Ah! I'm so sorry this took over two weeks to get to you. I'm in no way abandoning this story, I've just been and will be so busy the over the next few weeks. I tried so hard to make it good, but I got writer's block so if it's crappy I'm terribly sorry! Just read on, and grab a few tissues while you're at it. Enjoy!
Prue stared at her. "Four generations? You think that'll do it?
"Of course it will!" Pattie exclaimed, tossing her hands throughout the air for emphasis. She knew from experience that the Halliwell line harnessed a great deal of magical energy, which improved by each generation. Penny alone was powerful enough, but add those who succeeded her into the mix and you had the recipe for one ass-kicking spell. During the Ultimate Battle, Piper had needed a way to put a very dangerous magical substance called "the hollow" back into captivity so it wouldn't cause mass destruction and kill Phoebe and Paige, like it had the first time around. She'd enlisted the combined power of Penny, Patty, herself, and Pattie and it had done exactly what had been called for. Pattie was sure the same thing could work now; she and her family could outwit the tricky process of time travel with a few words by the Halliwell women.
"So you're proposing we, what? Say a spell, all of us, and it will transport you back to where you need to be?" Penny questioned, cuddling her great-granddaughter on her lap. Then, a sly smile appeared. "I like it."
Patty folded her hands in her lap, "I've never heard of anything like that, it's always been the power of three, much less three generations," she considered. "What is this about an Ultimate Battle?"
Pattie frowned. She had blurted her idea out so quickly that she hadn't noticed that any word of the Ultimate Battle had been included in her spiel until after it'd been said. Following that, she'd hoped they would have dismissed the minor comment and focus on the task at hand, but ultimately Pattie did know better. Nothing got past them. "It's just…something I can't talk about for risk of messing up the future. "
Prue wrapped her arms around her child, "Ah, throwing our words back in our face, so very devious of you."
"So very 'Halliwell' of you," little Pattie added, and everyone laughed.
"Well," Phoebe countered, pacing across the floor and over to the book, delicately skimming through the pages. "It makes sense, what you're saying. I mean after all, when we went back to 1975 it took the Power of Three to get us home, and magic grows with time so why not four generations?"
"If three is the magic number, four must be something like…the apocalypse," Piper guessed.
Leo chimed in, talking specifically to Pattie over everyone else. "You've got the right concept. The Elders didn't release any information to me about this. All they said was you wouldn't have to figure it out yourself, but that it lied in family."
"How did you get so smart?" Phoebe asked jokingly.
"I had great teachers," Pattie replied, smiling at her three aunts. Her smiled instantly faded when a demon shimmered into the attic, alerting all eight of the family members. He hurled a fireball Pattie's way and she dove for cover behind a pile of boxes. It missed her, crashing into a portrait of some long ago ancestor whose name she didn't even know. "Aunt Phoebe!" she screamed, when another shimmered in behind her with an athamae. Demons didn't usually carry an athamae, so Pattie was especially confused, but Phoebe thrust her leg behind her and nailed the demon in the stomach. When he doubled over, she lunged for the knife, nearly grabbing it before he recovered.
As he got a hold of Phoebe's wrist, stopping her from retrieving the weapon, the demon reached for it himself, just before little Pattie got over her initial shock to move it from within his reach.
"Not so fast," she taunted. "Didn't anyone ever teach you to share your weapons?"
Phoebe fought him off as he released an energy ball at the little girl, who was distracted and almost caught the brunt of it. Thankfully, it was taken off course and hit the ceiling, bouncing off of it and giving Pattie a free moment to jump away. "You think you're such a powerful little witch," he sneered.
"Yes," the little one replied, blasting the demon with the cyrokinises she was barely getting used to. "I do." He was knocked over and incapacitated long enough for Phoebe to use her martial arts and render him unconscious. Pattie picked up the athamae now, and looked to Phoebe for approval. "May I?"
Phoebe was amused by her niece's newfound strength. "Feel free."
She released the athamae, which landed square in his chest as fire proceeded to erupt and slowly kill him. The familiar screams of torment rose, and then he exploded.
Meanwhile, Piper and Prue had their hands full with the other demon who preferred fireballs over weapons. He yanked Piper backwards against the antique couch and was moving so fast she was too dizzy and slow to freeze him. Pattie turned to witness this now, remembering Piper didn't know about her molecular combustion yet, which would allow her to blow things up. She desperately wished for her own powers.
Across the room she saw Patty and Penny watching helplessly, knowing there wasn't a thing they could do being spirits without powers, she wondered how hard it was for them to leave their little girls to save themselves; Pattie definitely identified with that. She wanted to help, but there wasn't much to do except get in the way.
"Need any help?" Phoebe asked as Pattie handed her the spare athamae. They had no spell so it would have to be the source of the vanquish, as it had been towards most demons lately. Unfortunately, they would have to catch him first.
Piper rolled her head back, which was aching, as Prue helped her up. "What was your first clue?"
The demon saw his free chance and launched another fireball Prue's way. "This time you're mine," he growled snidely, with a cackle of laughter. Prue would realize too late what was coming her way, as her back was turned making an endeavor to aid Piper. If it hit her, she'd be killed immediately from where it was headed.
"Mom! No!" Pattie cried, jumping to her feet and toppling on Prue to push her out of the way of the fireball's path which would have otherwise completely obliterated her. The fireball grazed her side, burning her badly.
Little Pattie screamed as Prue landed with a thud, pushing Pattie down to the ground with her. Phoebe let the athamae go at the demon, but it missed him slightly, crashing down amongst a heap of old storage cases, lost.
Now they were in trouble.
"Leo!" Prue called as Pattie moaned helplessly, clinging to her mother for dear life.
"I wasn't going to let him get you," she sniveled painfully.
Prue kissed her, stroking her hair. Fireball injuries were a rare occasion for the sisters and never in such a bad place. Pattie curled up, holding her abdomen in searing pain; when you were hit by one it was always one of the worst a person could endure because of the burning sensation of the flesh. It made one not care in that moment whether or not they lived. "You're all right, Ssh," she soothed. "Just hold out a few more seconds."
Leo had run out of the room, unseen, during the battle to grab a few potions, not knowing what they might need seeing as the demons were undisclosed. But upon hearing his name he abandoned the task and orbed back in.
Piper, Phoebe, and little Pattie were still fighting the demon when he orbed in a kneeled down by her. Seeing this, it felt threatened, releasing yet another fireball towards them. Leo ducked, and Pattie though she was wounded, saw it coming in Prue's direction. Again, she pushed her backwards and the glowing ball of fire flew over them, but not before coming in contact with Pattie's shoulder.
Another hit, she screamed fiercely.
Looking into the eyes of the demon, she thought of Shax.
"Oh, god," Prue gritted her teeth together. One fireball hit was bad enough, two was pure agony. They weren't usually fatal depending on where they hit, but at the rate it was draining Pattie's strength quicker than she could regain it. "Leo, please, now," she begged.
He didn't need another word, and they scrambled behind the couch for protection as he laid his hands over the worse of the gashes first. The bright healing light shone and the sore seeping with blood quickly decreased until it had reduced to nothing. Pattie let out a deep breath in liberation, but it wasn't enough. Not wasting a second, he reaffirmed her hands over the shoulder wound, repeating the process under the burn was completely gone.
Still weak, Pattie settled into Prue's arms, running her fingers over the spots on her clothing where the marks had been. The power of healing never ceased to amaze her, how one terrible thing could be vanish in the next second. She was stunned at the sudden lack of fear she shown, how it could have easily been Prue.
Maybe that, right there, was why she had come.
Prue kept her fear-stricken child enclosed in her arms, knowing herself how close she'd come to death in that moment, and kicking herself for turning her back on a demon, something she never did.
She looked up just over the couch to watch the brawl just in time to see little Pattie deflect a demon's fireball with her telekinesis and send it flying back towards him. This time he had no where to run and they had caught him. When it hit, Piper picked Pattie up to shield her from his fiery eyes and imminent death; she wasn't a fan of having her niece see that if she could. When all was quiet in the attic again, Patty and Penny stepped out from where they'd been watching and Prue helped Pattie stand up.
"Easy, easy," she chided. "Don't overdue it."
"Everyone all right?" Leo asked, although both Prue and Pattie were clearly shaken.
"Mommy! I did it! I vanquished a demon all by myself!" Little Pattie cheered, lifting the intensity a bit, causing a smile for everyone. "Did you see me?"
Pattie left Prue's side and sought comfort from Phoebe while little Pattie was passed from Piper to Prue. "Did I? Of course I did! That's my little girl, right there. I knew you could help your aunts vanquish him," she commended her daughter, wrapping her arms around little Pattie's tiny body. Sometimes it was all the girl needed.
Phoebe looked at Pattie with sympathy. "I saw what you did for her," she noted. "You okay?"
"What were they?" was all Pattie wanted to know, they reminded her so much of Shax.
"I'd like to know that myself," Penny spoke, already moving towards the book.
"Let's find out then," Phoebe decided, as she and Pattie joined Penny. They flipped through the pages of the book until they landed on a page containing a picture of three demons, two of them very similar to those the girls had just vanquished. Surrounded by family, Phoebe read. "Malthus, Zaebos, and Orias. Three workers of the source and more specifically his master assassin, Shax," she began and Pattie sucked in a breath of air. It didn't register to anyone else as Phoebe continued. "The three demons each allies who work together to bring down witches as well as enemy demons. Malthus can take on the form of other objects and has massive strength, Zaebos has the ability to steal both powers and weapons from his opponents and use them to his own strength, and Orias uses fireballs and is extremely swift, which makes him hard to catch. Together they are extremely powerful, but apart are merely lower level and can be vanquished by potions, spells, or their own powers."
"Well, " Piper said, running the information over in her head. "Two of them are dead anyway."
Little Pattie complained, "So now we have to go searching for another one?" She hated it profusely when they wrecked her plans and caused more stress. Why did they hold so much control.
But as Pattie stared at the third, Malthus, and his red eyes, she flashed back hours earlier to when she'd been in the kitchen making toast. Somehow, all of the sudden, she remembered pausing at an extra kitchen table chair and thinking it was because of her arrival, but then it had morphed into a demon when she'd least expected it.
That had been Malthus, Pattie realized now. She's originally believed he'd just been another average vanquish with no clue to who she was, but demons got around too. What is possible Shax had sent him for her? Did he know what was going on? The house had been bugged by him, just like the demon who'd gotten into Piper's imagination right after Prue's death and almost convinced her to give up their powers. Aware of all this now, Pattie was thoroughly worried. She'd been lucky, they all had. "All three are dead," she spoke up. "That's the one I vanquished earlier." She didn't mention Shax for obvious reasons, but thinking she was going to be sick, Pattie retreated from the room.
Shax had probably been planning this all along, this attack, by order of the source. And he would succeed.
"Well, we got them," Prue sighed, relieved, trying to hide her sudden anxiety.
Phoebe wasn't thrown. "Let's just be glad they didn't get you."
Downstairs, Pattie sighed as she sat on the steps leading down to the basement, her arms folded over her knees as a panic attack passed gradually. At some point upon realizing that this in fact was her last hour with her mother and then seeing the demon attack Prue, Pattie had lost the ability to breathe. She'd gasped for small puffs of air before reacting to what Pattie began to understand as an anxiety attack, something that had come a lot when demon battles had been frequent and dire situations were at her feet. It hit her hard, so she escaped to the one place that was most often abandoned in the household.
With another loud and deep cough, Pattie forced her heart back into a steady rhythm, but just couldn't manage to stand. Her feet were wobbly like jello and when Pattie made an endeavor to put any weight on them, she collapsed and was back where she'd started.
"Damn," she muttered quietly, staring off into the blackness of her basement. Despite the fact that it was part of the Halliwell Manor, the basement was regularly avoided by just about every family member due to the spiritual nexus inhabiting the room deep in the Earth below the concrete floor. In fact, Phoebe had been possessed not long after they'd received their powers and almost been turned evil, but eventually overcome it. She'd been the only one to ever believe the story of the "woogieman" growing up and was repeatedly teased for it until he had, in fact, been real, if only as an evil source of magic.
In fact, as Pattie thought about it now, she remembered a time now when, before the vanquishing of the woogieman, Pattie had broken one of Prue's favorite collectible glass figures after disobeying her command not to play soccer in the living room. She'd been so angry, Pattie recollected, that she'd given Pattie a time out in the same place Pattie was now, the basement stairs; a major punishment after the stories Phoebe had told her growing up. Pattie had sat there shivering and crying in fear until Phoebe had come along and rescued her, much to Prue's displeasure, but not much later when the woogieman had been discovered, Prue had remembered this incident, and with so much remorse, apologized profusely to Pattie, feeling she nearly sacrificed her daughter to evil.
Pattie looked back on all of it now, the normal time-outs, the fights between Prue and Phoebe when Pattie would pit one against the other, and even the demon battles, as something familiarly identifiable. This was her life, the one before a piece of it had been ripped away. As each memory came flooding back one by one, she wondered how different it would be to go back to this strange future now; would she be able to handle it?
The squeaky voice that only a child could master shook Pattie from her thoughts. "Watcha doing?" Little Pattie asked sweetly, cautiously sitting herself next to Pattie and then wagging a finger at her. "Don't you know the woogieman lives down here? Are you trying to become evil?"
"It'd be easier," Pattie mumbled despondently, but with a look at the incredulous gaze in little Pattie's eyes, she quickly took back the statement. "It doesn't really scare me anymore," she admitted honestly.
"Are you going home soon?" the younger one asked, staring up at a perfect picture of herself only a few years. Her mind swirled at the thought of one day being this girl, this strong powerful girl, but she figured there'd be a lot of obstacles in the way of getting there. Still, little Pattie knew it would happen; her older self was living proof of that, as she'd said herself earlier.
Pattie choked out an uncomfortable laugh, "Why, ready to get rid of me?"
"No," was all the little girl replied, she didn't have much else to say. Truth be told, she was at a loss for words for one of the first times in her short life. None of this time travel made sense.
"So…" Pattie began when the silence became too loud to bear. "Why'd you come looking for me?"
"Everyone's being all sad upstairs because of the demon and you leaving and I couldn't take it," little Pattie confessed. "I thought maybe I'd find you and you could cheer me up." Pattie shrugged at the statement, she knew it'd be better if her younger self wasn't worrying over plans such as everyone else, but she didn't have it in her heart to be cheery. "Is the basement in your time any nicer?" she asked just to make conversation.
Pattie didn't shift her gaze. "No." When little Pattie fidgeted for a few minutes, torn between leaving or staying, Pattie finally offered, "I just came down here because I didn't know where else to go to be alone." She stopped little Pattie as she went to stand up. "Don't leave; technically I guess I still am, seeing as you're me and all."
Little Pattie smiled, relieved. Then she queried, "Is it weird to see yourself younger again?"
Pattie shrugged. "What about for you?" She received the same reply.
They spoke for awhile; little Pattie wondering many things about her future but only asking a few here or there, she knew some had to be left untold for her to find out on her own. It was strangely comforting to not know though, there were still some surprises awaiting her, good and bad. Finally, she gathered up the courage to blurt out what was on her mind. "What's it like living without mommy?" she inquired. Pattie shot her a dubious stare. "I'm not stupid," she reinforced the statement. "I know mommy's gonna die. But they'll freak if I know," little Pattie finished, referring to her aunts. Then, she whimpered, "I'm scared."
Uneasily, Pattie grabbed her little self and held her close. Normally, she was on the receiving end so this was new. The child was close to tears, but not ready yet to let them go with the brewing chaos. There was always time for that later. Pattie searched for the right words, but they remained lost.
"I know," she finally replied and then released herself from the hug, looking at little Pattie, "but you know, it helped me grow up a little bit. And sometimes, I'm really okay, because we've got some great aunts."
Little Pattie sniffled, "Oh yeah, you're so okay. Then why'd you come back here?" she interrogated sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.
Pattie laughed, pushing her a bit. "Always the jokester, aren't we?" Still, little Pattie stared at her as if waiting for her question to be answered. "It wasn't my choice to come back, sometimes magic does things I don't expect. I just missed mommy a lot because today…well the day in the future, was the anniversary of the day I lost her. I wanted to take my pain away once and for all."
"And did you?" little Pattie kicked her feet on the steps.
"No," Pattie told her truthfully. "I honestly don't think it ever goes away, but this…it helped."
"Then why are you crying now?" the child asked and Pattie noticed that she was, again, tearing up. She was extremely emotional and empathetic to everything, thus many instances had her dissolving to tears. Reaching up to wipe the tears away, she smudged her makeup again and groaned.
Little Pattie watched her. "Eyeliner isn't fun," she tried to laugh at the joke and the little girl smiled softly. "Sometimes crying is the best way to release your pain, even if it's a pain," Pattie explained. Little Pattie nodded and then tilted her head, bringing it to rest on Pattie's shoulder. Between them there were no words but the silences spoke more that was left to be interpreted. It was a strange feeling they shared as one person: that maybe, in time, everything would be okay given time.
Both girls jumped when Prue's shaky voice called out fearfully, "Patricia?"
"Yeah?" they answered in unison, turning around simultaneously. When Prue discovered them sitting there, identical, she laughed. The many faces of Pattie. The smaller of the two picked her head up, brushing the bangs from her face and being smart enough to catch on, brought herself to her feet.
"I'll just go see if Aunt Piper and Aunt Phoebe need some help…" she trailed off awkwardly, kissing Prue on the cheek as she shuffled up the stairs and out of sight.
Prue settled herself in the empty spot where little Pattie had been, taking one of her daughter's hands and weaving her fingers through the missing spaces between Pattie's, a perfect fit. It was just having her close that meant something to Pattie, whether or not Prue said anything at all.
"Thank you for saving me, I know that was hard for you," Prue said, but at first Pattie didn't respond.
Finally, she turned her face to Prue, "The demon just kind of reminded me of the one that took you away from me and I just to get out of there. It was all I could think of," she explained slowly, "I keep telling myself that I can be strong and go home, but I just…I don't know." Prue stared at her with eyes brimming with concern. "How do I let myself lose you…again?"
Tucking her daughter under her arm and smoothing her hair, Prue gently replied, "It's never easy, that's what we have family for. See, in your own time, you can tell your aunts everything and they'll probably be a little jealous you got to see me," Pattie smiled, "but they'll understand how difficult it is for you to cope with. Losing your mother, I know it's not easy Pattie. But I will never be completely gone, I promise you that. Even if my after life depends on it you will never be alone, your father and I would never do that to you."
"I wish you could have known Aunt Paige," Pattie said, remembering all the times Paige had wanted to recreate Prue's talent and felt she'd failed. The girl had lived to fill the void but never quite felt she was what her family was looking for. "She's tried so hard to be the person you'd want her to be, just like you."
That alerted Prue. She looked at Pattie carefully. "She wanted to be me?"
"She wanted to be as good as you. Aunt Paige felt pressured to live up to you to make Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Piper happy, but she always thought you'd be mad at her for taking your place in the Power of Three," Pattie explained. Leaning closer to Prue, she added, "I didn't want her around when I first met her because I thought she wanted to replace you, but she promised me that she'd never try to, she never could and never would. It made me see her as her own person, sometimes I just don't know how much Aunt Piper and Aunt Phoebe do. They love her so much, but sometimes I think they unconsciously expect her to be…well, like you."
Prue sighed; she hated to think of this happening between her sisters. Paige deserved the love and bond that she shared with her sisters, not the tremendous stress. "Well then, you'll have to be my messenger, won't you?"
Pattie cocked her head to the side, confused. "How?"
"When you get back, I want you to tell them this, from me. Make sure they know that it's okay, I will always love my baby sister even though I never got to know her and I want her to strive to be herself not me, there's no way I could ever hate her. Be sure Piper and Phoebe know that too, that they need to see Paige for Paige, because part of me is still with them too."
"Destiny just got in the way," the teenager said with her eyes lowering, sadly.
But Prue lifted Pattie's chin, turning her face toward her mother. "Destiny can't break our love or keep us apart. No matter how hard it tries, we're a hell of a lot stronger, you hear me?" She grinned warmly. Pattie nodded, falling into Prue's embrace.
"You need to tell her this," Pattie decided, clinging to Prue. "Tell her yourself, just not directly."
As Prue held Pattie tight, she replied to this, not quite understanding. "How will I do that, sweetie?"
"Go to her, that spot where we were today. She eats lunch there every day. Just introduce yourself, explain all of what's going to happen. She may not believe it at first but when the time comes, everything will make sense."
Prue considered that. In reality, it did make perfect sense, despite what the rules may have been. She agreed to it and Pattie happily obliged to the request for a good time to find Paige. They set up the idea, and Prue thanked her daughter for caring about her family and being the smart child she'd raised. Then she whispered something in Pattie's ear. "I don't want you to ever worry about taking my place like your aunt did. If you grow up like this, with this beauty and grace about you then you'll be doing what I hoped. I just want you to live a full life no matter how long it is. That's what will fulfill mine, that's what will make me happy." Her tender words, so articulate and kindly spoken, brought the tears back, and Pattie pressed closer to Prue, trying to stop weeping but still wiping tears from her eyes. "Can you do that for me?" Prue asked.
She made sure she was staring Pattie in the eyes when she responded softly. "Yes." Then, after a beat, "but how did you ever know?"
"I'm your mother," Prue laughed, "it's my job to know everything."
"But how will I know that everything is right when I get home?" Pattie inquired, curling a strand of hair around her finger, rocking in Prue's arms. She really did feel like a child again.
"I want you to go wherever my stuff is kept and look through the boxes. If everything is right, something will be there, and when you see it, you'll know. Trust me, you'll know." Pattie nodded at her. "I will do everything I can to fix this between your aunts, just trust me. I'll always be with you, even if I have to fight to be. Now come on, let's go upstairs and get you home."
When Prue grabbed her arm to lead her up towards the attic Pattie nearly resisted, but she fell it tug at her heart and let Prue guide her up the stairs. There was no use fighting the inevitable, she had to make the best of the bad situation. By the time they reached the attic, Phoebe had finally recovered the missing spell from the Book of Shadows and they were waiting patiently for her.
Pattie stood there, her hand in her pockets, shrugging her shoulders and attempting a smile. "So…everything's done and ready here?"
"All done," Phoebe confirmed. "We were just talking about…well, you."
Pattie didn't say anything to that. Leo broke the silence. "Everything's set."
"I guess it's time to go home then," Pattie decided. "So…who's going to say goodbye to me first?"
There were no volunteers at first because they'd become attached to their little girl being so grown up in this time it was a shame to bring themselves to make her leave. Pattie looked around shakily and finally Penny rose from where she was sitting and pulled her great-granddaughter into an enormous hug. "The torch has been passed to you my dear," she announced, grabbing both her shoulders and staring deep into her eyes with the vital information. "You are the next, most powerful witch in the family line. Don't abuse that power."
"I won't, Grams," Pattie promised, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "You can be sure of that."
"Oh, I'll be watching so don't think you can pull one past me," Penny replied, giving her a sly mischievous look to which Pattie laughed. "You are a strong young woman and I'm proud of you. Don't you forget that."
"I haven't," the teen declared. Penny didn't offer such heavy words of wisdom packed with compliments all too often, you were smart to hold them close when they were presented to you. She stepped away, letting Patty take her place with a tight hug. Pattie ran her fingers down a piece of Patty's soft curly hair, "I wish I'd gotten to know you better. You taught them a lot though," she gestured to her aunts and mother, "and I'm really glad you were here for me too. I'm so lucky to have you."
"I'm glad I could be of some help to you, sweetheart," Patty said, gripping her granddaughter's in her own. "Keep a firm grip on those smarts that you got from your mother and you'll be fine. I don't doubt that."
Pattie leaned forward and whispered into Patty's ear a last piece of reassurance so quiet that she knew only Patty would hear, "We know about her, Aunt Paige, your fourth daughter." Patty gasped, taken aback like everything she'd worked so hard to conceal was ruined with her last statement, but Pattie tried to ease her worries, "It's okay. She's safe, she's with us, and we love her. Your daughters forgave you for it. Mom did too." They both rotated their heads to look at Prue, who was watching them guardedly, but she seemed to know what their conversation contained and nodded with a small smile. Patty kissed her granddaughter on the forehead, a sign of thanks.
When that farewell was finished, it seemed difficult to Pattie to continue further. She carefully went to Leo next, enveloping him in her grasp and thanking him for his help and his love. "Family is the most important thing, you're my niece and I love you. That doesn't change no matter what time you're in."
She moved on from Leo to Piper, finding her on the couch. "I love you," she told her aunt, the only thing she could think to say. Piper had been taking everything extremely hard and was severely distant, which worried everyone, but she looked at the child she was preparing to raise and her heart melted. "Let's just say you're one of the two reasons I'm still standing."
"What's the other reason?" Piper questioned although she already knew as Pattie nodded towards Phoebe, purposely not mentioning any presence of Paige. "I don't know how I manage to raise anyone as brave as you."
"Because we taught each other. And it took awhile, but we have like, this sixth sense with each other," Pattie said, looking at Phoebe, who kneeled before Pattie to listen. "The three of us. Listen, I know how mushy and cliché this sounds, everything I've said, but it's completely true. I'm so lucky to have you, because I might have fallen apart without you. You're both so much stronger than you think," she inched closer to Piper, who wrapped one arm around her shoulder.
"I don't know about that," Piper admitted, lowering her eyes and letting them linger on Pattie.
Pattie took a deep breath, "I do." She gave Piper a hug, if not to comfort her aunt rather than herself. "Don't give up hope yet, you've got so many things to look forward to, even if they're tied in with the bad. I wish I could tell you what they were." Pattie thought of little Wyatt right now, back home and probably all up in Piper's hair. She read him bedtime stories every night, and always ended them with a small story about his Aunt Prue. Whether or not he was old enough to understand her untimely end, Wyatt seemed to know her in some way after the information Pattie had given him starting just about a year ago when he'd approached her with the picture that sat in her bedroom and asked, so sweetly, who the pretty woman was that Pattie was with.
She'd been so surprised that Piper hadn't told him about her, but she'd seem why. Upon mentioning it to Piper, that look of hurt and anguish had reappeared in her aunt's eyes. It broke her too much to go to that place sometimes, and she wouldn't cry in front of her sons. So Pattie took the reins to be the person to explain it to Wyatt and even Chris now. They always became so engrossed in these stories as if they replaced the real thing, even when Pattie knew they didn't and hopefully one day she could summon her mother for her cousins to meet.
Piper held Pattie closer, "You look so much like her."
"I know," Pattie laughed falsely, that was becoming a nuisance to hear. "I hear that all the time."
"I'll always see you for your own person though, don't worry about that," Piper practically read Pattie's mind.
"Thanks," that touched Pattie's heart to hear, something she'd never exactly been able to muster up the courage to tell her aunts. Surely they didn't see Paige as Prue's replacement, she told herself, but what about herself, the 'carbon copy' of her mother. She choked out a giggle, "You're doing it already, the sixth sense thing. I love you."
"You too, sweetie," Piper said, and it was a promise.
"Your turn," Pattie joked, facing Phoebe. "I just don't know what to say to you, I don't know what would suit the situation. That was always your job." Phoebe stared at her curiously, letting her continue instead of interrupting. "Somehow you always know just what to say, it's why you fit in so well at your job," she finished, nearly biting her tongue but realizing that as long as specifics weren't there, the slip wouldn't be consequential.
Phoebe turned around, astounded. "You hear that Prue? I've got a job."
"And you're great at it," Pattie praised, "Just like you're a great aunt. So just, thank you. Someday, I guess you'll know for what." She threw herself into Phoebe's arms, and though Phoebe was hurting too, she rubbed Pattie's back and said a silent prayer for all that she knew would happen between her time and her niece's, they would need it.
"Be safe," she told Pattie. "I love you so much."
When they broke the hug, there were only two people remaining. Little Pattie was standing near the doorway observing the scene but not making a move to be a part of it. Only when Pattie glanced her way did she think to do anything, but the only thing she could think of was to cry. Her conversation with Pattie had left her heartbroken. She ran into the arms of her older self, who shushed her. "You can do this," Pattie encouraged. "I'm living proof, remember?" Little Pattie didn't look like she was convinced. "It takes time, and it never goes away, but it gets better. You're aloud to be happy and not aloud to blame yourself. Got that?" The child nodded, whether or not she actually agreed. "Maybe if you learn now, you can teach me for later, huh?"
Little Pattie squeezed Pattie tighter, afraid if she let go this person, this angel sent to her would disappear. Pattie was, in some way, a blessing to help her heal now. "But…how?"
"Don't try to wrap your mind around it. Just let me leave you with this, it all lies in family. These people are the most important ones we've got. Never close them out," she finished with a pang of guilt. It's exactly what Pattie had done and exactly what had landed her in 2008. But she could remedy that.
A little more persuaded now, little Pattie nodded, her tears drying. "Good luck," were her parting words.
That left one person, the hardest of them all.
It almost felt like now it was just the two of them in the room, Prue and Pattie. When she simply fell into Prue's embrace for nearly the twentieth time in the past few days, though it was never enough, her mind went completely blank. So Prue began, while the rest of the family tried not to pry and instead became absorbed in their own mini conversations, which were forced and rambled through. "I think we've said it all by now," Prue started. She brought Pattie closer to her, whispering, "I'll take care of them with a spell, to make it easier. Okay?"
"Yeah," Pattie agreed. She liked the way her mother's mind worked, but her own thoughts were distant.
"I love you more than anything else on this planet," Prue reminded her, making sure Pattie was looking at her. "You need to take your own advice and be happy. In this world there are a million things we'll regret and want to take back, don't make this trip one of them." She heard Pattie mumble yes and couldn't help but smile at her daughter, who was adorable despite being upset. "I'll always be here, your inspiration."
"I love you too, mama," she whimpered so softly it was barely audible to Prue. It broke her heart to hear.
"It's time, darling," Penny spoke up after the moment between them, the everlasting hug, had dwindled down to nothing. Reluctantly, Pattie broke away and stepping in the middle of a string of candles, the same ones they used to summon spirits, which were lit and dancing around by everyone else's movement.
Phoebe handed some of the others copies of the spell taken from years ago scribbled down on paper. Pattie watched them, the four generations in order of their birthdates. Her great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, aunts and then herself, all stood uneasily in a circle around her.
"Are you ready?" Piper asked, not sure if she herself was.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Pattie noted, signaling for them to read the spell. Each of them brought the paper to eye level, and with heavy hearts began to read as Pattie looked on nervously, hoping it wouldn't backfire on her.
A time for everything
And for everything it's place.
Return what has been moved
Through time and space.
And as a last goodbye, she raised her hand to her mouth and blew Prue a kiss, mouthing I love you to her again as the white lights circled her. She tensed, not being used to this as they were different than her aunt's orbing. But something, some presence calmed her, and she let them take her away a little bit at a time.
Then Pattie was gone.
When the glowing lights dissipated and the blurriness cleared, Pattie had to catch her breath. She took a few steps around what she hoped to be the manor of the correct era. The strewn out children's toys, a shopping list for party supplies still sitting on the fridge, the summer heat blazing through open windows instead of frigid autumn air; Pattie let out a sigh of relief, taking in the sights of her home.
The spell had worked.
She meandered back out of the kitchen they way she'd come, fearful at a silent house. Where was everyone? But once she'd made her way back into the hallway and started towards the stairs, noticing the pictures of her cousins replacing older outdated photos, it was Billie who met her halfway.
The blonde came galloping down the staircase, a vial of potion encased securely in her left hand and so wrapped up in whatever she was doing she didn't see Pattie until she knocked her over. "Oh!" she yelped.
Pattie fell backwards with a moan, hadn't she suffered enough pain with the last demon attack? "Billie!" she cried happily as Billie gave her a hand, pulling Pattie to her feet. The college girl had a look on her face as if she'd seen a ghost but Pattie merely passed it off at first, pleased to be where she was supposed to. "Thank god, I thought this place had been abandoned or something."
"Uh…Piper, Phoebe, Paige! Come here a sec!" she called, glancing towards the attic.
A lump rose in Pattie's throat as the three women came barreling down the stairs. At the sight of her each of them let their worries go. Pattie was safe, and unharmed. But the problem Pattie had faced all along was still there; once the girls had reached the first floor Pattie ran straight at one of them. Not Phoebe, not Piper, but Paige. The minute she had laid her eyes on Paige, Pattie immediately felt guilty.
Surprised, Paige wrapped her arms around her niece. "It's good to see you too," she laughed.
Not one of them yet realized that Pattie was already weeping.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so so so sorry, Aunt Paige," she cried without faltering, even as Paige sat the two of them down on the bottom step and despite the looks of confusion from everyone else. "I didn't mean it."
Paige didn't let her go the entire time. "It's okay," she soothed repeatedly, though she wasn't sure it was.
The calming words failed, Pattie continued to blame herself for almost taking her aunt away. "I was so selfish, I'm sorry. I love you so much, I promise. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm the worst niece in the world."
"Don't say that," Phoebe told her; her empathy powers were tearing her apart now, watching her niece in so much pain. It killed her to see her own family this way. Piper and Phoebe shared an equal look of worry, for someone who'd been so happy not long ago this was a big change, especially for Pattie.
"But it's true!" Pattie protested, burying her face in Paige's blouse. She choked out another loud sob, "God, I'm so sorry."
"Sorry is worth a lot less than an explanation," a prominent voice echoed as an Elder orbed in, staring Pattie down, even as she hugged Paige more. "I'm waiting."
I hope it was good for all the time I took to get it to you, it was definitely longer. The demons are real demon names, but they don't really depict how they are actually supposed to be. There's only 2 chapters and the epilogue left. Are you ready for the explanation? Leave reviews! What would you like to see? I live to please. Thanks for all your patience, hopefully this chapter comes very soon but I can't promise you that.
Megan