Hi! So here is another story from me for this wonderful fandom. I wanted to get this out before the start of the New Year but I was burning the candles at both ends so to speak finishing up all my other stories so I decided the best thing to do was to take a little break and recharge and get into a good place to start this one.

So on a few notes: I have always wanted to write a story with all four sisters. Shannon did such a wonderful job as Prue and Rose did such a wonderful job as Paige it is a shame that for whatever reason we did not get to see a scene shared with them (that one with the back of Prue does not count). So this is my little remedy for that.

This is a happy ending for all of the sisters, it runs this story approximately from prequal days to the end of Season 3. I do intend to redeem Cole and probably Zankou who was arguably the best villain of the series-only just beating Gideon who was outstandingly bad. I wrote Paige and Zankou on a whim in my last story and I enjoyed it and I got a lot of good feedback from it so we are going down this road again. And also Prue/Andy were the love story that for me kicked off a love of Charmed so...he too gets to live.

Some episodes will be skipped over and if you are looking for a cannon compliment, word perfect, dialogue perfect, punctuation perfect story then let me tell you that is not me. I also do a lot of swearing in my stories so if you don't like that then turn away now at this first chapter.

Also again let me be plain I DESPISE the Elders. I hate them, I hate the hypocrisy, I hate the way they treated Leo after Gideon, I hate the way they were with the Avatars, I hate the fact that they expected the sisters to be on supernatural speed dial and I hated that they constantly butted in. Believe me in Season 5 I was actively cheering for the Titans. To me the Elders made themselves Titans. So if your looking for a story where they get a good rap then walk away now please.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

I do not do private messages anymore. If you have a question then please stick it in a review and I will try to answer it in the next chapter notes.

I will try to update as soon as work allows me. Spelling and Grammar have never been my friends please keep that in mind too.

This story will be 28 Chapters long.

Let There Be Light

Chapter 2-Only A Child

In which Paige has powers just like the rest of them and a difficult decision between mother and daughter is made. Victor makes his final appearance.

"I don't know what to say"

"Don't say anything Victor. I am not asking for charity or for your name or for anything."

"And yet you gave her my name."

"Only because it was easier for the girls to understand. God knows there confused about this as it is"

She watched as her estranged husband bit down hard on his response of whose fault is that?

In truth she couldn't blame him and in all honesty she was too tired to care.

"Sam was the handyman" Victor said finally sitting down next to her. She took his offered glass of wine and then. "I take it he was doing more than repairing the cupboards."

"And your secretary was what? Decorating in the typing pool?"

Victor tilted his head to the side and then nodded.

"Alright so we both had affairs in this marriage. You were the one who said you didn't want to divorce. Is that true"

"Yes"

He nodded. "What's the baby's name?"

"Paige."

"Paige…another P."

"Wilder"

"Paige Wilder…oh I see…his surname?"

"The Elders took him, sent him far away and said if he ever saw his child or me again he would lose us both"

For a second Victor stared at her and then. "Wow" he whistled. "And your mother still wants our girls to help these guys. Well…at least this baby takes care of that"

"No it doesn't. The Elders are still insisting that they are the Charmed Ones. Only the Power of Three now becomes the Power of Four"

There was a pause and then her husband downed his wine in one gulp.

"So your not binding their powers"

"No"

"That was my line in the sand Patty. I know that when they are older they will find out, I know there's a destiny or a dynasty and all that shit that your mother bangs on about and I can respect that even if I don't understand it. I know that there is evil in this world. I just…my line in the sand was that they be normal children. And that is what I want. I was the only man in the world…except maybe Prince Philip…who didn't give his children his own name. And I did that for you. I've done a lot of things for you. Because I love you. A lot more than you have ever loved me. And I meant it, I will raise this child as my own. But my line in the sand was that their powers were bound until they were in their twenties, thirties even. I don't want them fighting demons at the age of six, seven, ten. Fifteen either."

"I know that. I don't want that for them either"

"And you can't bind their powers?"

"Victor right now I can barely sleep. I don't want a row with my mother about binding the girls powers. I don't—"

"What can this one do?"

"Orb"

"I don't want to know what that is. But let me guess…it's not something that you can hide?"

She nodded.

"Bind their powers" he said flatly. "And I'll stay"

"I don't want you to stay for me"

"Why?"

"Divorce—"

"Patty If I thought your mother would let me see those girls if we divorced I would have done it. This marriage is dead and buried and we both know that. There's too many affairs and too many mistakes and too much magic. Were staying together for our children and nothing more"

It was such a bleak look on her marriage that she felt her eyes well with tears. She didn't know what to say. Patty had in truth loved Victor. She was stung about his comment that he had loved her more than she had loved him because it wasn't true.

The problem was you had to have the right man who understood this world. And mortals who understood this world were few and far between. Victor and her had done quite well but the reality was she did not think her husband had ever stopped to consider what magic would do to their magic once they had children.

And she had to concede that her mother had not helped. The woman who had once married a mortal, had a string off other marriages after that that lasted the length of a cup of coffee and whose last relationship had been a Necromancer who'd seduced her to steal her life force and who Patty had to admit, had been very charming in doing so.

But now she was sat here on the couch her three daughters upstairs and her baby in the bassinet.

"I can't do it" she said finally.

"I can't be here until you do" he said quietly.

"I know"

"I don't want you dead" he said flatly. "I don't want you to be killed. And if you carry on doing this then there is a very good chance that your mother and I are duking it out in court over custody of those girls—"

"NO!"

He smiled at her and it was funny but yet not funny all at once.

"I see. You don't want them to be safe, you want them to be the Charmed Ones."

"I want them to be themselves"

Victor looked at her critically for a long moment and she would not know it until later but her husband was saying goodbye in that long, critical look.

"No" he said finally. "You don't. You want witches just like the rest of them. I wonder…does anyone want them to be themselves?"

Her husband was gone the next day. He never bothered to see his daughters and Patty suspected that she was never going to see him again. Victor had come into her life and given her three precious girls but he had not been one for this life. Magic did not agree with her husband.

And it did not help that she was still longing for Sam with every inch of her body, her soul and her heart.

God she wanted him.

Just one night. Right now she would take one night.

She put Paige to bed and then went back to the book. She knew this separation was being forced upon them but she was a woman, lonely and heartbroken and she wanted Sam by her side. Carefully she took what she needed and then when she was sure that her mother was asleep, that the girls were asleep, that the hour between midnight and one am, the witching hour was the strongest and then she thought of him.

It didn't take long for her to come to his side.

She didn't enter the little lake house where he had been staying but she stared at him half hidden as he got ready for bed. She wanted to crawl under the covers with him and let him rock her to sleep, wanted to listen to some of his stories that he'd developed over time, wanted him so badly every bit of her body was aching to be with him.

But she couldn't.

Fucking Elders.

That night she cried herself to sleep.

She did it twice more before the first drowning.

In that time she was served divorce papers.

Infidelity was scrawled across the top.

"Well" her mother said as she saw it. "I won't say I am surprised. Even if I liked the man…which I don't…it would be a strange one who would stay with you after Sam. What does he want?"

"Nothing" she said quietly. "Nothing. He's…he's terminated his parental rights"

Her mother stopped dead.

"To all three of them?"

"And to Paige. I put his name on the birth certificate remember. That's why he came back. I just…I knew he didn't want the girls to have magic I just…"

"I will criticise that man on many things but he loves his daughters" her mother said finally. "I think this is the kindest act that he can do for them…he's mortal. Like it or not they are not. One way or another they will have powers and we have to control them." she sighed and then she put down her coffee mug.

"I suppose we might have to look at binding them"

"What?"

"I don't like the idea of it but if we don't tell them now then they will keep doing things by instinct. Prue is already showing off her magic tricks to Andrew Trudeau and it's because she doesn't know any better. Right now we are lucky the boy is six with a father who never wants to spend time outside of the job with anyone or anything other than his gun and his female, thirty years younger than him partner but soon enough someone is going to listen to what he says. And then what? I don't like the idea of it, I want to raise them to be proud witches but…but I know that the world is a scarier place for our kind that it was when you were a child. And…and if they are going to be this Power of…Four I suppose, then the second they all start using the Book, using that magic…well…that's the Underworld up in arms and the Source digging his trench. I'd rather spare the girls that one for a long, long time"

There was a pause and then.

"He left me because I woudlnt do it"

"He left you because you were a witch, he left you because you cheated on him with another man and had that man's baby and then passed it off as his without telling him, he left you because he doesn't understand you. Pick a reason Patricia, any reason and I promise you that it wont change anything"

She nodded though she was hardly hearing her mother at all.

It was like she was detached from the whole thing.

Paige in the little bassinet waved her hand then and the salt pot went flying towards her. It the crib making it shatter but it didn't make her cry out.

"Orbing. Honestly. That's another thing too. I don't want that girl orbing herself out of the crib and to Magic School. I don't like that Gideon man reminds me too much of…well…let them be girls for a little while longer Patty. God knows neither one of us is going anywhere and we can handle the demons."

"I know" she said hooking Paige on her hip and letting her rest her head on her shoulder.

"I think I might have found another one but I just…right now I am not ready to take it on. I want to focus more on getting the girls through the summer and then maybe…"

"Oh alright. What is it anything dangerous, gnarly, hell at this point I will take interesting, all the previous vanquishes have been so dull recently, do you know what I mean?"

"Something in the lake" she said quietly half hearing her mother and half not hearing her. "I don't know what. But I just know…something is in the lake"

Her mother nodded and sipped her coffee and the divorce papers lay there between the two of them just waiting for her to sign them and to end the marriage of Patricia Halliwell and Victor Bennett and to make her the sole parent of Prudence, Piper, Phoebe and Paige, as if there had never been two father who had both in their own way wanted to do nothing more than to raise their children.

In the end she didn't need to sign them. In the end she didn't need to sign them for Victor Halliwell was soon a widow and her girls, her eight year old, her six year old, her two year old and her baby girl were left alone, and with that the telekinesis, the freezing, the premonitions and the orbing stopped for a long time.

But that my friends is a story of more woe. For the next time anyway.

So I enjoyed writing Victor. I hope I did him justice. And I will update as soon as I can.

Next Chapter-In which Penny tonight with four motherless girls has a lot to decide. AKA Patty's death.