I don't own Charmed.

Enjoy.

The Revelations of Patty Halliwell.

As she and her sisters went over the love letters written to their mother for Sam, Prue wondered when this seemingly never-ending rollercoaster would end - the lake where their mother had died and the memories of the camp would always be ones Prue and the others would never forget no matter how hard they tried; Prue might not have seen the demon which had been made completely out of water, which made sense considering it dwelled within the lake and drowned innocents, but she had seen what happened to her mother although she had never really understood what had happened at the time.

But discovering her mother and a Whitelighter had had an affair…

She and her sisters had known for a long time things between Patty and their father Victor had been bad at the time, although Prue and the others were just too young to recall the reasons why, but they'd learnt enough to discover the magic had driven them apart.

But a Whitelighter? Okay, Prue could see the attraction. Sam had likely been the only man in Patty's life, but what had happened during those days?

"Are these the only letters you've found?" Phoebe whispered as she looked up at Piper warily; Prue couldn't blame her exactly considering how much Piper and Leo loved each other, and the only way they could have a relationship was only possible if they did it secretly, something the other Halliwell sisters didn't like. Their sister deserved better than that, they all did. But since the rules forbidding witches and Whitelighters was so stringent, there might be no hope for Leo and Piper.

Prue wondered how Piper was truly taking the revelation that their mother had loved another Whitelighter, but she was hopeful that the romance with Leo and Piper did not end tragically as it had with mum and Sam. "No, only those; there might have been a few more in Sam's home, but I don't think I can face going back there," Piper shook her head.

Prue glanced at Phoebe, seeing the same understanding and sympathetic sadness there that she felt for Piper. It was clear Piper wasn't taking this well.

"How did she do this without us knowing?" Piper asked, waving her hands in frustration.

"How could we? We were kids at the time," Prue pointed out, grimacing as she thought about the things she wished they had known about; that twisted mess where they'd tried to stop their mother giving their powers away, that sprang to mind. But she wished Grams had had the forethought to raise them in magic instead of keeping them between two worlds.

Piper glared at her. "That's not helping," she ground out. "Why is it every time we find a secret out about mum and grams there's always something that makes us question who they were?"

Silence briefly fell in the room. "Do you think Grams knew? I mean, she might not have known, mum might have kept it secret," Phoebe looked between her older siblings curiously, a dark look in her eyes that was shared by Piper and Prue alike. They felt the same way Piper did.

Prue shrugged. "Maybe she did, but there's no mention of Grams in any of the letters telling mum to stay away; if Grams had done that, then it would be a feature in the letters."

"We could ask her," Phoebe suggested, looking between the two thoughtfully.

"No chance," Prue shook her head instantly.

"Don't even think about it, Phoebe. That's not only using magic for personal gain, and we remember what happened when we tried that, we don't want it happening in reality," Piper shuddered as she recalled the horrifying future where she and Leo had gotten married but it was a horrific world where a modern-day witch hunt had begun where Phoebe had used her powers to murder someone; they had worked out later that had only come about when they'd returned to their home time and discovered they'd used their powers on a man who let his dog poo everywhere. It was a small thing, using magic to stop someone from doing that, getting revenge. What was to stop them from going too far? Piper, Prue, and Phoebe had mutually agreed to always try to keep that future from happening, especially if their family paid the price like everyone else.

"I don't like the idea of the consequences of magic being used for personal gain, but I do think we need to try to find out what else mum and grams were hiding from us. I think I'll head out to the lake again tomorrow, find out if there's anything in Sam's place and see for myself," Prue said in that decisive manner which said 'I've made up my mind, and you can't stop me.'

"Are you sure it's wise heading to the lake?" Piper asked automatically before the events of the day kicked in.

"Why not? The demon's not there anymore. It should be dead," Prue replied, although her uncertain gaze made it clear even she wasn't sure, but she was determined to go anyway.

"Do you mind if I come with you?" Phoebe asked hesitantly, much to Piper's disbelief and Prue's surprise. "I mean, I barely knew mum before she died. I only have a few happy memories of her before she…died. I'd like to learn more about her."

That more than anything clinched Prue's decision. She closed her eyes and nodded with a smile. "Okay, Phoebe, you can come," she agreed before she turned to Piper. "What about you, Piper?"

"I don't know…," Piper whispered.

"Oh please do, you might learn something about what a relationship between a witch and Whitelighter is like," Prue knew she was being insensitive, but if Piper found out what life had been like for Patty and Sam, then it might help her with her own relationship with Leo.

Piper glared back, but she nodded reluctantly.

X

Prue looked around the camp. It had always been an eerie place when it was completely empty, but when those busloads of kids had gotten off the sound of their laughter and chatter had made it even more sinister, even before she and Phoebe had worked on making the would-be campers leave. But now the threat of the demon was gone, she had wondered if the camp would regain some of its lost splendour. But no, thanks to the demon she had a feeling it would be a long time if ever before the camp was reopened and restored, but she doubted it; the kids had been sent home and it was more than likely the authorities would just give up on the place. It was more likely it would remain empty, but Prue didn't care so long as another demon didn't take hold of the place and used it as a feeding ground.

She stared at the glassy rippling surface of the lake, seeing the boats floating on it, empty and adrift. The image had always been sinister because of the amount of death here, but even with the demon gone, Prue was unsurprised the same sinister feel from the lake was still there, and it probably would never leave.

"Do you think anybody will come back here again?" Phoebe's voice broke through Prue's thoughts.

"Well, you sent those kids home, right? With the camp's reputation the way it was, I can't see anybody reopening this place," Piper looked around the lake with fear in her eyes; Prue didn't blame her.

"The authorities have likely been told about that by now," Prue pointed out, "they've probably been trying to reopen this place for some time, but there's no point now. I don't know about you guys, but I don't give a damn what happens here."

"No chance," Phoebe shook her head.

"It's a shame though, right?" Piper looked sadly at Prue, and Prue knew what was going on in her mind. "We had some great moments here, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Prue smirked before her smile fell. "And then we lost mum. Anyway," she added with a smile she knew her sisters could tell was completely fake, "let's head over to Sam's, see what we can find."

The three sisters walked into Sam's home. The three sisters searched through the files and the drawers patiently. "I've found more articles about deaths on the lake," Piper called.

"Yeah, me too, but I've found a few crime novels," Phoebe replied, gazing at the small collection of books inside the room. "He was truly trying to find a way to kill the demon, but he did not let it dominate his life."

"Hey, look at this," Prue said, holding a piece of paper or card in her hands.

"What's up?" Phoebe asked as she jogged over, Piper was following at a more sedate pace. The two younger Halliwell siblings found themselves looking at a photograph of their mother and grandmother, with Sam. Phoebe had no problems recognising the younger Sam; even without knowing what the former Whitelighter had looked like young without the vision depicting mum's death, she had seen Sam often enough to imagine what he looked like young.

But Phoebe noticed something about Sam and her mother. They were standing casually apart with Grams between them, but Phoebe knew their grandmother well enough to see that despite the trademark loving smile on grams face, there was a suspicious look in her eyes as she looked between the two with her. "It looks like she didn't know what was going on," she commented.

"No, but she clearly saw something was happening," Prue finished, letting out a sigh of frustration that they had to find out about their mother this way. "Are there any more around the room? I've pretty much gone through my patch."

"I'm still looking," Piper said as she moved off. A few minutes later she found another letter. "Hey, I've found another letter."

Again the sisters ran over and they read the letter. "Dear Sam, I think mum has begun to suspect something is going on. But I can't stop seeing you. Is there any way we can keep seeing one another while stopping mum and the Elders from discovering what we're doing? Love, Patty." Piper handed the letter over to Prue. Aside from the letter and the photograph, they didn't find much, but when Prue walked into Sam's bedroom, wrinkling her nose at the stench of beer and BO, which said a lot of Sam's personal hygiene, she found a large framed photograph of a younger Sam and an equally younger Patty Halliwell.

"I wish we'd known about this, mum, but how many more secrets are there?" Prue whispered to herself before she started searching the room, and she found a few more love letters. They weren't unlike the ones Piper had taken to the manor, but she took them regardless. Prue did not find a diary or anything like that, there was no sign of a scrapbook or album with photos of the couple.

When the Halliwell sisters returned to Piper's SUV and left 3 hours later, they came away with a number of photographs and letters. They had searched Sam's place with what they believed was a fine-toothed comb, aided by Prue's expertise as an auctioneer. Prue and Phoebe were in the back of the SUV going over everything they'd found.

"Well, Grams knew something was going on, but we don't know if she realised what had happened when mum died," Prue commented as she once more read a few of the letters.

"She probably did. Grams wasn't stupid, and besides she would likely have known something went wrong when mum died," Phoebe shuddered sadly at the thought of mum dying, although the whole event was playing in her mind like all of the worst premonitions she had seen in her life.

Piper shuddered too as she focused on driving them home. "What about that diary of the demon?" She asked, referring to the diary they'd found which had been started on the very day mum had died. They had found it buried under a ton of pizza boxes.

Prue flicked through the pages of the aforementioned diary. "I never realised how many people were killed after mum," she whispered, shaking her head in grief at the thought of so many people dying. "It's no wonder that damn lake was closed down. Sam's later entries are clinical, but the earlier ones talk about how he had tried and failed to stop anyone from listening to the warnings. There are dozens of entries like it, hinting about his frustration of being called a madman."

"Well, if you talk about a magical monster killing people in a lake, it's bound to make you get a reputation," Phoebe commented.

"There are quite a few mentions of mum," Prue went on while she tried not to think about how the long self-imposed exile had worn down Sam's sanity which had begun with the loss of the woman he'd loved. It was hard for her to believe their mother had loved another man like this, and the effect it had when she died, but Prue kept on reading deciding to think about the implications of Sam's feelings for Patty. "How he regrets what happened. Wishing she were there, that she keeps him strong but there are pages where he clearly cried on them when he talks about his failure to deal with the demon."

"How many times did he try to deal with it? I thought that he'd stopped being a Whitelighter," Piper said.

"He did, but he had enough magical knowledge and some powers left over to stop the demon, but it failed each time; he knew mum had come up with a way of using electricity to kill it, but he didn't know how and he lacked your freezing power to make it really work," Prue rubbed her face in regret as she flicked through the pages, mentally counting how many times Sam had tried and failed to kill the demon. "He tried to kill it 14 times in the first 2 years since mum died, but each time it failed. He tried a few more times over the last few years, but the last one was last year, on the same night we became the Charmed Ones."

"I guess that makes sense. He must have known we would gain the Power of Three, but he likely knew we would remember mum's death and investigate, so he decided to save us the trouble, redeeming himself at the same time," Phoebe remarked.

"Mm, it says much the same there. He also says, and I quote 'I can't let Patty's girls die the same way,'" Prue whispered, but then she frowned. "There it is again."

"What?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know," Prue murmured uncertainly as she flicked through the pages to see if she could find more entries like the one she was looking at originally to make that comment. "There have been a few times where Sam left the lake, and he went into the city. He talks about a she, a young woman, but he doesn't say anything about who she is or why he's going; it's like he knew someone magical would find out about this, and he wanted to stop them from asking too many questions by keeping it vague. He says she works for a social working agency, but nothing more than that, except to comment that she seems happy despite everything."

"Another witch he seduced?" Piper asked, instantly wincing and wishing she had come up with a better way to describe how their mother and Sam had hooked up.

Prue sent Piper a glare before she looked down at the pages. "No, she's not a witch, but Sam does not say a word about why he's interested in her, except he wants to make sure the Elders and demons know nothing about them. He keeps his mentions of this girl sporadic, like he doesn't want her to know about it, or anyone else."

Phoebe frowned uncertainly as she tried to work out what this new information meant. "Is this girl a witch? Just because Sam wasn't a Whitelighter after mum died, it doesn't mean he didn't have instincts."

"No," Prue shook her head in irritation. "He's purposefully kept the whole thing mysterious."

Phoebe sighed, Piper just shook her head while Prue gazed at the pages in frustration.

X

Prue looked up from her work on the new entry to the Book of Shadows to check the time and to give her aching wrist a rest. She had just spent the past half an hour writing an entry into the Book, describing in detail the water demon which had lived in the lake should future owners of the book come across something similar. She and her sisters had begun writing in the book to describe the threats they'd encountered, adding their own dose of wisdom for future generations to peruse. This was no different, but it had a personal feeling to it now, so Prue had needed to think long and hard about what to write in the pages.

Prue, Piper and Phoebe had put the collection they'd taken from Sam's place safely in the manor with the rest of mum's things, but they were mystified about what they would do with Sam's diary, but they just placed it on mum's old bed. The three sisters didn't know anything about the girl described in the pages of the diary, and they had no leads to go on to discover who she was but maybe in time they would.

Author's note.

I couldn't help but add that little spoiler about Paige. Hope you enjoyed it.