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)
Mother Of Invention
Chapter 2-The Skeleton Who Came Out Of The Closet
Paige goes looking for answers, Billie follows her mother, Piper and Phoebe's lives are rocked again and nothing for either the Halliwell sister's or the Matthew's girls will ever be the same again.
She didn't know why she went looking for them. Why she went to the funeral. Why she took an extra long lunch hour while her daughter was at school but she did.
She went to the funeral of Prudence Halliwell.
In doing so she met Phoebe.
It was odd. Paige thought that Phoebe started when they touched and she saw the dark haired woman that she thought must have been Piper look at her from her husband's embrace but then she was going out the door cursing herself for her foolishness. She didn't know what had possessed her to go to the funeral. It was a stupid notion.
Billie had messaged her that she was going to spend the night at one of her friends for a study date that was going to turn into an impromptu gossip about boys she was sure so having a surprisingly free night she called up Shane and went to P3 where the music was loud even with a surprisingly mournful tone.
How that turned into sex on a roof (again not Paige's finest moment but when you saw Shane could you blame her?) being attacked by something that had appeared out of nowhere and then being saved by Phoebe Halliwell who had also came out of nowhere tended to do that to you.
She left Shane where he was and called up Natalie's Mom and asked if she could send Billie back home. Billie came looking annoyed but one look at her Mom had her complaints dying in her mouth.
"Mom what happened?"
"I'm not…I'm not sure…I can't…I can't make sense of it"
"Well what is it that you always say to me" Billie said putting down her books. "You say that one of the reasons we work well together as a team is because we make sense of things together. So tell me"
And so despite her reservations Paige told her. She told her about the shadowy thing that had come out of nowhere and tried to kill her. How she had felt such terror that she had felt herself leave her body temporarily and then come back and how she had ran after running into Phoebe Halliwell and her admittedly very cute looking boyfriend.
"I know it sounds insane" she said and Billie put her books down on the big bed in the middle of the apartment and chewed her lip. Paige didn't dare look at the clock but she was guessing it was way after midnight. And she had still left Shane on that roof.
"I know it does" she said again and she sat on the bed next to Billie and wrapped her arms around her and tried to hide how utterly terrified she had been that she would not see her daughter again and Billie perhaps sensing that in that empathic way that she had always had leaned her head against her shoulder.
"Momma?"
"Yeah honey?"
"You wanna know what I think?"
"Wouldn't have told you otherwise"
"I think we should go see the Halliwell's"
Paige pulled back, going to see the Halliwell's was the last thing she wanted to do even though she knew that from an outsider perspective it made sense. There was something happening to them that had begun when Prue Halliwell had died and if Billie was picking up on it then it was clear that something had to be done. Paige was not going to let her daughter be put in anymore danger and she was not going to hide away in fear of whatever…the thing was.
"Alright" she said standing up. "I'll see you later—"
"Not a chance"
"Billie…"
"Mom! Whatever this is…whatever you described doesn't sound normal and I don't know what it is but I feel like we should both be there to find out what happened. Something happened tonight…and if this thing is coming after you I don't think that he is going to stop if he finds just me" she shook her head her blonde hair flying over her shoulder and Paige felt another tug at her heartstrings looking at her baby girl who at thirteen was all grown up and such a better young woman at this age than Paige had ever been.
"Come on" Billie said throwing on her battered blue leather jacket. "Let's go and find some answers"
"Remind me who is the parent?" Paige said grinning.
Billie grinned back.
But it didn't stop Paige from following her daughter out the door and towards the tiny little car that they both had to practically slide into. She'd look at getting a new one but…teenager, rent, food, Billie's insatiable desire for eyeliner and her insatiable need for deep conditioner and candles…you get how it goes.
The Halliwell house looked like something out of a gothic mansion.
Billie Matthews thought there was something both tragic and beautiful about it. Like the house was a person that had seen too many deaths and too little joy but was always going to stand there to mark the test of time.
The door was open and she saw her Mom stop looking around fear on her face and Billie wondered just what she was waiting for.
"Momma…we can do this" she said softly and she wondered again if this was the moment that their lives were about to change, it certainly felt so…certainly felt like there was a kind of magic in the air that came with the mood and the movement and the warmth of the place. She felt like if they stepped over the edge of the threshold to this house there was no coming back and even though her Mom looked at her and smiled and Billie smiled back she still gripped her hand tangling their fingers together.
Because they were the Matthews girls and they could do anything.
And so they crossed the threshold together opening the door.
Billie watched as the group of people having a very animated conversation at the bottom of the stairs stopped. There were two woman one with blonde ish brown hair and one with long brown hair and eyes that ran over Billie's mom with a less than kind look. One of the guys was dark and Billie thought he was the very definition of the dark and dangerous guy that every girl dreamt about and the other one was blonde with curly hair and a nice smile.
"Hello"
"Hi" blonde woman said all but skipping down the stairs to land in front of them.
"We were just on our way to find you"
"You were?"
"Yes, I'm Phoebe,"
"Paige"
Dark haired woman gave a snort coming over and Billie thought she looked harrowed with grief and yet somehow still stunning.
"Another P. Imagine that. I'm Piper"
"I know I've been to your club, it's pretty great"
"Thanks,"
"And this is?" Phoebe said turning to Billie and her smile was kind but her eyes clearly told Billie that whatever thing she had been expecting with her Mom she had not been expecting it to take shape in the form of Billie Matthews.
"This is Billie, my daughter"
"Daughter?" came four echoes.
"Yes"
"Jesus wept" Piper said shaking back that long brown hair. "How old were you?"
"Fifteen when I got pregnant, sixteen when she was born"
"Wow" Phoebe said quietly. "Elders couldn't mention that one Leo? The Source couldn't mention that one Cole?"
"Source only found out two days ago dear alongside the Elders" dark and glamourous said eyeing the two of them the way one might eye a shark about to strike. "And I don't think either one of them would think to factor in a teen pregnancy…look on the upside though, two relative back ups"
"Cole" blonde man said with an eyeroll. "Tact, come on man we taught about this"
"Was that all the time or?"
"Boys" Phoebe said and Billie watched as Piper Halliwell seemed to come to some agonising decision and then stuck out her hand.
"It's nice to meet you both, Paige, and Billie"
And Billie watched as her Mom took her hand.
The lights above them exploded and Billie looked up. Her Mom's hand came around her shoulders and she realised that Phoebe Halliwell's hand was on her arm as well and the four of them were linked in light and magic and…
And then it went to hell because there was a gust of wind and she was being blown backwards into her Mom's side and then across the room as the…thing appeared.
Her Mom had not been kidding when she had said it was not of this world.
"Come on" Phoebe said and she grabbed her Mom and her Mom in turn grabbed Billie and they were being dragged upon stairs after stairs her boots tripping on carpet as they made it to the attic where the book was resting in the centre of the room.
"Read with me" Phoebe said to Paige but Billie didn't know if it was meant for her or not so she read it too. The wild thing with blue skin and wild eyes waved a hand at her but the spell (and she was about ninety percent sure that was what she had just done) had taken effect and the thing disappeared in a gust of wind and smoke that blew her hair all around her face until the only thing she was certain of was that her Mom was still holding her hand.
"What the hell?" she breathed…
"What did we just do?"
"A vanquishing spell"
"Piper—"
"What?"
"A little bit of time"
"We don't have time to hand hold them through this Phoebe, they are both witches, well Paige definitely is so I'm guessing Billie probably is as well and a half…quarter…whitelighter depending so my guess is that the Source is going to come back, heaven forfend we have a new Charmed Ones."
"The source of what?"
"All Evil"
And suddenly Billie thought she was going to be sick.
The dark and glamorous one, Cole shimmered into view complete with a bucket and she retched into it.
"Cole?"
"Eh, being a demon you begin to see the signs"
Oh dear god.
"No" her Mom said her hand rubbing Billie's back and it was only when Billie wiped her mouth on her sleeve that she pushed Billie towards the door moving at such a speed that it was impossible for her to do anything but try to keep up.
"No were done"
"Paige"
"I don't know what you turned us into but—"
"You were born it, as your adoptive parents if you don't believe me or the nun at the Church or—"
But it was too late, her Mom had dragged her out the house and into the car and had put the car into reverse before Billie could even say anything.
Witches?
They were witches?
"Mom"
"Were going home Billie, this was a mistake"
Her tone brooked no argument.
Good thing Billie wasn't in the mood to argue wasn't it.
That night her Mom let her sleep with her in a way that she hadn't done since she was tiny. Billie listened to the wind howl around them and she tugged herself closer to her mother and she wondered if what Piper and Phoebe said was true. That they were witches and that someone out there the Source of All Evil had marked them for death.
It was a long time before she fell asleep that night.
She knew her mother had not slept at all.
Her Mom let her sleep in the next day and so when she woke up it was late afternoon almost evening, the whole events of the previous day had hit her somewhere around seven in the morning and Billie was almost surprised with how much she slept and how well rested she felt, it was almost like she had been helped along my something. There was no Shane, no nothing but Billie found that she was buzzing with questions, call her crazy but it seemed like the Halliwell sisters had not been crazy that night and damnit she wanted answers.
Now where was her phone.
As soon as she thought it, it came whizzing across the room and into her hand.
Billie dropped it on the floor.
She had not…she had…had she made that move on her own?
She thought about eyeliner and she felt that appear in her hand too and she blinked sitting down on the bed feeling weak-kneed.
Two more things, her shoes and her wallet appeared when she thought about them. She didn't have to think out loud for her to know that this was not normal, for things to appear in her hand and she stared at the little pile she created before her jacket appeared in her lap and her keys.
Yeah she didn't know what this was but she was going to the Halliwell's to find out.
When she got to the Halliwell house her Mom was already there.
"Why are you here?"
"Because" and then she saw Phoebe wearing sunglasses and she thought sunglasses and suddenly they were off Phoebe's head and in her hand.
Her Mom didn't look all that shocked.
"Candle" she said and with a loud bright white light and a loud bright white light kind of noise a candle from the table appeared.
"Cool"
"So you don't need to use your words and you do" Piper said looking between the two of them. "Oh I hate half breeds"
Billie opened her mouth to ask just what the hell that meant but before she could another thing hit her first.
"Mom?"
"Yeah"
"Does this make us witches?"
"Yeah" her Mom said with a dazed look people got after they had just been in a road accident. "Yeah honey I think that makes us witches"
Oh good God.
And then the door slammed open and Billie knew instinctually in a way she had never known before that it was not Shane standing there but the Source of All Evil.
She didn't know what he was standing there for but he was standing there nonetheless and before the fireball in his hand could be thrown the clock chimed and she saw that somehow it was midnight, the black shadowy thing that had been confined to Shane's body escaped and Billie watched it rise up to the ceiling and disappearing uncaring of the man crumpled on the floor or what she had just walked into or Shane who was groaning weekly.
By the time that they had saved Cole, gone home and her Mom had explained it all to her it was early morning and by the time Billie had understood the story of the Charmed Ones, her Mom's birth, the fact that she now had two Aunts she found that she was exhausted.
"But it's' still you and me baby girl" Her Mom said firmly. "You and me"
She nodded but she was barely hearing her.
"Billie…speak to me darling?"
"Witches?"
"Yeah?"
"Would it be wrong if a part of me thought that it was cool?"
Her Mom stared at her for a second and then she laughed wetly and they hugged each other sat there on the floor of their apartment their lives shattered, but still in the same place. It didn't matter what happened, as long as she had her mother with her Billie knew she could face any kind of situation head on.
Even this one.
"Only if it's wrong that a part of me that it was cool?"
And they laughed and cried away the rest of the night.
"You think she'll come?"
"I don't know?"
"It's strange" Phoebe said taking a sip of her martini. "We found a sister and we found a niece"
"Phoebe did you invite the niece?"
"Yeah why?"
"Because I run a nightclub! I can't have thirteen year old girls trapsing through dressed like they are sixteen and trying to get drunk, I can't be the girl whose club shuts down because it's been used as a hot spot for every teenager in the state."
"Relax" Phoebe said but Piper couldn't find it in her to relax as she saw Paige Matthews come down the stairs in a red slip thing with her daughter dressed in a black dress that was strappy but with sleeves and looking around in awe.
"Your guy at the door said it was okay if only for five minutes" Paige said as Billie looked around like a kid in a candy store.
"Not all the time" Piper said firmly. "I have a licence"
"Yes Mrs Halliwell"
Oh dear God.
Cole inhaled half his beer.
"Piper" she said firmly. "My name is Piper"
Billie nodded tucking some of her golden hair behind her ear and then…
"Mom can I have a vodka tonic"
Oh dear God.
"No" Paige said firmly pointing at the chair. "Sit"
And Billie sat.
"So…witches huh?"
"A witch, a half witch-whitelighter, a whitelighter and a demon, ask your questions kid we've got all night"
"Actually that's gonna have to wait" Piper said suddenly and for once since this whole bloody mess had been started she found that she was smiling.
"There's someone who wants to meet both of you"
And that was how Patty Halliwell met her daughter and her granddaughter.
There were something that happened in life that you couldn't explain Billie thought, but not explaining them didn't mean that they weren't real.
Watching your Mom hug her dead mother as your Aunt's watched and then being hugged by her too was just one of those things.
And even Billie knew you couldn't escape your destiny when it put it's boot through your door.
And yeah some TRIGGER WARNINGS for mentions of underage drinking and the usual stuff that comes with Charmed.
Next Chapter-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.