Charmed by Love

[SimplyAretha]

Posted by Esmeralda

Piper! This is your sister Phoebe writing to you. I’ve been watching you the last couple of days, and I know there’s something wrong, something terribly wrong. You keep acting as if nothing’s wrong, as if everything is just great, but it’s not! Piper, Leo is gone! He’s really gone and this time, he’s not coming back! Ever! After having been guided by our Whitelighter for five years, he’s been snatched from us and made into an Elder, not only an Elder, but the Chief Elder!

Yes, Piper, you’re right--it is a great promotion, one we know he couldn’t turn down, and I know that you’re strong and that you’ll be able to raise young Wyatt as a single mother, especially because Wyatt has two doting aunties more than willing to help out, but I also know how very much you love Leo and how much you and Leo had to go through in order to become husband and wife and become parents of that adorable little boy.

And yet, Piper, you’ve been so very calm, so very serene. You’ve hardly mentioned Leo at all or even how much he helped us develop as the Charmed Ones, the most powerful good witches ever. It’s almost as if your pain has been taken away. I didn’t know who did that, but I also know that whoever did that did you no favor, because this isn’t your way, Piper--you fight! The way you fought when they tried to take Leo away from you before. The way you fought when our big sister Prue was taken from us. Now I’m afraid that the Elders have taken away that pain by taking away all of those memories of all those things that you and Leo have gone through. You must admit, Piper, that’s exactly the sort of thing the Elders would do; they fought your and Leo’s union from the start, because witches and Whitelighters aren’t supposed to get together like that.

And yet I know you would want to remember, to treasure what happened. I also know that you would want to save those memories, so you can later tell Wyatt all about his daddy and how very much he loves both him and his Mommy.

I was going to simply tell you all about this, but I don’t trust Chris, our new Whitelighter. Maybe it’s simply that he’s not Leo, but there’s something about him I just don’t trust. Besides, maybe the Elders are right; I remember your reaction when Prue was taken away from us and wouldn’t want you to go through that again. So instead I’ve decided to write out the full story and then put it where I know you’ll find it eventually. I just hope that you’ll find it when the time is right.

I guess our story starts when I first came back to San Francisco. No, it starts earlier than that. It starts when Grams died.

We had lived with Grams in the Halliwell Manor, a large old house that always seemed to be falling on our head ever since our mother died when we were very young, so young that I didn’t even remember her at all, while you did a little, and Prue, who remembered the most, chose to forget most of it to keep her from the pain of losing Mom.

Remember, Piper? Grams had just gotten back from the hospital after having a heart attack and wanted to take a picture, just one picture of her three girls. She didn’t choose a very good time.

I’d just been caught shop-lifting (hey, they were the perfect pair of shoes and I had to have them!) Prue was getting ready to get married and moving out; and you were depressed about becoming stuck at the Manor, taking care me and Grams.

Shortly before that picture, you’d gone walking with Prue and Prue had told you that she wanted you to be her maid of honor, because she and I didn’t get along--she was too goody-two-shoes for me, always doing what she was supposed to do, while I was too much of a free spirit for her, always doing what I wasn’t supposed to do. While you were talking, you ran into a handsome young man, and you both shared a look--the first time you looked Leo Wyatt in the eyes. I wonder if even then Leo knew that we would become the Charmed Ones, that he would become our Whitelighter and you two would share something special. I never got a chance to ask him, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Anyway, Grams wanted her picture. We were standing on the steps outside the Manor, you between me & Prue, just like you always were. Grams wanted us to move just a little closer, and she wanted me to turn so she could get my good side and you told her I didn’t have one that day.

You were right--I just wanted to get that picture over with. Prue wanted to know if I had plans and if it was anyone she knew, since she was still upset that I had called her fiance, Roger, the day before, just trying to be nice to the guy, considering he was going to be part of our family soon, when I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be part of our family, not then! Besides, I wanted to know, why would I want to spend my time on a wimp who had mother issues? That got Prue mad, as she wanted to know why she should believe me when I didn’t even know the difference between what belonged to me and what belonged to the shoe store.

I was all ready to stomp off, picture or no picture, when Grams suddenly gasped and grabbed her chest. We ran over to her, telling her to take shallow breaths and whether we should call a doctor and she told us, “No doctor. Just a picture. Is it too much for an old lady to ask her granddaughters to retract their claws, stand still and look at me long enough to take one lousy picture?

So we stood on the steps, tried to smile and Grams took the picture. It still sits on the table in the foyer, but we’re standing a lot closer than I remember standing during the picture--proof how close we’ve become as the Charmed Ones.

Well, that heart attack didn't take Grams that day, but another one took her the following one. A couple days later, after the funeral, we were in the living room. I wanted to know what we were doing about that thing that Grams was always concerned about--our future. The only reason we were still there together was because of her and now Prue always had one foot out the door with her engagement and I knew you didn’t want to bunk with me any longer than you had to.

You didn’t want to discuss that right then, instead you suggested that we discuss it over dinner--you’d even make one of Grams’ favorite meals, since she always liked the idea of you being in the kitchen, but Prue was supposed to spend the night with Roger, and I’d decided that this was my perfect chance to leave. So I told you two that I was taking off, that I didn’t know what my future held, but it sure wasn’t in San Francisco. You both tried to talk me out of it, but I said we all knew that the only thing that I contributed to our threesome was trouble, so I was going to go see what New York thought of me. After all, Grams always said that we all had a purpose and maybe we’d find an easier time finding it out on our own.

I knew that without Grams, the one who was always the glue who kept us together, that I couldn’t stand sticking around a sister who refused to believe that I’d done anything with her almost-husband--as if I ever would--not only was she my big sister, almost a mother-figure, who along with Grams had practically raised me, but I knew from the beginning that he was a creep who was only using Prue from the start--I ran away to New York to try to find our father, Victor, who also left us when he left our mother. I know it wasn’t fair saddling you with the Manor, since Prue expected to be married to Roger soon, but what can I say? I was very young and very foolish and very self-centered and didn’t know better.

Within months, I did--I lost my job, was broke, was homeless, so I turned to you, Piper, the only person whom I felt I could trust. You told me that Prue was talking about finding a roommate to help share expenses, and after all, Grams had willed the Manor to all three of us. So I came home in the middle of a thunderstorm. Remember, Piper?

When I walked into the door, you and Prue were looking at something she found in the basement when she went looking for the fuse box to try to fix the entryway chandelier. It was our old spirit board that Mom had left us. We never knew what the inscription on the back meant:

“To my three beautiful girls.
May this give you the light to find the Shadows.
The Power of Three Shall Set You Free.
Love, Mom”<br>
We would soon find out.

[SimplyAretha]

Prue wasn’t thrilled about my coming home, but thanks to your loving mediation, I was allowed into the Manor, if not accepted.

Later, you and I were playing with the spirit board, asking typical questions like whether you’d get the chef job you’d be auditioning for the next day or whether Prue, who was no longer engaged to Roger, but still working for him, would have sex with anyone but herself that year. As always, you accused me of pushing the pointer, something I never did, since I was sure you were the one pushing it.

The news was on TV in the background, and there was a story about a serial killer, who was murdering young women, young women who all practiced Wicca--white witchcraft.

You pointed to the reporter, “That’s my boyfriend, Jeremy.”<br>
“Yummy, he’s hot! Are the roses on the table in the entryway from him?”<br>
“Yes, along with the bottle of port, the special ingredient for my audition recipe tomorrow.”<br>
“Now that’s what you call a thoughtful boyfriend. When did you meet him?”<br>
“In the hospital cafeteria the day Grams was admitted. He was working on a story and I was bawling over a bagel, so he handed me a napkin.”<br>
“Oh, how romantic!”<br>
“Yeah, it was. The napkin had his phone number on it,” and I laughed.

Then you glanced at the television again. “Hey, speaking of boyfriends, look at the inspector who’s talking with Jeremy--isn’t that Prue’s old boyfriend, Andy? I thought he was still in Portland. I wonder what he’s doing back in San Francisco and whether Prue knows he’s back.”<br>
I looked at Andy on the screen and drooled! I'd forgotten how gorgeous he was! Hey, as long as Prue was interested in dopey Roger, maybe I could get her ex interested in me!

Then you stood up. “I’m going to make us some popcorn. Why don’t you ask the board about Prue and sex again.”<br>
“Oh, yeah,” and as you walked toward the kitchen, for once, I really did try to push that pointer toward “Yes”, but it suddenly started moving all on its own! I was hardly touching it at all! It spelled AT!

I yelled and both you and Prue came running. I explained what had happened, but neither of you would believe me, again accusing me of pushing it. When I tried to show you two, it stayed put until you both turned your backs. Prue walked away, but as you watched, it started moving again, and I wasn’t even touching it at all!

We yelled for Prue, who was still very cynical, especially when I showed her what it spelled: ATTIC. I was all set to run upstairs, but she told me that that was impossible--the door had been locked from the inside for as long as even she could remember.

But I didn’t care. Nope, not impulsive, act-first/think-later Phoebe! I climbed up the steps and tried to open the door. I tried and tried, but couldn’t get it to open. Admitting that Prue was right, I started to walk away, when I heard something. I turned back and there was the door, wide open! Not only that, but a ray of light was shining on a trunk sitting near the window!

Yes, Piper, I should’ve gone and told you and Prue, but especially after the way she wouldn't believe me about the pointer, I decided otherwise. Besides, I was drawn to that chest, wanting to know what whoever was using the spirit board to communicate with us--Mom? Grams?--wanted us to find. I opened the chest to find a big, old dusty book. I picked it up and blew off the dust. On its leather cover was a strange symbol, three arches surrounded by a large circle. I opened the cover to read its title: The Book of Shadows. Flipping the title page, I found a page decorated with beautiful illustrations and words in an old, flowing ornate script. I read the words aloud:

“Hear now the words of the witches,
The secrets we hid in the night.
The oldest of gods are invoked here.
The great work of magic is sought.
In this night and in this hour,
I call upon the ancient power.
Bring your powers to we sisters three.
We want the power. Give us the power.”<br>
Power? What power? I’d always felt so powerless, to receive some power, something I could share with my sisters sound wonderful. But wasn’t it just some crazy poem? I didn’t feel any different, nor was there any strange manifestations. But when I closed the book, that symbol had changed. Now all of those arcs intersected with each other and the outer circle was now inside the arcs, joining them. Yes! We would later discover that it was called a Triquetra, and it was our own special symbol, showing how even though we both had our own powers, joined together, nothing could stand against us!

I ran downstairs, yelling to you two. You and Prue came running into the room, wondering what I was doing up there and what had I done. We met the chandelier, that one that Prue couldn’t fix--now it was shaking and glowing with light! Now I knew for sure that the spell had worked! We were witches and we had powers! Great powers!

[SimplyAretha]

But once again you two refused to believe me. Prue was infuriated that I had included her in this and marched out.

You wanted to know if anything had happened when I said the incantation.

“Of course. My head spun around and I spat out split-pea soup. But the symbol on the book changed and you said the chandelier came on.” But you also shook your head and left, insisting that witches don’t exist and those things could be explained.

But now I knew better. I stayed up all night reading that Book, more fascinated by every page. It said that there were three main essentials for magic--timing, feelings, and the phases of the moon. Were we to receive our powers, the moment I spoke the incantation--the most powerful time of all--midnight of a full-moon--was the best time.

I then read about our ancestors, Melinda Warren, a powerful good witch who could move things with her mind, freeze time and see into the future. Before she was burnt at the stake, she vowed that every generation of Warren witches would become more powerful and more powerful with the culmination of three sisters who would be the most powerful witches the world had ever known, with each one endowed with one of her three powers.

When I told you about it the next morning as you prepared to leave for your audition, you admitted. “Hey, Phoebs, last night was pretty weird, but we aren’t witches and we don’t have powers. After all, Grams wasn’t a witch and neither was Mom, to our knowledge. So take that, Nancy Drew.”<br>
Even when I told you that we were the protector of the innocent and known as the Charmed Ones, you drove off.

But we are the Charmed Ones, and we do have powers. You found out about yours when your prospective boss entered the kitchen before you could add Jeremy’s port. When you raised your arms, everything froze--your boss, the clock, even the bubbling of your sauce! Once you figured it out, you were able to add the port before he unfroze, and won the job.

While you were telling me about this on the phone, Jeremy came up behind you to offer his congratulations and ask you out for a celebration dinner and you agreed.

In my excitement, I jumped on my bike and began riding, wondering which power was mine, hoping I could move things with my mind--what a cool power that would be!--when suddenly something flashed in my mind, like a dream, but so much more real--a big, black car, slamming into two boys on skateboards. No sooner did the scene fade from my mind than I spot a black car coming up over a hill, heading full-speed toward an intersection! And there were two boys on skateboards, heading toward the same intersection, doing tricks, not looking!

“NO! STOP!” I yelled as I skidded my bike in front of the boys, stopping them as the car swerved in front of us. But I conked my head and ended in a hospital with a mild concussion and scratches.

Prue came to get me. As she waited, she ran into her ex-boyfriend, Inspector Andy Trudeau, who was still working on that case, and bought her a “cup of rotten coffee.”<br>
Later, as Prue treated me to a cup of good coffee at a restaurant, she apologized to me about Roger--he’d shown himself to be the bastard I knew he was, and she was now unemployed.

She laughed, remembering how the fountain pen that he always waved at people to make his point, suddenly split in his shirt pocket, drenching his white pocket with blue ink.

“You did it!” I exclaimed. “You moved the cap and made the ink spatter his pocket! You can move things with your mind!”<br>
She firmly shook her head, saying, “You might think you can see into the future, but I do not have special powers. Now where’s that cream?”<br>
And the pitcher of cream moved, Piper, it moved all on its own to sit next to Prue’s cup! Oh, Piper, you should’ve seen the look on our unflappable big sister’s face as I told her, “Well, that looks pretty special to me!” and when the cream moved from the pitcher to her coffee, she had to agree.

Unfortunately, becoming witches had its drawbacks, as I explained to Prue on our way back to her car. “While I was looking through the Book of Shadows, I saw these pictures. All of these incarnations of evil battling three women, three witches.”<br>
“Evil battling evil. That’s a twist.”<br>
“Actually a witch can be either good or evil. Good witches follow the Wiccan reid: “And it harms none, do what you will.” A bad witch, a warlock, has but one goal, to kill good witches and obtain their powers.”<br>
At that exact moment, you were discovering just how true those words were as you ran into our first warlock--Jeremy! Your boyfriend was the one who killed all of those other women! As he raised an athame, a ceremonial knife, his face and his voice changed and he told you, “I knew when the old witch died that you would come into your powers as soon as you were all united. So when Phoebe came home, I knew I could now claim them as mine!”<br>
Fortunately you first used your power to freeze time and then a board across his head to escape and hurry home. We used his roses and other ingredients to cast a spell to vanquish him, but when I picked up the bowl we were using, I had another flash--Jeremy, thorns sticking out of his body, but still alive, still coming after us! Only when Prue remembered the words on the back of the spirit board and we all joined hands and chanted those words, “The Power of Three shall set us free” over and over no matter what Jeremy threw at us was he finally truly vanquished.

That’s when we all finally accepted that we were not only witches, but witches who would have to stick together. As you put it, “That should be interesting.”

And it was.

[SimplyAretha]

We quickly discovered that the Book of Shadows, now activated by my incantation, was a magnet for evil beings, all who wanted its power--and ours--for themselves. But it also attracted very good beings. We didn’t know it at the time, but some very good beings (or so we would think at when we first found out about them--now I’m not so sure!) were watching over us and had sent one very special being to be our guide and protector (and we can at least thank them for that, I guess!).

Do you remember the very first time we met Leo Wyatt, Piper? I sure do.

Some evil shape-shifters tore down the door to the attic, trying to get to the Book, so we decided to call for a handyman. Then we got so caught up with the shape-shifters that we never did, so when you announced that the handyman was here, I guess we each thought one of the other two had called. I expected some old guy, so I was very pleased when you led a very sexy, very handsome young man into our home, and I admit it, Piper, I drooled! Hey, how was I to know he’d end up with you----at that point, I just wanted him to end up with me, even if only very temporarily, since at this time I was a lot more interested in having fun than having a serious relationship--I’d decided to save that for you, who was always the romantic of the family, or Prue, who was starting to go out with Andy again (And, yes, I was a good girl--I never made a play for him once they did) But looking at those hands and imagining them all over me, WOW!

And when he mentioned that there weren’t very many houses left like our home and you told him it was falling apart and he replied, “The problem isn’t the Manor, but the manner in which it was treated!”, I think we were all three hooked over this guy who felt the same way about our home as we did!

And when he wanted to see more, I gladly led him up the steps toward the broken attic door, even when I could feel your glare. But don’t kill me, Piper--I didn’t keep his attention for long--I wonder if even then he remembered seeing you that day before Grams died and had already fallen for you!

I’ll admit that I continued to flirt with him, but I’ll also admit that I did it more to get your goat and to help you get over Jeremy, because I quickly realized that I didn’t even have a chance. And when Prue cast a truth-spell, that’s exactly what I told you.

But I wasn’t the only one to take advantage of the truth-spell, which forced anyone to answer any question truthfully--us included. You later told me and Prue that when Leo came into the kitchen, looking for a fresh cup of coffee after spilling his first cup on his shirt, you decided to find out whether he felt the same way toward you as you did about him, so you asked him if you could ask him a question.

Man, were Prue & I proud of you--our shy, introverted Piper willing to ask a guy such a thing??!!! And, man, did we laugh when you admitted, (remember--we were all still under that truth-spell!) that at first you chickened out and asked, “Do you need another shirt?” and he replied that he had another one in his truck.

But somehow you found the courage (probably from knowing that at 8 PM that night--24 hours after Prue cast her spell--Leo would forget what he’d say), so you told him that wasn’t the question that you wanted to ask and instead it was, “Do you ever think of me?” and when he admitted he did, you asked, “In what way? As a friend sort of way or--” but before you could finish, he said, “You have beautiful eyes.”<br>
Prue & I cheered, but you really surprised us when we asked you to continue, because you admitted that after he apologized for saying something totally inappropriate, you decided, “Oh, what the hell. Leo, how do you feel about women who make the first move?”<br>
“You didn’t!” cried Prue and you blushed, admitting you had. We cheered, but then I had to ask, “So---what did he say?”<br>
Your face went redder remembering, but you still had to answer (that truth-spell thingie again). “He said he didn’t know because he was waiting for it to happen.”<br>
“What happened next!” I cried, knowing you’d have to spill.
Your face went even redder, but you blurted out, “What else could I do? I grabbed his face and kissed him for all I was worth!”<br>
Prue & I really celebrated that answer, high-fiving each other and hugging you, then Prue asked, “Well? How did he react?” and now your embarrassment turned to pure joy. “Oh, Prue! He asked me how I felt about men who make the second move, so I told him I loved them and he kissed me even harder than I’d kissed him!” and now both Prue & I melted, going, “Ohhhh! How romantic!”<br>
Of course, as wonderful as this was, there was just one problem, well, actually two. First, shortly after 8, you ran into Leo at Quake, the restaurant where you had your audition and were now working, and he told you he had a very strong feeling that he’d done something that he should apologize to you for, but couldn’t remember what it was. You told him that there wasn’t, not at all and offered to buy him a drink. But that told you what we all feared--that now you knew how he felt about you, but he no longer knew how you felt about him, and once again you were afraid to tell him because of the other thing--something that Prue told us about.

The reason why Prue originally cast that spell was that she wanted to find out whether Andy would still want to date her even if he knew she was a good witch with powers and whose daughters would share that heritage. He didn’t think he could, so now you feared that our handyman might feel the same way, and you were too afraid to find out. Seeing how miserable Prue was, I didn’t blame you one bit.