Charmed: Heritage - 108 - Morality Bites 2: Biting Back ~ P2

Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt were asleep, snuggled in each other’s arms. The door opened and Melinda looked inside. She just stood there and stared, a smile on her lips. It was an unfamiliar scene, one she wished she had seen more of growing up. She sighed and took a few steps into the room. She stopped a few feet from the bed. She look down at her hands and sighed. “Good morning.” There was no response from the bed, so she tried a little bit louder. “Good morning.”

Piper’s eyes popped open and she pushed herself up. She looked around. Seeing Melinda she looked startled and waved her hands.

Melinda stopped moving.

That shouldn’t have worked, Piper thought as she realized who the intruder was. She waved an absent minded hand at Leo. She shook him while staring across the room at Melinda’s transparent hands.

Leo’s eyes slid open and he looked at his wife. “What’s wrong, Piper?”

“She froze,” Piper informed him, fear growing within her.

“What?” Leo asked confused as he turned his head to see what Piper was looking at. Seeing Melinda frozen still he frowned. “Probably because of Kevin’s claim that they don’t exist here.”

“Piper?” Prue’s voice called questioningly from outside the room.

Piper looked at Leo. “In here.”

Prue appeared at the door. She stopped at the sight of Melinda. “And here I was wondering why you froze the household,” she commented sardonically.

“The household?” Piper asked, a bit freaked out. “That was only supposed to freeze the room.” She climbed off the bed and walked over to the window.

Prue shrugged. “Well, you froze Andy and apparently Mel, so I’m guessing the whole house, though I suppose it could just be the floor.”

Outside, Piper could see movement, she she turned back to Prue and Leo. “At least I appear to have confined it to the house.”

“Don’t you have control over your powers?” Prue asked worried.

Piper shrugged. “Ever since magic came back . . .”

Before Piper could finish the statement, Prue interrupted. “Came back?”

Piper nodded. “I’ll explain later.”

Prue glanced over at her niece, still froze still. “Would you at least unfreeze them?”

“Right,” Piper agreed. She waved her hands.

Melinda looked around startled. “What’s going . . ? What ha . . ? Why?” She focused her eyes on her mother. “Did you freeze me?”

Piper nodded.

Melinda gulped. “Does that mean I’m not even a witch anymore?”

“I don’t know,” Piper admitted.

Melinda sighed. “I was just coming to wake you up and tell you I was going to fix breakfast.”

“Don’t worry about breakfast,” Piper told her. “I’ll get that.”

“I want to make breakfast,” Melinda persisted. If this doesn’t work, I won’t remember, but I want you to have that memory. I want that memory. She felt like crying. She didn’t want to go, to stop being. “Can I at least make it with you?”

Piper looked at her, a tender expression on her face. She nodded.

“Thank you,” Melinda replied before she turned and promptly ran into Prue. “Sorry, Aunt Prue.”

“That’s okay,” Prue assured her. Prue waited as Melinda left the room. Once she was gone, Prue looked at her sister. “You saw her hands?”

Piper nodded.

Prue held out her hands. They were still solid. She dropped them to her sides. “It’s all four of them.”

When neither sister spoke, Leo did. “Why don’t I call the boys, see if they are up?”

Prue looked at Leo surprised. “I forgot you were here.”

“I was that quiet?” he asked.

“No,” Prue denied. “It’s more I’m not used to you being here, with Piper that is.”

“Why’s that?” Leo asked confused. “If we had a daughter . . .” He trailed off as he remembered a long ago conversation with Piper, so long ago they hadn’t even been married yet.

Not knowing his thought, Prue none the less confirmed his suspicions. “You were divorced.”

“Oh.” Leo looked at Piper with a smile.

Piper looked back at Prue.

“Well, thankfully we managed to make it through all our rough spots here,” Leo informed her.

“Barely,” Piper added, remembering back. “When Chris made you an elder. . .”

“Chris?” Once more Prue interrupted. “Your son? How could he make Leo an elder?”

“He was time traveling,” Piper informed her, reluctant to go into that right then. “It’s a very long story.”

“I want to hear it, but I supposed it will have to wait.” Prue looked at Piper and Leo for a moment. “I’ll leave you so you can get dressed.” She walked out of the room.

Back at the manor, Vicki was finished setting the table. Her hands were almost completely transparent, but her grip on the silverware in her hands was firm. She looked up at blue-white orbs on the other side of the room turn into Wyatt. She hastily put the last setting of silverware on the table and stuffed her hands behind her back.

Wyatt looked around and saw her standing there fidgeting. “Hi. Vicki, right?” It wasn’t so much he forgot; more that he wasn’t sure how to start a conversation with this stranger who also happened to be family.

Vicki just nodded.

Seeing that Vicki’s hands were hidden behind her back Wyatt asked, “What’s behind your back?” When she hesitated, he hastened to add, “It’s okay. You don’t have to show me.”

Vicki sighed. “You’ll find out eventually. Remember when He said we were fading yesterday?” Wyatt nodded, so Vicki brought out her hands.

Wyatt frowned as he looked at them. “That’s not good. All of you like that?”

Vicki nodded. “Except Mom.”

Piper and Melinda walked into the room carrying food.

Wyatt’s eyes focused on Melinda’s hands. Odd, how it seems the food is floating with her hands doing that. “Good morning, Mom. Hello, again, Melinda. Dad said you were going to feed us.

Melinda grinned. “Can’t have you starve I suppose, though Chris did say he could cook.”

“He can,” Wyatt agreed, cheerily, “but I’m always good for Mom’s cooking.”

Piper smiled as she put down the food in her hands. Turning to Vicki, she said, “Would you go find everyone?”

Vicki nodded and ran out of the room.

---

The sitting room was empty, but not for long. Blue-white orbs turned into Chris at the same time Vicki ran into the room. She stopped and watched. “Good morning, Chris.”

Chris turned around. He smiled at first and then frowned as he noticed her hands. “What happened to your hands?”

“We are fading,” Vicki reminded him. “I guess we won’t have any problem finding out if we fixed things or not.” She gave him a half smile and continued, “Aunt Piper asked me to fetch everyone for breakfast.” That said Vicki ran up the stairs.

Chris stood there for a moment, her hands bringing back eerie memories of a day he would rather forget. He started for the dining room. The sound of the doorbell ringing caused him to stop, turn around, and head toward the front door instead.

Piper entered the dining room from the kitchen. She had caught the tail end of Melinda’s statement. “First, we eat. Maybe we can come up with more ideas once we have eaten. Come in.”

Chris, Paige, Henry, Alanna, and Janice all entered the room and headed toward the table. As they began to sit down, Vicki appeared in the doorway behind them. “Everyone’s coming.” She walked over to the table. As she passed Janice, who had pulled out a chair to sit in, she stopped and smiled. “Hi, Janice. It’s nice to actually meet you.”

Janice looked at her confused. She looked over at Alanna and then back at Vicki. “Right. Alanna said you knew her on sight.”

Vicki looked around. “But where is your brother?”

“I don’t know,” Janice admitted softly. She was worried about him. “He didn’t come home last night.”

Vicki looked disappointed. Unnoticed by her, her parents and her sister, once more carrying a notepad, entered the room from the doorway behind her. “I had hoped to meet him, but perhaps,” Vicki sighed before continuing. “I guess we’ll just have to make this work so I can.”

Behind her, Andy looked amused as he said, “An interesting reason to survive.”

Vicki turned toward the doorway as Leo entered the room. Grinning at her dad, she said, “Hi, Dad.”

“Hi, Sweetie,” Andy replied. “Behaving?”

“Always,” Vicki assured him. As if there ever was any other choice.

Pat eyed her sister silently. She wasn’t sure if her sister was just adjusting to this place better than her, or if she was just giddy with freedom, but she was going to keep an eye on her sister. If we survive. The thought depressed her, but she hoped that if they made it through all this, her sister would calm down. Vicki had already told her that the people here were like in her dreams. Alanna had told her that it had been rather disconcerting when Vicki had known her without ever meeting her. Based on the way Vicki had described first meeting Alanna, she had wondered if there wasn’t some tiny spark of whatever Vicki’s powers was, but now looking across the room at the twin sisters, she discarded the thought. She too saw the feint signs of warmth and cold on their otherwise identical faces. Pat walked over to find a seat at the table just as everyone else seemed to be doing with the exception of her mother.

Prue walked over to Henry. It had been nearly two years since she had laid eyes on Paige’s husband, but two years and an alternate time line apparently changed nothing. “I know you don’t know me, but it’s good to see you, Henry.”

Henry looked at her, a bit confused. He recognized her from pictures, but as she said, they had never met. “I guess that means you knew me.”

Prue couldn’t keep the sadness out of her voice. “Yes.”

“Not a good thing?” he hazarded to guess.

“Not in the end,” Prue admitted. “Paige . . . in our reality . . . lost you a couple of years ago.”

“Oh.” He couldn’t think of any other response to that. “So I’m dead,” just didn’t seem appropriate.

“Sorry,” Prue told him. “It’s just kind of overwhelming, all the differences. I’m glad you’re here, that Paige still has you.”

“Thanks,” Henry said, but it just felt a bit awkward to thank a stranger for being glad you weren’t dead, no matter how that stranger was related to one’s wife.

Prue looked across the table to where Piper stood. “You still haven’t called Dad.”

Piper nodded and headed toward the door. “I’ll go do that right now, while everyone starts eating.” Piper escaped the room before anyone could object. Not that talking to her dad was going to be any less tense than that room seemed. How did one go about telling their dad that his dead daughter was there with her family?

A while later, the food on the table was almost finished, but with thirteen people eating it, that surprised no one. There had been a few awkward silences when someone, usually Melinda, had begun a story about someone from the other reality and realized that that person was no more.

Melinda frowned as she looked at her food on her plate.

“Is something the matter?” Wyatt asked.

Melinda shrugged. “I was just thinking. We keep talking about people whom we lost by leaving out reality. What about the people we gained back?”

“You mean like Mom’s sisters?” Pat piped up.

Melinda nodded. “Yes, like then.” She smiled across the table at her mom. “But maybe others, too. Remember my friends, Lukas and Ana?”

Pat nodded. “They got burned for being witches.”

“Now, maybe they don’t even exist here,” Melinda admitted, “but maybe they’re still alive.”

“Your friends were burned for being witches?” Piper asked. She hadn’t really considered that anyone else might have been killed for being a witch the way Phoebe had.

Melinda sighed. “Pratt was obsessed. He wanted our family gone, but unless he could prove we were witches, he couldn’t do it, so he kept the witch trials going and a lot of people died. I guess it was the ultimate revenge against him that though you and Aunt Paige died in our reality, he wasn’t around to see it.”

“Did something happen to him?” Paige asked, curious.

Melinda nodded. “About a year ago, he was murdered. They almost sent an innocent woman to her death for his death, too. Is he still around here?”

Paige shrugged. “I’m not even sure who he is.”

Piper also shrugged. “He never made the media light, so I really don’t know. It never interested me to find out either. If I remember, I will try and look into that at a later date.

Melinda smiled. “I guess it doesn’t really matter, so long as he never started the witch hunts.

So intent was everyone on the conversation Melinda had started that no one noticed as against the wall opposite the kitchen entrance, two figures a couple of feet apart began to appear in hearts. One figure turned into Cilly Halliwell. As she fully materialized, Cilly’s eyes widened and she took a staggering step back toward the wall. She covered her ears and closed her eyes.

The other figure turned into two people as Phoebe’s oldest daughter, Ladybug Halliwell, carried the responsibility of transporting both herself and her so far powerless younger sister, Hope Halliwell. As Hope let go of Ladybug, Ladybug took a step toward the table.

Wincing, Cilly forced her eyes opened and her hands off her ears. She didn’t want anyone to see her doing that when they noticed her and it didn’t seem to help the mass of emotions battering against the mind of the young empathy.

“Aunt Piper,” Ladybug called out alerting everyone to their presence.

Piper looked up. “Ladybug!”

Pat and Vicki turned their heads to look at Ladybug and her younger sisters. In unison they exclaimed, “Ladybug?!”

“Is that your name?” Vicki added.

“Prudence actually,” Ladybug admitted with a smile, “but Mom calls me Ladybug, so it stuck.”

“Are you our cousins?” Hope asked, looking at Pat and Vicki curiously.

When Pat and Vicki turned to look at Piper, she smiled. “Prue, Andy, Melinda, Pat, Vicki, allow me to introduce you to Phoebe’s daughters. Hope is the short one. She’s only eleven, so we figure she’ll keep growing. Ladybug has already introduced herself. She’s Phoebe’s oldest. The girl against the wall is Phoebe’s middle daughter, Cilly.”

If anyone wondered what Cilly was doing against the wall, she immediately answered them. “And against this wall I will stay until we leave. As much as I would like to meet all of you, I am afraid my powers are still rather new to me and almost overwhelming at the moment.”

“You can handle a library full of people,” Chris retorted sardonically, “but not a room full of family.”

Cilly wasn’t at all offended by his words. “Allow me to rephrase that. I can handle a library full of blasé people plus a slightly agitated Wyatt, but not a room full of emotionally distraught, hesitantly excited family.”

“Uh.”

“Yeah,” Cilly nodded her head. “Sounds different when I describe it.” She reached into nher pocket and pulled out a digital camera. “Don’t mind me.” I’m making memories. She raised the camera to her eye and took a picture. She looked at the image on the screen and satisfied that everyone who was supposed to was in the picture, she went back to taking pictures.

Vicki grinned for the camera. Pat giggled.

“We wanted to meet you,” Ladybug informed them, “but we can’t stay.”

“Mom and Dad are missing,” Hope informed them.

Piper frowned. “You can’t find them?”

Hope shook her head. “Nowhere. Not that I’m any use to Ladybug and Cilly. Aunt Piper, you don’t know what it’s like to watch them scrying and using their powers and knowing I can’t do anything, because I don’t even have cupid powers yet.”

“She may not,” Vicki admitted, “but we do.” She turned to her older sister. “Don’t we, Pat.”

“It is frustrating,” Pat agreed, “but at least I can help keep track of ideas.” She held up her notepad. To be honest, she was more concerned with staying alive then getting back her powers. “I’m Pat, but the way and this is my younger sister, Vicki.”

Hope clutched the edges of an imaginary skirt and curtsied. “?Glad to meet you. Sorry for complaining. It’s just, as you say, frustrationg.”

“A frustration we are quite used to, I’m afraid,” Melinda informed her, speaking for the first time since the three sisters had shown up. “Even when we had powers, we weren’t really allowed to use them.”

“Oh,” Hope said her eyes wide. “At least if I ever get any, I will be allowed to use them.” Her curiosity overcoming her she asked. “Who are you?”

“I’m Melinda,” Melinda informed her young cousin.

“My daughter,” Piper added for clarification.

“Oh,” Hope considered this. With eager eyes she asked, “Do I get a new sister?”

Thinking back to watching Phoebe burn all those years ago, even though they got her back when they returned to their time, Piper felt sadness fill her. Her voice was slightly strained as she replied, “Sorry, no.”

Despite not being able to read her aunt’s emotions, or even differentiate them if she could, Cilly could see the strain on Piper’s face. “Hope, I think you should go give Aunt Prue a hug like you want to and we’ll get going. We need to find Mom and Dad.”

Hope turned eager eyes to Prue. “Do you mind?”

In response, Prue held out her arms. “Not at all.”

Hope scurried over to Prue and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m glad to meet you, Aunt Prue.”

Cilly snapped a picture of the two of them causing Ladybug to smile. Another picture for my collection. Despite Cilly being the one to bring a camera, Ladybug was the photographer of the three sisters. She also was the one whose walls were plastered with photographs.

Hope moved away and looked at Andy. “Are you my uncle?”

“Andy Trudeau,” he offered.

Hope turned to look at her sisters. She knew that name and she knew that face. “I think that’s a yes. I told you they looked like a perfect couple in that picture.”

Ladybug laughed. “Yes, every time you see that picture.”

Seeing confused faces on many in the room, Cilly offered an explanation. “Which is every time she’s in Ladybug’s room. Ladybug figures as your namesake, Aunt Prue, it’s her right to decorate her room in pictures of you and by you.”

Prue smiled at her words.

At the sound of the doorbell Piper glanced toward the front of the house. “That’s probably Dad. Do you want to stay and say hi?”

Ladybug shook her head. “We really ought to go. They left three days ago, four now, which means we are four days behind.”

“Good luck,” Cilly added. “Tell Grandpa hi from us.”

Hope walked back to her sisters.

Ladybug wrapped her arms around her little sister. “Good bye.” With those words the two sisters disappeared in hearts.

Cilly smiled and saluted them as the doorbell rang again. “We’ll call you if we find anything significant.”

“We’ll do the same,” Piper promised. As Cilly followed her sisters back home with hearts all around, Piper headed toward the sitting room. “I better go get the door.”

Piper entered the front hall and headed over to the door. She pulled open the door and grinned at the sight of Victor. “Hey, Dad. It’s good to see you.” She pulled the door opened the rest of the way and wrap her arms around him. “Everyone’s in the kitchen.”

Getting straight to the point, or else he was not going to be able to get it out, Victor spouted out, “You said you had a daughter and that Prue was married with daughters.”

Piper nodded and got out of the way so that her dad could come in.

Victor entered the house and closed the door behind him. He turned to Piper and he asked, “How?”

“It’s a different reality,” Piper told him with a shrug. “So many things are different. To be honest, we haven’t talked much about how.”

Abandoning that lining of question, Victor tried another of the questions that had ran through his mind as he had driven there. “What’s Prue’s husband’s name? Is he another one of your magical beings? I mean you married a whitelighter and Phoebe married a cupid.”

“Well, he is,” Piper began before realizing that maybe that wasn’t still accurate, “or maybe was, a whitelighter, but she grew up with him. He died saving us, so don’t you dare get annoyed that he’s a whitelighter.”

“Someone you grew up with?” Victor asked trying hard to remember anyone his girls had grown up with. “Someone I knew?”

“Yep,” Piper agreed. “Andy."

The name sparked a memory for Victor, “Dark haired kid who liked to dress up as a cowboy?”

“That’s the one,” Piper agreed. “They have two daughter, Pat and Vicki.”

Victor looked at her startled. “Vicki? As in Victoria?”

Piper grinned. “And quite proud of it, I do believe.”

Victor grinned. He didn’t see Prue stopped in the doorway, just watching them. A little pride and more than a little awe in his voice, Victor said, “Prue named her daughter after me.”

“And Grams,” Prue told him, announcing her presence.

Victor looked up. His eyes widened at the sight of his long dead daughter. “Prue.”

A catch in her voice, Prue returned the one word greeting, “Dad.” She took slow steps toward Victor and Piper and then faster ones. She stopped a few feet from them and in the same tone repeated, “Dad.”

Victor closed the distance between them and opened his arms hesitantly.

Prue accepted the unspoken offer and hugged him tight. “I missed you so much.” She pulled away and looked at him. “I’m sorry I left things as I did. I’ve had so many years to regret that we never fixed things between us.”

“I missed you, too, Prudence,” Victor told her, emotion filling his voice.

Prue looked at him for several seconds. A grin grew on her face and she started to laugh. “I never would have believed I missed hearing you call me that.” And miss it she did, because with it came a dad she had come to miss so very much. “Come meet my family.” She headed back toward the dining room.

Victor turned to Piper. “I will never understand magic, but if it gives me back the daughter it took, I guess I can learn to forgive it for taking her in the first place.”

Piper grinned. “I know what you mean. Come on. I want you to meet my Melinda, too.”

Victor looked at her. “Melinda? Is that your daughter?”

Piper nodded and led the way toward the dining room.

Piper didn’t take the time to consider Prue’s sudden knowledge that she had her powers back. She just flicked her wrists and the demon exploded. That should have been it, except two more identical demons appeared behind where it had stood. “Not today!” she exclaimed, annoyed.

Deciding that with this many witches in the room, they could spare her for a moment, Paige stood and orbed out in search of some potions to try on the demon.

Janice twisted around in her seat, deciding it was a good time to try out her newly discovered powers on an actual demon. She held out both hands, sending a blast of freezing air at the two demons, freezing them in a thin layer of ice as the cold air combined with the water molecules in the air.

Alanna grinned at her twin, more than eager to show off her powers. She held out her own hands and sent a steady stream of fire at the demons. The extreme temperature change caused the two demons to explode. “Awesome!”

Janice laughed. Her voice caught as four new demons, identical to the last three, right down to the twin scars on their cheeks, appeared behind where the last two demons had been. Janice shoved back her chair and climbed out, no longer amused by the situation. “I think it replicates.”

One of the demons shimmered out and appeared behind Prue. Since blowing up the demon didn’t seem to work, Piper waved her hands. The demons froze as did Leo, Henry, Andy, Melinda, Pat, and Vicki.

Paige orbed back in, potions in hands.

Prue moved away from the demon behind her.

Alanna pushed back her chair and got to her feet as Janice moved against the wall, so as to not get caught with an attack from behind. Alanna joined her twin, a frown on her face.

“What’d I miss?” Paige asked as she looked around. Noticing that half the room was frozen she turned a frown at Piper. “Piper, unfreeze my husband, and your husband for that matter, and everyone else.”

Chris chuckled as he stood.

Piper waved her hand individually at the different family members so as not to unfreeze the demons.

As they were unfrozen Andy stood and gathered his daughter to him. He looked at the demons. “If I thought a gun would do any good against them, I’d try to get my hands on one.”

“This is a really bad time not to have my powers,” Pat commented, looking worried at the demons. “I’d charbroil those demons.”

“More likely the counter top or the table,” Vicki teased. “I’ve seen you trying to use your powers.”

Paige chuckled.

Piper looked at her, remembering Paige’s question when she orbed back in. “What you missed was the demon multiplied both times we vanquished it, so now instead of one demon, we have four.”

Paige sobered up fast. “I’ll get the book, see if there is anything in there.”

“Don’t bother,” Andy told her.

All eyes turned to Andy. Anyone still sitting got out of their chairs figuring it would be easier to avoid an attack while standing.

Prue looked at her husband, surprised. “You know how to defeat it?”

Andy grinned. “I did have charges other than you, you know.”

“So what do we do?” Piper asked, deciding that listening to Andy was probably her best bet.

“Only one of them is real,” Andy informed everyone. “The other’s are illusions, illusions that can hurt you, but illusions all the same. They turn back into one when they have finished their mission. Cut off the head of the real one and vanquish the rest. So long as the head isn’t attached when you vanquish it, it will dissolve once the rest are vanquished. Get the wrong head and it will keep duplicating.”

“Cut off,” Piper started before trailing off as her freeze unfroze. This time she concentrated on the demons and waved her hands. Only the demons froze. “We really, really don’t have time for this,” Piper commented, again, wanting to get back to the task of trying to keep four people from ceasing to exist.

“On the bright side,” Melinda told her looking wearily at the demons, “they are attacking people capable of defending themselves rather than defenseless innocents.”

Chris laughed. “That would be the side to look at. I guess we’d better figure out which one is the real one and lop off its head. Ideas, Uncle Andy?”

Andy shook his head. “Unfortunately, that part of it seemed to be a matter of trial and error.”

“How did your charge figure it out?” Chris asked, curious.

Andy laughed. “He got frustrated with vanquishes not working and started throwing kitchen utensils at it since that was what was handy. After he accidentally knocked off the head of one of the illusions and noticed that it didn’t automatically duplicate . . .” Andy trailed off as the demons started moving, again.

Piper waved her hands and the demons froze, again. “Continue.”

Andy smiled. Such a matter of fact manor she had. Freeze demon, get back to conversation on how to defeat it. “Right. After he noticed that they didn’t automatically duplicate, he decided to vanquish the body, but that didn’t work, so he tried to cut off the head of another of the images, since it couldn’t do anything without its head. That time he got the right one, so when he tried vanquishing it, it didn’t replicate.”

Piper turned to Paige. “Can you find a large knife in the kitchen for me?”

“What drawer would that be in right now?” Paige asked.

Chris shook his head. “Forget it. I’ll find one.” Chris ran into the kitchen after a knife.

Wyatt frowned. “I think I’m going to go look for an axe.” With that, he orbed out.

“Boys!” Alanna exclaimed with a snort. “They sure are eager to chop it up.”

Janice muffled a laugh.

Alanna looked at Janice. “Can you give me some demon ice cycles, please?”

Janice gave her sister a tiny nod as she walked around the table and held out her hands. Cold blasts of air formed around her as ice blasts from her hands encompassing the demon in a solid block of ice. She tossed a smile back at her twin. “I’m ready for some demon shish kabob.”

“Happy to oblige,” Alanna tossed back. “Hope this is the right demon,” she added as she held out her hands and fire streamed from them to the demon’s frozen, decapitated body.

Once more the extreme temperature change caused the demon to explode, but this time he stayed gone and four illusionary friends dissolved into nothing as did his head.

Alanna grinned at her twin. “That rocked.”

Janice chuckled. “Just don’t put me down for another one of those for at least a day or two.”

“Good job, girls,” Paige praised her daughters as Henry breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey!” Wyatt protested. “They didn’t do all the work.”

“No,” Paige said as she looked at Prue and Piper. “I’d say it was a family effort.”

“I’d agree,” Piper concurred. “Now, let’s keep this family together and figure out a way to keep our new members.”

“I want to meet Grandpa first,” Pat announced. She hadn’t seen him since she was only a year old, so her memories were nonexistent.

Piper turned around, startled. She had momentarily forgotten Victor was there. “Sorry, Dad. With everything that just happened . . .” She trialed off and smiled. “I’ll let Prue introduce you to her family, but first let me introduce you to my Melinda.”

Melinda looked over at Piper, a smile on her lips. She walked over to Victor and stopped. She looked down at her arms. About half of her arm below her elbow was transparent. Trying ignore that for the moment, she looked back at Victor. “I know you don’t know me, but I remember you and it’s really good to see you, again. I’m Melinda.” She looked down at her hands, again.

Victor saw how much that bothered her, and though the see through arms really bothered him, a lot, he decided she came first, this granddaughter of his. “Do you want a hug or not?”

Melinda looked up, bewildered.

“Look you’re Piper’s daughter, right?” Victor asked, smiling at her. When she nodded he continued, “Which makes you Chris’ sister, right?”

“I guess,” Melinda admitted. After all, weird as it seemed, these two young men where her brothers for as long as she existed at least. “Why?”

Chris chuckled, causing Wyatt to give him a look. “What did I miss?”

It was Victor who answered. “The first time I met Chris, he ran into the room and hugged me without even introducing himself first. I had no idea who this grungy stranger in a trench coat was.”

“Hey!” Chris protested. “I had good reason for wearing those clothes.”

“Chasing a demon or something,” Victor commented. “Not a good reason in my mind.”

“Checking out a lead,” Chris informed him, trying to sound annoyed. “And I think the point of this conversation was that you wanted Melinda to give you a hug.”

Melinda grinned at Chris’ words. “That I can oblige.” She closed the gap between her and Victor and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight. “I love you, Grandpa.”She let go of him and stepped away.

Victor looked around. His eyes stopped on Pat and Vicki still in Andy’s protective grip. Victor walked over to them. “You must be Prudence’s girls.”

Vicki’s eyes widened and she turned to look at Pat. “Did he just call Mom Prudence?”

Pat nodded. “That’s what he calls her. Mom told me.” She looked up at Andy. “We’re safe now, Dad. You can let go.”

Andy smiled down at her. “Sometimes it’s hard to give up the instinct to protect even in safe times.” And these times are far from safe, he mentally added even as he let go of Pat and Vicki.

Pat walked over to Victor. “Fair’s fair. I want a hug, too.”

“Life’s not fair,” Vicki said, quoting words she had heard all her life.

Victor was having none of that. He pulled Pat into a hug and over her head informed her sister that, “Maybe not, but this grandpa is.”

“In that case,” Vicki began, a smile warming on her face, as she crossed to Victor’s side and latched onto him.

Victor smiled and put one arm around her as well, hugging both girls. He looked over the tops of their heads at Andy. “I guess that makes you Prudence’s husband.”

“Andrew Trudeau, sir,” Andy agreed.

“So Piper tells me,” Victor admitted.

“We have met before,” Andy offered. “At least I think you’ve met me. I seem to remember seeing you as a kid. Later . . .” He trailed off, not wanting to bring up painful thoughts.

Victor let it pass. “I know I didn’t do so great with them.”

“We almost met once later,” Andy remembered, trying to differentiate between memories before and after time split, but then that had come only after he was dead, and this was clearly before then. “You had come over shortly after Prue and I started dating, again. I just dropped her off at the restaurant thought. I didn’t come in. After I died, I saw you, but you sure didn’t see me. Besides that’s where the realities diverge, a few months after I died.”

“How about we don’t talk about the fact that you just conversationally brought up the fact that you died, nearly thirty years ago,” Victor suggested, uncomfortable about the idea, “and yet are standing in front of me, talking to me?”

Andy chuckled, “Deal.”

“How about we deal with the fact that I don’t want to lose him, again,” Prue suggested, uncomfortable with talking about Andy’s death for an entirely different reason than her father, “like I did nearly thirty years ago and see if we can fix it so they can stay?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Piper agreed.

“Let’s do this,” Paige concurred, “and this time, make it work.”

“You’re going to try my idea, Aunt Paige?” Wyatt asked, pretending like he actually believed they would. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t be thrilled if they were, but he just didn’t think they would. Maybe they wouldn’t need to or maybe he was wrong. He just wanted the chance to find out.

Paige looked at him with eyebrows raised. “How did you get that out of what I said?”

Wyatt shrugged, a smile on his face. “You said you want to make it work.”

“You got to give him points for tenacity,” Chris smiled.

“Not stubbornness,” Wyatt argued, “confidence.”

“From what I read of your idea,” Paige told him, “if it backfired, we’d probably end up losing you, too. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I’m willing to risk it,” Wyatt informed her, his eyes resting on Melinda, Andy, Pat, and Vicki, before coming back to Paige. “Besides, I don’t think it will backfire.”

“Enough talk of this,” Piper announced. “We aren’t doing anything that will chance us losing anyone else.”

Wyatt shrugged. “Let me know if you change your mind. For now, I guess I’ll try and come up with some other idea.”

Janice broke the slight tension caused by Wyatt’s renewed pushed for his idea. “Aunt Piper?”

Piper looked at her niece, startled as if she forgot she was there. “Yes, Janice.”

“Other than having learned how to focus my freezing, I’m afraid I don’t really know much about magic,” Janice admitted. “I just came over so I could have a chance to get to know my cousins, so if the worst happened, I’d have memories. Do you really need Pat and Vicki upstairs? Because if you don’t I was thinking maybe Alanna and I could do something with them, like a game or something.”

At a look from Piper, Prue nodded. “If they want to, they can play a game with you.”

Having gained Prue’s permission, Janice turned to Pat and Vicki. “Interested?”

Pat grins. “Sure. Someone else can keep track of ideas. I’m rather useless with magic, too.” Eyes older than they should be she turned to her mom and said, “Given the chance, I’ll learn.”

Since she had Pat’s answer, Janice turned to look at Vicki.

Vicki frowned and looked at her parents. “What about Dad? He’s not exactly magical either, at least not witchy magic.”

“Neither is my dad,” Janice told her, sending a smile at her father, “but from what I can tell your father has a great deal of knowledge on magical things. Certainly more than my dad, but they are both welcome to join us.”

Vicki looked imploringly at Andy. “Please, Dad.”

Andy looked at his wife, wanting to support all of his family.

Prue smiled. “Go have some fun. We’ll call you if we need you. Just let us know if something happens. We’ll have Melinda with us to help us know if things are working right.” Realizing that Melinda might have other plans, she turned to look at her niece. “Or were you planning on joining them?”

“Oh, no,” Melinda denied. “I may not be the best at magic, but I want to be with Mom and Dad. I’ll be in the attic, helping however I can, even if that is as a guinea pig.” I want to fix this mess I made.

Piper smiled at her daughters words. Turning her attention to her dad, she asked, “And you, Dad? Where do you want to go?”

Victor looked torn as he considered his options. Finally, he sighed. “I’m afraid, I’m just not much use magic.” There was also the fact that it still kind of freaked him out. “With games, however, I can hold my own.”

Piper chuckled. “Okay. Have fun, you guys. We’ll be upstairs.”

Five more hours and dozens of ideas later, everyone was gathered in the attic. There wasn’t a smile in the room.

Wyatt was slumped on the floor, leaning against the right side of the couch.

Sitting on the couch to his left, Chris looked miserable. The notepad in his hands was nearly devoid of paper. A pile of crumpled papers at his feet gave testimony to one moment of frustration only a little while before.

At Chris’ feet, Alanna and Janice sat with a board game in front of them. They had wanted to be up there, but having no real ideas to add, they had decided to continue the game in hopes of maybe distracting Pat and Vicki who sat on the other side of the game, both of them completely transparent.

Prue and Andy stood nearby with Andy watching their girls. Like the girls, Andy was completely transparent, to the point where he looked even more ghostly than some ghosts the girls had seen over the years.

Paige was staring out the window, sadness in her eyes for Prue and worry for her still missing son. Just as it had been almost a day since Prue and the others had shown up, it had been almost a day since she had seen her son.

Henry had his arm around his wife, lending her silent comfort.

Piper was at the potion table, mixing something, stubbornly refusing to give up despite a looming deadline maybe thirty-five or forty minutes away.

Leo was standing near Piper, silent. There was nothing really to say. It looked as if they had failed. They were out of ideas and nothing had worked.

Victor paced the attic, the inactivity getting to him, wanting to do something to help his daughter, to save his granddaughters so he could get to know them, and yes, to save his son-in-law as well despite Andy’s whitelighter status. Victor supposed that Andy having grown up with Prue was in the man’s favor. At least there weren’t some fifty odd years between Prue and her husband the way there was between Piper and hers.

Melinda was standing by the door, miserable. She had even given up on leaning against the door frame, because she had gone through that once. It was the single most creepy experience in her life. She absently wondered why she didn’t go through the floor, but supposed that if she wanted to, she probably would.

“We have to be missing something,” Piper mumbled to herself. “There has to be a way.”

“What if Kevin was right?” Chris asked, looking down at the blank notepad in his hands. “What if there isn’t.”

“He was wrong,” Piper declared without looking up. With more desperation than confidence in her voice she added, “He has to be.” She looked up, tears brimming in her eyes. “We can’t lose them.”

“And what if this is all we get?” Chris asked, seeing no other end in sight at this point. “What then?”

Piper ignored his question. “We still have over half an hour. We can think of something. We have to.”

Having listened silently to the conversation up until then, Wyatt pushed himself back against the couch and pulled himself up. “We still haven’t tried my idea.”

“No,” Piper shot down the idea. “Absolutely not.” It was the one idea that actually was left on the list, somewhere in the crumpled papers at Chris feet. “I won’t lose you, too.”

“It’s my idea and my risk,” Wyatt insisted. “Aunt Prue, you said we try every idea, no matter what everyone else thought of them.”

“That’s true,” Prue agreed. She glanced at Piper before continuing. “Perhaps I should be the one to try it.” If we can’t find a way to fix this, I’d rather not remember anyway.

“No,” Wyatt shook his head. “I don’t want to chance it not working because you aren’t enough of a part of this reality yet. I will do it.” With those words, he resolved that he really would do this, regardless.

Piper shook her head. “No, Wyatt.”

Wyatt gave her a half smile. “Sorry, Mom, but I am doing this. I love you.” He looked across the room to where Melinda stood by the door. “Melinda?”

Melinda looked up, her eyes red.

“You said you are willing to play guinea pig,” Wyatt stated.

Melinda nodded. “What do you need?”

“Come over here,” Wyatt beckoned her without answering her question. As Melinda came over, Wyatt went over to the potion table and grabbed a piece of paper, one of the many he had worked on the night before. He stopped and hugged his mom, knowing that if he failed as everyone seemed to think he would, it could be the last time. “I love you, Mom.”

Piper tried to hold onto her son, tried to stop him despite wanting desperately for him to succeed.

Wyatt shook his head and moved away. “I have to do this. If I don’t, I’ll always wonder and I don’t want that feeling.”

Piper sighed and let her hands drop to her side.

Wyatt hugged Leo and walked over to where Melinda was. “Hold out your hands.”

Melinda looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Why? You can’t touch them.”

“That’s okay,” Wyatt assured her, though he didn’t really know if it was. “Just hold them out.”

Obediently, Melinda held out her hands and waited.

Wyatt took one last look at the paper in his hands, at the spell he had written the night before. He squatted down and put it on the floor. When he straightened up he held out his hands just over Melinda’s transparent and intangible ones.

Not willing to watch should this fail, Chris look away. After all that he had gone through, he didn’t want to lose Wyatt to this. Please just let this work, for Wyatt if nothing else.

Piper squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face against Leo’s chest as her husband hugged her close.

Wyatt forced himself to pay attention to what he was doing and not on what those around him where doing. His voice more sure and steady than he was at the moment, he began to chant. “What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. Our souls forever now entwine. Life and death may come to pass, our souls forever will attach. From now and to eternity, breathe life to this soul now dear to me.”

As soon as Wyatt finished the spell, Chris felt a change.

“It worked with Melinda,” Prue commented, trying to hold back panic. “Why didn’t it work with Vicki?”

“Maybe it only works one per person,” Wyatt suggested. “Someone else will have to try it.” He had other ideas, but that one made the most sense. He walked back to the paper with the spell and picked it up. Turning back around her addressed Prue. “Aunt Prue, do you want it?”

Prue nodded and turned to Andy. “Can’t have anything easy, can we?”

Andy smiled. For them, easy was never in the equation.

Wyatt walked over and held the spell out for Prue to read. He still had his reservations about if Prue was enough of a part of this reality yet.

Andy held out his hands and Prue held hers out over his. Reading from the spell in Wyatt’s hands Prue chanted. “What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. Our souls forever now entwine. Life and death may come to pass, our souls forever will attach. From now and to eternity, breathe life to this soul so dear to me.”

In the instant Prue finished Andy went from being almost not there to being completely solid. He pulled Prue into a hug, relieved. As they separated they both turned their eyes to their daughters.

Wyatt walked away and first looked down at Pat and then Vicki. “Clearly someone else is going to have to use spell on you. Who wants to?”

“I can do it,” Alanna announced as she pushed back against the couch. “Be nice to feel useful,” she added as she stood and looked at Vicki. “Vicki?”

Vicki grinned. She held out her hands, again.

Prue and Andy watched, apprehensive. Paige and Henry watched as Alanna held out her hands, not as worried at Piper and Leo, especially Piper had been, but still concerned.

Looking at the paper Wyatt held out, Alanna read, “What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. Our souls forever now entwine. Life and death may come to pass, our souls forever will attach. From now and to eternity, breathe life to this soul now dear to me.”

When Vicki turned solid, Chris noticed something odd. “She’s still confusing. Is that just normal?”

Melinda laughed. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Vicki stuck her tongue out, feeling playful for once.

Next to her, Alanna rolled her eyes. With a smile at Vicki she commented, “Guess that makes us closer than normal cousins.”

Vicki grinned. “I guess so.”

Pat stood and looked around. More often than her exuberant sister, the quiet one, she almost wondered if she had been forgotten. “My turn?”

Janice pushed herself to a standing position. “Allow me.”

“Thanks,” Pat replied as she held out her hands.

As Wyatt held out the paper for Janice to read, Janice held her hands over Pat’s. “What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. Our souls forever now entwine. Life and death may come to pass, our souls forever will attach. From now and to eternity, breathe life to this soul now dear to me.”

Pat was solid. They had done it.