Dean and Sam had been sharing a room at the Halliwell manor and both boys had to admit that it was nice having a constant in their lives. They didn't have to worry about finding any cheap motels late at night and because of handy little transportation potions Piper had cooked up the boys didn't have to allot any extra time for travel. Neither Sam nor Dean thought it was possible to have this kind of life when you hunted things for a living but they were starting to see the possibilities, especially since they kept waking up to Piper's breakfasts and the woman seemed to mother them.
Still, Dean felt a little uncomfortable with the secrets he had been keeping. He had only told the sisters half truths about how he and Prue had known each other and sooner or later who was going to have to tell them if he wanted their help. The first part in his plan had been tracking down his daughter. Sam had cross referenced several data bases and managed to unseal adoption records for him. He had found a second birth certificate which had been filed after the adoption was finalized, renaming his daughter Jennifer Anne Sanders, and listed her parents as Michael James Sanders and Jane Marie Sanders.
As he thought about the information he had Dean wondered if it would be the right thing to seek out his child. Tricia was safe and loved -no, Jenny was safe and loved-he told himself. Walking down the stairs he found Paige and Sam sitting at the table looking over the book. Paige was studying because as the third sister of the Charmed prophecy she needed to learn the craft quickly before anymore demons attacked. Sam was just a nerd. A nerd in love, Dean thought as he mentally giggled -sorry, chuckled-at the thought.
"Hey," Sam said when he noticed Dean. "Hear anything from Bobby?"
"Last time I heard from him he was interrogating Cole on information on the underworld and demons. He was trying to confirm different myths hunters have heard about but never confronted. You'd have a better chance of tracking him down through Phoebe. Those two are thick as thieves when they're talking demonology. I haven't been able to get Bobby on the phone for two days."
"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see them for another week," Sam joked.
Piper and Phoebe came running down the stairs, Phoebe's hair dripping wet and her voice dripping with anger. "I want this thing dead," she yelled. "I look like a drowned rat because I can't use my stupid blow drier. Where's Paige?"
"Uh, right here," the youngest sister said. "What's up?"
"Shocker demon," Piper told her. "Comes from the electrical outlets and it takes a power of three spell. You want to take a break from studying?"
"You mean I actually get to do something? Hell yeah. Do you need me to find the rhyme," she asked and started flipping through the book to find the demon in question. "Got it! Now what?"
"Now we go turn something on and get ready to kick some demon ass," Phoebe said excited at the prospect of nice dry hair.
Dean walked over to the tv in the conservatory and pressed the power button.
"Vanquish we three witches cry, one final shock and then you die," they chanted and the demon gave one last pulse before dying.
"Wow, nice and easy," Phoebe said. "Just one of the many reasons it's nice to have you around the house."
"Gee, thanks. It's nice to be had. Thank god we haven't been attacked by anything major. It's given me time to catch up with all of my witch lessons," she said as joked of the regiment Piper had ordered to get the youngest on equal footing.
"Um, yeah," Dean said interrupting. "I had a thought about that."
"What do you mean," Piper asked.
"Well, you've been really kind about letting me and Sammy boy stay here, but I was thinking it would probably be more efficient for you guys to have Paige under the same roof."
"Not a bad idea, but what about you and Sam," Phoebe asked.
"Well, if Paige moved into the manor then I was thinking that Sam and I could take over her lease and stay at her loft."
"It's a good idea," Piper agreed. "What about it, Paige? Do you want to move in with your sisters and relinquish all privacy?"
"It does kind of sound cool. Kind of like an ongoing slumber party, and I never had any siblings to do that kind of stuff with...so yeah, I'll move in."
"Slumber party," Dean said.
"Man, you just got us kicked out of every guys dream," Sam joked.
"Mmm. Maybe we should rethink this whole thing," Dean said.
"I don't think so. You're always welcome over for any and every meal, though. I know how you guys eat otherwise," Piper said back on her mothering track.
"Okay, well I have to go to the library," he said and grabbed his coat and keys.
"Again? Are you sure you don't want help with whatever your researching," Phoebe asked. "We can help."
"I'll probably need it soon, but I'm gonna hold off on asking for a little while," he said and hesitated before speaking again. "I'm fairly certain you won't like what I have to say."
Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Sam were sitting together in the sun room. A blanket was laid out on the floor and there were piles of photo albums and mementos all over the place. After Paige and Sam had finished their lesson on demonology Piper and Phoebe had offered to share stories about past demon attacks and family memories.
"Oh, now here is a good one," Phoebe said and lifted one of the photo albums, putting it in the middle of their circle. "Prue when she was around sixteen or seventeen years old."
"God help us," Piper said. "That was an interesting year."
Sam looked up and feigned ignorance. "Why, what happened that year?"
"Prue was in her rebellious phase. She thought everything good was bad and everything bad was good. She had been dating this guy who was apparently some rebel without a cause and she thought she loved him," Piper told them.
"But one night the guy attacked her, nothing too serious. He didn't try to take advantage of her that way," Phoebe said when Paige looked up with a stunned look on her face. "They argued or something and he hit her."
"That's right," Piper said. "Grams went crazy and the guy disappeared not to long after. You don't think..."
"Knowing Grams, I do think actually," Phoebe said.
"Didn't Dean say he knew Prue around that time," Paige recalled and all three women turned to Sam who pursed his lips and again pretended to be ignorant.
"Uh..."
"Winchester," Dean answered his phone.
"Hey boy, it's me," Bobby said, finally returning Dean's half a dozen phone calls.
"Bobby! Where are you?"
"I'm at the manor with Cole and Leo. You might want to get your ass over here."
"Is it a demon," he asked and walked to his car.
"A demon named Piper," Bobby answered. "All of the women are mad and somehow you and Sammy are in the middle of it. They have Sam up in the attic with them and they kicked the rest of us guys out. You might want to get here quick. Leo just told me that Piper's blown him up before," he barely got out before Dean hung up on him and started speeding.
The manor doors slammed shut and Dean ran past the men as he climbed the stairs and made his way up to the attic in under one minute. "What the hell do you think you're doing," he yelled and walked over to Sam who was standing in the center of a crystal cage, yanking one of the crystals out of place and setting his brother free.
"They know," Sam told his brother. "About Prue, about Tricia; everything. They cast a truth spell."
"You put a spell on my brother," Dean said looking furious.
"We wouldn't have had to if you had told us the truth from the beginning," Piper yelled back. "We let you into our home, we fed you," she cried, "and then we find out that you're the monster that attacked our sister when she was sixteen."
"It didn't happen like that," Dean protested. "I never hurt her!"
"Then you have nothing to worry about," Phoebe said and walked over to the book. "Hear these words, hear my cry, spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee, cross now the great divide."
In less then a minute they were visited by their Grandmother who looked around, startled to see her granddaughters so quickly before she recognized Dean. "What are you doing here," she demanded. "You promised to stay out of California!"
"No, our father promised," Sam yelled. "Now you're both dead and your deal is null and void."
"Grams," Piper interrupted, "we know about Prue and her baby. You had better start talking," she said menacingly, "or so help me god I will vanquish your sorry ass even if I have to die to say the spell," she threatened.
"Piper," Grams began to reprimand her.
"Don't," Phoebe interrupted her Grams. "No more lies! I know that might be hard for you but as a paragon of good you owe us the truth about our sister," Phoebe demanded.
"That's all I know," Grams swore. "Prudence didn't want me involved with the adoption after I found her an agency with a good reputation. I never knew who adopted Tricia or where they lived. After the babies first birthday Prue was depressed and so I did what I thought best and I took away her memories of the baby. Unfortunately, her grief didn't go away. It was just transferred to other circumstances like college and her break up with Andy."
By now the men had found the courage to follow Dean upstairs and were hearing everything first hand. Leo was shocked that Grams had been able to hide this from him, but since the girls hadn't had their powers then Leo had only checked up on them a couple of times through out their lives...mostly when Phoebe was getting into trouble.
"But Dean knows who adopted her, right," Paige asked. It was weird to think that in a matter of weeks she had found her sisters -after losing one she had never known- and now she was an aunt to a little girl who had been giving up for adoption just like she had been.
"I know there names but I'm not going to do anything about it," Dean said to the sisters surprise.
"She's our niece," Piper began but Dean cut her off.
"And she's my daughter, but she shouldn't have to grow up in this! She has a good family and a normal life and I won't drag her into this!"
"What makes you think you get a choice," Paige asked. "My parent's thought they were doing the same thing for me when they gave me up but I still ended up right here in the middle of this crazy world. Sooner or later it's going to happen to her too. Do you really want her to come to the game late? What happens if she gets hurt or someone attacks her while she's with her family and we're not there to protect her?"
"We need to know so we can at least watch over her," Phoebe said. "Even if it's from a distance, Dean; we have to protect her," she urged him.
Dean closed his eyes in anger and fear. "Her name is Jenny now. Her parents are Jane and Michael Sanders-"
"No," Piper said and tears started pouring down her face. "No, that has to be wrong," she cried.
"Piper, what is it," Phoebe said trying to console her sister as she put an arm around her.
"Mike and Jane Sanders are Dan's sister and brother-in law," she explained.
"What," Phoebe asked finally catching onto what Piper meant.
"What's going on," Paige asked.
Leo stepped up and explained while Phoebe was busy with Piper. "Dan was their neighbor and Piper's ex-boyfriend. He was also Piper's husband in her last life," he said with a grimace. "Souls tend to travel in the same circles from one life to the next. When he moved in he was the guardian of his niece, Jenny, while her parents lived abroad in Saudi Arabia. Jenny lived next door for a year and we had no idea how close she was."
"You mean she was here," Dean asked. "You got to meet her?"
"We were close to her," Phoebe said through her tears. "Because Dan had no experience taking care of kids she came to us whenever she needed anything. I can't believe she was right here!"
"How do we go about meeting her? I mean, didn't you say that you and Dan weren't exactly on good terms," Paige asked Piper.
"You may not have to," Bobby intervened. "That's what Cole and I have been working on these past couple of days. We think we know not only how to get Jenny back, but how to change everything completely so that Prue never died in the first place."
The entire room met him with silence.
