A/N: You wanted more of Paige, so here it goes...
Piper was surprised when she entered the kitchen and didn't find her older sister reading the paper with a cup of coffee. For as long as she could remember Prue had always been the first one up and the last one down; a hard feat considering Phoebe was a club baby and used to stay up to the early hours of the morning.
Getting everything she needed, Piper began the task of starting breakfast for the Halliwell clan. Leo had left late last night to help a charge and he would come back ravenous as always.
Prue came in, her long raven hair sleek and modern in the inverted bob style she had selected right before Phoebe's funeral. Her side bangs created mystery as well as the smoky eye her makeup had created, though god knew Prue was always stunning. She was wearing her black leather jacket unzipped, with a fitted mint green tank top—100% silk, of course—with a killer pencil skirt and stilettos. It reminded Piper of how Prue used to dress to work at Bucklands but just a tad more young and hot.
Pushing the sleeves up, Prue headed toward the cupboard for a mug and poured herself a large coffee.
"Careful," Piper warned, "you'll burn yourself if you continue to drink like that."
"Sorry, but I'm late for work and I have a photo shoot that my boss forgot to inform me about until an hour ago," she placed her cup in the sink. "It doesn't help me to have a phone and a blackberry if he never contacts me like a normal human being would."
"It also doesn't help that we were up until three in the morning," the middle sister added. "I'm guessing you don't want breakfast."
"No, but maybe we can try brinner," Prue joked. "I'll see you later, after I convince my boss to get me a secretary!"
"Hi Prue, bye Prue," Paige said as she turned to watch her oldest sister jet. "What's up with her?"
"Oh, her boss forgot to tell her about a photo shoot and you know Prue, she can never be late."
Paige sat on a stool and stuck her hand in the batter before having her hand unceremoniously slapped by Piper. "Ow, what was that for," as if she really had to ask. She and Piper hadn't gotten as close as she and Prue had but she had seen a softer side to her last night. Paige just hoped they could continue to make progress.
"How many pancakes do you want," Piper asked, ignoring Paige's whine.
"Three, please."
Piper plated the pancakes and glanced over at Paige. "Are you off today?"
"Yeah, gotta love those weekends. I mean, the only good thing about not being a social worker is that I don't get emergency calls. Still, I wish my boss would hurry up and promote me. It's not like I don't have my masters degree in social work," she bitched.
"Do you have any plans," Piper asked trying to be stealth.
"Nope," the young witched slumped over the island. "All my friends are busy having lives."
"Well, I'm letting Cole get acquainted with P3 and the staff so I have the day off. Do you wanna spend the day together," Piper tried to ask without making it sound like a big deal.
"Like doing what," Paige was curious. Other than hanging out with her and Prue at P3, she didn't really know what Piper liked to do outside of Leo—gross, she thought and nearly spit out her pancakes. Piper didn't really seem like the sister you talked about sex with.
"Well, I thought we could do lunch and go shopping. I also thought you might like to have a kind of "Charmed" tour of San Francisco. See where we go for potion ingredients and where we've fought some pretty nasty warlocks and demons."
"Like what?" Paige was intrigued at finding out more about her family history.
"Anything you want," Piper said. "Magic can be kind of a hassle when it gets in the way of having a normal life but it can also do some pretty amazing things. What do you want to start with?"
"I know I got to meet them at the—funeral," Paige stumbled, trying not to bring up something that so obviously hurt the other woman. "But it would be nice to really get a chance to meet our mom again."
Piper smiled as she tucked her chin down toward her chest. "Well then, let's go see what good magic can do."
Paige and Piper sat down at an old trunk and opened it, revealing a table cloth and long white tapered candles. Setting four up around the trunk, Piper lit the wicks and looked down to her lap where the Book of Shadows lay open.
"Hear my plea, hear my cry; spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee; cross now the great divide."
Patricia appeared in dancing, shimmering light as a ghostly figure. "Oh, my girls," she held out a hand as if to touch them. "I've been waiting for you to realize the potential of this spell."
"You mean we're allowed to summon you more often," Piper asked her mother.
"Your Grams used to call on me once a week," Patty told her. "Mother kept me up to date on everything about you three," she said before turning to Paige. "Oh, how I used to watch over you."
"You did," Paige asked sounding like a child. "I grew out of it, I swear," she held her hands up and her mother laughed.
"Oh, my darling, I always knew you would. It gave me such joy to watch you, though I worried after your parents passed. I wanted so much to comfort you," she told her youngest daughter.
Piper was shocked. Of course she had realized that Paige would have been adopted but in the weeks following their introduction Piper had failed to ask any questions and had let Prue do all of the investigating for her.
She knew that Paige had an artistic streak like Prue, and was more of a free spirit like Phoebe, but Piper had never once asked about her life before finding out about being their sister. She wondered if Prue even knew about Paige's adopted parents' deaths and all of a sudden she realized what a rotten sister she had been.
Phoebe's death had been hard on all of them and here she was stuck in her grief so much that she couldn't or wouldn't take the time to take a good look at her new sister. There was all the time in the world to grieve for Phoebe. If she didn't try to get to know Paige now though they might never have the connection that Piper had with her other sisters.
Piper had let Paige and Patty talk the most. She remembered something Phoebe said once about always wishing for more time with their mother and immediately knew that was something all four of the Halliwell sisters had in common.
Afterwards they had gone out for lunch at a popular café and done a little shopping at a vintage thrift store where Paige found some killer nude pumps and talked Piper into buying a pendant she had been drawn to. She took the bag the clerk handed her before following Paige back to the street.
"What next," she asked.
"I don't know. I'm trying to think of someplace we could go that means almost as much to you guys as the manor but I can't think of one."
Piper stopped and turned to look at her sister. "I think I know someplace we can go."
They got out of Piper's truck and Paige found herself at what looked like a summer camp. "What is this place?"
Piper looked over her shoulder. "Come see," she said and took a step onto the dock before walking to the end.
Catching up, Paige looked at the lake and felt a shiver roll up her spine. "I don't know if I like it here. What is this place," she asked again.
"Prue and I used to go to summer camp here. It's also the place that has the most significance to us," she paused and took a breath, "because it's where we lost mom."
Befuddled, Paige took a step further on the dock. "What do you mean? I thought mom was killed by a demon."
"A water demon," Piper explained, "lurking in the water where it could wait for its next victim. We always just thought she drowned but a year ago or so, Prue was here. You know, apparently she comes up here to think sometimes and she saw the lake take its next victim."
"Wow. Why would Prue come here, though? Doesn't it have bad connotations for you?"
"Prue's always had it the toughest. She was the oldest so she remembered more of what was going on," Piper told her. "Unfortunately, she was here when mom died."
Paige looked shock. "Like she saw it?"
Piper nodded. "Well, she at least saw all of the commotion. We all were affected by mom's death. Phoebe lacked that bonding and she became a trouble maker. I kind of got lost in the shuffle," Piper said. "Grams always tried to make sure that I knew that she saw me but I knew that Prue and Phoebe needed the attention more.
"Prue…she had to sacrifice a lot. Maybe not even had to, but Grams made her. I guess she was worried about our destiny. Anyway, she's had a rough time letting people get close to her; especially men."
Paige found that curious. Prue had reached out to her right away. "But Prue is so…Prue."
Laughing, Piper passed Paige as she headed back to land. "That's the thing about her. No matter how much she holds people at bay, they still just seem to flock to her. I mean, she was prom queen and captain of the cheerleading team."
"Eh, I would have hated her in high school," Paige grimaced.
"Oh, don't get me wrong. Prue went through her rebellious phase it just didn't last as long as Phoebe's. Then again, Phoebe never really grew out of it," she smiled sadly.
"That explains Cole," Paige laughed and they made their way up a stone path until they reached a shed.
"It looks like it's been abandoned," Paige said as she followed Piper.
"Yeah, well I thought you might like to see this place. You know how I bought the new building? Well, Prue doesn't know I know, but Prue bought the campgrounds after the previous owner died last year. I guess she wanted to keep it in the family."
Moving through, the older woman made her way over to a stack of newspapers about the drowning before remembering what she had gone there for. Turning to an old desk covered in papers, Piper began looking through shelves until she found an old teaching certificate and handed it to Paige.
"Samuel Wilder," she asked and looked up. "And he's 128 years old? Do you mean Sam?"
"Your father. Biological father," she added. "He was devastated after mom died and he stayed here in case the demon ever resurfaced. He was here last year when we vanquished the demon that killed mom."
"So where is he?" Paige wasn't quite sure if she wanted to know the answer.
"Paige, he died during the vanquish. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I'm not exactly used to having a real live parent. Besides, I'm not a kid anymore and I have sisters anyway. I'm not exactly alone," she said.
"Not anymore," Piper told her.
Paige saw an old photograph on the desk and moved to look at it. "That's him. I recognize him from my vision."
"Now that this place is in the family, you can come here whenever you like. You know, if you ever want to learn more about him," Piper told her.
Before Paige could say anything she could feel the vision making its way to the forefront of her mind.
Patty was running with a newspaper over her head, though her long curls were already drenched. Making it to the entrance of the apartment building, she took out a key and made her way past the doorman –freezing him before he could see her—and to the elevators.
Sam was waiting in the doorway for her and immediately kissed her with everything in him. "Let's get you cleaned up before you freeze."
Moving into the apartment, he led her by the hand to the bathroom before she finally had the nerve to confront him.
"Sam, wait. I need to tell you something," she hesitated and just stared in his eyes.
"What's going on, Patty? Did something happen; are you alright?"
"I'm pregnant, Sam."
"Paige, did you see something?" It had been weird seeing her like that, because she looked so calm. Phoebe had always looked tense, like her body was being possessed by her power.
"I think I saw the past again. Didn't you guys say I was supposed to see the future? Maybe my power is screwed up because I haven't seen the future once."
"What did you see?"
Taking a breath, Paige turned up a small smile. "I saw mom and Sam, together. It's kind of nice though, because I'll never have my own memories but at least I have theirs—kind of."
Piper just looked at her sadly, realizing just how much they had missed out on over the years.
Setting the food on the table, Piper looked up as she saw Prue finally arrive home. "Hey, stranger, welcome home."
Prue tugged her heels off and threw her jacket up on the wall before making her way to the conservatory. "What's all this," she asked, seeing cartons of ice cream and a box of pizza, popcorn and twizzlers. "Dibs," she said picking up the licorice.
"You're the only one who likes that stuff anyway," Paige walked in with the spirit board. "I saw this in the attic and I thought it might be cool to play with."
Prue and Piper looked at each other, silent for a moment before they burst out laughing.
"Anything I should know," Paige asked and both sisters started laughing again.
"You would find the spirit board," Prue said and sat on the couch. "Who wants to ask the first question," and Paige's hand shot up.
"Will Prue ever meet Mr. Right," which earned her a smack on the arm. "Ow," she rubbed it and stuck out her tongue.
"Why is that always the first question whenever this thing gets dragged out," she asked Piper.
"'Cause you're the one person who never has a boyfriend whenever the spirit board is called upon to answer our most important questions," she bantered.
Neither of them noticed the pointer move, or Paige's hands fly up as she fell back on the floor where she sat Indian style. "What the hell was that?"
"That, my dear, was magic," Prue said as she watched the pointer move to 'yes'. A huge smile appeared on her face. "It's about time," she said and got up from her seat.
"Where are you going," Piper asked.
"To get wine," Prue answered from the other room and came back with three glasses.
"Oh, I don't drink anymore," Paige said. "I kind of have a problem with certain liquids," she told them when they gave her a funny look.
Prue poured the third cup anyway. "Well, for Phoebe then. She's here in spirit," she explained, unaware of just how true her words were.
"For Phoebe," they toasted.