A/N: Please R/R we hope you like it!

Disclaimer: See first Chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 2 - Mom?!

"Back then I lived in the manor with my Aunt Paige, my Moms sister, and my parents: Piper and Leo. My Mom's other sister, Aunt Phoebe, lived with her husband Cole just a few blocks away. To any other person our family would look relatively normal but we had a secret. A secret that was known to few people, but was known to every witch, elder, whitelighter and demon although they didn't all know who we really were. We were not only witches but my Mom and Aunts were the Charmed Ones. A powerful force of good that every demon wanted to destroy. I was only 7 when it happened. The day that changed the rest of my life and a day I would never forget. It started out just like any other ordinary Saturday; although because we were witches I guess no day was what most people would call ordinary. The usual 'pancakes' shouted up the stairs woke me up, reluctantly I threw off the covers and again forced myself to join the world after a soothing nights sleep. I threw on some clothes and ran downstairs for breakfast. It was then that I heard this scream by the front door as a demon shimmered in and threw an energy ball at Paige. She was sent hurtling through the air and into the clock knocking her unconscious. Mom ran in screaming at me to go up to the attic but I was so scared that I was frozen to the spot; I tried to move but all I could do was stand and stare. Mom tried to freeze the Demon but she was thrown into the wall, where he pinned her throat like a vice to stop her from escaping. Dad raced in from the back garden to see his wife being drained of air. But he, now a mortal could do nothing but stand by and look into her eyes as the demon took out an athame and embedded it deep in gut. Her blood slowly began to drip onto the floor. Dad charged at the demon but who had already shimmered away leaving Mom to collapse. He quickly ran and picked her up…there was so much blood…and…"

* * *

"Are you okay?"

Melinda quickly blinked away the tears forming in her eyes and looked up at Luke.

"Yeah, I…I'm fine"

* * *

"She just lay there cradled in Dad's arms as he rocked her gently and told her that everything was going to be okay and she was going to be fine. But I could tell that something was wrong. Her skin was pale, her lips were blue and there was a rapidly growing pool of blood at her feet. Icy fear encased my heart and the pounding in my ears became so loud that it drowned out every other sound. I stood watching her unable to do anything other than stare as I anxiously waited for her chest to rise and fall but it never did. As I watched I saw a single tear fall down my father's cheek and only then did my brain begin to register the fact that she was dead."

"I'd never lost someone close to me before and for the first time in my life I was more scared than I'd ever been. Every emotion that I'd ever felt rushed into my body and lodged in my throat. Pain, anguish, fear, love. They made my head swim and my chest ache with a deep sadness. I felt angry with her for leaving and then guilty for thinking it. My eyes began to well up and cloud my vision but it didn't matter how many times I wiped away the tears away they still continued to fall."

***

Phoebe and Cole shimmered into the manor.

"I don't think your premonition came true." Cole said looking around the living room.

"Cole my premonitions have never let me down before, why would I have a premonition if it wasn't going to happen."

I heard them arguing and turned to see them, tears staining my face.

"Melinda, what happened?" asked uncle Cole, a look of worry on his face after seeing me.

"We're to late." Muttered Phoebe as she pulled her hand from Cole's and walked shakily towards me.

"Melinda?" uncle Cole repeated after seeing that I still hadn't answered. It was Phoebe's shocked gasp of horror that made Uncle Cole rush towards me. We all stood and watched as Leo held Piper close sobbing into her battered body. My feat felt like lead holding me in place; it had taken all my strength to turn to uncle Cole and auntie Phoebe

"What happened?" said auntie Phoebe; I could tell her voice was cracking with pain.

"Demon." Was all dad muttered in reply.

Then it was as if everyone in that room understood that Piper was truly dead, it was Uncle Cole's voice that broke the awful silence that fell over the usually hectic and loud manor. "Melinda why don't I read you a story while Daddy and auntie Phoebe wake auntie Paige up."

"What about mommy? What are we going to do with mommy?" I remember saying.

"Its okay daddy will look after mommy, he will stay with her." He replied softly as he came closer to me.

"Why can't I stay with mommy?" I stomped my foot and did my best pout, as I looked at all the adults in the room. I could tell I must have done something wrong when auntie Phoebe looked like she was going to cry, I always remembered how my dad would say I looked like mommy when I pouted like that. I watched as auntie Phoebe clung to uncle Cole for support as she tried not to break down in front of me. "Its okay to cry auntie Phoebe." I said as I finally found the feeling in my legs and managed to walk towards her, I just wanted to be safe in somebody's arms, all this pain was making me upset. Auntie Phoebe kneeled down and crushed me to her in a huge hug. That was the first time I ever heard auntie Phoebe cry, she was always seemed a lively, happy person I almost thought she was incapable of such an act. I looked at Uncle Cole over her shoulder and he smiled at me weakly as I patted auntie Phoebe on the back and stroked her hair, just like mommy did for me when I was upset over something. Cole placed a hand on Phoebe's shoulder and said "Let me take Melinda upstairs, so you can deal with everything here." He said softly. I gave Phoebe a kiss on the cheek and pulled out of her embrace to go willing into my favourite uncles arms, well my only uncle but he was still the best. Always there to comfort me when mom and dad weren't he was more of a friend than an uncle, but a friend I never wanted to loose.

***

"They let me go to the funeral, I remember it so well everyone dressed in the same colour, the colour of darkness of death. I watched as they lowered her coffin into the ground it was a beautiful coffin, wooden carvings of angels on the sides and of a sun on the front, to represent the light of going to a new place. Not many people attended the funeral just close family and a dozen friends of moms who I had never met. I understood that mom sacrificed a lot of friends to carry out her destiny as a charmed ones, and now she lay in that coffin after sacrificing so much for others who never attended her funeral because they didn't know or didn't want to know, and understand the things they didn't think existed. I held my dads hand through out the whole thing. I wouldn't even let go so he could stand and do the speech alone. I wanted to stand by him so I did. I stood by him the whole time, and I knew he thanked me for it even if he never said the words. And as the world crashed down around me I looked to my father for help and he told me this. He told me even though she's gone she'll always be with us in our memories, in our hearts."

****

"After the funeral the house became full of morbid conversations. People who you don't even know try and give you advice and tell you that they know what you're going through. But how can they know? It's not there mother who's dead and lying 6 feet under the ground. They can go home and know that their parents will be there instead of finding a demon or finding one of your parents lying on the floor covered in blood and then watching them die. They tell you that the pain fades over time but it doesn't. The smallest thing will remind me of her, like a scent or a voice and then the memories come flooding back to me and even though they may be happy memories I always feel the sadness and pain in my heart. I don't think I ever realized how much she meant to me until she was gone and I feared that she never knew. Although this was the first loss for me in my family, it was not to be the last, and the next was just as painful"