Disclaimers in part 1.

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Over the next few days Willow spent a lot of time with Paige, as she showed her around the school, introduced her to all of the students and faculty, and helped her get settled. Willow enjoyed being around a woman close to her age again; she hadn't made any friends in London and spent most of her free time with Giles. She still missed Buffy immensely but she felt Paige becoming a good friend quickly.

Her phone rang.

"Hello, Magic School, Ms. Rosenberg speaking."

"Willow, check you out." Came the familiar voice.

"Buffy! I know, crazy right? I'm all principal-y." she grinned. "I was just thinking about you. What's up?"

"Oh, the usual, weirdness in Rome Giles wants me to check out, he was going to call you and have you check out the computer side of things but I said I'd call instead, we haven't talked much lately. You like Magic School?"

"Yeah. I need to get out though, I haven't even seen the city yet. Maybe I'll see if Paige can show me around soon."

"Paige? Who's Paige?" Buffy asked in a teasing tone.

"She's the youngest of the Charmed Ones, the witches I was telling you about."

"Uh huh, you two been spending a lot of time together?"

"Oh don't start Buffy, she's totally straight, and besides I don't think I'm ready for another relationship yet. What about you, how's Mr. Immortal doing." She asked in a sarcastic tone. She didn't like Buffy's new boyfriend.

"Same old same old." Buffy didn't rise to the bait.

"You talked to Spike yet?" Willow asked in a gentler tone. Buffy had been really thrown when they'd found out he was back.

Buffy sighed. "No. I talked to Angel the other day on the phone, but I didn't have the nerve to ask to talk to him. What am I supposed to say, 'Hi, I've known you were back for months but I didn't know how to say welcome back, I'm glad you're uh, dead again?'"

"It's only going to get harder the longer you wait." Willow pointed out rationally.

"Can't I just put it off forever?" Buffy whined childishly.

"Buffy. Hey have you talked to Xander lately, I need to call and tell him where I am."

"Oh! I almost forgot! Yeah I talked to him yesterday, he said he might come visit for a while, if you were up to that."

"Of course! Maybe I can talk him into staying, find him a job at the school." She mused. "I worry about him roaming all around by himself."

"It's okay to say you miss him."

"Well yeah that too."

The friends talked for awhile longer, until Willow pointed out that Buffy wanted her to check out the demon online and she should get to it.

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"Knock knock." Paige stuck her head into Willow's office. "Are you still working? Take a break girl!" she teased.

Willow stretched. "I had a long day, spent most of it with a student, and Buffy asked me to check some stuff out for her." She explained.

"Well, I think you need a break. Piper's making dinner, she and Phoebe still haven't met you, you know. She told me to invite you."

"Oh, that sounds great." She cocked her head. "How do we get there? I haven't left the school since I got here."

"Easiest way is just to orb, since I'm here." She stretched out her hand. Willow took it and then she was standing in an airy living room.

"Hey, nice place." She complimented her friend.

"It takes some keeping up with all the demon attacks, but thank you." Willow turned around at the voice.

"I'm Piper." The woman said. "You must be Willow, we've heard all about you."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you!" Willow grinned.

"Where's Phoebs?" Paige asked, but Piper had barely opened her mouth to answer when the front door slammed and a slim brunette appeared.

"Sorry, sorry, ran into a de…A! A DA, um, yeah, I ran into a DA that I know and…" she tried to change topics when she saw the unfamiliar redhead.

"This is Willow, you can say demon." Paige said, stopping her sister.

"Whew! Cuz I have no idea where I was going with that!" Phoebe grinned, and stuck out her hand to greet the redhead.

"You ran into a demon? Anything we need to take care of?" Piper asked, concerned.

"Actually no, it's a long story but it's fine now. So, Willow, good to finally meet you. Paige is really glad not to be running Magic school anymore." Willow felt a tingle as she shook the witch's hand.

"I'm glad to be here too. Though it's strange not to be fighting every day. I mean not that I did much physical fighting, Buffy and now the other slayers take care of that, but not to be in the thick of things. You guys know about the slayers right?" she asked, when she noticed Piper and Phoebe were staring at her with slightly glazed looks.

"They know about slayers, I think they're just a bit dazed by the Willow-babble." Paige teased her friend.

Willow turned slightly red. "Sorry about that, I tend to do that when I get nervous, and I don't really know why I'm nervous right now, well except that you guys are like the most powerful witches in the world, so hello, who wouldn't be nervous? Oh no I'm doing it again, Paige it's your job to stop that okay?" she physically clapped her hand over her mouth.

Piper was still just staring at her, but Phoebe and Paige cracked up.

"Come on Piper, let's go get dinner okay? Anything I can help with?" Paige pulled her sister away before her friend got too embarrassed.

"It must be so cool to have sisters." Willow said, watching them go.

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Well, not all the time of course, but I love them. You don't have any I take it?"

"Nope, only child. Xander was like a brother growing up, well until I got a crush on him because that would have been gross."

Phoebe cocked her head. "Um, I thought Paige said um…"

Willow raised her eyebrows. "That I was gay?" she said bluntly. "Well yeah but it took me awhile to realize that."

Phoebe blushed. "I'm sorry, that was completely inappropriate."

"No problem! I told her she could tell you, I figured it'd be easier that way."

"Do you ever try to hide it?" Phoebe asked curiously.

Willow shrugged. "Nope. Besides, it's hard to talk about magic without talking about my first girlfriend Tara, especially when I talk about losing control and going into black magic when she died."

"Paige told us a little about that too." Phoebe said softly, patting Willow's hand. She could tell it was hard for her to talk about this but knew she was working on it so she could talk to students about it. "Did she tell you that I went evil too?"

Willow shook her head.

"Oh boy. I was queen of the underworld." She grimaced, remembering how hard it had been after that situation.

"But, you're a Charmed one! Your magic comes from such goodness!"

"I'm sure yours does too. But it doesn't really matter, anyone can go down the wrong path. Although I do have to point out I was tricked into that marriage."
"Marriage?"

"Are you telling the poor girl about Cole? She doesn't need to hear that!" Piper reentered the room.

"We were sharing stories about being evil – and becoming good again." She emphasized.

"Well, you can do that after dinner. Come on, come on." She ushered her sister and their guest into the living room. Willow did get to hear the whole Cole story over dinner, as well as many tales of the Charmed Ones turning into other evil beings. Only when she started trying to conceal her yawns did Paige insist on orbing her back to Magic School.

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"Willow really does seem nice. I'm glad that all worked out for you Paige." Phoebe commented when her sister reappeared without Willow.

"I told you she was. You two really seemed to hit it off. You ever considered batting for the other team sis?" she teased, bumping her older sister with her hip.

Phoebe's eyes went wide. "I don't, I'm not, I mean we were just talking, what's up with you Paige?"

"Whoa! I was just joking, hit a nerve or what?" she looked at her sister more carefully. "Have you?"

"That's none of your business!" Phoebe stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs, leaving her sisters staring at each other in amazement.

"I really was just joking, but now I'm not so sure." Paige muttered.

"Phoebe? Come on, she can't keep her hands off men."

"I didn't say she was gay, she could like both you know."

"I think I would have known."

"Okay, but don't you think that was a bit weird?"

Piper opened her mouth, but found she couldn't really deny it, so she just closed it again.

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