AN: So I've been working on this for a few months and I finally finished it so for my little day before birthday story posting extravaganza, I decided to post it! You don't find many stories about Sam and Paige so this is like a few moments of them together when Paige was young. We'll just pretend he was around and that Paige lived with her sister from the start.
"It's a girl," Penny Halliwell announced.
Penny cleaned the crying baby girl off then wrapped her in a towel and handed her to Patty. Patricia Halliwell held her fourth daughter close to her, tears streaming down her face. She looked up at her daughter's father who smiled down at her.
"What should we name her?" Patty asked.
"Well obviously it's going to start with a P," Sam joked.
Patty let Sam take their daughter in his arms. He looked at their beautiful daughter then at Patty and Penny.
"What about Paige?" he suggested, "Paige Halliwell."
"You don't want her to have your last name?" Patty questioned.
Penny quickly interrupted.
"Dear, don't push it."
Patty rolled her eyes at her mother and turned to Sam.
"I think she should be named Halliwell. It's a generation thing for your family and it'll make her closer to her sisters."
He looked down at his crying daughter.
"Welcome to the world, Paige Halliwell."
Sam ran his fingers through his only child's hair. Today was going to be a rough day for her, her sisters, grandmother, and him. Patty was no longer with them, and he couldn't help but feel that it was all his fault, no matter what Penny said to convince him otherwise. The important thing was that he was there for Paige. He was the only parent she had left now.
The six month old stirred in her sleep next to him, and snuggled into his side a little more. He stared at the ceiling, dreading that in less than four hours, he was gonna get thrown back into the reality that Patty was dead. Maybe then it would sink in, because it hadn't fully yet.
Sam walked into the manor, past Penny with Paige in his arms. He noticed her brown eyes looking around for someone, and he looked at Penny feeling useless. Paige said something that sounded close to 'mommy,' and continued looking around. He hugged her as she continued searching the room.
Paige and Sam laid on the beach towel on opposite sides of each other, the top of their heads touching as they stared at the moving clouds. It was warm for the month of February, and it was a thing they did on this day with Penny, Prue, Piper, and Phoebe.
"What was mommy like?" Paige asked.
Sam smiled at the question.
"Your mom was beautiful. She was kind, funny, sweet and caring. Kinda goofy too, that's where Phoebe gets it from. Prue has her smile, Piper has her laugh and you… you have her smirk."
"Smirk?" the five year old questioned.
"You both have that same look on your face when you're up to something," he clarified, "You and your sisters each have qualities of your mother. I see her every time I look at you, you know."
"Is that why Grams always tells me not to get into trouble?"
Sam laughed, "Yeah, I suppose it is. You act the most like your mom, so she knows you the best."
Paige stared at the clouds slowly moving across the sky for a moment.
"Do you think mommy's watching us?"
Sam held a ghost of a smile on his face.
"I think she is, Paige. I think she's watching all of us."
Paige lied in her bed, staring out the window with a sigh. She ignored the stares she was getting from Phoebe and remained still.
"What's up with you," Phoebe asked.
"It's nothing," Paige lied.
She heard Phoebe get off her bed and then felt her sit down beside her leg.
"Uh, it's something. You're not normally all sighs and no sunshine when you come home from school," Phoebe said, "That's Piper's job, now what's wrong? Do I need to beat someone up?"
"No," Paige replied, "I'm just a little upset I all. It's stupid."
"Can't be that stupid if you're upset about it."
Paige sat up and looked at Phoebe.
"Don't worry about it, it's just school work."
Phoebe sighed, "Okay…"
She saw Sam standing in the doorway and got up to leave him and Paige alone.
"Hey, Sammy," Phoebe greeted.
"Phoebe," Sam replied, stepping aside to let the girl by.
He walked over and sat on the edge of Paige's bed. She stared at him.
"What's happening at school?" he asked her.
She sighed, "It's nothing… it's just, everyone in my class has some idea of what they want to be when they grow up… I don't know what I wanna be."
"Well, Paigey, you're eight years old," he reminded her, "You don't have to be anything yet, but…"
He pulled her up and into his lap, locking eyes with her.
"I can personally guarantee that you're going to do something great," he told her, "You're destined for greatness and you're going to help a lot of people."
"Like you do?" she questioned.
Sam laughed and nodded, "Yes, like I do."
Paige frowned at him, "What do you do?"
Sam didn't answer, simply hoisting her over his shoulder as he stood, making her laugh.
"Time for dinner, kid-o."
Paige looked in the mirror at herself, more specifically her new braces. She poked at them for a second, then ran her tongue over them. She wasn't fond of the idea when she first heard it was a possibility and she definitely was not fond of them now.
"You look fine," Prue told her, "Stop messing with them or they'll never straighten your teeth."
Paige stuck her tongue out at Prue and Prue stuck hers out in return.
"Seriously, Braceface the second, you look fine," Phoebe said, "It took Piper a while, but she got used to hers."
Phoebe pointed to Piper who was glaring at her now.
"Comfort your sister," Prue mouthed silently to Piper.
"Yeah, Paige, it's not that bad," Piper told her, "At least you don't have glasses."
"Your sight is getting better," Phoebe said, "You'll be good by senior year."
"Whatever," Piper mumbled.
"Well I think you look beautiful."
Paige turned from the bathroom mirror to her father standing in the doorway.
"You're supposed to say that," Paige told him, "You're my dad."
"I was talking to Piper," Sam teased, "But you look beautiful too."
Phoebe, Prue and Piper laughed.
"Thanks Sam," Piper thanked him.
"You're welcome," he said, "You know, your mom had braces."
The girls all turned to him curiously.
"Really?" Paige asked.
"Yes, really," Sam said, "and she was still beautiful too. You all look like her, you know?"
Prue nodded a little, "Yeah."
She stood up from her spot sitting on the bathtub next to Phoebe and walked out.
"It's that time of the year again, huh?" Paige said.
Piper nodded, "Yeah, but she'll be okay."
Piper got up to check on Prue and Phoebe stood as well. She rested her chin on Paige's shoulder.
"You look fine little sis."
She gave Paige a kiss on the cheek before leaving her alone with Sam.
"You really think I look okay, or are you just saying that?" Paige asked her father.
He stepped behind her, looking in the mirror as well, before kissing the top of her head.
"You look perfect."
"What do you think?"
Paige did a twirl in the dress and looked at her father who nodded in approval.
"It's nice."
"Yeah it is," she said, "You don't have to get it if you don't want to."
Sam looked at his thirteen-year-old daughter with a raised eyebrow. She'd been saying things like that a lot, throwing him for a loop on whether she actually wanted to attend the pagent or not.
"Paige, do you want to participate in the pagent?" he asked her, "Or are you just doing it to please someone else?"
Paige gave him a sheepish smile, "Um… if I say I don't want to, what would you say?"
"I'd ask why you forced me into a dress shop."
She sighed and took a seat next to him.
"You've been so busy lately with.. whatever it is that you do. I just thought maybe if I told you I wanted to do the school pagent you'd spend time with me," she said, "like now."
Sam was taken back a little. He thought Paige would be slightly happy that he wasn't around to invade on her personal life as much, but apparently she wasn't. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him.
"I'll tell you what. Why don't you change back into your clothes, instead of a dress I buy you more converse, and during the night of the pagent we pig out on junk food and watch the Wizard of Oz."
Paige grinned, "You hate that movie."
"Well, when you're being forced to watch it over, and over, and over, and-"
"Okay, dad, I get the point," Paige said, elbowing him in the ribs, "We're still watching it."
He grinned at her, "Of course."
Sam sat on the front porch of the manor waiting for his daughters return. It was five past midnight and he was hoping she wasn't doing what most teens did on this night. He decided not to jump to conclusions.
"I had fun, Glenn, thanks."
He looked up at the sound of his daughter's voice. She was giving her best friend and prom date a hug.
"Any time, Halliwell."
He was about to walk her to the door until he saw her father waiting and decided she would be safe.
Paige walked up to the front porch as her date drove away. Sam noticed her corsage gone and the tootsie pop in her mouth.
"I take it you ate your corsage?" Sam guessed.
Glenn had made it up of tootsie pops and rolls, extremely creative Sam had to admit.
"Of course I did, dad, that was the first thing to go before my virginity."
Sam frowned until he heard her laughter.
"Just kidding," she teased, "All Glenn and I did was stay at prom for like an hour, eating candy and sandwiches and drinking punch. Then we ditched it goofed off in the park before catching a movie and coming back here."
"That's all?" he asked.
"That's all," she promised, "Though we did stop by Prue and Piper's apartment and TP their cars. That was fun."
Sam laughed and shook his head, "Well I'm glad you had fun tonight."
"I did," Paige nodded.
They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound being the crickets and the breeze.
"Why were you looking like that when I came downstairs?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"You know," she said, "All… sad."
"I guess I just realized… you're growing up. You're not my little girl anymore," he told her.
She rested her head on his shoulder, "Dad, I'll always be your little girl. I'm just your little girl who is tall, leggy, and soon to be a college freshman."
Sam smiled, "Yeah, but you don't need me to carry you on my shoulders anymore when you can't see, or hold your hand while crossing streets… any of the stuff I used to do for you when you were say twelve or four."
Paige stared at him for a moment, simply looking into his eyes. She stood up.
"Wait here, I'll be right back."
"Okay," Sam replied with confusion.
Paige came back out of the house ten minutes later dressed in jeans, converse, and a Kit-Kat t-shirt. Her hair was now down and her make up gone.
"Come on," she said.
She dragged him up by the hand and led him towards the garden.
"Why are we going to the-"
"I wanna show you something, dad," she exclaimed as they walked around the house, "I didn't know what I was doing at first and it kinda scared me a little, but look."
They came to a stop in the garden and Paige pointed to a flowerpot.
"Flower pot," she said.
Sam watched as the flowerpot turned into white lights and rematerialized in front of him on the ground. He turned to look at her.
"You just…" he was speechless, "When did you…"
"Last month. I haven't told anyone about it but you now. I don't think it's dangerous or anything, it feels almost… almost-"
"Angelic?" Sam supplied.
"Yeah," Paige said, "What do you think it is?"
Sam smiled as he took her hand and sat with her in the grass. They sat Indian style across from one another.
"This power," he began, turning to the vase and using the same ability to return it to its original spot, "Is called orbing."
"You can do it too?" she exclaimed.
He nodded, smiling at the twinkle in her eyes.
"You remember when I told you were destined for greatness?"
"You tell me that all the time," she said.
"Well this is that greatness," he informed her.
They sat in the grass together, Sam enjoying talking and teaching his daughter about her newfound inheritance. Nothing to him could be better than that moment, watching his little girls eyes sparkle in intrigue as they talked. She'd always be his little girl.
AN: So this was inspired by the song Father, Daughter by Paul Simon. I may do another chapter... I'll think about it, but so far, I'm gonna say it's complete.