Paige and her husband Henry were eating lunch with Priscilla and her husband Drew. The two couples chatted like old friends.
"I have to say that it's nice to have another mortal around who knows about all this magic stuff," Henry confided.
"Right back atcha, Henry. It's such a large part of your life and there are very few people in the 'inner circle'."
"We can't expose magic," Priscilla reminded her husband.
He smiled at her, "I'm well-trained, Pru…scilla," he hurried on, "But it is a relief to not have to watch and weigh every word with someone who's as normal as me."
"Normal!" Priscilla snorted, her blue eyes twinkling.
"He's right. I mean I got a little used to it…"
"After he fell off the Golden Gate Bridge," Paige supplied.
"Oh, Paige, you didn't?"
"Yep," Paige nodded, "I did. I was so intent on sharing everything so it would be more familiar for him and less strange."
"And then a few years in, with very few freak outs from me, I might add, and active magic is mostly pft."
"Pft?" Drew asked.
"Um hm," Paige confirmed. "We knew that the underworld needed to regroup. They pretty much guaranteed that we wouldn't see much of them, but our children would. We didn't notice at first when our active powers started to weaken and then pft."
"We didn't have any 'pft' in our world." Drew stated, envy tingeing his voice.
"Magic never died, just good Witches," Priscilla confirmed.
Paige was instantly contrite, "Oh, Honey. I am so sorry. Today is supposed to be a celebration."
"It is, Paige," Priscilla assured her friend. "After all the loss we suffered, I can honestly say that today IS a celebration, and there are no other people that I'd rather share it with."
"Having one of those everything-is-perfect-right-now-please-world-stop moments?" Paige quizzed.
"Absolutely," Priscilla grinned broadly.
"I remember her as being less wordy," Drew grinned at Paige.
"What? I was mute in your reality before I was dead?" Paige quipped.
"No. Just very dedicated to the good fight. You hated wasting energy on nonessentials," Priscilla said patting Paige's hand.
"…Like conversation." Drew added with a twinkle. "I like you like this. It's what I always wished for you."
"So you were close to the sisters in your reality?" Henry asked, leaning forward in interest. He liked the other couple and was intrigued by them. Priscilla and Drew rarely satisfied anyone's curiosity; instead they remained very tight lipped on the differences in realities.
"I loved Paige like a sister," Drew confirmed. "It was so hard for her, finding her sisters so soon after Piper's death. It was so unfair. Paige should have had a chance to meet Piper and vice versa. Then, losing Phoebe and the Power of Three…"
"We helped when we could," Priscilla said, starting to shy from the subject.
"I forgot that Shax killed Piper in your reality. I guess that meant in your world that I knew Prue." She ended her sentence in an almost question, biting her lip indecisively. "Did she like me?"
Priscilla's shyness instantly faded, "She adored you! At first, she protected you because you were an innocent and it took a bit for her to thaw towards the idea of you being her sister. The thing about Prue is that she was all about control and nurturing. She'd helped Grams raise Piper and Phoebe. With Piper gone and Phoebe going to school and being involved with Cole, Prue's maternal instincts were largely ignored. And then there was Paige." Priscilla grinned, "A shy, somewhat awkward girl thirsty for family, starving for love and attention. You helped Prue through her grief and she loved you for you, her baby sister."
Paige's big brown eyes were brimming with tears as she grasped her friend's hand. "Thank you," she whispered quietly, simply. Priscilla understood and nodded in acceptance.
