This Slide, Was Made, For You And Me

The late afternoon sun, hidden behind the hills of the Marin Headlands, was no longer visible from the Golden Gate Bridge’s walkway, its continuing descent to the horizon now left solely to one's imagination. The waning rays of sunlight backlighting the silhouetted Headlands made for a pretty sight. But they offered no more than a trace of illumination on the bridge itself sitting on the eastern, bay side of the Headlands. And even less light on the city of San Francisco, looking peaceful and quiet, across the bay.

"In all the times that I've been in San Francisco," Stuart said to Phoebe as he looked down at the bay beneath them, "I’ve never walked across the bridge at sunset."

On the bay side of the bridge, the side further away from the Headlands, the walkway ran beside the orange, spun strands of wire that held the bridge high above the Golden Gate waters below it. On the roadway to the left of the walkway, cars and buses, a few trucks speeding to end their day, an occasional motorcycle and a Bridge Authority van with a flashing speed limit sign pacing them all, made for an eclectic mix of traffic.  They whizzed past Stuart and Phoebe and past the dozen or so other remaining bridge walkers.

To the walkway's right was a protective railing running the length of the bridge. Only chest high, it did not obstruct the view and Stuart, looking off to his right, could see the lights of San Francisco across the bay.

"This was a really good idea," he said. "I'm glad you wanted to walk across the bridge now. You get a different perspective in the evening than the one you get here during the day."

"We need a different perspective," Phoebe said, "in more than just the view from the bridge. We haven't been making any headway in finding those demons. And the solstice is getting closer."

The lights of Ghirardelli Square, just above Aquatic Park at the end of Fisherman's Wharf, were becoming brighter as the twilight surrounding the huge, twenty-five foot high Ghirardelli sign and the smaller, path lights in the park below it, grew darker.  Stuart motioned to Phoebe to stop as he turned to admire the view of the Square overlooking the water.

"I love this view of San Francisco," Stuart said.

"You love every view of San Francisco," Phoebe said.  She zipped up her leather jacket as the night air on the open bridge was becoming cooler.

"Honestly," she said, "if Connie Burge had set Charmed some place else instead of San Francisco, I don’t think you’d be so sanguine about our being stuck here chasing demons."

Stuart turned and gave Phoebe a look.

"No-o!" he said.

"Some place else...like, say, in Hollywood," she said.

"No-o...that wouldn’t have made a difference," Stuart said.  "There’s nothing wrong with Hollywood."  He paused for a few seconds.  "Well, almost nothing wrong. More or less." He half squinted his left eye and shrugged his left shoulder. "Uh...maybe more."

Phoebe smiled as Stuart looked across the water at the city he loved. He stood there for another moment, then took a deep breath and turned back to Phoebe.

"Maybe we're just trying too hard to find these demons," he said, as they resumed their walk towards the northern, Marin end of the bridge. "Maybe if we let it go for a day or two, we'll be able to look at it fresher and come up with something."

They reached the northern tower of the bridge, the three-quarter mark of its span. The walkway veered right in a semi-circle around the tower, widening enough to accommodate a small three-wheeled, patrol cab parked flush against the tower's side. The vehicle's diminutive size - only three feet wide - allowed it to be driven along the walkway without interfering with walkers and bicyclists. As they came upon the cab a policeman was getting in to it.

"The bridge closes to pedestrians in half-an-hour at nine o'clock," he said. "Be sure to be off by then."

"Thanks, we will be," Phoebe said. "We'll be starting back across to the San Francisco side in a minute."

"You have a good night," the policeman said. He started the motor and the cab's small headlights went on. He pulled the cab out slowly, maneuvering around the corner of the tower to drive down the walkway and alert the remaining strollers. As he did, Stuart noticed something on the ground reflecting in the headlight. The cab gone, he pulled out his mini Maglite and shined it at what he had seen. Phoebe knelt down to look at it.

"It's a keychain," she said as she picked it up. "Someone dropped...Oh!" She suddenly froze.

"Phoebe..." Stuart said. She remained like that for a few seconds then slowly stood up.

"You had a premonition," he said, and Phoebe slowly nodded her head.

"She...she was lying on the ground," Phoebe began. "Piper was kneeling beside her and...and Morris was standing over her. And...there were pentagrams all around her. And...and one was on her chest."

She held the keys to Stuart's light. A plastic keychain California license plate, a name engraved in blue below the trademark California golden sun, was on the ring.

"Crystal," Phoebe read and then looked up at Stuart.

"Finding a keychain's owner is next to impossible," Stuart said.

"We have to find her," Phoebe said. "Whoever Crystal is...she's the pentagram demon's next victim."

"What did she look like?" Prue asked, as they all sat together in The Manor’s living room.

"I couldn't see much of her face," Phoebe answered. "Her head was turned away from me. But I'd say she was somewhere in her late twenties to early thirties."

"And I knew her?" Piper asked.

"You did," Phoebe replied. "I heard you say to Morris “that's her”.  And then Morris said “what a horrible Thursday this turned out to be”."

"So who do you know named Crystal?" Prue asked.

"Phew," Piper exhaled. She thought silently for a moment.

"Crystal Gayle," she said. "And uh...Crystal Duggan. You know her, too. She worked for a while on Charmed in makeup last year."

"I remember her," Phoebe said. "She was maybe...twenty. The girl I saw was older. And even from the side I think I would have recognized her."

"I don't think Morris would need you to ID Crystal Gayle," Prue said. "But I'll check on where she is at the magazine tomorrow, anyway."

"That's it," Piper said. "I don't know any other Crystals."

"There's got to be someone you're forgetting," Phoebe said.

"Or...someone you haven't met yet," Stuart said. "Maybe between now and when she's killed...uh, when she's supposed to be killed you're going to meet her."

"So nothing can happen to her until I do meet her," Piper said.

"If Stuart's right," Prue said. "But if it's someone you just don't remember, it could happen anytime."

"The premonition I saw was at night," Phoebe said, "and Morris said it was Thursday. Now it’s Sunday night. So we have four days to find her."

"Less," Prue said. "You saw Piper at the murder scene but we don't how much earlier the police found Crystal's body. Nor how long before that she was actually killed."

"I think this is as much as we can do tonight," Stuart said. "Let's all get some sleep. We'll get a fresh look at it in the morning. Maybe by then you'll remember someone, Piper."

"Maybe," Piper said, hopefully.

 

Piper took a deep breath of the clear, mid-morning air as she stood on The Manor’s porch. It had come to be very special to her as it reminded her of the fresh morning air on her ranch. It was the only thing she had that reminded her of home. And she missed her home so very much. She took another deep breath, gave a sigh and took the mail inside, closing the door behind her.

She looked at the first two envelopes, which were bills, and then looked at the third one. She stared at it for a moment, then tapped it back and forth against her other hand as she walked back to the living room.

"This was with the mail," she said to Phoebe. "It's addressed to A.J.M. There's no return address." Phoebe's expression changed as she and Piper looked at each other.

"What's up?" Stuart asked as he came in to the room.

"This letter addressed to A.J.M. just came in the mail," Piper said.

"So what's wrong?" Stuart asked. "Who's A.J.M.?"  He looked back and forth between Phoebe and Piper before he made the connection.

"Oh," he said. "But there must be hundreds of people in San Francisco with the initials A.J.M. There's no reason to think that its your initials for Alyssa Jane Milano."

"It has our address," Piper said.

"They could have made a mistake in one of the numbers," Stuart said.  "And anyway, no one can know about you here."

"There's Dalios," Phoebe said.

"You think that demon mailed you a letter?"  Stuart asked.  "I doubt the Post Office has a mailbox outside The Infernal Council. And besides, Leo said The Council was restraining him."

"Leo also said that Dalios wouldn't stay restrained forever," Phoebe said.

"Look," Stuart said, "we're building demon mountains out of...uh..."

"Demon molehills," Phoebe said. "But anything with the word demon in front of it is dangerous. Especially if it’s a demon named Dalios. Leo said we aren't strong enough to go up against him."

"OK," Stuart said, "let's just open the envelope and see what it is."

"We should x-ray it first," Phoebe said.

"X-ray?" Piper asked. "How would we do that?"

"I could work on a spell to make Superman real," Phoebe said, "at least for just a few minutes. Then he could use his x-ray vision to see what's inside it."

Piper and Stuart glanced at each other, both hoping they hadn't really heard Phoebe say what she said.

"Why don't you just use your premonition power, instead," Piper said, trying to inject some sanity as she handed the envelope to Phoebe.

"Premonition," Phoebe said. "Right. OK, I'll try." She took the envelope in both of her hands and closed her eyes. Stuart saw her expression change.

"You got a premonition?" he asked.

Phoebe nodded her head and opened her eyes.

"What did you see," Piper asked.

"Our mailman delivering the envelope to us," Phoebe answered.

"Well, at least we know it wasn't a demon mailman who brought it," Stuart said and shrugged. "Just give it to me and I'll open it. If it was sent by a demon, whatever is in it won't have any affect on me."

"We don't know that," Phoebe said. "We don't know what's in there."

"And we'll never know," Stuart said, taking the envelope from her, "unless we open it." He turned the envelope over.

"Uh, maybe you should stand back," he said, with a hint of a smile. "Just in case."

Piper took Phoebe's arm and they backed away.  Stuart slipped his finger under the corner of the flap and carefully tore it open.  He looked inside, pulled out a piece of paper folded in three and slowly unfolded it.

"What does it say?" Phoebe asked. Stuart exhaled.

"You will soon be undone," he read.

"That's all?" Piper asked.

"Let me see it," Phoebe said, grabbing it from Stuart.

"There's nothing to see," he said. "That's all it says."

"Undone?" Piper said. "As in-"

"As in undone as Phoebe Halliwell," Phoebe said. "As in Dalios killing me."

"Whoa," Stuart said. "We don't know that Dalios has anything to do with this. And it doesn't say anything about killing you."

"What else can 'undone' mean?" Phoebe asked. "In this reality if I'm not Phoebe...then I don't exist. I'm dead. And using my real initials...it could only have come from Dalios."

"Plain block letters," Piper said looking at the paper. "It could have been written by anyone."

"If it is from Dalios, why would he warn you instead of surprising you?" Stuart asked.

"To taunt me," Phoebe said.

"He said he would kill all of us," Piper said, "not just you."

"But I challenged him," Phoebe said. "I defied him and trapped him. It would be his revenge against me."

"Look, this could just be someone's twisted idea of a prank," Stuart said. "The idea of Dalios mailing you a threat-"

"Is exactly what he would do to make it all the more terrifying," Phoebe said.

"Normal, benign things - like a letter - conveying sudden danger," Stuart said. "Psychological games. It's Hitchcockian. It's Hollywood." He shrugged his shoulders.

"But we're not in a movie," he said. "We're not even in a Charmed episode."

"If Dalios knows who we really are," Phoebe said, "then he might do exactly that  - like in a movie - just to toy with me."

"Stop," Piper said. "We don't have anything more than a single anonymous, cryptic sentence. You're working yourself up without-"

The light forming interrupted Piper.

"What's happening?" Leo asked as he saw the look on Phoebe's face.

"Uh...nothing," Piper said.

"Actually..." Phoebe began.

"Did The Elders come up with anything?" Stuart asked, quickly changing the subject. There wasn't any way Phoebe's concerns about the initials on the envelope could be explained to Leo.

"No, they didn't," Leo said. "The name Crystal didn't mean anything special to them. There's a witch named Crystal but she's in Australia. They had no suggestions. Other than that you have to come up with something."

"Oh thanks," Piper said. "They're being their usual helpful selves."

"It's not Crystal Gayle," Prue said as she came into The Manor and walked into the living room. "She's on a tour. Kansas City tonight, Denver the day after tomorrow, then Seattle. San Francisco is not even on her schedule.

"Did you think of anyone?"

"No," Piper said. "But I realized this morning that the name Crystal is familiar. But I don't know why."

"I ran a check in Four One Five's computer files," Prue said. "There were only three other Crystals in there. One is a fashion designer based in London. It took a while but I managed to verify that she's still there with no plans of coming here.

"The second Crystal was a Duckmaster in Orlando."

"What's a Duckmaster?" Piper asked.

"Hmm...if you don't know that then you definitely don't know her," Prue said. "That rules her out."

"A duck trainer," Stuart said to Piper, "at The Peabody Hotel in Orlando. They have ducks that march to music twice a day. I've seen them do it and they're pretty good. But I've seen only male Duckmasters."

"She's the first woman Duckmaster," Prue said. "That's why she was written up in Four One Five. She was part of an article titled Unusual Women's Firsts."

"Who was the third one?" Leo asked.

"The writer of a Letter to the Editor last year," Prue said. "She lives in San Ramon."

"That's not a lot to go on," Piper said.

"No, it's not," Prue agreed. "And we don't have any feasible options. There isn't any easy reliable way of finding girls with that name."

"We have to try something," Phoebe said.

"The letter writer's name is Crystal D'Angelo," Prue said.

"No...I don’t know her, either," Piper said.

"We said you may not have met her yet," Stuart said. "Maybe in looking for the 'right' Crystal you will meet."

"I called someone I know at The Chronicle," Prue said. "He’s going to let me look through their files. Of course, I made up a story that we were doing an article on name usage. Come help me look, Stuart. Maybe together we'll come up with someone.

"Piper, go with Phoebe out to San Ramon," Prue continued. "Phoebe should be able to recognize if that Crystal is her, even from that side view. I called her and left a message on her answering machine. I said that we were doing a follow-up on letter writers to see if they were still reading Four One Five and that someone was coming to interview her."

"I want to help, too,” Leo said, “but I don't know if there's anything that I can do."

"Actually, there is," Phoebe said. "Go ask The Elders if anything has changed with Dalios. Whether the Infernal Council is still keeping him under wraps."

"Why?" Leo asked. "What's Dalios' connection to this?"

"Leo...just ask them," Phoebe said. "Never mind why. I...I just need to know."

Leo glanced at Piper.

"Sure," he said and disappeared into the white light.

 

"Now that I've seen her I'd recognize her,” Piper said, after they interviewed D’Angelo, “but she's still not the right Crystal.”

"Short, cropped hair, over forty," Phoebe said. "That definitely not who I saw in the premonition."

They were standing on the checkout line at a San Ramon take-out store. Two sandwiches, two Snapples and a couple of french fries were being rung up for them on the register.

"Here," Phoebe said, giving the clerk her credit card.

Piper leaned forward and looked at the girl's name tag. It said 'Marie'. She's not a Crystal, Piper thought. The girl gave Piper a funny look back.

"Uh...I just like to survey which names are popular," Piper said, awkwardly. "Marie is a nice name. Your middle name isn't Crystal, is it?"

"Huh?" Marie said, giving Piper a look like she was very weird. Then something displayed on the credit card reader and Marie turned to read it.

"Uh...this credit card," she said, turning to Phoebe. "There, uh, seems to be a problem. It's invalid."

"What?" Phoebe said. "It can't be." The girl swiped it through the reader again.

"It still says it's invalid," Marie said.

"That can't be," Phoebe said. "I just used it yesterday." She took the card back, turned it over and pulled out her cellphone. "I'm going to call them and get this corrected right now."

Two people were waiting behind Piper to pay for their food and they were getting impatient.

"Uh...here," Piper said, opening her wallet and pulling out her credit card. "Use mine."

Phoebe was having trouble with the cell phone's reception and she walked outside to make the call.

"This card's OK," Marie said after the machine printed out the charge receipt. Piper signed the slip, took the bags and went out to Phoebe.

"That can't be!" Phoebe shouted into the cell phone. She was silent for a few seconds, then closed the cell phone and put it away.

"She said the card number is invalid," Phoebe said. "They've never issued a credit card with that number. And they have no record of Phoebe Halliwell ever having a credit card."

"There must be some mistake," Piper said. Phoebe was about to say something but stopped, thought for a moment, and exhaled.

"Unless..." she said.

"Unless what?" Piper asked.

Phoebe didn't respond. She just stared ahead blankly and slowly shook her head, a fearful look on her face.

 

"Maybe we can use a spell to help you remember who Crystal is," Phoebe said as they came into The Manor. "Maybe that spell you made up to remember Mordun's memories."

"This is different," Piper said. "I don't know if there is anything to remember. We'd need a different spell. Let's look in the Book of Shadows and see if there's anything in it that can help us."

Phoebe nodded and they made their way up to the attic. A minute later the white light formed and Leo orbed into the living room.

"Anyone home?" he called out.

"Leo?" Piper called down. "We're in the attic."

Leo turned towards the staircase when the doorbell rang. He glanced up the stairs, then turned around, walked to the front door and opened it.

"I've come for A.J.M." the man said.  He was shorter than Leo, with a gaunt, chiseled face and a shock of black hair falling over his forehead. He reminded Leo of an evil crow, poised to gobble up the crops in a field.

"There's no A.J.M. here," Leo said.

"But of course there is," the man replied, confidently. There was something in the way he said it that made Leo un-comfortable.

"No, you're mistaken," Leo said. "I told you. There's nobody here named A.J.M."

The man stared at Leo for a few seconds, turned around and took a few steps away from the door. Then he turned back, a smirk on his face.

"When you see A.J.M.," he said, "tell her she will be undone." He turned around again and went down the steps.

Leo watched him reach the street and walk away. Shaking his head slightly, he shut the door and went up to the attic.

"Was that the doorbell?" Piper asked.

"Yeah," Leo said. "A weird guy. He insisted someone named A.J.M. lived here."

"What?!" Phoebe said, looking frightened. "What did he say?"

"He said to tell her she would be undone," Leo said.

"Was he tall, with grayish black hair and a long, sort of triangular face?" Phoebe asked.

"No," Leo said. "He was short with a guant face and his hair was all black."

"That's not Dalios," Piper said.

"What is going on with Dalios?" Leo asked, becoming concerned.

"What did you find out?" Phoebe asked him.

Leo exhaled.

"The Elders said that they think Dalios is still restrained by the Infernal Council, though they can't be sure to what extent. But he may be up to something with a demon named Braiden. This demon may be doing things for Dalios that Dalios can't do himself because the Council is watching him."

"Like mailing letters," Phoebe said. "And paying house calls."

"Wait," Leo said. "You don't think that was Braiden who was at the door. Why? And who is A.J.M.?"

"I can't explain it to you," Phoebe said.

"Phoebe, what do you mean you can't explain it to me," Leo said. "It's my job to protect you but if you don't tell me what you think is going on I can't protect you."

"We know, Leo," Piper said. "You try to protect us. And we need protection. But...let's just say that we think there's a possibility Dalios may be coming after us, and that he's starting with Phoebe."

"You have to tell me more," he insisted.

"We can't," Piper said. "You...just have to trust me. Trust us."

"It's not a matter of trust," Leo said, looking into Piper's eyes. Piper came closer to him and gently kissed him.

"It's only a maybe," she said. "But see what else you can come up."

Leo put his hands on Piper's arms and gently kissed her. Then he let go, nodded his head and orbed out.

"Look, this may still be just a prank," Piper said, not very convincingly.

"But if it isn't..." Phoebe said, and exhaled. "You're right. Maybe its nothing. Let's get back to finding Crystal. We know that she really is in danger."

 

Ding-dong.

Phoebe opened the door.

"Hello," Lorna Palmer said. "Is Piper home?"

"Hi, Lorna," Phoebe said, a little surprised at the non-greeting.

"Oh, you know me," Lorna said. "Have we met? I'm so sorry. I don't remember you."

"Lorna...it's me, Phoebe." She saw no recognition in Lorna's expression. "Phoebe Halliwell...Piper's sister."

"Oh...uh...I know Prue," Lorna said. "I didn't know Piper had another sister. It's, uh, very nice to meet you."

Phoebe stared at Lorna is disbelief, not knowing what to say to her.

"Well, uh, just tell Piper that I picked up the tickets for the matinee show," Lorna said. "I'll give her a call tomorrow. Thanks." She turned around and went down the steps.

Phoebe stared after her, then closed the door and, dazed, slowly walked back to the living room.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Piper asked.

"Lorna Palmer was just here," Phoebe said. "She didn't recognize me. She didn't even know who I was."

"What!?" Piper exclaimed. "She's your friend. We...we were just in her house the other week saving her daughters from that ghost. How is that possible?"

"It's possible," Phoebe said, slowly, "if I'm being undone. If...I don't exist anymore."

"You do exist," Piper said. "I can see you. I can touch you."

Phoebe shook her head.

"First it was my credit card," she said. "The bank said both it and I don't exist. And now I don't exist for Lorna. I'm slowly being erased. Being...undone. Just the way the letter said."

"If this is Dalios," Piper said, "how can he just make people forget you?"

"We saw he can change perceptions of reality," Phoebe said. "And those altered perceptions can change reality itself. My reality as Phoebe."

"Leo," Piper called. "Leo!"

Leo began to orb in as Stuart and Prue came into The Manor.

"What's going on?" Leo asked.

"What's going on?" Prue asked, like an echo.

"Phoebe..." Piper began. "Somehow, Phoebe doesn't exist anymore, at least for some people. The bank and Lorna Palmer."

"And The Chronicle, too," Prue said. "Remember the article that was in the paper the day after Norwell kidnapped me? I came across it in their files while we were looking for Crystals. It talks about Mom, Piper and me. Phoebe isn't mentioned anymore."

"This has to be Dalios," Piper said.

"I'm afraid I agree," Stuart said.

"What else did you find out, Leo?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," he said.

"Go back to The Elders," Prue said, "and tell them what's happening to Phoebe. Maybe that will prod them into being more helpful."

"OK," Leo said. "What about Crystal. Did you come up with anything?"

"No," Prue said. "There was nothing there that could help us."

"I still don't know why you think Dalios is behind what's happening to Phoebe," Leo said. "He's still being restrained. But if he is involved, I'm going to stay here to help."

"Thank you, Leo," Phoebe said. "But you can be of more help by going to The Elders."

Leo looked to Piper, then reluctantly nodded his head. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he said.

 

Phoebe walked into the kitchen the next morning and silently went over to the refrigerator.

"How are you doing?" Prue asked, putting down her coffee.

"When I got up this morning my cell phone wasn't working," Phoebe said, "so I called Pac Bell. They said there's no record of my ever having a cell phone."

"We're going to stop Dalios," Prue said, walking over to Phoebe and taking her hand, "whatever it takes."

"I told you the name Crystal is familiar but I didn't know why," Piper said as she came into the kitchen. "Walking past the TV just now something occurred to me. Crystal Rodgers. Maybe she's the reason the name is familiar."

"Who's that?" Prue asked.

"She's been a guest co-host on Bay Area Breakfast the last two weeks," Piper said.  "It's on from, uh, I think seven to nine o'clock every morning on one of the local channels...KBWB."

"I haven't seen it," Prue said.

"I've watched parts of it a couple of times," Piper said. "They do features, interviews...the usual morning show stuff."

"It's almost ten to nine," Prue said. "We'd better turn it on before we miss her. See if you recognize her, Phoebe."

They hurried into the living room, turned on the TV and began flipping channels to find the show.

"Piper thought of a Crystal," Phoebe said, as Stuart came into the room.

"That's it," Piper said.

A handsome, jovial and garrulous man in his late forties was sitting on an armchair on a set. A picture of the Golden Gate Bridge showed through a fake picture window behind him. He was speaking to someone unseen off camera to his right.

"That's Mack Mc Devitt, the regular host," Piper said.

The camera switched to a close-up of the woman sitting to his right. In her late twenties and with a freshness on her face, her brown hair, clipped shorter on the sides than in the back, reached halfway down the back of her neck while a couple of locks fell across her forehead and over her right eye. She wore a maroon knit shirt and dark brown pants.

"That's Crystal?" Prue asked.

"No," Stuart said. "That's Sabrina Lloyd."

"Who?" Phoebe asked.

"Sabrina Lloyd," Stuart repeated. "She starred in Sliders on FOX for three seasons."

"I don't know her," Phoebe said.

"I do," Piper said. "We both had small parts together in a film about eight years ago. Chain of Desire. It was an awful, supposedly erotic B-movie I'd just as soon forget that I ever did. But we became friendly and we've kept up off-and-on since then. She started on her Sports Night series the same time we started on Charmed."

"...and you starred as Natalie Hurley on Sports Night on ABC for two seasons," Mc Devitt said, with a soft Texas accent. "You were terrific. I never missed an episode. And I have to say I was so sad when it was cancelled."

"I was too," Sabrina said. "It was a lot of fun doing that show."

"The program's almost over," Prue said, "and Crystal's not there. She may not be back on camera until the closing."

"If we wait any longer and she is the right Crystal we'll miss her when she leaves the studio," Piper said.

"KBHB...I've driven past their studio a couple of times," Stuart said. "It's over in the Bayview district. I don't remember which street it's on but I know I could find it."

"Let's get-" Prue said but stopped in mid-sentence.

"Oh my goodness," Piper said. She was staring at Phoebe. Or at least at most of Phoebe. Phoebe's right arm and the right side of her chest faded until they were no longer visible. Then after about five seconds, they re-appeared.

"I'm disappearing," Phoebe said. "I am being undone."

"Stuart, take Piper and Phoebe to the studio," Prue said. "Look for a side entrance. They'll leave that way instead of using the main entrance. Phoebe, you have to go along to see if this is the Crystal you saw in your premonition."

"Can you make it?" Piper asked. Phoebe nodded her head.

"I'm going upstairs and look through the Book of Shadows," Prue said. "I'm going to find something to stop whatever it is that's being done to Phoebe."

 

Stuart, Piper and Phoebe stood a few feet diagonally to the right of the studio's side entrance. More of Phoebe had momentarily become invisible in the car on their way there and again as they stood waiting.

"Hold on," Piper said, grabbing Phoebe's hand. "Prue will find-"

She stopped as the studio door opened and Sabrina Lloyd came out. She was shorter than she had appeared to be on the show, maybe only an inch taller than Piper. As she adjusted her brown, suede zippered jacket a chauffeur approached her from the left side.

"I'll bring the car immediately," he said to her and went off. Piper took a few steps towards Sabrina.

"You don't remember me, do you," Piper said, knowing what the answer would be.

"No," Sabrina said, "should I?"

Piper felt Phoebe's hand disappear from her grip. She turned to Phoebe and saw her disappear completely.

As she did, there was a clap of thunder. The images of everything started to bend and go out of focus. Piper started to lose her balance. Suddenly, a whirlwind appeared a few feet above their heads.. Stuart felt himself being pulled up into its opening. Piper and Sabrina were sucked up into it just behind him. They all felt themselves turning around and around inside a bright blue, purple and white tunnel.

After fifteen seconds the rolling stopped. The tunnel's opening was about seven feet above ground and they were ejected from it. Sabrina fell out, landing head first on the sidewalk. Stuart followed, landing partially on top of her. Piper came last, landing next to them, but in an instant she vanished. And then the tunnel's opening closed and the whirlwind was gone.

"Ow! ow!," Sabrina said.

"Agghh!" Stuart said, as he started to get up.

"What was that?" Sabrina asked, standing up slowly. "What happened?"

"I...I'm not sure," Stuart said.

They were still outside the side door of the studio, just where they had been before the whirlwind appeared.

"Where are the two women who were with you?" Sabrina asked.

"Phoebe? Piper?" Stuart shouted but they weren't there.

"Miss Welles," a voice called. They turned and saw a young man wearing a green apron and with a brown bag in his hand hurrying towards them. "Miss Welles," he repeated as he approached them.

"You left your bag at the register," he said. "I'm glad I caught up with you."

"What...what did you call me?" Sabrina asked.

"Miss Welles," he said. "That's what I overheard the man who was with you call you."

"What store?" she asked, confused. "What man?"

"The grocery...around the corner," he answered, giving her a quizzical look. "You were just there. You bought the milk, doughnuts and a few other things. You paid for them at my register. The man who was with you...heavy set with a small beard and uh...I think an English accent."

Sabrina was staring at the clerk as if he had two heads and that everything he was saying from both mouths was completely incomprehensible.

"Uh...I have to get back to my register," he said, and extended the bag to Sabrina. She continued staring at him with her mouth wide open. The clerk placed the bag on the ground at her feet, slowly backed up then turned and hurried away.

A car slowed down as it drove past them, the driver giving both Stuart and Sabrina a long look. Stuart saw that it was a black and white San Francisco police car. But on the bottom of the front door was written 'Subversive Surveillance Unit'. What was that? Stuart thought. I've never seen that before.

"What was he talking about?" Sabrina asked. "And what...what is going on here?"

"Oh no," Stuart said. "Oh, no. I think I..." He stopped and slowly shook his head slightly. "Oh, no...don't tell me..."

"Where...where is the chauffeur with the car?" she asked.

The studio's side door opened and Mack Mc Devitt walked out.

"Mack!" Sabrina called.

"Oh, hello," he said, jovially. "You recognize me because you watch my show, don't you. That's great! You must want my autograph."

"Mack!" she practically screamed, her confusion growing. "What just happened? The thunder, the whirlwind..."

"What thunder?" he asked. "Whirlwind?"

"Uh...of course," Sabrina said, "the studio is soundproofed. And without windows. Uh, look...the chauffeur seems to have disappeared."

"Oh, uh, did something happen to your car?" he asked.

"Mack," Sabrina said, staring at him. "It's me...Sabrina Lloyd."

"OK," he said. "You're Sabrina...uh, what did you say your last name was?"

"Mack..." Sabrina said, not believing  what was happening. "Sabrina Lloyd. We just did the last segment of your show together!"

The expression on Mc Devitt's face changed.

"Young lady," he said, "I don't know what your problem is. But you have a problem." He eyed her for a moment. "The segment I just did was with Kari Wuhrer."

"Kari..." Sabrina said, in disbelief.

"You know who she is, don't you?" Mc Devitt said. "The star who plays Natalie Hurley on   
Sports Night. The top rated show that just got an un-precedented two-year renewal."

Sabrina stood in complete shock as a studio guard approached them.

"Is there a problem here, Mr. Mc Devitt?" he asked.

"Uh...no," Stuart said, quickly grabbing Sabrina by the arm and pulling her away. "Just a slight mixup. My friend watches Bay Area Breakfast all the time. She knows Mack so well from watching him that she sometimes imagines he knows her, too."

"He does know me," Sabrina said, pulling herself loose from Stuart, "and let go of me."

"You should leave now, ma'am," the guard said to her firmly, coming closer to her.

Sabrina looked at the guard, then at Mack, then back at the guard. Stuart gently tugged her arm again and in a stunned daze she let him pull her away from them.

The side door opened again and Kari Wuhrer came out.

"Kari...Wuhrer?" Sabrina said slowly, in shock.

"Your least favorite person in Hollywood," Stuart said.

"Ready for brunch?" Mc Devitt asked.

"Lead on," Wuhrer said. A uniformed chauffeur approached and led them to a waiting car.

"Kari Wuhrer?" Sabrina repeated slowly to herself, staring at her.

"I know about the bad feelings and run-ins between you and her on the Sliders set after she joined the cast during the show's third season," Stuart said. "And I know that when it became intolerable at the end of that season the producer chose to keep her and fire you. Even though she was new and you were one of Sliders' original stars. And even though her attitude was the cause of the problems on the set."

"On Sports Night?..." Sabrina said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"The clerk called you Miss Welles," Stuart said. "Your character on Sliders - Wade Welles. The heavy set man with a beard and an English accent - that's John Rhys-Davies. Or, to be more precise, Professor Maximilian Arturo of Sliders. In all of the show's episodes he was the only one who consistently referred to you formally as 'Miss Welles'."

"I'm going to call the driver and get away from here," Sabrina said. She opened her small pocketbook and began fishing around for her cellphone.

"Where is it?" she asked.

"It's not there anymore," Stuart said. "Wade Welles travels to parallel worlds and isn't in any one of them long enough to get a cellphone."

"What are you talking about?!" Sabrina said, upset and confused. "I'm not Wade Welles. She's a make-believe character...who are you? Uh...get away from me!"

"My name is Stuart Weston and I'm the only one who can explain to you what's happened."

"What kind of game is this...is all of this?" she screamed, angrily.

"This is not a game," Stuart said. "This is far more serious than any game."

Sabrina fished around in her pocketbook again and pulled out her wallet. As she opened it her expression froze in shock. Stuart turned the wallet around to him and looked at what was in the inside plastic window.

"California driver's license, with your picture," he said slowly. "Issued to Wade Welles."

Sabrina looked at him, confused and helpless.

"Come on," Stuart said gently, taking her hand. "Let's get some coffee. There's a lot I have to tell you."

 

"...so they and everything about their characters became real," Sabrina said. "Talk about method acting.”

She was sitting with Stuart at a booth in a luncheonette. A cup of coffee and a cheese danish lay in front of each of them on the table.

"Yes," Stuart said. "I know it takes getting used to. It took Holly and Shannen three days before they accepted it."

"And now, you're saying the same thing has happened to me," she said. "Why?"

Stuart exhaled.

"I'm not sure," he said. "Something happened when Dalios 'undid' Phoebe and tried changing reality back to how it had been. A reality without Charmed witches. Or at least without a Phoebe. And...maybe without an Alyssa, too.

"He could change perceptions that would change reality. We saw that when he changed it for the four of us and I almost killed them. My guess is that when he tried to change reality directly for the whole world, it was more than he could control. He didn't have The Elders' powers. And when he forced reality to change...the change wasn't stable.

"And The Elders took advantage of that instability and made Wade Welles real. That whirlwind that we were in looked just like the trans-dimensional portal that you traveled through on Sliders."

"I don't remember how it looked," Sabrina said. "It was added in post-production.  When we did the scenes we just stood looking up at nothing as if something was there."

"I do remember," Stuart said, "I watched Sliders. And that fall we had out of the whirlwind. It was just like the falls you had from the end of the portal down to the ground whenever you arrived on another Earth. You remember that."

"I sure do," Sabrina said. "We had to jump from about six feet high out of camera range down to the ground. I still remember the bruise I got on my leg when John and I collided on one of the takes. My real pain looked so good that they used it in the episode." A small smile briefly crossed Sabrina's face. She's starting to overcome her shock, Stuart thought.

"So, half an hour ago I didn't recognize Holly...I didn't even know who she was," Sabrina said. "But now in this...parallel reality I remember her."

"Not parallel," Stuart said, "serial. I'll explain it in Sliders' terminology. Remember how Tracy Tormé named the Sliders' worlds when he was writing and producing the show? Earth Prime was the regular, normal Earth you started from. Then each of the parallel Earth's you went to had its own name. There was Dinosaur Earth where the dinosaurs were still around, and British Earth, where the American revolution had failed. And so on for each of the Earths.

"Prime Reality is where we all began," he continued. "Holly on Charmed, you on Sports Night. Everything normal. Charmed Reality is what The Elders made when Charmed became real. But it wasn't a parallel world. It was the same, though changed, world but continuing serially where Prime Reality had stopped. There wasn't any overlap because everything continues serially from where the other reality had left off.

"Now we have Sliders Reality. A continuation of the same, but changed, world that had been Charmed Reality.

"In Sliders, the people in each Earth were different people from their 'doubles' in the other Earths because they were in parallel worlds.  The show’s premise was that all of the parallel worlds existed at the same time so the people existed at the same time. But everyone here in this new reality is the same person who was in the other, the Charmed, reality. Because realities are serial, not parallel. Only one reality exists at a time."

"OK...I think I understand," Sabrina said. "But when, uh, Dalios tried to change reality why did The Elders make Sliders real?"

"We learned that once the Charmed reality was made, everything in it had to follow the rules of that reality," Stuart said. "The Elders couldn't just undo something bad that someone did in it, any more than they could undo it in the original reality. Dalios has the ability to change reality and that couldn't be stopped. Maybe in this new changed reality that we’re in whatever was needed by The Elders to just re-create Charmed Reality is no longer here.

"So...the way to re-create it had to be within this new reality.  And so Sliders and Wade Welles becoming real have to be somehow connected to re-creating the Charmed reality we came from."

Sabrina was silent for a moment.

"And...because Wade is real here Sliders can't be a show," Stuart said. "But Sports Night can."

"With Kari Wuhrer taking my role," Sabrina said, sounding upset.

"She supplanted you as the star of a show, of Sliders, in one reality," he said. "It's not illogical that she would do the same thing on another show in this reality, too."

"But Sports Night wasn't cancelled here," she said.

"Different reality, different ratings," Stuart replied and shrugged.

"You mean she can get better ratings for my show than I can?" Sabrina asked, sounding upset and jealous.

"Uh...uh," Stuart stammered. "Uh, no...they must have different Nielsen families here," he said, trying to placate her.

Sabrina looked across the luncheonette out the large window, exhaled, then played with the un-touched danish on her plate.

"It all sounds so fantastic," she said, after a moment. "Despite what the clerk said, despite what happened with Mack, despite Kari Wuhrer...I'm...I'm still having trouble...believing that Wade Welles is...that I'm..." She closed her eyes for a moment and exhaled again, then opened her eyes and slowly lifted the coffee cup to her lips.

"Tell me," Stuart said, "what was the name of the hotel you always stayed in on Sliders?"

"Uh...it was...The Dominion," Sabrina answered. "It actually was a real hotel. We shot some exterior scenes outside of it."

"A real hotel in Vancouver where Sliders was shot," Stuart said. "But not a real hotel in San Francisco, where Sliders was supposed to take place. There was no such hotel here. At least, not in the reality we came from. Uh, do you have some change?"

Sabrina opened her wallet and pulled out some coins.

"No cellphones," Stuart said, "so we have to use a payphone."

He stood up, grabbed a napkin and led Sabrina around the corner to a small hallway where a payphone hung on the wall. He dropped the money in, dialed Information and motioned to Sabrina for a pen.

"Dominion Hotel," he said.

He moved closer to her and held the receiver between their ears so that they could both hear.

Taking the pen from Sabrina, Stuart wrote down the number on the napkin. He dropped more change into the telephone and dialed the number.

"Dominion Hotel," the voice on the other end said.

"Wade Welles, please," Stuart said. "She's a guest." There was a pause for a few seconds.

"Just a moment," the operator said. Stuart and Sabrina heard a phone begin to ring. After six rings, the operator came back on.

"There's no answer in her room," she said. "Would you care to leave a message?"

"Uh...no," Stuart said. "I'll come by and see her, instead. Where is the hotel?"

"On Union between Van Ness and Polk," she replied.

"Thank you," Stuart said, hung up and turned to Sabrina.

"You see," he said, "the Dominion Hotel now exists in San Francisco. And...you have a room there." Sabrina stared ahead blankly and exhaled. Stuart put his arm around her and gently led her back to their table.

"Union and Polk is in Russian Hill," he said. "It's not walking distance from here. We have no car so we'll have to take a taxi. Let me see how much money I have."

"Why-" Sabrina began as Stuart opened his wallet but stopped as she saw the look on his face change.

"What is it?" she asked.

"My driver's license," he said, slowly taking it out. "It's Quinn Mallory's." He paused. "I've become Quinn Mallory...another Slider character from the show."

Stuart stopped and tried to make sense of it in his mind.

"Sliders must be the way back to Charmed reality," he said, after a moment. "That's why Wade and Quinn have to be real. Just like the real Charmed witches have powers to use against demons, the real Sliders have the ability to travel between parallel worlds.  Only this time, to travel not to another parallel world, but to another reality.  Back to our Charmed reality."

"And we have to go to the hotel," Sabrina said, understanding showing in her voice.

"Yes," Stuart said. "There's something we need. We're Sliders Wade Welles and Quinn Mallory and we don't have it with us. So it must be in the hotel room."

Sabrina stared ahead silently for a few seconds, then exhaled and turned to Stuart.

"The Sliders' timer," she said, slowly.

 

 The Dominion Hotel was a modest, four-story brick building filling most of the small block it was on. Sabrina stood outside, staring at its entrance, denial of what had happened to her now all but impossible.

"This is just so...eerie," she said. "All the times that I stood here when it was just a set. And now...". She looked up at the hotel sign over the entrance. "Now...it's real."

"That's how Holly felt, too," Stuart said. "You'll get used to it."

Sabrina looked at Stuart and gave him a half-smile.

"See if you have the key to our room," he said to her.

Sabrina looked inside her pocketbook and pulled out a key.

"It's stamped Dominion Hotel," she said, looking at it.

"But there's no room number on it," Stuart said. "That's a problem. We're supposed to know where we're staying. We can't just go over to the front desk and ask them where we belong."

"Of course we can," Sabrina said. "I'm an actress, remember? Wait here."

Sabrina walked through the doors and approached the small front desk. A tall man in his late twenties, wearing a dark green vest but no tie with his ecru shirt, stood behind it.

"Hi," she said to the clerk, a warm, innocent smile on her face. "I don't know if you remember me."

"Of course I do, Miss Welles," he replied. "I checked you in."

"I know," Sabrina said, without missing a beat. "But with all of the guests in the hotel, it would be understandable if you didn't remember me."

"It's my job to remember faces," he said. "I trust you're enjoying your stay with us."

"Yes, very much," she said, flashing her smile again. "I've been traveling a lot lately and staying in a lot of hotels. And - this is a little embarrassing - the room numbers have become a jumble in my head. And now, I can't remember which room I'm in here."

"Room 204, second floor to the right," he said, without needing to look it up.

"204...of course," she said.

"I have something for you," the clerk said. He looked beneath the desk and pulled out a long, narrow white box. "This was dropped off for you."

Surprised, Sabrina took the box from him and looked it over. Her name, the hotel name and her room number were hand written, with a bit of a flourish, on the box' cover. But there was no indication of who had sent it.

"Who left this?" she asked.

"A messenger delivered it," he answered.

"Thank you," she said. She walked towards the front door and discreetly signaled Stuart to come in. She turned around and headed towards the stairs and Stuart followed her.

"Good day, Mr. Mallory," the clerk said as Stuart passed him. Stuart gave him a long, hard look, then nodded his head slightly and went up the stairs.

Entering the room, Sabrina sat down sideways on the edge of the bed and looked cautiously at the box in her hands. She placed it on the bed beside her, moved herself further up on to the bed and removed the box' cover. Inside lay a single red rose. She lifted it from the box, held it to her nose and inhaled.

There was something familiar about the rose, she thought. As if she had received this once before. But when? And from whom? She had been sent roses on more than one occasion but those had all been bouquets. Not a single, red rose...like this one.

A folded note lay inside the box. Sabrina took it out and slowly opened it.

"I've been expecting you," she read aloud. "Come tonight to Aquatic Park at eight o'clock. Derek Bond." She looked down and stared at the rose again.

"Derek," she said, softly.

"From a Sliders episode," Stuart said. "In the second season, if I'm not mistaken. Uh...what was the name of it?"

Sabrina thought for a moment.

"Obsession," she said. "Derek is a seer. He saw that we were lovers in a past life in eighteenth century England. I was shot and killed by his father to prevent our marriage."

"Of course," Stuart said. "Since the Sliders are real they have to be on one of their parallel Earth's. This is Psychic Earth. In that episode, ten percent of the population here has psychic power. They're recruited to hone their skills at...what was it called? Oh yeah, the National Academy For Seers here in San Francisco. These oracles are trained in different fields. Like the medical oracles, who obviate x-rays because they can see what is inside people's bodies.

"In Obsession, Derek Bond was expecting you when you slid into his Psychic Earth," Stuart said, continuing the storyline. "He wanted to have you in the marriage he had been denied in his past life. Then he was chosen by the Prime Oracle, right before he died, to replace him, the most important position in the country second only to the President. And that you were to be the most crucial thing to his success as Prime Oracle."

"He lacked compassion," Sabrina said. "And he was to get that from me."

"Yes, when he forcibly kept you in his compound," Stuart said. "It was only after the ruse the writers came up with to free you that he learned that what he thinks is best for someone is not necessarily what that someone feels is best nor even wants."

"And now, he was expecting my slide here again," Sabrina said, almost wistfully. "Just like in Obsession."

"I told you that when Charmed became real, everything that had happened on the show's episodes became real," Stuart said. "Well, now the same thing is true with Sliders. In this reality, all of your episodes have really happened, too. You really have been on this Psychic Earth before.

"Wade felt something for Derek in that episode," he continued. "And now...you're feeling something for him in real life. Aren't you?"

Sabrina looked at the rose, closed her eyes and exhaled.

"The same thing happened to Holly when she became Piper," Stuart said.  "She had the same feelings for Leo in real life that she had for him in the Charmed episodes."

Sabrina stood up and put the rose down on the room's small table. She took a deep breath as she shook her head slightly, then went over to the chest of drawers.

"This is all...so un-believable," she said, opening a drawer.

"You're doing a good job of believing it," Stuart said, with a small smile.

Sabrina took something out of the drawer. Stuart saw that she was holding something small and rectangular.

"What choice do I have?" she asked, rhetorically.

"The Sliders' timer," Stuart said, staring at the device. "That's what you used on the show to open the trans-dimensional portal to slide between parallel worlds. The same portal we came through this morning. And the timer also told you how much time you had left until the next slide. The portal could only be opened when the timer went to zero."

"A prop on Sliders," Sabrina said, staring at it. "And now...its real."

"How much time does it say we have?" he asked.

"A little over thirty-two hours," she said.

"That means about nine-thirty tomorrow night," he said, looking at his watch. "This is The Elders' plan in making Sliders real. Use the portal the timer opens to get back to the Charmed reality we came from."

"The timer's portal on Sliders was a connection between parallel worlds, not between realities," Sabrina said. "We don't know that Sliding will get us back to our reality. If Sliders is real...since Sliders is real," she corrected herself, "this reality is going to be like the show was. Just like we couldn't slide back home to our Earth on Sliders, we can't slide back to our reality here, either. Sliding may just take us to another parallel Earth, even further removed from our reality."

"This Sliders reality didn't just happen," Stuart said. "Going back through the portal, reversing how we got here, has to be the way to force the Charmed reality back into existence."

"Has to?" Sabrina asked. "It could be that this...this Sliders reality just began with us sliding into a parallel Earth. The same way a lot of the episodes began. Not because the portal is a connection between realities.

"In this case it just happens to be that we slid back into Psychic Earth," she continued. "That doesn't mean that sliding has to be the way back."

Stuart exhaled.

"It should be the way back," he admitted. "We have to take that chance. Look, Sliders' scripts said that if you missed a slide you'd be stuck on whatever parallel Earth you were on for twenty-nine years before you'd get another chance to slide out. Everything in those scripts is real now, just like everything in Charmed's scripts became real. We can't risk being stuck here for twenty-nine years. We have to take the chance that sliding will get us back to our reality."

Sabrina closed her eyes in thought. After a moment she opened them and nodded her head in agreement.

"Piper came through the portal with us," Stuart said. "She has to go back through it with us, too. I don't know what will happen to her if she doesn't. She may wind up nowhere when this reality stops existing." He paused and exhaled. "And I don't know what happened to Prue."

"We have a day and a half to find them," Sabrina said.

"Let's try calling them," Stuart said. "It may not be their telephone number in this reality but its all we have to start with." He picked up the telephone and dialed The Manor's number. It rang four times. And then a voice began speaking.

"Hi. You've reached Piper's answering machine. I'm not available right now but please leave me a message. Thanks."

Stuart hung up at the sound of the beep.

"I got Piper on an answering machine," he said. "Piper said it was her machine...so that means she's alone. Prue doesn't live with her."

"She said she was Piper, not Holly?" Sabrina asked. "That means the Charmed reality still exists."

"You're right...it does mean that," Stuart said. "Or at least part of it exists. Piper and the telephone number. But no Prue. I'm so used to her being Piper that I didn't catch that. We have to see what else is here. Let's check on The Manor. It doesn't exist in San Francisco in real reality. I mean...in normal reality. That is...the reality we-"

"It's OK," Sabrina said, "I know what you mean. I guess...I really do understand all of this." She put the timer into her jacket pocket and they left the room.

 

"There it is," Stuart said, sitting in a taxi across the street from The Manor, not sure whether or not to be surprised.

"So this demon Dalios couldn't control this part, either," Sabrina said.

"And that left this reality a mixed up mess," he said, “with parts of Charmed in it.”.

"Holly isn't here," Sabrina asked. "Where do we find her?"

"She's Piper," Stuart said. "When Charmed became real, they became The Halliwells.  She became - and she is - Piper.

"OK," Sabrina said. "So where do we look for...Piper?"

"P3," Stuart said. "Maybe everything about Piper exists here, too. She might be there preparing the club for tonight.

"Take us to Fillmore and Greenwich," he said to the driver.

 

"The club seems to be here," Stuart said.

"Halliwell's Haven," Sabrina said, reading the sign above the entrance.

"I guess P3 wouldn't have made any sense in this reality," he said.

Sabrina approached the door and tried to open it.

"It's locked," she said.

"It's still early," Stuart said. "I have a key...uh, I guess in this reality I don't have a key anymore. Let's go around to the back door.  It should be open.”

As they came around to the back Stuart saw a familiar car parked behind the club. The driver's door was open and someone started to get out.

"Piper!" Stuart called excitedly, then caught himself. She won't know me, he thought. "Uh...Piper Halliwell?" he asked, changing his tone.

"Yes," she said, "I'm Piper. Should I know you? If you've been in the club, I'm sorry. I just don't remember seeing you."

"No," Sabrina said, "we're in San Francisco for just a few days. I'm...Wade Welles. This is Quinn Mallory."

"And your club was recommended to us," Stuart said. "We were told if we did nothing else while we were here to be sure to come to Halliwell's Haven."

"Really!" Piper said, pleasantly surprised. "How nice. Who recommended you?"

Stuart hesitated, not knowing what to answer.

"Shannen Doherty," Sabrina said, jumping in.

Piper stared motionless at Sabrina for what seemed to Stuart to be an eternity.

"Shannen Doherty?" Piper asked. "The Shannen Doherty? The star of Charmed Like an Angel, the best show on television?"

"Yes," Stuart said, with relief. "We're friends."

"Shannen Doherty is my favorite actress in the whole world," Piper said, excitedly. "Tell me about her...when was she here? Uh, wait, let's go inside the club."

The table was familiar to Stuart. It was the same one he had sat at many times in P3. The decor, the layout and even the lights were the same. The only difference was that Phoebe wasn't there. And neither was Prue.

"How could I have not known that she was here?" Piper asked, disappointed.

"Hollywood stars like to travel incognito," Stuart said. "Isn't that right, Wade?"

"Yes," Sabrina said. "We try to avoid...uh, that is, they try to avoid being spotted so they can enjoy some privacy. It can become quite difficult being constantly recognized everywhere you go."

"Hmm," Piper said, "I suppose it can be. Not that I would know what that's like. There's not a lot of people who know me outside of the club."

"You'd be surprised," Stuart said. "Uh, that is...the club is more well known than you realize."

"Wow!" Piper said, smiling. "Shannen's told other people about it?"

"Have you ever heard of Alyssa Milano?" Stuart asked. Just in case, he thought. Let's be sure.

"No, I haven't," Piper said. "Is she some up and coming actress in Hollywood who's going to become a star? Someone I'm going to know about?

"Uh...yes," Stuart said. "We hope...that's exactly what's going to happen."

"So what is Shannen like in real life?" Piper asked. "I always felt she was just as nice as the angel she plays."

"Angel," Stuart repeated, then hesitated. He found the thought of Shannen as an angel difficult to picture. "Uh...Shannen...is pretty much in-distinguishable from her character."

"She's really her part come to life," Sabrina added.

"I knew it. I knew it!" Piper exclaimed. "There's something about her that I could tell that wasn't her acting."

Familiar words, Stuart thought. Words he'd used about Phoebe...and Alyssa.

"I take it you've been a fan of Shannen for some time," Stuart said.

"From the very beginning," Piper said, "when she started on 90210. I never missed an episode in all the seven years she was on the show until it was canceled."

Seven years, Stuart thought. Hmm...she lasted three years longer on it here than she did in the real reality. Maybe Aaron Spelling doesn't exist here.

"What does she like to do when she's not acting?" Piper asked. "Does she like to cook like me?"

"Actually, she's been doing quite a bit of cooking lately," Stuart answered, thinking of their past few weeks in The Manor. "We had dinner together just the other night. She made an extraordinary grilled lamb."

"Do you think there's a chance she'll come here again?" Piper asked.

"I very much hope so," Stuart said, thinking about Prue coming to the club again in the Charmed reality.

"What Quinn means," Sabrina quickly said, "is that if she did come he'd like to come with her."

"Oh, uh, if you do," Piper said, "uh...can I ask you a big favor? Would you let me know when she was coming? Not that I would tell anyone. I wouldn't tell anyone, not even the people working here. Just for myself so that I'd be sure to be here when she came."

"Quinn would be happy to," Sabrina said.

"Of course," Stuart said.

"Wow - thank you," Piper said. "Uh...I really have to check on things to get ready for tonight. Why don't you come back tonight. As my guests...everything will be on the house."

"Uh...thank you," Stuart said, "that's very kind of you."

"It's the least I can do for you for making my day by telling me about Shannen," Piper said.

"We'll be here around nine o'clock," Stuart said.

"Just ask for me," Piper said.

"We'll see you then," Sabrina said, standing up.

 

"We've established a relationship with Piper," Stuart said, outside the club, "now we have stay close to her. We have to get her to slide with us."

"That may take some doing," Sabrina said. "I...I understand what's happened and it's still hard for me to believe. Piper has no idea about any of this. She won’t believe us and she's not going to want to do it."

"We'll have to slide from wherever Piper is tomorrow night," Stuart said. "If we can't convince her to come with us we'll have to force her."

"That won't be easy, Quinn," she said. Stuart was about to say something but he stopped and looked at Sabrina.

"What?" she asked.

"You called me Quinn," he said.

"I did? I'm sorry, Quinn, I don't know - uh...I just did it again," Sabrina said, confused.

"You're thinking and speaking like Wade Welles," Stuart said. "Don't fight it. It won't help, anyway. It's part of you becoming Wade in real life.

"When Charmed became real, playing the part wasn't good enough. They had to instinctively be The Halliwells to survive.  They couldn't be thinking about their roles and how to play them. They had to live them. And so, as part of making their roles become real, The Elders made them think and act more and more like their characters.

"The same is true with you, Sabrina. You have to instinctively think and speak as Wade. You can't act like her. You have to become her. You have to be Wade Welles.

“And...” he exhaled, “I suppose I’m going to become more like Quinn.”

Sabrina closed here eyes and gave a shudder.

"I'm...I'm not sure...just who I am right now," she said.

"It's OK," Stuart said re-assuringly, putting his arms around her and holding her to him. "You'll know soon enough."

 

At first, Sabrina saw and felt the differences.

The man who met her at Aquatic Park was not a uniformed chauffeur driving a limousine, as the Sliders Obsession episode script would have dictated. Instead, he was a man in a tan windbreaker and running shoes driving a nondescript compact car.

The house was small. Smaller than the Sliders episode's location structure that had given the impression of a large, protected compound.

The room was small. Smaller than the episode's set that had given the impression of many large rooms in a spacious home.

The food on the table wasn't the elaborate fare on expensive china, as had been in the episode, but simple food in pedestrian dishes.

There were no servants scurrying about, no enclosed swimming pool and patio outside the dining room's glass doors, as there had been in the episode.

There were no cameras at the ready, no crew looking on, no director calling for action.

But there was Derek Bond.

Tall, suave, his brown hair combed straight back. The same handsome and captivating Derek Bond who had been in Obsession.

And...she was the same Wade Welles.

"There has not been one day these past four years that I gave up hope of your return," Derek said. "Not one day that I did not think of how much I love you. The night that you slid out of this world I realized that I had to let you go. And I realized you had taught me what I had lacked...compassion. And having learned to have it, I so wanted you to see me as I had become.

"Then, yesterday, I saw that you would slide back to this world. And my heart experienced a joy that it had not once felt in those four years."

The words were affecting Wade, just as they had affected her on Sliders, in an episode shot four years earlier. Derek was affecting Wade, just as he had then. Four years earlier it had been James Patrick Stuart and Sabrina Lloyd acting from a script. Now, it was Derek Bond and Wade Welles. And what she was feeling wasn't acting. It was real. Because Derek Bond had become real.

And so had Wade Welles.

"Derek..." she began, then hesitated. She was being overwhelmed by the feelings and the memory. She had to clear her mind.

"Derek, what happened here?" she asked, re-directing the conversation. "You were chosen to be the new Chief Oracle. The President of The United States was here for your inauguration. You were the second most powerful man in the country. And now...?"

"Indeed, I was," Derek said. "I did become Chief Oracle. And thanks to you, and to what you taught me, I was able to use my psychic power in the way the late Chief Oracle saw in his vision that I would use it. And I was able to avert tragedies and save people's lives.

"Then, about a year ago, I foresaw an avalanche along a road in Montana. I had the road closed and traffic diverted to the other side of the mountain. And there was an avalanche...but on that other side. The side where I sent the cars...not on the side where I had foreseen it happening. Thirty people were killed because of that."

"How could that happen?" Wade asked. "Your psychic power is very strong, stronger than any other oracle in this world."                    

"I don't have to tell you how this shook me up," Derek said, "but I was at a loss to explain it. And then someone made a public attack on me, saying that my power was weak. And he began a movement to remove me from my position.

"About a month later, I had a vision of a home in Bel Air, near LA, being broken in to. The people were unexpectedly at home and the wife was killed. I alerted the police. They quietly warned the people, making sure that they would not be home, and set a trap for the burglars.

"Right after I told the police about it, this same other person went to them and said he saw the same thing happening, only in Laurel Canyon, some ten miles away. The police ignored him but he managed to call both the Governor and the White House and tell them. Of course, they ignored his as well."

Derek stopped and exhaled.

"The house where the police were waiting wasn't broken in to. But the house he told them about in Laurel Canyon was. The family's two teenage girls were shot.

"Besides the press' coverage, this had gotten the President's attention. This person stepped up his campaign to have me replaced - with himself.

"Two weeks later, the President was going to San Diego to make a speech. I foresaw no danger for him and approved the trip. That other person contacted the White House and warned of an attempt on the President's life just before the speech. Based on my advice the President went as planned."

Derek exhaled again.

"There was an attempt to kill the President," he said. "It was un-successful and he wasn't hurt. But that was the final straw. I was removed from office and replaced by this other person.

"It was only later that I was able to see into this person's mind and learn that he wasn't a person at all. This may be difficult for you to accept but...he is a demon. There are such beings."

"I know," Wade said.

"You do?" Derek asked, astonished.

"I've come to learn about them recently," she said. "That's how we wound up sliding back here."

"What??...A demon sent you back to me?" he asked.

"Not exactly," Wade said. "It's too difficult to explain.  Tell me, what is this demon's name?

"Braiden," Derek said.

"Braiden?" Wade repeated, recognizing the demon Stuart had told her about. "And he's a psychic demon?"

"Not exactly," Derek said. "You know that stronger oracles such as me can send thoughts to others. You remember that both before and during your first slide here I sent you the dreams about our prior life together. As it turns out, because my psychic strength is so strong it's always projecting what it sees.  Though it's a rather weak projection because I'm not consciously doing it so no one can receive it.

"No one, that is, but Braiden. He has a demonic power that allows him to pick up my projections anyway and at the same time confuse me in my mind about what I'm seeing. That's how he knew about what would really happen those three times."

"And that's why you're psychic visions were wrong," Wade said. "I mean, what you thought were your psychic visions.  You psychic power really did see those things as they would happen. But what would a demon gain by becoming Chief Oracle?"

"Power and opportunity with which to do evil," Derek replied. "He can be selective about his predictions, preventing enough tragedies to keep his position while letting those that he wasn't asked about not be prevented. Especially those involving good people who help others and who themselves would now be killed."

"Now that you know what Braiden is and what he did, why haven't you made that known and tried to get your position back?" Wade asked.

"At first I did try," Derek said. "I had rallied some people to my side. But Braiden had me declared a danger to the country and the people who were with me as subversives. He set up special police units to monitor our activity and had many of the people arrested. That's one of the reasons I didn't meet you in public but had you brought to me here."

"And the other reason?" she asked.

Derek looked silently into Wade's eyes.

"Because I still love you so much," he said, "and I wanted to show you that in private." He put his arms around Wade's shoulders and drew her close to him.

"And because I know that you still love me," he said. He brought her closer, their lips touched and they kissed.

Wade felt everything she was supposed to have felt for Derek in the episode, which now had become her real feelings. She felt herself being overwhelmed, again and now she submitted to those feelings. She put her arms around him, closed her eyes and kissed him.

They held the kiss for a long time until Wade opened her eyes and their lips parted.

"Now that you've come back," Derek said, "we have a second chance. No...a third chance. Three hundred years ago, four years ago and now again today. You know what they say - the third time is charmed."

Charmed. That word meant something to Wade. It started to break through into her consciousness, break through her reality with Derek.

Charmed. Charmed reality.

"And with you at my side," Derek continued, "I will be able to unmask Braiden. And be restored as Chief Oracle to help everyone."

Charmed reality, Wade thought.

"Uh...Derek..." Wade began. "I...I'm not staying. I'm...I'm sliding out tomorrow night."

"What?! You can't!" Derek exclaimed.

"Derek," Wade said, "don't make the same mistake you made last time. Don't try to keep me here against my will."

"No...no, of course not," Derek said. "What I meant was...that this was why your slide brought you back here. Look, in all of the slides that you've made, have you ever come back to the same world twice?"

"Uh...no, we haven't," Wade said.

"Then there's a reason that you did slide back here," he said. "To help me. Just like you helped me to become Chief Oracle the first time you were here. You've been sent back here to help me become Chief Oracle, again. By helping me defeat Braiden."

Wade closed her eyes and exhaled. Charmed, she thought.

"Derek..." she said. She raised her right hand and stroked it across his left cheek.

She took a deep breath. I have to concentrate on the Charmed reality, she thought.

"Derek...I...uh, we...were brought back here for a reason," Wade said. "But I can't explain it to you. It's...you just have to trust me. There's another reality...uh...parallel world that will be destroyed if we don't slide out of here tomorrow night."

"What?? What do you mean?" Derek asked. "How? Why?"

"Derek...I know I should give you an explanation," Wade said. "You...deserve one. But I can't. You wouldn't understand it. I even have trouble understanding it."

"You know that the last time you were here that despite my being an oracle there were things about you that I couldn't see," Derek said. "And that's true this time, too. There are still things about you I can't see. That scared the hell out of me then and its scaring me, now, again."

"It's better that way," Wade said. "Some things are best left not being seen."

"Look, even if this was all true, even if there was another world that you could save," Derek said, "you know you can't control which world you're going to slide into. You don't know where you're going to wind up next."

"I know we can't control the slides," Wade said. "But this time I think it's different. Uh, Quinn is sure that it's different. It has to do with demons and how we got here. And undoing what the demons have done."

"Wade, I...I can't see what this is all about," he said. "But...you've been to so many worlds where you've almost died. Stay here with me. You're safe here. And...I love you so much."

Wade looked at him silently and then shook her head.

"I...trust Quinn," she said. "And when you trust someone...you believe in him."

Wade exhaled.

"Tomorrow night we're sliding out of here," she said.

 

Halliwell's Haven was pretty full. But as soon as Piper spotted Quinn and Wade she made her way to them, whisked them to a quiet booth on the side and sat down with them. A booth that Stuart knew very well.

"Your club is really nice," Stuart said.

"Thanks," Piper said. "I've put a lot into it."

"I know," Stuart said, before he could stop himself.

"You do?" Piper asked,

"Uh...you're really busy tonight," Wade quickly interjected. "We don't want to keep you from your work."

"You're not," Piper said. "Sometimes I need to take a break for a few minutes and I can't get it unless I sit down and talk to someone. And you are my special guests. Oh, Gina."

Stuart saw a familiar face come over to their table.

"Gina," Piper said, "this is Wade Welles and Quinn Mallory. They're from LA. They were sent here by - are you ready - Shannen Doherty!"

"No!" Gina said. "Really?? Wow! Halliwell's Haven is now on the map!"

"It certainly is," Stuart said.

"Oh, Piper," Gina said, "it's been so busy tonight I forgot all about this." She took something out of her pocket and put it down on the table in front of Piper.

Stuart stared at it in disbelief. It was a key ring. Attached to it was a plastic keychain California license plate. A name was engraved on it just below the California golden sun.

Crystal.

"Mendell dropped it off early this afternoon," Gina said. "She said she had an extra promo keychain and brought it over for you."

"What happened to her?" Piper asked. "She was supposed to be here yesterday."

"She said she lost her keys a few days ago while bicycling over the bridge," Gina said, "and that threw her schedule off."

"Whose is that?" Stuart asked, his tone turning serious.

"Shira Mendell," Piper said.

"Who's Crystal?" he asked.

"That's her company," Piper said. "Crystal Club. She supplies clubs with glasses, stemware, dishes, caddies, shakers - even some of the ingredients for the food we serve."

Stuart glanced at Wade for a second.

"I have to speak to her," Stuart said, urgency in his voice. "How do I reach her?"

"I have her telephone numbers," Piper said, a little confused at Quinn's sudden need.

"It won't do any good," Gina said. "She was going to get completely away for a day. Said she had a lot of tension and aggravation this week because of her lost keys. She was even turning off her cellphone. No business, just relaxation. There's no way to reach her."

"Until she comes back tomorrow evening," Stuart said, slowly.

"That's right," Gina said, "how'd you know? She said she'd be back in time for dinner."

"What's so urgent about speaking to her?" Piper asked. "Maybe I can help you in the meantime."

Stuart exhaled.

"It's...a complicated story," Stuart said. "I'll...uh, just take her phone numbers, anyway."

"Here," Gina said, pulling out a business card from her pocket. "Shira left it with the keychain but we already have a few of her cards."

"Thanks," Stuart said, looking over the card. Crystal Club, it read.  It’s crystal clear - we help your club look its best.

This is awkward, Wade thought. I'd better change the subject quickly. "How about if we try some of those great drinks that Shannen told us about?"

"Uh...yes," Stuart said, "I've been looking forward to them all evening."

"Good," Piper said, "order away. Gina, everything for my guests is on the house."

 

"Crystal isn't the name of a person," Stuart said, as they walked down Fillmore looking for a taxi back to The Dominion. "It's the name of a company. A company that does business with the club. That's why the name Crystal was familiar to Piper. That is, to the Piper from our reality."

"The keys were lost in the Charmed reality," Wade said, "and they were still lost in this reality."

"Yes," Stuart said. "I told you that the realities are serial. What happens in one reality continues in the next reality."

"So Shira Mendell is, uh...will be the demon's victim in this reality," Wade said.

"Yes," Stuart said, "unless we save her. And to do that we have to know where she's going to be attacked tomorrow night. There's only one person who can tell us that."

"Derek," Wade said.

"First thing in the morning-" The screeching tires of the police car pulling up beside them cut Stuart off.  He saw Subversive Surveillance Unit on the side of the door as two policemen jumped out of the car and grabbed Wade, pulling her hands behind her back.

"Hey!" Stuart shouted but one of the cops pushed him down.

"Stay away or you'll be arrested, too," the cop said to him.

"Arrested?!" Wade screamed. "For what?"

"For being a subversive," the first cop said. "You were seen leaving the home of Derek Bond. We have records that show you were close to him four years ago. You've come back to be part of a group associated with him that's trying to undermine the Chief Oracle and endanger the country."

"I haven't done anything!" Wade screamed as the second cop clamped handcuffs on her wrists.

"Not yet," the first cop said. "But the police oracle had a vision that you're going to do something with Bond to endanger the Chief Oracle. If this was just an ordinary crime we'd release you after you were warned not to commit the crime and you signed the acknowledgment of the warning.

"But this is subversion. And the new law says that for subversion we can keep you in jail indefinitely before you commit the crime. "

Having gotten up from the ground, Stuart charged the second cop from behind. He rammed his elbow into the small of the cop's back and kicked him behind his knee. The cop's leg buckled and he fell to the ground.

The first cop let go of Wade, took his nightstick from his belt and slammed it into Stuart's stomach. Stuart doubled over and fell to one knee. As the cop raised his nightstick again, Wade rammed the cop with all her might. Losing his balance, the cop fell down. Now above him, Wade turned around and brought her handcuffed hands down hard on the back of his head.

The force of the handcuff's metal was enough to stun him momentarily and he dropped his nightstick. Struggling to recover his breath, Stuart managed to pick it up and slugged the cop with it twice over his head. The cop grabbed his head and fell to his knees.

Stuart grabbed Wade and they started running away. But the first cop, reaching the open patrol car door, pulled out a rifle. Bracing himself against the car, he aimed the gun at the fleeing figures and fired.

"Arrgh!" Stuart cried as he felt something hit him in the back.

"Quinn!" Wade cried. "You're shot?"

"I...arrgh...don't know," he said. "I...let's just keep moving."

BANG! The rifle's sound reverberated through the streets

"OHH!!" Wade screamed as she felt something lodge in the shoulder of her jacket.

"Wade!" Stuart said.

"I'm OK, I think," she said.

"Come on!" Stuart said. They ran up and down the streets and through alley ways, staying in the shadows where they could find them.

"The hotel is not the safest place for us to be," Wade said. "That clerk made a point of remembering my name."

"Being visible on the streets isn't any better," Stuart said, "and we have no place else to go. Besides, they have no reason to think we're staying there. It...ugh...will take them a while to find us there.

"I hope," he added.

"This is going to be awkward," Wade said, outside the hotel, "walking through the lobby in handcuffs."

"I'll...ugh...block you," Stuart said. He started to open the hotel’s front door but then Wade stopped him.

"Act like you're a little high," she told him.

Stuart put his arm around Wade's shoulders and they walked inside. Leaning on Wade’s left side from behind her, Stuart's body blocked the front desk clerk's view of Wade's handcuffed hands behind her back. Staggering slightly and rocking her head sideways, Wade gave an accurate portrayal of a tipsy young woman needing to be helped.

From the corner of his eye, Stuart saw the clerk staring at them intently.

"Come on Wade, Honey," Stuart said loudly, carefully exaggerating his walk, "it's just a few steps upstairs. You can make it."

"Miss Welles," the clerk called out. Stuart turned his head to him and half-closed his eyes.

"This box was just dropped off for you," the clerk said.

"Uh..." Stuart said. If I leave Wade and walk over to get it he'll see the handcuffs, he thought.

"Quinn," Wade said, turning her head around and smiling at him, "just...uh...help me upstairs first. And then you can come down and get the...uh...uh...the box. That's it...you can come down and get my box."

Stuart turned back to the clerk and gave him a half-drunken smile.

"I'll, uh...be right back for...uh, the box," Stuart said. Keeping himself between the clerk and Wade, he helped her towards the stairs and then up the steps. Out of the clerk's view, they hurried to their room.

"Phew!" Wade exhaled, once they were inside.

"Good thinking," Stuart said, "and good acting."

"Acting," Wade said, sounding a little unsure. "It...seemed so natural."

"It should be," Stuart said. "You are-"

The knock on the door cut him off. Stuart motioned to Wade and she hurried into the other room. He looked around the room but there was nothing he saw that he could use as a weapon.

A second knock on the door.

"Who's there?" Stuart asked.

"Front Desk," the voice said. Stuart went to the door and cautiously opened it.

"Miss Welles' box," the Front Desk clerk said. "I thought that under the circumstances...it was best that you not make another trip to the lobby."

"Right," Stuart said. "Uh, right. That was...uh...nice of you. Uh...very  nice of you..."

"Good night," the clerk said, a disdainful expression on his face. He turned around and quickly headed back to the lobby and Stuart closed the door.

"It's OK, Wade," he said, putting the box down on the table. "Arrgh...you can come out."

"You're hurt," she said. Stuart shook his head.

"Let me see you," he said, running his hand across her jacket shoulder.

"Here," he said, pulling something out.

It was a short, narrow dart, about three inches long, with an ampule taking up half the length.

"The shoulder pad in the jacket must have stopped it from getting to you," Stuart said.

"What is it?" Wade asked.

"The shoulder of your jacket is wet," Stuart said. "It looks like...some kind of hyperdermic needle. Maybe...whatever is in the ampule is meant to discharge through the needle on impact...arrgh."

"You're hurt," Wade said. "Get these cuffs off of me so I can help you."

"I doubt there's anything in the room that can saw through them," Stuart said. As he started looking around he saw the box the clerk had brought on the table.

"Wait...let's first see what this is," he said. He turned the box over and saw the handwriting on it. The same handwriting and flourish as was on the previous box."

"It's from Derek," Wade said.

Stuart slit open the tape that sealed it with the room key and opened the box.

"A file saw," he said. "Just what we need to get these cuffs off of you. Turn around."

"Derek must have seen what was happening and sent it," Wade said.

"Why didn't he see it before it happened and warn us?" Stuart asked, as he began filing away.

"He said there are things about me he can't see," Wade said.

"Almost...arrgh...done," Stuart said. "This reminds of the time I was in handcuffs when we escaped from a court room and we made the slide with me still in them. I had to walk around in the new world hiding my..."

Wait a minute, Stuart thought. I was in handcuffs? That was Quinn Mallory on Sliders. I'm...I'm...

"Quinn, don't stop," Wade said.

"Right," Stuart said. He went back to sawing and in a minute Wade's hands were free.

"That's better," she said. "Now let me see you." She went behind him, looked at his back and pulled something out.

"Arrgh," he said.

"It went right through the jacket," Wade said, holding it up to the light. "The ampule is empty." She quickly pulled off Stuart's jacket, shirt and undershirt.

"Oh...your back...all around where you were shot," Wade said. "It's green." She turned Stuart around to her. "Your chest, too. It's green opposite where that dart hit you in the back."

"It must be...arrgh...from whatever was in the ampule," he said.

"A poison?" she asked.

"Maybe," Stuart said. "Whatever it is...where my skin is green, it hurts."

 

In her room an hour later, Wade had removed her shoes and pants, getting ready to go to sleep. She was about to take off her maroon knit shirt when she stopped. She stood silently in thought for a moment, then slowly walked over to the door of her room. She opened the door and looked at Quinn lying in bed. On Sliders, the scripts said that Wade had deep feelings for Quinn but that he was oblivious to them. But this wasn't a script, now. She was Wade in real life. Standing in the doorway, these were her real, natural feelings.

Derek did evoke something in her, she thought, and she did feel something for him. But given the opportunity, she always knew she would take Quinn before anyone else. At that moment, Sliders wasn't a show. Everything that had been on Sliders felt real - was real - to Wade.

And now Quinn, having saved her, was hurt. And he needed to be held. He needed her.

She had her opportunity.

Wade walked over to Stuart's bed and drew the covers half-way back. She sat down on the left side of the