COMING HOME

I sat reading through the Book of Shadows, I was bored and wanted to go and vanquish some demons, but I was baby sitting for my aunt Paige and aunt Phoebe. My dad was at the club and Wyatt and Chris were at the restaurant, so I was as home with my mom and all six of my cousins. It was about five thirty when my mom called my down the stairs to help out. Henry and Aimee were all asleep on the sofa in the conservatory so I tiptoed past then into the kitchen to help my mom out. I was still in my school uniform and walked into the kitchen the smells coming out of that one room were amazing. She stood at the stove with two baby bottles filled with milk beside her.

"Hey where have you been? Any chance you can help me out with the twins?" The twins belonged to my aunt Paige, I grabbed two bags of chips and walked into the conservatory. I gave Casey one bag and then I walked over to Aimee. It wasn't difficult for me to tell the twins apart because they both had different coloured orbs, Casey had light blue orbs and Aimee had light purple orbs. Casey held her chips eating one every few seconds, I turned the TV on for her. There was knock at the door and my mom called: "Can you get that please?" I called back a quick yes and walked to the door with Aimee on my hip. I answered it and there was a dark haired woman stood at the door. Something about her looked familiar, like I'd seen her before. She looked at me like she was surprised to see me.

"Is this still the Halliwell residence?" She asked, she was definitely from San Francisco.

"Yeah, can I help you?" I asked trying to be helpful but I was suspicious, I had my hand ready to freeze her in case she was a demon, there was just something about her, something that wasn't quiet right.

"Is your mom in or your aunt, maybe?" She asked, this was definitely suspicious I put up me hand to freeze her but nothing happened, I froze a leaf falling from a tree but not her. I slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Mom! There's a demon at the door!" I shouted, I ran to the kitchen as I ran to the kitchen I heard the door unlock. My mom was already by my side.

"Did you freeze it?" She asked, this was the one thing that she hated about being a Charmed One, the fact that there was always another demon around the corner, as I had gotten older I had got used to it and I could protect myself but there was only three Halliwells then, not nine. There was no way that we could protect them at the manor.

"No, she wouldn't freeze." I said, my mom rushed to the door.

"Orb them to the club, tell Wyatt and Chris to get their butts here now. Go!" She said. I did as I was told and orbed them to the club to where my aunts were. I told them what happened and then orbed myself to the restaurant, to my brothers and told them what was happening before we all orbed to the manor. I stood in between Wyatt and Chris, they stood about half a pace in front of me for a second and then rushed to my mothers side, she was unconscious on the floor, Chris checked her breathing and pulse, she was fine so Wyatt and Chris carried her to the sofa. Wyatt bent in front of her

"Mom, Mom. Mom wake up." Wyatt said. By this time Paige and Phoebe had arrived.

"Oh my god, is Piper okay?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah, she's fine, no head injuries, nothing broken, not even concussion." Wyatt said. As soon as everyone was satisfied that my mom was fine it suddenly became a game of twenty questions.

"Mel who did this?" Paige asked.

"A demon." I answered

"What did this demon look like?" Phoebe asked.

"Erm, about the same height as Paige, dark hair, green eyes, pale skin." I said.

"What the demon was in human form?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, but she wouldn't freeze, and she seemed…familiar, like I've seen her before." I said, my aunts and my mom had been fighting demons for over twenty years so it wasn't very often that they didn't know a demon. They walked up the stairs of the manor into the attic, I followed. The attic was full of old junk like sewing machines, bikes, old clothes and lots and lots of books. I went to a trunk where the book was kept when mortals came to the house. I began rummaging through it, I found a photo of the demon. Why was there a photo in the trunk?

'Erm, aunt Paige, why is there a photo of the demon in the trunk?" I asked holding up the photo. Paige took the photo from me and then gave it to Phoebe. Phoebe looked at the photo and then at me.

"Mel, are you sure this was the demon?" Phoebe asked shocked at who the photo was of.

"Yeah, why?" I asked. For once Phoebe was speechless.

"Mel, this isn't a demon." I didn't understand. Before I could ask how, everybody had left the room and were back downstairs where my mom was now awake. Even though my mom was awake she was crying buckets and was pacing backwards and forwards.

"Phoebe, I don't know how, it can't be possible why after all this time, after twenty years." She sobbed hugging Phoebe tightly. Before I could even ask what was going on my mom ordered Chris and Wyatt to orb me out but I didn't get why. They orbed me to the club where dad was, half a second after we materialized it became like twenty questions, but not from dad but from Wyatt and Chris. I told them what happened and my dad stared at me his face just as serious as my mom and Phoebe's were.

"Mel, are you sure that's what she said?" His voice was unbelieving but I didn't know why.

"Yes, why does everybody keep asking me that? Now will somebody please tell me what is going on!" I shouted, barely controlling myself, before I could argue further Wyatt had his arms wrapped around me. He was in big brother mode, the look after Melinda before she explodes mode.

"Mel, it's alright," he hushed in my ear, "Mel, we'll tell you what's happening soon, right." He was still hugging me. I walked over to Chris who was about 5 steps away. I buried my face in his jacket and was sobbing again. Compared to all of my friends, I was pretty close to Wyatt and Chris but this was probably because that we were witches. Wyatt whispered something under his breath and then I don't remember how I got from the club to my room. I dreamt that I was at the club, it looked the same but it didn't feel the same but just as I was beginning to feel invisible a energy ball flew straight at me. I sat up shocked awake from the dream, questions raging through my mind. Why didn't I freeze him? What was with the club? Why was I dreaming about the club in the first place? It was morning and I was still in my school uniform, well black pants, white shirt, black jumper and my black and red striped tie. It took me a few moments to relies what Wyatt and Chris had done, they had put a sleeping spell on me and if it wasn't Sunday then I would be an only child. I remembered the night before and looked at the clock. Half past nine, there was no snoring from Wyatt's room next door so I guessed that he was awake. Or at least he would be when I was finished. I walked out of my room and straight into Wyatt's room Chris was lying on his bed watching TV and Wyatt was spread out on the sofa reading a magazine that I noticed was mine. Neither of them looked up as I entered the room.

"Mel, why are all your magazines full of crap?" He asked trying to detract me. Chris sat up suddenly, folded his arms and stared at me, Wyatt doing the same a few seconds later.

"Before you start it was for your own good 'cos it stopped you blowing your top." Chris apologized, well sort of, in his own way.

"You cast a sleeping spell on me!" I shouted, but just as I did my mom shouted loudly for my aunt Paige. Instinctively we rushed downstairs to find my mom almost frozen to the mailbox out side.

"Mom?" Wyatt asked cautiously. My mom didn't move anything but her head as she looked up with a bracelet in her hand, she saw me and spoke breaking the silence.

"Mel, can you go to your room for a minute please?" She asked pure terror on her face.

"Mom are you -" I began but she stopped me and pointed to upstairs and said:

"Melinda just go upstairs. Now." She said, I obeyed even though I didn't know why she had ordered me upstairs in the first place. I went to the attic, my sanctuary, the place in the manor where I felt the safest. I gathered five white candles and placed them in a circle and lit each of them quickly before I had the chance to be busted by Wyatt, Chris or my mom or my dad. I rushed to the book and began to chant the summoning spell hoping that it would by my Grams instead of my Great grams I was in luck, Grams stood there, right in front of me even though I could see right through her for the first few seconds while she was stood in the circle that was soon changed as she stepped out of the circle to hug me.

"Grams will you please tell me what is going on? Nobody will tell me anything, not Wyatt, not Chris not anybody." Grams stared at me for a moment. I knew just from that look in her eyes that she wasn't going to tell me anything but then the looked back into the circle that she had just vacated and another figure this time my mom's Grams stood there, next to her daughter, this was turning into a proper family reunion, the only person who needed to be here for it to be complete would be my aunt Prue.

"Melinda, sweetie. We're not allowed to tell you, your mother has forbidden it." Great grams said I sighed and threw myself on the couch and put my face in my hands.

"Why won't anybody tell me anything, it's not like it's my first demon?" I said, my hand muffling

the sound a bit. Grams sighed as at me and came to sit beside me.

"Your mom will tell you in your own time sweetie, and in case we don't hear from you anytime soon. Happy sixteenth birthday for Tuesday." She said as she stood up and walked back into the circle and disappeared up through the ceiling in a flash of white light with great grams smiling at me and told me to behave before following her daughter to her afterlife. I heard my mom walking towards the attic so I quickly orbed back to my room and sat on my bed and began to read the copy of OK magazine that I had on my dressing table. My mom walked into my room a few minutes later with a photo album hold close to her chest. I thought I had seen all of the photo albums that we had so why hadn't I seen this one? She sat silently beside me and handed it to me with a small forced smile across her face.

"Mom. Will you please tell me what is going on?" I asked looking at the photo album that was in my hands. My mom sighed and I could tell she was going to tell me something, probably not everything but definitely something. I sat up reasonably straight ready for whatever ever she was going to tell me. I wasn't in luck. All she did was sit down beside me and told me not to worry and that it was nothing, just something that they thought was long gone. I was good at spotting if somebody was a lying, she wasn't, but there was something that she wasn't telling me. I hated being out of the loop this was usually this was because Wyatt and Chris were doing the big brother routine which by now I was sick of, there was nothing worse than being in an exciting situation and having to sit on the sidelines.

I spent the rest of the day at Chelsea's house, she was the only one of my friends that knew that I was a witch. I couldn't stand being at the manor for another second. I could have orbed to Leya's faster but I wanted to walk, I usually orbed but for some unknown reason I wanted walk. I loved using magic but I didn't use the opportunity. I walked the seven blocks listening to music on my phone. I ignored being called by everybody, Wyatt, Chris, mom, dad. I was in the middle of San Francisco, there was no way that any of them would try to come near me while I was in public. After I had been at Leya's for about an hour, we walked into town to do some retail therapy. I had no money at all on me so I stopped off at the bank on the way and I took out forty dollars.

"What you doing for your birthday Mel?" Chelsea asked as we walked into International.

"Don't know, loads has being going on at home lately so who knows." I sighed. I never really got excited about my birthday unless there was a party. I loved a good party, last year I had my party at P3 but this year I wanted it just to be family because of the resent events. Chelsea had convinced me to buy a new dress for the occasion. I chose a sugar pink coloured one first and put it in the basket that I was carrying. The second that I chose was dark blue, short and was gorgeous, I loved it the first time that I saw it. We went to the changing rooms and I tried the pink one on first. I walked out of the small room and did a small spin.

"What do you think?" I asked posing. Chelsea looked at it.

"Maybe, it's a bit too. Safe and not very partyish." She criticized. I went back into the room again and tried on the dark blue one. I walk about again and did a pose, this time I didn't even have to ask for her opinion this time.

"Now that's a dress! It's gorgeous." It was gorgeous, there was no doubt about that. I took it to the till and paid just under twenty five dollars for it but it was worth every cent. Now that I had the perfect dress I needed the shoes to match, that took the whole of forty five minutes to find some shoes. They were dolly shoes, dark blue like my dress and I could defiantly run in them, a factor I had to consider about every pair of shoes that I bought. I stayed at Chelsea's for a bit until I got sick of Wyatt and Chris shouting in my head and my cell phone going off every few minutes.

I orbed home, straight into the basement, the one room that I knew that nobody would be in, unless the fuse box was faulty again. The fuse box wasn't on the blink again so there was nobody in the basement. I tried to walk up the stairs as quietly as I could, before I had put my foot on the first step I knew that the odds were stacked against me. When mom wasn't in witch mode, she was in mom mode which usually meant worrying, one of the things that she did best, along with cooking, being a witch, a successful entrepreneur and above all the best and only mom that I had. I was right to doubt being able to orb in undetected, but mom didn't raise an eyebrow she just carried on making dinner.

"We've being trying to call you all afternoon." She said, as if I didn't know how could I not they were giving me a headache.

"I was at Chelsea's. I needed to get out of the house." I said sitting at the kitchen table.

"Why did you need to get out of the house?" mom asked, abandoning making dinner so that all her attention was on me. I thought for a second about how to phrase it.

"Well, you know yesterday when that woman wouldn't freeze. Well nobody would tell me anything, so. I asked grams." I answered.

"You asked your grams! Why?" Mom half shouted, her eyes fixed on mine, the worst thing that she could do would be to strip my powers but I knew that she didn't have it in her, and besides my dad wouldn't let her.

"Cos nobody else would tell me anything so I had do something, I'm not a kid mom." I replied quieter than my normal voice.

"You're 15 Melinda. That means that you are a kid, did you ever think that we didn't tell you for a good reason!" Mom shouted, dad must have heard her because was in the kitchen too now.

"What's going on?" he asked casually like it was something on the TV.

"Mel, summoned my mom. Again."

"What?" Dad asked looking at me.

"I'm not saying it again, ask mom, cos I am so sick of being out of the loop!" I shouted as a ran to my room making as much noise as I could on the stairs. Mom hated it when I used magic for personal gain. I threw myself on the bed and buried my head in the pillows. After what felt like about half an hour dad knocked on my bedroom door and sat at the end of my bed.

"Melinda honey. Believe it or not, but you are just trying to protect you. There are more dangers out there than you think." Dad was telling the truth I could hear it in his voice. I sat up.

"I know but still I need to know something. I know that it is something serious cos aunt Phoebe looked the same as mom. Would you please tell me something?" I pleaded.

"Okay. Before you were born and before they met Paige, your mom and Phoebe had an older sister." He began, I knew that now he would tell me the whole story.

"Prue?" I asked. Dad nodded and then carried on with the story.

'Yeah, but she was killed by the Source's assassin, Shax. That's how they met Paige. Your mom collapsed because she was one at the door yesterday. The one that wouldn't freeze. If Prue is back then that means that something powerful is just around the corner. Something that we all have to be prepared for, when I say all of us, I mean all of us." Dad warned, had I missed something at school, had we done a lesson on coming back form the dead because I couldn't remember. Dad left before I could ask him what he ment and Wyatt and Chris replaced his seat on my bed. Was I hearing things or had my dad just told me the full story. Good witches couldn't freeze so that part made sense, but coming back from the dead, that was impossible, right?

"He told you then." Chris said. I nodded still thinking about what my dad had just said.

"See why we kept it from you? Mel promise me something. Promise me you won't go looking." Wyatt said, this wasn't a choice, it was a demand, just like always.

"I'm not promising anything. I'm not a kid Wyatt you don't need to do the 'wrap Mel up in cotton wool so that she doesn't even get a chance to do anything stupid.' whether you like it of not I am a witch, born with powers, powers that were meant to be used." I sighed standing up and walking into my closet. Wyatt and Chris stayed where they were. They knew me better than anyone, although I was happy that I was no longer out of the loop, I couldn't help but worry about what else was coming. As soon as I had changed out of my jeans and into the dress that I had just bought. As soon as I left my closet I turned to face them.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"Dad tells you there's trouble just around the corner and your asking us how you look?" Wyatt asked. I looked at Chris.

"You look great. For your birthday?" He asked. I nodded and walked back into my closet barefoot to change into my jeans and a tank top.

"Wyatt, chill you know what she's like. Just let her worry about the party. She's only 15. She's more resilient than we think." I heard Wyatt say to Chris. I was tempted to put my head around the doorframe as I changed and childishly stick my tongue out and say "So there." but I controlled myself and listened to their conversation. A few moments later I stood up and walked straight to the attic where I flipped through the Book of Shadows. The book was a life line, I needed to know if it was possible to come back from the dead. Anything is possible and everything happens for a reason so there must be something here, some sort of clue that would help me understand. Everybody left me alone for the rest of the day, I orbed to the bridge with my sketch book and began to sketch from photos that I had taken from the attic. I drew my mom, Paige, Phoebe and Prue. I loved to sit up here, just to look over San Francisco and see all of the cars passing below. I sketched for what felt like minutes but it was probably well over an hour. I loved my powers, I liked the fact my charmed power was given to me for a reason. My powers weren't like a novelty, I was always pleased to have them I loved that I could just orb any where in the world in the time it takes to blink and that I could freeze time like my mom. There was only one downer on that, some people who I wanted to freeze couldn't because they were good witches, mainly Wyatt and Chris. The Elders were calling me but I wasn't listening.

"You wanna talk to me? Orb down here because I'm a bit busy right now." I declared not taking my eyes from my sketch book. As I had expected an Elder orbed in front of me.

"Melinda." She greeted.

"Natasha. I don't have time for all the niceties so just get straight to the point." I advised. Natasha told me exactly what my dad had just told me. I orbed home to put my sketch book away and then orbed myself to the probation office.

"Uncle Henry. Have you got any unsolved cases?" I asked hoping the answer would be yes.

"Yeah, but it would look a bit stupid if my 15 year old niece to solve a case for me. Why, what's up?" He asked as he signed some paperwork.

"I just need something to take my mind off something. Please, just one case." I asked. He handed me a plain brown file.

"This guys girlfriend had a baby but she get out of prison so you have about four hours to find the father. And. Don't tell your mom I gave you a case." I smiled and took the file from his hand. I walked through the front door and set off on solving some of Uncle Henry's unsolved case. Finding him was the easy thing, with magic, it was probably too hard for Henry to do with only the SFPD database at his disposal. I completed my task in about two hours but after I had done that I was bored again. San Francisco was huge but I still couldn't find anything to do. I was even debating orbing down to the underworld to vanquish a demon or two.

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