Sam had just dusted himself down and had yet to even stutter a confused 'hello' when they were interupted. Piper's scream vibrated off the walls and filled every room in the house. It wasn't the girly cry of a heroine in a b-rate horror flim, rather a blood curdling, bone chilling sound of complete and utter anguish, a sound that made the hairs on one's arm stand on end, a sound that caused the inhabitants of the attic to freeze in their actions.

Paige bolted for the attic door without giving her parents a backwards glance. she flew down the stairs, accross the hall, skidding to a holt in the door of the sunroom, bile raising up in her throat as she took in the scene before her, a scene that would be replayed over and over again in her nightmares in the weeks and months ahead.

Chris and Leo lay face down on the flagstone floor, a crimson pool slowly forming around them, blood gushing from their gapeing wounds inflicted by the dark lighters arrows, Chris's on his left shoulder, Leo's on his right. A slow rasping sound indicated that one of them, Paige couldn't detect who, was still conscious, though not for long. Her eyes travelled accross the floor, passed Wyatt who was apparently unharmed inside his blue bubble, and was now screaming at the top of his lungs, on to Piper who was knealing on the floor, clutching her stomuch, unable to stand due to the pain that was cursing through her body, silent tears were pouring down her cheeks, her mouth agape, yet no sound came out, the torment so intense that speech was no longer possible. Finally she settled on Jo, eyes wide open with fear who was sat in the arm chair. She was conscious, though desperately pale, and for the briefest of seconds Paige hoped beyond all hope that Jo had escaped unscathed, as she neared she noticed the layer of sweat on Jo's forehead, the shallow breathing, hope was finally dashed the instant the cushion which Jo had been holding against her fell to the floor to reveal where an arrow had pierced her stomuch, her once powder blue top now dyed the darkest red.

"SAM, MOM" The words had barely left Paige's mouth before the swirling lights deposited her parents in the room. "HEAL.NOW" Paige, rendered near speechless by the scene before her, found it easier to communicate using the bare minimum of words.

Sam and Patty quickly took in the grotesque tableau before springing into action. As the only one without white lighter blood, Patty gathered her strength and walked purposely over toward where Leo and Chris lay. Taking a deep breath she clapsed the arrow embedded in Leo's shoulder with both hands and gave it a sharp tug. The amount of blood pouring from the wound meant that the arrow slid out quite quickly. Sam moved over and instantly began to heal Leo, as Patty repeated the same process on Chris, who made no sound whatsoever when the arrow was removed. As Sam finished up Leo, Patty crossed the room, to where Paige sat stroking her her daughters hair. "It's OK Sweetie, everything will be ok" Patty soothed as she approached. "This will just hurt a little" Patty reassured her as she readied herself to remove the final arrow. Jo, in too much pain to question the sudden appearence of this strange woman merely nodded feverishly, flinching as the arrow was pulled free. Sam, having healed Leo, who in turn was now attempting to heal Chris, was at Jo's side in seconds

. "I can't loose her again, i can't!" Paige babbled as Sam leant over and began applying his healing touch, and Jo closed her eyes trying to let the pain wash over her.

On the otherside of the room Leo knealt at Chris' side, his hand hovering over the gash on his shoulder which was taking longer to heal than anticipated. "Chris" leo whispered "come on chris, i need you to be strong, we need you to be strong.." a slight groan escaped the young witch-lighters lips, a sign that at least he appeared to be slowly regaining consciousness. "Chris, ..Wyatt, needs you, mommy needs you, ...I, need you...wake up buddy please!"

"wuh?"Chris' eyes fluttered open. "what happened...? the darklighter..! i didn't see it, I.." he said groggily, attemtping to sit up. "woah, calm down" Leo replied pushing him back down.

"mom..where's mom?" Chris turned his head toward where Piper had been standing "Dad! he cried, what happened to mom," he pointed to Piper who was now spread eagled on the floor.

Leo jumped up, he was at his wife's side instantainously. " It's ok" he called "She's just fainted."

"I don't need to sleep, mom, i feel fine now" Chris protested 45 minutes later. His plee however fell on deaf ears as Piper tucked the bedsheets around him.

"I never said you had to sleep Christopher, i said that you need to get some rest" She continued, fluffing the pillows as she spoke.

Chris sighed, looking to his father for some help, only to find that Leo himself had drifted off to sleep in the rocking chair. "Honestly..I.." he raised himself up slightly

"Nuh uh" Piper pushed him back down. "You" she began speaking slowly and clearly as if conversing with an idiot " are going to stay here for at least 30 minutes...whether you sleep, meditate, contemplate life and the universe or just plain sulk, you are not and i repeat not, going to step foot out of this bed..okay?"

"but.."

"I said OKay, Christopher, don't make me put you in a crystal cage mister!"

"alright" Chris sulked.

"Good..ouch, you kicked me!"

"mom these sheets are so god dam tight that i can barely breathe let alone move my legs"

"Not you, mini you, he just kicked me!"

"way to go, mini me, he's just looking out for me"

"I am just looking out for you..now get some rest!" she repeated, closing the door softly.

"I think someone needs to take thier own advice" a voice came from behind.

"mom i'm fine, i didn't even get hurt, well, only indirectly.." It was Piper's turn to protest.

"maybe so, but as you seem to have learnt mothers have the perogative to boss their children around, so come on, off to bed with you too" Patty wrapped her arm round her older daughter, and guided her toward Phoebe's room. "besides you can tell me all about my new grandson..."

Down in the kitchen Sam and Paige sat on opposing stools each clutching at a mug of camomile tea. They had enquired after each other's health, drank 3 mugs of tea and exhausted the more trivial topics of conversation such as the weather, the price of eggs, whether London really should have won the olympic bid, the pros and cons of signing the kyoto agreement, and had since fallen into silence.

"So" Sam took a break from examining the bottom of his mug to ask a question "you never did tell me why you called me"

"right...that"

" i figuered it must have been something important for you to have called me..it's not as if we're in regular contact"

"and who's fault is that?" Paige snapped setting her mug down "Its not as if you don't know where i am now is it?"

"i know..i .."

"i mean forgive me for thinking that when you floated your sorry ass in here, when was it now, two years ago, it could have been the start of us getting to know each other properly, but no, you float on out never to be seen again, so let me ask you, where the hell have you been these past couple of years..why did you bail on me again? was once not enough?"

"you have every right to be angry at me Paige you really do, and trust me i have an explanantion, but in fairness i asked my question first, now why did you call me down here?"

"I, well, we, infact, mom, called you down here because of Jo..."

"Jo? "

"Jo, the little girl you just healed, dark hair, pale skin, looks a lot like "

"..you. She's your daughter?"

"yes"

"I'm a grandfather?"

"Technically ...yes"

"and you called me down here beacuse of her?"

"yes..we kind of needed your opinion on something, its a bit of a long story..."

"well carry on, because i'm listening"

"...and so Big Chris is actually baby Chris from the future?"Patty repeated, after listening to Piper's explanation.

"yes..its all a bit confusing but, yes i am the mother of a 22-year old!"

"Well, for a moment there i did begin to wonder if there was another secret teenage pregnancy that i should have known about.."

"hardly! you didn't see me in high school did you!"

Pattys face fell slightly "No i didn't" she said softly

"Mom! i'm sorry i didn't mean it..."

"I know you didn't, and it's true, i wasn't there..but anyway, how are things going between you and Leo and 'the boys'?"

"well considering Wyatt is on the brink of turning evil and my youngest son is only 9 years younger than me, fairly well, except.."

"except?"

"except i think Chris, is hiding something from me..i'm not sure what exactly, whatever it is it caused some huge tension between him and Leo"

"how so?"

"i don't know, they had an argument and i think it all came out, so now Leo knows too, and both of them are remaining tight lipped"

"I wouldn't worry sweetie, i am sure that if it was important they would have told you"

" I guess"

"I'm sure" Patty planted a kiss on her daughters forehead

" i miss you so much mom, iw ish you could come down more often"

"so do I, but i also think its a testament to how strong and able you girls are that you don't need to summon me that often"

"i don't feel that strong"

"you are my dear, you are the backbone of this family, you have the greatest inner strength of anyone i know"

Before Piper could continue the swirl of orb lights appeared, depositing Chris and Wyatt in the room.

"what did i just tell you about getting out of bed?"

"Mom..it was Wyatt!"

"Wyatt?" Patty asked.

"Grandma! " Chris exclaimed spying Patty "hey..how are you?"

"Christopher i am waiting.."

"Ok, after you left Wyatt orbed into my room, i guess he wanted to play, and then he just touched my arm and orbed the pair of us here"

"Kids" Patty shook her head " never a dull moment..but hats off to Wyatt, i was just thinking that i would like to meet you two properly"

"see!" Chris said

"yes, well.." Piper began

"nevermind her" Patty interupted, "come here and give your grandma a hug!"

Jo awoke to find herself lying under a duvet on the living room sofa. Her memories of the previous hour were a little blurry, she remembered a man dressed in black carrying what appeared to be a bow and arrow and then the next thing she knew she was bleeding and feeling so much pain that she thought she was going to be sick. Paige had been there, crying hysterically, and a strange man and woman, the last thing she recalled before blacking out was the man puting his hand over her stomuch... She sat up,and slowly peeled back her top, expecting to see a huge bandage accross her mid-section, but there was nothing. She was confused, surely she hadn't dreamed about that attack?the pain had felt so real... Her head began to hurt slightly as she puzzled over the situation and her throat was dry, a glass of water was definatley needed. Dragging herself from the sofa, she made her way slowly toward the kitchen. The door was slightly ajar and the hum of conversation could be heard from within. Not wanting to interupt she paused outside and listened. One voice she recognised as belonging to Paige, the second was male, not Leo nor Chris...possibly the strange man from earlier.

"so there you have it" Paige was explaining " mom thinks i should tell her, i don't, so we brought you in to break the tie."

"Paige...I think you should tell Jo the truth" the male voice cut in " you asked me earlier why i haven't been in touch with you over the past couple of years. It's because i didn't know where i stood, what my role was in your life. Apart from one or two years when i was at my absolute rock bottom, i have been watching over you since the moment you were born, in my heart and mind you were, are, my daughter, but in your eyes i was nothing, a non entity. You had a father, one who loved you, looked after you, dried your tears, helped you ride a bike and tucked you into bed at night...you didn't seem ready or willing to accept another one. Perhaps you might have found room for me in time, but in truth, i didn't want to stick around to find out, i was scared that i wouldn't measure up, that i would seem a failure, that you wouldn't like me once you got to know me...so i did what seemed the easiest thing to do at the time, i walked away...better for me to live up to my reputation as a deadbeat rather than try and be a dad and end up disappointing you.."

"Don't you think that you should have let me decide whether i wanted you in my life or not, before you decided to orb out without a backwards glance?"

"I know, and i'm sorry,...i have missed the first 27 years of my only childs' life and there isn't a day that goes by that i don't regret that...which is why i think you should tell Jo..take your own advice, let her decide whether she wants you in her life or not..I don't want you making the same mistakes i did..tell her now, while you have the chance, if today has taught us anything then it is to seize each moment..."

"but how?...what? i waltz up and say 'hey Jo guess what? you know that apparantly heartless woman who abandoned you on the church steps? That was me! except it wasn't because they told me you were dead, and dumped you without my knowledge, but nevermind all that cos i'm here now.!"

"When the time comes you will find a way"

Jo froze, her heart seemed to be beating in her ears and her knees began to tremble, she grabbed onto the back of the door for support. Paige was her mother? that was impossible!..yet...Paige was her mother..?

TBC