A/N- I know, it's been a very long time. However, a combination of procrastination and an empty Ruby Gloom notebook have inspired me to write another chapter. Hopefully this will be as popular as my last two chapters…

Part Four

Prue sat up and looked around the sunroom, registering her surroundings. Something was not right. The Manor seemed completely empty; not only devoid of anyone who should have been in the house at that point, but all the furniture and general clutter was missing too.

And everything seemed so… dull. Normally the sunroom was drenched in the sunlight that filtered through their stained glass panels on the windows, but right now the house seemed almost grey.

She massaged the back of her head, trying to soothe the dull ache that pounded in the centre of her skull. She could barely remember what had happened. She remembered Shax and Dr. Griffiths… but that was about it.

Where were her sisters? And their innocent? Were they alright?

"Piper?" she yelled, hoping someone would hear her, "Phoebe? Leo?"

But no one answered. Not her sisters, not her whitelighter/brother-in-law. Not even a random stranger.

She looked at her surroundings again and started to panic.

'Oh God' she thought, 'Where am I?'

"Prue."

She turned around upon hearing her name and nearly sank to her knees when she saw the source.

"Mum?" Prue wanted to say more. She wanted to ask out loud the many questions in her mind: where was she? Where were her sisters? What was she doing here? What was wrong with the house?

But she was speechless. She was so stunned that she could not make a single utterance.

However, as any mother should be able to do, Patty Halliwell could tell what was on her daughter's mind and walked over to her.

"Sweetie," she said softly, "What was the last thing you remember?"

Prue was silent for a moment as she recollected her thoughts and replayed recent events in her head.

"There was a demon…" Prue replied hesitantly, still not sure what was happening. If it was even happened, "He fired at our innocent and I pushed him out of the way. Then I flew backwards. That's all I remember. What's going on?"

"Prudence," Patty maintained a gentle tone of voice, which only served to make Prue panic a little bit more, "You were hit by one of Shax's bolts and you were thrown through a wall. You were seriously injured… Leo didn't get to you in time." Patty's voice broke slightly and she finished her sentence in a whisper, "I'm sorry."

Prue knew what her mother was trying to say, but she didn't want to process it. She looked down, away from her mother's eye contact. It was then that she realised that Patty was holding Prue's hands in her own. The only way she could do that would be if she were corporeal, like Prue. Except Patty was quite obviously a spirit.

"Oh God." Prue tore out of her mother's grip and backed away.

'I'm dead. I died.' The words floated around in Prue's head; haunting her but never actually sinking in. She started to pace, and anger started to build up inside of her like molten rock inside a volcano. Anger… and fear and denial.

"No!" she yelled out abruptly, startling her mother, who had been watching her with concern. Prue turned to her mother,

"I can't be dead. I mean, I'm a Charmed One. I'm the first born Charmed One! How can one demon defeat me? One measly, grey, stupid demon!"

"Sweetie, I know how you feel." Patty attempted to soothe her daughter, "When I was killed by the water demon…"

Patty's voice faded away as Prue suddenly flashed back to when she and her sisters fought that same demon, barely a year before.

'Every single day, I feel like I'm becoming more and more like her and everyday it terrifies me.' She remembered saying to her sisters, 'now because of this being Charmed thing, the very real possibility of dying young, it's like history is repeating itself.' Prue shook her head furiously,

"No, don't give me that!" She blurted out, interrupting her mother, "Don't say you know how I feel, because you don't. I am nothing like you! I won't die and leave my family!"

Although she knew that she should be hurt by Prue's words, Patty decided to disregard it as a result of Prue being in shock. She continued to try and soothe her daughter,

"Prue, try to calm down."

"No, I won't calm down!" Prue yelled, slightly ashamed at how childish she sounded, "You will send me back right now- I am not dead and I am not going to leave my sisters!"

"What's going on?" Prue jumped at the sound of a quaky male voice behind her. She turned around slowly and saw Dr. Griffiths standing by one of the windows. Her heart jumped and her knees felt slightly weaker.

He was a spirit. Shax killed him. Which meant she and her sisters failed. She failed. She had risked her life and her innocent had still died at the hands of a demon.

She wanted to talk to him, tell him how sorry she was that she couldn't save him, but no words came from her mouth. He stared back at her, also speechless and confused about what was happening to him.

A bright light appeared a few feet away from the doctor, who turned and watched it open into a tunnel of inviting blue light. Instinctively, yet still slightly scared, he took steps towards it.

"Dr. Griffiths, no!" Prue yelled in attempt to keep her innocent from moving on. Maybe she could still save him, "Fight it!"

Her calls were in vain, as the light consumed the doctor and took him to the next stage of the afterlife. Prue watched the light disappear,

"Oh my God." Prue uttered for, what felt like, the hundredth time in the last half hour, "I am dead." She finally let her mother hold her, now in tears. Patty stroked her daughter's hair soothingly,

"Prue, it's time to go." Realising what her mother meant, Prue shook her head,

"No. I have to talk to my sisters. I need them to know that I'm okay."

"You can't." Patty replied apologetically, "They need to move on, and seeing you will only prevent them from doing so."

Too defeated to argue, Prue sniffed and wiped away a lone tear,

"Can I at least see them?"

Patty was silent for a moment, and then finally nodded. She held Prue's hand and closed her eyes, concentrating on allowing them to cross over without becoming visible to the living world.

The Manor started to fill with natural light and take on the form that Prue remembered- including the half finished cup of coffee that she had left on the table that morning after Phoebe had told her and Piper about her premonition of Shax.

Prue heard sounds of crying and looked towards the conservatory to see who was there. She saw Piper and Phoebe weeping over her lifeless body while Leo, Cole and Darryl sat on the bench on the other side of the room, all of whom had been crying. Darryl got up and started pacing, trying very hard to keep it together and keep strong for the sisters. Silently, he signalled towards the doorway.

Prue looked in the direction that Darryl was pointing and saw two police officers carrying a body bag out of the house with Dr. Griffiths inside.

As another officer put Prue in a body bag, her sisters ran into the arms of their loves, unable to watch. Leo buried his face in Piper's hair and cried with her, while Cole wrapped a blanket over Phoebe's shuddering shoulders and stroked her hair as she wept into his chest. With numb, bloodshot eyes, he watched Prue's body being carried away while Darryl filled in a report while fighting hard to prevent the tears from falling.

"I know it hurts." Patty said from behind Prue, "But, for now, you have to let them go. Allow them to move on, to continue with their Charmed destiny."

"Charmed destiny?" Prue repeated in question and wiped away another tear, "But the Power of Three is broken. We're not the Charmed Ones anymore."

Prue watched her mother and saw a strange look in her eyes. She looked almost… guilty.

"What is it?" Prue asked suspiciously. Patty looked as though she was sensing to see if anyone was listening. When she was certain that no one was, she prepared herself to tell a secret that she hadn't voiced in nearly 25 years.

"The Power of Three can be reconstituted." She admitted, "I didn't tell you or your sisters this in case the Elders found out and the whole family got into trouble."

"Tell us what?" Prue prompted her mother to keep going.

"My relationship with Sam… it was a lot more serious that either of us let on…" Patty trailed off, leaving Prue to connect the dots.

"You had a child with him?" Prue cried in disbelief. How could Patty have another baby and hide it from her, Piper and Phoebe? Patty nodded,

"Another girl. Your Grams and I were worried and you and your sisters would be punished. That you would be denied your powers or that the new baby would be taken away." Patty took a moment to collect herself again and continued to explain to a shocked Prue, "Sam and I decided to give her up for adoption. We asked a nun from a local church to find her a good home."

"What's her name?" Prue asked, suddenly feeling an overwhelming grief for the sister she'll never know.

"Paige Matthews. She lives in San Francisco, so it shouldn't be too long before Piper and Phoebe find her."

"Paige." Prue repeated the name softly. Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige Halliwell. The family that should have been. If she had known about Paige, she would have made every effort to track her down. Which is probably why she and her sisters were never told. Knowing Prue, she would have asked Darryl to use his contacts in Missing Persons to find Paige. Or Andy, had he not been killed at the hands of a demon two years ago.

Prue suddenly felt a glimmer of joy when she realised that she may get to see Andy again. She selfishly hoped that he hadn't been made a whitelighter or been reincarnated. Once again, Patty read her daughter's mind,

"Andy is still here. I'm sure he'd love to talk to you again." Patty said gently. Prue allowed this confirmation to create the grin of a teenage girl with a crush on her face.

"Can I see him?"

"Take my hand." Patty held out her hand as a portal opened before them. Prue turned around and took one last look at the people she cared about.

"Be safe." She whispered, "I love you."

Then she stepped into the light, holding her mother's hand.