Fic: Comes Out of Darkness, Morn (25/37)
Mar. 18th, 2012 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sara_wolfTitle: Comes Out of Darkness, Morn
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Pax's disappearance shattered Paige. Losing Prue, three years later, reopens old wounds that she thought she'd managed to close off, forever. But, through tragedy comes a sliver of light, and discovering that she's a witch is only the beginning...
*****
When Piper hit Phoebe, sending her flying across the room to slump in a heap against the wall, Paige knew that they were in trouble.
They'd been outnumbered from the second that Piper and the Furies had smoked into the Manor; Cole had almost instantly been incapacitated by their cries, and she and Phoebe were no match for the demons. And Piper hadn't helped. It looked like the demon inside had completely taken over, and she was joining in the trouncing of her sisters with a gusto that Paige hadn't seen her display, before. She almost seemed like she was enjoying herself.
'Too bad she had to turn evil to do it,' she thought, grimly.
"Piper, don't do this," Phoebe begged, as she pushed herself up from the floor. "This isn't you, Piper. You're not evil. You have a good heart."
"I have nothing in my heart," Piper snarled at her, and Paige quietly took back everything she'd thought about Piper enjoying herself.
When she saw one of the Furies heading toward Phoebe, she reacted without thinking. Throwing herself at the demon, she tackled the Fury to the ground before she could reach Phoebe, but she was only able to pin the demon for a few seconds before she was thrown off. She crashed to the floor by the table and scrambled to her feet, hissing as pain shot up her legs.
The knife they'd used earlier was still sitting on the table, and she snatched it up, slashing out at the Fury that was coming at her. The move made the Fury back up a few steps, far enough away for Cole to hit her with an energy ball, incinerating her instantly. Cole slumped back against the doorframe, clearly winded by the effort of the attack.
"Thanks," Paige said, and he nodded, wearily.
Phoebe had finished off another Fury, impaling the demon on the same fireplace poker that Paige had wounded her with, earlier, and that just left one Fury – and Piper. The two of them were stalking slowly towards Cole, like a cat after a wounded mouse, and Paige had the sinking feeling that he didn't have the energy to defend himself. From the panicked look on Phoebe's face, she had reached the same conclusion.
Paige didn't hesitate; she orbed between Cole and his pursuers, brandishing the knife that she still held in her hand. She sliced a long gash in the Fury's arm as the demon reached for Cole, but she wasn't anticipating the Fury's reaction as the demon moved faster than she anticipated, wrapping a taloned hand around her throat.
Paige choked out a gasp, the knife falling from her nerveless fingers. Blood roared in her ears as the demon slowly choked the air out of her lungs, and black spots danced in front of her eyes. Then, suddenly the demon dropped her, and she collapsed to the floor to be dragged backward by Cole. She looked up in time to see the Fury vanquished, and she blinked in surprise at Piper standing behind where the demon had been, the abandoned knife in her hands.
"Piper," Paige started, her voice rasping, painfully, but her older sister shied away from her, her hands clenched into tight fists.
"Stay away from me," she growled.
"Piper, I know you're still in there, somewhere," Paige tried, but she just got a wary, suspicious look in response.
"Piper, look at me." Phoebe, now, and Piper's shoulders hunched over at the way she was slowly being surrounded. Paige froze, indicating to Phoebe to do the same, before Piper decided to take off, again. "Piper, talk to us," Phoebe said, gently.
"I don't want to talk," Piper snarled, softly, something dangerous glinting in her eyes. "Talking hurts. Everything hurts."
Paige exchanged a panicked look with Phoebe. If they couldn't get Piper to open up, they would never get to the root of her pain.
'No,' Paige thought, fiercely, gritting her teeth in determination. 'I've already lost Prue; I am not losing another sister.'
"I know what you're going through," she said, quietly, inching slowly closer to Piper. "Piper, I've been where you are. You're lost, you can't see a way out-"
"Shut. Up." Piper snapped, her eyes flashing with anger.
"Phoebe and I can help you," Paige went on.
"I said shut up!" Piper howled, backhanding Paige hard enough that her head snapped to the side and she staggered from the blow. Piper moved toward Paige, but Phoebe stepped between them.
"Piper, stop," she pleaded. "You're not mad at Paige, I know you're not." Tears shining in her eyes, she added, softly, "It's me. I abandoned you. I went after Cole when I should have been here, with you and Prue. You think that it's my fault that Prue died, and you're right. I should have died. Not her."
Paige grimaced, hearing that. It looked like after they un-Furied Piper, they were going to have to work on Phoebe's rather considerable issues over Prue's death. But, it did give her an idea about what was driving Piper. And, more importantly, what to do about it.
She grabbed Phoebe by the shoulders as Piper went to strike her younger sister. She took a chance, calling for a destination, and she sighed in relief when it worked, Phoebe orbing out of the dining room and into the living room. Then, Paige grabbed Piper's grasping arm, orbing them both out of the Manor. When they reformed in the mausoleum, Piper tore her arm out of Paige's grip, glaring at her as she looked wildly around the room.
"It's not about me, and it's not about Phoebe," Paige said, quietly. "It's about Prue, isn't it? She's who you're really angry at."
Piper just backed away from her, sprinting across the room to the locked doors. She pounded on the doors in frustration when they wouldn't open, tremors shaking her body.
"You're angry at Prue," Paige went on, keeping her voice low. "She left you, and you hate her, and that's okay." Piper was still ignoring her, but Paige refused to give up. "When my parents died," she said, "I hated them for it. I was alone, and I was scared, and I hated them. Piper, it is okay to hate Prue."
Piper turned around, slowly, glaring at Paige. Then, she bolted past Paige to the plaque bearing Prue's name, slamming her hands on the smooth ceramic.
"How dare you!" she screamed, as tears poured down her face. "How dare you leave me! How could you go and die, and leave me here all alone?" She slumped against the wall, sagging limply to the floor. "Please come back," she whimpered, as she curled in a ball on the floor. "I need you, please come back."
Smoke rose from Piper as the Fury left her body, completely, and Paige crossed the space between them, sinking down beside Piper to wrap her arms around her sister's shoulders.
"It's okay," she whispered, soothingly, as Piper slumped in her arms, burying her face in Paige's shoulder.
"No, it's not," Piper sobbed, the helpless sound in her voice breaking Paige's heart. "She risked her life every day, and she never thought about what Phoebe and I would do if she was gone." She clung to Paige like Pax used to after a nightmare. "How could she think that I could live without her?"
Paige just hugged Piper closer to her side, combing her fingers through her sister's hair. She shifted to a more comfortable position, ignoring the feel of the cold tiles beneath her. She was prepared to sit with Piper for as long as it took. She wasn't going anywhere.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The next morning, Piper parked her Jeep in the busy hospital parking lot, grabbing a covered basket from the passenger seat and heading inside the building. She had to stop three times to ask directions for finding Paige, and she was getting frustrated; she'd already spent time going to South Bay Social Services, only to be told that her younger sister was working out of the hospital, that day.
She was also running out of muffins; she kept having to bribe the nurses to tell her where to find Paige. By the time she'd reached the social services office, she was down to one muffin, and she was determined that Paige was getting it, no matter what. It was little enough thanks for what Paige had done for her, yesterday.
She knocked on the open door, but rather than looking up, Paige just huffed an irritated sigh.
"Brenda," she said, sounding like she was fighting for patience, "I will get you that consult when I'm done. You have to give me time to work on it."
"Wow," Piper commented. "I think I'd hate to be Brenda, right about now."
Paige's head snapped up and she stared at Piper in momentary shock. Then, she relaxed and leaned back against her chair, rolling her shoulders with an audible crack that made Piper wince.
"Sorry about that," Paige apologized, as Piper came into the room and sat down in the chair across from Paige's desk. "Brenda and I have been at each other's throats all morning. She has a temper."
"Yeah," Piper joked, wryly, "because you come from such an easy-tempered bunch."
"Hey, I didn't say that I didn't have a temper," Paige replied, and then her eyes lit on the basket in Piper's hand. "Oh, is that food? I'm starving; I haven't had time for lunch."
"It's ten in the morning," Piper said, glancing automatically down at her watch, and Paige grinned.
"I've been here since five-thirty," she told Piper. "I love working shifts at the hospital, but the early start is a killer." Taking the basket from Piper, she pulled the cloth off, her eyes lighting up when she saw the muffin. "It's still warm," she said, taking a bite and moaning quietly in pleasure. "Yum," she mumbled through a full mouth, and Piper chuckled.
"There were more," she said, "but I had to bribe a bunch of people just to find you."
"Yeah, it's like dealing with starving vultures out there," Paige told her. "Home-baked goods are never safe around here."
"I, um, I wanted to say thank you," Piper said, hesitantly. "For yesterday, I mean."
"We're sisters," Paige said, glancing up and giving her a small smile. "You don't ever have to say thank you."
"Yes, I do," Piper corrected her, quietly. "If not for you, I'd still be – well, I'd be in a bad way," she said, checking her words as she remembered that she was in a public place. "So, um, muffins. I bake. It's what I do."
"At least one of us does," Paige told her. "I can't boil water without burning it, or so I've been told."
She shot an irritated look at the doorway over Piper's shoulder, and Piper turned around to see a tall man with dark hair leaning against the doorframe. He grinned at Paige as he came into the room, perching precariously on the edge of the desk.
"Need I remind you of the Cookie Fiasco of Ninety-Nine?" he asked, as he smirked at Paige. Looking at Piper, he added, in a conspiratorial tone, "She smoked out the kitchen so badly that the neighbors called the fire department. And then she got carried out of the house by some guy with more muscles than brains."
"Daniel was a good guy," Paige told him, cutting off any protests the man might have made with a quick motion of her hand. To Piper, she added, "This is Henry."
"So, you're Henry," Piper commented, getting a raised eyebrow in response.
"That's a loaded comment," he remarked. "Dare I ask?"
"Long story," Paige told him. "I'll tell you later."
She shot Piper a look, like she was expecting a protest, but Piper wasn't going to say anything. From the way the pair was interacting, they clearly knew each other well. And she still remembered how Paige had described Henry as her best friend, and how she trusted him with her life. From the easy way they were with each other, Piper was beginning to see that Paige's trust was well-placed. And anyone her sister trusted, Piper wanted to get to know.
"I also came over to ask you if you wanted to come over for dinner, tonight," she told Paige. "Both of you," she added, glancing at Henry. "I think there's a lot we need to talk about."
Continued here
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Pax's disappearance shattered Paige. Losing Prue, three years later, reopens old wounds that she thought she'd managed to close off, forever. But, through tragedy comes a sliver of light, and discovering that she's a witch is only the beginning...
*****
When Piper hit Phoebe, sending her flying across the room to slump in a heap against the wall, Paige knew that they were in trouble.
They'd been outnumbered from the second that Piper and the Furies had smoked into the Manor; Cole had almost instantly been incapacitated by their cries, and she and Phoebe were no match for the demons. And Piper hadn't helped. It looked like the demon inside had completely taken over, and she was joining in the trouncing of her sisters with a gusto that Paige hadn't seen her display, before. She almost seemed like she was enjoying herself.
'Too bad she had to turn evil to do it,' she thought, grimly.
"Piper, don't do this," Phoebe begged, as she pushed herself up from the floor. "This isn't you, Piper. You're not evil. You have a good heart."
"I have nothing in my heart," Piper snarled at her, and Paige quietly took back everything she'd thought about Piper enjoying herself.
When she saw one of the Furies heading toward Phoebe, she reacted without thinking. Throwing herself at the demon, she tackled the Fury to the ground before she could reach Phoebe, but she was only able to pin the demon for a few seconds before she was thrown off. She crashed to the floor by the table and scrambled to her feet, hissing as pain shot up her legs.
The knife they'd used earlier was still sitting on the table, and she snatched it up, slashing out at the Fury that was coming at her. The move made the Fury back up a few steps, far enough away for Cole to hit her with an energy ball, incinerating her instantly. Cole slumped back against the doorframe, clearly winded by the effort of the attack.
"Thanks," Paige said, and he nodded, wearily.
Phoebe had finished off another Fury, impaling the demon on the same fireplace poker that Paige had wounded her with, earlier, and that just left one Fury – and Piper. The two of them were stalking slowly towards Cole, like a cat after a wounded mouse, and Paige had the sinking feeling that he didn't have the energy to defend himself. From the panicked look on Phoebe's face, she had reached the same conclusion.
Paige didn't hesitate; she orbed between Cole and his pursuers, brandishing the knife that she still held in her hand. She sliced a long gash in the Fury's arm as the demon reached for Cole, but she wasn't anticipating the Fury's reaction as the demon moved faster than she anticipated, wrapping a taloned hand around her throat.
Paige choked out a gasp, the knife falling from her nerveless fingers. Blood roared in her ears as the demon slowly choked the air out of her lungs, and black spots danced in front of her eyes. Then, suddenly the demon dropped her, and she collapsed to the floor to be dragged backward by Cole. She looked up in time to see the Fury vanquished, and she blinked in surprise at Piper standing behind where the demon had been, the abandoned knife in her hands.
"Piper," Paige started, her voice rasping, painfully, but her older sister shied away from her, her hands clenched into tight fists.
"Stay away from me," she growled.
"Piper, I know you're still in there, somewhere," Paige tried, but she just got a wary, suspicious look in response.
"Piper, look at me." Phoebe, now, and Piper's shoulders hunched over at the way she was slowly being surrounded. Paige froze, indicating to Phoebe to do the same, before Piper decided to take off, again. "Piper, talk to us," Phoebe said, gently.
"I don't want to talk," Piper snarled, softly, something dangerous glinting in her eyes. "Talking hurts. Everything hurts."
Paige exchanged a panicked look with Phoebe. If they couldn't get Piper to open up, they would never get to the root of her pain.
'No,' Paige thought, fiercely, gritting her teeth in determination. 'I've already lost Prue; I am not losing another sister.'
"I know what you're going through," she said, quietly, inching slowly closer to Piper. "Piper, I've been where you are. You're lost, you can't see a way out-"
"Shut. Up." Piper snapped, her eyes flashing with anger.
"Phoebe and I can help you," Paige went on.
"I said shut up!" Piper howled, backhanding Paige hard enough that her head snapped to the side and she staggered from the blow. Piper moved toward Paige, but Phoebe stepped between them.
"Piper, stop," she pleaded. "You're not mad at Paige, I know you're not." Tears shining in her eyes, she added, softly, "It's me. I abandoned you. I went after Cole when I should have been here, with you and Prue. You think that it's my fault that Prue died, and you're right. I should have died. Not her."
Paige grimaced, hearing that. It looked like after they un-Furied Piper, they were going to have to work on Phoebe's rather considerable issues over Prue's death. But, it did give her an idea about what was driving Piper. And, more importantly, what to do about it.
She grabbed Phoebe by the shoulders as Piper went to strike her younger sister. She took a chance, calling for a destination, and she sighed in relief when it worked, Phoebe orbing out of the dining room and into the living room. Then, Paige grabbed Piper's grasping arm, orbing them both out of the Manor. When they reformed in the mausoleum, Piper tore her arm out of Paige's grip, glaring at her as she looked wildly around the room.
"It's not about me, and it's not about Phoebe," Paige said, quietly. "It's about Prue, isn't it? She's who you're really angry at."
Piper just backed away from her, sprinting across the room to the locked doors. She pounded on the doors in frustration when they wouldn't open, tremors shaking her body.
"You're angry at Prue," Paige went on, keeping her voice low. "She left you, and you hate her, and that's okay." Piper was still ignoring her, but Paige refused to give up. "When my parents died," she said, "I hated them for it. I was alone, and I was scared, and I hated them. Piper, it is okay to hate Prue."
Piper turned around, slowly, glaring at Paige. Then, she bolted past Paige to the plaque bearing Prue's name, slamming her hands on the smooth ceramic.
"How dare you!" she screamed, as tears poured down her face. "How dare you leave me! How could you go and die, and leave me here all alone?" She slumped against the wall, sagging limply to the floor. "Please come back," she whimpered, as she curled in a ball on the floor. "I need you, please come back."
Smoke rose from Piper as the Fury left her body, completely, and Paige crossed the space between them, sinking down beside Piper to wrap her arms around her sister's shoulders.
"It's okay," she whispered, soothingly, as Piper slumped in her arms, burying her face in Paige's shoulder.
"No, it's not," Piper sobbed, the helpless sound in her voice breaking Paige's heart. "She risked her life every day, and she never thought about what Phoebe and I would do if she was gone." She clung to Paige like Pax used to after a nightmare. "How could she think that I could live without her?"
Paige just hugged Piper closer to her side, combing her fingers through her sister's hair. She shifted to a more comfortable position, ignoring the feel of the cold tiles beneath her. She was prepared to sit with Piper for as long as it took. She wasn't going anywhere.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The next morning, Piper parked her Jeep in the busy hospital parking lot, grabbing a covered basket from the passenger seat and heading inside the building. She had to stop three times to ask directions for finding Paige, and she was getting frustrated; she'd already spent time going to South Bay Social Services, only to be told that her younger sister was working out of the hospital, that day.
She was also running out of muffins; she kept having to bribe the nurses to tell her where to find Paige. By the time she'd reached the social services office, she was down to one muffin, and she was determined that Paige was getting it, no matter what. It was little enough thanks for what Paige had done for her, yesterday.
She knocked on the open door, but rather than looking up, Paige just huffed an irritated sigh.
"Brenda," she said, sounding like she was fighting for patience, "I will get you that consult when I'm done. You have to give me time to work on it."
"Wow," Piper commented. "I think I'd hate to be Brenda, right about now."
Paige's head snapped up and she stared at Piper in momentary shock. Then, she relaxed and leaned back against her chair, rolling her shoulders with an audible crack that made Piper wince.
"Sorry about that," Paige apologized, as Piper came into the room and sat down in the chair across from Paige's desk. "Brenda and I have been at each other's throats all morning. She has a temper."
"Yeah," Piper joked, wryly, "because you come from such an easy-tempered bunch."
"Hey, I didn't say that I didn't have a temper," Paige replied, and then her eyes lit on the basket in Piper's hand. "Oh, is that food? I'm starving; I haven't had time for lunch."
"It's ten in the morning," Piper said, glancing automatically down at her watch, and Paige grinned.
"I've been here since five-thirty," she told Piper. "I love working shifts at the hospital, but the early start is a killer." Taking the basket from Piper, she pulled the cloth off, her eyes lighting up when she saw the muffin. "It's still warm," she said, taking a bite and moaning quietly in pleasure. "Yum," she mumbled through a full mouth, and Piper chuckled.
"There were more," she said, "but I had to bribe a bunch of people just to find you."
"Yeah, it's like dealing with starving vultures out there," Paige told her. "Home-baked goods are never safe around here."
"I, um, I wanted to say thank you," Piper said, hesitantly. "For yesterday, I mean."
"We're sisters," Paige said, glancing up and giving her a small smile. "You don't ever have to say thank you."
"Yes, I do," Piper corrected her, quietly. "If not for you, I'd still be – well, I'd be in a bad way," she said, checking her words as she remembered that she was in a public place. "So, um, muffins. I bake. It's what I do."
"At least one of us does," Paige told her. "I can't boil water without burning it, or so I've been told."
She shot an irritated look at the doorway over Piper's shoulder, and Piper turned around to see a tall man with dark hair leaning against the doorframe. He grinned at Paige as he came into the room, perching precariously on the edge of the desk.
"Need I remind you of the Cookie Fiasco of Ninety-Nine?" he asked, as he smirked at Paige. Looking at Piper, he added, in a conspiratorial tone, "She smoked out the kitchen so badly that the neighbors called the fire department. And then she got carried out of the house by some guy with more muscles than brains."
"Daniel was a good guy," Paige told him, cutting off any protests the man might have made with a quick motion of her hand. To Piper, she added, "This is Henry."
"So, you're Henry," Piper commented, getting a raised eyebrow in response.
"That's a loaded comment," he remarked. "Dare I ask?"
"Long story," Paige told him. "I'll tell you later."
She shot Piper a look, like she was expecting a protest, but Piper wasn't going to say anything. From the way the pair was interacting, they clearly knew each other well. And she still remembered how Paige had described Henry as her best friend, and how she trusted him with her life. From the easy way they were with each other, Piper was beginning to see that Paige's trust was well-placed. And anyone her sister trusted, Piper wanted to get to know.
"I also came over to ask you if you wanted to come over for dinner, tonight," she told Paige. "Both of you," she added, glancing at Henry. "I think there's a lot we need to talk about."
Continued here
