Hi, so the first chapter of Season 6 and we are at the halfway mark for this story. As you see we are halfway through and someone else is making his appearance, I might have to give Billie's Dad a happier ending than what he got on the show because the truth is that he is so good to write and his relationship with Paige is so devious. Hands down Zankou was the best thing about Season 7 (we will not mention the cop that shall not be mentioned or whatever the f was being done with Daryl) so I am loving that I have brought him in early.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Also Zankou and Cole have never met in this story. I don't know if it's more to do with their human sides but I am choosing to believe that while they have heard about each other they have not seen each other face to face in human form.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

We will cover quite a bit in the last fifteen chapters that are Season 6 and Season 7, Season 8 is probably only going to be two chapters if that.

Also if I did make Paige/Zankou a thing how would that sit with you?

In case it was not clear. I DESPISE THE ELDERS, LIKE ALL OF THEM, EVEN THE ONE WHO TRIED TO HELP LEO. I JUST...BIGGEST BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES ON TV.

Hope that was nice and clear.

Mother Of Invention

Chapter 15-Girls Aint Nothing But Trouble.

The First of Season 6-In which the Charmed Ones are Valkries, Leo is gone, Billie is somewhat suspicious of Chris and Paige meets a charming man in a bar.

"I don't know if I like Chris you know?"

"I don't know if I like you here dressed like that"

"The leather look is in Mom"

"Yeah but the underage prostitute is not"

"I do not look like an underage prostitute"

Daryl who was brushing dirt of his shirt snorted. "Billie I have arrested girls younger than you wearing a lot more. This…this is why I am glad I have three boys let me tell you"

Billie rolled her eyes. Paige took another look at her daughter and winced. There was no way around it. Dressed in a leather pair of high waisted shorts and a leather halter neck corset and high boots her daughter looked like an underage prostitute. She had been half inclined not to take Billie with them on this mission but Phoebe had argued that with Piper…out of commission so to speak the extra firepower would be good. Billie who could now move things with her mind and her hand with a speed that was increasing for a long time found herself along with them. Paige would have much rather spent the day planning her daughter fifteenth birthday but then there had come along the whole Charmed thing and that had been the end of that.

To be fair they did need Leo back. Piper had been so increasingly cheerful for the longest time that it was beginning to become quite dangerous. Paige was sure that had she remained as chipper as she did they would have to convince her neighbours that she didn't need to be committed. They also needed Piper back. Leo and Piper, the two were synonymous with each other.

She bit her bottom lip again and followed Phoebe down the dirt path to where they thought the Valkyries were hiding Leo and Billie followed her. Her blonde hair was now down by her back and she had changed it up this summer by having her fridge cut to the side and adding layers. It was hard to believe that this coming Friday she was going to have a fifteen year old.

A fifteen year old who wanted to spend the weekend with her friends in a cabin in the woods.

Well…it was a supervised trip with parents that she knew but her daughter was technically a demon magnet and more to the point her daughter was quite capable of…

And her daughter had disappeared.

Paige whirled around nearly headbutting Daryl panic in her heart but before she could work herself up into the full blown panic attack that she knew was coming she heard.

"Holy hell"

"Bil?"

"Mom I think I have a new power"

She peered around the bars to see Billie standing there. Her daughter blinked and then…

Blinked?

It was not demon or warlock blinking it was more like she went in a puff of dark smoke. Paige was not quite well versed in active powers but considering Phoebe had three hours ago declared herself an empath she supposed that it was not within the realm of possibility.

Cole who was somewhere behind her caught her expression.

"Nice power" was all he said. And then in an undertone. "You remember anything else about baby daddy?"

"No" she hissed because now was not the time to get into that. Cole when she had told the sisters that she knew her baby daddy was called Zan something had simply raised an eyebrow and that had been the end of that.

Until he had started prodding and poking right after the Goddess gone Wild moment with Phoebe who had simply not come out of her room for three hours under that phase leaving Cole spending most of the fight against the Titans sat on the couch with a rather wide eyed expression that Paige, really, really did not want to explain to her confused daughter.

But now they were rescuing Leo.

And Paige didn't know what it meant that her daughter had a power that could if you looked closely at it could resemble a demon. She didn't know what that meant. She didn't know if she wanted to think about that either.

Either way she was here, she was here and she was standing and she was strong.

So was her daughter.

And they got Leo out.

And somehow, someway they did it without Piper who they had to leave behind.

Fucking typical.

Paige hated it when it went like this.

"I still don't like him"

"Chris?"

"No, I…I don't know what it is Mom I don't, I think…I think it's that I've seen him before but obviously I haven't. Maybe I've had run ins with him in the future but Leo is right, instincts only get you so far in this family and my instincts tell me Chris has a big grenade in his pocket that he is quite capable of using to explode on us."

Paige considered this for a second. It wasn't that she didn't see where Billie was coming from. There was something odd about Chris. The problem was the story kept changing and it wasn't like she didn't understand why. She did understand why. She knew that he was restricted in terms of what he could tell them about the future, she knew that she was the better person for it. She didn't want to know what had happened to her darling girl in the future that would make Chris shoot looks at her out of the corner of her eye, she didn't want to know about the way that he kept looking terribly awkward when Billie walked through the house in her sports bra and leggings and she didn't like the fact that when he spoke about the Charmed Ones being dead he didn't talk about Billie or Cole or Leo. That didn't bode well and she knew that.

"I don't trust him as far as I can throw him" Leo muttered pacing up and down the length of the attic. They were trying to find a way to get Piper to feel again and it was not helped by Billie who every time she tried to move was appearing and reappearing in clouds of dark grey smoke that did nothing for her baby girl's lungs.

"Cole what do you think?"

"I think if he was going to do something with you out of the way and me human he would have done it by now. Phoebe still wont let me defend myself—"

"I will not live in a house with a gun Cole—"

"And so I don't know. I get what you mean Leo but I think and believe me when I say it pains me to say this that the Elders might have a point. A demon sending you to Valhalla makes sense but I have to admit I don't know how they would have done it. The Underworld doesn't get near that island for good reason. We know the warriors that they are building there are stacked against us."

"Stop using the word us"

"It's a hard thing to switch off after two and half centuries Paige"

"I don't know how I feel about this power you know"

"I don't either" Cole muttered. Billie opened her mouth but then disappeared and the smoke alarm in the kitchen went off and that compounded Wyatt's screaming.

"I'll go" Phoebe said as she and Leo hastened to the door in their efforts to get to the kids (and despite what Billie thought she was still a kid) downstairs and that left Paige and Cole alone in the attic.

"Don't" she said turning a page of the Book of Shadows. Cole raised his hands in mock surrender.

"I get it I do. I get that you don't want to push these memories that might or might not be coming back. But powers run through active bloodlines and I get you know that. And as decimated that the Elders might be the Titans didn't wipe them all out. Some of the hardcore ones still remain and while you are indispensable to the Power of Three they will say your daughter is not. And once they realise what this power is they will act"

"And what is this power Cole?"

"If it walks like a demonic power and talks like a demonic power then it is a demonic power" Cole said flatly. "She is one step away from blinking and you know it. And if THEY know it THEY will want to know why. And THEY wont ask nicely. If THEY think Billie is a threat to the Destiny that killed Prue and keeps you all chained here in this house then THEY will react. You've seen it. It only takes one cleaner—"

"Cleaner?"

Cole's mouth twisted.

"Watch out" was all he said.

In terms of the Grand Plan it worked well. They got to Piper eventually. Chris still remained a factor of their family life. Leo was back and then he was gone and Piper came to the club her face set like stone refusing to talk about it and then she threw the keys in Cole's direction and told him that he was in charge. Cole took up shop behind the bar as if he was born to it and twice Phoebe had to send a practical demonic look to the two blondes at the end of the bar who didn't seem to get that happily married meant happily married.

Paige dressed in her new black dress that made her feel like her ribs were about to break grinned at the two of them. Billie was gone on her friends weekend away and she was child free for the first time in…fuck…fifteen years? It was the first birthday that Billie didn't spend with her and though they had promised to do presents and cake when she got back the fact that her little girl was not so little was a source of great sadness that night. She had come out only because she couldn't stand the thought of being at home. She needed a distraction and she didn't know what it was going to be but she knew she needed it and she needed it fast.

And Cole's words were grating at her.

Even now she didn't know if he was saying this to scare her or if she was saying this because in his odd little way he was trying to help. She knew Cole in his own way loved Billie a hell of a lot more than he loved Paige if he loved her at all. Hell she was convinced that Cole held Prue higher in estimation than her and that she was sure was simply because he and Prue had sparred in a way that made the name worthy.

She bit her bottom lip folding the pink gloss between her teeth and sighing over her martini. She was tired and worried and stressed and she wanted to go and dance but Piper's band was not setting up yet and that meant a long slog.

She took her drink and went to sit in their usual booth and wondered if it would be rude if she threw it in the plant pot and went home when…

"Hello there?"

She looked up and nearly dropped her glass.

Good God in heaven this man was hot.

Like seriously, smoking hot.

He had the cheekbones of a God (and considering what she had been not to long ago that was saying something), dark hair that was artfully styled and dark eyes that seemed to almost smoulder. His smile was dark and dangerous and he was the kind of man she would warn Billie to never go near and yet here she was hungering for him herself even with the leather fixation that was clearly his fashion choices and she gazed at him for a second before good manners (and good flirting) kicked in.

"Hi"

"May I?" he said indicating the chair next to her and she nodded almost embarrassed by how eager she was.

"Please"

"Saw you all alone and I thought, how tragic"

She laughed and his smiled widened.

"Paige" she said sticking out her hand and he put his dark tumbler of whatever down on the table and took her hand. She felt something shiver as they touched, some kind of warning shiver down her spine but she ignored it.

He flipped her palm open and pressed a kiss straight in the middle and then to each of her fingertips.

Had it been anyone else she would have thrown her hand away and chalked it down to him being a creep and a half but she couldn't help but feel with him it was charm from a forgotten era.

With him she couldn't help but feel a little bit excited by it.

"Hello Paige" he said softly looking up at her. "My name is Zan"

She blinked.

"I knew a Zan once" she said slowly.

"Did you?"

"I don't know did I?"

He tilted his head to the side and stared at her and his eyes all but burned her into her seat.

"Have we met?" he asked and there was something in it that sounded like a warning and not a question.

"I don't know" she said quietly. "I don't think so"

He smiled as if it was victory and Paige couldn't help it. She knew deep, deep, deep down that something was wrong here. She knew it and she tempered down her instincts because the other part of her that wasn't a witch but was a woman was begging her to take him home and place his face between her thighs and leave him here.

So instead of pushing him away she did something else. Something rather surprising when you thought about it.

She smiled too.

And there you go. I will post the next chapter soon.

Next Chapter-The Charmed Ones meet the Cleaners and it fuels Paige's paranoia. Meanwhile Zan and she keep meeting for drinks and she doesn't know if she dares to ask the question that she has been thinking about.