Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, I am not Brad Kern or Aaron Spelling or any of those rich men. I'm not even a man! Anyways…
A/N: This is my third fanfic, so I cant promise how well it's going to turn out. I don't usually get many reviews… I don't know if it's the fact that people don't like my stories or just don't choose to read them. If you like this one, check out my other ones; Baby Troubles and Going Back. So here it is: Finding Paige.
Summary: Paige Matthews: The youngest of the Charmed Ones, introduced after Prue's death. But what if that never happened? What if Prue never died? What if the sisters found Paige in the church and not the nun? A shift happens and Paige and Piper aren't affected. However, when the shift occurs and Prue appears, Phoebe is affected and begins to sway Piper and Paige into not changing things and just leaving them the way they are. But of course, the Elders have something to say about that and send Leo to the girls. The girls are forced to go back in time and change things to the way that they're supposed to be. But is the Power of Four really worth changing?
Note: Leo was killed, saving the girls after becoming a mortal and the Elders gave him his Whitelighter abilities back.
Chapter One: The Big Mistake
Current DayAlleyway behind Forty-Third Street
3:45 P.M.
Paige Matthews-Halliwell and her oldest (alive) sister, Piper Halliwell, orbed into a deserted alley. Their other (middle) sister, Phoebe, had warned them about a demon attack on an innocent. Most of the time, Phoebe's power of premonition was vital in saving the lives of innocents.
"Here," Piper suggested. "We can hide behind this dumpster." She looked inside of it. "Oh, look! Empty, so no stink."
"I still don't see why Phoebe didn't have to come," Paige whined.
"Because, she isn't feeling good and that premonition just made it worse. She just needs some time by herself. We're stuck up each other's butts enough as is. Besides, we don't need the Power of Three for a few straggler Demons."
"Fine. But after this, no more skimping out for Phoebe."
"Agreed."
"Piper, look!" Paige whispered as she pointed to a man that walked out of a back door and into the alley. The two demons shimmered in behind him, energy balls in hand.
Piper leapt out from behind the dumpster. "Not so fast!" she cried.
"A Charmed One?" the first demon questioned.
"Two," Paige said, stepping out from behind the dumpster. "Go," she whispered to the innocent. He ran off as a demon started to chase after him. "Piper, now!"
Piper raised her hands and blew up both demons, one with each hand. She high-fived Paige and smiled. "Nice teamwork. Now let's get out of here."
Paige nodded and took hold of Piper's hand. She felt both of their bodies dissipate into many little orb particles.
Twenty Years in the PastManor
3:15 P.M.
Twenty years in the past, three little girls sat in the living room of their Grandmother's old Victorian style house. A circle of string around a load of marbles lay in front of them.
The eight-year-old turned to her youngest sister. "Your turn Phoebes."
"Gosh!" pressed the five-year-old. "You don't have to be so mean about it Piper."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Phoebe, you're too over dramatic!"
"Prue!" the youngest whined, "tell Piper to stop calling me names that I don't know what they mean!"
The eleven-year-old eldest looked from one sister to the other, then said half-heartedly, "Piper, don't call Phoebe names."
"That I don't know what they mean!" Phoebe finished. "At least when you call me 'stupid', I know that it means."
"Girls," Grams called warningly from the dining room. "Play nice."
Piper and Prue looked at each other and sighed. They knew that they were the ones being scolded. Phoebe never got yelled at.
"Guys," Prue sighed.
"Girls," Phoebe corrected.
"Whatever. I don't want to play marbles anymore. What about you two?"
"Nope," Piper replied.
"Nope," Phoebe repeated.
"Want to go for a walk?" Prue asked.
Phoebe's eyes widened in excitement as she vigorously nodded her head in agreement.
"Sure," Piper said. "Nothing else better to do. Let's go ask Grams."
"Okay!" The youngest hopped up and ran into the kitchen.
Piper and Prue stood up and followed her. When they got into the kitchen they saw Phoebe impatiently waiting for them with an annoyed look on her face.
Grams looked up at the girls and quickly covered the book she was writing in. None of the girls seemed to notice.
"Grams," Prue started, "may I take Piper and Phoebe on a walk?"
"Sure," she agreed. "I wouldn't see why not. It is a beautiful day."
"Yay!" Phoebe cried out happily. "I'll go and get my shoes on!"
Piper ran upstairs to fix her hair while Phoebe put her shoes on. When she came down the stairs, Prue was waiting by the door.
"C'mon Phoebes," Prue nagged. "Putting on shoes should only take half a minute, not half a day."
Phoebe came out of the living room. Piper and Prue looked at her feet and began laughing uncontrollably. Phoebe had two different shoes on and both were on the wrong foot.
"Go and get me the one that matches this one," Prue said pointing to the left shoe on the right foot. Phoebe nodded and ran to get the shoe. Prue put both shoes on the right feet and smiled kindly at her youngest sister. "That's how you do it. Now let's go!"
The three turned and walked out the door. Piper turned and looked at Prue. "So, where are we going?"
"I want to go to that old church. That place is spooky," Phoebe said with a shiver, but then slyly recovered with, "But it's cool."
"Fine by me," Prue replied nodding.
In about twenty minutes' time, they had reached their destination: The old church near the woods.
"Let's go inside," Phoebe pressed.
"I don't think that we should," the eldest warned.
"C'mon Prue. Don't be a party-pooper," the youngest argued. Those two did that a lot. They both turned to Piper. Most, no, all of the time she settled the arguments.
"I with Phoebes-" Piper stopped as they hear a small tinkling noise (orbs) from inside the church. That noise made her want to go in even more. She walked up to the old wooden door and pushed it open.
Phoebe and Prue crowded in behind her. Piper thought she saw something and stopped. "Guys," she whispered as she squinted to see what the white object in the middle of the church was.
"Girls," Phoebe corrected again.
"Whatever. Look at that," she said, pointing.
"What do you think it is?" Prue asked.
"I don't know. Let's go find out," Piper replied, heading further into the church.
When the three were about halfway into the church, they heard a small giggle. Both Piper and Prue turned to Phoebe.
"What? It wasn't me!" she protested. All three looked at the white object in the middle of the room.
"It looks like a baby carrier," Prue stated.
"Thank you Captain Obvious," Piper teased.
"Guys, shh," Phoebe whispered as she edged closer to the object.
"Girls," Piper and Prue mimicked in a whisper. Now, all three sisters stood directly behind the object. Another soft giggle came from it and the three sisters shuffled around to the front. Inside, there was a tiny toddler with brown hair in pigtails and soft brown eyes. She looked about two years old.
"How do you think she got here?" Piper asked Prue.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Prue replied.
"I wonder if she can talk." Phoebe squatted down so that she was at eye-level with the little girl. "Do you know how old you are?"
The little girl looked confused for a moment but then held up two fingers. "'Most this many." Which translated to "Almost this many."
'Well, she can talk,' Prue thought. 'That's a plus.'
"Do you know your name?" Phoebe asked caringly.
The little girl smiled. "Pay, Pay, Paige. Paige." She kept repeating it until she got it right. When she did, she smiled triumphantly.
"I say we take her home to Grams. We can't just leave her. Besides, I think we could use another cheery spirit in the house since Mom died." Piper knew that it was a touchy subject but felt that it was true.
Prue and Phoebe nodded. Prue reached down and picked up the little girl and sat her on her hip. "So, Paige is it?" Paige nodded. "Do you want to go home with us?"
"Yeah!" she said excitedly.
Current DayHalliwell Manor
4:05 P.M.
Back in the future, Paige and Piper orbed in the Manor's living room. Leo orbed in beside them a split second later. All three were shocked to see Phoebe sitting on the couch happily chatting away with Prue.
"Phoebe!" Piper said happily. "You found a way to contact her!"
"Pipe, I think that you've officially gone off the deep end. What do you mean 'contact her?'" Phoebe's face was painted with confusion.
"Duh, from the dead. Her spirit." Piper didn't understand why Phoebe was acting so stupid.
"What do you mean? What's wrong with you Piper? Prue's obviously not dead."
"Yea Piper. Do I look like I'm dead?" Prue asked, also confused.
"So you never died?" Paige asked slowly. "Then why am I still here?"
"What do you mean?"
"If Shax never killed you, then I shouldn't be here. That means that something in the past allowed the Power of Three to work."
"The Power of Three? There never was a Power of Three. We, all of us, used and still use the Power of Four," Prue explained.
"But how?" Piper didn't understand any of it. None of it was making any sense.
"Well, Grams told us about the Power of Four twelve years ago, the day after you turned ten, Paige."
"The day that we learned that were witches," Phoebe added.
"Oh, no," Leo said after he had heard all of the explanation.
"What is it?" Piper asked.
"I think that something happened in the past that made a shift. Something that assimilated Paige into your lives earlier than intended. And I think that the shift when the three of us were in mid orb. That's why we weren't affected like Phoebe was. Shifts like this have happened when others were in mid-orb and they weren't affect due to that fact," he explained.
He turned to Phoebe and Prue. "When did you first find Paige?"
Prue thought back. "I was eleven. It was right before her birthday. Grams told us that when we found her. I don't know how she could possibly know that but we were too young to question. She didn't want us to keep her when we came home with her. She said something about 'another mouth to feed,' and 'restoring the balance.' She finally gave in and let us keep her and she raised her. Eight years after that was when we found out that we were witches."
"Growing up, she taught us how to use and harness our powers. Then, seven years ago, she died. That's when we all moved back in here and relied on the Power of Four the most," Phoebe said.
"But four years ago, Prue, Shax killed you." Piper still could not comprehend what was going on.
"The Power of Four vanquished him."
"Piper, the time shift," Leo reminded her.
"Right," she muttered.
Leo heard a soft jingling and looked up at the ceiling. "Piper, I'm sorry. I'll be back and we'll sort this entire thing out. I promise." He kissed her softly and orbed out.
"So what do we do mow?" Paige asked.
"I guess we have them fill us in on the last twenty years or so?" Piper heaved a sigh and sat in the chair next to the couch.
"Sounds like a plan."
XoXoXoXoX
Two hours had passed and Piper and Paige had gathered a great deal of information from Phoebe and the newly returned Prue. Piper was still having trouble accepting and coping with the situation at hand.
Leo orbed in, a grave expression was painted on his face. He motioned for Piper and Paige to join him in the kitchen.
"The bearer of bad news, I presume?" Paige was used to getting the bad or worse things delivered Priority Leo.
"Actually, the Elders are looking around for more information as we speak. They want me to report back in a few minutes, their time. Which in our time means, right about… now." He smiled sweetly at a glaring Piper as he orbed out.
Paige and Piper walked back into the living room. They started chatting happily with Prue and Phoebe for the next half an hour. The more time Piper spent with Prue, the more her ached to know that it would all have to end. To see Phoebe sitting there, smiling, oblivious to the fact that this wasn't right just hurt Piper hurt even more. 'Would the Power of Four really be that bad?' she asked herself.
'Would it be that bad?'
A/N: Okay. Sorry that was so long. The next chapter won't be as long. Let me know what you think and if you think that if I should keep going. I might but I'm not quite sure… Read and Review!
