Hi, so here is a return to this wonderful fandom of Charmed and this time I am attempting to do a Paige story, I love Rose, I love Paige, I just always loved Prue a little bit more. But having rewatched Seasons 4-8 I have to admit the Paige/Billie relationship was one of the few good things that came out of that Season. So this is based on that.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine just this plot.
Again this skips over a lot of things and dialogue etc. If you are looking for a word for word, episode for episode story this is not going to be that one.
Also as I forgot to mention it with the last one I will mention it now, I do not have a beta reader and spelling and grammar are not my strongest suit so if I do make mistakes then I do apologise.
This will end Paige/Henry, and will end Leo/Piper, I don't intend to go too much into Season 8 so Henry might make an appearance in the Season 7 arc. Christy ain't gonna be happening and I am not sure if I want to keep Cole good but he might be simply because while I can tolerate Coop that ending was a complete shambles for Phoebe, Cole was the love of her life and Cole was the one she was supposed to end up with.
And this is going to be Phoebe/Cole ending. Since the first chapter that has now been what I have agreed to. Sorry not sorry.
So that over with...
I do not take PMs anymore either, if you have a question please leave a review and I will get back to you in the next chapter, chapter notes.
And on a side note, I like so many other Fanfiction Authors no longer receive notifications via email about reviews/PMs etc. So if you do send any it might be a while, if ever before I get back to you. Please keep that in mind for it is not intentional-If anyone has a fix please let me know.
Please Read and Review.
Also I am not one hundred percent sure what Billie's power actually was and/or if she had an active power etc. So for this story her power is moving things with her hand, (not her mind) and there being no orbing. She's not Prue and therefore her power is not the same as Prue but I will confess it's pretty damn close. Again I don't know what the producers were thinking in Season 8 which is why only two or more chapters will be covered and Zankou will be the last great villain of the story (God knows he was of the series)
And yeah, I hope you enjoy this one, next one will have a bit of a time jump as we move more towards Season 4. Also...I do not intend for Cole to go evil in this fic. So that will take out a huge chunk of Season 4 that I will fill with something else.
Mother Of Invention
Chapter 3-Desting Calling.
Trouble is afoot when both of the Matthews girls get their hands on the Book of Shadows and Piper's grief over her sister finally begins to consume her.
The days after they found out that they were witches was a long and complicated process due to the fact that neither of them could control their powers and both the Matthews girls were too proud to accept help. But after another morning where Paige made the toaster move across the room nearly short circuiting their electricity and Billie nearly stabbed herself in the arm with a butter knife trying to move it without thinking about it they both decided that when Paige got off shift they needed to go and ask for help.
Magical help.
Sister help.
Auntie help.
Fuck that still felt strange to say.
"Feels strange to hear" Billie said buttering her toast.
"I'm still not keen on you missing school because of this"
"Mom I can't go to school, If someone pisses them off I might accidently move them out of the window"
That was…shit that was a point.
"Alright but I also don't like the idea of you being in that house by yourself either."
"We got to start somewhere" Billie always the eternal optimist. "We've got to start building trust with these people Mom. They are technically your sisters and they are technically my Aunt's so I guess at some point we are gonna have to start trusting each other. You are a third of this magical, mystical Power of Three and at some point all these demons are going to come after us"
She paused as Paige found her boots at the door and the two of them stared at each other as they both processed just how much their lives had changed when they got to the point where they could say words like 'magic' and 'demon' and have it not sound utterly insane.
"I am going to go to work because I used up all my sick days when you had the flu last month" her mother repeated to herself and to Billie for what felt like the third time that hour. "And you are going to go to the sisters for advice, if any of them, and I mean this Billie, if either one of them gives you so much as a second of grief I want you to call me"
She reached out and she took Billie's chin in her hand and mother and daughter stared at each other and Billie nodded. In truth she knew she'd be texting her Mom the whole time, she just hoped today wasn't the day where there would be a crisis at her work. Right now she needed her Mom as clear headed as she could be because there was a very good chance that come hell or come high water she was going to need her.
Today was the day that was going to change everything. Billie was optimistic that way.
She was also only thirteen.
She knocked on the door her stomach in knots and there was a padding noise of feet and then the door opened and it was the dark haired, half demon Cole who answered.
Billie was getting better both at recognising who lived in this house and what they were and she had a pretty good memory of Cole.
"Hello" he said watching her.
"Hello my name is—"
"I know" he said opening the door fully. "You can come in if you want just be aware I am giving you the option to run now"
She paused her foot hovering over the doorstep and she watched him suddenly filled with fear.
"Why?"
"Why? Why you ask Billie? Let me tell you why, this morning your Aunt Piper proceeded to run into battle with her eyes closed without knowing who she was up against—Furies by the way—and she's now upstairs defacing that…book…that I don't like and never will and Phoebe is upset with her and I can't get through to her and I think I might murder her!" he finished all of this with a little laugh and Billie really didn't know what to make of him other than the fact that she thought he was so sarcastic it was almost awe inspiring.
Hey! She was thirteen, everything was awe inspiring to her.
"Other than that I'm good?" she asked finally and he looked at her and grinned showing off dimples and teeth.
"Sure you are kid. But don't say I didn't warn you"
And then he was shimmering away…somewhere and Billie stepped into the house and shut the door dropping her bag onto the table and then walking up the stairs to the attic and to the sound of raised voices that she could hear.
She knocked.
She wanted it on record she knocked.
The two woman in the middle of the attic looked around. Phoebe lit up when she saw her and that was encouraging, Piper looked at her as if she was roadkill which was not.
"Hey Billie" Phoebe said beaming. "I'm—"
"She knows who we are" Piper said testily. "Now if you don't mind I am going to go and find out more about these Furies" and with that she brushed past Billie and went down the stairs and Billie knew that she wanted to get as far away from her as possible.
Again…not very encouraging when you thought about it.
"Don't mind her" Phoebe said in a more subdued tone, "She's been like that with everyone recently. But it is really good to see you" she said brightening back up again.
"Thanks"
"Is your Mom going to come with you?"
"She was hoping that she could come after work if that was okay? I…we…we think we might need some help controlling our powers. She's better at it than me, I'm scared I'm gonna accidently expose everyone to what we can do in the middle of math or something. And I do want to go back to school but…"
She didn't know if Phoebe understood any of this but she figured the woman had to have been a new witch once so surely?
"I remember" Phoebe said proving Billie's hypothesis right from the get go.
"I remember what it was like when we first got our powers, oh it was hell. I used to panic and think I would get a vision at all times, Piper would freeze everything at random and Prue—"
But she stopped at Prue's name and Billie thought that she was best to change the subject.
"I met Cole downstairs, he says that book is how it all works, so I was hoping that I could find something in there. Maybe a spell that might help me or Mom control it"
"Ah you won't find a spell to that, that's all you. But that comes with time and it comes with finding your feet with the craft. Your more than welcome to look at the book though. If you want. See…err…see the legacy for yourself. Your family's legacy"
And Billie did. It was still so hard for her to get used to having a family, a family history, a family legacy. She had never known who her father was and her mother's family memories had all been wrapped up in pain and misery and guilt totally obscuring the good times and even then she had been adopted so there had not been much to go on. And yeah sure it wasn't like she could put this in a family project for school but it was just nice to know.
"Thanks" she said running her hand alongside the book.
"Oh but honey look this book—" and then there was a banging noise that sounded like the front door had opened and slammed and Phoebe swore under her breath as Cole's not to happy tone floated up the stairs.
"Look I gotta go deal with that" she said and then she was gone and Billie stared at the book and thought that she needed to see her Mom with this pronto.
Good thing the window was open. Damn thing was too heavy for her to put into her bag without it knocking her shoulder backwards. And thank God she had money for a cab.
She just forgot about one thing.
The wrath of Piper.
"You stole their magic book?"
"Fake whisper it a little louder Mom I don't think the rest of your co-workers heard you"
"Billie, you stole their magic book"
"I didn't steal it! Phoebe said it was ours too and she said I could look at it all I wanted and show you"
"And yet somehow I don't think that meant chuck it out the window"
"And yet somehow I did. Look we can rehash this later do you want to look at our family heritage or what?"
Her Mom eyed her for a second and then…
"Go into the Ladies Room and make sure we are alone"
And that was how they started looking at the Book of Shadows. And for all her Mom's admonishments that she had stolen the damn thing Billie noticed she brought a pack of post-its with her coffee and Billie's soda can.
That was how the trouble started.
"Piper I think we need to calm down a little before we go in there"
"CALM DOWN?! PHOEBE THEY THREW OUR FAMILY HERITAGE OUT OF THE WINDOW?"
"Billie did, Paige didn't and Billie's a kid, she didn't know any better what to do with the book and, it is technically their book too. We need to get them used to it, the Power of Three—"
"The Power of Three can go hang for all I care right now! We are knee deep in fighting a demon and these two are acting like teenagers! How the hell are we supposed to fight the Source of All Fucking Evil if we have to deal with two teenagers! Neither one of them are prepared for this and they act like—"
"They are not prepared for it because nobody's taught them and nobody's taught them because nobody's known about them" Phoebe pointed out reasonably (though God knows there was no way of speaking to Piper reasonably at the moment).
Piper scoffed and then coughed a little and Phoebe missed Prue all the more. She'd had heard that cough and then had made soup and been the big sister that Piper didn't know how to be.
"Piper if we'd have known that Paige and Billie had existed things would have been different. You want to blame someone for this mess blame Mom and Sam, blame Grams, blame the Elders if you have to for their fucking stupid rules but don't blame the two people that we need right now. For better of for worse Paige is our sister and Billie is our niece—"
But Piper had already stalked off and Phoebe sighed feeling a headache develop that had nothing to do with all the crying that she had been doing recently. She knew Piper was all but mad with grief but she was keeping this together by a duct tape and prayer and she couldn't keep doing it…
She couldn't. Cole was right. When this over they had to sit Piper down and force her to feel.
And then she saw the man all but run out of the office with the mad woman after him and then Billie holding the book close to her chest with her Mom came out and Phoebe just knew that they had done something that had triggered the wrath of personal gain.
Again…it was the little things that needed to be taught not the big ones.
"This is kinda cool"
They had turned Paige back to normal bra size, orbed the man away back to his apartment with a memory spell for the shock and were now trying to find Piper who was now a Fury. Paige who had been trying to keep up with all of that was momentarily distracted by her daughter who was sat on the table watching Phoebe scry even though nothing happened.
"Yeah it is in a way" Phoebe said with a smile. "You get used to it"
"How did you learn all of this?"
"Practice. It comes with the lifestyle and this is a lifestyle, you can't be a half Charmed One. And that's hard"
Billie looked at one of the scrying rocks that they were trying and it materialised in her hand.
"I think I'm getting better" she said quietly. "Mom what do you think?"
Paige looked up and smiled. "I think your getting better too darling" she said and Billie beamed with the encouragement.
"Billie you want to get me some ginger from the kitchen? Pop the shaved bit into a mug and let it steep for three minutes in hot water and then bring it back?"
"Sure" Billie said clambering off the table and going to the kitchen.
"That a magic potion?"
"No it's just tea"
"Oh"
"You're doing really well you know"
"I let my kid turn me into Betty Boop"
Phoebe waved that aside with a hand.
"Hon that happens at least one a month trust me you've not done anything we haven't done from time to time. Personal Gain's a learning curve that you never stop going around"
Paige put down the rock and…
"You think she'll be okay with all of this? Billie?"
"She's a Halliwell, she's tough, comes with the strong cheekbones and the powers. And she's doing really well for a thirteen year old, I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if Grams had told us when we were thirteen. World War Three properly"
Paige smiled but she knew her worries remained. Phoebe came round and pulled out a chair and sat down next to her.
"Your doing really well" she said slowly. "I can't imagine what raising her alone has been like and you don't have to tell me anything—"
"I don't know who her father is" Paige said finally. "I don't…I don't even remember getting pregnant, I was a mess before my parents died and I was a mess afterwards. So I don't know. I don't know if she's now half demon or half whitelighter or half fucking zombie! I don't know anything other than the fact that three days ago I had a normal teenager and now I have a witch"
"And she's doing really, really well. You both are."
"Piper doesn't seem to think so and I get it, your grieving your sister and another pops up with a teenager to complete the family picture but…"
"Piper will be okay" Phoebe said confidently. "This isn't the first transformation into an evil being we've had to go through. Hell at this point it's not even the tenth, we'll get Piper back to normal and then we can start the process of moving on but…you can't steal the book"
And she flashed a grin as if to indicate that, that was all alright in the end but Paige took the warning head on.
"I'll talk to her"
"Thank you…and for what it's worth…I am really happy to be the cool Aunt"
Paige smiled. It was so easy to speak to Phoebe more so than anyone else in this family.
"Don't have her overhearing that, she'll have you teaching her make up tricks and everything you know about boys and I guarantee she will try at least once to play us off against each other"
"Eh, she's a teenager, nothing I haven't done before, trust me, you want to hear a horror story for parents you should hear about what I did when I was a teenager"
Paige laughed just as Billie came back with the tea and Cole returned so that they could help find Piper.
It was a mark of how good they were getting with magic that neither one of the Matthews girls flinched.
"So you found Piper and then what…she likes us now?"
That was Billie who the next morning was full of questions. What had happened between Piper, Leo and Paige at Prue's grave was something that Paige was not intending to tell her daughter. Leo had orbed them all back to the house and then Paige had told Billie in a tone of no argument that they had to go home. She had put some cream on the cut after Cole had assured her she was not going to turn into a demon and then she had gone straight to bed.
Billie had done the same thing but then at one in the morning her daughter had crawled into bed with her and she had wrapped her in her arms and pretended that she couldn't hear Piper screaming for her big sister in her ears.
She had been there. When her parents had died she had been there and had it not been for this miracle baby that had been inside of her she would have screamed herself to sleep too. But she had been too afraid of hurting her little miracle inside of her and so she had channelled her grief through her artwork and then immediately boxed them all up. She had not picked up a brush in years come to think of it.
"I don't know" she said in answer to Billie's question. "But there is a responsibility to this life that we are now leading that I think we have to respect. So…"
"No throwing the book out of the window got it"
There was a knock on the door and the two of them shared a look. Paige was not aware that anyone was supposed to be coming and she thought perhaps it was a demon but she got rid of that thought at once because since when did demons knock?
She opened the door and to her surprise it was Piper.
It was Saturday morning, they had lazy Saturday mornings in this house and Paige was in her pyjama's. She felt immediately underdressed compared to her older sister who despite the night she must have had looked perfect.
"Hello"
"Hi"
"I brought muffins. Homemade, all different flavours"
"Oh…thanks, come in"
And Piper did. She looked around the apartment and then smiled.
"You both have a lovely home"
"It's a mess"
"Billie!"
But Piper was laughing. It was odd seeing Piper laugh but here she was laughing.
"No it's fine…it's…honest. It's been a while since…well…I miss the brutal honesty sometimes"
She smiled at the two of them as Paige put the basket down.
"Thanks"
"No gave me an excuse to get into the kitchen again, didn't realise how much I missed it until…"
"You cook?"
"Yes, do you two?"
"Not well"
"Billie"
"What it's true?"
But Piper was already smiling back.
"Yeah well…I can help with that, if you both want. And Leo can heal that cut if you want him too"
"Nah, first battle would. I think I'll wear it with pride"
"Yeah well…there'll be a lot more where that came from"
Piper stared at them both for a couple of seconds more and then…
"It's very nice to meet you both, and…and I'm not Phoebe Billie but if you ever want to learn how to make muffins your Aunt Piper will show you"
"Thanks" Billie said slowly with a small smile. "And…I'm sorry I threw your book out the window"
"Ah well…that books a survivor just like the house, I wouldn't worry about it. And it's your book too. I should…er…I should be going but I wanted to drop these off so"
And then she moved towards the door and leaving Billie with the muffins Paige shut the door and followed her out the hallway.
"It does get better you know" she said to Piper's back. "It doesn't go away, but it does get better, I promise you"
Piper turned to look at her and for a second they both stared at each other and then she nodded.
"See you around Paige"
And with that she was gone and Paige nodded and went back into her apartment to her daughter, to the muffins and to the knowledge that destiny had a funny way of working but when it called there was no possible way you could ignore it.
And yeah, there we go, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-As both the Shocker Demon and a Black Knight wreck havoc the Matthews girls have a new problem to face when they are asked if they want to live at the Halliwell house. Life will once again never be the same.
