Author's Note: This story takes place a week after the episode "Happily Ever After." I would like to thank my beta readers for encouragement.

Disclaimer: See bottom of story for disclaimer.

"I don't care if they saved us," explained Crotchety, the dwarf, "we went to their world. lugging a coffin through their largest city until we could find transportation to the "airport." Once we got to the dreaded "airport," we had to wait three hours in line, with people staring at us because we were smaller than they were. Then, when we got on what they called the "plane" we spent six hours, in seats that were too small and cramped even for us, and ate the most awful tasting food. The least they could have done would have been to provide some adequate entertainment. But there was nothing to entertain us but that awful magic play about Cinderella which I hope she never sees. If she does, its creators will go straight to the gallows, no questions asked. We deserve a lot for the excursion gentleman."

Usually Crotchety was written off, but his reminder of the grueling details of their excursion struck a chord. Sleazy wrote up the bill, to be delivered to the charmed ones, in their world.

Piper brought in the mail and sorted it. It was 8:30 on an overcast morning. As she went through, she noticed something strange. At the bottom of the pile was a well worn brown paper envelope, addressed in calligraphy to her sister, Paige.

She walked over to the stairs and called out, "Paige, something came for you". Paige bounced down the stairs. "Looks like one of your friends is getting married," said Piper, as she handed over the envelope.

Paige wondered whom it could be from. Her only friend who was engaged had told her that she was keeping it a small, private affair. This certainly didn't look like an invitation to a simple wedding. She opened the envelope, and took out the brown piece of paper inside. It wasn't the wedding invitation she was expecting. The neatly written note said:

"The Guild of Royal Dwarves of The Lower Kingdom is owed exactly 20 kilograms of precious metal and stones, for life preserving services rendered to the addressee. Payment is to be delivered in person in the City of New York, to the back door of restaurant Grill on the Park, promptly at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday the fifth of October."

They knew what the letter was in reference to. A week earlier, an evil witch from the realm of fairy tales had attacked them. She had demonically possessed a suitor for Phoebe, sent a wolf after Piper, and placed a poisoned apple in a bowl of fruit. Paige innocently ate the apple ala the Snow White fairy tale. Fortunately Piper was able to conjure up a spell, which summoned the descendants of the seven dwarfs. They in turn, were able to preserve Paige using a glass coffin. After the incident was over, all seven of them left the house. One of them informed the sisters "We'll send the bill".

The sisters stared at each other, mouths gaped open. "20 kilos of precious metal, where are we going to come up with that in a half hour?" Paige sputtered.

Phoebe walked in the door, observing their expressions she looked at her sisters quizzically.

"The dwarfs sent the bill" explained Piper. Phoebe, grabbed the letter from her. While reading it over, she smiled.

"The Grill on the Park."

"Do you have any idea where that is?" asked Paige.

Phoebe responded, "Oh yeah, I worked there about, five years ago, when I was in New York. Beautiful place, right in Central Park."

Piper pointed to a spot in the letter.

"And do you have any idea where we could come up with 20 kilograms of precious metal?"

"I'll be right back" said Phoebe.

She ran up to her room and thought about how now would be the perfect time to venture back to New York. It would be temporary escape from the divorce proceedings. A shopping trip down Fifth Avenue would be great. In addition, she needed to catch up with some of her old friends. She hadn't spoken to her old roommate Virginia in so long.

Phoebe entered her room and went to her desk to retrieve a key. She used it to open her jewelry box. The box was filled with expensive diamond and gold necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Half of them had been given to her during her time in New York, when she had gone out with some sketchy characters. The rest were gifts from Cole.

She had considered hocking it all, but for some reason decided against it. Something told her they would come in handy some day. This was certainly that day.

Phoebe brought the box downstairs and showed its valuable contents to her sisters. Piper and Paige were floored. They knew that Phoebe had collected some valuables over the years, but they never suspected what was before them.

"Think this will satisfy them? Its not 20 kilos, but its all I have. They're the ones who should owe us. After all, you vanquished that witch," she said looking at Piper.

"Are you sure you want to give all that away?" Piper asked. She still wondered about the status of Phoebe's relationship with Cole. Somehow she suspected that Phoebe still loved him, despite all that had happened.

"Definitely. I need to get rid of it," argued Phoebe, not wanting to debate it. "We could orb there now, give it to them, and get it all done with."

Piper sighed. She knew that once Phoebe became this adamant about something, it was impossible to get her to change her mind.

"Be careful" exclaimed Piper, worried about what might happen to her sisters in New York City. She didn't feel like orbing there with them. Earlier that morning she had a bad bout of morning sickness. If anything went wrong, she and Leo were just a call away.

Phoebe and Paige arrived in a secluded section of Central Park. They immediately headed to the back door of The Grill on the Park.

Paige knocked on what seemed to be a loading door. "Anyone there?" she asked aloud. An extremely attractive young man came to the door. He had curly, golden blond hair, and was dressed in an expensive sweater from Banana Republic. "The Charmed Ones I presume?" he asked, in a British accent.

"Yes, that's us" replied Phoebe. Paige seemed speechless, as she looked into the young man's eyes. He seemed to be just as enthralled with her.

"Will this do?" Phoebe asked awkwardly, handing him the box.

The man quickly looked away from Paige

"Please don't worry about it. You and your sisters have done a great service to our people, vanquishing the swamp witch, Veronica. For three hundred years, no one has been powerful enough to stop her. You don't owe us anything more. Saving your life, is too little in payment," he looked at Paige, took her hand and kissed it.

Ordinarily, Phoebe would be suspicious. However; he seemed so kind and genuine. As the dwarves had said, Paige did desperately need a prince. Not wanting to be in the middle of something, she decided to leave them alone, and walked out to the front of the restaurant.

Phoebe entered the front door. The restaurant had been completely re-done. Almost all the furniture looked like antiques taken from some castle in England. The checkerboard floors seemed to give it an enchanting, fairy tale like quality. It was beautiful, but oddly similar to the ballroom where she was seduced last week, by Adam Prinze. A sign above said "Under New Management." She breathed a sigh of relief. Edward, her old boss, had been completely unreasonable. Hopefully someone more deserving now owned the place. She looked around for a familiar face, wondering if any of her ex co-workers were still there. Fortunately she was in luck.

"Ginny!" shouted Phoebe. Virginia Lewis hadn't changed a bit. Like always, her light brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, and an apron was tied around her waist.

It took a minute for Virginia to recognize who it was. Phoebe looked so much older without her old short brown haircut, she thought.

"Phoebe? How are you, it's been so long," she said, embracing her old friend.

"I've been okay. Are you still working here?" Phoebe responded.

"Yes" exclaimed Virginia "but its not that bad, my husband and I are the owners."

"Congratulations, you've really done a lot with the place." she said looking around. She noticed that there was something strange about most of the wait staff. Some of them had a peculiar affect about them, weird shifty eyes, and overly content attitudes.

"Thanks. How have you been?" responded Virginia. Are you still living in San Francisco?"

"Yes, I run an advice column called Ask Phoebe for the Bay Mirror."

"That's awesome. How are your sisters doing?"

"They're okay." She didn't feel like bringing up what happened to Prue right then. It would wait until later.

Phoebe then asked, "How is your dad?"

She remembered Virginia's father, Tony all too well. He was extremely over-protective, calling her every night, expecting her to tell him down-to-the-minute details of her life. If she didn't call in by 10:00, he would come over, to check if she was in.

"He is working overseas."

"Where?" asked Phoebe

"In the United Kingdom. He runs a business making rubber bouncing castles for children's birthday parties."

"You miss him?"

"Yeah, but we get to see each other pretty frequently." Just then a howling cry was heard from behind them. "Looks like my son is waking up from his nap, I should check on him."

Phoebe followed Virginia to the back room, in which there was a worn out playpen. Inside was a young boy with thick dark, unkempt hair, surrounded by various toys that looked more like they were made for a puppy than a toddler.

"Oh my god, he's adorable" Phoebe said, lifting him up before his mother could say anything. The young boy looked up at her. "What cute eyes he has," she said referring to his big, shifty green eyes.

For some reason Virginia seemed nervous. The child smiled, and made a cooing noise that sounded a bit like a howl. He sniffed Phoebe's neck. She thought it was a bit odd, although his tiny nose was so adorable. And those cute teeth, all so little, except for the canines, which looked a bit like fangs.

"Ouch!" she yelped a second later.

Virginia instantly ran over to her friend, whose neck was bleeding badly.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. He is teething and all, you know what that's like."

Virginia sighed. This was the third accident in two weeks. One former nanny had already threatened them with a lawsuit. She didn't want to have to deal with another one.

"A little piranha you are" Phoebe said as she handed her friend the child, desperately trying not to bleed on him. She had no idea that an infant could inflict such bodily injury.

Virginia put the child back into the playpen. "Haven't I told you not to bite. Stay here, don't move." She turned to Phoebe, and nervously sat her down in a chair in the corner. "I'll go get something, don't worry, you'll be fine. It's not as bad as it looks. I'll tell you what, free dinner for you and your family, on the house tonight. Anything you want, executive room in the back, is all yours. Actually, we'll do it all at my house."

Virginia then ran out, to get the remedy her husband's family used for treating these kinds of incidents with young ones.

Just as Virginia left the room, Leo orbed in.

"What happened" he asked, attempting to heal the large bite on her neck. The boy seemed to have gotten a vein.

"Him," she said pointing to the child in the playpen who was now looking up, in awe, at the ceiling from where the stranger seemed to appear.

Just as Leo was done healing her neck, Virginia returned with something and was startled, wondering how he could have gotten in. She had been two feet away in the hallway the entire time, and didn't see anyone enter the windowless, mirrorless room.

She opened a jar which contained a mysterious orange substance, "This should help with your neck."

"That's okay, I'll be fine" responded Phoebe. Virginia was shocked once again. What looked like a nasty bite had completely healed itself in about two minutes. Phoebe went on to introduce the blond man.

"This is my brother-in-law, Leo Wyatt" Phoebe said. Virginia shook the man's hand.

"Virginia Lewis-Wolfson" she said introducing herself, "and this is my son, Randell."

A strange feeling came upon Leo as he touched her. The young woman's aura seemed to be that of a witch, yet the elders had not told him anything about new lines of witches being created. Nor had they told him of any future white lighters.

"What is that in the jar?" he asked.

"Its something organic. Works like magic for cuts and scrapes"

Virginia had grown a bit suspicious of the man, but, noticed, her son seemed to like him.

"Oh," he said changing the subject. "Nice place you have here." He hadn't seen the interior of the restaurant, but assumed it was excellent from the scents of fresh apples and lamb, coming from the kitchen. He was curious to see what Piper would think, her being a chef and all. Speaking of Piper, he could sense her calling him. "I have to go," he said "pleasure meeting you."

"See you later, Leo" responded Phoebe as Leo walked out of the room.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. Phoebe, Piper, Leo, Cole, Prue and any other characters from Charmed, are property of Brad Kern and Warner Brothers. Virginia Lewis, Wolf, Prince Wendell, and Tony Lewis and any other characters from Tenth Kingdom, are property of Simon Moore and Hallmark Entertainment.