Penny stormed into the attic as the door was telekinetically thrown off its hinges. Olivia jumped back as it landed on an old dollhouse. The memorabilia of generations of Halliwells threw themselves against the walls as the grief-filled witch strode straight towards the trembling whitelighter. "Why didn't you do something? Why is Patty dead? You're supposed to PROTECT US!" She shook the frightened angel.

Olivia orbed out of Penny's grasp. "You are my charge, not Patty. I didn't even know she was facing the Water Demon until the Elders told me she was dead. I'm so sorry."

The childless mother didn't even try to stop the next volley of tears. "The Water Demon! I told her not to go after it! I told her she wasn't strong enough! I told her! Why didn't she listen to me?! I am --" she stopped as she sank deeper into misery. "I was her mother," she sobbed as she collapsed to the floor.

Olivia bent to lift her shattered charge, but Penny pushed her away and pulled herself up. The whitelighter extended her arms to Penny. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" She screamed and Olivia was hurled across the room.

She looked at her charge in mortal terror as the witch convulsed, rage and anguish coming off her in waves. She turned her gaze to her guardian and at that moment looked as soulless as the Source himself. "Where...was...Sam?" She vilely spat the name of her daughter's protector and lover.

Standing, the whitelighter bowed her head. "LOOK AT ME!" An unseen force pulled up Olivia's head. "We don't know. All we know is that shortly after she died, he disappeared off the radar without a trace."

"NO!" The attic window shattered and the roof sagged.

Olivia put her hands up in a meager defense. "Penelope, please calm down. The Elders think he gave up his powers. But why would he do that?"

"What?" Penny asked, drained both emotionally and physically.

"We all hate to lose charges. It's the worst thing that can happen to a whitelighter. But Sam is the first to clip his own wings. Why?"

Penny knew exactly why. After her marriage failed, Sam pursued Patty and she fell in love with him. The bastard had even sired her secret fourth daughter, Paige, who was now living a mortal infant's life with mortal parents. Since the loss of her baby, Patty had gone a vanquishing spree, destroying demons in hopes of escaping the pain, finally losing her life doing so. Now Penny too felt the void a child leaves when they are ripped from your breast. But there was no way she could disgrace her fallen child by revealing her forbidden passion, not ever. But that passion had cost her a daughter and virtually orphaned her own precious daughters.

"I don't care why, all that matters is that he pays for failing Patty, and for sentencing us to life without her." Her scrying crystal flew to her and she reached for a map.

"This is pointless. Sam is punishing himself. Your priority must be those girls, Patty's daughters, the Charmed Ones. Their father is gone and their mother is dead. All they have is each other and you." She orbed out.

Penny suppressed the tears pounding behind her eyes and headed downstairs. As she gazed into the living room she saw her daughter: in Piper's face, Prue's smile, Phoebe's eyes. She also knew that somewhere, a piece of Patty lived in Paige, too. And she also knew that no matter what, those girls would always have an indestructible bond with their mother, both in their hearts and their powers. Gathering the strength of her soul and her love for her daughter and granddaughters, she approached the anguished children. Prue was curled up on the couch, her face buried in a pillow to muffle her cries. Piper was leaning on Phoebe's playpen, hugging one of her baby sister's stuffed animals trying not to drown in her pain. Phoebe lay on her blanket as though emotionless, but Penny knew the youngest child was also devastated by the loss of the mother she would never know.

She picked up Phoebe and wrapped her right arm around Piper. She motioned to Prue and folded her left arm around her. "Grams?" Asked Prue quietly.

"Yes, sweetheart," she said, pulling the older two girls closer to her.

"Are we still a family? Mommy said a family was a Mommy, a Daddy and kids. But Daddy's gone and Mommy's gone forever and ever." She sobbed into her grandmother's torso.

"Listen to me, Prue. You too, Piper. Your Mommy and Daddy are gone, but we are still a family. We will always be a family. Nothing will change that. Do you remember the rhyme I taught you when Phoebe was born?" Both girls nodded.

"Let's say it now. The Power of Three will set us free." The girls joined in. "The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free." The tears stopped flowing as they chanted and the Halliwells clang to each other for strength.

TBC

Read and Review! ~ SS