... the road.

::Paige's hideous green VW Beetle that by some awful travesty survived the earthquakes rounds the corner onto the streets and the whitelighter gives adult Melinda a triumphant smile.::

"Made it!"

::She pulls up outside the correct house and turns to Mel.::

"You ready?"

"Does she really have a dog?"

"Huh?"

"You said we were gonna see a woman about a dog."

"Oh!"

(Right.)

::Paige decides not to explain in case they ever need to use the code in front of Melinda.::

"She might. Let's go find out."

::She unbuckles both herself and Melinda then gets out. Walking around the car, she opens the door for her daughter and waits.::

(Okay. How do we play this? I really should've been thinking about this in the car instead of teaching Melinda that 'there was a farmer and a dog' song...)

::Melinda gets out, humming that exact song.::

::Paige closes the door behind her and they walk up to Cecilia's house.::

"Man. I can't believe how..."

::Paige doesn't finish the thought as she walks young Melinda to the car. She opens the back door and piles her daughter in, buckling her up.::

"You okay back here, sweetie?"

:: Cecilia's voice carries down from the house.::

"Won't be a second!"

::Melinda prefers sitting in the front.::

"Sure thing!"

::Paige calls back, then smiles at Melinda.::

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

:: Is that the sound of Paige's failure in the distance? Wait. No. Just police sirens heading to Huxley street!::

::Paige's ears twitch and she turns sharply in the direction of the sirens.::

"Oh, you did not..."

"What's that noise?"

::Paige stands up and turns to look back at the house.::

"Mom?"

::Melinda unbelts herself and gets on her knees to look through the back window.::

::Paige has decided that, yes, the sirens are for them. She slams Melinda's door and runs around to the driver's seat. She dives in and pulls shut the door, starting the engine.::

"Time to go, sweetie!"

"What about Cecilia?"

"Cecilia can bite me."

::Paige rolls down the window and yells.::

"You hear that? Bite me!"

::The car screeches off down the street and Paige floors it all the way home to the mansion.::

::Once the police have gone and stuff, the demon standing a distance away concealed by trees steps into the daylight. He stares at the house he'd watched Paige and her daughter, the Charmed One, run from. He shrugs to himself and walks across the road, not looking for cars. You don't get many round these parts. He walks over where the green bubble of a car had been parked, almost smelling Paige's presence from the ground she'd stood on, and goes to Cecilia Pound's house.::

::Majora walks out carrying a sleeping Cecilia and locates her car by pressing the remote lock. He glances around, paranoid somebody is watching-

(I'm her nephew, she passed out, I'm taking her to the hospital. What's the problem?)

then piles her into the back seat. He clambers into the front himself and, knowing where to go thanks to previous spying on Paige Matthews, drives into the city and to the cemetery.::

::Paige pulls up outside in the old woman's car with Velma carrying baby Cecilia and young Melinda in the back.::

"Here we are."

::Melinda jumps out of the car and runs up to Cecilia's house.::

:: Velma watches the kid run off. And she has so been driven by better drivers too!::

"Uh..."

"You can wait here if you like."

::Paige smiles and gently takes Cecilia from Velma's hold.::

:: Velma nods. She'll happily wait here.::

"Yell if the kid wants me."

::Paige just smiles and gets out, closing the door. Once Velma can't see her face, though, she pulls a sarcastic one as she walks away.::

(Yell if the kid wants you? What are you, her fairy godmother?)

::Grumble grumble. She goes into Cecilia's.::

:: Velma rolls down the window some and sits back. She pulls a bit of charcoal and a sheet of paper from her back and starts drawing. It's the ghost they encountered in the church, only her interpretation is much more sinister.::

::Paige and Melinda return. Paige opens the door and bundles Melinda into the back seat.::

"Done and done."

::She shuts the door, then walks around the car and gets into the front.::

"Can I drop you anywhere?"

(Should I ask her to the school? No, I don't wanna freak her out.)

"Woah."

::She's just seen the drawing.::

:: Velma's smudging some of the charcoal to get the shadows right.::

"Keeps track of what I've seen."

::Paige laughs.::

"That is not what we saw."

:: Velma smirks and looks at Paige out of the corner of her eye.::

"This is what it was really like."

::Paige laughs.::

"That is flagrant use of artistic license. Something I-"

::She presses her hand to her heart as she turns on the engine.::

"-know all about."

::Being an ARTIST herself. Well, back when she used to draw...::

:: Velma pauses to look at Paige with her procolimations.::

"Yeah?"

::Paige smiles, eyes forward now.::

"Mhm."

::She puts the car into gear.::

"You draw?"

:: Velma's back to creating her sinister little image.::

"Not in a long time. Mainly... weird abstracts."

::Paige pauses and shrugs, looking into her lap.::

"Which is a fancy way of describing colourful mess. It's nothing special."

::Wanting to change the subject a little, Paige clears her throat and smiles softly at Velma.::

::Melinda stares intently out the window, bored.::

"This kinda stuff is personal. I know."

:: Velma's hair is down dangling over the paper as she leans over it more.::