We orbed to the kitchen, and the majority of our family was eating breakfast. Grams was cutting Piper's pancakes, while Mom and Dad were buttering toast and grape jelly. Kip was finishing the eggs and the bacon, and he placed them on a plate.

"Girls, how did it go?" Grams asked as little Piper stuffed a triangular piece of pancake in her mouth.

"The demon's vanquished," I answered, "but we haven't heard anything from the whitelighters, right?"

"We weren't expecting any news until later; it will give you some time to eat, clean up, and rest." As Mom began to pull chairs to the table, I noticed Kip leaving the kitchen.

I followed him to the conservatory. "Hey."

I never knew Kip's angry fairy side, but I had seen his furious witch side. "Hi." There was no emotion. "When were you going to tell me you were off to vanquish a demon?"

"I didn—"

"It would have been nice to get some heads up that I could be a widower and a single father. You know you don't have a great track record of living." Wow, he's using my past life as ammunition. "Don't you think, Shannen?"

"I knew—"

"Knew what? What did you think I'd forbid you from killing the demon? Did you not want a fight about your personal safety? How about your daughter? How do you think I could start beginning to explain what happened to you? Especially when I didn't have any clue!"

"I was going to tell you later. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go through with it."

Kip sunk into the sofa. "I thought you had faith in me. The moment I found out you were one of the Charmed Ones, I knew there was going to be risk involved. We could have talked this through."

"Everything was going so fast! I didn't think this through, especially with you and Piper. I just wanted everything was okay." I sat next to him and lean against him. "I have nothing but faith in you. You give so much. I guess I took advantage of that. Kip, I'm sorry."

Kip hugged me, "If this Charmed thing is going to happen, we have to communicate. I think we can learn from our past lives; we have to think about the future, our daughter's future."

"I think I let my past life take control; it was who I was then."

"Phoebe had said I was a cop that was killed, because he didn't listen to your instructions." I remember confiding to Andy about the demon and Phoebe's premonitions of his death. I felt so much guilt for Andy's death, thinking I had caused his death, and a part of me still felt that guilt. "Duty sent me to my death then, and it could have done the same with you." There was no way I was going to talk about my injuries that Paige healed during the battle.

"Duty did send me to my death, and then, I regretted that decision from that point on. I thought it wasn't fair that I was dead, and I didn't fulfill my destiny. I didn't even get to know my new sister. You're right; I should have told you. Forgive me?"

"Always," and Kip kissed me. We continued to talk as the rest of family ate, and one by one my sisters climbed the stairs to wash up and collapse. "Why don't you get some rest? I'll wake you if the whitelighters come back."A part of me wanted to retort that he wouldn't to get even, but I knew when to shut up.

The shower revived me. All the demon guts were gone from my body and hair, and the heat relaxed the built-up tension. Phoebe, Paige, and Piper were in the guest room huddled.

"Did you get reamed?" Piper wondered.

"Less than I deserved," I hopped on the bed and Phoebe bounced two feet in the air.

"You think we'll keep remembering both lives, or will it get weaker over time?" Paige weakly asked.

Phoebe placed her head on Paige's head. "We'll see, honey. I do want to move back to San Francisco and be closer to the Manor and you." She looked at me. "If we are keeping our Charmed powers, we should be close to each other."

"We could go back to transcontinental orbing as before," Paige commented.

Piper interjected, "I don't. This is the first time in this life I feel like I'm myself. After having no powers, I do like them around."

"Funny, you wanted to give them away long ago," Phoebe kissed her head. "With the powers comes everything else, you know."

"I've already embraced that when I saw Leo again."

"But," I straightened the quilt, "we have to think about more than the Charmed Ones. We have family to think about and not make the same mistakes we made before. I don't want to die early; I don't want to miss growing old."

Paige grimaced, "You're not missing much."

"But all the same, I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I want to be a Grams—like all of you."

My sisters surrounded me when my tears wouldn't stop. Our force field was strong—family strong.