Paige sat in the attic feeling sour and left out. Cole, Phoebe, Leo and Piper were downstairs playing team-Scrabble. It's not that they hadn't let her play, but team Scrabble wasn't too much fun on your own, particularly when your opposing teams couldn't stop making out long enough to have their turn. Paige was sick of being the fifth wheel. Phoebe and Piper both had their soul mates and she had no one. Frustrated, she picked up a pen and began to write. Once she was finished she sat back and admired her work – it wasn't half bad for her first solo spell. She shut her eyes and concentrated intensely on the magic inside of her while she recited the rhyme.
Miles and time apart
Bring me the one who holds my heart
The one I love and hold most dear
I summon thee, bring them here
She cautiously opened one eye and watched as a swirl of white light danced in front of her. Eagerly she clapped her hands held her breath. She was seconds away from meeting the man of her dreams and she hadn't even had to leave the Manor. It wasn't personal gain, right? Seeing as how they were destined to meet at some point – she'd just sped up the process. The white lights cleared, but to Paige's surprise the tall, dark and handsome man she'd expected to see in front of her was nowhere to be found. She looked around puzzled, when all of a sudden she heard a cry. Looking down, there were two babies lying on the attic floor at her feet. They both began to wail once they'd noticed Paige looming over them. Oh God, thought Paige, what have I done? She bent down and cooed softy at the tiny babies in front of her. They seemed to settle at the sound of her voice.
"Okay, I'll be right back, darlings" she said in a sing-song voice, sounding entirely more confident than she felt. She'd never had siblings, or even younger cousins. Babies were almost entirely foreign to her. She orbed downstairs – she definitely needed Piper's help for this one. The lovebirds barely noticed her abrupt appearance into the living room. She cleared her throat loudly.
"Magical emergency in the attic," she said in a rush, and then dashed up the stairs, chased by the rest of the family.
"Wha-what is going on, Paige?" called Phoebe from the bottom of the stairs as her younger sister had already reached the attic door. The babies were still lying in the middle of the room where Paige had left them. Phoebe and Piper entered the attic at the same time, stopping in their tracks. Their jaws dropped while Cole and Leo pushed through from behind them, ready to protect them from any demonic harm. They soon realised this was not a safety precaution they needed, and turned to look confusedly at Paige.
"Where did they come from?" asked Piper, looking from Paige to the babies and back again.
Paige chewed the words over in her mouth, trying to figure out how to explain this one. "Well, you see, I cast a spell to find my true love and instead, I got these two. I just felt so lonely with you guys being so preoccupied with each other. I wanted that too."
"That's not good." Phoebe said plainly, shaking her head.
Paige bit her lip. "It isn't?"
"Paige, you summoned some poor woman's babies!" Piper said alarmingly, a little too loudly. Distressed cries echoed off the attic walls. Piper bent down and picked up one of the babies and soothed them gently. Paige pulled the other into her arms and the crying stopped immediately. A wave of happiness came over her – she wanted nothing more than to sit and stare into this beautiful baby's eyes all day long. It was a strange emotion, unlike anything she'd felt before.
"They look like twin girls, about six months old." Piper commented. She peeked underneath the yellow romper the baby in her arms was wearing. "Yep, a girl, and boy does she need to be changed." Piper held the baby at arm's length in Paige's direction, wrinkling her nose.
"What am I supposed to do?" Paige asked anxiously. "I've already got this one and no idea what to do with her!" She jiggled the baby girl in her arms, this one dressed in pink, as she spoke.
"You look pretty natural to me. This is your mess, now clean it up." Piper instructed.
"Literally," Phoebe added with a laugh. Paige made a face at her sisters but took the baby from Piper anyway. She was balancing the twins, one in each arm as easily as if she'd done it before. Piper led her downstairs and pulled out a handtowel from underneath the bathroom basin.
"Here, we'll have to use this for now. We're not exactly stocked for unannounced baby guests," she said, laying the handtowel on the floor. Paige laid the baby on top of it and carefully unbuttoned her yellow romper. Her sister lay on the floor beside her, eagerly watching what was going on. She looked oddly content for a baby who had been summoned to an unfamiliar house full of strangers. Paige stopped, realising she had no idea how to change a baby's diaper. Noting her concern, Piper talked her through it. In no time, the baby was clean and dry, wearing the makeshift handtowel-diaper.
Piper and Paige each held a baby as they went to rejoin the family who were now sitting in the lounge room.
"How do you know how to do that?" Paige asked.
Piper blushed just a little. "Mom taught me how to put one of Phoebe's cloth diapers on my dolls when I was little. I guess I just never forgot."
Paige looked at her big sister. She knew Piper and Leo were trying for a baby, but she'd had no idea how naturally maternal Piper was. It seemed almost unfair that Piper hadn't been able to get pregnant yet. Paige, on the other hand, was anything but clucky. Babies were the last thing on her mind. She'd only just found her biological sisters and learned that she was a witch; one third of the most powerful witches on earth, to be exact. But with Piper and Leo taking the huge first step into becoming parents, Paige wondered if she would ever be ready for a baby. She wanted kids one day, when she was married but she never thought she would be a natural mother. Being a mother was so much responsibility on one person. A baby's entire life depended on their mother when they were young – for food, comfort, protection and love. Paige was all too familiar with being the screw-up to imagine being good at something like that. Paige felt sorry for the mother of the babies she had summoned – she had to be two children's everything.
Paige's thoughts were interrupted by Phoebe's voice. "Paige, what did you say in your spell? Maybe we can find out where they came from, or how to send them back."
Paige reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper she had written the spell on. Phoebe took it from Paige and held it where both she and Piper could read it.
"Bring them here?" Piper asked exasperatedly. "Bring THEM here? No wonder you ended up with two."
"That's rule number one with spells – be specific. You don't want your magic finding a loophole and doing something completely different from what you intended." Phoebe advised Paige who nodded bashfully. "We've had our fair share of spells go wrong". She gave Piper a knowing smile. The baby in Paige's arms began to fuss, making soft grizzly cries.
"They're probably hungry. I'll go see what we've got in the kitchen." Piper stood up. "You two keep trying to figure out what went wrong with the spell." She passed the baby in her arms over to Cole, who was beside her on the couch. The moment the baby was placed in Cole's arms, she started screaming. Her tiny limbs flailed and kicked as she fought the strong arms which held her. Cole rocked her slowly from side to side but her cries did not dim in the slightest. He passed her over to Leo.
"Hello baby girl," Leo cooed softly and her wailing ceased immediately. "Yeah, that's right. You're okay."
"How the hell did you manage that?" Cole asked in disbelief. He turned to Phoebe. "I'm sorry; I just don't appear to have baby-whispering talents." Phoebe sat on his lap and put her arms around his neck.
"Baby, I don't think we need to worry about that for a long time." She kissed him. "But in the meantime, I get to fawn over these two." She smiled wide and took the baby from Leo's arms. The baby looked wearily at Cole but seemed to feel safe enough in Phoebe's arms to not cry. Phoebe was making silly faces at the baby and tickling her tummy.
"Um, Mama Phoebe?" Paige interrupted. "The spell? We really need to get these babies home."
"Right," Paige Well I honestly can't figure out how you managed to summon these babies with your 'true love spell'. You're sure you've never met them? They couldn't be the children of a work colleague or anything?"
"No. I don't have any friends with small children, let alone twins. And why would my spell bring me two babies I barely know when I asked it to being me the one who hold my heart?" Paige asked.
"I don't know. Been feeling clucky lately, Paige?" Phoebe joked.
"No way!" Paige said as she shook her head vigorously. The girls giggled.
Piper arrived back in the room carrying a bottle of warm milk. She handed it to Paige who tipped it to the baby's mouth. She drank quickly, taking huge gulps for such a tiny baby. In no time, her drinking slowed and Paige passed the bottle to Phoebe.
"Where'd the bottle come from, Piper?" Phoebe asked. They didn't have any need for one; at least, not yet.
Piper looked at Leo, a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Leo bought it for me when we first decided to try for a baby. A way of making it official, I guess." Leo stood up and wrapped his arms around his wife. He kissed the top of her head sweetly. Piper nestled against him, her long brown hair falling across his arms.
"I think it's bedtime." Leo announced. "There's nothing more we can do tonight."
Paige yawned, as if in agreement. It was decided that the babies would sleep with Paige seeing as how there was little room in Piper and Leo's bed. And Phoebe kicked in her sleep. Plus, Cole would probably stay the night since it was so late.
"But we can't keep calling them 'the babies'," Said Cole, voicing what everybody had been thinking.
"Poppy for the one in yellow and Phoenix for the one in the pink." Paige said without skipping a beat. The rest of the room looked at her, surprised. "It just feels right." She replied. They said goodnight and headed upstairs to bed.
Paige lay in bed, with Poppy and Phoenix snuggled beside her. They were sleeping peacefully and despite being more tired than she'd been in ages, Paige couldn't sleep. She was content just watching them breathing in and out rhythmically. Their skin was so soft and they had that beautiful baby smell. They were perfect. Paige lay her head back down on the pillow. She shut her eyes for thirty seconds before she felt the need to open them and check on the precious babies beside her. Paige was beginning to think it might be a long night…