Phoebe

Phoebe was still in New York. She was living with Greg when he kicked her out on the street. No place. No money. No prospects. Great. She went to the cafe on the corner and made a phone call home. Home to hopefully, Piper.

The phone rang in the manor just then.

Piper

In the middle of making a pot of tea, which had become a habit while Grams was alive, Piper cursed as the phone rang and the kettle whisteled at the same time. Grabbing the phone first, she said, "Hi, could you hold on just a second?" Then she stretched the phone across the kitchen, cord twisting behind her, and reached for the kettle. Piper was barely able to touch the handle, but tried to pick it up anyway, burning her hand in the process.

"Shit. Prue!" she shouted. "Can you come help me? Sorry." The last was said into the phone. "Hi, I'm back now. Who is this?"

Phoebe

She listened to the sounds and winced. Great, perfect, this was going well already.

"Hi, it's me, Phoebe, your sister. You remember me, right? Your younger, smaller, born-after-you, sister?" she asked. Lord, she hoped Piper remembered her and boy was she glad she had answered and not Prue!

Piper

"Phoebe!" she cried into the phone, trying to ignore the shrill noise still ringing out behind her. "Of course I remember you. You're the one that hasn't called in forever. Oh, um... how's New York?" Piper was wincing inside, upset with herself for berating Phoebe even slightly. She didn't want to push her baby sister even farther away.

An Elder: "Leo Wyatt, you have thus been chosen to take on the highest responsiblity that a whiteligther can recieve. It has come to our attention that the Charmed Ones are just about ready to come in to their powers. We would like you take them on as your charges. A few of your others will be reassigned, because we expect that the Charmed Ones will take up the majority, if not all of your time. Most notably while they are new to the craft. They will be unaware of you protecting them, and they will certainly not be willing to share their secrets with anyone. Because of this, it will be quite difficult to protect them without them knowing about it. Have you chosen a cover?" he asked Leo.

Leo: Leo took in a deep breath. He couldn't believe the elder's were asking him to guide the Charmed Ones. They were famous in the world of magic, but would surely not be aware of that fact. "Actually, I have already began to work myself in to their lives. I have been in contact with oldest, Prue, about fixing up the house. A 'Handyman' they like to say down there..."

An Elder: "Very well," he nodded, showing no emotion or sign of approval or disapproval of Leo's methods. "We will be here if you need us," he nodded, and waved slightly, letting Leo know he was free to get to work.

Leo: Leo orbed down to earth, not far from the Halliwell manor. He knew that the Charmed Ones were not yet come together as witches, or sisters, but that the time would be soon. All he had to do, was bide his time and wait.

Andy

Andy sat at his desk doing paperwork on a case they had just solved. He couldn't help but be happy that another criminal was put away. He had a few other cases in which were labeled unsolved. HE frowned as he looked to those cases. Something strange was going on, and not in a good way. He finished up the record and closed the folder. Then he sat back in his chair for a moment.

Darryl

Darryl walked into the office with a cup of coffee in hand and sat down at his desk opposite Andy. He looked down at the case file that he was finishing off. He put his coffee to one side and finished his work. After a while he put his pen down and took a drink of his coffee. It was cold now.

"Another one done with." He remarked as he looked across at his partner and put his coffee down.

Andy

"Yep," he said. He sipped his coffee. "So, anything new we can go tackle?" He looked around his desk. "I am getting a little tired of sitting here. This paper work has made me sleepy, but at least I have coffee to keep me awake."

Darryl

Darryl moved some of the newer files that had been placed on his desk. "Just more of the usual." Darryl replied and placed a few files in between their desks. "It's up to you which we do." Darryl yawned and took another sip of coffee. He felt exhausted and probably looked tired too.

Phoebe

"Oh, New York is ... just ... great," she said, looking around. Great, she thought to herself. It's just great here, you know being alone and homeless and having almost no money now...

"So, how's life there?"

Piper

"It's... fine," she said, frustrated by both the whistling and the fact that Prue hadn't bothered to come help her yet. "Could you hold on just a second? I just need to do something. Thanks." Piper laid the phone down on the counter, then went and took the kettle off the heat. Picking back up the reciever, she managed to get it to stretch as far as the sink. "Hey, I'm back. Sorry about that," she said, running her burn under cold water. "I just needed to turn off the kettle. Um, where were we? Oh, life here. It's fine, like I said. Prue's doing well at Buckland's, and I'm looking for a chef's job. Hopefully, a cooking audition I have next week will go well."

Piper hated the way this conversation felt stilted. She hadn't talked to Phoebe in a while, that was true, but they should still be able to chat comfortably. Instead, it felt like pulling teeth to get Pheebs to say anything, and Piper knew she was kind of going on and on about nothing. Finally, she sighed and said, "So what's up, Phoebe? Did you just call to talk? Or is there something else going on?"

Joint Phoebe and Piper post to move things along

Phoebe debated whether or not to tell her sister she had gotten kicked from her apartment or not. She went with no. "Oh, I just wanted to call to see how things were... with you.... and ... Prue and all... If you were all together, living at the manor still... how life was treating you, things like that..."

"Well," Piper said slowly, not exactly believing those were Phoebe's only reasons for calling. "Prue moved back in after Gram's-- after the funeral. So yeah, we're all living together, I guess. Oh, Prue broke up with Roger. It was a mess, but she needed to do it. That guy is a complete asshole. And life's fine, like I said... I don't know what else to tell you about, Pheebs. Our lives are pretty normal, I guess."

She nodded to herself, "Great! That's so .... fantastic! That you live together I mean, though cramped I imagine -- not that Prue broke up with Roger, of course. Is she .... devestated?"

Piper laughed. "Prue? Devastated? I haven't seen her really upset by a breakup since Andy. How about you? How's the love life going?" she asked, assuming that Phoebe was doing well in the boy dept, as usual.

"Oh.... Great, perfect... Greg and I are awesome as usual. I mean... Really close, you know how tight things are, like that... Well, okay so you can't see me but... you know..." she said, rambling on and on.

"That's nice, Phoebe," Piper said, sighing as she sat in one of the kitchen chairs. Her sister was just going on and on, with no point. "It sounds like things are going alright for you. Well, I hate to cut this short, but I was about to make dinner."

"Wait!" she nearly shouted, when the pay phone suddenly announced, "If you'd like to continue, please dipsoit three dollers, please." Shit.

"Phoebe? Where are you? Why are you on a payphone?" Piper asked, worry making her voice a bit shrill. "What's going on?"

"I'm at a cafe because .... because," she thought fast, "My phone isn't working!" Lord let her sister buy that.

"You mean that you couldn't pay your phone bill?" Piper asked, beginning to get upset. "Because I really don't see how your phone would just stop working. Or why you couldn't afford to get a new one."

"Well, its not exactly like that... Its more like I gave my money away and never got it back... sort of...." She just didn't say she gave it to her ex-boyfriend who now has her apartment because he kicked her out of it.

"Look, Phoebe, if you're not going to be straight with me, well..." Piper just let the end drift off, not really comfortable with threatening people, especially Phoebe. But she was sick and tired of getting the run around. She knew that there was something wrong, and her sister needed to just spit it out.

She sighed, "Greg took my money and kicked me out, okay and I have no place to stay after this
weekend... I've got barely enough left to stay at this ratty motel and a few bucks to get some food a diner or something and this one phone call to you."

"Oh my god, Pheebs. I just can't believe it. How did this happen? How could he just take your money?" Piper asked, shocked. Then she realized how intrusive she was being. "Well, anyway, you'll just have to come home. This house is a third yours, anyway."

"OH right - like Prue would ... She'd have a FIT, Piper, you know how she feels about me... We aren't the best of friends like you and she are..."

"Maybe not, Phoebe," she replied. "But it doesn't matter. She would get used to it. You can't stay in New York, right? So what other options do you have?"

She sighed, "I don't know.... Become a hooker?" she said, laughing hard, though she meant it totally as a joke. "I can't come home -- I don't have enough money to get there, Piper."

"I'll wire you some money, it's no big deal," Piper said, ignoring Phoebe's crack about being a hooker. She didn't even want to think about that happening. "I have some extra leftover from working at the bank. How much do you think you need?"

"A couple hundred, for a plane ticket and maybe to ... well, get some clothes since he trashed mine..." she said, biting her lip as she said it.

"Okay, I'll send it right out to you," Piper said back, mentally trying to figure out what kind of hole this was going to make in her bills this month. "Then you need to get right on a plane, okay? I don't want you sticking around out there without a place to live."

She nodded before realizing her older sister couldn't see her, "Yeah, as soon as I get the money but... how are we going to tell Prue?"

"You don't worry about that. I'll take care of it before you get here, okay? Just--- just be safe, Phoebe," she said, not knowing how to say she would rather die herself before seeing anything else happen to anyone in her family. "Promise me you'll be safe."

"Okay, you take care of Prue and I'll take care of me getting there ... perfect! That I can do!" she said, with a nervous laugh.

"I'll see you soon, okay?" Piper said. "I'm going to go out and send the money right now. I love you, Phoebe."

"I love you too, Piper... See you soon," she said, as she hung up the phone.

Prue

The front door to Halliwell Manor opened up, and Prue Halliwell came inside, her beautiful silky raven-coloured hair was slight astrewed by the breezy wind that was blowing outside. She crossed the threshold, and to the foyer table and set down her briefcase. She moved to the coatrack and took off her coat and hung it up. While walking to the livingroom, she smoothed down her hair and glanced from the sunroom to the livingroom, to the kitchen doorway. "Piper!?" she called, not totally sure if her sister was home or not. "Piper, are you home?" she hollered, finishing the call.