Chapter Thirteen

Final Thanks

It was only a few days before life in the Halliwell manor returned to its normal routine. Normal being relative of course.

After Kayla had made final her decision, there were still some arrangements that had to be made for her. The sisters, with Leo and Chris's assistance, quickly made those arrangements.

Paige went to magic school to talk to Gideon and find out exactly what they had to do to get Kayla properly enrolled in classes and more specifically what classes to enroll her in.

"We don't normally handle the training of Whitelighters here," Gideon said slowly. "Now of course we know Kayla isn't one, but the same sort of training may be in order." Gideon paused, stroking his chin in deep thought. "I just may," he said slowly "have to instruct Kayla personally in some aspects of her training."

Meanwhile Phoebe and Chris had gone off together to Kayla's uncle's house to speak to him. In the end it turned out explaining the situation to him wasn't the hardest part. Getting through the front door was.

"Mr. Couter, we're here to talk to you about your brother and sister-in-laws sudden... death." Phoebe said after the man reluctantly opened the door.

"Will you people just leave me alone!" Kayla's uncle yelled. "You damn reports can't just leave people alone!"

Phoebe stared is surprised silence for a moment before she could respond. "No! No we aren't with the media, we have...information... about Kayla that we need to talk to you—"

"Oh what, are you also some lunatic physic who's been talking to my brother from the beyond the grave? I already had two of you people stop by yesterday! Go away damn it!" With that he slammed the door.

Phoebe reached up her hand to knock again, but Chris, as usual, lost his patience.

"We don't have time for this..." He said grabbing Phoebe's hand and, quickly glancing around, orbed the two of them into the house before Phoebe could object.

Kayla's uncle heard something behind him, and turned around just in time to miss the shimmering light of Phoebe and Chris's orb. Instead he just saw the two of them standing there in front of his closed front door. He quickly snatched a cordless phone off the wall and started dialing. "I'm calling the cops!"

Chris waved an annoyed hand and the phone instantly flew out of Mr. Couter's hand.

"What the—How did you—?" He sputtered.

"As I said, we're here to talk to you about Kayla." Phoebe said simply.

Unfortunately for Piper and Leo, Phoebe and Chris had a comparatively easier job explaining to Kayla's uncle what happened, than Piper and Leo had convincing Daryl to play along.

"Look, I totally understand the need for secrecy. And I know you understand that we have to get Kayla to the station somehow before we can turn custody over to her Uncle, but we aren't going to do it like this!" Daryl snapped.

Piper and Leo's idea was to have Daryl find an "unconscious" Kayla in the bushes around her house. Kayla would be covered in the magical equivalent of stage blood so that it would like, indeed, she had been attacked by some sort of wild dog and then simply dragged out of the house into the bushes.

Daryl's complaint was, however, quite valid.

"I had officers tear this house apart searching for Kayla! I'm not going to just 'accidentally' find her in bushes that I had my guys search twice!"

"Well do you have a better idea?" Piper asked annoyed.

Daryl opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again looking annoyed.

Eventually they agreed that Daryl would arrange for an extra patrol car to drive down the street every now and then looking for the "wild animal" that had supposedly attacked Kayla's parents. Then, when she saw the approaching patrol car, Kayla would crawl out of one of the neighbor's bushes looking thoroughly bloodied up and acting disoriented.

Even if Kayla thought all this was a little over dramatic, the headline in the morning paper presented the story the three sisters wanted the public to know. A story totally free of magic.

Daughter Of Couple Attacked By Dogs Found!

SAN FRANSICO-After a rather long investigation into what has finally been proven to be a vicious dog attack, Kayla Couter, daughter of deceased Frank and Linda Couter, was found yesterday morning less than a block from her house. After receiving medical attention for the severe bite wounds on her left arm and right thigh, Kayla was able to explain to investigators what really happened.

"I had gone outside around 10 o'clock because I thought I heard something on the side of the house." Kayla, age 15 told investigators. "I started walking around the side of the house when I heard this growling behind me. I turned around just in time for one of these three huge black dogs to jump on me and sink its teeth into my arm." Ms. Couter gestured at her thoroughly bandaged arm. "I can't remember if I screamed, I was just so shocked by the whole thing. Then a second dog jumped on me and bit my leg and started dragging me down the street. I saw the other two dogs run through the front door of the house... I... I had accidentally left it open..." Ms. Counter needed to be given a moment to compose herself before she could finish telling investigators what had happened.

"My arm was bleeding really bad, and I guess I passed out at some point while the dog was dragging me... The next thing I remember is waking up in the bushes, and crawling out just in time to see Officer Moore's patrol car." Officer Moore, who was unavailable for a statement, is the lucky officer who found Ms. Counter after being assigned to patrol her street.

The authorities would like to warn the public that these three vicious dogs are still on the loose. If you recognize these dogs, DO NOT APPROACH THEM, call the authorities immediately.

Next to the story was a picture of a thoroughly bandaged Kayla, her uncle with his arm around his arm around his niece, and Officer Moore.

It only took a few days for the story to completely disappear from any local newspapers, replaced by frivolous fashion stories. Kayla moved in with her uncle, and, with some assistance from Gideon, the sisters taught Kayla how to orb as far as magic school.

There had been hugs all around when the sisters finally left Kayla's new home. Kayla's uncle was still looking rather warily at Phoebe and Chris, but he was finally starting to accept what had happened to his brother and sister-in-law. He knew the story in the newspaper was false, but what he didn't know was that the story Phoebe and Chris had told him was also largely false. The two of them had managed to explain that it had really been a demon that attacked without telling him that, at the time, the demon was Kayla. He didn't need to know that. Would he ever find out? Well that would be up to Kayla.

Kayla hugged Paige the longest, and whispered something to her that only Paige could hear.

"Thank you. For everything you did to... help me," Kayla said softly to the sisters, tears steadily moving down her face.

The last thing the sisters saw before the bright blueness of an orb enveloped them was Kayla's uncle putting a fatherly arm around his waving niece.

Six Weeks Later

Paige was sitting at the kitchen table with the newspaper out again. This time there weren't any news article that fascinated her (as exciting as activists protesting the inhumane treatment of red ants was, it wasn't Paige's thing). Piper was monitoring Wyatt eating his breakfast while having some of her own, and Phoebe was fighting with the coffee machine.

"Why won't you work!" She shouted at it, giving it a hard shake.

"Is it plugged in?" Piper asked idly wiping a cloth across Wyatt's drool covered lower lip.

"Of course its—Oh..."

Paige couldn't help but snort into her cereal.

"Its not that—Hey what's that?" Phoebe asked suddenly.

Piper and Paige looked up at the same time as a small piece of paper finished materializing on the kitchen table.

Paige curiously leaned forward and picked up the paper. Her eyes flew back and forth across it, then she smiled and handed it off to her sisters.

"Counter, Kayla Laura. Report Card." The top of the paper read.

Piper and Phoebe both slowly started smiling as they read through the class listings (Introduction to Elementary Magic, The Secrecy Of Magic: Why Do We Hide?, Basic Orbing 101), and the "Excellent" marks that Kayla had received in all of the classes.

Down at the bottom of the page under the "Headmaster" title was Gideon's signature, along with a hand written comment that wasn't Gideon's hand writing.

"Thank you. -Kayla."

The End

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A/N And now my final thanks: Thanks to Rusty and Basil who were two of my most dedicated readers and for the most part my stories Beta Readers. I think you two saw alot of this before anyone else did.

Also, big things to Rachael who caught some of the really stupid spelling/word errors and pointed them out to me right after I posted the story.

And a HUGE thanks to everyone who's been reading my fanfic and harassing me to update. Anyone who knows me well enough knows I refuse to update unless I know atleast SOMEONE is reading. Even one review is enough to make me put up 6 pages of text.

Now... for a sequel... I've been getting alot of calls for a sequel... I just might write one... I've been juggling some possible story ideas, and I even threw a little something in at the end of this fic to make one of them work most delightfully. :) Hehe.

Well... We'll see what happens.

Keep reviewing! Tell a friend about this fic! If I get lots of reviews and calls for a sequel it'll probably happen :D

Signing off,

-Rebkos