Charmed Forever Without Mel

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY: "Start talking. Make it snappy."

Once they took the Paige Express back to the Manor, Phoebe set The Book of Shadows down on the table while Piper and Grams passed out vials of vanquishing potion. Piper looked determined. “Now all we need to do is find Billie and Christy.”

“You don’t have to look far,” and Billie Jenkins stepped cautiously into the room. “Can we talk?”

Piper growled and started to throw her vial, but Phoebe grabbed her arm. “I want to hear her out.”

“Please let me talk,” Billie begged.

Grams nodded. Piper crossed her arms, still clutching her vials of potion, her face closed and cold. “Start talking. Make it snappy.”

“Oh, you guys!” Billie wailed. “I’m so very sorry for everything I did! But I was so very glad to have Christy back that I never dreamed we were being manipulated!”

Both Paige and Phoebe sighed in sympathy, but Piper remained unmoved. “And how do we know that this isn’t a trap?”

Billie hung her head. “You don’t, but it isn’t! I swear it! You gotta believe me! Christy always talked about her friends, but she never said who they were. She finally did. It’s the Triad! I never dreamed that the ones who kidnapped her are the ones she called her friends! I remember reading about them in The Book of Shadows. They’re bad! Real bad! Servants of the Source! And even though that Cole guy vanquished them, somehow they came back. They wanted to use our powers to destroy you and destroy us, too, I’m sure! Once Christy let it slip who they were, I tried to convince her that they’re bad news, but she refused to believe me. She really thinks that they’re good and what they want is for the best! They’ve brainwashed her, you guys; they really have! I’m so, so sorry! I should’ve known better! I really should’ve! But I was just so very glad to have my sister back!”

Looking at her own sisters, remembering the way she felt when she thought they were dead, Paige understood.

Piper and Phoebe didn’t. “Where’s Christy now?” Phoebe demanded, still clutching her own vials of potion.

“Probably still at Magic School, looking for a better way to kill you guys, her and Dumain both.”

“Who’s Dumain?” Piper asked.

“A demon who will stop at nothing. He’s the one who wanted to use our powers to bring the Triad back for good. He pretended to be our invisible friend when we were kids and told Christy that the Triad were her friends. That‘s why Christy trusts him and trusted the Triad. He's probably the one who originally kidnapped her.”

“Mom! Mom! We’re back!”

At the sound of Chris' voice, they all hurried back into the conservatory to find Piper’s two future sons waiting, along with Coop.

Phoebe looked around for Patty. “Where’s Mom?” she asked.

“She stayed behind with Grandpa,” Wyatt told them, a sparkle of humor in his eyes. “They wanted to talk.”

Phoebe and Paige had noticed that sparkle and exchanged glances. “So what was that reunion like?” Paige wanted to know.

Now Wyatt burst out laughing. “Grandmother Patty jumped him! Oh, was Grandpa surprised!” and now Coop nodded, his eyes twinkling, as he, Phoebe and Paige joined the laughter, while Chris and Piper both rolled their eyes at all of them.

“Later! All of you!” Piper barked. She turned on Wyatt. “Did you find out when you lost your powers?”

Wyatt sobered up and nodded.

Chris told them. “Grandpa told us that someone took Little Wyatt before five yesterday. And Little Wyatt didn’t come back. Little Chris,” and he stood a bit taller as he realized that he had used his own powers to save his big brother. “I orbed out and brought him back.”

Wyatt nodded. “Grandpa also told us that Little Me used my powers to cheat at cards just a short time before that.”

Piper rolled her eyes at the card-cheating, but nodded. “That must’ve been when you lost your powers, Wyatt.”

“Who took him?” Phoebe wanted to know.

“It was Dumain,” Billie quietly told them.

Piper’s eyes blazed. “Why did Dumain take my son?”

Billie ducked her head in shame, but admitted it. “He had to. We needed his powers in order to summon the Hollow.”

“Is that when you took his powers?” Paige asked.

“We had no choice!” Billie tried to defend herself and her sister, but it was too late.

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: "I'm beginning to think that Mom is right."

With a scream of “You used my three-year-old son!” Piper was on her, pulling out Billie’s hair in clumps, including the black roots, while kicking her shins.

“Piper!” protested Grams. “We don’t have time for this!”

Both Phoebe and Paige shook their heads. “Just let her, Grams," Phoebe told her. "This has been building up for a long time!”

Now Piper was slapping Billie across the face, while kneeing her in the stomach, screaming at her the whole time. Her future boys just watched in shock, reminding themselves never to make their mother that mad! And Young Piper was so surprised, she actually ran out of the room!

Billie didn’t even try to defend herself against Piper’s rage, knowing she deserved every bit of it. She just kept muttering. “I’m so sorry, Piper! I’m really sorry! I wish I’d known better! I’m so, so very sorry. I shouldn’t have believed Christy. But she’s my sister. She played me so well. Just like Dumain and the Triad played her! Oh, I’m so very, very, very sorry!” The tears rolled down her bruised and battered face, but they were from shame and sorrow, not from pain.

Piper finally no longer saw red. When she could finally hear what Billie was saying and could hear the sincerity in her voice, she finally stopped beating on the bleached-blonde.

”Please forgive me?” Billie begged.

“I’ll consider it if you can help us get Wyatt's powers back and help me get Leo back.”

”I’ll do whatever I can. I just want to be your friend again.”

“That will take some doing.”

“We have to use Chris’ time spell to go even farther back in time,” Phoebe decided. “To before Dumain took Wyatt,” and Piper nodded.

Just then Young Piper came back into the room and walked up to Grams. “Grams, can we go home soon? Back to our time? I mean, I like getting to have powers here--they’re fun!--and I like hearing Phoebe’s stories, but I miss playing with my sisters who are closer to my own age, especially Prue.”

Phoebe had merely told Young Piper that Prue was away. Now she stared at Young Piper, trying to imagine how she would've felt if it had been Piper or Prue who had been kidnapped by demons when they were Christy's age. “You know something, guys? I’m beginning to think that maybe Mom is right. Maybe vanquishing Christy isn’t the right way to do this.”

“Vanquish her?“ Tears started streaming down Billie’s battered cheeks again. “You’re going to vanquish my sister?”

“We have to,“ Paige tried to explain. “She’s evil.”

“But she’s still her sister,” Phoebe put in quietly but firmly. “You guys didn’t give up on me when I was Cole’s queen of the underworld and I was just as evil, maybe more. Maybe we don’t have to give up on Billie’s sister either.”

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: "It's a good plan. As long as you add three things."

“What do you mean?” Grams asked.

Phoebe didn’t respond. She simply turned to Billie. “Billie, how much do you love your sister?”

Billie thought about it, puzzlement and confusion on her face. “No way I can love my sister the way she is now,” she admitted. “I hate the fact that she’s evil and wants to kill you guys. But I keep thinking about the Christy I knew as a kid, before she was kidnapped. I love my big sister very, very much. I wish I could have my big sister back, really back.”

Phoebe grinned at Coop. “So let’s go get the sister you love!” Everyone but Coop looked confused, especially Billie, so Phoebe explained. “If Coop could use the power of Paige’s love for Piper to bring Young Piper here to our time, why can’t he use the power of Billie’s love for her sister to bring Young Christy here, before she was kidnapped, and simply not send her back?”

Piper thought about it, then nodded. “If there’s no Christy for the Triad to kidnap, there would be no evil plan.”

Paige also nodded. “They needed two sisters, so one could befriend us before the other turned her evil, so they could both destroy us.”

Phoebe grinned before finishing. “Then we just do to her what Grams did to us--bind her powers!”

Young Piper’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “Is that why I didn’t have powers before I came here?”

Grams hugged her and promised to explain it all later--much later!

Billie nodded. “It’s a good plan. As long as you add three things.”

“What’s that?” Piper asked, still a bit suspiciously.

“First, can we go back to just before Christy was taken?”

Coop nodded. “If you can feel in your heart your love for Christy as she was at that moment, yes, I think I can do that.”

“Why?” a still-suspicious Piper demanded.

“That way I can vanquish Dumain, so he can’t do this to any other young witches. I would love to vanquish the demon who tried to turn my family evil, and who would‘ve without you, Phoebe.”

Phoebe smiled. "I would've never thought of it if Mom hadn't pointed out that being kidnapped wasn't really Christy's fault--that she's truly an innocent."

Piper nodded. “Done. What’s your second condition?”

“Second, that after you bind Christy’s powers that rather than keeping her here, you send her back. My parents missed her so much and so did I. That way we can have the life we should've had. If you get rid of Dumain and bind her powers, she’s no longer a threat to you, and neither am I, because I wouldn’t have to hunt for her.”

Coop shook his head. "That won't work. The current Christy would still be here and still be evil. The good one would simply blur into herself."

Wyatt spoke up. "Well, what if you do something similar to what happened to Chris?"

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"Well, he first lived in a world where I was evil, came back here and blurred into Baby Chris. He still has the memory of that other world, but I'm not evil--the world he remembers isn't the world we came from because I grew up under different circumstances," and Chris nodded before Wyatt continued. "If you could capture this Christy, who's evil, and bring her back and let her blur into Young Christy, and then get rid of Dumain, Young Christy would still have the memory of being evil, but wouldn't actually be evil herself, because the things that made Christy evil wouldn't happen to her. And if you then bind her powers, no other evil creature could make her use them for evil."

Paige grinned. "I think I know why you boys were supposed to be here. We never would've figured that out without you."

Piper nodded. “We can do that, too. What’s the third thing, Billie?”

“Hearing Wyatt's solution, I can change what I was thinking and make it better. That you let me find myself and let me blur into myself and bind my powers, too.” Billie looked at Young Piper. “When I first got them, I thought they were fun, too. But now I know better. They’re not fun--they’re dangerous!”

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: "Well, did it work?"

Billie's words got a huge smile out of Piper. “We can definitely do that."

Phoebe smiled. "Getting rid of Dumain also means your parents won't die."

Billie's smile outshone Piper's. "I know. I figured that out when I realized that we could change things so that Christy wouldn't be kidnapped and we wouldn't have powers. It's another reason I no longer want mine. Not if it means the death of my parents." Then she turned to look at Piper. She ducked her head and asked softly, "May I ask for one more favor, please?"

"What's that?" and for the first time, there was no suspicion in Piper's voice; there was almost a smile.

“That you let me be your friend again? Even if I’m not magical. Please?”

Piper could actually feel the hatred for the Jenkinses, especially Billie, that she had been harboring in her heart ever since Billie’s betrayal finally begin to melt. Opening her arms, she hugged Billie tight. “Of course, I will!” and the other two sisters came over to hug her, too.

Piper's boys were impressed--they knew their mother wasn't the "huggy" kind--they only got hugs for very special reasons, getting most of the ones they wanted from their aunts, who both were the "huggy" kind.

“One thing first,” Paige suggested. “If Young Christy sees Billie all beaten up, she might get scared so you might not get a chance to get near her." And she quickly cast her favorite spell:

"Let the object of objection become but a dream,
As I cause the scene to be unseen."

Piper’s boys grinned as they watched Billie’s cuts and bruises seem to disappear. They’d used that spell many times and would always be grateful to their Aunt Paige for coming up with it.

“Okay," Paige declared. "Now you're ready to go!“

Billie nodded, then after the others wished them luck, Paige orbed herself, Piper, Billie and Coop to Magic School. Much as Billie had thought, Christy and Dumain were both in the black room, trying to figure out some way of destroying the Halliwells without the Hollow.

Piper stepped in the room first. Using one hand, she froze Christy, then she used the other to explode Dumain, thoroughly enjoying watching his atoms spread all over the room before blowing away into dust.

"Hurry!" she called to the others, and Coop and Billie quickly surrounded Christy's still-frozen form. Coop put his hand on both Billie's and Christy's shoulders, while Billie concentrated on feeling the love she still had for her big sister as she was before she was kidnapped, and Coop used the power of that love to bring them both back in time.

No sooner did they heart-orb out than Paige orbed Piper back to the Manor where Phoebe, Grams, Young Piper and Piper's sons were anxiously waiting. It seemed like only seconds before Coop returned, 8-year-old Christy clutching one of his hands while 6-year-old Billie clutched the other.

“Dumain?” Piper asked.

“Vanquished just as he was coming to see the girls but before he entered the house,” replied Coop, who had watched. “A very nice, neat vanquish. Young Christy was outside playing, so Christy blurred into her almost the instant she unfroze. Then we went inside and found Young Billie and Billie blurred into her."

Piper nodded her approval, then turned to Paige. “Book of Shadows?”

Paige nodded, still very happy to have Piper calling the shots again. She thrust out her arms and called, “Book of Shadows!” and immediately The Book orbed into her arms.

“Very good,” approved Grams, while Young Piper clapped her hands in delight.

Piper’s sons merely shrugged. They were used to Paige’s family calling for things they needed. It always irritated Wyatt that his cousin Hank had powers besides casting spells, just like Chris did while he could remember having such powers, but wasn't able to use them himself.

Quickly the sisters found the right page in the Book , and then much as they had permanently bound the powers of Paige’s past life--the Evil Enchantress--and Grams had temporarily bound theirs, the Halliwells bound the Jenkinses’.

Both young Jenkinses were terrified by the whole thing and when they found they were going back home, they gladly went back to Coop. He told them that if they would just think how very much they loved their parents, he would bring them back home. The two young girls nodded and soon Coop heart-orbed out with them again.

When he heart-orbed back, Piper asked, "Well, did it work?"

Wyatt grinned at her as he felt his powers flow through his body. "It sure did! Watch this!" and he orbed out to orb back across the room to stand next to his mother, making everyone cheer.

The only one who didn't was Chris. He was certain his older brother would be impossible to live with now, especially if Wyatt's powers were truly as great as the others made them out to be. He was determined to figure a way to keep his older brother humble and be sure that he only used his powers the right way, the way his mother had taught him.

Phoebe was curious to find out if it truly worked, so she called Billie's college dorm. Sure enough, Billie was back to being a student, and although she remembered having them, she wanted nothing to do with her powers, and was glad that she’d never be tempted.

Her older sister had never gone to college, but was now married and expecting her first child and also didn't want anything to do with powers. Christy's only fear was that she might pass on those powers to her child. Phoebe assured Billie that just like any child of the Evil Enchantress, the powers in the Jenkinses’ bloodline were permanently bound and could not be passed on, and Billie sighed in relief.

Then Piper asked Phoebe to ask Billie if she'd ever want to baby-sit Wyatt and Chris, and Billie cried out, "Sure!"

"Phoebe?" asked Grams. "May I speak with her, please?"

Piper gave Grams a strange look, but Phoebe handed Grams the phone. Grams told Billie who she was and asked her if she remembered her from the other time, and Billie agreed that she did.

The whole time the sisters were binding the Jenkinses' powers, Grams couldn't help staring at Young Christy. She’d had a glimpse of Young Christy's older self when they were vanquishing the Hollow, but she’d been too busy concentrating on that to really look at Christy closely. During the ceremony she could and, staring, she couldn’t believe what she saw.

Now she asked Billie. “What’s the full name of your maternal grandfather?” At Billie’s confused "Huh?” Grams sighed impatiently--sounding very much like Chris--and clarified. “Your mother’s father. What’s his full name?”

There was a shrug in Billie's voice. “Christian William Delaney. Christy and I were both named after him.”

“Delaney. A rather common name. Does he look like your sister?”

Again there was a shrug in Billie's voice. “Well, he did. He died when we were very young, but Mom always had a picture of him and her mother sitting on the mantel-- Oh!” She stopped as she gasped in realization.

Grams nodded. "Just a minute, child." She then turned to her granddaughters. “Do you know you came very close to vanquishing your own cousins?”

And that line is the climax that everything has been building towards!

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: "This is how the Battle was supposed to end."

“Our cousins!” cried Phoebe in shock.

“But how can that be?” asked Paige, confused.

“Mom doesn’t have any sisters,” pointed out Piper, picking up on the fact that Grams had asked Billie about her maternal grandfather.

Grams spread her arms. “Very well, your half-cousins. Their grandfather was my third husband.”

Phoebe smiled. “Then they’re cousin-witches, even if they don’t have powers anymore”

Piper smiled at Paige. “In this family, there is no such things as halves, just family. So they are our cousins.” And Paige felt a thrill of joy run up and down her spine as she smiled happily back at her sister.

Grams said good-bye to Billie, telling her that her cousins would talk with her later.

Phoebe was still amazed how close they’d come to vanquishing relatives. “The Triad must’ve known. They must’ve known that even if they killed us, there were still other Warren descendants out there, ones who could’ve used their powers to vanquish them.”

Grams nodded sadly. “I wish I kept in contact with Christian Delaney even after the divorce. But he didn't want me around our daughter--that was the main reason for the divorce, since I kept trying to make her use powers she didn‘t have--so when your grandfather had troubles with Patty, once she started using her own her powers, I left Christian with his non-magical daughter and brought Patty home to the Manor instead. And I hate to admit it, but I got so wrapped up in Patty and her powers that I totally forgot about my other daughter until I recognized Christian in our granddaughter."

She shook her head in remorse and regret. "If only Patty had known about her non-magical half-sister, so you girls knew about your half-cousins when you were young! Just think--I could’ve helped find and free one of my own granddaughters when she was first kidnapped. To think she was being held against her will, being turned evil, being set up to kill my other granddaughters even when Patty, Coop, and you, Paige, came to visit me…” and she shuddered.

Phoebe went over to hug Grams. "You couldn't have known, Grams. And who knows? Had you not bound our powers, it might have been one of us who was kidnapped, not Christy," and Grams smiled gratefully at her as she hugged her back.

Paige smiled. “And at least it looks like we’ve straightened everything out now.”

Piper sighed. "Not quite."

“What‘s wrong, Mom?” Chris asked, concerned.

Again Piper sighed unhappily. “Someone’s still missing.”

“Our father?” Wyatt gently asked.

Piper nodded, tears in her eyes. “Even if they’re our cousins, we still never beat the Jenkinses in battle. Maybe that means I’ll never get him back.”

As if on cue, magical lights appeared. “No, Piper,” The Angel of Destiny smiled. “This is exactly how the Ultimate Battle was supposed to end--with Warren descendants not killing Warren descendants and The Charmed Ones saving the ultimate innocent--Christy. Congratulations to you all!”

Piper narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “So?”

And the magical lights lit up the room once more..

“Leo!” cried Piper as both she and her husband ran into each other arms. He quickly pulled her in for a big kiss, and everybody applauded.

Then her sons ran over. Maybe Wyatt and Chris had only known their father when they were very young, but they knew who he was from Piper’s stories. Wyatt still remembered how Leo saved him from evil the other time he visited and had told his brother and cousins all about it many times.

Chris had told stories, too. He was able to remember both the Leo from the evil future and the Leo from the past he’d gone back to. He knew that although he had hated the Leo from the evil future, the Leo who had left his family to become an Elder before Chris was even born and had appeared to have turned his back on his family, Chris had learned to love the version of his father that he met when he traveled back to the past. He knew that this was that man. He was first to reach his parents and gave Leo a huge hug, who happily hugged him back.

Even frozen, Leo had been able to watch everything that had happened and was thrilled to have his whole family here, even if these were the older versions of his kids. Soon they were all in a huge family hug.

“Charmed Ones,” The Angel of Destiny spoke again. “Thanks to your actions you have created a new timeline, one that includes a special reward for each of you.”

“You mean more than just getting Leo back?” Piper asked, surprised, as she hugged him again.

The Angel nodded, smiling. ”That was simply a condition for winning the battle, which you did by not battling. These are extra rewards.”

“Well, it better include us getting to play Scrabble in the future rather than spending all of our time battling demons!” Paige insisted.

Again The Angel smiled. “Yes, Paige, you are now in that timeline, because you have all done what those future versions of all of you did. But this includes much more than that. It's what will allow you to have that future that you and Patty and Coop saw.”

“So what are our rewards?” Phoebe eagerly wanted to know.

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: "I don't know how to thank you."

The Angel smiled. “The first reward actually goes to Leo.”

“Me?” Leo asked, surprised. “I didn’t do anything. I was frozen the whole time!”

“Yes, but while you were their whitelighter, you did well in guiding The Charmed Ones so that they were able to succeed, and you gave up immortality for love. And for that you have been granted a special boon, one that I know you have wanted since you became mortal again. Reach into your pocket.”

Curious, Leo did as he was told. To his surprise, he found a wallet, something he had never owned since he died in World War II. Opening it, he was even more surprised to find a driver’s license that showed he had been born in 1970, the same year Prue had.

“You have an identity in this timeline now, Leo,” The Angel smiled. “You don’t have to be Piper’s errand boy anymore!” and that made everyone laugh, even Piper, even if it didn‘t make much sense to the ones from the future or the ones from the past.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” Leo said, shaking his head in wonder.

She smiled. “You don’t have to. You have earned your reward, as have you all.”

Next she turned to Piper. “Leo’s reward goes hand-in-hand with yours, Piper. For leading The Charmed Ones since Prue’s death, you have been granted a special boon, one I know you have wanted for a long time.”

“What’s that?” Piper asked, a bit curious and just a bit worried.

“The truce between The Charmed Ones and demon-kind shall indeed last for twenty years. Their powers shall be bound until the next generation of Halliwells is ready to fight them. And since you will not need your powers to fight them, your powers and your sister's powers shall also be bound for those twenty years, as will your entire family. Your children and your sisters' children will grow up living the normal life you've always wanted, as shall you and your sisters, too!”

Piper was so happy and so surprised, she didn’t know what to say besides “Thank you.”

Leo smiled, knowing how much Piper wanted them to have a normal life, even though he knew she'd miss her powers whenever they would've come in handy.

Their future sons cheered, even Wyatt who had just received back his powers. He knew this meant that he wouldn‘t have to use his new powers to constantly battle demons as their family had practically all their lives and he, his brother and their cousins would get a chance to go to a regular school and be regular kids, but then once they were grown, they would still be able to use their powers to fight demons once the truce was over.

Phoebe was surprised and happy, too. She hadn’t truly had her powers in years--she’d hardly written any spells since Piper became so good at making potions and she’d hardly had any premonitions recently, so she knew that she wouldn’t miss them that much. Besides, she was thrilled that she’d no longer have to worry about demons interrupting her life and causing more “family emergencies” that might have eventually cost her the job she loved so much. Maybe without magic getting in the way, she would finally be able to find love. She looked at Coop and sighed. If only he wasn’t a cupid and if only he could have an identity in this world, like Leo now had!

Paige, on the other hand, knew she would miss her powers a lot, but she was wise enough to admit to herself that without demons, she and her sisters would only use their powers for their own personal use since that and demon-hunting were the only things they’d used them for recently when they got caught up with their own lives, not with searching for innocents, as they had when she first joined The Charmed Ones. She knew that would’ve set up a future similar to that one Prue, Piper and Phoebe had visited when Phoebe was burnt at the stake, not the “Scrabble future” that she and Patty and Coop had visited and that she was still determined that she and her sisters and their families would get to have. If binding their powers for 20 years would ensure that that would be the future they'd have (and she was sure it would, remembering how Old Piper and Old Leo had mentioned it), that was fine with her.

The only ones who didn’t look too happy about the whole thing were Grams and Young Piper, but they didn’t say anything.

Next The Angel turned to Paige. “Paige, for what you did in bringing your sisters and your cousins back to life, you have been granted a very special boon, one I know you have wanted for a long time.”

“What’s that?” Paige asked eagerly.

“Although like your sisters, your powers as a witch are indeed bound until the end of the truce, you are now the first mortal to become a full whitelighter without needing to die first, with all the powers and responsibilities that entails, with one extra.”

“What‘s that?” Paige asked, even as her face nearly split in half from her smile; she was so excited about her reward and her new career, the one she knew she was always meant to have--helping other witches and future whitelighters discover their destinies.

The Angel smiled. “The Elders can‘t jingle you. You will be able to go to Elderland whenever you want and if you ask for assistance, they will assist, but you will not be at their beck and call--you can use your powers when you want to use them, not when they want you to use them,” and now everyone cheered. Leo found himself wishing that that could've been part of his reward – he was sure not even Piper would've griped about him having his wings back if he didn't have to answer The Elders' jingle.

“And me?” Phoebe asked, both excited and impatient. “What about me?“ and everyone, even Grams and Young Piper, couldn’t help smiling at the one who was still the baby of the family, even if Paige was younger.

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: "I do...Most of the time."

The Angel smiled. "For recognizing that someone who had hurt you and your sisters was still an innocent, still someone who needed to be saved, I have a very special reward for you, Phoebe, one that I know you have been wanting for a long time."

Coop interrupted. “I think I know what your reward is, Phoebe, but only if you truly want it. Am I right?“ and The Angel nodded with a smile, so Coop turned to Phoebe. “If you want me to, I’m willing to give up my powers as a cupid and become a mortal, so that you may have a love that’s not forbidden, and I may have the love I know I was always meant to have. But I will only do that if you’ll agree to marry me!”

With a shriek of joy and delight, Phoebe ran to Coop and jumped into his arms, kissing him wildly.

The Angel smiled. “I take that as a yes. And, Coop, just like Leo, you also now have an identity in this lifetime, so you won't become Phoebe's errand boy," and Coop stopped kissing Phoebe long enough to thank her.

The Angel smiled her most benevolent smile. "Enjoy the new world you have created, Charmed Ones. You have indeed earned this destiny!” and she disappeared amidst the magical lights.

Even while everyone talked excitedly amongst themselves, everyone pleased with this new world they had created, they were interrupted by the front door slamming open. Victor carrying Little Wyatt and Patty carrying Little Chris walked into the room, followed by Henry carrying a Scrabble game. Seeing Henry, Paige quickly ran into his arms, so that now all of The Charmed Ones were in the arms of their loves.

"Is everything okay now?" he asked, still worried.

She kissed him. "Everything is wonderful now!"

“So did we miss anything?” Patty asked.

Everyone laughed and Phoebe, still in Coop’s arms, smiled at him as she told Patty, “Everything and everyone is back to where we belong,” and Coop smiled back as he hugged her tighter.

“Almost,” Grams pointed out. “It will be as soon as Patty, Piper, my great-grandsons and I are returned to our rightful times.”

Piper’s sons looked at one another. “I hope that The Angel let us keep our powers until we can return to our own time,” fretted Chris.

Leo smiled. “I think she did. Try orbing.”

“But don’t orb near your grandparents!” Coop warned. Everyone turned to look at him in surprise, so he explained. “Now that The Angel of Destiny has given the rewards that have set up the new timeline, you two kids are no longer in the timeline that you came from. If you orb near your younger self, you‘ll blend into those younger selves! Piper, that even goes for you, so stay away from Young Piper!” and Piper nodded, while Young Piper kept close to Grams.

“As for the boys, let’s do this,” Leo suggested, as he walked away from his future sons, walked over to his in-laws and took Young Wyatt and Young Chris into his arms, giving his sons huge hugs as he did, before walking away from Patty and Victor, but also away from his future sons. “Okay, now try going to see your grandparents!”

And sure enough, both orbed out to orb in next to their grandparents, who they gave big hugs.

“But what about Grams and Mom and Young Piper?” Phoebe asked.

Her new fiancé smiled. “Like them, I don’t think I’ve lost my cupid powers just yet. I can bring them all back to their right time if you,” and he looked at Young Piper, “agree to think about how much you love your sisters.”

Young Piper thought about it, then nodded. “I do--most of the time,” and that made everyone laugh.

Grams nodded. “And I can think about how much I love Piper’s sisters when they were that age,” and Coop nodded with a smile.

“And I’ll think about how much I love Victor,” Patty added. “And little Prue and little Piper and little Phoebe-to-be,” as she touched her tummy, and everyone smiled.

“Now remember,” Chris warned Coop. “Be sure to take them all back to just before they were taken, so they won’t remember anything.”

Wyatt rolled his eyes. Mainly thanks to his memory of the different timelines, Chris always thought he knew everything. Usually he didn’t and that usually got them into trouble.

He didn’t this time either, as Coop shook his head, wondering why Chris didn't think he knew how to do his own job which he had done for so long. “And if I do that, they’ll simply blend into the Grams, Patty and Piper of those times and still remember everything, just like you remember the evil time and coming back to save your brother. No, that’s one of my powers as a cupid, to allow people to forget love that is too painful. Although this isn’t quite the same thing, I can use that power to be sure they forget, just as I promised Grams at the beginning,” and Grams nodded, sighing with relief to know that both Patty and Young Piper wouldn't remember what they'd seen, even if she'd forget, too.

“Which reminds me,” and now Coop turned back to Piper and Leo‘s future sons. “If you two kids use your spell to go forward in time, you’ll blend into the teenaged versions that Young Wyatt and Young Chris will grow up to be in this new timeline. If you do that, you’d still remember the lifetime you’ve already lived, just like Billie and Christy do, besides retaining the memory of this visit. Not only that, but you, Chris, would still remember both the evil time and the other time you went back, while you, Wyatt, would still remember the time you came back and tried to turn yourself evil. That’s an awful lot of different memories. Unlike the ones I'm returning to the past, you won’t be able to change the future unless you came back again, so that’s up to you, whether you want to retain all of those memories. If you don‘t, I can use my cupid powers to return you by having you think how much you love your parents at the time that you left to bring you forward and I can then erase whichever extra memories you don‘t want. It‘s up to you.”

[Esmeralda]

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: "How 'bout a game of Scrabble?"

Wyatt and Chris needed no time to think; they both wanted to retain all of their various memories.

"And," added Wyatt, "we won't time-travel back to this time anymore, no matter what happens in our future, so we won't mess up this timeline that The Angel wants you guys to have."

Chris nodded. "If something happens, we'll figure it out ourselves with your future selves' help, something I didn't have the first time around."

Wyatt also nodded. "No more time-traveling, no matter what! But,” he added, “before we leave, we want to watch Mom write the message in The Book of Shadows to be sure that is indeed the future we will return to, since without that entry, this timeline could never be,” and his brother agreed.

“That's right!" cried Paige. "I have to write down that Coop and I go to the future on May 21, 2050, so we’ll know when we’re coming!” That confused the others almost as much as they were when Paige had asked “How can you play Scrabble when you’re dead?” but like then, Coop and Patty agreed, while the others shrugged.

So everyone watched as Piper and Paige wrote the words in The Book of Shadows that would ensure this timeline would indeed be the one they would all live in. Then everyone exchanged heartfelt hugs and good-byes, although everyone made sure there would be no more blurring, before the boys cast the spell that would take them back to the future.

Once they were gone, Coop turned to look at ones from the past. “Are you ready to go back?”

Patty nodded. “I’ll be happiest to see Prue,” then with a sad smile, she added, “Victor told me what happened.”

Piper walked away from Leo to give her mother a big hug. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“No, it’s okay,” Patty told her. “I know that everything happens for a reason, and that when one door shuts, another one opens,” and she was smiling at Paige, who very happily smiled back as that shiver of joy again ran up and down her spine again.

“Thanks for stopping by,” Victor told Patty as he kissed her cheek.

Patty smiled, “My pleasure,” and Coop very happily smiled, too, as he prepared to bring them back.

First Young Piper went over to hug the handsome man she'd been ogling ever since he appeared. "I can't wait until I'm her," and she pointed at Piper, "so you get to be my husband!" and that made everyone laugh, so there were happy tears in everyone's eyes as they watched Coop, Patty, Grams and Young Piper heart-orb out.

~~

Later, Piper, Leo, Phoebe, Coop, Paige and Henry were all sitting around the dining-room table. “After a day like that,” Phoebe asked, “what do we do now?”

Henry held up the game he still had in his hands. “How ‘bout a game of Scrabble?” and everyone laughed.

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Piper, turning serious, “And I think no matter what happens in the future, we should all try to get together and play Scrabble as often as we can.”

“Good idea,” Paige agreed. “As long as Leo remembers that Zankou is spelled with a Z!”

[Esmeralda]

I'll admit that this epilogue is quite a bit longer than my other chapters and I probably should divide it up into a few chapters, but since it WAS set up like an epilogue on the show, I decided to go ahead and post the whole thing as a single update.

It's very similar to what happened on the show, but in typical Es-fashion, there's a few slight twists! I'm first to admit that a number of those twists are based on stuff I've seen in other fics like Kalvana's "Future Consequences" that made me say, "Yes! That's how it should've been!!" I hope you enjoy it!

And I hope you tell me...isn't this better than that !@#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$#@! wall that never showed how anyone looked beyond S8 and was all about Piper's family, so this was the perfect ending of "The Perils of Poor, Poor, Pitiful Piper", but not "Charmed"

Just keep in mind, this is showing the ending that KERN wanted - the only way this could've been aired - not the one I would want. That one is shown at the end of my "Morality STILL Bites".

EPILOGUE

Fifty years later...

Three old couples, sitting around a Scrabble board, watched as the figures of Paige, Coop and Patty heart-orbed out before turning back to their game. While Leo decided what word he could make out of his letters, Piper got up and left the room. The others watched her, but also watched as Leo got his triple score anyway when he was able to spell out "Xanadu".

While everyone groaned at him for including an Olivia Newton-John movie from the 1980's and Phoebe decided on her next play, Piper returned, carrying The Book of Shadows. Immediately her sisters became concerned. “Is there a demon the kids need help fighting?” asked Paige.

Piper shook her head. “No, the kids are doing just fine, much better than we ever did, in fact. It’s just that after seeing young Paige and young Coop, even seeing Mom again, I think we should write down everything that has happened since you, Paige, and you, Coop, were the ones doing the visiting, along with everything else we want to pass down to future generations, so we can pass The Book of Shadows down to them, like it was passed down to us.”

Leo nodded. “You guys have told our kids and our grandkids the stories over and over again. They know them almost as well as you do. But it’s a good idea to have them written down for our grandkids' kids and their kids and so forth down the line.”

“Phoebe," Paige suggested, "since you're the one who started this whole thing by finding The Book of Shadows in the first place, why don’t you go first?”

Phoebe nodded and began looking through The Book for a blank page, her hand caressing The Book when she found certain pages that meant a lot to her. When she finally found a blank page, Coop picked up the pen he’d been using to keep score and passed it to her.

“Why don’t you read out loud as you write?" Henry suggested. "That way we can all hear what you‘re writing and not duplicate,” and everyone thought that was a great idea.

So as Phoebe wrote, she also spoke: “So much happened after The Angel of Destiny rewarded us for a job well done. So much was gained, so much was lost, but it was all worth it,” and everyone nodded in agreement.

Taking the time to look up to smile at Coop, Phoebe returned to reading what she was writing: “After Coop gave up his powers as a cupid, I was finally able to have the big huge church wedding that I always wanted. I patterned my dress after the one I wore as the Goddess of Love and that’s what I felt like when the minister pronounced us husband and wife. I knew that I could finally stop looking for love,” and Coop reached out to squeeze her hand.

She smiled at him, then continued. “Thanks to that love, I was finally able to have the special little girl who I thought I would never have. Patty is indeed the joy of my life, but then so are Prue and Penny, the other two little girls that Coop’s and my love created. They have grown to be beautiful, loving women with families of their own and powers of their own - Patty can freeze time, Prue can move things with her mind and Penny can see the future, they can also harness The Power of Three, just like Prue's three daughters. I never dreamed that I would be the mother of the next set of Charmed Ones and the grandmother of the following set, but I am.

"And because despite being mortal, Coop was able to pass his cupid powers to his daughters, Patricia, Prudence and Penelope care for innocents and take care of them much more than my sisters and I ever did, as will their daughters after them, just as Melinda Warren foresaw when she touched my heart so many years ago,” and the others all had to agree with that.

“Talk about our jobs,” Coop suggested.

Phoebe grinned and began to write again, still reading her words as she did: “I continued to work at the Bay Mirror, giving out advice, until it was time to retire, but I soon shared my office and my byline with a very special co-worker. Shortly after our marriage, the old banners that used to read ‘Ask Phoebe – She has all the answers', instead read ‘Ladies, ask Phoebe; guys, ask Coop – They have all the answers!’

"All of Coop‘s experiences as a cupid helped me give even better advice on love, and even helped me write my best-seller ‘Finding Love’.” and everyone clapped as she signed “Phoebe Halliwell" beneath her words.

Paige couldn’t help it. She grabbed the pen from her sister and began to write, also reading aloud: “Thanks to Coop’s love, Phoebe indeed became an expert on finding love, helping all of our children find their own true loves. That kept her busy during the demon truce, just as The Angel of Destiny knew it would. As for my family, Henry continued to look after his parolees, including one who ended up becoming our daughter-in-law! Henry eventually became a captain before retiring and still managed to make time to help me with Henry Jr., who we call Hank, and our twins, Charlotte and Cassandra, named after Melinda Warren’s mother and granddaughter.

"Since I was made full-whitelighter by The Angel of Destiny, all three are half-whitelighters with whitelighter powers similar to what I had before the Big Battle that Never Was. They use them to do all they can to help their cousins, the next set of Charmed Ones, just like Piper‘s sons do.

"They all learned how to do that from me, because thanks to the demon truce and the special gifts The Angel of Destiny gave me, I was able to help the next generation of witches come into their own, something I enjoyed doing and found completely fulfilling,” and everyone clapped as she signed: “Paige Matthews-Mitchell", adding a triquetra after her name.

This time it was Piper who grabbed the pen from her sister and began to write, also reading aloud: “Paige was able to pass on all she learned as a whitelighter and as a Charmed One, not just to her children or mine or Phoebe’s, but also to other future witches and whitelighters. When the demon truce was finally over, the next generation of Halliwells didn’t have to fight them alone as we did, so they all have more than enough time for their own lives,” and everyone agreed with that, too.

Piper continued, still reading aloud: “While the truce was in place, I was finally able to go back to my roots and cook things other than potions, finally opening up ‘Piper’s’, the restaurant I always wanted to have, while continuing to run P3."

“Talk about Leo!” cried Paige.

“And Wyatt,” added Henry.

"And Chris and Bianca." added Coop, smiling at Phoebe.

Piper nodded and continued to write, still reading aloud as she did: “Since The Angel of Destiny finally gave Leo an identity in this time period, he was able to go back to school and become a doctor, so he could continue to heal people as has always been his true destiny, much more than just watching over us. He continued this destiny until it was time for both of us to retire, but by that time we both had help.

"Wyatt is now a doctor, using both his knowledge and his powers to continue his father’s destiny of healing, while Chris took over running both P3 and Piper's.

"He was the first of the next generation that found love--he is very happily married to his one true love. Bianca is not a phoenix as she was in Chris' original past, because when she came back to our time to try to bring Chris back to Wyatt, she scared her mother so much, that her mother ran away with Young Bianca, so Bianca was never initiated into the Phoenix cult and never received her powers.

"Instead she is a cop, playing the same role with the next generation that Darryl played with us, although much closer than Darryl ever was!”

“Amen!” agreed Phoebe as she and Coop remembered what it was like to help bring those two together.

Smiling, Piper finished the entry: “Although we’ve had our struggles and our heartaches – the worst when I miscarried our baby daughter, Prudence Melinda - we are and always will be a family of survivors - Charmed forever!”

“AMEN!” declared the others, as she happily signed “Piper Halliwell-Wyatt" with a flourish and then closed The Book of Shadows.

Suddenly the front door flew open and all eight of the next generation of Halliwells and their spouses, along with a whole crowd of grandkids ran into the room. The grandkids each ran to hug their own grandparents, while their parents stood in the doorway and proudly, lovingly watched.

One little granddaughter ran in last, one with shorter raven-black hair, electric-blue eyes and a big freckle in just the right spot, dressed in a bright red dress. Seeing her brother and sister and cousins hugging Piper and Leo, she hugged her dad instead.

Chris looked down and smiled at his daughter before telling her, “You left the door open, Prue,” so the youngest Halliwell turned back towards the foyer and waved her arm.

The front door of the Manor magically closed.

The End
of

"CHARMED FOREVER"

based on

"FOREVER CHARMED"

written by Brad Kern,
adapted by Esmeralda

This fic is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Aaron Spelling, in gratitude for all of the wonderful shows he produced, especially Charmed!

[Esmeralda]

Afterword

Because whenever I post or repost this fic, I always get certain questions and complaints, I decided to head them off at the pass right away and explain it here.

So many of my readers were really upset at me for being merciful towards Billie and Christy--they wanted me to vanquish them because every last reader hated them so much.

So I tried to explain to them that hating a character isn't a good enough reason for getting rid of them. Believe me, try as I did (and, believe me, I did try), I just couldn't come up with a scenario where Piper should get Leo back after murdering a fellow witch, making the Halliwells as evil as the Jenkinses and setting up a Morality Bites-type future as compared to the Scrabble future!

Revenge is not a good enough reason--the Charmed Ones are supposed to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty! The wrong thing done for the right reason is still wrong!

And again, when it's B&C who either vanquish each other or vanquish themselves like in a number of other fics, well, why should Piper get Leo back for that??

That was another one of those "really irritated the crap" part of the finale for me! Billie won the battle, not the Charmed Ones! They helped, but if Billie hadn't survived after Kill BIllie Vol 2, if Billie hadn't realized that Dumain was evil, if Billie hadn't used her power to bring the Charmed Ones to the past and if Billie hadn't vanquished her own sister, she and Christy would still be evil!

Why should Piper be rewarded for that?? Leo should've remained frozen!!

If getting Leo back wasn't part of the whole thing, I would've vanquished both B&C in an instant, because I truly do hate B&C as much as most of my readers did for the way they dominated the final season, a season that should've been dominated by the Charmed Ones--the reason why I'm being finicky about letting at least one Charmed One be in every scene of my finale! (the reason we didn't pop over to Victor's with the boys and get to see the reunion ourselves). But as is...

If I had my druthers and if getting Leo back wasn't part of it, Piper would've vanquished Billie after Billie vanquished Chris! And Chris' vanquish would've been longer and a heckova lot more painful for ruining "Charmed" long before Billie and Christy had a chance!

He dominated S6 the way B&C dominated S8, also making Piper dominate the rest of the series with the other two as much of a supplemental character as Grams, Patty or Darryl! That's not what "Charmed" is supposed to be about!

That, naturally, won't work. Chris has to live, fooey anyway! Ditto for B&C, double fooey anyway!!!

If someone could just give me a proper scenario where the Halliwells do not vanquish witches and the Jenkinses do not vanquish themselves, but the Jenkinses are actually witches (and, no, they're not demons in disguise nor do they become demons, or Paige would've never been assigned to Billie as her whitelighter in the first place. And although Christy might have turned into a warlock, Billie never did - if she did, she never would've been able to apologize), so there would be a logical reason why Piper can convince the Angel of Destiny that she deserves to have back the man who clipped his wings and stopped taking care of his charges and stopped being their guide and stopped healing their injuries all just for love of her, and who she then turned around and treated as her own private errand boy because he had no identity of his own in our time and who was destined to die in that car crash (the reason he became a Leocicle in the first place), I would've vanquish both Billie and Christy in an instant, even if I knew that that would've meant that this version never would've made the screen, since Billie is so obviously taking Kern's place--she is so obviously what he would've had the sisters be like had he had his druthers. Thank God he didn't and thank God his spin-off, "Billie, The Teen-Aged Thuperwitch" was never aired.

But no one ever gave me that scenario, so I had to stick with mine, much as I knew how very unpopular it would be, and it was. But if B&C do get to live, they liked the scenario I came up with. I hope you do, too!

As for why I made the Jenkinses Grams' granddaughters, it's the only thing that made sense to me for spending so darn much time of the show's final season on the Jenkinses! Actually it was the writers who suggested it to me. In "Mr. and Mrs. Witch", they say that although Billie and Christy's mother isn't a witch, their grandmother is; that the powers skipped a generation. I was positive that meant that their grandmother was also Grams (after all, you don't really think that with all those marriages she only had Patty!) with all of the powers skipping B&C's mom, so that Patty could pass them down to the Charmed Ones! And I was disappointed that the writers never picked up on it. I'm not quite sure if this means that B&C shouldn't have gotten any, but I like the idea of the Triad making sure that all Warren descendants would be killed, like what should've happened in my version at the end of "Kill Billie Vol 2" if Paige wasn't half-whitelighter and panic-orbed!

And just think what could've happened if they'd gone ahead with their original plans and murdered their own cousins...they would've ended up in the world Piper's kids came from, where they're always going after demons and Coop and Henry are dead - the future I truly believe Kern's Charmed Ones should've had if they weren't all killed during "Kill Billie Vol 2", with "Forever Charmed" just Piper's delusion as she dies!

As for Grams' explanation, it's similar to what happened in my mom's family (with her grandfather who was married three times, much like Grams--Mom had half-cousins she never knew about until she was in her 50's--Grandma didn't meet her own half-brother until a month before she died!), which is what I based the explanation on. And it just sounds like Grams to get so caught up with Patty and her powers to totally forget about her daughter who had none. And I love the idea that had Grams not bound the sisters' powers, then it might have been Prue or Piper who had been kidnapped and turned evil, not Christy.

Speaking of binding powers, a lot of my readers weren't happy about me making all the Halliwells normal, but I figured that was the only way to be sure that this truce that Old Piper & Old Leo mentioned during Forever Charmed truly happened. Maybe Kern thinks that demons have honor; I sure don't! So binding everyone's powers for all the reasons Paige pointed out made plenty of sense to me.

Those are the major complaints - let me know if you have any others.

Thanks again for reading - I hope you enjoyed it!

Es

PS. I just realized that posting this story put me over the 5000-post mark, so I'm now a whitelighter rather than a Charmed One. And this is a great story to do that with!