Characters:
Piper Halliwell – 46 – Temporal Statis and Molecular CombustionPhoebe Halliwell – 44 – Premonition, Levitation and Empathy
Paige Mitchell – 42 – Telekinetic Orbing, Orbing, Glamouring and Healing
Leo Wyatt – Mortal
Coop – Cupid
Henry Mitchell – 42 – Mortal
Piper/Leo
Lacy Melinda Halliwell – 18 – Temporal Statis, Molecular Combustion, Regeneration, Force Field, Orbing, Sensing, Telekinesis, Projection, Conjuring, Energy Blasts and the ability to wield Excalibur.
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell – 16 – Telekinetic Orbing, Orbing and Sensing
Christopher (Chris) Perry Halliwell – 15 – Telekinesis and Orbing
Callie Penelope Halliwell – 12 – Premonition and Electrokinesis
Phoebe/CoopPrudence (Prue) Lily Halliwell – 13 – Teleportation, Levitation and Telekinesis
Patricia (Patty) Rose Halliwell – 11 – Teleportation, Premonition and Temporal Statis
Paige/Henry
Holly Rachel Mitchell – 14 – Conjuring and Pyrokinesis
Hattie Rebecca Mitchell – 14 – Orbing and Cyrokinesis
Warren Noah Mitchell – 12 – Healing and Deflection
ProloguePiper: Life's never easy. The last two decades have taught me that. Twenty years of being a witch. Twenty years of fighting, heartbreak and constantly having you life disrupted. But I wouldn't change being a witch for anything, despite what I first thought. After all, if I wasn't a witch I would never have met Leo or found Paige. But then, if we weren't the Charmed Ones maybe Prue would still be alive and Paige would have stayed a stranger. Who knows? All I know is that Paige is as much my sister as Prue ever was.
In the early years of being a witch I more than resented it. My powers inhibited me from having a normal life and they took my family (Prue, Mom and Grams) from me. Almost every day was spent saving the world, and we never got any thanks. But none of that mattered when we saved an innocent person from death, even if they didn't know what we'd done for them. Just seeing them alive was enough. Sometimes I forgot that. Now though, we rarely fight demons. That job has been filled by the next generation, our children.
When I was twenty-eight years old and newly married to my soul mate, I gave birth to a beautiful, precious daughter Lacy. She was the most special thing in the world to me at the time. There's nothing like that first rush of motherly love, it takes your breath away. I was almost scared of Lacy for a while; not even Leo had made me feel like that.
When Lacy was only a couple of months old, Prue died. I had never known a darker period in my life. My big sister was gone, the person who had been like a second mother to me. Suddenly I was the head of the family and I had no idea how to take control. Thank God for Lacy in those first few days. She was my sole reason for living, for surviving. Then of course, came Paige, a great hyperactive whirlwind who blew our lives apart. She not only reconstituted the Power of Three, but in time she healed my broken heart.
Nearly two years after that I gave birth to our gorgeous baby boy. Yep, that one was a shock. A boy after three hundred years of girls! It didn't matter to me that Prudence was now Wyatt, the love was still there.
When Wyatt was a few months old and Lacy was two, Leo left us to become an Elder. I'd never hated someone so much as I hated him then. How could he leave me, leave his children? He was my saviour, my rock, my angel and he just dumped us. We needed him too and it broke my heart to know that he cared more for the 'greater good' than his own family. Being apart from him was like being apart from one of my limbs. Eventually we learned to cope without him, although the love never left me…
Finding out about Chris came next in a long series of adventures. How could the neurotic, paranoid whitelighter be my son? Be mine and Leo's son? There were so many questions I wanted to ask. Was everyone safe in the future? Was I a good mother? And why couldn't we stop whatever evil turned Lacy? Unfortunately Chris couldn't answer, but it didn't really matter. Seeing my son as a twenty two-year-old was a miracle and I was content with that. Chris died saving the future and our grief threw Leo back and me together. Of course, Chris didn't really die because a few hours later I gave birth to him: a perfect healthy baby boy.
See what I mean about life never being easy? Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it…
Mere months after Leo and I had been reunited we were threatened with being torn apart. The Elders decided Leo needed to be punished for doing what he believed in and becoming an Avatar, so they sent him on a journey. They wiped his memory and dumped him in some state across the country. If he could find his way back to me, he belonged with me and his powers would be stripped. If not, he would remain an Elder and never see us again. Needless to say, Leo found us and for a few months we were blissfully happy, even while fighting Zankou.
Of course, we couldn't be happy for too long though. That would never do. As we prepared to fight Billy and Christie (didn't see that one coming) Leo had to be sent away again. More months trying to raise three young children on my own while fighting as a Charmed One. It wasn't easy, but the kids kept me sane. Finally we defeated Christie and turned Billy back to our side. Leo could come home.
Roughly a year after the Ultimate Battle Callie was born, making our family complete. Due to the fact that she was born a whole witch, not part whitelighter like the others, Lacy, Wyatt and Chris were overly protective of her.
The peaceful years passed slowly without demonic activity. It felt so wrong to be having a normal life after so long of fighting. But it also felt good and I was happy. I finally opened my own restaurant, Charm, and it's doing really well. I didn't realise how fulfilling it could be to be able to cook for more people than my family, and even though Charm's been open for a while now, and even though I'm not obliged to go there everyday, I still get a buzz from starting a shift. Still, nothing makes me happier than coming home to my four beautiful children and my adoring husband.
Phoebe: Phew! What a crazy couple of decades. This family has crammed more into twenty years than twenty families in as many life times. At least that's what it feels like, one fight after another. I'm not saying it's all been bad because there have been good times. Just compared to the tough times they seem very few. Being a witch has been the most terrifying, terrible and magical experience.
The first couple of years for me were pretty uneventful. I loved being a witch and was fascinated by the way my powers were growing. Then Prue died.
I still miss Prue sometimes, when I'm on my own. My mind drifts back to when we were children and it's almost like I'm really there. I won't pretend Prue and me got on all the time, because we were like chalk and cheese. But being a witch had drawn us closer and I'll be forever thankful we were close when she died. Of course it helps to see her occasionally. For the first ten years or so we weren't allowed contact but then the day came when we could. Seeing her again after all those years was… amazing. I can't describe it any other way. There were tears and laughter, reunions and meetings and lots and lots of hugs.
Cole got me through Prue's death. I'd never known anyone to look at me the way he did, to make me feel the way he did. He made me feel alive and that anything was possible. Only he could have made me lie to my sisters like that, only he could have turned me evil. How could it all have gone so wrong so quickly? We were so in love and he ruined it. Being with him felt so right, but it was really so wrong. I'll never forget my time as Queen nor will I forget Cole or our baby. They are a part of me and have shaped who I am today.
For a long time my heart ached over Cole and I genuinely felt I'd never find love again. But Jason came along and helped me reopen my heart. Our love may not have been epic, but it was pure and I regret us breaking up. Maybe it's a good thing Jason and me didn't work out. Otherwise I'd never have found Coop.
What can I say about Coop? He's the most romantic, loving and intuitive person I know. But then he is a Cupid. Our love is real and will last a lifetime. No one, not even Cole, has loved me like he does. No one else knows instinctively how I feel or what I need. I look at him and still feel a tingle down my spine. Sometimes I wonder if I'm dreaming. I'd waited so long to find true love and here it is.
Our relationship wasn't easy in the beginning. There was the whole forbidden love thing and Billy and Christie didn't make things easier.
Hmm… Billy and Christie. That one was a surprise and it hurt like hell. First of all I refused to accept that someone who we'd welcomed into our home, someone who'd been like a sister to us could betray us. But then, Christie was Billy's real sister. I know if I had to chose between Piper and Paige or Billy, it would be Piper and Paige every time, no contest. Still we got Billy back in the end and that was all that mattered.
A year or two after that our daughter Prue was born. To finally hold her in my arms was like I was finally complete, whole. For over two years I'd fantasised about that moment but no daydream ever came close. Another two years and our second, un-prophesied, daughter was born.
Through all of this I had one constant: my job. After giving birth to my children I was even more able to give good advice, particularly to working mothers. My column grew so popular I was asked to author I book, which I did. Although it wasn't a best seller it did go nation wide, and I was just glad to have helped more lives through my official work.
Now though, I like to take things slowly, work from home and enjoy the family I've been blessed with.
Paige: How can I even begin to describe the last seventeen years? The first year of being a witch was the most exciting – and disturbing- year of my life. I was shrunk, had my personality switched with Phoebe's, turned into a paranoid wreck, transformed into a vampire and nearly killed my sisters a couple of times.
I still wouldn't go back to my old, quiet life though. That life didn't include my sisters. That life was lonely. As scared as I was about being a witch, I was even more scared about being a sister. All my life I'd been an only child and suddenly I was the youngest of three. How was I supposed to act? What was I supposed to say? Of course, Piper and Phoebe felt just as awkward as I did, but at the time I couldn't see it. All I could see in their eyes was a deep sadness I could never begin to heal. I could only see their desire to have Prue back. That stung, but what else did I expect? To be welcomed into the family with open arms? Meeting Patty though was the best part of being a witch. She didn't even know me and yet she accepted me as her daughter. It was nice to know that I was loved by her. I wish meeting Sam could have been the same, but I hated him. He was a drunk, a loser and worst of all he was alive and he never came to find me after I became a Charmed One.
Anyway, it didn't take long for Phoebe and me to get close. She was my type of person and really seemed to want to know me. Piper, on the other hand was a bit harder to crack. In the years since she's told me it was nothing personal, that she was just distraught over Prue and resented me for taking her place. That I can understand. If anyone had tried to be my parents after my parents had died, I wouldn't want to know. No one could replace them and no one had the right to try to. We all got close though, and together we vanquished the Source, Zankou and won the Ultimate Battle. Not bad, I think.
Finding love after becoming a witch was difficult. I was terrified that I'd fall too hard and not be able to keep my secret. I couldn't risk another exposure, not after what happened with Prue. Eventually though, Richard came along. I cared for him deeply, but I was never sure if I loved him. I guess I must have done if I wouldn't use my magic in front of him. That didn't last though, and I can't say I was that sorry. It was just too difficult to oppress my magic around him.
After that came Kyle. Now I know I loved Kyle. Or maybe I just felt an empathy with him? After all our parents had both been killed while we were young. I guess I'll never really know. Kyle died tragically and I was sad, very sad. But I got over it and found Henry.
Henry. Someone has never wound me up so much as him in the early days. But soon it became clear that the only reason he got to me so much was because I loved him. And this time I knew I was in love. There was no doubt about it; this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But the actual commitment part? That scared me. I loved Henry, but I didn't want to lose my identity. Of course being married isn't losing your identity; it's just expanding it to become two people.
Henry was the person I confided all my feelings and thoughts in when Prue came back. Meeting her was awkward to say the least. Here was the woman whom I'd replaced. I'd taken her sisters and her place in the Power of Three. Would she hate me? Would seeing her again remind Piper and Phoebe how much they loved her and how I paled in comparison? My fears were needless. Prue was wonderful. Just like Patty she accepted me without even knowing me. For the few hours she was back on earth we got on really well.
Of course before that happened a major event changed my life. Our twin girls were born. My darlings. When I first held Holly in my arms I was terrified. I'd never been so scared, not even of a demon. This tiny person depended on me for everything and I wasn't even sure this was what I wanted. But when she opened her gorgeous brown eyes all doubt left me. This was – and is – where I belong.