Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed.

Chapter 10

"You're not drinking it properly" A contrite Piper bossed her 'tea party' guests, 2 days later.

Following Paige's brush with death the Elders had relaxed their rules on babysitting, and consequently Chris and Wyatt had been roped into looking after their mother. Some how they had managed to bend their 6ft frames into the tiny plastic chairs that were supposed to be used by their younger counterparts, and now they, and Phoebe were pretending to be guests at Princess Pipers table.

"Then show me how" Wyatt told his mother, amazed that even as a child she still managed to order him about.

"Like this" Piper marched up to him and moved his little finger so that it stuck out at an angle.

"Thank you" He replied in a high pitched voice.

"Does Her Highness wish for another beverage?" Chris asked, holding out a pink plastic teapot containing apple juice.

"Yes please" Piper answered.

"Hey" Victor called as he and Patty came through the front door, a bouncy Paige in her mothers arms.

"You're back" Wyatt and Chris attempted to untangle themselves from the tiny furniture.

"Yep" Patty smiled, "Clean bill of health for Paigey here"

The baby giggled and immediately went to grab some of her mothers hair "Yes, definitely back to normal" Victor commented.

"Mummy, Daddy" Piper called, "come join our tea party"

"Yeah" Phoebe chimed in, "It's lotsa fun"

"Sure is a riot" Wyatt rolled his eyes

"I think I may have done irreparable damage to my back" Chris groaned, "Those plastic seats are awful"

"Well they are made for your baby selves" Leo told them as he entered the living room with a fresh round of drinks for the adults.

"well?" Piper stomped her foot impatiently witing for her parents to accept her invitation.

"Piper, what have we said about foot stomping?" Leo gently reprimanded her. Piper pouted, but did as she was told.

"We're a bit tired just now, we're going to sit and have some grown up time for a bit" Victor told his eldest daughter, as he and Patty sunk onto the sofa.

"Wimp" Patty whispered as she sat back, cuddling Paige.

"I don't see you rushing over there to perch half of your behind on the tiniest chair in the world" Victor countered.

"I'm far too old, and dead"

"Exactly, which means it won't hurt you as much"

"Gah" Paige squirmed and pointed to Piper and the others.

"you want to go join them?" Patty asked, "Okay, but be careful now" She placed Paige on the floor who immediately crawled off to be with her sisters.

"Look at them" Victor commented, pointing to the happy, though at the same time weird family scene in front of him, "make's you realise how much we missed out on"

" Yes" Patty acknowledged "That's the one thing, I would give anything for, more time with my children when they were growing up. At least, we've kind of had a taste of that these past couple of days, both the good and the bad. I'm glad I'm finally getting chance to spend time with Paige too."

"That's the thing about life, you always have to take the rough with the smooth. And if it's any consolation Patty, if things had worked out differently, if your mother had let me be in their life, I would have been there for the girls, every step of the way, I would have taken care of them, all of them."

"You mean.."

"I mean , Paige too, as I said, if things had been different"

"You're a good man Victor "

"You're not too bad yourself"

Victor's words were drowned out by an explosion, and a flash of bright light. Sounds of "what the hell..?" could be heard above the noise of a baby crying, the smoke cleared to reveal 3 adult Charmed Ones, in a heap in the centre of the floor, a befuddled blond haired toddler sat on a chair, and a scared baby Chris crying in his bassinet.

"Peanut!" Adult Piper was the first to come to her senses and rushed to soothe her crying child.

"Mum, Dad, what's going on?" Phoebe asked as she picked herself up from the floor.

"You mean you don't remember anything?" Patty asked

"Remember what?" Paige replied rubbing her head.

"I think you had best sit down" Victor began

XXX

"…and then you changed back" Patty concluded.

"No way" Piper exclaimed

"Yes way" Leo told her, "you were quite the bossy little madam to Chris and Wyatt"

"Oh no, I probably scared them for life"

"I doubt it, I think they will cope"

"Did they seem okay? How was Chris?" Piper fretted

"Chris seemed very happy, they both turn into fine young men" Leo reassured her.

"I still don't believe it" Phoebe interrupted.

"We didn't think you would, so we got this done" Patty brought out an oblong shaped object and handed it to Phoebe. She turned it over, it was a framed photo of herself and Piper as children, taken in a studio, set against a background of blue clouds. They were sitting together, with a dark haired baby wedged between them.

"Holy crap that's me!" Paige stabbed at the photo.

"We were in town and there was a photographer set up in the corner of a department store so we thought that we would have a photo done of the 3 of you"

"Look at you, you were so cute" Phoebe pointed at baby Paige

"Yeah Yeah" Paige blushed bright red

Patty took Paige to the side. "I hope you don't mind, but I had this taken too" She handed Paige a photo, of Patty with baby Paige on her lap "I had one taken with each of the other girls on their 1st birthdays, but I never had the chance to with you ..."

Paige stared wordlessly at the piece of card

"...but I completely understand if you don't wont to keep it or anything,..I"

"No" Paige said gently "Mum, thank you, I'll treasure it"

"No problem" Patty held her arms out for a hug.

"So, um Leo" Victor approached his son-in-law "I take it we passed this challenge then?" he pointed to his fully grown daughters.

"Yes" Leo replied "With flying colours. Patty needed to deal with the guilt that she felt about not being able to be there for Paige when she was a baby. You needed to overcome your issue about not being able to spend time with your children and help do the little day to day things for them when they were growing up, and you also needed to deal with the slight resentment you felt about Patty having another child with Sam and not with you. You both resolved these issues. I, in turn needed to overcome my fear that I would be a bad father to my children, and I did. Hence everybody has been restored."

"I'm sure there could have been an easier way to deal with all this"

"Maybe, but deep down you did enjoy being a hands on dad again…"

"well, I guess" Victor smiled.

"Hey what's all this whispering about?" Piper asked.

"Nothing" Patty told her.

"So, if I remember correctly, before all these shenanigans happened, we were here for a wiccaning?" Victor said loudly.

"Yeah, I think we need to get it over and done with before I change my mind" Piper jiggled Chris up and down.

"Alright Alright" The voice of Grams preceded her entrance into the room.

"Why there you are Penny! How nice it is for you to drop by" Victor commented

"I wish I could say the feeling was mutual but hey ho" Penny sniped

" Mother, given the fact that you were originally responsible for all this, I don't think now is the time for sarcasm" Patty told her.

"And, considering that I haven't forgiven you for casting a spell on my children to begin with" Piper added.

"what is this, pick on Penny day?" Penny questioned.

"Gee, there's so much love in this room right now" Paige drawled.

"Okay" Phoebe took charge, "Grams you're sorry that you cast a spell without Piper's permission. Piper you accept Grams apology and understand that she was only trying to help. Dad, you apologise for being rude to Grams, and Mum, you realise that this isn't entirely Grams fault. Grams you graciously accept their apologies, without the need to add any more comments and express delight at seeing everyone here all together. Is that everything?"

The assembled adults stared at each other open mouthed.

"Good" Phoebe concluded "Shall we begin?"

"The attic?" Grams gestured and made her way toward the stairs, followed by Piper and Leo, each with a child in their arms and Phoebe and Paige hurrying along behind them. Finally bringing up the rear were Patty and Victor, Victor held out his hand for Patty to take and together they slowly climbed the stairs , pausing only to place the framed photo of the 3 little Charmed Ones on the hall table. A whimsical smile hovered on Patty's lips, she gripped Victors hand a bit tighter, and they continued their journey toward the attic.

THE END