Hi, so here is another shorter chapter and I hope you enjoy, I don't like this episode so therefore I don't write it very well. However it is central to Paige's character so I had to give it a go. Also in terms of Billie's Dad that will be addressed in later 'seasons' I have a very good idea of who it is going to turn out to be but I don't want to give too much away in case it keeps changing.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

And Cole is not going evil in this fic just to keep that in mind, he was Phoebe's soulmate and he always will be. Due to him not going evil a lot of the Season 4 after the next chapter will be skipped. I might do one two more of Season 4 and then we move onto Season 5. Again I do not think I will include the last season so just keep in mind Henry might pop up in the Season 6/7 arc (never liked Richard anyway).

Please Read and Review.

Mother Of Invention

Chapter 5-Mommy's Little Monster

Paige goes back to the past to confront what happens to her parents and who knows? Maybe meet her baby's father. Billie' not sure what to make of that either. Slightly shorter chapter.

She hated this time of the year.

The time where her parents died.

She didn't like to think of it, didn't like to even discuss it. She didn't even like to discuss them. As far as Billie was concerned she knew the story but it had been chalked down to those things that she talked about only when she had too and Billie, always a tactile child had known when something was upsetting her mother and had known when to avoid the subject.

Sisters on the other hand were not the same.

They had been living with Phoebe and Piper for three weeks now and surprisingly enough it had worked well. They worked well. It was like they had been living together all their lives. Now Paige was not an idiot, she knew that wasn't true, she knew that the reality was that the sisters and by proxy her, Leo and Cole as well were missing the big Prue shaped hole in their lives but the truth was things were going well.

And then they had found out what had happened to her, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Damn Leo.

The Elders as it turned out had not been impressed that they had been conned by the mother of the Charmed Ones (all four of them) and her whitelighter lover (so they said) and so they had been doing the supernatural dirty on her and her past and they had found out about her parents.

Fantastic.

"Is…was…it afterwards that you knew you were pregnant or before?" Phoebe asked once they had exacted every ounce of pain out of her and she was wiping her eyes on a napkin. Billie was at school thank God. Paige did not want to have to explain this to her daughter. She had never had to think of her mother as anything other than good, and while that might be a flawed estimation of her parenting and while she knew that Billie was a lot smarter than that she wanted her daughter to think of her as a good person for as long as she possible could.

Because Paige had not been a good person. She had not been a good daughter. She had been a spoilt bitch. She had taken all that good and pure love that a parent has for their child and had thrown it back in their faces just because she could. And she'd had the audacity to think it was funny and cool.

It was anything but.

And she had paid the price in the worst way possible.

She had found out about the spell afterwards.

Again…she had not thought the consequences through.

"I found out I was pregnant in hospital" she said as casually as she could. "Billie's father…I don't know who it was. I was…I wasn't careful back then, I was wild and I went between boys because I knew it would get a reaction out of people. That's what I wanted really, a reaction out of everyone and everything."

"So…so you really don't know?"

"Nope?"

"Well…well maybe going to the past might help" Phoebe said quietly. "With putting the ghosts to bed and with finding out"

"Who says I want to know?"

"You don't?"

"I think I've done a pretty good job on my own" Paige said casually. She tried to keep her tone neutral but there was a bite to her voice that both sisters had picked up on. It was hard to miss when you thought of it.

"Were not saying you haven't" Piper said quietly. "But…has Billie really never wanted to know?"

"Not that she's said" Paige said because that was truth. "I've told her all that I know about her father and considering I don't remember having sex half the time I was having sex that's not much. And I don't…I don't want to open old wounds if I don't have too. I can't change the past…can I?"

She left it all out on the open for one of them to tell her that she couldn't but the truth was the more Paige thought about it the more she wondered if she could.

If she could go back in time could she save her Mom and Dad from that crash? Free herself from the terrible guilt that she had, had over their deaths? She would still find her sisters eventually, the Power of Three would always come together and Billie…Billie would know her grandparents. There was no doubt in her mind that her mother and father would have loved Billie, would have been supportive in Paige raising her. Would have been thrilled. And maybe…maybe things would have been different. Maybe with her parents in her life she wouldn't have struggled so much. Billie wouldn't have struggled so much.

And maybe her baby girl would have had the life that she deserved.

She was achingly aware that this house was the first bit of luxury that Billie had. If it wasn't for the demons coming through the window at any given time she was sure that Billie would be having friends round and sleepovers and what not.

Maybe she should speak to her about that.

Paige rolled over and tried to go to sleep but she couldn't.

When she woke up the next day she knew what she was going to do.

She just hadn't figured on Leo coming along for the ride.

Predictably it was a shit show.

Pardon his language. Whitelighters were technically not supposed to swear but since Prue had died he had been swearing in his head quite a lot. Cole thought it was Prue from the other side making sure that there was a little bit of her in the world but Daryl thought and here Leo agreed somewhat that it was Cole and the devil may care attitude that he had that had turned him a little bit towards the dark side.

Actually he didn't mind it. Let the Elders book him if they wanted too, if anyone of them had, had the last six months that he had to deal with, they would be swearing like a group of Marines on shore leave given half the chance.

But the point was, you never meddled in the past unless the past came calling for you! Hadn't they rehashed this shit with Phoebe and the three cousins from hell?

(Leo had not been around in the twenties but he had heard rumours from other whitelighters that had been around at the time and from what he could gather the three cousins from hell was an accurate description for the headache that they had been looking back at the archives)

"You can't change the past Paige"

"I just did" Paige, a fifteen year old Paige said to him smugly.

Leo sighed. It was going to happen now anyway.

They had gone back in time and Paige had repaired her relationship with her parents but if she had gone looking for Billie's Dad (and Leo wasn't entirely sure if she was looking for him or for a memory of him or whatever she could find) but she had not said anything. Certainly she had hung around bad boys that could be Billie's Dad but even Leo had not seen an obvious connection.

And then the car swerved into the path of an oncoming truck and Paige orbed in instinct and Leo orbed with her.

It had been instinct. All those years ago, the Power of being a Charmed One had protected her. She had been pregnant with a Halliwell descendant, a descendant of Melinda Warren, there were generations of mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, all of them on the other side going back generations that were desperate to keep the future alive. Leo had known that.

So as he sat on the sidewalk next to a crying Paige he did his best to explain.

"I orbed out?"

"The power protected you, it protected Billie, she's half witch too, she…she was always going to be born"

"I don't…I didn't find out who…"

"Does it matter?"

"I don't know?"

"You think it matters to Billie?"

Paige shrugged tears still falling down her face.

Leo sighed. Prue, Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Billie…stubbornness was one hell of a family trait here.

"We have to go" he said carefully but Paige's hands were on her stomach as if she could feel Billie being created under her shirt.

For a second she sat on the pavement her face a picture of wonder and then she nodded her tears drying on her cheeks and Leo finally orbed them back home.

"Mom?"

She was in bed when Billie came to find her clutching two mugs.

"What's this?"

"That white hot chocolate we only save for special occasions" Billie said closing the door with her foot and then climbing into bed with her like she had been small and had a nightmare. Paige didn't want to tell her daughter that this time she was going to be having the nightmares. The nightmares didn't seem to stop.

"This a special occasion?"

"I spoke to Leo" Billie said wrapping the covers up around her. "He told me what you did today"

"What did he tell you?"

"All of it. I knew most of it but once he was talking it was easier to pretend that I knew it all. I know you went back in time to try and stop what happened. I know you didn't manage to stop it. I know you've blamed yourself for a long time"

Paige nodded.

All of this was true and accurate.

"I have"

"That's stupid"

"No honey it's not"

Billie looked at her and then she sighed. "Mom?"

"Yeah Bil?"

"I don't need to know who my Dad is."

"Well that's good" Paige said a bit too flippant for someone who was crying and she put her mug and Billie's on the bedside table for a second so she could wipe her eyes.

"Because I went back to the past and I thought…I thought I'd look at some of the people I hung around with back then and I would know…and as it turns out I didn't. I don't know who he is Billie…I wish…I wish things were different but I don't know—"

"Mom it's fine"

"No it's not. You should get to know him if you can and—"

"Mom I don't want too"

That shut her up.

"What?"

"Mom I don't want to get to know the guy that knocked up a fifteen year old and then did nothing as she was put into care, I don't want to get to know the guy that couldn't be bothered, I don't want to go breaking down the glass windows of his life If he didn't know who I was and I don't want to drag an innocent person into this life. You and me…we have gotten this far on our own and for good reasons. I love you. I know you love me. We have Aunt Piper and Aunt Phoebe and Leo and Cole and were good. Let's just be good"

Paige turned to stare at her and then…

"When did you get so big?" she said softly taking Billie's chin in her hand and looking at her little girl who was not so little. "Where did my little girl go?"

"She's still here" Billie said making grabby hands for her hot chocolate like she had done with her sippy cup once upon a very long time ago (even though it felt like yesterday) and Paige passed her the hot chocolate.

"Doesn't feel like it" Paige said wrapping her arm around her daughter and pulling her to her side.

"I know your not perfect Mom" Billie said finally.

"I know you know"

"You know you can talk to me about them if you want"

"I know that too"

Billie rested her head against her shoulder while she finished her hot chocolate and Paige finished hers in silence and then she tucked her daughter down into the warm bed and wrapped her up warm in her arms and watched as she fell asleep and knew what it was to love something more than life itself.

"You saved me" she said brushing back some of the blonde hair that was so unlike her own. "You saved me Billie…and…and I think your grandparents would have loved you…and tomorrow I will tell you all about them"

But Billie was asleep and once the kid was asleep she was asleep (of course Paige couldn't have been that lucky when she was a baby could she?) and so Paige tucked herself around her daughter and fell asleep and she thought that Billie was right, they didn't need that strange man who had done nothing to help her create this wonderful girl on the cusp of womanhood (besides the obvious).

Her last thought before she fell asleep was perhaps, just perhaps, she could put that monster girl behind her and put the ghosts of the past to rest and move forwards towards her future…whatever that may be, with her daughter safe by her side.

And there you go, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-Paige, Piper, and Phoebe battle the Source, Billie finally gets to use her magic for good in combat and Cole tries to make the ultimate sacrifice but is rebuffed because as one Halliwell sister said the woman saves the day and because he is not going evil. ,Massively AU Chapter.