Redemption
by: Tashe Dangerous Eyes
Summary: Paige's life is in Piper's hands, but to save her baby sister she will have to convince her of something she herself has found difficult to accept.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: I just wanted to add my two cents to this relationship that lacked moments like this on the tv show.
Chapter 1
The lone tear made it down her cheek, sparkling brightly with the borrowed light emanating from her luminescent aura. It didn't faze her anymore the fact that she could cry, something she was sure would be denied to a wandering spirit. Not wandering; trapped. From the moment she had died and found herself condemned to an eternity in limbo she had discovered that it was possible to give in to sadness after death. The realization almost destroyed her, after all, it was her sorrows what she was trying to escape when she…
But, it was not her sorrow what was making her cry now but the one mercilessly hugging the broken heart of the angel she was observing. The first time she had sensed her pain it was so overwhelming that she had no choice but to find its source, forgetting for a while what she was and where she was forced to spend her eternity. If at all, she was trying to escape her own torment with this distraction. Except that now it was no longer a distraction. In a strange way it had become some form of mission, especially after what she had seen the last time this angel's sorrow became too much for her to deal with anymore.
She dared think that some kind of cosmic or heavenly force was at work that day and so the young woman lived to survive another day, to have another chance, remaining on her side of the spectrum and not crossing over to where she was, to be condemned as she was. But, she was sure that the circumstances needed to be shaken and changed if the beautiful angel in front of her was going to make it out of the darkness that tormented her. That is why, from the moment she had found her submerged in such deep pain, she has been trying to reach out, to do something so her fate didn't become as terrible as her own.
Now, as she saw her suffering even in sleep, she decided not to wait a second more and take action. The moment was finally here, after long days and weeks of trying to master the ability to be seen and heard, she was going to be able to help her. But she was not the one she wanted to talk to. She was not the one who needed to put in order her world and get rid of the chaos, no, it was the one who had made it so in the first place.
The transparent spirit of the young woman made her way through the bedroom's door and across the hallway just to go through yet another closed door and to another sleeping figure whose dreams were far from being tormented. This made her a little angry because it was not fair. But she got rid of her anger quickly. She had observed more than just the beautiful angel across the way, she had observed the root of her torment as well and it was driving her crazy how the lack of sincere and open communication between them was causing so much pain, but worse than that, it was conducting the younger of the two down a dangerous road; a road that only ended in tragedy and that was what she was here to stop.
"Piper." She called softly, but her voice sounded softer than it should have, not able to even make a dent on the sleeping woman's slumber. She concentrated harder and tried again. "Piper!"
Piper Halliwell heard her name being called and didn't even consider ignoring the voice in favor of her rest. After years of being under constant attack at all hours of the day and night, she knew better than that. A second wasted could very well mean life or death for her or her sisters, and she was not going to allow that to happen. Not on her watch.
She opened her eyes and looked to the door, expecting to see Phoebe or Paige at the entrance, but her eyes went back in a flash to the luminescent spot they traveled too quickly over in her haste to respond to the voice. However, she was now realizing that the voice and the light were coming from the same place; the floating spirit in front of her. With wide opened eyes Piper recoiled to the headboard of her bed, trying to put distance between her and the possible danger she was probably going to be facing. She couldn't take her eyes off of her, but she didn't have to do that to know that Leo, her beloved husband, hadn't been sleeping by her side. She remembered he had been summoned by the Elders for something very important two days ago and that he was yet to return. Piper didn't care how important it was, she was about to summon him back.
"Please, don't be afraid. I'm not here to harm you, only to talk. And it is imperative that you listen to what I have to say." The spirit said with a voice so calmed and a tone so sincere that Piper couldn't help but to calm down despite herself. Not to mention that demons never said 'please'.
"Who..who who...who are you?" Piper asked, obviously startled by the apparition. Great show of strength, Piper. The young witch recriminated herself.
"My name is Caroline and I have something important to tell you." Piper took a second to catch her breath and remembering that she was the oldest sister and a powerful witch, she decided to act the part.
"Let me guess," Piper said, her attitude making a one eighty in a second. "...you're some sort of trapped spirit and you need the Charmed Ones to help you escape from wherever you are so you can move on. Am I close?"
Caroline listened to Piper and felt the anger she had felt a few moments before trying to come back and stay after hearing her sarcastic tone. But Caroline had a mission to accomplish and she was not going to waste time, especially when she didn't know how much time she had in the first place.
"You are correct...and yet so wrong. How much I wish you could be so assertive where it really counts." Piper looked at her perplexed, not understanding what the spirit meant.
"What are you talking about? Are you here because you need our help or not?" The question was designed so even the spirit in front of her couldn't get it wrong so she and her sisters could start finding a way to help her. Piper was not happy about the hour of the request, but she was not about to turn her back on an innocent either, however transparent they were. Even with the occasional visit from her grandmother, a spirit herself, it was still a bit unsettling to be able to see through people.
"I'm here because I need your help, Piper, but not so you can save me. I'm beyond saving if you haven't noticed. I'm here so you can save your sister."
Piper's eyebrows went from being furrowed with confusion to be almost all the way to her hairline with surprise, but ultimately they settled in their natural state, unmoving, when panic took over her.
"What do you mean by that? Is she okay, are they okay? Which one is it?" Piper asked frantically, not knowing which one of her sisters the spirit was referring to or what the danger was, or even if something had already happened. She made to get out of the room to go find out, but the spirit got in front of her, to prevent her from taking another step and it did just that. Piper halted, like Caroline was tangible at all and she didn't want to ram into her.
"She is fine, Piper, at least physically. But she won't be for long unless you do something, and only you can help her." Piper abandoned the idea of leaving her room, but the sense of dread about the safety of her sisters didn't abandon her.
"Who are you talking about, which sister?" The eldest Charmed One knew she was being redundant, but she was feeling panicky which in turn made her less reasonable.
"I'm talking about Paige. You are about to lose her in the worst way possible because she is battling an enemy she can't possibly defeat, not when it's not even her battle to begin with."
Caroline saw Piper looking at her, her eyes dancing all over her face, like she was trying to comprehend her words but at the same time not wanting to believe them. She waited patiently for her to process them, knowing that eventually she was going to ask the question that for sure was going to make the reaching of her goal even more difficult. But she didn't care, she wasn't going to fail, she couldn't.
Piper was still trying to comprehend what she was hearing. After fighting against so many evils and defeating them, now she was being told there was an enemy they couldn't defeat. No, Caroline had said an enemy Paige couldn't defeat. Granted, Paige was not as experienced as she and Phoebe were, but she was a powerful witch and she had been there when they defeated the Source, arguably the biggest evil of all. So, how could this Caroline believe they couldn't defeat this new enemy? After realizing that the questions in her mind could not be answered unless she voiced them, Piper asked the most obvious question first.
"Who is this enemy that is trying to destroy my sister? Tell me so I can vanquish it before it comes after her." The determination was there and Caroline saw it, she just hoped it wouldn't fade away when she answered.
"I'm glad you are so willing to protect her, because she is at the end of her rope."
"You mean she's already under attack?"
"She has been, yes." Caroline responded simply, making Piper's panic increase exponentially.
"Who is it? Who's hurting Paige?" She asked again, ready to take deadly action against whatever force to make sure her little sister was save.
"You are, Piper. You are hurting her. You are killing her."
Piper fell silent, she was too stunt and too shocked to utter a word. Now more than ever she couldn't believe the words of the spirit. She was Paige's older sister, her family, her teacher...She had opened the doors of her house to her and took care of her as much as she could. How was she hurting her, let alone killing her? What did that even mean?
"I don't understand what you mean. I don't hurt my sister, neither of them. And killing her, that's ridiculous." Piper pointed through her closed door towards the general direction of her sisters, trying to emphasize her point while taking a couple of steps forward, furious at being accused of doing something bad against any of her sisters.
In spite of Piper's outburst, the floating apparition let her face demonstrate some of the sadness she had been experiencing for Paige and for her situation because her older sister's reaction was just the reason for her present lack of love for life. She needed to help Piper understand why and how she was hurting Paige.
"Tell me something, Piper," Caroline started softly. "…do you know about the terrible situation Paige had to get through when she was thirteen?" Piper was momentarily taken aback with the sudden change in subject, but almost inevitably started looking for an answer. She was used to knowing everything about her sisters, so it was natural for her to try and find the answer in her mind, no matter how old the fact. Everything was there, especially being the middle sister. She knew their every secret and their every hope. They…She knew all about Prue and about Phoebe…Paige, she hardly knew anything about her baby sister. Piper was barely starting to shake her head 'no' after thinking for only a second when Caroline asked her another question, like she already knew that was going to be Piper's answer.
"How about the amount of time she became just a number before she could be placed on a foster home after her parents died, or how many foster homes she went through before finally being able to stay in one permanently?" Caroline kept at it, not giving Piper a chance to say anything, but saw as her face continued to go from one pained expression to the next after learning what little she could of Paige just by listening to the questions. Caroline had to wonder how she would react if she knew the answers.
"Perhaps the past is not your thing. She's been with you how long now...just a little over a year? I'm being unfair. Let's try something current." Piper tried to interrupt, but Caroline didn't relent. "Do you know that at work she was constantly reprimanded for taking in more than she could handle because she didn't want to come back here, the place that is suppose to be her home? Have you noticed the weight she had lost lately, or the amount of time she spends in the bathroom every morning trying to get rid of the red in her eyes and the swell? Of course, you don't notice. You are too busy scolding her for wasting the hot water."
"Stop it. Stop it, stop it. What are you trying to say, that I don't know my own sister? I may not know her the way I know Phoebe, but I'm getting to know her. I just need time." Piper raised her voice, trying to defend herself, feeling suddenly attacked in a very personal way.
"That's the problem, Piper. You are running out of time. It was only a miracle that you were granted just a little longer with her." The cryptic way in which Caroline spoke was starting to get quite tiring for Piper. She was angry at the things she had said. She just couldn't believe she was being scolded by a dead woman. But what really made her angry was that she was right. Caroline was making her face a truth that she had been ignoring. What she couldn't decipher, or more accurately, didn't want to discover was if she was doing it on purpose or not. If she was, she was truly hurting Paige because her sister was apparently going through difficult times and she was doing it alone when she was just a word away. But then again, that's probably it. She doesn't know I'm here for her. And she doesn't know because I haven't told her. At least not in a way she can believe it.
The eldest Halliwell had to take a deep breath to calm herself before speaking again. "I know what you are trying to do, I really do. But why am I running out of time? Does she want to leave here? Does she want to stop being a Charmed One, leave Phoebe and me?"
"What she wants is to stop living." Caroline said somberly.
"What?" The word came out of her mouth almost on its own volition since her entire body went still with the shock of the words she just heard.
"Piper, she had already tried to kill herself." Piper gasped at the terrible news, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth, trying to overcome the chill and slight trembling that started taking over, feeling how her guilt was starting to consume her. Her baby sister could have been lost to her already and she didn't know, worst than that, she apparently didn't take the time to see her, to really see her and notice that something was terribly wrong. She would've lost another sister and this time it would have most definitely been her fault.
"How...how do you know this? How did she..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it.
"My spirit was somehow beckoned by her tremendous sorrow. I followed her pain until I found her. Since then we've become as one. What she knows I know; what she feels I feel. Even though she doesn't even know it, we are kindred spirits." Caroline found Piper looking at her intently, no doubt trying to understand such connection. She explained it to her without the need to be asked. "I died by my own hand. I committed suicide."
"I..." Piper trailed off again, unsure of what she could possibly say. Caroline, seeing this, decided to spare her the difficult moment. This was not about her after all.
"I won't tell you how she tried to do it. You don't need that image in your head. What you need to do is help her because only you can save her, Piper." Caroline's words brought Piper back to reality and she reacted to them, more than ever eager to save her sister.
"I don't know how to do it. I know what I have to do but, I just all of a sudden don't feel like I have the courage. After the way I've treated her or not treated her, how can I face her?" She said sincerely, her eyes watery with unshed tears.
"The day Paige tried to kill herself, she had plenty of time to accomplish it, but she didn't have the courage either, not that time. But I know the way it is, I've been there. It won't evade her forever, so you better find it first." Piper closed her eyes and took a deep breath, gathering her resolve and attempting to form words in her head to say to Paige. Nothing came to her mind that was worth saying. Oh God, it's like she is not up there at all. Piper thought, referring to her own head.
Caroline seemed to detect what was going through the young witch's mind and decided to help her along, to give her one last push. "You at least must know the answer to this question, Piper." Piper looked back at her expectantly. "Do you love her? Truly love her?"
"Of course I do." She answered a little too quickly, like people answer when it's out of convenience. But Piper knew she was not just saying the words; she was saying them because they were the truth.
"How do you know?" Caroline's question sounded strange to her ears, but she answered it just the same.
"I know because I can feel it. I can feel the love I have for her." Caroline couldn't help but smile at the expression of realization dawning on Piper's features. She apparently had never voice her feelings for Paige, keeping herself from being free to feel them.
"Then," Caroline approached Piper and this time the eldest Halliwell didn't retreat, totally unaffected by the floating spirit by now. Caroline deposited a hand over Piper's heart before continuing talking. "...if you can feel it here, there's no need to think. You already know how to do what you need to do."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Caroline started to fade away. She knew her time was up, and even though she felt like she had made a difference, she couldn't help but to plead for Paige one more time, to make sure her spirit would continued towards a path of light; unlike hers, forever free.
"Please, Piper, don't ever let her be like me, punished for eternity for doing this. Give her a reason to live. She only wants to be loved by you and accepted because she has no one else. You and Phoebe are all that is left. She adores you, Piper...adoresss...youuuuu..." Lost with the echo of her words, Caroline was gone.
"I won't, Caroline. I promise." Piper told her in a whisper, unsure if she could hear her or not, but she needed to say it after everything she had done to save Paige. Without Caroline, she probably would have never had the chance to make things right. "Thank you."
To be continued....
A/N: It'll be nice if you let me know if you like it so far. Thanks!