A/N: Thanks for the interest! This is how I've posted this one on other sites. If you're still interested, let me know if this seems about the right amount to post each time or if I should post more or less. Thanks again!
PART ONE: PRE-WITCHED
Chapter One
I'd just been caught shop-lifting (hey, they were the perfect pair of shoes that I had to have!) Prue was getting ready to get married and moving out; and you were depressed about becoming stuck at the Manor, taking care me and Grams. Shortly before that picture, you'd gone walking with Prue and Prue had told you that she wanted you to be her maid of honor, because she and I didn't get along--she was too goody-two-shoes for me, always doing what she was supposed to do, while I was too much of a free spirit for her, always doing what I wasn't supposed to do. While you were talking, you ran into a handsome young man, and you both shared a look--the first time you looked Leo Wyatt in the eyes. I wonder if even then Leo knew that we would become the Charmed Ones, that he would become our whitelighter and you two would share something special. I never got a chance to ask him, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Anyway, Grams wanted her picture. We were standing on the steps outside the Manor, you between me & Prue, just like you always were. Grams wanted us to move just a little closer, and she wanted me to turn so she could get my good side and you told her I didn't have one that day. You were right--I just wanted to get that picture over with. Prue wanted to know if I had plans and if it was anyone she knew, since she was still upset that I had called her fiancé, Roger, the day before, just trying to be nice to the guy, considering he was going to be part of our family soon, when I wasn't even sure I wanted to be part of our family, not then! Besides, I wanted to know, why would I want to spend my time on a wimp who had mother issues? That got Prue mad, as she wanted to know why she should believe me when I didn't even know the difference between what belonged to me and what belonged to the shoe store.
I was all ready to stomp off, picture or no picture, when Grams suddenly gasped and grabbed her chest. We ran over to her, telling her to take shallow breaths and whether we should call a doctor and she told us, "No doctor. Just a picture. Is it too much for an old lady to ask her granddaughters to retract their claws, stand still and look at me long enough to take one lousy picture?
So we stood on the steps, tried to smile and Grams took the picture. It still sits on the table in the foyer, but we're standing a lot closer than I remember standing during the picture--proof how close we've become as the Charmed Ones, when we were anything but back then.
Later, while I was getting ready to go out, I walked passed the steps leading to the attic, a room whose door was always locked, but I could have sworn that Grams was talking with someone. Only when we sisters, as the Charmed Ones, later went back to the 70's to save our powers from a warlock and got to meet our mother, did I realize that Grams was talking with the spirit of our mother. But their words and what those words almost led to, they haunt me to this day.
First, I thought I heard someone (who I now know was Mom) say, "It's just a phase. When their destiny's revealed, they'll come together," and Grams reply, "But what if they don't? What if they never do? What if the gift is too much for them to handle and they...? Well, regardless, I fear there may be only one option if I can't find a way to bring these girls together." Well, at the time, I had no idea to whom she was talking to or what they were talking about and didn't think that anything could bring us girls together, nor did I care, so I totally forgot about it until years later. So I just went in my room and got ready for my big night out.
--to be continued