Title: Wanted
Author: Katriona
Summary: A short Paige fic. Feeling unloved, like a stranger in her own home, Paige leaves the manor and her sisters. She gets a surprising visit from someone who might be the only person who can lead her back home.
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone. Yeah. That's it.
A/N: This is going to be a one-chapter story, so please review, and yeah. Flames are acceptable, because I really don't do my best work while procrastinating on a six-page term paper (which is due tomorrow, by the by), and... right. I should be working on that, shouldn't I? But then again, if I did, y'all wouldn't get to read this here awesome fic, would you? :P

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"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I guess I'll go eat worms..."

Paige shivered, unconsciously pulling her jacket closed. It was cold out, and it was dark. She was walking alone, down an empty, deserted street. But then, what street wouldn't be deserted this late at night? Trying to use logic to combat her fears, Paige took a deep breath and went on. A single tear slid down her cheek as she started singing again.

"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I guess I'll go eat worms..."

It was a song she remembered from her early childhood. When she was little, she'd sung it playfully, but now... It just fit so well...

"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I guess I'll go eat worms..."

Another tear slid down Paige's cheek, and then another, although she tried her best to fight them. She couldn't hold back. Not when she thought about everything she'd been through in the past two years, how hard she had tried, and how it had all finally played out.

All she'd ever wanted was to find her sisters. She'd been so happy when she finally did, but she hadn't thought about what could happen afterward. There was no way that she ever could have anticipated discovering, along with her sisters, a premade destiny just waiting for her to step in. And although she counted her powers among her greatest blessings, she couldn't bear to spend the rest of her life as The Replacement. The one who was there, when instead it should have been Prue. Paige was sick of feeling like she wasn't good enough.

Of course, her sisters denied all of that. Maybe they were right, maybe they weren't subconsciously comparing her to Prue. Maybe it was Paige herself doing that. But whatever the case, she knew she'd never live up to Prue's memory, and she was damn tired of trying. She couldn't be as good as the great Prue Halliwell, and so she walked away.

She was crying even harder now, as she remembered the events that had taken place only an hour before. Paige had known for a while that she couldn't stay, but it hadn't been until tonight that she'd had the courage to act on it. She'd written a note to Piper and Phoebe, telling them that she loved them, regardless of how they felt about her. Then, she'd kissed baby Wyatt good-bye, put the few things she owned in a backpack, and left. She'd started walking, she didn't know where. And now, here she was. Completely lost, in more ways than one.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light. Paige blinked, then shook her head. She couldn't possibly be seeing what she thought she saw. There couldn't possibly be a woman standing in front of her. That woman couldn't possibly be...

"Prue," Paige breathed out loud.

The woman nodded. "Yes, Paige. It's me."

"But... how? Why?"

"Because you needed me, that's why," Prue answered, ignoring the first question. She herself wasn't quite sure what the answer was.

Paige shook her head. "You've got the wrong sister... er, half-sister. Whatever. Piper and Phoebe are the ones that need you. I've never even met you, not that I didn't want to, because I did, but..."

"But you're afraid?" Prue guessed. "Intimidated... by me? You're afraid that Piper and Phoebe will always see you as inferior to me, is that it?"

"Exactly," Paige said, surprised at her ghost-sister's accuracy. "How did you know?"

"Because I've been watching you the past two years," Prue responded. "The Elders wouldn't let me go to you, or to Piper or Phoebe. Much as I hate it, they were right not to let me. I'm not the one they need, Paige. You are."

Paige stared at her, confused. "No. I can't be you, Prue. I can't do it, and I don't want to."

"They don't want you to be me. Yeah, they miss me. They wish I were there. But that doesn't mean they wish you weren't. Do you have any idea what you're putting them through right now?" Prue demanded.

Tears threatened again to spill over Paige's eyes. "Relief, probably," she spat. "They don't want me. I've tried, okay, I'm just not good enough!"

Prue shook her head. "You haven't tried. You've never once let them know how unwanted you feel. You just decided to suffer in silence, let them think everything's all right, and now you've just taken off without a word? Damnit, Paige, this is killing them right now."

"No," Paige said, starting to cry. Angrily, she pushed past the ghost, unable to believe that what she said was true. "Just let me go."

"Well, then I'd be just like you, wouldn't I? If I abandoned you here, without even having the decency to say good-bye. Just went off and did what I wanted, to hell with you..."

"I never said that!" Paige protested. "God, Prue, you have no idea how much I love them. Piper, Phoebe, Leo, Wyatt... all of them. I'm doing them because I don't want to hurt them anymore. They look at me, wishing it was you, and... It would be better if they didn't have to look at anyone, at any reminder, at all. They're keeping me around out of duty, because they need the Power of Three. But eventually, one of us was bound to crack. That one just happened to be me."

"No, Paige," Prue said, desperately trying to get through to her. She took a step toward her baby sister, and in that instant found that she was corporeal. She gave Paige a hug, holding her close like she would Piper or Phoebe. "You've got it all wrong, sweetheart," Prue whispered in Paige's ear. "When they look at you, they see you for who you are. Their wonderful, creative, loving baby sister. I can't take anything away from that. I just wish you could see yourself the way they see you."

In that moment, with some inadvertent help from Prue's added magic, Paige's Whitelighter powers kicked in. She was crushed by the amount of pain she felt coming from her family.

"I have to get to them," she told Prue.

Prue kissed her sister's cheek, stepped back, and disappeared before Paige had time to even thank her. Without hesitation, the youngest Charmed One orbed home.

Piper was sitting on the couch, holding the note Paige had left. Phoebe was sitting across from her. Both women were crying. Leo was standing behind Piper, with Wyatt in his arms. His face was tight with pain.

They all looked up when Paige orbed in. Her sisters ran over to her, hugging her fiercely.

"Gee, I didn't know you cared this much," Paige whispered. The looks on her sisters' faces weren't angry or hurt by her disappeance, but overjoyed by her return.

Everyone was silent for a minute. Then Piper, remembering the note, whispered in her ear the words that Paige had been waiting two years to hear.

"I love you, Paige."