A/n: Sorry this last section is so late. I just got my new computer yesterday, so this is the first time I've had time to sit and write in several days. I hope you all enjoy this last segment.

Hold My Hand

A story by Ryeloza

Part Four: Paige

One

Glen had four older sisters. Much older. Glen had been a surprise born when Gale, the oldest, was seventeen, and Margot, the youngest, was eleven. As a result, they doted on Glen and when Paige became his friend, they doted on her by association. Somehow it was only natural, since Paige spent half her waking hours at the Bellands' house anyway.

When Paige and Glen were six, Gale asked them both to be in her wedding; Glen as the ring bearer and Paige as the flower girl. Paige had been so excited that she practiced in her bedroom for hours, pacing a nonexistent aisle and throwing imaginary flowers. Perhaps most thrilling was that she got to wear a long, frilly pink dress.

On the big day, Paige stuck her head out the door and gazed down the long aisle. Certainly it hadn't been so long at the rehearsal? And why were there so many people? There must have been millions! In that moment, Paige knew she'd never be able to be the flower girl.

Before she could say anything, someone hustled her into the front of a line of bridesmaids and pulled both of the doors wide open. Paige squirmed, unwilling to go. Then, suddenly, a hand clasped hers. For a moment, Paige forgot everything going on around her. Her best friend was right next to her, holding her hand, and this was no different than all the times she'd practiced. With a smile, she dropped Glen's hand and they walked out together.

Two

The first time they "dated" they were in eighth grade.

All of their friends were dating people. Scads of girls and guys came and went from their group that year as fancies passed. The whole time, Paige and Glen sat around laughing at everyone else. The whole time, everyone kept asking them why they weren't together.

One night, Paige turned to Glen and said, "I don't know. Why aren't we?"

"No real reason, I guess."

And after that they were "dating."

Really, their relationship lasted one date the first time. Farrah Tambler had her fourteenth birthday party in the basement of her house and her parents, somewhat irresponsibly, let her have free reign of the party. No supervision. The make-out aspect automatically followed.

Paige sat in the dark and stared at Glen for a long time. He shrugged at her and she shrugged back and next thing you knew, they were kissing. The problem was, after awhile, Paige got bored. Kissing Glen wasn't nearly as fun as talking to Glen, which they couldn't do with his mouth against hers. When Paige pulled away, Glen seemed just as grateful.

They spent the rest of the night playing Parcheesi in the basement closet.

Three

Philip Lewicky was the high school love of her life.

They started dating the summer before her freshman year. The relationship lasted epically long by high school standards.

At first things had been blissful. Philip liked hanging out with her and her parents on family nights. They held hands in the hallways and didn't kiss too often in public, though their make-out sessions in private were legendary. They had similar tastes in movies and just really liked spending time together.

When they fell apart, it was all Paige's fault.

Philip had a bad case of appendicitis towards the end of the school year and was out of school for almost three weeks. He also missed Yolanda Kiefer's end-of-year party, to which Glen had gotten Paige and Philip invited. Paige tagged along with Glen and his date and that night was the first time she had a taste of alcohol.

She was fourteen.

Things disintegrated quickly after that. Paige began to spend more and more time with people she had met at the party. Friends of Yolanda's with access to booze and who thought Paige was "pretty cool" when she was intoxicated. Paige began to spend more and more nights out, breaking curfew more and more often. Fights with her parents were par for the course by the end of the summer.

She still loved Philip and always asked him to come along, though he rarely joined her. She never saw the breakup coming.

Three weeks after their sophomore year began Philip pulled her aside after school and told her that things weren't working out. "I don't like you when you're with those people, Paige. I don't like you when you're drunk." Completely affronted, Paige had scoffed, turned away, and vowed never to speak to Philip Lewicky again.

Still, when her parents died, Philip and Glen were the only people who stuck with her through it all.

Four

Out of college and barely into her job, Paige had been at rock bottom. She felt sick constantly, shaky and desperate for a drink. All day long she sat and dreamt of alcohol. Of the smooth burn down her throat that would heal all her wounds. She didn't care about anything or anybody.

At the time, she was dating a guy named Buzz. He was a couple of years younger than her, but he knew how to party and have a good time. He was everything Paige needed, especially once she looked back on that time.

Most nights, Buzz was out of her bed within minutes after they were finished having sex. Paige liked this about Buzz. He wasn't there to deal with her as she came down off the alcohol for the night. He wasn't there to see her twist and turn in bed, plagued by nightmares. He wasn't there when she woke up in a cold sweat and with trembling fingers reached for the bottle of scotch in her nightstand.

But all it took was one time. One time for Buzz to fall asleep next to her instead of leaving. One time for him to witness all her worst behaviors.

She hadn't realized that Buzz cared about her—she certainly didn't care about him—until he shook her awake from a nightmare and she could see the tenderness in his eyes with all the pain soberness brought. Disgusted, both with Buzz and herself, she'd leaned over him to get at her emergency supply. And then in that moment, Buzz figured out the part of her that she hadn't even been able to admit to herself.

The next night he stayed again, on purpose this time, and when she woke and reached for her bottle, she found it gone. "I flushed it down the toilet," Buzz told her calmly. "I flushed it all down the toilet." She'd raged, thrown things, and nearly scratched his eyes out, but Buzz stood strong. And he wouldn't leave. Finally, she fell into a feverish sleep.

When she woke—hours? days?—later she found Buzz still at her side, gently holding her hand. But to her shock, he wasn't alone. Her aunt and uncle, two of her cousins, Glen and Marie, her one good friend at work, stood around her bed.

"Paige," Buzz said, "we need to talk to you."

It was the beginning of the end of that chapter of her life.

Five

Paige had never spent much time sitting around and fantasizing about her wedding and marriage. There had been much more interesting things to think about and much more pressing problems as she grew older. Even in her relationships, she rarely thought of marriage as the goal.

Probably, her sisters exacerbated her distance from commitment. Between Piper and Leo's on-again, off-again, on-again marry-go-round and Phoebe's near obsession with marriage and babies that always seemed to result in heartache, Paige hadn't had much interest in joining their insanity. But that all changed when she met Henry.

In so many ways, her soul had been searching for Henry's for years, even if just to find some near-perfect level of understanding. Henry had lost his parents, had a rough personal life and had only come to his senses when the situation became critical. He'd managed to pull his life together. Even if they had never become lovers, Paige would always have needed him just to have one person in her life who really knew what she used to be and how hard it had been to overcome that. Really, she hadn't realized how much that understanding had been lacking in her life until she found it.

The fact that Henry was funny, handsome, passionate, accepting of magic and completely in love with her was just an added bonus. For the first time in her life, she'd found someone with whom she knew marriage was the end game.

And it was better than any imagined life could have ever been.


A/n: I hope that everyone enjoyed this little project. I'm thinking of doing a companion piece with the guys (Andy, Leo, Cole and Henry), but I'll have to wait and see if inspiration strikes. Anyway, thanks to all of you who reviewed and let me know what you thought of the story. I'm so thrilled that so many of you liked it.

Katie