Okay, it's not quiiite Tuesday yet, but let's just suspend reality and pretend it is, k? ;) I'm reeeally tired so I'm off to bed, but I still wanted to put this up... anyway, it probably won't even be up 'til past midnight so... Enjoy!
PS!! Please note we're now entering a new format for the story, aka "episode-ish format" ;) Basically that just means an adventure starts at the beginning of the chapter, and ends at the end of it :) This will last for seventeen chapters, then back to the old format :D
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"Mommy!" Cecilia cried again, Diana turning her sister's head away as she cried too. Without stopping to think about the ramifications this exposure would do, Prue pushed to the front of the huddle and kneeled down as best she could.
"Helena, stand back! Henry, come here!" He did, Prue grabbed his hand and held her other over her Aunt's head.
"What are you doing, we have to get her to the hospital!" Helena crouched again.
"Stand BACK!" Prue instructed her as she focused harder. "Come on!" she muttered to herself. Finally, slowly but surely, light wrapped around her hand and she could feel it was working. "Yes!"
"W-What's happening?" Helena asked. The words were barely out of her mouth when they heard the chandelier shaking. A bluish bright light illuminated the group as Paige was starting to regain consciousness.
"Oh… This can't be good…" Prue whispered to herself. Her Aunt opened her eyes. "Careful, we almost lost you there."
"I think you had…" she sat up, as her two youngest daughters ran into her arms. She hugged them tight. "Mommy's okay," she reassured them, "Mommy's okay."
"Mom, what's going on?" Helena asked frantically. "I mean Prue's hand was all bright, and you… you were gone and back, and the chandelier…" Paige inwardly gasped, knowing what had just happened.
"Well…" she started.
"We have to go…" All turned to Prue, who still sat on her knees, though now she had both hands on her belly and she looked in pain.
"Is it time, are you sure?" Paige asked and Prue nodded. "Helena, call Ava, tell her to meet us at the hospital." The incident seemed presently forgotten as they helped Prue up.
"And Keely too!" she told Helena. "Her and the others…" Her cousin nodded and scrambled for the phone.
A few minutes later, the family arrived at the hospital. Glen, who'd been out of the house, was called and now on his way. Helena had spoken with Liliana Nicolae, Ava's 17-year-old and twin to Mirella. She assured Helena that her mother was on the way. She arrived just as Prue was being wheeled to delivery.
"What did you do back there?" Helena was asking as she followed the bed.
"Can we talk about this LATER?" Prue breathed. She was moved beyond the point where her family couldn't follow anymore. Keely went with her as it'd been decided.
In the waiting room, Paige was faced with many questions. After sending Norah and Caroline on a snack errand, she prepared to tell them something not necessarily the truth, when…
"Why am I seeing myself?" Emily was almost hyperventilating, "Why am I seeing myself saying this?" She started breathing normally again a few seconds later. "Okay, what just happened here?" Cecilia was still staying as close to her mother as possible and crying.
"I want Violet," she whimpered. Just as she'd said the name, the purple bear orbed into her hands. Paige gasped, and so did the others.
"Oh… I died…" Paige spoke to herself.
"Mom, what's going on?" Helena asked. The kids looked at Paige. Before she could answer though, Keely came in.
"She's here! Seven pounds on the dot. Come on, they've taken Prue to a room and they'll bring the baby."
"How is she? Tired, I presume?" Paige asked as she stood with Cecilia in her arms.
"Yeah, but she did good according to the doctor." The group, which now included Glen, followed Keely. Paige handed the still frightened Cecilia over to her father, who still had no idea what had happened at the manor, and had arrived just after Cecilia's orbing Violet to herself. She went to the new mother.
"Congratulations!"
"Thanks," she smiled. Her long hair had been hurriedly put in a braid on the way over. A nurse came in, wheeling the 'carriage' over. She handed the wide-eyed newborn to Prue and the others gathered around to see.
"Wow…" Helena smiled as Prue cried tears of joy.
"What are you naming her?" Paige asked of her sort-of-granddaughter. Prue looked at her daughter.
"Molly… Molly Angela Halliwell."
*
The next morning – Halliwell Manor
After leaving the hospital the previous afternoon, Paige was afraid of facing the questions, but that didn't come. In fact they were pretty quiet. There were no magical occurrences, and the topic was ignored until now, the morning after, when Prue and little Molly came by after leaving the hospital. They were driven by Keely, who came in with them. As though they'd been waiting for her to be there to do it, the questions began.
"Mom, we want to know," Helena told Paige.
"Know what?" Glen asked. Paige cringed.
"Between your… miraculous revival… Emily seeing something that didn't make sense, Cecilia's bear appearing out of nowhere…"
"And the chandelier, don't forget the chandelier," Charlotte pointed out to her cousin. She'd seen the 'something that didn't make sense' too, the night before.
"Paige, what are they talking about?" Glen asked his wife.
"Twelve years ago, after Piper and Phoebe were killed, I was faced with a decision. See… They were and I am still… witches. We had powers, and so would our children… you. But as it was decided, you might benefit from a life without the dangers that came with who we were, what we were. So I bound… took away… Emily, Charlotte, and Helena's powers, then Diana and Cecilia's when they were born. Prue was at an age where she wouldn't so easily forget what she'd been able to do all her life, so I let her keep her powers. And Henry… well he didn't have powers, so I didn't do anything. But when I fell down the stairs yesterday, I was… dead, just briefly, and that action appears to have… returned your powers."
The room was silent for a minute, then Helena began to laugh. "You're kidding, right? I mean that's not possible!"
"You're sure of that?" Prue asked, handing Molly to Keely. Helena nodded. "Then how would you explain this?" She took flight, hovering above their heads. They gasped. She landed again. "Believe us now?"
"Starting to…" Helena spoke slowly.
"What… powers… do we have?" Emily asked.
"Well… Your Uncle Leo and my father were both whitelighters… guardian angels for us… so myself, Prue, Helena, Diana, Cecilia, we have certain powers from them, mainly orbing."
"Orbing?" Helena asked. Without preventing, Prue turned sharply to her cousin and let out a loud 'Boo!' Helena held her arms in front of her face and cringed before disappearing in orbs and reappearing a second later. She breathed heavily as the others went wide-eyed.
"Orbing," Prue smiled. "Not quite 'Beam me up, Scotty', but close."
"Dizzy…" Helena muttered, rubbing at her head.
"Normal at first. You'll get used to it," Prue assured before turning to her Aunt.
"Prue can also, as you've seen, fly. And she can read thoughts. Helena, you have the power of premonition. You'll get visions of events yet to come. You might have a headache from time to time."
"Great…" she muttered, though she couldn't deny if she weren't so dizzy she'd be happier about this development.
"Emily and Charlotte, all we were able to see before your powers were bound was that the two of you have what we've called a 'psychic connection'. As you've seen before, you can see through each other's eyes. Other aspects of the connection were never known to us, so we'll see now…" The twins nodded, looking at each other, smiling.
"What can I do?" Diana asked. Paige crouched next to her.
"You have the power to 'freeze' time. It doesn't work on other witches like us, but…" she nudged the desk behind her and the glass 'key bowl' toppled over the edge. Diana's hands shot up to retrieve it. The bowl stopped falling, halting in mid-air. Paige pointed to Glen, Simon, and Keely, frozen in place. Prue took Molly back from Keely. Diana was fascinated by what she'd done. She reached out to touch the bowl. As soon as she did, the bowl continued to fall. Paige orbed it to her hand and placed it back. Those who'd been frozen were slightly disoriented.
"Cool," Diana smiled. Paige smiled back.
"What about me? What can I do?" Cecilia asked excitedly. Paige laughed.
"You have the same power I do, and also the one your Aunt Prue had. Like her, you can move objects with your mind. And like me you can call to objects and they'll orb to you." That appeared to satisfy Cecilia. Prue looked at Henry. He understood.
"Actually, Aunt Paige… I do have abilities. We found out about it almost three years ago.
"What?" Paige asked.
"This would be a good time to show them the Book…" Prue told her Aunt. She sighed.
"Meet me in the attic," she told them before orbing off.
"The attic?" Helena called after her mother.
"Come on…" Prue instructed her cousins. They began up the stairs. When they got to the attic, Paige was there, standing over a large trunk. She pulled out a big object wrapped in velvet. She took it to a stand and from the cloth she produced the long-hidden Book of Shadows.
"Gather around," she told the children.
"Aunt Paige, may I?" Prue asked. She nodded. Prue went to the Book, immediately thinking of the time she'd multiplied herself. She searched for a couple of minutes before… "There. This is what Henry can do." Paige looked.
"Augmenter… that's how you healed me, isn't it?" Prue nodded. "Well… looks like we're going to have a lot to deal with."
"Yeah," Prue agreed as the phone rang from downstairs.
"Phone!" Cecilia announced, inadvertently orbing it into her hands. She squealed happily. Paige laughed as she took the phone. "Hello?" she answered.
"Hello, Paige? This is Karen," Mrs. Hendrix sounded slightly shaken.
"Hey Karen, how are you?" she asked. Keely looked up at the mention of her mother's name.
"Not good."
"What happened?" she asked, causing Keely to start worrying.
"Yesterday afternoon… Sierra disappeared."
"What? Did you find her?"
"Not disappeared as in she wasn't there, disappeared as in she vanished, got lighter and lighter and faded until we couldn't see her anymore. Only she was still there, we could hear her speak, she was scared. It was like she was invisible. Eventually she reappeared, but it's been happening every so often."
"Oh I forgot about her powers…" she spoke to herself.
"And… Walker left just now. He took two suitcases, I don't think he's coming back," she cried. "He was angry that I didn't tell him about what Sierra was, and we'd been fighting for a while, I guess that was the last straw…"
"Alright, I'm coming over." She hung up.
"What's going on?" Keely asked.
"Come on, we're going to your house."
In the car ride over, Paige brought Keely up to speed. The girl learned, with expected shock, that her sister was a witch too. The hardest had been to tell her that her father had left upon learning about it. She'd used the rest of the ride and worked to reach a level of calm to be there for her mother and sister.
"Look, by now you guys are like family to us, so… whatever you need, we'll be there for you," Paige told the girl as they parked in front of the house. Keely smiled.
"Thanks."
*
November 11th 2022 – Diana and Cecilia's school
"You two remember, don't use your powers. I know it might be hard to control them, but I also know you're able to do this," Paige told her daughters as they stood outside the car. They nodded.
"Diana!" They looked up and saw Angelina was waving at them.
"Have a good day HoneyDee," Paige kissed her goodbye.
"Later Mom!" she ran off. Paige watched until the girls were inside the building, waved to Ana Catanzaro and turned to Cecilia.
"You know, I was thinking last night it might be a good idea if you had someone to play with who you could be open to." Cecilia nodded. "And I happen to know someone who has a daughter your age who goes here. What do you think? You want to try that out?" Cecilia nodded again. "Great. Here they come now."
About eight years ago, she'd met the woman in her Lamaze class. Through some conversations she'd found out she was a witch too. They'd kept in contact over the years though not openly, for fear of the children hearing something they shouldn't. And this was a mutual favor. The woman's daughter was kind of shy, fully shy rather, and usually stayed alone. She was afraid of accidentally hurting someone.
"Raina, hey," Paige stood and shared a quick hug with the woman. The short brown-haired girl at her side made sure not to lose grasp of her hand.
"Hi Paige," she nodded. "You must be Cecilia," she looked at the blonde.
"Hi!" she nodded. Raina turned back to her daughter.
"Don't be scared sweetie, they're witches too." The girl slowly rose her head. Little Reissy McKiernan had a slight lisp as she spoke.
"Just like us?" she asked her mother.
"That's right," Raina smiled. "This is Cecilia and her mom Paige."
"Hi," she smiled to Cecilia. "I'm Reissy," she struggled to pronounce it right.
"Hello!" Cecilia waved happily.
"You girls better get going or you'll be late," Paige told them. They said goodbye to their respective mothers and started toward the school.
"I've seen you before," Cecilia told Reissy. "But you were always alone and didn't look like you wanted to talk to anyone."
"I want to talk with the others but… They make fun of me and I'm scared I'll hurt them," she admitted.
"Hurt them? How?" Cecilia asked as they walked toward their classroom. Almost in response, a boy ran by.
"Hey Lispy-Reissy!" The girl blinked a lot, like she was trying to control herself. But then her head gave a light jerking motion and the boy fell down, almost like something had pushed him. Reissy cringed.
"Like that."
"How…" Cecilia was amazed.
"My mom calls it… con… concussive energy or something," she enunciated. "T-things fall down."
"I only got my powers yesterday… Actually I got them back… I don't get that part really," she shrugged.
"What can you do?" Reissy asked.
"Couple things but… Only one I know how to do yet. I… say an object's name and it appears in my hands."
"Cool," Reissy smiled. "So does this mean we're… friends?"
"Uh-huh," Cecilia grinned.
"Good," Reissy smiled the smile of someone who'd never really had a friend.
A few classes away, Diana and the others sat in their spots. She kept her hands firmly pressed against the wooden desk in front of her. She had this fear that something would make her accidentally freeze everything.
"Are you okay?" Angelina asked.
"Fine," Diana assured.
"You don't look it. You look like you're about to jump to the ceiling." She was right, she did look odd. Carefully, she sat back and lifted her hands into a regular position. Angelina smiled. Diana sighed and looked out the window. Everything had changed on her overnight. A part of her life she never knew even existed had been revealed to her. It would take adjusting.
At the high school, her older sister felt the same way as lunch time rolled around. Helena had been told Allie used to know about her secret as well, but like the rest of them had forgotten it all. Helena had argued with herself for a few hours before deciding she couldn't tell her. Not yet anyway… not until she herself knew more.
The daily lunch routine took motion. At their usual table, one person waited with the group's belongings. Today it was Simon. At this time the rest of them, Helena, Allie, Kansas, Liz, and Riley, loaded up their trays, snatching the choice-worthy items for the lot of them, as a lot of it could barely be qualified as 'food'. Liz and Riley would have their 'take-and-return' match as Riley picked up some things and, with a shake of her head, Liz would put it back, proclaiming there was something wrong with it while he insisted it was perfectly fine.
After waiting the five minutes it usually took to get past the cashier with the long waiting line, they'd made their way back to the table, someone usually making a comment on how they'd be better off bringing lunches. Today it was Allie. They'd sit down and the distribution of their 'bounty' would begin. Once everyone had their trays in order, lunch began. The topic of the day: Heather Lyndsey's upcoming Christmas party.
Under the wing of Kevin Marcowitz she'd turned from a follower to a 'ruler'. She was that girl, that one every school had. The one with a lot of money, head-cheerleader, jock-ish boyfriend, and the envy of some and pain-in-the-butt of others. Now Paul Michaels and Kevin, along with Heather, ruled over their class. Who was cool, who wasn't. Fortunately, since not many fell into her 'approved' list, there were more of Helena and her friends' 'side' than Heather's. So they were fine, all they had to do was ignore her. Unfortunately for Helena, that came with one big problem… she was Will Hyland's girlfriend. So to sneak a look at him, she had to endure seeing Heather all over him.
"She goes by and makes sure all of us 'losers' can see we're not invited. Like we'd really want to go," Kansas was saying as Helena returned from her thoughts.
"Well then we're all happy, aren't we?" They looked up as Heather and her cronies walked to their table.
"Shouldn't you be regenerating?" Riley shot at her. Heather rolled her eyes.
"Outdated loser…"
"Nothing wrong with going with the classics you air headed bimbo!" Liz stood, ready for a fight. It was not wise to insult Riley in front of her. The others pulled her back to her seat as Heather laughed.
"Well this sure was fun, but I have to leave now before I get contaminated."
"Oh we wouldn't want THAT," Helena muttered. Heather leaned down to be level with Helena's head.
"Spoken like a true germ," she patted her shoulder before walking off, laughing with her 'friends'.
As she did though, she sent Helena into her first premonition in twelve years. She saw Heather walking along the 'bridge' between the two sections of their school. Though they were constantly told not to stand too close to the edge Heather did it anyway. And in a sharp turn matched with swinging her backpack over her shoulder, she lost her balance and fell over the bridge in a rapid plummet to the ground. Helena broke out of the vision with the image of Heather's dead eyes staring up firmly printed in her mind.
"Hey, you okay?" Allie asked. Breathing heavily, she looked up to see all at her table were staring.
"I-I have to…" She got up and took off running.
"Helena!" they called after her.
She didn't stop though, just kept running, arriving at the bridge and realizing with slight horror that things were happening just as she'd seen them. Heather started falling. Helena hurried over and managed to grab her ankle.
"Don't let go!" Heather screamed as Helena struggled to keep hold.
"Just be glad I don't hate you enough to do that…" she muttered to herself as she pulled her up. People around stood watching, a couple of them helping Helena pull her up. They all fell back safely on the bridge. The gapers cheered and clapped.
"T-Thanks…" Heather tried to catch her breath, and she sounded honestly nice. Helena gave a small nod and walked off. She went into the bathroom and promptly lost what little of her lunch she'd ingested before getting her vision. She splashed some water in her face and looked up into the mirror. She saw herself, but another person too… a witch… not so bad.
After classes, Henry went to find Merilyn at the gym. Upon their return to San Francisco, he'd called and asked her out. They'd now been dating for almost four months. Before he could get to the gym though, his sisters intercepted him.
"Aunt Paige is driving us home," Emily told him.
"I think she's going to 'out' us to Dad," Charlotte continued. Henry looked back at the gym door, then turned back to the twins with a sigh.
"Alright, let's go."
When they got to the house, Jason was working in his office. "We need to talk," Paige told her brother-in-law. Later at dinner, everything was silent, save for forks, knives, chewing… Jason didn't appear to be taking the news of his children's powers being returned very well.
An hour later, at the Manor, Helena talked with her mother about what had happened with Heather. "I just started running toward there, didn't… think, didn't…"
"Relax Froggy, you did a good thing. You saved that girl's life." Helena smiled.
"When I went to my locker after classes, I found an invitation to her Christmas party," she laughed.
"Planning to go?"
"I don't know… She's been calling me names and teasing me for years, but… It could be interesting to see how the other half lives…"
"That's my girl," Paige nodded and Helena laughed again. The doorbell rang. "Can you get the girls to bed? I'll go see who it is."
"Okay," Helena went to her sisters' room as Paige went down the stairs. She opened the door and came face to face with Henry and the twins, each lugging their backpacks and big gym bags.
"What are you three doing here?" The twins moved past her.
"You explain," Charlotte told her brother.
"We're going to bed," Emily continued. They went upstairs. Paige turned back to her nephew.
"We had a bit of an argument with our father, didn't want to stick around so we came here."
"Does he know you're here?"
"Yeah, he does." He looked down.
"Henry, look… He's not a bad guy, it's just… Losing your mom was really hard on him and the whole magic thing, well…" He nodded. "Just give him time, he'll adjust."
"And what if he doesn't?"
"Well… You're welcome here anytime," she hugged him. In certain moments, like this one, Henry reminded him of her sister. He didn't have to do anything, it just happened.
*
November 15 2022
"Hey Henry, can I come in?" Prue knocked on the attic door.
"Sure." The three had been with them since that night. The next morning Jason had called to say he was going on a business trip for a month. The others worried about Henry and the twins, but they seemed fine.
"I need your help with something," she sat across from him, Molly sleeping in the 'carrier' strapped to Prue.
"What is it?"
"I need your Augmenter abilities to tap into a power of mine…"
"Alright," he agreed. She positioned herself, facing him.
"Give me your hands," she instructed. He did so as she closed her eyes. She concentrated hard, starting to get dizzy even, until… "Yes." She let go of Henry's hands and orbed herself away with Molly.
When she rematerialized, she was outside a house, by a lake. Sitting on the dock, a man sat looking up at the sunset. Even from the back, she knew it was him.
"Dad…" she spoke slowly. He looked back at her. He hadn't aged yet at the same time he looked older than she'd ever seen him… tired. He looked at her and she could swear he was crying. Then he looked back toward the lake.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his tone plain, not angry.
"Came looking for you, what else?"
"How…"
"How did I find you? That's not important. Neither is the fact that I even had to look for you this way. What's important is the reason I came looking for you." Both were silent for a while.
"What's that?" Leo finally asked.
"Come home."
"I can't," he immediately responded.
"Yes you can…"
"Not after so long…"
"Who is there going to be to be angry or anything of the sort? I told you, I'm not mad… And you obviously still have your powers, so the Elders aren't an issue either. Dad, please…"
"I don't think I can." Prue felt Molly had awakened. She walked up the dock and sat next to her father.
"If you won't do it for me, then do it for your granddaughter." He looked up, then over at the little witch, blinking up at him.
"I… I didn't know you were…"
"You wouldn't, hiding back here." She took the baby out of her carrier and handed her over. He seemed uncomfortable at first, but he got the hang of it eventually. "Her name's Molly."
"Molly…" he repeated, a small smile wrestling itself free from the years of grief amounted in him.
"You were really good to me when I was little… and I want her to have that too. Please come back to San Francisco." He continued to look at his granddaughter. After a few seconds, he looked up at Prue. He reached out his free arm and hugged his daughter. Both began to cry. "I've thought about this day for so long…"
A few minutes later, the three of them orbed back to the manor. Paige came in from the kitchen as Helena, Simon, and the twins observed the newcomer with curiosity. When Paige saw him, she stopped in her tracks.
"Leo?"
"Hello…" was all he could say, remembering the last she spoke… shouted to him.
"I don't believe it…"
"Please don't be mad…" Prue asked her Aunt, fearing the worst.
"I'm not mad, I just… need to sit down," she did just that. Prue smiled to her father.
"See? Nothing to worry about."
"Yeah…"
"Welcome home Dad."
TBC
PS!! Please note we're now entering a new format for the story, aka "episode-ish format" ;) Basically that just means an adventure starts at the beginning of the chapter, and ends at the end of it :) This will last for seventeen chapters, then back to the old format :D
----
"Mommy!" Cecilia cried again, Diana turning her sister's head away as she cried too. Without stopping to think about the ramifications this exposure would do, Prue pushed to the front of the huddle and kneeled down as best she could.
"Helena, stand back! Henry, come here!" He did, Prue grabbed his hand and held her other over her Aunt's head.
"What are you doing, we have to get her to the hospital!" Helena crouched again.
"Stand BACK!" Prue instructed her as she focused harder. "Come on!" she muttered to herself. Finally, slowly but surely, light wrapped around her hand and she could feel it was working. "Yes!"
"W-What's happening?" Helena asked. The words were barely out of her mouth when they heard the chandelier shaking. A bluish bright light illuminated the group as Paige was starting to regain consciousness.
"Oh… This can't be good…" Prue whispered to herself. Her Aunt opened her eyes. "Careful, we almost lost you there."
"I think you had…" she sat up, as her two youngest daughters ran into her arms. She hugged them tight. "Mommy's okay," she reassured them, "Mommy's okay."
"Mom, what's going on?" Helena asked frantically. "I mean Prue's hand was all bright, and you… you were gone and back, and the chandelier…" Paige inwardly gasped, knowing what had just happened.
"Well…" she started.
"We have to go…" All turned to Prue, who still sat on her knees, though now she had both hands on her belly and she looked in pain.
"Is it time, are you sure?" Paige asked and Prue nodded. "Helena, call Ava, tell her to meet us at the hospital." The incident seemed presently forgotten as they helped Prue up.
"And Keely too!" she told Helena. "Her and the others…" Her cousin nodded and scrambled for the phone.
A few minutes later, the family arrived at the hospital. Glen, who'd been out of the house, was called and now on his way. Helena had spoken with Liliana Nicolae, Ava's 17-year-old and twin to Mirella. She assured Helena that her mother was on the way. She arrived just as Prue was being wheeled to delivery.
"What did you do back there?" Helena was asking as she followed the bed.
"Can we talk about this LATER?" Prue breathed. She was moved beyond the point where her family couldn't follow anymore. Keely went with her as it'd been decided.
In the waiting room, Paige was faced with many questions. After sending Norah and Caroline on a snack errand, she prepared to tell them something not necessarily the truth, when…
"Why am I seeing myself?" Emily was almost hyperventilating, "Why am I seeing myself saying this?" She started breathing normally again a few seconds later. "Okay, what just happened here?" Cecilia was still staying as close to her mother as possible and crying.
"I want Violet," she whimpered. Just as she'd said the name, the purple bear orbed into her hands. Paige gasped, and so did the others.
"Oh… I died…" Paige spoke to herself.
"Mom, what's going on?" Helena asked. The kids looked at Paige. Before she could answer though, Keely came in.
"She's here! Seven pounds on the dot. Come on, they've taken Prue to a room and they'll bring the baby."
"How is she? Tired, I presume?" Paige asked as she stood with Cecilia in her arms.
"Yeah, but she did good according to the doctor." The group, which now included Glen, followed Keely. Paige handed the still frightened Cecilia over to her father, who still had no idea what had happened at the manor, and had arrived just after Cecilia's orbing Violet to herself. She went to the new mother.
"Congratulations!"
"Thanks," she smiled. Her long hair had been hurriedly put in a braid on the way over. A nurse came in, wheeling the 'carriage' over. She handed the wide-eyed newborn to Prue and the others gathered around to see.
"Wow…" Helena smiled as Prue cried tears of joy.
"What are you naming her?" Paige asked of her sort-of-granddaughter. Prue looked at her daughter.
"Molly… Molly Angela Halliwell."
*
The next morning – Halliwell Manor
After leaving the hospital the previous afternoon, Paige was afraid of facing the questions, but that didn't come. In fact they were pretty quiet. There were no magical occurrences, and the topic was ignored until now, the morning after, when Prue and little Molly came by after leaving the hospital. They were driven by Keely, who came in with them. As though they'd been waiting for her to be there to do it, the questions began.
"Mom, we want to know," Helena told Paige.
"Know what?" Glen asked. Paige cringed.
"Between your… miraculous revival… Emily seeing something that didn't make sense, Cecilia's bear appearing out of nowhere…"
"And the chandelier, don't forget the chandelier," Charlotte pointed out to her cousin. She'd seen the 'something that didn't make sense' too, the night before.
"Paige, what are they talking about?" Glen asked his wife.
"Twelve years ago, after Piper and Phoebe were killed, I was faced with a decision. See… They were and I am still… witches. We had powers, and so would our children… you. But as it was decided, you might benefit from a life without the dangers that came with who we were, what we were. So I bound… took away… Emily, Charlotte, and Helena's powers, then Diana and Cecilia's when they were born. Prue was at an age where she wouldn't so easily forget what she'd been able to do all her life, so I let her keep her powers. And Henry… well he didn't have powers, so I didn't do anything. But when I fell down the stairs yesterday, I was… dead, just briefly, and that action appears to have… returned your powers."
The room was silent for a minute, then Helena began to laugh. "You're kidding, right? I mean that's not possible!"
"You're sure of that?" Prue asked, handing Molly to Keely. Helena nodded. "Then how would you explain this?" She took flight, hovering above their heads. They gasped. She landed again. "Believe us now?"
"Starting to…" Helena spoke slowly.
"What… powers… do we have?" Emily asked.
"Well… Your Uncle Leo and my father were both whitelighters… guardian angels for us… so myself, Prue, Helena, Diana, Cecilia, we have certain powers from them, mainly orbing."
"Orbing?" Helena asked. Without preventing, Prue turned sharply to her cousin and let out a loud 'Boo!' Helena held her arms in front of her face and cringed before disappearing in orbs and reappearing a second later. She breathed heavily as the others went wide-eyed.
"Orbing," Prue smiled. "Not quite 'Beam me up, Scotty', but close."
"Dizzy…" Helena muttered, rubbing at her head.
"Normal at first. You'll get used to it," Prue assured before turning to her Aunt.
"Prue can also, as you've seen, fly. And she can read thoughts. Helena, you have the power of premonition. You'll get visions of events yet to come. You might have a headache from time to time."
"Great…" she muttered, though she couldn't deny if she weren't so dizzy she'd be happier about this development.
"Emily and Charlotte, all we were able to see before your powers were bound was that the two of you have what we've called a 'psychic connection'. As you've seen before, you can see through each other's eyes. Other aspects of the connection were never known to us, so we'll see now…" The twins nodded, looking at each other, smiling.
"What can I do?" Diana asked. Paige crouched next to her.
"You have the power to 'freeze' time. It doesn't work on other witches like us, but…" she nudged the desk behind her and the glass 'key bowl' toppled over the edge. Diana's hands shot up to retrieve it. The bowl stopped falling, halting in mid-air. Paige pointed to Glen, Simon, and Keely, frozen in place. Prue took Molly back from Keely. Diana was fascinated by what she'd done. She reached out to touch the bowl. As soon as she did, the bowl continued to fall. Paige orbed it to her hand and placed it back. Those who'd been frozen were slightly disoriented.
"Cool," Diana smiled. Paige smiled back.
"What about me? What can I do?" Cecilia asked excitedly. Paige laughed.
"You have the same power I do, and also the one your Aunt Prue had. Like her, you can move objects with your mind. And like me you can call to objects and they'll orb to you." That appeared to satisfy Cecilia. Prue looked at Henry. He understood.
"Actually, Aunt Paige… I do have abilities. We found out about it almost three years ago.
"What?" Paige asked.
"This would be a good time to show them the Book…" Prue told her Aunt. She sighed.
"Meet me in the attic," she told them before orbing off.
"The attic?" Helena called after her mother.
"Come on…" Prue instructed her cousins. They began up the stairs. When they got to the attic, Paige was there, standing over a large trunk. She pulled out a big object wrapped in velvet. She took it to a stand and from the cloth she produced the long-hidden Book of Shadows.
"Gather around," she told the children.
"Aunt Paige, may I?" Prue asked. She nodded. Prue went to the Book, immediately thinking of the time she'd multiplied herself. She searched for a couple of minutes before… "There. This is what Henry can do." Paige looked.
"Augmenter… that's how you healed me, isn't it?" Prue nodded. "Well… looks like we're going to have a lot to deal with."
"Yeah," Prue agreed as the phone rang from downstairs.
"Phone!" Cecilia announced, inadvertently orbing it into her hands. She squealed happily. Paige laughed as she took the phone. "Hello?" she answered.
"Hello, Paige? This is Karen," Mrs. Hendrix sounded slightly shaken.
"Hey Karen, how are you?" she asked. Keely looked up at the mention of her mother's name.
"Not good."
"What happened?" she asked, causing Keely to start worrying.
"Yesterday afternoon… Sierra disappeared."
"What? Did you find her?"
"Not disappeared as in she wasn't there, disappeared as in she vanished, got lighter and lighter and faded until we couldn't see her anymore. Only she was still there, we could hear her speak, she was scared. It was like she was invisible. Eventually she reappeared, but it's been happening every so often."
"Oh I forgot about her powers…" she spoke to herself.
"And… Walker left just now. He took two suitcases, I don't think he's coming back," she cried. "He was angry that I didn't tell him about what Sierra was, and we'd been fighting for a while, I guess that was the last straw…"
"Alright, I'm coming over." She hung up.
"What's going on?" Keely asked.
"Come on, we're going to your house."
In the car ride over, Paige brought Keely up to speed. The girl learned, with expected shock, that her sister was a witch too. The hardest had been to tell her that her father had left upon learning about it. She'd used the rest of the ride and worked to reach a level of calm to be there for her mother and sister.
"Look, by now you guys are like family to us, so… whatever you need, we'll be there for you," Paige told the girl as they parked in front of the house. Keely smiled.
"Thanks."
*
November 11th 2022 – Diana and Cecilia's school
"You two remember, don't use your powers. I know it might be hard to control them, but I also know you're able to do this," Paige told her daughters as they stood outside the car. They nodded.
"Diana!" They looked up and saw Angelina was waving at them.
"Have a good day HoneyDee," Paige kissed her goodbye.
"Later Mom!" she ran off. Paige watched until the girls were inside the building, waved to Ana Catanzaro and turned to Cecilia.
"You know, I was thinking last night it might be a good idea if you had someone to play with who you could be open to." Cecilia nodded. "And I happen to know someone who has a daughter your age who goes here. What do you think? You want to try that out?" Cecilia nodded again. "Great. Here they come now."
About eight years ago, she'd met the woman in her Lamaze class. Through some conversations she'd found out she was a witch too. They'd kept in contact over the years though not openly, for fear of the children hearing something they shouldn't. And this was a mutual favor. The woman's daughter was kind of shy, fully shy rather, and usually stayed alone. She was afraid of accidentally hurting someone.
"Raina, hey," Paige stood and shared a quick hug with the woman. The short brown-haired girl at her side made sure not to lose grasp of her hand.
"Hi Paige," she nodded. "You must be Cecilia," she looked at the blonde.
"Hi!" she nodded. Raina turned back to her daughter.
"Don't be scared sweetie, they're witches too." The girl slowly rose her head. Little Reissy McKiernan had a slight lisp as she spoke.
"Just like us?" she asked her mother.
"That's right," Raina smiled. "This is Cecilia and her mom Paige."
"Hi," she smiled to Cecilia. "I'm Reissy," she struggled to pronounce it right.
"Hello!" Cecilia waved happily.
"You girls better get going or you'll be late," Paige told them. They said goodbye to their respective mothers and started toward the school.
"I've seen you before," Cecilia told Reissy. "But you were always alone and didn't look like you wanted to talk to anyone."
"I want to talk with the others but… They make fun of me and I'm scared I'll hurt them," she admitted.
"Hurt them? How?" Cecilia asked as they walked toward their classroom. Almost in response, a boy ran by.
"Hey Lispy-Reissy!" The girl blinked a lot, like she was trying to control herself. But then her head gave a light jerking motion and the boy fell down, almost like something had pushed him. Reissy cringed.
"Like that."
"How…" Cecilia was amazed.
"My mom calls it… con… concussive energy or something," she enunciated. "T-things fall down."
"I only got my powers yesterday… Actually I got them back… I don't get that part really," she shrugged.
"What can you do?" Reissy asked.
"Couple things but… Only one I know how to do yet. I… say an object's name and it appears in my hands."
"Cool," Reissy smiled. "So does this mean we're… friends?"
"Uh-huh," Cecilia grinned.
"Good," Reissy smiled the smile of someone who'd never really had a friend.
A few classes away, Diana and the others sat in their spots. She kept her hands firmly pressed against the wooden desk in front of her. She had this fear that something would make her accidentally freeze everything.
"Are you okay?" Angelina asked.
"Fine," Diana assured.
"You don't look it. You look like you're about to jump to the ceiling." She was right, she did look odd. Carefully, she sat back and lifted her hands into a regular position. Angelina smiled. Diana sighed and looked out the window. Everything had changed on her overnight. A part of her life she never knew even existed had been revealed to her. It would take adjusting.
At the high school, her older sister felt the same way as lunch time rolled around. Helena had been told Allie used to know about her secret as well, but like the rest of them had forgotten it all. Helena had argued with herself for a few hours before deciding she couldn't tell her. Not yet anyway… not until she herself knew more.
The daily lunch routine took motion. At their usual table, one person waited with the group's belongings. Today it was Simon. At this time the rest of them, Helena, Allie, Kansas, Liz, and Riley, loaded up their trays, snatching the choice-worthy items for the lot of them, as a lot of it could barely be qualified as 'food'. Liz and Riley would have their 'take-and-return' match as Riley picked up some things and, with a shake of her head, Liz would put it back, proclaiming there was something wrong with it while he insisted it was perfectly fine.
After waiting the five minutes it usually took to get past the cashier with the long waiting line, they'd made their way back to the table, someone usually making a comment on how they'd be better off bringing lunches. Today it was Allie. They'd sit down and the distribution of their 'bounty' would begin. Once everyone had their trays in order, lunch began. The topic of the day: Heather Lyndsey's upcoming Christmas party.
Under the wing of Kevin Marcowitz she'd turned from a follower to a 'ruler'. She was that girl, that one every school had. The one with a lot of money, head-cheerleader, jock-ish boyfriend, and the envy of some and pain-in-the-butt of others. Now Paul Michaels and Kevin, along with Heather, ruled over their class. Who was cool, who wasn't. Fortunately, since not many fell into her 'approved' list, there were more of Helena and her friends' 'side' than Heather's. So they were fine, all they had to do was ignore her. Unfortunately for Helena, that came with one big problem… she was Will Hyland's girlfriend. So to sneak a look at him, she had to endure seeing Heather all over him.
"She goes by and makes sure all of us 'losers' can see we're not invited. Like we'd really want to go," Kansas was saying as Helena returned from her thoughts.
"Well then we're all happy, aren't we?" They looked up as Heather and her cronies walked to their table.
"Shouldn't you be regenerating?" Riley shot at her. Heather rolled her eyes.
"Outdated loser…"
"Nothing wrong with going with the classics you air headed bimbo!" Liz stood, ready for a fight. It was not wise to insult Riley in front of her. The others pulled her back to her seat as Heather laughed.
"Well this sure was fun, but I have to leave now before I get contaminated."
"Oh we wouldn't want THAT," Helena muttered. Heather leaned down to be level with Helena's head.
"Spoken like a true germ," she patted her shoulder before walking off, laughing with her 'friends'.
As she did though, she sent Helena into her first premonition in twelve years. She saw Heather walking along the 'bridge' between the two sections of their school. Though they were constantly told not to stand too close to the edge Heather did it anyway. And in a sharp turn matched with swinging her backpack over her shoulder, she lost her balance and fell over the bridge in a rapid plummet to the ground. Helena broke out of the vision with the image of Heather's dead eyes staring up firmly printed in her mind.
"Hey, you okay?" Allie asked. Breathing heavily, she looked up to see all at her table were staring.
"I-I have to…" She got up and took off running.
"Helena!" they called after her.
She didn't stop though, just kept running, arriving at the bridge and realizing with slight horror that things were happening just as she'd seen them. Heather started falling. Helena hurried over and managed to grab her ankle.
"Don't let go!" Heather screamed as Helena struggled to keep hold.
"Just be glad I don't hate you enough to do that…" she muttered to herself as she pulled her up. People around stood watching, a couple of them helping Helena pull her up. They all fell back safely on the bridge. The gapers cheered and clapped.
"T-Thanks…" Heather tried to catch her breath, and she sounded honestly nice. Helena gave a small nod and walked off. She went into the bathroom and promptly lost what little of her lunch she'd ingested before getting her vision. She splashed some water in her face and looked up into the mirror. She saw herself, but another person too… a witch… not so bad.
After classes, Henry went to find Merilyn at the gym. Upon their return to San Francisco, he'd called and asked her out. They'd now been dating for almost four months. Before he could get to the gym though, his sisters intercepted him.
"Aunt Paige is driving us home," Emily told him.
"I think she's going to 'out' us to Dad," Charlotte continued. Henry looked back at the gym door, then turned back to the twins with a sigh.
"Alright, let's go."
When they got to the house, Jason was working in his office. "We need to talk," Paige told her brother-in-law. Later at dinner, everything was silent, save for forks, knives, chewing… Jason didn't appear to be taking the news of his children's powers being returned very well.
An hour later, at the Manor, Helena talked with her mother about what had happened with Heather. "I just started running toward there, didn't… think, didn't…"
"Relax Froggy, you did a good thing. You saved that girl's life." Helena smiled.
"When I went to my locker after classes, I found an invitation to her Christmas party," she laughed.
"Planning to go?"
"I don't know… She's been calling me names and teasing me for years, but… It could be interesting to see how the other half lives…"
"That's my girl," Paige nodded and Helena laughed again. The doorbell rang. "Can you get the girls to bed? I'll go see who it is."
"Okay," Helena went to her sisters' room as Paige went down the stairs. She opened the door and came face to face with Henry and the twins, each lugging their backpacks and big gym bags.
"What are you three doing here?" The twins moved past her.
"You explain," Charlotte told her brother.
"We're going to bed," Emily continued. They went upstairs. Paige turned back to her nephew.
"We had a bit of an argument with our father, didn't want to stick around so we came here."
"Does he know you're here?"
"Yeah, he does." He looked down.
"Henry, look… He's not a bad guy, it's just… Losing your mom was really hard on him and the whole magic thing, well…" He nodded. "Just give him time, he'll adjust."
"And what if he doesn't?"
"Well… You're welcome here anytime," she hugged him. In certain moments, like this one, Henry reminded him of her sister. He didn't have to do anything, it just happened.
*
November 15 2022
"Hey Henry, can I come in?" Prue knocked on the attic door.
"Sure." The three had been with them since that night. The next morning Jason had called to say he was going on a business trip for a month. The others worried about Henry and the twins, but they seemed fine.
"I need your help with something," she sat across from him, Molly sleeping in the 'carrier' strapped to Prue.
"What is it?"
"I need your Augmenter abilities to tap into a power of mine…"
"Alright," he agreed. She positioned herself, facing him.
"Give me your hands," she instructed. He did so as she closed her eyes. She concentrated hard, starting to get dizzy even, until… "Yes." She let go of Henry's hands and orbed herself away with Molly.
When she rematerialized, she was outside a house, by a lake. Sitting on the dock, a man sat looking up at the sunset. Even from the back, she knew it was him.
"Dad…" she spoke slowly. He looked back at her. He hadn't aged yet at the same time he looked older than she'd ever seen him… tired. He looked at her and she could swear he was crying. Then he looked back toward the lake.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his tone plain, not angry.
"Came looking for you, what else?"
"How…"
"How did I find you? That's not important. Neither is the fact that I even had to look for you this way. What's important is the reason I came looking for you." Both were silent for a while.
"What's that?" Leo finally asked.
"Come home."
"I can't," he immediately responded.
"Yes you can…"
"Not after so long…"
"Who is there going to be to be angry or anything of the sort? I told you, I'm not mad… And you obviously still have your powers, so the Elders aren't an issue either. Dad, please…"
"I don't think I can." Prue felt Molly had awakened. She walked up the dock and sat next to her father.
"If you won't do it for me, then do it for your granddaughter." He looked up, then over at the little witch, blinking up at him.
"I… I didn't know you were…"
"You wouldn't, hiding back here." She took the baby out of her carrier and handed her over. He seemed uncomfortable at first, but he got the hang of it eventually. "Her name's Molly."
"Molly…" he repeated, a small smile wrestling itself free from the years of grief amounted in him.
"You were really good to me when I was little… and I want her to have that too. Please come back to San Francisco." He continued to look at his granddaughter. After a few seconds, he looked up at Prue. He reached out his free arm and hugged his daughter. Both began to cry. "I've thought about this day for so long…"
A few minutes later, the three of them orbed back to the manor. Paige came in from the kitchen as Helena, Simon, and the twins observed the newcomer with curiosity. When Paige saw him, she stopped in her tracks.
"Leo?"
"Hello…" was all he could say, remembering the last she spoke… shouted to him.
"I don't believe it…"
"Please don't be mad…" Prue asked her Aunt, fearing the worst.
"I'm not mad, I just… need to sit down," she did just that. Prue smiled to her father.
"See? Nothing to worry about."
"Yeah…"
"Welcome home Dad."
TBC