Post by Es on Jan 1, 2009 13:41:17 GMT -5
AUTHOR's NOTES: A lot of people wonder why Prue was never shown after her death. Naturally, we know the *real* reason is that Shannen Doherty wouldn't let her after the horrible way that Brad Kern fired her. But here's my explanation within the context of the show. Those who know me might be a bit surprised!
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Disclaimer I don't own anything Charmed--all characters belong to Spelling Productions and The CW, the new WB.
KaBOOM!
Paige grit her teeth as she watched the potion blow up again for the third time. “At least Piper doesn’t have to see this mess,” she muttered. “I wonder if I'll ever be able to concoct a proper potion. Oh, well. Back to the old drawing board.” As she moped her way back over to the Book of Shadows, her brown eyes suddenly grew wide as she witnessed the pages turning all by themselves for the first time. When the pages stopped turning, Paige began reading from the Book:
"Hear these words.
Hear my cry,
Spirit from the other side.
Come to me,
I summon thee--
Cross now the Great Divide."
She smiled as she watched the ghostly lights appear and begin swirling around. Soon a form began to take shape and Paige wondered who it might be. Grams? Mom? But when the ghost finally fully manifested herself, Paige stared in mute shock.
“Paige! I need your help!”
“Prue?!” Paige squeaked in disbelief as she wiped a smear of greasy potion residue from her face. “Of course, I can help. I can get a hold of Piper or Phoebe right away.” She nervously dumped the contents of her purse out on the table, looking for her cell phone.
Prue shook her head. “No, no need for that. And it’s you I need, not them.”
“Me? Why me? I don’t even know you.”
“Maybe not, but you are a Halliwell, even if your last name is Matthews. And I need to make a decision soon and need you to help me decide.”
“To make a decision? Boy, have you got the wrong girl,” Paige muttered as a lifetime of regrettable decisions flooded her mind.
“What do you mean by that?” Prue asked, concern in her voice.
Paige waved that aside impatiently. “It’s not important right now. I still don‘t get it. Why me? Why not Piper or Phoebe or even Leo?”
“Because they would be thinking with their hearts and I need the advice of someone who understands what it’s like to be Charmed, but who could also think with her mind, not just her heart. I already discussed this with Mom and Grams, and they‘re no help.”
“Phoebe’s a professional advice columnist,” Paige pointed out. “I think you should ask--”
Prue cut her off. “Phoebe’s too close to me. All of my family is thinking with their hearts. Because you don’t know me, you’re the best one to help, because you’ll think with your head, but still with a lot of compassion, like you do in your social work. And that‘s what I need.”
“Well, I still don’t know what I can do to help, but why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
Prue smiled. “Oh, I don’t know if the proper question is ‘What’s wrong’. I love it Up There, getting to be with Mom and Grams and Andy and the others. And I love getting to watch how well all of you are doing, especially you, Paige. Even though I never met you, I feel like I know you. You’ve done such a great job helping to keep the Power of Three going.”
Paige stared in shock. “Great job?! Yeah, tell that to the attic,” as she glanced around at the mess she so recently created.
Again Prue smiled. “Yes. I know you don’t think you measure up to the standard I set, but you are truly doing a wonderful job, just by being you! I'm very proud of you. In fact, I'm certain that the reason why I died was so my sisters could find you, the true third member of the Power of Three--that I was just keeping your place warm for you!”
For the first time since Prue appeared, Paige felt comfortable. “Thank you, I appreciate that. Truly I do. Now please tell me how I can help.”
“Well, although I love it up here, my soul feels the need to move on. To come back to Earth as another person, to be reincarnated, to try to learn the lessons I didn’t learn as Prudence Halliwell.”
“So go ahead. Like Nike says, Just Do It. I don’t understand why you haven‘t done that before."
Prue shook her head. “Because another part of me says that you guys might need my help! I’ve been standing in the wings, just in case something should happen so you would need me.”
“Oh, Prue! I’m sure both Piper and Phoebe would be so happy if they knew you felt that way! But like you said, we’re doing fine. None of us would want to stand in the way of your being able to move on, especially Piper and Phoebe! You can let go of them, Prue. You don't have to take care of them any more.”
Prue sighed with relief. “Thank you, Paige! That means so much. There’s another problem, though.”
“What’s that?” Paige asked, now eager to help.
“Although it’s very unusual, I have a chance of becoming a Halliwell again.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, thanks to my actions as Prue, especially my willingness to die for an innocent, I’m being given that chance. If things don’t change, there’s a good possibility that Piper and Leo may have another child soon and if they do and if I agree, I have a chance to be that child."
Paige's eyes grew large. "No wonder you didn't want to ask Piper or Leo!"
Prue nodded. "That knowledge could change the future and prevent that child from ever being born. And Phoebe?! I love her dearly, but she still can't keep a secret!"
Paige giggled. "Too true. Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."
Prue smiled. "Thank you. Normally I would jump at the chance, but depending upon what happens, that child has a chance to either save our family or to doom it, depending upon the choices that child makes.”
“Huh? I don’t get it. Too many ‘depending upons’.”
“I can’t tell you much more than that, partially because I sincerely don’t know--The Powers That Be won’t tell me--and partially because if you knew, then again you might change the future without meaning to and I may never get a chance to be that child. Part of me wants to have that chance, but part of me doesn’t think I should. I wouldn’t remember being Prudence Halliwell, couldn’t use my experiences as Prue to decide what to do. But I don’t know if I should let someone else have that chance to be that child and maybe mess up our family! But if I were the one who messed up the family, I‘d never be able to live with myself!"
Prue shook her head with frustration. "Maybe it‘s better for me to just stay Up There, wait until all of you eventually join us, and then we can all go back as sisters or cousins or friends! That‘s what Mom and Grams are waiting for; that‘s what I sometimes feel like I should wait for--but what if someone else becomes Piper and Leo‘s next child and because they don‘t feel close to you guys--the way I always would, no matter who I am--and that person doesn‘t want to make the decisions needed to save the family? But what if you guys needed my help while I was still a baby?”
Now Prue sounded absolutely desperate. “Please, Paige, tell me what to do!"
Paige stared at her big sister for a long time.
“Paige?” Prue asked anxiously.
Paige took a deep breath, knowing the chance she was taking, but knowing she had to take it. “I’m sorry, Prue. I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
“What?!” Anger sparked Prue’s blue eyes, and she raised her hand, ready to TK her sister across the room and into the wall. “I thought you cared!”
Paige held up her own hand in the ancient sign of asking for peace. “It’s not because I don’t care for you, Prue. It’s because I do. Part of me wants to tell you that I’d love to have you as part of the family again so soon,” and Prue smiled, lowering her hand. Paige released the breath she was holding, then continued, “But there‘s another part of me that wants to tell you that I love the idea of getting to be your sister or your cousin or your friend in our next go-round rather than your aunt--actually getting a chance to get to know you.”
Prue’s smile beamed. “You do understand.”
“Yeah, but I’m not going to tell you to do either of those things,” and again Prue’s smile fell. “Because both of those answers would come from my heart. You said you don’t want an answer from the heart; you want one from the mind, from my social worker’s mind.”
Prue nodded. “Yes, I did. If you were a pure social worker, not an assistant, what would you tell our family to do regarding me?”
Paige shook her head. “I don’t think I can do that either,” and again Prue looked confused. “A social worker looks at what’s best for everyone involved--I’d have to look at what’s best for Piper and Leo, and me and Phoebe, too. That’s not what this is about. This is about your soul and your growth, what you think is the best thing for you to do. You’ve told us--and I’m sure you told Grams and Mom--that you don’t want us to speak with our hearts, Prue, but I think that’s what you should do. Don’t worry about how your decision will affect us--whatever you decide, we‘ll be OK; we‘ll be OK because we‘re family and we'll make sure that kid does the right thing no matter if she's you or if she's not!--instead consider what’s best for you, what your heart, what your soul feels is your right path to learn those lessons you were talking about.”
Again Prue’s smile beamed. “Thank you, Paige. That’s exactly what I needed to hear.”
Paige grinned back. “So what are you going to do?”
Prue smiled mysteriously. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out!” and with that, the glowing lights surrounded Prue, and the next moment she was gone.
Paige didn’t think she could keep this meeting from her other sisters, but fate had a way of doing it for her. The very next day, Piper went into labor with her first child--a boy rather than the girl that all of them were expecting. Paige got so wrapped up in Wyatt Matthew Halliwell--named after Leo and her!!--that in the midst of all the events that surrounded that blessed event, Paige totally forgot about her sister’s visit, while somewhere Up There, her oldest sister looked down and smiled.
A year later
Paige slammed the door of her room, leaning against it, still unable to believe what Phoebe had just told her. Chris Perry, their mysterious whitelighter from the future, wasn’t Chris Perry at all--he was Chris Halliwell, Wyatt’s younger brother, Piper and Leo’s younger son, come back to save his brother and his family!
"No way!“ she exclaimed out loud as a memory long-forgotten suddenly surfaced. “No way he can be Prue! No matter who she becomes, Prue could never hate Leo the way Chris hates him! But wait a minute, he’s not just Leo to Chris--he’s his father, and Prue hated Victor for a long time after he left them, just like Leo left Chris! And Chris has TK, likes to boss us around, thinks he always knows what’s best for us--”
“And what a bunch of lessons for me to learn.” Paige spun around to find Prue sparkling behind her.
“In a strange way," Prue continued, the glow in her eyes telling Paige that she knew she had made the right decision, "this is part of the reason why he came back--why I came back--to show me the lessons I’ll get to learn, both during the lifetime he's already lived and the new lifetime I'm determined he's going to have when he goes back,” and Paige‘s head spun at the paradoxes.
"Paige, just imagine me who loved being a woman having to be a man! Or me, the oldest, having to grow up the younger! Or me, the strongest, having to live in the shadow of the Twice-Blessed Child! My biggest sin as Prue was always pride--this is the best way for me to learn that lesson while still doing what I love doing most--protecting my family so that they can protect innocents. And, Paige, imagine me finding out that someone took my brother and turned him evil...”
Paige nodded. “You’d do anything to make sure he and the rest of the family would be all right; even risking coming back in time.” She smiled at a memory. “Either save the family or doom it. Coming back in time may save the family, while staying would‘ve certainly doomed it!”
“And I’m gonna save it,” Prue swore, and thinking about Chris' own determination, Paige wondered if he--she--whatever--had learned that pride lesson quite yet.
“But I need your help,” Prue continued. “And this time I won’t take no for an answer.”
"What’s that?” Paige asked cautiously.
The lights began swirling around Prue again and just before she vanished, her voice said, “Make sure I get a chance to save our family--make sure I get conceived!”
The End
Help Me, Paige!
by Esmeralda
[/i]by Esmeralda
[/center]
Disclaimer I don't own anything Charmed--all characters belong to Spelling Productions and The CW, the new WB.
KaBOOM!
Paige grit her teeth as she watched the potion blow up again for the third time. “At least Piper doesn’t have to see this mess,” she muttered. “I wonder if I'll ever be able to concoct a proper potion. Oh, well. Back to the old drawing board.” As she moped her way back over to the Book of Shadows, her brown eyes suddenly grew wide as she witnessed the pages turning all by themselves for the first time. When the pages stopped turning, Paige began reading from the Book:
"Hear these words.
Hear my cry,
Spirit from the other side.
Come to me,
I summon thee--
Cross now the Great Divide."
She smiled as she watched the ghostly lights appear and begin swirling around. Soon a form began to take shape and Paige wondered who it might be. Grams? Mom? But when the ghost finally fully manifested herself, Paige stared in mute shock.
“Paige! I need your help!”
“Prue?!” Paige squeaked in disbelief as she wiped a smear of greasy potion residue from her face. “Of course, I can help. I can get a hold of Piper or Phoebe right away.” She nervously dumped the contents of her purse out on the table, looking for her cell phone.
Prue shook her head. “No, no need for that. And it’s you I need, not them.”
“Me? Why me? I don’t even know you.”
“Maybe not, but you are a Halliwell, even if your last name is Matthews. And I need to make a decision soon and need you to help me decide.”
“To make a decision? Boy, have you got the wrong girl,” Paige muttered as a lifetime of regrettable decisions flooded her mind.
“What do you mean by that?” Prue asked, concern in her voice.
Paige waved that aside impatiently. “It’s not important right now. I still don‘t get it. Why me? Why not Piper or Phoebe or even Leo?”
“Because they would be thinking with their hearts and I need the advice of someone who understands what it’s like to be Charmed, but who could also think with her mind, not just her heart. I already discussed this with Mom and Grams, and they‘re no help.”
“Phoebe’s a professional advice columnist,” Paige pointed out. “I think you should ask--”
Prue cut her off. “Phoebe’s too close to me. All of my family is thinking with their hearts. Because you don’t know me, you’re the best one to help, because you’ll think with your head, but still with a lot of compassion, like you do in your social work. And that‘s what I need.”
“Well, I still don’t know what I can do to help, but why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
Prue smiled. “Oh, I don’t know if the proper question is ‘What’s wrong’. I love it Up There, getting to be with Mom and Grams and Andy and the others. And I love getting to watch how well all of you are doing, especially you, Paige. Even though I never met you, I feel like I know you. You’ve done such a great job helping to keep the Power of Three going.”
Paige stared in shock. “Great job?! Yeah, tell that to the attic,” as she glanced around at the mess she so recently created.
Again Prue smiled. “Yes. I know you don’t think you measure up to the standard I set, but you are truly doing a wonderful job, just by being you! I'm very proud of you. In fact, I'm certain that the reason why I died was so my sisters could find you, the true third member of the Power of Three--that I was just keeping your place warm for you!”
For the first time since Prue appeared, Paige felt comfortable. “Thank you, I appreciate that. Truly I do. Now please tell me how I can help.”
“Well, although I love it up here, my soul feels the need to move on. To come back to Earth as another person, to be reincarnated, to try to learn the lessons I didn’t learn as Prudence Halliwell.”
“So go ahead. Like Nike says, Just Do It. I don’t understand why you haven‘t done that before."
Prue shook her head. “Because another part of me says that you guys might need my help! I’ve been standing in the wings, just in case something should happen so you would need me.”
“Oh, Prue! I’m sure both Piper and Phoebe would be so happy if they knew you felt that way! But like you said, we’re doing fine. None of us would want to stand in the way of your being able to move on, especially Piper and Phoebe! You can let go of them, Prue. You don't have to take care of them any more.”
Prue sighed with relief. “Thank you, Paige! That means so much. There’s another problem, though.”
“What’s that?” Paige asked, now eager to help.
“Although it’s very unusual, I have a chance of becoming a Halliwell again.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, thanks to my actions as Prue, especially my willingness to die for an innocent, I’m being given that chance. If things don’t change, there’s a good possibility that Piper and Leo may have another child soon and if they do and if I agree, I have a chance to be that child."
Paige's eyes grew large. "No wonder you didn't want to ask Piper or Leo!"
Prue nodded. "That knowledge could change the future and prevent that child from ever being born. And Phoebe?! I love her dearly, but she still can't keep a secret!"
Paige giggled. "Too true. Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."
Prue smiled. "Thank you. Normally I would jump at the chance, but depending upon what happens, that child has a chance to either save our family or to doom it, depending upon the choices that child makes.”
“Huh? I don’t get it. Too many ‘depending upons’.”
“I can’t tell you much more than that, partially because I sincerely don’t know--The Powers That Be won’t tell me--and partially because if you knew, then again you might change the future without meaning to and I may never get a chance to be that child. Part of me wants to have that chance, but part of me doesn’t think I should. I wouldn’t remember being Prudence Halliwell, couldn’t use my experiences as Prue to decide what to do. But I don’t know if I should let someone else have that chance to be that child and maybe mess up our family! But if I were the one who messed up the family, I‘d never be able to live with myself!"
Prue shook her head with frustration. "Maybe it‘s better for me to just stay Up There, wait until all of you eventually join us, and then we can all go back as sisters or cousins or friends! That‘s what Mom and Grams are waiting for; that‘s what I sometimes feel like I should wait for--but what if someone else becomes Piper and Leo‘s next child and because they don‘t feel close to you guys--the way I always would, no matter who I am--and that person doesn‘t want to make the decisions needed to save the family? But what if you guys needed my help while I was still a baby?”
Now Prue sounded absolutely desperate. “Please, Paige, tell me what to do!"
Paige stared at her big sister for a long time.
“Paige?” Prue asked anxiously.
Paige took a deep breath, knowing the chance she was taking, but knowing she had to take it. “I’m sorry, Prue. I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
“What?!” Anger sparked Prue’s blue eyes, and she raised her hand, ready to TK her sister across the room and into the wall. “I thought you cared!”
Paige held up her own hand in the ancient sign of asking for peace. “It’s not because I don’t care for you, Prue. It’s because I do. Part of me wants to tell you that I’d love to have you as part of the family again so soon,” and Prue smiled, lowering her hand. Paige released the breath she was holding, then continued, “But there‘s another part of me that wants to tell you that I love the idea of getting to be your sister or your cousin or your friend in our next go-round rather than your aunt--actually getting a chance to get to know you.”
Prue’s smile beamed. “You do understand.”
“Yeah, but I’m not going to tell you to do either of those things,” and again Prue’s smile fell. “Because both of those answers would come from my heart. You said you don’t want an answer from the heart; you want one from the mind, from my social worker’s mind.”
Prue nodded. “Yes, I did. If you were a pure social worker, not an assistant, what would you tell our family to do regarding me?”
Paige shook her head. “I don’t think I can do that either,” and again Prue looked confused. “A social worker looks at what’s best for everyone involved--I’d have to look at what’s best for Piper and Leo, and me and Phoebe, too. That’s not what this is about. This is about your soul and your growth, what you think is the best thing for you to do. You’ve told us--and I’m sure you told Grams and Mom--that you don’t want us to speak with our hearts, Prue, but I think that’s what you should do. Don’t worry about how your decision will affect us--whatever you decide, we‘ll be OK; we‘ll be OK because we‘re family and we'll make sure that kid does the right thing no matter if she's you or if she's not!--instead consider what’s best for you, what your heart, what your soul feels is your right path to learn those lessons you were talking about.”
Again Prue’s smile beamed. “Thank you, Paige. That’s exactly what I needed to hear.”
Paige grinned back. “So what are you going to do?”
Prue smiled mysteriously. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out!” and with that, the glowing lights surrounded Prue, and the next moment she was gone.
Paige didn’t think she could keep this meeting from her other sisters, but fate had a way of doing it for her. The very next day, Piper went into labor with her first child--a boy rather than the girl that all of them were expecting. Paige got so wrapped up in Wyatt Matthew Halliwell--named after Leo and her!!--that in the midst of all the events that surrounded that blessed event, Paige totally forgot about her sister’s visit, while somewhere Up There, her oldest sister looked down and smiled.
A year later
Paige slammed the door of her room, leaning against it, still unable to believe what Phoebe had just told her. Chris Perry, their mysterious whitelighter from the future, wasn’t Chris Perry at all--he was Chris Halliwell, Wyatt’s younger brother, Piper and Leo’s younger son, come back to save his brother and his family!
"No way!“ she exclaimed out loud as a memory long-forgotten suddenly surfaced. “No way he can be Prue! No matter who she becomes, Prue could never hate Leo the way Chris hates him! But wait a minute, he’s not just Leo to Chris--he’s his father, and Prue hated Victor for a long time after he left them, just like Leo left Chris! And Chris has TK, likes to boss us around, thinks he always knows what’s best for us--”
“And what a bunch of lessons for me to learn.” Paige spun around to find Prue sparkling behind her.
“In a strange way," Prue continued, the glow in her eyes telling Paige that she knew she had made the right decision, "this is part of the reason why he came back--why I came back--to show me the lessons I’ll get to learn, both during the lifetime he's already lived and the new lifetime I'm determined he's going to have when he goes back,” and Paige‘s head spun at the paradoxes.
"Paige, just imagine me who loved being a woman having to be a man! Or me, the oldest, having to grow up the younger! Or me, the strongest, having to live in the shadow of the Twice-Blessed Child! My biggest sin as Prue was always pride--this is the best way for me to learn that lesson while still doing what I love doing most--protecting my family so that they can protect innocents. And, Paige, imagine me finding out that someone took my brother and turned him evil...”
Paige nodded. “You’d do anything to make sure he and the rest of the family would be all right; even risking coming back in time.” She smiled at a memory. “Either save the family or doom it. Coming back in time may save the family, while staying would‘ve certainly doomed it!”
“And I’m gonna save it,” Prue swore, and thinking about Chris' own determination, Paige wondered if he--she--whatever--had learned that pride lesson quite yet.
“But I need your help,” Prue continued. “And this time I won’t take no for an answer.”
"What’s that?” Paige asked cautiously.
The lights began swirling around Prue again and just before she vanished, her voice said, “Make sure I get a chance to save our family--make sure I get conceived!”
The End
)
Thanks, Simy! Just let me know how. 