Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot.

Chapter One

The Halliwells were doing some spring-cleaning. In between fighting evil, saving the world and concealing the fact they were witches, they were actually quite normal people.

The hallway was cluttered with boxes, old pieces of paper, books and vegetables, for some reason.

"Does Prue know we have eight, black, broken umbrellas?" inquired Phoebe, the youngest, curiously. "Or more to the point, does she know why we're keeping them?"

Piper appeared out of the closet to Phoebe's right carrying a lot of very thick, bound books. Unceremoniously depositing them on the side-table both sisters eyed them inquisitively.

"Twelve," said Piper as a way of explanation. Phoebe cast her a strange look. "Twelve picture albums."

Phoebe reached out to open one but Piper cut her off. "No, see that's the strange thing, not a single photo in them."

"They were Grams'," Prue, the oldest sister, announced from the doorway. "You remember what she always used to say about photos."

"Yes," agreed Piper, fiddling with her long, dark hair. " 'You can never have too many photos girls, you can never have too many memories,' " she intoned, doing a passable impression of their late grandmother.

All three sisters smiled tenderly, unconsciously mirroring one another.

There was a sharp, no nonsense, rap on the door. Piper pricked up.

"That'll be Dan," she said absently to no one in particular. Phoebe watched her older sister thoughtfully, wondering why she didn't sound happier that her boyfriend was on the doorstep. Piper opened the door almost cautiously, a smile already painted on her features. The youngest sister couldn't see Dan, as the stained-glass door was blocking him from view.

Dan placed a chaste, sweet kiss on her lips coming into stand (rather awkwardly) in the lobby.

"So what brings you here?" asked Piper after a moment's pause.

"Had nothing to do, and I remembered you saying you were doing some spring cleaning. Thought you could use some help."

Inside, Phoebe melted. Despite the fact that the spring-cleaning was originally going to be some sister bonding, the fact that Piper's boyfriend cared so much was just damn sweet.

The youngest sister pointed to a box. "If you could take that box of…" She peered into it. "Beer-mats into the living room."

Dan easily picked up the box that had taken all three sisters to cart from the closet and moved it into the next room.

There was a second's hiatus as the three sisters looked at each other thoughtfully and surveyed the chaos of their hallway.

"Is it… meant to be doing that?" came a voice, somewhat plaintively, from the adjacent room.

Prue, Piper and Phoebe moved cautiously into the sitting room across the squeaky floorboards.

Dan was staring nervously at the table where the Ouiji Board was moving. After a second of silence whilst the sisters absorbed this fact Phoebe slammed her hand down on it, saying the first thing that came into her mind.

"It's remote-controlled you see. Except we – er – lost the controller."

Dan, Prue and Piper just stared at her in bemusement, although for different reasons. Phoebe felt the pointer move independently beneath her hand again.

"Ha! I win!" announced Anya triumphantly.

Xander sighed, patiently. "Anya, love, you can't 'win' at origami."

"Can too," pouted the ex-demon defiantly. "Look mine's way better than Buffy or Willow's"

"But theirs are meant to be swans and yours is meant to be…" Xander tailed off uncertainly. What exactly was hers meant to be anyway?

"It's a frog," replied his girlfriend huffily in a tone that added a silent 'duh' to the end.

Willow and Buffy exchanged looks across the table. They really needed some demons to fight or something, because they'd resorted to origami of all things. A pastime that Anya had efficiently managed to turn into a competitive sport. Somehow.

Giles bustled out of the kitchen, fixing them with a look that clearly said 'why are you still here?' Willow smiled apologetically.

"Oh, hey, look! It's getting dark! Maybe we should go and patrol?" her sentence went up at the end hopefully, anything to get away from Giles' fixed gazes and Anya's temper tantrums.

Buffy smiled, entirely understanding where her friend was coming from. "Well, there hasn't been much to slay since the end of the Initiative, but I guess it wouldn't hurt."

Giles hastily nodded his agreement before wordlessly burying himself in a rather impressive sized tome. Light-reading Buffy supposed.

"I don't want to," sulked Anya. "I don't think we should go," she told Xander.

Xander felt all three women's eyed turn on him. Whatever he said next would get him on the wrong side of one sect.

"I think I might get some fresh air too," he answered quickly, trying to keep the stammer out of his voice. His girlfriend could be a bit scary when the mood took her, must be something to do with the years of wreaking chaos on men.

The ex-watcher looked up sharply a don't-leave-me-with-her look pasted all over his face. Xander shrugged apologetically, struggling to ignore the death glares he was getting from Anya. He followed the vivid red and light blonde of Buffy and willow to the door of the apartment, wondering why it was always him who managed to get stuck in the middle.

That evening the cages were lined up as always. The familiar two-metre spacing from one to the next. Oz followed the sombre line between the cages, seeing people he knew by sight and smell but not the name of. He didn't acknowledge them though, the Awakening was always meant to be silent.

Awakening. Such a delicate word for such a violent process. The awakening of the wolf, the embracing of their other halves. Oz shook his head, there was nothing enlightening about the change that took place every month, surrounded by werewolves, they all agreed on this. It was painful, terrifying, familiar, but it certainly wasn't elegant.

He sat in the habitual cage; between two acquaintances he'd made a couple of weeks back. Here, they knew him as Nathaniel. That was all they needed to know, not his last name, not his past, nothing. There was Nate to his left and Nivella to his right.

The Alphas thought that they should see the full moon as they changed, see the beginning of the pain and witness the roundness of their curse. And so they waited, silently in their little four-by-four cages, watching the light slip to the horizon on its endless migration around the world. As soon as the first edge of the moon began to appear over the curve of the horizon – it was big tonight – the first screams of pain echoed from the first lines of the enclosure formation.

Around him Oz felt the changes take place, the recurring growls, and the crunching of bone on bone, muscle to muscle. But even as he waited for what he knew was coming the first seeds of curiosity were sown. Moonlight spattered, unhindered, over his hand. It was weird, knowing that something should be happening, he was all amped for the change and yet felt nothing.

The strangeness washed over him in waves, all around him people – who in the light of day were perfectly normal – had transformed into bloodthirsty beasts, slamming against the walls of their cages. They could smell him, smell his human blood.

He'd never been on the outside looking in before.

Liz was reading. Well, at least that was what it was meant to look like; she was actually watching Michael Guerin. As a pastime this actually turned out to be very boring indeed.

Maria was going to owe her big time. After yet another argument between the two temperamental teenagers they'd reached the point where they studiously ignored each other when in the same place, but behind one another's backs they wanted to know everything.

Hence the watching; Maria wanted to know whether Michael had found anyone else.

As far as Liz could tell he hadn't. But then there wasn't much socialising that could be done in detention.

She felt rather than saw Max sit down next to her and quickly snapped her eyes onto her book diligently.

"You know it's upside down right?"

Liz felt her cheeks colour slightly before turning to face her boyfriend. "What do you want Max?" she asked, the familiar softness creeping into her tone whenever she spoke to him.

"Maybe to know why you're watching Michael?" His voice was light but Liz hadn't missed the flash of jealousy in his eyes.

She smiled. "Maria." That was all he needed in way of explanation.

He sighed in relief. "Was a bit worried there," he smiled self-consciously.

"Of Michael?" Liz giggled. "I can't really see that happening, can you?"

The dark-haired alien shrugged. "Stranger things have happened."

It was true, they had.

Liz felt her stomach clench painfully. It had been doing that a lot lately. At first she had chalked it up to 'that time of the month', but now it couldn't be. She hadn't told anyone, not even Maria, figuring that it was only a stomachache; the whole world didn't need to know about it. Now though, it was getting more and more painful and frequent. It was beginning to worry her slightly.

"What's wrong?" asked Max, ever the worried boyfriend.

Liz hesitated before answering. "Nothing, nothing at all." But she didn't meet his eyes and she didn't miss the calculating look he gave her.