"I'm gonna be late! I'm gonna be late!" Phoebe squealed as she hurtled down the staircase of the Charmed Ones home.

"Woa!" said Piper holding up her hands and dropping a mug of coffee, as Phoebe collided with her en-route to the kitchen. "Seriously! Slow down!!"

"Sorry" winced Phoebe grabbing a bagel. "PAIGE!"

"Geesh! What's all the noise about- Darklighter? Better not be its 7:00 in the morning and I'm soo not in the mood!" groaned Paige, orbing in from upstairs, still in her pyjamas and rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"No sweetie- I'm super late for work. Could you possibly orb me there?"

"Super late? It's super early!"

"Well for NORMAL people" sighed Phoebe, "but unfortunately, Elise is on some kinda journalist marathon and decided to have a staff meeting 'super early' so that… oh I don't know why but I do know my life won't be worth living if I don't get there on time. So d'ya think I could exploit the cosmic taxi just this once?"

"Well… seeing as I'm already awake give me….." Paige's voice trailed off as a swirl of lights appeared above the kitchen and a teenage girl landed on top of the oven.

"What the..?! Shrieked Piper

But nobody looked more surprised than the girl who was now standing in the centre of the kitchen staring from her hands to the three sisters and back again in utter disbelief.

"W..w..w..where the hell am I? Who are you?" she stammered. She was 5"6", about seventeen, slim, with dark hair and porcelain skin. Her eyes flashed emerald green and she would have been beautiful had she not have been soaking wet, covered in scratches and with a large, purple bruise on her left cheek. She seemed rooted to the spot and terrified but she just kept on staring in confusion and horror at the three sisters who gawped back, just as befuddled as the girl.

Finally, Piper spoke- "never mind who we are, who are you? Have you never heard of knocking? Don't you know its plain rude to orb in unannounced like that, especially if you cant even do it accurately- LOOK AT THE MESS!"

"Orb?" questioned the girl.

"Yeah Orb – Geesh!! Whitelighters these days… " Piper took a deep breath as if to start a lecture but was cut short by Paige who placed a hand on her shoulder and muttered to her sisters:

"Innocent?"

"OH not now" groaned Phoebe

"Whitelighter? Orb? Innocent? What are you talking about, where the hell am I and WHO ARE YOU?"

"eeerr… well" began Phoebe, taking charge. " I'm …Phoebe, this is Paige and Piper. What's your name?"

"Phillipa… where am I?"

"Our kitchen honey: 1329 Presott Street, San Francisco, California-"

"The world, the universe…" smirked Piper through gritted teeth then- "OW" as Paige elbowed her in the ribs.

"San Francisco? How on earth can I be in San Francisco??"

"Yeah- you don't sound too local… where are you from?" questioned Paige

"New York… How? Why?"

"Ok!" said Piper, ushering Phillipa towards the living room, "plenty of time for explanations later, lets get you cleaned up. LEO!"

Leo appeared in front of them, Phillipa screamed and fainted.

"Oh!" said Leo- a little confused.

"Oh indeed" scolded Piper. "Go ask the elders why on earth a random teenager who has no idea she can orb has sown up in our kitchen at 7AM and demolished my oven!"

Leo vanished, leaving the sisters and Phillipa (still out cold) in the living room.

"Right!" said Piper. "Phoebe – go get her some dry clothes and I'll check the book to see if … I dunno what I'm looking for but there might be something helpful in there. Paige, you stay and keep and eye on… Phillipa was it?"

Piper and Phoebe disappeared and Paige wandered back to the kitchen to find some antiseptic and a glass of water- figuring that Phillipa would appreciate both when she came around. When Paige returned, Phillipa was awake and still looking confused, Paige handed her the water and began to dap antiseptic on the scratches.

'Thanks… Paige?"

"Yeah. So you're from The Big Apple then?"

"well I guess so… but I don't know what to think any more"

"You know, I spent some time there when I was about your age" continued Paige, brushing over the last comment, not wanting to go down the 'magic' route at this stage.

"Really?"

"Yeah- after my parents died- I was in a pretty bad place and … well… I just needed to get far away. But it turns out- I found a whole new set of shit there. So I came home- best choice I ever made 'cause I found my sisters see. I was adopted" she added as an explanation. "Speaking of family- we need to think about getting in touch with yours, I expect your mom'll be worrying."

"Don't have any family" mumbled Phillipa.

"Oh" said Paige sympathetically

"no need to sound sorry- they didn't die or anything- I was in foster care but I just got a place of my own. I've never had parents, I was found in a box on a bench in Washington Square subway station."

The bottle of antiseptic fell from Paige's hand and shattered on the floor.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Upstairs in the attic, Piper was half heartedly thumbing through the Book Of Shadows, not expecting to find anything- it was just what she always did, she didn't know why but she couldn't get it out of her head how much like the Halliwells that girl looked- it unnerved her somehow. As she flicked, a familiar breeze swept the pages of the book and fell open on the spell that she and her sisters hadn't used since Prue's funeral.

"What? Well… if you say so Grams… I guess you've proved after all these years that you really do know best." She began to place candles in a circle.

Hear these words, hear my cry

Sprit from the otherside

Come to us who call you here

Cross now the great divide.

The familiar glow of lights and a translucent figure appeared in the circle …

"Mom?"

"Hello Piper" beamed Patty Halliwell, stepping out of the ring of candles and hugging her daughter.

"I thought you were Grams"

Her mother laughed "thankfully no darling- where's Paige- its Paige that I need to see- it's quite urgent."

"She's downstairs… with an innocent" said Piper, a little hurt that her mother seemed to have brushed her aside like that.

"Oh crap! You mean she already showed up!" Patty ran from the attic with Piper following curiously behind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The scene that met Patty as she arrived in the living room was one that to Piper made even less sense than the incident half an hour earlier.

Paige was sat, motion less on the sofa- gazing at Phillipa- who was still looking confused and now slightly uncomfortable- with an expression that showed every imaginable emotion all at once. Phoebe meanwhile had returned with clothes and was hovering behind Paige- prodding her from time to time in a vain attempt to gain a response. As Piper and Patty entered, Paige stood up and walked swiftly out of the room and upstairs, not even acknowledging the presence of her dead mother. They heard a door slam above them and the room fell into a tense stillness. Piper couldn't help noticing the hint of a tear in her baby sister's eye.