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.

The Season 4 arc is going to change rapidly from the outset of this chapter. I predict only two more chapters of this season left.


Mother Of Invention

Chapter 6-These Dark And Delicate Obsessions

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.


"I think we should try and see if we can do it today"

That was Piper and it was spoken with an air of decisiveness and it hit the three other people at the table, the two woman and the one girl all looked up from their waffles to stare at her. Billie put down the honey she had been drizzling on hers and stared, Phoebe watched her with an air of a woman gritting her teeth and getting ready to end the three year battle they had been fighting and Paige…Paige was looking at her but her hand had reached out on instinct for her daughter in a way that Piper could see but couldn't understand.

Not really anyway.

"You want to see if we can do it today?" Paige asked her voice dropping until it was just a whisper.

"Yes. I think today should be the day that we try and vanquish the Source of All Evil yes"

There was a pause as the three woman took that in and then Billie spoke and her voice was hesitant and small and Piper had to remind herself to smile even when she believed that soon she would see vengeance in sight.

She wasn't a vengeful person and Prue would be the last person who would be expecting her to be, they had seen when they had gone to the future that it didn't work but God help her and all the other Gods on all the other planes she wanted this bastard dead and she was going to do her best to make sure it happened. This was for Prue, for her mother, for her grandmother, for all the woman who had lived and died under the Source's power, because of the Source's power and it was for Phoebe and Paige and Billie…living their lives, learning and loving the craft without fear it was going to be the death of them, that it was going to get them killed and that it was a gift to be cherished and not a curse to see them to whatever life came next.

"So we do it today" Phoebe said nodding. "I'll send Cole away"

"You really think he will go?" Billie said disbelief in her tone.

"Yes" Paige said and her expression was suddenly illuminated. "Yes he will if he is asked and asked properly"

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing" Paige said with a tight smile. "Nothing…listen we need potions and ingredients and all sorts of stuff so I will take care of that. Billie can—"

"I can help you set the attic up for when you are ready" Billie said nodding. "It's Saturday Mom I'll be fine. And then you can tell me what you want me to do when this begins."

There was a pause and then Billie spoke and when she spoke it was as if generations of Halliwell's had travelled down her turning her from porcelain to bone, to steel.

"She was my aunt too"

There was a long pause after that and then Paige nodded but there was something in her eyes that didn't meet her expression and a part of Piper wondered just what hell her baby sister was cooking now.

Dear God was this what Prue had felt when she was dealing with Phoebe? If so it was a wonder that she had even made it past the teenage years.

She was so beginning to have sympathy with Grams right about now. She had forgotten what it was like living with a teenager in the house. And Aivita did not count considering she nearly did try to kill them all.

"Okay" she said breathing through her nose and suddenly very glad that Leo was off dealing with a charge in crisis. "Okay…we can get this done, we trust the new Power of Three…and we can get this done"

Underneath each sister knew there was an uncurrent of they had to get this done. For Piper and Phoebe it was the fact that they had to get it done for Prue, they had to avenge Prue, they had to make sure that the gaping hole in each of them where their big sister was, was given just an inch of closure. Something to make them sleep at night and to take away the howling mess that was her loss still raw, still painful, still aching for a long time.

Funny thing was, neither of them considered the possibility that Paige was doing it for another reason entirely.


She met Cole outside the house and she tugged him aside before he could go into the house and see what fresh hell was unfolding before her very eyes.

She was still not sure what to make of him. She had seen him as Balthazar, she had seen him as a human, she was still not sure what to make of him. There was no way of preparing yourself for the enigma that was Cole Turner and the irony was if it was not clear that he and Phoebe were made for each other and if she didn't have a daughter which meant that she would have to at least try and act responsibly when it came to the men that she took home she had to admit that she might have thrown her hat at him. Certainly he oozed a certain bad boy charm that made even her want to bat her eyelashes at him even when you got past the whole demon thing. Especially considering the demon side of him was…well…to put it frank…hideous.

And really…it was…Paige did not think she was being too hard there.

"I need you to do something for me" she said quietly.

"Oh?"

"We are doing it…tonight…Phoebe doesn't want you there but I know you and I know that you will be there regardless so rather than you running in and getting yourself killed…or worse…possessed by this Hollow thing, I need you to make sure Billie get's out"

Cole looked at her for a long second.

"You know there is nothing that I can do, I don't have powers, I don't have the ability to do what I could have done any more. I am…I am weak and I am human I am…I can't protect your child indefinitely Paige"

"I am only asking that you keep her from the main of the fight if you can" Paige said quietly. "Get her to Leo if I don't make it. He will know what to do from there. She is a Charmed One or at the very least a child of one and she's going to be a target. Leo will know what to do but…but make sure that she does some bad stuff you know. I don't need an angel for a kid"

"Hon I ain't the parenting type believe me"

"I am not asking you to raise her" she said shaking her head. "But the Source has killed one Halliwell if he kills me…just make sure she has a bit of a life. Fun, boys, just…just counteract some of the good Leo will do"

"Paige—"

"Cole just do this for me please, please protect my daughter when the time comes"

"Your daughter has magic Paige have you considered—"

"Cole"

He looked at her then in an appraising kind of way and she got the impression he was almost amused by something, she couldn't understand it herself but as soon as the thought crossed her mind to his credit he elaborated.

"You know…I knew Prue, I've faced down many adversaries over a long list of years, over a long time but Prue…Prue was the one that I admit gave as good as she got. I had planned to grow…old I suppose with Prue and with the back and forth, you walk the Earth for as long as I have and you find yourself very happy when you cross paths with a sparring partner worthy of the name"

Paige had no idea why he was telling her this (it wasn't as if she didn't have an inferiority complex when it came to her dead older sister that she had never met and from what she had heard she was not sure would have liked her even if they had) but she nodded along in what she hoped was an encouraging matter. To Cole's credit he elaborated upon seeing her confusion.

"What I am trying to say is…you are a lot like Prue. You don't know it yet but you are. And…and I will do this for you because I would do this for her. But your daughter has magic Paige, it's time you considered teaching her how to use it as a weapon, because you can't be at her side twenty four hours, seven days a week, day in day out and in dreams to boot. This life comes with risks but it's a life she doesn't have a choice but to live. And she's desperate for it. So you want my advice? Train her before she gets herself killed trying to prove that she can take care of herself"

And with that he turned and walked back up the stairs to the house.

Paige had to say, he had left her stunned into complete silence.


The Hollow was open, wide and cracked open and here they were in the Attic, Ground Zero, where it had all began nearly four years ago where they had clasped hands and prayed for the nightmare to be over.

Phoebe dodged a fireball and then the door to the attic burst open.

The Source turned and there was Billie her face white as chalk and her eyes big in her head but her blonde hair tied back in a French plat in the same jeans and Yale jumper she had been wearing this morning and she waved her hand in the same way her Aunt had done thinking furiously and then the Book of Shadows crashed into the Source's head knocking him backwards just as Cole tackled Billie to the carpet.

That gave the sisters enough time to cast the spell.

Cole screamed over the heads of the wind that the spell created, the lightening, the magic coming from the Hollow, the raw unbound magic but he was hidden by the table, shielding Billie who had incurred the wrath of the Source. Her eyes met her mothers and the knife which had been thrown to the ground flickered to the Source just as the spell hit him and the generations of Halliwell's who had lived and loved and lost and died and cried including one in particular circled the Source of All Evil and he fell with a mundane finality.

For a second the seven of them, (Cole, Leo and Billie included the Seer most definitely not) watched and then the Hollow's magic seeped back into the box and it sped into the Seers hand who looked nothing more than delighted to have it back in her own hands again.

There was something here that Paige did not understand but she did not care. All that she understood was that her daughter was alive. During the fight the door had been slammed shut shutting her outside and Paige did not know what had done that but it had been like the door had shut on it's own.

And then Billie had come crashing through the door and she had managed to get the Book to the Source who had rebounded and then Cole had saved her daughter from the worse of what was to come and so they had done it.

The Seer her dark eyes watching them as they got their feet smiled with a smug edge that told Paige there was no way in hell that they were not going to run into each other at some point during this day and so she watched as the immortal woman and the box disappeared from view.

And then she found herself in the arms of her daughter who had flung herself at her.

"Never again" Billie was saying and it took Paige a second to realise that she was saying it over and over again and Paige wrapped her arms around her daughter and she nodded.

"Billie—"

"Mom you and I are in this together, never do that again"

"I never did…I didn't shut the door on you Billie"

"No" Piper said with a smile when she pulled herself apart from her own husband. "No I think that was someone else"

For a second Paige blinked not sure what she was getting at but then she thought about it and then she understood. She tucked her daughter in close to her and watched as Cole, human, mortal, good Cole met her eyes his arms around Phoebe and he grinned at her.

"Thank You" she mouthed and all she got was an eyeroll in return.

But she knew that he had understood.


"Were in this together" Billie said later that night when they came back from the Club. Piper had kept it open past closing hours which meant at two in the morning Billie was able to sneak in. Considering it was closer to two when they had defeated the Source she figured they were in safe hands and this time when Piper cracked open the champagne she did not stop her daughter from having a quarter of a glass. This was a hard earned victory, many demons had been killed in the process and so many had been lost since this journey had begun.

"We are Mom"

"I know" Paige said taking her daughter's hand in her own. "I love you Billie…I know that and I love you…so much it hurts me sometimes because the thought of the Source hurting you…of even looking at you…but…" here she carefully did not look at Cole.

"I have a grasp on the craft now, so if you want…if you want we can look more at expanding your powers"

"So you won't keep me in the shadows?" Billie asked finally.

"You are a Charmed One" Paige said finally. At long last she had realised that there was no point in hiding away the truth of what she and her daughter were. So much had been gained and so much had been lost since. And now she was here, admitting it.

"You are a Charmed One my daughter" she said finally. "I am not going to lose you through a lack of education, this is your destiny as much as it is mine. As long as the Source is gone…you can learn"

Billie wrapped her arms around her and hugged her as Piper came back with another bottle and they all toasted to Prue, the sister who should have been here, the woman who had been the leader of the Charmed Ones upon this journey that Billie and Paige had all but fallen into and if Paige was not mistaken (and she was not going to mention it unless she very much was) the woman who had saved Billie's life from beyond the grave.


That night she did not know why she did it. Why she went up to the attic but she couldn't sleep. She knew that something was keeping her awake and so Paige got out of bed and padded to Billie's room. Her girl was asleep tired from the day and a half of near constant fighting and so was everyone else. Cole was human still, Piper and Leo had their happy ending, Phoebe could get hers too. A wedding was around the corner and yet she went to the attic and knew who was going to be there when she arrived.

It was almost like she had been woken up just for this.

Paige shut the door and leaned against the heavy wood and stared at Prue Halliwell who stared back at her. Older sister, younger sister, number one and number four. They stared at each other and Paige catalogued everything about her sister that she had never seen before.

Prue drank her in her spirt form watching her, her eyes hungry.

"Thank you" Paige said finally. "I know it was you that shut the door on Billie, that fireball was coming right at her, I know you were the one that saved her."

"No trouble" Prue said finally. "It's what an Aunt does for her niece"

"I wish we could have met" Paige said finally. "Will you come down often? Like Grams and…and Mom?"

"No" Prue said finally. "I've done what I've meant to do, I saved them, I saved Billie, I helped defeat the Source. Phoebe and Cole will be happy, Piper and Leo will be happy, you will be happy. I did what I stayed to do. Andy and I…we are going to be happy now"

Paige didn't know who Andy was but she reckoned anyone worthy of a smile like that deserved all the best in the world.

"Thank you" she said again. "I…you'd have been a cool big sister"

It was not what she wanted to say when she had envisioned this moment but it was all that she could get her numb brain to work and say.

Prue smiled at her and she looked for a second as if she wanted to touch Paige but she decided against it at the last minute. Paige could understand, it was the end of one world and the beginning of the next. The end of the Prue years and the beginning of the Paige ones.

If that made sense.

It was the ending that was deserved.

For a second Paige Matthews and Prue Halliwell stared at each other and then Prue waved her fingers and the door this time opened and Paige staggered back.

"See you around little sis" came the reply and then by the time she had rightened herself she turned to see that her sister had gone.

"See you around big sis" she said to the empty room and she felt Prue laugh and then she shut the door on the attic, the book, Prue and Andy and the happy ending they deserved and she padded back downstairs to her own room to her daughter and to tomorrow which was a Source-less tomorrow and the first day of the rest of their lives.

And the door shut and the laughter hit her as she fell to sleep and she knew that her sister had moved on to a better place where a ruggedly handsome Inspector was waiting for her in a place where demons didn't exist and Paige would see her again in the long, distant future.


And that was the ending that needed to be said. That was the ending that Prue deserved. Or at least I thought so.

Hope you enjoyed.

Next Chapter-Phoebe discovers she is pregnant and she and Cole get married (before she finds out she is pregnant and not afterwards), Cole is still human but a source of demon knowledge which comes in handy when Billie is turned into a vampire.