When Ella didn't come down for dinner the third time Byron shouted up at her he started to get worried. He rushed upstairs to their room to find his wife lying unconscious on their bed. Lightly, he shook her shoulders, trying to get a response from her whilst calling her name. Her eyes slowly opened and a wave of relief washed over him.

Ella could feel someone trying to pull her back into consciousness. She felt the strong loving hands gripping her shoulders and tried to open her eyes. A blurred figure of a man came into her vision.

"Leo." She mumbled. "Leo."

"Ella, honey, it's Byron. What happened?"

Bryon? Ella questioned for a moment while her drowsy brain tried to make a connection. It took her a few seconds to realise that it was her husband who had awoken her. Why did she think of Leo first? She brushed the thought off quickly, putting it down to the fact that she'd seen him only a few minutes ago and the big news he'd brought was still on her mind.

Slowly, she started to sit up. Bryon was looking at her expectantly. She vaguely remembered him asking her what had happened and tried to formulate the best answer she could.

"I guess it was just low blood sugar." She lied. "I haven't eaten much today."

"Well it's a good thing I've got dinner ready on the table then." He said, helping her to get up off the bed. "You really scared me there Ella."

"It's nothing." She insisted.

"Maybe we should take you to see a doctor."

"I said it was nothing." Ella said firmly. "Please stop fussing. I'm fine now."

Bryon didn't look convinced but he dropped the subject nonetheless, choosing to ask her about something else that had been playing on his mind.

"Aria said you looked really scared when you read a text message earlier. Was it from your ex husband? Is that why you said his name?"

Ella nodded, grateful that he'd come up with his own explanation for her behaviour that she could use. There was no way in Hell she'd tell him the real reason behind her fear. Well, I should know, she mused, I've been there. Drawing her thoughts away from all the times she'd visited the underworld whilst demon-hunting, she explained to Byron what had happened, leaving out some crucial details so as not to expose herself as a witch.

"The text was from Leo." She confirmed. "He said he wanted to see me again and that he'd found this woman who he thinks is my half-sister."

"And you believe him?" Byron asked.

"Stranger things have happened." She replied before walking off to the dining room, making it clear that she wanted the subject to be dropped.

After dinner, Ella went upstairs to check her cell phone for any messages from Phoebe regarding Paige or Leo. As she had expected, her sister had sent her a text with the simple message 'Call me.' Ella locked her bedroom door so as not to be disturbed and called her younger sister. Unsurprisingly, Phoebe picked up on the second ring. She had obviously been waiting for her to call and talk about what had happened.

"Piper! How've you been?" She asked cheerfully. "When are you getting back from Iceland?"

"We just got back this morning." Ella replied.

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, although it's strange being back now. Aria's still struggling with her friend's disappearance."

"I don't blame her." Phoebe said sadly before changing the subject. "Leo said he'd been to see you about the girl called Paige?"

"Yeah. Do you think it's true? Do you think we have another sister?" Ella asked.

"Well the Elders seem to think it is. As much as you might not like them, they're usually right."

"Do you want to meet her?"

"I think so. I mean, wouldn't it be great to have another sister and get the power of three back?"

"I guess." She admitted, despite her uncertainties.

"You don't sound convinced." Phoebe replied.

"Wow, that psych major really paid off." Ella teased her. She could almost see her sister poking her tongue out at her childishly. "I'm just not sure I'm ready to go back to that life again. What if something happens and my family get hurt? Besides, it doesn't feel right to have the power of three without Prue."

"I know what you mean." Phoebe assured her. "But isn't it worth giving Paige a chance? If not as a Charmed one then as a sister?"

"Yeah I suppose that can't hurt. If she wants to, that is. Do you want to let Leo know? I can't risk Byron or the kids catching him orbing in or something."

"Yeah sure. I'll text you when I know what we're going to do. Bye Piper." Phoebe said before hanging up.

She put her phone in the pocket of her jeans and walked back downstairs in hope of spending a couple of hours relaxing with Byron in front of the television to take her mind off everything that had happened in the half a day that she'd been home.

Byron was looking through one of the dozens of boxes still to be unpacked when she got downstairs.

"What are you looking for?" She asked him.

"Wine glasses."

Ella walked over to a stack of boxes on the other side of the room and started searching for the glasses as well. Finding them in the second box that she looked in, she picked up two of them and turned around to face her husband.

"Found them." She smiled.

"I think you're happy to be back." Byron said as he poured them both a glass of red wine and sat down on the sofa.

"Aren't you?" Ella asked.

"I haven't decided yet. I felt like we really bonded while we were away. I don't want to lose that."

"Are you really worried that we will?"

"It's just easy for stuff to get in the way." Byron said, taking a sip from his glass.

Ella sighed. She knew exactly how that felt. Being in Iceland had been like a vacation from everything she wanted to escape from: magic and demons, constant reminders of Alison's disappearance, the tension and distance that had started to appear between her and Byron. Somehow that all seemed to vanish while they were away and now it was coming back and hitting her at full force.

Leo's reappearance had definitely sparked up some old and unwelcome feelings for him; feelings that she knew she had to repress for the sake of her family and her marriage. However, she couldn't help but get the feeling that there was something that Byron was keeping from her and it was making her uneasy.

She first started noticing it about a month before they moved away and now she was starting to remember why. He was acting like he was guilty of something and lying to her but she couldn't quite put her finger on why she felt like this. After talking to Phoebe about it when she first started to notice something was up, she'd brushed it off as paranoia from years of demon hunting and falling for the wrong guy all the time. Demon, ghost, Whitelighter. She didn't exactly have the best track record.

Besides, she figured, it's not as if she had been completely honest throughout their marriage. There was the small matter of her powers, the powers that had been passed down to their daughter, which she was yet to bring up with him.

A sudden ring from her pocket pulled her out of her train of thought as it indicated that she'd received a text. Thinking that it would be from Phoebe, she pulled out her phone and read the message.

You're a smart witch, I'm sure. Remember if you tell then so will I. –A

"Who's it from?" Byron asked.

"Phoebe." Ella lied. "She wants to meet up again soon." She figured that Phoebe would text her sooner or later anyway so it would be easy to say the texts were from her.

"Oh that's great. It would be nice to see her again." Byron commented politely. He'd only ever met his sister-in-law a couple of times and wasn't really bothered that they didn't see more of each other. He wouldn't have minded getting to know his wife's family a little better but she rarely brought them up in conversation so he didn't press her about it. All he knew is that her mother had died when Ella was young and she'd recently lost her sister Prue when they met.

Ella, on the other hand, was freaking out. Seriously, who was 'A'? Were they going to keep sending her texts threatening to expose her as a witch? Her family couldn't know. They couldn't. She'd worked so hard to keep them out of it and in the dark for their own safety that she couldn't let one person ruin it for her. What would Byron say if he found out? What about Aria and Mike? Would Aria want her powers? Could she even handle them if she got them?

Byron wrapped his arm around Ella and pulled her closer to him, his touch instantly calming her down. She decided to change the subject in hope that he hadn't noticed her worried silence.

"I drove past Alison's house today. That's definitely something I haven't missed." She said sadly.

"A year later. Can you imagine what that poor family is going through?"

"I can't. I don't ever want to imagine. If anything ever happened to you or..." Ella started before Byron cut her off.

"Nothing is going to happen." He assured her, although his words brought little comfort. "We're safe. We're together. We're home."

That's easy for you to say, Ella thought, you didn't spend three years of your life with demons, warlocks and the Source of all freaking evil trying to kill you. She sighed. If anything at all happened to her family, especially as a result of her past, she didn't know if she could handle it. She'd barely survived after Prue's death and the thought of her family going through all that pain if something bad happened made her terrified.

Ella envied Byron's ignorance to the danger that she was in, especially now that the Underworld might know about Paige and the risk of the power of three reforming. She longed for the simple mortal life that everyone else in Rosewood had grown up with. Now, with the added threat of 'A', she would almost be willing to ask a genie for it. Almost. No matter what the circumstances, she would never be so desperate as to risk the consequences of dealing with a genie. They'd learnt that lesson the hard way.

Just then her phone vibrated again. Phoebe had sent her a text saying that Leo was going to orb her to Rosewood tomorrow, hopefully with Paige depending on how well Leo was able to convince her to come.

Unable to hide her exhaustion from the busy day she'd had any longer, Ella excused herself and decided to go to sleep early. Besides, she was going to need it to prepare for the possibility of meeting Paige tomorrow.