Binding Ties

A/N: Quotes in this chapters come from episodes 3x02, “Magic Hour”, and 4x01 and 4x02, “Charmed Again”.

By mutual agreement, the three sisters and Leo called it a night soon after Phoebe talked to Paige. It was nearly 11pm. Piper and Phoebe headed home, while Leo stuck around to close up the club and see if he could introduce himself to his newest charge. Piper made him promise to orb home from the back alley before midnight.

As soon as they were in the door, Piper headed for the stairs. Phoebe was right behind her, ready to go to bed. But Piper kept going, up to the attic. “Piper!” Phoebe called after her sister. “What’re you doing?”

Piper didn’t slow down. “Getting some answers. I’m going to summon Mom and Grams.”

“Can’t you at least wait until the morning? Sleep on this a little? It’s almost midnight.” A yawn finished Phoebe’s protest.

Piper half-turned on the staircase. “Phoebe, we found out tonight that we have another sister who we never even knew existed. I don’t care what time it is, I want answers.” She continued up the stairs. Phoebe suppressed a groan and rolled her eyes, but followed Piper into the attic.

Silently they got out the candles and a lighter, needed to create a protective circle for the magically summoned dead spirits. Piper got a little choked up when she thought about the last time they’d done this, with Prue. She covered it up by finding the summoning spell in the Book of Shadows. Phoebe came over to the lectern, and they chanted together:

Hear these words, hear our cry,
Spirits from the other side,
Come to we who summon thee,
Cross now the great divide.

A beat and then bright lights coalesced into the familiar form of Penny Halliwell. “Girls?” She blinked, slightly disoriented. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on? Haven’t you been watching us, Grams? Don’t you know?” Piper almost broke down then, and Phoebe put her arms around her shoulders. She looked at her grandmother, who appeared as drawn and weary as Phoebe had seen her when she was alive and ill.

“Grams,” Phoebe said quietly, “We learned something today, something we need to talk to you and Mom about. Could you, I don’t know, summon her yourself?”

“Phoebe, what is this about?” Penny tried to feign continued ignorance.

“We know about our other sister, Grams. The one Mom had with her whitelighter. We found about her after she showed up at Prue’s funeral.” Phoebe paused to take a shuddery breath. There was a reason she’d wanted to wait to have this conversation.

“Oh.” Penny hadn’t quite expected the pieces to fall into place so quickly. No use pretending anymore, though, if they had figured out that much. “Well, all right then.” She waved her hand and more bright lights appeared. The spirit of Patty Halliwell materialized inside the circle of candles an instant later.

“Piper, Phoebe…Mom?” The last word she directed at Penny, who simply raised her eyebrows at her daughter and kept her lips pressed together in a thin line. Piper finally spoke, her pain coming out in half choked off sentences while she glared at her mother and grandmother.

“I tried and tried for hours to summon either of you. To summon Prue. Nothing worked. Then Phoebe started getting premonitions about this girl. She orbs like a whitelighter, but Leo said the Elders have never heard of her. And-and she knows how to draw the triquetra. She’s been coming to P3...and your name is on her birth certificate!” Piper’s eyes pleaded with Patty, like she was four again and her bad dreams could be banished with a few soothing words and a hug. She’d been ready to believe at P3 with Leo holding her hands and his voice of reassurance, but that wasn’t so easy now.

Patty stepped forward. “Piper, listen to me. I know this news is a huge shock, especially today. But sweetie, it had to be this way. Sam and I--”

Piper blinked furious tears away. “You mean it’s true? This girl Paige is really our sister?”

Patty nodded. “It happened after your father and I were divorced. You two were too little to understand -- you just thought mommy had gotten a little fat.” She smiled briefly, remembering. Then she turned sober again. “We were frightened, Piper. Of the Elders and what they’d do if they found out, and of standing in the way of your destiny.”

Phoebe spoke up then. “So you just gave her up?” It had been one thing for her to consider that as some abstract plan, but when she looked at her mother and grandmother, she couldn’t imagine them actually deciding to do it.

Penny answered, “Phoebe, do you remember that conversation you and I had about, oh, seven months ago?”

After a moment, Phoebe said with a sigh, “You told me that logic and reason go out the window when love gets involved.” She dared to look at her mother, and saw Patty nod once, with what looked like tears at the corners of her eyes.

“It was the hardest thing I ever did,” Patty said. “And for Sam, too. Especially Sam.” She and Penny shared a look before Patty went on, “He understood that we didn’t have any other options, and the last thing he would have wanted was for you three to lose your birthright, but still, he struggled. We brought the baby to St. Michael’s Church after she was born, and asked the nuns there to find a good home for her.” Penny gripped her hand. “And they did find one, a very nice couple adopted her…a fireman and his wife.”

Piper and Phoebe had gone a little wide-eyed at the mention of Sam. What they knew about him came from Patty’s letters to him, and what they’d found two years ago in the little shack he’d lived in by the lake. Neither of them had really considered the magical implications of the affair, especially on them. Talk about ‘secrets hid in the night’, Phoebe thought.

Penny cleared her throat. “The bottom line is she is your sister, girls. Well, half-sister, technically.”

Patty quickly added, “But by my half, which makes her a sister witch.”

Shaking her head, Phoebe said, “But you’re saying she was raised by mortals. Grams, how was that supposed to --”

“I bound her powers, Phoebe. Right after she was born.”

Piper looked at her grandmother. “Apparently not all of them, Grams. She can orb. We saw her orb when Shax attacked her.” Before Penny could respond, Piper continued, “So the reason you’re okay with telling us this now is that you think she can help us re-form the Charmed Ones.” The edge of sarcasm in her voice was muted but unmistakable.

Both their grandmother and mother nodded slowly. “Piper,” Patty said, “Everything that’s happened, losing Prue, finding out you have another sister -- this is your destiny, sweetheart. I know it’s a lot to accept, but that’s what you have to do. Demons won’t stop coming after you, and you’re vulnerable without the Power of Three. We want you to have it back so that you’ll be that much safer.”

In a small tired voice, Piper said, “What about what I want? What about the number of times I tried to summon either of you, or Prue, and got nothing? Where were you?”

Penny strengthened her hold on her daughter’s hand as she looked at her granddaughters. “We were with Prue. Helping her through this.”

Piper’s hopeful look was almost two much for the two spirits to bear. “We know you want to see her, Piper,” Patty said quietly, “But you can’t, not yet.”

“Why?” Phoebe joined in Piper’s plea. She was beginning to see that their world was going to change even more than it had these last few days. What I wouldn’t give to hear Prue’s advice, Phoebe thought.

“Because seeing Prue right now, talking to her, would keep her alive for you. You need time to accept her death and grieve without magic interfering. Just like you did when I passed on,” Grams told them.

“Can you at least tell us she’s okay?” Phoebe almost demanded. The two spirits looked at one another for a moment. Some of Prue’s behavior after they’d met her spirit had surprised them, but neither Patty nor Penny wanted to alarm or confuse Piper or Phoebe. Not now, anyway.

“She’s a little confused, a little scared, but that’s normal when a soul crosses,” Patty finally replied.

“Those are also normal reactions when a witch comes into her powers,” Penny added sagely, raising her eyebrows at Piper.

Piper sighed. Sometimes she forgot just how stubborn and frustrating her grandmother could be. It also looked like ‘destiny’ wasn’t done with them yet, either. “Okay, I give up. How are we supposed to do this?”

“It has to be here in the attic, by the book, just like before,” Patty said. “You’ll know when.”

Penny gave her granddaughters a long look, and then turned to her daughter. “Come on, Patty. The rest is up to them.” Seconds later, the two spirits dissipated into the air.

Phoebe and Piper stood still for several moments. Finally Phoebe quirked a smile at Piper and asked, “Well, did you get your answers?”

“Do I ever, really?” Piper shook her head. “I just wish we’d --”

Whatever it was, Piper didn’t get to say it, because they both heard a loud groan from downstairs. They were down the stairs onto the second floor seconds later. There was Leo, squatting and clutching at a wound in his abdomen. In horror, Phoebe saw the shaft of a black arrow sticking out of the wound.

“Oh, god, Leo!” Phoebe rushed forward before Piper could react. She helped her brother-in-law sit down fully on the hallway’s carpet before he fell over, trying not to break off the arrow in the wound. She was about to ask what had happened when Leo began to tell them, between his labored breaths.

“Darklighter. He came up from behind us…when Paige and I were leaving P3. I told her to run. Then she orbed once and ran to her car. The darklighter ignored her. Focused on me.” He looked at Piper, whose arms were crossed against her chest. She hadn’t moved. “I wasn’t fast enough.”

Piper glared at him. “No, you weren’t. Leo!” She was on the carpet beside him an instant later, clutching his hands. Phoebe looked at her, concerned. Memories of the last time they’d been in this position flashed through her mind. Of course, last time Prue had removed the arrow first. Piper had healed Leo after switching powers with him. Glancing at her sister now, Phoebe was almost positive she was considering that same plan.

“Not again,” Piper muttered to herself. “This cannot be happening again. Not now, not ever.”

Phoebe looked over at her sharply. Time to take control of the situation -- someone had to. “Well, it is happening, Piper. We need to figure out what to do. Leo, should we cast the Power-Switching spell again?”

Leo winced as another wave of poison-induced pain came over him. “No,” he managed to say after it passed. “You can’t,” he told Piper, who had been about to protest. “It’ll switch out your powers too, Phoebe. Like last time. But now…”

Phoebe nodded in understanding. “Now I don’t have anyone to switch powers with.”

“So how do we get you healed then, Leo?” Piper demanded.

His eyes had started to glaze over from the pain, but Leo focused on her and gritted his teeth. “I talked to Paige. Got her address. Find her, get her here. She can channel…” He closed his eyes in pain.

Piper shook his arm. “Leo! Stay with us just another minute. She can channel what? Your power to heal?” Weakly, Leo nodded.

Phoebe bit her lip, and helped Leo reach in his pocket for a folded scrap of paper. Written on it was an address in the 2200 block of Church Street. Smiling a little at the irony, she said to Piper, “I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?” Piper barely glanced up in acknowledgement.

Fifteen minutes later Phoebe pulled up in front of a beige-colored multi-unit building. She found the door marked 4C and knocked softly. A few moments passed before a rather shaken Paige opened the door. “Phoebe! What’s going on? Is Leo okay?”

“No, he’s, he’s not, Paige.” Phoebe gestured toward the open doorway. “Can I come in before I tell you more, though? This isn‘t a conversation we should have in your hallway.”

“Um, sure.” Paige stepped aside and absently waved Phoebe to her couch. They sat down. “You’re going to tell me who the guy in black leather with the crossbow was, aren’t you?”

Phoebe gave her little sister a quirked, tight lipped smile. “I’ll do more than that. I’m going to tell you who you are, and who we are.” Paige looked at her sharply.

Phoebe took a deep breath. Then she jumped right in. “We are witches, Paige. Magical witches with supernatural powers. It’s basically a genetic thing, and we…”

“Got your powers from your mother and grandmother, who got them from her mother, and so on, all the way back to Melinda Warren, a young good witch who was burned at the stake in Salem in 1692. She had three different powers: telekinesis, temporal stasis, and the power of premonition. Before she died she had a vision of three sister witches, her descendents, each with one of her magical gifts, who would be the most powerful good witches ever known.” Paige shook her head. “It all sounded crazy, even though Leo seems like a good guy.”

Phoebe struggled to close her mouth, which had fallen open in astonishment. “He-he told you all that?”

Paige nodded, a little bemused by Phoebe‘s reaction. “He also said that he’s magical too, but he’s not a witch. He guides witches and tries to protect them as they battle evil. Like a guardian angel, but there was a special word he used.”

“ ‘Whitelighter,’” Phoebe supplied. She rested her chin on her elbow and considered the young woman across from her. Leo hadn’t wasted any time getting Paige informed about the Halliwells, and now he didn’t have much time himself. Plus, Shax was still out there. “Did he explain how you fit into everything? I mean, you are our sister.”

Paige laughed, a bit nervously, Phoebe thought. “Well, he said that our mother’s affair was with her whitelighter. And that that was totally forbidden, so they couldn’t keep me.” She looked at Phoebe incredulously. “But that makes me part whitelighter.”

Phoebe leaned forward. “It makes you part whitelighter. You can magically move yourself anywhere, just like Leo can. That’s how you escaped on the rooftop tonight. We…were watching you, to try and understand why I got a premonition at the funeral.”

Paige blinked a few times, taking that in. What had she walked into, here? She’d been looking for her birth family, not a cross between the CIA and the Addams family. “Wait, you get premonitions of the future? So that means Piper and … Prue….” She trailed off, uneasy about bringing up that subject.

Smiling sadly, Phoebe answered, “Piper can freeze time, and recently she’s been able to speed up molecules too, which lets her blow up things. Prue was telekinetic.”

“And you think I could become the third sister witch now that Prue’s … gone?”

“Right now, we’re just hoping you can help Leo,” Phoebe told her. “The guy with the crossbow was a darklighter. They hunt whitelighters and try to kill them with poisonous arrows. That’s why he told you to run.”

Paige’s mouth dropped open. “He’s dying? Oh, my god. I was just talking to him! How do you think I can help? I mean, Phoebe, I’d totally do whatever I can, but come on. I’m just a social worker’s assistant, not a doctor.”

Smiling slightly as she glanced at her watch, Phoebe replied, “You might not be a doctor, but Leo was, in his mortal life. And he’s got the power to heal, he just can’t use it on himself. We think you can use it for him, though. But we really don’t have much time, so are you willing to help?” Now totally serious, she stood up.

Again under Phoebe’s intense gaze, Paige stammered, “Of course, but I still don’t get how --”

“The short answer is ‘channeling’. I’ll give you a longer answer on the way. Come on.”

Flooring the gas, Phoebe got them back to the Manor in just under ten minutes. Less than a minute later Phoebe nudged Paige ahead of her down the hallway and towards Leo’s prone body. Piper looked up at them. “Hurry. I don’t know how much longer he can hold on.”

Paige knelt beside Piper and took hold of Leo‘s right hand. Piper gently laid their clasped hands against Leo’s chest. Phoebe, hovering behind them, saw that Piper had removed the arrow and wrapped it in a towel. The wound wasn’t that large, but it did look raw and deep. Paige tried to ignore it and concentrate instead on helping Leo, her brother-in-law, heal.

Phoebe had said one major element in magic, real magic, was intent. So she let her thoughts guide her. A week ago you were just a guy who seemed to always be hanging around the bar at my favorite nightclub, she thought. Please don’t leave me just when I find out you’re part of my family too. I have too many questions you still have to answer, Leo.

When the healing iridescent light came from the spot where Leo‘s hand was clasped around hers, Paige blinked. Leo was nearly healed before her mind registered what her eyes saw. And when he sat up, the wound gone, Paige looked from him to her hand and back again. Then before anyone could stop her, she turned and ran down the stairs and out of the Manor.