A/N: Hi Everybody! (hi dr. nick! err...i mean steph!) Well...I finally got the nicks to update. Well a lot's happened, I haven't gotten the chance to write since I've been on vacation then came back and started summer school and started real school. It's been crappy. So sorry if I took so long. Thanks for everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Enjoy ;)

Oh and a word of WARNING TO YOU:

This chapter is mostly talk...so if its boring I'm sorry? Being the stupid dramatic writer I am, I had to include all this talk.....I even got tired of putting quotation marks on XDDD

Separation- Chapter 15

'What do I do? I can't just go up to her and start telling her that she's my daughter and that she's a witch and an evil force is after her way beyond powerful powers. After the way she acted at the house....so scared. Scared of me. My own daughter is scared of me.'

Piper stood still in her position. She didn't want to make any sudden moves, and she didn't want to do anything that would scare Sam off. She had to keep her calm, but how could she do that when she wasn't even calm herself? Everything big has happened in only a few hours.....everything that meant the world to her. Leo is back. Her daughter was put back in her life, but she wasn't even sure that Sam wanted to be a part of her life.

Piper knew she would break if she had to let go of her again.

"Hi.....Sam." Piper said, not exactly knowing what to say. Sam's eyes were widened, and her mouth was open as if she were about to say something, but had lost her voice.

"We're....not here to hurt you. I'm sorry we didn't exactly have a great introduction last time....but you have to understand that I, we just want to make sure you're safe. I know it's weird that you've never seen us before and we probably know a lot of things about you, and it was frightening to see us.......act that way back at the house, but we're not here to hurt you. We're....friends." Piper said as calmly as she could.

"It's really complicated to explain but...you're in danger Sam. And we really need you safe, and need to protect you...." Leo said, joining into the peace talks. Paige and Phoebe stayed silent, not knowing what to do. Since it was Leo's and Piper's daughter, they seemed to want to handle the situation by themselves and they didn't want to interfere.

Sam sighed. "I know." she whispered. "I know....you won't hurt me. And I know that you're more than just friends."

Piper and Leo glanced at each other, thinking the same exact thing. 'Does she already know who we are?' they thought. 'But...how?'

Phoebe glanced at Paige and walked up to Sam and laid comforting hand on her shoulder. She gave Sam a warm smile and Sam felt a little comfortable. "I know that this can be pretty confusing. I mean, this night whole night has probably been even more confusing than you could imagine. I know.....that you're not sure what to do, or who to trust now since everything has changed a lot....but I promise that you can trust us. We don't have to be anything you could identify with. But you have to know that you can trust us." Phoebe said. She held her hand out to Sam and Sam smiled and took it.

"I.....I can trust you." she whispered.

Piper glanced over at Leo and Paige and smirked. 'Leave it to Phoebe to gain her trust....' she thought. Paige interrupted the moment and spoke up.

"You guys, we better leave. Especially with Sam out in the open, it's sort of dangerous to be staying in a mausoleum when we know who's after her." she reminded them. They all agreed while Sam just stayed silent. Prue had told her someone was after her, someone dangerous and she was afraid as hell. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to make herself feel better and less uncomfortable. Everything was happening so fast, with the death of her aunt and uncle, the discovery of her weird abilities, the story of her parents and her school counselor being her guardian angel not to mention her deceased aunt. And now she was actually going home with her....biological parents. Her so called family.

Paige, Phoebe , Piper and Leo looked around the mausoleum and noticed something vaguely familiar about the place. Paige looked behind her and gasped. "This is....the mausoleum where Prue is." she said. Phoebe and Piper glanced at each other and Leo looked at them both. "Could it be.....coincidence? A really, really weird coincidence?" Phoebe asked Leo. Leo shrugged and then turned to Sam.

"Sam....do you....know anyone named Prue Halliwell?" he asked.

Sam stood still in her tracks, reluctant of what to say. Her mouth hung open but she didn't know what she should say, since Prue made her promise not to mention her in front of them. She said something about how they couldn't know she was alive and kicking. They all gave Sam anxious looks, trying to fit all these pieces of this supernatural puzzle together. Sam was about to say something, when something orbed in with dark orbs behind them.

About 6 darklighters orbed into the mausoleum, all armed with crossbows. One of them looked around and once caught sight of Sam they pointed. "The girl. Get her. He wants her alive." he told the other darklighters. The darklighters headed towards Sam, following the other darklighter's orders. Sam screamed in shock and tried to run, but the darklighter caught hold of her by her wrist and pulled her into his grasp.

"NO!" Leo screamed. Phoebe jumped up and levitated towards the darklighter that held Sam, kicking him in the face, making him lose his grip. Piper shot her hands toward two darklighters and blew them both up. Another darklighter shot an arrow towards Leo but Paige called it's name just in time and made it hit the darklighter it came from. Phoebe continued kicking one darklighter and Leo decided he abandoned his pacifism a LONG time ago and fought the other darklighter.

One had heated up his hand and was about to lay it on Leo's face to burn him but Piper blew him up. Sam was stuck with another darklighter, and he was trying to catch her and get a stern hold but she kicked him in the shin and let go of his grasp. He recovered and went after her, grabbing her shoulders but her hands shot out towards him and the darklighter froze in his position. Sam, still not used to seeing people freeze all of a sudden stayed in shock as she set her powers. She became loose of his grasp and ran towards Piper.

Piper saw the frozen darklighter and blew him up. Sam ran behind Piper for cover and Piper held her back. "Stay behind me." she whispered, determined to protect her from danger.

There was only one darklighter left and he knocked Phoebe into a wall with a punch. He saw Sam behind Piper and a crossbow appeared in his hand. Almost as quickly as the crossbow appeared, an arrow was shot at them. Piper took Sam and pushed her down to the floor with herself covering her so she wouldn't get hurt and the arrow would miss them. The arrow hit the wall, and Paige tele-orbed it to the darklighter's chest so that it exploded into flames and was gone.

Piper stood up and helped Sam get herself together. She looked around the room, checking if everyone was okay. They all nodded.

"Okay, now we REALLY need to get out of here. We'll be safer at the manor." she said. Leo ran over to Sam and Piper and laid his hands on both of their shoulders. Paige held Phoebe's hand and all five of them orbed out in unison.

****

Sam sat on the couch, looking in amazement at Leo's glowing palms. He moved his hands all around Sam, checking for any sign of a bruise or wound or anything. Piper hit Leo on the shoulder and Leo stopped.

"Geez Leo, she already said she wasn't hurt."

"I'm just CHECKING, Piper." he said angrily in reply.

Sam stayed silent, not wanting to get in the middle of everything. She had a good feeling, knowing someone was worried about her safety. But that didn't mean she was ready to call these people "mom" and "dad".

"Do you want some water? Or anything? If you're hungry, I can whip something up in the kitchen faster than you know it.....or Paige can order a pizza?" Piper asked nicely. Sam thought for a moment. Inside she felt her stomach growling, but she didn't feel like eating or didn't have an appetite after everything. She shook her head no.

"Are you cold or something? Do you want a blanket or a sweater or something.....or maybe you want to change? Paige has a lot of clothes that would fit you...." Piper asked anxiously, worried if she was uncomfortable.

"No, really..." Sam smirked a little. "I'm fine. Really, I'm okay..."

"Look who the worry wart is now." Leo whispered to Piper. Piper hit Leo without taking her smile off Sam. "Shut up. Nobody asked you to talk." she said, with her teeth clenched. Sam had to smile and giggle a little at their sarcastic behavior.

Piper sighed and sat down on one of the tables next to the couch so she was facing Sam. Leo did the same and went to Piper's side. He leaned on his knees and they spent about two minutes facing each other in complete silence.

"I'll be totally honest with you. I don't know exactly how to start with all this. I mean, you must be really freaked out and.....totally scared coming home with a bunch of strangers that have magical powers. I would be too." Leo said. Sam nodded and shrugged at the same time, not sure about how she should act. "Yeah..."

"There's a lot of things we need to explain.....but first, I'm going to let you do the explaining. What happened once you left P3 and....how did you get to that mausoleum?" Piper asked. Leo and Piper waited in their curiosity while Sam stood still trying to figure out what to say. She couldn't reveal Prue's identity, and Prue took up most of the story. Then again, she felt sick to her stomach when she thought about the past events of the day, and how everything had happened so fast.

"I'm sorry. I just don't feel like talking right now...." Sam said, not wanting to see the anxiety in Leo's and Piper's eyes. "I'm sorry...." she whispered, closing her eyes and sighing. She laid her head back on the couch and covered her face with her palms as a sign of frustration. She felt tears threatening to fall, but held them back. Suddenly, she felt a comforting hand on her knee.

"There's no reason you should be sorry. You're just an....innocent in all this." Leo said, as Sam took her hands away from her face and looked at Leo. She realized that looking into his eyes just made her feel more safe and secure and felt like she actually.....belonged.

"There are a lot of things that you're unclear about and you're unsure about. We're only here to help straighten that out." he said. Sam nodded. "I'm going to uh....straighten the portion of those bothering things out that I know I can help you with." Leo said. He cleared his throat and stood up.

"My name's Leo Wyatt. I'm way past my 60th birthday but I'm not even sure what my age is because I seriously don't keep track anymore. I lived and grew up in San Francisco my whole life, and I was studying to be a doctor until I enlisted into the army for World War 2 as a medic. I.....died in the battle of Guadalcanal when I was bandaging a soldier's head wound. A higher power allowed me to become reborn into something called a whitelighter, shortly after I died....."

Sam flinched at the term. Prue said she was a whitelighter, and Prue also mentioned that he was a whitelighter. She stayed silent as she listened to Leo tell his story, a little bit curious to know who he really was.

"A whitelighter is a guardian angel or a guide to other beings. We protect and watch our charges who are good people who are destined to do an even greater good, and help them in any way we can. We have powers too, just like yours. We can kind of teleport to places we need to go....we can heal physical wounds and we can do a bunch of other stuff. It's all part of the whole magical world.

Being a whitelighter was everything I loved doing.....I was helping people and being the sort of doctor that I always wanted to be with a little bit of psychologist mixed into it. I thought it was going very well....until I met someone that I found I loved even more. Her name was Piper. Piper Halliwell......" Leo said, looking at Piper.

Piper smiled and flushed a light red. Leo smiled back at Piper and held her hand while he turned back to Sam. Sam had to smile a bit, and had to admit that their relationship was cute. As she saw Leo look at Piper longingly, she could tell that they were totally in love with each other, but she saw a bit of sadness in their eyes, as if they thought there was a possibility they could never see each other again.

"Piper and I had some rough roads.....we loved each other but we couldn't be together, well since my bosses 'up there'" Leo pointed towards the ceiling, "didn't allow me and her to be together since she was a witch, a special kind of witch and I was a whitelighter. They didn't allow relationships like that. They tend to be very....very.....very heartless.

As our love for each other grew, my bosses' anger grew even worse. They started keeping an eye on us and even called the two of us up there to tell us to either break it off or she and her sisters gets a new whitelighter. We couldn't let that happen.....and we couldn't just 'break it off'. I was panicked and I did the only thing I could do that would keep us together and I proposed. But it still didn't work. Just as we were about to get married.....my bosses' caught us and we were put on some sort of probation....and after another big event that broke humongous rules, we were finally sentenced to stop seeing each other and they were assigned a new whitelighter. They even threatened to.....kill me."

Leo slowed down and stayed silent for a bit. Piper, reminiscing the events taken place as Leo told the story felt heartbroken just thinking about her past and she looked at her daughter and started hating the Elders all over again. Sam looked down, feeling sorry for Leo and Piper. It was like one big love story, but with a sad ending. She had no idea that people went through these kind of things, then again she had no idea that magic EXISTED let alone people like witches and whitelighters.

"I thought that having to be kept away from Piper would affect us in a big way....but our love only grew stronger, even though we couldn't see each other as much as we wanted to. I still sneaked over to her, and....we acted as if nothing were keeping us apart. Then a couple months later, Piper's sister Prue died and Paige came into our lives. That's when things really affected us and it was a hard time to go through. Piper and I tried to comfort each other as much as possible through the time of grief......"

'Prue was telling the truth....' Sam thought.

"A little while later......something surprising happened. After that....Piper and I had a daughter, one beautiful baby girl, I'll tell you. I mean...she had my eyes and Piper's beauty and was just......the best thing that ever happened to my life. I knew that the moment I set eyes on her, the moment I held her. She was.....some miracle. A big symbol that mine and Piper's love could never be broken apart......" Leo said, grinning to himself. As he talked about Sam, his eyes sparked with happiness and Sam felt as if she were about to start tearing. She noticed that he were telling a big fairy tale to her, and never jumped to the fact that Sam was indeed the one who had been the best thing in his life.

She had never felt so loved.....so wanted.

"What happened to her? Your daughter....." Sam asked.

Leo's face suddenly turned sadder. "With all the rules my bosses' had and with the danger of Piper or myself getting hurt.....we were forced to let go of her. I had to keep her with the two of my best friends to keep her safe and to keep her from being revealed to the higher power. She was so special to us......I just wanted to go celebrate her coming into the world, but it just couldn't happen."

"We had to give her up unwillingly. We went to a church.....where we gave her to a nun to take care of and then I guess Leo called his two best friends to take care of her so she would be protected and safe. We only had two days with her until I had to give her up.....it was probably one of the hardest days of my life. And knowing that I went on not knowing what she looked like, or what her first word was, or when she learned to walk, or any of that stuff that a mother's supposed to know. I never learned anything......" Piper said, interrupting Leo to finally speak up.

"After the day she left our lives, it became harder for Piper and I to see each other. Not only because of the strict surveillance of my bosses, but because of the fact that we felt we didn't need each other as much. We felt that we needed the little girl in our lives even more. I mean just the sight of seeing each other, brings memories, suffering, pain and tears in our eyes. Soon, my bosses turned even more stricter than before and it was practically a year before I could see Piper again.

But.....something always kept me going. Because I knew that I had a little girl....just alive and healthy and growing up to be a beautiful young lady....that kept me alive. My love for my daughter, and my love for Piper. I remember.....the last time I saw her. She was about five years old, and I sensed her in panic and in trouble. It was late and night and I orbed over there to check on her......and it turned out she had a nightmare. She didn't cry, and acted like I wasn't even a stranger....but I stayed with her till she fell asleep. I don't think I was the same after that day.....happier I guess."

Sam didn't know what to say to their story. Leo stopped talking and they stood in silence once more for a moment. After what Sam heard, it seemed as if Leo and Piper had gone through so much pain.....and that they loved their daughter a lot. Was that really her? Was it her that they were really talking about? She knew she always wondered where her parents were or how they felt about her but she never realized how much they could care for her.

"That's our story. And I hope that clears a few things up.....after all that....do you think you're ready to talk now?" Leo asked.

Sam looked away, still speechless. She didn't know what she was feeling inside. Her emotions were jumping from one conclusion to the next. Sad for the pain Leo and Piper went through and how she missed out on them. Happy that she finally knows her parents actually cared at one point. But then Sam started to remember how much pain she had felt when she was a kid....how never knowing her parents brought her so many limitations on things she had always longed to do. Nobody was ever there for her to call her their 'daughter'. There was always SOMEBODY that had to ask where her parents were.....and only SHE never had an answer to the question. Only SHE was the one who never made cards on mother and father's day.

Sam clenched her fist, and felt a sudden burst of anger.

"You should have tried harder." she muttered. Leo and Piper heard this, and their eyes widened a bit, but looked as if they weren't surprised she had said it.

"You could have tried harder!!! For your daughter!!! I mean.....I can't believe you never even BOTHERED to just see her after 15 years! How would she feel? She grew up with a couple of people she CAN'T call her parents with empty holes inside of her because she always felt that something was missing. How could just leave her alone?? You should have tried harder!!"

Sam started to cry, not being able to control her sadness and anger any longer. Leo tried to talk, but Sam didn't stop. Piper's eyes showed signs of water works.

"You should have KNOWN that her first word was 'star'. You should have KNOWN that she started walking when she was 13 months old! You should have KNOWN that her favorite food is pizza....and she loves old movies with Gene Kelly in them, or that she likes to read and to dance and she gets good grades and that she won a lot of good citizenship and honor roll awards in eighth grade plus the MVP award for the soccer team!!! You should have KNOWN that she looks exactly like YOU!" Sam cried, pointing to Piper.

She stopped for a minute, letting her tears flow until she ran from the couch away from Leo and Piper and ran up the stairs, not knowing exactly where to go. Leo and Piper looked at each other with worried glances and stood up.

"I should have known." Piper said, shaking her head and burying her face into her hands. "She's right. I should have been there for her and I wasn't."

"Piper, you know as well as I do that it was impossible to do that and it's not your fault......she grew up in such a good environment. Think of the environment she would have grown up in if she grew up here with us, and with the hassle of the Elders and the constant demonic attacks."

"Well, what do we do now? It's like she wants so badly not to accept everything that's happening. Everything that has to do with us and her and her life and....."

"I'll go talk to her." a voice said behind Piper. They turned around and saw Paige standing at the doorway. "I think I should go talk to her."

"Paige....you don't have to—"

"Piper, she's my niece. I want to." Paige said, before heading to the 2nd floor of the manor. Piper and Leo sighed and just went to the kitchen to wait and see what would happen next.

****

As Paige climbed the stairs of her house, mixed emotions ran through her. First of all, she had no idea what she was doing or what she was going to say once she found Sam. Second of all, Sam's situation related a lot to hers when she was a teenager. Paige never knew anything about her real parents and she was also given up for adoption which always made Paige feel empty and hurt that she was a child that was given away and not loved.

Paige's parents also died when she was in high school, right in front of her eyes and she was also just introduced into the world of magic, and was just getting used to it. But the difference was, Paige took these things one at a time. Poor Sam had to have it put on her all at once.

She walked around, checking room by room, and when she finally got to the last room at the end of the hall, the guest room, she found Sam huddled up against the side of the bed, her back facing the door. Clouds of smoke surrounded her and she didn't hear Paige come in. Paige walked in and closed the door.

"Sam?"

Sam turned around, revealing a single cigarette between her fingers. "Ms. Matthews?" she said, startled.

"Please, call me Paige." Paige said, walking towards Sam and she sat on the edge of the bed next to Sam, who was sitting on the floor. Sam just turned around back around. She was about to take another puff of the cigarette, but Paige held out her hand.

"Cigarette." she said. The cigarette, dematerialized out of Sam's hands and appeared onto Paige's palm. Paige took the cigarette, and put it out on the windowsill, then threw it out the window. "Smoking's bad for you....if you haven't noticed already?" Paige said, sitting back down on the bed, once again being reminded of herself.

"It doesn't matter. I only do this when I'm stressed out."

"How long you've been smoking?"

"I dunno...couple months?"

"So you've still got time to quit. I advise you do that now." Paige said. Sam looked up at her, with a hard look. "Did they send you up here to give me a lecture on smoking? Or did you come up here for something else? No offense or anything...."

"Sam, you know as well as I do that your parents never meant for you to grow up this way. They had no other choice....it was just something they had to do, even if they didn't want to do it."

"They still should have at least kept contact. I mean they had no idea how it was for me...to have no parents, and to just live out of a lie."

"But you still have no idea how much they've done for you. I mean.....think of it this way. How was it growing up? Did your aunt and your uncle treat you well? Did they celebrate your birthday, and get you gifts for Christmas, and take care of you when you were sick? Didn't you feel so safe with them, and didn't have any trouble with them whatsoever?"

"Well.....kinda yeah."

"You would have never gotten that if we had kept you. We're witches....we get demon attack every stinking day. You would be living a life in constant danger, and constant fear. Not only of demons, but of getting exposed by mortals. You would have to live a life of caution when you go to school, and you would probably have grown up a tired wreck. But you didn't have to go through all that. You had a nice life.....and Leo and Piper gave that to you. You can't be mad at that. You also have no idea how hard it was for them to let you go. It's not that easy to give away your only kid......"

As Paige finished her big speech lecture, Sam stayed silent. Paige anxiously waited for an answer, but realized Sam was silently crying. She stood up off the bed and sat on the floor next to Sam and put an arm over her. Sam laid her head on her shoulder a bit.

"Hey....it'll be okay. I promise." Paige said, trying to comfort Sam but not knowing exactly how.

"It's just that I don't know how to accept all of this. It's too hard. My aunt and uncle are dead and my parents come back to life with this whole thing about being in magic and stuff. I just can't accept it. Before my aunt and uncle died, I screamed at them saying to stop acting like my parents cause they weren't.....and I never got the chance to say sorry and that they were my parents for taking such good care of me. And....and they're just gone.... and it's my fault...." Sam said, her voice unclear from all her tears. Paige sighed and tried to comfort her.

"Hey now, don't think that way. It wasn't your fault. I guess.....dying was just their destiny. And they died trying to protect you..."

"Exactly....if I wasn't such a burden to them and if nobody was after me they would have never died. It's my fault that they're dead right now."

"Look, everything happens for a reason. You can't keep thinking that this was your fault, Sam or else it'll tear you apart. You have to move on somehow....and you have to accept that it was their destiny and there was nothing you could do to change it, no matter how much you think there is."

"How would you know?"

Paige was silent for a bit and was hesitant in her speech. "My....parents died when I was about your age too."

Sam sniffled and stopped crying. "They did?"

"Yeah. I guess my story's kind of like yours. I didn't know my sisters all my life, I met them when I was a little older. My mom and dad had to give me away for adoption and I lived with my adopted parents for the majority of my childhood.....and when I was younger I wasn't exactly the best kid. I did really bad stuff....like party all night and drink and skip classes....and it was just really bad. One day, I told my parents that they weren't really my parents, and the next day we got into a car accident, and they died right in front of my eyes and I couldn't do anything about it. Then later on after Prue, our older sister died, I found my two other sisters and was introduced into magic. It's been a really rough road...but somehow I'm okay."

"How did you deal with all that?"

"Well, I had to move on. I couldn't dwell on my parents forever....sure it was really heartbreaking that they were gone, but then later one, I had to realize that it wasn't my fault that the accident happened, and they would have wanted me to move on. Just like your aunt and uncle would want you to move on, and to accept their parents for who they are. Your parents are good people Sam.....They are probably the most heartbroken people in the whole world, because they had to let you go."

Sam knew inside that she had to agree. After she heard Leo and Piper's story, her heart was absolutely heartbroken to hear all the pain and suffering those two had to go through. Maybe, they really did want to be in her life. Maybe, she should let them, since she knew that she wanted to be in their lives as much as they wanted to be in hers. Sam bit her lip.

"I'm scared. I'm afraid I might lose them again. Like I did with my aunt and uncle. What if I bring nothing but trouble?" she muttered under her breath. Paige responded with a warm smile.

"You could never bring trouble. In fact....I think the house would be a little happier with you running around. And as long as me and Phoebe are living, you three will never be split apart. I promise you that." she said. Sam smiled and gave in to her feelings.

"Thanks Ms. Matthews..."

"Oh please, you're making me sound old! Call me Paige."

Sam bit her lip. "Thanks Aunt Paige."

"No problemo, my wonderful niece!" Paige said, and they both shared a quick hug. After they let go, Paige was reminded of a topic she wanted to discuss with Sam. "Oh yeah....Sam...I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

"What?"

"Okay....you were hurt before, and I went to your house to save you and to take you back to my place so you could be healed. But I saw someone else there before me. I saw, my sister. Prue."

Sam flinched, and began to feel a little nervousness. "Who?"

"Sam....no offense, but you suck when you lie? I think maybe it's a whitelighter thing, but I won't get into that now. It's just that, I was watching you while Leo and Piper was telling their story. And you looked as if you were surprised, but as if you already knew. There is no way you could have known unless you read their minds or someone told you first. And there was you ending up at Prue's mausoleum. And not to mention her helping me save you. She has something to do with your life....I can feel it."

"I....I..."

"Please....just tell me. Where is Prue? How do you know her...."

"She told me not to tell." Sam finally spat out. Paige sighed, knowing her suspicions were right. She was about to ask another question before Phoebe burst into the room with a panicked look. Sam and Paige were startled and Paige was the first to notice the panic spread across Phoebe's face.

"Phoebe, what's wrong? Is a demon down there?"

Phoebe shook her head. "No." she said. "Worse."

She left a beat of silence between them before she spoke again. "Patrick came back and he's downstairs. With the Elders."

Stay tuned for Chapter 16 of "Separation".

A/N: Remember to review everyone! I'll try my HARDEST to update as soon as possible. It's just that with school, I can only get like a paragraph a day on here....so thanks to everyone who was reviewing before. You have no idea how much it motivates me everyday!