AN: Many thanks to piperloveleoalways, Charmed225, -0-charmed-freak-0, Jedi Alanna and lizardmomma for their reviews of Chapter 10! I love you all!

Chapter Eleven

"This is not happening. This is not happening," Prue repeated as if in a trance. She had to be hallucinating. She hadn't had champagne in a long time; clearly it was distorting her senses and making her see things that weren't really there.

Piper also wanted to blame the champagne. "We didn't even drink that much," She said, laughing nervously. She vowed not to drink again for a long time.

While Prue and Piper stood motionless, Phoebe dared to approach the mother they had barely known and the grandmother who had raised them. "Mom? Grams? Are you really real? Or am I going to wake up?" Phoebe felt something wet on her cheeks and realized that she was crying.

"Yes, sweetie, we're real," Patty answered.

"You don't look like ghosts. Shouldn't you be transparent and floating?" Phoebe asked, thinking of the many ghosts she had seen on television or read about in books.

Penny laughed. "Normally we would be, but the Elders have allowed us to take human form while we talk to you."

"How do I know it's really you guys?" Phoebe questioned. Her heart wanted to believe, but her mind told her that this had to be some sort of trick or cruel illusion. Dead relatives didn't just drop by to say hello, no matter how much you missed them.

"Ask us something only we would know," Patty suggested.

"All right. Grams, describe my first boyfriend," Phoebe challenged.

"Green hair. Mohawk. Tattoos and piercings all over his body. He was seventeen; you were thirteen."

Phoebe smiled at the memory. "Okay, so I was going through a bit of a rebellious stage. I wonder what ever happened to him. One day he just stopped calling me."

Grams looked very pleased with herself. "If you must know, I cast a spell on him to make him forget that you existed."

A spell? Phoebe thought. So they really were witches? As her brain struggled to process this revelation, she turned to her mother. "Your turn, Mom. Umm..." Phoebe had been very young when her mother died, so she was at a loss as to what she could possibly ask.

"What was the last thing you said to me before you died?" Prue interjected. She had finally decided that she wasn't hallucinating. The last thing she had said to her mother was "I love you", and so it had taken her many years to say those words to anyone else. In her mind Prue was transported back to that awful day. She was a child again, standing on the dock and watching men put her mother in a body bag. The police were trying to talk to her, but she heard nothing. She had known even then that, from that moment on, her life would never be the same. Her mother was never coming back. Her childhood had ended.

Patty sighed, knowing the pain her death had caused, and regretting that she hadn't been there for her girls. "I told you that I had an errand to run and that it wouldn't take long. I'm so sorry that I left you. I may not have been there when you were growing up, but I never stopped loving you." Everyone in the room, living and dead, was crying now.

"Mom," Phoebe said, savoring the word. "Grams. Since you're both in 'human form' now, can we hug you?"

"Yes, my dears. Yes you can." For several minutes the sisters took turns embracing their mother and grandmother, wishing this night would never end.

"I was watching over you, my darling daughters." Patty said. "Always."

"Always?" Phoebe repeated. The thought was as frightening as it was comforting. "Even when we were, you know, with someone?"

Patty laughed, a beautiful sound they never thought they would hear again. "Okay, not always. I respected your privacy when necessary."

"Now girls," Grams interrupted. "Your mother and I came here because we need to talk to you. Please, sit down and make yourselves comfortable. This may take a while." Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sat down on the couch.

Phoebe spoke first. "So, Grams, you said that you put a spell on my first boyfriend. So you were a witch? And Mom? And us too?"

Grams nodded. "All your ancestors have been, dating back to Melinda Warren, who was killed in Salem in 1692."

"What does being a witch mean exactly?" Piper asked.

"It means that you were born with special powers and a special destiny: to fight evil and protect the innocent," Patty answered.

"And by 'evil' you mean demons?" Prue prompted.

"Demons, warlocks, malevolent spirits, vampires...," Grams paused when she saw the horrified expressions on her granddaughters' faces, "...basically evil creatures in any shape. They have powers too, but never enough. They'll try to kill you and take yours."

"You girls thought that I drowned," Patty added. "I was really killed by a water demon, a demon responsible for several other deaths. In the original timeline, you all vanquished him." She stopped talking for a few moments to allow this to sink in. "If you hadn't destroyed him, he would have continued to kill anyone unlucky enough to be in that lake. You are heroes, my girls. You accomplished so many things as the Charmed Ones. You can't let all the good you've done be washed away."

"So all the stuff Leo said about the timeline being changed– it was all true?" Piper asked, incredulous.

"That's exactly what we're saying," Grams answered. "You were destined for greatness from the moment you were born. Receive your powers, my dears, and use them with pride. Vanquish Tarquin and fix the timeline."

Phoebe felt as if she had won the lottery. So they really were super heroes with magical powers! This was so cool! She looked over at her sisters to see their reactions. They appeared more confused than excited.

"All right, hypothetically," Prue began, "Say that we accept our powers and restore the timeline. What are our lives like there? Are Andy and I married in the 'real' timeline?"

Leo tried not to wince. "The Elders have forbidden me to tell you details about your personal lives, but I can tell you that many innocent people who have died unjustly in this timeline will be alive because you saved them, and many demons who are wreaking havoc now will be gone because you vanquished them."

"What do you say, girls?" Grams asked. "Will you receive your powers and make things right?" Leo, Patty, and Penny waited eagerly while Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sat silently in thought.

Phoebe answered immediately. Of course she would do it! "Yes."

Prue answered a minute later. "Yes."

All eyes were on Piper. She looked down at the floor. "No," she said softly.

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