Disclaimer: I in no way own any characters from the television show 'Charmed' and am merely using them for the purpose of this story. Original characters are as far as I am aware, products of my imagination.

Author's Note: Whoo, final chapter, it is! And I didn't think I'd ever be saying that from the rate this story had been moving. But yay, I can finally say I finished a full length fic, with a plot :D

Chapter 11

Paige blearily opened her eyes, and found herself staring at the roof of the attic. She pushed herself up on her elbows and was relieved to see only her sisters standing before her. And since they looked rather younger than they had before the spell, she thought she could presume that she was back in her own time, and not just wishfully thinking that was the case.

"So, did it work, Aunt Piper?" she asked, hiding the mischievous grin that wanted to overtake her face. Her sisters' faces dropped.

"It didn't work?" Phoebe asked, sighing, "I guess, back to the drawing board with spells then."

Paige allowed the grin through, "No, it worked, I'm just messing with you!" She stood up and brushed the dust off her pants, "I think we need to vacuum the floor up here more often though, I'm filthy."

Piper mimed a blow at her head, "Idiot. You had us worried! So, how was the future?"

Paige shrugged, "It was nice. It's good to know that everything is going to turn out nice, so long as stuff stays as it is at the moment. We're all pretty happy, but there's some stuff that hopefully might not happen." She didn't add that those things involved her dying, and the (presumably) love of Phoebe's life leaving her because he couldn't stand the witch stuff. The dying bit at least would come out soon enough, no doubt. There was no way that her sisters were going to let this drop without some sort of explanation.

She wasn't entirely sure whether to mention how many kids they'd ended up with. It could scare her sisters, just a little! She knew that she had been a little shocked at just how many offspring they had between them. Especially when the only one that was around at the moment was little Wyatt. "Oh, my little nephew grows into quite the cutie," she told Piper, smiling. "But then, that's no surprise considering who his parents are!"

The three of them trailed down together to said child's room. He laughed happily when Paige scooped him up cuddling him close, "It was nice enough in the future, but no-one there's my family yet. It's good to be back."

Piper cocked her head to one side. "So, what exactly was it that you did to end up there, anyway?" she inquired, a slightly stern glint coming into her eyes, "You know how dangerous stuff for seeing the future can be. It's not a good idea to do it alone!"

Paige sighed. She should have known that some sort of lecture about the misuse of magic would be forthcoming, "Well, from what I can figure, Kyra did a spell to summon my spirit at the same time I did one to see the future and together they went all funky and switched us around."

Phoebe and Piper stared at her silently, comprehending the unspoken. If a spirit summoning spell could be performed, then in 16 years, as things went now, Paige would be dead. It was a sobering thought. And obviously one of the things that they should work to prevent happening.

Paige smiled at them, only a little sad. She wasn't exactly what could be called 'at terms' with her death, but it was a long way away, and in all actuality could well be prevented by something they did, "Yeah. Exactly what you're thinking. But there's no use in us moping on it yet. It's a way into the future."

"And hey, now I totally get why the future is a no-go zone," she told them, "And I've learned my lesson about messing with it. What comes will come. And I'm happy with that now." She really was. Her time-travelling stint had persuaded her that it was better to allow things to progress on their own than try and see how they were going to end up. She had to accept that, and she thought that now she actually had. She certainly felt a lot more peaceful about how things were at the moment. It was a nice feeling.

Kyra sat up in the circle, rubbing her eyes. Jordyn rushed over, kneeling next to her and throwing her arms around her. Her twin was back, she could sense it. "Welcome home," she said, almost sobbing the words, "Oh Ky, I've missed you so much."

Kyra didn't point out that she hadn't really been gone that long, and that Jordi hadn't even known for most of the time. She knew what her twin meant. Their time of drifting apart from each other was ending, here and now. They were going to work to gain back the link they had had before their mother's death; the closeness they had always shared. They may not have really been aware of it dissipating, but now they were, it was going to be worked back strongly. They needed each other as much as they always had, and this body-swap had been the catalyst in showing this to them.

She returned the embrace, her eyes misting up as well. She and her twin were sharing a silent conversation, each instinctively knowing exactly what the other was trying to say, though there were no words involved. She could barely remember the last time the two of them had communicated like this.

Piper and Phoebe were standing, watching silently, waiting for the twins to conclude their reunion. In a family as close-knit as this one, it would have been impossible not to notice that things had been a little unsettled between the girls for a few months. But that truly was no surprise. Having your mother murdered like theirs had been, it was going to upset anybody, and things were going to change, no matter what. But it appeared that the twins were mending the rift that had come between them, and opening up their feelings fully to each other again, finally.

Finally, Phoebe decided that it was time that someone spoke up, "Kyra, what were you doing in the first place, sweetie? How did you end up switching bodies with Paige?" It was obvious that there was magic involved, and it needed to be recorded. They needed to know so that this situation didn't inadvertently happen again, and so that generations of the future would know how to fix it, if it did.

Kyra looked up, a guilty look flashing across her face. "I…I tried to summon mom's spirit… I just couldn't bear being without her anymore. I needed to talk to her, make sure she was okay. I know you said when she died that we wouldn't be able to contact her, maybe not for a few years. But I just had to try, anyway."

Piper sighed, "Honey, you know we only told you that to try and stop you hurting when it didn't work when you tried. But we do understand. It was the same when Prue died; we had to try. But do you believe us now? I know it hurts, but you can't talk to her yet. I don't know exactly how long it'll be until you can, but you've got to give her time to adjust, as well as giving yourself the same. Sooner or later, you will be able to talk to her. But until then, honey, you've just got to live without her. I know it's hard, but that's the way things go."

Kyra nodded, "I know, and I think I can now. I get the whole situation better, and I think I can learn to live without her. The whole body-switch thing, it sorta brought everything back into perspective and woke me back up. Like, I've been in a daze since mom died, and now that fog's gone. It's good; I can see clearly again."

She could see that everything would be all right. Their lives had to continue without her mom, because that was the way things went. The future would bring changes, and time would heal some of the grief. But life was life, and it was never going to be perfect, no matter how much you wished. You just had to make the best of what you had and know that, some day, the sun would shine where it had looked as if there would only ever be rain.

FIN.

Authors Note: Done, done, done! Please r/r, even though this fic is at it's end. It's still nice to know that people are reading it and to find out what they think.