The File
A Charmed Fan Fiction

Part One
by Bradygirl

Andy hefted a thick file from his drawer and laid it on top of his desk. In neat handwritten letters was the name PRUE HALIWELL in all capitals. Everything in the folder were things he had collected during his various investigations. Ones where the Haliwells had unexpectedly been involved, but most of the proof pointed to Prue herself. All the coincidences were adding up and Andy didn't know if he liked the direction it was leading him.

He sat down at his desk and ran both hands through his hair. As frustrating as this was, he couldn't ignore it. Not any more. He had seen Prue with his very own eyes dead on a slab in the morgue, something he had hoped he'd never have to witness. The horror of it haunted him. The pink sweater made her seem more alive some how. Even after the coroner had proven her identity from fingerprint records, he still had a hard time believing it was truly her. But fingerprints didn't lie and he knew his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He knew it was her, damn it! He knew it!

Every fiber of his being cried out when her pale features caught his eye. They were slack in a deathly repose. It was the most unlikely moment for him to realize that he loved her. He loved Prue. For all his suspicions, for all his theories about her occult-ish activities, he still found he loved her, in the past tense--loved. For some reason the tears wouldn't come. He couldn't weep for her. Maybe because deep inside he knew she wasn't gone.

Frosty air billowed out of the freezer drawer as the coroner slid Prue's body back inside it's depths. God! He had to stop thinking about it. She was alive. She wasn't dead. He had to forget it. But he couldn't. He was a police officer trained to gather the facts. These facts weren't adding up. He had to find out why.

***

Piper opened the door to the Haliwell estate with a dish rag in her hand and suds in her hair.

"Andy, hi!" Piper smiled at him with the joy of someone who hadn't known sorrow. Her smile was contagious and he couldn't help but smile back. "What are you doing here?"

He hedged a bit before deciding on a tactical approach. "Is Prue here?"

"Actually, no. You just missed her." She opened the door a little wider to let him in and they both stepped into the foyer. "I hate to tell you this but where Prue is concerned, you have really bad timing."

"You noticed that too?"

Piper nodded.

"So are you alone?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, stretching the kinks out of her back from a morning of washing dishes and folding laundry. "It always seems that when chores need to be done Prue and Phoebe become scarcer than a do do bird."

Andy laughed. "Would you like some help?"

The offer dished up another smile from Piper. "No. Actually, I could use a break. Would you like some coffee?" she suggested. "Black, right?"

"Right. But Piper. You don't have to serve me."

Piper walked into the kitchen and threw the rag on the counter next to the pile of drying dishes. "But I want to. Indulge me."

As she poured his coffee, Andy realized how beautiful Piper actually was. Looks definitely ran in her family. She buzzed around the kitchen putting things away as he sipped his java.

"Where can I get some of that energy?" He asked suddenly.

Piper laughed again. "Drink about four more of those and you'll have it. I think it's called a caffeine high."

When all the chores were done, Piper and Andy retired to the living room.

"I'm glad you came over. It's nice to have someone to talk to for a change, besides Prue and Phoebe."

He started to answer but something drew his attention away from the conversation. "Piper, what's that smell?" Andy stood leaning toward the source of the odor.

"Oh, my god. My souffle."She jumped up and bounded into the kitchen leaving Andy alone.

"Thank you Piper," he muttered to himself as he started his search of the house.

Piper's preoccupation in the kitchen left him plenty of time to transverse the entire building. He had just stepped through the attic door when he heard her call his name.

"Up here," he yelled. He was better off acting as if he had only wandered into the attic by mistake instead of confessing to what he was truly doing up there.

Across the room, a book stood on a pedestal. A light from the window caused it to glow with a ghostly aura. As he drew closer he saw that it was very old. Its cover read: The Book of Shadows.

"Oh! Oh!" Piper squeaked when she saw Andy looking at the book. She flashed her hands freezing him in place. "What are you doing up here?" She searched his pockets. It wasn't very enlightening. All she found were two tickets to some musical event. Then it dawned on her. "Oh, Andy. You can't do this."

She almost jumped a mile when someone yelled from downstairs.

"Piper, it's me. I'm home."

"Oh, god, it's Prue." She looked at Andy's frozen form standing in the middle of the attic. How was she going to explain this?

Part 2

The wind howled and whistled like a banshee. A banshee in severe need of slaying. The howling menace sounded like it was about to attack the sky, and Piper cringed at the thought. That's just what she needed a storm stirring outside the house while a different type of storm was brewing inside. Piper hated to find out how Prue would react when she found Andy in the attic. And knowing Prue like she did, she knew this was not going to be a good day.

A monstrous blowing pounded against the attic walls. She was glad the windows were holding firm. Leo had done a good job fixing them.

Taking a deep breath, she assessed the situation. Andy was in their attic, full of all his policeman's authority. What he was looking for, she didn't know. Why he had really come over today, she couldn't fathom. Piper was full of questions with no answers.

Frantically, she eyed the attic door again. Prue was probably still in the kitchen. She could make her way up to the attic any minute. What would she tell her? It wouldn't be easy to explain Andy being in there. Piper only had one choice. She wouldn't explain. She would evade.

Piper grabbed a quilt from a nearby trunk and threw it over Andy's frozen form.

"Sorry, Andy," she whispered.

She felt really sorry for doing this to him, but right now, there were no other options. She had nearly completed covering his feet when Prue walked through the door. Piper bolted straight up giving Prue the immediate impression she was up to something.

"What are you doing up here?" Prue asked while checking the dayplanner in her hands.

Piper squealed. "God, don't do that to me."

"Sorry. You didn't answer me before. What are you doing up here? Not conjuring a spell alone, I hope." Prue snapped closed her date book.

"Oh, no," Piper responded. "I've learned my lesson. I don't do spells for personal gain." She sighed. "Been there, done that."

"Yeah, you're right. You'd never do such a thing." Prue eyed her sister carefully. "I don't know what I was thinking. I just got a bad vibe when I walked in here. Sort of like something wasn't right."

"What wouldn't be right? It's just me and the dust bunnies up here."

Piper took a deep breath and averted her eyes from her sister's. Prue could tell. She could tell that there was something wrong. What was she going to tell her? Certainly not the truth. The truth was not what Prue needed to hear. "I was... cleaning?"

"You sure? You sound like you aren't convinced." Prue smirked. Sometimes her sister could be so funny when she was pressured.

Piper twisted to the side and threw her hair over her right shoulder. It was a nervous gesture. One she always did when stressed. Quickly she performed a flurry of mental cheerleading to make herself believe the lying was okay in this instance. She *had* intended on cleaning today. So it wasn't really a lie.

Piper nervously laughed for the second time in five minutes. "Sure? No, I'm not really sure of anything. Cleaning isn't actually what I want to be doing right now. I'd rather be.... Hey," she paused in relief. "Why don't I fix you something for lunch. A chef salad, maybe?"

"Sounds great to me, I'm starved." Prue headed out the door and downstairs taking the steps two at a time.

Piper followed quickly behind glancing over her shoulder at the attic. As a last minute decision, she closed the door. She didn't want Prue to hear Andy scream when he woke up from his frozen slumber.

***

"What the hell?"

When Andy unfroze from Piper's spell, he discovered a blanket lounging on his head and hurriedly whipped it off. How had that gotten there? Quickly, he scanned the attic around him, then stood for a minute assessing the situation.

He remembered Piper walking into the room. And then not a second later finding a blanket on his head and Piper nowhere to be seen.

"Why do weird things like this always happen when I'm around one of the Haliwells?" he wondered. He knew that what he was searching for wouldn't be in the attic. He'd have to find evidence some other way. No matter what it took, he was going to discover what the Haliwells were hiding.

He left the attic and as he was walking downstairs heard Prue's voice. She was not someone he wanted to confront right now. Quietly he let himself out the attic door. And tip toed down the stairs. He'd explain his absence to Piper later.

Before he could make it out of the house, the front door opened. Andy heard the noise and stealthily slipped into a room next to the kitchen unnoticed.

***

The rain was coming down harder now, and Phoebe dashed through the door flinging water onto the newly polished wood floor. "Talk about a downpour," she said shaking her hair like a wet canine. "It's literally raining cats and dogs out there. In fact, I think I saw Kit flying down the drain pipe."

Phoebe gave her head one last shake and thrust her umbrella into the canister by the door still half open. Piper raced into the foyer from the kitchen and grabbed the umbrella from the canister, wrapped it up and placed it neatly back in. Then turned to her sister like she had done nothing.

"You didn't have to do that, Piper. I would have gotten to it eventually."

"Yeah, right. Like we need any more bad luck around here," she said spinning on her heel and cautiously glancing back up the stairs.

Piper laughed in only the way she could. It appeared to be a laugh but really meant annoyance. The laugh was unique and never completely executed. Many times her laugh cut short as if the wind had mysteriously been knocked out of her. Soon after it was followed by a particularly perplexing expression.

Once Piper disposed of the umbrella, she helped Phoebe with her wet things.

"It sure sounds like cats and dogs with all that howling out there," Piper said.

"Who knows," offered Phoebe. "Maybe we have cat and dog demons out there waiting for us to vanquish them." She smiled at Piper but the grin was lost on her sister

Piper smiled back blankly but this time didn't laugh. Prue came into the foyer at the same time and noted Piper's unusual expression. Before Prue could confront her sister, Piper disappeared into the mud room with Phoebe's wet clothes.

"What's with her?" asked Phoebe.

"I don't know but she's been acting strange ever since I got home."

***

"Don't panic, Piper," she coached herself. "Andy must have already left. There's nothing to worry about." She threw Phoebe's wet clothes into the dryer and took a few deep breaths. "Everything's gonna be all right."

"What's gonna be all right?" asked Prue when she stuck her head around the corner.

Piper jumped a mile and gasped. Then she noticed a foot at the bottom of the curtains and jumped back in fright toward Prue.

"Huh?"

"Piper, are you sure you're all right? Is everything okay at quake?"

"Uhm, at quake?" Nervously, she took a side glance at the curtains but the shoes were gone. "Everything's fine," she muttered in a less than convincing tone. "Why would you ask?"

"Because you're acting weird."

Piper threw Prue a nervous glance.

"All right. Weirder than normal."

Piper didn't want to get into an occultish conversation with Prue in the mud room, especially if those shoes belonged to the cop she thought they did.

"I think it's the storm. I have this horrible headache and it's just getting worse."

She threw her hand to her head in a mock gesture of pain.

"I'm going to lie down for a little while."

***

"How's Piper? Acting any less weird?" Phoebe asked as she slathered a piece of toast with peanut butter.

"No, even more so, actually. I'm worried about her. Ever since Leo left, she's been down in the dumps." Prue grabbed the abandoned knife and started to butter her own piece of bread.

"What she needs is a man."

"Phoebe, contrary to popular belief, you don't need a man in your life to be happy."

"Speak for yourself, Prue."

"And don't go setting her up on any dates with your male friends. That isn't what she needs right now. She's been hurting since Leo left. What she really needs right now is us."

Prue finished off her toast and grabbed her purse. "I'll be at the office until late. Then I'll have to meet Gabby from the Witches Council." She waved at Phoebe as she raced down the stairs holding her coat over her head as the rain continued to pour down.

"Wait," Phoebe yelled. But Prue was gone. She could see the black car's tail lights in the stormy afternoon darkness. "Isn't Gabby the one who lives next door to Andy?" She asked the question to the empty room. No one was there to answer her.

Since Piper was in her room and Prue was at work, this left Phoebe time to work on a plan. She had to find Piper a man, no matter what Prue said. She raced up to the attic to find the Book of Shadows.

***

Piper laid on her bed now in real pain. The events of the morning had given her a doozy of a real headache. She moaned as she rolled toward the window. Droplets of water ran crazy streaks across the glass. Then her eyes focused on a peculiar vision in the glass. It was a vision of Andy.

With a grunt of surprise, Piper whirled around. Andy looked a monstrous presence standing in the doorway. The scowl pasted on his face seemed a permanent tattoo lately. And Piper hated the thought that she had put it there, especially considering the way she had always felt about him.

She watched as he glanced up and down the hallway and slowly closed the door.

"You can't be too careful these days. You never know who you'll run into."

"Andy, what are you still doing here?" Piper tried to stand but Andy placed a hand on her shoulder keeping her rooted to the spot. He sat down on the bed next to her.

"A better question is, what happened a while ago in the attic?"

Piper's eyes grew wide.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, Piper. You know I can always tell when you're lying."

Piper started to speak but she clamped her mouth shut.

"Let me refresh your memory. Earlier you and I were in the attic. Then a second later. You were gone and I was alone with a blanket on my head. What is going on, Piper? What are you and your sister's hiding?"

Part 3

Phoebe had been in the attic searching through the Book of Shadows for

nearly an hour when she came across a vague entry in certainly what must now be a dead language. She rubbed her hands together with glee.

"Goody. A love spell. Watch out Piper. The man of your dreams is just around the corner."

***

Piper felt like she was about to faint. Her breath came in quick pants and

she threw Andy an uneasy smile.

"What do you mean?" she yelped. "Nothing is going on. I just have the

world's biggest headache, that's all."

"Nothing is going on?" Andy laughed. "Why is it every time you and your two sisters say that, I don't believe you?"

Piper bounded from her place on the bed next to Andy and stuttered a string of nervous laughter. "I am not falling for that," she quipped. "I've done nothing wrong. YOU, however, were the one snooping in our attic without permission. I should be the one interrogating you." Piper said the words with more indignation than she possessed.

"Granted. I shouldn't have been in your attic, but you three left me no

other choice. Eventually the department will come down on me about Prue's coincidental involvement in so many homicides. What will I say to them then? Sorry, I didn't check her out because she was my girlfriend?"

"She isn't a killer, Andy."

"I know that, Piper. I have to find out *why* she's involved. It doesn't make sense."

"Does everything *have* to make sense?" Can't you just let this go?"

"I've tried, Piper. God knows I've tried, but then there's another killing and your sister is smack dab in the middle of it all. Don't you find that at all odd?" Andy raked a hand through his thick dark hair.

"You aren't going to give up on this, are you?" Piper asked softly.

"You know how I am with a mystery. I can't rest until it's solved. It's why I became a cop."

"Please, Andy," she begged. "Let this go."

Andy stood up and crossed to the door.

"Does she really mean so little to you?"

Piper's words stung Andy's heart and hit him straight in the gut. If he was going to tell her, it had to be now while he had the nerve.

"I do love Prue, Piper. But like a sister. Not like I loved you."

Piper gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. "You promised you'd never..." Her voice trailed off to silence.

"I promised I'd never bring it up? Well, I'm sorry. Prue and I are history. We did it for her. YOU thought it would be best, remember?"

"I know, but..." Tears streamed down her face. "She does still love you. Can't you wait for her?"

Andy strode over and gathered Piper in his arms.

"For a long time," Andy whispered. "I tried to convince myself that I had really wanted Prue all along. That what you and I had was only a fling." He pulled Piper away from him and held her at arms length. "I can't deny it anymore." Andy gathered up his courage and said the next few words with all the passion he possessed. "You're the one I'm in love with."

"Andy, you don't know what you're saying."

"I know exactly what I'm saying. I should have said it long ago. I love you Piper Haliwell." Andy's eyes glittered with emotion and kissed Piper tenderly on the lips.

A small yelp, barely audible, came from the hallway. Phoebe stood next to Piper's ajar bedroom door and bit intently on one of her fingernails.

"Oh, God," she sighed. "What have I done?"

Part 4

Phoebe couldn't believe what she was seeing. Piper and ANDY? Together?! This wasn't suppose to happen. She had cast the spell so that Piper could find the perfect man, not so that she could fall for Prue's boyfriend. Things like this weren't suppose to happen! She sighed and realized her head was throbbing with the beginnings of what seemed to be a doozy of a headache.

Served her right, she thought, berating herself. She shouldn't be doing magic for personal gain, even if the spell was cast for her sister. Technically it wasn't personal gain but Prue had warned her what might happen and tragedy had struck, BIG TIME!

She paced outside Piper's bedroom door hoping nothing more was happening inside than a little innocent kissing. Innocent kissing was okay. She could forgive herself for that, but if it got any farther she was sure she would kill herself. That is, if Prue didn't kill her first.

Quietly, she peeked in the door trying her best to be as silent as a church mouse. She eased her head around its massive oak frame only to witness that the kissing hadn't stopped. They were still going at it.

"Get a room," Phoebe muttered to herself, then paled. "Oh, God, they ARE in a room! I've got to get Andy out of there."

Phoebe raced up the stairs to the attic taking them by twos. The Book of Shadows was still open to the love spell she cast eariler. She traced her finger down the yellowed page decorated with an elaborately drawn capital letter. The spell seemed simple enough. The words were written in a text much like the King James version of the Bible, only more confusing. One word alone stood out alone as one she would have to look up. It seemed to be in Spanish or some other strange dead language. The word itself didn't fit with the rest of the text. Phoebe figured it to be an old version of what they now referred to as slang. She scribbled the word down on a pad of paper. Sangre.

Making her way back downstairs, Phoebe contemplated on how to get Andy to leave. It wasn't going to be the piece of cake she had thought in the beginning. If only she had an active power. Maybe if she had Piper's power she could freeze him and put him outside in his car. But that wouldn't work because then she'd still have to deal with Piper who thought all the nonsense they were spouting to each other was really love. Or with Prue's power she could fling him across the room and out the front door before he knew what hit him. But that wouldn't work either. What was she going to do?

Before she thought another thing of it, Prue popped in the front door.

"I'm back," she yelled through the seemingly empty house. "Piper? Phoebe? You guys home?" Prue threw her coat on the nearest chair and started upstairs

Phoebe flew down the stairs and cut Prue off at the pass. She couldn't let her sister get to Piper's room.

"What are you doing home?" Phoebe asked blocking Prue's way up the stairs.

Prue took her foot from the staircase and walked over to the desk on the other side of the room. She opened a drawer and pulled out a thick daytimer.

"I forgot this. If I don't have it, I get next to nothing done."

Phoebe sighed. At least she wasn't going upstairs. She fingered the scrap of paper in her pocket and decided that if Prue couldn't help her get out of this mess the least she could do was answer one question.

"Prue," she said in her most innocent and scholarly voice. "What does sangre mean?"

"Sangre? Where did you hear that?"

"Oh, I don't know, on television, I think. It was the Double Jeopardy answer and I missed the part where they told me the question. I was just wondering what it meant."

"It means blood." Prue handed the paper back to Phoebe and grabbed her coat. "I'll call you from the office. We just got a new shipment of antiques in. So I will probably be late. Then I have to run by Gaby's house after that. Bye."

The door had barely closed behind Prue when Andy barrelled out of Piper's room holding his pager. It was beeping like mad. "Hi, Phoebe," he said as he lumbered down the stairs running out to his car parked a little ways down the street.

Phoebe followed quickly after him and watched as Prue's tail lights barely diped below the horizon before Andy raced outside. She expelled a huge sigh of relief. At least disaster was averted today. Who knew what tomorrow would bring. Or even tonight.

Andy's car also disappeared from sight and Phoebe watched as Piper wandered around the house like a love sick puppy.

"What's wrong with you?" Phoebe asked rather tursely.

"Nothing's wrong with me. Everything's right. Andy never stopped loving me. Can you believe it?"

Phoebe gaped at her sister in horror. "What do you mean Andy never stopped loving you. You two were never together."

"Yes, we were." Piper said simply. "It was right before Prue fell in love with Andy. We spent this blissful week together. And when Prue said she loved him. I don't know what happened. I pushed Andy away and he naturally started dating Prue. I thought all these years that he really loved her but he didn't. He says he's loved me all along. He just didn't know how to tell Prue."

"You aren't going to tell Prue about this, are you?" Phoebe said while imagining the worst.

"Of course, I am. I have to. Andy just asked me to marry him."

Phoebe stumbled backward and knocked into a crystal vase on a nearby table. It fell crashing to the floor. Piper stopped time and grabbed the vase before it made impact with the ground.

"You can't." Phoebe said in shock. "What about Prue?"

"What about Prue? She's a big girl and she's the one who dumped Andy, remember. I'm not going to put my happiness on hold like she did."

Piper walked out of the room and whistled a merry tune.

"This isn't you, Piper," she whispered. "You don't act like this. You don't steal other people's men, especially Andy." Phoebe sighed. "If I ever needed help God, I need it right now."

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