we go home and play with the doll house?" Prue suggested, and at the little girl's excited squeal, she guessed the answer was a yes.
"What happened?" Leo asked Piper in a hushed tone.
"What I expected. She didn't take it well, and she's pretty furious about it and rightfully so, might I add. I mean, the Elders made my life hard, but not as much as Prue, so she's understandably more betrayed by all of this than I am" she answered.
"Because of Andy?" he asked, and Piper nodded.
"She always talked about how hard it was to raise Andie without him, and how much she dreaded the day she starts asking questions, and now she has another child with him, so it's even worse. And then you add the pregnancy hormones, and you've got yourself a Titan version of an angry Prue" she quipped, and he chuckled.
"You guys ready to go home? We have a lot of things to do" Prue asked, and they both nodded. Paige orbed out with Prue, Andie, Chris and Phoebe; while Piper and Wyatt went with Leo.
Sorry for the long wait you guys, and that it is short, but I just started a new job, and the hours are kinda crazy. I will re-read this in the morning for any grammatical errors, and will try to update again this week.
Let me know what you all think, and thank you to all who read and followed and of course reviewed.