Fic: Gossamer (15/18)

[sara_wolf]

Title: Gossamer
Rating: PG
Warnings: allusions to spousal abuse
Summary: "Paige, you're pregnant." Three weeks after her parents' death, Paige receives some surprising news. What she decides next will change the course of history, not only her own, but that of the family she doesn't even know exists...

*****

"Prue, would you just get out here?"

Paige groaned, flopping back against the back of the chair. Then, she winced as she hit a particularly sore spot on her back, leaning forward to ease the pressure on the bruise. Henry, in the chair next to her, noticed, staring at her with a small frown on his face.

"Again?" he asked, pointedly. "Paige, I'm getting worried about you. That's the second time in three weeks that you've hurt yourself."

"It's just a bruise," Paige protested, even as she settled herself more comfortably on the seat. "Honestly, Henry, I'm fine."

"If you were fine, then you wouldn't keep hurting yourself," Henry muttered, and it was clear that he didn't intend for her to hear him.

"I'm a klutz," Paige told him, exasperatedly. "That's all, Henry. I swear."

"And, you would tell me if anything was wrong?" Henry pressed, insistently.

"I would tell you in a heartbeat," Paige promised him. "Nick is not hitting me. I promise."

But, now that Henry had put the idea in her mind, she couldn't help but wonder how she had wound up with her newest bruise. She honestly couldn't remember; Nick had told her that she'd fallen down the stairs and hit her head, that was why her memories were so fuzzy. But it seemed, lately, that she was having a lot of accidents that she couldn't remember, incidents that she only had Nick's word on what really happened.

'Really?' she thought, annoyed at her own paranoia. 'And is Nick somehow erasing my memories? I'm a klutz, nothing more.'

She was jolted out of her thoughts as something heavy landed in her lap. She opened her eyes to see Pax perched on her legs, watching her with an undisguised curiosity on her face.

"Where's Auntie Prue?" she demanded, impatiently, and Paige grinned.

"Auntie Prue is primping," she said, raising her voice so that the woman in the dressing room could hear her. "And some of us are about to die of old age out here!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Prue grumbled, and then the curtain of the dressing room was swept aside and Prue stepped out. "What do you think?"

Paige looked at the yards of filmy taffeta that Prue was currently trying, and failing, to keep under control, raising an eyebrow at the slightly desperate look that the other woman shot her.

"I hope this wasn't your first choice," Henry spoke up, succinctly putting into words the sentiment that Paige couldn't quite figure out.

"It's an exact replica of the dress that Roger's mother wore at her wedding," Prue said, huffing out an irritated breath as she batted at the flyaway fabric currently trying to drown her. "She wouldn't dream of letting me wear her actual dress, heaven forbid, but she was quick to point out that the boutique carried this dress."

"No," Paige said, shaking her head. "Just – no."

"I think I'm with you," Prue agreed, ruefully, looking down at herself. "This thing is kind of hideous."

"Next dress, please," Henry added, waving his hand at Prue, and she shot him an irritated look.

"Would you like some popcorn, too?" she muttered, and Henry shot her a cheeky grin.

"Gets stuck in my teeth," he shot back.

Prue glared at him as she stomped back into the dressing room, the curtain falling shut behind her, and Paige leaned over and smacked Henry on the arm.

"Knock it off," she told him, sternly. "Prue's nervous enough about this whole engagement as it is; she doesn't need you making fun."

"Prue knows I'm just teasing," Henry told her. "It's how we communicate."

Before Paige could say anything in reply, the curtain of the dressing room slid to the side and Prue stepped out. The second dress she'd donned was a simple, strapless sheath that fell to the floor and pooled around her feet. The dress was pure, snowy white; elegant, with clean lines. Henry whistled in approval, and Paige nodded, smiling.

"Now, that's a dress," she told Prue, who beamed, twirling in a small circle.

"I like it," she said, happily.

"Princess Prue!" Pax declared, laughing, and Prue grinned, picking the child up and swinging her around.

"What about you?" she asked, as she tickled her goddaughter. "Do you want to be a princess at my wedding?"

"Yeah!" Pax cheered, and then she squirmed to get down and ran straight to Paige. "You're a princess, too?"

"Sure, okay," Paige agreed, with a chuckle. "We'll all be princesses."

Pax nodded, as if satisfied with the answer. She then turned to Henry, facing her godfather with a serious expression on her small face.

"Dance," she demanded, imperiously. "Dance with Princess Mommy."

"You heard the lady," Prue added, with a wicked grin. "Dance with the princess, fair prince."

Henry groaned, shaking his head. "It's a conspiracy," he told Paige, but, at Pax's prompting, he got to his feet and held a hand out to Paige. "Well? May I have this dance?"

"You may," Paige said, gallantly, playing along as she slipped her hand into Henry's and let him pull her to her feet.

"Since I never did get to dance with you at your wedding, and everything," Henry murmured, as he pulled her close.

Paige couldn't help the wince that emerged when Henry's hand brushed against the bruise on her lower back. A shadow crossed Henry's face, and he opened his mouth, but she shook her head before he could say anything.

"Please, just leave it alone," she said, softly. "Let's just dance, okay?"

Henry finally nodded, and they swayed in place to the classical music being piped in over the boutique's speakers. Pax was sitting on Paige's abandoned chair, watching them with a smile on her face, and out of the corner of her eye, Paige could see Prue slipping back into the dressing room to try on the next dress. A second later, a flash of bright light had Paige turning her attention back to Pax, just in time to watch her daughter disappear from the chair.

Paige felt her mouth drop open in shock as she stared at the chair where her daughter had been sitting. Beside her, Henry had the same gobsmacked expression on his face.

"Pax?" Paige whispered, stunned, but her daughter was still gone.

Endless seconds went by, each feeling like a lifetime, as Paige stared at the spot where her daughter had been, trying desperately to make sense of what she'd just seen. She could feel the panic welling up within her, threatening to explode outward, and she clutched at Henry's arms in a painful grip.

Then, the bright light filled her eyes, again, and a heavy weight landed in her arms. She stumbled as Pax materialized in her arms, beaming happily up at her, and Paige could only gape down at her in amazement.

"What did you just do?" she demanded, wrapping her arms protectively around her daughter.

"Dance, Mommy!" Pax demanded, completely undaunted by the incredulous looks she was getting from Paige and Henry. "Wanna dance with Uncle Henry, too!"

"Yeah, sweetie," Paige said, absently, sharing a disbelieving look with Henry. "Yeah, we can dance."

"What the hell just happened?" Henry murmured under his breath, looking as stunned as she felt.

"I have no idea," Paige whispered. "But, I think I need to start looking into who my birth family really is."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So, how goes delving into the mysteries of the universe?"

Paige looked up, startled, at the sound of Henry's voice. He was standing in the doorway of the spare bedroom that she'd converted into a makeshift office, leaning against the door frame. She blinked at him in confusion, and then automatically looked down at her watch to check the time. Just after midnight.

"How'd you get in?" she asked, and Henry chuckled.

"That's the first thing you say to your best friend?" he retorted. "Not, 'Hey, Henry, it's good to see you?"

"Hey, Henry, it's good to see you," Paige parroted back, blandly. "How'd you get in the house?"

"You gave me a key, remember?" Henry reminded her. "You called me a couple of hours ago, said that you'd found something-"

"Oh, right!" Paige scrabbled through the piles of paper that she had scattered across her desk, hunting through the notes she'd scrawled in quick, messy handwriting. "Yeah, do you remember when I told you how my birth parents abandoned me at this church, downtown?"

"You said that you went straight into social services," Henry said, "stayed in the foster system for a few years, and your parents adopted you when you were three and a half."

"Right," Paige confirmed. "Anyway, I was talking to Dave and Julie – discreetly, of course, because how do you start that conversation – and they gave me the name of the nun who found me at the church. Sister Agnes. She still works at the same parish, so I went to talk to her, yesterday."

"What did she have to say?" Henry asked, as he came around beside her and perched on the edge of her desk.

"She remembered me," Paige told him. "We talked; it was – interesting, to say the least. She told me that she met my birth parents, that she talked to them, and they asked her to find me a good home. I was in some kind of danger, and they wanted to protect me."

"You were an infant," Henry pointed out. "Exactly what kind of danger could you be in?"

"That's what I thought," Paige said, wryly. "I started thinking that my birth parents were mobsters, or assassins, or-"

"What was it?" Henry prompted, encouragingly.

"Angels," Paige said, softly, still barely able to believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. "She told me that my parents were angels."

"Like wings and halos?" Henry asked, incredulously. "Those kinds of angels?"

"The one and the same," Paige replied. "She said that they appeared in this bright, white light-"

"Pax," Henry said, quietly, and Paige nodded. A slow grin spread across Henry's face as he looked down at her, and he chuckled, softly.

"What?" Paige asked. "What's so funny?"

"You and Pax," Henry said, with a fond smile. "You're angels."

"All we have is one woman's word-" Paige started, but Henry cut her off.

"Appeared in bright, white lights," he quoted. "Tell me that's not exactly what Pax can do."

"Angels," Paige echoed, shaking her head in disbelief. "I can't believe that we're having this conversation."

"Have you told anyone else?" Henry asked. "Dave, Julie-"

"Yeah," Paige snorted, "because that's such an easy topic of conversation. 'Hey, guys, guess what? I think I might not be human.' No, I think I'll be keeping this little secret close to the vest."

"What about Pax?" Henry asked. "What if she does the light thing in front of someone?"

"Then, I'll deal with it when it happens," Paige shrugged. "But, so far, she doesn't do it around anyone else. Otherwise, I assume I'd be getting a panicked call from the babysitter demanding to know how Pax can disappear in the blink of an eye."

"Are you going to tell Nick?" Henry asked, touching on the one subject that Paige had been dancing around for days, now.

"I don't know," she admitted, honestly. "Again, how, exactly, is that conversation supposed to start? At the best, he calls me crazy and uses his family's connections to take Pax away; at the worst, I get caught in some kind of modern day witch hunt."

"I would never let that happen," Henry immediately vowed, and Paige smiled at him.

"Thanks," she said, softly. Turning her attention back to the papers scattered across the desk, she added, "Now, angels aside, let me show you what else I've managed to come up with…"

Continued here