And here is the second chapter. I know it's rather short, the first handful of chapters will be rather short but they will get longer as the story does.

Metropolis

Late morning

"Yeah, I got in okay this morning, I checked into my hotel room an hour ago and now I'm on my way to meet Amy for lunch," Paige said, talking into her cell phone as she walked down the street.

"And Amy is this friend who is getting married?" Piper asked.

"That would be the one," Paige confirmed. "Look, as much as I appreciate you calling to check in on me, I need to go. And you need to stop avoiding whatever it is you're avoiding."

"I'm not avoiding anything," Piper denied but Paige knew her well enough to know when she was lying.

Piper was pretty bad at it, after all.

"Yeah, you are. Figure out what it is," Paige advised her older sister before cutting the call.

As she pocketed the phone, she rounded a corner and paused, staring at a building she hadn't seen in six years. The club called Atlantis. As she stared at it, Paige was taken back.

Atlantis, six years earlier

Night

Twenty-one year old Paige was sitting at a booth with some friends. It was the last week before their senior year of college started and Amy had talked them all into coming down for the week, one last hurrah before their last year of school and all that. As Paige took a drink, she felt an urge to go to the bathroom. She put her drink back on the table and told her friends where she was going before getting up.

After using the toilet, she exited the stall before being grabbed suddenly. She tried to cry out but a hand over her mouth muffled her scream. Paige then stilled as a knife was placed at her throat and she got a good look at her attacker.

He was a man a few years older than with dark hair and matching eyes and a sneer on his face.

"You cry out, I kill you. Nod if you understand," he ordered and she nodded slightly, aware of the knife at her throat. "Don't make a sound or I will kill you. I'll make this quick."

He then pulled her back into the stall and closed it. As he put the knife away, Paige closed her eyes fearfully. She had no illusions about the fact she was about to be raped. However, as the man's hands moved towards her sides, something happened.

The door to the stall was suddenly yanked open, the lock breaking and the man cried out as he was thrown across the room. Paige watched in shock as he hit a sink with enough force to break it in half before falling to the ground, out cold. As water began spraying the room, Paige looked in shock at her savior.

He couldn't have been much younger than her, was her first thought. He was a dark haired young man with blue eyes. He was dressed in all black, jeans, shoes and a button up black shirt. And he had what looked like a class ring on his finger.

"That'll teach you to prey on innocent women," the man said as he looked back at Paige, his face hard with anger. "You alright?"

"F-fine," Paige stammered her heart hammering as she realized how close this man had come to raping her. "Is he-"

"He'll live," the young man said indifferently. "Although he'll be in the hospital for a while."

"Thank you," Paige said as she wondered how he knew that.

"I just did what anyone else would have done," the words sounded humble but the smirk on his face said otherwise. "Name's Kal. What's your name?"

"Paige. Paige Matthews," Paige muttered as she stared at Kal curiously, wondering how he was strong enough to do what she had just seen.

"Paige?"

Paige was broken out of her memories as a voice called her name. Looking over, she saw Amy making her way over to her across the street.

"Amy," Paige smiled as she met her halfway, the two hugging tightly.

"It's so good to see you. I haven't heard much from you the last three years," Amy said as she pulled back.

"Sorry, I've been…busy," Paige said lamely.

"Well, you can tell me all about it over lunch," Amy said as she linked her arm through Paige's and began dragging her across the street towards the restaurant.

Daily Planet

Same time

Clark was not having a good day. In addition to Lois leaving to head to Egypt, Clark was now forced to put with Cat Grant as his partner (thank you very much Tess), who spent most of her time railing against Lois and the 'vigilantes'. And now, Clark had to protect her, as someone had seemingly put a hit out on her. While Cat tested Clark's patience, he couldn't conceive of anyone wanting to hurt Cat. But the bullet lodged in the engine of Cat's car that had exploded begged to differ.

Clark was in Tess' office, reading Cat's file when Tess walked in.

"All you had to do was ask Clark," Tess said in a tone that managed to be both gentle and dry at the same time.

"Cat Grant isn't who she says she is," Clark said without turning around.

"I know you two would have a lot in common," Tess said dryly.

"Her real name is Mary Louise Schroder and that's not the only secret she's keeping," Clark said as Tess made her way over to her desk.

"Face it Clark, you're not gonna be happy with anyone sitting in Lois' chair. So why don't you run to the Sahara and bring her back?" Tess inquired.

"Lois is the one who ended it. I can't force her to stay with me if her heart is somewhere else," Clark argued.

"How very progressive of you," Tess quipped. "If you really believe it."

Clark gave her an unamused look. As much as he'd love to discuss the pitfalls of his relationship with Lois, he had bigger fish to fry.

"Look, the point is something weird is going on with Cat. She's making suspicious phone calls. And someone tried to blow up her car this morning," Clark said and Tess gave him her full attention. "The cause was a bullet somehow lodged perfectly in the combustion chamber. And it's engraved. The only letters visible are A-R-N-T."

"Cat Grant," Tess muttered.

As Clark looked at her, he realized Tess had a look on her face he had seen before. Usually when he was telling her something she already knew.

"I think I've seen this work before," Tess said as she sat down in her chair, beginning to type at her computer. "Let's hope I'm wrong."

"You know who did this?" Clark asked as he walked around to the other side of her desk.

"If it's who I'm thinking of, it's an old op of Checkmate. One of the few they never got and one of the even few they fear," Tess said before bringing up a web page on them.

"I can see why," Clark said as he took a look. "Number three on Interpol's most wanted; top five of FBI and CIA."

"He strikes targets with surgical precision and assassinates all witnesses," Tess said lowly.

"What's his name?" Clark asked.

"Checkmate never could ID him. They just called him Deadshot," Tess told him.

Metropolis

Not long after

"So you finally found your family," Amy noted as she and Paige caught up over lunch.

"Yeah. They're great, they're the best thing that ever happened to me," Paige said with certainty.

While she could do without the demons and Elders and, well, magical creatures in general screwing up their lives, she wouldn't trade Piper, Phoebe, Leo and her nephews for anything.

"I'm happy for you Paige. I just wish you had kept in touch more," Amy muttered and Paige winced.

"I'm sorry, things have just been…really complicated the last few years," Paige said lamely, wishing she'd thought of what to say to these questions earlier.

"Can't be much more complicated than living in Metropolis," Amy pointed out and Paige nodded.

"Guess you've got a point. I mean, you have your own superhero," Paige pointed out.

"Yeah. After all the craziness that happens in this city, it's nice having someone like the Blur looking out for us. Just wish everyone else say it that way," Amy said with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Paige asked confused.

"There's this guy, Gordon Godfrey, he has his own radio show. He's constantly ranting about superheroes or 'vigilantes' as he calls them. He makes the Blur sound like a criminal. And worse, people are actually listening to him," Amy explained.

Paige was silent, mulling this over. When she and her sisters had first heard about the Blur, they had found it admirable that he was doing exactly what they did, except he could do it more openly. Admittedly, it had never occurred to her that someone could find a reason to dislike the Blur. But, considering everything she had seen over the last three years, maybe that was naïve of her.

"Wow, this kind of turned into a downer. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make this all serious. This was supposed to be us catching up," Amy said, breaking Paige out of her thoughts.

"Its fine, I'm the one who brought it up," Paige said, waving off her apology.

"I vote we stick to happier topics for the rest of the day. Which brings me to why I really wanted to have lunch with you," Amy said and Paige raised an eyebrow. "First, I want you to know that there is no wrong answer to this. But I wanted to ask you if you would be one of my bride's maids."

"Really?" Paige asked shocked.

"Yeah, we were like sisters in college, you stood by me in some of the worst days of my life. And now I want you standing up there with me on one of the best. So, what'd you say?" Amy asked.

"Of course I will, I'd be happy to," Paige said with a smile.

She knew she still had a lot to figure out about herself, she was still lost, but sitting her with one of her best friends, Paige felt okay for the first time in a long time.

Yes, Paige and Clark have a past, more of which will be revealed in the coming chapters.

Amy would be played by Candice King.