Disclaimer: Nope, it's not mine.

Five o'clock that night found Pamela locked in the small single room the people running the group home had set up for her. Experience had proven that things were much…calmer with Pamela by herself. Though she'd come in and locked herself away out of fear of hurting someone many times before, this time she was making an attempt to gain some control over her power, a feat she'd never even contemplated before.

After an hour of trying unsuccessfully to move a pencil, Pamela was quickly becoming discouraged. She couldn't understand how big things--heavy things--moved when she didn't want them to, yet she couldn't move a pencil when she tried.

She barely swallowed back a scream when bright blue lights danced in front of her.

"Hi," Paige said cheerfully, keeping her voice low. "Told you I'd be back."

Pamela frowned.

"How do you do that?" she asked.

Paige just shook her head.

"When I figure it out, I'll let you know." She joined Pamela on the bed like a lifelong friend. "How'd things go after I left?"

"I swore I'd never seen you. I don't think the secretary believed me, but what could she do?" Pamela said with a shrug. "Why can't I make things move when I want to?"

"Your power is probably tied to your emotions, like all Hal-…like a lot of witches' are," Paige recovered. There was no need for her to reveal Pamela's confusing heritage yet; that should be Vaughn's job anyway. "You get mad, and you don't really have much control over your power. But you haven't learned to access it any other way yet."

Pamela realized Paige had changed her mind about saying something, but she let it slip. She was more anxious to learn to control what Paige kept calling a power.

"How do I access it?"

"Just concentrate on moving the object. Picture it moving like you want," Paige coached softly, soothingly. Pamela closed her eyes. "Don't think about anything else."

The pencil sitting on the tiny nightstand shuddered for a moment, then dropped to the floor.

"That wasn't what I wanted it to do," Pamela pouted.

"But it moved," Paige comforted.

Pamela considered that for a few beats, then decided she was content with it.

"How do I stop from hurting people? Every time I get mad, I hurt someone or break something," Pamela worried.

"You'll learn. Just try to stay calm until you learn some control. I know you don't mean to hurt anything," Paige said, winning over her young companion permanently.

For two years, since the strange occurrences had commenced, all Pamela had heard was that she had to stop being destructive, that she shouldn't be such an angry child, that she must enjoy hurting things or she wouldn't do it. Paige was the first person to consider that Pamela may not know how to stop what was happening, let alone to have the undoubting faith that Pamela didn't want to hurt anyone. And Paige even talked to her, without the condescending tone that all the state appointed councilors had used when she'd been removed from foster home after foster home.

Paige only stayed for about half an hour, for fear of being discovered. But when she orbed out, she felt Pamela had a considerably better outlook on things just then.

Vaughn jumped six feet in the air when Paige orbed in behind him--about half as high as Sydney jumped.

"Don't do that!" Sydney hissed in a high voice, frustration evident. She was an agent; she shouldn't be so easily spooked.

"Sorry," Paige said.

"Did you find her?" Vaughn asked as soon as his scattered wits returned.

A good CIA agent's wits returned swiftly and completely, like the ashes of a Lazarus demon.

"Of course," Paige said. "She's a twelve-year-old little girl. You make it sound like a challenge to track her. Plus, she was trying to use her power, so all I had to do was follow that trail."

Vaughn and Sydney merely stared.

"Okay," Piper broke in, ushering the befuddled agents into the kitchen where they could gather around the small breakfast table. "Paige, Michael didn't mean it that way, and you know it. And you knew that explanation would mean absolutely nothing to him. Just tell him what happened."

Paige sighed.

"Right." She turned to Vaughn with a vague smile that gave away her own affection for the child. "I already told you she was trying to use her power. She wants to learn to control it so bad, but I think she's too scared of it to tap into it intentionally. She talked to me a little, and she's more scared of hurting anybody than anything else."

Vaughn appeared to be drinking in every tidbit of information.

"What else?" he begged eagerly.

Sydney grinned to see him. The look on Vaughn's face was one of enraptured awe as he listened to Paige describe every nuance of Pamela's personality she could remember, or that could be gleaned from the few minutes spent in her company.

"Where have you been?" a frantic Weiss demanded as he met Sydney and Vaughn in he hall before they could escape into their rooms. "How can I provide backup if nobody gives me a status report all day!?"

Vaughn grinned.

"Man, I told you there was nothing going on over there," he said lightly. "I didn't think you'd worry."

"What'd you do for so long if there's nothing there?" Weiss persisted.

"The sisters were giving us their side of the story. They're just some smart women with an incredible bad luck for getting caught in the middle of some rough spots," Vaughn lied. "You know, several statements they've given lead to an arrest. SFPD didn't include those files, but they checked out."

Weiss seemed placated, but only for a moment. He pushed on to other topics.

"Where's Jack?"

Sydney took her cue and shook her head.

"You know my dad. He wants to keep an eye on the Haliwails just in case they try to contact or warn somebody of our involvement, so he's staked out across the street," Sydney patronized.

Weiss relented and finally retreated to his own room. As soon as the door closed behind him, Vaughn pulled Sydney into his room with him.

"What if Weiss tries to contact Jack?" he demanded.

"What if Weiss asks to look at the statements you allegedly verified?" Sydney shot back. Then she softened. "Look, Vaughn, I trust them. I do. But you only have their word that the statements led to arrests, and it's too risky to pass their word off to Weiss as verified."

Vaughn, too, quickly lost his surly edge.

"I know. I just can't help but try to get Weiss not to judge them so harshly. They do a lot…" eh finished thoughtfully.

"I don't doubt them. What excuse are we going to use to go back tomorrow?" Sydney asked.

"We'll say Jack called you and wants us to question them some more."

"Weiss might be suspicious."

"Not of us."

"No. Of them."

"We'll take care of it. Paige said she's orb Pamela back to the manor tomorrow," Vaughn said to change the subject.

"Well," Sydney said. "I suggest we hope she doesn't freeze people like her aunty Piper, or fight like Phoebe. We might have a hard time with what Paige has described as a sweet little girl."

Won't they be surprised? Of course, Vaughn doesn't imagine a twelve-year-old would be capable of beating him, a hardened CIA agent, in hand to hand…or, something that resembles it, anyway…