Kindred Sisters

Kinship. Love. Trust. Magic. Paige learns that some bonds can transcend anything. Can someone who she has never known show her? And will she accept the help she needs in return? All four sisters.

A/N: Woah! looong absence and I am so sorry. I've gotta blame the usual inexcusable mix of hectic life and writers block. Thank you so much for your positive responses and I am hugely grateful for each and every one :) Not sure about this chapter, but it has to be here for the rest to make sense. I would appreciate your thoughts if you have any. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed, never have, never will...

Chapter 3: Time: For a revelation…or two.


Year 1999.

A SMALL VOICE had broken through her whirling thoughts slamming her back into reality, her chest swelled with pain. She tightened her arms around herself, recoiling in her exposure. Her tears had stripped at her skin leaving it raw; leaving her raw. She shook the hair that covered her face away fully intending to unleash her unreasonable fury upon whoever had dared stumble upon her vulnerability. Anger, grief and burning self-loathing was the disgusting concoction that she choked on as she began to raise her hackles.

That was until she finally managed to peek beyond her lank tendrils.

Prue drew in a breath, finally seeing the woman who had spoken to her standing frozen and wide-eyed. Only her dark almost-black mane moved, blown wildly behind her by the still forceful breeze. Even though her eyes were still blurry with tears the figure in front of her seemed for a moment like an apparition, her shining skin glowing with a whiteness she had only ever seen on polished porcelain. Insecurity shimmered on the surface of the woman's dark eyes, but they were cavernous and Prue could see that the woman held a fresh raw pain in those bottomless pools. At the moment, pain was the one thing that Prue understood only too well.

Instinctively she offered a silent hand to the other woman, who staring at it in surprise, wordlessly took it and sat beside her.


Present

PHOEBE SAT, sprawled helplessly on the floor watching her big sister pace across the attic, with a sinking feeling settling in her stomach. If Piper panicked, at least it could be solved and would be okay eventually, but Phoebe knew that if her older sister paced silently it was a bad, bad sign. Finally, the younger Halliwell could bear the silence no longer and broke into it desperately.

"Piper, what are we going to do?" Phoebe knew that it was a useless question, and so didn't even flinch at the glare she received in return.

Piper took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. Thinking that whoever said that it calmed you down in a crisis were more than a little white liar. She sighed. Both Piper and Phoebe's thumbs throbbed painfully having been pricked for several attempts for the spell to call a lost witch. They had scryed over the map of San Francisco and the two sisters had even dug out the dusty old globe from a dark corner of the attic in their far-fetched hope of finding their baby sister somewhere, or anywhere.

Another attempt failed. The crystal thumped loudly on the wooden floor as the victim of Piper's frustration. Forced to admit defeat she finally answered her little sister's question "I don't know" she said trying to avoid the big brown eyes desperate for the reassurance she couldn't give.

"But Piper, if we can't scry for her, if Leo can't sense her, she-she could be stuck down in the underworld, or-or worse" Phoebe's babbling faded to silence and she sat silently, bringing her knees to her chest. Piper swallowed hard. There was little they could do until Leo came back from up there. So Piper set to work doing the only thing she could; she cleaned frantically: picking up the crystals, folding up the map, pushing the globe back into the corner and picking up the candles. A scrap of paper caught her attention and she gasped as she read the spell.

"Pheebs" Piper shouted shaking her sister out of her daze. "Look, oh…Phoebe I think that she's okay…but…"

Phoebe read the spell, a look of concern crossing her face. "…time travel is never good…"


Past 1999

Paige couldn't believe it.

She cradled the hand of her big sister in her own, absorbed in watching her, comparing their traits. Paige thought she was beautiful and hoped that she comforted Prue as just as much as she was comforting her. Her heart wrenched with both of their pains but Paige's was buoyed by the sisterly connection, she had always felt it, almost longingly even though she had never met her eldest sister. Now, seeing her sister here and holding her, their connection was as strong as the one she shared with Phoebe and Piper.

Paige was puzzled. This wasn't the brave, bold, all-powerful witch or the perfect older sister that she had heard many tales about. This woman was holding on to her as if she was a lifebelt rescuing her from the swirling hurt, small droplets pooled in the corner of her blue eyes but she stubbornly brushed them away.

"I'm sorry" The raven haired witch muttered shamefully, her wet cheeks tinting with embarrassment.

"No, It's okay" I mean, "Are you okay?" She questioned tentatively not knowing how the older witch would react.

Prue paused heavily, drawing her arms around herself protectively. She wasn't used to opening up about her feelings. It was a lonely place being an eldest sister, especially being as protective as she. However her brown eyes holding her with a look of concern and openness, she felt a connection to this woman. Had Prue not been drowning in grief she would have noticed the niggling familiarity of the young woman that settled in her stomach.

"I thought I was…" She began, chuckling bitterly at her last statement "But I don't know anymore" In her pain she pulled her own gaze away from the curious brown eyes before dropping her voice to a whisper. "He's, he's gone, Andy is gone forever and I don't have a clue what I'm supposed to do without him."

It seemed that saying it out loud had finally hammered home this clear realisation. Her resolve completely folded, the armour that had been wearing extremely thin had just shattered into a thousand pieces. She didn't know what to do without him, she had known him for her whole life, the young man that had been her high-school sweetheart and the man that had become the love of her life. He had been a part of her past and her present. Now, her hopes of them having a future together…all of the stuff she never admitted to dreaming about, marriage and children. Whoa, turning into Piper more than a little...anyway now she knew it would never be and to know that hurt so much. She soaked up the comfort from this strange but familiar woman; it was a comfort that dulled the pain.

---

PAIGE CRADLED THE older witch in her arms stroking the raven hair, an odd mixture of longing and pleasure at what she had missed with her big sister, along with the happiness that she had finally gotten to meet her. Of course this was shot through with the irony that the sister that Paige felt closest to at the moment was the one who wasn't around in her time. As all of this swirled within her, she felt a small drip flow down her pale cheek, but she ignored her pain to rub circles on her sister's back which heaved heavily with her sobs.

"Shh…" Paige soothed, she didn't know what else to say, "It's okay…it's okay Prue"

As soon as the small slip passed her lips, Paige gasped and at the same time Prue's head shot up and recoiled from the hug, her blue eyes caged their vulnerability as suspicion, confusion and a smattering of fear seeped into her steely gaze.

"What did you say?" Prue spat, jumping up defensively to stand over the young woman.

Aw crap, what did I just do. This is why Piper warns against time travel spells. Paige finds herself trembling as her sister towered over her with fire in her eyes. Trembles turned to a prickle on her spine accompanied by a floppy stomach that were usually the symptoms of her evil-sensing powers. She looks frantically around, but shimmers appeared out of the air too quickly and from behind Prue, the facially challenged demon sent a glowing fireball is sailing towards them.

"Erm…Oh Goddess, a demon, look out!" Paige flung herself to the ground taking her older sister with her.

Prue landed but sprang into action seeing the demon directing all of her anger and hurt into a powerful telekinetic blast that sent the orange balls of flame right back at the ugly demon that sent them. He screamed in agony, his face srewing up incontortion before he burst into more orange flames: completely vanquished.

"Whoa" Paige muttered silently, awed at the power of her oldest sister. She was soon shaken out of it as the steely glare rounded on her again.

"YOU!" The older witch glared. Her muscles tensed; she no longer seemed vulnerable and her face gained a tough expression, Paige saw that her wall of armour had reappeared. She was set in a fighting stance, so like Phoebe it reminded Paige sadly of her other big sister. "How did you know…me? How do you know about demons?" Prue continued, confusion creasing in her forehead. Paige looked at her oldest sister, an ache creeping up from her toes and her throat. She knew that she couldn't, that she shouldn't even. After all, when Piper and Phoebe first began teaching her about the craft, they warned against time travel and Piper chirped endlessly about 'future consequences'. But right here and now, Paige longed to call Prue her big sister, to know her and love her as one. To get the chance she had been deprived of, it was agony, her oldest sister so close but so far away.

"I can't tell you…" Paige muttered quietly, wincing under Prue's glare as well as her own boiling emotions. As the most stubborn of the four of the Halliwell sisters this did nothing to placate Prue. Too blinded by this to see the younger woman's plea in her eyes or her pain, she didn't relent. Her emotions were already on the surface, she had opened up to this woman with no idea who she was, she thought she had seen goodness in her eyes, had felt it to. The revelations had sent her reeling, almost like a betrayal and of course the obvious dangers, of evil or even worse, of exposure. Prue had to know, for all of their sakes.

"Who are you!" She persisted with her voice raised.

"Please" Paige pleaded, "please don't, I really can't say even if I wanted to…" all of a sudden the weight of this past and her present weighed on her shoulders.

Prue stood arms folded, still looking over the younger woman. "What am I supposed to do? Magic has ruined enough for me and my sisters, for Andy. You could be evil, you could even expose us. I thought I could trust you…"

"You can" She said. Her only reply was a disbelieving look.

Paige had to look away, it was unbearable. All the accusations Prue suggested stung, as did all of the hurt that her oldest sister had gone through, and, oh god, what was yet to come Those blue, penetrating eyes slowly tugged the truth out of her, painfully, like wrenching off a scab. She was giving in.

"I'm your sister too" She whimpered in defeat.

Prue's thoughts and emotions collided into one big crash, the how and the whys faded from her rational thought . As she looked over the younger woman it all fell into place: her own dark hair flowed down the girls shoulders; Phoebe's big brown eyes and her sweet baby-sister pout; Piper's nose and strong brow all sat in her pretty face. She was them and they were her. There was no mistaking that this girl was a Halliwell. Prue had felt it even before she knew.

It was true.

She had another sister.


TBC…Thank you for reading, please review. : - )