Chapter one
The new year
Prue awakened in the midst of the morning before even the youngest child in the house had woken, her husband Andy asleep next to her in their bed. Prue yawned and struggled to get out of bed. Being five months, three weeks, and four days pregnant with her first child, there were many things that had become a challenge for her to accomplish. Prue left the bedroom and slowly made her way down to the first floor, past the living room and alcove, and into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. Today wasn't just another day. Today was the first of January of 2010 which meant Prue had been back from the dead for an entire year. In that one year alone, she had done more than she had before her death. She had gotten married and had gotten pregnant with her first child. The only thing still missing in her life was a career which she had decided to put in her back pocket until she had adjusted nicely to motherhood, or at the very least until her child was born.
The sounds of Parker's crying was heard through the baby monitor in her parents' bedroom. Both Phoebe and her husband Coop were woken by the crying but Coop went back to sleep as Phoebe climbed out of bed and left the room. Rubbing her tired eyes as she yawned a few times, Phoebe walked up the staircase reaching the third floor, and found herself in the bedroom that belonged to her two daughters. Two-year-old P.J. was standing at her sister's crib looking at her through the bars when her mother walked into the room. This was the only problem that came with P.J. and Parker sharing a room, whenever Parker cried it woke up her sister. Ignoring her older daughter for now, Phoebe removed her four-month-old from the crib and seated herself on the rocking chair where she began to nurse the baby. P.J. came over to them, climbed up onto her mother's lap, and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. Her small brown eyes fluttered.
Prue had gotten ten minutes of silence to herself before her younger sister and her niece joined her in the kitchen. Phoebe placed P.J. in her high chair and went about preparing her a sippy cup of milk. She wouldn't be needing or asking for breakfast for another hour or two. Phoebe handed her toddler the cup before sitting down at the table across from her sister. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say. Happy one year of being alive again?" Prue chuckled and thanked her sister. "I'm really glad you're back. Everyone is. You mean so much to this family, Prue and it was so hard to keep living in this world without you in it." Prue smiled warmly at her younger sister. "I missed you all so much. I was pissed at Grams at first for not letting me talk to you when Piper kept trying to summon me." Phoebe nodded to say she knew. "Grams was right, we all needed time to adjust," Prue said, and again her sister nodded in response.
Within the hour, Paige Matthews and her husband Henry Mitchell were up. Henry retrieved their eighteen-month-old adopted son Henry Mitchell Junior while his wife went to check if their two-year-old identical twin daughters were awake yet hoping they weren't. Both Phoebe and Prue had moved on from the kitchen when Henry got there with his son who he placed in his high chair. He prepared him a bowl of crackers to keep him satisfied until breakfast and two little red-headed toddler girls ran into the kitchen with their sleepy mother tagging along behind them. The twins each gave their dad a quick hug before getting into their chairs at the table. Henry served his son the crackers while Paige prepared a snack for the girls. P.J. meanwhile was now in the living room snuggling her mother on the couch, and Prue was taking a morning shower.
Tamora and Kat and their little brother quickly devoured their snack and were sent to the living room to watch cartoons. Their parents took the opportunity to make themselves presentable since they were both scheduled to work. Henry was a parole officer and Paige was a caseworker and social worker. It wasn't long before the toddlers were joined by their two-year-old cousin Melinda. Melinda's mother entered the kitchen to begin preparing breakfast while the men of the house were starting to rise. Melinda's older brothers would be up shortly. Wyatt would most definitely be up several minutes before his lazy brother. (Wyatt was going to be turning seven the following month and Chris had turned five in October.
Although Prue had put all career plans on hold it was not the same case for her sister Piper. Piper had originally planned to not make any career changes until all three of her children could take care of themselves, but she had recently had a change of mind. Living with her sisters, one of them being unemployed, as well as all the husbands, Piper had many available babysitters and decided to take the opportunity to start the career she had wanted to pursue her entire life. Piper Halliwell's dream was to own her own restaurant and be a cook there. Once school was back in session, Piper had an appointment to begin looking at available places for her new restaurant location.
For now it was just a plan, for school was not yet back in session from Christmas Vacation. As the morning progressed, every child and adult living in the Halliwell Manor were dressed with their teeth and hair brushed. While baby Parker was cradled in her mother's arms, the toddlers were playing together nicely in the living room. The older boys were up in their shared room on the fourth floor. Henry and Paige we're now at work and the rest of the adults we're gathered on the living room couch.
(Andy Trudeau was a white-lighter which is just a fancy name for Angel. As a white-lighter, he was a guide and protector to witches and to Future white-lighters. He could be summoned at any time to help one of his charges. Piper currently owned a nightclub called P3, the P had originally stood for Prue Piper and Phoebe, but after Prue's death and the discovery that Paige was a sister they hadn't known about, it could be argued that the third P then stood for Paige as the first two now stood for Piper and Phoebe. However, there was another meaning behind the name. As Charmed Ones, the sisters had what was called the power of 3 aka P3. Like Andy, Leo Wyatt, Piper's husband, was also a white-lighter. However, he no longer worked as a white -lighter. Instead, he was now a teacher at Magic School. Phoebe Halliwell, the third sister, wrote an advice column for the local newspaper called the Bay mirror. She was actually really close friends with her boss Elise Rothman. Phoebe's husband Coop, who had taken her last name when they married due to not having a last name beforehand, was a Cupid. As you can imagine, his duty as a Cupid was to help people find love. Prue Piper and Phoebe were witches. Their father was mortal and their mother was a witch. Paige was their half-sister on their mother's side. Paige's father was a white-lighter named Sam. This made Paige a white-lighter-witch hybrid like Piper's children and Prue's unborn child as well as her own twin daughters. Henry was Mortal as was their adopted son. Coop and Phoebe's children were Cupid-witch hybrids.)
Watching the toddler's play gave Piper an idea. She repositioned herself to look at her older sister. "Have you and Andy started thinking of names for the baby?" Piper asked. Prue shook her head and said, "we're waiting to find out the gender." "Oh come on, it's tradition in this house for everyone to give a suggestion until one stands out." Prue looked at her husband and he nodded giving the okay. Prue looked back at her sister and nodded. Piper clapped hands excitedly. "You start by giving the first letter." "P. We're keeping the P tradition." "Let's start with Penelope," Piper said, giving her suggestion. "No. Sounds like something you would name a bird," Prue said. "Well it's no worse than Polly," Coop remarked. His wife looked at him. "Tell me you did not consider Polly for Parker." "For a split second. Which is why any future children we have together will be named by you." A brief silence came into the room and Coop couldn't stop himself from saying, "Polly want a cracker?" Every adult laughed which briefly caught the toddlers' attention. "How about Peace," Leo suggested. "That's cute," Prue agreed. "Yes but let's hear some other options. We'll keep it as a maybe," Andy said. "How about Potter for a boy?" Phoebe suggested. "That is way too cheesy. A real witch naming her son after the most famous and popular fictional wizard," Prue stated. "That's twice now," Phoebe muttered. "Huh? "Oh um, Phoebe suggested Potter to me for Wyatt," Piper explained. "What about Pepper?" Coop suggested. "Hey Pepper, can you pass the salt," Piper remarked. Prue snickered. "What about Payton, Honey?" Andy suggested. Prue nodded without needing even a second to think about it. "Yea. I really like Payton." The others nodded in agreement. "For a boy, you could go with Preston but Payton can also be used for a boy," Phoebe suggested.
Melinda grew bored of playing with the other toddlers and orbed up the bedroom her big brothers shared. "What are you doing?" She asked her brothers. "We're playing cowboys," Wyatt explained. He was wearing his cowboy costume and he had lent his brother his old one. "Can I play too?" Wyatt was about to say yes but Chris intervened. "No way! We don't play with babies." Melinda stomped her foot. "I am not a baby!" Chris laughed at his little sister's declaration. "Yes, you are. You can't even use the toilet yet. You still use the training potty." Melinda looked at Wyatt for help but he chose to side with Chris. "Sorry, Mellie. I'll play with you later, okay?" Melinda shook her head, started crying, and orbed out. "Oh great! Now she's going to tattle on us," Chris whined. He knew his mom would force him to be nice to her. "Well, you didn't have to be so mean to her. It's not her fault she's still little," Wyatt pointed out. Chris rolled his eyes and folded his arms at his chest. "If that's what you think then you can go play with the little crybaby." "Fine. I don't want to play with a bully anyway." Without another word, Wyatt orbed to his little sister.
Melinda was in the living room on her mother's lap. "I want to play with you," Wyatt told her, but Melinda didn't respond, she was still upset. "We can do whatever you want." This piqued the toddler's interest. "Can we colour?" She asked. Wyatt nodded in response and a big smile grew on Melinda's face. "Okay!" She climbed off her mother's lap and Wyatt orbed with her down to the basement.
At the table in the basement, Melinda seated herself and her brother set her up to colour. He dumped the pin of crayons onto the middle of the table where they could both reach them. Melinda grabbed the red crayon and began to scribble what in her mind was a dog. Wyatt, on the other hand, took a minute to decide what he wanted to draw. Making up his mind, he took the black crayon and drew his family as stick figures. Melinda finished and tossed down the crayon. She held up her picture. "Look, Wyatt!" Wyatt looked at the drawing. He couldn't tell what it was supposed to be but he pretended he did and praised her. "Wow, Mellie! Great job! Are you done?" Melinda nodded and so Wyatt handed her a new sheet of blank paper. This time Melinda took the purple crayon and decided to draw a cat. That's when Chris orbed in. "Can I join you?" He asked. Wyatt nodded and Chris happily sat down at the table as Wyatt handed him a sheet of paper
Supper was complete and utter chaos. Chris sat in his chair refusing to eat his spaghetti because he wanted pancakes. Melinda had spilled her apple juice and was now crying over it. Tamora and Kat were throwing their food at each other and their little brother copied them by tossing a handful of spaghetti at P.J, and now P.J. was crying. Parker was being especially fussy as her mother attempted to nurse her. Wyatt decided he didn't want to eat at home and orbed himself to his grandfather's house.
Bedtime wasn't any calmer. Melinda wanted to have a sleepover with her brothers but Chris wasn't willing to share his room with a girl. This caused an argument between Wyatt and Chris during which Chris accused Wyatt of playing favourites. The twins threw their daily bedtime tantrums. P.J. was refusing to go to bed while Henry junior was having a hard time falling asleep. Parker was screaming bloody murder while her father bathed her. In the end, Melinda fell asleep in Chris's bed and Wyatt in his while Chris decided to sleep on the living room couch. The twins quickly passed out from their tantrums and P.J. fell asleep on the floor in the middle of the room. Phoebe tucked her into bed as Coop put Parker in her crib. It took little Henry an hour but he finally did drift off.
School was back in session on the fourth. The day had started with alarms going off and sleepy people gathering at the table wanting breakfast, and then those sleepy people getting ready for the day ahead. Wyatt was more than capable of getting himself dressed and brushing his short blonde hair. (Wyatt resembled his father and had his blonde hair but he had blue eyes like his aunt Prue instead of green eyes like his dad or brown eyes like his mom.) Chris was also able to dress himself but still needed a bit of help brushing his short brown hair. (Chris and Melinda resembled their mother and they both had her brown eyes and dark-brown hair.) Melinda went potty first before her mother got her dressed and brushed her medium-length hair. Henry and Paige struggled to get their feisty girls ready for daycare. (Henry and Paige both had dark-brown hair and brown eyes. The twins had brown eyes but they also had red hair which they had inherited from their maternal great-grandmother Penny Halliwell who was deceased. Little Henry was said to resemble his biological mother Kristina Peters who was deceased.) Little Henry was easy to take care of. Phoebe took care of P.J. while Coop took care of Parker. (Phoebe and Coop both had brown hair and brown eyes and both of their daughters did as well. Both girls resembled their father greatly.)
On her way to work, Paige dropped the toddlers off at daycare. (Phoebe was currently working from home while taking care of Parker. She planned on returning to her office when Parker was six months old.) Piper dropped her sons off at school. (Wyatt was in first grade and Chris was in kindergarten.) After dropping them off, Piper had a meeting with a realtor who'd be showing her available places for the restaurant she wanted to open. He was waiting for her outside an abandoned factory.
"Good morning. Mrs. Wyatt, I presume?"
"Mrs. Halliwell actually. I kept my name."
"Oh. Sorry for the mistake. I'm Mr. Downey."
Wyatt was seated at his desk in his classroom. The assignment was to draw his favourite animal. With Wyatt's obsession with cowboys, it came as no surprise that his favourite animal was the horse. Mrs. Cannon was walking along the rows of desks checking on the progress of each of her students. She reached Wyatt and looked down at his paper. "A horse? A very strong animal. Good choice." Wyatt smiled as his teacher continued on.
In Chris's classroom, the children were having free time. Chris and his friend Lily were playing family. Chris played the role of "dad" and Lily played the role of "mom." Their child was a baby doll. "Okay, you make us supper while I change the baby's diaper," Chris instructed. "Why do I make the food?" Chris shrugged and said, "My mom makes all the food at my house. Doesn't your mom?" "I don't have a mom. I have two daddies but no mommy," Lily informed. "Oh. Okay. Should I make supper?" Lily shook her head. "No, I'll do it. That way I don't have to change the baby." The kids laughed over this and Lily started pretending to cook with plastic food while Chris pretended to change the baby. Lily finished and was about to feed the baby a chicken leg but Chris stopped her. "You can't give a baby real food! They have to eat baby food until they're two," Chris informed her. "Oh. I didn't know that." "Why not? Are there no babies at your house?" Lily shook her head. "There are too many babies at my house. You can have one if you want."
At daycare, the twins had been put on timeout for biting each other. "I hate timeouts," Kat whined. "Me too," Tamora agreed. The girls sulked for the entire two minutes. "Okay girls. Your timeouts are over now." Tamora and Kat cheered as they jumped up from the chairs. They ran over to the toys. Mrs. Grace then took notice of Melinda and P.J who were tearing up books. "And you two are on timeout...again." Mrs. Grace sighed as she collected the two tots and put them on timeout. "This is so stupid, I'm out of here, Melinda said. She got off the chairs and went to join her cousins. P.J. laughed and made a break for it too.
Leo had gotten to the point of losing his mind. His student Rusty was a major pain in the butt with his magical pranks. He went to the extreme and orbed some magic-proof rope around the tween tying him to his chair. As the rest of the class laughed, Rusty struggled to free himself and failed to do so. Leo approached him. "You can stay like that for the rest of class. Maybe it'll teach you a lesson."
At the manor, Phoebe was in her room trying to type her advice column for that week while also taking care of Parker. Parker wanted some cuddles and was getting very impatient with her mother who just wanted to finish the last few sentences. Phoebe rocked the baby in her arms and used the voice to text so she wouldn't have to physically type. However, Parker wouldn't settle down and her crying screwed with the microphone that was recording what she was saying. Then, as though she knew her sister was in desperate need of a savior, Prue stuck her head into the room and asked, "need anything?" "Could you look after her for a while? I need a break." Prue nodded and took Parker from Phoebe's arms. Prue left the room with Parker in her arms and closed the door.
Back at Westcott elementary school, one accident and one incident occurred. It was during recess and Wyatt was outside playing soccer with his friends. It was raining so the grass was slippery and there were a few mud puddles. Wyatt kicked the ball and slipped, landing in a muddy puddle. As this happened, Chris was in his kindergarten class having snack time. To be nice he had decided to share his Goldfish crackers with another boy and Lily. Since they were his crackers Chris decided he should get to eat the last one but the boy disagreed. After Chris ate it, the boy retaliated by dumping his entire water bottle over Chris's head, and Chris returned the favour using his own bottle of water.
Piper was looking at her third option….a rundown restaurant that closed years ago. She was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. Piper looked at the number and rolled her eyes. "It's the school my kids go to. I have to take this." The realtor nodded and Piper walked away as she answered the call.
"Alright what have they done this time?"
"Both boys need a change of clothes."
"That's it? They're not in trouble?"
"Wyatt is not. Chris is but he simply got a timeout."
"Okay. Someone will be there shortly."
Piper hung up and called her home phone. It was Phoebe who answered the call. "Can you tell Prue she needs to drop off some clean clothes for the boys at their school?" "Prue's not home. She and Andy have that ultrasound today." "Oh right. I completely forgot." " I can do it. Maybe a drive will help Parker settle down." " You're the best."
Phoebe arrived at the elementary school and greeted her nephews in the office with Parker asleep in her stroller. Wyatt was covered in mud and Chris was soaking wet. "Do I wanna know?" Phoebe asked. Both boys shook their heads. Phoebe nodded and handed them the clean clothes. The boys left the office to go change and Phoebe got a call on her cell.
"Piper?"
"Daycare called. Melinda cut off a chunk of her hair, P.J.'s not feeling well, Kat got gum stuck in her hair and Tamora cut off her teacher's ponytail. Can you pick them up? Maybe you can take Melinda to the hairdresser? Paige can heal P.J." Phoebe sighed but agreed. "Should I pick up little Henry while I'm at it?" Phoebe asked. "That would be up to his parents."
Paige orbed to the daycare the second she had gotten the call and quickly healed P.J.'s fever. She decided to leave Henry where he was for now and orbed back to work. Phoebe brought the four toddler girls and her baby daughter to the hairdressers. Melinda needed her hair to be cut all the way up to the bottom of her head and she freaked out seeing her hair fall onto the floor in the reflection of the mirror. Another hairdresser managed to wash the gum out of Kat's hair.
That evening the family gathered around the table for supper. It was pizza night...frozen pizza Piper had cooked in the oven since that was much cheaper than ordering out for such a large family. Thankfully, the children were all behaving themselves. "So. I absolutely loved the run-down restaurant option. It's already set up as a restaurant which means less work. It just needs a lot of love," Piper announced. "That's great. I'm proud of you for going after your dream," Prue stated. The others agreed. " Andy and I also have some news to share," Prue said. "We found out the baby's gender." For a few seconds, everyone waited excitedly in anticipation. "We're having a girl, Andy announced. "What a surprise! Seriously though, congrats, Paige stated.
Editor's note: Hey guys. Sorry, I don't know how to communicate with you on here, and make sure you read it. Anyway, My computer is broken so posting times will vary for a while until I have saved up enough for a new computer. The screen is falling off! I am currently writing on google docs and will upload the chapters on her whenever I have access to a computer. I'm sure I can borrow my mom's from time to time. I can't figure out how to write or post on this site using my phone or tablet. Feel free to let me know if you know how. I have an Andriod. Also, the links to my character's wikkia pages are still on my profile. I don't have all of them there but once you're on one of the pages you can just search for the character in the search bar on the top of the site. Also, some characters are linked on other character's pages.