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!

I think in terms of Season 3 we are only going to have the first few opening chapters. So this story is probably going to be seasons one and two focused.

Let There Be Light

Chapter 15-Hark! Darkness Descends

As time moves on Andy makes a decision, an abandoned baby sends Zankou spiralling again and Paige wondering if she has reached the crossroads Leo keeps talking about.

Daryl came to see him that evening. He had the look of a man perpetually stressed and Andy knew that it looked like a detective struggling with a case that he couldn't understand. He remembered feeling that way occasionally and then all of last year when he knew something was happening and yet the answers were just outside of his reach.

"Hey" he said limping back to his couch. Daryl followed carrying a six pack and what looked like a box of bear claws. Knowing his friend as he did he knew that things were serious. Daryl only shared bear claws when he was at the end of his tether. The beer was by the by. Daryl knew his limit and he knew when he needed a break.

"Ok look" he said once Andy had cracked open a bottle and helped himself to some chocolate sugary goodness.

"I know and you know that the sisters three are hiding something and I know that you know. And like we said at the hospital I don't want to know unless I have to and Prue assures me that I don't. And while this might be connected to that other thing I need you to look over the case file and tell me that I'm right. Because if this is the work of a very human nutjob then I need to know cause I swear Andy if it is then I'm just not seeing it and there's a girl going missing nearly every other night"

Andy nodded taking the file and reading it. Daryl shucked of his tie and his jacket and leaned back against the back of his chair his eyes closed looking like a man exhausted with the world. Andy wondered briefly if that was what he had looked like when he was on the job.

The case was a nasty one even without the demon implications. Girls, none of them fitting a set pattern (unless you counted being young and beautiful) going missing. Some on their way to the bathroom, some outside for a cigarette or to call a cab but the majority of them claimed to their friends that they were going backstage to meet the band.

"I'd say the manager looks as guilty as sin" he said looking at the picture of Jeff Carlton.

"I know" Daryl said as he passed Andy the lab reports. "But there's not a stick of evidence on him. The band don't speak without lawyers or without him present so I don't know if the last three victims even went to meet them and he just denies everything. Says he doesn't know what happened after they met the band and it's not his problem. The earlier ones he denies all together. But there's no bodies, no blood, no evidence and no motive. If he is behind this and this is…well…a normal case then I don't see what or how he's keeping them alive"

"Could he be working with someone?"

"Not a human"

There was a very pregnant pause as Andy stared at him. Daryl took another bear claw tearing into the pastry with the look of someone who knew that their cardiologist was not going to be happy and that he didn't care.

"I don't want to know Andy. Prue says she and the sisters are looking into this. Just tell me if I'm right to trust them."

Andy nodded. It was amazing how these cases that would have had them chasing their tails for months if they were looking for an ordinary person were now that he knew that something else was behind them. It felt like he was part of another world that knew that such things existed and while he might have gone in willingly (at least after his injuries) he also knew why Daryl wanted to remain on the cusp of things.

"Let me just say" he said framing his words carefully. "That this is something that without Prue's help we might have never solved"

Daryl nodded. "All I needed to know partner. Now…has the brass reached out?"

"Commissioner wants to talk about coming back next week. And offer me a commendation for the whole Rodriguez incident. He calls it a smoothing over of all our difficulties"

Daryl snorted into his beer.

"Jeez" he said shaking his head. "That's a nice way of saying we know we had a murderer in IAB and we did nothing about it, please don't go to ABC News and tell your story for six figures"

Andy nodded and then words he had been debating since he'd come home spilled out of him. This was his partner. This was why he trusted him. And he did trust Daryl, with his life.

"To be honest with you Daryl I'm not sure if I want to go back"

Daryl didn't even look surprised. "I did wonder" he said finally. "If that was what you'd say. The injuries you suffered are gonna set you to a desk for months and even then if your knee has a twinge in a foot chase…"

"I know it can be a liability, but it's other things as well…it's the whole hierarchy of the place, the whole get results or else scenario. I know we did some good work but when you've got the IAB breathing down your neck once you never really lose them. And I don't know what it feels like to take a vacation anymore. Truth is I just really think I'm burned out"

"Union take care of you?"

"Yeah. And If I want to go then they'll make sure that I've got a pension and my name, and it's not the end of the world. There are places where I can do consultancy and private investigation. The DA might need some help and it's a loss less wear and tear. To be honest with you I just…I think I'm just done"

Daryl looked at him with eyes that were filled with sympathy and Andy felt a great wave of love and respect come over him when he looked at his partner and his friend because Daryl knew what this decision would mean for him and he knew the reasons why he had never talked it through with Prue, why he had waited until his partner had come round to mention it and never once had he tried to convince him to stay.

"Sounds like you've made your mind up then"

Yeah…yeah he had hadn't he.

"Yeah"

Daryl was silent for a second staring down at the beer bottle label.

"You've been a great partner Andy. And an even better friend. And it's been a privilege going through doors with you"

Andy swallowed down the lump in his throat and staring out the window. The sun was going down and he thought how apt that was right now as he acknowledged that he was done being a cop. The sun was setting down on that too.

"You've been a great partner too Daryl. And thanks…for everything"

There was much more to be said, stuff that had developed over years of marriage, kids, divorce, Prue, cases, the terrible things that they had seen and their friendship which Andy knew would ring true regardless of what happened next but sitting there in his apartment in a t-shirt and sweats with his crutches to one side and the woman he loved out their fighting something that shouldn't exist in any normal world he found that there was peace to this and a terrific sense of normality. He would survive.

They stayed there in silence for quiet a while until Daryl's phone rang.

"Go get em" Andy said finally.

"Don't worry" Daryl said as if he understood what was in his mind. "You can tell Prue. And you call me…morning, noon and night if you want to talk. I mean it…"

Andy nodded. He couldn't say anything else and Daryl, God Bless him understood and left him alone to his own thoughts with the setting of the sun.

It would be nice if Andrew Trudeau and Daryl Morris could have stayed like that, but life didn't always work like that and it most certainly did not let you bask in ignorance for long, which was why exactly two weeks later Daryl Morris turned up at his apartment door with a bottle of scotch halfway to being incoherent. Paige had told him the cliff notes version of what had happened and that Daryl had found out and so Andy had known what to expect.

Still…it didn't mean the reaction was any less.

"So…witchcraft"

"Yeah it's a thing, a big thing apparently."

"And you've known since…"

"Remember those kids who went missing a couple of months ago? They were found in a storm drain and the reporter that went in was killed—"

"Jesus Christ Andy that long?"

"Yeah. It took me a while to get my head around it. Demons and witches and…Rodriguez"

"Rodriguez?"

"Demon"

Daryl put down the scotch and made it to the bathroom collapsing in a heap.

"It's the scotch" he said after he had emptied his stomach.

"I understand"

"Fuck off Andy like hell you do"

"Hey you think I was in a great shape when I found out about this, when I turned up asking for help I found out that ghosts have skin—ectoplasm, Christ Daryl I had to be carried home that night.

"Bloody hell…no wonder they can't find him. So he was—"

"The technical term is vanquished"

"Oh I need another drink"

"Yeah somehow buddy I think you have had enough and don't look at me like that! You asked to know"

"There was a dead body in their kitchen! The kitchen where the blender my wife gave you as a present is sat"

"Hey Paige said that was lovely for breakfast smoothies—whatever that is"

"She'll be thrilled" Daryl said dryly.

There was silence for a long time.

"So…the brooms true"

"No. Neither is the bucket of water or the warts or the evilness"

"Oh well…good to know"

"But you have to admit it makes sense now. All of those missing leads on cases"

Daryl thought about it.

"Ok find it does but…God I was barely getting a grip of this world. I wasn't ready to be dragged into another."

"We both stepped over the line because we both knew we had to find out the truth" Andy said casually. "And it gets better. Believe me one day you'll say Spellbook with complete ease"

Daryl retched again.

Andy grinned and went to put some soup on. His leg was getting better.

And things were looking up.

Until they weren't.

"So you've basically kidnapped the small child?" Andy said when he to the house to find Prue with a frantic look on her face trying to calm down a screaming bundle of joy. She had passed the baby to Piper who had looked just as horrified but had taken him into the kitchen as Paige was sketching what looked like the face of someone onto a bit of scrap paper with Phoebe making directions. Daryl who had followed Andy made a mental note to make sure that Paige knew there would always be work at the police station because damn, that girl had talent.

It did not take long to get the whole story out of them. Ghosts, murder, one of the wealthiest families in town and a baby apparently abandoned by his father so that he escape the carnage that was all this mess.

According to Phoebe's premonition skills that is.

"Not kidnapped him. More like keeping him in protective custody. Isn't that what you used to do as a cop?"

"Yes" said Andy carefully shooting Daryl a look. Daryl shrugged which was his default position as he was still what he called—learning. Pointless to point out that he was not a cop anymore was it?.

"But when we did this as a cop we had plans in place. Court orders, social services involved, we lined up the next of kin, we had officers who had children who knew what to do in a crisis—and failing that we used Daryl a lot considering he'll never stop having children. We didn't just pick the baby up and take him home with us simply because we saw the past. And it was bad"

Prue rolled her eyes.

"It was not like that and you know it."

"I know you three in a crisis. You do whatever it takes to protect your innocent and that screaming demon is the very definition of innocent even though he doesn't sound like it"

"He's just been through a lot" Phoebe said adding what looked like a nose to her picture, rubbing out the end and re-drawing it so that it was a bit longer. "And his name is Matthew. And we know it's not neglect that saw him being abandoned, just the opposite in fact. His Dad must have wanted to protect him and figured that the ghost was not going to try in a police office"

Andy said nothing.

"Besides it's good, considering when we went to the future you and Prue, Piper and Paige had children I figured it would be good practice"

"Phoebe" Prue said sharply.

The baby started crying and Paige sighed and put him on her hip. Immediately the baby settled. Clearly there was something about Paige that he liked.

Daryl sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

He came back to see her in the kitchen and then he had to turn around and walk down the path.

She was holding a baby.

A FUCKING BABY BOY.

He closed his eyes against the phantom pain and wished he could close his ears against the laugher in his head.

He opened them again and…

She was there watching him from the porch.

"Don't worry" Paige said easily. "You've not been gone that long, and he goes back to his mother tomorrow. You wanna come in? I can give him to Piper"

There was a pause as he stared at her and then he nodded. He had said that he was going to be honest with her and he nodded.

Paige opened the door.

And Zankou stepped inside it.

No going back now.

And there you go.

Next Chapter-Zankou tells Paige his story but they are interrupted by Piper who has gotten sick leading to devastating consequences...or near about. Part One of a Two Part Handler.