Ties That Break
Part 3: Tested and Tried
Song: "I'm Alive" by Heather Nova
iYour hands were covered in paint/i
iThe pillow smothered my cry/i
iYou were half charmer, half snake/i
iI lived and dreamed time/i
Piper sat with her face buried in her hands, trying to fight off the urge to pummel the first person that happened to pass her by, but at the same time she tried to keep herself from weeping openly in the crowded waiting room.
Leo was pacing the length of the corridor outside, itching to orb in and heal Paige before the nimrod surgeons had a chance to kill her on the operating table. But he knew that if he exposed himself and the girls, it would just make things worse for everyone, so he bit his nails and paced.
Phoebe was laying on a couch, her head resting on Cole's leg while he stared off into space. Then there was Tom, the driver that had hit Paige on the highway. Luckily for all the Halliwells, he had a conscience and stopped in time to call an ambulance and the police when he saw the bruises on her face, and the half naked man that had chased her into the street. Now he sat rigidly in his chair, biting his nails and drumming them on the armrest.
Piper glanced up and watched him, listening to the steady rhythm against the hardwood. Her sister might be dying, less than a hundred yards away, and there was nothing that she or her whitelighter husband could do about it. She blamed herself, for forcing Paige to talk to Adrian in the first place, and for letting her stay with him as long as she had. Piper wrung her hands and counted the breaths she took, trying to occupy her mind and take herself away from this place, where it stank of urine and death. She didn't have the strength to stay strong anymore, she didn't have power to hold it all in. Her baby sister was dying in the next room, she was being cut open, dissected, and there was nothing she or her whitelighter husband could do to help. She had already lost one sister, and she didn't think that she would survive if she lost another.
***
Paige was standing outside herself, watching the mass of people surrounding her. Nurses took orders in silence, every so often pausing to look down at her battered face. There was so much blood, coming from what seemed like every part of her body. She glanced down at her right leg, and grimaced as she the mangled limb that was where it used to be. Her skin was torn in a hundred different places, and she choked back her disgust as a nurse pushed a bone back into her leg just below her knee, which only caused more blood to ooze from the wound. She turned away from the horrific scene, covering her mouth with her hand, but she still heard the shouts from the surgeons, the commands for transfusions and morphine.
She raised her head, ready to turn around, but stopped short when she saw the woman standing in front of her.
She was young, her raven hair flowing down over her shoulders. Her white silk dress clung to her curves with simple elegance that accented her slim figure. Paige's mouth dropped open slightly as she recognized the woman from the pictures around the manor. "Prue?"
She nodded with a smile. "Nice to meet you, little sister," Prue said as she enveloped Paige in a firm hug. "It's too bad we couldn't have met while I was still alive."
"Looks like we'll be getting to know each other pretty well sometime soon," Paige replied with a sigh.
Prue shook her head. "That's why I'm here, Paige. They sent me to send you back. It's not your time yet." She pointed to the bed over Paige's shoulder, and the younger woman whirled in time to see the line on a monitor go flat. There was pandemonium among the hospital personnel, each person spreading out to find a new job to do. She saw the doctors shocking her, and she could feel it in her chest each time, pulling her back towards the bed.
"They need you, you know," Paige whispered with her back still turned to Prue. "Piper and Phoebe, they need you."
Prue smiled and shook her head. She came up behind her sister and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah," she said. "But they need you more." With that, she gave Paige a hard shove, sending her flying at the table.
Paige felt herself hit the table at full force, yet nothing was disturbed. Instead, she seemed to be absorbed back into her body. She heard Prue's voice in her mind. "You'll understand soon." And then all she saw was blackness.
iBut I'm alive/i
iI survived you/i
iAnd the bitter taste/i
iThe years I wasted/i
iAll the hate is gone/i
i'Cause I'm alive/i
***
Paige squinted beneath the bright fluorescent lights that shined down on her from the ceiling. Everything below her waist was numb, and as she glanced down at her leg, she saw the pins that were holding it together. The white gauze that was wrapped from her thigh to her heel was soaked in red, but crusted over, which meant that she at least had stopped bleeding. Her toes, the only exposed part of her leg, were slightly purple and tingly when she tried to move them. Unfortunately, any movement of either leg sent a wave of pain up and down her spine. She rolled her eyes and settled back onto her pillow to assess the room surrounding her.
Out her window, the sky was darker than she had ever seen it, and lightening flashed against the tall buildings of San Francisco. The clock by her bed read just after three in the afternoon, so she knew that the overcast clouds were the reason for the lights to be on and in her eyes. The heavy droplets of rain spattered against the glass in a steady drum, forming a kind of awkward rhythm that fell in time with the droning of her heart monitor. Paige sighed and leaned back, intent on falling back asleep, but something below her caught her attention. A cough, very quick and soft, but a cough just the same. She leaned over the railing carefully, looking down at the floor. There, curled up on a rollaway cot, shivering near a cooling duct, lay Phoebe. Her hair was matted down against her forehead, and her usually impeccable clothes were a wrinkled mess, and Paige knew that she hadn't showered in days. Her eyes were clenched shut tightly, as though she was having a bad dream, and her cough only made her seem more frail as she pulled herself into a tighter ball. Paige decided to let her sleep, and turned her attention to the other side of the bed. Sure enough, looking equally disheveled on a matching cot, Piper lay in silence as she trembled in the cold. She wasn't asleep like her sister, but she looked like the dead, as she lay motionless on her side. Paige watched her for a moment, studying her pale face. Piper checked her watch, then rubbed her bloodshot eyes before she glanced up. She jumped in surprise when she noticed her little sister staring down at her.
"Paige, oh my god," she got up on her knees and leaned against the bed as she took Paige's hand, her eyes misting over. "Oh my god, oh my god…" She buried her face in her sisters knuckles and broke down, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
"Piper," Paige whispered, tapping her sister on the top of the head. "Piper, I'm okay. Please, just look at me."
Piper slowly lifted her head and looked up at Paige through red-rimmed eyes. Her cheeks were flushed and she continued to quiver as she wiped her face dry. "We thought you were dead," she murmured. "When they called us… Leo tried to orb in and heal you before they could do something, but he was too late. By the time any of us got here, you were already in surgery, and when you came out, you looked so… I don't know. Dead. The doctors said that you were going to be okay, but you didn't look like you were okay. Leo couldn't heal you because of the pins," she nodded towards Paige's leg, "and they wouldn't let us take you home. It's been one nightmare after another for over a week. I just-"
Paige threw her hand up to stop her sister, then winced as a twinge went down her neck. "Wait a minute. A week? I've been out for a week, and no one told me?"
Piper let out a feeble laugh and shook her head. "You put us through a lot, Paige."
"More than you know." Phoebe crawled up onto the edge of the bed, groggy but still more awake than Paige was. "And you slapped Leo?"
Paige averted her eyes and fiddled with her blanket. "Look, you guys, I'm really sorry about Adri-"
"Don't worry about it, Paige," Piper cut in, cradling Paige's cheek in her palm. "You're okay now, and that's all that matters. They'll get Adrian later."
Paige's heart sank. "They didn't catch him? But he was there, right before I passed out, I remember him being there. He was standing over me, he was screaming…"
"Tom – the guy who hit you – he pulled over and stayed with you until the ambulance came. He said that Adrian took off just after you passed out, running back in the same direction that he came from. No one's seen him since."
"But, um, Paige…" Phoebe said, picking up where Piper left off. "After the first few days, we kinda…"
"You kinda what, Phoebe?" Paige asked, narrowing her eyes.
"We called Glenn."
All the air whooshed from Paige's lungs as she collapsed onto her pillow. "You did what?"
Piper leapt to her feet, eager to try and fix things before her incapacitated sister flipped her lid. "We called him, and I know that you and he broke up but you love him, and you know it, so… we tracked him down and told him everything."
Paige closed her eyes and tried to imagine what Glenn would do when he saw her; but then again, he probably already had. "When did he get here?"
"Two days ago," Phoebe replied. "He came by, but when he saw you, he left. He couldn't even stay in the same room for very long. He's been in and out a couple times since then, but he always leaves without saying anything. He told me that it hurt too much to see you like this."
Paige shook her head. "Is it really that bad? I thought that black and blue was the new pink." She tried to laugh at her own joke, but it ached too much. Phoebe handed her a little handheld mirror and she grimaced at the bruises that still accented her features. "I guess I can understand why he didn't stay."
"Do you want us to call him? He's staying just down the block at the Marriot. He could be here in five minutes if you want him to be." Piper pulled down the railing on the bed and sat down next to Paige.
"No," she replied. "I don't want to see him like this, even if he's already seen me. When I go home, and Leo heals my bruises, then I might see him. But I don't know what I'd say. 'Sorry, Glenn. I left you for guy who liked using me for a punching bag. I hope you understand'."
Piper nodded and pressed her forehead against Paige's, but pulled away quickly as Paige jumped in fright. "I'm sorry," Piper said, wiping a stray hair from Paige's face. "Did I hurt you?"
"No, it's just… Adrian never got close to me without hitting me in the process, so I'm not used to the warmth of human comfort, you know?" Paige relaxed a little bit as her sisters smiled back at her, the love in their eyes filling her with a renewed hope that, just maybe, she could turn her life around after all.
iSome nights I'd sleep in the car/i
iJust to escape you/i
iYou drove devotion too far/i
iNo one could save you/i
***
It took another week before the doctors decided Paige was recovering well enough to go home. They left the massive metal clamp on her leg, pins and all, and gave her enough drugs to kill a small village somewhere, but she was just glad to be out of that room. Glenn hadn't been by since she'd woken up, but she thought that it was probably because her sisters had steered him far away from the hospital. It didn't matter though, because she knew that nothing she could say would ever make him accept the apology he had coming to him. It was too late for apologies.
An orderly rolled her down the bright corridor with Piper and Phoebe in tow, and following closely behind them were Leo and Cole. Paige smiled warmly at all the nurses who clapped heartily as she passed, each one unfamiliar to her but still happy that she was going home. She waited patiently in the elevator, drummed her fingers at the front desk, and rolled her eyes while Leo went to get the car. Piper kept a firm hand on her shoulder while Paige looked around nervously.
"He's not here, sweetie," Piper murmured when she saw Paige shooting glances at the bushes next to her. "He won't come after you while you're with us, and if he does… well, let's just hope he doesn't."
Paige nodded, slightly more at ease, but the tension in the car was choking her beyond belief, and just as Leo pulled up to a red light, Paige blew her top. "Ok, look. I know you all really don't like the position I've put you in, and I'm sorry. All right? I'm really truly sorry. I don't care that you say you don't want apologies, because I know that you do, so I need to get this off my chest. You guys were right. The whole time, you were right. Leo, I'm sorry that I hit you, I was drunk, hungover, whatever, and I didn't mean to get mad at you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She paused to catch her breath. "Oh, by the way, the light's green."
Leo let out a snort, sending a wave of chuckles throughout the Jeep. The tension broken, they all laughed together until they pulled into the driveway of the manor. Sitting in an idling taxi outside the front door was Glenn, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited to see her. Paige gulped as he stepped out of the cab and sauntered across the lawn.
"He can't see me like this!" Paige cried as she tried to hide her face. Piper took her wrist gently and lowered it so she wasn't veiled from him.
"He loves you too much to care, Paige. Come on, we'll help you out." The oldest sister took her hand and inched her carefully from the car, where Cole had a wheelchair waiting. Paige settled herself in and looked up, meeting the gaze of the big brown eyes which she never thought that she would see again.
"Hey Paige," Glenn mumbled as he stuck his hands in his pockets. "Good to see you."
"You too, although I'd like to have done this under friendlier circumstances," Paige gripped the arms of her chair until her knuckles turned white, her stomach twisted into knots, and her heart pounded in her chest. Glenn was darker than she remembered, probably tanned from his latest adventure. His hair seemed more blonde than brown, and, looking up at him, he seemed taller as well. "You look great."
Glenn laughed halfheartedly. "Yeah, well… you too, I think." He fumbled with his words and tried to look nonchalant, but it wasn't working. Paige looked around and saw that her family was standing there, watching them, making them both nervous.
"Why don't we go for a walk? Er, a roll? We have some stuff to talk about." Paige reached up and took Glenn's hand, and she instantly felt better, more relaxed. He smiled and nodded, taking the handles of her chair so that he could push. Paige called over her shoulder as they made their way down the drive. "We'll be back soon!"
iBut I'm alive/i
iI survived you/i
iAnd the bitter taste/i
iThe years I wasted/i
iAll the hate is gone/i
i'Cause I'm alive/i
***
"It wasn't that I didn't love you, Glenn," Paige confessed as she and Glenn sat in a park about half a mile away from the manor. "I just didn't love you the same way that I once did. It was different."
"Different how, Paige? I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, and you just… threw me away for a this guy who beat the hell out of you." Glenn didn't shout. He didn't even seem angry. Just confused. He tried to reach out and touch Paige's cheek, but she shied away quickly, flinching. "I'm not going to hurt you, Paige. I could never hurt you." She loosened up a bit and he began tracing what she thought was her eyebrow, but turned out to be a line of stitches above her eye. "Nothing will ever be the same, will it? You'll never be able to trust me, and I won't be able to look you in the face without seeing the scars… here, and here." He moved his index finger to a small patch of thread on the side of her chin. His hand shook slightly, but not enough for it to be too noticeable.
"I never wanted to hurt you, Glenn," Paige answered softly as she took his hand from her face. "I just needed to find someone who…"
"Who wasn't me?" Glenn finished for her.
"No, no, no," Paige, waved her hand in the air, pushing the idea from his mind. "It wasn't that at all. I needed to find someone who didn't make me feel like I was tied down. You and I, we've been friends forever, and I guess I was afraid to lose that if we made it too serious between us. I didn't intend for our separation to be as messy as it turned out to be. I'm sorry it ended up that way."
Glenn nodded and fell back against the bench, then kicked out at a group of pigeons who had settled on the ground near his feet. "Yeah, me too."
***
There was silence on the walk back to the manor. Paige took in the scenery while Glenn pushed her wheelchair and breathed softly from behind. He didn't say anything as he dropped her off at the door, and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before going back to the cab that was still waiting by the curb. Paige tried not to cry as he looked up at her from the rear seat and waved a weak goodbye, then leaned back out of her view as the car took off down the abandoned road.
She tried to open the door with her trembling hands, but found that she couldn't. She rang the bell impatiently, pressing her finger into it until it turned red at the tip and Piper opened the door, her face flushed.
"Oh, honey," she said as she pulled Paige into the house. "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault, Piper," Paige sobbed as her sister knelt down and enveloped her in a hug. "Glenn and I, we just weren't meant to be together. That's all."
"It's not about that, sweetie," Piper pulled away and looked her in the eyes. "We just got a call from Daryl. They found Adrian."
Paige took in a sharp breath as her attacker's face flashed in her mind. He grinned at her viciously as he lashed out and she was shaken from her daze. "G-good… he's not out on the streets anymore. No one else will get hurt. Not like me."
Phoebe came up behind Piper and rested a comforting hand on Paige's knee. "I know, honey, but you before we can move on, you have to do something. You have to go to the trial next week and show them what he did to you. If you do that, you'll never have to see him again. We promise."
Paige stuttered and pushed past her sisters, forcing her sore arms to roll the wheels into the sitting room. "No, you don't know that. You can't! He'll get out in a couple of years, he'll come after us… we're witches and there's nothing we can do to stop him! I can't do it. I won't do it. No, no, no." His evil smile swept past her again, filling her vision until she couldn't see anything. It was like a terrible nightmare that wouldn't go away, even while she was awake. She saw him attacking her sisters, she saw him killing them, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She doubled over as she saw his eyes watching her wherever she went, following her, stalking her. iI won't let him see me. If he doesn't see me, he can't blame me, and we'll all be safe… I think. /i
iI still have visions of you/i
iI still have nights to get through/i
iAnd when the trust isn't true/i
iI have these visions of you/i
iI have these visions of you/i
***
Despite all her efforts, Paige found herself sitting in a packed courtroom a week later. Adrian hadn't been brought in yet, but a chill was creeping down her spine as the set time for the trial to begin drew near. Her bruises had subsided slightly, but not enough to make her any less battered than she was before the accident. She figured that with all the information that the district attorney had against Adrian, he would at least serve a few years in jail for beating her.
Piper and Phoebe, who sat on either side of her while her wheelchair was folded in the isle, inched closer to her as the side door opened, and a dirty-looking Adrian entered with two guards holding either elbow. His bright orange jumper didn't flatter his sunken face as he hung his head while they led him to his chair next to a lawyer who had probably been getting him out of trouble since he was a teenager. He patted his client's shoulder affectionately when the judge came in from her chambers, and everyone rose to greet her.
"All rise!" the bailiff cried as she entered, her robe dragging on the floor. "The case of the People of the state of California versus Adrian Van Bruen. The honorable Judge Hannah J. Wiseman presiding."
The older woman, with her wire framed glasses and brown hair streaked with white, sat down rigidly, and then commanded the rest of the court to do the same. She pushed the frames up on her nose as she glanced down at the file in her hands, then over at the jury in the corner, and finally toward Adrian in front of her. "Adrian Van Bruen, you are charged with reckless endangerment, and assault with the intent to kill. How do you plead?"
The stuffy lawyer stood in his place and gave the judge a firm and final answer. "My client pleads not guilty, your honor."
A fire raged in Paige's stomach as she heard the words slip past his lips, and she nearly burst out in the courtroom, but the hold that both of her sisters had on her arms kept her silent. "How can he sit there and lie like that?" she hissed out of the corner of her mouth.
"Easily," Phoebe whispered back. "He's a rat, and that's what rats do. Lie to get out of trouble."
Paige sat back and huffed in anger as the both lawyers opened with their statements to the jury. The attorney for the state, for her, spoke the truth, mentioning Adrian's frequent visits to bars and pubs, along with his history of violent behavior. The defense attorney, however, twisted Adrian's story to fit the crime, making it look as though Paige was to blame.
"This young lady," the lawyer said, pointing directly at her, "is the reason that my client is sitting here today, but not because he beat her, or because he threatened her life, but because he was defending himself against the angry lashings of a violent drunk. Ms. Matthews was an alcoholic when ishe/i approached Mr. Van Bruen in a ibar/i, owned by one of her sisters, and it was outside a bar where she attacked my client, forcing him to defend himself against her. The bruises you see on her face are not from Mr. Van Bruen or alleged beatings that took place in his home, but from an accident, a tragic accident, when Ms. Matthews stumbled into the middle of a crowded street, drunk and disoriented, and was struck by a car. Will you believe the story of this woman, an alcoholic looking for someone to blame, or Adrian Van Bruen, a man who has been noted to be a pillar of his community? The decision is up to you." His eyes were ablaze as he gave the group of men and women one last look of warning before he went back to his seat.
***
"The state calls Ms. Paige Matthews to the stand, your honor."
Paige gulped as she heard her name called, one of the last witnesses in a trial that had already lasted four turbulent days. With the help of her sisters, she managed to make it to the witness stand without falling apart or breaking into a million little Paige-shaped pieces. She put her hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth, then sat back as the cordial DA approached her.
"Ms. Matthews, what is your age and current occupation?" he asked calmly and politely, without trying to rush her.
She coughed into her hand and spoke nervously, her voice trembling slightly. "I'm twenty-six, and a social worker at San Francisco social services."
"Wow, twenty-six and already a social worker. That job requires a lot of dedication and responsibility, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it does," Paige tried to remain cool, but her mind was running away from her.
"So that means that to keep the job, you have to remain sober, doesn't it?"
"That's true, yes."
He went over to his table and picked up a notepad. "According to my records, Ms. Matthews, you've been sober for how many years?"
"Seven. But when I began seeing Mr. Van Bruen, he encouraged me to drink and made it clear that he would leave if I didn't." Paige swallowed hard as the DA continued to fire questions at her.
"When did you first meet Mr. Van Bruen? Did he approach you, or vise versa? Did he seem violent when you first met? How long did you date? When did he first hit you? Were you sober when he hit you? Why did you stay after he continued the beatings? Why did you decide to leave?" Once the DA had finished and was satisfied that he had won the round, he sat down, and Adrian's attorney stood menacingly before her. He ground his teeth as he spoke, as though he hated the lies but knew that they were crucial to the case.
"Why did you run into the street that morning?" he asked "Why did Mr. Van Bruen chase you?" It was a series of bombardments again and again, repeating questions, as though trying to trip her up. The DA was constantly interrupting, shouting objections about hearsay and relevancy, but they all seemed to be overruled. When it came down to the wire, just before he was out of things to ask, he sprung it on her. "When you ran out of Mr. Van Bruen's house that night, didn't my client say, and I quote, 'Paige, don't do this! I love you, please stop!'"
Paige narrowed her eyes and glared at the lawyer. "Where did you get your information from, sir?"
"Just answer the question, Ms. Matthews," the lawyer shot.
"How can I answer a question that's false? He never told me he loved me, except when he wanted to get me to do something like get drunk with him. What he said that night was, 'Paige, don't do this! I said I was sorry! Stop, goddamn it, stop!' He was referring to having broken my nose a few hours earlier when he said he was sorry."
The lawyer was untouched. "How can you be sure of that, Ms. Matthews? According to police reports, you had alcohol in your system when the ambulance picked you up. If you were drunk, how could you know what Mr. Van Bruen said?"
"I know because I wasn't drunk. Hungover, yes, but not drunk. I had been asleep for hours, and most of the booze had worked its way out of my system, so my head was clear. Why don't you ask your client how much he had to drink that night?" Paige shot Adrian a look, and was rewarded with a pitiful sneer that seemed to drain the chained man of all his energy. "I'm sure he couldn't tell you, since he had gotten more smashed than me. And he beat the hell out of me when we got back to his house. Check his car, you'll find blood on the seats."
At this, Adrian's lawyer let his mouth close slowly, knowing he was defeated. "No further questions, your honor."
iAnd I'm alive/i
iI survived you/i
iAnd the bitter taste/i
iThe years I wasted/i
iAll the hate is gone/i
i'Cause I'm alive/i
iI'm alive/i
***
"We, the jury, find the defendant, Adrian Van Bruen…"
Paige held her breath in her lungs as the foreperson read the ruling the next day. According to Leo, it had taken just two hours to make the decision, and the reading was scheduled for that same day.
"…guilty of both charges against him."
The air whooshed from her lungs and it felt as though a great weight was lifted off her shoulders. Adrian stood and fought the guards that dragged him away, turning to her as they pulled at him.
"Paige, please! Tell them! I loved you! Goddamn it, what the hell is your problem! I gave you your fucking life back! Fine! Fuck you all!" His curses continued as he was pulled from the room kicking and screaming. Paige grinned and held her sisters' hands tightly. They both wrapped their arms around her and squeezed her as firmly as they thought they ought to and kissed her forehead.
"It's finally over," Piper said as the crowd filed out of the courtroom. "How does it feel to be a free woman?"
"Better than I expected, even though I wasn't the one on trial." Paige sat back in her seat and gave the judge a quick smile as she retired to her chambers.
Phoebe locked her fingers in her own and patted her non-bandaged leg. "You'll be okay after all, kiddo."
"Hey, I'm not that much younger that you," Paige retorted with a smirk.
Phoebe shrugged. "You'll always be my little sister… you know, it's great to be able to say that."
Paige looked up at the ceiling as she remembered her vision of the emergency room. "Yeah, I understand now."
Piper gave her an awkward glance. "Understand what?"
Paige sighed. "Nevermind. Besides. I'm alive, and that's all that matters. That, and knowing that you forgive me?"
Piper and Phoebe gave each other a sarcastic look. "I guess we can consider maybe forgiving you a little bit…" Phoebe said as the last person left the room.
"Yeah," Piper put in. "Besides, without you, we wouldn't be the Charmed Ones anymore, would we?"
Paige shook her head and smiled. "We wouldn't be a family. And family comes first."
iI'm alive/i
iRide on and fade away/i
iI'm alive/i
iThere's nothing more to say/i
iI'm alive/i
iRide on and fade away/i
iI'm alive/i
iThere's nothing more to say/i
iI'm alive/i
iRide on and fade away/i
iAnd the bitter taste/i
iThe years I wasted/i
iAll the hate is gone/i