Paige softly knocked on the door to Phoebe's room where she could hear both Phoebe and Pipers voices. In the back of her mind she wondered vaguely where Glen had gotten to during this whole mess, and she was glad he had missed it.
"Come in!" Phoebe yelled out.
Paige bit her lip trying to work up the courage to actually open the door. And with a grimace she opened the door and walked in the room. Instantly Phoebe and Piper looked up surprised to see her. Clearly she was not expected, which just made it all the more uncomfortable and made her hesitant to say anything.
"Oh Paige, wow, I didn't realize it was you, umm why don't you sit down or something. We were just kinda hanging out and all that" Phoebe paused clearly at a lack for what else to say. She gave Piper a look that clearly yelled at her to say something.
"Ya, Paige come sit. We were planning to go look for you... sometime soon or something" Piper flashed Phoebe a looking asking her what to say.
"So ya, sit" was Phoebe's addition.
Paige gave them an odd look, and sighed internally, knowing this was gonna be even harder than she had previously thought, since they were clearly very uncomfortable.
Paige grabbed what little courage she could and said "Look, stop, this whole jumping around thing and acting awkward has to stop. We need to talk, seriously."
She was interrupted by the entrance of Cole and Leo, who both looked embarrassed to have walked into this scene. And seemed to not know quite what to do now that they had interrupted.
Paige actually almost smiled at this and decided to just end all this suffering. "Ok, well it looks like the whole gang is here…"
Leo interrupted by saying "Cole and I can go…"
This time Paige interrupted him and said "No. No, that's ok. I mean you guys are part of the family too" At this everyone looked surprised, surprised she had included Cole in that.
Paige went on and said "Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I had no right to lash out at Prue. I never even knew her so I'm certainly not in some position to judge her. I just hate being compared to her or having my actions compared to things she did, as though I'm being punished for her mistakes."
At this Piper and Phoebe both looked like they were gonna say something but she stopped them by holding up her hand and saying "I know, I know that's not what you were trying to do, but I guess its kinda what I thought and expected you to do. I guess, I guess I'm kinda paranoid that somehow you want me to be her or something and I can't do that. And I realize now that's not true, I mean I can't imagine why I'd think you would even allow me to replace her. Its funny I saw it as such a bad thing, my being seen as a replacement, but I see now kinda that both I'm not a replacement and that I can't be, but that being a replacement, being able to fit her shoes would be a good thing. But either way I can't, and I'm sorry if that upsets you. But you can't keep throwing Prue's mistakes back at me as though in some way I made them too or like I'm sure to make them. You have to let me make my own mistakes and figure out my own path."
As soon as Paige paused for a breath Phoebe jumped in to say "Paige, that's not how it is at all. We did not mean to lash out at you before. And we have never seen you as a replacement for Prue. You're right, you can't replace her, but that's because we don't want her replaced, she may be gone but that doesn't mean we need her replaced, she still is in our hearts and as such can't be replaced. You are a totally different, separate person, and if it seems like we hold her mistakes against you its just that we lost her and she made these mistakes and we don't want those same mistakes to lead to us loosing you too."
Paige looked and felt touched and really hoped that she did not start to cry, that would just be too emotional. And she finally said "I really am sorry about not asking about Glenn."
This made Piper and Phoebe pause and finally Piper told her "Its alright, we've all done things we shouldn't and have made mistakes. And we all made a lot of them today. We never should have said you were less a witch than Prue because that's not true, it was just the most hurtful thing we would think of at the time and since you hurt us by insulting Prue we lashed out, and I'm sorry. You're quickly becoming a great witch and we are all different witches, Prue is not some prefect ideal that you need to aim for; we don't. You're a witch in your own right and you've earned that, it's not related in any way to what Prue was or had. You're our sister and we love you as yourself, not as a substitute or replacement, but as Paige, and even if you weren't a witch and did not reconstitute the power of three we'd still love you just as much."
This time Paige did cry and she went and got wrapped in a large group hug with her sisters.
Finally Phoebe said "And we talked about the Glenn thing. We realized that there are not that many magical men out there for you to find or fall for. So most likely you're gonna end up with a mortal and to say you couldn't have him live here would be basically condemning you to never having any serous relationships, and that's not fair. We're sorry. And we are willing to give his living here a try. However in the future do try to give us a little more advance notice."
Paige grinned and hugged them again and looked over her shoulder at Cole and smiled, her eyes clearly thanking him. He nodded and smiled back. This got him an odd look from Leo to which he mouthed "later," Leo nodded.
"Well, I'm glad you girls all worked out your issues" Leo said.
That made Piper grin and roll her eyes "Well said, my oh ever tactful husband."
"What" Leo said indignantly.
Cole laughed and shared a look with Phoebe who said "Never mind Leo."
"No seriously, what?" Leo said looking annoyed
"Never mind sweetie" Piper said with a grin.
"Ya its better that you don't know" Paige said. They all knew it was nothing but seeing him so confused was priceless.
"Cole, come on you should be on my side here, what are they talking about?" Leo asked.
Cole grinned and said "No idea" and laughed softly.
"Oh fine whatever, be that way, real mature" Leo said sarcastically, but now more good naturedly.
All five of them turned when they heard someone say "So what did I miss" right outside the door.
"Glenn!" Paige said in surprise.
"Yep, that's my name" Glenn said grinning with good humor.
Paige laughed and said "Where have you been?"
"Oh I was just getting some last stuff and picking up some stuff from the store" Glenn replied.
"Oh" Paige drifted off clearly unsure of what to say next.
Finally after a long silence Piper said "Well why don't you go help him settle into your room."
"Paige gave a hesitant smile and nodded, clearly hoping for some sign of approval and finally she got it when Phoebe said "Maybe tomorrow we can go get two more keys made for Glenn and Cole."
Which made Cole mutter "Yes, because I use the door so frequently."
Everyone laughed at that and Piper said "It's still good to have Cole, you never know, and in this case it's more of a symbol."
Cole rolled his eyes and said "Whatever you say Piper."
At that Paige decided that she would take their advice. "Alight, Glenn why don't we go get you settled in like they suggested."
"Ok, sounds good to me" Glenn said.
They walked out of the room hand in hand and the remaining four shared a look of slight worry, but more of contentment.
"Well at least that got all settled out so things can calm down a bit" Phoebe said. And as soon as the words exited her mouth the phone rang.
Piper gave her a look and said "You just had to say it didn't you, and now look!"
"What, we don't know that the phone means something bad" Phoebe defended.
"In this house it's usually safe to assume" Piper replied.
"Guys Darryl's on the phone, he says he really needs to talk to you!" Paige yelled from downstairs.
Piper gave Phoebe an annoyed look and got up muttering things under her breath. Phoebe followed her saying defensively "Coincidences happen!"
Cole and Leo shared another look and finally Leo said "We better follow them and see what's happening."
"Yep" Cole said and they got up to follow.
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