Third Time Charmed

Charmed Again (Part 9)

A/N: *Drama Alert!* Let me know your thoughts on the dramatic moment in this chapter. You'll know it when you see it.

"So, how's Aunt Julie? Yeah? Oh. Is her hip any better?" Paige enquired. She would normally have waited for her break to make a personal call at work, especially on a day when she had shown up late and had to change outfits in the bathroom, but recent events had made her dwell on her origins, even more than usual. So, she decided to contact her uncle, hoping he would be able to help tie up a loose end.

"Jake and Carol Grisanti for Mr. Cowan," Paige couldn't help hearing nearby. She looked up from her cubicle in the direction of the reception desk. It was them, the child abuser and his enabling wife, here for the placement hearing. Paige shook her head in disgust.

"Okay. I'll let him know you're here," said the receptionist.

"I'm sorry. Say that again? I got distracted," Paige told her uncle.

"He'll be with you in a few minutes," the receptionist informed them, and then the husband said something to his wife before heading for the bathroom.

Paige couldn't believe they were probably taking their son, Aaron, home today, even with all the evidence against them. "Hey, before you go, Uncle Dave, can I ask you a question? Do you guys still go to that church Mom and Dad used to go to? Is there still a nun called Sister Agnes there?" she asked.

"Yeah, right. The one that found me. No, no, I haven't spoken to her before, but something's come up, and I think I should. Uh-huh," said Paige distractedly, watching the couple heading for the meeting room with her boss. "Uh, Uncle Dave, I gotta go. I'll call you back, okay? Yeah, I love you too."

"Mr. Cowan," she started.

"Hey, look Paige. I got this, okay?" her boss responded immediately, well aware of her feelings concerning the case.

"No. You can't let that little boy go home with that jerk," she hissed.

Mr. Cowan signaled to the Grisanti's that he would be right with them and lowered his voice. "Paige, number one, you don't know for a fact he's abusing the boy. And number two, this is none of your business. You are an assistant, not a social worker," he reprimanded.

"That's because you're too cheap to make me one," Paige jabbed, which he ignored as he entered the room and began drawing the blinds. She gave Jake Grisanti a judgmental, knowing look but was shocked to see him give her a smug smile in return. Didn't child abusers have any shame?

Paige had no way of knowing that while Jake Grisanti was in the bathroom, the Source had leaped from Shane's body into his, the next step in the demon's plan to corrupt her.

***

The Yellow Pages in hand, Piper knocked on Prue's bedroom door and stuck her head in, "Prue, I think I found..." Seeing that she wasn't in there, Piper turned thoughtfully, heading down the hall to Phoebe's room. Prue wasn't in there either. Perhaps it was silly of her to think it a possibility. She took a sorrowful look around the room, lightly touching their sister's things, and pausing at a framed photograph of the three of them. "Oh, Phoebe," she sighed.

Deciding that she wasn't going to let herself cry right now, Piper went to the window, checking that Prue's car was in the driveway, which, of course, it was. When was the last time Prue had left the house except by Shimmer, other than the hearse? Then again, the same could be said of her. At least Prue was getting out, even if it was just to hunt demons.

That thought gave Piper an idea. Heading downstairs to the kitchen, she wasn't surprised to find the basement door ajar. Intermittent thuds could be heard coming from below. She placed the Yellow Pages down on the kitchen counter and carefully lowered herself down the wooden basement steps, where she found Prue with her hands wrapped, pummeling Phoebe's punching bag.