Charmed?

by Maetro

Disclaimer:They're not mine, I just like to play with 'em.

Chapter One

The Angel of Destiny snapped his fingers and the air felt charged as it brightened with a pale blue light. When it faded he smiled, wished them goodluck and faded away leaving the sisters standing in the middle of the living room glancing around.

"I don't feel any different," Pheobe said after a moment, shaking out her arms and rolling her head as if to be sure. "Do you?"

Piper paused for a moment, considering then shook her head. "No. Paige?"

She glanced over at her youngest sister, who shrugged. "I don't think so."

"Try orbing."

Paige nodded and shifted her shoulders, the way she did as she prepared to orb but nothing happened. With a sigh she dropped down onto the couch. "Nothing."

A moment of silence followed as what had just happened sunk in then Pheobe let out a laugh.

"It's really happened," she said, her face lighting up with a smile. "We're not Charmed, anymore. We should go out, celebrate. Get dressed, up, hit the town," she said, her smile spreading. Piper nodded in agreement, a grin forming on her face as well.

Paige stood up abruptly. "Not me. I don't really feel like this is something we should be celebrating."

Piper and Phoebe exchanged glances.

"It is a good thing, Paige, you'll see." Pheobe said, reaching out a hand to her. "I know you love being a witch I do too. But, it's hard and painful sometimes. Now, you won't have to go through some of the things we went through."

Paige stepped back, and Pheobe's hand slid off her shoulder and fell to her side. "Fine. Whatever. I'll be upstairs." She brushed past them on her way out of the living room.

"Paige. Paige." Piper reached out and tried to grab her arm but Paige dodged her and dissapeared up the stairs. "Should we be worried?" she asked, turning to Pheobe, who was staring after Paige.

"She'll come around," Pheobe said.

"Are you sure?"

Phoebe nodded. "Yeah. It took her awhile to get used to be a witch. It'll take some time for her to get used to not being a witch too."

"I hope your right."

Me too, Pheobe thought. Me too.

Paige knew she was acting like a five year old, throwing a tantrum and then storming up to her room but she couldn't help it. Not when something so important to her was being taken away and there wasn't anything she could do about it. She'd fought hard against giving up their powers but as usual, Pheobe and Piper had decided against her and she'd been outnumbered. Angrily she threw herself down onto her bed, feeling the warm sting of tears.

Downstairs she could hear her sisters getting ready to go out, their muted voices and laughter drifting up to her in bursts, though she couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Footsteps on the stairs made her tense. She listened as they came down the hallway and stopped outside her door. "Paige, we're leaving now," Pheobe called softly through the door. "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

Paige ignored the question. The floor creaked as Pheobe shifted, waiting for an answer.

"We're going to P3 if you change your mind," Pheobe said. Another moment of silence then her footsteps retreated.

Downstairs the heavy wooden door swung open then shut and Paige was alone in the quiet.

It was still early and not much of a crowd had formed at the club yet. A scattering of tables were occupied and a handful of others milled about around the bar or the stage area where the local band that was playing had compensated for the small audience by dimming the lights, setting up stools at the front of the stage and turning their performance semi-interactive giving the club an intimite rather than empty feel.

Piper and Pheobe sat apart from the rest of the crowd on one of the low couches tucked into the corner, a bottle of champagne from Piper's private stash on the table and a glass each in hand.

"A toast," Pheobe said, raising her glass. "To being charming, but no longer Charmed."

Smiling, Piper touched her glass to Pheobe's then took a sip. "I can't believe it," she said, swirling the champagne in her glass. "It feels like a dream and I'm worried I'm going to wake up from it any moment."

"Want me to pinch you, reassure you that you're not?"

Piper shifted out of Pheobe's reach, just barely dodging her fingers. "Don't you dare."

Laughing, Pheobe settled back against the couch. "You know what I keep thinking? Of all the things I can do tomorrow without having to worry about having to drop everything because of a demon attack, like go to work and do my column without interruption. Get my nails done after work."

"I can have a romantic dinner with my husband."

"I come home and take a nice long, hot bath and spend the evening watching mindless reality tv."

"No more attacks at the club. No more anonymous phone calls to the cops or uncomfortable witness statements."

Once again they touched their glasses together in toast.

"Hey, who's the new bartender?" Pheobe asked as she poured herself a few more sips of champagne. "He's cute."

Piper followed Pheobe's gaze. "That's Lucas. He's" she trailed off as the man across the room cut around the bar to quickly and tripped on the corner of it, pitching forward and unsettling his tray of glasses. Piper's hands came up automatically to freeze him but without her powers it was a useless gesture and the glasses tumbled to the ground with a mighty crash. "Oooh," she moaned, gazing down at her raised arms. "Guess that's going to take some getting used to."

"You okay, Sweetie?"

Piper nodded. "A few broken glasses are worth it to have a normal life again."

It wasn't often that the manor to be this quiet, usually there was something going on, whether it was Leo some repair job or another, Piper working in the kitchen or Pheobe training downstairs or a demon attacking. Normally Paige relished the rare quiet moments but tonight the silence was stifling and there was nothing to distract her from her thoughts.

Feeling suddenly claustrophobic in her room she rolled of fthe bed and padded downstairs, turning on the stereo in the living room when she got there, thinking maybe that would help. She turned the volume up and paced the room restlessly, stopping when she reached the fireplace. On the mantel was an array of photo's, a few of their mother and Grams and one of Leo in his service uniform but most were of Prue, Piper and Pheobe at various points in their lives. Professional portraits as toddlers, candids at birthday parties and Christmas, before school dances and of course, the obligatory graduation photos. There were a few of Paige on the mantel as well, an elementary school photo, a couple of birthday pictures, a prom photo and her high school grad photo, but it was obvious that they didn't belong among the other photo's. None of the backgrounds were the same and she was alone in all of them. She wondered how long it would be before she was alone again, now that magic, the thing that had held them together, was gone.

You know the drill.