Hi, so here is another chapter and after doing some work in a new planning book I can confirm this story will take us to end of Season 3 and will now be twenty five chapters.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

Some of this chapter is based on chapters that I wrote in my previous story 'Before And After' and so therefore there is an overlap in words and scenes. There will be for the next couple of chapters.

And now we are in Season 2!

Let There Be Light

Chapter 12-One Ocean Closer To Destiny.

First Chapter of Season 2-Prue and Andy are attempting to find out what their lives are now he's survived. Piper is struggling to buy the club, Paige and Phoebe are just trying to keep their heads above water and their feet off the eggshells that they are walking on-Potentially multiple episodes covered in one chapter.

Andy had gone into surgery twice and though she had stayed for both of those times exhaustion had managed to get the better of her and she'd fallen asleep against Phoebe's shoulder. Piper had gone in search of Paige to make sure that she was alright when Zankou appeared.

"God" he said waving his hands around. "What is it with these lights? They make the Elders look,dark and dismal"

"She's fine" Piper said shooting him a look. "You don't need to be here"

"I know I don't need to be" Zankou said waspishly "But I am"

And then in a flash of light he was gone. Prue looked around and noticed that nobody else could see him.

"Glad to see he's taking this seriously" Piper muttered with an eye roll..."You know Prue I am still not okay with him"

"Neither am I" Prue said truthfully. "But this is Paige, and Paige is going to do what she wants without our getting in the way, I'd rather have him in the house where I can see him than have them both…wherever the hell he has come from"

"I think he loves her in his own way" Phoebe said quietly. "I think that he loves her very much and I think that scares the hell out of him"

Piper opened her mouth caught Prue's eye and shut it again.

Prue found that she could understand a little bit of what Zankou was feeling.

Eventually between the two of them, her sisters, her best friends in the whole world had gotten her home and then they had dragged her into the shower uncaring of the mess and the water and the fact that the whole place had been ransacked by the local PD and washed the death and the blood and the demon splatter off her and then tucked her into bed and held her through the night when she shivered so violently that she thought she was going to be sick.

That had been the third night. Since then it had not improved.

The only thing that had mattered was that Pagie came home. A little tired and achy, with a concussion and a split lip but nothing major. It was enough that she came home. Zankou they all suspected came home with her. Prue was sure someone soon was going to say something but right now she was too scared that she was going to hear something else to care. Besides…she was not in the mood to deal with these Elders.

She could give ultimatums too.

Andy she had been told was on the mend once he'd come out of the second surgery and Morris (speaking through Phoebe) said that there was a good chance he'd wear his badge again. Apparently the San Francisco PD were dedicated to tracking down Rodriguez but considering Piper had cleaned a good chunk of what they thought was his blood off the walls it didn't seem like it was going to happen.

In a daze Prue went back to work. Piper was looking at buying a club that had long gone derelict and Phoebe had taken to making sure that the repairs of the house had been done to her exacting standards and that the Book of Shadows remained hidden from prying eyes and Paige was spending most of her time in her room recovering and trying to use her damaged hand to draw again, it was time her sister started to look for a job, a proper one, all this temping was a bad idea but Paige had very little clue on what she wanted to do with her life and Prue was in no mood to deal with asking her or nagging her right about now. They had to rebuild and repair and it was not just the house—though it was worth noting that they did not have unlimited savings and their old handyman had worked for a very much reduced rate most of the time even if they had not realised it.

Bucklands was at least familiar. There was nothing new or complicated about it and it never changed. Claire had gone back to the bank and a new overseas buyer was settled though for how long Prue was not sure. But the office was comforting, it was the same, her desk and her chair and her lamp that had not changed from Rex to Hannah to Claire to that dratted Matthew Tate. Things were normal at work, nobody seemed to know what had happened and if they did then they never asked.

That was the same.

It was everything else that had changed.

Andy was alive, and nobody could seem to tell her how.

Granted, they had stopped the outcome of Phoebe's premonitions before but yet this one had seemed so certain especially with the added time loop. Andy had to die for the time loop to break and yet somehow he had survived a blast to the chest that should have easily killed him before he hit the floor.

None of them knew how that had happened but Phoebe who had taken her Wicca Craft seriously over the last few weeks thought that the Powers That Be, that had supported and saved Leo might have saved Andy for reasons that she thought had to do with fate.

"Maybe" she'd said when she'd come to collect Prue from where she was outside the hospital corridor studiously trying to ignore what was going on in the room.

"Maybe it's all part of a bigger plan. For Piper and you and Paige, to have the men you love in your lives just a little bit longer. For me as well. For us to have that support as "

"But Phoeb's Leo's not around anymore, Zankou is a demon and besides Andy's mortal all of that is supposed to be a big no, no for them upstairs"

"Maybe that's the problem. Look Mom clearly had her own affairs and if what Zankou alludes to is true she was punished for it, but they need us. They need us to keep the balance, maybe they just don't want to piss us off. They need us, especially now that we know what we are doing, and if they think that we might be taking a more middle approach—"

"So they throw us a bone and we beg and be grateful"

"Please" Phoebe said with the typical Halliwell scoff. "We don't bow or beg to nobody. But we are powerful and we are strong and we are smart and I think it's time that we started embracing that label. And were difficult too and that's not a bad label for a woman no matter how many insecure men think that it is"

Paige sipping her coffee had grinned.

Prue had to admit that her sister seemed to be right. She just couldn't get her brain to work very well these days.

Maybe she had a point because there appeared to be no magical explanation other than fate and that was just stupid.

The questions still remained.

Once it was clear however that Andy survived she stopped seeing him. Once it was clear that he was going to get his job back she stopped going to the hospital. It was hard to put into words the guilt that commanded her in that week. It was hard to even find the strength to get out of bed on some days and when she got home all she wanted to do was sleep.

When she got to sleeping all she wanted to do was stay awake.

She kept seeing it.

She kept seeing him falling even though she hadn't actually seen that. She kept seeing those eyes that she'd fallen in love with when she'd been a teenager, she kept seeing a coffin with white roses on top of it and her sisters flanking a sober looking Darryl.

It was the opposite of what the reality was.

Whatever Prue was thinking, whatever Prue was going to do the choice was taken off her. There were the normal day to day matters that involved Piper and her club and the (admittedly) sexy bank loan guy, and a widow whose words hit her more than she wanted to admit and then the final piece of the puzzle that was Phoebe insistent that they should celebrate their one year anniversary of becoming witches.

Actually that was not the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back

The final straw came at six that morning when they were awoken by the sound of flipping pages and a strong gust of wind that despite all the windows being shut and all the doors being shut managed to get through to them all.

"Fight it with the power of one?" Phoebe had just finished her face creased in confusion but before she could say anything there was another huge gulph of wind and Prue managed to get a look at something horned with horrible skin coming out of the wall before it was gone and the Book of Shadows with it.

The only plus side of that horrible wake up call was they got to meet their new neighbours, Jenny the confused teenager (and boy even in her muted emotional state did Prue remember what that felt like) and Dan who was…well…he was…he was…he was…

Well if there was a God and Prue was not sure that there was but if there was one then Dan had not been standing ideal when he had parcelled out the good looks.

But it didn't distract her or change anything for her. Nothing seemed to distract her or change anything for her anymore. Andy was still in the hospital and she had put him there so what did it matter that their neighbour had a six pack that was built like stone and that another demon was about or that the Book of Shadows was missing. What did any of it matter when Andy was still in danger and this world was closing in around them?

What could be worse than that?

Turns out quite a bit.

"What is the point of having a demon in the family if he doesn't tell us these things?" Piper said brushing the glass into a pan and getting rid of it.

"He doesn't know the inner workings of what is going on in the Underworld" Paige said chewing her toast.

"I thought that was the whole point?"

"Piper I don't ask for a heads up, need I remind you that he comes through when it matters."

"Name one time—"

"ENOUGH" Prue shouted. "I've had ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT"

And with that she burst into tears.

She couldn't help it, it was all too much and she told them that. She didn't want her powers anymore and it was Phoebe ever the confident woman that she was that dragged it out her regardless of how she was crying into Paige's shoulder. Paige the baby of the family who was now looking at her with eyes that seemed older than Prue was.

"Something" she said her eyes blazing. "Is blocking you Prue. And if you don't figure it out then were all dead!"

And that was what really sent things spiralling.

"Yes. That's right Phoebe" she snapped. "I'm the big sister, I'm the one with the dominant power, the one who is always supposed to fix everything! If that is the case then how come Andy is lying in a hospital bed with half of his body broken I mean my God! Don't you get it? If I am the so called powerful witch then how come he's where he is? He came in this house that day because of me! He came here because of me! I told him what he was facing and he came to protect me and because of that he almost died. I mean what is the point of being witches if all it does is get the people we loved either killed or in hospital?"

There was a very long pause.

"You didn't get him where he was today" Piper said finally. "He came through those doors not because of who you were but because of who he was and if you went to see him instead of tying yourself in knots over this then he would tell you that himself. Everything he ever did was his choice. Prue he chose to be with you, to love you and I think you and I both know that if he had to do it all over again he would because he's been in love with you since we were teenagers witches or not"

It was a stirring speech and for some reason, for reasons she didn't understand she found that she was listening to it. That she could see it clearer. That she could see the path in front of her and that there was nothing stopping her but herself.

"If you want to walk away from him that's fine" Paige said quietly. "If you want to walk away from being a witch that's…fine I suppose. We all have a choice in this and I think THEY know it too, but you owe Andy the truth. And you owe him the dignity of a choice. If he wants to stay in this life then you owe him the choice to do so because Prue…were not going to gain a massive amount of allies here. We need all the help that we can get"

And with that Prue nodded.

She was in no way ok with what had happened but she was managing and because of that they vanquished the demon and saved the Book.

After all witchcraft was a part of all of them. Even without the Book, even with her hating the craft as she'd been doing all week she was not sure she could have lived without it in her, thrumming in her blood and in her bones.

And with that she knew she was going to the hospital.

She got into her car and adjusted her mirror and then.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Zankou. Again.

He sat in the back seat for a second and then.

"I do love her you know"

Prue was too busy trying to remember how not to have a heart attack.

"Okay"

"I know you think that I don't—"

"I try not to think about you at all"

"Fair enough I just…I don't want you to think that I don't."

She sighed running a hand through her hair.

"You're a demon"

"Yes"

"And she's a witch"

"Yes"

"You must know that this is not going to work long term without one of you changing"

"You know" he mused quietly. "I think it can"

"Oh do you"

"Your sister is not the only one who can see the future" he said quietly.

"What the hell does that mean?"

But he smiled and then.

"Do tell the human I am glad he is alive, when your with him you seem very nearly human"

And then he was gone before she could blast him out of her car and before she could go and find her baby sister and tell her what terrible taste she really did have, in men.

Naturally.

And there you go. Next one will be up soon.

Next Chapter-Andy and Prue have a talk, Prue becomes a man...kind of. Piper buys a club. Paige asks a question Zankou really does not want to answer.