1She had tossed and turned all night. Lately she hadn't been sleeping well as her mind wandered to the future. Her husband had recently retired so his presence home all day long took some getting used to. She adored watching her grandchildren alone while her children worked and she was secretly jealous of how excited the grandchildren were to play with their grandfather.

Other matters pressed on her mind. Two months ago her brother in law passed away. He was always in perfect health, in fact the family was as a whole, so it came as a surprise when he didn't wake from his nap. The coroner labeled it a heart attack. Her sister wasn't the same without him; none of them were. He had always been a beacon for them, a pillar of strength to draw from. Her sister lived for him and she feared without him she wouldn't endure long. Piper had always been a fighter but death was something she always had a hard time dealing with.

"Henry?" Paige asked.

"Yeah, babe," he replied.

"Henry, I can't sleep," she said.

Henry rolled over and turned away from Paige. She was so proud of him when he was finally promoted to an inspector that the time he spent on cases meant little to her. Now that he was retired she thought he might put those skills toward his family. Or not.

"Henry,"

"Yeah, Paige?" he asked.

"If I can't sleep neither can you," she responded.

With a thump to the ground Paige had gotten off of bed, turned on all the lights and pulled the sheets from off of the bed. Henry lay there in a fetal position, his arms drawn up to his head to block the light. Looking down at him, Paige wondered what had happened to the tough cop she married.

"Henry, if you don't get up right now I'll orb you to a jail cell," Paige threatened.

"That wasn't funny last time," Henry barked.

He finally got up out of bed. His retirement had been tough on him too. For the first time in years he felt he wasn't making a difference. His work as a Parole Office had been some of the most rewarding of his career. He took pride in seeing his parolees move on to better things. Concurrently his wife worked as a whitelighter, guiding future beacons of good. In a sense he felt that they both worked in similar positions and that their work was rewarding.

When he was promoted to Inspector his duty became more akin as to what his wife and sisters did together; detective work to catch a perpetrator. That their work involved Demons mattered little to him in that they both had the same mission: to make this world a safer place. Whether he liked it or not, his marriage was based on the similarities of their work, of their shared purpose. Now that he was retired he felt more of a burden to her. There were missteps; they weren't in sync. Somehow they were merely going through the motions rather then enjoying life together. They somehow got into a rut.

"Do you think the boys are ok?" Paige asked.

"Is that why you woke me up?" Henry replied.

Paige shook her head. Lately living with Henry had become unbearable. Now that he was retired she felt suffocated by his constant presence. She found even the most mundane task he would want to take part in and she yearned for some independence. When she wasn't dying to get away from him she found herself wanting to get closer to him but he would become distant at those times. She wanted to share her fears and her worries with him but he always caught her before she began, telling her it was foolish to linger on such things. Her biggest worry was the state of her marriage. She knew they couldn't go on much longer in their present course. Something had to give.

She stared at herself in the mirror. She felt unattractive in her age and knew that feeling would grow as her skin sagged more and the wrinkles turned to creases. She couldn't help dying her hair black as in her youth; she loathed the gray that it had become. Paige used makeup to cover the blemishes, dark circles and age spots. The older she got the heavier the makeup became. She allowed one physical representation of her true age in a streak of white hair that emanated from her hairline and followed the part of her long hair. She loved the dramatic flair of it.

Their children had fallen on rough times as of late and most of her worry lay with them. Henry Jr. had finally secured a divorce from his wife. She wasn't a bad woman but she came to the realization that she didn't have the stomach for a witch's life. Henry Jr. had secured custody of their three children and they stayed in an apartment on the other side of town.

The twins she worried about the most. Emily had lost her job and her husband's barely kept them afloat. Add to that the needs of two teenaged sons and a prepubescent daughter; they were barely making ends meet. Elizabeth had just ceased a relationship with an abusive boyfriend. Once his blows strayed from her cheeks to her three boys, Elizabeth sent the bastard flying out the front door. Paige and Henry opened their home to Elizabeth and their grandsons.

"Henry," Paige started, "I'm just worried about them. I'm worried that the boys will get the wrong impression about relationships and I'm worried Elizabeth might swear them off forever. What if they can't sleep at night? What if-"

"-Paige, we can't worry about the 'what ifs', you know this. Our grandsons are good boys and there are more than enough good men in this family to set a good example for them. Your daughter is an amazing mother; I don't think you should question her parenting."

"I'm not questioning her parenting, I'm questioning her desire to move on. I know she's kicking herself about the whole situation and I'm afraid she's bearing too much of the burden. I wish you would show some concern about where I'm coming from," Paige said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Henry replied defensively.

Before they could raise their voiced they heard Elizabeth screaming at the end of the hall. Paige and Henry ran down the hallway as quickly as they could. They entered the guest bedroom to find it empty. As they questioned the whereabouts of their daughter they heard her screams coming from across the hall in the old nursery where the boys slept.

Henry and Paige ran in to find Elizabeth cowering in the far corner bed with her two youngest boys, Clint and Brent, behind her. Before them stood a tall masked figured dressed in black. His mask was white and expressionless save for the eyes, which pierced with such intensity at the whole of Paige. Wrapped in this intruder's arms was their 15 year old grandson Terrence. The look of fright on Terrence's face sent fear and rage coursing through Paige.

The masked intruder held an athame to the boy's throat, seesawing it back and forth across his taut skin. Paige couldn't bear the thought of seeing her grandson's throat slit before her eyes so without thinking she orbed the athame away from the intruder's hands and into her own. The intruder pulled Terrence's body closer to his own and stared into Paige's eyes.

"Tsk tsk," the intruder growled in a deep baritone voice.

Elizabeth saw an opportunity to throw the intruder's balance off and give her son an opportunity to escape. As he stared at Paige and taunted her, Elizabeth crouched low on the bed and got her legs into a position that would allow her to jump high onto the intruder's back. As she jumped, the masked intruder shimmered out with her son. She fell onto the floor with tears streaming down her face.