Part 6
Swirling around in her long aqua colored dress Melinda never looked so happy in front of her antique mirror. Always the one, who thought of others, today was her day. Today was her sixteenth birthday. All she think of this glorious day was how grown up she felt. After being treated like a child for her whole life she was going to be legally an adult since in 2015
California lowered the legal age from eighteen to sixteen. Not only did the privileges come with the age, so did the responsibilities and Melinda was up to it. Ever since she turned fourteen her healing power had grown significantly and all types of
magical beings would seek her out. White lighters, witches, warlocks and demons. None could harm her as the most powerful of the white lighters and only Melinda knew how she judged who was worthy and who was not worthy to receive her healing power. The innocent and true of heart always had their requests granted. Those who fell into that great middle ground had to have some special quality that only Melinda could see. Someday she would fulfill her destiny among the ranks of the elders, but today she was just going to be a sixteen-year-old girl.
"Linny!" called up Patti her gangly thirteen-year-old little sister.
Though Patti did try to get to her goat sometimes, she really did love her. Patti was quite the opposite though. She was completely withdrawn in herself and she had not a smidgen of otherly world powers. "Linny, Mom wants you downstairs now. Stop admiring yourself! That mirror's got to be tired of you by now!"
"On my way Pats. Let me grab my pack," called out Melinda. With her wrist pack in tow she ran out to the car. Her parents and her sister were waiting by the car. Her Mother looked elegant with her long dark hair and just a few extra lines around her eyes and her
father with that silly gray he'd been streaking his hair with to look old enough to have two teenaged daughters. Both looked proud as their daughter flew through the front door. Life had been rough between her parents ever since her powers first appeared. Though she could tell that her Mother deeply loved her Father there was still an extra sarcastic tone she had with him. Something just below the surface was there, but Melinda couldn't decide what it was.
"Umm, Melly. You look more like your grandmother every day," sighed Piper shaking her head a bit and choking a bit on her words. And she had that wonderful Halliwell smile. "Where did you use to see that, Leo?"
"Phoebe mainly. She had a smile that would have melted the coldest heart. Come on, girls," said Leo motioning to the car. "You should really learn to drive someday, " Piper said too sweetly to Leo.
"Where to Mom?" asked Patti sounding just slightly bored.
Piper grinned and replied, "Wait and see!"
"Ah Mom. This is like YOUR PLACE," exclaimed a not-too-impressed Melinda. She found her family parked in front of Redwoods the latest addition to her Mother's restaurant and club chain that specialized in Cantonese and Indonesian cooking.
"As I said, wait and see," Piper said with a hint of a smile that could easily explode into a grin.
Inside a building that looked more like Muir Woods rather than an upscale restaurant, Melinda found it strangely quiet.
"Off night?" snickered Patti.
Walking through the empty dining room Melinda was getting a bad feeling that crawled up her spine. Pushing open the door to the private dining room the darkness quickly disappeared while fifty people yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Looking very startled Melinda glazed at her Mother. "Mom!" she called out in an annoyed whisper. Her Mother knew she didn't want a big deal over her birthday.
"Hey, you're here. Enjoy yourself. Give the Mom a break. You're only sixteen once!" Piper whispered back.
Melinda sighed, put on a reluctant smile and greeted her guests. Everyone she knew at high school, her old grade school, soccer friends and Wyatt family friends were jammed into the small room struggling to greet the birthday girl. Her Mother knew how to throw a
party!
As the final guests were finishing up the last of the cake Piper and Patti were collapsed on a couch watching the passing scene. Tired as she was she could still see that Melinda was still having a wonderful time with her old friends.
"Tired?" Piper asked.
"Oh no. Just wish more of my friends were here," moaned Patti.
Piper smiled. "Maybe we can have a few over next week," suggest Piper stroking her hair.
"Sounds fab," replied Patti curling up next to her Mother.
Piper looked up and saw Leo bring Melinda some punch pulling her a way from the group milling around the punch table. She could tell that Leo was geared up for one of his little talks about life and love. Leo and Melinda walked out toward the door as Piper's eyes drooped. Looking back up they were gone, but something was wrong. Everyone was in the same place, however something felt different. Even the air around her didn't feel right. Piper quickly stood up displacing Patti.
"Mom?" asked Patti sleepily.
"Stay here!" said Piper tersely.
Wandering through the crowd of people her friends did not seem to notice anything different. She casually nodded at any attempts to talk to her. Piper went to the door, looked out and did not see either Leo or Melinda.
"Leo? Melinda?" Piper called out in her empty dining room. Not a sound. A subtle odor lingered where they had stood. "Arrowroot?" Piper said out loud. Had someone been burning incense in her restaurant? Then a deep pain struck her in the heart as she felt a
cold draft from nowhere sent slivers up her spine even though all the doors and windows were closed. Something had been there. Something she had not dealt with for many years. Whether demon or warlock she didn't know. This she did know. Melinda and Leo were missing.
"Mom? You look kind of weird," said Patti who had followed her Mother into the dining room.
"Ha-ha. Um, weird? That's an understatement," Piper said chuckling nervously. "Paul!"
"Yea, Pipe," Paul called back.
"Um, Melinda and Leo got called away. I need to go after them. Would you take care of the cleanup crew? I ..ah.. really have to run!" asked Piper sounding much more stressed out than usual.
"No problem, Boss. Anything serious?" he asked concerned.
"Oh, no. Just the family business," Piper said. "Come on Patti!"
"OK," Patti retorted quite annoyed being yanked from the restaurant.
By the light from a kerosene lantern two women picked through an ancient book that rested on an antique wrought iron bookstand. Darkness filled the room beyond the indistinct circle cast by the flickering lamp.
"This is soooo cool, Mom. Look at all those freaky things. And that funny colored writing. This paper must be a thousand years old!" exclaimed PAtti as Piper flipped through the ancient pages of the Book of Shadows.
"Those freaky things' have cost our family dearly over the centuries. Let's see. Arrowroot, arrowroot, arrowroot. There it is!" exclaimed Piper pointing excitedly at the passage. "A substance used by the Frankhart Clan of Dark Lighters. Of course. Nothing to do with
demons and warlocks. My evil hunting instinct is rusty. What other type of evil would want my daughter and my husband? But where do I find them? Never an address when you need one. I can't checkout every warehouse in
San Francisco. They might not even be on this plane of existence. DAMN!" cursed Piper as she slammed the book shut with
dust flying everywhere. "Dump it back in that trunk over there!"
Patti picked up the Book of Shadows and carried it over to the trunk that Phoebe had found it in twenty plus years before. Closing the lid tightly she yipped as she saw something moved in her peripheral vision. "M-m-mom! That thing moved!"
Turning her head Piper saw the Spirit Board covered in dust with a fresh path behind the pointer which had reached the letter "S'. Perking up Piper moved the lamp over and started writing down the letters.
"Y"
"M"
"P"
"L"
"E"
"X"
"Symplex?" asked Patti screwing up her nose."
The brand new office tower in downtown San Francisco. This is starting good. Now where in the building should I go?" asked Piper to their spirituous adviser.Slowly the pointer spelled out on board spelled out:
"R"
"O"
"O""M"
"2"
"3"
"0"
"9"
"Room 2309? Not the basement? Dark lighters have gone corporate! All right then, time to get out the old rescue outfit." Piper went to an old trunk and pulled out a dark jumpsuit and an ancient small crossbow.
Patti still stared at the Spirit Board in wonder. "Who-who are you?"she asked the board. The pointer began to move again.
"A"
"U"
"N"
"T"
"P"
"H"
"O"
"E"
"B"
"E"
"My Aunt Phoebe?" replied a still shocked Patti.
"Figures," remarked Piper. "Thanks, Phoebes! Come on, Patti. You're staying with a friend of mine tonight."
"But I want to help!" she whined.
"No, you are staying safe my dear. I have to do this job alone," replied Piper as she headed out of the Manor.
The Symplex Tower was a tall white and glass marvel that was also one of the highest buildings in the city. The view from the twenty-third floor included the lights in the bay and the Oakland Bay Bridge. A single rope uncoiled past the window unseen by the occupants inside. Dressed all in black Piper slid down the rope quietly until her feet reached the end and had nothing to hold onto.
"W-whoa!" she cried out quickly stepping onto the window led. "I'd make a lousy cat burglar," she mumbled to herself as secured herself to the window washer track and pulled out a glass cutter.
"Screeeeeech!"it went along the glass as Piper cut a hole only small enough to crawl through. She secured the piece of glass to the outside of the window with a strip of duct tape, threw her pack through the hole, checked for signs of life and crawled into the office. The room was dark except for the light from the computer screen mounted in the
desk. Piper secured her backpack and silently walked down the hall. Each office was locked and dark except for the last one thirty feet down the hall. A thin line of light shown from beneath the door. Piper prayed that this door was unlocked. It was. She stopped to listen. There was a rough loud angry voice coming from the other side.
"All this time they laughed at me. I'd only be a lowly underling dark lighter for all of eternity. Not now, no not now. I've captured Melinda Wyatt and now I will take all of her power and be the most powerful of the dark lighters!" cried some magical being.
Leo cried out. "What about Limox, the leader of the Dark Council? He will not let you waltz in and take over."
"Bah. The power of good is always more powerful than evil and I can eliminate him soon enough, No one is going to stop me!" he boasted.
"Ya, wanna bet?" called out Piper from the door holding a dark lighter crossbow. "Let my family go or you're vanquished."
The dark lighter gaffed and waved his hand-sending Piper into the hallway and the crossbow across the room.
"I know you. You're the last of the Charmed Ones. A lot of good they did way back then. Evil is still around and YOU'RE nothing without your powers. I'll take care of you AFTER I kill your daughter and husband, witch!" he growled.
"Don't underestimate me," replied Piper she reached into her boot and threw a knife at him. The knife stopped in midair and melted into nothing as the dark lighter laughed once again.
"Fine, you asked for it!" said Piper flatly as she threw out her hands at the dark lighter and he vanished filling the room with an infinite number of individual molecules
"Piper?" exclaimed Leo as her daughter just fainted at her Mother's demonstration.
"You didn't think I give up all my powers with a husband and children to protect did you?" she said smiling and looking very smug. "Just saved up a little power for a rainy day. Probably couldn't do that again for weeks! Let me untied you, sweetie. No first you get one of these." Piper gave him a double doze of passion in that kiss.
"Um, I love you, too. But what about all that talk about not being involved with all that hocus pocus?" asked Leo as Piper helped untie him.
"Hey, someone has to watch your butt. And I am happy to take that job, darling," said Piper as she held him and kiss him again hard. "And I guess I have some thinking to do about my own witch heritage. Let's get out of here before the law shows up, Angel Boy!"
"I love you, Piper," said Leo helping Piper pick up Melinda.
"I know. I always have, too. Let's hit the airways," quipped Piper as they all disappeared in small white globes of light.
On a sunny morning six months later Piper gathered her family in the kitchen to talk to have a family conference. Leo was to her right, Patti to her left and Melinda across from her. Piper's face was dead serious as her hands shook just a bit. Leo grabbed one tightly.
"Good ahead, sweetheart," Leo urged her on.
"Mother, what is it?" asked Melinda leaning toward her and furling her brow.
Patti took Melinda's hand squeezing so tight that she winced.
"Um," Piper started. "Um, you never really know what your life's going to bring you. One day I was a bank teller, then the next I was going to be chef. And today? I'm managing enough restaurants to even make Prue jealous. We always figured she had the family business gene. Likewise now I've come to another milestone that I'd never thought I'd ever see," said Piper quietly and deliberately.
"Mom?" asked Patti.
"This really affects all of us. I thought I was over a lot of the past. Ignore things and they won't bother you. Unfortunately it's still there. Ignorance is not bliss, only a pair of rose-colored glasses. All that changed last year when you two were kidnapped. The pain, the horror and the memories all came back to me. I don't want to lose you three; you're my whole life now. I was so angry and mad after my sisters died. Getting rid of my family inheritance didn't really change anything. Melinda, Leo. You're both still a part of that world. And the evil from that world is still going to be there. I think your father told me the same thing almost twenty years ago. So here I sit. How do I try to protect you and yet keep the evil away?" Piper wiped her eyes as she looked lovingly at her two daughters and patted her husband's hand.
"We can protect ourselves!" cried pout Melinda holding on to both Leo and Patti's hands.
"Ah, my dear;" said Piper quite ironically. "We had the entire power of the Charmed Ones behind us and that wasn't enough. Together we can at least try. Together we have a little more of a chance. But there's still more that we need. With great trepidation, I've decided to reinstate the powers from Melinda Warren. Now matter what my feelings
may me, we must accept and use that which our family inheritance. It is going to affect all of us. And I pray that together can also protect each other."
Patti looked very excited, "You mean we'll be WITCHES? Powers and all?"
"Technically you've always been witches. You just didn't have access to your powers. We thought it best that you didn't know that," explained Leo.
"But receiving your powers means that demons and other baddies will come looking for you. And there's the paradox. To help each other from the few bad things we've seen, we'll have more demons and such coming after us. Things that can hurt and kill the ones sniff> you love. I still truly believe that these powers are a curse and not a blessing, but I don't sniff> see any other way ,sniff>f out of it," said Piper now visibly crying. "So do how do you feel about all of this?"
"You know I feel it's necessary, Piper," said Leo squeezing her hand.
"We're both with you. Right, Patti?" said a confident Melinda.
"Absolutely!" replied Patti, "So now what?"
Piper stood up, wiped her tears, and remarked, "Might as will do it now. I gathered all I needed from the Manor yesterday and set things up downstairs."
Melinda stood up determined to help her mother out while fourteen-year-old Patti just couldn't wait to be a witch. Her Aunt Phoebe smiled from afar at the youthful enthusiasm she had shown so many years before.
Downstairs a large pentagram had been drawn on the floor. Thirteen old used candles sat on the perimeter guarding the star within. The lights were low. The two young Wyatt girls approached with eerie anticipation. The room that normally was filled with the laughter of family gatherings now had taken on the atmosphere of a funeral parlor.
"OK, girls join me within the circle. Leo you better watch from the corner. I don't know how much wind and brimstone were going to kick up. Patti hand me that pouch on the table while Melinda light the candles. Start with the blue one," directed Piper who had a
strange monotone calmness that came over her.
"Yuck, what is that stuff? It smells like spoiled garbage!" exclaimed Patti handing it gingerly to her Mother with one hand and holding her nose with the other.
"Potions and their smelly odors are just part of the wonderful world of witchcraft. Spreading it within the circle this should help focus the celestial powers. I really don't know how far our powers have journeyed over the last twenty years," explained Piper as she spread the potion around much to the distaste of her two daughters.
Leo interjected, "A witch's powers always are geared to be found by their non-powered host. They are not keyed for anyone else except the descendants of the Warrens unless someone steals them."
"OK. Now sit next to me. Come in close. I'll put my arms around you two and let's recite this.." started Piper.
"Spell?" asked Patti as Melinda looked on for some acknowledgement.
"Yea. As dry as they come. Together girls.
Hear now the words of the witches,
The secret we hid in the night.
The oldest of Gods are invoked here,
The great work of magic is sought."
No storm could be heard, but all the lights in the family room went out as the three women were lit by an eerie glow from the candles that had begun to put out a strange blue mist.
"M-mom!" stuttered Melinda who thought she had seen everything with her white lighter work. Both girls held tightly to Piper as the air felt stranger and stranger. Leo sadly looked from the corner for there was little else he could do once the spell had been cast.
"Steady girls. Nothing to worry about," said Piper though she thought otherwise. "Keep ready!"
"In this night and in this hour,
We call upon the ancient power."
Now the wind begins to pick up in a basement that had no windows. Dust blew everywhere as the girls began to scream.
"Another verse. Read the last verse," Piper yelled over the wind.
Screaming Patti yelled, "Stop it Mom. Stop it, please! AHHHHHHHH!"
"Mom I'll help you," said Melinda.
"Bring your power to we Halliwell's three.
We want the power. Give us the power."
"Noooooooooo!" Patti screamed as Piper stood up with her daughters.
The wind whipped their hair and ruffled their clothes. Piper looked up holding tightly to her daughters and could feel some presence entering the room. Both of the girls felt weak in the knees, but they mutually held each other up. Every nerve in their bodies tingled. The flames of the candles grew higher and higher as the girls closed their eyes and covered their ears to the sound of the wind and the heat of he flames. And then nothing.
Melinda peeked first. The candles had gone out. It was dark and musty.
"Ahhh!" screamed Patti as the lights suddenly snapped back on.
Leo came running over to his family. "It's OK. Nothing has happened. Just a little metaphysical dust blowing around. All blow and no glow so to speak. Come on upstairs and I'll get you some dinner. You need to just relax," Leo reassured them.
"So nothing happened?" said a disappointed Melinda.
"Patience my dear. A day, maybe longer. Magic takes time, and I am a little woozy myself." As Leo helped his weakened daughters upstairs
Piper picked up a pillow threw it in the air and tried to freeze it. It fell silently to the ground. "Take your own advice Witchy-Poo," she said to herself looking sour and then headed upstairs to rejoin her family.
Morning came as Melinda through back her covers on her bed. Her sleep the previous night had been restless, but the morning sun cheered her up as it streamed through the slightly opened blinds. Opening them the brightness caused her to cover her eyes, but she
smiled when the warmth hit her face. Today was going to be glorious thought the eldest of the Wyatt children. Changing into her sweats she started to go through her morning routine. Twenty of these, fifty of those. The smell of bacon from the kitchen slowed her down. Melinda stopped to get her breath. Placing her hand on the wall
Melinda had a flash. She was standing or experiencing something very new. Her vision was blurry, but she could the kitchen of her house with her Mother busily fixing breakfast. Patti comes in the kitchen wishing her Mother good morning. Piper swings around returning the greeting as her hand hits the frying pan causing it to flip up splattering grease on her and setting her robe on fire.
"MOM!" Melinda started to scream but then thought better of it. Whatever it was she had just experienced she felt she was needed. Grabbing the fire extinguisher Melinda ran down the hall. Patti was just entering the kitchen meaning that the scenario she had seen was definitively starting.
"Morning, Mom," said a cheerful Patti.
Piper turned around with an equally cheerful greeting. "Morning my precious lit.." Piper's hand hit the handle of the frying pan, the frying pan flipped up as grease flew toward her. Piper felt a tug as she fell backwards into Melinda who had just grabbed her.
"Whooooa!" she screamed. Patti pulled back in fright as the grease hit the floor and burst into flame. A hissing sound occurred as Melinda but out the flames with the chemical foam.
"MOOOM!" screamed Patti as she helped up Piper. Melinda just stood there as her adrenaline rush subsided.
Piper shook her head and patted her screamed daughter. "It's OK Patti. Only a bruise on the tush. Melinda, thank you, but how did you know?"
Melinda still breathing heavily just shook her head in confusion.
"Wow. You had a premonition, didn't you?" asked Piper sounding proud.
Melinda still looked confused, but nodded in recognition.
"You can see the future? That is so awesome, Linny! I mean like marvelous!" Patti exclaimed losing the fright of her mother's close call.
"It was kind of a freaky movie like thing. There you were all on fire!" replied Melinda sitting down to recover.
"You have received a gift from your Aunt Phoebe," explained Piper. "Unfortunately it's a power you can't control much. They come in bits and pieces. A time, a place, an object. You never really know where or when. Just that it's something that you can do some good
with. Some event you have the power to change the out comes to."
"I see that," said Melinda then smiling at her own pun. "Doesn't it take over your life though?"
"Yep. We found that out. You just have to balance the good you can do with your own life and goals. If anyone can do it, you can Melly, " said Piper kissing her on the cheek. "And I'll be there to help you. You see, you two girls are kind of like my sisters and me way back at the beginning. We had no idea how to use our powers or what we were up
against. Most witches grow up with them and learn as they grow. You two, and me to some extent, have to use them immediately and learn as grownups. But I'll be here to help you out once my power shows up. Anyway. Melly go get ready for school. I think it'll be cereal now for breakfast after that!"
Melly finally smiled, hugged her Mother and Patti and headed back to her room wondering what the future would now bring her.
Patti wandered around school barely acknowledging her friends and fellow classmates. The wonder of the magical world of hocus-pocus had totally wrapped around her. Her friends were worried since she was usually so outgoing and friendly. After dreaming through three classes she sat down in Geometry and her best friend Diane literally plopped down beside her Patti.
"Boy, that jerk Andy Mercer. Always razzing me. Like he bumps into me
and my notebook flies opens. Paper and discs all over the place. MAJOR embarrassment. And right in front of that cute Nicky Summers. He must think I'm… Hey! Off your cloud, there girl!" exclaimed Diane looking just slightly peeved.
Patti shook the cobwebs from her mind. "Wo. Uh, oh hi Di. Morning," Patti said looking slightly dopey.
"Morning? I've here like forever, Me-lin-DAAA. Your view screen out or something?" she replied.
"Noooo. Mom kind of well, let go a big one last night with this big family thing that goes way back to forever. Kind of a mind overload. Sorry. So what's going on?" Patti asked trying to change the subject.
Diane looked real interested now. "Forget that. Tell me more about your brainstorm. Must have been a typhoon!" exclaimed Diane all excited.
Nervously Patti replied, "No it's sort of a gift from a long dead great something or other."
"Is this like a something exciting like a gift or something dull like advice?" asked Diane cozying in real close.
"More like a trait. You know like having your father's temper or our mother's nose," giggled Patti. "Like I may not even get it."
"And for this you're going into orbit? Really. I wonder about you sometimes Wyatt," said Di shaking her head.
Their teacher called the class to order as thankfully Patti's little conversation of discovery with Diane came to a conclusion.
Lunchtime. Patti was somewhat recovered from her earlier lack of concentration. Walking with Diane to their table Andy Mercer approached them from the other direction. While Diane cringed a bit Patti is too deep gossiping with Diane no notice him cut in front of her.
"Uff!" called out Patti as her tray flies up and she falls down landing hard on her posterior hitting her head on the table next to them. The tray and all of the food splatters Diane and another other girl.
"You idiot! Look at my clothes. They're ruined!" the tall blonde blue- eyed girl cried at Patti who was rubbing her throbbing head from her place on the floor. Diane just looked disgusted at the mess on her clothes and disgusted at that jerk that stood there and smiled.
"Accidents happen like my old man says. He-he," he chuckled walking away.
Patti laid on the floor fuming. Her gut was full of anger as Di helped her up. Though spared from the avalanche of food, her body ached from head to toe that added to her anger. Though a loving person, this excuse for a human being had lost all of her respect.
"Hey, easy does it, Wyatt," suggested Di as she wiped off her clothes. "Not worth two microchips."
Patti seethed as THAT BOY walked down the aisle laughing with a couple of his friends. As Patti's thoughts became unprinted, Andy Mercer suddenly fell sideways sliding across the table through knocking food and trays left and right. His tray flew up flipping over as his food landed all over the Mariel Hemingway High School cheerleaders.
As laughter erupted throughout the lunchroom, Patti suddenly felt much better. Though he wasn't seriously hurt, Andy Mercer was very peeved at whoever had pushed him. None of his friends had seen a thing.
"Justice prevails! None of the cheerleader squad is going out with HIM anytime soon," said an amused Di still brushing the food off of her clothes.
"Like one would even look at the flying jerkville. It is strange though," said Patti. Picking up her books she grabbed an apple and headed toward her next class.
Quiet. Everything was deadly quiet which is what it should be in the school library. Patti was working on a paper on the electromagnetic spectrum for her biology class. Having just brought out an armload of books from the stacks, she sat down at the table arranging her texts on the table, her lap and any place she could find.
"Where's that encyclopedia article on Chandra? Damn. I must have dropped it over there. And if I get up then I'll have to start all over again. Damn!" she cursed again. As an incredible need for that book grew within her, the book moved momentarily. Then it flew
directly at her landing on the table.
"What the hell?" she cried looking for anyone who might have seen it. The coast had been clear. Too flustered to continue she packed up her research and left the library with more questions than answers.
"MOMMM!" she cried running into Piper's office. "MOM!"
"Patti!" exclaimed Piper unaccustomed form seeing her family at work, but very happy for the break from her dry financial report. "A surprise, but a pleasant one. How was your day?"
"Totally off the weird scale, Mom. This book just jumps up on my table. The frog we were dissecting in science jumps off the table. I'm about to really FREAK OUT!" yelled Patti as she dropped her books on Piper's desk.
Piper smiled a bit, went to close the door and then walked over to Patti. "Telekinesis. The power to move object with your mind," said Piper quietly. "You seem to be developing your power."
"That's not in me. I didn't do that of those things. I didn't want to do of those things, Mother," explained Patti.
"Maybe not consciously. You will learn how to control your powers. It will take time, patience and practice. Like this," said Piper as she tossed a picture of Leo in the air and then froze it.
Patti was speechless.
"It showed up during a meeting with my board of directors. I was getting a little peeved and I froze the whole room. All of Wyatt Enterprises' top employees frozen solid. And I had a moment to collect my thoughts. Definitely one of the upsides of my little time
altering talent."
"How ..how did you do that so quickly?" asked Patti.
"Oh I've done it before. I freeze anything that isn't good witch including your father. The number of times he was being obstinate and un-co-operative that I just walked away from him. Great power in a crisis. It gives you some extra time to think," chuckled Piper. "Now try and move this picture while its still in the air. Concentrate on it and on where you want it to go."
Patti looked at the picture and it flew onto the couch. She looked shocked and disappointed.
"Very good, sweetheart," Piper complimented her.
"I was thinking of the desk, Mom," complained Patti.
"You will learn, my dear. Come on. We'll kick off early and go celebrate. The three charming Wyatt women and their gifts. It'll be like Christmas and birthdays all wrapped into one."
"Things will never be the same Mom!" admitted Patti.
"AMEN to that!" said Piper as she put her arm around her daughter and they marched out of the building with a new found bond between them.