Melinda opened her eyes to complete darkness. She lay there in the dark for what felt like hours and went through the day's events in her head over and over again, hoping, once again, that it had all been one big horrible nightmare. But it wasn't. She HAD to marry a complete stranger within 6 months of her 18th Birthday, which was in December, and if she didn't, then everything that her mom and her sisters had done would've been for nothing. Her Aunt Prue would've died for nothing. Generations of her family had been protecting innocents since Ancient times and going down in history as the girl who managed to single-handedly wipe out the entire line, wasn't exactly how she'd imagined herself to be written about after she had died. So, that meant she had to go through with the 'Pact'. Sighing, Melinda turned on her bedside light and climbed out of bed. Carefully opening and closing her bedroom door so she didn't wake up her parents, Melinda walked across the hallway to her brothers room, where she could see a light was on, which meant that one of them was awake; which was good for her, because she needed to talk to someone, Melinda hoped it was Chris. Growing up, Chris had been her favourite brother, he had been the one to play dress up with her when Prue was sick, and he ALWAYS gave her a box of cookies every year on her birthday, but most importantly, he knew how to keep a secret. Wyatt had never been able to keep a secret. Melinda quietly knocked on their door and walked in to find both of her brothers awake, huddled over the Book of Shadows.

"Hey guys," Melinda said, flopping down on Chris' bed "What are you doing demon hunting at this hour?" Chris closed the Book and walked over to his bed and sat sown besides his sister.

"How are you doing?" He asked his emerald eyes full of concern. "Mom and Dad told us about the whole Pact thing."

"Which, by the way, totally sucks ass." Wyatt declared and walked over to sit on Melinda's other side. Melinda smiled and placed her head on her eldest brothers shoulder,

"Yeah," she said softly, breathing in the familiar scent of Wyatt's cologne; he always used way too much. "It sucks. But what can I do?"

"You could try to break it?" Wyatt offered. "I mean, Chris and I were just looking in the Book and we found a pretty good reversal spell-" Wyatt broke off, noticing Melinda's expression. "Mel, are you okay? What's wrong?" He asked, his voice full of concern. Melinda broke down into tears, her brothers were willing to do whatever it takes to free her from the Pact, even though they knew that it would probably never happen, they were still going to try.

"Mel? What's wrong?" Chris asked. "Are you crying because of the whole Pact thing, because Wyatt and I are gonna do whatever it takes to fix this, don't worry Mel, you won't have to marry some random creep." Melinda shook her head,

"No." she said, wiping her eyes and looking up at her brothers, with a determined glint in her brown eyes. "The Pact can't be broken. You know it. I know it. There's no point in pretending that we can break it. We can't. The magic behind it is too powerful. So, do me a favour, and stop trying okay? Please. For me?" Melinda looked back and forth between her two brothers,

"Sure Mel," Wyatt said. "We'll stop looking. But ONLY because you told us to stop. I don't want you thinking that we're okay with you riding off into the sunset with some random stranger." Melinda let out a shaky laugh,

"Don't worry, Wyatt, I'll do no such thing." She inhaled deeply, " Okay so now what? What do I do now?" Wyatt and Chris looked at each other,

"Talk to Mom and Dad." The two said in unison. Melinda groaned and sat back so that she was lying on her back.

"I KNEW you guys would say that."

"Wyatt's right Mel," Chris said looking down at his sister, "Mom and Dad probably know what the next move is, plus you need to talk to them. I know you mad at them-"

"I'm not MAD at them, Chris."Melinda sat back up, "I'm- I'm scared. I don't want to marry a complete stranger, I don't want to have kids with him, I don't want to not get my happy ending, and I don't want to be married at 18." Melinda broke off, not sure what to say next.

"Hey," Chris held Melinda's hand, "you'll get your happy ending. I promise. And I can also promise you that he won't be a freak. At least not to you." Melinda wrinkled her nose,

"What do mean, 'at least not to me'?"

"Well, this guy, whoever he is, is destined to be with you, just like you are destined to be with him. You were born to marry each other." Melinda looked at her brother, letting his words sink in. For the first time that day, since her parents had told her about the pact, Melinda felt a genuine smile work its way across her face. Sitting with her brothers, Melinda felt that things weren't so bad after all.

The next morning, Melinda woke to sound of people in her room. Slowly opening one eye, Melinda saw Prue sitting at the end of her bed, flipping through a magazine, and after opening her other eye, she saw Henry sitting in her desk chair, tuning up her guitar. Prue looked over at her cousin and smiled,

"Hey, Henry, check it out, Sleeping Beauty's finally awake." Melinda rolled her eyes and sat up,

"What time is it?" She asked, pushing strands of long brown hair away from her face. Henry put down her guitar, and grinned,

"11." He told her, "You slept through breakfast, which by the way, was totally awesome." Prue rolled her eyes,

"Aunt Piper called last night and told us everything, so we thought we'd come over and cheer you up!" Prue squealed in her best cheer voice. Prue was the head cheerleader of their high school's cheer squad and made it her mission to inject cheer into every possible aspect of their lives, which was cool, because, cheer was exactly what Melinda needed.

"Thanks for coming guys, but I kinda need to talk to my parents about this whole Pact thing. Rain check?" She looked at the two, her eyes swimming with guilt, to her surprise, Prue and Henrys faces broke into huge smiles. As if Melinda had told them exactly what they had need to hear. "What?" she asked.

"Aunt Piper actually asked us to come over and try to get you to talk to her and Uncle Leo. She's worried you hate her or something." Henry said. Melinda smiled, that sounded like something her Mom would do. Prue got up from the bed,

"Okay, so, I'll tell Aunt Piper that you're coming downstairs?" Melinda nodded, "Well, we," Prue motioned to Henry, "are gonna go, but call me later okay? You and I need to talk." Prue shot Melinda a significant look as she left, Henry shot her one of his signature smiles that could make anyone smile back, no matter how sad or angry they were. And it worked, after her two best friends had left, Melinda got ready with a huge smile on her face. After Melinda had gotten ready, she slowly walked downstairs, wearing her favourite pair of shorts and a red tank top. She walked into the kitchen where her parents were, it was obvious that they had been talking about her, because when she walked in, they stopped talking. Melinda grabbed a mug from the cupboard and poured herself a cup of coffee, fully aware of the fact that her parents were watching her. After adding milk and sugar to her coffee, Melinda sat down at the kitchen table facing her parents.

"So," she began, stirring her coffee. "How long have you known about the Pact?" she asked, looking up at Piper and Leo.

"About a week." Piper answered. "The Elders told your Aunt Paige, who told us." Melinda nodded her head slowly,

"Okay, so since I think we've all pretty much figured out that there's no way to break the Pact. The magic's too strong. So what now? What's our next move?" Her parents looked at each other,

"Well, the Elders told us the names of the members of the Covenant. Their last names at least. Danvers, Garwin, Parry and Simms." Leo began, "Putnam's bloodline was killed off during the Salem hunts." Melinda smirked, Putnam had been the one to suggest the Pact, he deserved whatever he had gotten, that no good, lying, evil-

"Melinda honey?" Her moms voice broke through her musings, Melinda jumped,

"Sorry," she smiled sheepishly, Piper smiled back at her daughter, glad that she wasn't yelling at them or blowing things up as she had expected the teenager to do. 'Thank God she inherited Leo's rational mind' Piper mused. Leo, too was smiling as he continued on with what he was saying,

"So the Elders won't tell us who the eldest son is. BUT, we do know that he's only a few months older than you." Melinda breathed a sigh of relief, at least she wasn't betrothed to a man years older than her, a few months she could handle.

"So, does he know?" She asked her parents, "About the Pact I mean."

"No." Leo answered. "The Pact was recorded in a journal of one of the Covenant, that hasn't been found by the current Covenant."

"So, basically, I have to go find this random guy and tell him that he has to marry me?" Melinda asked. Piper and Leo nodded, "But, how am I gonna do it? With school and everything, I can't ask Henry to orb me to this Ipswich place or whatever everyday can I? So what do we do about that?" Her parents exchanged glances.

"Well, honey," Piper began, "The Elders told us that the Covenant go to a boarding school in Ipswich. Spencer Academy. The idea is that-"

"That I would go there and get to know HIM." Melinda finished her mother's sentence flatly. She knew this was coming, if the Elders hadn't suggested it, then she would've. It would be easier this way, being able to see her 'fiancée' everyday. "But how are we gonna pay for the school? Boarding school is pretty expensive…" she let the sentence trail off. Money had never been a problem for her family, Piper had opened a successful restaurant a few years ago and the money from 'Charmed', that was the name of the restaurant, combined with the income from P3, they had more than enough money to send Wyatt and Chris to good schools, but boarding school was boarding school.

"The Elders have decided to cover all the expenses, considering the importance of the matter. And you've already got a place ready for you, we sent your papers as soon as we found out." Leo admitted sheepishly. Melinda exhaled. She looked at her parents, and reached across the table for their hands.

"So, I guess it's off to Ipswich then?"

The next week was a blur of packing, farewells, and long heart to hearts with practically every member of Melinda's family. Her Aunt Phoebe had told her to keep her heart open at all times, especially where HE was concerned. Uncle Coop just winked and told her that he had a feeling that everything would work out okay. Prue had ordered her to call every single day with updates and pictures. 15 yr old Tric, also known as Patricia, had given her a mixtape to remind her of all of them, nine year old Penelope, had given her favourite stuffed teddy bear, Wuvy, who had been passed down to each Halliwell child, starting with Wyatt, and ending with Penny. Melinda had hugged the nine year old; she knew how much the bear meant to the little girl.

Aunt Paige told her to make her 'fiancée' work for her affections; "Just because he KNOWS that you're gonna end up with him, that doesn't mean that he can treat you like dirt, you know?" Melinda had nodded, pretending to get what her Aunt was trying to say. Uncle Henry, just shook his head, gave her a bear hug, and told her to take care of herself. Henry gave Melinda his favourite guitar, so that she'd be able to keep in practice. The twins, Peyton and Phoenix gave her a huge basket full of chocolates; "Because chocolate makes everything better." The 15 yr old twins had said.

Wyatt and Chris had given her a camera; "So we can make fun of how ugly your fiancée is." Wyatt had said while Aunt Phoebe glared at him. And last but not least, her parents took her outside to show her their going away present. There in the driveway, the backseat filled with all her stuff, stood a beautiful cherry red 1969 Chevy Impala. Melinda LOVED cars; she knew how to dismantle and reassemble an engine within 5 minutes. She had been saving up all of her money to buy this very car from an old junkyard and then spend God knows how long fixing it up. But here it was. Standing in her driveway, looking brand new.

"OMG!" Melinda screamed, launching herself into her Dads arms, "!" Laughing, Leo, removed himself from his daughters grasp,

"This is to say Thank You. We know what a big sacrifice this is for you. And your Mom and I are so proud of you." Melinda hugged her parents, and then reached up and wiped their tears away,

"I love you." She told her mother, "I'll call as soon I get there." Piper nodded, fearing that if she said anything, she might just break down in tears. Waving to the rest of her family, Melinda and Wyatt, who had been elected to take Melinda to Spenser, got into her new car and drove away from the house where Melinda had grown up. As she turned the car away from Prescott Street, Melinda wiped away her tears and wondered what troubles lay ahead.

A/N: What do you think? Too much fluff? Let me know people! Review!