CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

That got a huge smile out of Piper. "We can definitely do that."

Billie ducked her head and asked softly, "May I ask for one more favor, please?"

"What's that?" and for the first time, there was no suspicion in Piper's voice; there was almost a smile.

"That you let me be your friend again? Even if I'm not magical. Please?"

Piper could actually feel the hatred for the Jenkinses, especially Billie, that she had been harboring in her heart ever since Billie's betrayal finally begin to melt. Opening her arms, she hugged Billie tight. "Of course, I will!" and the other two sisters came over to hug her, too.

Piper's kids were impressed--they knew their mother wasn't the "huggy" kind -- they only got hugs for very special reasons, getting most of the ones they wanted from their aunts..

"One thing first," Paige suggested. "I'm not sure if Christy is going to want to see Billie all beaten up!" And she quickly cast her favorite spell:

"Let the object of objection become but a dream,
As I cause the seen to be unseen."

Piper's kids grinned as they watched Billie's cuts and bruises seem to disappear. They'd used that spell many times and would always be grateful to their Aunt Paige for coming up with it.

"OK, now you're ready to go!" Paige cried.

The others nodded after the others wished them luck, Paige orbed her Piper, Billie and Coop to Magic School. Much as Billie had thought, Christy and Dumain were both in the black room, trying to figure out some way of destroying the Halliwells without the Hollow.

Piper stepped in the room first. Using one hand, she froze Christy, then she used the other to explode Dumain, thoroughly enjoying watching his atoms spread all over the room before blowing away into dust.

"Hurry!" she called to the others, and Coop and Billie quickly surrounded Christy's still-frozen form. Coop put his hand on both Billie and Christy's shoulder, while Billie concentrated on feeling the love she still had for her big sister before she was kidnapped, and Coop used the power of that love to bring them both back in time.

No sooner did they heart-orb out than Paige orbed Piper back to the Manor, where they, Phoebe, Grams, Young Piper and Piper's children waited anxiously. It seemed like only seconds before Coop returned, 8-year-old Christy clutching one of his hands while 6-year-old Billie clutched the other.

"Dumain?" Piper asked.

"Vanquished just as he was coming to see the girls but before he entered the house," replied Coop, who had watched. "A very nice, neat vanquish. Young Christy was outside playing, so Christy blurred into her almost the instant she unfroze. Then we went inside and found Young Billie and Billie blurred into her."

Piper nodded her approval, then turned to Paige. "Book of Shadows?"

Paige nodded, still very happy to have Piper calling the shots again. She thrust out her arms and called, "Book of Shadows!" and immediately the Book orbed into her arms.

"Very good," approved Grams, while Young Piper clapped her hands in delight. Piper's children merely shrugged. They were used to Paige's family calling for things they needed. It always irritated Chris and Wyatt that their cousin Henry Jr could do magic while they could remember doing it without actually being able to do so themselves.

Quickly the sisters found the right page in the Book, and then much as they had bounded Tyler, the young firestarter's powers and Grams had bounded theirs, the Halliwells bounded the Jenkins'.

Both young Jenkinses were terrified by the whole thing and when they found they were going back home, they gladly went back to Coop. He told them that if they would just think how very much they loved their parents, he would bring them back home. The two young girls nodded and soon Coop heart-orbed out with them again.

When he heart-orbed back, Piper asked, "Well, did it work?"

Wyatt and Chris grinned at each other as they felt their powers flow through their bodies. "It sure did!" Wyatt cried.

Chris nodded. "Watch this!" and both of them orbed out to orb back across the room to stand on either side of their mother, making everyone cheer. The only one who didn't was Melinda. She'd enjoyed being the only kid in her immediate family with powers and was certain her brothers would be impossible to live with now, especially Wyatt, if his powers were truly as great as the others made them out to be. She was determined to figure a way to keep her both of her brother humble and use their powers the right way.

Phoebe was curious to find out if it truly worked, so she called Billie's college dorm. Sure enough, Billie was back to being a student, and although she remembered having them, she wanted nothing to do with her powers. Her older sister had never gone to college, but was now married and expecting her first child and also didn't want anything to do with powers. Christy's only fear was that she might pass on those powers to her child. Phoebe assured Billie that if the child showed any signs of powers that she and her sisters would bind them right away and Billie sighed in relef.

Then Piper asked Phoebe to ask Billie if she'd ever want to baby-sit Wyatt and Chris, and Billie cried out, "Sure!"

"Phoebe?" asked Grams. "May I speak with her please?"

Piper gave Grams a strange look, but Phoebe handed Grams the phone. Grams told Billie who she was and asked her if she remembered her from the other time, and Billie agreed that she did.

The whole time the sisters were binding the Jenkinses powers, Grams couldn't help staring at Young Christy. She'd had a glimpse of her older self when they had vanquished the Hollow, but she'd been too busy concentrating on that to really look at her closely. During the ceremony she could and staring, she couldn't believe what she saw.

Now she asked Billie. "What's the full name of your maternal grandfather?" At Billie's confused "Huh?", Grams sighed impatiently--sounding very much like Chris--and clarified. "Your mother's father. What's his full name?"

There was a shrug in Billie's voice. "William Christopher Delaney. Christy and I were named after him."

"Delaney. A rather common name. Does he look like your sister?"

Again there was a shrug in Billie's voice. "Well, he did. He died when we were very young, but Mom always had a picture of him and her mother sitting on the mant-" She stopped as she gasped in realization.

Grams nodded, "Just a minute, child." She then turned to her granddaughters. "Do you know you came very close to vanquishing your own cousins?"