Epilogue

A/N: I just had to finish this, and I have to finish it now. This is a little shorter than the actual chapters. This is basically what life is like after everything is said and done. I suck at endings, so if anyone actually reads it, I'm sorry. It's sorta happy and sorta sad. Enjoy!

Things had never really gotten as normal as I thought they would. Sure, we had all gotten back to our normal activities. Melinda and I had gone back to school, to Melinda's joy, and not to mine. After a joyous reunion with my sister, the same old sibling rivalry had restarted between us. The whole family was of course overjoyed to see us. There was one thing that bothered me though. They all acted like nothing had ever happened. Something had clearly happened.

They sort of knew what happened on our journey to the past. Apparently, my mother and aunt Piper did have vague recollections of the event, although Grams had not permitted them to remember much. We told them where we went, and an overview of what happened. Still, we didn't tell them everything. We didn't tell them about our numerous blunders, or my brush with evil. Maybe we thought they didn't need to know. Maybe I didn't want them to know.

I longed to tell my mother about what happened with my father. However, she hadn't spoken about him in years, so I didn't think she'd want to hear about it. That seemed to be a common thing in our family. We pretended things were okay even when they weren't. I didn't know that before, but my trip to the past had helped me realize it. The secrecy caused me to become more distant from my mother than ever before. We couldn't talk about anything anymore.

Melinda didn't want to talk to me either. I had tried breaching the subject with her many times, but she had always brushed me off. She pretended being busy with school work or something. I knew she was just making excuses. She could never hide anything from me. It wasn't just that I could read her mind. We were best friends. I knew that she liked the normalcy. After our whirlwind adventure, she just wanted everything to be normal again. She was like her mother in that respect.

Things with Aidan were definitely moving in a more positive direction. We got along much better since we weren't spending every second together. We could talk now. I went over to his house often. Despite the relentless teasing from his older sister Tallulah, I had a great time there. Things were too awkward at my house. Aidan was ready and willing to talk about what had happened.

My mom didn't really ask why I kept going to some boy's house. I found that odd. I think she really liked Aidan, even though she had only met him about three times. Aidan didn't like to come to my house. When we were at his house, he was very calm, no surprise fires (although his sister, with power over water, was used to putting them out.) At my house, he didn't last five minutes with something bursting into flames. I think we were good together.

What was the most interesting was honestly how everyone reacted when they discovered Melinda and I were back. It was sort of predictable really. I guess I know my family well, at least to some extent. Aunt Piper, being the emotional one, of course cried. Leo was absent as usual. Aunt Paige, the curious one, asked question after question. It was a bit annoying, but it was great to have her auntie Paige back.

Prue was the greatest. The strange thing was that she kept apologizing. I didn't know exactly what for, but I told her she didn't need to. She didn't want to hear any of that. For a while she was supper nice to me. She did everything for me, without being asked, and she wanted to spend every waking minute with me. I think she was afraid of loosing me again or something. It was sweet and all, but it got very old, very fast.

Finally, I told her that while I loved her attention, I just wanted things to return to the way they were. The first time she yelled at me for stealing her shirt. I couldn't have been happier. That was exactly the way sisters were supposed to interact. Things were a bit weird at first, but eventually, they became the way they were. As I previously mentioned, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Our trip to the past hadn't exactly been bad…If anything, it had been informing. I had learned more about myself than I ever dreamed possible. I learned that it doesn't really matter who your parents are, there's always a choice. Someone like me would have to face that choice many times over, but I was ready. I had learned not only about myself, but others around me. Especially with Melinda, my perceptions had changed a lot. She was a very strong person and witch in her own right.

Now I knew that she deserved more recognition. After being in the past so long, everything seemed very…unsettled for some reason. I wanted some sort of closure. In a way, our adventure seemed far from over. I spend several reflective days trying to figure out if that was good or bad. Despite how I had learned and grown, I had this unsettled feeling. I figured it would never go away.

My days lately had been spent both avoiding contact with others, and craving it. I had been weird, and I knew it. Even very recently, Aidan couldn't get me to talk. Somehow, everyone had made plans one day, and I was left alone in the manor with Melinda. That hadn't happened since we got back, and I was a little nervous. As it turned out, we were more comfortable with each other than ever. We didn't talk much, but we didn't need to. I hadn't thought it possible, but we were closer now.

We ended up out on the porch for some reason. It was the exact same porch we had spent a good portion of our shared childhood. It was also the same porch from the past. It probably would never change. I found that comforting for some reason. I remembered a hot sunny day spent out on the porch when we were about 7. That was the day I realized that Melinda and I would be best friends forever.

A lot of bad things happened the year we were seven. It was the last year we had both seen our fathers. It was right after uncle Leo had left, and said he wasn't coming back, that this happened. Aunt Piper was watching us, but since uncle Leo had left, she was very upset. Melinda was just upset if not more so. She had just been told that her daddy wasn't coming back. I knew exactly what that was like.

In an attempt to make her feel better, I got her a popsicle, and took her out on the porch. Melinda had always enjoyed being outside. Her sadness was making me sad too, and I wasn't an empath at the time. I wanted to see her smile again. We had been sitting on the porch in silence for several minutes, when I looked at her. I saw the beggings of tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She looked like she was holding back. I wanted her to be happy, but I knew that sometimes, crying could help.

I told her it was okay to cry, and she did.

I don't know why I was thinking about that event right then. It was the first time that I realized that Melinda and I needed each other. It was a relationship that went deeper than merely cousins. We were like two halves of a whole. Neither of us are as strong without the other. All of our lives, we had helped each other out. After going to the past, my appreciation for what a best friend is increased by ten fold.

Maybe the reason I was thinking of that memory was that I was so close to tears myself. I don't know what was making me upset. Maybe it was just the realization of what had happened all at once. The last month had seemed kind of surreal. I just knew that it hadn't really solved anything, I hadn't realized it before we left, but I had a lot of issues that hadn't been dealt with. Knowing that people were going to act like nothing had happened made me a little sad.

Melinda looked at me, and seemed to see how I was feeling. She told me it was okay to cry, and I did.

I had a lot of complicated thoughts and feelings, but the trip to the past was really an eye opener. Now that I think back, it was probably destiny. It was most likely for the best. Things may not be perfect in my life, or in Melinda's. I knew we would get through anything, though. We would get through it together.

The End