Could Have Been
Chapter One
Paige Matthews stood outside her oldest niece's bedroom door, her hands shaking with nervousness. Paige could think of a thousand other things she would rather be doing, dying was included on the list. But she knew that she had to do this, no matter how much she didn't want to.
So, she slowly extended her shaking hand and knocked on her niece's door. "Mady, can I come in?" Paige asked, waiting for her nice to reply.
"Yeah," came the soft reply a few seconds later. Possibly shaking more, Paige reached for the doorknob and opened Mady's door. Paige entered and then closed the door behind her. Mady lay on her bed, her back to the door and Paige.
Paige watched her for a few seconds and could tell by the way her niece's thin body was shaking, that she had been and probably still was crying. Paige took a few calming breaths, her maternal instincts quickly taking over. Paige quickly slipped onto Mady's bed, behind Mady and pulled her into her arms.
Paige cradled Mady close to her as Mady finally released her sobs, into Paige's shoulder. "Shh." Paige soothed the distraught girl, Mady attempted to talk, but her words came out in broken and jumbled syllables. "Save your breath Sweetie, it's ok, there's no need to talk."
Mady nodded her head, but continued to sob. Paige carefully rubbed her niece's back, soothing her and slowly silencing her sobs. But not stopping her tears. Paige then looked down at her niece, debating on whether or not this is was the right time to talk to her niece.
"What?" Mady asked grumpily and Paige shrugged her shoulders.
"I have a proposal for you?" Paige replied to her niece's one syllable question.
"What kind of proposal? Does it include ice cream?" Paige chuckled and shook her head. "What kind of proposal is it then?"
"One that may be a little hard to hear?" Mady crinkled her nose, a sign of skepticism and dislike. "Don't give me that face. Just listen for a few seconds and if you don't like what I'm going to say, that's fine too."
"Fine." Mady mumbled, closing her mouth and waiting for her aunt to continue. Paige gulped and looked away from her niece's curious stare.
"Um...the Elder's have been thinking for the last few years, about giving you a very rare opportunity." Paige looked back at Mady, who had the same crinkled nose expression, plastered on her face yet again. "They want to give you the opportunity to see what your life could have been like, if you had been given the chance to grow up and be raised by both of your parents."
"I don't know Aunt Paige?"
"I know Sweetie, just listen for a few more seconds." Mady fell silent again, watching and waiting for Paige to continue.
"You'll go with all of your memories of this world and gain all of the ones from that life and live that life, until you feel that you've learned enough to come home. Wyatt would go with you and so would I, but I would be your Whitelighter."
"I don't know Aunt Paige. What if I never feel like I'm ready to come home? What if I can't handle being around my Mom and Dad?"
"Those are questions that only taking this journey can answer. But it's up to you and Piper, Phoebe and I are going to support you in what ever choice you make." Mady nodded her head and fell silent, obviously thinking.
"I want to go." Mady whispered after a few seconds.
"Ok Sweetie. Let's go get Wyatt and then we'll go." Mady nodded her head and let Paige help her to her feet and lead her out into the hallway.
"We're going." Wyatt stated spotting his cousin's nervous, yet excited face. Paige nodded her head, rested her hand on her nephew's shoulder and orbed them away, knowing they would land in the alternate reality.
Andy Trudeau rolled out of bed, early one Monday morning, being careful to not wake his still slumbering wife. He headed from their hall and down the hall, to wake their daughter and then grab his dark blue blazer from the closet where his wife had hung it after picking it up from the dry cleaners. Reaching his daughter's bedroom, he opened her door and flipped her light on.
"Come on Mady, time to get up!" Andy said Mady shook her head, not opening her eyes. "Yep, five minutes or else I get to use all your hot water." That usually would instantly pull Mady from her bed, but not this morning, so Andy tried to another approach.
"I'm going downstairs to grab my blue jacket and I expect you to be up when I get back up here." Mady shook her head again, flipped her light switch down her telekinesis and rolled over, turning her back to her father and the open door.
Andy furrowed his brows in concern, knowing that something was up with his daughter. He headed downstairs and grabbed his blazer and then headed right back upstairs. Mady was curled in the same position when he appeared in her doorway, so Andy walked down the hall, deciding to wake his wife and let her deal with stubborn Mady.
"Prue," Andy whispered in his wife's ear. "I think you should go check on Mady, something's up." Prue rolled onto her back and looked at Andy.
"What do you mean?" Prue asked, stretching her arms above her head and sitting up.
"She's not getting up."
"She's fifteen, a Halliwell and it's Monday. Can you blame her?"
"She may sleep like a Halliwell, but she does mornings like a Trudeau."
"I know, I know. Let me go see what's up." Prue slipped from their bed, grabbing her robe and wrapping it around her as she exited their room. Prue slowly moved down the hallway and pushed her daughter's mostly closed door open.
"Hey Bumblebee, why aren't you out of bed?" Prue asked, heading over to her daughter's bed and sitting down next to the lump hiding under the blankets that was Mady. Mady mumbled a string of incoherent nothingness, Prue pulled the blankets away from her daughter.
"Are you feeling ok?" Mady shook her head and Prue sighed. "What's the matter?"
"Everything hurts." Mady groaned and Prue reached out to rest her hand on Mady's forehead. Prue pulled back a few seconds later, shocked at the high fever racking her daughter's body.
"You're not going anywhere today. You want to go back to sleep, while I get your Dad and brother's out the door?" Prue asked running her hands through Mady's thick, dark hair, Mady nodded her head.
"Hurry up, please?" Mady whispered looking at her Mom.
"Of course I will." Prue whispered, pulling Mady's blankets up to her chin and placing a kiss on her daughter's fevered temple.