Title: The Home Fires Burning
Summary: But if the tunnel in the darkness wasn’t a trap set by Shax, it begged the same questions as before: where on earth was she?
Pairing: Prue/Andy. Sort of.
Spoilers: Takes place immediately after “All Hell Breaks Loose”.
Disclaimer: Prue Halliwell and Andy Trudeau were created by Connie Burge and then controlled by Brad Kern for a while. I’m just playing.
Author's Note: Some quick and dirty angst.

For a split second, Prue Halliwell felt the sharpest, most excruciating pain she’d ever felt in all of her almost thirty-one years. A moment passed and then she felt nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing. There were no sights, no sounds, no smells, no sensations. There was only a thick, heavy blackness.

A thousand questions were tumbling through her mind: what was happening? Where was she? How had she come to be there? A small bubble of fear began rising in the pit of her stomach; perhaps she had been pulled into some sort of alternate dimension. Shax didn’t have the ability to do that, as far as she knew. Maybe he’d been working with another demon on the Source’s payroll. Of course, none of it mattered if she couldn’t figure a way out of … wherever she was.

A pinprick of light broke through the darkness. Prue squinted her eyes, trying to make the light come into focus. The small dot rapidly grew into a large tunnel radiating with the most beautiful white light she’d ever seen. She furrowed her brow in confusion and the fear again began churning in her stomach, but after a second or two, she began feeling more at ease. Perhaps this wasn’t demonic after all; she couldn’t fathom how something so gorgeous could be evil. But if the tunnel in the darkness wasn’t a trap set by Shax, it begged the same question as before: where on earth was she?

“It’s okay, Prue.”

Startled, she whirled around, facing the tunnel, and squinted against the light. She recognized the voice; there was no way it could be real. No way at all. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she was able to make out a male figure approaching her. Butterflies started fluttering in her stomach at the mere thought of the voice being real. “Andy?” she asked hesitantly, afraid of both being wrong and being right.

The figure walked up to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Yes, Prue, it’s me.” Instinctively, Prue pulled away. She couldn’t really be talking to Andy. Could she? Sensing her fear, he removed his hand and instead gave her a calm smile. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Andy?” she asked again. “What’s going on? Where are we?”

“We’re in the Corridor,” he answered somewhat uncomfortably. “Listen--”

“A corridor?” she asked, her voice filled with impatience. “A corridor to where?”

“No, not a corridor. The Corridor.” He reached down and gently took her hands. “Prue, I need you to listen to me for a minute. There was an attack at the Manor …”

Andy trailed off as Prue mentally began putting two and two together. Andy, the Corridor, the quick moment of pain and then the blackness, the bright white light. She pulled her hands out of his and backed away a couple of steps. “Oh God, no.”

Andy stepped forward and tried again to reach for her hands. She dodged his advance and crossed her arms over her chest. “I know this is hard, Prue, but I came to help make the transition easier for you.”

Prue’s head was spinning. Transition? This couldn’t be it, this couldn’t be the end. “No,” she managed to croak. “Andy, this can’t -- I mean, I can’t …”

Gently, he advanced enough to wrap his arms around her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Okay?” she spat out. She wrenched out of his grasp and turned an icy glare on him. “How is this ever going to be okay? What about my … oh God, Piper and Phoebe!” She started running away from the tunnel, trying to find any small opening or portal to get her back home. “I have to help them! I have to get back to help them. The demon’s attacking and --”

“Prue, wait!” Andy cried, chasing after her. He quickly caught up with her and grabbed one of her hands, tugging her to a stop. “Piper and Phoebe are perfectly fine, I promise.”

“How do you know that?” She struggled against his grip. “I want to see them.”

He let her arm go and sighed softly. “You can’t. You can’t see them, they can’t see you. Not for a while, anyway.”

Nausea rose in Prue’s stomach. She felt confused and angry and upset all at the same time, and the emotions were overwhelming her. She still hadn’t fully processed what was happening; it almost felt as if it was all some horrible nightmare from which she was trying desperately to awaken.

Andy smiled tenderly and once again tried to put his arm around Prue’s shoulders. This time she didn’t flinch at his touch. Instead, she welcomed it and leaned against him. “This isn’t going to be easy, Prue. I’m not going to pretend that it will. You’re going to be angry and hurt and confused for a while and that’s perfectly normal. But I promise, acceptance will come and when it does, you’ll find peace the likes of which you can’t even imagine.”

She paused a long moment before responding. How could she even begin to think about accepting her own death? She didn’t want Andy to think she was angry with him, so she chose her words carefully. “I can’t accept this, Andy. I can’t give up that easily.”

“You’re not giving up, Prue.”

“The hell I’m not!” She wheeled on him, whirling around to face him. The cold glint in her eyes masked the pain and fear in her heart. “This is the biggest surrender of them all, Andy, and I refuse. I refuse to surrender. I didn’t battle warlocks and demons every damn day for three years just to have evil win in the end.”

“Evil hasn’t won.” Andy ran his finger down her cheek, hoping to calm her. “Evil won’t win.”

“But … the Power of Three is broken. Without the Power of Three, evil wins.”

“Don’t worry about the Power of Three,” Andy replied softly. “Things will work out and destiny will find a way. You just have to trust in it.”

“You sound like Grams,” she muttered.

He gave a light chuckle. “Over the past couple of years, your Grams has taught me more than you know.”

She looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes. He saw Grams? If he saw her grandmother, that meant that she would see her grandmother and her mother, too. The reality of her situation suddenly hit her full-force. “This is really real, isn’t it? I’m really dead.”

“Yes, it’s real. For your sake, I wish it wasn’t.” He caressed her cheek with the palm of his hand and smiled sadly. “I know it’s hard to believe right now, but everything will settle down and work itself out. This will even feel normal after a while.”

Prue fixed her gaze on her feet. “I don’t want it to feel normal, Andy.” Her head was starting to spin again. She closed her eyes and leaned against Andy for support. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her close. He had no words of comfort about Prue and her sisters not being able to properly say goodbye. He thought it was unfair as well. “They know you love them, Prue. They’ll be okay; you know how strong they are. And I know how strong you are. You’ll all get through this, and you’ll all be even stronger for it.”

Prue leaned into his hug for a moment longer before turning her head to face the tunnel of light. The white light was calming, soothing. Though she was trying to rail against it, she couldn’t help but feel a little relaxed. Stop it, she commanded herself.

But she was unable to fight it. She broke out of Andy’s embrace and stood mesmerized at the mouth of the tunnel. “What’s at the end of the tunnel?” she asked curiously.

“Home,” Andy smiled. He stepped forward and held his hand out to her. “Come on. Your mother and your grandmother can’t wait to see you.”

Prue took Andy’s hand and allowed him to lead her into the light. She still didn’t understand everything; all she knew was that the light was warm and inviting, and her mother, grandmother, and Andy had been waiting for her. Now she was going to join them. Whether she liked it or not, that light was her new home, and her family had kept the home fires burning for her.