Last Chapter! Sorry for the wait!

Previously…

"No it won't. Because I'm going back… today," Prue said in unshakable determination, and the rest of the sisters knew in that moment that nothing they could ever say would change her mind.

At this, Piper stepped forward and stood eye to eye with her big sister. At first Phoebe and Paige were terrified that, in her rage, Piper would use her power of explosion on Prue, but then Piper's expression turned from one of pure anger to one of pleading desperation as tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Prue, I can't… we can't lose you again," she begged.

"You won't have too," said a new voice in the room.

Chapter 10. But it feels good that forever isn't today

Everyone looked around the room searching for the source of the new voice. Suddenly, bright orbs began to form into the shape of a woman with raven hair and piercing blue eyes. She was wearing a white dress and even though she was corporeal, she had a faint otherworldly glow around her.

"Prue!" Piper and Phoebe shouted, their voices full of shock and excitement. They made no hesitation in running over to their eldest sister and throwing their arms around her. The embrace between the three sisters was similar to the one they had shared when they traveled back to 2001. Except this embrace was different, because it was equally met by a Prue who had missed them just as desperately as they had missed her. After what seemed like a few eternities, Prue finally let go and stepped back to look at her sisters.

Piper was the first to speak, "I can't believe you're here, after all the times I tried to summon you. Why now?"

The angelic figure looked away as she began to explain, "After I died, Grams told you that you couldn't summon me because you had to move on with your life. What she didn't tell you is that while both of you were trying to cope with the fact that I was gone, I was 'up there' in a complete state of shock and outrage. If it wasn't for Grams, Mom, and Andy holding me back I would've attacked one of the Elders and then I'd probably have been sent to the wasteland to spend the rest of my afterlife."

Phoebe let out a small chuckle after hearing this story. She could only imagine her big sister showing up in the peaceful tranquil space of 'up there' and making a huge scene to disrupt all of that peace and that tranquility.

Prue carried on, "I just couldn't accept my own death. I tried everything in my power to come back to the two of you. Astral projection, spells, I even tried latching onto a white lighter mid-orb in the hopes that I could somehow make it back to Earth, but none of my efforts worked. I was trapped, forced to watch my sisters face countless evils and dangers that I couldn't protect them from."

"Wait a minute. You mean you've been able to watch us this whole time?" Piper questioned.

Prue nodded her head, "Yes. I've seen the good and the bad. I was watching when you two met Paige, when the power of three was revived, and the three of you killed Shax and then the Source. Piper, I watched your grief nearly destroy who you are when you turned into a fury, and I saw how Paige was able to save you by helping you release all of your anger towards me."

At this revelation, both Paige and Piper looked down as several tears fell from Piper's face.

"I've been with all of you through everything." Prue continued, "The victories, the losses and the heartbreaks. I watched as my sisters found their soulmates, seen the birth of all of my nephews and nieces, and I've watched them grow. After a while, my anger over dying young slowly faded, but the resentment that I felt never went away. It's the reason why I could never come back before, until now that is. I had to see this moment for myself to know that I was given a choice, and I made the right decision. You see, the reason you guys haven't been able to summon me is not through any fault of your own, but mine."

Piper's face lit up with hope as she asked, "So we'll be able to summon you now?"

"No," Prue shook her head, "It's better than that. The elders are proud of all of us, and wanted to reward us. At first they didn't know what they could give as a reward, until someone persuaded them to make me the Whitelighter for the next charmed generation," She explained with a sly smile.

"Sounds like that idea came from someone I know," said Piper, eyeing her sister knowingly.

Whitelighter Prue shrugged, "I might have had a few words to say on the subject."

"Well I'm glad the elders finally made the right decision for once in their life, even if it was all your idea," Piper concluded.

"Well that wasn't the only good decision the elders ever made," said Whitelighter Prue as she began to walk over towards Paige, who seemed more nervous to meet this big sister than she had when she met the Prue from the past. Prue stopped just in front of Paige and placed a hand on her youngest sister's shoulder, then turned and faced her other two sisters.

Everyone in the room waited for the Whitelighter to continue. "You see, even though the elders forbade me from seeing you guys after my death, they allowed me to help guide Paige and lead her to finding the two of you."

Paige took in a sharp breath as realization hit, "You mean, the obituary that appeared in my office that day, that was you!?"

Prue smiled and nodded her head, then she wrapped her arms around her baby sister. "Thank you for keeping this family together, better than I ever could," she whispered into Paige's ear so only she could hear. Paige just closed her eyes as silent tears fell in reply.

After they finally let go of each other, Whitelighter Prue made her way over to a less ghostly, slightly stunned, identical version of herself. She gently placed her hands over past Prue's. "Now, in order for me to become the Whitelighter of the Charmed children, there's something we have to do first."

Behind the two Prue's, a blue portal appeared. As they both began to turn around, Piper reached out and grabbed onto Whitelighter Prue's hand for dear life. "Please promise me that you'll come back," she managed to get the words out through her sobs.

The Whitelighter used her free hand to brush back Piper's hair, "I promise," she said with certainty.

Satisfied with her big sister's promise, Piper let go of her hand and rejoined the rest of the group.

Past Prue took one last glance at her family and said, "I love you. All of you."

"We love you too," the sisters replied in unison.

Prue gave them a sad smile as she wiped away a few involuntary tears before walking through the portal with her other self.

-The Past-

The two of them appeared in the attic of the manor. Now that they were alone, Whitelighter Prue decided it was a good time to get her past-self to talk about the over-whelming emotions she'd been experiencing recently. "Prue, you know can't hide your feelings from me like you do around everyone else, because I am you. So tell me what you've been too stubborn and proud to say in front of the others."

Prue dropped her gaze to the floor and barley whispered the words, "I'm scared."

The Whitelighter let out a sympathetic sigh as she lifted Prue's face so she could look at her. "I know you're scared. And I know that's not an easy thing for us to admit. But you have to remember that on that day, we saved our sisters, and I know you wouldn't have it any other way. The alternative, losing a sister, it was never an option for us."

"But they've been through so much without me, so much I should've been there for, so much I could've protected them from," the past one argued.

"We can't protect them from everything, Prue, not even when we were alive. We couldn't stop mom from giving up Paige. We couldn't stop mom from dying, then Grams. We couldn't stop dad from walking out on his family. But all of those things made us and our sisters stronger. And look at how strong our family is now. I know your heart was full of pride and joy when you came to the future. It's the future we always wanted for our sisters."

"You're right," Past Prue admitted.

"Of course I'm right. I always am." Whitelighter Prue gave her classic triumphant smile that she used every time she knew she had won an argument.

"Normally I'm the one who's always right. But how can I win a debate against an older, much wiser version of myself? The odds are against me," Prue shrugged.

The Whitelighter just gave a half-smile and then her face turned serious. "My point is, it's okay to be scared, but you don't have to be," she concluded as she pulled out a bag of dust.

Prue recognized it instantly from the time Sam had used it on her and her sisters and she began to back away. "No. I don't want to forget. I've been trying to hold onto and cherish every moment I've spent with my family in the future. You can't take that away from me. Please," Prue began to plead, with tears in her eyes.

"Don't worry. The effects of the dust won't last forever. You'll remember everything when the time is right." the Whitelighter knew her past-self would understand.

Prue didn't argue. As much as she didn't want to forget, she knew the burden of carrying around the knowledge of her own impending death would be too much to handle. And she didn't want her little sisters to suspect anything and risk changing the future. So she stood up straight, stared back at the angelic Whitelighter version of herself and said, "I'm ready."

-May 4th, 2001-

Prue and her little sisters awoke the next morning in a daze. Yesterday had been a blur completely erased from their memories.

As they made their way into the living room, they discussed everything they remembered about yesterday in an attempt to piece the day together.

"Okay. So what does everybody remember?" Phoebe questioned her two siblings.

Piper answered first, "I just remember Leo waking me up to tell me he had to orb out to take care of a charge, and then I decided I would go to the kitchen and make breakfast. After that, it gets a little fuzzy."

"Me too," Phoebe added, "What about you, Prue?"

Unlike her sisters, Prue couldn't remember anything from yesterday, not even waking up that morning. All she could remember was last night, which wasn't even a memory, but a dream. "All I know is I had this dream last night that left me with a really good feeling. I saw you two, only you were older and you both had children and husbands. There was someone else there too. She sort of reminded me of mom, actually she reminded me of all of us," Prue smiled as she recalled the details of her dream, and then she continued, "Whatever happened yesterday, there's a reason why we can't remember any of it. And my instincts are telling me that we should leave it be."

Piper and Phoebe nodded in response. They both knew that their sister trusted her instincts and always relied on them when making tough decisions.

-Present day 2009-

The sisters waited at the warehouse as the hours passed by, and they were beginning to fear that their Whitelighter sister was never coming back.

"Do you think something went wrong?" Paige asked, "What if the Elders changed their minds?"

"Don't say that!" Piper snapped.

"Well sitting here isn't going to solve anything," Phoebe reasoned, "Let's just go home. We'll try to figure it out after we get there."

Back at the manor, the children were elated to see their moms and aunts come walking through the door, all except for little Chris who was still staring at the front door.

"Aunt Pwue! Aunt Pwue!," the young boy demanded to see his new favorite Aunt.

"I know sweetie, I miss your Aunt Prue too," Piper knelled down to his level and sighed, wondering why her sister had broken her promise.

"Then turn around," Piper heard a voice say behind her.

"Prue?" Piper held her breath as she spun around and huge smile crossed her face as she saw the one person she thought she might never see again, "Thank God you're back!"

"I'm back for good," Whitelighter Prue concluded to try and ease her sister's worry.

Phoebe and Paige looked behind them when they heard Piper's joyful cry. When they saw their two older sisters hugging they rushed to join them in the embrace.

And so, after a powerfully emotional day, the setting sun brought peace and serenity. All of the sisters slept easier that night, because they finally had their big sister back. And they knew that she would protect their children with the same fierce love that she had displayed when she was alive.

The End.

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!