Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing.
Chapter Ten
Looking furtively around her to make sure no one was watching her, Paige placed a single sheet of paper in the center of her desk. Then, holding her hand out, she bit her lip as she focused on making the paper move.
She had no idea if she could do it, again, but after last night's incident with the remote, and then the shower incident earlier that morning, she knew she couldn't risk her newfound powers getting out of control. The last thing she needed was to create a storm in the middle of the office.
'Come here,' she thought, focusing on the paper.
For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then the paper shuddered on the desk. She concentrated harder, but the paper didn't move any more. Instead, her pencil cup tipped over, suddenly, pens rolling across the surface of her desk. One was rolling toward the edge of the desk, and she focused on it, a tiny furrow appearing on her forehead as she glared at the pen.
The pen had just started to fall when it seemed to jump in mid-air, flipping around on the puff of wind that left her hand. The pen shot back toward her and she caught it before it could hit her, grinning in triumph.
"I did it," she said, in satisfaction.
Granted, it was only moving one pen, and even that was probably a fluke, but it was still a step in the right direction. And now she knew how Tyler had felt when he'd been able to light a candle wick during their practice.
She kept up the practice while she worked, and after nearly an hour of effort, she managed to finally make the piece of paper float a few inches above her desk. Of course, she had a major headache to show for all of her effort, but she dug through her purse for the bottle of ibuprofen she kept there, downing the pills with the bottle of water she kept on her desk.
"Matthews!" Cowan bellowed, suddenly. "My office!"
Paige flinched as her boss's voice carried across the room, people looking over at her in its wake. Filing away the application she'd been working on, she stood and headed for Cowan's office.
"Shut the door," he said, not looking up from the stack of paper on his desk. "Have a seat."
"Is something wrong?" she asked, carefully, taking the seat he'd indicated across the desk.
"There's a problem with your request to adopt Tyler Martin," he said, without preamble, and Paige found her heart sinking.
"What is it?" she asked, dreading the answer. "Is it because I'm single? Because I work odd hours? Half the staff here works crazy shifts."
"It's nothing to do with you, Paige," Cowan assured her, which only confused her more.
"Well, then why would there be a problem with my application?" she asked. "There wasn't a problem with the temporary placement; why would a permanent placement cause trouble?"
"Tyler's biological parents showed up," Cowan told her, obviously seeing no other way to soften the blow.
"What?" Paige demanded, not sure if she'd heard the older man correctly. "You're telling me that, after nine years, these people show up out of the blue, and what? What could they possibly want?"
"They want to take Tyler back," Cowan said, and Paige blinked, in shock.
"They can't," she protested, automatically.
"Paige, they're his parents," Cowan retorted. "They want their son to come home."
But, Paige shook her head at his words, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself before she spoke.
"You and I both know that's a load of bull," she snapped. "His parents abandoned him when he was three years old, left him wandering around Chinatown for a day before someone found him. They certainly didn't want him then; why the hell would they want him, now?"
"I don't know," Cowan told her.
"You're not seriously going to let these people take Tyler, are you?" Paige demanded, cutting him off. "He can't go back to them."
"I'm trying," Cowan told her. "Believe me, Paige, I'm doing everything I can to block this."
"But?" Paige prompted, sensing that there was more to be said.
"But, the final decision isn't up to me," he said, gently. "And, they're appealing their case to a judge in two hours."
"I want to be there," Paige said, immediately, but Cowan shook his head.
"You're too close to this," he said. "I'll handle this, Paige. And I'll call you when it's over."
"So, what am I supposed to do?" Paige protested, weakly. "Just sit around and wait to hear if I've lost my son?"
"Get out of the office for a while," Cowan told her. "Go with Maggie Carter and Adam O'Brian to that boarding school interview. It'll be a good experience for when you're flying solo."
Paige nodded, wordlessly, leaving the office and heading for her desk. Maggie was waiting for her by her desk, and from the sympathetic look the other woman shot her, Paige was pretty sure that her conversation with Cowan had already made it around the office. The downside to working in such a small environment; nothing stayed private for very long.
"You okay?" Maggie asked, quietly, and Paige jerked her shoulder in a shrug.
"I don't know," she admitted, sighing. "I just want to keep busy until I know for sure how things stand."
Thankfully, Maggie took the hint, and they went out into the parking lot. Paige followed Maggie in her car, and, after picking Adam O'Brian up from school, they made it to the boarding school with nearly fifteen minutes before the interview.
The interview was fairly lengthy, and Paige tried her best to concentrate on the proceedings. She knew she participated, answering the headmaster's questions about Adam, but for the life of her, she had no idea what she'd said. All she could think about was the impending court case, and whether she was going to lose Tyler before she'd even gotten a chance to really know him.
Finally, the interview was over, and Maggie was grinning ear to ear as they left, Adam's admittance papers in her hand. The boy was beaming as well, and Paige pushed her black thoughts to the back of her mind, forcing a smile onto her face when they both looked at her.
"Congrats," she told Adam, who looked so happy that he could fly.
"Are you coming back to the office?" Maggie asked, as they reached their cars.
"I'm going to take an early lunch," Paige told the other woman, opening her door. "Take some time to think about things."
"Where are you going?" Maggie asked, curiously.
"Church," Paige told her. "I'll see you back at work."
Saint Anthony's was just as she remembered, as she pulled into the parking lot. The gargoyles out front had weathered with time, and she remembered how much they used to scare her when she was young. She'd absolutely refused, for a time, to even go near the church, convinced that the gargoyles were really monsters that were going to eat her.
Now, she couldn't help but smile at the almost comical expressions on their stone faces. The creatures weren't nearly so frightening now that she was older.
Inside, the church was almost empty, save for a single nun tending to the candles on the altar.
"Excuse me?" Paige asked, approaching the older woman. "I'm looking for a Sister Agnes?"
"I'm Sister Agnes," the woman told her, turning around, and Paige found herself looking at an elegant woman in her fifties. "Can I help you?"
"I hope so," Paige said, fervently. "My name is Paige Matthews."
"I'm sorry," Sister Agnes said, a confused look on her face. "I don't think we've met."
"Well, we have, but it's been a few years," Paige said, apologetically. "Does August second, nineteen-seventy-seven ring any bells?"
She'd been expecting a reaction, but not the one she got. Sister Agnes gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she stared at Paige. Tears filled her eyes and she reached out and grabbed Paige's hands.
"Oh, my dear," she said, smiling. "I've been waiting so long for you to come back."
"Waiting for me?" Paige asked, confused. "Sister, I didn't even know that I was coming here until a few minutes ago."
"I knew you'd be coming back here, one day," Sister Agnes told her. "I knew you'd have questions. And your parents wanted me to be able to answer them, for you."
"My parents?" Paige echoed.
"The ones who left you here, twenty-five years ago," Sister Agnes said. "The angels."
"Angels?" Paige asked, feeling like she was getting nowhere. Every question just served to make her more and more confused.
"Your adoptive parents were amazing people," Sister Agnes said. "But, you come from angels."
"You'll forgive me if I find all of this a little hard to believe," Paige said, stunned.
"You came here for answers, didn't you?" Sister Agnes asked. "To find out who you really are?"
"Honestly," Paige told the other woman, "I don't really know what I was expecting when I came here."
"Come with me," Sister Agnes said, taking her by the arm and leading her back to the office. "There's something I have to show you."
Opening a file cabinet by the window, Sister Agnes pulled a pink bundle out of one of the drawers. When she turned around, Paige saw that she was holding a baby blanket.
"You were wrapped in this when they brought you to me," Sister Agnes told her, handing over the blanket.
Unwrapping it, Paige draped the soft fleece over her arm, tracing over the embroidered P in the corner with a shaky hand.
"They wanted your name to start with a P," Sister Agnes said, quietly.
"They," Paige echoed. "You mean the angels?"
"They appeared in a swirl of bright, white lights," Sister Agnes said. "Your mother was holding you in her arms, and they were so scared."
"Why?" Paige asked, concerned. "Were they in trouble?"
"They said that you were in grave danger," Sister Agnes went on. "That the only way to protect you was to give you up. That they had no other choice."
"Wow," Paige said, quietly, as she tried to absorb everything that Sister Agnes had told her. "Did – did they say anything else?"
"Just how much they loved you," Sister Agnes told her. The phone rang, then, and she gave Paige an apologetic smile. "I have to get this."
"Of course," Paige said, quickly. "I'm sorry I kept you from your work. Thank you for everything that you've told me."
Leaving Sister Agnes to her phone call, Paige went out into the main part of the church. She sank down into a pew, wrapping her arms around the blanket as she stared off into the distance. The candles on the altar had all been lit, and the pinpoints of flame were almost mesmerizing.
"Angels," she muttered, not really believing the words that were leaving her mouth. "My birth parents are angels."
'Whitelighter.' The word seemed to echo through her mind, although she had no idea where she'd heard it.
"Half-Whitelighter, and half-witch," she said, testing the words. They sounded right, even though she didn't know what all of it meant.
She groaned, dropping her head into her hands. She could feel the beginnings of a headache starting, and she was starting to wonder if coming to the church had been a good idea. The last thing she needed was more stress on top of everything else going on right now.
'I just want to figure out what's going on,' she thought, looking back up at the empty church. 'I just want some answers to all of this.'
Predictably, the empty church offered no answers. Suddenly restless, Paige stood, still clutching the blanket to her chest. She paced down the aisle toward the door, intending to just go back to work. If she was going to be distracted, she might as well be at the office, where she at least had a chance of getting stuff done.
But, she was stopped halfway there when the door opened and two women entered the church. The first woman, tall with short, dark hair, was completely unfamiliar, but the second woman sparked recognition when Paige saw her.
She was sure that she'd never seen this woman, before, but at the same time, she knew this woman as well as she knew herself. Knew that she had a husband and children that she loved, that she was fiercely protective of her family, that she was a force to be reckoned with.
This woman, this stranger, was her sister.
The women headed for her when they saw her, and Paige froze as they got closer.
"Paige Matthews?" the first woman asked, but Paige wasn't paying attention to her.
Instead, she looked past her to the other woman, the one who was so familiar.
"Piper?" she asked, incredulously.