The Ties that Bind

Chapter Two: Family Reunions

Note: I don't really know if San Francisco Café really exists or not, it's just a name that came to my head as I was writing last chapter

Paige arrived at the café at 12:30 and saw Sam standing outside the door and walked towards him. He looked slightly thinner since she last saw him, and his hair was a bit longer but otherwise he looked pretty much the same since she last saw him two years ago. Neither really knew what to say to each other so they smiled at each other and walked into the café and settled into a booth and stared at their menus.

It was Sam who started the conversation after about 5 minutes of staring at the menus. "So, Paige, how have you been?" Paige smiled and stated "Oh, pretty good, things have been pretty hectic as usual, especially with the two kids around the house." Sam nodded his head. "I remember that Piper was pregnant with the first one, I assumed, and from what you told me, her pregnancy was nothing like your mother's pregnancy with you." "Did she get any of my powers from the womb?" Paige asked with a curious look on her face, for no one had ever told her about that time period. "She was able to orb, but had no control over them, I assumed that you did. She did have control over your teleorbing powers, which really helped against a few demons which attacked at that time. It was really difficult hiding your mother's pregnancy towards the end of it, so she and Penny created a glammouring spell specifically to hide a pregnancy so that only the three of us noticed that she was pregnant."

Paige nodded as she processed all of this information. "Just one more question-I understand why you clipped your wings the first time, but why did you run away?" Sam looked extremely thoughtful. "About two and a half years after I was reassigned as a whitelighter, I made a slight miscalculation about a demon, which lead to the death of one of my charges, and I guess that I was not ready to deal with another charges death."

Paige processed the information very carefully, but there was still one question that she needed answered by him. "How come you have not come by to visit in almost two years?" She had not meant to sound angry, but the subconscious pain and hurt that she had had for the last two years had decided to come out in her voice. "I mean, I only saw you once, then you took off, and I have not heard from you since. Victor visited twice, no wait, three times since then, and all three of those times I was just wondering; why has my father not visited me?" Paige stopped ranting when she saw that Sam's face was suddenly even paler than it normally was and his eyes wide. "Oh god, I am so sorry", Paige gasped, looking suddenly upset, "I have no idea where that came from..." "No", Sam interrupted, "You are absolutely right, I did stay away on purpose, but it was not because I didn't care about you. We didn't have the...how shall I put it...the greatest of starts, after all, how many people can say that they vomited on their long lost daughters shoes?" Paige smirked a little at that. "It had taken me over twenty years to get over your mother's death, and after I regained my healing abilities, thanks to you, I just needed some space to find myself again, and to reconnect with the part of me that I have not seen for over twenty five years. Only after two years have I started to finally feel like myself again, like the person I was before I went through so much pain and sorrow." Sam paused for a moment. "It may have been selfish of me, but I didn't want you to see me until I got over my issues, to give a better impression this time around...basically I just didn't want you to hate me." Paige put her hand on top of his own with a tender and understanding look on her face "I don't hate you, in fact I never have."

Just then a waitress came by their table, took their order, and continued walking by. Sam then looked at her with a slightly confused look and said "Wasn't your hair red the last time I saw you?" Paige smiled slightly. "It was red but I just recently dyed it back to my natural color." Sam also smiled "Well, I see that you got my hair color-as well as my extremely pale skin which is impossible to tan. I think that glass of milk at the next table has had a better suntan than we do." Both smirked as they got their coffee from the waitress.

"So, I heard that you took over the magic school", Sam stated while he sipped at his coffee. "I didn't know that you were a teacher." "Neither did I", replied Paige, "I was a social worker but the only reason that I ended up taking over was that I was the only one who really fought for it after Gideon's death." "He was my mentor", Sam mused. "I just can't believe that he would do something like that, all whitelighters heard what had happened to him at the staff meeting which came right after that happened. So, I suppose that Leo told you to ask me to teach there". Paige was shocked. "How did you know that?" "Well, when the magic school first opened in about 1975, after Phoebe was born, Gideon came over and asked Penny and Patty if the would consider sending your sisters there, as well as asking me to teach there. Your mother wanted your sisters to be raised among normal children both because she had just bound their powers and because she wanted to give them the best of both worlds, magical and normal. I refused at the time because I really didn't agree with how it was run, so different then how I was used to doing it. Plus, I enjoyed working with my charges and didn't feel like giving any of them up." He then stares up at Paige. "However, now I have a good reason to consider working there, because those kids are not the only ones who need protection." Paige knew what he meant by that and smiled at the fact that he really cared about her. She then started telling him the specifics of what he would be teaching as they ate their lunch.

Meanwhile, at the Halliwell Manor...

Phoebe came home early that day, and ran into Piper, who had come back from the club and was now taking care of Wyatt and Chris. They were all eating lunch together, when they suddenly heard the doorbell ring. Phoebe walked to the door to find Victor standing there.

"Hi dad!" Phoebe exclaimed. "What a pleasant surprise! What's the occasion?" "Oh, no occasion", said Victor, "I wanted to make sure that you guys were ok after all that happened recently. Where are the boys?" "Oh, we were all just eating lunch! Would you like to join us?" Victor smiled and nodded and they walked towards the kitchen to where Piper was feeding the babies. Victor sat down next to Wyatt and helped himself to some of the food they were eating and they had just starting talking when three demons suddenly shimmered in.

All of them stood up witch shocked looks on their faces. "Dad, take the babies to the other room, Wyatt's shield will protect you all!" Piper shouted. "Go!" Victor picked up the babies and ran while Piper tried to blow up the first demon and missed because he dodged out of the way. The second demon was throwing fireballs at Phoebe while Phoebe was dodging them, but barely, and the fireballs ended up knocking the table over and ruining it as well as their lunches. The next fireball had hit her and she was down on the floor, unconscious. Meanwhile, Piper was not having much better luck, especially after she found out that the demon reformed after he was blown up. The third demon was closing in on Piper as well when Wyatt suddenly orbed out, and when his protective shield was no longer there, the third demon walked towards Chris and Victor and started to throw a fireball when all of a sudden, Paige, and Sam orbed in, with a screaming Wyatt in her arms.

"Fireball!" Paige teleorbed the fireball away from Victor and Chris into the demon and the demon blew up in a burst of flame. The other two demons, after they saw their partner in crime vanquished, decided that it was a good idea to leave. Meanwhile, Sam had run over to Phoebe and healed her.

Piper came to her senses and took Wyatt from Paige's arms. "Its okay, sweetie, you were a very brave and smart boy, orbing to your auntie Paige like that!" Phoebe however, was staring at Sam and Victor, who were glaring at each other without saying a word. Sam broke the stare first, however, and turned to Piper. "You have a pretty smart little boy there, he managed to orb into the restaurant so carefully that none of the other customers even noticed him orb in. I just don't understand how these demons could have been so strong though, they are only middle level demons, they probably were ordered to do this from an upper level demon...the question is who? Also, why didn't they kill you? They could have easily done so since they were immune to your powers." "How do you know all of this?" Victor asked with a skeptical look on his face. "You barely saw any of what went on!" "I saw enough to recognize that one of my charges had to face the same type of demon before, a really long time ago. It was not that powerful, and she was able to blow him up, so I don't understand why Piper was probably not able to do it, because I assumed that she tried, is that right Piper?" Piper nodded her head. "These demons are best known as messenger demons," Sam continued. "They are usually sent to spy on witches and have sent tons of information to upper level demons about a witch's powers, as well as any perceived weaknesses. I just thought that they were all extinct about a century ago." Victor snorted with disbelief and shook his head, basically thinking that Sam was a moronic home wrecker, and a former drunk no less, and had no idea what he was talking about.

"I will check the book", Paige stated. "Book of Shadows!" The book orbs into her hands and she starts looking through it. "Messenger demons, messenger demons...oh I found them!" She then proceeds to read pretty much what Sam had just said to them earlier. "Well, it looks like you're correct, but how are we supposed to vanquish them?" "We have to figure out who they were working for and why." Sam replied. He then looked around him. "Where's Leo?" Everyone else looks around with confused looks on their faces while Sam started to look annoyed because it was apparent to him that a certain whitelighter was not doing his job. Victor was just merely surprised that Sam was right and had a shocked expression on his face

Meanwhile, in the caves...

Elisabeth witnessed the entire scene, with Benethazar watching beside her. "I can't believe that my brother is still around! He will ruin everything! How are we supposed to carry out our plans now?" Benetahzar simply smiled. "I think that his weakness is painfully obvious, and we can use it to out advantage and get your revenge at the same time. You see, he now has a daughter who means everything to him, and once she dies, he would probably not be able to handle it, so he will be out of the picture, plus the power of three will no longer be a threat to us with her gone, so killing your former daughter in law will be no challenge whatsoever, but why stop there? We can find a way to kill all three of them at the same time, or shall I say kill three birds with one stone. I think that I have a plan..."

The two of them and the seer composed their plans for a long time until they all came to an agreement, and started to make arrangements to see them carried out

Ok, that's it for this chapter! You will find out what happens next, as well as what those plans are, but I need some reviews! Please review!