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: Another 'Charmed' rewrite, which I hope meets with your satisfaction; I had to stretch when Paige's curse would kick in, since she's not dating Nate now and therefore has no reason to go to a karaoke bar, but I think the changes work
The Love of a Vampire
Standing outside the nursery as Paige sang to Wyatt, Angel smiled as he watched his girlfriend, her soothing voice calming her nephew/namesake as he lay in his bassinet, eyes slowing blinking shut.
"Finally," she said, standing up and looking back at Angel with a smile as Wyatt finally dozed off. "Don't get me wrong, I love that little guy, but sometimes you just wish he'd stay asleep."
Angel just nodded briefly in response to that statement, uncomfortable saying anything more in response; the knowledge that he couldn't never give Paige a child of their own was something he didn't want to discuss any more than he absolutely had to.
"Y'know," Paige said, smiling seductively at him as she moved towards him, "it just occurred to me, after all the time I've sung recently, I've never heard you do the same…"
"Trust me, you don't want to," Angel said, shaking his head firmly. "I tried it a couple of times in the seventies out of curiosity, and the results… well, they weren't pretty."
"You sang in the seventies?" Paige asked.
"It was a phase," Angel said briefly before he looked at her more encouragingly. "Seriously, though, how come I haven't heard you sing before?"
"Bad experience," Paige answered. "I was supposed to sing the school song for graduation; eight hundred people were watching, the band is playing, I get up but no sound comes out of my mouth. I completely froze. To make matters worse, I ran out and missed my own graduation."
"Ah," Angel noted, nodding in awkward understanding, wishing that he had more to say to that story than he did; a disadvantage of his age was that he had little in his background to help him relate to Paige and his other allies. "That would suck…"
The conversation was cut short when a dark-skinned figure suddenly appeared in the room, grabbing Paige by the head before Angel lunged forward to strike the demon in the head with a powerful punch, knocking it away from the witch before it could turn to attack him. With Paige safe, Angel grabbed the demon by the head and twisted its neck as hard as he could, creating a satisfying crack before the demon collapsed into nothing.
"Huh," Paige said, smiling slightly as she looked at the small burn-mark that was the only sign that the demon had been present. "That was… pointless."
"Whoever complained about an easy day?" Angel noted.
"Good point," Paige admitted, shaking her head in frustration. "Seriously, though, we keep on taking out these Kazi things and they just keep coming back; what do they actually expect to gain?"
"Demons," Angel said, shrugging out of a lack of anything else to say. "Some of them are just too full of themselves to think about the risks."
"Point," Paige noted, smiling at him in approval of his assessment. "Anyway, we'd better get going; Piper wants me to join her and Phoebe at the street fair tomorrow for Wyatt's first time out, and… well, y'know…"
"Yeah," Angel said, nodding in understanding at her. The issue of his inability to go out in daylight was one of the many details about their relationship that they tried not to think about any more than they had to; they had reconciled themselves to their limitations most of the time, but some days it was just easier than others.
Still, if Paige was going to be busy with her sisters tomorrow, that just made it all the easier for the two of them to enjoy the current night together, now that the initial near-obligatory nightly demon attack was over with and there was nothing else putting a demand on their time...
Taking in the street fair the following morning, Paige was once again reminded of why she appreciated San Francisco so much; the city presented such a fascinating amalgamation of different histories and cultures in a visually breathtaking location on a regular day, never mind on occasions like today…
The only downside to the day so far was that it had been difficult to get things started; they'd had to repair some damage to the conservatory that they'd been putting off because they hadn't all been available earlier, and Phoebe had been trying to make arrangements for a meeting she'd be having the next day while Piper was worrying about her relationship with Wyatt just because she was having trouble getting him to smile for photographs.
On a magical note, the recent upsurge in Kazi demon attacks was puzzling, but Doyle had spent some time checking in with his local contacts in the more conventional demon underworld (Angel's arrival in their lives had really broadened their knowledge of what the supernatural community was like) and he hadn't heard anything to suggest that the Kazi was up to anything more interesting than trying to make a dramatic impression by going after the Halliwells. The sisters were having to be more cautious, and Wesley had taken to carrying more concealed weapons than he might have done- Angel and Doyle could handle themselves against a Kazi in a straight fight, but Wesley was still only human- but in general everything was going fairly well.
Paige had faith that her sisters would cope with their upcoming challenges, but she was still grateful that she had her own business and no immediate responsibilities beyond her relationship with Angel; at least she didn't have to cope with the kind of stresses they had to handle. Worrying about the Kazi demons trying to kill them might not be conventional stress, but it was at least the kind of situation that she could resolve without too much hassle; Angel or Doyle could knock out the next attacking demon easily enough, and then, once they found the king, it would all be over fairly quickly.
It was slightly sad that their life focused on how to kill things, even if they were demonic, but Paige felt that she had come a long way since Angel first dropped in on her after that first vanquish…
Right now, all she had to worry about was watching as Piper and Leo tried to encourage Wyatt to enjoy the fair when he was still young enough to prefer taking a nap to actually doing anything, as well as Phoebe continuing to talk to her editor over the phone despite the fact that she was meant to be having her day off at the moment.
As Phoebe's conversation finally became ridiculous, Paige decided to interrupt, walking over to her immediately older sister and all-but-stealing the phone from her hand, nodding over at where Piper was standing in front of another booth with Leo and Wyatt.
"…Too much phone-time?" Phoebe asked, at least having the dignity to sound apologetic about it as she ended the phone call.
"To say the least," Paige said firmly, taking her sister by the arm and practically marching her over to where the rest of their family were waiting. "Seriously, you're become way too fixated on work; I thought Doyle was meant to be encouraging you to relax?"
"That's why I'm in this mess in the first place; we took so much time out recently that I ended up falling behind!" Phoebe protested, even if the warm smile on her face made it clear that she appreciated what Doyle had done for her. "I mean, I enjoyed our time together, but there's only so much time I can afford to take off when things are this hectic; I've probably only got five minutes before the next call comes in…"
"Five minutes?" Piper repeated, looking at Phoebe in exaggerated incredulity. "You're only going to spend five minutes with your nephew at his first street fair?"
"I know, but I think I'm gonna be working Saturdays from now on," Phoebe said, shaking her head in exasperation. "Look, do you think I'm happy about this? There are many things I have been in my life; workaholic is not one of them."
"If you're not happy, why are you doing it?" Paige asked.
"Who said-?" Phoebe began.
"You just did," Piper interjected, leaving Phoebe to silently curse as she replayed her earlier words and confirmed her sister's point.
"Look, are you sure this isn't just because your boss thought it was a good idea?" Paige put in. "I mean, I get that you feel kind of bad about turning him down, but you're with Doyle now; you don't have to make up for being unavailable or something stupid like that…"
"Hey, national syndication is a big deal for me; the fact that Jason suggested it isn't what's important right now!" Phoebe protested indignantly, only to be interrupted when a small monkey jumped from the top of the booth to land on her shoulder, placing a hand against her ear before it jumped over to Paige.
"Don't like monkeys!" she yelled, as the creature placed its hand over her mouth before jumping over to Piper, covering her older sister's eyes before jumping away again, the crowd just laughing at what they probably assumed was part of the act even as Wyatt began to cry.
It might have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but Paige was glad to have an excuse to leave; with Wyatt feeling tired and anxious, it was probably time to call it a day even without that odd discomfort she was feeling in her throat…
Paige knew that she was risking jinxing herself, but she had to admit that she was very much enjoying the last couple of days of peace. Nothing of immediate import had come up at the agency while she was away with her sisters the previous day, Wesley had spent some time yesterday buying a new set of books as part of his efforts to restore the collection he'd apparently lost after being fired from the Council, and Doyle was making arrangements to give Phoebe a relaxing dinner this evening after the chaos of some of their recent interrupted dates.
"Are you sure we don't need to worry about the Kazi demons?" she asked as she walked down the street after picking up a new pair of daggers that Angel had ordered recently; with her hand-to-hand skills having hit a plateau of what she could accomplish without enhanced strength, Angel was working on teaching her in the use of a variety of weapons, and the daggers were the latest tool.
"I told you, they're strong, but they're also fairly stupid," Angel said reassuringly. "We know that they're out there, and we can handle it; Wes is sticking with Doyle until we've got this dealt with."
"Good to know," Paige said with a smile. "Guy might not have been good enough for the Watchers, but we-"
She suddenly found herself cut off mid-sentence as her voice vanished, even as she kept moving her lips before she realised that she wasn't making a sound.
Oh God… Paige thought, raising her hand anxiously to her throat as her repeated attempts to speak failed to accomplish anything.
She might not be a medical expert, but she knew you couldn't lose your voice this quickly for no obvious reason, which meant that she was dealing with an extremely disturbing curse…
Screw getting some exercise; she didn't need to hear Angel anxiously asking for her to know that she needed to get to her boyfriend as soon as possible. Quickly terminating the call and putting her phone away, Paige orbed away…
Reappearing in Angel's apartment, Paige immediately ran for Angel to give him a relieved hug, before she stepped back and pointed anxiously at her mouth, opening and closing it to try and convey what had happened.
"Paige, what… you can't speak?" Angel asked, expression shifting from confusion to anxiety as realisation struck. "What happened?"
Angel realised that what he'd said was stupid even before Paige rolled her eyes, but to her credit, Paige didn't waste time berating him about his stupid question, simply grabbing a nearby pad of paper and writing on it as fast as possible; LOST VOICE. POSSIBLE DEMON MONKEY? GET HOME?
"Probably the best call," Angel said, nodding at her in confirmation, deciding to ignore the comment about the demon monkey for the moment. "Even if your sisters can't help immediately, it's probably safer there than here."
Rolling her eyes at Angel's confirmation even as she smiled at him gratefully, Paige took his hand and focused for a moment.
As they reappeared in the manor's kitchen, Paige and Angel found themselves facing Phoebe, who was looking anxiously around before she smiled at the sight of them.
"Oh, there you are!" Phoebe said, sounding surprisingly loud as she looked at her sister and the vampire. "We have a problem; I lost my hearing during the biggest meeting of my life!"
"Yeah, that's not the only problem!" Angel countered, looking anxiously at the older Halliwell sibling, pulling out the pad of paper that Paige had written on earlier and holding it up to show Phoebe.
"You lost your voice?" Phoebe said, looking at Angel in shock, before Paige shook her head and pointed at her own throat. "You lost your voice?" Paige nodded in response before placing one hand over her mouth while indicating the 'monkey' written on the piece of paper. "Because of the demon monkey?"
As Paige nodded in response, Phoebe wrapped her arms around her sister in a loud apologetic hug, before stepping back and looking anxiously at Angel. "Are you OK?"
Reasoning that speaking wouldn't do any good, Angel just gave Phoebe a thumbs-up and nodded in response.
"OK, that's good; so we're thinking the monkey did this to us?" Phoebe asked, indicating herself and Paige, the younger Halliwell rolling her eyes in frustration even as she nodded in confirmation. Angel was just reaching for the piece of paper he'd been using to write on when he heard voices coming from the other room, prompting him to grab Phoebe's wrist and lead her towards the voices with Paige close behind him, swiftly identifying Leo, Wyatt and Piper as the new arrivals.
"What's that?" Piper asked, turning towards the vampire and her sisters but facing a point slightly to their left.
"What's wrong?" Angel asked, looking at Leo.
"Piper's lost her sight," Leo explained, before he looked at his in-laws in surprise. "Phoebe? I thought you had a meeting?"
"Leo, I lost my hearing!" Phoebe yelled at him, indicating her ears. "And Angel… mimed that Paige has lost her voice! Is Piper OK?"
Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Paige responded before Angel or Leo could do so, turning Phoebe around to face her before covering her eyes with one hand and pointing at Piper with the other.
"Piper's blind?" Phoebe said, looking at her eldest sister in horror.
"And you're deaf?" Piper asked, once again looking slightly off to the side from Phoebe's actual location. "And… did I hear something about Angel and Paige losing her voice?"
"Paige has lost her voice; I'm still fine," Angel confirmed. "You're in the conservatory; you're all safe now."
"Yeah, until whatever did this comes after us again," Piper added, prompting Paige to mime the monkey once more.
"Uh… Paige thinks that a… monkey did this to you?" Angel said awkwardly.
"That monkey at the street fair?" Piper said, nodding in understanding. "Yeah, that fits… it covered my eyes, Phoebe's ears, and Paige's mouth…"
"We think that the monkey did this-!" Phoebe began, only for Paige to slap a hand over her mouth and glare at her sister.
"Phoebe?" Piper asked anxiously.
"Paige was just stopping her repeating what we already guessed," Angel clarified, before he looked over at Leo. "I take it you already tried just healing this?"
"Of course," Leo said, shaking his head in confusion before he looked at the vampire. "So… there was something about a monkey?"
"Yeah, this mangy monkey leapt onto us at the street fair yesterday while you were walking around with Wyatt," Piper explained, at least looking partly in Leo's direction. "We haven't had the chance to work out how that happened yet, but if we're all here…"
"You'll have to be careful," Leo finished, looking over at Angel. "I'll get Doyle and Wes in case we need any help; you stay here and make sure Piper stays close to Wyatt."
"Right," Angel said, glancing over at Paige. "See if you can find anything in the Book, and stay alert; I'll stay here with your sisters."
As Paige gave Angel a thumbs-up and hurried up the stairs towards the attic, Angel looked over at her sisters and wondered why anyone would mount an attack like this.
Taking the sisters' senses was effective as a means of immobilising them as a team, but it wasn't like his own efforts had gone completely unnoticed by the forces of evil; did whoever was behind this forget that he and the others were there, or did they have some other plan…?
