"I wonder why he went to you first," Piper said after Prue told them about their father showing up in her office out of the blue after twenty years, as they met with Phoebe at a café during lunch, "I mean, why not Phoebe or me?"

"Piper, it's not like I won the lottery," Prue grimly reminded her. Seeing her father was probably the last thing the oldest Halliwell sister wanted.

"What was he like?" Phoebe asked, "Did he ask about us?"

"Actually, no," Prue said as gently as she could, but seeing how her younger sister was clearly upset, she added, "Phoebe, think about it. He abandoned us. He was a no-show for twenty years, and then what? Suddenly here he is? Why now?" She spoke angrily, but it was Victor she was angry at – not her sisters.

"Maybe he just wants to be part of our lives…" Piper suggested, cautiously hopeful.

"After all this time? Don't get your hopes up."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Phoebe said, "Why wait 'til dinner? Let's go see him now."

"Will you be rational? Don't you find it a little suspicious that just when we find out-" Prue paused when a waitress came over and cleared her plate, and then continued more quietly, "Just when we find out we're witches – he shows up? But when Mom dies, he's nowhere to be found?"

"What about Perry?" their middle sister changed the subject, "Are we really going to not tell her about this?"

"You know how she feels about him, Piper," the oldest sister sternly said, "I may say he's dead to me sometimes because I'm angry, but for Perry he's really dead. I told the two of you because you deserve to make your own decision, but she already made hers years ago – and you should respect it."

"Fine, but I still think we should meet him," Phoebe said.

"Don't forget Grams always told us he was a threat to us," Prue tried to warn her, "There's no reason to think that that's changed."

"Prue, it's not that I don't see your point," Piper said, "But… you knew him, we didn't. Why can't we have a chance to know him now?"

"Because we really don't know why he's here. And until we do, we can't trust him."

"Hey, gorgeous," Cynda said with a flirty smile as she walked into the garage, and Perry smiled brightly back at her.

"Hey," she said, putting aside the sword she was sharpening and standing up.

"I managed to get away from Marshall for a while, so I figured I'll come see how you're doing. You left in a hurry last night – everything good?"

"Yeah, thanks," Perry said, "Apparently we had some kind of hellhound breaking and entering into the house. Good thing Vic was there to scare it away." She pointed at her big white dog, who was lying at the garage entrance and eyeing Cynda suspiciously.

"Yeah, good thing."

"I really enjoyed the party, though," Perry added.

"Yeah, I was really glad you could come," Cynda said, wiping a sweaty strand of hair from Perry's forehead.

Vic started barking at something, probably that stray cat that seemed to have adopted them a couple of weeks ago, but Perry was too distracted to see what it was about. Cynda started kissing her, and it felt even better than Perry imagined it will. The tall redhead was a great kisser, and her lips were so soft and tasted amazing. The best part was the contrast between Cynda's soft kiss and the hunger with which she seemed to kiss Perry. Their hands caressed each other, softly at first but gradually growing more demanding until it almost hurt. Perry wasn't expecting to be kissing Cynda so soon, but the almost animal attraction between them was undeniable.

She had no idea how long they've even been kissing for, until she heard a loud boom sound from upstairs – inside the manor.

"What was that?" she wondered out loud, breaking away from Cynda's kiss.

"Don't know, don't care," the redhead said with a mischievous smile, pulling Perry back as she tried to go check the noise. Vic growled angrily at Cynda, but the black haired young woman just smiled in amusement and said, "I promise I'll be back in a minute."

She tried to walk out of the garage again, but Cynda gripped her so tightly that it really hurt her arm. "Let go of me," Perry told her in a serious voice, but still tried to calm Vic down.

Suddenly Cynda let go, making Perry lose balance and fall on her face. "Oops," the redhead said sarcastically, walking back to her own house without looking back.

What the hell is her problem? Perry wondered, dizzily getting back to her feet. Her face hurt where it hit the garage floor, and her arm still hurt where Cynda gripped it. It's probably going to leave bruises too… Why would she do that?

She slowly walked back to the manor, her head still spinning, but was surprised to see Prue and Andy there when she walked inside.

"Perry?" her sister said in concern when she saw her, "What happened? Are you alright? Did you have some kind of accident?"

"Yeah," Perry said, not really eager to explain the whole story, "But I'm fine, I think. What… what's going on here?"

"Seems Phoebe left the door open again."

"I guess I'll get going," Andy said, looking a little awkward, and kissed Prue's cheek before he left.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Prue asked Perry, locking the door after him, "We should put some ice on these."

Perry nodded, but said, "Before… this happened, I heard some kind of noise from upstairs. I was going to check it out…"

"You just go take care of your injury," Prue told her reassuringly, "I'll go see what happened." She didn't want to worry Perry and distract her from getting the ice, so she waited until her younger sister entered the kitchen before going to pick up the Book of Shadows from the sitting room's floor.

Something strange was definitely going on, if not a whole bunch of strange things.

Prue went up to the attic to put the Book back in its place, but was surprised (quite shocked, actually) to see that someone or something has ripped the reinforced door that Perry installed out of its doorframe.

"What the hell..?"

"You don't know for sure," Phoebe said when Prue told Piper and her about what happened, and that someone tried to steal the Book. She looked worriedly at her twin, who was still wincing in pain whenever she moved her injured arm.

"I know plenty," Prue said, "First someone rips off the attic door, then the Book of Shadows is found downstairs? Isn't that enough?"

"Why would somebody want the Book?" Piper asked.

"Why would anyone not?" Perry said, grimacing in pain, "You've seen how powerful it is."

"They know what it can do," Prue agreed with her, "And they want its power. Our power."

"That would mean it's someone who knows us," Piper said, "And knows that we're witches."

"Yeah, someone like…" Prue stopped herself, but Perry was looking at her suspiciously.

"What?!" Phoebe said in shock, "How can you think that?!"

"How can she think what?" Perry said, raising her voice even though it made her jaw hurt even more, "Who are you talking about? What are you all hiding from me?"

"She's talking about Dad, Perry," Piper told her as gently as she could.

The youngest Halliwell looked at Prue, who nodded and said in a sad voice, "It's true. Victor's back. I'm sorry, Perry."

But their younger sister just shook her head, refusing to believe it. Her father was dead – he died when she was three years old, and no stranger showing up twenty years later was going to change that.

"Whoever that 'Victor' is, he isn't our Dad," she told her sister stubbornly.

"It's okay, Perry," Prue told her, holding her hand comfortingly, "You won't have to see him. I promise."

Perry nodded in silent thanks, and looked at Piper and Phoebe. "So… this 'Victor' shows up, and suddenly the manor is attacked by hellhounds and book-thieves. And the two of you don't find it suspicious?"

"Think about it," Prue told them as well, "Do you really think it's a coincidence?"

"The craft is a chick thing, Prue. It's passed on down through the female line," Piper said, "There's a good chance Dad doesn't even know we're witches."

"And there's just as good of a chance he does," Prue told her. Looking at her twin, who was unusually quiet, Perry could tell that she was hiding something.

"What would he want with the book?" Piper said, "And why would he take it from us? Phoebe, help me out here." When her sister didn't answer, apparently too deep in thought to even hear her, Piper said again, "Phoebe!"

"Okay…" Phoebe said, "Let's just say for the sake of argument that he is after it. Wouldn't he have taken it with him? He wouldn't have left it behind."

"Okay, we have to call the cops and report it as a break-in," Piper said.

"And tell them what?" Prue said, "That someone broke into our house to try and steal our broomsticks? I mean, please… Besides, Andy's already been here."

"Oh, so Andy was here," Phoebe said, "Again. Talk about convenient. Did you ever think of pointing the finger at him?"

"Seriously, Phoebe?" Perry told her, "You're willing to trust some man you don't know, who might be the father who abandoned us when we were too little to even remember him, but not Andy –who we've known for most of our lives?"

She wiped a tear from her cheek, not even sure if it was from the pain in her jaw or talking about their father.

"I'm sorry that some of us don't pretend we're orphans, Perry!" her twin answered angrily, "But I'd actually like to have a dad. So I'm going to see him at dinner tonight."

"Me too," Piper said, but she was calmer, and looked at Perry almost apologetically.

"I've already seen him," Prue told them.

"And… when he asks about you, Perry?" Piper hesitantly asked.

"I honestly don't care what you tell him," she answered wearily, "He's not my father, and he never will be."