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One Night For Life
by Pirate Turner
Paige sighed as she stared out of her window at the night sky that was slowly beginning to grow lighter. Her head rested on her upturned palm, and she idly swung one leg. Her sisters were both tucked away safely in their beds, and they had had a busy day and night of Demon fighting. They had won the night again, saved the world and countless lives, and yet still she felt dissatisfied.
She should have been satisfied, happy even, but still all she could think of was how much more good she had the potential to do than what she had done today. She enjoyed fighting the good fight with her sisters, but there was still so much more she could do . . . and yet was forbidden from doing. There were millions of lives out in the world at that very moment, hurting, coiling and screaming in excruciating pain. Gods only knew how many innocents were breathing their last even as the grandfather clock in the living room chimed three times.
Paige blinked and stirred herself. She shouldn't do it. She knew she shouldn't do it. Her status as a Charmed One banned her from being able to help any one with her magicks who was not in danger from magick, and her White Lighter powers were only supposed to be used if the harm was done by magickal forces. Her power to heal was a gift, but yet, Paige knew, it was also a curse due to the stipulations placed upon it.
Making her decision, she rose from her window seat and stretched. "Repercussions be damned," she whispered, pulling the hood of the dark cloak she wore up over her head. Tonight she was going out, and she was going to save lives . . . no matter what the Council had to say about it the next day.
Blue lights swirled in the darkness as Paige rematerialized. There were other lights on in this long room, lights that she easily identified as night lights to soothe the frightened children and machines working day and night to keep them breathing. Her high heels fell silent upon the hard, wood floor as she walked amongst the beds, gently touching each little head.
It wasn't always easy to tell who the innocents were, but Paige knew that these children had done no harm. Some of them had, no doubt, been treated as they had, at times even by their own parents, for contracting diseases for which there were no cures, but they had, in truth, not even been in the world long enough to do any real harm. She paused as one sleepy head stirred, watched as the little boy stuck his thumb back into his mouth, and waited until he had fallen asleep before moving again.
A tiny girl, whose chart bespoke that she was months older than she looked, tossed and turned restlessly . . . until Paige placed a hand upon her fevered forehead. Her green eyes blinked open. "Mama?" she whispered.
"No, sweetheart," Paige whispered in return, her heart breaking at the sad loneliness etched so plainly in the girl's green orbs, "but I am a friend."
The girl began to relax as Paige's healing passed into her body. The Witch breathed a silent sigh of relief as she felt some of the burning heat go out of the girl. "I . . . I . . . feel . . . better . . . " the girl whispered, clearly confused over the sudden change in her body.
"Good." Paige's smile grew.
The girl peered up at her. Her small face was framed by curly, brown hair, which was illuminated by the yellow light of the equipment next to her and gave her the appearance that she was wearing a dark halo. A warmth spread through Paige and filled her heart that had previously ached so greatly for the world's tortured souls as she realized that this was one child, at least, who would not become an Angel for a very long time indeed.
Paige's green eyes widened in surprise as the girl asked her quietly, "Are yoo . . . an Angel?"
Paige gazed down into the tiny one's big eyes and softly told her, "I am whatever your dreams make me."
The child's face that had been so sickly all her life now shone with a refreshened sparkle and a huge smile, but then she yawned. "I'm . . . so . . . sleepy . . . "
"Then rest," Paige told her, helping her to lay back down. "Sleep."
"Will you be here when I wake up?"
Caught with surprise by the question, Paige fumbled through her mind for an answer this baby before her would accept. At the same time, she remembered the stuffed animal she'd hidden away inside an inner pocket of her cloak when she'd first started thinking about coming to this famous children's hospital tonight. She retracted the tiny, plush tiger from the folds of her black cloak and held it out to the girl.
"For me?" the girl squeaked.
Paige nodded, forcing down the lump of emotion that had risen inside her throat.
"Dank yoo!" She grabbed the tiger and hugged it tightly to her. Then she looked back up at Paige. "Will yoo be here?"
Paige leaned forward and softly touched her heart. "You won't see me," she told her, "but I'll be here." She knew that her words were truth for, even though they'd been together only a scant, few minutes, this tiny, and oh so fragile, soul would stay with her, in her memory and heart, forever.
The girl nodded sleepily, accepting Paige's answer as truth, and Paige watched over her, softly stroking her brown hair, as she drifted back to sleep. Only when she was certain that the child was enjoying the first peaceful sleep she had ever known did Paige move on to the next bed. She moved slowly amongst the sleeping children, healing each small, fevered, and aching body she came to, and only stopped when she had saved the last child.
Then she found, to her surprise, that she could barely move. All the healings were beginning to take a toll on her, and though no other child had awakened, she could feel eyes upon her. "Leo," she whispered, "I know you're there."
He materialized behind her, and Paige turned slowly, her chin held high and proud, to meet his scrutinizing gaze. "So, how angry are they?" she asked, and to her utter and complete shock, he smiled.
"They're not."
"You're joking!"
"Not this time," he said, shaking his sandy head. "If you do it again, they will strip your powers, but tonight you saved a very important life."
"They're all important," Paige told him, her green eyes drifting back over the sleeping children, "but which one actually made Them happy?"
"I think you know the one," Leo said, his eyebrows rising slightly.
Paige's roaming gaze came to rest upon the little girl clutching the tiger plushie to her heart as she slumbered sweetly. She nodded in silent admission. "She will live, won't she?"
"She will become a White Lighter . . . " Leo told her, making Paige's eyes widen with fright, " . . . in ninety years."
Relief and joy washed through Paige, healing her heart that had been aching for so long to do more for those who desperately needed her, or at least some one, to ease their pain and suffering in the world and who she was not supposed to be allowed to help. "And the others?" she asked. "Will they be happy?"
"She will be," Leo answered quietly, sensing the youngest Halliwell's unspoken question, "but I can not tell you of the others."
Paige nodded, her own eyelids beginning to droop. Leo quietly moved the rest of the way to her side and opened his arms. "Are you ready to go home now?" When she nodded again, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, whispering into her ear, "Don't ask me to ever say this again, but you did a wonderful thing tonight."
Paige looked up at him in surprise. Leo smiled. A grin burst over her face, and she returned his hug. "Thank you." He nodded, chastely kissed the top of her head, reflecting silently that Paige was indeed the little sister he'd never had, and orbed them home.
Left behind, in the quiet of the room, a tiny voice mewled her happiness. She was safe, alive, and, for the first time in her life, well. Goodness and secret Angels existed in the world, and it was a far brighter, and she a much happier and healthier child, for the miracles they made happen.
The End