A/N: I disclaim...no characters belonging to me!

Impossible Goodbyes

Chapter 3

It was hours since Phoebe and Piper had heard the tell-tale click of the door-lock signalling Paige's return from her morning errand. They had expected the same jovial sister, who appeared at the breakfast table, but the hope was far from reality. On her return, Paige had retreated to her bedroom, locked the door and had been neither seen nor heard from for the remainder of the day. The sky was dusky purple now, the manor sleepy and peaceful but for the air of tension emanating thickly from the kitchen.

"Piper, please – sit down" Phoebe pleaded. Her sister had been pacing for hours, in the same manner: arms crossed, with the same pre-occupied expression darkening her pretty features. Seeing the concern in Phoebe's expression, she flopped heavily down into a dining chair.

"I can't Pheebs" Piper was at a loss, she felt that as the eldest sister, she should be able to figure out what to do. Its what Prue would have done, she considered despairingly. It was the example that her older sister had set for her and Piper fully intended on following it to the letter, but with Paige, it appeared that she was failing miserably.

"Right, that's it." Piper slammed her palms onto the mahogany table and sprung up, as if she had just been wound tightly.

"Piper…" Phoebe began, but before she got to finish, her sister had exited in the room in a flash, leaving Phoebe bewildered as she heard her oldest sister rush into the hallway, then clunking heavily up the stairs. As the sound of hollow banging could be heard through the ceiling, Phoebe rushed up the gallery staircase fully expecting to take on a peacekeeping mission.

"Paige! Come on, You've got two choices, you either walk, orb your ass out here, open the door or I'll have Leo orb me in there – be it a sisterly invasion of privacy or not!"

Before her knuckles reached the wooden door again, a burst of blue orbs materialised I front of her. "Paige…" Piper began, fully expecting her little sister to have come to her senses. Only once the orbs disappeared she sawit was Leo, andnot Paige who stood before her.

"Figures" Piper muttered. She wasforgetting the legendary Halliwell stubbornness that, unfortunately, Paige had in abundance. Of course it wasn't going to be Paige doing what she was told.

Leo cast a worried look at his wife, "You called, is something wrong?"

"No and possibly yes - " Boy, did frustration make her cryptic.

A mask of confusion replaced the worry on Leo's face, "Well if there's not something wrong now, I guess having a new demon on the loose remedies that situation."

"There's a new demon? Piper, what's going on? How's our baby sister doing?" Phoebe caught up with her sister on the landing, almost knocking off one of the portraits, catching on midway through the impromptu meeting.

"Whoa, one at a time" Piper's hands fluttered, as if trying to swat the problems away. "Leo?"

"Your powers are tied to your emotions, well that goes for most magical beings actually - " At the anxious looks emanating from the faces of Piper and Phoebe he eliminated the details he usually added whether useful or not. Sometimes he couldn't help his almost encyclopaedic knowledge of magic from spilling out. "Anyway, Sentimus - gains power, by destroying the emotional attachment between the power and the being – he's attacked several witches, all alive – but has left them as emotionless hollow shells – living breathing, but not feeling…"

"but Paige?" Phoebe muttered quietly breaking them all out of their grim pondering of the emotion-grasping demon.

"Yes, Paige…" Piper refocused after the demonic distraction, "c'mon, sisterly now, kick demon butt later"

"What's wrong with our baby sister?"

"I don't know Pheebs, but I'm gonna make sure that I find out" Piper's brown eyes shone with determination. She raised her small fist quickly towards the door, ready to knock. Before she had the chance she was interrupted by a small voice from the inside of the door, "Lock" along with the feint jingle of orbs from the inside.

Both sisters were startled by the unexpected response; not knowing what to do Piper stood dumfounded for a moment. Phoebe however rushed into the bedroom of her little sister, a concerned sister reflex suddenly kicking into action.

"Oh! – Paige!" Phoebe exclaimed in distress. With good reason, in the middle of the large bed, buried under the messy duvet and a mountain of pillows was their younger sister. Her dark hair was splayed out in all directions like a wild mane, her chocolate eyes were wide, and fixed on the ceiling. Her knees were curled towards her chest, hands clasping an object that her elder sister's couldn't make out from under the swathes of sheets and crumpled clothing.

"Paige, what's the matter honey? Please tell us, we're worried about you."

Sitting up between her sisters the glittered flakes swirled stormily inside the snow globe. Paige absentmindedly cradled the heavy object in her hands, the glass felt smooth and cool to her touch, she found that she couldn't watch the flakes settle serenely onto the wintry scene that was suspended inside the glass dome. Her own pain wasn't about to settle as easily as the snowflakes; the snow globe only reminded her of one thing…

Her heavy eyelids blinked open and were met with the blissful morning light, and the delightful sensation of another sleeping peacefully next to her. She felt his arm draped lightly across her stomach and his steady breath warming the top of her head. Whilst basking in his warmth, she was distracted by the beautiful object that glistened in the sunlight which poured through the window.

A snow-globe.

As her sleepy haze evaporated, it became apparent that the object was a pretty snow-scene entombed by a glass ball. As the flakes swirled inside the wintry world, it was so captivating, that Paige reached out to touch the glass.

"Hey" Kyle said thickly, through sleep.

"Hi yourself" She began to purr back. Savouring the contact with his skin as she twisted in his arms and met his lips for a kiss.

Kyle woke slowly, and finding Paige looking straight into his clear eyes turned his sleepy smile into helpless grin. Paige found that she could stare into the blue pools forever, easily getting lost in his eyes and in him. She placed her lips lightly on his chin and snuggled further into his warm embrace.

"You like the snowglobe?" Kyle stretched lazily, his hand falling softly to stroke the curve of her shoulder.

"Yeah, its really pretty, y'know how real winter should be, snowy and cold. A real scarf, hat and glove time of year. San Francisco is a real downer for that sort of thing"

Kyle chuckled throatily, drawing both arms around Paige, now, finding the soft skin of her stomach. "Well, when I was seven, my parents and I had Christmas in New York. I had a real snowy Christmas, and it was beautiful…" He said, tracing patterns idly on her skin. "I got that for Christmas and I was fascinated by it, even more than my Rubik's cube" he let out a heavy breath.

"What, baby?" Paige sat up on her elbow, cupping his cheek, turning it towards her.

"…that Christmas, in New York, I mean, was the last Christmas that I had with my parents" he paused heavily, "…they were dead before the New Year." he finished sadly.

"Oh Kyle – I…" Paige began… Seeing tears pooling in the corners that he was too stubborn to let fall, she reached up and started to brush them away, "Baby…it's okay" she soothed. Paige fully understood of course what it was like to lose ones parents. What it was like to be an orphan, and she wouldn't wish it on anyone else in the whole world.

"It's okay" She muttered winding her other hand with this. They laid like this, cocooned in comfort and understanding, in understanding of love and loss…two souls that experienced too much of the latter, tentatively seeking the former in each other.

It reminded her of Kyle.

Loss had won over chance of love again; realisation surged through her. He was gone.

Her insides began to scream.

"He's gone…Piper…gone. I tried to ignore it, to pretend that it wasn't true. And you know what?" Paige spat angrily and her frustration spilled out across her pale cheeks, "I can't, everywhere I go I can feel him, when I know that, that…" Finding herself unable to look at the glass ball, or her sisters, she slumped forward over her knees, "he's gone"

"Hey, Missy Paige, it gonna be alright" Phoebe said, in as bright a tone as she could muster given the situation, but she too needed the assurance of her big sister "right Piper?"

As two pairs of big brown eyes made their respective pleas, Piper felt the responsibility of being the big sister weighed heavily on her shoulders. This wasn't the first time of course, but it reminded her that she needed to stay strong, for her little sisters, for all of them. How had Prue always known how to do this, to stay strong for them…lately Piper had pondered this more and more, and she needed to know, especially with her little sister like this.

Wrapping her arms around her baby sister, Piper had never seen her in such a vulnerable state.

Pain overwhelmed her features. Piper no longer thought that this was a magical malady. It was purely human; raw, complex and ultimately more destructive. And she could see it all, flickering stormily in Paige's brown eyes.

The soothing nonsense that she was whispering in her ear was making little difference to her trembling form. Paige curled up tightly; knees against her chest, more fragile and raw than she had ever let her sisters see her. Gradually her crying ceased, subsiding as Paige began to hiccup sobs. Piper and Phoebe tried to comfort and sooth them into silence. Eventually they succeeded, Paige's head lolled onto Phoebe's shoulder, eyes closed, in a comforting sleep.

Piper caught Phoebe gaze, wide eyed and worried, "How could we not know?" And a look of shame crossed her features.

"I know Pheebs…but now…" She ran her hands through Paige's soft hair, "We will do all we can, when she wakes, we better do some research on this new demon about town, innocents still need a-savin' "

"But?" Phoebe protested, although Paige's head was pinned to her shoulder, there was no way that she wanted to leave her little sister tonight even if she was asleep.

Looking over her sisters she knew that they needed to stay here with Paige "I'll bring the book down here, okay?"

"Okay"

"Okay" Piper repeated, getting up, trying to quash the feeling of unease that something had only just begun.