Disclaimer: "Angel", along with all related characters and concepts, was created by Joss Whedon and Co., so they don't belong to me, while "Charmed" characters and concepts belong to Constance M Burge. Anyway, enjoy
Feedback: As always, I'd appreciate it
AN: Intervening scenes involving the Witch Doctor purging Halliwell Manor of the excess demonic magic happened pretty much the same way they happened in the show; I just wanted to get on with the part of the story where things slightly diverged from what happened in the original course of events (And I hope my alternative plans for Paige's 'response' to the curse meet with your approval)...
AN 2: Some potentially 'intimate' scenes involving Paige and Angel here, but nothing significant enough for me to feel that it merited upping the rating (Opinions would be appreciated; I'm not that great at that kind of scene, but I thought it was appropriate to the situation)
The Love of a Vampire
"So... your childhood best friend's gettin' married?" Doyle said, looking sympathetically at Paige as she sat behind her desk in the agency's office, staring half-heartedly at the invitation on the table in front of her.
"It's not that I mind about him moving on with his life; it's just that... well, he only dropped in to tell me about it the day before the wedding," Paige said, shaking her head as she sat back in her chair, the invitation lying discarded on her desk as she stared up at the ceiling. "I thought that Glen and I could tell each other everything even if we didn't end up together in the end, and I only hear about his wedding on the day he's getting married?"
"S'not like you haven't kept things from him," Doyle said, shrugging slightly as he indicated the office around them. "I mean, don't think you've mentioned the witch thing to him, right?"
"Yeah, OK, so I've kept some things from him, but that's different; keeping the magic thing secret was meant to protect him from having to deal with this kind of stuff, and things with Angel were just so complicated earlier that I didn't want to say anything until I knew..." Paige began, only to trail off as she felt like withering under Doyle's intense stare. "OK, so maybe I haven't shared some things with him..."
"Granted I'm not really the best guy to complain about secrets, but you've gotta just calm down about this whole thing, OK?" Doyle said, trying to smile encouragingly at his friend. "You're happy with Angel, this Glen guy's happy wi' his soon-to-be wife, Piper an' Leo are happy with their lives, and... well, if you could see your way to-"
"Not quite," Paige said, a suddenly slightly blank expression on her face that Doyle didn't like the look of much.
"Uh... what?" he asked, hoping Paige was just having trouble expressing herself or something like that; he knew that he hadn't understood what she meant by that, and it wasn't like people hadn't spoken about their thoughts aloud without realising that other people couldn't understand what they meant before...
"My relationship with Angel should be more than it is," Paige said, looking at Doyle with an expression that somehow combined vacant intensity in a manner that the half-Brachen didn't find entirely reassuring. "I have work to do."
"'Work'?" Doyle repeated, standing rapidly up in his chair as Paige got up from her desk and headed towards the door. "On your relationship? Paige, you an' Angel are fine where you are-"
"We could be better," Paige said simply, before she raised a hand and waved impatiently at him in a dismissive manner as she headed towards the door of the office. "See you later; I've got to get on with things."
"Wait; what-?" Doyle began, before his vision was surrounded by the familiar sensation of orbing, fading away to leave him standing on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, looking at his surroundings in exasperation.
"Great..." he muttered, glancing over the side of his new location as he quickly went over the most likely ways for him to get down, most of which involved relying on his demon form and hoping like Hell nobody saw him.
"Damnit, Paige..." he groaned- the witch probably wasn't herself, but he could still curse her for falling victim to whatever had made her act like that-, as he sat down on top of the bridge, pulling his jacket around his body to protect himself from the worst of the wind as he tried to think of any alternative options that came to mind for dealing with this particular mess.
He'd give it a few minutes to think of something himself, and then he'd have to call Leo and hope that the guy considered him a 'charge' on his own; he knew that Paige was working on her Whitelighter senses where he and Angel were concerned, but given that she'd sent him here he wasn't going to count on her snapping out of whatever had made her do this any time soon, and he wasn't clear on if Leo was bothering about that kind of thing...
When Angel opened his eyes later that afternoon- he might be trying to get into a more human-like daily schedule to better fit in with his friends, but as a vampire he still preferred to sleep in the day if possible-, he wasn't entirely sure how to react to the sight that greeted him; Paige, crouched on top of his bed, dressed in a very revealing set of black-and-red lingerie that somehow managed to cover the immediate necessities while still leaving very little to the imagination.
"Hey there, Angel," Paige said, licking her lips in a manner that put Angel uncomfortably in mind of Darla for a moment, even if the warm affection in Paige's eyes was a contrast from the straightforward lust that had been in Darla's when they'd been in this kind of situation. "Have a good night?"
"Uh... yeah," Angel said, looking awkwardly at his girlfriend; as much as he appreciated the view she was presenting right now- even after seeing her naked, there was something so tantalising about the way this lingerie displayed her assets and made her curves stand out like that that really got to him-, the actual action was something distinctly contrary to Paige's typically straightforward nature. "So... what are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know how it is," Paige said, grinning seductively at him. "The Manor's being de-energised, my childhood best friend's getting married, and we don't appear to have any clients for the day so far, so I figured... what better way to spend the day than here?"
"Hold on; Glenn's getting married?" Angel said; he remembered Paige telling him earlier that she was meeting her friend today in case he tried to call her while she was out, but he hadn't really thought much about the meeting until now. "When-?"
"Glenn isn't what's important right now, Angel," Paige said, placing a finger on his lips before she went on to trail it down his chest, smiling seductively at him as she hooked her finger over the blanket and began to move it down. "What is important is my making sure you understand how very, very happy I am with you... and how... important... our relationship is to me..."
Any response Angel might have made was cut short when Paige took advantage of his open mouth to plant her lips over his, her hands alternating between caressing his chest and pushing the sheet down further... the sheet that was now resting just above his thighs as one hand sneaked underneath it...
Letting out a lower growl as Paige's hand tightened its grip on the back of his head, Angel gave into temptation and grabbed her shoulders, holding her against him as his tongue caressed hers, the feel of silk and flesh as her barely-clad breasts pressed against his chest increasing his own arousal at the vision she had presented earlier, the scent of her filling his nostrils-
Wait.
Now that Angel had moved in closer, he was aware of something... off... about her scent; it smelt as though Paige had...
"What's that scent?" he said, pushing Paige slightly away from him as he tried to place it in his mind, his eyes suddenly focused on Paige's clothing as he noted a few symbols sewn into the design around her waist that he thought he recognised from some of the myths from his childhood. "And are those... fertility symbols?"
"Just a little thing I added earlier; had to use a quick spell or two to sort out the stitching in this time frame, but since it's for you as well it's not that big a deal," Paige said, smiling at him in a manner that Angel was starting to think of as almost disturbingly vacant; she didn't even seem to register that he was concerned about the way she was acting right now. "Just sit back, relax, and let it all do its work-"
"Let what do its work?" Angel said, trying to resist the part of himself that was increasingly tempted to let Paige continue whatever she was trying to do, because she was doing things with the hand that was under the sheet that were oh-so-tantalisingly-close to being very pleasurable at a time when Angel really needed to focus.
"Oh, y'know, just seeing if we can beat the odds and be a really unique couple for once..." Paige said, grabbing Angel's left hand and moving it from her shoulder to her stomach, pressing his palm against her with a soft smile. "There's a place in here for a very exceptional little life if all goes well, Angel..."
"Sorry; what?" Angel said, yanking the hand away from her as he stared at Paige incredulously. "Paige, you know I can't... y'know..."
"Oh, don't worry about that; I'm working on a few spells to see about 'tweaking' that little issue," Paige said, smiling reassuringly at him as she leaned over, brushing her lips over his in a barely-there kiss before she pulled back. "After all, we have such a great relationship already, why not make it that bit better-?"
"Phone!" Angel said as the device in question rang, trying not to sound relieved as he quickly pushed Paige aside, got out of bed and headed for the phone in his flat's kitchen area, grabbing a dressing-gown as he walked; he didn't know what had prompted Paige's mood, but he was increasingly sure that she was being far too forward for this to be natural.
"Angel?" Leo's voice said on the other end of the line, the Whitelighter sounding unusually exasperated about something. "Are you OK?"
"Aside from Paige trying to take our relationship to places I'm not entirely sure it can go with me as I am, I'm fine, yeah; why?" Angel replied, trying to ignore the sound of footsteps as Paige walked up behind him; if Leo felt the need to call him, there had to be something wrong, but it also couldn't be urgent enough for Leo to feel the need to orb.
"Paige is acting odd too?" Leo said, the tone of his voice warning Angel before he said the rest of his sentence. "Well, at least I know Piper's not the only one."
"Piper's trying to seduce you?" Angel asked, stepping to the side as Paige advanced towards his back- fortunately she'd brought a cordless phone so he didn't have to stay in one place as he started walking-, one hand occasionally gently shoving her back as he kept a hold of the phone with the other.
"Seduce me?" Leo repeated, sounding like he wanted to stop himself laughing at the thought. "I wish it was that simple; she's absolutely fanatical about cleaning the house... wait a minute, you mean Paige-?"
"Let's just say I'm-" Angel began, before the phone disappeared from his hand and appeared in Paige's.
"Very busy preparing for the conception I've been trying to accomplish, so I'd appreciate it if you leave us alone for the next few hours, OK?" she said into the phone, clearly unconcerned about the fact that she was providing that information to her brother-in-law before she ended the call and returned her attention to Angel. "Now then, where were we?"
The sight of orbs briefly made Angel panic- was Paige bringing something in to try and 'liven things up'?-, but when the orbs dissipated to reveal Leo, the vampire allowed himself to relax slightly; the situation he as in might be embarrassing, but at least he wasn't alone in dealing with it any more.
"It's that witch doctor," Leo explained, trying not to look at Paige while he addressed the at-least-mostly-covered vampire. "I just finished talking with the Elders; they think that he put them under a hex."
"What?" Paige said, looking over at Leo with a smile. "I'm not hexed; I'm just-"
"You're trying to have sex with me in the middle of the day using fertility charms and incantations in the hope of bypassing my physical restrictions; I think we're a bit past what you'd do normally," Angel interjected, looking firmly at Paige. "Paige, it's not that I wouldn't want... any of that... but you're trying to force the pace of our relationship to be something that you want, rather than something I want; even if I'd like it, that doesn't mean that you can just... decide something like this for both of us."
"I'm just trying to-" Paige began.
"Paige, this isn't like you; can you just focus?" Angel said, looking earnestly at the woman he loved, hoping he wouldn't have to resort to more drastic measures. "If you're not happy with how things are going between us, then I'm sorry, but this is pushing things too far; if you don't stop now, then I'm going to have to leave."
Paige simply stared at Angel in stunned silence for a moment, and then her eyes filled with a brilliant golden glow, prompting her to close her eyes for a moment before opening them once again, the original near-manic stare of fixation in her eyes replaced by a more normal, slightly confused expression.
"Angel?" she said, looking uncertainly at the vampire. "What happened...?"
She glanced down at herself and her eyes widened in shock, made even worse when she fully registered Leo's presence in the room.
"Oh God..." she said in shock. "What was I doing?"
"Trying to get pregnant, I think," Angel said, looking awkwardly at Paige for a moment before he glanced over at Leo and awkwardly indicated the nearest door. "Uh, could you just... give us a moment to get dressed?"
Staring at their house, Paige couldn't believe that things had gone this far; Piper should have been freaking out about just the idea of climbing ladders while pregnant, and here she was, stripping the roof of its tiles just to clean it?
"Piper, this really isn't the time, OK?" she protested, looking in frustration at her sister as Leo stood behind her, Angel watching from the porch out of a lack of any shade in Piper's immediate vicinity. "This isn't normal-!"
"I'm just prioritising; we're never going to get anywhere in a messy house," Piper said, dismissing Paige's concerns as she continued her work.
Damnit... Paige thought, stepping back as Piper discarded another tile from the roof.
That was the problem with this kind of hex, according to what Leo had told her and Angel; since it drew on pre-existing obsessions, the victim could only shake it off if they were forced to realise that they were doing something significantly against their normal nature while under its influence. Paige had thrown it off when she as confronted with the fact that she was trying to force Angel to do something rather than working with him, but so far Piper was just being frustratingly stubborn without actually hurting anyone close to them...
"Hey, Paige, a little help here?" a voice suddenly said from behind her, prompting Paige to turn around in time to be greeted with the bizarre sight of Phoebe coming out of her car carrying a large turkey.
"What are you doing with that thing?" Piper asked, indicating the turkey.
"Well," Phoebe said, a disturbing grin on her face as she studied the bird in her hands, "first I'm gonna kill it and then I'm gonna stuff it."
"You are not bringing that filthy fowl in the house," Piper said.
"Yes I am," Phoebe replied, still grinning in an overly-enthusiastic manner as she walked up the path towards the house. "Thanksgiving's early this year."
"Do not get any blood in that kitchen," Piper called after her sister as Phoebe walked into the house, leaving Angel and Leo to exchange glances with each other as she brushed past them.
"Phoebe's fixation is a turkey?" Leo said, as Paige walked over to join them.
"Uh... would it be assuming the worst to guess that it might be someone she turned into a turkey?" the half-Whitelighter asked, looking apprehensively between her brother-in-law and boyfriend. "I mean, she has been going on about this other columnist who's been criticising her work lately..."
"OK, we can't afford to waste any more time like this; we're going to have to take this to the source," Angel said, nodding resolutely as he looked between his friends. "Leo, see what you can do to stop Piper and Phoebe going too far; Paige, I think you and I need to see the doctors."
"I'm all for that plan," Paige said, smiling resolutely as she placed a hand on Angel's shoulder, glancing over at Leo with a smile. "I take it witch doctors are fairly easy to find?"
"Just focus on the source of the hex that afflicted you earlier; that should take you straight to them," Leo said, glancing apprehensively between his wife and the door that his sister-in-law had just walked through. "I'll... try and keep things under control here, OK?"
"Right," Paige said, focusing her attention as the familiar feeling of orbing surrounded her and Angel...
As it faded, Angel's eyes narrowed as he glared at the two men in suits who could only be the witch doctors, judging by the description Leo had given of the one who'd visited the manor earlier, standing around a cauldron in a dark candle-lit room filled with various other cauldrons and voodoo-esque 'equipment'.
"Things are progressing well," one man said, as he stared into the cauldron.
"It's only a matter of time before they destroy themselves," the other one said, sounding far too satisfied with his job for Angel's liking; anyone who took that much pleasure in destroying lives had to be suspect.
"Talk about premature jubilation," Paige said, glaring at the two men as they turned to face her and Angel in obvious surprise. "You gentlemen might want to see a doctor about that."
"Or, failing that," Angel added, reverting to his vampire face as he glared between the two men, "I could just beat some sense into you."
"A vampire?" the witch doctor said, looking incredulously at Angel before he shifted his attention to Paige. "I knew that you were in danger of corruption, but-"
"OK, reality check here, buddy; Angel has a soul," Paige said, walking over to poke the witch doctor firmly in the chest, a stern scowl on her face as she glared at him. "He's a champion who gets missions from the Powers that Be to save people, you got that? He might not be a perfect hero, but just because you don't understand something doesn't give you the right to try and destroy it!"
"Your hose is contaminated by evil magics; I felt that it was for the best-" the witch doctor began, only to be interrupted when Angel hit him in the face with a well-timed punch that sent him falling to the floor, the vampire swiftly grabbing the other witch doctor by the throat before he could react to the attack on his colleague.
"Keep in mind that if we were the threat you seem to think we are, I could have killed him and you by now while you were busy talking," Angel said, his glare firm as he stared at the man whose life was now almost literally in his hands. "But I'm not like that, and I'm not going to kill you just because you made a mistake, no matter how big it was; what I want right now is for you to undo that hex of yours before my friends do something that they're really going to regret."
"He's right," Paige said, staring resolutely at the witch doctor as Angel relaxed his grip, lowering the other man to the floor while still keeping his fingers threateningly close to his neck in case he tried anything. "We may have a lot of dark magic around our house, but it's only there because we spend our time taking it out; you get rid of us, you'll have more problems than solutions, trust me."
"We might not be conventional good guys, but we get the job done; the fact that we don't always play by the expected rules just gives us that extra edge when dealing with our usual bad guys," Angel said, staring firmly at the witch doctor for a moment before he fully released his grip on the other man's throat and stepped back, reverting to his human features even as he maintained a combat stance. "Now then, reverse the hex on Piper and Phoebe before this has to get any uglier, OK?"
"Very well," the witch doctor said, nodding back at the vampire. "I can assure you that no harm was intended-"
"What was intended isn't important right now; the only thing that matters is what you did," Angel said, staring firmly at the witch doctor. "Next time you're going to do a hex like that, at least try and find out more about the people you're hexing; setting yourself up as judge and jury like that is a good way to become what you think you're trying to stop."
Whether his words would make any kind of impact, Angel didn't know, but he did know that he had to at least try and give them a chance; from what Leo had told them about witch doctors, they generally served an important role in the magical community, and killing these ones simply because they'd made a mistake, no matter how big it had been, wouldn't accomplish anything.
He might be annoyed at the witch doctors right now, but if he attacked them because of his first impression, he'd be no better than them, and while it might be an effective way to make his point, it wasn't the type of message he wanted to send.
Later that night, as Paige walked into the hall where Glen's reception was taking place, she still found it hard to believe that she was actually here; after everything that she and Glen had gone through, all the 'maybe-relationships' they'd had together when they were both single, here he was, married to someone she'd only met yesterday and hadn't even heard about beforehand...
But, as meeting Angel had taught her, sometimes you meet people who are so special that you want to keep them to yourself for as long as you can, because you couldn't believe that something so good could happen to you in the first place.
Looking over at her vampire boyfriend, Paige smiled slightly as he awkwardly adjusted the bow tie she'd provided for him before they went to the reception; with everyone else settling in fairly comfortably after the hex had been lifted with no permanent harm done to anyone, Angel had agreed to take the night off to accompany Paige to the reception. Not only was Doyle recovered from the Golden Gate Bridge- and willing to accept Paige's apology for her impulsive actions under the hex-, Piper had learned to accept the occasional bit of clutter in her home life while Phoebe was left feeling slightly humiliated at the rather revealing photoshoot she'd done for her magazine, which should hopefully result in the other columnist she'd been having disagreements with losing some interest from his readers.
"Paige!" Glen said, smiling over at her as got up from his table and walked over to give her a quick hug. "You made it!"
"Sorry we're late; something came up at the last minute," Paige said, shrugging apologetically- no point explaining that what kept them was finding a tux for Angel on such short notice; his usual shirts were OK, but he hadn't any kind of 'wedding attire'-, before she smiled and indicated her boyfriend. "Glen, this is Angel; Angel, Glen."
"Hi," Glen said, shaking Angel's hand with a slightly awkward smile, even as Jessicawalked over to stand beside her new 'husband'. "So, Paige tells me you're a... private detective?"
"Of sorts," Angel confirmed, pulling out a card from his coat and handing it to Glen. "We specialise in more unorthodox cases than most detective agencies, but we get the job done; given your connection to Paige, consider us available if you need our help for anything in the future."
"We'll keep that in mind," Glen confirmed, smiling back at Angel as he took the card.
"Just... well, don't take this the wrong way, but I hope we never in a situation where we have to call you," Jessica said, shrugging awkwardly as she looked between Angel and Paige.
"Trust us; in a perfect world, we'd be happy not to be needed," Angel said, smiling reassuring at Jessica before he turned to Paige, smiling as he indicated the dance floor. "Shall we?"
"Please," Paige said, taking Angel's hand with a broad smile as he escorted her onto the floor, revelling in the simple feeling of Angel's arms around her waist as they slowly swayed against each other as they started their next dance.
"So," Angel asked, looking uncertainly at Paige after a few moments, indicating where Glen and Jessica were sharing their own dance a short distance away, "do you ever... y'know..."
"Think about... this?" Paige asked, shrugging slightly as she tried to restrain her emotions at the thought of what they were talking about. "Well, I've given it some thought- what girl hasn't thought about her... special day... but... well, y'know, with the way things are right now... I'm not sure marriage is right for us, you know?"
"Because I'm a-?" Angel began apprehensively.
"Because you're Angel, and I'm Paige Matthews, and where we are in our current relationship means that marriage doesn't feel right right now," Paige said, shaking her head as she looked firmly at Angel, before she leaned over to give him a brief, reassuring kiss and pulled away with a slight smile. "But someday, when everything is right, and we both know that it is... well, just remember that, OK?"
Angel's relieved smile was a pleasant sight on its own, but the promise of the future that he offered in that moment was more than words could ever have expressed.
No matter what she'd tried to get while under the influence of the hex, what they had now, as far as Paige was concerned, was all that she and Angel would ever need; the two of them, side-by-side, partners in love and in demon-fighting, for as long as they would have each other.
Maybe she and Angel weren't where Glen and Jessica were yet in terms of a more... conventional... relationship, but their own relationship was still strong as it was; if they weren't there now, they'd get there eventually.
All that mattered was that they were doing this at their pace and in their own time; nobody could tell them how far they should take their relationship if they didn't want to take it further than they had so far.
Right now, Paige knew that she and Angel were both comfortable spending the occasional night together- each of them preferred their independence, even if their closets were already filled with the other's clothes as well as their own just in case either of them decided to visit on impulse- and working as colleagues in an unconventional detective agency tackling unusual cases for those who couldn't help themselves; anything more than that would be decided when it was appropriate.
AN 3: With that covered, next up we have another major moment of this season, as Leo and Piper become parents (Which will relatively swiftly lead into other major events...)
