Disclaimer: I of course own nothing.

“Where’s the salt gone?” Piper asked the empty kitchen. She turned as she heard orbs to see Leo orbing in behind her. “Hi sweety,” Piper said.
Leo smiled. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said. Leo put his hands on her shoulders and gently steered her into the living room. Standing in there was…
“Prue!” Piper shrieked, not believing her eyes.

A few minutes later Piper and Prue were standing outside Phoebe’s door. Piper knocked. “Pheebs, you in there?”
“Yeah, come in,” came Phoebe’s voice.

Paige heard the muffled shrieks from Phoebe’s room but she couldn’t hear what Phoebe had said. Hearing a third, unfamiliar voice Paige decided to go and see who was there.

As Paige left her room she could hear her sisters talking to whoever was there. She reached the doorway. Paige stood in the doorway staring at her sisters, all three of them. She looked at Piper, hanging onto Prue tightly, and Phoebe, crying and laughing at the same. As she looked back to Prue she felt something stir in the back of her mind. Like a memory. What was it? Paige frowned, trying to remember, but it wouldn’t come. Phoebe glanced up and saw Paige at the doorway.
“Paige! Come on in,” she said, before Paige could leave.
Shaking her head, Paige decided it must be nothing. Smiling, she walked forward to be introduced to her oldest sister that she’d never met.

Hours later, Paige lay in bed tossing and turning. She’d had a great night with her sisters, one of the best, but she couldn’t erase the nagging feeling in the back of her mind. She squinted, trying to bring it to the front of her mind when suddenly, there it was.

**********************Flashback***************************

“Piper, don’t let them take me!” a five-year-old Paige cried, bursting into her ten-year-old sister’s room where Prue and Piper had been sitting on Piper’s bed, talking. Paige jumped up onto the bed and scrambled into Piper’s lap. Piper and Prue exchanged a confused glance.
“What’s wrong, Paigey - Girl? Who’s taking you?” Piper asked.
“I overheard, Grams was on the phone, she was talking to the Matthews, they’re gonna come and take me away from you to live!” Paige wailed. She burst into tears. Piper, reeling, tried to make sense of what her baby sister had just said.
“What do you mean Paige?” Prue asked gently.
“They’re gonna adopt me, something about there being four of us when there can only be three.”
Prue’s expression went from confusion to shock to anger. “I’m going to go and have a talk with Grams,” she said angrily. Prue looked into Paige’s eyes. “No one’s going to take you away from us. We’ll protect you. I love you.” Prue planted a kiss on Paige’s forehead and strode out of the room.




**********************End of flashback***************************

Paige gasped. So she had spent the first five years of her life with her real family, not with her adopted one as she had always thought. After she was given away someone – probably Grams, must have modified hers, and everybody else’s, memories. Paige lay in the dark for a few more minutes, remembering everything about growing up with her sisters and then went into Piper’s room.
“Piper. Piper wake up,” Paige whispered, shaking her.
“What’s the matter?” asked Piper groggily.
“Piper I need to talk to you.”
“What, d’you have a nightmare?”
“No! Piper WAKE UP!”
“Alright, alright, I’m awake,” Piper said, sitting up. “Now, tell me what’s wrong before I go back to sleep.”
Paige didn’t quite know how to start. “Ok. Um, I want you to tell me one thing that happened to each of your sisters before you were ten years old.”
“What? Paige, it’s two in the morning.”
“Just do it. Please. It’s important.”
Piper sighed. “Fine. Well, there was the time when Prue was so mad with Grams she decided to run away and she actually ran straight through the living room window. Grams wasn’t too pleased.”
Paige chuckled, imagining the look on Gram’s face. “Phoebe?”
“When Phoebe was seven she almost blew up the kitchen. She used the oven to make biscuits and didn’t turn it off. It was lucky Grams found it.”
Paige remembered that one. She had been four at the time and she remembered hiding behind Piper while Grams yelled at Phoebe.
“What?” Piper asked, talking to herself. She stopped.
“Yes,” Paige asked hopefully.
“I remember you coming into my room telling me not to let them take you. That was the day before the Matthews took you.”
She looked at Paige to see an excited expression on her face. “Paige, what did you do?”
“Me?” Paige exclaimed. “I didn’t do anything. I just, I, when I saw Prue I just found it at the back of my memory.”
Piper nodded slowly. “I felt the same way, when I saw the two of you together. I just told myself it was nothing. I wonder what the others will say?”
Paige glanced at the door, then back to Piper.
“No,” said Piper firmly. “Prue is going to be mad as it is, we don’t want to make it worse by waking her up in the middle of the night.”
Paige sighed and silently agreed.


“You mean that Paige really did live with us until she was five?” Prue asked the following morning. “You have gotta be joking.”
“Yeah, like we would joke about something like this,” Paige said.
“Well, I don’t get why you two remember everything but Prue and I haven’t got a clue about anything.” Phoebe was obviously unimpressed.
“I can’t believe they didn’t tell us.” Prue was up and pacing around the room. “I can’t believe they would take our sister and then made us forget about her completely.”
Paige bit her lip and looked at the ground. She felt that all this was her fault. Phoebe saw her.
“Don’t worry,” she said, putting an arm around Paige. “Prue isn’t angry with you Paige.” Phoebe stopped, looking confused. “Paige. Paigey – Girl.” She stared at Paige as though she had never seen her. “Paigey – Girl. Your nickname.”
“You remember!” Paige said. She grinned and gave Phoebe a hug.
“Great,” Prue muttered. “Now my three younger sisters all remember and I can’t remember a thing.”
“Ok,” Piper began. “Do you remember when we were all eating dinner and Paige wouldn’t eat because she said she wasn’t hungry. So Grams asked you to try and help her. But when you tried Paige had a tantrum and…”
“And chucked her food all over me,” Prue finished. “Yeah, I remember.”
“That was so funny,” Phoebe started laughing. “You stood there covered in Paige’s dinner, looking utterly shocked.”
Paige burst out laughing. “I was such a little brat.”
“Were you ever,” Prue agreed.
“Hey!” Paige pouted cutely. “You’re not supposed to agree!”
Prue laughed. “Come on. Lets go and see what Mum and Grams have to say about this.”


“Hello girls,” Grams said as soon as she appeared. “I know why you called me and I…”
“You want to explain?” Prue said pointedly.
“Well, you see, if I didn’t give Paige away the Elders wouldn’t have let you be the power of three. It hurt me girls. A lot. But I had to do it. So I did.”
Paige kept her eyes on the ground. She didn’t want to say anything. Piper glanced at her.
“Grams, you gave up our baby sister and then took away our memory of her. How could you?”
Grams bit her lip. “I knew I would have to some day. Since the day Patty refused to give her up…”
“Don’t you dare try to blame this on mum,” Prue said hotly. “It wasn’t her fault. She did the right thing. You, you just…” Prue couldn’t finish. She violently kicked a crystal out of place and Grams vanished. Prue stormed out of the attic and stomped downstairs leaving her three younger sisters looking after her.
Paige blinked back the tears that had been threatening to spill ever since they had called Grams.
Piper put an arm around Paige. That was more than Paige could take. She sniffed and ran out of the attic into her room. Piper and Phoebe looked at each other then went after her.
“Paige? Paigey – Girl, can I come in?” Piper asked.
“I really don’t feel like talking right now,” Paige answered. She sounded as though she was trying not to cry.
Piper glanced at Phoebe and pushed Paige’s door open. Paige glared at her.
“What part of ‘I don’t want to talk’ do you not understand?” she said.
“Phoebe and I just wanted to see you were alright,” Piper said gently, knowing Paige was acting angry to hide her true feelings.
“I’m fine. Please, I really don’t want company right now.”
Piper sighed and left. As soon as she closed the door Paige began to cry. She felt unwanted and unloved. Paige had been trying not to cry but she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She sat down on her bed and cried her heart out.

Piper and Phoebe stood outside Paige’s door for a few minutes, listening to Paige cry. Piper beckoned to Phoebe and they went downstairs. Prue was sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. She looked up when she heard Phoebe and Piper coming down the stairs.
“Hi,” she said. She sounded depressed. “Sorry about that. I just got so mad.”
“Who are you mad at?” Phoebe asked. Prue stared at her as though she was crazy.
“Well, who the hell do you think?” she asked roughly.
“That’s the thing,” Phoebe said softly. “I don’t know. Is it Mum, is it Grams?” Phoebe took a deep breath, knowing Prue was about to scream at her. “Or is it Paige?”
“What do mean?” Prue sounded outraged. “How could you think I’m angry at Paige? She hasn’t done anything wrong, it’s Grams who screwed our lives up!”
“Well, you’re acting like you’re angry at her,” Piper told her softly.
Prue sighed and started biting her nails. “I know I don’t have any reason to be angry with her, but I am. I know she didn’t do anything but…”
“I know,” Phoebe said. “You feel like what happened was because of her. I felt like that too.” She and Prue glanced at Piper, who nodded.
“Me too,” she admitted. “But Phoebe and I knew she hadn’t done anything wrong and we changed our attitude and moved on. You need to do that too.”
Prue nodded. “Where is Paige anyway?” she asked.
“She’s upstairs in her room, crying,” Phoebe answered. “I think you should go and talk to her. She knows you’re angry with her and she doesn’t understand. You’ve hurt her. Go upstairs and have a talk.”

“Paige?” Prue asked, knocking on Paige’s door. “Can I come in?” She heard a sniff.
“Yeah.”
Prue pushed open the door. “Hi,” she said. “How are you?”
“Fine,” Paige said shortly. Prue cringed.
“Paige, I’m really, really sorry. It was just too much to handle. I mean, how would you feel?”
“Well, Prue, I don’t have to feel how you do, I have to feel that my Grandmother gave me up because letting me stay would hurt her other three precious, obviously more special granddaughters!” Paige’s voice cracked. She desperately tried not to cry, not wanting Prue to see her cry but she couldn’t stop. Prue reached over and hugged her. Paige pulled away but Prue held her tight. Paige gave in and just cried into Prue’s shoulder, while Prue stroked her hair and waited until she was ready to stop.

Half an hour later Paige and Prue joined their two sisters downstairs.
“Hi,” Piper said. “All better now?”
Paige smiled weakly. “Yeah.”
“Good,” Phoebe said. “Piper, when is dinner, I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving, Pheebs,” Piper said, smiling.
“Yeah,” Prue joined in. “The bottomless pit!”

Paige couldn’t help but laugh as she watched her sisters. She knew that she might have grown up with her sisters around her, but for now, she felt no bitterness. She only felt happiness that she at least knew them now and had the rest of her life to spend with them.

Prue peeked in Paige’s room. “Sound asleep,” she told her sisters. Piper and Phoebe smiled. They looked into Paige’s room, to see her sleeping peacefully.
“Come on,” Prue said. “Come into my room.”
“I’ll be there in a second,” Piper promised. Prue and Phoebe went into Prue’s room. Piper took a few steps into Paige’s room. “Goodnight Paige,” she said softly. “I wish that you hadn’t had to leave all those years ago but I’m so glad that you found us again. I know I wasn’t exactly welcoming but if I’d known then what I know now… Well, anyway, I just wanted to say that, that I’m glad you’re here and I love you.”
Paige smiled faintly. “Thanks Piper. I love you too.”