To Love Her

Chapter 1: The Week After

Billie was a wreck and no one can blame her. Looking back now, everything seemed to be something right out of a movie or some television series where witches battle each other for supremacy. Her head was filled with nothing and everything at the same time.

There was no sense of time where she was. There was no sense of anything. Somehow she ended up in some cave, where only the reflection of some unknown light source on a clear shallow pool can be seen.

Her eyes have sunk and so has her cheeks. She hasn't eaten anything. She would drink from the pool once in a while if only to supply her tear ducts with enough liquid to allow it to shed tears. Tears that were her only companion. Her incessant sobs when she was awake were loud and soul-crushing but it did not drown the sound of her sister's wail of pain that was on loop in her mind. When her body would force her to sleep, that's when she would thrash and wake up several times screaming her sister's name. It was a vicious cycle that though took a toll on her body, it ironically intensified her magic.

All around her, a magical barrier has been protecting her from outside elements, but it also prevented help as well. It was strong enough to block even a Charmed Whitelighter's sensing power. No one could get to her and she wasn't in a state to reach out to anyone.

The Manor

If only Paige Matthews-Mitchell were wearing a long dress fit for a princess, any child can mistake her for the real Snow White. Her skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony. Right now however, she was a very frustrated princess. It had been days since she started looking for her charge and she was not able to feel her out magically. In normal circumstances, she would assume that her charge is gone from this world and had moved on. This was, for Paige, not in any way a normal circumstance. Sure, they tried to kill each other almost a week ago but Billie was manipulated and she did help in the end. More than help actually, she vanquished her own sister. Maybe not intentionally, but could there have been a better outcome?

As Billie's Whitelighter, she was concerned about her. More than that, as her friend, she desperately wanted to know that she was okay. She knew Billie was alive. To hell with not being able to feel her magically, there was something in her gut that tells her she's alive. Besides, she already had her husband make sure that she is informed first if there was any news of Billie at the police station.

While pacing the attic for how many hours, making potions, casting spells and ultimately running out of ideas how to find her charge, her older sister Phoebe knocked on the attic door. It wasn't closed but she didn't want to startle the already agitated Paige. If Page was Snow White, Phoebe was Cat Woman. She was sexy but you can see her toughness underneath her gorgeous face.

"Hey, how's it going?" Asked Phoebe with her hands crossed over her chest.

"Not good. I've tried everything. The Return Back Home spell, Lost and Found spell, Calling A Lost Witch Spell, even wrote a few but I end up with nothing. How about you? Can you try to feel what she's feeling? You know, just to tell me she's alive."

"I tried, even asked help from Coop but we came up with nothing. You have to consider though that Coop can sense love and Billie, hoping that she's still alive, won't be feeling too much love right now."

"No! I know Billie is alive. I can feel it in my guts. The magical part of me may not be telling me that but she's alive." The younger witch declared matter-of-factly.

"I hate to say this but maybe you shouldn't get your hopes up." Phoebe said without wanting to. She too wanted the young blonde to be alive. They were close after all.

"I refuse to believe that she is no longer in this plane of existence unless I see a lifeless body. And even if I did see a lifeless body, I will find a way to haul her ass back in her body because it isn't her time to die and that's that!" Paige was looking straight at Phoebe with her tears threatening to fall. It didn't need an empath to see that she was hurting. They have lost so much and there was just a limit to how much one can take.

"Oh honey." The elder witch closed the space between them and wrapped the younger one in a hug. At this time, the eldest Halliwell was the one who appeared at the door. She didn't close in on her sister's side but she watched the scene in front of her.

"You guys, maybe she just needs time to heal? Maybe it's her magic that's not allowing you to sense her." Piper said giving her youngest sister hope. If she were honest with herself, she didn't know if the young witch was alive or not but if there was anything that she learned from being a witch, it was to trust their gut feeling. If Paige knows in her guts that Billie was alive, there was a big chance that she was. She only hoped that she was right.