“You shouldn’t have come. Its dangerous” she sobbed into his shoulder.

“Well, there are some calls that must be answered” he whispered. “so its necessary to risk the secrets of the spirit winds to answer.” Mark grinned. “Something THEY let me know” he added.

Sometime later Paige eventually did get some deep sleep, for the first time in quite a while falling into a long and satisfied slumber, her arms and leg across Mark. It was nearly dawn when she woke to find him leaning back against the bedhead smiling at her as she slept.

“Hello” he murmured gently.

“Hello yourself” she smiled back, contented just because he was beside her. She reached over to touch his face “I never wanted to see anyone so much as I wanted to see you last night” she told him “How did you escape up there?” Guiltily she whispered “Why did you risk escaping up there?”

“Got a message on the spirit winds that a charge desperately needed ...guidance” Mark murmured. “Heard some rumours about bye ways and backdoors, so you know. Had to try it out when I got a call that I was needed, I was desperately wanted.”

“It’s a risk you shouldn’t have taken for me” Paige told him severely although her body pressed against Mark said the opposite.

“I have a charge pretty distressed. Its a risk I would take for any charge that is distressed, and this one had a bonus…” he grinned “reward for coming.”

“You know there are sniffers and trackers hanging round on the edge of the spirit winds here” Paige warned him.

Mark nodded carelessly. “I know. What’s wrong love?” he asked ignoring her concerns for him.

“Everything” Paige sniffed.

“In particular?” he grinned.

“Think I …the job gave up on me today…yesterday.” Paige confessed.

“Or you gave up on the job” Mark corrected her gently. “It’s been coming” he added.

“It’s been coming for a while “Paige agreed “But still not prepared for it. Still things I need to do. Everything going on. Evil targeting my...kids.”

“You being a worrying parent?” Mark asked softly. “Following Piper’s example.”

Paige shook her head. “I’m worrying because I think they might be standing on the brink…magically” She explained “It’s not the same type of worrying, comfort worrying that Piper does about the family. And I know I can’t …help them. Gotta make their own choices.” She sniffed again “After the battle, when you were hurt, Fern got… felt guilty and Piper was…Piperish and Fern ended up calling Piper every type of bitch she could lay her tongue to.”

“Well Fern’s not the first.” Mark grinned. “Piper knows the rules about …being Piper.”

“I know that” Paige sighed “It’s more… the first time the girls acted well as three. Things went wrong, especially as I think it was a set up to get the Charmed Ones, but, thought the girls did pretty well. Even Fern screaming at Piper was ...the safest option.”

Mark nodded. Very gently he added “As a fellow whitelighter I say you seem to be doing a …tolerable job of guiding them.” Mark grinned. “Best anyone c… any whitelighter, can do, watch charged making choices…or parents watch kids. Worry then pick up the pieces.” Mark took a breath “Caleb, god bless him, forgot he was a guide, not part of the action.”

“I was part of the action” Paige reminded him. “Listened to the witch part of me, not the whitelighter.”

“You let Melinda take the action instead of trying to be the powerful witch when it would have been a very bad idea. Might have even cost both of us our existence” Mark reminded her. “Sounds whitelighter to me.”

“That frightens me too” Paige confessed “Being whitelighter, guide not action witch. What about the Power of Three?”

“Power of Three? Sooner or later, it will be broken, one way or another.” Mark frowned “After that potion the demons threw. And afterwards you all seemed…” He searched for the word.

“Wonky” Paige admitted. “Seems okay now. All powers intact.”

“Apparently the magic world went into an earthshaking spin.” Mark told her, as Paige’s expression became horrified. “I wasn’t really compos but the Elders were…more worried about that than Caleb going I heard.”

“Elders worried about losing the Power of Three?” Paige asked in mock surprise.

“Not so much worried about losing Power of Three, as about checking the facts of you guys losing the Power of Three. Even heard a whisper about three being eternal,” he confessed conspiratorially.

“And the Charmed Ones aren’t eternal” Paige almost sneered. “Anyway, sorry to disappoint them but we’re still around.” She suddenly realised what he was saying “I have three girls. What do you know?” she asked suspiciously.

“Nothing concrete” Mark told her “Not even sure your girls are really on the radar, although that might change now. Okay I asked about the Power of Three. No prophesies about your girls that anyone would tell me. I got the idea from being told the history of your powers, Warren Power of Three is cyclical.”

He put his hand out and touched Paige’s cheek, waiting for her reaction.

“Cyclical means there’s an upside and a downside doesn’t it?” Paige asked slowly putting her hand on his.

Mark nodded and let her sit quietly for a little while.

Finally, Paige mused “Years ago when we got rid of the old Source, Good gave us the choice about Power of Three, even being witches. We stayed on but if you think about it they must have been sure the balance could be managed without us.” Paige decided.

Mark shrugged slightly.

“So” Paige declared facing it “The Power of Three has done its duty for this epoch. Not needed.”

“I interpreted it as the need for a Warren Power of Three” Mark answered. “It doesn’t mean everything is ended for you and Phoebe and Piper, but with a generation of very powerful kids in the Warren line, I … sort of wonder if destiny will have a way of.. keeping the accursed balance.”

“It isn’t our role to worry about the balance” Paige stated firmly. “Our role to protect innocents.” She smiled. “And I know how hard that is, so I worry about the girls you see.” She smiled “Look I know they have to grow … in terms of magic. Life experience tells me the way Evil operates, this crisis will pass, some demon will move on, a little sated and resting on its laurels for a little while. Another magic crisis by another demon, and the Charmed Ones will emerge, a little wiser, a little more battered, slightly more cynical and with luck a little more convinced of the importance of our calling.” She sighed “And knowing that even worries me. Because its my whitelighter heritage telling me and right now that’s overwhelming my…mortality. Being the only whitelighter accessible to most of the witches in San Francisco makes me really aware of being whitelighter, an outsider really.” Paige admitted. “I mean I want to help. I don’t want to be a …bureaucrat…or an Elder.”

“Same for me” Mark agreed before leaning over to kiss Paige. A few minutes later he continued “I can say most emphatically I have no calling to be an elder. Think I would stuff it up. Maybe like you.” he added carefully.

“You think I would stuff it up” Paige demanded in mock annoyance “joining the Powers that Be...anywhere?”

“I think your innate sense of justice, and humanity and compassion would” Mark answered carefully, choosing his words, “or otherwise you would get caught up in their games and lose those things. Then I would lose you because they’re what I love about you. So from a purely selfish viewpoint on my part….” He smiled at Paige and her heart leapt.

Paige leant over and kissed him., “Talking of whitelighters” she finally asked. “Powers that Be angry about ...Caleb going? You get any…they hassling you, blaming you.”

Mark shook his head, and smiled wryly. “About Caleb in particular. No. Heard there is some relief in some ranks. Both charges and Elders kinda believe that Caleb outlived his usefulness. So, they’re lionising him as a martyr and no one seems to be missing him at all.”

“That’s a sad lesson” Paige told him thoughtfully.

“It’s a lesson anyway” Mark agreed drily. “I think things are changing up there. I think ‘they’ are asking fate to step in.”

“As Leslie would say” smiled Paige “Who are ‘they’?”

Mark shrugged “I met some ‘theys’ and I can’t answer that.”

He leant toward her and for some time neither were thinking of the balance of the magic realms or the universe. Finally, Mark regretfully said he had to leave.

“I’m glad you came” Paige half-whispered to him. “ But I was just unhappy not a crisis, you shouldn’t have risked it.”

Mark stood up, looking down on her almost sucking his lip. “Not all crisis are blood and guts” he told her eventually. “I kinda got a…message that someone was on the crossroads of an important decision. So, it was as much for magic I came, as you.”

Paige eyes opened wide, then she sniffed but nodded bravely. “You’ll be careful won’t you? Just go up there. Just be safe.”

“I’ll be safe” he promised.

As he left the Manor Mark was well aware of sniffers searching for him. He even picked up on them sniffing around the edges of the spirit winds trying to find his track. He had reason to thank his whitelighter training though because the Elders had definitely come to some clever understandings of how the darklighters worked and it was fairly easy to confuse their scents until he knew he was alone.

Mark kept his promise to orb only between the Manor and safety but he knew of other places besides ‘up there’ that were safe for whitelighters. He decided there were two forms of being safe, the one where you stayed hidden and never ventured anywhere there was the slightest risk or the one where you understood the risks and adjusted your behaviours accordingly, and took care without compromising your charges.