Author's Note: In answer to a question I got in a review, there may yet be a companion piece to Thicker Than Water that covers Paige and Sam's early lives, but probably only flashbacks with this one. Anything else just doesn't fit the direction I'm going with this story. And, I'm thrilled to see the kind of reception I've been getting for this story. You guys are awesome.
The drive back to the Manor was quiet, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Phoebe finally broke the silence after they'd walked into the house.
"Why do you think Mom or Grams never told us about Paige?" she asked.
"Mom and Sam had to hide their relationship, just like Leo and I did," Piper spoke up. "Add a baby into a relationship that isn't supposed to exist in the first place-"
She let her voice trail off, but her sisters had no trouble filling in what was left unsaid.
"I'm going to go make some tea," Piper added, as she headed for the kitchen. "Does anyone want some?"
She got absent answers from both of her sisters that she took to be agreement, and she left them alone as she went into the kitchen. She filled the tea kettle and set it on the stove to heat up, and then she opened the potions cabinet and started reorganizing the ingredients, to keep her hands busy while she was waiting. Unfortunately, nothing could keep her thoughts, busy.
'If Mom and Sam were so afraid of what the Elders would do to Paige, that they had to hide her existence from everyone, even us,' she thought, 'then how were Leo and I able to have our daughter, Melinda, in the future? Wouldn't she be just as forbidden as Paige was?'
The easy answer was that finding Paige would pave the way for Melinda's birth, that when the Elders found out about her, they would do away with the restrictions on witches and Whitelighters being together. But, as pat as that answer was, it also raised even more questions. Like, where had Paige been in the future they'd gone to, why hadn't she been with her and Prue as they planned to break Phoebe out of prison?
'In the future, Leo told us that Phoebe killed Cal Greene after he brutalized a dear friend of hers,' she thought. 'But, he didn't tell us any of that until after he knew that we'd come from the past, from a time before we knew Paige. What if he changed the details, what if Paige-'
She had to stop there, because finishing that thought would have made her sick. She'd only known her youngest sister for barely an hour, but she was already as protective of Paige as she was of Prue and Phoebe, and if anything ever happened to her-
Piper decided not to tell Prue and Phoebe of her suspicions; no need to worry them, as well, for something that she had no proof of. But, she told herself that she was going to find a way to get a hold of Paige in the morning, to find out if she'd ever met, or even heard of, Cal Greene. They'd just found their sister, and she'd be damned if they were going to lose her, now.
The sharp whistle of the tea kettle jolted her out of her thoughts, and she quickly took the kettle off the stove before it could start burning. She poured three cups, setting them on a tray, and then she carried the tray out into the living room where Prue and Phoebe were sitting on the couch, sitting in an armchair across from them, and placing the tray on the coffee table.
"I'm not going into work," Prue said, before Piper could speak. "I called Jack, told him that I was sick. I don't think he bought it, but he promised to cover for me, anyway."
"We're putting a scrapbook together of Mom's letters to Sam," Phoebe added, gesturing to the pile of papers spread out on the coffee table in front of them, and the photo album open on her knees. "I thought it might be nice to share with Paige, too."
"We don't even know where she lives," Prue realized, a moment later. "You don't think she lived in that boathouse with Sam, do you?"
"We didn't see any signs that anyone other than Sam lived there," Piper reminded her. "And, besides, Paige orbed in from somewhere else."
"So, no address, no phone number," Phoebe said. "Do you think that Leo can find her for us?"
Both of them automatically looked over at Piper, like she would know the answer, but Piper shrugged.
"Don't look at me," she told them. "I haven't seen Leo since he orbed out of the car when the Elders called him. He's probably still up there, talking to them about Paige."
"Do you think they're mad about Paige?" Phoebe asked, after a moment.
"Mom and Sam broke one of their biggest rules and kept it a secret for over twenty years," Prue pointed out. "Of course they're mad."
"I don't know," Piper spoke up. "I mean, Paige was orbing, and she tried to heal Sam. If she's using Whitelighter powers, doesn't it make sense that the Elders would have found out about her, before now?"
Any answer Prue would have made was cut off by someone orbing into the living room. The orbs coalesced into Leo, who sat down on the arm of Piper's chair.
"The Elders didn't know about Paige," Leo said, without preamble, indicating that he'd heard the tail end of their conversation. "At least, not until Sam died. His death undid the last of the protections that he and your mother put on Paige, to keep the Elders from finding her."
"Are they angry?" Piper asked, voicing the question that was on all of their minds.
"About being lied to, sure," Leo said, with a shrug. "But, there's not a whole lot they can do about Paige, now. They want to talk to Paige, because she's the first Whitelighter-witch that they know about in over five hundred years, but they're not going to bother her. Apparently, she's a strong witch, and she's done a lot of good fighting demons over the years, and they don't want to mess with that."
"So, they're being generous, but only because they have their reasons," Prue commented, shrewdly.
"Hey, the Elders don't think like the rest of us do," Leo protested.
"Besides," Phoebe added, "do we really care what their reasons are, so long as they leave Paige alone?"
"You said that Paige was the first Whitelighter-witch in over five hundred years," Piper spoke up, picking up on Leo's little slip. "Do you mean that there have been more before her?"
Leo looked sheepish, like he wasn't supposed to let them know that little detail, and for a moment, Piper didn't think that he was going to answer. But, then he nodded.
"The ban on witches and Whitelighters being together is only about five hundred years old," he replied. "Before that, it was uncommon, but it wasn't forbidden."
"Something had to have happened to make the Elders so wary," Prue pointed out.
"I'm getting to that," Leo told them, unruffled by her impatience. "So, it never used to be an issue, until a witch named Genevieve Bodie gave birth to twins. The babies were half-Whitelighter, and the younger twin grew up fine."
"And the older one?" Piper prompted, wondering what Leo was so reluctant to tell them.
"He turned evil," Leo admitted, after a moment. "Started performing blood sacrifices, terrorizing the village he lived in – he even killed his own brother, when his twin tried to stop him."
"And the Elders thought that it was because he was half-Whitelighter?" Prue guessed, and Leo nodded.
"They didn't know for sure," he replied. "But they couldn't take the chance that it was what caused his turn for evil. So, after the boy had been vanquished, the Elders passed a law that any relations between witches and Whitelighters was strictly forbidden, and anyone caught breaking the rules would be severely punished."
"Do you think Sam knew about this?" Piper asked, but Leo shook his head.
"None of did, Up There," he answered. "The Elders kept it a tight secret; I only found out about it because of Paige."
"They don't think-" Phoebe started, but Leo shook his head.
"Like I said, there was no proof that being half-Whitelighter turned that boy evil in the first place," he replied. "For all anyone knew, he would have turned evil, regardless of his heritage."
"They're not going to do anything to Paige, are they?" Piper asked, darkly, a surge of protectiveness rising up inside her.
"And bring the collective wrath of the Halliwell family down on them?" Leo asked, wryly. "No, the Elders aren't going to touch Paige."
"Good," Piper declared, taking a sip of her forgotten tea, and grimacing at the cold, bitter liquid. "Gonna go get a refill. Anyone want some more?"
She got negative replies from her sisters, and when she stood to go to the kitchen, Leo followed her. He hovered nervously in the doorway to the kitchen as she poured herself a new cup of tea.
"Did the Elders say anything about us?" Piper finally asked, quietly, and she could hear Leo let out a gusty sigh from behind her.
"They did have a few words on that topic," he admitted. "We did break the rules, after all, even if the rule is kind of moot at this point."
"Are we in trouble?" Piper wanted to know, but Leo shook his head.
"Slap on the wrist," he told her, "and mostly for me, since I knew about the restrictions, and you didn't. My wings are clipped for a while. For a few months, probably. My charges, including you three, are temporarily reassigned to new Whitelighters until the Elders decide that I'm back on duty."
"So, you're human," Piper said, and Leo nodded.
"For a little while," he reminded her. "Long enough for us to figure out this thing between us, anyway. If there is still an us?" he prompted, a hopeful note in his voice.
"I care about Dan," Piper said, knowing what Leo was hinting at. "And, if my life were different, I think I could do a lot more than care for him."
"But-" Leo prompted, when she fell silent.
"But, Dan isn't the man that I married in the future," Piper finished. "The man that I loved enough to have a daughter with. You are."
Leo looked absolutely floored by her revelation, and Piper realized a moment too late that they'd never told Leo what they'd really seen in the future.
"A daughter?" he asked, in astonishment, and Piper decided that, in for a penny, in for a pound, and she nodded. "We're going to have a daughter?" Leo repeated, wonderingly.
"If you play your cards right," Piper teased him, gently.
"Well," Leo commented, "I've got nothing but time these next few months to show you how much I love you."
"All thanks to the Elders," Piper finished for him, and then she stopped as something occurred to her. "Wait a minute, you don't think they did that on purpose, did you?"
A considering look crossed Leo's face as he pondered her words, and then he shrugged. "If they did," he asked, "are you really complaining?"
"Not one bit," Piper decided, as she wound an arm around Leo's neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "Not one bit."