Family

By Demoness Paige

Everyone is their normal age and this is set after Prue was supposed to die but Leo had managed to save all of them. Paige has just turned 17 though and before anyone askes why they don't know they had a sister because of their age differences when Patty found out she was pregnant with Piper she was scared and left the girls with Penny and ran with Sam until Paige was born then they gave her up to the church and was killed shortly after.

She wasn't sure when it had become normal for her to stay up all night and try to find someplace to crash during the day but in the time Paige ran away from her latest and probably worst foster family she had been forced to make so many changes in her life. She only turned seventeen a few weeks earlier and though she should be in attending the last few months of her school year before her last she couldn't risk it. It was kind of ironic in a way seeing how there was once a time when she would have given almost anything to get out of a majority of her classes she was now missing those classes as she struggled just to survive on the harsh streets of San Francisco.

She had slept longer than she meant to tonight though as it was well past sunset and the last two dumpsters she hit had held nothing, well nothing edible anyways. Her stomach was growling rather loudly as she turned down an alley between a Bar and Grill and a place called P3. She briefly wondered just what a P3 was but shook the thoughts from her head as she focused on her current goal of finding something to eat.

Walking quietly up to the dumpster she climbed up onto it and took a deep breath before starting to sift through it. A part of her hated doing this but no matter how much she hated it there was no way that it was worse than her situation back at her supposed foster home. She briefly thought of the only family who showed her love when she was younger. She stayed with the Matthews for two years and even changed her name to match theirs as it looked like they were going to formally adopt her. It all fell through though when they lost their business and with the lack of financial support the state took her away from then and started putting her into one hell after another.

Sniffing a little as she continued digging through the bags finding only beer cans and liquor bottles she sighed. Another dumpster and another failure at finding anything to eat. Turning around she gasped when an older woman with brunette hair was standing there looking at Paige wide eyed. Her eyes were drawn to the purse that the woman was holding. She had never robbed someone before but it was like the purse was calling to her.

"Who are you?" The woman asked, her eyes seemed to be looking straight into Paige's soul. Taking a deep breath Paige jumped forward and grabbed the purse while at the same time shoving the woman and took off running at full speed down the alley not looking back.

OoOoO

Piper finished locking the doors to P3 after finishing cleaning it up and setting it up for the reopening the next night. She was forced to close it down for repairs when a demon attacked it and wrecked it for the third time. It was getting harder and harder explaining everything to her insurance company.

Turning around she spotted a young girl sifting through the trash in the dumpster. She had red hair and from what Piper could see she was very pale. She was very dirty though, her hair matted and her clothes dirty and worn. She was worried though, it could still be a demon or something just setting a trap. She noticed the girl gasp as she turned around and came face to face with her. She looked somewhat familiar as she stared intently at the girl asking, "Who are you?"

Piper cursed herself as she let her guard down leaving a huge opening that the girl took. Instead of attacking her though the girl grabbed Piper's purse while shoving her out of the way and ran down the alley. Piper was shocked at the unexpected maneuver but recovered just in time to throw her hands out to freeze the girl.

"What the hell!" Piper growled as she noticed everything except the girl freeze as the girl ran out of the alley. Cursing herself she hurried past the flies frozen in midair and hurried after the girl but when she made it to the end of the alley she had already lost the girl.

oOoOo

Paige sighed as she sat out back of McDonald's glad that it was open twenty four hours as she had bought the first real meal she had in such a long time. She had just thrown away the empty bag and trash and was just relaxing a little as she sipped on her Cherry Coke. Looking at the purse she was surprised at just how much money was in it. There were a bunch of credit cards and a driver's license as well which made Paige feel a little guilty. Sure she had stolen food a few times but never money, much less mug someone which was what she had done.

What if this Piper, or at least that's what everything in the purse indicated her name was, had this money to pay for rent? If Piper couldn't get anymore money and was thrown out because of what Paige did, it was something Paige didn't think she could live with herself over.

There was a dark part of herself that said screw the woman and everyone else, all they ever did was hurt Paige. But that was the thing, she didn't know this Piper woman despite a slight familiar feeling with her. The woman hadn't done anything to Paige and didn't deserve to be forced out on the street also.

"Damn…I'm such an idiot…" Paige whispered to herself pulling out the license again and looking at the address. It was on the other side of town but Paige had made her mind up, she was going to return it and apologize for what she did. She wasn't going to hurt someone just because of her bad fortune.

OoOoO

"I'm telling you she has to be a witch or something, she didn't freeze." Piper said as she served her sisters and husband breakfast. "What I don't understand is why another witch would go around mugging people."

"There has to be a reason honey." Leo said shaking his head in confusion. As Piper was sitting her plate down on the table the doorbell rang causing Piper to sigh torn between answering it and ignoring it for breakfast with her family.

"I'll get it." Phoebe said starting to get up.

"Sit and eat, I'll get it." Piper sighed walking to the door and pulling it open to find the topic of their very discussion clutching the purse to her chest and looking down sniffing a little.

"I…I'm sorry for what I did." The girl said, "Everything is here except for about ten dollars which I bought some food with. I'll pay it back, please…"

"It's okay." Piper said in confusion stepping back to give the girl enough room to get past, "Please come in, I want to know why you decided to steal my purse."

Piper watched as the girl flinched before tensing up and nervously following Piper's orders and stepping into the manor.