Fic: Comes Out of Darkness, Morn (2/37)
Title: 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...
*****
Penny Halliwell would never admit to snooping in her own house, least of all on her granddaughters. But, when she had three strong-willed, high-spirited girls to raise, anything was fair game. After all this time, eavesdropping on her granddaughters was almost second nature, and she'd learned to walk a fine line between knowing what she needed to hear, and ignoring what she didn't.
And hearing her oldest talk to a friend about her kidnapped daughter? That she definitely needed to hear.
She hadn't suspected Prue's friend to be anyone special, just a tragic story that she wanted to do something to help, if she could. After all, what better use for her magic than to find a missing child?
What she hadn't anticipated was meeting the young woman. And she'd certainly never expected to see her daughter's eyes staring out at her from a haunted face. Or, Sam Wilder's stubborn chin, or those high cheekbones that had been a hallmark of the Warren women since Melinda's time.
After all these years, her youngest granddaughter had come home.
She'd been shocked to see the young woman standing in her sun room, so shocked that she'd almost blurted the truth out, right there. But, Paige had left before she'd been able to get more than a few words out, and Penny had been left standing, gobsmacked, in the middle of the room, watching her disappear out the front door.
A few discreet questions to Prue had gotten the truth of the story: how Paige's three-year-old daughter had been kidnapped a few weeks earlier, how the police had given up looking for the girl. How Prue was worried about Paige, not having any options left.
Well, there was one option left, and Penny was damn well going to use it. No matter what the cost.
Penny shut the attic door quietly behind her, hearing the latch catch with a soft, barely-audible click. The rest of the house was still and quiet for the night, and she didn't want anything to disturb her granddaughters.
She walked across the attic to the lectern where the Book of Shadows sat, flicking her fingers, idly, telekinetically flipping through the pages. Not that she really needed the Book to perform the spell she wanted; she'd had it memorized for quite some time, now.
She lit nine white taper candles, placing them in a circle in the middle of the floor. Then, she closed her eyes and started chanting, softly.
"Hear these words, hear my cry,
Spirit from the other side.
Come to me, I summon thee,
Cross now the Great Divide."
White balls of light formed in the air inside the circle, swirling aimlessly for a moment before coalescing into a transparent form. Penny smiled a little sadly at her daughter.
"Hello, darling," she greeted.
"Mother," Patty said, sounding confused. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why did you summon me? We just spoke last night."
"Yes, well," Penny sighed, "a lot has happened since then."
"My girls?" Patty asked, fear in her voice, and Penny spoke quickly to put her mind at ease.
"The girls are fine," she reassured Patty. "Your youngest, however-" She trailed off, shooting Patty a pointed look to make it clear that she wasn't talking about Phoebe. "Darling, you told me that you and Sam hid her somewhere safe. I assumed that you meant somewhere outside of San Francisco."
Patty had the good grace to look sheepish at the gentle rebuke.
"Sam and I," she started, "we were losing our baby girl. Bad enough to have to give her to strangers to raise, to know that she would never be a part of our family. We couldn’t stand the thought of having her on the other side of the country, as well."
"You told me-" Penny started, but then she trailed off. What's done was done, and getting angry about it, now, wouldn't help anyone. Least of all that broken young woman she'd met, earlier. "Her name is Paige," she finished, quietly. "She's beautiful, Patty. You should see her."
"You've seen her?" Patty asked, a tremulous note in her voice. "How - how is she?"
"Not good," Penny answered, honestly. "Her daughter was kidnapped three weeks ago."
Patty looked floored, both by the news, and the revelation that Paige even had a child of her own, in the first place.
"Kidnapped?" she echoed, faintly. "You think it was demonic," she went on, after a long moment.
"She is a Halliwell, whether she knows it, or not," Penny pointed out, reasonably. "Taking a child with that kind of potential for power would be a coup for any demon."
"What are we going to do?" Patty asked, a determined glint filling her eyes.
"We are going to do nothing," Penny said, sternly. "I am going to go after the child, and then I am going to bring our girls home. For good."
"You're going to transport yourself into the Underworld," Patty said, disbelief clear in her voice. "Mother, it's a suicide mission."
"Not with your help," Penny told her. "Darling, I need to borrow your powers for a little while."
"Oh, of course," Patty said, heavy sarcasm in her voice. "Mother, did you forget that I'm dead?"
"Never," Penny said, softly, closing her eyes briefly at the wave of grief that, even now, twenty years later, snuck up on her and took her by surprise. "No," she went on, when she thought she could talk, again, "I have a spell. It's short-term, but it should get the job done."
"I can't talk you out of this?" Patty asked, although it sounded like she already knew the answer.
"What else would you have me do?" Penny asked, rhetorically. "Should I unbind the girls' powers, tell them about Paige, and their niece, and set them to it? Or, perhaps I should unleash the unknown and potentially volatile powers of a grieving mother and send her into the heart of the Underworld?"
Patty nodded in wordless agreement. "Your spell?" she prompted.
Penny nodded, reaching for the piece of paper that she'd tucked between the pages of the Book. She chanted the spell she'd spent the last couple of hours refining to perfection, and a haze of shimmery light passed from daughter to mother. She gasped as the power filled her, making her skin itch.
She let the piece of paper in her hand fall to the ground, twitching her fingers and watching as the paper froze in mid-air. She nodded in silent satisfaction, turning her attention back to her daughter. Patty was slightly more transparent than before, her eyes dark with worry.
"Be careful," Patty said, softly. "I don't want you joining me."
She disappeared a few seconds later, and Penny snuffed the candles out, one by one. She gently closed the Book, glancing up at the ceiling.
"Leo!" she called, softly, still mindful of her granddaughters sleeping down the hall.
The Whitelighter orbed in, immediately, and the concerned look on his face told Penny that he'd been eavesdropping. Good; it meant that she wouldn't have to waste time catching him up on everything that had been going on.
"I need you to orb me into the Underworld," she said, without preamble, and to his credit, the Whitelighter didn't even blink.
"No."
"Are you going to go after that little girl?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Or, tell her mother that we left her to the mercies of demons?"
"It's dangerous," Leo argued. "You should leave this for other witches."
"Who?" Penny demanded. "Who else is there, Leo? The girls? I can't lay all of this on them. And I'm not going to trust a stranger with my great-granddaughter's life."
"Then, I'll go," Leo said, stubbornly. "I'm pretty invincible, Penny. I've already died once, and barring a Darklighter, they can't hurt me."
But, Penny shook her head. "No," she said, flatly. "You're a pacifist, Leo; you have no offensive powers. And, you'd have no way to track the girl in the Underworld."
"Then, I'm coming with you," Leo said, quickly changing tacks. "You're not going in alone."
"Yes, I am," Penny told him, quietly. "I need you, here. I need to know that my granddaughters are protected, in case something happens."
"Penny-" Leo started, but she wasn't going to let him finish.
"I fully intend to come home with my great-granddaughter, and then bring Paige back to our family," she told Leo, firmly. "But, if the worst happens, I need to know that my girls are safe. All of them."
"What do you want me to do?" Leo asked, with a quiet, resigned sigh.
"If I don't come home," Penny replied, a tremor creeping into her voice at the thought, "You need to hide the Book. Lock it away, somewhere where the girls will never find it. This," she added, tapping a page that she flipped to, "is a permanent power stripping potion. Use it. If I can't be here to protect them, I don't want my girls anywhere near this world of ours. I want them safe."
"And Paige?" Leo asked, a neutral tone in his voice.
"Watch over her," she told him. "Promise me that you will protect her."
"Does that include telling her sisters about her?" Leo asked.
"Do what you think is best," Penny finally answered. "Now-"
Leo nodded, reaching out and taking Penny's arm. He orbed them both into the Underworld, and they ducked into an empty chamber, away from prying eyes and ears.
"Last chance for back-up," Leo offered, keeping his voice quiet, but Penny shook her head.
"Go home, and watch over my girls," she said, softly. "I'll be fine."
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...
*****
Penny Halliwell would never admit to snooping in her own house, least of all on her granddaughters. But, when she had three strong-willed, high-spirited girls to raise, anything was fair game. After all this time, eavesdropping on her granddaughters was almost second nature, and she'd learned to walk a fine line between knowing what she needed to hear, and ignoring what she didn't.
And hearing her oldest talk to a friend about her kidnapped daughter? That she definitely needed to hear.
She hadn't suspected Prue's friend to be anyone special, just a tragic story that she wanted to do something to help, if she could. After all, what better use for her magic than to find a missing child?
What she hadn't anticipated was meeting the young woman. And she'd certainly never expected to see her daughter's eyes staring out at her from a haunted face. Or, Sam Wilder's stubborn chin, or those high cheekbones that had been a hallmark of the Warren women since Melinda's time.
After all these years, her youngest granddaughter had come home.
She'd been shocked to see the young woman standing in her sun room, so shocked that she'd almost blurted the truth out, right there. But, Paige had left before she'd been able to get more than a few words out, and Penny had been left standing, gobsmacked, in the middle of the room, watching her disappear out the front door.
A few discreet questions to Prue had gotten the truth of the story: how Paige's three-year-old daughter had been kidnapped a few weeks earlier, how the police had given up looking for the girl. How Prue was worried about Paige, not having any options left.
Well, there was one option left, and Penny was damn well going to use it. No matter what the cost.
Penny shut the attic door quietly behind her, hearing the latch catch with a soft, barely-audible click. The rest of the house was still and quiet for the night, and she didn't want anything to disturb her granddaughters.
She walked across the attic to the lectern where the Book of Shadows sat, flicking her fingers, idly, telekinetically flipping through the pages. Not that she really needed the Book to perform the spell she wanted; she'd had it memorized for quite some time, now.
She lit nine white taper candles, placing them in a circle in the middle of the floor. Then, she closed her eyes and started chanting, softly.
"Hear these words, hear my cry,
Spirit from the other side.
Come to me, I summon thee,
Cross now the Great Divide."
White balls of light formed in the air inside the circle, swirling aimlessly for a moment before coalescing into a transparent form. Penny smiled a little sadly at her daughter.
"Hello, darling," she greeted.
"Mother," Patty said, sounding confused. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why did you summon me? We just spoke last night."
"Yes, well," Penny sighed, "a lot has happened since then."
"My girls?" Patty asked, fear in her voice, and Penny spoke quickly to put her mind at ease.
"The girls are fine," she reassured Patty. "Your youngest, however-" She trailed off, shooting Patty a pointed look to make it clear that she wasn't talking about Phoebe. "Darling, you told me that you and Sam hid her somewhere safe. I assumed that you meant somewhere outside of San Francisco."
Patty had the good grace to look sheepish at the gentle rebuke.
"Sam and I," she started, "we were losing our baby girl. Bad enough to have to give her to strangers to raise, to know that she would never be a part of our family. We couldn’t stand the thought of having her on the other side of the country, as well."
"You told me-" Penny started, but then she trailed off. What's done was done, and getting angry about it, now, wouldn't help anyone. Least of all that broken young woman she'd met, earlier. "Her name is Paige," she finished, quietly. "She's beautiful, Patty. You should see her."
"You've seen her?" Patty asked, a tremulous note in her voice. "How - how is she?"
"Not good," Penny answered, honestly. "Her daughter was kidnapped three weeks ago."
Patty looked floored, both by the news, and the revelation that Paige even had a child of her own, in the first place.
"Kidnapped?" she echoed, faintly. "You think it was demonic," she went on, after a long moment.
"She is a Halliwell, whether she knows it, or not," Penny pointed out, reasonably. "Taking a child with that kind of potential for power would be a coup for any demon."
"What are we going to do?" Patty asked, a determined glint filling her eyes.
"We are going to do nothing," Penny said, sternly. "I am going to go after the child, and then I am going to bring our girls home. For good."
"You're going to transport yourself into the Underworld," Patty said, disbelief clear in her voice. "Mother, it's a suicide mission."
"Not with your help," Penny told her. "Darling, I need to borrow your powers for a little while."
"Oh, of course," Patty said, heavy sarcasm in her voice. "Mother, did you forget that I'm dead?"
"Never," Penny said, softly, closing her eyes briefly at the wave of grief that, even now, twenty years later, snuck up on her and took her by surprise. "No," she went on, when she thought she could talk, again, "I have a spell. It's short-term, but it should get the job done."
"I can't talk you out of this?" Patty asked, although it sounded like she already knew the answer.
"What else would you have me do?" Penny asked, rhetorically. "Should I unbind the girls' powers, tell them about Paige, and their niece, and set them to it? Or, perhaps I should unleash the unknown and potentially volatile powers of a grieving mother and send her into the heart of the Underworld?"
Patty nodded in wordless agreement. "Your spell?" she prompted.
Penny nodded, reaching for the piece of paper that she'd tucked between the pages of the Book. She chanted the spell she'd spent the last couple of hours refining to perfection, and a haze of shimmery light passed from daughter to mother. She gasped as the power filled her, making her skin itch.
She let the piece of paper in her hand fall to the ground, twitching her fingers and watching as the paper froze in mid-air. She nodded in silent satisfaction, turning her attention back to her daughter. Patty was slightly more transparent than before, her eyes dark with worry.
"Be careful," Patty said, softly. "I don't want you joining me."
She disappeared a few seconds later, and Penny snuffed the candles out, one by one. She gently closed the Book, glancing up at the ceiling.
"Leo!" she called, softly, still mindful of her granddaughters sleeping down the hall.
The Whitelighter orbed in, immediately, and the concerned look on his face told Penny that he'd been eavesdropping. Good; it meant that she wouldn't have to waste time catching him up on everything that had been going on.
"I need you to orb me into the Underworld," she said, without preamble, and to his credit, the Whitelighter didn't even blink.
"No."
"Are you going to go after that little girl?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Or, tell her mother that we left her to the mercies of demons?"
"It's dangerous," Leo argued. "You should leave this for other witches."
"Who?" Penny demanded. "Who else is there, Leo? The girls? I can't lay all of this on them. And I'm not going to trust a stranger with my great-granddaughter's life."
"Then, I'll go," Leo said, stubbornly. "I'm pretty invincible, Penny. I've already died once, and barring a Darklighter, they can't hurt me."
But, Penny shook her head. "No," she said, flatly. "You're a pacifist, Leo; you have no offensive powers. And, you'd have no way to track the girl in the Underworld."
"Then, I'm coming with you," Leo said, quickly changing tacks. "You're not going in alone."
"Yes, I am," Penny told him, quietly. "I need you, here. I need to know that my granddaughters are protected, in case something happens."
"Penny-" Leo started, but she wasn't going to let him finish.
"I fully intend to come home with my great-granddaughter, and then bring Paige back to our family," she told Leo, firmly. "But, if the worst happens, I need to know that my girls are safe. All of them."
"What do you want me to do?" Leo asked, with a quiet, resigned sigh.
"If I don't come home," Penny replied, a tremor creeping into her voice at the thought, "You need to hide the Book. Lock it away, somewhere where the girls will never find it. This," she added, tapping a page that she flipped to, "is a permanent power stripping potion. Use it. If I can't be here to protect them, I don't want my girls anywhere near this world of ours. I want them safe."
"And Paige?" Leo asked, a neutral tone in his voice.
"Watch over her," she told him. "Promise me that you will protect her."
"Does that include telling her sisters about her?" Leo asked.
"Do what you think is best," Penny finally answered. "Now-"
Leo nodded, reaching out and taking Penny's arm. He orbed them both into the Underworld, and they ducked into an empty chamber, away from prying eyes and ears.
"Last chance for back-up," Leo offered, keeping his voice quiet, but Penny shook her head.
"Go home, and watch over my girls," she said, softly. "I'll be fine."
Continued here