The lights of the Christmas tree and the small twinkling lights around sparkled against the man made ice. Prue held on to Pipers hand as they skated around, once again passing their mother and Phoebe. Each one turning backwards watching as Mother guided her youngest around the temporary rink.

"Phoebe I don't get it. You were good at every sport growing up. How is it you never mastered skating?" Piper asked as she took her baby sisters hand.
"I don't know." she said as she concentrated on her feet.

Patty slowly let her daughter go in to the capable hands of her two older daughters, as she glided gracefully towards the side. Sitting there watching her three girls: the Charmed Ones.

She laughed a few times as Phoebe fell taking her sisters with her.

"Come on Mum." Prue pulled her mother back to her feet as Piper held on to Phoebes hands. The four of them skating around the tree in the center, falling once or twice from laughter and Phoebe losing her balance.

As they sat along the edge in the snow Phoebe leaned in to her mother. "I love you so much."
Patty looked down at her youngest daughter. Wrapping her arms around her, "Oh Phoebe, I love you too."

Prue looked over at Piper who in turn just leaned towards her sister.
"Now?" she said quietly to Prue.
"I think it would be best." Prue replied not taking her eyes off Phoebe and her mother. "Phoebe." She spoke quietly not really wanting to disturb the moment her sister was having with her mother.
"I know." she didn't move from her spot, wanting to hold on to that one moment in time.

Patty looked at each of her girls with suspicion but as the words started from their mouths she knew what was happening. They were setting things back as they were to be. She made no move to stop them only placing a kiss on the top Phoebes head and reaching out and squeezing Piper and Prue's hands in hers. "I will always love you three no matter what."

Christmas desires to remain in the heart
Christmas desires to remain apart
Take now what was not meant to be
Return our hearts to where they should be.

Phoebe squeezed her mother's hand one more time, but as they all waited for something to happen, nothing did.

"Um. What just happened?" Piper asked as she looked around seeing them all still sitting there with their mother.
"Maybe this is what was suppose to happen " Prue gave her answer hoping it was. Hoping she would keep her life with Andy.
"No something went wrong. This isn't real." Phoebe was quick to say as she stood up, forgetting she was on the ice and in skates. Her balance quickly flailing, as she tried to steady herself.

First it was on her tailbone, before she almost slowly tipped over to her side.

Prue cried out at the sound of her sisters head smacking against the ice. "Some call 911!" her voice full of fear as the red blood bleached out along the hard ice. "Phoebe don't you dare leave me." She spoke quietly to her sisters' ear.

Piper was beside Prue holding on to Phoebes hand with their mother on the other side. Each one speaking softly to her telling her to hang on.

--- ----

"Take my hand Phoebe." The voice was soft yet husky.

She hesitated but reached out and took it anyway. Somewhere she trusted it even though she couldn't see who it was.

"You did this?" she asked finding her own voice. "You showed me a life that I could never have only to rip it away from me."
"It is what you asked for." He spoke to her yet giving no signs of harm. Always calm and understanding.
"I never asked for this." She was confused.
"In your heart you did. The one thing you always wanted for Christmas. Every year your heart wishes the same wish. A life with your mother. One were you all had normal lives. Ones you wanted to live."

She was silent as they slowly moved through memories she had seen. Memories that were created out of a heartfelt wish.

A doll for Christmas, a graduation with both her sisters and her mother standing there beaming with pride. Her mother congratulating her on a win with her basketball team. Scraped knees with her mother making all the pain go away. Broken hearts, broken dates. No fights with her sisters, just them growing up a normal life. Learning to drive. Trips to the hospital. Prue's wedding, with her and Piper both standing up for her. Over night sleepovers with Mum in the middle of all the laughter.

"All that and more. All that your heart wanted Phoebe. You have."
"But it isn't real, the innocents we saved. Ones we are still meant to. We can't help them."
"What of the ones that are still saved because of it?"
"Andy." She remembered the pained look in Prue's eyes when she knew that Andy was not meant to be part of her life. Was it all worth it? Her mind twisted around the question over and over.

Once again magic was turning her world and her life upside down. The faint light starting through her eyelids, voices heard whispered in the background. Voices she knew. It was Christmas, these things weren't supposed to happen at Christmas.

The bright light engulfed her completely before he was gone. Leaving her alone to finish her journey.

"Phoebe. Sweetie?" she locked on the voice pulling herself from what ever dream or nightmare she was having. Anything to get away from the demons around her. The ringing in her head was to loud, as he held her eyes closed. Wishing the throbbing to go away along with the man speaking to her.

"Come on babes. Open your eyes."

She fluttered them briefly feeling the pounding still there but the cool wet cloth on her brow helped ease the pain a little.

"Prue?"
"Hey sweet girl. You gave us all a good scare there."
"Mum?" her voice weak and talking hurt her head even more.

Piper and Prue looked at each other not really sure what to say.

"Just rest sweetie. You hit your head pretty good honey." Piper brushed her hand gently over the top of her sisters' head.

Phoebe tried to push herself up from her bed. "No I need to know." but as she looked around the familiar room she knew. It was a wish her heart had wanted as much as she did, but deep down inside her heart she had to do the right thing.

"Prue? Can you finish a Christmas carol please." She looked up at her big sister almost pleading with her.

Piper was about to protest but there was something in her sisters' eyes that made her let it go. Looking up at Prue she saw her oldest sister also letting go with her worry for one night.
"Sure sweetie. I'll go get it." Prue leaned over and kissed Phoebe on the forehead before hurrying down the stairs in fetch of the old book.

Prue came back upstairs and settled in on Phoebes bed next to her. Piper took up a place on the other side with Phoebe leaning against her.

"Ok then where were we before you decided to take a dive?" Prue smiled down at her sister.

The pages turned with care as they all got lost in the tale of Scrooge.

"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!'' Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!''

He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.

"Ok I need hot chocolate. Anyone else." Piper asked as she slid off the bed.
"Better make it three Piper." Prue suggested.

Phoebe moved over and rested her head on Prue's lap, the pounding having gone down slightly. Just been relaxed and near her sisters was all she really needed, and a mug of Pipers hot Chocolate.

"Ok here we go." Piper came back in handing Prue her mug and Phoebe hers as she settled back down on the big bed.

Prue felt Phoebe shift back over to her as she finished her drink. Reaching around instinctively she placed her arm around her little sisters' shoulders.

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

"And that my dear sisters. Ends another reading of a Christmas Carol."
"Yeah but you never finished before midnight Prue." Piper laughed
"Yeah well Grams never had Phoebe take a dive and crack her head open on the kitchen floor."

Phoebe didn't move but one thing hung on the mind of the older two Halliwell's.
"Phoebe. You're awfully quiet." Piper asked reaching out checking for a fever. "You ok?"
"I was just thinking. Actually Grams did read it once with me cracking my head."

Prue looked across at Piper almost worried.

"Phoebe?"
"I don't know what it was or who, but they changed history. They changed one little thing that I had done and undid it." she stared though seeing the confusion on her sisters faces she kept going.

"Remember when we went back to the past and I wrote Mum that note."
"Yeah, you took it out."
"Well that was the one thing he changed. Mum read the note and got a premonition from me not long after we left. When she was still pregnant."
"Phoebe that would change history huge." Piper said.
"It did. Mum was alive, Prue was this world famous photographer. You had two restaurants and the club, and I was about graduate from medical school. We never fought near as much as we did. Mum was there, she was my Mum not Prue." Phoebe looked up at her big sister and took her hand, "Not that I minded you Prue there were just times when I would lye in here and wish for her.
"I know baby, so did I." Prue said quietly with her arm around her sister
"I think we all did." Piper added.

Silence fell on them before she continued. "But in the end we all knew it wasn't real. It wasn't meant to be. Our powers were still bound, but Grams was teaching us slowly, but things changed. Darryl was killed by that Guardian. Cole wasn't around, Andy was. The girl that we saved from the third eye laser guy died, and the future her son was to create was then gone. So many innocents that we saved were killed. Innocents that we didn't even know about because a demon that we vanquished lived. Grams was right that day. You can't change the past."
"No you can't sweetie. So what happened then?" Prue asked the unanswered question.
"I don't know, like I said the three of us figured it out. Then I was skating with you two and mum. We tried a spell and it didn't work. The next thing I know I am feeling my head crack against the ice then nothing. Maybe it was because I figured it out. Someone came to me and told me that what I saw was my inner desire."

There was something about Phoebes tales that for Piper rang true. She felt something but didn't know what it was. But the sparkle of blue lights shinning around the room caused them all to look up.

"Phoebe your awake."
"Hi Leo."
"And I see you all are."

Prue and Piper looked at him curious.
"Leo what are you talking about?" Prue questioned him
"You don't remember?"
"I remember bringing Phoebe up to her room and you trying to heal her."
"Then you both snuggled down beside her and fell asleep. I couldn't wake you. It was like you were lost in a dream or a spell. I went up to see if they knew anything and I just got back. I was gone a couple hours."

Piper looked at Prue as they both started to piece together fragments of a memory.

"Phoebe were you and Piper both standing up with me when I married Andy?" Prue asked hesitantly.

Phoebe looked over at her sister stunned as she nodded her head.

"And I wore Pink, off the shoulder to my Prom." Piper added in.

"So we were all there." Phoebe stated though not knowing why her sisters were there as well.
"Seems that whoever it was, trapped you all in with your one hearts desire Phoebe. Once you all figured out that what was you all came home again."
"So what we lived and saw was a lie." Piper surmised.
"We lived a life with Mum." Phoebe spoke quietly as she felt the tears well up in her eyes. The one thing in her heart she had always wanted; a Christmas and a life with her mother.

Prue pulled Phoebe close to her, as she felt her own tears welling up behind her eyes. Reaching out she took hold of Pipers hand, who in turn leaned against Prue.

"So who was it?" Piper looked from Leo to her sisters.

"Whoever it was, we worry about it tomorrow." Prue said wanting to just spend the holidays with her siters and not worry about demons.

--- ----

The sun shone through the stained glass of the Manor; Christmas morning. Piper moved through the kitchen, her mind on the nights before. The memories she had still fresh but she also knew they were drifting.

Prue sat in the window seat waiting for Phoebe to wake up. She had slept restlessly the night before and awoke each time Phoebe had. Leo had stayed up waking her every so often to make sure she was really ok. A demon may have attacked her when she was unconscious, but the fall and hit to her head were real.

"Merry Christmas Prue."

Prue looked over and met the deep brown eyes of her baby sister. "Merry Christmas to you Baby girl. What say we head down stairs and see what Santa brought?"

No further prodding was needed as Phoebe swung her legs over the side of the bed and hurried down the stairs.

--- ----

Patty looked down on her three beautiful girls as she felt the arm wrap around her.

"This is the way it should be Patty."

"I know. I still wish though, as much as Phoebe has and still does."

"They each got to see what it would have been for them if you were still there. But they also got to see what would have happened had they not become witches."

Patty leaned into the strong arms that held her, "Thank you Andy, for always watching them.

"Any time. I just hope they don't think I am a demon and come looking for me." he gave a slight simle as he gave the woman beside him a hug, a hug to the mother in law he too never got to know.

The empty stockings lay near the hearth, the wrapping paper pilled in boxes ready for the garbage or to reuse the next year if it survived the opening of the gift.

The warm fire glowing through the living room as the smell of the turkey roasting came in from the kitchen. Three sisters leaned in against each other enjoying the warmth of family.

"She's here you know." Phoebe soft voice broke the silence around them
"She has been every year sweetie." Piper replied though not moving from her place leaning against Phoebe.
"And she will be every year." Prue added as she tightened her hug on Phoebe who was leaning against her.

Silence again as they watched the crackling of the fire. The soft sounds of Christmas playing over the stereo as another Christmas started to near the end.

Phoebe reached up one hand and placed it on the one Prue had around her. The other hand she placed over Pipers shoulder. Her older sister reaching up for it and taking it in her own. Sealing the link between them all.

"God bless us, Everyone!"

The End

I wish blesses on all of you for the Christmas season and the rest of the coming year. May all your Christmas wishes come true. Especially those dear to your heart. May the meaning of the season guide you bright and true.

Merry Christmas

Di