Chapter 10

A dark-haired man sat at a desk, riffling absentmindedly through a large stack of papers. His eyes were not reading, or even looking at, the words on the topmost page. Instead, his gaze was drawn to a photograph of a young woman displayed in a frame. She had dark hair, a wide smile and looked as if she was laughing right at him. He could still remember the day the photo was taken. They had gone out for a romantic picnic in the park, but nothing had seemed to go right. Birds kept trying to steal the sandwiches, and the drink had spilled out over the muffins. But she hadn't become upset or angry-she just laughed. He wished he could hear her laugh now.

'Henry!' a voice broke through his thoughts.

'Huh? Oh, um yeah?' He looked up, startled.

'I'm going for lunch,' the man told him, halfway out the door already.

'Sure, yeah, whatever…' Henry agreed absently. His gaze had been drawn back to the photo, and this time he picked it up.

'Paige, where are you?' he asked quietly. He hadn't seen his fiancé for five long, lonely months. He had spent every minute of his spare time searching for her, but she seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, or at least from America.

'Excuse me, are you Henry Mitchell?' another, unfamiliar voice disturbed him this time. Henry looked up quickly, almost dropping the photograph as he did so.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you,' the blonde-haired man apologised. Henry smiled.

'It's alright. It's just, well, I thought I was the only one here. And yes, I'm Henry Mitchell.'

The blonde-haired man held his hand out for Henry to shake.

'Leo Wyatt,' he informed Henry.

Paige was sitting on the cold floor of the deserted warehouse.

'I can't believe this!' she muttered to herself, not really knowing what she was referring to- her being a witch, or 'whitelighter' or whatever, or the fact that Leo had gone to find Henry.

'And what was with those blue lights?' she asked herself, speaking of when Leo orbed out. Everything was so confusing. She wished that she had never left the hideout. But even as she thought that, a part of her disagreed. She could remember the faces of Piper and Prue, and there was something familiar about them. She just couldn't place what it was. Piper seemed to be a motherly character, and Paige had longed a mother ever since her adopted parents had died all those years ago.

Perhaps that is why I like her Paige thought. And then Prue's face came in to her mind. A face that was full of pride, but a hidden sorrow. Paige could see herself reflected in Prue's blue eyes. She felt somehow 'connected' to the two women.

That's ridiculous she thought, shaking her head. Paige, you only met them for about five minutes.

Suddenly, blue lights appeared again before she had time to dwell any more on her thoughts. Leo formed in front of her, clutching the arm of…

'Henry!' Paige cried out, jumping to her feet. Henry staggered away from Leo, his face a mask of confusion.

'What just happened?' he looked around wildly. Then his eyes landed on Paige. 'P…P…Paige?'

Paige didn't answer. She just ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He hugged her back, holding on tightly as if she would disappear if he let go. They stood there without moving for what seemed to Leo for ages. Finally, he coughed. Paige and Henry jumped apart, although Henry kept a firm grip on Paige's hand.

'I think you need to do some explaining,' Paige told Leo with a frown. Leo shuffled his feet nervously.

'Alright,' He agreed. 'You see, Pratt has been waging a war against the wrong side. Witches fight demons and warlocks, who are evil. Pratt is persecuting the good!'

'What about what Phoebe Halliwell did?' Paige demanded. 'I don't call killing a man good.'

'Well, Phoebe was possessed by a demon at the time,' Leo reasoned. 'Her soul wasn't in her body, so you can't blame her.'

He saw the awed and slightly frightened expressions of the couple.

'All of this can be explained over time,' he continued gently.

'What about that weird thing you did just now?' Henry spoke up. 'We were standing in my office, and suddenly we were here.'

'I'm a whitelighter. It's like a guardian angel for witches. I'm Prue, Piper and Phoebe's whitelighter, and so I help them out whenever I can. You see, I can orb, which is what we did when I brought you here Henry, and we can heal as well.'

'So what am I?' Paige asked, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. Beside her, Henry took a sharp intake of breath.

'I'm not sure.' Leo shook his head. 'I would say that you're a whitelighter, as you definitely seemed to orb out earlier. But the Elders didn't know anything about you.'

'Elders?' Paige asked, and then held up her hand. 'Actually, don't tell me. I probably don't want to know.'

Then she turned to Henry.

'I'm sorry,' she spoke quietly. 'I…I'll understand if you don't want to marry me anymore.'

Henry looked at her for a moment, and then pulled her into a kiss. Leo stood back awkwardly as he tried to avoid looking at the couple. With a pang of regret and sadness, he remembered the time when the happy couple was himself and Piper. Finally, Paige pulled out of the kiss with a grin on her face.

'I hope that answered your question,' Henry told her. Paige nodded vigorously.

'Definitely.'

'Anyway,' Leo broke in lamely, 'Although I have to admit that I've never heard of it before, I suppose you are a witch with powers similar to a whitelighter.'

'Actually, you aren't quite right there, Leo,' a voice interrupted. 'Paige is half whitelighter, half witch.'

A woman stood before them suddenly, a smile on her kind face.

'Hello, Paige sweetheart,' Patty Halliwell told her daughter. 'You've become more beautiful than I could have imagined.'

I know this chapter is rather short, but it seemed a good place to stop. I'll try and have the next chapter up sometime this weekend! It's getting closer to the main action of the story!!

Thanks to: Charmedfan90, Shawn-n-Bell, Hotcutii and l.a. mitchell for the reviews!

Please review!!!!!!!!!!