In Ballmark's Penthouse Suit
Victor opened the door and walked into the penthouse suit of the Ballmark's hotel. The suit that he never thought of ever being able to stand out side it's door. His life had changed in the past twenty years since he had forced him self to walk away from his daughters. He frowned on this note he still could see the hurt and betrayal in Piper's eyes as she watched him walk away. She was the only one who had witnessed him leaving. She still didn't remember why he left; because of the demon attack; that memory has yet to return to her; all she remembered was his turning his back on her and living the manor, her, and her sisters for good.
Victor sighed as he walked into the sitting area of the penthouse and took a seat on the couch. He sighed as he leaned back with his head against the back. A lot had changed since he left his beloved daughters. His life had taken a drastic change two months after he left his children behind with their grandmother. He smiled as he thought of when Patty's spirit first visited him.
FLASHBACK
Victor laid down tiredly on the hard as a core motel bed in the cheap motel room that he had rented for the night. It had been a rough week and he couldn't afford anything else. He promised himself that he wouldn't return to the manor with his trail between his legs. He couldn't return even if he had wanted too. And he wanted too. His three daughters were there. He knew that his daughters felt like orphans. They had lost their mother to death and their father to grieving and fear of the magic that was in them.
"Victor." A soft female voice said suddenly in the quiet motel room but with blinking lights from the neon street signs outside the window.
Victor sat up quickly. "Patty." He breathed as he laid eyes on his late ex wife. "Aren't you dead?"
"Yes." Patty softly said. "Don't be afraid." She said gently as she saw his terrified eyes. "This isn't anything to be feared. It's to be enjoyed."
"Why are you here with me? I'm not worthy of your time. I'm the one who turned away from you because I couldn't handle you being a witch. I'm the one who walked away from our daughters because of them being witches. Why have you decided to visit me?" Victor softly asked as he stared at his ex wife's spirit; the woman whom he still loved with all his heart.
"I need you to find Paige; I want you to adopt her and raise her as your own." Patty softly said.
"I can't." Victor gently said. "I'm sorry Patty but what you are asking is way too much."
"Paige is in the social service system and she has been placed in twelve homes in two years all which have been horrible for her. She isn't as safe as I thought she would be when Sam and I had to give her away." Patty said with tears running down her checks.
"I'm sorry Patty." Victor said softly. "But I can't raise Paige."
"She's being abused mentally and physically. She is being starved and no one cares." Patty said.
"What?" Victor yelped as he quickly scooted to the end of the bed and stared up into his former wife's eyes.
"Paige is only two and half years old; she won't live to have a childhood if she continued to be treated like this." Patty said. She looked up and than back at Victor. "Find Paige. Love Paige as your own." With that she faded from sight.
"PATTY!" Victor screamed. He bowed his head and knew that he had to do what Patty had asked him. How could he allow a child to go through the life that Patty had told him that Paige was living through. But how could he bring himself to love the love child of Patty and her white lighter; Sam Wilder.
Victor's head raised and he stared stonily at the space where Patty had been. "I will do as you say; Patty; I promise."
END FLASHBACK
Victor never regretted his decision to find Paige and adopt her. He found it easy actually to love the little girl as his own. How could he not. He saw Patty in her. He looked sideways to the picture frame that held a recent photo of Paige in in. She was staring straight at the camera without a smile. But you could see such life in her eyes. She had such expression in her eyes. She came alive in her eyes.
Victor picked the frame up and brought it around so he could gaze on it and remember when he first laid eyes on her when she was only two and ½ years old.
FLASH BACK
Victor had about given up finding Paige that day. All he had from social services was a wild goose chase. Or they would have brushed him off as a dead beat bum. Instead of going to the bus stop - Victor decided to walk back to his motel room trying to brush off the waves of defeat that covered him.
Head bowed Victor walked with his hands deep in his pockets trying to think of another way to find Paige. He didn't even know how to contact Patty's spirit. He couldn't go to the manor. If he told Penny that he needed to find Paige; than Penny would make it where Paige would grow up at the manor with her sisters and keep Victor away from her; or she would find a proper home for Paige. Victor couldn't allow that to happen. Patty wanted him to raise Paige; Patty trusted him to protect her youngest daughter. Victor wouldn't let Patty down. He couldn't.
Victor stopped suddenly and lifted his head. Something wasn't right. He could feel it. He looked around quickly to see if there was any demons or warlocks. He didn't think twice to think that the danger he felt was just your basic mortal daily life. No he felt magic was involved here. But where? And who? And why?
Victor shook his head as nothing came visible to him. He sighed as he tried to continue on his way; but his feet wouldn't move. "Patty I need your help." He cried out suddenly as he realized that magic wasn't involved in his uneasy feeling; but his despair on not find Paige. "Help me find Paige. Please."
"You are doing just fine Victor." Patty's voice said softly in his ear. "You are on the right track."
"But I'm getting the run around. Social Se rives aren't going to help me." Victor cried out.
"You will find Paige today." Patty's voice said. "You just have to go down the alley way."
Victor quickly looked to his left and saw a seedy alley way in front of him. He took a step and than two and than suddenly he felt himself running down the alley way at full speed. He suddenly stopped and took a breath. He closed his eyes waiting to hear Patty's voice – instead he heard a muffled sob.
Victor's eyes burst opened as he turned to the cardboard boxes to the right of him and he knelt down slowly. He reached over and ever so slowly lifted the top box off and looked into the wide and very frighten eyes of a small two and ½ year old little raven haired girl. She was black and blue all over her body and she looked to not have been eating good for well her entire life.
"It's going to be all right now Paige." Victor softly said. "I'm going to be your new daddy and I will love you and protect you for the rest of your life." He held out his right hand waiting for the little girl to take it.
Paige just stared into the strange man's eyes for the longest of time. She didn't know if she could trust him; how could she when all she knew was adults who hurt her. Who wanted her dead. She couldn't afford to trust anyone ever again; but she knew that she was too little to take care of herself. All she wanted was her mommy.
Victor saw Prue, Piper and Phoebe in Paige and it broke his heart to know that this sweet and innocent little girl had been hurt to where she can't trust anyone. Anger grew deep in side him as he thought of the adults who had beaten the trust out of this child who had yet turned three. Luckily the anger didn't reach his eyes, so he was still staring into Paige's eyes with love and kindness.
Paige finally made her decision. She reached out with her left hand for Victor to take. Victor moved forward and gathered Paige into his arms and just sat cradling the little girl as she finally let herself sob.
END FLASHBACK
Victor sat up and placed the frame onto the coffee table. He ran his finger down the image of his adopted daughter one more time before standing to his feet. He walked over to where his bedroom was located and quickly changed into more comfortable clothes than the suit that he wore when he went to Prue's office.
Victor came back into the sitting room and sat back down on the couch. He picked the frame back up and cradled the frame into his chest as he leaned back and closed his eyes. He thought back to the years of raising the young Paige.
FLASHBACK
"Paige, sweetie, I want you to meet your mommy." Victor softly said as he picked up his adopted daughter and held the sleepy two and ½ year old in his arms.
Paige slowly opened her eyes as she tried to wake up. "Daddy." She whispered against Victor's chest. It had been so easy to call Victor, daddy, even through Paige knew that Victor Bennett wasn't her real father; he was the only father who she ever knew. The only father who loved and protected her.
"Sorry about waking you from your nap sweetheart." Victor gently tucked a stray of hair behind her ear. "But your mommy can't stay very long."
Paige nodded. "Is mommy an angel?" She asked; she all ready knew that her real mommy had died and went to Heaven.
"Yes." Patty softly said so not to scare the little girl in her former husbands arms. "Well in a matter of speaking."
Paige head shot up at the sound of her mother's voice. "Mommy ..." She reached out for Patty to take her.
"Hello my sweetheart." Patty took Paige from Victor's arms and pulled her youngest daughter into a tight hug. "I love you."
"I love you too mommy." Paige cried into Patty's neck.
Five years passed ...
"So I have three older sisters who don't know anything about me?" Seven year old Paige looked at her mother and Victor who were sitting on the couch in the apartment that she and Victor were currently living in.
"Yes." Patty said with a nod.
"Their names are Prudence, Piper and Phoebe." Victor said with a sad smile on his lips. "Prue is the oldest; she is eighteen now, Piper is eleven and Phoebe is nine."
"Why don't my sisters know about me?" Paige asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Because they didn't realize that I was pregnant with you." Patty replied.
"But you were fat." Paige exclaimed. She blushed. "Sorry I meant your tummy grew month after month. What did they think? What about after you had me and you suddenly got thin again like in overnight."
"I told them that I went on a diet. Your grandmother and I went away for a week during the time you were born. Your father was there also." Patty gently said.
"Who is my father?" Paige asked.
"His name is Samuel Wilder; he was my white lighter." Patty said.
"My father was all ready an angel when he and you created me?" Paige looked confused and crestfallen.
"Yes." Patty leaned forward and touched her daughter's leg. "That's why you have white lighter blood in your DNA Paige. That's the reason why you can orb."
"But why don't I have witch powers?" Paige asked.
"Your grams and I bounded your powers when you were born. In order to protect you. We did the same with your sisters after Phoebe was born." Patty explained.
"But why couldn't I be with my sisters? Why can't they know about me?" Paige demanded as anger finally found it's way into her small body. "I want my sisters."
"It's not safe for you to be known, Paige. The Elders made a rule that witches and white lighters can not be in love and have children together. If they found out about you than they would take you to be with them up there and I don't even want to think on how they would allow you to grow up. I want you to be safe and have a normal childhood." Patty moved from the couch and took a seat next to her youngest daughter and put her arms around her waist. "Everything I did was to protect you and your sisters."
"Why do the Elders have to ruin our family mommy?" Paige cried as she wrapped her arms around her mother's shoulders. "I want my sisters."
"I know sweetie. I know. I'm sorry." Patty swayed sideways holding her youngest daughter to her.
Two years passed ...
"Do you hate my real father?" Paige looked into Victor's eyes as they were eating a dinner for two in the small apartment that Coterie had rented in Memphis.
"No. Why has that thought entered in your head?" Victor looked steadily into his now nine year old adopted daughter. The girl who looked every bit of her three older sisters every day.
"Sam slept with mom when she was still your wife." Paige said with a shrugged. "If my husband ever cheats on me I won't forgive him and I would hate the other woman." She took a drink of her milk.
"How can I hate a man who helped bring you into my life Paigey girl?" Victor softly smiled as he reached over and tapped Paige's head with his right hand.
"You don't have to say that you know Victor." Paige used Victor's name for the first time since she had meet him seven years previous.
"Why so former?" Victor asked.
"I have decided that I'm going to leave you, Victor, that way you can get on with your life and not have to look on the child that your wife had with another man." Paige said mono tonelessly. "It's better this way."
"Paige ..." Victor started to speak.
Paige rushed on. "Thank you for giving me a home these past seven years Victor, you saved my life. I can never repay you. I am stronger now and can take care of my self now so I don't want to burden you with the sight of my face any longer. I love you and I always will. But I have to do what's right for you." Paige stood to her feet and blinked back the tears. "Know that I always love you and will always think of you as my daddy." With that she orbed.
"PAIGE..." Victor screamed.
END FLASHBACK
Victor shot up and looked widely around. "PAIGE ..." He screamed in fear.
Orb lights lit up the sitting area and quickly formed into a twenty one year old woman. "What's the matter dad?" She quickly looked around to see where the evil was.
"You came back Paige." Victor quickly rushed over to his adopted daughter and put his arms around her thin body and pulled her into a tight bear hug. "Don't ever leave me again you hear me girl."
"Of course daddy." Paige tightened the hold on her adopted father who was was actually the father of her three older sisters. Sisters whom she never had meet before in her twenty one years; sisters who didn't know that she existed.
Victor finally let go and stepped back. He wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry Paigey. I was thinking of the time when you orbed away when you were nine years old. You were running away from me to protect me."
"I'm sorry dad." Paige softly said as she stepped closer to Victor. She placed her right hand on her adopted father's left wet check. "I thought I was doing the best thing. But looking back at it I know that I not only hurt myself but you too."
FLASHBACK
"PATTY ..." Victor screamed when he realized that Paige wouldn't be orbing back.
Patty appeared suddenly and looked at Victor. "What's going on?"
"What's going on! Your youngest daughter has orbed out of my life. That's what's going on! Haven't you been watching!!" Victor yelled waving his arms and tears running down his checks.
"I was watching Prue, Piper and Phoebe. I'm sorry Victor." Patty softly said. "I should have saw what was coming and I could have prevented Paige from thinking that she had to leave you to protect you."
"Just find her Patty. Bring her back to me. I can't lose Paige also." Victor sobbed.
"You won't." Patty disappeared quickly.
"Paige why have you left your father?" Patty said as she appeared in front of her sobbing seven year old daughter on a island in Ireland.
"I can't hurt him any longer." Paige said with tears running down her checks. "I love him too much to hurt him."
"How are you hurting him darling?" Patty asked her head to the side.
"I am the daily reminder of your affair with another man." Paige sat down on the green grassy hair that over looked the ocean.
"No you are not." Patty knelt down next to her daughter. "Victor loves you as if you were his own. He wants you with him for all time."
"No he doesn't." Paige cried as she brought her knees up to her chest. "I'm in the way for him to fall in love again with another woman. What woman whats to be a mother to another woman's child with a man who isn't even the child's birth father?"
"When the right woman comes along you will know." Patty gently wrapped her arms around her youngest daughter's body and pulled her against her.
"I can't hurt daddy any longer." Paige sobbed as her heart broke into millions of pieces. "It's best that I stay away from him. Now he can go home and be with Prue, Piper and Phoebe. I know that they miss their daddy. I'm the reason why he isn't with them."
"No you are not darling." Patty said. She lifted Paige's head up so she was looking deeply into her nine year old daughter's eyes. "I sent Victor to find you Paige, to be your daddy and to love and protect you. Victor didn't have too he could have turned me down but he didn't he searched and searched until he found you. He had loved you from the moment I asked him to find you. Victor is your father and you are his daughter. Go back to your father."
Paige shook her head as she leaned against her mother's chest.
"You have the Halli well stubbornness in you. You have much more than most Halliwell's I must admit to you. But darling you and Victor belong together." Patty said as she kissed her daughter's head.
"I want daddy to be able to go back to my sisters. I know they must miss him. I don't want to be selfish any longer." Paige softly said as she calmed down. "So I was thinking of going with you up there and letting the Elders do what they must with me."
"No!" Patty held her daughter closer to her and tighten her gripe. "Don't ever think that again Paige. You belong with Victor and someday soon you will be with your sisters I promise you."
END OF FLASHBACK
"Have you seen my sisters yet? Are they going to come tonight?" Paige asked leaning forward and taking her adopted father's hands into hers as she looked excitedly into Victor's eyes. "Am I finally going to meet my sisters."
"I saw Prue." Victor frowned. "She's pissed off with me. Which I knew she would be." He shook her head. "I don't know if they have their powers yet; but if what Patty told me is true they should have received them again after Penny died."
"I'm sorry that I couldn't meet Grams when she was alive." Paige thought of her grams whom she had just recently meet when she had come to visit her with Patty. Her eyes twinkled as she thought back to the little fight that Grams and Victor had upon meeting once more.
FLASHBACK
"Penny." Victor nodded stiffly at his former mother in law.
"Victor." Penny frowned the non magical ex husband her daughter had chosen. "Where is Paige?" She demanded.
"She's getting ready for her date." Victor said. He turned around and called out. "Paige, there is some one here that I would love you to meet."
"Love?" Penny raised her right eye brow.
Victor turned back to Penny's spirit. "Yes love. Paige is your granddaughter after all."
Before Penny could say anything else twenty year old Paige joined the group. She gasped at the sight of her youngest granddaughter. "Paige, it's good to see you once again." She held out her arms waiting for Paige to join her so she could finally hug her granddaughter once again.
Paige raised her eye brows. "Aren't you opposed to be with my sisters? Why have you left them." She didn't move towards her grandmother. "Go back to them; they need you."
"I died. This morning I took my last breath on earth and I'm a spirit just like Patty. My first visit since I was reunited with Patty is to you darling. Now come and give your grams a hug." Penny said matter of fatly.
"How could you leave my sisters so willing? Don't you understand they need you." Paige frowned darkly at the older woman who was her grandmother.
"It was my time to go darling." Penny lowered her arms as she knew that Paige would not be coming to her.
"So my sisters powers have been unbounded. Do they know how to protect themselves yet?" Paige moved closer to Victor and Patty who were standing next to her.
"They have to read from the Book of Shadows before their powers can be unbounded. So to answer your question they are still powerless." Penny sighed deeply. "I don't know if they are ever going to be ready to receive their powers and their destiny."
"Why not." Victor growled deep in his tho art.
"They have such distance between them. Prue and Piper are as close as can be. So are Piper and Phoebe. But Prue and Phoebe are as far as you can mange." Penny sighed as she moved sideways for a few steps.
"What happened to my daughter's?" Victor stormed. "What did you do Penny."
"I didn't do anything. I did my very best to keep your three daughters as tight as sisters should be. But with Prue giving up her childhood to help raise Piper and Phoebe so that they would still have their childhood's intact Prue grew up way too fast. Phoebe is in her carefree and live life to the fullest stage of life right now." Penny glared at Victor not liking his tone at all. "Life is what happened Victor Bennett."
"Mom." Patty said speaking for the first time since arriving with her mother at her side. "Victor."
But neither one of them stopped their angry words.
"I can't believe that I left my daughters in your care woman. They would have been much safer and happier with me. Prue would have had her childhood." Victor spat out as he glared into his mother in law eyes. "I can't believe that I didn't grab my daughters and left with them. They would have been safe with ME!"
"Like Paige." Penny said. "How many demon and warlock attacks have Patty had to save Paige from."
"You mean I saved Paige from." Victor growled.
Penny's eyes widen.
"Yes Penny; I an stupid mortal without any magical powers whats so ever has been able to save a innocent from demon and warlocks." Victor said with sadness in his voice. "Now that you are no longer around to protect my daughters; I need to go and protect them myself."
Paige blinked as she thought back to all the times in her childhood as she witnessed Victor fighting demons and warlocks who were after her. Even when she grew older and stronger; Victor still wouldn't allow her to assist him in vanquishing the evil beings. She had yet vanquished her first demon or warlock.
"It's true mother. Victor has been a wonderful and protective father to Paige. He has learned how to protect her." Patty said.
END FLASHBACK
"Prue ordered me out of her office. But I told her that I would love to have dinner in the dinning room with her and her sisters." Victor leaned back against the back of the couch and rubbed his hands up and down his drawn face. "I don't know if they will come."
"They'll come." Paige knowing said with a smile. "How can they not; they haven't set eyes on you in twenty years. They will come."
"Why is it you are so sure, Paigey?" Victor shook his head ruefully because that was just a classic Paige phrase whenever they discussed her ½ sisters.
"They are Halli well women after all." Paige grinned as thought back on her family tree. The Halliwell's could trace all the back to the 1800's where Melinda Warren was born. The woman who started the long line of good powerful witches who defended the good and vanquished the evil.
Victor had finally learned the entire history of Patty's family after he had found Paige. He smiled as he saw how animated Paige was when she spoke of her family tree. He knew that Paige loved and was proud to be part of the Warren/Halliwell family line. Even through she couldn't be raised with her sisters, or even have them know of her existed, she still could carry her head held high. "You are right they are Halliwell's and just might show up just so they wouldn't stain the family name. Not the Bennett off." He shook his head. "The Bennett side is going to fight very hard to stop the Halliwell side to have an contact with me." He laughed bitterly. "Wonder which side will win out here."
Paige leaned forward and touched her adopted father's right check. "Have faith. They are your daughters they of course want to see you." She smiled slightly. "They love you, they want to see you but they are still afraid that you will take off again." She said in a knowing voice but gently. She had to prepare Victor for what the situation could very well be, she wanted him to understand why her sisters weren't willing to get close to him once again.
Victor looked a little sadden into his adopted daughter's eyes knowing that she was about to tell him something in which he didn't want to hear. Ever. But he knew that he couldn't run from the harsh truth forever and that in this moment it was his time to hear it. If it was anyone but Paige, Victor would have told them where to get off. But he knew that Paige was finally ready to meet her sisters and have them know about her.
That was the second main reason why Victor was anxious to see his three daughter's again. He knew now that Paige was twenty one she was a full grown adult. Now the Elder's couldn't force Paige to go up there and do their bidding. Now Paige was strong enough to protect herself against the Elders; she was now strong enough to resist their magical pull to them.
The first was to finally get the Book of Shadows out of the manor. That way he could protect his three daughters from the magical world. Protect them from demons and warlocks who would be out to kill them every freaking day. Even if they have unbounded their powers, Victor could still protect his children. He was set out to protect them. Now that Penny was dead and no longer the girls protector; his daughters were alone with very powerful powers. Victor didn't even have a doubt in his mind weather or not his daughters have unbounded their powers; he felt his little girls fear deep within. So Victor was set out to protect his daughters.
"They were way to young to know the real reason why you left them after their mother's death." Paige gently said. "Too them when they needed their father most in their lives - he abandoned them. Yes to them you have adandoned them. They didn't know why you couldn't be with them. They just knew you walked out. They felt like it was their fault that this happened." Paige said. " Prue didn't only have to be a mother to her two younger sisters but a father also. That's a heavy load to put on a child's shoulders."
"I didn't mean for that to happen." Victor tightly said. He forced himself to stay put and listen to his adopted daughter who was half sisters of his three daughters.
"Didn't you." Paige raised her eye brows slightly. She didn't mean to hurt her adopted father but these things must be said before he saw his daughters once more.
Victor remained silent as he thought about how selfish he had been when he turned his back on his three beloved daughters because he wasn't ready back than to learn about magic. He wasn't ready to try to protect his daughters from the demons and warlocks and perhaps be killed himself in the process. He hadn't been ready to die for his daughters. But now he was.
Paige remained silent as she watched Victor dwell on his thoughts. She knew now it was up to him and her sisters to reuninte and become a family once more.
END CHAPTER FOUR
Author's Note: PaigeSuperWhiteLighter wrote this chapter. Sorry it is so long but I had to have quite a bit flashbacks for it to make since that Victor is Paige's adopted father.