Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. Enjoy chapter two, tell me what you think!

Also, I forgot to mention in my previous author's note: in this world, Cole was never possessed by the Source in S4 and Phoebe didn't get pregnant with demon spawn. The Seer became the Source and they defeated her. As a reward for helping defeat two Sources, the Elders made Cole into a witch with fire balls and fading (a form of energy-based teleportation). So he and Phoebe stayed together, having three daughters: Phaedra, Primrose and Pamela-details of their birthdays and powers are on my Halliwell Family Tree on my profile.

Paige is still married to Henry, though, cause, unlike Coop, I actually like Henry. They have twins Sage Patricia and Hazel Katherine Mitchell, as well as son Henry "Hal". Hal is adopted, but a witch with cryokinesis. His parents were witches whom were killed by a demon that the sisters were hunting. Again, details on my family tree.

And Wyatt's wife is the "cute little psychic" who stole his toy in Witch Wars, while his best friend Damien is, probably obviously, the half-Manticore baby from Little Monsters.

Chapter Two

Family Discussions

Halliwell Manor, 1329 Prescott Street, San Francisco: June 12th, 2026

Sunday dinners were a requirement for the Halliwell clan. Everybody was expected to attend, from Victor (who was getting on in years but was still much the same, though there had been a cancer scare when Liz was fifteen that had frightened them all enough to have Piper convince her father to move into the Manor) to the youngest member of the extended family, Phoebe's third daughter Pamela, who was thirteen and quite the drama queen.

No excuses, whether it be demonic-related or illness, were considered to be an acceptable reason for missing a dinner.

Liz herself had never missed a dinner, save for the year she spent as her alternate self back in the early 2000s. Even during the period when she had returned and promptly eloped with Niko, causing a cold war between the family, (Liz, Victor, Phoebe, Cole and their daughters versus Piper, Leo, Wyatt and Paige's family.) everybody still came. Even Niko had come, although it hadn't really helped the situation.

Now, though, the entire family had (grudgingly) accepted him, and the majority of the tension had evaporated from the dinners.

Today, however, Liz's spine was rigid with stress as she materialized in the conservatory, clutching Niko's hand.

Over the years, the family had put up dozens of different wards. Now, anybody who tried to magically enter had to be 'keyed', as it was called, into the wards. Otherwise they simply bounced right off. Liz had an amusing memory of when she was twelve.

Odin, a particularly stuck-up Elder, had attempted to orb into the Manor to demand the Charmed Ones deal with a demon attempting to become the new Source. He had bounced right off of the wards protecting their home, landing on his behind on the back porch. The family still had the photographs of it, and the memory never failed to make them all burst out laughing.

When she arrived, her Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry were there already with their children. Sage, their eldest and most-outgoing daughter, was facing off with them in what reminded Liz of a Mexican stand-off. The source of the argument appeared to be Sage's outfit, which consisted of a semi-transparent purple crop-top over a pair of low-slung jeans and heels. Paige and Henry evidently considered it too inappropriate for their seventeen-year-old daughter to be wearing. Peeking into the room from the sitting room were Hazel, Sage's younger and much-quieter twin and Henry Junior, more commonly known as Hal or Junior.

"Liz!" Sage cried when she and Niko appeared. "Some help, please? Tell these old geezers that there's nothing wrong with my outfit!"

"For Heaven's sake, Sage Mitchell," Paige growled. "Don't be trying to get your cousin to get you out of this! Go home and change, then come straight back. Don't make me tell you again, young lady."

Liz wondered what the Paige of 2004 would've thought, seeing herself in twenty years. There were a lot of differences, but at the core of it all Paige was the same as she had always been. Compassionate, strong, a dedicated witch and protector of the innocent, and wielder of a razor-sharp wit.

Liz quickly took advantage of the renewed argument to tug her husband out of the conservatory and into the kitchen. Piper was at the stove, crouching down to check on the roasting duck. She straightened up at their entrance, a broad smile breaking out across her face.

"Lizzie!" she cried in delight, hurrying over to hug her. Liz hugged her back, burying her face in the crook of Piper's shoulder. It was good to see her mother, even though she saw her regularly. They co-ran P3 and Charmed, with Piper steadily shifting more and more of the responsibilities to Liz as she grew older.

But Liz had never quite been able to get over her memories of the other world, where her mother had died when she was just barely fourteen, and it made Liz clung to Piper desperately.

The eldest Charmed daughter knew far too well how quickly the world could change, and even the life of a Warren witch could be snuffed out like a candle flame. The nagging feeling that something was wrong only worsened her stress.

"Is everything alright, honey?" Piper asked in concern, pulling away and cupping the sides of Liz's face. She forced a smile that Piper probably saw right through.

"Fine," she claimed. "Just tired."

Piper hummed and nodded, a gentle look in her loving brown eyes. No doubt she thought that Liz was having one of those days when the memories of her other life were strong enough that it was a battle to get out of bed.

They came and went irregularly, but they were always a challenge. In some ways, it had been easier to cope while in the past. The sisters and Leo had been different enough that she didn't have to struggle so much to push away memories of the versions she'd grown up with originally. When she did have those days, pouring herself into her mission had dealt with it. But since she had returned to the new 2020s, it was so much harder. The club and restaurant could only do so much, and demon hunting was depressingly easy nowadays, compared to her first life.

Piper's gaze shifted to Niko and she gained a mildly-frosty edge. "Niko," she greeted him politely, but without the warmth she spoke to Emily with. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good thank you, Mrs. Halliwell," he responded lightly. "Work keeps me busy."

Piper nodded in understanding, a hint of respect softening her cold air towards her son-in-law.

While Liz worked with her mother and dabbled in physics on the side, her husband worked as a member of the local SWAT team.

It suited him, really, allowing him to make use of his skills. Lynn had listened to her son when he came back in time, and hadn't raised him to be an assassin. But she had taught him all of the skills he would've needed for the job, and he had excelled at them. He was already in line for a second promotion despite being only twenty-five. Most importantly of all, in Niko's eyes, it allowed him to make up for the crimes he had committed for the Source in their original timeline.

Liz, of course, didn't think he had anything to make up for. Unlike her, who had, in some ways, been as ruthless as the Source himself.

Niko had been forced into working for Lord Wyatt, after all. He hadn't done any of those killings willingly. And anyway, they had all been erased by the timeline changing.

Liz, however, had made sure to deal with everyone deemed a threat by the Resistance while in 2003. Including several mortals who had helped to find the Witch Hunter Inquisition. But she understood how Niko felt, so she never tried to dissuade him.

"I saw the news about that bank robbery the other day," Piper commented. "Were you involved in that?"

Niko nodded nonchalantly. "It wasn't as bad as it seemed," he told her. "Except for the leader and three of the group, they were all being forced into it. He was threatening their families. So out of ten, seven surrendered quickly when we stormed the building. One of the others got shot, and he's still under guard at the hospital, but the others are in custody. It turned out well. No casualties, thank the goddess."

"Well, I'm sure that Hal would love to hear all about it," Piper commented. "Why don't you head into the living room? He's in there with Dad and Hazel. Lizzie, peanut, do you want to help me with the dinner? I'm just sorting out the vegetables and gravy."

"Sure," Liz agreed. Niko pressed a quick kiss to her forehead and squeezed her hand softly, gave a respectful nod to Piper, then left the room. Sage's voice, raised in irritation, could be heard as the door opened briefly before closing again behind him.

Piper sighed. "Still going at it, then?" she asked, handing Liz a peeler and directing her towards the waiting potatoes on the green chopping board.

"Yup," Liz replied, popping the 'p'. "When'd they arrive? And how did Sage even manage to get out of the house dressed like that?"

"Around ten minutes ago," Piper explained. "She wore her coat over it."

"Ah," Liz murmured. She muffled a yawn against her sleeve, closing her eyes for a moment out of exhaustion. Piper reached out, pressing a hand against her daughter's arm.

"Sweetie, you know that you can talk to me about anything," she told Liz, who nodded simply.

"Of course I know that," Liz assured her. And she did. It was just a lot harder to rely on people now then it was when she was a girl. Before she had turned herself into the darker version of herself and everything (and yet nothing) had changed. That life was as vivid as this one. The instincts were stronger, in some ways, having been earned through harsher lessons.

Most of the time, Liz couldn't believe that she had only been twenty when she went time travelling, nor that nearly two full years had passed since she returned to the 2020s. She was physically twenty-three, twenty-four in November, yet it felt as if she were thrice that.

Piper sighed, running her thumb across Liz's cheek as she cupped the side of her jaw. "I love you, peanut," she said gently. "So much. No matter what."

"I love you too," Liz answered. They went back to working on the dinner, discussing light topics such as Piper and Leo's plan to redo the backyard and Liz and Niko's plans for their anniversary the coming month.

By the time the dinner was ready, the rest of the clan had descended on the house, and Liz was feeling much better. The sight of all of her family (alive and unharmed, unscarred by the horrors of war) were almost enough to get rid of the lingering feeling that something terrible was going to happen. Almost.

As promised, Wyatt pulled Liz and Leo up to the attic to have a quiet talk about the strange incident earlier that afternoon when dinner was over and everybody had dispersed into groups while waiting for the dessert to be served.

"What's wrong, Wyatt?" Leo asked him worriedly once they had reached the attic.

"Something happened this afternoon," he confessed, running a hand through his blonde curls.

Typically, Wyatt was a casual, cheerful guy. Nothing ever pulled his mood down for long. But the more he thought about the disturbing vision-like trance he'd gone into, the more freaked out he became.

"What?" Liz demanded sharply, crossing her arms and looking a mixture of stressed and angry. About par for the course when it came to Liz then. "A demon attack? Spell? What?"

"I don't know," Wyatt confessed. "It was, weird. Like a vision, but-not."

"You don't get visions, anyway," Liz pointed out. "Explain what happened."

"Describe it to us," Leo added. "What do you mean, 'like a vision'."

Wyatt chewed his bottom lip, trying to find the words he needed to explain what had happened. "I was in the nursery with Emily," he began slowly, frowning at the floor. "And then, suddenly, everything was different. The furniture was gone, the whole room seemed like it had been abandoned for years. And I felt this, awful sense of, despair. Like life itself was worth nothing. I just wanted it to be over. I don't know what. Emily said I was just staring at nothing for, like, a minute."

He fell silent again, and looked up at his companions. Leo was frowning thoughtfully, his arms crossed and a considering look on his face. Liz, meanwhile, looked outright disturbed. She was gripping her braid tightly, her jaw tight.

"Anything else?" her voice was almost hoarse, but not quite. Wyatt shook his head silently. She exhaled heavily. "I've had a feeling all day that something's wrong," she revealed. "Niko too. But neither of us can figure out what. We've tried everything to figure it out, and nothing." She shrugged, blatantly unhappy about that fact.

Wyatt ran his hand through his hair again, looking worriedly at his father. "What'd you think, Dad?" To his surprise, Leo didn't seem alarmed.

"You were in the nursery when this happened?" he checked. Wyatt nodded. "Thinking about becoming a father? Maybe worrying about messing up?"

Wyatt blinked in confusion, shrugging. "I was thinking about being a dad, yeah," he agreed cautiously. "I dunno that I was worrying about messing up, though."

"His ego's too big to think that he could ever fail at anything," Liz deadpanned, releasing her braid and flicking it back over her shoulder to let it hang down between her shoulder-blades. "Never mind the grades saying otherwise."

"Oh, haha," Wyatt pouted. He looked hopefully at Leo, who was smiling gently now. "You know what happened, then?"

"I think it was just your fears about impending fatherhood, whether conscious or not, overwhelming you," Leo told him gently, resting a hand on Wyatt's shoulder in comfort. "And I think that Liz picked up on your anxiety through your bond, and then Niko picked up on it from her. It wouldn't be the first time you brought your nightmares to life, after all."

Wyatt flushed in embarrassment at the reminder of the (many) incidents throughout his childhood, then quickly hurried past it. "Are you sure it's that simple?"

When he glanced at her, he saw that Liz also looked sceptical of the offered explanation, though she didn't offer any other theories either. Seeing he was looking at her, she shrugged.

"It's possible," she stated evenly. "Niko and I haven't heard of any threats, either above or below. My cards aren't showing anything either, and I'd expect the Elders to alert us if they knew anything. It could be."

"So there's no need to worry?" Wyatt double-checked.

Leo smiled, gripping his shoulder comfortingly. "None at all," he promised. "I think this is completely natural, just you being anxious. It happens to everyone when they're preparing to have a child."

Wyatt felt his stress ease. "Good," he breathed. "The baby's due so soon, I really don't have time to be dealing with some Source-wannabe right now."

"Dessert!" Piper yelled up the stairs. "Hurry up or you'll miss your slices!"

"Coming!" Leo called back down.

A thought occurred to Wyatt, and he grimaced. "If I was conjuring my nightmares, does that mean that the baby will too?"

"Depends on their powers, obviously," Liz shrugged, tucking her hands into her back pockets.

"I'd better not mention that to Emily," Wyatt sighed. "She's frustrated enough with the baby randomly orbing her places and making her visions go haywire."

"Who knew that having a child could be so difficult?" Liz drawled sarcastically, neatly sidestepping Wyatt's attempt to swat her shoulder and rolling her eyes at him.

"Oh, it's worth all of it," Leo assured his children firmly. "Now, let's get back downstairs before all of the Baked Alaska's gone."

Liz smirked. "Oh, don't worry about that," she told them with a devious grin. "I cut a few slices and orbed them to my fridge at the apartment. If needs be, I'll let you have some."

"Well aren't you generous," Wyatt snarked, as they began traipsing back downstairs.

"You know it," Liz laughed.

Wyatt bounded down ahead, once again at ease after Leo's reassurance. Liz drifted to the back of the trio, frowning at the floor. Despite the perfectly reasonable explanation that Leo had offered them, she just couldn't relax.

Something was coming, she knew it. And when it came, it would learn what a big mistake it was to mess with Elizabeth Halliwell and the people she cared about.