Hi, so here is another chapter!

I hope you enjoyed, I did re-use the backstory for Zankou out of Mother of Invention so please keep that in mind-It just works with where I want to send this story.

I think maybe five for Season 3? Just to introduce Cole and bring this story to a happy end.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

Let There Be Light

Chapter 18-Prior Criminal History

In which the sisters in a turn around must confront the demon that killed their mother. For Paige that means meeting Sam. Her mother's whitelighter...and her father

It was like watching a horror show playing out in front of him it really was.

Patty's daughter was back. The eldest one. Prue.

To be fair she came on the regular. Sam didn't go looking for her but he knew when she was here, it was like his soul knew that she was here, that he could get the littlest fix for his addiction. Prue wasn't Patty far from it. But she had been the little girl who had asked him to make French Toast with nutmeg rather than cinnamon and who had read while he worked her nose always in a book.

Prue came a lot, Piper had come once. He knew Piper because she out of all of them—he thought—was the one who looked most like Patty. Piper had come once, stood on the end of the dock a young woman three days after he had read that Penny Halliwell had died suddenly and then had never come back.

Phoebe had come once too. She had been drunk that time and had screamed and raged at the lake as if it would gob up Patty. Sam had watched her unable to take his eyes off her not because the Halliwell rage was magnificent (it was) but because he was quite sure that if she fell in she was too drunk to get back out without help.

Paige…well…she had not come once.

He did not know if that was a good thing or not.

Sometimes he didn't think about his daughter. It was easier that way he knew. He had that perfect image of her as a baby and he did not want to think of it anymore. Sometimes he was glad that she did not come, glad that he did not get to see the girl whose very birth had dragged him away from Patty and other times…

Other times he wanted it so badly that he thought that he might scream with it.

The Elders in their punishment were vicious.

And that was before one considered that…monster…that was still rattling inside of the lake.

And he knew that it had struck again when he had seen her on the pier.

That night Sam had gotten drunk…so drunk he had vomited and then he had drank again. He knew sometimes that kid…Leo…something would stop him from doing harm, the Whitelighter that did not care what had happened to him, or what would happen to himself if it was discovered that he was fraternising with the enemy…he came just enough for Sam to convince him that he thought Leo was a hallucination but Sam had been around whitelighters longer than Leo Wyatt had been alive. He had done the whole pretending that they were ghosts thing. He was not in the mood for more.

But he did know what Prue Halliwell being on that dock meant. Four sisters.

And the demon that killed their mother.

And he was not ready.

He was not ready.

And then they were here.

And she took his breathe away.

He knew which one was Paige because she was the one that he had not seen before. Also…as cliché as it sounded…his soul sang when she looked around. It was as if he was recognising her—as shitty as a father has he had been it was like he knew her just by looking at her. And he did not have to look far. Patty had, had four daughters…and yet the two that looked like her the most were the two that he remembered. The six year old and the baby.

Paige looked at him her eyes wide and defiant and without a hint of recognition. Sam didn't know if he had the strength to look at her and look away. He did not know if he had that in him. Instead he looked at Prue. Prue who looked so like Patty that it hurt to look at her, that was good…he liked the sting of the pain.

Paige…Paige with her dark hair and her dark eyes and her sharp quips…that was pain upon pain upon pain.

And so he did the kindest thing for the four girls he loved as if they all were his own.

He sent them away.

The only issue was…they came back.

"So he was Mom's whitelighter?" Paige said. The truth was being told again because they had all forgotten it but she was still not seeing the issue here. Not for her. Maybe for the others but not for her.

It was complicated…their mother was complicated. She always had been. Prue didn't talk about her never would, Piper would talk about her too much and Phoebe was too angry for either. So Paige just…didn't ask.

"Yes but…but he was more than that—"

"He lost her so who cares"

"PHOEBE"

It was the first time that she had heard Leo snap and it showed.

"What?" Prue said flatly. Her expression was like a stone. Paige in her pyjama's didn't know what to think. Leo looked as if he wished to be in hell rather than here.

"Prue—"

"Leo what don't we know?"

"It's not…"

"LEO"

Perhaps it was the tone of Piper's voice but Leo nodded and then squared his shoulders looked at her and then said the one thing that she had never expected.

"Call Zankou"

"Beg pardon?"

"Do it Paige"

She paused and then.

"Zan?"

"You rang darling?"

God he was good. It still amused her though that all three of her sisters jumped. Zankou dressed in black watched them all and then.

"Piper I don't mean to be rude but do you know you are carrying the Black Death?"

"It's poisoned ivy"

Zankou opened his mouth but Leo poked him with one finger.

"You know how you said that one day we might need each other?"

"Yes?"

"Well this is it. So you know how I said Sam was your Mom's whitelighter?"

"Yes"

"Well I've been…seeing him for a while just checking in and he alludes to…well…that they were more."

"What does that mean?"

"I think…know Piper I know he was in love with her and my guess is she was in love with him…I mean he's pretty drunk when he talks about her but from what I gather…it's real, what they had was real and—"

He turned his expression away and then locked down ready for battle.

"Well…he's a whitelighter"

None of them got it he could tell but he knew that Zankou did. Zankou whose brain worked fast and who worked faster than the devil. Leo knew that he had put two and two together when his gaze slid sideways for a second and then he muttered something in what might have been once an ancient language.

"I don't get it?" Paige said looking between the two of them.

Leo knew the second Prue got it because her knees went and Andy standing there in his boxers caught her.

"He had a relationship with a witch Paige. A whitelighter had sex with a witch"

"So—" but she trailed off.

Leo knew that she understood.

Somehow he didn't need her to say the words.

He knew that she knew that Sam Wilder was her father.

Paige was silent when she orbed to the lake. Leo had taken Andy and Piper both of whom had, had to sit down and Zankou had just…arrived. Clearly he was not here to do anything because he sat on the edge of the wooden deck chairs and watched Sam as if he was a curiosity. Sam for the most part did not say anything but he looked at Paige as if he was a man starving. Pagie looked back at him evenly but what her baby sister was thinking Prue couldn't think.

"Tell me" Paige said suddenly as Sam said that he didn't see what happened…

"Tell you what?"

"Everything, you need…you need to tell me everything"

"Paige"

"I have hated you for a very long time" her baby sister said there was a dark softness to her tone that was shocking to hear and yet not totally unexpected.

"And I need to know why"

Sam watched her for a second and then.

He launched into the tale of his relationship with Patty. The witch and the whitelighter who had been forbidden to be together but had snatched moments together whenever they could because their love was too great. How when he had realised she was in danger she had froze him and in that moment had sacrificed her only chance at ending the demon to keep him safe. And how he had never recovered. It was complex and tragic and terrible and yet as he talked Andy could feel Prue shooting him odd looks as if she was wating for the moment that he would say something or do something.

Zankou was watching Paige and Leo was watching Piper the four sisters on the other hand were both watching Sam. It was as if the story unfolding was something that the three men by the lake could see. For a second the mortal, the whitelighter and the demon were on the same side.

"We have to see past our emotions to deal with this Sam so do you"

"Doesn't change anything. I still didn't see what happened."

"Yes" Zankou said easily. "But if that is your only problem then that is not a problem is it? Defeating this thing—and believe me I have a great deal of sympathy if you do—is not the issue. One person cannot do it alone—"

"And I know someone who can see anything" Prue finished. Paige was watching Sam for a moment and then before Phoebe could do anything other than shoot her sister a look of anguished betrayal.

"Why didn't you fight for us…for Mom…so they clipped your wings—"

"They didn't" Sam said finally. "They did something…Jesus Paige did you think that it was about that? I didn't give a shit about being a whitelighter, I would have given it up for you and your mother and your sisters in a heartbeat. That was never it…they banished me"

"Did you know about that?" Piper asked into the silence that followed those words. Leo pulled a face.

"It's not talked about" he said "But I had a feeling, your name's taboo up there"

Sam smirked though there was no humour in it.

"I don't doubt it"

"But what—"

"Paige…your Mom was supposed to bring forth the Charmed Ones, her body…yours it had all been set…to the Elders yes she was a powerful witch in her own right but she was also a vessel for Prue, Piper and Pheobe. And then you came along and it threw the whole thing into whack…would they still be the Power of Three, was it now the Power of Four, had Melinda Warren gotten it wrong…was there something coming in the future that demanded one of you die so Paige could be the sister that filled the void, was there something in the future we didn't know about…your mother and I cared only that you were a healthy baby, Penny cared if we could keep you—after eight scotches and her rage went down—but the Elders…they had spent generations, eons really telling us that we could not have feelings, children, lives that did not celebrate the greater good. To be honest I'm amazed they didn't send the Cleaners after you"

"What the fuck are—"

"Don't ask" Sam said and his tone was so strong that it shut Pheobe up even if she didn't want to. Zankou spat on the ground.

"The Cleaners" he said as Sam sighed. "Are the most foul thing to walk our Earth, and considering what I am that is saying something. They irradicate problems that get in the way of the greater good, children who use magic for example, their parents are forced to forget them and they are taken…where I don't know. The Elders portray them as good, peacekeepers to keep safe the magical community…well…you get the drift"

There was a second as they all digested that.

"Do you get it now?" Sam said softly. "Banishment came at a price. Your mother got to keep you, I didn't…and it was a sacrifice but it was one I made happily because I knew Patty would keep you safe, I knew she and Penny would find a way to make it work. It never occurred to me that she would—"

Die.

It was left unsaid but they all heard it.

Sam swallowed and then.

"I knew there was something in the lake, I tried to keep it off her radar but she knew I was here and she knew that if it was official business she could see me again. She didn't…she brought you a couple of times. That's…that's what happened. I…I got to hold you once…I don't—" he trailed off and Paige sucked in a breathe.

"Damn" Andy said into the silence. "And they think you're the ultimate evil"

Zankou scowled.

"We still need to deal with the demon" Prue said finally. "We…we've got to deal with it somehow. Pheobe we have to see how this happened"

Pheobe tore her eyes of Sam and went two shades lighter than she actually was.

"Wait a minute, you deny looking like Mom, you flinch everytime a comparison is made, you won't even walk to the end of that dock because your afraid you'll walk in her footsteps and now you want me to go and relieve her last moment? How is that fair?"

The plea for understanding in her voice was too much. But It was reality.

And then Phoebe was seeing and screaming and between helping her into the deck chair something had passed between the woman standing next to him and the old man who was clinging to life for this moment and Andy knew that it was Prue who was going to walk in her mother's footsteps and attempt to do the one thing that she had never done and at the same time Zankou knew it was Paige who was going to be the second person to flip the switch.

It was obvious.

It was natural.

It was the eldest and the youngest. The one haunted by Patty's death and the one that had kept Sam alive.

Prue and Paige.

"I'd forgotten how good this feels" Sam said simply. The four of them were waiting as Piper and Phoebe stood apart.

"Yeah well…I was wondering what it was like to give it all up and be mortal"

"It sucks" Andy said shortly to Leo's comment. "Especially on a day like today when you wish desperately that you can do something and it turns out that you can't."

"Because being a demon is better?"

"Hey"

"You're a demon—"

"Yes and dating your…daughter I suppose"

Sam opened his mouth and closed it and then opened it again and then…

"Christ. A mortal, a whitelighter, a demon…Patty's laughing her ass off right now"

The three of them turned to look at him and then.

"I didn't…mean for this to happen, but I have no regrets, not about Paige, you fall in love, you…you tell yourself you can stop it but one day you realise, doesn't matter if your good or evil you realise all the same that there is the one person out there, the one person in this world who makes it all worthwhile and for her or him you will do anything. Even walk away and suffer in silence so they can be happy with someone else. And then other times you shout it out loud"

"What are you telling us old man?"

"I'm telling you that if you love them then fight for them" Sam said suddenly. He patted both of them on the back as if they were his sons. Well…Andy and Leo anyway.

"I am telling you that loving them comes with a cost. And I am telling you that you have to be prepared to fight. The Elders are a formidable enemy. And they know that the World Order is slipping from their hands. Paige was the starting gun."

"You can love them. You can love them and never let them go because it can all end in the seconds it takes for someone to freeze"

And with that strange smile on his face he went to join Prue and Paige and somehow Zankou out of all of them just knew (deep, deep, deep down) that Sam had already decided that he was not going to come back from his walk down the dock.

He looked at Paige and he thought of his children and he knew for once he could not blame him.

In truth he didn't get to see much of it. One moment it was going well, then it was going terribly, then he was running and not running all at the same time. It was only when he felt his legs move again and saw Sam on the ground dying and the obvious sign that time had passed did he realise what had been done.

What Piper had done.

She had frozen him and Leo to protect them both.

And there was nothing that could be done to save Sam.

"Love them" he whispered his eyes flicking from his face to Leo's. "And enjoy every damn minute of it. Because it really is the best time of your lives. And never…never let them go"

And then he closed his eyes and just as Andy knew that the man's time in this world had ended he knew that he had gone and joined the love of his life in the next and that their story was just beginning.

They stayed on the docks for a very long time.

"Are you alright?"

"No" Paige said her eyes red rimmed her hands cupped around her mug of cold tea. "I had a Dad and then I lost him. I don't know how I am going to feel about that for a long time"

Piper looked at Prue who was sat on the chair her knees by her chin. Phoebe had her eyes closed and was sat on the floor.

"But you have us" she said gently and Paige swallowed and nodded.

"I know"

"And were not going anywhere" Phoebe said sternly. She shot the upstairs a look as if she expected the Elders to appear down like a dragon and try to fight them.

"Got that?"

"Phoebe don't yell at the ceiling"

"We do need to be ready though" Paige said quietly. "If they try and interfere…we need a pact, that if they come for our personal lives the way they did for Mom"

"Then we give it up" Prue said gritting her jaw. "Leo, Zankou, Andy…whoever you fall for Phoebe. If they try and take it from us we give up being witches, the world might fall to hell but we'll be happy for a little while and maybe that's what Mom wanted"

"I think that's all Mom would want" Piper said. For once she did not comment that she was with Dan. God knows nobody else brought it up either.

Prue nodded. Paige wiped her eyes and then Piper curled up next to her.

It was a vow. A sacred one.

Don't mess with us.

She didn't know if the Elders were listening.

But she had her sisters.

Certainly she had them.

And there we go.

Next Chapter-As they recover from events in the lake the sister's pasts are revealed when it turns out that all four of their past lives intertwine with four very different men.