Post by StoryGirl83 on Jan 17, 2009 0:00:41 GMT -5
Chapter Four – Paige
It wasn’t until years later that anyone thought of that box. With the three letters securely within the possession of the addressees, none of the sisters thought of the box they had arrived in.
On this particular day, Paige was up in the attic watching her two little nephews. Wyatt was two-and-a-half going on one hundred, a solemn little child who was just starting to talk again after a demon had pulled him into a shell where he talked only to the demon. His brother, Chris, had just turned one, a watchful child still learning the basics of walking and talking.
Chris was standing in his playpen trying to carry on a conversation with his brother in a language decidedly not English. Wyatt was watching him curiously and quietly. “Cwis,” Wyatt announced at Paige.
Paige was working on potions. She knew it was only a matter of time before they were forced into a showdown with Zankou and she wanted to be ready when they did. She looked up and smiled at her young nephew. “Yes, Wyatt. That’s Chris.”
Satisfied, Wyatt toddled across the room to a pile of blocks. He sat down and begun building.
Paige looked at her potions and sighed. Potions hadn’t worked on the Source and she doubted they would work with Zankou. Still anything was better than doing nothing.
She started wandering around the room, looking for new ingredients. She stopped in front of one of the shelves laden down with completed potions, thinking maybe one of them would give her ideas for her latest mixture.
That’s when she saw it.
In the center of the shelf was a small brick-red box. With a frown on her lips, she picked it up. It looked so completely out of place. The frown still in place, she lifted the lid to find it empty. Disappointed, she began to close it when she noticed the writing on the bottom lining. “To be opened when the time is right,” she read quietly. She pursed her lips. “Well, is this all there is, an empty box? And when is the time right?”
Reaching in, she touched the inside of the box, feeling for something, a reason for the words in an empty box. After a few seconds she removed her hand. She was about to close the lid when she noticed something appearing at the bottom of the box. After a few seconds she removed her hand and was about to close the lid yet again when she noticed something appearing at the bottom of the box. At first it seemed to shimmer like a ghost and then it was all there, a small white envelope with one word written across the top.
Her eyes widened as she realized that the word was her name. She picked it up, almost afraid it would disappear. She looked beneath it and noticed the words were gone. Does that mean now is the right time? It has to be.
Putting the box back on the shelf and crossing to the attic couch, looked across the room at Wyatt and to the playpen at Chris before settling down. Opening the envelope, she pulled out a single sheet of white paper with writing on both sides. Water drops were scattered across the page.
“Dear Paige,
“If you are reading this a lot had changed. Most likely one of your sisters is dead, though I hope that is not the case. I too am dead, for I saw in a premonition from Phoebe my ex-husband's reaction to the presence of my ghost at Piper’s wedding and you were not there. I do not know when I die, only that I will never again in this life hold you in my arms.
“I am writing this one-handed while you sleep in my arms. I hardly dare breathe for fear of waking you up. I want to keep you so bad, but I know I can’t.
“Your very existence is forbidden and though I believe you will be safe once you are an adult and able to defend yourself, right now you are so small and I wouldn’t trust your life to them. Oh, I don’t think they will kill you, but you would have nothing that resembles a life and I still would not get to keep you. At least this way you will be raised by someone who loves you.
“You may wonder how it is that I know your name when it is my intention to only ask that your name start with a ‘P’. The truth is I have help from one of my ancestors, our ancestors really. I’ll just say Phoebe shares her power.
“Not knowing how exactly you came to be part of the family again or when I cannot comment on that. I guess all I can say is that I love you, Paige. I don’t know what you look like but I imagine you are a beautiful young woman, my beautiful daughter, though I know you are someone else’s first and that hurts, but that is what must be.
“Sam is here. He’s your father, though you may never know it, and he is the reason I cannot keep you. Simply because he is a whitelighter, it needn’t matter that he is my whitelighter, the fact that he is a whitelighter is what makes your existence forbidden.
“He says we must go, that out time is short. I see Prue behind him, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. I have an idea. I must pause in my writing of this letter.
“It took a few minutes, but I convinced Sam. One momento, a photograph of me and two of my beautiful girls. Sam refused to be in it, so he took it for me. Since your existence must be kept secret I will be casting a spell on it, just as I did with this box and with the family tree. If you want to see it, you will find it in between the last page of the Book of Shadows and the back cover. The spell is at the end of this letter.
“It is so hard to end this letter. It is as if ending it is my final good-bye even though I will have you a few minutes more. I love you, Paige.(Signed)“With Love From Your First Mother,
“Patty Halliwell”
On the bottom of the page was a two line spell.
Paige stared at the letter for several minutes in complete silence. This is so unlike anything I ever expected. She looked down at the signature, a smile growing on her face. She didn’t try to deny my mom, just stake her own claim.
Paige stood and walked over to the podium holding the Book of Shadows. She turned it to the last page and put the letter down on the Book and looked at the spell.
It’s so short, she thought as she looked at it, to hiding something rare. She smiled before she began to read it aloud. “What was hidden, we hold so dear; make the picture reappear.”
At first all she saw was the ghostly outline of a rectangular object. Then, it formed into a recognizable picture. She picked it up and examined it.
Paige recognized Patty Halliwell, she couldn’t really think of her as her mother, sitting down in one of the front room arm chairs. In her arms was a small baby, a few days old at most. Paige had to guess that it was her. Leaning against the chair in a childish pose was Prue. There were many pictures now of her with either Piper or Phoebe, but this was the only picture of her with Prue.
Paige picked up the picture and her letter. With a smile on her lips she closed the Book. She walked away from the podium and looked at her nephews.
Like her, their parents shouldn't have been together, but unlike her parents, theirs had been patient and they had been rewarded. Paige wondered what Piper would have done in Patty’s position, if she was forced to give up one or both of her boys, because her relationship with Leo was still forbidden.
Paige was glad for her parents. They had loved her. Even with all the mistakes she made they had loved her still. I guess I have you to thank for that, Patty. You gave them to me.
Paige smiled as she settled back on the couch to reread her letter and watch her nephews. The potions could wait a few minutes more. Between her and Piper, they already had dozen of kinds. One more read and then she would get back to the potions.