Paige says we may not get out of this one alive. Zankou has the Book; he has Phoebe and my powers. All he needs are Paige's, and he has full control over the Book, and the Nexus. Maybe I'll look at how this all began, why I'm in this situation anyway. I suppose when you get to the end, you look at the beginning. Paige Phoebe and I are hiding out in Magic School ,Wyatt and Chris at Dad's house. It still feels kind of funny to call him Dad, I mean, we only really had much contact with him after this whole mess began, when I still had a big sister, before we knew we had a younger one. It all started when Phoebe returned from New York. Actually, to think of it, it didn't. It started seven weeks before that, when Grams went into hospital. I think I'll start there.

---

I had just finished work at the bank, and went to see Grams to make sure she was okay.
"Grams!" I yelled; the house she lived in, that Prue, Phoebe and I grew up in, was not very good for letting sound travel. "Grams!"
I walked into the parlour and found her laying the bottom of the stairs. Before I could think, I had pulled out my cell and was dialling 911. While I was waiting for the ambulance to arrive, I rang Prue, my big sister, and was frantically crying to her over the phone. She immediately drove around. By the time she arrived, the ambulance had taken Grams to the hospital.

"She, she was just laying there." I was crying as I pointed to the spot where Grams had lay. "She must have fallen…" My tears then became too much for me as I turned to Prue and was sobbing into her shoulder. She leant on me and was crying too.

Prue was the eldest child in our family, and had helped Grams raise Phoebe and I. Mom had died when I was about three, and Dad left the year after, on my birthday. Prue drove to the hospital, and when we got there, she was in surgery. She had massive internal bleeding. Prue headed off to the toilet, and I sat in the cafeteria bawling over a bagel, when he arrived. He was tall, had dirty blond hair, and a knowing smile.
He handed me a napkin, which at first I thought was rather strange, until I realised the napkin had his phone number on it.
"Jeremy Burns" he said.
"Piper Halliwell," I replied through tears.

I don't remember exactly what he said all those years ago, but something in them helped me. I was glad that he had met me.
I remember going home in silence that night, and not sleeping much, waiting for the hospital to call.

Around three days later, Grams woke up. Prue and I had gone to the hospital during lunch to see her.
"Piper, Prue!" she said, "Come in close."
"What is it Grams?" Prue said, "When can you come out?"
"Oh, this old duck's seen her time." Grams replied fondly, "It's time for you and your sisters to live now."
"But, we need you," I pleaded with her, "I need you."
"Piper," she responded, with a glint in her eyes, "You don't need me anymore, you have a job, a home, family, friends, and from what I understand, a boyfriend."
I smiled at that, good old Grams, she knew things before we even told her.
"You still have your destiny ahead of you, mine is fulfilled." She said before going to sleep.

"What is it with her and that destiny thing?" Prue asked as we were headed toward the elevator.
"I don't know," I responded, "I think she just means our future."
"What future?" joked Prue, "I'm working for my ex fiancé, and you're working as a cashier in a bank, and Phoebe's in New York trying to find our lazy ass father. Wow. Biiiig future for the Halliwell women." She rolled her eyes and walked ahead.

Three days later Grams died.
The Will was rather simple; Prue, Phoebe and I inherited the Manor, the house that we grew up in. There were only really three names on the Will as benefactors, Prue, Phoebe and I. We were the only family she had left.

Prue and I chose to move into the Manor, and live there until we got sick of each other. We decided to see what sort of shape it was in. The furniture in the Manor was very eclectic, like Grams was. There was bric-a-brac all over the place. The pictures on the walls were of our ancestors, many sombre looking women. There were two things at all wrong with the Manor, the chandelier in the parlour wasn't working, and the attic door wouldn't open. Prue set out to fix the chandelier, and we decided to leave the attic until we could afford to fix it.

My relationship with Jeremy was going well. He was a reporter, for the Bay Mirror. He had been at the hospital covering a story on Africanised Bees that night when we had met. He was so sweet and understanding after Grams died. I trusted him with my life. He encouraged me at my cooking, and my dream to become a chef. So, I had a job interview at a restaurant called "Quake" lined up.

In the two weeks before my interview at Quake, two women were found murdered, each stabbed to death, so Jeremy was working a lot. Prue was working at the museum and trying to fix the chandelier. During this time I had a lot of contact with Phoebe, things were not going well in New York. There was no sign of Dad, and she was broke. She was going to come back to San Francisco, in two weeks. On the day of my interview at Quake. I told her to tell Prue, but she replied with some response about how Prue still hated her.

The day of my interview arrived. September 23rd 1998.
The chef who was interviewing me was Chef Moore, a man who was almost famous in San Francisco for his cooking. What little I do remember of the interview was how pompous the man was. He had airs and graces and with some questions, I just wish I could have frozen time to answer them better. The interview went well though, and he asked me to do an audition recipe. On the way to get a cab, I ran into Jeremy.

"How did the interview go?" he asked with that silly lopsided grin of his.
"I have to prepare and audition recipe, tomorrow." I replied smiling.
He leant down and kissed me, "Are you going to do your Roast pork with gratin of fennel and penne with a port giblet sauce?"
"Of course!" I replied, "But I need the right port for it."
"I'll cover that," he replied, "Oh; I have a story to finish off. Got to run."
He kissed me again, and he ran off to hail a cab. I went off to Young Lee market for supplies.

I arrived home late that night, and found Prue on a stepladder fixing the chandelier.
She was not happy. No one had been home to meet the electrician because I was out and she couldn't get out of the museum before six.
Jeremy had sent the port that I needed via a courier, and I explained that I had an audition recipe the next day.
"So, that Wolfgang Puck knock-off didn't hire you then?" she asked.
"No, but this may just help me get the job." I replied, showing her the port.

"Is that our old spirit board?" I asked Prue, spotting it in the corner.
"Yeah, I found it in the basement while looking for the circuit tester." She replied "Maybe we should send it to Phoebe. That girl is so in the dark."
I almost jumped at the mention of Phoebe; I had been so caught up in other things I forgot she was coming back.
The argument continued a little, interrupted by Phoebe coming in the front door.

"Found the hide-a-key!" she announced.
Phoebe was home.